Chapter Two
Feverish
Guilt gnawed at his bones every day. He was a doctor; he saved lives, lost some occasionally, but he always felt the same, and it was worse now that his best friend was gone. He'd been shot in the arm, though he might have fallen before the shot sounded. It was chaos, so there was confusion.
Before he could even perform the autopsy, the body vanished without a trace, baffling him and everyone else. Not before he had the signs written down that happened to be the beginning of a possible epidemic that wasn't obvious at the time - until the others started turning up dead.
Lethargy.
Loss of appetite.
Loss of skin color.
But of course it would look like the beginning stages of fever caught out here in a rain-wrought country; it was like Itachi to persevere and keep fighting no matter the odds. It wasn't the first time...but this would be the last.
He would never get conclusive evidence if it might have been a heart attack or something, which was rare in a healthy young male or female anytime. Which worsened his anger and frustration behind closed doors that his own sister had only done so much to comfort him over. He denied the assurances of his brother-in-law whom he tolerated for Manami's sake.
Why did she have to marry that man? What did she see in him that he and their friends didn't? He thought it was the strangest thing ever, even telling him that her man traveled and that she always wanted to do that, not that she never told her brother her dreams. He went where Itachi's unit would go, but it was nothing leisure, and he seldom had time for that in his life. Not even to find the girl who accepted him for who he was and settle down.
Their guardian wondered the questions he did, but ultimately said Manami was a grown woman who could make mistakes and just come to them if something went wrong. Kabuto had no choice but to agree.
That lavish yellow diamond ring - it was enough to make his beloved little sister fall for him, because no one had ever done this for her. It was indeed eye candy, though Kabuto Yakushi wasn't won over by these things, and that something could come from the heart alone and not from the wallet - just like Itachi did for his woman.
Baby sister was beautiful and glowing happy, though while her husband was smiling with pride, his eyes told another story. Kabuto could never know a moment's peace in his still-young adult life. It sucked beyond words.
His overprotective brother instincts weren't the major problem lately, but being out in Ame, soaked in rain constantly and dealing with the dead and dying, the maimed and near perfect with just bullets in certain parts, surgeries that required more than one person - it was hell every day. This was his second war to go out to. This battlefield was worse than the last in Kiri across the sea, years ago during Itachi's "college" years.
Now he wasn't sure he wanted to go out there again, not after what happened to Itachi, so he decided to retire early with what he'd made, and thought about moving back to Konoha since he still had friends there. Even if his sister wasn't home anymore, but elsewhere. She and her husband were on the move, but thinking about settling down someplace small, and then she'd let him know where that would be.
Kabuto didn't think too much about that at the time, but it was logical enough, since he would do the same.
Sasuke was broken at the death of his brother, but he had a girlfriend and young daughter who waited for him, and they would share his pain. But how would he, their friend and doctor, break the news to Itachi's wife?
Hanaru's devastation cut his heart into shreds, but their young son's reaction was just as worse; both of them had been looking forward to him coming home for good someday.
Her brother and his family held onto each other as well as with her. His loss was celebrated and mourned along with many others from Konoha who died in defense.
Responsible for Kabuto Yakushi's lack of sleep was the fact he never got to find out what happened to his friend if not a gunshot wound. What if it wasn't just a fever? A doctor had to be thorough and not single-minded, that was what his adoptive father always drilled into him. The eccentric man was always right, never seemed to miss a thing.
His best friend's widow no doubt wanted to know, but didn't blame him for the body disappearing and no one would ever find it. Damn it, who could do such a thing?! Bodies don't get up and walk on their own...
Little did he know, for now.
The day of the funeral was cloudy and sunny at the same time. Flowers were red roses, white lilies and orchids - love and remembrance. And while the other dead in the parade were in their coffins as well as their framed photos, only Itachi's at the end was solo without a corpse to lay in the ground. Flutes, somber drums and mantras were sung, and throughout it all, he had his attention on the woman who insisted to her son that he use Kleenex instead of his sleeve, even offering some from her purse.
Hanaru Uchiha - guiltily, he admitted that she was beautiful as always, in her slimming black jumpsuit and sheer shrug. She never boasted of it, either. One special day he would remember, for example, was the wedding day years ago when it took place at none other than along one of Konoha's rivers and forest - something small and intimate, not meant for show. He had been Itachi's best man and watched as the bride was escorted to him by her brother, Naruto, in absence of their father.
Regretfully, he hadn't been able to see Ren's birth, though Manami assisted with the delivery. Only when he and Itachi finally saw the precious boy's face on home video, it was the greatest gift received - as much as it was to be made the little boy's godfather.
He stayed in Konoha for a while with Hanaru and her son, because they were as close as possible to family, and to see the way they dealt with Itachi's loss was difficult. Though she took the boy with her to her classes as often as she could manage, except he couldn't miss school too much. His grades were kept up, somehow, and he didn't get into trouble - much.
Sakura was doctor at the general hospital, her daughter at the daycare center, and that also meant Sasuke would be home for a good while now so that father and daughter could spend more time together. Maybe he and Sakura could finally...
Kabuto stopped himself from finishing the thought, because he was sure that it would feel wrong to think about such things now that Itachi was gone, that he wouldn't be able to see his baby brother get married to the woman he loved and mother of his child. Sarada was born during the first year he was away, and often was he gone that she seldom saw him except talked over the phone and got letters as well as a few little toys. For that time, their love was more important than a wedding ceremony.
