Immortality Is All I Can Hope For
In the peaceful village of Konoha nothing big or dangerous happens. In the village of Konoha, no one ever betrays or deceives. In the village of Konoha people don't run away from the village to seek power from evil. In the village of Konoha people don't spend almost all their life looking for one person, at least they thought.
This is what the villagers believed, that is before Orochimaru betrayed and deceived the village. That is, before Uchiha Sasuke left the village to seek out Orochimaru. That is, before Uzumaki Naruto devoted the rest of his life to searching for Sasuke, and Sasuke devoted the rest of his life to using the power given to him by Orochimaru to find his brother. Sasuke had left everything to seek out the one who had killed his clan, his family, Uchiha Itachi.
Naruto had moved up in the ranks to jounin, he had stopped at nothing to get better, stronger. Ever since they had failed that mission he had come back, empty but determined, weak yet stronger than ever before. Uzumaki Naruto had abandoned his previous life style and adopted one a new.
He had become distant, angrier, and depressed. The only thing that kept his body moving, that kept his mind in tact was...
"Sasuke"
The young jounin lowered his leg away from the tree trunk, his forehead protector lay strew on the ground letting sweat run freely down his forehead. He raised his leg and kicked out at the trunk again.
"Sasuke"
Another kick, this time the force was much greater.
"SASUKE!"
A final kick was delivered to the tree in a harsh fashion; the tree groaned and the young boy fell to the ground.
Hands gripping his hair, golden bangs framing his vision as drips of clear liquid fell to the ground. You would have to be extremely close to him to even tell whether the liquid was sweat or tears, maybe both.
"Sasuke"
Naruto whimpered the name shoulders shaking various cuts and bruises littered all over his body. A small rustling in the bushes brought him out of his trance.
"Who is it! Come out!"
The bushes parted and Sakura stepped out from behind them, a plastic bag in her hands. She moved over to him staying at least a foot and a half away, it was as close as he allowed others to get close to him nowadays.
"Sakura, what is it?"
Blue eyes that used to sparkle and shine like the sky had been darkened and clouded over and were glared straight at Sakura.
"I brought you some food."
She smiled slightly and moved close holding the bag out to him, only to have the bag slapped away.
"Don't get close to me!"
Sakura fell to the ground and looked up in fear as Naruto's eyes flashed red. She crawled backwards and stared at the ground tears streaming from her eyes.
Naruto stood bangs framing his eyes and turned away from Sakura.
"Crying, is that all you can do?"
She looked up and shook her head slowly still crying no matter how much she fought the tears.
Naruto let out of his usual harsh laughs; at least it had become a usual occurrence since Sasuke left.
"Really? That's all you seem to do. You don't rank upwards, you don't help search, and you don't even make an attempt—
"I do!"
Naruto looked back at Sakura as shocked as she was at her words; since Sasuke had left Sakura had never disagreed to or went against Naruto. Blue optics narrowed and Sakura felt singled out and naked under the gaze.
"What did you say?"
His tone was dangerously low and resembled more of a growl than human speech.
"I... I… I do try. I try to move in ranks I'm just not… not…"
"Not what Sakura?"
"I'm not… strong… enough"
"What was that?"
"I'm not strong enough."
Naruto smirked and curled his hand into a fist. Sakura went rigid truly scared for her health.
The Nine-Tail's container drove his fist into a nearby tree and Sakura jumped and edged backwards.
"Exactly Sakura, that's exactly it. You're not strong enough. Maybe if you used the time you take up by crying to train and become strong this search could actually go somewhere. Just to determine whether we actually had this stupid conversation I'll ask you again. What did you say?"
Sakura's head dropped her hair falling over her face.
"Nothing, I said nothing."
Naruto smirked once more and picked his forehead protector off the ground.
"That's what I thought."
With that he left, probably off to prepare for another search. Sakura looked after him as he jumped from branch to branch clad in black from head to toe.
She let out a small scream as the tree Naruto had been 'training with', or what she considers 'beating the living tar out of' toppled over with a dull thud.
A hand rested on her shoulder and she looked up to see her old teacher, Hatake 'copy cat' Kakashi.
"Naruto… he's changed. Before he was always smiling, he never wore all black, he never yelled at me, he never isolated himself; he never did any of that stuff! I'm wondering if maybe I had been nicer, if I had paid more attention, then maybe he wouldn't think that Sasuke was the only friend he ever had."
Sakura broke out in tears once more; Kakashi rubbed her back in small even circles.
"We can't change the past, what happened has happened. I hope Naruto finds Sasuke soon, or he might lose sight of himself forever."
Tsunade looked up from her papers to see the boy who had once claimed he would become Hokage, ranting about his way of the ninja. She sighed sadly; he had forgotten all those things when he and the others had failed to retrieve Sasuke.
She scowled a little; he hadn't even bothered to knock.
"I'm going off on another search."
Or say hello for that matter.
"Naruto, these constant searches aren't good for you psychically, mentally as well."
"I'm in perfect medical and psychical standing."
Naruto ground his teeth together, something he had starting to do and few months after Sasuke's betrayal. It meant different things to different people, to Sakura it meant he was annoyed, to Kakashi it meant he wanted him to stop talking and to Tsuande it meant he disagreed strongly with what she was saying.
"No, you're not Naruto. No one has bothered to tell you but everyone feels and sees it."
"Sees and fells what exactly?"
"You've changed. I've forgotten what your smile looks like, you never used to do things like putting down people and breaking promises. I can't even count the times you've said you'd meet someone somewhere and never shown up."
Narrowing his eyes Naruto looked straight at the Hokage. Then he scoffed and turned his head to the side.
"What's the point of keeping all those promises? It makes everyone think you're immortal, like you can do everything with your determination. Well news flash, you can't! I thought I could bring Sasuke back, I bet a lot of people did, but I didn't because I'm not immortal. If people think that then they don't count on me, the less people count on me the less people I have to worry about. Training is all I need to do, I have to be the same strength as Orochimaru and Sasuke to get anywhere. I can't do whatever I used to do because that's what holds me back, obviously it held Sasuke back too and that's why he le—
Tsunade stood abruptly and slammed her hands on the table, effectively cracking it in half; Naruto didn't even flinch.
"Fine Naruto, do what you want! Hear me out though, one day Sasuke won't be here and you'll have nothing to search for. One day Orochimaru will be gone and you've have no one to blame. When that time comes, who else will you have left that you can call you're friend? Who else will you have that you can call your rival?"
Naruto laughed, horse and crazed and Tsunade could almost see the clocks Kyuubi cackling along with him. Naruto grabbed his traveling ID from the broken pieces of desk and walked to the door. Then with his back facing her he spoke.
"If that does happen, friends will be the last thing I think about or need for that matter. If that happens I always know there's something else I can use myself for, there's someone else I can blame."
With that Naruto left on another constant search that would amount to nothing in the end.
Dear Reviwers,
Please tell me weather you think this should turn into a fic with chapter or if it should just stay a small drabble.
Thankyou.