Final chapter. Read, enjoy and review. :D
Chapter Seven
The End
"Uncle Shisui! Kakashi!" The small girl threw her arms around them both, starting with Shisui first and then the silver-haired man. She released them then to begin cutting away at the cables that bound them into each other, back to back like a clichéd adventure flick in which the heroes found themselves in distress. She loved those movies, and it was exciting to play the part in real life.
But it was also dangerous and scary, since that wild man upstairs roaring and bounding after her, calling her the blame for how his life turned out, was NOT her loving Uncle Itachi. He never once told her he hated her, never turned anything on her. She knew what happened to Mama and Daddy wasn't hers, as Shisui told her himself. That was why she talked to Itachi-oji like that. He wasn't the man who raised her, who spoiled her, who always took her to school and picked her up, did everything to make her happy...
He used to be a cop, used to protect the town, before she was born. Sarada had been told that meant little time with your loved ones for the sake of many other people. She tried to imagine a life like that, and wanted to cry. She didn't want to be without Uncle Itachi...but she also wanted him happy as she was.
The Babadook was making him do all of this.
She was going to save him.
When she told all of this to her other uncles, they shared a look which she guessed was that they weren't sure to believe the words of a child - but with Itachi on the loose like a monster, they didn't have a choice but to help her, after all.
The three of them got the wire in front of the door ready, then hid behind the table and tools as they waited. It wasn't long before the door rattled, meaning someone was coming through, and then it opened to show Itachi who did not think to look before he took his first step...and ended up knocked out before either of them could do that job. He hit his head against the floor, which made Sarada panic. Was her uncle HURT?!
Kakashi knelt over him and inspected any damage behind his head. "He's okay, I think. And he still has a pulse."
Shisui sighed in relief, patting Sarada on the back to comfort her. "Then let's tie him up now," he said, turning behind him to get the rope which had always been down here but never used.
~o~
A round ball of light flashed over his eyes.
His head was murdering his senses.
The light flashed a couple times before all was clear. He assessed his surroundings. He was laying on the cold ground, on his back. He took a few breaths through his opened mouth, but he shouldn't have jerked forward. He was being held down...by ropes.
DAMN IT, SARADA! This was all her fault! If he got himself out of these binds, she was going to -
His wrists were down, as were his ankles, and across his chest which connected to either opposite side. Which he found himself looking in the direction of - and lost his control when he glimpsed the crouching trio of his ungrateful niece, the nuisance called Shisui, and Kakashi who had turned on him after a day of fierce release together. That liquid essence shared between them...BETRAYAL!
"Fight it, Uncle Itachi!" Sarada cried, standing up and then stumbling a bit, leaning onto the brick wall behind her for support. "We're not leaving you!"
You're not leaving me...you're such a joke! ALL OF YOU!
His harsh barks of laughter made them slink backwards, but Shisui was already standing slowly as if this were another one of their old missions together. "Damn it all, Itachi, pull it together!" he snapped. "What did we promise each other as best friends?! When we were KIDS? I asked you to look at me as a big brother - someone you could look up to! Weren't you just that for Sasuke...and didn't you promise him and Sakura you would look after their little girl for them?!" His eyes hardened on the spot as he raised his voice high enough to shake the walls around them.
"ITACHI, THEY WOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOU NOW IF THEY SAW YOU LIKE THIS - AND SASUKE WOULD SAY THAT THE OLDER BROTHER HE LOVED SO MUCH WAS HIS MOST HATED ENEMY!"
The lighter side of him slowly emerged - Sasuke would be ashamed of him, hate him - before it was held back again as Sarada came closer. "We promised we would protect each other! Didn't you tell me that the night you held me, when I was born? I don't remember it, but you told me yourself!" She sat back then and cracked him a smile that made him reel back by an inch.
"You don't love me...because the Babadook won't let you. But I LOVE you, oji-san."
I love you...
...always will...
NO, SHE IS TRICKING YOU! THE LITTLE BANE OF YOUR EXISTENCE!
But then the light over his eyes darkened with the outline of a human head...and he saw Sasuke once more. His brother was displeased - or rather, devastated, but his onyx irises were blazing with fire of HATE. He spoke to him softly, audible and deep.
"I hate you, Itachi. I trusted you with my child. She loves you the way I did...but look at you now. You've lived in darkness too long, nii-san..."
"Itachi, if you don't pull it together," Kakashi spoke now, "this will consume you until there is nothing left. What will it do to me, to Shisui...and to Sarada?"
