Getting dressed the next morning is a challenge. Tenzo had iced and strapped his left hand the night before, but the broken bone is throbbing painfully as he maneuvers it through his gear. He grits his teeth against the sting when he removes the strap, but he can't let anyone see that he has an injury - advertising his own weakness to teammates is a mistake from his time at Root that he's not eager to repeat.
He's able to put the pain out of his mind during training, and for several hours he can forget the injury exists. Then Kakashi comes up with the brilliant idea to split into two groups to practice infiltration techniques, using Anbu hand signs to communicate, and Tenzo discovers that he was being a little optimistic when he thought he wouldn't have to use his broken finger for anything.
Shisui is assigned as his partner, and they lose spectacularly three times in a row before Shisui loses his temper as well, and demands to know where the hell Tenzo learned hand signs.
"Because this is the second time you've told me that Mai is wearing a hat, and it's neither relevant nor true!" He snaps, pulling himself out of the ditch that Mai has thrown him into (for the second time in the last 10 minutes). He gestures wildly in front of Tenzo's face. "This is how you sign 'left'. See, 'LEFT'."
Tenzo bats him away with a glare. "I know what the sign is."
"Then use it. What do you think this is, a game?"
This is, of course, wildly hypocritical, since Shisui takes almost nothing seriously and Tenzo is about to comment on that fact and several others, when Kakashi intervenes by stepping between them.
"Enough, you two. Tenzo, show me the sign you're using."
Grimacing, and inwardly cursing himself for getting into this mess in the first place, he holds up his hands. It's sloppy, because he can't quite force that little finger to move into the right position. It's also very painful. Kakashi, who has seen him use this same sign several times before, raises an eyebrow.
"What happened to your hand?"
"I… broke my finger. Yesterday," he says, and prays they won't ask him how it happened.
"Have you seen a healer?"
Is that something he's allowed to do? Root healers are only for people who actually need healing. "Um.. no. Captain."
Kakashi sighs and drags a hand through his hair. "Hospital. Now."
Obviously this is one of the things he's supposed to know but doesn't. He's saved from having to admit that he doesn't know where to find the hospital by Shisui, who grabs his arm and drags him away.
"You don't need to see a healer," he grumbles, but follows anyway.
"I'm not going to see a healer," Shisui says. "You are."
"So why are you coming?"
Shisui gives him a patient look. "You don't go to see healers on your own. Other people take you to see a healer."
"Why?" A broken finger doesn't impede his ability to walk, or navigate. Just his ability to communicate, apparently.
"That's just how it is."
They walk in silence for a while. It's close to midday, and Tenzo can smell freshly baked bread. He's wondering if stopping for lunch on the way to the healer would be unprofessional when he hears Shisui mutter something under his breath.
"What was that?"
"I said, you could have told me your hand was broken."
"It's not my hand, it's my little finger."
"Whatever," Shisui snaps. "You could have at least worn a strap or something. I know ninja in general don't like going to the hospital, but that doesn't mean you just pretend like everything's fine."
"Why don't ninja in general like the hospital?" Tenzo asks, curious. Instantaneous pain relief is not something he'd turn down lightly.
"Because… um.." Shisui glares. "That's not the point."
"What is the point?"
"Never mind," Shisui huffs, turning away pointedly. Tenzo rolls his eyes. This definitely qualifies as sulking.
Inside the hospital, Tenzo watches in awed fascination as a medic focusses healing chakra onto his hand. It's kind of a pretty glowy green.
Shisui stands awkwardly off to the side, twisting his hands behind his back. Why he decided to hang around here when he's clearly uncomfortable is anyone's guess.
By the time the medic has finished, the finger is no longer broken. Tenzo can tell because when he shakes his hand - gently - the bones don't grate painfully against each other. It still twinges a little, but the medic assures him that tomorrow it will be as good as new. Then the man hurries away to his next patient, and Tenzo takes the opportunity to take in the entire room. There are a few other shinobi around, bearing a variety of non-lethal injuries and all looking quite as uncomfortable as Shisui. It's almost as if they expect to be attacked by the very medics treating them. How incredibly strange.
