An Inch of Gold

4

This chapter has been beta-read by: shatteredjewels & Sakura's Unicorn    

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Team 7 bursts out of the trees and into a clearing. The space is utterly empty but for the metres-wide crater in the ground; it continues to emit clouds of dust into the air.

Kakashi motions for his team to stay back then takes several tentative steps forward, senses alert in case any threats make themselves known. Once he gets within several paces of the depression, however, he freezes in disbelief.

In the middle of the broken earth, the body of a child lies motionless.

It's a girl, he discovers, and one not much older than Sakura. She is spread-eagled on her back, blood soaking her face and black hair. Her right arm juts out at an impossible angle—dislocated shoulder, from the look of it—and her hand looks shattered. Bone fragments pierce through the skin there.

"Oh my gosh!" Sakura cries, hurrying forward. "Is she okay?"

"Be careful," Kakashi tells her, forcing her to stay back. "We don't know where she came from or how she got here. And we don't know the capabilities of anyone on this side of the phenomenon."

"But she's in such bad shape..."

Which is an understatement, considering the girl is so bruised and battered that her clothing is in tatters. Entire chunks of her dull red tunic have been torn away, likely from falling debris.

"She's wearing a hitai-ate," Naruto points out, peeking over the depression in the ground. His eyes widen. "She's from Konoha!"

Sakura pushes forward at that, sliding down into the crater to kneel by the girl. She presses her fingers to the side of her neck and her eyes widen. "She's alive!"

"We've got to help her!" Naruto insists, also scrambling down to help.

Sasuke hangs back, staring at the prone figure in calculation.

"Where did she come from?" he mutters.

Which is exactly what Kakashi would like to know.

He glances up, hoping for a clue, but sees nothing except clouds. Given the formation of the crater and the angle she's lying at, she had to have fallen from directly above. Which makes no sense, considering there's nothing she could have fallen from. The cliffs towering over the valley are a good three hundred or so metres away.

The girl groans.

"Look, Kakashi-sensei! She's waking up!" Sakura cries, and everyone's attention shifts to the stranger whose eyelids flutter. Her face spasms in pain, and her eyes squint open.

Kakashi and Sasuke move closer to her as well.

"Are you all right?" Naruto asks, despite the obvious answer.

"... Mama... Papa..." she murmurs dazedly, frowning at Kakashi and Naruto. "Uncle...?"

Sakura leans over her, concern etched into every part of her small frame. "Do you think she's delirious or something?"

"Probably a concussion. Check her pupils," Sasuke points out, now also crouching down beside her.

"That's not a surprise," Kakashi admits, remembering the sudden yell and how fast the explosion came afterward. "A fall from that height should have killed her."

The question is why it didn't.

"Hey!" Naruto shouts exuberantly, darting away and back in an instant. He cradles something in his hands. "Look what I found!"