~~Second chapter! I had a little trouble with this one, seeing as it's mostly filler to let you know how the family feels about what's going on, but I tried to do my best with Fugaku. I rarely mention Itachi's parents because I feel they both let him down in a huge way, in the same way Fugaku felt let down by Itachi. That and it's just not fun to write this kind of family angst, lol So yes, do tell me what you think! I'll have more up soon! Thank you so much for reading!~~
I forgot to add this last time: I own nothing but the idea for the story, these characters belong to their original creators-sadly
"Let Down"
"Fugaku, Sir, I umm...I have to say I had hoped we would never see you in here for such a reason..."
"Just tell me what's wrong with him. Don't waste my time."
"Umm, yes sir. Well, you're son's corneas have severe burns and minor lacerations on them. The-the mask he was wearing um, when caught in the blast it shattered and shrapnel went into his eyes...not to mention he was apparently facing the blast, the results are....dismal, Sir."
"...Is he of any use anymore?"
"Umm...S-sir?"
"Don't be stupid! You know what I asked! Is he bedridden forever?"
"N-no, Sir. There are many ninjas, some anbus too, that work with such handicaps everyday."
"I didn't ask you that."
"Yes, Sir. Umm...we've prescribed a medicine for him to take twice a day by mouth, with food if possible. It should help ease his pain and relax the muscles in the eye to avoid too much strain. We've also prescribed some eye-drops that he'll need to put in once every day, these should prevent scarring and reduce inflammation. Finally there's the antibiotics he'll need to take with the other medicine, but just once, in the morning. These should prevent infections. Hopefully he'll heal, at a slow rate, but he'll heal. If not then we'll have to look to other options, such as corneal transplant."
"There are no other options. Your first treatment works or it doesn't. He can' have a transplant he's an Uchiha dammit!"
"W-well...Sir, I'm sorry, but this is all we can do for your son."
"Dammit..."
Fugaku watched the doctor walk away, watching him shake his head slowly as he did. The elder Uchiha grumbled under his breath, turning and looking through the window attached to his son's hospital door. His favorite child, his prodigy child, lay propped up against pillows, his head turned to face the window, as if he could see out of it. His hope for his family was lying useless in that bed. No one seemed to understand that. He was the Uchiha Prodigy Child, he was the hope of the clan, the boy that was going to make the Uchiha name known and feared again; now he was as useless as any other child.
The thing with Shisui had started to blow over, he had been having trouble uplifting his son like he had once before, true, but he hadn't expected the boy to act out in such a stupid way. He hadn't expected him to destroy everything like this. Fugaku closed his eyes, frowning deeply and turning from the window, slamming his fist against the wall monotonously as he tried to think. What would happen now?
"Daddy! Where's Nii-san?" He opened his eyes to see his wife and youngest child coming towards him, the six year old gripping his mother's hand tightly as he stared with wide eyes at him. Fugaku grumbled, shaking his head and turning his back on the room, gesturing towards it with a dismissive hand. Sasuke released his mother's hand, flying forwards and slamming into the door, his anxiousness causing him to fumble with the slick handle for a second before he pushed open the heavy door.
Mikoto looked to her husband with the gentle expression that came as easy to her as disdain and viciousness did her husband and the clan. "Honey...what did the doctor say?" She reached out and gently touched his arm, watching his eyes turn to her with a tired anger. "I don't know, something about burned corneas, cuts, medicine...just a bunch of junk." He waved it away, grumbling angrily and looking at the floor with a heavy sigh. She put her hand to her lips, squeezing his arm gently before turning and glancing through the window at her two sons.
"Did he say if he would recover? This is going to be so hard for him to deal with as it is, maybe if he has the hope of recovery..." She murmured, tears brimming in her eyes as she spoke. "He may, they don't know. They weren't any help at all." Fugaku pulled away from her and she quickly turned to face him again, able to sense the anger and dispare in her husband. "Useless, all useless." She shook her head slowly, turning and stepping towards her son's room, touching the door handle lightly. "Come, honey, you need to go see him. He needs your encouragement now if ever." He turned and glared, then slowly shook his head touching his chin lightly.
