Uchiha Itachi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
yourhatred) wrote2014-09-21 11:02 pm
yourhatred) wrote2014-09-21 11:02 pm
thirty crows (朱) action/video (time shift catch-all)
September 22nd - closed to Law
[Itachi leaves his bedroom as usual, but exits it at death's door.
The time shift, catching him moments before he would conclude a fight with his brother, moments before the time he was brought from into Luceti in the first place, dumps a bleeding, wreck of a man out the other side of the doorway. The ninja staggers, a bloody arm that had been held out in front of him catching onto the opposite wall of the hallway.
So ready. He'd been so ready. What's going on? Literal moments away from dying, prepared to give into the inevitable, Itachi now finds himself having to do his damnedest to keep himself breathing. The orange glow of Susano'o at first barely surrounding him as he arrived, fades away into nothing as he fights against the darkness at the edge of his vision.
Where is Sasuke?
Coughing, his free hand covering his mouth as blood ran through his fingers, the man leaned further against the wall, the last of his adrenaline leaving him.]
September 23rd - OTA
[Late in the day, after a fair amount of rest, Itachi finds his journal and spends a while reading through it. The other entries become too confusing after a while, but he at last tries to make one of his own. After all, it does seem to be a form of communication.]
I'm looking for Uchiha Sasuke.
September 24th - OTA
[After a failed attempt at trying to get up and make his own breakfast, the ninja will eventually escape the house by way of a substitution technique and wander the town. The clothing is slightly ill-fitting, as the Itachi that's been living in Luceti for the past four years is a fair bit healthier than the one walking slowly through it now.
Don't worry. The cough isn't contagious.
He can be found in basically any building around the town center, and eventually sitting wearily at the fountain.]
September 25th
[Officially banned to the house, but still this older self until he wakes up the morning of the 26th.]
[Itachi leaves his bedroom as usual, but exits it at death's door.
The time shift, catching him moments before he would conclude a fight with his brother, moments before the time he was brought from into Luceti in the first place, dumps a bleeding, wreck of a man out the other side of the doorway. The ninja staggers, a bloody arm that had been held out in front of him catching onto the opposite wall of the hallway.
So ready. He'd been so ready. What's going on? Literal moments away from dying, prepared to give into the inevitable, Itachi now finds himself having to do his damnedest to keep himself breathing. The orange glow of Susano'o at first barely surrounding him as he arrived, fades away into nothing as he fights against the darkness at the edge of his vision.
Where is Sasuke?
Coughing, his free hand covering his mouth as blood ran through his fingers, the man leaned further against the wall, the last of his adrenaline leaving him.]
September 23rd - OTA
[Late in the day, after a fair amount of rest, Itachi finds his journal and spends a while reading through it. The other entries become too confusing after a while, but he at last tries to make one of his own. After all, it does seem to be a form of communication.]
I'm looking for Uchiha Sasuke.
September 24th - OTA
[After a failed attempt at trying to get up and make his own breakfast, the ninja will eventually escape the house by way of a substitution technique and wander the town. The clothing is slightly ill-fitting, as the Itachi that's been living in Luceti for the past four years is a fair bit healthier than the one walking slowly through it now.
Don't worry. The cough isn't contagious.
He can be found in basically any building around the town center, and eventually sitting wearily at the fountain.]
September 25th
[Officially banned to the house, but still this older self until he wakes up the morning of the 26th.]
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It's comfortable here, and less open and exposed than the kitchen. They might as well talk before heading down there.]
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Law's eyes grow distant as the memories bleed in. The pirate sits and leans against him.]
You know I was born in North Blue, up in the polar climes. The nation's name was [Was] Flevance. ... or, as people liked to call it collectively, the White City.
Myself, my parents... [There's a moment when his eyes go utterly dead and his voice is hollowed.] my younger sister, Lamie.
[Yes, he was a big brother once upon a time too.]
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It hadn't been in him to pry. Should he have?
He continues to listen, brows furrowed in concern, arm wrapping itself around Law's shoulders.]
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Everything was white. The ground, the plants, the buildings. Before, when people visited, they said it didn't seem real. Especially during the dark months, when everything was aglow under the auroras.
It was so... beautiful...
[The life continues to seep out of his voice.]
