The Angel's Ambivalence [Naruto]

The Gokage Summit

"I was in the darkness, so darkness I became."

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Minxie's POV

I had never been so angry in my entire life. As I jumped from tree to tree, racing towards the Land of Iron, my own thoughts were haunting me. All I could think about was how betrayed and hurt I was by all of my friends.

That's right. My friends. I was supposed to be able to count on my friends, I was supposed to be able to trust them, but now, I wasn't sure if I could trust anyone.

Not only had they wanted to kill Sasuke, but they had tried to manipulate me. Manipulation. I still couldn't believe that that was what it had come to. I mean, manipulation? What was this? Just how ignorant did they think I was? How dare they... How dare any of them even think about manipulating me!? How could they!?

I was so caught up in my anger, I had almost ended up knocking into a tree straight-on. I swerved to the side quickly, deciding that maybe it wasn't the best idea to think about what had happened between my friends and I.

But how could I not think about it? Whenever I closed my eyes, all I saw was their stupid, guilty expressions. Shikamaru's words of persuasion -no, his words of manipulation- continued to echo in my head.

Thinking back to my reaction towards their manipulation, I found myself not regretting a single word I said. I was just so sick and tired of everyone walking all over me. I'd do anything for my friends; they knew that all too well. And they had used it against me.

I felt weak. How many times had they manipulated me before, without me even noticing it? How could I let them treat me like garbage and still let myself get hurt for them?

I felt worthless. We were all supposed to be friends, yet they had completely and utterly betrayed me. Every single one of them knew what Shikamaru was going to do. Hell, every single one of them had agreed to it. Was I not enough for them? Wasn't I worth caring about? Were my feelings that meaningless to them?

I felt betrayed. Friends were supposed to care for each other, but my friends had hurt me far beyond measure. Could I even call them friends anymore? It almost felt stupid to do so.

But most of all, I felt angry. Angry at them for betraying me. Angry at Sasuke for making me care about him so much. Angry at Sakura for not objecting to our friends' words of manipulation. Angry with Naruto for not being there when I needed him to be. And more importantly, angry at myself for being so stupid and trusting with everyone and everything.

Things had to change. I couldn't go on being so selfless. The problem was that I cared too much about everyone. I had made that mistake time and time again, but I still kept caring, no matter how many times I got hurt.

Seriously, how stupid is that?

I had no idea what time it was. The sun was still out, but from its position, I knew that it was well into the afternoon.