I sighed and replaced the wet towel over my eyes, trying to lie as still as possible in order to not aggravate the strain I'd put my body and soul through. As it turned out, pumping demonstrably large amounts of foreign chakra into yourself, even when you knew how to override the natural tendency to reject alien energy was not a terribly good thing to do outside of the very short-term. What this meant, in practice, was that asking Satsuki and Naruko to infuse me with energy daily in the week leading up to the full moon had strained my chakra system. There wasn't really a good way to explain the kind of damage I'd done, since barely anyone had the resources or tenuous grasp on their sanity to attempt it.

All that really mattered was that I felt like absolute shit.

A rapping at the door made me wince, the noise like thunder against the pulsing spiritual pain that I couldn't quite touch with my physical body to heal. Even if I could abate the inflammation on my side of the equation, the pain in my soul wasn't something I could touch.

"Enter." I spoke, grimacing at the sound of my own voice.

Aburame Torune entered, a characteristic lack of expression on the visible portion of his face as he opened the door with one hand, immediately using it to adjust his sunglasses as he entered the dark cave that my room had become over the past two days. The other hand was easily balancing a tray of soup and bread. Satisfied, I allowed the rag to fall back over my face and leaned back against the pillow.

To my immense gratification, the slightly-older boy was as quiet as a trained shinobi should be, setting the tray down and kneeling quietly next to my bedside.

"Has your condition improved, Senior Apprentice Kotaro? Or have you reconsidered a trip to the hospital?" He asked in a quiet undertone, absent the penetrating rasp of a whisper.

Yeah, I bet that would be easy for Danzo to sneak someone in. Private residence is one thing, but anything could happen in a hospital, up to and including an accidental overdose that 'kills me' only for me to wake up in a Root cell the next day. No thank you.

"My condition is improving." I replied quietly. "I'll be able to return to normal duties sometime tomorrow and be at full strength the day after." I paused, considering my words. "You have my gratitude for bringing me food, if only so that I do not have to deal with Sai in my current condition."

A soft grunt. "He is trying."

I wondered, was that meant to be understood as 'he is trying to build better interpersonal skills' or 'he is a very trying individual.' After a moment, and considering the Aburame's rather unscrupulous reputation, I decided it probably served both simultaneously.

"I had thought your skill at bodily control would have prevented vulnerability to illness." Torune stated more than asked, my covered eyes unable to pick up any tells he might have given off, though again... Aburame. I'd have liked to rely on my chakra sense to read him even a bit, but that was out as well in my current condition.

I hate this. I hate this vulnerability.

I accepted the thought and resolved, when I was able, to do something about it. No more repression. My thoughts went to the small storage cellar I'd found under the rear of the new building we'd acquired. I split off a portion of my mind to begin redesigning the space given what I now knew about sealing.

"I suppose I won't ask how you know about my skills given how often Satsuki and Naruko show up." I replied, the words a kind of general non-answer.

Torune made a hum of understanding, a neutral noise I couldn't connect with any real opinion. I heard him shift his body in a controlled fashion. "Would you like me to-"

"I can feed myself." I replied preemptively.

Another slight movement. "Very well. The Uchiha girl will arrive in a few hours to change your bedding and provide you dinner. If that is all, I will be returning to my duties."

I acknowledged him with a dismissive grunt and a slight wave of my hand.

I could hear him stand and move towards the door, pausing right before he hit it. "It is an interesting device, Senior Apprentice, but it resembles no clock I have ever seen before."

"Some clocks do more than simply tell time." I answered neutrally, a faint edge of irritation in my words. My fingers were itching to return to work on the device, especially now that I knew where I'd gone wrong and what I would have to rebuild.

Torune hummed again, then the door opened, he stepped out, and it closed behind him.

I released a long sigh and, with careful motions, rose to eat the soup he'd placed by my beside.

I'd moved quickly and hastily, but I'd lived to regret it. Now I'd need to make sure I didn't make the same mistake twice. The issue was buried in my lack of understanding of my own abilities. My chakra network simply couldn't handle repeated massive loads needed to trigger a doubling of potential every full moon. Next month I'd be back to a single charge, but perhaps I could manage it every other month, or...

I sat the empty bowl aside and considered the issue.

My finger slowly trailed over the lines of my chakra coils, not doing anything other than idly mapping them out as I considered my options. As I laid back down, I nodded to myself and split off another stream of consciousness to make yet more plans.

…

Satsuki did, indeed, show up in my room later and immediately busied herself tidying up, gently forcing me out of my bed as she rolled the futon up to hang it outside while I kept resting on a thinner blanket. Immediately after, she brought in a large tub of heated water that she set on a large towel and began pulling out a small bottle of soap, some hand towels, and brushes.

"You know I'll be perfectly fine not bathing for a day, Satsuki. You don't have to do this." I sighed as I gave in to what I already knew was inevitable and started removing my tunic.

The Uchiha girl grunted in a way that I knew well enough was a staunch refusal to accept what I'd just said. "I want to. You're always doing so much for me, and Tenten, and Yakumo, and Naruko... all of us. I want to do this." Her piece said, she removed her own top. Ostensibly, she'd said, to keep it from getting wet while wiping me down. I was sure there wasn't any other possible reason for her to want to remove her clothing in my presence.

