Character sheet 3 up for the new Aburames introduced (and Hamitsu) ! (as usual, remove spaces and cut 'n' paste):
www. deviantart. com/deviation/48928154/
Chapter 4 – Resurgence
"Shen, did you see that?" Kaho asked as she helped Shen off Kashivu's back.
"Yes," He managed to say as he held his side. Kikaichu were all over and in the air from everyone's agitation and injuries. It would be some time before they all calmed down and returned to their respective hosts. Shen's insects from his gourd were especially displeased as their 'home' had a hole blown through its side.
It looks like Yusuro was injured, although I don't recall seeing her hurt, Kaho thought.
Shen was indeed concerned for Yusuro, but he had himself to worry about at the moment, and could not go to her side. He had shrapnel imbedded in his torso, he was sure of it. His kikaichu were making an unhappy, low, pulsing buzz. Kaho was for the most part physically unharmed besides the usual scrapes, bruises and strained muscles, but she was completely exhausted of chakra. She ignored her fatigue and tried her best to help the two injured with her.
"Here let me help you Fujita-san," Kaho motioned to help the middle-aged Aburame get down. A slightly oversized, jug-shaped kikai gourd was strung across and over his shoulder with a braided shimenawa rope, rather resembling a sake jar from the way it was done.
"I'm fine," he sad quickly, turning away from Shen and putting a hand on his gourd's rope to steady it as he jumped down. He stumbled, but got up and limped off towards his home.
Kaho sighed, leaning down to support Shen and help him walk.
"Don't mind Fujita, he's always been like that," Shen said quietly.
"Stubborn, you mean?"
"He doesn't like looking weak."
"Who does?"
"...And he is not too fond of me."
"…….you never told me that."
"I'll tell you more about it later…" He coughed.
Kaho eased Shen into a chair outside Sakuya's house. She took a seat next to him, feeling like she could just pass out any minute.
She could also feel the prickle of medical chakra in the air. It radiated through her like a wave as her kikaichu reacted to the feel of it. Although not a religious woman, she sent her prayers out for Yusuro. With her head leaning on Shen's leg, the sound of his kikaichu busily doing their best to reconstruct the flesh of his wounds filling her ears, she drifted off…
…
"On the table!" Sakuya quickly swiped off the few things on her kitchen table. They went scattering to the floor.
Kuroji set down Yusuro's limp body and opened the front of her coat. Sakuya took out her brush and concentrated to well up chakra as she swiped it across Yusuro's exposed chest. She was tired from using so many seal techniques in the battle.
"Father? What's wrong with niisan?" Tesuro asked quickly as he walked into the doorway; he had seen them run inside Sakuya's house. Shino was in his arms and a girl around the age of 7 was hiding behind his legs next to Yesetteru.
"Go back to the house NOW," Kuroji voiced firmly.
"You too Yesetteru." Sakuya said in the same tone.
Tesuro startled, and they all complied.
"Her chakra circulatory system is degrading! What happened?" Sakuya asked.
"She and I preformed a chakra transfer using some of the Kyubi's chakra so Shibi-sama could perform his summon…"
"The chakra must have been too powerful for her young body to withstand." Shibi said quickly.
"This is bad; we need to halt the degradation…before it collapses completely." Her kikaichu are at risk of dying as well if we don't hurry, even if we save her, "Kuroji!" she pointed for him to go to the head of the table. They were going to perform a similar maneuver to when they were waking up Kaho from her coma.
Kuroji swooshed his hands through seals and his extra arms jutsu was activated with small poofs of white smoke. Sakuya stood on top of the table straddling Yusuro. She threw off her sunglasses and squinted, her brush carefully sweeping over the girl's body. She was redrawing connections of her chakra system, reconnecting the tenketsu to one another where the flow of chakra had been cut off. Kuroji sent out his kikaichu on strands of chakra following where Sakuya was working. They burrowed into her skin and repaired the tenketsu, sealing them in place as Sakuya connected them. Usually Yusuro's own kikaichu could have done this, but they were just as comatose a she was.
They worked for about 5 minutes when they both heard a sickening sound. The abrupt thump of her heart stopping.
"Dammit! Didn't we just reconnect those strands?"
