The White Flash

Light Duty

A pounding headache is what brought her from slumber. Emerald blinked open, meeting a white roof. That pain wasn't just in her head, it was spread through the entirety of her body. Like a knife in her spine as she tried to sit up. The dark blanket fell from her shoulders to reveal gauze wrapped around her from waist to armpits, then again from biceps to fingertips of both hands. Tracing fingertips over her forehead brought light to even more wrapping. What the hell happened? Trying to remember brought more throbbing in her skull. Pressing the palm of her left against her head, she looked at her surroundings. "Where... am I?" When she woke, she had thought she was in a hospital, though the walls were a shade of grey and the view outside the window wasn't that of a yard, rather it was of a drop off framed with mist. She wasn't in Konoha. Shaking arms pushed the blanket off covered legs; heavy as they were willed to move. It was like they were on the precipice of falling asleep, that feeling of static that intensified twentyfold as she stood.

            One hand remained on the wall, feet never quite leaving the ground as she shuffled towards the door. Onimaru was leaning against a wardrobe as she passed. Grabbing the hilt, she used it as a crutch. Opening the door, she moved into the hall. Her mind was a fog. The last thing she could remember was arriving in Fukui. Everything else was fuzzy and difficult to grasp.

            "She should be moving in three days." A woman's voice reached her ears. "For now, she needs to continue to sleep."

            "Then we'll ready to leave in four days."

            "Hisaya-sensei?" Her voice was strained.

            "Yu-chan!" Once the eyes of her teammates moved, Hiro raced towards her. "You shouldn't be up yet!" With a careful grip on her forearm, he moved it over his shoulders.

            "Where are we?"

            "You're in Kumogakure, Hatake-san." A dark skinned woman informed. The clipboard held in her hand hinted at her profession here. "You can be caught up on everything that happened later. If you continue to move then your injuries will reopen. Please, return to your room."

            "Come on, Yu-chan."

            Wrapping the pommel of Onimaru in a bandana, Kohei took hold of the blade while Hiro began to lead her back to the room. Emerald lazed along the floor as they trudged. "What happened?"

            "Masuda-san and Chimon-san made a chakra bomb that they were going to drop on Fukui." Kohei summarized the events, his words bringing flashing images through her mind. "You sunk a section of the earth to contain the blast and blew yourself up in the process. You had a series of broken and fractured bones, shrapnel in your stomach, and serious burns. If you didn't have that armor, you would have been dead beyond recognition." He slid the door to her room open all the way.

            "Darui-san said that we could bring you to Kumogakure for treatment." Carefully, Hiro helped Ayumi onto the bed, "we've been here for a week now waiting for you to wake up. I don't think Hisaya-sensei likes it much here." The duo each pulled up a seat at her bedside. "Raikage-sama has had us on careful watch ever since we got here."

            Pulling the cover back over her legs, Ayumi slid down to lay her head on the pillows. Looking to them from the corner of her eyes. "Masuda-san?"

            "I had Team 8 escort both him and that rotten son-in-law of his back to Konoha." Hisaya answered and she entered the room. All emotion was drained from her expression, arms crossed in front of her chest. "I ordered you to return to the estate."

            "But Sensei!" Hiro jumped to his feet, "you can't be mad at her for that!"

            "That's right!" Kohei mimicked their teammate's movements, fists by his shoulders. "If it wasn't for my darling then we would have never caught Masuda-San!"