NARUTO: A CHRISTMAS CAROL
PT: Back again!
-Dodges flying fruit-
I know! I'm sorry! I'm really sorry that I haven't updated for five months now! I really am sorry! I don't have any excuses but I had writers' block! Thank you for all your reviews! I mean it!
One more thing you must note here: Asian graveyards are not the same as American and European ones. I'm Chinese, and if you speak stereotypically, I've obviously gone to China before. On one visit, I was visiting an ex-relative's grave in WuHan. The Chinese don't bury their dead; they burn the bodies in these hugs pot things in front of these giant steps with rows of tombstones on them. The pots are -- you know -- cauldrons. The tombstones are very smooth, and kin of the deceased would have it designed with statues on it sometimes; they also leave flowers and the tombstones I saw have those lei things with cloth flowers hung on the stone. There are also photos. Also, there are a couple of buildings in the cemetery; in one you can buy flower and this special money to burn as an offering to the dead, and there's those weird candles things. On that visit I used those candle things a lot. I don't know what you call them, but they're sticks, usually small thin ones, and you put this in some small blaze to light the end. They light, and you need to blow the flame out -- either that or they just immediately smoke; don't remember that well, it was three years ago. After you blow, there's a trial of smoke emitting from the candle thing. You stick that into pots and small stand things filled with dirt or something. In this case, the cauldron already has a small flame for you to light the candle with, and you just stick it to the bottom. It seems to happen only in certain times a day; again, don't remember the best. You can either burn the money in those, or, I only saw this for one isolated tombstone, in a small blaze in front of a stone. The other building is where there's this room. It has these things that are like bookshelves and the things in a bank vault. There are small compartments, locked, with plastic doors. The compartments are filled with things of each individual dead person's belongings, and photos of them. Kin of the dead get keys, open them, and can put flowers in those as well. That's how it was like at the cemetery I visited. I watched scene in Naruto once when Tsunade and Dan were visiting the cemetery. I sort of instantly saw that it was the same as a Chinese cemetery. (Well...Chinese and Japanese are kind of uncannily similar....) Note that for the part in this story, in case you get confused. With some more research, I think I was at the Hubei cemetery. The photos and name -- "Hubei" -- is fair evidence.
EDIT: On further research, I learned that the candle things are called incense sticks.
Time: This is before the Chuunin exams and after the Land of Waves mission.
Disclaimer: You have Kishimoto Masashi and Charles Dickens to thank for opening up their wonderful worlds to you.
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Christmas Eve-Konoha, 11:50 P.M.
"What the...?"
Sasuke spun around. CEMETERY? What the hell am I doing in a cemetery!
He turned around to see Kushina; she was gone.
"KUSHINA!" Rising panic rose in his chest. Why had Kushina left him here?!
--FLASHBACK--
Kushina was flying with Sasuke towards his home, when suddenly--
Kushina stopped in midair.
Sasuke immediately looked down, instinctively.
"Kushina?" he asked the kunoichi. He was puzzled, and a little scared.
Not only was he kilometers off the ground, supported only by a transparent ghost, but the ghost had stopped.
"Kushina?
"Oi!" he added when she didn't answer. Panic rose in his throat. Acrophobia crowded his mind. Upon noticing, he gave his nerves a mental thrust to avoid it, doing very little avail. "Uzumaki! OI!"
She plunged.
She dove downwards,to hit the ground painfully, dead within an instant. towards the earth, without warning and increasing speed.
"UUUUUUU--!" Sasuke's scream was cut off as he neared the earth, and he was sure that he was about to die. He squeezed his eyes shut, and tightened his grip on the ghostly woman's hand. He didn't mourn; he didn't cry. Instead, one thought clouded him, filled with confusion.
Kushina...why are you doing this? You're going to...kill me...?
That was the first thing that came to his mind, and he absolutely hated how sappy it sounded. He felt like some character from a childish manga; it made his skin tingle with heat.
Nevertheless, he did not have long to feel embarrassed.
He was soon three feet from the ground, and he snapped his eyes shut upon reflex. Horror didn't even have time to engulf him in its tide.
