Kusanagi's Curse

Chapter Two

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Sakura and Ino finally left us on the walk back home, saying they had homework to do or something like that. I think they were trying to impress me with their dedication but it wasn’t working. I didn’t care about things like that despite the grades I received. Itachi had always been better than me anyway. He had always gotten the highest marks.

Naruto was bothering me now about holding the sword, but I refused him, causing him to go off on a rant about how I had let Sakura and Ino hold it. I didn’t bother mentioning that I hadn’t wanted them to. It wouldn’t stop him anyway.

“Sasuke? Sasuke, you’re not listening to me again!”

“I’m listening.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, then what did I just say?”

I didn’t answer him, instead unlocking and opening the door to the house. Iruka and Kakashi wouldn’t be home for a while, being stuck at school grading papers. Naruto followed me inside, whining.

“See, you weren’t listening, were you?!” I had heard him. I just didn’t see a point in encouraging his behavior.

“I was listening.” He groaned in frustration and stormed off to raid the kitchen, probably to eat more ramen. I don’t know what his obsession with it was, but he ate enough ramen to feed a whole village. Maybe his parents had given it to him before they died. I never asked him; we didn’t talk about things like that.

Leaving him downstairs I headed up to our room and put my things away. Naruto had his clothes thrown about everywhere, a stark contrast to my half of the room where everything was in its place. It was irritating but at least he generally kept things on his side. A disturbing memory I had of it is when I found his underwear on my pillow. I didn’t know how or why it had gotten there but I demanded that he remove them immediately. He, of course, hadn’t seen what the problem was.

“I don’t see what you’re so upset about, Sasuke, they’re just underwear!”

“I don’t care! Get them off my bed and away from me!” I was more upset about what he had been doing in order for them to get there in the first place. I didn’t want to think about things like that.

“Alright, alright. Jeez, don’t get your panties in a bunch.”

“Naruto!” Of course he had to make a snarky comment, he wouldn’t be Naruto if he didn’t.

Shaking my head I dismissed the memory and set the sword temporarily on the bed. I would find a place for it once I was done with my homework. That always came first, which is probably what made people think that I was a good student. I didn’t deny it but I really just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. I wanted to not only beat Itachi but exceed what he was capable of. The fact that he was in jail was irrelevant. He was still an obstacle I had to overcome.

Spurred by this thought I took out my text books and got started.

“Sasuke. Ne, Sasuke?” I was almost done and Naruto wouldn’t stop bothering me.

“What is it, Naruto?” I enunciated his name to point out his over usage of mine. He didn’t seem to get it or chose not to. I was never completely sure whether he acted idiotic because he was an idiot or because he wanted to.

“I don’t understand this problem!” I paused for a moment, shocked that he was actually doing homework. He usually put it off until the last minute and then forgot about most of it, leading to his failing grades. He tried hard but it never seemed to pay off for him.

“Alright, let me see it.” If he was actually trying then I wasn’t going to discourage it. I went over to take a look at his work and scowled when I saw two naked women drawn on his paper and no homework to be seen. I should have known better.

“Idiot.” I smacked the back of his head and went to finish my work. I could hear him laughing quietly to himself before he trailed off. I don’t know what he had been expecting from me but I wasn’t going to help in furthering his childish behavior.

A few moments later and I was done, putting my things away and stretching out in my chair. Turning around I looked at the sword and wondered what I should do with it. I had to sell it but until I found the right buyer I needed to keep it somewhere safe, somewhere close by. I didn’t want Naruto touching it though, it just didn’t seem right.

“Naruto! Sasuke!” Iruka was calling up to us, which meant that he was going to cook tonight. For some reason he considered it a ‘family’ even and forced us to watch and talk to him. If we didn’t Kakashi would find a way to get back at us and neither of us wanted that, since the last time Naruto had skipped out he had been give ‘One Thousand Pains of Death’, something I happened to witness and have been traumatized by ever sense.

