Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Endless ❯ Understanding ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
At first, Sasuke assumes she's just another one of Orochimaru's experiments. Her shifting form, her erratic behavior, it all points to too much strain, too many drugs, all too fast. But she was stranger than simple insanity, her apparent omniscience and prophetic whispers, the sheer taste of power that sleeted off her; he couldn't forget her.

The strange thing was, however, that now one else ever spoke of her. At first he assumed it was mere tact, but experience taught him that the experiments were the second-hottest topic (following the ever popular who-is-sleeping-with-whom) in the Sound. Yet not a word about the girl with the ever-changing hair, mismatched eyes and talent for altering the world at a whim. Sasuke wondered if he was going mad. It didn't help that he was the only one who could see and remember the changes she wrought.

"If you arEn't nicE to me," she threatened a little girl, a candidate for the curse seal, with six arms like one of the people who had been sent to retrieve him. "i'lL melt yoUr face hAlf off And you'lL never reMember bEing difFerenT!"

And the next moment the girl becomes a pale boy with only half a face, another of Kabuto's disposable experiments. And everyone acts as if that's the way things have always been. Except Sasuke remembers, cannot dismiss the reality that existed yesterday. And he doesn't know why.

"yoU're speciAl, that's Why. i likE You." She screams in his ear, her breath like violets and old bread.

Sasuke's had enough. He's desperate for answers and she's the only one willing to give them to him.

He gives her memories: candy and flowers, the dismembered wings of butterflies. Colorful, pretty things he remembers the little girls of Konoha love. She takes them and pulls them apart, tossing the candy into the air, turning the flowers into worms, eating the colorful wings. Every move she makes, each change pulls at his eyes, his mind, heart and guts.

"Who are you?" he asks, eyes firmly shut against her.

"i'm mE. that's Who i am."

"What are you?"

Suddenly she seems very sad. "i'M Del. i useD to be Delight. now i'M Delirium, but Not for Long."

"What are you?" He won't let the guilt stop him.

"preTty big Sister Says we'Re arCheTypeS. sad biG brotheR calls uS anima. Sister/BrotheR doesn'T care."

"What are you?"

The changes are slowing, stopping. The hair smooths and stills, remaining a bright fiery red. The eyes are still mismatched but no longer shift and change with every breath. She speaks and once again her power comes to the forefront of his mind, saturating the world. "I am Del. Youngest of the Endless."

Del understands him. The waking nightmare of his present life, the pyrite Shangri-La of his past. The rack of being caught betwixt the schemes of older, wiser beings, baited by his own wishes. The experience of being one's foundations on shifting sands, rebuilding his house of cards again and again. Del know him because she has lived his life, eternal and a thousand times more fully. Del gives him the answers he craves.

She's still there. Answering his questions before he asks. Dancing around his former teammates when he confronts them. He belongs to her and she will follow him for the rest of his life.