AN: *Crawls slowly across the floor, hand reaching out.* "BETAS, help me." *Eyes Shut* END SCENE
The pink haired girl didn't even take notice of us. I guessed she was the cause of my handicap. Kakashi had the decency to look at me concerned. I pulled my thoughts together with a creased brow and pointed to the pink haired Medical-nin.
"Stop her now! She is dying!" I painfully hissed out. I was one of the privileged few to witness the pure shock on a lead ANBU shinobi's face as he looked to where my finger pointed. It was in that moment I heard her yell with all her lasting strength, "I can do this!" I shook my head, no, she really can't.
"Stop her now." I urgently yelled this time, really concerned. She looked ready to faint. This experimental poison was deadly to victims and their healers.
"Sakura!" He shouted quickly and began to pull on her. I took this moment to collect myself and briefly meet my secret tormentor. I say briefly because I knew her eyes wouldn't be open for long. I could feel her fading.
"I can do this!" Sakura, the famously pink haired Medical-nin, yelled out to no one in particular. Her current patient was passed out, eyes closed. Sakura was wearing down. So worn out that she allowed one of her lower but trusted Medical-nin to try their hands at curing the chakra poison, she was getting weaker and weaker by the day. Trying to cure this poison was taking over her life, she couldn't think, fight, and quite frankly was feeling more sluggish. This was number 7 of the patients, 6 dead. Crying took too much energy.
She was so slow to think, slow enough that she heard nothing being shouted at her and felt nothing as Kakashi pushed her back. She was barely aware he was shaking her. What was going on? She glared in concentration.
"How many?" Kakashi questioned, his one eye hidden, the other glaring in displeasure. To an outsider he may just seem displeased, but Sakura knew her teacher. He was concerned, worried, panicked, and he shielded it so well. But why was he this emotional ball of energy?
"Sakura, how many?" He repeated. Sakura tipped her head, confused. She practiced moving her mouth, even that seemed too much. Finally, she could speak.
"How many...?" Her voice weakly questioned, Kakashi showed little emotion, but she felt he was relieved that she could speak.
"Poison victims have you treated." He completed the thought. It still took Sakura a minute to answer, it was on the tip of her tongue. She knew her patients. Especially counting the ones she failed. But thinking was getting harder.
"Seven." She managed feebly, talking was challenging.
Kakashi let go. She nearly fell. He reached out a hand to catch her, but someone was faster. It was a slim figure in a hood.
"I'm surprised she can still stand. Powerful Med-nin. Most would be on their deathbeds at 3," Appraised a low, trying too hard to sound male voice. Sakura decided she liked the compliment.
"Who's she?" She asked drowsily.
"Dammit. I was trying to sound like a guy." Confirmed the voice with defeat, now letting the voice flow naturally. Sakura thought it was pretty, low like a lullaby, putting her to sleep.
"I have work to do." The hooded figure said, Sakura could feel the eyes boring into her.
"Me too." Sakura yawned, somehow she was sitting in a chair. The hooded figure patted her hand. The skin to skin contact made both jump with shock. Suddenly she was seeing stars. She tried to keep her eyes open and tried to open her mouth to speak. But her strength was gone. Images were flashing through his head. Her green eyes were heavily lidded, she watched the figure go over to her patient and then her eyes shut.
"Does T stand for anything?" Kakashi dragged out as he watched the hooded figure go over to the civilian rather than tending to Sakura. He had the itching feeling of saying, "save the medic first". But this woman seemed to know more than he did. At least, he hoped she did. The chakra around her seemed to be glowing, what caught his eye was how it was changing. It seemed to change in spectrums of yellows and greens. The excess seemed to float off in little balls of light. He thought of fireflies.
"What if I said I'm Not-T," She questioned absent-mindedly to him as she continued her work.
Kakashi's brow furrowed. Kakashi stared long and hard to see if she was flirting. There were signs. You know, eye contact, a flash of a smile, and maybe a giggle. For her? Nothing. His mask hid a smile at her unknown cheesy remark.
"Naugh-ty, hnn?" He retorted, he didn't get much of a response as she began to control her chakra more precisely. But he did make out a short, amused snicker.
He watched as her chakra flooded around the civilian, it acted much more like air. It was filling in places and expanding. It was a strange sight to behold. It gave him time to analyze the hooded lady, who obviously wished to be mistaken as a man.
