Author Note: Hello everyone and thank you all for unwearyingly waiting for me to update, it's been some crazy months since my last update and thankfully, most of those things are over now. And I'm done with most things in school now so I really will get going once again into writing and updating often. I was planning to update earlier but my computer decided to go against me and along with one of the last homework I had "it" crashed. But I didn't lose anything of my important work or notes, I thank my wonderful teacher for that, but I am still trying to get everything in order once again. This will be the awakening from my "slumber" or if you want to say it; hiatus. To let you all know, I was planning on three more arches but they won't come. I've dropped them and maybe sometime in the future will I pick it up again but as it looks like now, it's highly unlikely. For now I hope you will enjoy reading this chapter as it took a long time to write and I had to think it through time and again to make it understandable, even if I think I failed in some parts at the end. Well, let your imagination make the conclusion for the missing parts.
Summary: There is a shadow coming closer to Konoha, a melody is filling the air as he draws closer. Destroyed memories are revived and healed wounds are torn open once again. Old hatred is revived and newfound bliss is forgotten. On the brink of insanity once again a battle between future and past starts. The frail pair of hands that hold onto each other are being pried apart by the unforgettable melody that killed them once before. The nightmare didn't end, it never will.
Pairing: None.
Genre: Mystery, angst, dark, supernatural, shounen, tragedy and some other, you name them for me if you want.
Ranting: T, but I would like to say T+ since I feel better with that setting on this story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Read, Enjoy and Review, Please. Flamers will end up in the trash bin if they are to mean.
The
Bloody Dream... Never Ended
Written
by Monkan
Chapter 2
"Where am I?" asked Naruto as he looked around the broad landscape. The scene would had been breath taking if it wasn't for a small fact. How did he get here? The grass swayed with the wind and it looked like waves, only they were green and not blue. In the sky were a twin star and the shadow the trees threw was long on the ground. How just a pair of twin stars could cast the same light as the sun was beyond him.
There was no sight of any living being in the area, neither a human nor animal. It was just him.
"Lovely isn't it!"
Naruto turned around to see who it was and was mighty surprised to see the boy with yellow eyes. He was leaning against a tree near him.
"Everything here feels so real and peaceful doesn't it."
The boy had a soft but childish voice as he spoke. But inside it was nothing of a child, just plain boredom.
"Who are you?" Naruto asked.
The boy nodded and pushed away from the tree and it faded away into nothingness.
"It feels good to know who you really are, doesn't it?" he asked curiously.
Stunned by the question, it was only then that Naruto realized that he remembered everything. Everything from his childhood to the betrayal and also the years he spent in the hospital. He could feel a shadow of darkness in his heart but it wasn't as strong as years earlier. It didn't control him in the same way.
"Who are you?"
It was only a fair question and Naruto thought he should know who his companion was.
The boy looked around and exclaimed, "Let's go find the others, they should have awaken by now." with that he turned around and walked in the direction that lead past Naruto and over the grass hills.
"Hey, didn't you hear me?"
He stopped and turned around, with a smile that sends chills down his spine.
"Akumi. Hanatsuya Akumi."
-o-o-o-o-o-
The once proud town of Konoha was in ruins. Most of the village had been destroyed and stood in flames. Two monsters stood among the ruins and attacked anyone that approached. Bodies of many hundred lay spread out over the village. Children, families, shinobis, old people, everyone was had been slaughtered in the first blast.
It had all been so easy, when both Kyuubi and the Sand monster was revived they had send out an enormous shockwave of chakra that levelled the area around them. Everything close to them was smashed into pieces in a matter of seconds. The great wall of Konoha had been brought down in parts. It was a futile struggle to fight back.
No one could now get close enough to the both human hosts that the demons had taken over. They no longer felt compassion or sorrow of the destruction and deaths around them. All they wanted was the pleasure the death of mankind brought them. It had been mankind that trapped them in their world in the first place. The result today was simply the truth of their own stupidity. What their hosts felt, they felt it too. They had been condemned to watch their hosts suffer while they could do nothing. In a simple way to put it; they shared the same life as their host.
A roar echoed through the burning atmosphere and the shadow of nine great tails slowly lay down on the ground as if to take a rest. On the other side of the village, sand moved and crushed everything in sight but it too had slowed down now.
