3 Months Prior
A briny breeze blows through Sasuke's dark hair watching as a hawk flies towards him. He's just completed a mission for Kakashi, surveying land and doing reconnaissance work on a group of bandits near the tip of Fire Country. He offers his arm out for the bird to perch. Lowering the bird to the sandy beach he's currently walking along he undoes the clasp and removes a message. From the corner of his eye he notices his hair has a surprising light curl at the ends from the humid air, while he unfurls the letter. It's a bit of a shock that the letter is from Naruto, his handwriting very recognizable and slightly unreadable if you aren't used to it. His left arm aches at the spot where it's severed. Humid areas such as the one he's inhabiting currently tend to bother his severed arm more than more temperate climates. In contrast he's also learned that cold climates make his arm sting to the bone. Needless to say, the time he spent in snow country was short.
Sasuke reads over the letter, having to squint through a few parts to understand what Naruto was trying to say. He gets to a part about Sakura mentioning him being similar to 'the police force!' He finds he's scanning over the phrase more times than necessary because it strikes a cord in him. From where he currently stands it's a six day travel time by foot to Konoha. As he mulls over travel time and the best route to take, he for the first time in a long time feels no mental blocks when thinking about returning to Konoha. He feels ready. Sasuke does some mental math and writes a quick note to Sakura. Judging by the date on Naruto's letter he thinks it will take three days for the hawk to reach Konoha.
He hopes he timed the message correctly for his return.
He spares one last glance towards the ocean from the cliffside he stands upon. It's low, lower than the cliffside of the village he passed through a year ago. The water can be felt as the waves splash against the rocky beach below him. The ocean was one of his first stops, and favorite places during his private journey. He's found himself staring out into the expanse of blue for longer than necessary when he hops up the cliffside to the nearest main road for travel.
Rather than the bright sunny days he experienced nearly a year ago, storm clouds move rapidly overhead. The menacing clouds travel towards what he remembers to be the general vicinity of a small coastal town. He's a few hours walk away from the village, judging from the cumulonimbus clouds and the rain he can see off in the distance, it's clear that it was not just any rain shower.
Sasuke makes it through the first hour of his walk on the dirt road, which he finds is getting muddier the farther he treks along. He finds himself having to stop a few times from the force of gusting winds and pelting raindrops. He pushes more chakra to his feet, seemingly fighting against nature itself to continue on his path.
A strange sight comes into view from a ways down the road so he shifts his sharingan to activate. His hair whips wildly in his face and without his cloak he would be soaked through to the bone. With the assistance of his sharingan he can see the small coastal village with more clarity. He views the villagers waging a war against water coming from both the sky above and the ocean below. The water level has visibly risen, the tall cliffside at the southernmost edge of the village, meters above the great expanse of water, now has waves crashing over and flooding the town. The heavy winds blow rooftops off of houses as if the gusting wind was peeling them off like a child peeling a scab from a wound. Glancing upward towards the sky, Sasuke makes an educated guess that the storm will go on for hours yet. Familiar and comfortable with the electricity humming above, he still respectfully does not wish to be struck by it. Some of the ends of his hair stick up from the charged atmosphere.
His feet move on their own. Racing to get to the village that is all but about to be drowned.
Sasuke has fought the creator of chakra, been blessed by the Sage of Six Paths, and assisted in ending a worldwide genjutsu. He thinks protecting a town from a severe natural disaster may be under his wheelhouse, but oh, how he was about to be proven wrong.
Deciding to use his teleportation, knowing it will take too long if he attempts to make it by foot. Even after using it an odd handful of times over his journey he still fights the mental lag after shifting through time space.
Recovering quickly he sets out to help. He opts for susanoo, summoning his spectral shield form he uses it to hold down roofs that are about to blow off houses. The wind is aggressive, his susanoo protecting him but it feels like with even the slightest bit more force and it would penetrate his shield. Shifting around his susanoo he sees a metal outdoor table from a nearby restaurant blow down the street as if it were a tumbleweed. Sasuke notices the path the table is taking and it's about to hit an elderly man placing tarps on an outdoor garden. The man is thin and frail and with the force this table is traveling at, if it hits the man it will surely kill him. Sasuke rushes to the scene and snatches the table in time before it whacks the man.
