Songs For The Heartbroken: That's What You Get

Chapter 14

Scorch marks littered the clearing like a polka dot pattern, adorned with stray kunai and craters of all sizes as well. The grass beneath our feet was no more, and as the dust settled around us, my opponents came into view. The Haimaru brothers had retreated into the foliage because of some broken bone or other induced by yours truly. They hadn't been happy with Hana's order, leaving their partner to fend off the enemy by herself was something that did not sit well with them, but pain and lack of mobility had left them with no other choice. I for one had been relieved of the crippling guilt of injuring puppies, and could not have been happier.

Hana had stood her ground and faced me on her lonesome, something she had never done, and because of it, she held nothing back. We went all out on each other, and got very close to exhausting each other to unconsciousness, but one fortunate (or in Hana's case, unfortunate) shot had made it all the way home, earning me the victory. One of my fire balls was faster than my friend's reflexes, and hit her full on the back.

The noise that came out of her mouth scared me half to death, and when the smoke finally settled and I could see my friend trembling on the ground, I couldn't bring myself to celebrate my win. Hana was on all fours, trembling and emitting little whimpers of pain as she tried to force some air back into her lungs. The entire back of her shirt had been burnt away and melted into her skin, all the way down her spine, raw and an angry shade of red.

Panting and lacking reason to continue with the fight, I approached my friend. She was in so much pain she didn't even notice my arrival, so when I reached out for her hand, she made to grab a kunai from her pouch out of mere instinct. When she saw it was only me, she let go of the weapon and shot me a grin that didn't quite mask the agony in her eyes.

"Now I know how your hands felt that one time you got burnt," said my friend, breathless. "Those things burn like a bitch."

If there was someone who could still smile after getting the skin of their back burnt off, then that was Hana. She knew this had been part of the risks of facing each other off in a hostile situation, and she would not hold it against me because this was the Chunin Exams, after all. It didn't stop me from feeling like trash though, hurting my friends and family was something I was willing to avoid even if I had to die for it, and being forced into this situation left a very sour taste in my mouth.

I smiled back as genuinely as I could before taking my first aid kit from my back pouch. Being a Fire Style user meant I spent considerable amounts of money on good ointments I carried everywhere, this particular one, was one of the best Konoha pharmacies could offer. Had I been prone to do the logical thing, I would have saved the ointment in case me or my team mates needed it later, but I was not about to leave my best friend injured and unable to move or protect herself in the forest of death while the Chunin Exams were taking place. So, before I set off to look for my team mates I patched her up and did what I could for the Haimaru brothers.

"This ointment has numbing qualities as well as disinfectant. If you manage to regroup within the next six hours and get your hands on a hostage, you could still make it."I tried to encourage my friend once I was done bandaging her and turned to take a look at the puppies. "You might have to carry a dog each though, I'm pretty sure I broke some bones earlier."

Hana groaned as she stood up with considerable instability. Her low pony tail had long succumbed under the strain of battle and her hair was now a wild brown mane that could rival her mother's. She glanced at her wounded littermates with a sad smile before turning to me and shooting me a wild grin I'd seen thousands of times since I'd met her. She looked rougher than I'd ever seen her, and knowing it was my work, tore at my heart guiltily.

"Hai,hai, Akane-chan." She said, walking towards the foliage to retrieve one of her fallen companions.

"I'm very sorry about this, Ha-chan, I shouldn't have- I went overboard." I said looking down in shame; even if I knew holding grudges over something like this was far beneath my friend.