The Guardian (Naruto Fanfiction)

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-five

Itachi watched as Shisui used the fallen rubble to bury his brother. Shisui's right eye was bandaged following the implantation of Obito's Sharingan. Hana had been hesitant to perform the procedure since it was not something she had ever done, but Shisui had insisted that she be the one to do it. It would have been difficult to explain to another medic. Itachi could do nothing to help. Hana had injected him with something that left him artificially paralyzed to prevent him from injuring himself further.

When Shisui had finished, he stared at the makeshift grave for a long time.

"Please… Don't tell anyone who he was." he finally said, "I want people to remember him like we used to, not like this."

"I won't tell anyone if you don't" Hana promised.

Itachi agreed, "No one will know."

"…Thank you."

Hana was hard at work on Itachi. She had healed his lesser wounds with medical ninjutsu, but his more serious injuries would require more care than she could provide in the field. He needed to get back to Konoha.

"Did you find Anko?" Itachi asked.

Hana nodded, "She's back in the tunnel. The Brothers are with her. She's beat up, but she'll be fine. No sign of Orochimaru though."

"Then we need to go."

Hana pulled the collapsible litter from her large med kit and unfolded it.

"You can't be serious." Itachi groaned.

Hana raised an eyebrow at him, "You didn't actually think you were going to walk out of here like this, did you?"

Much to Itachi's chagrin, Hana and Shisui carefully moved him onto the litter and carried him over the rubble, out of the large chamber into the tunnel. There he saw Anko leaning up against the wall surrounded by the Haimaru Brothers. She looked quite a bit worse for wear, but she was awake and on her feet.

"Damn," she commented, "And I thought I got messed up."

"Can you walk?"

"A lot better than you can."

"Then let's go. These tunnels aren't stable."

It had taken the team a day and a half of uninterrupted travel to reach the facility the first time. Now that Itachi was immobile and Anko was injured, their pace was slowed drastically, and rest stops were no longer optional. It would take days to get back to Konoha. The trip was not only excruciatingly painful for Itachi, but a blow to his pride as well. No shinobi, let alone team commander, wanted to be carried home on a stretcher. He wanted to keep his mind as clear as possible, so he refused all but the most basic painkillers.

As the sun set on the first day, the team set up camp near a small stream. They were cautious and did not light a fire that might give away their location. Despite being beyond exhausted, the pain did not allow Itachi to sleep.

Shisui took first watch. He stared out into the darkness, clearly troubled. He had barely said a word since they left the Akatsuki facility. It was unsettling for Itachi to see his normally cheerful cousin this way.

"Are you going to be alright?" Itachi asked him, breaking the silence.

Shisui did not answer for a long time, "…He was going to use a genjutsu on the entire world, take away everyone's free will. We had to stop him, right?"

"Right."

"But I stopped him by using a genjutsu on him and taking away his free will. Doesn't that make me exactly the same as him?"