The bandages unwrapped and fell to the ground, motionless. The blisters were gone and Yuushi didn’t think there would be any permanent scarring, but the skin was still a bright pink and had quite a bit of sheen on it. Applying another generous dose of cooling balm on his forearms, to soothe the irritating pain for at least few hours more, Yuushi grabbed the clean bandages and began to gingerly wrap them around the wounded locations, his body taking care of the process as his mind began to slowly drift away, as if languidly being drawn out to another time, to another place, remnants of things that had transpired flashing inside his head. There, all done., he thought to himself, forcefully dragging his consciousness back to the present, tying a knot on the bandage on his left arm.

Grabbing the rejected, sullied wrappings, he brought them to the bathroom and deposited them in the hamper, when he got home later. Turning to the sink, he splashed some water on his face and eyed himself in the mirror, finding a pair of worn-out blue eyes, their piercing glare nothing but a shade of its past self. It had been roughly two weeks since his arms had gotten seared. His chest, too, but that was not as severe, and had healed up quickly. He had decided to not go to the hospital or see a professional medic. Rather, he tended to his own wounds, facing his own pain and agony, justifying to himself that he caused them and, as such, he had to fix it.  Every day, he would apply cooling balm to his forearms and change the bandages several times, refusing to take any form of pain killers besides the balm. And even then, he had to be coaxed for two days on end, by a sweet lady on the third floor, to use her special recipe on his damaged arms – of course, he couldn’t say no. His sweater and fishnet undershirt had been irrevocably damaged and, thus, trashed the very same day… and he could swear a small patch of his hair, right above his left ear, looked darker than usual ever since, but rather dismissed it as imagining things. Returning to reality, he dried the water off of his visage and left the bathroom, heading for bed, after an uneventful day.

He had been exonerated from his job due to his injury, until he was completely healed, though his boss had been generous enough to let him keep his pay. He had argued that if he did not work, he should not get paid, but the owner of the hotel had not listened. In Yuushi’s mind, he had taken pity on him, on his injury gotten in the process of trying to become an asset to the village. A heroic injury suffered in the line of duty. But Yuushi knew better. He knew the cause of this injury was, at best, moronic. Jumping into a fireball? Who would do such a thing? And then to get rewarded with free, paid time for it?
In addition to his physical injuries, he had suffered deeper, longer lasting scars that day. He knew that all the three of them, the Genin, had somehow besmirched their chances at success, some more than others. And if anyone had to take the prize of the biggest screw-up, it would undoubtedly be Yuushi. He had been the rock that had fallen and caused the avalanche, the genesis of their whole team coming undone.  It was a weight he had carried on his shoulders ever since that day, and one that he could not hope to see ameliorated nearly as quickly as his physical counterpart. It was this discomfiture of his, this uneasiness that had kept him at bay from his teammates, even if one of them lived literally right down the hall.

Naturally, however, Yuushi didn’t exactly sit at home every day. The first few days, he tried to work normally, even through the burning and throbbing that unceasingly tormented his arms, but it was impossible – every time, he had been caught by his superior and, thus, told to go rest. Resting, however, was utterly beyond the bounds of possibility. Whenever his body stopped, his mind raced, vividly revisiting the immediate past, so vividly in fact that, on a few occasions, Yuushi would have sworn he had heard a set of voices – one extremely angry, one emotionless and cold and another full of feeling and worry -, or even felt the blistering heat of the fireball, enveloping his body anew. Thus, for his mind to stay at rest, his body had to keep moving. Walking about was his first options but proved to be thoroughly ineffective, as it was not strenuous enough to conserve all of his concentration. And then he was reminded of the determination that he had felt after Yoroi had left the training ground, on that day. Like a jolt of electricity running through his body, like the very breath of life that had inundated his body and kept him alive when he first laid eyes on the village of Konoha, this galvanizing feeling was still very much branded into his recollection of the whole event. And that is how he began training every day.

Every morning since then, Yuushi would wake up, shower, get dressed, change his bandages, and depart. Exiting the village and heading to a nearby forest by the side of a road, he would immerse himself into the thicket, braving the grove to its core, where he made his training grounds. Here, he found himself revisiting what he had been taught at the academy, the most basic of the techniques, as well as the techniques he learned since then. Physical training, too, was a large part of it, as he ran and exercised to build up his stamina and endurance, he jumped from tree to tree to train his agility, worked on his core muscles and on his limbs, and calmly meditated to focus on his chakra control. His progress was… small at best, but nonetheless, it was the effort that counted. This new regiment of his allowed him to more peacefully live his current days, exerting his physical energies which, in turn, kept his mind tired enough to not wander.

