I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
Choice
Ryuu groaned, pushing himself up and looking around. It was foggy, worse than being in the middle of the Hidden Mist Jutsu. He whistled, but received no answer. He frowned. The Three-tails must have scared the birds away. He began to walk away from the lake, deciding to find the edge of the fogbank and go from there. After a few moments, he spotted a crow that he instantly recognized as Yomo sitting on a log, looking around.
"Yomo!" Ryuu smiled, jogging toward him. "I was wondering where you'd flown off t-"
He stopped as Yomo suddenly cawed angrily, streaking forward and attacking him in a flurry of feathers, talons, and beak. Ryuu shouted in surprise and pain and staggered away, raising his arms to shield his head.
"Yomo, what's gotten into you!?" Ryuu shouted over Yomo's shrieking. "Fuck! Yomo, stop! Please!"
Yomo let out one final caw before turning and flying away as fast as he could. Ryuu stared after him in shock and dismay, his injuries, which were actually worse than he'd have expected, burning agonizingly. He pushed himself up, shaking his head. It must not have been Yomo. But even still, birds had never had a problem with him before. He kept walking, finding several mocking birds after a few minutes, all of them picking at seeds on the ground. He whistled, but they all shrieked in alarm and took off, more birds scattering from the trees above him. He stared at them, feeling his eyes sting. Something was wrong. Something had changed.
His mind flashed back to him attacking Guren. He had changed. He had been completely set on killing her. He hadn't even cared. But then, she was a threat. He'd killed for less. And he was justified. Right? It wasn't wrong to kill if it was to protect the ones you loved. Besides, he needed to kill to be able to protect Fu, Naruto, and the other Jinchuriki. He was the only one who could.
Just then, a symphony of angry, fearful shrieks, screeches, and caws exploded into existence above him as birds flooded down at him, talons extended and poised to shred his flesh. He shouted in surprise and fear and dropped into a low squat, arms over his head as tears fell from his eyes.
"Ryuu, It's going to be okay."
"Big Brother?" Ryuu asked, lowering his small, child arms and standing, looking around and sniffing, wiping his nose on the back of his hand, then looking down at his young body. He hated being so small. He was helpless. Pathetic. Even if Shisui was too nice to say it.
"It's alright, Ryuu. Everything's going to be fine. Things may not seem to make sense, and a lot of things are going to change. But it's going to be okay. Whatever happens, just stay true to yourself and you'll be alright."
"Big Brother, I don't understand!"
"You will."
The voice began to fade as the words echoed.
"Big Brother! Don't go! Don't leave me alone again!" He ran forward, stumbling a couple of times before falling onto his knees, sobbing.
He shifted to sit back against a tree, sobbing into his knees. After a couple of minutes, he lifted his head, sniffing, then looking up as a mosquito flew toward him, passing the older Ryuu standing beside him. Ryuu watched as the younger version of himself stood, raising his arm as the mosquito landed on his hand as he held it in front of him, biting him.
"Hungry little guy?" the child asked.
"Why don't you just kill it?" the older asked, frowning, a look of puzzlement on his face. "You'll itch later if you let it bite you."
"He's not hurting anything," the child shrugged. "He's just hungry. What if someone wanted to kill you for being hungry?"
"But...it's a bug," the older frowned.
"All life is important," the child scowled up at him. "Don't you remember?"
Suddenly, the boy fell away, splattering to the ground in a deluge of blood before the ground below Ryuu crumbled, dropping him. Darkness swallowed him instantly as he plummeted into a void. Or, maybe he was floating. A hand reached out of the darkness, grabbing at his leg, pulling the rest of its body into the light. He should know that face. He knew he should. He felt his trench knife in his hand suddenly, feeling the resistance of slitting a throat with it. Recognition dawned on him. It was the first person he'd killed. The one from Taki Gakure. Another hand grabbed him. He knew that face too. What was the name?
"I'm going to kill you! ! !"
He knew that voice. It was the second face's voice. Suien's voice. That had been his name.
"I...I killed...I...it was...I didn't mean..."
His chest constricted in agony as guilt ripped through him like Hidan's scythe, cold and merciless, flaying him wide and exposing every nerve to the agony it caused. Tears fell from his eyes in rivulets, but the parade of sins wasn't done yet. Next was a girl with pink hair and white armor. Where had he seen her?
"I may not like you, but I don't want to kill you."
"You're trying to save me? You're supposed to be a ninja! We kill each other!"
"I want to be different. I make my own path."
