"How come the Uchiha is in the hospital, but your sensei isn't?" Shikamaru asked in his usual lazy drawl. Haruka shrugged.
"Well, technically they're both supposed to get a check-up today, but Kakashi tends to conveniently forget these kinds of appointments."
The Nara grunted in acknowledgement. Sometimes she wondered why he even asked. It wasn't as if he was actually interested in what any of her teammates did. At least not as long as they didn't make trouble for him. Shikamaru was probably one of those people that would let the world burn around them so long as everything they cared about was safe from the flames. Not that she could fault him for that, after all Haruka was the same.
A little further down the street, Ino and Choji stood in front of a barbecue place. Asuma was nowhere in sight yet, but unlike Kakashi the man was actually on time if he could manage. He also seemed to think inviting his team for lunch or dinner after successful missions was a good way to reward them and facilitate team spirit. Haruka had no idea if it worked, but it was certainly a nice gesture.
This particular time they were here to celebrate Shikamaru's promotion, and the Nara had decided to drag Haruka along. He probably hoped she'd save him from all the jokes about how the least motivated guy in the exams was the only one who had made a positive impression on the proctors, but he'd be sorely disappointed. She still needed to pay him back for snickering at her in the Hokage's office and then trying to leave her with the short-tempered woman.
"I envy you Chouji, you don't care how much you eat at all," Ino said in a long-suffering tone. "I have to go on diets and it's so hard!"
Shikamaru rolled his eyes dramatically, and Haruka lightly hit his shoulder so he didn't draw attention to them. She wanted to see the rest of this little play.
"Why bother?" Choji asked, honestly confused for some reason. It was so obvious for whom Ino wanted to look like a stick figure instead of training to become a better kunoichi. The girl was deathly afraid of muscles and had apparently no idea that women didn't suddenly turn into brawny monsters just because they did a few push-ups or lifted weights.
"But you don't even know if the guy likes skinny girls," Choji reasonably told her. Not that Ino listened.
"All guys like skinny girls. I mean who'd wanna be with a fa—" She stopped herself mid word. "Never mind, you're one of a kind Choji. Still, you should pay more attention to your body or you won't be getting any girls," Ino finished and then headed inside with the newly arrived Asuma.
"She doesn't get it," Shikamaru scoffed as they approached Choji. "Guys don't necessarily like skinny girls, they're more interested in a nice rack."
"Well, I guess that makes her one of a kind as well," Haruka chuckled. Ino's constant diets certainly hadn't done her figure any good, but then she still had a few years so that might change. From what she'd heard Tsunade had been rather flat chested in her youth and now the woman could probably suffocate someone just by hugging them.
Shikamaru joked a round a little more to make sure Choji was fine and hadn't been hurt by Ino's comments, but Haruka didn't listen any longer. She could sense both Naruto and Sasuke nearby. They seemed to be high up and a little looking around confirmed that the hospital was in the direction she felt their presence in. What could they possibly be doing on the roof?
She was about to ignore them and move on, but then Naruto's chakra multiplied in a way that indicated he'd created several dozen Shadow Clones. Haruka stared at the roof, the only thing she could see from down here though were the occasional plumes of chakra smoke whenever a clone was destroyed. A few seconds later a figure she assumed to be Sasuke sprang up high and then a giant fireball hit the roof and destroyed all the clones.
"Oh you have to be shitting me," Haruka growled and sprinted towards the hospital, using a few Body Flickers to cover the distance faster. She heard Shikamaru shout her name and felt him follow, but he couldn't keep up with her speed. Sai was a different matter. By now she was faster than him as well, but not by much. He'd taken to following her at a distance for the day. She had no idea why, but it might come in handy now.
With her chakra reserves full she decided that running up the side of the building would be more effective than taking the stairs. It would also cause less people to get involved. The roof was fenced in, but she simply vaulted over the obstacle without pause when she saw her two teammates.
There was lightning blazing in Sasuke's left hand. She had no idea what kind of jutsu Naruto held in his right, but judging by the amount of spinning chakra he had compressed into a tiny ball it would cause a lot of damage when it hit.
"Stop it!" Sakura screamed from the sidelines. She'd probably been stalking the Uchiha again, not that it mattered right now. Naruto and Sasuke were sprinting at each other, screaming like maniacs, while the idiot girl tried to get between them.