His demon self was still holding him back. The images of memories, of all the good times he had with his niece from the time of her birth and on...there is no love, only PAIN! YOU LET ME IN, AND NOW I TAKE AWAY THAT LITTLE SHACKLE OF YOUR LIFE!
"YOU LET IT IN!" Sarada screamed, leaning down and slapping him HARD across his face, snapping it into the other direction. "YOU HAVE TO GET IT OUT!"
His insides jerked as though he was a machine, and the gears were becoming rusted...but rusted gears could always be made to move again with replacement and oiling. The channels leading down to his backside - I cannot leave you that way! - convulsed with the rest of his body.
GET OUT OF ME, YOU BASTARD! I LET YOU IN; YOU GET OUT!
He thrashed and pulled on the ropes until his bleeding wrists were freed.
NOOOOO!
Smoke consumed him, screeching and tight, and his eyes rolled about in his head. His legs weren't free yet, but he managed to turn himself all the way around and elevate his upper body with both hands. His stomach and lungs constricted as he heaved violently and let loose the blackest of blood from his system onto the concrete.
~o~
His world was spinning.
His insides were light.
He felt himself falling and landing hard before he lost all sense...until voices and tremors roused him towards the light again. He thought he was dying, and if he was, he was prepared to see Sasuke again, and maybe their parents...
"Uncle!"
"ITACHI!"
They were all around him: Sarada...Shisui...and Kakashi.
They did not abandon him. They were all here, looking out for him - but most of all, it had been her. She pulled him out from the deep, dark pit of despair and death. Unconsciously, his arms raised, and he wrapped his arms around her small body, pulling her close, burying his face into the crook of her little neck.
He wracked with grief and regret. There were no words to describe the monster he'd become. He wanted to hold her forever and never let go. It's over. I'm going to continue. She needs me more than I ever needed anyone. She's the part of Sasuke left behind; he would hate me if he saw me now.
"I'm so...sorry," he croaked, squeezing his eyes shut before opening them again and looking up at Kakashi and Shisui. They did not look at him with hate, anger or wariness. In fact, there was nothing at all, but his actions tonight provoked being far from over.
If I shoved it out, it must be too weak to take over me again.
He wobbled on his legs, but Shisui and Kakashi helped him up the stairs. He was so tired, but now he feared if he did fall asleep again, he would never wake up. He was afraid, admittedly, for tomorrow coming. These two must think he was insane, so perhaps he deserved the asylum until he was fit for release - or maybe never. Sarada deserved better care in theirs rather than his. He had done enough to her as it was.
This was what love was: the willingness to have the best. Willing to let another care for the person if you couldn't.
However, just as they were reaching the stairs to go up to his room, Sarada was the one to stop in front of them all. Oh, gods, the look in her eye...knowing...
"Sara-chan?" Itachi managed to ask.
Her voice was so soft they barely heard her. "You can't get rid of the Babadook."
Kakashi's eyes went wide. Shisui's jaw slackened. And Itachi could only watch in horror as the "unexpected" happened before their eyes.
Unseen hands grabbed Sarada, then pulled her onto the stairs and proceeded to drag her up, kicking and screaming, into her room, but the door didn't slam shut. Damn it, it's NOT over!
~o~
"UNCLE!"
She was in the middle of the room when the three men arrived, but she was picked up and then lifted across the room to lightly hit the wall. Not enough to cause damage, but to try and keep her away from them. The Babadook was playing again. He wanted one last laugh, and Itachi knew it.
You're not going to have her, you bastard! If the fiend heard his thoughts, then he didn't dare speak to him.
Sarada was tossed onto the bed, unharmed, and Itachi jumped on with her, but Kakashi and Shisui stayed where they were. They were about to join when the bed began to move. It shook on its own as though possessed, threatening to flip up and over. Itachi didn't know if this would work, but he yelled out to the darkness of the room ahead of them all: "WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"
It wanted me, but now no longer. What could it really want to do now?
Suddenly, the bed stopped moving. All was calm, but the monster was still here. He was in the shadows somewhere, watching, waiting...
He slid off the bed, leaving Sarada where she was. She hid beneath the blankets and watched. Shisui rushed over to sit with her, watching as Itachi approached - at the same time a figure was stepping out of the pitch black before them all. "Oh, my God," he gasped when he saw WHO it was.
Itachi was transfixed at the appearance of his brother once again.
"Big brother..."
"Itachi!" Kakashi yelled behind him. "That THING is not Sasuke!"
