I'm finally back! Sorry for the wait, but RL prevails over ff, sorry guys. School is starting soon, so you might have two weeks to wait instead of a few days. Just stay with me!
Midnight Phase: Thanks. I didn't know I could do creepy! Hopefully this chapter lives up to your standards. *cookie*
DarkTorrent: Probably. If I had to compare him, he'd probably closest to Pein (nagato), and weird mix of Itachi, Zetsu, and Deidara. I can't really explain w/o giving to much away. Have I seen you before? I think there was a DarkTorrent on NF. *cookie*
SaphireWhiteWolf:Thanks for the ice, it helped! Yeah, he is. I've got more angst/trauma for him in store this chapter. *cheesecake*
Rizember: Hey! That was my cookie! Grr. hehe sounds like you might be an Ed fan. I like shorties. Yep, it was all inspired from FMA *cookie.*
--- Chapter 11: Inner insanity, dogs, and Zetsu-ite's clash.
Black. Black..more black. Solid darkness was all that he could perceive around him..The blond found it oppressing, as if it was pressing down on him; surrounding him; trapping him.
With a sudden gasp of panic, he remembered to breath.
Slowly, he forgot what the sun looked like, the taste of fresh air. Soon, he began to think all of it was just a really good dream, and that he had really been in this abyss. This was reality, not that other happy, free world.
Even his name slipped away, fed into the madness.
Just when calm peace settled in as he remembered his place in this gentle restful world, it was ripped away harshly.
A..man was standing there, blending in with his surroundings completely; only his crimson eyes, which scared him terribly so, in some deep part of him, and the red clouds were visible.
Without warning, Blood murmured words he couldn't make sense of, and pointed, and he was thrust out from his world.
---
Naruto was gasping as he awoke on the forest floor.
Stop..spinning. His head was pounding, and everything wouldn't stop whirling. His heart pounded loudly, blocking out everything.
Out here..everything was too intense.
The harsh sound of his breathing made his ears ring, the touch of the dry grass, painful. The light hurt his eyes, and he shut them quickly. Despite that, he could still feel the light burning through.
In his nightmare, everything had been so numbing; a phrase he'd overheard once while spying in the air ducts, "sensory deprivation" seemed to apply. Chillingly, the blond realized how serious those words were and what they meant for the Kumo-nin. When he was seven, nothing but "big words" applied to that phrase.
Now..
Naruto shuddered at the implications.
Groaning..again, man, he did a lot of that lately, the blond opened his eyes, and pushed himself up.
And spat out the dirt.
Yeah, he face-planted after the creepy-ass nightmare.
And ate dirt.
"Yuck."
Less dizzy, but not in a good mood, he got up and stretched on shaky legs. Naruto cracked his neck, and flexed his arms, feeling his back groan in protest. "Whew." The blond shook out his arms.
Now what?
"What could you do? What should you do? What would you do?"
Because he couldn't go without his weird-ass dog sighting of the day.
The blond barked, a harsh laugh escaping him. "You came back? After that?" Those sick images..forever ingrained in his mind.
Fuuten shrugged. "I told you dark evil shit was in that house."
The dog..actually had a point, but he was gonna ignore that because he already felt degraded and traumatized enough.
"Back to following me again?" The blond was still sitting down, not ready to get going yet. He still had so much to absorb, the genin had been going from rush to rush and shock to shock like a junkie. Time to sit back and contemplate. Naruto had no clue whether or not he wanted to lay down and chill, or pace back and forth. And unmentioned tension seemed to be following him, surrounding him like a cloak. A cloak on a hundred degree day. Stifling and unwanted.
The hyakyou-inu seemed unphased at his scorning sarcastic tone; it was cleary of the 'leave me the fuck alone you damn pest' variety. "I'm bored. You are nothing but a paradox."
He thought the dog was going to leave.
"But maybe that's just another term for hypocrite."
Naruto sprung up to lash out and kill that fucking piece of trash, but the dog just disappeared as always. "All these stupid riddles and cryptic words! Are you just here to taunt me?!"
Nothing but silence answered him.
The twelve year old gave a muted-roar that was like a sigh but angry. "Damn dog!" He collapsed in a fit of anger, shame, and frustration. "What the hell does he think he's talking about? Who does he think he's talking to?" Indignation turned his rage-shout into a squawk.
"Are we going to return to Konoha? Back to those ingrates?" It added with a sneer, the unsaid 'weaklings' echoed in his head.
"Where else could we go?"
Naruto couldn't picture anywhere else, despite his recent reluctance to return. Konoha was where he lived, grew up. The place where he vandalized shops, various stores, and most famously the Hokage Monument. Climbing the cliffs was half the fun..then outrunning and outwitting those chuunin? It was awesome. The blond was an adrenaline junkie plain and simple.
"Forgotten how they wished you were dead? How they belittled you?"
He flinched. "But I told you already, I've got my team Sasuke, Sa-"
"Your crush, who wants to crush you?"
