Chapter Twenty-Three-
"She's under sedation right now," a weary looking nurse told him, "But more importantly, I need to talk to you about her arm."
"What about her arm?" Naruto asked, eyes wide with fear, "Is it-"
"Naruto, let her talk," Kakashi said sharply, "Go on."
"We managed to staunch the flow of blood and align the remains of the bones, however I'll tell you here and now, there's absolutely no way she'll ever be able to move it, even with the slight mobility she had before."
Kakashi frowned at the statement, "What do you mean?"
"Well, the break was not a clean one. Not to mention all the muscle and veins she tore. It's a miracle she didn't bleed to death!"
"No, before," Kakashi said, "What did you mean by 'the slight mobility she had before?'"
The woman frowned at him for a second and then gaped, "You have to know," she said disbelievingly.
"Know what?" Sasuke asked, standing up from his seat at the waiting area of the hospital.
"About her arm. Before, I mean. There's no way the injury would have been so bad if her arm had been in normal condition at the time of the-"
"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked loudly, a confused look on his face.
The nurse stared at them for a few seconds, "Why don't you sit down?" she said, sounding drained, "This is going to take a while."
Naruto and Sasuke glanced at each other, him, and then sat back down.
"Alright, I don't how she hid it from you or sustained it in the first place. Though it doesn't seem that implausible considering the state of her…scars…"
"Torture scars," Naruto interjected, looking at the woman defiantly, as if daring her to comment.
She didn't, "Well it appears from the X-rays that this 'Yamaki Sasumi' sustained a break in her upper arm many years ago that wasn't treated properly, if at all. It healed the wrong way and the thousands of tiny fractures around it suggest she still continued to use it after the break. Though the pain would have been excruciating…"
"What are you saying?" his dark-haired student asked, "That she broke it and…"
"What happened this time," the woman continued, "is that there was significant amount of force applied to the arm, shattering the already weakened bone and ripping the muscle and skin around it," she paused, as if to let the news sink in, "She'll never be able to use it again."
Naruto gaped openmouthed at her, unable to speak.
"At the scene," Kakashi said slowly, unwilling to accept it, "It appeared that she had used that arm to kill another ninja." "Not Sand," he interjected at her expression, "They attacked us. Anyway, she cut off his head to be exact. Could that force be enough to do…that?"
"In a normal person it wouldn't be enough pressure even if they used all their strength," the nurse replied, "so she must have used chakra."
There was a pregnant pause, and Naruto exhaled deeply and slumped in his seat.
"Shit," he whispered, "Shit!"
"Do you…" the nurse asked hesitantly, "want to see her?"
Kakashi nodded, and they left the room filled with bleeding and coughing civilians and followed the nurse up two flights of stairs and through a long white hallway.
"He-here it is," the woman said, opening the door.
Naruto ran forward to her bedside and stared down at the red haired girl's form.
"She's so pale," he said finally.
Sasuke swallowed audibly and they all pulled up chairs and sat down.
Her arm was swathed in white bloodstained cloth with restraints and Kakashi was glad. He didn't want to see what it looked like.
They all sat there awhile, staring down miserably at Sasumi. Eventually Kakashi looked up at the clock and found it was four in the morning. They had been waiting in the hospital for more than eight hours.
"We had better go back," Kakashi said quietly, "Tomorrow is going to be a long day."
Sasuke looked up furiously, "We are not leaving without her."
"That's not what I meant," Kakashi said calmly, "There are things we must discuss. About Konoha's relationship with the Rain, after this and the Sand being caught up in the middle…" Naruto and Sasuke did not respond, "Two of them got away," Kakashi said harshly, "In a few days they will have reached the Hidden Rain Village and leaked the news of Sasumi's whereabouts-"
Unfortunately, he didn't get any further than that because the door to the room opened and the Kazekage, accompanied by three Sand ANBU walked in.
"Gaara!" Naruto said in surprise, looking up at the other red head.
Sabaku no Gaara's cold eyes swept over Sasumi's form and then over Naruto, Sasuke, and himself.
"Someone explain to me what happened here," he said quietly, eyes resting on Kakashi.
Kakashi swallowed and began.
"I understand that," Gaara said, feeling tired and irritated, "But you still have failed to tell me why five Rain ANBU on a escort mission would attack a team of Chuunin representing a village of their allies."
The gray haired man that Gaara remembered from the Chuunin Exam almost more than a year ago stiffened. Yes, Gaara had seen through his complex explanations and embellishments, and now he wanted answers.
'That's classified information," the man, Hatake Kakashi, Gaara thought, said after a while.
