Colors of Life and Death series
Truth in Dreams
by Songbird21

Chapter 21

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Sasuke stood with his mouth agape at the vision of horror that stood before him. There was a dark hollow where her right eye had been and a slash on the front of her kimono where a sword had obviously sliced through. "K-K-Kaa-san?!" he whispered sharply.

Sasuke's mother, despite the condition she was in, simply smiled and held out the carefully wrapped box in her hand. "Sasuke-chan, you forgot your obento," she said sweetly.

Sasuke didn't move. He could barely think in his current situation, never mind give any kind of a response.

"Nii-san!"

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke looked in the direction of the voices and saw Naruto and Hinata running toward him.

"You okay?" Naruto asked as he skidded to a halt just in front of his brother.

"Where'd you come from?" Sasuke asked in a slight daze.

"We heard you scream," Hinata explained, concern evident in her features.

Sasuke frowned and looked back at where his mother was. "It's..." his words escaped him when he saw there was nothing to greet him but the emptiness of the compound, "nothing..." he was extremely glad she was gone. The idea that he could see ghosts was not something he wanted to add to his psychiatric resume.

Naruto looked extremely skeptical, but he knew that pushing him for an answer would gain nothing but arguments. "Whatever you say. C'mon—I'm done with the wedding rehearsal. We can train."

Sasuke stared at the spot where his mother had been. "Yeah...let's get out of here."

The three teens turned to leave but as they neared the gate it slammed shut of its own accord. "What the hell?!" Naruto exclaimed.

Hinata frowned. "Byakugan!" She glanced all around them but there was nothing. "I don't see any enemies," she said with confusion.

Sasuke tried to pull the gate open but it was no use. "It won't budge."

Naruto looked determined. "So what? Let's just jump over it."

Sasuke shrugged and as the light of the setting sun began to fade he and Naruto attempted to leap out of the compound only to hit some kind of invisible barrier. They flew back and hit the ground hard.

Sasuke glared at the sky. What's going on here? Is it some kind of genjutsu?

Naruto saw the shadow of someone walking by the gates and stood up. "Hey—Can you get the Hokage?" There was no response and the sound of the person's footsteps began receding. "Are you listening to me? We're trapped in here!" The footsteps were nearly gone. "OI!!"

"I don't think they can hear us." Sasuke swallowed as his eyes scanned the area.

"C...Could it be...g-ghosts?" Hinata asked in a very small voice.

As darkness settled in around them Sasuke stiffened and Naruto's eyes widened. "D-D-Don't even say things like that!" he hissed nervously.

Sasuke cocked an eyebrow at his brother and smirked. "Scared of ghosts?"

Naruto looked incredulous. "No way! I just don't want Hinata to be scared!"

Sasuke was completely unconvinced. "Right." He looked around. "It's probably a genjutsu trap—and if it is then there should be a marker somewhere. I say we start looking for it."

Hinata gulped. "Sasuke, I...don't see any markers," she said as she took another look around with her byakugan.

Sasuke frowned. "I refuse to believe in something so ridiculous as ghosts!" he snapped. "Now come on—let's start looking."

As Sasuke stalked off, Hinata looked at Naruto. She was hoping he'd give her some answer that made better sense than genjutsu or ghosts but he merely shrugged.

"Look, we both know he's wrong but it'll keep him happy and it'll give us something to do while we think," Naruto said with a warm smile.

Hinata smiled in appreciation, nodded and took Naruto's outstretched hand.

The knot in Naruto's stomach tightened its grip the longer they walked. Suddenly he realized something and stopped. "Guys...there's no crickets..."

Sasuke stopped. "What?"

"There aren't any crickets chirping. Listen..." Naruto explained further.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and stood quietly. After a moment his eyes flattened into a glare. He's right...there's nothing, he thought as he tried to quell the panic rising in his chest. He noticed something else wrong and the feeling increased. "There's no fireflies either."

Naruto and Hinata looked around, fear growing on their faces.

