A's note:
Just to be clear, it's after a year of Sasori standing by Suna, missions in between months, Hatsue got deployed.
2017 me: remember when you started writing this with the intent of being light hearted?
2021 me: hehe
warning: swearing will be used onward from this chapter, I'm changing the rating to T. and there is a conversation about rape, I don't know if that's enough to be rated M.
"Fucking desert crawlers."
Hatsue flinched at the foul language as she passed by. She couldn't get over the blatant hatred Konoha-nin had against them. They headed immediately to Konoha's camp after dropping by the border, mainly to have their attendance record written, not dropping by will mark them missing. Then they met up with a masked (owl) shinobi somewhere in the forest and he led them. It took additional 12 hours of travel from Suna's border to Konoha's camp. Risa, the older medical-nin, who has brown chestnut hair tied in a bun, tanned skin and brown eyes, shifted into a defensive stance in front of her.
"Keep your comments to yourself, tree hugger. We're here as a friendly ally to your village. We don't need to kiss ass to you tree hugging pricks."
"We don't need your help, sand bastards."
"Seems to me you're having a bad time. Iwa at your doorstep with Suna watching the sidelines and Rain at your rear. We could've attacked you fucking assholes and you more than deserved it, hell, ignoring you should be enough for Suna becoming allies with Konoha but we trust our Kazekage's decision."
"As if you can beat Konoha, tch."
"Fuck you, we need to speak with the one in charge."
"..whatever."
Both of them never relaxed, as they were guided through the camp. Every Konoha shinobi followed their forms, Hatsue could feel the prickle of their stare, some were glaring, others were just staring warily, as if she and Risa would jump and suddenly attack the camp. Anyone with common sense wouldn't do that, they'd die in an instant. They arrived in front of a slightly bigger tent, and they were ushered in.
"You're not taking our weapons?" Risa asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Two of our legendary Sannins are in this tent. If you plan on killing them, you'd need all the help you can get and the blessings of Kami." The man with dark hair and an soft facial features rolled his eyes at them. "That might not be enough though."
"Legendary Sannins, huh? You guys are indeed in a pinch to be deploying both at the same camp." Risa mused.
The man ignored her.
"Welcome, Suna delegates." The woman standing at the center of the tent said. She was fair skinned, voluptuous, blonde hair and brown eyed. She's gorgeous, the Suna delegates thought. The kind of beauty that can stupefy anyone, the one that you can't help but turn your head to. The blonde woman didn't even need to introduce herself, they knew of her from the bingo books, it wasn't an exaggeration to say she's the most beautiful woman they have ever seen.
"My name is Tsunade Senju. We heard you were coming." She gazed at them with steadily, this was a kunoichi who has walked through hell and back. She was beautiful, authoritative and deadly. "Suna wants to establish friendly alliance before the summit?"
"Yes." Risa replied, mesmerized while handing the Slug Princess a scroll from their Kazekage himself. "Our Kazekage would like to extend help in exchange for a successful alliance between the two villages. We are willing to lend a small group of Suna's forces stationed by our borders in your conflict with Iwa."
"Forgive me for not believing this attempt of deceit by Suna." A pale man with long dark hair and narrow slit eyes with resemblance to a snake, interjected. "Do you know how unbelievable your offer is to Konoha? You're giving us manpower in this war, although a small group you say, but I find it very difficult to comprehend on why your Kazekage would be willing to spill your blood for our cause."
The man does not lose out to his comrade's beauty despite being male, his beauty had an alluring pull to anyone who sees him. They know of him too, no introductions necessary, he need not say he's the Snake Sannin.
"We trust our Kazekage's decision, we like to think it's not for your cause we are dying for, but for the sake of our village." Risa evenly answered.
Orochimaru stared at them stoically but Hatsue could see the contempt flashing in his eyes. "Blind devotion is prevalent in your village too it seems."
"The small group you are willing to lend... what makes you think we won't use them as cannon fodder?"
"We don't." Hatsue blurted. "That's why we're sending a small group to feel Konoha out." If she were a more righteous person, perhaps she'd be outrage. If it was before perhaps she'd be.
The two Sannins finally noticed her existence, Tsunade was curious while Orochimaru had disdain. Risa looked at her, surprised then sent her a look of warning.