"In another situation," the Kazekage said calmly, "it would not have mattered. However, I suspect that this 'classified information' has everything to do with why there are two dead and one injured ANBU from the Rain on my hands and I demand that you tell me what is going on here."
The man gave no answer. Naruto looked between the two of them apprehensively and Uchiha Sasuke looked wary.
"I thought that might be your answer," Gaara said after a few seconds, "Which is why I took the liberty of asking the injured ANBU before coming here."
Hatake Kakashi's eyes widened and then narrowed, his hands turning to fists.
"We never meant to get your country involved in this," the Jounin said, "We didn't realize that there would be Rain here."
"I have heard the Rain's side of the story," Gaara said, "And to remain impartial, I would like to here yours. Tell me, why is Konoha harboring an S-Class nin?"
There was no answer.
"Power?" Gaara asked, "I must admit, a Kekkai Genkai like that would be extremely beneficial in both internal and external affairs of a country."
"That's not it!" Naruto said angrily, to his surprise, "We didn't know at first, but-" he paused, looking at the Sand ANBU who had escorted him here warily.
"Please leave us," Gaara said politely, and with curious glances at the Konohan ninja, they retreated.
"We only found out about it a few months ago," Naruto said, "And we can't just let them take her away because they'll kill her or-"
"Naruto!" the Uchiha interrupted.
"-I'm not afraid to say it, Sasuke-or torture her again! …So…that's why…we…"
Interesting, Gaara thought, scanning the girl on the bed again. It appeared Naruto's sentimentality had no boundaries.
"You must realize," Gaara said, "that this poses a great problem to our respective governments. From the way the shinobi I spoke to earlier made it out to be, it appears that the Rain feel quite strongly about this issue and it would not be at all outlandish that the result of the leakage of your teammate's identity could very well be…war."
Naruto jerked his head up and stared at him in disbelief and then turned to his teacher, "Is that true?" he demanded.
The man nodded.
Uchiha Sasuke's grip on the arm of his chair tightened.
All three of them were exhausted, Gaara could tell. They had been waiting for hours for news of this Modoka Sazumi.
"We will continue this when your friend wakes up," Gaara said, after a little deliberation, "Get some rest."
He turned around and left the room, ignoring the stutters of his obviously eavesdropping guards.
"You will not breathe a word about this to anyone," Gaara said seriously, looking both of them straight in the eye.
"O-Of course, Kazekage-sama!"
"We would never-"
There was a lot of work to be done, Gaara thought as he departed the hospital. He must get into contact with the Hokage and request her presence immediately. Gaara had no doubt that the Sand would side with Konoha in this time of strife.
"And it had been so peaceful," he said into the night air, the full, yellow moon hanging overhead.
But now he foresaw the ugly road of war drawing closer and closer.
Pain. It was not the first time that Sasumi had awoken to it and instantly she felt the urge to wretch. She opened her eyes and couldn't see anything but bright white for a few minutes. When her vision finally cleared slightly, she was looking up at an unfamiliar white tiled ceiling.
It was her arm, she realized after a trying to get up several times and failing, that hurt so much. It was not unusual that it hurt in the morning and when the weather was damp. But it was ten times worse than usual and there was a sudden spark of fear inside her that it had worsened over the night and she wouldn't be able to go on any missions anymore…
And then, in a flash, she remembered. The mission, the Rain, her arm, and the pain that had run through her, to the very core of her bein-
"Sasumi!? Hey, Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei! She's awake! Hey, Sasumi can you hear me?"
Arm. What had happened to her arm? She remembered blood and bone and ripped, tearing- and it had hurt so much, she had just wanted to die and let it all go awa-
"Shit, Sasumi, we thought you were going to die! Don't you ever do that to us aga-"
"Give her space, you moron."
She couldn't move her fingers. Were they asleep? No. She pushed her right arm into the sheets, trying to brace herself and get up and see-
"Don't move! Sasumi, listen you can't-"
She let out a hiss of pain and then fell, warm liquid spreading up her left arm.
"Dammit! Nurse! Nurse!"
After a while the pain changed to a dull throb, but the blood was still there. Spreading into the sheets and through the mattress. But Sasumi was content to lay there and just breathe and pretend not her hear the yelling and talking of the people above her.
Then they were taking the white bloodstained cloth off, layer by layer and she watched, a horrible sense of dread filling her every time a blood stained piece was removed. And then she saw it. Her arm. Or what was left of it. It wasn't much of an arm anymore. Just a jumble of mixed up bones, repaired veins, and ripped muscle and skin.
But that wasn't the worst of it. Not by a long shot.
