A Purpose to Endure
Prologue
Naruto sighed as he looked at himself in the steamy mirror of his bathroom. His eyes trailing the marks that ran across his cheeks were something that made him stand out from the crowd. From a distance, they were hardly noticeable, easily mistaken as dirt or face paint. Up close however allowed the whisker markings to be shown for what they were, physical marks.
The Hokage once told him that he was born with them, making them is birthmarks in an odd sort of way. The way his skin was indented slightly, showed up close that the marks were permanent physical features of his face. Trailing his finger across them now he could feel the hair that had grown in since the last time he had shaven them.
He'd noticed the increased growth of hair since his 11th birthday, it wasn't just his face that was becoming hairier but his it was what he always saw first thing in the morning and the last thing at night, but the village saw it whenever he showed face on the streets. They saw the marks getting heavier, they saw them start to become more pronounced.
When he first realised that they weren't a common thing he felt like he was special. It set him apart from everyone he saw, and he liked that. Being able to stand out from the crowd was something he loved, leading him to get into heaps of trouble through the vandalising and overall terror his pranks used to cause. He realised shortly before joining the academy that he wasn't doing himself any favours by continuing the pranks, so he eventually stopped.
It was a ninja's job to be discreet after all.
When he started to realise that the markings were somehow tied to the village's mistreatment of him, he was seven when he got an apartment to himself. He can remember the first walk he took around the apartment complex, Not wanting to get lost he stuck to the three blocks outside his home.
From those three blocks, he quickly realized that life on his own would bring about comparable hardships to his time at the orphanage. The people he encountered were all too eager to steer clear of him, as evidenced by the way they dispersed from him on the streets, the disdainful glances he received, and the hushed murmurs that trailed after him.
He didn't come out of the apartment for a few days after that.
Carefully, he positioned his fingers on his cheekbone, pulling the skin taut. He lifted the razor to his cheek, with a steady hand, and began to shave over the whisker-like markings. He moved the razor back and forth multiple times, ensuring that no stray hair was left behind. After finishing one cheek, he repeated the process on the other side, only pausing to clean the blade, making sure it was free of any hairs, before continuing.
After finishing up with his face and cleaning the mirror, he grabbed his toothbrush and noticed something else that set him apart from others - his teeth. His canines were slightly sharper than most people's, not to the point where he had difficulty closing his mouth or had to file them down, but enough to make him self-conscious when he smiled. Though it was only a cosmetic difference, it always weighed on his mind as he brushed them. They seemed to protrude more prominently, adding to the unique features that made him stand out from the crowd.
Rinsing out his mouth, he wiped at his face and left the bathroom, making his way to his front door to get his bag and sandals.
He had to be at the academy in an hour and hopefully, they would be given time to work on the Henge jutsu they had recently been taught, bringing his jutsu repertoire to a solid two with the Kawarimi under his belt also. They were due to learn the Bunshin jutsu in a few months as well as to prepare them for graduation at the end of the year – but he hoped for extra practice today on the Henge as it would make it a whole lot easier if he had a way to blend into a crowd rather than stand out.
With a deep sigh, he tightened his sandal strap and grabbed his bag before stepping out of the door into the cool morning breeze, glad about his decision to forgo wearing a windbreaker, knowing it would heat up later in the day. Instead, he wore a tan shirt and blue shorts, knowing the colours would keep him cool in the blistering fire country heat.
As he descended the stairs, he allowed his gaze to look to the streets and couldn't help the little apprehension that rose in him as he knew what lay ahead in his routine walk.
With his foot meeting the gravel, he steeled his gaze and set off on a steady walk towards the academy. He could feel the eyes already on him, as few passed him by going about their business, but with his bag slung over his shoulder and his eyes fixed ahead, he refused to let them see him falter.
As he made his familiar journey to the academy, Naruto let his body move on autopilot and allowed his mind to drift to his classmates. Even though it was his final year at the academy he hadn't made any solid friends. However, this year had started off slightly different than the past three.
With him managing to snag the back row window seat – the best seat in his opinion – made it so he only had to interact with the person to his right. That person fell to Hayashi Shiho, the reason being that there weren't any more seats left to take. She seemed like a nice enough girl, a little spacey at times but her academic ability wasn't anything to sneeze at as she was always a top performer when it came to the written tests.
The few times that they had interacted with each other she was the one that usually initiated the conversations with him, as little and mundane as they usually were it was a welcome thing for the blonde as having someone other than the Ichiraku's to speak to was always welcome.
Although he had fewer interactions with her than Shiho, Inuzuka Hana was another person in their class that he had engaged with over the years. The clan girl stood out with her three ninken that would usually accompany her to class. From what he's observed she was laid back when it came to her studies, usually matching him in the middle level when it came to grades.
However, when it came to sparring Naruto usually found himself wishing he wouldn't be pitted against her for the sole reason of how vicious the girl could be. She was never one for the rules, which he appreciated as there were none when it came to a fight, which meant that he would always end up getting a kick in the groin or a finger in the eye when he would spar with her. He was grateful for the fact that Funeno-sensei put a stop to her using all of the triplets in spars after an incident in their second year when they had taken down a kid without her lifting a finger.
