Chapter Text
She could smell the blood. That pervasive coppery scent ripped through her olfactory senses with each breath she heaved of the frigid air. The silence of the winter wood was deafening, all sound dulled by the soft blanket of snow covering her surroundings. It sent her mental alarms into a frenzy, warning her that there was danger nearby, that she needed to get away. Fast.
Yet Kaori stood motionless, as still as the bare trees that surrounded her as she waited for any sign – any indication of the presence of another. Friend or foe, she might not know until it was too late. So instead, she remained there like prey caught in the gaze of a predator, holding her breath as her heart pounded in her ears and her instincts told her to run.
She did not know how long she waited there, frozen in place with her senses straining in the silence. Eventually, she decided she had to risk it. She had to move. Cautiously – as if the simple action might trigger an attack – she risked a single step forward. Followed by another. Then another. When the silence was broken by the sharp crunch of snow beneath her foot she paused, breath hitching in her chest. Nothing happened. There was no attack, no indication that her movements had disturbed anyone or anything in the vicinity. Nothing prickled at the edges of her awareness, and her shoulders slowly relaxed as she let herself believe that she just might be alone after all.
Eyes darting around once more, she proceeded forward as the smell of fresh blood grew stronger with each step. Perhaps it was just an injured animal? These woods were known hunting grounds for a few wolf packs, after all. But something in her, some gut instinct told her that she was wrong, that the iron tang in the air belonged to a person.
Passing the trunk of a large tree, her gaze was immediately drawn to the stark spatter of crimson staining the pure white snow beneath her feet. The pattern indicated the source had come somewhere from her left, and as she moved closer she drew in a sharp breath. The amount of blood that painted the ground was incredible – the area positively bathed in swathes of red. Her eyes were drawn immediately to the light indentation of two sets of footprints in the snow. This blood belonged to no animal.
Suddenly much more wary, Kaori took a step back, gaze shifting around her rapidly. There had been a fight here, and given how fresh the blood was, it was recent. Yet, she sensed no nearby chakra signatures. Perhaps they had already gone?
Kaori sighed inwardly and wished – not for the first time – that she was skilled as a sensor. If someone nearby was cloaking their chakra, she had no hope of detecting them. She would simply have to rely on her instincts to tell her if there was danger nearby, and in this exact moment her instincts were telling her that she was alone. For whatever that was worth.
Something about the pattern of the blood drew her attention back to the ground again, and she noticed that there was a trail that led beyond a copse of trees to the north. Hesitating, she glanced east to the nearby mountain range. The whole reason she was traveling through these woods was to reach those mountains and forage for medicinal herbs that were known to thrive amongst the rocky outcroppings this time of year. Her supply had been running thin for weeks, and she had only just managed to find time to come out this far on one of her rare days off.
Even as she deliberated, Kaori knew what her decision would be. She was, after all, first and foremost a medical-nin. Whomever this blood belonged to had clearly sustained devastating injuries and was risking exsanguination. Not to mention, it was possible this person was someone from her village. If it was indeed someone from Yukigakure then it was her responsibility to provide them with medical assistance.
And if they were not from Yuki?
Lips pursing, she shook her head as she followed the path of blood leading north. Either way, she needed to verify whether this person was alive or dead and report back what she had found. Given the sheer amount of blood she was seeing as she continued forward, it was highly unlikely the person had survived. A nicked artery most likely, given the pattern of the blood spray. Perhaps by a well-aimed kunai or blade. Chances of survival were extremely thin with an injury that severe. If left untreated for any amount of time? Zero.
Kaori found herself coming to a sudden halt when she reached a gathering of dense underbrush. Despite the nakedness of the branches, her view of the area beyond was obstructed. Creeping closer she leaned forward, doing her best to peek through the gaps between the gnarled limbs. Her gaze immediately fell upon the lifeless form of what appeared to be a man in the center of a small clearing. The area surrounding him was soaked with blood, a ninjatou planted firmly through his chest. Had this man been the source of all the blood that led her here? Her experience told her that it seemed like too much to have come from one person, and she surmised that his assailant must have been injured as well. But then where was the attacker?
