Authors Note: Things regarding the chapter are at the end.
EDIT: I've decided to re-write a good chunk of this chapter as I wasn't happy with the way it was before, so anyone wondering why they got another notification for this chapter, that would be why. You don't have to re-read it, but I do believe I've remedied a lot of the errors it held before, so it should be a lot closer to what I had pictured in my head the first time through and I'd love it if you did take the time to give it another glance.
To everyone who reads this, I now have a poll up on my profile page in regards to the potential future pairing of the story, so please go vote on it! I estimate there to be about another 3-4 chapters before I'm going to close the poll and then we'll see who the top three choices are! So go vote!
Onwards with the chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Silent Hill.
Harbinger of Repentance
Chapter Four
Leaned up against a brick wall, Itachi stared at the unconscious boy in front of him. He couldn't do much at the moment, and trying to move the boy wasn't something he wanted fight with right now. No he would just have to stay rested on the ground for a bit while he recovered his strength. With a sigh, Itachi took a moment to study his surroundings. The alley they had been thrown into was a lot wider than the one he'd been in on his way into the apartment, but was also filled with a lot more fog, which was currently preventing him from seeing where it lead to. Other than the fog there wasn't anything of importance within sight, just him and the young blond boy. He was thankful for that fact considering he really wasn't in the mood to get in a fight with any more monsters.
It wasn't that he couldn't, but when one ran as hard as he did without stretching first the muscles in the legs were bound to hurt afterwards, and they did. Even though he was a shinobi his body wasn't exactly immune to getting muscle cramps and other various bodily ailments, it was just training that let a shinobi manage the way they moved better. Usually the use of chakra to strengthen the muscles would have prevented the strain he had put on them, but in this cursed place chakra didn't seem to be usable in any way, shape, or form, and as such he was paying the price right now in the form of sore muscles. The pain would go away in a minute or two, and his legs would just become slightly stiff, but it was still an annoyance.
If a monster happened to stumble its way into them he wasn't sure he could take it. Well, that wasn't exactly true. He could take one of those shambling bags of flesh easily, so long as it didn't have any tricks, but he'd have to do it while in pain and that wouldn't be fun. Really, right now he wished he could just go to sleep, but that wasn't a possibility and would likely be a mistake that he'd regret. the last thing he needed was to either be kicked to death in his sleep, or melted alive. He still had little clue how that thing was supposed to attack.
His gaze eventually rested upward toward the sky, having little else to look at. It was now the same dull grey it had been when he'd first awoken in the place. That brought the question of what exactly did the darkening sky earlier mean if not the end of a day? And what about those sirens? It was too coincidental that they both happened simultaneously, and after what he'd just experienced in those apartments, he didn't think those things boded well for anyone. If the sirens only represented that shit was going to hit the fan, then that put him back at square one in terms of finding the others. Without a direction or goal to travel towards, he wasn't sure what to do anymore.
He'd found the target, but that meant very little when he didn't know the method used to get them all out of here. Only Inoichi-san knew how to manage such a feat, so he wasn't in much luck in terms of finishing the mission. Of course, both him and Neko-san had been informed of the other means of exiting this place, through the death of the target, but Itachi figured that Hokage-sama had only informed them of that method out of the kindness of his heart. It wasn't like either him or Neko-san were likely to ever use that means of exit, seeing as doing so would mean the full release of the Kyuubi, and countless deaths that would occur in the near future afterwards. No, while he didn't know Neko-san on a personal level, all members of the Anbu were loyal to the village without a fault and wouldn't hesitate to give their lives for it.
Itachi sighed as the cold brick behind him soothed the ache in his back. While the door had virtually exploded, it took quite a bit of force to do so, and his back had taken the brunt of said force. He hadn't checked but he was pretty sure there was at least one shard of the door stabbing him right now. He doubted it was actually bad enough to need immediate attention, and at the moment he'd rather just sit here and enjoy the comfort the cold wall was providing him. He'd give himself another few minutes before he got up and checked on the boy. The only reason he didn't feel overly anxious about the boy's condition was due to the fact that he could see his chest moving from where he was, so everything was okay at the moment. However, if he took up the task of trying to carry the boy without giving himself the needed time to rest things could go bad fast.
It was during the time spent silently contemplating what he was going to do when they started moving again that he remembered something. Reaching into the pouch that held some of his more miscellaneous shinobi equipment, he pulled out a single wireless headset. He'd already tried to use it to contact the others a couple of times since he'd left the park, but each time he'd gotten nothing but white noise. However, that was at least an hour ago by his estimation, so slipping the device over his ear he tapped the button to turn the device on. He was immediately satisfied when there was a distinct lack of noise coming in through the device, so with a few rotations of a tiny wheel he proceeded to switch through the various channels.