No, it's not, he silently agreed, but he could not take his eyes off "Sasuke". The longer he stared, the more he realized that this monster was a manifestation of his grief for losing his beloved baby brother, then his sister-in-law after giving birth to the one thing he had left of them both. The creature fed off the darkness in his heart and pushed him to his breaking point, nearly destroying not only his life but also Sarada's.
"No," he croaked, falling to his knees, "you're not my brother." He gritted his teeth and lowered his head to the ground, heaving and curling his fists so his knuckles were white. The monster hissed and growled in response, finally starting to emerge when he threw his head upwards and raised his voice. His vocal cords rattled with his hoarse shriek. "You are NOTHING!"
The hissing increased as the outline advanced closer. The arms spread on either side gave it the appearance of a black bird in flight. "This is my house, and you are a trespasser!" Itachi shouted. "You are a cockroach - a PARASITE!" The room began to shake, the walls now showing cracks as if an earthquake was rattling the land.
"You tell him, Itachi!" Shisui yelled over the commotion, trying to get off the bed with Sarada only to fall back down again. Kakashi stumbled about and found himself on all fours, scrambling over to hold onto the end of the bed as Itachi continued his rage.
"IF YOU TOUCH ME AND MY NIECE AGAIN, I'LL KILL YOU!"
The rattling of the walls stopped. The growls, hisses and shrieks stopped, as well. Sarada whimpered and held onto Shisui, and Kakashi managed to finally stand up on both feet. "Damn!" was all he could get out.
The figure of their nightmares was there as it was, but no longer was it moving. It remained in the air, frozen as if in shock that it had been beaten by words, and the will of its prey proved stronger. Just like that, it collapsed facedown onto the floor, drained of energy. But its groans could still be heard. The Babadook is weak.
Now Shisui could get off the bed, taking Sarada into his arms as he stared down at the fallen thing. "Is it...dying?" he asked after a moment, and the girl raised her head to look it over.
"You can't get rid of it," she said. "But Uncle Itachi did beat it." Her eyes lit up when they looked up at him. "What are you gonna do now?"
Itachi sneered down at this cause of all their problems. "Kakashi, my gun is in the middle drawer," he said, emitting shocked gasps at the implication of what he was going to do. It might not kill the bastard, but he wanted to feel better, and what more could it do in this state?
"Itachi, if you don't kill that thing, you're only going to make it angry," Shisui pointed out.
"He's right, you know," the silver-haired man agreed, handing the former officer his weapon, the bullets already in place. Taking it into his hand, Itachi clicked the safety off. To hold it made his blood rush with excitement. "I would just leave it as it is..."
"And let it lay here at the foot of my niece's bed for Kami knows how long?" Itachi spat, repulsed by the idea. With that, he raised the pistol, took aim at where the top hat lay...and fired.
The blast echoed off the walls, harshly ringing in his eardrums. Sarada shrieked, her hands flying to her ears. Shisui flinched and squeezed his eyes shut, and Kakashi raised a hand over his eyes.
White flashed before his vision, as the Babadook screamed in unbridled pain.
~o~
The fiend did take the gunshot hard, but as his niece, cousin and friend predicted, the monster didn't die. How could it when it was nothing of the world? Instead, it retreated with its tail between its legs - down to the basement, slamming the door closed right behind it.
Itachi wasted no time running after it and locking the door so it would never get out again. He was followed by the trio, and they all watched him for a good long while, waiting for him. But he didn't know what to do except one thing: he went straight for his niece whom he wronged, and took her into his arms, picked her up and held her for the longest time.
It wasn't long before Shisui laughed lightly and patted his back. Kakashi just stayed close to them with a twinkle in his eye.
Just when it was over, the book appeared. It had showed up on the doorstep of the house just as his cousin and Kakashi were leaving late in the night, since all was well - but they were going to keep this between themselves as no one would ever believe them. Itachi was slowly feeling the weight being lifted from his soul - because of one certain little one who in turn protected him after he did that job for her.
Back to the damned book. Witnessed with Sarada, Kakashi and Shisui, he burned the damned thing in the fireplace, watching the red cover - and its character - burn into gray ash. The smoke left behind rose into the chute. He decided to just leave the ashes there, since what more could the weakened thing in the basement do?
He hugged Shisui, whispered how sorry he was for everything, but when it came to Kakashi, the silver-haired man leaned over and gave him the best of a kiss he could manage on the Uchiha's cheek. It was his way of saying that despite what happened today, he wanted to see where their newfound relationship would go. He was ready for that.
But right now, since Itachi and Sarada could have a good night's sleep at last with her prescription from Shizune done, there might be a need for a psychiatrist just to be safe. As long as there is no Orochimaru for her. The creepy snake man around my niece? Not on my watch.
