CHAPTER 3

Darkness cascaded on all sides surrounding the ship and an eerie sort of calm settled upon the deck when Sasuke got there. He couldn't see afar off. No lights dotted the far horizon as if midway the sea were cut off by a dark, thick curtain.

The air felt stuffy in his lungs. This didn't last long as a gust of wind suddenly blew, the coldness of it whipping on his face. He rubbed at his arms, skin rising in gooseflesh. He was about to lean against the railing to see the movement of the ship across the water below, but then it moved and dispersed, caws filling the air. He took a step back, horrified. And the dark covering of the railings flocked and subsided once again—it wasn't colored black; they had been nasty dark-feathered birds!

"It's the calm before a storm."

Sasuke turned behind him to the voice he wasn't familiar with.

A man sat on the ground, backed up against the vessel's dark blue aluminum exterior. He lit a cigarette revealing a young face about Sasuke's age, eyes dark burdened by sleepless nights and red from crying, sun-bleached hair slicked-back and shopworn. He was well-built and wore a dress shirt and slacks like he had been to Naruto's party at the hall, and his vest and the loosened bow on his unbuttoned collar were telling he was a waiter—supposed to be—were he hadn't been slacking on the job and crying; Naruto's parties don't end early. They last till morning.

Sasuke doesn't often engage in small talk, but something about the man piqued his interest. He spoke with casual pleasantries and asked for a cigarette.

"Rough time on the job?"

Sasuke blew a puff of smoke. The essence of sweet-smelling incense rolled off the back of his tongue, spreading out minty thin into his nostrils, and yet gently dropping hints of vanilla down his throat lined with spicy chai. For a presumed waiter, he has a luxurious taste in cigarettes, which predictably led Sasuke to scrutinize the stranger's shoes given his finicky judgmental nature.

"You see a man crying and you'd assume it was from waiting tables?" The man laughed, but not from real amusement.

His distraught eyes gazed at the dark clouds already gathering above the ship, bringing thunder and lightning.

"There we go!" he cheered. "Look at the sight of that. Just perfect—perfect for a night as this!"

"What else would it be?" continued Sasuke, brushing off the stranger's odd behavior.

"Oh… A woman." Just the mention of it seemed to wither the man.

"Hn. Been there myself not too long ago."

Sasuke's confession earned the stranger's eager curiosity. The man hunched as if cooped up as he leaned in a little closer to inquire about Sasuke's secret.

"Really? How did it happen?"

"Met her in high school. Got into a relationship before moving to university. We had all these plans built up. Then suddenly, she decided she didn't want anything to do with it all."

The man had already downcast eyes, the kind of pair that seemed overbearing due to their largeness, the excess of white space below their irises seeming to keep them aimlessly afloat, ready to spill out their guts, unable to take hold of themselves; and these turned even grimmer when he softly spoke:

"She found another man better than you, didn't she?"

Sasuke paused. From an external viewpoint, he was cooly considering his next response, an effort to gather clearer insight. But he was far from it. He was enraged. He threw his cigarette on the deck and stomped it dead.

Even as raindrops started to fall to land on Sasuke's shoulder and the wind whooshed and strong waves slammed against the hull and the birds' cawing grew louder, neither man moved from their spots—one eager to hear another man's reaction, the other gritting his teeth from the lash of an unintended insult.

"Better?" Sasuke scoffed. "Not by any measure. She wouldn't have the necessary competence to tell prime grade apart from the canner. She wouldn't have known that, would she? To her, it's all the same; it's all meat. Because she's a snake—all women are."

It was unbelievable how a mere stranger's question made him all worked up, his heart pounding, his breath digging deep into his abdomen.

A wide, grotesque grin made its way into the other man's face.

