Izumi was feeling a bit murderous at the moment. She found herself often daydreaming of Orochimaru, murdering him slowly, clawing out his eyes and tearing out his tongue and torturing him for what he did to their pup-
Her Omega was furious and murderous. Izumi felt the same way, but they had to stay here for Sasuke. He had to wake up. If he didn't...
No. He was going to. He wouldn't leave her alone. He wouldn't make her the last Uchiha. She couldn't handle that. It would kill her. Izumi gripped her hands, and bit her lip. She wanted a drink. Something that would take the edge off, but she knew that was a bad road to go down on. Alcohol could be a nasty business, and Izumi indulged in it too much already when it came to Itachi.
Izumi heard some shifting from the bed. She chucked aside her thoughts and turned to Sasuke who was struggling to open his eyes. Izumi purred, soft and soothing, laid a hand in his hair and grinned.
"Good morning, Sasuke," she said softly. "Welcome back."
Thank kami. Thank kami. Thank fucking kami.
Sasuke blinked sleepily at her, eyes glossy, but his eyes were open and he smelled healthier. He smelled stronger. Izumi tucked him into her arms, hugging him tight. Sasuke's arms shakily wrapped round her, although he did grumble.
"Why are you hugging me?" He groaned. "You stink..."
Okay, maybe she did need to go home and get cleaned up, as Kakashi had suggested several times. But she hadn't wanted to go back home. Not without Sasuke. It was too quiet and lonely.
Izumi huffed. "You do too."
"Where are we...?" Sasuke slurred.
"In hospital. You've been sleeping off that curse mark." Izumi shifted, tucking herself against Sasuke's back, letting him sit up. She handed him some water to sip at, which he drank slowly.
"Right..."
"I'll get you caught up to speed when you're a little more awake," Izumi said softly. "But first how about you relax before we're bombarded by medics?"
Sasuke settled against her. "Yeah, I'd like that..."
.::.
"Are you sure about this?"
Kakashi frowned at Tenzo. He glanced over at the memorial, took in a deep breath, and nodded. "Yeah, I've put this off for long enough," he said. "I need to tell Obito."
He passed by Rin's, Minato's and Kushina's graves. Tenzo remained at the edge of the graveyard, while Kakashi sat down before the memorial with Obito's name engraved upon the stone.
"Hello, Obito. Sorry I haven't been by in a while. Everything's gone a little crazy."
.::.
"Izumi, what's the date today?"
She and Sasuke had talked for hours, she had told him about the exams, how Sakura was finally taking the ninja life seriously and putting in a good effort to train, how Naruto was training with a Sanin, how Kakashi was and how his pregnancy was going. She told him about the other third exam contestants, how Lee was poisoned, how Gaara had cured him. Her throat was sore by the time she stopped talking, and she had to sip plenty of water to soothe it. She grimaced at the question though, then sighed.
"It's our anniversary. Fitting we'd both be sitting in a hospital right now," Izumi said blankly, snorting harshly.
"Damn him..." Sasuke hissed, and much to her frustration, he clutched the curse mark. Izumi snatched his hand away.
"That wouldn't help," she said firmly.
"But what if it could? What if it could let our clan rest peacefully because I kill him with it? It could stop him from killing anyone else-"
"Alright," Izumi said sweetly. "So you want Orochimaru to take over your body? To use it to kill everyone in Konoha? Because that's what he wants. He hates Konoha because he's a spoiled brat who can't accept the outcome of things. And right now you're starting to walk down the same path he's going-"
"Izumi, he's insanely strong-"
No. She couldn't let this happen. No way in hell.
"And he's murdered countless of men, women and children to become that way!" Izumi snapped. "Is that what you want to see? Him dissecting Naruto to find out why he has such a pretty chakra colour? Maybe he'd even tear apart Sakura to find out why she's so good at chakra control. He'd happily tear the eyes out of Hinata Hyuga and pick apart Kiba's scent glands-"
The colour drained from Sasuke's face.
"And to get someone like Shikamaru, whose intelligence would rival his own, and who has a clan trait, that would be just delicious for someone like Orochimaru-"
"I-"
"He's the type of man who would have loved to claim our family and their corpses. He would have loved to experiment on them, tear apart their eyes and peel their skin-"
"Stop!" Sasuke recoiled away from her.
