Disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to Naruto or any other book, movie, or song that may be mentioned intentionally or unintentionally. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.

© Naruto – Shonen Jump – Masashi Kishimoto

NARUTO'S RANT

A Short Fan Fiction Story

By

Tattoo Alchemist

At the gates of the Hidden Leaf village, the team of five had been prepared for a special mission. The mission was to bring back Sasuke Uchia, the one who had deserted the village in search of the man who would be able to give him the power to truly take revenge against his brother. Many of them didn't have that great of an attachment to Sasuke in the first place, but a few of them had looked up to him for his talent and strength, but only one truly had the conflict about it. That singular one was Naruto Uzamaki, one of the three members of Team 7 to which Sasuke was assigned.

At first when he heard that news that morning that Sasuke had left, at first Naruto didn't want to believe that Sasuke would want to take such an invitation from someone who was so evil. The man that everyone knew of was named Orochimaru, a man who was very much like a snake, down to his very appearance. It was that man that Sasuke was going to find to gain true power, and the five man team at the gates of the Hidden Leaf village had the task of bringing him back.

"Let's go!" Naruto called out to the others impatiently.

"Wait!" A girls voice called out to them.

They turned to see the pink-haired girl named Sakura. She stood there at the threshold looking pitiful with her hands clasped, her eyes red with tears, and her face filled with sorrow. If there was no other way to describe it, she looked like a woman who had her heart broken, no, at least that would be salvageable. Sakura looked like her heart had been shattered like a cheap mirror.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto said aloud.

"I heard the story from Hokage-sama," Shikamaru, the newly promoted Chounin and leader of the five man team told Sakura. "Sorry, but I can't bring you on this mission. Even you weren't able to convince Sasuke, were you?"

Naruto's eyes widened with the instant that his mind had put the pieces together. His heart had raced because for as long as he could think, he had been trying to win the heart of Sakura. Ever since they were academy students, he tried, but all that time, Sakura fawned over Sasuke.

"All that's left is for us to force him to understand." Shikamaru continued, "Sakura, your chance is over."

Sakura looked down at the ground; her piteous look grew even more as her eyes welled with even more tears.

"Naruto," She wept, "I beg you. Please…please bring back Sasuke-kun!"

When Naruto heard that, he could feel something within him begin to snap. Almost as if inside him there was a rubber band being pulled and stretched as far as it could. Then, over the years, it began to dry and crack with each new failure and frustration because of Sakura. Yet, at that very moment when those words exited Sakura's lips and had hit Naruto's ears, the rubber band, after years of tension, failure, frustration, and sheer age, it snapped.

"I couldn't do it." Sakura continued to weep with her eyes closed. "The only thing left that could stop Sasuke-kun is…you…Naruto, only you."

After the thing inside him had snapped, Naruto came to a great cathartic epiphany.

Sakura's a bitch.

Naruto could feel his own teeth begin to grind against one another as the epiphany began to overtake him like how he would feel when the charka of the Nine-tailed fox would overtake his mind at the edge of death or in the face of great danger. Only that time, he wanted it to happen. He looked across the threshold at Sakura, his lips opened and he said with a very gruff and defiant voice.

"Why should I do any favors for you?" He asked coldly.

Sakura looked up at him, her eyes wide with shock as the tears made their burning path down her face. She looked to the face of Naruto whose features were contorted and twisted from his anger and fury. In his blue eyes that were always so kind, she could see a cold-blooded fire begin to burn hotter and hotter. She started to wonder if it was wrong of her to come and ask him that question.

"The only reason why I'm going after Sasuke is because I want to." Naruto explained, "I'm not going to do this for a selfish bitch like you."

"Naruto…" Sakura whimpered.

"SHUT UP!" Naruto bellowed, "I DON'T WANNA HEAR ANY MORE OF YOU!"

His voice was so much that even the other members of the five man team began to take small steps away from him. In a way, they could see the very same thing that Sakura was beginning to see, a monster that had been in the making after years and years of her rejections and cold shoulders.

"All these years," Naruto snarled as he stepped closer and closer to Sakura. "All these years I had been trying to get you to see me. I wanted you to recognize me, because of how I felt about you, but what'd you do? You went for Sasuke. You and all these other bitches, fawning over him. Sasuke! Sasuke! Sasuke! It's enough to make me wanna puke and really I don't know why I kept trying after all that."

As Naruto stepped closer, Sakura fell backward onto her ass looking up at Naruto her face filled with fear and terror.

"Let me ask you this," Naruto sneered as he brought his face closer to Sakura's, "Would you have made such a fuss over it if it were me in Sasuke's place instead? That I was the one who left the village?"

"I…" Sakura stammered.

"YOU SEE!" Naruto bellowed, "You don't give a shit about anyone else except yourself and Sasuke!"

"That's enough, Naruto!" Shikamaru tried to break it up.

"Stay out of this!" Naruto bellowed at Shikamaru. He brought his attention back to Sakura. His fists tightened so much that his knuckles began to crack and his fingernails digging into his own palms hard enough to force them to bleed.

"I thought…you were my friend, Naruto." Sakura cried.

"Friends?" Naruto laughed so much that it sounded almost maniacal. "That's so funny, isn't it, Sakura? Another one of your jokes, huh? ISN'T IT?"

"Naruto…" Sakura wept.

"You pretended to be friends with me." Naruto snarled, "But all the while, you just wanted Sasuke, isn't that right?"

"I…"

"ADMIT IT!" Naruto stated, "All you ever wanted was Sasuke."

It was then that the unthinkable happened. Naruto raised his fist and punched Sakura across her face.

"NARUTO!" The other members behind him shouted.

"That's for years of my pain and humiliation because of you." Naruto had said at Sakura. He watched with a certain glee as she cradled the side of her reddened face and tears still streaming down it. She looked at Naruto with such confusion.

"Don't sit there looking all innocent and confused, bitch." Naruto said, "I will bring Sasuke back, but because of you. I'm going to bring back his head in a special box for you."

Naruto turned and headed out the gates leaving the other members dumbfounded at what had just happened.

The others soon followed leaving Sakura behind with the injured Rock Lee who looked at Sakura and after hearing all that he had heard, he started to wonder about something. Rock Lee was a man who made a promise that he would date Sakura, but after seeing all that, that she just wanted Sasuke and no one else, he wondered if she was really worth it. He hobbled away on his single crutch not stopping to see if she was okay, because what was a selfish bitch like her worth?

As he did, Sakura wept in realization that everything that Naruto said about her was true. Every single word of it, especially how if it were Naruto in Sasuke's place, if it were Naruto who had left the village, she wouldn't have shed as much tears as she had.

"You were right, Naruto…" She wept about herself, "I am a bitch…why…why didn't I see it sooner?"

END

Author's Notes: I made this short story after seeing the scene where Sasuke leaves the Hidden Leaf Village, but before he does, Sakura comes to him and spouts such romantic dribble as "take me with you" and all that. Then Sakura has the audacity (sheer brass balls) to come to Naruto and ask him to bring Sasuke back. This is kind of the pitfall of all nice guys, that they do favors for women who are complete bitches to them, basically women who don't deserve anything. That was the basic idea behind this. I know that this may be uncomfortable for a lot of Sasuke/Sakura fans as well as fans of Sakura/Naruto, but I say to you, you can take a metal stick and……well you know where to put it.