"What the hell IS THIS?!" Naruto yelled. He was suddenly silent, however, when he noticed Sasuke and Hinata staring over his shoulders with wide, fearful eyes. "Hey...what's the matter with you guys?" He looked behind him to see what they were looking at and his expression quickly mirrored theirs.

Uchiha walked the streets like they would have on any normal day—except that every single on of them sported some kind of fatal wound. Some of them had slashes or holes where they had been run through with a sword, others were missing limbs, and one was even lacking his head.

A little girl Sasuke recognized as one of his younger cousins skipped up to him. "Sasuke, why do you look bigger?" she asked innocently.

Sasuke tried not to stare at the child's missing ear and the gash across her jugular vein, but he just couldn't look away. "V...Vitamins," he answered in a daze.

The girl frowned. "You're trying to trick me," she said with a pout.

Hinata swallowed and walked over to the little girl, who couldn't have been more than five. "N-No. He's right. Vitamins make you grow big and strong," she said with a kind smile. Underneath her smile, however, she was fighting the urge to do a face plant in the dirt.

The little girl broke out into an adorable smile. "Okay! I'm gonna take all my vitamins from now on!" she proudly proclaimed.

Hinata bravely patted the child on the head. "Good girl. Now run along. I'm sure your mommy is wondering where you are."

"Hai!" the child said before running off.

Suddenly all the people vanished and Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke were all alone once again. Without missing a beat, and without looking away from where the child had been, Naruto said, "So, Sasuke...still gonna deny we're dealin' with ghosts here?"

Sasuke slowly turned his head to give his brother a death glare. The glare vanished when he noticed the dragon scroll strapped to Naruto's back. "Why do you have that with you?"

Naruto blinked at the sudden change in mood and looked over his shoulder. "I wanted to train—remember?"

"Oh right." Sasuke sighed. "Let's go to my house. We can stay there while we figure out a way to escape."

The other two nodded and they began to walk. Hinata suddenly screamed as she was yanked to the ground by an unseen force and dragged along the ground by her ankles until she hit the outer wall of one of the houses.

"HINA-CHAN!"

"Hinata!"

Both boys ran as fast as their legs would carry them to their friend. Hinata was holding her head and squinting her eyes from the pain.

"Hina-chan! Are you okay?" Naruto asked as he gently lifted her to a sitting position.

Hinata opened her eyes a little. "H-Hai."

Naruto frowned skeptically.

"Really," Hinata urged. "I bumped my head, and my back stings, but I'm okay."

"I'm gonna check your back," Naruto said with a slight blush.

"O...Okay," Hinata replied as she also turned a bit pink.

Naruto moved behind her and carefully lifted the back of her shirt while Hinata held onto the front to make sure that wasn't raised as well.

Naruto winced a little at the scratches and scrapes that dotted her back. "You'll be okay. I just wish I knew how to use my healing powers on you."

"It's okay," Hinata said with a smile.

"This is getting dangerous. We need a way out of here," Sasuke said.

"Why would anyone in your family want to hurt Hina-chan?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know. Maybe we're not just dealing with my family."

Naruto helped Hinata to her feet and the three made it to Sasuke's house without further incident.

Naruto sighed as the three sat near the fireplace in Sasuke's living room trying to come up with ideas. His arm began to itch and he scratched at it subconsciously. After a few minutes he felt an odd sensation where he'd been scratching and looked at his arm. A small red bump the size of a dime had begun to swell on the spot. What the hell? The bump continued to grow until it was the size of a quarter...and began moving...

Hinata had taken a package crackers out of her equipment pouch and handed two to Sasuke. "Naruto-kun—would you like some crackers?" She stopped when she saw him staring at his arm. "Naruto-kun?"

Naruto watched the bump with growing trepidation when suddenly the skin split open and out crawled hundreds of baby spiders. He instantly began screaming.

Hinata jumped when Naruto screamed and started sweeping at his arm with his hands. "Naruto-kun! What's wrong?"

"Get them off of me! Get them off! GET 'EM OFF!!"

