Title: Fate of the Hero
Written by: xsugabearx
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Summary: Naruto is in search of freedom for the hero
Note: I am sticking to one-shots for a while. It's all I have time for right now. Also this is cynical look at the fate of the hero. Enjoy
"word" Naruto's thoughts or speaking to kyubi
"word" flashbacks
"word" Kyubi speaking
Fate of the Hero
Naruto sighed into his hands frustrated. "Ungrateful" he mumbled digging into the back of his neck. "He's dangerous to all of us." The cruel words of the villagers plagued his mind to no end "he needs to be contained" he put so much of himself in this village, into these people "better yet send him away" he makes one mistake and they're ready to throw him away forgetting everything he's done for them.
"Life suckers" he spat. Hot blood ran down the back of his neck and his hands trembled.
"Sasuke, what are you saying to me?" Sasuke looked out the window overlooking the village at the top of the Hokage's tower in deep thought.
"I've been back for one year; people don't change, these people don't change" Naruto was caught up in a frenzy of confusion with his eyebrows well knitted.
"I am nothing but a traitor to them and that's all I will ever be, I can't go on missions because people don't trust me with their families and belongings."
Flashback
"Sasuke"
"I can't fucking eat because the restaurants don't serve traitors" Sasuke raised his voice angrily.
"We can make them see you've changed" Naruto said optimistically as usual an optimism that tormented Sasuke's sanity. Naruto always lived in this perfect world he created for himself.
"No" Sasuke started "I haven't changed and I won't change for anyone" Sasuke could hear Naruto's heart breaking a pit needle of guilt washed over his body for a second but in time he would come to understand. "There all useless ants afraid of people with power because they know they're like ants"
"Stop it" Naruto wouldn't have Sasuke talk about his home and his people like that.
"They're going to turn on you. Even your Sakura she hasn't changed at all once they realize you cannot be controlled by them once you stop out of line"
"Stop it Sasuke" Naruto pleaded. He was mixed up inside Sasuke hardly spoke since he came back. He kept to himself being unnaturally quite but now...
"I'm leaving"
"No" Naruto said quickly he had just got his friend back he wasn't ready to give him up yet.
Sasuke sighed "Naruto" when Sasuke spoke is name then and only then did he understand it was all in his eyes the sorrow, the hurt, the anger, the frustration, the hatred. Not for him but for this place but for this piece of land, this village and all the people.
"If you were my friend you would understand"
Naruto growled he would never regret letting Sasuke go his own way. It was the right thing to do maybe just at the wrong time. Naruto pulled his nails out of this neck back and wiped the blood onto his green sheets. He looked at the bars the kept him bound to the room no bigger than a bathroom. They didn't even let him take his picture of Sakura. He chuckled the picture he wanted was the one of them on their honeymoon in turtle view Beach Sakura wore a red bikini and a big straw hat. Naruto had is arm cuffed around her shoulder pulling her in while he toke the picture with his other hand. The surprised but accepting look on her face is what he loved about it. She was a capable ninja now and it was quite difficult to surprise her. Naruto rolled his head back letting the pressure force the remaining blood out of his neck quietly wondering why he even wanted the stupid picture anyway.
Flashback
"I hate you Naruto"
"Sakura" he whispered slowly and lovingly. She was beautiful even when she was mad. Her strawberry pink hair had all most reached her rear now. She spends most of her time at the hospital and only cut it for missions. Her eyes alive with rage again. She's usually upset about something.
"Don't you Sakura me. How could you just let Sasuke leave?"
"He was miserable"
"Did he say that?"
Naruto was sick and tired of her asking why he let Sasuke go "FOR THE LAST TIME; YES" he yelled when he hadn't meant to but for the past year of this marriage she was always talking about Sasuke. Sasuke this and Sasuke that he wasn't even her husband. Come to think of it she started to care about the way she looked when she was going to work at the hospital about that time to before he came along it took her ten minutes to get ready for work and she used to wear her pyjamas to the grocery store.
"He didn't mean it; I couldn't, perhaps he just wanted to clear his head..." Sakura had gone off into one of her side conversations she sometimes had with herself but this one was different. It wasn't about what to cook for dinner or what to wear to work the next day; it was about him.
"They're going to turn on you. Even you're Sakura she hasn't changed at all" this is what Sasuke was trying to tell him. She hadn't changed she was still that 12 year old girl with a crush on her team mate. Naruto had to wonder if she married him to pass the time.
"You love him" Naruto said more to himself but Sakura heard and turned to look at him.
Well of course he's our..."
"No" Naruto cut her off feeling himself lose control. "You're in love with him"
To this Sakura didn't answer her silence spoke for her. She was in love with him then now and all through her marriage to Naruto. She thought maybe she could learn to love him and only him but when Sasuke came back she knew it was just a myth. She was hopelessly and completely committed to the Uchiha.
"What am I to you then?" Sakura bowed her head wishing she could answer him but she couldn't. He was her husband by law but he held a small part of her heart.
"Naruto I..."
"What am I Sakura?"
"Naruto..."
"WHAT AM I" Naruto was breathing hard so hard it pained his chest this whole him he was in love by himself all there happy memories together were a sham. Sakura shook with anger he wouldn't let her speak not that she had anything really to say to defend her herself but she sure could try. "A FUCKING DICK FOR YOU TO PLAY WITH WHILE SASUKE WAS GONE"
"YES" Sakura slapped her hand over her mouth. It just came out she didn't mean to say it. Sakura could feel is chakra rising with every second
"No I didn't..."
