Chapter 3 : Red Dawn of the Sun

Chapter 3
Red Dawn of the Sun

Players Included:
Meran
Hiten
Akira
Hina

Akira was brought to a room on the top floor of the hospital, the 10th floor, it was a nice big room with 7 beds, but they had left it reserved for them. The medical team that went with them would give the dark-haired girl a little short rest before they would start working on her again. She was eventually placed in a comfy bed with a few restraints and a few healing seals placed on various places, all that was left now was for her to rest. And not to move to much. Before the medics were done setting everything up Kazenkou would have returned with 3 ANBU guards, one was wearing a long white cloak and unlike with most ANBU where one could see their eyes through the holes, his were concealed by black reflecting glass, next to him an ANBU who's eyes were obscured in a similar fashion yet his long cloak was black instead of white. The third one would be wearing an ANBU sleeveless flak-jacket and wore his hair in a short pony. He had a few spikes coming out at the middle top of his mask. He was equipped with two katana swords , they didn't seem like your regular basic ones however.
These three would take watch over the room and the floor as Kazenkou would enter the hospital room where she arranged for the staff to prepare 4 beds with each having curtains for some private comfort if needed. The Suna hospital was probably the place where most of Suna's high-end technology found it's home if anywhere. But then again it allowed regular civilians and not just shinobi to also be of good service and able to free the hands of medical nin over the entire village to tend more on the field where possible. Also in extreme cases it has proven it's worth in significantly increasing the survival chances of critically wounded ninja and civilians.
There were buttons there near each bed to summon a nurse and change the positioning of the headrest and footrest of the hospital bed.
It was quite a bit later when all of this had passed them and Hina, Hiten and Meran were allowed into the room with Akira again.
"Rest well." Yuuyou smiled at Akira as she waved opening the door to the room and then smiled happy with the work she had done, and confident of it from the looks of it but not wanting to boast. "Let's hope I fixed you up alright and that I'll have some good news for you tomorrow morning. Don't move around too much though, ok?" She nodded to the girl and then stepped through the door letting her team-mates in as the three ANBU kept patrolling the floor, Kazenkou for now remaining with them.
The sun outside....was starting to set leaving a bright red glow...it was going to be a dark night and hopefully a quite one.

Akira nodded back at Yuuyou and watched her leave, smiling halfheartedly for she felt dog tired. It had been a long and eventful day--but it had been a productive one. She'd gotten her headband after all, and on top of that she'd been placed in a team with her best friends.

Speaking of the devil; when the medical woman left, her friends entered the room. Akira was very happy they got a room all to themselves, and what made her feel even more at ease were the ANBU guards that were around to keep people away from them.

A grateful sigh escaped her as she met her friends' eyes. "Hello strangers, how do you like my private suite?" She wanted to make a grand wide gesture with her arms, but it ended up being a small wave of her hand. Well, she supposed her point was made anyway. "Nothing but the best to suit my luxurious tastes. Servants come running at the push of this button...!" She lifted a hand and let her finger hover above the buttons while she looked at her friends with a grin on her face.

It didn't quite reach her eyes though, because they felt bleary. The beautiful sunset that could be seen from the amazing view out the window alerted her to the fact that the day was over and it was about time to finally drift off to the world of slumber.

She was tired of all the waiting. They had been forced to sit in the waiting room while the medics were working on Akira. Hina had been able to sit still and good, drinking the soda Hiten had gotten her, for about, oh, two minutes? Then she got bored. In less than fifteen minutes she had done every single puzzle she could find. Ten minutes later she had solved seven sudoku puzzles. She had thrown the stupid sudoku booklet aside, blown her bangs out of her face and started moving random objects around with her chakra strings. Things like chairs. With people on them. She kept this up until one of the nurses gave her an angry glare. At the silent warning she immediately stopped, but did stick her tongue out at the nurse's back. So, in a way, Hina had won, right?

She felt relief when they finally were allowed in to the room. She had to stop herself from just barging in. When she saw however that only her friends were there she sprinted to the bed closest to the window, jumped up and somersaulted onto the bed, landing on her knees. Yelling "Dibs!" while in midair. She turned around, facing the others, mainly Akira though, "'tis a rather fetching room. Luxurious and extravagant, indeed." She played along with a posh accent. She attached strings to Chouchou and let her fly towards Akira's bed, where the puppet wrapped its arms around the railing by the headboard, turning her head to stare straight into the room. Within less than a second however, she changed from seemingly calm to outrageous again. "Slumberpartaaaay!" Hina roared, picking up her pillow and chucking it at Hiten's head, with another roar of "Pillow fiiiight!". Yes, the girl had been bored and now had excess energy.

Meran was frustrated to a point, but he did as his sister and sensei had ordered, he was standing next to the entrance to Akira's room, guarding everyone who meant to enter. His sand had at first caused a riot, just after entering. Where the staff had demanded for him to either stay outside with it or to leave the sand behind.

This had played to his frustration, because he had to explain that the sand was indeed a part of him, going wherever he was going. And he had blatantly said that he would go where Akira would go as ordered by his sensei.

