Lost and Found - Book 1

Chapter 2

In the quietest hallway in the hospital, Kakashi still kept his head down as he normally would to avoid socializing. There was distant noise in all directions, but everyone avoided this one particular area. Nobody but the assigned nurses dared to get too close to the room with the mysterious girl in it. Besides Kakashi, that is.

Tsunade exited the room, the bags under her eyes tarnishing her otherwise flawless appearance. Kakashi looked just as exhausted, that is to say, more than he usually did. Neither of them had slept yet. They met each other in the middle of the corridor.

"What are your findings?" Kakashi asked with an underlying bitterness in his voice that stung Tsunade's ears. He masked his curiosity well. The safety of the village needed to be his top concern, not his personal interests.

"She's just a girl." Tsunade's answer was a surprise to both Kakashi and herself. After the reports given in by Kakashi and the other jonin, it was difficult for her to imagine that 'just a girl' had caused all that trouble.

"Do you think she's going to make it?" Kakashi asked. He was never one for subtlety. If he was going to be able to question this mysterious girl, he wanted to do it immediately. If he likely wouldn't get that chance at all, then he wanted to go home to his bed.

"Honestly, I have no idea." It pained Tsunade to have spent so much time examining the girl and still not have any answers. "She appears to be healthy; her vitals are good and she's stable. But she's been unresponsive since she was admitted, and her brain waves don't indicate that she's comatose."

"Are you saying she's just sleeping?" Kakashi's face contorted in a deep confusion, though most of the expression was hidden behind his mask.

Tsunade nodded. "That's what it seems like, but she won't wake up. Not for anything. It's almost as if her body knows it's going to be in pain when it finally gains consciousness, if it ever does."

"How are her burns?" Kakashi asked.

"Considering your report, not bad enough. She should be completely covered in third degree burns; instead all she came out with was minor first degree burns along the outside of her arms and legs. The swelling is already going down, as well. It's as if only her clothes caught fire."

"She was on fire. All of her." Kakashi's voice trembled and his one visible eye trailed off to the side. Tsunade set a hand on his bicep. He was shaking.

"Hey," Tsunade said softly. "After this passes, you'll get time off. All you have to do is make it until then."

Kakashi sighed. It was kind of her to offer him time off, but did Kakashi really want to be home alone after this? Did he really want to be alone with the memories of a girl who was drenched in flames, and sucked them into her lungs when she looked at him? "Thanks," Kakashi said anyway.

"Anyway," Tsunade cleared her throat. "I don't think this is as serious as we were initially thinking. The situation, I mean. I don't think this was a botched attack on the village."

"Maybe she's just some runaway, or even a rogue, that was messing around with a jutsu that went badly and she ended up hurting herself," Kakashi suggested as both he and Tsunade moved to lean against the wall, getting out of the way of a nurse who came to check up on the mysterious patient.

"She had no forehead protector, crossed out or not. She bears no marks that would identify her as a ninja," Tsunade said.

Kakashi shrugged. "As shameful as it is, maybe she ditched it. Or maybe it was lost. If she even had one, it's not anywhere near where she was found. We had shinobi scour the area for evidence. They found nothing."