Chapter 127 - Mutual Difference
It was mid-morning when there was a knock on Karin's door.
Shingetsu and Suigetsu were sleeping in that day, huddled together on the bed—Shingetsu had insisted upon it, having missed his father too much, and the feeling was unspoken, but mutual. But Karin was, herself, awake, as was Ooda, who was tending to Osato.
She did not recognize the person behind the door, but all the same, she said, "Come in."
A young woman entered; she wore a bright purple turtleneck under her white doctor's coat, and the way her hair was half-tied-up looked improvised. "Excuse me, is this Ooda-kun's room?" she said.
Ooda, nearly finished with a diaper change, looked up with a small degree of surprise. "Ah, yes, may I, um, help you…?"
The woman smiled warmly and stepped further in. "My name is Ayano Maiya; I'm a psychologist here at the hospital. Sakura-sensei suggested I come by and visit you. How's it going?"
"Oh, um, I'm… fine, thank you…" Ooda went to wash his hands in the sink beside the counter where he was working.
"Sakura sent you to us? What for?" Karin asked.
"Oh, well, I'm not here to offer my services to you all," Maiya replied, waving a hand. "It's on behalf of another one of my patients."
"Another patient?" Karin said.
Maiya nodded. "Yes, a particularly traumatized little boy suffering from extraordinary circumstances."
"Uh… huh?" Karin said. "So did Sakura send you to me for a consultation or…?"
"No, no, I'm here for Ooda-kun," Maiya said.
Ooda paused, slipping Osato's feet into the legs of a onesie. "What do you need me for…?"
"I read in the newspaper that you're a clone of Orochimaru, and Sakura-sensei confirmed that for me when I asked."
Ooda shrank slightly, zipping Osato up. "Ah, yes, I, uh, am…"
"What of it?" Karin added.
Maiya must have noticed the edge in her voice, because she shook her hands apologetically, and shook her head. "Nothing troublesome, I swear! It's because my patient is a clone as well! And I thought he should perhaps meet Ooda-kun."
Ooda exchanged a troubled glance with his mother. She spoke first. "Another clone…? Like my Ooda?"
"Yes, so it seems," Maiya replied. "Not a clone of Orochimaru, of course, but an Uchiha. Sakura-sensei confirmed that for me, also, once my patient began talking about it during our sessions. She thinks they might be from the same cloning project—I mean, what else could it be?"
"…so he knows he's a clone…?" Karin said, however, ignoring Sakura's cover-story. "Do you know how he found this out?"
"Apparently he was told by another Uchiha. It's not something he likes to talk about, though," Maiya said. "So I thought, perhaps, if he had someone to talk to in a similar situation, he might be able to recover better."
"So, you mean… me," Ooda said.
"Yes, you."
"But… what would I say to him…?" Ooda said.
"I figured I'd have Yakata-kun lead the discussion. Ask you questions relating to his anxieties about his identity and such."
Karin inhaled sharply at the boy's name, and tried to make it look like a yawn.
"His name's Yakata, then…?" Ooda said, without a note of recognition.
"Ah, yes, Honbo Yakata. That's his name," Maiya said. "I should have mentioned earlier."
"I see," Ooda said. "He has… identity anxiety, then…?"
"Yes, a great deal." Maiya's girlish face frowned with concern. "Not only over his identity as a clone but a particularly traumatic event in his life recently… Oh, wait, you might already know…"
"Know what?" Karin said.
(Though she and Ooda both already knew.)
"Yakata-kun was the boy possessed by Orochimaru in the recent attack. Because of your actions, you've met him in body, I think, but not in person." Maiya touched the corner of her mouth with her fingers. She had elastic hairbands on her wrist. "It's such an awful situation, really, but we're trying our best."
"…won't he be… scared of me, then…?" Ooda said, quietly.
"Oh, no, no! I don't think he would," Maiya said. "In fact, I think the fact that you're Orochimaru's clone is gonna be a huge help… if you're okay with it, I mean," she was very quick to add.
"I don't… understand. I mean, how being who I am would help on that level…" Ooda's voice got even quieter, and he let Osato hold his finger as he thought.
"Ooda-kun, one of Yakata-kun's worst anxieties is over the fear that he'll grow up to be violent and cruel like the man he was cloned from. Meeting you and comparing you and Orochimaru, I think, will ease some of his fears. Since, well, judging from what I've read about you, you've proven yourself to be a kind and noble soul."
Ooda's head lowered, his face flushing. "Well, if you think that would help…"
"Has this Yakata boy expressed an interest in meeting my son?" Karin cut in.
