The courtship of Naruto Uzumaki
XXII. Saving Akamaru
Naruto pressed his jacket firmly against Akamaru's side, but he could still feel the blood squishing between his fingers as his jacket became more and more saturated. He could only cover four of the five slashes ranging from the dog's abdomen to shoulder. The fifth and highest wound still had the kunai blade protruding from its center. He didn't dare remove it yet. The blade at least blocked most of the blood flow from that wound.
"Hold on, Akamaru, buddy. Hold on. Help's on its way," he tried to reassure the large, limp dog, but his words didn't seem to have any effect. His eyes remained closed, his breathing remained shallow, and he made no responsive sound or movement to Naruto's voice or touch.
How long would it take Hinata to find someone to call in the medics? How long would it take the medics to get here? Were the pressure of his jacket and two hands enough to eventually stop the bleeding? He wanted to believe that he was doing some good, but he felt his present efforts were practically useless. It was like plugging a hole in a dam with his finger. It only prolonged the inevitable not changed its course. Beneath his hands, he could feel the pumping of Akamaru's heart, and with every beat he felt another surge of blood gush out. He had to do something more vital or Akamaru could die.
But what could he do?
He wasn't a medic. He had virtually no medical training except what he'd witnessed in the course of his duties. In fact, it was Sakura that he'd seen heal many times. He'd watched her passively, incuriously, but admiringly over the years, but had he absorbed anything useful from his watching? Could he do something along similar lines even though he had no real training?
Well, he couldn't do anything intricate, but maybe he could do something more effective to stop the bleeding until a real medic came along. Akamaru couldn't recover if this blood loss continued. He'd go into shock. His body temperature would drop below restoration. He'd fall into a coma. Even he knew the hazards of blood loss.
How had Sakura done her healing? He closed his eyes to better visualize her techniques.
First, she'd put out an incredible amount of chakra into her hands whenever she'd healed. She could easily channel chakra where ever she wanted it. She'd always been excellent with chakra control. That's what made her such a good healer. He'd need a lot of chakra to imitate her—and that part he could easily do. He kept his eyes closed concentrating chakra into his hands then he silently asked Kyuubi for a mega jolt to add to his. He didn't demand only because he had no time to argue. He needed Kyuubi's chakra right now.
As usual Kyuubi was sarcastic and taunting, but ultimately in a giving mood.
Naruto had his chakra. Now he had to work on control.
He knew almost nothing about dog anatomy so he concentrated his energy on simply stopping the blood flow. Sakara or whoever arrived first would have to deal with any internal injuries. He'd just make sure Akamaru didn't bleed to death, and he'd use his chakra to warm him up in the process.
He couldn't just throw chakra at the problem—he had to focus on the end result of the veins pumping out the blood. He needed to basically constrict the blood flow around the wounds, artificially clotting it. He had to do this carefully, but quickly so he didn't inadvertently cause more damage. He could try constricting the veins themselves which would have been the easiest way to stop the bleeding, but he remembered something about that being bad—something about cutting off the blood flow to an area for too long could permanently damage it.
After that he just had to seal the wounds to keep out infection. Hopefully, his interference in the healing process would do more good than harm. Since he only had a vague idea about what he was doing that hope was in the lap of karma.
His first step was his every reliable shadow clone jutsu. He could throw a few more Naruto's at the problem to good effect without using too much chakra. One for each wound should do it.
"Here we go," he said under his breath.
He leaned against his jacket pressed against Akamaru to keep the pressure on the wounds. Freeing his hands he performed the signs for his shadow clone jutsu. He set a clone apiece on three of the wounds while he began to work on the largest wound. He followed the blood flow with his chakra rapidly constricting blood vessels. With that accomplished, he drew the skin together and sealed the wounds closed with more chakra.
It sounded easier in theory than it was in practice. Blood was everywhere. He only knew he and his clones were succeeding as less blood got in the way.