"My apologies, we haven't introduced ourselves, have we?" The older woman gave them a pleasant smile. "My name is Risa, a medical-nin of Suna and my companion here, is Hatsue."
"Is this part of Suna's test? They sent shinobis of no importance as their delegates. Clearly, they're looking down on Konoha." Orochimaru drawled, there's an edge on his voice now.
"She's named."
"Oh?" Orochimaru raised an eyebrow at that.
"Little Kango-hei." Risa supplied.
Tsunade tilted her head at that and Orochimaru downright looked insulted now. "Delegates, lying does not bode well for you and your village."
"I assure you within Suna she is named; she has trained under Elder Chiyo and our Kazekage before gaining the name."
"Medical-nin at her age?" Tsunade inquired.
"The youngest Suna has. Our little Kango-hei has successfully used Mystical Palm at the age of eight."
"Fascinating. How many months did she train with the fish exercise before being successful?" There was an excited expression on Tsunade's face.
"Fish exercise?" Hatsue was confused.
"Before you moved to treating humans, how long did it take you doing the fish exercise?"
"We don't have that sort of exercise."
"That's quite risky." Tsunade pursed her lips, a tone of disapproval. "External and internal wounds are quite different so without doing the fish exercise, you could accidentally kill your patient."
Hatsue flinched. Orochimaru watched her carefully, he was finding the girl interesting the more he gleaned information about her.
"At the age of eight, I was able to heal small external wounds. It wasn't until months later I was able to heal internal wounds."
"Figures." Tsunade pondered. "That is no small feat though. How come your name hasn't spread outside of Suna?"
"This is my first field experience." Hatsue looked at the ground, her feet was the most interesting thing at that moment.
Orochimaru let out a small bark of laugh. "Oh, how devious Suna is, they sent you a named shinobi within their walls as a delegate. Do you know what that means, little girl?"
Hatsue shook her head.
"You're valuable enough to hold gravity of the seriousness your village extends in their aid to Konoha. But not enough that your death damages Suna."
Hatsue could not say anything to the Snake Sannin's statement. She faced the reality, she wasn't anything special just because she could perform medical jutsu. Just because she trained under Elder Chiyo and the Kazekage does not mean she's not indispensable in the grand scheme of war. It needled her inside, to say it didn't bother nor hurt her would be false. Tsunade and Orochimaru shared a look.
"We would like to discuss Suna's proposition by ourselves, your offer is tempting and not without risk."
"We understand. We will return in a week after settling things at our border."
"No, you are to stay within our camp, to let you go back to Suna's borders would make our location precarious. It is not without reason to think that Suna might sell our location to Iwa." Tsunade stated.
Hatsue and Risa nodded, the 11 year old couldn't help but feel uneasy with the developments. To sleep among Konoha shinobis was something she had never considered that might happen to her. She should work on her imagination. They were led by the very same man before to a tent far away from the center. Hatsue took note of the tent, it was almost bare, save for the couple of mats on the floor. She wasn't expecting anything else. When they were alone, Risa took a sleeping bag from her storage scroll, and told Hatsue to do the same too. They sat on their sleeping bags, Risa was wearing her Suna vest and black tights while Hatsue was wearing a black jacket (Sasori's) and white pants.
"Little Kango-hei, do you know how babies are made?" Risa asked.
"Risa-san, that's a weird thing to ask."
"You don't know, do you? Of course not, you're a child." The woman stared at her hard, then shakily exhaled a breath. "To be a kunoichi has its perks and dangers, Hatsue. I don't want to be the one to talk to you about this, but we are in a camp of neither enemy nor ally. As Suna's delegates, we are to display a non-aggressive attitude and anyone, anyone will take liberties to our being female, I'll need to speak to you about how they would and how we could avoid it or repel it."
Hatsue blushed. "I've studied anatomy Risa, like you, I know how reproduction works, but it all sounds weird and unpleasant."
"Well, yes, that's true. Of course you know, you're a certified medical-nin. Sorry. I lost my head for a few moments there. I guess being with the tree huggers is getting to me. This makes it a bit easier. So, to be blunt, you know about sex."
"Yes."
"People can force you to have sex with them."
"They can?"
