青い骨の美 - The Beauty of Blue Bones

Chapter 41

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Sasuke was never scared of the dark.

From the time he had been able to sleep in his own room, he never relied on a night light and he prided himself on it. Even when nightmares became a frequent occurrence after his brother had killed his family, he saw to it that such a fear would never manifest itself. So, he sat out at night, or in the caves during his travels, with nothing but his cloak pulled close. A fire would only be built if the night was cold, but never for the sake of illuminating the darkness that surrounded him.

He was never scared of the dark until he found himself plummeting into an abyss. The absence of any light was accompanied with the mere thought of the unknown clawing at him and taking bits of himself away.

He could feel Naruto at his side yet he couldn't see him. The darkness had successfully snuffed what little light the Uzumaki was known to harbour. The fear that permeated in the air, a mix of his own as well as the multitude of mummers and painful groans, made his throat clench and his limbs lose all feeling.

Then came that thick sludge that he was pulled through, it coated his body and made the hair at the nape of his neck stand up. If Sasuke had to describe such a feeling, it would be walking through the heavy rains of Ame while being covered in thick mud. It was cold, oddly sticky, and made his stomach turn.

Purple light appeared soon after and Sasuke felt grateful that there was just something his eyes could latch onto instead of conjuring up faces and bodies near him. He felt himself sigh before he realized that he could breathe, and feeling soon returned in his body.

He looked around, trying to catch some sort of glimpse of Naruto or anyone for that matter. It took him a while to see the floating blond haired man hovering above the purple light.

His eyes were transfixed on the light, his face pale as he peered into it with fear so palpable that Sasuke could practically taste it. He didn't know what Naruto had been staring at until he joined him and stared at the opening in the chasm.

There she was; her hair covering her face, dripping wet as she heaved. The Shinigami stood behind her, his mask moved to the side to reveal the same pale eyed byakugan that Sasuke and Naruto had found themselves familiar with. His face was cracked, black lines running over the greyish skin, reminiscent of the same black veins that covered Hinata when he had first laid eyes on her.

Sasuke felt his heart lurch forward when the Shinigami grabbed her head, and pushed it into water. They watched her flail around, bubbles forming in the dark, murky liquid, a testament to her struggle before she emerged again heaving. Her face was pink, her eyes bloodshot as her nails bled from how much she gripped the chains around her wrist.

"Hinata." Naruto muttered, then screamed, trying his best to catch her attention.

When Chō said that they had traded places, Sasuke didn't know what to prepare himself for, but it was definitely not this. At the back of his head, he would never imagine that he would witness someone that he loved being purposely held under water as a form of torment.

His pity for Chō, finally realizing that this is what she had been trying to escape, intensified the longer he listened to Hinata struggle and Naruto scream. At some point, he too began yelling for her to look at them, for her to realize that they were there too.

It was as if there was a sound barrier between them and her. So, over and over again, they watched as Hinata was tortured while they too felt as if they were being broken. Their hatred for Chō intensified, pity overwashed with anger as they banged against the invisible barrier that kept them separated.