101 Words
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor do I own it's characters. I make no money with this.
Author's Note: Ahhh, I don't know what's wrong with me, but Naruto's getting darker and darker in my head... Ô.ó Which is, in all honesty, staring to bother me, 'cause I don't want to finish this in a '...and then, they all died in agony' kind of way. Not good!!
Darkness
Sasuke knew that ANBU was killing Naruto.
It was on nights when the blond came home all weary and exhausted from one of his missions that Sasuke became aware of this with startling clarity. And it were those nights, when Naruto entered their home and Sasuke wasn't looking at him, but looking at Konoha's infamous Red Demon Fox, that made him hate their ugly ninja world all over again.
He hated this world for changing Naruto – for forcing Naruto to change. He hated it for being the place it was, all dark and dirty and blood-thirsty. He hated it for being loved by Naruto so much that the idiot would put himself through hell just to save it from itself.
It had hurt to see Naruto realize how much there really was to change to make the world a better place and it had hurt to see Naruto struggle to not lose hope. In the end, Naruto had pulled himself back up and went back to fighting for his dream, his eyes still burning with determination and his words still promising a future. But Sasuke knew him well enough to see that something inside Naruto had been torn apart.
He knew that even if Naruto told himself that ANBU was necessary, that it was for the Villages safety, he was choking on his burden, strangled by the pressure, silenced by his own ideals.
And in a strange, twisted way, it were always Naruto's smiles – the unfaked, honest ones – that made him realize that all of Naruto's light couldn't protect him from the dark.
It was just that Naruto was too stubborn to give in to anything like that.