Hospital security was called, but it took a while for someone to suggest that the kid with the sand might be Gaara's son. "Get of it man! The Kazekage's son is still in the academy, besides look at the amount of sand this Genin has!" One of the guards had mentioned as a counter argument.

The discussion lasted a little while longer, until one of the nurses proceeded to take Akira further into the hospital and Meran was ready to explode.
It was this boilingpoint that one of the medics had made a decision to sort it out later, but to ban Meran and the other outside of the treatment room until she had sorted things out.

All that frustration, plus the fact he could not properly guard Akira as ordered, made Meran explode to Kazenkou when she had finally arrived. Partly he was angry about the staff and in part he was apologizing to Kazenkou that he could not perform the task as asked. The latter was apologetic, but at the same time resentful, because he still was not happy with Kazenkou as his sensei.

Meran was so upset that it took a while for him to write down what he had seen from the 3 ANBU. And he wondered how people could see the difference between an ANBU and a HEAT shinobi. <INVESTIGATION> + <SUBTERFUGE> on all three ANBU for characteristics and other small details and/or dishonesties/hidden secrets.
He did not blatantly trust these guys, he had to guard Akira, so he would.

When he had the chance he would turn to his sister and whisper in her ear. Sis, I know you do not truly mean us to guard Akira by ourselves and these ANBU are here to really do that, but can you spare a kunai or something for all of us? Because we only have a little bit of ninwire, ChouChou and my sand at the moment. You know just in case. Meran had whispered this, because he would not want his friends to know that he had asked for them as well. Nor did he wish to exclaim his worries out loud.

Even after he was finally let into the room with Akira, he stuck to the side, keeping a watchful eye on the door. He had used the ninwire he had gotten from Ranmaru to place a trap around it, careful to hide it from sight (as well as no one noticing him placing the trap either) and to make it so people would not trip without him wishing so.<Stealth> & <Buki no Jutsu>

His sister had taken the threat to Akira's life seriously, so he would as well.

As Hina would start a pillow fight he would act all happy and would entertain Hina by acting excited as well, but the others would no doubt notice that Meran's eyes would not linger from the windows and doors for long and also that his heart wasn't really in it at that moment.
It was all because of how his sister acted... She was serious...

Hiten smiled when Hina threw a pillow at his head. "Oow Hina! You totally got me there." He picked up the pillow and chucked it towards Meran. "Come on Meran.. Chill out a bit."
The boy drank the last bit of his soda and put the can down, walked towards one of the beds and sat down on it. "So what will be the plan for tonight and coming mission?"

Following Hina's release of excess energy, Akira pulled the blanket over her head. So much noise. After a couple of seconds she got out of the blankets again though. It was pretty hot under there. "Nothing out of the ordinary," she whispered to Chouchou hanging near her by the headboard with a faint smirk on her lips as she watched Meran and Hina go at it with a pillow fight. If only that puppet could talk, the stories it would tell...

Hiten sat down on the bed next to her. "So what will be the plan for tonight and coming mission?" he asked.
Akira shrugged. "For the mission? I don't know." The survival exercise that was coming for them tomorrow wasn't something they could prepare for in a hospital room. "But I've got no doubt we'll be fine," she assured him. That is, if we'll all be able to participate in the first place, she added in thought.

She sighed softly and leaned back against her pillow. "And tonight we'll talk and have fun..." She yawned. "...and sleep." She wanted to rest and get well enough to be able to go and survival with her friends come morning.

She was hopeful she'd be better by then, though maybe she shouldn't hope for the best possible outcome and have her luck run out. She was lucky enough as it was, having made it through the fight with that idiot Souran.

Akira blinked. Come to think of it... "And there's something I want to talk to you all about."

As Hiten threw the pillow, meran was momentarily distracted by what he saw outside of the window.
He had payed particular interest to a group of young shinobi who glanced up to the window. He was wondering whom he could trust, if his father could only trust Kazenkou to be their sensei... Who could he really trust.

Most likely the shinobi had glanced up because he was standing before the window and the group had made somewhat of a commotion, which the open window let out. But Meran was conflicted.

And then, he was hit. WHAM!

The pillow kind of stuck to Meran as if it was glued there and Meran did not budge for moments that seemed to last longer than the mere second that he was standing there. But then again, a pillow that hangs seemingly in mid air is strange even if it was there for mere seconds.

Meran's left arm made a twisting motion and the pillow flew straight for Hina, but at the last moment it bend off towards Hiten with a sharp jerk.
Meanwhile Meran looked outside once more, but the young shinobi had gone again, following their way again.

Let's show Kazenkou-sensei what we can do. The honorific did not come naturally to Meran, it obviously gave him quite some trouble to add it and it was certainly not fluently.
I think the sleep part needs to be altered between Hina, Hiten and myself. You should take a good night's rest, but we three should keep an eye out.

Meran was obviously not playing the game with all his effort and showed with these words that his mind was busy with completely other things. The pillow that was aimed at hiten therefor had hardly any force behind it and was not exactly dead on mark.

But as you all know Meran, he would turn to the group and seemed to shift emotions on the instant. Cheerful as the best of times, like when he had a brilliant plan for a hoax, he was suddenly excited.
If Kazenkou... Sensei is to judge us, let's show her what we have got!
He jumped excitedly towards hina and got close up to her face about half a meter away. There was a sparkle in his eye of joy and said Let's show her that we are worth more than she thinks! That'll show her! Let's show her that she is not needed tonight!

