It"s dark, the rain is pouring, and the streets are empty; it was all Orion could see as he dragged his feet along the damp road, painting the said road with crimson blood, and he doesn"t know why that"s the case. He couldn"t feel anything even though he could see himself shaking.He looked at his hands before choking at his own breath, "Blood?! What"s going on?" He thought, releasing a shaky breath, stopping on his steps after briefly hearing a laughter echoing through the empty streets. "What the—" He couldn"t move. He can"t even speak.
"P̵͍͓̄a̸̦̋t̵̡͓̞̅ĥ̶̡e̴͚͍̘̊ț̶̢̅̇͂ḭ̴̾c̷͙̍̃.̷͇͑́͝" A voice echoed but its words bear a static which made it quite m.u.f.fled and... creepy.
A murder of crows flew in front of the shaking Orion, forming a silhouette of a young child, about the same height and form of the silver-haired Orion. It started laughing, "Ỳ̸̙̫͠ȏ̸͈̼̌u̷͉̒͂̇́ ̷̨̹̓s̷̢͈̍́̎̀͜ẖ̵̝͛͗̈́ä̷͔̣̰̱́̑ĺ̵̘̓̐l̸̜̲̝̟͒̓̈ ̶̘̙̻̘̎̀̚w̸̡͕͑ą̵̨͋̓͂̋l̶͚̰͍͗͝k̴̞̈́ ̷͈̰̈́̀͗͜o̸̢̮̜̒̎ṋ̶̌̓ ̸̯͌t̷̞̾̂͗̇ḧ̸͖̘̙̑̇͝é̶̡̼̇̅ ̶̠̙̍̔̾ṗ̶̠̺͕̾̇̀a̶͔͓͚̳͊̈́̏͠t̷̡̬̜̃̈́ͅh̶̨̠̘͓͑͋͊͝ ̷͉̃̽ö̸̢̗́͋̽f̶̧̲̖͇̆͛ ̷̧̨̦͛s̷̡̳͍̏̏̈̎h̸͎̓͗ä̶̧̻̟͔m̶͍̾̀ę̷̛̙̟͘.̵̪̞͌̋͗́͜" Its eyes widened, and its right eye glowed with the brightest golden hue, casting darkness behind the forsaken child.
A pair of golden eyes narrowed from afar as a loud, heart-breaking scream reached his ears.
A second later, Orion woke up in a cold sweat.
__________
Was it a dream? It"s too vivid to be one. Now I"m horrified.
Who was it? I don"t recall ever seeing someone who seems too familiar that it"s really scary. The way that person"s eyes flared the same golden hue that—
"Orion?!" The sound of panicked running filled the room. Before I could even react, I was locked into a welcoming, warm hug. "Oh, my sweet child...!!!" It"s kasan... and her sweet, sweet voice. "Thank Kami-sama you woke up!"
I don"t know why, but... just hearing her voice made tears roll down from my eyes, like, if I ever let go of her, she will disappear from my grasps. I started crying as I hugged her back—from soft sobs into a silent cry.
Maybe... because I"ve slept for too long that I started to miss her. Maybe because I"ve faced death a couple of times that it made me long for some comfort...
Of course, people started coming in one after the other. It was then that I realised that kasan"s crying too.
Now, what happened again?
"I"m glad you"re up, lil" warrior." Tou-san smiled, "Welcome back."
After tou-san"s greeting, I was tackled by my s.a.d.i.s.tic uncle, prying me away from kasan (who, by the way, just gave me away to that Hatake) before locking me into a tight hug. "You idiot!" He ruffled my hair, "You can"t die before your uncle, geez."
Oh, right... I was definitely dying.
While in a tight hug, at the corner of my eyes, I saw... Tsunade leaning at the doorframe with her arms crossed, her eyes looking at someone from the halls.
She"s probably the one who treated me but... why did she even come? I mean... what? What sort of background do people have to be able to make her return to Konoha? To. Ko-no-ha.
Everyone fell silent as Shisui-niisan stood by the door. "Come on, Uchihkun. The little Nara"s awake now." Tsunade smiled as she pushed in the said Uchiha into the room. Shisui-nii has a rather worried look... and he looks a bit anxious, like he"s done something wrong and is very guilty about it. "I..." He sighed before disappearing into somewhere.
I don"t know what"s wrong but—oh... he"s probably feeling responsible to what happened to me. I don"t really blame him because neither one of us didn"t expect anything to happen to me during a stroll into the forest.
