Fight (a Naruto reborn fanfiction)

🔥🥀 XXVI 🥀🔥

Have fun with this chapter! A bit of nostalgia, a bit of comfort, a bit of desperation. This chap has it all. Please do tell me if you like this story or if you have any suggestions on how it could be better. I'm always open to constructive critisism.

_______________________________________

Himari is running. Running as fast as she can. There is nothing behind her, but there's a hastiness in her step that she can't rid herself of, doesn't want to rid herself of. She has no idea what has happened there, back at the crater she left behind, but the phoenix seal is broken now. It can't control her anymore, no, now she has the power to make it do her bidding.

It's an incredibly liberating feeling, akin to running away from the Kaguya. There is nothing tying her down anymore. No village, no old promise of faith and subordinance, no death wish. She feels as if she hasn't truly breathed in years, and now, she has to make up for it somehow. Her lungs welcome the surplus of oxygen they get, distributing it around her body, making her more durable, stronger.

She still wears the gown that appeared on her out of nowhere. It seems to defy physics, always floating just above the ground so it doesn't get dirty, almost as if it doesn't feel the ground has earned the right to touch it. It's pretty, she can't lie, but it's also very impractical. She can't run as fast as she wants to, not when the dress restricts her leg-movement.

As if reading her thoughts, the dress gives off a bright glow and dissapears, leaving only a shorter, more practical dress in its wake, fitting for someone to perform advanced movements. She startles at the change. It's not every day that your clothing becomes sentient and obliges your wishes.

However, her clothing is not the most important thing on her mind now. She is free. The most free she has been in both of her lifes. She knows now that joining villages is not a way she wants to walk. The way they see people as tools that can be discarded if they are no longer of use disturbs her, makes her skin crawl.

She planned to not get attached. Then she modified her plans to not include people, because not getting attached to her friends was simply impossible. But she got attached to her- the village anyway, and it ended with her nearly dying. She does not want to repeat history. THis is the reason why she does not return to the camp.

She will miss her friends. The thought of never seeing them again, never laughing, crying, joking with them pains her. It constricts her throat, crawls into her heart like a parasite and makes itself at home like it's never been different. But she can't return. Not when the thought of the village abandoning her burns like an ember, reborn anew like herself, a kindling flame turned earth-shattering disaster.

She wants to rip it apart, to tear down the constructs until the things that have wronged her cease to exist. She isn't stupid, knows the line between individual and system, but she doesn't care. One day, she will take revenge. Not only for herself, but also for all the other souls who have suffered because of the cruel systems in place.

But this will have to wait. She isn't strong enough, isn't experienced enough. One day, but not today. For now, she will have to focus on something else. Despite how her influence may seem insiginficant in the grand scheme of things, there are thing she can change. And she will start right here, at a lake that once held a boy so precious.

Himari knows it's stupid to think he's still there, but she hopes nonetheless. The flames of the sun kiss the earth goodbye as nighttime comes, wrapping all of it's creatures into a soft embrace, dark and secure, eery at the edges. She desperately searches for a sign of life within the lake, the cusp of a fin, the sound of someone swimming.

Her search is unsuccessful, and she can't afford to use chakra and locate any near life. Her reserves are drained, just like she feels all together. The high of her escape has worn off and she is left exhausted. She wants to help the little boy who reminds her of herself, wants to care for him and make him feel like he belongs, just like she had once hoped someone would do for her.