Betrayal (Hikari)

It was Darkness Yuki who had acted faster than all the guards. Giving up her instinct to chase after the runaway prince, Darkness had instead made a beeline for the princess's sleeping quarters where Tehniyat was preparing herself for bed. Nearly knocking over Atem who stood outside the door, the girl had spilled her story as quickly as she could before the princess. Tehniyat in turn had gone white at the news.

"Ser Atem, a discreet-"

"On it, Your Grace," her personal guard replied vanishing at a speed unmistakably the work of ninja crafts. While he was gone, Tehniyat and Darkness made their way to the injured Tsuji, the guards just beginning to understand. Someone called for the princess to be awakened, only to clumsily kneel down the next moment at the sight of Princess Tehniyat rushing down the hall in her nightgown, her blonde hair in loose waves and no jewelry adorning her regal features.

Entering the room, the blonde saw the chaos left in the wake of the incident, Tsuji lying almost lifeless on the floor, her gown immodestly riding up her legs as she had probably attempted to struggle from her position. She hadn't told Ser Atem to find a female shinobi.

But he was good at understanding things she didn't say. Over their months of service, the two had formed a shorthand she would miss dearly upon her departure.

As for Atem, using his unique brand of kekkei genkai, he had flown out the palace without being seen, leaving the princess with the other guards and Darkness for the moment only because it was an emergency. He could summon Shina but she was on duty, he could get Princess Kanzaki but he doubted the Princess Tehniyat wanted him to wake the younger royal. No, he needed a female ninja with some medical knowledge and he needed her now.

So perhaps it was simply by pure dumb luck that he came across a chestnut haired kunoichi just outside the palace.

"Halt, by order of the Queen, who goes there?"

It had been a long day at the archives as Hikari Namikaze walked toward her apartment, sucking on a cherry lollipop. It was so sweet! The young kunochi had almost forgotten what it was like to eat something besides the healthiest of vegetables and meats. It had been a bit over two month since she joined the academy, and ever since then she had been eating supper healthfuly to keep her energy up as she trained to become a kunochi.

She had almost forgotten what it was like to eat something for the pure joy of it’s taste.

It was later at night when the young kunochi made her way back to her place, but after sitting couped up at a desk for the entire day, the young girl wanted to take a bit of a walk rather than going straight home. So, she decided to take the long way home, and walk by the palace. Now, normally it wouldn’t be safe for a 16 year old girl to be out so late at night, but Hikari was now a kunochi in a shinobi village, she felt like she could handle any common thugs that would try to grab her. (Maybe she couldn’t physicaly beat them up, but she figured that most criminals trying to have their way with a small girl like Hikari would think twice if the small girl suddenly started shooting fire out of her mouth.)

As the young Hikari made her way back to her apartment, she passed by the palace, it was beautiful as ever, Hikari always wanted to be in there. As Hikari was about to pass by it without much more thoughts besides that, she suddenly heard a voice call to her from the darkness.

“Halt, by order of the Queen, who goes there?”

Hikari jumped back on pure reflex at a speed of 50. Looking around before seeing a queen’s man in the darkness confronting her. She would shake a little. Why did he approach her? Was the young Kunochi supposed to be here? She knew that the situation between the religious group and Shinobi of the village was difficult, but Hikari wasn’t under the impression that she wasn’t allowed to travel on the street by the palace.

“I am so sorry sir!” Hikari would apologize, jumping to conclusions, “My name is Hikari Namikaze, and I was under the impression that I was allowed to be here! I didn’t know it was forbidden for me to walk here, but if you let me go, I won’t do it again, Promise!”

Hikari would talk nervously, she didn’t want to get in any trouble, especially as someone so new to the village, she wanted to keep on the guard’s good side, and being anything but the most cooperative would probably land the sixteen-year-old in some trouble that she couldn’t get herself out of.

Her explanation was sound enough, and there was no rules baring ninja or civilian from admiring the palace, but that was not what caught Ser Atem's attention in that moment. His sharp eyes found the glint of her headband, identifying her as a ninja.

"Kuniochi Namikaze," he spoke with as much authority as he could. "Do you by any chance know of medical ninjutsu. the palace is in urgent need of a discreet female ninja right this minute. I would rather you agreed to help us of your own volition but I am authorized to issue a command on the palace's behalf. There has been an injury."

That was all he would say outside the confines of the secure palace walls, however should the brunette agree, he would gesture for her to follow him, leading her through the gates at a quick pace and then, dispensing with all formality, leaping straight up to a window and in through to the second floor and the Prince's room, ensuring the Genin was on his heels.

