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Artwork: jessejzette - The 7 Generations of Hokage - Find jessejzette on deviant art.
A NEW WORLD – A TEAM OF FOUR
The Hideout
Just over an hour since her pursuit failed, Lara ambles back into the camp, replaying recent events in her head. Something is different, she knows it is. The problem is that she resents the change that is happening to her, whatever that change may be. Life has always been so easy. Nobody has ever been able to stop her from doing what she wants. She has only ever wanted simple things that she has been able to achieve. Now she is not only being stopped by an aristocrat, but she is also unsure of what her true objective is. To surpass Clyde, to kill Furst Jonas, who knows?
'How did that girl get into our camp'.
A youngster. A teenager it looked like. Lara has long since been able to look past someone's appearance and tell their true age. Whether it is Peterson, whose true age is in the hundreds. Naruto, whose true age is much less than one hundred. Clyde, whose age, like her own, is around the one-thousand mark. That girl is different though, her looks are deceiving. Lara has never met someone before who looks like a teenager yet gives off the sensation of being far younger.
Who was she anyway? How did she find the camp? That shouldn't be possible. The world is too large to find anything like that by accident. There had to either be some sort of direction, or some sort of instinct that brought her to them. Lara didn't believe in destiny yesterday, but now she is not so sure. It could well be that fate itself brought that girl to her.
'Just why did I let her go. There was no reason for it was there? She was weak. It was like hunting a wild animal'.
As Lara walks amongst the tents that have become a near-permanent residence for her and her subordinates, she analyses the difference in their respective strengths. She is a mighty general with a divine ability and a transcendent element. That girl had the same transcendent element but only to the captain level of control. Even to give her that much is flattering, her control was sloppy, like she had just broken through. How could someone so weak be blessed by such destiny and such luck?
"So, what do you think about what Shikadai did?".
Lara barely pays any attention to the question. It isn't directed at her is it? She tilts her head to the side slightly. It was just a shinobi, gossiping to his two friends about recent events. Do they not even recognise her presence anymore? Is that intimidating presence she once possessed now gone completely? Is her aura shattered?
"He may have gone about it the wrong way, but he is right?" another shinobi answers. "We would be stronger if we had Lord 1st's help rather than Clyde's".
Lara would have done something about this in the past. This shinobi is completely overlooking her great power.
"Are you crazy? Lord 1st may be strong, but I couldn't bring myself to work with him again, not how he is now".
"It's true, this Boruto we're seeing now isn't the same as he was in the past".
"I suppose not".
Lara feels an unusual emotion as this conversation concludes. Relief? Since when could she feel relief based on the conversation of such pathetic individuals. They are nothing to her, aren't they? Less than nothing.
'What are you doing now, Lara, eavesdropping on the mortals' she rebukes herself. 'Why should I care about their opinion, they're nobodies, I have already outlived twenty generations of that family'.
She progresses towards her own camp, walking past a group of her own captains on the way. The last conversation has made her slightly curious. She decides that there may be something that she can learn from all these people. She keeps her head lowered and continues to walk forward. She will bathe in the views of the weak.
"Are we really going to overlook the fact they left us for dead".
"If Lara's letting it go, we should let it go too. Besides, it's not like we have a choice. If we lashed out against Naruto, Sarada and Clyde there is no way we could win".
"That's true. And to be honest, I understand why they did what they did. They were only trying to protect the weakest amongst them".
"Protecting the weak? That's something we all gave up a long time ago".
"Maybe but isn't it something you hope to experience again soon?".
Lara considers the novelty of that. Protecting the weak. What function does it serve? It is counterintuitive, it prevents humanity from evolving. It isn't the weak that saved the pocket world, it was Naruto, Boruto and Hashirama. If the weak were to prosper rather than the strong, where would she be now, wouldn't she be completely alone? These people must all know this, she is certain that they do, so why don't they care about that?
Next, she passes a group of Clyde's captains, wondering what these people will have to say.
"Lara has gone insane" the first says, clearly not noticing her proximity. "She would never have allowed the general to get away with all this in the past".
"It's not like she could do anything anymore. The general has come into his own. He's equal to her now, no, he's her superior".
"You really think he's stronger than Lara?".
"About equal in terms of power. In terms of his ability to lead and inspire, he is far superior to her; there is more to being a general than strength alone".
"And what do you think about Uzumaki Naruto then?".
"He gives me some hope for the future" the captain smiles cheerfully. "It wasn't long ago that he became our saviour, but I'm starting to look at him as something more. He's reliable, do you know what I mean?".
"I know what you mean. In the short time he has helped us, I have come to feel I can depend on him. Just like the General".
"Yeah, just like the general".