He had been unsure what would come out of this whole team situation. It had been clear they had failed the original assignment and, just as Yoroi had initially explained, his former team was disbanded for similar reasons – failure, incompatibility and personal issues. He hadn’t been quite as clear, however, as to where the team now stood. He had mentioned a next time – but who could truly know?
Yuushi’s doubts, even if he hadn’t bothered to ponder on them all too much, were dispelled on the 15th day after the failed exercise. Arriving at the hotel reception as the sun lowered on the horizon, he found another formal envelope addressed to him. Clearly from Yoroi, like the first, he grabbed it and took it to his room, where he opened and read the message inside, detailing the next mission.

It seemed that, on the next day, they were to meet on the forest by the Roiyaru Road, the very same forest Yuushi had been training in, to begin a cleaning process of the same woods, picking up litter and scouring the location for any kind of trash. Sighing, he threw the letter to his table, as he sat on his raggedy couch. They would all be meeting on the next day, and there was no escaping from that. He could just quit… but then again, what good would that be? Yes, he had annihilated their chances at success last time, but that did not mean he should not try again. What good would all of his training be for, then? No, running away would not do.

Calming his anxiety, he finished his nightly rituals and went to sleep quite early. Equally early, the next day, he was already up and getting ready. In fact, the sun’s brilliance had not even tinged a shred of the sky, yet, when he was out of the door, treading calming towards the outside of Konohagakure, set on starting early. By the time he reached his destination, a slight orange tint had began appearing over the horizon, but the dusk’s bitter breeze still dug its boreal fangs into his clothes flesh. He wore a thin black sweater on top of a fishnet undershirt and a pair of simple, dark blue baggy pants, and as he began to slightly shiver, he dreamed of his high neck sweater, his warmest one, that had been charred beyond repair last time. Why he had decided to come so early he did not know but, seeing as he was already here, Yuushi concluded that he might as well begin the whole process, starting to pick up the trash immediately next to the road, where it was more abundant and easier to spot and collect. After all, even if he did not make a dent into the overall work load, at least he would keep his body warm, and his mind off things.

As Yuushi continued the clean the roadside part of the forest, the sun slowly starting to make its way across the sky, the trash pile he had began gathering quickly rose and, soon, almost reached his waist. It wasn't exactly hard to figure out why this part of the forest was so littered and dirty, as in the short half an hour he had been here, even in these early hours in the morning, there had been quite a few people who had passed by him already, using the road nearby. With this influx of people, it was no wonder this much trash had collected here, no matter how irresponsible and damaging that turned out to be.

Grabbing a trash bag out of his pocket, Yuushi hung it from a nearby tree branch, filling it with all the trash he had already collected. Soon after, and just as he had began to slightly move away from the road, further into the forest, he heard a recognizable voice from behind him – Nomi. He had been preparing himself for this moment, the moment he had to face Nomi and Genji, being that that was one of the reasons why he had decided to come so early. Not only would he begin to get some work off the way, this lone working of his, near the woods, was the perfect chance to prepare for the upcoming meeting. Truthfully, he was not entirely sure how they would react to this meeting themselves. On one hand, there was Nomi, friendly and kind. Even if she did blame him for what happened, she would never say it. Rather, she would act amiable towards him, act her usual silly self in hopes of raising his spirits and, most important of all, he knew she would do her utmost to try to help him in whatever his grievances were. On the other hand, there was Genji. He had undoubtedly blamed Yuushi for the whole ordeal, and also for bringing back those remnants of olden days, the barely forgotten, never forgiven events of his past, whatever they were. Who knew if he was even willing to show up for such a meeting, at this point? After all, only two weeks had passed. Two weeks that had felt like a lifetime, to Yuushi, as he immersed himself in his thoughts, in his doubts and in his self-pity - but were no more than two weeks, nonetheless.

Regardless, he had figured that it was pointless and a hindrance to himself to have some kind of preplanned machination to deal with his teammates’ reactions, when in fact, he had absolutely no notion of how those reactions would take place. To improvise would be, he had decided, the best course of action, rather reacting to their own moods and behaviors. With a silent, short deep breath, he tossed the trash he had been holding into the suspended trash back, a mere foot away from him, and slowly turned to face Nomi, who had began doing her own share of work.

