Dream § Breathe

[ura_no_ura]

You know this place of quiet rocks, where the rain falls torrential and loud. Empties out the sky and wrings itself out.

You don't know how you know, or why. Only that you've made tracks here and the rocks are keeping you here with their silence. Their weight. And the scent of earth and growing things that you can wrap around yourself, breathe in,

Comments

1/2

[ninjasecrets]

Kakashi...

[ There are so many things Akira doesn't trust. But these dreams, these feelings, they're too intense to be some kind of trick. It's probably wrong for him to believe it. He certainly doesn't want to, for one sick, long moment. Is it possible he lived through that? ]

2/2

[ninjasecrets]

[ Akira is too overcome with emotions to think straight, to try and assess the situation. All he sees is this truth, and he can't let it go now that he's seen it. No matter what colors it may reveal in the end. In the dark part of his mind, where the calm shadows lurk, he tells himself it can't be this simple, and he needs to be careful, but that part goes ignored because the syllables have already left his mouth. He's calling. ]

KAKASHI-SAN!

[ura_no_ura]

[ There's a voice calling him and Kakashi's not sure who it is or where it's coming from and for a moment he almost thinks he's still dreaming even with all this pounding in his head. He finds the Hitomi after a moment and realizes it's from the screen and stares at the -- boy? girl? in it, confused.

Accidentally, his finger brushes over the "reply" button and he doesn't realize he's recording. So he's just frowning at the screen and slightly wincing from pain, a blank, disoriented look in his eye that has no recognition of the person screaming his name.

And adding a -san onto the end.

That's kind of strange. ]

video call; (private)

[ninjasecrets]

[ This is wrong. Not that anything about the past 10 minutes or so has been right, but this is really, really wrong. And so the diatribe that Akira had planned to go on - bitching him out for sleeping when everyone was so worried, asking where the heck he was, anyway - completely dies.

Because he thinks he knows that look a little bit. He's seen it in the mirror on bad mornings. And that connection's enough to force bile to the back of his throat. Akira shakes the notion. It can't be that way. And even if it is, there's nothing he can do, right? With a hand that's too steady (it should be shaking, and why isn't it?) he switches the transmission's settings ]

It's Akira.

Where are you?

Video Call

[ground_breaker]

[Sakura doesn't believe what she's seeing at first. When the dream first comes on she half believes that she's dreaming, that this can't possibly be real, because severed heads can't dream. They can't. That doesn't stop her hand from flying out and grasping the Hitomi so forcefully that it cracks under her strong hands. She watches with rapt attention. As she does, her hand clenches into a fist so tight that her short nails cut into her palm, and she bleeds and it hurts.

She isn't dreaming.

But Kakashi is.

Dead men don't dream.]

Kakashi-sensei!

[Thank god thank god oh my god you're alive.]

Kakashi-sensei, are you all right? Where are you?

Video Call

[ura_no_ura]

[ The Hitomi had moved itself back closer from where it had tumbled earlier, and when the call connects, the screen is filled with the sight of Kakashi half-curled on his side on the futon, his hands pressing against the sides of his head. His eyes are closed and when the girl's voice cuts through the air, it takes a moment or two for Kakashi to blearily open his eyes.

Someone else with so much worry in her voice. And she sounds familiar but Kakashi doesn't know who she is. And he thinks this is a rather elaborate trick, to try and confuse him and make him think like he belongs anywhere or deserves any kind of respect when he's just a weapon, and weapons aren't respected. Have no worth.

Weapons are used to fight wars.

Kakashi removes a hand from the side of his head and reaches out to tilt the Hitomi slightly. There's no recognition in his eyes when he looks at the girl with pink hair through the screen.

They're blank.

Hollowed out.

He hangs up. ]

Video Call

[ground_breaker]

[Something is dreadfully wrong, Sakura knows.

Not just physically, though her medic's brain can't help but catalog all of his bodily behavior -- holding his head, where his body carries tension -- and start running down a mental list of injuries he might have suffered in the cruel hands of the Akatsuki. But the dead look in his eyes -- that's makes her gut twist in a horror she can't put a name to.

She calls him back immediately, and her voice is beginning to betray signs of panic.]

Damn it, Sensei, answer me! It's Sakura! Tell me where you are!

Video Call

[ura_no_ura]

[ She's calling him "sensei" still and it almost sounds like it belongs there in her voice. But it can't be, because Madara-sama warned him about this and Kakashi knows that this is all some kind of very elaborate ruse.

Kakashi reaches out again. Expression empty. Erased.

His hand curls around the Hitomi.

He ends the call again. ]

Video Call

[windsawakening]

[His mouth moves over the word as he watches. Kakashi. Three simple syllables. Not Kakashi-sensei. Not this time. This dream belongs to the man and the boy, not the teacher and Naruto watches it even as he doesn’t understand.

And he thinks, someone died.

But it wasn’t Kakashi.

Only-

His fingers glide over the Hitomi. He doesn’t watch this dream again. He can barely manage to once.]

Kakashi… sensei.

[He almost forgets to add it. Just this one time. His heart is pounding. He’s pretty sure it’s going to pound straight through his chest if it keeps going like this and his stomach is revolting, tossing and dropping like a lead weight and it didn’t do this when he last saw Kakashi because there was creeping despair and everything in him worked toward keeping that at bay and this relief is…

Unexpected.

You knew he was alive. You did. You knew you knewYou

Video Call

[ura_no_ura]

[ When the call connects, Kakashi's still in the same position as he was when the girl with the pink hair called. Curled up on his side, hands cradling his head.

