A Couple Steps Back

Chapter 1

Third person pov

Naruto Uzumaki was tired.

Sasuke Uchiha was tired.

Shikamaru Nara was tired.

Battle after battle, death after death. They were done. There was nothing to save anymore: nobody to protect. Konoha was a pile of rubble, and so was Suna. The other hidden villages were either wiped out or in the process of being leveled to the ground. Obito and Madara were merciless when it came to their rein of terror. The trio had nothing more to fight for. Even Kurama, who'd been urging them to fight back, was burned out. Sure, he had been thirsting for blood before. He finally had a home and he'd gained the acceptance of those around him. People had gotten used to the idea of him, and they treated him as an equal. As a comrade. It was a nice change to be accepted and even loved by the masses, but in an instant, all that had been ripped away from him.

"What now?" The Nanadaime Hokage asked his two comrades, glancing at each of them. They were grimy with dirt and sweat, but at least they weren't injured. "I don't know, Hokage-Sama." Shikamaru answered heavily. Naruto's war-hardened face deepened into a scowl. "I'm no Hokage, Shikamaru. I failed not just the village, but the people in it. There's nobody to protect anymore." He sighed, leaning back to look at the smokey sky. It wasn't often that the sun shone brightly, and when it did, it always seemed unbearably hot. As though the universe was scolding them for losing. "Hn. Once a Hokage, always a Hokage." Sasuke said, his eyes downcast as he examined the end of his tattered cloak. While Naruto had accepted his fake arm that contained the cells of the first Hokage, Sasuke had denied the offer from Sakura.

Littered with scars and exhausted, the three brothers sat in silence. It was almost peaceful. It felt weird to just sit. No shouting over the battle's scream. No crying over lost teammates and friends. No rushing to save the day. It felt almost wrong in a way, Naruto mused. Everyone was dead. He shouldn't feel so... relaxed. So off guard. He should be sobbing and screaming at the heavens. But the blonde had screamed so much already, so much that his throat burned and his lungs cried out in pain. He's sobbed and begged and asked the golden question: Why?

None of the three men sitting on that piece of rubble knew what they'd done to deserve this. Well, Sasuke supposed he did. He'd helped start this war, but he'd also helped end it. Surely, surely fate wouldn't punish the whole world for his crimes and for his sins. That wasn't how things worked, right? Sasuke knew he played a great roll in this world, but his actions couldn't have effected everyone across the great nations, right? He sure hoped not. Although, it did feel nice to have someone to officially blame, even if that someone was himself. Obito was under Madara's control, driven mad by a genjutsu that nobody could find out how to remove. They just couldn't get close enough to him for long enough. Shikamaru had seen the seal. He'd figured it out. But he hadn't seen enough to help them free the poor man.

Madara had no mercy. This world hadn't ended in just an instant. There hadn't been some huge nuke to wipe them all out at once, and there hadn't been a plague to kill in everyone in one fell swoop. That would have been nice, Sasuke supposed. To drift off in your sleep after two days of a shitty fever. That would have been the ideal end of humanity, if they had to pick. Instead, this world had ended one agonizing scream at a time.

Shikamaru took in a long drawl of his cigar, blowing the smoke back out seconds later. He knew it wasn't healthy, but he just couldn't shake the habit. He felt like it was the only thing that kept him sane these days. Out of everything, it was one of the only consistent, unchanging things in his life. Cigars didn't change. Sure, the brand would. The flavor. But all in all, the sticks of rolled paper or leaves would still give you cancer. Obito and Madara couldn't change that, and that somehow comforted him. Sure, Naruto and Sasuke had been by his side, but they'd changed too. The three had gotten closer and closer until they were like a little family. A band of brothers brought together by war. It was almost poetic.