Update 9/23/13 - A great big thank you to xxSaphireBluexx who did a wonderful job editing this chapter!
This is written for the two unique voters in a poll on my profile page. They selected Angst and Long, Deep read. The angst in the fic is a little light, but it does increase overtime. This story will only be about 3-shots, 4 tops and 2-bottom. Let's see if I can keep within this limit.
A long time ago, I was worried about this story stealing the plot line of another I had been working on. I did eventually end up posting the story, Sleeping Beauty, and as you may note, the stories are nothing alike. Sleeping Beauty was supposed to be a multi-chapter fic, but I found that the ending was just too good to touch. Perhaps one day there will be a continuation, but Redemption is not it.
Thank you for clicking on the link and coming to this page to read my story, I hope my A/N didn't scare you off. May God bless you and please have a good week, those of you returning to school: ~Good Luck!~ I shall be going back also…
If you have the time, please leave a review. Let me know what you liked (or didn't like) about the characters, plot, etc.
Z.z
Redemption
Chapter 1
There was only so much that he could say in such a situation. It wasn't in his place nor was it any of his business; but standing outside of the door, listening to his brother and his brother's best friend worry and almost cry over their teammate, made him far more acute and sensitive to what was going on. He cared deeply for his brother; for the boy's mental, emotional and physical health. Right now, his brother was struggling emotionally and it would likely affect his physical and mental recovery. He leaned his back against the wall, waiting patiently for his brother to come out and explain; although he already knew the entire story from a nurse, which he had sought out in the halls.
He had arrived at the hospital three days ago at around four in the morning, after a good friend relayed a gate watcher's message that his brother and his team had been severely injured and had been rushed into surgery. He'd come straight away, ignoring the unfinished report he'd been working on. There he'd waited in the hallway; consoling his terrified mother, and easing his father's paranoid and angry belief that someone in Konoha wanted his youngest dead. The first in and out was the demon container, nobody wanted to take a chance at a weakened seal. The second was his younger brother due to his family's high profile. Third was the copy-nin, a great asset to the village. The fourth was the girl, one born from civilian status.
The problem was the order in which they went in. According to the nurse, the girl had been in worse condition than his brother and copy-nin, she had more outside wounds and had been unconscious. But the longer the girl had gone without treatment the more damage happened in her internal system due to a poison that had gone undetected. They only discovered it when they got her on the table. By then she was almost too late to be saved.
His brother and friend now stared over their comrade in silent remorse of guilt and pain at seeing her in the current condition she was in. She would never again return to being a shinobi, at least that is what the doctor said. It was even unlikely she would be able to return to living normally. Internally, the damage to her heart and lungs had put her on the list for a donor. It was still unknown whether her right kidney would last. The wound that exposed her was still open, and seeping. It was a long gash on her right arm and it looked close to festering. She was under close watch to make sure she did not erupt into a fever. Antibiotics were being pumped into her every hour. On the back of her right leg was a long scar, trailing from her lower calf to her upper thigh. The crude healing of a tired, overworked, chakra-exhausted medic-nin had left the area with tight, scrunched scar tissue. If the girl was ever able to fully stretch out again, it would be enough to consider it a miracle.
This was the first time her teammates had been able to see her. The container had awoken twenty-two hours after his surgery; his brother thirty-eight; the copy-nin had yet to come around. The two boy's being in the same room together had demanded to see both their sensei and their comrade. Finally after twelve hours of arguing and locking doors and chaining the blond escape artist to his bed, the head doctor finally allowed the two of them to leave the room to see their team under the condition they were to confine themselves to wheelchairs. They'd seen the copy-nin first. Then, they'd come to see her. No one had told them what to expect.
It was obvious the two had believed she'd been the least hurt of them all. She was the only one that the reapers blade still balanced above though. The medic-nin had quietly tried to explain, avoiding mention his part of destroying her leg. The boys had yet to find out that their priority had almost, if not yet, killed their friend. It would be a hard lesson, one which the world would soon lay upon their shoulders. It would be a weight they would bare every day of their lives, in every fight, in every mission, in every team assignment they encountered. Not until they died would they be released from their burden. It would be in the back of their minds and it would push them even farther to become stronger, but it would also nag at their courage and drag them into the pits of doubt. But they would learn to deal with it; to bury it deeply and make it invisible to the outside, just as he had.
