DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto but I have fun dreaming. This is influenced and inspired by Casinia's Keep Talking

Because everyone in ANBU has regrets

Some l/a/s/t wish they couldn't fulfil

Some old death lying over their soul

What does it m.a.t.t.e.r. a secret or three?

Because you're all damned together

Some flee like the cowards they are, hailed as heroes

The true heroes are in the dark,

And you s/n/e/e/r as you know heroes in this world…are angels of death

Who can kill the fastest?

Who can last the longest?

Who can slip into the shadows and come back untainted?

All heroes are b.R.o.k.E.n. in the end

Some can't handle the blood. The blood, warm, wet stickywarmwetsticky

Can't handle, won't handle

That's for history to decide

Are you the smiling man who buys plums and j/o/k/e/s around?

Or are you the deadly killer wrapping a wire around a throat? Rip, tear, kill riptearkill

Are y.o.u the smiling woman on the street?

O/r the kunoichi who drives a kunai into the child's skull? Slice, stab, blood slicestabblood

You lose yourself in ANBU.

Boar, C.a.t, Horse, R/a/t, Dog…who are you?

You h.i.d.e behind your mask, your PaIntEd bone mask

\Strangers/

Isn't that the loneliest word EVER?

If you weren't before you're s/o/a/k/e/d in blood and betrayal now

And you won't admit the envy you have green, lust, desire greenlustdesire

Of the regular people. Normal on the streets.

Because you know too much.

Seen too much.

Done too much.

To ever go back

Some days there's a v.o.i.c.e in your head

That isn't your own.

And you hate it

Blood. Blood. B/l/o/o/d. Blood

That's all it asks for

At times it seems so l.i.t.t.l.e so you indulge it

And it grows LOUDER instead of quieter

Only the eyes aren't c/o/v/e/r/e/d

Why?

As a warning

This is what you will become.

Ghosts are an apt name

And you c.h.u.c.k.l.e wryly when you hear it

White bone and steel

ANBU doesn't exist

N/o/t officially

If you party a little l/o/n/g/e/r

Laugh a bit l.o.u.d.e.r.

No one cares

Because they understand

If you hold a vomiting woman's hair out of her face

Just because

She might be a c.o.m.r.a.d.e

And may have saved your worthless life

No one comments

Because they understand

This is the reality of a hidden village

So much death it b/l/o/t/s out your sun

Red shows up marvellously on white

And s.q.u.e.l.c.h.e.s and d/r/i/p/s

But orders are orders

If at night you wake up screaming

And the hidden wall b.l.o.c.k.s everyone out

What can you do?

Because your soul is forfeit

For the lives of your village.

Your kage.

Humanity is a j/o/k/e in the world of shinobi

Once this happens once too often

They question you

Are you fit to be a tool?

It roars in your head Rip tear kill riptearkillriptearkillslicestabb.l.o.o.dbloodBLOOD

They suggest "g/e/n/t/l/y" that maybe your time has come

And that you should be proud

But you can read in

Bet

ween the lines.

They're afraid you're going to snap.

S.N.A.P. like you snapped that spine in your hands of that screaming kunoichi.

And you w/a/l/k out head held high

Because you're afraid of what you'll

see

when

you

look

down

Scars littering your body, proof of your devotion to your village

The village which just ripped your p/u/r/p/o/s/e away