A/N(Lifethane's, not Keisuke's): You were probably expecting more action in this chapter, but I beg of you, do not kill me for not fulfilling that expectation. The next chapter, which should come within the next three days, will supply you with plenty of it.
Now, for you philosophy majors, behold:
Frederich Nietzsche no Jutsu!
Interlude: Keisuke's Author Notes
The following are notes included in the finalized version of the Uzumaki Chronicles: War of the Eyes. It is unclear exactly when they were written, or even if they were intended to be included in the book. However, the perceptions and subsequent thoughts of the author revolve around several key aspects of the story and take into account some of the shadier, less certain details, and are therefore relevant to the Records. As such, the full document below has been added whether the author intended it to be or not. Don't worry, though, because this is a last-minute addition performed by a skilled shinobi editor and the author will be unable to find evidence to convict a target for his wrath, should he take offense to it.
--Editor
OoOoOoOoOoO
((Date Unspecified))
I'm writing this early, early in the morning, at the time when my near-insufferable nurse is least active. Normally, I'm not much concerned about her reading over my shoulder—hell, she's the one helping me write it, half the time—but this document, though I began with the story in mind, has become something apart from the tale itself that I'd rather not have influenced by her way of thinking. Though her care of me during my incapacitation has been marvelously effective (if somewhat loud and rough), I feel that this is something I must see to on my own. Once finished, I'll figure out whether or not to add it to the story at a later time.
Let us assume that someone other than myself is reading this. There are a couple of somethings that this person would need to know before taking a brief dive into my mind. The first one is the fact that I'm writing this story as it's being told to me for the first time. Yes, of course Naruto immediately launched into tall tales the moment I showed any sign of responsiveness in the hospital, but a lot of that was lost on me in my half-unconscious state and the rest of it was either forgotten in the pain of the much-too-tight Hyuuga hug that followed my awakening or too wild and unbelievable to trust without verification by another member of the team. The other something is that though my typist's skills are slowly improving to the point where I might never need eyes to catch errors, I am still not perfect, so please forgive me if I make a few mistakes. ((I fixed your mistakes for you, you Sightless Freak. --Editor.))
As a result of the first something, I am as clueless as the people who will read the story as to what will be happening next. Therefore, these are the thoughts of a questioning reader, put onto paper in an attempt to make sense of some greater mystery for oneself. Read on, if you don't mind reading some things that you've already read before.
The first—and probably the most important—subject I feel that I have to give thought to is the enigma of Uchiha Sasuke. This person is quite possibly the most difficult character to write about, due in large part to the fact that he did not return with the rest of the group and therefore cannot give any testimony as to what happened. Neji was with him much of the time, but Neji is no mind-reader, and so the inner workings of the infamous traitor's brain will probably never be revealed. I know that I should be at least somewhat thankful to him, since his actions led, ultimately, to my freedom, but I cannot help but think how courageous my rescuers were to put their trust in him. I might not ever be able to understand him, but for the sake of curiosity, I'm going to make an effort.
Let's review what we know—not think, not speculate, but truly know—about Uchiha Sasuke. He was born into the shinobi Clan that was supposedly the strongest in Konoha. At a young age, he was orphaned when his older brother, Uchiha Itachi, murdered every last member of his clan and family, himself and Sasuke excluded. At the age of twelve, he graduated the shinobi Academy at the top of his class, was assigned to a four-man cell including Naruto and Sakura-san and led by the Jounin, Hatake Kakashi. A short time later, he and his team took the Chuunin examination where, according to Sakura-san, he received a cursed seal upon his neck that was capable of giving him great power at the risk of his health. A while later, he left Konoha—after defeating Naruto and then sparing his life—to seek more of that power from its source—the Snake Sannin, Orochimaru. Three years later, he returned and challenged Naruto to single combat again, and was defeated and consequently captured. He now bargains for his life with information valuable to his captors.
Most of the things that I've just described seem to indicate—as Sasuke himself has said—that he has defined his purpose in life as the destruction of his murdering older brother, Itachi. His drive to gain power for that purpose is evident from his academy scores and from his seeking Orochimaru even at the cost of his life. Even his challenge to Naruto three years later was "a way to gain and measure power" in comparison to his old rival. One must take into consideration the possibility that he had planned to try to take Konoha's side against Orochimaru if Naruto, the penultimate loser, had been able to gain more power from Konoha than he, the top of the class, had gained from the Sannin, as that would suit his quest for power. He goes where the power goes, until he deems himself powerful enough to fulfill his purpose.
From behavioral patterns observed by Naruto and others just before and after his defection, he appears to understand his existence through this purpose alone. If this is true, then the ones who walk with him have to be constantly thinking about the situation: What, in this situation, suits Sasuke's ultimate purpose? It's obvious that it suits his purpose to live, or else he wouldn't have made a deal with his interrogator.
But why did he continue to allow himself to be led around by Neji and the rest of the team? At the time of the attack on the neutral village, he'd had several days to recover his energy and, in the confusion, might have been strong enough to make a decent try at escaping, despite having Neji and Kiba with him. Yet he chose to be dragged around as Haruka might drag me out of a garbage can after I've had one too many drinks. Did he believe that he still wasn't strong enough to get away, or did it suit his purpose in some way to stay with his captors for now? And if it's the latter, then in what way did staying suit his purpose?
And this raises a much more potent and charged question, one that must have plagued the team's brains all night, every night: At what point would cooperating with his captors stop suiting his purpose? How they found the grit to shake off that uncertainty boggles my mind, but apparently they did it, somehow. Purpose can be a powerful and terrible drive.
