Shinyuu: Chapter 1
Edited: 7/17/09
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
"I love you," a woman said as she looked lovingly up to her husband, smiling in a way that made his heart melt as a tear fell from his eye.
His wife was sick and dying, his only son lay on another bed, beginning to show signs of the same fatal disease. He looked away from his wife to where his son lay on the opposite side of the room, asleep with a fever and a cold sweat. The boy's body would jerk spontaneously due to the intense flashes of pain that would spike through his body. More tears fell from the fathers face onto the floor. He was the only one, the only one not to get the illness, the only one immune to it. His wife began a fit of coughing, barely able to breath, drawing his attention back to her.
After a few minutes the coughs had subsided and she spoke in a dry, pained voice, "Please, help our son...take him to a different village...take him to get help."
He grabbed her hand and lifted it in his own. "I won't; I'm not going without you, I can't leave you behind." He gently explained; more tears fell and landed on his wife's hand.
She smiled sadly, caressing the side of his face with a gentle, shaky hand " I'm dying, I won't live much longer...our son still has a chance to live, but only if you leave now. Promise you will go...promise me you will go tonight."
The wall that held back his river of emotions suddenly crumbled and he burst into uncontrollable sobs, resting his head on the side of his wife's bed. He knew; he knew it had to be done, that he would have to leave his wife in the village to take her last breath while he left with their only son in hopes of making it to a nearby hospital before his son, too, would breath no more. He knew that no matter what, he had to respect and fulfill his wife's dying request.
"I...I promise!" He choked out as his wife soothingly stroked his hair. "I promise, I promise, I promise." He repeated to himself, trying to make himself follow through.
"I really do love you," She cooed tenderly as she ran her fingers through his hair.
The man looked up to his wife's smiling face; she was always smiling, even through hard times, always. He smiled back, the one he used only for his family, his true smile; "I love you too, I love you."
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
"Dad..."
A soft, tired voice brought him back from his reminiscing thoughts.
"Dad, I think I'm going to be sick." The boy continued in his painfully dry voice that was so soft and weak that it could barely be heard.
The man walked over to the side of the road and gently helped his son off of his back and to the ground. His son had not eaten solid food in several days, only drinking water and eating bread which he would throw up half an hour later. Really, there was nothing in his son's stomach for him to throw up, he had not eaten in hours and guessed that the slight motion of riding on his father's back was twisting his son's stomach and making him sick. His son dry heaved for several minutes then began to vomit blood; the man began to rub his son's back and speak comforting words to him.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
He had left that night as promised, carrying only his son on his back and a small bag of food and coins. He walked through the night, only stopping when his son felt terribly sick and needed a rest, arriving at the nearest hospital at dawn the next day. He immediately asked a doctor to cure his son; give his son medicine, an antidote, anything; after an exam, many tests, and a five hour wait, the doctor told the father what he had concluded.
"We are not exactly sure of the cause of the illness, we've not seen this kind of disease before and it seems very complex--"
"How long will it take to heal my son?" The man asked – demanded, not listening to any of the words the doctor said.
"We will have to run more tests before we can be sure--"
"How long will it take to heal my son?" The man asked again as an agitated scowl began to grow on his features.
"We will try the best we can to quickly make an antidote that will heal him--"
The man grabbed the doctor by the stiff white collar of his shirt and slammed him into the wall directly behind them, holding him there; there was a loud shattering noise made as a picture on the wall next to them fell to the ground and shattered, making several nurses rush into the hallway to inspect the scene. He held the doctor against the wall, high enough so the man's feet could not touch the ground, and shouted in a threatening tone, "How long will it take to heal my son?!"
The doctor stuttered, mouth agape, not expecting the sheer anger and aggression that poured from the man, "We...we're not quite sure--"
The man pushed the doctor into the wall again, his tone was horrifyingly calm compared to moments before as his eyes angrily glared into the doctors, "How long, Doctor?"
The doctor gulped loudly, "At least three or four weeks."
The man let all his emotions out in an enraged yell as he released the doctor's shirt, letting him drop to the ground. He walked across the width of the hallway and cried out again as he punched the wall multiple times then slid down to the ground on his knees. "No, no, there's not enough time; he'll die, he'll die if I don't get him help in a couple of days." He spoke softly to the wall and to himself.
