Since so many of you have expressed an interest in knowing what happens to the rest of the story, I thought I might as well just post the outline I've had in my head online so ya'll can see where I was going to go with it. Chapter 22 I already had a very good idea what I was going to do with, right down to some of the lines of dialogue I wanted to use. Anything beyond that point I knew the basic plotline for, but not always what the characters were going to say to get to certain points. So, here it is, the bones for what would have been the rest of "Even When he Smiles".

Chapter 22 Rage

Here's what I managed to write of chapter 22 before my Nanni died:

Anger isn't a hard thing to feel

It comes and goes, sort lived indeed

All loud and brash and in your face, for a second

But rage, your Rage is different

It's a horribly hot frozen mess

A thing that lasts and lasts

Even when your dead and gone away

There have always been subtle differences in Tsunade's facial expressions when it came to her many shades of anger. For instance, her forehead always creased just a little more when her sort-of-anger became her now-I'm-seriously-not-happy. The right corner of her mouth would tighten the tiniest bit more when the now-I'm-seriously-not-happy turned into slight-seething. Her face would crumple into a full force grimace when her slight-seething changed to down-right-insulted. But for what she felt now, there was no facial expression she could have made, whether consciously or unconsciously, to convey it properly. She knew what it was, had felt something almost like it in her long life many times. But never so bitter and raw. Never so potently. Tsunade recognized that she was enraged. Totally and unabashedly enraged.

But it wasn't the type of rage you felt when some brat stopped paying attention to what you were saying because they found your chest more interesting. It wasn't so quick to fizzle out and become simple annoyance. It was the type of rage that starts off hot and then quickly turns so cold so fast that it grows talons and claws that dig into your very being and makes a nook for itself to sit in. Just sit in and wait. Wait and slowly try and become part of what makes you the person you are.

And this is where I just begin to explain what was going to happen.

The villagers continue their way down through Naruto's mind, after much persuasion from Tsunade (who at this point is far more livid than happy with the villagers and shinobi) they reach the bottom of yet another great staircase, the landscape greeting them there somehow even less welcoming than the last. The sky is nothing but putrid, curling clouds of smoke, the ground barren, hard, and painfully sharp, even to their shoed feet. The air is hot and dry, making their throats and lips chapped and breathing labored. They wait, anticipating a guide as they had been given in the last two levels. When no such thing arrives after several minutes worth of waiting, they begin questioning the very itself, asking loudly what they're to do. A deep voice rings out, as if from very far away, and says to them "Walk until you all can walk no more, than you will meet me and I will show you the way out."

So they walk, and walk, and walk some more. They walk until they no longer can feel their legs, until their feet begin to bleed through their shoes because of the ground. They walk until most of the villagers' tongues swell from thirst. They continue on until the only people left standing are the shinobi, and they themselves aren't doing so hot either.

It's at this point that a child, a little boy, points out something that no one else had noticed since they'd stopped to rest. Sitting on the ground not too far from the crowd was something that looks suspiciously like Naruto, chains of all shapes and sizes attached to his skin and bones, holding him to the ground in his sitting position. The people of Konoha, even the weakest of civilians, know that this thing is a terrible thing, something that should not have manifested itself in even the most awful of person, let alone a thirteen year old boy.

"So, you've grown tired, as I can see." Says the thing that looks like Naruto, but doesn't sound like him at all. The voice coming from the mouth is rugged and old and venomous. "If you haven't guessed at who I am by now, let me introduce myself. I'm the boy you seeks Rage, and I'll have it be a known fact that if he did not keep me a well locked up as he did, most of you would have been dead as soon as you step foot in here."

"B-but-" one of the older village women cry out in a raspy, dehydrated voice, "most of us have not laid a single harmful hand nor thought to the boy. Why would you kill those who've done Naruto no harm?"

It is at this that Rage's eyes grow bright with malice and heat and nearly go black with his emotions. He tries to stand, tries to fight the heavy chains holding him down as he screams at the crowd.