She had great control over her chakra and was clever. He hadn't even know her presence until he was in Konohagakure. He thought he had lost her trail. Then like a burst of light, he felt it. To his experienced mind, it seemed almost like she was running away, she thought she had made it home free, and then let her chakra expand. Then, realized she was where he wanted her to be and was trapped. There was her skirmish over coming to the hospital with him. T thought she was in trouble of sorts. Kakashi had never mentioned being in trouble. He thought this was rather interesting.
They could be dealing with a special forces kind on kunoichi if that was the case. He needed to talk to Tsunade. Until then, he'd study her movements and retell his observations.
He tried to decipher what she was doing, completely at a loss to this new style. Sakura's was a healing energy, warm and calculated. This one was overwhelming, kicking and knocking around the civilian. Those little fireflies packed a punch. Kakashi winced, wondering if the man would wake up bruised.
"Better bruised than dead." The hooded figure mumbled as if reading his mind...or mask.
"Hnn, and the Medical-nin Sakura?" He voiced, interested in what else she would do and trying to direct her to his student.
She paid him no attention and continued on. The chakra was slamming around like its master had let it loose. He knew she hadn't, but it still made him wince. It continued hitting the shield in different locations, not staying in one place too long.
With a little time, Kakashi was getting a sense of what she was doing. Perhaps with training, he and Sakura could do this too. She was making the chakra shield thin out all over the body. T's chakra stretched over the body and the poison would try to block all of it. In places where T hit harder, there was more concentration of the shield, the shield was gathering itself against the hard hit. Leaving other areas extra weak as it was already thinned over the body.
So, as Kakashi understood, she was going to thin out the chakra so much and have to quickly shatter a weaker point with the rest of her chakra. It would have to be a heavy, hard, and very quick hit.
He watched her puzzle over it for maybe 10 minutes, silently cursing when she missed her 1st time and had to go through the motions to set up an attack on the shield again.
Kakashi was silent, waiting for her success. He knew she would destroy the shield, she had done this enough times to catch the notice of Konoha.
And he was right, he felt the break of the shield as her chakra pounded in one area at the exact right time.
The figure got into position to catch the civilian as he came to life. It was quick. The man bent forward, breathing like he had been drowning. Heavy pants came, then heaving, and then he fell into rest.
Kakashi noticed at the same time Sakura's breaths became deeper, more even, like she could suddenly breathe better. It wasn't that of a healthy shinobi, but it was a start. Good. He turned back to the hooded figure for thanks, about to ask her to stay longer, but he stopped himself.
Kakashi's eye widened as the hood fell down. Quickly he masked the surprise with droopy nonchalance. Spools of hair fell down to her lower back, she was wiping the sweat off her brow, she had a grimace on her pouty lips as she looked to Sakura. He found this sweaty mess of a woman very appealing. She didn't even grace him with a glance, all her focus on Sakura.
"You." She accused the innocently slumbering Medical-Nin. T's eyes became slits, her pout more pronounced. Even her foot tapped as if summoning all her powers to make the pink haired girl rise. Kakashi grinned a little, not that they'd ever see it. He would just relax and watch this strange woman berate an innocent slumberer. He seemed forgotten anyway.
"You did this. It had to be you." T babbled at the girl while pointing to her head. Kakashi was pretty sure T's mind was the one at fault here. She then pulled off her cloak fully and threw it to the side. Kakashi figured she was done hiding whatever she needed to hide.
"Constant pounding for years, YEARS. Every time you almost die or suffer. Do you know what it takes to stand this?" She was pacing now with her hands waving, clearly Sakura was somehow offensive for not talking back. SHe babbled a little more about the pain and its distracting nature, finally she went quiet. He watched the red-burgundy haired woman pace around. She seemed at a loss to do. Kakashi sighed, perhaps he should join in the conversation, to enlighten the crazy lady.
"She can't hear you." He stated logically, he realized this was a mistake as she pivoted better than any dancer he knew and glared at him. The sheer anger simmering off the stare would make anyone off lesser shinobi skills waver. But he was ANBU trained, still, he gulped.
"I know that, but I want our first conversation to be pleasant. After all, she is my sister. I need to get all the bad stuff out now," she huffed, arms folded and looking upwards like the gods of ceiling tiles would help her.
