You are my Star

Chapter 23 - Journey Number 2

Hoshiko fell through the portal and dropped onto all fours, coughing up blood and clutching her side. 

"Hoshiko!" Naruto, Kiba, Akamaru, Shikamaru, and the hokage ran to her side. "What the hell happened?"

Hoshiko sat back, clutching her side. "Sasuke's...gotten a whole lot stronger. Killer Bee- he's back there, but I don't have enough chakra to go back. Was supposed to come with...Sasuke pushed him...by myself." she coughed up more blood. She looked around. Kakashi-sensei was there, along with her friends.

"Are you okay, Hoshiko?" Kakashi-sensei asked. "I'll get a doctor."

"I'm fine," said Hoshiko. "But a doctor would be nice."

Her teacher nodded and walked out briskly. The hokage looked back at Hoshiko. "Did you get a look at his team?"

"Yeah- Suigetsu, a guy with Zabuza's blade. Most likely has more powers than that, though. Jugo, who has...the curse mark, radiates death. Woman, Karin, no powers I witnessed. But she's good enough to have made it onto Sasuke's team. They're all really...really good." She coughed up more blood. 

"Killer Bee's done for." 

It was the last thing she said before blacking out.

                                                                                     * * *

Hoshiko awoke to the ceiling of a hospital room and the worried faces of her friends.

As soon as she opened her eyes, Naruto was already shouting about how stupid it was for her to go off by herself. 

"Don't yell, Naruto," Hoshiko grumbled, turning over in her bed. 

"He's been ranting for half an hour now," said Shikamaru, sitting on the bed beside her. "We were all worried because we were getting headaches yet you wouldn't wake up." He sighed tiredly, rubbing his face. "Don't do that ever again. Please."

"I'll try to get stronger," replied Hoshiko. "That way, next time I can take more people with me and not almost get killed. But what about that eight-tails jinchuuriki, Killer Bee? He's probably on the way to the Akatsuki hideout right now, at death's door."

"At least it isn't you about to die," said Neji from a corner of the room. 

"Glad you deemed it important enough to show up," Hoshiko cracked dryly. "Were you busy on a date with Tenten?" 

Neji turned his head, flushing red. "I wasn't notified of the situation."

"He's avoiding the question," Hoshiko snickered. 

"Anyways, do you have any other intel on Sasuke and his team?" Neji asked, obviously changing the subject.

Hoshiko shook her head. "I've told you all I know."

Shikamaru turned to face Hoshiko. "We have good news. Master Jiraiya left a code on the back of a toad sage before he died, and we've decoded it. It says, 'the real one is not among them.'"

Hoshiko sat straight up. "We need to tell Lady Tsunade."

"Yeah, but-"

She was already gone, the window left wide open in the midst of her escape. 

                                                                               * * *

"Kyaria? What are you doing here?" Hoshiko barged into the hokage's office to find a variety of toads and...a scorpion.

"Representing you, of course. He may have not been a scorpion sage or anyone special-"

"Kyaria."