Chapter Text
Rain seeped through his torn clothes, chilling his bared skin. Beneath him, water had begun to pool, washing away the blood still sluggishly oozing from the worst of his injuries, but Sasuke hardly felt it.
He hardly felt anything. The pain, the cold. He could scarcely hear the distant roar of thunder or the torrential downpour striking the earth like lightning all around him. Even regret was far away. Even grief.
Naruto was alive.
He was out cold, completely motionless, save for the worryingly slow rise and fall of his chest, but he was alive. Sasuke stared at that slow, rhythmic movement, watching it with dazed, half-lidded eyes. Up, down. Up. Down.
Eventually he found the strength to push himself to his feet. He could not stay here. Someone would come for Naruto. Someone would come for him.
He should go to Orochimaru. He meant every word he’d said to Naruto: what happened to him didn’t matter, not anymore. It was only a body. He’d been willing to sacrifice it long before he ever heard the Sannin’s name.
Clutching his wounded arm, Sasuke turned and walked away, disappearing into the forest.
And instead, he headed west, toward the mountain.
The cave couldn’t fit much more than a sleeping bag, not that Sasuke had one. At least it was big enough for a fire. It took the last of his energy to build one, but the immediate reprieve from the cold was worth it.
He lay on his side, ignoring the steady, pounding thrum of pain radiating through his body, the ache of his skull threatening to split open, the numbness tingling in his fingertips. His eyes slipped closed. He would rest for a while, and then…
And then, he’d figure it out.
Sleep was just beginning to pull him under its inky waves when the ground abruptly shook, flecks of rock dust raining down on him from the tall, dark, cavernous ceiling overhead. Sasuke startled upright, gritting his teeth against the pain of it, watching as the cave walls shook and trembled under the force of the earthquake.
No. Not an earthquake.
Whatever had caused the impact — singular, booming — had been powerful enough to shake the very mountain itself. Sasuke stumbled out of his cave and onto the cliff face, gripping the rock wall as he stared down at the forest below.
There was nothing to see. Between the sheet of rain falling from above, the ocean of mist and the steadily approaching nightfall, every direction he surveyed held nothing but cold, blue-grey darkness. No smoking crater. No meteor flames, glowing through the mist.
The not knowing made him uneasy. He couldn’t fathom what kind of person could cause the earth to shake like that, but he didn’t want to stay and find out.
Konoha could be out there, searching for him, more likely to kill him than leave him alone. Or Orochimaru’s men could have spotted his campfire in the distance, following the light from it like a beacon.
Stupid. Careless. For all he knew, he just gave his position away.
Reluctantly smothering the fire, Sasuke moved as fast as his battered body would allow, following the narrow, treacherous trail he’d taken to climb the mountain back down, feet sliding over wet rock.
He needed to find better shelter. Something defensible, hidden. It would be difficult to hear approaching enemies in rain this heavy; he needed something he could fortify. Maybe he could find a way into the mountain, a passage he could barricade behind him—
Halfway through that thought, the earth shook again, the trees below him bending and bowing like blades of grass in a hurricane. Sasuke scrambled for purchase against the cliff face, but the rocks were slick, his vision limited.
The ground slipped away from under his feet and he plummeted with an undignified shout, down the mountainside and over the cliff. And then he was falling into unfeeling blackness, swallowed by the storm.
And everything went dark.
He came to slowly and with no small degree of reluctance. The pain he’d so stoically bore previously returned with a vengeance, ripping a groan from between his clenched teeth before he’d even opened his eyes.
At least the ground beneath him was dry, and blissfully soft. He must have fallen on a bed of leaves, though that didn’t explain how warm he was. Maybe it was hypothermia. Sakura always said hypothermia actually felt warm, right before you…
He flexed his aching hand against the ground below him and stilled. It didn’t feel like rock, or dirt, or even leaves. Nor did it feel like a bed roll or a futon, if someone had found him. It felt like…
It felt like… fur?
