Disclaimer- I wish I owned Naruto, especially with all the epic that's going on right now, but alas...I don't.
And never will.
Anyway, this is a tribute thingy I wrote for my friend who just lost her father. I don't care if it sucks to you reandom peopel, because this is for her.
Enjoy.
One of the greatest injustices of the ninja world is the number of children without a father. Ninja do not have high life expectancies with or without children, but it always hurts more when there is a family behind the death. Woman die less then men only because less woman are ninja.
Men, fathers, die in war and in combat and a fact is that very few survive. They leave behind an imprint of their flesh in their children, an imprint deeply ingrained even if the child never knew their father.
Orochimaru had a father taken from him, along with his mother. He stood at the memorial stone for days after their deaths, finding solace in only a white snake's skin that meant they still lived on, even if only in his heart. His loved of his parents is what fueled his lust for power, because he wanted his parents back. It was sick, but it was still love.
Sasori lost his parents in a war. They were taken from him in a battle. A pointless battle that caused nothing but strife, not just for Sasori but for everyone involved. He tried to make an embrace of love through puppets, but cold arms are no replacement for parents' flesh. He started a war in an attempt to recreate what he had lost and become a puppet, but in the end, he accepted his parents' fate and became human.
Kakashi Hatake's father killed himself. It was a horrible injustice, because Kakashi's father should have lived. He took himself away from the world and his eight-year old son to relieve himself of his burdens, and Kakashi was smart enough to know that it wasn't fair. He was changed forever, losing himself in the harsh reality of a ninja's world. A world that someone that young should never be exposed to anyway. The cracking the cold caused could never be fixed.
Itachi Uchiha was forced to choose between his loves. His family and his village. His father was taken by his own hand, a blade the he held, a fist that he brought down. He killed both of his parents and lived with the pain forever. He knew what he did was right but that didn't make it any easier to live with himself. He lived through his brother instead, happy to die if it meant that killing his family hadn't been in vain. He lost the protection of a father the day he chose death.
Neji Hyuga's father chose to die. Like Sakumo he died to bring himself peace. Unlike Kakashi's father, however, he died in the place of another father, sacrificing himself for the brother he cared about. But he still left his son alone to resent those who abandoned him and Neji was no better for it. He still left his son to rot, and that is worse than a father who died in a war to protect those they cared about.
Naruto Uzumaki was barely born when his father gave him the worst birthday gift a father could give. His death and the spirit of a demon imprisoned inside him. His father died to protect his village and his son, and Naruto should have known that long before he did. Naruto grew up alone and friendless, the memory of his father nonexistent. He was only able to defeat his Pain when his father told him how much he cared.
They all cared. Every one of those parents cared for their child, no matter how misguided they were. They may have died, but they live on through the children who survived them. They all remembered their fallen father no matter how he died, and they will continue to do so for the rest of their lives.
Kind of a character study. I like it, anyway. Review if you feel like it.