Chapter One: The Host
"I refuse."
The words no man in immediate death wants to hear on the battle field.
"Amaya, heal him!"
The girl shook her head stubbornly, her scarlet locks bouncing off her shoulders, her plump lips formed into a frown. Her multifarious eyes narrowed at the injured man before her, the hatred she had for him was obvious.
The man coughed, he could feel the blood burning his esophagus with each breathe. His entire body felt as if it was on fire, he saw specks of red every time he blinked. The sword wounded him more than he thought it would, his sharingan wasn't able to calculate the enemy fast enough.
He could hear the faint conversation of the two ninja that stood over him. Why won't she heal me. Was she even a Leaf ninja? The sun blared down on him, blinding his view of the two. All her could see was fiery outline of the woman.
"Amaya, he's one of our alleys." The broad man spoke deeply, his hands currently covered in the Uchiha's blood from attempting to stop the bleeding.
"He also wants my clan dead." The female spoke evenly, her hands filling with mal-intent chakra.
"Amaya, I swear." Her ANBU captain threatened, sensing the evil in the energy around them.
Shisui coughed again, he swore he could feel his heart contract with every beat, and he swore his veins were filled with fire. The burning sensation was becoming unbearable. His feet were starting to go numb, and his hands felt cold. The odd combination made him absolutely nauseated.
He heard shouts from his fellow ANBU captain and then a scream. Suddenly he could feel a weight on his chest that started to slowly expand across his entire body.
Is this death?
It was painful at first, it felt like a thousand needles piercing his skin. The scream grew louder with each piercing moment he felt.
Is this the end?
What took mere minutes felt like an eternity to the injured Uchiha. The painful piercing experience soon evolved into a numbing sensation. It was warm-unlike the previous burning of his inside he felt prior- and soothing. The pain seemed to slowly deplete and retreat back to this new, odd warming phenomenon.
Am I in heaven?
His breathing seemed to come with more ease, and the weight on his chest started to dissipate. He could feel all of his senses heighten, the hair on his arms stood up and his chest fully expanded. He could hear the birds flying above them, the movement of their feathers brushing against one another in fight calmed his nerves. He could smell the gross amount of blood covering himself and the battle field, and somehow in the distance, flowers. His adrenaline was kicked into full throttle- which felt nothing but refreshing.
"Will he be okay?" Taki asked the female, wiping the sweat from his forehead anxiously. He watched the petite woman concentrate over the fallen Uchiha, she gracefully removed clumps of black tar from his chest, which she delicately placed into glass jars that she summoned from a small scroll in her ninja pouch.
"He was poisoned, it effected his nervous system which caused a delay in his sharingan working. It was manufactured by a true genius." She muttered, examining the poison she removed. Her eyebrows were creased, she was putting a lot of her chakra into Shisui and it was wearing her down.
To be an ANBU medic required years of expertise in the field, and even more years of fine chakra control. It is so easy to use the wrong precision of chakra in the field, either by distractions from battle or fatigue. Such a small incident like that could easily kill the person you're trying to heal. An intrusion of chakra into another body can cause it to go into shock, or for the cells to experience mass mitosis and turn cancerous. Many ninja have died years later from cancer because of medics who couldn't control their chakra effectively. It was a growing concern in the medial field, and not much awareness was spread about the issue.
Shisui's eyes burned, he blinked furiously. The sweat and blood on his forehead weren't helping his cause.
"Calm down." The same woman's voice from before echoed around him.
He felt a soft material covered his face, and brush across his skin in smooth motions.
When he opened his eyes again the sweat and blood were gone.
"Give me the saline." Her voice sounded again.
The image in front of him was still blurry.
"Keep your eyes open." The voice ordered, he felt his eyelids forcefully open, and a cold liquid hit his eye. He started blinking again, tears forming, with each movement from his eyelids his vision got clearer and clearer.
"Jeez, this poison was definitely intended for you Uchiha." The female voice sounded again, he felt pressure on both sides of his temple, and a cooling sensation spread across his forehead and behind his eyes. The feeling calmed him, and he didn't want it to stop.
As the blinding rays of the sun fell behind the monstrous trees of the battle field, Shisui's vision was able to finally adjust to the lightening and his environment again.
He scanned the area before him, his vision fully vivid and operational now. Various weapons and swords stained the land before him, as well as blood from both sides of the battle. Numerous trees were destroyed from various Justus types, and even more of the landscape resided in destruction. The once green and lively land was bland and filled with the coldness of the ninjas occupying is space.
