Still badly wounded from the fight that was only two days ago, Tenkuu felt like a failure. Her village had counted on her and she had failed them. What kind of Kage let their village be burned to ashes. She should have listened to her high ranking ninja. She should have paid more attention to Cross's warning. Tenkuu sighed heavily as she exited the badly burned building that was once the Kage Building. Looking up at it she shook her head. She needed to find Lee and Shen. They had to start organizing patrols in case rogues found them as an easy target, and organize building groups while making sure to train the genin and continuing to tend to the wounded. There was so much to do, and no one knew how little time.

Ivan sat on the top of a building with his hands tucked his in pants pocket. He was exhausted from the fight and upset that they had lost. The village was ruined and would take months of rebuilding to get back in order. "Some Kage we have," he mumbled under his breath as he watched Tenkuu look at the Kage Building. He jumped down and approached her. "Hello Lady Tenkuu," he greeted with a smile.

Lee looked over the destruction the battle had left. The buildings had been burnt, blood was shed, hell, even some where close to dead. And for what? For nothing. For pain and suffering. And that was surely what would be coming to this village in less than a day.
She sighed. There would be much to do if they wanted to bring this village back from the destruction. Sometimes she wondered what kind of people would do this to a village.
But she still did not know, nor did she want to know. And right now, that wasn't important. What was important was to make sure everyone was alright and tend to the worse of wounds. It was also important to send out ninja to make sure the village wouldn't be ripped apart by anyone setting against them. And finally, they needed to start rebuilding the ashes.
But for some reason Lee couldn't bare to say anything, or help any downed ninja. There was too little time to do so much! Lee had no idea how to take on the situation. She had someone else to tend to, also.
Lee looked up at the sky. They had lost. And every ninja was to blame, not just herself or the Kage, not just the ANBU ninja. But somehow, she felt like she bared the whole weight of the world on her shoulders.
No. Now was not the time to feel like this. In fact, she should be making sure that her little sister was okay. She also had to see if the Kage needed her.
Slowly Lee set out for the place she called her home. What she saw horrified her.
Laying in the grass was a girl. A little girl. No older than four. Her eyes where shut. Her blonde hair was spread out and she seemed to be hugging a golden dog.
The dog had wrapped itself around her, as if protecting. Lee found herself fall to her knees. She slowly reached out, touched her hand to the dog's nose, and it stirred very little. She than placed her hand on the child's cheek. No movement came from her. Only very, very rasped and slow breathing.
"Mai..." Lee's voice was very soft. It was also filled with pain. Lee slowly bowed her head. She couldn't force herself to speak. She could only sit there, helpless to do anything. She didn't know what had happened, but it happened to her. It happened to her little sister. Her helpless little sister.
Lee's hands tightened into fists and gripped the grass in her palms. She has felt tears very slowly form. If s real ninja had done this, she'd kill them. But it probably wasn't a ninja. It might have been a fire, and Mai barley escaped. But Lee didn't have her hopes up for the child's survival.
How could this have happened?
And... why...?


(FF- I can do so much better...)

This couldn't have happened. Not again. Not when everything had finally started getting better. For the time being, Shen had dropped the idea of going to Tenkuu and was looking for Etsu. As soon as he did though, his mind immediately entered panic mode, on instinct. "Etsu??" He called, looking around for the young girl almost frantically. Where is she? Please let her be okay, he wished silently. Now Shen was never the type of guy who prayed for anything, but this was one exception he was willing to make. His whole being prayed for her to be okay. He swallowed and looked around, calling out for the small child once more.

Etsu sniffled as she sat on the side walk crying her little heart out. She was covered in soot from the previously burning buildings and had a few cuts and scrapes from her fight with Kai, but other than that she was fine. But she was still crying which was rare because she was a happy go lucky kid. The reason for her tears were one, she was tired, two smoke had made her eyes burn, three people all around her were hurt, dying, or dead, and four, "They killed my dog," she whimpered.

Akira was doing his best to help out the wounded Stealth Ninja. His skills in medicine were that of an actual medical ninja. He was glad to learn some of the Stealth's ways of healing as well as share his own ways with them. Standing up from a badly injured ninja who'd received first degree burns, he started to the other side, only to spot a girl with a smaller girl. Not nearly as tired as he should be, he approached her with caution. "May I check her?" Akira asked. If there was any chance of saving the child, he would try, but only if permitted.

Shen ran over to Etsu when he saw her crying. He knelt down to her and went to ask if she was okay, when he heard what she said. He felt terrible. No child should have to go through something like that. With a light sigh, Shen picked Etsu up and stood up himself, hugging her lightly against him. "It's okay Etsu, shh....are you hurt?" He asked, his voice soft. After he took care of Etsu, he'd have to go see Tenkuu. He was beyond pissed right now, but he was holding it in for Etsu's sake. When he went to see Tenkuu, he'd have to take her with him. After what happened...he wasn't about to leave her anywhere by herself anymore. He had no best friend that she knew, that he knew would watch over her, nowhere to let her stay that she would feel safe that wasn't right by his side...no, he wouldn't do that to her so soon after.

