A/N Sorry it's sooooo short, but this scene has been stuck in my head for the past few days . . . so I thout I would jot it down and be done with it once and for all.
Long Since Gone
Naruto's eyes fluttered open to familiar stone walls with the all the all too familiar ache in his bones. Cold metal chaffed at his wrists and neck. No chakra relaxed his abused muscles like it once had.
Dull azure eyes stared blankly at nothing. Nothing was there to stare at even if he wanted to. Blonde hair no longer an unkempt mess the way he liked it, just flat and lifeless. A torn black t-shirt that could no longer even been called that draped over ever diminishing skin and bone. Strong muscles reduced to nothing more than a memory. Intricate designs graced his once sun kissed skin. Red and pink stems connected to black, blue, and purple flowers. Occasional black and brown leaves were scattered about.
Loose shorts tie-dyed red on blue. White lines created snowflakes and spider webs falling from his core, crusted and rusted over time. Strips of material were missing in places giving it only a semblance of uniform pants.
A steady drip of water in the corner of the room was no longer a comforting lullaby, but a merciless laugh, taunting him to no end. It's constant chant of how hopeless his situation really was. No light graced the room, his crypt. Only a steel door: proof that there was an outside world. Invisible ghosts of what once was no longer comforted him, only haunting now. Dozens of condescending eyes were staring, blaming, and convicting him.
A sigh escaped his chapped, abused lips in a puff of white smoke. He wasn't sure anymore of what made him sigh, maybe his situation. It had been too long, he no longer remembered. The hope he once had reduced to a speck of dust that had long since blown away in the wind. It didn't matter anymore. No one was coming, no one needed or even missed him, and he himself had become nothing more than a memory; a remnant of the past. A ghost, of a time forgotten by time.
Sound off in the distance brought traces of awareness back to those azure eyes, but snuffed it out not long after. The distance of the sounds shortened with each passing drip of water. The sounds turned into a pattern; a steady beat his heart decided to mimic.
The sounds stopped and the steel door swung open. Blinding light filled his crypt, illuminating old traces of lost souls; the former occupants of his crypt who had graced these walls before he ever touched them. A long shadow graced the floor before him from the tall silhouette in the doorway.
Naruto saw nothing. He heard nothing. He didn't need to. The words and images never changed. Pure black eyes framed by black hair on top of pale skin. Inhuman strength he used to depend on was the sole cause of his current state. The words were always the same, never changing. They wouldn't be any different this time around either.
Every time the words were spoken they start the same. A word: a simple word that Naruto held such attachment to. That lone word, that used to be linked to memories and emotions that were meaningless and completely useless now. Naruto was no longer responsive. The figure spoke at him.
"Dobe . . ."
A/N: Props to those who know what those innuendos mean. Send me a line or two and see if yours match mine.
As always criticism is welcome, as well as flames. They'll help me keep my dorm room warm.