26: hero worship

Dec 17, 2006 23:24

for 31-days



title: God's Price
fandom: Naruto
characters: Team Ten.
warnings: spoilers for chapter 230ish. the song mentioned is "March the Heroes Home" by Blackmore's Night.

Ino went up to see God one day and asked Him why Sasuke never paid her any attention. All that red’s blinded him, He answered, and went back to shuffling his deck. Ino remained sprawled across the couch, splayed completely inappropriately, her clothes and hair in disarray that she would only allow to be seen in the eyes of God. God played His game of solitaire slowly, carefully matching a six of clubs to a seven of hearts, and on and on until four kings gazed up at Him gravely. His big, all-powerful hands brought them all together in the fluid motion of a professional, and He turned to face his worshipper.

You’re still here?

She crushed her face together in a manner she probably thought was cute, but made her resemble old fruit. She told God that she could stick around if she wanted to. He agreed, which took the fun out of everything, so she descended.

God passed Choji another bag of barbeque chips and warned him about his heart. You’ll be no good to anyone if cholesterol is clogging up your arteries, He told the fat boy, but the boy pretended not to hear. God turned towards the noise towards His left, a woman’s voice singing. His bigger-than-life hand pushed back the fabric that shielded the customers from the sun, and He spotted a young girl and an older boy playing a lute.

“I sing the praise of honored wars of glory and of kings,” she said. “The bravery of soldiers, the joy that peace can bring. The captains on their way home, the ribbons on their chests. They've packed away the firearms, the trumpets lay to rest...” She smiled as she sang, and He frowned. God wanted to correct her, inform her of the truth behind all those bleeding bastards, but He knew that illusions were important. If people didn’t believe that something good would come out of war, then they would all kill themselves.

He let the cloth fall back down, shielding the boy and the girl from view. Choji paused, his chewing paused, and then stopped. “Wha?” God shook his head, and slipped something out of His pocket.

Nothing.

The praise isn’t worth it, He wanted to say, but didn’t.

“There’s a price for everything,” Shikamaru told God, and the smoke rose to the ceiling. They were playing shogi, and God was losing again. “Smoking’ll kill you.”

I’m dying anyway.

“Not only will it kill you, but it’ll kill you slowly. It’ll weaken you.” He moved his piece slowly, as if savoring the move. God was distracted today, but he would lose either way.

God didn’t respond right away, but gazed down at the game prudently.

“It’s not even like you can’t-”

Maybe I’m paying a price, Shikamaru.

The young boy looked up at his god in surprise. His mind was slowly calculating, slowing figuring, figuring. “We are what we are. If we all atoned for our sins, we might as well commit suicide...”

That’s not good enough. Excuses. I hate excuses.

“It’s not an excuse!” Shikamaru exclaimed, jumping up. His knees hit against the table, and the game went flying. The pieces tumbled in the air, acrobatic. The two of them stared at the ruined game, as if in a state of shock. “Sorry, sorry,” the boy repeated, kneeling and beginning to pick up the pieces again. He was never so erratic, never so brainless in his actions. His passion had overcome him momentarily, and he suddenly felt silly for criticizing his God.

May black tar be the least of My worries.

Shikamaru lit another cigarette, and brought it to his lips. Choji leaned forward, flicking the lighter on. Ino breathed in deeply. This was something they had to do. He hadn’t understood when God had explained it all to him. He hadn’t even understood his own words. There was always a price, only sometimes other people paid them for you.

Team Ten knew they had to carry God’s burden.

With any luck, their lungs would become black black poison black.

26, team ten, shikamaru, gen, choji, 31 days, naruto (series), asuma, ino

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