My eyes are heavy, and it's difficult to open them. Even when I'd been up for nearly two days straight on a training expedition with Makara-sensei, I'd never felt so weighted before. So tired. The air around me is cold still, like it'd been before I'd gone unconscious. Oh, does this mean I'm awake again? I guess so, if I'm suddenly feeling everything, my injuries, included.

My whole body winces, a hot sensation rushing through it as if I'd been thrown into a fire – everything hurts!! And the things that don't hurt, I can't feel because I've been numbed, either from my injuries or the cold. I'm trying desperately to open my eyes now – if I'm still hurt like this, it means we haven't won against Zabuza and Haku, and that I'm still lying on this bridge, stuck inside Haku's Jutsu with Sasuke and Naruto.

I'm able to move my hands to cradle my throbbing head, feeling like it's been run over by one of Mister Tazuna's machines. And finally, finally, my eyes open.

The Jutsu has disappeared. Having woken up on my back, I'm facing the thick fog covering the bridge and clouding the sky. I'd then turned onto my side, where I'd last remembered Naruto laying next to me after he, too, went unconscious. But he isn't there. After spotting a figure in orange, my eyes home in on it, where I finally see him, awake, facing Haku one-on-one.

I hadn't noticed, but the ground around me has been scarred – by what, I wonder? And then, I look down at my body, my eyes widening in shock at the fact that all my visible injuries, and the deep one to my thigh, have been... healed? Just how long... have I been out? What have I missed? Why... are my wounds gone again? And wait, if Naruto's fighting Haku now, then... where's Sasuke? I turn the opposite way.

"Why do you not strike?" I hear Haku say. My quivering lips part in horror. "Did you not just vow to avenge your comrade's death by killing me? Or was that vow just empty words?"

I... I wish my eyes hadn't opened after all.

"S... Sa... suke?" I call.

I flip over onto my stomach with a grunt, my pain almost instantly having dulled at the sight of him and his injuries. Through his chest and through his stomach, there's more of Haku's senbon...! I... I can't have been unconscious that long, how could this have happened?! He was... was he protecting us?

"Damn it, Sasuke." My hand reflexively balls itself to hit the ground beneath me. "No..."

My teeth grit as I pull myself up, kneeling in front of his body. I grab his arm to find he's cold to the touch. Breathing heavily, I start pulling the senbon out from him with my one hand, and then unwind my remaining bandages to fold into piles in case he starts bleeding.

I can feel myself trying to slip into numbness, but there's no time for it. There's no time for crying, either, but apparently I can only manage the one thing.

"You're not dead," I say. I take his wrist and press my fingers against it. "You're not dead." But I can't feel a pulse. I move to his neck— "You are not dead, Sasuke." – but I'm shaking so much, I can't tell. I pull out a kunai and hold the flat of it before his lips, but there's nothing coming off on it.

No, I'm not going numb – I'm panicking. Trying to collect myself is just making things worse. I'm not a nurse or a doctor or a medical Shinobi – I can't use healing Ninjutsu! How do I help him?!

Somehow, I recall Makara-sensei's voice, and I'm reminded of one of her teachings. She'd called it... resuscitation of the heart... or something... Oh, C.P.R. You can't use it on someone's who's breathing, or on someone who has a pulse. For Sasuke's sake, this is what needs to be done, and quickly.

Carefully, I start positioning him before me, laying him flat on his back, arms at his sides, and I tilt his head up slightly and push against his chin. Feeling through his shirt for the spot between his breastbone and ribs, I place the heel of my hand against it, cover it with my second hand, lock my fingers together and press down. I struggle to keep count of how many times I do it, under the sound of Naruto and Haku speaking. When I finally reach thirty presses, I lean down, plugging his nose and taking a deep breath, and putting my mouth over his, I breathe in twice.

"Come on, Sasuke!" I say, starting the compressions again. "You can't die! Weren't you going to revenge your brother? You're not going to let that dream die, are you?!"

I plug his nose once more and breathe. Please!!

