Chapter 12: Burns
After finishing dinner, they finally settled for their first day of Sakura working on Itachi's wounds. He lied in the bed and she sat in a chair pulled up to his side. Sakura mentally reminded herself that she was not aiding the enemy—she was aiding one of Konoha's greatest hidden assets. The situation felt strange because it contradicted years of regarding him as the opposition.
She leaned over to scrutinize the damage. Sakura had originally taken so long to notice his burns because his hair obscured the worst of it. On his hidden temples, his crisped skin peeled back to reveal the tender, red flesh that lied beneath. The burns were deep enough to cause permanently deforming scars. Fortunately, she knew how to prevent this outcome before it took hold.
"I'll work for two and a half hours each night. It's going to take work on the cellular level to mend the skin in a way that'll prevent scarring. But, with time and chakra, it can be done." Sakura paused and then added, "I promise you that I'll treat you as I would any patient despite our situation."
Well, that came out wrong. The use of the word "our" left a taste of teamwork and unity in her mouth totally unbefitting of whatever was going on between them. A luxury hostage situation was still a hostage situation—his kindness only promoted the illusion of cooperation. Even worse, his kindness might just be a device to prevent her misconduct.
"You're a true medic, even in hostage circumstances," he replied.
Sakura froze. Did Itachi just crack a joke? She swallowed her laughter just in case it was brutal honesty rather than gallows humor.
"Sorry. I've never been very funny… and I imagine that the situation isn't very funny from your perspective at all," he apologized and then offered, "But, please let me know if you need anything. You may be a hostage, but I'd much rather treat you like a guest."
Itachi Uchiha had just tried to joke with her. She had been stunned many times over the past few weeks, but Sakura doubted that something would leave her this shocked ever again. She offered a small smile to cover up her astonishment.
"Right now, I'm neither a hostage nor a guest: I'm a medic. But, when I'm not healing, you should recognize that your kindness can't buy my complacency," she warned. Sakura nearly regretted the words as they left her mouth, but decided that he would figure out her intentions sooner than later, anyway. In fact, he probably trusted her words the first time she had vowed to run away.
A ghost of a smile kissed Itachi's lips. Even though it never fully formed, it was lovely to behold.
"That's the beauty of free-spirited people, Sakura. They can be swayed with neither gifts nor pain. You're going to do what you want and I'm going to do what I want—circumstances won't change that."
"I'm glad we agree," Sakura affirmed without acknowledging his poetics, "Now that we're on the same page, I'll start my work."
She leaned over and let her chakra flow through the burned cells of his skin. When his expression vaguely changed, Sakura suspected that Itachi was unprepared for the intimate sensation of having another person brushing his face. He probably felt unaccustomed to human touch after cutting all emotional bonds with humanity on the night of his family's genocide.
"Are you comfortable?" she queried despite knowing the real answer.
"Hn," he affirmed. Despite his reassurance, Sakura did not believe him. It did not matter, though—she could do nothing for discomfort of the emotional variety.
As she molded her chakra, she debated whether to sit in awkward silence or use his immobility to learn more about him. Sakura was unopposed to working in silence, and she suspected that Itachi would not protest, but probing his brain while he could not escape posed an opportunity too delectable to ignore.
Deciding to dive right in, Sakura asked, "So, how are you feeling?"
Itachi blinked. "What?"
She resisted the urge to snort and then reiterated, "How are you feeling?" She wondered if he ever spoke about feelings or if he simply buried them deep enough to pretend they did not exist.
"I feel fine," he replied plainly.
Sakura raised her eyebrows in faux surprise. "Really? Burns much milder than these normally put a person in tender agony."
"I did what had to be done. Even necessary things have consequences," Itachi stated.
She suppressed a smirk at the absence of denial. For someone who had no tools for expressing his emotions, his words were essentially a confession of pain. While she was not pleased by his pain, she was happy to know that there was some—after all, pain was a feeling. Bizarrely, he seemed mentally healthier than she had been for the past five years. If she was healing now, then he certainly could, too.
She smiled. "Everything has consequences, Itachi. It's just a matter of how those consequences make us feel."
He stared straight ahead without making eye contact. Sakura knew that she was probably making him uncomfortable, which drove her desire to pester him even more fervently. However, no matter how badly she wanted to push him to talk more, she decided to end it there for today. She needed to start small and she would have plenty of opportunities in the future.
As she worked, his eyes relaxed until they closed. Sitting in comfortable silence, she healed his burns for two more hours before drawing their session to its conclusion. Gradually, Sakura withdrew her chakra from his face.
