Sasuke came running home from the academy that day, happy yet exhausted after a fruitful day of training. It had been the day of taijutsu matches for his class, and as was befitting his training regime - he had come out in first place. With such a result and fast on track to becoming rookie of the year, he hoped for once that his father would be pleased with him as he dashed to the gates of the Uchiha compound.
But, most mysteriously, the lights that usually blazed at the front of the compound were completely extinguished, as was all the lights inside beyond the gates.
That and the lack of guards were barely a thought in the head of the young, second heir to the head of the clan as he pushed open the heavy metal gate just a bit to squeeze through, then dashed through. It only really became more of a nagging thought as he slowed and passed the greenery at the entrance to the compound and entered the main street area - to find it deserted. Even if was beginning to get dark at this time in the winter months, it was still some time before evening - there should have been many of the clan inhabitants walking the main street at this time. The two stall shops should be open, with the cheer of the owner greeting him as he went passed, a warm atmosphere to it all with the orange glow provided by the numerous paper lamps.
But it was completely quiet, wreathed in the darkness of the setting sun and encroaching night.
Feeling slightly skittish now, Sasuke hurried his pace once more to dart down an alley he was familiar with and get to the clan head residence where his parents lived. Once he was home, he could demand to his mother to know of what event was occurring that had all the lights off and the streets empty.
Unfortunately for him, he found out at the next turn of the corner.
He immediately halted, stumbling somewhat as he saw the horrific scene before his eyes. Blood covered the entirety of the small street of the compound he'd ran into, crimson splattered up the wooden panels of the houses and properties lining the paved cobble road. Numerous bodies of varying ages lay strewn across the stone surface, mangled and contorted with the extreme degrees of violence they'd been subjected to. It was a scene of nightmares, made only worse in the horror of the crime scene by the low levels of light given off by a weakly rising moon.
"Aunt Mo!" He screamed out then, dropping his bag as all reason left him to dive next to a body he recognised. It was indeed his aunt, as he knew a lot of people from the closely knitted clan - but it wasn't the same as the love for a close relative as he collapsed next to what remained of his aunt. It was a bloodied corpse he knelt next to, horror etched into the very paralysed and dead muscles of the face of his aunt, fear seeming to be reflected in the paralysed and dead reflecting orbs of the elderly woman's eyes.
But what was much worse, was the way she had seemed to die.
Large chunks had been torn from her corpse. Huge bite marks riddled the corpse, making it clear that whoever - whatever had done this had engaged in a violent murder through the act of tearing them apart with their bare teeth. It was no wonder that so much blood littered the stone cobbles with the crimson liquid of his aunt - and the other Uchiha of which many were in actual pieces from the sheer force of having been literally torn apart.
The monster that had done this, had done this by tearing them apart with their mouth. They had attacked - and killed his family and clan, friends and comrades by eating them. It was almost too much for Sasuke to bear, hsi brain on the brink of shutting down as his quivering expression and moistening eyes looked upon the horrific scene of his clan members having ben torn apart.
RAM-OM-NOM-NOM-NOM!
The harrowing and haunting loud noise echoed around the entirety of the empty clan compound, startling Sasuke from his crying whimpers at the dead corpse he clutched to the extent that he fell backwards. The shriek of the loud noise still rang in his ears, the sound of gluttonous feeding spooking him much more than the corpse had. And he knew exactly where it had come from as his eyes landed on the residence before him in his keeled over state - the clan head's property. His fathers'.
He didn't know how long he'd laid there, unmoving, but he eventually moved. It was as if it called to him, that eh needed to see what was there. His father could certainly look after himself, but he needed to see if his parents were alright - and at least seek help from his brother, the strongest there was of his clan. His addled and spooked mind didn't know where else to go.
It was as if he'd blinked, the autopilot of his brain having kicked in from the ultimate and icy fear that swirled his very being as he found himself beside the dividing door that led to the main room of the house. Sasuke had to stifle a gasp in his throat with a fist to his mouth as he saw a shadow suddenly come across the paper of the door, having to duck down before looking back - only to deeply regret it.
He saw the silhouette of his brother thrown to the floor with a loud clatter from the other side of the room where two other, unmoving silhouettes lay. He focused with wide eyes as a large shape moved to stand beside his brother Itachi, a large beastly form with a bulky jacket and furry gloves for some reason.
"You tried to control me with your eyes, you naughty little Uchiha." A slightly growling voice spoke out in a level, yet deep and somewhat reverberating tone. "But your eyes, they lack power, they lack... deliciousness, the raw power of what my own magnificent and mighty cookie eyes are capable of. You saw it, I know you did my friend, you saw it with your delicious parents on the floor there." It was clear that this man was the perpetrator of the genocide that had befallen his clan that night.
