Chapter 4: Healing Injured

"People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek. . . ?"

–"Where is the Love?" by Black Eyed Peas

Sakura

Konohamaru didn't want to tell me what was wrong.

He told me he ran. He ran far and wide from Konoha.

And that he wasn't going back.

I'd scolded him on that and continuously pleaded with him to return to Konoha, but he insisted that he could not. Plain and simple.

I'd have to take him back myself. . .but I had so much work to do here. And Konohamaru had prided himself by helping me with all of it since Madara's unexpected leave on a 'business trip'. He'd left me a note explaining this said 'business trip' and now I'm near ready to kill him for thinking he could leave without verbally telling me so I could beat the damn truth out of him!

Gah. . .Guys are so weird.

Currently, however, Konohamaru and I were spending the day going around the village and healing everyone who needed help. A small group of healers trailed after me, I usually left the lesser jobs to them, tackling on the real injuries on my own. Konohamaru kept looking around, noting how things were falling apart and the murky water in the streets.

I felt embarrassed and compelled the water to move into the gutters below. The civilian healers 'ooh'ed and 'aww'ed but Konohamaru looked skeptical, pushing up the Rain headband I'd given him instead of his Leaf one –for safety reasons trust me.

"Nii-chan, where we going?"

"We're helping my people," I murmured and directed a few healers towards the slums of the city, Kisame followed him for protection, a hood falling over his face, he didn't speak. "We'll go to the orphanage."

The tall, three-story white and gray building was built shortly after my father came into power. A gift for his wife, most had said. It was a gift for them both. It was a place where the future generation could grow up, not have to salvage for food or a home. . .it was actually the nicest building in the whole city –not including the Tower, of course.

Inside, however, the beautiful place was a mess. Floors and walls stained with coffee (among other things) and the light broken and glass on the floor. A pack of filthy children ran left and right, toddlers hid in the corners sobbing, teenagers were pulling on their jackets and leaving. All were dirty, bruised and angry.

They walked out without as much as a glance.

A girl, another teenager, stood at the bottom of the staircase obviously haven run down stairs to yell at the retreating teens, with a distinct scowl in place when she saw us and the other healers enter. I was giving orders to my team at the time, so I barely noticed, but when I turned there the little hellfire was. She looked a little older than Konohamaru with long silky black bangs the shaped her alabaster face and large almond shaped black eyes watched us intently, studying every move, every twitch. "Are you a ninja?"

I turned to face her fully. "I'm the new leader of this village."

The girl cocked a high arched brow and her hands found her hips, but she stayed silent. Konohamaru came back with a damp cloth.

"Good, otōto you know what to do from here. I'll be back in a sec, 'kay?" Konohamaru nodded and I walked towards the girl. Her eyes were on Konohamaru's back as he played nurse and took care of a few small children, cleaning the mud away from their faces. "Are you the eldest here?" Her dark eyes snapped back to me, so dark you could see yourself in them.

"Eldest child? Yes. Person? No. . .Mai-baa-chan is." The girl gestured behind her up the stairs. "She's sleeping, don't wake her." The girl warned.

"With all these sick children? I couldn't imagine sleep."

"She's ill. Leave her alone, she'll be fine in a couple of days." The girl hissed through her clenched teeth. Her arm was placed firmly on the other wall in the stairwell, obviously telling me to back off or else.

"I'm a medic-nin too, I can help her." I offered.

"I thought you were just a new high in the britches ninja pretending to be our leader." The girl scoffed. "That's the word around here."

"I can be multi-talented. My father was, and he was god-like in his power." I said smoothly. The girl stared at me skeptically and then smirked.

"What's your name again?"

I hesitated for a moment. "Reiame Sakura."

"So. . .if you're our leader's daughter then you must be a god or demigod or somethin' like that too, ne?" I nodded. "So prove it!"

I pulled the genjutsu away from my eyes, turning the blue iris back to their now normal color. Silver with rings stretching around the smaller pupil.

The girl almost jumped backward, back up the stairs. My eyes caught the chakra network inside of her, working to her feet to propel her back, but she stumbled too easily and braced against the wall for safety. Konohamaru and a few other kids turned around to stare at us and I smiled.

"Believe me now?" I asked.

"S –Sure," The girl pursed her lips. "Up here." She gestured upward and I blinked, letting my mask reform and my eyes went back to the way they once were.

