Drip. Drip. Drip.
Red. A deep, but bright color.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
The puddle began to grow, slowly spreading across the ground, invading into places it wasn't wanted.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Just like me, Naruto thought. Just like villagers don't want my blood on their ground, they don't want me on their ground.
Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip-Drip-DripDrip.
Worry jolted through Naruto, as he began to wonder if he might die from the blood loss he was suffering through.
DripDripDrip.
The blood was falling much faster now. I need to get home, to get bandages, he thought.
DripDripDrip.
A trail was forming, showing the way to his small home, as he began to walk towards his apartment.
DripDripDrip.
Naruto thought back to what the kids who had beaten him up had told him.
"Ha! You? Become Hokage? Get real!"
"A monster like you could never become Hokage!"
"Just go die and save yourself the trouble of even trying!"
"Die!"
"Monster!"
Naruto hissed in both pain and anger, his nose crinkling and his mouth forming a hurt snarl. Bastards.
DripDripDrip.
It wasn't true. Someday, he was going to become Hokage.
But was that what he really wanted? Not necessarily. What he really wanted was for people to notice him. Becoming Hokage was just a tool to get that. And a way to prove that he was better than the villagers.
But whose attention did he want, really? It didn't have to be the villagers. It could be anyone, even those outside the village, or just a single person, maybe.
DripDripDrip.
What he wanted most of all, however, was the villagers to realize they had done wrong in treating him like they did.
He wanted them to feel regret, to feel his pain, to be forever alone, like him.
He wanted revenge.
DripDripDrip.
Naruto's face hardened, his eyes growing cold.
Yes, that was what he wanted. Revenge. And he was going to get it, no matter what.
DripDripDrip.
He wasn't going to let anything, anything stop him. No one and nothing.
He would kill all who stood in his way, and he wouldn't regret it, because they deserved it, for treating him like dirt.
They deserved it for being the weak ones, if they died because he killed them.
It was a kill or be killed world, Naruto knew, and dying was just something that came to the weak.
DripDripDrip.
Someday, Naruto wouldn't be the weak one anymore. He would be the one out for revenge.
And not just any revenge, either. He was going to destroy this village from the inside.
He was going to become Hokage, prove everyone wrong, and then decimate the entire village, getting his revenge in the process.
DripDripDrip.
Arriving at his apartment, he quickly entered the small bathroom, searching for the bandages and antibiotics he kept under the sink.
Fumbling for the white gauze, he imagined the looks on the faces of the villagers when he became Hokage, and smirked.
DripDripDrip.
That night was the night that Naruto swore to be better than everyone else.
The night he began to create the mask that people thought was the real him. The mask that hid the real him. The cunning, smart, revenge-obsessed him.
The mask that showed only an idiot, nothing else.
DripDripDrip.
As he grew, he showed others that mask only and never let his real self slip.
He formed fake morals that appealed to others, and were the opposite of everything he believed.
He trained to become better, and only ever let his idiot-mask become a bit smarter so that he could become Hokage, as he planned.
DripDripDrip.
And no one ever suspected. No one ever realized that the mask wasn't him.
DripDripDrip.
And even if they had, by the time they would have realized, it would be too late.
Too late to stop him from getting his revenge and carrying out his carefully laid out plans.
Naruto wrapped his arm, the source of most of the blood, applying pressure to stop the blood flow.
DripDrip—
The blood stopped.
Only a singled droplet was left to run down his arm and into the puddle awaiting it on the floor.
If only Naruto had someone to wait for him.
Drip.