Sweets: I'm going through a kinda dark phase. So, if you're confused message me with specific questions so that I can tell you what you need to know.
Hinata: MKay...
Itachi: Whatever.
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Chapter 9: Nostrum
I can't control myself because I don't know how.
This was too much. Itachi was slowly regaining his sight, though objects were blurry. His vision faded in and out, and he knew he had to act quickly before more time was lost. He winced as the veins connecting to the brain throbbed in pain, and he silently wondered if the Hyuugas got any pain like this. But he reminded himself that he couldn't be thinking of this now.
With Deidara and Sasori, the three sat at three points of a pentagram ignited in green chakra, Hinata in the center. Their hands were in three different hand seal signs.
Dragon. Deidara.
Tiger. Sasori.
Snake. Itachi.
Kisame was quickly mixing Itachi's blood with other chemicals and natural ingredients needed for this to work. If the blood antidote failed...all of this would have been wasted, and Hinata...dead.
But something else worried the Sharingan user. His brow furrowed as he hissed in pain.
He gave me the antidote. He must want something.
His eyesight was fading in and out, blurring and shadowing by the second. Through hazy vision, he had memorized the scrawled instructions and followed them in order. It had been a tiresome process, indeed.
"Kisame, are you almost ready?" Itachi grunted as the chakra depletion was weakening him.
"Hn."
Kisame took the syringe filled with Itachi's dark red blood. He lazily walked over to them, taking his place next to Itachi, leaving the top point of the star open. He quickly infused Itachi's blood with Hinata's and resumed his position with the hand seal of 'Boar'.
"Itachi!" Sasori hissed in warning, as he weakened with every slipping bit of chakra.
The chakra flared and quickly turned red. Hinata gave a scream and clutched head in her delerious state. Itachi and the others winced, but carried on. Itachi murmured incoherent curses and seals.
"Itachi...hurry up, yeah!" Deidara shouted, his chakra wearing dangerously low.
The pentagram turned from red to blue to a subtle white, hissing and sparking with every color change. Kisame began to wheeze as smoke filled the room.
The girl levitated, because of the amount of chakra that was flowing from her body, but plummeted back down into the awaiting arms of Itachi. He watched with his fading vision and saw the spotted black marks on her skin begin to fade.
"Her fever's going down." Sasori said, feeling her forehead, relief edging into his voice.
So he had grown oh so fond of her.
Deidara and Itachi slumped down onto the ground, after Itachi had thrust Hinata into Sasori's arms. Sasori grunted in protest, and finally fell to his knees with her in his arms.
"Kisame...I can't see."
Itachi's voice was calm, but a slight panic laced the cold edges. Kisame watched his partner stagger up, but then lean against the wall. Suddenly, their attention was focused towards Hinata. She shuddered and gave a whimper as her eyes flew open.
Deidara stumbled back and Sasori let her down gently, his eyes wide. Kisame had shock in his voice and peered at Hinata with a new, keener interest.
"Itachi. Something's wrong with the...thing." he said,
"What?" Itachi snapped.
"I-Itachi-sensei!" Hinata whimpered, staring at her bloody vision, that showed impurities, not the natural clearness she was used to.
Itachi stiffened. Hinata's hysterical crying did not help them either.
"Would you shut up, yeah?!" Deidara cried, his hands throbbing.
The child gave another shriek and finally lay still, small clouds of dust floating around her. Her eyes were still open, glazed and out of touch with the world.
She looked...dead.
Itachi hissed in anger as Kisame reached out to touch his arm. The three drew back and one by one left the darkening room and the girl. Sasori, the last to leave, checked Hinata's pulse, breathed and watched her eyes bleed from red to white. Hinata hiccuuped and her breathing was too shallow.
But that was the least of his problems.
"Her fever's coming back at an alarming rate." he whispered.
"Leave her." Itachi snarled, sensing the puppeteer reaching to take her.
"She has the-"
"Leave. Her. Be."
Sasori sighed, put up his hands in protest and left, slamming the wooden door behind him. It rattled on its hinges and there was a clink of metal as the handle nearly fell out.
Itachi finally sighed, showing his weakned state to no one except the spiders on the walls and an unconsious girl whose eyes finally closed.
"What did I do?" he whispered to the walls.
A Hyuuga with a Sharingan.
He did not hear or sense another figure slip out of the room, his white hair and pale body leaving no evidence that he was there, as Itachi had falled into a dispairing sleep.
I've killed her.
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"Right eye, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto said, tiredly.
As the snake master slowly moved his hand to cover his left eye, there was a piercing shriek and a slamming of the door as a figure came into the room, panting from fright. Orochimaru raised an eyebrow and gave a dark laugh as Kabuto went to the newly arrived person.
His pawn had arrived.
"Kimimaru," Orochimaru said easily, not caring that he looked worse for wear. "You have returned."
A fourteen year old boy, knelt before his master hurridly, his silver white hair falling into his eyes. Kabuto went around to give him a sedation shot.
