A/N: Because I couldn't just leave it where it was... cathyscloud9-sake does indeed lead to some further drama ;)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto. This story is purely a work of fanfiction.
Nina- is my original character (I do own her)
Chapter 90
Well, if nothing else she'd reached a level of intoxication that her wounds and body no longer hurt. But her damnable mind insisted on replaying snippets that she'd sooner forget than to relive.
"It'll be water for you after this Nina."
"Oh for the love of Hokage. Why? I'm willing to pay, what's in matter if I'm in…" The bottles lining the bar began to meld into each other signalling she was further under the influence than she'd originally figured. "Fine." She resigned. "I'm going to go to the ladies and then one more, deal?"
"This isn't up for negotiation, Nina."
"Pfft. I'll just get your other ss-sstaff member to help."
There was no other staff on. Nina was well past the point of being able to reason with or hear sense.
She pushed the chair back and stumbled towards the bathroom, which gender was anyone's guess and her care factor was non-existent. Fortune favoured the very inebriated kunoichi and she managed to find her way into the female lavatory.
It was necessary for her to brace herself against the walls of the cubical, although it did little to prevent the room for swaying. She was at her limit and her best efforts to drown her sorrows, he was still very much at the forefront of her thoughts. She'd forgiven him; even long before the match. But forgetting it was a different notion. She just couldn't seem to let it go. She liked him; well maybe a bit more. Dammit. Did she love him… possibly but she couldn't allow herself to admit that either. Instead, she simplified it all as her judgement being affected by one too many bottles of sake. How did the Fifth Hokage function with the amount and regularity of her drinking? It was a fete that Nina was never going to be able to manage nor wanted to. Hic. Fuck. She really was beyond her limit. Given the state her body was in, her limited chakra reserves and her lacklustre emotional and mental state she was surprised she was upright and conscience of anything at this point. Hic.
Bracing one shoulder against the wall of the cubicle Nina pulled her underwear and shorts up which snagged on her kunai holster. She took no time in ripping it from her leg and discarding it to the floor of the toilet. Hic. It'd annoyed her all day, she would just need to get a new one… tomorrow hic well, maybe not tomorrow, but she'd require a new one soon.
"Well, as much as it's a nice change from Asuma, I did promise to meet up with him later tonight for run down on our next mission."
Shikamaru although highly intelligent, didn't need his smarts to see the man before him wasn't entirely present.
"Care to tag along?"
"Sure."
The young shinobi's actions were admirable however, Kakashi couldn't clear his mind of the hot-headed kunoichi.
"You're not still sour about losing to Nina are you?"
"Eh?"
"You've barely uttered two words. While devious I have to admit it was probably the only way she could have possibly beaten you."
"I suppose."
Clearly missing the mark and not wishing to engage in the details of what was truly bothering him Shikamaru fell silent as they made their way through the streets of Konoha.
Nina emerged from the toilet cubicle. Hic. She was hard pressed to focus on just one of the numerous images of basins that appeared before her. She'd just to have to take a punt and hope for the best. Hic.
Holding firmly onto either side of the basin Nina slowed her breathing down, sucking in the air through her nose and exhaling slowly through her mouth. Her stomach was revolting the copious amounts of alcohol she'd ingested in the short time.
"I thought you said no? Well, never mind. It must be fate that has brought us together."
Fuck. Hic. Not now. Not him. Hic.
Nina wasn't in a state for this situation.
He strode over to the basin where Nina was struggling to maintain an upright position. He groped her sides unapologetically.
Nina's skin was crawling from the inside and out. Hic.
In his brash onslaught of giving Nina a fair feel up, the assailant failed to notice the sound of cracking porcelain emanating from under his victims hands.
Unable to control her actions as proficiently as she would if she were sober, Nina's grasping hands cracked through the basin sides, slicing her right hand deeply. As it were, fortune favoured her attacker even less than herself, and soon he become the victim of a wild and ferocious right hook, heavily infused with some of the chakra that she'd managed to restore since the fight earlier.
