A/N: Hello, sorry that this took so long to post. I have had it written up for a while, but I lost the USB for a while. Woops! Anywho, I hope that you like this chapter, it is a transitioning chapter in my opinion, and it is getting ready for the next chapter. But that does not mean that it isn't important. I hope that you all like it, and don't forget to review!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything! Ever!

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Chapter Four: Recovery

Once in the tower, Hiroto stood in front of the Hokage with Iruka-sensei sitting to his left and another leaf shinobi sitting to his right. He was almost grateful that there were only three others in the room.

"Hiroto-kun, would you please tell us what happened and why your teammates are not here with you?" The Hokage asked. His tone was not mad, it just was, and that made Hiroto a little bit more at ease with the situation that he had found himself in. Especially since he was still covered in blood from his team and the enemy, not to mention some of his own as well.

"We went to the town to give them medical supplies, and after that was done we were told to go and see if we could find out why they were need of more medical supplies so soon. I was told to go to the hospital again, seeing as I went there last time as a part of the infiltration exercise that Ogawa-sensei had given us before and I know how to do basic healing with my chakra. I used my mind reading technique to see into the minds of those who were attacked and found that a group of missing nin were operating close by." As Hiroto continued his report as quickly as possible he made sure not to let a single detail that was important slide. He even talked about how he summoned one of his dragons to help with the fight and then detailed how they had gotten back to the village. And he finished with what the med team had told him and Shouta.

He knew that the only reason that his team was able to do anything at all was because they had gotten lucky. The man had thought that his clone had taken care of the three wounded genin, and he was distracted by having fun killing their sensei. If he had even been remotely paying attention, then things might have been very different.

"Thank you for the report Hiroto-kun. I am sorry that the mission had to end like that. Please get yourself to the hospital as quickly as possible, I can already see that this had taken its toll on you." The Hokage said.

Hiroto tried to give a bow, but he ended up half way there before the pain made him gasp and straighten. He was leaving when he passed the team that was waiting to report just outside. And heard his name being called.

Looking up, he spotted that the team was Neji's and that the Hyuuga was the one who was trying to talk to him.

"Hiroto-kun, are you alright?" He asked again. He didn't look as if he was betraying any emotion, but if one were to look closely at him they would see the slight down turn of his lips as well as the almost nonexistent crease in between his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I will be. I just need to get to the hospital right now." He answered with a wave of his hand.

The jounin sensei, who happened to be wearing something hideously green, spoke up then and said "Tenten, Neji, why don't the two of you escort this most youthful man to the hospital. I'm sure that Lee and I can report most youthfully without you with our flames of youth still burning brightly in your absence."

"Hai, sensei," the two genin said as they both steadied Hiroto and began to help him along.

Now that he was under no obligation to do something, the exhaustion that he had been hiding, coupled with the pain that he was in because of his ribs made it so that he was about to pass out. He managed to pull through just long enough to get to the hospital and a medic-nin took him into a room before he passed out.

He never noticed that they had already looked under his shirt with both Neji and Tenten still there trying to help them, and that they both gasped at the large purple and blue bruise that was on his side where the kick and punch from the stone clone had connected on roughly the same place. The other two hadn't realized just how badly he was hurt before that. They had also seen the clotted slice that ran through his gut, and it had given them the same reaction.

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"Thank you for reporting, now, Lee-kun, if you wouldn't mind I need to speak with Gai for a moment." The Hokage said after they had made their report.

Of course, Lee agreed with exuberance that was bound to cause someone somewhere a massive headache. But he left a moment later and Gai became serious in an instant. It was as if the previously hyper active man was a different person entirely.

"Is this about the young man that I had Neji and Tenten help to the hospital?" He asked.

"Yes. Gai, that boy just saved his entire team while facing three missing nin. He will also be the first to recover from his injuries. I would like it if you could add him into your team for the time being. At least until Ogawa is up and able to take him back again." The Hokage said gravely. He was still slightly reeling from what the boy had reported, and the fact that a simple delivery and nose around mission ended in an all-out fight to the death.