"Well I guess we're not working fast enough!" Kuroji struck back.
Shibi felt a little helpless. The job they were doing didn't require more than two people. All he could do was watch and hope Yusuro would recover.
Sakuya focused her brush over Yusuro's heart, sending medical chakra over the area. She was sweating and feeling rather faint. She was very low on energy.
"The reconnections aren't stable enough…her heart is starved from chakra, it won't get any electro impulses until the chakra is flowing through that area strongly again."
Kuroji's face fell.
"Sakuya," Shibi spoke up, "Perhaps if I did it manually,"
"If you're going to try something do it quick!"
Shibi gave his kikaichu an order. Some of them flew out and onto Yusuro, burrowing into her skin. They told what was going on to Kuroji's kikaichu that were already inside. They all grouped around Yusuro's heart and sent out a pulse of chakra while giving an internal equivalent of CPR.
"gasp! " Yusuro's whole body convulsed as she regained a pulse and hoarsely inhaled a breath.
"Yusuro!" Kuroji voiced.
The connections have been restored it seems, Sakuya thought, checking over her chakra system again, thank goodness…that was a good idea Shibi had…if we had been any later…
With Kuroji left to watch over Yusuro, Sakuya and Shibi walked out from Sakuya's front door. He calmed himself and took a glance over at the sleeping figures of Kaho and Shen.
"Shibi, are you alright?" Sakuya asked.
"I think I broke a few ribs…but don't worry, I can deal with it. Go help everyone else. I'll assist Kaho and Shen, and be with you as soon as possible."
She nodded and ran off.
"…" Shibi kneeled down and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Kaho…" he removed her sunglasses and put them in his pocket.
"Mmmm…." She stirred slightly, and opened her dark eyes as slits, "Shibi…?"
"Are you okay? Injured?"
"N…no…I'm alright, I…" she sat up and held her head. Shen woke up, "She's fine Shibi-sama..." he sighed.
"Shibi!" Kaho startled as soon as she saw all the blood on his jacket. She felt a buzz of anxiety wash through her and it made her head hurt even more.
"Calm down, it's okay. Nothing serious."
"…" She stared at him, drew in a breath, and tried to get up. Shibi aided her, as she stumbled slightly.
Just then, Tesuro ran up, "I saw Sakuya run by, is Yusuro alright? What happened?"
"She should be okay now, but….we had quite a situation," Shibi replied.
Tesuro sighed in relief, "Oh my…"
"How is Shino? Is he okay?" Kaho spoke up.
"He's just fine. All the kids were really scared by the terrible…noises we kept hearing….but then it got eerily quiet. Thank goodness everyone kept it from getting to the village."
"…Ah," Shibi said in a scarily quiet tone.
…
…
…
It was the morning of the day after the catastrophe.
Although Sakuya was not a medical nin technically, she sure acted like it. Sakuya had been working almost non-stop, with a little help from Yesetteru playing as 'supplies manager' (doing the best an almost-four year old could) to heal the injured in her clan. The hospital was overflowing and was only taking critical cases. The clans and families were left to fend for themselves. Thankfully, the Aburame clan suffered no human casualties, but many kikaichu insects were lost. It was a sacrifice they were willing to make, they loved their hosts and would do anything to protect them and their families. Still, it didn't make the loss any less mourned.
After Kaho and Shibi regained their chakra stamina from resting for a few hours, they aided Sakuya. Everyone was calmed and stabilized by an un-godly hour of the morning. They fell into an agitated sleep, and by the time Sakuya was able to fall into any form of restful sleep, it was mid-morning and she was packing up to go to the hospital and find Ussa.
"Sakuya, you can't be thinking of going over there? It's a madhouse." Shibi told her as he saw her preparing to leave. His posture was a bit more hunched than usual; as he was compensating for the pain in his broken ribs.
"Wait until tomorrow morning," Kaho said. Her legs and torso were wrapped with bandage, she had strained more muscles than she realized. The pain had hit her after her adrenaline subsided.
"I want to see if Ussa is alright," she looked at them in a way that said 'I damn hell AM going over there'.
"What in Kami happened here?!" A deep male tone voiced. Tao, who was quickly running, came up through the tree groves.