Shikamaru pushed Kakashi backwards, both barely avoiding a collision with the flying body that flew from the walls of Shushu-ya.
"Raido?"
Most of his words were unable to be understood but through the blithering Kakashi made out "That bitch." Once the veil of haze from the incident had settled Kakashi made out a very recognizable figure… Nina.
Kakashi rushed to Nina's side as she collapsed to the floor.
"Asshole. Hic. 'Serves him… hic."
"She's in a bad way Kakashi."
Following Shikamaru who knelt down and before fetching the kunai holster Nina had tossed away earlier to strap her arm. The blood was pooling and Nina was barely conscious.
"Who the?"
The bartender and manager was gawking at the wreck of the bathroom.
"How much?"
"What?"
"How much has she had to drink?"
"I dunno about before here but a half a dozen."
Fuck. Stupid. Wreckless.
"She needs to go to the hospital."
Kakashi surveyed the area and their options. She needed medical attention, however, risking any confrontation with the Fifth Hokage would not bode well for Nina.
"No, we need to get her out of here. The less attention the better."
"Kakashi what the hell happened?"
"Genma, time to pay up. Get your girlfriend to meet us at Nina's."
"Huh?"
"Hic. Kashi. Hic. I think I'm…"
"That's just great. What a drag."
"Genma! Now! Shikamaru you're going to have to help me get her back, avoid high traffic areas."
Nina could barely make out what was going on around her before another wave of burning fluid regurgitated from her stomach.
Shit. She was in a bad way.
Shizune flew into Nina's apartment which judging from the smell wafting down the staircase was going to be somewhat of disaster zone.
That was any understatement. Nina was hunched over, multiple splatters of vomit mixed with blood were all over Nina's kitchen. Kakashi was tapping her face in a bid to keep her awake.
Shizune quickly assessed Nina. "Her blood alcohol level is too high. The bleeding won't clot nor will I stand a chance of stabilising her if we don't reduce it. It's a crude method and she's probably going to put up a fight but we need to force her to expel it."
Kakashi's eyes were wide. Give him the battlefield any day over this.
"Here. Now feed short, rapid pulses of chakra into it."
Kakashi did as instructed. It was beyond crude in his opinion but if it worked then this was how it was to be. Nina writhed and wrestled with all three of the shinobi as he continued the bursts of chakra into her abdomen causing her to vomit the ridiculous amounts of alcohol.
"Almost. A little more."
Her body was slickened with sweat, making the task increasingly more difficult.
"P…please. Kak…Blaarg! Please … s-stop."
She was responsive enough to know he was present and he was the one forcing her body to retch up the contents of her stomach.
He had to admit it was a harder task than he'd imagined and it only stood to concrete his feelings for her.
She could feel herself been tugged, prodded and bound to the unending ruthless episodes of vomiting. Over it all she could make out his scent and it was the only thing that was making any of this remotely bearable. As she felt the effects of her alcohol indulgence reducing, the searing pain in her right hand hit her worse than the intermittent bursts of chakra to her abdomen.
She could make out Kakashi, and could tell it was Shizune from her voice but there was a third person. But she couldn't make out who.
"We need to get her in the shower." Shizune eyed Kakashi knowing Shikamaru wasn't suited for this next part. "Kakashi. She needs to be in the shower so I can clean the wound and dress it. I can't do that on my own. Any more blood loss and I'll have no choice but to take her to the hospital."
Kakashi snapped out of his trance and cradled the now shivering Nina. He knew it meant that she would be stripped and although the words hadn't been spoken, Shizune was assuming that seeing Nina naked wasn't going to be anything new. Honestly, even if he hadn't seen her, the adrenalin coursing through him currently would have given him any strength required to help a comrade. Except Nina wasn't just a comrade.
