Determination

Twelve hours later they were on the move again, hiking cautiously through the rocky terrain, alert for Stone-nin. Lee was carrying Benihiko, who was sedated and breathing shallowly.

Sakura had worked on the young woman all night, closing cuts and healing bruises, spurring the production of blood with more injections, replacing lost chakra with her own. The missing arm was by far the greatest challenge; the bloody stump was like an invitation to infection, yet she was hesitant to close it for fear of preventing Benihiko from sculpting a new arm in the future. In the end she had settled on a compromise, covering the wound with powerful antibiotics and then bandaging it tightly. Blood still seeped through the wrappings at a steady pace, and she could only work to make sure the rate of its replenishment was greater than the rate of its loss. The injections, combined with Benihiko's own natural resilience, would hopefully pull her through.

While she worked her companions had stood guard, though all indications were that Kabuto was long gone and they were alone. At some point during her ministrations there had come a deep dull vibration, and then the building beside the lake had collapsed in on itself, taking the body of the genjutsu-user and whatever remained of Kabuto's research along with it.

"Let's stop for now," she said. "I want to check on her again." The others obeyed her without question – all of them, even Shino, seemed content to defer to her now that their main challenge was medical.

They came to a halt and Lee gently lowered Benihiko to the ground, taking care to keep her right shoulder elevated as Sakura had instructed him. Sakura inspected the bandage. Sure enough, it needed changing again. At this rate she was going to run out of gauze.

"She's still bleeding?" asked Neji from behind her. He stood with his arms folded, watching impassively.

"Obviously," said Sakura with irritation. She was tired out from her work. Shino had made her rest after she finished treating Benihiko on the lakeshore, but she hadn't been able to sleep very long before she had to rise again and check on her patient. The others couldn't help her; she was the only one with the necessary skills.

"Can't you stop it?" he pressed her. "I can see that she's hardly replenished her blood supply since we rescued her; everything she produces keeps flowing right out of her arm."

Sakura finished tying the latest bandage and turned to glare at the jounin. His voice was flat and calm, yet she couldn't help but hear the implied criticism.

"I already told you," she said shortly, "that the only way to stop the bleeding entirely is to accelerate the growth of skin over the wound or cauterize it. Either option could prevent her from sculpting a new arm in the future."

Shino stepped over beside Neji. It was mid-morning, and his glasses reflected the cloudless blue sky. "Isn't it true that she sculpted the original after cutting off her real arm?" he asked.

"As far as we know," said Sakura. She recalled how the bone jutting out from Benihiko's stump was oddly smooth and even, as though it had been cut cleanly through in a single stroke.

"Then, if you close the wound on her stump, shouldn't she be able to make a new arm in the future by a similar process?"

Sakura blinked. "You mean, cut back the stump and use the blood flow?"

"Yes."

She looked back down at Benihiko. It was an awful thought. "I suppose," she said slowly, "that she'd be capable of it. It wouldn't be fundamentally different from how she made the arm in the first place. But it would be painful, even for her."

"Still," said Shino, "it can't be good for her to continue bleeding like this. And as long as she's this weak, we'll have to move slowly, which leaves us vulnerable to attack. Remember that Kabuto is still out here somewhere. I think you'd better close the wound so we can revive her and increase our pace."

Sakura scowled at him and didn't move.

"In the end," Shino continued calmly, "it's your decision as her physician. Just bear in mind the effect on her health if she's taken captive again."

That was an argument she couldn't ignore, and the volume of blood Benihiko was losing did bother her. "All right," she said grudgingly, "I'll close the wound. I was about to run out of bandages anyway. But I'll need some water."

Shino reached into his jacket and withdrew a metal flask, full of water from the lake. Sakura accepted it, placed it on the ground, and made a few hand signs over it. The flask began to glow green, and the grass immediately around it withered and died.

"Medical ninjutsu?" Neji asked curiously.

"Purification," she responded. "That lake was filthy." Then she took out a scalpel and cut through the bandages she'd just applied. After just a few minutes they were already stained pink.

