204 days since the Uzushiogakure Massacre
Uzumaki Kushina
Kichiro just laid there sprawled on his back and breathing hard. I knew he was sick right away. I was always supposed to go get the caretakers from the orphanage whenever I woke up and he was like that. This time, there was no one to get. I was sick too, but not as sick as Kichiro. I could still move around. I crawled over to Kichiro and shook his shoulder. He would be able to tell me what to do. No matter how hard I shook him, he just lay there. I looked over at the door. My new defensive seal glowed faintly on it. I felt nauseous at the thought of trying to deactivate it. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, Minato was banging on the door and Kichiro was shivering. Minato tried to force his way in but the door wouldn't budge. I looked over at the window, but I had sealed it to prevent anyone from coming in that way and Kichiro had pinned a sheet over it so no one could look inside and so the sun wasn't so bright in the mornings.
I had never felt so trapped and scared. Everything ached and moving was almost impossible.
I managed to pull a blanket over Kichiro. His skin was hot—too hot, but I laid down beside him anyways, shaking his shoulder futilely until I fell back asleep. Minato was still fighting the door. Hopefully the seal would run out of chakra soon. When I next woke, Kichiro was trying to say my name, his eyes barely cracked open. The only light in the room was someone swinging a lamp across the window.
I tried to sit up, but my head spun and I collapsed, instead focusing on the voice outside the window. "Kushina-chan? If you don't answer, I'm going to break the seal on this window. One of you tripped an emergency seal. Kichiro-kun? Are the two of you okay?"
"Help," Kichiro breathed, but there was no way for the woman to hear.
The next thing I knew, a woman wearing white nightclothes, her hair framed by loose red hair leaned over me. "No! Don't come in!" She ordered. "It's seal sickness. Close the window and don't let anyone in."
"You could get sick!" I recognized the Hokage's voice.
"I won't, you can only catch seal sickness once and I had it a long time ago. It's deadly to anyone who didn't have the counterseal as a child."
"Their skin is black! Are they even alive?"
"Of course they're alive! Whether they'll survive is the question. They're younger than any case I've seen. Close the window, we can't risk this spreading. Do not, under any circumstances, let anyone in, understand? This is fatal and more contagious than any other known disease."
"Understood, Mito-san, but I expect a full report as soon as possible."
"I'll deal with it later, now leave!" I whimpered as she touched my forehead with scalding hot fingers, then Kichiro's, who moaned and pulled away. "It's okay, you just have to let this run its course. You've been in this bed all day. Let's get you cleaned up and comfortable."
She vanished for a moment and I heard water start running. I was too weak to resist as she pulled off my clothes then carried me into the bathroom. In short order, I was clean and redressed in fresh clothes, then gently laid in my own bed and wrapped in blankets. I watched her carry Kichiro out of the room. The next thing I knew, she was laying him down beside me. He immediately rolled away from her and curled against me, shivering. I grabbed a fistful of his hair and fell back asleep. When I woke up, there was sunshine in the window and she was cradling Kichiro, coaxing him to drink from a bowl. Thick, black lines were tangled across all his visible skin.
"You have to keep your strength up. I don't know the last time you ate."
His hands were pinned in one of hers and he kept turning his face away from the bowl. It smelled horrible.
She exchanged it for a glass of cool water, which he drank greedily. I realized I was thirsty as well. She laid him back on the bed and stood up. I whimpered and started to climb over Kichiro. A moment later, she returned with more water and pulled me into her lap. I managed to guide the glass to my mouth with weak hands and drank the water quickly. As soon as I finished, she exchanged the glass with the bowl. It was just miso soup, but I still tried to push it away, feeling nauseous.
"Between the two of you, you will at least finish the broth, even if I have to force feed it to you. You're not going to throw it up, I promise."
I looked over at Kichiro, who didn't even react to her declaration. He looked bad. His eyes were glazed, he was barely breathing, and he lay there as if dead.
"Kichiro—" I breathed, reaching for him. Mito let me go with a sigh. I dragged myself to him and pressed my forehead against his.
After a few minutes, Mito picked him up. She had diluted the broth and poured it into the glass with a straw. He slowly sipped it, steadily consuming the entire bowl of broth. He even ate pieces of the vegetables and tofu. It still smelled horrible. When the bowl was gone, she laid Kichiro on the bed, sighing when I curled against him and he hugged me back. I woke up to Kichiro shivering, but his skin was still hot, much hotter than mine. By the time Mito wrapped another blanket around us, I was asleep.
(o_o)
205 days since the Uzushiogakure massacre
When I next woke, Kichiro was awake and sitting up beside me. Mito picked me up a moment later to hold a straw to my lips. I drank a few sips of diluted broth before spitting out the straw.
"Why won't she eat?" Kichiro asked weakly. "What's wrong?"
"It's called seal sickness. The first time someone attempts blood sealing it causes illness that can be spread to others by touch. In fact, the way the illness spreads is how some seal masters figured out touch sealing."
"I don't care, what's wrong?"
"The lines are blood that's moving around under your skin and hers. Because both of you received the counterseal, the effects are less severe. They wouldn't be a problem at all if the two of you were older."
"What do you mean?"
