Ame cursed under her breath as the clouds parted above her, drenching her head and pants but thankfully not her torso. If it weren't for her waterproof jacket she was quite sure that she would have caught pneumonia by now. She leapt from tree branch to tree branch, lagging behind her team members for that particular mission. She had one arm gingerly wrapped around her torso, as if holding some precious trinket. In actual fact, she had been wounded by the mission objective, a group of bandits that had been threatening travelers going in and out of the village. It wasn't anything life-threatening but it hurt like hell. Her one teammate had done a good job of patching her up and wrapping her torso in many layers of bandages, for which she was very grateful. She had been shaking too much from the pain to wrap herself up at that point in time. Her katana felt heavier, as it always did after missions like this. Whenever she killed someone a thick, uncomfortable feeling would settle in her gut, and it was only worsened by the kunai wound she'd already sustained.

She moved a little faster to catch up with the group as they neared the village, rain still soaking her hair and dripping into her eyes. She probably looking like a walking waterfall with her blue hair. Ame smiled wryly at the thought. The sun was starting to rise as they drew closer, lighting the sky with pinks and oranges where the cloud cover wasn't too thick. The rain began to taper as the village gates came into view, and Ame let out a sigh of relief at the sight. She would finally be able to sleep in a warm bed. Her hopes were promptly shattered, however, as she entered the village. The guards at the gate spotted her injury and sent her off to the hospital. Ame pouted as she was escorted there, the annoying chuunin acting as her escort spouting nonsense in her ear. 

She'd never liked the hospital all that much. As far as she was concerned, bandages worked fine if your guts weren't spilling out. Which hers weren't, mind you. It was too sterile, too impersonal and clean. It reminded her of the torture room. That was a memory not worth revisiting. Still, regardless of her meagre protests (she reminded herself that she had a clan reputation to keep up) she was taken to a hospital room anyway. As she was taken through the hallways by a friendly nurse she passed an open door. Inside the room she saw a young-looking boy with blonde hair. He looked pretty lonely from the brief glance she'd gotten. She was quickly shoved into her own room across the hallway and told to remove her jacket. She grumbled inside her head, projecting an aura of indifference and a blank stare. The jacket came away sticky with blood and the nurse gasped as she saw the vermillion stained bandages wrapped around Ame's stomach. Ame huffed and turned her head aside as the nurse became a bit more frantic, asking her to lie down so she could examine the wound.

Ame stared at the stark white ceiling as the sun rose properly. They had given her some painkillers and rewrapped the stab wound, careful to make sure she avoided infection. It would put her out of comission for a week, they had said. Had she been anyone else she would have started complaining but she just took it all with a straight face and stopped listening. At least it wouldn't stop her from participating in the Chuunin Exams. If she wasn't allowed to participate she wasn't sure what she'd do. All Ame wanted was to get out of there, but they had stored her katana away for safekeeping and there was no way she was going to leave without her precious blade. 'Echo' meant far too much to her for that. To her surprise (or rather, not to her surprise) no one came to check up on her. Her mother was not present, as always, and the only one she could fathom coming to see her would have no idea she was even there in the first place. 

Eventually visiting hours started in full and Ame could see people wandering around outside her room, thanks to the door being ajar. A nice looking couple walked into the room of the blonde she had seen earlier that morning, and she felt a soft pang of envy at the sight. Would her parents have come to see her had things been different? Who knew? Ryuzojis were indifferent on principle. Ame turned away from the sight, wondering when they were going to let her go home. It was already mid-morning by now, and she had been in the hospital since dawn. The smell of bleach and antiseptics was starting to make her head spin.

A sudden thought struck her. She was supposed to go and fetch a boy from the hospital today. Apparently he was finally well enough to go out on missions. She had completely forgotten about it thanks to the dismal mission she'd been on, and now she was probably late. Ame groaned and tried to roll over, hissing at the sharp pain in her abdomen. She blew a few strands of dark blue out of her eyes and gritted her teeth, pulling herself upwards. It hurt like hell, as if the painkillers had already been neutralised in her bloodstream, but she ignored it and got up anyway.

