Jun’s training kicked in. He remembered he was a ninja. He had other ways to orient himself. He could also sense the chakra of the people guarding the entrance of the shelter. The teenager nodded to his father. The latter seemed relieve. He rose to his feet, dragging his son with him.

Jun realized with amazement that his legs were shaking so much he had trouble regaining his balance. But his father didn’t give him time to regain his composure. They kept running amid the screams, explosions, Kyubi’s roars, and falling debris. Renzo led the way. Jun had the impression of following blindly with no idea of where they were. The landscape was no longer familiar to him.

An explosion hit what was left of the street, sending screaming people, electric poles, tiles and rubble flying several meters away. Jun leaped up. His dad managed to cling to a wall with his chakra and grabbed his son’s hand just in time. He felt his wrist twist violently and let out a painful cry.

The blast passed. Renzo released him, and he landed on his feet with a muffled moan. He was clutching his injured wrist. His legs were still shaking. He struggled to remain on his feet. He was in pain, tired and scared. He just wanted the whole thing to stop. But he knew what he desired was irrelevant before the Nine-Tails’ rampage. The beast’s chakra was suffocating. The night was filled with cries of anguish and loud explosions, forming a gruesome symphony.

Someone called for help a few meters away. Jun realized later his father had been passing by injured people and corpses without looking back. This time, it was a high-pitched and terrified voice. It belonged to a child. Renzo turned around. He found himself on the other side on the street in an instant. He hunched over a small figure buried under a pile of tangled beams.

Jun could see the features of a little girl through the dust and blood. Her hair was black, no, maybe dark red or purple. He couldn’t tell exactly. She was shaking all over. Jun believed she had been stuck there for a while. The girl was around Izumi’s age. Renzo started waving hand seals for Doton to help him lift the wooden beams trapping the child. Jun took a couple of timid steps in their direction to help.

There was another explosion, and Jun was violently thrown in the air. He couldn’t differentiate up from down for a moment. He was getting blown away like a twig in a tornado. Then, he suddenly saw the ground approaching. He braced himself and rolled to soften the impact. His shoulder hit the ground hard. He let out another painful cry that was engulfed by the cloud of sand, dust and ash raised by the explosion.

He tried to stabilize himself by grabbing the ground using his chakra. The seconds felt like an eternity as he tried to stop his momentum. Pieces of wood, stones, tiles and metal flew through the air like shards of shrapnel. He closed his eyes, hoping not to be hit by a piece of debris.

The wind died down. Jun blinked, haggard. He stumbled to his feet. His ears were ringing, the sounds seemed muffled to him. Kyubi appeared to be much further away. Was he thrown away that far? It didn’t look like it. The Nine-Tails was now outside the village walls, leaving behind a trail of destruction. Small gnat-like shadows circled around the Tailed Beast; they were pushed away by its angry paws. The Konoha shinobis were trying to contain the calamity and keep him away from the village.

“Dad?”

Jun’s head was spinning, but his Sharingan was still active. Everything he perceived was extremely clear, very detailed and searing into his memory like a hot iron…the crumbling houses, the charred beams pointing upward, the fallen trees, the shattered walls, the bodies on the ground. Stones had rained down on the street like meteorites, leaving huge impacts. No one was moving. No one screamed for help.

Jun was the only figure advancing in this field of ruins. He sensed no other chakra except his own. His heartbeat quickened. He refused to believe it. His dad always came back. He couldn’t imagine this time would be different.

His father was not dead when he found him. The pile of beams he was trying to moved had collapsed. The neighboring building had also fallen on it. Jun no longer saw the little girl that Renzo had tried to help. There was only a small pale hand and fingers curved in a gesture of supplication.

Renzo had been blown away by the explosion that pulverized the nearby buildings. He was lying a little further away from the girl’s position. Jun couldn’t see his whole body. It was practically covered by rubble. His arms and legs were twisted in at least three different places. He was staring at the sky with his eyes wide open. Jun would never forget that image. His father, so big and strong, was smashed to pieces like a broken toy thrown to the ground by a giant.

He fell to his knees beside him. His mind was empty. Then, he felt his chakra. The familiar and reassuring sensation was now reduced to a flickering spark. Jun put his hand on his dad’s shoulder, then his neck, terrified and unsure of what to do to help him. He couldn’t move him; he didn’t know how to heal him. But he had to do something. He couldn’t just sit there and watch him die…

“Help! Please! Someone, anyone! Help!” He cried.

No one came. There was no else alive on that street. No matter how he desperately looked for a sign, an ally, anything, there was no one. It was just him and Renzo who was barely breathing. His voice cracked, and Jun stopped screaming. His breathing was choppy. His sobs made it difficult for him to breath. He had almost no chakra left and was exhausted. There was nothing he could do. It was like sinking into a nightmare without being able to wake up. He had never felt so alone, so helpless, so weak.

His father’s chakra was dwindling like the flame on a dying candle. His eyes were already blurry. He couldn’t see his son anymore. Renzo was barely breathing. With each breath, Jun heard the faint gurgling of his lungs filled with blood. He saw his eyeslids quivering, and he leaned over him, panicked.

“Dad. Stay with me. Help is coming. I’ll get you out of here!”

His father reacted to the sound of Jun’s voice. An affectionate expression briefly passed over his face before being driven away by the pain. His lips were quivering. Talking was beyond him, but Jun leaned over anyway. His father was trying to tell him something. Jun didn’t want to miss his words.

“Jun…”

“Dad?”

Renzo closed his eyes. His chakra went out like a candle at the end of its wick. His chest stopped heaving.

Jun remained motionless for a moment. He couldn’t believe it. He refused to believe it. The scene burned into his memory down to the smallest detail… the blood, the dust suspended in the air and the utter stillness of his father’s face.

Ultimately, he couldn’t deny reality. That reality was like a giant hand clutching his throat and crushing his heart. His hands clenched convulsively on his father’s jacket. He was having trouble breathing. He felt like his head was going to explode. The scene was so clear in his mind. It was too much. He couldn’t see and feel this again, all the horror, the grief, the rage, the despair and the pain… The emotions came crashing into him. He felt like he was going to break.

Jun was having a severe headache. The pain in his head, which was concentrated solely behind his eyes, seemed to explode along with his grief. Jun couldn’t take it anymore, and he screamed. He sounded like a mortally wounded animal, like he was going crazy. He kept screaming until his vocal cords gave out. He pulled his hair. His screams turned into dry and painful sobs. He felt like he was losing his mind. He wanted everything to stop.

Jun felt his last strength disappear, blown away by the tornado that was his emotions. He felt empty inside but welcomed it. Emptiness was better than the pain that ripped through his chest. He finally reached his limits and let the darkness hug him. Jun fainted.