Blood. Terror. Screams. The ground rumbled beneath my feet as if an earthquake was occurring. I knew another shinobi was using a jutsu. A powerful one, by the sounds of it. I dodged another flying kunai. I jumped over my enemy and stabbed their neck, blood spraying onto me.

That was when I saw her. She dodged a kunai and punched the ground with her strength, hoping to send the enemy off balance. Then...

Sweat pored down my face as I heaved in breath after breath. Another nightmare. This time, about her. Every night, for the past seven months, I woke up, feeling even less emotion stir inside of me. The only emotion was hate.

Silently, I got out of bed and went to get a drink. Pouring myself a glass of water, I looked outside. The village was still recovering. About a third of the village was up and running, as if nothing had ever happened. The Hokage mountain was no longer in existence, the cliff being pushed back about a hundred yards.

The devastation still shone in everyone's eyes, no matter how long it went by. Nobody had conceived any children in those seven months. They just couldn't bring another child into this world. War was spreading through all the nations. It had already hit here.

I looked away swiftly. My mind couldn't get any more lost than it already was. I swallowed the rest of the water and went back to bed. My apartment was bigger now, which didn't matter to me. I didn't share it and would never share it with anyone. Everyone was gone.

I laid down and tried to let sleep overtake me again. My mind, however, decided it would rather not let me have the nightmares again. Instead, I was tossing and turning for about an hour. Finally, I gave up and got up. I looked at my watch. It was 3:47. I changed into more suitable clothing and left my apartment.

I never locked it anymore. I was hoping someone would come in and destroy it. Someone would write something on the wall that would bring me over the edge. Someone would set a trap that would kill me. Anything to go without having Tsunade curse me for leaving.

I swiftly moved through the streets and made my way to a training ground. When I entered, memories flew into my head. Quickly, I left and went to the next one. This one held no important memories. Nothing that was too painful.

I found a suitable tree and started my kicks. At 5,000 on each leg, I proceeded to 10,000 punches with each arm. Around two hours went by by the time I was done. I saw the beginnings of sun on the horizon. I felt my stomach grumble fiercely, but I ignored it. Maybe, just maybe, I got starve myself to death. Everything would end.

"It would be too slow. You'd hate it." I whipped my head around and saw Tsunade. She gave me a sad look. I gave her an emotionless look. It was much easier than grinning all the time. I tried that at first, pretending nothing was wrong. It made me sick.

"And how do you know what I was thinking?" I said, deciding another thousand punches with each arm was necessary. "I know the way you think. And I heard your stomach. How long has it been?"

"None of your business." Another punch. "I'd say about three days, right? I'd get some food into your stomach soon. It won't be long before you exhaust yourself to a point that you can't even move. You're burning off even more calories training."

"And you think I don't realize this?" One punch aimed at the kidneys. "I know you realize this. Doesn't mean you understand how much pain you'll be in."

Another aimed at the stomach. "I can manage. It'll be painful, but I'll eventually get to the point of no return. Then, you won't have to deal with me anymore."

"You know I would never think you were a burden of any sort. You've been through a lot. We all have." One last punch, aimed at Tsunade's face.

Tsunade easily dodged. I was too exhausted to move quickly enough. She easily kicked me in the stomach, making me double over in pain. This pain was much more intense than normal. My stomach was completely empty, so I dry heaved onto the ground. My throat burned at nothing being pushed up.

Arms wrapped themselves around me. I already knew who it was. It was the one reason I stayed in the world of the living. "Please. We've gone through this before. You need to succeed me. I know it hurts, but you have to. Promise me you'll succeed me. Promise me you'll protect this village more than you've protected anything in the world. Promise me you'll protect this village until you die of natural causes. Not causes you induced on yourself, but causes like old age, or saving the village. Please, Naruto, promise me you will."

As always, my heart ached even more after she said something like that. "I promise."

We walked to the new Hokage tower, which was much smaller than the last, but was still just as grand. As the sun got higher and higher in the sky, people started their busy days at work. Many of these people would be going to work on building more houses and buildings.

I followed Tsunade in. We went behind the main desk and walked right into the Hokage's office. There was chatter above them. They wanted to make the Hokage building bigger, but Tsunade told them they needed to finish the rest of the village first. The Hokage didn't need an extravagant building before many displaced families had homes.