One would have expected to hit the solid, hard ground painfully -- and die before he'd notice. Then, he would be nothing, no longer Uchiha Sasuke -- but the remains of Uchiha Sasuke -- a bit of blood, bone, flesh and gore on the ground. he would no longer amaze his villagers and make his enemies tremble at his stealth and heritage. He would make people vomit, feel bile, at the site of his broken body, innards spilled.
So, the sickening feeling of breaking upon contact with the ground was to be expected.
The feeling never came. The grip on his hand slackened, and Sasuke felt movement freeze.
Sasuke kept his eyes shut, in case he was hallucinating and still had not yet hit the harsh solid. Perhaps he was already dead, and had deceased so quickly that there was no time for pain. He waited with an anxiety that he rarely felt.
One minute...
Two...
Perhaps he was already dead after all? No, Kushina's hand was still clutching his.
Then again, she was a ghost.
Three...
Sasuke's impatience kicked in, and something in him urged him forward.
Just a peek, Sasuke, a tiny voice crooned. A voice was in his mind...perhaps it was -- feminine? It took the Uchiha only a while more before familiarizing with the gentle, maternal tone.
Uchiha Mikoto. His mother. He heard her...heard her...and immediately reveled in the gentle love in the voice. He had not heard this motherly sound for what seemed like so long; and maybe it was that long. Long ago, when Sasuke was scared, and his mother convinced him that the object of his fright was not as bad as he viewed it. She had taught him bravery. And Sasuke remembered; happier times, once when he had a mother, a father, a clan. And a brother that loved him.
You'll be all right Sasuke. Come on now, open those eyes. Sasuke clenched his fists with the memories suddenly bursting in his head.
Okay...I'll try...Kaasan... Without further ado, the young genin opened his eyes.
He found himself staring down at a tombstone. Etched onto the gray surface was the epitaph, words still slightly fresh. Sasuke's trained eyes immediately deciphered the text; and his eyes widened in shock, a chill swept down his spine.
UZUMAKI NARUTO
The greatest ninja in history
Rokudaime Hokage
Died defending his village
And doing justice in the end
Died age 18
Rest In Peace
--BACK TO THE PRESENT--
"KUSHINAAAA!" Sasuke stared around in something that resembled panic. He could hardly believe it; she had left him. Left him in this graveyard to...to...
Sasuke gulped and shot the grave another glance, just to make sure -- that it was not some sort of illusion, a hallucination, a dream, a trick in his cornea's work.
The name at the top confirmed his fears.
"Uzumaki Naruto," the tombstone taunted at him, seeming to flash the name that was taboo in Sasuke's mind. "Uzumaki Naruto," the letters read. "Uzumaki Naruto, the greatest ninja in history.
"Rokudaime Hokage. Died defending his village. And doing justice in the end. Died age eighteen.
"Rest in peace," it said.
"Rest in peace," it confirmed to Sasuke. The text seemed to flash and ripple under the nighttime moon's light, as if it were standing out deliberately to hurt Sasuke; and it did hurt. Naruto -- he was gone. Gone.
Gone.
Tears formed in Sasuke's eyes as he tried to gather himself and heard the word in his mind. Gone. Naruto was gone. The words were poison to him. Gone...
"Naruto...," he whispered at the stone, as if speaking to the boy's spirit. "Naruto...what happened?" He crouched, a small form, in front of the grave. "What happened, dobe...." His hands were chilled and pale already; the night was cold; he let his hands crawl up to the stone, and clutched it. He tightened his grip around the stone, clinging; clinging for dear life. "You can't...," he suddenly whimpered, putting his face close to the stone. "Naruto...you can't be..." There was a lump in his throat; he couldn't bring himself to say the word. All that came out was the whimper of "Naruto." His name. Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto.
"Naruto," he sobbed; and it suddenly came to mind that there was nothing on the small little stone that declared his friend's death. There were plenty of flowers, but--
Sasuke jumped and gasped when he felt a finger tap him roughly on the shoulder. There was a gritty feel to it. He immediately spun around, and rage bubbled up quickly in his bosom as he remembered that he was being disturbed in a moment of mourning.
