Chapter 43: Hibiki Needs Healing

No no no no no no no no no! Sakura was the first to reach the downed, dry heaving form of her Jounin sensei, but Negi and Naruto were close behind. Crap! He can't fight anymore. If that last attack didn't put the Green Ranger down, we're screwed. Sakura unconsciously reached for her morpher, only to be reminded that she'd lost it in the woods when Tora attacked her. CRAAAAP!

Ryouga was still convulsing when Naruto first started trying to move him, but Sakura was more concerned when Negi raised a hand toward him and started muttering something under his breath. "STAY BACK!" The words came out much harsher than Sakura intended, and were accompanied by a harsh glare at Negi.

Sakura immediately tried to blank her face, but judging by the surprise on Negi's, he'd definitely seen the glare. Quickly, she moved to deflect attention away from her slip up. And also to keep Naruto from tearing open Ryouga's injury any further by moving him carelessly, as he currently seemed intent on doing. "Naruto, you can't move someone with that kind of injury."

"But Ryouga's bleeding!" Naruto replied, indicating the growing pool of blood beneath their sensei. "We can't just leave him here!"

Sakura gritted her teeth. Ryouga's wound seemed to be pretty bad, so moving him needed to be done carefully. But they needed to do something quick, or he would bleed out. It was times like this that Sakura wished she had taken the optional classes in medical ninjutsu at the academy.

And Negi was doing that chanting again.

Oh hell no! cried Inner Sakura. "Negi!" Sakura yelled, startling the boy, who then looked up guiltily. "Uh," said Sakura, as she grasped for something to say now that she'd interrupted the sorcery. "Tell Naruto I'm right!"

Negi looked at her blankly. Clearly he'd been so focused on casting his enchantment upon Ryouga that he had missed what they were talking about.

"We can't move an injured person carelessly, or we might aggravate his injuries," Sakura said.

"Oh, right," replied Negi, eying her warily. Clearly, he still intended to perform his dark magics the instant she dropped her guard. "Naruto, you can't move a careless person's injury. It could aggravate their injuries."

"But Ryouga's bleeding!" Naruto yelled. "If we don't do something, he could die!"

"Do either of you have a first aid kit?" Sakura asked, keeping an eye on Negi.

"No," both replied.

It was at this point that Ryouga slipped out from underneath his backpack and shoved himself upright.

0o0o0

Ryouga lay on the ground, dry heaving. A trail of blood leaked from the fresh hole that had been punched into his stomach, pooling beneath him. And his ki reserves had just taken a significant hit from the Shishi Hokodan he had fired. Well... that could have gone better. Ryouga could hear his genin arguing, but he couldn't make sense of what they were saying over the blood pounding in his ears. He needed to do something before he bled out.

Battered and bleeding in the wilderness, no hospitals in sight (and to Ryouga, that was pretty much the same as there not being any in a 50 km radius), and nobody actually doing anything to keep him from dying. Aside the presence of three prepubescent ninjas who were sadly lacking in medical training, it was a scene he'd played through more than once before. Once the dry heaving subsided, Ryouga shrugged off his backpack, then struggled to an upright position with a grunt of pain. This caught the attention of his genin. Sakura tried to get him to lay down and raise his legs, but he waved her off. Taking off one of his bandannas, he balled it up and pressed it into the wound. Making sure to hold it there with one hand, he then began rummaging through his backpack with the other. After a few seconds, he found what he was looking for: his first-aid kit.

Opening the kit, Ryouga lifted his shirt and began dressing the wound. As he did, he noticed that the wound looked almost like it had been burned into him. Some sort of short-range elemental ki technique? Shrugging it off as something to consider later, Ryouga began dressing the wound. After a few moments, it occurred to him that it had gotten rather quiet. Looking up, he found his genin team staring at him. Finishing his field dressing, Ryouga struggled to his feet.

"So... I need to go to a hospital. We're going back to Konoha for a bit." Reaching into his pack, Ryouga withdrew a wooden plate with the symbol used to mark the landing point for his hiraishin on it. He then tossed it onto the ground. Reaching down, he tried to pick up his backpack, only to nearly double over in pain. Okay, no heavy lifting until I've got my stomach patched up. Rising back to a standing position, Ryouga began running through handseals.

"I'm going to teleport us back to the village," said Ryouga. "Then I'm going to get this treated. I'll get you all tomorrow and we'll come back here. In the meantime, you guys can have the rest of the day off." Ryouga kept making handseals. "Uh, you guys should probably get in closer so I can actually grab you with the technique."

Naruto, Negi, and Sakura obediently stepped in closer, and Naruto put his hand on Ryouga's shoulder. A few seconds later, so did Negi and Sakura.

"What are you doing?" asked Ryouga.

"Touching you," said Naruto.

"Uh, okay," said Ryouga as he continued to run through the handseals while waiting for Naruto to elaborate. Several seconds passed in silence, and it became clear that the boy didn't intend to. "Why?"

"So we go with you when you teleport?" asked Naruto.

"Oh," replied Ryouga.

"Contact isn't actually necessary for this jutsu, is it?" Sakura asked rhetorically, lowering her hand.

"...You know, I'm not actually sure," replied Ryouga thoughtfully. "I've never tried bringing things that I wasn't already touching with me before." Sakura's hand was back on his shoulder before he even finished the sentence.

"...You've been making handseals for a while. How many handseals does this jutsu take?" asked Negi.

"Seventy-eight," Ryouga replied, still running through seals.

"I see," said Negi.

A few more seconds of awkward silence passed before Ryouga suddenly lifted his right foot and placed it on his backpack. "Just in case," he said to the unasked question as he continued making handseals.

And suddenly they were in front of the mission assignment desk, scaring the hell out of the chunin on assignment duty that day.

"Right," said Ryouga. "You guys all have the rest of the day off. We'll meet tomorrow when I'm better. But right now, I need to go to the hospital." At that, Ryouga took a single step forward and collapsed.