Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Captive Heart ❯ The Healing Process ( Chapter 3 )

A/N: Here's another chapter, sorry for the delay. I was dealing with some problems and updating stuff that really needed it. Hope you enjoy, this chapter is longer then the last one.

 

 

Captive Heart

 

By: Melissa Norvell

 

Chapter 3: The Healing Process

 

 

XI.

 

 

Kakashi found himself in a darkened room with the black clad man, upon standing in the middle of this room for a length of five minutes, the silver haired jounin sat down with a thud in the middle of the floor, clutching his still wounded stomach with a gloved hand while steadying himself with the other hand. At this point, the man was low on chakra and pain tolerance and trembled with the sensations that he felt. Kakashi winced, pain evident in his form. The blood didn't stop either, though the blood flow had slowed, it hadn't stopped and he felt as though he may die, even though the cold jaws of death didn't come.

 

Itachi stood with his back toward the jounin, upon hearing the thud of his body hitting the smooth wooden floor, dark eyes narrowed. The feeling of disgust still hadn't left him, though he had tried to shrug it off by concentrating on the purpose of this mission.

 

Perhaps this was his idiosyncrasy on Kakashi which was causing the rising feeling of detest for the Copy Nin. After all, up until this moment in time, the two hadn't seen eye to eye on any matters and Kakashi was always prime enemy number one. No doubt he would have to get used to this unexpected turn of events.

 

The first task at hand was to get Kakashi well again. It would be pointless to try and teach him anything in his wounded state. He would just complain about the pain, as he had already been doing, and truth be told, the whining was beginning to grind on Itachi's nerves.

 

A thick silence hung in the air as a lone eye looked up to the stoic boy, who stood in front of a window. The bright sunlight coming through the glass illuminated his form with a haunting glow. Kakashi stared for a few moments in silence.

 

Feeling the stare of the other male beginning to bore into his back, the boy turned to look over his shoulder at the seated jounin. He then turned all the way around to face Kakashi and slowly walked over to him a few steps. The clicking of his sandals could be heard throughout the seemingly hollow room.

 

Itachi kneeled in front of Kakashi, staring him down for a few minutes and silently degrading himself for helping the jounin. In the back of his mind, he had expected much more from the silver haired man. But there was something about his suffering…Something that stirred many complex emotions that he couldn't begin to describe.

 

He wanted to kill him but quelled the unmoving feeling with thoughts of manipulating Kakashi to torture him in way he had never done before. If Kakashi did find out what had been done, the damage would be too much and he would hate him all the more. It mattered not to Itachi what would become of it, because that was a far shot in a dark abyss.

 

Silently, the dark haired figure reached for the olive jacket, beginning to remove it from the silver haired man, but before he could slip it down his shoulder, Kakashi grabbed him by the wrist defensively. Dark eyes narrowed in warning at the weakened man.

 

Kakashi was leery. No one knew how long this amnesia would last and at this point, he could still recover at any point in time and regain his memory. The Uchiha had to be on guard at all times.

 

“What are you doing?” The Copy Nin asked in an unsure voice.

 

The jounin may have had amnesia, but he didn't want someone randomly undressing him, it seemed indecent and violating to him, especially in this state.

 

“Repairing your wounds.” Itachi stated simply.

 

The gloved hand released its grip around his wrist as it lowered itself and rested at his side again as the jounin sighed in defeat. He knew that he needed help, and didn't necessarily trust himself to perform that task not knowing his name, much less anything about treating his own wounds at the moment.

 

Silently, the Uchiha removed his garments and examined the wound, now that he could see the true extent of the damage. It was a deep wound and would require medical assistance. Since there wasn't a Medic Nin around to assess the situation, he had to make due with what knowledge he had on treating wounds. It wasn't like he wanted to do this job, but didn't complain. He knew it was futile to resort to forms of childish whining in a situation like this and did what he had to do.

 

His hand pushed the wounded man down, until he was lying flat on his back as the stoic boy began to get to work, tending to the wounds. Itachi worked silently, quickly and professionally while his patient stared idly at the ceiling with a contemplative look on his face.

 

After being pulled back up, Itachi swiftly placed wrappings around his stomach, snug enough to secure the wound, but loose enough for bending and mobility. Afterwards, he arose and looked to the silver haired man, who rested on the floor.

 

Kakashi had laid back down, a thick haze of sleep forcing his heavy eyelid to close and allowing him to drift off into a slumber. His chest rose and fell with each heavy, slowed breath.

 

It was odd to see him without his infamous mask. Itachi had never seen his true face until now and silently took the opportunity to look at it, before it was to be covered again by the dark fabric shroud. He took in every feature, contour and crevice as the only noise present in the room was the slowed breathing of the slumbering ninja.

 

 

I.

 

 

Naruto flopped down in the grass with a huff. Ever since their sensei had been on a mission, the demon child was impatiently waiting for his return. Team 7 had taken a rest, much to Naruto's detests and the boy was feeling restless. Blue eyes looked to the right of him, where he could see Sakura looking at herself in a small mirror she held as she sat under a rather large tree, brushing her hair.

 

“Hey Sakura.” The blond decided to speak up.

 

“What now, Naruto?” Sakura asked, paying no mind to him as she examined her hair within the reflective object.

