Eien no Shasai

(The Edited Version)

Chapter 24

Chi no Kizuna

Ties of Blood

To many, blood may be thicker than water.

But water is endless and can be used for almost anything,

while we only have a limited amount of blood.

-x-

The soft beeping caused her to stir from her slumber, the high-pitched noise grating on her ears. The electronic noise seemed to echo loudly, adding to her intense headache. Her body felt like lead and she desperately wanted to drop off into oblivion a while longer, at least until she felt better.

She squinted her eyes open a fraction, the machine at her side testing her patience. She could feel needles stuck to her as well as those horrible sticky things that measured her heart rate. The oxygen mask was uncomfortable on her face, making the oxygen feel sterile.

She was in a hospital setting. Frowning she tried to sit up, patience thinning at her body's absolute refusal to comply. Forcing her hazy eyes open properly she set about her escape plan. With a painstakingly slow baby-step approach, she worked into wiggling individual parts of her body, the nerves numbed from what she supposed was some strong pain-killers, morphine maybe? Glaring up at all the drips and such around her, she debated which one to pull out first. There was clear liquid and there was one a deep ruby, which could only be blood.

But what to do about that infernal machine? She'd faced this enemy previously and knew if she put a toe out of line it would immediately start screeching that horrible high-pitched noise that made her ears ring.

Finally succeeding in sitting up, she went about investigating.

There were buttons on the machine; no doubt one of them was the off-switch. It would just be luck and trial-and-error whether she got the right one. If all went kaput and she had nurses after her she could escape a little while later or outrun them. Or perhaps out-float them? She did feel peculiarly floaty.

Unhooking the liquid bags from the posts holding them, she set them on the bed, moving her legs round to properly face her foe. The zigzagging green lines made her dizzy so she decided to look around the back to see if there was an extra switch.

She slid off the bed and felt the cold tiles touch her feet.

Heh, see she was perfectly-

And she keeled straight over, legs collapsing under her as her face hit the floor painfully. Was this how Akio's nose was feeling? She should send the guy some flowers if it was, damn that hurt! After a few unsuccessful attempts, Kari managed to stand on legs wobblier than a newborn foals. Biting her lip nervously as her eyes widened in apprehension she pressed one of the buttons...

BEEBEEBEEBEEBEEEEE-!

Frantically pressing all the buttons she miraculously stumbled across the right one and the screen went black, the horrid noise halting.

Sighing in relief, Kari fell back to her bottom; pleased her nerves were numb enough not to feel too much pain from it. Scooting carefully over to the other bed in the room, she managed to draw herself up onto her knees by gripping the bed, resting her chin on top.

Sasuke was fast asleep, his own machines beeping away peacefully as his mask fogged then cleared with each breath. She felt a rush of affection seeing him in such a vulnerable state and felt the unexplainable urge to cuddle him and try and make him feel better. Hurriedly squashing the almost maternal thought with an appalled expression, she took in how pale and young he looked.

"You'll be okay, ne Sasuke?" she whispered, smiling to herself. She wondered if it was an effect of the drugs still attached to her, considerately being dragged along the floor behind her. "I want to see Naruto's match... you wanted to see it too right? So you won't mind if I leave you for a bit?"

She patted his hand and entertained herself by trying to get her legs to work. After a moments struggle, she was back on unsteady feet.

"I'll be back soon!" she said in a hushed voice peeking around the door and making her escape. If she had stated a moment longer, she may have seen his fingers curl into his palm, as though searching for her hand.

-x-

"Boo."

"CHA?!" Sakura yelled a fist plummeting inches away from Kari's smiling face.

"Kari-chan!" Naruto chirped in delight with a bright smile adorning his features.

"Hikari."

Oh... she knew that tone. Her smile turned sheepish as she tried to appear small and insignificant under Kakashi's fierce gaze.

"Hi Kashi."

"Don't you 'Hi' me, madam. You're supposed to be in bed for another week minimum."

"Why are you in Sasuke-kun's clothes?" Sakura said with narrowed eyes and a suspicious frown.

