AN: This fic's always been teetering on the edge, but, just to be safe, I'm moving its rating to M with this chapter. If you're squeamish or easily disturbed, you'll want to stop reading towards the latter end of this. As well, there's a very brief suicide mention.
All that said, please enjoy, and I'll see you again at the end of the chapter.
She was golden, more so than the morning light that shone down on her as the sun began to rise over the tree line around them. Beautiful in every literal and figurative sense.
Finally, Tsunade of the Sannin, Ringo's greatest chance at life, stood just yards away, meeter her eyes over her shoulder. She turned completely as Ringo slowly closed the last of the distance in a dizzy trudge, laughing through her grin. Her joy was getting to her, forcing incomplete sputters of unshakable happiness from lips. She hadn't felt this giddy in years, but simply taking in Tsunade's narrowed eyes made it feel like she was standing before the gates to paradise.
Glare harsh as it was, she looked like a treasure. Or maybe she was the key? The very thing that would unlock everything; everything that had been taken from her the moment she'd been told of her illness.
"Eheh...Hah...you- you're Tsunade.", she slowly stammered out, struggling against the heaviness in her chest. "Tsunade of the Sannin! It's really you! Ahahah! H-"
Ringo's laughter broke and gave way to a round of harsh coughs she covered with the inside of her arm. Her breathing was strained and shallow, and her hand still clutched her chest, shaking, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She barely even noticed the sweat sliding down her head and neck as every area of her mind busied itself dumbly observing the woman before her.
She hadn't even seen the younger girl to Tsunade's side, narrowing her eyes as she'd walked forward as if to ask something, only to be cut off by an arm from the Sannin herself. The woman stared Ringo down as she recovered from her coughing fit, smile still suck on her lips.
"Who are you?"
'Hah', Ringo couldn't help but laugh to herself at the demand of a name. There was no way she wasn't fully aware of who she was talking to.
"Eheh…Ameyuri Ringo,", she weakly offered. "But you...you already knew that, right?"
The apprentice's eyes widened in recognition at the name, and she took a quick step back, hold tightening on a...pig? That she was holding? Cute. And the bit of fear in her eyes...That was nice. The Seven Swordsmen had been gaining reputation outside of Kiri the past couple years, however close Mist had kept its cards to its chest. It was nice to know that her name was specifically among that clout, rather than just the group itself.
And Tsunade...all of a sudden it was hard to believe she was really that terrible at gambling. Her poker face let absolutely nothing slip, and put forth a stark contrast of hard authority compared to the shorter girl next to her.
"Yes, Ameyuri Ringo. One of the Seven Swordsmen of the Bloody Mist."
"Bloody Mist?"
Ringo couldn't keep the incredulity from her voice. Bloody Mist, huh...That was new. She couldn't resist another chuckle, painful as it was. The adrenaline was wearing off now that she was still, and pain was quickly being reintroduced to her body.
"That's a new one...I know a lot of people back in Mist that would...love to hear...that name, aheh..."
Damn, talking like this was starting to hurt...Her energy was gone, and she could feel her knees shake, threatening to buckle at any moment. She took a deep breath and steadied herself.
"But...," she smiled back up at Tsunade, "It's just Ameyuri Ringo now."
The woman's face remained passive, as if what she'd said affected nothing at all. Having looked at her for a minute now, and coming down from her little high…
'Damn, she looks good for her age!'
Was she younger than Ringo had thought? Or was she just beautiful? Silence took over for a few seconds, and she noticed the apprentice looking warily back and forth between her teacher and Ringo herself. Was she expecting a fight?
"So you abandoned Mist?", Tsunade spoke once more, only a hint of curiosity in her question.
"Yup."
The quick response actually made the woman's eyes narrow. It wasn't a hard question to answer though.
"Mist...wasn't working out anymore.", she continued. "Lots of reasons."
"Those being?"
As much as she'd held back explaining herself up to this point, it would probably do well to give her everything she wanted to know. Doctor's gotta know their patient, after all. Keeping that in mind, she sighed, readying herself to go through everything that had brought here here.
