Bleeding [Invite]

[Kei]

It had been a good while since they had escaped the flames of Konoha, and Kei was beginning to pale from blood loss. He finally stopped, not far from where the festival had just been. The booths were still up, and a few people still lingered. Most of them seemed to be too shocked to do anything. Some were injured, others crying, mourning the loss of their Village or their loved ones, or both.

His vision was blurry, as was his mind, as he wandered toward the small village and temple. Suddenly, he saw nothing but dirt. Twitching slightly, he groaned, realizing that he had collapsed. Turning his head, he glanced back at Rukaji, who he could only assume was following him.

Ruka...

"..aji..." only half the name actually came out. Sighing, he tried to continue, "...you have to burn it, Rukaji...burn my arm...or I'll die of blood loss..."

He had made a tight tourniquet out of his headband and some cloth from what was left of his shirt, and had tried to keep the wound elevated, but there was only so much he could do. This was the only way to stop the bleeding until they could find a medical ninja or a hospital. He just prayed Rukaji could do it.

[Rukaji]

"Keisuke!"

Her words were full of concern and shock, but hushed. Rukaji was aware that nowhere was safe at the moment, and caution was still taken though they were now out of the bonfire that was once their home. Immediately following Kei's fall, the girl was on her knees, flipping him over with her good arm - which was also her offhand; since her right arm was hanging uselessly at her side. While still attached, her bicep had been severed... that arm was about as good as glass full of sand given to one dying of dehydration now.

Her bloodied headband was dropped to the ground without a care.

She blinked at her companion's words as she held his arm up, out of the dirt. While covered in a makeshift bandage, there was still a chance that it was done poorly enough to allow dirt to invade; and that wouldn't have been good. They certainly didn't need to be dealing with an infection on top of the missing limb and bloodloss.

Burn it...?

Quietly, the female genin looked to the wrapped wound, biting her lip. She glanced back toward the cloud of smoke in the sky; his limb was most likely lost. Therefore, reattaching the arm was out of the question... and there were no medical ninjas here. Cauterizing the wound was the best they could do, Keisuke was right. Looking back to her pained friend, Rukaji seemed upset; about to break down.

Her right arm was useless, she couldn't form seals.

Laying his injured arm gently on his chest, Rukaji stroked Keisuke's cheek with a blood covered hand. "...Don't leave me, okay? You're not allowed to... I'll be right back..." She murmured to him quietly, before standing and hurrying about the area, gathering dried twigs and leaves; she'd have to make a fire manually.

A short while later, Rukaji had a pile of burnable plantlife by Keisuke, and two rocks in her hand. Sitting down, she propped one up in the dirt by the pile, holding it in place by placing a foot on top of it. She inhaled a little nervously; her hand was shaking. She needed to be calm, or she'd striking the rock with the other and quiet frankly, time was important. Closing her eyes, Rukaji stilled her trembling before reopening them and striking at the rock. A small spark.

Clack, clack, clack.

Finally, a light.

After a bit of struggling, as Rukaji was not left-handed, she managed to make a big enough spark to light the small pile of plant debris, leaning down to blow gently to coax the fire to expand. Soon, there was a mini fire.

Rukaji then returned her attention to Keisuke, removing the torn cloth and headband tourniquet from his arm as gently as possible. Should he scream or yelp, she would wince; while her own wound was indeed painful, seeing him so bad off seemed to cut her on a more emotional level. She then pulled the leather glove off of her right hand with a cringe of pain; Keisuke would probably need something to bite down on for this.

"Here... bite this..." She said softly, holding the folded leather glove up to his mouth. Should he accept it or not, Rukaji wasn't going to waste more time; a kunai was pulled from her holster.

Holding the heat-absorbing metal over the fire, Rukaji gulped; she hoped she could find the will to burn her friend a few times. After all, the now searing hot kunai was not big enough to cauterize the wound in one go. Taking a deep breath, she propped Kei's arm up on her thigh... and pressed the burning kunai against the bleeding wound.

[Kei]

Kei was far too out of it to realize why she was pressing the glove to his face, so he merely did what she suggested, holding it loosely between his teeth. Somehow, though, as he lay here suffering, her presence alone soothed him. Her face was the only clear sight in his vision, perhaps because it was the only familiar sight. No, he wouldn't leave her, not now, not before he...

Blinding pain. He almost screamed out before biting down hard on the glove, his eyes shutting tightly as his skin sizzled and his blood crackled around the wound. He groaned in agony, his eyes shut tight, a look of utter pain on his face.

Please...please...please...

Please what? He couldn't even formulate his thoughts enough to know what he was begging for. The pain to stop? Not to die? Or maybe the opposite, just to end the suffering.

