"Hello, Kango-hei."
Hatsue looked up to see Dan Kato, looking very much healthy and handsome as ever with pale sky locks.
"Hello, Dan-sama." She turns back to checking her inventory, no bandages left, a bit of antibiotics, a bottle of antiseptic, some herbs and an array of venom in vials. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
He shook his head. "I wanted to say thank you for saving my life."
The girl gave him a polite smile. "I was just doing my job, being a medical-nin and all. No biggie."
"Still." He sat down beside her, the 27 year old looked up to the night sky. It was starry. "You saved my life. I would have died if it weren't for you. I really thought that was the end you know."
She remained silent. There was nothing to say so she let him talk, peeking on his expression.
"Tsunade was crying, and I knew I was dying. I had so many things I still wanted to do. Dreams to chase. You might be just doing your job but thank you... truly."
"How... how did it feel? Dying, I mean." She asked curiously.
"Well..." He chuckled. "My wounds hurt like a- hell. And then my head went numb, it was getting hard to breathe. When I started not to feel anything, that scared me. Good thing you were there."
"Yeah, I guess." Hatsue says, not knowing how to receive his gratitude.
"You know, I had a younger sister. You two would have made good friends."
"Had?"
"Died." Dan replies curtly.
"Ah."
"What, no condolences?" He bemused.
Hatsue shrugs. "I don't really know what to say. Plus you're tree hugger, you won't appreciate it from a desert crawler."
"Prejudice at its finest, I see." He smiled at her. "You got any family left?"
"My parents are still alive. I'm lucky I haven't lost someone."
"Both of your parents. Wow. You're pretty lucky." Dan whistled, impressed. It's one of the things shinobis would be envious about. Growing up with a set of parents to guide you through adulthood. That fact alone would let you show off that not many can trump.
"I am." She nodded, a bit shy. She knew she was one of the luckier kids in the world.
"They must be really impressive shinobis. Following their footsteps?"
"They're merchants."
"What- And they allowed you to be a shinobi?" He was flabbergasted at the knowledge.
"Suna has this law: only one non-shinobi every two generations. If I ever have a kid (eww), the kid could choose to be anything other than a shinobi."
"Huh. Konoha's different. Usually, you succeed your parent's trade. Although, shinobis are given high status in society so many of our generation and the next are really pushing for a shinobi in their family."
"Suna place priority on shinobis too, and they also have priveleges."
"What's your dream?" He asked then added. "If you weren't a shinobi."
Hatsue gave him a funny look. "Painter."
"Painter?" He chuckled. "Quite far from your area of expertise."
"I was a painter before I became medical-nin. They have similarities in terms of skill."
"Like?"
"Pulse, you need good pulse."
"Pulse?"
"I just call it that. The skill of precision and good timing combined: pulse."
He hummed happily, getting the girl from Sand to open up a bit. "My dream is to be the next Hokage."
At this, she gave him the cheekiest smile he had ever seen. "No way. You're too soft."
"You're one to talk."
"A painter doesn't need to be tough. A painter doesn't need to be anything, only to be themselves."
"Cute." He tries to pinch her cheeks but she avoids his hands completely. "Sorry."
"It's alright."
"I remember." He coughed awkwardly. "Tree hugger. Desert crawler."
"Yeah." Hatsue was just thinking about what Risa told her, to always be careful around men. You just never knew. Dan was a good sort but Hatsue would rather miss out a nice platonic gesture than risk of it being anything else.
"Do you dislike Tsunade-hime?"
"Not really." She shook her head.
"But there is something."
"It's because of her that Suna's council was so hard to me."
"They pressured you? How does that tie to Tsunade-hime?"
"Konoha has too many named shinobis. It threatens us, they're trying to mitigate Konoha's notoriety by having their own famed medical-nin. Me."
"Turns out a success."
"At no small cost." She replies, sardonically. A flash of memory. Two paintings. Pandemonium of colors. Her best friend sitting on the floor. A portrait of a shinobi.
"There's also the fact that I cannot stand you Konoha medical-nin."
He was surprised. "Even me?"
"You're so arrogant with your medical ninjutsu. It's impressive but why are you not the least curious about it? Why aren't you trying to understand how it works? Why are you not questioning how it works?" The girl huffed, ranting.
"Well, it's because our jutsus are top tier that anything we can't fix must mean that we just need to create another one?"
