Title: Even the Scars
Summary: Request fic for FunkyKiwi who asked for a longer look at the existing serialhugger fic Just The Fact That She Does.
Pairing: Ibiki/OC
Author: Smurf
Warnings: This piece of fanfiction portrays Ibiki as a romantic/sexual being (at least it will eventually); if you are squeamish about seeing this character in such a light, please discontinue reading. It is also AUish, and ignores Idate's existence completely.
Disclaimer: We, the serialhugger collective, do not own Naruto, or any of the characters and trademarks related thereof, and we do not make any monetary profit from the creation of these works (we simply enjoy torturing the characters of the fandom with our own special brand of insanity); no copyright infringement is intended. We do own Sachi, however, but if anyone feels like stealing her for his or her own plot-bunny inspired insanity, please feel free.
Chapter Nine: There's No Place Like Home
Home at last, Ibiki managed to make it up the six flights of stairs to his utilitarian apartment, before his leg decided to give out. It was a good thing the place was so damned small, it meant he had not had to hobble too far in order to make it to the sofa.
He rubbed at his sore appendage, the way Makoto had showed him, and waited for the ache to subside. It would take a while, his hands working, one with a little more efficiency than the other, before the sharp pain that ran through his muscles dulled, leaving him with little other to do than think.
The apartment was very different from hospital room 204. It wasn't as stark, there was colour on the walls, sort of; it was pale and faded from the sunlight through the windows, and the passage of time, but he could still tell that they were supposed to be yellow. Every apartment in the complex was yellow; they hadn't been repainted in years. It was quieter too; that was to be expected though. Ibiki was a solitary creature by nature, he always had been, he had acquaintances, some closer than others, but pitifully few friends.
His choice and his fault too, he supposed.
He couldn't be around people in normal situations without picking them apart to see what made them tick- That was just how he was wired. It had been easy in the hospital; he had been on drugs most of the time and alienating the staff would have been a poor move on his part. Even still, his solitary lifestyle had begun to alter the day he had awoken to a strange girl bearing soup, whisking into his hospital room as if she had every right in the world to be there.
He'd grown to appreciate the company: the Nara's; they'd been company when he had needed it, less the stark white on white that had been his room started to do funny things to his head. They were friends- the word acquaintance did not properly define their relationship. He had even grown increasingly fond of Shinya, even if the man did display several classic symptoms of a peter-pan complex. Ibiki simply took Sachi's word for it that her older brother had simply been born that way- Optimistic and annoyingly cheerful.
Sachi had been a… friend, too. Was a friend, he corrected. He doubted very much that her interest in him, personal or professional, would diminish simply because he was now an outpatient. He'd studied her over the two months Otori and the nurses on his ward had spent piecing him back together physically, coming to the conclusion that the Konoha rumour mill had hit on something… something that had been exaggerated until it had become unrecognizable, but still maintained that small almost indistinguishable grain of truth.
"I told you, she's into you, and that she's stubborn; she's not gonna make the first move, dude. This entire conversation is insane- I'm her brother; I should not be playing matchmaker."
Shinya's matchmaking was pathetic anyway, or maybe that wasn't the right word, it was just… ineffective; he'd been right when he'd called his sister stubborn.
Sachi was going to have to make the first move, Ibiki had decided then and there; it wouldn't work otherwise. She hadn't approached him as a woman (or maybe she had, only very subtly, in a way that left too much room for interpretation), she had approached him as an intimate, true, but not of the sort everyone seemed to have assumed. The relationship between them remained platonic.
For now.
Ah! There, the muscles in his leg had relaxed, finally. He bent his knee, then extended it, repeating the process a few times, making sure it felt up to standard before putting any weight on it again.
*** *** ***
Shinya was watching his little sister as she buzzed around the records room in the administrative wing of the hospital. Strictly speaking, this area was off limits to anyone but staff; Shinya had been sneaking in to visit since Sachi had earned the title of medical ninja. Obviously, security needed to be tightened, or maybe he was just that good.
"You aren't," Sachi didn't bother looking up from the scroll she was examining, "It's just that security doesn't consider you a threat."
Had he been thinking aloud again? Or had Sachi recently developed the power to read minds? Oh, he hoped not, that would just be plain freaky. She was already a big enough pain in the ass as it was.
"No, you weren't thinking out loud," She put the scroll down, and retrieved a file folder, "and no, I can't read your mind; you're just predictable." This time she did look at him, teasing grin on her face.
