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aisu_hawk March 2 2009, 21:37:29 UTC
Akira releases his brother, who is still writhing in pain on the ground, screaming but not roaring.

The blonde ninja stands, and turns to face Minabi. "You say you are the Red Butterfly? You're beautiful, that's for sure. I can see why he likes you." The smile that pulls across Akira's lips is uncontrolled and makes the entire house nervous.

Ryuu moves swiftly in front of Minabi his sword drawn but defensive. "Leave. You're not welcome here."

Akira laughs and Renji's chakra staggers.

Renji tries to stand, twice, but feels his consciousness slipping away as blood flows out of the bullet wound. Both the amount of pain and loss of blood seem to cause his vision to tunnel slightly. He's breathy, and shaking, but he finally stands.

"Leave her alone." Renji says, strained, through clenched teeth, swaying slightly. He starting to lose feeling below his waist, and isn't sure how much longer he can stay awake.

Akira laughs again, turning to face Renji. "Can you even stand, brother? You should see yourself. It's probably what Kai looked like fighting for his life."

Renji falls to his knees, and coughs. Blood leaks out of his mouth, and he wonders if maybe the bullet his more near his heart than he'd thought.

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aka_butterfly March 2 2009, 21:50:38 UTC
Her Chakra snaps out of existence, for a second - centers like a black hole ripping open. Her movements, despite the presence of an extra body in hers, are exactly as they would have been if she wasn't pregnant.

She's in the air, her movements display her name sake - body arched, hair wiled behind her, sword curbed carefully over her head - and before Renji's knee even hits the ground, her swords in in Akira. Faster then a fluttering of wings.

Her body was ready to hit for a kill - through his heart - but her mind tells her different. She hits just under his right shoulder blade - he's right handed, the way he holds a sword told her - and drives down, through his rib cadge, and out through his chest. There's a satisfaction of a crunch with the hit that rings through the sword - not a killing blow, but it's bad - her knee is between his shoulder blades, pulling out and turning, before her feat ever touch the ground.

Minabi's Chakra explodes out in ripples, quick, to wrap into Renji - everything - her sword still poised at Akira's back.

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aisu_hawk March 2 2009, 22:20:28 UTC
Renji looks up and screams out - not sure if he's screaming for Minabi or his brother - and falls to the ground - hands forward - on all fours. The blood is spilling out of his mouth as he coughs, and darkness starts to take over his vision. He screams again, keeping himself awake, and looks up, pulling himself back to his knees. He wants to tell her to move, that Akira's faster than he seems, that they all are, to go inside and not get hurt. But he can't speak, he can barely breath past the coughing.

Akira screams as the wound splits further when he tries to move. He falls to the ground, growling just like his brother. Before Ryuu can even move to get to Minabi, Akira is moving. Suddenly Akira is standing. In one swift movement he grabs his sword from her hand and wrapps his hand around Minabi's throat. He lifts her up and throws her to the ground, moving to stand with one foot on her throat as his sword falls from her hand.

Renji screams Minabi's name, tears behind his eyes, and he collapses to the ground - unconscious.

Akira laughs and as Ryuu tries to step closer, he pushes harder on Minabi's throat. "Stupid woman. You know nothing about me and you attack? I would have thought you knew better than that, princess." The last word is spit from his lips as he raises his sword.

Before Akira can finish his motion, two swords are against his back. Shihiro and Samus are behind him, and Samus speaks. "Back off of her. Leave now and we won't kill you."

Akira smirks, thinking to himself that he could easily kill the four ninja around him right now and barely even blink. But he decides he's not entirely fit for this argument. He whistles, high, the way Renji does on missions, and a gray wolf with bright green eyes comes running from the woods followed by another wolf. Black, and a bit larger than the first, it's eyes are bright blue. "I'm outnumbered." Akira says, smiling now. "Don't let him die. I'll be back."

He leaps off of Minabi, walking towards the wolves. He walks slowly past them, coughing softly, and the gray wolf follows. The black one starts to follow, and stops. Ryuu is watching it closely, cautious. It's head tilts, and it turns back around until it's eyes see Renji. It's ears perk up and it trots to Renji. The wolf sniffs him, and it's tail wags softly. It licks Renji's face, howls one note, and lays down next to the pink haired ninja, whining softly.

