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moorSummary:
The Wild. Long ago, the power that ruled the earth and everything on it created order and meaning, cycles to preserve balance and harmony. The checks and balances put in place ensured that power would never be used beyond equivalent advantage. Over time, the Wild produced Sources, entities through which the Wild could be channelled in times of need. During a battle to defend their Kingdom, the leader of the Uchiha summoned the Wild. In doing so, another channelled and became bound by the Wild to balance his power. This is their story.
Content Warning: A/B/O
Part One - The Senju and the Uchiha
Part Two - The Battle [first battle] | Part Three - The Battle [continued]
Part Four - The Secret [first secret] | Part Five - The Secret [continued] | Part Six - The Secret [continued] | Part Seven - The Secret [continued]
Part Eight - The Underground | Part Nine - The Underground [continued] | Part Ten - The Underground [continued] | Part Eleven - The Underground [continued] | Part Twelve - The Underground [continued] | Part Thirteen - The Underground [continued] | Part Fourteen - The Underground [continued]
The Underground [continued]
The next morning, Sakura woke at the gentle touch against her shoulder. It was early—at least an hour earlier than she normally would have woken, and no light entered her room from around the door or window blinds.
“Kakashi?” asked Sakura. “Is something wrong?”
“It’s Itachi,” said her visitor quietly. “Please forgive the intrusion.”
Sakura sat straight up in bed, chakra instinctively flowing to her fists so they glowed faintly green in the darkness.
Standing beside Sakura’s bed, Itachi tensed but did not move away. He watched the hints of confusion that passed through Sakura’s expression, most hidden in shadows.
“What’s—” she began, but Itachi interrupted gently.
Itachi lifted his hands in peace.
“Nothing is wrong. I delivered your gift and your message. He sent a gift for Yu,” said Itachi, his words a low murmur in the darkness.
As Itachi spoke, he withdrew the wrapped gift and set it on the edge of Sakura’s bed. The glow faded from Sakura’s hands and she reached for it, the paper rustling in the quiet room.
Neither spoke for a long moment, though Sakura knew Itachi was waiting for her patiently.
“Thank you,” she murmured. Then, as the rustling hushed, she added, “How was he?”
Itachi’s sigh was soft; but the fact that he let Sakura hear it spoke volumes.
“He misses you,” said Itachi gently.
Anger, shame, confusion, loneliness, longing, hurt. So many emotions wrapped around Sakura’s heart and squeezed at Itachi’s simple words. She swallowed over the lump in her throat. Touching the paper, smelling his scent, feeling the traces of his chakra, even mingled as it was with Itachi’s, stirred Sakura. She needed… She struggled to name what she needed. She didn’t know what, but she knew she needed.
“Was there a message?” she asked, curious, braced, hopeful.
“No,” said Itachi after a slight hesitation.
He held something back, she could hear it in the slight inflection of his voice.
“Are you sure?” she asked, pushing for something she wasn’t sure she was ready for. Something she yearned for and clung to and couldn’t name yet.
“Ah,” said Itachi. He turned to leave.
“Itachi?”
“Hn?”
The words stuck in Sakura’s throat. She swallowed audibly.
“Does he know that I don’t… remember?”
Halfway to the door, Itachi stilled. He looked over his shoulder at Sakura as she sat up in bed, staring at the covers that pooled around her.
“Does he?” she asked, quietly desperate.
“I am not aware of the circumstances—”
“You think I’m a monster keeping him away from his son,” said Sakura evenly. “You try to keep your disgust out of your voice, and you do well, Itachi, but your eyes betray you every time you look at me. But he’s the only person who knows what happened. I only know… afterward.”
“Have you told him that?” asked Itachi.
The rustling of the covers beneath Sakura’s fingers filtered through the room.
Itachi turned back to the door.
The sound of Sakura’s hitched breathing had Itachi closing his eyes. His hand landed on the door to her room and he internally sighed.
He debated with himself before he admitted, very softly,
“It isn’t disgust.”
With that he left, closing the door behind him.
In the hallway Kakashi leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, head focused on the ground—until Itachi exited Sakura’s room, the door closing very quietly behind him. Itachi was not surprised to find Kakashi waiting for him outside Sakura’s door. Then Kakashi’s visible eye cut to Itachi’s.
It was a meeting Itachi had hoped to avoid by meeting Sakura before the others woke.
Awareness shivered between Itachi’s shoulder blades. The single look from Kakashi reminded Itachi that Kakashi had been one of the few assassins to work with the Royal Guard and that he had been the leader of their most elite team until he retired to the Underground with the Senju.
Neither man spoke for a moment as they sized each other up, though the tension was thick between them. Their duties, their responsibilities, their masters, and their allegiances made for an uncomfortably conflicting truce.
“Did you get lost in the dark? That room isn’t yours anymore,” remarked Kakashi.
“No,” said Itachi. “Sakura is fine.”
Kakashi straightened and turned away from Itachi.
“If there was any hint she wasn’t, you wouldn’t have made it out of her room alive,” said Kakashi over his shoulder. “You understand why I don’t trust an Uchiha sneaking out of Sakura’s room in the dark. Or did you forget what the last Uchiha did to Sakura when she was under your clan’s supposed protection?”
Itachi held his tongue and watched Kakashi enter Yu’s room. From inside, he heard Kakashi speaking softly to the baby who babbled back at him excitedly. It sounded like Yu was ready for his day.
Itachi glanced back at Sakura’s room, remembering what she had said.
He knew what needed to happen, but was unsure which of them would brave the gulf between them to take the first step.
