A/N: This, my friends, is where the plot begins!
Beep-beep... beep-beep... beep-beep... beep-beep...
Good God, I felt like shit. My head ached, my throat felt dry and sore. While the rest of my body felt weightless, completely detached, my limbs were like leaden weights anchoring me to whatever sort of consciousness I was in.
There was an itch on my nose. I tried to raise one of my leaden arms to scratch it, but I couldn't seem to move.
Then, I heard a gasp and the dark world I'd been anchored to seemed to ripple, lose focus. "His nose just twitched! I swear I saw it!"
"Will you calm down? This isn't anything to get too worked up about. He may be in a coma, but he can still hear our voices. Any twitches he may make are just in response to the sounds of our voices. It happens, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's waking up. That's what Sakura told me, anyway."
Were they talking about me? I couldn't tell and, with my mind growing more lucid with my questions, the itch got worse. I was getting irritated.
"L-Look, his finger twitched! His eyelids... they're moving, too! Oh, God, he's moving!"
"Jesus, woman, will you please shut up!"
Silence.
"That was uncalled for. If Itachi can hear you, he's probably thinking you're a real douche."
No, actually, if I had the use of my hands, I would applaud the man. The girl squealing so close to my ear was really getting on my nerves. Did she have no bedside manners whatsoever? Apparently not.
"Please, just hush. You'll be kicked out if you're too loud."
Then, by all means, yell, I wanted to tell the woman, I doubt you're of much help in dealing with this "coma" I seem to be in.
And then I felt it. Consciousness, thoughts, life. I felt them all and I was suddenly certain that something was horribly wrong. I wasn't sure what it was, maybe a premonition that I wouldn't like what I found when I opened my eyes, maybe it was my imagination, or maybe it wasn't. I couldn't be sure what it was, but it only urged me closer to the brink of awareness.
And then my eyes opened and what I had feared came to reality. Standing over me was Sasuke, his expression looking a bit perturbed and very tired. And then he looked down at me, his eyes widening. The first thing he said was, "Holy mother of shit!"
I blinked. What did he just say?
"What did you just—" that annoying voice began and then cut off when she leaned over me and looked in my eyes. She leaned closer as if to be sure that the sight of my opened eyes wasn't a trick of her eyes and then poked my cheek.
"Wha—" I began and then went into a fit of coughing. My throat really was sore!
"Good Lord," the girl breathed and then stood, trotting over to the door and shouting, "Nurse! Nurse! We need a nurse!"
I looked between Sasuke and the blond girl, wondering what I was to make of this. I wasn't dead. Sasuke wasn't killing me right now. He was just staring at me like I was a ghost. Was I a ghost? No, no, of course I wasn't.
"I-Itachi..." Sasuke whispered and then his voice broke into a grin. "You're awake!" When I winced at the pain his exclamation shot through my skull, he smile apologetically and said a little quieter, "You're awake."
I nodded and shot him a dubious look. But... if I was alive, why did Sasuke seem so damn happy about it? Now he could put me through a lifetime of misery as I had done to him? Now he could have the pleasure of killing me again? These guesses were quite possible, but I feared that they weren't the real answer. I feared that the truth was something much worse.
"Sasuke-kun? Ino?" a new, but still familiar, voice asked, the sound of footsteps tapping on the tiled floor following the lovely sound of her voice, "What's going—oh, Itachi, you're awake."
Finally! There was some sanity! I turned to the first person to show some composure at the sight of me to see a rather pretty girl. My first thought was that she was an angel in a lab coat. She was a short girl, the curves of her waist quite visible through the coat, her face round, her eyes the color of jade. Her bubblegum pink hair was definitely an eye-catcher, but far from gaudy or unflattering. In fact, the pink locks accented her eyes beautifully. This girl reminded me of a cherry blossom bloom in spring.
My second thought, however, was that she was Haruno Sakura, student to the great Tsunade, thought to have already surpassed the Sannin, best friend to the Kyuubi container and—oh, how I rued this last detail—lifelong grudge-holder toward m for ruining Sasuke's life and thus taking him from her. A devil in a lab coat! A rather angelic-looking devil in a lab coat, which made for a much more dangerous threat.
"Well, well," my own personal version of Satan said cheerfully, breaking the silence, "Welcome back to the world of the living."
Welcome back indeed... I wanted nothing more than to go back into my coma. If I was to be at the mercy of Konoha villagers, I would have much rather preferred my painful, heart-breaking (literally) death by Sasuke's Chidori.
"Just allow me to check your vital signs, please," she continued, taking out a flashlight. She shined it in my eyes, nearly blinding me with its brightness, and then she wrote something down on a clipboard that had been attached to the end of the bed I was in. She took out a stethoscope and put it to my chest, saying, "Deep breaths" and I did as told. She wrote something else down. After a few more tests, she nodded. "You're obviously not a zombie, so I'd imagine you've made it out of your coma."
I would have shrugged nonchalantly had it not caused a quick flash of pain in my shoulder.
Haruno placed a comforting hand to my shoulder and advised, "I wouldn't make any unnecessary movements. Your wound hasn't completely healed and we're worried it might reopen.
Ah, my Chidori wound. If only Sasuke was capable of carrying out the simplest task. I mean, how could he literally rip out my heart and still fail in killing me? My younger brother was hopeless when it came to the art of dispatching kin.
"Itachi-kins!" the blond exclaimed, practically pushing Sakura out of her way and pouncing on me, "I've missed you so, so much! You have no idea how hard it was for me to come here every day just to see you play vegetable with the other invalids in this smelly little hospital! I'm so glad you're awake now, though, so we can catch up!"
I would have groaned, but I'm pretty sure the dry skin lining my throat would crack from the effort. Who was this girl, anyway?
"Ino," Haruno said as though to answer my unspoken question, "Itachi needs rest right now. He's probably very tired and confused."
She was right, though I wasn't so much tired as I was confused.
"Come on," the blond apparently called Ino scoffed, "He's been sleeping for six friggen months, how much more rest could he possibly need?"
"Ino," Sasuke said warningly, "Sakura is the doctor here, not you. She knows what she's saying."
"But—" Ino sighed and relented with a reluctant "Fine" before she and Sasuke walked out the door. "Ooh, just let me kiss him goodbye!" she exclaimed and there was the sound of a scuffle as Sasuke apparently dragged her away.
"No," my younger brother said firmly.
Sakura chuckled sheepishly, eying me tentatively. "Some way to wake up, huh?"
I eyed her distrustfully. What was she planning?
She went to the bedside table where a pitcher of water sat on a tray with a few cups. She filled one of the cups and helped me sit up slightly as she poured the liquid into my mouth. Then, she laid me back down and fixed my covers, smiling. "Now you should sleep. I'll tell all the other nurses you're awake and everything, so they'll come check on you periodically, okay." She once again straightened my covers and then left.
I had never been so humbled in my life... I'd bet that was her plan! She was trying to ruin my dignity in order to force me to bend to her will! I wouldn't put it passed a Konoha shinobi.
I was asleep again before I could think up any more conspiracies against me.
A/N: I'm going to try to make long chapters in this story! X3 And this is about three or four hundred words longer than my usual chapters, so I hope this is a good start! Please review to tell me what you think! X3