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aka_butterfly March 2 2009, 22:37:22 UTC
Renko is the first to fly from the group, feat barley on the ground - skidding through the mud to Renji's side. The wolf watches - hackles suddenly up - but Renji's is face up and Renko's hands are in his chest before the wolf even has a chance to touch him. It pauses, and watches.

Minabi is on her feat again, quick, and is reaching for her lost sword - all movement in the direction of the woods. But Shihiro grabs her ankle and pulls her down quick,catching her arm and keeping her from falling on her stomach.

"You can't do anything now." Shihiro says, but his face is serious - eyes dead, and the look he gives Minabi is blank and indifferent and impersonal. Something is broken in his look - knowledge, and placing peaces together let Shihiro get to the answers before a lot of the others. His voice is harsh. "Princess."

Strength is gone. She falls like a rag-doll - Shihiro's grip tight around her upper arm - and cries.

Samus falls into Renji, tripping over him - and sets both her hands on his chest, makes sure that his lungs keep working despite their best efforts not to. Her eyes meat the wolf's for a brief second, desperation on her face - Renko curses and Renji's body jumps. The Vice-Captain throws the bullet over shoulder and pushes deeper, mending.

There's chaos.

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aisu_hawk March 4 2009, 16:14:37 UTC
Ryuu takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and sends out his chakra to both Renji, and the entire House at the same time. The panic eases, and he stays for a few seconds, chakra flowing out of him at a constant rate.

After what seems like hours, he opens his eyes and turns toward his fallen Ni. Slowly, he walks over until he is standing at his side. Samus and Renko quiet their movements, stricter and less messy, as Ryuu kneels next to the body.

He holds a hand up to the two ninja, signaling them to stop their efforts. Samus and Renko glance at each other, worried and cautious, but ease back off of Renji. Samus stands while Renko stays kneeling, watching the master's movements.

Ryuu takes another deep breath, and lays his hands on Renji's chest. He closes his eyes, looking towards his knees and forces his chakra into the motionless body.

After a minute someone speaks. "Is he breathing?" Ryuu hears the worried voice ask. He opens his eyes, takes his hands off of Renji's chest, and moves to pick the body up. Samus moves to help but Ryuu looks at her. She stops, and Ryuu can see the worry flooding through her eyes. He realizes that it was her who asked if he was breathing.

Ryuu stands with Renji in his arms, and looks toward Minabi and Shihiro before answering. "Barely." He knows Minabi can hear everything they're saying even through her tears. "And his heart is weak. He needs serious work, he's lost a lot of blood." The master starts to walk over to Minabi and Shihiro, barely straining under the weight of the other ninja. Samus follows and Renko falls back into the crowd of the House. A small buzz of sound is coming from the large group.

"Shihiro and Samus, I need you two to keep everyone calm while I bring Minabi and Renji inside. No one but you two are to come to my office in the next few hours. I need time with them." Shihiro and Samus nod in order and start to walk back to the group. "Oh and Shihiro..." Ryuu starts; Shihiro turns to look at him. "Keep your mouth shut. You are not the only one but I'd like it to stay that way until I can address them all." Shihiro's eyes widen slightly before narrowing back to slight anger.

"Minabi, let's go." The master's tone is strong, and he turns toward the House, waiting for her to rise and follow.

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aka_butterfly March 4 2009, 17:36:41 UTC
Her heart is pounding in her ears, and there's a moment - real and hard - when she's watching Ryuu touch him, that she's sure he is dead.

The chasm of her chest is cold, and she's not sure what she'll tell her daughter about what happened to her father -

'Barley' is Gods gift from Ryuu's lips. She's happy that she didn't eat anything in a while - she finds herself dry heaving, but squashes that feeling and drops her eyes to her hands. Whole hands covered in mud, the smell of gun powder still heavy in her nose, the wretched sick feeling of loosing everything-

She yanks her arm out of Shihiro's grasp before Ryuu speaks. His command is snapping - switch across her calf again, just like when she was little - and she only fails once at standing before getting completely on her feat. Her hair is heavy with mud, and the compulsion to cut it is so strong that it almost makes her heave again.

