Painless [A Naruto Fan-fiction]

Painless: Chapter 5

"What were you guys talking about?" Freya inquired, trying her best to seem nonchalant.

"Oh, Sasuke said you'd gotten something stuck in your foot," she replied brightly. Freya let out a quiet sigh, thanking her lucky stars that Emi was completely oblivious to her palpable anxiety. "I told him he must be crazy, since your foot is obviously fine." Freya nodded, swallowing the hard lump in her throat.

"Yeah, he's a bit off, isn't he?" Freya murmured absentmindedly. She felt fine, but the warmth blossoming at the bottom of her foot worried her. Infection was always something her parents had fretted over, but Freya always kept in good health, so she didn't bother paying much attention to them when they lectured her about the warning signs.

"He's okay, I guess," Emi responded, giving Freya a guilty smile. "I kind of like his 'I don't care' attitude," she sighed, pulling her hand over her mouth out of habit.

"Ah," Freya knelt down, giving her shoelace a quick tug to unravel the knot. "I'll catch up, shoe's untied," Emi gave a little groan, but kept walking, her shoelace-less sandals clacking noisily against the pavement. Listening intently for any other footsteps, and hearing none, Freya turned her attention to her foot.

The shoe came off relatively easy, and Freya made a mental note to get bigger shoes. The sock would be a problem - the distinct outline of blood and puss in the bottom of the normally white fabric. Inhaling as deep as she could, Freya grabbed onto the tip of the sock, giving it a slow pull to drag it off her foot.

If this wasn't an infection, Freya didn't know what was. The outer edge of the wound was beaming red, and the heat from it was radiating out towards where her hand hovered over it. Clear liquid oozed from it and white puss had begun crusting over the inner part of the cut.

Part of her wanted to peel the crust off, somewhere deep down thinking that if she dug the wound clean, it would heal cleaner. However, inner urges aside, she knew it was a bad idea.

"Looks bad," a voice observed from above her. A familiar chill traveled down her spine, the voice of the increasingly annoying Sasuke striking her as smug as ever. "It must hurt," his tone was emotionless. Turning to face him, Freya saw he was smiling.

"It does hurt," she lied. Racking her brain to try to make a convincing facial expression to go along with her 'pain', she grimaced. A shadow of doubt crossed his face, but disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

"I'll catch up to Emi and let her know you're not going to practice," he looked up towards the direction she had headed.

"Thanks," she muttered. Sasuke had begun walking away before she could respond, his hands sliding into his pockets as he walked. "Maybe you could get lost somewhere along the way, stalker." She knew he didn't hear her, but it made her feel a little less embarrassed that he'd snuck up on her. Again.

She pulled the sock back onto her foot, feeling the puss-coated interior sliding across the bottom of her foot. Shuddering and holding back the urge to vomit, Freya slid the shoe on over the sock. She couldn't necessarily feel the injury, but the warmth that had completely taken over her foot was beginning to make her uncomfortable.

Veering off the path, she was on high alert. There wasn't anywhere in town to get any under-the-table treatment, and the hospital was out of the question. Her parent's voices swarmed her head, the husky tone of her father overwhelming her.

"No more tests! We don't know why she's like this, but she's human!" Her fathers' arms flailed wildly, as if they were emphasizing his point.