Chapter 103: The beginning of a never ending nightmare (part 2)

- !!!!(sh*t! they're anbu!)

The realization who the 2 men wearing masks happened to be, was simply too much of a shock to Homura.

But it also raised his curiosity.

- No, no, no...ANBU black ops don't show themselves within the village, much less go around kidnapping people in the middle of the night all willy-nilly...right?

He was dead wrong in his assumptions.

Although the ANBU black ops, rarely showed themselves to normal villagers.

In fact, some were even unaware that they existed.

They were simply that secretive.

But every shinobi knew of them.

It was a common knowledge for the average shinobi that every ninja village had their own version of the ANBU; and were aware that meeting an ANBU operative was a bad omen.

However, this was quite different for Homura

Who was only aware of them because of his previous life's memories.

Mentions of the ANBU black ops remained purposely

His newfound common sense and memories were at odds.

Though that did not dissuade him from running for his life or taking similar actions.

But he was a shinobi in training.

Call it courage, adrenaline rush, foolhardy or even pure addictive curiosity; but Homura was unable to simply turn back and leave.

His life as an academy student was not just about training his body.

Training his mind was also a huge chunk of what he did on a daily basis.

That also meant conquering his fears.

Unfortunately, he was slowly connecting the dots about what was transpiring in front of him right now; though he didn't want to believe it was true.

So, he immediately took a reflective surface that he had brought for the sake of training and positioned himself in a way so that he could see what was going on, through the surface without having to make direct eye contact.

But what he witnessed was beyond shocking.

Some would call it macabre.

Nothing that a child should have to witness with their own eyes.

-...!! (No. No. No. No!!!)

As soon as he saw one of the men dropping the seemingly unconscious man to the ground, the second cloaked figure took out a flask with green liquid inside of it.

He then plunged his gloved hands into the eye socket of the man on the ground.

First, he removed the eyeball inside the right eye socket and then he did the same for the eye inside the other eye socket.

To Homura who was watching it all happen with the help of the mirror in his right and and using C, to enhance the image in his mind it all became too much to bare.

Especially, as he finally got a good look at the set of eyeballs with shining crimson colored pupils.

Glowing and floating inside the glass flask filled with green liquid.

Even though the set of eyeballs had been removed from their original owner, they hadn't stopped glowing with a faint red tint colored light.

The sight of it all was so shocking, nauseating and overall just purely unsettling, that for a second, Homura's mind reverted to the one of a normal scared child and unknowingly let go of the mirror.

Dropping it on the grass covered ground.

*tap*

Causing the two men to look towards his direction.

Confused by the noise they had just heard.

Even though Homura was quite a distance away from the 2 individuals, they still were able to hear the noise coming from Homura's location.

Due to how quiet the entire area was.

Thankfully for Homura, his short stature and the natural darkness created by the shadows of trees around him made it difficult for them to easily tell if there was truly someone watching them.

However, that didn't mean they were convinced that the noise they just heard was just their imagination or that no one was hiding in that area.

But the man who had removed the set of eyeballs from the body lying on the ground seemed to give a slight gesture with his head to the other cloaked figure next to him, to look for the source of the sound.

-*nod*

The man nodded and a thin shiny blade came out from his right sleeve.

-!!! (I-I need to run!)

Realizing his mistake Homura first immediately tried to cover his breathing.

However, hearing footsteps getting closer towards his location.

He abandoned all pretenses of trying to hide and started running like a madman.

Not caring where he went.

Just rushing inside the dark forest.

Passing through several trees as he tried to avoid everything in his pathway.

But he could easily tell that his pursuer was easily catching up to him.

-(t-this has to be a bad dream! Just yesterday things were the same as always! Why!? Why is this happening today of all days!?)

Homura peaked behind him once again to tell if the masked man was truly following him, out of pure desperation.

But he saw no one.

For a brief instant he thought that it was just his imagination playing tricks on him, or he may have imagined the whole thing.