"See?" She sighed. "You don't research different alternatives. And you tree huggers have the guts to say our medicine is backwards."
"You give poison as a medicinal remedy." Dan deadpanned.
"In the right doses, they're medicine."
"Of course." He humors her, grinning. "Heard you turned down Orochimaru and Tsunade-hime, why?"
She looks at the 27 year old man with furrowed brows. "Your village will eat me alive."
"Really?" Dan lets out a laugh. "We're just simple tree huggers."
"The named shinobis of Konoha begs to differ." She rebutted, then she sighed. "I just wanna be home."
"So it's a case of homesickness."
"I bet you wanna go back home too, safe and cozy in your tree houses."
Dan laughs again, in surprise. The little girl is amusing. "Is anyone not from Konoha think that our architecture are just tree houses?"
"What's an archi-something?"
"Architecture, the design of a building." He gives the child a gentle smile. "It's good to know that I can help you with your vocabulary. You sound too mature for your own age, anyways, we don't live in tree houses."
"Hmm." She paused; she sounded like Sasori just now.
#01 Rain
Rarely. Most of the times just a drizzle. Tomi-san enjoys the sight of her daughter catching raindrops with her tongue, daring Sasori to follow.
#02 Prayers
She grieves Hatsue, while she waits. She dared not hope. Heaven watches. Fate has a penchant to circumstance the opposite. So she grieves.
#03 Lovely
She had heard all of things about Elder Chiyo, poison specialist, skilled medic-njn, an Honored Sibling, leader of the Puppet Brigade and a member of Suna's council. But when she frowns worryingly about the red head, well it made the intimidating elder quite...
#04 Untitled
"When you're at the battlefield, what was running through your head?"
"That my will to return home does not lose to any one of them."
#05 Breathless
The kind of hug that squeeze you so much that you're almost suffocated. It is a family exclusive kind of hug. Hatsue's mom grants this to Sasori.
"I can't." The twelve year old shook her head at her fellow Sand-nin. "He's not breathing anymore."
"Heal him!" The man grabs her shoulders with death grip. "Please, heal him. I beg you!"
"I can't revive the dead." She says, keeping her emotions at bay. They shouldn't expect anything from her, she's no miracle.
"So your medical services are reserved to the Leaf now?! You fucking kiss up to damn tree huggers !!" He shook her shoulders, his comrade lay at the ground beside them.
She stabs a paralysis to the man's hand. "I'm sorry."
As soon as the hands that grip her shoulder limped at her sides, she moved to cover the dead's face, it was ghastly. The stench of blood wafted around and the glare of the sun was too bright as always.
"Reinforcements to Konoha."
"Iwa is getting aggressive, those Leaf bastards are sure taking their time destroying Kannabi Bridge."
"What are those damn stoners like?"
"Insane. Suicidal."
"You ever faced those Iwa-nins, you need all the prayers you need. They do not retreat. If they die, they take you with them."
"Every shinobi out there is fighting to go home, except those of Iwa. They fight to die."
She was asleep when she felt someone hover above her, it was a scenario she had been warned about and she could not find herself to move. How is this happening? Why is this happening? Is this a dream? Who- She felt the caress on her thighs, she sat upright in a jerk. The man was not familiar too her, dark eyes which are widely set alart, a sharp nose, and a face with side burns.
"Get out."
"Shh, little Kango-hei, it's alright. I need your help." He whispered, smiling sweetly.
"Please, leave." Risa told her to shout but she couldn't, somehow her mind guilts her that if she does, she would be ruining his life.
"I've been on missions for months now without the soft touch." He suddenly grabs her left hand. "You can heal me, right? You have a healing touch, little Kango-hei . I need yours."
"I'm a delegate of Suna if you touch me-"
"Yes, a delegate needs to be knowledgeable, I can teach you how to be pleasing." His eyes curved with a perverse shine to it, he took a kunai out of his pocket. "Do you need me to persuade you, Kango-hei?"
Hatsue shudders, not in fear, but the wave of disgust she feels, the surge of hate and the moment of clarity.
"I have a medicine for that, mister."
He chuckles. "I want a different kind of healing, little Kango-hei. The kind where only I can teach you."
"But I have a my trusty injection here in my pocket, with this you can be okay now." She grins dumbly. "I'm giving you a shot, hehe."
"Alright, still you need to use the healing method I teach right after, okay?"