I looked down as Kakashi patted my head, "Shisui-kun"s feeling rather guilty to what happened to you... he"s the one guarding by your door day and night, waiting for you to wake up after Tsunade-sama treated you."
"But no one"s really to blame on that incident." The Slug Princess walked over, "Neither one of you expected that your chakra would violently react with the chakra in an unknown place. People are still searching for the said place, but no one has ever found it... even Shisui. He tried back-tracking but to no avail."
She stood in front of me with her arms crossed, eyes fixed on mine before letting out a short laugh, "The name"s Tsunade Senju, kid, if you"re wondering, and between you and me," she leaned closer, her uhhh... "big girls" a bit too close for comfort before whispering something horrifying for a child to hear, "you"re supposed to be dead."
What the—can"t you not be blunt to a kid?
"Your heart stopped twice, you cheeky Nara... and when I was about to declare your time of death both times, you keep coming back. Why is that?" Judging by the oblivious looks from everyone else in the room, this Senju has sneakily put up a sound barrier just to protect her words from leaking to others... and it probably looks like she"s just using a jutsu to check up on me.
She then pulled away, laughing, "It"s not like you know."
I mean, why would I know? I didn"t know until you spilled the beans so bluntly. Can"t you euphemise?
"Anyways," She pulled up, turning her back towards me, "his chakra"s hardly going up. He needs a bit more rest. I"d like to emphasise the fact that no one"s allowed to make this child exert too much chakra... even himself." She glared at me, like she knows that I spend most of my time, aside from reading, training.
She probably knew from stories from people around me.
"We still don"t know if there are any recurrences or side effects left. The chakra that got into Orion"s system is too dense that even I thought it"s too dense to exist in this world and apparently, it does, and y"all need to be thankful because the child survived." She waved her hands and went out of the door.
I blinked as everyone in the room fell silent, making me notice something.
"By the way... where are we?" I asked, breaking away the silence while looking down at my own body.
Wow... I"m wearing something an Uchiha would wear...
Wait...
Don"t tell me—
__________
After the fact that I"ve confirmed that I"m in the main branch Uchiha"s house and after I caught up to what happened during my "coma", I proceeded to sulk in my own bed to recuperate. The faster I recover, the better. To my luck though, I caught a cold and it"s not really helping me recover. To be fair, catching a cold is better than having my heart stop again.
I still don"t know the reason why my heart decided to shut itself down twice in the span of my coma. From shock? From the damage the "dense chakra" did to me? I don"t know.
I sighed, staring at the ceiling above me.
A flare of familiar chakra reached my senses. I sat up and looked through the window, seeing a lone Uchiha holding a wooden sword in front of a hay bale dummy.
I opened the window and called his name. It"s been a while since I saw him and he"s probably still feeling guilty—what the... "Why are you running away—aah!" I leaned too far out the window when I freaked out about him starting to ignore me to run away, making me fall face first.
Startled by this, I only closed my eyes to embrace the impact, forgetting that I"m a ninja who could probably save myself. To my surprise, the impact never came... and I have an idea to why.
"Shisui-nii...!" My face lit up when I saw his face... even though he"s avoiding eye contact as he placed me back onto my bed. "Wait." I narrowed my eyes as I tug him. He was definitely about to go off to somewhere... again.
He pried off my grip from his shirt and is definitely ready to disappear.
I ain"t letting that happen.
Performing a quick seal and breaking my promise to not waste my chakra, I quickly wound up Kage Nui around the crow"s arm. His eyes widened.
"Let go, Orion... please."
"No. Not until you talk to me."
"I"ve talked to you. Now, let me go."
"Stop being sarcastic."
"Then let go of me, please. Don"t waste your chakra."
"Don"t make me cast Shadow Cage, Shisui-nii."
"You cheeky, little...!!!"
And that, people, is how you win an argument with a stubborn Uchiha.
Well, to be honest, my Shadow Cage is right about ready to pounce at him if he made another move, which will definitely exhaust me my not even full amount of chakra—which will definitely cause death if continued. No, no—I"m not an idiot who will waste away my chakra because I knew that Shisui-niisan is bound to give in with my, quote on quote, stubbornness.
"Great." I smiled at him as he went at ease, but still stiff enough for me to struggle a bit to pull him in front of me. "Shisui-nii, I"m not gonna beat around the bush—why are you ignoring me?" I questioned him and he simply looked away, his chakra flickering ever so slightly. "If it"s about you feeling guilty about me almost dying—that"s rather lame, honestly."
Obviously, the young man in front of me froze the instant he heard my words.