"They can and your body will activate a defense mechanism so that your body will hurt less. When a female is being raped, that's what forced sex is: rape, her brain will make her feel pleasure whether she likes it or not. It's sick, I know but without it, the act will hurt the victim even more."
"But I'm eleven, Risa-san."
"That doesn't matter. War does things to a man. Even without war, some are just fucking sick perverts. I'm sorry, don't pick up on my swearing."
"But how can they do it?"
"They can just grab you any time, Hatsue, without anyone watching, or sneak in this tent and force their way on you, or lure you in a false sense of security acting friendly with you and then invite you to a place where they can do it, doesn't matter if you're a three year old as long as you got a hole in you, they will fucking rip you apart and I mean it literally."
"But-.. why?" Horror can be traced in the girl's voice.
"Don't know. Like I said, they're sick. It's not just females who are raped, males too, especially boys, unless you're stronger and can fight back, they'll rape you, and they zero in anyone who has light in them, that's you, you're innocent."
"You think Konoha-nin will do that to us?"
"I'm tempted to say no, but it could happen Hatsue. So, let's make some rules to avoid that, okay? Rule one: stay with me at all times. Rule two: don't trust anyone, only your instincts, if there's any slight discomfort you feel from a person, stay away or find me. Rule three: when you feel someone with that intent, scream loudly, doesn't matter if you look crazy or if you're wrong. It's better to be proven wrong than it to happen to you, understand?"
"I don't want that to happen to me."
"No one does, especially the victims. That's why I'm telling you this, I heard you got civilian parents, kunoichis usually got this talk as soon as they graduate, I guess your parents thought they could wait a bit for you to get older before giving you this talk, however, I don't want it to happen to you or anyone at all, so I'm giving you these rules so we can avoid it. I just hope nothing like that happens to us."
The delegates of Suna found themselves without sleep that night.
"A small group from Suna?" A tall man with pale skin, thick eyebrows, light blue hair that reaches his back, wearing a standard shinobi outfit, prompted his fellow Konoha-nin.
"Suna offers aid, they seem intent on making sure that there's an alliance between villages." Orochimaru says, his body language giving off that aloof attitude, he never did like Dan. Too soft, the Snake Sannin thinks.
"It's risky to accept them; it's only been months since Suna declared a neutral stance to Konoha." Tsunade piped in, no one can blame her if she can't put off that grin on her face. She's with her boyfriend, it can't be helped. "Although, Suna has reason to come to our aid, Iwa wants manpower in this war, they can have their forces doubled if they successfully defeat Sand."
"It can make a difference though, Konoha's forces have been spread too thin." Dan nodded thoughtfully.
"And we can work on a high-risk, high-reward strategy if we take their aid, no need for Leaf shinobis to die when we have Sand to sacrifice for us."
"They can sabotage our plans for them, we don't have confidence in them. They're volatile."
"If we accept them, we can divide them and integrate them to different teams."
"They'll be cannon fodder either way, whichever team Sand gets into, they'd be picked on."
"Will that be a problem to them?" Dan asked, worryingly. Being allies with Suna could solidify the Kage summit. Shinobis have been getting fed up with the war and if the war still goes on for a couple of years, resources will run out soon, everyone needed their economy to recover.
"They're the ones offering their aid. Additionally, the delegates say they're feeling us out. We can do whatever we want with them." Orochimaru says with a careless attitude.
"But if they're feeling us out that means how we handle the aid they extended reflects on how well we treat our allies."
"Tough call. How many medical-nin are they willing to lend us?"
"The delegates are medical-nin. According to the scroll, there are three more."
"Five medical-nins, huh? Wow, they're really pushing for this alliance." Dan was surprised.
"Why would they send us five ? Suna's medical knowledge are inferior to ours so they should be hoarding them."
"Tsunade-hime, you do know you're a medical-nin too, right?" Orochimaru rolled his eyes at her.
"Your point?"
"You're the peak of medical ninjutsu, maybe they're trying to learn something from you."
"Maybe. But I don't want to teach any of them though. They're too proficient in making poisons. You know how many all nighters I pulled making those damn antidotes? Especially those by Elder Chiyo and Akasuna no Sasori. I swear, they probably sleep with venomous snakes and scorpions as soon as they were born." The blonde complained, huffing in irritation.
"I heard their chuunin promotion is different from ours, they needed to kill their fellow exam takers." Dan mused grimly, he didn't like that thought.