The others had the same devices on them, but if they were in a situation anything like his own, then they had already surmised the devices didn't work upon their arrival, and if that happened to be the case they may have stored them away like he had. He hoped that one of the others would happen to have their own radio's on, otherwise it wouldn't matter if it worked or not seeing as any attempt at communication he sent wouldn't be received by anyone. As he flipped through the various channels he ran through a short predetermined dialogue to prompt others listening in to respond. When he reached the last frequency and still had not received a reply, he ran through the channels again, only silently this time.
The sound of a grunt brought Itachi's attention to the orange-clad boy laying in front of him as he slowly began to move. It seemed that young Naruto was able to beat him in terms of recovery. A soft smile adorned Itachi's face, an action that had as of late had become reserved for his younger brother's eyes only, but he couldn't help it. To see such a unique child was rather inspiring. The boy had been able to cope with this place for months, stare a nightmare in the face with resolve, and wake up from unconsciousness in mere minutes. In his opinion the boy would make a fine shinobi, so long as he was treated fairly by his future instructors. His smile took a sudden downward curve; there wasn't exactly a good chance of that occurring. While no Konoha shinobi would ever outright harm the boy, he doubted their bias against him would do anything to help him either.
Before Naruto even knew why, the world was already stacked against him and his reputation was ruined. Any hope of an easy life was gone the day people stopped viewing him as a human. Itachi shook his head, his dark bangs swaying back and forth reminding him he still didn't have his mask on. Oh well, it couldn't be helped now. With a grunt of his own he lightly pushed away from the wall before using an arm to raise himself from the cement ground beneath himself. His muscles did indeed feel stiff, and his back was still in quite a bit of pain, but he could worry about that stuff later, right now he had to continue his mission. A quick moment later and Itachi was standing before a now sitting Naruto, who looked lost for a moment as he gazed around through bleary eyes, before they came to rest on Itachi's form.
"So you're finally awake huh?" he spoke, a soft smile once more adorning his face. "I was beginning to think I was going to have to carry you." reaching an arm down, Itachi held it in the air for a second as the boy seemed to finally come to and grasped his hand in return. A light tug later and the boy was now standing on his own two feet. He suddenly looked sheepish all of a sudden, a smile of his own now adorning his face for the first time since Itachi had met him.
"Heh, how long was I out for?" the boy asked, an arm now rubbing the back of his head. Itachi figured the mood change had to be because they were finally out of that damn building, but he wasn't too sure. Regardless, it didn't really matter now anyways.
"Hmm, only about ten or so minutes," Itachi responded, before curiosity took control. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to just leave you on the ground but..." he trailed off as he realized just how bad that sounded. Oh hey did you hit your head? I was too busy leaning against this wall to check! Itachi however couldn't help but to shake his head when the boy just looked up at him in confusion.
"Huh?"
He almost palmed his face at that response; the boy seemed to have a thick skull in more ways than one. Even so, many a great shinobi started out from worse positions in life, all that was needed was someone to take Naruto's potential and shape him into a capable shinobi. The brief thought of doing himself crossed Itachi's mind for a second before it was immediately crushed. If he was going to spend time training someone it had to be his little brother; the look on his face would be priceless to see. Not that he disliked the thought of training Naruto, he just owed his brother for all the time he'd been unable to train him in the past. Itachi settled for an amused smile as he looked at the boy's confused face.
"Nevermind, we should probably get going though." turning to look at the opposite end of the ally, Itachi figured they'd just have to keep moving and hope they stumbled upon the others as they went. A thought then occurred to him, if Naruto knew where the exit was in that building did he know his way around the town? "Hey Naruto," he said, bringing the kid's full attention to himself, "any chance you might know your way around the area?"
"Yeah!" the blond shouted, before his face turned slightly downtrodden. "Well, not really... I mean, I know some places but does that count?" the look the boy was sending him made it clear he wanted to be helpful, but wasn't sure if he could be.
Humming to himself, Itachi nodded in acceptance. "Well, that's a start. So what other places are there?" if he could get an idea of the key places then that'd likely be wise to check in for the others.
"Well," the boy began, a finger pressed to his chin, "there's the lake with a park that's next to it; the doctor's place; a huge red tower and a school next to it; uhm... then there's a door inside of a place full of bottles, it has a tunnel that leads under it, but I've never gone too far inside and I'm not sure where it is from here..." his face scrunched up as he clearly had a hard time thinking of more.
"Thank you Naruto, that should be enough for now," Itachi said, hoping the boy wouldn't hurt himself with how hard he seemed to be thinking about it. From those places he got a general idea of where he actually was. If there was a large tower with a school, that had to be the administrative building that housed the Hokage's office, and the academy that was connected to the same building, but a different branch, so they were essentially one and the same in terms of location. If he had any chance of finding the others than it was probably going to be there. Thinking about what else the boy had said he figured 'the doctor's place' was the hospital, and 'a place full of bottles' had to be a bar of some kind, but a tunnel going underneath it? Maybe it would be worth checking out at some point.