A nurse cautiously made her way over to him, "Sir...sir, you need to just calm down."
"No, there's no time; I have to save my son, I promised to make him better..." He weakly replied as tears silently rolled down his face.
"Sir, we need your approval to run more tests before we can help your son."
"I promised, I promised."
Several minutes later, after he had composed himself, he swiftly picked up his son and left the hospital. He had decided to find her, to find the one person who would be able to heal his son; the legendary sannin and medic, also known as the Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Tsunade.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Sasuke, Sakura, and Shikamaru stood in Tsunade's office accompanied by two ANBU, all of whom, excluding those wearing masks, looked extremely bored. They had just arrived back from a very easy and simple C ranked mission; the entire week had been boring as they were escorting some merchants from a village in the fire nation to one in wind, stopping at many small villages along the way. All of the ninja who were currently standing in Tsunade's office were skilled enough to handle A rank or higher missions, but each had a reason for completing a lower ranked one. Sasuke was the main reason for the easy mission, he had just recently been allow to resume taking missions again after his return to Konoha and had to start all over again...as a genin, therefore, he was given a C level mission to complete. The ANBU had went on the mission, but they were not assigned to protect merchandise and sellers, no, their mission was to accompanying one Uchiha Sasuke as he was required to have two ANBU with him at all times, also one of the restrictions placed on him upon returning to Konoha. Shikamaru had simply joined because there was an open spot for an easy mission where little to no work was required. Of course, he snatched at the opportunity, where as Sakura, although happy to go on a mission with her old teammate and friend, had not wanted to attend such a boring mission. She had no choice though, Tsunade needed one more man, or woman, to fill the empty spot and no one else had been willing to do so with the Uchiha traitor as one of the team members. Hence, the five ninja stood waiting for the Hokage to address them.
"So what is the report on your escort mission?" She asked, question directed towards the mission leader, Shikamaru.
Shikamaru sighed heavily before replying in a monotonous, dull tone, "All went as planned; everyone arrived safely with all their belongings in the final destination. There was a small feud between several of the merchants in the caravan toward the end of the trip but we managed to solve the problem quickly and fairly – it was all quite troublesome."
Tsunade nodded and was about to release them before Sakura spoke up, "Tsunade-sama, we heard a strange rumor while on the mission that you may like to be informed about."
Tsunade raised a curious eyebrow and asked for Sakura to continue.
"While traveling we were talking with many of the different merchants and all of them mentioned a widespread sickness that had plagued many non-ninja villages. They mentioned that the sickness was deadly, if not treated, and many people that lived in smaller villages without medical ninja had died." Sakura shrugged as she finished, "I just thought it was strange and that you should know about it."
"Hmm, that's the first I've heard of that, I should look into it a bit." Tsunade mentioned to herself in contemplation, and then looked back up to the awaiting ninja, "You are dismissed, thank you for the information."
The five left together and began walking down the crowded, busy streets of Konoha, squeezing through crowds of people who were shopping and enjoying others' company.
"Hey guys," Sakura spoke, drawing their attention to her, "How about we go grab something to eat?" She asked tentatively, nervous due to the tight, unbalanced relationship between the two males in the group.
"I can't, I have to go home and watch the kids. Temari wanted to go shopping as soon as I got back; it's so troublesome." He gave a shrug to her as she smiled back at him in an understanding manor. "I guess, I'll see you later Sakura..." he paused, trying to decide whether to continue speaking. He looked over in Sasuke's direction, a slight disapproving scowl involuntarily sliding into his features, "Later, Sasuke." He hated the man; the man that had betrayed his village and left; the man who's best friend had spent endless years trying to bring him home, not even paying attention to himself or the friends that were still around him; the man that was received with open arms back into Konoha and was only given a slap on the hand as punishment; the man that had caused their friend to leave Konoha. He stopped thinking along those lines as he waved to Sakura, who happily waved back, oblivious to his hate for the Uchiha, and jumped up to the rooftops to quickly return home.
Sakura turned to Sasuke, repeating the question in case he didn't hear her the first time, although she knew that he had, "Sasuke, do you want to grab a bite to eat with me?"