"No. You're going to listen to me." Izumi kept her face carefully blank, even though Sasuke's terror was stinking out the room, and that just made her heart ache. "He will kill everything and everyone you have a chance to love, and it won't be quick like Itachi did to our family. He will torture them. Orochimaru will rip them apart and keep them alive to discover all their little secrets, and he will delight in it. He will come for Kakashi and his baby and me-"
Sasuke flinched.
"Yes," Izumi insisted. "Me. He will come to take my eyes, to see how they work. He will want the one and only female Uchiha that is left. And if he uses you to get to me?" Izumi shook her head, laughing weakly. "I can't kill you. I could never. Sasuke, you mean the world to me. I barely have a pack anymore. Honestly it's you, Guy and Kakashi, that's it. You're all I have. And Kakashi and his baby? They are the last of the Hatake clan, and Orochimaru would love to study such a rare clan-"
"No!" Sasuke shivered. "I'd never want to hurt you. Any of you-"
"Then get it through your head. Orochimaru is evil. You can never go to him, otherwise you're no better than Itachi."
Sasuke let out a pained cry and curled away from her again, almost tucked away at the corner of the bed. "No-" he whimpered.
"He wanted to kill our family for power. You'd seek out Orochimaru for power, and he'd use you to kill all of us," Izumi said coldly. "Do you understand?"
"I understand! I understand!" Sasuke snapped, tears in his eyes. "I get it, okay? Just stop-"
Izumi cooed reassuringly and opened up her arms. Sasuke finally came close and buried himself in them. "I won't go to him. Okay?" Sasuke sighed against her.
Izumi tightened her grip on him, burying her face into his hair to breathe in his scent. "Please don't. I love you, Sasuke. Don't make me lose you too." She shifted. "Besides, Kakashi brought up an interesting point..."
Sasuke stilled. "What do you mean?"
"Orochimaru went after Itachi first and couldn't claim his eyes. So that means..." Izumi said pointedly, staring down at Sasuke until realisation came into his eyes.
"He can't beat Itachi either. Not even a Sannin can beat him..."
"No. And you know the common cause of people that haven't been able to defeat Itachi?" Izumi asked. "They never worked together to beat him. The Uchiha clan never managed to get together. He picked us off one at a time. Orochimaru wouldn't have risked one of his pawns damaging Itachi's eyes, so he could have attacked Itachi alone."
"I see your point..."
"So when you and your fellow gremlins grow up, you might just be able to take on Itachi together. And Kakashi and I will surely be by your side to do it," Izumi said softly. "You just have to be patient. For Itachi, it's the long road or no road at all. We just need to wait for the right time to strike him down."
Sasuke closed his eyes and laid his head against her shoulder. "Then we'll take the long road..."
"And I'll be with you the entire way," Izumi promised.
.::.
Sakura hesitated at the door to Sasuke's hospital room. He was finally allowed visitors. Sakura neatened the flowers she had gathered (since Izumi was the worst and didn't give her time to go buy any) and tried to fix her long, wavy hair she had no time to straighten this morning (again, Izumi's fault).
Sakura stepped up and knocked on the door, smiling when Sasuke's voice said she could enter. She happily opened up the door, and beamed when she saw him sat up in bed, finally awake, Izumi was at his back, dozing against the wall. But Sasuke was awake.
He was actually awake. He wasn't unconscious. Sasuke was awake!
Sakura smiled warmly. "I'm glad you're awake, Sasuke." She placed the flowers on the table, grimacing at the dirt on her clothes. "Sorry I look like such a mess. I just got back from training. Izumi is ruthless. She left me there with 'drills', I swear her drills aren't normal drills-"
Sasuke eyed her, before muttering. "Good job getting through your fight with Ino. I heard you knocked her out with one good punch..."
He sounded exhausted, but Sakura was so happy, he was actually awake!
"Yeah!" Sakura beamed, but then deflated, because Sasuke had been out cold the entire time. "I wish you could have seen it... I-I'm glad you're okay..."
"I would have been fine enough to continue the match," Sasuke grumbled. "But Izumi's protective and Kakashi sensei said he wanted to 'try new things' for the baby's sake."
Sakura sat down on the spare chair. "Kakashi sensei is always reading baby books now. It's kinda cute, considering it used to be that horrible porn..." She grimaced at the thought.
"That baby is going to be as insane as Kakashi sensei. Their first jutsu is going to be 'a thousand years of death', if Kakashi has his way," Sasuke joked weakly, but it made Sakura hopeful.
