Unsung Story of the Inconspicuous

A/N: Thank you to my beta, Shana. Rock on.

Don't own, won't profit.


Daisukenojo shifted uncomfortably.

Conflict had been inevitable. After the trip there, they had been fools to think that their trip back would be uneventful. And now, Daisukenojo was the last holdout. It was a miracle it had taken them so long, until the last leg of their trip, but here it was. After days and days of boring, monotonous walking, it was finally happening.

This was it.

'I'm … not really … Look, this isn't okay,' he said after a moment, edging back from the fire pit and further into the dark. 'I don't…'

'Don't make eye contact,' Ryuu advised from beside him, looking uncharacteristically unsettled as well. 'And no sudden movements.'

'I don't feel safe. I think we should get Yamada back here-,'

'No!' Ryuu yanked Daisukenojo back down into the dirt when he tried to get up, not taking his eyes off the enemy. 'You're not leaving me here alone!'

'Well, what else can we do!?' Daisukenojo hissed.

Across the fire, orange light casting eerie shadows over her face, Raiku stared. To be specific, she stared hungrily at the packet of rations Daisukenojo was holding, poised like a ravenous wolf about to lunge. Daisukenojo made a tiny, high-pitched sound of discomfort, fidgeting unhappily in place. Ryuu elbowed him sharply, keeping Raiku firmly in his sights. 'Don't move. She's trying to make you nervous-,'

'It is definitely working!' Daisukenojo exclaimed and tried to stand again -

'Don't move!'

Daisukenojo froze. Raiku had shifted infinitesimally in response to his awkward half-step, eyes glowing malevolently.

'Is she… growling at me?'

Ryuu was perilously close to gaping and just shook his head. 'I...'

Daisukenojo snapped and hurled the food across to Raiku, who snatched it out of the air so quickly he couldn't follow the movement properly. 'You're on your own!' he yelped, turning on his heel and running out of the campsite and into the trees.

'Hatori! You get back here!' Ryuu shouted after him, unable to pursue lest Raiku take advantage of him turning his back.

Raiku, for her part, was deeply pleased. She finished opening the packet where Daisukenojo had failed from fear, inhaling the smell of the bare necessities of nutrients happily. She was hungry constantly now, and they had tried to limit her to only one and a half the normal amount of food. What was that? Who could even live on that? She munched happily on her ill-gotten sustenance, eyes creased with bliss.

'What the hell is wrong with you?'

Raiku looked up in surprise, mid-chew. She'd forgotten he was there. Ryuu was giving her a disturbed look that she hadn't noticed, as she'd actually entered a headspace in which nothing existed but potential fuel and he had no food that she wanted. Ryuu had used Daisukenojo as a sacrificial lamb so that he could surreptitiously eat his own supply without being attacked. She swallowed hastily. 'What?' she asked.

'You know damn well what,' Ryuu said in what she felt was an unnecessarily snarky manner. 'You've always eaten a lot. But now you want to eat all the time. What the hell?'

Raiku swallowed another bite and shrugged guiltily.

Oh good, he was glaring at her. At least it was familiar territory.

'I actually don't know!' she said defensively, clutching the ration pack like he was going to take it away from couldn't help it. All she wanted to do was eat, constantly. There was a grasping emptiness in her that she couldn't ignore, which felt less like it came from an empty stomach and more like it came from inside her bones. A low thrum of ... something. She could feel things at the back of her mind, conductors that tried to draw her more powerfully the hungrier she got, and constantly tried to find sustenance to hold it off but she was starving. And it was only getting worse.

'You've been strange ever since ... what happened,' Ryuu persisted, refusing to budge.

Raiku stared at him for a while, deep in thought. Or possibly trying very hard not to ruin the mood by eating again, but it could just as easily have been thought. Ryuu didn't ask personal questions because Ryuu found the personal lives of others distasteful and completely insipid. But here it was, a personal question. Oh god, had their emotional interlude been the prologue to some sort of terrifying romance? No, no. That couldn't be it, or she would have seen her Plot include him. No, this had to be something else. Which could only mean -

'You feel responsible for me being like this,' she said with uncharacteristic accuracy and a narrowing of her eyes.

Ryuu almost choked on his water.

She grinned victoriously and reached for her food again. 'That's okay. This was always going to happen. Probably,' she added under her breath.

Ryuu glared. 'What?'