"Get out"
Sakura shook with fear as she spoke. He was losing control "Naruto I'm so"
"Get out"
"Wait…"
"GET OUT" Naruto voice was like a ferocious wind threatening to break her feeble bones. He can and will hurt her at this point. She did the logical thing to do; run.
Naruto laughed, throwing his prison food. He shouldn't worry about her. She was safely in Suna away from him because he was unstable. No, she's unstable, an unstable bitch who doesn't know what she wants. The whole village was filled with fickle people running around like chickens without heads. No sense not one of them.
Flashback
"Naruto you can never become Hokage" how dare they say that to him. He could never become Hokage it was his dream is mission in life to make a difference.
"I'm sorry, what the kyuubi has become is a bit of an issue" the old man shifted his glasses nervously. "The villagers and the elders think that it's too dangerous to put someone with so much power that they can't control it in charge of their lives. "
Naruto was silent
He went into depression is a matter of seconds. In those seconds everything fell. His hopes, his dreams, his happiness and the Hokage tower
They over reacted not many people died. The call him a murderer and a monster but he just laughed the fools all ninjas are murders by profession. The evil that plagues them is someone's son, someone's sister, someone's mother. We are murderers to them too but of course that doesn't matter. The righteous people live in Konoha.
"Naruto we need you" Naruto had been so into his own thoughts he never heard the man come in. "the village is under attack"
Naruto didn't bother to turn to him.
"Will I be set free if I help" the man waited a few moments then answered by saying
"I'm not sure."
They wanted a hero.
Naruto remembered Jiraiya and Kakashi the only people that truly loved him. They were both dead.
"Naruto please we need you to save us" Naruto smirked. "To be the hero we all know and love"
Naruto finally faced the man that was speaking to him; he didn't know him at all. They only wanted him to help them when their backs were against the wall. Naruto was walking into the sunlight for the first time in months. He walked past Ino, Choji, Shikamaru fighting some ninja with no headband explaining their origin.
"Naruto! He came to save us"
Hinata, Kiba, Shino
"Hurray for the hero"
Ten-Ten, Neji, Rock lee
Where were they when he was locked up? No one came to visit him even when it was okay to do so; none of them came; not one time. The loneliness he felt gave him a headache. His eyes burned with pain but he would not cry. "A strong man is not afraid to cry" Jiraiya used to say. He wasn't strong enough to cry. He was the one that needed a hero more that anyone knew. Yet no one came, no one came to save him there was no one to save the hero.
"Kill them"
Kyuubi had free rein in Naruto's head. He had no one else to talk to. There was no one else to keep him together in that little box they called a room almost six feet underground. The other prison mate didn't really associate he was in solitary confinement for a long while maybe about a month but it felt like years.
"They aren't worth our strength"
Ten-ten was being kicked around not far from him and he couldn't will himself to move close enough to even see the trails of blood coming from somewhere on her face properly much less to lend a hand.
"They have not strength of their own"
Naruto walk over piles of bloody corpses some he recognized some, not all of them were dead he found this out when on the bodies cried out in pain when Naruto stepped on one of his fingers. He moved his foot, looking down at the crying man. He remembered him he was the lawyer who volunteered to do the case against him to have him locked up. He lips made no movement his face unapologetic. He didn't even breathe in his direction.
"Look at what they've done to you; to us"
No shoulder to cry or lean on. But everyone wanted to collapse on his two shoulders that were in pain from the prison mattress. It was like sleeping on cardboard. The only question left is where or not he's going to let life get the best of him, was he ready to give up and decline into madness?
"No, I can't and I won't"
Kyuubi stopped talking
The crowds of people roared and cheered as Naruto walked along the dirt path where the enemy ninja was. The enemy ninja stopped and got into his fight stance ready to attack him at any moment. But he didn't stop moving at the slow steady pace he was walking in he got closer and closer to the enemy but they did not attack and neither did he.
The crowd stopped cheering and watch as a shabby unshaven Naruto walk into the enemy's hand. His eyes were dull and lifeless his clothes ragged and torn. He looked crazy. He raise his had high in the air. "I just want to pass" The crowd gasped
"the village is yours to do what you wish it is not my home. I will not fight for it"
"I will not kill them... but I will let them die"
Kyuubi loud menacing laughter rang in Naruto's head like a school bell and for once he didn't hate it.
Naruto continued passed the enemy some bowed to him, some thanked him but he wasn't paying them much attention he was on his way into freedom, real freedom, true freedom where he was his own hero. He could fell a weight lifted off his back. He felt no guilt they had it coming he told himself. He was important too even if no one thought so. He smiled into the hot sun it was a new day.
A Month Later
Naruto sat in a restaurant eating ramen.
"I heard Konoha is a ghost town taken over but mist nin" Naruto looked into the pale face of Sasuke Uchiha.
"You were right about them. They turned on me"
Sasuke nodded knowingly. "I just didn't think you would leave them to die"
Naruto face wrinkled. "Why not? They left me to die" Sasuke eyes met with Naruto and he saw a peace in them he never saw before. Not foolhardiness, not blind optimism but real peace. "It was my sanity or that god forsaken village. I had to take care of myself because if no one else was going to I had to do i. I expected you of course but you left."
"Where do you live" Sasuke didn't wish to dwell on the past. They had a new future.
"Where ever"
"Come live with me and my team" Sasuke lifted his nose. "You stink and I can't have you living out here"
Naruto nodded know this was Sasuke being nice "I must get my bed" he picked up an old quilt and threw it over his shoulder.
Sasuke stares at it then chuckled. "So is this the fate of the hero?"
"The way I look at it, the hero has two fates; to crack from serving others or just stop" Naruto smiled completely happy for once in his life. "So yes I think it is"