Driver Down - Itachi - Naruto
Title: Driver Down
Character(s): Itachi
Rating: PG-13
Summary: ‘I’m just a driver down,’ they sang.
Words: 552
A flood of black, evening out, low rising on the horizon and staining the red in creases. It’s a monster, the black, suffocating his reasoning and painting pictures of prudence. It’s a monster, because when in actuality it is thought to be providing the shelter of night, the shelter of rest and oblivion, behind one’s back it slaughters. Calmly, crudely, when the dusk has all but faded…
It slaughters.
The rupture of laughter to his left slows his steps, and the boy’s hollow footfalls abruptly dissipate. He listens.
High, upbeat, clearing the air of murder-
The laughing, and then the singing. ‘Driver down, driver down by the river,’ they echo, a chorus of children’s voices, incapable of matching in pitch or in tone, but beautiful in some way. Scathing, and the bright-eyed boy scowls. He will never be one of them, never again. Ignorant, they all are.
‘Driver down, driver down by the river… Let ‘er drown, let ‘er drown by the river…’
The village is a calm one, but their teachings are wrong, their principles askew. He knows this, but he only glances, one patient, tolerant gaze in the direction of the children, and a hushed silence reawakens the fear of the unknown.
They watch and stare, wary of this new arrival, this unfamiliar boy and his shredded, soiled fighter’s clothes, with the glint of well-known malevolence in his eyes, his eyes the color of the devil, the color of bloodshed. They cower, but he only turns away.
‘It’s him!’ echoes at his back, whispered and shrill, but nothing responds at first, not until the devil-eyed stranger reaches the outskirts of their beloved village they cherish and call home, and then they are within the vantage point.
‘It’s him, it’s him!’ is repeated, again and again until that’s all that is impounded into their worry-ridden minds, into their innocent grasp on reality, like hot iron on the skin of the enslaved. It has been spoken, and it will be believed.
‘Murderer, murderer!’
Then, the choir of broken voices, harsh and unrefined in their helpless spells to express… ‘Driver down, driver down by the river, he goes! Let ‘er drown! Let ‘er drown by the river, he goes!’
When Uchiha Itachi reaches the bank, he only stares at his reflection, thoughtful of the flecks of blood under his eyes. Just barely a teenager, not nearly a man, but his sin has already been written upon and ruined, forever leather-bound and held within his soul.
The river water ripples, and the appearance of a boy is offered back to him, but Itachi looks away, vulnerable to the memory of-
-drowning, suffocating, losing, I can’t see the sun anymore, ‘Ta-san, I can’t see the sky! I can’t seem to breathe! I can’t, I can’t, I can’t withstand this any longer, cousin, I’m sor-
Sin has spoken, and it will be believed.
It is then that he begins his journey onward, a journey to sworn allegiance among the band of the rejected. With ties too tight to snap, and members too repressed by their own insanity to see the black on the horizon anymore.
‘Driver down, let ‘er drown-‘
Years later he stands, by the riverside, his only true companion, and the ring is like ice on his finger. It leaves a permanent infliction.
Character(s): Itachi
Rating: PG-13
Summary: ‘I’m just a driver down,’ they sang.
Words: 552
A flood of black, evening out, low rising on the horizon and staining the red in creases. It’s a monster, the black, suffocating his reasoning and painting pictures of prudence. It’s a monster, because when in actuality it is thought to be providing the shelter of night, the shelter of rest and oblivion, behind one’s back it slaughters. Calmly, crudely, when the dusk has all but faded…
It slaughters.
The rupture of laughter to his left slows his steps, and the boy’s hollow footfalls abruptly dissipate. He listens.
High, upbeat, clearing the air of murder-
The laughing, and then the singing. ‘Driver down, driver down by the river,’ they echo, a chorus of children’s voices, incapable of matching in pitch or in tone, but beautiful in some way. Scathing, and the bright-eyed boy scowls. He will never be one of them, never again. Ignorant, they all are.
‘Driver down, driver down by the river… Let ‘er drown, let ‘er drown by the river…’
The village is a calm one, but their teachings are wrong, their principles askew. He knows this, but he only glances, one patient, tolerant gaze in the direction of the children, and a hushed silence reawakens the fear of the unknown.
They watch and stare, wary of this new arrival, this unfamiliar boy and his shredded, soiled fighter’s clothes, with the glint of well-known malevolence in his eyes, his eyes the color of the devil, the color of bloodshed. They cower, but he only turns away.
‘It’s him!’ echoes at his back, whispered and shrill, but nothing responds at first, not until the devil-eyed stranger reaches the outskirts of their beloved village they cherish and call home, and then they are within the vantage point.
‘It’s him, it’s him!’ is repeated, again and again until that’s all that is impounded into their worry-ridden minds, into their innocent grasp on reality, like hot iron on the skin of the enslaved. It has been spoken, and it will be believed.
‘Murderer, murderer!’
Then, the choir of broken voices, harsh and unrefined in their helpless spells to express… ‘Driver down, driver down by the river, he goes! Let ‘er drown! Let ‘er drown by the river, he goes!’
When Uchiha Itachi reaches the bank, he only stares at his reflection, thoughtful of the flecks of blood under his eyes. Just barely a teenager, not nearly a man, but his sin has already been written upon and ruined, forever leather-bound and held within his soul.
The river water ripples, and the appearance of a boy is offered back to him, but Itachi looks away, vulnerable to the memory of-
-drowning, suffocating, losing, I can’t see the sun anymore, ‘Ta-san, I can’t see the sky! I can’t seem to breathe! I can’t, I can’t, I can’t withstand this any longer, cousin, I’m sor-
Sin has spoken, and it will be believed.
It is then that he begins his journey onward, a journey to sworn allegiance among the band of the rejected. With ties too tight to snap, and members too repressed by their own insanity to see the black on the horizon anymore.
‘Driver down, let ‘er drown-‘
Years later he stands, by the riverside, his only true companion, and the ring is like ice on his finger. It leaves a permanent infliction.