Weaver of Chaos here, again. While I work on a few other things, this little story popped into my head and would not leave me alone. It's quick, dirty, and less detailed than I would really have liked, but hey, I got something out, so there's that.
Disclaimer: The dude named above owns no rights to any character, location, or concept from the Naruto Universe, and use of such is done for no promise of profit, either real, or perceived.
WARNING: The following story contains allusions to child abuse, neglect, rape, and suicide. You have been warned.
"Do you know why the kit spent almost all of his life professing his love for you, girl?" A booming, yet feminine voice echoed from the mist that had been rising from the blood in the room. Oh, Kami, the blood. It was all over the walls, the floor, it was soaking into the small, beat up bed. There was even evidence of arterial spray on the ceiling. my dress was slick with it, even my hands, glowing green with healing Chakra, looked like I was wearing gloves made from the fluid.
I ignored the voice, all my attention focused on trying to close the wounds that simply refused to stop leaking his life's blood. Where was the Response team? I had flared my signal almost ten minutes ago!
"Sakura, what- sweet Kami!" The familiar voice of my mentor nearly jarred my concentration. I could feel her demeanor change instantly, the boy she considered a grandson was turning blue beneath my hands. "Report!" She demanded as she began working along side me.
"You acknowledged him." The voice continued. It sounded so sad, yet disturbingly powerful. "In a world of indifference, derision, and outright hatred, you alone proved his existence. A lonely little boy with no one to play with."
"I arrived ten minutes ago to retrieve Naruto, like you asked, Shishou. He didn't answer, so I entered to find this scene." The words the voice uttered echoed in my mind, forcing me to recall a simpler time, when I would play in the park with a dirty, blue-eyed boy. Until, of course, the other kids convinced me not to.
"It looks like Naruto-kun was attacked, Tsunade-sama." Came the voice of Shizune from my other side.
"Beaten, tortured, raped. His cries for help ignored. All for things a child would have had no control over." The voice was now full of regret, and brought a new wave of tears to my eyes when I recalled how hollow his gaze was when he thought no one was looking. Always hiding pain behind that stupid smile. That same grin he used... Every time I... Hit... Him.
"Impossible! There hasn't been a Fox Hunt since he became a ninja, and his intruder seals are still intact." Jiraiya was here, too?
"Jiraiya, go find a Yamanaka and meet us at bunker nine!" A flurry of wind, and the perv was gone.
"Shouldn't we be bringing him to the hospital, Shishou?" I wanted to get Naruto the best help I could. I may not have always been the best to him in the past, but, in the year since he came back from his trip with Jiraiya, he treated me like a sister, despite his apparent feelings for me.
"Knowing nothing of anything but hate, he believed the only way to show his gratitude was to profess his undying love for you. It grew daily, despite your rebuffs."
"Normally, yes." She replied, sadly, as she prepped to move him. "However, we can't risk the Kyuubi getting free I'm the hospital should the worst happen. ANBU! I want Anko and Ibiki combing this apartment for anything out of the ordinary. Let's move!"
I have never before moved with the urgency that I did on that signal. If it weren't for the fact that we were both carrying the knucklehead, I would have outstripped Tsunade in a heartbeat. All the while, the red mist continued to follow me. How had no one else seen it?
"He knew, that no matter what he did for you, what length he went to to ensure your never ending happiness, that you would never see him the way he wanted to be seen. So he locked that part of himself away, just for you, the one person who saw him as a child. The most precious of his precious people."
That damned voice kept following me! Things weren't that bad, anymore, were they? He was respected by the rest of our generation, and only the hardliners of the older generations actively showed their continued distrust of him.
"A lifetime of neglect and abuse does not disappear overnight." It was wistful, angry and forlorn all at once. "Despite it all, he only ever wanted one thing."
