Naruto: End of the Shinobi World

Hagoromo’s body suddenly stiffened at those words.

His lips parted, as though countless words were lodged in his throat—he wanted to refute Hamura, to defend himself, to use those grand ideals once more to convince his younger brother... and perhaps himself as well.

He wanted to say that these sacrifices had been necessary, that they had been made for a greater good, for the future of the world...

But when he saw the regret in his brother’s eyes, so heavy it was almost lifeless, and felt the same lingering pain and guilt deep within his own heart, every argument became pale and powerless.

In the end, he could not say a single word. All that remained was a heavy, silent sigh.

The outcome had already been decided.

Their mother had been sealed away within the moon. The world had already been shattered.

No amount of regret or painful reflection could bring them back to the way things had been.

Hamura did not look at the complicated expression on his brother’s face.

Slowly, he lowered his head and looked at the scorched earth beneath his feet.

Then, suddenly, soft and strange ripples of light spread outward from where he stood.

”Hamura?! What... what are you doing?!” Hagoromo’s heart tightened as a powerful sense of unease seized him.

He hurried forward, his voice rising with urgency. Purple light flickered within his Rinnegan as he tried to discern the nature of the strange radiance surrounding his brother.

Under his older brother’s shocked and anxious gaze, Hamura slowly raised his head.

His expression was calm, even carrying a trace of relief, yet the sorrow buried deep in his eyes was so profound that it was heartbreaking.

He slowly spoke, his voice ringing clearly across the ruins.

”Brother... since you are so certain that you are right, so convinced that this path of rebellion, sealing, and then rebuilding is the only correct path...”

”Then this shinobi world—which we personally ’saved’ from Mother’s ’tyranny,’ only to devastate with our own hands—will be entrusted to you.”

He gazed toward the distant, silent, twisted landscape. His tone was calm, yet solemn.

”I hope... that as you wish, you can use your strength, your convictions, and the rest of your life... to truly bring peace and hope to this world.”

”Hamura! What exactly are you planning to do?! Explain yourself!” The unease in Hagoromo’s heart reached its peak. He tried to approach, but the pale blue aura surrounding his brother seemed to form an invisible barrier, clearly keeping him at a distance.

Hamura did not directly answer his brother’s question.

His gaze passed over Hagoromo’s shoulder and fixed upon the cold, lonely moon hanging in the sky—the moon that had only recently been formed.

Their mother was sealed there.

For the first time, his voice was stained with unmistakable sorrow and pain, as though every word had been torn from a bleeding heart.

”I regret it now, Brother... I regret it so much. I regret what we did to Mother.”

”I can’t help wondering... whether Mother only became so extreme and ruthless, willing to do anything at any cost... because of us, her two sons.”

He looked at Hagoromo, his eyes filled with painful self-reflection.

”You—my older brother, her firstborn, the one in whom she placed her earliest hopes...”

”But you never truly stood by her side. You never tried to understand her loneliness and fear as an outsider—as a ’god.’ You never became someone she could rely on, someone she could turn to for support.”

”From the very beginning, you saw her as someone who needed to be ’corrected.’”

Then he looked down at himself and gave a self-mocking smile, one more painful than tears.

”And I... I hesitated. I tried to understand her. But in the end... I still chose your side. I used my strength to help you fight her—to seal her away.”

Hamura’s voice began to tremble, filled with the endless agony of what-ifs.

”If... if from the very beginning... the two of us had stood firmly beside Mother—not as blind followers, but as family who understood and supported her, while also helping guide her and keep her from going too far...”

”If, when she was betrayed by humanity and became anxious and enraged, we had stood firmly at her side—protecting her while doing everything we could to resolve the conflict and build a more reasonable order...”

”If, when she was attacked and overwhelmed by a sense of danger and fear, we had become the support she could depend on and searched for another solution together...”

”Instead of leaving her to face everything alone, forcing her to choose the most extreme path in her desperation to obtain more power...”

He drew a deep breath. Painful clarity filled his eyes.

”Then... wouldn’t Mother have slowly descended into such madness and extremity in the first place?”

”Wouldn’t... so many tragedies never have happened?”

”And these ruins before us... could they have been avoided?”

”Hamura! You’re taking this too far! You’re putting all the blame on yourself! It isn’t that simple!” Hagoromo’s expression darkened abruptly as he cut him off sharply, his brow deeply furrowed.

He could not accept his brother’s almost self-destructive reasoning.

To do so would be to completely deny the legitimacy of the resistance he had always believed in.

Yet Hamura merely shook his head gently, but with absolute certainty.

”No, Brother. I’m not being extreme. I simply... see now what we deliberately chose to ignore before.”

His tone was exceptionally calm, yet it carried the force of someone who believed he had finally seen the truth.

”When Mother first descended upon this world, planted the God Tree, and even joined with Father... she never intended to ’purge humanity’ or become a ’tyrannical dictator.’”

”She may have been proud. She may have kept herself apart from others. But that wasn’t born of malice.”

”It was humanity... those rulers, driven by greed and fear, who first chose rebellion and betrayed her. That was what made her, for the first time, feel a bone-deep disappointment and distrust toward this world—toward humanity.”

”If, when we first learned of that rebellion, we hadn’t approached it from the perspective that ’humanity needed to be understood,’ but had instead stood firmly in front of Mother—punishing the true instigators, protecting the innocent, while also showing her that humanity still possessed kindness and the capacity to change...”

”Mother would never have begun, in her disappointment and anger, to see humanity as ’inferior creatures who could only be ruled through fear.’”

”Nor would she have forced humanity into sacrifice in order to strengthen the God Tree and obtain the power she believed she needed.”

Tears welled up in Hamura’s eyes, and his voice caught with emotion.

”She just... didn’t feel safe, Brother.”

”And because of our ’disobedience,’ because we stood against her, she felt betrayed and utterly alone at the very moment when she needed the support of those closest to her.”

”When the enemy truly came, when the palace was destroyed, she panicked. That was why she desperately increased the number of sacrifices again and again, trying to gain even the slightest bit more power to protect herself...”

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