"What's up with you? Anyone would think you'd never seen a healer before."
Tenzo glances up from where he'd been studying a nearby healing in progress. Shisui scowls dubiously at him from over crossed arms.
"No."
Shisui blinks in confusion. "No what?"
"No, I've never seen one before." Tenzo agrees mildly.
"You can't be serious." He uncrosses and then crosses his arms again restlessly.
"Why not?"
"Are you telling me there are no medics in Root? What happens when people get injured?"
Tenzo shrugs. "They deal with it."
"But.." Shisui starts to say something, then thinks better of it. "Is your hand fixed now?"
He nods; somehow it is indeed fixed. He pokes at it again to make sure, harder this time - maybe the jutsu is just a temporary thing? Shisui swats his hand away.
"Leave it alone, idiot. Come on, let's get out of here."
It seems the healers really know what they're doing, because three days later Tenzo's hand is still healed and hasn't caused him so much as a twinge of pain. He can't say the same for Shisui, who is hovering behind him like an annoying moth, irresistibly drawn to the nearest spark of light, and only managing to get in the way as he tries (with admittedly little success) to get a fire going. Kakashi has taken Mai to scout and left them to set up camp about a day's journey out of the village. There's no expected danger, which is why they're trying to light a fire with wood soaked after two days' worth of rain.
"Why are you taking so long? If the fire doesn't get started soon, it won't get hot enough to cook anything on."
He's not even going to ask which of their pre-packaged, dry rations Shisui intends to cook. "The wood is damp. You'll just have to be patient."
"If you heat it up, it'll dry out quicker."
Tenzo gestures to the pile of wood stacked up around his meager flame. "What do you think I'm doing?"
Shisui sighs impatiently. "Let me do it."
"And what exactly do you plan on doing?"
"Just move, out of the way, come on.." He tugs Tenzo to his feet and pushes him out of the way. Then he draws in a deep breath and blows onto the pitiful fire - except what comes out of his mouth is not air but a stream of flames. Their campfire roars to life: so does all the spare wood Tenzo had painstakingly gathered - enough to last them through the night - and carefully stacked around the firepit where it could dry out. In seconds there is a two meter high blaze in the middle of the clearing, and flames are leaping out with dangerous enthusiasm toward the surrounding brush.
For a moment they survey the damage in strained silence.
Tenzo breaks it. "Oh you're right," he says flatly. "This is much better. I don't know why I didn't think of that before."
"Go to hell," Shisui snaps, looking definitely panicked now. "Shit. What do we do? How do we put this out?"
"Maybe you should blow on it again," Tenzo suggests, not feeling particularly charitable. "That fixed the problem last time."
"You're such a jerk," Shisui complains, diving over to drag the closest gear away from the more adventurous flames. "The captain is going to be back any minute. What's he going to think when he finds our whole camp on fire?"
That's definitely a low blow. He's well aware that Shisui doesn't give a damn what Kakashi thinks, and is just trying to manipulate him into solving a problem that he had nothing to do with in the first place. The worst part is, it works, because Tenzo knows full well that if he does nothing, the blame will fall on him. It always does.
So he forms a quick water jutsu - nothing fancy, just enough to dampen the fire - and pretty soon it's reduced to a nicely sized campfire. There's some residual hissing and spitting from the occasional stray droplet, but otherwise it crackles away without issue. He thinks he's managed to save enough wood that he won't have to go looking for more either, so that's a relief.
"Huh," Shisui says, and maybe Tenzo's seeing things but he looks a little guilty. "I didn't know you could use water jutsu."
"Lucky for you," Tenzo retorts, stomping over to his pack and digging out the first pack of rations he can find. Then he flops down to the ground and props himself against a tree and glares up at his teammate.
Shisui avoids his eyes and twists his hands behind his back. "Yeah.. So, about that.."
