The first thing that I was solely conscious of was the excruciating pain flowing throughout my nerves. My sight was encompassed in black, but my other senses shot awake easily.
I was too tired to scream. Yet, the burning fire on my palms forced my throat to release unnatural sounds of distress. Feeling in my other body parts became known, enabling me to somewhat sense where I was.
I was sitting on something uneven but soft, a solid cushion supporting my aching back. Warm tendrils of muscle were wrapped around my shoulders, trembling heavily but holding me upright and firm. Footfalls and the sound of cabinets being flung open reached my ears. The distress within the frantic movements were clearly noticeable even with one of my senses. However, my hearing also picked up another faint noise. This noise was right next to my ear, and I diagnosed it as whispers. If what I made out were correct, they were just comforting words more attuned to the person holding me rather than myself, the one in pain. But the warmth emitting from my human support system was comforting, and I tried to relax as much as possible into my personal heater.
My back arched and I grunted as pain stabbed through my back. Maybe I shouldn't lean back too far just yet. My reaction elicited, what I assumed were arms, to grip my shoulders tighter and my seat adjusted themselves so that their chest was pressed closer to my back, accomplishing what I had failed to do. The relief was momentary.
My eyelids shuddered open and I tried to quickly focus my sight. My misery clouded my sight, but I was able to make out the basic shape of Minato-sensei kneeling in front of me, setting on the ground multiple bottles and a rag. Looking past him, I made out the basic colors of Obito and Rin in a doorway. Orange and blue for Obito, purple for Rin. No Kakashi.
I focused back in on Minato as his hand gripped mine, the movement jostled the nerves in an unforgiving way and I hissed. His blue eyes looked up and made contact with me. They were extremely apologetic.
"I'm sorry Hannah, but I have to clean it." His tone was solemn and he immediately looked down to continue preparation. "Kakashi hold her still," he commanded.
"Wait a sec-," I struggled to croak out, but it was all in vain as Minato started to pour a liquid on my butchered palms.
The pure agony was instantaneous.
It seemed to travel to every nerve ending in my body. The worst of it was in my hands. My red eyes were blown open as my mouth stretched wide and Minato quickly slipped something into my mouth. I bit down hard on it to relieve some pressure, but it was everywhere. My only slight solace came from the growling, quivering, heated form behind me that stood firm as my legs found the strength to try and push myself away from Minato.
It seemed like hours as I struggled against Minato's actions of sterilizing and wiping clean my hands with a towel that felt like a saw blade. Hours of my legs using every ounce of strength to push away, but Kakashi behind me stayed like a rock, albeit a trembling one. At some point, my throat decided it was able to scream again, and the broken scream was shrilling in the small room we were in.
The pain was everything.
Eventually, I was able to witness Minato stop what he was doing and quickly wrap my hands in a cloth. It was only a matter of time before the intensity of the cleaning procedure achingly faded away into a sharp throb. But it was more bearable.
The room was completely silent except for my gasping breaths. Minato looked at me with sadness and a tint of fright within his eyes, but his body expression showed that he was overall relieved. As the stinging lessened, I was able to focus more on my surroundings. I was right before in that Obito and Rin stood in a doorway peering in at me over their sensei's shoulder. Flicking my eyes down, I saw black covered arms wrapped around my chest in an embrace, and I now clearly comprehended where Kakashi was. I didn't have the strength to acknowledge his presence just yet though.
It appeared that we were in some type of bathroom, for I was sitting on a countertop and saw a sink, mirror, and toilet. Must've been the best place to wash away the blood. I shuddered at the thought.
Returning my attention to Minato-sensei, I sent a watery smile towards him. I didn't even notice when I had started crying, but I could definitely feel the dried tear tracts crinkle as my cheeks lifted.
He returned my smile with a shy one of his own. Minato plopped his butt on the ground with a sigh, leaning against the cabinet. His head fell back so it landed with a thunk, and he shut his eyes as fatigue swept in. The silence was nice.
"Hey Hannah are you alright?" Obito broke the silence as he stepped further into the bathroom. I looked up at his worried expression and smiled. I jerked my head up and down, trying to signal that yes I am alright now. I don't think my voice box was ready for use yet.
My successful attempt rewarded me with a beaming smile. Obito continued forward until he was right in front of me, but something brought him to a stop just before touching me. His eyes looked quickly behind me as he dropped unceremoniously to the floor, criss-cross applesauce.