Lee looked up slightly when she heard a voice. She slowly looked down to Mai's face before back to the guy, "You are a medical trained ninja I take it?" He voice was stiff, but she tried to keep it steady.
She slowly backed off from her sister and grabbed the color of the dog, who looked up carfully. It then stood up and crawled toward Lee.
Lee patted the dogs head slightly giving a small fake smile, "It'll be okay, boy..." She told it before looking at Akira, "Please, do what you can. Loosing her would be loosing the only real family I have left."
Lee looked down to the dog. It appeared to have no real injuries, just a little bit choked from smoke. Lee slowly ran her hand down it's head. At least he would be okay, if not anything else.
Lee turned back to her little sister. Oh, what she would give to have it as herself instead of a helpless four year old.
Lee sunk her head sadly. This would not be the best of days. Definitely not. In fact, already the day had nearly killed her and right now, she literally felt like something had stabbed her right in the heart.
It was just so painful...

Sukai looked at the battle ruined village. "I should have done better with gathering the separated ninja," he said with a sigh. Sukai was helping remove the rubble in case anyone was under there. He looked to a fellow ninja. "I'll be back, I'm going to go help over on the other side," he said with a nod. As he walked he spotted Shen. He hadn't been on the best of terms with the ninja at one point. But all the T'lula stuff was behind him and he didn't mind the presence of him. "Shen, do you need me to be anywhere specific?" He asked.

Lightning was on guard duty around the village.She continued to help pick up things where they needed to be picked up,and set traps in case any enemy came toward them.She sighed,trying to resist but throwing an electrified knife into a tree,splitting into it."Damn it...."she whispered in anger.She hated losing....it was something wasn't use to.

Akira nodded and bent down to examine the small child. She was young, and he was going to take a wild guess and say that her and the older girl were sister. He checked the child's breathing. It was weak, but at least it was there. Akira knew that if he didn't work quickly the child would be lost, which meant he'd have to let everything around him fade out so he could have full focus. He gave a steady sigh and got to work. Starting with a clear blue liquid that he made the girl drink to clear her airways. There was a chance she'd inhaled a lot of smoke due to her lack of breathing. Once done with that, he sat started on her wounds. Mostly burns and it looked as if she had taken a few kunais, nothing to serious, but he'd check for poison. If it was a poison in her system, he would have to find out which one and that would take time. For someone so small, poison could be lethal. He'd probably need Ziade for this. He started his checking for poison and just as he suspected there were traces. He felt his heart sink lightly. He turned to Lee. "Go find the woman with black hair and a blue kimono. Hurry, it's urgent. Tell her Akira sent you." He could extract but the Snow had come to wipe out the Stealth so he wouldn't put it past them to use a high level poison.

Etsu sniffled as she Shen picked her up. Wrapping her arms around his neck she started to cry. "I'm fine," she answered. She was glad to know he was alive. "Are you okay?" She asked in turn. She tried to stop crying but just couldn't. Shen was all she had left and for a brief moment in time though she'd lost him. What if she had!? She'd be all alone. She leaned her head against his shoulder. "That man is calling you," she said between sniffles.

Tenkuu looked at the Chuunin as he gave her a hello. Why was he smiling. This wasn't a smiling matter! In fact, this was horrible. Maybe she was just over reacting. He was only being nice. "Hello," she said. "I'm sorry but I don't know your name," she said. She didn't often get on a name basis with all her ninja unless it was important. She looked around the village. She did not want to walk through and witness all the damage, but she needed to check on everyone and most of all, find her Captain and Assistant.

Shen rubbed Etsu's back lightly when she hugged onto him. "Yeah, I'm okay," he reassured her, letting her cry against him. His demeanor had changed from panicked to solemn in no time at all, but he was just glad that Etsu was alright. He didn't think he'd have been able to handle losing her too. First the Akatsuki, and now the Snow Valley...this was getting ridiculous. It couldn't continue. Something had to change. The Stealth could not kept being dealt these blows like this, their moral would never recover at this rate! He didn't want to blame Tenkuu for any of this, but having their forces spread out like they'd been didn't help in the least. And Tenkuu, though now legally an adult, was still much too young to be handling such matters as running a village. Shen still believed that she should've been out having fun with friends like a normal girl. Shen looked to Sukai as he called, and nodded. "Please tell Lady Tenkuu I will find her shortly." He paused. "Thanks Sukai," he said, giving the other ninja a nod. He looked back to Etsu, whom he was still holding. "Etsu, do you want to do anything before we go see the Kage? Do you want me to get you anything?" he asked softly. He knew he should've been helping other ninja at this point, but Etsu was his top priority right now. Nothing else mattered.