He leaped towards Hiten after that, still as if he came from a dark valley, but now had seen the light.
Don't you think this is a great opportunity to show our worth?!

When Akira says she wanted to talk about something, Meran spun on the spot.
Looking at her waiting for her to speak her mind.

"Oow Hina! You totally got me there." She started laughing. Yeah! Hiten was in for it! Her laughter tinkled through the air and filled the room when Meran was hit. She lifted her arm to fend off the pillow Meran threw, but it changed its course right before impact. She giggled, when it flew towards Hiten instead. However, Hiten was already sitting on a bed of his own and Meran obviously wasn't in the mood to play. And Hina wouldn't have thrown a pillow at Akira in her current condition, even if she hadn't been obviously tired. She smiled and didn't push it though. She got to have her little outburst. She would be good for a little while now.

As Meran talked about sleep shifts she switched from sitting on her knees to the more comfortable position of sitting with her legs crossed, nodding to his words, agreeing with them. She wanted to show Kazenkou that she was a good shinobi as well. She got a determined look on her face when Meran continued his little pep talk, "Let's show her that we are worth more than she thinks! That'll show her! Let's show her that she is not needed tonight!" She leaned towards him, making the distance even shorter, balled one fist in front of her and said, "Yeah! Let's show her that we are strong and will be able to withstand even the hardest winds. That we will be warriors to be reckoned with."

She gave her friends a determined smile each. "And there's something I want to talk to you all about." Her smile softened, she lowered her hand back to the bed and cocked her head to the side a tiny bit, wordlessly encouraging Akira to go on.

Akira sat up a little and propped her pillow up behind her, careful not to push the puppet off her bed. When she saw she had everyone's attention, she told them what was on her mind.

"So I've had a lot of time to think since we arrived in the hospital--which by the way could have gone a lot easier." She fixed them with a pointed look as she decided to side track for a bit. "Did you see there was another entrance some way off to the left of the gate with those journalists? There was no one there! And the medics didn't even mention it!" She rolled her eyes in an exasperated manner, staring at the ceiling for a moment before she looked at her friends again, thinking that truly, you could only ever count on your own eyes... even when you were injured. Those medics should have at least mentioned the other entrance...

[Meran's investigation Dice Pool = 3 . 0 Success on the roll. Meran fails to notice anything about the 3 ANBU that wasn't in the general description about them. ]

[Meran's Subterfuge Dice Pool = 6 . 3 success on the roll. Meran uncovers perhaps quite a shocking revelation about one of these 3 ANBU while trying to look for dishonesties/secrets. This information however being quite sensitive will be sent to his PM and should only be disclosed IC prior to sharing it OOC. That'd ruin the fun ]

[Meran would be successful in placing the trap, however the trap would not activate without his own action and thus would fail if he himself woul fail to pay attention. As opposed to an automated trap, this one would be useless it he was to be distracted first. ]

Meran would receive 4 kunai from Kazenkou at his request.

As the 4 of them took their place inside the medical room Kazenkou for now remained outside she seemed to be in some sort of discussion with the ANBU guards. But only the ANBu with the black cloack and the one with the sleeveless flak-jacket would be talking to her and listening, the white cloaked ANBU would be patrolling near the stairway moving back and forth.

Meran paid full attention to Akira, and only every so now and then, he would shift his gaze to the window outside. He did not seem to bother too much about the only other real entrance to the room anymore. The boy seemed more relaxed, as if a worry was lessened.

He enthusiastically reacted when Akira complained about the Medics. "I know right!" he exclaimed "They took all the fun out of it! And even though they promised we could ask questions, they just got up and left! Hina and I didn't even get the chance to ask them anything as they promised we could!"

He put his hands in his pockets and finds the kunai that had been in there for a while now. The ones he had gotten from Kazenkou when she was still in the room with them. After a glance at the window he would take three of the four from his pocket and looked at the others.

"Ane-sensei (Big Sister-sensei) gave me these to help in keeping Akira safe. One for each of us." And while he tossed one to both Hina and Hiten, he gently gave Akira hers. While she would have the least amount of problems catching the kunai when she was fit, Meran does not want to take the risk. "It's not much, but at least we have something besides my sand and Chouchou now."
Meran Shrugged and waited for the others to respond, looking outside of the window while he waited. Only every so often, he would glance at the door behind them, to check on his sister and the three ANBU.

<INVESTIGATION><SUBTERFUGE> on the room and outsides. Mostly to stay alert for any problems, seeing he will not let his guard down.

"Did you see there was another entrance some way off to the left of the gate with those journalists? There was no one there! And the medics didn't even mention it!" Hina's left eyebrow ticked and she had to resist the urge to smack her palm against her forehead. 'Seriously?' That all could have gone so much easier? What was the point in creating "battle strategies" and huge diversions when they could've taken a side entrance? Sure, hearing the journalists panic had been hilarious, but they were shinobi. They should always take the path that took the least energy, and was the most inconspicuous. And, let's be honest, everybody noticed the mist! Not really the definition of subtle.