"First...Mist sucks. You don't-" a rasping cough, "don't need me to-, to tell you that. Second..."
This would probably be reason enough to have her head if she were still in Kirigakure.
"Yagura's insane. Take orders...from him? No- no way. And the biggest reason..."
Ringo's smile broadened, raising a hand to point at the woman before her, stumbling back a step.
"You."
The look the Sannin gave her at that was harsher than anyone in Mist could ever hope to manage, eyes narrowed and angry like she was ready to just wipe away this conversation with a single movement before moving on. The girl beside her was sweating, torrent of emotions swirling through her as she thought through the possible meanings behind that declaration.
"And what do you want from me?"
Maybe the water had done something to her, because Ringo's smile stuck like tree sap. Combined with her haggard demeanor and pale exhaustion, she probably looked horrifying, much like the people she'd encountered when first stepping into Fire Country. Something about that struck her as funny in the moment.
"I have..." Ringo answered breathily, "A problem...Probably noticed that, right?"
She took another step forward, hand idly clutching at her chest once again.
"Illness, see? It's pretty b-urgh...pretty bad right now, y'know?"
Tsunade's glare sank back into a placid neutrality as the pieces connected.
"You want me to heal you."
It was a statement. Looked like they were all on the same page here. The assistant, the timid girl who'd deferred to Tsunade the moment it was established that this was something important, began looking at Ringo with more interest. She'd be unnerved under those methodical, scrutinizing eyes if she wasn't so pleased right now.
"You got it, eheh...Nobody...nobody in Mist can do shit. You...You're the best there is. You can."
"I see."
Tsunade didn't waver an inch, staying in the strong and controlled stance she'd taken the moment Ringo appeared.
.
.
.
.
.
"No."
.
.
.
.
.
"...what?"
It came out quieter than Ringo had meant it to, and her grin slipped down into a horizontal line, lips parted just slightly. The smile clawed back after she spoke, clinging to her face as if what the woman had said had gone unheard or ignored. Tsunade spoke again, short and simple,
"No."
She wanted something, that was it.
"I can pay, any- anything you wa-"
"No. I will not heal you."
A chill skittered across her back, spreading throughout her body in a dreadful wave that slowly overrode the heat and sweat she'd felt just moments before.
"It doesn't have- doesn't have to be money, I can-"
"No."
Tsunade turned. She was turning around? She was walking away like this was over!?
"W-wait!"
The Sannin paused, turning back again.
"Wait, I- I can do whatever- whatever you want! Anything at all!"
The woman's eyes looked down Ringo's figure and shot back up, eyes hardening into a glare once more.
"'I'm retired. I don't just heal anymore. I'll tell you once more; I will not help you."
The road was hushed with the declaration, broken only by the morning birds chirping in the trees around them. Tsunade began to turn once more, and Ringo's shaking legs buckled and she sunk, landing hard on one knee, small stones on the road digging into her skin.
"PLEASE!"
Tsunade stopped turning, but...She stood silent. Still and final, like a statue looking down on her. She wasn't...even going to repeat it again. The protege was staring at her worriedly. As much as Tsunade kept turning her back on her, she hadn't so much as looked away.
This wasn't...
She couldn't breathe. Her breath kept hitching in her chest, unable to move properly with the tension that filled her. This wasn't what was supposed to happen.
She was staring at the ground, focused on the rocks and dirt of the roadway. When had she looked away from Tsunade? She slowly brought her gaze back up, then wished she hadn't. The look the medic was giving her...There was no arguing. Nothing would change her mind.
Absolutely nothing.
Sweating, and swaying slightly, Ringo stood, unsure where she found the strength to hold herself up. It wasn't something she put any focus into. She couldn't even really feel it. It was so...quiet. The younger girl by Tsunade's side looked pensive, and took a step forward.
"What are-...um...What are you going to do now?"
