~Scene Continues, Soutarou POV~
Soutarou's eyes glinted dangerously and the woman sighed before closing the gap between the two of them instantaneously and sadly holding his cheeks between her hands and saying, "I guess I'll have to break the Genjutsu earlier than expected… and I suppose I owe you an explanation… Don't I, Soutarou?"
Soutarou said nothing for a while, before asking, "Who are you?"
The girl smiled beautifully and said, "Me? Oh I'm just a wandering tourist…~"
Soutarou narrowed his eyes further and said, "Who are you really?"
The girl looked at him and tilted her head and said, "I could tell you. But you should drop the idea of trying to kill me, even if Soutarou Senju from your real world in full strength came over, you wouldn't be able to scratch me…. So ready to place nice…?~"
Soutarou paused and said, "What do you mean my real world? And what do you mean Soutarou Senju, why are you implying there are others?"
The girl smiled and said, "Aren't there others? By now you should have figured out that much hopefully…. Though before you ask anything, unless you completely relax your guard I really won't tell you more."
Soutarou's guard dropped and he forcefully relaxed his guard and said begrudgingly, "Fine… I'll play along. For now."
The woman really smiled and said, "Good!"
Her eyes turned into a beautiful red swirl before it stabilized revealing a pair of mangekyo sharingan with a six pointed star pattern with a "straight tomoe." Her eyes didn't stop there before they evolved again and formed a purple ring pattern, with six distinct tomoe in each eye.
Soutarou gulped for a second and was about to think of something before the woman's ethereal voice rang and said, "I suppose I should start off with my name first…. I am Kiyome Uchiha… This world is as you can tell… A genjutsu… One formed from subconscious thoughts of yours… Such as wanting to see Kushina and Mikoto in school uniforms, or Naori in her punk outfit. Same for Mito and Tsunade's suits and professional outfits of course…"
"As for your other questions… You're thinking just how strong am I? I'd love to answer, but casualty will just censor what I say, so there's no point. Just know my power is restrained, as is that crazy woman's. Speaking of her… She wasn't supposed to be in that dream world, but anywhere where the concept of you exists she finds a way to worm herself in… I suppose in some twisted sense of all of us her love for you is amongst the greatest…"
"Can you believe she destroyed your home world just to find your original soul? She killed your original god too or rather the one that sent you to us in the first place."
"Sorry I'm getting lost here… I just haven't spoken to you in so… In so long…"
A look of longing and deep love showed up in her eyes before she shook herself free and said, "Ah yes! Where was I? Your questions… I can only answer questions related to this genjutsu… Which bluntly speaking completely spiraled out of my control as well as your little friend Naori's..."
Soutarou immediately questioned, "Why did Naori create the genjutsu?"
Kiyome calmly answered, "For the same reason as myself I presume… To help you… overcome your inability to kill…"
Soutarou asked, "Just to be able to kill?"
Kiyome answered by bobbing her head side to side and saying, "Partially."
Soutarou stared at her with narrowed eyes, Soutarou questioned, "Then what was the purpose in letting me suffer so much? Why? WHY!"
Kiyome made a sad face, pausing for a moment, before decidingly just shrugging and saying, "It's because it's the only way."
Soutarou narrowed his eyes and said, "That's awfully cryptic. So you made me suffer. Made the ones I loved die in front of my eyes. For what? So I could become a killer? So I could-"
Kiyome made a shushing motion before she thinly smiled and her eyes flashed with a surge of purple for a moment. Then thousands of memories flooded Soutarou's mind. His very soul itself began shaking, his spirituality itself was seared, and his own sharingan flashed in rebellion against Naori's and Kiyome genjutsu.
Kiyome whispered, "Words mean nothing… Only once you've seen this accursed world… Only then… you will… Wake up to reality."
As the swirling pattern with three tomoe, began changing into a swirling pattern with three notable straight lines forming. But the memories or rather possibilities flowed one after another.
A timeline where Soutarou gave into Hinata early on instead of liking another girl and in return Tsunade and Naori killed her and 'rescued' Soutarou before the entire timeline devolved into a slaughterfest. With Soutarou in the end killing himself.
Another where Mito raped Soutarou in a drunken stupor and then continued to do it after tasting the forbidden fruit once. Before she killed all other girls in his life, including her own granddaughters.
A world where Tsunade earned Soutarou's love and they pair had a secret love, only for Tsunade to eventually break all of his organs, limbs, and seal them into growth chambers, leaving Soutarou a functional head, a trophy that Tsunade came and stared at and shouted, "mine… mine… mine…" repeatedly…
A timeline where Soutarou's balancing act amongst the girls succeeded and a harem successfully happened only for Hinata to slaughter them all and chop off Soutarou's dick in retaliation for 'cheating.'
A world where Soutarou avoided all the girls finding a normal beauty in hopes of normal love. Alone to end up, getting kidnapped and essentially passed around, with more and more limbs going missing as each girl punished him for running away.
A reality where Pakura quietly kidnapped him…
A world where Nono…
A world…
Soutarou even feigned being asexual.
Worlds outside of the genjutsu. A world with an adult Konoha Twelve, with him successfully having a harem with Hinata only for the memories to branch into four distinct timelines where each girl killed the others.
