Heeeeeey guuuuuuys. How've you all been?
So, yeah. My bad. This isn't my full-blown return, unfortunately, but my heart is just so deeply in this story that it just makes me sad to think of how I just left it unfinished. If any of my stories get to be finished, I really hope it's this one. If I can finish just one, that would make me really happy.
On another note, I think this'll be one of the last flashbacks too (that might definitely help my inspiration). There might be a couple more here and there, but they won't be a regular thing like they have been. A lot of the story in the flashbacks has already been explained, and a lot of the rest, as they say, is history.
Enjoy~
Promises Not Made are Promises Never Kept
Flashback Thirty-Three: Convergence
"How do you fight something that doesn't feel fear?"
At these words Sasuke opened his eyes, and as he recognized the emptiness of the room he wondered where they came from.
Moonlight streamed in from the open window, the curtains fluttering in the wind that passed through. He felt the invigorating glow on his back, and turned his face to it. The full moon hung, grand and pure, above them all and he gazed at it.
For a moment, peace filled his mind.
"Are they here?" He asked the room softly, and eyes in the shadows of the room opened to reflect the moonlight.
"Yes," Haku breathed sadly. "They are."
A demanding fist pounded the door.
"Hey, wake up! It's time!" A voice outside called through the door. "Host, the alchemists are ready for you!"
The peace fled as fear filled him, and immediately he and Haku met each other halfway across the floor to take each other's hand. Sasuke considered for a moment to beg Haku not to let them take him – the older male would kill everyone on the island to fulfill such a wish – but he couldn't bring himself to ask.
"It'll be okay, right?" He asked as Haku pulled him closer. Zabuza appeared in the hallway as the banging continued. "I'm not going to disappear?"
"Shut up, you ingrates!" Zabuza yelled through the door. "We heard you the first time! Let the boy put some goddamn pants on!"
Haku's arms curled around him.
"If he is anything like in the legends," Haku breathed into his hair. "Then he will see the beauty in you and preserve it. But if he's not…" his grip on the boy tightened. "Then you fight him, Sasuke. You fight him with every inch of you. Don't let him take your wings."
Zabuza waited for them, despite the commands coming from outside. Neither of them wanted to let go. Finally, the man walked over and rested a hand on both of their backs.
"You'll be fine, Sasuke," Zabuza reassured him. "You've been through some tough shit. A god ain't nothin'."
With that reassurance, Sasuke managed a smile and Zabuza went to open the door.
The guards took them to the shore behind the village, where an old and seemingly forgotten temple sat in the cliffs. The walls outside were cracked, weathered and worn. But venture inside, and the walls become polished, smooth and maintained.
Once inside, their escort paused and turned.
"The boy goes up without you," the man told Haku and Zabuza, and they both simultaneously looked at Sasuke.
"I'm going to be fine," he reassured them, attempting to sound braver than the knot in his throat would allow. "I'll come back in one piece."
"We know you will," Haku murmured softly. "Please come back to us soon."
"Yeah," Zabuza breathed. "If you need to, don't be afraid to kick the shit out of him."
Sasuke managed a weak smile.
"You got it."
He started to move forward, started to go for a hug, but remembered they had company and stopped short. His hand, which had been going for Haku's waist, touched his arm softly instead.
"Please pray for a painless sunrise."
With that, he ventured up the stairs, the guards behind him.
The top of the stairs opened up to a completely circular room, with a rectangular slab in the center drowning in moonlight and swallowed in insignias. Elderly men that he had seen before waited silently, hands in their robes.
Sasuke was ordered to lay on the table, eyes upwards towards the moon. Heavy shackles bound him to the stone.
Well, if I die, it'll be a nice last thing to see.
Then he reminded himself that no, he WASN'T going to die. That he was going to make it out alive and he was going to make the god his bitch and who knows maybe even be friends with him-
Waitwhatwhothinkslikethat-?
