Here's an alternate ending. It's not happy but it's more real than the original ending. Warning: Character Death
I don't own anything except the letter
Weeks had passed since Naruto had first started cutting himself. One day he was sitting in his usual training area thinking about Sasuke. It was strange how recently Sasuke occupied his thoughts constantly. He absent-mindedly sliced a noughts and crosses pattern into his wrist. He'd been hanging out with Hinata a lot recently too. He didn't know that she knew that he'd been cutting and was secretly keeping an eye on him to make sure that he wasn't going to kill himself. Naruto's smile faltered as he thought about his fight with Sasuke in the Valley of Tears and his failure to bring him back. He stabbed the kunai to his arm, feeling the blade pierce his flesh and savouring every bit of pain. He wasn't just cutting for clarity now. He cut to ease the pain. He could take physical pain but mental pain, that was another story. So he now used cutting as a way of escaping that pain.
Naruto was tired of it all. He was going to find Sasuke and bring him back. He didn't need more training. Hell, he'd been training so long already. He was going to bring Sasuke back this time. He had to. The other option was...there was no other option...that he wanted to think about. He'd go tomorrow.
**********************
Naruto dragged himself back to his apartment. His fight with Sasuke had been humiliating. Sasuke had managed to knock him out as if Naruto hadn't trained for 2 years to bring him back. Naruto lay down on his bed and sobbed. He cried harder than he'd ever cried in his life. The pain in his heart overwhelmed him and he grabbed his kunai, wrenching across his wrist. The pain rolled in and the harsh reality hit him. He'd failed. Even if he did bring Sasuke back, he would just leave again. Naruto felt bitter and empty and then he smiled. It was a grim smile that suggested that he'd given up.
He took a pen, dipped in his cut and wrote a note using his own blood as ink. Then he took his kunai and ran his finger across the blade, before slicing deeply into his forearm, feeling the skin separate and the blood rush up upwards. He sliced the name 'SASUKE' into his arm and then slashed across it. He continued to stab and slash over the name until he couldn't see it anymore. He dipped his finger into a cut, and scrawled across the wall 'I'M SORRY', then he attacked his wrists again. He hated Sasuke for making him like this so why, why did he carve his name into his skin. He attacked where the name used to be, slicing his flesh down to the bone, but it wasn't enough. He didn't stop until the kunai slipped from his hand, soaked in blood. His arms dropped limply to his sides. He fell forwards, hitting his head against his bed. He reached out clumsily to grab his photo of Team 7 and held it to him as everything faded into blackness.
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Hinata rushed to Naruto's house. She was ready to talk to him about his depression and how he could be relieved from it. She'd talked to him about it a few times actually. He'd ignored her, just staring at her with blank eyes. Hinata was not blessed with the power of stirring speech pr great confidence but she had to snap Naruto out of it. She'd heard from Kiba that Naruto was back in Konoha, following his defeat. He was going to need cheering up before he did something dangerous.
She knocked on the door and on getting no reply glanced around. She saw the blood on the window of Naruto's room and blasted the door down using nin-jutsu before tripping over herself in her haste to get to his room.
'Naruto' she screamed, bursting in. At once, her eyes were greeted with the horrific sight of the blood smeared across the walls, window, door and bed. And on one wall, there were the words 'I'M SORRY' scrawled across it. Naruto's body lay with a bloody photo gripped in one hand and the other hand extended towards a kunai. Involuntarily, tears filled Hinata's eyes. She knew instinctively that he was dead. She then noticed out of the corner of her eye and piece of paper with her name on it. She took it and tucked it into her shuriken pouch. She didn't want anyone to see it. She turned slowly. She was going to have notify Hokage-sama.
***************
Naruto's funeral was depressing. Everyone came. Even though the village originally hated him, everyone now respected him and all came to pay their final respects. Hinata wasn't present. If she went, she'd break down. Instead, she sat against a tree in Naruto's training ground, quietly singing a song. It was the song she had sang Naruto and the song that he'd kissed her in the middle of. She remembered that kiss. It was the one time that she managed to remove the pain from Naruto's eyes:
I'm
so tired of being here These wounds won't seem to heal When you
cried I'd wipe away all of your tears You used to captivate
me These wounds
won't seem to heal When you cried I'd wipe away all
of your tears I've tried so hard to tell myself that
you're gone
Suppressed by all my childish fears
And
if you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave
'Cause
your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me
alone
This pain is just too
real
There's just too much that time cannot erase
When you'd scream I'd fight
away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these
years
But you still have
All of me
By your resonating light
Now I'm bound by the life you left
behind
Your face it haunts
My once pleasant dreams
Your
voice it chased away
All the sanity in me
This pain is just too real
There's just too
much that time cannot erase
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your
fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you
still have
All of me
But though you're still with me
I've been alone all
along
When
you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd
fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of
these years
But you still have
All of me
And then she took out the letter and summoned all her courage to open it. The blood had run slightly but it was still just legible.
Hinata, I'm sorry. But it's too hard to continue. Without Sasuke I don't know where I stand. I feel that I'm useless now. Hinata, you're strong. Stronger than anyone thinks and I have faith in you. Even though I'm gone, you'll still carry on. I don't want to see you soon but if I do, I won't be upset. I know that it's stupid telling you that I don't want you to be upset because you will be. Hinata, I know that I've just put a horrible burden on your shoulders but please forgive me. And if you ever want to remember me, play My Immortal. I love you. Naruto
Hinata folded up the piece of paper and cried gently. Then she wiped her eyes, stuffed the paper in her shuriken holster and headed home. She took a kunai and stared at it as she walked. A choice hung over her: join Naruto or move on. After a few minutes, she put the kunai back and opened the door to her compound singing:
When
you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd
fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of
these years
But you still have
All of me
OWARI
I prefer this ending actually.
Please review. I want to know which ending you prefer. Please no flames for this story.
The song is My Immortal by Evanescence
This story is dedicated to Jo and Charlie