The Infirmary

Konohagakure Hospital bustled with activity, a constant symphony of beeping monitors, hushed conversations, and hurried footsteps echoing through sterile white corridors. Fluorescent lights overhead cast an unforgiving glow, exposing every detail in stark clarity. In a quiet room on the top floor, a group of two boys laid in separate beds, all hooked up to IV's and finally in stable condition. They had all been injured in one way or another during the joint Chūnin Selection Exams and had been teleported back here via a teleportation Fūinjutsu.

The system was something that the Fourth Hokage himself had implemented. Knowing that there would be injuries in the second and third rounds of the exams, he had multiple sealing formulas scattered throughout he Forest of Death and also one located in the infirmary located in the tower in the forest's center. The first to arrive was a boy named Hyūga, Yūto, who had passed out multiple times during the exams. It was stated that he had contracted massive amounts of cancer throughout his body, but a family hailing from the Land of Lightning had somehow managed to clear it all out of his system before he arrived here. The second was a boy named Sebaata, who had sustained extensive injuries in his fight with a samurai. Both of the boys had been operated on quickly and stabilized before being sent up to the room to rest and recover. Alongside Sebaata, another individual was brought up to the hospital wing; a female samurai named Asami. The young lady, a practitioner of the Eight Gates, had severely injured herself to the point where she had broken many bones in her body. Besides that she had lost massive amounts of blood, and had she not received immediate transfusions following her battle, she easily would have perished.

Looking onward into the room, a female nurse sighed.

"Three so far. Three!" She said to the person standing next to her as they wrote away on their clipboard. "How many more children are gonna be brought here today on the brink of death?"

"That's the life of shinobi, Hina, you know this just as well as I do." Said the figure next to the nurse. The person, a middle-aged bespectacled man dawning a white lab coat, continued his writing. "You know how rough this world can be." Hina clenched a tight fist at her side. Watari's words did not sit right with her whatsoever.

"They are just children, Watari!" Hina screamed. The bustling in the hallway behind her ceased as countless eyes drew their attention to her and Watari. Hina blushed with anger, begrudgingly lowering her voice. "For crying out loud the boy from Hoshigakure needed extensive surgery to remove cancer from his Chakra system. He's only fourteen."

Watari ceased his writing before setting his pencil down upon the clipboard and removing his round glasses.

"I sympathize with you, Hina. I really do, but that is the state of the world nowadays. You are new here, and because of that you didn't see any of the horrors I saw during the last war." Watari paused for a moment, shuddering as images flooded in his memory. Watari had not been one of the people on the frontlines of the Third Shinobi World War, but despite being home in Konohagakure, he wasn't much better off. Those who had been injured in battle and stabilized enough to return home had been put under his care. He had to perform countless surgeries on children who were fresh out of the academy, even those who were younger than the two boys in the room next to him.

Despite his best efforts the majority of them did not make it beyond the operating table. The atrocities of war lived within himself, and he knew that he could do nothing about the future other than to prolong the lives as the injured as much as he could.

"Watari?" Hina asked. Watari jerked upwards, coming back to his senses. The man cleared his throat.

"Yes, Hina?"

"You were saying something? About the war?"

Watari frowned for a moment before sighing and replacing his glasses, pushing them firmly back into place with his middle finger.

"The war was horrible, Hina. Damn horrible. Despite that, the injuries these boys sustained are nothing in comparison to what those on the frontlines did." Watari looked into the room, where Yūto and Sebaata laid sound asleep. "Lets just pray that they never do..."

