He laid on the table, shirt up and finally removed as cooler hands touched his chest, small fingers examining the wound and sending a slight shiver down his bare skin. The blonde stops pulling back her hands, clearly thinking she'd hurt the male before her.
"I'm sorry, are you okay?" She asks, stopping the bottle mid-air, a drop yet to leave the container.
"Its fine, your hands are just cold, and "he laughs" I'm sorry for making you do this."
"I think I should be the one apologizing, I'm not exactly a medic." She states, reading the bottle again before looking back at her notes, checking she had the right bottle "Sakura what the hell," I hear her mutter to herself.
I wondered to myself why she was in the medical tent when she wasn't a medical ninja but the ambush had left us kind of scattered and I should be lucky I was being treated at all. They had hit one of our heads before we could cut off theirs. Thankfully Sakura Harano was in their midst and took down the assailant but not before we lost of chunk of our newer recuroutes. They didn't die but this had forced our hand to ask for anyone with medical training to come forwards.
"Okay," the blonde before me sighs "I don't know if Sakura was listening to what I said or is currently having an aneurysm but she said to use this and I'm not going to lie. This will sting. A lot." She says the last two words with a bit more punch, waiting for me to nod before tipping up the bottle.
Rubbing alcohol, a stronger disinfectant but a disinfectant no less. She was right, the second it touched the larger gap now ripped through my abdomen it burned like fire. I bit down he scream, only a slight hiss leaving my lips that has her looking back up at me. Sakura had healed the wound enough to stop major blood loss but it still required stitching, as her attention was needed elsewhere. So we sat here, the blonde bomb shell slowly ringing the needle through the long firm string with a pair of tweezers. Calm and collected, her tongue stuck between her teeth as she sits there like a mother preparing to fix a torn shirt by her rambunctious child.
(Darui's POV)
I wasn't dumb, I knew who sat before me. Temari of the sand, older sister to the sand shadow and a terror even worse than him. Her wrath was even feared in the hidden cloud. That was why I decided to go with her, the male, her original patient was looking rather worried and having grown up with another quick tempered women I felt more qualified to handle whatever came my way. So here I sat, almost dumbfounded at how gentle she was being.
"Okay, lean back," She says, leaning forwards, her hair still in pigtails but her bangs pinned out of her face. Her hands grasp my skin, starting with the smallest part of the cut first "how did you get this?" She asks, half examining the cut as she stitched. It was deep and long, if it wasn't for Sakura I would have bleed out by now.
"Oh you know, work." I sigh "I was too slow I guess?"
In reality I was protecting one of our newer members, the small woman was fairly talented and held her own on the face paced battle but she was young, inexperienced and when she thought the fight was over had turned and missed the chakra blade tossed her direction. It would have been her head had I not push her out of the way and so was happy to take the cut. I knew the boss would be unhappy with my injury but he would have done the same thing in my place. The blonde looked up at me, her eyes grasping mine for a brief moment, clearly disbelieving my statement but let it go as she tied up the first stitch.
"So how did you learn to do this?" I asked.
It wasn't that uncommon for ninja to know first aid, we all had basic training in each village but the way she moved, using tweezers to thread the needle, and pulling each side together carefully measuring the skin before deciding where to stitch showed me a deeper medical understanding, professional almost. Clearly the blonde had more than just standard training.
"You're going to laugh at me" she sighs
"No I won't"
She looks at me again, holding my eyes for what felt like forever and finally looked down again, her fingers holding the skin with a gentle firmness as she slides the needle through a second time of what promised to be a long evening. I bite my cheek, trying my best to ignore the pain and focus on the task at hand, the conversation. We sat there in silence for a few more moments and when I went to drop the subject she speaks, quietly, carefully like she was waiting for someone to come barging in.
"Well you know my younger brother is the sand shadow right?" I nod "well that means he's constantly rushing into danger, not that our jobs aren't dangerous already…" she trails off in a silent eye roll that has me smiling "but as skilled as I am in combat, there's not much I do for him when he's protecting the village as our leader. Shinobi or not I'm still his big sister and I'll always worry about them, both of them. So I figured if I can't protect him from everything at least I can be there to heal the injuries afterword. But as time went on, learning this became my... paradise of sorts."
I smile and cringe as she pulls the stitching slightly harder than necessary, clearly catching my secret smile. I smiled looking at the blonde as she ghosts her hands over the stitching, checking everything and looks up at me, eyes careful, calculating the situation before her. Just like that time at the chunin exams. She was a ninja of logic, always marking out her next ten moves every second but here, behind closed doors... or curtain in this case- she let some of them down. A small smile falling on her lips as she thinks about her words and my reaction.
I took this moment to look at her. Her blonde hair was longer than before, pulled into two long piggy-tails instead of four. Her blue eyes brought out by the subtle make up she now wore and her face, was surprisingly soft when it wasn't burning with anger. I looked down, taking in her outfit. I wouldn't lie, the blonde woman was quite a stunner, long legs tucked to the chair as she leaned over me, her chest, extenuated by the shirt she wore and I actually felt the room getting slightly hotter as that marvellous chest actually brushed against my arm as she reached across my body to grab another item. A pair of scissors but stopped, her face centimetres from mine as our eyes locked.
I watched her teeth gently suck in her lip, nibbling on the end of it like she had before and I found myself wanting nothing more than to bite that lip as well. Those small pink, perfectly soft lips. For the first time in a long time I could feel my heart beating in my chest and the way her eyes held mine I knew she did two. I felt her move, slowly leaning down to meet me as I leaned up, our lips seconds from touching when- CRASH! A loud sound from outside the curtain jolted us both back to our senses and she sits back, cutting the last piece of string before standing quickly.
"A-alright! I-I will let Sakura know I'm done and... Um, someone will be right in with your papers." she turns to leave but my hand is faster, grasping hers in mine.
"Temari," she stops, back still turned to me and the blush on her cheeks "thank you."
Her eyes find mine once more, for the briefest of seconds before she turns, leaving me alone in the curtains. Well it seemed my time in the sand might have gotten a bit more interesting that I first imagined.
(Temari's POV)
I stood outside the tent, my hand over my chest as I tried to reel in my thoughts. Did I really try to kiss a man I'd just met?! I wasn't sure what it was, was it him or me. I mean what the hell was wrong with me?! I was in a freaking relationship for crying out loud! If Shikamaru knew about this he'd be heart broken… but still, despite everything. The way I got all nervous and flustered around him it was nothing compared to the beating of my heart. With Shikamaru I was the same little girl who almost lost to him at the chunin exams but with Darui, I felt like a woman. Being so close to him it was like my whole body felt alive, it burned. And only when I stepped away, walked down the hall could I find myself breathing again. Even still I placed a gentle hand on my heart, the smile on my face once more and laugh, for the first time in forever.
"Your welcome." I whisper to the empty hallway.