[Fic] "Set in Stone" -- Naruto
May. 4th, 2010 01:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingA somewhat maudlin ficlet set a year after "The Guardian in Spite of Herself," though not giving away anything about the ending. (Well, it gives away two people who survive, but I am willing to tell you right now that Yukiko, Naruto, Sasuke, and Naga all survive. Beyond that, though, I am not saying.) Anyway, Sasuke understandably still has issues about his family's deaths. (425 words)
[The revised and expanded final version is now up on ff.net.]
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Set in Stone
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"One thing I do," Yukiko told Sasuke shortly before the first anniversary, "is keep one memento for each person. I never got around to setting up a shrine, but I think I prefer them in a box. That way I can take out my precious memories when I want, but they're not always in my face like an accusation."
She paused, walked across the hall into her apartment, and returned with a small wooden box, decorated with a faded hollyhock pattern. "The keepsakes don't have to be anything important, just something to remind you," she said. She unlatched the box and pulled out a shuriken, its edges nicked and dull, one blade slightly warped. "This belonged to my teammate, Ame. She was going to get it reforged, but I lent her one of my shuriken instead. I never got around to dealing with this, and when she died..."
Yukiko shrugged, and put the shuriken back into the box. "Little things. You might try it."
Sasuke thought about it.
That evening, he went back to the still-deserted Uchiha compound and gathered scores of the flat, polished stones that lined the pond, one for every relative he'd lost. He hadn't known everyone well enough to find a personal memento for each person, and it felt wrong to favor some over others, when they were all equal in death. He took the stones home in a suitcase and stacked them on his windowsill, row upon row, until he had to stand on a chair to place the last stones. They blocked the light and were impossible to overlook.
Memory wasn't a gift, to pick up and put away at whim. Memory was a duty.
On the anniversary, he didn't go to school. When Yukiko came into his apartment to check on him, her eyes skipped to the wall of stones, and Sasuke lined up all the challenges he had ready for when she called him stupid. But she just shook her head with a rueful smile.
"I'll get you an end table," she said, "so they won't fall out the window. You never know when you might want some light in the room."
She brought the table upstairs and tucked it into the corner. Then she pulled two stones from the top of the wall, letting in a sliver of morning sun. She turned and handed them to Sasuke. "I can reach higher than you, so let me do this. Arrange them on the table, however you want."
They took down the wall together.
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Inspired by the 5/3/10![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
15_minute_fic word #137: box
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...You know, I think I listen to too much classic rock at work. Pink Floyd is clearly getting to me. *wry*
[The revised and expanded final version is now up on ff.net.]
---------------------------------------------
Set in Stone
---------------------------------------------
"One thing I do," Yukiko told Sasuke shortly before the first anniversary, "is keep one memento for each person. I never got around to setting up a shrine, but I think I prefer them in a box. That way I can take out my precious memories when I want, but they're not always in my face like an accusation."
She paused, walked across the hall into her apartment, and returned with a small wooden box, decorated with a faded hollyhock pattern. "The keepsakes don't have to be anything important, just something to remind you," she said. She unlatched the box and pulled out a shuriken, its edges nicked and dull, one blade slightly warped. "This belonged to my teammate, Ame. She was going to get it reforged, but I lent her one of my shuriken instead. I never got around to dealing with this, and when she died..."
Yukiko shrugged, and put the shuriken back into the box. "Little things. You might try it."
Sasuke thought about it.
That evening, he went back to the still-deserted Uchiha compound and gathered scores of the flat, polished stones that lined the pond, one for every relative he'd lost. He hadn't known everyone well enough to find a personal memento for each person, and it felt wrong to favor some over others, when they were all equal in death. He took the stones home in a suitcase and stacked them on his windowsill, row upon row, until he had to stand on a chair to place the last stones. They blocked the light and were impossible to overlook.
Memory wasn't a gift, to pick up and put away at whim. Memory was a duty.
On the anniversary, he didn't go to school. When Yukiko came into his apartment to check on him, her eyes skipped to the wall of stones, and Sasuke lined up all the challenges he had ready for when she called him stupid. But she just shook her head with a rueful smile.
"I'll get you an end table," she said, "so they won't fall out the window. You never know when you might want some light in the room."
She brought the table upstairs and tucked it into the corner. Then she pulled two stones from the top of the wall, letting in a sliver of morning sun. She turned and handed them to Sasuke. "I can reach higher than you, so let me do this. Arrange them on the table, however you want."
They took down the wall together.
---------------------------------------------
Inspired by the 5/3/10
15_minute_fic word #137: box---------------------------------------------
...You know, I think I listen to too much classic rock at work. Pink Floyd is clearly getting to me. *wry*
