Prologue:
"It was supposed to be strawberry blonde."
The beginning of my misery started with this phrase. I was eight at the time, but I was too small and too thin to look like it. My hair though short didn't help with the gender differentiation. I had inherited my looks from my mom: the paleness of skin, the dark color of my hair, and my big onyx kitten like eyes has my older brother told me. And that is one of the reasons I looked like a small feeble girl.
The reason I'm small and thin however, was because of my condition. When I was four I caught pneumonia and nearly died. My childhood was spent in sterilized hospital rooms, with the constant reminder that death was waiting on the other side of the door, ready to take me to the other world.
My brother never forgave my father for not letting him stay with me when one night my breathing failed and I nearly died. I don't blame my father though. I didn't like seeing my brother and mother crying, not knowing that at the time the doctors said it was a matter of time before I perished.
However somehow, I was able to survive it. Though I spent the next four years in the hospital, my eighth birthday was celebrated in my house, and I was there to blow the candles. I was better, but I was still in risk since my growing had been affected. My brother said I always looked frail, and he was afraid I would pass away at any moment.
A few months after my birthday, I started classes. I was terribly shy and didn't speak a word, but I spent all day hearing about how pretty I was from both girls and boys. The reason of this ambiguity was due to the fact that my brother made me wear female kimonos, and decorate my hair with ribbons. He said that if I dressed like a girl, I would grow healthy, so I didn't argue.
Besides the normal classes, I attended at private lessons in my house. I learned kendo, judo and other martial arts, so I would grow wealthier and learned to defend myself. I am truly grateful that I learned those, because I would made use of those skills years after.
It was spring, when one day my brother made me wear a truly feminine kimono which I can describe due to the fact that I was photographed in it, and the picture was hidden in my desk. The Kimono had long sleeves; it was white with pink small petals decorating the ends of it, and the left side.
My brother felt that my black hair would not do, so he bought hair paint to dye my hair strawberry blonde. My misery was yet to start, when Itachi looked at my hair, with a stoic expression and then to the box in his hand. It so happened that my hair was not dyed blonde, but a soft type of pink.
When my mother looked at me, she first looked stunned, probably not recognizing me and then she looked amused.
"Itachi why is your brother's hair pink?"
"It was supposed to be strawberry blonde.", he replied.
Ah! The beginning of my misery!
"Where did the blonde go?", she asked
"I don't know. The dye only expires next year! And I followed the instructions."
My mother took the box, reading the side not finding anything unusual.
"Well, Sasuke is probably too smart for blonde."
Both of them laughed, but I couldn't find it funny as I grabbed one of my bangs to see it colored in that horrible shade of pink. And the jokes didn't stop there. My father who is probably the most controlled person in the world couldn't help a slip, as we were eating breakfast together.
"Itachi, why is your brother's hair pink?"
"It was supposed to be strawberry blonde."
My father took a sip from his coffee before looking at me to say.
"I can see the strawberry. So your punishment will only be cut in half, since it was supposed to be strawberry blonde, as you say Itachi."
"Then I'm allowed to have the strawberry part of my cell phone or the blonde one."
I didn't find it funny than and I definitely don't find it funny now.
Later that day, I found out the reason Itachi went all the way to paint my hair 'supposedly strawberry blonde'. We went flower viewing. But it was not any ordinary flower viewing, it was the town's five hundred years commemoration, and one of the festivities entertainments was a beauty contest called 'Sakura-hime'.
Guess who was going to enter even though he was boy?
I remember it was lunch time, my family had set their things near the stage, since we went earlier, so my parents would have the better view to see me in the contest and sheer me. I never knew how Itachi convinced my father to let me enter in 'Sakura-hime'.
You're probably wondering why I went along right? Well, my reason was simple: I was a naïve, innocent child that loved his brother dearly and thought that if I made my brother and mother happy I would do it not caring about the consequences.
While we were eating, I noticed kids my age, playing underneath the cherry trees. Some girls were wearing kimonos just like me. I didn't join them because I felt I would be put apart. My shyness was not a helping factor, I got nervous around people. However Itachi thought that I should go there to play, and dragged me there.
The kids only took a glance at me, and I went running behind my older brother. I was an unsocial kid back then, I still am now. Itachi thought I acted cute though. The kids were playing kagome.
"Sorry, this little one here is wants to play with you. Be nice."
My brother was smart enough to avoid the gender issue.
"What's your name?", one of them asked me.
I was nervous, so I said the first name on my mind.
"It's Sakura."
I only learned their names, not even decorating faces. They all seemed to know each other. I was put on the center and they sang. I was with my eyes closed, not even expecting to get the person right. I had already picked the name I was going to say, because it was the only one I remembered in the short presentation. It was a very unique name, and it suited the person well.
"Who is it?", they finished singing.
"Naruto!", I said.
"Eehh! No way, you cheated!", the boy that was behind me said.
"I did not!", I replied.
Naruto the boy that I got the name right out of luck, looked at me with disbelieving blue eyes. The first impression I got from him was that he would only bring trouble, at least to me. Sometimes, first impressions are frighteningly correct. Because that was what Naruto was: a person that would do anything to hurt me and humiliate me. He is the very reason I decided to never get close to strangers.
"Liar, you did cheat!"
"I never lie, and I definitely didn't cheat!"
The blonde boy then pushed me hard to the ground. A girl would have cried in a similar situation, but I was not a girl. I remembered I got so mad that I jumped right of the ground and started to punch him the way I was told in my martial arts lessons. However before things got ugly, my brother grabbed me to cease me and took me away. I noticed that I was crying in frustration when my brother hugged me.
