life will be better in spring
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 || 3:00 AM
In the room behind them, a crack in the wall allowed the sun to finally shine through.
He lost count of the days by then. His windowless room gave no indication of the time, and he had no idea how long he slept.
Days morphed into nights without his knowledge.
They found him in the woods, just recently escaped from Orochimaru. He was almost dead, a wound in his side not quite fully healed. They stumbled across him by accident, one of their members needing a piss. He didn't recognize their masks at first. White, animal masks and dark, black cloaks. It almost seemed ethereal, like Death had come. He surrendered to them without complaint. Even Death was preferable to what he had waiting for him should he return to Orochimaru.
There was a movement from somewhere to his left, and then Ibiki's fist seemed to come out of nowhere—it hit his left eye, forcefully, painfully, and lights flashed behind Sasuke's closed eyes. Ibiki turned and brought his elbow smashing down into Sasuke's shoulder—he yelped despite himself, as the pain shot through his body, and instinctively pulled against his bonds. He heard Ibiki tug out his kunai—heard the whistle as the blade sliced through the air—and then suddenly his fingers felt like they were on fire.
"Stay still, Uchiha, and take it like a man."
He bit his tongue, drawing blood, in an effort to stop himself from crying out again—he wouldn't give them the satisfaction. He gasped in a huge breath, before wiggling his fingers gingerly; Ibiki hadn't sliced them off, despite the fact that it had felt like it—instead, he'd sliced into them, cutting deeply into Sasuke's skin. He felt the blood trickle down his palms, dripping to the floor steadily.
For a few seconds, he simply listened to that steady noise—the drip, drip, drip of his blood and the thump, thump, thump of his heart. He listened and everything became okay; Ibiki's taunts faded to nothing and he was barely aware of Tsunade's piercing gaze; all he knew was that if he waited for long enough, they'd go.
