I couldn't properly give a description of what was passing through my mind at the moment, it was very hazy images repeatedly in an infinite loop which time I couldn't even put a proximately measure.
But the same image was repeating repeatedly. A yellowish silhouette with a semblance of rabbit ears was the best I could describe it.
The second repetitive image was a sea of red with many black dots, all of them slowly drawing a line connecting each other. It somehow created curves which were giving form to many interconnected circles for a moment before it engulfed the image in pure black.
The cycle going in an infinite loop for who knows how long until everything went completely white. A flash, then my vision was greeted by a rather light brown roof. Only then I could feel a slight weight all over my body while my arms slowly gained mobility and a recovering sensation, feeling a long soft fabric above my body.
Soon my vision was invaded by a redhead wearing glasses.
"You are finally awake, Sasuke-kun!" She didn't hesitate to place her exposed arm right above my mouth. "Quick, bite here!"
Even if I just woke up, my entire body was feeling very weak, not even with enough strength to lift my body, yet I could still open my mouth and take a bite on her. The healing effects were almost immediate as before.
Her chakra flooded my system, my body positively reacting as my strength returned and kicked the mattress off the bed and sat to straighten myself for a much better posture.
Only then I released her arm from my mouth and let out a long sigh before rubbing my temples to release some tension that had been building up.
"How long had I been out?" I didn't hesitate to ask, yet deep inside I was concerned about the time that could have passed.
A gust of wind quickly caressed my chest for me to understand that I had no upper clothes or bandages.
"Two days." Karin's reply brought some calm to me as it was very good that not that much time was lost.
"Is good news that you are finally awake, Uchiha. However, I haven't come to congratulate you on your recovery."
I didn't bother to turn to look at Gaara; it was very clear his intention to look for me the moment I was awake. "Do you want answers?"
"You owe me a lot of answers."
Slowly, I lifted my gaze to meet his. "I won't answer them all, if that's what you were hoping."
Even if he witnessed my trump card, I wouldn't reveal more ideas or my possibilities or further plans to him. It was stupid to even talk about secrets with somebody like him even if I needed allies.
I had to choose carefully who to ally with.
"Bold move, Uchiha." Gaara extended his hand, and soon after sand came out from his container and circled around him and slowly spread across the floor. "You think you are in a condition to fight?"
The growing KI in the room caught my attention, making me face him directly to the eye with the exception that my whole world perspective became red like his hair. "And you think an Uchiha needs to be at full health to fight?"
Even if I just woke up, I had some confidence in fighting with my Sharingan. If a cripple like Itachi could do it I was within the possibilities to achieve the same feats, though I didn't have Mangeko like Itachi.
Gaara silently glared daggers at me for a long uncomfortable while but didn't stagger with his stance.
"You truly like to test my patience, don't you?" He said while his sand rapidly returned to his container.
"And you like to threaten me just to get your way." My reply caused him to frown deeply, and all his sand came to a sudden halt and poured out from his container in droves once again.
"Relax both of you, nobody wants this building to explode." A newcomer caught our attention to sharply turn to look in her direction.
The most annoying agent of Konoha I've met so far was sitting on the window frame wearing a taunting smile, she was almost covered from head to toe with large robes which was an odd choice of attire after meeting her with her very revealing attire from the previous meetings.
Gaara sighed and straightened his posture and recalled the rest of his sand to fully return to his container in seconds. "She is correct, I don't want to risk my people's safety."
Only after hearing those words, my vision finally returned to its original color and my body released all tension in my muscles.
I could hear a very loud sigh of relief from the other side, Karin immediately looked down avoiding eye contact when we looked at her.
A third-party mediator was truly useful for strained, barely tolerable relations.
Gaara crossed both arms and looked at me with his calm yet hardened eyes. "Where is Deidara?"
"At Kirigakure, probably tracking the three tails." I answered, adding the last part since that's what I believed he could do in that country.
"How did you know our location? We were far from the Wind Country frontier." I asked my question, while his help was welcome and expected I never expected him to come from so far away or that he could see the clouds which was our agreed signal.
Gaara extended his hand and opened it to show his sand eye materializing for a moment.
