AN: I'm sorry if you notice any mistakes or such, I'm just getting back into the swing of writing again! Also, don't get off put by the random people I put into this chapter. I'm not one to dabble in OCs and I just needed some filler characters for this. Finally, Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this story!
Prologue - The Attack
Around nine at night winds all around Sunagakure started to pick up speed, cutting through anything in its path. Sand was swept into the air and anyone who made contact with just a slight breeze was left chilled. Like every other night this wind was accompanied by the fall of nighttime and, weirdly enough, many people had been waiting for this moment all day. Most noticeably this group of people included Suna's own hospital's staff, who were more than happy for their shifts to be over. For now, this night seemed to be no different from any other.
"Asami!" A mid-aged women called from behind the front desk, her soft brown eyes scanning the papers lain out in front of her. "Did you manage to see who left these papers here? There doesn't seem to be a name..." The girl's sentence trailed off as her eyes scanned the document before her. As she read down the paper she sighed and brought her hands to her face.
"No, why?" A younger women asked, coming out from the staff-room behind the front desk. She propped her arms up on said desk and rested her face in her hands, giving the older women a quizzical look and a raised brow. Finally when older women didn't answer, she spoke up again. "What's it say, Nori-san?"
The older women, Nori, shook her head in response. Before meeting Asami's eyes.
"It's another one." Those were the only words it took for the younger girl avert her gaze, and rid herself of her happy attitude. She sighed once for herself and also shook her head. The older women took this time to continue her thought, "I don't understand why no one else seems to care, Asami. I know that we do, but I'm starting to think that to everyone else this job only represents a paycheck. I mean, by now the death's are racking up and no one even bothers to notice."
Asami knew that she was right. In the past week alone many people -citizens and ninja alike- came into the hospitals with simple injuries. They never even knew that that would be the last place they saw. She understood where Nori was coming from and felt upset about it herself, but again Nori was right. No one else cared. That left them with nothing they could do but stand back and watch it all happen.
"I'm sorry, Nori-san.." She raised her eyes to Nori once again, the look in Nori's eyes alone telling her she believed her.
The talking stopped there, both of the girls trapped in a silence they weren't quite sure how to break. Moments later though, sounds of yelling and footsteps broke the silence for them. At the first notice of this noise, Asami's pose stiffened and her eyes -raised towards the door. Almost as if on queue, the door burst open to reveal a frantic yet serious Sabaku-No-Temari, the sister of Suna's Kazekage. In both her arms and many Shinobi's arms behind her laid countless wounded Suna ninja seemingly on the brink of death. The group rushed through into the hospital and once they realized what was happening, a mode clicked in both Asami and Nori. Asami instantly rushed to help Temari with the wounded, and Nori was almost immediately corralling uninjured shinobi to help her get contact with the medical-nin who went home. Everyone knew they would need the help, and by the look of things many of the wounded ninja would not make it till morning without proper treatment.
"We need to get these people to rooms!" Asami yelled, trying her best to be heard over the havoc of groaning, yelling, and sounds of feet rushing against the ground. She grabbed an injured kunoichi from Temari's arms and rushed her to a room, only being able to lay her on the bed before rushing back to the front.
Everyone was in a panic, and while Asami was trying to get everyone organised, she wasn't exactly trained to know what to do in this situation. Even so, she tried her best to gather together everyone and get them to bring the injured into rooms. Many shinobi who had rushed in were asking her questions she didn't know the answers to, which was only making everything worse. The only thing she knew to do for sure was get everyone into rooms and treat the shinobi in worst condition as soon as possible. So that's what she tried to do.
"Everyone that thinks they can wait to be treated has to wait out here!" She yelled, getting most's attention, but not everyone. Others were talking to each other and not listening, and she didn't have the time for that. Temari sensed this and took initiative, yelling over everyone there and grabbing their attention. Asami nodded in her direction in a silent thanks, and continued with what she was saying.
"Everyone who can wait has to wait out here! The others need to quickly be moved to rooms and be treated as soon as possible! We don't have many medical-nin here, so anyone that can help at all would be appreciated highly!" She yelled, and directed the ninja holding the people injured the worst to rooms. Halfway through the process of trying to sort them to rooms, Temari grabbed her attention.
"Asami! This one's really hurt! She won't live much longer if we don't do anything!" Temari yelled to Asami and left her torn, she was only one girl after all and couldn't do everything. For now though, she had to keep getting everyone in the best order that she could. Temari didn't give up though, and kept yelling to her. Finally, angry that she was being ignored, Temari grabbed Asami by the arm and pulled her away from directing people. A certain intimidation was radiating off of her. "We need to do something, otherwise everyone is going to die!" She raised her voice to her. "What is sorting people going to do other then delay the time we have to help the people who actually need it, and now!" Asami understood what Temari meant, she may not know quite what to do but she had to try. She directed Temari to the operation room and grabbed any offhand medical-nin for extra help on the way.
