Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ To One in Paradise ❯ withering snake, burning fan ( Chapter 3 )

To One in Paradise

 

Part Three: The Snake Withers and the Fan Burns

 

Sasuke didn't care when Orochimaru died. He didn't care that it was the Hokage who killed him, and he didn't care how he died. Sometime between when Naruto and Sakura tried to make him leave and when Kabuto betrayed them and defected to Sand, he stopped caring.

 

Orochimaru's death, in fact, made things easier on him. He had been a few weeks shy of sacrificing his body to become Orochimaru's new holding pen. Now he could hunt down Itachi in his own fashion. He did so. He caught up with him somewhere in the Wave country.

 

He was alone, and so much older than Sasuke remembered. He was almost ashamed.

 

“You've grown weak,” he spat. “How was I afraid of you?”

 

Itachi smirked. “You have hate now, brother,” he whispered as he died. “But once I am dead, what will you do with it?”

 

It was a good question, and Sasuke pondered it for some time. He couldn't return to Konoha. He had been declared and S-rank missing-nin years ago, and after his involvement in the death of the Hyuuga girl, Hinata, Naruto and Sakura would have ceased to care about him.

 

Ah, his old teammates. Perhaps he hated them?

 

No, he realized. He did not hate them. He could not. They had done nothing to him. They had indeed tried to help him. And Sasuke realized, with a pang of regret, that had things been different, he could have loved them.

 

But did he? Did he love them now?

 

He had no cause to hate them, did he?

 

There, by his brother's corpse, Sasuke wept for what he had done. It was the last time he cried. There in the empty, battle-scorched field, the last bit of Uchiha Sasuke died.

 

Sasuke took his brother's place in Akatsuki. He figured that if he had nowhere else to go, he might as well make himself stronger purely for the sake of being strong. After all these years, they were still obsessed with the Jinchuuriki. Specifically, the last Jinchuuriki, the only one they had not captured. Sasuke was thrown back into the world of Naruto, but found to his surprise that it no longer affected him. He had resolved to hate Konoha after all. Otherwise, he would surely have gone mad.

 

Sasuke was stronger than all of them. Sasuke was sent after the Kyuubi no Youko.

 

They told him to start acting up, to get the attention of the Konoha ANBU squad. Their new Hokage would surely send their top squad out for him. That squad was, naturally, Naruto's. Sasuke obediently hid out in an abandoned town, occasionally appearing in nearby mid-sized cities and killing here and there. Rumors of murders by Akatsuki reached Konoha.

 

Sasuke heard them coming. First came Hyuuga Neji and a girl he didn't recognize. He knocked Neji out in one blow and proceeded to slaughter the girl. She was no challenge at all. He cut through her like butter and threw her out the window. A gift to Sai and Sakura and Naruto.

 

Neji took barely longer. He had weakened. Sasuke blamed his marriage. It must have been the love. Love softens.

 

Sai was next. Sasuke had fought him briefly before. Sai, too, had weakened. Sasuke was scornful. His Chidori hit him hard enough to throw him fifty yards in the air. Past that, Sasuke stopped caring.

 

He saw his target. He pointed at him. “They'll have you this time.”

 

Naruto screamed something at him. Sasuke didn't care. Sasuke was dead already, and had failed to remember that dead shinobi are near-useless.

 

Fight, fight, fight. Naruto was stronger. He had not loved or been loved. Sasuke was proud. He fought, and won. So what if he had killed the Kyuubi in the process? Akatsuki was forgotten in the face of bloodlust.

 

Then he saw Sakura. He saw in an instant that she was stronger than Naruto by miles. Something had happened to make her stop loving.

 

A bitter taste choked his throat. Perhaps, it was him?

 

His face didn't move. His eyes stayed the same. But Sasuke was alive again, and Sasuke could never bear to kill Sakura.

 

She was monstrously strong. Her first strike shattered his ribs and punctured his lung. The second crushed his heart.

 

She wrapped her fingers around his throat and drew him close, almost as if she would kiss him. Sasuke did not close his eyes. He knew better.

 

Those fingers dug in tightly, and tore. Blood splattered. He fell.

 

Above him, Sakura was whispering something. He couldn't hear what. He could not speak, but he had words of his own dancing before his eyes, fiery script blazing above his face as the last fading bits of him ebbed away.

 

For, alas! alas! with me

The light of Life is o'er!

No more—no more—no more—

(Such language holds the solemn sea

To the sands upon the shore)

Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,

Or the stricken eagle soar!