Haruka used another Body Flicker and made it there first. She kicked Sakura hard, not caring where she hit the girl as long as she was out of the way. She vaguely registered a grunt, but was too busy coating herself in a cloak of chakra to pay too much attention. Her usual barrier wouldn't do because the thing would shatter like glass against attacks like that. Instead she hoped she could mitigate some of the damage.
Naruto's eyes widened the second he registered Haruka in his path, and she felt the panicked surge of both his and Sasuke's chakra, but neither of them would be able to stop in time. She gripped both of their wrists a moment before they would have collided, and then turned, redirecting their momentum enough so that they shot past each other instead.
She heard two crashes and something she assumed to be stone splinters from the roof hit her in the side, but the pain couldn't compare to the way both of her arms felt. Her right hand was sticky and smelled like burned flesh. Tiny tremors shook her muscles and what felt like tongues of fire snaked up to her shoulder like vines. The left side was even worse. Her hand was fine, but the skin from wrist to elbow was completely shredded. There was probably some muscle damage as well, it certainly bled enough.
Haruka stood very still for several seconds, trying not to black out from the pain. She hadn't been this hurt in a long time and wasn't used to the stress it put on her body anymore. She very slowly pushed more and more chakra into her arms to numb them without causing any more damage.
"Let me go! I need to help!" Naruto shouted.
"I think you helped enough," Shikamaru growled back at him. She'd never heard him this angry. He had Naruto bound with his shadow, and even though she could feel the blond's chakra raging against the jutsu it didn't do him any good. On her other side Sai pressed a kunai to Sasuke's throat, which explained why the Uchiha hadn't said anything yet. Sakura was crouching down a few meters further away, holding her stomach and staring at the demolished roof. Kakashi stood beside her. He looked a lot less surprised and very, very angry.
The chidori had ripped a trench into the roof, and whatever Naruto's jutsu was had created a crater so big that the room below now had a skylight. Haruka took several deep breaths before she straightened herself.
"Are you two completely insane?" She asked. Her voice wasn't loud, but it practically vibrated with anger. "Unless you're actually trying to murder someone you don't use a fucking assassination technique against them. Especially if you can't stop it. I swear the next time you do this shit I'm not stepping in again." Then she rounded on Sakura. "And you! What the fuck is wrong with you? Have you suddenly become a competent shinobi or was your intention simply to play meat shield? Because I promise one of those jutsu is more than enough to rip a body apart, the only thing you would have achieved is inflate the kill count."
Haruka's breathing was labored after her little rant, and then everything tilted to the side and started to spin. Kakashi caught her long before she hit the ground, the angry storm of his chakra swirling around both of them. She felt more than heard him say something, but didn't understand a word. Staying awake was all she could really concentrate on.
Kakashi moved fast, and apparently straight through a window and into the Godaime's office.
"Out!" He ordered. There was a lot of noise, then a door slammed and Haruka was placed on a sofa. Her sensei said something else she didn't understand, followed by a crash.
"Wait?" Tsunade snarled. "I'm not waiting! She needs immediate medical attention!"
Haruka was pretty sure her sensei ignored the Godaime because she felt him crouch at her side, and then he lightly touched her shoulder.
"Pup?" He asked quietly. Opening her eyes was very hard, so she just blinked a few times.
"Yeah I know, gotta stay awake," she mumbled. Tsunade huffed at that, but then Kakashi explained to her what would happen if Haruka wasn't awake. After all, the reason she was more or less immune to most genjutsu was because her chakra attacked foreign chakra in her system, which of course also applied to medical jutsu. She needed to be awake to suppress that effect and even then her own chakra would burn her cells. That was why she usually didn't bother seeing a medic. She healed quite a bit faster than most people, and that was generally enough, but this time there was considerable nerve damage in her right hand and arm, and the muscles of her left were shredded. It wouldn't kill her, but she could quit being a ninja without Tsunade's help.
The Godaime talked quite a bit while she fixed her. Haruka assumed it was meant to distract her from the pain. It didn't work particularly well, but she appreciated the effort.
"You're my new favorite Hokage," she mumbled.
"Who was the old one," Kakashi asked, a little bemused, while Tsunade huffed. It wasn't a secret that she hadn't particularly liked the Sandaime after all.
"Shodaime-sama of course."
At that Kakashi laughed outright. Tsunade seemed rather confused, but Haruka didn't feel like explaining that the man's stone head was her favorite spot in the village and that he deserved some credit for that.