Maybe he was starting to feel better if he was back to being snarky.
Sakura shivered. "I hope not!"
But sadly she could picture it, and it was horrifying. What was even worse was that they (herself, Naruto and Sasuke), might just be this baby's first tests subjects.
.::.
Kakashi laid down the dango box he bought then sat on the grass, pouring two cups of tea. He remained quiet for a time, trying to gather his thoughts, but honestly they were racing.
"I don't even know what to say..." Kakashi admitted. "I guess... I guess I should start at the beginning. I haven't exactly seen you in a while. Everything has just been chaotic. You'll be mad, probably, but I took up an ANBU mission Lord Third was having difficulty creating a squad for. Everyone had been busy with the Chunin Exams coming up, so I was asked to pick it up..."
.::.
Obito closed his eyes and listened to Kakashi tell the lump of rock everything. Of his near capture by Kumo, feeling helpless when he couldn't protect Pakkun or his squad. How disappointed in himself he was.
"I passed out, and then I found out I was kidnapped and taken to a fancy inn by some guy in an orange mask," Kakashi huffed. "I didn't even get a name, so I had to name him myself. How do you feel about, Mr. Kidnapper? I thought I was quite creative myself." Kakashi chuckled. "This mission would have driven you crazy. It did to Pakkun. He was an over protective monster for weeks. Still kinda is, along with the rest of my hounds."
Kakashi grew quiet for a bit, but it turned out he was sipping tea. "Sakura's been recommending new teas she likes, although she's still not very good at brewing them, or cooking. Actually, her cooking is kinda scary at the moment. I can't even remember if you liked tea, but I suppose you can always reject my offerings."
Kakashi sighed heavily, and his words tumbled out, hard and fast. "Kumo drugged me. It induced my heat and Mr. Kidnapper is an Alpha and he didn't have enough time to leave me before my heat started." Kakashi shifted awkwardly. "I... I didn't know that the council decided to make contraception pills ineffective for clan Omegas. They want kids from us badly, Obito... And since my pills didn't work and I shared my heat with someone." Kakashi's voice grew heavy with distress and Obito ached to hear it. "I'm so sorry. I couldn't, I didn't control my Omega, and I know it's supposed to be impossible during a heat, but it wasn't you. And now I'm having a baby and it's not your baby, and we were mates-"
Kakashi hung his head low. "I don't know what you would have thought of this... But I... I'm, so tired of killing people and to take this baby's life? I think that would break whatever is left of me."
No. No. No. No. No. Kakashi couldn't break. He couldn't. He was all they had left!
Obito hushed his Alpha. They were going to fix this. Kakashi would be at peace in their dream world. He would finally get to rest and have a normal life, where he didn't have to suffer every single day and wait for those rare moments of happiness.
It was going to be alright.
It had to be.
"So despite not having a choice about this baby, because the council would never let me abort it. I won't anyway. I just hope you can forgive me one day." Kakashi closed his eye. "I'm sorry I'm still not stronger for you."
Obito glowered at Konoha. This was the village's fault. Not Kakashi's. They had ruined a genius, taken him apart, torn him to pieces both mentally and physically and yet Kakashi was so brainwashed that he'd still fight for them.
Still fight for trash.
.::.
Tenzo waited for hours. The sky grew darker, and despite Tenzo telling Kakashi about Sasuke being awake, Kakashi still didn't leave Obito's grave. It made sense, Tenzo supposed, it was the day of the Uchiha's massacre, and Kakashi wanted to tell Obito about his pregnancy.
Tenzo was just here to be emotional support (and to guard Kakashi.)
Thankfully Guy brought food and didn't even bother to go pester Kakashi. No, he slipped away as quietly as he came, only whispering at him to make sure Kakashi ate something. Which of course Tenzo did, he slipped over with snacks and water (sometimes tea) while Kakashi poured his heart out to Obito, or sat quietly, staring at the memorial.
It was hard to watch, but at the same time Kakashi needed to be here. He never felt right if he didn't, but Tenzo would love it if Kakashi would stop hanging around graveyards constantly, especially for the future baby's sake.
Finally when the sun began to set Kakashi left, leaving his offerings behind. He approached Tenzo, smiling tiredly, but it was a smile nevertheless.
"Feeling better?" Tenzo asked.
"Yeah, just tired..." Kakashi admitted.