“Coming, Iruka!” Naruto called back, dashing out of the room after a glance at me. He was probably trying to race me but I didn’t really care. Taking advantage of the time I had I hid the sword under my mattress. It wasn’t the best hiding place but it would do for now.

“Sasuke!”

“Coming.” I muttered, turning off the light before leaving the room. I heard a small noise behind me, like a hiss, and I looked back but there was nothing there. Pausing for a moment, I listened for the noise again but it was silent. Shrugging I dismissed it as my imagination and continued down the stairs.

Kakashi met me there, as though he expected to have to come up and get me. He was sipping a cup of coffee as usual, covering up his face with the mug. It was odd but neither Naruto nor I have ever seen the lower half of his face. No matter how much we watched him it never happened. The man had skill: an odd skill, but a skill none the less.

Entering the kitchen at sat at one of the bar stools and put my elbows on the table, lacing my fingers and resting my chin against them. Iruka was chopping vegetables on the cutting board and talking to Naruto about his school work. He wasn’t doing well; of course, he hadn’t been for a while. He actually used to try a few months ago, and didn’t do too bad, but then things changed for him. He wouldn’t tell anyone how or why things changed either.

He had become quieter at moments, not when we were around other people, but sometimes when we were in our room he wouldn’t say anything for the longest time. I didn’t notice it at first but after a while it started to get to me. I haven’t asked him about it yet. I figured that if I did he’d only laugh it off and try harder not to let it happen. He wasn’t supposed to be any of my concern anyway.

A loud ‘thunk’ drew my attention and I was surprised to see a small snake on the counter, its head now severed from its body by the knife Iruka had been using. Its body still twitched in the aftershocks of death and its head gave off a dying hiss. I froze. It was the same sound I had heard upstairs, but how could a snake get down here so quickly? Was there more than one of them?

Perturbed I watched as Kakashi disposed of the body, not really paying attention to the talk about how it had gotten there. I wasn’t aware that there were any black snakes indigenous to this area. Even if it was a pet, how did it get in here in the first place? I thought about all the possible ways it could have happened but none of them really seemed plausible.

“Sasuke?”

“Hmm?” I turned to see that everyone else was already at the table and were now waiting for me. Iruka must have put things in the oven before he called us down, either that or I had been spacing off for much longer than I thought. Getting up I joined them at the table, waiting for Iruka to signal the okay before pilling food onto my plate, though much less enthusiastically than Naruto was.

“Are you feeling alright, Sasuke?” Iruka was concerned as usual and I appreciated it but I didn’t need to be so closely watched after.

“I’m fine. It’s been a long day.” He watched me for a moment and then let it go. I didn’t talk much anyway and although I tried to not let it get to me, I grew easily annoyed when people didn’t shut up and let me be. Solitude was more appealing than company was. Solitude couldn’t hurt or betray you.

Clearing my mind I picked up my chopsticks and began eating. It was delicious, as usual. Iruka really was a good cook.

When it was time for bed I checked the room to see if there were any more snakes in there, or if the one I had heard earlier was still there. There wasn’t anything on my side but it was hard to tell with Naruto’s things everywhere. I made him help me sift through them but we both turned up with nothing. He didn’t know about the earlier noise and I wasn’t going to tell him. No use in worrying him when it could have just been my imagination.

“Night, Sasuke!” Naruto was fighting with his pajamas, trying to get his arm through them. I didn’t see why he still wore ones with footies; not to mention his sleeping hat which looked like some sort of deranged panda eating his head. In any case though, it didn’t concern me and I wasn’t going to tell him to do otherwise.

“Night.” I was already in bed, waiting for the light to turn off. Iruka had us go to bed early so we could be prepared in the morning. I didn’t mind it but Naruto always put up a fight, wanting to stay up and watch TV. They always won in the end though and sooner or later he would give in.