"Get inside!" He warns sternly, the man nods frantically and rushes as fast as his elderly legs will take him.
Sasuke hears the flash flood before he sees it. Waves crash against the nearby cliffside and torrential rain pours out of the sky. Sasuke has never seen the sky so perilous. He's been caught in his fair share of down pours but this was different. This was as if the world was ending and all the water from the sky above had chosen this seaside village to pour down onto.
Thunder booms so loudly above him that even his susanoo vibrates from the power of the sound waves. Very suddenly the large brick laden main road criss crossing between all the main points of the village has become a water slide of sludge and water. The people who have been holding outdoor items in place, or boarding up windows in the street are swept into the current as if they were ants being flooded by a bucket of water.
A woman has a child strapped to her back and she's gasping for air as she's whisked down the street. The child on her back is submerged in the murky rushing water. Sasuke spots her and flys over to the flooded street. His mangekyo flickers for the briefest moment, and he feels the rain soak him for the shortest of seconds before he pushes on, his mangekyo reactivating as quickly as it had gone out. He's overusing his abilities. Using not only his teleportation from the rinnegan but then following it up with his spectral susanoo in rapid succession, he can feel his chakra draining. He's sure if he saw himself in the mirror he would have blood caked under his eyes. With the imminent chaos of the village before him he can't save everyone and destruction is occurring far too quickly for his susanoo to be in multiple places at once.
Sasuke makes it to the woman and child and scoops them out of the overwhelming waters. The two are ok, coughing and hacking up water, but ok. He makes sure they are both breathing before placing them onto a side street and urging them into a nearby house.
His chakra stores are lowering at a rapid pace but he has to try a last ditch effort that he hopes will work to protect the village until the storm passes. The village will surely be wiped off the map if he doesn't at least try. Sasuke flies up, high above the village still within the protection of his spectral form, to survey the land below. The town is in a rough circular shape. He thinks he can use planetary devastation to summon pieces of earth and rock nearby to make an earthen shield, sealing the village away from what very well might be a typhoon.
He yells out to the people below, hoping enough of them can hear him over the rushing water, pounding rain, and roaring winds.
"Get to the center of the village as fast as you can! Avoid the main road!"
Sasuke watches from above within his susanoo as a majority of residents move towards the center of town. He watches the people knock on doors to alert others who are inside houses, apartments, and stores who may not have heard him. With the awareness that the villagers were moving to safety, Sasuke descends.
Back on the ground he releases his susanoo technique and begins the signs and chakra control needed for planetary devastation. His chakra levels haven't been this low since his fight with Naruto after the war, but he has to push on. These people's lives were in his hands.
The last Uchiha decides to perform the jutsu in the northwesterly spot of the village, away from the coast and more towards the mainland where more hard earth and rock lay. He's just outside the border of the town and his view is clear of what parts of the village he intends to shield. Making the final seal and activating his rinnegan once more Sasuke feels the tug of the earth as large chunks vibrate and move above him. The sheer scale of the village is larger than he had initially estimated, his chakra is depleting at an alarming rate. His body urging him to shut his powerful eyes. His lids are heavy, and his body starts to wobble while he holds his position in the mud. One of his feet trembles and he digs it into the earth so he doesn't fall over. He can feel the mud caking his feet and without susanoo's protection he's soaked through again with sharp winds cutting his skin.
His breathing is labored, practically gasping as he watches earth and rock solidify and begin to form a dome shape above the center of the village. The rain is running off the edge of the beginnings of the dome and as it grows larger, more of the villagers look up to the earth now covering them and start to rejoice. For a brief moment Sasuke listens to the small percent of villagers rejoicing for their safety and it pushes him to forge on.