He's interrupted, however, when Kakashi and Mai drop out of the branches next to them. Their captain glances around at the singed campsite and raises an eyebrow.
"What exactly happened, here?"
Tenzo scowls pointedly at Shisui.
Shisui holds up both hands and smiles innocently. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
In the end, their mission goes off without a hitch. Tenzo should have known it was too good to be true when they get almost all the way back to the village without any signs of enemy ninja.
12 hours out, they're ambushed.
In hindsight, Tenzo knows he was careless, that he let Shisui's loud and exaggerated story (which is really just him complaining about something his cousin did) distract him from more important things - like keeping a proper lookout. In his defense, it seemed to have distracted everyone else as well.
Being so close to the village must have lulled even Kakashi into a false sense of security, because they're all a little slow to react when the cliff side above them suddenly explodes into shards of flying dirt, raining down in a cloud of dust. Tenzo catches the flash of metal, and instinctively brings up a wall of earth to shield them.
An enemy ninja lands on the wall - the next second it too, is exploding. Tenzo stumbles back, coughing, as Mai's shuriken streak past his ear and their opponent curses and leaps away. They both glance at their captain for orders.
Kakashi breaks away from the cliff and leads them into the forest, away from any more traps, giving them a second to regroup. They have better cover in the trees, and it forces the enemy ninja to reveal themselves.
Tenzo pulls a kunai from his belt and steels himself for the upcoming fight. Three figures appear through the leaves to face them - clad in black, masked - they could be from anywhere. But definitely favouring earth jutsu, he notes. Probably from Iwagakure, then. Strange, that there would be only three of them; it's more common to face a team of four.
Kakashi signals for them to wait; Shisui either ignores him or doesn't see, but leaps into battle, hurling kunai before him. Two of the enemy rush to meet him, the third begins to perform some kind of complicated jutsu. Kakashi snarls curses and runs after him.
Mai and Tenzo exchange a quick, horrified glance: what to do now? Does Kakashi's previous order still apply? Or are they all to just throw themselves into the fight, with no plan whatsoever?
It seems to be the latter. Kakashi has engaged the third enemy, while Shisui is trading blows with the other two. After a frozen moment, Mai dashes over to make it an even fight (although Shisui seems too fast for either ninja to land a blow, even two against one).
As the others fight around him, Tenzo hesitates, unsure if he should help Kakashi or the others, and just as uncertain about how to do it. Throwing a kunai is just as likely to hit a teammate as an enemy. In all of his Root training, he was always facing a superior force: outnumbering the enemy is an unfamiliar situation for him.
But just when he's decided that an earth jutsu would be a good idea, he sees movement in the ground just behind where Shisui and Mai are quickly overpowering their opponents, and realizes that there was a fourth enemy after all. A shockwave hits the clearing before he can react, knocking everyone off balance. As Tenzo struggles to regain his footing, he sees the ground literally open up to swallow Mai and Shisui.
But somehow the Uchiha manages to get his feet underneath him quick enough (and he really is fast, so fast that Tenzo can barely follow him) and grab Mai, pulling her up out of danger and landing on a low-hanging tree branch. Another shockwave hits, stronger and more targeted this time, and the tree topples over. Shisui and Mai leap from the crashing branches in opposite directions; Mai grabs the shuriken at her belt and hurls them. One makes contact, but it's not a serious wound. The ninja comes after her, she dodges his strike and kicks him in the knee.
The other two follow Shisui. He twists in the air to breathe fire at them, but one blocks with a wall of earth while the other sends another shockwave just as he touches down on the ground.
Shisui stumbles, gasping, and the two enemy nin see their chance. Kunai and shuriken come flying, and Tenzo reacts without really thinking about it. Looking back, he will curse himself for his stupidity, but in the moment the enormity of what he's doing doesn't occur to him.
He slams a seal into the ground and reaches with as many tendrils as he can find to snatch Shisui out of harm's way. More vines seize the enemy ninja, binding them in a green prison. Shisui yells in shock when he's jerked off his feet and dragged across the ground, but the missiles aiming for him hit the trees behind him instead, which is all that Tenzo really cares about.
