19 – A Sudden Setback
Tragedy Breaks the Spirit of Team Takeshi.
In spite of the speed available to him, Taiki was unable to follow his teammate in her erratic path through the woods and with a sigh resolved to wait for her to tire before tracking her. Sweating with fatigue from his exertions, the genin settled down onto a tree stump to await Naeko's tiring and was almost slammed backward into the dirt by a sudden, unexpected pain in his chest. "What the - " He then recognized it as almost identical to the sensation of the day before, and knew instinctively that it came from Kotori. "What is it now?" he muttered, lurching up from his seat and jogging off toward the village at as fast of a pace as he could manage.
By the time he re-entered Konoha, the pain had become almost too difficult for him to bear and with ragged breathing he made his way to the hospital where he knew without a doubt he could find his other teammate. The medic on duty gave him a puzzled look when he staggered up to the desk and warily asked, "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Not me," Taiki gasped, looking around and trying to get a bearing on this feeling. "Her. Kotori. Is she here?"
"She's visiting a patient at the moment. Can I take a message for her?"
Taiki blinked. "Visiting a patient? Who is it, may I ask?" Possibilities flicked through his mind, and he shook his head to dispel them. The only people she would visit would be someone in her family, and the last time I checked Takeshi-sensei was fine.
Consulting a clipboard, the medic frowned. "Yamataki... Ren."
Her grandmother! Of course. "Which room?" When given a further quizzical look, he added, "She's my teammate, and her uncle is our teacher. They might need me to be there for them." Deeming this a worthwhile reason for giving up the information, the medic gave Taiki the room number and, nodding his thanks, the genin mustered up the last of his strength for a dash down the hall. The pain was getting stronger, and he suspected the worst.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, he reached the room indicated by the medic and eased the door open. Propping himself up against the doorframe, Taiki peered into the room just in time to see Takeshi and Kotori standing on either side of the bed, each holding a hand of the occupant. They were flanked by a pair of medics, and although Taiki could not see Kotori's reaction, the sudden compression of Takeshi's normally calm features was enough to tell what had happened. One of the medics glanced at the wall clock and reported the time to the other, who noted it on the charts they carried.
Letting go of the lifeless hand held in hers, Kotori turned away from the hospital bed and almost seemed to crumple before Taiki's eyes. Forgetting his own fatigue, he moved to catch her in a solid embrace before she could collapse, and it wasn't long before he felt the warm dampness of tears on his shirt. The pain Taiki felt seemed to ease for that brief moment, and he let her cry while murmuring quietly soothing nonsense to her. Sensing that their duties were done at least for the moment, the two medics silently excused themselves and left the small group alone in their grief.
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"Much as I hate to admit it," reasoned Naeko as she made her way up the path to the home Kotori shared with her grandmother, "she's closer to Tai-kun and might have some idea of what was going on." She shuddered at the memory of what she'd seen in the forest, then composed herself when she reached the front door. Her eyes caught a small bit of paper hurriedly tacked up, the message on it sloppy in the writer's need for haste, and Naeko frowned as she read it. "Gone to the hospital? What for?"
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What on earth – normally if I tried to hug her she might try to break my arm, Taiki marveled as he stood in the hospital room, Kotori quietly sobbing into his shoulder. This is the most emotion I've seen from Kotori since I met her. Then again, her grandmother was the only person in this village that treated her like an ordinary human being, so can we really blame her for breaking a little?
A pattering of footsteps out in the corridor that paused at the open door gave Taiki cause to glance over his shoulder curiously. In that brief moment he saw Naeko, face flushed from a fast run and green eyes narrowing in suspicion at the situation before her. Then the eyes widened in panic upon sighting him, no doubt remembering events from earlier in the day, and her frame tightened as she drew in breath and opened her mouth to let out a yell -
Likewise looking up to see who their visitor was and coming to the same conclusions as Taiki, Takeshi put aside his own emotions for a moment and gave his third student a pointed but weary look. "No screaming, please," he muttered at her and then let out a sigh, turning away to look out the window. Naeko abruptly quieted, taking a second look around the room and stepping back in sudden embarrassment.
Pitching his voice for her ears only, Taiki whispered to Naeko, "Get over yourself just once, would you? Kotori's grandmother – that's Takeshi-sensei's mother, in case you failed to make the connection – just died, and you flying off the handle is hardly appropriate." Blushing at this sharp chastisement, Naeko nodded to show that she'd heard and stood silently for a moment, trying to decide just what she should do. Disturbed as she was by the idea of Kotori resting unprotesting in Taiki's arms, she tried looking anywhere else to block this from her mind and her wandering gaze fell on the solitary figure of Takeshi, alone in his thoughts while he looked out over the village through the window. An idea came to her, and she dashed back down the corridor with a quick prayer that this would work out.
"If you two don't mind, I need to be alone for a while," Takeshi told his two remaining students when at last he felt motivated to talk. "I'll stop by the house later tonight to let you know what the plan is for this next week."
Taiki made an affirmative sound and led the still-tearful Kotori out with an arm around her shoulders, not at all expecting to see yet another person heading towards the room with a concerned expression and purposeful steps. Recognizing the newest visitor as the waitress from the Ichiraku, he blinked and stopped long enough to speak to her. "Ayame-san, what are you doing here?"
"Is Takeshi in there still?" the young woman asked, wiping her hands off nervously on the apron she still wore. "Your teammate Naeko just stopped by the shop and told me that I was needed here. What's going on?"
"Ren-san just died, and Naeko probably figured that Master Takeshi could use a friend right now. He just kicked us out, saying he wanted to be alone - "
Brushing past Taiki and Kotori, Ayame shook her head. "He can say what he wants. I'll apologize later."
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Kotori, having retreated into a shell of numb silence, did not respond to Taiki's attempts at conversation on her way back to her home but did not chase him away, for once finding his presence reassuring instead of an irritation as she considered what would happen next. Now we'll see just what kind of man my uncle is. Will he push us forward, risking failure when morale is at an all-time low? And if we fail, what will he do with us then? She glanced up at Taiki, who smiled back down at her absently as if his mind were also on other things. And that one is up to something, no doubt of it. I only hope he doesn't make a worthless mess out of everything like he's shown a habit of doing.
Reaching the front door of her home, the girl stopped to call out a greeting out of habit, but her voice caught in her throat when she realized that there would be no one there to answer. And she left this place to me, telling me to fill it back up again like it had been in the past. Does she know what she asked? Like anyone would share a home with someone like me. Kotori then shook her head once firmly and put such thoughts aside as she opened the door, leaving it open for Taiki to follow her. "Do what you want until Takeshi-sensei gets here," she muttered, kicking her sandals off into their usual place by the doorway. "I'm going to lie down for a little while, and don't bother me unless it's important."
Taiki watched his teammate slouch off towards her bedroom with her shoulders bowed and couldn't help sighing as she closed the door behind her. "I've got to do something, but what?"