next time you should dodge

Panic made the world a red place.

“I can’t,” Sousuke gritted out. “I can’t, it doesn’t work.”

“You can,” Asuka said, as blood spilled from both corners of her mouth. It looked like a dramatic movie death, but Sousuke knew that last fight had just punched out three of Asuka’s back teeth.

It was the sword through her ribs that was the real problem.

Blood bubbled around the entrance wound, frothy with air escaping from a punctured lung. The blade hadn’t gone all the way through, but it had gone far enough. That was the dramatic death. Except there were no cameras, and no help, just Asuka bleeding out into her own chest cavity, shivering apart under Sousuke’s hands.

Sousuke clamped gauze down hard, but the cotton just soaked crimson. Even with three feet of steel plugging the injury, the blood wouldn’t stop.

And he couldn’t do medical jutsu.

“I can’t, Asu,” he said desperately. “It’s the lightning — I’ll fry you if I try.”

Asuka grinned at him with red teeth. “Then you better think of something fast, genius.”

Haru was a hundred miles away, running the other side of the mission with Kai and Kohana. The closest hospital was half that distance, but still too far. Asuka needed someone now.

Sousuke pressed harder. Warmth ran out underneath his hands. “You’re the medical student,” he snapped. “Do jutsu. Fix yourself.”

Asuka laughed, rasping, but there were tears in the corners of her eyes. “Can’t feel my hands.”

“Then what is the damn point?” Sousuke demanded.

“Figured I’d maybe fix you some day,” Asuka said. She coughed, making her whole body seize up around the sword; red ran down her chin. “Guess not.”

No, Sousuke thought.

There wasn’t anything after that. Just no — flat denial so strong he could have made weapons out of it. The world was unfair, he knew that. Shinobi died every day, and ANBU died more often than most. But still — no.

There would be no more death, not today.

“Hang on,” he said tightly, and scrambled around, putting his back against a broad flowering tree. He hauled her up into his lap, until the back of her head rested against his ribs, and Sousuke could reach down and cover her hands with his own.

“What’re you — ” she began muzzily.

“I’m going to take the sword out,” he said. “And you’re going to heal yourself.”

“But — ”

“I’ll be your hands, just tell me what seals you need.”

Asuka licked cracked lips, leaving a streak of red behind. “That’s never going to work.”

He could feel her chakra already starting to gutter. She’d used a lot in the fight; her body was using the rest now, trying to keep her heart beating.

“Just do it, Uzumaki,” Sousuke said. “First seal, right now.”

“Bird,” she mumbled. “Then, then — rabbit.”

“Good,” he said. “Deep breath.” He reached down, grasped the sword hilt, and yanked. It didn’t want to come; the negative pressure of a sucking chest wound held it tightly, but Sousuke would not be denied. His shoulder bunched, muscles locking. Steel grated against bone, Asuka gasped, and the blade pulled loose. Sousuke hurled it away.

Blood washed like a sheet down Asuka’s white chestplate. Her hands spasmed.

Sousuke grabbed them, curling his fingers over her cold fingers — they were never this cold — and forcing them into the first seal: Bird, then Rabbit. Asuka’s chakra shifted sluggishly, tracing out the beginning edge of a jutsu.

“S-snake,” she said.

Then Boar, Dragon, Monkey, Monkey. Her chakra needed shift this way, poured down and out between her hands, sinking into massacred flesh. But it sputtered, failing, slipping out of her control.

“Focus,” Sousuke said sharply in her ear, and ripped his own channels open, shoving white-blue chakra under her skin.

It was a brutal energy slap. Asuka gasped, eyes flying open, and arched backwards against his chest. He held her tight, shaping her hands into the next seal with ruthless precision, and goaded her chakra forward. He couldn’t mix his energy into hers — couldn’t risk his lightning breaking through and ruining the jutsu — but he could use his chakra to force hers into place, spurring it like a wild horse.

Asuka swore, breath shivering out between clenched teeth.

