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“Hang in there, kiddo. We’re almost home.”
The words come out in a quiet gasp, a panting series of breaths barely louder than a strangled whisper. It seems to be enough, though, if the sound of a swallowed sob is any proof.
“I’m- I’m s-sorry, sensei, I. I can’t.”
“Oh no, no, don’t cry, love. Don’t cry, it’s okay. It’s alright. Come here, Naoki.”
They make a sad sight, the four of them.
There is as much grime and blood on every piece of clothing, every strand of hair, every square of skin. Naoki is curled up on the ground, rolled in a tiny ball of hurt and exhaustion where he just crumbled like a broken doll. They’ve all stopped for a short break under the large shade of an elm tree, the evening sun stretching the shadows in curious shapes on the ground.
Near Naoki, Sakura is leaning against the trunk, desperately trying to stay upright. Her left leg is broken in three places, bad enough in one spot that the bone is distorting the skin, poking from underneath in a nauseating sight. Her entire left side is one big, swollen, dark purple spot, out for all to see since she ripped her shirt in strips to strap her fractured left wrist.
On her back, hanging with everything she has left - and that isn’t much, right now - is Kuma. The gash in her thigh is ugly and hot, but at least it’s not bleeding anymore. Hayato is white as a sheet, tremors coursing through his body and he looks about ready to pass out. Sitting on the ground, his back resting against Sakura’s good leg, the only thing keeping him up is the thin layer of chakra he’s keeping up in a line down his spine, sticking him to Sakura like glue.
“Nao, I can’t help you like this, I’m sorry. You need to get up, can you do that?”
The desperately weak voice of Hayato battles against the silence to be heard.
“I’ll h-help, Sakura-sensei. I’ll help.”
He crawls on his hands and knees over to the other boy, looking on the verge of death the more he moves. Unbearably slowly, he makes his way to Naoki and manages to prop the boy up, his tiny back against Hayato’s heaving chest.
“Alright, yeah, alright. Great, Hayato, g-great. No one moves, ok? I can’t fucking fall or I’m never getting up.”
With arms that look like they’re going to fall off, Sakura bends forward and picks up the barely conscious boy. Her movements are hitched and shaky but she gets Naoki against her bare chest, wrapping her broken arm against the boy.
“Hayato, a'mma need your help, yeah?”
The boy nods, gripping her pants with trembling fists, literally dragging himself from the ground by hoisting his body, Barely standing up, he follows Sakura’s head shake with a look and finds her shin bandages where she abandoned them an unknown amount of time before. He probably blacks out somewhere along the way because when he hands Sakura the strips of fabric, he’s unable to tell how he got to her.
Sakura is shaking so badly the two children wrapped around her are bumping up and down. With hands that don’t look like they’re under her control anymore, she manages to tie the bandages around her torso and Naoki’s back, tying the boy to her body with a rough knot.
Naoki wraps his arms around her neck, where Kuma’s arms are already resting limp now that she’s lost her fight with consciousness. He grabs her forearms to keep her and himself in place and Sakura fights to stand still to make it easier for him.
“We’re ok, sensei.”
“Great. Perfect. Alright, let’s fucking do this.”
With a desperate push against the tree, Sakura balances her weight on both her legs. The sudden move rips a scream out of her mouth that leaves her panting, but standing.
“Ok. Ok. Motherfuckers.”
“Sensei.”
“You didn’t hear anything.”
Hayato lets out a strangled laugh. As he slowly climbs to his feet, using his deadly grip on Sakura’s pants, she gives everything she has to staying up. Finally, the boy is up and she miraculously hasn’t fallen.
White-faced, sweating from pain and fever, the team begins the trip home.
It’s dark outside, the spring still young enough for night to fall early. The sky is clear, the moon and stars bright enough to light up the path leading to the house in the middle of the woods.
It had been a wedding gift from Tenzō, a perfect little home deep in the Nara forest, where the two new spouses could finally begin to heal from what the war had made of them. Over the years, it had become a blessing wrapped in quiet and solace.
Smoke is dispersing around the roof, coming from the opening in the centre. The air around the house smells like food and home.
In the peace and silence of the night, nothing distracts from the fragile, rice-paper sliding door exploding in thousands of splinters. In a matter of seconds, the front door is surrounded. Weapons drawn and fighting stances at the ready, nobody would have gotten through the four men in different states of undress.
Sai has an apron on, flour on his cheek and mismatched socks sliding on the tatami floor, a kitchen knife in each hand. Next to him, Sasuke is entirely naked, dripping wet with his hair covered in soap, and brandishing a katana he must have grabbed right before shunshining to the door. In contrast, Naruto’s shirtless body seems prudish where he’s standing, a rasengan swirling in his outstretched hands.
