Authoress Notes: This is a ONE-SHOT. M'kay? Short and crappy, raaaa, but meh. Maybe someday I'll make it longer or something. Anyways, enjoy and please read and review.

Three Simple Words


I walked into the room. It was bright, so bring in fact it was blinding and I felt myself hiss before I could adjust to the intensity of it. There was just one window, but the white walls, ceiling and marble floor reflected the light sharply.

There was just a bed in the middle of the room. No bedposts and the sheets and pillow were untouched, which didn't surprise me much.

A figure in the left corner hidden from the light caught my attention and I walked over to him. As I got closer his hands raised and clutched at empty air, eyes wide and a half-smirk on his face.

My heart clenched painfully at the sight.

He was so…so very broken.

This wasn't the boy I had grown up to be a rival to. This couldn't be the boy I had later declared my one and only true friend – my best friend. It was just an empty shell, something to mirror the boy I knew.

I kneeled down, tears were in my eyes, and I could feel them threatening to fall.

"Hello Naruto."

He muttered and spluttering incoherently. His eyes were dulled to a gray colour, not the sky blue I remembered and loved, and his hair was messier and longer than usual.

It wasn't dirty, which I was grateful the doctors hadn't allowed. It was the only thing bright left on him considering his skin was gaunt and pale, no longer it's old natural tan colour.

I had been around one time when a doctor had come in to wash him. He had pulled himself a bit way from the corner, but still remained in the shadows and allowed the doctor to wash his hair and clean his dead skin. He hadn't moved at all.

Gray eyes looked up at me and I was instantly reminded of that time. That day I first found him like this.

"Where's Naruto?" I asked Kakashi warily. "Did you find him? Is he alright?"

Kakashi looked down at me and I was instantly shocked at how sad his eye was. "Hai (1), we found him, but…"

"But what?"

The older man looked down at the ground and his hands twitched at his side. He wouldn't answer and I knew he wasn't planning to, so I pushed my way past him and opened the door. What I saw was horrible.

Naruto was in the middle of a stone room, a puddle of blood around him and a whole in his stomach. Deep lacerations were along his arms and a kunai knife was held in his left hand awkwardly – his right arm was twisted and bent at an odd angle signifying it was broken.

He was screaming and it wouldn't stop.

Tsunade was nearby and crying for Naruto to calm down, but there was no recognition in his eyes. Just full out rage and terror.

"He doesn't…" Everyone in the room looked at me, even Naruto. "He doesn't know who we are."

A smirk spread onto to Naruto's face, I half expected him to start shouting how stupid I am and reveal this to be another one of his stupid tricks.

He burst into a loud bark-like laughter. A laughter that sent chills running down my spine. This was no joke, and it was all very clear.

I had later found out that the whole in his stomach was caused from the Kyuubi being removed. It shouldn't have been a problem that the demons soul was removed from him, but over time the Kyuubi and Naruto had began to merge – an inevitable process - thus memories and sensations were being sewn together and a sudden ripping of this process would cause insanity.

Naruto was suffering now, and he would be until he died. There was no hope for him, but I visited him everyday.

He was my best friend, the brother that Itachi never was to me, my rival and the first one to see me for ME and not just Uchiha Sasuke.

Ireached out a hand to him, but never touched him. He was out of my reach, like he always would be.

This time I was shocked though when his small hands reached up and grasped mine, coming into the light and showing me the scars on his arms. For a moment I thought his eyes were blue, but I shrugged it off as a trick of the light.

"I'm so sorry."

I had been too late. I couldn't save him that time.

Four days later Naruto was found underneath his bed with a blanket tied tightly around his neck with no pulse to be found.