“Thank you. Blessing be onto you for saving us.” The man bowed as he thanked me profusely.

I hadn’t done anything to save his family personally, not really, so I simply offered his injured wife who’d been late from work that fateful day a smile and him a pat on his bowed shoulder as left their room.

Two doctors hovered around me and Ao despite the spirit of haste that subsumed the hospital. I didn’t mind, they made themselves available should I have any questions, demands or wish to address my bandaged foot. Besides, they promised most of the cases coming into the hospital aren’t emergency cases like it was that day and just about everyone has gotten a moment with a professional.

I was glad to hear that. The official report on our losses should have been on my table but I frankly haven’t sat in office for some days now. Just about every time I get the chance to work in the Mizukage Tower, said work includes assigning missions I remembered were time sensitive or attending council meetings.

But as far as I’ve seen and as far as the doctors shadowing us have told me, only about twelve Chuunin and three Jounin died in the Kaguya Extermination. A lot more were left injured however and that affects Kiri’s manpower and morale by a significant amount.

If I hadn’t destroyed them all then and there… Well, the worst that could have happened is that more Kiri shinobi would’ve been lost to them since, again, the ANBU prioritized surrounding me than fishing out the enemies running loose. Something I have to work on correcting once I find the time.

The Kaguya on the other hand were, well, exterminated. As per my orders the Jounin teams that could manage it captured rather than executed and there were quite a few of those teams because I now had thirteen more imprisoned Kaguya.

I told Eiko I only needed one and so he’d have twelve to satisfy his many curiousities about the Kaguya and their Bloodline Abilities. I intended to visit my prisoner in time and interrogate them on what I can expect of his clan, except the obvious Bone murder and pillaging, of course, but first, I thought I had a duty to show face to those injured in line of carrying out my orders.

Most of them were Chuunin and Jounin that responded to the call early and quickly found themselves opposite a Kaguya with little information on their Kekkei Genkai. Another large set were the civilians that were caught in the middle of fleeing into their homes, the ones that served hostage to the Kaguya invading their homes and others who fell into collateral damage as Kiri shinobi meted out justice to the Kaguya.

Of the surviving civilians Kiri had a responsibility to take care of their health expenses as well as provide temporary housing for those that had no home to return to, which was a fair amount. As Mizukage, approving housing and continued health care was one of the things that awaited me when I resumed working at the Tower.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Ao and I strolled through the hospital, the doctors showing us the rooms with shinobi in recovery. I’d peek in, thank the men, women or boys and girls lying in recovery and they’d thank me for their presence. Several of them suffered stab wounds and cuts with only a few suffering heavy trauma in the form of severed fingers or broken bones.

I let them heal as I got the feeling they weren’t too comfortable having the Mizukage look upon them in their weakest and pathetic states, whereas the truth couldn’t be further from it. I made sure to let them know I am grateful for the service before moving on.

The next room Ao and I are shepherd to has a familiar face, one I wasn’t expecting to see. She wasn’t expecting to see me either by her reaction. Her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open as she stuttered, “Mizukage-sama…”

Rina wore a simple polka dot hospital nightwear and was taking in fluids from a drip stand. She held onto the metal bar of the stand to pull herself from bed but I was already pushing her shoulders so she lays down.

“Rina…” I wasn’t sure what to say here. Many of the shinobi I visited today weren’t any I knew personally, I wore the face of the Mizukage and paid them the respect and honour they were due for serving their village. But I was stiff, informal and quite distant, Rina and I weren’t much closer but there were more threads tying us than some random Kiri shinobi.

Since I couldn’t find the right words, Ao took care of it for me and demanded information from the doctors still shadowing us, “How is she? How did she end up here and when will she recover?”

The doctors straightened up, caught off guard since we hadn’t bothered speaking to them since but quickly recited the state of her well-being from a chart at the end of her bed.

“She suffered multiple stab wounds to her back and legs, we’ve already seen that the pressing wounds have been sealed and ensured the internal bleeding stopped. She should recover fully in a week to three with consistent care.” The doctor replied, looking relieved that there was little left to do with her, “She lost a lot of blood though so we’re trying to replace some of that fluid before setting her back on solids.”

I nodded and turned back to Rina who had a turned away from me to hide the very visible blush on her cheeks. I smiled and held her hand, “Thank you, Rina, for protecting Kirigakure.”

Still hesitant to look me in the eye she nodded and turned enough I’m sure she could make me out in her periphery, “It was my honour, Mizukage-sama…but I should have done more.”

Whether that was the reason she avoided looking me in the eye or something else, I didn’t want our interaction to end there, too formal and stiff. So I thought and decided, “When you’re healed up, pay me a visit and we’ll train in a topic of your choosing.”

That caught her interest because her head snapped all the way to awe up at me, “Really? Any topic? Even Ninjutsu?”

I smiled and patted her hand as I got up to leave, “Any.”

She grinned, “I will.”

Ao and I left afterwards, I felt glad and satisfied to see Rina that I figured it was about time the doctors herded me to the second reason I visited the hospital. The Yuki Clan head ran the place and according to rumours as well as Yagura’s memory, he was the most compassionate of all five main clan heads.

I just hoped he had some compassion for the clan responsible for many of the injured shinobi resting in his hospital, I needed a place to host the Kaguya clan remnants and so far, I was running out of clan heads to ask.