Psychedelic II
I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited,
But I couldn't stay away; I couldn't fight it.
/
For the next following years, I view Team 7 apart.
It's hard to accept after two years seeing them weave together as the synchronised perfection that they were always able to become. It's even more difficult to accept that they're no longer their rainbow… only separate colours that for two, may brighten, but for one, diminish.
I really should have let them go after seeing them break apart, but for some reason, I was continuingly compelled to Team 7, even if now they were individuals with their own goals. I was endeared to watching Sakura strive towards her dream of bringing Sasuke to the light and watching her grow indescribably along with the development. She was no longer the little girl that needed protection anymore. She had become an independent and dare I say it, a woman at quite a young age.
Nonetheless, she was still white, and I suppose that's what mattered the most.
Kakashi had ceased being their sensei and even though he too remained his shade of green, I know that he had changed more than others would notice of Sasuke's defection. It brought him to an all new level of failure, and forever would it linger in the crevices of his heart and the locks in his mind.
Admittedly, part of the reason for not being Naruto and Sakura's sensei anymore was because he didn't want to turn up in the used-to-be Team 7 training grounds and realise, yes, it's really all true. Sasuke won't turn up.
Naruto, however, arguably took it better than the both of them. He had always been exceedingly perseverant and was able to concentrate on his determination to protect Konoha and of course, bring Sasuke back on behalf of not only him, but Sakura as well. Despite the fact that in the past he was always on the repetition of how most importantly, he wanted to be Hokage—that objective was now blown out of the water. It's funny how much things change with time.
To my unfortunate discovery, Sasuke had transformed the most. He had become the very embodiment of blazing red; intricate with the pleasures of supremacy and retribution. I had come to realise that Orochimaru's curse mark had not only left a scar on Sasuke's neck, but also a source of criminal venom that would pulse in his veins and eventually, seep into his blood.
Even after Orochimaru's death as perpetrated by Sasuke himself, it was too late. Far too late. Some people would say that killing Orochimaru just buried him deeper.
There's one strange thing I noticed as I travelled through with Sasuke the only way I could – through his bloodthirsty rampages. No matter how crazed or controlled Sasuke would be by the curse mark, not once would he kill a child. It was as if a switch was turned on the second his eyes casted upon a young one. He would just stop automatically and pass onto his next target.
If I knew any better, every child he left with their family dead would be of some sorts a redemption of what happened to him when he was young.
But we all knew that no matter how many times he did this, never would the trauma of the Uchiha massacre be erased. Never would the impact or repercussions of it be, either. I wondered if Konoha regretted the decision they made. The coup d'état. I was guaranteed that if I was in their place, I would. Especially with knowing the consequences that it created. The monster that it made Uchiha Sasuke.
The tragedy.
I am aware that previously I mentioned viewing Sasuke's abandonment of Sakura to be one of the most gut-wrenching experiences I had ever witnessed, but nothing would compare with the brokenness of the last two remaining Uchihas, and consequently, their final reunion.
Nothing would ever compare… or so I thought. I suppose I forgot in that moment that Sasuke was always doomed to a life of calamities.
However at the time, it really did seem that devastating. I had seen many things in my lifetime, of course, nonetheless this made me consider how large-scale massacres such as wars are just seen as numbers, statistics – but on the other hand, the death of simply oneperson could prove to be unremittingly haunting.
And undeniably, the death of Uchiha Itachi came rushing like a tsunami onto a beach that failed to be evacuated. The event was an unforeseen substantial blow to Sasuke and in due course, the beliefs that many Konoha citizens held about the city's history.
Well, nobody actually saw it coming. Apart from me. I just hoped that when the knowledge of the truth came, people would begin to understand Sasuke and most vitally, separate him from the clan name, because he was so much more than that.
This was beheld once Itachi's last breaths of air whispered away and I watched him slide against the wall degradingly, falling right beside Sasuke. The motion was such a bloodcurdling thing to watch because it seemed so unreal. It was hard to believe that someone as talented and powerful as Itachi was just… dying. Dying with only a ghost of a smile. Dying with nothing.
