Title: Breaking Symphonies
Author: Sparklehunter
Summary: Iruka isn't dead, but it may have been the better option. Then again, all dark clouds come edged in silver. . . .
Part, 6/6
Author's Note: Number ten, part six in a series of snapshots about the aftermath of an almost-death. Sequel to Worth Something/Breaking Point.
Author's Note II: Please Review! And stop in later for part one of Vindication.
Author's Note III: I'm not sure when I'll post the next part – I'm back at school, and things are a little hectic.
Author's Note IV: I'm so sorry this took so long . . . I'll try harder, I promise!
Breaking Symphonies
Edged in Silver
by sparklehunter
All dark clouds come edged in silver.
Iruka knows this. He lives this. He's standing – slumping – against the wall of his cell, and the words run through his mind like a mantra.
It isn't comforting.
It's a nice wall, Iruka thinks. Not as cold as his last one, as the stone is covered in whitewashed plaster, and there's a cot against one wall. Compared with his last cell, it's heaven. Compared with the price he paid for it, it's hell.
Giving up so much should have gotten him a suite or something.
Iruka's clinging to the dark side of humor, so he doesn't shatter and die of a broken heart.
Saburo tucked him into the cell before he left. Iruka knows he left to let his superiors know he succeeded, he finally broke the man who saved Uzumaki. Somehow, Iruka hates the demon-eyed man even more for leaving. How dare Saburo leave him alone, after breaking him apart and gathering up the pieces? How dare he leave Iruka to face his betrayal alone, without Saburo's mocking eyes and pain to distract him?
How dare Iruka fall so far, as to crave the man he hates most of all. Iruka doesn't pretend to understand his own mental state.
Someone slipped, once, and Iruka knows the name of the ninja who saved his life. Isas sewed him back together. Isas resurrected him. When Iruka leaves this place, he thinks he will cut off Isas's hands, so the medical nin can never save him again.
All dark clouds come edged in silver.
Iruka's standing against the wall of his cell. He pushes off it with one hand, wavers, stands straight on two paralyzed legs that scream in pain. The muscles have atrophied, but Iruka doesn't give a damn. He can walk.
He will walk.
Walking, he discovers, as he twists his fingers and pulverizes the metal door, hurts like Goro's fire in his veins. It's a delicious feeling.
The first guard Iruka meets dies quickly, his pale eyes wide with shock and sudden pain. Iruka takes his belt and pants and knives.
All dark clouds come edged in silver.
The End
To Be Continued in the next arc, Vindication