Sakura tended to the wounded man, sighing as he shuddered in his sleep. Wiping the sweat off his brow, Sakura pondered who he was, how he had gotten these dreadful injuries.
His whole face looked as if the flesh had been torn right off with bare hands. It was unlikely that he would recover without scarring.
Not only unlikely, impossible.
Cupping his face with glowing hands, she healed as much as she could at the moment then gingerly wrapped sterile bandages around his face. She took the unknown man's file and wrote a few notes in it, detailing his condition and treatment. Flashing the light in his eyes, she took notice of the sensitivity of them despite his lack of response.
"There's evidence of damage in his eyes as well," she muttered to herself. On a completely different topic, she realized that this man must have been quite beautiful before. Though his face was covered in gashes and generally fucked up, he had a smooth jaw with soft facial features. Brushing back the man's bangs, she sighed to herself dreamily, thinking of the man she loved the most.
It was dark. Itachi's eyes flashed open, and he blindly threw his arms around, gasping in panic. Was this what death was...eternal darkness? This was hardly different from his life, but Itachi would be lying if he had said he didn't expect anything different.
"Itachi, calm yourself," a low rumbling voice demanded. Itachi stopped struggling in the empty space, but his chest was still heaving, feeling waves of nausea overwhelm him.
"Do you know where you are?" the voice asked him, reverberating from all sides around him.
"Of course not!" he snapped uncharacteristically, though one could hardly blame him. Here he was in an unfamiliar realm where there was only a deep, creepy voice talking to him, one he could not even pinpoint.
"You are in hell."
Itachi stopped gasping for breath. He shouldn't have expected anything else. Of course he would end up here.
At least Sasuke was safe...
"That is where you are wrong."
"You can hear my thoughts."
The voice chuckled. "Of course. I am the master of this realm. I know everything."
Itachi was silent.
"However, it has come to my attention that you don't belong here." Itachi sharply inhaled. "You have committed atrocious sins, but your heart is much too pure for this realm of hell, anyway. I don't like having trash mixed in with all these wonderful souls here." A pause. "You also have something I have desired for centuries."
Itachi glared, or at least he thought he did. He no longer could tell. "What is it you want?"
The spirit ignored his question. "You see, your brother, the little brat is in trouble. I'm certain that Tobi has gotten his filthy fingers on him already. Oh, I do hope that when he FINALLY kicks the bucket he comes here. That is a soul I would love to torment."
"Get to the point," Itachi stated flatly.
The spirit sighed. "Very well. I will give you a second chance in life. No illness or anything. You'll even be provided a new body."
"What do you want?" Itachi repeated.
"Well, let me tell you a story." Itachi huffed in impatience. "Don't be snappy, boy. Here goes. I have desired the Sharingan for centuries. I even offer life in exchange. However, no Uchiha has ever accepted."
Itachi did wonder why. Life was a very reasonable exchange, especially if it meant not having to listen to this guy for the rest of eternity. However, even he was not sure he wanted to accept this offer. "You want my Sharingan."
"That's just what I said, moron. Goodness, for a proclaimed genius, you sure are an idiot." Itachi ignored the spirit's blabbering and thought upon the offer. Was it worth it? His Sharingan, though it was quite the curse, had become such an integral part of him.
If he could save Sasuke, then it was.
"I accept," he said with resolution. The spirit laughed.
"Perfect," it purred.
In the next moments, Itachi's sight returned just for a few moments, and he saw the most horrifying thing he had ever seen in his existence, followed by the feeling of losing his face.
Sakura had been alerted that the patient had started screaming wildly while he was still unconscious, his blood pressure skyrocketing and his heart rate out of control. He soon settled down as they had administered more drugs, but he still had not woken up.
She was stumped. They had found the man unconscious on the outskirts of Konoha, face down and unmoving. He was immediately brought to the hospital for emergency treatment. However, there were no records of this man anywhere. She checked his blood, his fingerprints...nothing matched. He could not be identified.
Just who was he?
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Been a long absence, but I'm back for now.