Only to look up and see the cloaked figure descending towards himself.

His blade aimed at his throat.

The closer that blade got closer to him, the more time seemed to slow down.

It wasn't just the blade.

Evevrything around him seemed to have slowed down to a crawl, almost as if time itself had stopped moving altogether.

However, Homura's mind was too occupied with the overflowing amount of emotions and going overdrive to truly realize what was happening at the moment.

-(...am I going to die? again?)

Suddenly, everything around Homura's field of vision turned gray.

Until finally it all disappeared as the mute color turned completely black as he was engulfed by complete darkness.

Suddenly, a bright light occurred and inside Homura's mind flashes from moments of his life just happened to engulf everything around him.

Visions of the people within his life started to run through his mind.

As if he was reliving them all over again, for the first time.

They came one by one and quite frequently, that it became hard for him even to realize what was happening to him at the moment.

The several birthday celebrations he had attended at the orphanage with friends.

He recalled the face of each one of his friends in detail. They were so numerous but he recalled each tiny expression they had made at the time.

And felt himself standing where he was during those times, only to be whisked away somewhere else as the memory started fading once again and he found himself in the kitchen of his old orphanage.

He looked around and saw once again the faces of many of his friends.

But this time they were even younger.

They were practically toddlers, compared to the faces he remembered having seen this very same morning.

It was a surreal experience.

Even though he couldn't remember those events clearly anymore as time took its effect on him, but as he frozen in place; it was as if he could recall every single, tiny detail.

But it wasn't just the memories he had shared at the orphanage.

All of his memories and events he had experienced were passing by him at an insane speed.

As if unknowingly he was reliving his whole life in a matter of a few seconds.

Each time he became aware of what was happening around him, things would immediately switch to a new location or rather, a new memory.

Such as the time he almost fell to his death while climbing a mountain but Might Guy saved him at the nick of time by grabbing his hand.

He then proceeded to flash his usual confident smile and thumbs up with his free hand.

However, as he realized what was happening... once again everything around him vanished.

Replaced with the first time he managed to land his first shuriken perfectly on a target.

Dead in its center and he jumped due to excitement.

Nonetheless that display of joy soon came to an end.

As he soon realized what was happening, his surroundings changed once again and he was now training with Uchiha Sasuke.

Rather, trying not to lose.

But as he began realizing what had happened, he was now seating on a rooftop watching the sun set together with Uchiha Shisui.

- S-shisui san...

Though the young man said nothing and soon smiled at him.

Seeing this, bottled up emotions started to overflow inside Homura once and before he could say a word Uchiha Shisui had vanished and he was now standing in front of a younger looking Uzumaki Naruto, extending his hand to him.

At first he didn't realize what was going on.

Just a moment ago he was sitting and watching the sunset along side Uchiha Shisui, now he was standing in front of a younger looking Uzumaki Naruto.

However, seeing Naruto's smiling face.

He soon remembered, that memory he was reliving was the day the two of them began to consider each other as friends truly.

- (T-this is...)- Homura's thought process was interrupted as he remembered something he had long forgotten as he was reaching for Naruto's hand in order for them to shake hands.

But that's not how that memory played out in reality.

In reality, Homura did not reach for Naruto's hand.

He pretended to reach for Naruto's hand, but flicked him on his forehead instead, then proceeded to call him a dumb*ss and then ran away laughing.

A disgruntled Naruto's eyes went wide open.

It took him a second to realize what had happened, to then be filled with feelings of embarrassment and rage and ended with the blond boy chasing after Homura to get back at him.

Why did he do that?

Because he wasn't sure he wanted to get closer to Naruto.

Naruto was needy.

Naruto was loud.

Naruto was kind.

Naruto was sad.

Naruto was...alone.

Naruto was slowly but surely becoming his friend.

But Homura did not want friends.

He didn't want to become closer to anyone within this world.

Homura had lost everything.

He wasn't ready to potentially become someone else's loss.

