The Boy in the Park

Chapter Seventy-Seven

It was a normal day. The sun shone its rays down on Konoha, as the city bustled in its normalcy. Naruko had gone training with the toads and had yet to return, but in the meantime, everything was fine.

Shinku walked through the market, humming to himself. He wondered what would make for a good dinner, and if he'd end up having guests —like Shikamaru and his team, who popped up every now and then to check on Kurenai.

It was as he was thinking about random, normal things…that the building nearby exploded and a giant crawling 'thing' emerged clicking dangerously. There was a moment of quiet contemplation. The shock lingered for the second it took the beast actually to start rampaging, before the screams gave way to a massive wave of terror.

People began to run.

Some ran faster, others stumbled and fell. A few grabbed on to their children and hoisted them up. Generally, it was carnage when the thing decided to charge further down the road, cleaving and mincing apart the people.

A building crumbled nearby, and he barely fell down to avoid the brunt of its rubble from falling over his head.

He tried to pull himself away, but his limb did not answer him.

His right leg smashed beneath a piece of the building, his eyes widened in realization as he watched with shock a three-headed dog mowing through the houses.

He was going to die.

It was as simple as that.

He was going to die there, because the village was under attack.

There was nothing he could do, nothing he could do to help.

A flicker materialized a moment later —a moment too late— in the form of his Anbu guard.

"Can you…"

"Eh," he muttered with a bitter smile. "Nice guard you are," he snarled out as he could feel the agony of the crushed limb start to flare up, as the adrenaline waned.

"I'll get you out…"

"Leave me be," he muttered back. "Go and get someone else to safety. I'm stuck here. You'd have to amputate the leg and I'd die of blood loss before you can get me to the hospital —if a hospital remains, that is."

"I have orders," Yugao replied.

"And I'm telling you to go," he retorted. "Come on now, before I start ranting out. Just…go and save someone else. I'll be fine if I stay still, really…" he croaked that out. "Just go for the love of god!"

"Fine," and with that, Yugao flickered away. He gritted his teeth and hissed in pain, before taking in deep breaths. He was in a corner of the market. The buildings that could fall had already done so. If the battle ended and someone came afterwards…but who'd attack the village to begin with?

That was his last thought, before he felt a massive wave of energy literally slam through the very air.

He closed his eyes.

The building he was beneath was lifted in the air together with him, and the next instant he felt a sharp pain in his back as his body collided with that of Sakura who held him.

"I've got you, Onii-sama!" she stated plainly, before flickering away from the village and on a nearby hill where many of the evacuee had ended up going.

"Now stay still," Sakura snapped. "Really…staying behind like an idiot," she growled. "You're lucky Hinata kept an eye out for you in particular, that's what," with that, her hands glowed green as she began to treat his leg. "I'll just stop the bleeding for now. Have to conserve my chakra for the other wounded but…" she bit her lips, "What were you thinking, uh? If you have to live without a leg, then it's fine as long as you get to live! Really! It's just a leg!"

"I…Ah…"

"I'll let it be for now," Sakura grumbled turning her head to the crater that now substituted Konoha. "I'm sure Naruko will have a word with you too afterwards."

Shinku exhaled.

Naruko returned atop Gamabunta, her bright red mantle flapping in the wind. Her eyes were golden and as she felt the living all around her, she was glad her Aniki was safely away on a nearby hill.

Then she began to battle.

She exchanged blows with Pain. She fought off his bodies, snarled at him, attacked him with everything she had and, in the end, she felt herself stabbed repeatedly and pulled down on the ground.

"This appears to be your end, Naruko Uzumaki," Pain stated plainly.

"AH…No! Not a chance in hell, you bastard!" she growled, trying to pull her hands free.

"I will be syphoning your chakra off," Pain replied. "You truly cannot hope to stop a God, can you?"

"No…I…I will. You can be sure on it dattebayo!"

Hinata appeared the next moment in front of her.

"Why do you so pointlessly struggle?" Pain asked without even bothering. "You're going to lose. You have no hope to—"

Naruko felt one of the metal rods come loose from her hand. Her eyes widened as she saw the familiar look of black hair and red eyes stare back at her.

"Ehi," he mouthed, making the 'shh' sound. "They don't react if you don't have chakra," he pointed at the rods.

He was doing an extremely stupid thing.

It made sense in theory though.

Hinata distracted the man and he removed the rods.

It wasn't difficult. He ground his teeth as he managed to remove one, before the drowned out gasp emerged from Naruko's throat forced him to turn around.

Hinata was knocked unconscious on the ground and…Pain's eyes now, for the first time, settled on him.

Shinku swallowed nervously.

Pain gazed, and then brought up his left hand.

The rod in Shinku's hand floated out of his grasp a moment later and then, with a single fluid motion, pierced straight through his chest and stabbed at his heart.

His eyes widened in fear as his breathing grew ragged.

"ANIKI! ANI…"

He fell to the side. He could hear the blood gushing out of his wound in his ears. He could hear his breathing loud and gurgling. Does a pierced heart still beat?

Then he smiled as he felt his life come less. It was supposed to be some sort of scary thing, dying. Yet as he watched Naruko manage with her freed hand to free herself and rush to his side, he couldn't help but smile at the thought that he had helped somewhat.