"Because the nurses stole mine! I'll happily swap, for a skinny guy his shirt is like a tent and these shorts are gonna fall with any sudden movement! I couldn't really come in a hospital gown with it being all backless and all, could I?" Kari hurriedly explained. Though miffed, Sakura let the situation slide. Reassured she wouldn't suffer the pinkette's vengeance, Kari entertained herself with trying to destroy Sasuke's infuriating collar which seemed determined to smack her in the face because she was not its rightful master. Stupid Sasuke having stupid inconvenient clothes.

Clearly upset at her disobedience, Kakashi made her sit while he held her drips up so they would still push blood and morphine into her, hand firmly on top of her head to stop her moving. How she was awake was anyone's guess, but she didn't look much better to when he left her. Though he supposed with the strength of the painkilling drugs in her drip he doubted she'd be able to feel much of anything. He'd just wait for her to lose consciousness again (which he was sure she would soon) and then drag her back to the medical ward without a fuss. She knew she was in trouble, for now that would do.

"So what did I miss?" Kari asked Naruto, her only remaining ally.

"Well Shino won against that sound guy with messed up arms with all his creepy bugs and that Kankurou guy on the Suna team beat Kabuto's team-mate with this weird puppet trick. Shikamaru got the girl to knock herself out and the team-mates of the guy you fought, the girl forfeited right away – I mean she didn't even try, dattebayou!"

"Oh? Wish my match was that easy!" Kari said with a sigh as Naruto complained about the unfairness of it all. She peeked up at Kakashi to test the reaction of her joke but saw he was still very angry with her. Ah well, wasn't the first time he'd put her in the naughty corner. "So we're just waiting for who's next?"

"Mm!" Naruto murmured. "I mean, I just thrashed Kiba so there's not too many people left, dattebay-"

"You just battled Kiba?!" Kari screeched and Naruto jumped in shock. "I missed it?!"

"Yeah, Hinata-chan gave me this paste stuff after, I don't know if you're meant to eat it or…"

"Naruto that's salve, you put it on your cuts and bruises and it helps them heal," Sakura said cattily and Kari nodded enthusiastically.

"Try it, it's good!" Kari encouraged. "No, not for me Naru, I'm past the point of salve," Kari said as he offered it to her, delighted after his cut began to heal.

"Yes, so you should go back to bed," Kakashi said in a deceptively light tone but she felt the scold in every syllable. Oh she was in trouble for a looooong time yet.

"Oh come on Kashi! I've been out for half of them already," Kari whined and Kakashi turned on her with a visible eye promising a scolding of a lifetime when the referee called attention to the start of the next match. The board blipped with names flashing almost too quick to see before settling on two names.

"No!" Kari cried, jumping to her feet, only to be shoved back down with a hiss from her sensei. Sensing her distress was high he crouched next to her, grasping her shoulder as she digested the names with a pale face, looking in as much pain as she was expected to be in.

Hyuuga Neji

Vs.

Hyuuga Hinata

-X-

"I didn't think it would be you I was fighting against, Hinata-sama," Neji said softly as they faced each other on the floor.

"Neji… niisan," Hinata whispered sadly in response and his face tightened.

"Ehhh, Oniisan? He's her brother?" Naruto gasped.

"Cousins," Kari corrected, holding the bars tightly as she watched them. "I can't go back Kashi," she pleaded, looking up at her sensei. "Not until this fight is over. Just this fight Kashi, I can't leave until then."

The jounin sighed irately but relented.

"Just this fight Kari, then back to the hospital with you."

"I promise," she whispered and Kakashi's shoulders relaxed slightly, glad she was accepting the compromise.

"Isn't it hard for siblings to fight?" Sakura asked as Lee came up next to her to get a better vantage point.

"Yes but a lot has happened between the Main and Branch families of the Hyuuga. Tradition favours the Main branch where Hinata-sama is from. The rules between the two have caused tension between the two," Lee explained.

"A fight to settle quarrels then?" Sakura asked and Kari tightened her grip on the bars.

"I hope it is only that," she murmured. "Kashi, no more morphine, I want a clear head."