"Arigato. . ."

"Isamu."

"Isamu-chan, then?" She rolled her eyes and turned back up the stairs and opened the door at the top, taking a few steps back since it opened toward us. That's hazardous. The old woman could push the little babies down the stairs. Isamu stepped into a dimly lit room with a slanted ceiling and large skylight windows. Two mattresses were stuck in the corner, one occupied and the other not, but a mess of bills and notices sprawled out across the bedspread. Some stamped with 'Past Due' in big, block red letters. Isamu quickly collected all of them and shuffled them twice before putting them into a shoe box on a low tabled desk, eyes flickering to me every now and then.

It was stuffy up here and judging by the conditions, Isamu slept up here too. Isamu crossed the room quickly and climbed onto the occupied bed to gently shake the sleeping woman.

"Baa-chan, baa-chan wake up." The dark-haired girl waited a few seconds and the fat old woman rolled over, signaling with the cracking of joints. Her beady eyes blinked, once twice three times, and then settled on me.

"Who are you?"

"She's a medic-nin baa-chan." Isamu answered before I could she leaned close to the woman's ear as she spoke. She's deaf?

"A medic-nin," Mai sat up, old face drawn in. "Oh, no, no, no. We can't afford. We can't afford." I dropped to my knees beside the bed.

"No I'm doing this for free." I smiled, being sure to speak a little louder than usual for her. "As new village leader I want to help my people."

Mai shook her head and the bubble of fat protruding under her chin shook like when a frog's expanded. Her lips pursed upward to her nose, too thin and too pink. "No you want money."

"No. I don't. I want to help you." I insisted. "Now can I see what's wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong!" Mai snapped. "I'm fine and if you'd stop touching me–!"

"I'm not–"

"–I'd be a lot better. Now leave! I'm not paying you!" She huffed and her face turned red from the effort. I quickly lashed out and grabbed one of her hands, my chakra vibrating and hitting every nerve appropriate to calm her down.

She let out a struggled breath.

"What did you do?" Isamu gasped. Looking at me murderously, I glared back.

"Mai-san, you need to calm down. I don't want your money; I want to help you and the children. I've already healed a few of them and now I'm going to make you better. You need to be looking after these children. It is your duty, appointed to you by my mother and although it seems her judgment wasn't the best, I certainly will not oppose."

I let go of her wrist and waited, then called chakra to my hands and placed them on Mai's chest. Isamu watched, studying the way I moved and what I did. My fingers traced and worked, until an image appeared in my head of what Mai looked like on the inside. Her cardio was fragile: lungs weakened from (possibly) twenty-seven years smoking and her arteries were lined with fat on the inside, thinly allowing blood to pump through her cold body.

"Hmm,"

How can she be so overweight in a country were food is rationed? Child bearing? Or smoke cigarettes? I glanced at the thin gold band adored with a large diamond around her plump marriage finger. It could cut off circulation. Married into the rich and ate bon-bon's all day?

"You're gonna need surgery."

"No." She struggled out.

"Mai-san, you're heart can barely pump blood, I need to repair your cardiovascular damage. It's fatal and it's killing you slowly."

". . .over-dramatic tax collector." She mumbled.

"Baa-chan!" Isamu snapped, her hands on her knees made a sign before taking Mai's hand and clutched it tight. Through the thin haze of my genjutsu, my Rinnegan picked up on Isamu's chakra moving out of her body and into Mai's. Struggling over.

Not trained.

"Oi!" Her eyes narrowed in on Mai's hand and her teeth gridded. "Isamu, if you are not trained in medical jutsu than you can't perform it. You could hurt her." Isamu glanced up at me, eyes daring me to keep talking.

"Isamu-kun?" Mai whispered, her voice a thin and quick. "No, no, no, Tax Collector-san, Isamu-kun isn't a ninja." The old woman's face was peaceful and wrinkled, skin folding over skin. "Isamu-kun's parents were killed by ninja. She wouldn't dare be the very thing that killed her parents."

Senility. Saku sang and I agreed.

Can I get a 'hell yeah' with that? I cocked an eyebrow and then looked back at Mai. "I can force surgery on you. Considering my status and your job, it's my duty to keep the future of this village in good care. I suggest you let me work."

Mai refused.

