Ad Sumus
@toseverthisworld To breathe once more after being dead, to feel the sun on one's skin - most would see it as a blessing. A beautiful curse is what life once more is. And maybe that is all it comes down to, maybe it is that simple. He can't quite say, as there's no word for this. This. The man who once held the very world in his hand, who slaughtered through the Alliances ranks with so much ease - one would say this was the shell of that man. Broken. Defeated. And the former Kage takes a seat across from the ghost of olds past, wonders idly how two ghosts could continue in a world far too ahead for either of them. It's a long moment before he speaks and when he does, his voice is gentle, "One thousand people in one afternoon. I gave them no chance. That is nowhere near the true number I've taken." It's simply fact, one the history books seem to forget. Or glorify, as if one thousand dead, that blood on his hands is something to be proud about. "Even now, so many years, I still here rumors. I became a monster to Iwagakure and Kumogakure. A nightmare, a thing to tell your children at night to make them behave. Even now, I see shinobi I spared in those days, staring at me. As if they expect me to finish what was started so long ago." And there's a part of him that wants to, a small part. Hands move to pick up the tea he'd brought and he pours them both a cup, holding the steaming brew to the old ghost. "Hero is just a silly term for children. Monsters are inside of us all. Some just accept it easier than others."