"37.2 degrees...very good." The nurse wiped down the thermometer with the sharp smelling alcohol swabs that always seemed to be close at hand. "Everything looks normal. With luck, the doctor will discharge you later today and you'll be free to go home."

"Thank you," Sacora nodded. Once the nurse was finally gone she fell back into the pillow with a sigh, thinking of how nice it would be to be back out in the world beyond the hospital. She'd been given the promise of discharge twice already, but whatever tests the people here performed seemed to perturb them into extending her stay. The nurses insisted it was because she refused IV treatment, but there was no way she was ever letting a needle close to her skin again.

No, it was something different, and she could tell as she observed the unmarred skin of her hands that it was beyond the scope of what they wanted to discuss within her hearing.

A clatter at the door took her thoughts from that dreary subject and made her sit up. Muffled giggles and shushes gave cause to raise a brow, and an inquisitive pair of eyes met hers a moment later through the window.

"Kyaaaah! She's so cute!" a female voice squealed.

"Shut up, Hana!" a boyish one exclaimed. "Ugh, why'd you have to come?"

More muffled deliberations followed before the handle was finally tried. The door pushed open to admit a young woman whose cheeks bore the marks of the Inuzuka clan, followed by a frazzled looking Kiba who was dressed down today in a simple hooded jacket. In his arms was a brightly colored box wrapped with a twine bow.

"Hi," the young woman greeted. "Hope it's okay for us to come in?"

"Oh, it's fine," Sacora assured her, watching them curiously as they approached her bed.

"I'm Hana," she introduced herself, holding out her hand for a shake. "Kiba's older sister."

Sacora wrapped her hand meekly about Hana's. "I'm Sacora. It's nice to meet you."

After the withdrawing of hands, Hana pulled up a chair to the bedside and plopped down. "So! How've you been holding up? Has your hospital stay been comfortable?"

"I've been all right," Sacora replied, "though I wish they'd let me out sooner."

"Oh, I get you. Can't stand being in one place for too long." Hana noticed her little brother still brooding to himself and motioned impatiently for him to come closer. "Are you frozen or what? You don't just buy presents for people and not give it to them when you visit!"

"I-I was going to!" he protested, shooting his sister an annoyed look as he came up to Sacora. "God, you're so pushy..." He brought out the box and thrust it in her direction, eyes aimed down at the bed linens. "Here...thought you might like some candy."

"'Cuz fruit's not cool, apparently," Hana snorted.

"Who the heck wants fruit when they're in a hospital, Hana?"

Sacora accepted the box in her lap with a smile. "Thank you. Where's Akamaru?" she asked, noticing the lack of a furry white head sticking out from his jacket.

"I had to leave him home. Dogs aren't allowed at the hospital."

"Aw...well, how are Shino and Hinata?"

"They're okay," Kiba shrugged. "Just super grounded right now."

She frowned. "Grounded...?"

"Their parents are keeping them inside as punishment," he clarified.

"Gee, I wonder why." Hana aimed a pointed look at Kiba. "I know you're usually obstinate, but I didn't think you'd drag your teammates with you. Glad to see chivalry isn't dead, though," she finished with a wink at Sacora.

"Hana!"

Sacora had a chuckle at Kiba's expense even if she didn't entirely understand the point of Hana's teasing. She waited for the siblings' newest quarrel to run its course before opening up the box of sweets, revealing an array of chewy confections shaped like various fruits. "Ooh, they look good! Here, share some with me." That seemed to break the ice for Kiba and he eagerly sat on the bed's edge to pluck some of the colorful candy for himself.

A hint of bandage peeped through Kiba's sleeve when his hand retreated from the box. Sacora paused before she could eat her own candy and lowered it from her mouth. "Were you injured badly?" she asked.

"What? Nah," he dismissed with a wave. "Just a few scratches, nothing serious."

"Then Shino and Hinata..."

"They're fine!" he assured her. "They barely fought up close. Not like I did," he boasted. "I went toe to toe with that one guy, remember?"

Sacora nodded and plopped the candy into her mouth, albeit with a troubled expression. Seeing it, Hana sighed and said, "My brother's not the most sensitive person and says the stupidest things sometimes..."

