Crash [Hanabi and Suzumo]

[ninjaflowers]

The night after the gala asplosions.Despite the warm days in the Fire Country, the nights were cool. It was blessed relief from the smells the heat had caused all during the day, though blood and the smell of bombs hung in the air. It still made something cold and uneasy curl in his stomach, those smells and the memory of the sounds. Some shinobi

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[white_sky_eyes]

The shelter under which Suzumo rested, where Hanabi had been placed hours earlier, was a quiet alcove which had originally overhung with trailing begonias and wisteria. The plants had crawled sedately through a trellis lining the stone walls for decades at least, but now they were blackened, their flowers gone.

Beneath them, beside his sensei, Hanabi looked very small and very dirty. Luckily, he had been too exhausted to dream in his sleep. Unfortunately, he didn't remember not being awake. Which meant that when he suddenly snapped to wakefulness, eyes wide and ears ringing with sounds long faded, he had no idea where he was or how he'd gotten there.

As always, it was first things first. He could have been on Mars for all it mattered.

"Hinaji?" he voice was a cough, high and raspy from breathing in smoke and yelling directions. He kicked at his cocoon of blankets and sat up sharply. "Hinaji! Sensei? Kono--" More coughs, and then his hand hit a very familiar sleeve and clamped onto it like a vice.

[ninjaflowers]

Hanabi's sudden waking startled the not quite awake Suzumo, making HIS body suddenly jolt wide awake, adrenaline shooting through him. A deep breath reminded him that the fighting was over, Hanabi was fine, the enemy was dead, and no one was attacking them. His primacy concern, now, was Hanabi with his little hand clutching his sleeve like it was a life line. No matter how much of an adult he acted like, he was still a little boy

[white_sky_eyes]

The coughs subsided quickly, forced down as Hanabi willed them to be gone so he could listen to every word Suzumo said. Hinaji was safe. Suzumo-sensei was safe (was right here, so it was alright). Konohako, Kiba and Sarutobi-san. Safe. So he nodded. Repeatedly. Very, very gratefully.

It wasn't everybody, but Hanabi couldn't in that moment handle names he didn't know - even if he knew he cared. His small world was still fully populated. That was enough. He had his corner, he had his names, and he was clinging to them and refusing to let go.

He was peripherally aware that his sensei was sitting down next to him, talking in his calm and steady voice about things being alright, and setting a reassuring hand on his head. It paled in comparison to the fact that he suddenly couldn't get his fingers to unclench from the cloth of Suzumo's sleeve. His eyes each hurt from temple to nerve, distressed by the unprecidented use he'd put them to with the Byakugan, looking for survivors and bodies; but he didn't lift a hand to touch them

[ninjaflowers]

"I am okay," Suzumo answered first and foremost, rubbing Hanabi's head lightly. "I am perfectly fine besides a little tired, and a lot worried about you right now. Physically however, there's nothing wrong."

Still ruffling Hanabi's hair a little, he continued. "All of us Konoha shinobi and dignitaries are accounted for. Some a little battered and bruised, worse for the wear, but all alive and accounted for. You used the Byakugan a lot, I think it put a little strain on you. I brought you over here. You had collapsed. And you did help Hanabi, a lot. You saved quite a few people."

The quiet pride in Suzumo's voice was muted, but there. Hanabi had overdone it, yes, but he had stayed calm when faced with a terrible situation and done very well. More praise would come later, when Hanabi was calmer and clear headed enough to accept it.