Chapter 11: Giving in

WARNING- contains blood scenes and cursing.

Chapter 11 - Giving in

"What's... that?" Kiba asked incredulous.

"I don't know..." Kankuro whispered.

The puppeteer couldn't believe what he was seeing. Was this... Kaoru? He almost felt like crying. The sight of the Kunoichi's body was painful. Her back was completely mutilated, like someone decided to whip her back with a sword. Not only that but underneath those cut wounds there was a red coloured seal that occupied her back. It was different from any seal he ever saw, but very similar to the red seals on her hands. The cut wounds formed a pattern that somehow linked the seal, as if someone left the tattooed seal incomplete and then decided to complete it with a blade. Kankuro realized the cuts were too precise, it would be impossible for Kaoru to do it by herself.

"I think they're infected." Kiba said, breaking Kankuro's thoughts. The sand nin also noticed it. He also saw some previous scars. Whatever was happening to the girl, it was happening for some time. Then he saw where he had his hand, right underneath Kiba's cut. He gasped.

"What?", Kiba asked.

"She was stabbed... here right beneath the cut you made... fuck..."

Their attention were drawn by a bark. Akamaru came running with Sakura at his back.

"What happen?" she asked, then she saw the girl in Kankuro's arms, "Kaoru-san!"

She knelt down to her.

"Please save her, I'll do anything please... just save her." Kankuro pleaded. Sakura stared terrified at her back, but she reacted quickly. She extended her hands in her back and a green light came from her hands.

Kiba sighed in relief, but not for long.

"Why..." Sakura murmured. The green light was fading away. She concentrated her chackra in a larger amount, but it faded away too.

"I can't heal her, my chackra is being drained or something."

"It's her ability, her seals don't let anyone use chackra on her, that must include medical treatments," Kiba said.

"Why the fuck she has this shitty seals?" Kankuro yelled. His voice was trembling, the despair in his eyes was heartbreaking. Sakura panicked, she didn't quiet know what to do, there was so much blood, Kaoru would die soon from blood loss if she wasn't treated. She had to pull herself together.

"We need to take her to the hospital now. She needs a blood transfusion," Sakura said with a firm voice, "Kiba go get Tsunade-sama, wait no... she's in a meeting. Then go get Shizune-sempai. Kankuro-san and I are going to take Kaoru-san to the hospital."

Kiba ran as fast as he could, he left Akamaru with the others in case they needed him. He reprimanded himself, it was his fault. He hurt Kaoru, and now she was dying. A sudden thought came across his mind, what if she died? Kankuro told him she was the daughter of an important counselor in Suna. If she died, that could bring harm to the peace treaty between both villages.

'Damn Kaoru-chan don't die.'

Sakura pressured Kaoru's wound with a towel, trying to stop the haemorrhage. Somewhat it seemed to diminish the amount of blood coming out. The sand kunoichi wasn't stable enough to be transported, but staying there would be certain death. Sakura reassured herself, she made the right decision. Kaoru was held by Kankuro, Sakura making sure by the minute that she was "fine" while they ran towards the hospital.

The way to Konoha's hospital seemed to take forever, for the puppeteer. Surprised faces on the streets looked at the three shinobis, especially because of the amount of blood in Kankuro's hands and arms. But the shinobi ignored them, he only wanted to save Kaoru, the only thing that mattered was Kaoru, nothing else.

As he saw the hospital sign, he sped up.

"Hang on Kaoru, we are almost there," he said to the unconscious girl in his arms.

When they arrived, medical-nins came in a hurry. They took Kaoru from his arms, and took her to the emergency room. Shizune arrived a few seconds later, and Kankuro saw the Tsunade was there too. She looked mad, Kiba had told her what happened. The two medical-nins entered the room and Kankuro and Kiba followed.

"Sorry but you have to stay here," Shizune said.

"No! I want to stay with her.", Kankuro said.

"It's best if you stay here-"

"I don't give a fuck about it, I'm the representative of the Kazekage, so I have power over MY Jonin, and I WILL stay with her."

Tsunade sighed annoyed.

"Fine but don't bother us. Kiba you stay outside."

Kankuro entered the room and stood at the corner letting the doctors doing their job. Sakura was relating the details to Tsunade.

"What a stupid thing, having a seal like this", Tsunade said trying to use chackra to heal, in vain.

"She was stabbed. But this looks badly infected, it seemed to have no more than a week. And these wounds too. She clearly is trying to heal them with ointments but that's not enough." the Hokage said.

'No more than a week?, Kankuro thought. He kept listening to Tsunade's words.

"I can't believe the Kazekage let her come with these wounds." Tsunade continued, seeking for more wounds. Shizune was now giving Kaoru an IV with blood.

