[Sasuke...you're so strange and Merriment continues being intrigued. The kazoo plays a note by itself again.]
Knowing you, you'll find it a lot faster than you think. [He sounds like he's grinning though.] I wouldn't worry about snow, but maybe bring a jacket anyway. [A beat.] ...and don't be disappointed by what you might find.
I'm not looking for anything important. [Maybe answers he can give his own self just by seeing a new place, if anything.] If it's important to you, that's what matters.
[He has zero qualms with this and nods in agreement.] Then okay. You come back and look around, figure out how to open the door, and you're free to look around. I'll even give you space to snoop on your own if you want.
[A look down at the table and a hand reaches out to pick up one of the billiard balls from the triangle rack, rolling it across the felt of the table.]
It's a game. I've learned how to play but it's kind of a strategy game for people with good aim. Pretty easy to pick up on, too.
Okay. [That's surprisingly easy, and though Merriment looks at Sasuke through the mask he's pocketing the kazoo and swinging himself off of the table.] There's a couple of games you can play on this table, but we'll start with a really easy one. Grab a cue. [A gesture to the rack of wooden pool cues on the wall. While Sasuke does that, a white cue ball seemingly appears out of nowhere, bright and glistening.]
You might like this one. It's all about planning your next move. We'll do solids versus stripes.
[The billiard balls are still in the triangle formation at one of the table, and Merriment centers them in a very specific place. Pulling off the triangle-rack to leave the balls in place, he's also grabbing a cue.
Maybe Sasuke will understand later why this is interesting.]
[He follows the hand to the rack of sticks on the wall, and then he moves to slide one down out of the clamp. Carefully, he looks it over--heavy and thicker on one end, small on the other. The tip is strange? Flatter, rounded, defined.
When he comes back over to watch Merriment, his eyes linger on the pockets along the edges, the cue ball, the triangle of other pool balls. Sets colored differently and they're numbered...?]
I'll let you break to make it easier, too. [Merriment sets down the cueball at the opposite end, taking his cue and lining it up as an example.] What you want to do is aim to break apart the cluster and send the balls wherever. If you sink one of the balls, that's your pattern to go after. If you sink one of each, you get to pick. Save the eight ball--the black one--for last or the game's automatically over. Make sense?
[Sasuke watches Merriment like he would watch anyone back home, studious, intense. He glances out at the triangle of colored balls and then sets up at the opposite end as Merriment had. Hm.
It's not much different than trying to use chakra to walk up a tree. If he hits them too hard, they'll fly everywhere. If he hits them too softly, he won't break them enough. Carefully, he tests the cue stick in his hand by bobbing it forward and back.
He aims and then swats the ball down the table to crack into the top of the triangle. Most of them disperse without being tossed roughly. The striped fifteen rolls into the middle pocket on the right.]
[Merriment is a surprisingly patient teacher and allows Sasuke time to check out the table and align himself. As the triangle cracks and the 15 sinks, he uses his cue to gesture.]
Nice shot. So now that the balls are split, stripes are yours. You'll want to aim to sink all of the stripes before going for the eight ball. With the eight ball you have to specify which pocket you're going for, but not with the others.
[With that, Merriment looks at the set-up.] We alternate. You can't move the cue ball unless it lands in a pocket. Then it's on the starter side of the table. If you sink the cue ball you forfeit a turn and you lose a ball. You take it out of the pocket to set it up again.
[With that, he strikes and sends the 2 ball into a back corner pocket. ]
[Moving down the table to the other end, Sasuke peers at the eight ball, sizing it up with the rest of the scattered balls.
The rest are a little close together. Tricky. He stands on one side of the table like he plans to set up there, but thinks better of it and moves to the adjacent side. He has to position his fingers high to dodge some of Merriment's solid colors. One is still in the way, but--
He bumps the edge of the cue ball to send it forward and to the side a bit. It hits Merriment's ball at enough of an angle it clips his own 10 and rolls it into the corner pocket.]
I can see why it's about planning. [He pauses as he sets the bottom of the cue stick on the floor to wait.] Itachi... would have liked this.
[Merriment's letting him move, casually leaning against the table to watch and try to pinpoint how, exactly, Sasuke thinks. He's clever, using his opponents for his own game and as the 10 rolls away and sinks in Merriment finds himself a little more impressed.
Granted, then Sasuke brings up Itachi and it's a strange sort of acknowledgement.]
Yeah? He's a big planner, too? [He follows the cue ball and works to line up his shot, bouncing off of the 7 and letting it hit one of the bumpers instead of the side pocket he was aiming for. He's obviously curious about Sasuke's view on his brother though and waits without prompting.]