She'd rather die than have a ninja help her.

The healers and I spent the next four hours straightening up the orphanage and healing the sickly children. Most were taken to a makeshift hospital I'd set up in the school with other in-training-medics trailing behind the real ones. Everyone had become a teacher, every medic taking two to three assistances and teachers volunteering time to further educate the older children. A few more days rolled by and I spoke with Mai for a minute. . .and then consulted Isamu on the remainder of the orphanage's affairs.

Debt. Debt. Debt. Mai had taken most of the orphanage funds after her hubby died, but there were a few sane people who showed up every now and again to help out with cleaning and taking care of the children. Isamu mainly took care of the younger children and disciplined those her age, the ones who talked big, but had nothing to back it up with. A few nights ago, upon their reentry and shoving the little kids around, Isamu went flying down the stairs, pushing aside several toddlers and tackled the largest boy to the ground, straddled his waist and promptly broke his nose.

I grabbed her and grabbed her off of him, kicking and screaming, the boy stood and tried to take a swing at her. I lashed out and shoved him to the ground again, throwing Isamu back on a table. "Enough!"

The fight settled with few death threats on either side, Isamu snarling like an animal.

"What's going on?"

"He's a ninja. . .he went to the academy and graduated." Isamu whipped the corner of her mouth with the sleeve of her mouth-eaten sweater. "He thinks he's hot shit because of that and comes here just to pick on the kids."

". . .Is that why the civilians here are scared of ninja?"

"Yeah. . ."

"And you don't want anyone to know because you don't want them to be scared of you?"

Isamu glared, then tiredly nodded.

"I come from a civilian family, my father was born a ninja and powerful, so was my mother. They believed shinobi are supposed to help people."

Konohamaru and I left late again, making sure no one got in a fight again and that the assistances could handle it. The door slid open behind us; Konohamaru turned and muttered something under his breath. Isamu skidded to a stop behind and huffed.

"Sakura–san," Isamu fell into a parody of a bow. "I'd be. . .I was wondering if you'd accept me as your pupil." Konohamaru and I were both taken aback by this, only Konohamaru voiced it.

"Wha! Nee-chan is my teacher and she only every trained me, so you better-!"

"Otōto." Konohamaru's jaw quivered then locked shut. I reached into my back satchel and retrieved a scroll, checking the label; I whistled and tossed it towards Isamu. Who caught it with her natural reflexes. "Read that and meet us at the hospital at noon tomorrow. If you can't keep up with us then find a slower teacher."

Isamu nodded. "Arigato, Sakura–san." Isamu bowed again and got up; sending a warning glance at Konohamaru, then retreated back into the orphanage. Konohamaru glared at me.

"What's the big idea? I come here so you can train me and already you pick another pupil!"

"She's a ninja of this village, as Leader I should utilize her skills–"

"Having chakra?"

"–and try and mold them." I slapped the back of Konohamaru's head and he growled. "And I'm only training you because you're my otōto and I love you. Other than that your skill was to be taken up a whole other notch."

"Like Naruto's training?" I didn't look at him, but kept walking.

Here it comes. "Yeah," Pausing briefly I added. "How is he?"

"Upset. . ."

"Well, that's wonderful, guilt me all you want I'm not going back."

Sorry for the wait. Holy hell. . .how did I crawl out of that pit I left myself in. It's not depression, not a rut either, but everything feels tragically terrible *sigh* Sorry: Blockbuster, HotTopic, Jewel, KMart, GameStop: all closed by the end of the month. I live in a subdivision outside Chicago and every freakin thing is closing down! Then some drunk idiot hits my mom's car in the drive-way and is four-times over the legal limit. Then he's all: "Oh, I'm sorry" "Oh I was going to a funeral." "Oh, I hope I get a cool cop." I hope I get a cool cop! ? Cool cop, my ass you jackweed! You're going to jail and paying for this! Hell! Freakin' hell! Even this chapter?

Possibly. But Isamu~! My OC is very important. Flame of Konohamaru-kun~! Next chapter will be funny, I promise.

And for all readers of Blue Exorcist. . .prepare yourselves, I've come into a next yaoi obsession and I have a poll on my homepage I'd like you to vote on.

-*Song* I always pictured this song with the orphanage scene. Might use it again.

Reveiw me, ciao,

~QueenVamp