I actually wrote this back around the end of April on a plane ride, but never got around to typing it up. So, here it is. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me; I just borrow it sometimes. The setting and characters belong to Kishimoto Masashi.
Perserverance
Hayate likes to think that there is something to be said for perseverance. There is something to be said for those who push themselves beyond their own limits, whether or not they are afraid to do so - because he knows that if it weren't for perseverance, he wouldn't be here today.
When the doctors gave him the diagnosis, they told him he'd be better off living life as a civilian. A career as a ninja would theoretically be possible, they said, but very difficult. Nearly impossible. Likely painful, agonizing, arduous.
Hayate chose the path of the ninja. He was never in it for the easy road anyway.
He doesn't think most people understand, really, just how hard he's worked to get where he is. They know, but they don't understand, he thinks, because when Genma slaps him on the back, asks him how the hospital food is these days, Hayate just goes with it. He doesn't think that any of them will ever really understand.
But that's okay, he decides. That's okay, because as long as he knows, and as long as he understands, then nothing else really matters.