Chapter 28
Kankuro (two weeks later, approximate time: 7:00 AM)
"Where's Gaara at?" Kankuro asked. "He not worried about a repeat fight with Father?"
Temari gave her brother a look, knowing the boy was attempting a joke. "He's with Father."
Kankuro's back stiffened. "Eesh. So what're we doing?"
Of the pair, the elder was not quite as strong at covert information gathering, but much better at interpreting the information that was available. "It being combat training's a given," she mused. "Probably the short range type, now, though. The entire lecture he gave was about 'covering your flaws' essentially… It'd make sense."
The two exchanged glances, moving farther away to a remote training ground. Their father found many in them, flaws. It was bound to be a long day.
Katiya (approximate time: 7:00 PM)
They had all settled into an inn for the night, in an outpost just bordering Suna. With Guren using the inn amenities and Kabuto out scouting apparently for food, Katiya found herself alone with the bedrolls. In the privacy of isolation, she cracked open her phlebology and rheumatology reference texts and Itachi's bloodwork.
Some of Itachi's indicators for autoimmune disorders were up. Something was clearly inflamed, nothing she didn't already know from chakra scanning him. Iron amounts also came back slightly high—and then relatively oddly to Katiya, Itachi's hemoglobin and his hematocrit percentage after centrifuging were low.
The low hemoglobin is an indication for anemia... but the most common civilian anemia… iron deficiency anemia, doesn't match with Itachi's iron levels… Itachi isn't a civilian… but he's still a person… and anemia does match with the inflammation, especially if it was causing internal bleeding he's yet to become aware of...
She inhaled, steepling her fingers. You're thinking of this too much like a civilian doctor. She shut her eyes, remembering the sensation of her chakra-scan. The chakra that met hers was "bulky" as if strong but yet degrading. Like it was swollen. Inflamed... She focused on the sensation of the inflammation. It certainly felt as if Itachi's chakra was "bleeding" chakra extraneously in order to clear a pathway to his eyes, centering on the chest before traveling up the neck and to his head.
Katiya ran her eyes over the results again before pulling out the tests from her own most recent blood extraction. She knew from chakra-scanning him, that whatever it was, it couldn't be grounded in a physical cause. It also explained the high numbers of chemicals and data coming back normal for a shinobi.
Katiya blinked.
… Whatever it was, it had to have been the reason why her mom stayed with Orochimaru. That her mom had to have stayed to attempt to figure out how to cure it in her dad—and very likely herself. Katiya didn't have enough information from the notes she got from Kabuto or even from what she had gathered herself to know, but it had to be true. It had to be. It was the only thing that made sense.
And it meant the disease, if it was the same one, was treatable. The question was the cost.
Gaara (approximate time: 11:00 PM)
Gaara smashed into an underground cave wall with a growl. Shukaku stirred restlessly within him and clawed up his chest. Offering his power to attack back. Gaara allowed the sensation to wash over him, breathing the sensation in. Sand shifted along the surface of his skin.
He slowly turned to face his father. The entire cavern had been chosen specifically, his father told him. To be a purposely disadvantageous situation for Gaara. Freezing cold, the frost-covered clay walls offered him no additional weaponry. Weak and bogged down with water. The Lord Kazekage was apparently in the midst of educating his son about gauging the enemy's strength. About having discipline over his actions to line up with future strategies, training, it supposedly was.
But they knew better. They all knew it was all about control.
The One-Tail screamed inside of him and Gaara engulfed himself in a shield of his sand, intent on using what little he had at his disposal to get the "training" over as soon as possible. But the Lord Kazekage had other ideas and smacked his son with his gold dust once more. The gold dust, stronger and faster than what Gaara had available.
Faster than what would have been a demonic transformation.
Gaara reeled from having his jutsu to summon Shukaku's physical form forcefully stopped.
"Hhhhfffftttt…" Gaara breathed raggedly, his body smacked into the opposite cave wall.
"Again," his father commanded. "And do not even think about relying on that demon's power."
The unsaid "or I'll kill you" hung in the air.
Gaara pulled himself out of his crater. He moved to attack again.
Katiya (approximate time: 2:00 AM)
I want the current Kazekage gone... But what will I do once he's gone? I want to make my way back to Gaara—but is there still a place for me with him? Won't the first thing that happens if I return to Suna, regardless, be for the Suna Council to punish the people responsible for killing their Kazekage?
Wouldn't Gaara just hate me more? Do I really have a place with Gaara still?
Does it even matter—if he hates me now? she wondered, thinking back to Yashamaru's last message, and what she last saw of Gaara herself.