Even though the situation was different only in that, at least for now, the teammate had survived. He could not even begin to imagine what it would be like to see the effects of the damage every time they saw her. Carved words on a gravestone had been hard enough on him. At least they would get the chance he never had. She would be able to hear their apology, but would she forgive them? Would his teammate have forgiven him? Perhaps some questions were better left unasked.
The man leaned back his head and looked up at the ceiling, thinking quietly upon the past. He remembered staring up at the same lights as they rolled him through. He remembered the mask they shoved upon his face, the pain arching through his spine, the blood pooling from his lower abdomen. He remembered the only thing he said when he woke up. 'Where was he?' What had happened to his teammate, his ally, his equal? It turned out they were not so equal after all. Black lashes combined as the man closed his eyes. The door opened and the eyelids retracted, once again allowing sight to the man.
The faces of the two looked sunken, as if the skin upon their faces had shrank from the sight before their eyes and the truth of what they saw. His brother's eyes were casted down at the ground and the container was staring ahead, eyes filled with determination for achieving a promise to the unconscious girl. The medic patted the two boys' heads in an odd form of comfort not fitting for the situation, and then the man walked down the hall leaving him to deal with the grief stricken children.
He waited patiently for one of them to speak or begin moving. But both were lost in their own thoughts and didn't even acknowledge his presence. It took some time, at least twenty minutes, for the blond haired container to finally regain thought of the present. He turned his head up and looked at the man in the eyes. The blue eyes were wide and glistening with unshed tears.
"They don't think Sakura is going to make it," the words came out like a whisper. It was what it took for the boy to acknowledge the reality of what was going to happen to his friend. The boy shook in his chair and he gripped the edges of his arm rests. No tears fell; the boy was waiting for later to shed them, where he could mourn without public witness.
The man gave a solemn nod and looked at the girl through the clear glass. Would she live? Even if she did, the life awaiting someone so injured would likely be horrible. She would curse those that saved her; curse those that forced her to live in such a painful state. She'd probably end up wondering if her life was worth living at all.
"I'm going back," the boy said before making his way through the halls in a silence unnatural from his normal over-joyous and rowdy personality.
He let the boy go, knowing it was best that he be alone for a time to gather his thoughts. Silence and rest is what the boy needed. The demon inside him may have aided in the healing process; but there was still a need for the boy to regain strength, especially after such a devastating blow to his moral. He would give the boy time, and then perhaps he would offer aid. This would be the first time the boy had lost someone he knew that was close to him. It was likely the boy had never dealt with such grief beyond the 'what ifs' of parents, but even he didn't know if they'd left him or had died.
Black eyes looked down at the person in the remaining wheelchair, and then they looked back at the girl on the bed. He wondered if the girl's parents had been notified, civilians were often overlooked by the shinobi society. It was likely that it had not been done, for usually the genin teacher was the one that handled all contact with the families of the children. He made a mental note to do so as soon as he made sure his brother was back in his room. It would be wrong for a child to die alone or for a parent to be unaware and separated at this time. The pain was great enough already without adding upon the grief with regret. His old teammate's mother had yet to look at him without crying and the father without looking sharply away.
"Itachi..."
The man looked down at his younger brother. "Yes Sasuke?"
The boy looked up at him. Black eyes met black.
Itachi squatted, reached out and grabbed Sasuke's hand.
"This is my fault," the boy told him quietly. The shoulders slumped more and the eyes dropped from the stare. The boy had admitted to his greatest crime. There was the want of punishment, the craving of retribution that Itachi knew too well. The boy wanted something to make it right, as if the scales could once again tip into equal balance.
"How so?" What reasoning had the boy come up with? Was the boy more perceptive than what Itachi had always given him credit for?
"I could have blocked the attack. If I'd just..." The black eyes wandered the hallway, seeing all the possibilities of things he should have done. The power of their clan stayed within their head. Every detail of the fight, and the layout and the movements, played in their minds over and over again. He was seeing what he could have done to be closer to her, to have saved her, to have killed the poisoner, to have pointed out the ambush, to have stopped the blade from tearing into the chest cavity of the boy with brown hair-
Itachi blinked and turned his gaze from his brother. They were cursed, truly cursed with their eyes. He turned back to his younger sibling. It was too late for him to be saved, but Sasuke... Itachi tapped foreheads with Sasuke and looked into his eyes.