...That was a good question. What was she going to do now? She didn't...have much left in her. Her health was reaching its limit. Her time was running out. She knew it, and it looked like they knew just as well as her. Her hand raised to cover half of her face as she looked away. She could feel the burning of tears building up in her eye. She hadn't cried in years. She wasn't going to start now, not when she was being watched. Ringo could feel herself smiling, probably in disbelief. She desperately wanted to think this was all just a joke, but the pain was too real for that to be true. Her breaths too labored and ragged. Her emotions collided with each other, shuffling between agony, terror, rage, and a crushing sadness until they were mixed enough to force a disbelieving chuckle from her lips.
"I don't- I don't...know...Eheh. May'be I'll..."
She weakly raised a hand, motioning behind her.
"Maybe I'll go back to the hotel. Get a...a nice room. Soft bed...Order the best plate they have. Fire Country's food ain't bad...I..."
She trailed off, unsure what else to say. After all, that was all she could do, really. She might have wanted to go on a killing spree right now if it didn't all feel so utterly pointless. When she first learned the severity of her illness, she was angry beyond belief because she still had some hope of a way out, and it just wasn't fair. Now...Now that was gone. This was her hope, her last chance, and it had said no. Blocked her off like an indestructible wall that spanned the continent, no way over or around. She couldn't force them; not only would it be of no help considering she didn't know what the medical treatment would even look like, but she couldn't hope to take them on anyways, especially with how weak she was right now.
She'd felt free just moments before, moreso than she'd ever felt in her life. Now she'd been caged once more, and that cage was shrinking by the minute until it would crush her and for the life of her right now she just couldn't breathe-
Her answer seemed to bring the apprentice's expression down further. She looked worried. Sad and worried...Pitying. That's what it was.
Oh, Kami, she was being pitied.
The hand she had covering the side of her face slid up, wiping away the wetness in her eye and running itself through her hair. Even the constant burning pain of the illness tearing through her was dulling again with how numb she felt right now.
Tsunade turned for a final time, muttering something that she couldn't comprehend beneath the ringing that was filling her ears. The apprentice took a few slow steps back from Ringo, then turned and made to follow her teacher, glancing back every few moments.
The morning air was frigid, enveloping her as her only hope walked away, never looking back.
It was so...cold out. Was Fire Country supposed to be this cold...?
Her hand covered her eyes, squeezing lightly as her head lowered, silence settling over the roadway.
...How long was she going to stand here? However much better it would be than the hard rocks of the road beneath her, she just...couldn't bring herself to go to the hotel. The thought, the knowledge that that place would be her grave...
She was scared.
Her feet moved beneath her, taking a few dazed steps, wavering slightly with every movement.
She wanted a bed. Something. Something to take the effort away, so she wouldn't have to try anymore.
Ringo moved without thought, slowly making her way to the hotel she'd run from as the sun rose behind her.
Quietly opening the door, she was met with the same desk girl she'd yelled at earlier, nervous at the sight of her, staring straight at her in silence.
"...room?"
"W-what?"
"Can I get a room?"
The girl glanced from side to side. Was that a nervous habit of hers?
"Um...I don't know if-"
She dropped a hand onto the hilt of one of the Kiba.
"Give me a room."
That shut her up fast. As little energy as Ringo had, she could at least manage a threat if it meant getting her out of this damn doorway. Though...if the girl held her ground, she honestly doubted she'd do anything about it. She could barely bring herself to narrow her eyes at the girl, much less kill her.
A minute of agreements, pay, and non-answers later, she was checked in and given a room number. Barely even remembering moving from the desk to the space she was provided, she trudged in, nearly tripping over her own dragging feet, collapsing onto the bed.
...Where was her panic? Where was the anger? She'd been faced with death before and it made her furious. It was the most fear inducing thing in the world, the one thing that drove her in everything she did. Now...it did nothing. It just filled her with an overwhelming weariness.
Once more, time passed by in a blur, and she couldn't bring herself to focus on anything. Every thought was too haphazard to pay attention to, flying by far too quick to make sense of. Nothing she could think about seemed like something preferable to the comforting blankness that had currently occupied her mind. Eventually, staring at the ceiling, everything came together in one sudden moment of inescapable realization.
