TA: Just to clear things up. This is... non-AU, but it's still separate from the original storyline. Just a bit of Sasuke-ish musing. I guess.
Shadows on the Walls
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor the poem "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain."
Oneshot
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading—treading—till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through—
Shadows on the walls danced before his eyes. Rough sketches. Wobbly lines. Beautiful. He held his breath and took a step back. His eyes, the curses they were. The gift of madness. He knew they were tricks. But enjoyed them nonetheless.
"Naruto," Sasuke breathed, "just die."
Sasuke unsheathed his sword and cut down the trees surrounding him, ending the dances on the wall and the figures that haunted him. Sense returned to him then as his eyes reverted back to their empty black shade, and with it, the familiar colors of reality. Tired eyes closed and the Uchiha felt the world spin beneath him.
And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum—
Kept beating—beating—till I thought
My Mind was going numb—
Reddened eyes opened once again, the world a steady place, and the shadows returned in their taunting celebrations. The mini figures, designed by nature itself, imitated familiar outlines and pathetic memories. Sasuke wondered why they returned when nothing around him moved.
He moved toward the figures, determining that its cause was fictional.
"Why won't you die?" A semi-gloved hand pressed itself against the cold earthly wall, disrupting the flow of the images. Just as he decided to end the contact between the wall and his unsteady hand, the figures advanced, grasping his hand in two smaller pairs.
"Sasuke."
He knew that voice. He hated that voice. Sasuke pulled against them, at first barely trying, and then violent thrashings overcame him as his hand began to meld into the wall.
"Sasuke."
"Shut up!" He cried, but could not separate his voice from the one calling him. They were the same in all ways except age. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"
And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space—began to toll,
He could hear that hateful voice disappear in the background. An even more hateful voice with an annoying laugh replaced it. The words it cried irritated him to no end. The words raked at his skin and the voice—Oh God, the voice. Sasuke shut his eyes, unable to move his body.
His breath hitched as the sounds came closer, as the feeling in his body went cold. He took the cold as the signal for entrapment beneath the wall.
For a moment, he thought he was finally alone, back in that decimated forest. He couldn't hear anything anymore, but he feared what may lie before his eyes.
Then, like a harsh whisper in his ear, the hateful, annoying, terrible voice of Naruto ordered him, "Open your eyes, Sasuke!"
As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here—
Before him stood a young blonde, a wide grin spread across his face, challenging the boundaries of his mouth. Sasuke felt a stirring within him, a fluttering of nervousness and chagrin. But he hardened his face and averted his eyes.
"Ne, ne, Sasuke!" He hated that voice the most, especially when it transformed into a laugh. He hated his own voice at a close second. "Why don't you look at me?"
The innocence in that voice irritated him. The trusting tone annoyed him. The sincerity. The loyalty. He wanted to tear it all apart. He wanted to be rid of this nuisance once and for all.
"I can't go back." How he hated his voice. How he hated the way it lured him into this. He hated everything that he was. Everything that he is.
"Come on, Sasuke! Come back!" Naruto placed both hands on the young Sasuke's shoulders and pulled him into a tight hug. "We're friends! Aren't we?"
Sasuke gritted his teeth and shut his eyes. He couldn't say anything, only let Silence play its painful games. Eyebrows furrowed together. Fists clenched. Suddenly, Sasuke returned to his full, 16-year old form, towering over the tiny Naruto ominously.
With his eyes still closed, his hand reached for the sword reflexively and delivered a swift, merciless, masochistic blow to the illusion before him.
The clearing returned. The wall returned. The shadows did not.
"We were friends?" Sasuke asked the wall.
And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down—
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing—then.
Black eyes returned to the Uchiha. The figures in the wall came fluttering back into existence, using his shadow as their base, calling him back to their beautiful world. With his hand holding firmly to his sword, Sasuke slashed the wall with an immeasurable rage.
"No. We were more than that." Said the Uchiha, turning his back on the beckoning figures.
The steps to the dance fell out of place, ending the shadows on the wall.
TA: I'm bound to get some "I don't understand" or "This sucks" reviews, so I'll try to explain what I tried to convey. 'Kay. So I used the poem "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" by Emily Dickinson. That right there should give a hint (a really big hint) that this story isn't going to make much sense the first time round.
In this oneshot, I tried to express Sasuke's anguish for leaving everything he held dear behind and the madness he is now suffering for it. "Sense" tries to bring him back, to go to Konoha, by using the shadows/figures on the wall, but he's such a hardass that he kills it at every chance. Although, he does falter sometimes, hence his hand "melding into the wall." I'm not about to do a whole literary analysis on my own 30-minute written oneshot so...
Everything else is pretty much left for interpretation LOLOL. Have fun. BYE.
Oh, and one more thing? I mostly wrote this for that SasuNaru suggestions at the end LOL not for some smarter reason like "Oh, I wanna use a real poem for a oneshot!" or "I wanna try writing something with insanity as its theme!" Nope. I just wanted to write something SasuNaru LOL. Okay. I'll stop. Reviews are appreciated :D ... But with this story, I'm afraid of what I'm going to get. D: