Sword and Shield [Chapter 3: Fever Dreams]
Title: Sword and Shield
Series: Naruto and Hunter x Hunter crossover
Pairing: Eventual Sasuke/Kurapika
Rating: 18+ overall; this chapter 16+
Warnings For This Chapter: A little bit of transfail at the end (mild spoilers)
Kabuto adjusted his glasses and made some notes on the clipboard he was carrying. "Well, the medicines and jutsus I've tried have all worked perfectly fine, except against the fever. The only thing to be done for it is to keep switching the cooling blankets as they warm up."
Sasuke nodded. He'd looked at Kurapika's aura earlier, and it had seemed like it had just reached a point where there was nothing left to burn.
"Now. . . are you sure you aren't exaggerating the bit where -"
"He really did nearly snap me in half with one kick, completely by accident. He even scolded me afterwards because he thought I was trying to get killed."
Kabuto sighed and shook his head. "This bodes ill if everyone that comes out of the rift is as strong as you describe."
"I know." On the one hand, Sasuke thought that Kurapika was terrifyingly strong. How could he even come close to defeating Itachi when someone like that, who wasn't even mentally prepared to kill, had defeated him so easily? The fact that he could use Raiton techniques against Kurapika successfully was only a very small comfort; all of his genjutsu and taijutsu were still effectively worthless against him.
On the other hand, Kurapika was just like him. They'd known the same kind of pain. They had the same goal. They both had every reason to need to be strong. He wasn't sure precisely how deep the similarities ran, but he wouldn't have any opportunity to find out until Kurapika woke up.
Soon, Sasuke would have to modify that to "woke up, and was lucid."
It was on the second day that Kurapika first sort of drifted back towards consciousness, if the sporadic episodes of screaming and squirming were anything to go by. It wasn't very long before Kabuto very much believed Sasuke's claim that the blond had managed to nearly snap him in two. Kabuto had made the mistake of grabbing Kurapika's arm during one of the episodes, in an attempt to inject him with something to calm him down. He ended up coming away with three broken ribs from the shove, and a concussion from hitting the wall on the other side of the room.
Kurapika was moved to a soundproofed room after that.
By the fourth day, Kurapika was. . . certainly awake more often, and less likely to lash out when touched, but was still delirious with fever more often than not, and it had not gone down a bit. Sasuke tried his best to explain to him where he was and what was going on, but had the distinct feeling that, half the time, Kurapika didn't even know he was there. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what Kurapika saw when he stared at the spiderweb in one corner of the ceiling, but whatever it was, it made his body keep trying to use the strange eye technique that it really didn't have the resources for, flickering back and forth almost endlessly in obvious distress. Sasuke noticed that he could sometimes successfully use a genjutsu to calm Kurapika down if his eyes were blue at the time, but as soon as they started turning red, the illusion was shattered.
It was during those calm times, though, that Sasuke found it was easiest to get semi-coherent conversation out of Kurapika, and he managed to get a vague idea of what was haunting him. Aside from jumbled strings of apologies and pleading, the most common thing he heard out of Kurapika's mouth was "spider", closely followed by phrases with the word "kill" or "killed" in them - oddly enough, those seemed to happen frequently in conjunction with each other, with the "spider" being alternately the one doing the killing or the one being killed. He also gathered that this spider "only" had ten legs left, and was missing two, but would still be alive as long as it had a head. The phrase "Genei Ryodan" also kept coming up, but asking about that always led back to "spider" and "killed".
It didn't take very long for Sasuke to deduce that the spider Kurapika was talking about was some sort of symbol representing the group of thirteen people responsible for the slaughter of the Kuruta clan, and they were probably called the "Genei Ryodan". He also found himself wanting to comfort Kurapika, since he knew all too well what it was like to have terrifying flashbacks, although it had been years since his were as bad as Kurapika's seemed to be.
The first step was to get a broom and get rid of that spider web in the corner. He would have used a fire jutsu to do it, but that would be bright and flashy and might very well startle Kurapika. Startling Kurapika tended to range from being not a very good idea to being a downright idiotic idea.
"Is that better?" he asked, noticing that Kurapika was watching him. He got a small nod in reply, and smiled. "Good. I'll be right back." He went and put the broom back in its cupboard, then returned. Unfortunately, while he was doing that, Kabuto had arrived with a rolling partition curtain, which meant only one thing.
"Sorry, Sasuke. Patient confidentiality time."
"Fine, fine. . ." Sasuke said, rolling his eyes, and left the room. He leaned against the wall next to the door and stared at the ceiling. Assuming that Kabuto didn't get himself injured, "patient confidentiality time" usually only lasted about five minutes. Sasuke had no idea what the big deal was, though; it was just a change of clothes and a quick checkup.
About five minutes later, Kabuto emerged from the room, taking the rolling partition curtain with him. "You can go back in now."