A rough dome made of rock, earth, and mud fully surrounds the village in minutes. Sasuke holds his planetary devastation technique over the town. It's harder than he thought, typically with this technique he uses it to crush things but he's just holding the rocks in place which takes more energy than just crushing. His mangekyo sharingan and the power of his rinnegan nearly blink out several times, but he remains steadfast outside of the earthen dome. The sounds of villagers voices from outside urge him to hold. Fixing his stance, digging into the wet soil below him as far as his feet will go he summons whatever chakra is left in his stores and holds.
Sasuke is shaking, whether it's from the wet chill or the amount of chakra he's depleted he can't tell. The worst of the storm is nearly over, the clouds above him are moving easterly and dispersing rapidly. His strength is fading, the nerves behind his eyes are straining. His pounding heartbeat can be felt behind his eye sockets. Not only does he feel the chill of rain drops but the warmth of the blood dripping from his eyes.
Sasuke can't move, his stance has to remain steady or else the dome will break unevenly and he won't be able to control how the rocks fall once the worst has passed. Sasuke nearly fails in this endeavor as he feels one of the buttons on his cloak unclasp and suddenly his cloak, that had been providing him just that little bit of protection from the elements has blown off, following the erratic wind patterns. Mindlessly wanting to reach out for it, he foolishly placed a sentimental value on the cloak while he was on his journey. Thinking of his found family during the harder parts of his travels. It was a reminder that he had them looking out for him. As the durable black fabric flies off into the distance he feels pins and needles stabbing throughout his whole body. A symptom of chakra depletion. Blinking slowly, almost afraid his eyes won't open again, Sasuke watches as one of the heaviest rain clouds floats away from the village farther into the expanse of sky.
Sasuke falls to his knees, uncontrollably, his knees crack from the speed at which his body has dropped into the mud. His clothes stick to his body like a second skin, rain and sweat have culminated together to create an all too uncomfortable sensation.
He can finally release the jutsu. Except for the amount of time he has been holding the jutsu his joints seemed to have locked from the strain.
His voice is hoarse as he cries out in pain, while carefully trying to unmold the rocky dome from around the village center. The top of the dome's rocks and earth roll down the outer sides of the structure. Slowly at first and then hurried as the final few meters of earth surrounding the village crumble uncontrollably creating a crater of earth and rocks around in a circular shape.
Sasuke convulses, falling into the mud. He's shaking and hasn't been in this much physical pain since he lost his arm. The pins and needles turn to numbness and its then he realizes he's fucked. He may die here, in the mud on the border of this small coastal village.
As his world goes dark and his body lies heavy and numb in the damp earth his final thoughts drift to the woman he's been waiting to see for two long years. The briefest image of pink on top of a hospital roof flashes before his eyes before his mind and body still completely.
–
Sasuke recognizes his eyes are open but his vision is blurred. He's looking out into a mess of blurred colors and blobs. His head pounds and his hearing is muffled. Multiple voices slowly come into his auditory perception and he makes out phrases.
'He may still die.'
'His eyes are severely damaged. I've never seen anything like them.'
'Keep the wet cloths and tea coming. His fever has yet to go down.'
"Get away from me."
The last voice he recognizes as himself.
All the voices around him go quiet and he tries sitting up. His head pounds and feels like it will crack down the middle when he does so.
"Sir, you shouldn't do that."
A few hands are felt and not seen pushing back down his torso, he lays back down reluctantly. Sasuke feels around his immediate surroundings since his vision seems to be failing him at the current moment.
"Where am I?"
He's processed what happened before he woke up just a few minutes ago.
"What day is it?" He also asks with some alarm.
"You're in Kaigan Village, off the coast of Fire country. You saved our village from the typhoon." The person tells him. He's not sure but he senses what he suspects to be animosity in their tone. "The typhoon struck nearly five days ago, if that answers your question."
"Nurses. Out." The person who had been speaking to him changes their tone suddenly and a few footsteps are heard exiting frantically.
Sasuke waits for what he supposes this suspected medical leader will say or do. He can't see but he hears medical materials shifting around on a tray. He's familiar with the sounds from his stay at the hospital as well as from his time with Orchimaru.
"You're the last Uchiha, aren't you?"
