All That Remains
It was his own fault. He had let his guard down, had let himself grow accustomed to their presence and trust them. He even went so far as to call them friends--family. But he should have known better. Naruto should have known that it wouldn't last, that he couldn't really trust them.
At first he had thought that he'd be fine on his own and that he had no need to rely on his teammates. But Kakashi-sensei had shown them all that being a shinobi meant working together as a team to help one another accomplish a common goal, not just selfishly helping out yourself. High class missions had to be executed by an expert team. A single shinobi couldn't do it alone, not even Naruto (a fact he admitted to himself begrudgingly with a scoff).
Then he had told himself that he would cooperate and work as a team player since that seemed to be the only way he would be able to advance himself through the shinobi ranks. Good teamwork meant having to put some trust in your teamamtes, so he gave them his trust, but just enough to make the team function properly.
Somewhere along the way however, he had begun to trust Sasuke-teme and Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei with his life. When he realized this, he was amazed with himself for trusting them so easily. It seemed like it had taken eons for the old man Hokage and Iruka-sensei to gain his trust, but Team 7 had done it so easily. That should have been the first thing to tip him off.
At one point he'd thought he was in love with Sakura-chan. It hadn't mattered that she always brushed his attentions aside; he'd kept asking her out, perservering like he always did. But his feelings soon became platonic and he began to think of her as the annoying, violent sister he never had. Sakura-chan only ever saw him as a nuisance, though. To her, he was only ever worth having around when they were on missions and in a real pinch because somehow Naruto always managed to do something, and his infamous luck in battle was always helpful. Any other time, Sakura-chan couldn't be bothered to keep her mind off of her precious Sasuke-kun. Why give Naruto even a smidgen of the attention he so desperately craved when she could give it all to Sasuke who never wanted it in the first place.
Kakashi-sensei was alright, Naruto supposed, since he promised to always protect his team. But Kakashi-sensei ignored Naruto as well. It was obvious that his main focus was Sasuke-teme. During the chuunin exams, Kakashi-sensei trained Sasuke-teme one-on-one. It was understandable, Naruto admitted reluctantly when he was in an understanding mood, since Sasuke-teme needed help with learning to use his Sharingan and Kakashi-sensei was the only one around to teach him. But that didn't justify him sticking Naruto with Ebisu the closet pervert as an afterthought for Naruto's own training for the main matches. Naruto was just lucky that he had gotten one of the legendary Sannin to train him, even if it was Ero-Sannin.
And then there was Sasuke-teme. Naruto was so happy the day of the chuunin main matches when Sasuke said that he actually wanted to fight him. He'd finally been acknowledged by Sasuke-teme as his rival. And somewhere along the way they had become friends as well--best friends even. But then it had all been shattered at the Valley of the End. Naruto had failed to bring Sasuke back; he'd broken his promise to Sakura-chan--giving her yet another reason to hate him--and Sasuke had tried to kill him. The same Sasuke who had saved his life numerous times, who he had trusted with his life and who Naruto had deemed a precious person that he would protect with his life, had tried to kill him. He had betrayed Naruto's trust, and that betrayal, out of everything else, was what brought Naruto back to reality, what woke him up.
Naruto couldn't afford to trust people. He would only get hurt in the end, as Sasuke had proven to him. He couldn't help hating himself for letting down his shields. It was his own fault he felt so dead inside now, experiencing a loneliness greater than any he'd ever felt before. It was the loneliness that came from having once been happy and acknowledged and having all of that taken away, the kind of loneliness that came from having memories, the kind of loneliness that Sasuke had said he would never be able to understand. Sasuke had been the one to force that loneliness on Naruto.
And the photograph on Naruto's nightstand just reminds him of that loneliness. The photograph of Team 7 -- Kakashi-sensei's crescent-eye smirk that only made him suspicious now; Sakura-chan's cheery smile that was saved for Sasuke-teme and never directed at Naruto; Sasuke-teme's brooding glare as he tried to ignore them because they were weak and holding him back; and Naruto's 'say cheese' grin that was the main defense of his village idiot mask.
His alarm clock is beeping incessantly and he rolls over to beat it into silence. He looks at the photograph and overwhelmed by a feeling of just being so sick of it all: the insults, the looks, the lies, the betrayal, the memories. And when his frustrations are boiling over and he feels like he just can't take it anymore, he picks up the photograph and hurls it across the room to hit the opposite wall in a rain of shattered glass.
He thought he'd found people who would finally acknowledge him. He thought he'd finally been accepted. He thought he'd finally found friends and a surogate family. But Sasuke-teme had left Konoha--willingly. He'd left Naruto--unconcious and seriously wounded--all alone in the Valley of the End. Sasuke-teme had left them all behind in his blind quest for power and now all that remains is a broken picture frame and the fading memories of what used to be and will never be again.
Finis.
-mH