I read a similar fic to this one, but sadly the author started writing about some 'special charka' and stuff so I thought, "Why not make my own?" Anyway, I hope you enjoy this!

1

A New Friend

The deafening silence in the room hung heavy, only broken by the blond's occasional sobs and sniffles.

Today was a bad day. Well, almost every day was a bad day for Naruto, however, today was especially worse. He had to wake up early for Kakashi's test, and so he skipped breakfast. He screwed up the test and was tied up to the post. Naruto had thought his day was finally getting brighter when Sakura decided to feed him some of her lunch, but he nearly flinched when he saw the disgust on her face. Was he really all that bad? Was he not worthy of even the slightest of warmth and friendliness?

Wait... Maybe he deserved it all... After all, he was always bothering and annoying her. And realistically speaking, he was nothing but dead weight on their team.

He had felt a little bit of happiness when Kakashi had told them that they had passed... But that too had vanished when his team just left him tied to the pole... Forgotten and unneeded, as always.

He had finally worked his way out of his bindings and made it back to his apartment. And that was when the voices started again.

Worthless... Always screwing everything up... Maybe that's why they call you a monster. You're useless. On top of being intellectually knee-high to a grasshopper, you contribute absolutely nothing towards anything meaningful. You're a disgrace to Konoha.

He whimpered once more as his stomach grumbled. Even his appetite for ramen was gone. Food was another matter that troubled him. On some days, no matter how hungry he got, he just didn't feel like eating anything. And on other days, it was like he just couldn't get enough.

Naruto wondered if it was the damned fox playing around with his chakra and his body, but he doubted it. The Hokage had just recently inspected the seal and it was as tight as ever. So why his emotions were on a rollercoaster, he didn't know.

It was after an hour or so when the stream of tears finally slowed and came to a stop. The grumbling of his stomach grew louder with each passing minute and Naruto knew, if he didn't eat now, he would definitely be sick the next day.

"Ugh," he groaned as he pulled the sheets off himself.

With sluggish movements, he made his way to the kitchen in his apartment. Opening the cabinet door, he could only sigh as he noticed his ramen supply dwindling. He would have to go get more. As an afterthought, the blond wondered if he'd be able to buy more now. He heard that they got paid for missions, so Naruto hoped that his sensei would allow them to complete lots of missions. He could surely use the extra cash.

With practiced motions, he took out a cup of ramen noodles and placed a kettle on the stove to boil some water.

As he sat on his kitchen counter, waiting for the water to finish boiling, Naruto peered out of the window as he observed a few kids playing on the streets and he let his thoughts wander.

"I wonder what it would be like to have a friend..." he thought out loud. "It would be pretty cool, right? We would play together, hang out together, share food sometimes... Maybe even just talk to each other..." his voice grew soft at the end.

He hadn't even had a proper amicable conversation with another human in Kami only knew how long. Any time he talked to Kakashi, he'd always feel like he was being looked down upon. With Sasuke, he felt even more inferior. Sakura only talked to him in an annoyed tone. All of his other classmates didn't like him. The Hokage wasn't really his friend either. Hell, the only other person he'd had a good conversation with was himself. Or more specifically, his shadow clones. And they wouldn't even count as real friends...

Unless...

"Wait a minute!" Naruto exclaimed as he slammed his dinner table and stood up. His chair slid backwards and clattered to the ground.

Naruto nodded in self-satisfaction. This was it! He just had the greatest idea ever!

He would just be friends with his shadow clones!

Now, granted, his own shadow clones couldn't count as real individuals as they were literally just clones. Copies of himself. But what even made a person, a person? Knowledge? Consciousness? Experience? All his shadow clones would have to do is gain some more different experiences from himself and they'd slowly turn into new people... Right?

The sharp whistle of the kettle signalled the water had finished boiling and broke Naruto out of his stupor. With a slight bounce in his step, the whiskered blond quickly ripped open the top of the cup ramen and poured the boiling hot water in.

As he sat at the dinner table once again, Naruto finally decided to go through with his plan. However... He didn't want the clone to look just like him, obviously. That would just feel like he was talking to himself. No, that wouldn't do. He wanted his clone to look different... Maybe even a girl. That way, it would surely feel like he was talking to a different person.

Next, he tried to determine how she would look. Hmm... He loved the way Sakura looked, but Naruto didn't want a copy of anyone. No, he wanted a friend who was their own individual. That meant that she would have to look different as well. Maybe even the opposite of all the girls he knew... Which were only three.

Sakura had long hair, so he'd choose short-ish hair for his friend. Maybe so that it only came down to her shoulders. A bob cut would look cute, he reckoned. Her eyes would be... Normal, he mused. Naruto hadn't really seen many different types of eyes so he decided to picture them slightly larger than those of an extremely beautiful actress he had seen – Yukie Fujikaze. Naruto decided to keep the nose and lips the same as his own while making the jaw a bit more slender.

He wanted to make his friend different from himself, although Naruto couldn't help but feel a sense of possessiveness in his heart already.

And the last thing that was left to decide was his new friend's hair colour. Naruto thought of Hinata, Sakura, and Ino. Dark blue, pink, and blonde. What colour would look even better? Naruto asked himself, and weirdly, his subconscious supplied the answer: Red.

"Yeah," Naruto whispered to himself. "Red would look beautiful."

As he made up his mind, Naruto stood up and made the familiar hand seals. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he yelled and instantly felt a massive chakra drain. One that he'd never felt before, even when he made hundreds of shadow clones when battling Mizuki.

"Ah, shit!" he swore as he fell to one knee. Sweat dripped down his brow in buckets as he fought to see through the dark spots invading his vision, and the chakra smoke that filled his dining room. However, it was for naught as all the blond could do was collapse on the ground.

Only a moment later as the smoke cleared, Naruto caught the sight of a stunning short-haired redhead, standing a few feet away from him. He only caught a glimpse of her vibrant cerulean eyes as they opened and gazed at him in worry before the world went dark.

Leave some reviews! Lemme know what y'all think!