The Red Flash Chapter 72 (No Hope) (Patreon)

Everything seemed to have gone silent as if the time itself had stopped; Naruto's eyes were wide open, the blood flowing through the air like a river, and a drop landed on his cheek; everything to him felt like it was going in slow motion.

The blonde saw in horror as Gitago's sword had pierced her stomach; the blade had come out through her back, while Ashara's sword had slashed Gitago's chest, from his shoulder, all the way to his abdomen. Leaving behind a huge mark that would never disappear.

The blonde was the first to move; just as Ashara was about to land roughly on the ground, Naruto grabbed her from behind before falling; looking at her wound, he knew he needed to act fast, gently touching her around the part where the sword had pierced her.

Naruto hadn't noticed that his godmother had moved to his side, looking down on her as well; she checked her stomach before looking at the amount of blood dripping from her back, the sword still on her belly.

"Whatever you do, don't remove the sword," Tsunade ordered loudly to everyone before using her medical jutsu to first work on her bleeding; ironically, the sword still stuck on her was the only thing keeping her blood from spilling out like a fountain, Tsunade noticed Naruto was using whatever he knew to heal smaller veins.

Good job, Naruto, she thought proudly, focusing on the dying girl in her arms.

Briefly glancing at the Kumo team, Gitago was lying on the ground with several medical Shinobi around him, his head resting on the lap of one of the Kunoichis from Kumo.

"Will she survive?" Fuu asked frantically, tears rolling down her cheeks like a river, falling to her knees close to Ashara before gently grabbing her hand, hoping she would survive.

"Of course, she will; we both know she's strong," Naruto said immediately, but from his tone, everyone could tell that he himself wasn't sure.

Tsunade felt her hands turning red with blood, before she would have freaked out at the amount of blood in her hands, but now she simply paid it no mind, trying her hardest to stop the bleeding; another vein healed, and she allowed herself a sigh of relief, but due to the concern about her bleeding, the Senju started checking on something else that only now she noticed, only now Tsunade saw just where in her stomach the blade had pierced her.

Everyone else would have gasped or shown any sign of shock, but Tsunade forced herself not to show any of that; maybe she could do something about it; checking closer, she used a Jutsu to check the condition of the area around her lower stomach, she silently gasped. No, I can't do anything, Tsunade thought, forcing herself not to bite her lip hard enough to draw blood, something noticed only by Jiraiya and Hiruzen, the latter having a grim look on his face; he had seen the same kind of injury before, despite not being a medical Shinobi, Sarutobi could guess what the damage was, poor Ashara, he thought with sadness, he didn't know the girl, but something like that to happen to a young girl with a life in front of her.

Just as Tsunade was about to order for Ashara to be put in a hospital bed, everyone gasped to see Gitago suddenly waking up, coughing loudly.

"Are you alright?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Don't move too much?"

The voice spoke to his ears, but he ignored all of them. Instead, his focus was on the pale-looking Uzumaki girl. "T-The fight i-is not over Yet," He somehow managed to say, trying his hardest to stand up on his legs only for his wound to remind him of the amount of pain he was feeling. Shit, he mentally screamed at the pain.

"Stand Down, Gitago, I'm your sensei, and I'm ordering you to stand down; you won your fight," His sensei spoke firmly, looking down at him with a dark look, daring him to disobey and actually stand up. Seeing that one of them was still awake, Hayate decided to end the fight right now.

"He's right; Ashara Uzumaki is incapable of fighting, Gitago Of Kumo is the winner," Hayato announced to everyone; at first, he had thought of calling it a draw, resulting in both fighters losing the fight and dropped from the exam, but since the Kumo had woken up first, it made sense for him to win the fight.

None of the Taki Shinobi bothered to acknowledge the fact that Ashara lost; they were still trying to heal her; Tsunade was making sure to heal everything; the process of removing the sword would be the most painful and dangerous part, while the sword was keeping the blood inside, she couldn't heal her wound if she didn't remove the sword, something she needed to do in a different place and with her medical items nearby.

Gitago clenched his teeth in anger; the doctors soon used pills to numb his pain which caused his whole chest area, including his arms, to feel numb. He tried to move his legs, hoping to stand up somehow, yet he felt as if his legs were no longer there.

"If you move too much, you might cause an eternal bleeding resulting in death," The doctor warned him knowing his patient was trying to foolishly move again. This grabbed the attention of Bee and Darui Sensei, the latter frowning; just as he was about to give him a piece of his mind, Gitago forced himself to lay down; hearing that he could easily kill himself forced him to stand down, and he won, and that's what was important.

Gitago relaxed against Samui, who was using what little knowledge she had to help the doctors and keeping an eye on the doctors knowing they were Konoha Shinobi and not Kumo Shinobi.

His eyes moved to who he knew was Naruto; once we start the last exam, we will settle the score, he thought before feeling a soft, sharp pain on his arm, before he suddenly felt lightheaded, everything slowly went dark, his head falling down, sleeping.

After Nine Hours

"How is she, Baa-chan?" Naruto asked with a low broken tone; after hours of working and trying to heal as much as she could, her condition had finally stabilized; they were standing just outside her room, inside Shizune was still working on her, and Tsunade washed her hands from every angle, the blood on her hand washing away, disappearing into the sink.

