Brief A/N: Eh? Where did this come from? I think it was from a random line of a random summary… anyway, a very short 350 word drabble. It is likely I will sometime revise it and make it longer and… better, but I might just leave it…. eheh. u.u'
Lunarmercury Presents:
Observation
Sometimes, when there is nothing to do – no training, no missions – he sits and watches. He stays in trees a lot – and he has no idea why. He's not particularly graceful – it's a minor miracle he hasn't fallen off yet – and the leaves aren't very good for stealth, as they tend to rustle. But the people he watches aren't yet skilled enough to really notice the rustling, and when they do, they pass it off as a breeze, even if there wasn't one. So he sits, in his hiding spot that wouldn't be good were he watching real, grown shinobi, and regards the children at play. He sees them laugh with shining eyes and pass the ball to one another, sees them work together if it goes somewhere they might not be able to reach on their own. He notices how even those on the swings are not alone; their friends come and push them, playing games by seeing how many swingers they can run in front of at once without being hit. The boy in the tree watches, and remembers how the swings were always empty if he was swinging on them, how if he tried to help get the ball they would slap and push him away, occasionally just leaving the ball there in order to get away from him. He recalls their ability to break up and regroup somewhere far, far away when he asked to play, how it was almost a game for them to avoid him.
But it was never fun for him.
He liked it the first few times. He had an entire playground to himself – how lucky could he get! But even his optimism could only take him so far. After several times of everyone leaving, or ignoring him, he could no longer deny it.
He was incredibly lonely.
And as he sits and watches them play joyfully, Naruto wishes every one of those little children better luck at befriending their peers than he had when he was their age.
Lord knows it would be nearly impossible for their luck to be worse.