In this world, is there someone who truly understands somebody else? Not just superficially but truly.

Is there a human on this earth that actually has the abilities to recreate all the thoughts another person has? It be nice if there were someone like that. All we can do is try our best and make the other not feel alone. Try to relate, trying to understand is futile. Try to get a grasp on what is happening in the other, but know that you'll never know. But what am I rambling on and on about here? There's no sense in it. Let me ask you just one thing:

Did you ever go out somewhere, without aim, looked around you and recognized everybody just to notice a moment later that you didn't know anybody? If you have, you know what I want to express. You know how I just felt a moment ago, standing in the middle of the marketplace. Around me a huge crowd, but I'm all alone. For just the blink of an eye I could've sworn that I was back at home, I felt joy at seeing everybody again...

My mind is playing tricks on me again, how could I even mistake these people for my beloved ones? For my friends, family and my love? They look totally different, goddammit!

Fuck, people are starting to stare at me. I must look like an idiot standing in the middle of the crossroad, spacing out. Somebody's coming up to me, looking worried. "Get away, asshole! I don't need your pity!" is what I'd like to shout, but I just break out into a long run, likely looking even more idiotic before. But it's better this way, I don't need any comfort. I forfeited the right to it all those years ago. All those years ago...

Fuck, not good. I need something else to think about, how long has it been since I've come to this town? 2 years? 3 years? Or was it 10? I don't know. But seeing how old some of these people have grown, it must've been a while too long. Odd that I managed to stay somewhere for this long without being hunted down. But then again, it's not too often that I go out anymore. The world might've become a better place after all that's happened in the last couple decades but that doesn't mean it's gonna be a good place for me anytime soon. If I go out too often in the same place the people will become suspicious fast, I really don't get why I ain't the talk-of-the-town by now...

At least the people at the grocery store should've taken notice, as I have to go there quite regularly out of necessity. The woods don't house too many edible things here, all the way in the far north. Most of the supplies get shipped here by that new underground delivery system. Something about a Vacuum thingamajig. Don't ask me what that's about, I don't know, but apparently it's extremely convenient.

My forehead suddenly hit something, a wall of some kind. And the sound of something crashing down fills my ears. Huh? Where did I end up now again? And why is there some little boy yelling at me? Ah, seems I just ran into some kind of secret hideout of some wanna-be detectives. I apologize to the boy and am on my way to go again, though the boy seems clearly unsatisfied. He's making his opinion known with a pretty damn loud voice, too. Isn't this his secret hideout? Why is he shouting it out as if he wants to have the whole world know? Idiotic brat.

I give into his demands to repair the damage that I did, it's not gonna take long anyway. Looks like it was just a tent built out of scrap blankets gotten out of the trash and some wooden sticks his group found lying around. Looks like it might be more trouble trying to reconstruct that flimsy construct than I thought. What should I do? I guess I could just use that technique... I wonder if I even still have enough control for it. But then again, it never did require much control. But it was draining, so draining that it becomes a bother any time I really need it. Meh, I guess here goes nothing. "Turn around, walk to that tree; cover your eyes and count to hundred, brat", is what I told him. After some protesting he did as I told, had to leave him holding onto my jacket though 'as proof that [I] wouldn't run away'. Kids these days. Oh well, not like it matters. I take out some ink and paper and start drawing some series of what most people would call 'wild strokes' on it. They're however no such random doodling. It might not look it, but these shapes hold a mighty power if combined with the mysterious energy all beings produce. Some produce more, some less. There's so many names for it, yet it doesn't like to be called any of them. But I'm wandering off topic. At least for this task I'll only need a small amount of energy, hopefully. I push some energy into the paper covered in chicken scratch and focus on molding the form of a small house.

