Author's Note: Wow! What a fight, huh? Well, time to take it down a couple notches from the violence and have some buddy time for Ryu and her friends. Even if the title is pretty obvious; I ran out of poetic juice. I'll have to go to the store and pick some up along with some icecream. Then... It'll be time for something else to happen... I'm not going say what though! I'll keep you good and guessing! XD
- Ryu
Hospital Visits
Ryu's Story
Ryu blinked as she was back in her mother's kitchen. Her mother's long black hair spilled over her back and rippled past her waist. The kitchen glowed with a luminous yellow from the warped sunshine. Her mother smiled at her as she had just explained that she had been looking for her.
"Well then, maybe you can help me dry these dishes?" she asked.
"Okay,"
She skipped over to the sink, and grabbed a dishcloth. She stepped onto the footstool so she could reach the counter which was wet with warm bubbles. She was ten. She had started to dry a bowl when a sud of bubbles dripped onto her nose from a purple-colored fingernail. She shook her head to her mother's contagious laughter; it sounded just like her own laugh.
"Hey!"
Her mother giggled. "I'm sorry; you just look so cute covered in bubbles!"
Ryu flicked her wrist and a spray of bubbles splashed her mother, making her shriek happily. Bubbles filled the air in a matter of seconds as the joyful couple threw them at one another. The doorbell rang and Ryu hopped off the stool.
"I'll get it!" she chirped.
She wobbily air slid to the door, the slick air hard to control under her small feet. She opened the door and looked up at a tall woman with dark brown hair and green eyes.
"Hi June!" The woman smiled warmly.
"Hey there, cutie! Where's your mom?" June said merrily.
"In the kitchen. Come on in!"
June stepped in and walked to the kitchen with her. What happened next was a happy blur as her mother and June talked while everyone did dishes. The doorbell rang once again, and the world suddenly darkened, the luminous light turning to grey shadows. Ryu was suddenly thirteen in her mind, but her body was still ten.
"NO!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!!"
But the dream-June didn't hear her. She opened the door with a smile, but it disappeared in a quick instant. She turned to Ryu in a desperate panic, fear scrawled across her face.
"RUN!!" she shouted.
Then a kunai knife flew into her temple.
Ryu sat up in bed with a fast jerk, her hair on end and in a blind panic. Dark surroundings met her gaze. White curtains. White sheets.
"EEEE-YAAAAAH!!" she screamed in extreme panic.
Terror exploded in her chest, nearly paralyzing her as she fearfully kicked the sheets off of herself. Something tugged at her arm at she looked down in fright. It was an i.v., the realisation spreading the panic even more as she realised she was in some sort of medical room. She snatched it out of her wrist, small drops of blood falling onto her pale skin.
She slid out of the white bed, prepared to burst through the door and get out of wherever in the world she was now. Someone else burst through the door before she could though.
"Ryu! Ryu!" Tsunade ran into the room and caught her before she could run. "What's the matter?"
Shizune and two other medical ninjas followed her as Tsuande kept a hold on the freaked girl. Panic was still fresh in her eyes as she looked around, making Tsunade wonder where the sudden fear had come from.
"Wha-wha-wha?" Ryu babbled as she still looked around. "Where am I?!"
"You're in the Konoha hospital," the hokage gently told her.
"I...? What?" Ryu calmed down a little as she looked around again, more slowly. "Oh..."
She then looked down on her quickly bleeding arm. "Oh."
Ryu then wobbled a little bit as the world swam dangerously. She held her head, trying to stop the dizzy spell.
"Ooh-whoo... I... Think I need to lie down." she said weakly.
Tsunade led her to the bed and put the i.v. back in her arm. Shizune went to the window and opened the curtains. Ryu squinted in the now bright room. So, she was safe. Thank God... She looked at Tsunade.
"So, what happened?" she asked as the hokage took her pulse.
"You collapsed from all the poison you took in. You've been out cold for two weeks now."
"Two weeks?!"
