Naruto : Monsters

As soon as the Academy had ended I had set off, stopping only twice on my way here. Once to pick up a discarded kunai from a random training field, and second to make sure I wasn't being followed.

I wasn't.

No one knows I'm here.

...

So where had I gone wrong? At the shrine? Did I make a mistake there? Had I disturbed anything? No, I made sure to return everything to its proper place after I finished searching for the room's entrance. 

It had been a pain to pull off, but I meticulously returned everything to its exact position. I even made sure to return the tatami mat covering the entrance in its proper place as I shut the door behind me. I hadn't left any signs that I was ever there.

Then why hasn't he come down?

Unless…

Did he spot me?

Was he…was he watching me right now?

How? How was that possible? If he could see me then I should be able to see him. The wooden stairs blocked our view from the other, so he couldn't have seen me. Then what? Why wasn't he-

*creek*

My mind froze as the stairs groaned, straining as it bore the weight of someone making their way down.

His footsteps were slow and cautious, making it feel like an eternity had passed between each step. With each step my instincts screamed, demanding me to act, to move, to attack, to do something, anything but I fought the instinct down. Instead, I crouched down ever so slowly, making myself smaller, before remaining completely motionless.

A lifetime must have passed before he reached the bottom of the stairs, but I managed to keep myself still the entire time, and I was finally rewarded when I caught sight of him. 

His back was faced towards me when he appeared, only a few feet away, so close that I could almost reach out and touch him. I could tell he was looking at the stone tablet, but all he had to was glance over his shoulder and I'd be spotted.

My instincts screamed, attack - now! - while he still hasn't seen me, while his back was still turned, but again I forced it down.

Not yet…

A little long. Just a little bit longer and I'd get my chance. Soon he'd been too engrossed in reading the stone monument to pay any attention to what's happening around him. Then, and only then I'll attack. But for now, I had to wait.

So I remained crouched in my little corner as I watched him make his way to the stone tablet, each step taking him closer to his goal and father away from me. He soon stepped into the light cast by the flames that bracketed the tablet, allowing me to get my first proper glimpse of him.

His hair was inky black, blending well with the darkness, while his clothing was of dark grey. On his back sat his clan emblem, clear for all to see.

Yes, it was definitely him.

Again I had to fight back the urge to strike.

Not yet…

When he reached the front of the momentum he stopped. He stood before the tablet, motionless and unmoving for a long while. I watched him carefully, looking for any signs. It was then that I noticed the slight turning of his head, from right to left. as he began to read the text.

Now.

Years of training was put to the test as I took my first step forward, silent as a shadow. In my head, I could hear my trainers telling how to move my feet and I obeyed instinctively without question. 

With each step I led with my toes, placing it lightly on the ground followed by the balls of my feet before shifting my weight forward in a single smooth motion. 

I didn't make a sound as I strode ahead, taking one step. Then another, and another, slowly but steadily closing the distance between my target and me.

Ten meters turned to eight, and he still hadn't moved. In the time it took you to blink eight meters became to six. Then three, until only two remained.

Then I was within striking distance.

With the kunai held tightly in my hand, in a reverse grip, I raised my arm high and lunged.

I didn't know what went wrong.

I must have made a sound or triggered some kind of sixth sense, because just as I brought the weapon down he stopped reading and began to turn.

It didn't matter.

Too late.

In a motion I had practised a thousand times the kunai dipped downwards and pierced the back of his head, sinking almost hilt deep into his skull.

It was almost anticlimactic how he just collapsed bonelessly onto his knees before flopping face-first onto his front. He never got a chance to do anything, not even see his killer's face.

He was dead before he even hit the ground.

That was how I found myself standing over the corpse, feeling oddly calm. I didn't feel nervous or afraid or anything. All my jitters and nerves were gone as if they were never there to begin with.

I had just committed my first murder and yet I felt so calm that it shocked me. It was surreal. I don't know what I had been expecting but I had expected to feel something...more, I guess? I wasn't sure what, just something. But the only thing that I felt other than calmness was the mild feeling of disbelief.

That's it? That was it? Just like that and it's over? I almost couldn't believe it, but the dead body by my feet told me otherwise. For all of my planning, a part of me honestly didn't believe it would work. 

I thought something would go wrong, in fact, I was sure of it. That I missed something or someone and the whole thing would fall apart at the last second.

But it hadn't.

Everything had gone according to plan.

It was almost…

…easy

Hell, it was easy. That was ridiculously easy.

Was killing really supposed to be that easy?

Then I laughed.

I didn't know why, I just did. Just threw my head back and laughed in that dark room, standing next to a fresh corpse. It wasn't due to shock, I knew that much. 

My hands were steady and my thoughts were too clear for it to be shock. In the end, it may have been the realization of just how twisted this world must be for killing to be so damn easy that I had to laugh.

Then like flipping a switch, I stopped.

Now wasn't the time, I still had work to do. Like making sure that the guy really was dead. Sadly it was a very real possibility. 

While I was sure a kunai to the brain was as dead as you can get, I remembered characters from the show surviving worse. This guy, in particular, was practically a cockroach for all times he survived things that he had no right walking away from, so I wasn't going to risk it.

I had to make sure.

There was surprisingly little blood coming from the body but I was still careful not to get any on me when I slid my foot under his shoulder and flipped him over onto his back.

Uchiha Sasuke stared up at me with empty dead eyes.

Crouching down next to him, I placed my fingers on his throat and searched for a pulse. I found none. Now I was certain. Uchiha Sasuke was dead.

"You know, I'm surprised. I'm honestly surprised on how well that all worked out." I started speaking to the boy as if he could somehow hear me through death. 

"When I first thought of this plan I thought it was going to be impossible. I mean, you're one of the main characters! Do you know how hard it is to kill a main character? 

You guys always seemed to survive impossible situations with the most bullshit excuses that a part of me just couldn't believe that anything I did would ever end up killing any of you. But here we are, me alive and you…" I waved a hand over his corpse, "…dead.

"Well, I guess this just goes to show you that you're not the main character anymore." I leaned down next to the corpse and whispered into his ear, "I am."

...

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