Shibi looked at him. He was away on a mission when the attack happened…he instantly realized.
It was quickly explained what he had missed.
"Kami…" he removed his hat…and paused in thought, "Is Jima alright?"
"She got some pretty bad injuries…she was taken to the hospital."
"If you're curious, I'd say come with me, I'm going there right now." Sakuya said, slinging a small gourd over her shoulder.
"She's in the hospital?" He said with about as much freaked-out-alarm as an Aburame could.
"Tao, I'm…sure she is alright." Kaho reassured him.
Sakuya had made her leave as Kaho was talking, "Sakuya!" Shibi called after her, "You're not going to be able to get in there! Wait until tomorrow!"
"Would you 'wait until tomorrow' if Kaho as in the hospital?!"
Shibi stayed silent.
Sakuya turned back around and continued on her way. After a silent moment of looking at Shibi and Kaho, Tao placed his bowler hat back on his head, took his cane up under his arm, and followed after her.
"Shibi…" Kaho finally had to say after they were long gone.
"…she's right, I wouldn't have waited either." He replied.
"…" she smiled gently, "You'd brave all those crowds for me?"
"Anytime."
"…"
"…"
"But…you didn't seem too eager at the Spring Festival a few months ago…"
"Heh," He turned towards her and threw up his hands as much as his injured body would allow, "That was different. A crowd of women is like a force of nature."
She smirked.
…
"Excuse me," Sakuya said politely as she wormed her way through the crowds of people all shouting and searching for loved ones. It had been like this now for almost 24 hours, and was just beginning to die down. Sakuya didn't need to ask any personal where Ussa was, she knew where he was. She could smell him.
More precisely, her male kikaichu could, as he was tagged with a female insect. He always had at least one of her females on him, so if he was ever lost, she could track him down. He affectionately let them live with him and feed on his chakra. A few female kikaichu were barely a bother, they lived in his hair and he forgot they were there half the time.
Tao followed after Sakuya. Unlike her, he was not so lucky to have a specific scent trail to follow. However, even though Jima was not tagged by one of his insects, his males should have been able to smell the female bugs inside Jima anyway (since they were kikaichu all the same). However, he figured he would follow Sakuya to Ussa, as he was having a hard time pinpointing any pheromones with the thick crowds masking the smell. Sakuya, knowing the specific female scent to look for, was having better luck. He hoped Jima would be in a bed (if they even were in beds, many patients were on cots on the floors of the halls) near where Ussa was, being they were both Aburames.
After walking through and bumping into enough people to drive an Aburame crazy five times over with human contact, Sakuya found Ussa. He was on a roll-out bed in what was the hospital's mess hall. It had been converted into another room for patients.
"Ussa!" She cried upon seeing him from across the room, nearly tripping over someone as she did so.
He was awake, but looked groggy. He had bandages all around his torso and a split on his wrist, "Sakuya!"
She quickly came over. A hug didn't look like the best idea, but she was just so happy to see him she wanted to touch him somehow. She placed her sleeve-covered hands on his head and gently gave him an affectionate head nuzzle. Her kikaichu purred and recognized him. She paused, then slowly released him, "I'm so glad you're alive…"
"I'm glad you came and found me so soon,"
"There are so many people here," she said with disgust.
"Yea there are…"
"What did you break?" She asked with worry.
"Some ribs, and my wrist…and collapsed a lung and got a few splinters lodged in my guts somewhere…but they pulled those out. I was in surgery just a few hours ago…"
"I heard a TREE hit you?" A few splinters my foot...
He tilted his eyes, "Nah….it was a sapling."
She shook her head, "Silly man."
Ussa took a glace at Tao, who was starring at them.
"I hate to interject, but…have you seen Jima anywhere?"
"She was with me last night, but now…I don't know."
He tilted his face down into his collar and leaned on his cane.
"I'm sorry Tao."
"No…it's alright; thank you. I'll look around a little bit more until I tire of the crowds." He walked off.
Ussa groaned slightly, talking was causing him more pain than he had first realized. He continued on speaking to Sakuya in insect language, "…I hope he finds her."
