Midday heat threatened to scorch the skin right off Sasuke's aching back. He swung his katana back and forth along the grassy horizon before his eyes, ignoring the subtle beauty in the swaying meadow that encompassed him. All he saw were invisible foes, bent on destruction and mayhem. But not as much destruction as Sasuke wished to wreak.
He traced circles in the air, then slashed back and forth with a vengeance fit to cut the air to ribbons he meant to leave hanging in the sky. In his mind, a hundred maimed bodies swiftly piled up all around him, limbs and torsos red, but empty eye sockets reddest of all. In his pretend battles, Sasuke preferred to target eyes first. Whether that was fitting or ironic for an Uchiha, he couldn't tell, and didn't care.
No matter how high the piles of carnage mounted in his imagination, the meadow grasses continued to sway slowly and lightly. Everything felt serene, yet suspended, like the grassy carpet was about to take to the skies, carrying Sasuke away on soft green wings flirting with the wind.
But there was no wind.
Sasuke sowed another hundred make-believe bodies around him before fatigue made his back ache further, ratcheting waves of pain up his spine in time with the waving of the grasses. All too soon, the space between his eyes thrummed painfully like a nest of hornets, even after he deactivated his sharingan. He sheathed the katana with a sharp sigh.
For a moment, all he did was concentrate on catching his breath. Then the silence around him reminded him the air was still, adding to the feeling of suspension. There wasn't even enough of a breath to make the stalks of grass whisper secrets to each other. Sasuke stared at the undulating grass, even bent down to run his fingers along the edges of the verdant blades.
But no matter how he stared, with or without the aid of his sharingan, he couldn't uncover the secret of movement without the wind. He even held a fistful of grass to still it, then released his grip and watched the stalks sway as if he'd never even been there.
I must be dreaming, Sasuke thought. He closed his eyes, then opened them, fully expecting to find himself staring at the rocky, unchanging ceiling of Orochimaru's lair. All he saw was the sky, cloudless and infinite.
If somebody has had to audacity to snare a genjutsu over me, I swear . . .
But then his eyes closed without his bidding, locking him in unending night, and he felt himself falling, air ghosting by his skin for the first time in this dream. If it was a dream. He couldn't be sure anymore. His mind was going numb, as if he were drowning.
He came back to himself as the darkness receded, finally liberating him to open his eyes. He was sitting with legs crossed, confused as to how he got in that position. Brown dirt, similar to the kind he saw every day in Orochimaru's lair, stretched out in all directions, even vaster than the meadow before. The sky was pink and purple above him, and strangely each direction boasted a sunset halfway complete.
Four suns? This is ridiculous, he griped to himself.
He rubbed his like a sleepy child, trying to gauge how much time had passed. He wondered if this was the sort of genjutsu Itachi would favor. It seemed a trifle too bright, all strangeness aside.
He nearly jumped when a ragged gasp of pain met his ears. The sound seemed to come from behind, so Sasuke twisted around and rose to his feet in one fluid motion. All he saw was dirt and a setting sun, even after his sharingan swirled to crimson life. But he heard more gasping behind him. His every limb stiffened as if rigor mortis had claimed him early.
He knew who was gasping. He could not mistake the rough, slightly gravelly edge to the voice for anyone, save one boy.
Naruto.
He spun on his heel once more, katana sliding out of its sheath almost before he knew he was ready to kill. Which was ironic, since he should be used to an ever-present need to kill by now.
But again, there was no one behind him. He looked all around him, growing increasingly frantic as the gasps turned into groans, then angry shouts.
"Oi, stop it!" he heard Naruto grunt by his ear. Sasuke swiveled at an angle, but still saw nothing behind him.
"I said stop it, you jerk!" This time, Naruto's voice came from above, and Sasuke cast his eyes upward. Nothing but pink and purple sky.
"Itachi!" Naruto screamed, the sound now rattling from the ground. Sasuke suppressed a shudder, grinding his teeth in fury, and looked down. All he saw was his own bare feet.
"Sasuke, Sasuke." Naruto's voice had lowered almost to a whisper, the pain deepening.
Sasuke didn't even bother to turn his head to left, even though it sounded as if Naruto was speaking in his left ear. Whatever this place was, wherever it was, he was alone.
He ground his teeth once more, and suddenly two figures snapped into focus a few yards ahead of him. A boy with sunny hair and a black and orange jacket, scrabbling on all fours with his nose barely held above the dirt. A man standing before him, long hair tied back and flowing over to melt into a black cloak sporting clouds like red sores. Sasuke didn't want to recognize either of them, since neither resembled the way he pictured them in his mind.
