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His everything hurt.
He was exhausted, down to his bones, and he wasn't the sort of person to cry, but when he saw the gates of Konoha — the gates of what used to be his home — his throat closed on its own. But it wasn't his village anymore. He'd left it behind; he'd chosen to walk away.
He was the one who left.
It wasn't like it was a surprise. They should have known — his drive to find his brother wasn't something he kept a secret. Or subtle. At all. (He had hoped, before, that maybe word would get out, that Itachi would know that Sasuke was coming for him.)
(When he found Itachi, that... wasn't the case.
Itachi had kept tabs on his little brother himself — because in the end, Itachi had been doing all he could to be a good brother, whatever that meant. Sasuke thought that they had very different definitions of "good", but he wasn't exactly the epitome of morality either, so.)
And then he had discovered that his brother was innocent, and his goal was obsolete, and his quest was revenge was pointless, and he had nowhere to go.
(And Itachi had died. A chest infection. Sasuke...
Sasuke didn't want to think about that.)
Konoha had long since stopped following him, despite his missing-nin status. They had more important things to deal with, Sasuke assumed, and he wasn't enough of a problem to be a problem. He'd taken advantage of their blind eye, but now he felt directionless.
He'd run for so long. Toward Itachi, away from Konoha. He didn't know what to do if he had no place to run.
It was an accident, then, that made him trip into Genma's path while the Konoha shinobi was on a solo mission. Oh no, Sasuke had thought, what an unfortunate coincidence. How inconvenient timing.
(He put up a fight for show, because even if he was obvious — well. He still had his pride.)
And then he was at the gates of Konoha that he'd left behind so long ago. His heart stuttered in his chest, and he couldn't even summon up enough energy to worry about the possible negative health connotations that his ever-increasing heartbeat irregularities might imply.
The villagers were not happy to see him, even bound in rope and seals as he was. Sasuke wasn't surprised, but he found that he didn't like accusatory glares from people that used to smile at him. (They were pitying smiles, mostly, but right then they were being mean and Sasuke was discovering that being on the opposite end of someone's ire was... not pleasant.
He considered resolving to be nicer to the people around him. He then dismissed the thought, because that was his personality and consistency was basically all he had, alongside the couple kunai strapped to his inside thigh and the senbon balancing precariously in his hair.)
(He wasn't sure how Genma had missed those when the older man confiscated (almost) all of his weapons.)
The ANBU team that greeted them took a look at Sasuke's face (and entire body, really, he wasn't in his best form) and switched courses, choosing to delay his visit to the Hokage tower (thank fuck) and instead visit the hospital (oh, fuck).
Sasuke was not happy. The lights were bright and the air smelled like antiseptic and he was pretty sure that the white walls were actually closing in on him. He didn't know how or when moving walls were invented, much less ones that could target a specific person, but here they were.
The ANBU team was patient as Sasuke sat, hunched over and bleeding profusely on the floor, for over an hour in the waiting room. Sasuke was not as patient, but he internalized his initial complaints and instead let his opinion be reflected in his face.
After the first half hour, though, his scowl began to make his cheek-muscles sore, so he dropped it and adopted a bored, blank stare at the ceiling.
His name was called after what seemed like forever. Sasuke was tempted to ask, but also, he was a missing-nin, and there were only the ANBU to talk to.
Until a head of pink hair walked through the door.
"Haruno," Sasuke breathed, and recieved a dismissive glance in response. Instead, she turned to the young boy beside her that Sasuke hadn't noticed — in his defense, the boy couldn't have been more than eleven, and he was short and quiet — and nodded to him.
"Hikaru," she said. That was all the prodding the boy needed.
"Uchiha Sasuke," Hikaru said in a small, young voice, "I'm going to be your nurse today. I'll give you the initial examination and alert the doctors if anything serious comes up."
"What counts as serious?" Sasuke asked, because the pool of blood kept growing bigger and that probably wasn't a good sign.
"Life-threatening," the boy clarified, and Sasuke felt that the overwhelming dread following that answer was completely justified.
As a surprise to no one, his gaping chest wound was not life-threatening. "It's not bad. I only had to put in thirty-seven stitches, so there's no need for any further treatment in this case."
As a surprise to no one, he also wasn't offered painkillers.
Rude, Sasuke thought, as Hikaru was recommending best rest and an adequate diet.
But also, I'm still technically a missing-nin, and painkillers would be the nice thing to do. So.
The boy left the room — Sakura looked like she was about to leave too, before glancing over at him. "Is there anything else, before we go?"
"I think there might be something wrong with my heart," Sasuke blurted, then immediately thought, Fuck, wow, way to go, you don't look desperate at all.
Sakura leveled him with a cool, assessing stare, then held glowing hands above his chest.
"What are your symptoms?" She asked. Her voice was detached and professional and Sasuke hated it.
He did his best to explain — it hurt, sometimes, and it would stop beating occasionally or pause for a few seconds and that's not normal, right?
"I can't see anything wrong, physically," she said, turning to walk away. "Is that all?"
"It's bad, though," he said, struggling to keep his tone under control because No, Sasuke, now is not the time to concern yourself with how weird and strange and bizarre and unfamiliar and synonyms this situation is.
"Maybe you're just having a lot of feelings," Sakura suggested, and her polite tone made the condescending statement seem socially acceptable.
Did she just say that?
She just said that.
Sasuke stared dumbly at Sakura's retreating back.
The fuck.
Sasuke was cleared medically. He didn't know what their standards were, but he certainly hoped this wasn't their usual bedside manner.
The ANBU escorted him to the Hokage tower. "Hi, Tsunade," Sasuke said, but not actually because he was fairly sure that it would get him killed. Instead, he held his blank face and didn't bother to seem remorseful, even if he was a bit.
"Uchiha Sasuke," the Hokage sneered, and Sasuke inwardly sighed.
It was going to be... a long day.