All you need is love (Love Triangle)

Chapter 46 (part 2)

~* In this chapter we will see what happened at Yamato before the infinity tsukuyomi began. Also I will be calling Yamato by his other name, Tenzo. *~

No no no no no, Tenzo wanted to say. Tried to say, but couldn't. He could no longer feel the sharp fangs embedded deep in the meat of his hand, but he could feel the acid burn of poison. It was a bright wash of agony, white hot and gaining power. Paralyzed. Couldn't even control his own movements. Couldn't form words. Couldn't even open his lips to try. Captured and incapacitated, now forced to listen, meekly and silently, to the dastardly things they planned to do with his body.

Failed.

The last thing he saw before his vision winked out was the reptilian grin of a person that had once been Kabuto. He called himself a 'dragon' now, but in truth he was just a scientific abomination. Just another person as lost as Tenzo himself, seeking the best identity he could imagine. Not at all unlike himself in that respect. Yet Kabuto's design was repugnant and artificial.

Tenzo could have done better. What would he have imagined for himself, if he could? I don't know, he realized. His spirits sank when the miniscule significance of his answer sank in. Soon enough, it won't matter anymore. I'll die known to the world as Yamato and leave everyone behind. They'll remember me by a name that isn't even mine. And for failing.

Shameful. Tenzō was one of the most successful Anbu captains in history. Yet there he was, trussed up by a teenager with an identity crisis, immobilized by fabricated snake venom.

He couldn't feel what they were doing with him, but he could hear the liquid sound of cells shifting, his body rearranging itself, fusing with cork. There was a shape hovering over him, but the black and grey blurry spots obscuring his vision kept him from knowing what it was. His mind was fogging over. Panic rooted. For that flash of an instant, he was certain he was dying. If his consciousness slipped, he'd be gone forever.

No no no no no, his mind screamed, fighting with what little he had left. His heart dropped to his stomach. He had zero control. There was no hope. Entirely at the mercy of the enemy, and about to be used to fuel whatever nefarious plan they had in motion, and all because of the Mokuton, the Wood Style.

Always because of that. His most precious gift. His fatal curse.

With a sigh of resignation that stagnated in paralyzed lungs, he succumbed to the blackness and knew nothing else.

Kaori, I'm sorry.

Somewhere, deep in the recesses of his mind, a thousand identities warred for dominance. Who am I?He wondered, lost in a dark sea of shadows without a star to set his compass. He was the barest spark of consciousness in a shrinking, black corner of somewhere. What am I? His own voice didn't have a sound. It was only a whispered thought, carried along on the currents of blank space.

Out of the inky blackness, a tiny dab of green broke. Green, he mused. It's a color. An important one. He felt something that might have been happiness to know this scrap of knowledge. The green smudge expanded, stretched and curled like a line of scripture. He watched it, fascinated, blown away by the simple beauty of it. It glowed faintly, lit from somewhere, though there didn't seem to be a light source. It unfurled and stretched out, like a growing thing.

Yes! His mind supplied. That's what it is! His consciousness reached for it, and he saw what must have been his hands. Is this me? he wondered, pausing to stare at the fingers. Four fingers, one thumb, broad pale palms. These are mine? He wiggled the fingertips, noting with satisfaction how they responded to his command. He closed and opened them, pleased. These are mine, and so is that. He reached out again, sliding his fingers beneath the new leaves of the plant in the darkness. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, he knew of a certainty. It was his and he loved it, so he brought it close to protect it from whatever threats might lurk in the suffocating shadows around them.