Forcing his eyes open, Sasuke stared at the ceiling above, but all he saw was darkness. He blinked at it, not comprehending. Black rock, like the ones inside his mountain cave. Had he pulled himself to safety after he fell? Was that even possible?
No, it couldn’t explain the cavern he now found himself in. Turning his head, he saw light pouring in from a large gap in the rock wall, illuminating the room enough to see.
There was water burbling somewhere else in the cave, gentle and soothing, like a stream. Green vines hung around him like curtains, embracing him with a soft, honey-sweet, floral scent. And around him, spread out in every direction, was a collection of velvety animal pelts, filling the cavern floor like a gigantic bird’s nest.
Someone lived here.
Immediately on high alert, Sasuke forced himself to sit upright, grasping his chest as agony speared through him. Whoever had him, they didn’t kill him or bind his hands while he was unconscious. It was either a good sign, or a very, very bad one.
When he managed to get a hold of himself, he opened his eyes again, taking stock of the room from his new, upright position. The cavern was utterly massive. Tunnels taller than houses curved and bent out of view, sunlight streaming in through one of them, as if the entrance to the cave lay just out of sight.
He carefully scoped out his surroundings, staying as silent and still as possible.
He was alone.
Not willing to waste the opportunity, he stood on shaky feet and crept beneath the vines, leaving the nest to enter the cavern proper. A creek bisected the room, the water falling from high up one wall and flowing down a large crevice in another. Run-off from the mountaintop, most likely.
It was blissfully cool and perfectly clear as he cupped a handful of it between his palms. He drank from it slowly, then splashed the rest against his face, washing away the blood and grime leftover from his battle with Naruto.
Face clean, he moved onto his arms, then his chest, then his legs, watching the creek run copper-brown as the filth was washed away. He didn’t let himself think of what came next until there was nothing more to do, no wound left to flush out.
He stared down at his reflection, numbed from more than just the frigid water.
His bruised face stared back at him, rippling in the soft, steady current. As he watched it, the ripples grew, fracturing his reflection apart like a web of cracks in a plane of glass. He whipped his head up, watching as the vines shook and swayed from some distant, powerful tremor.
Then a thundering crash, like the one that had knocked him from the mountain last night. Sasuke jumped to his feet, half expecting the ceiling to collapse on him, braced to run.
But the tremors continued; closer now. Boom. Boom. Boom. Sasuke held his breath, the hair on the back of his neck standing up.
And then the cave was plunged into darkness.
He spun around, searching for the large gash in the rock wall where the daylight had been streaming in, and felt a jolt of terror at the large, glowing, golden eyes peering at him through the gap.
What the hell is that thing?
The creature moved, and the light returned, no longer blocked out by its massive, hulking body. Boom. Boom. Boom. It circled the cavern in a matter of seconds, crawling over the mountain in a few short, thundering steps.
Sasuke held his breath, hardly daring to move.
The curved tunnel that led to the exit filled with shadow as the creature approached. Boom, boom, boom, boom. He held deadly still. There was nowhere to hide, even if he wanted to — the creature had blocked the exit.
Glowing eyes fell on him from the shadows, and then the creature came into view, stifling the very air in his lungs.
It was huge. Bigger than the creature Gaara had turned into during his battle with Naruto — bigger than the fox Naruto’s summoned frog had transformed into to fight him.
Its scaled hide was pitch black like the void of space. Four clawed limbs carried its long, serpent-like body, its talons longer than Sasuke was tall. The shape of its head and golden hue of its eyes vaguely reminded him of a wolf, but the creature had no fur. Obsidian scales covered every part of it—
Except the gigantic, leathery, bat-like wings folded against its back.
Sasuke stared, equal amounts awed and terrified.
A dragon.
Not the mystical serpent of folklore, ancient and wise, the kind used to tell fortunes and cautionary tales. No, this was a lizard, massive and winged, with horns like a stag’s antlers that threatened to crack against the cave ceiling as it raised its massive head, gazing down at him, like it intended to eat him—
He had to get out of here. He wouldn’t even be a mouthful for this thing, but he doubted the dragon cared. If he didn’t run now, he’d be eaten alive, he had no weaponry left, he was injured, exhausted—
The dragon lowered its head to face him, inhaled slowly, and then pushed him over with its snout.