“C’mon, Uzumaki,” Sousuke hissed. “You gonna let one little stab wound put you down? I thought you were a real ANBU. City to protect, things to live for.”

“M’gonna k-kill you after this,” she managed, and thumped her head back, gasping in shallow agony as the jutsu caught. Steam poured out of the wound, underlaid by a deep sizzling sound.

For a brief, terrifying second, he thought his lightning had struck anyway, boiling her out from the inside, but it was just the cells kicking into overdrive. Blood sucked back into ruptured veins, sliced muscles knitted together. Asuka’s mouth dropped open; a hoarse yell ripped out of her throat, covering their locked hands in a bloody mist. Deep in her chest, something popped dully.

Lung reinflating, Sousuke thought, with frantic hope.

Asuka gasped deeply — and actually sounded like she was getting air. Her chest heaved beneath Sousuke’s hands, an uneven hyperventilation that gradually settled into an actual rhythm. The chakra storm swirled, glimmering in his vision as deeper healing moved in, nudged and guided by a combination of her exhausted efforts and his unmerciful hounding. Slowly, the steam died away.

The chakra steadied, sliding back into a normal flow.

And then there was just Asuka, covered in sweat, panting in his arms like she’d run a marathon, and alive.

“Thank god,” Sousuke said, and slumped against the tree. Gently, he drew his chakra back.

“Ow,” Asuka croaked.

“Did that hurt?” he said, high on relief. “Maybe next time you should dodge.”

She made a rasping sound that might have been a laugh, but was probably a groan. “Bite me. I saved your life and you know it.”

“Yeah,” said Sousuke, looking up at the breezy blue sky. “Yeah, I know. I think I just made us even, though.”

“I’m pretty sure you just filled my chest up with scar tissue,” Asuka said, still breathless. “So, no. Because now I have to go see Hyuugas and they’re going to judge me for it before they fix it. Minus a hundred points for you, genius. Personal debt forever.”

He snorted tired laughter, feeling his own aches start to set in as adrenaline bled away. “You can bill me.”

She tipped her head back, white-faced and golden-eyed, pain creased into the tilted corners of her mouth. Her teeth were still red, blood drying in the cracks of her lips. “Thanks, Sousuke,” he said.

For once, Sousuke didn’t have it in him to deflect. He squeezed her hands, quick and careful, and let them go. “Welcome,” he said, and got his canteen out to help her rinse her mouth clean. “Just don’t ever do that again, or I’ll have an actual heart attack and you’ll need to restart me.”

Asuka spat red-tainted water and grinned. “Least you didn’t faint this time.”

“Y’know, I was going to carry you to the hospital, but now you can walk,” Sousuke said.

“Gonna need another minute, then,” she said. She shifted and winced. “Maybe three. If you wanted to soothe my brow, I wouldn’t stop you.”

Sousuke’s hands were solid red to the wrist, but bloody palms weren’t exactly new territory between them. He pushed Asuka’s dark, long hair back from the chalk-white forehead, leaving ragged red streaks behind.

Asuka blinked up at him, owlish. “Seriously?”

“You took a sword for me,” Sousuke said. “Unless you changed your mind, I can afford ten seconds of brow soothing.”

“Oh,” she said, sounding punched. She settled heavier against Sousuke, both hands pulled in against her chest, covering the ragged cut in her armor. After a second, she added, more thoughtfully, “Is there a sliding scale? Would standing in front of a canon get me thirty seconds?”

“I think that would get you irreversibly dead.”

“Better not, then.” Her eyes slid closed, lashes dark as coal against her cheeks. She was still shivering.

One-handed, Sousuke freed the emergency blanket from his belt-pouch and spread it out over her, silvery material rustling slightly in the breeze. It was a warm day, but she had lost a lot of blood. In a minute, he would work on getting blood-pills and fluids into her, before he bundled her up and ran her direct to the nearest hospital. But they could afford a moment to catch their breath.

Her chest rose, slow and even. Alive, alive, alive.

Gently, he brushed his fingertips over her forehead, carding back the dark hair, and let himself bask in it.