A/N: Quadruple update day. Might even be five if my neck stops killing me. Hope everyone appreciates it.
Just wanted to thank everyone for the support.
I've been doing this for awhile, and...well, its been fun. So thanks. It means a lot, and it always will.
Depression's starting to hit real hard these days. Feels like I'm walking around in a fog half the time. Sometimes I wonder why I do anything at all. I can't claim to understand what's going wrong with my head. I don't even know why! One moment I'm fine, then my mood craters for a few hours, then I'm back again for a bit, and the cycle repeats. Its rather annoying; as though I've become a prisoner in my own mind sometimes. Sure, what's one more mental problem on the pile. Not like I don't have enough, what with already being this old. Feels like every day is a battle sometimes. My doctor is of no help at all.
As ever, I own no quotes, references, quotes, themes or memes! They're simply tributes to legends far greater than I.
I'm just an old man who writes as a pastime. I don't make any money doing this, not a single cent.
I've kept you waiting long enough, lets go.
"None of us want to go alone. We're all human after all. We all do our duty, when its easy.
But a day will come when its not. What will you do then, I wonder?
Will you kill the boy and let the man be born?
Or perhaps...
~?
Twenty-Second Fragment
So this was what death felt like.
Finally. After all these years, he was free
He'd waited so long for someone to pull it off...and she had.
Naruto felt it as surely as the holes in his body; his chest was more lead than flesh at the moment, so many bullets lodged in his chest. He'd always thought it would be more painful. But there was no pain. He didn't feel anything; not physically at least. Emotionally? Now that was another matter. Here at the last, sadness and sorrow welled up in him. He'd made so many mistakes. His last one was staring him right in the face, gattling gun spooling down, its finally rounds spent, smoke still wafting from the barrel.
All around them, the building began to collapse. There was no chance to escape, not this time.
He tried to smile and coughed blood. Ah, mortality. How he'd missed it.
His body was old now, weak, slow, all but out of chakra.
He knew his time had come.
But before it did...
Not alone.
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you, Jinx." he planted a hand on her her shoulder, quieting her anguished cries. "I tried, but I wasn't good enough. You've killed too many people. Just like me. We're both broken, too twisted for this world." he drew her in for a hug. "But there's one last thing I can do for you, from one monster to another ...
Behind his back, he flicked the detonator open in his fist and slammed his thumb down on the trigger. An ominous beep echoed in the room.
Jinx heard it. Naruto knew she did; because her violet eyes widened, first in shock, then horror...followed by something else.
She lunged forward into his arms and squeezed him as she hadn't since she was a small child, holding on for dear life.
Naruto closed his eyes, pushed her head into his shoulder, and tilted his head back.
"Its time for us to rest, Powder."
Their world erupted into fire.
A/N: Aaaaand scene.
An old monster takes a young one to his grave.
Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this story, and others. Meaning folks don't like this, it won't be continued. If the story itself ain't popular/well-received...well, I won't be able to continue it. I'm working two jobs, holidays are here too, meaning I barely have time to write; as such, I cannot afford to write something folks don't enjoy.
So by all means, speak up! Your voice matters! Make yourself heard! As ever, reviews are the fuel that sustain me. Without them I cannot write a single word. Simple as that. Working nearly all hours of the day keep me absurdly busy, and I can't bring myself to write something folks don't like.
As ever, reviews keep this old man alive during this dark and crazy time. I ain't joking.
So in the Immortal Words of Atlas... Review...Would You Kindly?
No previews here. Time for an old man to rest awhile.
R&R~!