Fate Wheel | Naruto

𝟏𝟎𝟔| "The day the sun died"

CHAPTER 106 — THE DAY THE SUN DIED
══════════════════

I'd dreamt about this moment many times before throughout my life, but never had I imagined it to be under these very circumstances.

No abundance of preparation could surmount the feeling that made me halt and stare at the sight before me with an indescribable look in my eyes. The type of look that didn't know how- or what to feel after many, long years of wondering what would await me when I returned back to reclaim what I once thought was mine, to assert control over my life once again and start anew, where mistakes wouldn't be repeated and the past a painful memory that would haunt me from time to time. I was foolish to think that even after everything I'd endured, that this feeling would merge with every other painful memory and I'd be desensitised to grief.

Grief. A funny emotion. I knew I wasn't grieving the people that had died, people who never cared about me and wanted me gone as much as I wanted them to accept me for who I was. I was grieving what could've been, the life I could've had, the brother that would've been by my side- who vowed to show me the world and shower me with such love that it would replace the years of pain and loneliness.

Despite all of that, it wasn't grief I was feeling either, I wasn't feeling anything. Not when I knew that time was of the essence and there was nothing I could do to alter the past, to alter things I had done to make it here- the people I hurt and abandoned.

Aragakure. Currently known as the Eye of the Storm. Where a destructive evil was born and would soon evolve into something greater- a catastrophe soon to be unleashed onto the world.

I trudged through the snow, the pain that was burning into my limbs and my back numbed by the coldness of the atmosphere, and although it had been so many years- eleven years at most, I still recognised the route that led me to the Village. The rocky terrain of the steep mountain path blanketed with layers and layers of snow and gravel. A long, gushing stream now frozen in the time it had all went wrong. A reservoir of wisteria and trees reduced to empty, lone plains of dead branches and ice-encrusted leaves. Aragakure's defence was its terrain, but even then, the rumours were enough to keep foreigners away. If not that, then the wild animals that lurked in the shadows or the rumbling of a storm in the distance that would hinder the trek to the summit.

I had always thought that escaping the place I once called home would be an impossible objective- and at the time, it was. The harbingers heavily guarded every inch of this Village, ensuring no one could enter, or more importantly, escape. Even talking about possible plans of travel could land you a ticket to Tartarus, the Fate Wheels knew that the more people desired to explore the world- the less influence their power had, and thus they resorted to manipulating every aspect of life to not only enforce control, but to safeguard their secrets from the world. Secrets that had gotten them killed in the end.

The truth will set you free. The voice that whispered in my head blended with the hollow sounds in the distance. Or it will imprison you.

My head craned, staring at the storms that thrived in front of me, before I turned around and took a step forward into the Village.

A strange feeling succumbed my senses. And for a second, my eyes fluttered shut and I could hear the voices of the Villagers that roamed freely in the streets, laughing and talking, likely preparing for another festival or feast. The music and instruments sounding near the market square where all that could be seen and heard were flashes of colourful, splendid garments, children running and scuttling on the ground and a sense of unity and togetherness. A crowd of people accumulating by the wolf temple as they watch harbingers being initiated and the protectors of the village proudly performing a dance that kept the storms and oceans at bay. I could see everything I was prohibited from joining, a community that excluded me because I was unfortunate enough to be born the vessel of Kaede and a target for the Fate Wheels' machinations.