Н‘¾Ð‘¯Ð‘¬Ð‘Μ Ð‘»Ð‘¯Ð‘¬ Н‘¾Ð‘°Ð‘Μ𝑫 Н‘©Ð‘³Ð‘¶Ð‘¾Ð‘º €¢Ð’Ƒ𝒙Н’Ƒ• Some scars never heal

AN: WARNING! SENSITIVE THEMES!

_

Without a word, Akashi silently got off the bed. “Nii-chan?” Naruto asked from behind him… but he didn’t turn around, he just kept on walking. There was no way to take back what he had just found out about. There was no way to make things better. So he did the only thing he could do in that moment. He walked away… with heavy steps… he walked away.

He was already in too much pain.

_

After that, Naruto had gone on a mission with Jiraiya and Sakura. The redhead would have been tasked with going with them, but since he was suspended, he was not permitted to go. When he found out he wouldn’t leave with them, he was filled with a sense of relief. He wouldn’t have to spend more time with Naruto. Naruto… Just thinking about him brought Akashi pain.

The burning. The loneliness. The empty feeling.

He didn’t hear from Kakashi for a while, which was surprising, since the man always seemed to pop out out of nowhere. Well… not that it mattered, Akashi had nothing important to say to him. He was walking through the, unusually, empty streets of Konoha, and thinking about what he was supposed to do now.

So he walked aimlessly through the streets. Until, of course, someone had to bump into him. Since he wasn’t paying attention, he had no time to try and prevent his own fall. His backside harshly met the ground underneath him and he let out a wince. “Damn it!” He hissed out, placing his palms on each side to not roll onto his back. He felt a stinging sensation come from his left palm.

Raising it up for inspection, he saw a thick trail of blood mixed in with the dust. “You’re kidding me”. Sighing out, he prepared to get up to his feet, when an extended hand appeared in front of his eyes. Glancing up, he was met with awfully familiar moss green eyes and a warm smile.

“I’m so sorry about that! Here, let me help you up”. The stranger apologized, his ebony black hair invoking a harsh throb of pain inside Akashi. The boy’s smile fell when he noticed Akashi didn’t take his hand. Just as Akashi expected him to leave, to his surprise, the boy crouched in front of him.

“I apologize if I’ve offended you in any way”. His too polite tone and too fake smile annoyed Akashi to no end. He was still in a sensitive mood, so he acted without thinking. The other boy was pushed away, his own backside meeting the hard ground under them. He let out a small wince at the impact, but Akashi felt no remorse.

“Stay out of my way”. He bit out, pushing himself off the ground, leaving a bloody mark. The other boy grimaced and stood up, not even bothering to clean himself from the dirt which stained his pants. Akashi clenched his fist and stuffed both hands inside his pockets, ignoring his bleeding palm.

Without another word, he walked past the ebony-haired male, ignoring the way his mouth opened up to say something.

Great… his mood was further ruined by what just happened.

What was he supposed to do now? He had nothing he wanted to do, nothing he had to do… Then, he remembered. The chains. The Adamantine Sealing Chains! He still had no idea how to use them on command. They only appeared when he was in desperate need.

Then, with a new goal in mind, Akashi made his way back to his apartment. Which is most definitely the perfect place to practice destructive chains.

_

An hour later, he found himself sitting on his bed, trying, and failing, to summon the golden chains. No matter what he did, they wouldn’t come out. Sighing, he dropped back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling, wondering what he was doing wrong. Why won’t they come out? Is there something he must do before that? No matter what questions he asked, he found no answer.

…

…

Like a light bulb went off in his head, he snapped up into a sitting position. “That’s it!” He exclaimed. He got it all wrong! He kept seeing the chains as some sort of weapon, but it was so much more than that! It was an extension of his Chakra! He extended his hand in front of himself and faced his open palm towards the ceiling. Closing his eyes, he focused.

He imagined his Chakra going to his shoulder, down his arm and into his palm, then… he-. His eyes widened when the chain just burst out of his hand, and into the ceiling above him. He hurriedly pointed his palm towards the table, and it changed direction. It quickly pierced through one of the table legs, making the table crash to the floor. After that, the chain just kept on going.