"Do not go down that road little brother." It would never stop and it would eat him alive until he drove himself mad. The past had to remain in the past. There were times when analyzing such a fight would be beneficial in learning what to do in the next. But not in this case. The visions would get worse and more desperate, even seeing oneself take the blow in the stead of another. It would only bring more pain and sorrow. It would only bring more grief. "Trust me. When you see it, live only for the present." Or you will drown in misery, he wanted to add, but instead he held his tongue. His brother did not need anymore weight added upon his young shoulders.
The boy nodded and breathed in the comfort of a familiar smell. "I... I just want... I just want her to be ok. I want to make everything go back to the way it was."
If only there was such a power. "I know." He knew the feeling of overwhelming that came with the realization that things were going to be different, so very different. Everything would change and the world would feel too wrong to be real.
Itachi squeezed his brother's hand and Sasuke squeezed back. After that Itachi stood and began pushing his brother through the halls carefully to avoid bumping the outstretched casted limb of a right leg.
When he got Sasuke to his room, Itachi helped him in getting through the bathroom door. There he waited outside for instructions to open it. His eyes scanned the rest of the room and they fell upon the drawn curtain of his brother's best friend. In the morning he would speak with the boy. The boy needed someone to help guide him through this time and since he had neither caretaker nor anyone close besides his teammates. It seemed to Itachi that the responsibility fell to his teammate's family. An extended relation. Although it was relative that he speak with the boy, he knew that he was too straight forward. He would make sure his mother was able to comfort the child; goodness knew the boy needed someone at this moment to give physical 'thereness' at a time where another physical entity would likely depart from the boy's life.
There came the quiet cough that signaled Itachi to his job. He opened the door and helped his brother get into the bed. He made sure the boy was settled and that he needed nothing else. But before he left, Sasuke grabbed the sleeve of his shirt.
"Are you coming back tonight?"
It wasn't that late, but he had a duty that had to be taken care of. "No, I'll be back in the morning though." His brother's face fell. The boy did not wish to be left alone; surely the image of his friend would haunt him at his brother's departure. Itachi nodded, knowing how hard it was for him to sleep after the death of his teammate. "Shisui will be stopping by later," Itachi told him, to cheer him up. He'd make sure that Shisui talked Sasuke to sleep. After that though, the boy would be on his own.
He gave his brother's out reaching arm a squeeze to let him know that he needed to be let go of. After that he left for the main bar in the village where he found his older cousin sitting at his usual spot. It took only a few minutes to explain the situation to his cousin and to get him agree to see Sasuke.
Itachi left there and went to the police station to get the location of the girl's home. He walked through the streets, using the time to prepare himself for what was to come. He'd only done a notification four times. Each had been the death of a family member. It was considered polite for notifications to come within the clan when the person was above the rank of genin. He did not know whether it was for allowing people to view the clan as strong and emotionless or so that the family could grieve together. He preferred it for the latter, but only the former made sense in the political realm.
He finally stood before the door.
He raised his hand and knocked.
It took several moments but finally the door opened to reveal a short, stout woman with well-kept hair and a decent dress, fitting of a middle class merchant.
"How may I help you, Uchiha-san?" The woman asked with a light smile upon her face. There was logic in the brown eyes, and it was obvious to him that she was very intelligent in the realm of business. She was being polite, but he could tell she was upset that he'd come so late to talk to her. He wondered how she would take the news.
"You're Mrs. Haruno, correct?"
She smiled brighter, as if certain he was here for business. He just needed to make sure that he told the right person. "Yes, I am."
"Your Sakura's mother?" He needed to make absolutely certain.
The woman's facial expressions changed immediately. It occurred to her that the man before her was the brother of Sakura's team member. Her lips tightened and her fists balled up, anxiety setting in. "Yes," she said.
"Has anyone been by to see you?" Had anyone even thought to speak with her?
