Fate Wheel | Naruto

𝟏𝟏𝟓| "Yours sincerely, Nabe Tsugani"

CHAPTER 115 — YOURS SINCERELY, NABE TSUGANI
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It was an odd day.

The sky was blue, white birds all perched on the ledge of the houses laid adjacent in a long row, and purple hyacinths sprouting from the cracks within the concrete ground. Summer would soon yield to cold, autumn rain and orange leaves that flail nicely against the golden light of the sun- yet, for some reason, Hidan didn't feel a difference.

He watched as the seasons changed and he remained the same. He watched the people around him grow while he remained a prisoner to his past. He'd spent hours laying in still solitude, his mind empty of any thoughts that should burden his shoulders.

Hidan had escaped the black clover meeting upon realising that foreign and diplomatic discussions were more in Sasori's forte than his. It was Sasori, who'd redeemed the three of them as they emerged from renowned criminals to government mutts, he didn't know whether pretending to assimilate into society was a path of redemption or a pathetic attempt to erase the blood on their hands. Either way, he was thankful that he was able to roam around without a target on his back. The downside? He had to spend long hours in boring meetings.

"'It took time for me to grasp that loneliness was something that couldn't be shared, but a burden you must handle alone. Even as I surround myself with love, it coursed through the empty hole in my chest and exacerbated the hollowness I felt. An endless vacuum, if you must'." He read, ignoring the way some of the letters seemed to merge over one another, his fingers brushing against the golden engraving of the leather bound book.

"—'it was then I'd noticed that this vacuum not only emptied content, but deprived life from all whom surrounded me. Freshly blossomed petals shrivelled into pieces, a large canopy of leaves obscured the light of the sky, clouds seem to have darkened and the grass beneath my feet turned to dust. The problem was I, an endless war brewing in my mind'." Dawn recited, approaching Hidan and casually rested her arms on the railing that overlooked the Village. "It's a good book, isn't it?"

Hidan didn't spare her a glance, but he was intrigued. He didn't think she was the type to read anything other than politics. "You think? What'd you like about it?"

She laughed, scratching the back of her neck. "Uh, well it's not simply the matter of what I like about it, but rather- its ability to make you feel nothing. Throughout the entirety of the book, Rinku embarks on a journey after his Village and family were destroyed by the aftermath of war. One of his aims is to rediscover what it means to be human, but after many trials and errors, he realises the world as it is now is unable to attain a true level of peace when the means of achieving peace is through violence. There is also a certain part of the book that really interests me..."

"Which is?" Hidan looked at her attentively. He noticed how her smile slowly began to disappear as she gazed at the large Hokage monuments in the distance.

"The last published chapter." Dawn said. She glanced at the book in his hands. "May I?"

He nodded, passing her the book- though, he didn't ignore the strange feeling in his chest; cold raft leaking from one of the many holes in his heart and raising the hairs on his skin.

That very book was the first copy of his brother's novel, every tear he'd shed, every drop of blood that had been spilt, even random ink splotches- it all proved that he was once real. That he wasn't someone tortured by the burning as he begged his little brother to kill him. He was simply the person who'd read books to him occasionally and got on his last nerve. The person who showed him an entirely different world through words.