Meanwhile Meran was saying something about how the medics had taken "all the fun out of it". 'He.. does realise that taking the side entrance would've been even less "fun", right?' She thought, looking at him doubiously. She did agree with the rest though, "It is a shame we couldn't ask them any questions. I would have loved to talk with them for a while. But I suppose they were occupied with Akira, which is understandable. We can go look for them later, Meran?" She smiled at him. She liked medical jutsu and how useful they could be. But mostly it was a general interest in how the human body worked. And diseases and how they affect the body.. She once read something about a tumor with teeth! Or the flesh eating bacteria. It had sounded like science fiction to her. She wondered if there were poisons that could induce the same effects...

She was pulled out of her thought when Meran tossed a kunai at her, which she caught with one hand. 'So that's one kunai, plus the ten shuriken and twenty senbon in Chouchou.' She put her right index finger through the loop and spun it around. "But, Akira," she said in thought, not really paying attention to her kunai, she'd done this thousands of times before, but choosing to look at Akira instead, "Why didn't you tell us there was another entrance?"

Hiten catched the pillow that was thrown at him and dropped in on his bed. Another pillow was always welcome. He listened to the conversation his teammates were havin but did not react to it.
His mind was set on the next day. Things could happen in the hospital. But would they really be taking such a huge risk for little gain? The mission on the next day would obviously be a better option.

Meran tossed a kunai his way and he catched it. "Thanks Meran. We can always be prepared for the worst. But should take the oppurtunity to rest as well."
Hiten would lay down again and stared at the ceiling slowly drifting away in his thoughts again.

As the four of them would be talking in their room the door would open and Kazenkou would walk inside and let out a deep sigh, clearly worn out after her day she would close her eyes for the moment and simply shake her head before closing the door behind herself.
"Bah! What a day..." the young woman would drop her shoulders and let out another deep sigh before slowly walking towards the others.

Akira nodded at Meran's outburst. "You're right, I remember you asking." What a couple of douchebags. They'd intentionally ignored the other entrance, and they'd refused to hold their promise to Meran and Hina. But after Hina spoke, she knew the girl had a point. "So maybe they forgot. Leave it up to Guujin to make a valid point," she admitted somewhat grudgingly with a half smile.

She noticed Meran was fingering something in his pocket and he chanced a glance out the window. Something had changed since he'd entered the room. He'd been uptight only moments ago, not even really into the pillow fight which he normally would have reciprocated with fervor. He seemed more at ease now. She wondered what had caused the change.

Then he pulled out the kunai and faced them again. He tossed one to Hiten and one to Hina. The third kunai was meant for her, but he didn't toss it. Instead he went out of his way to give it to her with a careful gentleness. While there was an offended thought in her mind that said 'I'm not some cripple', it was overruled by appreciation of his thoughtfulness. She gave him a smile as she accepted the weapon. "Thank you."

The kunai was placed underneath her pillow so she'd be able to get it within moments if there was a need for it. Not that she really expected there to be a need for it now they were in the hospital and she had both her friends and three ANBU guarding her. Still, better safe than sorry.

"But, Akira, why didn't you tell us there was another entrance?"
Akira turned around and watched Hina. Wasn't that obvious? "The medics knew it was there but they chose not to use it. Instead, they'd made a plan and they were already carrying it out. It was too late." She shrugged. "But I did notice... and I thought it odd. But--" she said decisively, "I'm getting carried away. The thing I really wanted to tell you about is this."

Her grey eyes held Hina's light blues for a moment, then Meran's greens following Hiten's icy blues. "Meran, Hina, you didn't witness my fight with that Souran, only Hiten did--" The door opened and in strode a very tired looking Kazenkou. "...and Kazenkou." She removed her gaze from the red haired woman and looked back at her friends. "Souran didn't try to hurt me. He tried to kill me."

And why hadn't he succeeded? Aside from the obvious --Kazenkou had saved her-- she remembered a couple of his blows that weren't meant to hurt, they meant to kill. Thinking back to it, she was amazed those attacks hadn't landed. "I know it may sound crazy, but I know some of his attacks would have been lethal had they landed. For some reason I can't wrap my head around, they just... slipped off me." It sounded ridiculous, but she remembered it clearly. She glanced at Kazenkou, silently asking her to give some input.

Each of his three friends accepted the kunai as Meran expected them to, Hina who'd see it as a new toy to play with. Hiten with an arid cool about him and the lovely Akira with a spark of defiance in her eyes. He wouldn't have expected it any other way.

What he did not expect was the story that Akira told, though it made his blood boil, it mostly expressed itself by him paying more attention to the window entrance again. But he also listened carefully to what Akira had to say. Meran had studied quite a bit about the human body, so he wondered if anything could be explained that way, but he was not sure. He looked at his sister that had just arrived for answers.

Meran looked at Hina as well, wondering what if she'd had any idea what was going on. A faint smirk entered Meran's face. It was not often Meran would know something that she did not. Well, perhaps more often than that makes it sound, but not about these things. She was a lot better at these things than he was, that much is for sure.
So Meran would study Hina as much as the situation to see when and if she'd figure the same thing out as him.

