Prologue: The End
Drip…Drip…Drip…..Drip. That's the only sound I can hear, as I lay on the cold concrete with my life slowly draining out of me. Oddly enough, I feel no panic; I feel no fear. In fact, I don't really feel, well, anything, except for the numbness of approaching Death and an odd sense of relief that it is all finally over.
Actually, that's not true, because the emotions, the sense of longing and regret that I buried so long ago, has just now begun to resurface, like searing lava threatening to melt away the hard, cold façade that I cultivated. At this thought, I grin sardonically, because I wonder whether or not Death would like to face the Dragon, the man hailed as the deadliest weapon in the world, or would he prefer to meet Naruto Uzumaki, the boy who sacrificed himself to save those that he loved. To my chagrin, these thoughts cause me to once again start thinking of Her and her face, something I hoped to avoid. For this face, with its wide, blue eyes and slim and delicate features, belongs to the woman who I love, who I sacrificed all for, and who is the catalyst for my current….situation.
At that moment, I begin to get feeling back in my body, as, in a manner akin to an electric shock, adrenaline beings to course through my veins and pulls me from the brink of Death if only for a little while. I open my eyes, I struggle to sit up, and I see Her fearlessly staring down the barrel of a gun, while the wielder of said object prepares to press the button that would unleash hell on modern society. I watch as she turns to me and mouths the words that I longed to hear for so long; I watch as she courageously decides to attempt to stop the inevitable; and I watch as my hand, seemingly of its own volition, draws my trusted companion, releases the safety, aims at his head, and pulls the trigger in one last effort to not only save the world, but to also save her one last time. I watch as my final bullet dances its pirouette through the air and I can't but think of all that has happened in the course of the last year that has resulted in me laying at the precipice of Death, in me attempting to kill my former friend to save the world from a cataclysmic global war, and in me being reunited with the love of my life.