WANTED: Itachi Uchiha

Yonjuuroku

Itachi felt helpless. Everything moved in slow motion, even the sounds of the monitors beeping and the medical ninja's shouts played slowly. It was like when he was a child and would turn his father's vinyl backwards to listen to the sounds it would make, they bizarre and otherworldly.

This was what it was like in the hospital.

Itachi appeared at the hospital with Reina in his arms, she travelling in and out of consciousness as she lolled about in his grip. Sasuke appeared beside him in a flash of colour, immediately getting the attention of a medic.

"Is that Reina Hitori?" They asked, a clipboard occupying their hands.

"Hai. She has been exposed to some sort of paralytic and is about to go into arrest." Itachi replied as he eased her onto the gurney they provided; watching as they immediately began to attach cardiac stickers to her back and chest.

"It's alright, she delivered a scroll last night with the details." The medic ninja smiled reassuringly and the brothers froze.

"She did what?" Itachi said, furrowing his brows. The medics continued to scurry about Reina, hitching an oxygen mask over her face and cutting away her wrist guards and sleeves so they could access the veins in her arms. Before the medic could reply the monitors began to flash angrily, an assortment of warning lights bombarding them.

"She's arresting!" The medic called, pushing the brothers to the side. "Starting compressions - someone get them out of here!"

"No! We're not leaving!" Sasuke retorted, pushing off the swarm of medics that ushered them out of the cubicle and into the hall, leaving them with a face full of curtain whilst the flurry continued.

"Sasuke, what if she dies?" Itachi asked, his usually placid demeanour antsy and somewhat catatonic. "What if she miscalculated the dosage of the paralytic and all of this was for nothing?" Itachi stood, his eyes wide with fear.

Sasuke paused his momentary seething to look at his brother. "You saw what she did, Nii-san. She literally messed with the chemicals of Danzō's brain without so much as injuring him." He snorted. "Not to mention she did the same to us without us even realising. She is going to be fine." He added, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

Behind the curtain they could hear the medics' orders of "Charging to 200. Clear!" alongside a surge of electricity that made Sasuke's chakra tingle with the whisper of chidori. They waited, straining their ears for the beeps of the monitors, then they heard it: beep, beep, beep.

"We have a rhythm." The medic announced, putting down the paddles and listening to Reina's chest with their stethoscope. "We're good here. Someone get her bloods off to toxicology to confirm what she has written in the notes. And someone get those Uchiha before they literally burn down the curtains with their eyes."

Sasuke had no smart remark for that.

The team moved Reina out of the A & E and into the Surgical Assessment Unit; Sasuke led the way given that Naruto practically had his own bed on the ward. The room they placed Reina in thankfully didn't reek of antiseptic like some of the other rooms Itachi had been in. Despite only receiving minor scuffs and injuries in his bloody career, Itachi always seemed to haunt the halls of the hospital. He knew which vending machines had the best snacks and what days the cafeteria served the best food. He was a hospital expert.

Reina was still unconscious. The plastic of her oxygen mask fogged up in steady intervals, droplets of condensation collecting in the divots where her nose resided. Itachi sat beside the bed, holding on to her hand, his thumb brushing over her knuckles gently.

"Why didn't she tell us?" Sasuke thought out loud, toying with the wrapper of his pocky. "She could have told us what she was planning to do."

Itachi stood, grabbing a damp cloth to wipe her forehead. "She was protecting us." He murmured as he dabbed her skin. "She hasn't stopped. Stubborn woman."

"Look who's talking." Sasuke replied. Itachi rolled his eyes and didn't warrant the remark with a reply. It appeared the Uchiha and the Hitori were equally as stubborn. "Why don't you go get something to eat, I'll look after her."

"I can't leave her." Itachi murmured. In truth he was exhausted and starving but he couldn't leave her. He needed to make sure she was safe.

"She told you to look after yourself." Sasuke replied softly. "This is not looking after yourself and you know it."

Itachi stared at the heart monitor, at the line that continued to peak and trough in a steady rhythm. Sasuke was right. Reina would kick his ass if he didn't look after himself. He had promised her. He needed to keep himself healthy in both mind and body.

"Alright. But I'm not going far."

Sasuke nodded. "I didn't expect you to."

Itachi stood, leaning over to kiss Reina's forehead and adjusted her blankets much like his mother did when he or Sasuke were sick. He was a real mother hen. He, Itachi Uchiha, a feared and renowned ANBU Buntaichō was nothing more than an anxious, depressed mess.

"Ok, but you find me if her rhythm so much as fluctuates - alright?" Itachi pressed.

"Alright." Sasuke side, swinging his legs over the side of his chair to pull it beside Reina's bed. "Now go. Your face is annoying me."

When Reina came up with her plan she knew that if she pulled it off the aftermath wasn't going to be pretty. Although confident in her kekkai genkai, recovering from a paralytic agent invading her body as well as having her heart stop was never going to be fun or easy.

Then there was the emotional and psychological implications. She dreaded to think about the pain she had caused Itachi and Sasuke. She didn't want to hurt them. She had wanted to make the incident as painless as possible. She had a lot of apologising to do when she saw them.

Reina tried to swallow, her mouth parched and her throat seemingly cloggy from being bagged and ventilated back in the emergency room.

"Look who decided to join us." Sasuke murmured as he pressed the button on the bed, raising Reina from her lying position. "How was your ride on the cardiac train?"

Reina looked at Sasuke through partially slit eyes and huffed a laugh, causing the plastic of her mask to cloud with condensation. She lifted a hand and pulled the mask away from her mouth momentarily. "Shit."

It was Sasuke's turn to laugh, perching himself on the bed beside her, his body curved to hers in a makeshift hug. "Good to have you back." Sasuke leaned his head on his hand, making sure to keep his shoes off the bed. "Even if you did mess with our brains."

"Your brain was already messed up." Reina added dryly, glancing up at Sasuke who snorted in reply. "I mean," she swallowed, taking a swig of water from the cup Sasuke handed her. "who the fuck chooses a Bloody Mary for a drink?"

"People of taste."

"Reina?" Itachi asked from the door, his eyes drinking in the chuckling pair.

Reina and Sasuke turned their attention to Itachi. Reina smiled weakly beneath her mask, reaching back to tap Sasuke on the shoulder to take her mask off. Sasuke followed her instructions wordlessly. "Hello Itachi."

Silently Itachi crossed the room and crawled onto the bed on Reina's free side. She smiled, leaning into his embrace whilst taking hold of Sasuke's hand, he mindful of the cannula.

She was home. These two broken and sassy Uchiha were home, and there was nowhere else she'd rather be.