She was going to die. There was nothing more to do. No way out, no way to fight.
Ringo sedatedly drew an arm over her eyes as shivers spread over her body.
Her face drew tight and, as her breathing hitched and stuttered, tears began to wet the cloth that covered them.
(Shizune)
'That girl was a killer. That girl was a killer. That girl was a killer.'
Shizune had to repeat this to herself again and again as she trudged along behind her mentor, hammering it into her head hard enough that it could be all there was to this situation. So she could stop thinking about it. So she wouldn't have to feel remorse for leaving. The woman she saw wasn't weak, wasn't helpless, she was a trained killer that had murdered more people than most ANBU.
It wasn't hard to place her at all, and not a moment after hearing her name she remembered where she'd seen her face before; in the middle of bingo books with detail after detail about how vicious she was. How predatory she was when she fought. She was a murderer. A killer that served killers. She...she was...
That girl was even younger than Shizune herself. And she looked so...scared. So shocked. Nothing like the profiles they had of her in Leaf Country, devoid of emotion for the sake of accuracy. The disbelief that flooded into her was...horrifying. Pleading, begging for the encounter to go how she wanted. When Lady Tsunade said "No", and that smile slipped for a second, it was clear just how terrified she was. It showed in her eyes and the sweat rolling down the sides of her head, and that fear stuck from then on as she pleaded. She had to have known that nothing she could offer would change Tsunade's mind with a refusal like that, but people don't continue asking after a no from someone like her sensei unless they've exhausted every other option.
Watching her go through that process was like torture.
And how could it not be? Shizune was a med-nin! It was her job to treat people. It was what she aspired to, what she'd been taught to do and been preparing for since she was a child. To stop pain like she'd just been forced to watch overtake a young girl, that was her dream. And now, the first time someone seeks them out, wholly desperate for help, she walked away from them.
But...what could she do? Tsunade refused with absolutely no room for argument, and Shizune wasn't good enough to help the swordswoman herself...was she?
Shizune was skilled. That much she knew, but...how skilled was she? Everything about this seemed so beyond her, so untouchable no matter how much she wanted to reach for it and take it into her own hands. She didn't even know what this disease was! But…
She was being taught by Tsunade. Ameyuri had said it herself; Tsunade was the best in the world, and Shizune had been learning from her since she was a child. If there was anyone besides her sensei that could do anything, it would be her, wouldn't it...?
Could she do it? And...should she?
That was something she'd nearly forgotten the moment she stopped repeating it to herself. Ameyuri Ringo was a killer. She served the man who gave Kiri the nickname 'Bloody Mist'. She was part of it.
But...Ringo wasn't in Mist right now. Barring her clothes, she apparently had no relation to Water Country whatsoever anymore. She left it behind to find Lady Tsunade. Was that a guarantee that it would be ok if she lived? No...If anything, it was an indicator that she couldn't truly be trusted. She abandoned her country for this! What would stop her from returning to Kiri? What would stop her from becoming a criminal here? What if Shizune healed her, and the girl used her life to cut through people in Fire Country?
Could she get a promise? Make a condition? That was an idea. She was desperate enough to say she'd do anything. But what could Shizune even say, really? "Don't do anything bad now"? Even on her deathbed, the girl would probably laugh in her face for saying something that naive. But she had to think of something. Something to justify walking back there. Every step brought her further and further away from her could-be patient, and time was the most important thing for this situation.
'I want to go back.'
That was becoming increasingly obvious as the debate raged on in her head. But a feeling that she wanted to wasn't enough to turn around and do something. She needed a reason, a good enough reason to walk back there despite what her only remaining family thought...didn't she?
"Oink!"
Oh. She was squeezing Tonton.
"Sorry Tonton…", she muttered, easing her hold on the little pig.
Tonton oinked sadly in concern, and a voice spoke up ahead of her.
"Shizune."
She looked up, seeing only her teacher's back as they walked.
"Don't worry about it."
Don't...
"Don't worry about it...?"
Tsunade sighed wearily.
"She'll be dead within a few days. There's nothing you could have done."
