"Haku..."
Darkness. And then pain. Koumei was suddenly aware of waves of pain washing over her body. Her head throbbed painfully and she lifted her eyelids slightly.
She was in a hospital. There were various machines beeping around her, along with several tubes going into her arms and wrists. There was also a breathing mask over her mouth and nose. She looked down at her left hand. It was no longer bleeding and crippled, and although it still throbbed, the bones were not poking out or at odd angles.
She closed her eyes for a moment, and opened them again, to see brown hair and a bobbing toothpick in her face. Her heart skipped a beat, and one of the machines made a loud, uneven buzzing noise. It was that jounin, Genma.
He still had a look of boredom on his face, and he said nothing to her. He remained for a few moments before turning away and leaving. Probably going to report to his Kage and bring a crowd. Just what I wanted....
She closed her eyes and waited patiently. The machine beside her bed made hissing noises as it controlled her breathing. I can breathe by myself, she thought. But when she tried to remove it, she found her arms wouldn't respond. Neither would her legs, as she soon found out.
So she spent the next few minutes flexing the muscles in her arms, first moving her fingers, then her hands and wrists until she could move them again, even if with difficulty. She removed the mask and the refreshing oxygen vanished. Her lungs faltered for only a fraction of a second before resuming their duties at a slightly more strained pace.
She closed her eyes again and this time she saw snow. She opened them and blinked again. Ice. Blood. Needles. More blood. Haku..... Her eyes snapped open and she heard voices outside the door to her room.
Four people entered the room. Genma leading, followed by Kakashi and Kasei, and finally the Hokage herself. They assembled around her bed in a rough semicircle, but Genma thought better of it and decided to lean against the far wall. Go away, she thought.
She put down the mask which she was still holding and looked at the silent shinobi. She didn't appreciate the attention, and closed her eyes to try and escape it. It was a moment for her mind to register that they were talking amongst themselves. She opened her eyes slightly. No, they were adressing her. Great, she thought. She opened her mouth to interupt and was suprised when it actually produced words.
"Leave me alone," her voice was scratchy and caused her to notice how dry her mouth was.
"Unfortunately, I can't," replied a bored Genma. Tsunade snorted.
Koumei looked at Kakashi and pictured His blood on the copy-ninja's hands. Her anger returned.
"You! You're the one who killed him. Your name is.... is Kakashi..." she rasped out at him. "I hate you, Murderer." she glared at him. "He never did anything to you, and you killed him. He was just a kid. Haku-niisan..." her eyes were unfocused as she remembered the blood and snow on the bridge.
Kakashi was at a loss for words, and the outline of his mouth through the mask showed it slightly open. Tsunade looked at him and Kasei looked between both of them. Genma had fallen asleep.
Haku-niisan? "He was your brother?" Tsunade found her voice again.
"I don't feel like being interviewed, Tsunade-sama," hissed Koumei. "What do you want anyways?"
"We wanted to know how you beat Orochimaru," said Tsunade, "You made him look bad infront of many people, and I'm sure he appreciated being beaten by a seventeen-year-old girl."
"He could have easily beaten me had he wanted to. And I'm not seventeen, I'm eighteen."
"Oh? And how's could he have beaten you?" questioned Tsunade.
"He has many more jutsu's than me, and I'd have to use the most powerful jutsu's from my bloodline to even rival-" she stopped, realizing what the Hokage was doing.
"That was a bloodline? But those wings were real, not made of chakra," Tsunade mused aloud.
"It's none of your business," Koumei began coughing hard, causing one of the screens of a machines to flash different colours. "What is all this junk hooked up to me anyways?"
"Life support. They're what's keeping you alive." said Tsunade matter-of-factly.
"Alive...?" she recalled the events of her heated battle. "Ah... You-" she lifted a heavy hand and pointed at the Hokage, "You are indebted to me. You owe me alot for being a sentimental baka and sticking my neck out for you and your Leaf-nin."
Much to Koumei's suprise, the Hokage immediately agreed. "Name your price, Koumei."
"Since you killed Hayate...." Tsunade found this an odd way to begin. "Since you killed off my first choice, then I want you to give me Kasei."
"What!?" yelled Kasei. He had been silent the whole time, but now he stood back a few steps with a look of shock on his face.
"What do you mean!?" asked Kakashi. Even Genma awoke and stood with a questioning look on his face and an eyebrow arched.
Tsunade was also shocked, but she gathered her thoughts and answered calmly. "What do you mean? Kasei is one of the best shinobi in my power. What could you possibly use him for?"
Kasei didn't like being spoken of as if he was an item.
"I want you to give me Kasei so that I can teach him my style." she paused, and continued "I don't like to repeat myself, but as I said before, I singled out five talented ninja to pass on my style to. Gekkou Hayate was a good friend and a talented ninja, and he was my first choice, but he died. My second choice was Kakashi, but I decided against that when he....." she trailed off.
"The point is, I want to train Kasei. It's a fair trade, I stuck out my neck, took the pain, which was alot might I add, saved your asses, and now I'm basically doing you another favour. If you allow me to mould Kasei into a Wing Ninja like myself, your village will have a powerful weapon that could take on Orochimaru. He would still be a Leaf-nin." Koumei added the last part as an afterthought. There was silence.
"And what makes you think I will train under someone who is a year younger than me?" Kasei spoke up, recovered from his shock.
"Power is not measured in years, Leaf-nin, and if your Hokage does not agree, I'd hate to think of the consequences." hissed Koumei.
"Was that a threat?" questioned Tsunade.
"If you interpret it as one, than yes." said Koumei boldly.
"You are in no condition to threaten me, Moon-nin," said the Hokage.
"But I'm in the perfect position to, ne?" she smirked. "If you would so kindly allow me to teach Kasei, I'm sure he would become stronger than me easily. I may have my bloodlines, but he also has his. He is a member of the Kitsune family after all. If he is anything like Hayate then he will find ways to combine jutsus and refine them to be more effecient and powerful."
Tsunade excused herself and summoned the jounin outside for a moment, practically dragging Genma.
"Kasei, would you be comfortable going off and training unnder the Moon-nin?" Tsunade was considering her options.
"If you ordered me too, I would do as you say Tsunade-sama," he replied.
"Alright then. But I'm sending Genma with you then."
Genma was now thoroughly annoyed, "Why me?" His toothpick bobbed up and down in frustration.
"Because she hates Kakashi and would probably end up refusing and killing half the village, or accepting and killing him. Your the next powerful ninja to these two, and I'm sure Koumei would allow it."
Genma snorted and moved his toothpick to the opposite side of his mouth. "Fine"
They re-entered the room and Tsunade announced her decision.
"I will allow you to train Kasei away from my village under one condition. You have to train him as well," she pointed her thumb in Genma's general direction.
Koumei looked over at the lazy-looking jounin. "Your name is Genma, ne? You were Hayate's only other friend." She considered for a moment, thinking aloud. "Hayate threw out some pretty good compliments about you. He wanted me to train you with him. You are apperently at least as good as he was."
Koumei paused. "I suppose I could, as long as I get Kasei."
The Hokage nodded and turned to leave. "I need to do some more paperwork, now that I have this to worry about as well." The three other jounins followed her out.
Koumei celebrated a silent victory in her head. She had expected that she would need to use threats or force to get what she wanted, and the Hokage had made things alot easier on her.