I Can't Stand You

The Red String - Mizuka / The Bitch Is Back - Kakashi

"KAT!"

Mizuka ran to Ebisu's side, but he was fading fast. Katsu was crying as she held his lifeless body in her arms.  He had an arrow sticking through his neck, lodged in his shoulder blade.  Straight through his carotid artery.  He was a dead man.

"Dammit."

"He's dead... he's dead..."

Mizuka couldn't let him go like this.  She had to try something.  Anything was better than letting him finish bleeding out in the burning park.

 Konohamaru rushed over as well; he was on patrol and had come to get her as soon as he saw the fireball and heard screaming.  He held the sweater around his sensei's neck at Mizuka's demand, trying to keep whatever blood was in him from seeping out, giving a shaking, screaming Kat a break.  She dug through her bag frantically. Needles, tubing, tape, a clamp. She had never done a direct blood transfusion. Theoretically, she had studied it. She knew it was possible. Maybe it was possible?  All she could do was try. Rigging the needles and tubing together, she taped them and clamped the middle. This was insane.

"Kat! Give me your arm! You're going to have to trust me!"

She nodded and Mizuka jammed a needle into her radial artery in her wrist, making Kat cry out in pain. The tubing filled with blood up to the clamp.

"Hold it and start praying, Katsu!"

She jammed the other needle into Ebisu's neck,  attempting to bypass the arrow . Pulling the arrow out in a bloody motion, she instructed Konahamaru to keep applying pressure. She took the clamp off and the blood flowed freely into Ebisu's side of the tubing. Summoning her chakra orbs she began to patch his artery. Through her chakra, she could see that there was blood coming into the artery through the needle.

"Kat! Let me know when you start to get dizzy!"

Around them, there was chaos. Water users were putting out the fire around them. The smoke was becoming thick in the air. Mizuka's eyes burned, but she had to continue.

And then, Katsu fell over.

"DAMMIT, KAT!"

She quickly clamped the tube and pulled it from her arm, putting a wad of gauze on her wrist.  Pulling her medical tape out, she wrapped it tightly around her wrist, tearing it off with her teeth.

"KONAHAMARU! TAKE HER TO THE HOSPITAL!  NOW!"

The chakra patch was acceptable for now. It was keeping the transfused blood in. Konohamaru gently picked her up, awkwardly holding her wrist, as he took off from the scene. Now, it was her and Ebisu. In the distance, she heard her husband on the scene. Kakashi was here.

There was a reason that she used Katsu first: she knew she would have to finish this, and she needed to patch him. She checked him for a pulse.  It was weak, but it was there.

"You're not fucking dying, you pervert."

She jammed the bloody needle into her own radial artery and unclamped it. Her blood flowed smoothly into Ebisu's carotid artery again. She had to get enough to him to get him to the hospital alive. She felt her own head getting dizzy soon. It was time.

"KAKASHI! HELP!"

She yelled louder than she ever had for her husband. She needed to go a little further, and she needed Ebisu out of here first.  So she needed to act like she was fine.

"MIZUKA!"

She couldn't give any more. Her head was dizzy. She felt weak. She clamped the needle and took it out of her wrist, putting gauze on it. She took the needle from Ebisu's neck and shoved gauze against the wound, taping it tightly but clumsily. She put her ear against his chest. His heart was beating a little stronger. She could hear his shallow breathing. He had enough blood for his body to function. Enough to get to the hospital.

She was trying to look like she was okay, but it felt as if she were extremely drunk.

"KAKASHI! HE NEEDS THE HOSPITAL! NOW! TAKE HIM!"

"WHAT ABOUT YOU?"

The were yelling the chaos.

"I'M FINE!  HE'S DYING!  HE NEEDS TO GO NOW!  SAVE HIM, KAKASHI!"

Kakashi scooped him up and raced off toward the hospital.

And, that was it. The fire was still roaring around her, but her patients were on their way to the hospital. She was surrounded by the contents of her bag: gauze, cotton wads, tubing, needles, and blood. There was blood everywhere. She was covered in it. But, it didn't matter. The red string may bend or knot, but it will never break. She had to keep them on the same plane of existence, so they could have more time together.  She had to make sure that Ebisu stayed with Katsu. She had done her job. Taking the tape, she tightly wrapped the gauze against her own wrist, securing it.

Laying back against the bloody ground, she looked up through the smoky air at the stars, coughing. She had done all she could do, and she allowed herself to feel a little pride.

She did it.

***

Kakashi delivered a half dead Ebisu to the hospital. Konohamaru was in the corridor, looking overwhelmed and covered in blood.  The healers must've known he was coming; they were ready with a gurney and a team of healers. Kakashi placed him on it and they rushed him down the hallway.

"Shizune is here."

Konohamaru was monotone when he spoke.

"That's good. She'll do the rest."

Kakashi put a hand on the young shinobi's shoulder as they stared down the corridor together.

"I brought a woman in. I don't know who she is. Mizuka took her blood and put it in Ebisu Sensei's neck. Like a direct transfusion. And then she had me bring her here.  It was crazy.  She's clinically insane."

"Light brown hair?"

"Yes. I think so. It was dark and she was bloody."

Kakashi nodded.

"I'VE GOT ONE MORE!"

Kakashi turned to see Genma running down the corridor with Mizuka in his arms. He felt the color drain from his face.

"I found her in the middle of the chaos in the forest. I think she's okay, but she's inhaled a lot of smoke."

She coughed as Kakashi took her and cradled her against his chest. Someone yelled out.

"GURNEY FOR THE BOSS! BOSS IS BACK!"

Mizuka mumbled in his arms, half conscious.

"'The bitch is back'... it's 'the bitch is back'..."

Kakashi chuckled, brushing the sooty hair from her face.

"Thanks Genma. She'll be fine."

"They found a body in the aftermath. Appears to be male. Metal bow. Burned to a crisp."

Kakashi nodded.

"So he got Tor the Archer... one less for the bingo book and one less headache for us."

He looked down at Mizuka, speaking to her gently.

"How much blood did you give him, Z?"

"Enough to transfer him here."

"Not gonna tell me, huh?  Konohamaru said you were amazing."

"No, I said you're clinically insane."

"Let me deal with you after I get some blood, Sarutobi."

She mumbled some more incoherent things before curling into Kakashi. The gurney came down the hall and he placed her on it gently.

"Katsu's back there, maybe you can sit with her and keep her company, Konohamaru."

He nodded, looking a little unsure.