The Unsung Story of the Inconspicuous

A/N: Yo. Bet I had you worried there, when it took longer than usual?

Don't own, won't profit.


"Alright," Yamada said, hands on his hips and shoulders pulled back at the end of her bed. He loomed over her, his eyes black pits boring down from an impossible height. "We ready for this?"

In his shadow cast on her bed, Raiku cowered slightly, her own eyes wide and glowing plaintively, even if her pupils were a little mismatched because of the meds. She couldn't handle conflict like this, so soon! She had only just mastered walking to the bathroom without throwing up! And the bathroom was attached to her room!

'Yep,' Daisukenojo said grimly from Yamada's left, his much less impressive arms crossed over his chest and his expression unusually foreboding.

'I didn't mean to blow everything up!' Raiku whimpered, drawing her blanket up to her chest.

Ryuu's glare intensified from Yamada's right. 'Be quiet.'

Raiku fell silent, her gaze flicking from face to face in an attempt to read any of their intentions. She'd only been awake for two days! How was this the reunion she got with Yamada?!

They moved as one and she screwed her eyes shut. 'No-o!' she wailed, covering her head and making herself as small as possible.

When she wasn't eviscerated in the cheery morning light, she risked opening an eye.

Three objects were on the bed in front of her, in various stages of disarray. They looked… like…

Raiku almost sobbed with relief. 'You got me presents!' she squeaked, a hand pressed over her furiously beating heart. Three murderous glares bore into her. 'I mean… of course you got me presents!' she corrected hastily, unfolding herself and stretching her thin fingers out like questing spiders. 'That was always what I assumed because we are all very good teammates and friends!' she chuckled nervously, pulling one into her lap and toying with it without thinking. She was soaking it in, really, staring at them in deeply touched surprise. They had actually gotten her presents. On their own. Without being threatened, maybe. Before joining a genin team, it had never occurred to her that there were 'Sorry I Left You To Die' cards, or 'My Team Is Better Without You Having Been Murdered, Get Well Soon!' happy panda stickers,but they did live in shinobi-driven economies, so she really should have seen it coming. Ryuu's was in a shiny little bag, while Yamada's was in… some sort of sack. She was a little worried about it. However, Daisukenojo's, the one she'd reached for, was immaculately wrapped.

No, really, she was impressed. The ribbon was perfectly tied and she couldn't even make out the edges of the flower-printed paper, he'd overlapped it so neatly. When this earned him a few strange looks, he glowered at the bed and refused to blush. 'What? You wrap gifts for a bajillion people every year without getting good at it.'

'We didn't say anything-,'

'Yeah, well you think very loudly.' He huffed. 'Just open it!'

Raiku tilted it between her fingers. 'I… sort of don't want to, it's… so pretty,' she admitted sheepishly. When this made Daisukenojo growl low and continuously, she reluctantly pulled the ribbon off and felt for the seam.

After a few minutes of extremely careful unwrapping, Raiku stared at her hands.

'It's… a fish.'

It was a fish. It was a little orange glass carp with adorably unfocused eyes, slightly googly, and small enough to fit in her palm and curve gracefully around the muscle of her thumb.

This got Daisukenojo two more sidelong looks. This time, he did blush. 'R-read the damn card!'

Raiku fished through the paper and read it aloud, the front emblazoned with a little ninja panda swathed in bandages and on implausible crutches. '"Dear Raiku-" oh, dear?' she repeated happily. '-even goldfish can…"' Her gaze flattened. '"Even goldfish can remember three seconds, so act more like them so you don't have to go to the hospital every two".' Yamada laughed and Ryuu snickered, giving Daisukenojo a small fist bump.

She lowered the card to stare at him. 'Really?' she asked dryly. 'Really, Daisuke?'

He shrugged. 'It's a cute fish, though.'

She cracked and smiled slightly with her eyes. 'Yes,' she said with fond exasperation. 'It is a cute fish. Thanks, Daisukenojo.'

She gingerly placed the little fish on the bedside table, and turned it so that its googly glass face was looking in her direction as much as its googly face could, mostly so that Daisukenojo could get his bashful coughing and feelings dealt with and without feeling uncomfortably scrutinized. That done, she turned to the other two.

