Chapter 20
The night was silent, only disturbed by the soft rustling of leaves swaying gently in the wind. The sky was cloudless, enabling the moon's light to gently illuminate the small quaint village built at the base of a mountain. The moon's light was the only source of illumination at this late an hour, all residents having long since turned in and drifted off to sleep.
Even the small clinic built on top of the mountain, quietly blending into the rocky ground below lay dark and silent.
On the second floor, in a corner room facing away from the town, a young woman lay unconscious, half of her features cast in shadow, half illuminated by the unhindered cold but strangely soft rays of the moon. Her pale skin seemed to be the same color as the sheets she lay on, her silvery white hair splaying in gentle curls over her pillow, ends disappearing below her blanket. She looked peaceful and without a worry in the world, almost like a doll, if not for the steady rise and fall of her chest and the bandages wrapped around her lower face.
She lay unmoving, hair fluttering gently in the breeze flowing in through the opened window.
All was quiet.
Suddenly, a shadow parted from the darkness of the forested mountain cliffs outside the window, covering several meters in a single leap. In the blink of an eye, it had left the protective cover of the leaves and covered the distance between the last tree to its target.
The shadow jumped once more, soaring upwards until its hand latched securely onto the opened window frame and soundlessly pulled itself into the room.
It crouched below the window for a moment, once more concealed by the darkness as it surveyed the interior of the room, looking for movement and listening for any sound that indicated it had been discovered.
When there was nothing but the caw of a crow after a few minutes, it straightened up from its crouch and approached the still figure only half covered by bedsheets.
The figure paused just before it could enter the area touched by moonlight, red eyes glowing eerily in the dark as it scrutinized the young woman lying defenseless before it.
Then, it lifted its hand towards her face. The moonlight illuminated its pale hand half covered by long sleeves as it, slowly, carefully removed the bandages from her face.
Four long slender scars were revealed, still red and slowly oozing blood despite the stitches holding everything together.
The figure stepped fully into the light as it performed the hand signs for a healing Jutsu, revealing the familiar form of Itachi Uchiha. His hands glowed green, the light lending an even eerier atmosphere to the quiet hospital room in the mountains.
Gently, he cupped Rogue's cheeks, now slightly smaller, with higher cheekbones and a narrower chin, in his glowing hands and closed his eyes. He wasn't an expert in Healing Jutsu and could only do the basics. He couldn't mend bones, couldn't heal organs, or perform any complex procedures. What he could do, however, is seal wounds and prevent scarring.
He paused to remove the stitches after he had healed the areas below the skin's surface, before continuing his task. Her cheekbones and chin would still feel tender for the next week or so but other than that, no sign of the procedure would remain.
A few moments later, Rogue's skin looked flawless once more. No freckles were left on her face, her nose was slightly more pointed at the tip than before, and the new form of her cheekbones coupled with the dainty chin gave her an almost regal look. That coupled with the pure silver color of her long wavy hair, her eyebrows, and her lashes made her look otherworldly in the light of the moon.
'Perhaps', Itachi thought to himself, 'we messed up. With that kind of appearance, there's no way she won't attract trouble.'
He sighed. Well, there was no changing it now. They could work around it. The doctors hadn't actually altered much, just enough to make sure she wasn't immediately recognizable… Yet, it turned out like this.
He removed the sheets completely. She was still wearing a hospital gown, leaving her backside completely exposed, so Itachi wrapped her into the cloak she had worn to keep warm on Kuromu's back days earlier and gently set the unconscious woman into the visitor's chair positioned next to the bed while he got to work cleaning up the room.
It wouldn't do to leave any evidence of their visit after all.
He sealed everything away to destroy later, not having time to clean and leave the linen in their place. A few pieces of linen going missing wasn't all that uncommon in a hospital so it shouldn't invite too much scrutiny.
Once satisfied that nothing was out of place, he created two clones on the spot, instructing one to make another sweep of the offices to ensure truly no records were left. The other was tasked with transporting Rogue to the room he had rented in town for the night.
He himself still had a few visits to perform after all.
Itachi headed out of the room and into the hallway, once more keeping to the shadows. He ghosted along the dark and silent corridors, heading towards the office he knew to serve as the stand-by room and lounge of the staff. All nurses and doctors who weren't out on rounds or performing their duties would be sleeping there at this time.