Katiya leaned back on her bedroll, taking a somewhat stunted rest from her analysis of Itachi's blood. In the end, she had settled on "hemolytic anemia" as a potential reason for both the high iron and the low hemoglobin—blood cells that used said hemoglobin… that used said iron were dying early—explaining the less hemoglobin and more iron laying around, along with the fatigue and weight loss. However in regard to the heart-lung issues, she only tentatively decided to tack on "vasculitis" (alternatively known as "arteritis" to us) as the reason for the inflammation she sensed and Itachi's apparent chest congestion.
Already bad for the civilian, even more dangerous for the shinobi. But Katiya was neither certain of the diagnosis nor certain she'd know how to treat either besides prescribing the average immunosuppressants civilians took for their own genetic diseases—as if it would fix a potentially chakra-related disease—without potentially killing herself.
She needed more testing unless she could find her mom's notes on the disease assuming it was the same one—or that she even had access to them.
You have to, Katiya mentally admonished, you picked up everything from the house—the lab—everything was already sealed into go-scrolls anyways. And no way in hell mom would be stupid enough to leave that stuff with Orochimaru.
So where were the notes on it? The blood test results she had taken when she was younger—she remembered them happening… Her fathers'? Katiya shut her eyes, trying to think, but her mind flicked between what she would do once back in Suna—how she'd deal with Gaara's father and what she actually wanted to think about in the moment. She breathed a sigh into the room's silence. She couldn't think, more than two things occupying her mind at once. And she knew she wasn't going to get much sleep.
She rolled to a stand.
…
Katiya walked outside to the verandah of the inn to sit down and watch the sky. She already sent off a crow bearing the results of the tests and a hair of her theories to Itachi, so that was done. Feeling the night wind blow past her, it was easy to pretend her stress was blowing away with it. More at ease, she returned to her previous train of thought regarding Itachi's illness in an attempt to fully realize its depth.
The cure that mom developed though, whatever it is, I don't think I can perform it. Even if I understand every hand sign, every chemical formula that was ever administered to me... Mom died to make sure my chakra network didn't degrade… that's why...
Katiya sucked in a breath and then slowly exhaled it.
Katiya looked up to the moon, trying to distract herself from the memory. The moon, waxing but not yet full. She closed her eyes, focusing on the wind blowing past her. It was almost peaceful, nostalgic. But after a moment, she heard the soft sound of an approximately fifty to sixty kilogram shinobi approaching discreetly and then pausing under an awning.
Kabuto, she guessed, hearing no move to attack.
Katiya opened her eyes, her previous thoughts tucked away. She didn't bother to turn to greet him. But after a moment of the two in silence, she realized Kabuto wasn't going to initiate conversation and was instead content… watching… something from where he was at the doorway.
So at last, Katiya spoke. "It's strange being back," she said, barely audibly.
There was another beat of silence. An extrovert would have used the sentence to jump into conversation. But neither of them were very extroverted. Katiya sighed before continuing, "But I suppose it's different, returning back to a place you loved but was… away from, not knowing if you'd ever be back or if the people who made you love it would still be there for you… and returning to the same place over and over again, knowing you'd still have to go there… again… just to burn it to the ground."
Kabuto still did not respond.
"I don't suppose there's anyone else? Waiting for you?" Katiya pressed, turning to him now.
There was an odd inscrutable look in Kabuto's eye.
I suppose every spymaster's a pain to talk to unless they initiate the conversation themselves, Katiya thought to herself before switching to spoken word. "You know about me and Gaara already… Not really fair of you, you know, to have all this information on me while I still know nothing of you… despite all this time we've worked together."
There was a pause. Kabuto bowed his head. "No, there aren't," he said softly after a time in response to her original question.
Katiya hummed acknowledgement of the response at the same volume, turning back to face the sky. "Shame. If not for that, we'd have been quite similar, I'd say. Experienced travelers, as we are… But I suppose you're lucky as well. It makes it a lot easier to hate and attack something when you see it as nothing worth your time," she said, referencing Oto's Suna-Konoha dynamic.
In her own experience, it was rare to travel anywhere without striking up a conversation at least once. She also knew that it was the little innocuous things like those that built relationships. Relationships, that even spy networks were built upon. The information passed along them, ultimately useless if the spies were disloyal and the information untrustworthy… All relationships built off of trust and loyalty in some capacity. Katiya knew.
And Kabuto had spent years in Konoha. But self-deception was nothing if not prevalent in Oto. She leaned back on her hands wordlessly. "Still, I can't help but feel that the planned attack on Konoha is doomed to fail—even with Suna's aid," Katiya continued, "Revenge missions tend to be pretty hard to justify among organizations, especially when not everyone in there's interested in revenge…"
"… It's not just revenge," Kabuto replied flatly.
"Oh?"