She shrugged. 'Well, I don't really understand all of … this.' She gestured to herself and then waved the same hand breezily. 'So, yeah.'

She started munching again, steadfastly ignoring how Ryuu was equipped with a lovely supply of metal that sang in a dark corner of her brain.

'… Raiku.'

She glanced up again. 'Yeah?' she asked around a mouthful of rations.

'You remember what happened, don't you?'

Yay. Her grace period was over and he was back to giving her that creepy, cat-like stare.

'I remember what?' she asked evasively. 'I remember, uh. You signing me up to be Gaara's penpal, is that what you mean?'

'No.'

'Oh. Um, you were sparring with Sand-nin? How did that go, anyway? I bet you-,'

Ryuu tossed a stick into the fire and the sudden sparks made her stop talking so that she could scoot back a few centimeters.

'Raiku,' he said, before she could get started again. '…Don't tell my parents.'

Raiku blinked, confused. 'What?'

He held his hands up to warm them near the flames, looking at them instead of her. 'They're civilians, so… they wouldn't have known. I don't want them to know,' he added quietly.

'Ryuu…' she started, but trailed off when she didn't know what to say. Oh god. She hadn't wanted to do this. She hadn't even had time to mention what had happened in the forest. Mostly because she had been deliberately avoiding it, hoping against hope that he would try to talk to Yamada or literally anybody else. But he hadn't, and so her hand was forced.

She had to do it.

She had to talk to Ryuu about his feelings. She took a deep breath and tried again after a few moments of awkwardness and mentally grappling with the heinous act she was about to commit. 'Ryuu, you… about what happened-,'

'I already said I was sorry,' he said, cutting her off with irritation, but she shook her head.

'No, that's not - look, I just… I mean, you just found out that your family was a victim of gene theft.' And that was the reality of it. Ryuu had been stolen from a family that was almost gone, if the man was to be believed; he had been taken from his parents and raised in another village that had wanted what his DNA made him capable of. It was a common enough crime amongst shinobi - it was the basis for the Hyuuga branch seal, after all. But the thought that Konoha, their home, could do such a thing and then pretend that it had never happened… the thought that they could murder a whole family just to avoid being held accountable, it was…

How could Ryuu reconcile that idea with his memories, with his loyalty to his village? Raiku couldn't even imagine. She had struggled, in the past, with keeping her Gairano and her shinobi goals hand in hand, but this was something altogether different. For all her family's duplicity, they had always done it for Konoha. There had been no conflict there.

'My family lives in Konoha.' Ryuu said shortly. 'Those people aren't my family. I don't know them.'

Raiku watched him for a while, fingers itching to reach out for something. Not for Ryuu; she had never felt any particular urge to reach out for another human being. But something to burn and devour, to feed what was gnawing on her insides. 'I don't think they see it that way.'

'That's not my concern!' he snapped.

'Well, it could be, if they decide to come back for you and I'm pretty sure that guy's not going to give up-,'

'What, you think I'll pull an Uchiha and just go? Is that it?!' he demanded, growing icier and angrier with each word she spoke.

Raiku tried desperately for damage control. She hadn't been prepared for this kind of emotional confrontation. Usually she had to give herself pep talks and, and research things. 'No, I would never think that!' Only yes, she absolutely thought that. He wouldn't have a choice if some Plot got a hold of him. Even worse, she wouldn't be able to perceive them as effectively while she was trapped in her own; it gave her narrative tunnel vision. She couldn't help him, couldn't even see it coming.

He saw right through it and leapt to his feet, rage practically crystallizing on his skin. 'I am nothing like him!' Raiku noticed the wind picking up a little and felt an answering thrum of energy stretching out from her bones towards her skin, tendrils expanding and seeking and warming her thin frame. She could feel it shifting and in turn making her shift in place, a build that was greedy for something and metalwaterpower-

'The only reason I'm here is because some bastard decided that I was a commodity worth acquiring and that disgusts me,' Ryuu seethed. 'But there is nothing I can do about it and I refuse to … to punish the people in my life who were just unlucky enough to be there!'

He was panting slightly when he finished, breathing heavily from the force of his emotions and fists clenched by his side. Raiku stared at him in surprise, unable to believe that Ryuu had experienced two whole emotions in a month and that, in an even more horrifying turn, she'd been there to see them both.

'Okay,' she said helplessly, unable to think of anything else that wouldn't make the whole thing worse. 'Okay!'

'And another thing!'

