THE EYES OF MADNESS
Chapter 1

"Why did you do it?" She asked me impatiently. Her eyes were moist and red, she had obviously been crying. I shuffled my feet and looked down. I had no explanation for her, not really. "Tell me, Naruto! Now!"

"It- it was an accident! He charged me with a Chidori and I was using the Rasengan and my hand slipped and th-"

She slapped me. Hard. Tears streamed down my cheeks. And not from the slap, although it did leave my ears ringing. Barely restrained droplets pooled in her eyes. "Tell me the truth!"

"That is the truth!!" I really hadn't meant to. We were fighting, and we had lost ourselves in the violence. He was trying to kill me, and I was at that point trying to kill him. But, what I did after that…

"THEN WHY DID YOU TAKE HIS EYES?

For that I had no answer. She shook with rage and sadness and looked at me with hatred in her eyes. I could feel the betrayal and the contempt bubbling inside of her. My eyes studied hers desperately, looking for a drop of compassion - it could have been the tears obscuring my vision, but I did not find any.

Didn't she realize that I was hurting as well? "Don't ever l-look at me again. N-not with his…" Her voice caught in her throat. She wrapped her arms around herself and turned her back to me, shoulders shaking. "Not with his eyes." And she left me inside the hospital, wishing that I had let Sasuke skewer me at the Valley of the End.

It would certainly have hurt less than the hatred of my only precious people.

---TEoM---

His laughter was loud and uproarious. It shook the metal bars between us and sent shockwaves through the knee high water. "SO, YOU JUST SNAPPED, HUH?" He let loose more spiteful laughter. "THOSE EYES HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO CAUSE MADNESS, YOU KNOW!" He began cruelly. "BUT I'VE NEVER HEARD OF THEM CREATING MADNESS IN SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T EVEN HAVE THEM YET, ALTHOUGH THAT'S NOT A PROBLEM ANYMORE." He smirked at me with his huge jagged teeth. "NOT FOR YOU."

The stolen eyes spun in their sockets. "What do you want from me, demon?"

Through his guffaws, he told me, "LUCKILY FOR YOU I AM FAMILIAR WITH THOSE EYES. I GRANTED THE SHARINGAN A VERY UNIQUE GIFT MANY YEARS AGO. YOUR'S IN PARTICULAR, ARE VERY POWERFUL."

"I don't care. I will never fight again."

"DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT?" My silence spoke for me. "NO, I DIDN'T THINK YOU DID."

My rage exploded, chakra flowed, unbidden into my eyes. Madness overtook me, and so did the Kyuubi's corrosive chakra. The world slowed, became formulaic, easy and predictable. "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THESE THINGS! I DIDN'T EVEN WANT THEM!" I jammed my clawed hand into the eyes and pulled. They fell into the water, letting blood fall from the empty sockets. They floated in the water, looking up at me, still spinning.

"KEH KEH… KAH KAH KAH KAH HEH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

---TEoM---

"You stand accused of conspiracy to commit murder, and of treason against Konoha, how do you plead?"

The words fell on me like bricks. I didn't look up to acknowledge whether I had heard or not. My head resting in my hands, I kept my silence.

"For the last time, what is your plea?"

"I am guilty of these charges." The words left my throat slowly. My mouth formed them before I could think better of it. Tsunade was shocked.

"A-are you sure?" She asked from her seat high above me.

"He says that he's guilty, so he's guilty!!" One of the council members insisted. "He should be punished as soon as possible!" A gasp went through the room, followed by thunderous applause. A great deal of Konoha's population was jammed in this courtroom, and many waited outside for a verdict. Someone in the back jumped up from his seat and told the people outside that the trial was already over and that I had plead guilty. A wave of cheering and clapping hands shook the building. A chant of "Kill the demon!" Echoed through the walls.

Tsunade was at a loss and searched me with her eyes. Words fell out of her mouth, numbly, "You are to be executed at noon tomorrow. The trial… Is adjourned."

The cheers felt justified to me. They were completely correct, I am a monster. ANBU came and grabbed both of my arms. As they led me past the unrestrained crowd, my eyes scanned the faces for two people. I found them. Kakashi's eye regarded me sadly. His shoulders were slumped, and he looked very very tired. Sakura stood next to him, staring at me hollowly. There was a gleam of vindication in her gaze, but I also saw something else, with my newly improved sight.

I saw the tiniest glimmer of compassion, like a candle in a pitch black storm. That glint of compassion, of forgiveness even, washed over me and cemented my decision.

I would accept my death gladly if it lessened my sin.

Did a beast like me ever deserve life in the first place?

---TEoM---

Kakashi came to visit me late that night. He walked into my cell, and sat down on a folding chair that he brought with him. I sat in the darkest corner, hunched over myself and crying. We spoke for a long while. He reassured me that Sakura was not entirely happy about the outcome. She had said that while she was incredibly upset with me, she did not want to see me dead. To that I asked him if he wanted to see my death.

He paused for a long minute. "Did you know that the Sharingan can interpret emotion and body language even better than the Byakugan?"

"No, I didn't know that."

He lifted the forehead protector from his other eye. "Do you know what my Sharingan tells me about you?"

"I don't know in the slightest."

"It tells me that you did not mean to kill Sasuke. That it was unintentional. It tells me that you are punishing yourself for something that you did not intend."

"Intention and action are two very different things." I avoided his sight and began scratching at my left eyelid. "My actions do not match my intentions. This tells me, that something like this could happen again. I can kill without intention." Blood dripped from my finger as my nail slowly penetrated the skin of my eyelid. I dragged the nail down savagely and left a gap in my flesh. The eye had not been damaged, but blood began to pool like tears. "I cannot be allowed live. I am too unstable."

He looked at my self inflicted wound and grimaced. "Naruto…"

"Please, Kakashi, leave. Thank you for the visit." I turned away from him and said quietly, "I thank you for seeing the intentions behind my blunders. Always."

"A good shinobi sees underneath the underneath, Naruto."

---TEoM---

My execution was a morbid affair. At 15 minutes before 12 o'clock, ANBU came to bring me to the execution grounds. As we walked achingly slow to the sight of my death, I could only wonder exactly how they would go about killing me.

Would it be long and painful, or short and merciful?

A/N: This can go one of two ways, people. Naruto can die, and the story will be over or he can live and the story can continue. A plot bunny attacked me this morning and I decided to chase it and see where it went, but I'm not too attached to this. I have other stuff to work on and I shouldn't really be writing this, but I like the way it came out. Based on your response, I may or may not continue.

Review if you want to see where this goes.