The Red Maelstrom

[13] Halcyon

"Kohana, you... can let go now..." Sasuke said breathlessly as he tried to pry his friend off him. They were currently in their room and since no one was around, Kohana had taken the chance to hug the life out of Sasuke, just as she'd intended. After what had happened on the bridge, Kohana couldn't bear to let Naruto and Sasuke out of sight. Both of them seemed to mind at first, but they quickly understood because even Sakura acted similarly.

Kohana shook her head with it still buried in Sasuke's shoulder.

Sasuke sighed and continued to pry her off, only to stop short when he must have realized that Kohana was already crying.

"Hey... stop crying. You—"

"If you die like that again, I'll seriously kill you." She'd had enough stress that one day to last her a life time. These days, she still woke up feverish on the rare case that she didn't have a nightmare. Otherwise, she scared Sasuke half to death so many times from her night terrors. When the sun was high in the sky, however, it was almost as if Kohana's nightmares weren't plaguing her in the first place; those dead men in her sleep were the furthest thing from her mind.

Sasuke gently pushed her away and wiped Kohana's tears away with the back of his hand. "I won't die, don't worry. Now stop it; my shirt's getting wet."

Kohana rolled her eyes and sniffled as she looked down at her hands. "Sorry..."

"What are you saying now?" Sasuke questioned, slightly irritated at the fact that she was apologizing. For whatever it was she obviously didn't do.

"I didn't get to protect—"

Sasuke groaned, covering her mouth. "Have some faith in us for once, will you? Worry about yourself sometimes."

Kohana pouted. "I do have faith! It was just differ—" she cut herself off when it was Sasuke's turn to hug her, pulling her to his chest. There was not a single drop of discomfort in the act, and Kohana was grateful for it. She couldn't even help but blush; he'd never hugged her for as long a duration as he was doing now. Shaking the thought away, she briefly hugged back until they both had to pull away.

"It's done. I'm alive, it was not your fault... And..." Sasuke coughed awkwardly. "You should know by now that I'm not the hugging type."

Kohana grinned mischievously and nudged Sasuke's arm repeatedly. "Then what type are 'ya, hmm...?"

Sasuke's eyes widened in disbelief, the pink tinge in his cheeks growing much darker than Kohana had ever seen it. He stood up, pulling her with him and started to push her towards the door. "Th-That's not what I meant. Get out!" he hissed, sliding the door open and harshly pushing Kohana outside.

"C'mon, it's our room!"

The response she got was the door slamming shut in her face.

"Wuss!"

"Sis?"

Kohana spun around and threw her arms around Naruto, hugging him out of nowhere. "Naruto!"

Naruto grinned. "Hey! Woah, sis... your eyes are red! Were you crying?" he demanded and looked past Kohana and at the door to her room. "Was it that bastard Sasuke? What did he do now? Why—"

"Naruto!" Kohana snapped, laughing as she patted her brother's blonde head. "Don't worry about it! I just got somethin' in my eyes."

As always, her brother looked confused, tilting his head to the side. "Both of them?"

Still embarrassed, Kohana shook her head and slung an arm on Naruto's shoulders as she pulled him forward and towards the living room. "It's nothin' to worry about, yeah? But... hey..." she fell silent for a moment. Despite Sasuke's words, the pain of the battle at the bridge days before was fresh like a festering wound. She had been outside of that dome and yet she couldn't find a way to save her teammates, and the more she thought about it, the more images of what could have occurred resurfaced in her nightmares. It took far too long for her to reconcile the fact that they were all alive with her fears. Kohana knew she had been traumatized to some level, and that she would bring these fears with her until she would be able to overcome them (by some miracle).