"Wake up!" Hope heard Nya's voice. She could hear the fear and anger in Nya's voice.

Hope forced her eyes open and was met by short black hair. Nya met Hope's gaze with her odd pinkish-red eyes. Her shoulder ached from where the arrow hit.

The arrow! Where was it? Was it still inside her?

Hope frantically patted her shoulder, looking for the arrow. All she found was soft cloth of a blanket and a tight bandage around her shoulder.  As she neared the spot where the arrow had pierced her skin, a pair of warm hands grasped her's. 

"Easy, Hope. You're safe," Nya said to her friend. Hope relaxed a bit.

"Wha... what happened?" Hope asked, her voice horse as she sat up in the bed. 

"You got shot. Jessica, a healer from a near by village saved you. We're in the village now," Nya said flatly.

"What's wrong?" 

"Nothing."

"That's a lie and you know it," Hope said, folding her arms across her chest. Pain raised down her arm and she uncrossed her arms. 

"I'll tell you when the others are here," Nya said, leaving the room.

Hope laid back against the pillows and sighed. What would her friends think of her? Would they hate her? 

She stopped those thoughts just as the other ninja came in.

"Hey, guys what's up?" Hope said pasting on a smile. She scanned the room, and looked at her friends' faces. Anger, fear, hurt, and sadness were heavy masks on their faces.

Tension weighted the silence that hung thickly in the air.

"How could you?" the voice that broke the silents. Everyone turned to face to the quietest ninja.

Emma looked ready to cry. She was trembling like a leaf. Her pale blonde hair hung in limp curls around her face. Her bright blue eyes brimmed with tears, and some spilled down her cheeks.

Hope's heart ached. She had caused this. Her friends' pain, she had caused it by not telling them.

"I'm sorry," Hope said softly, looking down at her hands. 

"You're about to be!" Taylor shouted and moved towards Hope.

"No, she's not!" Willow said, stopping the grey ninja in her tracks. 

Hope hadn't noticed her friend, since the redhead was standing in the far corner of the room away from Hope. She couldn't see Willow's face since it was hidden by a mane of auburn hair. 

"Why do you keep defending her?! She doesn't even want to be a ninja anymore! She wants to quit!" Taylor yelled in Willow's face.

Willow looked back at Hope, and Hope saw her friend's face. It was red and splotchy, her mint green eyes were red from crying. 

Hope was hit with a wave of guilt. They had read the letter. The one she was going to leave at the embassy, when she went back home for good. 

"Leave her be," Willow said, quietly.

"No! Let's hear it from the woman herself!"

Everyone in the room turned the violet ninja. Hope felt like crying. She didn't want this. She never wanted to hurt her friends like this.

"It is true. I wanted to leave the team, but only for a little while, just until my family was safe in their new home," Hope said.

Four sets of eyes stared at her. Mint green, stormy grey, sky blue, and pinkish-red. They all looked at her and then left the room.

Hope put her head in her hands. How could she have written that stupid letter?