Alchemy

4,2) OMINOUS CONNECTIONS

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Naruto:

I sat in the library clutching a book so tightly pages groaned beneath my grip attempting drown out ennui of loneliness that plagued me. Utter silence and boredom had become quotidian in the meaningless and indolent existence I had lead.

End it. I thought optimistically. End it. It would be quick it would be painless.

But the primordially dark entity residing inside me would never let me go, unless I freed it from this place.

Ever since my twelfth birthday I had been a jinjuriki. One of the nine tailed beasts known as biju had been sealed into my body by my own father. I hated him for it. Why would one ever burden one's own son in this way. I was now forced to live as one with the Nine-tailed fox. I hated it but not nearly as much as it hated me.

The Nine-tails had promised me a wealth of power, riches and myriad of other prizes it exchange for its freedom.

For escaping this place was a feat that even it with its immeasurable strength and astute mind couldn't achieve.

Sadly I would never be able to free the nine-tailed fox; for not only was it a feat I was incapable of but it would mean forfeiting my life. Not that I had much of a life anyway. In truth -to the world and to myself- I had died 6 years ago.

Even if I wanted to escape I couldn't so for the rest of my days we would be trapped here, forced to tolerate each other's presence.

A complex collection of Uzumaki clan fuinjutsu permanently bound me and therefore the monster inside me inside this infernal place. An intangible boundary encompassed both the castle and the surrounding forest.

Not that I had anywhere else I wanted to be. Not while I was stuck like this. Not after all I had done and had continued to do

We were one in the same the Nine tails and I. two sides of the same rusted coin. I was as much of a monster as it was. It pulled the strings the my heart coercing me to do its bidding. To kill all who foolishly stepped into the boundaries of the curse. To feed its insatiable blood lust.

There were only a few rare hours like this one, were my mind belonged to me and me alone. Hours when its cynical and grotesque voice didn't drone on in my head. I would savour these hours when I was truly alone.

Even if it was in these moments when the onslaught of boredom plagued me or I dwelled down into the dark recesses of my mind reliving the most ominous of memories.

Then I felt something -someone- enter the the barrier.

My acute senses picked up its every move.

My head pounded at echoing sound of its footsteps on the garden path.

My fingers trembled in response to the saccharine scent of its blood.

I don't know why I still resisted after all the times the nine-tailed fox had extinguished the tiny embers of will.

The fox knew me better than I knew myself I supposed. It saw what I saw. It heard my thoughts, saw my nightmares and my memories.

It knew how to torment me when it wanted to. It knew how to twist and bend me to its will. I was like a tree in a storm. It was be broken or relent and allow my resolve to be shattered. When the nine tails possessed me I was hardly more than a marionette, struggling to speak, to act past the commands of the puppet master.

My legs moved on its own. I stood up and walked out of the library towards the prey. I foolishly resisted tearing into the wooded door frame with my now long nails.

I knew that if I killed once more I would be killing my humanity.

"Oh so you know what this means do you. Come on give in. Remember what you said back then on that fateful day. 'I will destroy everything in my path. Nothing matters to me anymore, the world is my enemy. There's far too much hatred in this world and in your heart for you to take on directly. I've me the power. Fee me and I shall make them suffer!"

My eyes watered and as I caught a glimpse of myself in one of the many shattered mirrors in the place; I saw that my irises were crimson.

The beast had taken over. I wish that I could say that I had fallen into a deep sleep and that the nine tails was solely responsible for the atrocities committed. I wish that I could say that my will was totally separated from its will. But that would would be a lie.

A girl around my age wandered through the house. Her clothes were of a fine-make signifying a degree of wealth. What was she doing her? I wondered. I couldn't see her face only her back as she walked up the stairs.

I was a prisoner in my own body, as I watched the nine tails stalk her as she moved through the house, because the nine-tails was who now controlled my body not me.

She knew that I was there-somehow. She knew that that i was there watching-waiting. Maybe it was because the way the Nine-tails flagrantly stalked her through the meandering corridors. Or perhaps it was due to the atavistic nature of prey to know when they were being hunted.

She knew yet she did not run. The nine-tails did everything in its power to drum up fear inside her but she stood indomitable. She knew that there was no escape and had likely accepted her fate.

In that second-in that moment-I would forever admire her.
To feel the brunt of the Nine-tails' hatred and killing intent and not show any visible signs of fear.

Her pale fingers gripped the doorknob of the door leading to the castle's western tower and the moment was over. I panicked for if she entered that tower she would uncover-no I refused to even think of it. I had to stop her, clearly the Nine-tails had the same idea as it grabbed her from behind.

She was as good as dead yet she still fought; thrusting her elbow back hitting my chest. It was futile as although the Nine-tails hissed, it recovered quickly and tightened its grip.

She pivoted in my-the Nine-tails' arms until she could see my face and I could see hers.

In that moment I feel the Nine-tails recoil clawing at the walls of my mind and little by little my consciousness slipped back as I gazed into her eyes.

There were no words to describe those beautiful, depthless eyes. They invoked images of fields of lavender governed over by a pearl-coloured, waning moon and countless stars swimming in an infinite sea of indigo night. I couldn't remember where I had seen those eyes before, but somewhere deep inside my soul I knew that I had gazed into her eyes before.

She gasped and her pastel-pink lips parted whispering one word which seemed to echo in the quiescent and catatonic air...

One word which reverberated in my skull freezing my body.
"Naruto?" she whispered. My name.

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