Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

The troublesome blond was sitting at 'his' tree. That wasn't the problem though, no, it was how he was looking at the kunai.

Shikamaru wasn't an expert, but it was painfully obvious that Naruto was contemplating ending his own life.

"Wha…?" Naruto suddenly found that he was unable to move.

The Nara gestured to the side like he was throwing a kunai away and Naruto did the same except he actually threw a kunai.

"Shikamaru!" Naruto exclaimed when he saw the other boy. "Why did you do that?"

Lazily, Shikamaru gave Naruto a long hard look, "You were thinking about suicide. As a friend and fellow Academy student, I couldn't let you go through with it."

The blond glared, "And why not?"

"Simple," Shikamaru had now sat next to him, "Too many people will be affected." Naruto opened his mouth to protest but was cut off, "The Hokage will become depressed and that could never be good for the village. Iruka has become very attached to you and will probably commit suicide eventually, which would result in the loss of the best teacher in the Academy. Finally, Teuchi and Ayame would probably lose Ichiraku because of bankruptcy."

"…"

"Plus it would be troublesome if people found out that I could have stopped you."

A small grin broke out across Naruto's face, "Figures you would say that." The blonde's face fell a couple of seconds later, "But I think that more than a few would actually celebrate my death while the rest would act as if they didn't even hear of it."

Shikamaru sat there too stunned to speak, had his always optimistic friend always had to deal with people who hated or ignored him that much?

"But I guess I won't try that again," Naruto did look a little happier, "cause I wouldn't be able to live with myself if my death caused that much trouble."

"Meh," Shikamaru smirked. "You are just as troublesome while alive as you would be dead."

"Shikamaru!" Naruto chased after the fleeing Nara after what he said registered.

... I have no explenation for starting another story, especially since this is the darkest story that I've ever written. Although, I do think this is better than my other stories.

But enough of that! I have to warn you that I probably won't update this story regularly, so don't complain! I can only write like this when I am really upset and that doesn't happen often.

Anyways, please review!