Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Bleeding Delusion ❯ Lamb ( Chapter 4 )

“Why do you wear that ribbon around your neck?”

“I will tell you one day, but today is not that day.”

---

Uzumaki Naruto wore a dark indigo ribbon around his neck.

When the sun's light danced upon the cloth, the silk would
reflect something redder; a dark, burgundy wine, or maybe,
more accurately, the murky crimson of drying blood.

The stiff, jaunty bow it was tied into was always beneath his
right jaw, at the juncture between his neck and shoulder.

(Sometimes, when he though no one was watching, he would
gently prod at the midpoint of the tie and wince a little in pain.)

Uzumaki Naruto never took this ribbon off.

---

Uchiha Sasuke was a smart boy. He could tell by the way
Uzumaki Naruto wore the ribbon, the way he made sure it did
not get wet or too dirty, that it was important. Significant. He
would ask Naruto about the strip of silk daily.

It was something of a regular ritual. The same question yielded
the same answer. Every day. It was also responded to with a
secretive smile—almost sad and regretful, but lately, each passing
day that smile became more jovial—so the questions became
more frequent. From every day, to every morning and night,
to every meal. But the answer remained the same.

Uchiha Sasuke wondered when the “not today” would come.
(“Curiosity killed the cat,” Sasuke-kun.)

---

Patience worn thin and curiosity overrunning his common sense,
Sasuke slowly, anxiously, untied the bow with trembling hands,
carefully pulling it apart.

It grew dark as the clouds obscured the light.
The moon was hiding.

And underneath, in a shade so dark that it made Naruto look
pale, there was a distinct marking on the skin where the middle
of the bow had rested.

Three comma-like symbols that seemed to mock the Sharingan's
formation …so familiar, they were so familiar… and bright blue
eyes opened in surprise and shock and the only emotion Sasuke
could discern was reflected betrayal.

And anguish.

“Why couldn't you wait?” Mourning poured from lifeless words,
only confusion and a growing foreboding to greet it.

Panicked words—“Two days, Sasuke, two days and we would
have been free. I would have been free”—and with a flare of
chakra from the black stain, the blue irises were engulfed by black
pupils. Dead eyes, discolored and faded to a slate-grey, stared
back at him. Echoing everything.

Uncontrollably shivering, Sasuke fought the urge to wrap his
fingers around Naruto's neck and choke the death from his body.

And the world faded away, bleeding into oblivion.

---

“Naruto-kun,” the snake hissed, sneer evident,”
are you sure you know what you are doing?”

A determined nod. He braced himself for the
prickling pain of fangs puncturing his skin, but
all he could feel was the weight of catastrophe
settling itself upon his soul—a minute lick, a
wetness on his collarbone—and he knew.
Not his soul anymore, it was Orochimaru's.

“The seal will deactivate once our specified date
has passed—so on your sixteenth birthday, dear
little Kyuubi, you will be free from my grasp.
If, however, the ribbon is pulled off for any reason
before the year after next, you are mine”

A shaky grin and understanding: `You won't be able
to keep the ribbon on for long' was the underlying laughter.

“…All for Sasuke-kun's sake, right Naruto-kun?”

That wasn't right, this decision was definitely compelled
by reason of saving Sasuke, but it wasn't just for him.

“It's for all of ours.”

And somehow, that wasn't right either.

---

Whispers in the dark.

“You don't know what you've done.”

“Tell me, please,” a begging prince, desiring enlightenment.

There was no emotion in Naruto's face—it was as if his
soul had leaked from his eyes and drained from his body—as he
replied. Finally.

“I made a deal with him. That Sannin, Orochimaru. For your
freedom, I would wear this cursed seal for two years. I would
wear this ribbon.”

`two days.'

“There were two days left of that contract to be upheld.”

`lost.'

“And you untied my ribbon...”

`you've unraveled my life.'

“...and now, I am his.”

And Naruto, the beautiful blond, the beautiful blue eyes, his
beautiful… disappeared. Into thin air.

The moon re-emerged from its hiding spot behind the clouds.

And blood was soaking his hands.

`Good-bye.'

---

This one seems darker than the last. It's based on this Halloween/"Scary Story" I read during my early years at grade school.. I think it was second or third grade. There was a woman who had a ribbon around her neck, and her husband would ask her why she wore it. She would always say, "I'll tell you someday." And when that day arrived, she asked him to take the ribbon off her neck, and when he did, her head fell off. The end.