The world around me is hazy. I can vaguely make out worried voices and indistinguishable shapes moving around me. There's a dull throb coming from my back and right arm. Then I'm fading back into the warm, comforting darkness.

I awake to a sharp, stabbing pain in my back and my right arm shooting burning fire into my nerves. Groaning, I open my eyes only to immediately shut them again. The bright, white light searing into my eye lids. Why is it so fucking bright?

A gasp alerts me to another person in the room. "Yoruka, you're awake!" Hana's voice calls out.

"Uh yeah, Hana," I croak, "where are we?" I ask, placing my good hand over my eyes. Hopefully, this will allow my eyes to adjust.

"Obito and Kakashi kamuied us back to Konoha," she explains, "You're in the Hospital now." I answer her with a nod, which was a mistake. The motion disturbs the wound on my back, sending a burning sensation down my entire body.

I gasp in shock, "Oh Yoruka, are you ok? I should get the doctors. They did tell me to get them when you woke up..." Hana rambles.

"I'm fine," I choke out, "my back just hurts." A pained sob escapes my mouth, " a lot."

I hear the door open and Itachi let out a sound of concern and say, "I'll go get a doctor or a nurse or someone." The door closes again, but my back has decided to stage a full scale revolt against my nervous system, and I barely take note of it.

Hana flutters around worriedly and one of her ninkin whine nervously. The door slams open and a strangled groan tears free from my throat.

"Yoruka, I just heard," Uncle Shikaku growls, "this was supposed to be a C-rank, how did this happen?"

"Some Kumo Jonin ambushed us by the border. I ran to get help while Yoruka and the others distracted the Kumo nin. Yoruka got injured while this was happening," Hana explains.

Shikaku sighs, "I swear kid, you're going to give me a heart attack before I'm forty." The door opens again and what sounds like a nurse says that he's going to give me more painkillers because they've worn off. I fade into blissful unconsciousness.

The next time I wake up, the pain in my back has faded from the excruciating experience I had last time I awoke to a dull throb. The burns on my arm only ache now, instead of the burning feeling it was earlier. My eyes adjust easier as well.

I look around and see Ryu-Sensei asleep in a chair beside my bed. Uncle Shikaku, Aunt Yoshino, and Shikamaru are on my other side. Aunt Yoshino is asleep as well, but Uncle Shikaku and Shikamaru are on the ground playing shogi.

"Hey," I raise my uninjured hand in a small wave. They look up simultaneously, and gods, do they look similar.

Shikamaru crawls up onto my bed and pokes my good arm where I would normally put my hitai-ite, "You're not supposed to get hurt, Yoru," he says somberly.

I smile softly, "Sorry Shika, sometimes it just happens." Uncle Shikaku's lips quirk upwards.

A week later finds my team and me in the Hokage's office. "Now, normally, after a mission like that, I wouldn't hesitate to give you three a field promotion to chunin," Minato grins, "but the chunin exams this year are in Kumo and I'm feeling petty. What I was thinking was to enter you three into the exams in order to rub salt into Kumo's embarrassing failure to get a scroll from a team of Genin. But I will give you the choice, I will promote any one of you now should you wish it."

I side eye my teammates, Hana's looking confused. "But Hokage-Sama I didn't really do anything," Hana protests.

"Nonsense," Minato states, "you might not have fought, but you displayed well above chunin level speeds, a good head for memorization, and the ability to accurately relay information to get your teammates out safely. You deserve the promotion just as much as Itachi and Yoruka do."

Hana still looks skeptical, but nods. "Regardless, I want to take the exams anyway," she says.

I grin, "I'm feeling somewhat vindictive, so I'll take it too."

Itachi sighs, "Someone has to go along to keep you two in line. Might as well be me."

Minato smirks viciously, "Excelent."

"One more thing Hokage-Sama," I start, "Why was Kumogakure willing to risk war for a scroll."

Minato gains a calculative look in his eye, "Kumo tried to kidnap the Hyuga heir and made some phony excuses. The scroll you were carrying contained the orders for the shinobi at the border station. They thought I might declare war, I suppose. But I'm not a warmonger."

I nod lightly as my team walks out. Ryu-Sensei stares at me in expectation. "What?" I question.

"Explain that lightning redirection jutsu you did. I've never seen anything like it." I wince.

"Ah, that. It wasn't really a jutsu. I just completely opened the tenketsu in my hands, directed the foreign lightning chakra through my channels to the tenketsu in my stomach, then out through my other arm. You have to keep it away from your heart, or else it'll kill you. I spent a lot of my independent study time sticking forks into electrical sockets instead of working on my actual jutsu though." I explain vaguely.

I hear a snort behind me, and I turn to see Kakashi walking toward us. "I caught the tail end of that, and I'm stuck in a state of wanting to know and being afraid of the answer," he says in way of greeting.

Hana giggles, "Yoruka figured out how to redirect lightning jutsu through her body," she says non-apologetically.

I blush, "It'll only work if your chakra nature is already lightning," I mutter.

"Why were you two even at the border anyway?" The thought occurs to me as I drink tea with Kakashi and Obito at Obito's new house.

Obito snorts, "Minato-Sensei thought I was getting restless and sent Kakashi and me to check up on all of the border stations. It was just a coincidence we were there when Hana arrived."

"It was a good thing we were, though," Kakashi nonchalantly sips his tea. How he does so without removing his mask remains a mystery.

I frown, "Yeah, it seemed like Killer Bee was just toying with me. Had he been expecting us to get speedy reinforcements, I'd probably be dead." Kakashi's hand tightens around his tea cup and Obito scowls at that thought.