"You may not have laid a hand on him, but did you do anything to help?! When he was being blatantly ignored by others, why did not one of you who saw a little boy instead of a monster give him even a smile?! Why did so few of you hold out any sort of helping hand! Were you afraid of what others would say?! Were you afraid of what your disgustingly stupid peers would say if you actively tried to help him?! Were you afraid to be a voice of reason to others that were blinded by grief and displaced anger?! Why didn't you help him?! Why didn't you help us! Everything could be so different if you had! We wouldn't be so fucked up if you had just HELPED! Why damn it? Answer me why!" As Rage's voice grew and shook the very ground underneath their feet, the chains surrounding him beginning to break, melting away as new ones sprang from the ground to take their place.

At this, the village as a whole ran, not wanting to see what would befall them if Rage managed to finally break from all the chains. As they run, they can hear his voice howling now, the sound a disturbing mixture of something human and something far from the sort. They run through the terrible landscape, run until their feet are freely bleeding and lungs gasping for air and it is only then that they finally reach the end of the line, a giant crack in a red orange mountain being their means of escape. Even in the exit, they continue to run, their fear of what they had just seen pushing them forward, nearly trampling over each other in the process as the descend yet another, even grander set of stairs.

At this point, they continue down into Naruto's mind until they reach what they eventually find to be called "The Dark". There they find Hinata and Ren sitting in a great, big, black pond; the two girls being the only source of light in the whole room. Hinata's father demands that she join the group, that it's too dangerous to be wandering around alone and questions where she's been. She's silent, except to cry more. That's when a figure forms itself from the black waters, taking to form of a tall man, his face that of a grotesque monkey. He speaks, saying

"She can not speak, she's too busy trying to save the little monster from his own guilt."

"Naruto is not a monster…" Hinata answers softly, the light around her flickering as she speaks, the monkey man kicking black water onto her, her skin bubbling for a moment where it lands, her tears and sobs becoming greater.

"Leave her alone!" Kiba yells from the shore, and runs onto the lake, thinking he'll be able to walk along the surface as the monkey man does. Instead, he sinks and comes flailing back up a second later, skin and clothes bubbling, eyes tearing and sobs breaking out of his chest. Others pull him back onto shore where he sits and cries as the bubbling subsides, rocking himself as he quietly asks himself "What was that, what the hell was the?"

"What'd you do to him?" someone asks.

"Showed him my handy work. Would you like to see as well?" at this and a flick of his hand, the monkey man sends a tidal wave of the black liquid to cover the whole village and they're all subjected to what Naruto had deemed his darkest memories.

They witness his rape, feel it as if it were happening to themselves. They see Morima's death, feel Naruto's guilt for her death.

They see how Hinata and Ren were maliciously murdered.

Eventually they surface, skin painfully bubbling as if acid had touched it, even the most hardened of shinobi's eyes filled with tears.

It's eventually discovered that Kakashi knows this ex-ANBU, the monkey man. It was a well known hidden fact that when the man had been an ANBU, he had a major crush on the Fourth Hokage, who always kindly declined his advances, not wanting to make the other man feel like a fool. They didn't realize how deranged the man was with this crush until they found him trying to have sex with the dead Hokage's body. That's why he was dismissed as an ANBU, not because he made some love confession on the Hokage's grave, but because he was deranged enough in his fantasy that he tried to defile the Hokage's dead corpse.

Eventually, a fight breaks out between the monkey man and the other ninjas of the village. In the commotion, Miyuki dives into the black water, swimming to where Hinata and Ren have been sitting, crying, and giving the room some sort of light. She asks them if they know where Naruto is, and Ren answers that he's at the bottom of the pond/lake right underneath where they're sitting and that they've been trying to light the way back for him, so he can swim out, but to no avail.

Miyuki dives underneath the water, skin burning and mind filled with disturbing images. But she continues down, down, down, not having to breathe, until she finds Naruto at the bottom, just barely illuminated by the light the Hinata and Ren were providing up above. She tries to pull him up from where he's sitting, but he's far too heavy. She tries to speak, but find that when the liquid enters her mouth it fills it with boils and burns her throat.

