Naruto Hatake

Aftermath

After the whole mess with the battle, Kakashi had them move to a river that they had passed a by on their patrol to clean up. He had the wash their clothing and themselves knowing that getting all the blood off would help. It was strangely silent through it all and he was wondering where he would start first. As a father he wanted to go to Naruto plus he seemed the worst off, Sakura was still a bit shaky from her ordeal although Sasuke's reaction was still troubling him. The boy was either hiding his emotions or he didn't feel much about killing and for a first kill that worried him.

Although the boy was used to seeing the dead after all finding you entire clan and family murdered did things to you. He just hoped that the boy wouldn't go down the path some took, some found it easier to kill off your emotions to be able to take this kind of work. At times he would agree that it helped but only to a degree, to totally kill off your emotions led you down a very dangerous path.

By nightfall they were all cleaned up but still the mood wasn't very good, it was too quiet in the camp. Sakura herself didn't feel like eating much, although she felt hungry she still couldn't stomach much food in her stomach thinking back to what happened. She still felt shaky after that battle but she was also worried about her team, Sasuke seemed more withdrawn then normal but what really worried her was Naruto. In all the years she had known him he had never been this quit in his life.

She sat next to him by the fire neither of them saying anything, she wanted to say something just anything to get her mind off today. She looked at his face and for the first time she saw his real face without the mask. It wasn't too bad, he wasn't overly handsome like Sasuke but he could be considered cute. What really surprised her was the black marks on his cheeks, they matched the markings on his mask which surprised her. She looked to Kakashi and wondered if this was a family trait and the reason why they wore masks.

Personally she found them kind of nice, and with that she thought she found at least something to talk about. "You know you look nice without the mask on Naruto, you should wear it less now and then."

Naruto just shrugged and she frowned.

"Naruto are...are you okay?" She asked him and she didn't see him react at all. So she went to stare into the fire with him, she was silent for a long moment before the memories were overwhelming her again.

"I can still see it you know...his blood on my hands I know he was going to kill me but...I...I just don't know how to deal with this. I'm thirteen and just killed a man and what's worse...we're going to have to do it again and again for the rest of our lives..."

She pulled her knees to her chest feeling the tears running down her face slowly, "I don't like killing, I know it's our job but still...I don't like it. I feel sick all the time and I feel, I feel like a monster or something..."

That last part was able to reach Naruto, he looked at the girl and for the first time it registered how much she was hurting over this. He had been lost in his own thoughts until the fact that she was thinking of herself as a monster got his attention. That wasn't something he thought of when he looked at one of his oldest friends, thinking she was the monster?

He was the one that felt like that, after all seeing what he had done to that ninja and remembering all the names that some people in the village called him made him feel more like that. She didn't have a demon locked up inside of her trying to get out, she didn't lose control and...ripped that guy apart. He looked at her shaking form and he inched a bit closer and put his arm around her, she jumped surprised by him.

"Sakura-chan you're not a monster...you're one of my closest of friends. Trust me you are nothing close to being one, that guy was going to kill you and you just did it. You feel sorry for him even though he wouldn't feel sorry for you. Trust me you're a better person than he was," he said to her gently.