A Measure of Darkness - indefinite hiatus -

ZERO: TWELVE

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This Impossible Task — Nothing Can be Explained
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Let it be known that it is every bit as torturous as it was six years ago.

Even though I was at home, not in the hospital. Certainly not sitting next to my little brother Itachi.

He had long stopped playing with crossword puzzles and practicing calligraphy. Itachi twiddles his fingers while saying, "Sasukun, is it?"

"Yup."

"Sorry, Big Brother."

"Huh?"

"There is no good way to make Ryou's name adorable."

Kids have random minds. Geniuses, even more so.

"There is Ryou-chan, which I will use," he continues. "That's all I can think of."

I think for a few seconds. "How about... Ryorin?"

Itachi makes a startled noise. Then smiles. "Amazing, Big Brother."

As torturous as this is, it's also really boring. When Kanka enters the waiting room and thumbs to the double doors behind her, Itachi and I can't move fast enough.

Our new baby brother is buddled up in a pink swallow. Mother is sleeping soundly after being in labor for almost a day, while Father, not wearing a uniform for once, is beckoning us to the newborn resting in a glass crib. Itachi gets to sit in his lap whereas I stand around the small box.

(Is it weird the crib reminds me so much of a coffin?)

"The baby looks so healthy!" I say, grinning. "Aren't you lucky to have Mother, eh, Father?"

He groans, but starts smiling before long. "Itachi, how do you feel?"

"No one will hurt the baby," he says, dead serious. "I'll protect the baby with my life."

Father laughs. "Good to see you're motivated. If you two wash your hands, you can touch—"

I use the Sterilization Technique to clean my hand and reach in the crib. My still tiny finger fits perfectly in Sasuke's grip—his strong grip actually. Even now, he's got strength. I'll have to perform the Ninshuu technique on him, as I did with Itachi. I wonder what his chakra feels like, before our clan's murder?

"Big Brother cheated."

"...sometimes I forget he's delivered children as well..."

Not technically. In my second year of clerkship rotations, I took an obstetrics and gynecology class. The OBGYN class was a core rotation critical to graduating. Because I'm so young, I never delivered but I was up close and personal.

"So cute," I gush, even though Sasuke looks more like an alien than Uchiha. "Sasuke is going to grow up and look so much like Mother!"

"Probably," says Father. "Not a single one of my children adopted brown hair..." Then I hear him pause. "We agreed on Sasuke if the baby was a girl?"

"Mh-mmm," Itachi hums enthusiastically, shaking his head. "This is Ryou-chan!"

"Um—this is a boy, Itachan..." I stare down Sasuke's blanket, wondering if I should take it off and confirm this mystery once an for all.