A Glint of Silver

A/N: A very short and to the point story I thought of spontaneously. All constructive comments, error notices, and opinions are welcome; thank you for reading.

Inhale. . . Exhale. . . Inhale. . . Exhale.

The weapon in the shooter's grasp wavered ever so slightly as he breathed steadily in the night, small puffs of steam coming from his mouth. Rain lightly fell around the shooter, the drops having been largely diminished by the branches and leaves of the topmost section of the tree he currently crouched upon. Above, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by a clap of thunder that seemed to shake the very foundation of the earth itself, rumbling deep in the forty-three year old's chest.

The flash illuminated the land in a brilliant light that seared itself into the right eye of the man in the tree, causing him to pull away from his scope. His eye was screwed shut has he furiously rubbed it with a cold, wet hand, attempting to get the phantom pain to subside in his retina. A few moments passed before he removed his hand, blinking his eye rapidly before returning to his previous position. Lifting the rifle up, he rested his cheek against the pad of the stock and looked through his scope once more.

Having lost his intended target, it took a minute or so to reacquire the intended victim, but once he found his bearings again, he grinned. The cross-hare danced across the window of the last floor of a building that, at one time, had been one of the largest and most prominent within the Village Hidden in the Leaves. It had, however, long been surpassed in both width and height by the buildings of the booming modern metropolis that lay beyond the Hokage Monument.

Inhale. . . Exhale. . . Inhale. . . Exhale.

Ever since the Nanadaime Hokage had come to power, things had become increasingly peaceful and Hi no Kuni began experiencing years of relative prosperity since the attack of the Nine-Tails all those years before the present time. This peace, however, came at the cost of the Hokage, during his tenth year in office, convincing the Fire Daimyo that it would be prudent for Hi no Kuni to adopt the philosophy of isolationism for the foreseeable future. This would, according the logic of he and his advisers, allow both the Land of Fire and the Hidden Leaf Village to focus entirely on building and maintaining military strength, while also developing technological might unrivaled by any other nation or Hidden Village.

After much debate and reasoning, the Fire Daimyo finally relented and began taking the necessary steps to shift his nation into this new philosophy. Close diplomatic ties were quickly thinned to the barest minimum, the borders were closed and patrolled relentlessly by ninja and soldiers alike, while trade was kept at a level that allowed both the nation's and Konoha's economies to stabilize after only a brief period of uncertainty. Announcing a definite state of neutrality for any and all international conflicts and debates, the Land of Fire and the Hidden Village that lay within went silent for over thirty years.

Inhale. . . Exhale. . . Inhale. . . Exhale.

With the Land of Fire and Konoha shutting itself out from the outside world, there was a time of confusion between the rest of the nations. A few of the larger ones saw this self-enforced isolation as a prime opportunity to begin setting their sights on the smaller countries who had been allied to Konoha, while others were filled with fear due to losing such a powerful ally in times of war and political unrest. This time of confusion lasted for three short years before the Village of Kumo, having amassed a sizable force of shinobi and soldiers, invaded The Land of Frost in a sudden surprise attack that wiped out the Village of Shimogakure and opened a doorway into the mainland from the Land of Lightning. This triggered a series of events that led to the Fifth and Sixth Great Shinobi Wars, devastating almost all of the elemental nations and Hidden Villages.

All except the Land of Fire and the Hidden Village of Konoha of course.

Oh the other nations had attempted numerous times to break through the defenses around the borders; from invasion forces to sending teams to infiltrate the Hidden Village. All of these attempts, however, ultimately ended in failings of the highest order; brutal slaughter fests that many times left nary a man or women of the invading force standing in the aftermath. From the rare times there were survivors or some managed to retreat, they relayed what they had seen on the battlefield with hollow eyes and chilling words. According to their reports, Uzumaki Naruto himself would appear with a contingent of Konoha nin and the killing would commence in the most horrible of fashions.

Inhale. . . Exhale. . .Inhale. . . Exhale.

Eventually, these various attempts became less and less frequent before ceasing entirely due to the amount of men and women being lost each time an invasion or stealth mission was thwarted. These shinobi and soldiers were needed to fight on other fronts throughout both wars and there were simply not enough to spare for what the leaders of various countries knew would be a lost cause in the end. So, the Land of Fire was left to its own devices and silently watched as the world around it continued to fall to pieces, only to rebuild and fall to pieces once more.

By the end of the Sixth Great Shinobi War, around eleven or so years prior to the present time, the elemental nations were in complete disarray, with only the four other great shinobi villages and their respective countries left standing, though in very fragile states. Every smaller nation had either long since been destroyed or annexed by a larger country. Seeing the land ripe for the taking, the Land of Fire opened itself to the world once more and took to unleashing their newly developed technology and military might in a bid of world dominance- to bring peace once and for all.