Shizune halted immediately. For some reason that sentence hit her like a punch to the gut. Was there really nothing she could do? Was she right, that this was too far beyond her to figure out? There was no way to help a girl begging for someone to save her?
"That...that can't be right!"
"Mm?"
Tsunade turned to look at her, but Shizune's focus was still on the rocks at her feet.
"There has to be something we could do! Some way to help her!"
Her eyes lifted and locked with her teacher's. A second passed between the two and Tsunade turned to face her completely.
"Of course there is."
"Then do it!", she shouted.
Her sensei's look turned to a glare, and most of Shizune's sudden fire nearly sputtered out right then under the harshness of it. She just spoke out against her teacher. Her family.
"Do you plan on making me?"
"N-...n-no." Shizune stammered, "But...If you won't do it then teach me to! You can't- You can't just leave her like that!"
"Shizune, this is not up for discussion. We're leaving."
She was angry. When did she get so angry? She respected her teacher's retirement, but doing absolutely nothing? Walking away when there was a way to help somebody begging for it? That wasn't...that wasn't right!
"I'm going back."
Tsunade's eyebrows rose in surprise. Shizune was almost surprised herself, but her anger grounded her, paving the way for determination.
"What?"
"I'm going back! You- you taught me and you say there's a way. I'm going back to treat her!"
Her steps back down the road were quick and automatic, tapping methodically against the gravel path. She'd been prepared to fend off any argument her teacher had about this but...none came. She couldn't even look back for fear of what she might see. What if Tsunade decided that going against her meant Shizune was no longer fit to be her apprentice? What if she'd already left her behind...?
She couldn't think about that right now.
If she could do anything, she could try.
(Ringo)
The ceiling design in this hotel was actually somewhat interesting. It wasn't just blank, or straight lines, they were diagonal. Ringo thought that was nice.
The bed...good, she supposed. Fluffy. Far better than she could ever get in Mist. Maybe this was making it...?
A bit of time to appreciate the good things here before she...
Everything felt so slow. There wasn't anything to do; nothing to focus on but the jumping stings across her skin and the steady burn inside her. She couldn't even completely catch her breath anymore. But most of all she was...bored. Really, really bored. After a glance at the clock hung on her wall, Ringo saw that it had only been about ten minutes since she first got to the room. She blew out a sigh and drudged one of the Kiba up from her thigh, running her fingers idly across the metal of it.
Somebody would probably come to take them, eventually. They'd catch up to her and get the swords, and maybe her head too while they're at it. Even if they weren't the ones to kill her, a bounty was still a bounty.
Who would get them next…? Probably somebody violent and weird. A man, most likely. Ugh. These swords deserved better. Maybe that would be her legacy? The one woman able to enter the ranks of the Seven Swordsmen. The one who...abandoned them and slowly died a sad, lonely death. That wasn't a very good legacy. Perhaps her memory could be tied to the swords instead. She certainly made an impression with them; nobody who knew of her would ever forget that she did everything she'd done Kiba in hand.
But then time would pass. A new generation, one who would only know her name from books or lessons, would grow and fade, and she'd be forgotten. Once her swords returned to Mist, she'd have nothing.
Damn. That sucked.
'Maybe I shoulda just tried to electrocute Yagura. Called down some lightning and made a real show of it.'
It would've been hopeless, of course, but a blaze of glory sounded much better than this. Maybe once reactionary groups started forming rebellions against him, they'd celebrate her! 'The first to get her head out her ass'. Inspiring. Would've made her one hell of a story, that's for sure.
Quick and hard taps could be heard from the hallway. Somebody was sure in a rush. Maybe they forgot something, or were rushing to catch their lover having an affair here. That would be kinda funny. There'd probably be some pretty amusing yelli-*BANG*
"What"
The word escaped her as her head groggily shot up, looking at the entrance where her door had just been bashed inwards against the wall. In that moment she half expected an assassin, but instead, rushing into the room with a quick glance down at her was...the apprentice? Oh hell, that was a look she had on her. She quickly tied her hair back and began taking things out of her sleeves, plunking them down onto the small corner table the hotel room came with.