Meran raised an eyebrow at Kazenkou, as if was the only one having a hard time, he'd figure that Akira was having a worse day. "Onee-sensei, what can you tell us about what is going on?
In one way the question helped emphasize the question Akira asked, but somehow meran's question encompassed the entire situation, not just the strange things that happened in the fight, but what to expect from this night and what her plan was for now.

She listened to the explanation given by Akira. In her opinion, Akira could've still chosen to point it out, but, whatever. They got in unseen anyway, didn't they? No harm.

Speaking of harm. "Souran didn't try to hurt me. He tried to kill me." Her eyes snapped open in fury and she stopped swirling the kunai around her finger. She knew Souran had been eager to fight, she knew he was violent, but she didn't know he would be so.. so out of control. So low. He had really tried to kill her?! She couldn't put her anger into words. Her hand clenched around the kunai. "Just wait till my father hears of this." she growled in a low voice. They couldn't have a loose cannon like that walking around in the clan. He needed to control himself. 'Worthless puppet user. Can't even control himself.'

She didn't hear what Meran said to Kazenkou, she was too absorbed in her anger towards Souran. But she looked up and saw Meran smiling at her with his trademark grin. "What?!" she snapped, her hand clenching the kunai even tighter.

Kazenkou would walk inside the room a bit deeper and look around hearing her little brother adress her with such a broad question she would close her eyes once more and let out another sigh placing her palm to her forehead to cover her face for that moment.
She wouldn't remove the palm as she would begin her reply, mumbling into it slightly but still speaking clear enough that her words could be heard well by all in the room.

"It's horrible, we're being set up against one another and destroyed from the inside. Worst part is we aren't even openly allowed to talk about this in official, for the consiquences could be too grave for the entire village if we do." She would grit her teeth and let out a little angry growl as she would slowly let her palm brush over her face before letting her hand slide down and hang by her side again before she would continue.

"There had been a meeting of the village council about it all and thanks to that bastard Guuzou his henchman Souran got the slip for his act of violence and mallice. Worse, he has been praised for his insight. The reason for this is...." She would stop there and glance at Akira worried for a moment, it was as if Kazenkou's eyes were asking the girl permission to say something about the girl she might not want the others in the room to hear but would then stop and sigh with a pained smile.
"I am not sure if I am allowed to tell...But Akira-chan here should probably be able to realize herself what it is about her that would get the council to side with Souran on killing her. In fact, if it wouldn't be for me, father and some other prominent decision making members of the council, this night might have ended a lot worse for Akira-chan....a LOT worse."
The Jounin would clench her first tightly and close her eyes fighting off the anger inside herself, but her sand that subtly floated near her would show her aggravation as it would spin faster and more chaotic but it would soon calm down much like the Jounin did.

Her eyes would shoot open and would stare at Meran with a bit of anger, but he could tell most of it if not all was directed not towards him but towards others and the situation in general.
"They know they cannot take us by force, we from the Sand are too strong to be taken by force, so they tried skills and realised that a village with clans like the Sabaku and the Chikamatsu will not be outskilled either....so now they have implemented the worst tactics of war possible..."
She took a short break to gasp for breath.
"...Politics and crowd control."

Kazenkou would have a figure of a man form beside her and would punch it on the head making the incomplete imperfect sand-clone disperse with her punch. Just to vent her agression on something remotely human.
Her eyes would then dart back to Meran still that same anger in them, but this time more towards him it seemed.
"What's going on you ask?..." She hissed a bit and then continued annoyed " As if you don't know?! As if you weren't home the past months! Sunagakure is getting destroyed from the inside out, we are being pinned against one another in such clever ways that both sides think they are benifiting the village. In fact, afther what I heard at the meeting instead of feeling angery at Souran, I felt pitty for the man. For he in fact with all his heart believed he was acting to protect the village. There is but one true traitor here I know...and that's that damn Guuzou...and even he believes himself to be acting in the villages best interrest....." She close her eyes and calm down for a moment before the anger bursting out again.
"GRAAAAAAAH!!!! I hate politics!" She growled out and then panted calming down.

The door would open as the white cloacked ANBU would glance into the room and speak with a bit of a muffled voice. "Is everything alright in here?" the ANBU would inquire to which Kazenkou rubbed the back of her head and blushed a bit apologetic at the masked individual "Yes yes! All is fine, thank you. Sorry for the comotion." She would say to which the white cloacked ANBU would simply nod and close the door again, something was odd about this one ANBU in particular, mostly his movements, he moved rather smoothly yet with some irregularities here and there, perhaps due to concealed weaponry under the large cloack.
Kazenkou would sigh and blush still rubbing the back of her head giving her students an apologetic look as well.
"Sorry guys, a Sensei should set the example and keep her cool, yet here I am on the outbursts of rage again. Please forgive me. It's just....I love my village and I love my family and...when both are endangered like this...I just..." She stopped and shook her head looking down at her feet as she would sit down on the last availiable bed, setteling on the corner of it.

Though Meran and Hiten outwardly stayed calm, she knew her words didn't leave them untouched. Meanwhile, Hina was evidently enraged. Akira found it oddly endearing to see how much she cared. It felt good to know she was being taken seriously by her friends and they weren't just laughing it off, telling her she was imagining things.