She pulls at his sleeve, managing to get his attention, pointing up to the surface.

Naruto shrugs, his voice echoing in the water around them,

"It's so much easier to just stay here. It hurts here, but it's the same hurt over and over again. It's nothing that I haven't learned to deal with."

Miyuki sits down next to him, holding his head close to her own head, temples barely touching.

"Please let me help you."

"It's easier if I stay here." He answers back, trying to pull away.

"If you won't rise to the surface for yourself, will you do it for others? You're friends, no, the entire village is up there right now, facing that awful man with the monkey face."

"What?" Naruto asks, looking to the surface.

And soon after, the entirety of the room begins to quake, the lake begins to flood until the room is nothing but water. The villagers and shinobi alike are suspended in the black water. Naruto's voice can be heard all around them at this point:

Leave my mind be. Go back to your bodies.

And as if someone had unplugged the stop in a tub, the water began to spin like a whirlpool, dragging everyone down, and then everyone's waking back up in their bodies, confused and disoriented and sobbing for reasons that the can't recall for a moment, and then it all comes back and the uncontrollable crying throughout the village grows tenfold.

From this point on I've only got a rough idea of where it was going to go, pardon the less than fine writing skills you may see for the next part of this. There's a scene or two that I already had written out before my Nanni died, so I'll be sticking those more polished bits in to make up for it. Now, continue on.

After this, Naruto is immediately removed from the room he was in and is placed underneath the Hokage's care; is very protected.

There's a funeral service for Hinata and Ren; much crying is had.

There's a great divide that develops in the village; those who believe what they saw in Naruto's mind to be the truth and those who think it's all made up.

Naruto wakes up and is no longer in a catatonic state, but isn't much better off. Hardly speaks, won't eat much, and loses a lot of weight.

Naruto's friends try to come to terms with what they've seen, especially Sasuke.

The sound village attacks, trying to reclaim Sasuke. Naruto is put into a safe house with other villagers, most try to avoid him. Konohamaru and Iruka happen to be in the same group with him and they try to make conversation with him. Doesn't work very well, but they get a small smile out of him, so it's worth it.

The safe spot is attacked, and they have to try and evacuate to another site without being seen. They're spotted and all almost killed, except, you know, Naruto kicks all their asses and accidentally rips them to shreds mid air with his infractus powers.

Naruto basically goes on a rampage, kicks ass and takes names, accidentally kills Orochimaru and nearly blows his own head up in the process (there's too much power going in and out of his body at once, so it's putting too much pressure on his body, especially his head). Sasuke grabs Naruto's shoulder, accidentally giving Naruto excess power somewhere to go, through Sasuke's body, through his inner wall, and up into the Hokage monument, which the were standing under, and break it (think of electrical shocks, the reason you don't touch something that's electrified is because it'll use your body as a means to make it to the ground: equation--- Naruto is 'electrified'+ Sasuke touches him= power going through Sasuke to break down the monument).

Sasuke and Naruto end up in the hospital. Sasuke comes to terms with that his inner wall has been broken and he has accidentally been given powers that are similar to Naruto's. The two come to terms with their friendship, why they both suck so bad as people, Sasuke apologizes for the dumb shit he did, Naruto accepts it and all is good for a while.

The divide in the village that had started since everyone had come out of Naruto's mind is growing larger. Civil war is impending.

Naruto runs away from the hospital while Iruka's on guard, leaving a suicide note. A search party is sent out for him. Sakura finds him in the Hyuuga's private cemetery, by Hinata's grave, where this nice little scene takes place:

Sakura almost cried out in relief at the sight of Naruto's back, his form huddled over what she would later notice was a small fire. Carefully, but loudly enough as to surprise him, she made her way through the small maze of gravestones.

"Naruto." Was all she said, the fact that he was still alive to respond to that name filling her with a tentative joy.