The few medical-nin Asami found, Temari and Asami entered the hospitals single operation room with not much of a clue what they were dealing with. Nor did they have any idea of what to do about it when they did find out. The people that were on shift that night had no experience with healing such big wounds.
Temari laid the injured kunoichi down onto the table and she was promptly examined. From what they could see the girl had suffered a large clean gash to the abdomen and was bleeding a lot. Unfortunatly for her, the girl was still conscious and they didn't have the time to put her under anesthesia. Asami's rational side quickly realized that no one there knew quite what they were doing. She knew that it would be best to wait for people who did know what to do to arrive. But her heart was telling her that if the girl laying there kept bleeding out like she was, she'd never survive long enough for the other medical-nin to arrive. She had to make a decision as quick as possible. In a panic, she grabbed a cloth from the operation table and handed it to Temari.
"Hold this to the wound, apply as much pressure as you can. We need to slow the bleeding." Temari took the cloth from her and did as she said, trying to ignore the blood now coating her arms. When Temari applied pressure to the wound, the kunoichi screamed in pain. The girl reached out and latched onto Asami's hand. When she looked down, Asami noticed a steady flow of tears coming from her eyes. The kunoichi whispered something out to Asami, but she didn't catch it in her panic.
"Huh?" Asami asked, lowering herself to the girl, who took a second to regain her breath. Through sobs and groans of pain, she repeated herself.
"Please don't let me die." She cried, and Asami's eyes widened. She didn't want that to happen, and she was determined to make sure that it wouldn't. Even in as bad of a condition the girl was in, she was convinced.
"I wont, I promise." She tried to stay calm and confident as she talked to the girl, even though she was doubting herself.
While this was happening, Temari was left struggling. It seemed that no matter how hard she tried, the bleeding wouldn't slow. The panic only really started though when the girls blood soaked through the thick cloth and reached Temari's hands. Everyone was trying their best but nothing was helping. Temari was distraught. Only when she was about to give up was when she heard a loud slam from the door behind her.
"What do you think you idiots are doing?!" The hospital's head medical-nin shoved Temari out of the way and took a place in front of the dying girl. In an anger from being called in, she started to interrogate Asami of what happened. Temari took this as a queue to leave and ran out the operating room door, her ears meeting the sounds of screams and groans of the injured once again. She couldn't stand it anymore, she knew she had to keep composed but she just couldn't anymore. She didn't understand how the medical-nin's did it, but it was all too much for her. She didn't know what to do, but she no longer wanted to be in the hospital with all the looming death. She ran outside and to the only place she thought to go, the Kazekage tower. She needed to tell Gaara what happened. And even though it was late, she knew that he'd be there.
As soon as Temari arrived at the tower the workers and guards alike bombarded her with questions. She knew that many of them were only worrying about her well being but she had more important things to be doing than answering questions. She needed to get to Gaara. The usual two men stood guard outside of Gaara's office, both of which Temari knew well, but Temari wasn't about to stop for pleasantries. When she approached the guards they had tried to stop her to say that there was an important mission report going on, but in that moment Temari didn't care. By that point, her heart had taken over her rational side and while she knew that barging into a meeting wasn't going to help anyone, at that point her heart only had the one goal. She pushed past him just like the others and finally entered the room, not caring nor bothering to pay notice to whoever else was there.
"They ambushed us when-," Inside, just as the guards had warned, stood a nervous looking man giving a report. Temari was about to interrupt but luckily for her she didn't need to, all the commotion she had caused caused him to lose his track of thought. Unlike the nervous Shinobi though, the Kazekage was all but used to the commotion. He sent a glare Temari's way, though he made sure to note her weird behavior in the back of his mind. He was about to tell her to leave, but stopped as soon as he saw the blood coating her clothes and arms. The glare was replaced with a look of concern.
"Temari, what happ-,"
"We have a problem, Gaara! That's what happened!" Temari yelled, approaching said man's desk angrily. "There are innocent shinobi dying right now because none of our medical-nin have a single damn clue what they're doing!" She barked at him, not caring if he got angry with her or not because he needed to hear her now. "Something needs to change! Now!" The command came out softer than she intended it to, her voice cracking slightly at the end. Nonetheless, Temari looked him straight in the eyes. Something she barely ever did, but was necessary. She was so caught up in the moment that even the steady stream of tears falling from her face went unnoticed by her.
"You're a mess." He spoke slowly, his eyes narrowing. He stood up to meet her eyes and placed his hands dominantly on his desk. From that alone Temari could tell that he was not happy with her. "Go clean yourself up Temari. We'll talk later." The way he said her name alone was laced with venom. He took a split second to glance back towards the Shinobi, who was now cowering away, and back to the angry woman. "You're creating a scene." His glare returned, and a dark aura emanated from him.
His words stung. But the intimidation worked and instead of arguing she did what he told her to and left his office to clean herself up. But she did promise one thing to herself.
She would not let it go.
AN: Sorry if some parts were rocky, but I'm trying my best. I do hope you enjoyed reading, and I'm trying my best to get the next few chapters done and uploaded as soon as I can :), so look forward to them soon! Have a great day!