"Is there anyway you'd know how to get to the academy from here?" seeing that the boy didn't understand what he meant he reworded the question. "I mean, is there a way to get to the school with the tower from here?"
Naruto looked down with a shake of his head. "Not really... those are just places I've been before, I haven't gone back to them." he replied, his voice growing a little quieter.
Itachi let out an audible sigh before he spoke up once more. "Hey, don't worry about it, we'll get there eventually. All we have—
His attempt at reassuring the boy was cut off when a loud screeching and buzzing noise began blaring in his ear. The radio? He'd forgotten about it when Naruto had begun to awaken, but why was it making such an awful noise? He couldn't imagine the thing would be broken all of a sudden. Pulling it from his hear, Itachi tried to figure out what was going on, much to the confusion of the orange-clad boy that currently had no clue why he'd just stopped talking. The buzzing was still rather loud even without it in his ear and only seemed to get worse with each second that passed, before a moment later the buzzing was soon accompanied by the sound of footsteps coming from the fog.
Throwing the switch on the radio into the 'off' position, Itachi immediately placed it back within the pouch he'd removed it from, before drawing out another kunai. Turning to the confused boy, who now was looking around fearful, he addressed him with a stern voice. "Naruto, I need you to get behind me!" the boy nodded his head before doing as he was told. A second later and Itachi was positioned in front of the boy in a defensive stance. With the buzzing of the radio now gone the sound of footsteps was noticeably growing louder, something that even Naruto noticed, before a figure's warbled silhouette was seen within the fog. Immediately Itachi's mind ran back to the creature from within the apartments.
His assumptions were proven correct when a moment later, the creature was close enough to visibly see. It's stretchy, bag-like skin was covering the body just like the other one, with it's long slender legs being free to move. It slowly, and shakily made its way towards them, before it seemed to acknowledge their presence and began to let out the same disgusting grunts and gagging noises the other one had made. Itachi let it get close enough to where it, much like its predecessor, lurched backwards in a arching fashion no doubt in preparation to attack. That was the moment that Itachi was looking for, and the moment that he struck. Lunging forward Itachi quickly plunged the kunai into the creature face, directly through where an eye would normally be, before he ripped it out and repeated the process.
Just like before after around five plunges the creature let out a loud choking sound as it quickly tumbled to the ground. As soon as it had Itachi quickly tossed the blood soaked kunai away from himself, it having already melted to the point of being useless. He also noticed that the attack had sprayed a bit of acidic blood onto his gloves; only a few drops but they still continued to sizzle away. He could feel the light burning as the acid soon began to eat its way through the cloth, and onto his hands, so acting fast he tore the cloth items from his person and tossed them onto the ground as well. This wasn't good, he couldn't feasibly fight these things with the equipment he had on him. He didn't have enough kunai to keep wasting them against these creatures, and such a short weapon still put him within range of stray blood.
Turning to make sure that Naruto was okay, Itachi motioned the boy forward. "As I was saying... You don't have to worry about getting us there okay? We'll find it soon, and when we do we'll be that much closer to getting you out of here." Itachi made to move forward but Naruto's voice stopped him.
"Hey... about that," the boy began, sounding unsure, "I've been meaning to ask you just what you mean by that? At first I thought you meant out of the apartments, but you're still saying it. What do you mean by 'getting me out of here'?"
Turning suddenly, Itachi looked at the kid incredulously. What did he mean, 'what of you mean'? There was no way he didn't realize this was all in his head. Seriously, this place was so oppressive and dark. How could he have gone almost half a year without realizing that? While Itachi still didn't know much about the mind's condition during a coma, he couldn't logically believe someone wouldn't see something wrong with this place. After all, there were actual monsters wandering around, and buildings that could become something straight from someone's nightmares. For the kid to not even have realized that something was wrong hadn't even crossed his mind.
"Naruto... just how much do you know about this place?" Itachi asked slowly, causing the boy to look at him like he was crazy.
"What do you mean?"
Itachi let loose a slow breath. "I mean, don't you realize this place isn't normal? Don't you remember anything about Konoha?" from the way things were currently going the kid was in for a bombshell, and as soon as the words left his mouth the child in front of him began looking increasingly confused; something that was starting to make Itachi nervous. The kid had to know, and he had to tell him. He just had no idea how he was supposed to tell a little boy that he was in a coma because a few people were sadistic and had tortured him. "Look Naruto, that thing on the ground," he said, motioning towards the now dead creature a few feet away, "what does it look like to you?"
The boy looked completely bewildered, squinting his eyes at him like he was starting to go insane. "I still don't get what you mean, it's just a regular monster... the same as the rest!" Naruto spoke, putting a little more force into his voice towards the end.