But it didn't make a very big difference, the village had been destroyed. The air was filled with smoke and dust. The damage had been done and the blood of countless victims had been shed. There was nothing anyone could do to save them.
This was reality.
-o-o-o-o-o-
"Do you know what the hardest thing in the world is?" Akumi asked as they walked in what looked like a long hall with large windows that let in light, but it didn't feel warm.
"No."
"To realize that you are alone. When no one is there to accept or know your accomplishments. When you sleep in an empty house where there used to live others. Did you know, when the one you love leaves you it's emptiness that fills your heart, just a different loneliness but it still hurts. When your favourite toy is thrown away because it's broken or old the child that ones played with it won't ever hold it again, that loneliness is something most people forget as they grow older and say that they are to old for toys. When animals or people die it's loneliness that fills our hearts because we don't want to be alone in the world. Human nature is so simple yet complicated because they call all their emotions by different things when there are only 3 emotions that they experience. One is happiness and with that comes love, friendship and everything close to it. The second is loneliness. The last one is hate and I mean jealousy, despise, anger, rage and everything along them is also just a single emotion. This is what the human mind builds it's emotions on Happiness, Loneliness and Hate."
"I don't get it. The mind is more complicated than that."
Akumi smiled slightly, "You will some time and I have on doubt of it."
"Do you always talk this much with someone you just meet?" Naruto asked as he had silently listened to Akumi's speech.
The golden eyed boy shrugged his shoulders and said with a small smile. "There's never anyone there to listen to me anymore. Since everyone forgot about me."
"Eh? What do you mean?"
But when Naruto looked at him he was struck with an impression that he wasn't listening anymore.
"Everyone leaves sooner or later."
Akumi's eyes had a far away glazed shine over them and he was sort of spacing out as the hall changed once again around them and they stood in a big room where someone sat.
In one of the old fashion chairs sat Gaara, his gourd wasn't on his back anymore and he looked up when he sensed their presence. Neither Naruto nor Gaara said anything as Akumi walked from the fox bearers side and over to the other.
"How are you feeling?"
Gaara just gave him a sour glare and Akumi smiled pleasantly at him. "I'm happy that you aren't hurt. Now that you both are awake you both should be brought to update." The light brown haired boy walked over to a table. It was thick and its leg wasn't that long but it would probably reach up to their hips if they stood by it. Akumi laid his hand on the surface and faced them.
"You've destroyed Konoha! The village is in ruins and about half of the villagers survived. You've both gone berserk and slaughtered everyone else without mercy. As you both may have suspected by now this is my world. You will not leave this place, not that your other selves have already done it but you won't be able to do it. If you try to do anything rash you may get killed, or I may kill you for trying. If I have a few more deaths on my hands won't make a difference. Just stay with us."
-o-o-o-o-o-
The few survivors of Konoha had gathered in the mountain where they could care for their injuries. The day had turned to dark night in a matter of seconds after the destruction, despite the sun sitting behind the dark smoke clouds it couldn't break through. The lack of sunlight made the air cold and misty. Somewhere among the crowd was the cry of people as they had lost family and friends, the number of deaths continued to rise even now.
As the first shock was setting down, small groups of people was beginning to talk about what they should do next. The beasts still roared in the village and they had no resources. There was suddenly an uprising noise of happy voices and through the crowd came Tsunade. Her arm was stained with blood that came from the obvious wound on her shoulder and she was limping lightly.
Her name was called by relieved villagers and she stopped in the middle. She looked around the crowd and took note of their status. Not long after that she began to talk to them. Words that had to be told. Words that they needed to hear. Words they had to hear and words her deep down needed to say herself.
Not far from her sat a boy in a dark blanket that made it hard to see if he was injured or not. No one was paying attention to him in particular and his golden eyes continued to watch everything around him.
-o-o-o-o-o-
The scene had changed once again and was at a beach that neither Gaara nor Naruto had seen before. The twin stars in the sky told them that it probably was a place that didn't exist in reality.
"Who are you?" asked Naruto.
"Why have you brought us here?" was Gaara's question.
Akumi didn't say anything to either of the questions. He just stood watching the sea. The twin stars wasn't as evident now as it had been and the sky was turning a purple colour with a hint of green. The sea was crystal clear and nothing lived in it. No fishes or plants, nothing. It was just the sand bottom and water, nothing more and nothing less.
