Starting from the End

9. I'm home...

It was easy to run away... to run away from the ghosts of his own past. He was hated, admired, loved, acknowledged, established but this is not his life. He had lived his life, with his friends, comrades... his family. Then he lost all of them. But still, those were his past, present, and future. It was already not easy to sit in a class full of old comrades but talking one is rather painful and he felt that he was stabbed in the heart multiple times. Kurama, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Jiji, Hinata, Shino, Kiba, and of course Akamaru. In other eyes, Akamaru may be a nuisance and just a simple Ninkin, a tracking tool, but in eyes of Naruto, Akamaru was always as important as his partner, Kiba. He thought he could handle the situation, he could have a normal conversation. But all of his resolves crumbed away slowly.

Naruto wanted to lock himself in a room to process his thoughts, his emotions. But he didn't know he has that time or not to spare..... Hiruzen and Kakashi wouldn't ignore such isolation. And Naruto was quite sure to avoid another confrontation, for any time soon. Besides, he had his own plan to do and place to go.

So, when he left the library, he wondered in the streets and alleyways of Konoha to calm himself. After Pein's attack in his time, most of the former Konoha changed but some structures remain the same. Like Hokage Mountain, Hokage office, Memorial Stone in the training ground #7, Forest of Death, and the surrounding green forest. However in that attack, Naruto not only loosed his control over Kurama, but he also lost his last chance to connect with his parents. A small estate of a very small family in the dense forest of the Konohagakure no Sato had been diminished to the rumbles. It was never clear whether it was the work of Pein or not, but he lost everything relating to his parents that day.

Naruto wanted to go to the Namikaze-Uzumaki estate to find out more about his parents. But he needed time to collect himself. He knew he wouldn't be okay once he entered the estate. He was bound to lose control over himself. So he did the next best thing, stalling the confrontation. It was not like that he didn't want to visit his family house..... or his home. He was just scared, lonely..... his friends were supposed to be there for him especially Sasuke after coming back from the desertion. And furthermore, the anxiety of unknown was making him more anxious.

Before Naruto knew, he was sitting on his ass in the middle of the dirt-filled road. The reason, he was so much in his thoughts that he didn't look the person in front of him. 'This is great. Now I have really become a visually impaired person. My reflexes were already next to nil and now I am also ignoring my surroundings. At this rate, I am going to be killed sooner than later. This is frigging great.' And again Naruto ignored his surroundings and glowed dangerously concentrating all his focus to the road underneath him.

"Tch... look before you go.....", said Sasuke after standing up and dusting his pants. "Naruto... Dobe... Usuratonkachi....."

Naruto jerked up from his reverie and surprised to find the black haired boy standing in front of him. "What is it, Teme?"

"Stop frowning, you will look more like a clown."

"Usuratonkachi...... Stop frowning, you will look more like a clown."

A faraway voice drifted in Naruto's head.

In the time of war, time off was like a platinum ring in the beggar's finger. It was not every day that the Konoha 12 camped together to take a rest from the continuous raging war. It was not easy for one of them to take pleasure in rest while the whole shinobi nation was fighting to stop maniacs, especially for Naruto. But they had been given strict orders not to engage for one and a half-day, recuperating their health as much as possible. After all, they are only 19 and they need time to reorganize themselves where they already lost a lot of comrades, one of them being part of their team of misfits, Neji Hyuga. It was a literal blow for anyone in a group of 10 people who grew together for almost 6 years. And it was literally a hard blow for Naruto. And when he took the silence as his sole friend, his friends grew uncomfortable and concerned about the blond knucklehead ninja.