Sasuke couldn't give him anything. What could he say? Everything was crashing down, now.
He could only give him a replica of the motion – which unfortunately Itachi was already being too long carried by me to appreciate – by trembling down next to his loving older brother that he had always been and let the rain carry away his tears.
I told you that Sasuke wouldn't cry for a while coming, then again I supposed that this scarcity only made it more precious, more profound, more shattering.
Most of all, his tears reminded me how much he still had that crystalline blue within him.
/
Here comes in the second participant in the Uchiha massacre, Uchiha Madara.
I find it ironic how Sasuke was never the one to be under the hold of someone else—but there he was, being mentally controlled by the manipulative antics of Madara. He was being truthful when he said he shared the hatred towards Konoha that Sasuke now bred, but he was lying when he portrayed his willingness to renew the Uchiha name. Madara had long before been abandoned by the Uchiha clan, and the first thing he would want – after destroying Konoha of course – would be to rid of the entire Uchiha name. Sasuke was the only one standing in his way.
I had never seen pure evil like I had seen in Madara. Orochimaru and his minions had gotten close, but Madara strived with an all new low of malevolence. The effectiveness of his malicious intent was even more outstanding, and to think that someone would have such little conscience to be able to take advantage of someone as emotionally torn as Sasuke was indeed sickening.
I knew his plans as I did with anyone who wanted annihilation. He wanted to see Konoha crushed under his fingers and then finally, the totality of Uchiha in ruin. He would only need to kill Sasuke to achieve this cause, however it always seemed wrong for murder to be the catalyst of Sasuke's death. I always thought that he would survive to live a long, prosperous life. I always believed that when I finally came to standing above him, he would have aged beyond belief.
I never would have imagined that it was much closer than I had pictured.
It doesn't take long for Sasuke's anger against Konoha's choices to fuel into utter need of obliteration of the said city. It takes even less for the remainder of Team 7 to realise that this is a different Sasuke they're dealing with altogether—because he's not Sasuke. He's not Sasuke at all. The second the signs of the curse mark appear, they know they have lost any of his sense for the rest of the fight. Their 'reunions' used to enable some form of communication and little injury before Sasuke decided to leave again, but this time there was a much more cutting edge. This time Sasuke was prepared to have his currents of electricity churning in one of their necks. This time he believed any type of communication was worthless. This time, he was battling to succeed.
So you could say, their 'reunions' had become impending bloodsheds.
Perhaps that this would be the last. However, once it had been done, they would be wishing that it didn't have to be their last.
It's odd, at first, seeing Sasuke standing not with, but against, Sakura and Naruto. It's odd to see Sasuke allied with the strong evils of the world: Madara and the crafty Akatsuki member, Zetsu, rather than the goods of the world. It's odd to witness Naruto's own eyes shedding into ice. It's odd to accept that Sakura no longer has the opportunity to realise that Sasuke is still the Sasuke she loves because all of her time has been taken away from her.
It's odd because they will come to grasp that this really is the final time. There's no time to change, to make choices, or to lie in what-could-have been. You either kill or be killed.
And that's what is in all of their minds as they fling forward towards each other, not sparing a single second. Though I am the opposite of someone who would feel alive, never in my life have I been more thriving in so many people at once.
You could say how would that be possible given World War I and World War II? Well, that's because most of the armies that participated were made to be mindless machines. Every contestant here, however, has their reasons. They know what they're doing here, and what they are trying to achieve, but also what they will lose.
Naruto and Sakura both know that a possible outcome of this is Sasuke's death, no matter how unfitting it may be to comprehend.
Sasuke is given the task to target Naruto while Madara handles Sakura and Zetsu patrols rather aimlessly, watching for any incoming disturbances. The dual personality knows that sometime he will be required, though, when a person does indeed intervene.
I float through the thoughts and intentions of all of the members as they are striving with my essence within them. Sasuke's mind is completely and utterly empty, apart from the goal of demolishing Konoha. He can't even understand that what he truly wants to destroy are the elders – and Naruto and Sakura have nothing much to do with it. On the other hand, Naruto is shuddering at the potent blunt force attacks that Sasuke conducts, but not once can he get out of his mind this boy was his best friend.
