Burn Out
Title: Burn Out
Word Count: Roughly 1,600
Rating: RATED T FOR SOME INTENSE HAND HOLDING.
Description: Sakura reaches burnout. Also, Kakashi is there. In this particular story he does not have burnout problems. Unless you think he should take responsibility for Sakura's problems. In which case then yes, he also has burnout problems. So then they both have burnout problems, and so the title I thought of just now applies to both. But seriously guys, the tone of this story is pretty serious and mellow, so I don't know why the description is so ridiculous. And we have to ask ourselves if the title is really that important to the story. Okay guys, hush now. It's serious time.
***
The sky was black velvet tonight, and smothered her vision with cold glittering stars. Their bright points swam before her eyes. Tipping her head down, Sakura’s forehead felt feverish.
Footsteps. A familiar presence. His pause of hesitation carried heft as if weighing the air down with question marks.
With a snap, the hesitation evaporated, like a cork being pulled from a bottle. The color and sound rushed in with a chaotic whirl. Kakashi pried the hand from her face. He held her fingertips up for examination. “You’re bleeding.”
Slowly inclining her head, Sakura angled her vision to their enjoined hands. Her slender fingers fit into his blunt ones with perfection. The campfire outlined their form in a glow. At the tip of her hand, dark marks spread beneath the nails, blossoming at the end of the fingers. Like the appearance of five small crescent moons.
Kakashi frowned, brushing a thumb over her knuckles. “It’s below the surface of the skin. Internalized bleeding.”
His grip whispered gentleness, yet felt unyielding. As always, his taller presence gave off warmth. Sakura could almost taste the amber light running along his chin. The fire crackled and hissed with quiet secrecy. A silent urging.
Sakura recognized the symptoms of chakra burn. When too much energy ripped down the chakra pathway, the delicate veins and nerves near the surface of the skin broke under the strain-bursting into colorful bruises. She wanted to explain everything, and say that the damage was not nearly as bad as it appeared, but cotton filled her throat.
Every beat of silence glimmered like a pearl. Each second trembled, like droplets of dew hanging from a string. It was deep and golden, and tasted like honey. Even so, Kakashi could not be persuaded or muddled. Sakura knew how he interpreted such signs. She saw his thoughts, darting through the air between them, and originating from his eyes.
She drew in a breath. It hissed from the heat of her lips and fragrant tongue. “You’re going to say I overdid it again.”
Kakashi didn’t reply. He simply held her hand-proof enough.
Neither moved. A stand off. The stars above glimmered with secret knowledge. The cold ground murmured with the rush of wind and stirring of plant leaves.
Copper filled Sakura’s mouth, she became aware of its brightness. The warm and salty zing bled away from the edge of her gums. With an awful swallow, the traces of blood slid down her throat and soaked into the cotton she felt there.
Sharp prickles faded around her body. The caressing pinpricks roamed and jabbed down arms, torso, and legs. Growing heavy with weariness her muscles became nothing more than lead.
She sagged forward. Knowing the signs, Kakashi already stood by with ready anticipation. He caught her weight.
“Okay,” she acknowledged. “I overdid it.”
“Your pathways are burned. Would healing yourself be counter-productive?”
When Sakura summoned chakra to the surface of her skin and her whole body felt like an agonizing blazing inferno-the answer proved to be yes, it would be counter-productive. The surrounding air sizzled from the sudden out lash of heat.
Kakashi gave her a rare look of pity. That is, assuming the man was even capable of giving looks of pity. Perhaps the ten moons on her hands were playing tricks on her mind. She felt their powerful sway and pull. Inside her stomach were the tides of the ocean, and they responded with a surge, lapping at the walls with persuasive rhythm
Sakura relaxed in his hold, feeling lassitude. A medic’s hands worked as their first line of defense. They served as her greatest tools and weapons. Unlike some other shinobi, Kakashi could appreciate that fact. Sakura felt it in his careful touch. There was distant wariness and respect.
“It looks like you’re down for the count.”
“It would seem that way.”
“Do you need rest?”
“Yes.”
Kakashi contemplated. Then he spoke, saying each word slowly, as if dropping them into a bucket, and testing out their weight and significance. The echoes resonated with hollow meaning. “Then afterwards… you’ll be able to heal yourself again.”
Sakura agreed. “The chakra pathways are like heating coils. In my case, they just need to cool off.”
“Your skin is flushed.”
Sakura blinked. She felt slightly embarrassed and alarmed at being held so closely and intimately by Kakashi, but her body reacted in a different way than what her brain wanted-and let out a yawn instead. Her jaws popped from the complete and sudden thoroughness of the yawn, stretching out cheek and neck muscles.