Once the four open wounds were taken care of, he and the clones worked on the kunai blade wound. He pulled out the blade causing a fountain of blood to spurt, and applied his chakra on that wound, too, stopping the blood flow first then clamping and sealing the wound. With four of them working, they'd accomplished these tasks in record time. Once their tasks were complete, his three clones popped out of existence, and he was left alone with his patient.
He stood back when he was finished, and checked Akarmaru's condition. He was still breathing shallowly, but—and maybe it was his imagination—but it seemed to be slowing down and becoming a little deeper. Was that good or bad? He didn't know. He couldn't even guess. What if his ministrations had permanently damaged Akamaru?
He threw his sodden jacket to the ground and wiped his bloody hands on his pants legs. He was a bloody mess. With his orange jacket now a red wad on the ground, he was dressed all in black—and red. The blood may not have been as obvious on his clothing in the dark, but as it dried his clothes began to feel stiff and crusty. And the smell of blood was everywhere. He was surprised to realize that dog's blood smelled similar to human's—sort of metallic and cloying. Unfortunately, soon night creatures attracted to the scent would be investigating the scene. He wanted Akamaru out of here by then. It would be damned difficult to defend the helpless Akamarua, as well as an inert dead man in the dark.
The dead man.
He'd almost forgotten about the dead man.
He walked over to the other side of Akamaru where the man was lying. He squatted down beside him, and checked his pulse again just in case Hinata missed the faintest signs of life. But she hadn't. This man was cold and stiff. Even in the dark, Naruto could see that he was extremely pale. He was almost white against the darkness.
Naruto studied him. One of the benefits of his possession by a fox demon was the fox's keen eyesight. It wasn't as enhanced as Hinata's Byakugan, but it was better than the average person's sight especially at night. He could see quite clearly in the dark at close range.
So who was this guy?
There was nothing unusual about his attire. The man wore everyday clothes like any one around Konoha. He could have been anyone from the village, but Naruto didn't recognize him as a Konoha denizen—not that he knew everyone in Konoha. However, his face even in its death-mask state, seemed familiar. Naruto was certain he'd seen the man before, but he couldn't place him in any Konoha setting. Maybe he didn't really recognize him at all. Maybe he just wanted to so the man wasn't someone who lived in the village. He didn't want to see anyone die this way, but it seemed worse if it were one of them.
Naruto sat back on his heels then quickly stood up.
He'd never been comfortable with death. He'd seen it too many times in his career, but he never liked its necessity. The death of enemies he could intellectually justify, but the death of innocent victims saddened and disturbed him. Did it remind him of his own mortality? Or did it make him aware of just how powerless he was against the great equalizer? Not one for over analyzing anything, h pushed those uneasy thoughts out of his mind, and concentrated on peering into the darkness anticipating relief from his strange vigil.
Where was Sakura or a medic?
It seemed like an eternity, but Sakura and Hinata finally ran to his and Akamaru's side. He stood back to allow Sakura access, explaining what he'd done, and answering her questions. She pulled out a pair of surgical gloves from her hip pack, and began her examination while Naruto held her flashlight over the area, and continued his explanation.
Sakura excelled at triage and field surgery. Her training with the Hokage had emphasized treatment in the field where it was necessary. If the injured were forced to await treatment until they could be taken to a proper facility, they usually suffered irreparable damage or death. That had been the fate of many injured-in-the-line-of-duty ninja before Tsunade had insisted on medically trained ninja.
The medics arrived shortly after Naruto had silenced carrying two stretchers. Two of them immediately carried off the dead man. The other two—not very politely—took Naruto's place in assisting Sakura in her work. He didn't like their superior manner, but he didn't mind leaving them to it. He stood aside next to Hinata watching from a distance.
"You brought the right ninja. Good job," he said softly to Hinata.
"I found Shino first," she explained just as softly. "I told him to send for Sakura and a few medics. I said you and I had the scene contained so they wouldn't all rush over here. I met her on my way back to you. I told her that Akamaru would be her patient. She agreed that Kiba shouldn't be told until we knew the extent of his injuries."
"I don't want to be the one to tell him what happened."