Itachi sighed; there it was. He had said that as if the monster laying on the ground was a normal everyday occurrence, rather than something that was unusual. Either he had grown used to them over the months he'd been in here, or he really didn't realize that this wasn't the real world. "Naruto, that thing laying on the ground isn't normal, it isn't real. None of this is real. What I meant earlier by 'get you out of here' was that I'm trying to get you out of this place, and get you back to the real Konoha." there, he had told the boy the truth. Or at least part of it...
However, to his dismay the child's confusion filled face slowly turned into one of distrust as he took a few shaky steps away from him. "I don't believe you... You're insane!"
Itachi made to take a step towards the boy, with his hands up in a placating manner, but when he did so the boy took yet another step back, looking at him now as if he expected him to turn into a monster at any second. "Naruto, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm trying to tell you the truth, that's all." Itachi stood still for a moment with his arms held up, giving the boy a moment to calm down. "Look, maybe in the past some people were idiots and blamed you for things they shouldn't have, and maybe there are some people out there that trea—
"What do you mean some?!" Naruto suddenly shouted out in anger, cutting him off. The outburst had surprised him a bit, and from the looks of things it had also surprised the boy himself, as he now had a hand over his own mouth and his eyes were wide open in shock. It was clear the boy hadn't expected to yell at him like that, and wasn't sure why he had. "I-I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that..."
"It's okay Naruto, I know you didn't mean to yell," Itachi said, hoping to get the boy to calm down. He could tell that fear was starting to build up inside the kid as he was still incredibly confused about everything. "It's just... I'm not going to hurt you okay? The truth is... this is all in your head. None of it is real. I'm here to take you back to Konoha. Things shouldn't be like this!" he gestured to the world around himself before attempting to take another step towards the boy. This time when he did so, the boy didn't flinch away, instead he just continued to stand there.
When Itachi had gotten within an arms reach from the boy, the kid had his head pointed towards the ground, his hair blocking view of his face as he spoke. "Just... just who are you?" the boy asked quietly, "W-why are you being so... so different?" Itachi watched as stray tears fell from behind the child's hair, so he was surprised when the kid's head suddenly shot up and a look of anger was now adorning his features. "The things you're saying don't make any sense! I-I don't understand what you mean! This is Konoha, it's always been like this! You should know that!" even though the boy still looked angry, tears streamed down his peach-colored cheeks.
Itachi quickly stepped forward the last few steps and enveloped the boy in a hug. He could feel the boy's body convulsing as he held him. He didn't know exactly why he had done so, just that he had to. "Naruto, please calm down, you're safe okay?" with the kid held in a hug, Itachi couldn't see the boy's face, but he could still hear the panicked words that slipped out in between choking sobs.
"I-I dont e-even know why I-I'm crying!" Naruto shouted out, before he quieted. The sounds of his involuntary crying was all that was heard for a moment before, with a hard shove Naruto pushed himself away from Itachi. "Y-you said... t-that this was all i-in my head? How c-can that be?! You're r-right here! You've seen how this village is!" Naruto had a look of fear now on his face once again. "I'm n-not making this up! I'm not crazy! I mean... I mean... ughhh!" clutching violently at his head, Naruto began to thrash around. "I-I don't understand! Why are you doing this to me?! I just want to be... to be..."
Itachi quickly moved forward as the boy's breathing visibly hitched; a dazed look had suddenly appeared on his face as he suddenly began to collapse. With a swift motion Itachi caught the boy in his arms before he could hit the ground and lowered him slowly down into a laying position. He had no idea what had happened. He didn't to stress the boy out like he had, he was only trying to tell him the truth and he just started to panic. It had to have something to do with how the mind dealt with traumatic experiences, but Itachi was far from being an expert in such things. He desperately needed to get this kid to Inoichi if he was going to figure anything out.
It looked like he was going to be carrying the boy's unconscious form after all.
Gently as he could, Itachi raised the kid into his arms, before positioning him over his shoulder. There was no way he was going to be able to fight like this, so he was going to have to try his damn best to avoid anymore of those creatures. From the way the acid burned through a kunai he could tell that it would only take one direct shot to likely kill both Naruto and himself. Melting to death wasn't a way he wished to go, even if it only happened within someone else's mind. For the hundredth time that day Itachi let out a sigh; all this mental business was turning out to be a massive pain in the ass. There was no way he'd ever accept another mission like this one in the future. There was simply too much that he couldn't understand, and most of it was because it wasn't his mind he was trying to understand.
He vowed however that once all this was over he was going to request a temporary leave of duty and spend some time with Sasuke. That, and sleep. Yeah, sleep for a solid day.
