[1st POV]
Naruto sat by the lonely swing at the entrance of the academy.
His face was downcast, his permanent smile flipped upside down on this day. He was such a bright and happy child, so seeing such a frown was almost criminal to the eyes.
It was like seeing the sky upside down.
It was a scene that would pull at the heartstrings of anyone who watched the show. Almost everyone would want to give him a hug, seeing that, but reality split us apart.
But not anymore. At least not for me.
"Are you okay?" I asked, approaching him from behind.
Naruto was spooked, he had been too into his thoughts to really notice his surroundings. "Hey Suyou,"
He greeted me, trying to smile, but it came out so fake and forced I preferred him frowning. Crying was sad, but crying behind the mask of a smile was even sadder.
But he did not even force a smile for long because his eyes fell on the shinobi headband that was hanging on my neck. He looked at that with intense eyes.
"I see, you were able to do the jutsu," he said.
"Yeah."
"I bet it was a perfect clone too," he said.
"I suppose."
He scoffed, as if he was laughing at himself. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be celebrating with your family or something?"
"Did you forget?" I said, standing behind him and putting my hands on his shoulders. "I lost my parents too. I no longer have a family."
Naruto widened his eyes. He looked up at me, ready to apologize. But seeing that I was busy staring off, he stopped himself and followed my gaze.
The two of us watched as the graduated students celebrated with their parents. We could hear the whispers of praise and the love shared between them. The children were proudly showing off their headbands to their parents.
There were even clan leaders, like Shikaku Nara who was Shikamaru's father. He joyously put his son on his shoulder. Shikamaru acted very embarrassed but he couldn't hide a smile.
Ino and her mother were busy trying to find the best place to wear her headband. Her mother was pretty like her, she brought many flowers and tucked them between Ino's ears.
"Are you jealous?" I asked.
"Of course I am," Naruto said, "But I guess I'm also glad they aren't here. I would've really disappointed them."
I did not have words. I was completely baffled by what he just said. Something thick immediately wrapped around my heart, not only because I pitied him, but because I could relate to him on a deeper level.
"What about you?" he asked, "Are you jealous?"
"No," I said, "I'm just... mourning."
"I only feel sad looking at them," I admitted, "There is no jealousy."
Although we both had no parents, our situations were vastly different. Naruto was sad, bitter, and jealous because others had parents when he never had them. I, on the other hand, used to have parents but I lost them.
My sadness was that of loss. And that was something Naruto could not relate to. After all, how could you feel loss for something you never had.
We stayed by the swing, watching until the end as the families created memories. After they left, I nudged at him.
"Wanna go get some ramen? My treat."
"Alright!!" Naruto exclaimed loudly. He put both hands in the air and jumped up from the swing. He was forcing a smile where tears had dried.
"Let's go Suyou! I know just the place," he said and dragged me away.
A smile bloomed on my face too. To mourn for two sets of parents and two lives was hard, but with Naruto around, I felt that it would be easy.
He felt like an old childhood friend even though it had not been even a week since we hung out. But I guess that had something to do with watching his show while growing up.
We were sad, but at least we were not alone.
"Unlike him," I thought to myself when I caught sight of Sasuke leaning outside the fence of the Academy.
He was all alone.
I would've loved to get close to him too but he pushed everyone away.
"Maybe another time," I thought as Naruto and I left for the famous Ichiraku ramen.
..
..
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[1st POV]
"Suyou!!!"
"Suyou!!"
"SUYOU!!!"
My eyes widened, and I sat up in bed. I shook my head, shrugging off the sleepiness to assess my surroundings. For a moment, I genuinely did not know where I was or who I was.
My head hurt and I raised my hand to clench my forehead, but in doing so, my arms hurt. My biceps, my triceps, my wrists, forearms, etc, everything was sore.
I flinched back, straightening my back and that hurt too. It took a few seconds to realize I was sore everywhere and stopped moving altogether.
"Goddamn, I really overdid it this time," I said to myself with a sigh.
Yesterday was not the best day, although you would think otherwise with having achieved my goal and finally graduating. The thing about losing people was that you remember them on your best days, you miss them the most on your best days.
I ended up training until I was so spent I had to drag myself up the stairs and climb onto bed. If I gave my mind a moment to rest, it would mourn and cry out, so I punished myself with physical pain instead.
Just as I recalled the events of yesterday, I heard a sound on the side of the room. I turned to the window and saw Naruto looking at me through the glass. He had a wide smile on his face before he opened the window and barged in.
"Huh,"
"Good morning, sleepyhead!" he said, crouching on the window pane. I was so tired yesterday I did not even lock my window.
"Naruto, what are you doing here?!"
"You didn't answer the door no matter how many times I knocked so I let myself in through the window," he said with a grin.
He pointed at his head with a thumb, my eyes followed and I saw the shining headband he wore on his forehead. It was way shinier than even the one I got. It was obvious that Naruto polished that with his whole heart yesterday.
"Look what I have!!" he said.
So the canon took place as it should. I was hoping for that, I really wanted to learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
"A shinobi headband?" I asked, acting surprised, "You actually got it."
Naruto grinned even wider, "Hehe, I told you I was going to graduate and become the greatest Hokage!!"
"Congratulations," I said.
"Come on, hurry up, we have to go to the Academy. There's going to be a photographer there to take pictures for us. We need to submit our shinobi files to the Hokage asap!!"
I slumped back to bed, "But don't we have the whole day to do that?" I looked at the clock on the wall, "It's only nine, Naruto."
"Oh come on!! I have this great idea of painting my face super cool for the picture," he said with a grin.
"Sounds fun, but I'm drained today," I said.
"Do you think you can go without me?"
"Huh? What's wrong? Are you sick or something?" he asked.
"No I just... yeah," I said, "I mean yes, I am feeling sick today."
"Oh man," Naruto scratched his head, "I'll go without you then, take care of yourself."
I gave him a thumbs up and Naruto leapt down from the window. When I heard his leaving footsteps, I turned on my bed and pulled the blanket over me.
I was so not prepared to leave yet, I needed more sleep.
I slept till noon, after which I went to the academy to take the photograph and finally submit it to the Hokage along with my files. There was also a huge list posted on the noticeboard, ranking us from best to worst from the graduation performance.
Seeing my name at the top truly made me smile.
..
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