'The next generation will always surpass the previous. It's one of the consistencies in life.'
The realization was so very fresh in his mind, body aching with the expended effort and burning from the experience as the chakra did in his hand. He hadn't spoken truer, more poignant words than those all day. Naruto was beyond his help, now, and that resonated strangely within. He didn't know how to feel, which of the many swirling emotions within to pick as victor, over that.
But as he looked down at the fallen would-be demi-god, knew his own time of shining was coming to a very quick end. Raikiri festered in his grip, itching to be let loose lest the strain of maintaining yet another burst threatened very seriously to devour the tissue of his hand and tax him into a most likely unending coma. He'd gone too far again today. But as he looked down at the rotting flesh laying limp on the ground before him, knew this to be one of the last services he would be able to perform before the torch was passed irretrievably to another.
'Children, huh?'
He'd not felt so much like an adolescent in such a long time, never felt so old. Never all in one moment. And probably never again. Raikiri burned away, chirping incessantly as he poured more into it, dwindled chakra feeding the insatiable appetite. His time was over.
Well, soon enough.
Soon enough his children no more would take his duties from him and relieve him of the frontline battlefields, left to guard the home lines from behind village walls. And as he raised his hand to lay the crackling ball outstretched before him, he reflected on how sad and proud he was. They'd surpassed all his expectations, reversed many, and impressed him in ways he found difficult to describe even to himself.
He released.
And as the electricity ate away disintegrating stitched flesh, burning away hundreds of years of agony and pain and suffering, it became real that his children were all grown up, were all so very, very strong. Naruto transforming everyday into what the Fourth most probably would have been – even greater; Sakura flourishing under Tsunade, both so far beyond his abilities and guidance for quite some time now. They had sought those stronger than he, those able to give them what they needed to survive in their own worlds by their own rules, others. And they were superb.
But Sasuke… Sasuke was very strong, as strong as Naruto if not more so, no doubt. But things went wrong. He suspected it was mostly his fault for not having done something somewhere, for ignoring, but knew the boy's impatience to be just as responsible.
One left to be dealt with, one left to be disciplined a final time before the slate was cleaned. Two teams now come and gone; two lost, one failure. He knew the odds of Sasuke returning. One responsibility left to kill and he could leave the rest to the generation banging at the door of his heels.
Because two out of three ain't bad, huh?