"A bit, yes," Maiya replied. "I mentioned that there was at least one other person out there like him—a clone, I mean—and that I might be able to arrange for a meeting. He didn't say much after that, but I noticed him asking a lot of questions when I was explaining the situation."
"I see…" Karin replied.
"I'll give Ooda-kun some time to think about it," Maiya said. "I understand if you're hesitant in agreeing, but I really think this could help Yakata-kun."
"…I'll talk about it with my mom," Ooda replied.
"Okay, great!" Maiya replied. "I'll be back at one-thirty or so to talk to you again; my appointment with Yakata-kun today is at two."
"We'll have our answer then, okay," Karin said. "Thank you."
"Yeah, hopefully we can come to an agreement, here! Seeya." Maiya waved at them as she left.
Karin waited until Suigetsu was awake before she talked about it with anyone. But Shingetsu was sent into Juugo's room, having only a limited understanding of things and too much of a proclivity for nosing around.
"Mom, I know I can… handle myself in front of him," Ooda said, once the discussion began. "I mean—if Yakata now knows where he came from, genetically, and he's scared now, then if I can help…"
"If you go, I want to be with you, okay," Karin replied.
"Karin, are you sure…?" Suigetsu said. "I mean, seein' him up close…"
"I want to know who told him about who he is. How much he knows," Karin said. "And… beyond that, Ooda, I want to give you the support, okay…?"
"Mom…"
"I don't want you alone in there with him, okay?" Karin said. "Don't worry, darling, I won't... speak much. It'll just be you and him."
"…all right, if that's what you want…" Ooda said.
Osato fussed a little, and Suigetsu bounced him slightly in his arms. "I can't believe the crap that kid's had to go through," he said, unsettling the silence further. "The Orochimaru stuff, an' now having to go through this… Yakata's a good kid, he doesn't deserve this."
"Hopefully I'll be able to help at least a little…" Ooda said, softly.
"You'll do fine," Suigetsu replied.
At 1:40, Maiya finally came by, and Ooda and Karin told her of their plan.
The decision for Karin to join Ooda in the therapy session was actually something Maiya wanted to suggest, initially. "If the session went well, I was going to ask you if you wanted to join Yakata-kun and his parents for family therapy, so his mom and dad can get some advice for how to help Yakata heal and transition. Drawing from your experience with your son, I mean."
"That sounds like a wonderful idea, okay. I'd love to meet them," Karin replied. "Though, is it all right if I go in with Ooda for this first meeting for… support?"
"Yes, absolutely! Yakata-kun's had his friend Nadeshiko-chan with him during therapy recently but he wants to wean off of relying on her," Maiya replied. "It's nothing unusual. Having a support system, especially early on, is good for the healing process."
"Understandable," Karin said. "I hope this Nadeshiko girl is a good help."
"She is, she is," Maiya replied.
Ooda wrapped himself in a blanket before they moved out to Yakata's room, covering his face and his hands and arms. And after saying goodbye to Suigetsu, who wished them good luck—he was minding the children in their absence—they left, and Ooda kept himself covered even as they came to the door, and Maiya knocked and went in. She spoke for a while with whoever was inside, and then came back out.
A girl left the room after Maiya; she was tall, but bent over a little, rather like an old woman. Her hair was cut into blunt, uneven edges, and covered much of her face, but not enough to cover what seemed to be a glare directed at the intruders. Ooda, who had his arm wrapped in Karin's, squeezed her tighter from the fear that resulted, despite himself.
"Oh, don't mind her, that's just Nadeshiko-chan," Maiya said, noticing this. "Yakata's friend. She'll be outside until we finish."
"Be nice to him, please," Nadeshiko said, lowly, in a tone more suited for a threat. She sat down on a bench near the room, and afterwards kept her eyes to the floor.
Karin tried not to make a face, and entered Yakata's room with Ooda at Maiya's gesture, holding her son's arm tighter in hers.
Yakata was waiting at the table in his room for them. He was holding a large teddy bear to his chest, and his eyes were downcast and sideways, and he was shivering visibly.
"Yakata-kun, this is Ooda-kun and his mother, Karin-san," Maiya said, entering with them. "I was telling you about them the other day, do you remember?"
Yakata's eyes wandered to them, and he held his bear tighter. "I, I remember…"
"Please, won't the two of you sit down with us?" Maiya motioned to the table, and took a seat herself. Ooda took the seat directly across from him, and Karin across from Maiya, though Karin kept a hand wrapped in Ooda's blanket for comfort.
It became quickly apparent that Yakata was trying to look at Ooda, his eyes darting to the blanket and then back to his bear, or the floor. Maiya stepped in.