With the boy now secured on his shoulder, Itachi slowly began making his way away from the dead end of the alley when a thought occurred to him. With a little re-positioning he reached with a free arm into the pouch that he'd stored the radio in before and removed it. If that noise happened because that monster was close by then it might come in handy to have with him. Turning it on, Itachi place it over his ear. That way, now if a monster was nearby he should be able to get a heads up and hopefully be able to avoid them better. It wasn't a perfect plan, but after everything he'd done in the short time that he'd been here, it was the best he could think up at the moment.
Radio now on and giving off very little static, and boy now slumped over his shoulders, Itachi slowly began making his way into the fog.
For the twentieth time in the last fifteen minutes, Itachi re-positioned the boy that sat on his shoulder so he wouldn't slip off, before wincing as a pain lanced through his legs. Since he'd left the alleyway, he had quickly learned two things...
One, being that the alley broke off onto a dirt road, not unlike the one he'd first been on when he had began his search; and two, the radio did indeed act as some sort of early warning system when a monster was nearby. He had no clue why it did so, just that anytime a creature was just beyond his vision through the fog his radio would flair up in more screeching noises that hurt his ears. However, even with the ability to know when he was potentially in harms way, it still didn't help him in regards to actually avoiding them.
Every time the radio went off the most information he got from it was that he had to be on guard, and that didn't exactly help him too much when he could never tell what direction the creatures might come stumbling out from, and with the fog it made seeing them before they were close enough to attack difficult. There had already been multiple instances where the radio had gone off and he'd been jogging with the boy in his arms, only for the creatures to come stumbling out from the very direction he'd been going.
He'd learned to simply remain patient after the second time, when one of those things had been in front of him while he'd been jogging; it had surprised him seeing as the radio for some reason hadn't gone off until he'd already damn near ran into the thing.
The second it took to register the creatures presence was apparently a second too long as the thing had already had its back arched. It was during this particular encounter that Itachi learned for a fact that they did indeed spray acid. Once it's back was arched it had quickly thrown its head forward in a lunging fashion, and from a slit that had appeared where a mouth should be, a torrent of liquid spewed forth. This liquid however was different from the acidic blood that he'd encountered so far; for starters, it wasn't thick like the blood was, and was much more comparable to water, seeing as once it was spewed it turned into something akin to a cloud of mist, with anything that had been touched quickly dissolving.
At the time he'd thought that by having shoved his way past it in his run that he'd been safe, but the thing could seemingly turn on a dime. The moment he was 'safely' passed the creature it had managed to turn around, and that when it shot forth the liquid from its mouth. The cloud had had much more range to it than he had been anticipating and the second he'd taken to glance back had cost him. The cloud had started out thin before it quickly thickened as it traveled forward. He had at the time thought that he had gotten the two of them a safe distance away, but that assumption had been based of the creatures blood not this new substance.
When he'd finally realized that they were indeed still within its range, he had thrown both himself and Naruto out of the way, yet unfortunately he learned that he hadn't been fast enough to avoid it entirely and had caught both of his legs within the mist.
It wasn't something that he'd immediately noticed, as the next moment he had grabbed the downed boy and continued running once more to get away, but it was quickly brought to his attention when he'd started to feel a sharp stinging sensation in the back of his legs. If he had to compare it to something off the top of his head, it felt as if a horde of wasps had decided to swarm and attack only his legs. he hadn't noticed while he'd been running, but once the acid had eaten through the material of his pants in certain spots, and had gotten on his bare skin, the pain had quickly shown itself. Itachi had to hold in a scream when the burning became so bad that he'd dropped the young boy he'd been carrying and collapsed to the ground.
The experience of having his legs burned with acid was horrible, and the fear that had set in quickly wasn't much better. He had no idea what he could possibly do to stop the acid's progress through his flesh, and the blood that had quickly started to run down from both of his legs was worrisome. It was while his racing mind was trying to come up with a solution that an unexpected relief came. Without him needing to do anything, the sound of sizzling that had up until that point marked the horrid melting of his flesh disappeared on its own, and the pain that was causing involuntary tears to spill from his eyes was greatly reduced.
It was only after his pain clouded mind had cleared enough for him to think straight that he came to a conclusion that he wouldn't forget; the acid those creatures spit out was vastly different from the blood in the way that it was much more potent but seemed to only last a short amount of time. Even so, the wounds on his legs were still in need of medical attention. The flesh on the back of his legs had been damaged enough to look truly awful, and had melted far enough that the bleeding it caused was actually threatening.
It wasn't the type of damage to cripple someone to the point that they could no longer walk, but it was definitely bad enough that he was forced to apply a special burn cream, and bandage both of his legs tightly to stop the bleeding.
