Author notes: Thanks to my Beta reader Feiris for correcting mistakes I made as well as helping me with ideas and improving my text as a whole.
Tsubane watched Arashi fall to his knees. Their mission had been to protect a merchant traveling at the border of the Land of Fire. Arashi had started to come up with a virus, leaving his chakra completely empty, so Yamato sensei made the safe choice to call out for another team to finish their mission, and they started going back to the village. But they had been ambushed while coming back. Yamato sensei had tried saving the three of them at the same time, but Arashi quickly had fallen to the hands of the enemy, too sick to defend himself, before sensei could try to do anything.
Tsubane felt useless. She tried combining her wood release with Yamato sensei's. Meanwhile, Sai was attacking with his ink jutsu. The enemy was too strong for the fresh Genin team. Their first mission far from the village was a disaster. Yamato sensei ended up in a one-on-one fight with the assailant, freeing Arashi.
"Sai, help me to finish him up. Tsubane, get Arashi somewhere safe to heal him," Yamato ordered.
Tsubane nodded before getting to Arashi who was left alone in pain. She tried supporting him the best she could. She was thankful he hadn't yet had a growth spurt, compared to her who probably reached her maximum height. She traveled a good kilometer with Arashi's weight on her when she decided she was far enough to treat him and his injuries. She had done a lot of research on medical jutsu and loved practicing it when she had the time, now was the perfect time to put it into execution. Yamato preferred she stayed back to heal the injured than combatting, especially because her wood release jutsu was very chakra consuming. She almost regretted helping Yamato sensei earlier, even if it was how they freed Arashi.
Concentrating on her chakra in a single point in her hands, she tried giving her partner a bit of hers. Arashi looked completely out of it, barely conscious. His face was a little green. She felt under her fingers that his stomach was all twisted, bones were cracked from the attack earlier, other bones were even smashed into pieces. Overall, Arashi was in agony.
"That's the best I can do for now, Ara," Tsubane announced after a while, her chakra exhausted. "Can you sit? I'll take you on my back to return to Konoha."
"I… think so?" he whispered before trying. He was shaking. He clearly had a fever on top of everything. She helped him on her back, because he couldn't really move by himself.
"There you go. Tap my shoulder if you want me to stop or if you need to throw up," Tsubane asked, reminded of how pale he looked. She hoped he wouldn't puke on her.
Yamato sensei and Sai caught up with her quite fast, so she didn't have to carry Arashi for too long on her back. They got to Konoha and their sensei immediately went in the direction of the hospital.
"Start preparing your report, but wait for me before going to the Hokage," Yamato instructed.
Tsubane realized the Hokage would flip if Tsubane and Sai came into his office with a report of how badly his son was doing.
Both Sai and Tsubane decided to go to a park to write up their reports. They shared an apartment together, with Shin, someone Sai saw like a big brother. But Shin had a disease slowly killing him, and they didn't want to bother him. Besides, since Shin couldn't work anymore and didn't have his ninja salary, and Sai and Tsubane had just failed their first C-ranked mission, they were quite poor, which meant they had a disgusting apartment that did not help Shin's condition.
They were finishing up the details when they heard a voice behind them.
"I didn't know you were back already! Where is Arashi? He isn't writing up his report for Minato with you?"
There weren't a lot of people calling the Fourth Hokage by his first name, or would worry about Arashi. Tsubane turned around and panicked, as she recognized Arashi's mother. According to her son, she was a menace when mad. She had to be careful of what she said, and hopefully, Sai wouldn't say anything stupid.
Sai started mumbling something about being with Yamato sensei. Tsubane didn't know if she was better to tell her the truth. After all, while they gave their reports to the Hokage, Arashi would be left alone without them in a hospital room, which he hated. Maybe his mother around him would be best. So Tsubane decided to tell his mother the truth, but hid how badly her teammate's condition was.
"Hi, Ms. Uzumaki. Yamato took him to the hospital. He got a little sick during the mission. That's why we came back early."
Kushina's smile faded away. "Oh, I see. Is he okay? Why didn't Yamato bring him home to me? Is it this bad?"
Bad enough for the nine-tail not helping, Tsubane thought. But she didn't say it aloud. She wasn't supposed to have figured out about it. But she had seen the seal on Arashi's stomach, and the red chakra she felt earlier was no mistake. But even that red chakra had felt weak to her.
"He's not in a good shape. High fever. I'm not sure if he'd keep anything down either so it was better to bring him to the hospital before he gets the chance to get dehydrated."
Kushina's hair lifted in the air as if there was static around. Tsubane realized why she was called Red Hot Habanero.
"Why didn't Arashi tell me or Minato that he felt sick before leaving for his mission?"
"Ms. Uzumaki," Tsubane said, hoping to calm her. "He was fine when we left a few days ago. As soon as he started feeling bad enough to compromise the mission, he told us and Yamato sensei tried contacting the Hokage to have back up. I just don't think sensei said who was sick, probably an attempt not to worry the Fourth."
The woman immediately left in the direction of the hospital, and Tsubane focused back on the report.