A/N: Bit short, but I like how this turned out.
He felt a lot like the ocean at this moment.
That idea had certainly struck him hard. Not that he didn't but... ocean? What was an ocean again? Right, big ass body of water. Salty. He tasted salt right now. Salt and copper.
Did the ocean taste like copper as well?
No... he was certain it didn't. Or maybe it did. To be quite honest he didn't remember if he had ever seen the ocean at this point.
Bridge. Large bridge. Sasuke. Needles. Ice. Crying. Crying. Crying.
Ocean. Right, he had been there.
Why did he feel that way again? Flowing, most likely. Like the tides, in and out, in and out, day after day after day after day after...
The ocean during a storm. That was better. There was a fine mist over the flowing tides of his consciousness, obscuring ideas almost constantly, giving pause only rarely into moments of startling clarity.
Those moments were hell.
Why were they hell? Why was anything anything? Why was the sky blue? Was it? Was the sky blue anymore?
Sky black. Smoke. Burning. Death. Pain. Fight. Keep fighting. Don't stop. Don't. Don't. Don't stop! Don't ever fucking stop! Kill him!
No, the sky was definitely not blue. It was black.
Or pink. Magenta? Orange would be nice, though he felt the bright shade he was looking for was very unlikely.
Damn coppery taste, overpowering the salt. The salt was nicer, felt cooler. Copper was nasty, bitter, warm.
The mist was thicker now. It had become fog, heavy and hanging. Slow and drifting. Cool, comforting. Blocked the badness, made it disappear.
Not that he could place what the badness was. Or who he was for that matter.
Who was anybody?
Naruto. Naruto. ...ruto. Nar... ru...
That was his name. Certainly, if there was thing in the fog he was sure of, it was that that was his name.
And that the sky was orange. Was it? Okay, not so sure on that one.
The fog was lighter now, memories came flooding in. Bad memories. Pain. Go. Go. Go. Get away. No more pain.
Corpses everywhere. Blood covered the roads. Screams echoing in the faraway. Salty taste. So much salty taste. All over his face. Down his eyes. Cheeks. Dribble from the chin.
No. No more. Forget. Please forget.
Red eyes. Bloody red eyes. Dead. Dead eyes. Bloody dead eyes. Twirling. Whirling eyes. No more eyes. Their eyes were pulled from their corpses, mutilated. Torched. No burial. Death. Carrion birds circled over head, the flies ate 'till gorged. Pain. So much pain.
Salty taste was back. More salty than copper. More ocean than metal. Ocean was nice, no more ocean now.
He would never see the ocean again.
But neither would the red eyes. They would never see anything again. He saw to it himself.
The prayer was answered, the fog was back. The memories faded. Retreated back to the fog to regroup. But they would return.
Would they? Maybe it would end before then.
What would end? Him? Everything? Everywhere? Everybody? Everythis, everythat, everyher, everyhim. Everyhim. That's what would end. Everyhim.
Copper taste was back. It came with the fog. Fog was the moon, copper taste was the ocean. Wait.
Wasn't the ocean supposed to be salty?
Oceans of blood. Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood. BLOOD. BLOOD!
Their blood. His blood. My blood. Your blood. Everyhis' blood. Everyher's blood. Everyone's blood.
Copper was blood. Blood was copper. He knew now.
Sword in his stomach. Blood in his mouth. Blood everywhich way he could see. Fog coming. First time. Red eyes close. Body falls. He's alone.
Death. Sasuke was dead. Clear. Clear moment here. Everything was clear.
And he wished so very much that it wasn't.
Everyone was dead. He failed miserably. Burning city. Burning village. Burning corpses.
Burning Sasuke.
Salty taste was strong. It was so strong. Stronger than ever.
This was it then. He lost everything and now he would die.
The fog was coming back.
Last moments alive spent in a daze caused by blood loss.
So sad.
What was sad? Memories were fleeing. Fleeing into the fog like... like...
Similes escaped him. The fog was thicker than ever. There was an odd sense of peace. Everybody would see everyhim again.
He would see them all in the next time. Next time? Was there a next time?
He was certainly about to find out.
A/N: Whew, finally got this done. I've been gone from working on fanfics for a good while now. Not that anyone probably noticed. :(
As for Peace of Mind... well fuck. I don't really know right now. The few readers I have may want it updated, but I've hit a road-block in realizing that I didn't plan it out nearly as well as I needed to. The scene where the meeting between Naruto and Hinata takes place is not coming out right, I have no idea where I want to end the story, or anything else like that.
Not planning multi-chaptered stories can screw you over.
Anyways, read and review.