Naruto: The Seraph Project

Chapter 27: See What I See and Understand Me

Since I plan to pack some of his things once at his apartment, I brought my bag. Also, I offered my spare sandals to Naruto. Fortunately, we have about the same shoe size; I feared he would have to accommodate to them like my oversized clothes. These at his feet, I open the door of my home for the first time since I host the feral teenager. As I suspected, Naruto shows reluctance to come out and just stands there with his head down.

"Come on. Everything will be all right. You are with me, Naruto," I reassure him, extending my hand to him with a cheerful face. "No one will hurt you in the slightest."

The sapphire-eyed boy freezes in place as his eyes don't leave my hand, so much that he has stopped blinking ... but what worries me is his hands clasping together on his chest before taking a step back. I frown, confused; I observe my hand in order to find the reason for his abrupt reaction which resembles fear. Not helping the situation, his bluish irises contemplating the void seem very dark to me all of a sudden.

When his breath quickens a bit, I gently close the door and approach cautiously. He jumps when I place my palms on his shoulders.

"Naruto," I softly call out. "What's wrong?"

Naruto avoids my gaze; at that, a tear slides down his cheek. I clench my fingers in his shoulders in spite of myself as my black eye tries to connect with his blue ones.

"Naruto! You have to tell me what's going on! It doesn't matter how! I can't guess!"

The blond grinds his teeth before starting to shake. Looking at his furrowed brows, I cannot decipher his emotions. Anger? Fear? Sadness? A mixture of the three? I have absolutely no idea. Nevertheless, I am determined not to let him go and force him to tell me in his own way what is wrong, to push him beyond his limits if necessary. I don't know what I could have done to put him in such emotional shock, but as long as Naruto remains silent, unable to communicate, I will do it again in spite of myself. Although unlikely, I want to avoid losing this bond of trust with him at all costs.

"Naruto!" I insist once more, raising my voice, causing him to jump.

Naruto makes a barely audible complaint. For my part, I still try to plunge my gaze into his, which dodges me as if his life depended on it. After the time of a breath, he lowers his head and seems to calm down little by little despite the persistent jolts. He then puts a hand to his throat, which he squeezes hard enough to scratch his skin. Before I can stop him, Naruto releases his own grip; his sharp fingernails briefly scarred his neck with reddish, invisible scratches. Hesitantly, he slowly brings his trembling hands to my face. Apprehensively, I let him touch me. His cold palms on my cheeks tickle me with their painless shocks of electricity and his claws gently prick my skin. In response, I hold my breath.

Naruto looks up; his irises shining like a thousand raging fires seize mine. From then on, I can no longer break this eye contact as my whole body refuses to obey me; to this, even my mind cannot construct the slightest thought. Time becomes an abstract notion. My senses don't know how to translate the outside world anymore. An icy cold spreads in my flesh, in my veins, causing imaginary chilblains; infernal tingling proliferates in all my muscles, in my epidermis.

There's only me and Naruto left in this universe that has ceased to exist.

Suddenly, Naruto disappears like a mirage on the misty seas. Freed from this strange trance to which I was a slave of it, from all these sensations that assailed my body, I look around me. Confused, I raise an eyebrow. I am alone. I am no longer at home. I'm in an unfamiliar hallway with dirty walls and worn out by time. They are motionless, but I have the feeling that they become narrower and narrower with each blink of an eye; a nameless terror seizes me when these walls stick to my skin. With jerky breath, I close my eye and stretch out my arms to push them away... However, my hands only touch the void. By opening my eyelid, I see that they have returned to their initial position.