Sasuke didn't even wait for Kabuto to finish his sentence before pushing past him into the room. Kabuto had actually manged to get Kurapika hooked back up to the IV this time. This meant that Sasuke's conversation with him would probably end up being short; Kabuto usually added a sedative to Kurapika's IV drip, in the hopes of extending the period of time before it inevitably got ripped out again. "Hey there."
Kurapika nodded a little in acknowledgement.
"How are you feeling?"
"Tired. . . ." Kurapika paused for a long moment before speaking up again. "Thank you."
Sasuke gave a little half-smile. "No problem."
"I'm going to fall asleep soon."
"Yes." Sasuke wasn't really sure what other answer to give to that. "Is there anything I can get for you?"
Kurapika shook his head, and moved so he was sitting with his back leaning on the wall his bed had been pushed up against for the sole purpose of letting him sleep sitting up. (It was, in Sasuke's opinion, weird that he'd prefer to sleep that way when there was a perfectly good bed available, but having the bed away from the wall had so far only led Kurapika to abandon it entirely. Perhaps that would change as the fever went down, though.) "Just. . . stay. At least until the darkness comes."
"Alright." He really still wasn't sure what to make of the odd poetic bent Kurapika's speech occasionally took, but the meaning was clear enough. He pulled up a chair, and they sat together in companionable silence for several minutes. As soon as he was certain Kurapika was well and truly asleep, Sasuke very carefully moved him back down onto the mattress, and tucked him in. Even with the ridiculously superhuman strength Kurapika had, sleeping against a hard stone wall when he didn't have to couldn't be good for him.
Meanwhile, Kabuto had just finished administering Orochimaru's pain medicine. "Sasuke's been neglecting his training in favour of watching over that Kurapika girl."
"Oh?" A wry, but pained, smirk crossed Orochimaru's face. "That's unlike him. Do you know why?"
Kabuto shook his head. "He's refused to tell me anything, and questioning the girl only gets me mumblings about spiders and wandering phantoms."
"Any new information about the world on the other side of the rift?"
A troubled look crossed Kabuto's face. "A lot of our men are coming back injured or dead, with strange wounds. The ones who've survived described these devices that make loud noise and bright light, like an explosion, all an instant before a small piece of metal either embeds itself in or goes straight through whatever it's pointed at."
"Question the girl about them as soon as she's capable of explaining anything that doesn't involve spiders or ghosts."
"Of course."
Series: Naruto and Hunter x Hunter crossover
Pairing: Eventual Sasuke/Kurapika
Rating: 18+ overall; this chapter 16+
Warnings For This Chapter: A little bit of transfail at the end (mild spoilers)
Kabuto adjusted his glasses and made some notes on the clipboard he was carrying. "Well, the medicines and jutsus I've tried have all worked perfectly fine, except against the fever. The only thing to be done for it is to keep switching the cooling blankets as they warm up."
Sasuke nodded. He'd looked at Kurapika's aura earlier, and it had seemed like it had just reached a point where there was nothing left to burn.
"Now. . . are you sure you aren't exaggerating the bit where -"
"He really did nearly snap me in half with one kick, completely by accident. He even scolded me afterwards because he thought I was trying to get killed."
Kabuto sighed and shook his head. "This bodes ill if everyone that comes out of the rift is as strong as you describe."
"I know." On the one hand, Sasuke thought that Kurapika was terrifyingly strong. How could he even come close to defeating Itachi when someone like that, who wasn't even mentally prepared to kill, had defeated him so easily? The fact that he could use Raiton techniques against Kurapika successfully was only a very small comfort; all of his genjutsu and taijutsu were still effectively worthless against him.
On the other hand, Kurapika was just like him. They'd known the same kind of pain. They had the same goal. They both had every reason to need to be strong. He wasn't sure precisely how deep the similarities ran, but he wouldn't have any opportunity to find out until Kurapika woke up.
Soon, Sasuke would have to modify that to "woke up, and was lucid."
It was on the second day that Kurapika first sort of drifted back towards consciousness, if the sporadic episodes of screaming and squirming were anything to go by. It wasn't very long before Kabuto very much believed Sasuke's claim that the blond had managed to nearly snap him in two. Kabuto had made the mistake of grabbing Kurapika's arm during one of the episodes, in an attempt to inject him with something to calm him down. He ended up coming away with three broken ribs from the shove, and a concussion from hitting the wall on the other side of the room.
Kurapika was moved to a soundproofed room after that.