There was a pause there, as if the perpetrator of the massacre had to think for a second before continuing. "Well, your mother was tasty, but your father? Too bitter, a nasty tasting concoction of sourness and tomatoes. Only one bite literally made me want to vomit."
The audible swipe of a sword sounded out lowly then, of which only the two men in the room and Sasuke at the paper dividing door could hear. However, it was obviously blocked, as the man holding his brother loudly tutted then. "Oh, Itachi, you break my heart by engaging in such violence. To think you'd want to kill someone like me, it makes me sad! So sad!" The raving voice sounded out then as if spilling out a dramatic script for some audience, but it was quickly continued. "That's quite enough of the swordplay, in fact enough of the weapons! It is time to carry on to one of my favourite times - song time!"
The silhouette of the shadow reflected onto the paper dividing door Sasuke was hiding behind showed that the free hand of the villain which was not clutching Itachi's neck was now patting his head. "Come on Itachi! You heard your father sing it, he sang it pretty good actually! A commendable effort! Now, it's your turn!"
The man holding his brother had to stoop lower then as all Sasuke heard was a wheeze then, Itachi only speaking quietly - but it looked to be a ruse as Itachi only then loudly spat in the face of his enemy. However, the man seemed unruffled at that, merely wiping it off with the furry glove and then looking him dead in the eye. "It seems you still hold hatred for me, Itachi... this, this is unacceptable..." The voice spoke lowly then, as if contemplating, before getting louder as he announced his intentions. "You lack the audacious ability of a true cookie connoisseur like me, Itachi! You lack the vital and tasty attributes needed to be able to live a delicious and outstanding life! It thus falls to me, as the duty of the cookie monster, to show you the true delights!" Sasuke watched as the man gripped his brother's skull with both his fur covered palms and made him look him dead in the eyes. "COOKIE-YOMI!"
A second passed then as they stayed in that forced position, before Itachi's skull began to quiver in the man's hands - and then his whole body began to act violently. Thrashing around, his legs kicking out at random as his arms flailed about, a scream itself out of his throat from whatever mental torture he was undergoing in the illusion technique the man had forced upon him.
"Yes, Itachi, you have glimpsed it! The delicious power of cookies!" The man's giddily spoken words seemed to snap Itachi out of hsi spasms, as he suddenly feel limp and unmoving in his hands. It was as if he was now only being held up by the man's hands. "NOW, Itachi! What starts with the letter C?!"
Itachi began to shake once more, albeit this time much more softly - as he now just began to sob. "...c-c i-is for cook-cookie..." The soft whispers began to sound out, Itachi's normal deep and neutral voice that always carried a tone of confidence now just sounding defeated and broken, speaking so quietly that Sasuke had to strain to hear the stuttering and sob-filled whispers. "...th-that's g-good enough fir-for me..."
The Uchiha killer dropped Itachi roughly to the floor then as he began to clap loudly, then faking wiping away a tear. "Very good, Itachi!" The man giddily stated, before then gasping and standing up ram-rod straight. "But all this talk of cookies makes the cookie monster so hungry!" Before anyone could blink, a round disk appeared in the man's hand out of thin air which was then roughly stuffed in the man's comically wide and opened mouth. The sound that had so haunted Sasuke then reverberated out from the room then.
RAM-OM-NOM-NOM-NOM!
As soon as it stopped, the man appeared to be satisfied then, smacking his lips audibly and then patting his belly. He stayed that way for a moment as Itachi's sobs and deluded singing whispers continued to filter through the door then to the terrified Sasuke who could hardly keep from breaking out into sobs himself, lest he give himself away. He was to scared, paralysed to run away from the scene - but also too scared to do anything else but sit there and silently tear up at what had befallen Itachi, his beloved older brother.
It was decided for him as the man suddenly swirled around and smashed his fist through the dividing door, seizing hold of Sasuke's shirt collar as a scream sounded out from the younger boy as he was pulled through the newly made hole. Deposited at the man's feet, Sasuke began to cry as the scenario became suddenly so much more terrifying, the wide grin on the man looking down on him with such intent accompanied by his brother's deluded, whispered ravings.
"Don't worry, Sasuke!" The man's voice was so much louder up close, a deep reverberation seeming to naturally occur within his throat. "I intend only to enlighten you, as I have enlightened your brother! You two shall be the survivors of a glorious lesson to those who dare defile the deliciousness of the cookie, to spread the word of my heralding return!"
Through his tears, Sasuke could see that actually, the man was not wearing furred gloves at all - nor clothes. What had appeared to be a bulky jacket of some kind was actually an entire covering of bright blue fur over the humanoid monster before him, going all the way from his feet, to his hands and the top of his head where strands of blue fur stood upright. His eyes were comically wide and bulging, depths of madness within black pupils darker than any pupil an Uchiha had sired as his mouth's grin was split open to ridiculous proportions.
