Hey-o Hyper Readers! I'm back with a brand new story filled with my beloved angst! I hope you all like it!
Give a big thanks to my beta Kaiji Maeda Sama!
Enjoy~!
The thieves quickly took off from the small camp and into the trees.
"I'll get them! Leave it to me!" shouted a blond genin as he ran ahead of his teammates.
"Naruto! Wait!" but it was too late, he wasn't even visible through the dense trees anymore. The jonin leader was concerned. "Shit." He swore under his breath.
A few moments later, yelling was heard from within the woods and Naruto stumbled back to their camp. Blood was splattered across his orange jumpsuit and covered his hands. A hand reached up to scratch at the back of his head. "I guess they got away from me." He chuckled.
"But…but the blood." One of the teammates, Sakura, finally said after a few moments of silence.
"What?" Naruto looked highly confused as he glanced at himself. "Oh." He sighed. "I must have nicked one or something." Naruto's signature fox-grin graced his face.
"Baka." The other teammate, Sasuke, muttered as Sakura punched the blond boy in the head. "How do you always manage to screw up the most menial tasks?"
Naruto looked up as the raven spoke; his normally warm blue eyes had turned to cold stone. But as fast as it had appeared, it was gone. Sasuke shivered.
"I don't know, pure talent?" Naruto laughed.
Kakashi turned away from the scene of his students arguing, thinking to himself of what could have happened in such a short time. "Naruto, perhaps you should change into some clean clothes?" he suggested.
"Oh, right! Thanks Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto hollered. He dug around in his backpack for yet another horrendous jumpsuit and started for the woods to get dressed.
"Wait." The teacher called. "Sasuke, you go with him. I don't want those bandits coming back and attacking him while he's alone."
Naruto stopped in his tracks, and for the briefest of moments, he seemed to pale. "I'm sure I'll be fine." He said quietly. The boy turned around and flashed a thumbs-up. "I don't need a chaperone sensei!" Without another word, he took off again.
Kakashi sighed. "I don't care what he says, go with him Sasuke."
"Do I have to?" Sasuke whined.
"…"
"Hn." Sasuke took off after Naruto into the woods.
After only running for a few moments, Sasuke caught up with the hyperactive blond. As he approached, he noticed Naruto was already disrobing. The sight shocked him. Covering the boy's body were bruises of all shapes and colors; as if they had been coming daily for years. Scars littered the boy's arms; but no fresh wound appeared. 'So, all that blood did come from the enemy.' Sasuke thought to himself.
Naruto walked over to a stream that was a few feet away to wash the blood from his hands. "Damn." He swore as his own skin became more visible. "It happened again. I lost control!" Naruto smacked his reflection in the water, making the cool liquid splash around. "Why am I such a fuck up? Why am I such a failure?" Tears ran freely down his scarred face as he leaned against a tree, his clean jacket still on the ground.
Sasuke thought this was as good a time as any to make his presence known. "What dobe, you can't make a simple mistake without crying like a girl?" he said as he moved closer to the boy.
Naruto gasped, hastily wiping the tears from his face. "I wasn't crying!" he insisted as he grabbed his jacket and put it on, zipping it quickly and pulling on the sleeves. 'How much did he see?' Naruto wondered to himself.
"Sure." Sasuke smirked.
"Bastard." Naruto swore. "What are you doing here anyway? I said I would be fine!"
Sasuke smirked again. "Kakashi said he didn't care what you said, I should follow your stupid ass anyway."
That stony coldness flashed through Naruto's eyes again. "Oh." Was all he said before nudging past Sasuke to head back to camp. "I see."
Sasuke reached out and put a hand on the shoulder of his teammate, making the boy stop. "Look Naruto, we all make mistakes. It happens. It doesn't make you a failure, no matter how much we joke around with you." He didn't know why he felt the need to reassure the boy.
Naruto shook the raven's hand off. "Thanks." He said without looking back at his teammate.
