In The End

"Are you sure you want to do this, kit?"

"I-I'm sure."

I tried so hard

And got so far

But in the end

It doesn't even matter

The ridge was near one of the biggest cliffs in the land. Thousands of feet over the ground, no person, not even the strangest ninjas, could have survived this drop. Anything would a have failed. It was the perfect place.

He sat so close to the edge that one more inch would have made him plummet into the bottomless pit. Heaven or Hell did not matter, only the fact that he would be accepted in either one.

It was time to end the suffering that had surrounded him all his life. A decade of being reject by all of Konoha was finally about to end. But this time, the blond had a more sensible plan that just making foolish attempt to do the impossible.

Suicide.

"Naruto you idiot! You're going to fall of the cliff!" screeched Sakura. She punched him in the head, being careful not to make him jerk forward. The blond just grinned, but a tear started to run down his cheek. He raised his head, and Sakura could see the sadness in his eyes, the ghost of his past.

"I know." More tears started to run down his face, but with a trace, just a small trace, of blood. "What else am I supposed to do? No one respects me. No one gives a care about me. No one even looks at me without glaring at me, like I'm some sort of outcast!" He sighed.

"Not even you, Sakura-chan."

"Now would you stop calling me that! Since when have I ever been your friend?" Now she was getting annoyed as well as oblivious. Naruto was too, as he clenched his teeth together. "I bet you just wanted to get my attention away from my Sasuke-kun."

He snapped, right then and there, in front of his crush. "CAN YOU STOP TALKING ABOUT THAT SELFISH BRAT?' He could not take it anymore. He gave his heart to this girl, saved her life countless times, and even took care of her when she was sick. Sakura recoiled in complete shock and horror. Naruto had never talked or even acted like this, not even to his greatest enemies.

"I c-call you tha-at because yo-you" he was crying so much he could barely talk. He wiped his eyes and continued. "You were the first one to talk to me in a friendly manner. That Christmas five years ago, remember?"

All I know

Time is a valuable thing

Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings

Watch it count down to the end of the day

The clock ticks life away

It's so unreal

He began to explain what had happened that day. It was like any other Christmas, for the boy. He would never recive any presents nor did he have any great foods that he could eat. All he could ever do was walk through the snowy landscape of Konoha, watching all of the children open all of their presents. Whenever he even asked someone if he could warm up in their house, they would walk away and spit at him, calling him some sort of monster. He never knew why he was rejected; only that he was definitely the saddest person in the world. He would come back to the orphanage and sit on the doorstep, crying and watching the nearby houses light up with the colors of joy.

But one day, one beautiful young girl with flowing pink hair walked up to him and wondered why any kid would not be happy on Christmas day. "Hey, why are you crying?" She asked. Her voice and her face are beautiful. Thought Naruto but he assumed she was not talking to him like all the others did.

"Are you ok?" This time she tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up. She's talking to me!

"You-you're talking to me?" He asked. He was so startled that he could not restrain himself from asking the question.

"Of course silly!" She closed her eyes and smiled, cocking her head to the side. "Why aren't you in your house with your parents exchanging gifts?" It seemed that she was the happiest of all the children.

"I-I don't h-have any parents, or the money for even a piece of bread. The-they died many years a-ago."

"No parents or gifts!" she nearly toppled over from shock. "How do you live? Can't you stay with someone else?"

"They just push me away as if I'm their worst enemy."

She was so amazed that she could not even talk. "Here. You should take this. A Christmas gift from me." In her hand was a bowl of ramen. "I just picked it up from the store."

The boy was stunned. No one had ever talked to him, let alone been nice to him. And here was this girl, no more than five years old, offering him a gift! He took it with tears running down his face and uncontrollable sobs escaping from his mouth.

"Tha-thank you."

"Sure!" At that instant a young woman in her thirties cam up and grabbed the girl.

"Get away from my daughter you, you freak!" screamed the woman as she carried the girl away. The boy did not understand what had happened, but he knew that it was for the same reason as all the rest.

I kept everything inside

And even though I tried

It all fell apart

What it meant to me

Will eventually

Be a memory

Of a time

When I tried so hard

"Yeah, so? How did you know I was talking to that boy? Were you spying on us?" asked Sakura quizzically.

"I was that boy you were so kind to."

Sakura was shocked. Had she really been so kind to Naruto before and had just ignored it?

"Nowadays, you treat me like a jerk just because I say 'hello' to you and your beloved 'Sasuke-kun'. You didn't even accept my invitation to my house when it was my birthday, remember?"

Sakura remembered all right. She had regretted it, but only a small amount, for what had happened that day. When he asked the rest of team seven if they wanted to come by and celebrate in some way, Sakura pushed him off the bridge, and Sasuke just grunted with rejection and went away with all of his fan girls.

Naruto was not seen for the rest of that day, moping in his old broken-down shack that was his house.

"Well," said Sakura, thinking of the right excuse. "Maybe if you weren't so annoying-"

"And do you know WHY I was so annoying and stupid?" He was beginning to get mad and to stop crying. "So that YOU and all you're little fan girls could notice me in-between your Sasuke worshiping. He didn't even go to any of those parties anyone hosted, he never accepted valentines, and never even talked to anyone, and you still worshipped him! I didn't know everyone would hate me!" His voice started to rise as he stood up, towering over Sakura as tears filled her eyes.

"I even wrote on the box of chocolates I gave you, 'to the most beautiful girl in the world. Love, Naruto.' And you still didn't do anything! Oh, that's right. You threw it out even before you read the note or even directly looked at it. You just shouted at me like you usually do!" Chakra started to flow around him as he could not control his anger anymore.

"And it's not just you, everyone ELSE hates me too, just because I have the kyubbi inside of ME! I saved this stupid village, along with each person individually too!" He sighed as another tear ran down his cheek.

"I don't deserve to live.

"I don't want to live."

Sakura started crying uncontrollably, realizing what she had done this entire time. Had she really treated him like that? Is that the only reason why everyone treated him so bad? She could not believe that she had done this, or anyone else for that matter. Why had she done this to here Naruto-kun?

And why did she call him Naruto-kun?

"This is last you'll see of me, until we meet in the beyond, past any sort of death." With that, Naruto slowly approached the edge, throwing his forehead guard on the floor.

"Goodbye, Sakura."

He jumped of the ledge, calm as could be, but with a depressed look on his face. But just before his head passed the ledge, the pink-haired princess grabbed his arm, desperate to keep him from falling to his doom.

"Don't go! All of us will miss you."

"He snarled like the nine-tailed fox himself. "No you won't. Let, GO!" He took a kunai and slashed at her arm, making her drop Naruto in shop. He fell to his untimely demise, willingly and soberly.

Sakura just stood there, wondering how this had happened to her.

And why she had dome a deed a vicious as this.

I had to fall

To lose it all

But in the end

It doesn't even matter