Chapter 8 - (look at the end if you want to be spoiled)

A dark side alley in Gotham City. Heaps of garbage were laying around and the dim light of the lampposts barely reached there. A girl's shouts and pleas of help suddenly broke the relative silence of the night.

"Help!"

"Please no! I'm begging you!"

"Someone! Please help me!"

But it was in vain. This kind of scenes was not exactly uncommon in Gotham. And even if someone were to hear her voice, he wouldn't interfere. People knew better than trying to help others because the criminal organizations were too strong in Gotham and because the situation was too chaotic - getting involved into something like this was synonymous to asking for death.

"Oy, idiot, I told you to stuff her mouth with a rag or something!" the hoarse voice of a male was heard and his partner hurriedly forced a dirty rag into the girl's mouth to muffle her screams.

"Hold her hands. Once I'm done with her you'll get your turn too." the male that seemed like the leader said with a lecherous grin and began to unbuckle his belt.

The girl struggled desperately but she was no match for the one that was holding her arms. The aggressor pulled his pants down and then, a sound of clothes being ripped was heard. But just as he was about to get going with what he was about to do, startlingly loud sounds of metal cans hitting the asphalt came from the heaps of garbage laying around.

For a second, the two rapists stopped in their tracks as though they were petrified.

"Who's the bastard hiding in there! Come out!" the older of the two male yelled in an aggressive voice.

*swish*

A tiny slab of concrete cut through the air at a high speed and hit the male that had just yelled right in the head.

"You're noisy!" sounded the tired and rather raspy voice of a teenager. "I don't care what you're doing with that bitch. Rape her, kill her, do whatever the fuck you want. But do it elsewhere. You're too damn noisy."

The older man was enraged. The skin of his head was now slit and he was bleeding profusely. He was even angrier since he couldn't see the figure of the one that had thrown the tiny slab of concrete at him.

"You fucker! I'll kill you! Get the fuck out here if you have the balls!"

No sooner than his words ended a brick was thrown at such a high velocity that the man didn't even see it...It happened in an instant: the man was just making threats but one second later the brick collided into his head, blowing it into a bloody and gory paste. One man was murdered right then and there.

His partner was stunned for a brief moment but then he broke into a run screaming in horror at what he had just witnessed, his desire to rape the girl they had captured being completely erased from his mind.

The girl herself was shocked to the point that she fainted straight away when the geyser of blood from the man's head splattered all over her naked body.

When the silence instilled once again, the teenager sat back on the heaps of garbage and laid the back of his head on the wall of one of the buildings encasing the alley.

Two joints were burning in his hands and he was puffing from them, inhaling the narcotic smoke deeply.

"Fuck!"

He cursed and threw the joints away in apathy. It was already bad that he had to smoke up to 5 whole joints in one go for the effects of the drug to show up, but now that he killed one of the two men that had tried to rape that girl right in front of him, his mood was completely ruined. He wouldn't get high even if he smoked 30 cigars.

The teenager sat up to his feet again and began to walk slowly towards the main avenue, not caring in the least about what was going to happen with the naked and unconscious girl in the dark alley. As he strolled through the streets he happened to look into the windows of the shops he was passing by. The hood on his head obscured most of his facial features but the whisker-like birthmarks were still visible at the light of the lampposts.

It was Naruto.

He pulled his hood down and looked at his reflection... he was having a hard time recognizing himself.

Dressed in a pair of dirty black pants and a stained dark red hoodie, he looked just like any other ordinary homeless guy. However, his facial features would tell anyone that he was lower than that. His complexion was as white as a sheet, his cheeks sunken and his bloodshot and glazed eyes were a far cry from his once clear, baby-blue eyes. Dark bags were under his eyes and his once sun-kissed blonde hair had lost its lustre and it was longer, falling down to his shoulders in a dirty and tangled mess. He looked just like a drug addict.

Four months have passed since that terrible day when the joker hacked into the television channels and showed everyone his newest "joke".

Four months filled with utter despair and rage for Naruto.

