On the night of October 10th, Jun did not sleep. He stayed awake, dressed, and ready to move out. He acted like he was reading a book while he was looking through his window anxiously. He heard his parents talking in the living room and sensed the chakra of his sister in her room. She was sleeping. Everything was peaceful, but Jun was tense. He couldn’t wait any longer; he wanted Kyubi to appear right away. He was on high alert for any unusual chakra signature. He was confident he could pick up the huge chakra of the tailed beast from a distance.

He suddenly felt like a bus hit him. Without warning, Kyubi’s chakra appeared out of nowhere. It was huge, overwhelming, burning, and inhuman… Jun couldn’t breathe. He gasped. The book fell from his hands. That moment felt like an eternity as if everything was moving in slow motion. Kyubi’s chakra was dense. In the living room, the whispers of his parents stopped. He heard his mom calling his name.

Simultaneously, a deafening roar tore through the night.

Time resumed its normal flow. His mother burst into his room. She was pale. Jun looked at her in horror. His mind went blank, and it took him a few seconds to regain his senses.

“The shelters… We must go to the shelters.” He said.

The alarm sounded. In the confusion, Jun could not remember how they had gotten out of the house. They were currently in the streets, running to the nearest shelter. Izumi was crying. She was terrified and shaking. A handful of other people came out of their homes. Some were terrified; others were perplexed. They had yet to comprehend what was happening. Jun looked as he ran and almost tripped himself.

The Nine-Tails was gigantic. It was more massive than the cliff that dominated the village. The beast seemed so close. It hit the ground with its feet, and houses flew away. Kyubi was conceivably ten blocks away. There weren’t even in the path of the rubble, but some debris rained down on them. Panic took over. People started screaming.

The instructions of the ninjas were lost in the terrified cries of the civilians. Kyubi roared again in fury. Jun felt the sound travel throughout his body. He stumbled; someone pushed him, and he found himself swallowed by the crowd. He had lost sight of his parents. It was one of his worst nightmares.

He ran without knowing where he was going, overwhelmed by a visceral fear. He experienced the terror of a prey confronting its greatest predator. It wasn’t only the size of the creature that made it so terrifying. A shinobi could freeze an opponent by letting out a murderous intent using chakra. It was a principle everyone knew. However, this wasn’t a ninja enemy or another human being. It was a force of nature fully unleashed, filled with rage and hatred. Its chakra was raging. It was infused with murderous intent so intense it could freeze your blood. Jun ran aimlessly, driven by fear.

He had no idea where his family was. He used his elbows to make way, but his movements were clumsy due to fear. The fact that he lost his family added to his despair. He had vowed to protect them.

There was a sudden explosion, and Jun was thrown backward. He rolled over, got up, and froze. About thirty meters from his position, something had pulverized the landscape. There were corpses in the streets, smashed to the ground by the force of the explosion. Some were launched in the air and were impaled on debris. People were yelling. Jun’s ears were still ringing. He wobbled, stunned. He turned around and realized with a shock that the street behind him was no more. He saw more bodies. Jun forced his legs to move. He had to go to the shelter, to safety.

Jun heard a sound and saw the remnants of a building flying through the air. He began running. The debris crashed to his left, and he felt the impact shaking the ground. The cloud of dust raised by the impact rushed into the street like an avalanche. Jun threw himself behind a wall, avoiding the shockwave. He no longer knew where he was. The landscape had changed. The familiar buildings were demolished. How long had it been since the appearance of Kyubi? One minute? Five minutes? Ten minutes? He had no idea. Time had become irrelevant.

A panicked crowd ran down an adjacent street. There were people crying out for help; others were desperately calling out the names of loved ones. Some were simply screaming in terror. Then another big impact shook the ground so violently Jun fell to the floor. There was silence. The screams died down. The Nine-Tails roared again.