The silence of the hallway indicated no emergencies had happened to call them away from their rest, thus leaving only a single nurse to patrol the hallways and check each patient's room once an hour. From his observations, the most recent round should be about complete in another 3 minutes.
Thus, he didn't hesitate to open the room to the office where 6 nurses and 2 doctors currently slept.
No light was on, so the nurses didn't wake anyone unnecessarily when they switched.
It was almost too easy.
Itachi had confirmed that there was no surveillance installed in the clinic whatsoever, except in the rooms of patients who had undergone high-risk surgeries, were otherwise in need of constant monitoring or were in a coma. The office though was clean.
Thus, Itachi wasted no time in approaching the first person, clamping his hand over their mouth to stifle any sound, the contact waking them up automatically. As soon as they woke, they instinctively opened their eyes, immediately meeting his own red ones glowing in the dark.
Eye contact was all he needed. They went limp not a second after they woke up. They wouldn't remember him or Rogue at all in the morning, only an unusually peaceful rest was left as an indication of his visit.
Not even a minute after he had first entered the office, he equally soundlessly left once more, leaping up and using his chakra to cling to the ceiling, where he crouched down, waiting.
It didn't take long for the patrolling nurse to come into view, a small flashlight in hand to illuminate the way in a cone in front of her.
She yawned soundlessly, covering her mouth with one hand as she stopped, dimmed the light, and entered a patient's room.
She had been woken up an hour ago and still, sleep clung to her like a second skin. She was really looking forward to going back to bed. Soon, her round was going to be over. Luckily, nothing peculiar had happened once again and she wouldn't have to stay up even longer.
She hurriedly but still thoroughly checked on the patient inside. He was her last stop.
Satisfied, she went back outside, quietly closing the door behind her once more. Her shoulders relaxed and she went to turn around, when pale hands reached out from behind her, one tightly wrapped over her mouth, the other catching the flashlight she had dropped in shock at the unexpected contact.
Her panicked scream caught in her throat as she was forcefully whirled around and pushed against the wall next to the room she had just left and she looked into eerily glowing red eyes that unblinkingly stared at her from the darkness.
The next morning, the poor nurse couldn't even recall waking her replacement for their own rounds and had developed a strange fear of the darkness that would take her many months to overcome.
Itachi on the other hand felt quite exhausted when the night was over. He had spent most of it stealthily breaking into the houses of doctors and nurses alike and erasing their memories. Staying unnoticed hadn't really been an issue, but the mental strain the rarely utilized and practiced skill left on him after so many uses was nothing to scoff at.
With the first light of the morning, he slipped through the window of his rental quarters and stretched languidly before heading over to an out-of-the-way corner at the other side of the room from where Rogue lay snuggled under the covers and into his cloak, now having gone from unconsciousness to simply asleep.
He let himself fall into a sloppy heap and crossed his legs, sitting in a comfortable meditation pose that should yield enough rest for him to have mostly recovered by the time Rogue woke.
He would spend a few hours sleeping on Kuromu's back later, trusting the summon and Rogue not to harm him during their journey and wake him should it be needed.
Meanwhile, Kuzan was already up, before anyone else on the ship but perhaps the Captain, lazily sprawling on top of the bridge, watching the clouds pass them by.
He had dark circles under his eyes, indicating the lack of proper rest he had gotten lately, yet his eyes were clear, showing no sign of tiredness.
What they had done, the look on 'Coma's face and… and the remains the Rear Admiral had forced them to recover, whatever the waves hadn't long since carried off, the glassy gaze of his dead friend staring up at him accusingly, eyes, cheek ripped open eerily, exposing the inside of his skull.
The head and an arm, that's all they had found.
Honestly, it was more than they had expected. Those had gotten caught within the shattered remains of the rock, anything else had long since been washed away.
Kuzan himself had found the head, nearly getting a heart attack as he had met the eerily still eyes staring at him through the muddy water.
He felt… dirty. Wrong. And oh so very disgusting.
The officer had nearly scrubbed himself raw after that search and still felt like he'd never get clean again.
He reminded himself of the words of his Captain that day and recalled the cruel smirk he had only caught a glimpse of when the Rear Admiral had demanded evidence of their obedience.
