Friendship
It was a foreign word to one, Uzumaki Naruto. Sure he had friends but he never understood the concept of having them.
When he was a child he had no friends. He would see the other children playing and wished to be a part of it, to be friends. They wanted nothing to do with him. Naruto was persistent when he wanted something so he began trying to be like the other children. He would laugh and cheer, he was exuberant and happy just like the kids he observed. This only alienated him more as they labeled him as annoying and further distanced themselves.
Naruto decided it was the parents that would hover around and call the children away from him that were ruining his chances. To remedy the problem he enrolled in the academy where he could be with other kids and make friends. These relationships were strained at best. They were fragile and only lasted during school hours if that long.
Since they would not come to him he decided to take the initiative and try to be their friend. He would pick someone who he liked and try to act like them. He skipped class with Kiba, snuck snacks with Choji, and napped with Shikamaru but none of this drew them closer.
Then there was Haruno Sakura. How he wanted her attention! He had seen her with Ino when they were little and how nice she could be and decided that was the kind of friend he wanted. Unfortunately Uchiha Sasuke was also in his class. Sakura would fuss and swoon over him constantly. When the Uchiha rejected or ignored her it only seemed to fuel her desire for his affection. So when Naruto copied her fangirl behavior and used it against her he thought he must be doing it correctly as she brushed him off just like Sasuke did to her. Naruto never had the ideal relationship to base his off of so he never thought anything was wrong when Sakura abused and made fun of him.
Sasuke was never truly on his list of candidates. He was a rival for Sakura's attention not friend material. Even before the massacre he was cold and proud and refused to associate with anyone he deemed unworthy. Then they were placed on the same genin team and went to the land of wave. They formed a bond that Naruto called friendship despite his lack of experience in the field.
When Naruto fought Gaara during the chunin exams he thought that they could be friends. Of everyone he had met Gaara was the most compatible, the first person that he really shared something in common with. Eventually they ironed things out and developed the most basic of relationships since neither boy knew what to do in a friendship.
Naruto had friends and he knew it, but he did not understand friendship. He knew that it was a give and take relationship that required more than one person to accomplish. But once he obtained the friends he so dearly wanted as a child he did not know what to do with them. He knew friends did things for each other but he did not know what.
He was often chastised for his lack of knowledge on friendship when his companions extended kind gestures. He would ask if they were feeling all right or making fun of him and he would end up with nothing. They could not understand his stunted social development and took his naivety as rudeness.
They did not give up on him though. Sakura would bring sweets sometimes to morning training, enough for the three genin. Naruto would take his with his usual naïve question and receive an earful from the pink-haired kunoichi about gratitude. Sasuke almost always gave his share to Naruto saying he did not like sweets and the blonde would take them with thanks. Naruto simply did not realize that this was friendship.
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This is just a little drabble I wrote in about half an hour. I was thinking about Naruto's relationships and how he cannot really do what other friends do together because of how he grew up. I thought this was depressing so now I have to go watch Stephen Colbert to make me happy. I hope you enjoy it. Please review and thanks for reading!