[Rukaji]

Rukaji gritted her teeth roughly, this was too much. She began to tremble visibly at her companion's pain, her face contorting in a look of severe trauma. She was burning her only friend's flesh. She was holding searing hot metal to his wound and watched him suffer. She almost faltered that moment, almost pulled the kunai away. The sizzling sound filled her ears, and the smell of burning skin drifted into her nose; she felt sick. It was hard to breathe, harder to focus...

But she had to. Or Kei would die.

The sizzling died down, and the kunai was pulled away. The flesh it had been pressed against wound be raw and burned over, though no longer open and bleeding. Rukaji observed her work, the mutilation she had inflicted upon her teammate. She began to tremble more violently, before closing her eyes and calming herself; she needed to continue. No matter how inhumane she felt at the moment... she didn't have the time to stress about it now.

The kunai was once more held over the fire, soaking up the heat; the metal beginning to glow red once more. A deep breath, and again it was savagely pressed against the wound. Again, Rukaji felt sick. She turned her head to the side as she coughed, willing herself not to throw up on the spot, and also willing herself not to fall over and faint. Keisuke needed her, she could be sick after she was done mauling cauterizing his arm.

Several times she would repeat this, thankful for the fact that Keisuke was probably too out of it to flail around.

[Kei]

Kei never did scream, but tears were rolling down his face, and his teeth were digging deeply into the glove in his mouth, threatening to break through it. Every time the kunai was applied it felt as though it were worse than the last. Odd, he almost thought, since it should, by all means, have been getting more numb to the pain.

It was as though nothing existed but the pain in his left arm. He could feel nothing else now. Couldn't feel Rukaji's body trembling next to his; couldn't feel his right hand clawing and digging into his pant leg; couldn't feel the warmth of the fire; nothing.

Please...make it stop...

"...m-make...it stop..." he mumbled his thoughts without realizing it, a faint whimper escaping his lips.

[Rukaji]

Her heart skipped a beat.

While it took her a moment to make sense of the whispers mumbled around the glove wedged tightly into Keisuke's mouth, when she realized what he had said she felt as if she'd been stabbed in the heart. She wavered, almost falling on him as her vision faded for a second, but something made her catch herself. Whatever it was that saved her from passing out on the spot did not stop the tears that would follow.

"S-shut up, Keisuke!" She snapped, her voice hitching with a sob. She held the kunai to him still, though shook violently; she was going to break down. Thankfully, one more burn should be enough. She'd just have to last until then...

The heating of the metal was repeated. The necessary torture once more followed. Rukaji cried rather openly as she held the searing metal still, beads of sweat having formed upon her brow, a few rolling down her temples, though she herself felt cold. Despite the small fire, the bit of disgusting, flesh scented smoke, and the heated weapon in her hand, Rukaji felt frozen. Frozen, queasy, woozy... inhumane.

The last burn seemed to take an eternity, and when the sizzling once more died down, Rukaji nearly melted in relief as she removed the ninja tool from the severed arm. It was ugly, burned; but the bleeding had stopped. With some nurturing, Keisuke should live. Trembling, she moved the injured limb to lay on Keisuke's chest, not covering it back up with the dirty bandage. She'd make a new one in a moment. Holding the kunai between her teeth for the time being, Rukaji reached out, stroking her partner's cheek gently. She then took the glove from his mouth. She'd be needing it next.

After all, she was still bleeding a bit heavily, as well.

The kunai was swapped with the glove, thick leather now between her teeth as she prepared the kunai once more. Oddly, it didn't take as much willpower when the victim was herself; she deserved it.

Pain.

Excruciating pain.

Rukaji whimpered pathetically as she had pressed the kunai to her own wound this time, the burning so severe it seemed to painfully freeze after a few seconds. It hurts... Her teeth continued to grind roughly against the leather, her expression not only portraying pain, but... anger. You deserve it... Half of her wound was sealed, as it was relatively smaller. However, there was no hesitation as she repeated the process on the other half.

Monster...

Her skin burned. It hurt, it warped, it was sealed. As she finished and pulled the kunai away from herself and let the glove fall out of her mouth in a pant, Rukaji resisted the twisted urge to continue torturing herself. She wanted to mar her own flesh in equivalence to how many times she pained Keisuke, but logic defeated the masochism; she needed to be okay and take care of him.

The searing kunai was placed on the two rocks to cool down as Rukaji stomped out the small fire; it was no longer needed. When that matter of business was taken care of, she extracted a new kunai from the holster on her thigh, lodging it in the ground a moment as she untied the string that held her pant legs bunched up at the knee on her left leg. The pants, now free of the confinement of the string fell to rest at their normal length, reaching her ankles.

The newly retrieved weapon was used to cut the pant leg just under her kneecap. As doing this with one hand was rather difficult, Rukaji ended up nicking herself a few times, though luckily never cut herself seriously. Once cut off, the material would be removed, pulled off over her foot and the weapon returned to the holster. She then proceeded to tear that into a more bandage-like shape, using her teeth and good hand.

