Oktoberfest '07 entry, Same Old Yesterday, by Phase

[raptscarecrow.livejournal.com]

Title: Same Old Yesterday
Author: Phase (its_game_time)
Word Count: 3,403
Rating: PG (violence, blood, a little language)
Character(s): Kakashi, Sakura, some random nurses
Pairing(s): None
Summary: Action fic in which Kakashi dishes it, takes it, and then worries Sakura.
Notes: Don't procrastinate, kids. It hurts the quality of your work and makes you emo.


Kakashi hadn't needed much time to adjust to the disadvantage he had been given at Landel's; compared to others, his reduction in physical power really wasn't that heavy a blow, but he had noticed it all the same at first. It had left him feeling slow, then, and a little vulnerable – "vulnerable" being not up to par with his usual state – but he was used to making necessary split-second adjustments according to advantages or disadvantages. Consequently, it hadn't taken long for him to get enough of his usual poise and feel back to make him comfortable with his current state.

His stealth, particularly, seemed to suffer no real degeneration, and so it was in silence that he moved now through the empty kitchen. His flashlight was dead, courtesy of his unfortunate limit on batteries, but Kakashi had been through the room enough times – three – for his memory to keep his path straight and unobstructed. He didn't touch the counter for guidance, not wanting to cause even the slightest stir, but kept it on his left to minimize the possibility of surprise and reduce the shortcoming of his useless eye. The kitchen had furnished him with all the useful tools that it could, so he made his way through with no thought of stopping to pry around as he once had.

Nor was he currently in any real need of additional weaponry. He had his share of salvaged items and makeshift blades, the most useful being the crude ninjatou replica he had ended up piecing together – a severed bit of metal sharpened to a point, its edges filed, and then melded to a piece of plastic that he had had assistance in shaping into something that resembled a hilt. In his own world, Kakashi normally wasn't one for weapons, and even when using one he rarely went beyond the average kunai; but since the things here required something more solid and reusable, the sword he was familiar with from his days in the ANBU was the best choice. It had been years since he last used one, but the skills were still there. It had come to be his primary choice in battle after hand-to-hand, so with a spare strip of worn leather he had fashioned a strap that fit over his chest to hold the ninjatou to his back, hilt at his shoulder for withdrawal at a second's notice.

But the blade had gone untouched tonight since donning it. The time wasn't yet midnight and still Kakashi had gone this far without meeting anything that required any real skill: a few giant rats, but they had been outrun easily enough, and anything else he had come across had already been dead or dying. A slow night, overall, for which he was grateful. The last had left him with some bruised ribs on his left side, some lightly skinned knuckles, and a small cut near the back of his neck earned during a moment of underestimation. Not the worst of injuries – especially with his history – but he was nonetheless glad for the lack of action this nightshift.

The thought had just crossed his mind when his senses suddenly set off an alarm: first were the initial traces of a smell, the sour, metallic reek of blood mixed with old cleaner; second was the sound of movement, a slight shifting of skin against skin; and the last was that feeling of being watched, or at least noticed. Slowing, Kakashi swept his gaze over the room, working to see through what shadows his vision hadn't yet adjusted to. He could make out the silhouette of some of the chrome islands and the dishes stacked on top of them, but he saw nothing living.

Whatever it was, he immediately knew it wasn't a patient. The stench was recognizable even though he hadn't yet fought an enemy that matched it – he knew it from coming upon the aftermath, from finding slashed and battered comrades who had been attacked by what they described as demented nurses. While Kakashi had defeated a nurse at the front desk a few nights back, he knew these were different, and he hadn't dealt with any of the other humanoid breeds aside from the tall helmeted one as of yet, so he had little to go on experience-wise, familiar with them only through word of mouth.

Motionless, Kakashi waited, but no further sign aside from the rotten smell and the feel of watching eyes responded. Steadily, silently, his right hand lifted towards its respective shoulder.

