Beautiful stream of consciousness prose here, and I especially liked how you put Minato as a demon, how the you manage to make both sides sound completely cruel and despicable, despite us having been practically raised to remember that Konoha is good and everyone else is bad. Simple, but exquisite. Stream of consciousness is extremely difficult to do, and I'm speaking from experience.

and THAT is why Sarutobi insisted on hiding Naruto's heritage.
Excellent work there H.E.

The comparison to Grant really made Minato's fictional actions hit home. Although, if you want the real devil from that war it was Sherman. What his army couldn't eat he burned. Sherman more than Grant was the one responsible for turning the Southern U.S. into a backwater shyte hole from which it is still trying to recover.
o.O
There's still a lot of people who take that personally 140 years after the fact. So, I can see why the people of Iwa would be willing to hunt Naruto down. In the manga, it's only been a little over a decade since the war ended.

That was beautiful.

Ha wow man that is something to think about when your dying, great one shot.

I love the perspective you used. Many people don't think beyond this is the hero and no one else hurts. Admittedly, myself included.

Also, I like that you don't have the general good versus evil. You played it out like there wasn't an absolute; there was just war, and loss or victory.

The only thing I don't understand is that you used no capitalization, but in a way, I think that, too, added to the...image.

Amazing work.

Karasu Kyra

man this guy had bad luck
huh

Hm...The naruto manga has a tendency to make one side look like heros and the other villans but in truth no ones a hero or villain one side always loses and this makes a good point. to konoha Minato is a god to other villages they hate him. Hell i think that the akatsuki isn't as bad as they seem in the story. Something to ponder i guess...

...Oddly enough, I think this is a good note for me to go to sleep on. Kishimoto has a tendency to show the glory and the epic battles, but (like most) refrains from showing what happens after the fight is over and the earth is slowly absorbing the blood. War is war, and there are no heroes to both sides.

Also, this is the first stream-of-consciousness-type bit of writing I've actually read and liked. So props for that. ;)

I love how you show Kohona's shinobi, they are brutal killing machines who have no sympathy for their enemies. It doesn't matter if their women or children if they are wearing the enemies symbol they are dead. During a conflict the most important thing is which side you are on, everything falls under that: blame, heroes, and murderers.

well, that makes Iwa's "KILL SONOFFLASH" problem in every story on fanfiction seem more justified.

Surprisingly interesting. Since I don't know what perspective you've taken this from (i.e. you assumed Minato was a bastard because he won, or assumed Iwa didn't do similar things, etc...) I'm not sure. Just remember that for future reference, ninja have no honor. The manga and anime do a really poor job of explaining just how ruthless they can be. Naruto would have already been executed long ago for insubordination. There is no "my nindo". There is victory, and death. And destroying your enemy utterly means that there there will be more of your friends alive, making your life ultimately suck marginally less. Ulysses S. Grant did some ugly things, but meh, he won, so it doesn't matter anymore.

Really gritty, but I like how you showed Iwa's side and how Konoha isn't a hero, nor is Iwa a bastard- its war and everyone wants to survive/win. Great job on the portrayal:]
-Ceci