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Here you go, a new chapter. I hope you all enjoy it.
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Near sunset the next day, in the Anbu medical wing;
Darkness and cold
The first two sensations assaulted Yugao's brain in the dark void she found herself in.
-ep,,, -s
She felt as if she were swimming or standing still in a dark void. She couldn't tell; she couldn't even know if she could see, and if she could, it was the darkest place she'd ever been.
'Am I dead? Is this the afterlife?'
That was the first thing that came to her mind as she tried to remember the last thing that happened to her before coming to this void. What she remembers right now is immense pain along with the inability to breathe or move before everything went dark.
-ep... -ss
If this really is the afterlife, why is it so dark?
When she rarely thought of the pure lands, she thought of some place where she would meet her dead loved ones or somewhere with pure, comfortable light.
Someplace like that, not wherever she is right now.
-eep,,, -iss
'What is that noise?' she thought to herself.
A noise that was so faint at the beginning that she thought she had imagined it, but it got louder and louder.
A uniform rhythm of beeping and continuous hissing that gets louder and louder.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
Hissssssssssssssssssssssssssss
'Is that...' she thought to herself with confusion
She had heard these noises a few times before. The sound of medical equipment
Why is she hearing these noises in the afterlife?
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
Hissssssssssssssssssssssssssss
hooooh,,, haaaah x4
Wait, is that the sound of breathing?
And why is she feeling like it is coming from her?
'Wait, am I still alive?' she thought to herself.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
Hissssssssssssssssssssssssssss
hooooh,,, haaaah x4
She was soon able to feel that her eyelids were covering her eyes, meaning she wasn't even looking or seeing anything to begin with.
She started to attempt to open her eyes, which felt so difficult and unnecessarily cumbersome for an action so simple. She felt as if her eyes were made of heavy training weights, but slowly she succeeded in opening them ever so slightly.
Pure light flooded her vision as her eyelids opened ever so slightly. But the light wasn't harsh or bright; it gave her a bit of an uncomfortable feeling before disappearing soon after, making her able to open her eyes fully.
Her vision seemed hazy for a moment, making her blink a couple of times slowly.
As her vision cleared, she saw the plain white ceiling of a room she didn't know.
To her left field of vision, she saw a stand with an IV solution, dripping slowly into a tube that stretched to her left side, past her field of vision.
A bit of vapour caught her eyes, making her look down, spotting what seemed to be the upper part of a respirator mask, covering the lower part of her face
'I am alive?!' She thought to herself.
She knew she was in a hospital room, that's for starters
'Why am I here?' She contemplated to herself as she tried to sit up.
Only for her body to scream in protest, not from pain, but from the sheer feeling of stiffness and the feeling of fatigue that assaulted it, making her give up on sitting up for now as she racked her foggy memory about why she was here.
Her latest memories seemed to be eluding her, making her gain a headache that made her quite uncomfortable. So she did what she thought was best for the moment.
Use the last clear memory she had and walk through everything slowly until the moment she blacked out.
Her memories started upon arriving at the land of Hotsprings and flowed from there.
Witnessing the kidnapping, following the kidnappers, entering their lair, and then the clash that happened between her team and the kidnappers.
Her brain felt like it was resisting showing her the last part, but in the end, she remembered how she was fatally struck.
'H...how am I alive? How can I be here?' She thought to herself with confusion, doubt, and anxiety as that part replayed over and over again in her head.
click
creak
The sound of a door opening reached her ears, cutting her line of thought.
"You are awake? That's good, very good." Yugao heard a familiar voice before a familiar mask appeared in her field of vision.
"Ryuu?" Yugao said with a hoarse, tired, weak voice.
"Glad to see you back to the world of the living, Yugao," Ryuu said softly.
"Y...you saved me? How?" Yugao asked weakly
She remembers clearly how gravely injured she was; she was basically a young woman with her time among the living being a couple of seconds before ending.