When they saw her cut the bandages away, all three of her comrades turned outward, ostensibly to scan the countryside for threats. Sakura knew the real reason, though – they were bothered by the sight of surgery. It had been the same way by the lake. Shino had crouched a little distance away and averted his eyes as he concentrated his chakra on accelerating his insects' development, Lee had jogged in widening circles around them, and Neji had paced endlessly back and forth at the water's edge, staring out over the mirrored surface. It annoyed her that men whose whole profession consisted of hurting others should be so cowardly in the face of injury; surely it was their responsibility to really understand the consequences of the jutsu they used. Even Neji, who regularly looked inside the human body, had been unable to face the ugly red meat below Benihiko's right shoulder.

There had been a time when Sakura had envied her male comrades' strength, their raw power as they inflicted heavy damage on one another. She knew now, though, that in important ways she was stronger than any of them. This incident only confirmed it.

Her hands glowed green, the color of life, and the ragged skin around Benihiko's wound turned from withered brown to healthy pink, then expanded, moving inexorably across the exposed muscle and bone. Benihiko's arm was severed rather high, and she was, or had been, a muscular woman, biceps swollen from her years of practice with the naginata and her later career as a sculptor. Hence the area to be covered was quite large; any more and skin grafts might have been required. After about an hour it was done, and where before there had been a sickening wound there was now a smooth fleshy stump. More importantly, Benihko had stopped bleeding.

"I'm done," Sakura announced, wiping sweat from her brow. "Lee, that drained me of what little chakra I had left; do you think you could carry her again?"

"Of course, Sakura-san!" said Lee eagerly. He sprinted toward them – he'd been doing jumping jacks a few meters away – and carefully gathered Benihiko up in his arms. His eyes avoided her right arm.

Even Lee, she thought, who'd taken more injuries than anyone she knew. Men can be such children.

"How long before you can safely awaken her?" asked Shino.

Sakura did some quick calculations. "About three hours," she replied. "The bleeding has finally stopped, but I don't want to wake her until she has enough chakra to keep up with us. Her circulatory and chakra networks are fused, so her blood and chakra come and go together. In three hours the injections will have given her enough blood to make it safe to revive her."

"Three hours it is, then," said Shino.

***

For Neji, the three hours before Benihiko could be revived passed slowly. They exited the Land of Earth and entered the Land of Fire, and gradually the landscape transitioned from rocky grasslands to thick forests. Among the trees they were able to travel faster, branch to branch, like Leaf-nin. He kept his Byakugan engaged the whole time, determined that Kabuto should not take them by surprise. Of course he couldn't make up for his original lapse, the one that had put them all in this situation, with extra vigilance now, but that wouldn't stop him from trying.

He wanted Benihiko to wake up mainly so he could be certain she was really all right. Her grievous injuries, the constant loss of blood, and the sickening way her right arm now ended just beneath her shoulder all filled him with guilt. He had thought retrieving Benihiko would ease his shame, but the sight of the ghastly consequences of his actions had the opposite effect. If she woke up and was herself again, he might finally find some relief.

When three hours were up it took all of his self-control not to call for a halt immediately; he didn't want to reveal to his comrades how agitated he was. It was his way to hide his emotions, and his impassive façade had rarely been so tested. Thankfully Sakura soon noticed the time and signaled the rest of them to stop.

"Well, it's been three hours," she said to Shino once they were all on the ground. "Do you still want me to revive her?"

"Yes, if she can handle it," Shino replied.

Again, Lee set Benihiko down. Even to Neji's inexpert eye she looked better. Her color was more vivid and her breathing deeper, and when he probed beneath the surface with his Byakugan he saw her levels of chakra and blood had increased drastically.

Sakura withdrew another vial from her belt and knelt to inject Benihiko, whose left arm was already covered in puncture marks from the medic's previous efforts. "It counteracts the sedative," Sakura explained. "I wouldn't give her anything as harsh as a stimulant yet. But it should be enough to wake her up." Neji wondered just how many different medicines and chemicals Sakura carried with her to the field. She always seemed to have exactly the right one.

Sakura withdrew the needle and stowed it away, and after a few heartbeats Benihiko's eyelids fluttered, then opened. She stared up at the medic for a moment, bemused. Then her eyes moved from Sakura's face to Neji's. Her expression darkened.

"You," she spat at him, a malediction.

So much for relief. He inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement.