Once he had fought through the pain and bandaged his legs, he had immediately dug a couple pain killers out from his supplies and downed them. The burning in his legs mixed with the still noticeable ache of his muscles was simply too much at that point for him to be able to walk, let alone run. It was while he'd been waiting for the pain killers to kick in that he'd realized just how bad things could have been for both himself and the boy he carried had he not jumped out of the way in time. If the acid had done as much damage as it had through his clothing, he didn't want to imagine what direct skin contact would be like.
He was sure that if it had started out directly on his skin that it would have easily eaten through to the muscle beneath, and that thought terrified him. It would have only taken a very small amount of damage to the muscle to have crippled him, and prevented him from continuing the mission. Not to mention the inability to move likely would have spelled his, and the young boy's, certain and gruesome deaths.
Before it had just been a bad thought, but after suffering the effects first hand the horrible reality settled on him. Even with all of his training as a shinobi, without chakra he was incredibly vulnerable while he was still trapped within this place. Death was actually a possibility, and now that he was faced with that potential outcome, he couldn't help the bit off fear that settled in his heart. This place wasn't like the real world, there was no way he could plan for the things that happened here. Things changed much too rapidly and without warning. It was already proving to him that learning to adapt was going to be vital in a place like this; his legs were now proof of that fact.
It had taken almost ten minutes for the pain killers to kick in and start working enough to dull the aching in his legs, and once they finally had he held more resolve than ever to keep the boy safe. He was an Anbu captain, and he'd be damned if he was going to die in a place like this. No, he still had to see his brother again and make up for the time he'd been neglecting him. He'd vowed from that moment on, no matter how bad things got he'd always keep Sasuke safe, and for that promise to be fulfilled he needed to keep Naruto safe as well, so with a grunt of exertion he once more hefted the unconscious boy onto his shoulder. He would make it to the academy, and he would find the others so they could all leave together as a squad.
From that moment onward, Itachi had been taking things a lot slower. He no longer ran through the fog—partially due to his damaged legs—and he no longer deemed to take these creatures as lightly as he had been before. Sure they were slow, but from that last encounter it had been proven they held tricks of their own. Now whenever he heard the radio start buzzing he held still and waited for a direct line of sight before he deemed himself ready to move. Doing so revealed just how rewarding a little bit of patience could be. The creatures were easy enough to avoid entirely when he knew where they were, and didn't run head first into them. Sure, his progress in terms of finding the tower and the academy was moving at a painstakingly slow pace, but making sure he survived long enough to do so mattered more.
So far he'd made his way down four different roads, each seemingly spanning the length of Konoha, but still had no luck. All the buildings and stores he passed by were distinctly Konoha in design, but even so he hadn't actually been able to get a feel for the area or recognize any of the street names. At times, more of the roads seemed to be cut off just like the one before, and also just like the one before he was forced to travel through side paths, which were usually more alleyways between various shops and houses. It was extremely tiring traveling such distances, especially when he had to carry a child in his arms, and with the painkillers wearing off periodically.
Without the painkillers to dull the throbbing pain in his legs, the pain would grow in intensity and force him to take a rest while he took more of the small pills.
It was at such a time while he was forced to wait for the painkillers to kick in that he began to seriously question whether or not he should start looking for the hospital instead. As it were, the amount of painkillers he'd been taking was already starting to become dangerous, and encroach into the territory of an overdose, but he had no choice; the flesh on the back of his legs had turned out to be worse than he'd originally thought. When he'd last sat to change the bandages wrapping them, as they'd become soaked in his blood, he'd seen just how bad the damage was.
The acid hadn't simply eaten a little bit of his skin like he'd originally thought, instead there was actual portions of his skin that had actually eroded down to the muscle like he'd feared. Luckily none of the wounds seemed to have damaged the muscle enough to keep him from walking, but the bleeding still hadn't stopped, and he was already running low on bandages. While the wounds didn't seem to be bad enough to cripple him, the damage was to the point where using the bandages like he had been did little more than slow the bleeding down to a semi-safe pace, and even then it only transferred the danger to however long his blood-pills were going to last for.
On top of the numerous painkillers he'd taken, he'd already had to take a blood-pill so he wouldn't pass out from blood-loss, and even though he still had about nine more, in a place like this he had no idea of he'd be able to get any more. Then there were his worries over how quickly he was going through his supply of bandages. At some point he was definitely going to have to get more if he was going to survive for any practical amount of time. Itachi really didn't think he was going to have any choice but to make his way to the hospital to try and find more supplies, but seeing as he'd already been searching for hours to locate the academy, and still hadn't done so, he didn't exactly hold to much hope that he'd be able to find the hospital.
As it were, he could feel sweat starting to collect around his forehead, even though he wasn't physically exhausted, nor was he overheating. No, the cool wall of the alley he'd tucked them into was doing well enough at keeping his body temperature down, but even still he could feel himself losing energy and fast. Itachi winced as another spike of pain emanated from his legs. The wound was likely becoming infected, and if got any worse he really was going to lose his ability to walk. He desperately needed to find somewhere he could stop at for more than a few minutes to care to his wounds in a more effective manner, but he'd already been wandering around for hours and still hadn't managed to find the damn tower.