"...Ah."
Glass items are shifted around on a tray and the sound of gloves snapping on skin is loud.
"My grandfather used to tell us stories about how mighty a clan the Uchiha were, full of monsters. Eyes of the devil…He warned us never to trust one. Hold your arm out." Sasuke does as she asks, albeit hesitantly. "Yet…I find myself in your gratitude. You saved us." A pinch is felt as a needle pokes the skin on his bicep.
"What are you doing?" He asks.
"I'm giving you an antibiotic. Your severed arm is swollen and you have an infection on one of your wounds. I'm sorry but I won't be able to treat your eyes. I've never treated such delicate weapons as those and I have no desire to mess with the last Uchiha's eyes."
"Are you a doctor?"
"Professionally speaking? No. I'm the town's midwife. Our sister town has a doctor who visits every few weeks. But with the damage from the typhoon it will be a couple months by the time they can get out here."
For the first time in a long time Sasuke is unsure what to do. His vision is out, he's injured, and he's not going to make it to Konoha in time.
"Is there somewhere I can stay to get my bearings before I set out again?" Sasuke asks. He just needs to be alone somewhere so he can deal with this. Maybe use one of his summons to reach out to Naruto, Kakashi or Sakura somehow? Or just take a few days to heal? He's realizing he's not much without his sight and it frightens him more than he would care to admit.
"Hm…the village is in disrepair and there aren't many vacancies. Though there is an abandoned cottage, a few kilometers to the northwest. If that has any interest? You aren't going anywhere for a few days though. Not until your fever clears."
Sasuke's body feels heavy as he listens to what the midwife has relayed to him. His lids shut, making the world darken once more. Sasuke falls into a dreamless slumber.
—
He sneaks out of what he assumes to be the town's makeshift clinic. More days have passed since he first woke up after depleting his chakra. His fever is gone and his wound is manageable. His vision is still blurry, but he can see more than when he first came to. Instead of just general shapes and colors he can make out more defined shapes such as bodies and furniture.
Following the directions that the midwife has given him, he gathers his pack and makes his way to the northwest of the village to make a plan to get to Konoha like he had initially intended, before the typhoon hit. He uses his chakra for the first time in a week and it feels natural but as if something was amiss. Pumping chakra to his feet, one of the first lessons of being a ninja, a practice he's been using for years; yet it feels like his pathways are struggling to flow the amount he needs for hopping branches.
He can see the cabin hidden in the middle of a circle of large maple trees. Sasuke begins his descent to the grassy earth; he misses a branch.
Very suddenly he eats dirt.
His vision blacks out and feels the onset of a migraine. He's had this happen before. Back before when he had his own eyes in his sockets. Collecting himself to the best of his ability he gets himself into a crouch position, his head pounding all the while. It was as if all the blood in his body had pooled in his skull and was forced to remain there. Luckily from what he can tell there is no one in the vicinity to see him crawl on his hands and knees to the roughed up door. His vision keeps fading in and out.
He manages to get up on his knees to turn the knob. His severed arm juts out on instinct to grab at his head but nothing reaches. His head feels like there are two of the wooden training ground poles from Konoha, tied around his head. Sasuke manages, at the very least, to shut the door before blacking out onto the rickety wooden floor boards of the borrowed cabin.
–
Morning light pierces painfully through his closed lids where he finds he's still on the splintered floor that he'd fallen to when he initially made it through the door. He's not sure how long it's been. It could have been the night, or a few nights. Judging from the pang coming from his stomach he's fairly certain it's been at least over a day. He recalls recovering initially from his eye transplant and doing something similar. Sleeping for hours, if not days on end during his recovery, except now that he's thinking about it he's not all that sure if he ever truly recovered. The one person who would be able to figure that out, make him whole, and heal not only his physical wounds but the scars on his soul– is waiting for him a week's journey away.
What should he do? Send his hawk? Take the time to heal his eyes enough to travel again?
He opts to wait and heal in the way he knows how.
