Sozen the Ghost Shinobi

Chapter Nineteen

✦𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔽𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕝 𝔻𝔸𝕪✦

Sozen had enjoyed his previous day with Team Asuma and Kakashi, Choji made a significant dent in his wallet but he had managed to get closer to the two teens and Jounin while he was happily ignoring the sensitive sounds the world made.

The final day of his decision, he decided to take his time and walk around the village, Tsu had let him go a night filled with terrors and vivid sensations that the mere thought of made Sozen gag in horror.

The early morning sun irritated Sozen's heavy eyes as he started out by buying his breakfast. Heading to Ichiruka Ramen, so he could reminisce of the time Team Seven took him here. While he supposed he could go and do some roaming, he also felt like he should consult somebody on his choice. The way that Tsu had mentioned for him to open his eyes... was unbelievable. Sure, it was a pain in the ass being overly sensitive to everything but it was useful in being able to detect the slightest of changes in people.

Sozen fully believed that if senses of this calibre were trained well enough he would be able to use skills outside of Ninjutsu for more practical things such as sensing if someone were nervous or lying. Not to mention that sneaking up on Sozen was now next to impossible as he could sense chakra at a vast range, he could also see and hear better so he might need to test out his new limitations. If... he decided that being the Izanagi was what he wanted to do.

Tsu never really had gotten to the hard details of what being the Izanagi would be like. Could he still be a Konoha Shinobi, could he save his friends from the upcoming troubles... Could he still find Itachi and resolve past feelings if he accepted?

Sozen hardly noticed his body stopped by the waterfront on the way to the old Uchiha compound before the massacre. He stopped and stood ridged. His reflection showed him, someone, he didn't recognize. They had eyes so blue yet so clouded by pain and suffering that he didn't recognize who he was looking at. The long frail strands of purple hair that fluttered in the breeze looked a lot worse than what he thought it did, his stresses seemed to be present in more ways than one. The sickly pale colour of his skin made a shiver run down Sozen's spine and the bags under his eyes stood out more in the water than they had in his bathroom mirror.

"Do I... Really look this bad?" Sozen's voice sounded different, flat like it was drowned in a void.

It didn't make much for Sozen to realize why people like Lady Tsunade had physically checked up on him, it wasn't just the seals... it was his health and not just his physical state. There was such an open expression of pain and suffering in Sozen's eyes, it was a wonder the emotions had kept themselves at bay until this point.

A gust of wind tugged at Sozen's robes as he hugged himself. He'd never felt so lonely yet supported before... No, that's inaccurate. The last time he felt like this was when he was in his mother's arms for the last time, or even the last time Itachi hugged him goodbye the evening before the massacre. Everything he had loved seemed to vanish from his grasp before he could even regain his damn common sense.

The world around Sozen seemed to shatter, he couldn't run from everything forever. He knew the Uchiha's truth, he knew the Fujimoto's truth, he knew Naruto's truth and he damn well knew who he blamed for a lot. One of the reasons his memories were scattered into ruins, there was a grand total of three men behind it and one he had already killed.

One was not to be his kill, but... when the time was just right... the biggest asshole in Konoha was going to stand before him at full power.

It wouldn't be a path of revenge like Sasuke.

It wouldn't be the path to peace like other's would find.

It was the path of the Izanagi, henceforth the truth of the damned.