บท 23: Chapter 38
Although I tried to meditate, it was exponentially harder because of the throbbing pain in my leg. The bleeding had mostly stopped. The problem was that since I had been sitting cross-legged, I couldn't lay down because my leg was tilted to the side. Helplessly, I chuckled to myself. I wondered whether it was even possible for me to escape.
I had asked Hiashi Hyuga about how far underground the Byakugan could see because eventually, I had hoped Hinata could sniff out Root for me. I thought I had more time though. I didn't know, I should have known, that Danzo would try something like this. And if not Danzo, Orochimaru. Or Akatsuki. Until Danzo had walked into my cell earlier, I had half-wondered whether Sarutobi had decided to send Ibiki Morino after me.
I vaguely wondered what Danzo was planning if it were true that he ran because Sarutobi wanted a look in his mind. Was he just going to live underground for the rest of his life, hiding with his root operatives?
I had intended to warn Shisui. I had written a note, but I hadn't gotten it to him yet. It was basically, "Danzo Shimura will want to steal your Sharingan if anyone learns what it can do." I figured I could do at least that much for Sasuke. At this point, I was pretty sure that Danzo couldn't orchestrate the Uchiha massacre anymore but I had no idea what would happen anymore.
Depending on how long I'd been here, Naruto might have already checked my apartment. But Danzo was already a fugitive. Without a Hyuga, Naruto might never find him. It was a slim chance, but if I couldn't break out by myself, my friends were my only hope.
"Oh, God, I'm going to die here."
I continued in my meditation, putting the future out of my mind. I had to concentrate if I had any chance of leaving here alive.
"Start with the pinky. Wait. Calm down. Then the next finger. The two fingers are still. Slowly, the third finger. They won't move. They can't move. No matter how much I want to, I can't move it. The fourth finger becomes still. The pain is just a signal. It's in the past. I don't have to react to it. Calm down. Breathe. The knuckles in my hand are still. They join my fingers in the stillness like a still pond without ripples. My hand has joined the still water. Now, my other pinky..."
When I finally heard the door unlock, I panicked. I wasn't finished. It was too early. But instead of Danzo, it was only a masked Root ninja. He was carrying a first aid kit. "I guess Danzo doesn't want me to die yet."
Wordlessly, he yanked out the wooden remains of Danzo's cane. I grit my teeth and managed not to cry out. Then he sterilized the wound and, with a pair of surgical tweezers, he extricated stray splinters of wood before palming blue light over the wound.
"Thanks, buddy. I owe you one. Say, could you do something about the lighting in here? I think someone forgot to change the bulb." For as much as it hurt when he plucked wood splinters from my flesh, my leg already felt much better. A dull throb was way better than the stabbing pain that coursed through my leg every time I breathed.
The masked nin ignored me as he worked. "Would probably kill me if I tried anything." So with my leg free, I lay on my back for the first time in hours and started to hum to myself. I often felt that the silence of Konoha was overbearing at times and without anything to remind me, I couldn't remember anything more than a few snippets of songs or lyrics from my old life. By the time I had realized that I was craving music, it was too late because I had forgotten nearly all of it. The theory I knew pretty well. But I never had time to try to write new music. What little I did remember, I cherished.
"What are you doing?" the medic asked. His voice was young. Probably a young teen.
"Hmmm...on the first evening, a pebble, from somewhere out of nowhere, drops upon the dreaming world...hmmmmmm," I continued to lazily hum. It was a nice break from the hours I had spent meditating and ignoring the wound in my leg.
Sternly, he ordered, "Tell me what you are doing, now." He had the point of a kunai held to my throat.
"Woah, I'm just singing a song. I take it you're not a music lover?" I let out a shallow laugh.
He pressed the kunai against my skin. "Explain."
"Shit. How do you explain music to someone who has no prior exposure?" It was a very tense moment while I thought of what to say. "Music is a form of art, like drawing or writing, except the medium for one's creative ideas is sound. Someone who is really good at making music can convey all sorts of emotions and feelings. Human beings naturally find music enjoyable in the same way that one can enjoy the taste of delicious food," I explained in 'teacher' mode. Music was a rare treat in Konoha. Down here, it must have been non-existent.