The morbid thought of having his hawk near to send a final message to Konoha swirls in the back of his mind. Sasuke knows he's not well. His optic nerves are badly damaged and his vision keeps failing him. If the time came that he had to send his hawk to Konoha it would be because he's dying.
He's not at that stage, or remotely close to that stage so he focuses on immediate goals that he is (hopefully) capable of doing.
Goal one: sitting up followed by finding food and water.
Sasuke uses his arm to pick up his body that feels heavier than ever. He succeeds and leans breathlessly against the front door he had initially fumbled with. Next step, standing up. Using the door at his back and his hand on his knee he props himself up to stand and gets a brief look around his new residence for the time being.
The cabin to his left has a kitchen, whether everything functioned properly was another story. To his right was a living area and behind the living area rests a wooden bed frame with no mattress. He has a bed roll in his pouch so he's not too concerned about where to sleep, especially after knocking out on the floor for hours on end. A wooden cupboard set separates the kitchen from the bathroom behind it. Sasuke walks around the open lay out cabin, trudging through a few cobwebs on his exploration. His vision blurs a few times throughout his walkthrough and he finds himself leaning against the wall of cupboards in the kitchen after his walk around.
Sasuke reaches into his pouch and digs out his remaining food items. Two protein bars he had put off eating and a jerky pouch. He dislikes the sweetness of the protein bars but opts to eat one of them so he doesn't have to eat his jerky yet. Plus he needs some carbs, especially if he's going to have to forage soon. His canteen in his pouch has what feels like two gulps of water. Unsure how old the water is he still decides it's better than no water.
He takes a few hesitant steps towards the kitchen area where there is a sink basin and pushes the knob up and waits to find no running water. Something he is not surprised about. His next task is to go forage for food and fresh water.
Sasuke blinks rapidly as he steps out into the forest daylight. His vision takes longer than ever to adjust to the light shift. He thinks briefly back to how Kakashi had lent him his filthy book to shield his eyes the day of his trial a couple years ago. Sasuke cringes when he recalls flipping through a few pages of the book at an inn he passed through a few months ago. He was curious, and that curiosity had quickly been quelled…especially after he started picturing a familiar pink haired woman back in Konoha rather than the female lead of the story.
He ventures out, using his other senses to listen for small animals and smelling for any hint of mushrooms, vegetables, even a fruit. About fifty meters away from the cabin his vision starts to fuzz over. He wipes at his eyes and blinks away any dust that might have flown in, it was more blustery today than typical for this region. Perhaps it was their rainy season, that would explain the typhoon from the other week. Opening his eyes, they still remain fuzzy and it's hard to see far into the distance. He hears a set of pattering feet and instead opts to use his sharingan. Activating it, he finds a rabbit scampering a few stones throw away behind a set of trees within a wildflower patch.
He feels the familiar shift behind his eyes and the tomoe taking shape. His vision clears and he spots the rabbit with a familiar accuracy. Stealthily grabbing a shuriken from his pouch he aims at his soon to be lunch and releases. His eyes trace the path of the shuriken and his sharingan deactivates without him purposefully deactivating it. Clenching his lids shut he reaches for the trunk of a nearby tree. He's dizzy and his head spins uncomfortably, he's standing still but the world still spins around him. The headache he has been fighting on and off for days has returned. Through the agony that are his migraine episodes he tries to piece out when they occur, and nearly every time the trigger has one common factor: his sharingan.
Somehow the rabbit has been hit, but not killed. The damage from the shuriken has slowed the rabbit down at least. Sasuke hobbles, through his worsening vertigo, and manages to fish a kunai from his pouch to stab through one of the rabbit's vital points, effectively killing it. His breathing is haggard, grabbing the rabbit around a couple of its feet he staggers from tree to tree for support back to the cabin.
Sasuke tosses his kill onto the floor near the kitchen area when his stomach turns suspiciously. His granola bar and few sips of water are coming back and he barely makes it outside into a patch of grass before he loses the contents of his stomach.
"Fuck." He mutters under his breath, wiping excess saliva with the back of his hand. The exertion from vomiting worsens the pain substantially.