"What, what're-"
"You."
Oof. That one word had so much force behind it. The girl paused her...whatever it was to look Ringo dead in the eyes. This was weird.
"You will not hurt anyone in this country, do you understand me?"
"...what?"
Was she going to kill her now? Some weird personal vengeance? Ringo's confusion seemed to piss her off, and she almost growled, teeth bared.
"If I try to heal you, you will promise me that you won't harm anyone here."
She was...what? Wait, what!? All of a sudden energy began flooding back into her, and her arm dragged across her eyes, rubbing the red streaks around them as she tried to fully grasp what was just said to her.
"...you're...going to try to heal m-"
"Promise me."
"I- I promise! Yeah, sure, I promise!
This was happening? Was this real!? Or was she delusional, or...hallucinating? She'd been sweating a lot and hadn't had very much to drink lately. The girl stared at her for a moment, holding her look as Ringo's gaze kept darting between her and the supplies on the table. After what felt like an eternity, she huffed, hurriedly resuming her makeshift setup.
This was happening. She pulled the second Kiba out of her sash and leaned over to set them to the side, grunting in effort. Her new medic made a quick glance in her direction at the sound and her brows furrowed in frustration.
"Stop moving!"
Ringo immediately halted, stilling herself while propped up on an elbow to see what was happening. Another glance from the medic and she clicked her tongue, walking to the bedside and pressing a guiding hand flat against Ringo's collarbone.
"Lay down."
Nothing to do really but comply. Laying back, she could see the girl's hand start to glow, slowly passing over the top of her clothing. It felt...just a little weird. Tingly and pinchy, and...just a tiny bit invasive.
"Is that healing...?", she muttered confusedly.
The medic glanced up at her face, immediately returning her view to the bright glow of her hand.
"No. This is a diagnostic jutsu. I'm just figuring out what you even have right now."
"Ah..."
The tingling wasn't bad, but it definitely felt uncomfortable, and when it passed over some of the more pained areas of her abdomen it started to hurt. At the first grunt she let out, her de facto doctor started speaking, likely trying to distract her.
"Is there anything you can tell me about your condition?"
"Eheh...n-no. Back in Kiri, I kinda stormed out pretty early in the whole...'you're gonna die' speech, y'know?"
Maybe it wasn't the best choice, thinking back. The medic's sigh of frustration signaled that she certainly seemed to think so. With that complete lack of help, it was probably better to just be quiet and let the doctor do her thing, but the diagnostic thingy was definitely starting to get frustrating. It likely hadn't been long, but dammit it had started to feel like ages were passing when the girl let out a huff.
"Dammit...This...This is probably going to take a lot more than medical jutsu to fix..."
Ok. Ok, that was fine. Ringo honestly didn't have much of a problem with that, she'd do whatever it would take at this point really, no matter how annoying it was getting. At the very least, both her and her healer looked equally annoyed right now. How long was it gonna take her to figure out what was what in there!?
That sensation of something pouring into her everywhere it went, and the twisting feeling every time it passed over a bad spot was starting to become the only thing she could feel. Overwhelming as it was, all Ringo could do about was grind her teeth and grip the fabric of her clothing as hard as she could.
"Stop squirming!"
Ringo growled, muttering through clenched teeth,
"I'm trying!"
She'd gone from elated to devastated, to empty, back to elated again, and now she was getting pissed. This was way more emotional baggage than she'd ever signed up to handle.
Her doctor reached back to the table, grabbing something and uncapping it, then took a hold of the middle of Ringo's arm. Not even a second later, she felt the sudden stick of something poking through her skin.
"Ow!"
"Deal with it!"
It'd been a long time since a girl manhandled her like this. The apprentice wasn't taking any shit here. At least the damn diagnostic thing had stopped as its user rummaged through the supplies on her table.
Unfortunately, she only had about fifteen seconds of relief before a wrenching pain grabbed hold of her gut and squeezed tight. One of her hands flew to the area, pressing it down and trying to ease the sudden throbbing as she smacked the back of her head uselessly against the soft fabric of the mattress that held her.
