Regime of the Liberated
A Naruto Fanfic

"Consequences are unpitying. Our deeds carry their terrible consequences, quite apart from any fluctuations that went before-consequences that are hardly ever confined to ourselves. "

-George Eliot

The setting was that of a starless night. A clear sky painted the heavens as the sun sank below the hills into the west and was replaced with a full moon. An ovular sphere represented the night of a new lunar cycle, hung waxy in the sky and brightening the night in a pale glow. Below it a village, hidden in the leafs, pillared as a sanctuary against the struggles of the night world. Inside of its walls, the air was warm and dry, free of the frosty bite that nipped those on the outside. All was calm, warm, and potentially undisturbed. A soft breeze danced lightly about the leaves in the trees, rustling them like the melody of a quiet lullaby. As they moved, some began to fall, and nimbly tumbled upon the breath of wind to the pavement. It was there that they remained, silent and still, until the night grew old and the moon withdrew into the mist of the thick clouding overhead. But it was not until long shadows began to slide along the walls of the village that the movement of human life could be seen, emerging from a cluster of buildings at the end of the street.

Echoes of the figure's footsteps bounced off of the solid ground and pierced the muffled blanket of the night. The shadow of the anomalous figure crept along the narrow streets, gradually making its way closer to the outskirts of the village. When it had finally reached the edges of town, it freed itself from the shadowy depths of the narrower streets and began to travel down a final, wider road: a direct route leading out of the village. As it eased away from the vague walls, the figure began to take the shape of the body of a boy. A pair of glowing eyes could be seen set upon his childish face. He bore clothes the colour of dim, navy blue, the fabric of which was old and rugged: travel-stained, with patches of darker, muddy colour spread about it. His hair was as black as the night - nearly undecipherable despite the pastel moonlight - and was pulled back casually, so that it drew a natural shadow about his face. His eyes were dark and insipid: nearly colourless. Set in lengthily pools below his forehead, they were held in concentration on the distant surroundings by grim, thick brows. His lips were parted in breath, but expressionless as he walked, and no colour was drawn to them. They were pale as the dead and matched his eyes in a severe stare that was unlike the norm of any boy of his age.

As he walked he emitted no sound, besides the heels of his feet striking against the pavement. Although it was soft enough to go unheard if one wasn't to pay attention, it echoed due to the narrowness of the lengthily street. A breeze caught his heavy hair as he moved, and tossed it aside, revealing the rest of his grim face. As the wind passed, his tendrils fell back into place about his eyes, shielding them from observable view.

As the boy travelled farther down the street, the figure of another cast a long shadow across the pavement and another set of light footsteps could be heard in alternative to the overcast boy's.

She was of an entirely different manner than he. Her looks were brighter, accentuated by tones of pink in her dress and in the hues of her hair. Her tresses were cropped short and pulled back, so that only small wisps of it touched her forehead. Her eyes were bright and green, and were of contrast to the boy's, with flecks of a strong spirit playing about them. Her eye line and brows were thin, but harshly furrowed in a grim expression. Despite the difference in appearance of the two figures, they were both carrying the same set of disheartened emotion. Although her eyes were bright, they were cast to the ground as she walked slowly towards the middle of the street. She stopped when her path was directly in front of the boy's, and looked longingly into the distance for a brief moment before setting her gaze upon him. Her eyes widened as she noticed the travelling bag slung casually across his shoulder. The boy did not look back at her as she stared at him grimly. Instead, his eyes turned to slits as his path was obstructed. A gust of wind blew past them. Clouds wavered in the sky and the leaves of the trees quivered in the tense atmosphere. All was quiet until his cold, hard voice broke the taut air.

"What are you doing here?" he questioned accusingly, still making no effort to look at her. His eyes remained fixed upon anything other than the girl.

"This is the only road out of the village." she replied gloomily.

"It's dangerous for you to be here at night." he said.

The girl's eyes fluttered from the ground and rested upon his downcast features. The boy smiled half-heartedly from underneath his curtain of hair. Slowly, he began to walk again, turning so that he could move past the girl. As he crossed her he did not look up, but instead spoke to her under his breath listlessly, and without emotion.