Their spars usually ended up with him as the victor. He wasn't sure whether it was his height, weight, or skill that gave him the edge over her, but he liked to joke that it was his good looks that gave him the power. Obviously, with him winning meant that she was the loser and he quickly found out after their first few spars in the early years that she didn't take kindly to losing, she would always find a new way to keep him on his toes that's for sure.
Since his first day at the academy, he had formed a rivalry with a fierce Inuzuka and as of recently become somewhat acquainted with a scatter-brained bookworm.
'I coulda done a lot worse' he thought, as he compared his two academy acquaintances to the father and daughter duo that he would consider family – the Ichiraku's.
When he moved into his apartment six years ago, he stumbled upon Teuchi closing up his ramen stand on a night when he was out still grasping the area. Despite his initial reluctance, the old cook sensed something was amiss and invited him in for a bowl of ramen, and even sent him home with a bag of leftovers. As he continued to visit the stand, Teuchi's warm smile and kind demeanour quickly won him over, and in the years following the man became a father figure for the blonde.
He instilled a sense of values in him and became one of the driving factors behind him choosing to stop causing, and getting into, trouble.
The other factor that contributed to his decision to turn over a new leaf was Teuchi's daughter, Ayame. He couldn't help but smile as he reminisced about the day, he met her. She had come to the ramen stand one afternoon after finishing school and had witnessed Teuchi reprimanding him for skipping class. Teuchi then introduced him to Ayame, and even now he could still vividly recall how she had shyly withdrawn into herself when he had invaded her personal space. 'Jeez, I was an idiot,' he thought, shaking his head at the fond memory.
When he made his first friend his age, at first, he found it challenging to navigate the dos and don'ts of interacting with girls, and Teuchi would often chuckle and say, "It only gets tougher to understand them as they get older, kid." However, their friendship grew into an inseparable bond that he couldn't imagine living without. He cherished the fact that Ayame wasn't a shinobi, as it allowed him to escape the stress of the academy when they hung out, except for when they both nagged him about improving his grades.
In addition, with a lot of free time on his hands when he wasn't studying or training, he found himself working part-time at the stand. It all started when he made fun of Ayame for tearing up while cutting onions. She promptly dragged him behind the counter and challenged him to do better. Jokingly, he threatened he would steal her job, but she surprised him by suggesting he should actually work with them, Teuchi had agreed and for the past two years, he had been an indispensable member of the Ichiraku's, although not without a few cuts and burns.
As he neared the end of his journey, Naruto couldn't help but smile at the thought of Ichiraku's. They never failed to bring a sense of warmth and comfort to him. As he approached the academy, he saw a few early-bird students already there, chatting and laughing amongst themselves. The insecure thoughts that had plagued him just under an hour ago were now long gone. In their place, a fierce determination burned within him as he thought of graduating at the end of the year. He was determined to overcome any obstacle that stood in his way, especially since he knew Ayame would never let him live it down if he failed.
He would graduate and become a skilled shinobi; he would prove to those who looked down on him that he was capable of becoming a strong shinobi.
As he strode confidently through the academy halls, he easily found his classroom. Pushing open the door, he made his way towards his seat, his eyes blazed with determination with his mind set on the future. He looked forward to the upcoming months and the future ahead of him, he knew they were going to be difficult, but he was ready to face them head-on and prove himself.
AN | I finished this Prologue back on March 12th, 2023, and I'm actually writing this AN on the 11th of August just to put my thoughts down. I originally intended to put this fic out in late March/early April but had exams to prep for. Since then, I haven't written anything for any of my WIP fics and yesterday I forced myself to pull the doc out for this in order to at least upload something so here we are :). This has been a fic I've been planning for a while now and I've only really written 3 or so chapters but I have at least 15 lengthy chapters planned and then who knows where this will end up but trust me - IT WILL END. Anyway, I just wanted to share a few things at the end of the Prologue as this will most likely be one of the very few AN I do. This fic came to me after remembering that Naruto had failed three times, which should have made him three years older than the main cast. Originally, I intended for it to be a Naruto/Ino fic where Naruto doesn't care about failing three times – he ends up just causing issues for his teachers and the Hokage, who he can't stand being in a room with - and ends up on Kurenai's team. Kurenai would become a mother figure for Naruto, and I planned to use the prompt from my old oneshot, "Like Glue", to have him on a team with Ino and Shino. I already have around 10 chapters worth of ideas for that story as well, but I'll see how this fic plays out before deciding whether to start it after or work on one of my BNHA ideas that I've had on the back burner. I simply wanted to get a fic out this year instead of hoarding a 600k Google Doc of ideas and posting the odd one shot. Since Naruto was what got me into fanfiction years ago, I wanted to make sure it was a Naruto fic before posting anything for any other community. So yeah, follow the fic if you want to see where I take this story and feedback is always appreciated.