Naruto : Struggle Of Childhood

Aftermath

"He'll be fine," the girl said, her voice certain, and it gave him hope, "We both know that he's pretty much invulnerable. You've beaten him up enough times to prove that. Some Grass nin isn't going to be able to get through that thick skull."

He laughed weakly. He could see the flashes of his teammate's white hair as he fought, yelling unnecessarily as he attacked. Idiot...didn't he know that he was just giving away his position? If he lived...he'd have to tell him off...maybe show him how to do that attack without killing himself...

Something was wrong.

That had been the first time that he'd looked at his teammates as more than just a necessary evil. When he'd seen the reason why they divide them all into cells. Because...you have to have something...or else you lose touch with reality. It was the first time he'd noticed that other people are struggling too. That he wasn't the only person who had suffered...that he couldn't say that he'd suffered more than someone else.

That...he wasn't alone.

His head hurt.

Why? Why hadn't he been chosen? Why had a man half his age been named in his place? What did Minato have that he, one of the Sannin, didn't? How could Saratobi-sensei just destroy the dream that he had had since he could walk so easily.?'Minato carries the Will of Fire' ...hadn't he? Hadn't he always defended Konoha? How could he!

The man needed a walk. It was a bitter thing to watch the man who you had seen as your father crush your dreams. He would stop by to see his teammates soon. Even now that the Genin team had been disbanded for years and they all had taken teams of their own, they still were teamed together in missions.

It wouldn't be easy for any of them. Particularly when Minato was...Jiraiya's student. He was going to be torn between wanting to celebrate with his student and wanting to do something to help his old friend. The man sighed.

It was nearly splitting. He had to take...protect...destroy...Konoha...find the others...kill them...warn them...

There wasn't much left of the western part of the city after the Kyuubi attack. It had all but destroyed the wall on it's way, and there were still bits and pieces of the Chakra floating about. And now there was the issue with the child. Minato have left them with a Jinchuuriki and the city wasn't sure if they should celebrate, hale the child as a hero or kill it.

This wasn't Kushina or someone who they knew. This was an unknown child who might turn on them. At least so they thought. Many believed that the boy would be driven mad by the voice of the monster, others thought that it would be able to devour the soul of the child, since it was nothing but an infant, and only a few were in favor of keeping the child alive.

It was understandable, but it didn't change what it was.

Also...some very sadistic part of him just thought that it would be interesting. The boy would...change things, and he was always interested in that. He was so busy with his own thoughts that the figure came on him out of nowhere. Really...it had seemed to appear out of the dark like a ghost. He only had time to turn and jump back when-

Jiraiya's voice? An attack?

Like a snake that had been woken, he lashed out violently, his tongue slashing through the thing that was making the sound, but trying to avoid Jiraira. He stood up, his vision still blurry and the taste of blood in his mouth. Nin in black. Threat.