"So you also remember, Yakata-kun, why I asked Ooda-kun and Karin-san to come and meet with us today?"
Yakata didn't answer, but he shivered more intensely for a moment, eyes stuck on the table surface.
"It's all right, Yakata-kun. There's no need to be scared. Nobody here is scared of you," Maiya said.
"I'm certainly not scared of you, young man," Karin added, with an uncommonly smooth and matronly voice. "Like Maiya-sensei said, my name is Karin. You and my son Ooda are quite alike, it seems."
Yakata managed eye contact with her for a moment before returning to the table. "He… he was, he used to be s-someone else, like me, right…"
"Someone else…?" Karin said.
"Yakata-kun's internalized his identity as a clone as someone he used to be, like a past life," Maiya said. "But we're working on that, right, Yakata-kun?"
Yakata didn't say anything, closing his eyes, whimpering a little.
"Well… I don't think that's quite true, okay," Karin said. "My Ooda's never been anyone but himself."
"…I've not always been so sure about that, though…" Ooda added, quietly.
The sound of his voice sent Yakata's head nodding upward, eyes widening with recognition. "Wh-what…?"
"…when I was younger, I had a very hard time trying not to think of myself as… just another 'version' of him," Ooda continued. "That I'm not just him all over again, or… him trying to get a second chance. Sometimes I still struggle with it, really…"
"Ooda…" Karin's hand loosened on the blanket and searched for her son's actual hand.
But something he had said must have reached Yakata particularly strongly, because his eyes had lowered in thought. "You… you, you aren't a second chance…? You, you weren't… made for that reason…? But I, I thought…"
"I don't… know why I was made, really…" Ooda replied. "I can guess, I can think about it, but it… doesn't give me any answers, or any comfort, really…"
"Then again, does anyone really know the reason why they were born?" Karin added, managing a smile.
"I, I suppose…" Yakata said, though the weakness in his voice suggested how little of a comfort this was.
"A very good point, Karin-san," Maiya said, nodding. "So, Yakata-kun, since we've gotten this started a little, is there anything you want to ask Ooda-kun yourself? You can ask him anything that's on your mind."
Yakata, who was fidgeting slightly in his seat now, thought for a while. "…wh-why is he all covered up? Is he, is he hurt…?"
"You mean me…?" Ooda said. Yakata nodded, his eyes continuing to flit between Ooda's form and the table surface. "Oh, well, I… I'm not hurt, I just… I didn't want to scare you…"
"Wh-why would you, why would you scare me…?" Despite his wonder, Yakata began shivering again more intensely.
Ooda's head lowered, but when he saw through the thin fabric of the sheet that his mother was about to speak, he opened his mouth. "I'm…! Uh, I mean… well, lots of… people find me scary-looking, so…"
"I certainly didn't find you scary when we first met, Ooda-kun," Maiya said, brightly.
"…can I… can I see your face, please…?" Yakata said.
Karin saw his hesitance. "Ooda, you don't have to…"
But Ooda, slowly, began reaching for the fabric over his head, and with one hand he pulled it away from himself.
His bangs shifted significantly away from his eyes in the process.
Yakata made a sound that might have been a muffled scream. His chair skidded away from the table, and he hid his face in the fur of the teddy bear, clinging to it for dear life. He was hyperventilating.
Ooda quickly covered himself again, but he kept his cloth-covered hands over his face as well, in reflexive shame.
"Yakata-kun, it's all right, it's all right. What's the matter?" Maiya said, getting out of her chair to be nearer to him. "It's just Ooda-kun."
"That, that, that face…! I, I know… I know that face…!" Yakata's breath wasn't slowing at all. "It's… it's, it's him, it's the one who…!" He began whimpering again, desperately. "No, no, no, no…"
"…Maiya-sensei, should we leave…?" Karin had a distressed worry on her face; Ooda was still curled into himself, miserably.
Maiya, however, ignored her. "Yakata-kun, I know who Ooda-kun looks like. But it's just Ooda-kun. He's nobody else. He's not the man that was inside you. Do you understand? He's just like you. He's not the same man."
And, somehow, Yakata managed to slow his breaths, to raise his head. His eyes were shiny with the beginnings of tears, but the actual tears never happened.
"…I knew what had happened to you, and I thought… if you saw me, that I would frighten you…" Ooda said, quietly, in the absence of other speaking. "I'm so sorry, Yakata-kun, I really am…"
Karin was running her hand down his back, her eyes downcast.
And Yakata, once he'd caught his breath, wiped his eyes off on his forearm, and brought his chair back to the table. He wasn't holding his bear as tightly any more.
