Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Entropy	By : ersatzbeta Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 1332 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from writing this or any other fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 21
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Chapter Twenty One
Sasuke walked in the dream. He knew it was a dream, and yet it still felt very, very real. He walked through his Mangekyou world, black and white and strange, half-formed as ever. Sword in hand, he wandered. It was never a good idea to roam his subconscious unarmed.
For hours, for days, he roamed the black desert, finding nothing. And then, he came to a field, to the field he'd known all along was there. Sasuke hadn't been looking for it, but it had found him, and it was angry. Thick black mud--or was it magma? Or tar?--boiled and tried to suck him into it. It hissed through the air, latching onto Sasuke's clothing, left dark smears behind.
Sasuke cut through the substance, wielding his sword in neat arcs, intercepting most of it in midair. The blackness rained down around him. Sasuke realized then that it wasn't tar or mud or anything else like that. It was old blood, long ago gone necrotic and thick. Sasuke's mouth twisted upward, and he sneered at the potter's field.
Impatient, he sunk his sword into the muck. The blade slowly consumed what was there, changing colors as it sucked the blood up and cleared the field. The landscape went still under his gaze, no longer reached out for him. A thin coating of liquid stuck to Sasuke's feet as he walked onto the bad earth. He frowned. Something was not right, just beyond what he could clearly see of the field.
He knew this place well, had come to it many times in his dreams, and it had never had anything in it, save the bodies of the dead. His dead. He walked, dispassionate, along a path lined with bones. They were all vague, all similarly darkened by blood and grief and time, but he knew each set. He knew who each jumble of femurs, ribs, and spine had once been. Aunts, uncles, cousins. Enemies he'd fought and killed. And there, newly made, lay the clean bones of Juugo, of Karin and Suigetsu, not yet stained by the field. Sasuke walked on, knowing that if he stopped, if he wavered in purpose or thought while traveling this path, the bones would whisper truths to him. He was not well inclined to listening to the dead.
Sasuke came to the center of the field and he understood, immediately. Here was the column in which he'd subsumed Orochimaru. It was blasted and shattered now, its occupant long dead. Without thinking, Sasuke laid a hand on his curse seal. He shivered.
Towering over the column was the nine-eyed statue. He hadn't seen it since that day, years ago, but he still remembered its every detail. Sasuke was almost relieved that the body of his brother was nowhere to be found, even here. Itachi had looked so small at the foot of the stonework. Sasuke felt even smaller still. As frightening and massive as ever, the statue could have blotted out the sun, if the sun had dared to shine in this land.
The statue was quiescent. All the eyes were closed, the air around it dead silent. Its hands were cupped together, though still shackled, and Sasuke frowned. The statue wasn't like that. Even in his dreams it had never appeared like this. Something was wrong. Sasuke knew, in the way that is instinctive to all dreams, what to do. He leapt up and tapped one of the hands with his sword. The noise of it: bright and silver, belled through the world, reverberating across the unseen lands. Sasuke jumped down and away. He only waited a moment before something happened.
The statue's hands opened. Sasuke froze. A man sat on the edge of the giant hands. No, no, no. He felt himself begin to sweat. This wasn't right, this wasn't how it was supposed to be. The dream was all wrong, had gone soft like rotten fruit. Sasuke dropped his sword. It sank into the ground. And then he began to sink as well, down, down, down into the earth, all the while staring up at the hands of the statue, straining to see the face of the man. Sasuke's ankles were gone. His knees. His waist. Shoulders. Neck. Sasuke couldn't move. He couldn't breathe as the earth crushed him.
And then he was watching his twelve-year-old self repeating Kakashi's bell test, except Kakashi sometimes wasn't Kakashi and the bells weren't always bells. Kakashi dangled Sasuke's own eyes in front of him as he was pinned underground, helpless in his twelve-year-old body.
"Nails that stick out should be hammered in," said Kakashi. "You won't be needing these any more."