"Landslayer, Landslayer, Landslayer," the men chanted, moving to surround Sasuke, palms up and facing him. "Landslayer, Landslayer, Landslayer. Ragnarok the Landslayer. Take the host. Take the host. Take the host. Water. Wind. Body. Mind. Landslayer, Landslayer, Landslayer. Ragnarok, the Landslayer…"
The chanting continued, and though the words were simple Chakra filled each syllable, and Sasuke found it coursing through him as his skin began to tingle. The chanting grew louder.
"Take the host. Take the host. Take the host. Water. Wind. Body. Mind. Landslayer, Landslayer, Landslayer…"
The tingling intensified, and for all Sasuke's fear he couldn't help but think it felt pretty good as the drawings beneath him began to almost shift within themselves with the growing concentration of power.
"Ragnarok, the Landslayer. Take the host, take the host, take the host, with the most, don't be a ghost…"
It took Sasuke a second of disbelief to realize that they weren't actually saying that – that the energy began to overtake him so completely that he was starting to hallucinate – as the moon's surface seemed to be stirred with a giant spoon. It made him feel dizzy, and his stomach began to roll as he grasped the idea that it didn't feel so good anymore. The tingling became painful and he felt his body try to tense – try to coil into itself – but the Chakra within his body left him limp and lifeless. Struggling to keep his wits about him, he stared up at the moon until he felt the pressure building so much that he imagined holes starting to pop out of his skull like corks.
"Water! Wind! Body! Mind! Take him, take him, take him!"
It was only after Sasuke's eyes rolled back into his head did he figure out the drawings on the table were in the shape of a dragon.
A massive burst of blue light exploded out of the boy's body, and the symbols – now stained a bright blue – settled upon his skin like living art. The shackles upon him snapped like twigs.
In his mind, Sasuke screamed as a colossal wave crashed upon him, the water flooding into his mouth and filling his lungs as he was swept away, disappearing beneath the foaming, turbulent waters.
And then there was stillness. For a moment, as Sasuke's body lay motionless upon the slab, the markings sharp and fresh upon his skin, the men wondered if the boy was doomed.
Haku's head shot up from its lowered position as something flashed across his mind. He had sensed the power above and started fiercely praying, and now he couldn't sense anything except-
Except emptiness.
No! Sasuke!
…"."…
It was a flicker. Barely a whisper of something small against the undaunted current of the universe, a speck of dust in nothingness.
…".."…
But it continued, unafraid of the vastness of forever. And as the moments became seconds became minutes, something became more defined within the swamps of eternal darkness.
…"…"…
Slowly, surely, it started piecing itself together, millions of years in the making reforming itself with nothing but the desire to become something more than nothing, and it felt itself grow within the space it occupied.
…"…"…
Pushing against walls of emptiness, it fought to make itself whole, reaching up through the sludge of doubt and trying to break through into the light of being more than what it was. It had no thoughts. No ideas, no whims. It simply sought one thing – existence.
…"…-at…"…
And finally, it broke the surface.
Everything sharply and immediately came into focus as Sasuke's body – lifeless and breathless on the table – abruptly sucked in a breath through his nostrils, making the men jump visibly into the air.
…"what…?"…
The merciless toughness of the table beneath him, the powerful moonlight shining down upon him – he smelled sweat, sweat, nerves, fear, and-
Crystal blue eyes shot open.
"Water?"
Wordlessly, he lifted himself up into a sitting position. Sitting. Body. Arms, legs, eyes. Touch, smell. The taste of energy on his lips, the feel of it on his skin. Skin. Skin, muscles, ligaments, neurons, chemical reactions firing at a million a minute-
He lifted his chin to the moon, and sniffed.
"Salt."
But none of that compared to the smell of the sea. His fingers curled-
Home. Home, home, HOME-
Within the next breath, he leaped mightily off the table, sailing through the hole in the ceiling and into the night. Exclamations followed in his wake, and the men clamored to give chase. Haku and Zabuza were already on his trail as he moved into the city.
One. Two. One. Two.
Inaré, out and about on one of her many secret nighttime training sessions (she had 'faked' sick in order to get out of her mother's horrid rituals) dripped in sweat as she ran through her self-taught drills. Sure, her mother wanted power, but she also wanted the power all to herself, so she gave Inaré only the bare minimum for training. But the girl wanted more. She always did.