"You've been given painkillers for a reason," her sensei said sternly but she shook her head in refusal.

"This I need a clear head for."

"Please begin the match," Hayate requested, taking a step back to give them space.

Neji immediately leapt into a speech highlighting Hinata's inadequacies. He attacked her self-confidence, her inferiority complex, her desire for harmony in a position of strife. He accused her of only going along with the Chuunin exams because her team needed her to participate, that she was spoiled, a failure.

"Kari-chan."

Neji's acidic monologue faded from her ears as the girl looked up to see Hinata's sensei Kurenai beside her.

"Have faith in Hinata, she cannot believe in herself if even her friends stand against her."

Kari opened her mouth to retort but quickly closed it and diverted her eyes in shame. She only saw Neji's attacks, his harsh words and had been blind to Hinata standing there and taking it, refusing his words.

The least Hinata deserved, while her most vocal support of Kiba was away in the hospital wing and unable to support her, was for Kari to believe in her.

"This is their match Kari," Kakashi added in a decidedly gentler voice than the one he had greeted her with. He understood the pain of being on the sidelines as he had watched her fight with an enemy she should not have hoped to defeat, stronger, faster and healthier than her. He had let her down by wanting her to forfeit, Hinata deserved what Kari herself had wanted. "Not yours."

"…My Byakugan has seen many things. It can see how you want nothing more than to leave right now."

"Temper," Kakashi hissed, tapping her on the head as her eyes started tinting purple with red pigment. Kari scowled and tried to reign in her fury and protective instinct. Hinata was dear to her and was being verbally attacked mercilessly, it hurt her more than she expected to simply sit there and watch.

Hinata turned away from Neji's piercing Byakugan, unable to hold his gaze. Neji's monologue blurred in and out for Kari as her morphine bag pushed more painkillers into her system. The fog made listening difficult, although she knew none of Neji's words were pleasant. Sakura and Lee fuzzed like flies in the background and Kari reached for her morphine needle, irritated by the lack of clarity.

"No you don't," Kakashi stated, grabbing her wrist. She glared at him moodily. "If you remove your drips you're going straight back to hospital. It's enough already that I'm letting you stay here when you need medical attention."

"I can't hear, I can't really see," Kari grumbled and her sensei sighed, playing with the downy hair on the crown of her head.

"You're hurt. You shouldn't be conscious. This is simply how it is," he explained and she deflated a bit as she tried to hear Neji's words. "If you don't have your drips, you won't stay conscious. If you lose consciousness, you'll get better quicker. There's nothing I can really do about how your body recovers."

"It's just frustrating," Kari mumbled, looking down at the foggy battlefield as though she needed glasses. "This fight is important Kashi, I need to be here."

"You need rest," he retorted but she gave up fighting with him to use her energy to concentrate.

"You cannot change," Neji hissed but was interrupted by Naruto yelling the contrary, giving Kari a spook as she tried to keep track of the conversation.

"Beat him up Hinata!" Naruto cheered and Hinata seemed to gain strength from his voice, finding focus and confidence.

"You're not going to give up?" Neji mocked. "Then don't blame me later on!"

"Neji-niisan, let us fight," Hinata said softly, activating her bloodline and sliding into form. Kari's eyes never left the Hyuuga as they exchanged hits, the people around her discussing the Hyuuga family and their techniques. Hinata's attacks came slower as her tenketsu were closed, any connecting hit against Neji useless without her chakra. Blood slid from the younger Hyuuga's mouth and Hinata coughed, the sound reverberating through Kari's skull as if it were here own lungs struggling. Neji again tried to convince her to give up but she did not waver.

"I didn't know Hinata-chan was so tough," Naruto said in awe and Kari sighed softly.

"There's a lot about Hinata that you don't know."

The others continued to discuss how Hinata couldn't possibly win, that Neji was too strong. Kari felt her awareness continue to fade and felt as though she were looking through cotton wool at the fight, her eyes heavy and unfocused.

"Kari, we should get you back to the hospital," Kakashi reasoned.

