Fight (a Naruto reborn fanfiction)

🩸🥀 XXII 🥀🩸

I said this last chapter already, but please check out Brick + Mortar if you have the time. Their music is absolutely breathtaking. I especially recommend 'Terrible things', 'Bangs' and 'Brighter than the Sun'.

Enjoy this chapter and don't forget to join my cult if you're interested. We bake cookies and play Minecraft every friday. Or at least I hope we will one day. If you are interested in what kind of cookies exactly, Me and MoonstruckMadness have had a discussion about it in the comments of chapter 16.

This story has over 10k reads and 500 favourites! Honestly, when I started writing this, I didn't think so many people would read this, I'm a bit overwhelmed! But that's nothing bad, so I just wanted to say thank you to you who are reading this right now, I really appreciate the support. I hope yo ucan continue to enjoy this story!

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Himari wakes up bathed in sweat. She can feel hotness running beneath her skin, the fever that has claimed her and rendered her useless for some time. She doesn't know how long she has been asleep, doesn't know what happened to Orichimaru, doesn't know how the war is going. It's a heavy topic to think about.

She struggles to stand up, desperately wanting to check up on her friend, to see him breathing, alive. The universe denies her such mercy.

She cannot move, her body is paralyzed with exhaustion. It wakes unpleasant memories, many of them, of being pushed too far beyond her limits by both sets of parents she has had. The horrible white walls of the hospital, the heartless looks of her parents, the nurses with burdens too heavy to pay attention to a nutcase such as her.

The beeping of monitors, the pressure of a blood pressure monitor, the sting of an IUV and oxygen saturation monitor. The feeling of losing control over your muscles, of lying there twitching uncontrollably, crying until she had no more tears to cry.

The dirty white walls of her clans healing tent, much more primitive options for measuring if any, but once again left alone with only her horrible thoughts to keep her company. No visits, not even the beeping of a heart rate monitor, nothing. Only an eery silence that stretched out for what felt like centuries.

She wants to shake her head to get out of her thoughts, to leave them behind, wants to shed those memories and evolve, be free of the nightmares that plague her, but she can't. It's like she's chained down with the heaviest shackles that can be found, unable to move even an inch.

The fight has woken something inside of her, has broken the pandoras box that kept her bad thoughts at bay for such a long time, has unleashed a whole new world of blame and misery.

Someone enters the tent she is laying in. The chakra signature is familiar, as familiar as it can get. Himari's eyes open. She stares at the white ceiling, concentrating on the signature as if her life depended on it. In this moment, it might as well do.

Tsunade checks her vitals with a quick, practised motion. Her eyes widen at the result, and she looks at Himari, truly looks and doesn't just graze her with her gaze.

"Himari, you're awake! How are you feeling? Oh, what am I asking, of course you feel like shit, you just woke up from chakra exhaustion."

She wants to move, wants to assure her light that everything is fine, but she can't. She is terrified, the pictures that plague her ha e grown on number, the manhandled corpse of a friend, the terrifying expression of another.

Her mind twists the pictures into a story that doesn't fit, that isn't true even in the slightest, but it doesn't matter.

"Orichimaru...", she somehow manages to rasp, and it feels like the biggest victory won in her life. The feeling of being in the unknown terrifies her more than everything else.

"He's fine. You should worry about yourself here! Out of the two of you, the injuries you sustained are ten times more severe! I thought I told you to take care of yourself, dumbass! How did you even manage to get so much internal damage without any bruises on the outside?!"

Oh. Himari wants to sigh in relief. The people who are dear to her are safe. She doesn't have to worry at the moment. Then, another realization hits. The internal injuries. It's so easy to piece the whole story together now. She nearly forgot about the vow she made after so many years.

Still, the weight being lifted off her shoulders at the words feels like mountains and she can finally breathe again. A smile settles on her face and suddenly, she can move again.

She may be in the place she hates most but unlike before, there is no silence. Tsunade fills it with chatter and angry ranting about Jiraiya's antics, about her newest studies and about the new friend she has made.

It allows Himari to relax. A pleasant feeling unfurls in her chest, a warmth so different than the one before.

Because even in a world filled with agony, one can always find joy. Like darkness can't exist without light, she too is content being in the dark while her friends can experience all the brightness the world has to offer. She is the shadow to their figure, but it's alright. Because their smile is worth all the light in the world.

Orichimaru wakes up feeling winded, like someone put him through a wringer multiple times. Which is a surprise, given that he didn't expect to wake up at all. Sure, he has experimented with his cells, has enhanced the abilities he was born with, but healing a stab wound which has some kind of curse on it is beyond his abilities.

The medics take quick notice of his awakening and take him to get a few things tested. He's only been out for a bit over ten hours, they tell him, and he's glad. But there's this gnawing feeling at the back of his mind that something is wrong.

He asks the medics what happened and their response shocks him to his very core. Himari had carried him here, gravely injured, and had passed out just as they took him from her hands.

No stab wound in sight. Orichimaru comes to a simple conclusion. He has known that Himari is powerful, even more so than him and the others, although without proper recognition.

She must've healed him, somehow, and gotten injured in the process. Guilt makes itself known in his chest, claws on his heart until he's sure it's bleeding. The person dearest to him got injured because of him.

She's asleep in the neighbouring tent, they tell him, not to be disturbed. He ignores them, silently opening the entrance to her tent instead. She looks to be in good condition on the outside, but her face is scrunched together in discomfort and her chakra is wavering.

However, he doesn't have the time to worry. A messenger tells him about his next mission, and he has never wanted to dessert more than he does now. But he can't, not with Himari in this state. All he can do is get stronger, in a desperate attempt to not weigh Himari down ever again.

He takes the invitation to slaughter Iwa shinobi with gratitude. They deserve a painful death for injuring his beloved that way. Orichimaru is more than happy to provide assistance.
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Another chapter finished! And don't worry about my mental health, I totally didn't project my trauma onto unfortunate Himari. Nope, wasn't me. Mother said it's my turn to traumatize my favorites!

Anyways, what do you think? Comments are always appreciated, it literally makes my week when someone takes the time to leave some words, be it encouraging or funny or just something simple like 'mood'.

I promise I'll get back to the horny gripping soon, but I was feeling sad. And also I'm returning from Korea to my hometown in two days which feels like post nut clarity setting in. Not that I have experience.

So yeah. Survived the Jamboree, time to go back and spiral right back onto my depressive episode, I am delighted. Feel the sarcasm. Credits to one of my friends btw, she helped me decide if I should traumatized Himari further or not. Be grateful that she had mercy. Enough of my rambling. Have a great day my lovelies!

Naruto is Kishimoto's toy, I'm just playing with it.