017 || THE SEQUEL: PROLOGUE || VIDEO

[obstinates]

[Click. On comes the video, activated by a stray hand as the Guide is placed on the ground nearby. There is a large toad (the orange one Naruto is standing on) fast asleep near the dolphin pool. Leaning against his back is Naruto. He seems completely relaxed, the look of someone whose mind has recently been put at ease. There's a grin on his face

Comments

[video]

[maid_of_fthulu]

*the screen adjusts itself so she can get a better look at you*

I think that's just a lot of sentimental hogwash. People are like cascading ping-pong balls dancing ballet in open suspension. They bump into and hit each other all the time, sometimes not even realizing they're doing so.

...

Still, I'm glad one of us thinks that way.

Re: [video]

[obstinates]

[Wat up new chick haven't seen u 'round here befur.]

People don't get that they hurt others sometimes, but if they figure it out and understand and try to make things right again, I think everything will be okay.

[maid_of_fthulu]

*wat up mai ninja*

And then there are the ones that go out of their way to harm one another. I believe modern psychology--in my time, anyway--would have given them the distinction of 'psychopaths.'

[obstinates]

Sometimes they're just not understood, but yeah, there are a lotta people who are just evil.

I guess if there's so many of us workin' together that understand one another, hopefully we'll outnumber the bad ones, y'know? And then we'll be so strong that even they can't do anything to hurt anyone else.

[maid_of_fthulu]

Interesting.

You know, in some cultures where I used to come from there was a belief that light and darkness were inexorably at odds with each other. Like hot and cold, action and stasis, or cops and robbers. The balance needed to be maintained. Were one not to exist, so would the other one by absence of it's opposite.

*Pauses, she wants to hear what you have to say next, Naruto.*

[obstinates]

I think I get what you're sayin'. Somebody told me once that as long as hatred exists, love exists, and as long as love exists, hatred exists. Somebody's loved one dies or somethin' and it causes pain, that pain causes hatred, and that hatred leads to the person hurtin' someone else for revenge or I guess you could call it their justice.

Even I know that there'll always be hatred. It's somethin' that everyone knows how to do and it's easy. I just think that people can be stronger than their hatred and not let it rule their lives or whatever. They'll be able to let go and overcome that pain, and then they'll overcome that hatred too.

... I did.

[maid_of_fthulu]

What do you mean?

[obstinates]

I used to hate everyone I knew.

[maid_of_fthulu]

You don't strike me as a source of boundless enmity.

[obstinates]

Because I got over it, heh. Just like I said.

[maid_of_fthulu]

*she doubts you had much room, but whatever*

You're interesting.

Rose Lalonde.

[obstinates]

[If you only knew the hatred, Rose. If you only knew.]

I'm Naruto!

[maid_of_fthulu]

Pleased.

From where do you hail?

[obstinates]

Uhh, I'm not from hell. I'm from Konoha.

[Dense ninja is dense. Your vocabulary is harmful to his brain.]

[maid_of_fthulu]

No? I thought I saw a pair of horns and a tail...

[obstinates]

W-What? Oi! I don't have horns!

[HE HAS A TAIL SOMETIMES but not on the ship anymore at least.]