against these empty streets
misssilivren
for RTS
i love the sound of my feet against these empty streets
i saw the whole town burn down -
i'm walking away
nothing stays; these feelings have wings
His feet were almost completely silent against the stones of the street. His pack was light; he had brought nothing more than a few clothes and a scant amount of weapons. He trusted that Orochimaru would provide for him once he was at Sound. He took no pictures; the faces he needed to remember had been burned into his eyelids in the Tsukiyomi's unnatural colors. Those were the only things he needed – the things that reminded him why he was doing this.
Konoha, so bustling and busy during the day, was eerily quiet under the ominous night sky. The streets were achingly empty; stray animals wandered in the deepest ink-black shadows, wary of the lone human walking outside. Few of the lights in the houses were on, and windows showed dull reflections of the world outside. Occasionally Sasuke would see movement in one or the other, like the twist of some moon-pale fish in velvety black water. The citizens of Konoha, so accommodating and friendly during the day, had all retreated inside their homes to wait out the night. Konoha had learned to fear the darkness, had learned to dread the flip side of their congenial society - the side that dripped blood onto rooftop gardens that people cleaned up without complaint, the side that was given a respectful (fearful) distance when walking down the street in broad daylight, the side to which curtains were drawn and windows slammed shut against. No one wanted to know why the flat-eyed Uchiha boy was walking through the village in the dark. Sasuke preferred it that way.
His eyes throbbed dully for a moment and he closed them, knowing the way out of the village by heart. He had tried to sleep before leaving to fill the time, but his dreams hadn't changed since the meeting with Itachi: monochrome streets empty of people and seething with shadows, dark blood splattered on the grey walls, a deep rivet running through the one of the Uchiha symbols painted there. He woke up breathless and with his wrist aching, and wandered around the village for the rest of the night, staring sightlessly ahead of him and mechanically shutting off parts of his brain. The village was nice (pressing down secrets flat like crumpled origami) this time of year, and the sakura trees were flowering. He wondered if they had sakura trees in Sound. Probably not. He stepped on crushed paper-like blossoms as he walked down one of the many streets lined with them. The branches hung heavy and low, weighed down by the hundreds of pink flowers clustered on them; it was picturesque and looked like something that should be immortalized on the glossy front of a postcard. His lip curled in derision and disgust.
There was a frosty wind blowing through the city. It carried the smell of the trees outside the village to him, of cleaning products used in the houses ('Kaa-san on her knees scrubbing blood that Itachi'd tracked through off the floor with a rag soaked in some harsh-smelling substance; 'Kaa-san lying facedown on the ground with dark sticky liquid spreading across the floor of the dojo from her split-open stomach), of ramen from the corner stall, of the acrid scent of steel from the shop of a family who produced weapons for shinobi. His breath shuddered in his chest for a split second.
Getting out of the village was pathetically easy. Those Sound-nin had been right; Konoha wasn't any kind of place to stay if he wanted to get stronger without people holding him back and watching him out of the corners of their gleefully sympathetic eyes. He was sure that in Sound no one would try to "help" him by wasting his time trying to convince him that what he was doing was wrong. He was sure that in Sound, no one would (care and call him a bastard or giggle when he was around and be a solid presence at his back) give a flip about what happened to him. That was how he wanted it. There were no regrets lurking in his chest, nothing curled around his ribs and squeezing.
He stopped at the walls and tilted his head back to look at them fully; they weren't, he realized, very tall at all. Growing up with them, they had seemed a million miles high and impenetrable and ineffably great; now they just looked more than just a bit short and pretentious. He concentrated chakra in his feet, then inhaled and ran up the wall in a few short steps (there was wood splintering under his feet and he fell, hitting the ground hard because he forgot to roll and there was Sakura, sitting up in the tree and grinning at everyone and looking so proud and if she could best him at this then what could he even do?), jumping off the top and onto soft grass. That should've been harder, he thought dimly, and turned to run along the walls towards the road at an angle so he wouldn't be seen by whoever was manning the gate. It was dark under the trees and when they fell away the moonlight was almost painfully bright. The stone road stretched on in front of him, promising strength and (loneliness) retribution and power.
Sasuke walked on.
there is a light, placed up in the sky
like the stained glass,
time slows down.
i wish i could sleep;
i wish i could dream...
A/N: Uuuuugh I dislike this, and that is not me being modest. It didn't come out like it should have (I feel like I'm talking about a cake) but I don't know how to fix it... it's the atmosphere, or the wording, or what actually happens, or something... /shrugs/ oh well. If I only uploaded fic I love, there would probably be no fic on any account where I post stuff. My parenthesis are obnoxious, I know. Beta'd by Yukihana Hisako; any lingering mistakes are mine, not hers.
Song is "Ships" by Umbrellas - NOT the other way around. It is gorgeous and ethereal and makes you feel like you're flying. Go listen to it.
PSA: This fic was written for Red Thread Studios, a pretty new community developed on FF by myself and my friend, Yukihana Hisako. Red Thread Studios is a group which was created to gather authors and stories interested in writing about Team 7, make it easier to beta fics and form collabs, and have like-minded people for authors to interact with. If you're interested, please check out the rules on our page (just click the author link) or PM me if you have any questions. :D