Drabble #14, #16, #44, #49, #50

Themes: fish, surprise, complete, sword, creation

Title: Dance

Characters: Sasuke Uchiha, Orochimaru

Pairing: OroSasu if you look

Series: Naruto

His skin is wet with sweat. Beads of sweat fly off his hair with every movement; his breath comes harsh to his ears. His partner is finally beginning to show signs of fatigue; how long has it been since they began? An hour, two hours, a day? In this endless world of twilight, who can tell?

Golden eyes glitter back at him from the dimness around them. He feels the tiredness of the muscles (an extreme excess of lactic acid in the muscle fibers causes fatigue in the muscle as a whole this occurs when little oxygen is present for aerobic respiration Kabuto would have been proud of that) in the other's body because they are connected. However thin the thread, however tenuous the grasp, it is there, and they are unable to leave. Red eyes gleam in response and there is a bright silver flash as he aligns the bloodied sword for an attack. The ring of steel on steel and then he is skidding backwards to avoid a slash at his throat. The wrapped hilt of the sword chafes his already chapped hands.

(What is this for, he asks, admiring the fine swordcraft, running his hands over the hilt and down the flat of the blade.

It is your birthing day I believe, the other says. It is one of the rare days they have ventured outside the compound. The other's skin glowed in the light, even though they were seated under a weeping willow on the water's edge. The lips below the hypnotic eyes turn up at the corners as his master moves toward him. I believe such a momentous birth is cause for celebration, he says in that half-serious, half-mocking tone. And they come together under the willows and Sasuke laughs to see their skin is the same shade)

"You do not handle it as it ought be handled yet," his master says softly. "You do not belong here."

The oft-repeated words fall out of Sasuke's mouth. "I can handle it just fine."

His master's movements with his own sword are swift, fluid, like a ripple on water made by the movement of a fish. "You must learn to use the sword as an extension of yourself." He thrust forward. "No death without rebirth. No act without consequence. No action without reaction. Transcend this earthly plane to the energy flow of the world." They were caught in a deadly dance of whirling blade and flying hair. His master's eyes glittering were the only reference he had in the darkness. They narrowed. "Now give yourself up and find yourself again."

The pace quickened and again they fought for days and weeks and months, sparring like two gods right out of myth. They split the heavens and the earth and remade them in seven days. They heard the cry of ravens and felt the roots of the soul of the world.

When at last they broke, Sasuke felt a vague euphoria come over him, and he turned eyes made red with the limit of his blood to the high ceiling of the cave and saw galaxies spinning into existence, saw life molding itself out of rock and plant into form and saw the spirit that gave it will. And he was enraptured by the dance above that mimicked their dance below, mortals and gods and creators alike moving to the same rhythm that beat in his blood and beat in the blood of his master.

He is complete.