Kusanagi's Curse

Chapter One

Author’s Note: This is a horror story, so be expecting everything a normal Japanese horror story has with the addition of gay men.

Warnings: M/M, violence, language, gore, angst, H/C, Death, Oral, Anal, HJ, Fingering, Wet Dream, etc.

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I was in elementary school when it happened. My father had enrolled me in karate like my older brother. He said it was to teach me discipline but I really just think he wanted me out of the house more often. Itachi was always his favorite and for some reason he never did like me. That seemed ironic to me now.

Once, I was late coming home from practice and as I walked home from the bus stop I heard sirens coming towards me and watched as they sped passed. I could hear them coming to a stop close by along with people shouting; screaming over the static of police radios and the sound of a high pressure hose being used. Fear gripped my heart as I turned the corner and started at a full scale run.

I nearly stopped breathing as I came upon the scene. I couldn’t believe my eyes. My house was on fire! I screamed for my parents, for my brother, and tried to get to them only to be stopped and held back by one of the fireman. I struggled and as I did I saw my brother out of the corner of my eye. I had never seen him like that before.

His eyes were cold and dead inside, allowing himself to be led away by several police officers in handcuffs. I shouted out to him and paused in my struggling as he turned to look at me. He had blood on him and I couldn’t help the feeling of dread that surfaced within me. What had he done?

Then, suddenly, he snapped out of it for a moment and became volatile. Several police officers had to hold him back and keep him from escaping. The whole time he fought to escape, fought to get to me, and when he couldn’t he shouted the words that I would always remember, even if I never understood exactly what they meant.

“Don’t go near Kusanagi! Stay away from it—Sasuke!!”

I asked him again and again what it meant but he never answered me. He was charged with the murder of our parents and sentenced to life in prison. He pled guilty. He had murdered our parents and I hated him for it. I had only visited him in prison twice, each time never coming away with answers. The only thing he’d say to me was that he didn’t care if I hated him, only that I never go near Kusanagi, whatever that was. Perhaps it was the sword that had been in our family’s possession. That was the only thing that seemed plausible, but then again Itachi wasn’t exactly sane.

The sword in question was the one Uncle Madara had given us. It was old, ancient really, and was apparently very valuable. It had survived the fire and I still had it, though I preferred not to look at it. It reminded me of everything I had lost and of the brother I now despised.

That was several years ago now. I was in high school, having skipped a grade, and was living with foster parents. His name was Iruka Umino and he lived with his partner Kakashi Hatake along with another foster child, Naruto Uzumaki. I got along with the two alright, I guessed, but Naruto was just a pain. He was always following me around, wanting to compete with me. I didn’t see what his obsession was.

Another annoyance was that our foster parents were also our teachers. Iruka taught English and Kakashi was our gym teacher. The community didn’t exactly like their relationship, and there had even been several threats left on their door, but the school board couldn’t fire them without raising a big issue and getting lots of negative publicity. Basically they were at a stand still.

As a result Naruto and I were outcasts. No one wanted to deal with us but that didn’t stop the hordes of fangirls from following me around. I hated it but couldn’t do anything to stop it. They kept their distance most of the time though, and as long as that continued to happen I didn’t see the need to take drastic action against them.

They were always telling me how I needed to smile more but I didn’t care. They hadn’t been through what I had. They didn’t know what it was like to have their older brother murder their parents. They didn’t know what it was like to have a hatred so deep for someone they once loved.

Naruto’s ramblings interrupted my thoughts again and I forced myself to pay attention. He’d yell and bitch at me later if I didn’t have some sense of what he was talking about. Not that I cared, but it was hard to get away from him. I considered it a necessary sacrifice for my sanity.

“And so I was like ‘Believe it!’ but he didn’t, you know? Sasuke? Sasuke, are you listening to me?” I grunted to him in response but apparently that wasn’t enough for him. It never was.

“You aren’t, are you? You didn’t even listen to a word I said! Aaugh, what’s the point in talking to you?” He growled and slurped down his instant ramen, sulking. He’d be like that all day if I didn’t say something to him, which I usually didn’t, but today I had an ulterior motive. I needed to go though the small amount of things that had survived the fire and although I’d never admit to it, I didn’t want to do it alone.

Naruto wouldn’t be my first choice in helping me with this but he was the one I associated with the most. Our foster parents were just out of the question. First of all, Iruka would get emotional on me and try to make me talk about my feelings, something I despised, and second of all, Kakashi would make a chore of it, forcing me to organize everything and not stop until it was all in order. They were more of a nuisance than anything else.

“I heard you. I’m just distracted. I need to go through my parents things today.” Naruto had lost his parents at birth so he didn’t really know what it was like to lose them. Even so he tended to overly sympathize with me and would demand that I let him join me. Either that or he just saw it as another opportunity to compete.

“Ooh, well why didn’t you just say so? We’ll go together right after school’s out, no problem!” I scowled and glared at him just as he expected. If I didn’t he’d get suspicious. As long as a little normalcy was used, though, he usually didn’t notice a thing. It made it easy to manipulate him.

