Fate Wheel | Naruto

𝟏𝟎𝟒| "The man who loved too much"

CHAPTER 104 — THE MAN WHO LOVED TOO MUCH
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Sahiro would say to me: "don't fly too close to the sun" and when I asked him what it meant, he told me the story of Icaras.

Icarus was the son of a craftsman who built him wings made of wax in order to escape their inexorable cage. His father warned Icarus of the nature of hubris, that if he flew too close to the sun his wings would melt yet if he flew too close to the ocean its dampness would hinder his flight. Like all stories, there was always an obstacle that prevented a happy ever after. He defied his father's orders and fell to his death, Sahiro would use this story to emphasise the relationship humankind has with power, that limits existed for a reason and defying those limits could do more harm than good.

After spending some time to think about the story, I realised he wasn't talking about the limits of humanity, but rather the imbalance of power. The people who refused to surpass their limits remained at the bottom of the food chain and those who overcame those limits transcended human capability; the balance that prevented the world from erupting into chaos.

Now, that balance was almost nonexistent. Evident in the way the world around me folded in on itself- as if it was trying to reverse the damage humans have caused and start anew. It wasn't that the world was going to end, it was going to be reborn under the control of the Oogami.

Everything, the world, fate, death, was all dictated by numbers.

There were sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, twenty four hours in a day and months till the world would meet its end. I started to count my days ever since four, well, nearly five years ago when I'd received the stone of fate. Ever since then, colours have been distorted, the gravity that tethered humans to the ground was beginning to shift and my senses were all over the place— hyperaware of every move being made and every voice that I heard in my head. All I saw were numbers and words and numbers and words and even more numbers.

I almost wanted to laugh at how insane I sounded, but that made two of us.

Fugaku stared at the monuments of Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju as history repeated itself and would soon end in his vision. And I was going to deliver his sentence, punish him for the crime he couldn't help but commit, or perhaps, it was my bitterness speaking. That his last moment was an act of defiance.

"Do you see that?" He asked suddenly.

If he was any other man, I would question his sanity, but like me, he could see and hear things others could not. Such as the tinted darkness in the air as if the barriers between our world and different variations of it was crumbling, creating a tear in the atmosphere. Flickers of faint luminescence cascading from the sky, like the aftermath of a nuclear fallout. And a dreaded voice in the back of our minds, constantly reminding us of what was to come.

It reminded me of Shimo, when I stood and watched a portion of the world burn and burn and burn and I was the cause of its destruction. I had no one to blame but myself, even then, I didn't feel remorse. Shimo's collapse was a threat. A warning.

"The first time I saw you, I instantly knew there was something different about you." Fugaku continued as I listened to him attentively, my gaze on the waterfall. "The feeling was all too familiar, it reminded me of them. I had to force myself to not lose composure, to remind myself you were only but a child. A child, who like any other, was forced into battle without warning. I knew that you'd only do more harm than good, but that good you've done... I cherish it more than anything."

"You befriended my boy and showed him love. You gave him a companion and in return he lowered the guards he built because of me and let you in as you've let him in. You saved him from the burning and showed him that there was something worth fighting for." He smiled earnestly, and for some reason I knew that it was the first time he smiled after a long while. "You did everything I couldn't do. I regret more than anything that things had to be this way, I wish it could've been different. I wish she hadn't controlled me before I even had the chance to be a loving father and leader. And now, I'm afraid, my time has run out."