It took a while for Naruto to get into bed, as it always did since he probably couldn’t even find it with all the shit piling over it, but when he finally did he was out like a light. I envied him for that. He had no problem getting to sleep while I lay here night after night, kept up by the oddest things. The moonlight bothered me sometimes. It reminded me of night that Itachi killed our parents and burned our house down.

Staring at the ceiling for a while I went over the memory again as I had done thousands of times before. Hatred and anger filled me. How could he have done it? Turning over I buried my head under my pillow and tried to suffocate the memory.

My hand was cold. That’s what I first registered before I felt something smooth slide over my skin. Startled I sat up suddenly and looked around but there was nothing there. Slowly I relaxed and realized that I must have been imagining things again. The metal frame of my bed was cold like what I had felt and I must have unknowingly touched it. I was getting jumpy and that wasn’t good.

Running a hand through my hair I looked over at Naruto’s bed and saw that he wasn’t in it. Once he was out he usually didn’t move until someone forced him to. Getting up I went to go look for him. My mouth was dry anyway and I wanted a glass of water from the kitchen.

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes I headed downstairs, listening for sounds of Naruto but so far I heard nothing. He could wait though and I grabbed a glass from the cupboard, filling up to the top before drinking it all down. I didn’t bother to take another with me and placed the glass in the sink.

My eyes narrowed in confusion as I heard a noise I had never heard before. It was like something hard being pulled out of something wet and tight, like bone out of the meat. There was a flash of white out of the corner of my eye and I snapped my head to the side but nothing was there. Nothing in the kitchen matched the flash I had seen and it unnerved me. Maybe I really did need to get more sleep.

I figured that Naruto had probably gotten up to go the bathroom, since I didn’t hear him anywhere, and was now was back in bed. Deciding I’d check and see I quickly left the kitchen, wanting to put these hallucinations out of my mind as well. Heading back to the stairs I paused with my foot on the first step. It was that noise again.

Turning around quickly I scanned the area but still there was nothing there. I couldn’t still be hearing things, could I? The sound of metal scrapping against metal grated on my ears and made me shiver. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.

Silence.

It was eerie considering what I had just heard and I nearly jumped out of my skin as something fell down the top half of the stairs. Holding my breath I slowly turned back around. My eyes widened at the sight before me. The shadows were moving and from them a single shadow detached itself and came foreward.

No, not a shadow, it was a head. A head was emerging from the shadows and with it spilled long, shiny, black hair. A moment after a hand came out as well, pale and stark white. I couldn’t move, too shocked by what I was seeing to process anything else.

The head kinked to the side before it lifted its face. Golden eyes stood out from the purple surrounding it and the pale whiteness that reminded me of a doll’s. Its nails scratched against the wood as it began crawling its way down the stairs and I automatically started backing up, knocking over the floor lamp in my haste to get away.

My foot got tangled in the cord and I fell, cutting my hand on the broken light bulb fragments. I glanced at the wound and when I looked back my breath was sucked from me as those golden eyes were merely inches from my face. An evil chuckle escaped the creature, the chuckle of a man’s voice, and before I could react its teeth had embedded itself in my neck.

Jerking away and shoving at the creature I was shocked as I hit the floor, the sheets tangled around my waist and preventing me from moving. Naruto was snoring in his bed and there was no other sound except for my own breathing. It had been a dream then. I had never had a dream like that before.

Taking a shuttering breath I untangled myself from the sheets. I was shaking slightly as I headed to the bathroom to splash water on my face. Gripping the counter I forced myself to think of nothing for a moment before meeting my eyes in the mirror.

“It can’t be…” On my shoulder was a bite wound. I ran my fingers over it to make sure it was really there. It was real. I could feel the imprint of each tooth imbedded in my skin.

Letting my hand drop I stood there a moment longer before going back to my room. I sat on my bed and leaned against the wall, listening to Naruto snore. It was comforting in an odd way.

I didn’t think I was going to be able to get back to sleep tonight.

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