Songs For The Heartbroken: That's What You Get

Chapter 9

"So, how is your training going? You know, for the chunin exams" Hana asked as she took her water bottle and drowned its contents.

We were both sweating buckets after being exposed to fire jutsu for too long. We had been going at it for a while now, and keeping Tume-sama at bay took a whole lot of effort. One did not want to engage the Inuzuka alpha on close combat, and so we had been forced to use any long range combat skills we possessed. To attempt otherwise would have been considered suicidal, even for a jonin.

"Our teamwork and coordinated attacks are going well enough. Hotaka just needs to get over himself a little..." I sighed, taking the drink from her hands and gulping half its contents.

"How about your team? They giving you or the brothers any grief?" Hana had been introduced to her three littermates a while ago, but they hadn't been old enough to start training up until now.

The three Haimaru brothers had retreated to the shade of a nearby bush. They had been aiding Hana and me in our spar against Tsume-sama for about forty minutes and apparently had decided to call it a day. Even without her companion, Hana's mom was a force to be reckoned with and it took all five of us and almost an hour to land a solid hit on her.

"Nah, they tried to at first but when Tobio thought he was bleeding to death and I refused to stitch him up, they kind of eased up." I chuckled at the merciless nature of my friend. She might have been the calmest of the Inuzuka, but by no means was she to be messed with.

We took our turns in splashing our heads and necks with the hose in her garden and stretched a bit before giving Tsume-sama the all clear. We had agreed to hold a weekly training session at the Inuzuka's and every now and then Hana's mom offered to be our opponent. It was those days that we had the most fun, and at the end of it all, the most pain. But that was exactly what we both wanted; the ache of the muscles and bones at the end of training was the best thing we could ask for. Those nights I slept like a log and Shisui would have to come wake me himself.

I flew through the signs of the great fireball for what seemed like the hundredth time that day, and as I exhaled the biggest flame I had managed until then, I realized my hands were getting thoroughly burnt. I let go of the jutsu to assess the damage, but before I could do anything about it, Tsume's foot was digging into my ribcage and sending me flying over the field.

Time seemed to slow down as the air was forcibly taken from my lungs and I found myself suspended in mid air for a moment before landing hard on the floor and rolling a few feet. I couldn't breathe. I struggled to get air back into my lungs but it suddenly seemed a lot harder that it should have. Wheezing, I hugged my chest in an attempt to force my ribcage to move, to do something. Once I managed to get a single breath in, the rest followed suit.

Okay, now my hands.

I kneeled slowly and turned my hands to see the damage. They were a ruin. Entire pieces of skin had been burnt off, and some of the cloth that belonged to my gloves had melted onto what was left of it.

"Akane-chan!" I looked up to see Tsume's worried face.

Hana was beside me, with one hand on my left shoulder, trying to figure out if I was okay.

"I think I need to go to the hospital." I said quietly, trying not to show how much pain I really was in.

My ribcage was okay as far as I could tell, but my hands were a mess and I didn't think any amount of ointment would help. Hana nodded and looked up at her mother. The head of the Inuzuka clan didn't hesitate to take me in her arms and without a word shunshined us both to the hospital.

"I apologize for this, Akane-chan. I should have realized you were hurt before continuing the attack."

I looked up at Tsume and realized just how bad she felt. It made me feel uneasy. It wasn't every day that one got an Inuzuka to apologize, least of all the clan's Alpha. But I could see genuine regret in her eyes, and the fact that the mistake had been mine made me feel even worse.