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

Chapter 37

Okay, so I'm not actually sure how long the work studies are supposed to be. One source said the second work study lasted 3 months but I feel like that's a bit much for the first time, so we'll just go with a month.

Sasuke wakes up, anxious and unsettled like he often is after a nightmare. Thankfully, he has no recollection of this one other than the phantom feeling of hands in places they shouldn't be.

A quick check of the time tells him that it's early, 5:00am early, so there isn't much he can do yet. Aizawa and Yamada are surely still asleep, as is Eri.

Sasuke sighs, exhausted. He just wants to get out of here already. In a few months, it'll be a year since he first got to Japan and in his personal opinion, that's 12 months too many.

Sure, he's appreciative of all the things the people here have done for him, but he'd like it much better if they hadn't had to do them at all.

(He ignores the part in him that's disgustingly grateful for Aizawa and Yamada staying the whole time, despite his... everything. The events of yesterday only confirmed that these people are kind, kind in a way that can't be found in the Elemental Nations, the type of kind that Konoha likes to rip from its citizens. It's different from Naruto because as much as Sasuke knows Naruto cares about him, he's never actually listened to him. Not once. And that's okay because Sasuke knows his decision making skills are god-awful but it's still nice to feel like an actual person instead of something the cat dragged in when speaking to someone.)

The embarrassment and deep self-loathing only begin to settle in when Sasuke thinks of his... for lack of a better term, tantrum yesterday.

The thing is that even if someone like that woman had appeared in the Elemental Nations, Sasuke wouldn't have shut down. There's something about this place that's making him soft and he doesn't know how to fix it. He still exercises the same way he did but that's only physical. Mentally, his mind is beginning to unravel and he'd very much appreciate it if it didn't.

Setting those thoughts aside for now, Sasuke gets to his feet and goes about the motions of starting his day. He brushes his teeth, changes his clothes, and tries to regain some semblance of normalcy.

He feels stilted, like he's a sentence someone couldn't say. It makes him twitchy and a bit more paranoid than he can reasonably justify.

(The cynical part of him, which is most of him, is expecting Aizawa and Yamada to tear into him for what he did yesterday. The softer part is begging him to apologize so that doesn't happen.)

So, he steps into the living room and is relieved to find no one in it. They're all asleep, like he expected.

Coward.

He ambles around the kitchen aimlessly, knowing he should make breakfast but also aware that he would not eat it. Eventually, he settles for a glass of water.

Once the water is drained, which takes far more time than it should, he spends several minutes deciding whether or not to summon Sana.

He does, in the end.

He chokes through an explanation of what happened and is glad to find fierce protectiveness in Sana's eyes, because Sana knows him. Sana knows Sasuke maybe better than he knows himself.

"This place is good for you." Sana says eventually. "They support you in ways you could not find in Konoha."

Sasuke nods. He agrees, but this place isn't his reality. For him, it's an idea of what could be, despite its flaws.

"I can't stay, you know that."

"I know. I would not ask you to. I only ask that you take advantage of what they have here while you can."