But he couldn't deny the familiar faces or voices. When Itachi spoke, Sasuke shivered.
"You must understand, death is necessary," Itachi said slowly to Naruto, neither of them aware of Sasuke's presence. Itachi's hand reached forward. Sasuke couldn't tell if he meant to strike Naruto across the temples, or flick him on the forehead, as was his wont when Sasuke was a child.
Sasuke watched as Naruto gritted his teeth till the incisors lengthened into fangs, breathing with desperation, like he couldn't take in enough oxygen. Naruto's muscles clenched, ready to move, but Sasuke was done watching. He hurtled forward, closing the gap quickly, his katana practically singing vengefully as it sliced through the air. Both Itachi and Naruto went rigid, as if in the grip of a Nara shadow justu, when Sasuke drew near.
His katana kept on slicing through the air, even when he swung wide and trailed the blade right through Itachi's neck and Naruto's abdomen in one flourish. The sword passed through them, meeting no resistance. Neither of them so much as turned to glance his way. Momentum carried Sasuke's feet ever forward, and no amount of his digging in his heels could halt his progress. It was as useless as gripping water with oil thrown on top of it.
Biting down on his bottom lip till it bled, Sasuke passed right through Naruto and Itachi, like light dancing through a prism. They were still frozen like living icicles. He hissed as his feet finally found the traction they desired, and he stopped so quickly he had to blink and shake himself. Now he was several yards away from them once again.
He turned slowly, a little confused to find them moving again. Naruto was shaking his head as he looked at the ground, and Itachi was blinking impassively and reaching forward. Sasuke sped up his motions to dash over and stand beside them. He repressed the urge to continue slashing and will the illusions to become corporeal. The figures froze, Itachi still reaching but unable to close the gap, Naruto still staring downwards with mouth gaping to take in air.
For a time, Sasuke stared at them in their stillness. The illusions refused to move. He was close enough to smack both of them upside the head, and he would have, if he didn't know his hands would just pass through the base of their skulls. He turned away to glare at three of the four suns in turn. Then he heard Itachi's voice again.
"If you want a choice, Naruto, you'll still have to choose death or death," said Itachi. "It boils down to death for whom. Yourself, or my brother."
Sasuke whipped round again, only to see that Itachi and Naruto went motionless again. But it looked like Naruto had raised his head a little. Sasuke stared, waiting for Naruto to break the trance and yell his lungs out. Still, no one, not even Sasuke himself, moved. Wrinkling his nose in annoyance, Sasuke turned away. Immediately, Naruto's voice assaulted his eardrums.
"Jerk! Neither of us are dying! Not even if Sasuke makes the rest of the shinobi world ready to skin him alive. Do you know why he's tried to kill me, and never does?"
Snarling and forgetting himself in his rage, Sasuke whirled around and drove his katana through Naruto's ribcage. Chagrined, but not surprised, it passed through seamlessly, without any damage done. But now Naruto was frozen with his eyes lifted up to glare at Itachi and his legs gathered together to rise. Sasuke withdrew his katana and sheathed it once more, studying Naruto's determined face, noting the hardened jaw and inflamed whisker marks. He was angry at himself for trying to stab a projected image.
Sasuke had failed to kill his friend time and again. But after he got out of here, once he drew close to the real flesh and blood Uzumaki, Sasuke would change that.
It's more fitting to wait until you have become the ultimate challenge, Naruto, Sasuke thought. The more we mature, the deeper your understanding of my rage will be, when I watch the light bleed from your eyes, and you die by my hand.
With that thought, he turned away and walked to put a few yards' distance between them. This time, he would stay turned away and hear his brother in blood and his brother in arms out, without interruption.
"He tries and fails to kill you because you are two sides of the same coin," said Itachi. "It's hard to strangle your own shadow, or stab your own reflection. But, Naruto, you are the shadow. You are the reflection. You know that shadows can strangle, and that reflections can show what no one wants to accept. He can't kill you, but you can and will kill him, unless you sacrifice yourself in his place."
Sasuke felt a dozen emotions, most them tied to fury, swirling in his stomach. He marveled and wondered how Itachi, even a pretend one, could dare say that Naruto was sufficient where Sasuke was lacking? Sasuke knew was more than capable of killing both of them, right here and now, if they were real!
He longed to turn around and slice his katana across Itachi's expressionless red eyes, but he refrained. Dear though lashing out was to him, since it gave him a vent for feelings he'd rather not dwell upon, here it served no purpose. His frustration only grew after lashing out.
So he stood motionless, like a statue playing sentry, like to two figures behind him, and listened.