"No. Neither do I." She couldn't imagine how Kiba would react to this news of his severe injury's or death. That was inevitable one day considering the shorter life span of dogs, but not this way. Akamaru had to recover. He just had to.
"I hope Sakura can heal him before we have to tell Kiba. If he dies, he'll hate that we didn't get him here in time," Naruto worried aloud after the silence began to unnerve him. If someone he cared about was dying, he'd definitely want to be there. He just hoped they made the right call to leave Kiba out of it until Akamaru was out of danger.
"Your hopes are well founded. I believe I have healed him for now," Sakura said confidently as she stepped back motioning for the medics to pick him up. "Take him to the hospital. The Hokage will meet you there. I want him to have a transfusion immediately. He's suffered an extensive blood loss. Exsanguination is the most immediate danger. He must have some relatives who can donate. It's time we told Kiba." She turned on her radio, told Kiba that Akarmaru had been stabbed, and he needed an immediate transfusion. She told him to bring a few of Akarmaru's relatives to the hospital as soon as possible since they'd be the best blood match.
Next she talked to the Hokage. She explained what had been done for Akamaru, and what needed to be done at the hospital. She asked her to take over the case while she returned to her patrol. "Shino, Ino and I can cover the rest of tonight's patrol while Kiba stays with Akarmaru. When my shift is finished, I'll stop by the hospital, and give you a complete report. If you need me for anything else just call," she ended her transmission.
Sakura turned to Naruto. "You did a good job, Naruto. You stopped the bleeding just in time. He could easily have bled to death before I was able to arrive. If you'd ever like some medical training, you'd be a natural," she told him.
"Thanks, Sakura. I wasn't sure what to do. Watching you all these years helped. He's really going to be alright?"
"I think so. The first four gashes were shallow not hitting anything vital. However, they opened him up causing an excessive amount of bleeding that would eventually have led to death if not for you. The final blow went deeper. It nicked one of his kidneys. If that had been unattended for too long, toxins would have entered his blood stream, and blood poisoning would have killed him. I temporarily repaired the damage to his kidney. The Hokage can effect more permanent repairs at the hospital. I, also, extracted the toxins that had begun to seep out. Now infection is the most immediate danger. As long as he was bleeding out, the wounds cleansed themselves. When the blood flow stopped that was when his condition was most sensitive for picking up infection."
"Are you saying that my stopping the bleeding could have killed him?" Naruto was aghast. He thought he'd done a good thing.
"Naruto, massive blood loss would have killed him much quicker than toxins or infection. You did the right thing. Luckily, I was on duty tonight. I got here more quickly than any of the medics could have. Every second was important to saving his life."
Naruto was sort of satisfied with that answer. He wondered if maybe he shouldn't have a little medical training if mere seconds could separate someone from their life under these circumstances. "I don't get how anyone could have caught Akamaru off guard like that," Naruto wondered shaking his head.
"I wonder at that, too. Akamaru should have been able to fight off an attacker armed with a kunai blade. No one should have been able to get close enough to him to stab or slice him five times. You said the other man was dead when you arrived on the scene, Hinata? Could he have been the one who attacked Akarmaru?"
She shook her head. "No, I don't think so. He had the same wounds as the previous victims. It was distinctly possible that Akarmaru had come to his aid."
Sakura rubbed her chin in an unconscious imitation of Tsunade. As her apprentice, she'd managed to acquire a number of Tsunade's personality traits. "I see. Well, then my guess would be that whatever the attacker uses to cause his victim's to become docile while under attack was also used on Akamaru. There has been no evidence that any of the victims fought back. We haven't been able to determine the reason for that. The Hokage has speculated that it's a drug of some kind, but it appears to disappear from the blood stream as quickly as it wears off. We haven't found traces of anything identifiable. Oh well, I've got to go back to my patrol. I'll see you later. You need a bath, Naruto," she said wrinkling her nose at him.
"So do you," he retorted, but really somehow she'd managed to remain relatively blood-free. She'd removed her own jacket, and had knelt on it during her examination. It had suffered the most contact with Akamaru's blood. He picked it up, and added it to the pile of his jacket, and her surgical gloves.
