A Medic's Value
R. Winters
Just a short one-shot I found on my computer and thought was worth reading. I feel bad for not being to able to update SOI this week, so I found a little something that my readers will hopefully enjoy. At the time that I wrote this, I was challenging myself to write a bit more from the POV of Kakashi's teammates, since my focus is pretty much always on Kakashi. I hope you enjoy it!
It wasn't looking good for them. Obito was being forced back by the advances of a man at least twice his size, hacking at him with powerful, swinging blows that the Genin barely managed to stave off. Kakashi was being overwhelmed by three men attacking him relentlessly, all at once—even the genius Chuunin was barely able to keep up.
The teacher… Rin looked anxiously across the clearing for any sight of him. He'd been fighting their ringleader, but sometime during the skirmish had been cut off from the rest of them.
Rin remained in place, watching everything from the relative safety of the nearby trees. She desperately wanted to run out and help one of her teammates, but if she got hurt, who would be there to heal them?
The girl gasped as Obito was knocked to his back, opening up a clear shot to the man towering over him, poised for a killing blow.
Quickly, the girl let a barrage of weapons fly at him. Several hit their mark, but several others continued to the forest floor behind him. The man howled in pain, but with a glance Rin knew none of his injuries were mortal. It gave Obito enough time to scramble to his feet, though.
The girl turned her attention back to her other teammate. Kakashi was desperately trying to break out of the circle of enemies, but every time he tried to take advantage of a small gap, one of the men was quick to fill it with an attack. For a heart-stopping moment, she thought the silver-haired boy had stumbled, and her throat constricted as one of the men prepared to attack.
Like a rocket, Kakashi suddenly straightened, propelling himself straight up, and out of the circle of men. He twisted around in midair to look back down at the group of enemies he'd left below him, flinging out a mess of wires and kunai at them. At least one of the men was reduced to strings of flesh, but the other two managed to jump away in time, mostly unscathed.
Rin frowned, her lips pressing together tightly, and she began to form the hand seals for her best long-range jutsu, focusing her attention on the one that had jumped closest to her, while Kakashi landed to confront the other.
A blinding pain suddenly burst into existence in her right shoulder, and a shout escaped her mouth. Her head jerked around, vision blurring, and her left arm moved automatically to cradle her right.
A large man stood there, smirking, and he raised his heavy club again. Rin cringed at the blood she could see dripping off the wood, and fought against the panic that clawed at the edge of her mind.
Breathing heavily, she dropped, narrowly avoiding being bludgeoned in the head. Another sharp bolt of pain shot out from her arm in protest and Rin's head swam dizzily. She fought against the sensation, and heard a loud crack!
Rin's mind meandered slowly out of unconsciousness to the even tenor of her teacher's voice. She heard Kakashi's low tone saying something in reply, and then her teacher's voice resumed, sounding even closer than before. With effort, Rin strained to focus on his words. She was surprised to hear him calling her name.
"Rin? Rin, can you hear me?"
Weakly, she managed to crack her eyes open. The face of her teacher was a peach blur above her, topped with a distinctly yellow blur. Rin groaned, partly because of the nonsensical vision and partly because feeling was beginning to return to her.
Sharp pain throbbed out of her right arm and her head ached horribly. She'd been hit hard—that was for sure.
She closed her eyes tightly and tried opening them again—the world was a little clearer, and she could make out her teacher's worried features, and Obito hovering a little further in the background.
"Found them," Kakashi's sharp, disgruntled voice caused her to turn her head—which made the pounding worse and caused her vision to swim again. The boy's half-lidded eyes bored down at her silently and Rin took a moment to notice the pack he was carrying.
Kakashi shrugged off her attention and continued to her side, dropping the pack next to their teacher.
"Thanks, Kakashi," the man was saying by the time Rin got her head turned back around, "Can you get the bandages out for me?"
The boy let out a put-upon sigh, but obediently began to dig through the pack.
"Rin," the Jounin called again, attracting the girl's attention towards himself once more.
Rin looked at him blearily and attempted a wan smile.
The man apparently noticed, because he smiled back, one hand rising to intercept her eyes with a small, silver object gleaming between his fingers. "That's it," he said in an encouraging voice, "Look over here."
Rin cringed as the end of the silver object suddenly burst into a bright light. It took her several seconds after the light had disappeared again to focus once more on her teacher's frown.
"Looks like a mild concussion," the man noted with concern.
"A concussion?" Obito sounded alarmed, "Is Rin-chan going to be okay?"
