Hellllooo, minna-san. This is a little fic. Bet you didn't know that. Heh.

No, seriously, I've had this in my head for some time, and I feel guilty for not updating another fic I'm writing on. So, by writing this, I feel less guilty. Kinda. Yeah. Well, anyways. Since my computer's down - or at service - I'm writing from my mother's laptop. This annoying thing doesn't have Word installed, so the text below is written in WordPad instead. A pain. So, any mistake in the text is - of course - entirely my fault. Blame it on me. If that's makes you feel better.

Here it goes. It's short. Beware.

--O--

In a dark room somewhere in Konoha sat a young man and studied the stars in the midnight sky. He had a cup in his hands and an uninterested look on his face. The sound from the street below him was the only reminder that the world wasn't standing still.

Time is like a river which one can never step into twice. It's always flowing, the clock is always ticking. It can neither be stopped nor turned back. Something I've learned in the past. This time I won't demand the impossible. This time will be different.

The chair he was sitting in creaked a little as he bent forward, placing his elbows on his knees. The man took a sip from the cup and sighed. He closed his eyes as the voices came to him. They were always there, resting in the back of his mind until he was alone. Then they started screaming, yelling at him. Or just whisper, cry or call out for him.

Why? Run. Flee. Do something. And the promises? The promises you never fulfilled? Why? Why didn't you? There's no reason. Escape, it's the only option. You can't escape. Do something!

He wasn't sure if he really heard them anymore, or if they were part of the memories he saw in front of his eyes. Like ghosts they haunted him every night. He opened his eyes again. For a moment, they stopped. But he had already decided. He didn't need them anymore.

He rose slowly. "Will you give in? Will you give up? Now?" a dark, mocking voice asked him in the silence of the room. "Do you have the courage?"

As usual, he didn't answer.

He gave the stars one last look before he stood up and put the cup on a table beside him.

--O--

The owl flapped its wings twice, then it rose steadily on the warm winds. It wouldn't take long for it to get to the Hokages' office with the note. He looked down on the bag by his feet. All done, then.

Picking up a cloak from the floor, he went to the door. His hand hesitated on the handle. But then he pushed it down and went through without looking back.

--O--

Hokage-sama! Hokage-sama! Oh, please, Godaime-sama!" An out-of breath woman called out as she ran through a corridor. She pounded with her bare fists at the red door at the end with a terrified look on her face. "Tsunade-sama! Please, it's an emergency! There's a message for you! He's gone, Tsunade-sama!"

The door was suddenly opened by a silver-haired man. Behind a desk sat the fifth Hokage.

"What is it, Shizune?" She asked with a steady voice. The woman seemed to calm down a little as she stopped to catch her breath while waving a piece of paper before her. But when she spoke, her voice barely held.

"He's gone, Tsunade-sama." She said, then turned to the sailver-haired man. "He's really gone."

The fifth looked at the man, who had taken the paper from the woman.

"Has he finally left then?" She whispered bitterly. The man looked up and nodded slowly. Her shoulder slumped as the silence grew thick. They knew this would happen. Yet she didn't know what to do. It felt too heavy. It was all too much. The silver-haired man was about to speak when a soft voice by the door interrupted him.

"Who's gone? What's happened?"

The Hokage looked up with a pained look on her face. By the door stood another woman. She stepped forward when they turned around to her. Her pink hair shone in the light of a lamp on the Fifth's desk.

The fifth sighed deeply and looked away.

"Sakura..." said the man quietly. "Naruto has left."

The kunoichi stared at him and swallowed. Then she nodded. "I see," she murmured, then looked at the Hokage. "What now?"

The Hokage wouldn't meet her eyes. Her fist was clenched in frustration. "You know better than I do," she said with a low voice.

The woman stared at her. "Surely you wouldn't-"

"It's not what I wouldn't do, Sakura, it's what I cannot do! I can't treat him differently. You know I can't."

The pink-haired swallowed.

"Then what?" asked the woman who brought the news. "We send out hunters? It- it's...we can't do that to him." She looked at the people around her. "Can we?"

The fifth licked her lips and leaned her face in her hands. Three pair of eyes looked at her with fear and worry in their eyes.

"Call out a search party. I want the former team 10, 8 and team Kakashi and Gai. Make Yamato go with team 10." She looked up at the shinobi before her and almost whispered the next words, her face as pale as the moon. "I expect them to do their worst."

"Yes, Hokage-sama. Right away."

The two women disappeared, but the man remained. He still had the note in his hands. He was staring out of the window.

The fifth stood up to join him and lay a hand on his right shoulder.

"Alone," she whispered. "Alone, he stands a chance."

The man didn't seem to hear her.

--O--

The young man stumbled out of the forest into a glade. His clothes were stained with blood, not only his own. Blood from a cut on his forehead slowly made its way into his eyes. He had the taste of it in his mouth. It was everywhere. He raised a shaking hand to wipe his face clean. A swishing sound, and he stumbled a few steps, then fell to his knees with a gasp. He pulled out a black kunai from his thigh while biting his lip.

"You can't escape now. You can't escape me," the dark voice told from across the glade. A man with black hair revealed himself. He held a sword in his hand.

"You had a choice. You could have turned back. You could have forgotten this."

The young man on the ground laughed. He looked up, his blue eyes bloodshot and dry. A drop of blood fell from one of his golden locks.

"I... I could never forget you. I could never escape you. You," he said and coughed "...were always there."

The man with the sword frowned at him as he groaned with pain and put his hands in front of his eyes. He could see the pain roaming throughout the young man's body, infecting his soul and tearing him apart from the inside. But then the young man slowly rose to his feet and drew a shaky breath. He looked the black-haired man in the eyes and shook his head from side to side slowly.

"I had no choice. I have no choice."

"I'll kill you."

The man with the golden locks smiled. His dry lips cracked open and started to bleed. It was as if he didn't notice.

"Will you? Will you really?" he said with a steady voice. He took a step forward and a kunai immediatly buried itself in his stomach. He coughed up blood and staggered another step towards the black-haired before falling to his knees again.

He shook his head again while tears drifted down his face. They washed away some of the dirt and blood from his cheeks.

"No you won't," he said and closed his eyes. Then he fell.

The black-haired man lowered his sword.

--O--