"Take those things with you, Naruto. I wouldn't want anyone to see them tomorrow, and panic," Sakura commanded rubbing her arms. It was cold in the wee hours of the morning.
"Here, take my jacket. It gets chilly towards morning," Hinata said handing it to Sakura. She hadn't been much help with Akamaru. This much she could do.
"Thanks. I'll probably need it. See you later." She put on Hinata's jacket, waved good-bye, and took off.
Naruto and Hinata followed the medics with Akamaru to the hospital—or rather they helped the medics carry him to the hospital. It had taken them awhile to situate Akamaru securely on the stretcher. It wasn't designed for an extremely large animal. At his adult size, he was incredibly heavy. They could use a few more strong hands to keep Akamaru on that stretcher as they carried him to the hospital—so Naruto cloned himself once again. It was his specialty. Maybe he didn't use it often enough.
When they reached the hospital, the Hokage was waiting for them there. She overrode the protests of hospitable personnel that Akamaru should go to a veterinary not human hospital. Tsunade insisted that he was an important member of her ninja staff, and required the same expert care his human comrades could rely on. She herself would supervise his treatment and care. She ordered him taken to an operating room so she could examine Sakura's work.
"You two should go home. You need a bath, Naruto," she told them as they loitered in the hospital corridor watching her take charge.
"I think we should wait for Kiba. He might have some questions, and he shouldn't be alone now," Naruto suggested. He'd been dirtier. He could wait a few hours before getting cleaned up.
"He could read your report," she suggested dryly.
"Yeah, well, we haven't written one yet as you well know. That's for tomorrow."
"Suit yourself, but I don't want you exhausted before your guard duty tomorrow night—I mean, tonight—it is after midnight already."
"Don't worry. We've got all day to sleep," he assured her.
"Perhaps," she said mysteriously then followed the path the medics who carried Akamaru had taken down the hall.
"You don't mind my messy clothes, do you?" he asked Hinata once the Hokage had left them.
"No, of course not. You came by your condition honorably." She barely noticed his messy condition. She'd seen worse in her career.
"You're okay with waiting for Kiba, aren't you, Hinata?"
"What? Oh," she hesitated. Naruto still didn't know how badly Kiba was taking their relationship. Under this new stress would he cause even more trouble?
"Don't you want to? Kiba's your team mate. He'll need your support—right? I'll walk you home and come back if maybe you're too tired," he offered. He didn't understand her hesitation. What was he missing here?
"No. Yes! Of course, he will," she said stoutly.
"Okay, let's sit out here, and wait for him. He has to come past us to get to Akamaru." They sat down on a bench in the hallway. Naruto took Hinata's hand, and played with it while they waited.
She was torn between loving his teasing of her hand, and not wanting Kiba to see the outward evidence of their growing intimacy. Before she could decide to do anything about it, Kiba came barreling through the doors with three very large dogs obviously related to Akamaru.
"Where is he?" Kiba demanded tensely, barely noticing the two waiting for him.
They pointed down the hall. Kiba and entourage practically ran down the hallway. He peered into the doors at the end of the corridor until he found the right one. Then he and his companions disappeared inside. However, within a few minutes, Kiba was stalking impatiently back up the corridor towards them.
"They won't let me stay while they perform their transfusion procedures," he said fiercely as he continued to pace the floor once he'd reached them. "They don't allow non medical personnel in the operating room."
Naruto and Hinata exchanged a glance. What consoling thing could they say to that? It didn't seem fair to either of them.
"Would you like me to get you some tea or something?" Hinata offered tentatively. Maybe that would calm him down. She'd never seen Kiba so wired before. But then she hadn't been on the last mission that Akamaru had almost lost his life. She'd heard about it, but she hadn't witnessed Kiba's distress first hand.
"I don't—" he began impatiently, but then seemed to have second thoughts. "Yeah, sure."
With relief to be doing something to help him, Hinata hurried off.