With an ominous air, she reached for the burlap sack from Yamada, who grinned at her from above. They'd exchanged exactly no words, directly. That said, she had gotten a little note saying 'You're alive! Good!' the day before, so she guessed he didn't want an emotional reunion and had chickened out.

She hadn't been eager for one either, so she'd let it go without comment. But he'd smiled at her, very briefly and for oncewithout sadistic glee, and she'd returned it. It was close enough.

She carefully peered inside the sack and blanched.

'These. Are. Apparently, uh, drugs?' she said, faltering, eyes flicking from the bag to him over and over.

'…Is that the wrong bag!?' Daisukenojo demanded, both her teammates rounding on their leader. 'Are you… are you a drug dealer?!'

Yamada rolled his eyes and smacked them both swiftly upside the head. "They're soldier pills, morons!" He jerked his head towards the bag that Raiku now regarded with a great deal more interest. "Your body burns it up, you can give it back, get me?"

Raiku felt perilously close to having an emotional outburst. 'That's… that's really… This is really considerate. And generous, it must have been expensive,' she added, clutching the bag in a sudden fit of receiver's guilt. It was nowhere near full, in fact it was quite small, but since they were a controlled substance and she was a genin, it was about as much as she could resonably have. As well as that, she probably wouldn't need them often, it was a supply that would last a while if she used them wisely.

Yamada's deadpan gaze stayed firmly on her. "Not as expensive as replacing a forest."

She winced. 'Point… point taken.' She put the bag by the goldfish, making sure there was no card (there wasn't) before she reached for Ryuu's gift bag.

She turned the tiny card over. A ninja frog beamed up at her with a shuriken sticking out of its bandaged head. "Congrats on surviving!" it told her. She squinted at it for a moment.

Shinobi were so weird.

But anyway. She reached inside and felt something pointy and oddly textured, eyebrows raised as she brought it out.

'A pinwheel,' Daisukenojo said critically. 'You got her a pinwheel.'

Ryuu shrugged carelessly. Yamada shook his head in despair at the terrible state of his two male genin, realizing that they were going to be both bachelors and his problem all their lives, but Raiku was smiling to herself. She tapped a corner gently and watched the pattern spiral out, delicate blue, white and black flowers on the reverse side creating a whirlwind of flora.

'Thank you, guys,' she said, interrupting Ryuu and Daisukenojo's bickering and smiling at all three of them. 'Really,' she added. 'It means a lot.'

They both looked away deliberately, hiding their embarrassment with varying degrees of success, while Yamada just patted her leg through the blanket in a gruff, oddly paternal manner. "No problem, Speedy."

He cleared his throat and resumed his normal stance. "If you keep getting better, we can go by the end of the week, if we take it slow. You'll have to get checked out when we get home, but you're not in such bad shape. Sound good?"

She nodded, tapping the pinwheel and sending it spinning again. 'Yeah. Sounds good,' she said softly.


It didn't occur to her, she would later be ashamed to admit, to ask the obvious. It wasn't until she was being carefully examined to monitor her progress that she broached the issue.

'Hey, where's Iwao?'

She had kind of expected him to visit her, but no one had even mentioned him. Except Gaara, who didn't count. And Ryuu, who didn't care.

Her idiocy didn't go unnoticed by her uncharitable teammate Daisukenojo, who was deeply fascinated by her medical treatment rather than concerned for her stability.

'You've been here almost a week, and awake for most of it. And you ask about him now?'

She winced. 'I. Yes. Yes I am asking now.' She hissed when the medic prodded her injury, but it was a reassuringly expected pain, rather than the dizzying nausea of before.

Daisukenojo waved a hand. 'He was basically fine. Just worn out. One of the twins was put in here with some burns that they cleared up right away, but they have to find a new team leader. So they've been going through that whole process.'

She nodded, feeling a familiar flash of guilt. Ichitaka would be hard to replace, particularly after they'd had so long to get used to her. Because of Raiku's lack of control, they didn't have a choice. 'Process? Don't they just assign someone?'

