Been difficult trying to think of how to resolve things in here, such as the ins-outs of voodoo control, since it's nothing solid and technical like our technology which is a no-brainer to understand (if you're a true genius lol).

Chapter Eleven

Breaking the Curse

Hanaru had been acting...strange that evening. First, it was during the meditation time when he heard her utter those odd words: Chi wa chikaradesu.

He'd frowned; why would she say that out of the blue, and where did they come from?

She then fell backwards, losing her balance, and both he and her boy jumped from their places to help her sit back up. "Hanaru, what's the matter?" Kabuto demanded, worried to his core that it had to be something else...

"I'm fine." The answer was forced out. "I just...need some water."

"Mum!" Ren protested, going to her side and holding onto her, staying there even as Kabuto left them to rush to the kitchen, sure the boy wouldn't let his mother leave his sights, but oh, how the young doctor was wrong. He got the glass, filled close to the rim, all the while having that shivering feeling up his spine - and when he got back, Hanaru was gone, and so was Ren.

"HANARU!" he shouted, seeing her nowhere in the house, at the same time her son was coming back into the hallway. He had apparently left her for the bathroom and came back, but now he looked up at his godfather with wide eyes after hearing the yell.

"Where's my mum?" the boy asked.

There was no time to answer. Kabuto set down the glass on the nearest table he could find and then took Ren's small wrist into his. "Your mom is in danger. We have to go to her, but you have to stay in the car at all times," he ordered, picking the small boy up and running out the door of the house for Hanaru's car, but he rushed back in after remembering the keys were inside.

She must have gone to the mines. That's where it all is going...

He didn't see Hanaru on the way, which meant she must have moved fast under control - that cut on her finger which ties it all in, and she didn't even display the signs besides her eyes. Which tricked us into believing it was an ordinary fever without a name - and was already at the mines. He had to get in somehow and fast.

When he arrived, he screeched to a halt and then grabbed his gun which was loaded on the passenger seat. "Ren, remember what I said. Stay inside and never get out for anything!" The child nodded and held onto himself, didn't protest when the doors were all locked, but Kabuto made sure to leave the air conditioning on, and that was the window where the boy was, lowered a little bit. He wasn't going to leave Ren to suffocate to death; he could have left him at the house, but anything could have happened to him in these days.

But then the child's eyes widened as he looked at something past his godfather, shrieking and ducking below his window. Putting his hand on his gun, Kabuto unlocked the safety and whipped his body around, aiming at whoever was there - and he felt himself have an out-of-body experience when his eyes locked with depthless black ones set in a face that he came face to face with.

"Oh, God, it's you...Itachi."

Blank-faced, gray-skinned and rotten to the point a few parts cracked off to show the bone beneath - particularly at the cheeks and the forehead as well as the chin - he really looked too much like Manami, and two people he loved in this state made his heart break, but how and why did Itachi finally show up at all times?! Unless he was here to - no, he couldn't say that Hashimoto sent his deceased friend to kill him and the child in the vehicle, his own son, because Orochimaru believed Itachi had broken free or had been released without the master's knowledge. Thus he wandered free first in Konoha and now here...

The zombie that was his precious woman's husband said nothing, nor did he blink. "I don't have time for this, but if you understand me, take me to where your wife is - the mother of your child!" Kabuto pleaded, the hand holding his handgun shaking but not losing hold.

Finally, he got a response, and it started first with a tilt of the head downward, locking a glance with his own son who was peeking out from his hiding place but staying where he was. Kabuto looked halfway back, seeing no trace of fear in the boy who saw his dead-yet-alive father. If only there was time for any more, because now he was being led by the walking shell of the man who died in front of all their eyes on the battlefield only to end up like this. His wife and son, his brother and all their friends suffered, himself included...

...and now she is in mortal danger if I don't hurry.

Itachi walked with a jerking speed ahead, and Kabuto ran with him, putting the safety back on for now, all the while seeing the mill's wheel turning and nothing else - not even a sign of those dogs who obeyed their master or any of the enslaved zombies - and finally, they stopped when they arrived at an elevator beneath that wheel. Going downstairs to what is going on.

Just going down this damned thing and also with Itachi who was slower than him and had no means to communicate with him other than with hand gestures and turns of the head - all of which wasn't his fault, and all the more reason he willed to find Orochimaru and demand a way to break him and the others free from this fate - was an adventure he wished was over, and as soon as it touched the bottom, he found himself electroshocked throughout every part of his body as he saw the activity going on before his eyes, beyond the metal wire that separated him and his dead friend from the gruesome and hateful image.