"No," her voice was starting to sound raw. She was beginning to image what was happening.
"I am sorry to inform you, your daughter is in the intensive care unit at the hospital. She was exposed to a poison that has caused massive damage to her system. They-" he was going to say more, but the woman had shoved him out of the doorway. She ran through the streets, barefoot, in the direction of the hospital; not caring who saw her flight.
Quietly, Itachi retrieved his pick lock tools from his side pocket. He closed her door and locked it. Then he took to the roof and began making his way to the hospital, although not rushing. He was unsure as to why he went; he could just return home and get some needed rest. When he walked through the main door, he was glad his instinct had told him to follow.
"What do you mean I can't see my daughter!" Mrs. Haruno cried to the head nurse blocking the entrance to the rest of the hospital.
"It is passed visiting hours, ma'am. I'm sorry but you can return in the morning," the nurse replied sternly, looking every bit like the shinobi she'd once been.
"Look I am going to see my daughter!"
"I said no."
"Let her through," Itachi said, his normal smooth voice grated with an edge that caused all within the waiting room and in the entranceway to look at him.
"Excu-"the nurse turned her head to look, her body gathering height to tower over her opponent. But the sight of him caused all words to retract down her throat.
His eyes swirled, red and black, slowly in anger. If the woman had been a shinobi, if the girl had not been born a civilian, they would have stepped aside. The dress marked the woman as a target, an outcast so to speak. An easy person to bully into submission. His mother would only have to walk through the door, during any hour, to get an escort to any Uchiha's room she pleased. His clan held such power. It filled his soul with fire to see the other side of the coin.
The nurse gave a choking cough and a short nod. He could see the sweat drops beginning to form on her brow and the dilation of her eyes increasing. She was scared.
"I'm sure you owe Mrs. Haruno an escort to her daughter's room in the intensive care ward. I would also hope you would alert a medic to inform her of her daughter's injuries as well as get her a cup of coffee as an apology for your rude and uncalled for behavior," he told the woman, keeping his face expressionless.
The nurse gave a slow nod as if barely understanding his words.
"The sooner the better," he said to get the woman to work.
It took a moment of hesitation before the nurse rocked back on her heels. "Of course. Mrs. Haruno, please follow me. Do you like your coffee black or with sugar?"
The brown haired woman looked back at Itachi with gratitude. "Sugar and cream please."
"Please feel free to call on me if you have any other troubles with the hospital Mrs. Haruno," he told the mother, but the words were not for her. He doubted the civilian would bother speaking with someone like himself. She probably had nightmares about people like him. His words were for the nurse to carry to her fellow employees. It was what his mother called a sweet worded threat.
"Thank you."
The two women walked down the hallway to the elevator, and then they disappeared from view. Black eyes then looked around the room. All attention was focused on the powerful shinobi, as if they thought he was likely to attack. He cut off his blood limit and raised an eyebrow in question and carefully made sure to meet all of their eyes. They turned their gaze as soon as they met his. There would be talk all around town tomorrow. More than likely it would be about how the Uchiha heir was becoming more stuck up and threatening. There wasn't anything he could do about it now though.
"To think that nurse would stop a poor mother from seeing her dying daughter," said a voice breaking the silence. The voice was loud, obnoxious and looking out for Itachi's reputation, which meant it could only be one person: Shisui.
Itachi turned around and noticed his cousin had been hiding around the corner; more than likely the man had seen him and decided to follow just to see what he was up to. The man walked up and tossed an arm around Itachi's shoulders. "Sasuke is sound asleep. I decided I'd read him one of those technical scrolls," Shisui grinned turning them around to begin walking out the entrance, "You heading home?"
Itachi gave a nod of his head. "Are you?"
"Nah, I think I'm going back to the bar; you're welcome to come with."
As much as a drink would ease his calming nerves, it would probably intoxicate him with his stomach empty. The intoxication would not be so bad, for it would most likely drown out the pains of his past, but he needed a clear head to think. The future was not looking so well for his younger brother and it was likely that he would need to comfort him soon. He needed to speak with his mother about the container. It would probably take some time to get her to listen to his idea, but he had no doubt she would enjoy coddling a child, since she'd never truly been able to do so with her own children.