The part that scared her the most of all was the color of her skin. Her fingers, wrist, and lower arm were the palest shade she'd ever seen on a human being. The upper arm a few inches away from the main part of the wound was a sickly green. And around the edges of the mess itself, just a little bit, but plainly there, was black. The color of a dying limb.
"Oh no…" a nurse said, "Gangrene…"
Sasumi passed out.
When she woke, it was to the slow sounds of the electronic version of her own heart beat. She raised her head and found herself in the hospital. Fear coursed through her. It hadn't been a dream. That meant that her arm was really…
"Yamaki-san?" a unfamiliar voice said, shaking her from her reverie.
She looked around to find a light haired nurse with glasses, looking at her with an expression of pity and caution.
"Sasumi…" another voice said, this one quite familiar and she looked to her right to see Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi sitting there. It was morning now and she could hear the chirping of birds outside. When she was last conscious it had been night. Had they stayed the entire tim-
"Yamaki-san," the nurse said again, "There is something we need to talk to you about."
Sasumi said nothing. She knew what was to come, but she was afraid, terribly afraid.
"I-It's about your arm," the woman said hesitantly, "I'm afraid it won't…what I mean is that…there's no hope of it's recovery."
"What about our Hokage," Kakashi said, speaking for the first time, "Tsunade-hime, one of the legendary Sannin? If she could get here in time-"
"I'm afraid even she couldn't help at this point. Her arm's cells are dying. There is no way to revive them or even to stop it from happening."
"Wait…" Naruto said, looking terrified, "What exactly are you saying?"
"We have one option," the nurse said, steeling herself, "Amputation."
There was a long, terrified silence and Sasumi dropped head down and stared at her mutilated left arm.
"WHAT!!" Naruto shouted, breaking the silence, ignoring the shocked look of the nurse, "But there has to be some way of-"
"Get a hold of yourself, Naruto," Kakashi said so harshly that it shocked Sasumi, causing her to look up at him. There was a horrible look on his face of helplessness. Sasumi found herself hating it.
Suddenly, for no apparent reason, her entire body gave a jolt; fear spreading throughout her body. She continued to stare down at her mangled arm with a strange sort of fascination. Skin, nerve, muscle, vein, cartilage, bone. That's all it was. It was crushed beyond recognition and repair, but it was hers! It was her arm! And she didn't want to part with it! It was her arm! It was…
Sasumi reached out with her remaining good arm and tentatively fingered the discolored skin of her upper arm, skipping over the wound to her stiff fingers. She traced everyone of them with a fingertip, registering with a horrible sadness that she couldn't feel a thing. She then, moved down to the sensitive skin of her inner wrist. For a few minutes she did nothing but feel her pulse. Then she looked up to see all the people in the room watching her nervously. She kept her gaze away from her arm. She would not look at it again.
"Alright," she said calmly, gesturing to the mess that used to be her arm, "Cut it off."
They all stared at her for a few seconds, the same look in their eyes. A look of confusion, pity, and fear. She had gotten used to this look over the years, but seeing it on the faces of her teammates struck something in her that she didn't like.
"Sasumi…" Naruto said weakly, "You…" He didn't finish his sentence and trailed off pathetically.
"Do it," she said, more harshly than she intended to, looking at the nurse.
Before I change my mind!
The woman seemed to gain more confidence and simply nodded. She strode out of the room, but Sasumi called her back.
"Wait," she said, good hand shaking with fear, "One thing."
All of the sudden it was difficult to talk.
The woman raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"No anesthesia."
"That's ridiculous!" the nurse cried out, "Utterly insane! Do you know how much it will hurt if you-"
'No-Nothing with needles of any sort," Sasumi said shakily, hardly even hearing the woman's protests.
"Sasumi, that's crazy!" Naruto cried out, "What the hell are you trying to-"
"I-I want to be conscious when it happens."
"What the hell?" snarled Sasuke, "Yo-"
"Stop it, both of you," Kakashi said calmly. He walked up to the edge of Sasumi's bed and looked her straight in the eye, "You have no choice. There's no way that you will be able to have it amputated without anesthesia."
Sasumi straightened her spin as much as she could and looked him fiercely in the eye, "If you even get close to me with a needle," she said pulling a kunai from under the sheets with her shaking hand, "I'll cut it off myself, here and now."
She heard the nurse gasp and Sasuke make an angry sound at the back of his throat. The kunai jerked unsteadily in her hand, sending a jolt through her entire body and causing her to bite her lip with pain. But she kept her eyes locked with her teacher's until they burned.
Finally, Kakashi sighed, and relaxed.
'You're not going to relent on this are you?" he asked her tiredly.
Sasumi nodded, and relaxed, sensing his resignation.