"We'd also be decimating their military, raiding their armories… and staking a claim onto Lord Orochimaru's most desired vessel. That potential vessel can then be used to further Lord Orochimaru's true goal and strengthen Oto's own military might… Not to mention satisfying the shinobi who want to attack Konoha for the chance of a promotion… or just for the rush of it."
Katiya hummed in acknowledgment once more. "Slightly more justifiable… But is that what you believe or just what you've been feeding to the infantry? All the same, you don't seem like the type to want to raid Konoha for giggles… and you are already Orochimaru's right hand."
Kabuto was silent for a beat. "… Both," he said, referring to his beliefs in Orochimaru's propaganda.
"Awfully hesitant response."
"… So why are you with us then?"
Katiya smiled thinly under her balaclava. Kabuto had deflected the question. Still, she answered him. "I think the better question is 'for how long?' I only intend to stay long enough to see the Kazekage die."
"… That sounds 'awfully' like revenge yourself. What were you just saying about it being hard to justify?"
"Well, it's not exactly like that… I've got a personal side to it. But I'm not dragging a whole 'village' down to execute it. Nor do I have the desire to wipe out an entire village with it. Orochimaru's the one doing that. I mean. Look at you—you have no real vendetta against Konoha. What're you doing here?"
"And what makes you so sure of that?" Kabuto asked, referring to Katiya's interpretation of a lack of vendetta against Konoha, still avoiding the question.
"We're healers, Kabuto," Katiya replied readily, "No shinobi medic has ever taken an oath to 'do no harm' but you and I are probably some of the few Oto medic-nin to actually try to do what medics are supposed to do… and heal. Attacking Konoha as a whole for so little a reason as petty revenge isn't exactly minimizing damage… It's still a huge risk with little return. You, on the other hand, seem to be fairly logical… And even your average dead civilian medic is likely rolling in their graves at the stupidity.
"I plan on leaving after the Kazekage's gone. I have plans in Suna… and that man's a danger l don't intend to leave laying around because of those plans… Oto was never a permanent thing for me. It's only a matter of time before it eats itself from the inside, making moves like these. And I don't intend to stick around long enough to see it."
Kabuto turned his head from Katiya. Although the former statements were rather baselessly speculative relative to Kabuto's own personality analysis, the latter of them were also enough for Kabuto to tell that Katiya was confident in her desire to leave.
"You spend a lot of time ferrying between Oto and Konoha, yet spend more time in Oto than Orochimaru himself... If it were up to you, do you think Oto would still follow the same path?"
Kabuto gave Katiya a look. "Careful," Kabuto warned her, thinking she was implying mutiny.
Katiya simply lifted a brow, though the expression was somewhat lost with her balaclava. "Orochimaru values you pretty highly. Didn't he consult you over the decision?"
Kabuto narrowed his eyes. He knew by that question, he had perhaps revealed too much about his own questionable loyalties. After a slight pause, he pushed himself off the doorframe, silent, seemingly ignoring her despite making eye contact just previously. "You have another three hours before we need to plan our next move. Try to get some rest," he finally said, quietly walking off in the direction of the local markets.
Katiya watched him leave, her face impassive.
Author's Note
Incoming technobabble.
Fandom forums say Itachi's dying of microscopic polyangiitis… But Itachi canonically dies of… (this is someone else's term) "advance-the-plot-itis"... so, in my mind, that just means I can have him die of anything that makes him cough blood and isn't contagious (otherwise the entire Akasuki would have it… *sideways glances).
… Microscopic polyangiitis is, really, a more specific version of vasculitis (which is also known as just "angiitis," or "arteritis")... so I'm going with the more vague thing here… for now. The hemolytic anemia I added in, with the increased iron floating in the blood, can weaken the heart. It's also a side effect of another type of vasculitis, "renal vasculitis"; microscopic polyangiitis being a form of renal vasculitis (vasculitis that affects the kidneys)... and a comorbidity of Takayasu arteritis, another form of vasculitis that's more prevalent in women, but targets the heart more.
"Thalassemia," a type of hemolytic anemia, is also more common in those of Asian, Southeast Asian, or African descent. Which Itachi (I assume) is the equivalent of... so me tossing in the hemolytic anemia is my way of adding in a bit more flair… to whatever not-named-assumed-singular thing he's supposed to be dying of.
(And for the sake of my writing, I'll just say Katiya thought of all that stuff and leave the technobabble out of the main body of the fiction)...
This fiction has him dying of a fictional chakra-disease… so it works for what he's actually dying from it to be a bit convoluted to the civilian medical view… and no one ever said real-life civilian medicine was simple… People need doctorates to be doctors for a reason... And besides, Katiya's still scrabbling around with whatever disease might be afflicting Itachi, so this is all... speculative. (Feel free to review, but don't kill me over fictional science.)
Additional disclaimer: not a doctor (... yet…)