✔️Heal My Heart {Kakashi Hatake}

6 | medics don't fight

Picture is Tenzō

We travelled a little further, but it wasn't long before Kakashi gave the signal to conceal ourselves. I caught a glimpse of them ahead of us, travelling at a fairly relaxed pace. Personally, I was a little surprised that they hadn't noticed us. Maybe they had, and they were just trying to get us to let their guard down. I put a hand on the handle of one of my blades, ready.

I felt a slight disturbance in the chakra in the air, accentuated because of the closeness of the trees. One of them had just released poison gas. I signalled Kakashi, using sign language to let him know what was going on. He nodded in acknowledgement and pulled up a small gas filter and fitted it under his mask. He made hand signs that were unfamiliar to me, but everyone else put gas filters in, too. I remembered hastily that I needed to as well.

Kakashi began to signal some more, and the other members of our squad dispersed to take up different tactical positions. He gestured vaguely for me to stay out of the way. I wasn't sure if it was meant to offend, if he thought I would be in the way, or if it was just because as a medical ninja, I was essential to the well being of the team and my safety couldn't be compromised.

Either way, I made sure to conceal myself perfectly in the trees. I even went so far as to cover up my chakra with that of each tree I touched, which was a pain, but it worked well enough to prevent the enemy from picking up any traces of me.

A huge explosion suddenly erupted just ahead of the ninja we were trailing. They dropped from the trees to the ground to take cover, and I saw Kakashi following stealthily. I perched on a branch and watched, ready for a fight.

The rogues murmured to each other, and although I couldn't make out what they said, I saw them get into a defensive formation. Kakashi dropped down on top of them and used a jutsu that looked like an explosion of lightning style chakra in his palm. He slammed it into one of the ninja's chest, and he crumpled to the floor, dead.

Everyone else on our squad burst from their hiding places and joined in the fight. I saw Kakashi signalling me to stay where I was behind his back, but I couldn't sit and watch while the others were fighting. I fired two chakra-charged senbon needles at the enemy's feet. My aim was true; they all stumbled at once, the chakra in their feet completely cut off.

The poison expert flung a blade at the tree where I was hidden, and I cursed my bad judgement for giving away my position. Of course the blade was poisoned; it spread alarmingly quickly up the trunk and I had to leap off the branch into a neighbouring tree to avoid it. If I had stayed there, it would have spread into me, and I'd have been killed instantly.

I could almost feel Kakashi's annoyance radiating off him. I scoffed. I just prevented the enemy from escaping. You're welcome.

He didn't seem very thankful, so I decided to stay hidden and not interfere anymore, in case he decided to kill me as well. I wouldn't have put it past him, he was particularly salty today.

Despite the fact that we were a full ANBU squad, the Hidden Mist rogues put up a difficult fight. Kakashi dispatched most of them pretty quickly, but two of them - the poison expert and a water style user - were giving us a bit of trouble.

At one point, a blast of water exploded from the ground so vast and powerful that I was forced to use an earth-style jutsu to preserve my life, giving away my position. At that point, I figured there was no longer any point in hiding, so I joined the fray.

"What are you doing?" Kakashi hissed, fending off several poisoned knives at once.

"Carrying out the mission," I snapped in reply, using earth style to provide cover for some teammates. "You said I had to fight too, medic or not. That's what I'm doing."

"Just don't get yourself killed. If you do, we're all dead."

"Thanks for your concern." I snorted.

There was a loud bang behind us, and I saw Tenzō using a wood style attack on the water user. Something glinted behind him, and before I could make out what it was, Kakashi was there. He had deflected a knife aimed at Tenzō's back with his blade, and it had now sunk into a tree trunk.

Kakashi suddenly convulsed on the spot, and collapsed. My heart stopped.

"Captain!" One of the squad members yelled, distressed. Tenzō finished off the water user quickly, crushing him in a wood style jutsu.

"I've got him, you take this guy," I told Tenzō, wrapping one of Kakashi's arms around my shoulder. "Take this." I handed him some of the anti-poison I'd mixed earlier in a small vial.

"Got it. Will he be okay?"

"Hard to say. Good luck." I formed an awkward hand sign around Kakashi, and used a Body Flicker Jutsu to get us sufficiently far away to treat him.

I removed Kakashi's blade and holster from his back so it wouldn't cut into him. I also took off his chest armour, which had been cut into, and his ANBU mask (though I left his normal mask on). I laid him carefully on his back, careful to cushion his head with a mound of soft earth with grass that I coerced up from the ground.

There was a large gash across Kakashi's chest, which seemed to have been made by a poisoned blade. I got out the rest of the antidote and rubbed a little of the paste into the wound, then applied medical ninjutsu. Kakashi's heartbeat was uneven, though the antidote was smoothing it out a little. His breathing was still shaky, and he'd put an immense strain on his chakra, though he hadn't shown it.

"Come on, Kakashi," I muttered through gritted teeth, pouring chakra into him by the masses. "Don't die over something stupid like that. It was obviously a trap. Tenzō would have been fine. Probably."

Kakashi remained unresponsive, and I placed one of my green-shrouded hands on his head, in case there was any shock to his brain from the sudden high concentration of poison and antidote.

"It's not like you, to throw your life away to help someone." I continued talking to him in a low, steady voice. He wouldn't be able to tell what I said, but it would help him ease into consciousness to hear the low tones. "Although I suppose we haven't really talked in years. You've been a lot better than I thought you've been. Tenzō's a really good friend of yours, isn't he? I can tell he really looks up to you. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised that you care that much. You were watching over Rin until the very end..." I trailed off a little, lost in thought. The rasping of his unstable breathing brought me back into reality. "Tenzō's a good guy. He's nice, and friendlier than the others. It'll be good for you to spend time with him. Maybe I have been too hard on you."

Kakashi stirred a little, and I paused for a moment to check his wound. It had mostly healed over, and was covered in shiny pink flesh. I hoped my antidote would be able to combat the poison, because there was nothing more I could do about that. Sometimes I encountered limits in medical ninjutsu that were extremely frustrating, to say the least. Kakashi's heartbeat was steady, though, which was a good sign. His breathing was better, but it still rattled in his chest. I pressed the back of my hand to his forehead, to check for fever. It was quite common for poison to induce fever if it reached the brain. Thankfully, though, Kakashi's forehead was cool.

I sat back and sighed. "You're going to be alright," I informed him.