Upon the next day, by the time the sun had floated high above the forest's sky, Mitsuki woke up refreshed after long hours of sleep. Mitsuki rubbed her eye as she walked out from the shrine, greeted by sunlight.
"Morning.." said Mitsuki as she yawned lightly.
"Mitsuki-nee! Morning!" said Kina as he dashed towards Mitsuki and gave her a hug.
"Shouldn't it be afternoon?" Reishi teased playfully as the two exchanged greeting. "By the way, Mitsuki-san, the concoction should be ready tonight, I've tried a few methods and one seemed to be most promising. It's thanks to you that we have enough ingredients to experiment on," said Reishi with a tone of gratitude as he updated Mitsuki on the concoction's progress. Hearing Reishi's update, Mitsuki nodded with slight nervousness in her face. As she was not a pharmacist, she had to trust Reishi on this. But, knowing that Itachi himself had trusted his health upon the sibling since way before he met her put her more at ease.
"Mitsuki-nee, unfair, how did you get so much taller so fast?" said Kina as he looked up towards Mitsuki's face, noticing that he had to look further up compared to before.
"Eh, uh.." Mitsuki was not sure about how to answer Kina's innocent question.
"Ah, about that, Mitsuki-san," Reishi interrupted to Mitsuki's gratitude, "Itachi-san wanted me to tell you not to show yourself back in the village, or to 'that man', even tho I'm not sure why or who he meant."
"Got it," Mitsuki nodded as she answered, understanding Itachi's concern.
"Ah, also Kina, we are not supposed to talk about it also to anyone or even among ourselves, remember? So stop pestering Mitsuki-san about it!" said Reishi with his hands on his hips, reprimanding Kina for being overly inquisitive.
"Tch, got it," Kina said, pouting as he decided to drop the topic. Upon seeing Kina's cute pouty face, Mitsuki smiled guiltily. She understood Itachi's worry, as her sudden change might call for unnecessary attention and curiosity as well as becoming an invitation for rumor, and it would turn into a problem for both her and Itachi alike. Even so, she was not sure about how to hide it from the masked man forever, as he had always come and goes whenever and however he'd like. "I guess the fact that his focus is on Itachi-kun turns out to be a good thing for now.." Mitsuki thought.
"And then, where's Itachi-kun?" asked Mitsuki. Without turning his back as he continued in preparing and mixing the herbs, Reishi answered.
"He's training somewhere. He said he felt fine today."
"Is that so? I'm glad," a gentle smile spread on Mitsuki's face as she answered.
"Will you go join him, Mitsuki-nee?" asked Kina with expectation in his eyes. Thinking for a moment, Mitsuki decided on her answer.
"No, I can play with you, Kina, don't worry," Mitsuki patted Kina's head as she smiled gently towards him, causing Kina to run around with joy.
Normally, Mitsuki would have gone after Itachi and joined him in practice, however.. Truth was, she was not sure on how to break the news to him yet. Both about herself, as well as the impact her decision might have caused him. Being alone with him in a practice session would definitely not help with that fact, and she had a feeling that he would catch her off-guard with his questioning even if she continued to avoid the topic with him. Besides, it seemed like Kina was in the need of some company as well.
As Mitsuki and Kina sat upon an open field rarely travelled, the two of them laid down as they watched the cloud. Suddenly, seemingly after gathering his courage, Kina whispered.
"Mitsuki-nee.. I'm sorry for the trouble I caused the other day for you and Itachi nii-san," said Kina in a low voice, apologetically. Upon hearing the guilt and fear in Kina's voice, Mitsuki turned her head to meet Kina's gaze and gave him a reassuring smile.
"That was not your fault. You didn't ask to be tricked or kidnapped, Kina."
Hearing Mitsuki's response, Kina was unconvinced and frowned in worry that Mitsuki had only said that to console him. Noticing his expression, Mitsuki smiled wryly,
"Really. If a tiger caught a deer, do we blame the deer for being caught? What the tiger had done was not within the deer's control, wasn't it?"
Still unconvinced, Kina looked away with a frown in his face, guilt still apparent in his eyes.
"This boy is too hard on himself," thought Mitsuki, as she somehow recalled the similarity between Kina and herself in her mind. Deciding to turn Kina's weakness into motivation, like how Itachi had taught her, Mitsuki added,
"Well, it's true that if the deer could run faster, he could have escaped. Then, about you, how would you like to go from now on? I think it will be good if you somehow learn to defend yourself better, for your sake and Reishi's too." Mitsuki smiled as she rolled to her side and faced Kina.
Noticing Mitsuki's movement, Kina turned his head, sadness still apparent in his face.
"Un, I want to get stronger," he said, "That way I can protect myself, and my brother too.."
"Good boy," Mitsuki grinned as she heard Kina's response and gave his head a pat, "After all, both Itachi-kun and I won't be able to stay here forever as well," she added apologetically.
