Limping Home (Plot Aftermath/List only)

[selonianth]

Jun sighed as he roof-leaped towards the Mizukage building from the hospital. He had just dropped off 4 genin one with potentially life-threatening wounds and two with multiple bone breaks. It was unknown if they would be in good enough condition to continue their careers but Jun hoped they would be.

‘It would be a cruel form of Irony if Akemi had somehow exhausted herself into a coma. I deserve to be stripped of my rank for this and instead I’m only being asked to retire from ANBU. I mean, I know it wasn’t my fault we got fucked like that but I probably shouldn’t have left them to deal with Tenzo alone’ He thought to himself.

The 5 of them, the genin and Jun, were sent on a Black Op. Why genin were sent on such a mission Jun still didn't know. As it was the mission went FUBAR when they were attacked by a team of Jounin and Tenzo. Soon afterwards Tenzo had erected a wooden prison and let the Jounin out so they could go around to attack the boat and get the child back. Jun slipped out to stop the Jounin in a moment of bad judgement and Tenzo proceeded to destroy the three genin.

After stopping the Jounin and getting ambushed by the real Tenzo, Jun had gathered the genin and made it to another boat and got them to kiri and the hospital. Now Jun was heading to the tower for his formal “retiring” from ANBU.

[Kyomu Kagami]

{OOC: Damn you guys making me post first.}

Upon awakening Kyomu's first instinct was to sit up, which when he did sent a sharp pain down the side of his chest. A hand gently pushed him back down to the soft mattress. 'Yeah,' a familiar voice said softly, 'I'd ease up on the whole moving around thing a while if I were you. Cracked ribs'll do that for you' Prone as he was and with the lights off and drapes closed, Kyomu couldn't see the person's face, but the voice was distinct enough. Besides which he only knew one person with absence of taste sufficient to sport a blue soul patch. 'Dad... I messed it up... our first real mission and I wasn't any use at all. I... I have to talk to Mei-sama.' Kyomu strained to prop himself up, this time the pain came not only from his ribs, but his arm as he tried in vain to lift his own weight. He collapsed back to the bed, seemed as though he wasn't going anywhere on his own.

'Woah there big shot,' Kazuki chuckled, leaning against the wall by the window, 'chewing the Mizukage out should be the last thing on your mind, Mu. For now you and your friends need to stay here and heal up.' With that he pulled back the screen around his son's bed, Kyo cast his eyes around seeing two of the other beds occupied by Mitsuko and someone he didn't recognize. He must be that masked guy that was with Izayoi-chan.. oh no! Kyomu's eyes widened in panic as they fell upon the fourth and final unoccupied bed, his father placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder at seeing this.

'Everyone made it back in one piece... well, nearly one piece. They moved your other team mate down the hall, preserving her dignity I suppose. Come to think of it I'm not sure if she's up and about yet.' He crossed over to the window and flung the drapes open, revealing the mid morning sky and flooding the room with light, from there he opened the window and sat on the ledge. 'You did alright, Mu. Sometimes a shinobi has to go through with the objective given to him, even if the plan is a terrible one, as soldiers we don't have the luxury of choosing our role. If you're clever though and perhaps a little lucky, you'll find yourself in a position where you can change things for the better. Until that time, I'll try to do the same. Now... I need to report back to your mother and tell her you're not in itty-bitty pieces, but I'll be back later.' With a nod and a smile Kazuki dropped backwards out of the window and landed nimbly in the street below.

That guy... always loves to make a flamboyant exit. As much as his father's words had made him feel better regarding his performance, his talk of roles stayed rattling around in Kyomu's head. Eventually? EVENTUALLY!!? IF I'M LUCKY!? It wasn't good enough! None of it was good enough! He couldn't even remember another time when he had been so angry. He wanted to know how a Kage could just roll over and commit to a plan that could plunge their village, their home, into a war over the whim of someone who understood NOTHING of a shinobi's life. How hard they fought, against their enemies, their limitations, only to be brushed aside in favour of someone who was better by value of superior pedigree. It made him feel so bitter he wanted to scream, to treat people like chess pieces, like cattle! There was no word for the disgust and animosity he felt for the people he served.