"…I, I, I should apologize, I'm, I'm sorry…" he said. "You… you, you can't help the, the way you look, so…"
Ooda's hands lowered to his chin. "No, please, don't… apologize…" he said. "It's… okay to be scared. The man I… came from—my 'father'—he was a horrible person, and what he… did to you… it's understandable if you should be… scared of me too…"
"…you didn't… you didn't do anything to, to me though…" Yakata closed his eyes. "And that's, that's, that's why I'm sorry…"
"So you understand, then?" Maiya said.
Yakata nodded a few times, shiver-like, wiping at his eyes again. But in doing so, his wrist brushed the scab of a healing cut on his cheek, and his eyes opened, his expression mixed.
"What is it, Yakata-kun?"
Yakata ran his fingers over the scab, and looked up at Ooda again. "You… you, you were the… you were the man in the, in the big s-stage-thing…!"
"Stage-thing…?"
"I don't… I don't remember it a-all that clearly, be, because he was in control m-most of the time, but, but, but… but I remember you, and… and your mother, too, I saw her too…!" Yakata's eyes darted here and there with recollection. "And I, I said all those horrible things to you both… O-oh, oh, I'm… I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" His hands clung to each other over the bear, and very close to his chest, as if he were trying to keep them away from Karin and Ooda.
"You mean the arena, when Orochimaru was called out over the speakers?" Maiya said. Yakata nodded intensely. "All right, Yakata-kun, all right. Just breathe; what happened then was not your fault. You weren't doing those things. Okay?"
And Yakata seemed to calm slightly, though his distressed expression remained. "I'm just, I'm so sorry…"
"…it's all right, Yakata-kun…" Ooda tilted his head gently.
This seemed to only help minimally; Yakata was thumbing the scab on his cheek again. "The, the more I think about it, the… the, the more I remember, and…" His shoulders tightened from a shiver. "O-Ooda-san, you… you were going to, to s-sacrifice yourself for, for, for me, weren't you…!"
"Sacrifice myself…?" Ooda's voice was soft from the mild shock.
"You, you, you said… you said that, that Orochimaru could, could… could have your body if, if he left me alone…" Yakata said. "That, that you'd… you'd let him do to you what he… what he did to me… Why…?"
"Why…?" Ooda said.
"You, you… you didn't even know me then, you, you didn't know who I was, and you… you were going to… to do that anyways…"
"Well, I… I didn't want an innocent child to have to suffer, and besides that, I could... I don't know…" Ooda's own shoulders rose, the impulsive courage of his actions a few days past coming quite harshly to light.
"…I, I, I'm not innocent…" Yakata said, quietly.
"Yakata-kun, please, remember, your actions recently were not your fault," Maiya said.
"I, I, I mean before all that, Maiya-sensei…" Yakata was looking at the table again. "A-All the, the people I killed—that Itachi killed…"
"Yakata-kun." Maiya was smiling now, though gently. "The things that Itachi did are no more your fault than the things that Orochimaru did to you are Ooda-kun's fault. Those aren't your crimes."
Yakata didn't say anything, eyes to the table, hands tightly restraining each other again.
"…it doesn't matter how innocent you really are. Nobody… deserves to have their body taken from them like that…" Ooda said.
"…and, and you still… you still thought to… to take my place…" Yakata said. His voice was slightly muffled by his chin tucked into his bear.
"If anything, being… who I am would mean that at least people would have a better reason to be afraid of me…" He exhaled in an awkward, slightly-bitter laugh.
"…but, but that's awful…" Yakata said.
"It's the truth, though," Ooda replied.
Yakata squeezed his bear, his eyebrows furrowing in determination. "It, it… it doesn't seem fair…!"
And Ooda paused, taken aback by the brittle strength in the boy's voice. "…why?"
"You… you, you were going to… to do something i-incredibly brave and… and selfless, even, and… and you say it would have been a-all right because, because people are, are, are already scared of you…?" Yakata lifted his head. "That… that isn't fair. E-Especially because that man, O-Orochimaru, he… he's so, so cruel, and, and selfish, and, and…" And his voice fell, soft with epiphany. "…and not at all like… like you…"
Ooda's head lowered. "How do you know what I'm like…?"
"…people like Orochimaru don't, don't, don't do things like that…" Yakata replied, attempting to smile. "I… I already know th-that much."
"So… while he was inside you, did Orochimaru… speak with you?" Karin said.
