Naruto © Kishimoto Masashi
Soldier Side © System of a Down

Rating: T (character death)
Pairing(s): none
Character(s): Shikamaru
Genre(s): Angst

Spoiler for those who haven't read past where the Shippuden episodes are in the manga right now.


Soldier Side

Cruelty to the winner, Bishop tells the King his lies
Maybe you're a mourner, maybe you deserve to die
They were crying when their sons left
God is wearing black
He's gone so far to find no hope
He's never coming back
They were crying when their sons left
All young men must go
He's come so far to find no truth
He's never going home

System of a Down


Shikamaru's Musing


Cruelty to the winner, Bishop tells the King his lies

Even the politics of the ninja villages are screwed up. The power goes to those with great influence and money. The Council is full of old, corrupted elders. Luckily, for now, our Hokage has the power to keep Naruto safe.

Maybe you're a mourner, maybe you deserve to die

When a comrade falls, we have to go on because life goes on. Life won't stop for a mourner who can't let the past go. A ninja either has to put the past behind him or face his demons. He can't let his thoughts get in the way of his work. In battle, a ninja can't be distracted.

A distracted ninja loses his life.

They were crying when their sons left
God is wearing black
He's gone so far to find no hope
He's never coming back

Every single time that I leave for a mission, I hug my mother and shake my father's hand, and because I'm in a different division from Ino and Chouji right now, I take them out for lunch.

Also, before every mission, I visit Asuma. I leave a single white flower and a cigarette beside his tombstone.

They were crying when their sons left
All young men must go
He's come so far to find no truth
He's never going home

Ninja are tools of war, but we'll never find out when this life will end. It could be tomorrow, next week, or even years from now.

So, for now, I will take the life of one who threatens to take mine or one of my friends. I will go to war for the village I call home, and when I am needed at the academy, I will teach the kids because I have figured out that kids who graduate from my class live longer.

Ninja are used like batteries. We have full life at first, but depending on how much strength is required of us is when we'll expire. It's troublesome, but I like knowing that I have the capability to add years onto a new ninja's life because I have taken more life than I have given.

It won't be until my last breath that I realize that this life was truly worth it.

I may have broken a promise to my son—I won't be returning home this time—but his smile was worth it.

He's a genius; he'll figure it out sooner or later.


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Completed
January 23, 2008