He moved his hand back down to Neji's chest. He felt Neji's heart thudding against his hand. He knew that wasn't normal. He moved his hand over and had to do it twice. He felt a hill as if it was stretched. He couldn't have been more right. It turns out, his lungs had been hit so many times, that they swelled, forcing the bone to move against the skin, making an uneven hill. He fed chakra through his hand to Neji's chest in a steady amount. Slowly, the hill went down almost all the way. He figured that was as good as he was going to get.
It took a total of six hours to heal Neji. Now all Shikamaru had to do was wait. The fawn went off to graze. Diamond on the other hand, stayed. Diamond laid down in front of Neji. Shikamaru watched the man he considered a brother. He had grown almost inseparable from Neji. Shikamaru sat there waiting. Sometimes it turned dark and sometimes light. Diamond never moved. Shikamaru never knew how much time had gone by. When he went to shift slightly, he heard a small moan.
Shikamaru's head snapped down to look at Neji. Neji's eyeballs were moving behind his eyelids. Shikamaru couldn't believe what he was seeing. Diamond looked up at Shikamaru when he heard his heart rate quicken. When he saw his litter mate twitch, he got up and trotted over. Neji's eyes fluttered open. He looked up and saw Shikamaru's relieved face. He suddenly had a comfortable weight on his lap and looked down. There was Diamond, staring up at him with so much love, it was practically dripping off him. " I'm OK you two." said Neji. His voice was slightly horse.
" You gave us quite a scare there Neji." said Shikamaru. His voice was shaky.
" They didn't do too much damage." said Neji. The look of rage on Shikamaru's face said otherwise. " What did you find?" asked Neji. " You had multiple cracks to the bones in your chest, a crack to your collar bone, and gash going through your curse mark." said Shikamaru. He saw Neji give a wince at the last piece of information. " What did they do?" asked Shikamaru. In a low tone. " They activated the curse mark." said Neji. Shikamaru's hands gently gripped Neji's shoulders and sat him up. Shikamaru stood and walked around to the front of Neji and knelt down. He embraced Neji awkwardly around Diamond.
Shikamaru didn't let go for several minutes. He finally let go after fifteen minutes and stood. " I'm alright Diamond. I'm not going anywhere." said Neji. Diamond nuzzled into Neji. Shikamaru saw Diamond start shaking. Neji rested his head on Diamond, in between his shoulder blades. Shikamaru watched the two. Shikamaru had a startling realization. He realized Diamond was sobbing in his own doggy way. Shikamaru knelt down and started caressing Diamond's fur.
" I would never let anything happen to him. He's a brother to me." said Shikamaru. Neji looked up at Shikamaru's face. " I trust him Diamond." said Neji. Diamond slowly stopped shaking. Shikamaru stopped petting Diamond and stood. Diamond removed himself from Neji. " I need to see how much damage I took." said Neji. Shikamaru nodded and slipped his arms around Neji in a hug. Neji wrapped his arms around Shikamaru's neck. Shikamaru slowly rose into a standing position.
Neji's hands dropped to Shikamaru's shoulders. " Are you alright?" asked Shikamaru. " Yeah. I'm just surprised." said Neji. Slightly breathless. " Why?" asked Shikamaru. Neji's hands dropped from Shikamaru's shoulders. Shikamaru turned around and took off at a slow pace. " Because, I thought they more damage then that to my lungs." said Neji. From beside him. Shikamaru dropped the henge.
" While they did do extensive damage, it was nothing life threatening. Though, you will have to be extremely careful not to over do it." said Shikamaru. Neji nodded. Suddenly he ran up the side of a tree and started jumping branches. Shikamaru came up behind him. Diamond appeared at Shikamaru's side.