Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

to fall up

(they started like this, and then they fell into the sky)

…

They are legends.

They are wild and they are powerhouses and they are whirling maelstroms of chaos and death. They are awe-inspiring and fear-inducing, history makers and history changers, those three.

In the war, their enemies would say that when you see one, your chances of winning are cut down to slim. When you see two, you've lost the battle, and you're going to lose comrades. And when you see all three, you're as good as dead.

(Because forests were about to be razed to the ground and mountains were going to be leveled and cities wiped off the face of the earth. Maps are going to be changed, and this is going to be a massacre. You have no chance at all. All you can do is attempt to run, but even then, don't think you can escape unscathed. So run and run and don't look back, even when your friends fall all around you, even when every step hurts, even if you're half dead. And when you can't run anymore, crawl, drag yourself by the fingertips- do everything you can to get away and hope that you'll be one of the lucky few that survive. That is their strength, that is their power. Are not they mesmerizing in all their terrible glory?)

And for those they choose to fight for, they are a shining beacon of hope, a symbol of certain victory and a promise of life. They fight. They win. They inspire. Because they are heroes and they are the greatest warriors the world has ever seen.

Oh, but so few remember how they began.

…

They are so high above the rest, and yet, the higher you are, the farther you fall. But they're not going to fall, are they? They're already fallen- they fell up, up, up into the sky, from the ground beside us.

They started like this- the dead last who could do so little and was all bark and no bite, but never gave up. The weak, useless, pathetic one who had nothing but made herself grow and grow. The broken boy who hated the world and his brother but refused to cry. They started like this- human.

Humans, but cursed. The world has given them curses, because being an Uchiha is a curse in itself, and the Kyuubi is like a curse, isn't it? And the girl, she was so ordinary, but she was cursed to be on a team with the other two and be left behind.

You can't run from curses, can you? It's inescapable. Like fate, like destiny, the ribbons of their misfortune wrapped around them, knotted and twisted and choking.

(inescapable- it echoes and repeats and then the ribbons pull tighter and tighter, choking and choking- stop breathing, darling)

Oh, they know. They know very well what they are, what they have. See, they were cursed humans once, and they struggled and fought and tried to escape but it was pointless. Because no matter how much they screamed, nobody came to save them. Nobody could save them. But instead of dying or going insane, they fell.

…

Sasuke is the first to begin. At eight, he sees his beloved family lying in pools of blood, and his beloved brother, with eyes like blood and death, is their killer, and he can never forget. And on that tragic day he starts to fall. He grows up jaded with an avenger's purpose and an avenger's emptiness, and because of that, he leaves for power. After he kills Itachi and learns the truth, all he can hear is the patronizing tone of the man who claims to be Madara, mocking his purpose, his resolve, his farce of revenge. Sasuke hates it, and he embraces the darkness once more for real revenge. But he wonders- is it truly revenge? Or is it going to be another regretful action in his empty life? For a long time he doesn't know, and then he sees Naruto's eyes and Sakura's smile and he decides he doesn't want revenge any more. So Sasuke pushes away what's little left of his humanity and leaves what has defined him for eight years, and he laughs as he lets go, because he knows the weary, endless cycle of power and revenge so well, and he knows that it's not worth anything.

("It's pointless," and those words are uttered coldly from a dark face)

Naruto is the next. From when he was a very young child, he has been shunned and hated for seemingly no reason. He's been beaten so many times he's lost count. It hurts, but he lives through it because there is nothing else to do. And then he learns he's the Kyuubi container, and he learns what hate feels like, because he's saving these people, but they're intent on making his life hell. It's here he begins to fall up, gaining strength and becoming something different. It happens through his determination and sheer will- he makes himself defy gravity because he doesn't want to be human anymore. Humans hate and cry and cower in fear and stay trapped in their ways. He doesn't want that because he knows what hate feels like and how it can twist people. He's going to change things and he's going to change people, and that means there isn't any room for hate, so he falls. And for him, falling up feels like flying instead of falling, because he faces upward and laughs as he lets himself go.

("This is a taste of heavenly rush," and it's sung with power and exhilaration)

Sakura is the last of the three. At eight, Sasuke begins to fall, but she is clueless and insecure, busy with her own childish issues. At twelve, Naruto is learning to fly, but she is young and naïve and weak by her own choosing, spending time chasing love and fairy tales instead of training. The same year, her boys abandon her for power and strength and training and missions ('Excuses,' she thinks. 'Because it was never about me. I was never enough for it to be about me.') and she's left with nothing but weakness. She is lost for a day, then steels her resolve and goes to Tsunade. It's here she begins to climb, trying to reach her boys who are so high already. She climbs high, high, higher than most, and yet, at their reunion she learns that they are far higher than her. She had no hope of catching up to them like this, because they're flying and falling and she's pulling herself up by her fingernails, scraping and scrambling for a hold. It takes her another three years, but when she is nineteen, she watches them laugh in the midst of battle and she realizes how they've fallen. The revelation dawns upon her suddenly, like a sleeping body thrown into icy water, but now she knows that to become like them, all she has to do is let go of the ground she's clinging to. All she has to do is laugh, and let the gravity of the sky pull her. So she does, and she falls up.

("There you are, dying in my arms, and yet you smile," and the surprised eyes are answered by a wide, maddening grin and a bloody laugh)

…

See what they have become.

(that blossom girl, colourful and vibrant, she laughs and laughs as she crushes and shatters bones and bodies, playing with life like she thinks she's god, saving it, taking it away)

(that raven boy, dark and serious, and the only time he laughs and laughs is as he summons the malevolent, horrifying force named after a storm god and destroys everything in his path)

(that golden boy, brighter than the sun, he laughs and laughs all the time, as he smiles at the sky and changes history and twists hearts and makes people drown in his words and dreams and eyes)

…

See what happens to those that fall up? They are heroes, and gain strength and power and that horrible laughter that echoes and echoes, but they pay a price in the cracking of heart and mind and soul. They are painted in the dripdripdrip of blood, the breaking of bones, the screams of their victims, because they are demons and killers and murderers, and that is what it truly means to fall up.

(and their friends and their teachers all watch with faces cold and eyes hard as the three laugh, because they are the few that have seen them fall up and these are the people they knew and loved, once, but no longer)

…

fin.

AN: To explain, falling is like losing your humanity, but instead of becoming weaker (going down), they become stronger (going up). It isn't quite going crazy, but more like you're just a little mentally off-balance/not quite normal, particularly when it comes to combat.

Also, Team 7 is a little older in this- in their 20s. Sasuke is back with Konoha, Tsunade is still Hokage, and a giant war has broken out across the continent (I'm gonna deviate from canon and say the Shinobi Alliance never really happened), so they've been doing a bit of diplomatic stuff and a whole ton of fighting. Team 7 are even more crazy powerful (particularly after Sasuke gets Eternal Mangekyo and Naruto masters the whole Jinchuuriki thing and Sakura gets way epic-er than the background character she's kind of been reduced to in canon), and Konoha's owning because of them.

Aaaannd, I was totally inspired by 'Breath of Life' by Florence and the Machines because it is epic and I went and wrote the first draft in two hours, when I should have been working on Help Me V (whiiich, spoiler, is Miranda and is shaping up to be extra long, even longer than Kanda). Creative splurge! Reviews make me happy! Except flamers, to whom I say: please tell me why you hate it! And I luuuurve yuuuuu if you do~ (even if you hate it)

Thanks also to MrGoodyTwoShoes for reminding me that song lyrics are not allowed. I've taken them out now~!