Chapter Thirty-Two
The dinner gathering at the Uchiha Compound was lively as Itachi could remember, even more lively than the celebration after his release from the hospital. Izumi and he sat at the head of the table, a spot normally reserved for Mother and Father, on this occasion. Butterflies circled his stomach as Izumi's hand gently squeezed his.
"Son, Izumi," his father stared from the opposite end of the table, purely radiant in his appearance, "I think it's time you grace us with the official announcement!"
Izumi and he stood, bowed, and Itachi cleared his throat. "Everyone, it is my most happy duty to announce that Izumi and I are going to be having a baby!"
Cheers and applause drowned out Itachi's awkwardness from having said the words. You beat cancer, and you're somehow afraid of being a daddy, really? It wasn't that he didn't want to be a father, - far from it. He had promised Izumi in a moment near death, and he had delivered on the promise now that he was alive. What scared him was the thought of the world the child might be born into. Lord Fourth had confided in Itachi about the future and the prospect of another Shinobi War breaking out before the year's end. It would be cruel to bring life into the world only to do something to get yourself killed in the process. Itachi couldn't imagine a child growing up an orphan, and he didn't want to envision it. Some many innocent lives damaged before they had a chance to know love. How different would this world be if we stopped killing one another?
A commotion at the opposite end of the table alerted Itachi at something amiss; his wife squeezed his hand a bit tighter. Without explanation, father got to his feet and left the room. "Izumi, wait here!" he commanded as he gave chase to his father. He caught up with him just in time to see Lord Fourth, Kushina, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, and Kakashi approaching through the corridor. "Lord Fourth, this is unexpected," Itachi spoke.
"Yes, and you are interrupting the announcement of my grandchild," Father sneered, "What is the meaning of this, old friend?"
"Tell me about the Eye of the Moon, Fugaku," Minato's normally soft expression turned stern. Eye of the Moon? Dad, you know something about it?! Confusion swirled Itachi's mind and heart as they tried making sense of what was just said.
Father's face cracked in confusion, "Eye of the Moon? You know something about it?" Itachi detected no deception in his father's voice. Father seemed to be a man confronted with a nasty surprise that was until recently forgotten.
"It seems you do," Minato replied.
"How did you learn about it; that is a family secret!"
"Obito, or at least one of his minions, told us," Kushina glared at father, arms crossed.
"Impossible," Father protested, "The little snot-nosed punk was never have been privy to that!"
"He seems to have done a lot of impossible things, Fugaku," Kakashi added, "What the hell is the goddamn Eye of the Moon, and why is Obito interested in it?" Kakashi crossed his arms, expecting a violent rebuke.
Father turned to Itachi and then back to the group gathered before him. "I might not be able to fully answer either question," he stared at the ground, "but I might be able to show you something that could help." Father turned back to Itachi, "You'd better come with, along with Izumi."
Itachi nodded, feeling his heart in his throat. Whatever had father spooked, it couldn't be good. Itachi made his way to the dining room to Izumi, "Honey, I need to borrow you for a minute," he tried keeping his voice steady to avoid rousing suspicion. While the others seemed fooled, Izumi was not – a wife and soon-to-be mother could rarely be fooled by a husband. She nodded with concern in her eyes, and she followed him out to the hallway.
Father soon led them down the corridor to the very heart of the compound – the clan leader's audience chamber. A small dais at the end of the room sat for the clan leader. As father approached the dais, he slid one of the wood panels on the raised section of floor and the dais began to move backwards, revealing a hidden set of stairs. "Father, what is this?" Itachi asked.
"Something I hoped you'd never need to see," Father's stern look turned to sadness. "Follow me down this way." The group followed him into the darkness; father flipped a switch that lit several bare lightbulbs down the tunnel that led a dozen or so meters until they reached what looked like an ancient burial chamber.
The chamber was round, adorned by a single lightbulb and a massive stone slab with archaic writing etched into it. As Itatchi approached, the glassy obsidian slab's writing became increasingly indistinct, as if it were hiding itself. "What is this?" Minato asked, also eyeing the tablet in a vain effort to read it's writing.
"I'm afraid I can't give you the whole answer, except that it has been passed down for generations through my family." Father eyed the tablet longingly, "I'm fairly sure Danzo was after it for some time, which is why I had it hidden here after his arrest."