Hinata and Sasuke were desperately trying to see what Naruto was talking about. "Get what off of you?!" Sasuke asked.

"THE SPIDERS! WHAT ELSE WOULD I BE TALKING ABOUT?!"

There was still nothing as far as Sasuke could see so he did the only thing he could think of—he punched the top of Naruto's head.

Naruto grabbed the top of his head. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"

"You're hallucinating, dobe!"

"What?!" Naruto looked back at his arm. There were no spiders, no bump, not even the itching sensation. "It...it wasn't...real?" he said in between gasps.

Hinata shook her head. "I don't think we can take anything for granted anymore."

"I'm home!"

Wide-eyed, Sasuke turned to stare at his mother as she came through the doorway to the living room.

Uchiha Mikoto's smile widened when she noticed Naruto and Hinata. "You have friends over! Oh, sweetie this is wonderful!" She turned to Naruto. "I was starting to think he'd be a loner forever," she said with a light chuckle.

Naruto managed a twitchy smile. "Yeah. He's kind of a stick in the—OW!" In irritation, he rubbed the spot when Sasuke had just kicked him.

Sasuke glared at Naruto for a moment then turned back to his mother, who was giggling at their antics. He was torn between wanting to hug her, wanting to run away, and the need to find out about their current situation. The third option won. "K...Kaa-san, can I ask you a question."

Mikoto looked at her son and frowned a little at the expression on his face. "Of course, sweetheart. What's wrong?"

Sasuke took in a shaky breath. "H...Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary lately?"

Mikoto thought for a moment. "Not really. Although you look a little taller," she said, her smile returning.

"Have you seen anyone that isn't supposed to be here?"

Trepidation flickered across Mikoto's face before she blinked it away. "I...I could've sworn I saw Shisui today." She shook her head. "I think I'm just tired. My mind is playing tricks on me. I wouldn't worry about it." She placed a comforting hand on her son's shoulder. She suddenly froze as her eyes flashed wide and she sucked in a deep breath. The instant she had touched Sasuke her memories of the massacre came flooding back to her. She stepped backwards, looking confused.

Sasuke scanned his mother's face. She seemed different somehow—more...awake. "Kaa-san?"

Mikoto looked at her surroundings as if seeing them for the first time. "S..Sasuke-chan? Wh...What's going on? Why is our house so empty? Why..." She swallowed as she stared at her son. "Why do you look so much older?"

Sasuke stood there with his mouth agape. Things were different when she was just a ghost who didn't know what was going on—but now that she did and was really, truly responding to him, she seemed more real.

Mikoto's eyes widened again as though she'd remembered something else and she looked down. Her eyes filled with intangible tears as she placed her hand over the wound in her stomach. She slowly looked back up at Sasuke. "I'm dead...aren't I?"

Sasuke managed to nod his answer.

Mikoto's lips pressed together in sadness. The feeling was nearly overwhelming. "How long?"

Hinata decided to make things a little easier on Sasuke. "Almost seven years, Uchiha-san."

"Oh Sasuke-chan...I'm so sorry," Mikoto cried out as she pulled her son into a hug. "I didn't want to leave you."

Sasuke shivered at the cold arms that surrounded him. He felt panic rising in his chest and pushed her away.

Mikoto was confused. "Sasuke-chan?"

"No! I-I-I can't! I can't do this!" Sasuke yelled.

"I don't understand," Mikoto said softly as tears made their way down her face.

"I can't pretend like you're alive! When whatever's going on is all over, you'll be gone again!" Soft plops sounded on the tatami mat floor as Sasuke's tears fell free.

"Sasuke-chan..." Mikoto said as she stretched out a hand toward him.

"NO!" Sasuke shouted. He bolted out of the room and out of the house.

"Sasuke-chan." Mikoto looked down and let the tears fall.

Sasuke sat against the outer wall of his house with his knees up to his chest and his face in his hands. He wanted so very much to go back in the house with his mother. He wanted to talk to her, tell her all that had happened to him, let himself feel safe in her comforting arms—but he just couldn't. To have her ripped away from him again after seeing her for only such a short time would turn him into an emotional wreck and he knew it.