Once she was gone, Kiba turned to Naruto. "Tell me what happened, Naruto," Kiba demanded as he took in Naruto's bloody clothes. He swallowed audibly realizing that he wore Akamaru's blood.
"Sure." Naruto took a breath, and related everything he and Hinata had done from the moment they'd noticed the large, white shape several meters ahead of them on the walk home. He downplayed his part in Akamaru's treatment. He still felt a twinge of guilt that he could have hastened Akamaru's death with his help.He didn't want Kiba to know about that.
When he finished his story at the arrival of Akamaru at the hospital, Kiba said abruptly, "Sakura told me you saved Akamaru's life."
Naruto started. "What? Me? She said that? Really?" He was pleased with the acknowledgement even thought it might not be completely deserved. Sakura rarely praised him. She was quicker with a punch than a kind word.
"Yeah. She said if you hadn't stopped the bleeding, Akamaru might have—" his voice faltered. "might have died."
"I just did what I could. I don't have any medical training, but I've seen Sakura in action plenty of times. I just imitated her," he said modestly, although inside he was congratulating himself with 'Way to go, Naruto.' If Sakura said so, it must be true.
"Well, you did save him. I'm grateful," he ground out. This was very difficult for Kiba. Here was the guy he wanted to hate for stealing his girl—but he didn't have a single mean thought in his head about him at the moment. He'd tried to build Naruto up as an ugly character to get Hinata to see things straight, but that had all been a big lie. Naruto was—well—Naruto. He wasn't mean. He wasn't nasty. He wasn't some player out to taken advantage of an innocent girl. He was actually a decent, caring, honorable guy who would probably give Hinata all the happiness she deserved. It was hard to admit it especially to himself, but he'd been wrong from the beginning. He'd been the only one to hurt Hinata in all this, not Naruto. If anyone turned out to be an ugly character it was him not Naruto. And he hated himself for it, especially now that Naruto had done something so incredible for him. He owed him big time—and he always paid his debts no matter how hard it was to do.
He didn't look Naruto in the eye, but he was ready to make a clean breast of things. "Look, Naruto. I was wrong about you. I'm sorry for all the mean things I've been saying to Hinata about you. I guess I was just a little bit jealous. But I'm over that now. It won't happen again," he confessed.
"Unh? What mean things?" Naruto was completely clueless.
"Hinata, didn't tell you? Yeah, I guess she wouldn't, would she? She wouldn't want us fighting. Look, I haven't been very nice about you lately to her. I called her your Rebound Girl. Told her you were going to dump her. Told her you were still stuck on Sakura. Stuff like that," he said gruffly. It sounded even worse saying it aloud. He really was a louse.
"You said that stuff to Hinata?" Naruto felt his face getting red in anger.
"Yeah. I did."
"You—you—" Naruto didn't know what to say. This was a shock. He thought Kiba was his friend. "I ought to punch you out for that, Kiba."
"I know. Go ahead. You can't hurt me any worse than I feel now. Go right ahead." He stiffened as if he expected Naruto to punch him in the jaw at any minute.
Naruto's fists were doubled up, but he knew he wouldn't follow through on his suggested threat. He just couldn't believe that Kiba would say that kind of stuff to Hinata. And he was a little jealous? That came as an even bigger surprise. "I don't hit a guy when he's down—but if you ever pull something like that again—"
"Don't worry. I won't. I really am sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. The better man has won the field. Congratulations. You better make her happy."
Naruto felt his face grow red for an altogether different reason than anger.
Congratulations? Were congratulations in order just because they were dating? Wasn't that what you said to an engagement or marriage? He hadn't even begun to think about that yet. Good thing Hinata wasn't here. She'd be even more red-faced than he was.
On the tail of that thought, Hinata returned with a cup of tea for Kiba.
She took one look at the two red-faced, awkward-looking young men in her life, and wished she could be anywhere but here. This didn't look good. At least they weren't actually fighting. She'd only been away a few minutes, but what had happened between them while she'd been gone?