"He…seems kind if guilty for not being here when the attack happened." Sakuya replied.
"Humm…"
"…" She took the gourd from her shoulder; it was about the size of a large thermos. As she uncorked its top steam rose out from it, "I brought some herbal tea; it will help you heal."
He gave her a look that read 'thanks' and took it from her. The warmth of it felt good in his hands.
"Is Yesetteru okay?" He asked.
"She was helping me around the clan as I was helping get the injured treated. I've never seen her so active, you'd have been so proud to see her."
"That's my girl," He smiled.
Meanwhile, Tao was walking around aimlessly, hoping to catch a glimpse of Jima's faded mauve hooded jacket. He gave his kikaichu an order, and a group of them dispersed from his jacket collar. Perhaps they could find her by sight instead of smell; and a scattering of scout bugs was the best way to do that.
All the noise and crowds were beginning to make him uneasy. He ducked out an open side door and into the hospital courtyard, which was also full of people, but far less noisy than inside. An empty bench seat looked inviting, so he sat down on it and placed his cane across his knees.
A small child wandered by. He looked a little lost, or a little scared. Both would be understandable considering the circumstances. The child stopped and stared at Tao, whose rectangular, brown sunglasses stared unchanging right back. The child had large, weird eyes. If they got any wider staring at Tao they might have fallen clean out of his little head.
"Are you lost?" He asked the child. I am missing someone too…he thought.
The child sniffled once. Tao leaned in a little closer to him, and his little face scrunched up and promptly broke out into crying.
"Lee! There you are!" A tall woman ran over from across the courtyard and picked him up, "Don't wander off, we're trying to find your father!" She looked up at Tao, giving him a critical look as if accusing him for the child being so frightened, and then walked off.
Tao sighed slowly. He didn't have much time to contemplate the contempt his clan members often got, for a few of his insects had returned to him. They buzzed about him in circles excitedly.
"You found her?" He asked.
…
"Excellent, good work," He got up and followed them.
…
…
"…" Kuroji shook his head and silently pulled a blanket up and over Tesuro, asleep at Yusuro's bedside as the sun began to set on the day after the Kyubi attack. She's going to be out for a few days, but I admire your dedication to your sister Tesuro, he thought.
He slowly walked downstairs and found Sakuya in his living room. Back from the hospital…you were gone all afternoon…
"She doing okay?"
"Stable and sleeping."
"Good…" Sakuya sighed.
"We should take her by the hospital as soon as they are able to take more people."
She nodded.
"…" Kuroji took his hands out of his pockets, "I wanted…to thank you."
"Thank me? You and Shibi did most of the work…" She almost laughed.
"No…without you, I'm sure she'd be dead."
Sakuya stared at him.
"Thank you."
"Your welcome."
"…"
"…"
"I should rest…"
"That's right you should, you may not have any gashes or broken ribs like Shibi…but you most likely are just as strained by the Kyubi chakra transfer as Yusuro was. You just aren't showing it as readily."
He tilted his head down.
She smiled, "Rest up, I'll expect to see you having tea with me and Shen in a few days, doctors orders." She winked (not that he could see it), bowed and left.
…
"Tao…?"
"Jima?" He looked up. The sun had long since set. Jima had been unconscious ever since Tao's kikaichu managed to find her in the mess of injured people. She was one of the 'lucky' ones to have a real bed in an actual room, her condition must have been more serious. An IV was hooked up to her arm. She had finally begun to come around.
"How are you feeling?" He asked, leaning over her.
"Umm…ugg….my head hurts…" She blinked a few times. She was not wearing her sunglasses. The doctors must have removed them, her eyes had most likely been closed the whole time anyway, "W..what are you doing here?"
"…" He looked off to the side, "I wanted to see if you were alright."
Really?... "Oh," She tried to smile a little, but failed.
"I'll go if I'm bothering you,"
"No…no, you're….okay," she sighed and leaned back onto her pillow.
He remained where he was sitting.
"You weren't there, when the Kyubi attacked, were you?"
"No, I was not…" He said with disappointment. He was angry he was not there to help defend the village and his fellow clan members.
"Well, I'm glad then…"
"…?"
"That… you were okay."
He smiled behind his collar.