Dreams and Hallucinations, Musings and Meditations (closed)

Satsume Arashi sat in front of the small oasis, relaxing. He was alone for once-something that hadn't happened for more than a few minutes since he returned to the village. Whether it was his friends or his falcons or another police sealing specialist making sure he was cured from the Ruby Kunai's taint and unlikely to turn against his village once again or a psychologist telling him that everything was alright, that he'd recover from having twenty-two years of his life suddenly ripped from him... he sighed a bit to himself.

Satsume never really liked being around people but saw it as a necessity. It was only when he met his friends that began to change, but after so long of not hearing their voices and only seeing their faces when he closed his eyes... he didn't imagine it would bother him this much though. And indeed, it wasn't what bothered him. He never had problems "faking" being social, and that's what he and everyone else needed. What he had a problem with now was his memories. He told the therapist that came by, and a few select others who asked what was -really- wrong with him and not surprisingly they all said something similar: "No, you aren't a monster, Satsume."

But they didn't know what it was like. No matter how much he swore that he would never have done those horrible things without the Kunai, he knew deep down that it didn't make him WANT to, it didn't make him ENJOY the act of slaughter, the spilling of blood, the looks of horror from his victims as he found new, interesting and excruciating ways to execute them by knife or by wind. The Kunai didn't make him slit a child's throat then paint her mother's face with the blood-he chose to do that. The Kunai didn't make him sever a man's arms for standing against him, then let him bleed out as he stabbed his family to death-he chose to do that.

Why couldn't they see this? He TOLD them in his own words! Why would he lie about something like this?! Because they don't know what he went through, they can't know what he went through... so the only way for them to know is to see him do it with their own eyes. Satsume gripped something tight in his hands he hadn't felt there before and raised it to his eyes. There laid a kunai, with a blade made of perfectly cut semi-translucent ruby. He could see his soft smile in his reflection in the blade and in the waters as he stood up, and see that red ring in his eyes that he saw reflected in the pools of his victim's blood.

"Good, now they won't blame me for my actions. I can teach them, I can kill them, and they'll still welcome me back like fools so I can strike again." Nobody was around but him, so he's not quite sure why he said it out loud or why he sounded so... excited, like a child in a candy shop with a new five hundred Ryo bill either. Or why he was laughing as he walked through the village, looking so jovial, so positively enthusiastic even as his eyes searched for a victim. He strolled over towards the Inka Compound, stopping twice in closed alleys to drag in unsuspecting Genin and give them quick (but unfortunately painless) deaths, a slit throat here and a pierced lung there...

But he found his prize when he got to the compound-empty, save for the two men and the one woman of snow-white hair. Kakita Setsuna, Inka Arietta and... whoever her brother was, Satsume never really cared. He rolled the kunai up to his sleeve, went to shake Setsuna's hand... and of course he thought something was wrong, right up until Satsume's shinobi training paid off. The knife slid into his throat just as easily as anyone else's, but he thrusted just a bit harder to knick the spine-and sure enough the powerful swordsman went limp as he bled.

Arietta screamed, Mikoto shouted and readied for a fight and----

...

......

Satsume looked up from the water into the sky, finding his heart beating quickly and he was suddenly very afraid of his reflection.