Lara continues past this group, now having heard a generalised opinion of all three groups. She understands that this change has not been without catalysts. Naruto's obsessive determination to be a Hokage. Hashirama's betrayal of what he used to stand for. Clyde's regret of his own sins. Lara's survival in the face of her greatest defeat. All these circumstances have come together to create a situation that could never have happened without them. Could that be what is bothering her?
Then, something else bothers her. What is she doing?
'They are all talking about me!' she realises. 'It's as if they have no fear anymore. Is this because they have changed. Is it because of Uzumaki Naruto? Is it because Clyde has changed or… or is it because I have changed?'.
The look of terror in that girl's eyes flashes in Lara's mind and she feels what she never used to feel. Sympathy. Surely, after a thousand years, one cannot learn to feel that sort of emotion again.
'It's true that in the past, I would have just killed them for talking behind my back' she concludes. 'It would be easy, like killing a child, but for some reason, I'm not doing it anymore'.
Her tent is finally in sight, but she doesn't raise her head. Continuing forward on autopilot.
'If I have changed, why have I changed, what was the cause, is it the effect these shinobi are having on me?' she wonders. 'Or have they given Clyde that tiny bit of courage he needed? Did they give him the courage to stand up to me, the courage to change me?'.
Her own questioning voice reverberates painfully in her skull as she peels back the door to her tent. 'I don't get this at all, what is happening to me?'.
Lara's Tent
Lara enters once again to find that her tent is occupied. Routing around through all the mess is the person at the centre of her recent soul-searching. Clyde.
The inside of the tent looks like a bomb has hit it. Containers designed to store all manner of items, maps, weapons, plans, have all had their content tipped onto the floor. The sheets which marked the spot where she once slept have been thrown across the room and the lights have been moved down from the tops of cabinets onto the floor. This is of course because of that young woman and the owl.
"Clyde…".
Clyde largely ignores her questioning tone as he looks at one chest that has been discarded onto to the floor. He has seen this chest in his nightmares. This is the chest used to hold a collection of blood and glasses to drink them from. This chest is a symbol of Lara's barbaric history, a collection of her enemy's blood and the destination that was once promised to him.
"Oh Lara…" he sighs.
"What do you think you are doing in here? How dare you look through my stuff" Lara snaps. "Do you need me to explain it again idiot! I am your commander and you are my subordinate, so get out!".
That sort of claim would have frightened Clyde in the past, but not anymore. It has been a long time since they have been commander and subordinate.
"You've been drinking blood again, haven't you" Clyde asks, the disappointment clear in his voice. "I mean, you've always done it haven't you, as if tricking yourself into being something you're not".
"There is no trickery, this is who I am!".
Lara realises her mistake the second she makes it. She would never have felt the need to defend herself against Clyde's accusations in the past. They are only the ravings of an angry man with a conscience, hoping to find one person who can truly sympathise with him. More to the point, what she said would have been true in the past, it would be pointless to reaffirm it. Now she has just gone on the defensive, rejecting Clyde's probing questions because she doesn't know the answers and instead knows a far more terrifying truth. She didn't drink that blood.
"Lara, don't think that I am blind to what everyone can see about you. You are acting differently, you're on the edge of changing" Clyde says hopefully, rising to his feet and backing away from the chest. "But looking at this blood, I would say that you're exactly the same person you used to be".
"Shut up about the blood, and about me" Lara angrily demands. "I don't get why you think you know me better than I do. Any changes that I have made, any unusual behaviour, it is because I've made it my goal to surpass you! So, trust me Clyde, before long I will be stronger than you once again".
Clyde looks at Lara. She's flustered, and he doesn't quite know how to handle it. He's not an expert in this kind of situation, he can move the hearts of an army, but one really determined individual foxes him. Naruto is the expert in speaking to people in this way, not him. But at the same time, this is probably a role that only he can play. If Lara is going to change, he may be the only one that can truly bring about that change. So, he presses on, not daring to hesitate or look back.
"What happened to you Lara? You're weaker than you were in the past, mentally weaker. Other than when fighting me, you've been holding something back, like you're unsure of yourself, like you're doubting your own actions. You've done your best to act like your old bloodthirsty self but there's a reluctance. There's a hesitance about you".
"What hesitance" Lara asks.
"Like when you used the concentrated attack against Carmen, you sacrificed us in that fight, but I know first-hand that concentrated attack wasn't your strongest".
"Like when you watched Naruto and Hashirama fight and refused to use the opportunity to kill one of your most dangerous adversaries".
"Like yesterday when you ended the battle without any more bloodshed, something you would never have agreed to a month ago".
Lara is sickened by her inability to refute these probing claims. He is right. Mirai was right. Each time she held back and it's starting to become clear just why she did that. The world is changing around her. She has lived a life of incredible stability yet as everything else moves only one thing has stayed the same.