Then Kazenkou started speaking and Akira's world went quiet.

She'd been right. Souran had tried to kill her.

She'd known it before, well, it had been more like a strong suspicion. But to have it presented to her as a fact was something else entirely.

"...I am not sure if I am allowed to tell...But Akira-chan here should probably be able to realize herself what it is about her that would get the council to side with Souran on killing her. In fact, if it wouldn't be for me, father and some other prominent decision making members of the council, this night might have ended a lot worse for Akira-chan....a LOT worse."

It had truly been an attempt on her life. And if it hadn't been for a couple of people who didn't even know her, but who had defended her life today regardless... she would now be dead.

To have that realization dawn on her caused her to freak out in silence. It happened slowly at first, just a gnawing feeling of cold dread as her thoughts swirled in her mind. Of all things, the one thing that left her mouth was: "Please don't call me Akira-chan... Just -san... Or simply Akira will do..." Softly spoken, a bit absentminded.

The dread turned into panic. What would happen now? There'd be more attempts. Who could she trust? Her stormy grey eyes, unfocused mere moments ago, lost in thoughts, now darted quickly between her friends and Kazenkou before she covered them by closing her eyelids. She could trust her friends. She could trust Kazenkou, that woman saved her life.

The panicky feeling subsided. She breathed calmly, in and out. Finally, a more familiar feeling. Hatred.
Souran... Guuzou... I hate you... Go die...

The mark. It was joyously welcoming the thoughts. No, she was enjoying the thoughts. What difference was there? It was part of her.

She pulled her knees up and unseen, underneath the blanket, her right hand went over the skin on her ankle. It was a little thicker where the mark was. An oddly shaped birthmark. Her fingers traced three sharp, thin crescents, one point of each crescent touching in the middle of the shape.

She couldn't do anything about it, it was simply there, had been for as long as she could remember... but it was reason enough for that pig Souran and his master Guuzou to kill her.

Akira would sit quietly on her bed, lost in her own thoughts. She started paying attention again when the older woman beat a sand clone and started speaking.
I sure don't pity Souran, came her vehement thoughts. That guy's a pathetic uncontrolled cockroach. Pathetic, because he lets himself be manipulated. A puppeteer who lets himself be manipulated! Imagine that. But it seems the true viper here is this Guuzou...

Akira barely payed attention to the white cloaked ANBU and vaguely noticed Kazenkou's blush, but didn't think anything of it. "Sorry guys, a Sensei should set the example and keep her cool, yet here I am on the outbursts of rage again."
Akira stared at her, holding back a wry smile. Rage? If only she knew.
Well, she probably knew.

"So what's next? Civil war?" she said, wishing she was joking.

(Politics roll on what Akira knows of Guuzou, please.)

Meran was getting pumped, off course he had not known all this, Kazenkou was allowed at council meetings, Meran had not. Yeah he had heard whispers and has sensed moods, but that this was planned, it seemed so different, was it all Guuzou's plan that Souran would face Akira? Wasn't he looking funnily at Hina before?

Meran was a bit confused, momentarily shook out of his pleasures about Hina's ignorance to something so obvious. But his sister was pushing his nerves, just the way sisters know how to do best. But when she directed her anger towards him, that's when he almost snapped. His anger began to rise towards the surface and it was like steam blasted from his ears. And like with Kazenkou this could be noticed from the sand rising up from his body as if there was an energy field around him charging to start a battle.

But then... the ANBU entered and he was remembered of the previous situation. And as he heard the words of the ANBU, he could not help but to start laughing, softly at first, but when Hina stared at him with an oblivious look on her face. He could not help himself despite the seriousness of the situation. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Hina would say. (OKed by HINA)
As to which Meran would respond by laughing even harder and say, "I should compliment that ANBU, he has played a better joke on you than I have in years!"

The laughing would subside due to the gravity of the situation, but they all would know sometimes you just need a good laugh.
Meran would dry his eyes and his sand would settle back on his body.

"Sorry guys, a Sensei should set the example and keep her cool, yet here I am on the outbursts of rage again. Please forgive me. It's just....I love my village and I love my family and...when both are endangered like this...I just..."

Meran would make a deep sigh and settled himself into a more stable state of mind, they obviously needed to prepare for the entire situation.
"Onee-sensei, we'll make it, just tell us what you want us to do? Should we do anything? or would that only escalate things?" HE looked at advice from his sensei, because he wanted to do the right thing.

At Kazenkou's long talk about how politics were ruining everyone's lives she first got even more angry at how it had been Souran's motherchucking mission to harm her! She let go of her cramped grip around the kunai, or else she would throw it at something, and she didn't want to damage hospital property. She looked almost longingly at the sand clone Kazenkou was able to punch.

She nodded at Kazenkou's outburst of hating politics. She had a strong dislike of politics herself. A quote se had once read about it popped up in her mind, 'The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.'

One of the ANBU from outside, which Hina hadn't payed attention to before because she was too excited about finally being able to see Akira again, popped in at Kazenkou's outburst. And Meran had the nerve to start laughing, of all things! They had just found out that people with power in the village wanted to actively kill Akira, that people were trying to destroy them from the inside! She gave him an incredulous look, clearly messaging to him that she had no fucking clue why he thought it a good idea to laugh right now. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she uttered.