"No!" she snapped, her eyes sharpening again in stress. "Not until this fight is over," Kari pleaded. Kakashi sighed at her difficulty but fell silent again.

Hinata attacked Neji again and again, her attacks useless and it pained Kari to watch. Neji was strong. He struck her and she fell face down and Kari hoped that this would be the end, before any more damage could be done. She pulled herself up for a better look at Hinata's form and refused Kakashi's support.

"Don't stop the match!" Naruto cried as the referee went to look at Hinata.

A moment later she started to pull herself up to the gasps of her peers.

"Why do you stand? If you continue to push yourself you really will die. These eyes tell me that you have carried the Hyuuga burden and blamed yourself for your powerlessness. There is no need to suffer. This is your destiny," Neji spat.

"You're wrong Neji-niisan…" Hinata whispered and he stiffened, the room falling silent. "Because I can see, that you are suffering far more than me."

Kari felt it then, the shift in the air.

At once her eyes sharpened, the world slowing as she detected the bloodlust. Neji's face twisted in rage and his body prepared itself to rush at her, to hurt, to kill.

She felt déjà vu from her fight against Haku and Zabuza, Neji replaced by Kakashi as he raced forward to strike, to kill but at the wrong target, at an innocent in it's place.

She didn't feel her body move, numbed as it was by the morphine. The bags slipped from her easily, a bead of blood forming where she had ripped out her needles in the blink of an eye.

She barely felt the impact of the gentle hand, the tense fingers, the chakra wave bending through her muscles, tissues, bones and straight through her heart.

-X-

It happened so quickly he had barely had time to register it.

Neji had expressed bloodlust before hurtling towards his cousin and the jounin all tensed in preparation to stop him. They didn't want to interfere if Neji would see sense. They weren't allowed to interfere in the matches really but couldn't stand by and watch a death.

Kakashi felt the shift in Kari but his eyes were fixed on the match before him. He didn't feel her presence disappear from his side, soft as the wind, quicker than she should have been able to move at full health.

He registered the thud as he caught the boy, the other jounin snaking around him and catching him in place.

No, it was Hinata's soft little cry that alerted him to something out of place.

"Ka-Kari-chan!"

Neji had frozen but his face didn't hold the rage at being contained like it expected. His face was stark with horror, eyes wide and child-like.

His palm was connected with Kari's chest, directly over her heart.

-X-

Hinata immediately spat up blood and fell to the ground, Kurenai rushing to her in shock. The sounds disappeared around Kakashi as he was transported back to the scene in Nami, his hand embedded in Kari's little body up to his forearm, her heart pulsing against his arm like a frightened little bird trapped in a cage.

Neji let out a choked sound as if he would cry and Gai was whispering to him with a serious expression.

"Let go, let go Neji."

He was grasping her shirt in the place he had struck, keeping her balanced on her feet while her eyes were devoid of light.

"Let go Neji, you have to let go."

Kakashi felt the lightning around his fingers, the warmth of her wrapped around his hand.

"Kakashi!"

Gai's voice was a sharp bark, snapping the silver-haired ninja out of his stupor.

The medic-nin were hovering around them, he could hear the yells of Naruto and Sakura, so childish in the wake of her silence.

"Kakashi-san."

And at once his life re-started.

"I'll take her," he whispered, scooping her legs up but still the Hyuuga boy clutched tight to her shirt crying out like a wounded animal when he tried to detach them.

"Neji, Neji you have to let go."

Gai's voice was an echo as Kakashi resisted the urge to rip that arm, that guilty hand from the boy's body.

The grasp loosened and at once Kakashi was off to the hospital where they had prepared the bed, medic-nin at the ready.

-X-

The medic nin were up in arms as soon as he dropped her into their care, shouting medical terms he didn't understand with negatives he did. He heard the sharp squeal of the electric shock chakra gathering energy and the thud as her body rose from the bed and then fell back down, trying to restart her heart.

"Again!"

And the echoes continued, the voices blurring as Kakashi tried to plan his next moves. What would he say to his team? Kari didn't even know the truth about herself yet. The brush of fur against his ankles alarmed him and Kita jumped onto his lap.

