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The beaches of Kirigakure were often described as some of the most surreal sites within the Shinobi World. The soft yet firm golden sand that slowly blurs out in an almost blissful trance, shore fading away to turbulent water. The briny aroma swept in from the salty ocean. The slight chill carried in by an ever-present breeze. And the oppressively heavy mist that served as natural protection namesake for the Hidden Village. It was in one such location that the battered and bloody form of the Fourth Mizukage could be found.

It comforted Yagura, in his final hours, to know that Isobu, perhaps his only true friend in the past couple of years, was free from the Uchiha's grasp. Released far into the deep ocean to swim to his heart's content. The only caveat being his entire right arm hanging limply by his side. A testament to the backlash from undoing the Abyss Seal that was once etched there. Or maybe it was the metallic aftertaste from all the blood that had, and still was, trickling out of his mouth.

Turning his attention away from his ravaged body, the dying Mizukage oriented himself so he lay on his back, his gaze focused on the sky. A dark, somber gray blanketed all in sight as the menacing clouds blocked out any trace of a hopeful sun.

A fitting metaphor for my life then.

The slow and methodical pit-pat of the rain drops only served to further dampen the somber atmosphere. His vision began swimming as he coughed up even more goblets of blood.

At least when I die, I'll die as a free man. Not a puppet, a weapon, a tool, or a Jinchūriki but as a… He quickly discarded those thoughts at the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps, mustering whatever strength he had left in his only functioning arm to reach for his discarded hook staff. "Poor little Mizukage. You're not looking too good."

At the sound of his deep, baritone voice Yagura's grip on his weapon grew tighter. Gritting his teeth, Yagura painfully tilted his head to match Madara's gaze. He bit back a snarl as the Uchiha's lone Sharingan trailed on his person, a constant reminder of one of his greatest failures. He was done for. Bijuu-less and without the strength to even raise his staff for one final act of defiance. Yet in a way, so was the Uchiha, even if he was relatively injury free. With the location of the Sanbi unknown, even to Yagura himself now, Madara's plans would be stalled. The thought brought a strained smile to the ex-Jinchūriki's face. A small victory he'd take to the grave.

By now Madara stood beside the dying man, his fingers pensively going over the now open scar underneath the left eye, bringing about an involuntary flinch. "It seems even the heavens are weeping for you," he mused.

I am not deluded enough to assume anyone would mourn me. Not after what I've done. What you made me do. Turning to face the object of his ire, Yagura scowled. "What do you want Madara?" he coughed, the metallic tang of blood rising up in the back of his throat.

"Silly Yagura. I'm not Madara. I'm Tobi. Tobi just wants to help you out," the man responded in a sickeningly cheerful tone.

To his credit, the former Mizukage somehow managed to pull himself up to one knee, weapon still in hand. Defiant to the end he graced his foe no response. If this Madara, or Tobi, or whoever he was, wanted to mock him, then he'd respond appropriately. Only the familiar dripping of the rain onto the ground broke the silence.

"Yagura. Please…" Madara's voice broke as his tone snapped from cheery to an eerie seriousness, "…I need the Bijuu. Time is of the essence if I am to locate it before it goes into hiding. I apologize for what I put you through, but I need the power your beast contains. With it I will usher in a new world for everyone."

Still silence was his response. Taking Yagura's refusal to acknowledge his point as a cue to continue, Madara decided to press on his point. "Surely you recognize this world is worthless? But with the power of the Infinite Tsukuyomi I can make one where everyone is happy. A world of dreams and illusions to satisfy everybody. A world without lies"

"You…" Yagura growled even as he hacked up more blood. He may have been subjugated at one point but now Yagura's mind was as lucid as ever. His newfound clarity only gave way to an unbridled rage at the one responsible for his suffering. "…you ruined my life, subjugated my will and tortured my village. For what? Some world of make believe!?"

"I understand that you would be angry with me…" Madara conceded, his hands going up in the air in an attempt to placate the irate Jinchūriki "…but you are a Jinchūriki. You are meant to represent the power of…"

"Human sacrifice!?" Yagura seethed. At this point his usual calm demeanor had deserted him. Madara's words resonated deep within him. "All my life I've been a sacrifice! A tool to be used and discarded when fit! First the Mizukage, then the damned village, then you. And now you expect me to sacrifice myself, one of my only friends for this insanity!?" He was on his feet now, wobbling and bloody but pain be damned, as small tears of passion, or maybe from the agony, began pooling around the corners of his eyes.