"We didn't know she was like that," Kankuro said in a husky voice. He mentally prayed for Kaoru's life. She couldn't die, not after his last words being what they were. How much he regretted telling those awful things. He undoubtedly had feelings towards the girl, as much as he tried to hide them, to bury them, he couldn't lie to himself anymore. As he watched Kaoru laying in that hospital bed, Kankuro realized how much he cared about her.
He was giving in to the feeling. And he promised himself right in that spot that he would never deny it again.

Tsunade cut the Kaoru's shirt revealing now the whole back, and she gasped in surprise. Kankuro stepped forward to view what she gasped for. Kaoru's seal occupied her whole back. Not only that but the seals continued through her shoulders and seemed to continue in the front. Tsunade gently turned the ill kunoichi. Kankuro turned around, he couldn't disrespect Kaoru watching her naked. Not that he didn't mind it, but not when she was in that condition.

"Tsunade-sama what's that seal?", Sakura asked.

"It seems like... a summoning seal." Tsunade said, "Kankuro-san what's this?"

Kankuro turned around, he saw that Kaoru's breasts were covered by a cloth, then he saw in her stomach a seal. It was in a dark red shade. And indeed it was a summoning seal. The Kanji "Fire" was right in the middle. He swallowed hard.

"I don't know." he answered. Tsunade turned Kaoru around again, laying her in her stomach.

"Is that the chackra sealing fuin?" Sakura asked.

"No. The one in her back is. Well, part of it is. She has several fuins in her back, even though they look like a big one.", the hokage replied.

"How do we break the seal?" Sakura asked again. She seemed really concerned.

"We don't. There's no time for it, and it's probably impossible. We have to do this the old way. We have to clean the wounds and stitch them." she turned to the puppeteer, "Kankuro-san I know you are concerned but you have to go out now. We need to do this surgery in a sterilized ambient. And you have to clean that blood in you. It's for her safety."

"Will she be ok?", he asked.

"She's already receiving blood and she seems stable, I'll do everything I can. Maybe you should go send a hawk informing the Kazekage, but if you want I'll send it later."

"No that's ok, I'll send. Just don't let her die," he said, he looked at the unconscious Kaoru one last time and then left the room.

As he stepped out the room, he looked at his hands covered in Kaoru's blood, the blood was dried. He walked to the wall in front of him, and sat down against it. He heard footsteps and saw Kiba coming to him.

"Kankuro... how is she?", Kiba asked lowly.

"Go away mutt, I can't deal with you now," Kankuro answered without looking at the boy. It was his fault, the dog boy's fault that Kaoru was the way she was. Almost dead.

Kiba stood silent, guilt spreading through his body. He sat down a couple of meters from Kankuro. He would never guess that Kakuro would be so worried about the girl. Of course he would... she was a team mate, a fellow jonin companion. 'I would do the same for Hinata.', the Inuzuka thought, but still his canine instincts sensed something else from Kankuro. The way he held Kaoru in his arms, the way he pleaded for Sakura to save her, the way he confronted the Hokage... He sure seemed to have bigger feelings towards the girl, than he thought.

Kiba felt threatened somehow. Kaoru was in surgery because of him, and he didn't do anything for her. Kankuro took over his place. The puppet master acted like a real... boyfriend. Not that Kiba thought himself as Kaoru's boyfriend, but she was his, and Kankuro taking charge of her life and wounded body like he did, made him jealous. Kiba had to make it up for her when she wake up.

Five days have passed since Kaoru's incident. The poor girl slept the whole time, because of the heavy anesthetic, and pain killers.

Kankuro waited outside the room, while Sakura changed her bandages. He barely left the hospital, during the whole time. He only went home to change. He stayed next to Kaoru day and night. And everyday he would bring a flower to her. Her favourites, purple roses, which they were very expensive in Konoha because they were rare in the fire country. Ino, who sold them everyday to the puppet master always mumbled things like "It's not ok to give a purple rose to someone that is in a hospital", or "the flower means love at first sight not get well soon", but Kankuro didn't care. He knew Kaoru liked them the best, so for him it was the obvious choice.

Sakura opened the room door.

"You can come now, Kankuro-san," Sakura said smiling. He quickly entered and saw Kaoru laying in her back.

"She can lay like that? Won't her injuries open?" he asked concerned.

"No, Tsunade-shisho said it's ok. It was bad for her body to stay in her stomach for so long," She stared at the puppeteer and watched him put the flower in the small table next to Kaoru's bed. She softly smiled.

"Kankuro-san, she was really lucky to have you on her side that day."

"I didn't do anything, you guys are the ones who saved her," he replied humbly.

"But you made pressure in her wounds and took her here to the hospital. You really took care of her," Sakura said. She noticed how Kankuro cared about Kaoru and she wanted to give strength to the puppeteer to persue that path.

"Thank you, Sakura. I'm in debt again. If you need any help in no matter what, even if something awfully bad, you can count with me," he said. Sakura laughed.

"Don't need to, but you should go home and take a shower and go eat something and get some rest, you've been here for a while."

