God Damn It, Kyuubi!

Layers of grief

For a while, the world was red.

And for a brief second, Obito felt anger.

He felt anger against his clansmen, for cornering Kakashi into that position. He felt anger towards Fugaku, for being unable to reign their own clansmen from cornering an eleven-year-old kid. He felt anger towards Rin for letting Kakashi out of her sight.

He felt anger towards Minato for failing.

But most of all, the anger was towards his own self.

Because Kakashi wouldn't have died if he survived.

Kakashi wouldn't have died if the three of them returned from Kannabi together.

Lost and alone in this void of darkness, Obito crumpled to his knees and wept for a lost brother.

Around him, the red bloomed to life.

Setsuna woke to the assumption that he was going to die.           

Not the best wake-up call of his life, if he may say so.

The Earth trembled beneath him, rocking and groaning like an ancient beast being rudely woken up from an eternal sleep. It started with little trembles that jolted him awake at first, before it escalated to a wrathful tremor that snapped his mind to full attention. Such an unfamiliar phenomenon was the thing that made him forced himself to focus, ignoring the dull throbbing on his temples as he tried to gain his bearing and made sense of his current situation.

It took him a few minutes of disorientation later before the panicked screams and chaos just outside the grimy walls of his chamber managed to snap his sluggish mind into full attention.

Civilians, no doubt, because no shinobi worth their salt would fall into hysteria like that. They were trained to remain calm in the worst situation possible—an unexpected, world-shattering earthquake included.

Setsuna was a shinobi first and foremost.

Therefore, injuries and confusion of waking up to such disaster be damned, he kept a calm head on his neck and staggered out of the dusty bed. His head hurt like hell and he could feel his optic nerves throbbed in rhythmic pulse of pain, making it difficult to open his eyes. He has to squint instead, and even that was testing his pain tolerance. But he soldiered on, carefully sliding the door open, only to retreat back into the room when the stampede of panicked civilians almost stomped him flat.

It was madness.

Everyone was rushing down the narrow hallway, hardly caring who they trampled over in their hasty run towards the exit. The roof creaked and Setsuna instantly looked up, grimacing at the pain behind his eyeballs the moment his sharingan activating on reflex to capture the details.

Old. This building was way too old and battered, if the small cracks he saw on the structure was any indicator. It was overpopulated too, judging from the continuous stream of panicked civilians that was rushing towards the exit.

If this earthquake didn't stop, this whole place would collapse.

The creaking of the wooden structure grew louder, yet civilians kept pouring out from the building, competing against the trembling Earth and the shaking structure in their race to safety. Another loud rumble rocked the ground just when the last group of civilians passed him, the Earth groaned, and the ground suddenly cracked open, swallowing the corridor in front of him into a chasm.

One little girl failed to leap into safety, slipping along with the collapsing corridor with a muted scream.

Setsuna moved before he could think.