"Go home." he said

He continued to walk so that the two were facing opposite directions. The girl shifted as he moved, so that she was looking into his back, and stared dejectedly into the distance. Silently, she searched inside of herself for the correct words to say. Time passed, and the boy began to travel farther and farther away from her. She continued to stare at the ground absently. Eventually, she mustered up enough of her courage to speak with a cold lump in her throat. The boy was nearly at the end of the street when she drew in a long breath to even out her growing nerves. Her voice sounded weak and helpless: completely devoid of the strength that she wanted in order to speak confidently to him. The two were farther away from each other than she had expected when she began to speak, and her voice sounded small and unsure.

"You never tell me anything." she said. "Why? Why are you always so distant from me?"

Unfazed, the boy continued on. Without a reaction, a forlorn tear began to leak from her eyes and ripple down her cheek. It fell to the pavement silently, and was immediately blown away by the wind.

"Why won't you talk to me?" she demanded, her voice rising in pitch. Abruptly, as if something inside of him had snapped, the boy halted and interrupted her harshly.

"Why do I have to tell you anything?" he said. "I don't belong to you. You have no control over what I do, so stop concerning yourself with it. It's none of your business."

The girl was silent. Her tears were constant and thick, dripping down her face and plunging to the ground without a sound. They began to form a small pool near her feet upon the pavement. She didn't look at him as she smiled weakly and spoke again.

"You've always hated me, haven't you?" she said.

From behind, the girl did not see much of the boy other than his back, but from the opposite side, it was as if she had finally earned his attention. His senseless eyes rose from ground and stared, absentmindedly, into the distance as he listened to her soothing words.

"Do you remember, that day when we finally passed the exam to become Genin, and first met the other members of our three-man squad?" She said. He made no response, neither a flinch nor shift. His body was utterly still. Her eyes were etched upon his back as she continued.

"That was the first time that we were alone together; the first time that we ever really talked. I was complaining, no... whiningthat Naruto had been placed on our team." She closed her eyes peacefully and smiled weakly, reminiscing the past.

"I said that he was worthless and selfish because he had no parents. That he was alone all the time and acted out because he had no one to get mad at him. I had no idea of the loneliness he had felt throughout his life."

She twisted her head and opened her opaque eyes.

"You explained to me that day what solitude really felt like. That Naruto wasn't alone by choice, and that he acted out because he had to, in order for others to pay attention to him. You told me that I was annoying because I couldn't understand that."

She smiled as she finished, and shifted her gaze to the boy. Expectantly, she waited for a reply. He made no movement to turn around, or even acknowledge her. Instead, after a few moments of silence, his frosty voice pierced her ears.

"I don't remember." he said.

Her shock was evident in her widened eyes, and aching brows. As she choked back the bitter taste of disappointment, more liquid dropped from her eyes.

"Of course." she said. "It was so long ago, I wouldn't expect you to-"

An unruly chock rattled her words, and she began to laugh faintly, desperate to cover it up. Her toes curled as the rejection flowed through her veins. She continued in a breath riddled with uncertainty.

"But, whether you remember or not," she said. "That was the day that everything started. For you, me, and our squad."

Her words travelled to the boy's ears, and he slowly tilted his head upwards, towards the skies. Her words had penetrated him, stinging like an infected wound. He hadn't expected that such emotion would stir up inside of him. He had counted on his feeble, cracking mask of silence. He felt his composure slipping beneath his mental grasp.

Her next words came to him like the ballad of a song. Her breath was like wine, her words like drugging peace. She spoke of missions and of hardships, of good times and bad, of friends and family: the family that he had come to know inside of his own squad. She spoke of memories, and of futures. She spoke of fond times and of happy days, and when she had reached the end, she spoke, finally, of something that he did not wish to hear.

"I know about your clan," she said. "And about your quest for revenge." she glanced at him briefly. "But that's something that won't bring you happiness. Neither you," she swallowed heavily and lowered her eyes. "Nor me."

From the other side, the boy regained his harsh exterior in an abrupt grin. His lips were pierced in a smirk as he spoke, acknowledging the motives of his darker self in a sudden understanding.

"I knew it." He said. The girl raised curious, furrowed eyebrows towards him. He began to laugh in dark humour.

