Someone you loved

Chapter 19

Chiasa drifted aimlessly through the darkness. She was aware of the many voices around her, that came and went or stayed, but no matter how hard she tried to open her eyes – to put faces to the voices – her body would not comply. She had been surrounded by darkness for so long, she started to forget what it had been like before. Though sometimes, when a familiar sounding voice would call out to her - like a hushed whisper from long forgotten times – she saw colours.

There was a deep, warm purple. Purple visited her a few times; she'd sit there and talk about brown with a mournful tone. Chiasa didn't remember brown, he never came, but for whatever reason she felt like weeping. She wanted to mourn with purple, take her sorrow and carry it as her own.

Then there was yellow. Yellow was restless, always fidgeting around, and never settling. Yellow was like a storm bringing life into the darkness. There was another colour with yellow, red, and it felt angry, but yellow's cheerfulness overshadowed it most of the time. Yellow clung to her like a drowning man, whispering quiet pleas of coming back. Chiasa didn't know how. But yellow's fierce determination gave her hope.

With yellow came pink. Pink was calm with the strength to move mountains. Pink didn't plead like yellow did, instead it told her about what had happened and that it was time to come back because she was needed. Pink spoke softly but there was something angry in her voice that warned Chiasa to hurry. To hurry because pink was afraid and when pink was scared, she'd lash out or give up.

Next to yellow and pink was black. Black wasn't terrifying like the darkness but soft and warm. It felt like a part of herself. It reeked of tension and fear, of a desperate need of safety and affection. Where yellow was restless and pink was calm, black was rage. Black crackled like fire and lightning; a force that couldn't be tamed. Black didn't plead, didn't ask, no, black demanded. It demanded furiously for Chiasa to wake up because she was not allowed to leave it alone. It reminded her of promises she had made, promises that she had sworn she would keep. Black would not let her go.

Yellow and pink left her rarely, but black was always with her. It worried Chiasa and she was thankful to silver, who sometimes forced black to leave.

Silver.

Silver felt like power, like pure lightning, like a force of nature. A power that could shake the earth and bring villages to their knees. Just like black she felt its presence always around her. Silver didn't really talk to her, but she felt him. She felt his fear, his anger, and his yearning. But it wasn't enough, Chiasa wanted to hear silver more, wanted to listen to his soothing voice telling her, she and the other colours were safe. She wanted to hear more than the whispered promises of keeping everyone safe. Why did her heart ache every time silver grew anxious?

She wanted to meet the colours so badly, but something was keeping her here. Chiasa wanted to tell them that she was trying, that she heard their calls, and that she was doing her best, but no sound escaped the darkness.

*

It had been days since the Chunnin exam and the Sand's invasion and a certain ebony-haired kunoichi still lay unconscious in a hospital bed. Those days had been the worst for Team 7; worse than the day Naruto was kicked out of the orphanage, worse than the day Sakura ended her friendship with Ino, and worse than the day Sasuke had come home to find streets covered in blood. The doctors couldn't tell them what was wrong, physically the kunoichi was fine but something obviously wasn't and it broke Team 7 bit by bit.

There had been an incident were Sasuke had attacked a nurse because his sleep-deprived mind thought her to be an enemy kunoichi. Kakashi had to pull his feral student off the nurse and tie him to a bed for the boy to go to sleep. In the end, the children decided to camp out in Chiasa's hospital room, with Kakashi keeping watch.