Yakata shrugged uneasily, partially out of discomfort in regards to the question, partly from Karin's sudden address. "I think sometimes when I was, when I was awake, but when… when I was put into that, that sleep, l-later on, he… he talked a lot—to me sometimes, but, but mostly to himself… I-I could hear it, and, and sometimes see it, like, like it was a dream, so…" He swallowed. "But, but most of it… I saw what, what he did when he was in my body—I, I heard the things he said… And… and the whole time I was just… I was so scared, because he was so... awful, the, the things he did, and I, I, I couldn't stop him…"
"I'm so sorry you had to go through that, Yakata-kun," Karin said.
"It… it's all right, it, it's over now, right…?" Yakata said, and he tried to smile again.
(Karin covered her mouth with her fist, for fear that words or other things would come spilling out.)
"I'm… I'm glad you didn't have to, to do that in the end, Ooda-san…" Yakata continued, eyes falling. "I, I wouldn't want a-anyone to have to go through what I, what I had to go through, but, but least of all you…"
(Karin's fist failed her.)
(Though she ended up not regretting it.)
"Now… that's something Itachi would never say, okay."
Yakata blinked in astonishment at her. "Huh…?"
"Karin-san, do you mean this hypothetically, or did you actually know Itachi-san…?" Maiya said.
"I met him a few times, when I was younger, and traveling with Sasuke."
"You, you know Sasuke-san too…?" Yakata said.
"For a while, yes. It was… a strange time." Karin's voice roughened with awkwardness. "Meeting Itachi, though, and seeing what he was like, then… while it seems he had a kind side to him, and a selfless side, he was not a person that… said things like that. You know, like… saying he was glad to have endured pain so that someone else didn't have to."
"…you, you really mean that…?" Yakata said.
Karin nodded. "I really do."
Yakata's face flushed as he smiled again, with more strength. "I'm… I'm really glad…"
"What are you glad about, Yakata-kun?" Maiya said.
"Hearing about, about Itachi from someone else that knew him… Since, since Sasuke-san only…" Yakata's face fell. "He, he only seemed to talk about the good things he did… Not telling me the, the truth…"
"Well, nobody's entirely good or evil, I think…" Karin said, carefully. "Sasuke… had a difficult relationship with his brother, for sure, but all the same they really cared for each other in their own way. So… the good things you heard about him were probably the truth, okay."
"And, and the bad things…?" Yakata said.
"…well, those too…" Karin said.
"But… but I don't have to, have to worry about those as much, b-because I didn't… really do them, did I…"
Maiya cracked a wide smile. "That's right, Yakata-kun. Exactly right."
Yakata buried his face in his bear, bashfully, but there was a smile in his eyes.
"Yakata-kun… I have to ask, did Sasuke tell you that you were… related to Itachi?" Karin continued.
He lifted his head slightly. "Well… well, Sasuke-san, he… he told me that Itachi was my father, at first, and… and that made sense. But… but then his son, Takeru-san… He was the one that told me who, who, who I was…"
"Sasuke's son Takeru?" Maiya got out a notebook from her pocket, and a purple pen.
Yakata nodded. "He, he told me e-everything before he…" He shivered, his breathing increasing a little. "He, he said that everyone knew who I… who I was, that, that they blamed me for the things Itachi d-did, and…" He buried his face in the bear again.
"Would you like me to talk to this Takeru about this, Yakata-kun?" Maiya said, after jotting something down.
Yakata didn't say anything.
"Yakata-kun, is something the matter?"
"…O-Orochimaru, he… he killed him, and, and I saw every moment of it… There was, there was, there was so much blood…"
The silence around the table was heavy and cold.
"…I, I heard the things he said, as, as it happened…" Yakata continued to talk, in the same hushed stammer, as he smoothed over his breathing. "It… it almost sounded like, like he killed Takeru for, for revenge… For, for me… Because… because Takeru-san, he… he told me about who I was and then, and then… I think he, he did it because he was… he was jealous, or, or angry at me, so…"
"I'm sorry, Yakata-kun," Karin said, because there was nothing else she could say.
"…you, you don't need to apologize, Karin-san, it, it's okay…" Yakata said again.
"…but as you grew up, you… didn't know where you came from, did you?" Ooda said, following up like a refrain to a chorus.
"Well, I, I just… I just knew that someone left me with, with my parents—that I was a foundling o-or something…" Yakata replied. "All of this… Itachi stuff, it, it didn't happen until, until very recently…"
Ooda exhaled, almost laughing. "I have to… envy you, then," he said.
"Wh-why's that…?"
"Well… you saw what I look like…" Ooda said. "And… beyond that, my mom used to know Orochimaru—that's maybe one of the reasons why he left me with her when I was a baby. So I always… knew who I was. Who Orochimaru was to me. And… well, you had a whole childhood where you never had to compare yourself to someone else, constantly… afraid that something you said or did was too much like someone you hated but were identical to…"
Maiya watched all of this with wide, wide eyes, scribbles rushing across her paper.
