Fate Wheel | Naruto

𝟏𝟏𝟑| "Night of wrath"

CHAPTER 113 — NIGHT OF WRATH
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PRESENT DAY- 6 DAYS

A mass of darkness blanketed the Village Hidden in the Leaf. As if the world of those within had witnessed the death of the star that differentiated day and night, leaving its inhabitants to suffer in a realm of eternal solitude.

Naruto stared at the sky, the heat of the nine-tails' chakra threatening to seep through the seal as- for the first time in his life- he feared the future of not only his Village, but the world itself. This feeling of helplessness accumulated overtime, it took a lot to disintegrate the walls he'd built in order to understand that the world could only handle change if said change had any real effect. Slowly, one by one, every word of reassurance, all his memories good and bad, time itself shattered into fragments of glass dancing across the floor- his reflection fractured, ambiguous, a distorted version of the little boy who once dreamt of great things.

Things he was now incapable of achieving as he realised that maybe, there was no point salvaging what couldn't be saved. The world was already in the process of change, of destroying itself bit by bit— who was he to postpone the inevitability of time when time itself refused to transgress?

It's happening. Kurama's voice thrummed in the back of his head, but even his presence wasn't enough to subdue the growing panic he felt in his chest, an overwhelming fear that made his throat close up. You didn't listen.

To who?

Her. He soon realised that the tailed beast wasn't antagonising him, but unfurling his chakra in order to keep him stabilised. Naruto could feel his body being pushed and shoved, the people around him bedevilled by an array of panic and hysteria and he couldn't find it in himself to calm them down- not when he was on the verge of giving up as well.

She didn't tell us.

You didn't listen. Kurama seethed and he could envision his glowing red eyes, a seed of anger and resentment that had been planted over a thousand years ago, leering at him.

She betrayed us.

You betrayed her first, you overlooked everything she'd been telling you when she was bedridden for a year. When she supposedly recovered from her illness. When she joined the Anbu. When she left. She told you everything you needed to know.

It didn't take him long to figure out that Kurama knew something about Dawn, or rather, her lineage that exacerbated his ever-present rage.

But he wasn't able to focus on Dawn, or anything, other than the fear that the sky would never turn day again- or why the temperature had suddenly plummeted, or why his skin was covered with goosebumps, or why the hair on the back of his neck and arms stood and the way his teeth chattered together, unable to fathom the cold. It wasn't necessarily cold, it was the permanent absence of warmth that prompted his body to respond this way.

"There you are!" Shikamaru grabbed onto his bicep, tugging his body towards him, the glowing blue stone in his hand the only source of light. "Fire doesn't work, it extinguishes the moment you use it. Hurry, we need to leave and find the others."

Naruto looked at him, disoriented, his mind separated from his body. "What's- What's happening?"

"The white cloaks are attacking, they're making their way towards us but they haven't infiltrated the Village yet. We're going to be sent to the front lines to prevent them from entering at all costs, the civilians that were in the process of evacuating are still within range of the dome. You know what that means, right?" He looked at him seriously, a terrifyingly  haunted look in his eyes as he tightened his grip. "It means casualties, death, destruction of our Village if they enter."