Stiffening, she narrowed her eyes to scan the surroundings beyond more carefully. At first, she saw nothing but a white expanse interspersed with the darkened pillars of numerous trees. However, something drew her attention to the base of a large tree about fifty meters beyond the corpse. There was a figure hunched there cloaked in white, allowing them to blend easily with the snow drifts that had gathered around the roots.
Heart hammering in her chest, she watched for signs of movement - for any indication that the figure was alive and aware of her presence. She could sense the dimmest hint of chakra from the stranger now, although it was faint and wavering. That answered two of her questions then – this person was a shinobi, and this shinobi was not dead. Yet. The only question that remained was whether she should consider this person friend or foe?
Kaori realized then that she was at a crossroads. She could simply retreat and report what she had found once she arrived back at the village, or she could try to gather more information. A small part of her wondered if the cloaked figure was someone from her village, and if they were she had a duty to at least attempt to heal them. But if they were an enemy shinobi? She may end up just like the man that lay skewered a short distance ahead of her.
As always, good sense was lost to her empathetic nature. Her friends always joked that her desire to help would be the death of her someday, and she wondered in passing if today might be that day. In fact, it was that very nature that had prevented Kaori from being what would be considered a good shinobi. She simply lacked that killing instinct, and for that reason had been relegated to working mostly within the village itself. It was a safe life, and she knew she should be grateful for that, but a part of her always regretted that her softness held her back from being better – being more. That very softness might get her killed today. Still, she knew what she had to do.
The shinobi remained motionless, though Kaori knew this was possibly a ruse. Hoping that she might be able to gain a better sense of their awareness, she reached beneath her cloak and withdrew a kunai from her thigh holster. Taking aim at a tree a few paces to the left of the stooped figure, she slowly drew a breath in and held it. She was risking giving away her position by doing this, but given the distance between them and the shinobi’s injured state she would have a solid head start if they came at her.
Giving herself no further opportunity to second guess her decision she threw the weapon, immediately preparing to make a run for it if need be. It made contact with the tree a second later, causing a dull thud to echo around them. Seconds ticked by as Kaori remained rooted to the spot, eyes fixed on the hooded figure as she looked for any sign of consciousness. As for the shinobi, there was no indication that they had even noticed her. Either they were truly on death’s door or they were waiting for her next move.
Deciding that there was nothing left to do but risk it, she leapt clear of the bushes and landed next to the dead man, wielding two kunai and fully prepared to defend herself. No attack came, however, and after a few moments she let out the breath she had been holding. A cursory glance to the unfortunate man next to her told her what she had not been able to discern from a distance. He wore a hitai-ate around his neck, a large gash carved through the symbol for Konohagakure. A missing-nin then, and far from his home country too. Why was he in Yuki?
Gaze shifting back to the other shinobi, she tentatively began her approach.
“I’m a medic,” she offered cautiously in case they could hear her. She really hoped they wouldn’t attack her, but as she drew closer it became clear from the pool of blood around them that they wouldn’t be doing much of anything in this state.
Cursing under her breath she picked up her pace, coming to a halt in front of them a moment later. The figure had their back to the tree but was slouched forward, the hood of the cloak hiding their face from her. From what little she could see their breathing was shallow and uneven. This person was clearly toeing the line between this world and the next and would soon expire without intervention.
Medic instincts kicking in, she dropped to her knees beside the shinobi and placed a tentative hand on their arm. When there was no reaction, she risked pulling her healing chakra to her hands and placed one on their chest and the other on their back. Her eyes widened in shock as she realized just how close to death the shinobi truly was. The blood loss was severe, and there were several internal injuries that could only have been obtained as a result of blunt force trauma.
All fear evaporated from her as she became hyper focused on the dire situation she was faced with. With a sense of practiced urgency that all experienced medic-nin seemed to have, she shifted the shinobi so they lay flat on the ground. She opened the cloak, doing a rapid assessment of the man – for that’s what the shinobi had been revealed to be underneath the cloak. The mask gave her pause for only a second, but it did not stop her from laying both hands against his chest and swiftly getting to work.