It took him almost a minute to remove the kunai from my throat. "You may continue," he told me as he finally returned to treating my leg.
My medic buddy had killed the mood but, there was one song I knew that felt appropriate, given the situation of my life.
"Hmm, hm, hm hm, hm, hm hm, cultivate your hunger before you idealize, motivate your anger to make them all realize..." I started to sing, impressing myself that I knew most of the words. Meanwhile, I could only wonder what kind of face the Root member was making behind his mask.
Eventually, the medical nin said, "That is all I am able to do. Do not attempt to walk or run or else you may permanently lose the use of your leg." He put away his meager array of medical tools and left as silently as he arrived, only glancing back for a moment as I waved goodbye.
"Well, that's a bummer," I thought to myself as I sat up. Indeed, when I tried to move my leg, a sharp, unnatural pain shot up my calf, almost like a cramp in my lower leg. At least it was fleeting, and not a constant reminder of a gaping wound. "I guess Kabuto was the only proper medic Danzo had." It made sense, given that Danzo mostly recruited orphans and ANBU.
I ran my fingers over the wound. Other than the dried blood encrusted into the fabric of my hakama, it felt normal. And as long as I stayed still, there was no longer any pain. That meant that I had a chance, a slim chance, of killing Danzo. And if I was really, really lucky, I might survive.
Once again, I returned to meditating.
I don't know how much time passed. I didn't get hungry, although I did need to sleep. Sometimes, I could almost swear I was seeing natural energy wafting in the air. But then I'd realize I was lying on the floor and had been dreaming.
It might have been days. Eventually, it became second nature to still my body from my head to my fingers to my toes. I was the statue on top of the mountain, existing before and continuing on through time, one with nature. Even my breathing was united with the rhythm of the world, like the lotus floating upon the motionless pond, creating no ripples, both resting upon the pond and being a part of it.
But I did not want to draw the natural energy into myself. That would be suicide. I might have beginner's luck on my side, but I wasn't stupid enough to try to learn senjutsu by myself. It probably would have defeated the seal that was draining any chakra I produced but I'd have long turned into a statue before I could manage that.
I could feel it. During the longest stretches of meditation, when my mind no longer wandered between thoughts and my entire focus was set upon sensing the world around me, I could feel the life in the ground and in the air. Its majesty called to me, insidiously asking me to return to it. I was a drop of water and it was the sea.
With my being, I reached out to it. It didn't always work. If I tried to gather it too quickly, it would fade away, like trying to see a floater in my eye. But when that happened, there was nothing to do in my empty, dark room but try again. And with every try, I came closer to my goal. If I could just gather enough natural energy in one spot, maybe I could turn Danzo to stone.
Fortunately, it was a long time until my cell door opened again. But I was as ready as I was ever going to be. I opened my eyes for a moment to make sure it was Danzo. I could sense his presence already but I wanted to be sure.
Even before he began to speak, I was already delicately funneling natural energy into his body.
"What? What is this? I...arggh..." Danzo's cried out, his normally sonorous voice turning to gurgling that eventually became silence. Somewhere in my mind, I registered the sound of his death throes but to me it felt distant. There was nothing on my mind but manipulating the latent life energy of the planet into his body.
Eventually, I felt nothing but the single Root agent that had accompanied him. I opened my eyes to see the frozen outline of Danzo against the light of the open cell door. The mask of the Root agent was facing the stony visage of Danzo which was frozen in a horrific expression of surprise and panic. Then the Root agent turned to me and began to pull out a kunai.
Before either of us could do anything, I heard Danzo furiously growl elsewhere in the darkness of my cell, "What have you done, child?"
"Fuck me, he's still alive."
In an instant, Danzo kicked me into the wall behind me. Other than the intense pain blowing through my body, the last thing I knew was the taste of blood in my mouth.
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