Sebaata stood in a mental haze, aimlessly walking through a terrible sandstorm. The endless dunes stretched as the heat of the sun penetrated the thick veil of sand. He dragged his feet, attempting to find something... anything... He felt the sand underneath.  He attempted to control the sand around him to no avail. As he found his footing, he noticed that there was a figure in the distance. He blinked and tried to focus on it but the sand shrouded it. The figure began to move towards him. He could hear the sand shifting with each of its steps. The figure grew bigger and bigger. Sebaata panicked, attempting to reach for a weapon, of which he had none on his person. The figure towered in front of him. Slowly, it lowered its head to Sebaata. He couldn't move no matter how hard he tired. The figure had one large tail flailing around, seemingly controlling the storm. He locked eyes with the beast. Gold eyes stared at Sebaata. It opened its mouth and slowly encapsulated him and closed his jaw shut.

Sebaata screamed as he sat up on his bed. Pain shot through his entire body. His body jolted back into a laying position involuntarily as the pain became too much to handle. He touched his face to make sure his mask was still on, feeling the cold sweat from his nightmare envelop him like an uncomfortable blanket. He surveyed his surroundings and looked upon a familiar sight. The ninja that had collapsed during the exams and had to be taken away. He looked at him silently.

Startled by the sudden scream. Fumiko woke from her impromptu nap, “Who’s there!” She springs to her feet, kunai drawn, as she sees Sebaata fall back into the hospital bed. She lowers her guard and pulls out some salve she made, “Hey I came to check on you after that crazy fight. This ointment will help with the pain and the swelling around your broken ribs.” She casually tosses the can onto Sebaata and sits back down on her chair. “So that Asami girl, is there something going on between you two?” She says as she leans back and crosses her arms and puts her leg up over the other.

Sebaata looks at Fumiko, her posture gives off an air of... Jealousy? What a weird thing to say out the gate... Why?... "She is a good friend and a powerful ally... " He intently analyses her body language. "I feel like you assume there is more to us?... Like romantically correct?... " 

Sebaata looks at the ointment that she tossed on him, feeling a dull pain where it laid. He attempted to grab it but found it difficult to apply it on his chest. He winces at the pain. "We are two warriors similar goals in life... Nothing more... "

She leaned in with a mild blush of embarrassment on her face, “Oh, I just assumed the way you two ogled each other there had to be something more.” she reaches forward and snaps away the ointment he was fumbling with. “I’ll help you put this on, ONLY because it will help with the pain. Broken ribs are no joke.” she gently spread the ointment on his chest. “So I see the leaf headband, but I haven't seen you around too much. I’m assuming you're another stow away from the war like Ray and Akio?”

Sebaata gritted his teeth as she applied the ointment. "Thank you... I appreciate your help... " As he spoke, he tried to hold back his pain. "I am a refugee of the Sand village... My people scattered across the land... My family was taken in by the leaf..." He gestures to his right arm with his head, drawing attention to his tattoo of the Sand Symbol. "I will always fight for the sand... I will rebuild them..." 

He began hearing those voices again. He could hear it from the red mask that was placed on the stand next to his bed. Kill! Kill! Kill! He shook the voices out of his head and focused on Fumiko once again. "So... You didn't participate in the Chunin exams... Why is that?... The rest of your team did... " He paused. Don't make this awkward again like when you had lunch before your fight with Asami... "I am not judging you... So please don't think that I what I am doing... I'm just curious... "

“I don’t know, I just think there is so much more to life than following the rules and being a shinobi.” She finishes applying the ointment and leans back into her seat resuming her previous position. She stares out the window. “There were a lot of people hurt in the war, and yet were so eager to go back to how things were before it all started. Doesn't make much sense to me.” Her seal on her face and eye seem to shimmer slightly. “So, what's your plan? How are you going to bring back the sand? I know someone who was there when it fell and they would love to know.”

"Who is the person who you are referencing?... " Sebaata looked at her as she stared out the window. There is something about how the sun hits her... I can't put my finger on ... 

He relaxed a bit, feeling a slight relief from his pain in his midsection. "I... I don't know... I do know that my first step is to become one of the strongest ninja... Once I do that I will rebuild the village as a Sand Mason and become Kasekage as a Bloody Sand ninja... " he attempts to sir up, laying his back against the headboard and wall. "It is going to be a difficult journey... It already is... "