A high-pitched screech erupted right behind him and he spun around, ninjatou drawn out and held at eye level, and an instant later two hands caught on its blade. Pointed fingers curved over the edge – not claws so much as they were fingertips adorned with scalpels – and past them Kakashi found himself face-to-face with another twisted bit of Landel's sick imagination: eyelids stitched back to upsize her wide, blank eyes, several small lacerations covered her hands and face – what he could see of it around the surgical mask that she wore, which mirrored his own – and her slender neck was pierced with various jagged, black spikes.

He reacted instantly and quickly jerked his sword to the right, slicing it across the nurse's palms and freeing it from her grasp as she gave off a sound like a low hiss. Jumping back to collect his bearings, Kakashi kept the ninjatou held in front of him and thought swiftly. These things were supposed to travel in packs.

A quiet movement and a dull glint in the blade's reflection, barely visible –

Turning, Kakashi placed the first nurse on his left and found another one sneaking up on his right. He retreated again, and his memory worked in time to warn him about his surroundings; he jerked slightly to the left and a second later felt his right hip brush by the sharp edge of an island.

Despite the number of times he had done it here, fighting in the dark wasn't his strength – he could handle it, but it just wasn't his strength – meaning the brawl would last longer than he wanted and he might sustain a few hits if he wasn't careful.

His eye had adjusted enough by now to let him see most shapes even at a distance, so he could tell that the second nurse's left arm was considerably misshapen – it cut off at the forearm, where a long, hypodermic needle began and ran down to where her hand would probably have reached. Kakashi couldn't directly determine how the syringe was held to the mutilated limb, but he did faintly see the outline of thick tendrils snaking their way from the center of the cut-off site up along the bright needle, much like vines might grow around a tree trunk.

But then the two were acting again and Kakashi's focus returned to their movements. Together they rushed him, Scalpels on one side and Left Syringe on the other. The former reached him first and swung, gleaming fingertips outspread for the most damage, and Kakashi threw up his own arm to collide his wrist against hers and stop the attack. Without slowing he seized her forearm and twisted, knocking her off balance as her other hand came down in an identical swing, and his sword was instantly there to block the second strike. Her torso instantly vulnerable, Kakashi drew his leg up and kicked hard at her abdomen – she stumbled backwards in time to let Left Syringe have a go at him, but the ninjatou was already retreating to bat her oversized needle off course as it made a stab at his side.

At this range Kakashi could see the two humanoids in more detail; namely, the nicks and bruises that covered their arms. They had been attacked before now, most likely by another patient or a group of them, which would explain their present lack of company. Another break – hopefully they would be fatigued enough to let Kakashi put them down without too much of a fight.

The two were shaken, but still coming. Kakashi turned to quickly hoist himself up onto one of the islands, and without looking back he took off across it, aiming for the exit at the opposite end of the room. He had leapt from that island to another when there was a sound to his left; stopping, he moved back into the isle's middle as Left Syringe jumped up onto it with him. A quick glance around showed him what he needed and a second later he was stomping down on the edge of a metal food tray that had been left on the counter, sending it up and into his hand just in time to raise it and block another blow from his opponent.

They were too fast to outrun. Kakashi would have to end it here to move on –

And there was the other nurse, his senses told him, approaching on his left. Shoving the other off, he twisted at the last second to parry yet another strike –

Flash. Movement. It didn't belong to them –

A third one –

His sword shot out on his right, stopping the newcomer in her tracks. The hands that gripped the ninjatou showed Kakashi that this one had several fingers missing.

They were all four on the island now, two held at bay with the third recovering. With his sword and shield still defensively placed, Kakashi ducked, saving himself a hit from both Left Syringe and Missing Fingers as he simultaneously sent a less-than-perfect kick out at Scalpels' legs. While the hit wasn't pretty, it got the job done, and she slipped and fell off the island to hit her head on the nearby counter with a resounding crack throughout the kitchen. She crumpled to the floor and he didn't see her rise again.

One down.

