A/N: Please review! Nobody reviews my other stories! /breaks down crying

And the whole story won't be so angsty.

And I don't own Naruto. A giant duck does, as is evidenced by Sasuke's haircut.

Sasuke lay dead on that cursed bridge, a victim of another bloodline limit of a shinobi more ruthless than the young Uchiha. Naruto had ripped the dome of ice mirrors apart in his rage, and when he returned to his senses he saw the destruction he had caused.

It was true, the villagers were right. He was a menace.

Naruto couldn't stomach this anymore. He didn't want to be the cause of any of his precious people being hurt. He wanted to say goodbye, but he couldn't, and he hoped old man Hokage would understand. Naruto stuck a kunai quivering into the bridge by the fallen Uchiha- one which could be instantly recognized by the low quality- and jumped off, with only the clothes on his back and the contents of his backpack. If you're going to run away, might as well bring all you can. And as almost an afterthought, he had grabbed one of Sasuke's special "Uchiha kunai," as he called them, with a Sharingan symbol on the handle, to remind him why he couldn't go back.

And he left the Demon of the Mist and Sharingan Kakashi to their fight, and he leapt off into the trees, unconsciously running inland.

Hatake Kakashi, jounin of Konoha, sighed. At the bridge, Zabuza had slain most of Gatou's henchmen, Sasuke had revived, and Inari had led the villagers to stand up to their enemy. Inari had cried upon realizing Naruto's absence, and Sasuke was slightly shaken by the absence of the boy who had stopped Haku from killing the two of them, and then Kakashi, and then Tazuna...

Sasuke hefted the poor quality kunai, one of Naruto's that he had found on the bridge.

He spun it once and stowed it in his weapons pouch, thinking, "Survive and get stronger, dobe. I need someone to help my get stronger. And I want my friend back." His still-activated Sharingan spun slowly as he considered one of the few genin who did not respect him just because he was an Uchiha.

Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves before the Hokage, who looked up from his eternal enemy of paperwork to grin at him. "Kakashi!" the old man started before realizing the presence of the gash across Kakashi's chest. "What happened? Are Naruto and Sasuke alright? Sakura?" spilled out of the old man's mouth without leaving Kakashi a chance to fit in a word edgewise. Hatake Kakashi knew what he had to do. He was a jounin of Konoha, for goodness's sake. He drew himself up to his full height and said stiffly, "Hokage-dono, I am sad to report that while the mission was a success, as of yesterday Genin Uzumaki Naruto is missing in action."