"We can't be lost, I left a huge blood trail behind me!" Shizi wails, her vision flickering from blood loss and she felt her forehead press into Naruto's neck. He held her closer to himself as he picked a random direction to wander off towards. He needed to find home before she died from her open wound bleeding out.
"Shizi, you need to stay awake, okay." She muttered out a yes and forced her eyes open. The sun started to set, but it seemed earlier than it should be. Maybe he lost track of time. Setting Shizi against a bare tree, Naruto dug out a snowy cave and pulled her into the cavern slowly so she would hurt as little as possible. He tried as well as he could to close her injury without ripping it open more. It did little to staunch the flow, but it was better than nothing. Shizi forced her eyes to stay open against the heaviness weighing upon them like lead.
"Naruto, can I go to sleep yet?" Her words were slurred and slow, but got his attention anyway. He leaned over to see her pupils starting to dilate. Naruto gently cupped her cheeks and looked closer to see if her eyes were glazing over, signs that she was slipping away into the other world. Luckily they weren't, but they were very dilated.
"Not yet, Shizi, we have to get home and get you patched up first, okay?" The girl nodded and let her head drop against his collarbone. The boy gently wrapped her thick, brunette hair around his fingers as he shifted her closer to his body to share his body heat with the injured neko. He forced himself to keep awake as well, he wanted to ensure Shizi survived the night so they could find their way home and get her to a hospital. It felt like an eternity before the sun finally arose and he helped Shizi out of the snow cave and carried her around with him as he searched for the correct path home and to help for Shizi. Naruto had a hard time keeping his body from sinking into the deep snow, using Chakra to keep his feet atop the snow and to minimize the impact of pain taking heavy steps through thick snow would have on Shizi's weak and injured abdomen. Shizi began to sweat and unevenly breath like she had just ran and was out of breath, unlike Naruto who was almost shivering in the bitter and snappy winds.
"Naruto, I'm hot." She tries to slip off her coat, but the blonde kept her from success.
"Shizi, you're hurt and probably are starting to get an infection, but you can't take off your clothes. It'll only make it worse." Shizi groaned but obeyed his words in putting her jacket back on. There was a loud snap, and Naruto instantly stopped moving- highly alert for an enemy Shinobi or dangerous animal that attacked Yasei before. Shizi forced her eyes open wider to see what could've made the noise, seeing a long stretch of white between bare trees on both sides. Her sluggish and fogged mind connected the dots slowly.
"Naruto, we're standing on a-" The ground below them collapsed and both dropped into sub-zero waters. Naruto broke through the dark and cold waters and he gasped at the cold temperatures and snapped around to find Shizi, seeing nothing relatively close to the girl. She must've slipped under the water due to her injury preventing her from moving much. He drew in a deep breath and dropped under the freezing water to find the girl. He spotted her as she sunk through the pale light shafts, her eyes closed and air bubbles floating up from her pale lips. Naruto pushed Chakra into his feet and used it to propel himself down to her, scooped her into his chest, and used the Chakra to push back up towards the surface. He broke the surface, breathing unevenly as his body fought to keep up its core temperature. Shoving the unconscious neko up onto the white snow, Naruto struggled to climb out of the hole and up onto the ice.
He finally drug himself out of the frigid waters and curled himself around Shizi, hoping that the combination of their body heats would keep their internal temperatures above the deadly low points. The warmth caused Shizi to slowly awaken, seeing the blonde's extremely pale face centimeters from her own. He was shivering uncontrollably, his teeth clattering almost audibly. Shizi leaned over and gently pecked the Uzumaki on his chiseled cheek.
"Shizi, a-are you o-okay?" She slowly nodded and gently placed her hands against his cheeks in hopes to warm up his skin. He leaned into her touch and shakily turned to kiss her cold fingers.
"N-Naruto, are y-you oka-ay?" He shakily nodded but his teeth started to chatter quite loudly now, letting her know that he was much colder than she due to her raging fever from before. Without thinking, Shizi leaned over and pressed her lips to his bluish ones in an attempt to give him some of her body heat. He sluggishly returned her kiss, his brain too frozen and slow to register his own movements. They huddled together until almost midmorning when they're more warmed up and in control of themselves once again. They were very slow, but soon Naruto was back on his feet and carrying Shizi as he followed the river towards the source, hoping it was close to Konohagakure and safety. They slowly made their way upriver, stopping every so often to rest and Naruto would cradle Shizi close to his chest to share the body heat he was generating by walking.
"Naruto, what if we can't find our way home again?" Shizi voiced her loud and unfiltered comment. Naruto glanced down at her with a determined gleam in his worn, blue eyes.
"Don't think like that, Shizi. We'll get home, believe it." She firmly nodded and sat upwards slightly to gently kiss the blonde Uzumaki once more. That's when she spotted something running right for them at an amazingly quick speed.
"Naruto, what is that?" He swung around to see what she was referring to, his blue eyes squinting to try and make it out. The object grew close enough to make out what it was, and Naruto instantly began to sprint as best he could.
"What is it? What's chasing us?" She looked over his shoulder to see why he started to run away from whatever it was. It was a huge beast, but cut through the snow like a hot knife through butter. The fur matched the snow almost perfectly, save for the eyes, nose and massive claws. As fast a Naruto ran, the beast was much quicker and caught up to them in seconds, using its massive body weight to smash them both to the snow. Shizi tried to instantly force her broken body into a stand, but the pains was too much for her. Naruto stopped her by gently placing his hands on her shoulders and softly pushing down until she relented and lay down on the snow as the blonde stood to face off with the beast.
It stood on its back legs, towering over Naruto monstrously. He knew he had no weaponry, having lost them in the river when he plunged in with Shizi. The animal locked its dark eyes on the boy and roared as loud as it could, shaking the snow off trees nearby. Naruto pushed Chakra into his fist and punched at the beast with all his strength, landing on its shoulder and shoving the animal backwards a few feet. The creature automatically reacted, snapping forward and swinging its massive paw at the boy's chest. Naruto had just enough time to dodge out of the lethal zone, the razor claws slicing into the skin over his chest, but not into his heart. The blonde dropped to his knees with his hands over his wounds. The beast drew back for another attack, its claws blocked from Naruto by a black metal staff. The staff belonged to Jingxiao, Shizi had summoned the weapon and had jumped in the way of the monster attacking Naruto.
Shizi and the beast face off with each other angrily. Shizi had on hand to her injury, hoping the monster didn't notice that she was weakened. She was wrong as the animal knew exactly where to attack her. She luckily dodged the lethal blow and was able to fend the beast away. She was instantly to Naruto's aid, checking to see the true damage to his person. Nothing vital was punctured, and she helped Naruto into a stand and they both limped with each other towards the source of the river once more.
"We'll be okay, we'll be okay..." Shizi chanted to herself as her and Naruto shuffle and work their way to where they hope home to be. Both walked as far as they could until their energy gave out and they collapsed into the cold snow, panting and exhausted. Shizi tried as hard as she could to push Naruto over onto his back, but her arms could barely even get to him without shaking weakly. She did successfully turn his head out of the white snow so he could breathe. He was already unconscious, and she wasn't too far behind him. She used all the power she had left to lean over and gently kiss him for the third time that day. She managed to choke out a few words before she dropped into total darkness.
"I'm sorry, Naruto, I failed."
YOU ARE READING
Beautiful Monsters
Fanfiction"The true measure of a Shinobi is not how he lives, but how he dies..." Shizi Yemao's pretty smile hides her secrets and her pretty eyes have cried too many tears. It's scary what her smile has come to hide, and she has gotten better at hiding the...