After slowly and carefully removing the sword, five doctors, including Tsunade had been quick to work to stop the bleeding as soon as possible; despite their tries, Ashara had been in desperate need of a blood transfusion; fortunately, every Uzumaki had the same blood type, Naruto didn't object, immediately volunteering to give her blood.

The Senju doctor sighed sadly, not sure how to give the truth to Ashara, but knowing she would need to tell her eventually, depending on what kind of person she is, the truth might completely destroy her or give her motivation to keep going with the limitation she had.

Using a towel to dry her hands, Tsunade finally turned to face her favorite blonde, giving him as big of a smile as she could muster; nearby was Fuu, who was pale; Tsunade hugged Naruto tightly, making Naruto even more worried.

"Baa-chan?" He called her again, his voice cracking, almost a whisper.

"Don't worry, Naruto-kun, your friend is alright," She told him with a convincing tone, but Naruto knew she wasn't being completely truthful to him; he could know her feelings because of his Uzumaki Blood and enhanced with Kyuubi's chakra. He wanted to ask what was wrong, but he knew Fuu was nearby; unlike him, she couldn't sense good or negative emotions.

"That's wonderful then," Naruto spoke loudly, turning to Fuu, whose face brightened up a little, standing close to Naruto, almost hugging him.

Tsunade said nothing but simply watched them with sadness; she knew Naruto was acting in front of his friend, not wanting her to know that not everything was fine.

"You can visit her, but later, right now, she needs to rest," Tsunade spoke seriously before walking away, knowing she needed to attend to other people who were wounded during the exams.

The Jinchuuriki duo thanked her before sitting down; Fuu rested her head against Naruto's shoulder, keeping her eyes open, and knowing that her friend was alright allowed the Jinchuuriki girl to think of something else.

"Who are you going to fight?" Fuu asked, still looking at the door that led inside Asha's room.

"Apparently, Gitago is my enemy," Naruto answered, his body tense; after the Kumo Shinobi had won the duel, the other fights had started and ended, no amazing fights, simple fights.

For the third exam, Naruto grabbed a number from a box, his number was one, and Gitago's number was two. Sasuke was to fight Neji, Rock Lee against Gaara, and Shikamaru against Temari, who was annoyed to fight someone like him. Fuu against Kankuro, much to his annoyance.

Naruto knew he needed to train with Jiraiya for the upcoming exam; his godfather had already told him that the month he had for training would be spent to the fullest; his enemies were strong and powerful.

Naruto had reluctantly agreed that they would be leaving tomorrow, but first, he wanted to see how Ashara was.

Later

Ashara opened her eyes slowly; she squinted at the amount of light in front of her eyes, covering her eyes with her hands; she could barely see figures standing in front of her.

The light suddenly dimmed, allowing her to look clearly; she could tell the blonde hair of her favorite friend standing with Fuu-chan.

"How are you feeling, Asha-chan?" Naruto asked, walking up to her, moving away her hand; Asha could see clearly now; Fuu had unshed tears in her eyes, looking at Asha, who smiled in a goofy way before her eyes went to her bandaged stomach.

"I'm fine, thank you," Asha said half-heartedly.

"I'm so happy that you're alive, Asha-chan," Fuu said with her usual cheerful tone, with tears rolling down her cheek; when she saw Ashara waking up, she had wanted to hug her, but Tsunade stopped her, saying that she could easily reopen her wound by doing something like that.

"What happened?" She asked with a low tone; Tsunade, who was in the room with them, cleared her throat before explaining everything that had happened.

Hearing her words, she wasn't surprised to hear that she had lost; I lost, it doesn't matter, this will be a good lesson in the future, she thought with resolve, she couldn't allow herself to get angry, not mentioning wouldn't be good for a wound that was just closed.

Suddenly she remembered something important and looked up at Naruto.

"Where's my Sword?" She almost shouted in fear; fortunately, Naruto pointed to her right, leaning against the wall was her sword; sighing in relief, she felt her tense muscles slowly relaxing; she was about to ask what happened after her duel when Tsunade cleared her throat again with a sudden grim look on her face, looking at her two friends...

"Naruto, Fuu, and Shizune, I want you three to leave the room for a bit; I have something that I need to tell Ashara in private," she spoke with a tone that left no place for discussion. Her friends reluctantly agreed with the medical Senju.

Ashara felt her heart beating faster as her friends left the room; hearing the door close, she slowly turned to face Tsunade, who sat in a chair near her bed.

"Did something happen to me?" Ashara asked, her voice cracking slowly; with each passing second, she felt her heart beating faster.

Tsunade put her hand on her bed with a soft tone, as smooth as she could muster. "During the fight, when he pierced your stomach, y-your ...

Ashara's eyes widened at hearing her words, her mouth hanging up, no words, nothing leaving her mouth, her throat went dryer than the deserts of Suna, her heart stopped beating for a moment, her blood went cold, her mind thinking back, thanking about her mother, so many years ago now...

"I'm really sorry, Ashara, but it is not something I or anyone can fix," Tsunade finished as Ashara's face went white like snow, despite what she heard, no tears, nothing, no words, slowly looking at her bandaged stomach.

"I-I-I- I Failed...