All For You
Chapter 1
4/4/09
Disclaimer: Not mine.
AN: This is the first story I've written that had no outside influences pushing me to write it. Please review. Tell me the good parts and the bad.
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As the door swung shut to his apartment behind him, Naruto's blinding grin slowly faded away to be replaced by a slightly bitter smile. The day had been like every other. Sakura and Ino bickering over Sasuke's attention, Sasuke trying to sneak away, and Naruto had played his part.
He rushed around getting into everybody's business, arguing with Kiba, asking Sakura on another turned down date. Every time they laughed at him, it hurt. Every time he was made a fool, it stung. Naruto wasn't really such a bumbling idiot.
At the Academy Naruto's friends were insecure, trying to please others and be the best. They had needed someone to look down on, to feel better than.
Now, as fully-fledged ninja, everything was changing for them. The world was darker than they thought, and being a ninja was not so glamorous and honorable as they dreamed. They killed un-nobly, the innocent as well as the poor, all for the good of their village.
With everything changing, they tried to ignore the new world they'd found. They clutched at familiarity, in hope of a simpler world they once thought existed.
They needed the class clown, so Naruto gave it to them. He supplied himself as the scapegoat, even as it pained him. They needed Naruto to stay the same, so he complied. He stayed the same naïve happy-go-lucky fool, all for his friends. Slowly and surely, his heart was being ripped out. Piece by piece, from every underestimation, every snide comment of the people he gave his all to.
Naruto didn't care though. He would give every last fiber of his being to his friends. They had saved him from the dark abyss. Even though they didn't truly know him, they acknowledged his existence. They didn't look at him with those cold, cold eyes of intense loathing.
He would do anything and everything for them. He was what they needed him to be. They had saved him from an existence worse than hell, so Naruto pretended to be the little ball of sunshine and ignorance that they needed. No matter if in the process he tore his soul asunder.
Naruto sighed as he shook himself back to reality. He slowly got ready for bed, to rest for the next day's act. Naruto could feel the strain of forcefully holding up his character for so long, and yet he continued. His friends depended on him. As long as they where happy, it was worth it.
~*~
INFO: For the time period, this is after the Chunin Exams but before Sasuke left. Everyone has taken C-class missions, which include wiping out bandit camps. Also included as C-class missions are taking missions payments from clients who haven't paid yet, forcefully or otherwise. Those who have racked up a big debt and refuse to pay are killed, so the genin have all killed already.