There were workers towing the carts along the mine rails, others hammering spikes into the grounds, and the rest were lifting boxes to take in and out. This answered the suspicions, except when you looked at the "miners" closely, you would see that they were not ordinary people, and Kabuto was livid to his bones. He reached for his gun that he kept in his pocket.

All those zombies in shrouds...they were his patients. Orochimaru had been right. All these young men who died because of a damned coverup...and now they were suffering a fate worse than death and endured being a blank slate for someone else.

There was also Jurou Matsuda himself, alive and yet not alive, but his brother was yet to be seen.

He turned back behind him to see Itachi "glaring" ahead, but could say nothing.

What he was witnessing made sense, if Hashimoto wanted the living dead rather than the true living to maintain his mines, given these walking corpses didn't require food, drink or even rest - and couldn't refuse coming down here like the other miners years prior. Cheap means to make money. Damn you, Hashimoto.

The door opened for him because Itachi pressed a button to his side. He rushed through the scene, seeing as the undead laborers took no notice of him, and he followed the sound of the drums north. He climbed small, rocky pathways and found himself through a cavern where he saw Caribbean natives banging on tribal drums, several jungle masks and other charms hung about - and finally the ceremony which hadn't even reached the conclusion. All four of the men who threatened Hanaru, intimidated the villagers they passed by, were present...and served the one who didn't have the mask this time but still wore the cloak.

The one who had the dagger in his hand over the one he loved, who was tied down to the rock slab and in distress, was none other than the one Kabuto aimed the shot for - but he turned it upwards with intention of causing a diversion so he could get her out of there.

Makes me feel like the hero of the eighties in American culture.

The rocks that came down caused the men to scatter about, including the man behind all of this. He would no longer call Hashimoto his brother-in-law with what he did to his sister, to Itachi, to the others in Otogakure, and what he almost would have done to Hanaru.

Kabuto cursed at himself for not thinking to bring a knife, but then he saw Itachi go up to where his wife was still tied down, and he amazed Kabuto by pulling the ropes cleanly off with his bare hands and then picking her up into both arms. Still in shock, Hanaru complied and wrapped her arms around his neck. Then she shouted at him, Kabuto, to look out.

He jerked around to see the dark-haired leader of the underlings jump up, and on instinct, he pulled the trigger and wound up shooting him in the shoulder which would end up going the wrong way; he would die of blood loss eventually. Oh, God, I really killed someone...but he deserved it.

The others, including Hashimoto himself, were just getting up, but they were all frozen in shock as they saw something coming their way. "Kabuto, they're coming in!" Hanaru exclaimed, and he saw what she was talking about. He quickly reached for the extra bullets to reload as fast as he could, though he doubted it would do much good. All the zombies had stopped working, but how? Their master could have sent a message or something, and he had no idea how he was going to fight back since it was him against the rest of them; he heard Hashimoto shouting at them to get the intruder who was taking away the girl...

...but strangely, none of them paid attention to Kabuto, Hanaru, or even the one who rebelled. Instead, they made way right for the four men who were arming themselves with shovels and picks, as well as whips. Now Kabuto realized what was happening.

They're going for the one controlling them.

~o~

There was no time to read and try to figure out what to do, for the objects controlling the living dead were in front of them, and the book found had a marker down on the page which shouldn't have been necessary if its owner knew what to say and do by now.

Before he did anything, he had to destroy the one that had been intended for HER. Just pray she hadn't had physical harm.

Chi wa chikaradesu - you say those words up to six times and then command whatever you wanted of the one under the influence. That was what the text said, so this was up to him to take it from here. It was now or never. Orochimaru began to chant the rites and then spoke clearly:

"Attack the ones who will sacrifice the woman, but don't kill any of them."

Perhaps those fools should receive equal justice as much as their leader, given they act like wild beasts rather than human beings. Their master orders, they dance.

He could only hope that it worked, and that it was on the right people. Sergeant Sano watched him with apprehension the entire time, the sweat clearly shining on his forehead. And then Senior Officer Chiba announced in a hushed voice that he found something - and it happened to be that there was an exotic but ghastly mask on the wall that he had elevated - out of pure curiosity...only to open the wall it was hanging onto, showing a passageway that led downstairs to the lowest levels. There could be heard the sounds of rocks clanging, telling the men there was mining activity, closer than expected...

