12 a.m., 28 November 54; Nagi Island
Nine hours had passed as Team Seven slowly trudged through the vast island forest. They kept to the forest floor, avoiding the trees and river. Kiri ANBU patrols were around every corner. What should have been a relatively easy three-hour hike had taken most of the day and went well into the night.
Obito held his fist up and the group crouched. Kakashi raised his hitai-ate. Their sharingan eyes glowed red in the dark of the woods.
"That's Shisui's chakra," Obito whispered, pointing to an outcrop of forest undergrowth.
"If we're this close, where are the traps?" Rin asked.
Kakashi shook his head. "Could be we're heading into a trap. Be on your guard."
The group crept closer. Kakashi let loose a bird call in the night.
Shisui blearily opened his eyes, willing the bird outside to shut the hell up. Warbler, wait no, that was…realization hit him, and he jackknifed out of the sleeping bag. He went to the cave entrance and bird-called back an SOS in response to the Konoha signal for reinforcement.
"Kat, Kat, wake up!" he said quietly. He shook her roughly but she only turned over, groping around for the top of the sleeping bag. "Kat!"
He called out to the other Konoha-nin again. His heart pounded in his chest when the vines and sticks at the cave entrance were pushed out of the way. In the moonlight, he could see Team Seven walking in. He rushed to Obito, jumping on him in a bone-crushing hug.
Rin ran to the pile of sleeping bags immediately.
"Shisui, I need you to concentrate," she whispered. "As the medic on this mission, I'm now in command of this scene. You need to tell me what their injuries are.
Shisui wiped the stray tear that had fallen down his cheek.
"Sensei has been unconscious for the last ten days. Katya said that one of the Kiri-nin got his eye with a kunai. We think he has a broken rib."
"And Katya-chan?" Rin asked gently.
For the first time in ten days, Shisui finally felt safe enough to feel something. Obito-nii was here, and everything would be okay. He sniffled quietly and wiped the tears off his face as they fell. His arms were in a death grip around Obito's waist, latched like a barnacle.
"She broke her ankle four days ago. It healed before I could set it."
Katya stared off into the back of the cave in silence.
"You've done good, kid. You've done real good," Obito said while stroking Shisui's head.
"And Isamu?" Rin asked.
Shisui pointed his chin at his bag where a black ribboned body scroll lay on top. Rin touched the silk of the ribbon lightly.
"I see. I'm going to work on Kuromaru-san first. I'm not that familiar with veterinary medicine, but I don't imagine it's too much of a difference for physical wounds."
Rin worked quietly, a soft green glow in the back of the cave as she inspected Kuromaru's injuries. She hummed, moving her chakra into Kuromaru's brain tissue to check for bruising and swelling.
When she looked up she noticed Shisui was watching her intently from Obito's side.
"It's a concussion, Shisui. You kept him alive. He would have died without you."
"I didn't. Kat did. He was with Kat."
"No, but it's clear that someone has been making sure he stayed hydrated. Someone has been giving him electrolytes. And well, I'm not sure Katya-chan is in the right state of mind to do that."
Shisui sniffled again, burying his face into Obito's chuunin vest. "Isamu kept ginger candies in his bag. And the chuunin first aid book."
"That's good," Rin said. "So you made an electrolyte solution? And you knew to keep him cooler than normal so his brain could heal. That's good work."
"Yeah. Ran out earlier today though."
Obito scrubbed his hand over his face and walked Shisui over to the pile of blankets and sleeping bags.
"When's the last time you ate?" Obito asked, pulling out his pack.
"Yesterday. We've been saving the crackers. Trying to make them last."
Pulling out two ration storage scrolls, Obito held them so their labels faced out. "I got canned salmon dinner and eggplant miso. That's not mine. How'd that get in there? Never mind. Kakashi won't care."
"Soup, Obito," Rin said. A layer of sweat covered her forehead as she continued to work on Kuromaru. "They only had enough rations for a week. It's been almost two."
"Sorry, Kakashi's eggplant miso it is."
"Kat first," Shisui insisted while Obito opened the ration seal.
Obito frowned when he looked at Kakashi holding Katya to his chest. She hadn't said a word or acknowledged their presence since they arrived. Instead, she stared vacantly at the cave wall. He couldn't make out Kakashi's whispered words, but the girl still did not react.
"There's plenty for Kit-Kat, too. You don't have to worry," Obito said, ruffling Shisui's hair. The bowl of soup started to steam when he activated Kushina's seal for hot food. Shisui looked back to Katya. Following his gaze, Obito said, "Come on, cuz, you gonna make me let my girlfriend down?"
Rin snorted at that, finally pulling back her chakra from Kuromaru's head.
Shisui shook his head and gingerly took the bowl from Obito.
Obito looked up and shared a look with Rin before digging into Kakashi's pack. He pulled out another eggplant miso ration scroll and activated the heating seal.
"Kakashi," he said, holding up the steaming bowl. Kakashi nodded his quiet thanks and took the bowl from Obito.
"Come on, imouto, try to eat something. We're really here, I swear it," Kakashi said gently. "I'm going to feed it to you if you don't eat it by yourself. I'll make 'catch the kunai' noises like I did when you were a baby," he tried to goad.
Obito's heart broke as he listened to Kakashi try to reach Katya. Soup dribbled down her chin when her mouth refused to open. In any other circumstance, the whooshing kunai noise Kakashi made with the spoon would have been hilarious. In this cave, after finding the eight-year-old genins in this state; filthy, starved, and terrified; for once in his life, he failed to see the humor.
"Kuromaru-san, if you can hear me, I'm a Konoha medic," Rin said when Kuromaru twitched. "I'm going to take a look at your eye now. Your students are here."
She poured saline solution against the bandage and pulled it back.