The sudden stab of a syringe on the hand he's holding the kunai with made him swipe it on Hatsue's arm. A shallow wound. Years of practice had the needle accurately inserted inside the man's vein. Not wasting the seconds, she performed the hand seals. Rat. Ram. Dog. Ne. Hitsuji. Inu. She snaps the needle of the syringe and lets the half stay inside the man's vein, in a pure vindictive streak.
"I can't go to war. I don't think I can kill.
Deathstalkers were the most lethal scorpions in the desert, due to their aggressive nature. Their venom, charybdotoxin, could not immediately kill a healthy adult, unless you get stung enough.
"ahhh...ti...d-d..." Incoherence of the man lain on the ground. The girl watches him numbly.
"Once I step into my first battlefield, I'll experience horrors I can never imagine."
She giggles manically. It's not the battlefield that's the only horror. Death is tame compared to the perverse sickness of the human mind. It's not the battlefield they should fear the most.
"You know, scorpion venom is a cocktail of hundreds of individual toxins, which destroy the victim's nervous system by targeting specific molecules in the nervecells." She rambled, taking out antiseptic and rubbed the spot on her thighs where the man caressed. "It usually takes minutes, but well..." My theory on healing jutsu inspired.
"And I'll become a different me"
"There are two components to your nervous system, one part you control and the other part runs without your input. The autonomic nervous system regulates a variety of body process that take place without conscious effort. The autonomic system is the part of the peripheral nervous system, that is responsible for regulating involuntary body functions such as heartbeat, blood flow, breathing and digestion. If your autonomic nervous system quit working you would immediately die. This is how neurotoxic snake venom works; it stops your autonomic nervous system and when it stops it you die." She explains to the man. "Lucky you I don't want to kill you. Instead, I damaged your somatic nervous system that's responsible for your sight, hearing and speech. Now, you're just a dummy."
She giggled. Sasori can take someone's will with chakra strings. Now she can take
someone's will by permanently damaging their nervous system. Yep, they're best friends alright.
"the guilt will plague me like a bitter disease"
When Risa stumbled upon the little girl that night, she had goosebumps all over her body. Was it cruelty or mercy? To be reduced in that state where the man who was still on the ground sobbing, snivelling and begging incoherently. Nevertheless, she spat on him. Fucking rapist.
"and I know I'll never get to paint the same way again."
"He's.. f-from Suna." The girl broke down, hugging the older woman who tried to soothe her.
"Why is he from Suna? Why? I'm from Suna. I thought it was only Konoha we should be wary of. But- Risa-san how can someone from the same village-?"
"I'm sorry, Kango-hei." The older woman closed her eyes because for females in general, all their lives will be preyed upon by these predators. "I'm sorry."
"I don't understand, Risa-san. I have never seen him before, how can he- I didn't want- I JUST EXIST And people like him think it's okay to-"
They held each other through the night, in tears, exhaustion and through the many nightmares to come. No one will ever have an answer to that question. The excuse: the devil made me do it.
Author's note:
Hello, sorry for the delay. (Sunday I said, hahaha the clownery is me) I'm currently on my writer's block. (Also, I wanted to delay even further but seeing the recent reviews guilt tripped me T T ) Reviews are food for a story, want to keep it alive? Then feed it. xx
To OneWhoReadsTooMuch
T T yes Hatsue is a soft hearted idiot. My heart. 3 Every time she fusses over Sasori, I just melt. Their friendship is so cute aaaaaa fluffeh
To Guest of 4/24/2021
hello hello
To Clairecat1994
Thank you for reading and I'm glad you found this an enjoyable read.
To Guest of 4/25/2021 at Ignite by thebonggirll
You ROCK! I'm so glad you read that fanfic and that you left a review. I really hope the author updates soon, I really enjoyed the story aaaaa xoxo lots of love to you, you are my best child bcoz you took up that fanfic suggestion. xoxo
Announcement:
I'm gonna go on hiatus.
when will I be back?
when I finally write a next chapter, I have like three to four stocked chapters here but they ain't it. I'm gonna join a narutooc weekly prompt on Tumblr, i hope it squeezes writing juice out of me.
Also I'm planning on making an artfic for hatsue coz i wanna see her wearing suna's medical nin outfit, OH MY GOSH, I NEED TO DRAW SASORI AND HATSUE WEARING EACH OTHER'S JACKETS. /insertsquealingnoises/