I have to move. If I stay here, I’m dead. I have to move; I must move, move, move, move…

His body no longer obeyed him. His muscles were petrified in fear. He was shaking and breathing unevenly like a cornered animal. He felt tears streaming down his cheeks. He could not move. A primitive part of his brain had taken control and reasoned that by not moving, the predator wouldn’t slay him. But Jun knew better. There was no stopping Kyubi’s rampage. He must move.

Jun perceived something over him. He looked up and recognized the head of Nine-Tails above the collapsed buildings. The beast wasn’t closer than the last time he caught a glimpse of him, but it didn’t need to be near him to cause some serious damage. Jun saw its shoulders, its back, and its tails moving like snakes under the full moon and casting huge nine shadows over the village. Kyubi turned toward the other side of the village. He saw the muscles in its shoulders move, his paw crashing down several blocks away and shaking the ground.

The monstrous head of Kyubi swiveled. It was unbelievably swift for a creature its size. He saw his chin; his jaws were gaping open. When the beast spun around, he saw his eyes, red eyes. They radiated hatred. The gaze passed over the street without sighting him. He felt like an insignificant insect. He was so close to making eye contact with such a creature that his instinct kicked in.

Jun came back to his senses. It was like he had been seeing the world in black and white and now colors returned. His vision became clear. His muscles freed themselves from their paralysis. He found himself able to move. He turned in the opposite direction to the Nine-Tails and took off. He did not run; he sprinted. He had never run so fast in his life. Adrenaline was kicking in. He went through the debris, his muscles filled with chakra. Each of his strides covered more distance than the previous one. He moved so fast that his vision got blurry. But he still perceived everything clearly, the specs of dust, the small stains of blood. He omitted nothing.

Kyubi roared behind him. He felt the breath of a new wave of destruction pass through his back. He did not turn around. He ran even faster. His fear gave him wings. The shelter was no longer in his mind. He was merely running in the opposite direction of the threat. He passed through devastated areas, ruins, and corpses. He saw some streets that have yet to get destroyed but did not stop.

“Jun! Jun!”

He recognized his father’s voice. The fear clouding his mind evaporated, and he stopped running.

“Dad?” He called.

A figure leaped from a roof and ran after him. Renzo emerged from the smoke and dust. He was covered in mud, and the front of his uniform was smeared with bloodstains. His father opened his arms and ran to him. Jun also threw himself into his arms. Renzo hugged his son tightly for a brief moment, overwhelmed with emotions. Then, he forced Jun back and examined him attentively.

“Are you hurt? The explosion separated us. Your mother and sister are not with you?”

Jun’s relief disappeared. He shook his head; his throat was dry. He identified several expressions on his dad’s face, surprise, shock, terror, doubt, resignation, and determination. Everything happened rapidly, but he saw it so clearly. It was like he was seeing in slow motion. Renzo opened his mouth to speak, then froze. With a delicate gesture, he put his hand on Jun’s face and looked at him.

“The Sharingan.” He said in a low voice.

Jun blinked cluelessly. His mother was an Uchiha. He was half-Uchiha. Therefore, he possessed the potential to awaken the Sharingan. He just never thought about it before. It explained how his vision was so much better in the last few minutes. The amount of detail he was able to discern and process was abnormal.

A loud explosion shook the ground, and a wave of burning dust washed over them. His father instinctively moved to shield him. For a moment, they stood still, waiting for the shockwave to pass and the wind to die down. They could still hear Kyubi’s roar ripping through the streets and buildings, but they couldn’t see it. The creature was hidden from them by the surrounding ruins. Renzo looked around, then stepped away from his son.

“We can’t stay here. It’s too dangerous. The route to the first shelter was destroyed; you have to go to the second shelter. Do you know the way?”

Jun’s mind went blank for a brief moment. He knew the way; he had memorized the route to every shelter. He knew the streets to take, the landmarks to follow, the trees for the shortcuts… But the landscape was altered now. There were no more streets, no more houses, no trees; nothing but debris on the ground. How could he find his way?