[Sasuke watches Merriment work the table, and he doesn't seem judging or even arrogant in regards to the bumper hit.
Again, he looks out over the whole of the green, thinking. One of his stripes is close to a pocket, but Merriment's is in the way again. They're too close; hitting any even gently may send them in after his own ball.]
He even spent his death doing the same.
[It's risky, but Sasuke seems to think the higher the risk, the higher the reward. He places his fingers down high again, arcs the cue stick... but waits like he's trying to judge the trajectory, his path. He jabs the cue stick down at the table, popping the ball up in the air over one of Merriment's.
It hits his 14 in, but the cue ball is a bit too fast, and it goes in after it. Sasuke frowns.]
[Ah. So...maybe that's why Sasuke went a little off the rails. He doesn't know the relationship between the Uchihas, just that it changed something based on context clues, and as he watches the ball roll away and the cue ball follow after he leans forward to pull both of them out of the hole. He sets the fourteen back on one end and takes the cue ball with him to the other end.]
Did he ever tell you his plans? Or were those all a huge surprise? [The ball's set down and he eyes the playing field, not yet hitting the cue ball yet.]
[He watches his failure get picked up and placed back, another chance, but he could be behind now. Merriment gets a glance, but then he looks back down the table to watch the rest of the balls for when the cue inevitably comes rolling through.]
Itachi never told me anything. Because I was a part of his plans too.
[Merriment's taking a shot, lining to hit the 1 ball and watching it roll and knock one of Sasuke's out of the way and toward a corner pocket instead. That could have been planned better, but he's distracted by what Sasuke says.]
...really. [That's...not cool.] Did you know that part, at least?
Not for a long time. [It seems, at first, that might be all Sasuke gives Merriment as he watches the ball swerve down the table.] He took his truths to the grave with him.
Someone told me after... what he was really like, what he was really doing. [Carefully, he sets up to take advantage of the ball by the pocket. This time, he doesn't pull any ridiculous stunt, so the cue ball doesn't perish and hold him back.] It was hard to believe them.
But then Itachi was resurrected, and before he left... he showed me the truth.
[Merriment watches Sasuke sink the ball, suddenly starting to think that there are a lot of issues here that maybe caused a lot of damage.]
...are you talking about being resurrected here? Or back where you're from? [Is that a thing that happens? He's also walking around the table and eyeing their set-up to see how the pieces are laid out for now.] It sounds like it'd be hard to believe when you see someone one way and it turns out it's something different.
[Sasuke looks like a dumb little sentinel guard the way he stiffly stands by the table and holds the cue stick on the floor and against his shoulder and chest.]
Where we're from. [Being alive thrice is such a charm.] Itachi was... [He goes quiet for a while, eyes not leaving Merriment's movements on the table, though they seem to be looking through everything distantly.]
He looked out for me when we were young, but he was always too busy to spend time with me. Then one day, I came home, and our clan was slaughtered in the streets and their houses.
And our parents were slaughtered in our house.
Itachi was waiting for me. I asked him why, and he told me he was testing his abilities. That... he left me alive because I wasn't worth killing. I hated him for a long time. More than anything. I traded... everything to be strong enough to kill him for what he had done.
Then I found out... it was all a lie. I had been living all along in a fantasy. Our village was who had turned him into a monster.
[Holy shit. Merriment stops literally all movements and looks up suddenly, trying to get a read on Sasuke's expression and temperament because how can something like that happen without messing someone up?
There's still silence because this is such a fragile topic. He doesn't want to mess this up, but where do you even start?
Man. He's not qualified for this.]
…and so you wanted to go back and destroy the village instead. The people who turned someone you cared about into something…hard to face. [Like. That's fair but holy shit.] And that's why you're against all of this.
[A bunch of entities bringing out the worst in people and making them vicious monsters? Yeah. Okay. That. Makes sense? Yikes.]
[Surprisingly, Sasuke doesn't have the fiery anger for Itachi he had back then. Now he's only... tired. Resigned. This all seems to bother him, of course, but his anger is colder now, icy, and detached.
He looks back at Merriment, the resolve unwavering.]
I'm going to destroy the village that turned my brother into a criminal, and then I'm going to rebuild it into something better. There won't be any leaders. Only me, enduring the burden of everyone's hate so they can work together and know peace.
[His eyes lower again. There's so much more baggage, but it's irrelevant.]
I'll take care of him. I've... realized... [His head turns away.] It doesn't matter if I win. I don't... need any help. I can accomplish this on my own.
So I'll stay with him until the end. Because I believe in what he wants for his world.
[…just a slow nod because okay. Can't blame him, even if he doesn't think that's a great idea?]