He shook his head, watching the careful bandaging with avid interest. 'Not when the team is well-established. They've gotta find a fit, so they do all these tests to determine leader compatibility; we got turned away when we tried to see them before. I'm betting they won't be done for a while.'

'So, what - we just can't even say goodbye?' Raiku frowned, lowering her arm once the medic was finished applying a new bandage. 'But… he saved me.'

Daisukenojo seemed to experience a sudden surge of guilt, but it passed too quickly for her to tell. 'Yeah, well, you can write him a note or something.'

The nurse taking observations rolled her eyes at Raiku in a conspiratory, exasperated manner where Daisukenojo couldn't see her. Males, right?

Raiku creased her eyes in response, but Daisukenojo didn't seem to notice. Mostly because the diminutive medic that was examining her was also frowning to himself.

'Is… something wrong?' she asked, quickly glancing between the two of them.

After a moment, he jotted something down and stood. 'It's nothing,' he said, dismissing her sudden apprehension easily. 'You're just healing a bit slower than I'd like.'

'What? She heals like crazy,' Daisukenojo scoffed.

The medic shrugged, waving a hand. 'It's not uncommon. You were slightly malnourished already, plus severely dehydrated.' He gave her a quick smile and a pat on the shoulder. 'You'll be back to normal in no time. I'll get the doc to look in on you, just to be safe. Alright?'

Raiku tried smiling, but didn't feel particularly reassured and it must have fallen short, because Daisukenojo nudged her when the two others left. No sooner had the door clicked quietly shut than he was grinning. 'Hey,' he whispered, even though there was no one else to overhear. 'Wanna do something fun?'

Raiku eyed him skeptically. 'Something that we will both find fun?'

He pushed her shoulder lightly, careful not to jostle her injured side. 'Don't be a dumbass.'

Raiku watched him for a moment longer. Ryuu had had his little reunion with her that she could never talk or reminisce about or acknowledge in any way ever; not even when alone. Yamada had spent money and openly avoided emotional dialogue, which had implied that he had emotions to not want to talk about. She supposed it was Daisukenojo's turn. She just hadn't thought he'd want one.

'Okay,' she agreed with only a moderate amount of trepidation. Daisukenojo padded over to the door and opened it so that he could look down the hallway both ways, before closing it firmly and coming back to where she sat on the hospital bed. He gestured and she obligingly raised her arm, only to see him carefully remove the IV with a flash of chakra that sealed the tiny puncture.

Raiku jerked back, but he held her wrist firm. 'Daisuke-!'

He shushed her and glanced at the door. She had no idea why he was being so paranoid, but she was starting to tense up and get twitchy with the beginnings of adrenaline in response to his obvious signals.

Then he pulled her towards the window, and she kicked into flight mode. Usually it would be a choice between fight and flight, but really, who was she kidding?

'I can't leave!' she hissed. 'Especially not by the window!'

Daisukenojo snorted. 'Look, you wanted to go see your hero, so let's just go! We're shinobi; we're supposed to be stealthy.'

'Hero? I don't have a- ,' Raiku paused, which gave Daisukenojo enough time to slide the window open. 'Oh.'

She smiled, abruptly, and when Daisukenojo looked back, it was to the sight of her creased, grateful eyes. He immediately went red, which she found gratifying.

'Alright! You'll need to chakra-feet me,' she said, pulling her arm free so that she could rub her hands together and completely invent nonsensical verbs. 'And make sure I don't die.'

Daisukenojo rolled his eyes. It was something he did a lot in her presence. 'No kidding.' He waggled his fingers. 'I've been taking care of the brats for years. I can keep you going for an hour.'

Raiku fidgeted, torn between the desire to absolutely not go against the medics and smack him, and the urge to hug Daisukenojo until his veins popped. She braced a foot on the windowsill instead, foreign chakra attached, and carefully leaned forward.

After a minute or so of this, Daisukenojo seemed to get impatient and the foot still on the ground was abruptly lifted up, the world lurched with dizzying vertigo. Suddenly Sand loomed before her, then … the distant ground of Sand was directly in her line of vision. Raiku's feet stuck to the outside wall of the plain white building, but she still instinctively scrabbled at the rough surface with her fingers for a moment.