The sand was soft and looked almost white. They could feel the warmth through their shoes and how ever they looked at it, it was real sand.
Slowly did Akumi open his lips but he didn't say anything for a moment, "Why does human hurt each other?"
"Because it's their nature to do so." answered Gaara without hesitation.
Akumi lowered his head a little and seemed to think about something. "Then why are beings like us born?"
As he asked a wind drew past them and neither of them had an answer to the question. The skies grow a little darker.
"If the world they live in are so painful why are we living with them. Why does they laugh, cry, love, hate if it's so painful? Why must we endure it?"
-o-o-o-o-o-
A conflict among the survivors broke out a few days after the destruction of Konoha. More blood was spilled but this time it was by the hand of humans. The demons had disappeared into the darkness and left the shattered world behind them. Human relations were tense and the conflict among them grew stronger and stronger until they had split up into groups that thought against each other.
The once proud village folks of Konoha were brought down to this was no one thought of nothing else but his or her own survival.
The hell among them grew with each day that passed and in no time, it all spread out through the land and began to infect other countries. The horrible reality was before the naked eye and no one could stop it. When people tried they were either accused of betrayal or killed on the spot. Trust was a thing they couldn't afford anymore. Gender and age didn't matter when it came to survival. Shelter and food was fought over.
The ground under their feet was now a deep red from all the spilled blood. The stench of death was overwhelming and could make most of the unprepared vomit. Starvation was spreading and some even ate the blood stained grass in order to survive.
They called the demons that had destroyed Konoha monsters. But in reality, they were the monsters now.
-o-o-o-o-o-
The three of them spend their time silently in each others company. Time had no meaning anymore; they felt neither hungry nor tired. From time to time, they would talk to each other or go to different landscapes.
Somewhere in Naruto's mind, there was a small voice that seemed to call him all the time. But sometimes it was to silent for him to hear it or other times Akumi interrupted him for listening to it. Akumi had said that unless they could give him what he wanted he wouldn't let them leave this place. But in both of their shattered minds, there wasn't a place they wanted to go. Somewhere along the way they began to wonder about insignificant things that had happened in their lives. They began to think about details and why things had gone the way it did.
Thoughts like; how long had they been here? How was everyone else doing? Was someone missing him?
They didn't exist anymore in their minds. At the moment, they were in the big room again with the weird table. Akumi lay half across it as his hand played across the surface. A few flowers laid on it at the top and slender fingers touched them now and then as to make sure they were still ok.
Just as suddenly as the flicker of noise in the back of Gaara's head appeared his mind was filled with thoughts of his siblings. But just as quickly they were gone. He looked around him in the environment and when his eyes came to land on the light brown haired boy his eyes had a slight sparkle in them.
"Who are you?"
Gaara didn't even realize his lips had moved until after he had said those words. Akumi stilled his motions and looked at the red head teenager. In Gaara's eyes, if only for a moment he could see an adult before him but the illusion was gone just as fast.
Those simple words had brought the same question into Naruto's mind and the flicker in the back of his head grew louder until he was sure he heard his own voice calling him. Deep red eyes flared up in his mind and an identical face framed them.
"Who are you?" Naruto asked along the same tone as his splitting image twin that appeared next to him.
Memories they both had forgotten was returning to them now. As one memory lead to another they became more and more aware of their past and tragedies. On the same time they relived them, they knew what would happen because they had lived through them once before so they refused to let them affect them. But wounds are hard to heel and even if they appeared mostly unaffected by the harsh memories there were still blood spilled from their emotional wounds.
Akumi took a step backward as the air in the room seemed to change from what it had been. A storm was drawing closer.
-o-o-o-o-o-
The hard world that was left after a war often left people with a thought that they already had been to hell and back again. And even if they hated and detested each other they felt that something was on the way.
A boy stood suddenly up and he stared into the sky. His dark hood fell back and revealed his face. A face no one recognized, golden eyes and dark brown hair. His face was very slender and compared to the others he was completely unsoiled.
The ground that hadn't seen sunlight for weeks now greeted the first rays of light. As if knowing where the boy was he was hit by a large selection of light and his hair started to change from dark brown to blond, an almost white color. As questions among the survivors from the long nightmare asked who he was his lips moved in silent conversations that they didn't hear.
