"Brutal cultures do not give birth to strong people. Butchers might seem strong to those unfortunate to be weaker than them, but that does not make them so. We, of all people, should never forget that, Gabriel. We've spared more than we would wish, and killed more than we should have, few as such diamonds buried under gore and hatred there were. Sometimes, all you can do is help a soul shed the mortal coil before it rots from the inside.

Take this one, for example. His people chose their elites through a contest of murder until he proved too successful. It is a painfully familiar story, by now: the creation that works better than intended, in the worst way. The gifted child he found, he turned into a weapon, a tool he cared nothing for, except in terms of power.

Or so he thought. Love had grown between them, by the time death took them. Fatherly? Brotherly? Who can say, brother? Certainly, they had no one else in the world but each other, and were close as if they were kindred."

-on Zabuza Momochi;

"Ahh...hated and feared for his bloodline, when such inborn secrets had previously been harnessed as weapons of war. How surprised are you, brother? I am not, either. His mother scolded him for inheriting her power, and his father killed his wife at the reveal, only for him and his mob to die at the hands of the child they would have murdered.

It is an ugly thing, for families to be torn apart by things a member has no control over. We have seen it too often, and not always because of something as straightforward as control over the elements. We needn't give examples, we think. Because, make no mistake, Gabriel: the love this youth's family shared was true and deep. Not enough, but...some people cannot wrap their minds around certain immutable facts.

And then, he became a vagrant, almost an animal. So bereft of purpose, and love, that he willingly became a weapon, if only to have someone at his side. And that man changed him, and was changed in turn, until they became a family of two. If only they'd realised earlier...they might have found some joy."

-on Haku;

"We swear, if all snakes in the grass were this obvious...to our eyes, yes. We know our sight is not common. Just as we know he can be subtle, as he was so many times. A man of medicine, twisted until he became obsessed with life and death - with living, and killing, and not dying. A body that could shed itself at the cost of power, a shrivelled soul...anything, just to stave off the end.

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And then, the warlock became a necromancer, and his sciences and magics helped save his world, in a way. Do not believe this makes him a hero, Gabriel. Even if he has changed, even if he is watched rather than roaming free, this does not erase his monstrous past. Some things cannot, must not be forgotten."

-on Orochimaru;

"A child of none, in terms of spirit. Certainly, he never really belonged to anyone, after the joy of his early years was taken from him. He was broken and reforged into a killing machine, just like children such as him should no longer have needed to be remade. Alas...the elder serpent, the first madman, found him and made him worse, until he became a sage of snakes, the heir of his teacher's mad genius. He raised an army of the dead that could have toppled the world, taken from it as much as it had taken from him."

-on Kabuto Yakushi;

"Do you see, brother? Do you see the lengths a child can be pushed to, when he believes those who should be closest to him do not love him, and sees only hatred wherever he turns? When he has a voice - another tormented child in his own right, another manmade monster - screaming in the back of his head, filling his thoughts, eating his dreams and making his nightmares reality? A voice that would have devoured his, had things gone wrong? God...we are happy they turned out well, all things considered."

-on Gaara;

"Those whose spirits are shattered do not always seek to shatter those of others, but when they do, the world burns. How else could it have gone, Gabriel? Two men, of the same bloodline, separated by generations yet united by weariness of bloodshed...men with a vision as grand as it was insane, and the means to see it achieved? One believed that he was the puppet master, that he was the one pulling his descendant's strings. You could say he was; but he did not see the hand pulling his, the same had that stabbed him in the back and ended him, betrayed him, turned what should have been the moment of triumph into his downfall. Their world of endless dreams...it breaks our heart to see such thoughts take form in the minds of man's children, brother. To lose hope in reality so completely as to believe only delusion can create joy...this is not a rare breed of hopelessness, but by the Lord, is it vile..."

-on Obito and Madara Uchiha;