His morale was running lower than it had ever been since he'd first started this mission, when he rose himself up from the cold and slightly damp floor of the alley. With a slight wince, he picked Naruto up from the leaning position he'd left him in. Once more Itachi forced all his resolve into pushing forward in the hopes that he'd finally find where he needed to be, and once more with a grunt he began walking. The alley he'd found himself in this time was incredibly narrow, and the buildings that surrounded it were only a single story high, which in turn allowed plenty of light into the gap between them. He was honestly thankful for the light, because if things were as dark as they had been inside those apartments he severely doubted that he'd ever be able to build the strength needed to keep moving forwards.
It was with these thoughts, and a lowering will to continue that Itachi once more broke out onto a new road. Hoping that this was the right roa—
His eyes shot wide open and a huge sigh of relief escaped from his pale lips. Just down the road to the right a little ways, the silhouette of a multi-tiered tower could be seen through the dense fog. A light laugh escaped his lips as the usually stoic look slipped from his face and was replaced with a sincere smile as he gazed at the tower. Finally, after all the time he'd spent, and all the pain he'd gone through, his goal was right in front of him. Once he got inside he'd finally be within a reasonable location where he could potentially find the others.
Moving slightly faster than he had been before, and also with a noticeable limp, Itachi quickly made his way over to the front doors of the building, before after freeing a hand, he hefted the door open and made his way through. Once he was fully inside, he realized something that made him smile even more. The layout of this building seemed to be the same as the actual Hokage tower, as the room he was in he recognized immediately as the reception area of the Administrative branch, meaning that of he continued up the stairs nearby he'd only be a short hallway away from the Hokage's office. Wiping the accumulated sweat from his forehead, and fighting away the drowsiness that licked at his consciousness, he began making his way towards where the stairs were located.
A tiring trek up three flights of stairs later, and Itachi was standing outside the Hokage's office. It was odd for him to take the stairs, seeing as he'd usually used one of the windows inside the office for travel, usually via Shunshin. But since he had no choice but to take the stairs, what would usually only take a second wound up taking closer minutes. Five tiring minutes, as he carried the unconscious form of the boy with him.
However, there wasn't much cheer in his accomplishment to be had, as another problem had presented itself.
The leg intensive act of walking up the vast amount of stairs had left the bandages that were on his legs absolutely soaked in his blood, to the point where it was actually running down his legs and into his shinobi sandals. He could already feel the effects of blood-loss draining his energy, so quickly he pushed his way through the doors ahead of himself. His relief from finding the building was immediately dropped as the room he now stood inside was completely empty, minus the wooden desk inside that held the kanji for 'Kage' on the front of it alongside the villages stylized leaf symbol. Behind the desk sat a large chair, with multiple windows spanning the wall behind both of them. Through them he could see that the fog was just as bad up here as it had been down on the ground level, and as such prevented him from seeing anything out them.
Coughing into his hand for a moment, Itachi realized he was still rapidly loosing blood, so he swiftly made his way over to the side of the room, where he then laid the blond-haired child down as gently as he could. Once that was out of the way, Itachi quickly removed another blood-pill before swallowing it. It took a moment but he felt himself perk up a little bit more, as the drowsiness was slowly lifted from his tired mind. He practically slumped his way down the wall, as at the moment he didn't think he could manage to energy needed to sit properly, before he took a look at the bloodied bandages on his legs.
Removing a kunai and another roll of bandages, he carefully cut the old ruined ones away. Even with the care he took, he still let out a loud pained grunt as his face contorted into a tight expression of agony. The blood had already started to clot and scab over, and removing the bandages had tore away the semi healed chunks of coagulated blood from the deepest of the wounds. A sickly yellow substance mixed in with the red and immediately began to stream out from the worst of the melted areas, forcing him to fight back the tears that stung his eyes. He didn't have any water to clean out the wound, and the painkillers had already started to wear off, so any and all contact with the swollen and red area brought forth a tremendous amount of pain at this point.
It hurt incredibly bad, but Itachi managed to remove the old bandages from his leg and replace them with an entire new roll, tripling the thickness of the previous times he'd bandaged it in the hopes it would last longer. He still had to survive long enough for the others to eventually find their way here and by extension find both him and Naruto. Once they did all of them could finally go home, and he'd get to see his little brother once again. Even with the horrible pain he was in, he still found himself thinking about Sasuke.
Tears now freely fell from his eyes. He just felt so damn helpless right now... He was already becoming increasingly sick from his wounds, and there wasn't much he could do about it. He didn't want to die here without getting to apologize to Sasuke, and tell him how much he cared about him.