"I.. I know that. Reishi told me so as well," Kina pouted with frown on his forehead, prompting Mitsuki to give him another gentle pat.
"Itachi-san, Mitsuki-san, the concoction is ready," said Reishi as he brought out a fresh bottle of Itachi's special prescription eyedrop. Without hesitation, Itachi took it from Reishi's hand and prepared himself to use the medication, before Mitsuki quickly snatched the vial away from him.
"Oi, are you seriously just going to use it just like that? We haven't even said anything about the changes!" said Mitsuki with panic and annoyance in her voice as she quickly retreated away with Itachi's medicine on her grip. Hearing Mitsuki's panicked retort and seeing Reishi's bitter smile, Itachi tilted his head innocently.
"I trust Reishi for knowing what he does best. In the first place, you won't buy medicine from someone you can't trust, would you?" said Itachi briefly.
"W..well, that's true but…" said Mitsuki awkwardly as she closed her eyes, frowning upon Itachi's seemingly careless behavior. It was true what he said, as someone could easily give him a wrong medicine or even poison disguised as medicine.
"Besides, you had worked so hard on it along with Reishi, didn't you?" Itachi added calmly. Upon hearing Itachi's sincere words accompanied by the confidence in his voice, Mitsuki could feel her blood rushing to her face without knowing why. Quickly, Mitsuki covered her face with her unoccupied palm, flustered.
"Agh, darn it.. Understood, but at least wait for us to finish dinner first and let me and Reishi explain it in detail to you first, OK? We don't want to surprise you later.." said Mitsuki in panic, as she tried her best to cover her embarrassment up.
"Got it," Itachi replied calmly as he picked his meal up and ate without another word.
After dinner, Reishi and Kina had insisted that Itachi take one of their futon for him to use despite Itachi's effort in rejection. Meanwhile, Mitsuki had been mumbling to herself, seemingly preparing her speech as she pranced around the old shrine. As the siblings finished moving over one of their futon to the back shrine, Kina returned to the main shrine, leaving Reishi to attend to both Mitsuki and Itachi by himself.
"Mitsuki-san?" Reishi asked in worry as Mitsuki hadn't stopped herself from pacing around.
"Ah, oh.. yeah, I'm ready," Mitsuki answered, quickly turning her head towards Reishi and Itachi with serious look on her face. "Itachi-kun, can you please sit down?"
Hearing Mitsuki's request, Itachi tried his best to keep his face expressionless as he found the situation to be amusing. He felt as if he was about to have a medical consultation and the two were the doctors who were about to break him a bad news. As he sat down, Reishi took a seat beside him as well, followed by Mitsuki sitting in front of him.
"Uh.. ok where to start," Mitsuki stuttered with a serious look on his face. "Itachi-kun, you don't mind Reishi knowing about your condition right?"
"He knows about it," said Itachi, followed by Reishi's nod.
"Erm… it's not that.. but.." Mitsuki said as she rubbed her forehead, seemingly dizzied by the situation. "Oh well, OK.. I'll start with this.."
"Itachi-kun, 2 days ago, you almost died.." Mitsuki said with a serious tone in her voice while keeping her gaze away from both Reishi and Itachi in guilt.
"!?" Mitsuki's statement surprised both Itachi and Reishi alike.
"Sorry I can only say it now.. I'm not sure how to tell you about it," said Mitsuki apologetically.
"Then, if that's the case, how…" Reishi's speech was cut off by his own confusion. Meanwhile, Itachi seemed to be recalling something as he brought his hand closer to his face. Calmly, he stated,
"Now that you've said it, I had an impression that I saw a Goddess," ..and that he saw her caring for him with a worried look in her eyes. Knowing how ridiculous it would sound, Itachi swallowed back his words and ended his sentence with a simple, "Nah, It's nothing.." instead. Upon hearing Itachi's incomplete statement, Reishi tilted his head in confusion, while Mitsuki's face reddened in panic and embarrassment once more upon realizing what Itachi had likely saw. On top of that, the unnatural calmness in Itachi's voice gave her unsettling feelings. Before both of the boys noticed, Mitsuki quickly turned her back against them while quickly switching the topic.
"I managed to extend your life somehow, but.. it doesn't mean that you have completely recovered," Mitsuki added sadly. As she felt the heat in her face subside, Mitsuki turned her body once more to face Itachi and Reishi with intense look on her face.
"Anyway, you told me you still have some things to do, so you can't die yet. And.. Reishi told me the contraindication to your medicine," Mitsuki added. Hearing her words, Itachi recalled Reishi's warning about his coarse Kotaro ladened eyedrop. To be honest, he didn't mind the side effects, as long as it could help him survive even a little bit longer.
"So I was thinking.. If there's any other way to reduce the blood contamination and prevent early remission of your sickness, it would help in giving you the time that you might need," Mitsuki added.