Shizune tore away the layers off Nina's body whilst she laid in Kakashi's arms, almost lifeless, barring the shivers which signalled her body was in a state of shock due to the blood loss. She ran the shower until it reached the desired temp and ushered Kakashi to place Nina in the confines of the shower. She could tell from his face, even though it was limited with his hitai-ate and mask, that his concern ran a lot deeper than just a comrade. He may not have lied about the bet but the relationship Nina and Kakashi shared before the mission had altered. "Her wound is deep, but now that we've rid her body of the majority of the alcohol she's consumed and the bleeding is under control, I can get her healed. However, I am meant to be in the clinic so I can't stay any longer than I have to otherwise I'm likely to be questioned by Lady Hokage. Once I have her patched up I leave the rest to you and Shikamaru. She won't have use of her right hand. At least not for a few days. She's damaged tendons, ligaments and some nerves."
"Thank you."
It hardly seemed suffice given the extent of Nina's injury that she had sustained and their current predicament. Kakashi appreciated that Shizune had only carried out her duty of care and not bombarded him with questions that she undoubtedly wanted to ask. Some of which he really didn't have the answers to.
Kakashi threw himself onto the lounge, leaning his head back to stare at the ceiling, he let out a sigh.
"Troublesome woman" muttered Shikamaru, as he finished wiping the tiles in the kitchen with paper towel.
"Mhmm. Very" he replied, leaning to one side to dig out the pristine copy of "The Tales of a Gutsy Ninja" from his back pocket, and propping his legs up onto the coffee table in front.
Shikamaru opened and shut two or three cupboard doors until he stumbled across the bin to dispose of the paper towel. The kitchen was back in a clean state and only a faint mixed smell of alcohol, blood and vomit lingered; only the likes of Kakashi and Kiba would pick it up. He washed his hands, stuffing them into his pockets as he headed towards the door.
"Thanks. I owe you a drink some time" flipping to the next page, the copy-nin gave a one-handed wave. Shikamaru nodded and turned on his heels and left the apartment.
Kakashi had a quiet chuckle to himself, for a ninja who was supposedly notoriously lazy, Shikamaru had certainly gone out of his way to help him out tonight, and he decided that perhaps more than one drink was owed.
The apartment was almost silent except for the ticking sound of the wall clock, of distant and muffled voices and footsteps from neighbouring apartments and the occasional turn of paper as Kakashi passed time by reading his book. He caught sight of the time 345am, and for a brief moment he contemplated heading back to the comfort of his own bed, in his own apartment, but then he heard a groan from the end of the hallway. He placed the book down onto the coffee table, stood up, stretching his arms out in front, then stuffed them into his pockets as he quietly made his way to the room from which the sound had come from.
As he cracked the door open slightly, he could make out a figure that had curled and knotted amongst a sheet, with the heavy top blanket hanging by a corner, with the rest piled on the floor. He crept in, which was an easy enough feat after all his years of training, missions, and of course Anbu. He picked up the blanket and proceed to carefully reposition it back on to the bed, bringing it over her shoulders. He turned to leave the room, but as he did another groan came from her and he glanced back to see her arms clench around her mid-section and a rather clumsy attempt to sit upright; he had seconds to get to her side. In three steps he was crouching at the bedside, with the bucket in one hand resting it against her chest and under her chin, and the other hand supporting her frame.
He brushed the few stray hairs that were dangerously close to falling into the stream of vomit, holding the majority of her hair as he continued to support her, being very mindful she was only able to use one hand to help hold the bucket. Once she had finished, Kakashi set the bucket down to the side, offered her a wipe, and a drink from the glass of water with a straw.
"Thanks" she mumbled, flopping down onto her pillow, where she almost instantly fell back to sleep.
Kakashi waited to see if there would be any more rounds of vomiting and once he was satisfied that would be it for the time being, he left the room once again, heading to the laundry to empty and rinse out the bucket before returning it to her bedside and he to the lounge.
The clock on the wall now read 430am, he had resigned himself to the fact he wasn't going back to his place tonight. His place was here on this lounge, keeping a watch over Nina. It had been a very long and interesting day. He had some theories as to motive behind tonight's events but at this point he was far too exhausted to worry any further, instead he let his one exposed eye close and he drifted off to sleep.