"Hey!"

"...but none of what happened was your fault," she continued. "I don't know why those shinobi kidnapped you, but whatever the reason, it's on them. Some spoiled brats risking their lives was hardly under your control, either."

"I know," Sacora mumbled, and gave Hana a small smile. "Thank you."

"And hey, you totally beat their asses at the end," Kiba added. "When did you get so good? I hope you weren't just pretending when we sparred," he said with a pointed look.

Sacora almost choked on her candy at the question. "Well, uh..."

The door handle turned again, causing Kiba to go quiet when they saw it was Kurenai stepping into the room. Sacora sat straighter without realizing it and cleared her throat. "Good morning, Kurenai-sensei."

The kunoichi nodded at her and looked over to Kiba. "Nice to see you again, Hana," she smiled at his sister. "I didn't realize the two of you were visiting."

"Only because Mom thought it was fair," Hana explained. "With supervision, of course."

"I can imagine. Well," Kurenai huffed, "if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to have a word with Sacora in private."

Hana nodded. "We were almost leaving anyway." She rose and ushered her brother out of the room, but allowed him to say his goodbyes first.

"I'll see you in training in a few days," Kurenai called after Kiba. Once the siblings had finally left, she turned to Sacora with a sympathetic smile.

Oh boy. I have no idea how to start this.

So many things had piled onto the situation since they returned. There was Inoichi, telling her they'd missed the recent moon to test the scroll. There was Asuma, getting back to her on her team's escort mission and discovering that their client was not a native of that village at all. There were the ones who had gone on the mission, raising questions as to how the girl could've done so much damage when Iruka's observations showed her barely capable of beating basic maneuvers.

And then there were the doctors and medical staff, baffled at the fact that she had escaped the situation completely unscathed; Team Eight had to undergo smoke inhalation treatment and hospitalization to monitor vital levels, whereas Sacora had literally nothing wrong with her aside from bruises and a sprained ankle. The needles they'd pulled out of her – "Enough barbiturates to sink an elephant," one of the lab techs put it. Yet bloodwork done the night of showed almost no trace.

"Glad to see you're doing better." Yes, let's stick to that. She slid into Hana's chair for good measure. "I know it's been busy, but it's good to see you again."

"It's good to see you too," Sacora returned, setting aside the candy box on a table.

Kurenai noticed it and smiled. "Kiba's getting pretty generous these days. Not a bad trait to have."

"He does seem more likeable now," Sacora agreed.

Kurenai chuckled and almost made another remark about Kiba, but the small talk couldn't go on forever. "So..." She shifted in her seat. "About that night."

The light in Sacora's eyes fled almost instantly. "Yes?"

"I hate to bring it up, but there a few things I need to know. Please bear with me." When the girl gave a reluctant nod, Kurenai asked in the gentlest tone possible, "How did it happen?"

Sacora looked down at her hands. "I remember being offered tea at the market..."

"By whom?"

"Mr. Teiji. He's an old man I see in the village sometimes," she explained. "After that, I woke up in a cart..."

Kurenai listened to her recount the witnessing of a murder and getting forcefully sedated, stomach churning all the while. Beyond that, however, the girl started trailing off. "Team Eight is telling me more than that," Kurenai pointed out when no further information was forthcoming. "If there's anything else, I need to know – for your own good. Your safety depends on it, Sacora."

She could see conflict brewing in those frightened young eyes. The hands, too, wrung themselves together as if to wrestle with thoughts racing in the head. "I had help," she said at last.

"From who?"

Sacora opened and closed her mouth in vain, until at last she spat it out like a bad apple. "From a dragon!"

Stunned silence dominated the room for a few seconds. "A what?" Kurenai asked.

"W-when I came here," she stammered, "the cult that was sacrificing me – only, they weren't sacrificing me – they were actually making me into a...a vessel–"

Kurenai tried to keep her expression from changing too quickly. "Go on," she coaxed as calmly as she could.

"When that happened, I..." Sacora swallowed. "Jin She – that's its name – Jin She...or well, I...killed them all."