I let my eyes wander for a bit. The boy is still counting, huh? I can now leave the paper alone, it'll do its job now. Just another couple of seconds and it'll be done. So I walk over to the prior little hut I 'destroyed' so 'spitefully' and 'jealous of their accomplishments as detectives', grab the few books and pictures and other materials they have lying around and bring them over to the now finished building. Taking a look at it, I have to admit that I still haven't lost my touch – too much. Sure, there were some inconsistencies here and there, but overall it seemed like a solid job. I call the boy over before I walk into the house to put away their stuff. A book catches my eye "The legend of the gutsy Ninja", huh? Brings back a couple unpleasant memories, though I guess they're not all bad. A few fond ones are in there, too. Kinda funny how close to and how far from the truth the old lechers story was in the end.

Seeing how the book looks almost like new I take a look at the imprint. A small smile crept onto my face. Seems that now, a good 150 years after he died his book become some kind of huge hit. The world is an odd place isn't it? If this had happened back then, I wonder if the world wouldn't have ever had to see the birth of his 'tastefully erotic' novels. Enough reminiscing, let's get out of here asap. I look at the boy and see him staring around with stars in his eyes, all the while mumbling "so cooooool" or something to that effect.

"Think this is enough repair for your little hut? Then I'll take my leave now, brat", with that I turn around and leave. Guess he didn't hear me. Whatever. It's better this way anyway.

I jump up into the trees and run a bit further north of the house, to be sure to get away from the little town I lived in for the last while. Sigh... Let's see, where to next? Can't very well stay in that place much longer or even they will get suspicious. Maybe I should go more for the tropics this time? The climate there was pretty nice and I should be able to get enough food even in the wilderness. Yeah, sounds like a plan. Gonna be some long traveling, though. Sigh... not like it matters, I got all the time in the world after all. Damn that fucking damned, overgrown fur-ball, why the hell did he have to get a last shot in? Seeing how he couldn't win and would be swallowed by the death-god, that red flea-attractor somehow managed to give me the same lifespan as that of a bijuu, making me basically immune to death by old age. Neither does suicide seem to work, someway or another my body always gets back to health.

Heh, listen to me. I'm complaining about what so many people thought after, wanting to get rid off what other people destroyed my home for. The images of total destruction flash in front of my eyes. Burning buildings and corpses. Mangled bodies everywhere. Many of them not even recognizable anymore. And the scene that they created for my eyes only. That scene of utter humiliation of the dead, of all my important ones. Anger is creeping up into my mood again, I shake my head to try to clear my thoughts. I feel something nuzzling into my cheek and nearly jump at the furry feeling. What the hell is a cat doing on my shoulder? How the hell did it get there and why is a cat out here in the north in these lifeless woods? There's nothing it should be hunting around here!

I take the kitten carefully into my hands and hold it in front of my face. "So where do you come from and why are you attaching yourself to me, little kitty?", I ask it jokingly. Is it just me or this mini-fur-ball scowling at me now that I asked that question? "Seriously, you don't remember how I look anymore?", it said. I'm really turning crazy, aren't I? Speaking toads, speaking snakes, speaking dogs... ok. I can accept those, they're summons. But a stinking house-cat talking to me? Yeah, right, as if. "A cat talking, I'm seriously fucked, ain't I?", I say to no-one in particular. "I'm hurt, you seriously don't remember me, huh? It's me, Nibi's right paw, Kuroyoru.", it – no, she – said. "Right, how could I ever forget... it's only been like a hundred years since our last meeting?", sarcasm filled my voice. What the hell does she want from me now? Highly doubt it's a friendly chat she's up for. "Before you even ask anything, let me make it clear that I don't have any intention of getting involved with this world again. I'm done with fighting unless there's someone who could actually kill me. I gave up enough. If the people still can't learn, then there's nothing for me to do." She visibly stiffened at that for a second before relaxing and said: "Well, then this should interest you. Right now in the world of summons we got a bit of trouble. While the advent of humanoid forms all those years ago brought forth quite a bit of stability to our politics – I don't think I ever thanked your for that, so 'thank you very much' – it seems the humanoid forms don't keep back the strength of the summons anymore. At least not for the Mixed Ones." "Mixed Ones?" "Ah, you really didn't keep track of anything, did you? With our new forms we can actually procreate with humans and a lot of such relationships have been born and as such there's a new kind of being around. We call them 'Mixed Ones'. Let's get back to my explanation now. So, the Mixed ones can fight in human form with their full power, unlike us pure summons. At first that didn't provide any problems but about a decade or two ago things started to change.