Madara, as usual, is snickering at this 'pathetic excuse of a ninja' that he assumes Sakura is. Due to his sheer arrogance and automatic underestimating of most of his opponents, it is Sakura who comes to have the last laugh when she shows him exactly how strong she's grown – shattering the ground with one fist and coming from above, smearing his face into blood with the other.
I would say that Madara should not have been blinded with complacency given the loss of his previous but now deceased allegiances of Pein and Konan, and even more so because of the latter whom ridded of one of his arms. He starts to see the pure determination in Sakura's eyes and he wonders where on Earth did she get the mentality to be so fearless against him…
What he doesn't know is the reason is right next to him.
Soon, Madara gets sick of her repetitive antics of physical attack and being one to quickly finish a fight, he calls on the person who simply could. Of course, Sasuke. Springing away from another one of Sakura's surging fists, he falls back and screeches to him with adulterated animosity all too clear in his voice: "kill this brat, Sasuke!"
At the command, Sasuke is already far too buried into darkness to swallow the intensity and consequences of such a demand. He merely swerves his head to the target which is now Sakura, and heaves towards her. The sudden fear in Sakura's eyes is adamant as he rushes towards her with spinning lightning in the back of his hand, one that she should have seen much less than she did.
Naruto yells to Sasuke in absolute anger although he knows that nothing he can say would stop the compounding of Sasuke's speed once he got a hold of it.
In a last attempt to protect herself, Sakura channels all of the chakra that she has in her entire body to her hands, creating a chakra shield of some sorts as she holds it in front of her. She waits for the inexplicable force and when it comes, she knows that she can compare it to the pain she felt when Sasuke first defected from Konoha.
The chidori drills into the chakra wall in front of her, and she feels the protection ceasing. Though it prevents the impact from immobilising her vital organs, the suffering remains unchanged. She can feel the electricity churning into her veins and despite the fact that it won't reach her mind or heart quite yet, she can feel the tears cascading slowly down her cheeks.
She looks up at Sasuke through all of the blinding cobalt light and for just a moment, he isn't doing this. He isn't killing her even when he is.
Naruto and surprisingly Madara are too shocked to intervene as they watch the compelling forces of chakra and electricity combine with each other, one trying to overcome the other. It was akin to the meeting of the rasengan and the chidori, but Naruto knows that Sakura's chakra is made with so much of her heart, so much of her dreams. So much of her love for Sasuke and to make him remember who he really is.
The heat of the chidori inches closer and closer to her eyes and soon it becomes too unbearable to watch. She closes her eyes and drifts into her own sense of reverie, even though it is actually a deadly unconsciousness. My own stomach clenches as I witness this, because her white is burning away. She is being conquered by… dare I say it?
…The black of Sasuke.
She takes her last breaths and wobbles once before crashing down into the ground. Her hands are almost numbing from the concentration of chakra, and they fall limply at her sides. Almost mockingly, the sunlight behind her illuminates her glowing pink hair as her head hits the rough earth.
Sasuke's own relinquishing of power shudders through his body and he too collapses onto the ground, landing on his knees. The curse mark recedes and his crimson eyes dull to an onyx.
It is then that he realises what he had done.
By then, Naruto is already running towards Sakura, a rasengan in hand. Naruto knows that after seeing that, he really can kill his best friend. He screams at how Sasuke could ever fall low to do this to Sakura, goddammit Sakura, but the anguish is unheard to Sasuke's ears.
All he can see is the blood that trickles down Sakura's head and how I swarm in her still open eyes. He's staring at me again. But I'm not laughing like a ghoul, this time.
Sasuke doesn't even attempt to evade the incoming rasengan, but Naruto has a deep intake of breath once it engraves into Sasuke's back, sending him landing on top of Sakura. The fury diminishes immediately at the sight of a vitally wounded Sasuke.
He's still your best friend, Naruto.