"Not happening, you crazy jerk!" Naruto's voice was rumbling like a rock slide. "I may be an idiot, but I've defied pretty much everything there is in this world, and it hasn't done me in yet! I found a way to change the heart of another Jinchuuriki. And I restored my senior student, bearing my same last name and studying from the same master. I'm even slowly winning the acceptance of my village. I'll win Sasuke over, too, you can count on it!"
"The only way to win Sasuke is to lose yourself," said Itachi sadly. His tone tugged on heartstrings Sasuke thought he severed long ago. Sasuke seethed inside, furious that Itachi could still move him so much. "Have you not noticed, Naruto? Sasuke only treasures the dead, after they are no longer there for him to ignore. You want to reach Sasuke? You want him to consider you precious? Die by his fury and haunt him as a ghost!"
Naruto laughed, the sound harsher than any sound Sasuke remembered coming from him. Harsher even than his growls when Naruto was in the throes of kyuubi chakra in The Valley of the End.
"You want that done? Do it yourself, jerk!" Naruto retorted. Sasuke heard a thump, and then another. He supposed that Naruto was smacking Itachi, or that he simply thumped his own chest to emphasize his words. Or both. Knowing Naruto, Sasuke assumed it was probably both. Naruto went on, "I know Sasuke's in pain. I know he thinks violence is all he has left. I want to show him he can have a family if he's willing to let me, and Sakura, and Kakashi, and the rest of our friends in. He's going to be jerk and make things hard, but I believe, I have to believe even he can't bear being alone forever. He's the way he is because he was alone so long. Some day, he'll let me in. I just have to keep knocking."
"Knocking?" Itachi chuckled. "More like blasting everything in sight. You truly are his mirrored image. Very well, Naruto. If you won't die, I suppose that role will fall to me instead."
"Well," Naruto drawled, "if you stopped being a jerk, maybe we could work on changing Sasuke together. Can't promise anything, though. Uchiha seem to be natural jerks." And then he laughed and laughed and laughed.
Unable to stand to listen any further, Sasuke whirled around once more. Itachi was still reaching out, but Naruto stood farther away from him now, pointing to one of the setting suns and grinning from ear to ear. They didn't freeze this time.
He was sure Naruto couldn't hear him, any more than his sword could leave marks on Naruto's image. But still Sasuke spoke his mind aloud. "You can't change me, Naruto. Get a clue and give up for once. If anything, I'll change you, because you'll die realizing that life is even more bitter than you ever imagined."
Sasuke was done with this illusion world, and he was going to break out if it killed him. He turned away from the illusions of Itachi and Naruto for the last time and strode confidently toward one of the setting suns. He stopped dead in his tracks, hair on the nape of his neck standing even more upright than it was wont, as Naruto's voice whispered in his ear.
"You've already changed me, Sasuke. That's a part of our bond of friendship, and why you want to break it. That's why I want to return the favor. That's why I will return the favor, dattebayo!"
Feeling the beginnings of a headache creeping into his skull, Sasuke turned around, biting words already rising from his tongue.
"Naruto, you fool!"
But no one, not even an illusion, was behind him. Itachi's and Naruto's likenesses had melted away.
Lips curling wryly, Sasuke faced one of the suns once more. He knew everyone always, always wanted something from him.
No matter who they are, they will only get vengeance shoved down their throats.
As if summoned by the darkness in his heart, streaks of black began bleeding into the pink and purple sky, like spilled ink. In a moment, the sky looked as it would like a night bereft of stars, dark and infinite, terrifying to the creatures of the day. But to an avenger like Sasuke, it was a balm familiar and welcoming, blocking out everything he would rather not see.
Suddenly the dirt all around was replaced with a grassy meadow like the first, as if trying to defy the approaching darkness with vibrant life. The grasses even swayed like the first meadow did. Still the blackness descended to the grasses, surging and swallowing like a tide of oblivion. Finally, the green grasses stilled to sway no more, and in a moment, they winked out in the darkness.
The darkness enveloped Sasuke as well, and he relaxed, seeing and feeling nothing. This was the sort of dream he preferred. Here he could rest, forgetting that anything, good or bad, had ever happened to him. Soon he would awaken, more refreshed than usual, and he could go back to the business of wreaking havoc on the bloody mess that was his reality.
Author's Note:
Thanks for reading, darlings! I love exploring the subtleties of character relationships, as well as the psyche of the characters themselves. This is how I deal with all the feels I have for these characters. Strange how you can feel even closer to people that only exist in one's mind, than people you know in real life. Or maybe not strange at all, since fiction has little or no boundaries.
Please rate and review, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
