We Are Shinobi (Naruto Fanfic)

10: Pieces of a Puzzle

Okay, this image actually makes me cry. This is by far one of the saddest scenes in all of Naruto :'(

Enjoy the chapter, things are starting to get real.

~R

The memory is gone and I fall to the ground, crawling back when I return back to the real world. The Uchiha struggles for breath, shaking. He falls backwards, catching himself on his elbows. The night air seems colder than before, but maybe that's fear welling up inside me. The pieces start to come together.

"The boy with the orange goggles," I mutter, still struggling for breath. I can barely process it. "That was you, wasn't it." The Uchiha just stares at me, still lying back on his elbows. They shake under him, threatening to collapse. 

Never did I think I could inflict pain like this on someone as powerful as this Uchiha figure, enough to make him shake on the ground. It seems invading ones deepest and most vulnerable memories opens wounds unlike any other. Wounds that can't be healed by medical ninja.

My mind flashes to the KIA Stone and the weathered orange goggles on the platform. Then, I remember my conversation with Kakashi that day. He told me the names of his closest comrades were on it--and his best friend who he called Obito Uchiha. 

I barely believe it. Considering him his best friend... it certainly doesn't seem that way. It appears much worse. I wonder if Kakashi's story was a cover-up. 

It didn't work Kakashi, I think. The truth always gets out somehow. I clench my fists in anger at the silver-haired ANBU who lied to me about his background and proceeded to call me friend, right before trying to kill me with the same chidori he killed the brown-haired girl with. 

"How did you do that? Get in my head and see my memories?" The Uchiha's voice flares with anger and I should probably get far away, safe from his wrath, but I can't seem to move. 

"And the girl, with the brown hair," I whisper, ignoring his question because I don't even know the answer. With eyes wide, the puzzle starts to fit together and I continue, "She was your best friend. And--" I freeze, debating if I should say it. He speaks before I can.

"I didn't intend for you to know any of that," he mutters. There's a concoction of sadness and anger weaving through his words. "If I had known you could read minds--" 

"He killed that girl," I say, not caring about my new-found ability. I know my words hurt him but so many thoughts are running through my head and I have an overwhelming need to make sense of them. "Kakashi Hatake," his name tastes horrible on my tongue. 

I'm suddenly filled with resentment. Kakashi played himself out to be the sad boy who lost his comrades but failed to mention that he killed one of them and took the other one's eye. And he called me the betrayer. Pfft. 

"Yes," he says quietly. I try to pick out the emotion in his voice but it is void, once again. His single-eye hole suddenly makes sense--the Uchiha's only remaining eye is his right sharingan because Kakashi has the left. 

Maybe its sadness and maybe it's fear, but a single tear falls down my face.

I slide onto my back and stare at the stars above. The trees flurry, their leaves dancing against one another. They look like they're shivering in the cold of the night. The stars shimmer; not even the beauty of the stars can wash away a memory so horrid. It's not even my memory but it hurts me all the same.

It's then that I realize the power I hold--not in physical ability, no... something more than that. A power stronger than a thousand jutsu combined. The power to see people's deepest, darkest memories; the ones they hold most sacred and private. Memories that reveal vulnerabilities and untold truths.