Haruno

Thief In Their Midst

Sasuke watched on as the wood lodged in between Sakura's teeth splintered as she dug into it and groaned at the antiseptic searing into the gash on her back and the needle threading its way through raw skin and flesh. Rivulets of antiseptic ran down her back in streams, soaking the futon underneath her. Eyes scrunched up, her groans wavered. She was slipping in and out of consciousness.

"Are you sure we shouldn't knock you out?" Sasuke huffed, struggling to hold her back in place as she twitched involuntarily. His own fingers burned at the sensation of gripping her shoulder for such a long time. Of course, in Sasuke's opinion, she was certainly melodramatic. How could she call herself a shinobi if she fell at a single stab wound? Another reason this team was slowing him down.

"Shut up, teme. She already said no," Naruto said, loud and obnoxious as ever.
Tsunami smeared a pale green salve that smelt very strongly of the earth over the stitched wound and plastered a bandage over it. The woman sighed using the back of her hand to wipe the sweat off her brow.

"Done, Sakura-san," Tsunami chirped, "You can sit up now."

Unscrewing her eyes (he wasn't sure when exactly she had shut them), she blinked rapidly at the lights above her. She was almost hit immediately by Naruto who glomped her in a hug that would've put pressure on her wounds but Kakashi stuck out his crutch and tripped him up just in time for him to faceplant. Unsurprisingly, this elicited a snicker from Sasuke.Tsunami removed the chunk of wood from her mouth pulling strings of saliva to which she flushed. Finally pulling away from her back, Sasuke approached the outstretched futon opposite her own and collapsed on it.

"The last of the doctors left last month so I'm sorry if it scars." With his own elbows propping him up, he began to flick off the caked-on dirt onto the tatami mat.

"No," she rasped, "it's more than I could've asked for. I should thank you for that, Tsunami-san." Her head dipped as low as she could manage. Amidst all the damage and chaos, he hadn't lost sight of Tsunami's kindness when she had peeled the pink-haired girl off of Naruto's back and carried her into the room to help. Kakashi himself had just barely been awake, himself being thrown on one of Naruto's kage bunshin although he had to admit he was more focused on his own condition. Nevertheless, Tsunami had done her a favour and it would've been wrong of her to ignore that (even if Sasuke himself wouldn't have had the graciousness to thank her, but, then again, he wasn't the sort of reckless to let himself fall into this state).

"Ano..." Tsunami bowed and blushed deeply in a way that suited her delicate, maternal nature, reminding him of, surprisingly, his mother who was anything but delicate. He shook away those thoughts as soon as they came. The time for mourning was gone; it was time for vengeance. "Thank you for your kind words. I'll be back with more bedding and clean clothes. Tou-san, I'll set you up next door." The stern look she gave the elder man indicated that he hadn't an option to refuse, so, with a groan from his throat and groans from his joints, he rose to follow.

As Sakura grew more and more weary, she jumped in a start. She shuffled through her bag after the woman left and pulled out pajamas and set them on the cover as she struggled to get up and hobble towards the half-open shoji doors.

"Do you need help, Sakura-chan?" Naruto said. He leapt to his feet to steady her but she shrugged him off. "Sakura-chan..."

"I can do it myself." She was sharp with her tone and even sharper with her glare but it fell to nothing when her knees buckled beneath her. The blond darted to help her, but, even in her questionable state, she didn't fail to bat him away. Wordlessly, Naruto ambled over to Sasuke who pulled his futon out of the way just as Naruto was about to land on it.