Another person calling Kakashi "sensei" to get into his head. It makes no sense why they would do this when Kakashi doesn't recognize any of them and the thunder in his head booms louder than ever, cracking up and down and digging in. He thinks this must be what it's like to have rocks slammed down repeatedly on his head.

His eyes open after a moment, and he blankly stares at the screen, not recognizing the boy in it who's screaming insults at him --

Well, that's more familiar, but the worry in his voice isn't.

Kakashi thinks through the storm in his head that their enemy has very strange tactics. His finger moves across the screen to the "End Call" button.

The call disconnects. ]

Video Call

[windsawakening]

[Naruto openly gawks as the call disconnects, mouth agape and the image of that blank stare predominant in his mind. What the hell!?

Maybe, he thinks, maybe Kakashi just hit the wrong button. Maybe it’s a shameless hint, well, if you’re going to just shout at me, then I’m not going to talk to you.

Maybe…

Maybe Kakashi doesn’t realise what Madara did. Maybe he doesn’t know that some people think he’s dead. (But this is Kakashi and not just any other ninja, so he would know, of course he would know.)

Maybe…

Naruto redials.]

You hung up.

[Slow and soft and very carefully he says that. He is trying not to shout.]

What the hell are you doing, hanging up like that!? Where ARE you!?

[He is failing, of course.]

Video Call

[ura_no_ura]

[ Persistent.

This boy's voice, it slides its way into his head and it feels like a war is going on inside it. He's clutching again at his head, his eyes unfocused and hazy, fogged up when he looks back at the Hitomi and stares right at the blond looking through at him. Doesn't know who he is, but he's clearly digging for information.

Well.

Kakashi certainly isn't going to give him any.

His expression is something of confusion, quickly fading to a hard-steeled edge, but his eyes don't have fire in them. The fire that's always there under the surface has burnt out. Black soot. Ash. Scorched beyond recognition.

He reaches out again and hangs up. ]

Video Call

[gojyo_saaama]

[ Well, now isn't this interesting. A dead man dreaming - was it all an illusion, or was Kakashi brought back? Nobody had mentioned Madara having that kind of power... but nobody had mentioned much of him at all. ]

Aren't you supposed t'be dead?

Video Call

[ura_no_ura]

[ Regards this man warily. He is not wearing a hitai-ate like the others and calling him Kakashi-san or sensei. Kakashi does not know who he is. But he is saying that Kakashi is supposed to be dead, and maybe he wasn't alive to begin with.

People live.

Weapons don't.

Maybe he was always dead.

Kakashi doesn't know. His head. It's going to implode. ]

No.

[ His voice sounds like an echo. ]

I don't know.

[ Hangs up. ]

Video Call

[gojyo_saaama]

[ Oh, fuck you, you made Akira cry. You don't get to hang up on him, asshole. Gojyo calls back immediately (less a frantic forty-five seconds of poking at the Hitomi, trying to figure out how to call Kakashi back). ]

Yeah, well I do know, you stupid sonuvabitch. I know you're supposed t'be here, an' not wherever th'fuck you are, so get back here. Now.

Video Call

[ura_no_ura]

[ This again.

Kakashi stares at the screen for a long moment. ]

I am where I should be.

[ What humanity was in his voice has been destroyed. The words are there but they are hollow and toneless and stilted. Strangely formal. ]

Video Call

[a_for_tiori]

[He feels like an idiot.

A henge. It was a henge. Of course it was a fucking henge. Why in god's name would it ever be anything but a henge. Actually decapitating Kakashi, a valuable hostage and source of informaton, just to make a point was impractical.

He's almost twitching with nervous energy. Not giddy, exactly - you can't really call what he's feeling happiness. It's more like the low thrum of adrenaline that comes before a fight.]

Kakashi.

Where are you?

[He's staring with his eyebrows low over his eyes, like he's mad. Annoyed at Kakashi. But he's not. Not really. He isn't really feeling at the moment - he's just thinking. He's been captured. The enemy will know that we know he's alive. This has to go fast.]

Are you alone?

[As in, is the enemy there with you?]

Video Call

[ura_no_ura]

[ This boy.

He looks like Itachi. Maybe they're related. Kakashi doesn't know but the way he throws around Kakashi's name, with all of its familiarity -- it's like all the others. Even if he's not wearing a hitai-ate.

Kakashi looks at him through a haze of confusion and a migraine that has knocked him to the ground several times now.

He thinks it's probably better to just not respond.

So he hangs up. ]

Re: Video Call

[a_for_tiori]

[Now Sasuke is mad.]

Kakashi.

[His sharingan are spinning in agitation. Did Kakashi get confused and hang up? He looked like hell. He looked like he didn't have any idea what was going on, or who Sasuke was. It's unnerving, to see those eyes looking glazed over like that. Like doll eyes. No light in them at all - no understanding or recognition.

It might be the dream. It might have disturbed him.

Or is it that the enemy is right there with him? Is that why Kakashi prefers not to respond?

Sasuke thinks not. It wouldn't explain the look in Kakashi's eyes.]

If you are getting this message, respond.

[His voice is sharp. He hopes it might snap Kakashi out of... whatever.]

Video Call

[ura_no_ura]

[ Sharingan. He was not aware there were eyes like his. Or Itachi's. And this boy is looking at him so intently and seems to give off a different kind of energy than everyone else.

But it's all the same in the end.

He stares at the boy.

His gaze has nothing in it.

He doesn't say anything. He just hangs up. Again. ]