Prologue Complete

Yes, at some point in the near future, this will become relevant to the present story. I wish I'd put it up sooner...but it kind of didn't exist too long ago. Regardless, I hope you enjoy!


Prologue
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It had taken Sasuke nine years to get this far. Nine years of hating and growing and training. Nine years to shape himself, nine years of failure and doubt and killing off everything in himself that stood in the way. Nine years to hunt his brother down for the final fight. And now here he was, laying next to his brother’s still-warm body. He was exhausted. He was numb. Itachi’s corpse was still bleeding and he felt the need to get away from it, but he couldn‘t move. He lay there and the blood seeped into his clothing.

And then Madara came and snatched Sasuke’s proof of victory away. Sasuke made to chase, but he too collapsed in an abortive attempt to stand. He woke in a cave, prostrate on a makeshift bed. Madara explained everything and Sasuke’s world broke apart again. He twisted around to see the curse seal on his shoulder. It was still there, but it had changed. Sasuke touched it, and it was like live electricity tearing through him. His vision swam. He fainted.


When he woke for the second time in the cave, Madara was dead. His corpse continued to burn with the Amaterasu’s black flames. It seemed even he could not escape the attack, however instinctive its origins were. Sasuke struggled up off the pallet on the floor. He drew his sword and cut off Madara’s head. That face, nearly untouched by the fire, looked eerily similar to Itachi’s. Sasuke’s left eye opened wider and wider. Fire leapt from it. Madara’s head burned itself out and Sasuke dripped tears of blood.

He staggered down passageways, leaving smears of blood where he rested against the walls. Eventually, Sasuke came to a huge chamber with an seven-eyed statue. No, wait. It had nine eyes, but only seven of them were open. And then he saw his brother’s body at its foot and he didn’t care about the statue‘s eyes anymore.

Sasuke sat beside it--the body (his brother)-- for an indeterminate amount of time. He couldn’t make himself look at it. At him. At what he had been. He began to prepare for the disposal of Itachi.


The smoke and ash bit into his eyes. He breathed his brother in, held his breath until his lungs burned before he exhaled. Sasuke looked upward, watched the smoke spiral around the top of the cave. For the second time, he noticed the statue. This time, though, he realized what it was. He could see that it was beginning to destabilize. Sasuke hadn’t planned for this, didn’t think he’d ever have the misfortune. His options were simple: let it fall apart and be blown up by proximity when the bijuu escaped, or find a way to fix it, at least long enough to get away. What Sasuke really needed was more time. He wanted time to rest and think, but if he didn’t do something now, didn’t start to repair the damage now, it would be too late and he would be dead. The stress of the work still might kill him, but inaction definitely would. Sasuke took a deep breath with his eyes closed. He opened them, Sharingan swirling. He began.


Nine days later, it was done. Sasuke had re-structured the statue and its dangerous contents. When Sasuke finally looked up from his work, he saw that there were four people--no, seven--in the room with him. Karin, Suigetsu, and Juugo made a rough triangle around him. Protecting? Watching over? Sasuke wasn’t sure why they were doing it. But they stood between him and the other four. The others all wore Akatsuki cloaks.

Sasuke’s muscles screamed when he tried to stand. He batted away Karin’s manicured hand, instead allowing Juugo to pull him to his feet. Karin handed him a handkerchief. He gave her a look and she pointed to his nose. He wiped. The cloth came away bloody.

“Nice work,” said one of the cloaked figures.

Sasuke recognized him. It was his brother’s partner. Sasuke wracked his brains, trying to come up with a name. The thinking made his head pound. Or made it worse. He wasn’t really sure, at this point.

“Kisame,” said Suigetsu. “So nice to see you again.”

He bared his teeth in imitation of a smile. Kisame ignored him.


“You missed a spot,” said Kisame.

He pointed to Sasuke’s neck. Sasuke looked. His entire chest was streaked with red and brown. He scrubbed at it halfheartedly and it flaked off a bit at a time. His white shirt was a gory mess at the collar.

After the introductions were over, Sasuke explained that what he wanted was to destroy Konoha. Wipe it off the map. Why should the Akatsuki follow him? Well, aside from killing Itachi and Madara, Sasuke had fixed the statue, permanently. They were blocked from their ultimate goal, more or less for forever. And hadn’t it been Madara’s fondest wish to destroy the Leaf as well? Of course, he was in no position to force them to follow him. And, in fact, aside from what was bound to be a good fight, he had little to offer them. Zetsu tried to decline and Sasuke cut off one of his leaves in the blink of an eye. The next person to say no would lose a limb.

Pein and Sasuke actually got along well, their ideas of total destruction running along the same lines. Konan followed Pein without question. Zetsu was distinctly unhappy, but he could afford to wait for revenge. And Kisame…Well, Kisame was somewhat indifferent. He admitted, with a toothy grin, that he was curious to see what his former partner’s brother could really do. As nice as Sasuke’s work on the statue was, he wanted to see some fireworks.

And so they set out to destroy Konoha, eight against an entire village. They all knew it was a suicidal plan, but they just didn’t care, either from actual indifference or a lack of belief in their own mortality and fallibility.


The battle took nine hours. The village was almost completely destroyed. Sasuke’s forces were gone, and he himself was unconscious now, surrounded by a diminished group of former classmates and colleagues. Blood leaked out from underneath his eyelids. They watched him draw breath. They discussed what to do with him with hand signals, lest they wake him by speaking. They did not turn their backs on him. Night swept over the valley and stars blinked into the sky.


Nine minutes into Kakashi’s birthday, nine minutes into the night following Sasuke‘s return, Sasuke was unceremoniously dumped into Kakashi’s arms. Kakashi looked over the group. Tension knotted and strangled any possible conversation. He nodded and left them in the rubble of Konoha. He took Sasuke to Sakura for healing. A tent city sprawled outward from the hospital, and he wandered through, finally catching sight of her pink hair above the crowd. She treated Sasuke silently, her mouth held tight. Kakashi felt her eyes on his back as he carried his burden to ANBU headquarters. He felt nothing as he turned Sasuke over to Ibiki. All through this, Sasuke didn’t once stir.

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Well! Wasn't that fun? I hope it wasn't too much like boring expository narrative. (I hope it was at least interesting expository narrative!) Just to be clear, this is the only chapter that's even close to being from Sasuke's perspective. Maybe that's because this was the only part of the story that was really his alone? I'm not really sure.

Anyway, I'll be slaving over chapter twelve for the foreseeable future and keeping the prologue-derived plot on the back burner. Kakashi and Sasuke need to work on their interpersonal issues, hahahahaha.

Later!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. All rights remain with its original creator, Masashi Kishimoto. I make no profit from writing these stories.