Five
Hanae
Hanae flickered in frenetic steps. Each held a sporadic distance, each dash uneven and quite frankly sloppy. Her chakra was erratic, drained from the amount she'd already poured into minimizing the damage and stabilizing her condition long enough to get proper medical attention. Mentally she logged where she ought to go–she'd taken off away from the village she'd just been in, and she definitely didn't have the strength to circle back just to see if Jiraiya was still there on an off chance.
Her mental map of the Land of Fire wobbled into view behind her eyes. Atafuku town is too far away now, and with the direction she is currently going…Tanzaku town it is.
She staggers in on her last leg of chakra, nearly collapsing in the street. She knows she's a mess: top bloodied and pierced, wooden juts of shrapnel protruding out of her body. Hanae has none of her mother's medical prowess, but she does have that stubborn tenacity, that ceaseless urge to keep surging forward when she would be better off stopping. She groans, swaying, leaning against a pull to catch her breath.
"Miss…?"
Hanae glances at the young girl who stops in her tracks to see her. A teenager, perhaps. No older than that. "Tall blonde woman. She looks about my age. Diamond on the forehead, robe with the character for gambling on the back. Seen her?"
The girl takes a second to think. The worry on her face is apparent, and Hanae can't exactly blame her for it; it's likely not every day that someone comes into town looking as poorly as she does. "Maybe…? Anyway–shouldn't we get you to a hospital? You're–"
Like divine intervention, a cropped mop of black hair meanders into view. Hanae's whole body snaps to attention and she shoves the pole away from her, lurching desperately forward. "Shizune!"
The other woman halts, ear perked in her direction for a split second before she actually makes eye contact. Shizune takes one look at her and nearly drops Tonton in surprise. "Ha–Hanae–"
The kunoichi reaches her mother's assistant and reaches out to clasp Shizune's arm, grip fluctuating as the last shreds of her strength begin to waver further. "Where's Tsunade?"
"I–" Shizune's frown settles in. That word alone is a grounding force, a thing to reset Shizune and dispel her shock. Hanae watched as the medical apprentice's professionalism kicked in, leveling her expression back to something calculating and on guard. "That's not a good idea. Let me get you to a doctor."
Despite herself, Hanae's teeth ground together. "Has–to be her–"
"Hanae." Shizune's voice cut in sharply, a freezing splash of sobriety in her pain-induced stupor. "She won't do it."
The thing about having a woman who didn't claim you for a mother was that, despite the literal blood leaking out of her body that tied the two of them together, Shizune had always been closer to the woman that birthed her. Always would be. She was chosen, after all. She picked Dan. She picked Shizune.
Tsunade had not picked her.
She deflated a little, vision flickering as she succumbed to exhaustion. Hanae nodded as her head began to droop. "Biggest piece is about two centimeters shy from my heart. Nicked the lungs."
Shizune nodded grimly. "I'll take care of it," she said, and that was the last thing she heard before darkness took her.
A/N:
Sorry for this one being such a short update! I really wanted the next chapter to be in Itachi's pov for reasons xox. I got super busy there for a minute but now that my summer course is done I should be free to write more!
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