But Naruto is expecting too less of Sasuke, and despite the strength of the rasengan, the fact that he is still alive after it being propelled into his back already provides enough evidence that Sasuke is nowhere near dead yet. Unbeknownst to him, Madara had already fled the scene and he could be killed any time now.
However, Naruto just watches. He cannot understand why Sasuke hasn't gotten up yet or why he didn't just avoid the rasengan in the first place because he should've. Guilt clouds into Naruto's chest as he sees Sasuke's achingly sluggish breathing and even more so when he wraps his arms around Sakura.
A certain radiance surrounds Sasuke, and it is a glow that Naruto had never seen before. He supposed he could compare it with his own demon fox bloodline, but this luminosity was so bright, so divine. It was like seeing sunlight emerge from the clouds after a tremendous thunderstorm. It was like revival.
Naruto knew what Sasuke, his best friend, was doing now. He was being Sasuke. Not Uchiha Sasuke. He was being the boy he used to be, and possibly always will be, when he was in Team 7. When he was saving Sakura… corresponding to what he is doing now.
Naruto finds even himself crying at this moment. I don't blame him. You had to be heartless to not be touched by this reconciliation. Sasuke, he felt like saying, Sasuke, Sasuke, you don't have to do this. It's okay. Tsunade will save her. You don't have to do this. Please, Sasuke. You're going to kill yourself.
But no matter how many times he thought it, he could never get it out of his mouth, because perhaps this was the best way that Sasuke could die. The transfer of Sasuke's chakra to Sakura's body would indeed come close to killing him, and although the chances weren't certain, he would be immensely weakened at the least. He was even risking the loss of his abilities and physical mobility as the body was not suited to performing this action, especially given Sasuke's current state.
And once both of them see Sakura's sluggish but sufficient breathing, Sasuke inhales one last time before disintegrating next to her.
/
When Sasuke wakes up, he knows already that he has been kept in Konoha.
He can smell the familiar spring scent of the city and as the scenery of the cherry blossom trees and multiple houses come into view in front of him, along with the seeping sunlight, he identifies easily that he is at the Hokage tower.
Seemingly chained to a chair too, but nonetheless, at the Hokage tower and alive.
Tsunade swivels around in her chair at the awakening of Sasuke. Her expression is ghastly as her honey eyes are more serious than I have ever seen – even when I was within Orochimaru as he battled against her. She does not attempt to hide her frown of disgust as she looks upon Sasuke who is barely hanging onto life, suffering from an immense headache, eroding eyes and wounds in every place on his body imaginable.
"She's alive," Tsunade almost spat at him in loathing out of nowhere, "but no thanks to you." Had Sasuke not been lingering on the line between consciousness and unconsciousness, he would have refuted this comment.
Tsunade sighs at the scarcity of emotion from Sasuke. She stands up from the chair and walks up to Sasuke, glaring at him, as if sick at the sight of him. "I don't know what to do with you, Uchiha." How she says it even makes me feel the bitterness in her voice and how crystal clear it is that she doesn't want to deal with him… more or so get rid of him. And that can only mean one thing.
"I accept that you have eliminated many of the adversaries that we as Konoha citizens have faced in the past and additionally, as you are being held in Konoha, Madara has no means of trying to infiltrate us for the time being," she sighs wearily and the monotony of her voice convinces me that reasoning is nowhere close to saving Sasuke, "but you have changed from what my previous knowledge of you had been."
Her tone seems to soften just a portion, her mind filling with the reminder of one person. "And I can assure you I am not purposely trying to be personal and bias with this outcome, however given the amount of times you have not only attempted to kill Naruto and my apprentice as well as other members of Konoha, I am left with no choice but to consider the worst."
She takes a while to say the rest of her decision. I wonder why it does take her quite a long time. Is she regretting it as much as I am beginning to?
"…The worst being that you will never change back and ultimately end up reverting to your previous plans of aggression towards Konoha and its elders." She walks closer towards him as if hoping that a shorter distance between them will communicate the message to him more evidently. She appears as if she believes that if she says it more quietly, perhaps the verdict might not sound as insane or unlawful as it does.
