Dream ЖЖ 009
The district is so quiet.
Too quiet.
He hates returning home from missions, because he cannot avoid walking through the compound and seeing the coveting eyes and hearing the whispers the run together--
(there he is there he is anbu already at his age what a proud example but isn't he odd he doesn't speak to anyone shisui is missing wasn't he shisui's best friend his eyes are so cold thinks he's better than everyone he's dead inside dead inside no one should have so dead there he is don'tlookathimdon'tlookhecanseeyou)
--but there is nothing.
It's quiet.
Dead.
There is blood in the air.
He turns the corner down the long corridor the enters the district--
And stares.
There are bodies everywhere.
Men, Women, Aunts, Uncles. He thinks he sees the body of a his younger cousin--he's almost as young as Sasuke--dangling from the veranda of his home.
He's running. He has to get home, he has to find Sasuke. Find his parents.
How could Father let this happen?
Bodies, bodies everywhere and a not soul to see.
His body is tense, filled with alertness and apprehension, The world is filled with red, everything is so red.
And he knows it's not just the Sharingan.
He finally reaches his home, passed the bloody streets, cracked walls, broken homes, and the smell that is beginning to permeate the air. Yet death has never smelled so strong.
The door to his home has been ripped open, and Itachi slows his speed, if only to pull his sword from his back and ready himself for what he may find.
He enters, and stops when he feels the warm puddle he encounters, soaking into the bottom of his shoe. He looks down, knowing what it is, and follows the trail as it leads further into the house.
He finds Father in the living room, draped across the low table.
His eyes and mouth are open, he's slick with red.
A kunai sticks out of his neck.
He doesn't both to linger. There isn't anytime.
There's noise. A thud. A scream.
His mind stutters for a moment in recognition and he's back out the door, running around the porch of the house. Another cry. It breaks into the air, only to be cut short.
The dojo.
The doors are shut, blocking him. Itachi forces them open with, sword in his hand, names on his lips.
"Mother! Sasu--!"
He chokes, stares.
She's staring at him. Eyes are wide and her mouth is moving even as the red drips down from it and she can't get out the words. She's reaching out for him.
"I-Ita-Ita..."
And she's falling, just like the blood and organs that tumbled from the gapping chasm that almost splits her down the middle. She lays there.
Everything is so red.
Metal glints as it passes into the moonlight. He dodges, eyes searching, trying to see who is there.
Who he needs to kill.
He sees movement, throws a shuriken.
It's blocked.
He rushes forward.
The Shadow moves, a blade comes at his side. He uses his own sword to deflect it and then spins, kicking out. His leg is blocked and knocked away.
He dodges another kunai, jumps back, eyes still trying to see, still not understanding why the Shadow is just a shadow. All he can see if a white, blank, ANBU mask. Everything else is black.
It's not a genjutsu. The Sharingan would know.
There's footsteps. Familiar chakra.
No. No. NO.
"N-Nii-san! Nii-san, Dad is--!"
He turns his attention.
"Sasuke, no! Don't come in!"
A mistake.
It's cold, icy fire that digs into his stomach, the blade so sharp as cuts through his armour and into his side. He gasps and clenches his teeth, punching out and catching the face of the Shadow. The blade is ripped from him and he can't stop the grunt. He drops to his knees.
Why is Sasuke still standing there? Why won't he move?
"Sasuke... You're here."
But the Shadow is moving, stepping towards Sasuke and those dark eyes are so wide and he's not moving.
He is up and leaping forward with as much speed as he can force into his chakra enhanced legs, sword slicing out, cutting into the backs of the legs of the Shadow and then he releases it at the end of the swing, following through with his own momentum and colliding with the intruder and hitting the ground on top of him.
Still he cannot see. His side hurts, he can feel the blood that is dripping from the wound, the pain of his jarring movements almost enough to darken his vision.
But he can't stop.
He's holding down the Shadow all he can see is that blank mask staring up at him. He grabs it, ripping it away to see who could have done, wanting to ask why--
"Who are you?!"
(They're dead. They're all dead. Father's lying on the table like a macabre feast, and Mother is lying on the ground so close and yet so far away. He can feel her blood beneath his knees, see her hair in the corner of is vision. And Sasuke, Sasuke is standing there, eyes widen, frozen, is he even breathing? Sasuke do something, please, move--He could hurt you, I'll kill him before he can hurt you. I'll kill him. I'll kill him. I'll kill--)
Familiar red eyes stare back up at him.
"Are you surprised?"
No.
"Do you believe such as illusion will work on me? Who are you?!"
Those eyes just stare, those lips quirk in a dark smirk.
"You know who I am. You know me better than anyone else could."
He won't accept this. It's not true. He refuses to believe. A kunai is in his hand, pressing against the throat of the man who has tried to take everything away from him.
"Nii-san...why?"