He's been trying not to think of Sakura. He really has. His focus has been on healing, to get to a healthy enough state to get back to her. She probably thinks he's abandoned her, yet again.
His failures nod him off to a restless sleep, halfway in the door and on the grass of the front step to his borrowed cabin.
–
"...ir? Sir? Uchiha?!"
Sasuke is being shaken by some man he vaguely recalls meeting in the makeshift clinic back in the village. Sasuke becomes aware of his surroundings while being throttled about. He's inside the cabin instead of on the threshold, and there is a basket of supplies seen off a bit aways. Sasuke retrieves some strength, and stiffens in the man's hold to push him out of his space.
"You're alive!" The older man exclaims.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Kento, Kaigan Village's chief. I understand you to be Uchiha Sasuke of Konohagakure?"
Sasuke stares at the blurry form of man before him.
"I searched your pack for a shinobi identification card. You are still within Kaigan Village's borders, and as chief I have to protect my people from unknown threats. Even if you saved us from a natural disaster."
The man hands him a new canteen. "Here, drink."
Sasuke takes the canteen and brings it to his lips, asking before he takes a tentative sip. "Why are you here?"
"Moira, our village midwife, told me all about you while you were under her care. She had come to find one day you were gone without a trace. As a retired shinobi, with a fairly reliable nose, I was able to track you down to my grandfather's former cabin." The man looks up and around the interior. "...that has clearly seen better days."
"The midwife said it was vacant."
"That's correct. It's yours for as long as you need it. I just have some unanswered questions and am looking to fill in some blanks."
Sasuke drinks the cool water from within the canteen, and nods at Kento to proceed with his questions.
"Moira says your eyes are weapons. Albeit 'broken' right now, are you able to heal them?"
"...I'm not sure." Sasuke answers honestly. Kento hands him a piece of dried meat from the basket of food he must have brought. He puts down the canteen of cool water and eagerly takes the meat.
"Why did you choose to protect our village? Was there any ulterior motive from the Hidden Leaf?"
"No motive from Konoha. I operated on my own."
"Why?" Kento asks once more for clarification, but Sasuke is unsure what to tell the man. The phrase his body moved on its own comes to mind but he's unsure if Kento will understand.
"Your village looked as if it needed protecting."
The man looks thoughtfully at Sasuke for a moment. "Seems you are the one who needs protecting now."
Sasuke furrows his brow, curious what the man means.
"You're not well are you?"
Sasuke glances to the trembling hand in his lap gripping the strip of dried meat.
He was fine. He just needed to heal on his own.
…Right?
"I just need a few more days."
Sasuke's vision focuses after a moment and he's able to get a more defined look at the man. He seems to be just a few years older than Kakashi. Kento looks at Sasuke thoughtfully and frowns. The man shifts and stands, looking down at Sasuke.
"You know, I found you passed out and unresponsive in the doorway, vomit a meter away from where you laid, and a dead rabbit flung carelessly into the house. I believe you will be needing more time than you think." He pauses and sighs. "I brought some food and water, if you decide you need anything else, I plan to return in the next few days with more rations. Do you have any messages you need to send to Konoha?"
Sakura.
No. He will be fine in a few days. He has to be.
"No. I plan to leave by the end of the week." Sasuke breathes in through his nostrils and makes an effort to prove he can eat, whether it's for Kento or himself he's not exactly sure.
"So be it. I'll still be here with more rations, if anything for your journey."
Kento turns and walks towards the doorway.
"If you can, please keep my whereabouts private."
Sasuke watches the back of the man's gray head of hair nod before he steps out shutting the door behind him.
Sasuke focuses on eating the rest of the dried meat in his hand, slowly. Then following up with the rabbit that now lies in the kitchen sink, waiting to be dressed.
—
Sasuke manages to dress the rabbit, his vision blurring and blending a few times during the process. He had nicked his hand and arm in a few spots during the process.
After cleaning and hanging the rabbit to dry out he walks carefully around the premises in search of a stream or small lake. He's fairly certain he had seen hints of a water source in the area. While he had been trimming and cleaning the rabbit he noticed that the cabin does have the proper connection for running water, but there was something wrong that he can't see on the surface that is not allowing water to flow.
