8: The Ghost That Won't Let Go

The cavern walls pulsed with a faint glow, eerie yet alluring. The succubus watched Sasuke with a knowing smile, her crimson eyes glinting in the dim light.

"You walk a lonely road, don't you?" she murmured, stepping closer. Her voice was a velvet whisper, wrapping around him like a spell.

Sasuke didn't move, his expression unreadable. "I'm not here for conversation."

She chuckled. "No, you're here because fate led you to me." From the darkness, she produced a goblet filled with deep red liquid, swirling lazily in the cup. "A traveler like you must be weary. Drink. It will ease your burdens."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "I don't drink."

She tilted her head, amused. "Then consider it a gesture of hospitality." She held the goblet out, her fingers just brushing his as he took it.

The liquid smelled rich, intoxicating—not like any wine he had encountered before. He hesitated for only a moment before bringing it to his lips.

The warmth spread through him instantly.

Too fast. Too deep.

Sasuke's breath hitched as his senses sharpened unnaturally, his skin tingling, his pulse quickening. A slow, creeping heat coiled in his gut, unfamiliar and unrelenting. His fingers twitched.

The succubus stepped closer, her presence suddenly overwhelming.

"Feel that?" she whispered, her voice dripping with satisfaction. "That's desire, Sasuke. The kind you've spent your whole life suppressing."

His body tensed. His mind screamed at him to move, to resist—this is a trap. But the fire spreading through him made his thoughts sluggish, his control slipping.

She was close now, too close, her breath warm against his ear. "You don't have to fight it," she purred. "Why deny yourself?"

Sasuke clenched his fists. His heart pounded.

He had fought countless battles, faced death itself—but this, this was something else entirely.

And for the first time in years—

He wasn't sure if he could win.

Sasuke's breath was uneven. His fingers dug into his palms as the warmth from the succubus's wine coursed through his veins, igniting something raw and unwelcome inside him.

His body was betraying him.

But it wasn't her voice in his head.

It was his.

"You left me."

Naruto's voice rang like an echo, a ghost in the back of his mind.

Sasuke gritted his teeth, his vision blurring as he staggered back a step. The succubus watched him with amusement, her lips curling.

"Interesting…" she purred, tilting her head. "Even under my influence, your thoughts wander elsewhere."

Sasuke's breathing was heavy, his body burning with the effects of the wine, but his mind was lost somewhere else—somewhere far away.

Naruto, grinning beneath the sunlight, eyes alight with that infuriating, relentless determination.

Naruto, standing in the rain, bruised and bloodied, reaching for him even when he shouldn't.

Naruto, whispering his name in a voice Sasuke had tried to forget.

He clenched his fists harder.

Why now? Why him?

The succubus stepped forward, her fingers trailing lightly across his chest. "Tell me… who is it you really desire?"

Sasuke's breath hitched. His body screamed for relief, but his mind—his mind was drowning in the one person he had sworn to leave behind.

Naruto.

Always Naruto.

And that realization burned more than anything the succubus could do to him.

Sasuke stumbled into the night, his breath ragged as he forced himself away from the cave, away from the lingering haze of the succubus's influence.

The cool air did little to soothe the fire burning through his veins, but he kept running.

By the time he reached the river, his knees nearly gave out. He collapsed at the edge of the water, bracing himself against the rocks as he fought to steady his mind.

The rushing current mirrored the chaos inside him.

Damn it.

He cupped his hands and plunged them into the freezing water, splashing it over his face, his neck, his arms—anything to rid himself of the unnatural heat still clawing at his skin. His body was betraying him, but worse than that—his mind had already betrayed him.

Naruto.

Even under the succubus's spell, even in his most vulnerable moment, it had been Naruto consuming his thoughts.

Sasuke gritted his teeth.

Why?

He had severed those bonds. He had walked away, left everything behind. And yet, the second his control slipped, Naruto's face was the first thing that surfaced.

He slammed his fist into the riverbank, his breathing still uneven.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

He had chosen this path—chosen solitude, chosen revenge. He wasn't supposed to miss anything.

But the ghost of Naruto's voice wouldn't leave him.

"You left me."

Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut, tilting his head back as he let the cold night air bite at his skin.

No. He couldn't afford to think like this.

He had to bury it. Burn it away.

He wasn't going back.

No matter how much his body—or his heart—betrayed him.

Sasuke leaned over the river, gripping the damp earth beneath him, but his body felt unbearably heavy. His vision blurred—not from exhaustion, not from the lingering effects of the succubus's spell—but from something deeper. Something he refused to name.

A single drop landed in the water, rippling the reflection of his own face.

Then another.

Tears.

He hadn't even realized they were falling.

Sasuke clenched his jaw, anger twisting in his chest. Why? Why was his body betraying him in every way tonight? First the heat, then the memories, and now—this?

The weight in his chest grew suffocating, pressing harder, pulling him down.

His balance faltered.

The moment his hand slipped, he was falling.

The river swallowed him whole.

Cold. Overwhelmingly cold.

The shock stole the air from his lungs, his body sinking beneath the surface as the current pulled him deeper. His limbs felt sluggish, too drained to fight back. His cloak billowed around him, dragging him further down as the moonlight above blurred into nothing.

But in the suffocating silence, in the crushing embrace of the water—

Naruto's voice reached him again.

"You left me."

Sasuke's eyes snapped open.

A rush of instinct slammed through him, breaking through the haze, and he forced his body to move. His arms pushed against the current, his legs kicked, and with a final desperate effort—

He broke the surface, gasping for breath.

Sasuke dragged himself onto the riverbank, coughing violently, water spilling from his lips as he collapsed onto his back. His chest heaved, his body trembling from the cold, from the exhaustion, from everything.

He stared up at the night sky, his wet hair plastered to his face, his breath uneven.

He should have let the water take him.

Maybe then, the ghost of Naruto's voice would finally let him go.