"Hinata Hyuuga is awake, sir." he gasped out, still startled that he even got out of the room alive.
Kabuto smiled at Orochimaru's apprentice.
"Well done, Kimimaru. You may leave." he said, easily, walking over to Orochimaru.
But yet, the boy stayed. The Sannin shoved Kabuto aside and stood up and threw his dirty bandages to the floor. His cured yellow eyes gleamed as he walked over to his apprentice.
"You have something to say?"
"Hai. The Hyuuga has acquired the same eye technique as Uchiha-san. The Sharingan."
Orochimaru stopped walking, turned swiftly, and gave a calm glare towards Kabuto. He staggered backwards and hesitated before he spoke.
"Orochimaru-sama, I was sure that-"
"No, no. You did well, Kabuto." Orochimaru sighed, weary.
The two apprentices were silent, seeing that the Sannin was in shallow thoughts, wondering what the next move on his chess board was.
"Do any of them know about the poison?" he asked, quickly.
"No. Deidara-san seems to have forgotten all about it. Hinata-san's poisoned blood should be interacting with Uchiha-san's now."
"Good, good." Orochimaru paused.
His plan...it was going smoothly. Too smoothly.
His poison was new, deadly and wonderful to the medical world. It was a blood poison...controlling and manipulative. It worked well. His years of research had not been in vain.
"Kimimaru. I have a new mission." Orochimaru said slowly, his smile widening with every word.
The words whispered in the dark were cold and leering, underestimating and arrogant. The youngest of the men let his eyes grow wide with shock, and slowly nodded his head with an understanding. Finally, he poofed out of the room, leaving a trail of gray smoke.
It wasn't like he could actually go against Orochimaru's orders.
He was only the pawn, easily disposible and limited.
Kabuto clutched his clipboard and walked over to Orochimaru, who sighed and fingered his dirty white yukata, his face thoughtful.
"Kabuto..." he hissed, beckoning to the medic-nin.
"Hai, Orochimaru-sama."
"We now have three sources for Uchiha blood. Three sources for our poison."
Kabuto laid down his clipboard and sighed, and leaned on the wooden desk next to his exahusted body.
"Why do we need the Uchiha's blood, again?"
Orochimaru cast an annoyed gaze towards his helper.
"Kabuto, you simpleton. We need good, pure blood for the poison to work. It's the very heart of it! The Uchiha's have had the best blood for a long time."
There was a silence.
"What about the Hyuugas? What about other noble families? They have clean blood last time I checked."
Orochimaru's eyes gleamed.
"No. Since they introduced the caged bird curse...it has been tainted. Even the Main House. You have seen the Uchiha prodigy. He is the best. And this poison has no antidote. If you have tainted blood, you can have an antidote."
"Everything...everything has an anti-" Kabuto began, his brow furrowing as he was cut off abruptly.
"No. This does not."
"But it can't be...potent!" Kabuto cried, looking over his charts.
"Kabuto. Once I mix my venom with the poison I will have total-control over the subject. Why do you think I gave her the curse mark? My blood was on my teeth. Three types of blood are in her body. Her's, mine and the Uchiha's. With the antidote in her body, the poison is now complete. Do you understand?!" Orochimaru hissed, ending his tirade the arguement.
"The poison starts with your blood being injected into a vessal, disguising it with a curse mark so you can get chemicals doubling as the antidote andthe poison into her body and the Uchiha's blood." he paused to breathe, ingnoring Orochimaru's quite peeved expression.
"The mark goes away, but the chemicals mix with your blood, her blood and the Uchiha's creating it-" Kabuto stopped his long winded explination as soon as Orochimaru threw a kunai at his head.
There was a deadly silence as Orochimaru dared him to continue.
Kabuto was tiresome when he wanted to be.
"Hinata carries our poison. She needs to live in order for us to keep it." Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, challenging Kabuto to continue.
Kabuto stopped his protests, reminding himself that Orochimaru, the famed Sannin, was cultured in the medical and poison ways.
"But Hinata will die." he murmured, thoughtfully. "And all of this will have been wasted and another test subject dead."
"She will only die if her body cannot take in and adapt to the poison. If she dies, it's her fault, but we-will-get-the-poison." he snarled.
Again, Orochimaru outranked and outsmarted him. He was, like Kimimaru, a pawn. His mind reeled and wandered for a few moments while continuing his master's eye exam.
"All clear, Orochimaru-sama."
The man nodded and smiled darkly.
"Do not worry, Kabuto-kun. Hinata will live. She will become stronger. And when Kimimaru completes his mission, she will be under our control. She will then ensnare our ultimate goal, which is who, Kabuto-kun?" Orochimaru taunted.
"Itachi..." Kabuto answered obediantly.
"Very good." Orochimaru laughed. "Remember, Kabuto. Leader-sama is not running this organization. I am."
Kabuto nodded.
Orochimaru was back to normal.
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What's normal anyway?
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