"She—"
"Here," Kakashi interrupted, thrusting a roll of bandages at his teacher. The boy started to get up, but the Jounin abruptly accosted his arm, jerking him down closer to the barely conscious girl.
"Rin," he started, as Kakashi grumbled in annoyance, "Can you tell me his name?"
Rin's eyes slowly moved back to Kakashi, and it took her a moment to force her mouth to work. Even then, the word came out sluggish, "Ka…kashi…kun."
The man beamed, "That's great!"
Kakashi pulled away and stood up, backing out of arm's reach of his teacher just to be safe. Obito moved closer.
"Obito, did you get that water, yet?" The Jounin questioned, glancing over his shoulder.
"Huh? Yeah," the boy answered, looking startled. He quickly thrust a water skin towards hi teacher.
The man took it and looked down at the girl, frowning uncertainly as his eyes roved her form. "Kakashi," he started at length, "Help Rin to sit up, please—we're going to need to take care of her injuries now. Hopefully, she'll be able to travel after getting a little rest."
Silently, the boy obeyed, not looking particularly thrilled. He knelt on Rin's other side and awkwardly lifted her into a sitting position, stiffly holding her upright as the girl swayed unsteadily.
The Jounin grinned at his female student ruefully, "This would sure be easier if Kakashi were the one injured and you were able to help him. But it seems like we'll just have to make due with my substandard medical skills for now."
"Sensei… isn't there something I can do?" Obito asked anxiously.
"Hold these," the man ordered, thrusting the bandages at him, and then jerking his head towards the pack, "And see what kind of medicine we have."
Obito hurried to obey as his teacher used the water skin to wet a rag, raising it to the side of Rin's head.
Rin flinched at the cold water and brief pressure, but Kakashi was quick to reach up and hold her head still, maneuvering even more awkwardly to keep her upright as he did so.
"Sorry, Rin," the Jounin muttered apologetically before continuing.
It took almost ten minutes for the man to clean her up and apply some of the medication Obito found. Rin wasn't entirely sure that she'd been lucid for all of it, because the next thing she knew her teacher's sure hands were wrapping bandages around her head, and then her arm.
While she hadn't thought much of his earlier skills, the bandages were wound and tied off snuggly, with the certainty of long practice. Her arm continued to throb, and the pain in her head had become more sharp during the process, but they seemed to be slowly going numb now.
"I'm… sorry, sensei," Rin murmured as Kakashi eased her back to the ground again and wasted no time in putting some distance between them.
"Shh—just rest for now, Rin," the man advised.
"I… should've been paying… more attention," Rin mused dazedly.
"You were trying to help your teammates," her teacher intoned gently, "There's nothing wrong with that. Besides, I'm sure you'll do better next time."
Rin smiled sluggishly and began drifting off despite her weak efforts against sleep. She hoped, in her last moments of consciousness, that no one else had been hurt. It was a little embarrassing. She was the team's medic, but her teacher had been the one using the bandages.
As his student drifted off to sleep, Minato turned his attention to the two boys and smiled, mind eased now that he was sure Rin would recover.
"Well?" He asked, glancing between the two expectantly, "Who's next?"
"Do Kakashi!" Obito said quickly, thrusting a finger at his teammate, "He's worse than me!"
The silver-haired boy immediately covered a deep gash on his left arm. "It's not that bad," he insisted, "Obito's face is starting to turn funny colors."
Obito's hand flew up to the painful looking knot on his temple and he hissed in pain before forcing out, "It is not, bastard!"
Minato continued to smile, "Kakashi, I'll do you first."
The boy scowled. "I can wait until Rin's better," he grumbled, reluctantly crossing to his teacher.
"Nonsense!" The man insisted, "I think I can bandage up a cut or two!" He patted the ground beside him, and Kakashi, looking disgruntled, sat down.
"You always tie the bandages too tight," the boy complained.
Minato ignored him and got to work on his unenthusiastic patient, making quick work this time of cleaning the cut and applying medication. Kakashi hissed and grunted throughout the process, shooting his teacher glares and tightening his fingers into white-knuckled fists. Obito watched warily.
"I always used to tie your bandages," Minato argued, "You never complained then!"
"That was before I knew better," Kakashi retorted sourly, then winced as his teacher pulled the bandage tight.
"As good as new!" Minato chirped pleasantly, ignoring the murderous look in his student's eyes. He looked over his shoulder, "Obito…"
The Uchiha paled, and swore never to let Rin get injured again as he warily approached the smiling Jounin.