"I'm sorry." She says to Shihiro, soft, her voice crackling. Something is crushing her chest, and she thinks it might be her past coming back to kill her. Again.

She doesn't wait for a response. She turns and follows, eyes on Ryuu's ankles.

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aisu_hawk March 4 2009, 17:42:29 UTC
Ryuu leads them into the House and stops as soon as they enter the door. "Go to his room and get clean pants and his blanket. Leave the blanket in my office and meet me in the washroom with his pants."

Ryuu walks into the house and down the hallways, leaving Minabi to follow her orders. He knows she needs orders right now. Something to do with herself to stay calm.

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aka_butterfly March 4 2009, 17:51:35 UTC
She doesn't move fore a second, eyes moving from Ryuu's leg to one of Renji's hanging hands. Something ripples over her shoulders, tugging at her scars, before it's voided out - head hollow - and follows her orders.

She finds herself in front of his door, not recollection of how she got there. Her body is cold, fingers flaky and numb - and it's almost imposable for her to open the door herself.

The blankets on the bed are folded - like she normally does, or has been doing. She hadn't slept in his room since for three days, and the smell of it almost topples her. She falls back against the wall - dirty, staggered hand prints, breathing heavy - before Ryuu's orders echo in her head and another lovely wash of void sweeps over her head.

She grabs a gray pair, one of her favorites, and her green blanket - first on the pile. blanket is left on the floor of Ryuu's room, just inside the door to the right - she's scared, suddenly, to go in there, years of old training creeping up her body that tells her she isn't aloud in the Master's room. And then she's at the washroom, having no idea how she got there.

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aisu_hawk March 4 2009, 18:05:57 UTC
Ryuu walks to the washroom, fills one tub and another one halfway. He peels Renji's clothes off, and drops them into the half-filled tub. He slowly lowers Renji into the filled tub, which is starting to drop to room temperature, just like Ryuu expected it to.

Minabi is at the doorway in minutes, pale and shaky. Ryuu keeps his feelings below the surface, knowing he has to start working on Renji soon or they could lose him.

"Minabi, we can't waste time right now. We need his clean and warm - soon. Please, stay together for me for just a bit longer. You can sit in my office soon and be with him. But hurry now, little one. I need you." Ryuu's tone is calmer than he feels and he knows she needs reassurance. There's still a chance they could lose Renji, and she needs to know that. Maybe it will keep her head clearer for just that much longer.

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aka_butterfly March 4 2009, 18:15:01 UTC
Her name kicks her back into her head, shaky for a second, before her head feels light again.

It crackles across her arm, and she hits the wall hard enough to crack it. Pain races up and clears her head, fast - she feels it wash over her, clean and real and now, not then, and she moves forward.

"Sorry." She says, her voice still broken and young, but she's in her eyes - rushing to kneel next to Ryuu. She drops the pants away and pulls her - Dammit, she didn't even realize - old house robe off and throws it to the side.

The words are choked. "What do you need me to do?"

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aisu_hawk March 4 2009, 18:20:35 UTC
Ryuu saw it coming and doesn't flinch as her fist slams the wall. He makes a mental note to have someone fill the crack later.

She walks over and kneels, and Ryuu is thankful that she's functioning. Later would be a different story.

"I need you to hold him up while I clean him off. Thankfully he was wearing long pants. I just need most of it off of him, just so it doesn't get messy when I'm working on him. And you need to clean around the wound."

Ryuu glances at the bullet wound, which is still bleeding pretty badly, and curses under his breath. "This is worse than I thought." He looks up to Minabi, meeting her eyes. "We need to move."

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aka_butterfly March 4 2009, 18:40:20 UTC
She nods, quick - and goes to move. He limbs stutter when her eyes actually land on Renji's face - but she forces herself to move. Her belly restricts her movements a little, but she manages to haul him mostly into a seated position, one of his arms around over her shoulder - one of hers around his back.

Her other hand ends up on his chest, over the wound, and she links their breathing. She washes around the wound - quick - then seals her palm over it and concentrates.

He Chakra is resistant to her call - surprising her, remind her that she might be in a little shock - and it whines in her body when it uncurls. It sluggishly filters to her palm - she dams the bleeding, the best that she can - and echos his chest. Feeling inside.