He put walls to separate himself from others because he didn't want to suffer the pain of loss ever again.

But no matter how hard he tried to put some distance between himself and others, some always seemed to be able to see through the facade that he himself didn't fully know about.

In this world, a world of war, a world of endless tragedy... a world of loss.

He was ready to betray everything if needed be to escape and survive if it ever came down to it.

Having attachments would only hold him back,

But he himself could not help but feel attached to everyone within his life.

They were all good and kind people.

However, kindness is a weakness.

Only the strong can afford to be kind.

Homura was not strong.

He could not afford to be kind.

Not being strong made him lose his dreams for the future as he knew what would happen.

So he could not be part of Naruto's world.

...So why? Why was this specific memory, one of the memories he had to experience at the moment?

Was it regret?

Was it a moment he wished to rectify?

He didn't know.

He didn't understand.

However, if this was going to be the last thing he would see in this life, might as well make it a happy one.

-!- Homura's conscience finally became cleared as he tried to reach for Naruto's hand, something he hadn't done at that time.

Something he whole heartily regretted.

But as if the gods themselves interfered, before Homura could grab Naruto's hand Naruto vanished; turning puff of mist as his body slowly faded away.

His surroundings changed once again and he was back to the very beginning.

Back to reliving his first memory in this world.

It was far from a happy one.

His body seemed to have reverted back to that of an infant.

He was back on the night of the kyuubi's attack on konohagakure.

Everything around him was either destroyed or set ablaze.

The flames surrounding his crib felt so hot, that it felt almost no different of himself burning alive.

It was excruciating.

All he could do was cry.

Cry as hard as he could.

But the pain he felt was so excruciating that his eyes would open and close randomly due to him being a recently born infant at the time.

He didn't have the strength or the motor skills to move his body properly.

Everything he did was due to instinct and pain.

When his eyes were opened all he could see were burning flames around the entire room and when his eyes would close he would be stuck in complete darkness.

He was trapped between two different kinds of hell.

The hell of his mind or the hell of the world of the outside world.

Neither was any better.

So why choose?

He had already given up all hope.

But as if spitting in the face of his resignation at life, soon he felt someone grab him and lift him up.

He could not understand as to what was happening outside, his eyes refused to open.

But he could hear the voice of a woman, no, a girl.

The voice seem to repeat that everything would be okay ad nauseam.

-(who's that?...why can't I see their face?...they sound familiar...!)

However Homura who was surrounded by darkness could not recall as to whom the voice he heard belonged to.

But as he saw a flash of light again he believed that he would finally see the face of the person that seemed so familiar and close but yet so distant.

As the blinding light became brighter and enveloped everything around homura. Before he realized he was back to his original position.

He was back within the dark forest, and a cloaked figure was slowly but surely descending on top of him, while intending to stab him with a thin long blade.

The blade was clearly aimed at his throat.

Under the current moonlight he could see the blade shine brightly, and even the more intricate details that were not possible for him to see.

Such as the mask the man was wearing closely resembled one of a bird like creature.

A thin white mask with two holes for the eyes and a red-looking beak near the bottom half of the mask.

It was overall impressing, at least it would be if Homura did not happen to lock eyes with his would be killer.

From within the eye-sockets of the mask, he could also see the dead looking eyes of the man that was about to end his life.

No emotions were found.

Simply a darkness devoid of any warm feelings could be seen from the man's dead-looking eyes.

Realizing the danger he was in once again.

Homura's mind went overdrive once again a varied mixture of emotions, made little sense to him.

Both relief, anger, pain, discomfort, hope, joy, discontentment, disbelief, unfiltered rage and many more were being mixed together drowned in the cacophony that were Homura's thoughts.

As he kept repeating a single sentence inside his mind.

-(I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die.I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die.I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die.I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die.I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die.I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I DON'T WANT TO DIE!)

As if on cue time resumed once again, and as the man was about to stab Homura's throat Homura's figure vanished.

Chapter end