"ANIKI! ANIKI!" she was yelling at him, rather than looking out for Pain who remained quiet, watching the scene.

"ANIKI PLEASE! YOU PROMISED! YOU SWORE! STAY WITH ME! STAY WITH…" he closed his eyes.

Naruko's hands grabbed tightly on Shinku's cheeks. "Please wake up!" she pleaded. "I'll go without ramen. I'll go without everything as long as you wake up! Please, I'll do anything as long as you wake up. You can't be dead. You promised you'd never die or leave me alone! You promised! You're meant to keep your promises!" she croaked out. "Please don't die…"

"Pain is inevitable," Pain said next. "Was he a friend? Was he your brother? Was he your family? He died because you did not surrender."

"Shut up."

"You could have followed willingly, Naruko Uzumaki. His death is meaningless."

"Shut. Up."

"Do you feel this pain? This pain is the same as what everyone else feels when they lose someone they cherish. Konoha never learned this lesson until now. How does it feel, Naruko Uzumaki?"

"SHUT UP!" she yelled back at him. "HE DID NOTHING WRONG! He wasn't even a shinobi! He never went on a mission, never killed anyone, and he never did anything to you! SHUT. UP! You're nothing more than a murderer!"

Naruko gritted her teeth hard. "And I want to kill you so bad right now, I want to slaughter you, I want to butcher you…I want to tear apart your very body and make you suffer for this…I want to. I need to…" her body washed in crimson chakra. "AND I SWEAR I WILL!"

Shinku blinked.

"Is this what it means to be dead?" he hazarded, looking around. There was blackness all around him.

"This is just the go-between," another voice, gruff, remarked. He turned around in time to gaze at another pair of crimson eyes and dark hair, before he barrelled into it and hugged the man tightly.

"Father!"

"Urgh," Shinku's father grumbled, before grabbing a hold of his shoulders and gently peeling Shinku off. "Be more of a man, Shinku. For the love of god, you're no longer seven!"

"Sorry," Shinku muttered sheepishly. "So…where's mother?"

"She's further down, but you'll see her in due time," he acquiesced. "And now's not the time."

"Uh? But, I'm dead right?"

"Yes," his father replied. "But not for long."

"I'm pretty sure once you're dead you can't go back," Shinku deadpanned.

"Well, generally it's like that. Sometimes it isn't though…which is why you're going back."

"Ah…I'm going back?" he retorted calmly. "Really?"

"Yes, albeit Joe isn't happy when dead people come back from the dead, but apparently that's just the way it goes."

Shinku nodded, and then firmly flung a punch at his father's face.

"This is for leaving me and Kurenai-neechan alone," he replied bitterly. "Do you have any idea what we went through? Do you!?"

"Shinku, listen…I did what had to be done for the good of the village."

"You should have done it better then! You shouldn't have died! Or you should have died with the 'return home' option!"

"Now that's a low blow! I was thinking about you both when I went to hold off the Kyuubi!"

"You couldn't even graze him! Nothing you did was meaningful!" tears came out of Shinku's eyes, "You shouldn't have even bothered trying! You'd still be alive then!"

"And what sort of man would I be then? Spending day after day asking myself if I had done enough? I saved a scared kid from the rubble before going to fight the Kyuubi. Hadn't I gone, he'd be dead now wouldn't he? I did what had to be done."

"It's still damn unfair," Shinku muttered back, collapsing on the ground and exhaling. "Damn unfair."

"Life's unfair," his father stated plainly, sitting down next to him. "You just have to live with it."

"Truer words were never spoken," Shinku grumbled back. "Damn…"

"What?"

"Am I going to remember anything of this when I go back?"

"Course not."

"Then, can I ask you something?"

"Ask away…"

"What is the meaning of life?"

His father smiled, and then replied.

"It's Porn!"

"Porn?"

"Porn!"

"I hate you, dad. Just you wait till I tell mother."

"You wound me so much, Shinku! So, so much," and with those words Shinku's father disappeared into thin mist as everything around him returned to a lighter shade of black.

He felt the ground beneath his body.

He felt the air on his skin.

And then, calmly, he opened his eyes.

The sky was blue.

The clouds were white.

And everything, everything…seemed fine.

"Ouch," he groaned as he gingerly touched where the rod had pierced is heart. The skin was still tender, but perfectly healed.

That lasted until he heard a sharp cry of joy from a crowd, which was soon overshadowed by the running of footsteps and the slamming against his sitting form of a blond bullet that shoved him once more back on the ground —and actually dug a sort of trench a good meter long.

Two arms tightly grabbed him by the neck.

A body pressed against his and as he finally put into view the accusing object, lips smashed.

"UGH! Guf…" then, he looked at the accusing object with a sense of finality and sighed.

And he kissed her back.

Author's notes

Next Chapter, the Epilogue.

Yes, I'm ending this story in the next chapter.

I know it might feel somewhat hasty (But this chapter is 2K) but September is coming, time's running short, and this story has been a great joyous ride.

I'm going to give you guys a chance since I did not specify who kisses who.

As with all Harem-Like-Animes, in the end only one wins.

Take your pick.