Title: The Truth of a Shinobi
Summary: This is the reality of being a shinobi. Her friends didn't realize it, but she did.
Warnings: None, really.
Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto
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She stares down at the two pictures, head bowed, but no tears flowing.
She has known that this day was long in coming, ever since she stepped foot in this godforsaken place. She has always known what their fates would be.
She has always been observant and a realist, although Mariko often liked to called her a pessimist. She is not a pessimist; she was simply mature for her age, capable of seeing things others her age could not.
While her companions often held romantic notions of what shinobi life was like, she knew better. Then, she wasn't quite sure of what being a shinobi would be like, but she knew that it involved killing.
No matter how much her friends fantasized, she knew that she, nor they, could bear that burden.
But that choice was taken out of her hands when they foolishly jumped at a chance to become shinobi. As she stood behind them, shock encompassing her entire body at their stupidity, she met the Hokage's eyes, and realized a deep, awful truth.
He knew.
He knew that neither of them were capable of taking another's life, even in defense of their own, and she could see a quiet sort of respect for her, the one who didn't want a life like that, who hadn't been exposed to a life like that, but knew, instinctively knew, what a life like that would do to them.
But he also did not seem all that surprised when she, rather reluctantly, said that she would become a shinobi as well.
Nor was he all that shocked when, time after time, she would come into his office, asking for chakra control techniques, and various other things in order to strengthen herself.
He's also not surprised when her jounin teacher-Umino Iruka, recently snagged out of the Ninja Academy-sings praises of her hard work and dedication.
He's knows why she's doing this. It's for her friends, the ones she continually offers to train with, but gets shot down every time. The ones who would rather act like damsels-in-distress then accept their duties as kunoichi.
The ones they both knew would die.
When her friends were out shopping, she was training.
When they stalked hot guys, she was learning new jutsu and making friends with members of the Rookie Nine.
When, on their first ever C-ranked mission, they refused to help her do any work, leaving everything up to her and Iruka-sensei.
When she took her first life, her training partners (Hyuuga Hinata, Tenten, Iruka-sensei) were the ones who were there for her, not the ones who called her a murderer and a monster.
"Are you alright?" She turns her head and smiles at Uzumaki Hinata, her best friend.
"Yes. Yes, I am."
While she may not have the love of Uchiha Sasuke, Sabaku no Gaara (Sakura and Matsuri would kill her, anyway) or any other of the main characters of the show she had once watched so avidly, she had friends.
And while she wasn't the strongest kunoichi around, she was good enough to stay alive one more day.
What her childhood friends hadn't realized it, she had.
To be a shinobi, to live under the threat of death every day, to train every chance you got for that edge that would keep you alive one more day, to keep a balance between a cold-blooded killer and a human being… that was the reality of a shinobi.
They hadn't realized it… but she had.
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::this is our reality::