Zetsubô Naruto
Prologue: Say Goodbye to Happiness, Naruto. Welcome to Despair!
It had been a tough six years, but Konoha had found itself recovering from the Kyuubi's attack quite nicely. With a grin, people helped each other out and slowly got over the tragedy.
And by people, one means anyone but Uzumaki Naruto, young boy in ratty clothes and with a constantly upset or angry expression on his face in public. In his small apartment however, the boy's face held an expression of what could be considered happiness.
Though he had very little, what he did own was very important to him, and that was a couple of simple books given to him by the most important person in his life, The Sandaime Hokage. The Sandaime even taught him to read, and while he still wasn't the greatest at reading, he was slowly getting better!
And tomorrow was the beat day of the week, where he could spend some time with the Sandaime and where he'd get another cool book to read!
With happy thoughts in his mind, Naruto drifted off to peaceful dreams.
Sarutobi looked at Hatake Kakashi carefully. Though the man had been one of the best ANBU he'd ever known, shortly after retiring from the organization the man had seemed to fall apart. Always tardy and reading one of Jiraiya's books, the man had lost much of his ambition and strength in the past few years, though still highly qualified to be jounin. However, Kakashi held a loyalty to the Sandaime rivaled by few others.
It was in this man he was trusting the safety of Konoha to for the next few days. For that reason, he had prepared a number of documents for the man to use as references. And since later in the day Naruto would be visiting, he had left the information folder on Uzumaki Naruto out. And being that Kakashi should know all of the secrets about the boy, it was safe to give him the unedited version.
"Alright, I'll be back in a day or two. I'll trust you to take care of all important matters then. And take good care of Naruto when he visits. If all goes well, you might find yourself with a nice bonus at the end of this assignment."
With a nod, Kakashi sat behind the hokage's desk and began filling out paperwork. Instantly, Sarutobi had to suppress a fit of malicious laughter that seemed to form when he left the office. He didn't know why, it wasn't like he had just shoved a horrendous torture he had to deal with daily onto someone else or anything.
Stopping by his secretary's desk, he left a message to the lady before leaving.
Naruto quickly ate a meal at a cheap ramen place that at the very least tolerated his presence. After all, it probably wasn't as if they actually liked him, they were probably just tolerating him because the old man in charge knew the Sandaime quite well. However, thinking of the elderly leader of the village did cause his mood to brighten some.
Though it was early, it probably wouldn't hurt to go ahead and visit the Hokage a bit earlier than normal. The old man seemed to like him being around. With this pleasant thought in mind he paid for his food and quickly made his way towards the Hokage's office.
Kakashi gingerly rested his wrist on some ice as he enjoyed a small break from paperwork. While it had been easy at first, the paperwork quickly began multiplying at a rate faster than Kakashi could handle! Every time he finished one stack, someone would come in with three!
Suddenly, he grabbed his stomach. While the people in the immediate area knew that the Sandaime would be gone for a day or two, others did not. Therefore, the chef that normally prepares the meals made food for the Sandaime as usual. With the constant threat of more paperwork, Kakashi had to eat when he had the chance and couldn't be picky about what he ate. Unfortunately, the chef also included the dietary supplements that the Sandaime usually required. In other words, Kakashi had eaten a meal full of laxatives.
Therefore Kakashi found himself rushing towards the bathroom connected to the Sandaime's office. He should have time to use the restroom, right? That Naruto kid shouldn't even be bothering him for a couple of hours if what the Sandaime said was correct.
He made it just in time.
Naruto smiled up at the young lady sitting at the Secretary's desk. This lady always held this position for as long as he could remember. The woman paused from her work and looked over her desk. Standing there was one of the cutest kids she had the pleasure of knowing. It wasn't the bright blue eyes or the tattered clothes that in combination screamed 'Take me home and love me!', that did it, but they certainly helped. The boy's eager smile almost radiated cheer.
"Sorry Naruto, the Sandaime isn't in today."
In an instant she could almost hear the cheer physically shattering on the ground.
"But I have good news. The Sandaime left me a message. First of all, I am to let you into his office without any problems. It said that he left you something on his desk, and that it should be obvious to what it was. Also, he wanted you to be kind to the person filling in for him. Alright?"
