Chapter Text
“Shinki!”
Shinki rushed towards the small shout of his baby brother. His legs burned in protest as he pushed them to move faster. Green eyes scanned each area he passed through looking for the small boy. He needed to find him.
“Norio! Where are you?!”
He shouted as loud as he could, his panic was rising each passing moment he was without his brother. He just got him back, he couldn't lose him again. He had waited six long years without him, and he wouldn’t let anyone take him away again.
“Norio?!”
He was losing track of where the yell had come from, he needed him to keep finding a way to lead him to his location. His sand coat shifted in irritation as he continued to search. He was reaching the village line, the vast desert would be in the way of his search soon. Shinki hadn’t even considered whoever had his brother could get passed the village walls.
He tried to scream his name again, hoping desperately for a response, “Norio!”
His footfalls stopped as his eyes caught sight of a dark cloud ahead of him, just outside of the village limits, the cloud was no doubt made of sand.
“Iron sand storm? Norio!”
Using his own sand, Shinki spread towards the distant cloud. His heart raced, he knew he shouldn’t have let him out of his sight. Norio had only been home with him for a month. He had been hurt by their parents, kidnapped by rogue ninja, and now he was missing again. He was failing him as his brother, unable to protect him. Shinki needed to get there this time, he needed to protect him this time.
“Hold on little brother, I’m coming.”
Using his iron sand, he easily passed the wall. From his own guess he was only minutes away from the sand storm, minutes that felt like excruciating hours. The closer he got the longer it felt it was taking for him to reach his baby brother.
“Nori-”
The words died on his lips as his green eyes landed on the small boy. Norio’s iron sand swirled viciously around him, forming a protective moving funnel around the boy’s form.
“N-norio?”
His voice was a whisper as he looked at his brother’s still body, laying on the pale sand of the desert. He knew he was still alive, or the sand wouldn’t be able to perform the way it was, but that really wasn’t making him feel better about the situation.
“I’m coming little brother.”
He pulled his sand around himself to protect him as he rushed to Norio’s side.
“Norio, it’s ok, I’m here. I have you.”
His arms quickly wrapped around the small boy as he lifted him into a sitting position.
“Big brother?”
Shinki stiffened when his hand felt something warm, his green eyes met dulling blue, “I’m right here Norio, it’s going to be ok now.”
His panic rose to a new level, one he hadn’t even known he could experience when he shifted his gaze to his hand to see the warm red liquid that was coming from his brother.
“I won big brother, I didn’t let them take me away.”
His voice was soft, fading, drifting away from him. Shinki felt the tears starting, he quickly began to search for the wound, he wouldn’t lose his baby brother.
“I know Norio, I’m proud of you, so proud.”
He needed Norio to keep talking to him, to keep hearing him while he tried to heal him, he knew he wouldn’t be able to make it back to the village, he could only hope the iron storm would be see. He pushed his sand to join Norio’s, frantic for help.
“Where do you hurt Norio?”
Shinki was struggling to find the wound, he couldn’t find the source of the blood with his brother’s black and red clothes.
Dulling blue eyes watched his every move, “I’m fine big brother, I’m just tired...My stomach hurt but then it stopped hurting.”
His hands shook, he tried to calm the panic taking over but Norio’s words weren’t helping. In the books he had to study in the academy they said that if pain couldn’t be felt the person was beyond help on a battlefield. He quickly pulled Norio’s shirts out of his way and struggled to keep his eyes on the deep cut across his stomach. Rushing, he placed his hands against the wound, struggling to use healing chakra to close the wound.
“Just stay awake for me, ok Norio? I know you’re tired, but I need you to stay awake!”
He could barely see with the tears falling rapidly from his eyes, “It’s ok big brother, I know you’ll take care of me. You always said you would, just like you always said you’d protect me.”
Shinki could feel the guilt already building in his chest, he was failing his brother, there was no other way to put it. The sand around them began to fall to the ground as Norio’s chakra fell to dangerous levels. Shinki let his sand fall to focus all of his chakra on healing his brother. If no one had seen the storm yet, no one was coming to help. It was early, they went out for a walk before anyone else woke up. It was his fault they were outside, his fault Norio slipped out of his sight, and his fault he was going to lose his brother.
“Don’t cry big brother, I’m just tired.”
Shinki continued to try to close the wound as he began to raise his voice, “Don’t you dare! Don’t go to sleep! I need you to stay awake Norio! Please!”
His green eyes glanced up in time to see the final light of his brother’s blue eyes fade from them. He was gone, Norio was gone, again, but this time with no way to return.
“Shinki? Norio?!”
The shaking boy looked up to see the familiar people rushing towards them.
A small bit of hope filled Shinki, they could help, Hinata and Gaara could save him, “Lady Hinata! You need to help him! Norio, he was hurt, I was try-”
He stumbled in shock as Hiroki shoved him away from Norio, “Why didn’t you protect him?! You said you’d keep me and my brothers safe!”
Shinki’s wide green eyes watched their expressions each changed from the ones he’d come to know. Hiroki glared at him with hatred in his green eyes, Kinji looked on with betrayal shining in his grey eyes. In a desperate search for anything but the crushing guilt he was feeling, he glanced towards Gaara. Gaara, his father, looked at him with the same betrayed look in his teal eyes that Kinji had given him.
The betrayal faded into disappointment and anger as Gaara shouted, “Why would you break the rules Shinki?! I put them in place to keep you all safe! You disobeyed the rules and didn’t even get me to help get him back!”
He flinched, he’d never heard his father shout, he needed someone to tell him it would be ok, that Norio would be alright, that it wasn’t his fault. Hinata had been the kindest person he met, the one who always soothed them since her arrival in their home. She was like the mother he hadn’t had. He glanced at her and felt the last shard of his heart break.
Hinata held Norio in her arms cradling him whispering, “I’m sorry we couldn’t get to you in time.”
She wouldn’t look towards him, she wouldn’t comfort him. Shinki dropped to his knees covering his face with his hands and began to scream. His baby brother was gone, he lost his family, he was losing everything, and it was all his fault.