Disclaimer: I own nothing.
P.S sorry for any spelling, grammar, or any other mistakes you find in there. Microsoft word isn't working at the moment, and I realized that I'm pretty much hopeless without it's auto correct XD Anyways, enjoy!
Naruto didn't know why he was so determined to make it to his house. It wasn't like there was anything in there that could help him. But a destination without a purpose was better than no destination at all.
Naruto hardly even glanced at the charcoal remains of his door, or the trashed state of his house. He passed right by what used to be his table, and into what he had once called his room. Here he paused. A smashed window to his left leaked ice cold air into the room, and a cloud of dust danced across the floor. Every where he looked, destruction was strewn about the room.
"Kage Bunshin." Naruto whispered, breaking the silence. Five dopple gangers of himself appeared next to him, and stared at the destroyed room with the same detached eyes of their creators.
"You know what to do." Naruto told them. With a small nod, the dopple gangers went about the room, and began to clean.
It had become a kind of ritual. The villagers cut into his skin, he heals. They send biting glares his way, he smiles back. They trash his house, he cleans. And that's how it had been for as long as he could remember.
Naruto takes a step to his right, and flinches when he feels glass enter his feet. Looking down at his feet, it was to find that he had stood on a picture frame, and the glass had entered his foot. And not just any picture. It was his team seven photo,
Crouching down, Naruto removed the photo from the smashed frame, and held it in his hands. Naruto couldn't help the sigh that left his lips as he stared at the photo. Things had been so much better back then. Back then, he still had held onto that childish naivete that thought every story had a happy ending. That no matter how many times he was beaten, spat on...raped, that the sun would always still come out over the horizon, and cut through his gloomy day. That as long as he tried his absolute hardest, things would go his way, and eventually everyone would learn to accept him.
However, time had it's toll on him. Naivete gave way to weariness, love to sadness, and hope to a pessimistic, sarcastic nature that he hated. But he couldn't help it. Because even though he had built up his defenses so high, those glares still gnawed at him. Every good deed he did was met with a glare, any kind word he said, a smack over the head. And so he learnt to say less, laugh less, and to even squash that need to prove himself. His friends all assumed it was him maturing. Little did they know it was simply him giving up on being truly happy. Maybe even life.
With a sigh, Naruto placed the picture on one of the few pieces of furniture that had survived. There was no time to be thinking about that. He had to work out how to keep from getting himself exposed. Only one solution popped into his head.
"Hey, Kyuubi, heal my scars would you? Oh, and remember that when that Yamanaka comes poking through my head to scare them off, okay?"
The Kyuubi didn't answer, except for a slight, disgruntled snort. The next thing he knew, a searing was racing up his arm, blood flowing down. Naruto pulled back his sleeve to see the seams of where he had cut himself tearing themselves apart, and healing in a more tidy manner, leaving not even a scar behind. While the process was a little sore, Naruto didn't really care, for obvious reasons. Quickly as possible, Naruto wiped up the blood, and hurled the cloth into the waiting arms of a clone, who immediately went about discarding it.
Leaving his house to the clones, Naruto exited out into the back alley which lead out into the main streets. Naruto walked down the path, and took in the scenery around him. Over there, a bird lay perched on a tree, trying to shake itself free of the rain that was dripping down slowly from the sky. In a corner Naruto saw a dog picking through the trash looking for scraps, and then batted away by an angry salesman. Naruto surveyed all the people all around him, watching their movements, watching every single ruffle of there clothes, searching.
Every time someones sleeve would flap up carelessly, his eyes were immediately drawn to it. His eyes searched over pale, tanned, but hardly ever scarred wrists. He would search through them all, hoping desperately to find someone like himself, so that maybe he wouldn't be so alone. And whenever he did catch sight of a scarred wrist, Naruto's heart would skip a beat, and his eyes would survey the person even more intently than before. How they moved, how they talked, did there smiles seemed strained, did they take extra care to pull there sleeves or shorts lower then needed? All these things he searched for, so that maybe he wouldn't have to be so lonely.
At one point he had thought that he'd found that person in Sasuke. And for a little while, he had. But then Sasuke, like so many others, had ripped out his already fragile heart and trod all over it. And so, even though Sasuke was back in the village and seemed to have no intention of leaving, Naruto held his guard. Walls that hadn't been nearly as thick before Sasuke's defection were thrust between the two of them, and never taken down. And the same was said for every person that considered themselves close to Naruto. They hurt him, and the walls became thicker, shrouding him in a darkness, his hands barely even able to slip through the cracks.
So caught up with his thoughts, Naruto never even noticed that his feet had carried him through the village, up to the Hokage's tower, and into Tsunade's office, where Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi were already waiting for him. It took three angry calls of his name from Sakura and an empty sake bottle thrown by Tsunade to finally regain his attention. With a jerk, and a nervous stare at the broken pieces of ceramic lying on the floor, Naruto gave Tsunade his full and undivided attention. Tsunade gave a grumble, before she went about explaining what would be happening, and then she sent Sakura away with Shizune so that she could get checked up on. To Sakura's great annoyance, it was Ino who was running the checks on their minds, and Sakura and Ino had been having a full on shouting match before Kakashi intervened.
Only then did it finally hit him how dire his situation was. If Tsunade and everyone else found out about his...activities, and about the things that had happened to him, they might declare him mentally unstable, and be taken off shinobi work. Then he'd wouldn't be able to get money for food, clothes, weapons, and he might not be able to buy that house by the outskirts of the village that he yearned after. But not only that, his friends might shun him. They wouldn't talk to him, they'd pierce him with hurtful words, they'd-
"GAKI!"
Once again, Naruto was forced to attention by a sake bottle sailing past his face. Naruto looked up to see Tsunade glaring at him, at tick forming on her forehead.
"Hey, Naruto, are you alright?" came the question from Sakura. "I know you said you were before, but I can tell somethings not right. Just give me a straight answer. Is something bothering you?"
Sakura had tipped her head back slightly so that she could lock eyes with him. And staring into her emerald green eyes, he wanted to tell her everything. About how the villagers had hurt him, about the horrible things they had done, and how he wished it all to end. He wanted her to hug him, and then he wanted to cry into her shoulder until he could cry no more. But then a vision flashed before his eyes. Instead of her caring, loving eyes, were ones full of hate and revulsion. Her lip was curled in disgust, and biting words left her mouth.
"What a little slut you are. I bet you enjoyed every second of what you got, you whore."
And so instead of crashing to his knees and confessing everything to her, Naruto gave her one of his closed eye smiles which he was so good at, and lightly bumped her forehead with his fist.
"Maa, don't worry Sakura-chan. I'm fine, ya know?"
She stared skeptically at him for a second, before with a slight nod, she accepted it.
"Well, me and Sasuke-kun have already done our examinations, so it's just your turn now. Okay?"
Once again, the fear that he had been battling for a while now rose up within him, and threatened to burst out. However, all he did was give Sakura a stiff nod, and leave with the male medical nin who was waiting to do his bodily examination.
Naruto could only hope that Kyuubi had done his job properly.
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