[58] Safe

Tsunade stares quietly at the unmoving girl in front of her. She just administered the last of their antidote and Kagami hasn't reacted yet. The woman stands absolutely still, waiting for something, for anything. She curses as nothing changes, the machine doesn't beep, her breathing doesn't start again and her skin continues to slowly get paler.

"Ten minutes. That's how long we have until the antidote has taken effect. After that, we've lost her. I will stand by." Tsunade makes her way out of the theatre, slowly and silently.

She looks over at Naruto, who is slowly being fed ramen by Kakashi so he stays awake. She looks back tot he two families sitting silently, waiting for an update. "We have to wait, ten minutes. The antidote will take effect and Kagami should wake up."

"Should?" It slipped from Shikaku's mouth before he could stop it.

Tsunade nods lightly, "Should, there is always a chance that she might not make it."

Kakashi falters for a second, but then continues feeding his student, having faith.

"Naruto, eat this." She passes a few chakra pills to the boy. She makes sure to survey his injuries. "I may as well start you off while we wait, keep ourselves busy."

The woman places a hand on the boy's shoulder as he crunches into the chakra pill, almost immediately feeling better.

"Tell me Naruto, how did you run out of chakra? It's practically impossible for you."

Ino turns to the woman, surprised with her talking casually about the Nine-tails. Naruto shrugs, still chewing.

"When Kagami came, she had some sort of silver chakra around her. It stopped mine." He straightens his back a little as his wounds close up and his body starts to stop aching.

"A silver chakra that suppressed yours?" Tsunade's brows knit together in curiosity. She hadn't heard of another tailed beast being around.

"That was me!" Masaru comes panting into the room, obviously hearing their conversation and panicking. "That was my chakra, I tried to suppress the Kyuubi. I didn't want the fox taking Naruto over and having a repeat of the Sands attack."

"Tsunade-sama! It's been seven minutes and we are still having no responses!"

Tsunade rushes forward immediately, leaving the group to themselves once again. Silence ensues. Ino takes a seat next to Shikamaru and grabs his hand, holding it between hers.

"I'm sorry Kakashi-sensei." Naruto's stares at the ground, his fingers fidgeting.

"What are you apologising for, you did nothing wrong." Kakashi tries to keep a smile on his face, but in reality, he is losing hope with every minute that passes.

"I couldn't get Sasuke back, but I also couldn't help Kagami-chan."

Kakashi sighs, "Naruto I don't blame you. Sasuke is hardheaded and Kagami knew exactly what she was getting into if she chose to head towards you. Everything fine now, you had no casualties."

He tries to ignore the fact that Kagami is technically dead right now.

"Everything will be fine, you did your best." He looks to the side, "you too Shikamaru, don't beat yourself up."

s.h.o.u.t

An hour. That's how long Kagami's surgery was. It didn't take long, just as Tsunade had said. She had come across the poison before and knew how to combat it, the only trouble was if Kagami would react to the antidote or not. That's what took the most out of everyone, the fourteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds that Kagami Hatake was pronounced dead because her body had no reaction to the only know cure.

But then she did. Kakashi was sitting next to her, holding her hand and was telling her something, whispering something to her. Telling her that everything was okay and it would be okay, but only if she woke up. He told her that Shikamaru and Ino were waiting outside with their fathers, that Naruto is crying for her. That she has done a good job up until now.

Her heart rate picked up, reaching just over 200 beats per minute before she started to breathe again and her body reacted to physical tests. As soon as this happened, Tsunade left her to the nurses and went to help Naruto. The boy had done well to answer all questions asked of him and staying awake, but she knew from his fluctuating low chakra levels that it wouldn't be long before his brain forcibly knocked him out.

s.h.o.u.t.

Kagami sits in her hospital bed angrily. She has just left this place and now she is back, oh how she hates it in here. But maybe it is for the best, keeps her out of trouble. But it is notable that while she is in here she won't be able to dodge Danzo any longer. So, a speedy recovery would be for the best.

She huffs and leans back in her bed, crossing her arms and glaring at anything her eyes land on.

'I hate you, beeping machine. I hate you, pot plant. I hate you, medicine. I hate you, hospital bed. I hate you all.' She grumpily sinks into the bed sheets and brings them all the way up so only her eyes are visible above them.

She stares out the window, hate still raging in her eyes. Saying she is upset would be the understatement of the century. Not only was the mission a failure, not only did she die, not only did she run into Orochimaru, but Shikamaru blames himself for her getting hurt because he told her to go ahead and help Naruto.

She was only just conscious when she heard him say it and couldn't reply because of the state she was in, but she is sure she would have sat up and slapped the boy so hard he would have been pronounced dead for fourteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds as well.

The door to her room slides open lightly, the sound startling the girl out of her thoughts. She moves her gaze to her brother, who is holding his hand up in greeting with a closed-eyed smile adorning his face.

"Yo."

Kagami internally rolls her eyes before moving her gaze back to the window, ignoring the man. He is surprised by her cold nature towards him, but gets a nostalgic feeling in his gut.

'It's like when I first met her.'