Oh, he wasn't done.

'Where the hell do you get off, bringing up me being withholding when you won't even tell us what's going on with you?!' he demanded. Oddly, his anger made him seem both younger, because he was losing composure, and older, because he was also dangerously psychotic at the best of times. 'You've been acting strangely for months now-,'

'Hey, you've always thought I was strange!' she protested. And oh, that was a mistake. That was definitely a mistake, judging by the look he gave her. 'Ryuu, please,' she said, practically begging, practically crying with exhaustion and stress and a hunger killing her that she just couldn't sate. 'Please, I just want to go home and get better and I want to go to bed because talking about your feelings is really scary, okay? Please?'

Ryuu growled a little bit, but that was to be expected. She kept up her pleading stare, knowing that in this case, the glowing would contrast against how pale and sickly she was and actually help make her look pathetic and small.

True to form, his anger seemed to subside as quickly and photogenically as it had began. '…This isn't over,' he said, but she was already smiling at her tiny victory.

'No problem, we will definitely not fail to avoid discussing something that is unrelated to this,' she said happily, already unrolling her sleeping bag. Ryuu took a moment to parse through that convoluted knot of negatives, giving her the chance to get settled in before he could work it out.

'Wait-,'

She yawned obnoxiously and rolled over, putting an immediately end to the conversation.

Sure, it was probably only staving off the inevitable, but tomorrow they would get back to Konoha. No more Sand, or sand for that matter, no more psychotic biological family members springing from the woodwork. Well, none but her own.

Everything would be okay.


Against all odds, and probably advisable narrative form, the last day of their journey passed uneventfully. They even made good time, and got there by early afternoon. It worried Raiku, like most things did, but she was also determinedly ignoring the fact that she could sense Konoha and Konoha's electrical network long before her chakra senses picked up their sentries, so she just added it to the list of things she was in denial about. The list was long, including items like 'how pretty Neji's eyelashes are' and 'I have a worrying lack of strong female role models'. She was pretty happy with it.

It was about the only thing she was happy with, since Daisukenojo had decided she wasn't fit to walk on their third break that day and she was draped over Yamada's back. Part of Yamada's back. Certainly what she had dubbed the Northern Yamada Territory. Well, part of that territory.

He seriously was the largest human she had ever seen.

She had taken to letting her arms dangle sadly over his shoulders while her masked face pressed with equal sadness against part of the back of his neck. He bore it with good humor, probably because her spindly limbs added negligible weight, and as well as that…

"Suzu!" he exclaimed happily the second Konoha came into view through the thick forestry. Raiku felt the vibrations of his voice all the way through to her spine and winced at the pain it caused her side. "Pick up the pace, you two!" he yelled back to the others, who were lagging behind so that Daisukenojo could keep an eye on Raiku and Ryuu could seize the opportunity to make fun of the redhead. He was like a particularly goal-oriented velociraptor, always ready to leap upon any weakness, Raiku thought fondly. Then she replayed what Yamada had said, like she always did to make sure he hadn't tricked her into doing something or threatened her.

'Wait, is she there?' she asked in alarm.

'No!' Daisukenojo called. 'I can't sense her, anyway.'

'Can she hide from chakra sensing?'

'Well, she is a civilian. It'd make sense that she'd blend into the crowd, I guess,' he admitted.

The idea caused all three Genin to shudder in horror, which Yamada generously decided to ignore.

'She could be anywhere,' Raiku whispered in horror with her cheek pressed against his flak vest, eyes wide and staring at nothing. 'Anywhere.'

Yamada took a deep breath than expanded his ribcage enough to actually move Raiku, which made her whinge in protest. He took the hint and didn't yell whatever he'd been planning to, but the abrupt exhalation made her continue cringing until he settled down. He waved instead, energetically. Raiku peered over his shoulder, craning her neck to see, and could vaguely make out a sentry on the high watchtower waving in return. She glared at them, deeply suspicious that it would be Kotetsu again and that he'd laugh at her, but as they got closer, she realised that it was someone she didn't recognize.

Well, thank god for small mercies. As they passed through the enormous gates, past the towering walls of Konoha's exterior, Raiku felt herself relax slightly. Finally, they were home. These were streets that she recognized, these were uniforms she could trust and the air even smelled comfortingly familiar. The pain down her left side and the ache inside seemed to lessen briefly under the sheer force of relief. The explosions and the fear seemed far away in the reassuring sunlight beaming down on her hometown.

