WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! TWO CHAPTERS IN ONE DAY!

Again same warning as the other, there is some medical stuff. I would also like to point out that I am no professional and that this is fan fiction and that she has limited supplies and this she is in the country side. Also there is some blood, okay maybe a fair amount.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, I just have this plot.

EDIT 1/12/2015: This story now has a beta and with this note, what you are reading is the beta'd version. All betaing has been done by bleeding-roses 16


The Death of Sayuri was something that I will regret for years, even after coming to terms with the fact that there was little I could have done to save her. Because no matter how many angles I looked at it, no matter how many times I when through the situation in my head again, there was nothing I could do because it had already happened. It took me some time to come to this realization but come to it I did. I also realized that instead of remembering the possibilities of what I could have done, I should better remember what we did together. It was Mamoru that had caused my realization because through all my doubt and regret I had made the assumption that he hated me since I had felt that I had let Sayuri's life slip through my fingers. What a deluded fool I was. There was some resentment on his part but he had seen my moods and what my own self berating was doing.

"The punishment that you put yourself through is more than I can ever do to you, so instead of making you feel even worse. I'm going to do the opposite."

Wiser words never spoken.

When I had first met Sayuri, I had made the mistake of thinking of her as an orphan child scavenging for food when the actual fact was that she chose to live like that. Rather than come back to an empty home, she chose the forest which were always bustling with life. But after bunking with Mamoru for the first few months, Sayuri began to stay at the home more and more often until she had her own room. That was about the time I had noticed that the Ache in my heart had become a lot less and I often wondered what that had meant, I had wondered if I had found what I was searching for but after Sayuri's death I knew it wasn't. But for some reason even a year after her death, the ache was dull until the last few weeks, it had become unbearable once more. I had left but promises were made to send letters and to visit.

Excerpt from the Memoirs of Akiko Hatake nee Reko

Page 106

X

It had taken a month of steady travelling from Iwate to reach the borders of the Land of Fire. A month of steady travelling and dodging various bandits and gangs. Night had started to fall but instead of setting up camp, Akiko wanted to make it over the border as soon as possible. Rain country wasn't known for being safe for women, especially during the night.

X

Akiko stopped as she heard the sound of clashing metal. It hadn't been the first time since she had nearly stumbled on a battle scene, usually she would detour or wait until the battle was over before providing a burial but this one felt different. Something told her to move closer and when the sounds stopped, a new urgency became apparent. She make her way over there quickly and suddenly yelped, falling backwards in fright as someone dropped from the trees holding a kunai in a ready throw position. From what she could see, he was a brown haired male with a cross scar on the right side of his face and he was staring at her with a frightening amount of intensity. Akiko was jolted out of her shock when the man suddenly collapsed face forwards, she rushed to him because shinobi or not they were people and people get injured. When she had turned the man over, there was another face greeting her. Silver hair and a vertical scar down his left eye. There was a faint nudging sensation in the back of her mind like she should recognize him but Akiko forced it away and turned her attention to the blood that was spill out at an alarming rate from his right inner thigh.

'This amount of blood and from a leg, it's definitely a severed femoral artery.' comes the diagnosis and Akiko cursed under her breath before swiftly reaching into her small pack and pulled out a gauze that she had stocked in Rain, and pressed it to the wound. Another swift movement and Akiko takes a roll of bandages and ties it as tightly as she dares to stem the bleeding and not cut off circulation. She knows she has some medical wire and only a small amount of dissolve-able as well, but here is not the best place to operate. Akiko remembers the map that Mamoru had insisted she carry and quickly pulls it out, silently thanking him for his foresight, easily finding her position and notes that there is a road side tea house not far.

'It'll have to do. Any further and I don't think he would make it' Akiko stuffs the map in her travel bag before hefting the man over her shoulders piggy back style, silently thankful for the rigorous work and heavy lifting she did in Rain. With the man on her back, she starts in a jog careful not to jostle him too much and increase the bleeding but with enough speed to carry her quickly.

