Kawa collapsed in shock, her mouth hanging slightly open as strands of dark purple hair fell into her eyes. He mind slowly registered what had just happened, and screamed at her to get up. I'm the medical ninja. I need to move! But her body simply refused to respond. All around her the snow was covered in blood, and bodies lay all over. Get up, get up, getupgetupgetupgetup...MOVE IT! She screamed inwardly, finally moving her legs and forcing herself to stand.
But that was as far as her body wanted to go. Genma snapped out of his shock considerably faster, and made his way over to her. "We have to see to Kasei and Sora. Listen Kawa." He shook her shoulders and her eyes focussed on him, the first seemingly alive thing she had seen in a while. She was shaking.
"Kawa, your a medical ninja. Kasei is badly hurt. You have to go to him. Okay?" Genma tried to phrase it simply, and Kawa finally broke out of her state of shock, nodding numbly and turning towards Kasei, who was unconcious. Or at least she hoped.
She began running as she saw the state of her friend more clearly. When she finally reached him, she choked back her tears and began tearing the bottom of her shirt into long strips. All of the needles had melted, but they had left behind hundreds of holes and deep cuts. He was rapidly loosing blood. Kawa rolled him onto his back and began loosely staunching the wounds on his neck, where he was loosing the most blood from. She then tightly wrapped all of the major injuries. His lips were turning blue from bloodloss. I can't work like this. I need to get him to the Hokage or he'll die soon.
She checked over him once more to make sure he would last for the next while, before dashing off towards where Genma was bent over Sora. When she reached him, she found Sora also unconcious, but not badly hurt, except for his arm. But no, he wasn't unconcious, he was...
"He's asleep..." said Genma slowly. Kawa stood for a moment, before kicking Sora with her foot.
"SORAGETUPRIGHTNOW! WENEEDHELPCARRYINGKASEI! IF YOU DON'T HELP HE'S GONNA DIE! GET UP!!" she kicked him twice with the last words, and his eyes snapped open.
"I didn't do it!" were the first words out of his mouth as he looked around as if he were being chased. "Huh?"
"Sora! Get up now! I can't carry Kasei, and Genma can't carry him alone, so we need you to help!" Kawa dragged him upwards by his uninjured arm.
"Why me?" he asked sleepily, pushing himself up and looking around. "Where's Koumei and Kasei anyways?"
"I dunno where Koumei went either. That Itachi guy vanished with her," said Genma, shrugging.
"LOOK!" said Kawa, fed up, pointing towards where Kasei lay perfectly still.
It took a moment for the vision to register in Sora's mind, but when it did he was off, running, followed by both Kawa and Genma. He knelt beside Kasei, and Kawa did the same.
The purple-haired medical ninja held a shaking hand over Kasei's mouth feeling for any warmth, any breath. There was a faint, uneven, brush of air against the palm of her hand, and she moved to his wrist, feeling a weak pulse.
She gave the signal, and Sora gently lifted Kasei's legs, forgetting his injured arm, and Genma carefully lifted his chest. Kawa looked around, checking once more for anything at all, before thay started on the long, slow journey back. The snow was deep still, coming up past their knees, and made things go incredibly slow.
Genma stumbled again and readjusted his hold on Kasei, straightening up and proceeding again. There was a low hoot from above, and a small brown owl descended toward Kawa, who was leading the way. She pulled something out of her pocket and scribbled something on it with a dull pencil. The owl took it and flew off again.
"We can't go any further like this. Kasei's body can't take this. We'll wait here for help, I've sent a message to the Hokage-sama." Kawa moved into the tree cover, finding a dry-ish spot and clearing it off as Genma and Sora lay Kasei down for her to tend to. It had started snowing again.
"Oi, what happened? I passed out." said Sora as he bandaged his arm.
"You fell asleep," stated Kawa as she brought chakra to her hands and held them over Kasei's neck. Sora paused and rubbed the back of his head.
"Did you hear what the Akatsuki said? He said the her dad wanted to see her. What's that about? I thought the Akatsuki killed her entire village, including her father, the Tsukikage." Genma said, without his usual toothpick to bob along with his thoughts.
"You'd be suprised at how much Koumei hides from the rest of the world. She bottles everything up and lets it out by making up stories about her life. I did get her to tell me some things, though." Sora continued bandaging his arm.
"What do you mean?" asked Genma, raising an eyebrow.
"I beat her in one-on-one combat and forced her to tell me some of the truth about her, under the condition that I told no one. I could tell what parts were lies and what was the truth. For example, she told you that the Akatsuki destroyed her entire village, which is kind of true, but they did not kill her adoptive father. You see, her and her father were members of the Akatsuki, but when Koumei ran away to the Hidden leaf, the villagers wanted to follow her and not the Tsukikage. They ended up dying by the Akatsuki, so she wasn't lying entirely. But she lies alot."
"What!?" Kawa's hands slipped as she stopped examining Kasei. "She's an Akatsuki!? How come you never told me any of this?" Kawa stared at him angrily.
"I couldn't! I swore not to!"
"So what? You are a thief. A T-H-I-E-F. A thief and a spy and a liar. What would you care about keeping your word?"
"Hey! That's not fair! I can keep my word!"
"It may not be fair, but it's true. And you can't keep your word because you just told us." Kawa went back to fixing up Kasei.
Sora seemed about to start up another argument, but was stopped as he saw an Anbu appear behind Genma and Kawa. And another, and another, until there were two full Anbu squads before them. "Uhh... Hi?"
Kawa sat slumped over, asleep, at the edge of Kasei's hospital bed as Genma walked in. They had just finished being treated, and without overly serious injuries, were allowed to leave almost immediately. Except for Sora, who was asleep again in one of the hospital rooms with a broken arm, many broken fingers and minor internal bleeding.
Genma sat down on the other side of the bed, with a brand new toothpick in mouth, and sighed as he looked at the state of his friend. There were many different machines around him, with beeping screens and odd attatchments. Over his mouth was a breathing mask, and almost his entire body, or what was visible, was bandaged, except for his face. There were various tubes going into his arms, blood transfusions and other things, and he wore one of those uncomfortable-looking collars.
Genma and Kawa had been unable to see Kasei for around a day. He had been in critical condition, or at least more so than before, and the doctors and medical nins, the Hokage herself included, would not allow visitors. They had spent a few hours treating burns, then more time operating on God knows what, preventing further internal bleeding. And now that they were finished, Kasei didn't look so good.
Kawa opened her eyes and sat up, glancing at Genma, and then to Kasei, biting her lip and rubbing her eyes. She stretched and coughed a few times, looking over at one of the machines and understanding what it was saying, unlike Genma. She had been the first out of her hospital bed, after only two or so hours of rest, and due to her unusually fast healing abilities, had been able to draw in her injured wings, almost fully healed.
"I better go visit Sora or else he'll complain about not getting any attention. And I don't want him to come complaining to me..." she said sleepily, standing and walking out of the room, leaving Genma alone with the beeping machines. He lay back against the chair, closing his eyes for a moment.
I wonder what happened to Koumei? What would an Akatsuki want with her? Genma stretched and stood, leaving to get some sleep. He looked back once at Kasei before closing the door lightly behind him.