With me about to begin the third round, I start feeling dizzy, so I instead check for a pulse. Nothing.

"You can't die – you're Sasuke Uchiha!" I yell at him, in between compressions. "I know that – you don't like me! And I think – that you've – actually said – that you – hate me! But – I think – if you gave – me the chance – to understand – you – we'd actually – have a lot – in common!

"My name – is Kari – Yamada! I was born – to Mara – and Taon! They sacrificed – their lives – for mine – just like you – did! So you can't die! Not before – I get the chance – to thank you!"

Two more breaths in through his mouth, and I firmly press my fingers against his throat. Still nothing?!

"Damn it!" I cry, and I keep going. "Why is it – that my wounds – keep healing – and I can't – wake you up?! Damn it! Wake up! Wake Sasuke up! He can't die! Please – save him!"

A loud grunt escapes me when I'm suddenly thrown several meters back, sliding to a stop along the bridge. Grabbing my head to soothe where it'd hit the ground, slightly dizzied, I look around for who'd attacked me through blurred eyes, but I find no one. Behind me, Haku and Naruto still speak, and ahead of me, Sasuke's still lying on the ground, b-but—

"W... What the heck... is that?"

In the middle of his chest, right where I'd been doing compression, sits a white ball of light, passed halfway through it. Nervous, I struggle to my feet and stumble over to him, and still weak in the knees, I drop on them by his side, studying the light. When I reach for it, it almost... repels me? My fingertips sting where'd I've tried to touch it, but it seems like I've set something off – it sinks inside him.

I watch, breathless, waiting for some kind of miracle to occur. That's what this was, right? A miracle? A white light like that is a good thing, right? I don't have anything to compare it to – I-I've never seen anything like it. But I didn't do that, did I? There's no way I could've, no way. I look down at my hands, my shaking, chilled hands, and clench them.

About this world of Shinobi, I've learned about so much. It's only been three months since I've arrived to join it, properly, but having found out that there are so many techniques and so many possibilities for these techniques out there, and even discovering that... powerful beings can be sealed inside of people...

I swallow in anticipation, no longer wanting to think about what might be true, and reach for Sasuke once more, my two fingers connecting with that spot on his neck. I'm greeted with an erratic pulse and warm skin, and almost instantaneously, I start sobbing into my hands.

"Thank you," I cry into my palms. "T-Thank you!" Whatever or whoever did this, thank you for saving Sasuke!

He's still injured. With so many wounds from the senbon in his body, whatever was able to wake him seemed to focus only on healing the wound that caused his almost-death – I'd discovered this after pulling back the collar of his shirt. The hole had sealed where I'd pulled it out of him. But this is all okay – Sasuke's alive, which means he can heal the rest of his wounds with care and time; I'm already recalling Makara-sensei's recipes for herbal healing salves.

Drying my tear-soaked hands off on my clothes, I allow myself a breath, albeit it being a laboured, panicky one, and turn on my heel, still half-knelt down, toward Naruto. He and Haku still talk, and I can barely hear their conversation, until Naruto pulls a kunai out of his pouch and holds it in two hands away from himself, at Haku. His face has been revealed, the mask he'd worn lying on the ground. He's young, if not just slightly older than the rest of us. He's a kid – why is just standing there, wanting to be stabbed?

"This is for Sasuke," I hear Naruto say, as he'd raised his voice enough that I can, "because he also had a dream!"

And Naruto's running at him – I'm stunned into silence when Haku still doesn't move, until he does, and grabs Naruto by the wrist, stopping him in his tracks. What he says to him, I can't hear, and I'm too weakened to even begin to get up again, but after raising his fingers to his lips, Haku disappears.

"Where'd he go?" I say aloud, looking all around and squinting through the dense fog. Anxiety fills me before it's replaced with adrenaline, and I'm crawling to my feet toward Naruto when a buzz of electricity, followed by a sharp gasp echoes across the silent bridge. I hurry as best I can through my exhaustion.

"Naruto," I call to him, finally close enough that my voice is heard. He jumps a little in his turn in my direction, and I reach for him as soon as he does, grabbing his hands and squeezing them, relief flooding me. "You're okay. Y-You're awake."

