Ghost of Past

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Welcome back, guys!!

Now let's go into the story ;)

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Breathe in.

The smells: of pollen in the air, of grass, green and growing; of flowers, budding and vibrant; of trees, enduring and nourishing- the smells of nature entered his nose. He processed it, and absorbed the knowledge of his surroundings. It calmed him. The world of green was so much more calming than the world of flesh.

Breathe out.

He felt the roots underneath the ground on which he sat. He felt how they gathered the nutrients for the trees that sent them so deep into the earth. There was the eternal thirst for water, only matched by the greed for sunlight. The roots converged into the trunk, the trunk branched out, the branches ended in leaves... and he went back again, back to the earth, back to the next tree.

Breathe in.

A rabbit was digging a hole, only a few dozens of feet away from this place. He was carefree, only concerned with reproduction, aiming to lure a mate and start a new warren. At a greater distance, a fox was scurrying around, nose to the ground, tracking the scent of its prey. A couple of cubs were waiting for the vixen to bring back food: the cycle of life.

Breathe out.

Yes, vegetation was eaten by herbivores, herbivores were eaten by carnivores, and the corpses and other excrements all provided nutrition for new vegetation. Oxygen is converted to carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide is converted to oxygen. Nature was balanced. All things happened for a reason.

Breathe in.

But why was it so difficult for an individual to understand his reason? Were the things he did part of this world, just like a fox hunting a rabbit? Was he some kind of alpha predator, who could hunt and kill whomever he wanted, and was that his role in the cyclical nature of the world?

Breathe out.

People got bounties. Bounties got hunters. Hunters got money. Was that his cycle? Was that his purpose? It felt so empty. He knew he was supposed to be more than this, that he was meant to achieve something big. He was not just a continuation of their world, but a force that'd change it. Perhaps that was the old Naruto: never giving up on his goal, no matter the odds- but the new him had forgotten his original purpose.

Breathe in.

The new Naruto caught the smell of the corpse behind him, and the one that was approaching, slung over the shoulder of the man who was supposed to be his teacher or mentor. Kakuzu had taken his time, which was unusual. Normally, Naruto was the one who ended up getting chewed out for wasting Kakuzu's time, and time was money, Kakuzu argued. If money was a religion, wasting it was a heretical act for which Kakuzu, archbishop of the church of Ryo, would gladly condemn anyone to a penniless afterlife.

'Breathing exercises are futile. Still... why did that stupid woman unnerve me so much? Yamanaka Kyoami, formerly a chunin of Konohagakure. Why did her name attract my attention? Why did I pick her bounty when Kakuzu let me decide which one to hunt?'

What was worse was that he couldn't get her out of his mind. He'd seen plenty of corpses since he had joined Kakuzu. He had hunted down many bounties by himself too. Or in case Kakuzu just wanted to add a fresh heart. Killing was not something that unnerved him anymore, in contrast to how he felt after his first kill. Naruto had gained experience. He knew what the human body looked like, both outside and in. 'Desensitized' was what Kakuzu called it.