[open] So, flowers huh?

[willtowin]

She didn't know how well they'd work for medicine, but they lived close enough to where they grew on one wall that she felt she didn't need to worry about it. She got a laundry hamper full to examine and used if they proved as good as she'd heard.

Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it!

Comments

[itachi_san]

Itachi glanced up as he heard the door to his room open. He'd been sleeping, far more often than not, for the past several days.

He'd been quite a mess.

Whatever he'd come down with before (that Ino mostly treated and Kabuto had been treating until Itachi blatantly refused to let him continue with HOW he was treating it) was still attacking his immunocompromised body, in one way or another. He was actually pretty lucky it hadn't completely overwhelmed him to the point of liver or kidney failure.

But after days of fever, chills, dehydration from being unable to keep absolutely anything in him for very long, he was starting to come around again.

[willtowin]

Sasuke peered down at Itachi as the man's eyes opened, one hand lifting to cover them lightly as the other rested on his chest for a diagnostic. She had no desire to be set on fire thank you. "Itachi-san, it seems you're finally awake. So, tell me why you thought it was a good idea to halt the treatment of a deadly infection?"

[itachi_san]

Itachi groaned as he shook his head slightly, but Sakura's hand didn't move.

"... His treatment... was worse than the disease..." he muttered, cringing a little bit before continuing, "...Thought I was over it."

[willtowin]

"No. You hit the stage of 'I feel better but need to keep taking my medicine' and now you've made it even harder to get rid of. Congratulations. So no, the treatment wasn't worse than the disease, you just -thought- it was. He's an excellent medic. A bit of a sadist and self serving, definitely, and I'd love to stab him myself, but he knows what he's doing with you, and I don't mind working with him on you because he -has- improved your health."

Her hand on his chest did a careful slow pass, dealing with the disease as she could before withdrawing her chakra. Getting rid of all of it at once would be worse for him than a gradual removal.

[itachi_san]

Itachi almost spat at her, but he didn't. He had more tact than that. But he still fought to sit up. The defiance in his voice wasn't really directed at her, just the situation in general.

"He left me... paralyzed and delirious. Deprived of enough chakra to even see... yet alone defend myself..." he hissed. "That... was hardly medicine. I'm no stranger... to... to torture techniques. I did what I had to do."

[willtowin]

"No, you did what you wanted to do. He chose the wrong way, true, but he could have, and should have, left you unconscious if you were being difficult about treatment. You would have recovered faster." She moved her hand from his face to his shoulder and firmly laid him back down.

[itachi_san]

He fell back against the bed.

"Recover, just to be held against my will like a useless vegetable as Kabuto's doll?!" Itachi scoffed. "No. I did what I had to do... It just wasn't enough."

[willtowin]

"If you did what you -had- to do, you would have grit your teeth and borne out the treatment you -needed- like someone with -sense- instead of like a panicking, hospital-phobic shinobi!" She narrowed her eyes at him. "I've seen both, you're acting like the latter."

[itachi_san]

"I didn't need, and will never need, that." he insisted quite fervently. "All I ever needed was something just strong enough to get me through the next mission and keep me alive until..."

He suddenly stopped, letting out a very long breath. He clenched his eyes shut, pushing a great deal of emotion right back down where it belonged.

[willtowin]

"Until Sasuke could kill you? Well guess what, you don't stay dead!" She huffed a sharp breath and leaned down, listening to his breathing as she pressed her palm over his heart. "For all the good your death did anyway! All it seemed to do was get him set on destroying Konoha. Lucky us."

[itachi_san]

If it weren't for this village, Itachi would have had no earthly idea how a dead person could not stay dead. But that thought flew from his mind the instant Sakura kept talking.

No... Itachi thought to himself. That... that wasn't possible. Sasuke wouldn't. Sasuke couldn't. Sasuke was a hero. Sasuke was an avenger. Sasuke was... everything to him.

"You..." Itachi stammered. "You lie..."

[willtowin]

"I'm from the middle of a god damned -war-. Sasuke tried to -kill me- and ran through one of his most loyal followers for -getting in the way- when I was -right there-. He's changed since he killed you, and not for the better. So no, I don't lie. He hasn't actually come after Konoha, but there hasn't been time for him to try. Maybe he got some closure, because I don't doubt you were around with every other dead person I've ever known, even if I didn't see you, and he'll stay the hell away from my home instead of crushing it like he said he would."