Suddenly, he turned, and met the girl's gaze. She was surprised to find that his eyes were crinkled in jest, although they were hard and dull as ice. A shadow crossed his face as he spoke.

"You pretend that you know me, but really, you have no idea." She stared at him, hard, without reaction. His words hadn't seemed to have processed through her subconscious yet. He closed his eyes wearily due to her lack of understanding, and began again, this time with slightly more feeling.

"I was forced to walk along a path that I did not choose for myself. If I could have had it my own way, I would have wanted to be like you and Naruto. I would have wanted to be surrounded by good friends, and feel the love of a family." He sighed and stared pensively into the distant sky. His remarkably sad expression loosened his face, and surprised the girl. His facial features looked more childish- something that she hadn't seen on him before.

"Since the very day I was born, I was destined for revenge. I tried to change that, and for some time, I believed that I had. But at the end of the day, I still had this bitter taste of hatred running through my veins." His face hardened abruptly, and he returned his gaze to hers. A numbing shot of surprise rattled through his chest when he noticed that her tears had unexpectedly dried. He exhaled slowly, and closed his eyelids, not wanting to see her hopeful expression any longer.

"I can never be like you and Naruto." he said. She blinked in confusion at his words.

"I'm travelling down a path that neither of you can tread. I thought that I could change my road and start to head in a different direction: towards a place of comfort, peace and love, but I can't. My purpose for living is to take revenge on those who have done me wrong." He opened his eyes slowly. They were narrowed in grim reconcile.

"And that is a path that I must take, alone."

She reached towards him then, her voice cracking in desperation, her tears flowing like a gentle river.

"You don't have to do this." she cried, her footsteps nearing his slouched body. "You don't have to be alone." She stopped a mere foot away from him, when she saw that his body heeded no reaction. She brought a hand to her trembling lips.

"You've shown me how painful a thing solitude can be. I understand that solitude now, because, if you leave..." She hesitated for a moment before crying, her emotions over spilling in desperation.

"That's what it would be like for me. I would be all alone. I have a family, and friends, but I would leave them all behind if I could be with you. If there was a chance that you would stay... A chance that you wouldn't go."

"You're wrong." he whispered directly. It was then that she lost her grasp of final composure.

"Don't leave me!" She cried, teetering forward. Her fingers stretched hopelessly into the empty air, clinging for a hope, a chance that he would stay with her. And she found it, in the form of his clothing, lacing beneath her touch and pulling her closer to him. Her hair entwined with the garment, contrasting in pink and blue. She laid her head upon his chest, sobbing frantically, trying to make sense of the unfairness of it all. He made no effort to comfort her. His arms stayed by his sides as her tears soaked through his shirt. His head was stiff and straight, his eyes fixed upon obscurity in the distance. His heart thudded beneath the girl's ear in a steady rhythm, neither speeding nor slowing as she sobbed. After a few minutes, her tears had ceased enough that he was given the chance to speak. And he did.

"This is a new beginning." he said. She clenched her fingers tightly to the fabric of his shirt. His body stiffened in response to the warmth of her hands, and he spoke with more urgency.

"From here on in both of us will travel different roads, and go our separate ways."

"No!" She moaned, burying her head into his chest. "Don't leave me!" She didn't pause to listen to him say more. She didn't want to hear it.

"I'm so in love with you, I can't even stand it anymore. If you stay, I promise, I will bring you joy every day. You'll be happy. I will give you happiness. I will make sure you never regret your decision." She raised her head in an attempt to look into his eyes. They were far away from her, fixed absently in the distance.

"I'll even help you with your revenge!" She breathed desperately. "I'll do anything to make you happy. So please..." She lowered her head and let tears flow freely from her eyes. She began to sob softly, clutching to the fabric of his clothing in a final resort.

"Please, Sasuke." She pleaded from tingling lips.

"Stay here, with me."

He wasted no time to respond. Immediately he raised his arms and rested his hands upon her prying fingers, gently pulling them free from his shirt. Her eyes were wide in terror and she stared silently as he inched himself away from her. He spoke in a thin, empty voice.

"Good-bye, Sakura."

