InsaneJournal

The Best Of Our Dreams Fell Apart [closed to Ryouma, Kakashi, Tsume, Waki]
[DOOM aftermath. Takes place about 5 minutes after Small Hours]

Yasuo strode down the corridor, trying to make his thoughts work through sluggish exhaustion, setting aside the brief meeting he'd just had with Tousaki Ryouma. Kiba and Hana had been up half the night, worried about their mother, needing reassurance. They'd slept in his bed. Him and Aomaru, Hana's three puppies and the two children all crowded in. It wasn't the most restful sleep he'd ever gotten. But more than that, he'd spent the day before in Tsume's ICU room, waiting for Kuromaru to pull through the extensive and delicate chakra surgeries.

Tsume seemed to have come through all right, they reassured him over and over again. Despite the fact that her chakra levels were so low he almost couldn't feel them, and despite the wires and tubes threading around and into her--even a respirator taped to her mouth, fat pipe shoved down her throat to keep her lungs expanding and falling.

"Comatose," Waki had said, but Yasuo hadn't realized how dead that was. She didn't even smell right. More like a stuffed toy rubbed with her scent than a living, breathing human.

He hadn't let their pups come see her. It was too alarming. Waki-sensei said she was healing faster than he'd expected, that her chakra levels were rising. It was a good sign.

They wouldn't know how much damage, if any, the surgery had caused until she woke. Waki suspected that would be in the wee hours of the morning. Kuromaru was out of surgery, but under careful watch in a sealed unit. They hoped to have him stable enough to move into her room before she regained consciousness.

Tori had been with Tsume that morning. It had given Yasuo a chance to get the pups off to school, to shower and clean up, check on any Pack things he needed to help clarify. Gave him a chance to stop by her mission partner's room and make sure he was all right so Yasuo had good news for Tsume when she woke. Gave him a chance to stop seeing his former clan leader in the hospital, smaller than she'd ever seemed before, with her face and ear wrapped in bandages and the quick twitches of muscle wiped off her expressive face.

He knew that part of it was simply less chakra. That she seemed smaller because she was smaller. That she'd heal. It didn't help.

He strode quickly down the hospital corridors, familiar trotting at his side, bracing for the way she would look, tiny and swamped in the bed with life support all around her, pale and oddly helpless. He passed the security guards--they didn't let just anyone in to see injured ANBU--and started down the cool, white hall.

Under the scent of pine cleaner and alcohol he caught the salt-tears of grief. It took him a moment to realize it was Tsume's.

Yasuo broke into a run. She wasn't supposed to be awake. Not for hours, yet.

She was lying perfectly still when he rounded into her dimly lit room, curled around the dark shape of the dog--one of Hatake's--that had kept them company. But she lay on her side; they'd had her on her back. "Tsume?" he murmured. There was no response.

Tori looked up at him, her scent like charred flowers, her expression devastated. "She woke up an hour ago. She thinks Kuromaru's dead."

He breathed in relief. That, at least, was something they could solve. She was awake--and thinking. He stepped into the room, padding quietly into the dark to kneel in front of the bed. Pale blue eyes were red-rimmed, streaks of white trailing down her face where tears had dried. Hoshika's nose lay inches from Tsume's jawline, but the shepherd had long since stopped trying to lick tears away. "Kuromaru's fine," he said softly, reaching up to stroke hair off of Tsume's temple, careful of the thick white bandages hiding the ruin of her ear. There were still remnants of ink on her throat, almost hidden by the shadows of her hospital gown, from the seals that had locked off her chakra centers. More lay, bits of iridescent black across her forehead. Her red tattoos seemed obscene against waxy skin.

She didn't look at him. Her slit pupils were wide, almost circular. "He was rotting. Kakashi said they'd try. I can't feel him."

Yasuo frowned at her, a quick thrill of alarm snaking through him. She wouldn't make eye contact. "Tsume, look at me. Kuromaru's fine. You can't feel him because they had to cut your chakra bonds, but it'll be all right." He didn't know if they could fix that or not. But both partners were alive; that had to count for something.

"She can't feel him anyway," Tori whispered. "What's she talking about?"

Yasuo shrugged. "I'm not consciously aware of my arm, but I think I'd know if it was missing," he muttered back. Tsume still wasn't looking at him. He twisted to regard Tori. "Do you have something that smells like Kuromaru? Recently?"

She pointed to a baby blanket laying on the pillow next to Tsume's head. "They let me in to rub that over him, just half an hour ago. She still won't believe me."

Yasuo picked it up and sniffed. It did smell like Kuromaru. He held it up to Tsume's face, hiding the bright red tattoos. "Tsume, breathe. He's alive. See?"

Her skin remained ashen, pupils blown. Surgery. Emotional shock. Chakra shock. She shouldn't even be awake yet, her levels heartstoppingly low. Even her lips looked ghostly. "He could be dead. Dead scent..." Large eyes filled with tears. They ran slowly over the bridge of her nose, and dropped to the pillow. Hoshika whined softly. Aomaru reached up, front feet lifting off the floor and landing delicately on the bed frame. He lapped her tears away, ears flat.