...and there was also the sound of clamoring, telling him that the spell must have worked.

Quickly, Orochimaru picked up the book while the sergeant got to work on gathering the dolls in their little caskets into a couple armfuls while Chiba took the rest. The trio rushed downstairs, only to run into a mass hysteria that was the undead surrounding the four men, but the fifth was laying dead on the ground from a gunshot wound.

And there was Kabuto, with Hanaru unharmed - and in the arms of her husband, who looked as she described along with the others.

"My God, my son," Sano managed, seeing one of them, and he looked on the verge of collapsing off his legs if his senior officer hadn't been there. He even dropped a few of the dolls in his hold...and a few of them broke into pieces. One doll lost its head, another broke in half, and the rest remained intact.

Then the result was this: two of the zombies - the Matsuda brothers - focused their attentions on two of the underlings rather than the one who was controlling them.

And all of Orochimaru as well as the others were frozen in their places as they watched what happened: two of the men's necks were broken, and their bodies were dropped carelessly to the ground.

If breaking the dolls was the answer to setting them free to be on the loose like Itachi, then it wasn't the final answer. What he had to do now was find a spell in the book in which the dead would leave their earthly remains and return to the afterlife...including Hanaru's husband.

But then he remembered what happened that night with Manami. Removing the head and then giving her absolution with the priest's help had done the job, so the holy man was going to be needed once more. Orochimaru summoned up his willpower to chant the words that brought all the automatons still under control to attention. All stood in place like soldiers, while Hashimoto and his last man shouted and tried to break free only to fail miserably.

"All of you remain at attention, and restrain the prisoners if they try to escape. Itachi, Kabuto -" He closed the book and tucked it beneath his arm. "- get Hanaru out of here."

~o~

The nightmare was finally over.

What happened, you wanted to know? Justice was served as it should be. And there was no choice but to finally tell the village the truth - and present the evidence that was the voodoo dolls of their loved ones.

But that meant the bailiff and his remaining man were locked in the cell for the night, and the zombies who weren't under control any longer were placed in Dr. Yakushi's house, and so were the others who were still under the influence, but for Hanaru, it scared her no matter the stone around her neck warming and reassuring her enough that everything was going to be fine now, since she should know Orochimaru well enough that he wasn't going to be like that man who used his charm to get what he wanted and also hid WHAT he really was.

It broke her heart to see Itachi and the others the way they were, kept from a peaceful rest, but that was going to change soon. Because the snake-like man was working to find a way in the book he recovered from the Hashimoto Estate. Her son, surprisingly, didn't seem scared of the zombies, but when he tried talking to his father only to get nothing, Ren went to her in tears and threw himself on her.

All the more reason she wished Orochimaru would hurry.

As for the Matsuda brothers, she feared that one of them would end up strangling her or her son like Jurou did to Manami, but nothing happened except just wandering listlessly and standing there keeping guard.

Those mines are going to once again fall into decay, because its owner is gonna face proper justice. Unless someone new is going to have to take Hashimoto's place.

But that was an issue the village wanted to solve on its own, and that was when someone she knew too well crossed her mind, which she planned to bring attention to as soon as she and her men returned home. That person happened to be her brother, none other. Leave the rest of the details to him but break enough of the story to him without making him think his own sister was crazy.

She thought they'd never do it, but she and Ren managed to get to sleep sometime during the late night - without having nightmares, miraculously - and the last thing she remembered was Itachi sitting before the bed, watching without a change in expression...but she saw the sadness in those emotionless irises, and who knew what was going on in his head. Same with the other two as well as the rest who simply stood at attention; she could only hope that Orochimaru released them from this terrible fate. That would make them all happy.

In the morning, mother and son were awakened and informed by a tiredly smiling Kabuto that everything was taken care of, and that they didn't have to know all the details: the dead were at peace now, and the priest absolved them - though they did have Itachi to finally take home and give a proper burial. "I thought of a good excuse, too. Someone took him back for twisted purposes, but we found the body recently during your visit."

That was a good start, but he hadn't been able to come up with anything else. That meant they would have to during the trip back home. "Are you going back with us, Uncle Kabuto?" Ren asked, biting his bottom lip.

Kabuto sighed. He was conflicted because these people wanted him to find out what was behind the deaths of their youth. They counted on him, so he owed them something. And that involved the man who destroyed so many lives - including theirs. She wanted Hideo Hashimoto to suffer the way he deserved, but she didn't want anything to do with this. She wanted to just get her son back home.

