Naruto: Threads of Crimson

"Just barely missed his carotid artery as well. He's lucky to still be living with an injury like this," I added, pulling out a couple of gauze pads.

"Even just an inch more to the right, and he would've been a goner a long time ago." Shisui grabbed the gauze from my hands and pressed it firmly against the wound that ran down the informant's lower face and neck. Blood seeped out around his fingers slowly but consistently.

Nodding, I unrolled a roll of bandage and began to wrap it around the lower half of his face and neck. I worked methodically, ensuring each layer overlapped slightly, creating a secure seal to hold the gauze in place. Shisui adjusted his grip as I worked, keeping the pads firmly pressed until the bandages could take over. The smell of blood was strong but it wasn't anything we weren't used to.

"Just need the final touch," I muttered as I tightened the bandage, securing the final layer with a small strip of medical tape. The compression was firm, just enough to keep the sies of the wound pressed together without cutting off his circulation. I gave the bandage a quick check, making sure it wouldn't loosen during our journey back to the village.

Shisui leaned back slightly, wiping his bloodied hands on a clean cloth. "That'll have to do until we get him back to the village, any more and we could encounter reinforcements."

"Yeah, we don't know if they have a messenger running back and forth from this outpost back to the stone village so we should get out of here as quickly as possibble." I agreed as I lightly slapped the mans face getting no reaction from him.

Frowning, I slapped him harder this time, but still nothing. His face was pale, and his breathing was shallow. However, it was steady, which meant he wasn't in any real danger right now. As I wiped away some of the sweat and dirt from his forehead, I noticed a faint flicker of movement. His eyelids twitched, fluttering weakly.

"And it looks like he's beginning to come back around now that the seal on his forehead was broken," Shisui said as he helped me set the man up, leaning against the wall.

"Now that we've both had a few minutes to calm down," Shisui glanced at me. "Are you ok Shiro? The last few days it seems like you've been a lot more on edge. I mean, I don't ever remember seeing you like this before. The only other time similar to this was when your dad lost one of his summons while on a mission."

I sighed and rubbed my hands over my face and wiped the sweat and dirt away. "You're right, I have been a lot more on edge recently, and I'm sorry about yelling at you earlier. It's just the anger and grief from losing my dad. All I've been able to think of has been losing him. It just frustrates me that someone can be so selfish."

Shisui nodded "I understand, but why would you cause so much physical pain to our enemies before killing them when you could've ended them within a couple of seconds?" 

"Because it felt good. It felt amazing to feel the power that I can hold over people. It felt cathartic to have something tangible that let me know that all my hard work is paying off. Sure, the thrill of the fight was there, and I enjoy the feeling of control that comes with it, but when it faded, it left such a strong sense of accomplishment."

"But how could you get a sense of accomplishment from drawing out their pain like that? Doesn't that make you feel even a little bad?"

"It doesn't and I don't think that it ever will. In fact, I am going to do it again and again in the future to any enemies that stand in my way. Whether they are weak or storng I'm going to try and hurt them as much as possible, whether that's through emotional attacks or physical ones."

"But still, you shouldn't want t-" I cut Shisui off before he could continue

"Shisui, you may not want to cause unnecessary suffering to enemies, but I do. These shinobi are out here trying to separate us from our remaining family, they want to make sure we never return homw to our mothers. Just imagining that makes my blood boil, these people want to take us away from our loved ones and clansmen the members of our clan that are just begining to recognize how far we can go in the future."

I continued "That thought alone is enough for me to want to inflict horrible pain on anyone attempting to do anything similar to that goal. It makes me want to cause them to question their reality and wish for the suffering to end."

Shisui rubbed his palms to his eyes trying to clear his mind "Why does my best friend have to be such a psychopathic blockhead?"

Letting a smile come to my face I wrapped an arm around Shisui. "To balance out your good-nature. If not for me you'd be trying to take everything on by yourself, beliving that everyone could be changed by only words, and you would end up killing yourself when it wouldn't work."

Shisui choked back a laugh. "Yeah, you're probably right about that."

GAAAAASP

Turning our heads back to the man lying against the wall, we saw his chest rise abruptly, and his eyes shoot open.

Seeing the man's glassy eyes come back into focus we both let out a sigh of relief knowing that he was going to be ok. "Where am- oh right. You damn stone humpers aren't going to survive long enough to see me-." His voice rasped out and his eyes glanced at ours and then up to our headbands.

"Oh you guys are Uchiha, you must've come from the Leaf then. Good, I'm glad a team came for me, I have vital information I need to give to Lord Third ASAP." He stood up using the wall to balance himself against. "Where's your guy's sensei at? We need to get a move on back to the village."

Shisui rubbed the back of his neck and let a slight laugh out that caused the man's eyebrow to wrinkle slightly. "Well, actually, we came by ourselves. Our sensei is out on another mission right now." His eyes glanced at me, and I could only give a half shrug in response.

"Interesting, do you care if I see your mission scroll real quick?" His eyes narrowed as he held his hand out.

"Sure, here you go." I got the scroll out of my bag and handed it over to the man and allowed him to read it.

After a few seconds of reading a slight smirk settled on his face as he rolled the scroll back up "Well I'll be damned, I guess you two 'prodigies' are the only one's on this mission. Allow me to introduce myself and be the first one to say thank you for coming to my rescue, name's Isamu." 

We smiled and bowed our heads to the man and returned his introduction while introducing ourselves. "And I suppose you guys bandaged up my wound as well." He reached up and rubbed the area and pulled at the bandages. "I gotta say you guys do know what you're doing here. Who taught you how to do this?"

"Our sensei, Reika, taught us how to properly wrap up a wound and keep it from reopening," I spoke up as he cracked a smile.

"So the brat Reika finally has a team, huh? And during the war, no less, I'm surprised she'd take on a couple of kids, but I guess I shouldn't be too surprised if you're both able to take out an outpost of enemy shinobi and still have time to bandage me up, without looking worse for ware yourselves."

"Yeah, she was a little hesitant to take us on at first, but after she put us through her tests, she caved. She just couldn't get enough of our charms." Shisui said.

"Hm, that definitely sounds like her, alright. Always the cautious type, which makes sense considering the clan she grew up in." He rubbed his chin while looking at us. "Anyway, I suppose we should probably get out of here before anyone else shows up and we end up captured again." He said, turning towards the door as we followed behind him. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Powerstone Goals:

25 by Sunday = Extra Chapter

50 by Sunday = 2 Extra Chapters