"I would be honored Hokage-sama. From just looking at how he interacted with Neji I have a feeling that the two of them already get along, so it might help with the team dynamics." Gai said with his signature smile and thumbs up. No one knew how he got the light to glance off his teeth, or where the noise that it made came from, but there were some things about Might Gai that you just didn't question for the sake of your sanity.

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Hiroto slowly opened his eyes when he finally came to a few hours after the medics had healed and taped his ribs. When he saw white he was more than a little bit miffed at being in a hospital again. It would seem as if he had made a habit of getting stuck in the sterile environments that they provided all week long.

"Roto-kun!" a voice suddenly yelled as a hiss sounded as well.

"Anko-nee-chan, what are you doing here?" He asked his sister in all but blood as he continued to look around. It was then that the memories of the last mission came back to him in full and he exhaled shakily in recognition that his entire team would be in this building at the moment.

"What do you think I'm doing here? I heard that you were in the hospital and I had to come and check on you. Otouto, don't you know not to get hurt on missions? I thought that I could at least trust you to be fine out there." She said as she suppressed every nerve in her body that wanted to go to her little brother and hug him senseless. But the warning about his ribs kept her from acting on it. Instead she took the time to move some of his black hair out of face.

Hiroto couldn't help but give her a weak smile. "I'm sorry nee-chan, but I was the least injured out of the four of us. And I brought you home a present to interrogate! That should count for something." He answered her with a bit of wit.

Whatever Anko was going to say to that was cut off as the door opened and a middle aged man in medic-nin clothes came in with what Hiroto assumed was his chart. He saw the man look nervously at the snake that was draped over the bed, but that didn't stop the man from approaching the bed.

"Hiroto-kun, it is good to see you awake. You should be able to leave in a couple of hours for your appointment with Inoichi. I would also like to convey to you that without your quick healing and first aid out there in the field, both of your teammates would have been in critical condition. If you ever want to become a medic, just come in and tell us, we would gladly apprentice you." The man said.

"How are Shikako and Hotaru?" Hiroto asked with concern.

"The Aburame is recovering nicely, you stopped her from bleeding out, and the Nara is still unconscious, we don't know when she will wake up, but you were able to do something with your chakra that slowed the swelling enough for us to treat her and keep her out of danger. They will both make a full recovery. But we won't know of any complications until they wake up." The doctor answered solemnly.

Hiroto nodded as Anko then took over talking with the man and asked questions about his own health. The green eyed boy just laid back and breathed in relief that the two girls were going to pull through.

He was only pulled from his thoughts when Anko all but yelled in his face "Come on gaki, it's time to talk to the blond. There is no getting out of it, the Hokage made it an order."

Hiroto looked at her in confusion. He wasn't sure why it was necessary to see Inoichi, but he knew better than to question Anko on anything. So when he was let out he simply followed the purple haired girl to the building where she worked and into the office of the man who could look into his mind almost as easily as he could look into his.

Once inside, Anko gave him a gentile, for her, hug and then glared at her fellow shinobi before leaving the room. If Hiroto was not suspicious before, he was now. There was something that he wasn't getting.

"Hiro-kun, do you know why you are here?" Inoichi asked with a soft smile on his face.

When he shook his head, the blond man sighed and said "You see, the Hokage is just a little bit concerned about how you are reacting to almost losing your team, and from taking a life." He explained, "So he asked me to talk to you because he thought that out of all of your guardians I would be best suited for the task."

Hiroto felt his brows scrunch in confusion. "But I didn't take a life," he muttered just loud enough for the other man to hear.

"Your summons did, and that means that it was one of your attacks that ended a life." The blond said softly.

"Oh, I guess I didn't think about it like that. Then again I hadn't thought about any of it until now. At the time I was so worried about Ogawa-sensei and the other two that I wasn't thinking of killing or anything like that. I just knew that if I didn't do something they would have been hurt." He admitted. Now that he thought about it, he didn't feel guilt for protecting his friends. He had done what he had to do to ensure their survival. He would have done it again in a heartbeat if it meant that his team would make it out alive. And he told the man that a second later.

