Everything comes to an end sooner or later, so what is this very end for a person? Honestly, I myself could not answer this question for a long time, but looking at the dying ashes, I understood that everything should not have ended like this. So what is the meaning of existence, or rather not like this. Survival rather after everything that happened and the path traveled. After all, where the sparks of that raging storm touched, they forever burned their outstretched traces on the mortal earth. War. There is nothing more terrible in the world than war, people die in it, perhaps your loved ones or even relatives. Hearing this word for the first time, and then understanding its very essence, many are trembling. And I was no exception, being a jinchuriki, a person in whom the enormous power of one of the nine tailed beasts was contained. In any case, I was obliged to participate in this bloody war. Although what bloodshed... The hell that appeared to us all could not be called anything else, and only one word could correctly describe all that horror: "slaughter".
You will probably ask why I use this word, but it's simple. Our war for this world began almost immediately during the meeting of the five kage. Just a small sabotage unit of the army of shinobi resurrected by the forbidden technique of Edo Tensei with reinforcements of a hundred white Zetsu, which were also improved by Yakushi Kabuto, struck each of the five elementary villages. Each of the villages managed to repel this attack, but in fact, they were all almost completely destroyed to their foundations. It is stupid to talk about the losses here because they were counted in the tens of thousands of civilians and shinobi. But alas, this was only the beginning, with the murder of Zetsu, the five daimyo in a matter of hours their possessions and lands were engulfed in the flames of madness with war. Like a non-stop plague that tried to infect everything. All that backwater scum and previously hidden underground organizations came out into the open and started a war for their territories. In the first two days of the war, I can't say exactly how many acquaintances, friends and relatives were lost...
What was left of the villages was no longer able to control it, there was no strength, time and resources, since everything was going to create a small alliance. Little hope for saving this world from Uchiha Madara. In just forty-eight hours, the entire world was ablaze in the scarlet colors of fire, and the steel smell of iron and ash could be caught on the entire main continent. Hell was blooming before our eyes, and its name was the Ten-Tails, which, with its own will, seemed to bring down stars from the sky.
— Tell me, Father, when will this hell end? When will these small sparks of madness and chaos go out? When will ordinary people who do not possess chakra stop killing each other for a dry piece of bread and a place by a still-burning fire? Shouldn't I have prevented all this? — Looking at the dying ruins of a once small, poor village standing at the edge of the forest, he quietly asked himself the same question.
Perhaps just yesterday one could hear a child's naive joyful laughter here, who had not yet learned the secret that this world concealed behind the erected wall of stone and wood. Although barely perceptible, such a pleasant smell of harvested crops and freshly baked bread. The ringing sound of a hammer on raw metal from the nearest forge will not be heard, and the familiar lively noise of residents in an ordinary village will not be heard. After all, all this was sacrificed to fire and cruelty. Cruelty that had nothing in common with humans, rather wild and primordial. They did it not because of the need for food or anything else, no. Food is always in abundance for them, they just needed to satisfy their main impulse and instinct in the thirst to spill someone's blood. Blood for the sake of blood, murder for the sake of murder, death for the sake of death. Such a gift in the form of a Pandora's chest, the Ten-Tails left after his death and it was this chest that was opened when the Eternal Tsukuyomi slept. Such a price humanity paid in order to remain free, and this is what Madara predicted, like a prophet, that everything was already predetermined.
Rising from a small pile of stones to his feet, he had already begun to prepare to use the technique for quick movement from here, but my gaze caught on a small silhouette in the distance. It was about twenty meters away, but my eyes widened in surprise, because it was a person! A living person! The little girl, who was all in soot and dirt, held a scorched, children's toy in her hands and silently crying slowly walked towards me. But as soon as she noticed me, she froze in her tracks, while fearing that this was another illusion of my sick or crazy head, I quickly rushed towards her and a moment later this distance was overcome and, falling on one knee, my hands, trembling with disbelief, gently fell on her shoulders.
- Hey! Don't be afraid of me, I'm the same person as you! I don't want and won't harm you! What's your name! Are you all right? - As soon as my hands fell on her shoulders, joy struck me, but joy was not an illusion. The child was frightened by my actions, and was about to break free in order to run away as far as possible. I began to try to calm her down, although my own voice was trembling.
— Miho… — She answered me quietly after some time, and her empty eyes regained the color of life, as soon as our eyes crossed. She looked about eleven years old, because of the dirt and soot I could not determine the color of her hair and skin, only violet eyes with sparkles of life looking with hope straight into your essence. She was broken, but she is still fighting for her life.
— Why… — How much meaning and understatement was put into this one word, although I could no longer use empathy, but even a fool could understand how much pain it carried. Removing my hands from her shoulders, I tried to cheer her up, but only…
— Why did you come so late? — Trembling and lowering her head down, the girl released the doll from her hands and tried to hit me, her movements were slow due to her exhausted body. I saw her movements, but did not dodge them, because I wanted it.
— I... Didn't know... Didn't have time... — Trying to give her at least some kind of clear answer, I myself was getting sick of this situation, where you were simply powerless. This is a race against time, in which no matter how hard you try to win, you will still lose.
Although no... Here I am already lying to myself, because I guessed about this settlement a month ago, but then I was too busy looking for the hive, the heart of this whole infection. A month ago, I could have left my clone here so that he would protect this innocent place from such threats... But I didn't do it. I made a mistake! Another one! A mistake for which innocent people have to pay...
— Why didn't you save mom and dad? — The girl asked again, delivering a weak blow to my face, but I did not answer, but simply hugged the child, trying to press her more tenderly to myself and drown out all the pain she went through.
— Forgive me, Miho... — Having given her my answer, a faint blue glow appeared on my palms, which instantly changed to a light greenish one, and apparently feeling this, Miho calmed down.
Having directed chakra into my hands, I began to transform it into a healing one, in order to heal the wounds that she might have. The current chakra control was quite enough to heal non-fatal wounds without much effort with just one touch. But even so, effort was required, because up to this point I had never healed anyone.
— Wow! Brother, how did you do that? — As soon as I let her go and stood up normally, she jumped on me with a smile and hugged me. This brat seemed to have changed as soon as I calmed her down. I understand that children's psyche is flexible, but to that extent? — Brother Naruto, you're delicious! — The child quietly whispered, changing his gaze.
A strong pain went through my whole body, and my tongue felt a metallic taste that was simply disgusting. Opening my mouth and slightly lowering my head down, I saw the reason why it hurt so much. A small spiral spike formed from Miho's body pierced my lower abdomen, destroying and wrapping a good part of my intestines around itself. Along with this, like an unpleasant gift, chakra began to be pulled out of me. I stood and just looked into her eyes, not feeling any fear, but only pain and rage sobering my consciousness. I don't know what my face looked like at that moment, because I couldn't guess what one of the many representatives of the swarm saw, but in the last second of life, his face froze in a grimace of horror. Before his body was torn apart by a single blow enhanced by chakra.