4 An emotional roller coaster that goes underground.

**BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!**

**RRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRR**

I woke up with a start as soon as I heard a sound that literally shook my entire body as it rumbled through me. Something within me was trying to force me to feel terror but I kept trying to fight it away and keep it at bay and it took all my babyish brain's focused effort.

I immediately realized what was going on and tried to cry loudly to wake mum and dad up if they hadn't already woken up, but the sound got caught in the throat as a terror that I've never felt before griped my heart bringing a silence to the entire village for a moment like the calm before a storm.

Forcing myself to get a grip and not be controlled by what ever was forcing me to remain stunned I remined myself about my family and the longing to be with them after this is all over.

The ritual gave me enough energy to begin crying like my life depended on it, not that it didn't, to pull them out of the silence imposed on the village.

I didn't really have to put any effort into crying as tears because of my helplessness were already streaming down my face because of the terror that had gripped the village like a friendly reminder from death should there be any mistake.

"WWWAAAHHHHH *sniffle* *sniffle* WWWWAAAAAAHHHHH"

I saw my mum immediately break out of the fearful trance that she was in and jump up to me to bring me out of the cradle and try to give me some warmth, while dad immediately moved towards the window and tried to assess what was going on outside.

**BOOOOOMMMMMM**

Another ringing explosion rang through the village bringing a dense feeling of death with it.

Dad turned around and quickly cleared the wooden plank that was being used as a lock to block the door and moved outside holding mum's hand.

"We must go to the Konoha shelters."

"Hmmhmm" Mum hummed as she carried me by wrapping me in the extra folds of her gown running quickly through the village as we spotted a ninja wearing the Konoha headband directing all villagers towards the underground shelter on the outskirts of the village.

As we moved out of the block and grouped up with the other people trying to escape we came to see the gigantic bright orange fox that was the size of a tanker ship rampaging across the village using its tails to smash and thrash the various buildings from the center of the village.

The fox was huge. It was larger than anything I'd every seen on land.

It felt like you could stand a million of me side by side and still be left with space for a million more.

Although its body emitted a sense of harmony with it's surroundings it's emotions did not, this asymmetry brought a strong sense of revulsion towards the beast in everyone that laid their eyes on it. 

Everything about the gigantic fox emitted a deep sense of hatred, rage and oppression. Its eyes lit with deep furry carried the pattern of a very curved pinwheel, what I recognized as Obito's Mangekyo Sharingan, imprinted into them, showing that it was under the control of another having lost its free will.

**BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM**

*THUD* *THUD*

Another explosion rang out as I saw the area around me flash and then darken as I heard both mum and dad along with me fly out and hit the wall of a house behind us.

My vision went dark for a second due to the light headed feeling that overtook my head and only managing to return to normal as I forced myself to stay conscious and not give up facing the current situation.

Slowly opening my eyes I realized what had happened, mum had protected me by holding me close to her chest.

I turned my head up slowly only to see mum unconscious and her head bleeding.

I couldn't feel her breathing and neither could I hear her heart beat in spite of being so close to her.

"WWWWAAAHHHHHHHHHH WWAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH"

Something seemed to have snapped inside off me as I began to wail as tears flooded and poured out of my eyes onto the dress of my mother who I presumed dead.

I felt regret about everything thing I had done until then.

'If I hadn't acted at all then my new parents could stay alive like they had in the anime or if I had revealed everything then I could have changed everything and saved the lives of everyone here even if I was experimented on after I did so.'

Unexpectedly I felt something jump through my palms that were touching mum's face into her snapping me out of my daze, only to find my mother snapping her eyes open and trying to remember what had just happened and orienting herself all within the span of a second.

She then quickly checked me out for any injuries after wiping my tears.

At the same time dad reached us and we found him barely standing as his leg was impaled by a stake of wood that passed right into his thighs which he had dragged across on the dirt road as he moved over to us.

Looking at us dad sighed in relief as he used his other leg as a leverage and stomped on the wooden beam, snapping it at the thigh, so that he didn't have to drag it along on the ground, as he began to limp and support mum, who was dizzy and moving in and out of consciousness, to the outskirts along with me.