He looked down at his body, the splint on his right arm, the bandages around his upper body and he could feel the support bandage around his left knee. These injuries... the two of them might as well have thrashed us rather than take the trouble to throw us to the wolves.

Leaning his head back and staring up at the ceiling he hissed through his teeth. He lay in silence for a few seconds before finally speaking up. 'Either of you two awake yet?'

[kaibutsu]

Kaibutsu floated wistfully in his drug-induced dreamworld, full of pretty colors and twisting shapes. He had been here since waking up much earlier. The doctors had seen it fit to anesthetize him when they had seen exactly how much pain he had been in. The wood had hit a very precarious spot, and they couldn't have him thrashing about while it was healing. While shinobi were conditioned to fight pain, the spike had also hit some nerve bundles in his side. Needless to say, it was very, very painful.

Kaibutsu suddenly felt a force, pulling him towards a destination he knew he didn't want to go. The red-haired boy attempted to fight the pull, wishing to stay in this little world he had grown attached to, but the effort was in vain. Soon, all he saw around him was darkness. A small pain erupted in his side, and he tried to move a hand there to grab it. His hand barely moved. It felt heavy. He heard talking, but it was garbled, almost like someone was talking underwater. He tried to open his eyes, only to clench them shut at the light streaming in from the recently opened window.

Kaibutsu once again attempted to open his eyes, but he did it more slowly this time, letting them adjust to the light. Once they were finally open, the multi-colored orbs did a quick sweep of the room he occupied. He recognized the two from the disastrous mission they had been sent on. The girl, Akemi, he couldn't see, but his groggy mind didn't really register that fact. His eyes drifted towards the ceiling as he recounted what he could of the mission. One that four genin should of never had to take.

How could the Mizukage do such a thing? She had to have known that Konoha would send more than genin to retrieve the Hyuuga. That itself should of warranted more than just the ANBU, which had proved mostly useless in his opinion, they were assigned. Was she so new to the position that she hadn't thought of that? Needless to say, Kaibutsu would be reevaluating his opinion of her in the next few days.

Suddenly he heard the voice of one of his mission teammates ring out through the room. It took him a second to decipher exactly what the boy had said, and he responded when he figured it out.

"Nope." Was his groggy reply as he continued to stare at the white ceiling of the hospital. What lead him to such a...smart-ass remark, he didn't know. He usually didn't act as such, so he threw it off on the drugs affecting him, which they most likely were. Kaibutsu moved his head a little to look at his roommate, trying to get a good look at him now that they weren't in a life or death situation. He wasn't really all that impressed, but he reminded himself never to judge a book by its cover. Especially not when in the hospital under the effects of several drugs.

[Mitsuko Subeki]

Mitsuko couldn't feel a thing, he couldn't see a thing. But he was thinking, and just about as coherently as ever. The whole predicament did not give the boy a sense of helplessness like the mission had; no, it was a calm surrender to the normal rush of day. And also unlike the mission was that he no desire to escape it, no reason to leave the bliss that he found himself in. Racking his brain for answers, he could only come up with one thing. I'm dead. So perhaps death wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. In fact, it was great, he might even have preferred it to life.

But the sound of other voices broke his fantasy, unless of course he was in heaven and there were other people there too. Or maybe it was hell. As he listened to jumbled and hazy words, he tried desperately to make them out and find out which of the afterlives he had been sent to. Finally, Mitsuko could hear words and sentences, and their meaning was pretty clear. It was all medical jargon for the most part, and the realization was rather disappointing. Now all he had to look forward to was his dad's rant and the talk about failure and responsibility. Fun.

He heard a familiar voice as well, and it was Kyomu's. So the boy had survived, and that made two out of the three that had made it out. Akemi was missing, and that was worrying. There were two others along with them, a jounin and another of undetermined rank, but they weren't any of his concern. A stronger voice, one of an older male, rung out as well, and Mitsuko fluttered his eyes open just enough to see the man leaning over Kyomu's bed. It was clear the man was his father because of the way he reacted. The man soon departed however, leaving the three of them and the medics in the room.

With his eyes barely opened he examined the status of the two others. The other boy had a large wound in his side, and the Kagami kid seemed to have multiple broken bones. Which brought his mind over to his status. From what he could feel and what he couldn't feel, Mitsuko had also suffered broken ribs and one of his legs seemed to be lacking feeling as well. He could twitch his right hand, but not his left. Clearly that hand was broken, and he remembered it being caught in an awkward position within the wood prison. He would have to assess any injuries to his lower body later.