Hikari would listen to the man as he would ask if she knew any medical ninjutsu. She was about to take a deep breath when she realized she wasn’t in any trouble, but then would loose her breath again when she was told that there was an injury. “Um, about that…” Hikari would respond, “I only know basic medical ninjutsu, nothing special, but if there is anything that I could help with, It would be my honor to be of assistance.” As she agreed, the gurad would signal Hikari to follow her and jump straight into the 2nd story window. Hikari was looked up at him and was about to ask, how anyone normal person was supposed to be able to jump that? It would take her just a few seconds before remembering,

Oh……. I am a kunochi, right. This isn’t even that hard for me. Hikari had been at this shinobi training for a while now, but before that she always had dreamed of jumping through the air the way they shinobi did. She would sometimes forgot that the last few weeks hadn’t been a dream and was reality and that she could do these feats now.

Hikari would jump after the man and land in the window and find herself in a room that obviously belonged to royalty, she would start to admire the room before she saw a body of a young woman on the floor, she obviously had a slit throught. Hikari wanted to paninc, but she knew she had had no time to. This was far beyond her abilities, but if she didn’t try, the woman would die! Hikari would quickly drop down to her knees by the woman and form the sing of the boar, rat and snake, and try to use her basic medical ninjutsu to force the wound close. She had been studying medical ninjutsu on her own, but she hadn’t had the opportunity to practice on anything besides her own injured hand a few times, this was way out of her league.

Hikari would look up, and for a moment would have problems finding Darkness in the group of people watching Namikaze do her work. Hikari would quickly say “The best I can do is slow down the bleeding, if there is someone else in the palace that is a medic, go fetch them.”

Hikari would look down at the woman who was bleeding out. Hikari doubted that anyone would be able to arrive in time to be able to save her, The kunochi had to make a move. She didn’t have any jutsu that could regenerate the wound, but if she could somehow close it….. she could possibly keep the woman alive long enough for more aid to come in.

Hikari would look at the on lookers someone and say “I can’t save her, but I have an idea how to get more time while we get someone who can. Can some one get me a sew and needle? I am going to use a fire style technique to burn the wound close, then, we can sew her throught back together so that she has an air way for oxygen to get into her lungs. At that point, she can either breathe by herself, or we can perform CPR on her until more help arrives. So quickly, someone get me sewing supplies!”
Presuming that no one stopped the crazy girl, Hikari would slip her glove off and rip it up before taking some of the cloth and raping it around her fingure. Forming the proper hand signs, she would cast the Pheonoix flower technique, but would only shoot out one small fire ball, at a speed and power of 5, just enough to burn the cloth. (Which Hikari now realized was a bad idea, because it was burning her own hand as well, but she could suck it up for now.)

Hikari would look down to the woman and say “Hold on, this is probably going to hurt” and bring the flame down on the young girl, trying to burn the wounds close. Presuming this worked, Hikari would look back up and try to see if anyone was coming with the sewing supplies, or even better, a medic was actually here.

(To much to read? Here is the summary, Hikari agrees to go with the man and finds that she is WAY Out of her league. She doesn't want to just leave the woman with the slit throught to die, so she tries basic medical jutsu to no avail. Hikari sends for someone who knows what they are doing and comes up with an idea to try to save the woman. She sends some one for a sewing kit while she tries to stop the bleeding with fire, and now hopes to sew the wound close)

As Ser Atem jumped through the window, Princess Tehniyat opened her mouth to ask, only to close it once again as another girl jumped in after him. Of course Ser Atem had found someone. He had yet to let the princess down.

The girl that came in worked efficiently and creatively, issuing instructions and acknowledging her own lack of expertise. Darkness rushed to assist where she could though the Yuki did not even have the basics of medical ninjutsu learned. Still it didn't require chakra to hold Tsuji's weakening body and try to stop the flow of blood.

When Hikari suggested searing the wound shut, Darkness nodded. Ser Atem made no remark which meant the plan was plausible. Already guards were on the way to get the maester who arrived just as Hikari was searing the wound closed with fire ninjutsu.

The pain in Tsuji's eyes was evident, yet the girl made no sound. perhaps it hurt too much to scream. Tehniyat had witnessed many a brave deeds from knights and nobleman, ninja and priests. But tonight she witnessed the bravery of these girls. Hikari, Tsuji and Darkness, all working together to make the best of a bad situation.

"I'll take care of the stitching," the maester offered respectfully, moving to Tsuji now that the young girl was covered and the blood flow had stopped. Working with quick fingers he further secured the opening of the wound now shut before checking behind her eyes, giving her body a once over and turning a worried expression to the princess.

"Your Grace, Lady Tsuji has sufferer other injuries too, a broken wrist, a severely twisted ankle and a dislocation of the shoulder. My herbs and therapies can relieve pain but mending the bone would require the ninja arts."

Though the words were spoke to Tehniyat, the implication was clear, it was Hikari's job to fix the rest.

Namikaze worked swiftly with searing the wound close, and the open cut was closed, just as the person who asked her to come in got the sewing equipment and said he would take over. Hikari was grateful for this, since she had burnt her figure while searing the wound close and didn’t think she had the ability to stich anything. The guard would start to stich the girl’s neck, she was nowhere near to being out of danger yet, but it looked like she was going to survive. Hikari would start to take a deep breath, she might of not been a medic, but she showed that she could do something besides wait for her allies to die. The kunochi would hear the man say that she needed to preform medical jutsu to fix the girl’s bones, to witch HIkari would respond with “Ok, I will try, but once again, I am not a medical, shinobi, so my jutsu won’t fix her, it will at best stabilize the bone fragments so that no permanent harm will come to her.”