Silence; Sasuke continued walking, looking forward, without event a twitch in reply to Sakura's question.
He had been like that ever since they had released him from prison; actually he had been like that ever since Naruto had left on a mission and never returned after he had practically dragged Sasuke back to Konoha against his will. No one knew for sure why, if he didn't want to stay in Konoha, why he didn't leave. Everyone knew that if he wanted to, Sasuke could ditch the two ANBU that mindlessly followed him around. Some people thought that Sasuke really did want to be in Konoha, that he was just pretending he didn't like the place, although no one could fathom why. Yet others, those who knew Sasuke and Naruto's relationship, such as Iruka, Kakashi, Tsunade, and even the whole of Rookie 9, they knew that Sasuke could not make himself leave, could not force himself to, again, abandon Konoha because he knew this time that Naruto would not come after him and bring him back. They saw how he waited, how he was constantly waiting for Naruto's return, although everyone knew that he never would; Sasuke was doing all he could for his best friend Naruto by waiting for him, as he still was not allowed to leave Konoha for another four and a half year unless on a mission.
Sasuke continued looking straight forward, walking towards the outer gates of Konoha, never speaking, never once looking towards Sakura.
She sighed, she knew that she wouldn't get a reply, but couldn't help herself from trying. "Ok then, I'll see you later Sasuke." She left and made her way to the hospital, hoping to take her mind off her long time teammate by doing some work.
Sasuke continued walking towards the outskirts of Konoha, his two personal ANBU trailing behind him, more alert as they drew closer to the gate. It was normal though; Sasuke often spent the majority of his time sitting on top of Konoha's walls that kept intruders out, and villagers like him in. He always sat right above the gate to Konoha's one and only entrance. Most of the time people would wake and see a man, the Uchiha, sitting upon the open gates, looking out into the vast forest surrounding the village and when they would make their way back home, as the sun was setting, he would still be there, his silhouette the deepest shade of black as the sun set in front of him and his back was towards them.
Sasuke was happy this way, as happy as he could be; just waiting eternally for his friend to come back, scanning the horizon for a lone figure to walk towards the gates of Konoha with an idiotic smirk on his face. He often thought about why Naruto had left Konoha in the first place after working so hard to bring his comrade back, but would always end up coming to some absolutely random and unrealistic solution, thus, he still, after seven and a half years of waiting, had no idea why the blonde had left. Other times he would busy himself with wondering why he, alone, didn't get rid of his ANBU trailers and run off to find his friend; although he spent boundless hours thinking of clever and tricky ways to escape his Konoha prison and abandon his ANBU guards, he could never bring himself to leave the Hidden Village of the Leaf, the village that he knew his friend was most definitely going to return to once he was ready to come back.
He heard the ANBU talking below him like they sometimes did. Sasuke would occasionally listen in on their conversations about their family at home or the new restaurant that was opening up in town or when they talked about how big of a jerk their ANBU captain could be, but, however, when they talked about Naruto and himself he would always tune them out, like he was doing now; he had heard them before, talking about rumors and how happy they were that the last surviving Uchiha had returned and how thrilled they were that they finally managed to make Naruto, the jinchuuriki, leave Konoha for good. Sasuke would tune out the monotonous voices of the two ANBU below him when they discussed the rumors going around about how the Uchiha had come back to rid the village of the jinchuuriki or that Naruto had been too scared of Uchiha Sasuke and had decided to tuck his tail between his legs and run away, along with many more rumors concerning the two ninja, all of which infuriated Sasuke to the core; he couldn't stand how they talked so calmly about it, how they assumed that he had made Naruto leave, when in fact he didn't, not intentionally anyways. Naruto had just decided to leave one day after Sasuke's punishment was declared and no one knew why.
Every time Sasuke would get mad about the false rumors, it would remind him of how mad he was at Naruto, who had taken an assassination mission with a few other ANBU and jonnin ninja and had simply disappeared without even saying goodbye. No one in Konoha knew what had happened to the boy, not even his teammates; he had simply vanished into thin air. Everyone had wondered about the boy, whether they hated him or not, they wondered if Naruto had been killed, or captured, or if he had simply decided not to come back.
