The Harsh Truth

Chapter 23

It was night, in Konoha. As the stars brightly lit the otherwise dark and hidden village of the leaf, a familiar red-haired teenager girl was comfortably sleeping in her favorite resting place.

A pair of hands, clearly uncalled for, but yet coming never the less, lifted her up from her comfortable spot in the bed of her father, and slowly brought her to her own. With a light groan, Karin's eyes slightly opened, before closing once more, and nuzzling as much as possible against the man that was doing said feat. Naruto Senju had just returned home, to Konoha, in the middle of the night, and was dead-tired. It wasn't just the weight of the actions he had done, or the repercussions that were about to happen on a much larger scale, or the fact that they had practically rushed back, as quickly as possible.

No, it was the information that had transpired from that single meeting with those three Iwagakure Chuunins that made it all far more problematic. As he carefully laid Karin to sleep in her own bed, since the teen had decided to once more take up the habit of sleeping in his, he tucked her in, before giving her the good-night kiss on the forehead, and turning to leave.

"Otou-san…" the red haired girl whispered, making the Godaime Hokage turn around, on his face an apologetic smile, "I still love you…not matter what," she murmured, before once more returning to sleep. As Naruto left her to rest in her room, she couldn't help but grin a bit, seeing how her father's aura had calmed down, probably now more at ease after her words. She could help him, not that 'stall girl'. Yet why couldn't he understand? She'd mull over this thoughts the next day, since, right there and then, she was too sleepy: her father had come home, so now she could rest at ease.

Naruto quietly moved to Yumi's room, entering it and carefully sliding to sit on the side of the bed where his youngest daughter slept. So what if they weren't tied by blood, and she was more an Uchiha than a Senju? She was his daughter. He had changed her diapers, and had cooed her to sleep more than enough times to know she was his little six years old daughter that shouldn't be toying with Kunais…and yet did nevertheless.

As he sat there, watching her sleep, his mind flashed back to the destruction of Iwagakure. It had happened fast, at least…hadn't it? Was there a Yumi-chan, just like his, somewhere among the ruins? Was there a body, a dried up husk of a four year old, a still body of a toddler, somewhere among the ruins? Ashes to Ashes, and Dust to Dust, yet what was there more to it that was making this seem completely different?

He had destroyed Iwagakure.

He had annihilated it. It was but a word, 'annihilation', yet it held within it so much meaning…so much meaning that many people glossed over without realization. It meant the buildings crumbling down with pillars of dust rising up to the clouds. It meant screams of agony, of fear, yells to the gods up high to save them, final thoughts of thousands of people, cries of children…it meant loss, destruction, blood…and it had been over in an instant.

A sickeningly easy feat, for one such as him…was there somewhere, in the world, a man just like him that had a small girl of six years old, back at home, and spent time thinking about keeping her safe by battling a war elsewhere? Was there someone from Iwa's army, that had a loving family that now no longer could wait for him at home…because there was no home to come back to?

He gently traced his fingers alongside Yumi's forehead, watching as the small girl frowned in her sleep, before mumbling and bringing one of her tiny, at least for him, arms upwards, to scratch her head, before taking a more comfortable position to sleep.

She was so much at ease right there and then…would she still be like that, in the years to come, when she developed the sharingan? When she ended up on missions outside of Konoha? Would she still sleep peacefully, after killing her first man, or woman? Would she still be his little smiling daughter? He didn't want for her to suffer his own life. He had to end this war: he had to make sure wars like those never happened again…he had to break the hatred of the enemy…by wiping it out completely from the map.