“I do feel warm,” she murmured.
She tugged the neckline of her shirt, venting the heat from her body. The bruising around her fingertips smarted. Cool shimmers from the metal zipper of her shirt scraped against her skin. Five crescent moons glowed with heat and anger.
While propping her up, Kakashi helped by fanning the heat away from her wrist. He took keen interest in observing the symptoms of chakra burnout, as if he never witnessed it before. With his light hands and darting thoughts, his body whispered sweetly that it never witnessed such a thing in such a pretty medic, which is why he gave her situation such complete attention, but Sakura knew these things were all lies.
With Kakashi’s vast experience he could not be unfamiliar with chakra burnout. Though the way his body whispered the lies felt golden in her ears. The conspiring, unspoken words sent shivers down her spine. Wonderful and delicious.
The campfire wheezed gentle sparks. The bright dust scattered against the backdrop of the forest. The glimmering stars pulsed with their silver thoughts, keeping their personal opinions over Sakura’s diagnosis with peaceful reserve. Kakashi’s inquiring fingers continued to roam, exploring the dips and valleys of Sakura’s arm, roving over wrist and elbow as he stretched it out.
“Does this help?”
He brought the hand to his lips, and blew over her fingertips, as if to cool off a heated instrument. The gentle gust filtered through his mask and sent a fleeing jolt down her arm and spine. A pleasant rush tingled along her fingers in memory.
Sakura shuddered and pulled away.
A pause.
He managed to scatter her thoughts with that heated wind. Kakashi’s action did not cool her off, but rather enlivened the fire running through her veins.
Her eyes narrowed. Resignation laced her words, while anger scoured them clean, and coolly hammered them down into fine points. “You know it doesn’t work that way.”
The stars sighed in regret. Blowing on the surface of the skin didn’t cool of chakra coils; and holding hands with your subordinate, even under the pretense of concern, didn’t make such intimate contact okay.
Sakura became aware of how distant they were from the rest of the team. Fevered thoughts had temporarily made her forget, and erased them from her awareness, but memory brought them back. When she glanced over, they sat unmoved from where she last saw them. Naruto and Sasuke sat cross-legged by the campfire, resting from Sakura’s treatment of their wounds.
While standing away in the shadows with Kakashi, Sakura knew the details of their conversation could not be heard. But if they were to glance up, and saw how close Kakashi stood next to her-it would seem strange. Even when whispering such sweet and deceptive things, the quiet intent of Kakashi’s body rang loud.
Kakashi released the hand supporting her elbow, reading into her discomfort. The long strands of silence spoke of volumes, folding and unfolding to make room for the unraveling words. Staring at the air between them, they could both see the words-all of the arguments, and protests; and conversely, the pleasured sighs, and the desire to stay behind.
“You’re right,” he said, simply.
Things did not work that way, and he acknowledged it. Though he did not step back. In fact, with hands stuffed into his pocket, he seemed rather comfortable standing at such a close distance.
“You should get some rest,” he said, in a quiet voice. He glanced over the campsite, then with a simple tilt of his head offered all of the cold, hard ground for her leisure. Every pebble and speck of dirt was at her disposal.
“Thank you, Sensei.”
“And while you’re at it, don’t worry about watch duty tonight. Kick Naruto or Sasuke and tell them to do it instead.”
“Alright.”
Sakura walked away gingerly, feeling her muscles protest and sting at the slightest movement. Without Kakashi’s support, the full weight of her body fell to her muscles and bones.
She ended up kicking Sasuke in the knee before passing on the message. He ended up giving her his best scowl.
“You could have just told me,” he said, lightly.
Sakura didn’t respond, but trudged on in exhaustion. Choosing a spot by the fire, she curled up for the night. Sleep embraced her in a warm haze, and her thoughts slowed down, like an ocean slowly channeling into a river.
She pondered at all the wrong things with their non-existent relationship, and the implications of a team-leader paying an unusual and pointed amount of attention to a team-member-and why of all people the enigmatic jounin would pay so much attention to her.
He approached her. She rebuffed him. It was an endless game. Though it would be dishonest to say all the advances were one-sided.
Heaviness embraced her limbs. Her thoughts ran into incoherent visions. Roads unfolded, branching off to a meadow. Her fragrant tongue tasted amber light, and soft gentle hisses blew across the surface of her skin. The heated breeze sent warmth through her body. Silver moons and golden suns all melded into one. Her body remembered being told sweet things and worshiped by a gentle hold.
She fell into an easy sleep.
