Age Seventeen
The year after my father's death was quiet.
The war had slowed. Kiri had lost its advantage without the bomb, and both sides were exhausted. Peace negotiations had begun, though no one expected them to last.
I trained. I healed. I learned to use my Eternal Mangekyo without destroying myself.
Kushina grew. She was thirteen now, tall and fierce, with chakra that could shake the ground. She had made friends in Konoha—other children her age, including a boy with blond hair and a smile that could light up a room.
"His name is Minato," she said, blushing. "He's really fast. And nice. And he has these blue eyes..."
"You like him."
"I do not."
"You're blushing."
"I'm not blushing. I'm flushed from training."
I smiled. "You're a bad liar."
"So I've been told."
---
Tsunade and I grew closer.
She still had nightmares about Nawaki. Still drank too much sake sometimes. Still pushed me away when she was scared. But she also held my hand when we walked through the village. Kissed my forehead when I was sad. Slept beside me when the nights were cold.
"Ren," she said one evening. "What are we?"
"I don't know. What do you want us to be?"
"I want..." She hesitated. "I want you. But I'm scared."
"Of what?"
"Of losing you. Of loving you and then losing you."
"You won't lose me."
"You don't know that."
"I know that I'm stubborn. And I know that I'm not going anywhere."
She looked at me. Her brown eyes were soft.
"Okay," she said. "Then I'm not going anywhere either."
---
The peace didn't last.
Of course it didn't. War never really ends. It just pauses.
The Third Shinobi World War began when I was seventeen. Kiri, Iwa, Kumo—all of them against Konoha. The alliances had shifted, the treaties had broken, and the killing had started again.
I fought in every battle. My chains killed dozens, then hundreds. My Eternal Mangekyo rewrote consequences, saved lives, turned the tide.
But I couldn't save everyone.
I couldn't save the young genin who stepped on a landmine.
I couldn't save the old farmer whose village was burned.
I couldn't save the child who was conscripted into the enemy army.
I could only do my best. And hope that my best was enough.