"What is it that made you doubt yourself?" Clyde asks.
"YOU DID!".
Clyde goes silent.
"This agony I'm feeling" Lara continues, "This doubt I have whenever I do anything. The screaming voice in my head. They are all YOUR FAULT!".
"My fault?".
"Defeating you is the only thing I lived for. That was the only thing I strived for, I was going to kill you" Lara shouts. "But then you won! I started to question where I had gone wrong, when all throughout our lives I have been the stronger one, suddenly you had surpassed me".
Clyde watches as Lara starts to do something he has never seen before. She confesses.
"Now I realise how stupid I have been. I'm stupid… I ADMIT IT!" she barks at him. "I had no idea what I was going to do when I killed you! I have no idea what my life becomes after you are gone. I don't know what I am going to do after I surpass you either".
"Lara…".
"That's why… I am going to kill Furst Jonas, do you hear me? I'm going to do it as your commander" Lara says. "You are my subordinate and when I rise to the greatest height I can in this world, I am going to bring you up with me, you hear?".
Clyde's heart is racing. He is in a situation that he never pictured himself in. For the first time in his life, Lara is truly on his side. Rational thoughts are getting harder to grasp, the whole situation makes no sense to him. Is Lara being on his side even possible, he thought it was something that the heavens had forbade? But no, it still doesn't make sense, surely it can't.
"If you want to raise your subordinates up, why are you drinking blood" Clyde asks. "Why are you embracing that old habit".
"I didn't even drink the blood you idiot" Lara growls in frustration. She runs over and kicks the chest out of her tent. "Just shut up about the blood already".
Clyde doesn't understand. Has somebody else acquired the taste for blood? That seems incredibly unlikely. Lara has always been deemed a demonic freak for it in the first place. But it's promising, good. If nothing else, she is at least trying to pretend not to have drunk it.
"Clyde… can I find satisfaction in helping those weaker than myself?".
Clyde resists the instinct to gasp. Has Lara's vision of the world become so bleak? Has her desperation reached such a point that she is being forced to change? It makes sense to him now. Lara and he have been raised together, the only constants in one another's lives. Unlike him though, Lara has been unable to form connections with other people. Now that she has been forced to look at a life after him, she has realised her own lack of purpose or desire. Destiny has conspired against her past-self. When she was forced to look for a new purpose, she looked to those around her. A thousand people all changed at once, all inspired by the same person, Uzumaki Naruto. There is only one way she could change.
"If I can't find satisfaction helping the weak… what is there after you are gone?" she asks.
"I… I don't know if you can find satisfaction in helping the weak, Lara. It depends on the person" Clyde reluctantly admits. "I know it works for me, for Naruto and Sarada, but if it can work for you, that will depend on you alone".
"Dammit" she curses, holding her head in her hands. "Why does this world have to be like this? Why is the only constant in my life you? Why dammit?".
In frustration, Lara coats her fist in 'light', throwing a weak punch at Clyde.
Clyde retaliates in kind, coating his fist in 'darkness' and hitting Lara's fist with his own.
The 'light' and 'darkness' revolve around each other. A spiral of white and black forms in the space between them. It blinds and shocks all at the same time, creating a stunning effect that causes even the two of them to cover their eyes and hesitate. It is because of this stunning effect that Lara calms slightly, realising how much her frustration has caused her to confess.
But then she realises something entirely different.
"… Clyde…".
"Lara?".
"… I know how we can fight Carmen!".
The Hidden Leaf Camp
Sarada nods absentmindedly at the medic as she listens to his speech about the medicine he is giving to the civilians. Sarada knows that she should be listening, that she asked for these extra duties, but she can't help it. Her focus has long since expired. The jargon she is being bombarded with means little to her anyway. All meaningless words that would be better spoken to Tsunade or Biwako.
Finally, the medic says his final words and asks Sarada if everything is OK by her.
"Yeah, that's OK. Thanks for your hard work" Sarada says as she walks past the medic and towards the next stop on her itinerary.
"Sarada" a voice calls to her.
Sarada looks over her shoulder and stops when sees that Himawari is the one calling to her. "Ah, Himawari, it's good to see you. You'll have to forgive me, but I don't have long to talk so…".
"I want to ask you something" Himawari interrupts her. "Why are you never home? Why are you always out here working?".
"There's just a lot of work to do" Sarada smiles. "I am the Hokage and even Shikamaru can only do so much".
Then Sarada is hit with the question she had hoped to avoid.
"Are you afraid of being around us?".