"No. I have nothing to say to him. Only a fool makes the mistake he made, I have no time for fools." She frowned a little too, going over and taking his hand and pulling him towards the door, "At least come inside, if anything your presence will let him know you still care." and with that she put her foot down as a wife. She opened the door and drug him through, listening to him mutter and mumble behind her.
Sasuke ran into the sterile hospital room, stopping in the middle of the doorway as he looked up at his older brother. He had never seen his brother hurt. He had never seen the boy with even a scratch. His father always said NOTHING could hurt the boy, that he was the elite of the elite. He didn't know how to feel now, remembering what condition he had found his older brother in the other night, and looking at him now. There was no blood, and there wasn't the smell of burnt flesh anymore. Just the scent of medicine and hospital food. The scent of recovery and cleanliness...why didn't something good like that smell any better?
Itachi was resting upright in the bed, propped up on the pillows and breathing lightly. He had a hospital gown on, the scratchy material looking so uncomfortable against the skin that Sasuke knew was soft and smooth. There were little scabbed over cuts and scratches running up and down his bare arms, even a few thin ones on the side of his throat and cheek. He had a cut with stitches over it on his chest, right beneath his collarbone, but most of it disappeared down the front of the gown. There was white gauze wrapped around parts of his hands, his left palm wrapped up and two of his fingers, and the entire right hand wrapped up, stopping half way up his arm. But, the most painful thing for Sasuke to see, was the gauze around his brother's head.
His beautiful ebony colored hair fell in strings over his partially exposed ear and down his shoulder, tangling and knotting on his back. The bandages wrapped tightly around the top of his head, covering his eyes in diagonals from both directions. Small blood stains had seeped through the bandages in spots, making them look more painful than they should have. His mouth was turned down in the usual disappointed, unsatisfied look he wore when he came home from missions or when he stopped training for the day; he just looked lost and hurt.
"Nii-san! Nii-san, I came to see you!" Itachi's head quickly turned towards the noise, his fingers gripping at the gray covers lightly, pulling them a little as the boy ran over to him. Sasuke quickly scrambled up on the bed, wrapping his arms around his brother's neck and burying his face in his shoulder. Itachi failed to move, rather took in a small breath, ignoring the pain shooting through his body at the weight of the child on him. There was a light in the darkness again. He could smell the scents of his home on Sasuke, but beneath it all he could smell the pale scent of the boy's flesh, and feel the warmth of the love radiating off of him. "Does it hurt too bad, Nii-san?" Sasuke had leaned up now, Itachi could feel his little fingers touching deftly over his cheeks and lips, as if avoiding the bandages. He let out a quiet sigh, "Not so much anymore, Sasuke...not so much anymore." He muttered and turned towards the window again.
Sasuke blinked, reaching up and letting his fingers hover over the bandages, hesitating before lightly running his fingertips over each eye. "Can you see me at all, Aniki?" He whimpered and Itachi closed his eyes behind the bandages. It made no difference, there was nothing but darkness anymore, but it was truly human thing to do; to shut the world out by closing your eyes on it. "No, ototo...I can't see you." There was stillness in the room for a moment, the air around them hung with heaviness as the words seemed to settle in on both of them. Sasuke looked down at their laps, having climbed onto his brother's lap a while back.
He had never really been this open with his brother before. He had always been able to run crying to Itachi, he had always been able to whine at Itachi, but he had never really expressed THIS much emotion with his older brother before. Last night though, when Itachi had screamed for him so desperately, he felt like something was cemented within his heart. Now he knew Itachi loved him back, and he wanted to show Itachi more of his love, to see if it would be returned just as generously.