It couldn't last.

'Hey, Yamada! What's wrong with your Genin?' someone called.

Raiku's eyes shot open.

"Izumo. Run ahead and tell the hospital that we're bringing her in, get me?" Yamada replied in that cheerful, slightly threatening way he had.

Damnit, it was Kotetsu's crony. The creepy, dark-eyed one with the bandanna. Whatsisname. Izumo, if that even was his real name.

Okay, she admitted grudgingly. Maybe Daisukenojo was right about her being incapacitated, that hadn't made much sense. But hey, that wasn't so bad. At least he didn't know her directly.

They set off through the streets and Raiku closed her eyes again, feeling at peace at last. Not just because she could feel electricity in the lines of the village, a humming pressure against her skin that actually sort of made her teeth vibrate. Or feel like they were vibrating?

"What the hell are you giggling about, Speedy?" Yamada asked over his shoulder, past which she could see the doors of Konoha General getting ever closer.

Raiku immediately stopped. She was getting into the habit of laughing or giggling without realizing, it was… it wasn't a good thing. She was going to have to watch out for that. Only secret sadists and supervillains did that, or worst of all, obsessive young women. Anything but that.

The sounds of activity filtered through her fog-filled mind after she felt Yamada duck down to get through two large automatic doors, hit with a sudden wave of coolness from the air conditioners.

'Yamada - oh dear. Somebody get a chair!' a woman shouted.

Raiku blearily peered around when the earth moved, but quickly realized it was just Yamada shrugging her off into the waiting arms of a nearby medic, who cradled her carefully and waited for her transport to arrive.

'Oh hey,' she mumbled around a large yawn, doing her best to smile but abruptly turning it into a rabid hiss when someone tried to pull her arm away from her side. Somebody else tried to grab her wrist and she smacked them sharply away, growing immediately irate. 'Don't touch it! Daisuke, help me!' she whined.

'Hey, come on!' His freckled face appeared in her peripheral vision over the shoulder of the young man holding her up. 'This was the whole point of coming back!'

'But it hurts,' she complained. He was shoved out of the way by a far more familiar, uncompromising visage that she remembered glaring at her from across the dinner table. Raiku immediately started squirming. 'No, not Mayuko! Anyone but you! You know all my ways of getting out of things and I find that unfair!'

'Be quiet, Raiku,' Mayuko sighed. 'Give her to me, I can take it from here.'

'No need.'

A sudden hush fell over the emergency room, which made both Raiku and Mayuko cringe. Oh no. Someone with presence. This wasn't going to be good.

The owner of the low, commanding female voice revealed herself to be a pale yellow and green blur until she leaned over Raiku, who quailed back further into the medic who had a grip on her. A pair of amber eyes studied her critically, so Raiku tried very hard to focus on the little gem in the middle of the woman's pale forehead instead. 'You're the daughter of the Gairano Head, aren't you?'

Sannin. Hokage. Tsunade.

Raiku stared, rendered mute by how intimidated she was but also not sure she understood the question. Her dad was the head of the family, but he wasn't the… Gairano Head, he didn't have an actual title. That was ridiculous. He was just a guy. He painted terribly in his free time. He watched ANBU Romance. How was he significant?

There was no mistaking their new Hokage, though. She was lovely, but in a distinctly… authoritative way, her pale blonde hair pulled back into two low ponytails and her entire expression informing Raiku that no, there was not going to be any messing around, or escaping, or pulling any Gairano bullshit. Her face was actually surprisingly fine featured, but combined with her unmistakable aura of power and command it still managed to tell her there would be no compromise today.

'Mayuko,' Raiku quavered. 'I changed my mind; I want you to look after me. Mayuko. Please Mayuko.'

Tsunade released Raiku from her terrifying gaze and looked at the man holding her, who looked more awestruck than anything. 'You have a room ready?'

'Y-Yes, Hokage!'

'Take her to it. I'll be there shortly.' She looked away, probably about to traumatize someone else. Or save their life, either way. Raiku was momentarily transfixed by the full sight of Tsunade; greatest kunoichi of her generation and probably every one before it. She was also surprisingly short, given her reputation. But she was so cool and in charge and … so totally about to ruin Raiku's life by finding out about all this oh god.

'Hokage, excuse me!'

Raiku sweated anxiously and looked to Mayuko, who had addressed Tsunade directly.

