A/N: Well, I wish this one won't be too confusing. Please, enjoy!
Being a good illusionist requires high artistic skill. One has to find and unravel every, ever so small, fear which the victim's mind possesses, tug them out to the surface, exaggerate and then sew together so that they will make a real nightmare. It may be a guts-wrecking scene, so disgusting, the enemy won't be able to fight nausea. Or an abyss of engulfing darkness which will suck the victim in and dissolve his consciousness into nothingness. Who knows what else, fears are tricky, sometimes a grotesque sharp-fanged monster from a childhood dream is enough to completely demoralize an adult shinobi. Sure there are brave people, but that is a façade, underneath which suppressed fears are waiting to be set free to start a rampage and take revenge on the offensively strong mind. Being afraid of something is in human nature, it is a consequence of self-preservation instinct, and nothing can be done. Thus, in hands of skilled ninja, genjutsu is probably the most formidable weapon. It might not cause instant death, though some illusions are capable of doing so, but gives the user just enough time to inflict a finishing blow on his astonished enemy.
However, all strong techniques have their shortcomings. As a painter cannot make a picture without looking at the canvas, the illusionist has to survey his creation along with the victim.
Kakashi knew this very well and was, as far as a human being could, prepared. He lived through many things: wars, deaths of his comrades - and his fears, though dulled with age, were to undergo these loses once again. He, however, never denied it, and, as time flew, rather than getting scared, felt eating emptiness in his chest and bitterness at being useless when his precious people needed him. Though, creating illusions for others, he was rarely nice enough not to present his enemy with similar scenes, though it was sometimes hard not to avert his eyes and proceed with the genjutsu.
But Kakashi never fathomed to get so confused and scared from his own made-up illusion. It made him wonder just who in the world was that boy, who was now unconscious, lying tied up before his feet.
Everything went as the jounin has planned, but seemed to go downhill the moment he succeeded in capturing the boy in his technique.
There were so much material for a mind-breaking nightmare, he couldn't choose which to use first. Now he had the enemy all to himself in his illusory realm, where time, space and every other matter flew and changed according to his will. There was no more need to rush, he could take his time, torturing the boy. And so he did, not really bothering with the scenario, he dipped into the enemy's mind and stirred up all his conceived fears, letting them corrupt the boy's conscious on their own, while he, Kakashi, was left with the role of mere spectator.
/o/o/o/o/o/o/Scene shifting line/o/o/o/o/o/
He felt really cold. And soaked. Was he floating down the river?
Naruto pried his eyes open, jolting into a sitting position, which also allowed him to find the bottom of the assumed river as he grazed his knees, grounding into it in the process.
"Aww" he cringed.
What the hell was this place anyway? He tried to look around, but it was too dark to see anything. 'Better find the bank' Moving in the water was strangely difficult. It seemed thicker than usual water, even viscous, and was giving off strange, but somehow familiar, odour. Almost as if it was...
'No,that can't be! Blood!' Naruto thought in bewilderment. He even dared lifting his hand from the liquid to lick some drops of it to prove himself wrong. But, as the metal taste of blood filled his mouth, Naruto panicked. He jumped to his feet and run splashing the liquid and falling down every few meters, though never ceasing his attempts to escape from what turned out to be a pool of blood.
'The hell is it? Just what is going on here?'
A few minutes later the Blond finally managed to find the bank and climbed on it on all fourth, dipping his hands in the soggy ground and panting. He then flopped there on his back trying to catch his breathe.
"Hey, Naruto, there's no time to rest. Give me a hand!" Startled the Blond looked up to see none other than Uchiha Sasuke.
"Sasuke?" the questioning tone was unnecessary, as in what seemed to be a daylight, although he couldn't tell just when did it get this bright, he could clearly make out the familiar features of his comrade.
"What are you doing here? What's this place anyway?" Naruto proceeded with the interrogation, casting a wary glance in the direction he came from. There, no doubt now, was a sea of blood, he could not even see its boundaries as they were clouded with fog near the horizon line. He was lucky to come this way, seeking the ground, else he could have ended up never finding any.
As he looked around, nearby he could see some ruins, comprising pieces of wood and metal of different peculiar shapes, sticking from the blood surface. The latter were glittering in the light, looking somewhat picturesque and clearly opposing the general atmosphere.
"Why, Konoha of cause", the Uchiha answered evenly. "Get up, I'm not going to clean up this mess alone"
Sasuke grabbed Naruto's arm and lifted him up. The Blond felt lost, he just couldn't comprehend how these bloody ruins could be Konoha, his home. He let the Uchiha tug him along, wherever it was they were going.
Something was telling him that it really did happen once, but everything concerning his village being annihilated still felt surreal. But then again, what was he doing before coming to his senses a dozen of minutes ago? Why was Sasuke here and when exactly was the last time he had seen the Uchiha? His memories were a huge mess right now and he didn't know why.
"You know, I was afraid that you want show up for the party"
"What are you talking about, Sasuke?" Naruto came out of his troubling thoughts. "Stop messing around, where's everyone?" 'And if it's really Konoha, why are you here?' he wanted to add, but did not dare to.