"This is much cleaner than I expected," she commented. "Actually, this is in great condition for ten days out in the woods."
"Shisui dressed it," Katya whispered hoarsely.
"Oh, thank the gods," Kakashi said, squeezing her against him.
"You did well, Shisui-kun," Rin said while winding a fresh bandage around Kuromaru's head. "I'm just putting a clean one on to keep the dirt out of it until we can get home."
"We're not going home," Katya whispered. "None of us. We're going to die here."
"Nobody's dying here," Kakashi said. As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he regretted it.
"We're all going to die," she repeated, staring vacantly staring at the cavern wall.
"She's been like that for three days," Shisui said between bites of soup.
"Rin?" Kakashi asked.
"Trauma. She's dissociating. I imagine she'll do better when we get to Konoha," Rin replied. She carefully prodded along the nin-ken's ribs. When she felt the broken rib, she easily reset it and mended the bone. Kuromaru's muzzle twitched, and his teeth bared. "Kuromaru-san, if you can hear me, raise a paw."
A low, menacing growl emanated from Kuromaru before he raised his left paw.
"Thank you, Kuromaru-san," Rin said, packing up the remainder of the first aid supplies.
"We need to be quiet, Sensei," Shisui said, placing a hand on Kuromaru's back leg. "The Kiri-nin are still here. Kat said there were fifty when she last checked. I sent out a crow yesterday. They said it was a bit more than fifty now from what they could see. They thought it was a range of skills, ANBU and jounin. But they can't really tell from the air."
"You've been doing reconnaissance?" Kakashi asked.
"Yeah, a bit. I figured Hokage-sama would need to know when we got back home. Especially with them this close to the Land of Fire. I took notes."
Kakashi looked as impressed as Obito felt when Shisui pointed to the small notebook next to the body scroll.
"Do they have set patrol routes?"
Shisui loudly slurped the last of the eggplant soup. "Only on the west side of the island. But I think our presence here is changing their routine. They've been trying to find us all week."
There was more Shisui wasn't telling them, Obito could feel it. There was far too much fear in his eyes. He shuddered every time the tree branches outside moved.
Obito guessed that the squirt had been looking out of that entrance for more than a week. There had probably been enemy shinobi walking right past the cave unawares. The only reason Team Seven had been able to find the cave was the sharingan—Shisui had the entire place rigged with enough sharingan genjutsu to make the capital of the Land of Fire disappear. It wasn't just paranoia based on fear, it was paranoia rooted in experience.
Kuromaru grumbled slightly. He shook his head and bared his teeth. "How long was I out?" he growled.
"Ten days," Shisui replied quietly, handing the empty bowl back to Obito.
"Where's the other pup? I don't smell him," he said with his remaining eye closed.
"Isamu…Sensei…Isamu…" Shisui started but couldn't continue.
"I understand," Kuromaru said, rolling his legs underneath his body to stand.
"Easy, Kuromaru-san," Rin said next to him. Kuromaru's legs buckled underneath him. He tried to stand up once more on shaky legs.
"What's wrong with you, pup?" Kuromaru asked Katya.
"Rin-chan said she's dissociating," Shisui said. "She's barely spoken for three days."
Kuromaru licked a long wet line from Katya's chin, up her nose to her forehead. He bit on her earlobe and tugged down as though she were a wayward puppy.
"Ow," Katya squeaked, trying to pull away from the nin-ken.
"You feel that, pup? That means you're alive. I'm going to keep you that way. I promise."
"Okay, Sensei," she said quietly.
"Eat up. You'll need your strength." He bumped his forehead against hers and bit her ear again.
"Ow! Okay, okay, Sensei. Stop biting my ear."
Kuromaru walked unsteadily to the other side of the pile.
"What about you, pup, are you going to cause me problems?" Kuromaru asked Shisui, bumping his forehead against his.
"No, sir," Shisui quickly said with his hands on his ears.
"Good. Tell me the situation, Jounin Hatake," Kuromaru ordered. Kakashi quickly relayed the details of what had happened. Shisui filled in the blanks. After a low warning growl from Kuromaru, Katya added in her own details.
When they had finished the debriefing, Rin grabbed Katya's right ankle and examined it. It was red and swollen, with the foot frozen to the outside.
"Alright, I need to break it to reset it, okay?"
Katya nodded, gripping Kakashi's hand tightly.
"Kakashi," Rin prompted. He nodded behind Katya and covered her mouth with his hand. "On three, one two—"
Katya stifled a scream at the loud pop that echoed in the cave. Tears flowed down her cheeks at the pain from the broken bone. Rin pushed and pulled with strong fingers to set the delicate bone in the right place. Obito held down Katya's leg when she instinctively tried to pull away.
"Almost done," Rin chanted repeatedly. Katya's eyes rolled closed as she went unconscious from the pain.
"Damn mokuton," Rin cursed. "It's healing as soon as I try and set it."
"The Shodaime's papers said his healing ability became stronger as his mokuton did. She wasn't like this when she was younger," Kakashi said quietly.
"I need to break it again. I'm so sorry, Katya-chan. It healed on me."
Kuromaru growled low in his throat before he stopped himself.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked.
"Shisui doesn't need to see this," Rin said. "Not after what he's been through this week."
"Uchiha-san, take the pup and get water," Kuromaru commanded. Obito nodded, tugging on Shisui's arm as they walked out of the cave. Obito turned around to see Kuromaru had taken his place on top of Katya's injured leg.
"Come on, show me where the stream is," Obito tapped on Shisui's shoulder outside of the cave. Shisui nodded. Obito felt the threads of Shisui's genjutsu against his skin as they left the perimeter.
AN: Thank you so much for reading! If you have the time, please leave a comment.
Beta'ed by: Cherryberry12