Phew. This nasty is done. This was started over the summer, abandoned, and then finished. Yeesh. Took Ember long enough. Now she can get back to Fullmetal Alchemist where she belongs.

Anywho, read and review!
I'm a poet and just don't know it.
No, I'm not trying to rhyme. I didn't mean it... not that time.
Why the hell am I still rhyming? I didn't want to throw off my timing.
So I'll dance a jig and put on a wig:
For feedback I'll feign a heart attack.
Okay, I was lying. I can tell you're not buying.
But if you do, please read and review!

O.o

Moving on... This is loosely based on the song "Rakuen" by Do as Infinity. If you haven't heard that song, then please do listen to it! It also makes great reading music for this.

Aiming for Paradise

~*~*~

My name is Shikamaru, and I am a failure.

That's not what you'd expect to hear from the first guy in his year to become a chunin, but it's true. It's what I am. I let them all down. My village, my team… myself.

To be fair to myself, we had been sent on an impossible task. How could one newly appointed chunin and a motley group of genin have ever been expected to succeed, especially when our target was a prodigy? Then again, we might have been able to do it, or at least come out with less injuries, if my plans had been better.

If. If is a wonderful word. But now it is a curse, plaguing me at every moment. If my plans had been more foolproof, if there had been more advanced shinobi in the team, if we hadn't split up, if I hadn't let my teammates fight incredibly powerful beings on their own… the thoughts continued relentlessly. Even though I've already received lectures from both a fellow shinobi and my father, doubts continue to plague me. I failed. I failed my team. I failed my village.

Naruto. Sasuke. Kiba and Akamaru. Choji. Neji. My teammates on this impossible mission. As their leader, I failed them.

Naruto was injured by his friend, whom he failed to save because of my inferior planning. Sasuke escaped and is on his way to Orochimaru. Kiba and Akamaru are injured. Choji almost died, as did Neji.

But they aren't the only ones I failed. By failing our mission, I failed the village. Lady Tsunade. Ino. Sakura. Everyone.

But most importantly, I failed myself. I had never been a team leader before, and I had hoped that my plans would be good enough. But I let myself down as I saw my carefully-laid plans crumble before my eyes.

I failed. And I know it. But I will not allow myself to quit just yet.

It's true that I have no real willpower. It's why I quit fighting during the chunin exams. But, for some reason, when I was made a chunin anyway I felt a little different. Stronger, maybe. And now I realize what exactly it was that felt so different.

It was a drive, a will to succeed. Someone had seen that while I had no drive to fight, I could plan well and win anyway. It made me want to do well, for that mysterious unknown individual or individuals.

An old box sat in front of me, gathering dust. Without cleaning it, I knew what it was. It was a chess set, one that had gone ignored since the chunin exams.

A chess set. Perfect.

I picked up the box and went to find the only person I had played and lost to. It was time to learn a few new tricks.

"Father, will you play chess with me?"

He grinned. "So you've finally decided to stop moping around and start improving yourself, huh?"

I had. I am a failure, and I know it. But next time I will not fail. Next time I am appointed team leader, the mission will be flawless. And even if it isn't, I will continue to learn until the day comes when a mission I lead is perfect.

~*~*~

My name is Choji, and I am a failure.

My guess is those aren't the words you'd expect from someone who displayed a strength no one knew they possessed. But they're true. Because my strength came from medicines that almost killed me.

I keep thinking that if I had just trained a little harder, maybe I wouldn't have needed that third and final pill. The one that nearly killed me. But I was only really interested in food before. Maybe that's why I almost died on this mission.

I am proud that I defeated my enemy. But I failed myself. I shouldn't have needed to resort to such dire measures. I should have been stronger. Then maybe I would have been able to deal with my enemies with more of my own strength and less of the strength that is borrowed with large amounts of interest from crushed plant and animal bits.

I was just recently let out of the hospital, whatever the medicines did to me cured by our village healers. My sensei, delighted by my miraculous healing, decided to treat me and the rest of my team to lunch.

Of course, the idea of lunch was one I enjoyed very much, since I had always had a great appreciation for good food. It was one of my greatest weaknesses. And so, as Ino poked fun at me about my size yet again, I made up my mind.

Sure, I was a failure. But that didn't mean I had to stay a failure forever.

I would train, and train hard. I didn't care that I had almost died, that I had just gotten out of the hospital.

My sensei was a little concerned at first, but I was determined, and so training began.

As I ran and used my chakra nearly to its limit trying to evade my sensei, I felt alive as I hadn't in a long time.

I was working my way toward success.

Maybe I'll never get there. Who knows? But I have to try. I can't just be content with staying a failure forever.

~*~*~

My name is Kiba, and I am a failure.

I did not fail myself. Instead, I failed someone far more important.

As an owner and as a friend, I failed my dog Akamaru. I let him down when we were supposed to work as a team, and I let him get severely injured in the process.