Playing the role of weak housewife was not an act that Inaré was well-suited for.
Still, Inaré. That doesn't mean you have to be such a jerk to the poor guy. It's your mom, not him.
No, it's him too. He agreed to it. The asshole.
Remember what you heard the guards talking about? Maybe he didn't want this either.
As she pivoted to take a new stance, a being with urgent, almost panicked energy raced by her – as fast as the wind – and she barely thought she had seen Sasuke's face before he vanished. She paused in her motions.
Was it him?
"Homehomehome. It can't be it can't possibly be-"
Wordlessly, she turned and followed. Seems she had guessed right; the becoming-familiar energies of Haku and Zabuza were behind her, approaching quickly.
She followed him (just barely, the boy was moving!) towards the edge of the city, and just as she wondered where else was there for him to go, she realized he had paused at the spit of land that separated the village from the vast ocean, thigh-level in the water and staring out, motionless. His hair fluttered in the wind.
Quietly, she walked across the water towards him, almost apprehensive. Something had changed within him, right at his core. The way his shoulders sat on either side of his head, the way he stood square in the rolling waves, unmoved by their insistence – there was something different about him. An emptiness had settled upon him, but she didn't sense a desire to devour from it. Instead of anger, this nothingness brought with it a surprisingly calm peace.
Could it have worked?
Cautiously, she approached him, her feet pressing quietly against the sand of the tiny island, standing behind him. He made no movement to acknowledge he knew she was there. Maybe he didn't know?
No, that wasn't right; she knew that immediately. This new Sasuke… he knew. If asked to explain, she wouldn't be able to. But she knew he was aware of her, even if he didn't completely realize it.
"Here it is. Here it is, right here."
Still, she pressed forward just as a mighty wave crashed right in front of him, drenching him in water as he stood completely still.
"…Sasuke?" She ventured as Haku and Zabuza watched from behind her. A gathering of people slowly began to form at the edge of the village. As he turned to her, water soaking his hair, his clear blue eyes gazed at her just as a drop fell from them. Nervously, she swallowed as her heart leapt into her throat. "R-Ragna…rok?"
Is it really you?
It took a moment, but the internal working of those big empty eyes shifted, and they sharply came into focus as he actually acknowledged her presence. But she didn't feel threatened. She should've, especially with this strange new threat, but she didn't.
Almost immediately, those eyes softened as they gazed upon her before he turned his head back to face the expansive sea.
"It's almost as big as nothingness…" Inaré could've sworn she heard him say.
Silently, he reached down into the waves and plucked a small bulb from one of the seaweed plants that wrapped almost lovingly around his legs and turned to Inaré. Without beckoning her, she moved into the water to stand before him, the nervousness that she knew she should be feeling overpowered by the stillness in the air, though the wind howled.
Gazing at her for a long moment, he looked down at the ugly bulb in his hand before he looked back up at her, and effortlessly, before her eyes, the seaweed bulb bloomed into a gorgeous water lily within his palm.
"Please don't be afraid, young copy-cat," he breathed, handing her the flower. "I understand this world I've been reborn into. I understand why it had to be him, your betrothed." At that world she blushed fiercely, but he continued as they stared at each other with the ocean at his back, unafraid of the infinite cosmos. "I will protect him. And in doing so, he will protect you. There is no reason to fear anymore. I will be with him, always."
And with that, in the depths of his consciousness, Sasuke awoke on the shore of a warm, beautiful beach with the waves lapping at his legs and sun high in the sky.
I'm… alive?
End Flashback Thirty-Three: Convergence
So it is seriously hard to describe something coming into being. Challenging, most certainly. But this is one of those scenes that I will always hold close to my heart inside, though it may be difficult to put down on paper. This is a really beautiful moment. It really, really is.
I hope you guys enjoyed it! There's a chapter after this! Hopefully I'll crank out some more stuff soon.
Bye bye wonderfuls! Thank you for still paying attention!
DDB
