Chapter 2

Rise and Shine

"Am I to understand that you just brought a foreigner into this village, without any knowledge of who he might be, what so ever?!!" Lady Tsunade, the fifth Hokage seemed to swell with rage at Sakura's actions. But Sakura stood her ground, the same way a teenager would defy a parent.

The two of them were standing in one of the hallways of the hospital's recovery wing. In between them was the door to the room were the unconscious body of the fallen rider laid resting. He'd been through a lot since he was picked up by the returning teams of Kakashi and Gai. Upon arriving at the hospital, he was rushed to the emergency room where they stitched the three kunai wounds in his back closed and preformed a blood transfusion, bringing him out of immediate danger. He was then strapped to a gurney and rolled to the chakra rebuilding chambers. It appeared that he had lost almost all of his chakra in his attempt to reach the village, nearly killing him. Unfortunately, in response the inexperience of the medical ninja that rebuilt his chakra, she lost control of the flow and changed his white streaked brown hair to golden blonde. But no actual harm was done, his chakra returned to safe levels and he was sent to the recovery room. But by now the Hokage had arrived and she was not at all pleased with her student for bringing in an outsider.

"How dare you put this village in jeopardy over something like this? A ninja must always remain unemotional at al-" Tsunade was cut off by her student.

"What should we have done, left him there to bleed to death in the street? That would have made us as murderous as the people that did this to him!" There was a long pause were the two of them thought about each other's arguments. Sakura broke the silence, "I'm sorry sensei, I know that he could easily be an enemy, but if you had seen him…"

Tsunade held up her hand and stopped her. "I suppose that what you did was in the best intentions." She looked through a small window in the door. Ino one of Tsunade's other personal students was monitoring the young mans vitals. "I took a look at your examination report," she said without looking back. "I agree, they look like sound ninja wounds." Tsunade looked back to Sakura. "Guess an enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Sakura smiled and looked through the window with her sensei. "I guess now we figure out what to do with him," she said.

Sound rushed into Ryo's ears as he regained conciseness. He kept his eyes as closed as possible while he surveyed his room. The room was small, white and the sound of his heart monitor was beeping loudly. He was about to sit up when he spotted a blur of motion right beside his bed. A young, women, with long blonde hair and wearing a nurse's uniform was adjusting an IV when she turned to look at him. He quickly shut his eyes but it was too late.

"Rise and shine sleepy head." She said as she turned to face him. She then waved to the door as if to call some one in. "You had us worried for a while but since you're awake I guess your going to be just fine. My name is Ino Yamanaka…" She paused. Then she averted his eyes and started to blush. "And I'm sorry about your hair, I'm kind of new to rebuilding chakra for people. You were my first real attempt with a human patient.

Ryo, he opened his eyes and sat up. He reached up and plucked a few hairs and looked at them."Whew," he said. "The way you made it sound was as if I'd lost my hair." As he sat up a sharp pain lanced through him. He felt his chest and his fingers rubbed against ruff gauze bandages that were wrapped around his midsection.

At that moment the door to the room slid open and two people walked in. The first one was a tall blonde woman wearing a green jacket and a suspicious look on her face. The second was another girl the same age as Ino, with hair as pink as a cherry blossom.

The older of the two walked up to Ryo's bed. Ryo could sense that this woman carried a lot of weight around this place. "I assume you're lady Tsunade of the leaf village. That is where I am right?" Ryo asked.

The women snickered at him. "Well, that's one introduction I don't have to do," she exclaimed. "I am the Hokage of this village and this is the one who brought you in, Sakura."

Ryo inclined his head to the girl. "I owe you my life," he said. He turned back to face Tsunade and smiled. "Well, now what are you going to do with me? I know I'm a stranger to this village.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Maybe you could clear up the whole stranger thing by telling us your name," she said.

"You can call me Ryo, just Ryo," he said wondering if they'd see through him. "If I have to I'll use that blonde girl as a hostage fight my way out." He thought to himself, already inching in her direction.

"If you're going to be that vague, I'll have to make sure your supervised at all times." Tsunade stated, glaring at the grinning. "I'll send for two Anbu black ops ninja to be stationed outside you door at all times." Tsunade turned to leave his room. "Come on girls lets give Ryo time to think about his answer as to who he is." The two girls walked out the door.

As Sakura turned she called back to Ryo, "I hope you feel better soon. A lot of people want to know more about you."

"Including me," said Ino, followed by a short giggle.

Tsunade then slid the door shut behind her as she left the room and stayed behind as the two girls ran to the waiting room. There, all three teams of Asuma, Gai and

Kurenai, as well as Naruto were standing, sitting or pacing.

Kiba was the first to speak. "Is it true? Did we just have a walk in?"

Naruto stepped forward, "I'd say more of a drag in!" His joke resounded as the room fell painfully silent. "Man, ruff crowd."

Shikamaru closed his eyes and sighed, "Sheesh Naruto, you got to work on those lame puns of yours."

Sakura ignored the Naruto's crappy joke and moved into the middle of the room. "Right now all we know is that he's reluctant to tell us any thing more then his name at this point."

Choji was munching on a freshly opened bag of his favorite brand of barbeque chips. "Couldn't the anbu just reverse hypnotize him to telling the truth?" The group began to mumble about whether or not that was an ethical thing to do at this point.

At that moment Ino spoke up, "I'm afraid that reverse hypnotism isn't an option." Everyone turned to hear what her reason was. "To use that on him right after a major chakra rebuilding session could damage his memory permanently."

Shino was sitting hunched over behind the whole group. "It would appear that our only choice at this time is to wait and see what he does," he said in a low whisper.

Ryo could hear the foot steps of to large people approaching. After they reached his door Tsunade began to give them orders not to let him out of his room. Before leaving she took one quick look through the window at him.

"YOU MUST THINK I'M A REAL, DANGEROUS MAN!!" he shouted out to her.

Tsunade cracked open the door and whispered, "You never said other ways…"

"Touché"

A.N. Thanks for the reviews people. I used a quote from a John Wayne movie. I didn't make up the YOU MUST THINK I'M A REAL, DANGEROUS MAN part. Please R&R.