Uncomfortably Numb
By AnnMiuka
Author's Note: So this story sprouted from me talking on the phone and being struck with the lightning bolt idea that only comes to us authors. I pulled up a song that was swimming in and out of my head on youtube and found the version by Scissor Sisters. It was wild and creepy, just as all of their music videos are, and it struck me: the lyrics would make a good songfic. However, when I started writing them down, another idea flashed into my mind, heavily influenced by my best friend and companion author, the Forest Whispers (apparantly Calamity Clam, now). She and I were talking about a story that she's writing that is heavily influenced by a Frank Sinatra song, but it isn't a songfic either. And then, I began to write.
It was different for me to write this one, mostly because it underwent many changes in my mind, yet very few on paper. (I write all of my stories by hand at first.) However, it all revolved around Naruto being in a coma and Sasuke losing his grip on reality. Creating a plot that revolved around a song, yet didn't have a story soley based around lyrics seperate from it was a difficult process to wrap my mind around I've never done it before. But I imagined if it were a music video and people all around Sasuke were singing the song and driving him to madness, as though he were trapped in a nightmare. After only a few hours of writing, I produced "Uncomfortably Numb", which is part Tell-Tale Heart, part songfic, part anti-drug, part spiritual, part crazy, and most of all, part Naruto.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the characters from Naruto, the Tell-Tale Heart or its author (creepy!), the Scissor Sisters, or the Pink Floyd song "Comfortably Numb" (although it would be kind of cool if I did.)
Uncomfortably Numb
The doctor finally left, leaving the man resting peacefully on the bed. A hospital gown of puke green and sterile white wrapped the body in an illusion of comfort. The man, once a glowing icon of spontanious youth, now lay in pale oblivion. Around him, familiar faces seemed to pulse with a desire, a need for him, but he was already out of their reach. Trapped in his own mind, he watched them through oceans so deep they seemed infinite and empty, skies so vast yet no clouds remained. They no longer glowed with vibrant light. Those around him wavered in and out of existance until there were three; three solid figures of vague explanation stood around him, yet he could not reach them. A voice slipped through in an echo-y reproduction of the original.
"Hello.
Is there anybody in there?"
"Kiba, knock it off." Her soft musical voice was marred by an ache so deep it was a wonder she had not bled to death from the grief. The brunette beside her fidgetted. The loneliness that thwarted him was beginning to make him restless, but he did not dare to leave to be with his best friend. Not when those so dear to him needed his company. The last member of the band stood stoicly watching his life partner, eyes as dark as the depths of a black hole, and just as empty.
"Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anybody home?"
"Kiba!" Sakura snapped once again. This was punctuated with a deep and choked sob that caused both bandmates to look up at the dark prince. His pale face, as lifeless as the body before him, was marred by a twisted snarl of weak grief and anger. The two exchanged a look and silently left the room, left him to grieve for what he had lost. Sakura made a call, and a moment later the sound of a cellphone ringing eminated from within Sasuke's pocket. From deep within the ocean, Naruto could hear the echoed reproduction of the message Itachi left on his brother's phone.
"Come on now.
I hear you're feeling down.
Well, I can ease your pain.
Get you on your feet again."
"Enjoying the remnants of your life, kit?"
A large red fox with nine tails stepped up beside the tan figure resting on the shore of a vast and empty ocean of blue. Naruto turned to look at the creature with a panicked expression. Instincts, what he assumed were instincts found only within himself, told him to turn back to the ocean and plunge into its depths where the fire of the demon could not pursue him.
"Relax.
I need some information first.
Just the basic facts:
Can you show me where it hurts?"
Both looked up to the clear blue sky while visions of life and music passed into infinity. As images became familiar, the man dropped his head to peer into the ocean's depths once more. An ache filled his heart as he watched, but the echos of his life were already gone, leacing only silent images.
"Are you in pain?" Sasuke seemed to ask in an expression that broke Naruto's heart into thousands of minute shards. Sasuke's image wavered.
"There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
"Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying," Naruto finished in a choked upheavel of emotion. Tears of fate dripped onto the sand on which he lay.
Sasuke clutched the man's chilled hand with one only barely warmer. He seemed frozen to the older man who sat across the hospital bed from him, holding the other hand. Brown hair, normally worn in a neat ponytail, lay in messy hanks of dirty brown. A normally joyful face now wore a mask of grief. He was onlly a handful of degrees more alive than the man across from him. When he spoke, his voice was riddled with sorrow.