Daisukenojo nimbly vaulted out beside her, standing instead of crouching as some monochromatic gargoyle. 'Let's go. We can't be gone too long.'

Raiku cautiously edged her foot along from her crouch, standing with reluctance. Standing sideways felt weird. It felt like the world had rotated ninety degrees without asking permission. Daisukenojo seemed fine with it, the inconsiderate ass, and jumped from the wall to land on a telephone pole nearby.

Raiku followed, throwing out an arm to grab one of the sun-heated hooks just in case. Gallivanting around with chakra meant that 'down' became 'wherever your feet were' instead of 'the ground', and she struggled with it. She scurried up to perch on the top instead, keeping her left arm close to her side protectively. Daisukenojo crouched on the line next to her, scanning the city.

The Plot was still there. But, Raiku noticed with a grimace, it was partially transparent. Its shifting mass sliding over the sand-colored, squat buildings made the sight of Sand less inspiring than it was and … a little nauseating. And hypnotic, oddly.

Daisukenojo snapped her out of her daze by pointing across the heat-shimmering expanse to something on the edge, right near the high, earthen wall that curved around the town. 'I think those are the training grounds.'

Raiku squinted. It did seem slightly emptier than the other bits. But then again, everything was the same color. And also made of sand, which she found distasteful for a variety of pragmatic reasons.

'This village seems kind of like… a series of termite mounds,' she pointed out. The buildings were tall, but oddly bulbous, the tops mostly hemispherical with little caps on top and dark windows.

Daisukenojo snorted. 'Yeah, kinda does, doesn't it?' He jerked a thumb towards the presumed training grounds. 'That's where they'll be.'

Raiku looked wistfully back at her open window. The curtains shifted invitingly in the air current made by the air conditioner, while her clothes already clung uncomfortably to her skin in the smothering, intense heat. When her clothes clung, they clung everywhere. At least they were white.

Which… probably made her look like a giant albino stick insect.

Resigned to her fate, Raiku followed Daisukenojo across the rooftops between the hospital and the training grounds. Slowly. He was making little jumps and more jogged than ran, making it easy for her to keep up without making it patronizing. Another thing he'd probably picked up from all his little siblings.

Raiku drew even on the rounded earthen rooftop of a small house and fell into place beside him. 'Your ears got all freckly,' she pointed out, almost managing to flick one of them before he swatted at her.

'Shut up,' he grumbled. 'It's not funny.'

Raiku smiled at him. 'I think it's sweet! Not many people where we come from have them.'

Another eye roll. She was going to have to start counting them. But he was just so red! Everywhere! And then he blushed and just became one giant color swatch!

So maybe she was still a little drugged. She laughed to herself, feet weaving slightly on her route. She was used to it by now.

When they got within confirmation distance of the training grounds, they both crouched behind a chimneystack.

'Why do Sand houses even have chimneys?' Daisukenojo whispered, the two genin leaning out to study the area discreetly. As discreetly as one red and one white genin could.

'I don't know. It gets cold at night?' Raiku whispered back, trying to make out some of the fast-moving figures. 'Can you tell who it is?'

'Ryuu's there,' Daisukenojo came up with after a while. 'But he said he wanted to train against a Sand wind user, so he and Yamada set it up.'

'Seriously?' Raiku hissed. 'Do we really want him to be more dangerous?'

'Hell no, but - hide!'

They both ducked out of sight for a moment, hearts thudding in their ears, before Daisukenojo perked his head up again.

He frowned. 'So, your friend is there and I think he's suspicious.'

Raiku shook her head. 'I keep telling you, Gaara is my friend by accident and does not count because he wants to murder me-,'

Daisukenojo flapped a hand at her impatiently. 'Not him, I heard you the first thousand times. Purple paint guy.'

She paled even further, if that were possible. 'Kankuro!? Not him,' she groaned, letting her forehead hit the rough sandstone in front of her. 'He loves making things difficult. My life, specifically. Yours would just be a bonus.'

Daisukenojo frowned and sketched his finger in random shapes over the molded rooftop as though drawing out plans in his head. 'But you're still supposed to be in hospital. So if he catches us, you'll get dragged back and I'll get in trouble.'