Sometime in the next month that came, before the winter season began, he got a call in that a village called Otogakure - the Village of Sound - needed desperate help in that four deaths from their returning soldiers occurred since the battle in Ame.
It looked like a mysterious fever contracted on the field that they brought home, but why hadn't Kabuto seen it before? He examined those young men himself, but they didn't exhibit any symptoms, and there were no complaints when he got there...at first.
Oto Village was once a place of free speech before it became too chaotic that it was banned, lived under a strict regime that seemed to continue to this day. But rather than a Prime Minister or even an emperor to run the place today, it was governed by a bailiff - and the man in charge was none other than his brother-in-law, who relocated back home right after the war ended, and that meant Manami had settled down in this place with him.
It was wonderful to see his beloved little sister again, and her husband let her see Kabuto as often as she wanted, as he didn't mind what she did. That also meant she could work alongside her brother in the infirmary, but she wasn't a licensed doctor to be around the stench of blood and incised meat and bone.
But even in the months that passed in this place, nothing got easier because of a few major problems.
These country folk loathed modern science and technology, lived in the old ways and only allowed updates if they were told. In this case, their bailiff was very strict - and that also meant his men could run about anytime they wanted.
If the locals refused to have new medicine, that meant no autopsies performed on their dead loved ones, because they considered it a sin to defile the dead. But damn it, he had to examine them to see if there were clues to this strange disease that looked like rain fever or whatever you would call it.
Seven months later and seven deaths IN Oto, no autopsies and always the same dead end, enough was enough. Manami was stricken and baffled as he was. And it was then that she suggested he call for the one person who went where no one would go before. Sometimes, he felt ashamed he wasn't like that yet, since the man taught him everything he knew.
So Kabuto eventually decided he needed all the help he could get...and his sister needed hers, too.
~o~
"Had a good day, honey?" she asked the small boy in the backseat as she drove them home for the day. He nodded and set his bookbag down in the empty seat beside him. Sighing, his mother turned to the front and started the engine. "We can go get some ice cream now, if you want. We can go see Uncle Naruto and Aunt Hinata -"
"Just wanna go home, Mum," Ren mumbled, looking out his window. "I'm tired."
He'd been like this ever since his daddy passed away. That meant he was having a hard time making friends because he was so quiet and withdrawn that it worried Hanaru. She talked about this to Sasuke who used to be like that until he met her and Naruto.
"He should have friends at his age, you're right. But we can't make that decision for him. Everyone deals with loss differently."
You're right...but I don't want my son growing up being miserable because his father is gone.
She found herself looking down at the crystal on black rope around her neck. This memento that linked her and Itachi, which she would rub for comfort, but she couldn't right now while driving. The day he got his statue, I got this...but we also got each other. She would never regret getting his attention and ending up the way they did. It was difficult being a soldier's wife, but it was the happiest she'd been.
As far as she was concerned, remarrying was out of the question. No one could replace Itachi.
Kabuto was in a small village north of Konoha, being general practitioner or something, and he was going to be there until he figured out what was going on, but he couldn't divulge anything else. That worried her as she knew it did the same to him. Ren sometimes asked about him because he missed his godfather.
The silver-haired man did tell her over the phone - last time, then stuck to writing letters due to that place refusing to accept modernism - he finally found Manami and her husband living there. That made her so happy without words. He said she was doing well, was helping him with his patients, but that was the last time Hanaru heard from him in months.
Her dear friend Manami was alive and well, that she was happy to hear, though.
Finally: home, sweet home.
It was summer vacation for her boy. Her precious little boy who looked just like his daddy, had the shining raven hair but his mother's vivid sapphire eyes - not to flatter herself, but her brother and their father had them, too. She'd bet he'd grow up that handsome and have the girls chasing after him like his father and Uncle Sasuke got their share of fangirls.
"I can go ahead and call in delivery, if you want," Hanaru told him as she watched him put his bookbag down, which wasn't filled with books for now and with just different things for summer. He nodded and went upstairs to clean up and change.
So she would do what she said, but first was going to get into her gear, too, for a relaxing evening now, and while Ren was enjoying games on the computer they shared in the apartment - he was too young, indeed, for his own - she would stroll through Netflix on the television to see her favorite movies on the agenda.
This was Hanaru's outfit for her yoga classes: a laced up light blue sweatshirt and navy sweatpants. And besides the crystal around her neck, her earrings were little hoops, a delicate white crystal watch and bracelet, and finally the ring on her right middle finger which Itachi gave her on her birthday during their second year of marriage: a lavish but subtle platinum band with a cushioned red diamond and two round white ones. It was rare to find a diamond in that color perhaps more than the others.
Showered and cleaned up, Hanaru was cozied up in a soft, short white blouse and shorts with delicate lace details. She had her hair wrapped up in a head towel to dry off before she would take it down and brush through to finish air-drying. She took this time to sit down momentarily to pick up the picture frame that sat there, framed with elegant silver roses and scrolling vines. That day of their wedding which was the happiest of their lives; behind them were their brothers and their women, and Kabuto and his sister, that husband of hers cut off.
Just before the bamboo forest on the river bank, that was where it took place. She was situated in this frame, in his arms and laughing with him and the others, her dress short and crisp with a loving back of lace. Her hair was in soft, braided locks to show off the elegant chandeliers featured with faceted stones surrounded by smaller crystals.
A tear burned the corner of her eye and slid down her cheek, touching the glass.
Reviews please. :'(