But Yakata, of all things, shook his head. "I don't… I don't think I had it a-any easier, Ooda-san…" he said. "I always… I always knew I was different… I was smarter than other people… Even my, my, my teacher at school would, would… would yell at me if I… if I knew an answer too, too quickly, or corrected them… They, they even call me 'witch-boy' back at home b-because I just… I know things that, that other people don't, and that… I think that, that scares people…"
(Ooda and Karin did not know these stories like Suigetsu did.)
"So… so when Sasuke-san told me about how, how smart Itachi was, that, that he was a genius… It was almost a relief, really, that… that maybe there was a reason for, for me being so… odd. F-Finding out I, I was a copy of him was… was only a little different. I was… I ended up more scared that I… that I would get c-corrupted like he did, and hurt people, but… but maybe that was just, just because of how Takeru-san put things…"
Perhaps it was personal discomfort or the silences that continued to settle after he spoke, but Yakata snapped out of his reverie and waved his hands in pardon.
"I, I, I don't mean to, to, to say that I, that I had it worse than you, Ooda-san…! I just… I don't think you should, you should e-envy me just because I, because I didn't know the whole truth when I was little…" His bear fell forward and against the table's edge, as he wasn't holding onto it fully, and he scooped it back towards his chest sheepishly.
"…it's all right, I understand," Ooda said, after some thought. "It was foolish of me to presume that… just because you didn't know, or you don't look strange that you would have an easier time…"
"I, I think that… that being different in any way is, is, is kinda tough…" Yakata's eye contact was strengthening noticeably.
"I definitely have to agree," Ooda replied.
Yakata thought for a while more, his lips tightly pressed together. "Um… Karin-san, is it, is it okay if, if, if I ask you a question…?"
"Oh, of course," Karin replied, her face drawing in surprise.
"Ooda-san, he, he said he was… he was left with you by Orochimaru when, when he was a baby…" Yakata said. "And, and Orochimaru made him, right…? Or, or this, um, Kabuto person he mentioned…"
"None of us are really sure, little one," Karin said.
(She had to struggle very consciously to not react to the slip in familiarity.)
"…then, then whoever made Ooda-san… did, did they make me, too…?"
Karin looked at the ceiling, breathing through her nose, debating.
"There… might be tests we can try, but even then we can't be sure, okay…" she finally replied. "There are a lot of things even I don't know… Who exactly made my Ooda, or why, or how, and that all applies to you… Why do you want to know, Yakata-kun?"
"Well, I…" He lowered his head, shyly. "I was just… it, it occurred to me that, that if we, we were made by the same p-person, then… then Ooda-san would, would be something like my, my older brother, wouldn't he…?"
Ooda made a sound that might have been a laugh, or a sneeze. "Your older brother!"
"I, I, I mean, I, we, well, we have different families, but… it was just a thought, I'm sorry, it was s-stupid of me to mention…" Yakata buried his face.
"Does it… make you feel better if you imagine us as… being brothers?" Ooda said.
"No, I, I, I'm just, I'm just being stupid…" Yakata replied, his voice thoroughly muffled.
"Well… you can call me 'older brother' any time you want; I don't… think it's stupid…" Ooda said. He laughed. "I think it's kind of charming, actually. A… a very optimistic way of looking at… our 'situation' or whatever it is."
"Ooda!" Karin dug into him, her mouth covered again.
This got Yakata to expose his face again. "Well… a-all right, if, if that's what you think… But, but I won't do it, it's, it's just too silly…"
"I understand," Ooda said, warmly.
They stared at each other from across the table, neither gaze wavering, even though one was hidden behind a sheet and the other behind a bear.
"Well, Yakata-kun, do you have anything more you want to ask Ooda-kun?" Maiya said, continuing to smile, pleased. "It doesn't even have to be serious. I bet you're just dying to know what Ooda-kun's favorite food is."
"Maiya-sensei…!" Yakata replied, his face turning pink. "I don't… I don't want to ask silly questions…"
"May I ask a question?" Ooda said.
"Go for it!" Maiya replied.
"Why don't you tell me the sorts of things you like, Yakata-kun?" Ooda said.
"Things, things I like…?"
Ooda nodded. "Whenever I… feel really scared, or frustrated with myself, especially if it's about Orochimaru… I just think about all of the things that make me who I am, and… well, it sort of helps me get a hold of myself, and I don't feel so scared any more."
"Things that, that make you who you are…" Yakata repeated, softly.