"I don't want her to wake up alone," the puppeteer replied while grabbing the girls' hand. He traced with his finger the scarred patterns of her seals.

"You can go" a voice came from the door, Kiba stood there, "I'll stay with her while you're not here."

Kankuro found himself disliking Kiba pretty bad in these past few days. Maybe because he only visited Kaoru only one hour per day, or maybe because he acted so... unpreoccupied.

"No thanks."

"Kankuro-san, Kaoru will probably only wake up in a couple of days, the anesthetic we gave her is really strong, you can go." After some persuasion, and because Kankuro didn't want Kaoru to see him looking such a mess, in case she woke up, he decided to go at Kiba's to change.

"Don't leave her alone," he ordered the younger boy. Without hearing his response, Kankuro left. He ran towards Kiba's house, he didn't want to be more than an hour far from Kaoru so he had to be quick.

No one was there. Kiba's mother returned a couple of days after the incident, but she barely was at home. And Hana spent most of her time in the vet center, even though she came everyday visiting Kaoru.

Kankuro went to the bathroom and took off his clothes. He saw himself in the mirror. He looked horrible, huge dark circles under his eyes, showing clearly his lack of sleep, and the fact he didn't even had his face paint on, showed more of how he was tired. But it was worth it. Kankuro smiled at himself, for Kaoru being tired was worth it. He took a shower really quick. He put a towel around his waist and exited the bathroom. As he walked through the hallway, and passed through Kaoru's room he stopped. He had no idea why, but he felt like entering the small guest room. The room was very clean and neat, just how he expected from Kaoru.

He advanced and saw a pair of long gloves neatly folded in the dresser. The Jonin remembered those awful wounds she had. They were from before coming to Konoha. He barely could believe she travelled so far with those injuries, and he never noticed something was wrong. Well in reality he noticed a lot of strange things that now made perfect sense. For example, why she fell asleep so easily in the first night coming to the hidden leaf village. Or why she screamed that day when he touched her, when they were proving her she had OCD.

Kankuro's eyes stopped at Kaoru's bag in a corner of the room. He knelt down before it and opened it. The boy wondered how he was still surprised by what he saw. Even inside her bag, everything was organized. There were scrolls, a lot of them. Scrolls with personal belongings to summon, such as clothes and stuff, scrolls with weird seals, that she would probably use as weapons, or maybe she needed for the mission. Then he found something peculiar. Her tools, shurikens and kunais seemed to be... used. Really used.

'Why is she caring used tools?'

Then something else caught his eye, a paper bag with bandages and a bottle of healing ointment. He remembered Sakura asking him about what Kaoru thought about the ointment. He felt really stupid. There were so many obvious signs and he didn't push it, he should had said something when he heard about the ointment.

'Shit I'm a moron...'

He put everything back as it was and then he grabbed her wallet. Unconsciously, he opened it, he wasn't really interested in her wallet, but he frowned when he saw it was almost empty. She barely had any money. Kankuro searched the entire bag, in case she hid the money, but he didn't find anything. If it was someone else without money he wouldn't give a shit about it, but this was Kaoru, Kankuro knew she would never do something so reckless like going to another country without money, and her family wasn't poor so she had no plausible excuse for it.

Something wrong was happening with Kaoru's life, and he promised to himself he would find out what.

After making sure, everything was back to how it was, Kankuro quick put some clothes on. He decided this time to put his face paint, but just because his face show so much exhaustion, people wouldn't shut up about it if he didn't.

Less than 15 minutes after, he was back at the hospital, he eagerly came to the room, reaching the door knob, he heard voices inside. His heartbeat sped when he heard Kaoru's voice.

"You're really sweet Kiba-kun. But you didn't have to stay here all the time," she said in a husky voice.

"But I didn't want for you to wake up alone," Kiba said. Kankuro was pissed off, Kiba was imitating what the puppeteer said before to Sakura.

"Do you like the flowers?", Kiba asked.

"I love them. How did you know they're my favourites?", she asked. Kankuro couldn't believe this. Kiba was getting all the credit for what he did, not only that but Kiba had the nerve to act like he did something, when in those 5 days, he barely came to the hospital. Kankuro couldn't let this keep going.

He opened the door and both shinobis inside looked at him. Kiba had an amused face on, he was grabbing Kaoru's hand and their fingers where entwined. Kaoru looked at the puppeteer with a scared expression, she knew she had a lot of explaining to do.

"You're awake.", Kankuro said.

"Yeah." she replied.

"How are you feeling?", Kankuro asked. He tried his best not to sound harsh, he knew his natural tone of voice tended to be misunderstood by cold and angry.

"Fine, a little pain, but I feel fine," she said without stopping glaring at the puppeteer. Kaoru was expecting the questions. She had no idea what she would reply, but anything was better than the anxiety of waiting for the questions.

"Kaoru..."

'Here it comes...'

"We need to talk... alone.", Kankuro said serious.

To be continued...