Someone had once told him that sweet dreams were made of this.
Who was he to disagree?
-
Uzumaki Naruto lay unmoving on the alley floor as blood dripped from various wounds and bruises placed upon his body. His left eye had been cut through with a sharp weapon and juice oozed out of the cut and his right arm which had been broken in multiple times lay resting on his hip.
The people of Konoha walked by the alley in silence, conversations slowing to a stop as they passed by the blonde and then picking back up as they were far enough from the boy.
I hope he suffered… their thoughts all rang similarly
-
He sat down in the wet sewer with his arms hugging his knees.
He had learned at a young age that this was the one place that no one could bother or beat him. It was only in this place that he was truly alone with his thoughts and mind.
He wasn't foolish, nor was he stupid.
Uzumaki Naruto, age 7, knew that outside this little packet of space in his mind
That he was dying and that no one passing by (and he knew they were there) would ever help him and get him better.
But even though he knew he was dying, he wasn't sure if that was so bad.
Cause in death he wouldn't be beaten.
In death he couldn't be abused.
While dead he couldn't be used.
Instead of living, he'd be dead and free.
So no, even though he knew that death was coming, he couldn't find anything all that bad about it.
-
An old man once lay on the ground near the place that he called home.
The people had passed over him, simply walking over him as if he were nothing but an obstacle in their way.
Oh, humanity – what happened to the human in you?
He had been coming home from the forest, toting the fish that he had spent all day trying to catch when he saw him.
Saw the old man that everyone else had passed over, dirty, cold, and dying.
"Mr…are..." he stuttered, unsure of how to say it "are –uh, are you okay?"
He didn't really need the answer because somewhere deep in his mind, no, somewhere deep in his soul he knew that this man did not have long left in this world.
The dirty old man opened his eyes to see the figure of the young blonde haired child standing over him with bright blue eyes.
"What do you want kid?" he coughed, voice raspy from not using it for a few days.
Naruto blinked and pulled at the man's arm "Come on mister, you shouldn't be out here like this. It's cold and you're going to get sick."
No, he was going to "Kid, I'm dying"
"You don't know that, come on! I've got fish here!" he held up the fish for the man to see "You should come with me and eat, 'cause they always say that sleepin on the floor is bad for ya!" he tried to smile as he pulled at the man's arm again.
"Listen demon brat!" the old man spat and Naruto dropped his arm like a sack of bricks, this man was like all the others "Leave me alone and let me die in peace."
The old man watched the boy leave before he closed his eyes again in a sigh.
-
His eyes erupted open as the smell of fire and fresh food hit his nose.
He sat up slowly but surely to look at the fire that was in front of him. An orange jacket sat over his chest and he shrugged it off to look around.
"There's a fish on the fire for you." He heard the boy before he saw him.
"I thought I told you to let me die in peace you damn demon." The old man muttered
"Yea…but then I figured…what could an old man do to me anyways?"
The two of them sat there in silence for a long time after the moon rose to the sky and took the place of its rival the sun.
Cough
"You alright?"
"Kid…I'm dying, I'm old and no one cares that I'm dying…not even my own children."
Uzumaki Naruto would sit and listen to the man's story
"…Konoha forgets its civilian population too much and they'll let those of us that don't help them die out. But *cough* that's just the way of the world."
The old man sighed
"You know…the thing about death is…"
He closed his eyes
"If you look at it the right way, it's nothing more than a sweet dream."
"Once you're dead, you don't have anything to worry about. You don't have to worry about work, taking care of people, children whom have forgotten that you even exist…"
"You don't have to worry about the pain, cause in death it doesn't hurt anymore…"
"Don't you agree?"
The boy closed his eyes and it remember all the pain that he had been through in his life…the emptiness he felt when he would see other children with their parents, the pain he would feel when they looked at him with those eyes and beat him.
"Who am I to disagree?"
The man laughed with a wisp in his voice "True that."
Silence consumed them once again. The old man looking up to the final night sky and the boy poking at the fire with a stick, but it was a comfortable silence.
"Kid."
He looked over to the man
"Inside of you…lies the demon Kyuubi."
His eyes widened "Wh-wha?"
"It was sealed in you at birth and it's a village secret…but, you and only you have shown me kindness in these last hours of my life and I figured that you deserved to know it."
Coughs erupted from the man and the boy rushed to his side to see if he was okay. The old man grabbed his hand and held it within his own, "Kid…remember something."
"Remember…that Konoha does not care about its civilian population. If you are ever dying then remember that you will not be saved as long as you are not ninja."
Blood splattered the boy's face as he coughed again
"If…if you are ever dying then remember this; you haven't lived life…and you can't die yet, so become a ninja as soon as you can so you are not put through this."
Naruto nodded
"And if…if you are dying before you become ninja, and you will because this village hates you and everything that you touch…"
"Remember what is sealed within you and make sure that you live on long enough to find what life is."
-
"--Cause sweet dreams are made of death – but only after you've experienced life." Uzumaki Naruto, age 7, muttered the words of the dying man that he had met that night 2 years ago as he stared at the cage deep within his mind.
Dirty water and grime piled at his feet but he did not bat an eye as he looked into the cage.
"If it isn't…the boy himself." Its voice rang through the sewer prison loud and ruthless.
It looked down at its puny host whom stared back at it with cold blue eyes, the human reminded it of itself – lacking the human trait he had learned to call fear.
"You are sealed in me…and your power is limitless."
Uzumaki Naruto spoke to the demon within his mind "I do not wish to die just yet."
He smiled "I haven't lived life yet."
-
Flies feasted on the body as it sat cold and alone in the alley of the now sleep Konoha.
But the flies stopped and flew away as nature told them too this boy is not yours!
Dry blood became flowing, cuts healed in a show of steam, oozed recollected and sight came back to an eye.
And bones cracked back in place section by section.
-
His eyes snapped open in the darkness.
He balled his hands into a fist to see if he could still feel.
He licked his dry lips to see if he could still taste.
He took sent through his nose to see if he could still smell, and he smelled like crap.
He laughed to see if he was still alive.
And he was.
-
"Boy…even if you have to make a deal with the devil, make sure that you stay alive until you've seen life. After you become ninja, Konoha will take care of you…but before that, all you have is you."
-
Ha ha ha ha ha HA HA ha ha ha ha HAHAHAHA!
His laugher roared through the abandoned alley where he had been left to die.
He would make a deal with the devil to stay alive and alive he would remain until he lived.
Because he made a promise to that old man years ago to change the world, and he couldn't see the sweet dreams that death held for him until then.
-The End
Sweet Dreams (Are made of death)
By: D3cep710n | Deception
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Hell, even my own OC's are only in here long enough to DIE!
Status: Complete | One-Shot
Word Count: 1,553
Song: Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams
Summary
Uzumaki Naruto met an old man dying one day and he is the only person to sit with him during his death. The man reveals his secret to the boy and makes him promise that he won't die until he has seen life itself.
Naruto promised that he would do anything to live, and he did.
-
AN
I've been out of the writing game for a while and I'm trying to kick-start my muse back to work but its taking its time. I've been trying to work on my big fanfiction work, For the benefit of Mr. Uzumaki, but it's just not coming.
For those of you whom I've never met, Nice to meet you and I hope you enjoyed. You'll be seeing a lot more of me later.
| Deception is reality