X

As Akiko jogs to her destination, her desperation lending her strength and she is unaware that the man on her back rouses.

X

Kakashi can feel someone carrying him, he knows that whoever it is, they're jogging. He feels weak and light headed, his limbs are like lead. Kakashi struggles to open his eye and only manages a small squint. A dark hue of orange is what he sees. A quick inhalation of the air, and the smell of forest, sweat and dust after rain along with something else he doesn't recognize rushes into his nose.

'This smells nice, familiar.' he thinks, mind numb. It is to this that Kakashi loses the battle with the dark and gladly falls into unconsciousness.

X

It's daybreak and Akiko can just see the tea house in sight. There is an old woman opening up shop and there are already a few customers. They see her coming and a lady she hadn't see, gasps when she comes closer. Breathless she asks for their help.

"Please, can you help me?" she pleads. For some reason the man on her back feels so very important to her and she can't understand why. The old lady is kind and sharp because instead of saying anything she merely herds Akiko inside and quickly clears an empty table. One of the men, blond hair and green eyes she notes absently, hurriedly takes him off her shoulder and gently places him on the table.

'Handsome...' With a clear view of his face, Akiko can't help the stray thought of his looks but quickly shakes her head to be rid of it. The old lady seems to recognize him from the way she stiffens, which is good. Akiko turns to her.

"Could I have a bowl of hot water please?" she asks briskly, ignoring the indignant look on the young woman because the old lady understands the gravity of the situation and seems to already know what she is going to do and Akiko doesn't have the time nor the energy to waste arguing with the woman when her patient is dying. She was determined not to lose another one.

"Could I also have some towels please!" she calls out after the Old Lady before turning her attention to the silver haired man. The bandage is soaked through and Akiko can feel the blood that has seeped into her clothes. Moving to another table, Akiko unceremoniously empties her pack and quickly snatches a small satchel that she had nicked from the clinic as a precaution. Moving back, Akiko uses her own knife to slice off the bandages and the leg of the loose pants revealing toned muscles. She doesn't blink, focusing on the blood leaving the thin slice of the leg at an alarming rate, Akiko curses once more.

A bowl is placed before her and Akiko quickly submerges her hands in the boiling water as a reckless measure of sterilizing them, she knows that there will be burns on it later but that's when she'll worry about it, later. Then she dumps the medical wire and a few clips in and quickly fishes them out. Akiko looks up at the gob smacked face of the only customer insight; she knows this is stretching it.

"Could you please hold him down? He may start trashing." she asks because there isn't enough time to grind the Hops that she had collected to give the man to drink in-case he did wake. The blond haired man steps forward and places his hands on the unconscious one's shoulders, Akiko can feel a minute twitch in the muscle but she focuses intently on the leg wound. Taking her scalpel, she widens the vertical incision were whatever had cut the leg made, making it large enough to hold open with her fingers. Grimacing at the lack of gloves, Akiko quickly locates the bleeding artery.

"Pins." she calls out with her free hand open waiting to receive said objects when she remembers that these people aren't trained like she was and don't really know what she is doing. And as her hand is about to turn over the grab the pins, someone places them in her hands. She forces herself not to look up in surprise and turns her attention to the artery because every second counts. The blood is already spilling over on to the table and Akiko can hear someone gagging in the background. Having one clip in each hand, Akiko places above and below the area where blood is gushing out prevent further blood flow. She knows she need to work fast otherwise the pressure would build up and another part of the artery would burst thus making her work here void and the chance death of this person that much higher.

