Disclaimer: I do not own any of Kishimoto's works
For Want of a Nail
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
For want of the shoe, the horse was lost;
For want of the horse, the rider was lost;
For want of the rider, the battle was lost;
For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Benjamin Franklin
The sun-blonde hair on the boy's head moved with the gentle breeze as he stared at the village below. He sat on the stone head of the fourth one, the fourth head that overlooked the village as a giant stone sentinel. All was well in the village, all was quiet. It seemed almost unnatural for a village that large to be so quiet, but so it was.
The blonde squirmed where he sat. He did not like the silence as much as he would have hoped. He was used to noise. The noise of voices, the noise of battle, the noise of the village, but he was not used to silence. It was just another disadvantage to being a warrior for your village.
He wished for anything to make a noise. A villager, a bird, anything would do. Only silence granted his wish. Never before was silence so deafening. He growled and clapped his hands over his ears. It did nothing. He punched the ground in frustration, leaving a fist-sized mark. He did not like the silence as much as he would have hoped. The silence did not care.
He started to reminisce about what had happened so far. He reminisced about a team, an exam, a betrayal, a fight. The 'fight' spanned 4 years, but he eventually won. He had brought the traitor back. The traitor was not persecuted for his actions, as expected. He was angry, and he had never gotten over it.
The blonde boy was full of anger, terrifying, and malevolent, omnipotent anger. The only thing that kept his anger in check was his nerves. He had many things he was angry at. The traitor, the woman that he so foolishly desired, the very village he lived in, the situation he was currently in, oh yes, he had many things to fuel his rage.
He felt his anger slowly build. It simply wasn't fair. He did not ask for the demon in him. He did not want the traitor and his love interest to end up together, as they were now. He did not want the traitor to be named hokage, simply for being the council's favorite. His nerves were wearing thin. He scowled at the village below him. He realized just how much hell the village had put him through. He realized how much hell the woman he loved put him through. He realized how much hell the traitor had put him through. Never before was silence so deafening.
The silence shattered what nerves he had. He snarled. He stood up and looked down on the village, anger, rage and contempt in his emerald eyes. He looked at the tower in town. He remembered his words as a twelve year old: I will be the hokage. It turned out to be a complete and utter lie.
He felt disgusted with himself for not putting up a fight with the old woman's decision. It angered him at how pathetic and weak he was, for not standing up and saying, this is wrong, what are you doing? It angered him at how he simply let the traitor and the girl of his dreams to get married. He then made his life changing decision there: This needed to end.
But how? How would he stop this from happening? He decided to do the only thing he could do: go back in time, using a technique. He remembered the technique from the scroll that taught him kage bunshin, but he never found a need to use it. He preformed the hand seals and off he went, 7 years into the past.
He crouched in the bushes near the Uchiha residence. He would not fail. He felt significantly weakened by the jutsu he had performed earlier. He heard the sounds of leaves crunching underfoot to his west. He looked out of the bushes and saw the object of his hatred. The future traitor was about to go into his house.
He had to act now. He jumped out of the bushes with kunai in hand. Before the traitor had a chance to turn around, he grabbed him. With one quick, fluid motion, he brought the kunai to the traitor's neck, and sliced his throat. He felt the familiar feeling of warm blood on his arm, so he let the Uchiha drop to the ground. The Uchiha did not move. It was done. He felt a great weight lift from his shoulders.
Suddenly, he felt lightheaded. He felt as if he was unraveling, coming apart. He looked down at himself to see that he was. He then realized the horrifying truth. He affected the future so much, that he ceased to exist in the future. Like it or not, the Uchiha effected who he was greatly, and with the Uchiha dead, the current version of him would cease to exist.
He wasn't angry anymore, though. He felt happy; he was at peace at last. No more anger, no more rage. There was only peace.
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
For want of the shoe, the horse was lost;
For want of the horse, the rider was lost;
For want of the rider, the battle was lost;
For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Benjamin Franklin
The End