"Then...is it okay if I cry?" He whimpered, already feeling the tears escaping his eyes, unable to stop them. Itachi felt his heart warm and ache all at once at the boy's words. He looked down, knowing he was watching the top of the boy's head now. Slowly he reached up and brushed his bare thumb over his little brother's cheek, sighing as he felt the wet warmth he had felt the night before. "There's no need to cry, Sasuke. I'm nothing to shed tears over." He muttered and felt Sasuke's face jerk up to look at him, able to feel the tension in his cheeks that showed he was angry with his words. Sasuke opened his mouth and got ready to say something, but the door opened instead, making the younger boy turn his head with a quiet gasp.
"Okasan!" Itachi felt Sasuke's face change into something resembling happiness and dropped his hand back to the bedsheets. "Sasuke-kun! What are you doing, you're brother's hurt! He doesn't need you crawling all over him! Come, get down, get down." Mikoto hissed gently at her youngest, watching him quickly scramble off Itachi's lap and down the side of the bed, running over to her side and hugging her legs tightly. Itachi didn't move, just looked down at the still warm sheets that Sasuke had been sitting on top of. His fingers clutched slowly at the sheets again, dragging them a bit farther into his lap and against his chest while he let out a quiet sigh. Mikoto looked up as Fugaku walked into the room and shut the door behind himself.
"Itachi, honey, how are you feeling?" He closed his eyes again, unable to feel anything from either of his parents, just knowing their voices and smells. "I'm fine...They gave me some medicine." He muttered and she nodded slowly, pushing hair out of her eyes lightly, one hand still pressed tightly to Sasuke's little back, keeping him constrained to her. "He said it didn't hurt so much, Okasan." Sasuke looked up at her and she glanced at him, smiling lightly before looking back to her oldest. She had always worried Fugaku was pushing her first born too hard and not pushing her second born hard enough, now she wondered, like the rest of them, what would happen to their family. "Yes, that's good. Your father said they mentioned some medicine to take home. It sounds like they're expecting you to make a recovery." Itachi slowly turned towards her, clutching at the covers just a little more, wanting that bright warmth near him again and not across the room from him.
Fugaku snorted, "Don't fill his head with such nonsense. Even if he gets his eyesight back he'll never recover from this foolish mistake." Mikoto whipped her head around to face her husband, glaring at him, "Fugaku! Stop it!" She hissed again, but he glared back at her. "Why?! I've never sugar coated anything for him before, why start now?" He turned his harshness to Itachi, who was listening patiently, having expected this a while back.
"How could you do something like this, Itachi?! First this foolishness with Shisui, now a mistake like this?! Are you trying to ruin your life and everyone elses?!" He barked, stomping his foot and gesturing angrily towards his wounded son. Itachi never flinched. "Fugaku, stop it! He's your son! You should be worried about his recovery!" Mikoto cried out, releasing Sasuke to turn to her husband with pleading eyes. "He is not my son! I have only one son now." With that elder Uchiha turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind himself.
Mikoto pressed her hand to her mouth, holding in a sob before spinning to face Itachi, feeling the tears starting down her cheeks. "Okasan..." Sasuke tugged at her skirts, but she ignored him, shaking her head slowly as she studied her eldest child. She had always wanted for him to just be happy...that was all she had ever wanted for him; not this. "H-he didn't mean it, honey, you know that. He just...just doesn't know what to do." She murmured, then looked down at Sasuke, who looked about to tears too. "Come, Sasuke, we need to let your brother rest." She took his hand and started to lead him along, but he cried out and turned to look at Itachi again. "No! I want Nii-san to come home too! I don't want to go home without him again! Nii-san!" He reached out for his brother, but the boy still failed to move, his head only having fallen to face the sheets a little more.
"Sasuke, stop! I don't need this right now, your brother will come home soon. Now stop it!" She turned and picked him up, shaking her head at having to carry her six year old child out the door. "Nii-san, please! I want you to come home, you have to train me! Please!" The door shut on his brother's cries and Itachi let his head fall completely at that moment, pressing his hands over his eyes lightly.
What was this new weakness? What was this sudden need for contact between him and his little brother? What was this loneliness? And how was he supposed to go home? How as he supposed to go on LIVING like this?
