Meow: My second fic for Naruto! It's also non-crack! (That's two for two now. I must be going insane.) Oddly enough, Sasuke also dies in this one! Some flashbacks with Itachi in them, 'cause I love the guy too much.
Disclaimer: If you couldn't tell by now, if I owned Naruto, Sasuke would be dead. In fact, he probably would've been dead for about 50-100 chapters now.
Contrary to common belief, people do different things at their moment of death. Not everyone's life flashed before their eyes the moment before the fatal blow; in fact, some don't think of anything at all. And when they finally end, they forget. They forget about their precious friends, their family, their sworn enemies, and prized possessions. Everything that they lived for was out of their mind as soon as they couldn't live for it anymore.
Yes, some people subconsciously choose to forget. But not Uchiha Sasuke. He remembers.
In life, as the cold and bitter man he was, Sasuke suppressed nearly everything that made him human, save traits such as evil emotions and desire for his own twisted interpretation of perfection.
In death, weakened and broken, Sasuke yearns for everything that he had lost, and as far as he was concerned, they all lay in the past.
"Nii-chan, what does death feel like?"
The elder Uchiha heir looked at his younger brother with a glance that seemed to be questioning why the boy had asked such a question. However, he answered, but not without a teasing question first. "Why are you asking me this, Sasuke? Do I look like I've died before?"
The little boy turned red and looked embarrassed. "N-no…"
Itachi couldn't help but chuckle a little. "I think it would feel like a sort of release. Nobody has to worry about anything once they leave this world," he explained as simply as he could.
"Are there a lot of things you want to be released from, nii-chan?" Sasuke asked quietly, almost as if he was scared.
Sensing his brother's discomfort and knowing that there was no way that he could change the subject without arousing suspicion, Itachi decided to comfort the boy. "No, of course not. I have too many people I care about to want to be released," he said with a smile.
'Always lying,' he thinks now. 'Lying or inaccurate.'
Indeed, how inaccurate Itachi was. Death was not release. For Sasuke, it was the sensation of every cell in his body being forcibly split into two at once, the soul being torn from the flesh. His mind was the last to depart, leaving him to experience the emptiness of what was his vessel, until his thoughts, too, left the broken carcass.
The last taste in his mouth was that of the bitter blood that he had spilt so many times before, the metallic, disgusting flavor an accurate representation of his wreck of a life.
"Then, nii-chan, is there a life after death?"
"Why would there be? It'd just be another thing to escape from."
After a while of contemplation, the younger Uchiha boy beamed up at his brother. "I get it! There isn't anything at all after this life!"
'This time, both of us were mistaken,' realizes the boy, now grown and deceased. 'We were both under the illusion of escape.'
He now knows very well that there is no escape. At least, not from the dungeon of his mind that he had begun building brick of hatred by brick of hatred ever since the day that the ones that he loved died, and he began to die inside.
''''''
"The true measure of a shinobi is not how he lives, but how he dies." An inspirational, true quote that was spoken by a man who died a worthy death, indeed.
If Sasuke heard that, he would laugh.
''''''
XO I know, it was hurried (again)…and I had no idea how to end it. So I ended it with irony. I love irony. :)
Review if you wish, I'm really not one to press for them. This fic was crap, anyway.