Disclaimer: Standard Disclaimers Apply
Pairing: None really, though ItaSasu if you squint real hard.
Rating: T.
Summary: Sasuke exacts his revenge, but in return, loses his reason for living.
Note: Ok, first fic, and first post here. I hope you take pleasure in reading this, but feel free to be as harsh as necessary if need be. Also, likely a plot that's been overdone, but I hope it's still enjoyable. Drabble.
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Not Only The Dead Ones Died
"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." - Confuscius
Kusanagi pierced the air, meeting its target. The forest was silent but for the morbid mockery of a thousand birds as they flew into the enemy's chest. The young man fell, streams of life-giving crimson the same tone as the clouds on his cloak threading their way through his clothes and penetrating the dull earth beneath him. As his brother lay, dying, Sasuke could not feel. No sadness came with Itachi's dying breaths i he left me with nothing /i but could not bring himself to feel happy at completing his goal from that fateful night. Even when Itachi finally gasped his last words 'Well done, little brother...', the words he's wanted to hear since his childhood, Sasuke could not bring himself to care and, turning his back to his brother his hero , he left.
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Sasuke was a wreck. He had no emotional outsbursts, did not cry or scream or break thing or shout at those who came near him or even retreat into himself and just sit alone at home all day or do... anything. Naruto couldn't deal with him. Sasuke would do his everyday chores, would complete missions reluctantly given to him by Tsunade 'He needs to grieve, but won't. I can't stop him working. He'll figure it out himself.' , would train with Naruto and Sakura and anyone who asked and would kick your butt as usual. But he was a wreck, and Naruto knew it. Despite the butt kickings and the lack of any grieving process whatsoever, he wasn't the same. Sasuke wouldn't shy away from Sakura's advances with a bashful blush and side glance, just ignore their prescence altogether. Sasuke-bastard wouldn't bash him round the head and call him a dumbass anymore thank god but that was just wrong, and even Naruto knew it, and almost wished for those times once again.
Naruto wished Itachi was alive. That Sasuke hadn't killed him. Of course, he didn't want that bastard still out there or alive at all for that matter, but he preferred the Sasuke who whined about how he was too weak too pathetic, not good enough - never good enough to this... thing. This Sasuke was just as bloody annoying perfect as he always was, was respected far more in the village for defeating Itachi as they tried not to remember his betrayal, and who Naruto cared for just as much as he always did. Yet, this Sasuke was dead. For every person who respected him they also mourned his passing, as he stopped being the highly ambitious and always sympathised with orphan of the Uchiha Clan. Old women, who remembered his smiling face as he ran through the streets as a child - sometimes swearing to have seen shadows of it in his early teens - grieved the child to whom they gave sweets, hugs and smiles as he turned into a living shell. It seemed that, as he had killed Itachi, he had killed himself too, and that, that, was what hurt Naruto most.
Fin.
Well. That was... crap. R&R.