"A snake?" he muttered with a sigh, reveling as though Sasuke had just spoken a most profound wisdom. "You are exactly right! Women are snakes. We've never met but I like you already, brother!" He patted Sasuke's shoulder amicably. "It isn't coincidence that there's an urban legend about it. About an extraordinary snake that scientists caught in the 70s on an island somewhere in this region. Called it Orochimaru from the Japanese folklore. Took it to an enclosure to study it. And you know what? To their surprise, it could turn into a woman so beautiful, they were so smitten by it they decided to take it out. Can you imagine? Letting a snake as long as a semi-truck live with you in your house? But that was what they did. They gave it human meals, a human room, a human bath, all that stuff… But that didn't stop it from eating all of them, did it?" He smiled, shaking his head ironically. "Well… this rain's only gonna get worse from here on out. I gotta get going, got work to do."

He heaved as he stood.

"Wait," said Sasuke, his tone dry. "You really don't wait tables, do you?"

The man turned around. "You're sharp, brother." He threw his dress coat hung over one arm to the other shoulder. "I'm happy to have met you tonight and talked to you heart to heart. What gave me away?"

"Doesn't take much. The shoes… Quite possibly bespoke from Amadao Bestoni. Too much for a waiter, but not for someone with a considerable estate to their name. Unless you stole them."

Sasuke's appraisal made the man genuinely smile. "I was hoping she'd notice, to be honest. Hoping she knew what it meant. But ultimately, it's nothing compared to what the owner of this yacht has. It's just as you said. To her, it's all meat. But I really loved her, you know. Cared for her more than my own life the moment she walked into my office as an intern. Now it's time for me to deliver justice. That's all what I'm here for. Snakes like her shouldn't be allowed to run rampant, don't you agree?"

The man soon began reaching around his collar, down his neck, and peeled his skin in the face, his silicone mask, revealing an entirely different man, dark of hair and sweaty in the face, but with the same eyes underneath.

"Here, I'll give this to you." He tossed the mask to Sasuke who in shock had at the moment deemed it wise to open his hands to receive it. "Souvenir"—he smiled—"I hope to see you again after this. In the afterlife, that is. Can't guarantee the boys wouldn't go overboard since I told them to do exactly just that."

"Care to elucidate what you…?"

Sasuke had merely thought the man strange, not merely as in unacquainted, but in the man's demeanor, and his off-kilter responses which struck him as odd in the head. But these all took a dangerous turn when the man removed a pistol from a bag that had been carelessly tossed to the side.

"The life jackets and the rafts, I've taken all of them up in here. Was about to throw them." The man pointed to a stack of bright orange emergency supplies near the railings with his gun. "The yacht tenders had been tampered with and the chopper's reserved for my goons. So save yourself and I do hope you make it to land."

"What a minute." Sasuke barely managed not to make his voice falter. Every limb in his body felt stiff from the cold and panic. "What's your name again? We should talk somewhere. Let's talk it over… without firearms."

"We already have," answered the man. "It's Morio... Morio Iwagakure. And the things you said have motivated me a lot. I was here crying like a wimp, faltering. And just like a miracle, you came and delivered sense."

"That's—That's wrong." Sasuke carefully took a step closer, testing boundaries, hand held out to signify his peaceful intentions. "Whatever you're planning is a bad idea."

"There's nothing you can do to stop me now, Sasuke Uchiha," said the man as he pointed the gun at Sasuke. "My mind's made up."

Sasuke stopped. "So you know me?" He glared, appalled at the discovery.

"Of course. Naturally. Who wouldn't? The first shot of this gun would've ended in your head."

"I wouldn't consider myself a saint,"—Sasuke gulped— "But what would the point of that be?"

"Nothing builds up a man more than a woman claiming he satisfied her like no other. Made me think I was the winner. She always did say being around you meant constantly walking on eggshells. And yet you get to stay around her, see her seek your approval in one way or another. So I'm glad to know we share similarities."

"What are you—"

"So long."

Morio quickly grabbed Sasuke's arm and whacked him in the nape.

Thanks to P-Crowds and bloodberrylicious! (_) What do you think will happen next? - DM

Amadao Bestoni is a parody of Amedeo Testoni.