He finally took her out of that piece of shit of a school, intent on hunting for a new one, but she would still continue to see her friends if she wanted to. Though she was going to miss seeing Boruto and Mitsuki as well as Chocho Akimichi during the day, she told him.
Which brought him to today, on a Thursday afternoon, when Anko was back to listen to his decision on a better school for Sarada. She laughed when she read the name which would be the Konoha Genin Academy. "I've read about it, and I've decided she would be happy there," he told the woman.
Anko laughed and sipped her tea he'd made. "With this example you've made, maybe the other families would start thinking about it because of...those two," she stated of the silently spoken old advisors who ought to step down. "They might bring their kids to this better school." Itachi was inclined to agree with her.
She left with the decision made, and another item taken off his plate. He looked over to see Sarada playing with the frisky Kyuui today. The kitty mewled and kicked at her hand with his little feet as she rubbed his belly. Chuckling, Itachi left her alone and went into the kitchen to take out the bowl of soil and worms he'd wrapped in foil, from the refrigerator. He'd plucked them with his niece's help from the backyard garden.
Food for the thing in the basement.
Wasn't it ironic that a monster from a children's book had lived in the real world, literally apart from when a mother would tell her child there was nothing of the sort under the bed, in the closet or even the basement?
The thing lived here, where it belonged. This manifestation of his dead brother and sister-in-law remained down here, stored like a memory that he would never forget, but he would live with it. He suffered living in the past long enough, and it was time to move on. Every day, he would bring its meal of earthworms to sustain since he discovered regular human food made it queasy.
Why did it not show him Sakura when it allowed him to see his brother? Because you loved Sasuke the most. He was your major weakness. He shook the thought off as he descended the stairs and stopped at the bottom to place the bowl of earthworms on the concrete. The cockroach might not die, but it could still feed.
And speaking of which...
The shrieks burst from the darkness, and the shadowy thing with pinprick eyes and sharp teeth in faceless form burst with its arms raised in flight, but he'd been ready for it. This was why he would not yet allow Sarada to see it with her own eyes. Not until she was older.
"IT'S OKAY!" he yelled, raising both hands to calm it down. It paused where it was, getting the picture and then retreating back to where it belonged. Not before taking its meal with it. Itachi breathed a sigh of relief and turned to walk back up the stairs.
"How was it?" Sarada asked when he came up, locking the basement door behind him. He smiled tiredly at her.
"Quiet today."
The Uzumakis were coming over in an hour, and she was already in the cute blue peasant blouse embroidered with orange and red, paired with black jeans. Shisui and Kakashi were also coming. It would be a day where everyone would get together for the first time in a long time. Itachi had a lot to suggest for Naruto even though Hinata was getting him out of the house more often. It would take a lot more to slip your depressed husband out from the four walls you lived in.
He might not have fallen as I nearly have, but sooner or later, the chance would be a hundred. I have been down the road to know I can help him get off of it and onto a newer, better one.
Itachi had the feast ready with Sarada's help in time for the doorbell to ring and signal everyone was here.
"Looking good, cousin," Shisui told him, giving him a one-armed hug before letting him go. Boruto loudly embraced him before going to greet Sarada. His mother and toddler sister soon followed, and Naruto himself was coming behind. He appeared lighter and seemed to be getting his old glow back.
"Itachi," he said simply with a nod.
"Naruto," he answered back, then leaned in to speak softly in his ear. "After today, let me help you." The blond frowned for a moment before getting the hint as to who it involved. He nodded harder, without a word. He seemed to be tired of everyone trying to help him, but he needed it.
Kakashi was last, since he'd been waiting to lean up and whisper suggestively in Itachi's ear, making the Uchiha shiver. "After today, you feel like me coming over Friday night...?"
"Not...here," he gritted. There were children here, after all. Kakashi snickered and stepped back.
"Right. We'll talk about it later when they're gone." He followed the others into the house, and this was Sarada's cue to come up to him. She threw her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. Smiling, he wrapped one arm around her and closed the door with the other.
"It's getting a lot better, Uncle Itachi."
"It is." With that, Itachi Uchiha picked up his niece, his blessed reason to live and the best thing that ever happened to him, and carried her into their home where their friends were waiting for them. Ready to fill these walls with happy memories again. Kyuui the cat meowed and trailed after them.
Whew, my first Itachi and Sarada fic, and I am proud of it. :D The end of the movie itself couldn't have been perfect since what you saw reflected the symbolism: the Babadook in the basement represents bad memories stored, learned to live with if not forgotten.
