Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of the characters that appear in the anime/manga series. I like cake.
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My first impression of him was that he was loud, obsessive, and completely unprepared for the chuunin exams. Who the heck was his Jounin sensei, and why had they let him in the exams? To distract the foreign shinobi and give Konoha the upper hand? I suppose there were worse plans. I added lucky to my first impressions after watching his fight in the preliminaries. Lucky to be facing an even louder, larger braggart that was coincidentally proving his worthlessness by wasting time taunting his opponent before finishing him off. Lucky to survive so many hits that certainly didn't look weak in any way. And lucky enough to accidentally find an exploitable weakness in his opponent just as he needed it.
When I saw him again, he was fighting against the boy with the white eyes. Once again crudely imitating human punching bags, he and his clones managed to unveil the secret to the Hyuuga's power. With their Byakugan, they were able to see further around them than normal eyes. Not only that, but they were able to see through physical objects, and see chakra paths in human bodies as well. And using it in conjunction with their fighting style, they could seal away an opponent's chakra. Of course, Naruto found this out the hard way, and could barely stand with all his chakra gone. Oh well, I supposed. He had a good run, but he was totally outclassed.
Evidently I was mistaken. How he could still access chakra, I have no idea. But the sheer power of the chakra that he was releasing made me flinch. He emitted so much that it was visible. He then proceeded to go toe-to-toe with the other boy, until finally, the two initiated an explosion that put craters in the stadium. When the blonde nailed the arrogant gloating idiot in the chin, I could barely stifle my laughter. I revised my opinion of him quite a bit. Although he was still loud, perhaps he had been ready for the exams after all. The sheer determination and raw stamina did, in a way, make up for his lack of skill and style.
The most important thing, however, was when he fought my brother. Once that pink haired girl had been caught in Shukaku's deformed claw, Naruto's entire attitude changed. He was focused, clever, and powerful. I'd never seen anyone even create that many normal bunshin, let alone the physical type that he'd employed. Over and over he battered Gaara, until my brother unleashed Shukaku's complete form. Oh great, we're dead, I remember thinking. Naruto especially, because he'd been caught in a desert coffin. Just as he was about to die, he does the unthinkable, again. Summons the largest toad I'd ever seen in my life.
The rest is all a blur. I just remember running as far as I can from the two monsters before I was squashed. Who the heck has that much chakra to put up such a fight, especially against Gaara? And for who? For what? A stupid pink haired girl that wouldn't even give him the time of day? If a boy was willing to lay his life on the line and protect me, I certainly wouldn't have any qualms about whether or not he was loud and silly.
But the true effects of Naruto's fight with Gaara we didn't fully appreciate until long after we had left Fire country's territory. Gaara had become… human again. He still had a lot of catching up to do in the personality department, but he was far less dangerous and psychotic to us. And I felt thankful to Naruto, for inspiring such a change within my brother.
It wasn't until later that I realize that I was not merely thankful. I had slowly been falling for the boy. An enemy of ours, as well, who had never even spoke a full sentence to use before, and I was falling for him. I fell for him because of what he accomplished, what he stood for, and what compassion he showed, not just to his friends, but to strangers and his enemies as well. He was willing to go out of his way and try to change what he thought was wrong regardless of who it was inflicted upon. He was willing to lay down his life to protect people that he loved, regardless of the consequence. I'd met far too many selfish people over the years to not appreciate a selfless person when I saw one.
I never did get a chance to thank him for what he'd done, or tell him how he made me feel. By the time the Sand council got off their high and mighty horses and offered their strongest genin team as an olive branch, we had just enough time to get there and save the Uchiha retrieval squad from certain death. I didn't see him myself, but I'd heard that Naruto took far too many critical wounds and wasn't taking any visitors. So it was certainly a surprise when he disappeared from the hospital, and I didn't hear any mention of his return for three years. By the time he had, and all the dust finally settled, he was seeing the silly pink-haired girl.
I suppose I should have felt more heartbroken. However, Naruto was happy. My consolation was that, by keeping my own feelings for him aside and letting him have his happiness with that Sakura girl, I could possibly one day be as selfless as he is. Perhaps one day I can be as happy as him, as well.
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A/N: Argh, my brain froze down yesterday and I couldn't express what I was trying to say at all. Every sentence came out as slop. Today was slightly better, so I'm taking a chance and posting this. It feels much longer than my other stuff, for some reason. Also, I seem to have subconsciously developed the need to break the 5k word barrier in one chapter, so that's another possible reason why this thing was so long. And crappy.
Anyhow, as you may or may not have noticed, I'm doing characters from all five of the genin teams of Konoha and Suna. So this chapter is about the halfway point for Monologues… if this were the only set I had planned. Unfortunately, I seem to have mentally developed monologues for many other characters, so there will be a second set of monologues posted separately. Might even throw some of the stuff that I scrapped this time back in there. If not, I'll finish them and post a separate omake. So what I'm basically trying to say is, monologues don't just stop at chapter 15. I'll make you people sick of them yet. )