"You think Little Kango-hei took their exam?" Tsunade wondered.
"I'm more interested on her medical training." The Snake Sannin piped in.
"What about her medical training?"
"They don't have fish exercise."
"But how would she-"
"I believe the girl immediately jumped to treating humans."
"Do you know how many fishes had died before it was safe for me to treat humans?!"
Orochimaru sighs and replies in a bored tone. "A great number, I'm sure."
"Orochimaru!" The Slug Princess scolded her team mate.
"What?"
"Must you insult Dan?"
"That was an insult?" Dan asked.
"He can't even identify it as one."
"Because you're good at backhanded statements." The blonde says exasperated. Her fellow Sannins had a way of tempting her to burrow her fist in their faces. "Back to the main topic, we'll accept their aid as Sensei instructed."
"Hokage-sama is getting old so it's no surprise he'd want that peace treaty to succeed."
"I wouldn't hold my breath." Orochimaru muttered. "Ow! Tsunade- hime, if you miss Jiraiya, don't make me your substitute punching bag, deal with it on your own."
But we could change it if we stand up strong and take the lead
"YOU THOUGHT THAT WAR IS WHAT?!"
"That you just fight with the enemies head on??" Hatsue says.
"That's stupid."
"You're a scorpion poop, Tree hugger."
"Fuck you, desert crawler." The man says automatically, then he pinches the bridge of his nose. "War is not that upfront. Most of the things that help instigate a war happens behind the scenes, and so does winning a war. We don't just walk up in the open and say 'Look I'm a stupid desert crawler, kill me if you can.'"
She glares at the Konoha-nin, insulted.
Konoha is losing.
"We're spread too thin, Tsunade-hime! We can't call for back up, they're too far away."
"Earth Release!" A boulder flies in their direction and Tsunade punches it to break into pieces with her chakra covered fist.
"How far away is Dan, Katsuyu?!" She asks her summon.
"It would take a couple of hours to get to them. He's unconscious right now but the remainder of his platoon keeps him safe."
"Good." She gritted her teeth. Fucking stoners, there's something wrong with them.
"Hime, you're running out of chakra."
"I know."
Earthen walls suddenly shot up and entombed the kunoichi. She cranked up the chakra on her fists, adding layer upon layers on her knuckles and started punching the hell out of the walls only for it to be reconstructed and replaced over and over again. Tsunade let out a string of curses, she's pressed for time. She needs to get out of this to get to Dan.
"There's twenty of us out here, Slug Princess. We have plentiful of chakra still left while yours probably has only a third left. Typical Leaf, always so arrogant, going after us alone will kill you."
She took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Every time the walls come close to crush her, she obliterates them, shards of rocks come flying at her but she can't get out as long as there's plenty of them out there who keeps pulling out the earth. Fuck. She squats and curls into a ball. She feels like a child at the moment, she allows herself to be one at the moment because anyone would truly be a child and green when death comes brushes at you; for death is an entity who's as old as time. Is this how she's gonna die? Because of fucking Iwa? Because of these damn stoners? At the age of 27? Fuck no.
Then it hits her like an epiphany.
"Katsuyu. Please protect me." She asks even though she needed not to. Then she gathers chakra from her reserves and channels it to her right fist, she engulfs it layers upon layers of chakra and she strikes the ground on which she is standing. The fissures originating from the spot her fist met escalated instantly and spreading in a radius vicinity. The Iwa shinobis drops into the large cracks that appeared on the ground.
The walls fall down on top of her but she was shielded by her summon. She coughs up the dust and smirks in triumph when she was able to see the night sky after finally destroying the damn walls for the last time.
"Surrender to Konoha and we will take you as prisoners, when negotiations with your Tsuchikage is done, you will be released back to your village." Tsunade barks out, she was exhausted but bringing them back and have T and I look into their mind might bring advantage to her village.
A hysterical guffaw echoed around her. The goosebumps on her skin appeared, the hair on her arms and the back of her neck were standing.
"How cute, Tsunade-hime. Our new Tsuchikage sent us here to die and to return will only be besmirching dishonor on our deaths. Earth Release!"
The pile of rocks around her comes crumbling down.
"How am I supposed to know it was a fucking trap?!"
