Year 15 – The Mission
					           * Pre-Part 1 *

Seinaru rested her head against a tree; she was so tired of walking, so tired physically and mentally.

I thought I would make it back to the gate…

She felt her multicoloured eyes roll to the back of her head, and felt her body weight falling. Too exhausted to catch herself, she expected to become one with the ground. Just to feel more pain. But then, something was holding her up. Nagito Karasuma.

“Just lean on me.”

Seinaru didn’t protest, thankful for the assistance. She was so tired, that she could only slightly keep her eyes open, to stay conscious.

Nagito didn’t try and bring Seinaru out of her daze, nor try and ask her if she was alright. Ayumi, the ANBU Medical-Nin, would take care of that. Plus, Nagito had grown fond of the girl. He was her Captain for two years now and she was the only one who stomached every cheesy joke he cracked. She was dedicated. Naïve. Impulsive. The traits that he originally couldn’t stomach, but now he was impressed with.

No one knew Seinaru would do what she did. It’s been years since Kigiri had died. Truth be told, no one sought out the mercenaries that took the life of the eleven-year-old. At the time, there were bigger fish to fry. More important things to handle. Eventually, Kigiri escaped from the minds of everyone. Just another casualty. It was a fact of life.

It seems the one person who didn’t forget about him was Seinaru. Turns out she was researching every casualty from every village in her free time. Trying to find any patterns of the smiley face killers. And, two days ago, she found them. No one knows when she exactly left the gates of Konoha, but Nagito deployed the ANBU team the second he found her apartment empty. By the looks of her, he was thankful he did.

“Seinaru, you okay? How are you holding up?” He couldn’t help it. He was a Protector. The thought that one of his comrades went through something terrible? It made his heart heavy with lead.

The wounded Kunoichi struggled to stay conscious, but it was getting harder to breathe, harder to think. Her only focus was her next breath, so when Nagito began his questioning rampage, she didn’t hear it. A pain was growing, a brand-new pain, in the center of her chest. That was when she felt herself coughing and felt her body being placed flat onto the ground. Her pink hues fluttered to life for a second to see Nagito’s face over her own, taking in the sinking worry expression planted on his face. She wanted to tell him that she was alright, like he almost always did, ‘It’s only a small scratch’, but she couldn’t get the breath to do so. She only had enough to form two words, her hand raising and grabbing the dark skin that was exposed from the ANBU suit.

“Can’t..Breathe..”

Understanding swept across Nagito’s face as he swept Seinaru up in his arms. Her vision went blurry again, most likely due to her losing conscious again, while her head lifelessly rested on the hard breastplate he was wearing. Even though he was running as fast as he could, she could feel his body slowly trembling. Something she never felt nor had the desire to feel.

Nagito was panicking. Seinaru didn’t look good and was starting to gain a bluish tint to her face, supporting the fact that she wasn’t able to get enough oxygen in her body. She can’t die yet. She hasn’t even had the chance to really live yet, to love, have a family.

Shockingly, he smirked as he jumped from branch to branch, “Heh, I guess you could say I swept you off your feet. Look at me, I’m your little Prince Charming.” There it was. His little jokes. She was too exhausted to smile and couldn’t seem to make a sound aside from her groaning, but it managed to soothe her worry.

Nagito’s racing thoughts came to a halt as he saw a brown-haired girl in the distance. Ayumi. Rushing over with the young snow-white haired female in his arms, he laid Seinaru before her, noticing the matching look on Ayumi’s face. Panic.

Ayumi took in the state of her comrade. She was definitely in a lot of pain, clutching her chest and having a grimace expression on his face that Ayumi always hated to see. Instantly seeing a major problem, she began to fix her damaged chest, her hands glowing the familiar green. As she began to heal Seinaru, her pink hues batted open and met hers. Ayumi always had the clearest eyes.

“Ayumi, funny to see you here.” The instant she attempted to smile, she winced in pain. Her eyes began closing again.

Annoyed with the joke in a serious situation, something she probably got from Nagito, Ayumi began exploring Seinaru’s other injuries. There were multiple. Some ranging from minor cuts and others that needed emergency attention.

“Is she going to be alright?” Nagito asked, placing his scratched-up hand behind Seinaru’s head, almost supporting it. He was always amazed with how white her hair was, he didn’t want to see it dirty from the mud underneath them.

His answer was received when Seinaru began coughing up blood, just like she was doing for hours in the Forest by herself.

“She has a lot of internal injuries…” replied Ayumi. Her voice was shaken with insecurity. She hadn’t seen someone this bad of shape in years. And honestly? She was doubting if she was skilled enough to stabilize her.

She kept exploring possible other injuries, trailing her hands over Seinaru’s skin. When she reached her abdomen again, a hiss sneaked out from Seinaru followed by another bloody cough. All her ribs were either fractured or cleanly snapped. With an injury this severe, one of the ribs must’ve punctured something internally. It would explain the inability to breathe.

“Nagito, help me get her to the hospital. We’re going to need all hands-on deck for this.”