Tsunade glanced over at the shorter, less statuesque and basically less-of-almost-everything Gairano. 'What is it?'

Mayuko bowed deeply under the bemused scrutiny of Yamada and the Hokage, two terrifying people. Raiku had to admire her composure. 'Please let Doctor Gairano and I look after Raiku. I've been taking care of her all her life, and she's both very scared of hospitals and extremely nervous around new people. Particularly women.'

Raiku was put into a wheelchair and almost in tears at this stage, so that hysteria probably supported that assertion. But her pathetic and weakened state seemed to have no effect on their new Hokage and top healer, because she just looked back at the file she'd been handed by another nurse.

'No. You can assist, but I'm taking lead,' she said, dismissing Mayuko's request without a second thought.

Mayuko winced and moved to Raiku's side to push the chair, so that she could stay with her en route to the room she'd probably be locked up in and experimented on for the rest of her life.

She felt light-headed. It was possible that she was hyperventilating.

'See you later, Toaster!' she heard Daisukenojo call. 'We'll come visit you soon!'

'Mayuko! Aunt Mayu!' She found herself being wheeled through the throng of waiting patients and busy nurses by her deft relative. Mayuko wasn't strictly her aunt, but their family was so convoluted that it was hard to keep them all straight. As a general rule of thumb, anyone older was an aunt or uncle, anyone younger got called a cousin. It was a working system but she had other things to worry about. 'You have to help me!' she whispered.

'Raiku, I'm trying to think,' Mayuko gritted out, pushing the button for the elevator. 'Just… leave it to me, you're badly injured.' She spared her a quick glance before focusing on something else. 'I'll take care of you. So don't worry.'

'How did she even know it had happened!?' Raiku hissed.

'The person your teacher sent ahead, Izumo. He and his friend Kotetsu have basically been conscripted as her gatekeepers and assistants. He told her right away.'

'But why me?' Why the hell would the Hokage, the leader of their entire village, refuse to let them take care of their own? For what reason could she possibly want to interfere with a system that had been working since the Gairano had first figured out that people thought they were annoying and strange and would leave them to their own devices at a moment's notice!?

'She's made a point of meeting with all the clan heads and your father's turn was yesterday. She's building bridges, Raiku, it's not unusual.'

'We're not a clan! For exactly this reason!' This was something Raiku was struggling with. The Gairano weren't important. That was the point. People didn't make exceptions for them or go to special lengths; they didn't arrange to meet their family head. They sent them invoices and shook their heads whenever the Gairano acted strange, which was infrequently, because most of the time they completely forgot about their existence and didn't even notice their weird behaviour! The Hokage didn't meet with them like they were Hyuuga or Nara, they ignored them! They certainly didn't offer them special medical treatment!

Tsunade had been out Konoha too long. She was going to ruin everything and Raiku was going to be in so much trouble.

Mayuko pushed the wheelchair into the elevator and hit the button to send it up.

'Wait! Aren't you coming with me?' Raiku asked desperately, about to jump out of the chair and away from the other medic in the little metal box to chase after her aunt, but the other Gairano just shook her head and took a few steps back.

'I'll come back, I swear, just trust me!' she hissed, her wide, worried eyes meeting Raiku's for just a moment before the doors closed, separating them from each other and leaving Raiku to stare in horror at the shiny metal surface and her own covered, terrified face.

The rest of her short trip passed her in a blur. She sat down heavily on the only bed in the room she'd been dragged to, hands gripping the edge so hard her knuckles went white and threatened to expel energy into the metal frame. The medic buzzed around, full of nervous energy that undoubtedly came from working directly with the Hokage, but Raiku was nauseated with fear.

What was she going to do?

She'd electrocuted doctors before, but this was the Hokage. Plus, they couldn't pull any 'defensive techniques' bullshit with the Tsunade, greatest medic alive and strongest female shinobi ever! She'd see through it immediately.

Oh god.

Oh god.

Raiku's vision swam and she heard the medic call out her name as the world spun around her and filled with a low, warning crackling. She couldn't do this. She wasn't ready. She was in pain and disoriented and she wanted her dad to come and get her so that she could go home and sleep in her own bed and -

The door slammed shut. The medic had left. Raiku looked up at the window across the room longingly, at the leaves that swayed in the breeze outside, but she knew couldn't get out there. She hadn't even gotten back to the village under her own power. What chance did she have? She'd be dragged back right away.