Sukai looked at the kid Shen was holding, but didn't question it. He paid attention as Shen gave him a message to tell Tenkuu. "Will do." He said and started to walk away. When he got to his sister he saw her talking to a Chuunin. "Um, excuse me Tenkuu, Shen said he's on his way, he's taking care of a kid right now." Sukai looked to the Chuunin and back to Tenkuu. "You need me anywhere?"

Etsu had stopped crying by now. She looked at Shen and shook her head no to his question. The only thing she wanted was to stay close to him unless the snow ninja came back. For right now, she just wanted to keep an eye on him because without him, there was nothing for her to go to. Yawning she closed her eyes and leaned against his shoulder. "I'm tired," she said. Sleeping always helped her feel better and all that crying was only making her eyes feel heavier by the second. She hoped he wouldn't mind her taking a tiny nap.

"Ivan Thorn." He said introducing himself and then looked to Sukai. He had a feeling that Sukai wanted him to be working instead of bothering the Kage. "I'll be heading off, there seems to be work to do." Ivan gave a curt nod and walked away. He didn't need to be any place that he wasn't wanted. That included being around the other ninja. He went around and approached a group of ninja helping each other to push over a tree that had fallen onto a building. "Is there anyone under that?"

Tenkuu held in a sigh as Sukai relayed the message. "Thank you Sukai, you're dismissed. All I ask is that you help anywhere that needs to be fixed, which is everywhere." She shook her head lightly. "Never did I think there would be a day when all the world around me would suddenly crumble. I have let me village burn to ashes, let me people die in vain. I am no Kage." I am a murderer.

Lee watched Akira as he worked. He seemed to know what he was doing.
When he asked of her to go find the woman, she nodded, took a quick look at Mia, and bolted off, in search of her. She slowly ran over the description in her head.
Black hair and a blue kimono... Akira was from the imfamous five, wasn't he? Lee sighed. That must mean he wanted Ziade. The leader.
Lee nodded to herself and quickened her search. She might have to search long for her, but she wasn't ready to loose her only true family member.
"Please, Mia, hang in there..." She whispered. She stopped and shut her eyes for a moment, making a silent prayer. She wasn't one to do that, but just once, she was fearful. Fearful that her sister might die and she'd be alone.
Lee suddenly shook her head, "No. Look at yourself." nothings going to happen if you just sit there! she quickly looked around, searching for Ziade. She needed to find her.

Ziade didn't understand. They'd been taking out ninja left and right. This failure certainly was no fault of her groups. They'd done all they could. Taken out ninja after ninja. There simply hadn't been enough ninja in the village to hold off the Snow. There was only so much a group of five could do, strong as they were. Ziade tried not to let it bother her, but it wasn't working very well. It was rare that they ever failed a mission, even one as intense as this. She went through the village, helping others where she could, though helping others was not quite her forte. She saw a girl looking around in search of something or someone, but there were many of those around, so she ignored her and went about doing the same thing she'd been doing before.

Kaoru entered the Stealth with the other Crested ninja. They'd already talked with the Kage and were ready to help out. "Alright everyone, spread out and help where you can," she ordered. Kaoru herself was going to go aid with the smaller children. No medical stuff involved, just making sure that they were okay and help them find their parents and things of that nature.

Lee quickly looked to her right. There. That was it. She quickly raced over, "Excuse me, but you are needed." She simple said to Ziade.
She thought for a moment, "One of the ninja... He's a medical ninja.. I think. Well, he needs your help." She was calm as saying it, trying to hide her fear for her sister.
She didn't mean to interrupt her, but this was urgent, "Akira, I think his name was. He told me to get you."
She nervously pushed hair out of her eyes and waited for Ziade's response. She was worried of why the woman was needed. If it was urgent, then she knew that her sister was in danger.
Then it hit her. Poison. That might be the reason it was so urgent. She shifted her weight to the other leg and sighed.

(I just realized. The life of the child was just placed into my hands. Akira, you coward.)

Ziade stopped walking and looked at the girl who approached her, saying she was needed. Was one of her group in danger? Had something happened? Those thoughts came and went through her head as she was told a medical ninja needed her help. She knew no medical ninja that knew her. Akira wasn't a ninja, but it was stated a moment later that he was indeed the one who needed her. "Lead the way," Ziade answered with a nod, following behind the girl.

When they arrived at the spot, Ziade saw that Akira was taking care of a small child, very young. It figured. Akira really was quite soft. Walking up to him, she looked over the child. "I'm assuming the child was poisoned? Otherwise you'd have had no need to call me," she said, her gaze on Akira. Out of the five in her group, Ziade was by far the most skilled in anything having to do with poison, including antidotes. And her entire group knew it, Akira included. It only made sense that he would call her to the scene.