Chapter 5 - Song of the dead
Hinata felt panic erupt from her heart as she knew immediately she was on her own. Tsunade drank until she couldn't keep her eyes open and fell asleep. This was common, but this couldn't have happened at a worse time. Hinata wasn't a medic, but she could feel the fever on Sasuke. Sasuke's health concerned her greatly but she couldn't leave Tsunade slumped over against the tree. She placed Tsunade in her tent across from Sasuke's. They were too far from the village to get help, and somewhere in the middle of nowhere. She couldn't leave Tsunade and Sasuke alone. Both were in a very vulnerable state, easy to capture or kill.
Her gut told her Tsunade would be fine if she left them safely secured in a cave but Sasuke would not be. She felt her ears burn and the helplessness sunk in. As she fell to the ground, slumping to the floor she looked at Sasuke and then across to Tsunade in her tent. She knew she could not wake her, and worse was that when Tsunade did wake she was a mess, unable to focus and would randomly direct others. She ran her hand against Sasuke's forehead once again. This time it was Warmer and his skin was clammy.
She felt warm tears start flowing down her face. She couldn't help it, she wasn't trying to cry. But they passed her eyes and she did what she could to make it stop. She bit down hard on her lip until it bled. The pain brought her back to the present. She could only feel the pain which helped her. Her eyes looked down at Sasuke's sleeping form. Naruto sprang into her mind then and there. The heartbreak of losing his best friend that would come. And the eventual conversation that would happen. Naruto asking her how Sasuke died, while she mumbled sentences together. She couldn't take it, she couldn't look him in his bright blue eyes and tell him. Tell him how she couldn't do anything. How she failed Naruto.
She gulped and fought back the urge to crawl into her tent and give up there and then. She wanted desperately to pull Tsunade onto her feet and ask her no beg her to save Sasuke. How could she fail so soon after leaving the village?
She placed both hands on her lap and as she resigned herself to cruel fate. Before feeling her right hand feel something in her pocket. She pulled it out and found a keychain with the symbol of Konoha on it. A keychain Naruto had given her during their festivals. His bright smile as he gave it to her rekindled the fire of hope in her. Knowing that Naruto would never have given up on her if the roles had been reversed.
She wiped her tears away that had hung onto her face ashamed of herself for not getting up and doing something already. Even if she wasn't a medic she had to do something. Anything to slow down Sasuke fever. Maybe find a way to revive Tsunade. Or she could bring wet towels and cool off Sasuke's forehead? She felt herself spin into a cycle of possibilities while Time seemed to slow. She bawled her hands into fists and decided to get towels to cool Sasuke off.
She ran over to Tsunade Bags and began searching frantically. For towels at first but gave that up when she found medication bottles instead of all sizes and shapes. Tsunade had carried several different medications, but Hinata didn't know what any of them did. But that didn't stop her from looking through them all Until she found one she did recognise. She found a shot of Augmentin, an experimental drug Tsunade Developed to treat infections. Both famous and renowned for its effectiveness. A medication all 5 villages used because of how ground breaking it had been. She pulled Sasuke's right arm aside and prepared the location she would administer the shot into. Only when she had given the full dose of the medication did she suddenly feel alone. Because then and there she realized she would have to wait for the fever to break and Tsunade Drunken spill to end. Alone inside a tent with two unconscious allies, her vulnerability to sudden danger became real.
She activated her Byakugan and looked around the area for dangers, once she was sure they were safe she deactivated her Byakugan. She looked over at the rain outside the tent and waited expectantly for the heavy rain to sound in her ears. But it wasn't there, only the consistent sound of thump against her chest was heard. She couldn't hear anything besides her heart pounding in her chest. She felt overwhelmed then, her own self betraying her.
She tried to calm herself by looking at Sasuke, knowing she had saved him should have given her confort. She was certain the medication would save him. But instead of a comforting face she saw Neji laying on the floor where Sasuke had been. It wasn't her sanity breaking, it was her conscience breaking free . Neji coughed up blood there and then. Hinata frantically tried to bat the image away from her eyes. Pierced by the spikes hurled by the ten tails in the fourth ninja war. A death that should have been hers, she threw herself to protect Naruto. Yet Neji was the one who took her place. Choosing to save her.
Hinata's hand reached over to "Neji" and took his hand. A light squeeze followed, without words she begged Neji to forgive her. She bit her lower lip as she felt a flush of blood reach her face. The disappointment in herself pulsing in her heart like a sun. Sasuke's eyes opened, only to be met with the sight of Hinata crying. He felt the warmth of hot tears fall on his face. Yet he couldn't move to wipe them away. He felt limp, unable to control his body, his throat felt dry. And his hand suddenly felt warm with an infrequent squeeze of another hand against his own.
She must have held his hand, he tried to speak but couldn't. And as he slipped away back into his dreams he looked at Hinata's face. The pale skin, the lavender eyes filled with tears , and the midnight blue hair. His energy began to dwindle, he could feel his consciousness slipping. Dreams pulling him back into the warm nothingness of sleep.
Tsunade's Eyes opened halfway between tears and blurred vision she intensely willed herself to see. Her eyes burned the longer she tried until she regained control and blinked a tear or two away. She first wiped her eyes before landing both hands on her head, cradling it like a newborn child. Her hands were both firm yet gentle on her head as her head pulsed. Then she noticed Sasuke and Hinata, Hinata hovering over Sasuke. Face flushed red yet her face was marked with the streaks of fallen tears. Tsunade squinted her eyes and once again saw the same image before her.
"Hinata" Tsunade mumbled half heartedly.
Hinata turned from Sasuke, suddenly aware of Tsunade again. Her eyes widened as if surprised to see her. It was more than that , she could see it in her eyes. Did she not expect her to be there? The thought rang in Tsunade's alcohol battered mind amidst the turmoil of the head splitting headache that formed. Her eyes went past Hinata and onto Sasuke who was laying down inside the tent asleep. Eyes closed firmly shut. Then the sudden realization in her mind awoke in her. Something was very wrong. She suddenly felt a cold run through her, and rose to her feet. Her head pounding she walked towards Sasuke, her legs weighing her down. Each leg wobbled so badly she was practically walking on thin ice, a wrong step even a very minor one would have led her to go stumbling forward and eating dirt as she crashed hard.
Hinata moved to help Tsunade, finally rising to her feet but stopped when she saw a dark look in her eyes. A look that told her not to dare try and stop her. But Hinata hadn't and would have never tried to do so, yet those eyes Hinata watched closely warned her equally. She moved to one side and silently watched Tsunade move past her. Tsunade fell onto her knees just in front of Sasuke, her hand landing square on his chest. A faint yet rhythmic heartbeat pounded against her hand. Tsunade began to breathe normally again, and her shoulders slumped down. Her eyes turned to Hinata and she looked down when their eyes met.
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