"No, no!" Naruto winced a bit, "Sakura-chan just is a bit fiery sometimes. She likes to be rough with me."
Even that sounded a bit stale and overused to him. Her punches were hard, and they hurt.
"You are a doormat, Naruto."
More denial roiled in him instantly at the accusation. Blustering was what he gave in response. "What? I'm a man! I've got a spine! I'm not a wuss."
"Why let her beat you? She is weak."
"But I like her." He protested weakly.
"Does she like you?"
".!."
"She hits you, thinks your annoying."
"I..I"
"She will never deserve you."
That was when he crumpled.
But he was the new not-Naruto, not the old weak original. So he cast those feelings of hurt aside as fast as he was able.
"We should still go. I have nowhere else."
And it gave no protest.
Naruto pushed himself up, and just began to run. He didn't really care when he returned, the only important thing was that he would be going back to the trees. No more of this constantly open land.
The blond's thoughts were allowed to roam freely, and he thought of many things. The way he was scared stiff when he was on Itachi's back, held on by the damn bracelet, having no choice but to cower when the dragon came. Laughing as he ate ramen. The night in the swamp when he could just relax, and be. Watching the pretty lights dance together.
His thoughts eventually went back to her, and what he thought he'd seen in her room.
"Don't worry. Itachi is nowhere near."
Naruto relaxed, automatically unwinding, fully putting his faith in the voice.
---
It must have been hours later, there wasn't much light to see by, but it wasn't night. No moon and stars. Morning then. His thoughts were hazy, but all that mattered was that he could keep going, keep running.
But the blond heard a rustling and that ruined his mantra.
Naruto skidded to a stop; completely halting.
Tall, hulking, intimidating. Brown fur, sharp claws, gleaming white teeth.
It was a bear, and it was on it's hind legs.
Challenge. He instinctively knew what it was. The animal let out a roar, and he found that very offending. It dare challenge him?
He was the best hunter.
He would kill, he would win, he would dominate.
Naruto lunged.
They were hungry.
---
Kyuubi gave the closest thing to a grin a demon could produce and leered down at the figure in front of it's blasted prison in amusement.
Naruto stared back with pained eyes. Cuts and minor flesh wounds covered him, a few still leaking blood. Others, older, had blood that had partially congealed oozing from them.
Eyes widened, and Naruto clutched his chest, near his heart, as a hole was torn through it, straight through by an invisible phantom. A fountain of blood gushed forth, and the blond staggered, growing pale.
A laugh of pure sadistic glee erupted from the demon.
---
Revulsion tore through him with ugly burning claws.
How..how?!
Monster.
He'd eaten human flesh.
"Dammit!" He cried, and punched a tree, hard.
Hard.
The blond slid down, hitting the ground, breaking.
No dog, offering a confusing or insulting comment.
No confident, snide little voice.
Uzumaki Naruto was alone.
He no longer knew how to cry. This passed lines that no one knew about, because no one had been pushed this far. Instead, he curled into a pathetic ball, and let dry sobs rack his body.
---
Deidara smiled. Cries from the torture chambers meant Sasori-danna or any of the others were happy, and by extension Leader-sama was happy. This meant fun missions, and the Akatsuki's version of fish camp, and soon.
---
Broken..broken. Broken Broken Broken.
How could Naruto return to Konoha like this?
For a moment, scared, he couldn't recall clear images of anyone. Sakura-chan, Sasuke-teme, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei, even jii-chan. They were all fuzzy and insubstantial.
But not-Naruto didn't need them, he had The Voice, and Fuuten, the dog. The very insane dog.
His surroundings were impossible to make out, swirls of color, holding a disturbingly dream-like quality.
Floating? Was he floating, slowly spinning head over heels.
The blond was disoriented, scared, but right now he didn't care.
Because blood wasn't splattered on his face, his claws running across pathetic frail flesh, tearing through the predator that dare challenge like it wasn't their prey. Because his fangs, their sharp teeth weren't biting into flesh so smooth it was like what he was meant to do. Because he wasn't throwing back his head in a primal howl, satisfied, the craving, the urge had been placated for now. Because he wasn't swallowing and enjoying the way it slid down his throat.
Because that hadn't been a bear.
---
Words: 1,831
^Not counting my notes.
Heh, this was just dragging! I mentioned it in a couple of pm's, today. But then I finally just got it. I had the main scenes down, just had trouble putting them together.
After this I'm putting a new story up (Switch), and I also have a one-shot out. I can't believe I didn't mention it last time (testament to how tired I was), but I'm having a review war w/ Endless Raindrops (her story is 22 chapters so far, 112 reviews) so every comment counts! Naruto must prevail over twilight! I have no problem w/ old readers going back and reviewing chapters they haven't yet. :) hehe. Or anonymous reviews. But please say "I liked this" or "that needs some work" and not just update. But if that's all you have to say, that's fine too!
8/7/09