"I'm sorry then," he said and Sasumi had no time to react as his hand collided with the side of her head and everything went black.
When she woke up next, there would be a thick bandage where her left arm had once been.
The nurse screamed and Naruto gaped as a dazed look came over Sasumi's face and she fell. Kakashi-sensei caught the kunai and her before she fell off the bed.
"You better hurry up," he muttered to the terrified nurse, "Before she wakes up."
The nurse nodded shakily and left the room.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" Sasuke asked angrily the minute she disappeared.
"Don't be foolish, Sasuke," Kakashi-sensei said tiredly, sliding back down into his chair, "She wasn't going to give in. It was the only way."
"That may be true," Sasuke said furiously, "But knocking her out seems a bit extreme. Do you have any idea how she's going to react when she wakes up?!"
Kakashi-sensei was spared from answering as three nurses including the old one wheeled a stretcher into the room. The carefully lifted Sasumi's limp form from the bed, and put her onto the stretcher.
"Hey," Naruto said, "Hey, where are you taking her?"
"The operating room," the old nurse told him kindly, "We don't have to right equipment in here."
"Can we come with?" Naruto asked anxiously.
They looked horrified at the prospect of it, "No, no," another nurse said, "We can't allow you to, I'm sorry."
Then they wheeled Sasumi off and the door banged shut.
"This sucks," Naruto said and buried his head in his arms.
Eventually, they were shuffled out of the room and Kakashi-sensei took them out to eat, though none of them were really hungry. They went back to their hotel room, but it felt strange and empty without Sasumi, despite the fact that she never really talked much anyway.
"This is ridiculous," Sasuke said suddenly after long hours of saying nothing at all. It was after dinner now and they were laying out their futon and Kakashi-sensei had retired to the bar downstairs.
"What's ridiculous?" Naruto asked, confused.
"She didn't even tell us," he said angrily.
"About what?" Naruto said, even more confused.
Sasuke turned around and looked at him, "About her arm! Are you an idiot!?"
"You mean about…" said Naruto slowly.
'What did that woman say? She broke her arm and it healed improperly, and she didn't even tell us!"
"Sasuke!" Naruto said, "I'm sure she had a good reas-"
"That's bullshit!" the Uchiha snarled, "And you know it. She's never told us anything she didn't have to! It's always been like that!"
"It's like…" Naruto said softly, "She doesn't trust us or…"
Sasuke slammed his hand against the tatami and Naruto had to look up to check that he didn't break it.
"Oi, calm down, bastard!"
"I hate this," the other snarled.
"You think I don't?" Naruto said, feeling insulted, "You think I like finding out that Sasumi's…her arm is gone, you know! She'll probably never be able to fight again! And Kakashi-sensei said two of those Rain ANBU got away! He said it'll mean war! I mean, I'm pissed too that she kept her mouth shut about it but there's more to it than-"
There was a soft cough behind him and they both looked to see Kakashi-sensei standing there looking slightly tipsy. Naruto was suddenly aware that he and Sasuke were both on their feet and they'd very nearly been shouting at each other.
"Err…Hey, Kakashi-sens-"
"Tsunade-sama's here," he said, looking exhausted, "Come downstairs."
Naruto swallowed and glanced at Sasuke, their previous disagreement all but forgotten. They walked down the rickety stairs and into the lobby. The old hag stood there, looking tired with several Konohan ANBU guards standing around her.
"Hey…Baa-san," Naruto said in greeting. And for once, the woman didn't scold (threaten) him for it.
"Come with me," she said, "We're having a meeting with the Kazekage in the embassy. We've got a lot to talk about. Your friend?" she asked delicately.
"Still under medication," Kakashi-sensei answered, "The hospital said she should be awake late tomorrow."
Tsunade nodded and muttered something to the guards who then disappeared in identical puffs of smoke.
"Let's go," she said, smiling sardonically, "It's going to be a long night."
A/N: Ooh, depressing chapter. Yes, I did cut off Sasumi's arm. I bet none of you suspected that!
And you also found out what was wrong with Sasumi's left arm that has been going on for the last 22 chapters of this fic (God, it's long!)
Anyway, next chapter will be the huge meeting, Sasumi waking up and having to deal with Naruto and Sasuke, and her recovery.
Note: I do realize that the main cause of gangrene is infection, but I thought I'd just point out that infection isn't the only cause and in Sasumi's case it had nothing to do with the decomposition of her arm. With large injuries like hers the body can't even begin to recuperate and the cells begin dying regardless of whether the wound was infected or not.
Please review if you have any question or criticism!
P.S. To anybody who's wondering, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sasumi are all about fourteen at this point in the fic.