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aconitedollSummary: The Akatsuki has finally captured the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune but Naruto is no longer the same person he was all those months ago and somehow, it doesn't seem like the victory it should be.
Less than a week ago, they had finally captured the elusive container for the Kyuubi no Kitsune and Deidara already thought that the blond’s sanity was teetering on the brink of collapse. Itachi was supposed to be watching him, but no one could tell the last Uchiha what to do anymore – the brunette’s tolerance for Leader-sama’s orders had disappeared as soon as they had found out that Sasuke Uchiha’s broken and battered body had been found before the gates of Konoha in a grotesque display of art. When Deidara had seen the other blond for the first time, he had been expecting some type of reply – anger, hatred, anything that showed that Naruto Uzumaki wasn’t the empty shell he seemed to be now – but all he received was a blank look and unnerving silence.
“How much longer?”
Naruto’s voice was harsh and raspy from disuse, sounding more like the grating of steel on stone; and when Deidara turned to look at the blond he almost wanted to draw back because his eyes were an empty expanse of nothingness, devoid of all emotion.
“The ceremony takes time.”
The blond did withdraw this time when Itachi’s voice came from somewhere behind him and when he chanced a look at Naruto, the blond was sporting an eerie half-smile that only made him look even more inhuman.
“Did you like my gift?”
Naruto was looking self-satisfied and Itachi’s face briefly darkened from some unknown motion before the Uchiha reached out, Mangekyou Sharingan eyes spinning as he grabbed the blond’s collar.
“Do not mock me” he spat out, hand trembling from suppressed anger. “I could kill you here – defenseless, weaponless.”
The blond’s body shook before he looked up and there was insanity and an out-of-place intelligence in his eyes when he laughed, a harshharsh sound that made Deidara cringe because it sounded more like a demon’s cackle than laughter.
“Isn’t that what you wanted? Sasuke’s body on a stick, pretty little Sasuke spread out for the taking with unseeing eyes and forever screaming in silence?”
When Itachi threw the blond into a wall, Deidara would have protested but he could no longer force himself to move and Naruto slowly stood, his movements jerky and uncoordinated, as though he was a marionette with an inept controller.
“Poor poor boy, all alone now with no one to turn to. Isn’t that what you wanted? Power, all yours for the taking, glory and immortality, infamy, all wrapped into one nice little package and handed to you; and now you turn it away but there’s nothing you can do anymore because it’s too late for everyone.”
The blond was laughing hysterically now, blood dripping down from his mouth to land on the floor as he did so and Itachi remained frozen place for a few more moments before silently leaving.
~*~*~*~*~
A week later, Deidara was ordered to escort the blond around the base and allow him to get some exercise and Naruto laughed again when he was told the news.
“The dead need no exercise” he laughed; and when his hands were bound together and he was led out of the cell, he was still silently laughing.
The blond remained silent as he was lead through the hallways of the Akatsuki hideout – his only expression was a slight smirk when he passed by Itachi’s room – and when he was led outside, he stared up at the sun with unblinking eyes.
“They’re coming” he said and disturbingly calm eyes turned to Deidara before he burst into insane laughter again. “They’re coming for a living corpse and they bring death, destruction, and fire with them.”
When he saw Itachi the blond’s lips spread in a smile and his dry lips cracked, bleeding, as he spoke to the Uchiha, his eyes speaking of psychosis and delusions and illusions that wreaked havoc with the mind.
“Itachi Uchiha…they’re coming, can you feel it? Hear their screaming voices and the vows of revenge being carried on the wind? They’re coming, closer and closer, and we’ll burn in the fires of Hell soon…can you feel it?”
Naruto licked bloody cracked lips and smiled again, a demon wearing the skin of a human; and Itachi’s hand clenched briefly before the brunette turned and walked away.
A few days later, Zetsu reported that a group of shinobi sporting Konohagakere hitai-ate had been spotted near the hideout and Naruto simply smiled that bloody smile again, his long nails digging into the flesh of his palms.
“They’re here” he said and he began laughing, high-pitched cackles that sent shivers up Deidara’s spine as the blond missing-nin left the dark corridor and the lone occupant of cell behind. In the heat of the battle, he managed to forget about the insane prisoner being held – forget about the demon in the guise of a human, forget eerie laughter and psychotic eyes, forget everything and simply fight to survive – until Sasori’s favored puppet was shattered and a pink-haired blur darted past the redhead towards the cell. He swore to himself, denoting one of his largest explosives yet and staying just long enough to make sure that his opponent had died before following the girl, only to stop when he heard voices speaking.
“Naruto!”
There was silence before the sound of nails on stone came and when he peered around the corner, he could dimly make out the blond’s silhouette under the dim lighting of the corridor as he turned to face the pink-haired girl – her name was a flower, he seemed to remember.
“There’s no one here” the blond was saying and he reached out with a thin, dirty arm to grab her arm, pulling her closer and closer as his nails dug into her flesh and drew blood.
“Naruto! It’s me – Sakura – let me go! We came to get you out of here! Come on – Tsunade-sama is waiting for you and Kakashi-sensei came too and so did Kiba and everyone else!”
The blond laughed, releasing the girl and letting her stumble away, clutching her bleeding arm. “There’s no one here” he repeated, bringing his hand up to his mouth and licking the blood away. “Whoever you came for died a long time ago and you’re wasting your time here. Your precious Sasuke is waiting for you – can’t you see him standing there, waiting and waiting for someone to go join him in silence and darkness?”
The girl shook herself, reaching out for the blond again. “Sasuke’s dead Naruto, you know that! Stop playing games and come with me already! People are dying for you – stop wasting time!”