Keeping his eyes mostly closed the way he did would make it nearly impossible for the people around him to notice he was awake. Which was good, because he really didn't want them to know. Why that was was something that escaped even him, but it might be because he wanted to remain in his thoughts a bit more. Unlike the others, he didn't feel animosity towards the Mizukage. He didn't really feel anything yet. It seemed that the drugs were still affecting his mind, and he would have to take a bit more time to gather himself.

So he sat there quietly, reflecting.

[Akemi Izayoi]

The sound of her own slow breathing grinded against her ears. Though loud it was a thousand times better than that deafening quiet that threatened to consume her sense. It felt too empty for any comfort to be drawn and that nothingness scared her. When it became unbearable she heard things that never sounded. Then she saw things that weren’t there. Nightmares…all of it. It should have been impossible since she never went to sleep. No, every time the girl closed her eyes they were filled with images of death.

Her teammates in trouble, the sight of their own ANBU leaving them to die, and even her own death replaying over and over again when she tried to stand against the enemy. The fact that these events never occurred didn’t matter. There was still the fear of them strong in her mind. They were what could have happened. And more importantly what should have happened.

The smell of a hospital filled her nose once more, which was some mix of latex gloves and that foreign antiseptic smell. Akemi could have vomited. That smell burned the inside of her nostrils and made her nauseated. Odd how it caught her attention at the most random of moments. When the mind grew accustomed to a scent it often adjusted to it so the human perception didn’t continue to notice. However, the smell kept coming back. It was as if she were zoning in and out. She couldn’t have been sleeping. It was impossible. Though withdrawn from reality, she had been aware of everything. That drifting feeling for what seemed like lifetimes. The dozens of bright lights that cut into her eyes and went out at a moments notice.

Aware of everything. The bandages that were wrapped around her felt suffocating. They itched like hell too. And now that she thought about it, the itch only grew even more unbearable. And she was at a loss of what to do. The girl couldn’t find the strength to move, let alone scratch at the aggravating feeling. She was also incredibly tired. Akemi wanted rest, but she refused to let the nightmares claim her mind. Never. She wasn’t going to die again. She would defend herself and kill him if he dared try mind games again! She wasn’t going to let him get to her!

There was a sudden shift in her breathing. Like a gentle force against a line of traps it set off numerous other phenomena. That blinding light blazed in her eyes. A gasp escaped her mouth as she realized what was happening. The nightmare was trying to take her. No! She was ready this time! Her sword…wait…where was her sword! Did they take it? “Give it back!” she wanted to scream. Even if no one was around, the sound would still make her feel better. Bound and helpless like this was humiliating. The girl struggled and shifted till the cold sweat on her skill became hot to the point of feverish, her weak body angered by the movements. Then she fell back, defeated. It felt as if she had done this before.

Little did Akemi know that she was suffering from sever fatigue. What she was experiencing was a constant shift between consciousness and unconsciousness. The doctors had to sedate her in order for her to get what little rest she had gained. The drugs also served to keep her still lest she harm herself. The scare of facing an ANBU of such prowess and the mental strain of the mission had taken a heavy toll. A case of shell shock was made obvious and more serious developments weren‘t out of the question in the doctors‘ minds. Their sense of unease was solidified by her death grip on her sword, which she had kept over the course of the journey (it had taken quite the effort to separate her from it). The resulting development was her to be relocated to another room separated from her teammates.

All she could see as she laid there were dots of various colors swimming in the bright light. For a while she stayed still, drained and cationic to the outside world. Then she twitched. Which was followed by a struggle. That turned into a full forced effort to free herself. It had been a while since her last dosage and though the movement was sluggish the girl still managed to pull herself up. The world spun in protest of her actions. “Fuck off!” She screamed in her head. It only came out as a whimper in reality though. Holding her head in one hand and steadying herself with the other, she slid off the bed. Her legs buckled as soon as they touched the ground and she crumpled in a heap.

