The Purpose? (Naruto Accused And Neglected Fanfic)

Ch-25

Menma and his friends were searching for Narumi as she rushed out of the Hospital. "Where did she go?" asked Menma. "I heard that she was murmuring something about Naruto's grave" said Sasuke. Everyone looked down as they heard Naruto's name. "I am feeling so bad--" before Sasuke could speak he was interrupted by Menma, "we will talk about that thing later....we sure will. But let's find Narumi now." "I guess I know where she would be" said Neji.
"Yeah, she must be there...." said Shikamaru.

............

At the Konoha Graveyard.

As everyone entered the graveyard they saw Narumi just standing in middle of the area, "I knew she would be there" said Shikamaru. "Narumi what are you doing?" asked Menma as he walked towards her. "Nii-san...please help me find Naruto-nii's grave. I am searching for ten minutes but I can't find it" said Narumi with tears in her eyes. This made everyone emotional, "h-his grave...is not here Narumi." said Menma. "Then where is it? And why not here? Criminal or not every shinobi regardless of their crimes are dumped here right then why not Nii-san?" asked
Narumi. "H-his crime....Villagers didn't wanted Naruto's grave to be among their relatives" replied Menma. Narumi fell on her knees after listening this, "I didn't even cared if he had a grave or not but now ,why all of a sudden I want to see his grave. Never ever I cared to check and pay respect to his grave....I thought about what people will think. Every single second after hearing his story my guilt is getting double. We were his siblings yet we didn't trusted him...we were all--". "Stop it Narumi!" Scolded Menma as he fell to Narumi's level, "Please stop it...I don't want to worsen my condition" said Menma while sobbing.

A loud scream of Neji was heard. Everyone looked behind to see Neji recklessly punching on the ground while kneeling, his hands were bleeding. "Neji what are you doing?" Asked Sasuke as he ran toward Neji to stop him. Soon everyone gathered around him but Neji didn't stop hitting the ground. "Nii-san you will break your knuckles stop it" said Hinata with concern. "Let it break Hinata. I don't want my hands, these hands once had Naruto's blood on them. It won't go until my hands exist." screamed Neji. Soon Shikamaru, Menma and Sasuke grabbed Neji and tried to stop him, "Leave leave me" screamed Neji as he tried to struggle out "Leave me please. These hands. I don't want to see them ...they will always remind me of that day. Neji don't please it hurts a lot." Naruto's voice was echoing in his ears continuously. "He begged for mercy that day but I kept hitting him..I am responsible for his death" said Neji as he started crying.

"Lets promise, we both will become strong and then gain the respect from our family. The one who showed me the ray of hope, lost his hope to live because of me." said Hinata as she looked at her shaking hand "that day I slapped him in the court, I could see the light in his eyes fade away. I felt nothing about it that time but now....now this feeling is killing me. I lost the one who I loved the most but I am the reason myself that I lost him...."

"Villagers always despised Naruto, they hated him for being the reason of third's death. I hated Naruto too for being the reason why Itachi nii-san was in coma. But when I got to know him as friend my hatred was replaced by friendship. I thought how wrong the villagers were and how I were one of them. But when I came to know about what Naruto was accused of and evidences against him I forgot all about Naruto. The little hatred which I had long ago for him slowly started rising more and more. Whatever villagers said about him...those whispers, those rumors, that hatred....it gradually convinced me that Naruto might just do that. I said him in the court that we were not his friends and called him even a monster. Now that I realise, I am no different from the villagers. In the end I did something which villagers did to him for his whole life....to accuse him of something which he never did." Said Sasuke trying hard to hold his tears.

"It's really shameful how Toneri used all of us to break down Naruto. He used such a dirty way for all of us to pit against Naruto but more embarrassing than that is we all did the same thing which Toneri thought we would. He thought of us as people who hate Naruto and given a reason we might even betray him, and guess what....we actually did that. Though none of us accepts that we hated him when he was our friend but somewhere deep in heart we didn't felt safe with him because of all that we had heard about him from the villagers...like he is a monster, murderer of Lord Third, child not to be around. As  bitter it is, we are all as responsible as Toneri for whatever Naruto went through." said Shikamaru.