Naruto left the group silently, walking around the town as his dull eyes looked in desolation. The common people wanted her to return…
She never touched them… and they were willing to have her remain. Most people were happy with her rule.
That's the more reason his heart was breaking.
When Tsuyu created the road forcefully, she watched, she killed and replaced the few.
But she had let 99% of the world run on their own after she had set them. She didn't ask the villagers to worship her. She didn't ask these people to work hard on their farms, she didn't ask the merchants to sell things, she only set limits and laws so they wouldn't get greedy. And for the Judgment she gave, she only gave them to the most evil of people. Mere bandits or robbers were never touched. Only those who were no longer humans were killed. Tsuyu had her own principle as a tyrant to ensure she didn't make a mistake in her decision, while indecision was the world's own natural consequence and not hers.
Because she never claimed to be deity, and that was why, everything Tsuyu did, it worked because it's her and not anyone else. She never wanted to become God. It's the people that made her God. She was smart, she had Root in the dark, she had Eyes in the sky binding on the outside, and she had the power to achieve it - everything was just right for her tyranny to work.
And yet, he couldn't be happy for her, even if everyone else was.
***
Nobody should control the whole world.
What if she made a mistake?
What if someoneelse tried to imitate her? Become another God?
What if one day, she decided to… do it all wrong?
Pain initially wanted to do it like her… Madara wanted to put everyone into genjutsu for a perfect world.
What if it hadn't been her? What if it had been Pain? Danzo? Or Orochimaru? Or me?
And most of all… even if the world was perfect under her rule… what if she was gone?
What would happen then…?
Naruto clenched his heart. It's as if he was trying to justify it. Justify what he had done to her. Trying to justify stopping her.
The group he had helped him hide his traces. They were good at it, since they were defectors and missing nin from various shinobi villages.
He was now the leader of the new Akatsuki.
"To death of the Demon!" Surrounding the campfire, the now 14 people sat together. Clinking their drinks.
His ears numb hearing them cheer for her death. They all looked at him with awe and admiration for killing her.
Ah… they never… understands her. They still hate her…
To be fair, some couldn't even sleep at night knowing they were marked by her touch. Some were used as chakra cattle, painfully extracted. Some saw their own friends committed suicide in front of them after a mere tap from her hands.
Her horror during the war cannot be erased even if Naruto tried to speak up for her. The memories of her terror were still deeply ingrained in their bones… even Naruto's own.
And that's why Naruto hated himself because he couldn't say anything when his own friends cheered for her death.
Because he understood, she had hurt them beyond imagination. And a part of him knew it's reasonable they hated her. If he was done the same way, he too, would have been… scared, hurt.
Tsuyu… was a difficult person that he couldn't fathom. How could she be so cruel to everyone and anyone… but also caring?
He couldn't understand. And it tore him inside, not knowing what to feel about herself as a person.
He remembered how Tsuyu looked at him, when Konan surrounded her with the bombs. She didn't look at Konan. She didn't look at the surroundings.
She just looked at him, even when she was being surrounded by all the explosives… her eyes, she was crying.
That Naruto hurt her. It was as if, Naruto never thought, never thought Tsuyu could get hurt. She had always been cold, strong, not caring much… but, that was why, it felt like he had done something he cannot ever take back. That he had hurt her so much she looked at him with so much pain.
Tsu-chan… I… I never want you to die…
Now I don't know what to do…
That you died thinking I killed you…
The knowledge was a curse to him. Everyone said he killed her… and when he thought about her expression, he realised… Tsuyu too thought the same. That he was in knowledge of the explosives surrounding her.
How could he…
Tsuyu, the person who he never saw cried for years in his life, shed tears for him before her death.
Naruto lay in the makeshift bed, shedding tears as his heart broke into pieces.
I am sorry… Tsu-chan…
Maybe Naruto didn't know whether Tsuyu was right or wrong, maybe he couldn't accept her tyranny was right, because if it was anyone else trying to be some God, it would have been wrong still.
But, one thing has always remained true…
Tsu-chan… my little sister…
The memories they had together flooded his mind. Even when he was a child… he thought she was always cold. But looking back, she had always tried her best.
What do you want for dinner? Please don't say ramen…
Nii-san, sigh. Can you arrange your shoes? It's annoying my eyes. It's not that difficult isn't it?
I will try to give him extra lessons on my own, Iruka-sensei. Nii-san… I know the theory parts were boring for you but these are not useless. If you want to become Hokage, you need to know the system… Great, stop looking at me like you don't get it.
Let me buy the groceries… you shouldn't go out too often.
Even if she wasn't interested, she still tried to entertain him when he had no friends around back then. And maybe, over time… she was really enjoying whatever nonsense Naruto pulled her into.
Nii-san, don't mind other's opinions. You know yourself. I, know you…
Nii-san, this ramen is from the Land of Demon. They say these were the spiciest ramen in the world.