I gave him my most sincere look, mixed with my smile. "You"re not responsible to what happened to me. In fact, I"m thankful because if it weren"t for you acting fast, I would"ve crossed over to the other world immediately. I appreciate the fact that you"re worried over me during the time when I was unconscious, but you shouldn"t feel guilty about it.
I know you were just worried about me before that incident, so you brought me out for fresh air. I thank you for that, Shisui-nii. It"s not your fault. Neither of us knew that this... would actually happen. None of us expected anything. You were just trying to cheer me up, so no need to be shamefaced about it."
Finally, he made eye contact with me. His stiffness disappeared too... but he simply turned his back to me and started heading towards the door.
Before he could open the door, I called him one more time. "By the way, Shisui-niisan," He stopped on his tracks, "I enjoyed that walk. It was refreshing. I"d like to do it again sometime."
And before he left... there was a smile...!
I saw a smile, everybody—a smile.
A round of applause for me for fixing that issue. I earned it.
Now that"s settled, I can finally rest without feeling guilty about him feeling guilty for me—
["P̵͍͓̄a̸̦̋t̵̡͓̞̅ĥ̶̡e̴͚͍̘̊ț̶̢̅̇͂ḭ̴̾c̷͙̍̃.̷͇͑́͝"]
What the fu—
I froze as soon as a voice echoed in my mind... I could"ve sworn I heard it before...
A memory, perhaps?
Oh, wait... a dream.
But the more I try to remember about it, the more my body trembles... as if I, myself, doesn"t want to know about it... like I"m subconsciously afraid to unravel the contents of that dream.
I slowly lifted my trembling hands, only to scream as flashes of blood appeared in my hands...
... Along with that blinding golden light...
I didn"t notice people coming in as I continued to let out a kami-knows-how loud scream.
__________
Shisui didn"t really go anywhere after leaving Orion"s room. Instead, he just stayed outside of the room and leaned on the door, his left hand covering his face.
"A~h, I"m pathetic... acting stubborn in front of a child..." He mumbled, smiling as his mellow dark eyes peeked through his fingers and curly locks. "I"m glad I got to meet that child..." He chuckled and was about to walk away until he heard a heart breaking scream coming from the very same room the said child is in.
Almost instantly, he burst through the door and came at a rather painful sight: Orion trembling and crying out m.u.f.fled words—with one very clear sentence uttered from his mouth, "There"s blood... get it away from me...!!!"
Another set of words became clear: "I don"t want to see this! Please stop...!"
People soon filled the room, with the child"s father calling for the Yamanaka"s clan head and Tsunade for their help... but the one remaining frozen still in the middle is Shisui.
The Uchiha could practically feel the pained screams of the child.
"What possibly went wrong?"
"Why did this happen?"
"What is happening?"
Those thoughts were left stuck inside his head.
"What blood?" He wondered in his mind, "Did someone cast a genjutsu to him? How?"
If it really is genjutsu, it will definitely bring trauma to the child... but when he checked, it seems like that wasn"t the case. He"s an Uchiha, master of this genjutsu stuff yet he couldn"t detectany trace of jutsu around the child—which is probably why Shikakuro called for Inoichi in the first place.
The Nara must"ve noticed it immediately.
After holding down Orion with a few people, with Shisui, Kaiya, and Tsunade (who arrived after sensing a slight chakra impulse coming from the Uchiha household, which is one step further than Kuro"s intention) at the side, Inoichi appeared in a puff of smoke in the middle of the room.
The only solution he could come up with to stop the child"s pain is to see what on earth the child is... "seeing".
But, being honest with himself, he"s still a bit terrified with the child"s mindscape... yet he still threw himself into the said world.
...
He expected something scary...
"P̵͍͓̄a̸̦̋t̵̡͓̞̅ĥ̶̡e̴͚͍̘̊ț̶̢̅̇͂ḭ̴̾c̷͙̍̃.̷͇͑́͝"
But not THIS gruesome.
No wonder the child is traumatised...
Even the man who went through wars is truthfully disturbed at the sight: Orion himself standing on top of piles and piles of dead bodies, looking at his own bloodied hands.
The more Inoichi looked closely, the more he realised that the piles of dead people under the child is actually—
"You"ve come here again?" A cold voice washed over him.
It"s familiar... and definitely terrifying.
"Didn"t I tell you not to come back?" A child, similar of appearance with Orion, appeared in front of him, eyes looking at the other Orion.
Inoichi mustered up the courage to speak, but the child beat him to it.
"This is inevitable, Yamanaka... and the worst is yet to come."