A/N: All rights reserved to those who created Naruto..
There is yaoi and there will be M-Rated content sooooooo Viewer discretion is advised! :3 This fic will hopefully be updated regularly! Please review. It fuels my write fire! I really hope you guys like it and I hope there's not too much OOC for ya! So without further ado, I give you... Gray World: Chapter 1: Sinking.
Naruto looked up at the never ending, midnight sky above and frowned. The sky never seemed so vast nor did he ever feel so little. Something twisted in his chest violently. Had this world always been so empty? So gray? It seemed life had always been vibrant and beautiful. Even when his childhood was lonely, it was never gray. There was always something beautiful. From the pink cherry blossoms that fluttered through the breeze in the spring to the harvest festivals of the fall. Everything had always seemed beautiful when Naruto decided to notice it. So why now did the normally gorgeous onyx-blue sky dusted with blazing diamond stars look like a black blanket covered in specs of insignificant lint? Why now did the powerful fire dancing gracefully in the center of camp look like a candle flickering weakly in a gust? Why did Sakura's normally luscious pink hair look pale and limp as she talked quietly with Kakashi? Had something come and sucked the life out of everything? Naruto's frown hardened. 'Why? Why do I feel so empty? Why does my chest feel like someones removed all it's contents? Why does this hurt? Why am I thinking like this! Why am I noticing all these things!'
He flopped backwards onto the mat below him, letting out a soft whine, fingers twinning in his less than soft, matted hair as he tugged lightly at it. He grimaced at the confusion fogging his brain and the nasty condition of his hair.
"Naruto?" The blonde sat up to see his two companions staring questioningly at him. "Are you alright?" Sakura tilted her head, moving to stand up.
"Hai! Just realizing how much I need a good washing, Sakura-chan. Care to join me?" He playfully added, throwing a coy smile across his face, knowing the pink haired tyrant would be sidetracked by the perverted suggestion.
He was correct.
"Naruto!" She shrieked, slamming a good right hook into his tanned cheek, sending him flying onto his back a good ten feet away. "You perv! Go bathe by yourself!" Throwing a towel at the boy, she stomped back over next to Kakashi, who had been chuckling to himself through the little exchange, sitting down in a huff. Karin, their crimson prisoner, snickered until a glare from Sakura shut her up. Naruto got up begrudgingly, muttering about crazy women and heading off to a near by stream.
As he walked, he began thinking again. 'Geez, that girl! She's so mean.' He hopped lightly over a fallen tree. 'I know she cares me but sometimes... ugh. Crazy kunoichi.' He began to hear the rivers rushing waters. 'How can she treat me this way? It makes it really hard to love her... Love her?' He lost his train of thought as he saw the clear water rushing over white stones. Stripping out of his clothes, he stepped gently into the river, shivering at the soothing coolness. As he submerged himself chest deep, feeling the water beat against his aching back, his train of thought came back to him.
'Sakura... Do I really love her? I mean think of how cruel she is to me... She always beats on me and insults me and turns me down... Yeah she's nice to me but she still treats me like a brat instead of the hero I am. I've saved her so many times and half the time all I get it a punch in the face for it! She always takes and takes and takes and never really gives... That's all I seem to do it give... I've never really minded much til now. Why? Shouldn't I have cared that all I ever do is give to people, fight, and work my ass off till I'm sweating and bleeding and it's only now that I'm getting recognition... I've always wanted to be respected but now that I am... It's so... Oh what's the damn word... Artificial! That's it! The respect I get from people is artificial and forced like they're only doing it because they feel like they have to and not that they actually do... Sakura is artificial too, isn't she? I mean she LIED to me! She came up and told me she loved me and didn't love Sasuke!' Naruto breathed in sharply, eyes widening as the water around him took on an icier feel. 'Sasuke...' His world seemed to get grayer as he thought of his friend. The stars seemed to fade to nothing and all that was left was a black sky, the light of a dim crescent moon the only thing keeping the world from descending into nothing. His bright blue eyes lost their twinkle, skin turning from bronze to a fawn color, and lively, blonde hair seeming to turn corn silk colored. It seemed like all his being darkened and an aura of anguish settled on the scene. 'Sasuke...'
Brain shutting down, Naruto drifted down into the murky depths of the water. Frigid rocks brushed his back as he settled onto the bottom, fingers trailing through some plants and curling around them to keep him from floating to the surface. He stared up at the swirling tide, the stars began to shimmer delicately as he cleared everything from his tired mind. How incredible it would be to just stay immersed like this in simple nature. Just letting the time flow over your body like this water and stare out at the game of life, a spectator not a player. Naruto felt calm. A sense of peace nestled upon him as his oxygen began to fade. He let a bubble escape his lips and watched it swish away over his nose and down stream.
You are such a fool. A dark, eerie voice boomed through the hastening water. Naruto choked, rising fast, and gasping for air. He whirled around quickly, searching for the owner of the voice. There was no one in sight nor anyone within sensing distance. He shook his head hard, wrapping his arms around himself, he went to his towel and dried off. The thought of the warm fire at camp had him forgetting the voice and racing to put on his clothing and get back.
As he arrived back at camp, he stared at his sleeping team mates with a mixture of sadness and love. 'This is my team... So why do I feel so alienated?' Slumping onto his mat and down into his thin blanket, he pushed everything aside and fell into a fitful sleep. A raven haunted his dreams. The raven. That raven. Why raven?