Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Silence is Blonde ❯ Part I: The Body ( Chapter 1 )

Silence is Blonde

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~Part I: The Body~

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The raven had never been pleased, having had to leave Japan behind to begin anew in a city that took him a long time to understand.

But it had been necessary considering what had driven him away.

The only trinkets he had brought back with him were his memories and Sakura. Sakura had quickly adapted to her new surroundings and spent most of her time socializing, shopping, attending operas, concerts, or helping her `husband' with his work.

Even as the years had converted into centuries, Uchiha Sasuke could not forget why he had left. He tried, but no matter how hard he tried, the truth never left him in peace. It was somewhat ironic that he had become a doctor as his remorse was linked with the dead.

As life would have it, today he was expecting a body to perform an autopsy, but the body was soon to arrive at his office on Cavendish Square.

It had been discovered in peculiar circumstances that even had him baffled.

The hospital he conducted business with had hardly any information concerning the cadaver.

Only that they could not fathom what had caused the man's death.

Sasuke had agreed to perform an autopsy to see what he could learn. Just as the raven was preparing his operating theatre at his estate, his vigorous `wife', Sakura came running into the room holding a note for the young doctor.

Sasuke looked up from the many beakers holding the necessary chemicals to use of the coming cadaver, to frown at her. He laid down the glass instruments on his glass covered cabinets.

Sakura, I have told you many times not to come running in here when I am expecting a corpse. It's dangerous and not something a woman should see. He reprimanded his illegitimate `wife' as if she was a child.

Sakura stopped before him and smiled. She threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek in a friendly manner. She was used to how her `husband' treated her.

Ever since the incident, he haven't been the same. Sasuke sighed and pried her off him. He wasn't one for the mushiness of marriage.

Even if it was fake.

I am sorry Sasuke-kun, but I could not spare a second longer to inform you about the most amazing news that has swept through London! Cried Sakura zealously.

There has been another murder in the East End and Scotland Yard is just as bewildered as the first case! What do you make of it Sasuke-kun?

Sasuke lifted a beaker of arterial preservative and injected a syringe into the mouth of the glass and extracted the chemical to use during the autopsy. As he did this, he glanced up at his `wife' and remarked blandly,

Another murder? I am surprised Scotland Yard has not solved these eccentric murders by now. What are they waiting for, another four victims? He put everything down and wiped his hands clean on a towel.

Since they cannot figure out who the murderer is, Karin, I want you to be home before the gas lamps are lit. It is becoming too dangerous for you to stay out late. Sasuke declared to the young lady.

Sakura frowned dejectedly. She sat down on his stool and placed her chin on her hands.

But Sasuke-kun, please you are being unreasonable. Nothing bad will happen to me. We have been living here in London for a long time now and we have never experienced any difficulties sine we've arrived…well save for the French Revolution, and some other uncalled for events. But nothing will happen. She pleaded desperately.

She gave him a look that even Sasuke could not hope to disobey.

He turned away before her gaze compelled him to yield to her pleads.

He shook his head and argued sternly,

No Sakura, my mind is made up. It is for your own well-being. These are not times to taunt death. You must keep in mind that the new century is drawing closer to us and with it there are sure to be new things awaiting us.

Sakura pouted innocently, but she knew it would do her no good to continue pleading. He had already made up his mind and when he made up his mind on something, Sasuke was inexorable.

Sasuke stole a look at her and sighed inaudibly under his breath. He did not like to see her frown, but she had to understand he was only doing this for her own welfare.

Sakura, is there any way I can make it up to you? I know you do not like this, but I…perhaps an outing to the opera could lighten up your mood? Will I have the honor of taking you to see whatever is playing tonight?

Sasuke offered to her as a means of seeing her smile. Sakura looked up and smiled weakly at him. She stood from her seat and went to him. She embraced him lovingly and kissed his cheeks again.

You forget, Sasuke-kun, that you are expecting company tonight. A Mr. Cadaver if you recall is coming tonight. How about tomorrow night when you are not busy? She reminded him of his affairs with the corpse that should have arrived by now.

Sasuke frowned forlomly and released her.

I'm sorry Sakura. I forgot about tonight. Tomorrow night will be fine, just please promise me you will not go outside after dark alone?

Sakura smiled at him before disappearing out the door from which she entered before he could call her back. He did not need to look after her to know where she was going.

She always left the house while he was going to perform dissections and autopsies because of the horrendous putrefying smell.

Which contradicted what he had just said to her.

Sasuke returned to setting everything up and at the stroke of eight the door bell rang.

Sasuke answered the door and was greeted with the corpse he had been waiting for all day. He paid the person who had brought him the body and carried it to his small anatomical study to perform his appointed duty. The lifeless cadaver was wrapped in white cotton sheets and had a thick yellow cord that sustained the sheets from falling apart.