Sasuke landed on a pile of pelts, too shocked to pay any mind to the way his aching body protested the meager fall.
He scrambled back to his feet, backing up to gain some sort of distance, never taking his eyes off the beast.
It tilted its head at him, huffed a soft, disapproving growl low in its throat, then leaned in and pushed him again, once more sending him sprawling onto his backside.
Self-preservation buried under his irritation, Sasuke leapt up and pushed the dragon back by its snout, a quick, two-handed shove. The beast’s nostrils flared as it reared back, as if startled by his reaction, then leaned in and nudged him again, softer this time.
“What?” he snapped, bracing both hands against the creature’s jaw, acutely aware of how little effort it would take for this thing to squash him like a bug. “What do you want?”
The dragon crooned, a low, rumbling sound that vibrated through Sasuke’s whole body. It rested the full enormity of its heavy head atop the nest of pelts, the tip of its snout still level with Sasuke’s chest, then nudged him again, as if asking him to sit down.
Slowly, careful not to startle the beast, Sasuke lowered himself to the bed of furs and sat, legs crossed, uncomfortably aware of how close he now was to its mouth. The creature wouldn’t even need to snatch him. If it opened its mouth to eat him, he could save them both the trouble and just crawl right in.
A gust of warm air breezed over him as the dragon exhaled, purring lowly, the sound rattling his bones. The vibrations of it penetrated through the ground, through the animal furs, tingling across his skin. The dragon seemed pleased. Probably glad its mid-morning snack had so obediently chosen not to run.
Lifting its head, the dragon nudged the side of Sasuke’s face with the tip of its snout, and then retreated, moving toward the cave’s exit. Its enormous tail slithered behind it like a serpent, dragging across the rock as it moved, before disappearing around the bend.
Sasuke waited all of half a moment, then bolted to his feet to give chase.
He reached the mouth of the cave just in time to watch the creature take flight. Its gigantic wings blotted out the sun as it unfurled them to the sky, and with one mighty beat, they propelled it off the ground and into the air.
For the third time that day, Sasuke was knocked to the ground in an undignified heap, the earth shaking from the force of the dragon’s great black wings. Trees bowed over like worshippers at an altar. The sudden gale pinned him to the ground.
How a beast this massive had gone undetected for so long was beyond him.
Pulling himself up yet again, Sasuke watched with awestruck eyes as the dragon circled the forest at the base of the mountain, clouds swirling behind it.
From where he stood perched near the mountain’s peak, all he could see was a sea of green forest for miles, the blue ribbon of a wide river that fed into a wider lake, and the dragon soaring over all of it like an ancient guardian, every beat of its wings rustling the trees like wind through a grassy field.
Well, he thought, steeling himself for the long hike back down, at least it didn’t eat me.
The sunlight was warm, lifting some of the ache from his injured body as he slowly made his way down the mountainside. When he reached the bottom, he’d make for the edge of the forest. And when he got there…
Well, he’d figure it out.
The hours passed in silence as he trekked gingerly down the rocky cliff face, more exhausted than he’d admit by the time he reached the bottom. The sun was a welcomed break from all that cold, misty rain, but it was bearing down on him now, humid and uncomfortably hot.
It dawned on him how long he’d gone without food, without anything more than a few sips of cold water. No wonder he felt so weak. His carelessness grated him, but at least it gave him something to do: he turned and headed in the direction of the river. Food and water first. Then… everything else.
He’d just taken his first sip of water when an awful sound chilled him to the core.
From his crouched spot on the riverbank, he looked to the mountain and saw the dragon emerge from the dark smudge where the cavern most certainly sat, its colossal wings unfolding to propel it from the slope.
The dragon roared as it took flight, the ground shaking, the water flooding down river. It was a sound unlike anything he had ever heard, primal and furious, so far from human it struck mortal fear into his very soul.
