Chapter 1: Make A Wish
.
.
.
Crawl away into the sky*
The thick greyness outside the always-wet-from-rain windows made it almost impossible to distinguish the time of day. The girl with long velvety black hair lay motionless on her bed gazing in the distance with an empty stare. The room was dim, illuminated only by one reading lamp on a dusty bedside cabinet. It was raining like every day, in fact, there was never any weather other than the rain, in this gloomy, depressing Amegakure. What day it was, how many have passed already… Izumi couldn't remember anymore.
Crawl away into the light
They all eventually merged into one big mundane mass. Wake up. Rain. Practice jutsus. Rain. Heavy sparring. Rain. Him, visiting me again at night… Rain. Her body was covered with bandages, everything hurt again. A sign of successful training… and countless areas she still needed to work on. She would always lose to Tobi and Itachi. This frustrated her at first, but over time she started to turn defeats into motivation. I'll show these bastards what I'm capable of, swear on my mother's grave, she'd think when wiping blood streaming down her chin.
It's been a 40 days and I've lived a 40 lives
Her wounds and bruises would heal quickly nevertheless. They always did, thanks to Chomei's chakra, which she's grown to take for granted. Each subsequent injury would hurt less and less, making her more resilient to pain.
But those damn hands… Izumi looked down at the bandaged upper limbs with a sigh. Tapping into the Moth's true power would always result in nasty burns, as the blackness of the sealing and Moth marks on her wrists would spread over her palms and up to her elbows. This would give her the immense strength of the demonic Claws, but using it was agonizing the longer Izumi fought in the Moth's form.
She tried to bend her fingers while a sharp pain shot through her suddenly making her hiss. The feeling is back, that's important, she thought.
Suddenly she heard someone opening the door. A short, red-haired boy entered the room, carrying in one hand a chocolate cake with seventeen candles.
And I will crawl away from all my darkest nights
"Happy birthday, little moth," said the boy, lighting the candles on the cake with a mysterious smile. The rain would beat rhythmically against the windows, humming in the background steadily while Izumi sat in silence watching her guest with anticipation. The greyness outside took a darker shade making her wonder if the evening was coming after all.
"Mhm," Izumi lifted her head and looked at the birthday cake suddenly caught off guard bringing her mind back to the room and her guest. She rose with an effort to lean on her pillow with a sigh. "So it's been two years already…" she shuddered slightly remembering her first meeting with Sasori of the Red Sand. She has completely forgotten about her birthday.
"Remember, it's funny how we were in almost the exact same situation back then," he said, smiling at the memories while putting the cake away on the nightstand. He looked at her bandaged arms and hands and took one of them in his hands. Izumi hissed again in pain and discomfort. Nevertheless, Sasori's touch has always been weirdly comforting and pleasant. She didn't want him to touch her, but once she felt him, she didn't want him to pull away.
"Right. Back then you couldn't resist turning me into one of your puppets," the dark-haired girl replied sarcastically "and you eventually made it a reality." Izumi gazed at something small standing in the shadows on the dresser at the other end of the room.
"Ah. Well…" Sasori sighed softly with an undisguised note of satisfaction "Make a wish" he pointed at the burning candles. Colourful wax was slowly melting down on the cake while Izumi stared at it, feeling tense.
"You're going to wish you wouldn't have said that" she whispered arrogantly before taking a deep breath and blowing all candles in one go. Sasori ignored her remark and began to cut the cake. The turquoise frosting stained his fingers. He dug into a piece of it with a silver fork and looked into Izumi's eyes in anticipation. Fingers still hurt her, so Sasori decided to do it for her while Izumi gave him space to make the move. He opened his mouth seductively and nodded slightly until the girl repeated his act, parting her lips. Watching the boy intensely, she stuck out her pink tongue and allowed him to feed her.
The sweetness of the cake melted pleasantly across her palate. At the corner of her eye, she noticed the frosting on the boy's slender fingers. Sasori put the empty fork down with the other hand while the first hand he stopped close to the girl's mouth, still not taking his dreamy eyes off her.
Izumi swallowed and licked her lips, then ran her tongue over his sticky fingers, slowly licking off the sweetness, still drilling her violet eyes into him seductively. Sasori sighed. He stared at her for a moment, doing nothing, then gently patted her on the cheek. He suddenly got up and exited the bedroom leaving her alone again.
A pocket-size ragdoll with black hair and dark eyes stared at Izumi from the far corner of the room. A tiny chain with sealing markings enveloped her neck in a strange fashion. Izumi turned her head back at the doll to stare again at the miniature version of herself, clenching her fists despite the pain. She couldn't touch or even get close to the doll. She knew very well it was that special jutsu created by the Red Sand Puppeteer himself to torment her. Sasori couldn't turn the young Nanusake into a doll, so he decided to make her his slave.
'How did I get here… I can't forget. I can't forget where I should get back to. Who I should go back to… otherwise I'll lose everything, I'll lose myself and there will be nothing left anymore.'
Huranaishi knelt resigned against a wet cave wall in a deep and dark tunnel resembling the old Abyss. Her mouth was gagged and her hands were chained with powerful chakra-binding chains. Blocking jutsu marks covered the band around her lower face. Her dark, deeply burned feet were dug into the black sand of the cave. Her arms and thighs were covered with numerous blisters and red blotches, but her face seemed untouched. The Moth sat motionless, staring intently into space. Her breath was steady and calm, but her eyes burned with hatred and fury. The eyes shone in the darkness, reflecting the light of nonexistent flames. She heard all the thoughts, struggles and dilemmas of her enslaved host. She couldn't help her, instead, she could only wait, wait for the girl to find the strength to break the shackles on her own. To get back to her and break the Otsutsuki seer from the prison that those who earnestly assured her of their love had inflicted on her.
Into Eternal Life…
.
.
.
*Palaye Royale - Eternal Life - Intro