I pushed the incident to the back of my head since I couldn't focus right now and I didn't want to cause a mistake due to my inattention.

"WWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH"

"BAAAAABBBBYYYYYY"

"WAAAAAHHHHHHH WWWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH"

On the way I found children lying on the ground wailing next to the bodies of their parents who where stabbed to death under the rubble that was thrown out by the Kyuubi while trying to protect their young ones, mothers crying holding onto their children's bodies that had their head split open with blood freely flowing and brain matter splattered on the walls and the ground, people impaled by various shards of woods through their body without killing them struggling to move all while ninja's tried to help and save as many people as they could by forcibly dragging them away from the site as long as they were alive.

As I tried to turn my head to face a different direction to avoid the barrage of wails and screams my eyes caught the site of a man burning alive running and rolling on the ground trying to put out the flames.

Combined with the feeling of helplessness from earlier a great terror struck deep within as I was forcibly reminded of how my parents died in front of me in my past life.

My hands began to quiver and shake as the cacophony of wails and screams amplified in my ears, ringing, forming an orchestra of death, serenading me and trying to lull me into the call of eternal slumber along with the ones already crossing the river of death.

An abrupt warmth in all this emerged deep within me resonating with the warmth that rapidly surrounded and engulfed me which forced me to open my eyes and try to recognize it. It was my mother.

She looked down at me and smiled a little and started to hum on the way as she did her best to keep up with dad.

I clenched the fabric around mum's shoulders tightly fearing I would lose myself if I didn't.

The next second I spotted the nine tails in the distance being controlled by the Mangekyo Sharingan, I was confused as to weather I had failed or if I had changed something or if there was something that had stopped me from enacting change, but I gave up thinking about it as the violent movement of the Nine tails in the background causing all the death and destruction brought out hate in my heart, filling it with disdain and scorn that I could not have expected possible.

But it immediately washed itself away as mum tapped my back in a comforting rhythm bringing me warmth and comfort.

I couldn't comprehend what I had to feel in this moment and the anchor of warmth in all the chaos outside was too much to give up so I simply indulged in it and fell asleep in my mother's arms.

A baby shouldn't have to deal with this anyway, so why should I?

Why should I give place to hate in my heart and mind when warmth is the most comfortable. 

But I don't think I can ever just forgive that fox either. I could truly understand people's hate and scorn for anything to do with the 'demon' fox.

Naruto feels really naïve right now, does a few years of imprisonment, time which wouldn't have any meaning on the scale of the tailed beasts lifespan, justify killing everyone else that was innocent for it? But the Kyuubi was being controlled by someone so was it the fault of the tailed beast in the first place?

It would really be nice if people just accepted their outlook was wrong and constantly changed for the better, how easy would it be if everyone constantly redeemed their worst qualities.

Never mind, I don't know enough about anything or about anyone to make any conclusions about important things such as their redemption, I'm just thinking out of the other end. I'm farting. Oh, yes I've learnt something in the last few days I've been tensed, babies fart too.

*************** 

"Sakura-chan *#!@ food!"

I woke up in a daze trying to refocus my eyes on trying to see what was in front of me, only to find a person with half of their head and one eye wrapped in bandages.

For a moment I felt absolutely terrified that I had somehow fallen in the hands of Danzo until I realized it was my mother who had been treated by the emergency staff present in the shelter.

After mum adjusted my posture for eating I opened my mouth and felt gruel enter it, somehow carrying the faint tastelessness of the food in a hospital.

I gulped the gruel down as I began to examine everyone in the village shelter.

I found a lot of civilians, a few ninja clan members most of whom where either young children or older members of the clan who were either elders who were part of the decision making of the clan or just retired members who had nothing to do in their life apart from living it to its end.

Making an observation I realized we were the last family here? Or maybe we just got pushed around and ended up in the last place somehow? Or maybe we got delayed because mum needed bandaging?

Although in this observation I found an outlier, which was the Uchiha clan.

Most of the members of the Uchiha clan were present in the shelter even the people who worked as active ninjas and were isolated in the shelter. 