Animals scurried and ran as the dragon’s cry echoed through the valley, deer leaping into the thicket, squirrels racing up the trees, even the insects receded to the safe haven of the underbrush.
Sasuke held very still, watching the enormous beast circle above him, its shadow plunging the forest below into cool, eerie darkness. When the shadow passed, and he could no longer see that gigantic body soaring overhead, he carefully moved away from the water’s edge, seeking refuge beneath the canopy.
There was a gust of wind, a thundering impact, and then the ground ripped out from underneath him once again as the dragon descended into the glade.
He eyed the beast warily as it trilled and scented the air, its wings flapping ominously as they settled against its back. Sun-gold eyes riveted him in place. He didn’t tremble, but it was a near thing.
It stretched its massive neck across the river, close enough now that he could see it had something trapped between its sword-like teeth, something large, something… bloody.
The creature came nearer, so close now, whatever it had caught was almost dripping blood on top of him. Sasuke raised an arm to shield his face, grimacing as the dragon’s hot, death-reeking breath wafted over him, and then there was a loud thud, and the heat and the shadow receded.
He lifted his head, gaze meeting that of a freshly hunted stag.
He stared at it, silent but for the pounding of his heart. The creature didn’t move. Of course it didn’t; it was dead. Still he sat, waiting for something to happen, for the other shoe to drop. When nothing changed, he met the dragon’s golden-eyed gaze helplessly, unsure what the hell it wanted him to do.
The dragon regarded him, tilting its head left and then to the right, as if Sasuke was the most puzzling thing it’d ever seen. It grumbled — a much less threatening sound than its roar — and nudged the dead deer a little closer to him, pointedly.
“I — what do you expect me to do with that?” he said, the frustration in his voice overwritten with fear. He didn’t know why he bothered; he doubted the beast could understand him. “What do you want?”
The dragon gazed back at him. Then, without looking away, chomped at the air — just once, a single sharp, deadly snap.
Sasuke’s wide-eyed stare turned incredulous. He looked back at the deer, dumbfounded, struggling to come to terms with the beast’s wordless demand.
Then he met its eyes again, feeling more than a little foolish as he said, “I don’t have the means to prepare it.” Explaining himself to a giant lizard. “I can’t eat that. Not like this.” He’d officially lost his mind.
Grumbling again, the dragon once more pushed the stag closer, and when Sasuke still didn’t eat it, turned and left the glade.
This time, Sasuke stayed where it left him, sitting beside the dead deer as he watched the dragon take flight. He was ready for the ground shake, this time; he managed not to sprawl onto his backside as its wings kicked up a hurricane underneath them. The stag’s body didn’t move. Nor did he.
He waited, arms wrapped around his knees, letting his mind drift to that quiet place where he didn’t think much of anything at all, time slipping away from him like sand through his fingers. He didn’t know how long he sat there, but eventually, that meteor-strike sound of the dragon’s thundering wings returned, and the earth shook as it landed in front of him once again, trilling at him in greeting as it stretched across the river to reach him.
This time, instead of a deer, there was a tree gripped in its maw.
Sasuke watched, somewhat stupefied, as the creature’s scaled lips pulled back to reveal its teeth. Each one was taller than an adult man; it probably wouldn’t hurt that much, not really. It would be over in a heartbeat. You’d be dead before you realized you’d been eaten. Not that bad of a way to go, when you think about it.
Everyone dies, one way or another. It might as well be fast.
The teeth skewered through the tree’s thick trunk, splintering it in more than one place. Bits of wood and shredded foliage rained down on him and the dead stag as the dragon dropped the tree in front of them with a thundering boom.
Then it picked the tree back up, turned it so the leaves faced him this time, and dropped it again.
He blinked, gaze raking over the treetop. It was only when he looked closely that he realized there was fruit peeking through the leaves, red and green apples hanging from the branches.
Cautiously, half expecting this to be some sort of trap, he reached up and took one of the apples in his grasp, the leaves rustling as he pulled it free from the branch.
