Starring:
Hitoshi, Sabaku
Date: Unknown (log received January 20, 2012)
Summary:
None given.
"First Promotion Exams - M*A*S*H"
Unknown location
The last thing Hitoshi likely recalls is being left in some stranger's care. Eremi seemed to trust the girl and it wasn't exactly like Hitoshi had a lot of chance to complain. In any case when he starts to wake he'll find himself in a tent, with faint lighting from a lantern hanging from a cross bar across the top of the tent. The tent is big enough that you'd imagine it wasn't brought in in a normal back pack, so that's a bit odd. In fact there are medical supplies around the tent as well. Hitoshi's leg has been reset and he is remarkably not in pain at all, and should feel pretty darn good.
"Ah, are you awake?" A female's voice asks, as Sabaku enters the tent to check on Hitoshi, "You were pretty badly messed up, but you should be okay now." She offers, as she pauses to check his leg, the one that used to have a compound fracture but now just has a simple bandage on it and seems… intact?
Before Hitoshi awakens, he had been stuck in a dream. He was young again… maybe eight, nine years old. He was back in the Academy… and, as he is now, compared to children raised in Shinobi families, weak. He wasn't fast, or strong… He was just kind of there, learning and growing slowly. And more often than not, he was the subject of hazing; physically, more or less. And… in this case, the sleep, from what Sabaku can observe with her eyes anyway, is more than a little fitful. At least, until he started getting a little -hazy- in his awakening, he had ended up at home… under his mother's care after getting mudstomped - and hard.
"Kaa-san?.."
No. That was not his mother's voice. And the fact this crosses his foggy mind is what makes him come to, and his eyes open, and he sits up.
Oooh, whoa. No, wrong thing to do there. He gets dizzy, and his hands come out, bracing himself so he can remain sitting…. "Nn. Where am I? Where is Naru-kun and Eremi-kun?…"
Sabaku hushes Hitoshi, "Just lay back, you got beat up pretty bad. I fixed your leg and most of your wounds but your body needs time to recover. You'll be fine, but it might take you some time to adjust to everything. And we don't want to attract unwanted attention right now." She adds, as she moves to a side and takes a glass from a table to the side of the cot, "Here, drink this, slowly. It will help." The stuff is basically water with some things added to it, doesn't taste great, rather medicinal but what can you do?"
The girl who Hitoshi can see now in the dim light, is covered almost completely in light weight linen cloth, like a desert nomad, but her mask is at least down now, "Here, drink up and then you can ask your questions. Your friends had to move on, they left you with me for a bit. You'll be able to rejoin them in a few hours, I think." She pats the leg and oddly it doesn't make Hitoshi scream in pain, as it feels… well, normal.
Nngh. Another grunt as he's hushed, and Hitoshi just kind of quietly squints at the young woman in the soft light, and -very- white clothing. He shifts slightly in his laying position before slowly easing himself back down and relaxing slightly. His eyes, though, remain on the woman. Slowly, they creep up from the uncovered face until they reach the forehead protector… and he shifts again. Perhaps he was feeling uncomfortable?
"Who are you? And why're you helping some weak Genin from Konoha?… I don't have a scroll," he remarks quietly, taking a deep breath and sighing a little bit. He just shakes his head, before laying back and closing his eyes. "Because I'm foolish, I don't have a scroll. I don't even know what I'm doing here," he remarks quietly… As he's given the drink, he looks at it for a moment, before looking back to her. He then looks to his leg. He sniffs, then, at the drink… No, it's not that he's not distrusting, he's just curious… And he shakes his head again before slowly sipping on the medicinal drink, cringing slightly. No, not high on the taste-rank, but… it works.
Sabaku shrugs and sits on a stool next to the cot, "Your friend, Eremi, asked me to take care of you. I'm a med-nin. You should be up on your feet in no time. As for being here, well, let's just say I don't think any of us would have done better against that beast you were fighting. In fact she's something of a problem. So much so we might have to band forces to take her out before the next phase. But that can wait. Just don't feel so bad about losing. Your leg is fine, I fused the bone and repaired the muscle, you shouldn't even have a limp when you get up."
Sabaku glances towards the entrance of the tent, "Besides, I have two scrolls already, why would I care if you had one? Look, you're just going to have to trust I'm not trying to kill you and in fact want to help, okay?" She offers as she looks back to her patient, "Do you think you can sit up? You should try to stand to see if it is going to be okay. Although I've fixed worse so I'm not really worried." She adds."
Silence comes over the young boy as he listens to Sabaku, his eyes dropping toward that medicine in the mug as he listens to her. "Nn. That bad," he remarks quietly, "that she's been a problem to everyone else." He makes another noise, before raising the medicine to his lips, taking another drink. He swills it for a moment, before hrmming. "This isn't half bad," he remarks toward the woman quietly, smiling some. "You brewed it -just- right. Perfect amount of time."
He snickers, though. "You mean, those of you who've managed to hold onto two scrolls will have to band together in the next phase. I'm done," he remarks softly. "There's still at least three weeks or so left in these caves for us… but I'm not going to be able to get two scrolls in that point. Everyone that -I- thought was decent in our group from Konoha has either had to struggle a -lot- to keep theirs, or have lost theirs." He takes another sip of his medicine, shaking his head….