We arrived at the bunker before I had time to process that thought, and I saw Ino standing with Jiraiya, a worried look on her face. "Ino-san. As soon as you are ready, I want you in there trying see if Naruto saw his attacker. Anything you find, no matter how innocuous, will be reported. Understood?"
"Hai, Hokage-sama!" She practically shouted in the small room, before grabbing a chair and setting it at the head of the operating table.
On and on we worked, but progress was not forthcoming. after an hour, Tsunade growled in frustration. "Why isn't the Kyuubi helping! It always has in the past."
A single word reverberated on the wind, a word that drew out fear I never thought I would feel. "...Can't..."
Tsunade and Jiraiya gazed at me, wide-eyed, before turning to each other. "The seal!" Jiraiya immediately began examining Naruto's stomach as my mentor turned a disbelieving stare onto me.
"She's right. Completely locked." The white-haired Sennin groaned before his fingers lit with Chakra, trying to open the seal back up.
"How did you know?" Tsunade asked, pleading, begging for some sort of answer, or fix.
"I can hear it... Her, like she's whispering in my ear, things about Naruto's life. She sounds so sad." Naruto had never said anything about the Kyuubi or their relationship, and having only my experience in the matter being Gaara during Orochimaru's invasion, I didn't know what to expect, buy it certainly wasn't sadness.
"Is Kyuubi trying to help him, or escape?" She continued, the job would be easier without having to fight a runaway Bijuu, obviously.
"Help him..." Ino gasped as she disconnected the jutsu, turned in the chair, and emptied her stomach on the floor. She then proceeded to slump in the chair, pale as a ghost.
"Sakura, get Ino out of here, clean her up, and get her report." She ordered, not even looking up from the wound she was stitching.
"But-" I started, only to be cut off.
"You need the break to replenish your Chakra. With our luck, it will be a long night."
Not wanting to argue anymore, I put Ino's arm over my shoulder and practically dragged her out of the room. An ANBU showed us to a quiet room, and in short order, I had her looking good as new. Well, minus the pale green glow to her cheeks, anyway.
"you okay, Ino-pig?" I asked, trying to display a lightheartedness that I certainly didn't feel.
"Blood. So. Much. Blood." She whispered to no one.
"Yeah, that sounds like a no."
I nearly jumped through the ceiling at the unexpected sound of Mitarashi Anko's voice. Right. In. My. Ear. Crazy bitch... "Dammit! Don't do that!"
"Letter for you!" She said in an entirely too chipper tone, completely ignoring me.
"What?" I asked, incredulously.
"It's the only thing out of the room that isn't completely soaked in blood, and it's addressed to you." She looked more solemn than I had ever seen her. "It's the gaki's handwriting. It seems like whatever happened, he wanted to make sure you got it. So, here." She handed me the envelope, then plopped down right next to Ino.
Hands trembling, I opened the letter, praying to Kami that it would just be some silly love letter he never got around to sending. The Kyuubi's words, however, had me dreading what was inside.
Dear Sakura-chan,
I'm sorry. Sorry I couldn't bring Sasuke-teme back for you. I'm sorry that you had to put up with my stupidity when we were younger; you never saw me that way, I know. I'm sorry that I'm just not strong enough. Above all, I'm sorry that you're probably the one who is going to find me.
I can't do it, anymore, Sakura-chan. Smiling despite the pain and pretending everything is alright. I still see the looks when I walk down the street, hear the whispered conversations. I have not been attacked by the villagers since the night I nearly killed Mizuki, but I still wake up every night, biting my tongue until it bleeds, just so I don't scream. Every time I look in the mirror, it is a reminder of how much I am hated by the people I promised on my life to protect.
You were the one shining star in my life, my Tenshi. As my childish understanding of love grew and evolved, so did my love for you. But so did I grow in other areas. I knew when I began my trip, you would not see me as I saw you, that I would never be allowed my single dream and desire. But to lose you from my life would remove my reason for living, so I changed my approach. If I could not have your love, I would become a brother, someone to confide in and protect you.
