Preventing The Inevitable

Prologue

Zero

"Sakura."

She whirled around, searching for the source of the anxious voice that had appeared behind her. She had been packing up the last of her backpack, filled to the brim with all kinds of antidotes, bandages, ointments, and soldier pills.

A lot of soldier pills. She'd need them.

Sky-blue eyes gazed back at her.

She raised her eyebrows. "No suffix?" It was strange for his voice to be this meek and nervous, and even stranger of him to forget the 'chan' at the end of her name – something that had been ever-present since childhood.

"Oh– Did I– Did I forget it?" His voice pitched higher towards the end, as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Huh. Guess even someone like you gets nervous."

"I'm not nervous, 'ttebayo!"

"Whatever you say, Naruto." she got up, fastening her green Jōnin-west. "Why are you here? Things must be hectic for you, too."

"I just–... came to say goodbye, you know." he started slowly, voice unsure and anxious and–

"Since– Since, you know, we will be on different fronts. It's disappointing that I won't see you during the entire thing– 'thing', as in the war, but– you know, it could end really fast, 'ttebayo, like, maybe only a few days if we beat Madara quickly and then we can go home and pick Sasuke up along the way, because he seriously fucked up during the conference– but, like, 'cuz you're at the medical tents and battling death and injuries while I fight to keep the people away from there in the first place, we're working together–"

–and suddenly the words were coming out of his mouth at rapid speed, even stumbling over them at times.

"–and of course, I will try to help everyone, but it's a lotta people, you know?... Like– Like–... eighty-thousand." Naruto's voice turned into a whisper saying the last bit, as if he didn't dare to yell the number in his normal, loud voice. "That's so many people – not that I've ever seen them all in one place, or something, so I can't even know the actual scale, but even then I know it's many people, but– but–"

He took a deep breath "...so many will die."

"And–" his breath hitched. "And they're all fighting and dying because of me."

What?

"Huh?" Sakura couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Naruto scrambled for words. "If I–... Uh... This war started because Madara and Akatsuki are collecting the Bijū, right? And I'm a Jinchūriki. Madara wants me. He even–... Uhm–... shit... So, you know, if I had just... gone with him, if I just let Madara extract the Kyūbi from me, if they had just given up on me–"

"Hold on. Naruto–"

"–maybe this war wouldn't have started. Maybe nobody would have to say farewell to their families now. Maybe no one would have to– die."

"Naruto." she was full-on glaring at him now. She wanted to throw a punch at this whole ordeal and be done with it. Instead, she put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Listen to me."

He nodded, slowly. His eyes held an ocean of guilt. Unusual. Perhaps he had been hiding this side of him all along.

"This war is not your fault." she said, emphasizing each word.

"But if I had gone with him–"

"Madara wasn't just demanding you. Shishō told me. He was telling them to hand over the Hachibi, too."