Summary: You know how they say that when you change one little thing, everything spirals out of control? That's how I feel like I've led my life.

Author: Rauchster

Chapter Word Length: 1,131

Foreword

My name is Naruto Uzumaki. The Rokudaime Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Some would say that I've fulfilled my own prophecies. But, now I just feel empty.

All is still around me. I can hear a bird resume its song somewhere off in the distance. It feels right, and yet so wrong. A light haze covers the field, making it impossible to see more than a few yards in any direction. The sun has disappeared behind clouds. Ironic, if I had stopped to think about it. But that is beyond my notice at this time.

I look down at a pair of hands covered in blood. I struggle to remember who they belong to, when I realize they are mine. Everything seems so detached. I can't even remember whose blood is on my hands, or why it is there. I feel as if I'm in a fog. My head is spinning. I lurch forward and fall upon my knees, gasping for breath. The grass beneath me is moist with the same red, sticky substance that clings to my hands.

I look around this place. Where was I again? I can barely remember. My eyes are unfocused, my hands not feeling the ground they are resting on. I try to stand up, or even just to move, but my body feels so heavy. If I were thinking more clearly, or at all, I might realize I have what some would call post-traumatic stress disorder. But thinking requires more effort and concentration than I really have available at the moment.

Using most of my willpower, I stagger to my feet. My arms hang loose at my sides, due to the massive wounds inflicted upon them. My left arm has a large gash from shoulder to elbow, severing the bicep cleanly down to the bone. The right is covered in senbon, looking somewhat like a porcupine one would see in the nearby woods. Both of my legs seem to be in not much better condition, but are at least minimally functional. My torso has a gigantic hole in the upper right side, a parting gift of an old friend. My head and face are covered with small cuts and the golden locks that once flowed freely and now matted down with blood. Overall, I'm a mess. But, I'm alive, and I curse that fact.

Every other Hokage died protecting their precious village. I attempted to protect mine, and yet here I am alive, while so many others are dead. I can feel their souls bearing down on me. Screaming at me. They are angry, and filled with contempt. I was the Hokage! I was supposed to protect them, not them die protecting me!

I stumble forward, across the bloodied battlegrounds. I hear nothing but the wind now, I feel nothing but pain. Pain. Amazing how many emotions we shove into this category. I can think of so many, and they all hurt so much. First, there is the physical pain from the wounds left upon my body. And the pain from my aching muscles, refusing to let me move to where I want to go, where I need to go. And then there's the emotional pain. Loss, Grief, Anger, Hatred, Rage, Anguish, Sorrow.

But there is an even greater pain than all of those at this point. Something that I thought I had suffered through for so long that I had become immune to it. But I can feel it again. It reaches out through the entire depth of my being, through every fiber of my soul, and clutches at my mind. This one single thing can terrorize me more than anything else I know. If I stop resisting the terror of it's presence for even a second, it will take over and I will lose it. I must stop thinking about it to avoid it.

I try forcing myself to think of something else. But, every time I shove it down, it creeps up again with more force than the last time. I can sense this one terrible thing coming again and again. I brace for the impact, but not even that saves me when it finally takes over.

"ALONE." The voice rumbles inside my head.

I start to break down. This is too much. I worked too hard to have it all end like this.

"You are alone now."

"NO!" The voice is back, taunting me with the one thing I cannot resist.

"Look around you. There is nobody."

"No!" I can feel my resolve slipping.

"Nobody to care for you."

"Stop… Please…" I'm reduced to the point of whimpering.

"Nobody to acknowledge you."

"…" My brain is frozen. I can't breathe. I can only feel sharp spikes of pain pass over me with every word the voice says. I'm starting to black out from lack of oxygen and loss of blood.

"Nobody to respect you. Nobody to be your friend. Nobody."

I'm pushed into the deepest recess of my mind. There are sewer pipes that drip rust-green colored water from time to time into large puddles. The watery sound echoes off of moldy cement walls. The dark passages are musty and dank. Iron bars in the form of a gate room stretch from ceiling to floor in a cavernous room, and attached to them is a single piece of paper.

That one damned piece of paper.

It's caused me almost nothing but trouble and hassle my whole life. It's a single piece of paper, and yet not only has it caused the deaths of hundreds, it's caused my life to be a hell on earth. How could a piece of paper – especially one so small and with so little on it cause all of this?

It's such a simple question, and yet no answer is ever simple.

But that thought is again pushed from my mind as the voice beckons again.

"Nobody." The voice continues it's chant, the deep, booming voice filtering through every cell in my body before reverberating back up through my spine and into my head once more.

"Nobody to love." The voice stops with this as I am about to lose control and consciousness. Images swirl past my body. I see faces, the faces of my precious people. So many people go through the imagery of my mindscape.

I wish I could call out to them. Touch them, hear them, feel them. Even sense their presence. But there is nothing. Nothing but the dark void that threatens to swallows me up.

I would fight, but I'm tired. I'm so tired of this place. I have nothing left to live for and nothing left to fight for. With that thought, I succumb to the darkness of my mind, a final sigh escaping my lips.

Rauchster: Well, What do you think? I was feeling kinda angsty.

Plot Bunny: No fair! I was just running around in your head, and you pulled me out. And I was the one feeling angsty!

Rauchster: Not exactly my fault, is it?

Plot Bunny: YES!

Rauchster: Oh right, yea it is. Oh well. Too Bad!

Plot Bunny: (Whimpers in corner)

Rauchster: Be sure to read and if you could please leave a review. Or else, I'll do bad things to Plot Bunny! (evil glint appears in eye)

Plot Bunny: NO! For Kami's sake please read and review! Save me from Rauchster!

Rauchster: That's Rauchster-sama to you!