"The pure blooded started to see the Mixed Ones as a threat and began to slaughter or enslave them so that they wouldn't rise to power. This of course didn't sit well with the Mixed Ones that were still free and they started to fight back and did the same in reverse wherever they could. They even started their own country after taking over the Snake-Island." "So," I interrupted her, "Where's the problem? You guys can deal with it on your own. Listen, I'm not up for any of that shit. You summons won't be able to kill me, even if I'm out of form. Plus, there's no other motivation for me in this. Get your stupid civil war sorted out yourself. I'm out of here." I said before I started on my track to the tropics running – more like jumping – through the tree tops. "Wait!", she shouted after me "This directly involves your generation! The generation of 'the bloody dawn'." She started sprinting after me, until she caught up. She caught my interest with that line, but I wasn't gonna stop. "How could it involve them?", I asked her sceptically when she finally was next to me.

She answered me with a question: "Do you know a jutsu called Edo Tensei?" This stopped me dead in my tracks. Edo Tensei? I thought I erased all traces of that jutsu from this world. Nobody should even know its name anymore. How? What does this mean? I broke out into a cold sweat. This couldn't happen. The bloody dawn and Edo Tensei shouldn't ever be mentioned together. Fuck. I grabbed her by the neck, feeling my face contorting into an expression utter hate and my brain not being able to think due to the emotions this brought up. "Details. Now.", I demanded of her. "Ccaa... aaa... n't... bre...", she squeezed out and I realized what I was doing. Loosening my grip on her neck I mumbled a quick apology and urged her to talk. She wheezed a few times before continuing "Last month we heard a rumour, that the bloody dawn was back alive and in the hands of the Mixed Ones. Well, we didn't want to believe it at first so we had spies check it out and just today we got all the info necessary together. About a year ago the Mixed Ones had started acting suspicious, a few of their people went missing without us having killed them. Turns out they found an almost ancient scroll describing a jutsu that it called 'Edo Tensei'. This jutsu is using dead bodies to bind the souls of the deceased back into this world and they tried to study this jutsu. Using their chakra caused the jutsu to need some modifications before it could be used, about two month ago they succeeded the first time. They brought people back to life. Since the start of the war it has been hard to come into contact with humans. The pure blooded didn't want to have any more Mixed Ones and the Mixed Ones themselves lost the ability to travel to the human world. So they came up with a use for Edo Tensei: Summon the strongest females and... ", she held a photo for me to look at "see for yourself what our spy found."

I couldn't believe my eyes. I looked at the picture and just saw red. I saw my loved ones. I saw them led around on all fours with dead eyes. Their bodies covered in a sticky white fluid that could only be one thing. One of them had a penis in her mouth and was sucking it obediently. I couldn't believe it. I grabbed Kuroyoru by the neck with even more force than last time. "Is this true? This isn't fake, is it? Don't lie to me, I'll know instantly if you do. Blink 3 times if it's true." And she blinked three times and my instincts didn't find any deceit in that motion. It took a lot of self-restraint, but I managed to let her go. "I'm going to fucking kill whoever is behind this motherfucking thing. They will die. They will rot in the Death God's stomach. As long as I'm Naruto Uzumaki, they're gonna die."

For the first time in all those years I had a purpose and for the time ever I thanked the fox for cursing me with this bijuu-like body. Just one question I couldn't answer: Why did the cats and not the toads tell me about this?