Ame wrapped an arm around her stomach again, and moved towards the door. She didn't have her jacket, and even if she did it was soaked in blood so it wouldn't make a good first impression. All she had was a thin white tank top and her black sports bra underneath that, coupled with the bandages. Luckily they had given her a pair of black pants that resembled her own, and her sandals were at the foot of her bed. She strapped them on quickly, trying to forget the pain from leaning over and sighing in relief when she straightened out. Ame poked her head around the door and looked up and down the hallway for a moment to see if anyone was coming. Seeing no one she shot down the corridor as fast as she could when she felt like she was being repeatedly stabbed. The lady at the reception seemed wary to give her back her stuff, but ultimately gave up arguing and Ame soon had her katana around her waist and her jacket under her arm.

She was about to ask about a boy that was supposed to be fetched when her nurse noticed her and dragged her back to her room, gear in tow. Somehow, the nurse made a mistake and shoved her inside the room of the little blonde boy from before instead and slammed the door, leaving Ame standing there awkwardly. "Well so much for my great escape." Ame turned and rolled her shoulders, careful not to stretch too far. She blinked when she saw the boy and laughed half-heartedly. "Oh, sorry. It seems I've been delegated to the wrong room. Sorry to bother you." 

Ame watched as Elin seemed to take a bit of offense at the fact that she was younger than him (if the dossier was indeed correct) but quite a bit taller. She had never liked her height very much. She'd always looked like she was in the middle of a growth spurt, all through her years at the academy, and most people she met were shorter than her, regardless of gender. During her academy days she had been mercilessly teased about it, the other kids always saying she was probably an older kid who was stupid enough to be held back. She'd come home crying many times because of the treatment, and it had continued until a few months before graduation - when she had started to wear clothing with the family crest. People had stopped talking to her altogether after that, probably fearing retribution for their prior actions. Back then she had just wished she wasn't so lonely, especially after the incident.  She'd often wished that she was small and petite, more lady-like. It had always been a bit of a sore point for her. As a genin people didn't bother with it, though she had been thought to be older than she was. She supposed it came in handy now, more than it did then. It gave her access to missions that required one to play a part, acting as another. She could pass for people much older than she was, sparing the higher level shinobi from such tedious tasks. Still, the way he seemed to be tense put her on edge as well, but she opted to keep her cool for his sake and kept her nerves from showing.

Ame's natural reaction to being flustered seemed to trigger a memory for Elin and she self-conciously smoothed the now spiked up strands of her. A few people had asked her why she kept her hair so short. She had personally always felt like it was encumbersome at times. Even if having short hair made her look tomboyish it was certainly easier to fight with. Having long hair just made you an easier target.  Still, her hair grew quickly, and the constant haircuts were starting to become a nuisance. Perhaps she would let it grow for a while, just to shoulder length, but only after she made Chuunin. That was a bigger hill to climb. She let her face go momentarily placid, a half smile but not total blankness as she imagined what the exams could entail. She wondered if any of her friends would be participating,  or maybe even this boy in front of her. 

His sudden fall off of his hospital bed startled her from her thoughts. She was too surprised to catch him in time, but he seemed to manage to halt his descent well enough to protect his face. She heard the telltale sound of his breath being knocked out if him and thought that it sounded very familiar. Hadn't Sanosuke-sensei made the same noise when- Ame winced and sucked in a breath for his sake. That must have hurt. His words sounded pained as well. "Um, would you like an ice pack for that? I'm sure I can find a nurse to give you one." She wasn't at all good with akward situations. "Or we could just leave this place. I don't particularly like it. Maybe we could go on a tour of Kumo and introduce ourselves properly? That is of course if you're unused to the city. I'd invite you to my house but... my relatives are less than welcoming of outsiders." Personally she just wanted to get out of that place as fast as possible. She was willing to wait for Elin's decision though.