"So how did you get hurt anyway?" he innocently inquired. Rin also stepped further into the room at the question and even Minato peeled open an eyelid to regard me. Despite my hesitation, I knew they deserved an answer, and so tried my best to talk.
"Th..er...re wa...aa...s thi...s g….uuuyy…" I broke off into a fit of coughs which brought pain to my lower back. My voice was how I expected. Hoarse, rough, and completely useless. Nevertheless, after my coughing subsided, I tried again. "He...ee,"
"I don't think this is the right time to ask questions," Kakashi cut me off. His voice was hard and offered no room for argument. I felt the deep baritone of the command echo from his chest into my back.
Obito looked down in mock defeat, a pout on his lips. Minato grunted in agreement.
"Ya you're right." Sensei heaved himself off the floor and approached Kakashi and I, arms outstretched towards me. "I'll take you to a room so you can rest. Kakashi, go outside and calm down."
I twisted my head around in surprise so that I could observe the masked boy. When we locked eyes, I jerked back, ignoring the brief stab of pain. I didn't know he was so close. Disregarding that fact, I noticed that Minato was right. Kakashi did look like a screw was loose in his brain. His face was emotionless, pretty much normal for him. But his slate eyes, looked like silver daggers as he glared at everything he could lay his eyes on. And currently, that was me.
I glared back. No way your gonna take your anger out on me scarecrow, was the message conveyed with my tired eyes. Something flickered within his eyeball's cloudy depths, but before I could get a good read on it, he stood up rapidly and stomped out of the bathroom.
One little thing to notice, I was still in his fucking lap! His dramatic moody ass standing up to have a tantrum caused me to fall limp to the tiled floor! My limbs had no energy to move. But I managed to gather the strength to cradle my hands and twist slightly so that I landed on my bruised back instead of my bandaged hands. Still, the jarring sensation wasn't pleasant to say the least.
Through the pain, I could foggily hear Obito yelling at Kakashi as he followed the bastard outside and I saw Minato rushing towards me. For myself, I think I was cursing Kakashi to the heavens and back. Minato was slightly amused though, as I saw the corner of his worried lip twitching upwards. At least I can amuse some you, but I'm still suffering here you dimwits!
I groaned, voicing my suffering.
"Alright, let's get you somewhere safe," Minato said. I glared at him thinking, you just thought of that! "Follow me Rin." With that, sensei carefully scooped me up bridal style, gentle with my back, and exited the bathroom. With Rin trailing behind us anxiously, Minato went down the hallway of what seemed like a hotel. We stopped in front of a door, not too far from what I was guessing was the communal bathroom. Must of been a rush to get my injuries in control i guess.
Rin jutted out her hand from behind sensei and quickly unlocked the door for us, holding it open. Minato carried me inside and laid me out on the futon in the corner of the room. The walk wasn't too bad, but I definitely don't want to take another trip anytime soon. I better get better soon or else bathrooms are going to be awkward.
"Hannah." The light voice of Rin broke me out of my thoughts and I turned my head to look at her. "I'm still an amateur healer so I can't heal something as complex as your hands, but maybe I can make the bruise on your back better?" She ended her statement in a lilt, almost as if questioning her own sound logic.
All I did was smile at her and she immediately interpreted it as yes. Her face broke into a relieved smile; she even clapped her hands giddily in excitement.
"I'm going to check on the boys then. Stay here," Minato commanded before leaving the room, shutting the door quietly behind him. Oh I'm totally gonna pop right up and go shopping like a good jolly old fellow, I thought sarcastically. At least it didn't hurt my eyes to roll them.
"I'm just gonna turn you on your side then." Rin placed her soft hands on my left shoulder, pushing slowly. It was extremely uncomfortable, but we eventually managed to expose my back for her to work on.
All I saw was a green glow in my peripheral as Rin began working. I almost moaned out loud in relief as I felt her healing chakra taking effect. It was legit heaven.
I allowed Rin to work her magic on my bruises for a good ten minutes; I could feel the miniscule adjustments she was doing to my anatomy in order to heal the bruise. After we hit the ten minute mark, the boys piled into the room bringing wonderful food and more blankets to sleep on. Obito rushed in with a big pot of soup, venting loudly about his hands burning. He dropped the pot hazardlessly on the ground and continued hopping about, waving his hands around like a maniac. I smiled at his antics. Meanwhile, Minato and Kakashi brought in a butt load of bed materials and started setting them up around the room. When they were done, Minato sat in my line of sight since I was still placed on my side. He started informing me on what happened after the, in my opinion, pathetic battle.