The dragon purred, that same low, vibrating hum, and Sasuke took a bite.
He ate slowly, watching as the dragon turned its attention to the deer instead, reluctant, it seemed, to let its catch go to waste. It opened its mouth and he stilled, but the creature didn’t lunge for him. It gripped the dead stag by its antlered head and dragged it closer, several meters away from him, releasing it on the riverbank.
Watching it skin the stag was as gruesome as it was fascinating. The dragon pierced its stomach with one of its long talons and dragged it from one end to the other, then used the tip of its front teeth to peel back the hide like a dog stripping a bone clean.
The hide left a bloody trail over the bank as the dragon lifted it and dunked it into the river, gently moving its massive head back and forth to wash the gore away.
It discarded the skin once it was done, almost carelessly. Sasuke supposed it had enough pelts in its mountain nest, though maybe this was just how it dried them: leaving them upside down in the midday sun to bleach.
And then heat, oppressive enough to make sweat bead along his brow, bore down on him.
Sasuke watched, agape, as the dragon’s black throat glowed red-orange, spreading from its chest up to its jaws. The urge to run consumed him, but his legs wouldn’t move. He was frozen as a river of fire crawled up the beast’s throat, shooting from its mouth with such force, it made his own Fire Style jutsu look like a joke.
The dragon didn’t turn its firebreath on him, however. It kept the blast aimed at the skinned stag, holding the torrent of flames for barely three seconds before the stream stopped as quickly as it’d begun.
He half expected the animal to be reduced to ash, but the core of its body lay largely intact, albeit blackened and charred. Parts of its legs had been reduced to black ash. The tips of its antlers were gone, and the harsh scent of burnt animal flesh permeated the glade.
The smell didn't make him retch, but the sharp crunch sound of the dragon consuming the deer's body in one bite nearly did. He tossed the apple core away, resting his chin on his bent knees. The dragon licked its lips and gazed back at him, laying its head flat on the ground, an oddly non-threatening posture.
The apples were too sweet and not very filling, but he didn't know when (or if) he would come across his next meal. Eyes as gold as the center of a flame watched him steadily as he continued to take from the tree, never moving, making no effort to eat him or burn him alive.
There came a point when he could no longer sit there, waiting. If it was going to try to kill him, waiting around wasn't going to make one damn bit of difference.
But the creature lifted its head as soon as he stood up, tracking him as he began to move away. Before he could get anywhere close to the edge of the forest, it coiled its neck to block his path, grumbling at him like a disapproving parent.
Imminent mortal terror aside, Sasuke crossed his arms with a glare.
"Let me pass."
The dragon chattered at him, the vibration of it carrying through the air. It leaned closer and nudged him again with its snout, but Sasuke planted his feet, refusing to be knocked on his ass more than he already had been. "Tch. Give it a rest!"
If he didn't know better, he'd think the rumbling vocalization the dragon made in response was the sound of it laughing at him. It nuzzled him again, but not with nearly enough force to push him over.
Then it turned its head, tilting the antlered crown of its skull down toward him, and chirped. A deep, resonant chirp, but a chirp all the same.
A foolish thought invaded his mind. He banished it for its absurdity. No, now he knew for sure that he had well and truly lost it.
Perhaps Naruto had won their fight after all. Maybe he was lying unconscious in a hospital bed right now, concussed out of his mind. Or maybe he was already dead. Maybe hell was more confusing than torturous.
It made more sense than this ancient, colossal beast of legend offering to let him ride on its head.
But the dragon chirped at him again, grumbling low in its throat the longer he stood there, frozen, like an idiot. With disbelieving, hesitant hands, he reached up and took hold of the fin-like cartilage at the base of the dragon's long, slender ear and used it to begin to climb.
The dragon held still, silent, letting him.
With each step closer to the beast's crown, Sasuke's incredulousness gave way to sheer awe. He crawled past the dragon's pointed ear, past the tree-sized trunk of its antler, to the somewhat-flat dome at the very top of its head where he knelt, hands splayed over obsidian scales.
