Never Trust Your Rinnegan (Tales of Sasuke's Travels)

Chapter 18

TW - A bit of a flashback to Sasuke's time with Orochimaru, who is very creepy, as per usual with Orochimaru. Nothing explicit, but you can skip after the italics start and resume reading when they stop.

Sasuke wakes up one morning to find Eri laying on the couch, shivering, with Sana curled on top of her.

Eri's face is flushed red and she still seems cold despite the several blankets piled on her.

It makes sense that she'd get sick. Her immune system is probably very weak because of Chisaki and the past few weeks have been very stressful. Not to mention that dingy cell the HPSC put her in would definitely have some germs in it.

Sasuke sighs and summons a clone to make some soup for her while he talks to Sana.

It's probably just a cold, but Sasuke knows very little about illnesses in children.

"Sasuke-sama...." Sana says slowly. His voice is heavy with worry. It must be worse than Sasuke thought, then.

"How long has she been sick?" Sasuke checks her temperature. She's quite warm, so she probably has a fever. Not that he would really know. Sasuke tends to run warmer than most people thanks to something Orochimaru did.

"Since this morning." Sana says. "It has only gotten worse."

Sasuke hums noncommittally and grabs a bowl of soup for her.

Sana opens his mouth to say something but hesitates. "It... reminds me of that day, when you were training the Seal of Heaven."

Sasuke blinks. He doesn't remember much from his training then, only that it had been very painful and he'd hardly been lucid half the time.

Sana is referring to a particular day, though, so it must be one of importance.

"Which day?" He asks.

Sana winces. "You were trying to perfect using your Chidori with the seal, only it backfired."

Oh. Sasuke does remember that. The feeling of the electricity coursing back through him, making his bones vibrate and his teeth chatter. His body contorted in weird ways because of the seal. He broke several bones and couldn't move for weeks.

"Oh." Was he sick then? He doesn't remember having a fever from that.

"I take it you do not remember much, but that is to be expected." Sana's tone is sad and Sasuke feels like he's missing something very important.

"What happened?"

"Orochimaru was... not pleased, to say the least."

Sasuke flinches violently as his mind is assaulted with memories.

"You seem to forget that your body belongs to me, Sasuke-kun. If you wish to keep abusing it in such a way, I'll be forced to take... drastic measures."

The pain seared through his common sense and ability to speak. Blood gurgled in his throat and Orochimaru smiled.

He crouched down next to Sasuke and ran a hand down his cheek.

"Sasuke-kun, you know it pains me to see you this way."

And it's wrong, wrong, wrong. Orochimaru isn't like this, why is he being this way now? Sasuke wracks his mind for an answer but comes up empty. There are no memories of what happened next, only of how much whatever he did hurt.

Later, he did get a fever. Kabuto had looked at him with visible disgust every time he coughed, but Orochimaru only smiled and said he was, "growing up."