"Brat," the term, Sachi knew from years of hearing it, was affectionate- at least when it came from her brother.
"Hey, at least I'm not predictable," she shrugged, "What are you doing here anyway?" It was his turn to shrug. "Uh-huh, well, if you're going to hang around anyway," she picked up several other files, scrolls and loose pieces of paper, before depositing them into his arms, "make yourself useful."
"What's all this?" he questioned following her out of the room.
"Research," she walked a few steps ahead of him, "Careful you don't drop any of those; there'll be hell to pay if something winds up lost."
He didn't doubt for a minute she'd take the blame for him if he did manage to drop and lose something, they were her responsibility after all, but still… "Where am I supposed to be taking these?"
Sachi stopped, turned, levelled him with a look that seemed to say are-you-sure-you-weren't-dropped-on-your-head-as-a-baby and said, "Home. Just put them in my room, I have to pick a few things up at the market so I'll be a little later."
"Yeah, yeah," he complained, "Don't you have a bag or something I can carry these in?" As it was, he couldn't utilize his hands, and it would be so much simpler if he could just perform a few easy hand seals and transport himself to their shared home.
"Big baby," she teased, "Momo!" she called to a youngish looking nurse, "Could you get my brother a bag for these please?" she looked at the impressive bundle in his arms, "Uh… make it two."
"Sure," the girl grinned. "Come with me," she beckoned to the Jonin, leading him to the reception desk while Sachi took off in another direction.
*** *** ***
"Passionflower… vervain…hops…" Sachi looked through the different herbs displayed at the apothecary.
"Looking for something in particular?" A woman asked coming to stand in front of the counter.
"Not really, just stocking up," the brown haired girl paused a moment, "Um actually, you carry analgesics, don't you?"
"Analgesics?" the woman eyed her, and Sachi wondered if she wouldn't have done better to keep her medical smock on. "Problems with your joints, or is it muscle pain?"
"Neither and both," Sachi didn't bother to explain, brining her purchases to the counter.
"We've got 'em, how much do you need?"
"Just one tin, for now please. Something strong, but not too strong."
"Medium strength topical pain killer, one tin." She added the cost to the total, "Three-sixty-eight, ninety-two."
"Sheesh," Sachi pulled out her wallet paying for the purchases, "have your prices risen?"
"Supply and demand," the woman shrugged, "with all that fighting recently…"
Sachi nodded. "With things settled down now, do you think your prices will drop again?" The woman shrugged a second time. "Right."
"Thank you for your business, please, come again."
Sachi scowled down at her wallet, she'd have to pick up some extra work… Maybe she could take a few missions to make up for the money she'd just spent. She was sure there had to be at least one mission that required a medic on the team. It wasn't a huge amount of money after all, just enough to make her pocket feel a little too empty for her liking, especially after she paid her half of the bills, and brought home that weeks groceries. Next time, Sachi vowed, she'd go find the damned herbs herself; it would be an inconvenience time wise, but at least she'd have some spending money left over.
She arrived home after she made a couple of more stops and a few more necessary purchases, some two hours after leaving Shinya quite literally holding the bag at the hospital. "Shin, I'm home!" she called. A non-committal grunt told her that he was in the kitchen. "You aren't cooking are you?" Her brother wasn't to be trusted within a five-foot radius of the stove.
"No!" he called, "Just getting a drink," he was in front of her in the next instant, drink cup in hand. "All that junk is on your bed."
"Thanks," she smiled, and then headed down the hall to her room. Rolling up her sleeves Sachi cleared a workspace, and began to pour over the various research materials she had borrowed, notebook and pen resting in her lap as she did. "Ugh, she groaned, it's going to be a long night."
As it turned out, it had been a long two nights, she was exhausted by the end, but at least she had accomplished what she had set out to do… She hoped. It was entirely possible all that work had culminated in failure and there was only one way she was going to find out; she would have to test it.
The Inuzuka would set their pack on her if she asked for a test animal, and it wasn't ethical to test her results out on her patients. Her brother had always been a good guinea pig, but he was allergic to hops, it was why he stuck to rice and plum wines, and avoided stout and other hops based drinks. Annoying as he was sometimes, she didn't want to kill him- well maybe every once in a while, when he did something that really pissed her off… But she was going off on a tangent.
Schooling her thought process once more, Sachi concluded that she'd have to test it on herself. It was the safest bet. It wasn't unethical, it didn't end in her being chased through the village by a pack of angry dogs and their owners, and it didn't result in her brother being rushed to the hospital.