Raiku nodded, pulling her shirt a little from her sweaty skin and fanning herself. 'Are we sure that Iwao's there?'

Daisukenojo tilted his hand like it was a scale. 'Sort of.'

'We shouldn't go to too much trouble for "sort of",' she criticised.

'I can sense the twins, but Iwao was a lot trickier to pick up during the trip. Even if he were there, I wouldn't be able to tell unless I got close.'

Raiku peered over again, a white tuft over the chimney. The distant figure of Kankuro didn't appear to be looking their way - his eerily purple countenance was facing a sparring match between a giant something-weapon-y-user and a less distinct person. Not Gaara, thankfully. On another field, two over, a few blurs darted back and forth while a line of more generically dressed Sand-nin observed.

She looked back at Daisukenojo. 'So, let's get closer and see if we can spot them.'

He grinned, eyebrows raised. 'You wanna try and sneak up there. Sneak up on Jounin?'

She waved her hand. 'Like they'll be paying attention anyway.'

'You are so drugged,' Daisukenojo said under his breath, but he seemed approving. He rubbed his hands together in ill-concealed glee. 'Okay. Okay okay okay. Gimme a second to mask my chakra.'

She nodded and took a moment to do her own - much easier for her than for her more chakra-enabled teammate. Regardless of how much she had, because it couldn't leave her body, it was extremely easy to contain. She also did a quick check of herself. In a bit of pain from her side and much less from her hand, but that was manageable. A little dizzy and slow on the uptake, feeling a tad sick. But, not really anything worse than she'd had before. She could manage.

Plus, this was kind of exciting! Usually she was far too lucid to be this reckless. Maybe this was why Naruto acted so crazy? It was great.

Daisukenojo shook her by the shoulder, forcing her to stop the high, continuous giggling sound she'd been unwittingly omitting that had apparently been unsettling him. He pointed to a row of buildings that wavered either in her unreliable vision or the heat waves visible through the air. 'If we circle around from the side, we can use the supply buildings as camouflage. Plus, if they sense us, they'll probably just think that we're genin up to something stupid.'

'Which we are.'

'Which we are,' he confirmed cheerfully. Raiku eyed him with something like revelation. He was having fun. By god, Daisukenojo had a personality outside of reacting to Ryuu. She'd heard the rumours, but - no, Raiku, that was mean.

They leapt to the top of a nearby building, landing in crouching positions and dropping down the side into the closest alley. Raiku landed with exaggerated care and followed Daisukenojo in a wobbly line. He stopped her when they had to cross a street, putting a hand out and almost catching her across the chest.

This close to the training grounds, the ones that were within the village at least, there wasn't much foot traffic. She felt a familiar tingle of energy and realized he was giving her a quick scan, the results of which must have been acceptable because he dropped the arm and padded across the road.

Raiku picked her way across the coarse road daintily, as the shoes she'd been given were thin-soled ones only intended for inside use. The streets were narrow and the buildings high, making the sun fall short of casting its fiery gaze on them as they weaved through thin alleyways in shadow. It gave Raiku a curious feeling of claustrophobia to make her way through abandoned alleys with high walls, the occasional telephone wire strung across high above. It built until she felt a palpable wave of relief wash over her when she was stopped yet again and felt chakra presences nearby, and heard the familiar sounds of combat filtering through the walls.

'Up or around?'

She had no idea. '...Around?' She offered uncertainly. Fortunately, that seemed to be right answer, based on Daisukenojo's nod.

'Good thinking. We can use the cover to duck behind the practice dummy shed to get a better look.'

'Exactly,' she said sagely, willing to pretend that had definitely been what she was thinking about instead of pondering the graffiti scribbled on the opposite wall. She had no idea what some of those words meant, which confused her. She was generally familiar with that sort of thing from Yamada or Daisukenojo's excitably crude younger brothers.

She circled around the base of an old-looking building with deep gouges littering its surface. Probably from weapons practices that spilled out off the fields, like in Konoha. As they both peered around the corner, their field of vision abruptly opened up in a way that somehow surprised her overheating, medicated mind.