Finding the evidence trail of his kill from earlier, Sasuke traverses further and just as he has suspected a short five minute walk away from the cabin is what he assumes to be a run off of a nearby river. It's not quite as deep and the water doesn't flow so fast but it will work for drinking and bathing.
He pulls out the bar of soap he brought along and washes his hands and underneath his fingernails. Catching an off glance of himself off the reflective surface he's able to look at his face for the first time since he had been laid up on a cot in Kaigan village's makeshift clinic. His cheeks look hollow, his gaze stale, and his eyes bloodshot. A thought comes to mind to activate his sharingan in front of the water to see if there are any obvious issues he hasn't been able to notice because he hasn't necessarily looked. Though, he realizes it may not be a great idea because it tends to bring on migraines when he does activate it.
Opting to test his theory tomorrow, he chooses to bathe and finish some tasks that he needs done. Sharpen his weapons, check his supplies, wash his extra clothes, and inspect the sink to figure out if he can get it working again. He fills his canteen and the extra canteen that Kento had brought with the extra supplies, and makes the trek back.
–
That evening his stomach feels hollow, yet too acidic to try to eat anything heavy. He opts to eat a couple carrots and a tomato from the basket. It's enough to hold him over. He's more tired than usual from the migraines and inability to hold food down. So he decides to finally, properly, roll out his bedroll onto the creaky wooden floor of the bedroom section of the cabin. He's been feeling more neck pain from the past few nights of either unexpectedly passing out from pain or shitty positioning on his part.
Tonight he stares up at the ceiling too tired to toss and turn like he typically does, instead finding his eyes drooping easily until he's fallen asleep.
–
Sasuke has always thought he had the willpower to control his body. If he willed himself, and focused hard enough he could gain full control over his body and mind.
Puberty had been a very humbling experience for him in that respect.
Between the migraines and his current nocturnal predicament he feels the bond between his body and mind slipping through his grasp.
Sasuke has had a series of recurring…dreams since he was nearly 15. He's unsure which was worse, the nightmares or these 'dreams'. One made him feel terrified and shaken to his very core. The other made him feel hot, and like he was betraying the trust of a certain pink haired kunoichi who had more times than not been the star of these dreams.
Since his journey alone, the dreams that boiled his blood have become more regular and his nightmares not so frequent. Perhaps this was a good thing.
He feels hot, and externally he recognizes he's sweating. His feet kick the thin sheet wrapped around him off and towards the end of his bed roll.
His subconscious has created a familiar scene, it's the entryway of her apartment. Sakura is removing his cloak and in this dream he's letting her do what she wants. Her face is kind of blurred from the dream state but he still recognizes her pulling down his black trousers, ones he acquired during his time on the road.
One of her hands strokes him the way he likes, slow to start followed by fast sure strokes. She spits into her second hand and starts fondling his sack.
This is when Sasuke wakes, sitting up abruptly he senses the familiar feel of his sharingan activated, much to his dismay. His hand has already nocturnally wrapped around his dick. The sudden stabbing pain behind his eyes will have to wait. Between the urgency of his oncoming orgasm that is right in his grasp, mixed with the pain from his sharingan activating he has the weirdest orgasm he's ever experienced.
A strangled shout erupts from his throat and his cock shoots once, twice, three times all over his hand and upper thighs. Once his breathing has calmed he opens his eyes, and immediately shuts them tight. His eyes absolutely sting, the air pricking every part of his eyes. While he keeps his eyes shut, his head beginning to thrum and pound he has to deal with his current mess without opening his eyes.
Memories of kicking around his prison cell come back to him, as he currently finds himself kicking around the dark cabin. Feeling his way to the kitchen counter where he remembers he put his canteens. His bare feet bump and knock into corners and wooden edges but he finds his way eventually and somehow manages to wash his hand and pants off, with his eyes still shut.
He can check his work later. Right now he just wants to lay back down and try to sleep away the oncoming migraine.
