Approaching Sun

Chapter 20: No More

Sasuke thought it was the sudden light of sunrise that was signaling the instincts within his body to wake. That is, until a growing warmth began to bloom over his face and a sweat beaded across his forehead.

The Uchiha sucked in a sharp breath and opened his eyes. An orb of orange flame hovered a couple of feet in front of his face and Sasuke had to blink several times before his eyes could adjust enough to recognize the stooped frame illuminated just behind it.

Sasuke jerked back away from the flame as he croaked hoarsely, "What the–" He coughed on his own words, his throat strangely dry.

"You're finally awake," Sakura's voice floated softly across the short space between them. Finally, the torch was withdrawn and Sasuke let out a small sigh of relief. The torch was quickly replaced with a pale hand that touched the sweaty plane of his brow. "I'm starting to think that you might be sick."

"I'm starting to think you're annoying andcrazy," he moaned, glancing around him. It took the Uchiha a second to recall where exactly he was. They were still in Kaguya's tower, up the stairs and in this pitch-black room. He couldn't tell how much time had passed since he'd fallen asleep.

"You've been asleep for almost 24 hours!" Sakura whispered loudly, almost as if she was afraid to overwhelm his senses. Sasuke was grateful because he suddenly felt a little disoriented–perhaps he had exhausted himself more than he had thought.

When Sasuke thought about it, more time usually stretched between his uses of the Rinnegan. Yes, he had spent almost a week and a half in the village and had roamed aimlessly outside of the realms for a week before he had even decided to turn towards Konoha. So essentially, he had had almost 2 and a half weeks to recover most of his chakra just to blow it on coming here. Thankfully, by only teleporting to the core dimension, Sasuke had only used ¼th of the reserves he normally spent. It was a complicated math problem: his dojustu needed enough chakra to get him to the core dimension and then enough to open any of the other connected realms (all of which used varying levels of chakra) and still more to do those same steps but in reverse–not to mention, that he needed chakra to save in case he encountered an enemy.

This was Sasuke's biggest problem while searching for Kaguya. He felt like so much of his time was wasted just on letting his body recover enough to jump between realms, and the Uchiha already felt like time was slipping between his fingers. Just how much longer did he have? This was why they needed to leave—to go to the Sand village so that Sasuke might conduct an experiment and test a theory of his.

Lost in thought, Sasuke's eyes had drifted closed again despite the glaring light of the flame in front of him. If he was this tired, he must have emptied himself more than he thought, probably not taking into account that he had to use extra by bringing Sakura with him here. Would he have enough to take them home?

Suddenly, a green glow replaced the flame's brightness and Sasuke jumped when the palm on his forehead pressed harder. Without meaning to, Sasuke leaned into the cool, green brilliance of Sakura's fingers. When Sasuke's head began to clear, he let himself absorb the chakra, his body greedily accepting it. But then, an image of his former red-haired teammate pushing her scarred skin between his teeth had Sasuke reaching up and pulling Sakura's hand down.

He wasn't the person to do that sort of thing anymore. "That's enough," he croaked, throat still scratchy from little use.

"Don't be silly," she whispered again as her fingertips moved to his throat and began glowing again, healing this part of him too. "We need to get you out of this room."

Sasuke stared up at her. Her face was dirty, and he was suddenly aware of just how long 24 hours must have seemed like to her–and in this perpetual darkness. "You could've woken me up sooner."