"You okay?" Shisui adjusted his gaze towards the two aside him. The voice belonged to a petite female who kneeled closest to him, she wore simple ANBU attire and had a wolf mask pulled to side of her head, he could see it was hand painted, and bore symbols commonly used in medicine. The woman had numerous scrolls attached to her hips, flat jacket, and kunai pouch on her thigh. Beautiful tattoos adorned her hands and wrist, he noticed they were sealing symbols, which most likely allowed her to summon materials from a base elsewhere. Her skin was sun kissed, and she bore white scars-which the untrained eye would not be able to see-over her arms and shoulder blade. Her cat-like eyes were framed by her high cheekbones, and her dark scarlet hair reminded him of dried blood. She wore her hair short, it fell just to her shoulders in small curls and waves.
When he blinked again her image changed, he could see her chakra network that traveled throughout her entire body. Her chakra buildup was intense, she had numerous reserves. He could tell she had mastery of her chakra control, it flowed throughout her body precisely. Her muscles were cushioned by her chakra, most likely giving her an increase in speed, strength, and stamina. He could see her internal organs as well and could see notable damage to her left lung. He assumed it was from a blade, the scar tissue surrounding it was small. He could even see small cracks in her collarbone from previous breaks.
With another blink, her image was solid again. Her eyebrows were curled upwards, and she seemed to be speaking to him.
"Shisui!" Taki's deep voice snapped him out of his haze. Taki was one of the ANBU elite captains he had been working closely with, the two often sparred together in their free time or played chess. He had known the rather large man for years, even before his promotion into the ANBU Ops.
"Shisui Uchiha, right? Are you okay?" The female asked, for probably the tenth time already.
"Y-yeah, what happened?" He managed to talk, his throat sore.
"You've been poisoned, the enemy seemed to be targeting you specifically. The poison attacked your nervous system and was meant to affect your sharingan permanently. Don't worry, I've removed it. You should be fine." The woman stated, her voice confident as she explained further the effects the poison had on him, explaining the synapses of the brain.
"Who are you?" Shisui managed to ask, shaken, lifting himself up from the ground.
The girl adverted her eyes, frowning, "Amaya Senju."
"I never would've imagined being saved by a Senju."
Amaya narrowed her eyes at the raven-haired boy in front of her. Her hands engulfed in green chakra and currenting performing a detailed assessment, such an assessment that required concentration and silence.
Uchiha Shisui scoffed at the red-head. Taking her silence as a challenge. The two of them were currently hiding in a nearby cave off the battle grounds. Taki, the ANBU captain of Amaya's team, was on his way back to the base camp to retrieve reinforcements and a medical team to assist with the transport of the injured sharingan user. The poison affected him worse than he'd admit and required additional help if they ever hoped to make it back in one piece.
Shisui's current medical state was…by all means horrible. He was covered in dried blood, his hair slicked back with sweat, and half of his body practically immobile from the residue of the poison. Amaya was not in too great of a condition either, her entire uniform was either torn or covered in blood and mud. Her hair was tied back, and her muscles ached. She was nearing her end with her chakra limit and was on her third solider pill. The two of them had been waiting for two days for back up.
"You know, if we both die in this kami-awful cave, we might as well enjoy get to know each other."
Green eyes narrowed at onyx.
"Listen, I really do appreciate everything you've done for me. Heck- I would be dead right now if it wasn't for you."
Green eyes looked away from onyx.
Hmph. Shisui frowned. He had been on ANBU for almost five years now. He was assigned captain his second year in- a feat in of itself. His reputation for his speed quickly spread throughout the nations and the fear of his sharingan grew with every mission he completed. Throughout his years numerous names have been mentioned or recognized, Senju Amaya being one of them. She was first cousins with the famous Tsunade, queen of slugs, who personally taught her everything she knew about medicine. She was famed as one of ANBU's best medics and fuunijutsu users. Her skills in fuunijutsu (sealing) is what got her most of her fame from other nations, rumors have it she's summoned demons to demolish entire enemy camps. He even remembered a time when his team was assigned a training ground next to hers, the vast amounts of weapons she summoned in mere seconds was astonishing and quit frightening to be honest.
He honestly didn't blame the girl for ignoring him. Their two clans have been sworn enemies since the beginning of the Leaf Village. As time passed, the Senju clan rose with power and Uchiha clan was pushed further and further away. Most politics of the nation were under control of her clans' opinions- which infuriated the members of the Uchiha. It wasn't rare to see members from the two clans engaging in bars fights, drunkenly angered by the past. Personally, he wished to make peace with her clan and the village itself. Mistrust for hic clan grew louder and louder as he aged.
He watched the young princess concentrate, her brows turned upward and her face filled with exhaustion. She was only a year younger than himself- a fact he knew from memorizing the bingo book. He remembered when she first joined the academy, she was top of her class for chakra control and intelligence. When he was promoted to chunin, she started her first year as genin, at the age of 9. By 13 she was jounin and he was in his first year of ANBU. She joined his ranks two years ago- a referral from Kakashi the cold blooded killer- and was making an impressive reputation for herself.