Naruto’s laugh turned into a growl and he lunged for the girl, bringing her down to the ground and seemingly ignorant of how her head hit the stone with a dull thud. “There’s no one here” he repeated yet again, snarling as his nails dug into her flesh. “You drove him away and now you want him back because your precious Sasuke is gone and something is better than nothing; but there’s no one here and your Naruto was killed ages ago and you’re wasting your time chasing after illusions and corpses.”
The light flickered, momentarily brightening before returning to its dim state; and Deidara heard the beginnings of a scream before it was silenced and he chanced another look around the corner before he hastily left – clearly, the girl wouldn’t be going anywhere anymore and the blond wasn’t planning on leaving. He doubted that anyone could have more thoroughly proved their point – blood was splattered all over the walls and ceiling and the badly-torn body of the corpse sharply contrasted with the severed, otherwise untouched head lying a slight distance away, unseeing eyes widened in surprise and terror.
~*~*~*~*~
After the Akatsuki settled down in their new hideout, Deidara found himself inexplicably drawn to the demon container’s cell, which was heavily warded with chakra-draining seals. Naruto rarely spoke now, preferring to stare at the walls in silence; he only spoke when Itachi was in the nearby vicinity and when he did speak, it was in riddles and his voice was the mocking snarl of a demon.
“Run, run as fast as you can and hide your head in the darkness, but you’ll never escape them now; walking corpses, the both of us, and they’re coming to drag us into the fires of Hell now” he had said once and the last Uchiha had irrevocably ruined one bar of the cell with his bar hands, twisting and warping it beyond recognition as the blond spoke. Privately, Deidara always wondered to himself why Itachi kept returning to the blond’s cell when he always left in anger, much like a moth repeatedly approached a flame. When he mentioned it to Sasori, the puppet master had somehow given him a dry, unreadable look from within the puppet before replying, his voice hollow and unfeeling.
“They’re the same, I suppose, and I could say the same for you, Deidara.”
He had left the redhead alone after that exchange, returning to his silent vigil outside the blond’s cell for the rest of the afternoon. When Itachi stopped by again that night, the blond smiled, lips cracking further and seemingly ignorant of the blood dripping down his chin as he spoke, madness dancing in his eyes.
“They’re coming closer and closer, little Uchiha, and they’re calling for blood and death and destruction. You who thought you could cast down the gods and replace them, you who thought you could escape the inevitable fires, you who thought you had destroyed the last of them…they’re coming.”
This time, the Uchiha didn’t storm off in anger, didn’t ruin anything – he watched with Sharingan eyes and a demon’s visage stared back at him – and the blond tilted his head before laughing, nails scraping against the stone floor of his cell as he stood from his seated position.
“You know that, don’t you? We’re one and the same – demons hiding in the guise of a lowly human – and when they come, we’ll both burn forever and ever as they watch and laugh at our corpses.”
Itachi watched still before speaking and his voice was cold and devoid of all emotion when he spoke. “Where is your container?” he asked and the blond-turned-demon laughed again, high-pitched cackles that slowly settled down to nothing before he replied.
“He never existed! Weak little Naruto with his delusions of justice and dreams of glory – he never existed, just like none of this exists in reality!”
The Uchiha’s face twisted into an ephemeral mask of distaste before he ripped away one of the seals on the door of the cell, crumpling the fragment of paper before letting it fall to the ground.
“Give him a bath, Deidara” he coldly ordered before leaving.
When the blond missing-nin entered the cell to bring Naruto to the baths, the demon container stared at him with unnerving eyes that flickered from sapphire to amethyst to crimson and he shuddered before tying filthy wrists together and leading the silent figure to the baths. When they returned to the cell, there were a few blank sheets of paper and a few pencils; and the blond’s lips spread in a smile that revealed pointed teeth before he entered the cell.
~*~*~*~*~
When Deidara returned to the cell the next day, the papers were covered with tiny images of mutilated corpses and a single sheet stood out from the others – stained crimson, all that he could see was a horridly detailed picture of Itachi and the blond, both lying in pools of blood, impossibly ripped and torn until they were barely recognizable. Hovering over Itachi’s body was a casually drawn figure that, if he concentrated hard enough, could remotely resemble the traitorous snake; and Deidara found himself wondering why the figure was there before dismissing the thought. The demon container must have noticed his staring because he smiled, lips cracking once again.
“Do you like them?” he asked, long nails scraping against the metal bars as he pulled himself up using one. “All the pretty corpses and the dead gathering in the darkness, in a sea of blood and despair – the future of this twisted little world that we live in, a massacre of every living creature.”
He held up the sheet depicting the two dead bodies, bringing the edge of the paper up to his lips and watching as his blood stained another section of once-pristine paper white. The blond missing-nin felt, rather than heard, someone behind him and when he turned, Itachi was standing there and Mangekyou Sharingan eyes were hypnotically whirling as the brunette stared at the paper.
“Do you see it Itachi? We’re hopelessly blind to everything until the very end, ruined beyond recognition, and there’s no returning to the past no matter how much you want to take everything back. Nowhere to hide and nowhere to run – all we can do is stand and watch as they approach us, no longer human and no longer identifiable with what we used to be, who we used to be.”
Deidara had heard enough – he turned to leave the cell behind, walking away from the two still figures, and the blond’s high-pitched peals of psychotic laughter chased him as he left, echoing in the emptiness of the corridor.
This is one of my newer stories and it's actually the second one-shot in a three-shot series I'm working on right now. The first one-shot is almost finished and the third one is in the process of being planned.