Bile couldn't help but raise up to his throat as he went over it all over and over again.
Kuzan wouldn't accept it.
This kind of system, this kind of attitude, this kind of corruption.
He would change it. He would become stronger, he would rise through the ranks and when he finally came across an opportunity, he would take it.
This would not stand.
For 'Coma', for Rogue, for the unborn life that she had carried, and for all the other innocents he was now sure had been wronged as a cause of these sorts of messed up politics, Kuzan would become strong. Strong enough to make a difference.
Because if they hadn't already, nobody else would.
*Step step*
Itachi's steps felt heavy as if he was moving through cotton rather than walking down the street towards his house.
*step*
His breathing sounded overly loud and ragged in his ears, like loud pants, he could even hear the blood rushing through the veins of his ear canal. In reality, his breathing was normal, and nothing of the internal battle he was waging was showing on his face.
*step*
His tanto flashed once more, followed by a dull thump as yet another body hit the street, lifeless.
*Drip* *drip*
*step*
Another step, another body hitting the ground, robbed of the light in their eyes.
The blood dripping from his short blade felt uncomfortably heavy and loud as it hit the ground, weighing him down.
His speed dropped to a crawl as he fought to move on, to fulfill his orders, to protect the village, and to give his clan even a small chance of redemption and survival.
From the corner of his eyes, he saw the shadows flicker and move, converging on his position.
Suddenly, an arm reached out of them and grabbed his ankle.
"You", a raspy voice growled out from the darkness, echoing all around him, causing him to be unable to pinpoint the direction it came from.
"You did this to us."
"Traitor."
"Murderer"
"Monster"
"Why"
"We loved you, so why."
"We hate you"
"We should've never raised someone like you"
"Disappear, never come back."
"Go, just leave already"
"Nobody needs you here anymore"
He ignored them and silently fought on. He knew that already. Knew that he was going to be hated for what he'd done, for what he'd seen as the only option, their only option.
*step*
*SCREEECH*
The shadows boiled as they churned around him, forming faces, familiar and unfamiliar. Faces pulled into masks of pain and betrayal, into scorn, anger, hate.
Still, blood continued dripping from his blade as he fought on, adding yet another face to the body count.
Itachi continued.
*step*
"Heh", a different voice sounded from the darkness. A familiar voice.
Itachi's eyes snapped to the right, accurately pinpointing the location of the speaker, though through the churning darkness only a faint outline of the figure was visible.
"Pathetic. You're pathetic, not even realizing you're playing right into his hands. Pathetic. Tricked like a rookie. Like a fool, you-"
Without a sound, Itachi's eyes snapped open as he felt a hand reach for his shoulder. His own snapped up to grab it and he reflexively pulled his attacker off balance, nearly smalling them into the ground before he realized who it was that had been about to touch him.
Instead, he gently lowered his pregnant friend to the ground, ignoring her startled yelp.
He huffed at her, then got up from his still crouched position and stretched languidly.
"Good morning, Rogue."
She pouted up at him and rolled her eyes.
"Good morning my ass. What the hell was that for!?"
"Hn"
Itachi had no intention of answering that. Whatsoever.
Having apparently guessed as much, Rogue merely returned his earlier huff with one of her own and got herself off the floor, shaking out her limbs as she straightened up.
She hadn't slept all that well. Most likely, she had gotten used to sleeping cuddled up to the ninja for the last few weeks and his sudden absence beside her had left her feeling like something was off.
She'd get used to it again in time but would have to deal with a few uneasy nights in the process.
"Iced coffee?", Itachi offered, causing Rogue's eyes to light up. She had fallen in love with the beverage he had introduced to her since there wasn't a good way to prepare proper coffee on their trips. It was delicious and didn't make her sweaty as quickly as coffee did during the warmer days.
Though nothing could hope to ever beat a proper cup of coffee, it was likely she'd request the ninja make it regularly or give her the recipe. Maybe, likely, probably both.
She hummed in happiness as she sipped on the delicious treat, feeling more awake than even when he nearly slammed her to the ground earlier.
"We didn't leave yet?", she asked casually.
"I thought you'd want a mirror first", Itachi said blandly.