–
The following morning post his nocturnal incident, light begins to assault his very being. The migraine has, of course, worsened and any noise or change in light is irritating it further. Using his hand he swipes down his face and feels something dry and caked onto his cheeks. Briefly slanting his eyes open he looks at his hand and finds specks of dried blood. At some point in the night his eyes must have bled, irritation apparent. Just the brief glance at his hand has him shutting his eyes again.
Even with his eyes shut the light continues to make his head ache more so than in the darkness of night. In as swift of movement that he can muster he yanks the sheet from his bedroll and grabs a few kunai from his pouch. Striding over to the large window at the front of the house he stabs a kunai into the wood over a corner of sheet, then proceeds to stab the other three corners of the sheet around the window frame. He knows if he opens his eyes it would seem like a crazy person probably lived here. His idea worked and the room is more dim based on the darkened shade behind his closed lids.
Sasuke's head feels dizzy and he finds himself falling back onto his bed roll. The sounds of nature creating new stabbing sensations within his skull. Curling up into himself, he now rests on his side where he places his heavy nin pouch over his ear so the sounds are muffled. The pain from the weight of his pouch is better than the loud sounds circling around inside his skull.
–
Another day, or perhaps three days have gone by. He's woken and taken care of his needs. His water canteens are empty and he needs to refill them soon. Judging from the smell, the food items in the basket have gone bad. He had forgotten to move the basket out of the sun's way shining in from the one uncovered window within the kitchen.
Maybe his hunger, or perhaps the delirium from his most recent migraine episode is causing him to have visions but he swears he just saw a snake slithering on the ceiling, but his eyes are still shut? Sasuke reaches out to touch his eyes and finds that, yes, they are indeed still shut. Ever so slowly he opens his lids to a squint, testing if they still burn.
They don't. But his vision is fucked. The blood that had shed from his sockets at some point over his most recent migraine, has caked into and under his lids and lash lines. If he doesn't wash his eyes out soon, they will become more irritated than they already are and possibly infected.
A knocking is heard at the door and he can't tell from his positioning which way the door to the outside was. His orientation is all messed up and his spatial awareness is his only saving grace. Sasuke slams his foot into a wooden surface which he finds to be a kitchen cupboard. So he needs to move forward then left to get to the door.
"Sasuke–?" He hears through the door, followed by more pounding. He's losing it but he's certain he just heard her voice. No, that can't be right. Nevertheless he finds himself hobbling towards the sound of the knocking.
He somehow manages to open the door and squints to make out who is there. A flash of blurred pink becomes visible.
"Sakura?"
"Kano! What the hell happened to you?"
Oh he's definitely delusional. This is the voice of the mid-wife, Meara? No…Moira!
"I brought some rations on behalf of the chief. I also wanted to see you off and to check your condition once more before you leave. Now I'm not so sure that will be happening…" Moira trails off.
How many days has it been?
Suddenly a hand that he knows is not his own is felt on the side of his face. Sasuke shrugs her hand away a little too forcefully but he can't bear anyone touching him right now.
"Leave me."
"You're not well." She says softly.
"Leave me the fuck alone! I'm fine!" He shouts. Recognizing the sound of a basket hitting the ground. He opens one eye to find the midwife running off and a basket of food left behind on the grassy earth.
–
More days have blended together since the midwife's visit. He's had more delusions? Hallucinations? His body and mind are not right. If he thought he had been messed up before, this is a new level of unwell.
It's the middle of the night. Weeks have passed since he saved Kaigan village from the typhoon that nearly wiped them all out. Sasuke may have saved the village and the people in it, but the typhoon may as well have killed him, or was still somehow trying to.
He can't sleep. Too nauseated, to sleep. No energy to move around so he lays on his now tattered and bloodied bedspread.
Sasuke thinks he hears someone running outside.
Another delusion.
A few moments later there is a knock at the door.
He gets up on wobbly legs and makes it into the living room area when he trips and falls. His eyes and his body are both unable to keep him steady.
The door opens.
Sakura.