He smells the lingering sickly sweet wafting in the air, and recalls the sharpness of the poisoned blades that recently hovered over his head. More than that, he swallows as his gaze drifts to the hooded "Kankuro", sitting on the monstrosity of a couch. He recalls the relaxed ease that this "Temari" and "Stinkamaru" had to their gait as they entered to such a sight. Temari's tone contained a bit of a scolding note to it, as though Kankuro often played such nasty tricks on passersby or something.
For his own amusement, Ed muses darkly.
As the three are busily yakking, Ed drags his gritty eyes to bathroom door and mentally debates the relative merits a quick splash of water on his face would bring.
He decides the fix would be far too temporary, and shifts onward to the tiny round windows shining brightly high on the wall. His gaze settling there proves to be a mistake, as he calculates the glassy openings far too small for even his body to squeeze through. Painfully stabbed with cheery sunlight, his eyes water with each leaden blink, and when fleeting equations shine at the edges of his sight, he knows he's far more tired than he realized. He knuckles the annoyance of a liquid away, and huffs heavily to hold in the yawn that reminds him ever more of his fatigue.
He smacks his own forehead with his fisted hand, belatedly hating himself for ever thinking himself as "small", and thankfully, the jab awakens both himself and the lingering throb of his broken nose. He thinks he'll have to resort to stabbing his own eyelids open with those damnable sticks these people use to eat with long before he'll feel anywhere near safe enough in here to ever allow himself to droop away properly.
He assesses that those three don't look to be about to leave anytime soon, and mulls over the remaining option as he studies the floor.
He was assured he wasn't a slave or a prisoner by this Temari person, and he knows the wakefulness he feels certainly won't last long at all. He has no choice but to find someplace else: there has to be someplace somewhere he can feel somewhat safe enough to sleep.
His hand twists the knob of the easiest exit by the time his name is called, and he's past the threshold a heartbeat later.
He rubs at his eyes as he walks, but the mirage doesn't completely fade. He supposes if he weren't so tired, he'd be way more weirded-out at seeing the things actually leaking forth from his brain.
Head down, he shoves his hands into his pockets as he strides, allowing a portion of his mind to devour one of the shining equations floating in the persistent hallucination. He puzzles over the coils of power that elegantly re-enforce the stabilizing runes, and just as he works out what the overall design is for, the inner circle abruptly shatters apart.
He blearily blinks several moments, making a study of the many cracks on ground under his mismatched sandaled feet.
He finds by a painful cramp that his weight is on his living toes, body precariously balanced between one step an another. He tries to move, but his body refuses to answer. He can see he faces a rather large stump of a tree. The curtain of his long bangs obscures his view of everything else.
Fingers wave too close to his face, and he growls, longing to jerk his head back. He breathes in, smelling the tang of ozone. He squeezes his eyes shut at a sudden sharp bitterness on his tongue, and instinctively scrapes the surface of his taste buds with his teeth.
"...we found him passed out in the hall." Shikamaru says somewhere far behind him. Ed narrows his eyes and peers down at his shadow. It's a shade darker than it should be this early in the morning. "We couldn't just leave him there, so we moved him. He was completely out even while being carried, and still out a day later."
"Sure he's not a Nara?" Someone quipped.
"Bother. Shut it. The Kazekage ordered us to move out. As everyone else was busy, an academy student was sent. I wouldn't agree with the kid's drag of a method, but the worst of the damage to Suna happened soon after."
"Care to explain?"
"The student ran in from tossing kunai's at practice, and came up with the drag of an idea that holding a kunai to a throat would really wake anyone up."
"Oooooh."
"The drag of it is, Ed here somehow blew apart half of the Kazekaze's tower, and most of the street."
Ed widened his eyes. How..?
"..w-without chakra?"
"..Without having access to any chakra." Shikamaru confirmed.
"And Gaara let him live..?"
"Apparently, no one was killed in the incident, not even the prankster. Any way, since we previously confirmed he had some sort of involvement with the Akatsuki, Gaara ordered him sealed until the Alliance could question him. Mr. Yamanaka. His language skills are not the best."
"Understood."
"Byakuban!" A unfamiliar male voice says beside him, close enough that he supposes the voice and the waving fingers belong to the same person. "Your assessment?"
"Near as I can tell? He's sleep walking." Shikamaru replies. "See his face..? Blank and..."
"Not anymore." Fingers says in interruption. "He indeed, has very little chakra, but as I can judge by the trickle of energy, he's very much awake."
ooooo
A/N- I was stuck as to how to approach this. Sorry for the confusing abruptness, but there is a good reason. And I couldn't figure out any other way to get Ed to the ninja war camp setting without him going completely ooc. You'll find out exactly what happened to dear Eddie in further updates, and besides, after all that hard work, he needed a nap.
ooooo
Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....
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