What would he say to her?

"Kashi," the wolf said, still stumbling over his name. It was where Kari had got the nickname from. "Okaasan needs you to be strong."

His eyes continued to burn with tears he couldn't let fall.

-X-

"She's as stable as she can be," the head medic said wearily, pulling off his gloves and sighing with defeat. "I won't lie to you, she may not make it through the night. Her heart went through a massive trauma and after the severe damage to her lung a few months ago and the high fever she acquired in the last task… I don't know what I can tell you."

"Not good then," Kakashi murmured. Kita had returned to Naruto, stronger than he was managing to be. How would he tell them?

"I would at the least recommend removing her from the last task. In the worst case, I think it is best if you say your goodbyes."

Kakashi didn't hear the rest, moving to take a seat beside her bed. He took her small hand as the machines monitored her now irregular heartbeat.

What do I tell Sakura, Naruto? What do I tell Sasuke?

"Please Kari, wake up," he pleaded softly. Her chest rising rhythmically with help from the machines. "I have so much to tell you. You can't leave without knowing who you are."

Her chest continued to rise and fall.

"Please. Wake up."

-X-

The rest of the tournament passed in a frenzy. Gaara defeated Lee, damaging him severely. Dosu from the Sound defeated Chouji without too much trouble. They were invited to select a paper from the box, Kita choosing for Kari. There was to be a second tournament in a month.

Neji and Naruto sized each other up while Gaara looked intrigued at his match-up against Sasuke. Kita eyed the boy Kari would face, another purple-haired boy from Sound.

-X-

"Can I see her?" Naruto asked as Kakashi waited outside the door, blocking his way in.

"She isn't in a good way Naruto," Kakashi admitted tiredly. "They don't know if she'll recover."

The boy's face fell in despair and Kakashi felt the tightness in his chest that had always warned him against becoming part of another team. Loss was a void that was difficult to fill.

"Sensei," the head-medic said, touching Kakashi's arm. "If you will."

Kakashi nodded to Naruto to go in, understanding that the goodbye was very important and followed the medic a little away to a more private area in his office.

"I don't know how to explain it to you," the medic began and Kakashi prepared himself for the worst. "She's a unique case and it's been difficult to figure out how best to treat her."

Kakashi did his best to suppress his emotions and listen with logic and reason.

"Once her heart was restarted – no even before that, her chakra began fighting us, pushing our healing chakra away."

"I see," he murmured. So they couldn't even treat her.

"Her chakra coated her chest and began providing support to her organs. Her chakra is trying to heal the damage from the Jyuuken."

"She's trying to heal herself?"

"It's subconscious. I've seen the odd regeneration kekkei-genkai but this is something different. Her chakra has a mind of it's own."

Thinking back to Nami and how her chakra had coated her lungs and the damage from his Raikiri, Kakashi found himself daring to hope.

"By all medical logic she should need an immediate heart and lung transplant to stand any chance of survival. She shouldn't be stable, she should be dead," the medic said, sitting heavily in his chair. "I can't offer any predictions on the future, I don't know how successful her chakra will be in healing her."

"But she's alive, for now?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes, you don't need to prepare your team for her funeral quite yet."

-X-

"Kari-chan," Naruto whispered, taking her hand gently in his. "You got through to the finals, don't you want to know who you're going to be fighting?"

The soft bleep of machines and the mechanical puff of air filling her lungs was his only answer.

"I'm fighting Neji, Kari-chan. That means I have a chance to put this all right. To continue Hinata-chan's fight. She's in the hospital too but I think she's okay. I think we'll all be okay in the end."

He leaned closer to her ear, listening to the machines as they worked.

"They say you're really hurt Kari-chan but I know you'll make it through. I doubted you once but I won't again."

He grasped her hand tightly.

"I'll be stronger next time. You won't have to jump in because I'll protect all of us."

The whir of machines continued to fill his silence, Kari's body lying peaceful in the room as the clock continued ticking, counting down the time until the next stage.