"What's wrong? Are you ok?"
A bit louder than she'd meant to, Ringo ground the words out angrily, "Oh yeah, I'm fine, this is normal."
The medic's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing, turning back to her table.
Maybe she shouldn't be getting so snappy with the girl who was apparently willing to help her, but dammit there was just so many sensations happening right now and it was definitely overloading her. After a bit, not even the doctor's orders to stay still could be held entirely, rolling onto her side, hand still clutching her abdomen, and covering her ear to drown out the noise of rummaging. She just had to block out something here, and she could handle it, she was sure.
And she definitely wasn't the only one frustrated at this point. Time was passing and the apprentice was making more and more noise over by her little setup. From the looks of things she was having trouble trying to figure something out. What her disease was? What to do about it? Ringo wouldn't ask; not only was it best to let the doctor be the one to handle the doctor stuff, but she was in too much pain right now to bother.
Eventually, the girl smacked her own thigh with a fist and blew out a deep breath, running a wrist across her forehead. Her concentrated look was getting more and more worried. That wasn't a good sign.
'Just block it out- let her do her thing and it'll be fine...', she repeated to herself in a mantra.
Eventually there was some noise, muffled by Ringo's hand over her ear, and her eyes opened slightly. In the doorway was...
Tsunade? It was Tsunade, her back to the inside of the room, saying...something. It looked like she was trying to be dramatic. Ringo's sight glided over to the apprentice girl, who seemed shocked at her teacher's appearance. Was she getting advice or something? It seemed like it.
Eventually, Tsunade turned to look at her student, saying a few more words with the increasingly familiar softness of Fire Country in her expression. The student recovered from her surprise and returned to her medicinal station in a rush, seemingly inspired. Another minute ticked by in excruciating pain, and some roadblock she'd had seemed to be solved. Her look turned pleased, and she smiled at the Sannin with a weird sparkling in her eyes that the master returned, exchanging a few more delicate words.
...What the fuck was this? What the hell was happening!?
There was no way they were talking about medicine anymore, they were doing some freaky personal shit.
That's nice that they're bonding, but she's fucking dying on a bed in a shitty hotel here so if they're going to actually help her they need to pay some GOD DAMN ATTEN- CALM. She had to calm down, however difficult it was with her labored breaths and all of the hateful burning pain shooting through her. They were helping her. They were her only chance. She had to make this easy as she could for them. But dammit, if they told her "woops, we needed the 5 minutes we spent having some fluffy reconciliation to save your life, you're gonna die now", Ringo would use every last bit of her strength to cut them into pieces and fry their bodies.
She rolled onto her back again, trying to take some deeper breaths. A quick look towards the doorway revealed that Tsunade had disappeared, going off to...who knows where. Her protege, however, rushed to Ringo's side, sternly demanding,
"Shirt off."
"Fresh."
Ouch! The glare the medic fixed her with was sharper than anything Ringo could ever hope to achieve! Ringo managed a gruff chuckle as she undid the sash around her waist and tugged off her top with a bit of assistance from the healer. Even that felt like so much effort now, leaving her feeling winded and weak. The girl treating her left the room for a minute, a dazed Ringo trying to imagine what she could be doing.
She came back with a bucket. Out of all the weird possibilities she'd imagined, none of them had involved a bucket. The thing was set down with a small splash coming from its contents. Her doctor took out a small sponge and dunked it into the sudsy water, raising it and wringing out the majority of the liquid before running it across the skin on Ringo's side.
"What's that...?"
"Don't worry about it."
That wasn't good. For all the answers she could've gotten, that wasn't a good one at all.
A few more passes with the sponge and she seemed satisfied, setting it down and pressing her fingers across the cleaned area. It was all she could do to focus on her breaths while the healer slowly moved her hands across her stomach and side, placing a bit of pressure every here and there, giving a bit of tingling like she was touching chakra to her.
