A Hole in One's Heart [Kakashi Hatake]

Chapter 75: Awakening

So I'm reading this book right now that goes over a lot of the same scenes just from different point of views, and I really like the effect that it creates so there will be some of that in this chapter. I did a lot of that at the beginning of the book, but recently I've been going through things too quickly to slow down and look at things from different perspectives. Alrighty then, enjoy!

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     The first thing that I noticed was the pain. That searing, soul rending, burning pain that stemmed from my temples and poured down through my veins to infect every other cell in my body. The second thing that I noticed was that I was noticing things. I was lucid. However, I had no idea where I could be or what was even going on as time seemed to no longer hold any meaning to me. Time's hold on me had been released as I saw things from the past, present, and future all at once, and I no longer knew when these thoughts were taking place. I no longer knew when or where I was. I could have tried to remember the last thing that I'd seen before passing out, but my brain hurt too badly to entertain such thoughts.

     Completely disoriented, I tried to crack open an eye. After a few unsuccessful tries, the eyelids separated with a sic as the crust coming from my tear ducts was split.

     There was a blurry face hovering my vision. The moon was a blood red, and it formed a halo around a head of glowing, golden hair. Bright orange eyes with cross like pupils gazed down at me in concern. The whole thing was so ethereal that I started to wonder if I was actually dead. Except that if I was dead, then I probably wouldn't be in this much pain.

     Slowly, the scene in front of eyes blurred into focus, and it happened to be none other than Naruto kneeling next to me. I was in some sort of hole, and he was gently pulling me out of it and onto the ground just to my right.

     "N-Naruto?" The last thing that I seemed to remember was a grown up Naruto with his children so seeing him as a teen again was weird.

     He gave me a weary smile, "You really scared me there, you know. If it wasn't for your chakra, I would have thought that you were dead."

     I had appeared dead? Well, I definitely felt a lot better after being raised from the dead than I felt at this current moment. Speaking of this current moment, I still had no idea when this current moment was. In my desperation, I reached up to grab his arm, "Tell me, what just happened? What's going on right now?"

     He scratched his chin in thought, "Well, I had Kurama extracted from me and almost died, and then I met Super Gramps in my mind or something like that. Turns out that I'm the reincarnation of his younger son, Ashura, and Sasuke's the reincarnation of his older son, Indra. Pretty cool, huh? And then Super Gramps gave me and Sasuke some of his power, and I woke up. When I did, I was with Sakura and Obito in this alternate dimension thingy. Then Obito sent me back, and now here I am. I'm heading over to fight Madara right now."

     I let go of Naruto's arm so that my hand was laying down on the ground like the rest of me, "So that's where we're at right now. Thanks, Naruto, I had gotten a little confused about what I had actually lived and what was only a memory. You should hurry back to the battle now. And when you get there, keep an eye out for Guy. He opened all eight of his inner gates to fight Madara, and you can save him the same way that you just saved me. You have to hurry and-" a large, hacking cough cut me off.

     That cough prompted a huge coughing fit as my dry throat heaved, and I could feel each cough pop through the phlegm accumulated in the back of my throat with a gross cracking sound.

     Naruto looked very concerned as I continued to struggle to breathe, "Ana, are you alright? How are you feeling?"

     I managed to smirk at him before diving headlong into another cough fit, "In truth," cough, cough, "I feel like," cough, "absolute shit." I took a really deep breath to try and still my rebelling diaphragm, "Naruto, you've already wasted too much time here with me. You need to," cough, "go and save Guy."

     "I'll head right over to them, but I can't leave you here in this state, you know."

     "No!" I curled up into the fetal position as the outburst tore the air out of my lungs with more dry coughs, "Leave me. I'll be," cough," fine."

     Naruto shook his head with a small smile before performing the sign of rabbit, "Shadow Clone Jutsu."

     A new Naruto appeared and propped me up off the ground, "I'll get Ana to the Medical Corps."

     Naruto nodded to his duplicate, "I'm counting on you."

     "I know," the Naruto-clone picked me up in his arms and ran off as the real Naruto ran off in the direction of the battle. I smiled because I knew the outcome of this war. I knew that Naruto would be triumphant.

     I drifted into a state of half-sleep as the clone carried me. I was aware of everything going on, but the only thing that filled my consciousness was the pain, the burning, the feeling that all of my nerve endings were made of fire. The pain kept me from being able to fall asleep.

     I blinked as, after what felt like an eternity, Naruto stopped running. We were in the medical base camp, and all of the noncombatant-medics were rushing around to take care of the injured.

     There was talking by my head as I was transferred from the Naruto-clone's arms to a hospital bed. The clone disappeared in a puff of smoke, and I started coughing again. Each cough ripped from my lungs up to my mouth, and I could have sworn that my larynx was now in tattered shreds. I knew that it was still intact, but that's what it felt like.

     A mask with oxygen and narcotics was placed over my nose and mouth as blood started to accompany every respiratory convulsion.

     Soon the narcotics kicked in, and the pain turning my vision a strange, reddish color started to recede as my breathing began to even out slightly. I studied my surroundings more intently now and recognized the medic hunched over with glowing, green hands laid over my lungs. Yugao, the former ANBU agent turned medic after the death of her lover, Hayate. She did a wonderful job so soon the mask was removed, and I was propped up in bed to allow my air passageways to open up more.

     "Ana, do you know where you are right now?"

     I opened up my mouth to answer, but my poor vocal cords no longer seemed able to produce a sound so I just nodded.

     "Good. Do you know who I am?" I nodded again, and Yugao realized that I couldn't talk. She placed a hand on my throat. "Your vocal cords are just in shock right now, but in a bit you should be able to talk normally again. Is it alright if I ask you a few more questions? All you'll have to do is nod."

     I nodded in the affirmative, and she gave me a small smile.

     "Alright, I'll make this quick and then you can go to sleep. How many fingers am I holding up?" She held up three fingers so I gave three very deliberate blinks because the rest of my body wasn't responding well to the instructions that my brain sent out. She marked it down on the chart that she was holding, "Good." After several minutes of what I knew was her checking for a concussion or other form of brain damage, Yugao put down the clipboard. She started to pull the blankets up under my chin and get me situated comfortably, "You're really lucky, you know. Naruto told us where he found you, and if you hadn't been trapped in that safe pocket under the boulder, you probably would have been killed during the battle. As it is, Naruto found you just in time; you were starting to run low on air. Here's the call button if you need anything, but for now we need you to sleep off your fever."

     My split lips curled into a tiny smile of thanks as Yugao walked out of the tent and closed the flap, leaving me in complete darkness. Knowing that I was safe and the world would come out of this safely, I fell fast asleep.

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If you're wondering, yes, I always planned on having Naruto save Ana with the same power that he uses to save Guy and restore Kakashi's eye. Welp, I'll see you at the next update ^_^

Edited 5/3/2016