Akashi frantically tried to stop it, but it was no use. Stop! He yelled inside his mind and to his surprise, the chain immediately halted. He took a deep breath, and forced himself to calm down. After a few moments, the chain slowly started receding back into his hand. Sighing, he fell back onto his bed. He felt drained. He had no mastery over this new technique, and because of that, it takes up too much Chakra to use it.

Also… he peered at the broken table on the ground. He’s gonna have to fix that… somehow. He clicked his tongue once the piercing pain in his other palm came back. He raised his left hand and noticed that the wound was slowly closing up. In the past, without his own healing technique, the wounds would close up by themselves because of the Nine-Tails.

Even the worse of them…

He absentmindedly touched his uncovered neck, trailing his finger over the thick scar that rested there.

Even the worse of them…

Slowly closing his eyes, he let his hand fall down as he was taken by his memories.

_

It was night, in the middle of winter. The full moon was cloaking all of Konoha in a pale cold light. The village looked nothing like itself, the lush trees by which it was known by, had discarded their leaves, instead letting the white snow coat their branches.

Two boys, one blond and the other red-haired, were running through the dark alleyways, the ones which couldn’t even be reached by the moon’s ominous rays. The redhead had his hand wrapped around the other boy’s wrist, pulling him forward as the thuds of much heavier feet resounded behind them.

“Nii-chan… I can’t anymore…”. The blond one whispered as he was harshly being dragged forward. The other boy didn’t stop his movement, instead, he even sped up.

“Just a little bit more, hang on, please…”. He continued his harsh tugging, but their legs were too small, too easy to catch up to.

As the heavy thuds came closer and closer, the snow crunching under the force, the redhead turned around just in time to see a big shadow behind his younger brother. He tried to pull him forward, to escape from the the man’s clutches, but it was no use.

“Naruto!” He screamed in a high-pitched voice, one which belonged to that of a small child, and watched as his brother was ripped away from him. “Let him go!” He had demanded, before, he too, was ripped away from him. Strong, thick hands wrapped around his neck, pulling him back. The force of the pull made him gasp and his throat painfully constricted.

He was thrown to the ground and pinned down. He couldn’t move a muscle.

“Nii-chan!” He tried to struggle as he heard Naruto’s yell, but his hands were pinned into the snow and he could already feel the wetness that soaked through his shirt. His bare feet were numb from the snow, and he could barely feel his fingers.

“Naruto!” He yelled back, voice breaking at the high volume. “Let us go! Why are you doing this?!” He demanded, but the man above him chuckled and the one holding Naruto joined him. Their laughter sounded like squealing pigs.

“Oh? The little demon is making demands now?” He asked, a grin climbing onto his fattened face. His crooked teeth looked like rotted corn and his breath smelled like acid. “We can’t have that, can we?” Akashi couldn’t see Naruto from behind the man, but he could hear that he was also struggling.

Then, dread filled him when the man trailed one, fat finger down his flushed cheek. “I’m gonna shut you up real nice… or, who knows, maybe you’ll make even more noise”. Akashi whimpered at his words, making the man’s grin widen. “I am going to enjoy this… you? Not so much, I suppose”. The man’s other hand settled on his stomach, slowly slipping down.

Akashi clenched his eyes shut, small, translucent tears slipping down his red cheeks. Shivers racked through his body and by now, his clothes were completely soaked. That didn’t seem to stop the man, since he pushed the soaked shirt up, exposing the boy to the ruthless cold even further. “Don’t worry, you’ll be warm soon enough”. Akashi shook his head .

“Stop… please stop…”. He whimpered, begged, his lips could barely form words because of the cold.

The man raised on finger to his lips. “Shh, it’ll all be over soon”. He resumed what he was doing. Akashi felt the man’s skin touch his own, cold one, and he couldn’t help but flinch back. In reply, the man pressed on his stomach, forcing him even further into the snow. Akashi gasped as the breath was knocked out of his lithe frame.