A strong, cold, moist gust of wind blew against Sasuke's body, extracting him from his thoughts. He noticed that the sun had completely set and the moon was gaining power in the sky which had turned a dark, threatening shade of grey in anticipation of a fierce thunderstorm. He scanned the horizon for any signs of people, and when he saw none, he looked down to his ANBU guards, one of whom was asleep while the other had remained on watch.
Sasuke sighed as he decided to jump down off the wall, walk back into Konoha and go home for some much needed rest; the ANBU, of course, followed. A loud roll of thunder crashed in the clouds above them. Sasuke continued walking through the nearly deserted streets of Konoha, seemingly unaware of the worsening storm around him. After he had returned and been released from jail, he had decided to make use of the Uchiha compound and move into his old house. He had cleaned the place up with Sakura and bought new furniture since all the previous contents of the house had been thrown out. There was plenty of room for him in the house, so he had given one of the guest bedrooms to the ANBU who were told to watch the Uchiha while inside his home as well as outside. Usually, while inside the house, only one ANBU would watch him while the other would relax in the designated bedroom. The living arrangement had worked out well so far, as the ANBU would rotate every week, they would bring their personal items with them and place them in the room and then pack up and take their stuff again when they left.
The foreboding rain finally began to let loose as he came to his house. He unlocked the door and stepped inside, allowing the ANBU to enter before he shut the door again and locked it. He made his way into the kitchen where he started to make some supper for the three of them. Like every evening for supper, he began to make some ramen, not the instant kind in the package, the real kind; he had learned how to make it himself not long after being released from prison.
He was getting out some bowls to serve the delicious meal in when a huge crash of lighting sounded right outside the window followed by a bright flash of lighting that light up the entire house subsequently startling Sasuke and causing him to loosen his grip on the bowls he had been carrying, letting them fall to the ground and break into several large pieces of clay. Both ANBU came rushing into the kitchen to find out what had happened. They were relieved to find it was just a broken dish and retreated to the living room to wait until dinner was served.
Sasuke stood there, unmoving, and just stared down at the now broken bowls. His brow knit in a look of serious contemplation and wonder. These bowls were not just any bowls, theses bowls had contained special sentimental value to him; before Naruto had left, while Sasuke had been in jail awaiting his trial date, Naruto had come to visit him carrying two steaming hot bowls of ramen. Naruto had held a red bowl with an intricate white, black, and gold design on it through the steel bars and had asked Sasuke if he wanted to eat some ramen together. They had eaten and talked together, then eventually Naruto left taking both bowls with him. Naruto had then given both bowls to Tsunade and asked her to give them to Sasuke first thing when he got out of jail, and, although she thought it was strange that Naruto would have her give Sasuke the bowls, and the thought of giving someone a bowl, of all things, she agreed. Hence, he was sweeping up the two broken bowl, wondering if there was some strange reason he had dropped the bowls. Of course, normally, this wouldn't be a strange occurrence, but he was a ninja, a very skilled ninja; it's not very often, if ever, a skilled ninja accidentally breaks something. He sighed as he threw away the bowl and grabbed two new ones from the cabinet, he knew he was just being paranoid; he didn't even believe in superstition.
Sasuke served the three bowls of ramen, ate quietly at the table, cleaned up and took a shower as one ANBU retreated to his room and the other stood right outside Sasuke's bathroom door. Sasuke got out of the shower, put on some baggy, black pants that he wore around the house, then headed to his bed to hopefully get some rest; the ANBU followed the Uchiha into the room and sat in a chair against the wall where he could see both windows in the room, the only door, and the Uchiha on his bed.
Sasuke sighed, he hoped he could get some sleep tonight; as of late, sleep was hard to come by and he would usually either lie in bed, walk around Konoha, or train. Sasuke sighed a second time as he rolled over onto his side as an irksome thought passed through his head, 'I could probably actually get some sleep if these stupid ANBU didn't have to watch my every move, even while I sleep!'