The news hit her like a wall of bricks. "Why did you never tell us this?" Kurenai asked.

"I didn't know about it," she protested. "Not until...recently." Sacora looked back down at her hands and pressed the thumbs together. "When I woke up again, I...I was scared...I tried to escape, but I couldn't, and..." Tears rimmed the corners of her eyes. "Jin She spoke to me. It told me that it could help. And then it showed me how it helped me before, with the cult..."

"And then?"

"I agreed." She sniffed. "When I started to fight, it was...I almost think it's how ninjas feel when they use chakra," she remarked. "It was very...wild."

Kurenai nodded absentmindedly, sinking back into her seat full of trepidation. This...this changes everything. Her head spun as she struggled to think of what this 'Jin She' was supposed to be. Another Tailed Beast? But it doesn't sound like one. Are there other such creatures beyond the Tailed Beasts? And what if people beyond the cult knew about it? Other groups? Villages? But she needn't even speculate on outside attention. The Hokage's outlook on Sacora and the way Konoha handled her would fundamentally change.

"Kurenai?" Two fat drops streamed down the young girl's cheeks. "What's going to happen to me?"

Without thinking, she wrapped a hand around Sacora's. "Shh...nothing bad will happen," she said comfortingly. "Now, listen to me...you cannot tell anyone else about this. You haven't, have you?" When the girl shook her head, Kurenai nodded. "Good. Because from now on, you cannot trust people in the village so easily anymore. And by that, I mean all of them, aside from me and other ninja of jonin rank."

Sacora seemed taken aback by this requirement. "Not even a chunin, like Iruka-sensei?"

"There's a reason why it's so difficult to become a jonin," Kurenai put in. "Almost all of us make it only by being appointed by the Hokage, even though there's an exam."

"But the villagers..."

Kurenai shook her head. "People from other towns come to Konoha daily for trade. It can't be guaranteed that there isn't at least one enemy among them. In fact, it's likely this Mr. Teiji was one of the–"

"I-impossible," Sacora protested. "He can barely walk with a cane! And his grandchildren are chunin here, why would he?"

By god...she's too naive...it was almost painful to see. "When you met him, did he ask you more questions than usual, or take any special interest in you?"

"Just normal questions anyone would ask," Sacora insisted. "He wanted to know if I'd moved in from another village, and thought I was a genin shadowing you before getting a team–"

Kurenai held up an interrupting hand. "Hidden villages don't accept ninja from other villages, regardless of rank. That's an important law to forget, for someone who's lived in one long enough to see grandchildren become chunin. And maybe he's a forgetful old man," she interjected before Sacora could speak, "but that doesn't mean he wasn't working for the cult. He could have been leading them to you with such questions, knowing you wouldn't understand they were wrong. He could even have been a shinobi in disguise with the help of the transformation technique."

Sacora's face went pale. "That's...possible?"

"Unfortunately, it is. Look, there's just..." Kurenai sighed. "There's many techniques shinobi are capable of. Some you won't even be aware of until it's too late. You're a target of the cult because of Jin She; the next chance you take might be the one that ends your life." Or worse, but she seemed scared enough already that Kurenai stopped the doomsaying there. "I'm so sorry it has to come to this. Please understand, Sacora..." She grasped the child's hand again. "This is only to protect you."

Sacora's face seemed so lost, Kurenai wondered if her reciprocal hand squeeze was only out of reflex. She searched her mind for other words to say, anything to make the ordeal seem less daunting...but in the end, she figured it was best if Sacora came to terms with it herself.

Rising from the chair, Kurenai withdrew her hand to pat the girl comfortingly on the shoulder. "I've other things to attend to, but I'll see if I can't convince the doctors to let you out sooner. Once they do, I'll scrape together some yakisoba with extra pickled ginger and tonkatsu for dinner." She paused a bit, then added, "You'll be okay, I promise."

The only response given for that was a faint nod. When Kurenai finally exited to the hallway, she looked back through the glass and saw Sacora huddled beneath the blankets, presumably for a nap. Try as she might, her heart sank at the pitiful sight. I hope I wasn't too hard on her...But she'd have to know eventually, right? What other choice would she have if she wanted to survive in this chaotic world?