Since most of the village had seen something that looked like the Sharingan in the eyes of the Nine tailed fox, the Uchiha were being suspected the most and everyone kept sending glances filled with animosity towards them.

No one knew it was Obito who had planned the whole thing along with Black Zetsu and Danzo who had ordered the Uchiha clan to go back and not help the civilians, so the hatred towards them was quite intense and uncomfortable since we had somehow ended up alongside them.

I could easily understand how the village would treat them harshly after this, I'm sure most people have lost someone they know about and want to find someone or something they can blame their deaths on right now.

They could blame the Kyuubi, but it is hard to exact revenge on a tanker ship sized death mauling beast that could blow up mountains with a sneeze.

Soon after I finished eating gruel, mum carried me over to the table where people worked tirelessly to serve food, water and other necessities like appropriate medical help to other people.

After standing in line, mum asked for a glass of water which was given to her from which she slowly wet her fingers and let me suck on the little water that dripped off of them.

I spotted a young Uchiha who was looking longingly at the water and food stands and looking back at who I realized was Mikoto carrying a baby Sasuke.

It seemed as if the Uchiha were not being given any food or even medical treatment, as quite a few of them were still bloodied and cut up in various places with little to no professional treatment having been done to them.

"GUE GUE!!!"

**Mebuki POV**

In the stifling silence that had filled the hall Sakura started voicing herself in my arms while pointing at a Uchiha boy which caused everyone's eyes to follow her and look at the Uchiha boy.

Having become the center of attention because of being stared at by everyone the Uchiha boy was quite startled and didn't know what to do, so he became rooted at the spot trying to figure out how to proceed.

I looked down in my arms to try and understand what Sakura was trying to convey to me, I knew she was trying to tell me something, ever since she was born Sakura had always been a little, very, intelligent.

Doing things unlike the other babies I had seen in the neighborhood, crying only when she needed food or to clean herself after having relived herself, drawing our family and the little animals around the neighborhood on paper using ink.

She even always tried to stay still at night in spite of the energy she had packed in her little body which would keep her well awake deep into the night, so as to not disturb me and Kizashi who had to get up early in the morning to go out and work.

All the neighbors who I had left her with always found her well mannered, trying to learn the words by paying attention to what they were talking about with each other and then trying to imitate them talking.

She would also often try and take care of the other little babies by keeping them entertained with little toys and some times even small pebbles which she would hide away from them after showing it to them and making exaggerated expressions copying what Kizashi did around her when he played with her.

The Sakura I knew always smiled a lot, the only thing she did a lot was smile.

In fact when Sakura stopped smiling a few days ago for a week I was really tensed, no matter what I did she'd always lose her attention in between our baby talk conversation and start staring off into the distance as if she was thinking deeply about something else.

Sakura didn't even show any interest when I showed her the pinwheel spinning around by pushing wind nature chakra through its blades, something that used to get her attention every single time, something that she always paid all her focus to and kept trying to do different things to and only stopped when she felt I was growing tired. 

Sakura only became 'normal' and started to smile once again only when I took her to the favorite spot where I go to relax my mind to take off my mind from the hidden duties I had to perform.

But I was always sure, that my Sakura was not worrying about herself, but about someone else as she often did whenever she could.

If I was Sakura's mother, Sakura felt like she was a mother to the world. She couldn't see children stepping on ants for enjoyment, she'd always encourage the babies who were left alone to play something by playing with them and attracting their attention first. She always smiled and tried to bring smiles to everyone she saw.

So when I saw my Sakura pointing at the Uchiha boy I knew immediately that she was worrying about him for some reason.

After looking at his spot and how close he was to the supplies stand I deduced he wanted something from the stand and was hesitant to get it in the current atmosphere.

I walked over to him under the piercing gaze of every person present in the hall and knelt down before him.

Looking at him closely I realized he was Lady Mikoto's first child! I had seen him with Lady Mikoto the few times we had met in the village when I went on strolls with Sakura tied to my back as we went to get rations. Had Sakura recognized him too?

"What do you need um… Itachi-kun?"

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Thank you for reading! 

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