Kankuro could be seen from behind some distance away, his stance oddly firm. It was the other girl, his teammate, who was fighting. Her enormous fan sliced through the air and sent gusts of wind so powerful that they could be actually be made out, distortions rocketing towards her opponent that ripped up the earth and then - stopped dead.

She couldn't see Ryuu, but she knew that technique, knew it intimately. The sight and thought of it provoked rapidfire flashes of unpleasant memories so she looked away. It was much easier to focus on the field closest to them, less frightening to focus on the line of Jounin arranged around it to watch the sparring.

'The twins and Konishi,' Daisukenojo confirmed, like that was necessary at this distance. An older Jounin with an almost entirely covered head was standing in the middle, arms crossed across his chest and feet set apart. It was reminiscent of Yamada, especially in the way he was instructing the two of them. They moved fluidly and in perfect sync, trading blows that never quite managed to connect. It was like a crane dance, almost, except...

Raiku squinted a bit and frowned to herself under her mask. Except for their faces, visible in flashes at such close range. She had no siblings, so she would have to ask Daisukenojo if she wanted to confirm, but surely twins shouldn't look so -

'I see him,' Daisukenojo hissed, tugging on her shirtsleeve and pointing.

She followed his finger and saw Iwao. And it was strange, to see Iwao again with his face-paint and his uniform, standing on the packed sand like he belonged there. For some reason it was hard for her to accept, as though he was some hallucination she'd dreamt up to keep her company and he didn't fit in with his physical surroundings. Or maybe it was the drugs, the drugs that had convinced her not long before that Daisukenojo's freckles were changing patterns on his face like clandestine red beetles.

But she was losing focus again.

How to get his attention? Iwao was watching the proceedings next to more Jounin that she didn't recognize, all of whom would undoubtedly see any signal they tried to send him.

She looked to Daisukenojo.

He appeared deep in thought. They both reflexively pressed themselves to the wall when someone looked over, then peered out again.

And cursed.

'Shit!' Daisukenojo hissed, pressed back behind the stone. 'Who stares at nothing for five whole minutes?!'

'Okay, okay, so he definitely saw us,' Raiku babbled, her heart pounding and side starting to throb. 'What do we do?!' The Jounin, a rather young man with long, pale hair had been looking right at them. There was no way he had not seen.

'Well. Well. Weird Jounin like you, historically, so you-'

'You cannot be serious you madman-,'

Daisukenojo shoved her hurriedly around the curve of the building. 'Move move move!'

Raiku hissed in discomfort but let him push her around to the other side of the building, where they waited with bated breath.

After long, agonizing minutes, Daisukenojo relaxed a bit. 'He's not moving from where he was.'

Raiku hugged her arm to her injured side and glared at him.

'Oh, come on. Jounin think you're hilarious,' he snorted, realizing after a moment what her issue was.

'They think making me uncomfortable is hilarious-,'

'And so does everyone else, because it is. You wanna see your friend or not?' He huffed, blowing his cheeks out a little bit. Right, she remembered. He was actually doing her a pretty big favor.

Raiku pouted, only because it couldn't be seen under the mask, like many of her secret facial expressions. But he was right and she needed him in case something went weird with her injuries or to stop her from walking into walls and getting lost. He turned and started climbing up the wall and after staring at it sadly, like it would help her out, Raiku reluctantly followed.

When they reached the top of the building, she risked another glance downward. The fight had stopped, but after a tense second she realized it was because the twins and the Jounin were being talked to by someone in the garb of an official. One was grimacing and the other was just staring coldly into space.

'Do you get the feeling that these guys are actually, y'know. A pretty strong team?' she whispered. This was a lot of trouble to go through for three genin.

Daisukenojo nodded, crouching at the closest safe distance. 'Yeah. Looking back, I guess Ichitaka was probably really strong if they were willing to send her to spy on Konoha.' Konoha had been considered the most powerful village for a long time. It made sense that Sand wouldn't risk some idiot, but it had never occurred to her that maybe the blonde and her team were… sort of a big deal. No one was as big a deal as Gaara and his team, but still. They were actually listening to the two Kano twins, and almost no one asked genin for their opinions.