“Don’t you look at me that way, Sasuke, I’m going and that’s final! Believe it!” He glared back at me and then promptly fell into his ramen as he was smacked from behind. Sakura towered behind, eyes flaming and her pink hair sticking out like a sore thumb. She was the boldest of my fanclub and I hated her.

“Narrrruto! Don’t you dare talk to Sasuke like that!” All at once her personality changed as she looked at me. I barely resisted the urge to shudder as she ‘cutsied’ up and tried to win me over. “Sasuke-kun! I couldn’t help but overhear, if you need any help I’d love to come alone.”

Naruto gurgled in his ramen before pulling himself out and gasping for breath. He turned to glare at Sakura and she readied herself to hit him again. Really, the way he reacted to her presence I could tell that he liked her. Still, that didn’t stop them from fighting like cats and dogs.

“Sakura, what the heck was that for?! And who said you could tag along??” They were at it again and I closed my eyes for a moment, wishing that they’d magically disappear. They didn’t.

“Sasuke-kun did, isn’t that right Sasuke-kun?” I hated it when they involved me and yet they always seemed to manage it. I didn’t want to deal with it today.

“Do as you like.” I muttered, getting up and leaving the cafeteria. I could hear Sakura shout triumphantly in the background and Naruto groan. I was already irritated and could tell that today was going to be a horrible day.

I was right. As soon as school was out Sakura attached herself to my arm and refused to let go. This caused Naruto to go off about how ‘she never clung to him and what was so great about me anyway’. Then all hell broke loose as Ino, Sakura’s apparent rival for my ‘love’, caught sight of us and decided that she couldn’t let Sakura have this experience alone.

That is how I ended up here, standing in front of the school, being torn apart by two hormonal bitches. Sakura on one arm, and Ino on the other, both tugging in opposite directions, fighting over me and shouting for the whole school to hear. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me and I twitched. I had had enough of this.

“Let go of me!” I yanked my arms out of their hold and scowled deeply as I walked off. Naruto was the first to catch up to me with the two of them following behind me, saying how sorry they were, fighting amongst each other, and begging for forgiveness. This is why I didn’t associate with people.

“Sasuke, how could you be so heartless?!” I heard Naruto shout over them before he was silenced by their fists of fury. He got beat up on a lot around here. It’s why I allowed him to follow me around and compete with me. I felt sorry for him, though I’d never admit it. He’d never let me live it down if he knew, that and if I were him I wouldn’t appreciate my pity either.

I remained silent for the rest of the long walk to the storage shed. By doing so my followers eventually calmed down to a sense of normalcy and were respectfully silent as I unlocked the door. I didn’t want to go in and face my past again but I had to. The state wouldn’t fund my college education and my foster parents couldn’t afford it. I had to sell that antique sword my Uncle had left us, along with whatever else of value I could find.

Opening the door I turned on the light before looking inside. Only a few boxes were in here, everything else having been destroyed in the fire, and I hesitated a moment before walking in. The others followed me, remaining quiet, all except for Naruto.

“Well, let’s get to it! What exactly are you looking for, Sasuke?” He claimed a box and started looking through it without permission. That was just like him, rude and obnoxious, but this time I was grateful to him for it. It distracted from the awkwardness of the situation.

“Anything of value.” I took the box in the corner, preferring to be alone as I dug through it, at least as much as I could be. There were pictures on the top as I lifted the lid; pictures of my parents, of Itachi and I, of all of us together. Those times were gone for good now. Closing my eyes for a moment I calmed myself down before continuing.

There wasn’t much there, just old birthing records and things like that, things that had been kept outside of the house before the fire. Glancing at the others I saw that there wasn’t much there either. I didn’t know where the other valuables had gone but they might have been destroyed along with everything else. The only thing of value here was the sword.

I put everything back in the box before looking at it. I still heard Itachi’s words to me as if he had just spoken them. Hesitating in holding it, I berated myself for listening to that bastard and letting his cryptic words get to me. With determination I picked it up and looked over it.

There were snakes carved into the hilt, standing out from the twining of purple and black thread. It made me nervous for some reason but I shook it off as being paranoid and withdrew it from its sheath. The blade shinned in the light and looked as though it had never been used before. I could tell just from looking that it was very sharp.

“What’s that, Sasuke-kun?” The others were watching me, Sakura having gotten up to join me. Naruto was strangely quiet. Maybe he feels the awkwardness associated with it too…I quickly dismissed that thought as irrational.

“A sword passed down by my uncle.” No one had seen Madara for a long time. We all had assumed he was dead. Even if he was still alive he was better off being thought of that way. He hadn’t even bothered to show up at my parent’s funeral.

“Oh, can I see it?” Ino reached for it and as I was about to say no, Sakura got involved.

“Wait your turn!” She took the blade out of my hand and Ino soon got a grip over it as well and they began fighting over who got to look at it. I had had enough of this. I was sick and tired of their fighting and how they clung to me. I just wanted to take the sword and go home.

“Enough!” They both paused at my uncharacteristic shout and I took the opportunity to take the sword back, re-sheathing it and holding it tightly in one hand.

“We’re done here.” Heading for the door I waited for everyone to get out, Ino and Sakura arguing the whole time and Naruto scowling, probably hating the fact that Sakura didn’t care for him at all. With a sigh I turned out the light and firmly shut the door.

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