Parallel Lines | Naruto

𝟕| Rewritten History

A trail of blood followed him along until his feet had taken him to the harbour. Sasuke could feel the searing etches of the blade continuously slicing through the layers of his skin, but he couldn't care less, not when he had felt it a million times before.

There was something mystical about the port whose only source of light was the redness of the moon above and the light of the bombs fulminating in the near distance. Lights bounced off the reflection of the water and Sasuke found himself in a trance as he eyed his surroundings as if he'd never anything like it before, unsuspecting of the Tenebris that gravitated towards him like a magnet.

The port and the ships were deserted as the battle raged on in the interior of the Howling Wolf, but the barrels and containers stocked inside the large vessels indicated that the rogue hoard were planning on relocating after tonight's festival- not that it was happening anymore. When Sasuke gazed at the ocean before it, it was if he was staring into a sea of blood as the moon's rays reflected its light upon the vast expanse.

He didn't know why he was here. The moment the shard cracked and he had tasted the power of the pothole above— the mission he was assigned no longer mattered. If Sasuke could absorb its power, then he no longer needed the control Orochimaru had promised, it substituted for the drugs he recklessly consumed, mimicking its feeling and making him feel nothing but pure euphoria. The reserve would be enough for him to obliterate lands, to destroy masses.

The Ankoku too.

"Sasuke."

The voice felt like a warm touch of an old friend brushing gently against the surface of his cold skin and he stilled, not due to its veridical presence but because it had been long since someone had uttered his name with such softness, as if he was an old folk song and them, a bard who had the ability to captivate others with their mere words.

He looked around, left and right. It must've been the energy he was drunk off because through his vision blurred by the prospect of imminent power, he could've sworn he'd seen something, or someone, a figment he had desperately tried to materialise through the endless consumption of drugs but not even the poisonous substance could recreate the feeling of something totally and utterly real.

"Don't." It whispered and Sasuke lifted his fingers to grasp the gentle, golden luminescence that wafted in the air. "It'll destroy you. You'll disappear and you won't remember."

"Remember what?" The words fell from his lips in a low murmur, he didn't even know if he was speaking, the buzzing in his veins was the sledgehammer that destroyed the walls between reality and make-believe. But this was what he wanted, right? To not believe?

After all, belief and faith was what had been his fateful downfall. To believe in anything other than himself would shatter his stability, or what remained of it.

"Don't erase me."

His eyes flickered white. His gaze latched onto the ship docked furthest away and he began his pursuit.

Erase? Sasuke had erased every shred of who he used to be and replaced it with vile, impenetrable ink that stained his skin black and seeped through the remote ruptures of his soul. He had killed hundreds over the years, he had burnt down an entire village regardless of its inhabitants in the blink of an eye and he wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Blood did not stain his hands, it blanketed his bones. He severed all ties that tethered him to his past, to the people he used to know and those who left him, but even then, time nor power could erase one inconvenience fused completely into his soul.