After riding for a few hours after dark Kuruka came to a stop in a small clearing next to a cliff face with a small waterfall and stream.
We should stop here tonight… we're on the edge of some dangerous territory… moving through in the darkness is unwise.
Kimika nodded, then realised Kuruka wouldn't be able to see. Good idea, she thought still not used to someone being able to hear her thoughts. She slid down off the wolf's back and rubbed her tender behind while Kuruka set Naruto down near the cliff face using the same 'shrinking to a mouse' trick. Kimika sat down next to him after setting the giant blade down and opened her backpack to see what was inside. She couldn't properly see the items in the moonlight but she found a handkerchief and decided the rest of the contents could wait till morning. With Kuruka back on her shoulders in the form of a weightless cat, she walked over to the stream, dipped the cloth into it and knelt back down next to Naruto.
"Oh…" She stopped inches from his face, "What if the waters not safe… I might make things worse… Kuruka? Could I purify the water like I cured the curse?"
I suppose you could she said with a hint of a smile in her voice.
Kimika smiled slightly and tried to limit the power to just her hands and the white glow shone through the damp cloth. She grinned even wider as Kuruka nodded approvingly. She leant forward and began to wash the blood from his face, she was squeamish at first but new it had to be done, especially as the blood had caked his right eye completely shut. She could almost watch the smaller gashes heal over as she worked. She kept up the routine of wash, rinse, purify, clean, until his face, and neck were spotless.
Next she decided to spend another half an hour cleaning the blood out of his hair, propping his head up in her lap after double checking that he didn't seem to have any neck or spinal injuries. Kimika worked in silence with Kuruka watching her closely. Finally, in the early hours of the morning she sat pleased with herself and finally noticed the small black lines on his cheeks. 'Whisker tattoos?" She shrugged then realised what was missing from the picture and pulled out his headband and washed it too and set it aside to dry. She could just see the stream turn off colour in the moonlight. There had been so much blood. He must have been fighting very hard… almost to the death. I hope he pulls through this and makes it home. I'm sure there's someone waiting for him. I wonder if someone is waiting for me right now? She shook her head violently. That kind of thinking right now was a bad idea.
She sat down next to him and watched him breathing again. Just breathing. The most obvious sign that he was going to pull through this. She brushed his slightly damp hair from his eyes again where the wind must have blown it across. He had really been ready to fight Kuruka to try and save me even after seeing her rip that other guy apart… He didn't even know me… did he? Again she shook her head. I'll find my answers eventually, I need to think about what I need to do right now… then she changed her thinking to what else she could do for him, then she caught Kuruka's eye.
"What?" she asked, slightly embarrassed at the expression the cat was giving her.
You like him don't you.
"What!? No!" She exclaimed, taken aback at her words. "I'm just worried about him. He was ready to fight you to save me... he seems like a nice person, I just want to help…" She felt her face heat up. "Should I clean his jacket?" she asked to change the subject.
Oh, so now you're trying to take his clothes off.
"Ah! That's not what I meant…" Kimika felt her face heat up even more.
Hahaha, I'm just playing with you child… I suppose it couldn't hurt, it's a warm night, I'm sure he'll appreciate it when he wakes, you should double check he's healing properly too.
Kimika slowly pulled his jacket off to reveal a net shirt. She sighed with relief as she only found a few superficial patches of dried blood. She quickly checked for any big purple patches which could be internal bleeding and was glad to see there was only slight impact bruising and a possible cracked rib.
Again she caught herself and wondered how she knew then shook her head, trying not to think about it. After giving his torso and left arm a quick wipe over with Kuruka eyeing her with a smirk, she got up and set to work cleaning his ripped, bloody, slightly singed jacket and set it aside to dry.
When she returned she eyed his right arm doubtfully. The blackened cracked skin wasn't bleeding but it made her squirm inside as she analysed it.
"I'm not that great at first aid… so I think I'm better off not touching that…"
I think you're right, but you should bandage it up to stop it getting more infected or knocked about too much as we travel. I think he had a spare bandage around his leg.
She looked down and Kuruka was right. He had a bandage around the upper part of his right leg. 'weird place to keep it but handy if your fighting a lot I guess…' she thought fully aware that she was the last person who should be thinking something was strange.