"Kari, you're alright," he says, his voice hollow, but he squeezes them back, and I'm grateful for it. "Did you see where Haku went?"

I shake my head. "He just completely vanished," I say, "though I have a good idea of where he went. Look – the fog is lifting."

I point off in the opposite direction of us, at several silhouettes that have become visible through the thinning mist. It's Kakashi-sensei, Zabuza, and... Haku?

"Is that them?" Naruto asks. I nod.

"Let's go," and I release one of his hands, pulling him along with the other. It becomes a struggle for me, so Naruto starts leading me after curling his arm around mine.

The closer we get, the less dense the remaining fog becomes, and finally, we can see the situation – again, I wish I didn't open my eyes before, because Kakashi-sensei's hand is sticking through the other side of Haku's chest, in front of Zabuza?!

"I-I-I don't get it!" Naruto hisses. "What the heck is going on here?!"

"I-I think..." And I force my shaking hand away from my mouth. "... I think he just sacrificed himself to save Zabuza."

"Isn't that the young man in the mask?" I catch Mister Tazuna say from the opposite side of Kakashi-sensei.

"He threw himself in front of my attack," Kakashi-sensei explains, sounding solemn and bitter, before turning a cold eye on Zabuza. "He saved your worthless life... at the cost of his own."

"Well done, Haku," Zabuza says, chuckling. My lips pull back in a snarl at this disgusting man. Without any warning or sign, Zabuza pulls his sword off his back and lifts it high above his head.

"Kakashi-sensei!" I instinctively shout, even though he can see it just as clearly, in unison with Sakura.

"I knew you were something special, boy – you've given me your life and Kakashi's!" As hard as he can, Zabuza swings his blade down over Haku's shoulders with the obvious intent of taking both of them down just to kill our Sensei, but he misses when he takes Haku into his arms and back flips through the air to escape the attack.

"Not bad for having a corpse in your arms, Kakashi," Zabuza comments.

"You... you'll pay for that!" Naruto growls from next to me. I latch onto to him tighter to keep him in place, but he struggles against me, desperate.

"Naruto, just stay there with Kari and watch!" Kakashi-sensei calls at us, and finally, Naruto stills, his body still trembling with his anger. Haku's body is rested on the ground, and our Sensei shuts his eyes. "This is my battle. He's mine."

"Naruto?" Sakura says. "Kari?" I wince when my name leaves her mouth – I already know that making eye contact will almost kill me. "So you guys and Sasuke are alright?"

She almost too obviously cares too much about Sasuke, so how am I going to tell her that he was dead? Whatever that white light was and wherever it'd come from, was nothing short of some miracle. I'm grateful for it, and this isn't even a strong enough word to express my relief.

And then, her "Where is Sasuke, anyway?" and my response – or, I guess my lack of one, and my head completely turned away from her – has her gasping.

"Kakashi!" Zabuza shouts, running toward him. "I'd stay focused if I were you!" And our Sensei simply lifts his leg into the air and roundhouses Zabuza above him, as both Sakura and Mister Tazuna run past us. Moments later, I hear her wails.

Why... why couldn't I just tell her? But I can't trust that this white light gave a definite answer – Sasuke's got a pulse. He's breathing. That one single wound had been healed. But he has dozens more. And, he's out of chakra – somehow, I knew this to be true.

My arms instinctively raise to wrap around myself, and I squeeze them, hard.

"I'm sorry," I find myself saying. "For everything I was too weak that I couldn't do, I'm so sorry."

Amidst the fighting, Sakura's sobs, and my own words of apology, I hear a new sound – a chuckle.

"Did quite a job on you, didn't he, Zabuza?" a man on the opposite side of the bridge says. Dressed in a suit and holding himself straight with a dark cane, he sneers toward us. "You look like yesterday's sashimi. I must say, I'm... disappointed." But he's not the only one standing there.

His dozens of thugs are, too.

Updated June 8th, 2021 | 2,432 words