Inoichi smiled again, though inside he knew that it would hit the boy sooner or later. Perhaps it just still hadn't processed all the way through yet. What he didn't know was that as the holder of the hollows, Hiroto's view of death was slightly different. Even if he was not one to relish taking life, the guilt over doing so was lessened significantly. The boy understood at an instinctual level that death was something that no one could avoid, and that it was not something to pine over or to regret.

The Yamanaka then said "That is good to hear. Now, I have to ask you to open your mind so that I can look into it. It needs to be done to see about the other two that you came across. We want to make sure that they aren't going to cause us problems in the future."

Hiroto nodded and averted his gaze as he let the shields that he kept up around his mind fall. A second after he felt the presence of Inoichi in his mind as the man replayed the memories that he had gotten from the people in the hospital along with the memories that he had during the fight.

When he was done they spent a few more hours talking. He wanted to make sure that everything was going to be alright with the boy that he had a small hand in raising and who had taken his daughter under his wing in the way only an older sibling would.

When that was done, Anko had to say her goodbyes and get back to work. Hiroto was glad for the solitude, and decided that he needed to see his two teammates. So he made his way back to the hospital.

He stopped in Hotaru's room first. He almost sighed in relief when he saw that she was awake, but stopped at the door when he saw that she had family in there with her. But when she saw him about to leave, she waved him over.

"How are you doing?" He asked as he neared the bed, a little weary of the other Aburames around. At the very least he didn't want to upset them in any way, or disrespect them.

"I'm fine. The doctors have told me that I'll have to do through a few weeks of physical therapy with my leg, but other than that I'll be fine. Thank you, Hiroto-kun, they told me that you managed to stop the bleeding and helped with some of the more serious stuff." Hotaru said in her usual monotone voice.

"Well I had to do something." He answered with a smile. Yes, it was somehow ingrained into him that he would do anything in his power for his friends. And even those outside of that classification that deserved it.

The girl smiled back before she frowned and asked "Do you know what happened to Shikako and Ogawa-sensei? I didn't think to ask when the nurse was in here before."

"We all got back her in about one piece. I know that sensei had a broken leg and arm, but other than that he should be fine. Shikako got hit in the head. She was still unconscious a couple hours ago, but they said she should make a full recovery as well. They won't know anything else until she wakes up. I was going to check in on her after I saw how you were doing." He answered her again. But it was clear that he was worried about the other girl.

Hotaru nodded before saying "Thank you. I will be fine."

Taking that as a dismissal, Hiroto smiled at his teammate before nodding to her and the other people she had in the room with her before he left. He didn't even notice the small beetle that jumped onto him from one of the adults so that he could speak with the boy after he was finished checking on the Nara.

Hiroto navigated through the hospital once again before coming to a stop outside Shikako's room. He knew that her family was probably in there too, and he was hoping that they wouldn't mind him asking after her. He was, after all, a part of her team. So they shouldn't mind.

With a deep breath he stopped the downward spiral of thinking and went into the room to see that there were a few Nara by the bed. There was a woman who looked so similar to Shikako that she had to be her mother, and on the other side of the bed was a boy who seemed to be a few years older than them, making him think that he was her older brother or something similar.

"How is she doing?" He asked softly, not really wanted to crash the quiet atmosphere that the room was enveloped in.

"They say that she is going to be fine, thanks to you." A deep voice said.

Hiroto looked up at the man with what must have been a confused expression because he then elaborated "They told us that you used your chakra to slow the swelling before you got back to the village. That might have very well saved her life."

"Oh," he responded hollowly before saying "I honestly had no clue what I was doing at the time. I just did what I thought would help and prayed that it was enough." He admitted it in a voice that clearly showed that he didn't think it did a ton of work, but he should have known better than that.

"Sometimes, all we can do is act and hope for the best. At the very least it is better than doing nothing. And in this case, it was more help than harm. So we thank you for doing what you thought was right at the time and bringing her back to us." The man sagely said. The deep timbre of the words, along with the wise quality of them had Hiroto feeling very small and humble.

"I should go, I still want to check on Ogawa-sensei." He excused himself after a rather long companionable pause.