“You might want to put some clothes on, Sasuke,” the vaguely bored, slightly dismayed voice of Shikamaru advises as he looks at the mess that once was his front door. Sasuke grumbles but shunshins back to his room, coming back a second later with short pants on.
“What the hell happened? Did someone try to break in?”
Shikamaru shakes his head. “I don’t know, Naruto. I didn’t hear anyone come close and I can’t see anything that might have caused this, even with a hard enough throw.”
“HELP!”
The men freeze, before rushing outside in the direction of a frighteningly familiar voice.
On the other end of the large garden, where a stone path leads to the house, there’s a crumbled mess of limbs and blood. Unmoving.
“Shit. Sai, get the kit!”
Shikamaru falls to his knees next to the unconscious bodies, the other two helping him pry them all apart. Finally lying side by side, Kuma, Naoki and Sakura are silent. They look… dead.
Next to them, Hayato is laying on his front, his thin arms desperately fighting to prop him up, but he’s sobbing uncontrollably and even without the emotional overload, the exhaustion is plain to see in every line of his body.
Naruto kneels next to the boy and gently gathers him into his arms, resting Hayato’s head in the curve of his shoulder and upper arm so the boy can look at him without strain.
“Hey, Sparkles, how are you doing, buddy? Can you tell me what happened?”
The boy only cries harder, almost screaming now that he can finally let go, now that he knows he’s finally safe and so is his team.
“Hayato-chan, I’m sorry but you have to hang on just a little longer, ok? I just need you to tell me the worst of it so we know what to heal first, alright?”
Shikamaru’s voice is soft and kind, but it has an unmistakable urgency, his eyes never leaving Sakura’s barely moving chest.
Next to him, Sasuke’s eyes flicker from Sakura’s broken leg to her broken arm, her naked chest with the ever darkening bruising climbing, climbing. Her left breast has a gash that has stopped bleeding, but Naoki’s tunic is soaked with blood in the same area.
Hayato visibly gathers himself, but doesn’t manage to stop crying into Naruto’s shoulder. The man never lets go of his vice-like embrace on the boy, sky-blue eyes serious and focused on Hayato giving the genin something to hold onto.
“An-an explosion, first. Sensei p-protected us from the worst of it. It’s when she got the arm. Also, he-her back.”
Shikamaru swears under his breath, and with a barely-there touch, he turns Sakura slightly to get a look at her back.
It’s a mess. There’s shrapnel everywhere, in a scattered pattern characteristic of sabotage traps. Most of it isn’t bleeding, superficial cuts or deep ones that are plugged by the metal left in her skin.
He lays her back down and nods to the child.
“Kuma got hit in the head. I don’t know what’s wrong with her, e-even when Sensei healed her she didn’t wake up. And, hum, Naoki is something inside. Bleeding, I think? I’m not sure. He couldn’t r-really walk and he collapsed so Sensei carried him, too.”
“You’re doing great, Sparkles. What about you, uh? Then we can all go rest, how does that sound?” Naruto’s wide smile seems to give the child as much courage as it sends a weight in the pit of the others’ stomach. Its fakeness is nauseating.
“Sensei said broken ribs, but she had a little bit of chakra left, so maybe just cracked, now? A-and I got burned in the explosion, a bit everywhere.”
Naruto drops a gentle kiss on the boy’s forehead, gathering him closer into an all-encompassing hug.
“You were so brave, Hayato. You can rest now. We’ll take care of you.”
Naruto looks to the side, where Sasuke and Shikamaru are crouched next to the unconscious body of their friend and spouse and the children under her protection.
“Can we handle this?”
Shikamaru frowns. “Hayato and Sakura, definitely. But a head injury? Internal bleeding? I’m not betting on the kids’ life that I’m qualified enough to do this.”
“Hospital?” Sai’s voice is unsure in a way he’s only recently allowed himself to sound.
“Sakura doesn’t trust them anymore.” Shikamaru shakes his head. “I’m not really inclined to either.”
Sasuke stands up, biting the corner of his lip with a faraway look.
“If I go now, I can bring back someone in less than ten minutes.”
The men exchange a look, possibilities flashing through their mind, the memories of things lost and trust broken. The world was so much simpler only ten years ago.
“Go, Sasuke. Don’t lie to her, and maybe you’ll convince her fast enough to get you both back here in time.”
Sasuke gives a curt nod, and in a puff of smoke and spring leaves, he’s gone.
“Let’s bring them inside. Supper will have to wait.”