Fate Wheel | Naruto

𝟖𝟐| Alive... Or Not

"The rest: be damned."
— A.D. Aliwat

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THIRD PERSON

The salty taste of metallic blood felt pervasive on her lips.

Her bones were frail and weak from the lack of sufficient diet and food. Skin ridden with ghastly scars, some openly bleeding, others scabrous and healed— yet the memories were painstakingly ripe as she felt the cold blade drag across her ribs and drill into her stomach.

She couldn't get away. Her ears heard the intensity of her screams echoing within the dark walls, her eyes saw nothing but the bodies of her Village, of her family, of Sahiro- whom she loved so dearly and couldn't fathom a world where he wasn't by her side, she felt the touch of the owl, of the wicked men who caressed her cheek as though she was a foreign delicacy and yet, shattered her soul into a million pieces without remorse.

"Keiji." Sora whimpered, her hands gripping the fur of the wolf who trekked past numerous terrains in order to find her sanctuary. It was the first word she had said in almost a year. "I want Keiji."

He felt it, the blood soaking into his fur, the light leaving her eyes, the way her breaths staggered and quietened. He was terrified of the thought of failing yet another person, of being alone.

"I'll save you." Jiro gritted in determination, his paws gaining the strength to stampede across the long grass as he trekked further into the Fire Lands. "I'll give you the life you deserve, the life you've always deserved. You'll never feel like this again, I'll- I'll save you. I promise, please hang on for me." He begged, tears fogging his gaze.

All his life he had felt abandonment, hatred, anger- destruction, he wanted to destroy everything around him and condemn the world for the monsters that lurked on it, that eventually; he became a monster, a vicious creature incapable of feeling. Who would've known that his obsidian heart would soften so that the little girl trapped in the same cage he had been confined in would feel warm in a cold environment?

That after all these years, he found his purpose, a way of living astray from blood and violence- only for everything to crumble before his eyes once again.

"We'll build a life." Jiro promised, choking on a sob. "You'll live in those huts you always admire, you'll never know what it feels like to be cold again, you'll have sweets like kids your age have, you'll attend school and eat different kinds of food and make those friends you talked about having— even family— and there'll be flowers and- and plants- stars in the sky— you can't leave me— okay? Just- Just hang on a little bit longer and then you can rest."

There was no reply, he didn't expect it, she didn't talk much and it worried him— but, he heard her heartbeat and that reassured him. Just a little longer.

Just a little more.

For once, he prayed, he sought out any otherworldly deity or God or even the devil himself- he was willing to sell his soul just so that she knew what it felt like to live once again. He wanted to be there as she grew up into the beautiful person that she was, warm and healthy, no blood in sight, light in her eyes and a smile on her lips, he wanted to hear the sound of her laughter and feel the warmth in his chest as he watched her have fun with her new friends, he wanted her to not be afraid of the world— to have trust in people once again, to find those she'd call family, to feel normality and warmth and kindness and love— to have everything she had been deprived of.