Breaking the quiet, she chirped, "Alright. I'm all done for the evening."
His eyelids lifted slowly as he readjusted to the room's light. She stood from her chair and he sat up from his spot on the bed.
"How are you feeling?" she asked. Maybe he would be more forthcoming with his answer this time. Probably not.
Taking an extended moment, he looked up at her from where he sat on the bed's edge.
Finally, he spoke, "Thank you. I appreciate your kindness."
Sakura froze where she stood. She was not entirely sure what he was thanking her for, but she knew that he would not speak those words if he had not meant them with the most serious significance.
Covering up her reaction, she grinned, "I'm happy to help, but that's not an answer. How are you feeling?"
His lips faintly twitched and he responded, "Don't worry, Sakura. I'm fine."
He stood from the bed and brushed his clothes back into place. As they stood in close proximity, Sakura realized the magnitude of their height difference. Despite this, she felt unintimidated—he may have been physically larger, but she had proven herself on the battlefield.
"This'll be your room for the duration of our stay. My room's next door on the left. If you need anything, please knock on the wall, but don't leave your room for any reason," Itachi requested. He used polite words, but they were only a gilded frame to the grim painting of her hostage situation.
Sakura thought snappily, "Say what you want, but you can't keep me here forever."
Not expecting a reply, Itachi strode to the door and paused with his palm on the handle.
"Goodnight, Sakura."
And then he was gone.
Sakura woke the next day to a faint knock. It was quiet enough that she would have slept through it if she had not been ready to wake naturally.
"Come in," she mumbled sleepily.
He entered the room carrying a tray covered in steaming food. Sakura rubbed her tired eyes in hungry amazement—she could hardly believe what she was seeing.
"I'm sorry to wake you. I know you must need all the sleep you can get, but I thought that you might need food even more." First thing in the morning, he was already showing genuine concern for her wellbeing. In fact, he seemed more concerned for her than she was concerned for herself.
"Thank you," Sakura murmured, "I really appreciate your kindness." It was only moments after opening her eyes for the first time today and here she sat wondering more about Itachi's unexplained kindness. It was flattering and downright confusing.
Deciding to take a forthright approach, she asked bluntly, "Itachi, why are you so nice to me?"
He paused before answering, thinking through his words as usual.
"While I prefer to never accrue debt at all, I always work to pay off the ones I have—even if I can't quite pay you with my life as you'd like."
Sakura frowned. If he asked her opinion a month ago, she would have said that she considered him in debt for his past—she would claim that he owed her his life. Now that he was the one professing his blame, it sounded a lot less like the truth than she had once believed it to be.
Guilt washed over her as a somber reminder that his actions had not been a choice. His actions were orders on behalf of the village. Danzo had forced him to kill his whole family and yet he still felt indebted to others. As she sat in bed and received hand-delivered breakfast, his selflessness made her feel like a spoiled child.
"Itachi…" she trailed off. "Itachi, you don't owe me anything."
He maintained, "I do. The suffering of my family is a disease that festered and spread. You're one of the casualties and you think that I owe you nothing? When I did what I was told, I thought I'd be ending it. Instead, I've put a man into a coma and you through much worse. Who knows who else it's affected? The sickness of my family leaked like a colostomy bag—and here we are now."
Feeling framed as a helpless victim, she protested, "Yep, here we are now. If you've been paying any attention, though, you might have noticed that I'm alive and well."
"You're well? Just a few days ago, you were soliciting the use of my tsukuyomi. Do you understand what kind of mental state that implies? Don't pretend that a full recovery comes so easily."
Just when Sakura thought he had finished insulting her, he marched on, "Do you know what it was like meeting you one-on-one for the first time? Seeing what I'd done to an innocent stranger? Thinking you'd lost both teammates left you a living shell, and it was evident with just one look at your empty eyes, Sakura.
"I don't regret ending my family line—they were guilty of treason. But you weren't—you were guilty of nothing but circumstance. It's kind of you to say that I don't owe you anything, but you're wrong."
As he held out the tray to her, he looked so flustered that she forgot he was Uchiha progeny at all. Such a display of emotion was so uncharacteristic of the stoic clan.
She reached out timidly and took the tray from his arms. Once the weight left his hands, he disappeared from the room before she could blink.
It looked like she would be eating breakfast alone.
Authoress's Note:
My semester is finally over, along with my first year of graduate school. :D Woohoo! To anyone who is still in the midst of their school work: good luck. You can do it.
As always, thank you all for reading! And a special thanks to those who take the time to review - I truly appreciate the feedback.
I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. :)
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