And No Other

I hereby declare that I claim no rights to NARUTO © 1999 by Kishimoto Masashi/SHUEISHA Inc. and recieve no monetary benefit for any narrative I publish hereafter based on this manga or any of its other media adaptations. Warnings are in place for slash (male on male coupling), graphic sexual content, violence, strong language, discrimination and manga spoilers. -Xtase Hello again, my readers. Welcome to chapter one. I got quite a few responses for my prologue for my unusual take on the Uchiha massacre. I was also asked quite a few questions and I shall answer them here to the best of my ability. I have essentially eliminated Itachi from the equation deliberately. Now some of you may wonder what Sasuke's motivation to get stronger will be. The answer is quite simple and straightforward, have you guessed it? There is also a good reason why Itachi commited such a glaring error in regard to Sasuke's botched assassination. Let it also be said that Itachi will not be considered a homocidal psychopath (the details of which you will also see later on). Now you may think that there is no way to solve the mystery of the massacre, but I assure you there are clues. I have considered all this as carefully as I could. That is all I can say without spoiling the story for you. And where does Naruto come into all of this? We'll see... Sasuke was lost in the empty darkness. For a little while only. For that short, infinite gap of time the sleepy abyss yawned and swallowed him up. Nothingness doesn't feel like nothingness. It's like a breeze you can almost feel, it's like smoke rising from incense. You can almost feel its warmth - its softness. He could...almost feel it. But he was no longer a being that possessed form and substance. He didn't know his name, who he was, indeed what he was. He only knew that his soul existed, like a little pinprick of light. Sometimes in waves, sometimes in particles, floating and sinking. For that brief, endless stretch of time. Then out of the black... Fump. A dull reverberation invades his anti-conciousness. A faint woody thump; like a forgotten object falling in a dusty secret room. A once-beloved, forgotten thing hidden behind heavy doors. Wooden doors; ornately carved oak perhaps, with a heavy iron latch. This vivid image, welling up out of nowhere. Had he already forgotten the concept of imagery in his short time here? Had he forgotten everything besides the blackness? And what was remembering? The vibrations set up a resonance in his rapidly reforming mind. Memory. There had been - things - before the blankness. Great and terrible things. And with memory came identity. Before he could stop it, a thought pierced through the vacuum. Curiosity leads to questions. Questions lead to knowledge. Knowledge leads to thought. Thought leads to awareness. Awareness is existence. I think, therefore I am. And suddenly, Sasuke was. Existance is awareness. To be aware was to feel. There was heat. And beneath it was splintering pain, somewhere south of his ears. And he heard a long, dry whispering noise punctuated by gaps of silence. He felt touch. Some time later, he recognised voice. Like a buzz in his ears; a single voice, low and soft. Then many voices chattering and clamoring together. They made his head hurt. Oh but the drilling in his skull couldn't compare to the mighty agony in his chest. To the south and towards his west, something was wrong there. Something was stuck. He forced himself to breathe, not knowing if it would help or make things worse. It was so difficult...but he tried his best to keep at it. And sure enough a fresh bud of pain blossomed in his heart. Somewhere inside his body he could feel himself spring a leak. It was a pool, a hot slippery pool painting his insides. It hurt so much to breathe, it hurt too much to think. An so he let go, careening softly back into the unknown. If he had stayed awake any longer he would have felt himself being lifted up and away. Yes; this is disappointingly short, I know. But this is all I can manage for now. I will post the next chapter tomorrow. Next time things heat up! Peace.