"If you were teenagers, the only symptom would be the lines on your skin. You would only have to stay home for a few days to keep it from spreading."
"But now?"
"The counterseal isn't as effective. Both of you had pain-induced paralysis, high fevers, and nausea. The illness works by manipulating the body into killing itself."
"What does the counterseal do?"
"It's mostly precautionary. It prevents the illness from harming your internal organs and lasts until you're an adult, by that time, the counterseal strengthens your body so the illness can't cause severe damage. Since your illness was much less severe, I assume Kushina was the one who attempted blood sealing, correct? No one's in trouble, I'm just curious."
There was a pause. I assumed Kichiro nodded. The seal on the door was a blood seal—a seal I had made—this was my fault.
Mito turned back to me, trying to persuade me to drink some of the broth. I closed my eyes and tried to climb out of her lap, but I didn't even make it to the bed.
(o_o)
206 days since the Uzushiogakure massacre
When I woke up next, Mito was gone and the room was dark. Kichiro lay facing me, his eyes closed. I squeezed his hand, but he didn't twitch. I knew I couldn't make it to the bathroom by myself, but I didn't want to wake him up, so I tried anyways.
I didn't even make it halfway across the room.
"Kushina?" Kichiro asked several minutes later. "Kushina, where are you?"
I was too exhausted to respond.
"Mito!" Kichiro called out, his voice breaking. "Mito! Kushina is gone!"
I flinched as a chair hit the ground. "It's alright, Kichiro, she just tried to get up. Go back to sleep, I'll take care of it." She set a candle down in front of me and brushed the hair out of my face.
"I don't believe you. Turn on the light and let me see."
But there was a light. It was right in front of me. Why couldn't he see it? Mito's hand tightened on my shoulder, then she picked me up. "The candle went out while you were asleep and it's still the middle of the night." She crouched beside Kichiro and put his hand in mine. "She's alright. I'll take care of her, okay?"
Kichiro lay back down. Mito helped me go to the bathroom, and when I finished, she washed my face and arms with a damp cloth before carrying me back out. As soon as she set me down, Kichiro hugged me tightly.
"Mito? If summoning is blood sealing, how come everyone who summons doesn't get sick too?" Kichiro asked as she tucked the blanket around us.
"Because summoning isn't blood sealing. A summoner's blood is one of the ingredients needed to activate a summoning seal."
"Oh." I didn't listen to the rest of the conversation. Kichiro was warm, but not too warm.
(o_o)
207 days since the Uzushiogakure massacre
I woke up again to Kichiro crying. I took me a moment to find him because he wasn't on the bed beside me, he was backed into the corner of the room, his hands over his ears.
"Kichiro-kun, it's going to be okay—"
"I can't see!" He sobbed.
"It's only temporary. It won't be long, you'll be fine," Mito assured him. He yelped and jerked away from her touch, whimpering when she didn't let go. It wasn't right. Kichiro never cried like that. I couldn't help it, I started crying too because Kichiro shouldn't have to cry.
"Don't touch her!" Kichiro suddenly screamed, scrambling towards me.
"Okay, I won't touch her," Mito placated as Kichiro yanked me into a hug and started mumbling nonsense into my ear. She watched him carefully, one arm outstretched as if to pull me away. Kichiro carded his fingers through my hair as the nonsense morphed into an unfamiliar lullaby. It wasn't often that Kichiro sang, but when he does, I listen until I fall asleep. It felt like he sang for hours. I didn't recognize any of the songs and the lyrics were all nonsense that only made sense to Kichiro.
Mito watched him as if he was crazy, but he wasn't. It wasn't nonsense that he was speaking, I knew that much. Kichiro had his own language. I used to listen to him talk in it while he slept—he always talked in his sleep.
Eventually, Kichiro exhausted himself and fell asleep. Mito carefully laid him down without waking him and told me to go back to sleep. I wriggled until I lay directly in front of Kichiro. It was a long time before I fell asleep. I traced the dark lines that meandered across his face in no discernable pattern. When Kichiro fell asleep, they were about two centimeters thick. When I fell asleep, they were half that thickness. I never saw them shrink. Mito said he was getting better and he would sleep until the lines were gone.
In comparison, the skin on my hands was still almost completely black, with only a few patches of ugly, greyish skin. Mito said that because I was stronger than Kichiro, my symptoms weren't as bad, at first. Because I was younger and the illness targeted me first, it would start getting progressively worse and it would last twice as long as Kichiro's.
Once I fell asleep, I didn't remember much of what happened over the following days. Kichiro was there the entire time and he never let go of me, persuading me to sip broth, washing my face and neck with a damp washcloth, holding me and humming the melodies when I got scared and cried.
Both of us fell ill on the same night. Kichiro was sick for almost four days. I was sick for seven days and eight nights. Kichiro said he thought I was going to die. By the time I woke up, fully recovered, Mito was gone, along with Kichiro's mattress.
We weren't allowed to use seals on out apartment anymore.
Kichiro got in trouble for not reporting the moment he was better, but he ignored the reprimand with a scowl. I hadn't noticed, but ever since the massacre, Kichiro had kept his distance from me. After I got better, my brother was back. No matter what happened, I always knew Kichiro loved me, but after I got better, there was never any doubt.