She started to move, struggling to sit up until Sakura reached behind her and assisted her. Once upright, she closed her eyes a moment, trying either to get her bearings or to assess her own condition. Suddenly her eyes flew open and her left arm groped toward her right sleeve.

"My arm!" she gasped. "It's been closed up!"

"I had to," said Sakura apologetically. "You were losing too much blood."

Benihko's hand closed around the stump and her brows knit. "Kabuto dissolved my arm somehow. He said it was a special anticoagulant – it kept me from sculpting anything. That's how he captured me." She grimaced at the memory. "Then he kept me captive. He wanted my jutsu … He's crazy."

"He's gone for now," said Shino. "But he's not dead, and we think he may be pursuing us. How do you feel – do you think you're strong enough to travel?"

Benihiko peered up into his hood. She shuddered a little. "I'm strong enough to fly," she said grimly, "if it will put more distance between me and that man." She curled her legs underneath her and held out her hand for help. Neji thought to take it and then checked himself; he was probably the last person in the world she wanted help from now. Lee pulled her up instead.

They set off, not at anything like top speed but still faster than they'd moved when Lee was carrying Benihiko. She seemed a little unbalanced; a few times she teetered on the tree branches as though she was about to lose her footing, and Neji got ready to catch her. It was never necessary, though, as each time she recovered her balance and pressed forward. He supposed it must be hard to adjust to the loss of a limb.

Presently he drew alongside her, traveling in silence a meter to her left. She ignored him.

"Benihiko," he said, wanting to get the worst of it over and leave her alone, "I should not have left you alone that day, regardless of my personal feelings. If I had followed orders and escorted you, you would not have been kidnapped and Master Yakuho would still be alive. I am … truly sorry." The words were difficult to speak; he rarely admitted he was wrong, preferring to make his feelings clear through actions instead. But he doubted he would see her again after they returned to the Leaf.

She looked sideways at him, and he was gratified to see that her eyes had regained their usual hardness. Until that moment he hadn't been sure she would really recover, but now he felt confident she would. Even if she hated him. "You have a high opinion of yourself," she said finally. "Kabuto is … a force. And his servants were also powerful. If you had been there, you would have been killed too. Like Master Yakuho." Her eyes narrowed when she mentioned her mentor.

He wasn't sure what to say to that. Her lack of rancor surprised him; she'd certainly seemed angry earlier.

"What you should apologize for," she continued, "is what you said to me. It was ugly, and stupid."

"It was," he agreed readily. They leaped from one great oak to another, the sunlight dappling their faces. The other shinobi in their party kept their distance, perhaps sensing a private conversation in progress. "I spoke with Hinata-sama."

"Did you?"

"Yes. She told me you refused Lord Hyuuga."

Benihiko laughed, but it was a bitter and humorless sound. "Of course I refused him," she replied acidly. "He's old and obsessed with power. He looks at me and sees only my kekkei genkai. Like Kabuto. Like my mother. You should have known."

"I did. I just didn't quite believe it."

"Hmm." She was quiet a while. "If it's forgiveness you want, then take it. I don't blame you for Yakuho's death. I blame myself. When I got home that day, Master Yakuho was just barely alive. If I'd been fast enough, strong enough, I could have saved him. He was in too much pain to speak, but he looked at me, and I could tell he was begging for help." Her voice was gravel and sandpaper. "But once Kabuto robbed me of my kekkei genkai, I had nothing. I don't know any jutsu that doesn't use the blood-sculpting art, and I'm too weak to endure real pain. In the end, without my jutsu, I'm nothing."

She was confessing to him, as he had confessed to Hinata, out of self-loathing. "There's your art," he said eventually.

She laughed again, a horrible sound he wished she'd stop making. "My art … You want to know a secret? I cheated."

He blinked and glanced at her. She was serious. "I have no idea what you mean," he responded honestly.

"I'm nowhere near as talented as Master Yakuho was. Whenever I worked with clay, I dropped a small amount of my blood into the mix, and used that to manipulate the piece's shape. Working with just my hands, without ninjutsu, I would never have achieved the same results."

So. That explained how she was able to sculpt pieces thin enough to see through – they were artificially reinforced. "I don't know anything about art, but that doesn't sound like cheating to me. More like a different technique. The work is still yours."

