Reflections at the End
Author's Note: This is my first ever story, so please go easy on me. I welcome any suggestions/constructive criticism.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with this story.
Fire. Such a beautiful thing. So peaceful and soothing. Its gentle light and warm heat. Fire truly is a wonderous thing. Unfortunately, no matter what it is, humans have a habit of turning it into a weapon. The simplest thing - it doesn't matter what - can be used as a weapon. When fire is used as such, it becomes a hungry, devouring black hole where anything that enters only serves to fuel it. It becomes so destructive that it can burn down entire forests if not stopped.
These are the thoughts of a young man, who lays despairingly on a large mountain, gazing forlornly down upon what could clearly be seen to have once been a great village. The man's age is twenty-six, and he had just fought in a war. So young, and he had sacrificed everything to defeat an insane enemy, and what was it for? This was what he asked himself now.
He had given it his all, used every tool in his arsenal, come up with the most insane plans, risked himself countless times… and it had worked. Somehow, someway they had done it. They had defeated Pein. It was a great victory- well celebrated by everyone. Then the next year a new enemy had appeared, this time by the name of Madara. Again, he had sacrificed everything and lost many friends along the way but again, he had done it.
The world had experienced peace, he had been glad to be done with war and was sick of fighting. Then, a new threat had arisen - this time a millennium old hag who was ridiculously powerful, almost a goddess. They had fought once again, and once more the world burned. Children woke up in the morning to find their parents had perished, villages were wiped off the map, the people fighting against her dwindled.
Still, he had done it. Finally, he thought, I can rest. The world rebuilt itself, and time moved on. Then, five years later - the age old human enemy had reared itself again - Greed. One of the villages decided that they were done being considered the weakest. They saw the wealth and happiness of their neighbors and they wanted it. So using the element of surprise - they had managed to destroy two neighbors and incite all of the rest into open war.
This time the damage was so bad that there were no more villages once peace was finally achieved. They had achieved peace, but at what price?
All of his friends, his family, they were dead. He had only survived because of his good friend Kurama, and he regretted even that. So as the young man sat pondering, he wondered if perhaps peace was impossible after all.
Perhaps when he was young and foolish, he should have just allowed Madara to continue his plan, so that there would be peace. It would have been a false peace, but peace nonetheless. No matter now, that time was over, and he had done his duty.
Jinchuuriki - meaning the power of human sacrifice. And hadn't that been his entire life, sacrifice after sacrifice? So he decided that it was time to join his friends and family, and walked up to a great cage, with metal bars reaching high into the sky, touched a small piece of paper and said his last words - "Be free, my friend. Kai".