Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Puppet in Pink
22. Pathway of Revenge
Down. The Danes gave up, left...
And went home...
The Geats stayed, sat sadly, watching,
Imagining they saw their lord...
-Beowulf
Sasuke loved the woods.
The emerald foliage was far from silent, yet devoid of the drone of human voices. It was filled to the brim with shadows, nestling comfortably in the hollows of the trees and the spaces where the sun was obscured by leaves. The scent of green wafted through the atmosphere like a delicate perfume, so crisp and fresh it made him want to drink the air.
As birds twittered in lively tones, Sasuke was having his own conversation with himself...
Naruto slurped his ramen loudly, sucking up the last noodle with a spray of broth, and slammed the bowl down on the scarred linoleum counter with a decided clunk. His unused chopsticks, and several other diners, jumped at the impact.
"More please!" he shouted eagerly. One of the cooks groaned in pretended agony and smiled at the boy.
Though none of them would ever admit it, the employees at Ichiraku Ramen Shop had taken a half-hearted liking to the rambunctious fox-child. All of them had lost family and friends to the demon, but somewhere down the line they all had agreed that it was pointless to hold a grudge against its vessel, that which was keeping them safe from further harm. Naruto's occasional antics were tolerated, if not enjoyed, by most of the staff.
As the blonde-haired boy waited for his next helping of noodles (was it the fifth bowl he'd had today, or the sixth?), his thoughts wandered nonchalantly over to his cherry-blossom teammate. He wondered where she could have gone, but this troubled him for no more than a second. She was probably out shopping, Naruto figured, or asleep. In a really, really deep sleep.
I mean, seriously, he reminded himself. Who on earth would want to be alone for the sake of being alone? How could anyone want that? The boy shivered, mentally urging the chef to hurry up with the ramen. How could anyone ever want to be alone, after going through something like that...
...the blood...it—
A clinking of glass cut through the heavy layers of his consciousness as cleanly as butter, bringing him back to the surface. The bowl of steaming-hot noodles rested benignly in front of him. Grateful for the interruption, Naruto grabbed the scorching porcelain with both hands like a man possessed, drowning his worries in miso-flavored oblivion.
Sasuke hated the woods.
The leaves rustled with the sinister essence of a thousand voices, tittering maliciously, watching him from countless shifty jade eyes.
Green... he stilled an involuntary shudder. What was so bad about the color green? What was so bad? What?
His mind pleaded the fifth.
The woods were filled with threatening shadows, surrounding him, creeping stealthily behind him, closing in on him and ready for the kill. A pale, deathly-green aroma spiked the air, smothering, suffocating, drowning. Birds screamed their mockeries of warning through the trees, promising a quick end to the unwary and the unwise.
And still he kept walking, off the path, following the spaces between the light, striding with an ersatz smile through the shadows, radiating false self-confidence to make the demons he couldn't see back away into their hidey-holes. And the voice led him on, chattering nonstop, suggesting all manners of devious torments to plague the hated pink-haired witch.
So absorbed was he in his listening, he didn't notice how far off the trail he was going. Nor did he notice the fact that a glowing, blood-red residue was hanging ominously in the air...
Amazing! 200 reviews! I can't believe it! (faints) Thank you all for being such dedicated reviewers and readers! At the end of the story, I'll probably have a listing of everyone who reviewed. (don't know how I'll do it though) Again, thank you!
Sorry for the long wait and short update...I'm rather stressed and my writing suffers (bows sheepishly) You can pretty much guess what's going to happen in the next chapter...or can you? I'm starting to get a better idea about where this is going; it may not show, though. It's only a general idea, so I'm relying on reviews to 'flesh out' the story, as they say.