"Well you know what? I'm tired. I was happy once but even that was taken away from me by people just like you. So just let me have this. Let me die in peace," he concluded. And just like that all the fervor, the red hot anger that had impassioned him gave way to a familiar sense of resignation and pain. Vision blurry, Yagura felt the last vestiges of fight leave him as he fell to his knees once again. He was just so tired. "Just. Just let kill me already and be done with it."

Madara tucked his hand under his chin, as if contemplating Yagura's request, before quickly shaking his head. Faster than his ringing head could process, Yagura found himself forcibly placed at eye level with Madara, as the Uchiha seized him by the shirt.

Inching his masked face towards Yagura's until their faces were almost touching, Madara laid out his ultimatum. "You know? It is rude to throw a tantrum when someone asks you something," he asserted, tone now cold as ice. "Answer my question or I will rip an answer from your feeble mind. Where is the Sanbi?"

"You really want to know so badly?" Yagura slurred. The expression on his face seemingly indicating some internal contemplation. Steeling himself, Yagura bit his gum, pulled a face, then spit a vile mixture of blood and saliva onto Madara's mask. A final act of defiance from a broken and battered man.

"Very well. I tried to do this peacefully but is seems you can't be reasoned with. So now I'll make you show me everything," the tomoes in his Sharingan spinning vividly as he initiated the mental probe. The Mizukage in his grasp soon went slack, only the slight rise and fall of his chest giving any indication of life. After what seemed like an eternity despite only being a few seconds, Madara let out a small sigh before tossing Yagura's limp body onto the floor.

"So, it seems you don't know anything after all. How pathetic." Madara mused. He quickly brought the hem of hooded cloak to wipe off the bloody saliva from his mask. As his Sharingan eye evolved into its advanced Mangekyō form, the Uchiha turned his gaze towards the prone Yagura. He was intrigued the man had survived for so long. The sheer trauma and chakra drain from a Bijuu extraction, let alone a shoddy self-extraction as reported by his spies, should have killed the poor man a long time ago. It would be a mercy to kill Yagura and spare him the slow agonizing death that was inevitable. But the time for mercies was long past. And he could not risk anybody discovering his influence in Kirigakure through any tampering with the former Jinchūriki's corpse.

Placing his right hand on Yagura's back, he quickly opened his right eye wide and watched as Yagura's body disappeared into a spiraling void. Satisfied with his work, the Uchiha quickly deactivated his dōjutsu as he mentally prepared for the long trip back to headquarters. Losing the Sanbi was a setback, but only a temporary one. Akatsuki had other targets they could pursue in the meantime. Throwing one final gaze at the bloody puddle that had pooled from beneath his former puppet's body, he delivered his final thoughts on the matter. "And thus ends the sad life of Yagura. How utterly underwhelming."

If only he could imagine just how wrong he was.

And that's a wrap for the Prologue. This idea has been stuck in my head for a long time and I just really had to get it written down somewhere. I'm still not fully happy with how this came out. I feel the text is too "clunky" and not dynamic enough but then again I haven't written stuff down like this in years so hopefully the text starts to feel more natural and vivid as I progress and get back into the groove of things.

I chose Yagura mainly because well he's my favourite minor character in Naruto and even though I like him, fics involving Naruto, both good and bad, are way too over-saturated so I'm not contributing to that plus I want this fic to be unique and stand out a bit. Plus since we know very little of Yagura's personality beyond the fact that he's self-disciplined enough to become a Perfect Jinchūriki and Mizukage as well as his immense pride in his accomplishments and dislike of being called a child, I feel like I have plenty of wiggle room with his character without resorting to any OOC or INO debauchery.

Fun fact, the prologue was actually planned to be longer (I swear I'll try to have longer chapters in the future) with it delving into Yagura's arrival in Remnant and just how exactly that transpired (Kamui only sent him to boxland not Remnant so something must have went down to transport him there) but I felt those events could be better saved for further use down the story.

I'm rambling so I'll cut the Author's Note short (I promise I'll try to keep them shorter in future chapters) but I can't promise when the next update will be. I have the PCAT in July so I'll be pretty occupied with studying before then but I will try to squeeze in 1 additional chapter before my PCAT though it probably will only be slightly longer than this chapter (hint: think O.T. Genasis for a character that'll appear in the next chapter).

So please read and leave a review. What you liked, disliked, etc... but please don't ask me about pairings or harem or if a certain character will or will not show up. I won't answer those and honestly it'd be a waste of a review.

Thank you and have a great day.

EDIT: Fixing some minor typos.