"I told you that I got you, didn't I?" Ryuu said softly as he checked on her.
"What happened? What about the mission?" Yugao asked
"The mission was completed, don't worry," Ryuu replied before continuing.
"As for the details, is it a good time for them?" Ryuu asked
"I want to know all that happened. Please," Yugao replied.
She was already awake but couldn't move properly yet. So, as she lay there, she would satisfy the curiosity and the nagging feeling in her head.
"Alright then, what we were hunting was a cult who..." Ryuu started to give her the details of the mission, along with how it was accomplished and how her operation went. (Without mentioning the details written in the scrolls and books that were retrieved before being destroyed.)
For almost half an hour, Ryuu told Yugao the details while she lay there silent, taking in all that she heard.
It was ok for Ryuu to tell Yugao what happened, even though it became classified, as she was part of the two Anbu teams that participated in this Black Ops mission, along with being the only casualty of the mission.
(A/N: Casualty in military standards is anything that would put a soldier, a serviceman, or a servicewoman out of action. Anything that may happen to them that would prevent them from performing their duties, not just death, but also injuries or disabilities. This is always a higher number compared to the number of deaths, but they are all labeled as casualties.)
As Ryuu finished, Yugao just lay there silently for a minute, processing what was said.
"Yo...you restarted my still heart?" Yugao's weak voice was filled with disbelief and shock as she looked up at Ryuu.
She didn't feel that out of nowhere; it's known in the shinobi world that a stopped heart is the end of a ninja.
And here is this shinobi who snatched her back from the hands of death and healed her so that she could stay alive to see another day.
Ryuu has basically denied the reaper her soul that was already in its hands.
"Yeah. It was a concept of a jutsu that I had worked on for a couple of years. The first time I tried it for real was on you, and I thank kami it worked." Ryuu said
"Thank you, Naruto," Yugao said with a weak but grateful voice.
"Really, thank you. I am eternally grateful," Yugao said. The feeling of gratitude to the boy she had first met in the academy filled her.
"You shouldn't call me by my name when the mask is on, but I will let it slide since we are alone. And you are very welcome, Yugao," Ryuu said softly
"Now, rest well. I will be checking on you twice a day and bringing you meals for the next three days until you are well enough to be discharged." Ryuu said before continuing
"As for returning for duty, that would take at least two to three weeks so that you can fully recover physically and mentally. If everything goes well, I will sign off for you to return to duty. Ok?" Ryuu said
"Thank you," Yugao replied weakly
"Get well soon," Ryuu said as he turned around, ready to leave
"Ryuu," Yugao called, making Ryuu turn to look at her.
"What happened to the kidnappies?" She asked, remembering those who were kidnapped by the cult.
Ryuu stayed silent for a moment before saying:
"We were too late."
"I see," Yugao said weakly.
"You ok?" Ryuu asked softly.
"Yeah, just thinking about how their loved one may never know," Yugao muttered softly.
"The blissful ignorance is better than the hellish truth," Ryuu said softly
"It could be seen as mercy for these people to have a small amount of hope that their kidnapped loved ones may be alive somewhere, not drained of their blood and lives for a fanatical cult's rituals. Even though some of these people know deep down that their loved ones are gone for good, they are attached to the sliver of hope they have to try and live their lives as they have nothing confirmed." Ryuu continued calmly
This could be seen as cruel by normal people, but that is the way shinobi rationalize things.
The mission and its details may never see the light of day again, as it's an S-rank black ops mission after all.
"Focus on resting well and recovering, Yugao. We did our job the best we could, but this is how our profession is." Ryuu said before looking at Yugao
"I will tell the others that you are awake and recovering. Some wanted to visit and check on you, but I denied it until you woke up." Ryuu said as he walked to the door
"Expect some visits soon, especially from your team and Phoenix," Ryuu said as he left the room.
Leaving Yugao alone with her thoughts to rest and recover.
To be continued.
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