Bonjour tout le monde ! Voici ma nouvelle fic, écrite en ANGLAIS !

So: Hi everyone !

Ok, so this is my newest project. I decided to write it in English because I felt like it. English not being my first language, I apologise for any spelling/grammar mistakes that I have let slip in!

A bit about the story: you've read the summary so I won't repeat it. The idea came to me from various sources, and Im just having a phase so I decided to try my hand at something different than what I usually do. this will be a short story: a few chapters only. Their length will vary (quite randomly I think). This is actually a really short first chapter. The following ones should be longer. (Rating M just to be on the safe side for the violence, but more like a dark T, really)

Well I think that's about it. Don't hesitate to review !

Enjoy !

Celohei

PS: I reeditted this first chapter: corrected a few typos and added one or two sentences.


Glimpse

Chapter 1

Naruto's breath hitched. For the second time in his life, he couldn't feel Kakashi while in Sage mode. He had felt the jounin's life slip away, dimming even as Sakura poured healing chakra into his body. He had felt it flicker and die. Kakashi was gone. Naruto exhaled slowly. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to mourn for three seconds. Kakashi was gone. Gone like too many others. Gone like Neji, who had fallen protecting Hinata from the twisted reincarnation of his own father. Gone like Tenten, who had burnt out her last drop of chakra using Ginkaku's and Kinkaku's mystical fan to defend a group of too young Suna shinobis. Gone like Gaara, who had died defending Tsunade Baa-chan's body. Gone like dozens and hundreds of shinobis. Kakashi, his teacher, his mentor, his friend, one of those who were most important to him. This was the second time Naruto couldn't feel him. This time was worse than the first time. This time, there would be no resurrection jutsu. This time, there would be no Nagato to sacrifice his life to revive others'. This time, Kakashi was gone. Three seconds. That's all Naruto allowed himself. He couldn't afford more. One. Two. Three. He opened his eyes. They took in his surroundings. His war-devastated surroundings. Scorched earth, body pieces, torn rocks, melted sand. For miles and miles around the nature was disfigured. Not a tree stood, all burnt weeks ago. Despite his Sage mode, Naruto couldn't feel life around him. Only dimming lives at the periphery of his range, where the medics fought a war against death. All else was absent. Or almost. Only insects and carrion-eaters remained despite the desolation. Crows feasted on the corpses of the fallen. Too many. Too many to even burn properly. Burying them would also be impossible. The body of a shinobi was to be burnt, always should have been, and with it, all the shinobi' secrets.

The war had started years ago, when Kabuto resurrected the loved ones of the Allied Shinobi Force to destroy them, if not physically at least mentally. Many had fallen. Shino, Akamaru, Choza. Many others had turned crazy and couldn't or wouldn't fight anymore: Kiba, Shikamaru, Kurenai. Itachi and Sasuke had managed to kill the crazy medic responsible for this disaster. The brothers managed to force Kabuto to cancel his awful jutsu, but it was too late: both Uchihas lost their life in the fight. The list went on and on. Each village, each nation was mourning. Too many to count. The war had come to what many hoped would be an end. Naruto, helped by Kakashi and Gai, had hurt Tobi enough for him to withdraw and hide, healing. The fight had taken its toll. Kakashi was more broken than ever. Obito. A victim. A destroyer of life. Kakashi was never the same after that. Gai lost an arm but kept on being a shinobi. The uneasiness of incertitude went on for weeks. People slowly started healing and reconstructing their self. Small groups would go back to the villages and spend time with their families. Never for too long. The war wasn't over. Weeks turned to months. Months turned to years. Fallen friends were mourned and chanted. Families were reunited, weeping for those who didn't come back. New friendships were born, strong and deep, forged in the tears of those who survived. Children grew up. They became genin. Genin became chuunin. Chuunin became junin. Green chuunin and junin came to the war zone to fill the depleted ranks. The veterans didn't welcome them. Never. Never again. Never would they welcome children and innocents in this war. They should be home, building their life. Yet, veterans welcomed them. Help, reinforcement, news from home. Anything to get one's mind off this hellhole. Nobody wanted to be there yet none wanted to leave. The war was not over. Heal and regroup. Years passed. Not many. Not enough to forget. Not enough to heal the mind. Troops trained. Skills and knowledge were exchanged among the Allied Force. There was no Hidden Village anymore. There was, but the war was bigger. Countless strategies were put into place and thought out.

One. Two. Three. Naruto opened his eyes and looked around him. In front of him, detached from the war-torn landscape, a man stood. Tobi. Obito. Kakashi's killer. Oh, irony. No. Tobi was Kakashi's killer. Obito had been his best friend. Naruto refused to think of the two as the same person, for Kakashi' sake. Naruto's jaw clenched. This man had reappeared after 5 years. Five years during which Naruto had trained. He was now stronger than ever. Now 22 he had lost his innocence, his optimism and faith that everyone can be good. He had lost too much to still believe that. He was ready to fight. To fight Tobi and to kill him. Rid the world of this danger. Nobody was going to assist him. It was too dangerous. Help would only hinder him. The Raikage could have helped, but Naruto refused: he would only distract him. No. For this, Naruto needed to be alone. His skills were too dangerous for others. This was precisely the reason he was the one facing Tobi. The last Uchiha had had time to heal and become stronger too.

One. Two. Three. Naruto opened his eyes and stopped mourning his loss. Now was not the time. Now was the time to fight. In the stillness of the destroyed nature, he moved.


There were no taunts, no mockery, no exchange of words at all. Both fighters knew why they were there: one was there to fight, subdue and capture; the other to fight and kill. The fight would be fast. Speed was everything. Speed was the key.

A few sensors were standing at the edge of the devastated plain. They stood far enough not to be in danger – Naruto had insisted on that – but close enough that they could feel that the fight was far above their level, far above anyone's level. They could feel the insane amount of chakra in the air. It wasn't that the attacks were particularly powerful but there were so many of them in so short an amount of time that the surrounding nature couldn't absorb all the remaining chakra in the air, which only exacerbated the unease and sick feeling already triggered by the chaotic landscape. The different pressure caused the sky above the battle zone to darken in a chakra- and electricity-saturated storm. Despite witnessing it all, some sensors shared one thought: could you be anymore cliché?

Naruto's body moved by instinct as Tobi's hand flew by his torso, missing him by a hair. Both shinobi backed away, once again facing each other. Their breath was even. Tobi tilted his head. Naruto's eyes narrowed.

"-Looks like you trained."

Naruto didn't answer. He didn't need to. He had nothing to answer anyway. He had trained. Tobi had known it and Naruto knew that; there was no point in voicing it. The fight was a hard one, but not one Naruto planned to lose. He had matched his enemy's movements perfectly until now and without difficulty. But Naruto wasn't naïve. Not anymore. He knew that they hadn't reached the serious part of their confrontation yet. He was fast, but Tobi was too. Rather, it wasn't so much that Tobi was fast but that he could manipulate time and space to his advantage. Naruto couldn't. So Naruto had become fast, managing to reach the only speed that beat the Sharingan: that of his father. Ironically, it was only a matter of time before he would need it.

The opposing shinobis resumed fighting. This time, they were serious. This time, they had to go all in. They moved fast, faster, and faster still. Naruto focused. And disappeared in a flash.