He also wanted to ask her about the girl; his mother had once studied poisons and healing, she would know what the girl's life would turn out to be like if she were to live. He wanted to find a way to help the girl and her mother.
The Uchiha clan was bound tightly to blood; it would do them good to look outside themselves for once. Such a suggestion would come at a price though, and change would not come willingly. He had many things to think over that required clarity of mind.
He shook his head, "I'll pass. Have a good night, cousin."
Shisui gave Itachi a pat on the back before heading out in the opposite direction of the compound. Itachi took to the roofs and made his way home in a quick, shinobi fashion. As he came to his home, he jumped to the ground and quietly opened the sliding door. He entered the hallway and made his way to the main room where light came from under the door. Again he quietly slid the light frame on the rails, and then he bowed before entering. His mother sat upon a mat, her legs folded under her. At her sides were scrolls and books. In her hands rested an open book and she looked up to look at her son.
"How is Sasuke?" she asked immediately, still worried over her child's condition.
"Physically he is doing much better, but he just learned about his teammate," he told her truthfully, "He is blaming himself for not being able to protect her."
"Yes, the girl..." his mother trailed off, "How is she?"
"They have her stabilized but they still do not know if she will pull through," he replied. He glanced at the floor, at the books beside his mother. They were herbology of the lands ruled by the shinobi villages.
"That poison did a number on her. The hokage even has me working on it," the black haired woman extended her arms to the papers around her, "The fact that they were unable to detect it through the normal tests is making some extremely fearful of what this poison maker might do next. I've looked at almost every text I own and I still have not discovered the base compound or the third identified supplement."
"What he might do next? Naruto said that Kakashi killed the man that had the knife," Itachi questioned. The poisoner was dead.
"The hokage sent out a jounin team to look at the area, see if there were any other missing-nin. They found a base and a shipment of weapons all coated in the same substance as the weapon used on Sakura. That's why he's sent everyone who's had poison experience to look at it," his mother massaged one of her temples with her free hand.
"I don't even know if they were truly able to get the poison out of her system. Has that wound on her arm started to show signs of closing or healing?"
"No, the doctor has her on antibiotics."
His mother's black eyes glinted, "Do you know which antibiotic?"
Itachi closed his eyes, remembering the conversation he'd had with a nurse earlier. "The latest shipment from Tsunade I believe."
His mother extended her hand up and Itachi pulled her to her feet. "I need to see the recipe for this antibiotic. It may be what is keeping that girl alive, if I am correct in saying the poison is not fully out of her system. Did they try any other antibiotic?"
"Not to my knowledge."
"Alright then. I need to see the hokage and get to the lab. I hope Haruka was able to get a concentrate of the poison, it wasn't liquid."
"The poison wasn't liquid?"
"Haruka believes it was crafted into the blade itself. It's extremely nasty and brilliant. It's another reason why finding as much as we can about this poison is so important. Would you accompany me?" his mother asked offhanded, suddenly aware that perhaps her son had come to the room to look for her specifically and had not gone straight to his room as was usual.
"Yes, I would," he extended his arm to his mother and she slipped her hand through.
"What is it you wished to speak with me about?" she asked as they made their way onto the street.
"Several things," Itachi told her as they passed under the street lamps of their district and out the gate and into the rest of the village. "I am worried about the emotional state of Sasuke's friend, Naruto Uzumaki. It has a occurred to me that this may be the first loss the boy has experienced; he has no family nor anybody to help him through his grief besides Sasuke, who is currently in the same situation, and Kakashi, who has not yet awoken. I not sure if my giving comfort is the best-"
His mother cut him off then, knowing exactly where the conversation was heading.
"You want me to play surrogate mother?" she asked.
"Yes, ma'am," Itachi dipped his head in submission to whatever she decided.
His mother was a strong woman, and many might even place her outside the realm of being a mother. The clan had shaped her into the appearance of a lady and she was in a situation where her appearance meant everything. Speaking with the boy, offering comfort, would look disagreeable with most of the public that hated the child. It would appear to the outside eye that she would not help him. But Itachi knew that inside was the kind hearted person that the clan was unable to touch. She would not let the boy waver alone in this rough patch in life, even if she only played a subtle role in getting someone else to console him.