"Do you wanna sit down?" Naruto offered to Mikoto.

Mikoto shook her head then got a curious look on her face as she closer look at Naruto. "You're..." she began, but remembering that his friend might not know of Naruto's 'condition' she cut herself off.

Somehow Naruto knew what she was going to say and he nodded toward Hinata. "It's okay. She knows."

Mikoto looked relieved. "You're still alive..." She smiled. "I'm glad. There were days I'd heard rumors that made me think you wouldn't even live to graduate the academy."

Naruto smiled. "Thank you. That means a lot to me." He looked to the door. "I gotta go see how he's doing."

Mikoto nodded in understanding. "Go ahead. It's comforting to know he has such caring friends."

Naruto smiled, took Hinata's hand and walked out of the building.

Sasuke rolled his eyes when Naruto sat down next to him. He wished that just once, Naruto would see fit to let him be alone. "Go away, please."

Naruto frowned and shook his head. "Can't do it. We gotta get out of here and that means we don't have time for this."

Sasuke hated it when Naruto made more sense than he did. It was just...odd. "Alright. But I'm not going back in there," he said as he got to his feet.

"But maybe your mom knows who's keeping us here," Naruto offered.

"She doesn't...but I do."

They turned around to see a young Uchiha boy who seemed to be in his early teens. Hinata and Naruto had no particular reaction other than confusion, but Sasuke's face screamed recognition. "Shisui."

"That's right Sasuke-chan," Shisui said with a superior smile.

Sasuke took a step back. Something was not right. "What do you know about this?"

Shisui chuckled. It was not a pleasant sound. "I'm the one keeping you here."

Naruto's eyes flattened into a glare as he remembered Hinata getting hurt. "You son of a bitch!" He charged Shisui but it was to no avail as he went right through him.

Shisui laughed again. "You can't hit someone who's dead—baaaka," he said with a condescending tone.

Naruto swallowed. "You're a ghost too?"

"Sasuke-chan knew immediately. Didn't you, Sasuke-chan?"

"Stop using 'chan' with my name!" Sasuke retorted. "And why would you do this?! Itachi was the traitor, not you."

"Itachi and I planned the clan's destruction...together," Shisui said with a cold smile.

"What?!" Sasuke hissed.

"Itachi and I knew the only way to be accepted into Akatsuki and destroy the clan was if one of us had the mangekyou sharingan. And I would guess you know by now how that is achieved?"

Sasuke swallowed, remembering his attempt to kill Naruto. "Ahn."

"Neither of us were in a hurry to die but the clan was so full of scum by that point that there was no choice. We simply flipped a coin. I won. As I was preparing to kill the only friend I'd ever had he betrayed me...and I was killed instead." Shisui's face became angry. "As I lay dying he told me he believed it was better if he was the one who survived because he thought he was stronger and had a better chance than I did."

"I've walked these streets for seven years with no purpose--until you punched that wall today," he said, pointing at the aforementioned wall. "I don't know why, but that act woke me from the dream world of the past I'd been living in. And now I have a purpose." His anger turned to a feeling of satisfaction. "I will take my revenge...on you."

...TO BE CONTINUED

Dear oh dear. I'm awful with cliffies lately aren't I? I apologize for the delay in getting this out, but as I mentioned before, Christmas rush and all that.

Doujin news:Charu-san has put up 2 new pages!! WOOT! I'll be posting links to them on the COLAD site later tonight or tomorrow but you can view them now by going to her Deviant Art gallery at: charu-san dot deviantart dot com It's the scene where Sasuke finds Naruto on the table in chap 1 book 1.

This chapter started out as an excuse to play with Sasuke's head but it kinda got away from me which is why it may seem a bit sudden. ((Sweatdrop))

Enjoy all. I should have a new chapter out either by Christmas or not long after. I will soon be heading off for my yearly exile to my mother-in-law's house. Lol.

Later all,
Song