***
*whispers* End.
Word Count: Roughly 1,600
Rating: RATED T FOR SOME INTENSE HAND HOLDING.
Description: Sakura reaches burnout. Also, Kakashi is there. In this particular story he does not have burnout problems. Unless you think he should take responsibility for Sakura's problems. In which case then yes, he also has burnout problems. So then they both have burnout problems, and so the title I thought of just now applies to both. But seriously guys, the tone of this story is pretty serious and mellow, so I don't know why the description is so ridiculous. And we have to ask ourselves if the title is really that important to the story. Okay guys, hush now. It's serious time.
***
The sky was black velvet tonight, and smothered her vision with cold glittering stars. Their bright points swam before her eyes. Tipping her head down, Sakura’s forehead felt feverish.
Footsteps. A familiar presence. His pause of hesitation carried heft as if weighing the air down with question marks.
With a snap, the hesitation evaporated, like a cork being pulled from a bottle. The color and sound rushed in with a chaotic whirl. Kakashi pried the hand from her face. He held her fingertips up for examination. “You’re bleeding.”
Slowly inclining her head, Sakura angled her vision to their enjoined hands. Her slender fingers fit into his blunt ones with perfection. The campfire outlined their form in a glow. At the tip of her hand, dark marks spread beneath the nails, blossoming at the end of the fingers. Like the appearance of five small crescent moons.
Kakashi frowned, brushing a thumb over her knuckles. “It’s below the surface of the skin. Internalized bleeding.”
His grip whispered gentleness, yet felt unyielding. As always, his taller presence gave off warmth. Sakura could almost taste the amber light running along his chin. The fire crackled and hissed with quiet secrecy. A silent urging.
Sakura recognized the symptoms of chakra burn. When too much energy ripped down the chakra pathway, the delicate veins and nerves near the surface of the skin broke under the strain-bursting into colorful bruises. She wanted to explain everything, and say that the damage was not nearly as bad as it appeared, but cotton filled her throat.
Every beat of silence glimmered like a pearl. Each second trembled, like droplets of dew hanging from a string. It was deep and golden, and tasted like honey. Even so, Kakashi could not be persuaded or muddled. Sakura knew how he interpreted such signs. She saw his thoughts, darting through the air between them, and originating from his eyes.
She drew in a breath. It hissed from the heat of her lips and fragrant tongue. “You’re going to say I overdid it again.”
Kakashi didn’t reply. He simply held her hand-proof enough.
Neither moved. A stand off. The stars above glimmered with secret knowledge. The cold ground murmured with the rush of wind and stirring of plant leaves.
Copper filled Sakura’s mouth, she became aware of its brightness. The warm and salty zing bled away from the edge of her gums. With an awful swallow, the traces of blood slid down her throat and soaked into the cotton she felt there.
Sharp prickles faded around her body. The caressing pinpricks roamed and jabbed down arms, torso, and legs. Growing heavy with weariness her muscles became nothing more than lead.
She sagged forward. Knowing the signs, Kakashi already stood by with ready anticipation. He caught her weight.
“Okay,” she acknowledged. “I overdid it.”
“Your pathways are burned. Would healing yourself be counter-productive?”
When Sakura summoned chakra to the surface of her skin and her whole body felt like an agonizing blazing inferno-the answer proved to be yes, it would be counter-productive. The surrounding air sizzled from the sudden out lash of heat.
Kakashi gave her a rare look of pity. That is, assuming the man was even capable of giving looks of pity. Perhaps the ten moons on her hands were playing tricks on her mind. She felt their powerful sway and pull. Inside her stomach were the tides of the ocean, and they responded with a surge, lapping at the walls with persuasive rhythm
Sakura relaxed in his hold, feeling lassitude. A medic’s hands worked as their first line of defense. They served as her greatest tools and weapons. Unlike some other shinobi, Kakashi could appreciate that fact. Sakura felt it in his careful touch. There was distant wariness and respect.
“It looks like you’re down for the count.”
“It would seem that way.”
“Do you need rest?”
“Yes.”
Kakashi contemplated. Then he spoke, saying each word slowly, as if dropping them into a bucket, and testing out their weight and significance. The echoes resonated with hollow meaning. “Then afterwards… you’ll be able to heal yourself again.”
Sakura agreed. “The chakra pathways are like heating coils. In my case, they just need to cool off.”
“Your skin is flushed.”
Sakura blinked. She felt slightly embarrassed and alarmed at being held so closely and intimately by Kakashi, but her body reacted in a different way than what her brain wanted-and let out a yawn instead. Her jaws popped from the complete and sudden thoroughness of the yawn, stretching out cheek and neck muscles.
