On the edge

Chapter one

The throwing star nailed it's target, sinking deep into the innocent tree.
A boy about 16 years old who never brushed his golden blonde hair, stared at the throwing star. Naruto had been training for days - and to little avail. Having just gotten out of the hospital, he was determined to get his body back to normal.
But unfortunately, nothing ever went back to normal so easily. The pain in Naruto's body begged him to give up - to stop training. And he knew that there was no way he would be able to force himself to continue, unless.....
An absolutely idiotic idea popped into Naruto's head. To go through with it would mean being reckless, dumb, and rash, but then again - that pretty much described Naruto Uzamaki didn't it?
Naruto wouldn't be able to continue fighting unless he absolutely had to, so therefore he needed an opponent. And what better opponent than himself? "Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto shouted, signing the all too familiar jutsu quickly. Suddenly, about fifty shadow clones appeared, all watching Naruto intently. "I want you all... to attack me!" He whispered-shouted.
Right on command, without even a moment's hesitation the clones began to attack Naruto. As if they had trained for thousands of years just to kill him.
Fighting off multiple clones at once, Naruto was completely overwhelmed. So he shouted yet again, "Shadow clone jutsu!" This time about 60 more clones appeared.
About 20 minutes later Naruto was losing blood quickly.
A large gash on his head, a broken leg, several deep cuts on his torso, a useless arm, and several random cuts everywhere prevented Naruto from being able to do anything other than dodge his opponent's attacks.
Why did I do this? Naruto asked himself in despair. Lady Tsunade is going to kill me! If I don't kill myself first.... Eventually Naruto fell to his knees from exhaustion, his head spinning. But the clones showed no mercy; coming at him with full power.
Naruto sighed, and for a third time created the shadow clone jutsu; or at least tried to. He was exhausted and almost out of chakra-not to mention the injuries.
Shakily, Naruto stood up, almost falling over as he did. He stumbled back to the village and eventually went back to his run down and dingy apartment complex. And as he entered his room and got settled there was a sudden banging noise at the door. He didn't care at first until he heard them trying to break it down. Somehow, he jumped up out of bed and rushed to the door" hoping, pleading that he would get there in time to stop his unknown attackers from coming in. But he was too late, the door burst open, taking most of the hinges with it. From what Naruto saw there were 10 villagers; easy enough to defeat, but they were accompanied by 10 shinobi as well. Naruto was exhausted and didn't want to attempt to fight, instead he protected himself from their blasts. Until he felt his arms jerked ruthlessly behind him. Next thing he knew his world went black.

A while later,

Naruto looked around himself and saw... blood. It was everywhere and his apartment was destroyed, however he didn't care. Numbly, Naruto attempted to stand up; but it didn't work out very well; seeing as he instantly collapsed. He groaned, and began to use his arms to crawl over to his bed, which he sat beside - unable to climb up onto it.
Naruto gazed at his bedroom once again through tired, blurry eyes. Tilting his head to the side he wondered where all the blood had come from. Outside of his broken door there was a trail of blood, now brown with slight age; but other than that all the other blood was a vibrant ruby red, especially the blood around Naruto himself.
Not that Naruto minded, in fact; only one thing stood out about his apartment. The word demon, written on the wall. Naruto soon realized that he was too exhausted to care, so he sprawled out right there on the cold hard floor, knowing he would have to take care of it in the morning.

Later that morning,

Naruto heard pounding on his door, this time however he immediately sprang up. Naruto regretted this decision when the room started spinning and he felt the nausea kick in. The pounding on the door got louder, Naruto wondered how the door was even staying upright on the broken hinges. Naruto then heard "Naruto are you in there?" from a voice Naruto soon recognized as Kakashi-sensei's. Naruto looked at his alarm clock and realized he was 2 hours late for the meeting with team 7-or at least what was left of it. Naruto immediately panicked, "What is he going to think when he sees the blood, the injuries, and the state of my apartment?" Naruto asked himself frantically. Naruto slid on his slightly too big jacket, hoping that it would stop Kakashi from seeing his injuries. "Why does this always have to happen to me? Why can't I just sulk in peace?" Naruto asked himself under his breath as he grimaced. Naruto walked up to the door and sighed. He slowly opened the door and peaked out through the crack. Naruto put on his best fake smile and said "Hey, Kakashi-sensei" Naruto croaked nervously.
"Why didn't you show up for the meeting?" Kakashi asked in his usual uninterested-lazy tone of voice reading his pervy novel.
"I-I erm..I slept in. A little too late I guess". Naruto said with a forced chuckle with his hands behind his head. Naruto glanced at the door, he was so close he could just close it now. Kakashi noticed Naruto tensing up and looking at the door. Naruto saw Kakashi look at him and the door and got very nervous. "Yeah, sorry I guess I was just a little late, anyway I feel a little under the weather I think I might sit out on training today." Naruto said, noticing Kakashi's slight change of posture and his eyes widen slightly. When Naruto said that Kakashi immediately knew something was wrong, Naruto never wanted to stop training. The kid has trained with broken bones before! "Why not Naruto." "J-just not in the mood" Naruto stuttered.
Quick as a flash Kakashi burst through the door. Then he just froze. The next few moments were a blur. They were filled with a frantic Naruto trying to stop Kakashi from seeing the damage and a frozen-wide eyed Kakashi. Naruto leaned against the wall in exhaustion trying to stop Kakashi from seeing the damage aggravated his wounds even more than they were aggravated. Then Naruto heard a terrible creaking sound, he looked up and the door was about to fall on top of him. He was too exhausted to move out of the way so he put his arms up and braced for the impact. However it never hit. He opened his eyes and saw Kakashi holding the door so it didn't fall on top of him.
Staring at Naruto in shock, Kakashi wondered how Naruto was even alive. With so much blood everywhere... Well - he should have been dead. Perhaps the Nine tailed fox saved him? He wondered. No matter, even with the nine tailed fox's help Naruto will die soon. I have to get him to Lady Tsunade.
Kakashi picked up Naruto in his arms and attempted to make his way out of the wreckage, but was soon met by the ten villagers and ten shinobi who had attacked Naruto from before. Apparently they were waiting for Naruto to awaken again in order to attack him once again. There was no time to fight these people, so Kakashi simply jumped away; running straight toward the Hokage's office.
With no arms to use, Kakashi kicked the Hokage's door open; a small dent soon appeared in the door afterwards. At first Lady Tsunade was confused, but her confusion quickly shifted to concern once she saw the bloodied boy in his arms.
"What...?" Tsunade began before she was cut off by Kakashi,
"No time." Tsunade nodded, taking the boy from Kakashi and racing to one of her medical rooms.
"I had told Naruto he was to train with Sakura, Sai, and Neji today. Go tell them what happened." Tsunade told Kakashi. Kakashi did as he was told, not wanting to leave Naruto however he didn't like doing it. Soon Tsunade was rushing Naruto to the hospital when she heard "Lady Tsunade stop." Tsunade was taken aback for a moment noticing that he didn't use her ridiculous nickname. "Please stop, I am fine I don't want to go to the hospital, they hate me anyway, probably wouldn't help me."
"Too bad cause I will. And afterwards you are in big trouble." Tsunade replied. However as she took Naruto into the hospital her worst fear came true. They looked at the boy with hate in their eyes "Lady Hokage I refuse to take the demon brat into the hospital, why not let him die? It would be a service to the village." Tsunade was beyond furios. "Well whoever doesn't help him will not be working here for much longer." "Sorry Ma'am but we refuse, fire us if you want to but we will not help that brat." Tsunade barged past them and threw Naruto on to an operating table, "After I am done you will all wish you were never born."