By: FiendisHSerapH
DEVELOPMENT: FIRST MOVEMENT
Pale moonlight filtered through the dancing fig trees overhead as it bounced on the wan skin of someone who was spending his sleepless night outside. Pools of void stared up to the skies of midnight blue, adoring the Queen of the night being cradled gently by the feather-like clouds that reflected its light to be diffused to the sleeping world below. These pools blinked shortly as a golden leaf of the fig tree and his raven-colored strand obstructed his view. These pools are no ordinary ones, for these are the eyes owned by the lone survivor of a murdered clan, the eyes of the thirsty avenger named Uchiha Sasuke.
He walked about, leaves getting suffocated and robbed of their strength with each of his step toward nowhere. With each, he mused around, looking at the scenery he only appreciated once everytime he surveys an area. Truth be told, he never learned how to appreciate beauty around him, for all the time he was too harried to go across these sceneries; too doubtful, too suspicious, too stressed out. He never had a chance to lay back and watch the world evolve and emanate its beauty, and that's what he's grateful for, though secretly, upon teaming up with an average kunoichi, Sakura, a cunning yet perverted jounin, Kaka-sensei, and a brash loudmouth who turned out to be his so-called rival.
Naruto.
And he's the second reason why he is still up until this very moment. He woke up without him on his own bed. He knew that he had sneaked out maybe for a secret training session this very late night and very early morning. He need not to train anymore; he's already strong, and sometimes he feared that one day, he will wake up seeing this dobe beat him down and kick his butt badly in every drill. Besides, he just won't let this idiot get sick due to so much training. Kaka-sensei can't afford medicine and surgery, you know.
Where is he?
He presumed he hadn't gone that far, though he admitted that he had mused around for too long, but who knows where he had gone? He made hurried steps that turned a leisurely walk to a brisk one, to a jog, then finally to a sprint, sending golden leaves under his feet flying due to speed.
Time to fetch that hardhead to sleep.
He hadn't gone that far when he heard loud, continuous thuds of something hitting against a tree trunk. A woodpecker? The sound was too scattered compared to the sound it makes which is hollow and solid. The rhythm slowed down, disappeared, then resumed. His inner curiosities or perhaps his inquisitive side very much influenced by that whiskered boy enabled, his footsteps quieted upon getting the closest hunch as to where the sound was coming from. He walked silently, trying hard not to let leaves crumple that loud, settled down, and swept a tall bush away from his face.
What he discovered surprised him.
He saw that dobe's back standing in front of a tree trunk, but he never assumed that the sound really came from him. Fists stained with scarlet rested beside him, his form hunched and trembling heavily. Moonlight bathed his worn-out body and the chilly dawn air blowing his flaxen strands. Then, with all strength gathered, he intermittently punched the trunk, one hand after the other. What is he doing? the Uchiha thought that it's just a waste of time. He meant that he could have woken him up if he wanted a combat training, but what is he doing using up his chakra by punching a tree? His chakra level's dangerously by that time. In fact, he wondered how he can still manage to stand up and inflict some more damage to the poor tree. Curiosity once more leading him, he jumped in stealth and positioned himself on top of a nearby tree, black orbs now red under the influence of sharingan; watching, wondering, worrying.
Moans, angry ones, walked in the sharingan user's ears. He never thought that each punch costed him a lot of chakra. Aside from that, it included cursing, words rarely heard from his loud mouth. He knew that this idiot talks loudly, but he would never be this vulgar.... in seen situations at least. Then on the air rose droplets of transparent glistening liquid. At first, he presumed it was sweat, but as he looked closer on his face, there resided a stream of liquid running down his cheeks, down his eyes now tightly shut and trying to contain the pain. He couldn't describe the emotions present even with the mighty sharingan on. He proceeded punching, and upon the landing of his fist on the beaten trunk, dark red blood spurted vehemently, some splashing on his pain-contorted face.
"ARRRGGGGHHHHH!"
That pain-filled scream was a signal for the Uchiha to show himself, jump down the ground and stop the dumb guy's hands from doing any more bloodspill.
"Naruto..." he breathed deeply, eyes returning to his blank pools, but now having some amount of light - of concern - glowing through it. With that stoppage, the avenger felt the blonde's heavy breathing; deep, tired, about to break any minute.
"What... are you doing... here?" he saw the azure eyes inch at the corner of his eyes to meet his intruder with a death-like yet exhausted glare.
"STOP THAT." he replied as firm as steel, hiding any amount of concern his eyes are deeming to show.
"YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A CONCEITED BASTARD ANYWAY!" He proceeded punching, energy returning upon stating his heart's sorrowed contents. The avenger was speechless for everything he uttered was true; he had been a conceited bastard all these times, only that he had been ignoring it for his pursuit of power and justice for his perished clan. Sobs still walked on his ears, along with murmurs of mixed emotions, with anger and sorrow being the most dominant.
I have tried everything... but I just fall down again.
Why can't I be as strong as all of you?
No one ever tried to understand me...
Why am I so much hated?
Compelled and stricken to the core by the last few words, his mind was awaken by his action of suddenly grabbing the shaking and bloody fists, wrapping them with his own unabashedly white ones. His head bowed down to the blonde's shoulder now violent with incessant tremor.
"WHY... WHY... WHY?" the dobe's hand tried to break free but it died down as if his energy was being leeched away by the calm hands gripping it. Succumbing to exhaustion, the weak boy's head bowed down, his tears falling silently to the downy grass underneath their feet. "WHY?" his voice was reduced to a helpless whimper. Hysteria overtook him afterwards.
"STOP, NARUTO. JUST... STOP." The chilly wind ate his words that are made more as a request than as a command. They were spat out to the trees, echoing them as the clouds covered the Queen's face, leaving ephemeral darkness. The silent and tired lad felt his hands ball up into tight fists again, trembling as energy once again was revived in him.
"WHY?!" That word was followed by a loud thud, the loudest of them all, as the depressed lad solidly bumped his bare forehead on the trunk, much to the surprise of the black-haired boy who was holding him. He looked closer and was about to stop him forcedly when he noticed fresh blood dripping down from the dobe's tanned face, flowing incessantly from the formed laceration, down to his nose, and once again to the silent earth.
"Na... NARUTO!" the Uchiha let go of his fists now pallid and eerily cold as the dobe's weight dragged down to the ground. He pulled his head away from the trunk's surface when he noticed three nails poking out of the trunk now stained with blood. He looked at the lad's forehead and he almost shouted to see three holes punctured deeply down his skin... he took his hands gently and also noticed deep punctures, cuts and lacerations on them. He lifted the guy's whole body with his arms and walked under the Queen's returning light. In his mind, he wanted to blame him, scold him with all his might for being so irresponsible with his own self, but he just can't, for he understood him well. Very well.
Honestly, something inside him revealed that he's the one to be blamed for this.
- Part two coming tomorrow or two days from now. Meanwhile, reviews, please! -
