A Kitsune Story

Chapter 19

Sasuke woke with a start. It felt like something was looming over him but there wasn't even a shadow. Still, though he felt drained, he remained alert.

He wasn't where he expected to be. Everything was clean and dry. He was enveloped in white and green cloth. The room was small and softly lit, the white sliding door glowing with sunlight behind it. He could hear the murmurs of conversation somewhere beyond the room and the periodic tock of a sozu.

Getting his hand up to his chest, he tried to grip the sheet and blanket but had to settle for pushing them down. Pressing his weight onto his left elbow made pain shoot through his arm, so he sat up more quickly. And then groaned as his head swam.

Compounding the lightheadedness, his vision blurred and confused. Squeezing his eyes shut, he rubbed them and then blinked to try to bring the room into focus. That made it worse and so he looked down and instead tried to make out the pattern on the blanket. He squinted and then closed first one eye and then the other. There were dark and light shades of green, maybe leaves?

A leaf pattern in a village named Konoha told him nothing about where he was.

The last thing Sasuke remembered: he was scrambling to cauterize Katsuro's wound. The wound he caused. The masked man had vanished and Sasuke had no way to know if and when he would come back or what he wanted when he did. He could not remain idle.

Pushing the covers down further, Sasuke tried to pull his legs free. His effort was interrupted by the looming feeling again. Confused, Sasuke looked up and all around, but nobody was there. Was his vision so badly impaired that he would not know if a person was standing in front of him?

Reaching out, Sasuke brushed his hand through the air. Something caught it. Something only slightly warmer than the air. Something not entirely solid.

Squinting, Sasuke moved his hand a little and tried to figure out what it was. "Who's there?" he asked a stupid question.

Two flashes of pink near his face answered him. Sasuke jerked back but the thing kept hold of his hand. With two hands. Child's hands. And then one of them released to touch Sasuke's cheek.

"Shi... Shiori?" Sasuke reasoned, still struggling to make sense of his blurred and distorted vision.

Of course, the mute spirit only pressed his hand to confirm. Sasuke must have lost more than his sight if he could not feel the zashiki-warashi's presence but in the vaguest way. However, he trusted this was indeed Shiori because his alarm was abating.

Sasuke closed his eyes because straining them was only making it worse. Shiori released his hand, now touching his face with both small, semi-solid hands. His fingers pressed over points around Sasuke's ears and the hinges of his jaws, easing some of the dizziness and buzzing disquiet of his body.

"What happened? Where is Katsuro-san? Saren-san? Has Naruto come back?" Sasuke asked despite knowing Shiori could not verbalized the answers and he could not see any motions the semi-transparent spirit might make even if he opened his eyes.

"Shh-shh," Shiori could make noises. His hands left Sasuke's face and he seemed to move a little away. There was a clinking nearby and Sasuke was soon handed a cup with a restorative tincture.

Thirsty, Sasuke gulped it down and was glad that Shiori refilled the cup and quickly returned it to him. Three times, until Sasuke did not finish the entire contents, and then Shiori returned the cup to the tray.

Shiori then touched his shoulders and seemed to want Sasuke to lie back down.

"Uh, first, where is the chamber pot?" Sasuke asked a necessary question.