His apartment reeked off paint. Naruto had opened all the windows, and even the door before he slept (which had been uncomfortable), and yet his apartment still reeked off the paint. In addition, it seemed he would suffer through it for at least..What had the paint bottle said? 3 days?

Urgh.

Naruto looked at the book in his hands and then sighed. Some words he couldn't recognize and he needed a dictionary to help out. However, Naruto didn't mind. It had been a miracle to find the beautiful books known as comics, but he knew there was also more things to be learnt on books with nothing, but words as well. And in as much as he wasn't one with the attention span for reading, Naruto was teaching himself to do it, mainly because he wanted to know more and pass the time, as well as the fact that Naruto had learned to make it bearable and fun.

Which was drawing from the things he had gathered from his books.

It was simple.

Naruto had started with history and was drawing the images and his own illustrations of the fights, and the wars happening in the books. It was fun and quite easy. Especially since Naruto could even draw the characters in any ways he imagined them. It helped him understand and it was fun, he had first drawn the first Hokage holding a black cat, which had been funny because the cat tried to scratch him. And even though that had nothing to do with history, Naruto still drew it because it fit for some odd reason.

Putting the dictionary down, Naruto continued reading. He hummed softly as his eyes trailed over to the words about the creation of the village. Then he paged it slowly, analyzing the information on the book and he tapped his pencil on the drawing book. His free hand moved with ease and the smile on his face grew distinctively large.

Doodling.

Just like the man in the comics. It was nice. At least he had something in common with one of the superheroes.

Not that Naruto hadn't had heroes before. The fourth Hokage used to be his hero. However, Naruto was over it and he would rather pick heroes from fictional books and comics rather than real people. Real people weren't nice. They didn't have good hearts nor did they save anyone without intention, nor could they maintain their good hearts.

Except Shikamaru that is. He was a good one. Through and through.

Not the third Hokage as well. He took care of Naruto because he needed to not because he wanted to. And for the people in ichiraku they did have good hearts too, but they were not his family, it wouldn't make sense for them to be good to him more, rather than the being polite and behave with decency. Not that he got that a lot.

He should have been grateful that people some people were decent to him. And he was. However, he wouldn't hold them in his heart anymore, they were acting how every normal person deserved to be treated, so holding someone close because of that..it didn't seem right.

It was as if he was a dog that should be grateful for the scraps given.

Naruto closed his book. He wasn't entitled to anything, but, basic human decency was what everyone else deserved or at least not being thrown rocks at and kicked out in every shop. Even if it was because of something that made him special, he as his own person had not done anything.

In addition because he was "special" he shouldn't let a normal interaction be the reason he considered people close. It was great to be treated normally, and it was nice, but he shouldn't...glorify it and make it the reason for someone to hold his heart. Just like he had done with the third.

Okay. Okay.

That was enough thinking for the day. Naruto had used far too many words and had thought too much. It didn't make sense, but it made sense to him. And wasn't that all that mattered.

Living on his own, by his own and setting his own rules. And one of the rules were simple, to not let people in until they decide to know him for him. Like Shikamaru, his only...playmate because the other had treated him well, in his own terms and even though he had called him "troublesome" he had been more than close to him, meaning he had accepted or wanted them to be more than just acquaintances.

Again. Naruto rubbed his temples. He was thinking too much, his brain surprisingly didn't ...hurt. hehehe. Naruto grinned.

He would continue to think, it made him more curious as to what more he could figure out or what more was going on in his head. It was fun, and it was actually better than any conversation he has ever had.