"What does it say?" Izumi asked, "The writing is all washed out."
Father's eyes morphed red and black as his Sharringan activated. Itachi noticed the peculiar shape of father's Sharrigan, "Father?"
"It still doesn't work," he sighed, shaking his head, "my form of Sharringan can interpret bits and pieces of it, but little else."
"What can you read of it?" Minato accented.
"The tablet is a final will and testament of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki."
Itachi felt his jaw hit the floor, "Not possible! We've had this the whole time!?"
"What good is it," Father shrugged, "None of us can read the goddamn thing without an evolution of our Sharringan, an evolution it specifically warns not to use!" He huffed, clearly frustrated.
Itachi squeezed his wife's hand as he sighed in frustration. The damn answers to a whole host of mysteries could be staring up right in the face, and we have no way of knowing it!
"Hinata?" Izumi's voice cut through his frustration. Itachi stared at his wife, her eyes locked on with concern. "Hinata?!" she again gasped.
Itachi soon noticed the peculiar glow around Hinata's purple eyes as they fixed staring into the table's surface. "Hinata?" Itachi asked, getting no response. Itachi did notice a subtle shiver to her hands. "Hinata!" Sakura almost shouted as she ran a hand back and forth across the girl's field of view – no response was forthcoming.
Hinata stood statue-still for several moments, Then, a slow trickle of blood came down from her nose and her eyes rolled back in her head. "HINATA!" Naruto shouted as she went limp.
"Oh my god!" Itachi rushed to Hinata's side; her body began shaking violently.
"Guide her down slowly, but don't restrain her!" Sakura commanded.
"Sakura, let's get her to the hospital!" Minato boomed.
"Naruto, place your jacket under her head," she ignored the Hokage, focused on her patient, "don't try to restrain her. We have to see if the episode passes!"
Unable to do anything useful, Itachi turned his eyes back to the slab, feeling the heat of his Sharingan activating. While much of it was still indecipherable, he could read several lines, one of which read: "To my descendants, resist the urge to harness the Rinnegan, for it is the path to opening the Eye of the Moon." The goddamn Eye of the Moon again! Itachi stared at Hinata, now laying limply on the ground, wondering what the hell she'd seen staring into the tablet.
Naruto leaned up against the glass in the control room of the MRI unit as he watched an unconscious Hinata being withdrawn from the machine. Sakura sat beside him reviewing the cloudy images of the inside of Hinata's brain as the technicians removed the plastic cage from around her head and neck. So often, Naruto had been the one on the other side of the glass, while Hinata stood here, praying he'd be okay. Now, his stomach twisted at what he must have put her through each time he'd been brought to the hospital with an uncertain chance of survival – hopelessness, longing, and the hand wringing of "What could I have done differently." "Sakura," he choked, "tell me something, anything!"
The girl thumbed the images, scanning each one for any telltale peculiarity before scrolling to the next one. Finally, she nodded, satisfied that the images could tell no more. "I can tell you this: the prelim CT came back negative for intracranial bleeding." She stared at Naruto with her uncertain green eyes, "And I can tell you the MRI is showing no obvious signs of brain injury or anything like brain cancer."
"Then what is going on!" he pleaded.
"Naruto," her eyes turned equal parts sad and frightened, "as a medical-nin, I have no direct explanation for what happened and why she's unresponsive."
"What about her chakra signature, something!" Naruto brought his hands to the side of his head, tears already running, "There has to be some explanation!"
"Naruto," she got up and hugged him, letting him sob like a massive baby on her shoulder, "it's going to be all right, she never gives up, and you know who she learned that from?" She pushed him back and stared him in the eyes, "She learned that from you, stupid!" Sakura laughed even as tears threatened to overcome her.
"Sakura…" he choked, "I'm sorry…"
"There's nothing to be sorry for; we worry about people we love, Naruto!" She wiped away tears, "If that was Sasuke or you in there, Hinata and I would be out here, pulling our hair out trying to find answers."
"Sakura, you saw what happened."
"Yes, at the very least that lets me know what it isn't."
"What do you mean?" Naruto sniffled.
"We now know she's not bleeding, it's not a tumor or cancer, and we can reasonably surmise it's not epilepsy nor some form of chemically induced seizure."
"That leaves us what then!" he huffed in frustration.