 

“When do you think Kakashi-sensei is going to be back?”

 

Green orbs blinked a few times before looking to her team mate. “I don't know. He didn't mention anything about it being an upper class mission.”

 

“Don't you think it's weird that he isn't back yet? I mean, if Kakashi-sensei had an easy mission, it wouldn't take him 4 days to complete it, would it?”

 

“I wouldn't think so.” Sakura replied. “Unless it was far away. I think you might be worrying too much Naruto. I'm sure he's fine. He's probably on his way back, and we'll be back to normal missions in no time.”

 

`I hope so, Sakura…' The boy thought as he looked up towards the clouds, which were drifting slowly across the sky. `I just have a funny feeling about this…' A soft wind swept the ground, making the blades of grass dance to the rhythm of nature and ruffling the boy's clothes and hair a little.

 

He tried to shrug off the feeling and proceeded to ask Sakura more questions to force that thought to the back of his mind. After all, he didn't want to think anything bad about his sensei. “You think he'll teach us any new jutsus?”

 

“Probably.” She replied, putting the mirror back into a small leather bag. “He always has something to teach us.”

 

“I hope so. I can't wait to finally go on a real mission again. I feel like I'm wasting away just sitting here and doing nothing while he has all the fun.” He sighed.

 

“He's not having fun, he's working hard.” Sakura corrected. “The only time I've ever seen him looking like he enjoyed himself was when we took that stupid bell test the first time. I think he had fun playing with our minds.”

 

An unamused look crossed Naruto's face. “Ugh…Don't remind me.”

 

In the back of Sakura's mind, something tugged at her brainstem as well, but she couldn't put a finger on it. When all of the facts were analyzed correctly, it usually didn't take Kakashi this long to accomplish a mission. Then again, there could have been complications to this action, maybe the mission turned into a higher ranked mission like when they were assigned to protect Tazuna. She hoped that her sensei was alright.

 

She didn't have a choice in the matter, even if Kakashi did need their help. Sakura didn't know where he went or how far away they were from him.

 

All she could do was hope and wait, praying for his safe return.

 

 

I.

 

 

After a couple of days, the jounin was able to get his strength back and began to train, trying to unlock what had been taught to him before his amnesia. While his body was still wrapped in bandages, he was able to train enough not to worry about busting any stitches. He was alone at the moment, waiting for Itachi to come back from what ever “official business” the Uchiha had told him of earlier that morning.

 

Kakashi started out with simple exercises, though he had to take a break every now and then because his body grew weary. It didn't deter him from trying again in a few minutes. He just needed frequent resting periods.

 

During the training, when certain exercises took place a flash would go through his mind of some instant of past memory, but it was only fragmented enough to give him hints. When these instances took place, the jounin would freeze in mid-training, eye a bit widened and looking like he had been hit by a bus.

 

After the shock wore off, he would take it as a hint to how to trigger the jutsu or chakra flow he had been performing. However, some hints were wrong. When he had practiced using chakra to attempt walking up the wall of the room, he managed to get a few paces up the wall, before falling backwards with a thud.

 

Kakashi laid there for a few minutes, trying to regain the breath that was beaten from his body.

 

“That was a painful experience.” He said to no one but himself. “Seems I ran out of chakra.”

 

A lone eye stared into the abyss that was the ceiling of the room. It seemed perplexed and interested in something that was only exposed deep within the confines of his mind. These sudden flashes of his various attacks had come back, but not much else. It seemed that regaining his memory was still a task away.

 

He felt lost, like a calf that has strayed so far away from the herd that its cries could no longer be heard. True, Itachi found him and was caring for him, and it wasn't that he was ungrateful about it. But there were still many things that Kakashi wondered about, like the Sharingan Eye.

 

Who had given it to him?

 

And what happened to cause the course of events in which he obtained it?

 

His mind wondered into a labyrinth and he couldn't find any leads on a way out. His conundrum was building as he lay there, and he had attempted to shake it off to resume training. He couldn't worry about those things now. He had to figure out how to do the simplest ninja tasks before he could think on a past that was clouded in mystery.

 

He groaned in pain as he slowly sat up, feeling the tug of the stitches as he did so. It was almost as if the stitches were ripping his flesh instead of pulling it together. The Copy Nin placed a hand on his stomach and felt a warm, wet sensation. His pupil shrank in recognition as he realized what had happened.

 

His stitches had busted.

 

Kakashi pulled up his black shirt and saw that a few of them had busted. Most likely from his fall. He arose, deciding to hunt down a needle and thread. When he found the objects, he began to stitch himself back up, repairing the broken stitches and finding more binding material to place around his stomach.

 

Once he was stitched up again, he decided to rest a few moments and try to gather himself. His body was trembling and he was surprised that he didn't fumble the stitching job. He was covered in a thin layer of sweat from the training, and loss of chakra.

 

Kakashi decided that he was done with his training for that day. There was nothing to do now except wait for Itachi's return.

 

 

 

TBC

 

 

A/N: There done! Now that I finally have a plot back I can concentrate on getting things down. I have a really good plot; I just need to find out how to get there. Well, hope this wasn't too long of a wait, be sure to review me and tell me what you think.