This one is a little angsty and dark, fyi. But it only gets better from here.

Thank you so much to these people for reviewing: ElyBet, KatrinSH, LaCrazyWriter, and a Guest.

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Day 5: Lips Against Fingertips

Sasuke hangs from the shackles around his wrists. In some perverse way, he feels grateful that he is bolted only halfway up the wall so he can sit on his knees. His arms and shoulders are both numb and full of stabbing pain. His neck screams at him as his head lolls forward.

He tires of cataloging his wounds and all his pain. His whole body is one big pain. Death would be a relief but his captors do not believe his cover story.

Sasuke can insist, has insisted that he is passing through Amegakure, and is a former military cop from Yugakure. They do not believe him even after he has repeated his false identification number until they threatened to rid him of his tongue. They found his false military file and taunt him with it. They do not believe him.

They are correct.

However, Sasuke will not give up his true Organization. So he waits for death with numb arms and legs, and blind in his left eye.

He has been an operative for three years now. That is a good amount of time. He will not be mad at himself for his record. It is something to be proud of, something his mother can hold on to when she receives the news that he is assumed to be Killed in Action.

He does not have time to muster the energy to scold himself for his maudlin thoughts. His interrogator stands before the bars of his cell. She sneers down at him as if he is not even worth her time.

Perhaps she is right. He did not notice her approach. The sound of her footsteps are burned into his brain after all the anxiety and sick anticipation that accompanied it. And right now, he did not notice.

However, he cannot think about that. Not when his stomach sinks at the realization that he is truly dying. Standing next to his interrogator is Hinata.

Sasuke is hallucinating Hinata.

If he could move at all, he would hide his face in his shoulder and laugh. How far gone is he on this one woman that never talked to him? What a silly man. At least his brain conjured a nice hallucination for him.

"He says he's former military," his interrogator says, her voice faint to his damaged ears.

"And you don't believe him?" The Hinata Hallucination murmurs.

Oh great, he is imagining this whole thing. Perfect. Amazing sign. If his heart had the energy it would beat out of his chest with fear. It can only muster a hiccup of an abnormal palpation.

"We've had so many spies sniffing around lately. He has to be one of them."

Hinata simply stares at him for a long minute. Sasuke tries to drink her in, tries to burn her blurry image into his brain before she leaves him. Because she will leave him. Even her hallucination will not stay for his final moments.

In fact, she hums in dismissal and turns away from him. She does not glance back.

Sasuke sighs, letting out all the tension he can, and lets himself drift into sleep.

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Sasuke is so deep in the black miasma of pain, he does not realize a hand is carefully cradling his face. The person speaking is what jolts him into awareness.

"Friend," a familiar soft voice whispers. "I need you to wake up, please," she pleads. "Friend, please be okay."

He is not okay. But he tries. The palm against his overheated cheek is cool and the touch is so tender. The softness of it surprises him.

His eyelashes flutter.

"Oh thank the heavens," her breath brushes over his pain and fever sensitive skin. "I'm going to cut you down and it's going to be painful, okay? I'm sorry."

He senses more than sees her moves away from him. There is a jangle of keys. Then his arm explodes with lightning sharp pain as his arm is released and moved from its frozen position. He goes to scream, but all that escapes him is a low, hiccuping sob.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she chants.

She catches his arm and slowly maneuvers it to his side. Too weak to hold himself up, he slumps forward and his cheek presses against the concrete. The chill of it feels good. His eyes slip closed in relief. She could leave him like this and he would thank her.

"I'm sorry," she apologizes again and his other arm is released.

All that escapes him is a huff.

"Friend, stay with me." Two strong arms wrap around his chest. He is levered up and clumsily placed into a soft seat. "Friend, stay awake. Sweetheart, please." Her voice breaks with fear and desperation and it wakes him slightly.

She maneuvers his feet to rest on something off the ground. His arms are braced inside two chair arms.

Oh, it's a wheelchair, he realizes dimly. The headquarters used to be an old mental hospital. It makes sense there is a wheelchair. Smart.

She runs down the hallway with him and slides into the elevator. Dimly, he sees shapes of bodies around them and wonders at them. He does not care if they are dead or alive. He only wonders how strong this person is. She will not kill him, right?

He knows her, maybe?

The elevator ride is long. Long enough for her to tend to him for a moment.

She slips a pill into his slack mouth. When he cannot chew it, she curses. She gingerly takes it out and slips it back into his mouth, and it is half masticated. Her fingers brush over his lips and her palm presses his chin upwards to shut his mouth.

"Swallow, Sweetheart."

He does not quite remember how but he will listen to anything the stranger says. He does his best and coughs. She slips him a bit of water before the elevator opens. When it does, they are running again.

They emerge out into the street. The hospital is in a busy part of town. Sasuke cannot really focus anymore. The pill made his chest feel a tiny bit freer but he is half-asleep and still in pain.

He thinks something happens with a taxi, and the woman talking a mile a minute about her boyfriend always getting drunk and into fights. Something. She moves him into a different seat and then he is swaying with a car. She moves him again once the swaying stops.

He wishes she would stop grabbing him by his broken ribs but he supposes he has no say in the matter. She keeps whispering apologies. He decides to forgive her.

The wheelchair again. The creak of an old door on old hinges opening.

"I need to see Kabuto," she says.

Footsteps. Not like his interrogator but still a bad omen. Kabuto sounds like a bad omen. But the thought slips away and his head is so heavy. It hurts so much.

"Why should I help a Konoha nin?" A man asks.

"Because I have information on Orochimaru's DNA," the woman says.

Sasuke should be alarmed, he thinks. The reason why escapes him. So does his hold on wakefulness. He sleeps.

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