Tsunade put a hand to Ryu's forehead, brushing the scruffy dark blonde hair aside.
"Yep, we've been waiting for you to wake up. You've got a lot of people worried about you too." she said. She took out a pencil and a pad of paper and wrote down some numbers.
Ryu swung her legs over the side of the bed. "So, when can I leave?" she asked, eager to get out of the hospital.
Tsunade gave her a stern look. "When I say you can." she said.
The girl drooped in disapointment. She hated hospitals. She didn't want to be stuck here for who knew how long until the poison ran through her system. That's when she thought of Gaara and Kiba.
"Oh! What about Kiba?" she quickly asked before they could leave. "And Gaara? Are they okay?"
Tsunade nodded. "Gaara has been up since after you won your match and Kiba's been fine for about a week." she said. Ryu smiled. "Now, lie back down so you can get your rest."
"Okay!"
Ryu lied back down on the bed and watched the door close. She waited a moment then, got back out of bed. She searched the room thoroughly, opening the closet to find her clothes and flip-flops. She quickly got dressed in her normal tank-top and shorts, and took an extra blanket down. She threw the blanket on her bed, and then went to window.
She quickly threw the window open and breathed the clean air from outside, enjoying the fresh smell much more than the sterilized cleanliness in the room. She pulled the i.v. pole over to her, and she kneeled down in front of the window to watch the bright day go by. The dream still haunted her at the precipices of her consciousness, and she pushed it away as much as she could. She was here to get well, not dwell on old memories of grief and terror.
Later on in the day, while Ryu lay awake in bed, she heard shouting and a scuffle outside her door. She sat up, ready to rip the i.v. out of her arm again and jump out the window. But then the gaggle of voices outside her door sounded pretty familiar.
"Come on! Just let us in!! We're her team for goodness' sake!!" A perky girl's voice.
"Right! Now, please let us pass!" A polite sounding young man.
"We have permission from Lady Tsunade; she said we could see her." And an older man's voice.
Okay, that made TenTen, Lee, and Guy. But where was Neji...? Oh, there he was...
"She's supposed to be resting. She can't do that with the two of you sounding like a heard of elephants at her door!"
She giggled. Oh, Neji; the voice of reason that would mostly likely fall on three pairs of excited and deaf ears. She heard the nurse outside relent, and the four were allowed to burst in. Lee immediately bounced up to her.
"Ryu-kun!! You're awake!!" he said this while nearly jumping up and down for joy.
TenTen pushed past him and gave her a light hug.
"Ooh! We were so worried!!" she said. She then looked into her face. "Oh gosh, you're really pale! Have you eaten anything?"
Ryu shook her head. "They wanna make sure that my stomach's awake enough for me to eat so I don't throw up or anything," she said. An angry growl was suddenly heard.
TenTen laughed. "Sounds like it's awake to me!"
Guy clapped his hands. "Perfect!!"
Lee turned to Guy and smiled mischeivously. "Did you bring it?" he asked. Guy nodded and smiled back.
"You betchya!"
Ryu saw Guy take off the bag he was carrying and unzip it. Funny, why did she have an impending sense of doom all of a sudden? She nervously looked to Lee, who was still grinning. What had they brung? Did she even want to know? Guy finally took out a clouded up plastic bowl and a spoon.
"Ta-dah! Food worthy enough for a sick youth!!" he declared while presenting the tuberwere bowl to her. Ryu looked from the steaming bowl to her teacher.
"What's in it?" she asked, anxiously wondering if she should ask such a thing.
Lee's smile somehow got bigger. Him and Guy sure were having a fun time with this. But why did it have to be at her expense?!
" 'Sick Youth' curry!" he said joyfully. "The best food there is to make you feel better! It's what I ate when I was in the hospital."
"And you were back on your feet in no time! With Lady Tsunade's help of course," he said while putting a hand on his shoulder. "So, eat up Ryu!"