After several hours the rain had lightened to a light sprinkle and Sasuke was still awake; he growled lightly at how evasive sleep had become. He sat up and grabbed a shirt from the floor and headed to the door. He waited in the living room as the ANBU that had been watching him woke his partner and the three of them headed out of the house. Sasuke walked, he didn't care where to, he just needed to walk, to do something instead of laying in bed hoping Lady Luck would be on his side and grant him grateful sleep. He walked for a while, not even noticing where he was headed until he reached Konoha's gate. He looked up at the spot he usually sat, above the now closed doors. He climbed up to the top and sat down, scanning the horizon for a single dark figure, but came up with none. He exhaled deeply. His mind was blank; he could not think of anything and simply busied himself with memorizing the surrounding land, occasionally scrutinizing the only road that led to Konoha's gate. The rain had subsided and was now only drizzling slightly, the ground and road had become muddy and large puddles of water littered the pathways. The air was thick and humid, an afterthought of the storm. He sat there for a long time, doing nothing; feeling not the cold wind that occasionally blew and stung him with the tiny droplets of water, not noticing how his ANBU complained of sitting outside at such hours of the night, and barely noticing when the sky began to faintly glow with an orange-pink light as the sun was just waking from its peaceful slumber. He decided he should head home and try to get an hour or two of sleep before heading to the Hokage Tower to receive a new mission. He scanned the skyline where the road seemingly stopped short and ran into the sky, almost not catching the slight movement in the distance. He looked closer, trying to identify the thing in the scarce light.
"Sharingan," He spoke in a flat voice.
The ANBU looked up from their spot on the ground and became slightly worried as they heard the Uchiha activate his red eyes. They decided to jump on top of the gates to see what the Uchiha was looking at. They saw something, a person, but could not tell who it was.
Sasuke stared towards the man whom he could see slightly better with his Sharingan eyes. He could tell that it wasn't his friend Naruto who had spiky blond hair, three black markings on each of his cheeks, and always wore a crazy orange jumpsuit. No, this man had fairly short, light brown hair, pale, cold looking skin, and a normal outfit of loose khaki brown pants that stopped mid calf and a light blue baggy t-shirt. He also noticed something somewhat odd; the man was carrying a small boy in both of his arms, a jacket wrapped around the boy to shield him from him cold and the rain. The boy had dark brown hair and sickly grey skin, but he could not tell what the small boy was wearing due to the jacket wrapped around his body. Sasuke noticed that both people were soaking wet and had to wonder how long they had been in the rain and why they were traveling at this time in the morning. He noticed how the man with light brown hair walked very slowly, stumbling quite often, as if he had been traveling non-stop for quite some time. He had a feeling, a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was off, not in a way that made him think of intruders, but in a way that made him think that he had to help this man as he was still several miles out from Konoha.
"Guys," Sasuke spoke.
The ANBU looked over to him startled, for the past two and a half years that Sasuke had been watched, he had only ever spoken when addressed, much less to them, so this rare moment when Sasuke had spoken had surprised them both.
"We have to go help them."
If the ANBU had not been surprised before, they were extremely surprised now; not only did Sasuke not speak, he never concerned himself with anyone except himself.
There was no reply, Sasuke waited a few seconds before he decided that the ANBU's silence meant yes. He was about to jump down to the outside of Konoha's walls before one of the ANBU, the one with a lion mask grabbed his wrist.
"Uchiha, technically we're not allowed to let you outside of Konoha's gates."
There was a long, silent pause as the two stared at each other, Sasuke giving him one of his coldest glares.
Lion sighed, "Fine, but we're going to put chakra cuffs on you, and you had better not run off." The ANBU warned, still staring at Sasuke.
Sasuke nodded in agreement immediately and held his wrists out to the ANBU. Lion pulled out a metal set of hand cuffs and put them on the Uchiha. As soon as they snapped shut, Sasuke could feel his chakra being steadily vacuumed out of him. Lion then preformed a long string of hand seals before tapping the seal located right above Sasuke's heart. The seal was meant to keep Sasuke in the village. If he were to leave without expressed permission, the seal would vacuum away all his chakra until he passed out and would alert the Hokage. The ANBU were the only people who knew how to release and activate the seal and were only allowed to release it for missions or during emergencies.
"Ok, let's go." Sasuke said flatly.
