As We Grow Older

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, Sasuke wouldn't have left. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

On her birthday, her parents always said that she was another year older, another year wiser. She always believed them. After all, they would always right. They were her parents. But now, as she looked back at all that has happened, she saw something that she had been blind to all these years. This time, this one time, her parents were wrong. Because as she and those around her grew older, all that changed were the mistakes they made.

At age six, Gaara discovered that his purpose was to kill everyone in the world besides himself.

At age six, other students picked up on their parents' anger, and began to discriminate against Naruto.

At age eight, Sakura broke up with her best friend so that they could compete over a boy.

At age twelve, Sasuke first succumbed to the influence of Orochimaru's Curse Seal. He had almost committed murder while under its power.

At age thirteen, Kakashi decided to abandon his teammate, Rin, in favor of completing the mission his squad had been assigned.

At age thirteen, Itachi massacred the entire Uchiha clan in a single night to measure his capacity.

At age thirteen, Itachi left an emotionally broken little brother behind when he left the village.

At age thirteen, Naruto fought his best friend to prove his growth. They ended up trying to kill each other.

At age thirteen, Sasuke left the village to join Orochimaru.

At age thirteen, Sakura threw away the next several years of her life in an attempt to save the love that she felt for Sasuke.

At age thirteen, Sasuke came very close to murdering his best friend in the hope of gaining the Mangekyo Sharingan. The boy he left behind almost wished that he had been killed.

At age thirteen, Sakura and Naruto committed the next few years of their lives to training in the hope of eventually returning Sasuke to Konoha.

At age fifteen, Sasuke informed Naruto and Sakura that he would gladly die if giving Orochimaru his body would increase the snake's power enough to enable him to kill Itachi.

At age eighteen, Itachi felt that Sasuke did not feel enough hatred, and decided to torture the younger Uchiha for the second time in his short life, in order to arouse his brother's anger and unlock his full power as the one to measure Itachi's capacity.

At age twenty-one, Itachi wanted to pluck his younger brother's eyes out of their sockets, to prevent his own blindness.

It hadn't always been this way. One of Sakura's dearest memories was of a day when she had been only four. She had gone to play in the park, unaccompanied because her parents did not fear that she would be harmed in such a public place. She had been on the swings, one of her favorite places to be. A young blond boy with whisker marks on his cheeks, who she had never spoken to before that day, asked her if she would like to join in a game of tag with him and his friends. Eagerly she had accepted. The boy's companions were a mixed bunch. One of the boys had red markings on his cheeks and wild brown hair with a sweet looking white puppy perched upon his head. Next to him was a boy wearing sunglasses, who seemed to have a liking for bugs. A shy girl with pearly eyes and bluish black hair hid behind a confident looking platinum blonde girl. Beside them were a lazy looking boy with black hair tied in a high ponytail, and a fat boy with auburn hair. On the edge of the group yet still a part of it was a boy with raven black hair and onyx eyes.

Even though Sakura was afraid of bugs, as all four-year-old girls are, Sakura did not mind, for she also had a four-year-old's sense of accepting everyone as her friend, and she found no trouble with Shino. And even though Hinata was quiet, no one seemed to think that she was not worth listening to. And no one called Chouji fat, or Shikamaru a lazy bum. Ino was not a pig, Kiba did not have dog breath, Sasuke did not have a stick up his butt, and Naruto was not a monster. Because they were four years old, none of that mattered at all. All that mattered was that they were all playing tag together, and they were all having fun. When you're a child, none of the things that seem to matter when you're older have the slightest bearing on how you treat people. And, because of that, her parents were wrong. Because being older did not make you wiser. How could it, when the wisest of us were the children.

-Owari-