Ryu opened the bowl and looked at the steaming mess of spices, orange colored sauce, and white rice. She looked up at TenTen and Neji, who had moved off to the side. TenTen cupped a hand to her mouth and mouthed, "Be careful!!" Neji nodded in agreement with her, looking a little worried. O-kay! How hot is this stuff?she thought while picking up the spoon. She unsurely scooped some up, and paused before putting it in her mouth. Guy blinked, looking a little worried.
"What's the matter?" he asked anxiously. "Do you feel okay?"
"Oh, yeah, I feel fine. It's just... Do you have any water on you?" she said.
"I'll go get some," said TenTen, and she left with Neji to get a bottle of water.
While they were gone, Ryu tentively sniffed the curry, and the smell practically singed her nostrils.
"Waugh!!" she exclaimed, cupping her nose. "Guy!! What's in this?!"
Her voice sounded comically nasally as she asked. Lee and Guy looked at one another, as if the answer was obvious. They started to tick ingrediants off their fingers.
"Ground pepper..."
"Red peppers..."
"Ginger..."
"A little salt..."
"Chili powder..."
"Some wasabi, I think..."
"Wasabi?!" Ryu balked. "I hate wasabi!!"
Lee looked anxiously at her, looking like he hoped what she just said wasn't true and that she was joking. "You do? You don't like spicy things?" he asked.
Ryu shook her head. "No, it's not that. I like spicy things, I just hate wasabi." She made a face. "Tastes like motor oil! Yegh!!"
TenTen and Neji came back in with a bottle of water. "Got it!" she said.
All eyes were on Ryu again as they waited for her to eat some of the 'Sick Youth' curry. She picked the spoon back up, and picked up a spoonful about the size of the end of her pinky. She nervously put a little bit of that on her tongue. It didn't taste that bad, but the distinct tang of wasabi wanted to maker her retch. Good Lord, how she hated the stuff!
Lee encouraged her to eat a bigger bite since it seemed the curry hadn't lit her mouth on fire yet. She took a bigger spoonful and popped it in her mouth. It felt fine for a few seconds, but then spices suddenly exploded in her mouth. Ryu yelped it was so hot. The curry didn't even have any flavor anymore it was so tremendously hot.
Her eyes watered, and she started to cough. She motioned frantically to TenTen.
"Water!! Water!!" she rasped between choked coughs.
She quickly came over and handed the bottle over to her. Ryu ripped the top off and started to hastily gulp water. She finally stopped after draining half the bottle, and glared at Guy.
"Guy!! I just got over poisoning and you give me this!? Are you out of your mind?!" she nearly shouted at her teacher.
Guy smiled broadly and gave Lee the thumbs up.
"It worked!!" they said in unison, happy at something she failed to see.
She blinked. "It's supposed to scald my intestines?"
"It's supposed to bring your energy back!" Lee said. Both of them smiled once again.
"So, it worked! If you have the energy to yell at me, that means you'll be out of here in no time!!" Guy proclaimed, proud of his accomplishment.
Ryu looked around them at TenTen, who just shrugged. Yup, that was Guy-sensei and Rock Lee at their best. She would of furthered the matter of them trying to give her eternal heartburn, but decided not to. It just proved how worried they had all been, especially Guy. She sighed heavily.
"Ah! She's losing it already!! Quick give her more!!"
"What?! Augh-!!"
The spoon was quickly shoved in her mouth again, and she swallowed the burning curry since she didn't want to hurt Guy's feelings by spitting it out. She knew it was all because they cared, but why did it have to drive her crazy?! Luckily, after a few more spoonfuls of fire, the nurse came in and decided Ryu had had enough excitement for one day, and asked everyone to leave. They filed out, Neji the last one to leave. It seemed they had all left whe he stepped back in.
"Ryu," he said. She sat back up from her quick rest. "I hope you get better soon."
"Uh... Thankyou, Neji. I hope so too." she said. He then left.
Ryu was shocked. Neji had actually said something nice to her. Wow, was all she could really think at that. She then lied back down in bed, pleasantly tired from her friends coming to see her. A nap seemed kind of nice right about now.