With his one hand already underneath her head, he hastily wrapped the other around her body and picked her up. One foot in front of the other, he sprinted to the makeshift hospital that happened to only be a tent. “Did your heart really stop from my wooing? I’m flattered, truly.” His voice was audibly shaking when he made another joke. This time, he was positive Seinaru was able to hear it. As he stepped into the tent, chaos seemed to erupt. Ayumi began screaming orders and everyone jumped into action getting everything they would need to aid a nearly-fallen comrade. She shot her white eyes at Nagito with a stern look, guiding him to a mat with blankets on the floor, a place she wanted him to rest Seinaru at. As soon as Seinaru’s battered body hit the floor, Ayumi was pushing the Captain out the door screaming something along the lines of the tent already being too small.

I don’t want to leave her.

But it didn’t matter, he only had one more chance to look back at the comrade he took a fond likely to before he was outside the tent, in the way of Nurses entering and exiting the tent to get more and more supplies. The sounds of leather being cut and gasps could be heard from the cloth walls. He could put the pieces together. They removed her Uniform and it was worse than they thought.

“Is she going to be okay?” Ayumi seemed to not hear, that or she was purposefully keeping her mouth shut.

“Ayumi, dammit, I’m still your Captain! I gave you a bloody question and I expect an answer. Is she going to be okay?” It was a rare time that Nagito turned fully serious. His voice shot like thunder throughout the busy tent. Somehow, it silenced everything that was going on. All he got was a jerk of Ayumi’s head, her eyes welding with tears. The nonverbal response was enough for him to slump to his knees.

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All Seinaru could think about was the pain, the immense, agonizing pain coming from every inch of her body. The Medical-Nins were frantic blurs to her eyes, bringing this and that to the clear-eyed girl above her. She knew her. She knew those eyes, that face. But she couldn’t form a clue around what her name was. Couldn’t concentrate. She felt himself sputtering, finally realizing that she must be coughing up blood. Her vision kept going in and out, focusing sharply for a second before becoming increasingly blurry. What she could make out was they were opening every piece of fabric that was covering her body and pushing white cloths into wounds that decorated her frame. Her entire body was emitted with a glow of green hands. There’s so many. That’s the only thought she managed before black crept into her vision, consuming it until she couldn’t see anymore. Shortly after, she fell unconscious, with Ayumi screaming at her to open her eyes. Loud thuds rang in her ears, surely the result of Ayumi slamming her hands down next to her head in an attempt to wake her, and that’s when Seinaru finally managed to make her own sound.

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Practically moping, Nagito sat down on one side of the tent a few feet out of the way, but close enough that he could hear what was happening inside. It didn’t sound good. There was constant screaming that seemed to be coming out of Seinaru. Each one growing louder and louder in volume until it was  blood-curling. Ayumi didn’t seem as calm as she usually was when helping someone.

Of course she’s not, Nagito reasoned, Seinaru is one of her own. Someone she took under her wing to help learn the ways of Medical Ninjutsu. And the state she was in…it was haunting. It wasn’t until then that he had noticed that he scratched his hand bloody. It was a bad habit. Anytime he got nervous, or petrified, he would take his nails and frantically dig them into his palm in a scratching motion. He’s been doing it since he was a Child.

As he waited outside, several more people joined him. Until, it seemed like the whole ANBU company was out there, worrying about the possible fallen-comrade. Minus one masked male.

It was hours later before a tired, tear-filled Ayumi came out to greet everyone. She smiled a little, proclaiming, “She’s going to be fine. Just needs to rest.”

Nagito, instantly, ignored the last bit of that sentence and instantly ran into the tent. He held his breath. There she was, looking defeated. She was bandaged up from head to toe, laying on the ground with a machine plugged into her abdomen that was emitting a soft beep. Music to his ears, if it wasn’t for that sound, who knows what would happen.

Approaching her, Nagito was surprised when Seinaru’s eyes opened slightly to acknowledge him.

“Morning Sleeping Beauty. Have no fear, your Prince has returned.”

“Hey Captain,” Seinaru said tiredly.

Nagito kept quiet as he smiled down at her, happy to see that she was, in-fact, okay.

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Seinaru was forced to stay in that tent for nearly two weeks, her teammates taking turns guarding over her. Nagito, unlike the others, slept outside the tent. If there were to be some intruder, he wanted to make sure they didn’t even have the chance to get close to her. The night had a cooling breeze, something he found soothing, while he began to nod off slowly.

What must’ve been a few hours, Nagito shook his head awake. He wasn’t supposed to be sleeping on the job. Rising from his chair, he decided to check on Seinaru. Her machine was there. She was not.

Jumping out of the tent to call a Search Party, he looked in-between the trees just in time to see a stumbling Seinaru lean on a tree, not looking too good, seven feet or so away. Obviously out of her mind from the medication, or bored crazy, Seinaru only had a moment to smile at him in pride before she started to collapse.

Somehow, Nagito made it in time to catch her on his back. The same way she laid on him when this all began. “What are you doing, Princess?”

You just don’t know when to shut off your self-pushing determination.

“Let’s get you back to the hospital.”

So the two ANBUs made the walk slowly back to the tent. Nagito watched as Seinaru winced and fought to stay conscious and was grateful when he was finally able to place her back on the mat and cover her with a mountain of blankets. He wasn’t going to any chances with her catching a cold in her condition. Before taking his leave, he pressed his hand on her forehead, confirming the fact that she managed to catch a fever.

Settling himself on the ground not too far from her body, Nagito began to realize… if there was anyone who could fight blindly and manage to escape the verge of death, it would be her. She had a weirdly good stroke of luck.

“I know I’m dashing, but don’t stop your heart again Seinaru.”