Sure, my sister is an extraordinary veterinarian, and she can mend the tendons Akamaru ruptured in all four of his limbs. But what she can't fix are the scars on my heart for allowing that to happen to him.

If it had been me in his place, I would feel much better. I could take getting hurt; I had taken getting hurt when I feebly tried to give back to Akamaru a little. But little Akamaru, cute, innocent Akamaru, my partner in crime in everything we did, was not supposed to get hurt. Ever. It just couldn't happen.

I was weak, and I had let it show. But even though I knew it, I knew I couldn't possibly get stronger alone. So I waited and waited, longing for Akamaru's healing to be complete more and more with each passing moment. I needed my friend and partner to be beside me as I improved for his sake.

Finally my sister released him into my care, the tendons in his little legs healed at last. I was overjoyed. Starting slowly to rebuild the trust I was sure had been broken, I could improve our teamwork and my individual strength.

I picked up a Frisbee as Akamaru wagged his tail and we walked outside together.

We spent the whole afternoon outside, both of us laughing in our own ways as I threw the plastic disc for Akamaru to catch. Once, he decided to switch it up on me and threw the disc himself with a flick of his furry head.

Instantly I was running, well aware of his intentions because it was always easy for me to read the little dog's movements. I kept my eyes on the Frisbee as it twirled through the air, trusting that Akamaru would know better than to let himself run into my path and get caught under my feet.

Sure enough, he stayed well away as I rushed and caught the Frisbee, flushed with success. We still worked well as a team, after all, despite all the time we spent healing instead of training.

We will continue to train, of course, and not just with little plastic discs, but with metal stars and knives and everything we can, using all of our abilities to their greatest potentials.

It wouldn't do to be failures, after all, not if we're the future of Konoha village. We've got to make our world better, not just be content with the way things are.

~*~*~

My name is Neji, and I am a failure.

I have been told that I am a prodigy, a great asset to the Hyuuga clan. Then again, that is the same clan that marked me with a curse, doomed forever to be subservient to the main branch of the family or to die should I veer from what they see as the proper course. Clearly they don't trust very well, or maybe I am not the prodigy everyone says I am. I certainly don't see what they claim to.

They placed me on a pedestal without first examining me for flaws, and one of them very nearly cost me my life.

Everyone seems to think that my byakugan vision is flawless, the most amazing thing they have ever seen. I can see just about everything around me, just by sensing the flow of chakra around me. It certainly seems great at first glance. But that first glance is as imperfect as the byakugan itself is.

I cannot see or sense everything, and that nearly got me killed. It is only because of the great medical miracles that are our village's hokage and her medical staff that I survived at all.

Before, I had gotten around that with my supposedly-legendary agility and continual motion, constantly shifting my blind spot so as to negate it. But the last mission proved that such actions will not always be possible. There will always be something that will be able to stop me.

If my sleight of hand will no longer work, then I must simply learn to see. I must train myself harder. Instead of seven, I must see all eight birds that are actually flying above me.

With that goal in mind, I went to my uncle with a rather unusual request. I wanted him to do whatever he could to try to surprise me, no time interval attached. I just wanted to learn to be on my guard and to see what is going on around me.

He was rather stunned by my request, I could tell. I had never really specifically asked for even more training than I normally went through. It is necessary, though, or I will never improve.

I am a failure, but I refuse to stay that way for long. Maybe next time my eyes will be better able to serve my team, but I'll have to work to get there.

~*~*~

My name is Naruto, and I am a failure.

Those are the words everyone always associated with me. I was always determined to make sure they weren't true. Now, however, everyone has a point.

Believe it. Even the words everyone knows as my catchphrase are failures. No one really believes in me. I don't even believe in me.

I couldn't save my brother, despite my promise to a friend to do so.

That's the next sticking point; I'm an only child. But I wasn't lying to Sasuke when I said I see him as a brother. And I wasn't lying when I said I would bring him back either. That is, I wasn't lying until he overpowered me.

All of a sudden I sat up, despite all the nurses' assurances that I really shouldn't be moving. There are many things that can be said about me. I refuse to allow 'liar' to be one of them.

I will train harder. And I will bring Sasuke back next time, no matter what.

With additional training will come additional belief. And when I believe in myself, maybe a few other people will believe in me too.

If I can believe in myself hard enough, and train hard enough, maybe the name Uzumaki Naruto won't be synonymous with 'failure' in Konoha village anymore.

~*~*~

We are the young shinobi of Konoha village, and we have failed.

Our mission was unsuccessful. Our individual flaws got in the way of our team effort.

We vow to change that. We will grow as individuals and as teams. We will learn the skills we always thought were impossible to learn. We will push for that next level.

We are no longer content with dealing with the cards we have been dealt. We hold all the cards, and we can change them if we work at it.

We will no longer settle for average performance. We will strive for personal best after personal best. Failure is no longer an option.

We may not be able to see it yet, and we may never be able to see it. But we know there is a paradise out there, there is perfection, and we will aim for it.

fin