The blood loss was his greatest risk right now, so she immediately sought out and repaired the leg wound that was the source of the issue. It seemed the only reason he hadn’t bled out before she reached him was due to the hastily wrapped tourniquet that she assumed he had managed to apply to himself before losing consciousness. Once that was dealt with, she rapidly catalogued and prioritized the remaining injuries, electing to heal those that were the most detrimental while leaving the relatively minor injuries for later. Though Kaori prided herself on her ample chakra reserves, there was simply no way she would be able to completely heal all the man’s injuries right now. Frankly, she didn’t know how he was even still alive with the appalling combination of injuries he seemed to have sustained.
As she continued her work – falling into a familiar rhythm of methodical treatment that came naturally to her – she began to examine the mask that hid the man’s face. It was porcelain, fashioned in the stylized image of what she assumed to be a cat. There were red and green markings painted upon it, although it was now marred with a spray of dried blood that ran diagonally across its width. She might not have made the connection had it not been for the missing-nin that lay dead behind her. This man was clearly an ANBU from Konoha, which meant he was also incredibly dangerous.
Kaori’s healing chakra stuttered to a halt. Yuki and Konoha were not enemies per se, and it seemed probable that the ANBU's reason for being in Yuki had been the pursuit of the missing-nin behind her. Still, this man was no regular shinobi from Konoha. The stories she had heard about the ANBU were enough to cause a chill to race down her spine. This man was an assassin. He was deadly. He had likely taken countless lives, and some of those lives may not have deserved the premature death they had been granted. In fact, there was nothing stopping him from taking her life as well if he woke up, especially if he suspected his identity might have been compromised.
Despite the obvious danger and the knowledge that she might be signing her own life away, she resumed her ministrations. She knew herself well enough to know she could not just turn away now. If she lived through this experience then she would have no regrets, secure in the knowledge that she had done what was right.
If she didn’t? Well, it’s difficult to have regrets when you’re dead.
Evening was beginning to descend when she finally stopped, watching as the soft emerald glow of her healing chakra faded from her hands. Further healing would place her at risk of chakra exhaustion, and she needed some reserves left in case she needed to defend herself. The ANBU was critical but stable at this point. He still had numerous injuries that required attention, but there was nothing else she could do for him until her chakra reserves had been restored. Unfortunately, this also meant he would remain unconscious until his body managed to replenish some of the blood that had been lost.
The temperature was rapidly dropping as the shadows around them lengthened, and it occurred to Kaori that the greatest risk for the ANBU now was death from exposure. There was no way for her to get him back to Yukigakure without leaving him behind and going back for help. If he didn’t freeze to death in her absence, the risk of any number of predators happening upon him and subsequently making him a meal was high. The scent of blood was still strong, and it was bound to attract something sooner or later. This was beginning to look like the more likely scenario, as the silence of the past two hours had been intermittently broken by the distant howling of wolves. It had not escaped her notice that the pack was drawing closer.
Getting to her feet, she spared a few minutes to stretch her frozen limbs. Kneeling in one position for so long had not done her joints any favors, she thought as a few satisfying pops sounded from her aching back. As she continued to work the stiffness from her body, she pondered her next move. The ANBU needed to be relocated somewhere more secure, away from the overwhelming scent of death and out of the biting winds that had begun to pick up as evening approached. A cave would be more defensible and she knew of several that might suit within the mountainous terrain beyond the wood to the east.
Eyeing the man who lay supine at her feet, she wondered if she would be able to carry him that distance. He was larger than her, and dead weight was not always easy to maneuver. She realized then that she would have to tap into what little chakra she had left to help bolster her strength enough to move him.
Sighing audibly, she examined the tree line to the east. It would probably take her a solid hour to get them to the nearest cave and darkness was approaching quickly.
Kaori was just about to kneel down next to the ANBU once more when her attention was drawn again to the deceased missing-nin, eyes landing on the blade that impaled the man. She could hazard a guess that the ninjatou belonged to the Anbu, if the empty sheath at his back was any indication. Without giving any thought about what providing this stranger with additional weapons might say about her general lack of self-preservation, she withdrew the blade from the dead man’s chest and wiped the blood off on his cloak. It needed to be cleaned properly, but that could be taken care of later.
