Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Willing ❯ The Story ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto or the song. Actually, I don’t even remember where I found the song . . .

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~What you found sure upset you,

Never saw it coming did you?

It's easy to be surprised

With both your eyes sewn closed~

Why are you looking so surprised, Teme? You knew better then anyone I wouldn’t last long. You said it yourself- I couldn’t fight off a genin. So why so upset? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you two were crying, but that’s not possible. You never cry- and Sakura-Chan would never cry for me. Why are you two still here, anyway? There’s nothing left to see. My secrets have already been laid bare for you; what more do you want?

"I just don’t understand why they did this; it wasn’t his fault he contained the Kyuubi!"

"That doesn’t matter to the villagers, Sakura- they look at him, and see the monster who killed their loved ones."

"I still don’t understand why he let it happen- why didn’t the dobe fight back?!"

"Because he understood better then anyone else where they were coming from."

~Handled with great precision,

Another faultless execution,

You’re the subject of this exhibition,

A willing cadaver, a willing cadaver~

I always knew something was different about me. I’m not as stupid as I act- and even if I was, there’s only so long people can stare at you like a circus side show before you notice. Stares of fascination, hatred, and disgust all rolled into one. I never hated the villagers, though. How could I? Everyone has the right to their own emotions. I had no right to blame them for theirs. And up until yesterday, nobody ever touched me physically- except for Sasuke, but he doesn’t count. I suppose they never would have hurt me except- except....

Except I started doing assassination missions.

"Why did they wait so long, anyway?’

"Better yet, why start now?"

"We aren’t sure. I’m sorry to say that none of us has payed very close attention to Naruto. The war has been taking up so much energy..."

"I see."

~Scalpled, sutured, made whole again.

These cuts are leaving creases.

Trace the scars, to fit the pieces,

To tell your story, you don't need to say a word~

I sometimes wondered how none of the other- well, we can’t really be called kids anymore, can we? Not after the war- I wondered why no one my age ever noticed the villagers’ glares. It always seemed odd- but I think it was a matter of hiding in plain sight. They couldn’t see the glares for the same reasons they couldn’t see me or my life.

They couldn’t see me because they never looked; they couldn’t see my life because the scars that describe it are buried behind bright smiles and overbearing orange clothes.

"Where did he get all these scars?"

"Training, I think."

"Don’t be ridiculous, he never pushed himself that hard."

"Or you just never saw him."

~So call off the calvery,

You can't save a wretch like me.

Clean this off with kerosene,

If you can't leave it be, might as well make it bleed.~

Am I actually in a hospital? As in, one with doctors? Amazing. They can’t actually think it will help, do they? Nobody here is going to help me- I know because the hospital people who keep coming and going always call me ‘it’. You can’t heal an ‘it’. You can fix an ‘it’, or even throw ‘it’ away- but you certainly can’t heal an ‘it’. Actually, I think the doctors may be making me worse. It wouldn’t surprise me. Without the Kyuubi to help me, there’s nothing I can do about it, either- and Kyuubi seems to have turned his back on me. Heh.

He’s just the same as everyone else.

"W-will N-naruto-k-kun b-be o-ok-kay?"

"We don’t know- he doesn’t seem to be waking up."

"What happened to him!?"

"We aren’t sure."

"So basically what you know is a fat lot of nothing."

"...Yes. I’m sorry."

"Don’t waste time with sorrys’. Concentrate on fixing him. Contrary to popular thought, we need him. He’s the only reason the ‘rookies’ are where they are today. He’s also the only reason we’re alive."

~Scalpled, sutured, made whole again.

Your wires are frayed, can't fire right,

You look better when out of sight,

You were one made to stand up and fight,

There’s something wrong with you~

They hated it when I passed the genin test. It was probably made worse by the fact that I didn’t pass it the usual way- though I did pass it legitimately. Anyone who bothers to check will discover that all it takes to become a genin is to convince your teachers that you were ready for it, and by learning the kage bunshin technique, I convinced Iruka-sensei. That wouldn’t change people’s opinion, though, even if they could be bothered to check the rules. To tell you the truth- and I’m not up to lying right now- I think it was mostly the fact that, as a full fledged ninja, they would be seeing a whole lot more of me. I spent a lot of my time as a student hiding out from, well, everybody. I skipped a lot of school (thus the ‘dobe’ status) and spent a lot of time outside the village walls. It didn’t make it any easier to spend time in the village- it made it worse when I came back, actually- but the animals never glared at me.

"Why didn’t he just tell us?"

‘He was afraid."

"Of what? Us rejecting him? We couldn’t, if we wanted to. He’s done to much for us all."

~Your pulse is anemic, you're tired of the fire,

You’re bruising to easily, and falling behind,

And no one is waiting for you~

They caught me so easily. I’m not surprised about that, really- I had just come back from a month long mission and had been heading home from giving Baa-chan her report when they caught me. If the been from another village- any other village- I would have dragged on the fox’s chakra and fought back. But my parents gave up their lives for the villagers’ of Konoha. Hurting those same people seems like disrespecting their memory. Besides, it’s not like I was any great hurry to get home- after all, what was waiting for me there?

What is waiting for me there?

"They say that if he doesn’t wake up soon he’ll go brain dead."

"What?!"

"He can’t, right? I mean, he’s Naruto! He can’t possibly... right? Right?!"

"Naruto, please wake up!"

~And no one is waiting for you~

Wake up? What’s the point in that? Nothing to wake up to . . . Nothing . . . why’s everything so dark?... it hurts... it HURTS... IT HURTS! NO! I DON"T WANT TO!

I don’t want to go back, please!!

~So call off the quarantine,

You can't save the rest from me.

Clean this with kerosene,

If you can't leave it be, might as well make it bleed~

Everything hurts... not as bad as a few moments ago... but... why?...I thought... I was dying... wasn’t I....?

If you think I’m going to let my last hope for survival die, you’ve got another thing coming, brat.

Kyuu...?

Somebody else live inside you that I don’t know about?

Don’t know... don’t know much right now... i’hurts...

Wimp.

Ery’things so... bright... wat’s th’light... Kyu?...

That would be sunlight, brat...

Oh... m’sleepy...

To bad. Wake up.

Sh’up Kyuu... wan’sleep...

Wake up.

.................

WAKE UP!

Ow, what was that for?!

I told you, I’m not letting you die.

But if I’m dead, I can’t hurt people.

You think dying will stop people from getting hurt? You’re even more stupid then I thought.

....Kyu?

Yes?

I’m awake, right?

Presumably.

...So why can’t I feel anything but pain?

"NARUTO!"

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Rain: I have no idea. This story completely got away from me. You’ll have to make up what happens next- I rarely do sequels. Sorry. I’m evil, I know. I didn’t mean to, honestly... Please review, if only to yell at me.