Tell Me That you Feel It Too [Naruto]

Chapter 08: Gotta go my own way

To be honest, he wasn't even sure what had led him to slowly gain consciousness. However, if there was one thing he was certain about, it was this:

It distinctly felt like it had been a grievous mistake to do so.

The fitful sleep and the jumbled, weird and nonsensical mess that had been his dreams couldn't be deemed pleasant in the least but he had no doubt that they won over the freezing cold that increasingly found a home in his bones or the excruciating aches pulsing through his exhausted body with every heartbeat since he at least was used to nightmares and night terrors.

Trying to ignore his ailments for the moment, he attempted to direct his thoughts at much more pressing matters.

Where was he? What had happened? What day was it and— halting his unfamiliarly hectic and chaotic mind, Tobirama tried to gather his thoughts. Collecting intel on his surroundings would prove much more useful than succumbing to his unusually scatterbrained quest for answers.

For one, he could tell that he must've been inside, as he seemed to be lying on a rather comfortable surface while the air was too still for the possibility of being outside to be remotely true.

So while the albino felt certain enough that he was inside, he sluggishly could tell he wasn't at home. The surface was much too soft and cushy while his own futon was a functional necessity that he had picked out specifically to leave his body without aches but not comfortable enough to make him want to succumb to the temptation of laziness when he was tired.

But where was he?

Hazily, he then realized it didn't feel like he was chained or restrained in any way— not gagged either. His eyes were covered or at least it felt like it, judging by the weight on them.

Huh, not too bad a situation.

Against his better judgment, what with the state his body was in, Tobirama's first instinct was to fan out his chakra to better assess his whereabouts without alerting any possible and probably dangerous occupants of the room he currently had to be in but abruptly realized he wasn't able to do so.

What? He wondered dazedly.

Had he been captured and chakra suppressing seals put on him? Not entirely dumb, he had to secretly admit, but he was more than adequate in taijutsu and would without a question fight if needed, even when in pain, as long as his limbs were working.

So not that smart either.

Before his thoughts could scatter further, he reprimanded himself internally. He needed to concentrate on his current situation.

Another press to try to get an actual feel of his chakra revealed that it in fact wasn't restrained nor contained by anything, it just felt like...oh— it felt like he had exhausted it to a worrying low, bordering on chakra exhaustion.

Not ideal.

Although, considering all the ailments he was inconvenienced by, maybe it at least had saved him from his head rolling right off of his shoulders.

Seeing as soon as he would've wanted to start sensing, he first would've had to stop pulling his senses tight to himself as he habitually did to protect his head against the usual onslaught of Chakra around him—especially in a buzzing, ever-growing village like Konoha—which then involuntarily would've lead to all the Chakra around him assaulting him and his already throbbing head.

The Senju's sleep-addled mind tried to come up with the reason why his Chakra level was so low and what he had done before passing out but his splitting headache made his thoughts uncharacteristically slow and fuzzy. Not to mention the distracting ache in his bones and chest. Frankly speaking, it was not unlike he used to feel after his father's gruelling training sessions or the corporal punishment for misdemeanours in his childhood. So, without a question, not the worst he had felt to date or too unfamiliar but unpleasant and untimely nonetheless.