She blinked back exhausted, hysterical tears and tried to think, but she just couldn't focus. She was in pain and she was thirsty and she was so hungry, like she was all the time now. But the hungrier she got the more the copper wiring through the walls hummed at the back of her brain, the more the electricity supplied to the hospital surged along like a second heartbeat that thrummed at the back of her eye sockets, down the base of her skull and through her ribcage. She couldn't concentrate, she couldn't think.

Raiku found herself gasping for breath and not knowing why, trying desperately to fill lungs that felt like they just weren't getting anything and -

She curled in on herself and put her head between her knees, just about ready to pass out. She wasn't equipped for this. She strove to maintain an emotional balance that had left her completely unprepared for this kind of rollercoaster. Dark spots obscured her vision and nausea made bile rise at the back of her throat.

The door slid open and she couldn't bring herself to look up.

Footsteps.

'Raiku. Raiku, honey, calm down, it's only me.'

She almost fainted with relief at the sound of Mayuko's voice but didn't feel she could sit up without vomiting, so she stayed down.

A hand landed on her right shoulder and patted her reassuringly. 'I don't want you to worry,' Mayuko said slowly from above her. 'But you need to stop glowing before Tsunade gets here.'

Raiku took a deep breath, dragging her consciousness back from the walls and the nebulous mass that was the electricity all around them, feeling it as keenly and agonizingly as if she were pulling a tooth. As she did so, the crackling in the air and over her skin gradually subsided until she was just sitting and shaking, arms wrapped around herself.

She heard Mayuko swallow. 'Good.' She lifted her hand from Raiku's shoulder and moved a few steps away, rifling through a drawer. 'Let's get you into some patient clothing and get started. The more we get done, the less difficult this is going to be.'

Raiku stiffly and awkwardly started trading her own, slightly gross clothing for the plain white items that Mayuko handed her, the older woman politely averting her gaze in a deliberately obvious fashion so that Raiku wouldn't feel too exposed. When they were done, Raiku sagged back against the wall the bed was pushed against, feeling as though she'd run a marathon. Mayuko gave her a brief nod and exited, leaving her alone again, but she felt reassured by knowing that her relatives were nearby. As long as they were here, things were going to be okay. She told herself that over and over until the door opened again, and her walking nightmare stepped through.

Okay, it wasn't Naruto. That was unfair. But it was certainly a nightmare that entered the room, if not the worst one. Tsunade filled the room with her presence despite being of average height. She wasn't even particularly beautiful, though she was very attractive in an uncommon, idiosyncratic kind of way. Raiku steadfastly didn't look at her chest, made easier by her consuming, growing fear. But wow. Even without looking directly, those were - Mayuko caught her gaze from behind Tsunade's elbow and raised her eyebrows. Raiku dropped her gaze immediately, knowing she'd been caught thinking about the Hokage's rack and that this would come up and embarrass her forever, just like the Neji thing.

'Raiku, yes?' Tsunade asked archly. Raiku snapped to attention and quietly squeaked from the agony this sent through her body.

'Yes, Hokage!' she managed to force out. 'I'm Raiku.'

Tsunade took the file that Mayuko handed her and stepped further into the room, allowing Yamada to get through the doorway and give Raiku a wide grin.

Despite knowing Yamada, this made her relax even further. Her aunt and her teacher were there. So maybe her tiny panic attack hadn't been warranted?

Tsunade flipped through the thin file quickly and spoke to Yamada. Interrogated, really, rapid-fire questions about the mission that covered the details he hadn't had time to put in any official report. This gave Mayuko the chance to slip past them and sit next to Raiku, putting a hand on one covered leg. 'Staying calm?' she asked quietly.

Raiku nodded. She was keeping a tentative grasp on her self-control. The day had started so well. They'd finally gotten home. For weeks it had been the same - each time she thought she was safe, that it was finally over, something happened that brought it all crashing down. Was this what it was like, having a Plot? It was exhausting, emotionally and physically. No wonder Plot-driven shinobi were so strong. Mayuko patted her quickly. 'Good girl,' she said quietly, so low that neither of the others could hear. 'We'll get through this.'

Ordinarily, Raiku didn't like Mayuko. But at this moment, she was like her own personal angel.

