Hate Me

A Naruto fan-fiction

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Interlude of the Senses: Piece 3

That day had been warm, and very peaceful. The leaves had blown on the crisp fall day, scattering over the dirt roads. He had stopped the day before for a new jacket for the coming winter, and was trying to head south so he could miss the brunt of it. Winter was never his season, nor his friend. After having a mission in the high north during the peak of winter, he had vowed to never stay in the north for the colder seasons. At his rate, though, he might not even make it to the south before the end of winter. This, of course, bothered him.

His feet dragged, and his gourd seemed heavier than ever before. Coughs racked his body and echoed in the forest, and stops were more frequent, for he was too weak to walk half a mile without stopping to lean against a tree, or rest against the trunk of a great oak. "So this is how I will live?" he asked himself aloud, only to himself. "Running from place to place, hating everything, slowly dying?" He stared up through the tree's leaves at the blue sky, dusted with white clouds. That's what she would've said. She would've stared at him hard, her eyes darting away from his harder gaze occasionally, fear still a glimmer in those green circles. His sister.

With a sigh, he closed his eyes, and tried to think of other things.

As along as it wasn't black, everything would be fine.

He would still be fine.

But was he fine to begin with?