Mama Wolf
Asuka watches as Ichika’s gaze is trained on her and soon finds herself being pounced on and pinned onto the bed underneath 200 lbs of wolf.
“I-Ichika! C-Can't breathe”
Asuka makes a half-hearted attempt to push the wolf off her fingers digging into pale silver fur with no avail as the wolf huffs in annoyance.
"Consider this repayment for being so stupid on that mission pup!”
Ichika huffs haughtily, head held high as she makes herself comfortable on top of her summoner.
“Do you know how worried the pack was!”
As the wolf speaks, she begins to run a rough tongue through the mess that is Asuka’s hair.
“And you passed out from chakra exhuastion of all things! I thought I taught you better than that!”
Asuka grumbles underneath her breath as she resigns herself to just get comfortable beneath the wolf.
“Kaisen was the one who helped me with chakra control”
The kunoichi mumbles underneath her breath while praying the wolf didn’t hear her. She’d rather not deal with the customary rant Ichika goes into whenever she mentions the other summoning contract she signed.
“What was that?”
Asuka freezes as her words die in her mouth, pitch black eyes widening as she frantically waves her hands about to calm Ichika down.
“Nothing- I said absolutely nothing!”
She knows the lie might as well by glass with how see through it is, but it calms the wolf down thankfully. As a bonus Ichika also finally moves off Asuka to sit on the floor with her head on the kunoichi’s lap.
“Sorry Ichika”
Asuka lets out a tired sigh as she begins to run her finger through the wolf’s fur, thick and warm, hiding rippling muscle just beneath. Ichika is a wolf summon, capable of easily ripping out an enemy's bowels with a single swipe of powerful claws. But she finally has one of her family back, someone who she trusts, and Ichika is all but her mother.
Even if she’ll never see Souta again this solidifies the fact that she survived, she made sure Inori-sensei and Naeto could survive. That she survived despite everything, that she has yet to break even with the destruction of her clan.
“Just don’t do it again pup”
The wolf’s eyes move to look up at her summoner as Asuka continues to run her fingers through Ichika’s fur. Asuka just sighs as she buries her face in the thick fur of Ichika’s neck, eyes clenched shut as she attempts to ground herself.
She isn’t ready to talk about what had happened, couldn’t while she was still working to come to terms with her situation with everything going on. So, she just sits there and basks in Ichika’s presence, listening to the periodic beeping of machines and the movement of chakra signatures within the hospital.
The duo sits there with only the gentle movement of their chests betraying any movement. Black against white as Asuka’s hair hides her face from view and looks like an ink spill against the snow white of Ichika’s fur.
“I miss Souta”
The words are whispered, barely heard against Ichika’s fur. But they aren’t a lie, her teammate was lost because she wasn’t fast enough, she was the one who he pushed out of the way, the one he took a mortal wound for.
The man was her best friend he understood all her odd questions and allowed her to be her not the cousin of the Uchiha Clan head. Souta was kind for all people avoided him purely based on the fact he was an Aburame and because he was too kind he got killed.
“You’ll heal Asuka, eventually and with time but you will come back”
Asuka sighs softly as she mumbles a soft thank you into Ichika’s fur. The wolf’s usage of her name, the one gifted to her by granny hitting harder than expected but still it lights that small fire within herself.
The one Ameratsu gifts to all her descendants to all her clansmen. The one that made them feel so deeply and shatter if those they love are lost.
It is in this moment that Asuka, Kagami, one of the last Uchiha makes her decision.
That she is going to live