Rogue blushed in embarrassment at the reminder. When she'd asked him to change her hair color earlier as they were riding on Kuromu, he'd promptly performed some hand seals and done it, right there.
He'd also altered her eyebrows and lashes and made sure the curtains matched the drapes, so to speak. That way it wouldn't be obvious that silverfish white wasn't her natural coloring.
Promptly, and without thinking, Rogue had then asked him for a mirror, so she could see the changes herself and how that'd alter her appearance.
He had only stared at her for a moment, before taking out and handing her a kunai, which in turn caused her herself to look at him blankly, obviously confused.
"That's the most reflective thing I have right now", he'd deadpanned at her while gesturing at their surroundings.
That… had been mortifying, to say the least. And obvious, when she thought about it.
Now though, Itachi had instead brought her to the room he'd rented as a cover for the night since it had a mirror. She could look to her heart's content if she felt like it.
Still blushing in embarrassment at the memory, Rogue thankfully nodded at her leader and promptly took advantage of that fact.
She sucked in a sharp breath, carefully reaching out to touch her reflection. That… doll in the mirror was supposed to be her?
"Didn't we… just have them make like 3 minor alterations? How come I suddenly look like a fairy?", she asked faintly.
She almost sounded offended. The whiney tone she used nearly made Itachi snort. It was a close call, but he managed to resist, if only just.
Finally, after nearly 10 minutes of her blank staring, Itachi forcefully sat her down and stuffed an apple into her mouth. Suddenly forced out of her disbelief like that, Rogue could only take a bite and let the action of chewing distract her. Once her soul had managed to find its way back into her body and Rogue accepted that this was indeed her new appearance, they could finally get to discussing her new identity.
Details could be hushed out as they flew later, but they'd have to delay their departure until nighttime anyhow unless they wanted to dive a few km to ensure they weren't seen. In Rogue's condition, that was not a good idea.
Instead, they would get the details out of the way now, as well as spend some time shopping in town. On the one hand, it was necessary to get some new clothing since most of Rogue's old ones were either signatures of hers or were left behind on the Marine ship, likely to be destroyed. Itachi, too, didn't own many local clothes yet, mainly due to a lack of funds and his unwillingness to stick out by trading in gold or other valuables he had brought along.
On the other, this would serve to relax Rogue some. The last few weeks had been truly stressful for her and she needed this day of normalcy to ground herself. Relaxing like that and exploring the town could also help her to start feeling comfortable with her new appearance, or so he hoped.
Itachi himself would also refrain from using an illusion, except for when it was necessary to cover his Sharingan.
His real identity would also need a background eventually, they might as well establish both at the same time. That may seem careless, and in the Elemental Nations it would be, but Itachi had learned that law enforcement here couldn't even catch a robber in their own backyard if said robber had 2 brain cells to rub together, so he would take his chances.
After all, there was no feasible way to remain unknown forever anyhow.
"From now on, we are siblings but from a different mother", he stated, "our facial shape looks similar enough and since we've been acting so close lately, siblings should be easy enough to pull off, even for you. Other than that, just be yourself. You don't have to change your personality, since we won't stick around people you used to know long enough for them to notice. Uchiha Raiju will be your new name. It sounds similar enough to Rogue that you should be able to get used to it quickly. Any questions?"
Rogue looked at him with wide eyes, mouth slightly open.
"You… you'd want me as a sibling? Truly?"
"Until it's discovered to be a ruse, I don't mind. We have become… close after all."
The admission left him feeling complicated. After all, Itachi didn't consider himself to be someone worthy of a family, yet he couldn't seem to help getting close to people lately. He'd been… lonely. He could admit that, if only to himself.
The Uchiha had always been stoic and cold to the world, but affectionate and warm to those they considered family. It was a side-effect of their bloodline. They felt emotion much more powerfully than others. As a result, they affected them much more strongly than others as well.
That's why their façade was necessary. Otherwise, people, especially ninjas, would be able to take advantage easily.
Not that he thought Rogue, no, Raiju would take advantage of him, no. But she was someone very easy to like and very hard to hate. The longer they spent time together, the more she'd wiggle her way into his heart. He didn't think he'd fall in love with her, no, but that wasn't the only kind of love there was, was it?
Yes, Itachi mused, he may truly be in trouble.