"What's your favorite color." The soft-spoken words shocked Shisui, he looked at the red-haired healer in disbelief, after two days she finally said something to him other than patient care information or sarcastic remarks.
"Green. Like the forest that surrounds Kohona and my home."
Amaya smiled, imagining what village life must be like at the moment.
"Mine is purple, like the lilacs that grow in training field five."
"Okay, if you could do anything at this very moment, what would it be Miss Senju Princess." Shisui asked, sarcastically ending his question with Amayas official title in the village- knowing full well he's seen her instruct her teams to not call her by the honorific and to treat her as any other ANBU member.
"Shower." She answered so fast it made the Uchiha let out a deep laugh.
"Don't you dare say anything otherwise, Prince Shisui, because we all know you're the one smelling this cave up right now." The two bellowed out in laughter, spending the rest of the night chatting about civilian life and occasionally engaging in gossip and jokes about certain captains no one liked in the ANBU ranks.
After three and a half days, Taki returned fully equipped with a medical team and an additional ANBU squad. To his surprise the Senju and Uchiha managed not to murder one another, and to his greater surprise the often serious, no games, healer of his was actually being friendly to her clans sworn enemy.
"This poison is refined; the ingredients are so rare and very hard to counteract." The petite medic murmured to her team. Her sterile gloved hand carefully pouring her new antidote into a vile with the black tar that she practically ripped out of Uchiha Shisui's bare chest only days ago.
"Ma'am, we have the results from testing." A tall, rather lanky, man spoke softly. Handing the young heiress a sheet filled with countless lab values.
"As I figured, start mass producing my antidote now. Our units are filled with Uchiha clan members, there's no doubt we'll see another incidence of this shortly."
Senju Amaya frowned, massaging her temples lightly to relive the horrible stress headache adorned upon her from lack of sleep and fear of losing 1/4th of their current ANBU soldiers on the battle field.
"How is he doing?" She asked, holding a small vile of dark violet antidote in her hands.
"Vitals stable, labs normal, trace elements of the poison lingering in his nervous system however." Another medic reported, handing Amaya a patient chart containing all of the Uchiha's pertinent information and current health status.
"As of now, every medic here is assigned to antidote duty. I want every one of our units equipped with it, and every Uchiha needs to carry two vials on all missions and battles. Understand!" Amaya announced to her team, her voice loud and strong.
"Hai!" Her medics shouted in union, all starting their newly assigned task.
Amaya made her way to the medic tent immediately, determined to administered the antidote to Shisui. Removing the strange, black tar was only a temporary solution. A cure- her antidote-was the only way to fully rid his body of the harmful toxins. She was worried, it had been almost 24 hours since the attack, and with their limited supplies it took even longer to create the counter formula. Was she too late? Would her solution work if it spread to his coveted eyes by now?
"Wow, don't look so serious or anything!" The cheerful voice of Shisui snapped Amaya out of her trance, she looked at him in disbelief. He was all smiles and carefree, lounging in his hospital bed casually reading one of Jiarya-sama non-edited books (which only three copies existed world-wide at the moment, rumor has it he actually signed a contract with. Publishing agency- but it is Jiraya-sama we are talking about so who knows what the truth really is).
"Kami! How are you feeling?! How are you so awake right now?!" Amaya asked frantically, appearing at his bedside in an instant. Her hands were already covered in green chakra and hovering over his chest. She was performing a full head to toe assessment before administering her antidote, she had to make sure she covered every possible issue.
"Here, this is an antidote I've been working on." She motioned, handing him the small vial, which grew even smaller in his large hands.
He looked at her, then to the vial, then back at her, then back at the vial.
"Men! Really are hopeless I swear!" Amaya hissed in annoyance and laugher, wrapping her hand around his and directing him with the injection.
"Oh, come on! I'm not the medic here, Miss Senju!" Shisui laughed- his expression soon turned from one of glee to pain. He held his chest with each cough, the pain unbearable.
"What's wrong?!" Amaya shouted, her hands once again on top of his chest, engulfing his whole upper body with her healing chakra.
"That felt much better…". He sighed, being able to take a full breath again. Her warm chakra giving him the only relief of pain. He could feel her energy traveling across his muscles and weaving in and out of his rib cage, the warm sensation destroyed any pain in its path and helped relief his stressed muscles.
Amaya sighed, watching the Uchiha close his eyes in relaxation. Over the course of 72 hours he did start to rub off on her, she couldn't tell if that would be a good or bad situation for her future self.