Again, she would need the aid of her teeth in addition to her hand to make up for the useless one, bandaging Keisuke's cauterized limb as delicately as possible... though that was very delicate considering the circumstances. Hopefully, however, it would hurt less than the medical burning... and the girl no longer had to feel like she was torturing her comrade.

[Kei]

He was far too out of it to hear her command, or her sobbing, which was probably for the best, anyway. The tears seemed to cease as he was left to relax from the pain, quite out of breath, and completely unable to move. His racing mind seemed to slow, everything seemed so hazy to him now, even Rukaji's face. He could feel her shaking now, though, but he knew he could do nothing about it, he was already passing out.

Her hand on his face shocked him out of his daze slightly, soothing him beyond words. The glove was removed from his mouth, and he tried to speak, but nothing seemed to come out.

Thanks...

"Th...th...thanks..." was all he could muster, offering her a weak smile before he passed out, going limp against her hand. He wouldn't suffer through her burning herself, and he wouldn't feel her bandage his arm either, he was lost in relatively peaceful slumber for now.

[Rukaji]

Rukaji was indeed relieved when her friend finally fell into a much needed sleep, smiling weakly at him. She finished patching up his arm after some difficulty, once more laying it to rest gently on his chest. It was probably in his best interest that brace of sorts also be constructed, to keep the injury in a stable position. After all, though cauterized, should the injured limb swing about and bump into anything, it'd probably be very painful.

She'd make one before he woke. But first, a break was in order.

Keisuke was carefully relocated to lay under a nearby tree, the cherry blossoms still gently drizzling their petals down. Both bloodied headbands were retrieved, as was her glove and the now decently cooled kunai; though Rukaji still made the effort not to touch the blade. All four items were dropped carelessly by the unconscious boy before Rukaji slumped heavily against the tree with a long, drawn out sigh. Her eyes drifted shut near instantly.

What a day.

Sleep was not an option for Rukaji, though. She was far from it; exhausted and panting slightly still, but very awake. Her mind was spinning, replaying all the events that had happened. Several times she winced from the memories, but one made her open her eyes again and glance in the direction of the village. A thick cloud of smoke could still be seen...

What happened to the Kazekage?

Rukaji had caught a glimpse of the boy rushing in as they were exiting... and was fairly certain that was the only reason they managed an escape. A look of worry crossed her face - she wondered what happened after they left. She also felt guilty, running out and leaving him there to fight alone, but... what could her or Keisuke do had they stayed? Neither were capable of fighting at the moment... they would have ended up as more of a burden than help. Would the Kazekage see it that way?

...Was he even alive still?

Was Konoha still under attack?

...where the hell had the Hokage been?!

Anger. The emotion quickly overrode the her previous feelings of concern and guilt. Why had the Hokage not shown up to help? Why didn't he save them? That was his job, after all - not Soichiro's. And where had all the capable ninja been during the attack? Why did it come down to a bunch of genin running for their lives?

Perhaps Konoha deserved to fall.

The girl sighed, gritting her teeth as her eyes slid shut again, petals continuing to flutter down peacefully. No matter how angry the girl allowed herself to get, Konoha was still her home. When it was safe, she'd return there with Keisuke; after all, he needed to see a medic anyway. She'd lend a hand in the restoration of the village, if there was to be one. For now, however, her duty was to remain here and tend to her friend while he slept.

Which reminded her that she needed to make a brace still. Now no longer shaking and slightly calmed down, Rukaji reached for the kunai laying near the headbands. It was grabbed by the tip of the blade and lifted, quickly tossed and flipped, caught by the handle instead. It had since cooled to a tolerable level and so was used in the second butchering of her pants; this time the other pant leg hacked off at mid-thigh. Again, it was torn with the aid of a hand and teeth into a more strip-like fashion. Carefully, Rukaji began to tie Keisuke's arm against his side, though a little further in, toward the chest. The bandaging job was done in a diagonal pattern; going from the left side of his neck down to under the right arm and back up across the back to meet and repeat. Once securely fastened, Rukaji tied it neatly at his neck.

Once more, she slumped down. Though this time, she had lifted Keisuke's top half up a bit and sat behind him, letting the unconscious boy lay back against her like a pillow. Her injured arm fell limply at her side as she petted the boy's hair with her still functional hand. It was an act of comfort, though maybe more for herself since she still assumed him to be out cold.

A sigh. Hopefully, the chaos was over for now. Tired, half-lidded eyes gazed out at nothing in particular. Rukaji looked both emotionally and physically drained as she sat there, hand running through Keisuke's hair in an almost robotic fashion now. Occasionally, she glanced back down at Kei, to make sure his chest was still rising and falling in the tell-tale sign of breathing. He had better live... she told him he wasn't allowed to leave her, after all. As she continued to look down at him, however, she frowned... he was covered in blood, she prayed he didn't lose too much.

You can't leave me...