”Hello Nomi. I am fine, thank you. I decided to come early and start, to get it out of the way. How about you? You look well.” he answered her, making some sort of an effort to create a dialog, despite the fact that he was naturally and obviously terrible at this sort of thing. With this short exchange between the two, they both settled silently into their work, making little progress before the third member of the team arrived. Genji was markedly silent, especially when put into contrast with the last time he and Yuushi had seen each other. Still, Yuushi felt some surprise in the fact that he did decide to show up, at all. Considering what had happened between them, Genji being here was as much of a commitment as Yuushi could expect from anyone. It wasn’t Yuushi’s place to decide or judge how the other young man was supposed to act once he was here, when he had the right to not be here at all. Naturally, there was the fact that this was more or less official work, so not being here would also be somewhat of a nonexistent option. Regardless, Genji might’ve been able to switch teams, if he had required to do so. Nomi, Yuushi guessed, was also a big factor in all of it – she and Genji were friends and closer than they appeared at first sight. Genji abandoning her due to what happened on the last mission would be unfair, to her, and most likely something that would hurt her terribly.

Yuushi, on the other hand… really had no ties here. Of course, there was some sort of blooming friendship starting between him and Nomi, but… If he had to decide which of the two – he or Genji – were closer and more important to Nomi, the answer was quite obvious. So, why did not Yuushi simply resign? Save himself the chagrin, save Nomi the trouble of having to try to patch things up, to try to bridge the antagonistic sides of the divide together, and save Genji the effort of having to pretend to be interested and into these circumstances, for the sake of Nomi. Maybe even save Yoroi the trouble of putting up with their crap once again. But who knows about that one, it is impossible to tell without knowing someone – maybe he enjoyed it, though that did not seem to be the case, by the reprimands he had handed out at the end of the previous exercise. But, alas, this quandary had already been analyzed by Yuushi. He had wanted to give up from this whole ordeal, free the two others from him, allowing them to progress as ninja without putting up with his antics and flaws. But he couldn’t do it. He realized that this was his last chance to make something of himself and, so, he had to take the selfish path for now, the one where he once again would possibly endanger those around him. If things did get to that point, however, he had decided to simply give up, to go down without bringing anyone with him. His ambitions were not worth the lives of others and, in the past, he had already caused his unwelcome share of deaths and suffering, indirectly. That was not happening again.

It was with these heavy thoughts in mind that the cleaning proceeded – Nomi and Yuushi relatively close, and Genji somewhere out of sight, though leaving a path clear of trash behind him. At this point, they had already entered the depths of the forest, unseen from the road and, as such, less saturated with the dregs of humankind. Nonetheless, they were still present, littering the grounds and turning the forest into a dangerous place for the wildlife to survive in. This fact was made all the more clear as Yuushi spotted something of a burning orange color, gingerly hiding behind some foliage to his right. With ample, dark eyes with some kind of hidden alarm in them, and long, fluffy ears, a small bunny stood, motionless, trying to avoid drawing attention to itself. Why an animal of this kind would act this way, instead of simply taking off at the sight of potential danger, he did not know. Despite this, Yuushi slowly trekked through the shrubbery and approached the petrified mammal, the entirety of its plight becoming quickly apparent to the Genin.

A spool of shining, barely visible ninja wire strings rested next to the animal. Coming from it, a single strand of wire was binding the animal, cutting into its hind leg and wrapping around its thin neck. Unable to escape, the bunny had resorted to laying absolutely still, in hopes of its natural, somewhat unadapted fur coat camouflaging its presence. Even as Yuushi approached, the poor thing barely moved, though became further distressed, making its ragged, troubled breathing more and more noticeable.

”Nomi, can you come give me a hand, please?” Yuushi called out, picking up the wire spool and the small mammal in his hands, as the blonde approached him. ”Can you please hold this little guy while I release him?” he asked, handing her the bunny and, taking the wire spool, beginning to unwrap the animal, using both of his hands to undo the knots that had been created.

It came as no surprise to Yuushi that, the second he was done saving the poor creature from the human-caused entanglement and it seemed to snuggle further into Nomi’s hands, the blond girl decided to swiftly heal the bunny’s wounds, her hands glowing a sort of sea green, as the damage caused to the small, no-longer-distressed mammal began to regress, causing the blood that was slowly pouring out of its wound to stop flowing outwards. Unlike Yuushi’s initial wish to help the poor thing and release it from its prison, out of pity and guilt, Nomi’s help was given out of true concern, out of sheer, pure altruism. Much like she had extended her hand to Yuushi and Genji shortly after the previous exercise, looking to clean and seal their wounds, be them physical or mental, helping others around her was clearly a part of Nomi’s personality. In fact, to Yuushi, it was apparent that this one of her dominant traits, which in conjunction with her strong determination, her will to succeed and, above all, her unrestricted efficacy to overcome hard times and unfavorable situations, being able to pull herself out of the deepest abyss, allowed her nurture up her own mood and the mood of those around her to their pinnacle, once more, no matter how badly it had previously fallen.