After the team found me, Minato and Rin rushed me into the village we were initially headed to and commandeered the bathroom to sanitize my wounds quickly. Kakashi stayed behind to take care of the rock metal psycho, and Obito was charged with handling our client and finishing the mission. Apparently the guy wasn't much of a challenge for Kakashi because it barely took any time before the masked boy was back at my side to help hold me down for the cleaning. That totally made me feel better about myself, having Kakashi beat the guy that did such a number on me. But I can't be too butt-hurt about it. I did just arrive in the land of the ninja and started the specialized training about...oh I don't remember how long ago. It could've been only a day but so much had happened that it could have occured in the time span of a month!
But I digress. So with me essentially caught up on everything that happened while I was blacked out, Minato, Obito, and Rin broke into some soft, idle chatter. Still turned on my side, I was only able to identify their voices with my hearing because my sight was impaired by the wall I was facing. I only heard the three voices, so assumed Kakashi was sitting against a wall behind me being his brooding self. He soon proved me wrong.
Right as I had made my assumption, the black-clad ninja gracefully placed himself in front of my face, exactly where Minato had sat only a few moments before. I raised an eyebrow in question at this weird action, waiting. I thought he wanted nothing to do with me? Maybe he'll apologize, but that's doubtful. It's Kakashi we're talking 'bout here.
"I pity you."
Wow.
I glared at the imbecile before me, my internal expectations plummeted although I don't know why they were so high to begin with. The bastard wouldn't even make eye contact with me! He kept his eyes on his fiddling hands!
I could barely stand the sight of the boy who had the nerve to pity me. I absolutely despise the thought of being pitied. Because of this, my stupid ass decided to roll onto my other side in order to face away from the idiot. I groaned at the effort, and was happily surprised that my back was only a little bit soar. Thank you RIn. Nevertheless, I managed to face the room to see my other teammates doing some random shit. But I didn't have long to observe them before gentle hands gripped the sides of my arms, lifted me in the air, and turned me so that I faced him again.
Kakashi laid me down in my previous position, releasing his grip as soon as possible. I was too surprised and rightly curious to object to the movement. Again, I raised my eyebrow in question.
"Don't do that, you need to rest," he said in a low tone. I looked at him weirdly, expecting more. Is that really all he has to say?
"Of course that's not all you idiot," he snapped after glancing briefly at me. His eyes flickered to just behind me and a look of annoyance crossed his face. Oh that's why he's talking to me. They put him up to it. Kakashi grunted and continued.
"I just hope you're feeling better and that your hands won't scar," he finished simply. I think my face morphed into an interesting expression because when the masked boy finally looked at me, I saw a twitch in his exposed cheek to suggest a smile. He read my expression. "No I haven't gone crazy and no you are not hallucinating and no I am not lying," he said with finality.
Well he got that mostly right. I think my word choice was let's say, a little more riskay.
"I know. I decided to censor you," Kakashi said cheekily. Bastard.
"Why do you always call me that?"
Because you are a bastard and if I didn't call you that your next nickname might be a bit less socially acceptable. I might start calling you scarecrow or puppy, I don't know yet.
"Don't call me those other names. At least I still contain my dignity with bastard." Kakashi narrowed his eyes at my new expression. "Yes, I haven't lost my dignity you brat."
I dropped the conversation with a small chuckle, not regretting it even as it scratched my throat. I definitely won that. I bet my eyes shined with amusement at how the scarecrow was able to basically read my mind through my face. The feeling looked mutual as well when I caught the little sparkle in the corner of Kakashi's eyes.
We stared at each other after that, steel clashing with blood. It wasn't like our normal glaring contests, we simply gazed at each other in silent contemplation. I had no clue what Kakashi was thinking, but my mind was completely blank except for the image of the masked boy.
I bet we stared at each other for a while, I couldn't tell. As I said before, blank mind.
It, whatever it was, ended when somebody made a direct cough in our direction. The noise caught Kakashi's interest and his eyes were ripped away from mine to regard the disruption. Even I twisted my head slightly to get a glimpse.
Obito and RIn were both chatting and eating the soup Obito had hazardously brought in earlier. Minato sat next to them, but was looking over at us with an amused expression. He shook his head, blond spikes flying every which way, and went back to the random conversation of his two other students,
I was quite confused with his reaction, saving a mental file of the action in my brain for later analysis. My head flopped back towards the masked boy, only to see his head resting against the wall and eyes shut tight.
He was obviously trying to rest, and obviously the conversation was over.