He just continues to smile and walks in, closing the door behind him and pulling himself up and chair, much like he does every time he comes to meet her. Which seems to be happening more frequently than not. He takes out his book and gets comfortable in the chair, knowing the girl won't want to talk but she will enjoy the company of having someone else in the room with her.

He knows how lonely the hospital rooms can get when you are by yourself. Yeah, the nurses come to visit for checkups and to give you meals, but that isn't enough to make someone enjoy the hospital.

"How are you feeling?" He speaks against his better judgment, knowing that the most likely outcome is that she will glance at him for a few seconds and then go back to glancing out the window.

"My arm hurts," she whispers, still looking out the window. No longer with hatred but with a soft look of longing, as if she missed being out there. "And my eyesight is a little off, but it's been like that for a while."

"Hm? Your eyesight has been off?" Kakashi looks up from his book as he turns the page, hoping the girl keeps talking to him.

She nods lightly, her eyes not leaving the window once.

"I noticed it during the third exam, some things were a little off. Then when we were attacked, I missed a cup, just, but I missed it." She brings her hand up from under the covers and gives her nose a slight scratch before returning it to the warmth of her sheets.

"Hm," Kakashi's gaze also trails off towards the window, "how much did you miss it by?"

"A millimetre," the girl scowls under her sheets, "I've always had remarkable eyesight. The best during the Anbu tests and now I'm going blind at thirteen."

Kakashi chuckles lightly, "I highly doubt you are going blind, maybe you just need to have Tsunade-sama check them. I can go get her."

"No, she is busy with others." Kagami looks over to her brother for the first time in their conversation, "I don't want to make a big deal out of this."

"Well, it will be a big deal when you can't see. I'm going to go get her."

"No, you won't"

"Yes, I will."

"No, I won't let you."

"I'm going now."

"I won't allow it."

"I am older, so you don't get to 'allow' anything."

"I will hurt you."

"I'm looking forward to it."

Kakashi slides the door shut behind him, smiling lightly as he does. For a moment he was worried she had reverted back to her old ways, but no, she is still the same Kagami deep down.

'A good sibling argument can always improve your day.' The man muses to himself as he searches for his Hokage.

s.h.o.u.t.

"You have lots of chakra build up behind your eyes. My guess is it used to help your eyesight and now, something has disturbed it and it's harming you instead of helping." Tsunade glances at the two Hatake's, wondering how many problems the two of them can make for her within 24 hours.

"Do you have any idea what might have disturbed it?" Kakashi asks for his sister, since she is silently trying to kill him with her eyes.

"No," Tsunade glances at him, "has your clan got any kekkei genkai?"

"No, we just have heirlooms and such, definitely nothing to do with he eyes." Kakashi looks at his sister, but immediately looks away when he makes eye contact with her fierce gaze.

"Hm," Tsunade stares at the two, unsure how to ask your next question, "Do, perhaps know what clan Kagami's mother was from. Sometimes a sudden clash in bloodlines can cause side effects, some good some bad."

Kagami shakes her head, "I don't remember my mother or father, I didn't meet Kakashi until a year ago. But the snake said he knew my mother. Not that a believe him, people are snakes for a reason."

Tsunade could be mistaken, but Kagami is definitely chattier since she died.

"Well that's my best guess, for now, I'll see if there are any records. But the only thing you can do now is figure out how to dissipate the chakra build-up, it will return your vision back to its original state."

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama."

"You're welcome, Kakashi. Kagami when you can, come to my office. I might finally be able to tell you what I've been trying to." The woman gives the two one last nod each before heading out of the room.

"See? Not so bad."

"You annoy me."

"And you worry me."

" . . . ."

". . . ."

"Love you, Kashi-nii."

"You too, Kagami."

s.h.o.u.t.

Kagami listens quietly for any movement in the corridors around her, when she can't hear anything she kicks her bed sheets off and leaps out of bed. She grabs her shoes and slips him on quickly. She knows that when she opens the window a little light will turn on at the front desk, but hopefully she can make it out in time.

'I don't care if I died, I'm not spending another second in here.' Kagami yanks the window open, the task taking quite a lot of force, but not enough to stop Kagami.

She leaps out of the window, not bothered by the three-story drop from her to the ground. She aims for outside the chain-link fence that runs around the hospital's perimeter, which is really annoying and literally keeps nobody out. She lands silently. She smiles lightly at her landing.

'I haven't lost it.'

She sprints into the village town, knowing that once she is around more people whoever they send to get her won't be able to find her quickly. She weaves through the streams of people, stopping every now and then to look into a shop. She smirks internally as she feels chakra's dispersing from the hospital.

'Four? I'm honoured.' She masks her chakra and continues on looking at the new stalls of Konoha.

She rarely gets to have a look at anything in the shopping district of the town, but she has oodles of money to splash. Kagami doesn't think shes spent a cent in her life, everything's been handed to her or is part of a uniform. Masaaki and Toshiro bought dinner regularly and would always buy some for her because they got the major of bounty jobs.

She turns around and waves silently at a medical-nin looking at her from through the crowd. The man sighs and brings his hand up to an earpiece, he lazily watches Kagami as she wanders further away.

"I've found her, she's safe."

s.h.o.u.t.

question of the chapter!

do you think Kagami is stronger physically or mentally?

~shadow