Realization

Rai stood there stunned. He had already made his peace with the fact that his grandfather was going to die at the end of the war and he was subconsciously reducing the amount of interactions that he had with him. But this changes things. He thought it was a foregone conclusion. But maybe it was possible to save him.

But what can he say that could change something like this. The whole reason the situation where his grandfather had to be up against 10000 men was because of Iwa's shock peace treaty with Konoha after Minato decimates their forces. This led to a combined alliance of Suna, Konoha and Iwa going up against Kumo and Iwa being hellbent on killing the Raikage.

Maybe if he is more on guard and not going with the mindset that the war will continue and they can get some more benefits by keeping this up. A small ember of hope sparks in Rai's mind. He resolved himself to at least give it a try. It's alright if his grandfather thinks of him as a weak minded kid. Ultimately, at the end of the day he's still a child in their eyes. Rai knows that he would definitely regret it If he didn't even try his best. He knows that he has had a family previously but over time he has started to think of his big softie of a father, loving grandpa and his weird and quirky uncle as real family.

Rai starts tearing up and says "Grandpa, Can you not go? I keep getting a bad feeling. I don't want to just sit here not knowing if you'll ever come back. Please?" – Rai

The Raikage is stunned since he did not expect such a reaction but his heart warmed seeing his only grandson that way. He goes down onto one knee and takes Rai into his loving embrace.

"I have to go little one. This is my responsibility as Raikage. You don't need to worry, I am strong you know, I always came back unharmed until now." – A (Grandpa)

"But, you always say that every village is our enemy. What if all of them decide to fight you together. I know you're strong but even the First Hokage someone who was called the God of Shinobi ultimately died. Please grandpa. At least promise me you will be careful and that you will come back no matter the cost." – Rai

"Sigh. Alright Rai. I promise to you, I will definitely make it back here to see you again. And I will be careful. Are you happy now?" – A (Grandpa)

"You better not break your promise. If you do I will never ever forgive you." - Rai

"Haha. Of course. I can't go and break the first promise that I've made to my precious grandson after all." – A (Grandpa)

"Um" – Rai

Eventually, his grandfather left towards the frontlines. Hopefully this will be the push he needs to come back alive. Rai wonders what kind of change this will bring to canon if he does indeed survive. But at the moment he just thinks to fuck canon. If Rai has to allow his grandfather to die in order to keep things according to canon just so he can know how things will go, he'd rather just roll over and die right now. There is no guarantee that things will go according to canon anyways. His existence alone changes things, so Rai resolves to stop his over reliance on canon from now on. This is his reality now, so fuck canon. If this makes things complicated later on, he'll just get so strong that none of this will even matter.

Little did Rai know that this little incident changed his way of thinking and his Tyrannical Emperor Veins which were dormant started awakening.

[DING]

[Hidden Quest Completed]

[You are the Protagonist]

[Truly accept that this world is your reality now and not see things from the perspective of a TV show.]

[Rewards: Contract Summon – Raiju]

Rai stood there unmoving, flabbergasted at this newfound discovery. He ignores the system notifications and continued standing there in a daze.

'Was I really that bad? I mean was I really not taking my circumstances seriously enough?'

[You were but you always had this attitude that everything is as you expect to happen and that you're in control. Subconsciously you were still treating everything like it's the show and you were looking at things through the eyes of a spectator. I had noticed it earlier but this was something that you had to figure out on your own.]

'I see.'

[I mean, simply because you knew people would die and that even more will die in the subsequent war. You completely took the human element out of it. You didn't allow yourself to give into the somberness that is seen during a war. This is not a bad thing per se but the reason for you being this way was the problem here. You forget the value of life. As cheap as it may be in the Shinobi world. You should never ever forget what the value of a life is. You don't need to beat yourself up over this though. Things like these happen. Especially with your circumstances where you have access to so much information about the future of the world. It is easy to get lost in looking into the long term that you lose sight of the little things. And these little things are what make you human.]

'I guess I needed a wakeup call. Thanks as always Alice.'

'But damn. This certainly puts things in perspective for me. I was always thinking about how to go about shaping the future and handling the figurative axe over our head. I never really thought about the gravity of the situation that I am really thinking about changing the fate of an entire world and I didn't even recognize that fact. That is scary.'

Alice thinking inwardly 'You always were this way Rai, you were always capable of looking at the crux of the problem the moment you see the whole picture. All you needed was to shed the naiveté that a mortal life has imposed on you.'

[Yes. Rai. But it isn't really a problem since you are already aware. It's all fine now.]

[Now don't you want to look at the reward? I thought you'd be jumping in joy for what you received.]

'Holy Shit. I just noticed that.'