"When I was a child, I had a fever."
Sasuke felt haunted, as though he was trapped in a twisted nighmare created by his mind to destroy him. The rational man across from him was speaking in the strange song-words as Kiba, as himself only hours before on stage. This was not the time, nor the place for sick games!
"My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I get that feeling once again.
I can't explain, you would not understand."
Sasuke opened his mouth to tell Naruto's guardian and friend, Iruka, to shut the hell up or get out.
"That is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb."
Sasuke snapped his mouth shut in horror. He felt chunks of his sanity falling away into the blue abyss and ripple like droplets on an unending sea. From the other side of this ocean, Naruto watched the water ripple with his own tears.
Eyes that held no sunshine watched in voiceless protest as his lifemate pulled away from him. His scream echoed within the endless world. Behind him, eyes still lock on the memories lighting the sky, Kyuubi cackled. As Naruto's emotions twisted and changed, so did the memories. Red eyes watched two figures standing in a locked room.
"Come on. You need it. It won't hurt." The voice was dark but perfect.
"Okay."
"Just a little pinprick," the blonde was told. "There'll be no more..." the raven whispered to himself.
"AAAhhh!" Naruto cried out as the needle slid into a vein riddled with track marks. This one would leave one last scar.
"But you may feel a little sick," Sasuke told his lover. He removed the needle and set a cotton swab in the tan elbow, bending his blonde's arm for pressure. Naruto began to fall, but Sasuke caught his tensed body and wrapped him in his porcelain arms to ride through the pain. The tense body began to loosen as the wave passed.
"Can you stand up?" Naruto nodded, settling his weight on his own two feet once more. "I do believe it's working."
"Good.
That'll keep you going for the show.
Come on, it's time to go."
Naruto smile up at him and headed out the door first. His cerulean eyes were too glassed over to see the tears leaking down Sasuke's face as they headed out for their last performance.
The memory faded into Kyuubi, and he shivered with the pleasant deception. Beside him, the kit watched the real world through the ocean that surrounded them. He looked up at the fox with knowing eyes. Soon, Sasuke's own tell-tale heart would drive him into Kyuubi's greedy jaws, and both fox and blonde knew it. Naruto stood up, coming face to face with the giant beast.
"I am ready." The fox nodded, and as he shook himself off and stretched in preparation, Naruto stole one last glance at his love, his friend, his assassin.
"There is no pain, you are receding," Naruto whispered.
"A distant ship's smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move, but I can't hear what you're saying."
Naruto turned to look once more on the flaming demon before him. It had grown to massive size, far greater than any natural beast could grow. It smiled as Naruto stepped forward, revealing row after row of sharp, violent teeth.
"When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse
out of the corner of my eye.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child is grown, the dream is gone."
Naruto stepped int othe jaws of the beast and turned around in time to see Sasuke appear on the fading shore.
"I have become comfortably numb."
The jaws snapped shut with a dark finality.
"Naruto!"
A scrawny kid stood before him, holding a needle filled with death out for Naruto.. He was sixteen again and just beginning his career as a rock star. The boy's eyes were orange and his grin was feral.
"Come on man, just try it. You'll love it to death, man, I promise." Naruto's eyes went wide as the words sunk in. He turned, and he ran. He ran and ran until his tan legs brought him to the garage where his three bandmates were rocking out, doing their best to cover for his abscence. A smile cracked his face, and he marched through the crowd to the "stage" to take his place beside the one he loved. Where he belonged.
End Note: Naruto loves Sasuke who is his best friend, and when Sasuke could no longer watch Naruto kill himself by taking drugs, he tried to kill him, but it ended in a coma with eventual death. When he was sixteen, the demon Kyuubi offered him drugs, and what the whole story was, was Naruto's vision, his "fleeting glimpse" into the future, what could happen to him if he took the drugs, heroin, and skipped out on his band that night. At the end, he realizes that doing drugs would ultimately lead to his best friend's "betrayal" and both of their deaths. So, the moral of the story (yay! I have a story with morals!!!) is don't do drugs, and stay loyal to your friends.
Any other questions, please leave comments or send emails.