More than a Comrade

[Tensei Kaori]

Tensei Kaori was a mess. She was dirty, battle-worn, and covered in blood. Ironically, hardly any of her own blood had been spilled; most of what was on her belonged to either her enemies - not a pleasant thought, even for an experienced shinobi - or her patients, both those who had survived, and those she had failed to reach in time. Right now she was standing in the hospital in Hidden Leaf Village, waiting for her turn to tend to the wounded. All the medical specialists in the village were taking their shifts, and the stronger fighters like herself were also taking part in the battles outside the village. It wasn't easy, but neither was the life of a shinobi.

She glanced out the window of the waiting room. She could see smoke coming from several places outside, and people were running in a sort of organized chaos in the streets. She had just come in from that mess, and she wasn't sure if it was for the better. She was always torn between aiding in the battle and aiding wounded comrades. Both were so important to her, and both were vital to the village and the war. Her skill as a medical specialist had her spending more and more time in the hospital lately, and while she was honored with the responsibility given to her, part of her wanted to just run out there and fight with everything she had to protect this village and everyone in it. But she couldn't do that. Someone pushed an injured Sand Chuunin through the corridor on a stretcher, taking him to a room where he could recover before rejoining the fray. She sighed and shook her head. With wounds like that, the man was mad to go back out there. But then, by this point, a good number of their forces were like that.

"Tensei-san! Come quickly!" she heard someone say. She looked up to see the Head Nurse heading straight towards her. This was unusual. Usually the medical shinobi were given a little time to rest before working in the hospital to recover more of their chakra. It must be bad. When the Nurse spoke again, her suspicions were confirmed. "I wouldn't ask you so soon after arriving, especially under these circumstances-" 'These circumstances'? Kaori didn't like the sound of that. "-but we need you. We need...we need that." Kaori gulped when she saw what the nurse was pointing to - the vial of medicine that hung around her neck.

That was a very potent medicine; so potent, in fact, that it had dangerous side effects and was only to be used in the direst of circumstances. Only she knew how to make it, and only she knew how to relieve those side effects. She had only had to use the medicine once or twice in the past few months; a patient was either beyond her skill or several medical specialists working together were able to save the patient's life. But this...

"Tensei-san, please hurry. Many of our specialists are out fighting now, and since you're here....please! Come right away!" Kaori nodded and followed the nurse to the operating room where her patient awaited her. She opened the door.....

....and nearly collapsed then and there. Laying there on the operating table, barely recognizable, was Tensei Kanaye.

Her older brother.

[Tensei Kaori]

(OoC: This post doesn't do the story justice. Maybe I'll rewrite it someday...)

"Ka-kanaye..." Kaori nearly collapsed. How could this happen?

"Yo," her brother said with a smile. He tried to wave, but let his arm fall with a grimace. "You idiot," Kaori said with a smile even as she wiped the tears out of her eyes. "You'll just make it worse." "Yeah..."

The shock over, Kaori found herself in overdrive. She gathered some of her remaining energy into the Vitality Seal on her forehead and pulled some soldier pills out of a pouch on her hip. Some of these she ate herself, and some she ground up and mixed with water to give to Kanaye. Before she could give him the mixture, though...

"You look beat up," he said to her, concern showing clearly in his eyes. "Double duty again?" Kaori nodded and gently lifted his head up so he could swallow. "All the specialists are. Drink this." "You need rest. You shouldn't be overworking yourself." Kaori nearly shoved the liquified soldier pills under his nose. The tears were coming back again. "You have no room to talk, my dear older brother. Now please drink this." He finally complied. Kaori shuddered at how frail he had become. Taller than she and solidly built, her brother had always represented comfort and stability to her. To her, he was invincible. Even now, when she knew these things could happen, to see him reduced to such a state reduced her remaining strength to a feeble spark. She would not let him die. She wouldn't!

Handing the empty dish to a medical apprentice - young ninja studying to become medical specialists were on duty constantly to aid the hospital work - Kaori reluctantly took the small vial around her neck and opened it. "I'm here, big brother. Don't you worry."

[Tensei Kaori]

The look in Kanaye's eyes said it all. She had seen that look before, in her patients' eyes and in the eyes of those who knew what was coming: the look of one about to die, and at peace with it. "No," she said softly and to no one in particular, then repeated it slightly louder. "No. No! I won't let this happen, do you mear me?" Kanaye just smiled.

It was with shaking hands - hands that, in all her years as a medical specialist, had never once trembled in the presence of a patient - that the female ninja of Konoha, hailed as unfazable, administered a small amount of clear bluish medicine to her dying brother.