Striking the wooden floor with a bloody palm, Itachi let a few sobs escape from his mouth. He was simply too tired to hold it in anymore. He remained strong and stoic in front of all his comrades, and even Hokage-sama, but even before this mission things had been building up inside. Emotions that frustrated him to no end, and thoughts that belonged to someone that should be put on suicide watch. He was so beyond tired of everything right now. He was sick of his power hungry clan, he was sick of Danzo and his scheming, he was sick of trying to pretend that he could handle it all; but more than anything he was sick of not getting to be who he wanted to be.
He was sick and tired of not getting to be the older brother he desperately wanted to be for Sasuke, and it was finally showing.
He openly cried for the first time in years to an empty room inside a hellish nightmare, as his control over his emotions slipped piece by piece. He didn't know how much more he could take anymore. There was a good chance he was going to die here, and he felt like there wasn't anything that he could do anymore to stop it. He had come into this mission with a bright outlook over his abilities, but that had quickly turned into a dull, distorted, rust covered image of them. Without chakra he had barely managed to survive, and with all of his other skills, many of them still relied on at least a basic form of chakra manipulation. He wasn't much better than a talented civilian right now, and because of it he was dying.
Fear and grief clouded mind was cleared violently when a sharp shock of pain ran through his leg, reminding him he had only patched one of them. With a deep intake of air, Itachi proceeded to repeat the process again with the other leg.
It was horrible, and he had wound up needing to take another blood-pill to make up for having let his emotions and thoughts wander, but he had managed to get it done. The wooden floor below him was drenched in a rather large puddle of blood, and he could feel his mind viciously trying to drag him into unconsciousness, alongside his blond companion. He knew there wasn't much he would be able to do to stop it, so shakily raising himself from the floor he limped his way over to the desk in the middle of the room, leaving bloody footsteps in his wake. When he got behind it he noticed something he hadn't before.
Sitting on the desk was a single peice of paper and at the top of it was his name.
Reading it Itachi let out a yell of frustration that if you were to tell anyone that knew him about, they'd say you were either insane or were talking about a different Itachi. The yell that escaped from his mouth was louder than he'd ever been in the last five years, and it quickly devolved into an animalistic battle-cry, as he grabbed the edges of the desk and proceeded to push it as hard as he could while running. It quickly slid across the floor, before with a loud crash it was slammed all the way against the door, blocking it entirely and preventing either side from opening.
Huffing in air harshly Itachi's anger stricken face eventually morphed back into a tired look of resignation, as he shakily hobbled his way over to the blond-haired boy that lay on the floor, looking as if he were simply sleeping after a tiring day. He simply continued to stare at the boy, before a moment later the same kunai he'd used to remove his bloody bandages earlier was once again in his hand, blood still dripping from the blade. As he stood there with the knife, feeling the cold metal in his bloody palm, a dark thought crossed his exhausted mind.
There was another way that guaranteed his survival...
There was another way out...
Another way that would let him see Sasuke again...
Raising the kunai into the air as he stared at the unconscious little boy in front of him, he raised the bladed weapon back a little more, before he brought his hand forward rapidly as the blade flew from his palm. A second later and a dull thunk was heard as the blade embedded itself into the wooden floor, a mere few inches away from the boy's face.
He couldn't do it.
He wanted to see Sasuke again, but there was no way he could do so knowing he killed someone that was the same age as him, and in another lifetime could have been his brother as well. He'd already seen too much death; seen too much war. He didn't want to have any part in the blood that was spilled on a daily basis. He didn't want to sacrifice who he was for the sake of his own greed. Sasuke would never forgive him. His head was starting to spin, and his legs were in absolute agony, but he only had a single painkiller left. Reaching a trembling hand into the pouch that contained his first aid supplies Itachi slowly raised a single blood-stained pill to his lips—
And proceeded to fall backwards as his consciousness left him.
Chapter End
Holy shit... This chapter just did not want to be written. I struggled so hard for the entire first third of it and then it just started flowing together. I personally think it's the best chapter yet, and I'm hoping that sentiment is shared by you all as well. Anyways, I feel like this is a long one, but I haven't checked. Regardless, I'm sorry for the wait on it. I think it's been what? Four days since my last update on it? While that doesn't seem like a long time, this story has been flowing so smoothly that I should have been able to get this out two days ago.
EDIT: After rereading this, I'm not so sure about its quality. I mean, there are parts that don't blend well, and my struggle with writing it out in one go seems to have damaged the pacing. :/ If I'm honest this chapter went a lot better in my head than it managed to be on the screen.
EDIT(2): I've done a large-scale re-write of a good proportion of this chapter, and wound up adding about an extra two-thousand words to it.
Anyways, please leave me a nice long review!
-SaucyHandles