"Yes, exactly. Like… I am me, I will always be me, nobody else will be me, even though I might look like somebody else. All of that is inside. And… things I like are a part of me that's easy to think of, even if I'm really worried." He paused. "Does that… make sense?"
"I, I think I get it…!" Yakata's voice almost danced. "That, that really helps you…?"
"A whole lot," Ooda replied.
"Well… well, what do you like, Ooda-san?" Yakata said. "So, so I know exactly what you mean…"
"Oh, me…? Well… I like to cook, and read, and I love watching plays and movies…"
"You, you like to read?" Yakata's eyes were as bright as black could be. "What, what books do you like…?"
"Well… I like reading books about nature and science, I suppose, but I really like, um…" Ooda began fiddling with his hands.
"What, what is it…?"
"…well, my favorite things to read are romance novels and comics, but since those are supposed to be for girls I don't really talk about them…"
(And beyond that, their excessive femininity made him feel too close to Orochimaru.)
This, however, made Yakata laugh, and his laughter was short and sweet and utterly his—hardly the cold, ice-cube giggles that had fallen out of his mouth in days previous. "That's, that's okay though…! I, I like reading l-literally everything, even, even fairy tales for, for babies and, and love stories…!"
"You really like reading?" Ooda said, and Yakata nodded enthusiastically. "What else do you like to do?"
"Well… I don't, I don't really like sports, or, or things like that, but I… I really love looking at flowers…"
"Flowers, is it?" Ooda said.
"Y-yeah, and, and other plants… Nadeshiko-san actually, actually taught me how to make arrangements while, while I was here…! And, and she taught me all their meanings, and, and, and all sorts of other things…"
"Nadeshiko, that… girl outside the room?" Karin couldn't help but interject.
"Yes, she… she's my friend." Yakata's smile and the proud, precious tone of his voice could have easily spoken volumes.
Still, Karin asked, "Is she a nice person?"
"O-Oh yes…! She's… she's very quiet, and, and, she's not very good at, at talking to people, but, but she's such a kind person…"
"That's… a comfort to know, okay," Karin said, and she found herself smirking. "She had me a little worried when I saw how she, uh… looked."
"Oh, do you mean her, her hair…?" Yakata continued despite the fact that Karin hadn't confirmed or denied. "It, it got cut when she was fighting for Sasuke-san's sake, and, and to rescue me…" His expression fell slightly. "I was, I was really ashamed b-because I didn't want her to get hurt, but, but all I could do to help her was to g-get a few words out…"
"You mean… you managed to speak, even when Orochimaru was in control of your body?" Karin said.
"I, I should have, should have been able to, to do more, but I was… I was too scared…" Yakata replied.
"It sounds impressive to me, at least," Karin replied. "I know about the technique that Orochimaru used for… what he did to you, okay. Not just anyone could break it, even a little."
Yakata blushed again. "A-At any rate, Nadeshiko-san, she, she usually has this really pretty long hair…"
"It sounds like she means a lot to you," Ooda said warmly.
"Y-Yeah! She's, she's my friend a-after all…" Yakata replied.
Ooda laughed, albeit awkwardly. "She almost scared me too much to go in and talk to you, actually…"
"She, she scared you…?" Yakata was almost laughing as well.
"Well, her hair in her face, she almost looked like a ghost… And you said yourself that she's bad at talking to people, so… Knowing that she's really a good person underneath all that, well, it's like finding out that the monster in your closet is just a sweater…"
Another, quiet air of revelation seemed to fall over Yakata as he heard this, and his focus on Ooda seemed to waver slightly. "Um… Ooda-san…?"
"Yes?"
"…c-can you, can you take that, that sheet off your face again…? I, I promise I won't, I won't f-freak out like I did last time…"
"…are you sure…?" Ooda said, quietly.
"Yes, p-please, can you…?"
Karin held onto one of Ooda's hands as he hesitantly began to uncover himself, until his entire face was exposed.
And Yakata shivered a little, holding his bear, but the tension in his face and body seemed to be more out of determination than fear.
"…o-okay, I think, I think I got it," he finally said.
"What did you 'get,' Yakata-kun?" Maiya asked.
"That, that's Ooda-san," he replied, gesturing with his head across the table. "That's, that's his face, and, and he's not anyone else." He smiled widely, though insecurely, in conclusion. "I, I just thought that, if, if we're going to be talking about… about the things that make us who we are… it wouldn't be fair if, if Ooda-san was all covered up like, like he was a-ashamed of himself or, or something, just because of me…"
"Yakata-kun…" Ooda's voice and face went soft.
"Is, is that all right…?" Yakata said.
Ooda smiled, and nodded. "Yes. It's fine. I'm glad I can talk to you truly face-to-face now."