Or at least it is until Shisui gets his head up, sees the apparently sentient plants that have wrapped themselves around his lower legs, and freaks out. Tenzo can only watch in horror as he gulps in a huge, panicked breath and, like a complete idiot, spits fire at his own feet.
The plant tendrils turn to ash, incinerated by Shisui's fire jutsu. The underbrush and mast around him go up in flames as well. Dimly, Tenzo can hear Kakashi yelling on his right and vaguely realizes that Mai has taken out her opponent. Most of his concentration is going into separating his chakra natures and bringing enough water down on Shisui to put out the fire without injuring his comrade any further.
He doesn't realize he's rushed forward until he's leaning over Shisui, taking in the damage to the Uchiha's legs and feet. The skin is blackened and cracked, not bleeding yet but Tenzo knows from painful experience that it soon will be.
"What the hell were you thinking!?" He summons more water and pools it around the worst damage, trying to cool the skin and mitigate the burn.
"It was a living plant," Shisui defends himself indignantly. He's not even flinching, though the pain must be excruciating. Tenzo's grudgingly impressed. "What would you have done?"
"That was me, you idiot!" He checks on the others, because he can multitask, but there's really no need. Kakashi has taken out the last enemy and is heading over to them. Mai is hovering in the background.
"You have sentient plants?" Shisui asks doubtfully.
"I control the plants," Tenzo says.
"Well you could have mentioned that before." Shisui grumbles.
"I was too busy trying to save you from being skewered! How was I to know you'd try to fire-bomb yourself?"
"I didn't ask for your help," Shisui mutters under his breath, just as Kakashi arrives to crouch at his side and peer grimly at his burned legs. He offers a sheepish grin. "Sorry, captain."
"Can you walk?" Kakashi asks.
Tenzo eyes him doubtfully. Perhaps he can walk, but should he? Kakashi catches his eye and must agree, because he grimaces and rephrases. "OK, stupid question. Tenzo, take that side. Let's get you back to the village."
"Hey," Shisui protests, as they pull him upright between them. "I can walk by myself."
"I'm sure you can," Kakashi agrees, not breaking stride. "You can tell the healers all about it."
When they reach the hospital, Kakashi stays just long enough to hand Shisui over to the medics and then bolts. If Tenzo looks hard enough, he thinks he can still see the dust rising in the distance.
Mai murmurs something behind him.
"I'm sorry?" Tenzo asks.
"I said, he doesn't like hospitals," she says, studying the lobby floor with intent. "Most people don't."
That's pretty much what Shisui told him earlier. Tenzo turns his head to stare at the door the healers had taken him through. Is this his fault? Master Danzo is always so insistent about not revealing anything - to always keep one's abilities hidden, to never give away one's weaknesses. Knowledge is the ultimate weapon. But if Shisui had known about his abilities, then he wouldn't be in the hospital right now.
Mai says something, but again lost in thought, he doesn't hear her, and has to ask her to repeat once more.
"You should go home," She says, gently, almost kindly. "They won't let us see him for a while yet."
"Mmm." Tenzo agrees. Burns like those will take at least a few days to heal.
Mai puts her hand hesitantly on his shoulder. "It isn't your fault, you know. These things happen. We're ninja - we deal with it."
He looks away from her, unable to reply, because she's wrong. If he hadn't messed up, then this wouldn't have happened, and they wouldn't be here, waiting…
"You saved his life. He knows that. Everyone knows that, it's just you beating yourself up. Don't."
She looks him straight in the eye as she says it, and he's so surprised he stares back at her. Then she squeezes his shoulder and walks away. It isn't until she's out of sight that he realizes she saw the Mokuton as well.
Many years later he will realize that she had probably already known. Anbu is notorious for leaking secrets, and the Nara clan can figure out pretty much anything given enough clues. Not that he was particularly subtle anyway.
Years later, he will realize this. But not right now.