Given their apparent deficiency in defense, the nurses were surprisingly good at guarding themselves. They were fast, most of all, and snaked around Kakashi's attacks while returning their own, occasionally receiving the glancing hit but working straight through it. Still maneuvering the tray, Kakashi's knuckles were scratched more than once as the nurses' sharp fingers slid off the smooth surface and he soon felt the thin trickle of blood on the back of his hand.

A breakthrough – a breach, a quick movement, and Kakashi's blade slashed over the front of Missing Finger's uniform, splattering (more) blood as the gash went from her shoulder to her hip. She also fell, but even as he turned his attention to the last enemy, he could see that she wasn't yet down for the count. Tossing the tray aside he engaged the last nurse once again, both sword and free arm moving in familiar patterns as he parried and returned hits.

His senses went off again, smell and sound and general experience warning him of something approaching from behind. Kakashi jerked to the side as another feminine form fell into his place, hand stabbing at air.

Fourth? There was the one he was already engaging, the one he had just knocked down, and the one that was still lying on the floor – making this monster a new one, which he realized at about the same time that he saw that she was missing her right hand. The injured and bleeding one was clambering back onto the island top, putting the number of fighters total back at four.

Kakashi needed to move – this was too cramped, even for him, and so he would block these last few hits and then –

Movement in his blind spot, just barely visible in the inner corner of his right eye.

Shit –

He couldn't back up. He had a choice to make: right or left. Right was making for his arm, left for somewhere around his neck –

A flurry of parrying that ended in a block against the latter and instantly Kakashi's right shoulder flared with pain. One Hand's claws seemed to hook briefly into the area just below his shoulder before tearing free of his sleeve and skin, making him wince, and then as if that first serious wound was a catalyst to a frenzy, the nurses seemed to speed up. They surged forward, no longer attacking in strategic turns, but going at him wherever there was an opening and even when there wasn't, striking each other a few times but not noticing. His right arm was hit again, again, but in lighter strokes, and as soon as the opportunity presented itself he darted to the side, dropping back to the floor.

And then one of them was suddenly behind him in a startling burst of speed. He switched the ninjatou to his good arm and blocked her attack, but on his other side the rest were coming again – his right arm rose, taking two more attacks as a buffer and shield, and then somewhere in the confusion Left Syringe's oversized needle pierced near the wide cut in his bicep.

The effect was immediate: flames of pain licked from his neck down to his elbow, effectively paralyzing the arm for a split-second, and even that cost him another blow – the single nurse on his left struck, taking advantage of both his bad eye and his body's temporary shock to scratch his chest. More pain, more flames, and then Kakashi was fighting to back away.

He retreated against the wall, partly for support; it might have been that his body was finally catching up with his actions, but he suspected that whatever he had been so quickly injected with had some additional side effects besides an excruciating sting. Shifting the ninjatou back to his right arm and ignoring the stress it put on his severed muscles and skin, Kakashi quickly seized and tore open one of the drawers behind him, reached inside, grabbed something, brought it back –

– and it was an eggbeater.

No time to stop, no time to think, he lifted it to meet Scalpel's hand. Her metal fingers clanged against the grate, tangled in the mesh, and then Kakashi was twisting it to the side, pulling her arm down and away with the subtle snap of her fingers as several of them broke. In the same movement he stabbed out with his sword, piercing her chest, and then dropped the eggbeater along with her as she collapsed, all in about one second.

The nurse he had slashed before was slower, weaker, and took no more effort to be put down. The last two landed a few more light hits – light by normal standards, but heavy in his current circumstances, as they brushed the throbbing wound and made it pulse worse – but in under a minute they, too, were dead.

There was no sense of triumph at the battle's end; Kakashi was tired, bleeding, hurting, his vision was hazy, and his nose stung with the strong stench of the nurse's spilled blood. After searching them – as luck would have it, none of them carried anything. Most likely the one that had had been killed or misplaced. – he moved only far enough to escape most of the smell's range before leaning back against the cool wall, pausing a moment before sliding down to the floor to rest. He let his weapon clatter onto the tile beside him, dark blood dripping slowly from its blade onto the pristine surface as the only slow, visible movement.