From what she could see, he looked fine. Well, actually, it would be better to say he didn't look any worse than he had before. The deep bags under his eyes remained and he still looked like he could use a quite a few hearty meals. But he was alive, miraculously alive, and that was so much more then what Sakura had been expecting.

"Naruto." She said again, this time gentler, sitting down a foot or two away from him as she did. His attention turned from the small camp fire he'd been warming his hands by towards her, eyes only glancing at her for a moment before becoming downcast once more.

"I was really ready to do it, you know." He said quietly, his voice sounding tired.

Sakura sat very still, waiting for him to elaborate. This was the most she'd heard him speak for so long now, that she was almost taken aback by the sound of his voice. Almost.

"I...I was going to let myself freeze out here. I thought it would be nice. Be cold for a little while and then just drift off to sleep. Yeah, it would have been nice, I'm sure."

Months ago, that sort of talk coming from Naruto's mouth would have astonished her. Sakura knew she would have no doubt started yelling at him for ever entertaining such a weakness, confusion and fear more than likely to cause her to call him a few names she didn't really mean. Now, she just sat and waited patiently, hoping that he would allow her to be the one he confided some of his thoughts to.

"Everything that's happened, everyone keeps telling me it's not my fault. That I didn't do it, I'm not to blame. But, you see, I just can't see it like that. If I hadn't told Morima about what'd happened to me, she would still be alive. If I hadn't let Hinata or Ren become my friends, they wouldn't be dead. If I had just kept my mouth shut, or just been more careful with the way I handled things, none of this would have happened. You see? It's my fault, and no one should try to deny it or tell me otherwise. It would be like trying say that that...man...hadn't really done what he did to me. That it somehow wasn't his fault, even when it's hysterically obvious that it is. It is my fault, who else would it be?" He paused at this point, wrapping his arms around his shoulders, the little fire in front of him growing weaker.

Sakura hadn't known a heart could hurt so much without someone stabbing it.

The threat of tears nearly turned Sakura into a sobbing mess. But after a deep, steadying sigh, she managed to keep her tears in check. Delicately, Sakura made to put her hand to Naruto's cheek, silently asking for his permission to be touched. When he didn't flinch or cry out, Sakura lent her head forward, touching her forehead with his temple. From even such a small touch, she could feel that he was trembling much harder then the cold night air should have caused him to. She knew what allowing her this close was costing him. She knew he craved it; a gentle, friendly touch. But he feared it as well. He feared what sort of memories might be drudged up if he allowed himself to be touched in just the wrong way, at just the wrong time. A sense of apprehension that didn't really belong to her stirred in her gut. Thoughts and fears that belonged to her teammate, and not herself, came to mind. Deep fears. Horrified thoughts.

She knew how thin of a line he was balancing on right now, letting her this close to him.

She kept her forehead where it was, gently placing her hands to her sides, and sat as still as she could while she spoke.

After he's brought back, he starts having private conversations with Sasuke, Sai, and Tsunade, and decides that it may be best, not only for him but for the whole village, if he left for a while.

Tsunade only agrees to this under the condition that Sasuke, Sai, Miyuki, and Airashii go with him.

Naruto leaves a few days later, only leaving a small goodbye not for Sakura.

When she realizes what's happened, that she's been left behind by the boys again, Sakura takes action. She goes to the house where the monkey man raped Naruto and sets the whole thing on fire. As people gather to watch the thing burn, she calls all the citizens to look at themselves, especially the one who don't believe what they saw in Naruto's mind. She asks them to look at the burning house and have them ask themselves why they know that house was a terrible place. Was it because it was ugly? No. it's because they all know now, deep in there hearts, that an ugly, terrible thing happened in there that can't and shouldn't be ignored.

Sakura, after her speech, is put in jail for the evening, released the next morning and immediately asked by Tsunade to be her apprentice.

The story ends with Naruto, Sai, Miyuki, Airashii, and Sasuke making their way to the land of the waves, to go visit Inari and his family.

And that's all I got folks!