Missing Clues

I woke up to a scratching sound,

Scratch, scratch, scritchy-scratch,

And to an aching throat and a headache. The oddly familiar sounds were quickly pushed into the back of my mind as I regained my awareness, only quietly humming an eerie melody at the edge of my consciousness.

The pain crawled from the sides of my neck. It was accompanied by phantom pressure that ghosted over my windpipe. Wheezing sounds escaped me as air filtered through my mouth. It was not until a few seconds later that I realized that the hand that constricted my airway was no longer there, that I could breathe.

I opened my eyes, slowly and gently, to the bleary sight of murky blue and gloomy white. My eyes briefly flickered to the side. My hazy mind did not register the odd position of the sun, only the uncomfortable feeling of my glasses' bridge digging into my nasal bone.

I exhaled a breath and swallowed my saliva – no breathing difficulty, no dysphagia or odynophagia, I mentally listed. I pressed my fingers against my neck, trailing them from below my chin to my suprasternal notch. My thyroid cartilage and hyoid bone seemed to be fine, they were not fractured. I felt my pulse, checking for any irregular heartbeat or palpitation. I could not feel any contusion or fingernails impression on my skin, but I could feel what seemed to be an abrasion near on my jugular, I was not sure.

I shifted my legs and moved to stand. It was then that I noticed the dull ache from my leg.

I glanced down at my knee, expecting a still bleeding wound. What I met instead was the opposite. The blood from the wound was already dried and currently sticking on my skin, forming a thin layer of red on and around the wound. The same thing could be said about the grazes in my palms. Just exactly how long was I out?

I glanced to the direction of the rest of the park's visitors. There were too many people. It would be hard to sneak around them inconspicuously. I then glanced to the row of dense forest ahead of me; with canopy of trees so thick they almost blocked the sunrays.

My choice was obvious.

I walked straight forward. To where, I did not know, I did not care either. Sometimes I would turn left, then right again, sometimes I would see the same trees again. It was when I thought about returning to the park that I stumbled upon a small crater – most likely an impact crater, what with its raised rims and its floor that was lower in elevation than the surrounding terrain – and at the center of it stood a massive tree. Its roots digging into the earth, its height towered over every other tree that I had passed.

This particular tree felt different from others. I could feel the steady flow of energy emanating from it, not unlike the current that I felt flowing beneath my skin ever since my arrival in this universe. However, there was something about the tree that simply felt peculiar – and familiar – the way its thick trunk spiraled, forming helix upon helix from end to end rather than running in straight furrows, and how it was the only plant that was able to live inside the crater. It was almost as if it was sucking the very lives of everything around it.

What–

"Hey!"

"Fuc–" I whipped my head into the direction of the voice.

Oh.

"Sasuke," I muttered, unimpressed. The boy almost gave me a heart attack.

I turned my head back only to find that the massive tree was no longer there.

"The hell…"

The space that it once occupied was replaced by an indistinct row of dense trees. There was no shred of evidence that suggested that the tree was even there.

I was about to check it with my sharingan when I heard my designated babysitter halted behind me. His cheeks were flushed red from exertion, few strands of his hair stuck into his face. On his back was a small bag that carried my food.

"Where have you been?! I've searched for you everywhere! I thought you've been kidnapped!"

"Err… park?" I offered.

I was a bit startled when Sasuke suddenly leaned forward and held my head in his palms, his gaze scrutinizing me.

I'm so busted...

"Oh my God…" Sasuke trailed off.

I braced for his next words and the panic that would surely ensue.

"You're bleeding!"

I was confused. "No, I'm–"

"Let's go to the hospital! You could be dying!"

Sasuke immediately linked his bigger hand with mine and dragged me forward.

"Nii-san!" My call fell on deaf ears.

"Nii-san, I'm okay!"

The boy kept on ignoring me.

"Sasuke, stop!" I roughly yanked my hand back, inducing a protest from my shoulder, and firmly stopped Sasuke before the six years old could begin to drag me again and cause a ruckus. He might not notice the bruises – are they gone already? – but the same thing could not be said about the medic at the hospital.

Sasuke scowled. "Why?"

"Father will…" I was about to launch a full tirade on why we should not go to the hospital and the ramifications that this event could cause to the already strained relationship between the clan and the village – with the coup d'état plan already in motion, it would be on everyone's, on my, best interest to keep the situation calm and controlled. As meaningless as I was, I was still an Uchiha. The Uchiha were already so angry with Konoha, they could very easily use the incident as a pretense to take action against the village – when I remembered that I was supposed to be a toddler whose linguistic and reasoning skill was supposed to be abysmal.

"Will what?" Sasuke asked impatiently. "Father always takes you to the hospital when you're sick, so what's the problem? I know that he can be really scary sometimes, but you shouldn't worry, he's not going to be mad."

Yeah, right... I thought sarcastically.