“My sword…” That stubborn streak of hers was a blessing and a curse. Glancing about, but seeing no sword she tired to move again. This time a needle in her arm tried to keep her down. Without a second thought she tugged it free recklessly. The lingering drugs dulled much of the pain and the girl managed to escape the confines of her bed. Ninja instinct kicked in as she moved into the hall with nothing to protect her modesty except the bandages and flimsy gown on her form. A dull rusty sword compared to the normal polished blade, but luckily no one was wandering around.

Time crept by slowly as Akemi had to take numerous stops just to take the smallest of steps even with the walls support. Thoughts of her sword worried her. It was hers. If anyone stole it she was going to do…things. Her head hurt too much to think of painful killing methods right now, but it was going to hurt! Another rest and her hand touched a doorknob. The wooden barrier squeaked open to reveal…her teammates? A grumble escaped her. She wanted her sword, dammit!

[selonianth]

Jun was walking back to the hospital after handing in his ANBU resignation and thinking, ‘How I can be allowed to “retire” from ANBU instead of being discharged. Even more odd than that is that I was only asked to retire because I put the mission in danger. They were more upset with me returning to make sure the genin survived and not going after Tenzo rather than them being upset because the team of genin almost died.’ He only hoped the genin would survive with their ninja careers intact from this showing of the daimyo’s hubris.

Then his thoughts turned more towards the good thing he had been told. ‘I can’t believe that not only are they giving me a genin team after that colossal failure but one of the genin is to be the fourth genin assigned to the mission… He probably dislikes me immensely,’ Jun thought as he neared the hospital now out of ANBU uniform, for good.

He had kept his mask however, it was in his home in a chakra-encoded safe to prevent someone from finding it without his help. He’d pissed a lot of people off during his time as an ANBU. Rather, he’d killed a lot of people and if they managed to connect him with the killings the villages security and him would be in danger.

Shaking his head to clear it Jun entered the hospital. ‘Now how am I going to get in there without them suspecting I’m ANBU… Hmmm that might work’ He thought.

As he wasn’t really badly injured merely exhausted beyond belief he was able to fake being a shinobi unrelated to their mission and thus apologize on behalf of the village. It truly was out of the mizukage’s hands that the mission occurred. Though, to be honest, he didn’t know why they, as genin, were sent on such a dangerous mission normally reserved soley for ANBU or at the least Jounin.

Standing at the entrance to the room the three boys were in he entered the open door to see the girl barely standing in the room. He looked around at the kids he'd almost gotten killed and resolved to never leave his team behind for the mission again.

[Kyomu Kagami]

Kyomu laughed at Kaibutsu's retort, until he realised that laughing hurt even worse than sitting up. The sudden rising and falling of his chest as he chuckled made him want to wretch, only he'd have to sit up to do that. For all that he was angry it looked as though they were all alive, for the moment at least, they couldn't know what permanent damage the mission had done in the political theatre. Try as he might, he couldn't just put it out of his mind, luckily someone finally appeared to distract him. Akemi was up, but not particularly about it seemed. He really was beginning to wonder why he wasn't the only one out of his mind. 'H-Hey are you alright? You look a little--' Kyomu didn't want to finish for fear of causing any offence, they might have weathered that particular storm together, but they had not long since met. 'Should you really be up?'

Even such an innocent question might be taken the wrong way, Akemi seemed to be of a prideful sort much like Mitsuko. Anyone in their right mind, of which he seemed to be the only one, would hear the genuine concern in his tone. Perhaps he was just being a mother hen, maybe Akemi was much better than she looked. That was an awful thing to think.

When it rained it poured it seemed, Kyomu spotted what appeared to be another shinobi stood in the doorway, finally he managed to pull himself up into a very uncomfortable sitting position by hauling himself up the headboard. He gave a nod to the newcomer, partly because it was the most polite gesture he could muster and partly to alert Akemi to his presence. What does he want, don't tell me they've actually launched an inquiry into this whole mess, it's pretty clear what happened to us. Though he was still seething his concern had somewhat overridden his more negative feelings if he could he would have sprung up and tried to usher Akemi into bed, none of them should have been up. He couldn't possibly know what had happened after he had passed out but it couldn't have been good if the masked boy was here too.

'You must be here to take a report... I'm sorry to say we're in no condition.' Even trying to be uncooperative and confrontational he felt the need to be polite. What a bitch.