"Sister," He repeated back in monotone, masking the shock in his voice. Only the handful that had known him for years would guess the high mental eyebrow raise he was giving. He observed the fiery, angry girl in front of him. He had avoided doing it when she first took off the cloak. He knew he would appreciate what he saw, and he did. But his casual glance would never show it. He told himself it was just so he could make a correct report to Tsunade on her.
She wore the colors of Kumo. It seemed to be an outfit she had outgrown. Both observations were a concern he'd have to bring up. He tried his damnedest not to appreciate the curves, but trying and doing are different parts of speech and mind. Definitely a woman. She had slightly exaggerated curves which he could appreciate. Not too exaggerated like Tsunade's. The female Hokage seemed to have nearly exploding watermelons on her chest. No these were, like grapefruit. The perfect size for perverted fantasies... Kakashi paused, he needed to focus somewhere else. He looked back at Sakura, a good distraction. Back to the topic of how they could look alike.
Both had green eyes, Sakura's were a beautiful pure green. T's seemed to have blue and gold sparkling through. T was more endowed in places as he had previously observed and her body seemed well balanced. As for Sakura, he hadn't noticed anything about her body, she was 16 after all. He studied his student's sleeping face and that of T's.
Both had smaller mouths, T's lips were fuller and seemed to be pouting at him in a strangely, angrily attractive way right now. Sakura's lips were more uneven, giving the effect of a fuller bottom and made it seemed like a pout was always present. Maybe that is just her attitude he was thinking of...
T's hair was longer, wavy, and much redder than Sakura's. Where did the red come from? He had met Sakura's parents, no red hair.
Sisters? No, Kakashi thought they could be cousins at best.
"Half sisters." She announced with a shrug and looked at him, Kakashi tried his best to muster a casual shrug back.
"Hnnn." He managed in a disbelieving tone. Sakura had never mentioned a sister. T had never come into town before, he hadn't even heard of T.
Speaking of T, she seemed annoyed by his response. For punishment, she made a demand.
"Bring me food. I have work to do." T waved off Kakashi without another glance at him. This time, his brow did physically raise at her. His head tilted in confusion. Was she already ordering him around? What a change from earlier today when she was escaping him and trying to squirm her way out of his arms...before surrendering.
"Hurry, I don't work well when I'm hungry." She snapped sharply after Kakashi did not move. Kakashi stared again, she had some inkling to who he was, he wasn't a waiter. He thought about voicing it, but this could be an advantagous.
Also, for the sake of his student he would go, he'd never tell Sakura that. He felt the steady glare he was receiving was a little discomforting, especially since he had done nothing wrong. He realized he was keeping her waiting.
"Yes, yes." He casually waved in surrender and watched in fascination as her glare transformed into a smile of appreciative happiness. Of course he couldn't just leave her with that attitude.
"But it will be expensive, 100,000 for my services," He added, his eye crinkled as he held out a hand for the money.
SNAP! Just like that, she switched to a murderous glare.
His cue to leave was quick as T's eye searched the room, ready to throw something at him. He turned to leave, opting for the window and a quick escape. It wasn't quick enough and he heard her pick something up. He felt it coming towards him. His quick and well-trained reflexes caught the object without even looking. He grinned as he heard her disappointed "aw".
"Damaging my person costs extra," He said cheekily as he hopped onto the windowsill and placed the object, a heavy vase, on the window's ledge.
"You mean I can pay to do that?" She retorted smartly, eyeing him up and down. Clearly she was envisioning where she'd hurt him, but Kakashi couldn't help but feel just a little redness coming on with her apprehensive stare.
"I'd pay you if you could even hit me," He said superciliously, quickly jumping out of the window and out of the way of another flying object. Just above his silver bed-head, he felt a WHOOSH of air. He looked up to see a small table flying out the window. He shook his head, T and Sakura did have the same kind of temper, except maybe T's was a little easier to rise. That was an accomplishment since Sakura was the fastest to anger of his students.
Kakashi landed gracefully on the ground and looked around. He could just go buy food, but he was not the kind to waste money. He walked around, trying to think of some way to get free food, he had an idea. Money miser Kakashi hopped off to find food in Konoha to save his student from poison (and perhaps himself from a hungry maniac). He'd do his best not to pay for it. So he headed to their buxom blonde Hokage, food and money for information. This was good, Kakashi was pleased to execute this soon to be fruitful plan with no money of his wasted.
AN: Question of the chapter: Male or female, who is your favorite character of Naruto and why?