Preforming the proper hand signs, Namikaze would start to work on the injured bones. For the first time, she noticed the cold sweat dripping down her own body. It just dawned on her, she just saved this womans life! Hikari actualy realized just how calm she was in the situation, a few weeks ago, she probably would have been screaming like a chicken with her head cut off. As Namikaze was finishing up doing what she could do to mend the bones, she would look up and realize she didn’t recognize anyone in the room, but they all looked like they were royalty…..

“Um…..” Hikari would stutter, trying to break the tension. “I am not sure, but I do think she will make a full recovery. But… if you don’t mind me asking, what just happened?”

Prehaps that wasn’t the best way to break the tension, but the words sort of just came out of her mouth, she really needed to think more before she spoke.

Had Tehniyat seen fit to speak, she may have admitted she had no die what the kunoichi was saying, bu then again, this was the reason why she was no longer a fit ruler for the country of Haven. The country had changed, as had its people. They deserved a ruler who was better adapted to the change. The blonde did however understand the part about there being no permanent damage to Tsuji, which was the best case scenario. The princess wouldn't have been able to confront her brother if the news she bore regarding his love was bad.

She watched Hikari work, and then watched as the others carefully moved the object of Prince Arashi's affection to a bed where she would await further treatment. Though the princess herself had stayed quiet throughout the healing process, when Hikari asked what had happened, Tehniyat drew herself up off the floor to her full height. She may not know much about the ninja arts but concealing and revealing information was something she had been trained in since birth.

A simple glance at the occupants of the room had the guards and Darkness slinking away, melting into the shadows. The only people now in Prince Arashi's room were the princess, her sworn shield Ser Atem who perched on the windowsill, the unconscious Tsuji and the maester beside her who - for the duration of this conversation - Tehniyat knew would feign deafness as his duty demanded.

Before she could begin however, Atem spoke from his perch, realizing the need for introduction. "Your Grace, I would like to present Genin Hikari Namikaze who agreed to aid is with haste and efficiency." Here he would pause, giving enough time for Hikari to curtsy as decorum demanded when in presence of royalty. Should Hikari not know of this, he would simply continue.

"And Kunoichi Namikaze, you stand before Princess Tehniyat Bukhari, Daughter of Princess Azra Starr and Lord Bukhari, First of her Name and Queen Regent of Haven." He would give Hikari a moment to process the information before the conversation continued.

Hikari's question about what had happened with the girl's slit throught fell on deaf ears, but that might of been for the best, as it was probably better for Namikaze not to know. Hikari would wait and listen until she was spoken to, but instead, Atem would introduce the young Namikaze to the on lookers. Hikari didn't know who she was talking to, but could figure enough that they were some degree of nobility, so Hikari would curtsy to them. She would then be introduced.

"And Kunoichi Namikaze, you stand before Princess Tehniyat Bukhari, Daughter of Princess Azra Starr and Lord Bukhari, First of her Name and Queen Regent of Haven."

Hikari would gasp, (and spit out her lollipop that she forgot she was sucking on and put it into her bag) She was literally talking to royalty right now!

"Your Grace!" Hikari would exclaim, "I apologize for my rudeness and not speaking to you first! I was not aware that I was in the presence of royalty!"

Hikari would curtsy again, and would ask, "If there is anything else I can do to help to help the crown, it would be my honor your grace."

It didn't surprise the princess that Hikari was not aware of her station, after all, the Genin would have no cause to visit the palace and if she was a ninja, chances were she was not a local and therefore unaware of the history and customs of Haven's monarchy. The blonde being recognized wasn't important however, what the ninja said afterwords was.

"The crown thanks you for your help, Lady Namikaze," Tehniyat spoke, her voice slipping into its customary regal tone out of sheer habit. "The person you healed is Lady Tsuji. I am certain that in saving her life, you have not only earned the gratitude of Prince Arashi who is currently courting her but the entire royal family."

Giving Hikari a moment to respond, Tehniyat would continue. "There is one more thing you can assist the throne with. As I'm sure you realize, the need for discretion here is paramount. Therefore we would like to believe you will not repeat tonight's happenings to anyone." Though the request was worded as politely as possible, there was no doubt that it could just as easily have been an order.

"Until Lady Tsuji is healed and her attacker brought to justice, it will not do to swerve rumors of an attack on the palace. I hope you understand the sensitivity with which this has to be treated."

Hikari would nod, if she understood the severity of the situation. If people found out someone was able to infiltrate and make an attack on the royal family, that not only would cause mass panic amoung the masses, but it might invite those looking to do harm to the royal family to give a try themselves.

Hikari would look up at the Her grace and say "Of course your grace, not a word of this will slip out of my lips. Now, is that all that I can do for the royal family tonight?"