The Choice

Chapter 4

Naruto's POV:

I look over my shoulder, checking to see if anyone was following me; I don't sense any human presence.

"Good," I mumble to myself satisfied.

I slip behind the waterfall quickly and head towards the back of the cave where my emergency supplies are for unexpected situations. I immediately strip and hang the soaking clothes on my makeshift clothes rack and then go searching for the towel I keep here for this reason exactly. After drying my skin off, I get dressed in the spare clothes stored here before starting a small fire. Everything is going according to plan, so that's good.

*Hungry Stomach Growls*

"No, you can wait until noon at least; you have fat, use that," I tell my growling belly before sipping some water I have stored.

That usually settles the hunger pangs for 30minutes, enough time to start another entry in my journal, two for one today. I mean, I do want to get this done as fast as possible, so I can finish what needs to get done.

I move to my bag and pull out the blanket before laying it on the ground between the wall and the fire. I glance around once more to make sure everything is where it should be before unwrapping the black covered journal from the plastic I store it in when I travel. I sit on the blanket, legs crossed, and back against the wall before opening the journal to the ribbon bookmark. After the pen resides in my grip, I take a deep breath and begin.

'I'd be surprised if you made it this far, but also grateful that you are taking the time to learn about someone you never truly knew. Nearly everyone in the village knows I'm the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, but what they refuse to accept is that I'm the jail cell for it. I am a human who has a demon sealed within, just like Kushina Uzumaki, the previous jinchuriki and my mother was. I don't understand why she got appreciated as a saviour, and I'm not when we both had the same duty and will to protect the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Despite all the pain I was put through and still am delt from the villagers, I still love this village because there are a few of my precious people here. My parents are both buried there; I like visiting their graves and updating them on my progress, leaving out all the bad things to not upset them. My friends, Sasuke and Sakura, are still my precious people, despite us separating around the age of 10 when life turned to shit for us all. They never knew something went wrong for me then and still don't; I couldn't tell them the SS-Class Secret about me, nor that he died.

The three of us were pretty tight in the Academy until Sasuke lost his Big Brother to disease and Sakura lost her Aunt to cancer, the only adult who accepted her, and I lost my guardian and best friend, Kurama. I consider him my caretaker since he was the only one to look after me from birth; he kept me alive and taught me just like any good parent should do. After we all lost someone close to us, I tried to be there for them and stay happy since they never knew my heart was breaking too, but they were lost in their grief and told me to leave. Sasuke became angry and arrogant towards everyone, especially me. He would glare at me whenever we crossed paths as well as push me to the floor, throwing my stuff to the ground, making everyone laugh and accept him for punishing the Demon child. Sakura became depressed but managed to become friends with Ino, Hinata, and Ten-Ten. I watched them from a distance, giving them space, but I also watched them move on and make new friends, forgetting all about me.

It wasn't until we were put on Team 7 together that we spoke to each other again. I was a nervous wreck. I couldn't forget how easily I was substituted, but I only showed the same happy go lucky personality they grew up knowing. They were different, distant at first and rejected me because I was always so happy. On multiple occasions, they would yell and beat me up, trying to break me; I couldn't let them know how much that hurt me, if only they knew. I don't hate, nor blame them for what they did or said. They had every right to be mad, they lost their source of happiness, as did I, but I lost mine when I was a child; the Third Hokage knew about it and did nothing but told me to smile, so that's what I did.