I sat in front of her desk, which had piles of paperwork covering it. I felt something flutter in my chest, the feeling that at least one thing was still the same. It was soon gone.

Tsunade turned around and gave me a bowl a quarter of the way filled with Ichiraku ramen. No matter how much I wished to leave the world, I just couldn't bear to not eat such a delectable food. I nearly inhaled the food at an ungodly rate. That bowl was replaced with an even smaller amount, but I was warned to eat slower.

I hardly managed to do that. The majority of the bowl was gone in a few minutes. "Naruto, if you don't eat slower, I will knock you out, bring you to the hospital, hook you up to a G-tube, and feed you that way. You need to get the nutrients."

I forced myself to slow down. That was when I noticed my stomach clench painfully. Only after three days, I still wasn't able to eat a lot. I jumped up and ran to where I knew the bathroom was. I almost made it to the stall. Almost. The contents of my barely filled stomach spilled onto the floor.

I looked at it and heaved again. The smell was overwhelming. Not to mention the little noodle pieces in it. I looked away, but looked again when more came out. I was surprised so much had come out even though I hardly ate anything.

I sat up and put my head in between my legs, praying nothing else would come out. Around ten minutes later, the nausea was completely gone. I wanted to clean it up, but I knew the sight and smell would make me vomit again. I left it to someone else.

Tsunade was waiting in her office with some crackers. I nibbled them as she started talking.

"I received something this morning. It was a letter. They are asking for a shinobi to guard something in their school for the year. They only need to protect the object and make sure none of the students find out what it is. The guard is also expected to make sure no outsiders find the object." I stared at her. She sighed.

"I've accepted this mission due to the large sum of money. We need it in these hard times if we want to stay on top. Your abilities fit perfectly in this task. I said you would take it. It'll be about a year long, so you'll be able to be away from the village for a while. It'll be good for you. Just letting you know right now, you have no say in the matter." I shrugged and nibbled away at the cracker. Nearly a quarter of it was gone.

"We need to get you better before we send you. You'll be leaving August 20. We're not sure yet how you will get there, but we will find out more details as the time comes near. Today, it is July 15. We've got plenty of time to get you in a better shape. You'll definitely need to get your appetite back. And you'll need to get on medication to help with the...thoughts you've been having." I laughed, which earned me a strange look.

"You haven't prescribed them until now. What makes you think I'd want to take them if I've been doing fine all this time?" Tsunade shook her head. "You really don't get it. You'll be around students. If you suddenly decide you'll kill yourself and talk about those thoughts with other students around, the end result will not be good. You need to take them."

I rolled my eyes and continued nibbling on the cracker. Nearly three fourths of the way gone. Tsunade handed me a folder. "You'll need to read this. It contains some details vital to your mission."

"The mission I never accepted." She didn't falter for a moment. "As I said, you have no choice. This will be good for you to do."

"Can I go now?" Tsunade shook her head. "You need to finish those crackers and then drink the juice. Slowly."

I rolled my eyes, but did as I was told. The lightheaded feeling was subsiding, which actually made me feel much better. I could think much more clearly now.

About thirty minutes went by before I finally finished everything. I felt a lot better, though I still felt hungry. Tsunade told me to come in at noon for lunch, which would most likely be crackers again.

I trudged my way back to my apartment. Lots of people stopped me to say hi. I just waved and kept on walking. I still didn't know why everyone thought I was such a hero. I couldn't save them, so I couldn't be a hero. There was just no possible way.

When I finally made it back, I sprawled out onto my bed. Without thinking about it, I opened the folder Tsunade gave me. For the next six hours, I poured over the information in the folder.

"Hm, so this Harry Potter character is going to be starting his first year this year. Albus is the headmaster. Severus is the Potions teacher. Quirrell is the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Minerva is the Transfiguration teacher. Filius is the Charms teacher. Cuthbert is the History of Magic teacher (he is also a ghost). Pomona is the Herbology teacher."

"Minerva is the Gryiffindor head of house. Pomona is the Hufflepuff head of house. Filius is the Ravenclaw head of house. Severus is the Slytherin head of house." I scratched the back of my head. "This is way too much stuff to remember!"