Hollowed - there wasn't an exit wound, but Renko should have just pulled the bullet out of his back rather then back through the path of destruction. She tries to do something - to start on the small muscle damage and stopping the bleeding - but she actually can't.

"Ryuu -" She says, softly - scared.

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aisu_hawk March 4 2009, 18:46:07 UTC
"Easy. I didn't ask you to heal it. I asked you to clean it. It's not going to stop bleeding - bullet wounds aren't like blade wounds. He'll bleed out before dying from not breathing. I'll heal it. Just clean it. You can do this."

Ryuu is concentrating more on scrubbing the blood and filth off of Renji's chest than what he's saying to her. But he knows they're running out of time.

He scrubs from the top of Renji down, and finishes within mere minutes. The blood is still moving from the wound while he moves to pick Renji up again. "I'll hold him up, you dry him. Quickly. And put his pants on."

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aka_butterfly March 4 2009, 18:53:37 UTC
She does - no thinking, not any more, just listen to Ryuu - and he's dry in moments.

She finds it funny that it's harder to put his pants on without his help then with. She can taste bile at the back of her throat.

She stands and adjusts his pants, wiping the blood off of his chest that has already rolled down to his waste with her elbow, and stands up fully to help.

Her eyes are hollow again, but she's still listening.

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aisu_hawk March 4 2009, 19:04:40 UTC
"Now go clean yourself off and change. Be quick about it and meet me in my office with two more blankets."

She hesitates, worry in her eyes, and he doesn't have time for it. "Go." That one word is hard, an order, and he knows it hits her. He's sorry for it but it doesn't matter right now. Ryuu can't lose him.

He leaves with the Ni in his arms, and swiftly moves through the House to his office. He lays Renji on the floor and stays kneeling at his side. Immediately his hands are on the bullet wound, blood flow slowing. "Shit." Ryuu spits, knowing that steady blood flow is worse than having it slow on it's own.

Samus is suddenly at the door. "Sir. They're all in the main room, waiting. How is he?" SHe pauses, taking a good look at him. "He's too pale." Her voice is more captain-like than before and Ryuu is thankful for it.

"The blood flow is slowing. He's running out of blood for his body to pump out. This is worse than I thought. Keep them in the main room. And keep them quiet. We won't lose him." His tone falters and quiets. "Stay with me, Renji..." He snaps back to himself and looks at Samus. "Go." Same order, different ninja. Ryuu is keeping it together better than he thought he would.

She's gone in a blink and his hands are still on the wound, shaking slightly. He shakes his head to clear it, and concentrates on keeping any blood that Renji has in his body. A single tear falls down his face and lands on Renji's chest as he keeps his head as clear as he can.

Ryuu knows that only Renji and Minabi could make him lose it like this. And suddenly he's angry at Renji. Angry that he'd try to leave him like this. Not like this. Not yet. "Not before me." Ryuu's voice is barely a whisper as he closes his eyes to keep his concentration.

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aka_butterfly March 4 2009, 19:20:45 UTC
She's not sure how she made it back to his room, but her legs give out under her in the center of it. She lets herself go for a moment - whiting out to the world.

The baby's Chakra hiccups, dim - she cradles herself and cries.

She's hauled to her feat, roughly, and is hit before she opens her eyes. Minabi's eyes meat Shihiro's, her face stings, and she collects herself.

"I have clothes for you." He says. She nods, hard, and moves. Shihiro dropped his bundle of clothes by the porch door. She has most of her's off before Shihiro's hands are on her to help. She can't lift anything over her head - he helps her with her shirt, on and off, before sliding his own hand over her stomach to check. The pulse is warm, and the small bundle of Chakra responds easily. Hers does not.

She grabs him to change into pants - long, work out ones, that were Renji's before she sold them. He holds her up, easily, the has his hands on her face with a cloth before she blinks.

"Thank you." She says, his hands washing the muck off of hers.

"Shut up." He says, lets her go. He's out of the room, dirty clothes and cloth, before she can say anything else.

She grabs blankets - his, and her red one - and is out and off, running, face stinging. She passes Samus quick, not stopping, and slips into Ryuu's room quick. She's next to him, kneeling - her Chakra away and moving again - and touching his shoulder.

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