He sits at the top of the cliff with the previous hokages' faces carved into the side. Just looking out at the Leaf village. A place he used to call his home. A place where he hurt, cried, loved, and laughed. A place that betrayed him. He has the great nine tails bujji trapped inside, he's a monster. They never really loved him. Pretending, they're all pretending. But he shouldn't blame them. He's pretending himself. Pretending to smile and laugh, while crying and screaming in private. Putting on a henge to hide all the fat, track marks and scars on his tiny arms, to hide his insecurities and depression.

So as he sits there, cool breeze passes caressing his face and he breathes in the scent of his village. Nature, food, and hate. He sighs he knows he won't die if he falls. Kurama won't allow it but it'll be painful, doing something the his Kunais have failed to do anymore.

He scoots forward a bit. He looks down, analyzing the people walk by, trying to find faces he knew even though it was pointless. None of the faces walking below him were ones he knew. Maybe this is his fate. Hah, fate. Neji was right, you can't escape fate. He was foolish to think he'd be able to save and protect everyone. A kid with a big heart, that went through even ugly pain to know he never wanted anyone to go through it. He never wanted to go through it.

Yet he has. That's why he stands up and takes a small step forward. His toes dangling off the end. So close. So close to repenting all of his sins. So close from washing all that blood off of his hands. So close to giving the civilians the sweet relief of not having a demon among them anymore.

He leans forward, almost to the point of falling off, not yet. Forward enough to feel his toes tickling and tingling, his heart racing. Even though he wants this, he still feels the fear of falling. Even through the hate and fear he still feels a glimmer of hope. But the hope is easily squashed by the dread he feels when he thinks about having to push forward and keep going.

Then the pain in his chest flares and he hopeless and lost. So he does the only thing that'll help him but won't kill him, Kurama doesn't have a death wish. He doesn't jump, he just lets himself go and falls. He screams and whimpers as he hits Hogake Minato's nose and hears a few cracks. It's hard to breathe.

He falls fast, but the ground doesn't seem to get any closer. He's falling but the ground seems farther away. Is this a genjutsu? Or is this apart of another failure, something he couldn't do right? When did he start screaming again? Oh, that's not him, his mouth is clenched together. It's just a civilian, why do they care?

The ground is coming closer now, he can finally relax a bit. He feels the wind rush past him and he thinks it all feels surreal. He didn't think he'd actually do it, but the temptation was too much. He closes his eyes and waits with patience and relief for the impact.

Is this a dream? It all feels too real. Will Kurama heal him? It seems a bit much. Will they regret everything? Will he regret everything? Probably not, he doesn't regret anything. Will he feel better after this? Hopefully, he doesn't want to keep feeling like this. A dull ache in his chest that just grows, it gets to be too much sometimes.

When he finally hits, he hears the sickening crack before he feels it. He can feel everything, his bones shifting, breaking, fracturing, puncturing. His lungs collapsing, bleeding, breathing, though just barely. His skin ripping, tearing, bleeding, stretching. His stomach convulsing, wanting to expel its contents. Throat gasping, burning, suffocating. Heart beat slowing, head swelling.

He hears fast footsteps that comes with chakra. He can only hope it's none of his fellow ninjas even though it's likely. He doesn't want to see the relief that he's half dead even though his vision is going. He doesn't want to hear the sigh of relief even though his hearing is leaving.

He can feel his bones and lungs shifting and mending. His heart growing steady, his head unswelling. His throat clearing, skin fixing. Stomach finally expelling. Healing slowly, very slowly.

Then he can't feel anything, body turned numb, mind turned black.

Did I die?