There was an ore in the ground that caused all that. A special type of lead known as Amber Lead or White Lead. This crystalline substance that was stark white. The World Government discovered it about a century prior to my birth.
It quickly became our main industry and export back then. The demand for high quality items made with Amber Lead was insatiable around the world. The World Government and the Royal Family worked out a deal... both reaped insane, never ending amounts of profits. What was left went to the nation. Everyone had a comfortable life. We were all happy to go along with the demands being placed on us.
[Bitterness leaks in. Betrayal.]
We had no idea we were being blindly led down the path to our own deaths.
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This was exploiting an entire town, though, and Law's voice made it clear that there hadn't been any happy endings here.
He continues to listen silently, not wanting to interrupt the narrative with unnecessary questions.]
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With all the mining, there were fine particles of it constantly in the air.
[His voice softens as he stares at the wall.]
It was an insidious substance. It wasn't even that poisonous - it slowly built up and up in the body over decades, and the victim would notice nothing amiss. It was practically invisible, even to a skilled doctor. Until a threshold was reached and the symptoms exploded outward with a fury. The skin and hair would bleach white as the lead, an ever spreading vitiligo over the body. With it, would come agony. It would just build and build, until it couldn't be borne. That's when the fever would set in, and organ failure follow. Some would be dead in months after that. Some would have lingered for years.
[I lingered for years.]
The first living generation of children exposed to it, hit that mark at around age 70. But the next generation, due to the metal concentrating in the womb, would hit the mark at 50. The next generation - 30s. Mine? Ten.
Each successive generation had their lifespan reduced by about 20 years. There was a little variance there, but that was how it generally went.
[His fingers dig into the flesh of his arms.]
They knew all of this. The World Government, the King. But the promise of wealth was too great, so they suppressed all the knowledge of the danger. Continued to suppress it - other people learned the truth over the years, I would imagine, and they would have had to be dealt with. They knew one day a day of reckoning would come. But until then...
[Gold would flow like blood.]
It came. Thanks to the generational shift, everyone began to go down. No one was spared. You can imagine what it looked to the outside world.
[A plague.]
And that was the start of everything.
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He wants to offer some words of comfort, but can't think of any appropriate. Law has more to say still, and Itachi wants him to be able to get it all off of his chest.
The government, the hierarchy, all had to know that if things continued the people wouldn't last. It was poor planning on their part all around. If they had seen to the needs of the people, backed off and searched for a way to help treat or build up an immunity to the poison, the losses they would have undergone in research might have paled in comparison to what they would be able to continue to make over time. Everyone would have benefited - if they could find a way to treat it, of course. Ignoring any such methods and seeing only immediate profit hurt everyone in the long run, but greed could have that effect.
He knows all about people who can't see the bigger picture.
Law had clearly lived past age ten. There's obviously much more to hear yet.
The ninja gives his husband's shoulder a light squeeze, encouraging him to continue.]
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Two things happened quickly. The Royal Family abandoned the nation with the aid of the World Government. [They didn't care. They. Didn't. Care. They used us and threw us away.] And... quarantine...
The other nations thought we were a plague, so they blockaded us. Anyone leaving was killed.
[Quarantine, looking back, was one of the only things understandable about it. It still burns just as bitter.]
We weren't contagious, but no one would believe us. My father was Flevance's top doctor, and my mother, also a physician, was an expert in infectious disease. They quickly figured it out and tried to get their findings out to the World Government. But...
[The anger gutters out like fire starved of oxygen.
But.
You know what happened. The same thing. The facts ignored and hidden away.]
... nothing came out, nothing came in. When your main industry's mining... other things aren't given as much focus. Such as farming. Given our geography... it had always been difficult and we mostly imported. We did have a sizeable fishing and whaling industry, but soldiers held all the docks and no one could go out.
We all tried to stick together during those early days. My parents, naturally, were run off their feet, so I was the one mainly taking care of Lamie and making sure they remembered to eat and sleep. Things like that. ... it was always my role, and it just became... moreso.
[Never really a child. He had to be responsible.]
We only really got to spend time with them when we both helped out in the hospital. Which... happened a lot; we had always lived in the staff residences attached to it and medicine was something my family had always practised. Even then... we all kept Lamie from the worst of it. There was a lot...