"I should compliment that ANBU, he has played a better joke on you than I have in years!" "The hell you on about?" Her head snapped towards the ANBU and she narrowed her eyes, trying to discern anything that stood out about the ANBU. Wanting to figure out what Meran found so funny and how that ANBU person was "playing a joke on her". (Investigation and subterfuge roll.)

Hiten closed his eyes and listened to Kazenkou's story. It was disturbing. But somehow it all seemed logical. He cracked his knuckles and looked at the window. "I think that the best course of action would be to keep us as a team safe. We are to young to really meddle in politics. But by surviving through the years and growing as a team.. That might eventually give us political power." He opened his eyes and looked at Akira. "What Souran did to you was an order he recieved. It was a brutal and unforgiving one. And we'll get even with him in the long run. But for now we are not strong enough. Hiten got up and walked towards the window. He did not like the way things looked but could not allow it to cloud his judgement.. Or did it already do that without him even noticing?

(Hina will soon receive a PM about her findings on the ANBU.)

Kazenkou was breathing deeply and looked quite disturbed by the situation.
"Hiten is right, for now the best thing you guys can do is survive and try to steer away from the political side of things for as long as possible."

A deep growling sigh would follow as the young woman would look up at the lamp that was dimly illuminating the room from above with a nostalgic sad smile.
"I miss the days when Sunagakure used to be like a tight family. Heck, we were in fact the only Village to ever catch our own tailed beast. And the first ones to discover how to mimic their abilities at a time making us the only potential rival to Konohagakure which back then had tremendous power in comparison to all other great nations. Known as the Village who never take a loss, never truely lose, because we always change a losing situation into some sort of an advantage no matter what."

She'd lower her head
"And look at us now. A few political slurs thrown around, people bribed with the possibility of power and money....and like hungry dogs in a pit we go on to bite one another to the death....this is so not right."

The redhead would then closer her eyes and shake her head.
"I'm sorry that you guys had to be dragged into all of this. In fact just on behalf of the whole village...sorry."

She'd stand up again.
"The ANBU outside are people I trust and they are quite professional at what they do. With them around we are safe here. And nobody would indeed be foolish enough to attack a facility with a Jinshuriki inside, now would they?" She chuckled a bit at her last words and gave her team a bit of a cocky smirk.

"You guys should rest up, tommorow is a big day, you'll be dropped at the broder to the River Country and will have to make it all the way back to the Village. But I suggest that before we rest, we discuss your team formation and how you guys could achieve the needed resources. You see, you aren't allowed to take anything with you aside from 2 bottles of water each and one weapon of choice from the armory."

She would look over her team carefully sizing them up and then smile her trademark carefree smile.
"But I am not too worried there. I got myself the All-Star Genin team if you ask me. What I am worried about is that HEAT might just try something during your test. Perhaps they'd try to dispatch Akira-san again...or maybe you'll be their target Meran-chan...Or perhaps Hiten's hidden herritage pissed them off as well and could give them a good reason to act. All in all, take it up in your strategy that Hina-chan....although they would go as far as to harm her badly, will not be killed by them. She is the only death-proof person in your team when it comes to HEAT. They won't benefit from her being dead in any way. They would from her being severely wounded though. The rest of you are potential targets for extermination. But....keep in mind, they won't be able to kill Meran if the others are present. Unless offcourse they somehow trick outside forces to take the kill upon themselves. Foreighn ANBU forces or shinobi, or bandits perhaps. Although, you should be capable of handling bandits by now, right little brother?" She explained and gave her little brother a half-mocking, half-praising smirk at the end.

Akira quietly watched Meran's laughter subside, not fully getting what was so funny about the entire situation. Hina didn't seem too amused either, and when Meran said something about the ANBU playing a trick on her she whipped her head around to glare at the white cloaked man, trying to find out what there was about the guy that made Meran say these things.

Akira glanced over as well, but couldn't find it in her to be too suspicious. Meran en Kazenkou were fine with the guy, so she'd give it a rest.

"What Souran did to you was an order he received," said Hiten to her. She frowned but said nothing, wondering if that was really true. It hadn't looked like an order. It had appeared to her to be a spur of the moment kind of thing, him losing his temper all of a sudden. What a deplorable shinobi.

"I'm sorry that you guys had to be dragged into all of this. In fact just on behalf of the whole village...sorry." spoke Kazenkou. "It's fine, it's not like you wanted this to happen," Akira replied. She didn't believe anyone in the village did. Well, except Souran and Guuzou perhaps. When Kazenkou said she didn't think anyone would be foolish enough to attack them with a jinchuriki inside, she gave a grin right back at her, believing the foolish part. She wasn't sure no one would try though... but if anyone dare tried, they'd be in for more of a fight than they'd probably expected.

Then the red haired woman started to explain what their survival exercise would be and Akira's eyes went wide with excitement. A smile soon followed when Kazenkou referred to them as the All-Star genin team. Hell yes they were!