Although the outside of the bandage was spattered with blood and dirt, the rest of the bandage was clean. Hoping that he wasn't too attached to his net undershirt, she cut away his sleeve with the strange metal thing she had found in his pocket earlier. Kimika had the feeling she should start from his blackened hand, maybe she did have a little training, and she carefully wrapped his arm and sighed with relief as it covered the whole area with a tiny bit to spare.
Shouldn't you think about trying to get some sleep? You look like you're trying to keep yourself busy.
"I… am I suppose, I'm not at all tired, maybe there is a time difference between dimensions? I just want to keep my mind occupied so I don't think about… things." Kimika's voice trailed off. Kuruka looked at her for a moment then shifted back into the white wolf and set her hind leg next to Naruto so she could curl her tail around him, then pointed to the crook of her front leg with her nose.
Come on at least try to rest.
She was going to decline then a wave of tiredness hit. She walked over and curled up in the pleasantly warm nook and as soon as her eyes closed she felt herself drift off to sleep.
She woke up gradually as the sun rose but snuggled further into the furry blanket. Her eyes snapped open as she realized she was outside then suddenly remembered where she was.
She struggled upright then crawled on her knees and leant forward to put a hand on the man's forehead. 'Well he feels normal… not that I really know what I'm looking for…He doesn't look in pain anymore…but I thought he might have woken up by now, could he be in a coma?'
Don't panic, he's healing fine. There was probably a fair amount of minor internal bleeding and fractured bones to heal, as well as the mental and physical trauma of the curse among other things.
Kimika jumped, being unused to hearing voices in her head then relaxed as she felt a familiar weight curl around her shoulders. She brushed his messy fringe from his face again and felt a slight tinge in her cheeks. "Shut up…" She muttered at the snickering cat. She looked down at herself and in the morning sunlight she could see that her blue top and her white and denim skirt had patches of dried blood on them. She swallowed hard and tried not to think about it. The most obvious patch was on her skirt from where he had fallen against her and the red had soaked right through the white lace. Without a second thought she pulled the skirt sharply down to reveal her denim shorts and roughly stuffed the skirt into her backpack without looking at it.
She walked over to the edge of the stream and dabbed some water on the blood stains and managed to lighten them so she didn't look like some kind of deranged psycho killer… I hope there aren't too many of those in this world… she shivered.
Looking down at the things she had left out to dry, she picked up and the headband and put it back into her bag, then frowned at the slashed jacket. "I've got a sewing kit in my bag, I'll sew it up for him…" She rummaged in a pocket and pulled out a small box then spotted Kuruka's face.
"Wait… I remembered! I remembered something! Well it could just be muscle memory… but it's something!" She said cheerily sitting back down at Naruto's side and began to sew up his jacket with apparent ease. "I guess I can sew then." She said matter-of-factly looking proudly at her handy work.
She slipped it back on him then decided to patch the knee of his trousers up while she was at it.
You're very caring for a human you know… You hardly know this man yet you take care of him as if he was a lover Kimika felt her face burn Shall we take him home then or did you want to admire his features a little longer.
"Let's go." Kimika said resolutely, ignoring her last jibe.
She rode the giant white wolf towards the Hidden leaf village, letting Kuruka follow her nose and signs from the forest to help them on their way. Somehow she could tell they were getting close.
We should be arriving soon… but something doesn't feel right…
As she said it Kimika felt a chill run down her spine. She held on tighter and leant protectively over Naruto to keep him from sliding off, which was difficult with the cleaver and backpack strapped to her back. Only seconds later Kuruka leaped sideways to avoid a rain of weapons that thudded into the forest floor where she would have been if she hadn't changed paths so quickly.
The wolf weaved between different attacks of weapons, elements - such as fire and water and even some things that Kimika could swear must have been people, until giant wooden gates came into view ahead. Kimika suddenly heard giant dogs snapping behind them but Kuruka was faster. She jumped over a swarm of deadly looking insects and dodged a man with a blue light glowing from his hands followed by a deadly looking kick from another green blur.
Kimika braced herself for the impact of the giant gate ahead, they wouldn't stop in time. With a jump she didn't think was possible, they soared over the gate and weightlessness took effect and she felt herself lifting off the wolf. We're going to land on the village! Kimika thought in horror then her heart froze as she lost her grip on Kuruka's fur. She had transformed in mid air into a giant bronze eagle, and Kimika managed to grab two handfuls of the giant feathers before she swerved to the left to avoid another attack.
