#foxcurse

kurama texting gaia: 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

Hidan rarely drinks enough to alter his perception of reality, or even his moods. rarer still, his dabbling in other substances. even nicotine sticks, he seldom touches ( and he hates, loathes, meeting the taste of it upon a temporary lover’s tongue – in itself, a more common occurrence ). but there are other things he can get high off of. watching the ( stupid, insipid shell of a ) city burn. devotion only he knows of, is capable of. drowning in the onslaught of adrenaline as he dangles off a skyscraper, one foot above the void, above his grave. ( life. death. the tentative line drawn in-between. how many times has he nearly landed on the other side? how many times did he claw his way right out?? )

he laughs. ( it’s riding upon a nameless high. wild and unrestrained and manic around the edges if one cares to look closely enough. if they know how to. )

                “ why, detective—— ” and it’s always ‘detective’, isn’t it? never a name, of one sort or another. just a role, which is to say: just one step away from personal, when everything else could be. ( and the name he gave you, detective, the one you call him by? do you think it real? do you think it true? ) “ ——whyever would you think you're worthwhile as an object of obsession? after all. . .. . you’re just a man. ” and Hidan's expression shifts, eyes at half-mast, heavy gaze dripping with cyanide-laced mockery as it drifts, languidly, downwards from those blue eyes.  “ . . .. and I ain’t really into the whole mutual obsession thing. ”

( read between the lines. it is you who . .. )

--- Fingers tighten absently against the handle of sword, but it's more reflex than anything as crimson gaze flickers towards the other that had dared to address him. So boldly, so blatantly, and about such a topic? Gaze lids partway, a flicker of annoyance prying at the vein in his temple. ' A real god feels no pain. ' he murmurs quietly, voice tense with slowly building ire.

--- After a pause, and a shudder of his shoulders, he cracks a wry grin and turns to face such bold companion. ' A real god bears no attachment to feel such. Not to anything, nor anyone, not even to their own bodies... ' he hums out thoughtfully, amusement flickering through tone as he regarded the one opposite him.

" Are you /that/ hurt I didn't get bingo? I'll do better next time, your highness. "

"... well, that's the point of a Bingo card, dumbass. Aren't you a detective? Missing some obvious points, here."

Symbol meme starters.

It was one week after the war's end.

The exhaustion ran deep, deep, deep. Deeper than it had after Lee had pummeled his childhood self into the arena floor. Deeper than that first soul-wrenching gasp after Chiyo exchanged her life for his. An exhaustion so complete he felt it had descended upon his soul in a permanent shroud, suffocating him beneath the weight of the thousands of shinobi graves, and the thousands more still convalescing, their lives hanging by a chakra-thin thread. The weight of villages in shambles, and the burden of building from the ashes of their world something greater than what once was.

Kakashi's succession to Godaime Kazekage was the perfect opportunity to visit ones so dear he had missed so terribly. Comrades he had last seen limping or bloodied or unconscious. He made the journey without his Kazekage robes, and entered Konohagakure as an old friend. Great celebration and greater grieving found Naruto and Gaara lying on the roof of his old apartment, reminiscing between pointing out stars. Something warm had spread from the pit of his stomach to the tips of his fingers entirely unrelated to the too many bottles of sake they had shared (mostly Naruto; a few too many perfunctory sips for Gaara).

Their conversation had slowed. Naruto's eyes had begun to soften and droop. Several times already Gaara had looked over, certain Naruto had drifted off for good.

Then Naruto sat up and asked Gaara if he thought the moon looked different between his home and Konoha.

"I'm not much of an astronomer, but I like the idea of looking up at the nighttime sky and imagining you watching the same moon as me."

Silence. He looked over to find Naruto out like a light: Eyes shut, mouth open, cheek smushed against the blanket.