With the other nations sorely weakened from their constant warring over the years, it was relatively easy for the Land of Fire and Konoha to sweep through and annihilate any who stood before them. Automobiles, planes, weapons of various kinds, and other such things poured from the modern nation, taking the world by surprise. Within six months, any major resistances had been quelled and after another nine, restoration of this new Empire had begun.

Inhale. . . Exhale. . . Inhale. . . Exhale.

The shooter frowned at his recollections; he had lost his parents and most of his siblings to those fool hardy invasion attempts primarily during the Fifth Great Shinobi War. He himself, a member of a Hidden Village that no longer existed, had been part of one of those doomed invasions, which ended with a Hyuuga permanently closing most of the tenketsu points along his body, rendering him useless as a shinobi for the rest of his life. He had served out the rest of the wars as a tactical coordinator for small mission assignments and by the times the Land of Fire had begun its domination campaign, he had deserted his post and burning village in favor of hiding somewhere in the northern wastelands until tensions had proverbially blown over. Not, however, before he had acquired a new type of weapon Konoha had developed and dubbed a "high-powered rifle."

With this new weapon and its strange projectiles, the shooter had spent much time in the north simply brooding over the last twenty or so years of his life. Falling into depression brought on by both his isolation and location, there were a few instances when the shooter seemed to be beginning to knock on the door of crazy. Through the haze of this depression and brooding, however, he slowly began tracing all of the events that had transpired over the many years of his life to the one man who appeared to be at the center of it all: the Nanadaime Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto. Thinking upon this revelation, the shooter resolved to bring down the man who had been the cause of all the recent pain and suffering of the world.

This would be his righteous crusade.

Inhale. . . Exhale. . . Inhale. . . Exhale.

Burning with determination, purpose, and a hint of cabin fever induced delusions, the shooter took to perfecting the use of his strange weapon, while planning out what he knew would be the last few years of his life. He slowly began moving south from his place in the north to the borders of the Empire, training and acquiring ammunition along the way. For months on end, he trekked down through what was once the elemental nations, bent on reaching Konohagakure no Sato, the established capital of the Empire. He had finally arrived only a week before this night, getting a feel for the ever growing city and scoping out a prime perch from which he could carry out his scheme.

He had found a large tree near the edge of a well-preserved park about half a mile from the Hokage tower, in what is known as "The Old City". The tree gave a relatively good view of the window to the Hokage's office and he knew, after observing for a few days, that the park was surprisingly empty at almost all hours of the day. It was in this same tree that the shooter found himself in on this chilly, rain filled night; ready to fulfill his obligation to the world.

His righteous crusade.

Inhale. . . . . . Exhale. . . . . . . . Inhale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Exhale.

A man with graying, spiky hair and a similarly graying goatee sighed deeply as he closed the laptop in front of himself. Getting up slowly, he went over to the middle window behind his desk and lifted it open. Closing his eyes and breathing in, he tilted his head back slightly and let the breeze and rain from the storm outside blow onto his face and refresh his mind. Naruto always did appreciate a good storm; violent and chaotic at times, they were strangely calming to him. The smell, the sounds, he found them all very peaceful- something he did not enjoy the luxury of very often nowadays.

Sighing once more, he turned back to his desk to collect his laptop, choosing to leave the window open to keep the breeze in the stuffy room. He needed to get home soon; Hinata would be considerably cross with him if he missed the small, family gathering she had planned for Himawari. Naruto smiled at the thought- it wasn't every day your daughter was planning on getting married. This would be the last chance he had with her as his before he gave her up to another man.

He wouldn't miss it for the world

Leaning over slightly to grab the machine, lightning flashed behind him, followed by a clap of thunder that filled his aging ears and-

Exhale. . . . . . . . . . .

The shooter saw the body fall forward, the head and face hitting the top of the desk before being knocked to the floor. Looking up from his scope, the shooter grinned wildly while breathing deeply. H had done it. . . He had successfully assassinated the Demon Hokage himself! Quickly looking back through the scope, he saw the secretary had already found the body, while others poured into the room. It was absolute chaos and the shooter could not have planned for how good it felt to watch the scene unfold before him.

Slowly pulling back from the scope a final time, the shooter giggled slightly. Which was followed by another. . . and another. . . and another. . . and another. . . and another. Before long, he was nearly crying from the amount of laughter that was coming forth from his lungs, the park echoing from the sound of insanity.

He continued to laugh hysterically as he dropped his rifle to the grand below, the weapon breaking into several pieces due to the drop. From his pockets he pulled two, small pistols he had concealed and put the barrels flush against his eyelids. Though he was delusional and mad, he was not stupid; he knew the ANBU had begun combing the area the moment they confirmed that the Hokage was dead. He would not let them catch him though, oh no, he would not give them that pleasure. He laughed a second more, relishing in his victory and revenge- a moment of absolute bliss and freedom.

Then, a flash of lightning, a glint of silver, the sound of thunder, and it was all over.