Black Light (Naruto)

Chapter 34

Sasuke glanced up at him, a snort bursting through his lips as he saw everything balanced on his head. Hikaru grinned joyfully, using his chakra to keep them in place. "Look at my hat, teme."

"Hn. Dobe, that's a shoe." 

He couldn't breathe. 

Hikaru realized swiftly that he was slumped next to a tree, the world spinning. His entire body ached as if he'd slammed roughly into a tree- and, in a way, he had. 

He pulled the senbon roughly out of his neck, not caring for the way that blood dripped out of the wound. His killing intent flooded the clearing, and he held nothing back. 

A short crash, and then Hikaru walked calmly over towards the genin on the ground, who was silently crying. 

"Where's Sasuke?" Hikaru asked- he could not be above torturing this genin, no matter how much his instincts screamed at him not too. He would save his genin, his teammate, no matter the cost. He did not care if he had to kill anybody- there were already enough images of the war flashing in his mind. 

"The- the Uchiha?" The genin whimpered softly, before raising an arm to point in what Hikaru made sure was the right direction. 

He turned and took a step, his lungs screaming for air even though he just took a breath, the world around him spinning. He didn't have time for this. Sasuke's eyes could be getting ripped out of his skull, and he was only a child and why would they-

He grounded himself the best he could, and raced in that direction. 

He barely noticed his muscles screaming at him to rest, barely noticed the killing intent that lingered in the air. He focused on the next branch, then the branch after that, pushing himself faster and futher than he should've let himself go. 

Kakashi landed next to him, heading the same pace. "This the way Sasuke's heading?" Kakashi's voice was breathy, surprising him. Hikaru had to push away the hand that twitched for his kunai. It would be better for him to go alone. 

"Yeah." Hikaru said. He almost missed the next branch but he quickly righted himself, not paying attention to the way that Kakashi reached to steady him. 

"Do you know the status yet?" Kakashi inquired and Hikaru had to refrain from exploding with anger and kami, why wasn't he there-

"Alive. Likely poisoned- Naruto, Sakura, and I were hit with the same thing, it seems." Hikaru casually said. "I don't know if there's an antidote or not, I'm hoping that it's merely a sleeping drug of some sort."

"You shouldn't be moving right now." Kakashi drawled. Hikaru pushed away the sudden need to laugh at the situation. 

"Do you think you can move faster?" Hikaru said instead of an answer. Although he couldn't exactly feel his legs- he moved blindly at this point, his chakra doing the work for him- he would continue going. Sasuke relied on him. 

"Of course." Kakashi said, and he picked up the pace. Hikaru swiftly followed. 

And, like that, the two ran after the Sound shinobi who'd taken their genin in near silence. 

It changed when Hikaru stumbled, almost falling off of a branch before he transferred chakra to the palm of his hands, his heart racing. He swung himself back up, grateful he hadn't taken the branch to the face.

"You should rest, Hikaru." Kakashi told him. 

Anger rose out of him, and Hikaru turned to glare at Kakashi. "Try telling yourself that." He grit out, keeping himself from saying more. Not only were his vocal chords beginning to not work, his sight begon to be drowned out by black dots.