And Kakashi pushed the eyes into his own head and he wasn't Kakashi now, but Itachi. His hair flickered from white to black and back again. Itachi's breath was fetid and, for a minute, Sasuke faced not his brother, but a giant white carrion bird. It tapped Sasuke's forehead with its heavy beak. Sasuke's head rang from the blow. The bird bated, and its form settled back into Itachi, his cloak flapping as he pulled it to himself and knelt.
"Little brother," said Itachi. "Can you see the truth yet?"
The whole world flickered and Sasuke was free again, gasping for breath in front of the statue.
"You'll never be free of me, Sasuke-kun."
That voice set Sasuke's teeth on edge. He didn't dare turn, didn't look up. The feet in front of him, that voice�It was Orochimaru, without a doubt. Though he was dead, he stood before Sasuke.
"Tell me," said Orochimaru. "Do you like my little gift?"
Sasuke's neck burned and he could feel the curse seal spreading over him, oily, slick. Poisonous. It wove through his chakra and pulled him upright.
Then it stopped. Orochimaru was gone. Sasuke cast about wildly, trying to understand the meaning of the dream and failing. He wondered if he'd even remember it when he woke.
Before him, the statue shook, rumbling like an earthquake. It opened its eyes. Sasuke trembled before it, unwillingly dropping to his knees as the ground shifted around him. His strength ebbed away. Sasuke knew could control the dream if he just tried hard enough, before something really bad happened. He could feel the bad things rushing toward him and he didn't want to know what would happen next. Sasuke clenched his fist hard enough for his nails to cut into his palm. Blood dripped from his hand to the ground. The earth drank it in. Wake up, he told himself. Wake up now.
The statue spoke. Its voice was terrible, tearing at Sasuke's ears. He clasped his hands over his head, but he could still hear it.
"We are waiting," it said. "We are waiting for you."
Its eyes focused on him. Suddenly the statue opened its mouth, and great gouts of chakra spilled from it, washing over Sasuke. It penetrated his skin and body and mind and soul in a thousand sharp ways. He forgot about trying to wake himself. He forgot about everything beyond this, beyond the moment of now as he became a conduit through which the energy moved. And still the chakra came, filling him beyond capacity, arcing and sizzling across his skin and through his body.
Sasuke screamed as the chakra swallowed him whole.
A/N: Well, isn't that a complete turnaround from where we left off! Not only was it a crazy dream--as dreams so often are--but it was Sasuke's dream, no less. I realize I hadn't done a chapter from his perspective since the prologue, but I promise I have legitimate reasons for doing this particular chapter and putting it into play here. Truth be told, I really like writing dream scenes, but I try not to do them too often: they can jumble and distort things so quickly, and they can detract and distract from the rest of a story. The next chapter--chapter twenty two--will follow up on what happened in this one, so hopefully I will be able to keep the confusion to a minimum!
I've been total crap about replying to reviewers lately. Sorry about that. I'm going to try harder on that end of things. Review responses now!
yaoi_is_my_antidrug: Happy to hear you're still reading and enjoying! Yeah, Sasuke knows what's what, probably even better than Kakashi does. ^_^
msuzumaki: I know Kakashi has been hard on Sasuke lately, but I'm glad you're willing to stick with the story and see what else happens.
petite-neko: I don't mind sporadic reviewing. (Frankly, I'm amazed anyone reviews at all!) The plot is still unfolding, too, so we should be seeing more and more of it as the story goes on.
Maya-Nara: I'm sorry that you've gotten confused about the ins and outs of Kakashi and Sasuke's relationships and feelings. I mentioned before that Kakashi really had Sasuke over a barrel: no matter the consequences, I doubt that Sasuke would turn down the opportunity to be with Kakashi, not when being with Kakashi is what he really wants. And, no, Kakashi probably shouldn't be having sex with him. But, whether he should or should not be doing something won't always prevent him from doing whatever it is. (I don't know if re-reading the author's notes at the ends of the chapters--particularly the last few--will help you or not. They may just muddy the waters more.)
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Entropy