there's a regret (so grinding, so immitigably sad)

Afterward, when he bought his vengeance with the lives of just over half of his shinobi, he watches the gleaming ruins of their sister village and swears to step away from that path. Promises his broken heart this will not happen again. He is older, he is wiser. The weight of his guilt is just about to snap him in half, and his face is lined with it, far beyond his years. What’s done is done, and he cannot change it. But the future is bright, he consoles his bleeding heart desperately. He will be better.

And yet. And yet.