The rest of the day until the time of the contest was blurry in my mind, but I most likely spent it next to my brother never leaving his side. Before the contest start, Itachi told me what I was supposed to do and told me I would definitely win since the other girls only knew how to sing or dance.
On stage, I can't see the audience only a blinding light. I made a slow bow exactly how Itachi had told me to do. Then I took the ribbon from my bang and tied it around the forehead. All in perfect fluid motions as my brother had described.
I didn't need to talk, I only had to concentrate. I crouched down in a perfect posture, so I could grab the kendo sword my brother had placed for me. The dummy had been brought to stage a couple of meters away from me. Then I did what I learned in my kendo lessons. I got up and waited, and then attacked with precision. The dummy that night was the second of my victims that would oppose me in the coming years.
When I heard the applause for bringing the dummy down, I thought that I had been good and I got happy. I went out of the stage straight to my mother's arms asking if she had liked it. My family including my stoic father was very pleased. Itachi was sure that I would win and for a moment I thought too.
But as the winning girls were announced, I was somewhat disappointed. When I heard the third had been taken by someone else, I thought that I could still place second, but that didn't happen. The first place had been won by a girl with very pale eyes.
"You deserved first place Sasuke. They probably bought out the results. Some people don't know how to play fair."
It was the first time I had heard my father say something like that. My disappointment had been replaced with pride and happiness. I didn't care I didn't win.
"I should have never dyed your hair! It's my fault! Look at her! Her hair is black! I'm sorry, Sasuke.", my brother had said.
I hugged my brother, who had seen all his efforts going down the drain. We were waiting now for the closing of the night in which the Sakura hime takes petals in her hands and blows them giving the start of the fireworks.
"Ladies and gentleman, this year we have a special award to give. Sasuke Uchiha, please come to the stage.
I was nervous, but my brother helped me climb to the stage. A very tall man, with bright blonde hair and blue eyes smiled at me. I knew this was the mayor of the town.
"Though it's normally the Sakura-hime who has the honor to bring forth our fireworks, this year that honor will be shared. Please give your applause to this year's Sakura-hime Hinata-chan and a very special flower as well Sasuke-chan!"
That night after being called to the stage I only remember blowing the petals and a hearing a lot off flashes. The fireworks probably didn't catch my attention as I was probably too tired and went to sleep.
I found out years later that I had indeed earned the first place, but I was a boy and so the jury disqualified me. The second place which was Hinata won the first place and so on. The mayor however didn't think it was fair so he deliberately interfered, announcing a special award that did not exist.
From that night I had a medal, given to me days later, a photograph in colors and the article which talked about the Sakura-hime contest with a photo of me blowing the petals, hidden well in my desk. Although I was ashamed of being photographed in a kimono, the memory of that day was one of the most important in my life in many ways.
The misery I've been talking about also dates from that day, as I said. My family never forgot the strawberry blonde jokes, but my true misery was related to my pink hair and Naruto.
Ever since that day I never made friends, traumatized by the accident with the blonde boy. I grew from a shy lamb to a lone wolf. You're probably wondering what the difference is. Well, when I was a shy lamb I was too nervous around people to talk decently, but I was eager to make friends of my own. However since the day I first met Naruto that eagerness faded with time, and it was replace with dislike of being around people.
When I turned twelve my loneliness and coldness towards others was interpreted as being cool. My brother had stopped insisting in the kimonos around the time of my eleventh's birthday, since I had grown much healthier. I excelled in my studies and sports, and my appearance no longer that feminine was a factor that increased my popularity. The only thing that I was missing was being a rich heir, which I was not.
My father worked at a police station, while my mother was a nursery teacher. Itachi had just begun working at a business company, even though he wasn't receiving any money. We lived comfortably, though I was very aware that my parents had had money problems the time I got sick. It had been their friends that had paid most of the bills during the four years I was restricted to a hospital bed.
It was in my first junior year, in the start of a new spring, that I was once again faced with my past. I was reading the list of names in my class recognizing the names of some girls I wanted to avoid. Haruno fortunately wouldn't be near me due to the name order, but Yamanaka was just a table away from me. It was then that I read the name of the boy sitting next to me.
It was Uzumaki Naruto.
I read the other classes' list in order to find if the name Naruto was common, but no such luck. I was going to sit next to him, the boy who had hurt me.
Needleless to say things did not end well.
In class, I started to glare at him, because it was obvious the moron had forgotten me. My glare did bother him, since he asked what my problem was. Next thing I know we are wrestling on the floor.
I was proud of myself as that idiot didn't even scratch me, while I did a good work on him. Even when my mother and his mother were called at the principal I did not regret what I did. It surprised me however that Naruto's mother thought that he had started, from what I was told. I knew he was a troublemaker from the start.
I changed schools and my parents didn't argue. I had always been a good child, so they knew that I had to have a good reason to pick a fight with another boy.
The years passed, I became more experienced in driving people away from me. I still loved my family, especially my brother who was now earning his own money and living his life out of our home. I was a star in kendo, leaving my knowledge of martial arts to the people who were crazy enough to throw a punch at me. My popularity with the female gender was out of proportion, but I didn't seek any romance in my life. My grades were as high as my brother's earning me a scholarship in a top grade high school.
Today I start high school.
I'm fifteen, and my misery is yet to see an end.
I hope you found it interesting.
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I do not own Naruto