…if everyone hates you…that means you're not going for mass genocide? Just destroying the village itself to recreate it. [Right?] It's…admittedly, it's not a bad solution. Having everyone come together with a solid opinion to fuel them and focus on. It worked for us as a team for a while before…
[…this isn't about that.] But that's not a bad lesson to take away from this either. His world vision's pretty good, to tell you the truth. And he likes you a lot. [A sigh though.]
But what are you gonna do about the people that won't leave you alone and will inevitably want to help you? Or stop you because they don't understand?
[Ha ha... well, let's not even broach that. Let Merriment believe all he'll do is break down the village walls and rebuild it again. Yeah. Yep.]
It works. It's always worked. Madara and... Kaguya... Everyone worked together to stop them. Naruto, Sakura, and I... No one could fight each other because we were focused on fighting a greater opponent.
[This is his philosophy on his new ninja revolution. He'll become his niisan.]
Them... [A deep, almost sad frown comes to his face. He looks away.] ...Naruto... [The others here, too. He tried so hard to get them to hate him. He's still trying.]
My last... bonds. I'll do what it takes... to sever them. So I can accomplish what I need to do.
It's how it worked with me and the others, too. We had a bigger problem on our hands that they couldn't take the time to fight with me about being asked to join them. [Overwhelming darkness sure is a big mistake.]
…you ever consider maybe explaining to other people what it is you're doing and letting those bonds help you out? Or at least talk to you if you won't change your mind. [That frown's also worrying, so…] Who's Naruto? And Sakura?
[Friends from his world, he figures, but those are new names.]
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Knowing you, you'll find it a lot faster than you think. [He sounds like he's grinning though.] I wouldn't worry about snow, but maybe bring a jacket anyway. [A beat.] ...and don't be disappointed by what you might find.
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[He's very blase about it, too.]
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[But he doesn't turn around to leave. He glances up from the floor, at Merriment, at the kazoo, and then at the billiard table. Quietly:]
Do you know how to play? The table you're on. It's a game, right?
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It's a game. I've learned how to play but it's kind of a strategy game for people with good aim. Pretty easy to pick up on, too.
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Teach me how, and I'll play one with you.
[He can do maybe one game with Merriment before slinking out like a cat.]
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You might like this one. It's all about planning your next move. We'll do solids versus stripes.
[The billiard balls are still in the triangle formation at one of the table, and Merriment centers them in a very specific place. Pulling off the triangle-rack to leave the balls in place, he's also grabbing a cue.
Maybe Sasuke will understand later why this is interesting.]
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When he comes back over to watch Merriment, his eyes linger on the pockets along the edges, the cue ball, the triangle of other pool balls. Sets colored differently and they're numbered...?]
Alright.
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[Sasuke watches Merriment like he would watch anyone back home, studious, intense. He glances out at the triangle of colored balls and then sets up at the opposite end as Merriment had. Hm.
It's not much different than trying to use chakra to walk up a tree. If he hits them too hard, they'll fly everywhere. If he hits them too softly, he won't break them enough. Carefully, he tests the cue stick in his hand by bobbing it forward and back.
He aims and then swats the ball down the table to crack into the top of the triangle. Most of them disperse without being tossed roughly. The striped fifteen rolls into the middle pocket on the right.]
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Nice shot. So now that the balls are split, stripes are yours. You'll want to aim to sink all of the stripes before going for the eight ball. With the eight ball you have to specify which pocket you're going for, but not with the others.
[With that, Merriment looks at the set-up.] We alternate. You can't move the cue ball unless it lands in a pocket. Then it's on the starter side of the table. If you sink the cue ball you forfeit a turn and you lose a ball. You take it out of the pocket to set it up again.
[With that, he strikes and sends the 2 ball into a back corner pocket. ]
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The rest are a little close together. Tricky. He stands on one side of the table like he plans to set up there, but thinks better of it and moves to the adjacent side. He has to position his fingers high to dodge some of Merriment's solid colors. One is still in the way, but--
He bumps the edge of the cue ball to send it forward and to the side a bit. It hits Merriment's ball at enough of an angle it clips his own 10 and rolls it into the corner pocket.]
I can see why it's about planning. [He pauses as he sets the bottom of the cue stick on the floor to wait.] Itachi... would have liked this.
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Granted, then Sasuke brings up Itachi and it's a strange sort of acknowledgement.]
Yeah? He's a big planner, too? [He follows the cue ball and works to line up his shot, bouncing off of the 7 and letting it hit one of the bumpers instead of the side pocket he was aiming for. He's obviously curious about Sasuke's view on his brother though and waits without prompting.]
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[Sasuke watches Merriment work the table, and he doesn't seem judging or even arrogant in regards to the bumper hit.
