More //narusasu//

14. Blink

He saw white. Blink. White again. Blink. What the hell? Then there it was again, white. Am i dead? He tried focusing his eyes at a single point, and realized he was staring at a ceiling. Blink. He looked around the room, it was all white, and there was...pink? What?

"You're finally awake", came a familiar voice.

"S-sakura?", his voice hoarse. "Why am i...in a hospital?"

The pink haired kunoichi had a concerned expression on her face, "You fainted Sasuke, in the Hokage office, two days ago".

Hokage...

"I slept for two whole days?"

Sakura nodded, holding her friend's hand, "Sasuke...are you alright? You had a nervous breakdown according to your diagnosis, are you troubled in any way. Maybe i can help?"

Sasuke ignored the question, "W-where is..", he trailed off, unable to say his name. How could he? His throat felt like sand paper.

"Naruto?", the kunoichi finished his sentence for him, noticing her friend flinch a little by that name. "He's the one that brought you in. He tried staying by your side as much as he could, but Shikamaru had to drag him out of here, something about the summit taking place today. He left an hour ago, he said he'll be back as soon he could".

Sasuke just nodded. Sakura kept talking to him, telling him what he might've missed the past two days that he was out, but the raven wasn't listening to a word she said. His mind was a mess, he, he was a mess.

It was common knowledge among the nations that a shinobi of a village could not leave the village premises without orders or permission from their respective kage, if failed to deliver, the shinobi was then considered to be rogue. Everybody knew that, including the Uchiha. But at the moment, he seemed to not care about that.

As soon as he got cleared for discharge, Sasuke made his way home, grabbed his ninja gear, that included his sword, and got himself ready for a long journey, which at this point seemed one-way.

He was making his way towards his planned exit of the village, as he could not use the main gates without shedding blood, which he didn't want to have to happen.

He was about to reach the exit when he stopped in his tracks, feeling a chakra he was very familiar with already, "I already know what you have to say", Sasuke called out.

The ninja in question got down from the tree, he was sitting in and approached the raven.

The silver haired man replied, "I don't know what you're talking about Sasuke, i just happened to be reading my book here", waving his adult, green book. "But it really is a nice morning to have a walk outside, care to join me for some? ".

"Kakashi, you can't stop me", the raven said calmly.

"Again, no idea what you're talking about, come along now", his old sensei replied.

Sasuke weighed his options, he knew that making a run for the exit would mean a battle with his sensei, that, or he could just use his rinnegan maybe, but decided against it, wanting to use it in extreme cases only. So, there he was now walking alongside the Hatake, knowing what the conversation was going to be about.

"So-", Kakashi began to say but got interrupted.

"He put you to this didn't he?"

"He may have mentioned that you might do something like this", the masked man paused for a bit, "Sasuke-".

"Save it, i don't want anyone's pity. Im not a child, nor am I broken", the raven firmly said.

Kakashi smiled through the mask, as prideful as ever, that's a good sign. "Hmm, i never said that you were. And you may leave if you want to. Just answer this question, truthfully will you? ".
Seeing the raven remain silent, the masked ninja continued, "Before you go, wouldn't you want to know how he feels about this?".

"No", came the quick reply.

"No? Why dont you think about it again", Kakashi insisted.

"He made his intentions very clear already, i don't care what he has to say now"

"Hmm Sasuke, what you experienced that night was a hidden, broken, beaten side of him, a mere shadow, a monster if you must say. But remind me Sasuke, how many times have the monster been you and he was always there to embrace your weak, dark side and bring you back towards reality, towards light, towards him".

Sasuke didn't dare say a single word to that.
"Im certainly not trying to guilt you into giving up, but a hard probability is that he's feeling worse about this than you even", Kakashi said.

Seeing that he had gotten through to his former student, the copy ninja started walking away from the raven, he looked over his shoulder and said his parting words, "Oh and Sasuke, if you still feel the need to leave the village, remember what and who you'll be leaving behind. Rogue or not, he'll still bring you back, even if he's hokage, even if he dies trying. Alright now take care", he put on a smile by the final sentence and walked away, feeling victorious. Leaving behind the Uchiha, deep in thought.