It sounded like the four of them were going to have a ball together--until the part came where HEAT might just try and get them all killed. Well, all except Hina. "Lucky Guujin, you're the only one they'd leave more alive than dead." Of course not one of them was better off than the other by the sound of it. Being left alive wasn't worth shit when your friends were murdered, leaving you by yourself, alone. Only one way to prevent that from happening: not dying.
The first thing to do was take Kazenkou's warnings to heart. "Alright. So we have to make sure Meran won't be singled out. In fact, none of us should be alone during the survival exercise. Lucky there's four of us; if we have to divide ourselves we'll split into two groups of two."

She watched the retreating back of the white ANBU. Not too focused however, because she quickly rolled her eyes, 'Nothing there. I bet getting me all worked up over that ANBU is Meran's joke.' However, that didn't really add up to his behaviour, so she decided to give it another good look. As the ANBU walked out and resumed his patrolling she stared at the closed door for another second before a loud SLAP could be heard through the room. Her palm had officially connected with her forehead. When she let her hand fall from her face and annoyed expression could be seen on her face. This was not a good day for her. First her way-too-close-for-comfort taijutsu (of all things) battle with Kazenkou, then Souran bitch slapping Akira into the hospital and now this?! It was borderline embarrassing. She really needed to step up her game.

The fact that she passed her fight with Kazenkou (in taijutsu, of all things, her weak point); that Akira had managed to stay alive in a fight with Souran, and that it wasn't anything Hina would have been able to do anything about anyway; and that maybe she wasn't expected or supposed to find out what she just did, didn't register in her mind. She usually set the bar so high for herself, always expecting so much of herself, that she had sometimes trouble seeing her victories. In others, no problem, she could be positive and uplifting and always show people the silver lining. But in herself? She was never good enough in her own eyes. Never smart enough. And right now, she felt dumb compared to Meran. Flat out dumb.

She looked at Meran. No doubt he would know that she had figured it out now as well. Her look almost had a "Well, you win. What now?"-quality about it. Asking him silently what he wanted to do with this shared knowledge, if anything.

All the while she had been listening with half an ear to Kazenkou's story, picking up most of it. She couldn't help the slightly bitter tug upwards at one of the corners of her mouth at the words that Kazenkou trusted the ANBU. Though she couldn't deny that she did feel undeniably safer with the ANBU around, especially now that she knew that Kazenkou had picked them personally.

At the mention of their test of the next day she sat straight up, earlier irritation disappearing. Wincing slightly at the tug on her hair, she had accidentally sat down on her hair without noticing it, she pulled her long hair aside from her neck to the ends, splaying it out behind her on the bed. 'Two bottles of water and one weapon of choice from the armoury.' Her eyes went to the butterfly-puppet still clinging to Akira's bed. "And Chouchou!" she said, with a smile, letting the puppet float into her arms on chakra strings. "Right, itoko-sensei?" Meanwhile the puppet was laying in her lap and Hina was seemingly playing with it's joints. She was however, almost subconsciously, checking the puppet over, making sure the joints were working and nothing was borked.

She smiled proudly when Kazenkou called them the All-Star genin team. It felt good to have someone have so much trust in them. She saw Akira smile at this as well and was glad her friend smiled. If that white ANBU hadn't come in, Hina would probably have gotten up and given Akira a hug. She had looked like she had needed it. Her smile faded however and turned into a serious look as Kazenkou talked about the dangers. She felt slight surprise when Kazenkou said they wouldn't try to kill her. 'Why not?' she thought. Sure, maybe they wouldn't directly benefit from her being dead, but surely they wouldn't mind either. It would probably mess things up for her clan, seeing as the was the heir and didn't have any siblings. Either way, it was a good thing that they wouldn't kill all of them. That could be useful in planning strategies.

"Lucky Guujin, you're the only one they'd leave more alive than dead." Hina's smile turned wicked and sinister for a flash of a second. "Yeah? Well, if they did that. That would be the last mistake they would ever make."

Her thoughts turned on strategies. She nodded at Akira's idea of not splitting up, and if they had to, in groups of two. The problem was that if they were to encounter opponents out to murder them.. Hina was a long range fighter. She didn't get all up in the fray like Akira did. However, if she was the only one with a "get out of jail free" card, they would be foolish not to use that and keep her at a distance. Would she throw herself between her friends and an oncoming attack? She looked out through the window, at the sky that had now considerably darkened. It wasn't a difficult question. Yes, she would. She would have a higher chance of surviving the attack, and her friends wouldn't die. That seemed like a pretty logical equation to her.

Her eyes drifted up to the stars visible due to Suna not having very many lights at night. (Neon sign were ugly, gaudy and loud. It wouldn't be very smart for a hidden village to be a beacon of light in the dark desert. Besides, electricity could fail. People preferred to use old fashioned oil lamps and candles.) She turned her head back to the people in the room and voiced her thoughts.
"As you know I like to keep my distance in fights. But I think that if we were to meet people out to kill the others, I should stay closer. To defend the others." She didn't mention the "throwing herself in the way of an attack"-part, because it would sound foolish. But at least three out of four people in the room knew her well enough to know that she would do that, and perhaps Kazenkou would pick up on the underlying thought as well.