Healing

It only took three year for Yuichi to set foot once more in his old family home. He repainted a windowless room behind his mothers. The deep red got to him, even to this day. Everything had been removed, so at least he didn't need to re-visit every memory. Somehow, the place being empty made him feel a deep, unatural sadness as well, so before long it was full of stuff. Before. The place matched his mothers tastses. Dark colors, elegant furnature, various exoctic plants. Now, Yuichi brought his own stuff over. So, on his dining table, was a massive pile of stuffed animals that made it impossible to eat. Light would shine through the bright orange curtains in the kitchen, which made it feel like the whole house was glowing under the morning sun. A kettle whistled on a kitchen counter, as Yuichi rested his head on a fat pink plush dog on his kitchen table. He was somehow sleeping right through the high pitched squeeling.

His goal was to make tea and breakfast for his guest. Michiko. She had been through a lot, so he offered her a place to stay until she felt well again. Most of the time, these days, he was staying at his home in the Oosukoshiba basement, or the one in the market district. He sold his home in the market district so he could move here agian. Michiko was given Haru's bedroom. It was that or his mothers, they were the two rooms that he could not bring himself to enter. It was down a hallway from the kitchen and directly across from Yuichi's bedroom, which had the door cracked open. Inside the bright blue walls were glowing in the night of an open window, and there was somehow even more stuffed animals, along with a dresser that had never been removed for whatever reason. When he was a kid, he painted blue flowers on it.

She was sleeping soundly in the comfortable bed. Comfort like this seemed to be a distant memory she could barely remember, still being so used to the hard prison bed and the cold room it was in. It was no wonder she slept so long, not having good rest like this in years. Honestly, it seemed like a dream or something, and maybe it was. Maybe it was all too good to be true? How long had she been sleeping for? A few hous? Days? A week? However long it was, she dreamt a surprisingly sweet dream rather than the usual nightmares she had. It was simple, and peaceful. She lay floating on top of water on a pool inflatable, just drifting about in the sunshine. Huh....sunshine? How long had it been now since she had seen the sun? Four years....and then nothing but pitch darkness, when her eyes had been stolen. Sudddenly, the waves got fierce, and she was tossed off the pool floatie, trying not to drown, as that evil man stared at her with one glaring crimson eye that was not his.

Hearing the high-pitched whistling sound, Michiko sprang upright in the bed, her heart pounding in her chest. Everthing was still dark, but now, there was something there that wasn't there before. Pain racked her head as she opened her eyes. They hurt so bad, it was so bad. She could see grey, she realized, because she had bandages wrapped around her head again, and it must be day, because things were not black. However, she knew better than to hurt herself more, so she closed her eyes again. She didn't know....were they her eyes? Did she get them back from those thieves?! Or...were these just some ordinary eyes that had been given to her by the woman called Kanara? She didn't know....but she wanted to find out, and right away. She would thank her friends, no matter what had happened. Wait...friends? She was still for a second and thought about that. She decided that, she should still be careful. She wanted to believe whole-heartedly that they were good people, but she didn't know them yet, not really. Still, she felt like she could try to trust them, because if they hadn't cared about her, they would have left her to die and just reported the incident to the Village and the Clan to sort out later.

Then, Michiko remembered something at least. She remembered her friend she had known, the only friend she had had for four years in captivity, Yin-Tao Kaguya. She remembered that, before she had passed out, he had kissed her and bid her farewell, telling her that she'd be fine now because she was back with her family, and that he had to leave and go back to his own home as well. Michiko clenched her fists and pushed the covers back, coming to the edge of the bed, she felt for the floor with her small feet, before standing, wobbly, but much stronger than after the fight with Dr. Ro.

She called out in her delicate sweet voice, "Hello? Yuichi? Kanara?", she asked. She wasn't sure who's home she was in, but it definately felt like a house.

He awoke from his slumber to Michiko calling out his name. The kettle whistled for a moment after he removed it from the heat, but the sound died out as he moved down the hallway to Haru's bedroom. For a moment, he almost felt nostalgic, but he drowned the feeling so fast it was like it never happened. Then, he swallowed and pushed his way into her room.

Well, she was standing it seemed. His medical jutsu would have taken care of any physical ailments, so she was likely having psychological side effects from the trauma. He learned from Kanara that there was no easy fix. After doing the research, even the chemestry in your brain was different after undergoing trauma. He could remove the memory completely, and it might not even matter.

He had avoided reading her mind until this point. He wasn't sure that he would be able to handle her memories.

"Don't do it. I know what your thinking. You cannot handle it," Dosan said.

When did he ever listen to Dosan? Even Dosan, with access to all his memories, couldn't understand he reasoning. It goes so much deeper than a lust for knowledge. So, armor down. As always, he would submit himself to the cause that he beleived in. Reaching out, he would touch he head, connecting with her mind.

It was quiet and dark. Suffocating. He could recall being locked in his own bedroom for hours and days and weeks. But this was different. Just a foul stentch. One that never left. For weeks. Occasional scraping procedures. A nasty voice of an man. He saw the moment he gouged her eyes out of her head and her vision was enveloped by an intense darkness. Then, when he couldn't take it anymore: he read it all again. He did it again and again. Each time, his breath growing more shallow. Then finally he would remove his hand, and wipe the sweat off his head. His vision had been warped somewhat by the experiance, but he did not suffer any apparent ill effects.

"You don't notice the ill effects, but I do," Dosan said.

"Since when have you worried about me," Yuichi would say out loud. Realizing that was the first thing he said since entering the room, he laughed it off. "Yuichi it is. Good to see you awake, sleepy."

Michiko walked carefully around the room, touching the walls, furniture, and found pleasant things she hadn't touched in a very long time like soft drapes over a window, a cushy chair with a wooden frame, and a few stuffed animals. The stuffed toys particularly filled her head with a distant memory of her own room as a child, where her bed had several stuffed animals on it She found a bear, picked it up, and hugged it close to her, enjoying it's comforting softness, reminded of her pink and white panda.

She stiffened as the door opened, and clenched the bear tighter, her whole body stiffening, like a reflex, from constantly fearing who would enter her prison chamber. However, hearing the kind voice of the young man she had called for, she was thankfully brought back to the present. She sat the bear back down on the chair she had found it on, and carefully approached Yuichi Uchiha. It was very odd, him touching her forehead. She flinched and balled a fist, going to punch him in his diaphragm as hard as she could, but she stopped and breathed heavily, realizing she almost struck the kind person who had been one of her rescuers. To think she needed rescuing...she would have never thought it, and yet, that's what had happened. It just went to show, no one was unstoppable, not even an Uchiha.

Instead, she took a hand, and grasped his wrist, asking him,

"Excuse me, what are you doing?", but he didin't reply. Next thing she knew, she felt him shaking slightly, kind of like how one does when you've had a lot of caffeine but not enough hydration. He also felt hot. She was beginning to worry he wasn't alright. And that's when he said,

"Since when have you worried about me?" Huh? That had caught her off guard, as she wondered if he was speaking to her. He then laughed and said that it was he, Yuichi and he stated that he was glad to see she was awake, calling her sleepy.

Michiko was confused, and she backed a little away from him to give herself some personal space, and replied, "Thank you for coming....were you talking to me? Anyway, how long did I sleep for? And can you please tell me where I am?" All sensible questions. She then awaited his answers, and she realized the smell of the tea was quite pleasant to her. Tea? How long had it been since she had last drank a cup of tea?