"It, it's much better," Yakata replied. "S-So, Ooda-san… do, do you have any really good friends…?"
"Ah, yes, I do: my friend Ryusuke, from back home. He's… probably my best friend," Ooda replied.
"Wh-what's he like?" Yakata said, settling into a more comfortable lean forward against the table.
And Ooda told him.
Over the rest of the hour, they talked about Ryusuke, and the theater, and other stories, and—to Maiya's amusement—yes, favorite foods. But she gently informed them that the session was over at 3:00, though she waited until their topic at the time had been exhausted, going a few minutes over as a result.
"This doesn't have to be the end, though!" she reminded them, cheerfully. "Karin-san, my offer for you to join us in family therapy still stands."
"I'll go as long as I'm here in Konoha, okay," Karin replied, smiling, "I'd love to talk to your parents, Yakata-kun."
"And Ooda-kun is welcome at our individual sessions, Yakata-kun," Maiya continued. "If you would like to talk to him more."
"Oh, I'd, I'd love that…!" Yakata replied. "Though… do, do I have to always talk about s-serious stuff with him…?" he added, quieter. "Like, about Itachi… I, I mean…"
"Well, the purpose of our time here is to help you recover, Yakata-kun… But that doesn't mean you and Ooda-kun have to always stay on topic," Maiya said.
"I'd be glad to talk with you anytime, Yakata-kun. Not just in therapy," Ooda said. "I can give you my address or my phone number so you can write to me or call me when I have to go home."
"You, you really mean it…!" Yakata said. "Well… well, maybe you should… you should wait until I, I have a home and, and a phone outside of the hospital…"
"You don't have a home…?" Karin said.
Yakata shook his head, shrugging at the same time. "My, my mama and papa told me that, that we, we can't go back to Tamina, so we… we're staying at, at the hospital for now…" he replied. "N-Naruto-san said he, he's going to try and help us, but…"
"I see..." Karin nodded a few times. "Well, I hope you can go home very soon, Yakata-kun, okay."
"And you can still visit me while I'm here at the hospital, Yakata-kun," Ooda added.
"Ah, I, I forgot about that… Yes, I'd, I'd like that a lot…!"
Ooda gave Yakata his family's hospital room number after writing it down on Maiya's notepad, so Yakata could call him over whenever he wanted, between therapy sessions. "It's a little crowded over there, so it's probably best if I'm the one that comes over to you for now, instead of the other way around," he explained. "Both of my little brothers are staying with us right now, so…"
"You, you have little brothers…!" Yakata said.
"Maybe you can meet them sometime," Ooda said, though passing a glance to his mother, an invisible request for approval.
"I'm fine with that, okay," Karin added.
"Oh, I, I can't wait…!" Yakata replied, holding the paper with the number on it reverently. "Thank you!"
They managed to finally say goodbye, and Ooda left the room with his mother, not bothering to cover up his face.
"And that," Maiya said, seeing them off, "is what I call a successful session."
"I think it went wonderfully," Ooda said.
"See, I told you that you would help," Maiya said, and grinned. "I'll come by later to talk to you about family therapy, Karin-san. But I have to finish up with Yakata-kun here. Can you make it back to your room all right?"
"Yes, we'll be fine. You and I can talk later, okay," Karin said, nodding, and they began to leave.
Nadeshiko stared at them as they passed, her surly expression exchanged for something of an intrigued one. Ooda nodded at her in recognition, smiling a little, which only added a confused air to her face. He saw her walk into Yakata's room as they rounded the corner and began on their way back to their own room.
Suigetsu greeted them back to the room with a nervous air. "Hey, hey, how'd it go?" he asked them, stepping away from Osato's bassinet.
"It went wonderfully," Karin said, utterly genuine.
"Yeah? No slip-ups? How was Yakata?"
"He was terrified at first, but he loosened up after a while, and I think he really made a lot of headway with Ooda, okay," Karin replied. "Yakata seems to really want to be friends with him."
"No kidding."
Ooda had taken off his blanket completely and was folding it to put it back on the bed, wanting to think things over as quietly as possible before anyone asked him anything.
"I'll tell you all about it later, but I have to go talk to Sakura for a bit, okay?" Karin said.
"Sakura? What you gotta talk to her for?" Suigetsu said.
"Just confirming some things. I won't take long," Karin replied, and left the room.
Suigetsu looked between the door and Ooda, a typical half-perplexed-half-grumpy look on his face. "Seriously, though, did it go well?" he asked Ooda, after a while.
"Yes," Ooda replied, smiling with his heart and his mouth, "it did."