'Wait. What the hell is Mr. Observant doing?' Daisukenojo frowned, subconsciously pressing closer to see the field better, but forcing Raiku to contort to make sure she didn't electrocute him.

'Daisuke. Daisuke?' she said nervously, her throbbing side starting to flare up as she twisted.

But he wasn't listening. 'Shit! Get down!'

Once again, she found herself pressed flat by reflex. It minimized the part of her that was visible, but she couldn't hide fully without Daisukenojo moving away and he hadn't realized.

The pale-haired Jounin was looking up at them again. Right at her. Right at the thin visible sliver of her face. Or, more likely, her hair.

She stared back, not sure what else to do and frozen in place.

Was he going to attack them? Expose them? Tell everyone they were -

He grinned at her.

Raiku boggled at him. He was blatantly amused by them and not even trying to hide where he was looking. He was openly facing their direction. He had dimples. How old was he, anyway!? He looked way too young to be here!

Well, Ichitaka had been young too, an insidious voice reminded her before she desperately quashed it.

She looked at Iwao. This was evidently as close as she was getting. It looked like she wasn't going to get a chance to thank the short Sand-nin, standing and watching the field with his intense, serious stare.

The Jounin followed her gaze. Stupid Jounin, she grumbled internally.

'Wonder who their teacher'll be?' Daisukenojo mused, oblivious to Raiku's state.

'The blond,' she muttered sullenly, trying to sidle back behind cover awkwardly.

'What? No. He's too young,' he said derisively.

No, he was the most handsome candidate. The laws of the world's narrative bias had chosen him to be better looking than most other people, which, for a shinobi, meant that it wanted to do something with him. Plus, he had the only customized uniform and his hair classified as an unusual physical characteristic. Like Ichitaka, he stood out from the crowd, which meant that a) he had hidden depths, and b) he was the only one who could fill that narrative void.

And he was talking to Iwao.

Raiku squeaked and then gasped for an entirely different reason as pain started making its presence known down her left side. It was too hot. It was sweltering and she'd been moving and judging by her increasing awareness of narrative, her drugs were wearing off. Daisukenojo hastily reached a hand over and skillfully evaded her attempt to push it away, placing it over her side. Instantly relieved, but still throbbing worryingly, her side felt cooler. But apparently, their time was running out.

Disappointed, she managed to push herself fully out of sight. 'I think we should go back,' she panted, half-slumped against the hot stone. Daisukenojo nodded grimly.

'You going to need help getting back?'

'Why are you out of the hospital?'

For once, it was Daisukenojo who almost screamed and Raiku who had to clap a gloved hand over his mouth. The shadow abruptly cast over them belonged to -

'Iwao!' she exclaimed as quietly as she could while Daisukenojo tried to pry her fingers off his face. Iwao was backlit by the sun and … in truth, did not look too pleased.

'You're hurt,' he said, as though she didn't know.

'You're okay!' she replied happily, but he didn't smile. Then she remembered where they were. 'Wait, get down before they see you!' A flicker of warm amusement passed across his face before a frown chased it off again, but he dropped into a crouch. 'Won't they wonder where you are?'

'Clone. You have to go back,' Iwao informed her, the painted yellow lines on his skin curving down with his disapproving face. But, she'd dragged and been dragged by him for almost a week, so she recognized his weird form of concern. Daisukenojo's struggles got a little more frantic.

'I wanted to say thank you! Before I left,' she explained, waving her free hand for no particular reason except excitement.

He nodded. 'Ah.'

Daisukenojo was, unnoticed, turning a funny shade of red, but even though he was much stronger than Raiku, he couldn't struggle much without being seen by the people on the training field and so his options were limited and she was surprisingly adept.

After a few seconds, Iwao spoke again, looking at the ground between his feet. '… Thank you as well.'

She beamed at him and nodded, the two sharing a moment of mutual gratitude before Daisukenojo finally managed to pry her hand off and gasped for air desperately.

Raiku gasped in horror. 'Oh god! I am so sorry!'

'You … bastard!' he wheezed, hand clutching at his chest while he tried to catch his breath.

