This part came out a bit more reluctantly. Some parts flowed smoothly, others just didn't want to be written. Overall, there are parts I really like, and parts I'm just not happy with. Same as last chapter, feedback quite welcome.

Blind Trust

"Ibiki is coming by today. He wants to talk to you again," Hana stood in her doorway, pulling her Hitai-ate tight. "Haimaru Un offered to stay, if you'd like," she offered tentatively.

Rei settled her yakuta around her shoulders, head tilted thoughtfully. "I think, I think I would like that," she said.

"You're not using that Byakugan too much, are you?" Hana asked, noting the lines of tension around the other woman's eyes. "You know what Hokage-sama and Hyuuga-sama said that would do to you."

"I've been getting around for years, I don't understand why they think they'd know better than me," Rei muttered.

"They've been utilizing and studying all aspects of the Byakugan since before you were alive, baka," Hana scolded. She paused as she turned in the doorway. "Will you be here when I get back?" she asked quietly.

Rei sat in stunned silence. "I- Okay, I'll be here," she said, completely unsure if she was lying.

Hana nodded shortly before she disappeared.

~*~

As the silence stretched on, Rei resisted the urge to reach for chakra. Her chakra channels still felt like open wounds. She hadn't realized just how raw they were until they started to heal. She owed Konohakagure for that much, at least.

She wondered if she would ever be able to return to her wandering life, having known such luxury.

"Do you miss travelling? You seem a little sad." Ibiki asked in the quiet. Rei heard the sound of leather rustling against fabric. "Or maybe you're just bored."

"I'm not used to being so still," Rei admitted reluctantly. "Unless I'm healing, I'm moving." It was safer that way. If she kept moving, enemies would grow tired of the chase.

Here, she almost felt.... safe. Even the concept felt foreign in her brain, so used to running and hiding and getting caught.

Her mind shied away from the last, her whole body tensing in denial.

"Where does your brain wander?" Ibiki asked quietly, almost as if to himself and not her.

Rei tried not to talk with Ibiki around. He seemed more than capable of coaxing her to spill every last secret, without even trying. Perhaps it was just that she had been alone so long, and all he wanted was to listen.

Rei closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, willing to let the silence stretch.

She dind't relize she'd started to doze until the door slammed open. Her Byakugan was active before she fully regained coherence.

Hana strode forward, arm full of agistated canine chakra. Injuries turned the chakra jagged and dark in far too many places on the small body. Rei started forward before she noticed the equally agitated chakra of the man behind Hana.

Rei started forward, but Ibiki's hand on her arm held her back. "Inuzuka-san, Hatake-san, what happened?"

"Guruku," the new man said raggedly. "He took a barrage of shuriken, he-" the man seemed to lose energy and wilt in place.

Rei shook Ibiki's hand from her arm and strode to the Hatake-person. "You are injured, please, let me help," she pleaded.

The white-haired man shook her off like a fly. He attempted to follow Hana back into the surgery, but the veterinarian kicked the door shut in his face. He lifted his fist to pound on the door, Rei moved quickly to grasp his hand before it landed.

"Please, shinobi-sama, it will be harder for her to work with you there," she held his hand between hers, already feeding a thin thread of healing chakra into the injuries there. "I can tell you everything she's doing while I heal you out here?"

The man hesitated a moment. Rei saw his head twitch toward Ibiki, and the tiny nod given by the questioner. "Hatake Kakashi," he said tightly.

Rei's hands moved up Kakashi's arm, seeking and healing each injury along the way. "She's stopped the major bleeding," she said softly, moving up to his chest where three ribs were cracked. "She's clearing out his lungs now, it's kind of ugly with the coughing, but the blood is processing better." Rei closed a blood vessel to prevent a hematoma from growing out of control, leaving behind a bruise that she coaxed his body to reabsorb. She continued to talk, telling him about Hana's healing of his dog as she repaired cracked bones, abrasions, lacerations, and bruises.

She was really quite surprised he was still standing.

When both dog and shinobi were healed, Kakashi looked down at her. "Who are you?"