Rich red lips pursed together in thought and the wrinkles under his mother's eyes scrunched together. Finally his mother looked at him. "Very well. I'll be bringing lunch to the hospital for Sasuke; I might as well bring... what is it the boy likes?"
"Ramen," Itachi answered, he'd listened to the boy complain for two straight hours about how the hospital didn't have any.
The woman nodded, "What else did you wish to speak with me about?"
"Assuming the girl does live. What will happen to her?" It was the question at the forefront of his mind, the one he wanted to ask first; but it was not as important as the request he had to make, so he had put it second.
"That depends on how damaged she is. I heard she was smart so she might be given the option of helping out at the academy or a desk job, that is assuming her brain wasn't damaged with that poison. It is highly possible she'll return to the life of a civilian."
"Is it possible for her to return to being a shinobi?" He asked cautiously.
At that his mother turned around to face him. Her black eyes narrowed into slits and her lips thinned into a straight line. "Would you ask such questions if Katsumi had not died?"
Itachi froze. His heart shook in his chest. But the only outside expression of his inner pain was the twitch of his right cheek skin.
"I would be a fool to not see that the situation your brother is in was similar to your own," his mother explained, "As hard as it might be, please try to understand-"
"Her mother had not been alerted to the fact that her own daughter was-," he cut her off.
"Do you wish for me to speak-."
"I already notified her and escorted her to the hospital. It was as if taking her in last was not enough," he continued on, his tone belaying his disgust.
His mother gave him a sharp look. "Interrupt me again and I will put you over my knee. I will not tolerate disrespect, even if you are upset. You blame everyone but the person responsible, which would be me. The amount of money we give to the hospital insures our family will be given the best possible treatment. Do you wish that your brother had been treated last?"
"He would not have died-"
"If he'd had the poison it would have been a likely scenario. It is hard, but it is necessary to insure our survival. If we didn't give so much then we would be the ones receiving treatment after Hyuugas and any others who decided to give to the hospital. With our reputation it is even right to assume that we would be treated last just because people hate and envy us," the woman raised one pale hand and brushed her son's cheek, "It is a burden, a heavy burden. And I am sorry you began carrying it so early; but you would want the best treatment for your child, would you not?"
"Mrs. Haruno does, just the same as you," Itachi murmured quietly.
Black eyes looked steadily into her son's until she gave a sigh and tapped his forehead.
"I hope to live long enough to see you become clan head. I have a feeling you're going to cause a lot of unrest," she smiled gently, "I would expect nothing less from my child. It is good you see all sides of the situation; you may be able to bring some change." She then rose upon her tip toes and gave a kiss to his cheek. "Do not broach such a topic with your father."
"I won't," he promised, his lips twisting up only a fraction.
"I mean it," she huffed and then she gave a pause. Her face became solemn as she continued, "And about the girl. You should know that it is possible that she could return to being a shinobi; given enough blood, sweat and tears. It will be extremely hard, especially with her heart and lungs; finding the balance between what will kill her and help her will be difficult. She's going to have to want it and want it badly. After such a blow, it's likely she'll just want to retract from the actions that got her hurt. She isn't going to be able to do it on her own. It will be hazardous if she tries training without someone who knows what they are doing. Itachi, it would be safer for her to remain outside of the shinobi life. She was raised a civilian; perhaps she should return to being so." She did not brush around the subject gently; he needed to know the truth of the matter. It would only hurt later on if she didn't. The two of them continued walking down the street.
Itachi's eyes went to the side and then down in thought. Was he only curious of her well-being because of his dead teammate; did he want her to have the chance Katsumi never got? But then again, what right had he to intervene in the young girl's life? He was far too busy as an ANBU captain and she likely wouldn't even be able to move her leg. It wouldn't be worth it, for either of them. The girl didn't need to return to the life of a shinobi; surely she had suffered enough as it was. And he… he would only see her as Katsumi, and she didn't deserve that.
"Nothing can be decided until she wakes up," his mother told him, knowing he was drowning himself in questions.
Itachi gave a nod.
The woman squeezed her son's arm. "Is there anything else?"
Itachi shook his head, "That was all."
