Always In Darkness

HANDY-DANDY FONT KEY:
italics: Sasuke's thoughts.
bold italics: The Voice In Sasuke's Head.
underlined italics: Gaara's thoughts.


"Mmmhmmhh."
There is only darkness, Sasuke blinks.
Where am I?
Sasuke blinks again, and scans himself cursorily.
I'm not injured, good…I guess.
Squinting, he tries to make out his surroundings in the dark.
Dark black area over there, light black blob over there…*great*.
Running his hands along the stone...no...sand floor trying to orient himself without sight, his right hand hits something; something cold, hard, rounded…gritty.
What the hell is *that*?
He moves toward the object to examine it, and hears a clinking noise. He freezes at the sound, straining his ears to hear any potential threat in the obfuscating darkness. Slowly sliding up from the floor to get into a defensive crouch, he feels a tug on his left leg, then the clinking noise again.
Oh, not good.
Tentitively raising the leg, Sasuke tests the slack on his bonds; he can bring his knee to his waist before feeling any tension at his ankle. Grasping the chain, he follows it to where it is attached to the floor, guessing that it is about three feet long. His chest felt tight.
DAMMIT! Stay focused, find a wall, and gauge your surroundings!
Diligently, he paces the perimeter, measuring out the area with his feet, feeling for doors and apertures. Standing in the center of his…cell.
Yeah, I guess that's what this is... my cell.
He repeats all he has discovered about his surroundings to himself, over and over:
Six paces by six paces square, door facing me, no knob or handle, long, thin sand-covered object to my right, tatami mat to my left, it’s dark…and, it's dark and…
"…AND I'M CHAINED TO THE FLOOR!" The boy screams frantically, breath heavy, his large eyes shining wildly white in the pitch blackness. Then, Sasuke paces and mumbles to himself for a time, sinking down on his mat to plot, brood, and eventually fall asleep.  

**********

"Uchihaaaaaa…Uchiha," whispered an eerily soft-spoken voice, "Open your eyes."

Sasuke opens his eyes and looks in the direction of the voice. It was close; Sasuke could feel the other one’s breath on his face when he spoke.

"Now then, let's take a look at you." There was a blinding flash of light. Sasuke cried out, clenching his eyes shut and throwing up his arms. Standing still for a moment, he waits for his eyes to adjust to the dim lamp that has just been lit, its brightness jarring after having been surrounded so long by darkness. Eventually, after much blinking, his vision focuses…focuses on two large, haunted - yet stunning - green eyes, inches from his own.

"Y-you?" The smile that Sasuke saw was not a smile that anyone would choose to wake up to; gritting his teeth, he silently glowers at the other boy.

"Oh my, such a nasty look," Gaara continues in his too-sweet, mocking tone, "So disappointing. What happened to the phenomenal boy who taught me how to bleed?" He snakes a hand up to the boys chin. "Hmmmh," he barked, gruffly jerking Sasuke's face around to meet his. "Where did all your fight go, Uuu-chii-haaa?" The sand ninja punctuates each mockingly drawn-out syllable by inching his face closer and closer until their foreheads touch. Then he bares that grin again, baiting Sasuke, daring him.  

"What is this all about?” Sasuke asks, his voice an emotionless monotone, as if he were completely nonplussed by Gaara's leering, invasive presence. Briefly tightening his grip, Gaara squeezes Sasuke's jaw then darts a hand to the nape of Sasuke’s neck, tangling his fingers into the boy's thick, black hair, grasping it tightly. Sasuke gasped as his head was suddenly flung outward.

"SASUKE UCHIHA..." Gaara shouted loudly, jerking the boy’s head to the side, "...wants to know..." tugging him up, pressing the boy's face against his own, brushing his lips against Sasuke's face as he whispers, "...what this is about." Gaara chuckled in his throat, pulling Sasuke by the hair into a standing position, then heaving him bodily into the air. Sasuke hit the floor and skidded across it, the back of his head slamming into the wall, causing his teeth to click down on his tongue. Gaara is on him in an eyeblink, pinning him against the wall, the tip of his tongue darting out to catch the fresh blood blooming at the corner of Sasuke's mouth. "It's about making you learn to bleed too."

Sasuke fights the urge to spit in that grinning face. "Get off of me, let me loose, and I'll fight you. I'm sure we'll both bleed plenty."

Gaara laughed long and hard. "Fight me?" The sand ninja gets a mischievous look in his eyes. Stepping back, he fishes for something at his waist; retrieving a small key, he dramatically displays it to Sasuke, unlocks the shackle on the boy's ankle, then walks to the other side of the cell.  "Come at me." 

A thousand strategies flash through Sasuke's mind, he is frozen with rage and indecision.
No kunai, close quarters, low maneuverability...  He reaches for chakra and his eyes widen with shock, then flick over to the other boy, who looks like a cat cornering an injured sparrow. It's...*gone*.

"Now that you know the extent of your situation, do you still want to fight me?"

With a blood-curdling scream, Saskue charges toward Gaara, hands out in front of him like claws; however, he is slammed to a stop in mid-stride as tendrils of sand reach out from the floor and grab his arms and legs, holding him in mid-air. The boy flails and struggles against his gritty, writhing restraints, which only proves to grind them agonizingly into his skin and tear his clothing. Eventually, Sasuke sags against the immovable bonds, panting, sweating and bleeding in some spots. Squatting down in front of Sasuke, Gaara traces a kanji on the ground with his captive’s blood; once he finishes writing, the rune dissolves into the sand and the tendrils on Sasuke’s body stiffen and set.

“I think you’ve had a full morning, Uchiha. I’m going to let you rest a while.” And with that, Gaara leaves Sasuke alone in the dark, mind going at full tilt, body stuck in an awkward position: arms held up by the elbow, legs in a Y in front of him, hanging in mid-air by solid tendrils of chakra-charged sand.

**********

Be ready for him when he gets back.
A soft chuckle...from...somewhere.
Huh...what?
"Who's there?"
That voice... There's no way...
Sasuke cranes his neck to scan the chamber.
Not out there.
The boy's head suddenly ached, throbbed. He could feel chakra, but it was…foreign somehow.
In here. With you. Inside you.
The boy reels as far as his restricted position will allow and lets out a solemn whimper, a tear rolling down his cheek. "Orochimaru..."
Sasuke remembers...
...madly skulking through the dark scrubland, gesturing wildly, screaming, clutching at his hair and clothing. "GET OUT! GET OUT OF MY HEAD! RRAAAGH!"
...shuddering in a small cave, mechanically scribing a scroll in his blood and throwing it into a fire. He is glowing, surrounded by an aura; the visage of a tall, pale man.
...no...no...
A voice from his lips, not his own, "I will win, my lovely boy. Just. Let. Go."
I would rather die...I would rather both of us die. CHIIDORIIII!
A bright flash. Pain, silence, then darkness.

*********