Naruto God of The Shinobi

CHAPTER 24

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Chapter Twenty Four

"Why are you here, Naruto?"

The asker of the question hadn't turned to greet him, not that Naruto expected Hiruzen to turn around, though he did notice the Sandaime twitch when he had entered the room. Perhaps the Sarutobi wasn't as unresponsive in his current state as many people suspected.

Either way, Naruto didn't answer the man's question. Instead he walked towards where the former Hokage was seated on the side of his bed and sat down next to him, joining the elderly man in watching the trees of the forests of Konoha have their leaves ruffled by the wind.

Neither man said anything for several minutes, both seemingly content in watching as nature acted by itself, unmolested by human hands. The only sound heard in the room was the calm rhythm of the two men breathing, their chest expanding and contracting.

"I know what you're going through," Naruto said to the man beside, not taking his eyes way from the window. Hiruzen did the same. "When I lost my family, I felt like there was nothing left for me in the world. I spent days simply watching and wondering if I could perhaps spot a new meaning for myself within nature itself. Several times during this period, I contemplated suicide," The confession caused Hiruzen to turn to the other occupant of the room with a startled expression on his face, finding incomprehensible that a man of such power could entertain such thoughts. Still, Naruto's gaze didn't waiver from the vista, "So badly did I want to rejoin those that I love. The guilt ate at me, knowing that I could have done something. I felt shame, I felt weakness, and I felt disgust with myself."

"Do you want to know what know what drove me through those times?" Naruto asked Hiruzen who was still staring at him. Naruto answered without waiting for an answer, the question being rhetorical. "Knowing that my wife wouldn't want me to see my end like that, knowing that she knew I was stronger than that, knowing that she expected more from me. So I plan to live out my life, and when my time on this earth finally expires, I'll be able to greet my loved ones with open arms, and my reunion with them will be all the sweeter for it." The Sarutobi clan-head watched the one he considered a friend for a few moments before he turned back to the window and the forest outside.

"I've gone through this pain before Naruto, I'm not a child." The Sandaime softly told his successor's father.

"You've gone through the pain of losing your wife before?" Naruto replied, still not turning away. "The pain of losing someone you considered a son?" Hiruzen's head, which had been drifting down at Naruto's first sentence, snapped up at the second, his gaze turning towards the disguised man's face. "Don't act so surprised, I don't need to be one of your Yamanaka to know that you were close to Orochimaru, more so than either of your other students." Hiruzen let out a sigh. "You saw yourself in him." It wasn't a question.

"That's an understatement," Hiruzen said with rueful chuckle, "He was myself at a young age, all you needed to do was changed how he looked. We were both called prodigies in the Academy, both trained by the Hokage, both wanted to learn all that we could. If he were any more my son he'd have been born from Biwako..." The former Hokage's voice immediately quietened at his wife's name. "Am I a bad teacher, Naruto?"

"No," Naruto replied, seeing where Hiruzen was heading, "Orochimaru's choices are his and his alone. I don't know much about the way your genin teams and such work, but I do know that you had released yours from your teachings. In my book, that means all their decisions are a reflection of themselves, not anyone else." Pausing, Naruto went to drive his point home. "Did you intend for Orochimaru to use your teachings for what he did?"