Disclaimer: Why do we need to put these up when it is obvious we, as fan fiction writers, don't own the manga/anime?
Notes: Beta'd by Kangarue, so if there is anything wrong, take it up with her! Haha, not really. But this was kind of a fun thing to write. Italics are any Japanese term.
Eternity
It had started with his birth and had ended with forever. Baby steps, truly, for it had taken him a long time to realize what had been going on, but when he still looked three at the age of five, he wasn't quite mentally developed to realize why it looked so wrong.
At the age of nine and looking like he was five.
Twelve years old, meeting his genin team, and still as short as a regular kid at the age of nine or ten.
Fifteen, back from years with his Sensei, still looking thirteen.
The years had skipped a bit, sometimes two, sometimes four, but never more than five. And he had finally realized something was wrong when everyone from his generation looked their twenty two years of age and he still looked eighteen. Even they had noticed, their eyes, not quite suspicious, more curious, perhaps thinking he had learned the exceptional genjutsu his mother figure, the Godaime Hokage, used, the illusion that kept her appearance that of a woman in her thirties when she was really more in her sixties. It was expected of him, they whispered.
His twenty-third birthday he left his small apartment and met up with his kaa-san, who's eyes looked at him as if she had been expecting him all along. And perhaps she had, because she was close enough to him to notice, and far enough to realize.
"I'm not aging."
"No."
"I'm not dieing."
"No."
"Then what am I doing?" She looked at him with sympathetic eyes, the eyes of a mother, and tried to gentle the blow.
"You are living." She did not have to tell him that it would be for far more lifetimes than she would see.
They had started on building a facade for him to hide behind, an illusion that aged him at the rate of his peers. It had taken months, but in the end, it was a success. His soul-brother no longer looked at him with questioning eyes, the genius of their age group didn't make the subtle noises at his birthday parties. He became the Rokudaime Hokage then, when all was set and his mask perfected.
But he watched them die, one by one, his mother first, followed closely by his surrogate uncle, for who could keep them apart? His academy teacher after, the father he had never had, and then his genin sensei and friend. His sister was next, his sweet Cherry Blossom, dead in childbirth, and the father, the ever flaming Jr Green Beast, went on a suicidal mission. And it had followed as such, loosing them all one by one.
But perhaps he had never realized the full impact of immortality until his soul-brother, the one he had dedicated years of his life to find and bring back home, died protecting his children from assassins after the Uchiha bloodline, and the Rokudaime was truly alone.
He remembered, suddenly, in that last death, the penalties of a certain jutsu, the Shiki Fujin. It took him a moment (though what was a moment if you had forever?) to connect between his existence and of his father's and he suddenly realized that they shared the same hell. A life forever watching his loved ones vanish one after another as he stayed the same, or an infinity alone in the stomach of Shinigami.
Bitter laughter left his lips and blue eyes dulled as they looked to the Fourth's monument. "We're not so different are we…Dad?"
"After all…what is eternity when we are alone?"
