Chapter 4


"S-Sakura?" Naruto called out warily.

"It needed to be done," Sakura said with tears streaming down her cheeks. "This whole time… I thought that…" Sakura tried to speak but failed as she sobbed. "I thought that… he was innocent. I thought that he… was being controlled by Orochimaru," she wiped her eyes furiously. Sakura took a deep breath before trying to calm herself a little bit. "But I was blind. And for that, I'm truly sorry, Naruto."

Naruto bit his lip and looked to the side. He didn't know what to do now. There was no way in hell he was going to forgive Konoha at all, but… if Sakura – the love of his life, the one goal he couldn't achieve – was truly sorry then maybe…

"Before we get to that," Tsunade started, "can you please hear me out, Naruto?" she asked.

The blond looked from Sakura to Tsunade and sighed. "Fine. But right here, right now," he demanded in a threatening tone.

"That's fine," the Hokage said. She took a breath and started explaining. "As you know, Hozuki castle is a high-security prison located in Grass Country. We suspect that the warden of that prison is using the prisoners for human experiments or something of the sort. That's why we wanted to send you in as a sting operation. We never really suspected you," Tsunade explained.

"Wha…" Naruto said, bewildered by the clarification. "But you could've at least told me that!?" he said with narrowed eyes.

"Yes, and I'm sorry that I didn't. I didn't think that you'd be able to keep a secret like that," Tsunade said.

Naruto went speechless for a moment at Tsunade's words. "Is that really how little you trust me?" he asked. There wasn't anger in his voice. But everyone could feel how hurt he was.

"NO!" Tsunade exclaimed, trying to clear the misunderstanding. "Naruto, I trust you very much! But I also know your abilities pretty well… or at least I thought I did," she said with a sigh.

Naruto clenched his fists and looked to the side. "You know what, Hokage-sama?" he said icily.

Tsunade's heart clenched as she heard him drop the 'baa-chan'.

"I'm done," he said, trying to buy time for the Kyuubi to heal his wounds. "I'm done with this village, this country… this life," he growled out as his face scrunched up in a painful expression.

"Naruto… Naruto, we can't let you leave," Tsunade said in a sad tone. She didn't want to do this, but… A Hokage has their duties.

"Try to stop me. Go ahead. Let's see how many people you lose," Naruto growled out, getting ready to fight again.

"You'd fight your own friends?" Tsunade asked, taken aback.

She didn't expect that the happy go lucky kid would have another darker side to him, though, now that she thought about it, she should've expected it. Everyone had a darker side to them. Tsunade mentally berated herself. They say hindsight is twenty-twenty. They're not wrong.

"I'll rip each and every one of you from limb to limb," Naruto answered.

Silence descended upon the clearing like a heavy blanket. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Then, all at once, everything exploded.


Ight, listen to me y'all.

Truthfully, I really suck at writing fight scenes. That's what had me stuck on this chapter for so long. So in the end, I said "screw it idgaf". I hate abandoning stories, but that's exactly what I'm going to do. This thing started out as a little side project anyway, but it seems many people like it.

That's why I REALLY want one of you readers to adopt this from here and write on your own.

I'm sorry to do this to y'all.