Returning to the ANBU, she rolled him gently and sheathed his weapon for him before heaving him over her shoulders. Even with the added chakra, her knees very nearly buckled beneath his weight when she moved to stand. Taking a moment to steady herself, she shook her head ruefully before turning east and setting out to find a place to shelter for the night.
Kaori sat at the mouth of the cave, keeping watch as she tried to rationalize her current situation. She had aided a foreign shinobi – an ANBU no less – from a country that was not considered one of their allies. While she was not certain of the exact state of relations between the two villages currently, at the very least her actions would be highly frowned upon by her village. However, if relations with Konoha were strained, she might be labeled a traitor for doing what she had done. The consequences for that were unfathomable.
Turning her head to glance behind her she felt her stomach knot with apprehension. While she did not regret helping the ANBU right now, it was entirely possible that she would in the coming days. Whether he decided to attack her once he awoke or her village found out what she had done, there were so many ways that things could go wrong for her.
Gaze fixed on the motionless form beyond the small fire she found her thoughts drifting in an entirely different direction. As she watched, the ANBU's chestnut hair caught the firelight, causing the silky strands to shine with a mahogany glow. The shadows that danced across his mask gave it an ominous appearance, making the visage appear much more threatening than it had in the light of day. A brief image of that mask looming over her in the darkness crossed her mind and she shuddered involuntarily before forcing her attention away from it.
The rest of his body was hidden from view, her own cloak draped over him in an attempt to forestall the chill. His blood loss would make thermoregulation problematic, and she hoped the combination of her fur-lined cloak and the fire would be enough to keep him warm.
As Kaori had been treating him earlier she had noted that this man appeared young. Probably in his early twenties, around the same age as she was. While she couldn’t be certain without seeing his face, his stature combined with his physical condition made her moderately confident in her guess.
Her ruminations were interrupted when the cry of a wolf tore through the air. Head snapping in the direction the sound had come from, she grimaced. Given how close the howling was, it was likely that the pack had finally happened upon the area where the battle had taken place earlier. Well, at least her decision not to leave him there had been warranted.
Heaving an audible sigh, she let her gaze drift up to the dark expanse above her. Her eyes traced the familiar constellations, a small smile ghosting across her features as she thought back to her earliest years when she would spend her nights stargazing with her parents. That had been back before she had become a kunoichi. Before life had become so… complicated.
Pushing more chakra to her feet, Kaori raced through the woods towards the mountains ahead of her. It had only been a few hours but the anxious feeling that had settled in the pit of her stomach as soon as she’d left the cave had not eased. It couldn’t be helped, however. She had needed to go back to the village to retrieve some food and supplies, and she could only hope that the fire had lasted and the traps she had set around the cave had done enough to protect the ANBU in her absence.
Landing at the cave entrance, she breathed a sigh of relief when she noted that everything appeared just as she had left it. Placing the bundle in her arms off to the side, she moved to kneel next to the ANBU, drawing her chakra to her hands and performing a quick assessment. His blood volume had improved but she knew that it would take much longer for his red blood cells to be replaced. If he had been at the hospital, he would have received multiple transfusions to help speed up the process… but she had already decided against alerting the village to his presence. If he woke up – when he woke up – if he asked her to take him to the hospital, she would. That was his decision to make, she had decided, and she would deal with the consequences when the time came.
In the meantime, she needed to eat and rest to help restore her chakra reserves. The sleepless night keeping watch had done little to aid her, so she settled down near the small fire to enjoy her meager meal before moving to rest against the cave wall. She could not afford to fall asleep of course, but a mental break would be welcome.
Unwittingly, her gaze was drawn to the dancing flames. They appeared almost hypnotic to her tired mind and she found herself easily transfixed by their movement. A strange sense of calm washed over her, causing the last vestiges of her wariness to fall away.
When she would reflect on this moment later, she would wonder just how she had let herself get so comfortable in the presence of a foreign ANBU. She would question how her skills and sensibilities were lacking to such a degree that she had not sensed the sudden burgeoning awareness of the man in the cave with her, or the subtle signs of his waking.
It wasn’t until he was on her with a kunai pressed to her throat – instantaneously secure in the knowledge that death had come for her at last – that she realized her mistake.