"Suture with thread." she calls, hand at the ready again. Akiko is not disappointed as the objects are once again placed in her hands. With the blood stopped, she can see the small cut in the thick muscular tube. It isn't as big as she had feared but still large enough for the patient to have bled out without assistance. The nick is what it is, a nick at about three millimetres wide and takes four fine stitches to close the hole. Once that was taken care of, Akiko soaks the rest of her gauze in the recently cooled water and gently wipes out the cut in order to remove the excess blood and what else had snuck its way in and at the same time removing the pins above and below the cut. The artery inflates with the flow of blood and there is little to no leakage. With a satisfied nod she removes her larger wound on the surface of the skin took a total of 23 stitches of normal wire which she would have to remove in three days. The wire on the artery should dissolve after a week, hopefully by then the artery would have healed

By the time Akiko is done, she collapses on the bench of a nearby table, releasing a bone weary sigh feeling drained of all energy. It had been a long time since she had performed such a demanding surgery and with the limited amount of tools no less. Gathering herself together, Akiko re-enters the world again.

The tea shop has been closed and the blond haired man is washing his hands in a nearby bowl with a faint green tinge to his face which only gets stronger every time he glanced at the man or the blood on his hands. Getting out of her seat, Akiko bows to the man in gratitude because even though he held down a man who didn't do so much as twitch she is still thankful that he was there.

"Thank you" When Akiko looks at him again, she notes with some irrational hurt that he is avoiding looking at her.

"You're...uh...Welcome" He clears his throat awkwardly and that is when Akiko realizes that she is probably covered in blood. She offers a tight smile and moves away from him and back to the patient. She checks on the stitches before sitting down again, attempting to keep a calm presence of mind. Her attention is caught by the old lady as she re-enters the shop from what Akiko assumes is the kitchen, this gives her ample time to study her. Her hair, which had greyed with age, was held in a tight bun with no stray strands. And her dress was that of a green short shirt kimono matched with a blue skirt. Her eyes were sharp with intelligence and held the edge of experience and when the Lady's eyes drifted over Akiko, she suddenly felt like a small bug under a very intense microscope. This caused her to fidget in her seat and a warm smile crossed the older woman's face.

"You and your companion are welcome to stay in the guest room upstairs." The old woman tells her kindly and Akiko is shocked to be offered such generosity. People, Akiko has learnt, that are that nice usually had a reason for it but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. With a muted nod and a bow of thanks, Akiko turns to the man and once again hefts in up but instead of having him ride piggy back, she carries him bridle style. Akiko examines the room and quickly notes the stairs to the left and hurries up them, blushing as she goes.

"It's the second room to the left dear!" The woman's voice echoes behind her and Akiko can feel her blush intensify as she makes her way down the corridor and to the room.

Finding the door, Akiko shifts the man to open the door and quickly sets him down on the bed. Rearranging his position so that he was under the covers and with an extra pillow she had found in a cupboard, that was place under his leg to keep it raised as to allow the artery and the wound itself to heal better. Finally, Akiko stopped and properly took a look at the man she had saved, someone she had met in the dark and carried on her back. Silver hair with a vertical scar over his left eye. Something clicks in her mind and Akiko reels back as the realization she had ignored before takes the opportunity to smack her in the face. The man she had just saved, did a rough operation on and just carried bridle style was none other than Kakashi Hatake.


THERE IS KAKASHI! HAHA! She met him first!

So the femoral artery is about 8mm under the skin in the inner thigh on both legs. If it is severed on an angle then, you will bleed out and because the blood loss is a large amount and very sudden you loose consciousness in 30 seconds. That is why Kakashi has collapsed. The artery it self is pretty large and can be stitched up. If it is a cut on the artery not through it, you can just stitch up the cut but if it is too big, the doctors do a graft instead using part of another vein (think). This is where I point out that Ninja with super awesome chakra abilities or not, he is still human and is therefore affected by human weakness like blood loss.

Said blood loss is why he couldn't wake up during the impromptu surgery on the old woman's table. Why the old woman let it happen will be explained in the next chapter.

ALSO...I have exams coming up which will be running until the 27th of Oct in Aus so I won't be updating until the 28th. That doesn't mean that I won't be writing it just means that I won't be updating. Hence the two chapter present!

And Hops is a herb which acts as a natural sedative and as a relaxer

R and R!