"No," she insisted. "The work is my clan's, my kekkei genkai's. Like I said, I'm nothing without it. I can't even protect an old man who was kind enough to take me in."

There was a fine line between guilt and self-pity. Impatiently he said, "And your decision to leave your clan, to side against them with the Leaf, to refuse Lord Hyuuga – how did those actions stem from your kekkei genkai?"

She was nonplussed. "What are you saying?" she asked irritably. "They had nothing to do with it – they were just choices I made."

"Exactly. They were your choices, and they were unique. Apart from your kekkei genkai, that's what you are." He paused to reconsider his next words, then decided to say them anyway: "And it's no cause for shame."

She gave no answer. She appeared to be thinking. Abruptly she stopped and dropped to the ground.

"What?" asked Neji, landing beside her. "Are you injured?" The others, Shino and Lee and Sakura, saw that they had stopped and doubled back to join them.

Benihiko looked at him carefully, her face inscrutable. "You have a point," she told him. "And now I'm making another choice. Sakura, I need your help."

"Of course," the medic replied. "Are you in pain? Are any of your injuries bleeding?"

"No, you've done an excellent job on me. I feel almost back to normal. Almost."

Neji saw where she was going. "You can't mean—"

"I'm not going back to Konoha like this," Benihiko said over him, her words directed at Sakura. "I refuse to be seen without my right arm."

Sakura's eyes widened. "I'm sorry about sealing it. I'll be happy to help you reopen the wound and make a new arm – after we're back in the Leaf and in a proper hospital. You're still weak from what Kabuto did to you, low on blood and chakra. And I'm still spent from treating you."

"Then you won't help me?"

"No," said Sakura firmly, "not right now."

"Then you four go on without me. I'll take care of this myself, and catch up with you."

"Absolutely not," said Shino. "Kabuto may still be pursuing us."

She flinched at the name. "I know that, believe me. But this is not vanity. That arm meant something to me, and I won't let his actions deprive me of it. I will not return to Konoha in this condition." She stood defiantly, legs spread slightly apart, chin tilted upward.

Neji couldn't believe his words had somehow provoked this. "Benihiko, this makes no sense," he said coldly. "You'll get yourself killed, and then Master Yakuho's sacrifice will be for nothing."

She raised an eyebrow, radiating certainty. "I won't die. I know how to do this, because I've done it before. I have the benefit of experience; I'll lose less blood this time. I only wanted Sakura's help with the chakra control, because she's right that I'm still weak. But I'll risk it alone."

Lee had watched it all in puzzlement, his forehead wrinkled and his thick brows drawn together. "Forgive me for this, Benihiko-san," he said formally, "but, Shino-san, if she insists on this course of action, could we not take her by force?"

Shino shifted in place as he considered the question. "We could," he said at last, "but that hardly seems like the best way to preserve her health."

"Or yours," said Benihiko threateningly. "I won't give up without a fight."

It should have been ridiculous, a one-armed woman threatening a band of ninja, but Neji had too much experience with her jutsu not to take her seriously. They would win in the end, but it would be neither quick nor easy.

"I am unwilling to attack you," Shino told her. "You are an ally. But my orders do not permit me to leave you alone."

She shrugged. "Then stay here. I won't take long, though I can't promise to be quiet."

"I meant what I said," Sakura put in. "I don't have enough reserves left to help you with the chakra control. This is a terrible idea." She seemed incensed that someone would endanger all her hard work.

"Terrible or not, I mean to do it," said Benihiko. She looked directly at Neji, a challenge in her eyes. "I've made my decision."

He looked back at her, seeing her determination. In the end, as he'd told her, that was her defining quality. "How would it be," he said quietly, "if I assisted her with the chakra control, Sakura? Then you could preserve your chakra to deal with any medical emergencies that arise. I am not as adept as you, but I am a jounin and my juuken does require a certain finesse. I believe I can do it."

Sakura was staring at him as if she'd never seen him before, and Lee's mouth was hanging open. Shino, of course, looked pretty much the same as always. "You can't be for this crazy plan!" the medic protested.

He shrugged. "Of course not. It's insane. But she's made her choice and I don't think she'll change her mind. That being the case, it's best if we do this in the safest and most efficient way possible, with someone helping her out. Otherwise she might go too far and injure herself." Benihiko was giving him a small smile, her eyes glittering in the sunlight filtering down through the trees.