“I do feel warm,” she murmured.
She tugged the neckline of her shirt, venting the heat from her body. The bruising around her fingertips smarted. Cool shimmers from the metal zipper of her shirt scraped against her skin. Five crescent moons glowed with heat and anger.
While propping her up, Kakashi helped by fanning the heat away from her wrist. He took keen interest in observing the symptoms of chakra burnout, as if he never witnessed it before. With his light hands and darting thoughts, his body whispered sweetly that it never witnessed such a thing in such a pretty medic, which is why he gave her situation such complete attention, but Sakura knew these things were all lies.
With Kakashi’s vast experience he could not be unfamiliar with chakra burnout. Though the way his body whispered the lies felt golden in her ears. The conspiring, unspoken words sent shivers down her spine. Wonderful and delicious.
The campfire wheezed gentle sparks. The bright dust scattered against the backdrop of the forest. The glimmering stars pulsed with their silver thoughts, keeping their personal opinions over Sakura’s diagnosis with peaceful reserve. Kakashi’s inquiring fingers continued to roam, exploring the dips and valleys of Sakura’s arm, roving over wrist and elbow as he stretched it out.
“Does this help?”
He brought the hand to his lips, and blew over her fingertips, as if to cool off a heated instrument. The gentle gust filtered through his mask and sent a fleeing jolt down her arm and spine. A pleasant rush tingled along her fingers in memory.
Sakura shuddered and pulled away.
A pause.
He managed to scatter her thoughts with that heated wind. Kakashi’s action did not cool her off, but rather enlivened the fire running through her veins.
Her eyes narrowed. Resignation laced her words, while anger scoured them clean, and coolly hammered them down into fine points. “You know it doesn’t work that way.”
The stars sighed in regret. Blowing on the surface of the skin didn’t cool of chakra coils; and holding hands with your subordinate, even under the pretense of concern, didn’t make such intimate contact okay.
Sakura became aware of how distant they were from the rest of the team. Fevered thoughts had temporarily made her forget, and erased them from her awareness, but memory brought them back. When she glanced over, they sat unmoved from where she last saw them. Naruto and Sasuke sat cross-legged by the campfire, resting from Sakura’s treatment of their wounds.
While standing away in the shadows with Kakashi, Sakura knew the details of their conversation could not be heard. But if they were to glance up, and saw how close Kakashi stood next to her-it would seem strange. Even when whispering such sweet and deceptive things, the quiet intent of Kakashi’s body rang loud.
Kakashi released the hand supporting her elbow, reading into her discomfort. The long strands of silence spoke of volumes, folding and unfolding to make room for the unraveling words. Staring at the air between them, they could both see the words-all of the arguments, and protests; and conversely, the pleasured sighs, and the desire to stay behind.
“You’re right,” he said, simply.
Things did not work that way, and he acknowledged it. Though he did not step back. In fact, with hands stuffed into his pocket, he seemed rather comfortable standing at such a close distance.
“You should get some rest,” he said, in a quiet voice. He glanced over the campsite, then with a simple tilt of his head offered all of the cold, hard ground for her leisure. Every pebble and speck of dirt was at her disposal.
“Thank you, Sensei.”
“And while you’re at it, don’t worry about watch duty tonight. Kick Naruto or Sasuke and tell them to do it instead.”
“Alright.”
Sakura walked away gingerly, feeling her muscles protest and sting at the slightest movement. Without Kakashi’s support, the full weight of her body fell to her muscles and bones.
She ended up kicking Sasuke in the knee before passing on the message. He ended up giving her his best scowl.
“You could have just told me,” he said, lightly.
Sakura didn’t respond, but trudged on in exhaustion. Choosing a spot by the fire, she curled up for the night. Sleep embraced her in a warm haze, and her thoughts slowed down, like an ocean slowly channeling into a river.
She pondered at all the wrong things with their non-existent relationship, and the implications of a team-leader paying an unusual and pointed amount of attention to a team-member-and why of all people the enigmatic jounin would pay so much attention to her.
He approached her. She rebuffed him. It was an endless game. Though it would be dishonest to say all the advances were one-sided.
Heaviness embraced her limbs. Her thoughts ran into incoherent visions. Roads unfolded, branching off to a meadow. Her fragrant tongue tasted amber light, and soft gentle hisses blew across the surface of her skin. The heated breeze sent warmth through her body. Silver moons and golden suns all melded into one. Her body remembered being told sweet things and worshiped by a gentle hold.
She fell into an easy sleep.
***
*whispers* End.