Will of Fire: Kakashi Hatake

Chapter 18

The three shinobi that had gone inside earlier came back out and relieved their companions in the trees. Akira was briefly hopeful that she would get relieved too, but no such relief came. Until a few minutes later, when one of Kakashi's shinobi climbed the rock to sit next to her.

"Hey, I'm your relief. Go get some sleep," they whispered. Akira nodded, though she knew he probably couldn't see her. Then she stood and walked to the edge of the rock. She dropped down into the cave opening below, landing silently on her toes. She could sense where the others were in the cave, and made her way toward them.

She rounded a bend and was surprised to see that the ground had lit a small fire to boil a pot of water. Sparrow and Fly were laying on sleeping pads close to it, with Kakashi and Seek kneeling over them. The two healers were sleeping further back in the cave. The other three shinobi who had previously been guarding were already asleep on the floor near the cave wall.

Neither Kakashi nor Seek had their masks on, and Akira removed hers when she reached the edge of the fire. Kakashi glanced up at her from where he was kneeling, dabbing a wet cloth on Fly's forehead. Without his mask on Fly looked young, only a few years older than herself.

Akira knelt down next to Kakashi. Her thigh brushed his, but she was too tired to care. It took a lot of effort not to slump into his side and go to sleep right there. He was a source of comfort for her in that moment. But she resisted, and instead put her hands over Fly's chest. She started to use medical ninjutsu to attempt to help heal him. He had suffered a severe wound to his chest, so she focused her healing on the areas that she could feel most needed it. The wound had been packed with bandages, so Akira focused her efforts internally. She worked to repair the wounds he had received to some of his veins, trying to stop the internal bleeding. She was able to repair four of them and started to help heal one of his ribs before she had to stop from a lack of chakra.

Akira pulled her hands away and wiped her forehead with her sleeve. She could barely keep her eyes open.

"Go get some rest, Akira," Kakashi whispered. "You've done enough. It's okay."

She didn't argue. Akira was too tired. She stood using Kakashi's shoulder as leverage, and crossed the cave to where Bat was sleeping on his sleeping bag. He had it unzipped fully so that it was twice as big as it normally was. He sleepily opened his eyes at her approach and shifted slightly so that he wasn't taking up as much room. He rolled onto his side to face the wall. Akira took the hint and laid down on the other half of the bag, facing the opposite way. She fell asleep almost right after cradling her head with her arm.

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Akira was awoken a few hours later by Bat shaking her shoulder. She blinked a few times, wishing she could go back to sleep. She rolled off the sleeping bag so that he could zip it up and put it away, then sat upright and rubbed her face. She pulled a food pill out of her bag and ate it, then looked around to see what was going on.

Dawn had just started to break, and the sky had lightened ever so slightly outside. She could hear birds chirping. Akira extended her chakra to sense where the group was. They were still in the same positions. She didn't sense any foreign chakra signatures.

She climbed to her feet and stretched, looking around the cave. Kakashi and Seek had hardly moved from where they sat, tending to Sparrow and Fly. Sparrow looked to be in better shape, but Fly was about the same. The two medical ninjas were kneeling over him with their hands above his chest, doing another round of healing. Bat, Juke, and one of Kakashi's men were cleaning up their makeshift beds from the night before.

Akira walked over to kneel next to Seek over Sparrow. Since the other two were healing Fly, she figured she might as well try to help Sparrow. It was hard to balance the medical ninjutsu and her sensory ability, so she had to narrow down the scale that she was sensing. She was still able to cover a large area though.