"You still didn't tell me your name," he notes. "I'm Taniguchi Hitoshi…"
Sabaku laughs, a soft musical laugh, "No, I mean all of us, because last I checked, that girl has two scrolls right now, and who knows what else you'll get in three weeks. I didn't fix your leg up and patch you back up to full health to have you quit on me now." She says, semi-scolding, "My name is Sabaku no Hana, Desert Flower." She offers, "Of the Land of Wind. Medic by trade." She moves to his side, "Now try to sit up, and see how you're doing. I need to see if I missed anything." She offers as she tries to get the boy to follow orders.
"I'm far from learning medical ninjutsu," Hitoshi remarks softly, "but that doesn't stop me from looking at technique scrolls. A compound fracture isn't an easy fix." He shifts, then, nodding as he moves to put the mug aside. He then sits up some, taking a deep breath. No immediate pain, no headache. He reaches up, rubbing the back of his head slightly… He can remember an injury of sorts, but otherwise, he was kind of fuzzy.
"I'm pretty sure I had a head injury, too. It seems you managed to fix that, too," he remarks softly, "because I remember hitting my head on a rock when I got caught up in one of those powerful waves. Can't remember much about things otherwise, though." He continues to rub for a moment, smiling a little bit. "Sabaku no Hana. That's a very pretty name, Sabaku-san," he remarks softly, looking toward the young woman as he sits up a little bit more… pulling his legs up toward himself and rolling the leg of his baggy pants up to examine what -should- be a very swollen, very pained lower leg… only, it looks as good as it always does. He runs his hand over where he knows it was broke, chuckling. "Better than I could've done with some crappy splint, for sure." He looks to the girl again… "You didn't have to do this. Especially for a foreign shinobi," he remarks lightly. "Thank you."
Sabaku slaps Hitoshi on the shoulder lightly, "Stop that. I did have to do that, we need as many as we can to stand against that girl. Plus you still have a chance. I don't want anyone wiped out due to some freak who shouldn't even be in the contest. I can't do what she did. I doubt most of the Chuunin testing for the Jouunin exam can do what she did!" She points out, "So… don't feel bad. I saw the end of the fight, and it was insane. That's why we need to get a group together and stop her. We need to stop her from getting into the next phase, stop her here. So… I need you to talk to your village nin, both the genin /and/ the chuunin and see if we can get a group to try to stop her. If we all work together, genin and chuunin, we might stand a chance, but only then I fear." She explains.
"Now here, try to stand up." She offers as she moves to help Hitoshi to stand, if he will, "No lazing around all day on my cot, even if you were hurt, you aren't now." She points out with a grin, "I take pride in my work."
At the small slap, Hitoshi looks to the girl and blinks, smiling a little bit and nodding slightly, and he swings his legs about, slowly, to bring himself up. He sits upright, then, completely, with his feet on the ground. Pushing himself up, he breathes in, and he blinks slightly… No dizziness. No lightheadedness. She dealt with most - if not all - of his current problems, and he was -proud- of it. Nevermind the fact she did a fantastic job… he felt -great.- And even… perhaps, he had a slightly better feeling inside himself. A little bit, at least.
And then, the real test! Slowly, he pushes himself up, moving to stand up, albeit slowly. "I'm a little sore, but I think that's more my pride than anything." He stretches once he's fully upright, and he shakes some of that soreness out, literally, and he rolls his neck… "Part of the reason I even sat the written exam was to prove I kinda deserve to be a shinobi. I didn't expect to -pass- my first time taking anything like that," he remarks softly, snickering. "But… apparently, I must be good enough. Even if I've lost my scroll, I've gotta -try- to make a comeback. Right?"
He grins, then, tilting his head… "Thank you again. Is there anything I can do to help you, here, right now?"
Sabaku shakes her head, "No, just try to find your friends without getting into more trouble, and walk down the center of the small stream out of here, I've put tag traps all along the walls and ceiling and floor everywhere but the water. I can hear people walking this way in the water so that works to warn me, as do the tags, which just make loud sounds. But we don't want you to set them off. You can have your friends come back here if you want, but… be careful. Just watch out for yourself." She smiles as she watches Hitoshi stand.
"Looks like my work… worked!" She says, also pleased. "Anyway, think about how we might take on that girl, but realize it will need to be a group effort. The more you can convince to work with you the better." She points out, as she stretches, "I'm a bit tired myself now but I'll be fine. All part of the challenge, right?"
Nodding, Hitoshi smiles a little bit in agreement. "I suppose it is," he remarks lightly, rolling his neck a little bit again as he looks around. He listens to her instructions and nods again, looking toward the outside of the tent and considering it. "I'll try to meet back up with Eremi-kun and Naru-kun, in that case," he remarks softly. "That way, we can start working toward getting back together and getting some of the rest of us together." He looks toward Sabaku again, and smiles a little. "At least you won't be -too- surprised if a small army appears at the flap of your tent," he comments lightly, chuckling and then moving to stretch again…
"Thanks, again, Sabaku-kun." A change in familiarity. Friendly. Much friendlier than he was when he first awoke. "I think I… needed a little bit of a moment to think. You gave me that, and a clean bill of health." He nods, then, and takes a breath, looking toward the outside again. "I probably need to get moving, then," he remarks.
"Until next time?"
Sabaku nods, "Until next time… And here." She takes a pouch from a table, and you start to wonder how the heck she got all this stuff in here?! She hands the pouch to you, "Some rations to keep you going, incase you lost yours. Let me know if you need anything else. And you'll know where to find me. Although I warn you, you bring a team here to take my scrolls and I won't be very happy." She points out. Still she has a smile on her lips as she says it so might be joking.
Sabaku tips her hand from her forehead like a mock salute, "Take care Hitoshi-san." She offers.