"The only thing I can tell you," she stared back into the room as the staff began wheeling Hinata out, "her brain and chakra patterns are mimicking the patterns of someone dreaming."
"Dreaming?" Naruto's face curled in confusion.
"I have a theory," Sakura stared down at the floor, "that the answer is on that tablet we saw at the Uchiha compound."
"Sakura, none of us can read it!"
"I'm not so sure," Sakura replied, rubbing her chin, "in the lead up to her episode, she was looking at something on the tablet like she was reading, and realizing."
"You think she learned something that put her in that state?"
"Your father, Kakashi, Itachi, Izumi and Lord Uchiha both desperately tried searching the stone for some chakra related trap and found none," Sakura shrugged, "If it was meant as a booby trap, then we all would be laid out on the ground right now; I think we need to take her back to the stone tablet."
A knocking at the door interrupted, "Come in," Sakura said.
Konohamaru entered with Hanabi, "Big brother, how is she?" the boy asked.
"Stable, but," Naruto chewed his lip, "I don't know." Naruto was on the brink of tears his heart hurt so much from just admitting their lack of progress.
"It'll be all right," the younger boy managed a smile, "she's too stubborn to let you get away that easily!"
Naruto tightened his quivering lip into a faint smile, "She never gives up!"
"Neither do you, big brother Naruto," Hanabi said. "She learned that from you; otherwise, I'd be the clan leader right now – more a puppet on a string." Hanabi struggled with tears of her own.
She still calls me that, but do I deserve to be big brother Naruto to her? Do I deserve Hinata after all I've put her through? "Thank you, Hanabi."
"Naruto," the girl spoke, "Father asked to see you; he's in the waiting area around the corner."
A solid lump threated to choke Naruto. A cascade of nightmare scenarios ran through his mind at what Uncle Hiashi might say or do. "All right, I'll be right there!"
Hiashi Hyūga struggled to maintain his meditation and calm as he sat in the low armchair waiting for Naruto to arrive. It was hardly the time to meditate, but it was all the elder Hyūga could think to keep himself from falling apart. His baby girl, his Byakugan Princess, was comatose inexplicably and there wasn't a goddamn thing he could do about it!
"Lord Hyūga," Naruto's heels clicked as he snapped to attention and bowed – usually a signed that the boy was expecting to have manhood cut off as punishment for some misdeed. "You summoned me?"
"Naruto, please sit down," Hiashi said wearily. Naruto did as asked. "Has there been any change?"
"You would be the first to know," the boy replied.
"That doesn't sound right," Hiashi shook his head, "You would be the first to tell me, but you would be the first to know." Hiashi's lips tightened, "That's how much she means to you."
"Lord Hyūga?" Naruto tilted his head like a curious puppy.
"Son, did the two of you discuss what we talked about on your weekend together?"
"Yes."
"And what did you two think?"
"We both feel a bit young to tie the knot," Naruto fidgeted, "We were hoping to maybe wait a few years, until we were closer to the age when all of you got married."
Hiashi sat back in his chair, contemplating the boy's answer, as well as other things. "You think I'm blaming you for Hinata's state?"
"Who else is there to blame," the boy deflated.
"I could just as easily blame myself," Hiashi said.
"What?" Naruto's eyes turned astonished.
"You remember when I invited you for tea, son? Do you remember what you told me about fretting over a past that no longer existed and future that was unwritten?"
"I do," he nodded somberly.
"And you remember the scroll I gave you?"
"Please tell me you don't want it back!" Naruto protested.
"On the contrary, I think you should keep it. You've more than earned it, more than I have earned the right to give you permission."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Naruto blinked twice.
"Naruto, your mother told me everything Himawari told her and Hinata," he paused to tent his hands. "I'd spent a long time wondering why Himawari didn't come to me, make herself known to me. Certainly, she would have known I was alive."
"And…"
"And something she said resonated with me: because your mom lived, Akemi is alive."
"How do you figure?"
"Naruto, Himawari came from a time when Hinata was known to faint at the sight of you, where Hanabi was clan leader, and…" he choked, "… and where Akemi died of cancer shortly after Hanabi was born!" His throat began pulsing.
"Uncle Hiashi, a lot of things changed because Mom and Dad are alive; I don't want to think what might have been had they died!"
"That is why I want you to stop blaming yourself for what happened to Hinata here and now!" he exclaimed. "Dammit, son, don't you see, I was a bad father and a terrible husband in a world where your parents died!"