I surprised myself. I hadn't thought anything like that in over seven months. I shook my head and proceeded to remember all the names. My stomach grumbled rather loudly which made me look at my watch. It was 11:53. 'Time to go get 'lunch'. If you could ever call that lunch.' I thought.

Putting the folder in a safe place, I left my apartment. I still left it unlocked.

Once I got to the Hokage's office, I went right in. Tsunade was actually doing some paperwork, much to my surprise. "I'm here."

She looked up and smiled. "Well, you still look underfed, but you look less pale now. Your foods on the chair."

"Thanks." I walked forward and was not surprised to see a plate of crackers and a glass of juice. Sighing, I picked the plate and glass up, sat on the chair, and dug in.

Silence ensued for around twenty minutes. "I'm finally done! It feels so nice to have all this paperwork out of the way."

I snorted. She eyed me strangely. "And what exactly is so funny?"

"It's going to be back. You can't go very long actually doing work. You're just not cut out for that." She smirked. "You may be right. That doesn't mean I won't be able to do my paperwork for a whole week."

"Make it three. And if you can't, I won't go on the mission." She shook her head. "Sorry, that's non-negotiable. You have to do that mission no matter what."

"Fine." I continued with my lunch, feeling my stomach slowly fill itself up. I grumbled when she put another cracker on my plate. I grabbed it and almost bit into it. "What did you put in it?"

Tsunade looked completely aghast that I would say something like that. "What makes you think I put something in the cracker?"

"Why would you give it to me after you already gave me a plate of crackers? What made that one so special? If you really wanted me to eat it, you should have put it in the pile." Tsunade smiled. "Well, if that's really what you think, then you're wrong."

Suddenly, I felt very light-headed. "Wha-what did you put in these crackers?"

My body felt very heavy and I fell out of my chair. Tsunade came over to my side. "You see, I drugged the other crackers. I wanted you to realize you were being drugged so you wouldn't hurt yourself falling. You're going to go to sleep now. Make sure-"

The rest of her sentence was lost to my mind as I fell into a very deep slumber, one with a lacking of nightmares.

The sound of birds chirping brought me back to my senses. I slowly opened my eyes, not liking the bright light of the room. I soon sheilded my eyes with one of my arms. "Ugh."

"Ah, I see you're awake," Tsunade said as she sat down in the chair next to the bed. I glared at her. "Naruto, You have to get your strength up and this is the only way it will happen. We both know you won't do it for any other reason unless you are forced to."

I sighed and sat up. "Doesn't mean I won't put up a fight."

I attempted to jump off of the bed and run out the door, but instead, my upper body fell to the floor. They had tied my feet to the bed. Grumbling, I pushed myself back onto the bed. I refused to talk to Tsunade any more.

"Oh, I should have warned you about that. Whoops, my bad," she said, smiling. I rolled my eyes, saying. "Yes, because you totally forgot."

Tsunade's smile slowly disappeared. "Naruto, I know you don't want to talk about this, but you need to. Right now, we are going to have a...therapy session."

I turned to my other side and shut my eyes. I was not going to talk about anything. Seven months still wasn't enough. Not even a lifetime would be enough to talk freely about this.

"Naruto, they were helping you because they wanted to! It wasn't your fault!" she pleaded. I turned back around faster than Tsunade could imagine. "It was my fault! They never should have been there!"

Tsunade backed away from my face. I could feel the Kyuubi's power flowing through me, but at this point, I didn't care. "N-Naruto, please, don't do this."

I felt my mouth come up in a smirk. "Too late."

My feet came free almost instantly and I ran to the door. Ripping the door off its hinges, I started to run out. Five or six arms stopped me, one putting their hand on my forehead. Kyuubi's power drained from my body. I crumpled to the floor, having absolutely no energy left.

The three people that stopped me were all Anbu. They put me back on the bed and this time, had my arms and legs tied up. They wanted to tie me down further, but Tsunade stopped them. "This is fine."

They nodded and left. I glared at Tsunade again. "Why are they out there?" She shut her eyes. Sighing, she said, "Precisely for the reason you just showed them. They are there to stop you from leaving and stop the Kyuubi from coming out."

I looked away from Tsunade. I didn't want to admit it, but somewhere deep within my heart, I was happy she wanted me to get better. I was almost excited at the prospect of going on this mission. At the same time, I had no desire to feel any happiness at all.