That was because his sister Misaki was no more. The Joker's words still resounded into his ears: 'Humans are inherently evil. You are evil...'

And true to the Joker's predictions, when facing death, humans' true nature came out. Only 3 minutes passed since the Joker started the countdown and one of the yachts was blown into smithereens. The people on the other yacht pressed the button... and Misaki was also on the board of the yacht that exploded.

However, the Joker's biggest joke was that he didn't abide his words... he pressed the button of his own remote control, making the last yacht explode as well. Everyone died... Over 300 hundred people were murdered that day... and no survivors were found.

Following that day, Naruto lost himself to his rage and despair. He didn't even have on whom to vent it because the Joker was apprehended by Gotham's "Superhero" before Naruto had the chance to get him and the ones that pushed the button to make the other yacht explode have been killed by the Joker as well.

And so it began...his descent to hell. He couldn't sleep anymore as nightmares tortured him every night. Every time he closed his eyes, happy memories of his sister played in his mind, only for them to get distorted and end with her dying in various manners...with most of the time being in an explosion. Naruto was witnessing his sister dying every time he slept!

In his desperation, he turned to drugs. But because of his chakra, their effect on him was greatly diminished. Because of that, soon, Naruto lost everything he owned in order to buy drugs. He began to live on the streets and sleep at the same place with the stray dogs. But even when he was high to the point where he couldn't distinguish the reality from hallucinations, memories of Misaki still haunted him sometimes.

Naruto glanced one more time at his reflection before pulling his hood back on his head and walking away. He didn't have a specific destination. With slow and staggering steps, he simply walked aimlessly.

A question suddenly popped into his mind.

'What point is there in living anymore?'

Naruto stopped his steps again. He really saw no point in living anymore. He had not killed himself until this moment for the sole reason that he had hoped that the Joker would break out of Arkham Asylum again but 4 months have passed already and the psychopath had not made a move yet...and Naruto had finally reached his limits. He was exhausted. He was devoid of any strength and will to carry on.

It was an unusually quiet night. Even during the night, in Gotham, there would still be quite a few cars on the streets. But, this time around, the streets were empty.

As he walked, Naruto arrived at the Westward Bridge. He looked at the agitated waves of the river below and, skipping over the railing, he got as close to the edge as possible.

In face of death, his previously semi-paralyzed mind began to work in overdrive and all kinds of memories flashing before his eyes. Eventually, the lyrics of one of his favourite songs came at the front of his mind.

Get up! Get up! [...]

"Get up..what for? What is there left for me to fight for? Nothing." Naruto's broken voice sounded.

Naruto had managed to pass over his grandfather's death relatively easily. He had preoccupied his mind with thoughts of Misaki and instead of grieving for the old man he strived to offer Misaki a better life, for her to not experience any kind of needs. With real blood and sweat, he earned the money by fighting in underground cage fights just so he could spoil her and he had always been there for her to protect her or to embrace her when she was sad.

Naruto had never envisioned a life without his 'little' sister. All his gruelling training every day had not been not for the sake of simply getting stronger but for becoming strong enough to protect her. Everything he had ever done was for her.

But now that Misaki was gone, gone was his purpose of living as well. It was if he had lost his soul.

A strong breeze blew and with his back turned to the river, Naruto sighed.

He let himself fall. The water splashed high up in the air and a loud sound was heard at the impact of his body with the river's water. As his body fell deeper and deeper, the light of the bridge that was being refracted into the water became dimmer and dimmer. Along with the churning water, the darkness encased him from all sides. He didn't try to fight it.

'Heh. Old man, it looks like I'm coming after you sooner than I thought.'

'Mom...dad...I've never seen you in my life...now that I'm dying, will I finally be able to meet you?"

With his arms and legs loosely spread, Naruto closed his eyes, waiting for the cold arms of death embrace him.

'Misaki, I promised you, didn't I? ...we'll always be together, even in death...Wait for me, Misaki...Your onii-chan is finally coming to you."

Title of Chapter 8 - Embracing Death