...we'd need to have a talk about that sometime soon, wouldn't we?

I clicked my tongue and finished disrobing down to my boxers.

There was a moment of exchanged glares before Satsuki looked away and accepted the line I'd drawn in the sand. Regardless of my arguments, I sighed as she began her work. The water is warm enough not to be uncomfortable, but not so warm that it doesn't leave me feeling cooler and refreshed once it was wiped away. The girl was characteristically quiet as she went through the motions of wiping away my sweat and the stink of lying in bed all day, having done so twice before at this point. After a bit, though, her motions stopped and there's a long pause as small noises from her throat indicated she's trying to find the words to say something, but can't.

"Ah... Bon-chan..." Satsuki started suddenly, then sniffed wetly.

My shoulders slump. "I'm sorry."

Satsuki grunted again; this time though, I felt her arms wrap around me as she leaned against my back and sniffled quietly, her bare chest meeting my own unclothed skin. I reached down and overlaid a hand on one of hers, not saying anything as I reaped the whirlwind. Satsuki shook against me a few times, then took a deep breath and steadied herself.

"I... when he died... my sharingan..." She muttered, her hands going back to washing my back. "How did you know?"

"Hmm?" I replied. "Know what?"

I got a sharp pinch and a warning grunt of aggravation for playing dumb so badly.

"Father says it happens sometimes, our bloodline activates when a pet dies, but it's rare and hard to do on purpose. Which is why we don't try to do it with most of the kids in the clan. There was something else, about how you had to bond with the pet... I wasn't sure what he meant, though." She realized she was rambling and stopped herself. "But you gave me Bon-chan when I was complaining about not being able to wake up my sharingan like Father, Mother, and Itachi-nii. So you knew."

It would be one thing if I were still planning to leave permanently, but...

I sighed and nodded. "I guessed. I wasn't sure."

Satsuki grunted, accepting the statement as truth. It helped that it was, in a manner of speaking at least. I hadn't known a pet would work, not for sure. It made sense under the rules described in a piece of media, but I'd been worried the emotional connection wouldn't be sufficient or that the rabbit might die without Satsuki being there, which was why I'd intentionally chosen the oldest one available in the store and hoped it would happen before Satsuki graduated. There had also been the question of why the Uchiha wouldn't do it more often, but... the degree to which children made connections with childhood pets varied quite a bit. Unlike a trusted comrade in the heat of battle, an animal might not always trigger the same kind of emotional response.

Really, I'd just been rolling the dice.

"How?" Satsuki asked. "You know... a lot of things. Weird things, things you shouldn't, and the way you always have something more to teach us..."

I stopped a wince. I'd already decided that, should it come to it, I'd give her part of the truth. Not all of it, but part of it.

"It was several things," I replied as Satsuki lifted up my arm and began cleaning underneath it. "The first thing is that your clan is the only one to still have thick and tall walls around their property. Other clans have small barriers to denote property lines, but..."

"Why walls?" Satsuki asked, turning me so that she could begin washing my chest. As she did so, I caught the light coming from the window she'd opened and winced as the pain in my head flared. It had thankfully gone down since Torune had brought me breakfast, but too-loud noises or suddenly-bright light still set it off.

"You build walls to stop other people from getting in, to stop them from hurting you." I replied, the words an obvious truth, but obvious truths were the ones most ignored.

Satsuki still, looking up at me with dark eyes that slowly filled with realization. "Ah."

"The other part..." I paused. "If I tell you this, please do not tell anyone else. Not Naruko, not Yakumo, not Tenten. Not your family. If I decide to later, that's one thing, but I'd rather as few people know as possible."

Satsuki bit her lip, but nodded, setting the towel she'd been using aside. "I promise."

"Do you remember, when I told you about the three types of knowledge?" I asked pointedly.

She cocked her head. "Traditional, Revelatory, and Experimental."

"I am able to... pull knowledge directly from the Pure world." I sighed, feeling a weight fall off my shoulders as I finally confided in someone. "It isn't much and I can only do it under certain circumstances, but-" I shrugged as her eyes widened. "-that's how."

She took a deep breath, her gaze turning calculating. "That's... really amazing and really useful. You can just… pick something and you'll know about it?"

I gave her a bit of a tired grin and raised an eyebrow. "Usually, but occasionally It goes out of control and I wake up bleeding from my nose, ears, and eyes feeling like my soul just got pulled through wire mesh."

Satsuki stared at me for a moment as the ryo dropped and she scowled. "Bleeding from your what?!" She hissed and I winced at the piercing tone.

Shaking my head, I waved her off. "I found a line not to cross, that's all. I'll finish recovering by the end of tomorrow and start back doing light exercises after that."

The Uchiha girl glared at me, crossing her arms as chakra leaked out of her control and she flashed her sharingan at me for an instant. "You'll be more careful." She growled. "Alot more."

...cute.

An inappropriate part of me wanted to lean over, close the distance, and kiss her. I... didn't repress the urge, but put it aside instead. Not now, but perhaps...

"I promise." I stated and, a moment after she determined I was serious, her glare lessened.