A minute passed, two minutes, and then a third before Kakashi finally, heavily, moved to rise, but a sound from the kitchen's opposite entrance had him pause. The double doors swung open and a figure hurried inside, looked quickly around, and then caught sight of him and ran over. By the time she spoke, Kakashi's grip around the sword had given way in recognition.

"Sensei!" Sakura dropped immediately to his right side, gaze flying over his body in damage inspection before finally settling on his arm as the place worth attending to. "Is there anywhere else?" she asked, and reached into the improvised pouch of gathered medical supplies on her hip. No greeting, no delay, no need for explanation; the result of familiarity, no doubt, but also of that sense of necessity that Landel's tended to create.

"No." Nothing worth bothering her over, anyway, and the brief look she sent him said she had guessed this. Even so, she focused her attention on his bicep's main injury and Kakashi did the same. The skin around the cut now held a light green tint, courtesy of that poison no less, but the sight did nothing to make it hurt any worse. As she drew out a small vial and a syringe of her own – strangely harmless-looking and almost welcomed after that last one – she cast a brief glance at the pile of bodies.

"Did they have anything?"

Kakashi leaned back, face angled towards the tiled ceiling. "In terms of supplies, no." He felt the needle pierce his skin, but it was only a light pinprick amid the burning pain. Working as quickly and efficiently as she could with her abilities limited to what she could apply by hand, Sakura had the cut cleaned and dressed tight in about two minutes.

"As long as you don't upset it too much, that should hold until you're fixed up in the morning," she told him, drawing back to inspect her work, but she frowned when the lightest traces of blood began to seep through the gauze. She wiped at her forehead, brushing sweat and bangs aside. "It'll need to be changed constantly, though, to keep it clean. I'll stay with you – "

"No need," Kakashi interjected lightly. "Save your supplies."

"But – "

"Like you said, the staff will take care of it in the morning." The staff that had done the damage in the first place, but still. "A few hours won't matter."

Sakura's eyes – tired – narrowed. "Kakashi-sensei – "

"Sakura."

A brief moment of each staring the other down, during which Kakashi's usual languid gaze gained just enough hardness to stand his ground and hold his point. Sakura was stubborn a little longer, but she knew as well as he did that her skills could be put to better use elsewhere.

"...Fine," she said at length, shoulders sagging a little in defeat. "You'll probably just disappear on me if I try to force you, anyway." She met his eye again, expression earnest. "Just be careful, all right? I'm not sure how well the nurses here treat infections."

Verbally waving it off, Kakashi shrugged with his good shoulder, smile vague. "I'll be fine. Most patients here have all four limbs intact, after all." Sakura didn't appreciate the humor.

Finishing up, she stripped off a good two inches from the hem of his shirt to quickly form a sling, to which he gave a look. "Oh, don't complain," she grumbled. "You've got others." As she bent and straightened his arm to what she thought was the best position, Kakashi could already feel a numbness in the limb that was slowly but steadily driving against the burn. The sling, then, was for general practicality as well as keeping the wound as undisturbed as possible. He wasn't ambidextrous, but getting by with just his left hand for the time being could hardly be considered a challenge. Just a change.

Once she was done and the arm was effectively immobile, Sakura's face became slightly anxious again, a little more so than before perhaps because she had nothing else to hold him there. "...Be careful, sensei," she repeated. "I don't..." She looked down and away before coming back to his gaze. "Just don't take any stupid chances," she finished, but he caught the underlying message all the same.

If Sakura had been a few years younger, Kakashi might have ruffled her hair like he used to and that would have been answer enough. But now, technically, and despite the lasting impression that existed between them and probably always would, they were no longer teacher and student. They were shinobi, comrades, with his only authority over her being that of his jounin status and usual position as her captain. To ignore all that just to acknowledge the old days would only make him feel old and her feel patronized.

"I will," he said solidly. "And I won't." One last smile of his eyes before he moved to stand, her catching his left arm to help him up.