❝𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑲𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒉𝒂❞

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 26: 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔 𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝑯𝒖𝒓𝒕

Sakura awoke when she first realized that the space on the bed where Naruto sleeps was empty. She lifted her head and looked around the room. She was still trying to shake the fog of sleep out of her brain and failed to notice the sliver of light shining out from beneath the bathroom door. Inside the bathroom Naruto sat against the door still trying to recover from the hellish nightmare he just experienced. Over the course of his life he has always had nightmares ranging in content but after he began travelling with the Akatsuki and Jiraiya he began having a nightmare that involved Jiraiya.

In those dreams he would often be forced to watch his mentor fight against a figure. He could never make out his shape and the more he focused on certain parts of the figure the more they would blur out. Jiraiya would fight desperately against this person but woukd never land a blow. Eventually the person would grow bored and begin killing Jiraiya right in front of him. Naruto's screams would go unheard as he broke down and cried while he watched the closest thing to a father he has ever had die a slow and torturous death. Then the figure would look in his direction and would always say the same words: "She's next."

Thinking about what those words meant sent a chill down his spine and the thought of being forced to watch his friends die in front of him made the blonde break into a cold sweat. When he was training his Genin team he would also be meditating and slowly increasing the duration of his Sage Mode. The training was taxing enough by itself however when he was alone he would practice each elemental affinity by sparring against Sage Mode Enhanced Kage Bunshin. However the dreams had begun to shift 2 weeks ago. Now instead of just being forced to watch Jiraiya die each dream would throw another friend in and he would watch each of them die in different ways, each worse than the last.

Tonight's new friend to be killed was Sasuke. After he watched the friends before him die his voice was already hoarse from screaming warnings to his friends and shouting curses at the attacker. His tears were dried up and he felt numb. He wanted to cry when Sasuke was stabbed by countless shrouded blades. He wanted to cry when the figure slowly pulled out each of Sasuke's eyes. He wanted to cry when Sasuke, crawling blindly towards him with blood running from the empty holes where his eyes once were, begged for him to help before he was lifted into the air and decapitated. Normally one would cry when his best friend is cut down right before his eyes. They would cry, curse, make futile promises...anything to try to make them open their eyes again. But that was not what happened.

Naruto shed no tears. Screamed no threats. He promised nothing. He just...stared.

His gaze was empty, seemingly dead to the world. He was drained. Emotionally drained from the constant nights of traumatizing events only to be forced to wake up and put on a smile. It was bad enough now where he would see flashes of the grisly remains of his friends even as he spoke to them. Their voices rang in his head crying out for help that was impossible to give. The cries of help would then shift to accusations. He would see their faces as they glare at him like the villagers once did. They would ridicule him, degrade him, call him a lier and tell him how he would never fulfill his promises. He would fail them all in reality like he did in his nightmares. However tonight during this verbal onslaught only one thing held his attention: the severed head of Sasuke Uchiha with bloody holes where his eyes once were yet the head maintained eye contact with the blonde. Right before the next bout of verbal abuse came the head gave him a smile twisted with demented glee and said two words: "She's next."

It was at that point that Naruto shot up in his bed eyes wide with terror. He frantically searched the room for the mutilated corpses that were just tormenting him. Naruto's heart was racing and refused to slow its erratic pace. He got up and stumbled like a drunk to the bathroom. After closing and locking the door he quickly stumbled his way to the sink. He tripped and caught himself on the sink counter and using it to support his weight he filled the sink with near freezing water and plunged his heated face into the water. After repeating the action several times he finally grabbed a towel and began to use it to dry his face. After emptying the sink he collapsed against the bathroom door, put his hands on his face, and shed silent tears. He was as quiet as possible during the whole ordeal. He had two priorities at the time: calm himself down and to do so without waking Sakura.