***
At their supper table, Mikoto’s keen eyes did not miss the withdrawn bend of her sons’ heads. As she served herself more braised vegetables, she looked between Itachi and Sasuke. They joined her and Fugaku weekly for their Sunday evening meal, but this week they had been quieter than usual.
“Have the poisonings calmed down?” she asked, addressing Itachi.
“In the Uchiha territory, yes. The Senju still see the same number of patients,” said Itachi.
“It’s been calming in our territory for a while,” added Sasuke.
“How are our people treating Sakura?” asked Mikoto. She set her utensils down and reached for her wine.
“Much better,” said Sasuke, though grudgingly.
“And things at the castle?” asked Mikoto.
Sasuke and Itachi looked at each other.
“The castle medics are struggling. They’re the only ones falling behind in healing those poisoned,” admitted Itachi. “Though they have several Senju-trained medics there.”
“Sakura was upset when she found out,” said Sasuke. “She sent a message to Tsunade about it.”
“Has anyone else noticed?” asked Mikoto, swirling her wine idly.
“Uncle Izuna mentioned it in passing. He was wondering how we were fairing,” said Itachi. The ‘we’ to whom he referred was, of course, the Underground.
“What did you tell him?” asked Mikoto.
“That the healers outside the castle saw their share of victims,” answered Itachi.
Mikoto tilted her head, observing her eldest son.
“He didn’t ask how our patients were doing?” she inquired.
Sasuke looked away, down at the table.
“What else?” asked Mikoto.
“I said that the castle needed better medics if they couldn’t do what the Underground could,” said Sasuke after a moment of hesitation.
Itachi’s expression gave nothing away, but Mikoto could sense the disappointment radiating out of Itachi regarding Sasuke’s off-hand comment.
“Then what?” asked Mikoto in the same lovely, cultured tone.
“He asked who we were sending our sick to,” said Itachi quietly.
Mikoto’s eyes sharpened as she looked at her youngest son.
“You fool,” she said evenly.
Under the weight of his mother’s stare, Sasuke’s shoulders rounded and he flinched.
“Itachi?” presseded Mikoto, her eyes never leaving Sasuke.
“I let him know we were fortunate and had acquired the services of a Senju medic to support our own healers and train them,” answered Itachi. “I also advised him that it was temporary, and to not share the information with the rest of the castle, to protect that individual from possible future repercussions. Senju and Uchiha may not always see eye to eye, and there are always some who may go that bit out of their way to ‘settle’ an old grudge. We do not want anything of that nature to affect the medic under our protection.”
“It doesn’t make the castle medics look good when they’re the only ones unable to treat the victims, though,” said Sasuke. “Us having a Senju medic, when the castle has several, and us doing better than the castle, puts a target on us anyway.”
Mikoto’s exhale was audible.
“Itachi,” said Mikoto a full two breaths later.
“Hn.”
“If any of our little birds in the castle fall ill, advise them that they are to hide it and to contact you immediately,” said Mikoto. “Then get them to Sakura.”
“Won’t that make it more obvious if our people are the only ones not getting sick?” asked Sasuke. “Then won’t that draw suspicion on us as the poisoners?”
“We have nothing to gain,” said Mikoto easily. “And Tsunade and Madara know that. I won’t have our people suffering needlessly.”
“And Uncle Izuna? Uncle Madara?” asked Itachi. “If either of them falls ill?”
Should they direct them to the castle medics, or to Sakura?
Would they risk exposing Sakura then?
The last time, they had called Tsunade personally and she had brought Sakura…
Her brothers presented a more unique challenge. Mikoto considered the possibilities and options, and how much they could risk with assisting them.
“We could remove Uncle Izuna from the castle without anyone noticing for a while, but it is unlikely we could do the same for Uncle Madara,” said Itachi. “It would draw attention if he were to vanish for longer than an hour or so.”
“He would need to be treated in the castle,” agreed Mikoto reluctantly.
“So, castle medics?” asked Sasuke. He sat taller again, but his tone was unconvinced.
“We’ll see how bad it is,” decided Mikoto finally.
“So we’re trusting Uncle Madara to be forthcoming with this information?” asked Sasuke, his eyes narrowing.
Mikoto mentally groaned. Sasuke had a very good point.
“If the castle medics get involved with Uncle Madara, it will become much more difficult for us to interfere and bring in Sakura, if necessary,” said Itachi.
Sasuke nodded and Mikoto silently agreed.
Looking at her eldest son, Mikoto parsed through her options again. Sensing the direction of his mother’s thoughts, Itachi returned the look.
“I can’t be in two places at once,” he said.
“I know,” said Mikoto. She had placed Itachi at Sakura’s side for good reason. Pulling him from his position would draw attention and trying to find a substitute that could ingratiate him or herself would be difficult. But they needed a better spy at the castle to mind Madara, as well as someone they trusted to be with Sakura.
“We can’t tell Izuna not to take Madara to the castle medics,” said Mikoto slowly. “We can’t insinuate that the castle medics can’t be trusted. If we do, it may drive the poisoner to hide themselves further. However, speak to Izuna. Tell him that if he notices any signs of poisoning with Madara, he is to tell us immediately and conceal his symptoms. If possible, seclude Madara until a medic we trust is sent to him.”
Beside each other, Itachi and Sasuke looked at each other.
“So we’re going to ask for an Underground Senju medic to sneak into the castle?” asked Sasuke suspiciously.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Mikoto.
She looked at her eldest son again, and they spoke without words.
If Madara fell ill from poison again, they would drag Sakura, kicking and screaming if necessary, back to the castle to heal him.
Itachi nodded.
In the following days, a new plan formed in Mikoto’s mind. She sent an envoy to Tsunade to request a meeting.
TBC