More evidence of my stupidity. The more I learned of you, the more my love expanded. The more time we spent together, the more I was reminded of something I could never have. Kami only knows how much I longed to take you by the shoulders and kiss you until you could not remember your name. To hold you in my arms and tell you how beautiful you are while we watch the sunset. Stupid dreams for stupid people, I know. You would never see me like that, your father makes certain that I understand that.
The rest if the paragraph had been hastily blotted out, but I was able to make out words like "reinforce" and "lesson". Why would my daddy do something like that to Naruto? I know he didn't like the Kyuubi, but still...
I can't keep living a lie, the pain only gets worse. I truly hope that everyone can forgive me for being selfish, just this once.
~ Uzumaki Naruto
P.S. When I said, last year, that you hadn't changed, I meant it. After all, how can you improve upon perfection? I love you, and always will. Goodbye, Sakura-chan.
For an eternity, I simply sat there, staring at the paper in my hands. I didn't know how long I cried, or when Anko began trying to comfort me, her own tears falling on top of my head. But, throughout it all, I was thinking. He was right, I never had thought of Naruto the way I thought of Sasuke. The question is, why?
Sasuke was from a clan with a Doujutsu, was broody and mysterious, and hated everything. Some list.
Naruto was funny, energetic, caring, goal oriented, compassionate, and always putting other people ahead of himself. Sure, he was a but of a doofus, but given his background, it's understandable. Hell, given his background, he had more right to be like Sasuke than Sasuke did. But he never once let people know that it so much as bothered him. And the number of times he saved my life, why wasn't I in his arms right now, having sweet nothings whispered in my ear, like only a hopelessly romantic dweeb such as Naruto can?
Your father made sure...
"Anko-san?" My voice was dangerously even.
"Yeah, Pinky?" She responded with a sniffle.
I pointed to the part of the letter that mentioned my father, and in a too-sweet tone that sounded similar to my mentor's when reprimanding the pervert, said, "I think my dear old dad just became a person of interest in an ongoing investigation, and just scheduled an appointment with someone of your expertise."
she dried her eyes and let her patented crazy lady grin take over her face again. "For the gaki?" At my nod, she vanished with little more than a cackle.
With Ino still catatonic, I was left with time to think. Naruto loved me, that much was obvious. Somewhere along the line, however, he had lost the will to continue. My father may, or may not have had a large role in events that helped keep my eyes closed to Naruto's true self. The true question was, now that I could see, what did I see? How did I feel about Naruto? Did I love him back? Many of the things he did put a smile on my face. But was that love? If not, was I willing to seek it out?
What was I thinking? He's lying in the next room, bleeding out, and I'm debating whether or not I can love the best thing that happened to this village? would that matter though? If he died, would my feelings matter? Was I willing to let him die before I had the time to figure out my feelings?
"No."
But, how was I going to get someone who had no will to live, who had just tried, and may yet succeed, to kill himself, how was I going to jump start him? I had no Chakra left to heal him, so that was out.
"That's it!" I jumped out of the chair, stormed back into the room and got right in Naruto's face. "Uzumaki Naruto! You are not allowed to die, do you hear me? I am not allowing you to die until you take me out on a date!"
An ANBU grabbed my shoulders and began pulling me away, when a cold, wet hand pressed against my cheek, followed by a weak voice. "I... May have to... Take a rain-raincheck... Sakura-chan."
"Ah! I figured it out!" Jiraiya shouted, his fingers flaring with Chakra.
An explosion of Kyuubi's Chakra knocked us all against the wall.
"Fix it, you idiot!"
"He's entered cardiac arrest!"
"I barely touched the damn thing!"
"Level two raiton pulse, now!"
"CLEAR!"
I suddenly remember why I don't put suicide notes into my writing... feels too real. This is intended to be a one-shot, but i think i could be persuaded to continue. Just remember, not everyone gets a happy ending.