Life's Purpose
"There are people of spirit and there are people of passion,
Both less common than one might think.
Rarer still are the people of spirit and passion.
But rarest of all is a passionate spirit."
- Martin Buber
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Chapter 2: Absolute Perfection
The sun was starting its way up into the sky, making the dark blanket of night slip back down. Its golden rays were reaching out like warm hands, gently waking up the sleeping people in the Village Hidden by Leaves. It slowly reached to a single window in an apartment, shining brightly into the bedroom that the window led to. Inside the bedroom, there was a bed with a peaceful, sleeping girl laying under the covers.
The rays crept across the carpet as if a secret ninja sneaking on its prey. It slipped up on the covers and gently rested on the girl's sleeping face. Kanade groaned in her sleep when the bright light hit her closed eyelids and she rolled over, pulling the blankets over her head. Just as her stirring ceased, a loud horn went off from her nightstand. She jumped in her sleep, clutching on her pillow and wildly looking around her room for the cause of the noise. Kanade looked next to her and to her nightstand, and saw that it was her alarm screaming at her.
Kanade huffed, looking irritated, slamming her palm down on the SNOOZE button on the top of it. She lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling, rubbing her temples and eyes. She tried snapping in and out of sleep, until finally she rolled out of bed. The bed squeaked under her weight and then relaxed when she got off of it. She walked towards her dresser, looking in the mirror at her tired self. Kanade's red and gold eyes were drooping slightly from lack of enough sleep, her short raven hair was a complete bed head, and her tank top was sliding down her shoulder.
Kanade wrinkled her nose at her reflection, scratched her arm and headed towards the bathroom. She yawned and stretched while she started the water. She took a shower slowly, feeling the hot water finally starting to wake her up. She got out with a towel wrapped around her body, walking towards the mirror. She brushed her wet, black locks and then dried it and styled it. She brushed her teeth, making sure to get everywhere.
Kanade walked back into her bedroom, searching through her closet for a good outfit to where. She pulled on the white short shorts as well as a long white fingerless glove which reached mid-upper arm that she wore on her left arm. She slipped on a chain-link 'shirt' which served as armour. The sleeves were long of course and hooked around her middle fingers in order to stay in place and the neckline hung just below her collar bone. Over the chain-mail armor, she wore a black tank top with a neckline two inches below the neckline of the chain-link top. She completed the outfit with a black and white striped fingerless glove that almost reached her elbow on her right arm, white ninja sandals and finally her black Konoha hitai-ate, which she had gotten the day before, she tied it loosely around her neck. Kanade stared at her reflection for a few seconds before looking at the clock and saw it was about 8 o'clock. She sighed and headed out of her apartment, walking swiftly down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk. Kanade turned right and walked calmly to the downtown part of town. Everyone was going around doing their business.
'So it's today huh…' she thought and sighed while she looked up into the sky.
Today is going to be her first day at the academy.
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"Class," the apparent sensei began, pulling Kanade out of her thoughts, "As you may have noticed, we have a new student joining us today," he paused to smile warmly at her, "This is Sugisaki Kanade," this was followed by a weak chorus of greetings and Kanade gave a short nod of acknowledgment towards the students, her face devoid of any expression at the time. The sensei continued, "I'm Iruka-sensei, would you like to tell us a bit about yourself, Kanade-san?"
Kanade slowly shook her head 'no'. She didn't have anything to say to these people and she definitely didn't want them to know about what had happened to her less than a week ago. And besides, she was not good with making friends at the first place. All that mattered to her was her parents but they're long gone now. The class was surprised and taken aback by that response, they hadn't even thought of 'no' being an answer. Iruka looked surprised as well and she was a little amused by their reactions, it wasn't really a big deal was it?
"Uh, well that's fine I guess," Iruka told her before smiling again, "Why don't you take a seat in between Naruto and Sasuke?" He waved his hand towards an empty seat in the center of the classroom between a boy with odd blonde hair and a boy with spiky black hair. Neither of them looked very happy, they actually looked angry. 'At me?' Kanade thought as she made her way up the stairs and sat down between the two students, 'I didn't do anything yet though...' "Alright," Iruka claimed the class's attention once again. "Today's lesson is on the Substitution Jutsu. Now…" Kanade stared straight ahead at the blackboard as Iruka gave his lecture, occasionally taking down a few notes when something seemed important. She noticed she was one of the very few who were actually taking notes; a girl with pink hair sitting in front of her, a boy with a high dark green collar and the boy sitting next to her who seemingly hadn't really been mad at her personally, 'Sasuke… I think it was…' she thought as she shifted her eyes to the left to glance at him.