The Nara nodded as he left the room. He had barely turned the corner when an Aburame ended up standing in front of him.

When he looked up at the person, he was surprised when he said "I just wanted to thank you for bringing my daughter back to me. We heard about the fight from her when she woke up, and I know that you helped her, that you protected them both. We will remember that you helped."

The last part was slightly creepy, but Hiroto found himself nodding at the man. He was just glad that no one was angry with him for not doing more. He kept walking towards the last room he needed to get to, without noticing the bug leaving him now that her purpose was done. When he cracked the door to his sensei's room, he was surprised to see that he was sound asleep. But he decided that the man needed it more than ever and left him alone.

He was still wandering, not quite knowing where to go, when Neji's team found him.

"Are you feeling better Hiroto?" Neji asked with a small tilt of his head.

"Hm, oh, yeah. I'm fine." Hiroto said with a small smile after he had taken the time to disentangle himself from his mind. "Thank you for getting me to the hospital earlier. I hadn't realized I was that tired."

"Well, you look better. I think that you looked like shit before. By the way, where was the rest of your team? I think it's a bit strange for a genin to report to the Hokage without his jounin sensei at the very least." Tenten asked with a frown marring her face. She obviously had only just realized that he had been alone.

"They were all at the hospital. The medic team that greeted us seemed to think that I was the only one in any shape to report to the Hokage before going in to get fixed up. My two teammates were unconscious at the time, and my sensei have both a broken leg and a broken arm." Was the answer that he gave. And it surprised all of the genin there. Of course Gai had been told about what happened, and he could have guessed from the look of him and the Hokage when they had first seen them both.

"Right, about that Hiroto-kun, the Hokage had assigned you to our team until yours is fully functional again! So you will meet us bright and youthfully early at dawn in the training grounds!" The jounin that was wearing the green spandex announced as he struck a pose that would have traumatized the preteen if not for the fact that both Tenten and Neji had already sighed in resignation as if that kind of thing happened all the time.

With a nod he said "Alright, I guess that it can't be helped. I actually have to go somewhere now. Suzu would be angry with me if I put it off seeing as I can't do it in town."

"What do you mean? And I would like to remind you that I am your sensei until Ogawa-sensei is back on his feet, so you have to tell me." Gai asked with a slight frown.

"I used a summon in the fight, and apparently it is tradition that I have to speak with the boss once more because I summoned one of them for the first time after my initial signing of the contract. I'd rather not get on their bad side, if you know what I mean." He answered with a sigh.

"Say no more! We will gladly escort you out of town to speak with the boss. Don't forget, you have only just been released from the hospital. We can't let you leave the town alone." The jounin said with stone in his voice that told Hiroto there would be no arguing with him.

He sighed before nodding and leading them to the front gates. Suzu was already waiting there for him, and looking at the new team around him, he noticed that only Gai and Neji seemed to be able to see the skeletal horse. So he said "I know that not all of you can see her, but this is Suzu. She is a Thestral, and I will tell you why only some people can see when you all can see her."

Neji and Gai nodded while Lee and Tenten looked around trying to see what he was talking about. It would have been comical if not for the fact that Hiroto regarded this as a very serious matter. It wasn't right to poke fun at something like that.

"Come, Hiroto, you have to summon Ryuunosuke." She said simply, surprising the two who could see her while the other two hadn't heard a thing. Hiroto once again nodded before he began to walk.

Once they were well away from the gates and in a clearing that the thestral had designated as clear, Hiroto took a deep breath before he bit into his thumb, went through the seals needed, and slammed his hand down onto the grass.

When the smoke cleared, team Gai was stunned to be looking at a giant dragon with metallic scales and a semi-beard. Just the fact that it was huge was enough to make the genin look up in awe. Gai was looking at it in that way simply because of what animal it was. As far as summons go it was actually on the small size for the bosses, but it was a dragon. That had to be a hard contract to get. And it radiated power. It was hard to believe that a genin was capable of summoning such a creature.

"Young Hiroto-kun, we meet again." The dragon said in a deep and gravelly voice.