For a creature that so closely resembled both a lizard and a serpent, it was clearly warm-blooded. Its scales were as hard as steel, but they radiated the dragon's body heat underneath, almost too hot, but not unpleasantly.
Slowly, as if to be considerate of him, the dragon raised its head above the forest canopy. The view was breathtaking, a sea of green as far as the eye could see, a shimmering lake further down the valley, glittering like a jewel in the sun.
The dragon trilled again, and somehow, Sasuke understood the wordless command of hold on tight, kid.
At the base of the dragon's skull, small spikes protruded, following the trail of its spine. They grew larger as they went — the largest, in the center of its back, almost as tall as he was — but the ones near the top of its head barely reached his knees, far enough apart that he could comfortably sit between them.
He straddled the first spike, holding on to it for dear life with both hands, and the dragon took flight.
The thundering beat of its wings was quieter from above them. Sasuke could scarcely see the ground from his secure perch at the base of the dragon's skull, but he could see the sky in all of its dazzling, limitless glory.
As they climbed higher and higher, the dragon angled itself, letting him glimpse the earth below. It was the most breathtaking thing he had ever seen. The air was almost unbearably cold this high up, but the dragon was blissfully warm beneath him, and the harder he clung, the more the icy chill was chased away.
Fluffy white clouds parted for them as they ascended, spraying them with light, rainbow-tinted mist. With four heavy beats of the dragon's wings, they broke through the cloud cover entirely, the sky so blue up there, so deep, Sasuke felt lost in it.
The dragon made a sound, a short, questioning rumble, and for reasons he couldn't explain, Sasuke answered, "I'm okay."
Then they were descending, gently, parting the clouds once more. His ears were throbbing, his skin damp from the clouds and chafed by the wind, but he didn't care. He'd seen something no one else on earth had ever seen. He'd seen the world through the eyes of a dragon.
For a moment, as fleeting as it may have been, as meaningless as all things ultimately were, he had tasted immortality.
They circled the valley as they came down, the mountain drawing the dragon in like the center of a whirlpool. Their descent slowed the closer they came to the mountainside, slower and slower until they were seemingly hovering over the slope.
When they landed, Sasuke watched the shockwave of tremors roll over the valley like an ocean tide, spreading miles in every direction. The dragon crawled over the side of the mountain as easily as an insect over a stone, finding the wide, gaping tunnel that led into its nest with practiced ease.
Only when they reached the nest of furs did the dragon let him down. His dismount wasn't exactly graceful as he slid down the curve of its jaw, but he landed on his feet and not sprawled on his ass, so it was better than it could have been.
A low purr vibrated up his legs and into his core, the only warning he received before he was grabbed by the back of his shirt.
The garment was scarcely more than rags at that point, ripped as it was from his fight with Naruto. Man-sized teeth pinching it and lifting him bodily off the ground by it didn't help matters much, but thankfully, the creature didn't carry him far — merely deposited him more squarely in the center of the nest.
He held the beast's gaze, tossing away the scraps of his ruined shirt with an affronted glare.
"If that's the alternative to being shoved, I prefer the shoving."
The dragon chattered. Once again, he concluded it was laughing at him.
He wouldn't exactly say the dragon was holding him captive, but the situation he found himself in wasn't wholly dissimilar.
After a handful of failed attempts to escape, he reluctantly lay beneath the curtain of vines, curling up on the bed of fur for the second time that day.
The dragon let out a low, pleased hum, and to his surprise, curled into a ball around him like some gigantic, needy cat.
It should have been disconcerting, probably. But the heat of the dragon's body wafted over him, and the innate comfort of that was a stark reminder of how much pain he was still in. It wouldn't be the end of the world to rest for a while, he decided. His body needed to heal, anyway. He'd give it time.
The dragon's snout nuzzled against his bare back, as heavy as a thick blanket and just as warm.
He closed his eyes. Maybe by then, he'd figure out where to go.