[itachi_san]

The middle of a... no... He'd slaughtered the entire clan to prevent a world war. And Sasuke... No. He wouldn't kill his own teammates...

"No." he stated even more firmly, sitting straight up in bed despite her hands, sharingan blazing with more desperation than chakra. "That's... that's not possible! There's no war. And Sasuke would never... You LIE!!"

[willtowin]

She inwardly cursed and stared at his hairline. "I'm not lying. The war is... the shinobi alliance," she tilted her head to show him her changed hitai-ate, "against the Akatsuki. The only ones left are Obito and Madara now, against all the shinobi nations, but people have died, and it is a war. Obito declared it at the kage summit. So you dying is not the best for anyone, because it won't bring Sasuke home. If you're still in any way for Konoha, then you need to be -alive-."

[itachi_san]

Itachi couldn't believe what she was saying. He simply couldn't.

He spied on the Akatsuki for years! They weren't capable of starting a war. Not on that grand of a scale that all the other shinobi nations would have to band together! That would require the ten tails... There was no way that Naruto - the jinjuriki he spent his time secretly protecting - could have died! And Obito. Madara... they made a deal! The lives of the Uchiha clan for the safety of the village! The entire reason for that night... for everything he sacrificed. No... It didn't turn out like that. It couldn't have turned out like that... It couldn't have gone so very very wrong...

"No..." tears just fell down his cheeks and he couldn't do anything to stop them. "That's... not possible..."

[willtowin]

"I don't know what you did. I don't." She touched his forehead. "But... I know that none of this started until you died. So... don't die."

[itachi_san]

He just sat there, tears dripping from his face, sharingan burning, blankly staring at the curtains in front of him. He mouthed a lot of words. Only a few sounds actually came out.

"No... Please... no..."

[willtowin]

"....I have clearly mastered the art of traumatizing jounin recently and didn't even realize it." She stared at the ceiling for a moment, then sat on the edge of the bed. "Hey, Itachi? Itachi? Oi. Uchiha!"

[itachi_san]

He didn't answer her. He couldn't answer her... There was far too much to say and no way to say it. If this was true, then everything he'd ever done had been undone. There was war, not peace. There was death, not prosperity. Sasuke was a traitor, not a hero. It was all for nothing. All for... nothing!

[artistickatsu]

Deidara was walking slowly around, looking for a place to show off his art away from the house. And he needed to clear his mind after the talk with Itachi-san. He had developed a whole new respect for the male after their talk. It was strange. He needed to absorb the fact that he had died in the future. Or was going to die, as it seemed.

He then saw a glint of pink hair. Pink hair? That bitch! Deidara took a deep breath as he walked over to where the girl was. She seemed to be looking at some flowers that she had picked.

"Why did you kill Sasori-no-Danna?"

The blonde's voice was not angry. No, it sounded...hurt, with a tinge of sadness. He was also not coming at her aggressively. He did not want trouble, just an answer as to why the male he held so dear to him had to die. And why it had to be at her hand. He did not understand it.

[willtowin]

She jerked, inwardly cursing her inattention as she immediately fell into a defensive position. She relaxed a little, but considering that she'd only ever been on the other side of the battle field from this man? Yes. Well. Her reflexes were jittery. "Deidara. Well. He was trying to kill me."

[artistickatsu]

Deidara frowned. He knew that would be her reaction. His hands did not even move to his bag of clay. Instead, he just fixed her with his stare, not taking his eyes off her.

"You could've just knocked him out, un. You didn't have to kill him." His voice trailed off and he shifted from one foot to the other. "I don't want to fight you. I just wanted an answer."

He looked at the flowers then. He smiled a bit as he examined them, not getting too close.

[willtowin]

"How? Do you even know what kind of fight it was? He poisoned me once, during it. He poisoned Chiyo-sama as well. I didn't have enough antidote for us both. There was no knocking him out Deidara, he -wouldn't stay down-."

[artistickatsu]

Her words snapped him back to reality. He looked into her green eyes and nodded. "I understand," he said. "You had no choice. But it doesn't make it hurt any less, unn..." He then spoke honestly. "I don't blame you for it. I just needed an answer." With that, he turned around and began to walk away.

[willtowin]

"Considering what you've helped do, I can't say I feel entirely bad about that." Her words were low and soft. "But you're not as terrible as you always acted, so maybe that'll happen. Someday."