This side of Naruto was new to the raven…and it was one he didn't like.
Kakashi sat down and went over their mission scroll to be sure those bandits didn't get them off track.
Delivery
C-Rank
Deliver package to Kazekage in Suna.
Potential Enemies: simple bandits
Estimated completion time: 6 days
'Let's see.' He thought to himself. 'Those bandits attacked after we already set up camp for the night, so time-wise we're fine. They didn't take the package, only some supplies.' He double checked to be sure. 'And we still have enough supplies to get us to Suna where we can restock.' Suddenly a rustling in some nearby bushes caught his attention.
Naruto crashed through the bushes and back into camp, perky as ever. "Sakura-chan!" he called as he moved over to the campfire where the pinkette was sitting. "Sakura! Were you worried about me while I was gone? Because they didn't get me! I'm fine! Not that it would have mattered, I can take on any challenge! I'm going to become Hokage one day you know!"
Sakura just sighed. "I was actually kind of hoping they'd come back and carry you off so you'd never come back. You did let the enemies get away…again…"
Naruto just laughed. "You're so funny Sakura-chan!" But there was no mirth in the boy's eyes.
All four of the ninjas climbed into their tents as night fell. Naruto forgot to bring his own tent (again) so Sasuke offered to share.
Naruto listened to Sasuke as he slowly fell asleep, waiting for the breaths to even out completely before rising and leaving the tent. He walked slowly back out into the woods, making no noise at all.
He finally made his way into a clearing and sunk to the ground, memories of earlier today rushing back to him.
"I'll get them! Leave it to me!" he shouted as he ran after the two bandits that had raided their camp. They were rogues, and untrained; a couple of brothers attacking only to survive, but he wanted to show his team that he could do something right for once.
Within a minute he had caught up with the bandits in a clearing. "Hey!" he yelled at them. "Give us back our stuff!"
"And who is going to make us?" the older one asked.
"I am!"
The younger of the two, whom was younger than Naruto himself, just laughed. "What? A pipsqueak like you? Ha! You can't even dress yourself right! It's the middle of summer and you're wearing a sweatsuit! You're such an idiot, how could you possibly stop us?"
Naruto's blood boiled. "Stop." He growled.
The bandits gasped as Naruto looked up. His eyes were blood red.
"What's going on brother?" the younger asked. "What's wrong with his eyes?"
The older bandit shivered. "I don't know, but whatever it is, it's not good. We should really lea-"
Before either brother could react, Naruto had tackled the older one, shoving his fist easily through his chest and pulling out his heart. Blood flowed over his hands and splattered across his clothes. He slowly stood and turned to face the younger of the two. "Go." He growled.
Tears ran down the kid's face as he slowly backed away; turning to run only once Naruto was out of sight.
Naruto stood still for another few moments as the demon chakra receded. Red eyes returned to blue as he looked down at the dead body. He quickly dropped the heart from his hand. "God, what have I done? How did this even happen?" This was the second time he'd lost control of the dark power within him, and he didn't like the feeling of it.
As he wandered back to camp, he decided he would just tell them the bandits got away. No need for them to know the truth…
The blond boy cried out. "Why does this keep happening to me?" The moon had no reply for him.
He slowly took off his jacket, the scars on his forearms seeming to glow in the moonlight. He pulled out a shiny new kunai, planning to add to the collection. "I'm such a failure. Sakura was right, it would be better if I just never came back. It would be better if I was dead – I couldn't hurt people that way." He said to himself as he sliced his wrists open, watched them bleed and heal themselves almost instantly. "This sucks! I can't even cut myself properly!"
Raising the kunai to his throat his hand shook. "I wonder what would happen if I slit my throat. Would it heal before I died?"
Just as he was about to press the sharp blade into his flesh a hand reached out and laid on top of his. "No Naruto. We'd be sad if you died."
Well, let me know what you all think! Should I continue?
Love you all, and I couldn't do it without you!
Peace out!