Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the song used.

2

..

Intoxicated eyes, no longer live that life
You should have learned by now, I'll burn this whole world down.
I need some peace of mind, no fear of what's behind
You think you've won this fight,

you've only lost your mind.

..

For the first time in what felt like forever, there was silence.

He tried to look around, but the bones of his neck must have given out because he couldn't so much as twitch his head sideways. Irritated, he tried to move his eyes instead, but his gaze too refused to shift.

Well. This was an annoying position to be in.

After a few seconds he discovered his inability to see anything besides the sky (it was clear, mockingly so) wasn't that much of a handicap, because he could still smell everything. The scents, now that he was paying attention, all hit him with resounding and sickening force.

He smelled blood, first and foremost. Stale blood; wet blood; old and fresh and dry. Everywhere; sinking into the dirt, into his clothes, his face, his hair, his skin, his pores. Liquid life that had been spilled, directly or indirectly, by his own hand. A stench settling into the very air in a manner that suggested it might never go away.

He also smelled flesh. This was a scent that took him a half-second to identify; after all, one does not normally smell flesh. But he could, very well in fact. Because the flesh he smelled was burning. Burning, bleeding, rotting. The shells, left behind by fleeing souls, of people dead. Either that or the agonizing prisons of those dying too slowly.

Weaving in between these was a smell quite familiar to anyone; the smell of fire. There was the distinct scent of red-yellow-orange flames eating ravenously at wood or skin, where it could find it. More noticeable was the smoky flame scent, the scent of a fire dead like its surroundings. The woeful flame now reduced to a shadow of its former self because it could discover nothing more to feed on.

These smells, and the resulting images, pounded into him in a constant and unstopping river of pain. Pain in his overpowered nose and dry mouth, pain in his blood-encrusted head, but mainly pain in his mind. Because he knew, he knew the cause of this terrible destruction. The perpetrator of this sickening, inhuman crime.

It was him. All of it was his willing fault.

Which was why, despite the knowledge that he could probably manage to block out the assault on his nose by focusing on something else, he didn't. He let the pain continue.

Give it to me. Give it all to me. Hurt me with it.

Because I deserve to hurt.

A sound breaks into his hearing, giving his sense of smell a welcome break. The more he mulls over the sound, the more it sounds like a choked sob. Many choked sobs, in fact. And the voice doing the sobbing (which sounds angry, when he thinks about it) is one he'd recognize anywhere.

He wonders why the other boy is regretting killing him. Because this is fair, really (he can admit the truth to himself now because there is no point left in hiding anything). He silently berates his old teammate for being such an idiot.

Still, idiot or no, enemy or no, killer or no…He can't, in good conscience (good conscience, what a laugh), leave the blond like this.

He makes a disastrous attempt at speaking, since his mouth is already hanging open and it might as well make itself useful; this fails. Maybe his voice would work if he could wet his tongue, but on top of everything else it seems he is unable to do even that.

All of this passes through his mind in about two seconds, and as he mentally growls with frustration he realizes the taller boy is speaking. Why, he asks. Why did you do this to yourself?

He wonders. He really does, because what better thing does he have to do before dying?

Naruto speaks again in a tear-choked but no less adamant voice. He repeats his question, this time in a yell: Why did you do this?!

And this time Sasuke almost chuckles (mirthlessly, mind you), because he realizes he doesn't even know anymore.

All I know right now is that I'm sorry you get to see me like this.

So..damn..weak..

..

You had to have it all
Well have you had enough? You greedy little bastard,
You will get what you deserve.

..

End