Genre: Gen/Angst
Warnings: T
Fandom: Naruto.
Notes: Team 8, for Naruto100's theme "enemy".
It's touch-and-go finding a safe place to operate on the battlefield, but somehow they manage it. Kiba and Akamaru face in different directions to stand guard; Hinata lowers Shino from her shoulders to the ground and cuts away the bloodied tatters of his jacket with a kunai. Her naked eyes tell her he's hurt bad, but she turns byakugan on anyway to check the full extent of the damage: liver partly ruptured, kidney bruised, worst of all one of the internal paths for the kikai has split and the bugs are swarming to the break site. She glimpses broken armor, pale innards oozing, legs kicking weakly before she turns off her bloodline, turns away, shudders.
Shino's heels dig into the turf; she can hear him grinding his teeth. Pale fingers twist in the grass. She swallows. "Hinata, hurry," Kiba says, the words erupting from his throat more as a bark than a shout. Not angry at her but she can see his dirty face and that he's scared, underneath.
She switches the byakugan back on, glances into Shino's body again. The kikai are trying to patch the break; they've cleared the broken bodies of their brethren who died in the blow and now are trying to staunch the flow of blood coming into the kikai road. If she leaves it too long Shino will bleed out inside.
Her throat clicks when she swallows. "Where do I start," she whispers, fluttering her hand over his side, his carved-up stomach. What if she doesn't do the right thing - what if she does do the right thing, and he dies anyway? "Shino..."
"Go," he whispers. She can see blood bubbling up on his lips, and the shadows of his eyes under his glasses. Trusting her.
She swallows hard, again. Closes her eyes. Nothing changes.
She picks a spot, and starts.
4/14/08
(you're your own worst enemy)