By the fourth day, Kurapika was. . . certainly awake more often, and less likely to lash out when touched, but was still delirious with fever more often than not, and it had not gone down a bit. Sasuke tried his best to explain to him where he was and what was going on, but had the distinct feeling that, half the time, Kurapika didn't even know he was there. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what Kurapika saw when he stared at the spiderweb in one corner of the ceiling, but whatever it was, it made his body keep trying to use the strange eye technique that it really didn't have the resources for, flickering back and forth almost endlessly in obvious distress. Sasuke noticed that he could sometimes successfully use a genjutsu to calm Kurapika down if his eyes were blue at the time, but as soon as they started turning red, the illusion was shattered.
It was during those calm times, though, that Sasuke found it was easiest to get semi-coherent conversation out of Kurapika, and he managed to get a vague idea of what was haunting him. Aside from jumbled strings of apologies and pleading, the most common thing he heard out of Kurapika's mouth was "spider", closely followed by phrases with the word "kill" or "killed" in them - oddly enough, those seemed to happen frequently in conjunction with each other, with the "spider" being alternately the one doing the killing or the one being killed. He also gathered that this spider "only" had ten legs left, and was missing two, but would still be alive as long as it had a head. The phrase "Genei Ryodan" also kept coming up, but asking about that always led back to "spider" and "killed".
It didn't take very long for Sasuke to deduce that the spider Kurapika was talking about was some sort of symbol representing the group of thirteen people responsible for the slaughter of the Kuruta clan, and they were probably called the "Genei Ryodan". He also found himself wanting to comfort Kurapika, since he knew all too well what it was like to have terrifying flashbacks, although it had been years since his were as bad as Kurapika's seemed to be.
The first step was to get a broom and get rid of that spider web in the corner. He would have used a fire jutsu to do it, but that would be bright and flashy and might very well startle Kurapika. Startling Kurapika tended to range from being not a very good idea to being a downright idiotic idea.
"Is that better?" he asked, noticing that Kurapika was watching him. He got a small nod in reply, and smiled. "Good. I'll be right back." He went and put the broom back in its cupboard, then returned. Unfortunately, while he was doing that, Kabuto had arrived with a rolling partition curtain, which meant only one thing.
"Sorry, Sasuke. Patient confidentiality time."
"Fine, fine. . ." Sasuke said, rolling his eyes, and left the room. He leaned against the wall next to the door and stared at the ceiling. Assuming that Kabuto didn't get himself injured, "patient confidentiality time" usually only lasted about five minutes. Sasuke had no idea what the big deal was, though; it was just a change of clothes and a quick checkup.
About five minutes later, Kabuto emerged from the room, taking the rolling partition curtain with him. "You can go back in now."
Sasuke didn't even wait for Kabuto to finish his sentence before pushing past him into the room. Kabuto had actually manged to get Kurapika hooked back up to the IV this time. This meant that Sasuke's conversation with him would probably end up being short; Kabuto usually added a sedative to Kurapika's IV drip, in the hopes of extending the period of time before it inevitably got ripped out again. "Hey there."
Kurapika nodded a little in acknowledgement.
"How are you feeling?"
"Tired. . . ." Kurapika paused for a long moment before speaking up again. "Thank you."
Sasuke gave a little half-smile. "No problem."
"I'm going to fall asleep soon."
"Yes." Sasuke wasn't really sure what other answer to give to that. "Is there anything I can get for you?"
Kurapika shook his head, and moved so he was sitting with his back leaning on the wall his bed had been pushed up against for the sole purpose of letting him sleep sitting up. (It was, in Sasuke's opinion, weird that he'd prefer to sleep that way when there was a perfectly good bed available, but having the bed away from the wall had so far only led Kurapika to abandon it entirely. Perhaps that would change as the fever went down, though.) "Just. . . stay. At least until the darkness comes."
"Alright." He really still wasn't sure what to make of the odd poetic bent Kurapika's speech occasionally took, but the meaning was clear enough. He pulled up a chair, and they sat together in companionable silence for several minutes. As soon as he was certain Kurapika was well and truly asleep, Sasuke very carefully moved him back down onto the mattress, and tucked him in. Even with the ridiculously superhuman strength Kurapika had, sleeping against a hard stone wall when he didn't have to couldn't be good for him.
Meanwhile, Kabuto had just finished administering Orochimaru's pain medicine. "Sasuke's been neglecting his training in favour of watching over that Kurapika girl."
"Oh?" A wry, but pained, smirk crossed Orochimaru's face. "That's unlike him. Do you know why?"
Kabuto shook his head. "He's refused to tell me anything, and questioning the girl only gets me mumblings about spiders and wandering phantoms."
"Any new information about the world on the other side of the rift?"
A troubled look crossed Kabuto's face. "A lot of our men are coming back injured or dead, with strange wounds. The ones who've survived described these devices that make loud noise and bright light, like an explosion, all an instant before a small piece of metal either embeds itself in or goes straight through whatever it's pointed at."
"Question the girl about them as soon as she's capable of explaining anything that doesn't involve spiders or ghosts."
"Of course."