Phew...huff...phew...huff...haaaahhh...okay. I'm back from Hawaii...(I lub lub lub dat place squeals) Anyhow...yeah, in response to the many "OH MY GAWD I'M GONNA KEEL YA IF YA DON'T POST A RESOLUTION TO THIS CLIFFIE" reviews...here is the awaited chappie. Now, PLEASE don't decide on whether to kill me or not UNTIL you've read the ENTIRE chapter, kay? (prays)
Chapter 16: Hopelessness
He stood, bathed in blood, surveying his surroundings with a sort of dull, throbbing apathy. Bodies lay dead and dying around him; blood occasionally saluted the air in bright, arterial spurts of flashing, crimson red; beasts and people alike writhed in the throes of death; the building was more or less demolished, reduced to nothing but crumbling pillars and malfunctioning machines trying desperately to carry out their last operations. There were spasmodic spatters of red upon the paint-chipped walls, gently oozing to pool in puddles on the sullied ground. His long, dark hair was mangy, matted and slick with dirt and blood, coagulating in sticky clumps that fell in disheveled strings down his body, staining his shirt with blood.
With empty, lifeless eyes, Neji swept his gaze around the macabre scenes of carnage strewn about him like a nightmare-turned-reality. A flash of dull yellow caught his eye and slowly, ever so slowly, he tilted his head down and focused his gaze on the limp, blood-spattered body of a small blonde boy sprawled pitifully on the ground at his feet. Naruto's features were etched into an eternal expression of a strangely eerie peace, a serene tranquility that almost made a paradox of his red-stained figure. His pale white skin gleamed like a beacon in the light of the flickering, dying machines that occupied the rutted building, searing the outline of his body into the Hyuuga's limpid, opalescent eyes.
Neji slowly bent and knelt next to Naruto's body. Half-lidded eyes filled with all the hopelessness the world had to offer focused on the two soft indentations in the blonde's chest. Neji reached out a hand and ran a feather-light touch over the twin bruises that harshly contrasted with the soft cream of Naruto's skin, feeling the faint thrum that vibrated through his nails, the aftermath of Jyuuken's lethal technique. The roaring in his ears grew louder as he recognized the signature of his energy. With deadened, wooden eyes, he then realized that it was he who had killed this magnificent, evanescent creature, that it was he who pinioned the wings of an angel just born.
He lowered himself to Naruto's body, bending himself so his dirtied, filthy hair hung lank over the blonde's face, forming a sort of tattered curtain over the two. Neji gently brushed his nose against the smooth, sloping forehead, then passed his lips over Naruto's brow, sweeping them down to the bridge of his nose until he paused, just scant centimeters from the blonde's cold, cold lips. He could almost feel the nonexistent breath issuing from Naruto's mouth. It was almost, almost there…but not quite, not quite…
Memories upon memories flooded his mind, had flooded his mind since the very moment he'd plunged his fingers into Naruto's chest. Every single day he'd ever lived came flowing in torrents back into his mind, rearranging them in the file cabinet that was his brain. Every last shining moment he'd spent with the blonde…the feelings that overcame him….they all replayed themselves in his mind, shrouding his senses in nostalgic reminiscence. He lowered himself down and gently, ever so tenderly brushed his lips across Naruto's cold, lifeless mouth, faintly surprised that the flesh was still so soft even in death. He whispered, his mouth moving against Naruto's lips in a silent, intimately private mantra, a prayer meant for the two of them, and the two of them only.
"Naruto….Naruto, can you hear me?...I'm….I'm sorry….I'm so sorry…." He let the words trail off, curling like smoke into the air, then slowly got to his feet and walked away.
Knowing it meant nothing to a dead man to hear his killer's apology.
It took them at least three months to clean up the mess and the bodies and rebuild the edifice. Blood, debris, and grime splattered the whole of the desecrated building, making the task of scrubbing a feat to be considered. Construction workers and janitors alike, obeying Hiashi's adamant orders, painstakingly scrubbed, rebuilt, and cleaned every last inch of the building until it stood tall and proud once more, seemingly oblivious to the nightmare that had nearly wiped it off the face of existence. The walls were pristine, the linoleum impeccably clean, and everything gleamed with a sort of radiant energy. Every last ounce of the carnage had been obliterated, leaving no trace of blood or destruction anywhere.
Only the place where Naruto had fallen couldn't be fixed. A permanent blood-spattered indentation had mysteriously appeared in the middle of the floor, which adamantly refused to be pried up despite any futile attempts at pulling the stubborn tiles from their foundation. Shaped perfectly to the outline of the blonde's silhouette, there was a tiny flaw, barely noticeable really, at the very center of the mark, in the shape of a fox against a spiral background. At Hiashi's command, Naruto's body was unceremoniously thrown into a vault where it was frozen, stored for further experimentation. Neji was revitalized from his wearied state, assigned to Tenten who acted as his handler.
Everything returned more or less back to normal. Neji had returned as Hiashi's ward, following the older Hyuuga's commands with seemingly more compliance than ever. He seemed much like himself, moving and speaking with a trademark ever-present delicate elegance not even Hiashi could match, but a certain current of underlying apathy had suddenly appeared in his manner of work. Also lacking was the special glint that sparkled in Neji's eyes; upon taking a closer look, the opalescent orbs of the younger Hyuuga seemed dead, wasted, almost like someone had painted them on his face, giving him a hauntingly wooden look. Hiashi could only blame that on the death of Naruto, which, according to his point of view, was a necessary sacrifice for the well-being of the general good.
