Chapter 40.5- One Thousand Hands

XXXX- SHORIRAMA SENJU

He’d known there was no saving Choni the moment he got a good look at her. The Puppeteer’s body was strewn across the floor in bits and pieces from his sand burial rip-off and he wished he had taken more time with the bastard. Shika had turned away from him and was staring into the distance. Inoken on the other hand was wailing into Choni’s body as he tried to do what he could to ease her passing. Medical ninjutsu had always come easy to him- few things didn’t- but he hadn’t ever pursued it with the zeal that he ought.

He knew next to nothing about creating antidotes to poisons- to be fair that was more actual medicine than ninjutsu, but Tsunade had been willing to teach and he, like an arsehole, had been uninterested. He could remove a poison from his body with all the ease of stitching up a cut, so what did he care for learning to cure them. This is why he should have learned. If he had been minutes earlier than extraction would have been possible. With his byakugan, he could see the poison running through her bloodstream. It had already made its way to her heart. It was designed to cause a painful death rather than a quick one and he cursed the puppetteer for it once more.

Her breath hitched as she regained consciousness. Inoken was at her face in seconds.

“Shika” He called out, turning to his cousin. Her eyes looked empty when they turned to him.

“She doesn’t have long. You should say your goodbyes” He said, as he squeezed Choni’s hand before getting up and ceding his place beside her. They were friends- he was friends with everyone from their graduating class, but he knew she needed her teammates with her now. Shika took his place and he stepped even further back to give them their space, pretending not to hear the way Shika’s voice cracked as she spoke, or how Inoken had just broken into soft sobs.

He turned his attention away from them, looking for anything to distract him. Jinpei was making short work of the remaining Suna nin. His mud clones didn’t exist without him connected to them so they’d faded when he came to intervene in this fight, but it wasn’t like it mattered much. Jinpei had water aplenty and Shorirama had already whittled down their numbers and put the fear of god into them. If these ones had any sense, they’d run just like the others had.

Using his byakugan allowed him to catch the Weasel’s approach, and allowed him to bend at the waist in time to avoid a slash seeking to remove his head from his body. He usually would have said something witty, maybe even made a joke, but he wasn’t in the mood for it. His friend lay dying and it was his fault. He wanted to hit something and this man had volunteered himself for the honour.