Yuushi, too, was determined. He, too, had a force that welled up from within him, mobilizing him to help those in need. But there was a significant difference between the two of them. While Nomi was selfless and genuinely benevolent, Yuushi could not say the same. Frankly, while his heart may be in the right place, he always had ulterior motives for their actions, whether he noticed it beforehand or not. Whether to simply go on errands for old people to get his mind off heavy thoughts he carried, or whether he found himself more or less addicted to the sensation of feeling worthy, by helping others when in distress, Yuushi always managed to end up winning something for those good deeds. Like a junky, he was addicted to the sensations, to increasing his own self worth through what he did for others, most of the times disregarding his own safety and happiness. What valor was in that?

Yuushi had always known he was highly flawed, with most of those issues – lack of self esteem, lack of determination, recklessness – stemming from his turbulent past. He had grown and lived by himself, isolated from any human being, for years on end and this, he figured, had caused his severe social inability. At the same time, however, he had managed to overcome a few of his long-lasting issues, ever since reaching Konohagakure. But it wasn’t until he was integrated into this team, until he got to have close contact with Nomi and Genji, evaluating and judging their personalities just as much as he had done to his own, for a multitude of years, that he realized just how impaired his psyche and personality had winded up. It was now, as he finally had someone normal to compare himself to, that he noticed just how screwed up he had turned out to be. And while it was quite disheartening to realize this, it was equally motivating. As you cannot change what you cannot acknowledge. Now, he could change it.

Finding himself following Nomi through a small path through the underbrush while he had been deeply immersed in his self-deprecating thoughts, Genji quickly came into sight. All by himself, he had cleared quite a bit of trash until, seemingly, he had dozed off. His protruding eyes, his initial sluggish movements and voice gave it up to Yuushi, but he seemed to recover quickly. Genji, too, began evaluating and trying to comfort the small bunny Yuushi had found, before a crackling noise was heard and their sensei, Yoroi, broke through the trees, coming from their side. Yuushi had assumed he was lingering around here, from the start, evaluating their actions and their moods as they proceeded with such a trivial mission, after a blatant failure in their previous exercise – and it seemed like he had been right, though he had had no indication that he in fact was watching them. The animal speaking, too, might’ve come as a surprised a couple of months ago but, at this point, nothing surprised Yuushi anymore. His mental fortitude was nigh depleted, not having enough for big surprises or shocks and, so, all this event got out of him was a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders.

With a nod to the information given to them by their sensei, Yuushi looked to his surroundings, as a sense of unease slowly spread through his body. He had been avoiding a group situation ever since the previous exercise, for fear he could not completely cope with it. At this point, he felt a tinge of anxiety beginning to besmirch his mood, much the same way a single, gray cloud obstructs the sun, forbidding it’s brilliant radiance from warming the peasants down below, filling them with energy. Grabbing his bag and slinging it over his left shoulder, he took a step towards the uninspected section of the forest, before turning back and voicing to the three people he was about to leave behind.
”I… better get back to cleaning the wood. The animal is safe, thanks to Nomi, and she’s capable enough to take care of it for now. The more we can accomplish in one day, the better for the forest, and the easier we will prevent similar occurrences from happening to other animals.”

Turning back once more, he trekked through the trees and plants, feeling the anxiety slowly drain out of his body with each step he took away from his team, returning his mind to a state of solace and peace. On the way, he kept picking up every piece of trash he could find, despite the fact that the deeper he explored and the closer he got to the center of the forest, the less trash he encountered. Above his head, and even higher than the dense tree tops, he heard the chirping of birds, seemingly the same birds Yoroi had mentioned to have thanked them. He had known cleaning the forest was an important activity for the sake of the fauna that called this place home. Now, however, thanks to Yoroi, he had gained a brand new perspective of the importance of it. Animals too, it seemed, were capable of complex thoughts and feelings, something that he had always wanted to believe but never had confirmation for, during his longs spells alone roaming the wild, immersed in thought and having for companion nothing more than the animal noises around him. With this warming thought in his mind, Yuushi worked twice as fast and twice as hard, for the sake of the beings inhabiting these woods, quickly piercing through the forest, reaching the other side, and cleaning everything in between. Intending to return to their original starting position, he took a different path, cleaning as he made his way as well, before he encountered Nomi, about to finish cleaning a particularly dirty patch of the forest.

”Hey, Nomi. I cleaned everything behind me, so this side of the forest should be done. Good job, you’ve done well with the bunny, thanks for taking care of it. Where is Genji?” he asked, his voice filled with self assurance he did not know he possessed, at the moment, as he made his way to the blonde and gently grabbed the heavy trash basket she now lugged around, carrying both hers and his himself, leaving her to care better for the small bunny she had with her.