Blood Stained Lilies ||SasuNaru|| ✔️

Epilogue: Faith

"Without faith a man can do nothing; with it all things are possible."
- Sir William Osler -

The years began to blend and fade together, making him loose track of the centuries that had passed away, never to return again. With the changing times came new memories, along with the loss of others. Friends came, friends left, none lasting more that a blink of an eye to Naruto.

One memory, one person, though had stayed vivid in Naruto's mind, just as if it had happened yesterday. It did not matter that hundreds of year had passed; he could still envision the perfect young man with soft raven locks and dark onyx eyes.

'Sasuke' A name that was now so much more like a prayer. A hope and a promise to meet again, still unanswered.

It was tempting, with the world like it was, to give up and move on. Too much sadness had built up within the blond. He had seen too many wars, so much blood and death. No matter the time that passed, he could always recount the images on the battlefield.

His last lifetime had been the worst. After the collapse of the American empire, Rome who had spread out to cover all of Europe and some of Asia, took up their weapons against Chinese Republic; sending the world into yet another bloody war.

Naruto remembered that war too vividly for his liking. Smoke, dirt, and the bitter taste of his own blood, that was his last memory. Sadly, he never made it to see the end of the war. Shrapnel from a well placed mine was his undoing. Yet at this point, he longed for death, hoping to wake in a better age.

Looking at the clean streets of Florence and the locals laughing without worry, one would think that at last the world was at peace.

Naruto knew better though. He was not one who wished to stay blind to the darker side of the times and knew better than to fall for the peaceful mask that the world liked to hide behind.

A loud and obnoxious auctioneer halted Naruto in his progress. He had classes to attend to at the local University; he did not have time to humor businessmen.

"A boy, you look like the kind of man who would know good merchandise when he saw it..." Naruto just gave him a hardening look.

"Come now boy. How can you say no to a pet as lovely as this?" The man pointed to a young girl no older than twelve tied by the wrist to a stake. Her long dark hair, a mark of a slave, was the only covering she had to hide her body.

This was why Naruto hated these people. Had the human race grown so sick as to enslave there own kind. Not even caring about age, race, nor sex. No, to them if a person was weak, then what other use to the world were they.

Naruto could not help but pity the girl. No doubt, she would be sold to a rich man, who would find pleasure in a young body. The thought alone made Naruto sick. That had been the fate of his mother before her death. His father had raped her, and he had been the result. It was his and his fathers' dirty secret. If anyone were to find out, Naruto would be enslaved and his father fined for keeping an un-registered slave.

If you were born with an ounce of slave blood, the government would stamp you; marking you as filth. Thankfully, Naruto's father had just lost his first-born son and his wife due to complications during childbirth. It was easy enough to pay of the family doctor to stay quiet, and to change Naruto's birth certificate.

Needless to say, he and his father were not very close. In fact, he had found comfort in the parents of his best friend. Naruto had known Kakashi Hitake since he was seven. They had grown up together and faced many changes together.

It was Kakashi's parents they went to when the thirst for blood started to seep within them. Moreover, it was them who comforted Naruto through all the horrid flashbacks of times long passed. Somehow though, having Kakashi around seemed to ease the pain. This had been the first time since Itachi's plan had been put into motion that Naruto had seen Kakashi. It was only slightly odd to actual be the same age as the man he had once called his teacher.