Until...
"I am..." an almost evil smile broke out on his lips. "Akuma (Note: The Devil)."
As if on replay, the whole nightmare was rewind in everyone's mind. The pain and countless deaths that had happened were being erased and the dead came back. The environment changed until they were on a meadow, Naruto and Gaara and everyone before the hell began was there. Everyone except Naruto and Gaara returned to the now restored village, just moments before everything began. A black sphere floated in the air before sailing down toward the now adult version of Akumi. He opened his mouth until he swallowed the orb. With that, every last trace of the nightmare was gone; all that remained was the memories of it.
"You entertained me quite good." the adult version of Akumi said to Gaara and Naruto. His golden eyes and silvery hair reflected the light from the twin stars.
"Who are you?" asked Naruto once again in hope to get an answer.
"I am Hanatsuya Akumi. The child of Nightmares. I was born into this world just like you." He turned toward the table that appeared next to him. He put his hand to it as it turned upward and showed its content. The reality was that it was a coffin with a glass surface. Beneath the surface was a girl, no older than 17. She was holding the head of a boy, almost like you hold a lover. "They were like my family. I loved them both very much. They were getting married but someone killed him. I was accused of the murder since someone said they saw me leave his room right before he was found dead."
The voice of the girl rang out "You killed him, you devil!"
"That was my awakening and also my end. I didn't want to die so I unconsciously defended myself. Everyone in my village died and vanished without a trace. I was left in a sea of blood and a voice laughed in my head. It was then that I realized that I wasn't from this world. I was alone. It was also when my heart sealed these two this grave table that the human heart is very simple to understand. They love and hate each other. But it's only to prevent them from feeling the loneliness that really dwells in their hearts." He turned toward them.
"I have something to complete before I can go home and in order to survive I need something from your human hearts. Well, it's hard to explain in few words and since you will be the only two that will remember me I will leave you with a few parting words."
The coffin faded from view and into thin air. Naruto and Gaara found themselves in their respective place on either side of Konoha when life was going its own way and everyone was happy. They saw the child image of Akumi a few yards from them but his voice rang in their heads clear as day.
"I may be the Devils child and the child of Nightmares, but..." he faded from view himself now. "I chose not to create the nightmares of humans. I let them create their own."
Just as if nothing had happened did everything continue normally, nothing remained from the nightmare that had seemed to span over months of hatred, war and pain. A dream that could just as simple was reality as it had been a dream. Both of those two that remembered the event began to wonder, where had the nightmare really began?
As they went on with their normal lives as if nothing had happened they began to realize that they saw those around them in a different light.
"Humans are weak, but when faced with desperation they do desperate things!"
Who are the stronger and who are the weaker one? Those that remember their worst nightmares that involves others or those that forget them out of fear that they will realize their own true nature?
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
It's been 157 decades since I was born. I have seen those around me die and be born again. Despite of that, I don't believe in life. All I can see is the endless darkness that spans past each soul, ready to swallow it and consume it as it faces its end.
I hear things others can't, the earth everyone walks on is slowly crying out in agony. It's dieing and no one sees it.
I can hear the wind, telling me stories about how stupid humans are. They are mere fools that walks on a path they think are living. They can't see the whole picture like I do. If they did, they would also lose faith in tomorrow. Mistakes can't be undone, no matter how stupid they were. What's done is done and can't been cut of from reality. They can escape from it but in a matter of time it will catch them too. They are ignorant fools that don't know anything. The world is much bigger than they can comprehend.
If anyone would ask me what I believe in after death I wouldn't answer them. Because I know the truth and it would only hurt them more. I will walk among them, until I find what I'm looking for. I will continue to watch the nightmares of the living.
For what I see is the true face of death. I stare in his face every day and I'm the only one that isn't allowed to go with him. That's one of the reasons I call myself "Akumi". A nickname for "Devil", a name I was given a long time ago when I was remembered and loved and hated. My shadow will only bring forth my true nature as I try to suppress it.
If you asked me; do you believe in a life after death?
While my mouth would say nothing, my mind would reply; isn't death just another form of an endless nightmare?
To be concluded in the Epilogue.