The boy's cheer came back some, though inferior in quality, much like a vase poorly glued back together. Opening the door to the office, she had a puzzled look on her face before she noticed the bathroom door shut with an occupied sign on it. A cruel smile flittered across her face at the realization that he ate the Sandaime's lunch. It was no less than the lazy bastard deserved for always being rude to her.
"It appears he's in the bathroom right now. I'm going to trust you to stay in here alone until he gets back. Therefore, you can get what the Sandaime left you and sit in there and occupy yourself with it without messing anything up."
The boy smile brightly and even pinky promised her! As she sat down in her desk, the secretary smiled brightly. One day she was going to molest that boy, and it'd be gooooooood.
Naruto looked back and forth at two books on the Sandaime's desk. One was large and had an awesome picture of ninjas and dragons, while the other had his name on it. Well the Sandaime's message said it should be obvious what he left the boy, and what could be more obvious than a book with his name on it?
Picking it up, he sat in the Sandaime's unoccupied and comfortable chair and began reading.
Kakashi sighed and left the bathroom brandishing a can of air freshener. He felt rather sore and tender, but much better. He looked around the Sandaime's office and his brain broke. The boy was reading the file left to him about the boy. All illusions of getting that nice bonus, or even surviving when the Sandaime returned quickly vansihed. The boy finished the last page and closed the report before looking at Kakashi with unreadable eyes.
Though it seemed rather pathetic, Kakashi said the only thing he could think of.
"...Hi?"
As Naruto read he realized something. This book wasn't for him. It was about him. However, instead of quitting reading Naruto continued reading. After all, he had a right to know about himself, right?
And as he learned about himself, who his parents were, what he was, and slowly began realizing things he couldn't quite place the emotion he was feeling now when he realized what this information meant to him. Earlier on, he passed the point of anger or sadness and fell into the dark abyss of something he didn't know.
As he finished the last few pages, which had warnings of people and things to look out for the feeling worsened. There even seemed to possible be some group out to kill him. The simple truth that the book seemed to be telling him a simple message: He was screwed. So he finished the last page and looked at the man that had entered the room.
The man seemed nervous even though he had most of his face hidden. Finally the man spoke, almost afraid of him, though knowing now of what he contained, it made sense to Naruto.
"...Hi?"
It seemed the least he could do was return the greeting.
"...Hi."
This seemed to make the man more uncomfortable until the man seemingly decided on something.
"I'm Hatake Kakashi."
Ah names now. Still should be polite, he was supposed to be nice to the man. He had given his word.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto."
The man seemed much more calm now, though horrifically sad. A silence passed through the room for the next few minutes. And yup, that odd unkown feeling was still there.
"Uh, excuse me. Do you mind if I ask you something?"
The Ma- Kakashi seemed fearful at this.
"Sure?"
"I'm feeling an odd feeling right now. Could you tell me what it is?"
Kakashi seemed very nervous now, almost scared. It was odd how he could tell this, but that odd feeling seemed to make his mind work much clearer at the moment.
"I'll try. But I'll need you to tell me about it."
Naruto nodded in recognition and searched for the appropriate words.
"Well... It feels like.. everything's very, very bad... worse than any other time, and that it won't ever get any better. You know this emotion?"
Kakashi's eyes widened in shock and he nodded dumbly, though oddly relieved. When he spoke, it was very carefully.
"I believe the emotion you felt was called despair."
Ah. Despair. So that was the emotion's name. Almost as if by learning its name, the emotion began to bubble up, taking with it sorrow, anger, and all related negative emotions all while pushing any positive thoughts into the darkest corners of his mind. At last, it was at the breaking point.
Instantly, everything surrounding him was shadowy darkness. Naruto looked to left to see more endless darkness. Then he looked to the right to still more endless darkness. Looking straight ahead, he couldn't see anything but darkness. Finally, he looked upwards to still more of the infinite darkness of despair.
It was crushing him, so he shouted the only thing he could think of.
"I'm in despair!"
Instantly things seemed to turn back to normal, with an extremely creeped out looking Kakashi. Then, mentally and physically spent, Naruto passed out, sending piles completed into an unorganized mess on the ground.
Kakashi wearily looked at both the paperwork and the boy.
"Well... I'm fucked."
End