"Hmm…"
# # # # # # # #
"Well that's it for this morning's lessons, we'll have lunch break for now and we're to stay inside the classroom today."
Kanade removed her bento box from her back pack and placed it in front of her before she felt a light tap on her shoulder. She sighed inwardly and turned her head slightly to face the blonde kid from earlier who was sitting on her right.
"Hi Kanade, I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" he declared to her loudly and cheerfully. Kanade nodded in acknowledgement but before she could turn back to her lunch Naruto continued, "I'm gonna be the Hokage one day, believe it!" she could practically feel the annoyance radiating from the other students.
"…How nice for you," Kanade replied coldly and opened the lid of her bento box. Not only were she hungry and this kid annoying, but it seemed he wanted to make friends with her for some reason.
"Yeah," Naruto responded, squinting. He was now squatting on the desk in front of Kanade so he was pretty close, "So, what're ya gonna be?"
Kanade's hand froze as it reached for her chopsticks. What was she going to be anyway? Kanade shifted her eyes upwards thoughtfully. She wanted to be something that her late family could have been proud of; strong, skilled, smart, merciless, quick, and silent; everything defining perfection. Yeah… that was it; perfect. She was going to be perfect, "Perfect," she responded, "I'm going to be perfect," 'For them…'
"Perfect huh?" Kanade heard Naruto's annoying voice ask, "That's great but becoming a Hokage is greater!" he said, grinning at his oh-so-clever comment. It didn't bother Kanade in the least.
"Hey, hey, hey…" Naruto started again, Kanade looked up at him, her chopsticks in her mouth, "And I want to ask about your eye. Why is it like that? I mean, it's different!"
Kanade slammed her hand on her desk then stood up, catching everyone's attention, and turned to glare at Naruto.
"W-what…?"
"You don't know when to shut up, don't you?" she told him coldly and darkly as she clutched her right eye. Such horror-inducing memories that she intended to forget coming back to her; her father's headless body, her mother's scream of terror, the excoriating pain of the kunai plunging in and out of her right eye, the sadistic smile and laughter of the mist shinobi and her own blood bathing her clothes and skin.
Kanade, sat back down again, she hadn't noticed that in her deep thought and reminiscing she had been setting off a dark and disturbing aura that was putting the surrounding students on edge. Even Sasuke was watching her with a wary eye. It can't be helped, she was thinking of her family's murderer so she was entitled to a dark aura. Exhaling through her nose, she noticed quite a few of her classmates staring at her and she blushed slightly. She wasn't too keen on having everyone stare at her when she hadn't done anything worthy of praise. Ignoring them, Kanade picked up her chopsticks and wedged a tamagoyaki between them, lifting the yellow morsel to her mouth. She had a bunch of those in her bento. It was her favourite food.
She then turned her gaze back at Naruto before asking:
"Anyways… Naruto was it?"
The spiky blonde boy gave her a curt nod.
"Are you trying to befriend me? …Because if you are, I suggest not to. You are just wasting your time," Kanade told him off, earning some snickers and whispers from her other classmates.
"I bet she got annoyed at him."
"Everybody thinks he's annoying after all!"
"Just look at that! No one wants to be his friend!"
"Sigh.. He really is just a nuisance to everyone!"
His face dropped and he looked hurt. He seemed to have heard those whispers. But Kanade couldn't feel bad for him, she had to get it across that she wasn't like these other kids. She doesn't want to have friends. Ever since she was little, she was always in their house and doesn't like going outside, she was happy with just being with her mother and father. She also had never attempted making friends in her academy back then. She doesn't need them; those human beings called "friends". She considered it like an emotional training for when she'd have to embrace apathy and a completely emotionless personality as a flawless kunoichi. She gave her thought a curt nod of approval, a habit of hers, and looked at the few tamagoyaki left in her bento box. She wasn't very hungry anymore.
Kanade's voice had been dark and haunting to anyone else but to Naruto it had just been hurtful. How could she be so heartless? He never had any friends and he never really got why but why would a new student have any reason to hate him? He had just only decided to try and make friends with the pretty new girl, she seemed kind of cool and funny but obviously, she wasn't interested at all.
Kanade ignored Naruto's pained look as she closed her eyes, all her thoughts settled on her goal:
Absolute perfection.
A/N:
Thanks for reading!
Reviews, please! I would love to receive one! :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto; Only the original characters and the plot.
See you next time!
Next Chapter: Exordium to Bonds
"They swing that way?"
"My first impression on all of you is… I hate you."
"My likes are… well… who I like is…"
"Mind your own business."