Augh, getitoutgetitoutgetitout. S'not finished, and it derailed itself in the middle, but it won't leave me alone and I need to procrastinate, so! Have some fic-like stuff. (This title, like the last drabble title, came straight off my playlist.)
Human After All
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Sasuke knew Konoha would send a retrieval party after him once word of Itachi's death reached Fire Country, so it came as no surprise to him when he suddenly found himself surrounded by four squads of ANBU on the road travelling west from Wave Country.
He was a little surprised to see so many ANBU but hesupposed that with the deaths of two S ranked criminals to his name, he rated more serious firepower than a couple of genin this time around. Sasuke smirked. It was about time someone acknowledged how powerful he was.
The smirk fell off his face in an instant when Naruto stepped out of the trees, burning with demon fire and baring teeth sharp enough to put a wolf to shame; Sasuke realized, as Naruto broke his jaw with a glancing blow, that he wasn't the one who rated four squads of ANBU.
--
The first thing he noticed when he regained consciousness was that his injuries had been tended to and his chakra had been sealed almost completely. He was also blindfolded, wearing a full body straightjacket, and chained to a wall. The air smelled like disinfectant; he was in a hospital of some sort.
"Are you awake now, Sasuke-kun?" a quiet voice came from his left.
"Sakura?" He turned his head in her direction. It had been years since he'd heard his teammate's voice, but that particular inflection on his name was hard to mistake. "What happened? Where am I?"
"Keep your voice down, Sasuke-kun; Naruto's in the next cell over, and we only just got him to sleep. You're in the second basement of the hospital. I'll go let Tsunade-shishou know you're awake."
It wasn't until her footsteps had died away completely that he remembered what the second basement was for; it was something Iruka-sensei had mentioned in passing at the Academy, but Sasuke had never had any cause to recall it before.
The first basement of the hospital housed the morgue and the medical storage rooms; the second basement was reserved for the criminally insane.
--
Tsunade removed his blindfold, but left him bound and chained to the wall. Shizune and Sakura stood outside his cell, observing.
"Orochimaru is dead?"
"Yes."
"And Itachi?"
"Dead."
"Their bodies?"
"Disposed of."
She narrowed her eyes at him; he glared right back. "We searched through your posessions."
He didn't respond, but he could feel the blood drain from his face.
"If you disposed of your brother's body, why were you travelling with his eyes in your backpack?" She held up a small jar; Itachi's eyes, still glaring sharingan-red, floated peacefully in yellowish liquid.
He could have told her that his reasons were perfectly legitimate- that the Uchiha, much like the Hyuuga, had an obligation to their bloodline. Sharingan eyes belonged to the clan, not the individual; Sasuke was all that was left of the clan, so Itachi's eyes belonged to him. The only place to properly dispose of them would be in the hidden basement of the Nakano Temple.
Or he could have told her the truth- that he hadn't had a restful night's sleep since his family was murdered, but once he started sleeping with that little jar under his pillow, he slept like the dead every night.
Instead, he gave her his best haughty glare, and said nothing.
Tsunade smiled a hard, brittle smile, and tucked the jar into her pocket. "Have it your way, Sasuke." The door to his cell slammed shut behind her.
Sakura gave him an unreadable look before following after the Hokage. Sasuke almost wanted to call her back and apologize, but he didn't know why.
-
"Hey, bastard."
"..." Naruto's voice pulled him out of a doze; the wall between them did very little to hinder conversation. He wasn't in the mood to listen to his inmate's chatter, though.
"Come on, I know you're awake. I can hear you- man, even your breathing sounds stuck up."
"What do you want, moron?"
"Hey! This moron kicked your ass, asshole!"
Sasuke tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling. He supposed this was some cruel joke of karma; trapped in a white room with nothing to occupy him but the sound of Naruto's voice. "Yeah, and look where that got both of us."
"Look where it got you, you mean- I was gonna end up down here anyway. Tsunade-baba thinks fighting you set off the stupid fox, but it would've happened on its own. If you hadn't been so easy to track down, I wouldn't have found you before those ANBU had to take me down. Sucks to be you, asshole!"
Sasuke remembered that terrifying chakra and those teeth, and thought privately that the ANBU had waited a little too long. "When I get out of here, I'm going to kill you for this."
"Yeah, right. Like you could." Naruto's laughter set Sasuke's teeth on edge and raised the hairs on the back of his neck. "Like anyone could."
He didn't stop laughing until the guards came with a medic nin to sedate him at feeding time; the sound of it kept echoing in Sasuke's skull long after they silenced him.
-
Sasuke counted hours by listening for the changing of the guard and counting heartbeats in between feeding periods; he measured days by the madness of the nine tailed fox.
(more stuff goes here)
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Gawd, I'm a crappy angst whore. (Next thing I post will be pointless NaruGaara fluff, in honor of the latest manga chapters, I swear.) It's probably not entirely clear what happened from this bit, and it's far from finished- but I'm totally not with the coherent right now. I don't know that I want to finish it, either; the ending's a total cop out, but some of the scenes I haven't written make me very happy in my head. I can't quite pinpoint what it is about the idea of Sasuke and Naruto slowly going insane side by side that's so compelling, but the story has been stuck in my head for a week now. (I think what I'm actually trying to do is rewrite Sorrows and Rejoicings; note to self: borrow someone's kanji dictionary.)
Somehow, Sasuke has become my favorite character. This upsets me- I mean, Sasuke? Ew. I feel kind of dirty. But there's something about characters who lack self awareness that makes them incredibly fun narrators; I don't actually like reading about Sasuke, but I enjoy writing him.
1 comment:
this is really neat. you may be a crappy angst whore, but stuff like this is so shiny and brittle; it's the kind of thing that i know isn't really how it's going to end up but seems so possible anyway.
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