There is, however, a philosophy that a man I knew long, long ago preached fervently. This man preached many things, in actuality, and I can think of one or two more that are relevant to the story, but one in particular seems as though it was taught especially with Uchiha Sasuke in mind. That philosophy stipulates that purpose is ultimately lacking.
Of course, we all give ourselves over to different causes at different times when necessity calls for it; when a fire starts in a heavily populated area, a brave soul might decide that he will act as a firefighter, rescue personnel, or first aid provider, whether they have been trained to do such things or not. But when someone begins to affiliate who they are with a purpose, when they incorporate that purpose into their fundamental being, they restrict themselves. A person who identifies himself as a firefighter, and understands his existence through that purpose, will spend his life living to find and put out fires, and never experience the world beyond fires. While this restriction is good to have in a professional situation—you don't want to be thinking about your girlfriend while flames are consuming the building around you, for example—to spend all of one's life in one role is hardly gratifying, in my view.
Sasuke and—to a lesser degree—Naruto have both been swept up in the fault of purpose. By devoting himself entirely to the death of Itachi, Sasuke has deprived himself of friendship, love, and family, the very things which he is trying to avenge. Naruto has a burning desire to become the Hokage, and will settle for nothing less. They've both had their share of repercussions from it; Sasuke's faults are obvious, and Naruto was a loser for much of his life. The difference is that Naruto was able to keep an open mind, and allowed himself to enjoy life as much as possible while improving himself, even sticking his toe in the waters of love. In the end, it was Sasuke who lost.
But I'm going somewhere else with this, beyond the explanation of Uchiha's defeat. As consumed in his purpose as he is, there is evidence that the dark one has at least recognized his error, even if he's failed to do anything about it. The fact that he did not kill Naruto three years ago stands out to me; Naruto clearly intended to get in his way, which would have interfered with his quest for power. Yes, he might have wanted to save him to measure himself against later on, but there are always other shinobi to compare himself to. This suggests, to me, that at that time he realized what he was doing, and was briefly unable to totally and completely adhere to his purpose. Also, Neji's confusion regarding Sasuke's behavior after being alone with Naruto may have had something to do with this repeated realization.
Of course, these are only possibilities that I'm just throwing out there. It might be that Sasuke didn't recognize the barrier presented by his purpose at all, in which case we can assume that at some point his purpose was no longer served by being with Naruto and the team, and he left. This would have implied that Uchiha Sasuke was the same criminal inside that he was on the outside, but his betrayal would have been expected and therefore the conditions were not beyond some measure of control.
But if he did recognize that his purpose was lacking, what then? It's not possible to know, and so his actions become completely unpredictable. The question I want to ask is this: is an Uchiha Sasuke who recognizes the one major error of his life more or less dangerous than one who doesn't? Unfortunately, the only way I'll ever know the answer to that question is if the story I'm writing winds up featuring the former type. If it does, I'll be able to see just how dangerous this unpredictable Uchiha is compared to the latter type, which is more calculable. Most likely, we will be able to see which kind of Sasuke we're dealing with when Orochimaru re-enters the picture.
Orochimaru. His presence in a place completely changes everything, usually in a complicated and sinister fashion. He is able to do this because he is so adept at delving into people's hearts and minds, learning what makes them tick and then bending their natures to his will. He used this skill to turn Sasuke's purpose to his own advantage, as well as to cause heavy emotional and physical pain—much to my misfortune. His masterful manipulation of political leaders serves him also, bringing war upon the land between all five of the great shinobi nations and their respective allies.
The Snake Sannin is a man who understands and uses the theory of causality to great effect. This is another of the philosophies which I learned before my frozen entombment. The idea is that free will is an illusion; all people have existential natures that predetermine their choices and actions in a given situation. Knowing and understanding these natures can give one the ability to manipulate a person as one chooses. This philosophy has its supporters and its opponents all over the world. Neji was once a proponent of this philosophy, until Naruto, who is a huge believer in the power of a person's free will to change and grow for the better, convinced him otherwise.
For myself, I'm unsure what to believe. Orochimaru had me under his thumb for a long time, and during that time I quailed under the realization that he could do whatever he wanted to me and I would be powerless to stop him, because he had seen through me and knew my nature. But the events that led up to my rescue and freedom gave me cause to challenge it, and so I can't bring myself to come to a conclusion yet. Like a scientist who can't consider anything proved with only one trial, I need more data.
So I think, while I write this story, I'll make note of the events which influenced the beliefs of others. Uchiha Sasuke will be a prime example; if his free will overcomes both the restriction of his purpose and the manipulations of Orochimaru, it will be a severe blow to the theory of causality. There is also the interesting matter of the Cloud shinobi, Ayaka, who seems to be in the midst of some odd inner struggle, and Inuzuka Kiba, who has had to come to terms with a horrible accident. Let's not forget Haruka, either, since her character is a psychologist's playground. ((There'll be retribution for that remark.))
And, of course, there is the story of Naruto and Hinata-chan, who are the greatest young examples of free will's triumph in their generation.
Something just crashed in the kitchen. That means the woman is awake, so I have to finish this and hide it quickly. Whether I want it published or not, if she gets her hands on it, it won't be under my control. Since I've come back to this house, there hasn't been a single damned aspect of my life that she hasn't tried to take over... ((You haven't realized it yet, but I didn't fail, either.))
OoOoOoOo Philosopher-Silencing Jutsu! End Interlude oOoOoOoO
Next Chapter: What's going to happen to Haruka in the face of the newly-arrived Cloud army? Where has Shino gone? How will the team find them both and prevent the village's total destruction? Writing the story, will Keisuke begin to lean towards one conclusion or the other?
Honestly, even I don't know. But I will very soon, since I have nothing better to do than to think about where this story is going.