Sometime Later
He strode swiftly down the hallways until he came upon a team of scientists which stood observing a large metal vault. Flicking a perfunctory glance at his employees, Hiashi nodded once, and immediately two young men donned in pristine white cloaks grabbed the handles of the vault and pulled. The team recoiled as thick, vaporous steam billowed out of the cache, spilling onto the floor and licking at shoes. Another man reached in and unlocked an intricate series of hooks and latches, bringing out a body. They hastily laid the body on a stretcher and wheeled it away, leaving a few members of the team to lock up the safe. Hiashi matched them pace for pace as they careened down a corridor and through a set of steel double-doors. The scientists painstakingly heaved the body onto a cold, cruel-looking table where various instruments glinted ominously in their cases. The team filed out, leaving only Hiashi and a very apprehensive Hizashi in the room.
"It is time...so soon, Hiashi?" Hizashi's voice sounded a thousand years old.
"We must do it now when the cells are newly frozen or we'll lose significant evidence." Hiashi replied curtly, then fluidly pulled on a pair of gloves. With a sigh, Hizashi executed the barest hint of hesitation, then donned his own pair and took the first instrument out of its case, gingerly handing it to the waiting Hyuuga.
With a thunderous bang, the doors flung open and Neji stalked into the room, jet-black hair cascading down his back in snarls and tangles that almost seemed to compliment the choked gaze of strangled rage upon his face. Upon witnessing Naruto's lifeless body strung so helplessly on the cold metal table, Neji's features twisted into a positively outraged expression, mirrored thrice by the flash of black fire in his eyes.
"YOU! HOW DARE YOU….HOW DARE YOU JUST…JUST USE HIS BODY LIKE THAT WITHOUT ANY RESPECT?"
Hiashi recoiled, stunned. He had seen Neji when he was angry, countless times in fact, but always the anger had been a controlled, icy calm that slowly seeped into the receiver's soul and froze his entrails until they broke. The Neji before him was livid, enraged and furious, positively blazing with an unseen fire that sent the temperature in the room rocketing up several degrees in less than a second. The younger Hyuuga's hands writhed and spasmed with the desire to kill, to shed the warm, crimson libation flowing through Hiashi's veins, and Hiashi highly suspected Neji wouldn't hesitate to commit the deed given half a chance.
"What do you mean, Neji?" Hiashi said carefully in what sounded like a voice too calm.
"DON'T YOU PLAY IGNORANT WITH ME! YOU'RE VIOLATING NARUTO…NARUTO'S BODY! HE'S DEAD, HE'S DEAD, AND STILL YOU COMMIT SUCH SACRILEGE!" Neji spat, his face both spark and flint for the flames that blazed around him. Hiashi recoiled.
"Neji…he's dead. He's nothing more than dead cells, and we can use these cells to further our medical advancement—"
It was the wrong thing to say. With a snarl of outrage, Neji coiled and leaped, hands outstretched and shrieking for Hiashi's blood. The older Hyuuga scrambled backwards, panic flashing blatantly in his eyes as he flung any object he could lay his hands on at the oncoming phantom. Quickly addressing a silent prayer for forgiveness to Neji, Hizashi moved with amazing speed, deftly clipping the Hyuuga on the back of the neck. Neji pitched forward with a strangled snarl and collapsed on the ground, sprawled pitifully on the white floors of the lab, struggling to breathe as he attempted to recover. Hiashi was instantly furious.
"Send him away and keep him out of my sight. I want nothing more to do with him for at least a week." He said imperiously, sweeping a hand dismissively at the comatose Hyuuga.
"You…you will not…get away with…"
"Silence, fool. You have deliberately tried to attack me. Now get out." The words were said with such cruel force that Neji could practically see them exploding on the far walls.
"Naruto…you will not…" Hiashi's face twisted into a macabre expression of brilliant, mad glee.
"On the contrary," he said, delicately fingering a long, needle-sharp instrument "I think I will." He lowered the instrument to Naruto's body with a maddeningly slow pace.
"NO—" Neji got to his feet and started forward once more, only to be stopped by a blindingly dazzling white light from the table.
Naruto's body, so cold and vulnerable on the steel of the table, now blazed with a serene yet infuriating white light that completely surrounded him. A slow smile blossomed on his lips as gilded lashes slowly ascended, revealing bright blue eyes misted over with the film of death. For one heartrending moment, Neji felt his soul soar as he witnessed Naruto's blue, blue orbs once more, but then the fox-child's body burst into flames, flames as crimson as the blood that stood frozen in his veins.
"No! We must save the body…HIZASHI! Get the extinguisher!" Hiashi shrieked in an uncharacteristic frenzy, but it was too late.
The flames had completely engulfed Naruto's body, and only a faint silhouette of the blonde could be seen. As Neji looked on in horror, pieces of the shadow began to break apart until it seemed like Naruto's body had crumbled, leaving only flames in its wake. After what seemed like an eternity, the fire died down, leaving the table on which it burned strangely untouched. Naruto's body had gone, disappeared, with nothing left of the corpse whatsoever. A long, tense silence resonated throughout the room as the occupants gazed on in shock. After a period of time, Hiashi shakily broke the stillness, issuing a wearied moue of dismissal.
"Leave me."
Hizashi instantly turned and slipped from the room, leaving only Neji standing tall in the center of the area. After quietly surveying the man before him with an unreadable expression in his eyes, he turned to go, only to feel something small, something evanescent, something barely recognizable, and yet something quite…quite familiar curl around his body and brush against his mouth. Eyes widened as he suddenly felt enveloped in Naruto's presence, but the next second it was gone, leaving Neji quite in doubt that he felt something at all.
He was confident of one thing though. Even in death, Naruto hadn't entirely disappeared, and he highly suspected the magnificent blonde wraith would be back for retribution when the situation was ripe for the harvesting.
(cackles maliciously) I'm so ebil to my poor Neji...(hugs him) awwww...there there...TT but that's the way it has to be...TT
