![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
[Fic] Naruto - The fourth Kazekage - The hearts of shadows
Disclaimer:
Naruto and its characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto, not to me.
Rating: PG-13 because of the horrible mess that is the fourth' family life.
Notes:
I just wrote this on a whim yesterday. This is the first time I've written anything on the sand siblings' family, let alone their father, and I'm not really used to gen. Hope this is not boring?
Fourth Kazekage centric. Drabble-ish, character study. Sortof.
When the time comes, his advisers present him with a list of young fertile kunoichi whose womb could be used as a vessel. He barely skims through it before he hands it back to them. He knows every one of the faces on the files; these women are strong, courageous ninjas, devoted enough to offer their lives for their village. The best daughters of the Sand, raised and fed with its sweat and blood.
Precious - invaluable.
He remembers the eyes of the chief adviser, on the day he was appointed. They'd been cold, colder than the wind at night, and the man never batted an eyelid during the entire ceremony. As he handed the hat to his new kage, the old man pierced right through him with his pale glare. You must be cold, he'd said, colder than the wind, and your heart must be dryer than the sand. Don't ever let anything come between you and the village.
Nobody said "or you will end just like your predecessor". They did not need to.
He picks the picture on his desk and it's his turn to stare fixedly at a younger face. His wife's smiling and holding their children close against her. It feels a little strange. Disturbing, even. They were born the same year, and she still looks so young, so much younger than him or any of his kunoichi. Where else in the village could he find a smile so soft, so tender?
If he had been capable of love, he would have loved her more than anything in the world.
But he has become a shadow, and shadows cannot love. Love is just a hindrance, keeping you from making the due sacrifices to your village, putting yourself in needless danger. He will not die like the third and let his village be thrown into a war in its most vulnerable state. And how could he demand that his men make those cruel sacrifices if he is cowering away?
He remembers his predecessor, as hard as his iron sand, and he slowly puts the picture back on his desk, face down. He doesn't feel sad or hurt - just slightly numb. He will miss her smile, he thinks. He can deal with that.
He will do whatever it takes to keep his village from getting weaker.
Naruto and its characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto, not to me.
Rating: PG-13 because of the horrible mess that is the fourth' family life.
Notes:
I just wrote this on a whim yesterday. This is the first time I've written anything on the sand siblings' family, let alone their father, and I'm not really used to gen. Hope this is not boring?
Fourth Kazekage centric. Drabble-ish, character study. Sortof.
When the time comes, his advisers present him with a list of young fertile kunoichi whose womb could be used as a vessel. He barely skims through it before he hands it back to them. He knows every one of the faces on the files; these women are strong, courageous ninjas, devoted enough to offer their lives for their village. The best daughters of the Sand, raised and fed with its sweat and blood.
Precious - invaluable.
He remembers the eyes of the chief adviser, on the day he was appointed. They'd been cold, colder than the wind at night, and the man never batted an eyelid during the entire ceremony. As he handed the hat to his new kage, the old man pierced right through him with his pale glare. You must be cold, he'd said, colder than the wind, and your heart must be dryer than the sand. Don't ever let anything come between you and the village.
Nobody said "or you will end just like your predecessor". They did not need to.
He picks the picture on his desk and it's his turn to stare fixedly at a younger face. His wife's smiling and holding their children close against her. It feels a little strange. Disturbing, even. They were born the same year, and she still looks so young, so much younger than him or any of his kunoichi. Where else in the village could he find a smile so soft, so tender?
If he had been capable of love, he would have loved her more than anything in the world.
But he has become a shadow, and shadows cannot love. Love is just a hindrance, keeping you from making the due sacrifices to your village, putting yourself in needless danger. He will not die like the third and let his village be thrown into a war in its most vulnerable state. And how could he demand that his men make those cruel sacrifices if he is cowering away?
He remembers his predecessor, as hard as his iron sand, and he slowly puts the picture back on his desk, face down. He doesn't feel sad or hurt - just slightly numb. He will miss her smile, he thinks. He can deal with that.
He will do whatever it takes to keep his village from getting weaker.