The cadaver was surprisingly light as he hauled the body through the door and placed it onto the table. Everything was set, but the only thing that needed to be done was to remove the sheets then he could begin. He reached out and pulled the yellow cord and allowed the white sheets to slide off the body into a heap of fabric on the floor.

Long dull yellow hair, that appeared to have once been brilliant blonde, hid the face of the dead man. Sasuke scrutinized the corpse carefully, and gently pushed away the disarrayed tresses concealing the face…

It was one thing to fear nightmares and know they could not possibly come true and it was another concept altogether to live them out, those very same nightmares.

The body that had been brought to him was straight out of his bloodiest dreams of chaos. That cadaver laid before him covered in only a thin sheet of white fabric was the reason why he had fled from Japan in the first place.

Seeing him again was enough to make Sasuke go insane, but he clenched his sanity and muttered only one word that said all.

Naruto.

Sasuke press his index and middle finger to the cold side of Naruto's neck and snarled. He was indeed dead, but how? In fact, just how had he arrived here in London if he had already been dead and buried for nearly three hundred years to begin with? No something was tremendously wrong with this spontaneous turn of events.

Naruto had died during the final battle against Pain and all had ended with his death. Pain perished and it was the end to one chapter and the beginning of another.

After he had expired from the world of the living, everything had changed. As the years drifted away with breezes of unsustainable seasons that were forever perpetual, Sasuke had never forgotten how his stupid teammate, friend, rival, maybe even lover-though that was a far stretch-had died just so he could save his friends' and Konoha's lives at the risk of his own.

Sasuke stopped himself from remembering any further. Once was enough to relive the past, he didn't want to remember anymore.

How did you get here Naruto? You've been dead for more than three centuries. It's implausible for you to be here when I myself saw you meet your miserable death…and yet you were always one to defy logic. He mumbled to his dead friend.

His cold pale hands clenched the side of Naruto's face and he examined it. He pried open his eyelids and examined his hollow blue eyes and sighed.

In frustration Sasuke rubbed his temples and cursed. His past would never allow him to forget. He looked intently at the still figure on the table and remarked sharply,

Even in death Naruto you manage to disrupt my life. No matter how much I run, you always manage to find me and make me remember why you aren't alive anymore. Even in death your silence tells me I could have saved you, but time and time again I tell you I…

He did not finish.

It was foolish of him to chastise a corpse and especially his moronic friend who was as adamant as him. And there he was observing his lover's dead body and caught between defying Naruto's corpse by dissecting it or allowing it to rot. Either option in his opinion was welcoming, but if Sakura found out…

Sasuke threw the sheet over Naruto's pale face and left him in his anatomical study to deal with later on in the night when Karin arrived and was fast asleep. He turned off the lights and closed the door behind him with an unintentional force.

Sasuke walked down the hall unevenly and threw himself onto his comfortable armchair, only this night he found no comfort sitting in it like the other long cold night in the past.

He began to contemplate carefully.

He had his dead friend's corpse just down the hall and was in the first process of decomposing.

He was expecting Sakura to come running through the front door and discovering Naruto's body and her screams and cries once she saw him.

The only thing he could do to ward off the excruciating headache he felt coming to harass him, was contained within a crystal vital encasing small white pills that were made to relieve him of the pain. He reached out to the small side table and pulled out a vial containing capsules. He unscrewed the cap and took two aspirins.

Sasuke set aside the vial and poured a glass of water to drink the capsules with. With a toss of his head, he swallowed the pills and forced himself to swallow them. As much as he tried, he could not bear the taste the pills produced on his sensitive senses. The weary doctor slouched further into his chair and releases a suppressed sigh.

He had no idea what he was going to do with this new ordeal now presented to him.

`I could always just dispose of the body and say it never arrived.' Sasuke formulated. `But the concept had its flaws.'

There were witnesses after all who could testify that the body had indeed been delivered to his estate and the least thing he needed was going to court.

He sighed once more.

`Then what am I going to do? I can't under any circumstances have him here where Karin can easily see and think the worst.'

The further he mused and tortured himself about the cadaver, the less he became aware of his surroundings and his muffled thoughts.

Slowly his thoughts were askew and made no sense. They were mere clumps of meaningless words. Words that had he been alert, could have possibly meant something and been something of use rather than a waste of energy.

The glass which he had held slipped from his pale hands and shattered to the fine solid oak floor. In seconds Sasuke was fast asleep.

Perhaps, had he paid closer attention to the vital he had grabbed, he would still be awake?

Perhaps he would have noticed the creaking of his anatomical door opening and the heavy footsteps that had once been light, approach him?

And if he could indeed praise himself over his audacity and alertness, then he would have seen his rival, friend and maybe even lover standing in front of him, alive and but not at all well.

But alas he did not.