His eyes widen and his head jerks upward too look into the hurt, betrayed eyes of the little boy standing in the doorway.
"No! Sasuke, it's not true!"
The body beneath his jerks and laughs. It's dead, empty.
"It is."
"No."
"You just couldn't share him with anyone else, could you?"
"That's not true."
"You didn't care about anyone else. They saw you for what you were and you wanted them gone. Even her."
"Silence! You know nothing."
"Of course I know. I'm Y--"
The kunai comes down, slicing into the neck and blood spurts out, spraying onto his face and into his eyes, but he doesn't stop stabbing. He wants it to be gone. It's not true. That's what they said, but it's not true.
The body jerks, gurgling sounds are heard, but he doesn't stop until it's over. He kneels over it, staring down at the face that's no longer recognizable and the red that covers everything. It's all over his hands, on his face, in his hair. Staining his eyes.
He's breathing raggedly, trying to regain himself. There's a noise.
He looks up, sees Sasuke standing there, body shaking, eyes so wide they overwhelm his face. He reaches out, starts to stand, but the wound in his side hinders him.
"Sasuke--"
"No!"
His little brother's backing away, shaking his head and tears filling his eyes.
"Sasuke, wait--"
"Y-You killed him. You killed everyone."
He's shaking his head, trying to explain, to make him see.
"I didn't Sasuke! He did it! I didn't! I didn't!"
"You did it Itachi! You did it! Just like everyone said you did! You did it!"
"No!"
He's trying to stand now, stepping towards his little brother, wanting to hold him, to prove that it's not true--
The laughing. he can hear the laughing. He thought he had killed it, but it's still there, echoing all around him and Itachi spins back to see that the Shadow is gone, the floor bare as if it was never there, but the laughing doesn't stop. He covers his ears, feels the blood that soaks them dripping down his face, but it's still there. He can't get rid of it.
You killed them. You killed them. You killed them.
You should have saved them. You didn't save them. You killed them.
You wanted them gone. Wanted them dead.
Why did you take them from me? Why Nii-san, wh--
Why didn't you kill me too?
--------------------------------------------------------
[Itachi sits up immediately in bed, taken in a deep breath, eyes instinctively looking down to see his hands. The Hitomi on the table side only shows his upper body, but the slight shaking would be noticeable for anyone who looks closely. His continues to staring at his hands, only to then run it through his sweat-dampened hair. He then grabs the Hitomi, as if reflexively, and the screen goes black.]
Too quiet.
He hates returning home from missions, because he cannot avoid walking through the compound and seeing the coveting eyes and hearing the whispers the run together--
(there he is there he is anbu already at his age what a proud example but isn't he odd he doesn't speak to anyone shisui is missing wasn't he shisui's best friend his eyes are so cold thinks he's better than everyone he's dead inside dead inside no one should have so dead there he is don'tlookathimdon'tlookhecanseeyou)
--but there is nothing.
It's quiet.
Dead.
There is blood in the air.
He turns the corner down the long corridor the enters the district--
And stares.
There are bodies everywhere.
Men, Women, Aunts, Uncles. He thinks he sees the body of a his younger cousin--he's almost as young as Sasuke--dangling from the veranda of his home.
He's running. He has to get home, he has to find Sasuke. Find his parents.
How could Father let this happen?
Bodies, bodies everywhere and a not soul to see.
His body is tense, filled with alertness and apprehension, The world is filled with red, everything is so red.
And he knows it's not just the Sharingan.
He finally reaches his home, passed the bloody streets, cracked walls, broken homes, and the smell that is beginning to permeate the air. Yet death has never smelled so strong.
The door to his home has been ripped open, and Itachi slows his speed, if only to pull his sword from his back and ready himself for what he may find.
He enters, and stops when he feels the warm puddle he encounters, soaking into the bottom of his shoe. He looks down, knowing what it is, and follows the trail as it leads further into the house.
He finds Father in the living room, draped across the low table.
His eyes and mouth are open, he's slick with red.
A kunai sticks out of his neck.
He doesn't both to linger. There isn't anytime.
There's noise. A thud. A scream.
His mind stutters for a moment in recognition and he's back out the door, running around the porch of the house. Another cry. It breaks into the air, only to be cut short.
The dojo.
The doors are shut, blocking him. Itachi forces them open with, sword in his hand, names on his lips.
"Mother! Sasu--!"
He chokes, stares.
She's staring at him. Eyes are wide and her mouth is moving even as the red drips down from it and she can't get out the words. She's reaching out for him.
"I-Ita-Ita..."
And she's falling, just like the blood and organs that tumbled from the gapping chasm that almost splits her down the middle. She lays there.
Everything is so red.
Metal glints as it passes into the moonlight. He dodges, eyes searching, trying to see who is there.
Who he needs to kill.
He sees movement, throws a shuriken.
