The Fallen Façade

First Mission Pt.1

Everything was so cold he couldn't even feel anything. He didn't even know if anything was warm on the inside. The scars were showing once again as if they were just placed there.

Naruto ponderously felt for his heart just to feel it only faintly beating. Slowed. It was slowing down, just by a little.

The season was spring, and he was standing in front of the same sakura tree his younger self loved and resided under. And as if looking at the past, the blond stared with slight pity at his younger form. His dull blue eyes could see the same shade of blue in the other's eyes. The slight bruises on his somewhat frail legs and arms, and the same faulty bandages that were wrapped around him everywhere poorly.

He remembered.

Here, he couldn't bring himself to move. His energy was so low that it was exhausting just to do so. Everything felt so far away, distant. Like it didn't favor him and wanted to get as far away as possible. But the Sakura tree was a safe haven. A place he could limp in silence and quietly sit without being bothered for the most part.

A place to let some of the tears fall in silence for as long as they could run.
A home that would drop a flower upon his head to sooth his uneasiness.
A resting spot to ease those intrusive thoughts of losing himself as a whole.

The missing care he yearned for. Once, the Sakura tree floated a glossy, priceless flower into his small, shivering hands. Naruto held onto it, it meant something. That was obvious since even after a couple of passing days, it hadn't changed whatsoever. Like it had a special purpose to fulfill before it can wither away like the rest. For the longest while, the blond wanted to figure out this mystery laid upon him, but even now, nothing came to his mind.

He stepped closer.
And closer.
Until he was only a foot away from his other self.

The words he wanted to say felt stuck in his throat as if it was once again a struggle like it always was before. How embarrassing to reminisce about.

"You don't have to try and talk to me."

Naruto simply stood there in shock. It wasn't like he knew if the other could see and hear him or not. This wasn't some real life situation after all. But nonetheless, it was unusual.

"You can see me?"

The younger blond looked up from his hands and stared with little to no expression on his face.

"Of course I can. I'm not blind."
"You can hear me?"
"I'm not deaf."
"But I didn't know how to speak so fluently."
"What does you not knowing how to speak have to do with me? Stop confusing me like the rest of you villagers."

He remained quiet for a second before sitting down on the soft, withering grass and sakura petals that fell from the Sakura tree. Naruto wasn't dumb, he was very much able to tell that whoever the other was seeing wasn't him, but a random villager from the village. But that didn't answer his ultimate question: Why was he here in the first place?

The younger Naruto huffed before looking into the other's eyes, "So? What is this about? People avoid me, why are you here?"

He let out a small breath at the sudden question before thinking of a short but reasonable answer. "I don't know. Do I need to have a reason to be?"

A single stifled laugh was held back by the younger. Removing his poorly bandaged hand from his mouth, "How stupid. But it's not like I'm capable of doing anything about it, so I'll let it slide," he said sarcastically.