She's almost whispering now. "I am left with no choice but to execute you, Sasuke." It's hard not to notice how she doesn't call him by 'Uchiha.'
He does nothing but nod. Her once glare disperses, long forgotten, and she watches him in what I would call hidden sadness as the Konoha ANBU come to retrieve him and take him away from the Hokage tower, no doubt to decide how his last days would be spent.
Once the door shuts behind the ANBU, her Hokage façade dispenses of itself and she retreats into her seat, bringing sake to her lips and then burying her head into her hands.
I'm sorry, Naruto… Sakura.
/
Meanwhile, Haruno Sakura is found to be picking up some necessities for the day.
Having just recovered from the collision with Sasuke and being notified of his capture, she would have never expected that just five minutes ago, he was being told of his execution. Hell, who would?
However, news in Konoha has always spread quickly. And it doesn't take long for an obnoxious ANBU to start the chain explosions of the conversation that will be shared by all of the city's population.
Just as Sakura is fetching some milk from the freezer in a supermarket, two younger girls in their teenage years rush past, murmuring words that Sakura has never been too unaware to notice: "did you hear? Uchiha Sasuke is being executed! An Uchiha!"
Needless to say, the milk splatters to the ground, spilling like blood as the glass bottle shatters into all directions: correlating with the very mood of Sakura. She doesn't even bother to continue her shopping. She just leaves her plastic bags filled with items on the ground and runs faster than she ever has to Naruto's house.
/
"Sakura-chan, this better be good! I was preparing to go out with Hinata-chan to some ramen tonight!"
The vibrating voice of Uzumaki Naruto thunders through the hall to the Hokage tower as Sakura drags him along. I can't tell if this motion is reluctant or not because the closer she gets to the tower, the more she looks like she wants to back out and run back home. I don't think she quite wants the gossip around Konoha to be confirmed.
Nonetheless, Sakura easily breaks through the door of the Hokage tower and the abrupt sternness of Sakura quickly silences Naruto. He dismantles himself from Sakura's strangling hold and walks next to Sakura, standing next to her, suddenly as grave as she is. They wait for Tsunade to once again turn around in her chair because they know she'll need all the time she can get to explain this.
"Naruto, Saku—"
"How could you do this?" Sakura crushes through immediately, the shock, denial and disappointment a storm in her voice. Her tone is accusative and for once in her life, she is going against her only mentor.
Tsunade takes this less than well. "What do you mean, how could I do this?" Tsunade laughs humourlessly. "Do I dare need to remind you that he tried to kill you, Sakura?"
Sakura strides forward and throws her hands onto the desk, though Tsunade is unaffected by the violence of the action. "It's Sasuke! You know how much he means to us! You should've found another way."
Tsunade doesn't even bat an eye. "Perhaps he means too much."
At that, Naruto steps forward himself. "No means of disrespect, Tsunade," Naruto says firmly, the sincerity of his voice and the loss of the infamous 'baa-chan' causes the Hokage to raise her eyebrow, "but as a prime medic yourself, you would be aware that it would have been impossible for Sakura to have arrived here alivegiven the strength of Sasuke's chidori if somebody hadn't tried to save her." The truth of his words are a chilling earthquake amongst the silence of the room, and apart from Naruto's clenching of his shaking hands, nobody moves.
Tsunade and Sakura are both unaware of this news.
Sakura's wide eyes turn towards Naruto and she finds herself hoping that it was the Uzumaki who saved her life… because that would be so much simpler.
The Hokage's voice is a murmur of disbelief. "Did you save her, Naruto?"
Naruto chuckles. "You know I didn't, Tsunade baa-chan." Then who did? Tsunade and Sakura both thought simultaneously, even if they well knew the answer. Tsunade just didn't want to admit she made one of the most prevalent mistakes in her life and Sakura didn't need any more complications in her relation to Sasuke.