"Tsume." Yasuo snapped his fingers in front of her face.

She didn't react.

"Black-faced wolf," Yasuo hissed. "She's sliding under." Deep into her own mind. They wouldn't lose her entirely--not if her chakra centers weren't bleeding out. But they were losing her all the same.

Her mother had slid into shock and never come out, bleeding through the links in her pathways that should have gone to a familiar. There were other Inuzuka, better cases, worse cases. Walking ghosts, waiting for the Wolf to come take them.

The heady smell of his own fear combined with the utter devastation of Tsume's grief. It all mixed with Tori's worry and deep sadness over her sister's pain.

They needed to get Tsume to Kuromaru. Yasuo stood, looking at the doorway. Seals were painted on it; Konoha didn't want anyone removing an ANBU without the proper authorization. Beside him, Tori tried to tell her sister that Kuromaru was fine.

Tsume's voice was faint, and sure. "He's dead. Kill me, too, he's dead."

Kuromaru was out of surgery now. Recovering. They wouldn't be happy with moving Tsume--they would refuse to do so--but Waki had promised that when she woke they'd take her to see her teammates, or bring them here. Except they couldn't move Kuromaru yet. So Yasuo was just going to carry through on the doctor's promise--starting with her familiar.

"Aomaru, meet me outside the hospital." Which was no doubt where he'd be taken, when they caught up with him.

He turned, gesturing for Hoshika to move. She gave him a hurt look and leapt gracefully off of the bed. Yasuo slid his hands under the blankets, under Tsume's legs and spine. She didn't protest when he lifted her, still shrouded in cloth.

Tori did. He ignored her, kneeling to rest Tsume on his knee and free one hand. He bought it around her, making seals.

And then he vanished.

Sirens were already screaming when he reappeared in Kuromaru's unit. More blared to life at the sudden intrusion, but he ignored them to lift Tsume again, placing her carefully on her familiar's cot, wary of all the lines and tubes running away from the human form.

"There, see?" he murmured. "Kuromaru. He's fine." Nearly his entire head was wrapped in bandaging, and there were IVs for fluids and blood, a chakra monitor skimming a warning yellow because of all the chemicals in his system. Inked seals writhed across every available inch of his face, down his naked chest, ringing his neck like thick, black worms. They kept his chakra levels depressed. Kept the rot from spreading, until they were sure there wasn't any more.

Hampered healing. That, Waki had said, was an unfortunate side effect.

Tsume's scent remained low and dead for a long moment. Then she shifted. Moved. Bright sunshine flowers flashed with her chakra. The energy pulsed away almost instantly; she didn't have it to spare. But the endorphin scent remained, lingering in the air between them as her muscles relaxed.

"Kurom'ru."

"Yeah." He rubbed her shoulder and didn't look at the man that seemed so much like her in human form. It was an ugly reminder of what Tsume could have been. His eye was gone. His ear was gone. He was halfway to dead, and they still weren't positive he'd pull through as a functioning ninja. He could live the rest of his life with those seals painted over him.

Tsume reached a small hand out to lay it across her familiar's chest. She breathed through her nose, burrowing her face into the slack arm nearest her. "S'okay."

"Yeah." Yasuo glanced toward the door, waiting for someone to burst through. "But you can't stay here, Tsume. He's still very weak."

"'S not conscious."

"No, he's not. He was hurt pretty bad. But he's pulled through the first of the surgeries, and he'll be fine." Or alive, at least. "They're going to bring him to you tonight." There were voices outside.

Tsume twitched around until she could see Yasuo. "R'ouma?"

"Tousaki? He's fine. Good, actually. I was just in to see him."

The door opened. A nurse stared. "You can't be here!"

"Wanna see 'im," Tsume mumbled.

Yasuo growled at the nurse. She paled and backed away, calling for security. Great. He was going to get thrown out, and probably fined if not tossed in jail for the night. "I don't think seeing him's a good idea. You weren't even supposed to wake up. Transporting again's too hard on your chakra." He doubted security--or the doctors--would let him carry her down to the critical care unit.

The sirens--one announcing an ANBU had been taken, the other announcing there were unauthorized visitors in Kuromaru's unit--were deafening with the door open.

"Want to see him," Tsume growled, rousing herself enough to enunciate. "Now."

Anger spun off her, heavy and sharp like oiled steel. She was going to work herself into a fit, and that couldn't be good either. And when she slept, and woke, and if they still hadn't gotten Kuromaru into her room? They weren't going to let Yasuo pull this stunt again.

There were footsteps running down the hall.

"Damn it," he muttered. If he were lucky, he'd get thrown out. If he were unlucky, that silver-haired jounin in Ryouma-san's room would kill him on a hair-trigger reflex. He scooped Tsume up anyway, knelt to brace her on his knee, and made the appropriate seals. He formed the last one just as security slammed through the door, Sharingan eyes whirling. With a twist of chakra, Yasuo was gone.