"You'll see" Sasuke quickened his pace, not turning around, still tugging Naruto along. "Though, I wonder, if you recognize them"
"Are you in your right mind, Sasuke?" Naruto jerked his hand free, stopping abruptly. "Tell me what has happened to the village"
"You don't remember?" Sasuke pretended to look hurt. "I've cleared it up for you"
"Say that again" the Blond barely whispered.
"Don't play victim, Naruto. I know, you still hated the village. So as a friend I had to help you solve the problem. Look, now no one will call you a monster anymore"
No, that was not it, he grew out of hatred, did not he? The Uchiha was just mocking him. If he had done that to his ones comrades and home, it was solely out of his selfish wrecked reason and nothing else. But Sasuke... Could he really have done it? To avenge his family? Just why it was so hard to convince the bastard to let go, and now it was too late. He totally failed. Naruto felt bitter anger at the Uchiha and himself, and just did not know how to make everything right anymore.
"You're sick" Naruto cried, still not wanting to believe his ears. "If you've really done all this, I'll kill you!"
"What are you saying, baka!" a new voice chimed in. "I won't let you hurt Sasuke-kun"
"Sakura-chan?" Naruto stared at the girl who emerged from god knows where and was already hovering over Sasuke.
"You know, I'm really disappointed, Naruto" Sakura closed in with the Blond, leaving the Uchiha's side, who just kept looking at her coldly.
"You're not reliable at all. First you can't bring Sasuke-kun back, now, when he is, you're trying to hurt him. That's not the way a hokage should behave around his shinobi"
The girl sighed, eyeing Naruto. "You're not fit to be hokage, you can't even protect anyone"
"Sakura-chan, I..."
She caressed her throat. "Where were you when those akatsuki came? If they'd found you first, they wouldn't have had to kill everyone"
Now she was covering her neck with both hands as the blood began to seep through. "Why didn't you protect me?" She whispered, eyes full of hurt and despair, before meekly collapsing on the ground.
"Sakura-chan!" the Blond dropped to his knees next to the girl. But before he could touch her, she faded away and disappeared into thin air.
"What an annoying girl, and I thought I pinned her down already" the Uchiha spat.
"Teme!" Naruto jerked his head up, cerulean eyes glittering with tears, to glare at the smirking Uchiha, but utterly froze on his spot. He saw it, what has happened to everyone. While he was not paying attention, Sasuke led him along the bank of the pool of blood, where the ruins were sticking out. And to his horror, there were people pinned down to them. True to the Uchiha he could barely recognize most of them - their clothes were tattered, soaked in blood. Mixed with mud their marred bodies, occasionally with missing limbs, looked like poor broken-down marionettes that had been unceremoniously flung on the wall to scare neighbors.
His head was spinning, the urge to throw up was getting to him, he couldn't even move, just look past the smirking Uchiha. Did the ruins close in on him? It's like they were surrounding him, he could even hear the shuffle of the crawling. Some figures dropped down to his left. He casted a wary glance in their direction. But the moment he turned his head, something moved to his right and even somewhere behind him as well. He looked back to find a pile of bodies plastered on the ground far closer to him than they should have been if actually dropped. And how were they able to fall down in the first place if they were pierced by dozens of kunais, some even by swords, which were effectively pinning them to the walls.
And then he noticed, the mass of broken-down bodies was stirring and, with jerky and unnatural movements, trying to crawl in his direction.
Naruto thought he had gone insane when he heard whispers from those apparently not so dead corpses.
"Why?"
"Why me? I didn't want to die"
"Where's the hokage? Is there no one to help us?"
"Why won't he come?"
"Naruto!"
The whispers turned in screams for help. He could hear desperation and horror in their voices. And then it, turned into angrier filled cries.
"We shouldn't have made him hokage"
"The traitor!"
"Nothing like my teacher" Naruto thought, he could see his mentor's masked face appearing amid the mass of others'
"And I entrusted my precious village to you... Unforgivable!" 'Even granny Tsunade?' Naruto was trying to back away, and be he not so caught off-guard and mentally shaken by the scene he would have probably already ran away.
"It's his fault! All is Naruto's fault!"
"Monster!"
Naruto's retreat was stopped by Sasuke, who grabbed him by the shoulder and leaned closer to Naruto's year, whispering.
"Are you trying to run away? I thought you always wanted to hear what the villagers would have said if you actually had become a hokage" Sasuke smirked. "Now, I hope, you realize that they would've never acknowledged you... And you know what, dobe" Naruto became completely still, except for him shivering all over.
"I never considered you my -"
"That's enough!" the familiar Demon's voice roared, snapping Naruto out of it all back to reality.
The Blond took a step back from his old mentor, shaking on his feet. They were still locking eyes, both in bewilderment. Naruto couldn't comprehend what was happening anymore, he felt lost and the world spinning around did not help either.
He sank on his knees, clutching his head. 'My fault. Everything is my fault. What I should have done?' He felt weak. Physically, emotionally he couldn't really tell. He just wanted to be freed of these thoughts, of the accusing voices still ringing in his head. He just couldn't bear it anymore.
Kakashi watched as his enemy fell on the ground, clutching his head, before losing consciousness a moment later. And then, to his surprise, with a poof the ninja's body was covered in pink smoke. 'Henge?' He didn't wait to ascertain, but threw a bunch of shurikens with string to pin him down.
TBC