It's blocked.
He rushes forward.
The Shadow moves, a blade comes at his side. He uses his own sword to deflect it and then spins, kicking out. His leg is blocked and knocked away.
He dodges another kunai, jumps back, eyes still trying to see, still not understanding why the Shadow is just a shadow. All he can see if a white, blank, ANBU mask. Everything else is black.
It's not a genjutsu. The Sharingan would know.
There's footsteps. Familiar chakra.
No. No. NO.
"N-Nii-san! Nii-san, Dad is--!"
He turns his attention.
"Sasuke, no! Don't come in!"
A mistake.
It's cold, icy fire that digs into his stomach, the blade so sharp as cuts through his armour and into his side. He gasps and clenches his teeth, punching out and catching the face of the Shadow. The blade is ripped from him and he can't stop the grunt. He drops to his knees.
Why is Sasuke still standing there? Why won't he move?
"Sasuke... You're here."
But the Shadow is moving, stepping towards Sasuke and those dark eyes are so wide and he's not moving.
He is up and leaping forward with as much speed as he can force into his chakra enhanced legs, sword slicing out, cutting into the backs of the legs of the Shadow and then he releases it at the end of the swing, following through with his own momentum and colliding with the intruder and hitting the ground on top of him.
Still he cannot see. His side hurts, he can feel the blood that is dripping from the wound, the pain of his jarring movements almost enough to darken his vision.
But he can't stop.
He's holding down the Shadow all he can see is that blank mask staring up at him. He grabs it, ripping it away to see who could have done, wanting to ask why--
"Who are you?!"
(They're dead. They're all dead. Father's lying on the table like a macabre feast, and Mother is lying on the ground so close and yet so far away. He can feel her blood beneath his knees, see her hair in the corner of is vision. And Sasuke, Sasuke is standing there, eyes widen, frozen, is he even breathing? Sasuke do something, please, move--He could hurt you, I'll kill him before he can hurt you. I'll kill him. I'll kill him. I'll kill--)
Familiar red eyes stare back up at him.
"Are you surprised?"
No.
"Do you believe such as illusion will work on me? Who are you?!"
Those eyes just stare, those lips quirk in a dark smirk.
"You know who I am. You know me better than anyone else could."
He won't accept this. It's not true. He refuses to believe. A kunai is in his hand, pressing against the throat of the man who has tried to take everything away from him.
"Nii-san...why?"
His eyes widen and his head jerks upward too look into the hurt, betrayed eyes of the little boy standing in the doorway.
"No! Sasuke, it's not true!"
The body beneath his jerks and laughs. It's dead, empty.
"It is."
"No."
"You just couldn't share him with anyone else, could you?"
"That's not true."
"You didn't care about anyone else. They saw you for what you were and you wanted them gone. Even her."
"Silence! You know nothing."
"Of course I know. I'm Y--"
The kunai comes down, slicing into the neck and blood spurts out, spraying onto his face and into his eyes, but he doesn't stop stabbing. He wants it to be gone. It's not true. That's what they said, but it's not true.
The body jerks, gurgling sounds are heard, but he doesn't stop until it's over. He kneels over it, staring down at the face that's no longer recognizable and the red that covers everything. It's all over his hands, on his face, in his hair. Staining his eyes.
He's breathing raggedly, trying to regain himself. There's a noise.
He looks up, sees Sasuke standing there, body shaking, eyes so wide they overwhelm his face. He reaches out, starts to stand, but the wound in his side hinders him.
"Sasuke--"
"No!"
His little brother's backing away, shaking his head and tears filling his eyes.
"Sasuke, wait--"
"Y-You killed him. You killed everyone."
He's shaking his head, trying to explain, to make him see.
"I didn't Sasuke! He did it! I didn't! I didn't!"
"You did it Itachi! You did it! Just like everyone said you did! You did it!"
"No!"
He's trying to stand now, stepping towards his little brother, wanting to hold him, to prove that it's not true--
The laughing. he can hear the laughing. He thought he had killed it, but it's still there, echoing all around him and Itachi spins back to see that the Shadow is gone, the floor bare as if it was never there, but the laughing doesn't stop. He covers his ears, feels the blood that soaks them dripping down his face, but it's still there. He can't get rid of it.
You killed them. You killed them. You killed them.
You should have saved them. You didn't save them. You killed them.
You wanted them gone. Wanted them dead.
Why did you take them from me? Why Nii-san, wh--
Why didn't you kill me too?
--------------------------------------------------------
[Itachi sits up immediately in bed, taken in a deep breath, eyes instinctively looking down to see his hands. The Hitomi on the table side only shows his upper body, but the slight shaking would be noticeable for anyone who looks closely. His continues to staring at his hands, only to then run it through his sweat-dampened hair. He then grabs the Hitomi, as if reflexively, and the screen goes black.]