The two of them walked into the hokage's tower and past the desk workers and up the stairs. They came to the wooden door and the woman gave one loud knock.
"Come in."
Both entered.
The hokage leaned over his desk, his balding head shined from his desk light. He looked up to greet his guests. "Mikoto-san and Itachi, good evening. I hope Sasuke is doing well."
"Sarutobi-san," she replied with a dip of her head while Itachi bowed, "Sasuke is recovering well. The same cannot be said for his teammate however. I have a theory that I think should be tested and I would like full access to a lab and equipment. I also think someone should notify Tsunade. She'd be able to figure this out quicker than the rest of us."
The third hokage nodded, "I've already sent a retrieval team; we'll see how it goes. I doubt she will return though. You have full permission, but I expect a report on the experiments done and anything other hypothesis you have."
"Shin!" the third called in a chunin, "Please escort Uchiha-san here to the fifth lab facility and aid her in any way you can."
"Please follow me Uchiha-san," the chunin said while bowing.
The third then directed his attention at the other man in the room, "Itachi is there something I can help you with?"
"No sir, I was just escorting my mother. I see she is in good hands; I'll be on my way." Lab work and vials held no interest to him. He needed to calm down and think clearly. Perhaps he'd make a side detour before heading directly home.
"Have a good night."
"You to sir," Itachi bowed and left the room and building.
His feet led him off the main road, to a side path that was well worn but unpaved. It was late enough for house lights to be turned off, making the way even darker than usual. Eventually he walked into a forested area, where the only light barely shined through the trees. He made his way toward the light until finally he stood upon the edge of the clearing. Under the light normally made for streets was an oddly shaped stone. He knew the closer he got the clearer the words carved into the stone would become.
He dipped his head in respect to what the names represented: the bodies of the fallen. He could name the twenty that had been carved this year. He could name the eighteen from the year before. He could name the twenty-five of the year before that. He could name all of those dead starting from the first name he'd ever seen carved, his dead teammate's.
Using his sharingan ability he could probably recite the entire stone for having seen it so many times, but the names did not mean anything to him. The others were written after he'd made it his business to know. Some had been ANBU, some jounin, others chunin, still others genin and the very few had still been academy students. All of them had a story and hearing them, knowing them, made him realize how mortal he truly was.
One day his name would be on the stone. He was not foolish enough to believe otherwise. The number of missions he took, the many times he'd barely escaped death by a fraction of a centimeter, it was amazing he was still alive. One day though, he would not be able to escape and the serrated ninja star, poison coated senbon, elemental jutsu, or finely sharpened katana would find him. He did not ask to live, not while others had died. He was not above them; in fact the village's greatest were on that same stone. He only asked for the guidance, wisdom and courage to face the trials before him with honor and the discernment to provide justice.
But while that was what normally went through his mind, tonight his mind was not focused on his mortality. His mind was focused on another's. There was a small girl who would likely be joining the legendary, the brave and become another flame that would no longer light the village. He prayed for her soul, her family and her friends. What mattered was not so much her death, for all died, but what was beyond, eternity. He'd been called a fool for his belief, but it kept him sane.
His eyes opened at the sound of footsteps.
"Itachi-san," a voice called quietly out into the night. It was always polite to announce one's presence when coming to the stone. It allowed the shinobi a chance to control whatever emotions lay in their heart.
"I've just come to visit my students, not to bother you. Please excuse me," the man walked into the light. The white hair was all the way down the man's back. His shoulders were pulled back but hunched under the giant scroll on his back. He walked directly in front of the stone and crouched before it. He closed his eyes and his lips moved but the emitted no sound.
Itachi knew what the sage was doing. He was speaking to the dead. Although it wasn't because he thought they would speak back. Itachi had seen others do such a thing. Shisui asked questions to think through them. Kakashi talked about his current life. His mother informed the dead of their loved ones lives. In a way, it was a formality. He'd never partaken in such though. He was not close enough with those that had passed.
He'd barely known Katsumi, they'd only been a team for a couple of months. But he felt that if the dead truly did hear, then Katsumi would not appreciate a conversation with the person responsible for his death or the person that had looked down upon him while he'd been alive.
He left the sage to his conversation out of respect. He had no business being here...