'You should go back to hospital,' Iwao repeated, tugging on her shoe lightly to regain her attention. His expression was serious, yet again. 'You'll get in trouble. Or sick.'

She sighed. 'I will.'

Then she paused.

'Wait, how did you know we were up here?' she asked. Were they really that terrible at stealth? Probably, but it was still a little disheartening.

Iwao looked over her shoulder towards where the others were. '… Hijino told me. He saw you on the roof.'

'He what - Raiku.'

'I am injured,' she defended against Daisukenojo's glare. Iwao tugged again and she looked at him in surprise.

He jerked his head back towards the field. 'I have to go.'

She smiled again and patted his hand where it rested lightly on her heel. 'Okay. Thank you, Iwao.'

He looked away, red staining his face under the tan. '… No problem.'

He stood and disappeared in a flurry of sand, leaving them alone in the heat and the terrible brightness of the sun. They shared in the feeling of accomplishment for a while, feeling companionable after achieving their goal together.

'… I'm going to throw up now,' she said cheerfully after a period of comfortable silence.

Daisukenojo blanched. 'No, Raiku, no-!'


A/N: That's right. DAISUKENOJO HAS AN EXTERNAL IDENTITY. I was also surprised. And slightly embarassed that it hadn't come up before now.

Reviews:

FattySkeleton: Yes. Yes it did.

LucklessObserver: Well, it was mostly Ryuu's. Poor Daisuke did his best, but Ryuu was persistent. Yamada hates the touchy-feely, but got there in the end.

Fluehatraya: I feel like a shippping coalition is forming and that that might end with something terrible happening. To me or Raiku. Oh well. I love Kankuro, but god. He is such a bastard. Which is why I love him, really. She was much like that! Ichitaka was supposed to be quite feminine, which I thought was often missing from adult, female shinobi. And then I murdered her.

srooone: Thank you so much! I think Kakashi would find her amusing, and then much less amusing if he ever found out she was some sort of weird thing. And then amusing again, I really want to do that whole thing. I plan to look into how the team felt, but not just yet. She's bad enough with feelings. I'm flattered it made you cry! 'Burning out' means a few different things. To most people, it seems to mean working yourself until you break. For her dad, it means burning out her ability, somehow, effectively (metaphorically) 'burning' it out of her.

Aotrs Commander: OH HI THERE. I thought I'd lost all my original reviewers (mostly), so yay! I'm so glad you came back! She catches a break, sometimes. She, uh. Got a googly-eyed fish! That's... a break. Thank you!

Skwiziks: YES! I thought I'd lost you as well but you have RETURNED! I definitely understand why the initial update may have seemed like a false lead. Clearly, I planned the last few years as a way of, uh, performing an elaborate trick? No I didn't I'm terrible. And really, you should be used to the way I update. Twice in one day, at one stage. I'm glad you like Iwao and the way the mechanic's working- you're damn right you don't want to hug Raiku. She gets affection in tiny doses or she'll start thinking that she's people and also accidentally murder others. Ah, what is Raiku? Ahahaha. Thanks for reviewing!

fleeting . white . feathers: From tumblr- I should have known such shipping talents could only come from there. You have set up the perfect system, in which shipping can always happen. I applaud you, but also fear you in this weirdly appreciative way?

SnowCloud1827: Oh my god, do you want her to die of a nervous aneurysm? Pretty sure that's not actually a thing. Wait, yes it is. Huh. I'm glad you like them!

1412 karasu: Oh god. You guys are teaming up. This does not bode well for me. But of course, it wouldn't occur to him, because Gaara is the worst at feelings. Not having them, but certainly understanding what to do about other people's. I could never blind Yamada. He has scars from where his lips were sewn together and it didn't even slow him down. I don't think he can physically die. I think he will one day crystallise into a statue of manliness.

shanagi95: Thank you! Ah, Gaara. You have exchanged maybe ten words with Raiku that weren't threats and everyone loves you.

Duckie: Thank you, that's awesome! And thanks for all your kind words and feedback! Now that you mention it. Oh god. Ryuu, Gaara, Hyuuga. There is a pattern. A terrifying pattern. High five!

Guile: Thank you!