"We all know that Sasuke did it," Naruto stated the obvious, sounding amused but at the same time defeated. "After all, who else gets to save Sakura-chan, ne? I couldn't imagine anyone else but Sasuke putting his life on the line for her. Even now, Tsunade baa-chan. Even now." He choked within his laughter. He didn't fool anybody. He especially didn't fool me. I felt the very failure and the loss that was now swallowing him up.
And I knew that I could be empathetic as I shared the exact same emotion when every time I saw a human's eyes close, and because of me…
But there was nothing else to be said. Tsunade had made the decision and only in her hands could she change it. If she ever would, it would be on her own terms. So, Naruto unsteadily took Sakura's hand and walked her out of the Hokage tower. They understood this time how hard it was to not only go, but to also leave from the tower at a time like this.
Because it exactly felt like holding on, and then having to let go. Letting go of someone like Uchiha Sasuke was never going to be easy, either. He was a special boy, that one… I could spend years and years convincing myself that I was stronger than this, but he was going to effortlessly become the first human that would ever break my many thousand beating hearts.
For him, they would all soon stop, even if it was just for a few seconds.
/
Well, I suppose that this would be the right time to cheer you all up with a positive revelation, because this story has long been going downhill.
A few hours after Tsunade's discussion with Naruto and Sakura, she grew to become compelled to visit the solitary confinement jail cell that Sasuke was being held in. She felt obligated to give something back to him… someone who she had stated to be a threat to Konoha, a demon, incurable.
It was ironic, really. But if I had to choose anyone, I would know that Sasuke would be the person to shed some light in the darkest of days.
Usually the Hokage would never go to a location such as a prison because it would be seen as too 'unsafe' for someone as high status as they were, but Tsunade insisted. The ANBU had gazed upon her questioningly, wondering why anyone would want to see Uchiha Sasuke, though I believed that the real question is why everyone wasn't.
Even through the gloomy crevices of the solitary confinement that Sasuke was held in, Tsunade knew he was in there from the midnight glimmering of his hair that was highlighted by the moonlight through the miniscule window. His eyes were pitch black, like a predator in the night, as they watched her walk into the cell.
"Hokage," he muttered, not at all in distain or scornfulness, but in relenting. He was caged in the cell like a diseased animal, held against the wall with locked chains around his arms and legs. She almost cringed at the ring around his neck.
She walked forward and with an enhanced chakra technique (as was required), the chains sizzled and broke with the potential energy. Even with this action that spoke for itself, Sasuke said nothing.
Tsunade stepped back. "I haven't changed my mind, Uchiha," she reprimanded, though it was hard not to fall into a soothing voice, "but you are allowed to wander around in Konoha on your own premises. However, there will be a chakra mark indented on your neck for monitoring purposes. If you try to escape, you will be shocked unconscious, like a Taser." To be honest, she didn't even know herself why she said this, because she knew he wouldn't attempt to escape. He appeared to be far too beaten down to even try to run.
Nonetheless, Sasuke gave no reaction to her threat. He just continued to stare at her, as if impatient for her not getting to the point.
Tsunade gave a weary sigh and unlocked the metal door of the solitary confinement cell. Opening and standing beside it, she waited for him to stand up and leave. It took him a while. His motion of standing up was weak and trampled, and his walking steps were even worse. He slowly trudged towards her and the speed made him look like he was carrying a tonne of weight on his back. This time, she closed her eyes before she announced the next thing.
"Sasuke, you have two days," she almost inaudibly said, continuing to not look at him, because she didn't want to see the expression on his face. However, she couldn't ignore the ceasing of steps next to her. If you had to ask me, for a Hokage, she was rather indecisive.
Had she been looking, she would have seen the forlornness whirling in Sasuke's withering eyes. "Hn," he mumbled. "I expected less."
And as she finally opened her eyes to watch him leave, resembling a man on death row like he was, she could only think one thing.
You should expect a hundred years.
I, for one, believed he deserved eternity.
/
Don't forget me, I beg
I remember you said that sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead.
Don't hate me for to-be executing Sasuke. I haven't yet decided if I really am yet or not, though.
Thank you for all the story alerts.