Again, he looks out over the whole of the green, thinking. One of his stripes is close to a pocket, but Merriment's is in the way again. They're too close; hitting any even gently may send them in after his own ball.]
He even spent his death doing the same.
[It's risky, but Sasuke seems to think the higher the risk, the higher the reward. He places his fingers down high again, arcs the cue stick... but waits like he's trying to judge the trajectory, his path. He jabs the cue stick down at the table, popping the ball up in the air over one of Merriment's.
It hits his 14 in, but the cue ball is a bit too fast, and it goes in after it. Sasuke frowns.]
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Did he ever tell you his plans? Or were those all a huge surprise? [The ball's set down and he eyes the playing field, not yet hitting the cue ball yet.]
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Itachi never told me anything. Because I was a part of his plans too.
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...really. [That's...not cool.] Did you know that part, at least?
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Someone told me after... what he was really like, what he was really doing. [Carefully, he sets up to take advantage of the ball by the pocket. This time, he doesn't pull any ridiculous stunt, so the cue ball doesn't perish and hold him back.] It was hard to believe them.
But then Itachi was resurrected, and before he left... he showed me the truth.
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...are you talking about being resurrected here? Or back where you're from? [Is that a thing that happens? He's also walking around the table and eyeing their set-up to see how the pieces are laid out for now.] It sounds like it'd be hard to believe when you see someone one way and it turns out it's something different.
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Where we're from. [Being alive thrice is such a charm.] Itachi was... [He goes quiet for a while, eyes not leaving Merriment's movements on the table, though they seem to be looking through everything distantly.]
He looked out for me when we were young, but he was always too busy to spend time with me. Then one day, I came home, and our clan was slaughtered in the streets and their houses.
And our parents were slaughtered in our house.
Itachi was waiting for me. I asked him why, and he told me he was testing his abilities. That... he left me alive because I wasn't worth killing. I hated him for a long time. More than anything. I traded... everything to be strong enough to kill him for what he had done.
Then I found out... it was all a lie. I had been living all along in a fantasy. Our village was who had turned him into a monster.
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There's still silence because this is such a fragile topic. He doesn't want to mess this up, but where do you even start?
Man. He's not qualified for this.]
…and so you wanted to go back and destroy the village instead. The people who turned someone you cared about into something…hard to face. [Like. That's fair but holy shit.] And that's why you're against all of this.
[A bunch of entities bringing out the worst in people and making them vicious monsters? Yeah. Okay. That. Makes sense? Yikes.]
...makes sense why you picked Justice then.
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He looks back at Merriment, the resolve unwavering.]
I'm going to destroy the village that turned my brother into a criminal, and then I'm going to rebuild it into something better. There won't be any leaders. Only me, enduring the burden of everyone's hate so they can work together and know peace.
[His eyes lower again. There's so much more baggage, but it's irrelevant.]
I'll take care of him. I've... realized... [His head turns away.] It doesn't matter if I win. I don't... need any help. I can accomplish this on my own.
So I'll stay with him until the end. Because I believe in what he wants for his world.
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…if everyone hates you…that means you're not going for mass genocide? Just destroying the village itself to recreate it. [Right?] It's…admittedly, it's not a bad solution. Having everyone come together with a solid opinion to fuel them and focus on. It worked for us as a team for a while before…
[…this isn't about that.] But that's not a bad lesson to take away from this either. His world vision's pretty good, to tell you the truth. And he likes you a lot. [A sigh though.]
But what are you gonna do about the people that won't leave you alone and will inevitably want to help you? Or stop you because they don't understand?
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It works. It's always worked. Madara and... Kaguya... Everyone worked together to stop them. Naruto, Sakura, and I... No one could fight each other because we were focused on fighting a greater opponent.
[This is his philosophy on his new ninja revolution. He'll become his niisan.]
Them... [A deep, almost sad frown comes to his face. He looks away.] ...Naruto... [The others here, too. He tried so hard to get them to hate him. He's still trying.]
My last... bonds. I'll do what it takes... to sever them. So I can accomplish what I need to do.
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It's how it worked with me and the others, too. We had a bigger problem on our hands that they couldn't take the time to fight with me about being asked to join them. [Overwhelming darkness sure is a big mistake.]
…you ever consider maybe explaining to other people what it is you're doing and letting those bonds help you out? Or at least talk to you if you won't change your mind. [That frown's also worrying, so…] Who's Naruto? And Sakura?
[Friends from his world, he figures, but those are new names.]
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closes my eyes i knew
sparkles gently hey i hate this btw
i can't believe fucking jack and sasuke get along with shit in common stop
me literally from their first thread. suffer with me, thanks
im literally trying so hard to make him go turbo and you're ruining my PLANS
I ASKED FOR NONE OF THIS...
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