The medicine took effect almost immediately - Kanaye's eyes widened slightly with the shock that came from the medicine's somewhat brutal treatment - and Kaori knew she didn't have much time. With one last gathering of chakra, the red diamond-shaped seal on her forehead was released. The glowing red seal marks spread across her face, down her arms, and even onto Kanaye's body so that soon even his face was covered in them. The young apprentice gasped and dropped the dish on the ground, where it landed with a loud crash - this, after all, was the legendary Kiryoku Fuuin, the Vitality Seal that had saved no small number of lives in Konoha Village. And if Kaori had her way, her brother's would be one of them.

Her own stored up Chakra now moving into his body to support him and buffer the effects of the medicine, it was time for the next step. Clapping her hands togteher, Kaori gathered as precise an amount of healing chakra as she could. The room was lit with the familiar greenish glow as she carefully placed her hands over her brother's heart, and focused. She could feel everything - what needed to be healed and with how much chakra, how much chakra she was using, and how much was going where. She could also feel something else - even though his body was healing, the flame of Tensei Kanaye's life was fading away. She was too late. She could heal his body, but not save him from death. "No!" She shrieked. "I won't let you! I won't let you die!" Chakra swirled around her body in a visible aura as she increased the strength and efficiency of the healing. This had healed every one of its patients before now; why wasn't it working? The apprentice in the corner stifled a surprised sqeak and Kaori's eyes blurred with unshed tears.

"Sis, it's time," Kanaye said softly, putting a feeble hand on her arm. "There's nothing you can do now. Let me go." Kaori angrily blinked away tears. "No," she repeated sullenly, like she had as a child when he asked her to do something she didn't want to. "I'm not giving you up. Please, Kanaye...stay with me." He only smiled. "It's too late for me, Sis. But listen, there's something I need to give you before I go." "Wha...what are you doing? You'll waste your strength!" she exclaimed as her brother reached up behind his head. The healing of his body complete, all chakra faded from view. Spots swirled before Kaori's eyes, but she blinked them away. "Do you remember," he said as he untied his forehead protector and held it in the hands that now lay on his chest, "When we were children, when I had just become a Genin? You were constantly pestering me, just begging me to let you wear this forehead protector." He laughed; those memories were fond for both of them. "Well, now I'm giving it to you. You wanted it so badly when we were children, and I won't be needing it any more." "N-nonsense," Kaori stammered. "I've healed you. You're going to recover. Just rest, and..." Kanaye shook his head. "You don't understand. It's my time, I know it is." he chuckled weakly. "I was so proud the day you got one of your very own, and look at you now. Konoha's best medical specialist! I'm only sad....that I won't be here....to see you move on....to greater things...." "Kanaye...Kanaye!!!!" But it was too late. He was gone. Kaori was numb. Shock, grief, agony crashed into days' worth of fatigue and weariness. She sank to her knees in tears, clutching the table with one hand and her brother's with the other.

"Shishou..." the apprentice - they referred to all the specialists as shishou - approached and reached to put a hand on her arm, but Kaori whirled around and slapped the girl's hand away. The apprentice fell back, looking scared, and Kaori sighed. Then suddenly...

"Tensei-sama! Tensei-sama! Please hurry.....ooohhh..." The head nurse was charging in, ready with another patient for Kaori to take care of, when she realized what had happened here. The apprentice, snaped out of her daze, scurried over to the corner and picked up the shards of broken dish that still lay on the ground. Kaori didn't move. "I...I'm sorry..." the nurse said. Kaori could tell she was stunned, and not for the obvious reasons of her brother's death. This woman was most likely more sorry that Kaori's record of 100% recovery among healed patients had been stained than the fact that she had just lost her brother and best friend. Well, that is the way of the shinobi, is it not?

Kaori stood and turned to face the nurse. "It's all right." A lie. It would never be all right. But she couldn't afford to show any more emotion than she already had. That, too, was the way of the shinobi. "Who am I to see next?"

The woman paused, getting her mind back on the right track. "Oh, yes. It's --- Tensei-sama? Tensei-sama!" The world pitched and heaved beneath Kaori's feet, spots and stars danced before her blurred vision. Before she knew it, everything spun even faster and she found herself in the arms of...someone. She could vaguely hear the nurse calling for aid before fatigue, exhaustion, and the grief of the day's events came crashing in on her and she knew no more.

Tensei Kaori would awaken the next day in Konoha hospital with her brother's forehead protector lying on her chest. By the afternoon, just barely well enough to be releasd, she was outside Konoha rallying Shinobi for the final assault on the enemy attackers.