"Don't leave me!" A cry tore from her lips as she stumbled forward. Somehow, in the seconds that she had wasted, he had gotten too far away. She felt herself falling, her hands failing to find something to hold onto. She gasped as she plunged forward. In a final attempt at rescue, she thrust out her palm, throwing herself forward in an effort to stall him. She couldn't see, but his blank expression immediately turned to heated anger, and his arm rose to catch her. It caught her wavering hand in a solid grip, and stopped her from falling to the ground. Shocked, she looked up into his eyes, and saw that his expression was enraged.

"Why do you make things so difficult?" he growled heatedly. "Why won't you just accept this? You always have to make things so hard!"

She stared blankly at him in confusion. His eyes were fixed upon her, bleak and stiff. But, it seemed that in that split second, something about him changed. She noticed a flicker of light flare up in his eyes and they unexpectedly crumpled in anguish. With a rush, he came to her, wrapping his arms around her petite frame in an emotional embrace. He buried his head into her shoulder and squeezed her tightly.

"Sakura." he whispered in a breath, muffled by her clothing. She stood motionless, her body numb in shock, as he held her closely to him. She seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. She felt his strong arms squeezing the confusion out of her, and she came to a slow understanding.

"Thank you." his head lifted from her shoulder. Unseen to her, his eyes suddenly narrowed in grim concentration and he began to raise his arm. His fingers mechanically curled into a fist above her back.

"I'm sorry." he whispered softly. His breath upon her neck was so faint that she hardly had the time to hear his words before a heavy fist came plunging into her chest. The air was instantly knocked out of her, and her eyes widened in numb shock for a brief second before she felt her consciousness slowly leaving her.

"Sasuke..." She breathed as her mind went blank and her body crumbled into his cold arms.

The question of good versus evil is not really a question at all, but rather, an opinion on what things we believe to be right, and what things we believe to be wrong.

There are some who are born great, and others who have greatness thrust upon them. There are also those who are born evil, and those who succumb to it under grave circumstances. The existence of good and evil in our world cannot be denied, however, there are some, lucky, people who are born into the grey lining in between. People who aren't given a path to follow, but rather, are expected to decide their own destiny through the choices that they make. They will decide for themselves what they think is wrong and what they think is right, and will, eventually, discover their own purpose to live.

There are also some who are so deeply connected to others through strength of emotion- love, pain and friendship- that they have the power to influence other's decisions of right and wrong. These are the people who are true heroes, and the warriors who are, subconsciously, fighting those in the world that have committed harmful acts.

The job of the individual is not to take the fight of good versus evil upon themselves, but to decide what they believe to be wrong and right, and find their own path to follow.

Because, we cannot deny who we truly are.

And, we cannot change others to fit our own preferences.

We can merely offer them a choice, and hope that, someday, they will make the right decision.

Because we all make mistakes.

And we are only human, in the end.

-Sakura Haruno

A/N:

This piece was meant to be an experiment of sorts, testing myself in a way that I had never before and attempting to recreate a moment in the anime, Naruto, with hints of something more philosophical in meaning than what is originally displayed on the screen. This was a more dramatic way of writing that I had never tried before, and I do believe it came together the way I intended it to and gave me a space in which to grow, both as a writer and as a person. I am very grateful that you have taken the time to read such a piece that I feel that I am so deeply connected to on a level more than the traditional written word. Thank you.

It would be very helpful and insightful for me if reviews were given to show me what went wrong in the story, what could be improved, and how to go about writing the next time that I choose to experiment in such a way again. Please take the time to even jot down a few sentences: they would be extremely appreciated.

This fic was entered in the Anime Evolution 2010 fanfiction contest, posted under the "Drama" category. It did not receive any awards or words of praise, but I feel that it really exposed a piece of myself to the anonymous reader in a way I never had before, and I am I honoured that I was given the chance to enter such a competition.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed.

-Jellisoup

~Playlist~

Airplanes (Featuring Hayley Williams)- B.O.B

Alone- Full Metal Alchemist: The Anime, Original Soundtrack

Second Go- Lights

Tobira no Mukou (To the Other Side of the Door)- Yellow Generation

I Don't Love You- My Chemical Romance

Uso- SID