"I knew of your sudden departure, so my eye stayed close." His calm demeanor disappeared in its entirety to be replaced by a firm yet aggressive stance. "Now don't lie to me, How did you get the Kiba Blades?"
Out of instinct I looked at Karin who was looking at me with her eyes wide open, her hands twitching to summon her chains, looking at the corner of my eyes I could see Tayuya no longer held her mocking and prideful smile but was dead serious with her hands inside her robes waiting for something.
Carefully my eyes analyzed the room and pinpoint every location, specially my gear and weapons resting on a small table not very far from my bed.
However, I would not start a commotion.
I shook my head, silently telling Karin to not do anything rash before facing Gaara.
"I retrieved them near a mining town, they considered me worthy enough to wield them." There was no way I would reveal the fact that Chojuro was practically mutilated to get them, and an entire Kiri squad was turned into ashes.
He raised an eyebrow while his gaze shifted towards Tayuya, who merely shrugged.
"How did you even bring them here?" I asked while pointing at my swords. "They kill anybody who isn't worthy."
"I know, I moved them with my sand." He replied.
I wanted to slap myself from not even considering that obvious possibility.
Another uncomfortable silence entered the scene.
But I was thankful for the awkward silence since much to my luck Gaara didn't press the matter and changed the topic with the next question.
"What did you mean with 'Path of Immortality' or 'Yugure'?"
I could feel my stomach drop, and a sudden weight of shame landed on my shoulders, slowly forcing me to lower my head and hide my face from the world behind my hands.
"Empty words, I was exhausted to actually think straight." Stupid rants from a brooding teenager that could only embarrass myself I wished that my exhaustion took over before I could utter a single word or at least no audience.
Stupid brooding Uchiha genes!
Gaara just remained there, standing in silence for another awkward long while.
Tayuya, on the other hand, was snickering, stopping herself from going all out with laughter somehow she could tell that I was dying of embarrassment.
"Your half' truths will be accepted for now, Konoha forces will come soon; if you don't want to meet them, then I suggest you leave as soon as possible." He turned around and left the room.
"I appreciate your concern." I muttered.
Once again the uncomfortable silence followed, I could even hear Karin's breathing.
"Say princess, how did you do it?" One annoying person finally broke the ice that formed.
My gaze quickly landed on Karin, raising an eyebrow questingly. Even if she saved me from trouble, she was still an uninvited guest.
"What is she doing here?" I pointed at the intrusive redhead.
Karin looked at me in silence and then turned to look at her friend for a moment before taking off her glasses and sighed in defeat. "It's not like I can stop her."
"I'm in no mood to deal with your antics, be quick or leave." I sharply addressed her.
"You are an ass, I only need to fill a report and I did a shitty job at recording your fight so I need details or those oldies will be pissed at me." Tayuya groaned before pulling out a pen and a small notebook from her robes.
"You would have better luck asking your friend instead of me." I pointed at Karin before standing up from the bed and went towards the small table where most of my things were.
I was thankful that my pants remained almost intact from the entire ordeal, or that the doctors didn't put me in a hospital gown.
"I did! My dear Karin was very helpful with the details but that only extends to that crazy fanatic." Tayuya declared and left the window to stand next to me.
"I have no reasons to tell you any of my secrets." I quickly replied as my eyes focused on my new gray shirt, what a good thing that I bought additional sets of clothes with Karinj or I might have found myself with some inconveniences.
Tayuya slammed both hands on the table.
"Help me out here, dammit! I don't want to get an earing from the old pervert or the saggy hag, is fucking boring!" She tried to vent and relate with her frustrations, however her attitude irked me a lot.
I turned to look at her in the eye and see her face forming wrinkles out of anger.
Slowly, I button up my shirt.
"Tell that to somebody who cares."
Even if she asked nicely, I wouldn't have given her any information for safety reasons, besides she acted like a total bitch days ago and I can be petty.
"I care, you asshole!" She shouted.
At that point I completely disregarded her voice in the matter. There were far more important things to think, like the rest of my team and how they were faring.
My attention shifted to our sensor who looked like she was suffering from second hand embarrassment. "Where are Suigetsu and Juugo?"