That is it! She had hoped to avoid this conversation at all costs because not only is the accusation true, the place it leads to is more painful still. It has been a while since she has looked at Himawari as her old friend. Now she can only look at Himawari and see her as Boruto's little sister. Boruto's little sister, failed by the 9th Hokage. That is all any member of that family is to her now, another person she failed.
"I see, so you've noticed that I'm avoiding you. I guess there isn't much point in denying it" Sarada sighs. "Listen, your brother is special to me. Because of what happened to Boruto, staying with his family feels wrong".
"My father is suffering because of what Boruto and Hashirama did, you know" Himawari explains nervously. "He's only putting on a brave face for the villagers, but he needs his family to be there for him".
"Then it's not my place to interfere" Sarada says. "After all, without Boruto here, I am not part of his family, am I".
Himawari starts to understand Sarada's hesitation. The Uchiha has been truly unlucky. Her father died. Her mother died. Her teacher died. Her closest friend betrayed her. Her fiancée betrayed her. Now how can she look her master in the eye? Sarada, like her father before her, has spent the majority of her life struggling to understand what it is really like to have a family. That is exactly what Naruto has always tried to prevent.
"Do you feel sorry for my father?" Himawari asks.
"Of course I do".
"Then, isn't that all that matters" the Uzumaki clanswomen grins. "Come on, you're part of the family. You'll bring back Boruto one day. You haven't given up on that have you?".
Sarada understands perfectly well what Himawari is trying to do. By asking if Sarada will give up, she has forced her to say that she will not give up. That is the only way she can continue on the path to surpassing her master. Sarada can't help but flash a wry smile. She has been played, but it feels quite nice this once. She heads back towards the Uzumaki family together with Himawari. She heads back towards her own family.
The Uzumaki Tent
Himawari enters in an especially cheerful mood. "I've brought back our missing family member".
Sarada nervously enters beside Himawari. "Hell, everyone".
"Hey Sarada" Minato waves to her.
"Thanks for coming home" Kushina says with a smile.
Sarada greets the two of them and then looks to the table at the centre of the room. Naruto is sat at the table with Hinata. One look is enough to tell how depressed he has gotten about this whole situation. Clearly victory in the civil war was not enough to cheer him up following the last volatile meeting he attended in the circle. Her presence alone may not alleviate the pressure he is feeling, but she can at least be there to help him through a tough time.
Sarada approaches the table and holds her hand out. She uses her powers of 'creation' to make another chair and sit herself opposite Naruto.
"How are you feeling" she asks.
"… I still feel that everything I said in the Circle was true. I know it's illogical, but I feel like I have to win with Lara's help" Naruto explains. "If I can't do that then, I feel like I will have lost to Hashirama completely".
"You know, to be honest I agree with you" Sarada admits quietly. "Since they left, I felt like it has been you and I against the two of them. A battle for the fate of the village. Quite frankly, I can't stand that we have to live by their philosophy right now, but if we take Lara with us, she will make us weaker".
"Do you really think Lara would hold us back" Naruto asks.
"Unless something changes, yes, I do. I hate to admit it, but right now she's a liability. However, I'm sure that one day, Lara will change, she will prove us right and we can show Boruto just how wrong he was".
Naruto nods, a renewed fire in his eyes. "Together, we'll bring back Boruto".
Naruto extends his fist.
Sarada does the same, touching her knuckles gently against Naruto's.
"Together, we will bring him back, Naruto".
Hinata smiles but doesn't say anything. She feels like a leaf blowing in the wind, unable to make any great difference to the fate of this world, but this sight brings her hope. Together, there may be nothing that can stop Naruto and Sarada. With a passionate belief that you should never give up, the two of them can only be bested by someone with truly superior skill. In hear heart, Hinata believes that such a person does not exist.
The door to the tent opens and pair of generals walk inside.
It's Clyde and Lara.
"I'm sorry to intrude into your private space but Lara has changed her mind on something" Clyde tells them.
"She has?".
"Yes".
Sarada waits for a moment before pressing for more detail. "Is Lara going to tell us what she has changed her mind about?".
"Lar…".
"Shut up, idiot!" Lara rudely silences Clyde. "I'm only going to say this once, so listen up and let it count for something".
Naruto hopes beyond hope that Lara is going to say what he wants her to say. If Sarada was right, if Lara can change, then there is hope that they may get past this impossible situation and move closer to their objective.
"I'm willing to cooperate with you" Lara explains. "Let's fight Carmen together, one more time!".
"That's great!" Naruto says.
"Are you serious?" Minato incredulously asks.
"Dad?".
"Sorry, but the rest of the Circle has a voice too. You will need to convince us to approve this decision" Minato declares. "Can you offer any proof that you are sincere? That you actually are going to cooperate?".
"I cannot offer any proof, but I can offer a plan" Lara says. "I have a plan to defeat Carmen as a team of four!".