Something had stricken Itachi as odd. It hadn't been long since the girl in front of him trembled in fear upon knowing his condition. Yet, the girl in front of him was overwhelmingly calm as she broke the news down to him. Somehow, it made him uneasy, along with the sudden change that happened to her and her lack of explanation. Shoving his thoughts away to the back of his head, Itachi nodded in understanding.
"Then, we decided to review the ingredients of your previous concoction and tried to do a workaround to reverse the effect that it had previously done to you," said Reishi, explaining.
"Actually, reverse is not the correct word to use.. After all, it's impossible to perfect a medicine that can counter the negative effect of coarse Kotaro as well as the damage the previous medicine had done to you in just a few days. So we decided to focus on only one of the aspect instead," Mitsuki quickly cut into Reishi's statement, worried that it might have unnecessarily gave Itachi a false expectation, or hope that she herself could never promise him.
"So far, we had tried our best to work on a solution as well as minimizing the side effect of this new medicine, but based on its property, even with lessened long term effect, the initial drawback will be a lot stronger, at least for the dose's first use," Reishi explained with a stern, nervous look on his face. They hadn't got a chance to test it on another shinobi due to the time constraint and ingredients limitation, but theoretically, it should work.
"Mmhmm.. It will be like a bad fever before recovery, or the itch as a wound heals," Mitsuki explained briefly. "In this concoction's case, due to the way that it had to be administered, we believe it will be.."
"Temprorary blindness, worse than you've experienced due to the previous version of Kotaro," Reishi added as he cut into Mitsuki's word.
Itachi showed no reaction upon hearing Mitsuki's and Reishi's word, confusing them.
"Why are you so calm!?" Mitsuki protested as Itachi had barely uttered any question or complaints. "It's blindness you know? And for someone who depends a lot on their visual technique like you, wouldn't that be akin to a nightmare?"
To be honest, it was nothing new for Itachi. Due to the previous Kotaro eyedrop's side effect, he had occasionally seen flashes of whites, blinding him momentarily as the side effect kicks in. Besides, the use of Mangekyou Sharingan itself had doomed him towards the path of losing his own light. Knowing that telling the truth wouldn't bring comfort to both Reishi and Mitsuki, Itachi answered with a question instead.
"How long are we talking about?"
"Possibly days.. However further visual problems should be alleviated, and hopefully it will help in clearing the contamination from previous doses as well even if only by a little bit," Mitsuki answered, before nervously adding.
"To be honest, I'm worried if another side effect will surface since this is untested. Besides that, we couldn't find a way to negate the effect that the medicine has on your lungs. Hopefully by reducing the blood contamination the internal irritation can be reduced as well, making it easier to deal with.."
"That's why we would be monitoring you until the major side effect subsides," Reishi added.
".. and to be honest, I wish to keep my eye on you even after that just in case there's any long term effects," Mitsuki added once more. Itachi smiled bitterly as he heard Mitsuki's word. To be honest, considering how closely she had monitored him already, he felt like it wouldn't be much of a change anyway. Upon finishing her sentence, both Mitsuki and Reishi fell silent as Itachi's attention shifted towards the sky. As October's full moon revealed itself from behind the cloud and casted its light through the back shrine's roof hole, Itachi was reminded of what he did 4 years prior on the same month under the light of the full moon.
There's no hesitation in his heart. With or without side effect, it wouldn't change what he needed to do. If he could push his lifespan longer, even for just 1 day, until it was time for him to hand his eye over to Sasuke as his parting gift, he'd do anything. Fuelled by the determination and grief within him, Itachi spoke,
"I'm fine with it," he said as he met Mitsuki's and Reishi's gaze with his own gaze of approval.
"Before that, Itachi-kun, I know you have another set of medication as well," said Mitsuki as she narrowed her eye and put her hands forward. "Are you not going to tell me about them?"
Itachi awkwardly stare at Mitsuki as she rested her other hand on her hips. Somehow he felt as if he was a child being scolded by his mother after being caught lying, red handed. Chuckling, he pulled out a box of medicine from within his robe's inner pocket.
As Itachi told Mitsuki about the details of his medicine and its schedule, Reishi smiled silently at the pair as he patted down Itachi's futon once more, preparing it for Itachi's use.
Author's note:
Actually I was conflicted when writing this, so I asked my friends for opinion xD I'm worried if I portrayed Itachi as too careless here, so I'm double checking what my friends think. They say it should be fine since he trust Reishi's skill and Mitsuki's brain enough, but to be honest I'm still worried. EVEN MITSUKI IS WORRIED. Do you guys notice how Mitsuki had developed a complex and self-doubt about her capability once more? She had pulled herself out of it for a while training under Itachi, but seeing him so close to death before she could even learn of anything to help him kinda hit her hard even if she tried her best not to show it :') ganbaree Mitsuki!