Looking at the slightly greenish powder she had poured into a tin she'd dug out from the kitchen cupboard, she murmured, "Looks like I'm my own guinea pig this time."
Sachi tested her concoction over the course of the week, tweaking the recipe here and there, as she felt necessary, to no ill effect. She felt fine, she was well rested and, if possible, she had slept better than she ever had. All in all her experiment seemed to be a success. Pleased, Sachi packaged the powder, packing it and the analgesic carefully in one bag, while putting the research materials in another.
*** *** ***
Ibiki's attention was drawn to Makoto as the physiotherapist waved to someone in the doorway, he didn't turn his head to look though; he was too concentrated on what he was doing. Standing upright, with small weights on his ankles, walking without the aid of his crutches- it was more difficult a task than it seemed. Exhausting too, especially after the other exercises he had been put through that morning.
"You're doing great!" What was it with Makoto and being jolly all the time? He couldn't recall ever seeing the man so much as frown. Nobody was that chipper all of the time, then again, he wasn't around the man all of the time.
"It shouldn't ever be this painful to move," Ibiki grumbled.
"It's just that your body is still repairing itself," Makoto crouched to check Ibiki's knee. "You've been stretching and doing the exercises I recommended to you at home?" Ibiki nodded. "It shows; your leg is much stronger already."
Of course, he'd been keeping up with the exercises Makoto had suggested for him; he wanted to get back to normal as soon as possible. Feeling helpless and weak didn't sit well with the tall teenager.
Makoto rose to his full height, and nodded again, keeping his eyes on the leg in question a moment before his gaze settled on Ibiki's hand. "How's the hand?"
"Better, I don't drop things anymore," he flexed his fingers slightly, "and I don't have any problems with hand seals." Thank whatever higher power there was looking out for him for that one. What good was a shinobi if he couldn't use his hands? There were other methods of fighting, other jobs a ninja did, that didn't require working hands on, but still, they were an important part of the job.
"Good to hear," Makoto's hand came to rest on his shoulder, "Our time's almost up, so head over to Gin; he'll run you through the cool down."
Ibiki nodded again, a small movement, just the barest inclination of his head really, before picking up his crutches and hobbling over to the man in question. At least this part of the session was somewhat enjoyable.
*** *** ***
Sachi glanced up at the clock as she put the last of the borrowed scrolls in its place. She was cutting it close, but she would still manage to make it to the physio department in time if she left right now. Picking up the small bag she'd left on a table pushed up against the wall closest to the door, she headed in that direction.
"You're just in time," Makoto smiled when he saw Sachi enter through the door. "He'll be finished soon. Got a date this afternoon?"
Sachi rolled her eyes, "Been spending too much time with my brother lately?"
"Murimatsu," he tossed a sideward glance at her, "it's painfully obvious to anyone with eyes that you two are seeing each other."
"Then everyone with eyes," she repeated his words, "needs glasses. We aren't dating."
That seemed to shut him up, but only for a minute, as he turned on her with that megawatt smile of his and chirped, "You should."
She could feel her face start to burn and tried her damnedest to squash the blush down, "Definitely too much time with my brother."
"What's in the bag?" Makoto attempted to peek.
She pulled the bag to her chest. "Toys, you know, handcuffs, vibrators, that sort of thing," she deadpanned.
For a moment, Makoto wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or not, neither was the nurse who happened to be only a few feet away. A few moments later, Ibiki was with them, looking at the bag Sachi carried quizzically, not really bothering to think anything of it.
"You ready to go?" Sachi asked the heavily scarred teen.
"Where to?" he asked; they'd made plans to meet for lunch, but not were to go. Sachi's eyes settled on his crutches, then on his leg, walking around wouldn't be very comfortable, or practical for him right now- physio could be draining; she was taking that into account he knew. A glimmer of mischief light in her familiar grey irises and the left corner of her mouth lifted as if she was amused by something; Ibiki wondered a moment what was going on inside her head, especially when her gaze moved almost imperceptibly to rest on Makoto for a fraction of a second.
"Your place," the small smirk was now a full smile, though whom it was directed at was uncertain. Behind them, Ibiki could hear a small squeak; he wondered at that a moment, but decided not to think too deeply on it. The nurse was probably just excited that she had a tidbit, even as inane as it was, to feed to the Konoha gossips.
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