Shakespeare Challenge Response: Titus Andronicus

Karin, Jugo, and Suigetsu were waiting for Sasuke at his home; Kiba and Akumaru had gone home. At seeing the state the Sasuke and Sakura were in, Jugo urges to kill bubbled to the surface, but Sasuke caught his eye. “Calm down, Jugo.” Jugo returned to his normal self and apologized. “We all feel the same.”

Jugo left to bring Shizune and Ino to help Sakura and Sasuke while Kakashi told Karin and Suigetsu the story. Karin listened while trying to contain her rage; Suigetsu just stood there sucking at his water bottle without expression.

Karin’s first instinct when the story was done was to lavish comfort on Sasuke, but his eyes were distant and he did not look like a man who needed comfort, but space. So she turned her attention to Sakura, helping to clean her up since Sakura had no hands to do it herself.

Suigetsu and Kakashi decided independently that they would best be employed at the moment preparing food, especially since they would be having guests. Kiba arrived after he and Akamaru smelled the oozing blood coming from Sakura and Sasuke’s wounds as they were on a walk. Akumaru went to Sakura and tried to comfort her; his honest affection soothed her. Kiba meanwhile found it hard to restrain himself when he was informed of the day’s events.

Jugo, Shizune, and Ino arrived. Shizune with her greater experience tended to Sakura while Ino tended to Sasuke.

Once the two of them were healed and bathed, they joined the rest for supper. Karin and Sakura sat on either side of Sasuke. Jugo, Suigetsu, Kiba, Shizune, Ino, and Kakashi were arrayed around the table as well. There was food in front of all of them, but no one ate. The normally laid back Jounin and Kiba sat with crossed arms.

“Kakashi, Kiba, relax. Sakura and I have but one hand between us and can’t brood as you do. I have only one hand to beat my chest, mad with misery and hollow.” Sasuke spoke calmly which contrasted eerily with his words.

Sasuke turned to Sakura and tried to feed her, but she shook her head. He offered her water and she shook her head again. As he put down the glass she ran her handless arm over his and began to sign.
“Look,” Sasuke said with a little wonder in his voice, “I can interpret her signs. She says she drinks nothing but the tears that run down her cheeks. Oh, my sister, I will learn to read your thoughts.”

“Someone tell a joke,” Suigetsu said in the silence.

“Peace, my friend. You are made of tears and will melt your life away.”

“What?” Suigetsu wondered if Sasuke had finally lost it.

Some around the table began eating. Kiba broke the silence again by hitting the table.

“What are you striking at?” Sasuke asked.

“Just killing a fly.”

Sasuke threw a piece of bread at him. “Get out murderer! You kill me! All I see around me lately is misery and tyranny! The killing of an innocent does not become a friend of mine! Get out!”

“It was just a fly.”

“What if that fly had a mother and father and a brother or a sister? How they would hang their gossamer wings in grief and buzz lamentations. He came here with his buzzing to make us happy with music and you killed him!”

“He’s lost it,” Suigetsu whispered.

Kiba thought fast. “It was a black fly with a red mark, like the Akatsuki, that’s why I killed it.”

“Oh! Forgive me, Kiba, for scolding you. You’ve done a charitable deed.” Sasuke picked up his knife and came around to Kiba and started stabbing the already dead fly. “That’s for Hidan and that’s for Kabuto, and that’s for Deidara, and that’s for Itachi!” Sasuke stabbed it more times for Itachi than the others.

Suigetsu watched Sasuke’s eyes, not his hand. Sasuke’s eyes sharpened for a moment in a way that reminded of Sasuke in his heyday of slaughtering the Sound Village holdouts and the Akatsuki.

“Ha! We’ve not been brought so low that together we cannot kill a fly that comes in an Akatsuki robe. Come Sakura, let’s go read sad stories. One of you . . . Jugo, come with us. You can read to us when our eyes fail.”

The three of them left. “Poor Sasuke, he’s so grieved he takes shadows for the real thing,” Kakashi said.

“I didn’t think his sanity was that fragile,” Ino said.

“It isn’t,” Suigetsu said and sucked at his water bottle. “Sasuke’s had his heart ripped out and stomped on. He’s not as cold as he’s let on—I blame Shikamaru for thawing out our Ice Prince—and he’s dealing with it. Watch, he’ll devise a wonderful revenge. It’s been his business for over ten years.”

“You were the one who whispered that he’d lost it.”

“I saw his eyes. He knows what he’s doing. He’s planning. We’ll get to bloodletting soon.”

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The line about ‘you are made of tears’ being directed at Suigetsu (who is not crying) was just a little joke to amuse me since he’s made of water.