Fubuki. That had been her name. As soon as her name presented itself to him, several Anbu began to claw at him, their cloaks bloody and their masks broken. These were the ones that attacked him and Fu under Danzo's orders. Next was a corpse that held its severed head in the crook of its elbow. He was mutilated. His right arm was amputated and cauterized at the elbow, his abdomen cut open and his intestines stuffed down his throat, now dangling from the severed neck of the head, and he had been beaten to a bloody pulp, sporting dark bruises covering his face, bone chips sticking out of his skin from his cheek bones, his swollen right eye, and his remaining arm broken. Ishidate. Then there was a corpse that wore a crazed expression and had a pitted, glowing stone embedded in his chest, though there was a hole through both his torso and the stone. Akahoshi.
Then, Sado's gut dropped as he realized what was next. Sure enough, the light spread outward rapidly, illuminating a sea of corpses, all struggling to scramble over each other on all sides, all trying to reach him, all wearing the same rags as he had when he'd been imprisoned by Orochimaru with them. Then, Max and Lena were there, their hands closing around his throat, strangling him. Then there was Mhao and his homunculus family.
Ryuu struggled to breathe, both from Lena and Max strangling him, and from his guilt crushing him. He had murdered all of them. He deserved this. He deserved to die.
"Please," Ryuu pleaded. "Kill...me! I...deserve...all of...your hatred. I...deserve...to die. Please. Kill me!"
"You don't get to die!" Mhao said, Lena and Max suddenly letting go. "Death is too good for you! You don't get to be released from your suffering yet!"
"That's not why we're here anyway," Max said.
"We're not here to kill you, Ryuu," Lena said.
"We're here to remind you who you are," a voice said behind him as a hand rested on his shoulder.
He turned, seeing Shisui behind him, a sad, knowing smile on his face. "Big Brother."
Suddenly, the corpses were gone. Shisui stepped back, and suddenly Ryuu was standing on a pathway, at the bend of a "V". On one end stood Shisui, tall, proud, and strong. Everything Ryuu's father had ever wanted. On the other end, was a younger Ryuu, from back before Shisui's death. Back when there was no sin blackening his soul.
"What is this?" Ryuu asked. "Big Brother?"
"It's time for you to choose, Ryuu," Shisui said. "Who will you be? What path will you follow?"
Voices began to drift out of the void around them.
"I want to be different. I make my own path."
"You're pathetic! You're not worthy of the Uchiha name! You'll never be like Shisui was! You're a disgrace! You should never have been born! If we had to lose a son, it should have been you! Your brother was a genius! You're just a mistake."
"I mudered two people! I don't know what to do! Please! The guilt is killing me and I can't stop it!"
"Ryuu, there's no sin in killing to protect the ones you love. To protect friends, family, the innocent. It's not wrong to kill in those situations."
"It's still killing."
"I know you don't like attacking. But sometimes you don't have a choice."
"I know. And I know there are people I would kill to protect. It doesn't make it any easier."
Ryuu stared at the two paths. He could only choose one. And only once. He'd never be able to have this choice again. He knew, some how, that if he chose to follow Shisui's path, to be the shinobi his family had wanted, to be like his brother, the child would die. What little fragment of innocence Ryuu still had would be lost, and he'd never be able to find it again. But if he chose to follow the child's path, he'd be damning himself to a life of suffering and pain, and with no guarantee that he could ever be as strong enough to defend Fu on his own.
"I want to be different. I make my own path."
He stared at the child, who stared back at him, still sniffing as tears ran down his cheeks. Why did he have to protect her alone? When had he started to think that? Weren't his friends always his strength? Hadn't he always relied on them? Hadn't he once trusted them to watch his back? Hadn't he trusted Fu to look after herself?
"You think you can defend everyone yourself, and that no one else is powerful enough to, but you're not all-powerful! You have to trust others! One thing that has always plagued the Uchiha Clan, and that has always brought them to ruin was that they let their hubris, and their self-reliance control them. You're better than that, Ryuu. You have to learn to have faith in others."
"Ryuu. You know that's not true. You're not like your family. Remember? You hate violence."
Ryuu felt tears welling in his eyes. "I'm sorry Big Brother."
"I'm not," Shisui smiled.
Ryuu started down his chosen path, swallowing hard before kneeling and wrapping his arms around the child, shushing him and stroking his back comfortingly. Then, the child was gone, and he was kneeling in grass. He opened his eyes just as Fu landed in front of him, grabbing him in a hug instantly.
"Ryuu!" Fu gasped. "Finally! Where have you been!?"
Ryuu broke, clinging to her and sobbing. "I'm so sorry! Please, forgive me! I couldn't see! I'm so sorry! I don't want to be what my clan wanted! I don't want to kill anymore!"
Fu stared at him in stunned silence for a moment before smiling, wrapping her arms around him more tightly. "It's alright. You don't have to. You've done enough. You don't have to suffer anymore."
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