Knowledge
By Nonamemanga
The urge, the need to know something.
Sasuke wanted only power, nothing more. The power to kill his brother, then himself.
To end his cycle of madness.
Naruto, loud, defiant, idiotic, stupid, hyper active, had an unstoppable hunger for knowledge.
Why was the world like this?
He walked through the red light district, sat in those gentlemen's' clubs, watch men giggle and laugh, touch another person's body, like it was theirs. He'd scarcely dressed women cry over him, telling him be better than them, those men and those people. He'd watched a prostitute change and ask,
Why did she do what she did?
He hid in a library, trying to reach the high up books, and read the symbols on their pages. Always in secret, because no one wanted him to learn.
Why? Why was it difficult? What was so bad?
He'd taken an old heavy lump of paper with writing.
Where did it come from?
Who made it?
When was it made and why is it important?
He learnt so much with his hands, his rough, strong, dirty hands. Eat with chop sticks, don't touch hot things, this is cold, this is soft, this is sharp. So much detail, so much information. This bends that way, that stretches this way. That isn't safe, you bleed. Don't eat this, you get sick.
Smell, sight, hearing, taste, touch.
He learnt with his hand and feet, his eyes and ears. He'd smell the scents that surround him, in a kitchen, in a club, in a tree and a crumbling home. He'd taste the sour taste of a lemon and the sweet warmth of milk and honey. He hated the bitter liquid called alcohol.
He wanted to learn, he wanted to live.
Run away from the people chasing you.
Avoid the sharp knives heading towards you
Don't scream or cry when the cold, burning sensation hits you.
Never look back.'
Naruto Uzumaki never went back on his word, not even when he died on the battlefield. He knew this place like the back of his hand and he lived, hell all around him.
There was no nirvana for him, and he was just about to leave hell.