"There! The hospital!" Kimika cried pointing ahead at a building with a red and white cross. Kuruka angled herself again and landed elegantly then quickly shrank to allow Naruto to lie on the ground. Instantly, she sprung back up into a smaller blue white spirit wolf that would fit on the tiny portion of roof top. She growled and curled around Kimika and Naruto protectively. Both were slightly unnerved by the aggressive assault and were unsure if they should abandon him in such a place. Figures appeared on the opposite side of the rooftop.
"Wait." A blonde busty woman standing at the front of the group said with authority in her voice. Nobody moved, Kuruka growled softly. She put a hand on her hip of her green outfit which wasn't leaving much to the imagination, and glared at them. "I see you have one of my men… Speak your purpose or we attack to kill." Kimika watched as the woman's eyes took in her strange blood spattered clothes and her even stranger and much more dangerous spirit protector. Then Kimika saw worry flick across her face as she glanced at the bandaged, unconscious man on the floor, but her expression was quickly schooled back into a frown.
Kimika looked around her, everyone eyed her with contempt, did they think she had done this? Or was using Naruto as a bargaining tool? She gulped and decided to just keep her eyes on the blonde woman as she was obviously in charge.
"I… uh… brought Naruto home, he needs medical attention, he was badly injured in battle… uh, he was cursed but I fixed it, he just needs to rest up, I don't want to fight anyone."
"Cursed!? What do you mean you fixed it!? Who are you?" The blonde woman shouted with narrowed eyes "If you don't want to fight then why do you have that cursed blade?" Kuruka growled a warning.
Such insolence! No respect…
Kimika put her hands up in a placating way to both of them but took a deliberate step backwards towards Kuruka. "He was cursed when I got there… I fixed it but I don't know how… I don't know who I am… I just woke up in the middle of a battlefield." She felt herself shaking she took another step back and felt Kuruka's reassuring side against her back.
"What about the blade? Is its owner dead?"
"Yes." She repressed a shudder, "He's dead, I just picked it up to keep it safe from other hands..."
The blonde woman visibly relaxed.
"Well either you are the best liar I've ever seen or you're telling the truth. Medic's, take Naruto to the ward I'll be with you shortly." She waved two of her fingers forward like a salute. Two ninjas leap forward but Kuruka growled and put a paw deliberately in front of the unconscious body.
I don't like this… Why did they attack us…
Kimika looked back at her then across at the blonde woman who was waving for the rest of her men to stand down.
"Why did you attack us in the forest?" she asked, making the woman size her up.
"We are always on the brink of war these days, we thought you were leading an assault on Konoha as we had never seen such a beast before."
Beast!?
"I suppose that makes sense… are you the Hokage person?" Kimika asked suddenly remembering something.
"Yes… why?"
"He asked me to give you this…" She said pulling out his headband. "Well that was when he thought he was going to die… but still, I made a promise." Kimika threw the headband across the gap and the blonde caught it with ease.
"Thank you…" She said quietly.
'Kuruka move your paw, he needs a doctor.' She did so grudgingly, and the medical ninja took that as a sign, picked up the body and disappeared.
"I'm going to have to ask you to hand over the blade and come in for questioning."
"I- I can't. The blade is cursed, only I can touch it and not be affected. It's too dangerous and I'm sorry but I don't really trust you yet…" Kimika said shakily and saw Kuruka agree with a nod.
"That's a shame… I'm sorry but for the protection of the village I'm going to have to use force. Nara do your thing." She said sadly. Suddenly the ninja on her left's shadow grew longer into a point until it reached hers. Kimika looked down in horror expecting something to happen but nothing did.
"Hokage-sama… it's not working… It's like she's not really there… Like she doesn't exist." The man looked more curious than angry about it.
"She doesn't exist? She's right there and there's no genjutsu going on… okay Ambu, your turn." She made the same salute gesture and Kimika was faced with four masked men closing in fast. The next thing she remembered was a swirl of blue light before everything went black.
"What the hell just happened?"
"No idea Hokage-sama."
"Find her."
"Roger that."
[Authors Comments]
Hi I hope everyone's enjoying it so far XD Reviews and constructive criticism is always welcome :)
Oh and if the setup is confusing:
"Normal Speech"
'Thoughts'
Spirit/Demon
Thanks for reading! :)
