Crack. The sound of flesh and bone meeting pavement. The lightly copper smell lifted in the air, floating along. No cares. Why should it? It should be thankful. It was free, free from that body. Who wouldn't want free from such a fate.
Monster? Couldn't they see who the real monster was? Couldn't they see that it wasn't a monster their hate was directed at? It was a boy. A boy, who did not have a single reason in the world to smile, but did so anyways. A boy who would get pushed down, kicked and beaten, and get up again. And wait. For the same thing to happen tomorrow.
Only now, that boy was not a boy anymore. He was a man. A good man. Better than any other in the village. The village that hated the very air he breathed, their air. The very village he'd protect and lay his life down for. The very village that would gladly see him do so, and shake the hand of the man who did the deed.
But you can't hate them. Too many faces. Too many different hands dipped in the cookie jar, that no one even knew which was their own anymore. They weren't cold-blooded killers, they knew love. They had families they'd die to protect. They were just ignorant to the fact it was a boy, not a monster in front of them, blinded by their hatred of that sealed within.
Naruto could feel the hot liquid seeking down the side of his head, mixed in with dirt from the pavement. He was no longer that weak and helpless boy. He could kill those figures looming over him. But he took the hatred boiling up and pushed it in. It was the same hatred in the eyes looking down at him. The same hatred that had made a little boy's life living hell. He was not going to grant it another soul to consume. He smiled, wiped the side of his face, smearing away the blood, and defying them. Defying the hatred. Becoming stronger than anyone else around him. Because something so stupid wasn't going to bring down the future Hokage. Something so feeble wouldn't fracture those childhood dreams.
Crack. The side of his head struck the pavement again, and once again, Naruto smiled and stood up.