'So!' Tsunade was done with Yamada. Damnit, he was a failure at keeping that woman at bay. 'Let's have a look.' Raiku lifted her arm carefully and Tsunade abruptly pulled it further up to place a hand over the cloth on Raiku's hand. A faint green glow surrounded her fingers and the younger electrokinetic sighed with relief. The inflamed heat that had been rising from the injury gave way to a refreshing coolness while Tsunade concentrated, but it was a double-edged blade. Raiku found it harder to stay present and focused without that grounding pain. 'You got this during the fight?' Tsunade asked. Raiku nodded somewhat uncertainly, not sure what or how much Yamada had told her. Fortunately, the question seemed largely rhetorical, as Tsunade didn't appear to be listening. She let Raiku's arm down after a moment and stepped back, studying Raiku critically.

Raiku fidgeted in place in response.

'We can heal the injury, but I'm not letting you out of here while you've got a condition that's stopping you from healing. And since I can't see any reason for that to be happening, if there's anything you want to tell me, say it now,' Tsunade told her bluntly with her arms folded under her ribcage to accommodate her frankly astounding chest no stop staring at them Raiku, god so inappropriate. 'I'm going to find out anyway.'

Raiku cast Yamada and Mayuko an agonized look of indecision. What was she supposed to do?!

'I… don't know?' she squeaked.

The look Tsunade was leveling at her seemed to strip Raiku bare. 'Of course not,' she said dryly.

So she hadn't even deigned to pretend to believe her. That was bad.

Tsunade narrowed her eyes. 'We'll heal your side and keep you for observation until you stabilize.'

Mayuko drew breath to speak.

'I don't want to hear it,' Tsunade said without even looking at the nurse. 'If your family has a problem with it, they can feel free to come and tell me why.'

Raiku stared. Tsunade was the worst nightmare of the Gairano family. She was the metaphorical torch that pointed directly at their dark little corner. A magnifying glass aimed right at the anthill of Gairano family life. She was ruining everything just by paying attention to them and she had no idea. What were they supposed to do? Raiku had no idea how to deal with this kind of attention. Her family wouldn't either.

This was not how things went!

'Take your shirt off and we can get started,' Tsunade said, snapping on a latex glove. Raiku panicked and shuffled back on the bed, starting to breathe heavily again, but Mayuko bravely put herself between the Hokage and her niece in a move that no other Gairano would have dared under any other circumstances.

'I'm sorry, ma'am, but she has a crippling fear of physical contact,' Mayuko said firmly. Tsunade looked unimpressed, but the younger woman continued on. 'If you initiate it, she's going to panic and hurt herself. It's noted many times in her file, by everyone who's ever cared for her. Not just the Gairano,' she added with a steely glint in her eye.

Raiku was going to write Mayuko a Thank You card made of solid gold.

"It's true," Yamada rumbled, drawing Tsunade's attention. "She'll do anything to get away, get me? She's escaped from the hospital every time she's ever been in it."

Yamada would also get one, but made out of paper. He was still a bastard sometimes.

'You're just full of all kinds of anxiety, aren't you?' Tsunade asked Raiku with a raised eyebrow and a shrewd, skeptical glint in her eye. She was too smart. This was impossible. She was never going to buy any of their lies.

Raiku nodded weakly.

'Well, then this is going to take a while.'

Raiku shrunk in on herself like that would help and resisted the urge to chase the electrical currents out of the building.


A/N: ohoho like that would help.

Reviews:

Fluehatraya: That was a horrifying suggestion. To even suggest that Raiku knows how to braid. And now the ship armada is in space, all the better to survey Raiku from above. Ever watchful. Ever vigilant. Thanks for the review of mysterious origins?

fleeting . white . feathers: NOT SO FAST THERE MY FRIEND. NO ship has sailed, ahaha! But they are certainly penpals.

Zecrea: I myself feel that way about her most of the time. She is so legitimately afraid of Gaara, but come on! Even Rock Lee is friends with him now!

Guile: Almost certainly yes, but she wouldn't have noticed, aha.

Skwiziks: I know, right? And come on. If Yamada existed, we would all know those quotation marks.

shanagi95: Ah, that poor bastard was going through a checklist over and over again, trying to figure out where they were going wrong. That just happened to be the first question. And Iwao is so surprisingly popular with you guys!? Same with Ichitaka! I'm honestly surprised by it. Thanks for the review!

Nomurai: I know, right? I worry, whenever any character talks to another character, that they are actually being bad at being shinobi. They are all so emotionally stunted. Thanks for the compliment! I tend to go on rapid writing jags, so the updates should be pretty consistent.