Luckily, Sakura knew people who could come and pick the body up, and Sergeant Sano informed Hanaru that the letter carriers would get one out to her brother-in-law's wife in no time. She left it to Orochimaru who explained what he could.

Ren is NOT going to see any more than he already has.

That included seeing his father, when outside help arrived in Oto from Konoha. Hanaru thought to unzip the bag over her dead husband's face one last time, quietly whispering good bye since she was deprived of that chance before, and then closed the black plastic again for him to be taken away into the traveling ambulance. A week had gone by since everything that happened, so she and Ren were finally returning.

What happened to Hashimoto and his last man: when the people of the village awoke, the word got out that Orochimaru and Kabuto had to stand with the sergeant and inform them all what happened. Also, the veteran physician presented the voodoo dolls still covered in blood, and the people were better off not seeing their loved ones as they had been before, for the dead were finally resting in their graves. The bailiff who had been oh so popular had used all of them, exploited them, and used a cheap way to get his father's old silver mine up - that meant using black magic, the book which was also presented along with the figures, which outraged and devastated the Oto villagers who demanded justice from the villain himself.

The jury's decision, at the hands of the people: imprisonment until he died, and as for the last of his "young blood" gang, the idiot was released but made to live like the rest of the people. Now, Hashimoto got a fate worse than death.

But his lackey was eventually killed by the lynch mob that formed during the trial.

Hanaru should have stayed out of this, but she said to the people that she was going to try to talk to someone she knew and help get this village back on its feet. No promises, but she could only try. Hadn't been easy to convince these scarred older people and the smaller numbered young generation, nor had Orochimaru and Kabuto stood by when they both said she should have kept quiet, but this was her way of trying to help all of them.

So, her men and the sergeant were hailed as heroes for saving the rest of them, though for public protection, they had to NOT use "voodoo" and say it was just an unknown fever from Ame without a name, as much as Kabuto hated to admit it. And it was all on the condition that he, Hanaru, her son, as well as Orochimaru leave and go back home to Konoha because outsiders had done enough to them as it was. But they did owe them gratitude for saving who was left as well as the souls of their loved ones.

Just hope they get another good doctor to help them, but where? That was for Oto to decide, and they insisted Kabuto return to where he really belonged, rather than being in a small village where he lost his sister.

For the four of them, they had Manami's death to mourn and Itachi to bury where he deserved to be, and this time was small, for cremation was involved. Their brothers and their friends were present, no one public this time, and she put the urn on the fireplace mantle at their house.

She finally found it in herself to tell Naruto what happened, but left out the voodoo aspects, and said this might be an opportunity for him to either have the town fixed up or leave it to someone he trusted, like Hinata's cousin Neji since they both worked real estate. Her brother's eyes lit up, and he enthusiastically considered it.

Kabuto moved back in with her and Ren, and it was like a void was starting to be filled in. He started working again at Konoha General.

Orochimaru hadn't thought to return to studying dark magic and the likes, at least not until after his retirement came about in the fall that came. There was still so much time in his life left for anything else, and that meant he was going to be with them when a certain "happy" event came just before the winter season began.

Sasuke and Sakura finally got married, and what they had of Itachi present: his photograph as well as other members and events of their families throughout, because a wedding was all about family.

Besides sharing that special day, there was a certain someone there who asked her if she would like to head on a winter getaway with him up in the mountains, leave Ren with her brother and his family; Sarada was going to spend it with them, too, while her parents went to Hokkaido for their honeymoon.

Hanaru thought she would never remarry again, since she made it clear no one would replace her man, and she also had to be careful with who to have around her son...but Kabuto was the one in front of her. He was such a great friend, he was adored by her and Itachi's boy, except she needed more time to figure out if she really had romantic feelings for him after everything they went through together.

The post-Christmas vacation was a great chance to explore it with Kabuto, then really start over anew.

The crystal around her neck was aflame, which meant the answer was obviously going to be positive.

The movie ended on a doomsday note, in which the zombies and their master were purified in the mines which collapsed in a fire that was set to the undead (their doll figures caught fire in a struggle), and our heroes got away unscathed, though while I was glad good triumphed over evil, I wished there was a form of closure for those who lost their loved ones, and I felt the sergeant had a part to play in the climax.

So I complete this in time before Christmas. Hope you enjoyed this chilling story and its final chapter, no sequel in making, so please give feedback. :D