"How do you figure?" Naruto asked skeptical of Hiashi.
"If Akemi died, I would have been raising both daughters with no guidance other than my father!" Hiashi felt tears forcing their way through his eyes, "That means I was such a cold bastard that I ignored the warning signs that Akemi was sick, and let me tell you, they were plentiful! I let Hanabi beat Hinata for clan leadership!"
"Hiashi!" Naruto growled, "Stop blaming yourself for something that hasn't happened! That timeline doesn't exist anymore!"
"It doesn't," he said thoughtfully.
"Hiashi, your father is dead! You are not him!" Naruto heaved, "Is that why you've been so desperate to have Hinata marry me?"
"Part of it," he admitted. "I was worried that she'd be alone in the world if Akemi or I die…"
"Hinata told me about your concerns with the photograph from the future," Naruto cut him off. "They are unfounded!"
"… I also worried what kind of man I might have been if I'd been grandfather to Himawari," he completed.
"I don't follow," Naruto said.
"My father was horribly abusive to me and my brother, and he continued that abuse with Hinata and Hanabi…" Hiashi choked, "What if… what if I did the same you Himawari in the future?"
"What if!" Naruto protested, "Dammit, Hiashi what is the one and only thing your father ever worried about!"
"His clan, and the image of his clan," Hiashi responded.
"And what you most worried about now?"
"My daughters, my family…" a light of realization came over Hiashi.
Naruto smiled like a master seeing a pupil understanding a hard-learned lesson, "And that is the great difference between you and the man who created you!" Naruto pointed a finger, "Clan was the only thing to him; family is the important thing to you."
Hiashi finally felt the weight of the world fall away, "You'll make a fine son-in-law someday," he paused, "and a Hokage to match your father."
"Hiashi," Naruto spoke pensively, "being that Hinata and I are not married, I need to ask your permission for something."
"What's that?" Hiashi tilted his head curiously.
"I need to take her out of the hospital and back to the Uchiha Compound."
"Back to the Uchiha Compound?" Hiashi balked.
"You've trusted me with permission to marry Hinata, now trust me to figure out what is causing her affliction."
Hiashi leaned back into his chair. Her being there caused this; what could possibly be gained by going back? He stared at Naruto's determined face. She's no longer yours to protect. Accept that fact and be ready to guide the next generation. "Okay, but I'm going with you!"
Naruto's emotions bounced between anxiety and determination as he cradled Hinata on the walk back to the Uchiha compound. Less than twenty-four hours ago, they were curled up together in his bed, enjoying their last night of freedom together, knowing the calm before the storm as soon to end. They'd laughed, cried, made love, and worried endlessly when the next time might be. You can't worry about it now, dammit! Her life is hanging in the balance!
"Naruto!" Itachi greeted him, Sakura, and Lord Hyūga at the door. "This way!" Itachi escorted him through the house, no largely turned in for the night. Lord Fugaku greeted him in the audience chamber and soon opened the secret passage.
Each step down the stone steps lowered the temperature around Naruto. The only warm he felt was Hinata cradled in his arms. Beautiful, so beautiful! I don't deserve you, babe! Reaching imposing slab of stone, Naruto set Hinata before it, hoping for a reaction.
Seconds passed, then at least a full minute, "Goddammit!" he huffed in frustration, "What the hell am I missing!"
"I was wondering when you were going to ask that question," Kuruma's voice spoke, amused.
"Kyuubi?" Naruto spoke aloud.
"Yeah, you going to read the thing or what, we're waiting over here!"
We? Naruto stared at the still indecipherable script on the tablet.
"Yes, you idiot!" Nine-Tails growled, "It's the will and testament of the Sage of Six Paths, my creator! How the hell do you think he read it?!
Unexpectedly, Naruto felt chakra flowing throughout him, and he began glowing yellow. Naruto's senses began sharpening. Sage mode?! Naruto's surprise was surpassed by his sudden ability to read the tablet.
"That's right, now get in here, loser! We've got work to do!" As Kyuubi shouted, everything went dark, and Naruto felt his body collapse to the ground before all sensation left him.
Author's notes: Hi everyone, thank you for reading. As is par for the course, this chapter got shortened by my lately insane work schedule. Next week there will be some curious secrets revealed. Until then, stay healthy, stay safe, and see you then!