I left Tayuya side to be in front of Karin, who stood up from her chair.
"Suigetsu had been waiting at the reception along with Juugo after getting a few stitches." Karin was quick to answer.
I was surprised to hear that they did need stitches to begin with because that meant that they received deep wounds, even if I saw Juugo receive the attack full force.
"They injured Suigetsu?" Even if they won, that Hidan somehow went through Suigetsu's unique physique was worrisome to some extent, opening more uncertainties that would only complicate things even more.
But those doubts were quelled almost immediately when she shook her head. "Only Juugo received stitches, but he regenerated really quick so it was kinda pointless."
"You let him bite you?"
"Of course not, for such superficial wounds it would have been utterly pointless." She extended both arms and placed them on my shoulders, trying to pull me closer. "Besides, I don't want anybody but you to bite me…"
I pulled away from her arms and went towards the door. There was no time to "Let's go, there are lots of things to do."
"Hey, don't ignore me and act like a fucking couple in front of me!" Tayuya tried to get some attention, but I maintained my position and left through the door.
"Sasuke-kun wait!" I didn't have a single step outside and Karin was already calling me back.
"What's the problem now?" I turned around, growing annoyed at her.
"The Jinchuuriki wanted to speak with you after your recovery. She too had been waiting all these days while you were unconscious."
That caught by surprise since I completely forgot about it. My mind was focused on leaving Suna as soon as possible.
"Where is she?" I asked.
"She is waiting at the reception as well." Karin pointed in the general direction and went inside the room again to calm down the very pissed Tayuya who was raining insults at me.
I pondered about the idea of chastising her for a moment before adjusting my clothes and going straight to hospital reception, passing through the same monotone halls.
The whole objective was to establish contact with Fu but I wanted that to occur under favorable conditions, like me being her savior from certain death by the hand of Akatsuki but as ever plans could always change and one had to be open for adaptation.
After taking another turn I was surprised to find that it was taking me more time than expected to reach the reception, the halls seemed endless and the lack of windows made it slightly uncomfortable, slowly putting the idea of a hospital-prison in my head.
Yet the idea died out when I found a more lively hall with nurses and doctors moving patients in their convertible beds and civilians patiently waiting outside rooms, and the hallways were far more illuminated than the ones I left behind.
It clicked in my mind that I was purposefully isolated to avoid unwanted people finding out about me, which was a sympathetic gesture from Gaara's part.
Finally, once I arrived, I saw both members from my team sitting together, specifically Juugo meditating on the floor while Suigetsu occupied the entire seat for a much more comfortable position.
The staff and other patients could only watch at the swordsman inconsiderate behavior in silence as they came and left the area, yet nobody seemed to say or do something about it.
However, an extra member stood out from the crowd, the green-haired girl with the olive skin stood out from the rest like always. Who didn't hesitate to stand up and walk up to me the moment I came into view.
She was surprisingly fast in her approach, standing face to face, yet she was smaller than me. At first there was an awkward silence between us, only the sound of footsteps and the staff giving directions and order to others.
"I honestly didn't expect that the mysterious bounty hunter would be the last Uchiha." She finally commented after taking a closer look at me.
"How did you even know my identity?" I frowned as we never introduced ourselves to each other, and my identity back in the heat of battle was still a secret.
"I didn't know you at all, but the Kazekage told me a little and your friends over there told me some as well." She pointed back to the seats where the rest of my team were currently relaxing.
I turned to look at Suigetsu, who only shrugged in response before lazing off on his seat while Juugo remained the same, meditating in peace.
I turned to face Fu again.
"I see, then why did you want to see me?" I crossed both arms, looking at her with a raised eyebrow questingly, I had several questions and I was sure she also had her own share of questions if she wanted to meet up with me.
Fu checked her surroundings and leaned closer to my face with a wide smile.
"That's simple, I want to join you!"
AN: This is the beginning of the second arc. Thanks all for reading till now and also for giving those favs and follows we are getting close to the 2k mark. And apologies if some parts seem odd. Sometimes when I want to push something out it happens and my mind couldn't get more ideas and would start blocking which might delay the chapter even more and I hate that.
And well also I started playing ESO which is pretty fun and eating some of time.