In the next moment, Sasuke forgot his anger as it was lost in fear; he froze, intimidated by the sudden figure that towered over him on a tower of -- sand--
The Uchiha trembled slightly before backing away slightly. "You..." His breath froze in his throat. Choking and spluttering slightly, Sasuke heaved, "Are...Are you..."
Tendrils of sand, twisting and undulating; cold, dead teal eyes; the ironic kanji character, "love," imprinted on the brow; the soulless face expression; the small figure upon the cloud of sand, sand, sand...
A frightening, imposing figure above Sasuke brought a lump to the Uchiha's throat. "Are you...," Sasuke managed, "ghost...Future...Chri -- Ghost of Chri -- stma -- s...Future?"
Silence.
Sasuke felt a chill run down his spine. Forcefully he tried again. "Are...you...the...ghost...of...Christmas Fu--" He stopped when the figure pointed.
Following the finger's direction, the young ninja saw the thing that horrified him the most. "Sakura..."
There she was, an older Sakura, a graver Sakura, mournful, sober, quiet, her hair down and eyes downcast. The green emeralds that were her eyes were dull, depressed and lifeless. She was approaching the grave, daisies in her left hand. Sasuke hastily stepped aside from her, forgetting that he was hardly there at all, and she walked to the tombstone, where she crouched and laid the flowers down.
Sasuke stared at her, her and her aging figure; she must have been twenty by this time. Had Naruto's death ravaged her to this? Was it so bad?
Sakura, he thought, grieving -- wishing he could reach out and touch her on the shoulder, comfort her, like the friend he was.
He turned his head away from Sakura, who was sobbing slightly now; the sight was too much to bear.
He felt the pain -- felt the clawed hands clinging to his heart, icily, hurting him. The Uchiha put his pale hand over it, where the ironically warm heat spread to his fingertips. These were his friends.
Then he felt a tendril shake him out of his reverie, a tendril of sand that wrapped around his sandal. Startled, he spun around -- to face the ominous figure's teal eyes. His eyes widened slightly, but he asked, "How did...Naruto...he..."
The eyes glowed; Sasuke shrank back, wanting to run away as fast as he could...
Then the figure spoke, and his voice was dead as his eyes and face. Sasuke found it like talking to Death itself. "You did...Uchiha Sasuke. You left the village for power, to go after Itachi, and later attacked the village. By then Naruto was Rokudaime Hokage; he tried to convince you to stop, did battle...and you killed him. He died surrounded by ninjas who captured you, but he told them to be easy on you...." The figure fell silent again.
And Sasuke died within himself; he staggered backwards, shocked and grieving. "No...," he gasped. He fell to his knees; it couldn't be so; Naruto, dead by his hand--
"No..." He brought his hands to his head. "No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No..."
For how long he stayed on the ground, sobbing in shcok, trying not to admit the deed that had not yet occurred, he would not know -- but after some time he lifted his head again, eyes ruby-red from crying.
It was only then that he noticed a flame crackling in one of the pots at the foot of the cemetery. Only one.
He shook his head. "What...Who's being burned today?" he murmured to himself, and shook his head again. He clutched the ground's soil, dry and gritty.
It was then when he heard the voice -- "Why, yours, Sasuke" -- and-- Too late. He realized that the Ghost of Christmas Future was still there, as soon as an arm of sand had given him a forceful shove; he realized when the shove pushed him off the steps; realized when he found himself nearing the flames of the pot...when he was far from the reach of Sakura and Naruto's gravestone--
"Wait!" he cried, instinctively, and reached upwards; he could already feel the hungry flames lick at his body, the fiery punishment for his misdoings; and everything. The pain in his chest, the grieving, the love, the hatred and friendship... "Wait!" he screamed again, and added, "Please! I've seen my ways! I'm sorry! I'll repent! Please, give me another chance! Please, please, please.... I'm begging you!"
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PT: Good? Bad? I apologize for not updating D: Shoot me. Yeah...Gaara... Next chapter is the last, thanks to my readers for sticking to this story, thank you so much...
!!HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!