Bonds and Fates | Chapter 11

Title: Emulating Chickens

"I think I want to work at the hospital," Kagome sighed, shifting in her seat and bringing the teacup to her lips.

Itachi gave the girl next to him an odd look. 'This is... completely out of the blue.'

"... Why?"

"Well, I just thought I'd be good at it," the priestess replied, grinning sunnily at the Uchiha.

"Do you know any medical jargon? Wrapping techniques? What about reading charts and doling out medications?" Itachi fired off his questions lazily, wanting to get through this process as painlessly as possible. After all, that's what friends were for. Right? Note the sarcasm.

"... No. But I can learn all of that stuff! And I know how to wrap!" the raven-haired girl huffed, gracing him with an annoyed look. Itachi ignored it. Completely.

"Are you capable of dealing with the sickly?"

"I used to take care of my cat all the time when he got sick."

"Animal sickness is different from human illness. Where is he now?" Itachi declared, raising a brow at her blush.

"Living with my mom," the girl mumbled, looking slightly mournful.

"Do you have an aversion to blood?" the former Clan heir continued quickly, still not entirely comfortable with her melancholic attitude when it came to her past. To not know meant he didn't have to become anymore attached than was necessary. Which would be none, if he had his way. Too bad everyone else was, intentionally or unintentionally, conspiring against him. Sometimes life just sucked like that.

"I was really klutzy when I was little. I used to get cuts and scrapes all the time," Kagome rolled her eyes, wondering why her friend was quizzing her on this. 'It's not like I need his approval or anything.'

"I meant a large amount of blood," Itachi countered, leveling her with that smug superior look that always seemed to rile the priestess up. He noticed her face paling, and shook his head.

"I... can deal with it." Now, she sounded unsure.

"There are several people, ninja included, that could potentially come in with severed arteries, bleeding stumps where limbs used to be, grievious injuries needing to be sewn up and fixed, wounds that would need to be cauterized..." he stopped when Kagome jumped up and bolted to the bathroom.

'There is no way she could work in a hospital.'

"That jerk! He did that on purpose," Kagome ground out, brushing her teeth frantically and spitting, "Talking about stuff like that is always nastier than when you actually see it." She had her time in the Feudal Era to thank for that. Truthfully, she'd seen more blood shed in those long months for a corrupted jewel than most surgeon's in her original era would ever see in their lifetime.

'Doesn't mean I like to talk about it... or imagine it, at that.' She huffed and trecked back downstairs, expecting to see a smug Uchiha sipping his tea at her kitchen island. Oh, but she was in for a treat instead.

Apparently, the Sharingan user had decided to test her nerve. By. Cutting. Open. His. Freaking. Arm.

His blood dripped morbidly onto the counter and the floor, the bloody knife sitting innocently next to the sink. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Kagome faintly knew that she was going to make the calm male clean up his own mess.

So instead, she completely lost it.

"What did you do that for? Have you gone insane?" Kagome shrieked, fluttering around him in a panic. He was getting blood on his shirt, his pants, all over the floor. "Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!"

"I am quite sane, thank you for asking. This, however, is a test."

"You're kidding, right?" He shook his head, not affected in the least at the blood dripping steadily from his wrist and onto her clean floor.

"If you cannot handle this, then there would be no need for you to work in the hospital," he replied calmly. Rationally.

"What makes you think you even have the right to do something like this?" she snapped, gingerly examining the sluggish way the bright red liquid pumped from his arm. He opened his mouth to answer, but she cut him off. "Don't answer that!"

Suddenly, she shoved him over to the sink, flipping on the water and pulling his arm under the spray. He flinched minutely. The water was freezing!

"You, stay here! I'm going to get some bandages. And possibly some thread and a needle," Kagome demanded, giving him a stern look before darting upstairs and leaving a bleeding Uchiha to watch the pink water swirl down the drain.

Okay, so maybe he had been a little hasty in his decision. His arm hurt like a bitch and he'd lost a decent amount of blood.

'Strange. I feel... lightheaded. I must have lost too much blood,' Itachi thought when his vision began to blur.

"Itachi! Stay awake!" He could hear her, but he couldn't see her. The former heir opened his mouth to send her a biting retort, but nothing came out. 'I'm worse off than I thought. Did I open up the main artery in my arm?'

Instead, he put forth the effort to listen to her voice. She babbled on about inane things. Work, the children she saw at the orphanage, her house, the herb garden she apparently kept out back, and several other things. Nothing really interested him, though, so Itachi began to drift off.

"Itachi! Listen to me!" Her voice brought him back and he finally put in the effort to focus his gaze onto her. Dare he think it, but she looked... worried.

"... Too... boring," he managed to get out. He felt her huff next to him and pull his arm out of the sink.

"Well, you barely nicked a deep vein, but the bleeding has slowed down a lot. The cut itself isn't really deep so you probably won't need stiches. I'm going to put this salve on it. It'll help it clot properly and get rid of infection. Then I'm going to bandage you up. After that, you're going to lay down for a while," Kagome explained all of this in a calm soothing tone and began her ministrations.

"... Sure."

"In the mean time, I'll tell you a story to keep you from passing out."

'Does she think me a child? I stopped wanting stories by the time I was four!' The Uchiha male glared and opened his mouth to say as much, but she interrupted.

"Don't give me that look, mister I-want-to-test-you! You'll listen, whether you want to or not!"

"... Fine." It was his turn to huff in annoyance. To his surprise, Kagome smiled.

"Good."

'So much for my test,' Itachi thought, sighing inwardly and restraining the urge to bang his head on the counter, 'Why does nothing ever work the way I want it to around this girl?'

:::

You can now download my novel directly from my Patreon page. By supporting my work, you'll get exclusive content and help me keep writing! Click the link to join the adventure: patreon.com/DreamStory22