"Sup, Shino? How's freedom treating ya?"

"Not that differently." He pushed his glasses up with a finger. "I took the time to reflect on what happened and replenish my kikaichu; a lot of larvae were lost during the fight and some beetles succumbed to heat damage, so I had to add to the breeding population to bring their numbers back up."

Kiba pulled a face. "Right, whatever floats your boat..."

Hinata joined them at the training grounds a moment later with a bashful wave. "I hope everyone is feeling better?"

"Hah, I was never not better," Kiba declared smugly, much to Shino's thinly veiled disgust. "But anyways...since we're here now, whaddyou guys think? Are we in trouble with Kurenai-sensei too?"

Shino crossed his arms. "Seems likely. After all, we disobeyed orders."

"You don't think she'll spend the rest of training with a lecture?" Kiba asked.

Hinata shrugged. "Maybe..."

"Or give us nothing but D-rank missions for the next few months," Shino put in.

Kiba scowled at that. "Eugh, I hope not...but nah, doesn't sound like she called us here for that. My bet's on a lecture," he decided. "I don't see anything else 'important' she's gotta tell us other than another long lecture."

With that prospect fresh in their minds, the day looked to be an unpleasant one indeed. Kurenai's arrival only served to dampen it further, and they shrank back together instinctively from the stern expression she wore on her face.

"Ah, you're early," she remarked. "Good." Her hands moved down to her hips, another bad sign to tick off the list. "Now, I'm sure you've all been sufficiently punished by your families so I'm not going to beat that dead horse today. But if you're expecting me not to take action of my own, you're sorely mistaken."

"Yes, sensei," they chimed in miserable unison.

"You're lucky the stunt you pulled didn't have a negative impact on the mission," she went on. "Even if it started with good intentions, there were many ways it could have gone wrong. Missions of that magnitude are simply no place for genin, only jonin and chunin; if you feel that you can't respect this rule and will continue to violate it in the future, I'm more than happy to give you back to the Academy..."

Their faces paled and mouths opened in preparation for protest.

"...or sign you up for the chunin exams."

"Sensei, please, we won't – wait...what?" Kiba asked.

"Did I stutter?"

"N-no, sensei!" Hinata shook her head.

Shino adjusted his glasses for the umpteenth time. "But aren't we still too green to be considered?"

She smirked at their discomfiture and crossed her arms. "Your actions that night didn't scream green to me. Well, sure, you weren't supposed to sneak off on your own...but, Kiba–"

He straightened to attention.

"–your tracking skills brought you the closest to Sacora than any of our teams did. Shino, you were able to think critically and use your beetles to the utmost advantage in the thick of battle. And Hinata, you provided excellent support and prevented Sacora from falling under genjutsu in the nick of time. Together," she gestured at the three of them, "you formed coherent plans under duress, avoided detection by a whole host of tracking nin, and risked your lives to save a comrade."

They relaxed their postures when she finished speaking. "Well, when you put it that way," Kiba chuckled sheepishly.

"It's your decision, of course," Kurenai added. "If you don't feel ready, you're always welcome to undergo more D-rank missions with me–"

"No! No, we're ready," Kiba interrupted. "Right, guys?"

Hinata shared a glance with Shino before the both of them nodded their agreement.

Kurenai flicked a hand at them, launching three papers through the air that they deftly caught. "Sign up's in a week; just have those filled before you turn them in at the Academy. I'll still be here for whoever decides to bail out," she teased. "But I know you won't disappoint."

"Thanks, sensei!"

"W-we won't let you down!"

"We'll certainly perform at our best."

Kurenai basked in their optimism with a satisfied smile. "Now that that's out of the way, I actually have you on for a D-rank so let's roll up our sleeves and get to some good ol' fashioned garden weeding!"

"Awww..."

Notes

Degrees in Celsius

Hidden villages having a born citizen only policy for ninjas is an educated guess, as I think there would be a huge question of loyalty involved. It also doesn't seem like there are many at the series' start who moved between villages like you'd move to a different city. Obviously there might have been some exceptions, or the case of defectors/spies, but for the most part I think this policy would hold true.