The three jumped down from the wall. Sasuke nearly fell to his knees when he landed on the ground in pain. The seal on his chest stabbed painfully at him, draining him of his chakra to an extent that he wasn't sure if he would be able to walk all the way out to meet the stranger. The ANBU had not completely nullified the seal, and had just lowered the amount of chakra it consumed. That along with the chakra cuffs sorely drained him of nearly all his chakra. They started towards the man at a slow pace since Sasuke could not use chakra to help him jump from tree to tree or run quickly without getting fatigued. They had walked up to the man stopping not five feet in front of him and waited a few seconds.
The man looked up suddenly as if he had just realized the three ninja were there. He looked over the three with a scrutinizing gaze, unsure whether to trust them or not. When his gaze fell on the Uchiha with chakra cuffs around his wrists, his expression looked somewhat surprised. He looked for the Konoha headbands on their person and was relieved as he confirmed the fact that, yes, they were from Konoha.
The man smiled weakly, proud in his accomplishment of traveling so far and finally reaching Konoha, before his face turned worried and concerned; he looked down to his son who was trembling from the cold rain. "Please, you have to help my son. He's sick and dying; the only one that can help him is Tsunade-sama, the legendary medical ninja.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at this as he continued to examine the man and the two ANBU turned to each other and began talking in low whispers. Up close Sasuke could see the man's light green-grey eyes that held certain darkness, a sadness that could not be measured. The man's eyes held sorrow, worry, and a slight glimmer of hope. Sasuke walked up to the man, the ANBU stopped talking and watched the Uchiha carefully and with slight suspicion.
Sasuke held out his arms to the man, "Let me carry him the rest of the way."
The man stared at the ninja in front of him a while before reluctantly handing his son to the man, relieved that ninja had seen him and decided to help.
The man smiled, "Thank you."
He said simply, a smile of gratefulness and happiness spreading over his features, before his knees buckled beneath him and he fell, quickly becoming unconscious from lack of sleep and exhaustion.
The ANBU saw that the man was starting to get weak after handing over his son, and Bird quickly caught the fatigued man before he hit the ground.
"I guess we should take them to the hospital and call for Tsunade-sama." Lion said, glancing at both father and son.
Sasuke made no comment but re-adjusted the boy in his arms, which was quite hard considering that his wrists were cuffed together with barely an inch of chain in between, and turned back towards Konoha, walking at a steady pace. Lion and Bird looked to each other and followed the Uchiha wordlessly.
Sasuke looked down at the boy in his arms, taking in every defining detail. The boy looked to be about five or six years old and had dark brown hair that was chin length and framed his angular face. His face; Sasuke could tell the boy was extremely sick, The boy's cheek bones were far more defined than they should've been; Sasuke guessed that the boy hadn't eaten a good meal in some time. His eyes had deep, dark bags underneath them, and his skin was so pale and grey, that if he hadn't seen the small rise and fall of the boy's chest, feel the warm bursts of air that softly collided with his face, and hear the boy's faint heartbeat, he might have though the boy was dead. Besides that, the boy was incredibly light; more evidence of an illness and lack of food. The boy was also very cold and wet, most likely caused by the heavy downpour all night; the boy's body trembled viciously in an attempt to warm up.
He quickened his pace and soon arrived at the Konoha hospital and demanding that Tsunade come and help the boy immediately. The nurse obviously saw the critical condition the boy was in and quickly led Sasuke and Bird down the hall to two different rooms, calling out orders to nurses along the way who hastily scurried into action.
Sasuke entered a room, already full with bustling nurses, and placed the frail boy on the bed. He was roughly shoved away from the bed by nurses who were trying to inject IVs and other medical devices and backed up so as to get out of the way, although he stayed in the room, unable to look away from the boy that looked so helpless. For some reason, the second his eyes fell on the boy he was drawn to him; he wanted to help the boy, the stranger.
He noticed a familiar pink-haired kunoichi come in and begin to examine and diagnose the ailing boy as her hands glowed blue with chakra. After a few minutes, Tsunade entered the room and ordered everyone out except for Sakura and a few other nurses. As they were leaving one of the nurses grabbed Sasuke's arm and gently pulled him out into the hallway as well.
