Whispering Bells

Midnight Stirring

"Shikamaru, I'm so sorry," Ino sobbed as she cradled his head in her lap. She held the napkin tightly against his forehead to stop the bleeding. "I was just worried about you. I never meant for you to get hurt. Oh my god...I'm so sorry."

Shikamaru remained dead still, his face was extremely pale. Ino looked out towards the street. Where were they? Maybe Choji was right, maybe they should have taken him to the hospital right away. He wasn't looking very good.

As if on call, she saw her pink haired friend and Choji darting down the street at great speed towards them.

Sakura knelt down beside him, and placed a small bag beside her. "What happened? Choji didn't tell me much, he just said that Shikamaru passed out." She looked at his forehead. "This cut doesn't look good."

Ino sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I just wanted to find out what was going on with him. I was going to do my Mind Possession jutsu on him, but I didn't do it. He started making a counter sign, and then he just dropped unconscious and hit his head on the table."

Sakura frowned. There appeared to be a lot more going on that she wasn't being told about, but this wasn't the time for it. She gathered a healing chakra in her hands, and passed it over his head. The cut was superficial, and could be healed quickly. She moved her hands over his heart. There was something much more concerning there.

"His chakra level is so low. It's dangerously low. It's why he is unconscious. How did he get this way? Was there more to this argument than you are telling me?"

"No! It's just as I told you. He made that counter sign and then just dropped! Can you help him?"

Sakura looked at Ino contemplatively. "My guess was that his chakra level was extremely low, and then he tried to block your mind possession jutsu. I think he probably used the last of his chakra, and in a sense short circuited himself. " She thought for a moment. "I'm not sure, let me see if this will work." She gathered a large amount of chakra and made five hand signals. A stream of green chakra was flowing from herself into Shikamaru. She did this for a few minutes before breaking the jutsu. She was sweating from the exertion.

Shikamaru's face started to flush with colour. He gave a small cough and his eyes began to flutter.

"Shika!" Ino tried to hug him again, bursting into tears. Choji moved her back.

"Give him some room Ino. He's still really weak." Choji stated. He turned to Sakura "Is he going to be ok? Should we take him to the hospital?"

"Well, I did a Chakra Transfer technique on him, but I'm still not that strong at it. I think I essentially jump started his chakra to a safer level. Really Lady Tsunade is the expert on this. I think she could restore–"

"-No..." Shikamaru whispered barely audible. "No hospital...no Tsunade..."

Ino, Choji and Sakura all stared at each other.

"Sakura, is it safe? Will he be ok if we don't take him?"

"Well....I think his recovery will be a bit slower, but essentially he just needs a lot of rest. I have something that will help." She opened her medical bag and pulled out a small red pill. "This has a wonderful restorative quality, and should help ramp up his chakra production quickly. The negative side is that he'll pretty much sleep for days straight. It can also cause some hallucinations, but nothing major."

"Well where are we going to keep him? We can't really take him home like this without his parents asking a million questions. My family will also give me the third degree if I bring him over like this" Ino stated.

"He can stay at my place. My parents are out of town this week" Choji replied.

"Ok, but we need to come up with a story for Lady Tsunade. Not to mention, Shikamaru's parents and Asuma" Sakura pointed out.