"Yes Ryuunosuke-sama, I was told to contact you by Nijiiro-san after he helped me in a fight." Hiroto answered with respect. He knew better than to be anything less than respectful to the summon boss.

"Yes. You see, it was the final test to see if you were worthy of the contract between you and the dragons. The fact that you summoned Nijiiro as a final option when you were out matched and that you only did so to protect your team makes you worthy to hold the contract. We are not the type of summons that will come for a trivial matter. Although, with that said, you could call out Nijiiro if you have any questions." The dragon announced with a gleam of mischief in his dark eyes.

"I am honored that I have met all of your requirements, Ryuunosuke-sama." Hiroto said with a huge smile. It was clear on his face that he was bursting with happiness to be deemed worthy by the giant dragon.

With a soft chuckle the dragon left in another puff of smoke.

"How did you get the dragon contract?" Gai asked after a while of walking back to the village.

"Suzu had it for a long time. I think she said it was something else that would tie me to my past that I don't remember." He answered softly.

"Well in that case, welcome to team Gai for the time being. We are the most youthful group of them all, and we will prove it to the world that hard work is the spring time of youth and takes you far, so long as you continue to fan the fires of youth with effort!" the jounin kept talking as Hiroto sighed and turned towards Neji. He did notice that Lee had become an exact copy of the jounin somehow and was acting just as enthusiastically as the man.

"Is he always like that?" Hiroto asked in hushed tones, as to not disturb the shouting green monster.

"Unfortunately it can get worse. But I also know that he can be serious when it matters." Neji answered as he made a point not to look at the green spandex wearing half of the team.

"And if you don't mind my asking, what time of team is this? No offence, of it doesn't seem to be infiltration like mine was or anything stealthy." Hiroto laughed nervously. It was true though. The day he saw Lee being a stealth expert was the day that the sun turned out to be a glowing ball of ice.

"No, I think we are more of a heavy hitter group. We have a jounin who is renowned for his taijutsu, a boy who is aiming to get equally as strong, a Hyuuga who is a prodigy at his clan's Gentle Fist, and then you have me; the weapons expert." Tenten said with a smile. "Welcome to the team, Hiro-kun."

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OMAKE:

Anko walked into the room, all but demanding attention as she did so. She had made sure to glare at the blond when she had dropped her little brother off, but now that he was gone, she had to make sure that he was absolutely fine. And in doing so she would have to actually talk to someone. And there she was hoping that she would be able to avoid things like that. Oh well.

"Hey, how'd it go?" She asked Inoichi as she dropped herself right in front of him in an attempt to get him frightened.

The mind jutsu user just sighed at her entrance. He knew that he should have expected something like this. "I think that he is fine for now, but I also think that it really hasn't occurred to him that he had taken a life yet. You should keep an eye out for him for now and let us know how he is faring."

"Alright, dango it is!" Anko smirked cheerfully as she fiddled with a kuni. It was her way of caring, and clearly she wanted to have some fun with someone. This was, after all, her specialty.

Inoichi sighed as he got himself away from the crazy snake lady as fast as he could without alerting the other shinobi that he was frightened of her. Show one sign of fear and she would sniff it out and never leave you alone. Some of the younger recruits had learned that lesson the hard way. The ones that didn't obviously were not able to make the cut. Too bad too, there had been some promising prospective coworkers.

Anko hid her worry as she found her little brother and followed him. Being the jounin that she was, not even Gai was aware that she was following them. It was nice to know that she still was able to do that. When she saw the dragon, she smirked and her eyes sparkled. Her little brother was going to be just fine. And she was going to make sure of it.

But first, she was looking at the green clad jounin and couldn't help the smirk that came to her face. Yes, a good target to mess with. This should be a lot of fun. Anko did, after all, have to make sure that he was qualified to teach her little Hiroto.

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A/N: And that is a wrap. My OMAKE was absolutely uninspired, but I hope that will change next time. I really do like reviews and comments and constructive criticism. And I really really like it when someone had an idea that they think is awesome! So yeah, next chapter is already written just like this one had been, but I don't know when I will get it up. I still need to think of an OMAKE for that one too. Thank you for reading!