"You have a point," Shino conceded. "You are really determined to do this, Benihiko?"

"Yes."

The hooded chuunin sighed and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. "Then make it quick," he ordered. "Sakura, make sure she doesn't die."

"Shino, you can't be serious!" Sakura wore an expression befitting the only person to remain sane while everyone else went mad. That might well have been her perception of the current situation.

"You heard me," said Shino, turning his back and striding off into the underbrush. "Lee and I will keep watch. Hurry up."

Lee closed his mouth and, with a last disbelieving look at Neji, set off with Shino. Sakura turned to Neji and Benihiko. "You're an idiot," she told the other woman flatly, "but I won't let you die. Sit down."

Benihiko obeyed, and Sakura crouched down on her right side and rolled up her sleeve, exposing the stump. "And it was healing so nicely," the medic sighed. "You know, Benihiko, I don't really have anything sharp enough to cut through this in one blow, and I don't want to risk giving you powerful painkillers right now. Those would cloud your mind, and you're going to need to concentrate."

"Agreed," replied Benihiko. "I did it without painkillers before, but I understand now that my kekkei genkai was easing the pain the whole time. This will be nothing compared to what I felt in that laboratory. And as for the blade, anything longer than a kunai will do; my jutsu can make it as sharp as I like."

Sakura nodded, then reached behind her and drew the long dull knife she wore in a sheath across her lower back. "Like this?"

"That's perfect," said Benihiko, reaching out to accept it. "I'll sculpt a layer of purple over it, but it would help if you or Neji would make the actual cut – you'd have a better angle."

Sakura nodded curtly. "I'll do that, then," she said. "Neji-san will be occupied." Her eyes flicked over to him. "Come here," she directed, "and kneel down behind her." He did so, Sakura positioning him about a half-meter behind Benihiko. "Now place your hand – whichever one you're better at controlling chakra from –on her back." He laid his right hand flat between her shoulder blades. "When I make the cut, Neji-san, I want you to begin directing chakra into her body. You'll know how to do it so that it doesn't injure her. Concentrate the chakra on the right side of her body, and don't add too much; most of what she's using should still come from her. She'll use her jutsu to shape the chakra and blood, and you're going to support those efforts. If something goes wrong, or if I tell you to halt, stop what you're doing immediately and remove your hand from her back. Is that all clear?"

"Very," he said, impressed by her attention to detail. She was against this, but she still intended to see it done right.

"Fine," said Sakura. "Everyone's ready then. Benihiko, prepare the blade."

Benihko nodded once, then gripped the blunt knife in her left hand and drew it once across her rib cage, leaving a shallow cut. "Blood of my mothers," said Benihiko, "be my sword!"

Neji was prepared for the flash of light this time, and looked away briefly as it came. When he looked back Sakura had the knife, now with a glowing violet blade, held high in the air above Benihiko's head. She brought it whistling down through the air with great force, striking the stump a couple of centimeters above its end. The blade, sharper now than mere steel, passed cleanly through, making a straight even cut.

It all happened very fast, and Benihiko let out a strangled scream as the knife passed through her upper arm. Looked via his Byakugan through the back of her head, Neji saw that she was biting her bottom lip hard enough to send blood trickling down her chin.

That was his cue, and he commenced transmitting chakra through her back and into the right side of her body. He watched her chakra network, which in her case was the same as her circulatory system, carefully, and saw blood and chakra pouring out of the wound. But then Benihiko lifted her left hand and made some odd one-handed hand signs, and murmured some words he didn't quite catch. The jutsu started, and suddenly the hemorrhaging stopped and the blood seemed to freeze and morph in midair, turning back on itself, returning to its source.

Neji could feel the young woman trembling violently. He kept sending chakra into her system, molding it to reinforce the finger-like structures she was now struggling to form. It was working; the amorphous red mass extending down from her shoulder was beginning to look like something, like an arm.

For a while longer they kept it up, shaping and refining. He watched his chakra and hers flowing together, and saw at last what he should have seen earlier, what Lord Hyuuga already knew: it was a harmonious match. Like two links in a chain, like an artist's two hands, forming a new destiny from the old.