A/N: Today I am trying to be better than I was tomorrow. Just keep at it. Things get better *thumbs up*

Resonance

Don't Break The Spell

Chapter Five

A screech cut through the air, jerking her awake.

Heart thudding, she opened her eyes to see a flash of wings. A man cursed under his breath.

A man -

A rush of memories crashed over her and she struggled to get up. Where were the three missing-nin? Who were these people?

A cold hand pressed down on her shoulder and she jerked away. Or she tried to. Her muscles betrayed her and she fell with a thud on the groundsheet.

"Please be careful," the young man said. He was dressed in white from head to toe, and his clothes labeled him a medic.

"You'll dislodge the IV," he said. His tone was practiced, calm, but his eyes were worried and darted between the hawk and Haruki.

Haruki. Akane stilled. Three medics were bent over his prone figure, a cool green glow bathing the scene. It was dark outside - how long had she been asleep? His face was puffy and his clothes had been cut off. His chest was exposed. She looked away.

"Who are you?" Akane asked.

"I'm Tsukishima, a medic from Konoha," he said. "We were called to aid your village." He glanced up. "Raidou, the medics cannot be interrupted now. By anything."

A few feet away, Raidou nodded and drew a kunai against the hawk.

"Stop, Taka," Akane called the hawk, but her voice cracked. She struggled to sit upright again, and barely managed with Tsukishima's help. Her body felt like jelly, and everything hurt.

"Taka!" It came out like a whisper. Akane took a deep breath, letting it fill her stomach.

"TAKA!" This time her voice seemed too loud; it echoed in the tower. "Stop!" Akane commanded.

The hawk screeched and flew higher, circling the rafters, as if reassessing the situation.

"Don't hurt him!" Akane said to Raidou, noticing the burn scars across his face with an internal jolt. "Please," she added.

"Is the bird yours?" The shinobi asked, pocketing the kunai. "Can you make it stop attacking?"

"He's not mine," Akane said. "Taka isn't really anybody's, but he loves Haruki. He's just worried. He doesn't - he just doesn't understand." She was panting from the exertion of speaking and distantly registered this strange weakness.

Taka screeched, the sound echoing in the tower, and everyone winced.

"Come here," Akane said to Raidou.

"What?" He asked, startled.

Akane began to move when Tsukishima held her arm. It was a gentle movement, but a restraint all the same. Just as well, she did not really think she could stand up.

"Just please come here," she said, and something in her tone made him comply. She grasped a leg of his pants and looked up at the hawk.

"Sit down," she hissed at Raidou, and he sat obediently, nonplussed. Akane glanced up at the hawk, which circled a few more times before alighting on a beam, watching them beadily. She held his shirt sleeve and looked up.

"Taka was found by Haruki when he was just a chick," Akane said conversationally, never breaking eye contact with the hawk. "He had fallen from his nest and broken a wing at least. His parents went crazy, screeching for help, and that's how he was found." She kept her voice low and steady, almost rhythmic, although Raidou noticed she would not be sitting up if not for the medic's hand at her back.

"He leaves whenever he wants to but always comes back. When he came back with Kazane - his mate - we built this tower for him. With our own hands." Her fingers tightened around his sleeve. "I don't know where she is now. She must have been the one who was sent for help. She flies like the wind."

"Hmm," Raidou acknowledged, not moving. He did not want to break the spell.

Taka stretched his wings and flapped them hard. Akane sat straighter, leaning closer to Raidou. She was panting slightly. He tried to recall what the medic had told him earlier. Something about the wound on her thigh being deep and she must not walk until she had been healed properly. Her chakra core, too, was exhausted.

"Taka is just worried," Akane murmured, her head sagging. "Please don't hurt him." Her body seemed to tilt in slow motion and Raidou's arms wrapped around her. He lowered her to the ground.

A quick glance back up showed the hawk shifting his weight slightly from leg to leg, before folding his wings and settling down.

"He gets it," Akane smiled faintly from the ground. "I think. I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me." She felt ill and as if her soul was halfway out her body. She heard her voice as if from far away. "Is Haruki going to be okay?"

Raidou and the medic exchanged glances.

"It seems that he'll live," a voice answered. Another shinobi appeared in her field of vision. He seemed to have a senbon in his mouth. "But we'll need to get both of you back to Konoha for treatment."
It seems that he'll live.

"When?" She whispered. "My parents…"

"They're fine." He replied. "You'll see them before we leave. We set off in a few hours, when the sun comes up."

She just looked at him, a hundred questions rising in her mind, not sure where to begin. She wasn't sure she wanted to know all the answers either.

Genma looked at her with a small frown. "Just rest for now. We'll tell you everything you want to know later."

Akane did not want to rest. She did not see how she could possibly do that. But when her eyes closed, sleep overcame her.