Her bizarre little ministrations paused after a minute, and something else chilly and wet was dabbed against her skin. Ringo opened her eyes once more to see the girl wiping her side with some kind of fluid that felt cold and smelled a pungent acidic sour. The scent filled up almost the entire room, and everything about it made her think 'hospital'. It smelled...sterile. That was the best description. So clean it burned her nostrils as she breathed it in, and could nearly taste it in on her tongue.
The apprentice moved back to get something and returned to her with whatever it was in hand. Ringo was having trouble focusing, everything was starting to blur. Was that...a knife? Scalpel, a medical thing. What, what would…
Wait.
WAIT.
Was she going to cut into her!? What!? Did- Did she have to!? They didn't have anything to knock her out, did they? Let alone the time for it. Couldn't they do it with chakra!? There were plenty of techniques like that! Was that safe? Probably not, not with her abysmal condition right now. Chakra induced anything didn't mesh well with health problems, and unconsciousness on its own could likely be a problem.
Oh fuck. Oh, FUCK. If she wasn't so damn keen on living, she'd kill herself now so she wouldn't have to go through this.
There was a ripping sound and something soft like cloth was pressed against her lips.
"Open."
She weakly obeyed, and the folded up bolt of fabric was pushed lightly inside her mouth.
"Bite."
She clamped down on the thing, sweating bullets and trying desperately to focus on the apprentice's face; she absolutely didn't want to see anywhere else with where she thought this was heading.
The girl looked determined. Glad somebody was feeling good right now.
"The outer layers of your skin here should be numbed by now, but it won't stop you from feeling everything once we really get going. This is going to hurt,"
Why? Why was this happening? She never did anything bad enough to warrant this, did she?
"But I need you to stick through it, ok? And whatever you do. Do not. Move. Just power through it for as long as you can."
Ringo whimpered. A sniveling whining sound that was just impossible to contain. There had to be some kind of brightside to this, right? If she's going to go through this, it's because it was going to work. It was going to work, and she'd live a long successful life accomplishing everything she dreamed of and more. That's what would happen.
Her head laid back, staring at the ceiling and starting to count the nice diagonal lines on the design up there. And then, there was a pressure on her side; no pain, but like something was poking against her skin, pushing it in and going in a line, and then...it was cold. Air pushing against parts of her never meant to be exposed like this. She felt nauseous.
And suddenly it was searing.
If she wasn't biting into the cloth between her teeth she'd be screaming. The dragging across her flesh was sharp and terrible like she'd been speared, tearing apart her side and rending it to pieces. She clutched handfuls of the sheets she laid on, gripping and squeezing them in her fists so hard she could feel her fingers trembling.
It was hot- that was something she hadn't expected. It felt like she'd been thrown into a firepit and nothing could put her out, like the fire was inside of her, slowly chewing into her until she was consumed by it.
Ringo never took her gaze from the ceiling as another wave of bile rose in her throat as something was severed inside of her, tracing the lines running across it with her eyes as she did the best she possibly could to distance herself from her own body. Her jaw was clenched tight enough to crack her teeth if this continued too long, barely stopping herself from writhing in the agony that wracked through her with every cut and pull across her muscles.
In very little time she could barely comprehend anything but lines and pain swirling together like a dizzy episode in her quickly developing deliria. Her head arched back, smacking against the bed that served as her operating table as she cried. When had she begun crying? She could feel her mouth moving, trying to say something that was blocked off by the gag.
She'd never been tortured before, not properly. Not like this.
'FUCK, FUCK, FUCK' thundered through her head, overpowering any other thought that tried to form, and the light outside her window was brightening into the most glaring thing she'd ever seen, wrapping itself around her until she could comprehend nothing but a blinding white. As terrified as she'd been to go to sleep, when her vision began going dark she couldn't form a single coherent thought about it. She could hardly even tell it was happening, embracing the numbing escape, and before she even realized what was happening to her she'd welcomed it, swimming quick and deep into the freezing depths of unconsciousness.
AN: Ick.
xxx
Imagine Stories - Thank you so much! Glad you can find enjoyment in this story. Lots more to come, hope you can stick around :P