Never Again: A Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 6: Again

"Are you sure you want to leave him?" Tsunami asked in a worried tone. Obito grinned at the woman, waving her off.  Juse 

"Nah he's fine, just let him sleep for now. We gotta go back to the bridge anyway. If he's up past noon feel free to boil some water and-" 

"Sensei," Sayuri cut in sternly. "We're wasting time." Obito laughed as he noticed Tazuna's slightly irked face. 

"Oof, okay let's go then, guys." The four of them left the house quickly. Tsunami let out a tired sigh, sitting down in one of the wooden chairs of the dining room, cupping her forehead as she recalled the events that had happened the previous night. 

Flashback, this time brought to you by might right index finger which just pressed the h's in this sentence

"Heroes don't exist," Inari, Tsunami's son and Tazuna's grandson. "So why do you try so hard? Why do you train and put so much effort into this?" He cried out, tears rolling down his face. Naruto glanced at Inari, but chose not to say anything. 

"Your training is useless! You'll just die!" Inari shouted, standing up as he slammed his hands on the table. "There's no way you'll be able to match Gato's men even with all your training! No matter how much effort you use, the weak always lose out against the truly strong!" 

"Would you shut up?" Naruto spoke up, the fork in hand already bent slightly. "We're not like you." 

"SHUT UP!" Inari shouted. "Looking at you makes me sick! Sticking your nose into what happens in a land you don't even understand! You all walk around without a care in the world not knowing one thing about pain!" 

Sakura looked at her teammates and noticed how they all tensed up, well, Naruto wasn't necessarily tense, but he was shaking, was he scared? If so, what of? 

Naruto felt the fork drop from his hand as the world around him turned slow, the images of all his comrades being slain over and over and over and over again in his head, each wooden spike, each Zetsu clone, each jutsu, every single word that came out of those vile mouths, the powerlessness he felt. 

"Pain," He repeated the word as if never hearing it before. "Pain is something you feel when you're alive. If you're dead, you can't feel the agonizing pain that always torments you. You can't feel your heart being torn to shreds after watching those you love die while being powerless to do anything to stop it." 

"Pain is what keeps us moving," His hand unconsciously gripped at his shirt, right above his heart. "Pain is what makes us feel alive while we secretly wish to be dead, it's ironic, isn't it?" Standing up from the table, Naruto walked out of the house into descended into the forest. 

Obito looked at the door with a worried glance. "Sayuri," He began. "Go check on Naruto, make sure he doesn't do anything too hasty." Sayuri nodded and quickly walked out of the house as well. 

"That was very. . ." Tazuna began, looking for the right word. "Dark? Morbid? I don't know but it was definitely not a positive thing." 

"Naruto didn't have the easiest path growing up," Obito began. "And he won't have an easy life as a shinobi either. His parents died when he was born, so he was unable to form familial bonds. He was lonely and still doesn't have many friends. But it seems something is out of my view as well, he talks as if he's seen so much yet he only recently became a shinobi. So I'm almost as lost as you are." 

With Naruto 

Naruto was sitting down next to a very large tree trunk, his eyes gazing upward, almost lifeless as the events of the war rang down on his mind. He had tried so hard, so very hard and he couldn't win.