Nothing too surprising here. Fear my drabbling skillz. No real inspiration.
I hold no rights to Naruto.
Naruto sometimes wonders how he manages to pick up so many broken people. That, and why they always seem to pick him as their best friend.
Currently he's stood on a battlefield; Sasuke's in front of him and Gaara's behind him. Naruto thinks that the similarities between the two are amazing, really. They both shattered as children, and no-one ever bothered to pick up the pieces or even notice the break in the first place. They both spent some of their childhood losing themselves in hate, hiding it behind a mask of indifference. They've both spent far too much time thinking about death. They're both 'geniuses', in their own way. Neither of them would know a social skill if it bit them.
The only thing that's different is that one of them has learnt from the past; he's willing to try to mend some of the damage, move on and keep going. The other one spends half his time making sure the damage doesn't mend, always prodding it, keeping the wounds open. Stasis and growth, he thinks.
His arm is definitely broken too, but give that a couple of minutes and it'll fix itself. People aren't quite so easy to put back together, he thinks.
He wishes they were.