You are getting stronger. And having progress means you are growing. Look at the progress you have, not the achievements you haven't got.
Here… just get whatever you want.
He suddenly recalled Tsuyu giving him some money. When they were poor, before Tsuyu started working and had a business. She had made sure to calculate their budgets… and his pocket money was controlled too. She called it 'leisure budget', something about this Maslow guy saying needing entertainment and luxury as basic needs.
That week… Tsu-chan gave me hers… because I was sad that day….
Such a simple thing, a simple gesture, but at this moment, when Naruto had to look back at her… it was heartbreaking for him.
Because Tsuyu cared for him. That she had done everything she could for him.
Tsuyu… I am sorry… I am sorry… I am sorry…
Whether she was playing God, even if she killed hundreds of thousands, even if she made a lot of people suffer…
She had, always, loved him.
And that's why, it hurts. That Naruto didn't know what to do…
Why can't… she just be a normal little sister of his? Won't it be nice, if she had just been Tsu-chan… like she had always been before?
When did it all go wrong…?
Was it when she killed all of Kumogakure, even the innocents? When she used prisoners as chakra source? When she turned them into living weapons? When she threw corpses into enemy camps from the air to make them lose morale?
Could I have stopped you… Tsu-chan…
Tears shed from his eyes. Because he knew the answer already.
I couldn't…
And that was heartbreaking. That Tsuyu as a person, fundamentally, someone Naruto cannot accept. Just like how she won't stop for him. He couldn't for her either…
It's as if it was a wall that could never be breached.
Even if she's alive…
She wasn't going to stop. She was still going to do everything she wanted. She would still remain some God. He was destined to never be able to stop her, even if she still lived.
That only her death could have stopped her. And it happened.
…
Tsu-chan… never wanted me to save her… or change her…
Him going with Akatsuki, was really because he wanted to save Tsuyu, from her own inhumanity. But what he did was a joke. What was he doing…? He could never change her. She never needed it, nor wanted it.
He really was fooling around like she said…
Naruto laughed as he shed tears. "Tsu-chan… I am so stupid… haha…"
It's Naruto, who couldn't accept her… who wanted her to be, the little sister he wished she was.
But I never asked Tsu-chan, if it was what she really wanted… and he knew what she was, what she did, that truly was what she wanted.
It's me that can't accept you… A hint of desolation appeared in Naruto's eyes. Even if… things were different… even if she was alive…
How can Naruto say with a straight face that he's okay with her being a God, that he's okay with her controlling the world with Root, using genjutsu on people to make them obey, with her killing hundreds of thousands… how can Naruto say that with conscience?
He couldn't… he just couldn't…
Even if he wished he could have accepted her.
***
Tsuyu understood this as well. And in her reminiscing… she realised it shouldn't matter.
Because it never changed the fact that they… cared for each other.
And that's okay enough…
It's not perfect. But, it's still there, isn't it? That Naruto tried to reach out to her, to just be his little sister, to go home and stop being some God…
To just be Tsu-chan…
Tsuyu understood this fundamental… and, at least, even if Naruto killed her for her methods, he didn't kill Tsu-chan. He killed the tyrant, the evil monster he thought she was, the 1000 Eyed Goddess.
But never, Tsu-chan.
He would have never killed that part of her. That he wanted her to stop being anything else other than Tsu-chan.
But she couldn't.
Because she was her. She was Tsuyu Uzumaki, who killed hundreds of thousands and hurt many people. She used inhuman tactics that were real war crimes back in her previous lives. Created living human explosives, even faking creating them so they kill themselves; earning her title of demon.
She was the 1000 Eyed Goddess who made the world shackled under her gaze. She was a tyrant when she had power, yet respecting the free will of the masses, sacrificing the few. And she never thought she did anything wrong… that she thought she was doing what's best in her circumstances.
That she was all of her. And Naruto could only accept the part of her that was his little sister.
It's a little unfair that… Tsuyu accepted all of Naruto. Because he was a nice person, it's easier to accept a naive person like him, maybe because if everyone on the planet was as nice as Naruto, his naivety and ideas would have worked.
But the reality wasn't like that. Maybe in a perfect world, everyone would have been kind…
That too, was nice to imagine about… such a society, would be prosperous. In such a society, she would not need to be cruel. And if there's such a world, she would have jumped straight into it. She could afford to be kind in that kind of world. But it was just a dream. Unless she used Kotoamatsukami on the whole world, it won't happen.
A little part of her had hoped that Naruto could have accepted her, even the part of her that wasn't considered nice.
But, she accepted this… maybe, some families were just like that.
It cannot be perfect.
She just needed to carry what was there, not complaining about what wasn't, cherish what had made her feel fulfilled, that she still once felt that she was a part of the family.
Even after everything…
Naruto will always be my nii-san. My foolish, naive, silly brother…
That perhaps, he was the only person who could make her irrationally rational, to justify accepting her own death in his hands.
***