"You see, your clan, your dreadful, naughty clan, my dear Sasuke, was on a most heretical path!" The cookie monster announced before Sasuke, as it seemed his mouth needed no air - just to open and close comically. "They wished to rebel! Coup! Take over Konoha! That, that is unacceptable - it would've made cookie monster sad! Oh, so sad!" The blue humanoid monster seemed to shout the last sentence with gusto, a dramatic gesture of coming up to cover his eyes in mock sadness being displayed before it was lowered. "You see, the wonderful and bounteous Land of Fire has the most fertile soil in all the kingdoms, and so is responsible for most of the production of crops and products! Including cookie dough! And if your dreadful clan had taken over..."
A singular weep escaped the cookie monster at the mere premise of whatever ran through his mind. "The tomatoes too would've taken over! Oh, the sheer horror of it all makes cookie monster so sad!" The monster actually wept at the thought of it all, joining in the quivering Uchiha before him, one scared out their mind and the other broken within their mind. "I don't know why your clan loves that dreadful fruit so much, but cookie monster will not allow it! So, as you saw, I took action..."
What other words would've been spoken by the rambling, furred humanoid was lost to the mind of the monster as he was interrupted - as Sasuke found some courage at last from the mentions and insults levied at his now deceased clan. "You monster!" He shouted out with as much gusto as his trembling voice would allow, before throwing himself from his quivering position at the floor to hug his brother a metre away. He was now trembling again, harder so than his occasionally twitching brother, but he tried to cajole Itachi out of his stupor the best he could. "Itachi - Itachi please! Help me!"
It did no good.
"C is for cookie..." Itachi continued to whisper out, having got much better at singing it softly now as it rewound in his broken mind so many times, froth sometimes spilling from his mouth as he sang it with increasing audacious enthusiasm. "That's good enough for me..." His deluded, raving whispers paid no attention to his shouting and trembling younger brother that just ten minutes he'd loved with absolute certainty.
"Itachi, please!" Sasuke continued to sob, but let out a gasp then as a large shadow fell on him from what light was available.
"That will do you no good, Sasuke..." The deep reverberations of the monster's voice shocking him out of his calls for help. "Your brother has ben enlightened. Now it is your turn to receive the same fate, the calling of the deliciousness of the cookie that soon the whole world will taste..."
Shuddering forcefully now with the fear that ran deep within him, icy plunging emotion that so wanted to freeze him and paralyse him there with his broken brother - but it was as if something forced him to begin turning his head. Tears ran freely down his cheeks as his eyes slowly met the face of the blue furred monster - and he screamed as the comically large and bulging eyes were just centimetres from his face.
"JOIN US, SASUKE!" The cookie monster roared out giddily with such enthusiasm it was as if the windows rattled with it. "JOIN THE DELICIOUSNESS WITH US, BE ABLE TO TASTE THE DIVINES OF THE COOKIE!" Seizing the boy's head with both hands to hold his thrashing form still, he forced Sasuke to look him deep into his madness-filled and bulging eyes. "COOKIE-YOMI!"
THE NEXT DAY.
Sasuke woke up screaming in the bed of the Konoha general hospital. His eyes shot open, coal black irises darting around for unseen danger as they bulged and widened in ultimate fear, trembling breaking out violently across his body as his hands quivered against the bed sheets.
It seemed the guards in the room exploded into action with as much gusto as Sasuke had awakened.
"Alert Lord Hokage at once that Sasuke has awakened, he will wish to question him!" A ninja barked out orders to another then, the porcelain animal mask covering their face making them the most senior ninja there. The other woman beside him with a green flak jacket on only nodded as they disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
Sasuke never felt the hands that gently touched his shoulders, greatly surprising the ninja who'd touched him as they expected a sudden recoil from his touch at whatever trauma they were undergoing. But, it was as if Sasuke wasn't paying attention to anything, his lips only quivering in the beginnings of but unconsciously held back sob with bulging eyes, his mind locked within itself as the events from last night only rewound in his head.
"Sasuke." The ninja spoke so gently, their voice deliberately lowered and saturated with chakra to sound soothing. "I know you must be hurting, but I need you to calm down please. We need you to please tell us what happened last night, we have no idea of who could've possibly..."
The ninja's voice faded into muted static, background white noise at what little attention Sasuke had been giving him slipped as his mind landed on a particular core memory from the event the night before. The pupils in his eyes seemed to dance around the bulging whites more, lips quivering with more force as they slowly opened - and began to let out a whisper.
"C-c is f-for cooki-ie, th-that's good enough f-for m-me..."
