Bellicism Arc: Poison

Orochimaru explained the procedure to Yuina before administering the first dose. Once given the poison, she wasn't allowed to mess around in the lab. She strictly had to hang around to determine if she would experience any major side effects. The dose had been carefully measured by Orochimaru, which Yuina looked over, to be catered to her age and size.

Thankfully, she had the foresight of bringing a book. Yuina was halfway through when she decided that mithridatism wasn't as frightening as it sounded. She compared it to a vaccine. Everything was perfectly fine. She read another twenty pages before she shivered. It was suddenly cold. She continued reading, but eventually the words she read blurred. Letters doubled, tripped, and even quadrupled.

She took it back. Yuina knew it took a while for substances to take effect, but when nothing immediately happened, she thought she was in the clear.

"Orochimaru-sensei, I'm not feeling so well." Her speech was slower than usual and her voice slurred the last word.

He looked over. "What symptoms?"

"Cold chills, blurred vision, and increasingly nauseous."

"Tell me if it gets worse."

She knew this was what was discussed and agreed upon, but Yuina's opinion changed quickly as she experienced the effects. It made her feel small and needy, yet she was supposed to push through unless she was put in a critical state. Her body needed to be exposed for an extended period.

There wasn't a clock, but she could still hear ticking as time went on by painfully slow. Her head throbbed to the rhythm. She wanted to be happy when she was finally administered the antidote, but wasn't. She was drained of all her energy. Her head still throbbed. Her body still fought to recover.

"You'll manage on your own?" Orochimaru passed her a box. Yuina slid the top horizontally a little to reveal the bottles of poison and antidote that she would need for the coming weeks.

Yuina told him she would be fine. She was going to be sitting around hoping her body would build resistance. Even if it sucked, there wasn't a reason to believe it would be worse than the first time. There also wasn't much involved aside from monitoring herself, so she wouldn't die. There was no point in someone standing around waiting on her, however, she could more clearly see the benefit of someone acting as a nurse and checking in time-to-time. "Tou-chan's home. We'll make it work." Unless he went on another mission, he wouldn't go far if she was unwell.

"Tou-chan?" Orochimaru repeated back to her with his eyebrows raised.

What was wrong with that? Her eyes widen as she coughed. The poison clearly was still wearing off if her tongue slipped.

"I didn't know you spoke that way."

Yuina's cheeks flushed so hard that it hurt. "Otou-san is home. Otou-san."

"Are you going back to hiding it now?" Orochimaru's teasing amused him, but it made her want to punch him in the face so she could wipe that smug expression away.

She didn't have to listen to this. She doubted he would forget, but she could pretend he would by walking away. "I'm going home." She stood up and a second wave of nausea washed over her.

Orochimaru caught her and the supplies. "I'll take you back."

Yuina felt like a sack of potatoes as he carried her. She'd been doing well at keeping her home life and outside life separate, but all it took was some poison to unwind her. She wasn't going to live it down. She hoped Orochimaru wouldn't start treating her more like a child after this.

"Sakumo, I leave her in your care."

Was she home already? That was too fast.

"Tou-chan." With Orochimaru gone, she cried into Sakumo's embrace. She still felt tilted, but was brought comfort as Sakumo soothingly stroked the back of her head. The rhythm was soothing, and it gave her a sensation to focus on away from the pain.

Sakumo would come to learn over the next several days how needy and clingy Yuina was when she didn't fee well. She would come find him and beg for cuddles. She turned extremely picky with what she consumed, but would cry the moment he tried to leave to fulfill her requests. She craved continuous comfort. He didn't mind at first, and he would continue to do so, but it made it difficult to do anything else.

Yuina noticed the symptoms were lessening, which was a great sign. It felt glorious. Like she was on top of the world. Her adrenaline buzzed. If that was all it took, then she would try to build resistance to more poisons.

In hindsight, she questioned whether all the poison vials were truly poison. She was no longer nauseous and was full of energy. She hadn't felt that good in a long while. Bye-bye stress. Hello freedom! It was as if her days of pain had never occurred, nearly erased from her memories.

Yuina was looking around the house for Sakumo to tell him when she heard a voice she longed missed. Kakashi. Her heart skipped a beat in elated delight as she followed his voice.

"I passed."

"Congratulations—"

"Kashi-chan, you're back. I missed you so much." Yuina didn't slow down and continued to run into Kakashi with open arms, which she wrapped around him tightly.

"Let go." He was trying to escape. Why was he trying to escape? Yuina looked at Kakashi's face for answers, but he wasn't looking at her. He looked off to the side. She quickly looked the other way. It was Minato. Minato was there. She hadn't wanted him to see her act that way, but it was such a fabulous day she didn't care. So what if Minato looked amused? It was their house. Wait, why didn't it bother her that Minato was in their house?

"But you've been gone for so long—" She puked over his shoulder.

"You're crazy." Kakashi broke free only to step into the mess she just made. If he hadn't been dealing with Pakkun's messes this past year, then it would have been worse, but he still wasn't happy about it. How could he be? He passed and was sharing the news when he was assaulted with embarrassment and a horrid smell which now stuck to his sandal. "I hate you."

Minato stood uncomfortably. It was amusing at first as Kakashi squirmed to flee, but the situation quickly turned as he only understood the word 'Kashi-chan' out of Yuina's mouth before she vomited. Once Kakashi broke free, she vomited again, then dry heaved a few times before throwing up a third time. Sakumo gently rubbed circles on her back as she kneeled on the floor, using her hands and knees to support herself.

"Water," said Yuina.

"Is everything okay?" No, clearly it wasn't but Minato didn't know what to do or say.

"She wants water," answered Kakashi who admitted defeat to his celebration to grab water for his sick and delusional sister.

"She's dealing with some side-effects," Sakumo answered without going into too much detail. He was worn down by the whole thing.

"We were supposed to go out and celebrate." Kakashi thrusted the cup in front of her face. They hadn't had the chance to celebrate in Kiri, so Minato-sensei promised him they could when they returned. Now that was ruined by Yuina. He wanted her to get better, but he cursed she was sick that day of all days. To make it worse, she was acting weird and embarrassed him with Minato-sensei right there. Right when he believed he was finally overwriting Minato-sensei's poor opinion from when he fought with Pakkun over his doll.

Yuina took a sip of water, then took a long gulp. "We can still go." She felt a wave of queasiness. "Maybe not." She raised a hand while the other was brought to her stomach. "You go. I'll be fine alone."

"I don't mean to interrupt, but can you understand her?" Minato was worried she had became delusional.

"Mostly," said Kakashi.

"A little," answered Sakumo at the same time.

It perplexed Minato.

"She said to go celebrate without her." Kakashi crossed his arms. "Really. That's what she said," he defended when he assumed Minato didn't believe him.

Yuina shakily raised one hand and gave a thumbs up. Kakashi looked back at Minato with an 'I told you so' glower.

Minato's inquiry made her realize she had spoken English. If the vomit made it apparent, but her inability to distinguish languages was the icing on top. Continuous consumption of poison had blinded her own self-awareness. She couldn't focus on that though, not while she felt the burn down her esophagus and a horrendous taste lingered in her mouth.

She switched back to Japanese. "Sorry Kakashi. I promise to make it up to you." There wasn't anything she could do, but she felt like she screwed up.