She was six. She had already seen too much. She already knew what death meant. She already knew she dying.
She still could smile. We didn't want her to lose that.
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There weren't a lot of similarities when it all came down to it. Some, but on a very basic level. A corrupt government - Sasuke would say theirs was more corrupt than Itachi believed it to be. They still desired to protect the innocent, even if poor decisions had been made.
Yet he imagines his little brother's smile when Law mentioned his sister's. Something he should have been trying to protect but had forced away instead...
A brief distracting thought, because he can start to sense what's happens next and it's already painful to consider. He keeps listening, the room silent except for the sound of his husband's voice.]
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[He needs to stop. Just for a moment. It's getting harder.]
They had been really strong up until then. They couldn't allow themselves to break either but you could see the cracks. They... weren't... doing great either. They weren't progressing as fast, but faster than they should have.
... so I stepped up. [He's saying nothing about the strain on himself, having more and more piled on his shoulders. Nothing about his own condition. What was happening to himself was inconsequential.] It was a little weight off their shoulders and at least I knew she would be taken care of if I did it.
I managed to slow things a little - proper care does that - but it was still for the most part palliative. Tried to keep her spirits up. Keep her hopeful.
[... she was in essence his first true long term patient.]
The city was degenerating right along with Lamie. As everything dwindled, as starvation began to set in and more and more died to what everyone knew was poisoning and not disease, people were finally starting to get restless. Angry. Rumours started to spring up that there were more soldiers beginning to encircle the country. It was fact - there was a build up.
They had to know things were getting desperate.
[Itachi's instincts are right.]
Cooler heads kept things calm for awhile. The religious leaders kept reminding everyone that violence was no answer at all... that it would bring nothing but further suffering to the nation. One of the sisters I knew very well. She always liked to say that always a merciful hand would reach out when it was most needed.
She had been trying to convince the soldiers to let at least the children evacuate for care for months over the Den Den Mushi.
I think they knew though or at least suspected what was probably going to happen anyway. The soldiers kept building up. They didn't do anything. Waiting for orders... or an excuse, I suppose. They managed to keep the people quiet... for as long as they could. Eventually, as things got worse and worse, as the strain built up, a tipping point was reached.
Lamie hit endstage. A week later, Flevance declared war.
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Why is it that it always came to that?
Though he says nothing, the concerned frown on his face says exactly what he thinks about the situation.]
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They would have all died anyway.
He closes his eyes. He sees the children. He sees the nun.]
Things moved fast. That morning... you could feel what was coming in the air. This heavy pall.
The Sister had gotten assurance from the soldiers that they'd leave the children alive. Allow them to escape the country on a boat. So she was collecting all the children that were left.
I saw so many familiar faces in that crowd. I saw even more missing. Classmates. Kids I had grew up with.
I wouldn't go.
Couldn't leave her. Especially not then. Lamie was days away from passing.
Everything about this seemed so wrong.
... the other children couldn't understand why I was refusing. I guess it sounded crazy to them.
The Sister understood about Lamie. Promised to come get me herself once she had arranged another boat for any stragglers. Then she assured me all was truly well with what was happening.
["You see, Law-kun? There is no need for despair in this world. A merciful hand will always reach out to those in need."]
It didn't settle me, but I wished them well and returned to my sister.
Maybe an hour passed, but both of us began to hear noise in the distance. I wasn't sure what is was at first and Lamie was confused as well. It sounded a little like fireworks...
... then it set in it was gunfire.
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But for those with no other skills in ranged combat...
Once again, he knew where this was going. Firing on children like that was unforgivable, and nothing another child should have to see. His expression remains the same, but his fingers clench in his lap.]
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I hoped it was just people fighting over food. That had happened before.
The gunfire wasn't stopping though. It was getting louder, and we could hear screaming. It was coming from multiple directions.
I ordered my sister under the bed. Told her no matter what she couldn't make a sound. [No other place to hide her.] The hospital was in a panic - our patients, our nurses, everyone was terrified and you could hear it through the walls.
I told Lamie I'd be right back. I had to find our parents.
But the soldiers had already arrived. When I found them at the entrance, the guns were training on them.