"You didn't think it suspicious that they were luring us to a cave?!"
"I didn't know they were gonna trap us with the risk of their lives."
Thunk. Thunk. Crack.
Hatsue coughed badly, feeling the dust particles scraping the inside of her lungs. She felt the heavy body on top of her and freeze.
"T-tree- , Mister?"
There was no response.
"MISTER!" She tries to wiggle out of the pile. The Konoha shinobi's body protected her from the falling rocks. Iwa shinobis loved that technique: exploding rocks and burying their enemies. Hatsue successfully gets out of the fallen shinobi's protection and when she was able to stand up, she pulls his body to the side.
"Desert crawler, good, you're alive. Need you. The peace treaty." The man gasped sharply.
"Yeah, mister, I'm gonna heal you now, okay? I'm a medical-nin." Hatsue tells him but he has that look in his eyes that knows the truth. There was no healing him. He had broken his vertebral column by shielding her, resulting to the severance of his spinal cord above the C-4 level, the phrenic nerve supplying motor function to his diaphragm will become non-functional. That means dead in three to seven minutes Hatsue. Thunk. Thunk. Crack. She closes her eyes, she tries anyway and performs the hand seals. Rat. Ram. Dog. Ne. Hitsuji. Inu.
"Mist- ter. I-"
The Konoha-nin grabbed her hands to stop her from wasting any more chakra, squeezing her hands as the man starts struggling to breathe despite the abundant oxygen around them. She stays even when his last breath was long gone. The thing about people, Hatsue thought, even if you barely knew them, when you witness their death, they stay with you. She wonders whether they were all ghosts or were they all just love letters written by death to their world?
Tsunade was crying, shouting, cursing at Kami and his cruelty. Not Dan, no, no. Please, Kami. He was bleeding too much and she arrived too late. His blood was all over her clothes. He was lying down on the ground, in his typical Konoha vest jacket, his light blue hair that she adored were caked with blood and mud. What was the point of being a medical-nin when she can't even save her loved ones?
The rain continues to pour down.
"I.. I don't want to die yet. I have so many things to do."
"Don't worry, you're going to be alright." She smiled to reassure Dan, if she kept on smiling he'd be alright, he won't die. Tsunade was glad for the rain so that it masks her tears. The blood stains on her cheeks were starting to wash away. "You're going to be alright."
"Stop." Tsunade screams, an ugly expression contorting on her face. Don't take him from me.
"Stop." Bleeding.
"Stop." Don't go. "Just-"
"Stop." A small but steady voice rang out clearly despite the drizzle of the rain.
"Kango-hei?"
"I can help." Hatsue says, her jacket pinned with the Doctor's logo in red. She was soaked with the rain, a rare lovely weather that the girl would have savored had she been back at her her village. "The thing about you medical shinobi from Konoha, Tsunade-sama, is that you rely too much on medical ninjutsu."
There was a sound of a scroll activating. If death is so intent to take their loved ones, then the raven haired, brown eyed girl will answer the love letters by death. Snatch his preys just like how death snatches their lives, save many of them. Saving the living is the price of killing her ghosts.
shi no koibito
死 の 恋人
Death's Lover
"Healing jutsu accelerates healing properties, yes?"
"Yes."
"But what if it's not just healing properties, it accelerates."
"What do you mean?"
" What if it accelerates the state of the body? "
A's note:
and that's a wrap. Sorry I couldn't get into the action scenes, I'm terrible at them, in fact, what was I thinking trying to write this. My search history is concerned by the way, 'how does a bone breaking sound like?' 'how much blood does it take to die' 'will you die if you break your bones' 'will you die if you break your spinal chord'
All searched around 3 am... FBI suspects I'm a psychopath now.
to 000xx000
Thank you for leaving a review, you cinnamon roll. When I write Komushi, I really feel giddy about it. I wonder why. I'm sorry I couldn't deliver much tragedy in this chapter. I just want Hatsue to go home and be a little painter but yep. I think she'll be having PTSD now. Truth is I just want to disregard plots and write a bunch of cute stuff but hey, plot is the filling and fluff is the icing. uwu To eat a cake is to have both.
to carolinamaiah
Thanks for leaving a review
to Guest of 4/14/2021
Thank you for the high praise, I am honored.