Inferiority Complex
by NitrogenFixation
He feels the anger pulsing in him like a predator waiting in lamb's cloth, watching through dark eyes, and - why is he doing this? They're the best of friends - he tells himself, he knows somewhere deeper than the skin - why are they fighting? Why is his best friend looking at him so hatefully? Why are his eyes narrowed and his chakra pulsing like a heartbeat, with anger, with hate?
Why is his vision red? Why can he hear the distant cry of some bird, the gasp Sakura takes in? Why can't he feel the flames lapping at his skin? Why isn't he burning?
It doesn't matter. He can feel the rush and whirl of chakra in the palm of his hand, and it makes him feel strong - stronger than Sasuke. (But that wasn't right because Sasuke had always been stronger, always, that's why he should be burning, that's why he should be hurting.) He wants to use the power. He wants to hurt his friend because his friend is trying to hurt him and if they're trying to hurt each other, they're not friends.
That's right - they've always been the worst of enemies -
He sees Sasuke stare at the little sphere of raw power and it makes him feel good for a moment, just a moment, and that's okay because he's always been worse than Sasuke at everything so it's okay if he's just better at this. (At what? Killing your friends? Making them bleed? He ignores the low rumble of taunting because it's wrong - he isn't going to kill Sasuke, he can't kill Sasuke. Sasuke is his friend.)
Then Sasuke is bearing down on him with that loud jutsu and he just wants the noise to stop, because they don't know this but it's always hurt his ears, so he lunges too. He'll finally be better at this than Sasuke and then things can go back to normal, and he'll be able to think straight again -
He hears Sakura scream and for a moment it jolts him out of the haze, out of the craze, and he can see it clearly - he is about to kill his best friend - and then he feels the harsh grip on his wrist and he is thrown away into metal and the metal buffers him a little, and he has never been more grateful for his sensei than now.
A/N: Random? Very. Also, very short. I don't buy that Naruto would purposely endanger his best friend/brother. He knew even in that episode that the Rasengan was extremely powerful. Thus, this was born. He is under the influence of Kyuubi because It is evil like that, and that's why it seems like he doesn't know what's going on (because he doesn't).
Naruto is thinking circular logic, and he's not thinking clearly. The way I figure it, since extreme emotion can allow the Kyuubi to take control, then somewhat extreme emotion must also allow It to influence him, right? Does that make sense? Even watching the show (in later episodes, at least), you can usually see his anger building up and see him becoming more and more feral and inhuman before he grows tails. Once he grows three tails, he's usually nearly beyond reason and humanity - he's not all there. I think that, in the heat of such an intense fight and with fairly strong and out-of-control emotions, the Kyuubi could influence him fairly easily, if only just to impair his thinking. I dunno. Maybe it's just me.
At any rate, reviews are encouraged and appreciated. Maybe I'll actually manage to improve my writing! Wouldn't that be great?
- Nitro