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Law had kept this to himself this whole while. The ninja hadn't had a single idea of what caused his nightmares. All he'd been able to do was offer comfort in his own way, and that's all he can do now.]
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They knew they were dead even as they started to raise their voices to protest what was about to happen. And then... [Soft.] they were...
After they were cut down - the hospital was stormed. I was small and I was hidden. While I could see out... they couldn't see me.
All I could do was wait, and listen, until... they were finished and gone. And hope Lamie hadn't been found.
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His heart has been hurting for Law all through this, and he doesn't think that's going to stop any time soon.]
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If... if... if...]
... it seemed quiet for the moment. The gunfire had moved on. ... I broke from hiding. I had been just feet from my parents' bodies the entire time...
[He didn't have time to go back to Lamie. Just dive for cover and safety as the soldiers broke in.]
... there was so much blood... I don't know why I checked them for a pulse. I knew they couldn't survive those kinds of wounds.
My mother had this... faint smile on her face. It's one of two I've never been able to forget.
[Her's and Corazon's.]
I couldn't stay with them any longer. Not with Lamie's fate still uncertain. I tore back into the hospital. The carnage was unreal. But by some miracle she was still alive. I found her underneath the bed, shaking and entirely unwilling to move.
I managed to coax her out. She started begging for our parents. I couldn't say anything - I couldn't get out the words. I couldn't lie. I only could hold her.
... and then she knew...
[Her face.]
I promised her that her Big Brother would do whatever it took to get her through this.
Then I remembered about the evacuations the Sister had arranged with the soldiers for the children...
[Itachi's instincts once again prove correct.]
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She was so weak. She could hardly walk and with the drugs in her system... I would have to carry her.
And I wasn't sure if the way was clear. I didn't want to chance running into the soldiers with her. Sure they had promised but if they caught us... I couldn't move fast enough with her to keep away. Keep her safe. And I wasn't sure if that promise was good. But it seemed our only hope, and the longer I spent dithering over what to do, our window of survival was closing.
So I told her to get back under the bed and keep quiet no matter what. I would quickly scout ahead and see if this really was true and then return. I figured it was the least risky thing I could do where Lamie was concerned. The soldiers had already swept the building and she would be hidden. I would be the one risking fire.
I didn't care what happened to me. If I was shot - fine. She'd still have a chance, slim as it would be. She'd still live.
... she... said... she... understood. That she knew I'd... I'd... come through for her.
[He chokes. Suddenly he can't breathe.
Whispering.]
So I left her.
... I left her.
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[It's the first thing he's said this whole time, and he can't quite keep the words from spilling out in a whisper.
Law isn't done yet. He should wait until he is, but the desire to comfort him is strong.]
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I've never felt I've deserved it.
[It's a familiar tune playing. And Law obviously knows how it sounds. ... but even crushed down, it's there. Whispering.
It's the voice that tells him that one day? Itachi will realize what he is, that he's not worth it. That counts every sin and measures the ugliness in him, and reminds him happiness doesn't last.]
...
They were all dead when I found them. About... halfway to the docks. All the children and the Sister in a square. Mostly shot in the head. [Executed. His lips twist bitterly.] The merciful hand that was supposed to extend in times of need had held a gun.
I saw this and knew there was no getting out.
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The Leaf Village's governing system had done some bad things, and he'd done some bad things himself, but if it had been anything like the way this one functioned he wouldn't have served it at all.
Itachi waits, hand still on Law's to hear what he'd done next.]
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What else was there to do?
[No hope. At least he could be there with Lamie.]
... it was getting harder to breathe. Smoky. There had been no fires when I left.
I hadn't thought they'd start razing the buildings when they were done with a sweep.
[He sees the fire rise up before his eyes. Feels the heat of the flames. He's in that moment, with the boy he was, seeing it as his ten year old self and seeing it at twenty eight.]
The hospital was an inferno. Completely engulfed.
I couldn't get in. She couldn't get out.
[He had told her to hide underneath the bed. She wouldn't have known until it was too late.]
... I... just... could... watch... and think how I had... promised her...
[Even if he had still been breathing, most of him had died right there.
And what was left was being birthed into what he now was. Part of him, anyway.
The Surgeon of Death.]
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[He squeezes Law's hand.]
Situations like that... There's no way for you to know what's going to happen.
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