Timelines during the third great ninja war where he successfully balanced the love of Kurenai, Shizune, Yugao, Rin and Anko only for Obito to successfully take his eye back from Kakashi and break free from Madara's seals, and somehow defeating black jetsu before inducing disharmony in the girls again inducing their wish for control. And thus forcing the loop again.
Finally a timeline where he turned into an abuser out of fear of the girls, only to ironically push them all into the yandere trope in believing that this Soutarou was a fake. Over and over again. Every possibility. Every world. Endless timelines. If not Hinata, then Kushina. If not Kushina, then Mikoto. If not Mikoto, then Mito. If not Mito, then Tsunade… so on and so forth and repeat…
Every time he succeeded, a failure appeared. Not from his presence, nor his changes to the timeline, no, instead it was his inaction. Either his failure to protect those he loved, the boldness to put his foot down, or to have the pragmatism to take action without hesitation for his own interests.
No matter whom he cared for, there could not be a happy ending for him, without ruthlessness no matter where, or what it was.
No matter which time period.
No matter which reality.
No matter which person.
Then it all clicked.
Naruto. Road to Naruto. Before Naruto. The Age of the Sage of Sixth Paths. The Age Before Chakra…
Genjutsu worlds. Infinity Tsukiyomi worlds. Alternate realities without Chakra. The main timelines. Genderbent timelines…
Hanabi. Moegi. Naruko. Satsuki. Sakura. Ino. Hinata. Shion. Yakumo. Kiyome. Shizuka. Karin. Hotaru. Karui. Tenten. Kin. Tayuya. Kurotsuchi. Fu. Temari. Hana. Koyuki. Yugao. Ameyuri. Guren. Anko. Kurenai. Rin. Shizune. Mabui. Yugito. Samui. Mei. Konan. Sara. Honoka. Kushina. Mikoto. Pakura. Nono. Naori. Tsunade. Mito. Fuka. Kaguya…
Heartfelt confessions of, "I love you, Soutarou." along with flashing and overlapping images of blood covered, obsessive eyes.
All sending chills down his spine. Worse… After all those timelines… All those memories… He saw a reflection of himself. Buried memories of timelines where he finally too became obsessive…
Kiyome cut the memories and softly stepped on the black water of what seemed to be Soutarou's mental plane and said, "There was a famous quote from your old world, you once told me… it by Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, not that I specifically know what that is or who that is… But… 'He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.'"
"So… now that you've peered into the abyss… are you the monster… the blackening soul who only wants their own happiness… or have you retained your innocence… Your so-called laughable spark?
Soutarou heaved, and warily watched Kiyome while his eyes flashed with uncertain affection. He slowly began to ask a question before Kiyome's eyes returned to their natural black and she smiled and said before he could, "If you're wondering if those memories or worlds are real or not. They aren't, or rather they might be, but the ones you have are fake. My original intention was for these scenes to eventually play out in your mind. Thanks to my genjutsu and ocular technique, time is irrelevant here…"
"Unfortunately that woman interrupted. Still the point went across… Didn't it?"
Soutarou slowly nodded before questioning, "But why make me suffer…?"
Kiyome's eyes glinted and her expression turned unreadable before she said, "To make you strong. The multiverse does not need another weak Soutarou Senju who only acts at the last minute. It needs a decisive one…"
"One with the will to kill. You must be willing to ruthlessly kill for yourself, not for others. I am not Mito Uzumaki who foolishly said to kill for her. No matter what it is, you must be selfish for your love, for your interests, and for those you care about…
Kiyome paused for a moment before adding on, "I am not here to lecture you about your views of love… No, in fact I encourage you to have a healthy relationship…"
"But you must also understand boundaries…"
Soutarou tried to interject by saying, "How am I even supposed to go about that-"
Kiyome stared at him with hard eyes and said, "Don't be so soft… I know you're a people pleaser. Aren't you? You say you don't want those girls' affections, but really all of your actions were on point. Why else did you stand up for Kushina, when you told yourself you wouldn't mess with the time line? Why else did you train near Mikoto's house? Why else did you spend so many days in the shinobi memorial after you saw Naori there once, when you never cared that much for your new world parents? Not to mention your behavior with Tsunade and Mito."
"I suppose calling you a people pleaser is wrong as well… You are someone who wants to be moral and does possess the 'purity' to back it… But your desire is too great. Since your desire is so great… You must be able to back it up… Instead of being hesitant the way you half heartedly do what you do… which results… in women who desire you too much for the amount of desire you show for them…"
"What was it you told me… I hate those pathetic harem main characters, who can't make up their mind… Again I never truly understood it… but that's exactly you've become… worse in a multiverse where women are obsessive and powerful by nature."
Soutarou's eyes and expression seemed to deflate as he realized he really had done what Kiyome had called him out on…
"Now, unfortunately for you these women don't understand your reasons or the fact that perhaps you're a good, but greedy person… because they're kunoichi. Kunoichi only understand their own wants… Afterall…"
Kiyome just glanced over at Soutarou and she smiled knowingly as Soutarou finished her sentence, "Kuniochi… Kuniochi are Scary."