Team 8

Chapter 8: Revelations

Naruto did not sleep well that night. Of course, that was like saying that Uchiha Sasuke was a little stuck up, or that Sakura was slightly enamored of him.

In other words, a massive understatement.

He tossed and turned until dawn, sleeping fitfully for only a few minutes at a time. Each time he managed to drop off, he'd have such disturbing dreams that he'd thrash himself awake in short order, barely avoiding hitting Shino as he slept next to him.

He pondered the new ninja's way he and Hinata were going to follow as he first dozed off, but then he abruptly found himself reliving that fight again. He was strangling the fire-ninja, what was his name, Kouro? He could still feel the man's throat under his fingers, but it was the terror that shone in his eyes that Naruto couldn't forget. The man had been afraid of him, and worse, he'd enjoyed that fear... he'd lapped it up like his landlord's cat with a saucer of milk. He'd been disappointed when the fire grew too close to Hinata and he had to break the man's neck to stop his fire jutsu.

Naruto knew that a shinobi would sometimes be required to kill an enemy in order to complete his assignment. They even talked about it at the Academy, and an old man from the Hospital came and talked to each student privately after that lecture. Naruto grimaced. When he'd met with the man, oji-san said before dismissing him was that he doubted Naruto would have any problems. At the time, he'd thought he'd been praised and left with a smile on his face. Now, Naruto knew the man was making an oblique reference to the Kyuubi. After all, demons enjoyed killing, didn't they?

So in the depths of the night, Naruto stared up at the darkness inside the tent he shared with Shino and wondered if the villagers had been right all along. Only a monster would savor someone's fear like that. He already had the demon's red chakra running through his body... was it corrupting his mind as well? For a moment, he cursed Kurenai for teaching him to think things through, because now he could only lay there as his mind and emotions churned. It was said that power corrupts... How much more would that be true for power that flowed from a corrupted source? Inside him was the demon that wrecked Konoha and stole the life of its greatest leader. If it was corrupting him, shouldn't he try to do the honorable thing while he was still capable of feeling loyalty to Konoha?

At one point, he began to think about reaching for a kunai, but then he remembered the mission they were on. Shino was still injured, and most of their group tactics depended on Naruto, as back-up if nothing else. Also, if the Iwa-nins were afraid of him, they wouldn't press Team Eight for the last few days of their patrol. They needed him alive, at least until they made it back to Konoha. Then he could figure out what he needed to do. If something happened to him after they returned, the Hokage wouldn't send them on another dangerous mission until a replacement had been assigned. Maybe someone who wasn't stupid.

Naruto slipped the metal ring off of his finger a couple of minutes before his alarm was due to shock him awake. He wearily climbed out of the small tent, gritty eyes blinking at the gray light of dawn. He shrugged into his jacket, trying to ignore the small flecks of dark brown amidst the green of his sleeve. He'd need to take a trip to the laundromat when they returned, or would he? Naruto shook his head. He'd been up all night thinking, but he still didn't know what to do.

He gathered more wood for the fire, moving as silently as a wraith through the early-morning stillness. When he returned to the camp, Kurenai-sensei was awake, sitting near the fire with a folded map in her lap. Her red eyes were expressionless as she studied him. "How did you sleep?" she asked, the concern in her voice evident, even to him.

Naruto shrugged, not trusting his voice.

OoOoO

Hinata was a little sore when she awoke; for all that, she'd slept soundly. It was hard to believe that yesterday hadn't just been some elaborate fever-dream. She still couldn't recall what she'd been doing or thinking when she rescued Hanabi, but Naruto-kun said she'd been 'incredible'. The way he'd smiled when he said that made her stomach ache a little... mainly because she knew she was making more out of it than was really there.