Once the pressure was released, he took a grateful breath. He felt the man lean forward and once he felt the hot tongue on the side of his neck, Akashi cried out. “Stop! Please! I don’t want this!” The man hummed at his words, before pulling back.

“Shut up, little one, we’ll have so much fun together”. He gently whispered, grabbing the band of the boy’s small shorts. He started pulling it down, revealing unblemished, white skin. “Your skin is so soft… and you smell so nice… too bad you’re a little demon”. He leaned down, his rough scruff scratching along the boys soft skin. He took an inhale of breath once his nose touched the boy’s stomach. “Smells nice, indeed”.

“Hey, what do we do with the other one?”. The man momentarily paused once the other one behind him asked. He turned around and glanced at the, still, struggling Naruto. Thick tears were streaming down his face and his cheeks were flushed red. He was also glaring at the man.

“Do with him as you like… I don’t like the way he’s looking at me”. He turned back to the redhead underneath him, the grin ever present on his face.

Then, Naruto yelped as he was thrown to the ground. “Oh, I’ll do him alright”. Once Akashi heard the unbuckling of a belt, he bolted up, surprising the man above him. He knocked his forehead against his nose, an immediate crunch resounded. The man’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as his back hit the snow.

“Get away from him!” Lunging forward, almost slipping on the snow, he trampled over the man on the ground. The one above Naruto glanced back just in time to see Akashi slam a rock into his face. The man fell backwards, the world around him spinning from the force of the hit. Akashi straddled him, legs on each side, and raised the rock above the man’s head.

“I’ll kill you!” He brought the rock down with all his might. A sickening crack echoed through the dark alleyway and multiple ones followed, until the only sounds left were the splats and crunches of continuous hits. Akashi continuously slammed the rock onto the man’s face, he hit and hit and hit until the man didn’t have a face anymore.

He released his hold on the rock and it rolled out of his palm, the snow stopping its movement. Even in the dark, Akashi could clearly see the dark red splotches of blood that stained the pure white snow. He was breathing harshly, adrenalin coursing through his veins.

When he looked in front of himself, he saw that Naruto was still lying in the wet snow, whole frame shivering. Akashi stood up and wobbled his way over to his frightened brother. He dropped to his knees in front of him, forcing a smile on his face. “You’re okay… we’re okay…”. He reached a hand forward, but once a scream came from his brother, he didn’t have time to look back.

Something cold pressed onto his throat.

“Move and I cut it”. The man forced out, sounding nasally. Akashi swallowed and felt the knife brush against his skin. “You gave me quite a surprise back there… you’re gonna pay for breaking my nose, little one”. A crack made him flinch and he could only guess that the man set his bone back.

“You just doomed your little brother… I’m going to have so much fun with him”. Then, as if some sort of switch was flipped, Akashi whipped around. The man flinched back out of surprise, causing him to flick his wrist to the side. The knife in his hand cut clean through the boy’s skin, letting out an immediate stream of blood. The redhead clamped a hand over the cut, trying and failing to stop the blood from flowing.

It just kept slipping through his fingers.

The snow around the man’s feet was stained with drops of blood, even more dripping in that moment. He peered at the boy in front of him and a gasp left his lips when he noticed he was still standing on his feet. He fell onto his backside, the snow softening the impact, and shuffled backwards, away from the redhead.

The boy’s body racked with a shiver with each step he took. No matter how fast the man was crawling backwards, the boy caught up with him. The knife fell out of the man’s hand, dropping into the snow next to him, and he froze in place, as if the snow around him had caged him.

Akashi staggered forward until he was right above the man. He dropped down, with each knee on either side of the man. As his hand fell from his throat, the man let out a whimper. “Demon…”. He mumbled, seeing the sizzling blood, seeing the skin already knitting itself back together.

He saw the boy reach for the knife on the side, and as he raised it over his head, the man saw.

The blood covering his pale, white skin, made a horrific scene.

He realized the last thing he would see…

Were those bright red eyes, glaring through the dark red hair.

“Demon”. And the knife was brought down.