Fatigue overwhelmed him, his mind tossing and turning over the events of the past few weeks. Months. Years.
Thinking back, he tried to remember a day when he hadn't been constantly training or fighting or walking nonstop from dawn until dusk. Had he even eaten recently?
His vision bounced and blurred, little black specks flitting in and out of view, head aching as if he had been struck hard in the back of his skull.
Passing bits and pieces of memories seemed to love to resurface when he was tired like this. If he fell asleep now, he would surely be greeted with none other than repeated scenes of death and dying. His parents, his brother, friends who hadn't even died yet…
Every muscle of his body felt horribly exhausted and sore. If someone wanted to come kill him now, he would have no other option but to just lie there and take it. Just like how he had killed Orochimaru.
This was usually the part of the day where he would sit alone, staring at the ceiling and trying not to think about how miserable he felt. When he would tell his teammates to leave him alone because, no, he didn't need anything and he didn't want help tending to any cuts or bumps or bruises. He was like a stubborn child, always refusing help because, of course, any attempt to mend the injury would just make it hurt worse, even if only momentarily.
He wasn't quite sure where he was at the moment either, although he knew it was somewhere beside one of the medic tents. Or at least he assumed it was, since there seemed to be a lot of bleeding people coming and going.
She had found herself there too, not long after he had made his way onto the ground, lying sideways in the cool grass. She didn't say anything for a long while, instead just sitting beside him and watching others as they passed by.
"You aren't going to die now, are you?" She asked, finally breaking the silence, her voice airy and light.
"Hnm…nn..."
"Good." She said, stifling a yawn. She stretched her arms out above her head, in what he assumed was an attempt to shake off some stress.
There was a nice breeze bringing a slight chill into the evening air.
He let his eyes fall shut, tuning out the clamor of people just on the other side of the tent.
A little while passed and he felt a cautious hand graze through his hair, smoothing away some strands that had fallen into his face. His thoughts slowed as he concentrated on the touch, letting some of the anxiety previously plaguing him slip away.
Before all of it happened, there were times when he used to wait all day for Itachi to get home from training, hoping that he would have time to play with him after finishing all of his work for the day.
There were lazy mornings where he would wake up to his mother making a big breakfast of bacon, pancakes, and eggs and there were days when he would run around outside all day chasing after crickets in the grass.
And sometimes his father wouldn't have yelled quite so much and sometimes he wouldn't have felt so much stress to outperform his brother. Sometimes.
Then later there was eating at Ichiraku Ramen with everyone.
Trying to see what was under Kakashi's mask.
Watching fireworks on the beach.
Actually, even listening to Naruto and Sakura bicker was fun at times.
Sakura pulled her hand away suddenly and his eyes fluttered back open at the sudden lack of comforting gesture.
"Sorry." She apologized. Apparently she had just realized what she was doing and was…embarassed?
"'s fine." He mumbled sleepily, rubbing his eyes.
"Hey, Sasuke! Tsunade-baa-chan wants to talk with you!" Naruto came running around the corning, barely skimming past a young woman carrying a tray of medical supplies.
"Nn." The Uchiha sat up slowly, giving one last glace to the pink-haired girl beside him before sluggishly following after the other boy.
