A/N – Warning: Contains language, homicidal thoughts, self-harm, suicide and character death – not to mention OOC-ness. ;) Read at your own discretion.

Fuck.

I'm slumped against my recently closed apartment door, laughing like a maniac. I hold my stomach and fall to the floor, spasms of hilarity wracking my frame. Tears of mirth drip from my eyes, and I vaguely register just how shrill my laughs are. Somehow, this makes me laugh harder. I'm practically screaming now.

Shit.

Sasuke…

…is dating Sakura. How funny.

After searching relentlessly for him for three years… after training myself, pushing myself to the limit just so I would be able to one day impress him – after I fucking carved his name into my arm, my leg, my chest – after I spent every night for the past three years thinking about him, crying about him, dreaming about him… Sasuke is dating Sakura. They've been dating for the entire six months he's been back. They're engaged. Sakura is pregnant.

Somehow it's all just so funny.

From deep within me, I can feel the Nine-Tails laughing along. Heh heh, poor, pathetic kit, it thinks, no one left cares about you, do they?

I gasp, tears rolling down my scarred cheeks. Funny. It's right.

Sakura doesn't care. She knows I love Sasuke. She's the one who found me the first time, the first time I cut his name into each of my wrists with my kunai. She was the one who held my hand in the hospital and told me that it was all going to get better. She knew I loved Sasuke. She took him anyway. Well, at least she had the decency to look uncomfortable when they told me.

Sasuke doesn't care. He's tried to kill me more than once. He's mocked me and condescended to me every chance he got. Just my luck that I still love him. Ha ha.

Iruka's away. Kakashi's busy. Gaara's in Suna. Hinata, Shikamaru, Neji, Kiba, Akamaru, Choji, Shino, Bushy-Brows… everyone's too busy to visit me.

Jiraiya-sensei is dead. Granny Tsunade is dead. Shizune is dead. Asuma-sensei is dead. My parents are dead. Dead. Everyone's dead.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Just… Fuck.

Y'know, kit, the demon growls, no one cares about you. It would be wise to set my powers free… Then they would all notice you. Just surrender yourself… That's what "jinchūriki" means, anyway. Sacrifice.

And as I continue to laugh, I see it. I see myself, glowing with the power of the demon inside me, ripping apart all the villagers who've ever mocked me, beheading all the enemies who've disguised themselves as friends, dismembering everyone I come across just because I can. There's blood everywhere. It's beautiful.

But it's not their blood I want to spill right now.

Only one body will hit the floor tonight.

Because as insane as I am in this moment… I still haven't forgotten who I was before, what the name "Naruto Uzumaki" has come to mean. I'm not that far gone. It doesn't change my decision – I have nothing left. I just won't take my fury out on others. Even if it would be funny.

My laughter is spent, though a smile remains on my face. I know what to do now.

I reach into the far corner of a drawer next to me and pull out a gun. I can't remember why it was originally hidden there, but it doesn't matter now anyway.

The gun is loaded. I turn the safety off. Shoot a bullet through the ceiling just to make sure it works. I have no regrets. No apology letter to write.

I know they don't care.

Just before I finally pull the trigger, I scrawl out a note with a nearby pen and paper, smiling wryly as I do.

"Sorry for the mess."

Three, two, one.

BANG.

A/N – Y'know, it's really a mystery to me why most jinchūriki don't just off themselves. The poor things suffer so much.

All reviews are appreciated! Arigato!