suicide

Friends.

It was something Naruto always wondered about growing up alone.

What's it like to have friends? What do friends do? What's a friend?

Whenever he asked people these questions when as he grew up he saw that many had different reactions. Some were confusion, some was a smug kind of look, some was a sad look, and some people just didn't even look at him.

He finally got the questioned answered when Iruka came into the picture. Iruka told him that friends were someone who protected who and treated you kindly and would listen to you.

Naruto thought he understood. So when he became a ninja he swore to protect his precious ones, thinking because of that he would make good friends.

Sasuke and Sakura. They were the first people, besides Iruka, that Naruto had sworn he would protect with his life. And how do they repay him? By calling him names and hitting him and giving him cutting insults. It was true, they had protected him once and he had protected them many times but still…

Kakashi. If it was one person who hated Naruto it was him. He always shows up late, most likely to stay away from Naruto as long as possible, and trains Sasuke and Sakura way more than him, in fact Naruto thought Kakashi would hardly even look at him if he had too. Kakashi must hate him because of Naruto killing his precious person.

Lately Kakashi had been stealing Iruka away from him too. Taking him on dates all of the sudden or dragging him off to lunch. Kakashi even dragged Iruka off once when Naruto and him were having a conversation. Iruka had yelled that they would continue the talk later. Later came and went and they never did, and Naruto felt a pang of hurt and jealously.

Iruka was always making excuses why he couldn't come to the Ramen shop and eat with Naruto anymore. So Naruto just played it off with his fake smile and said maybe some other time. But the other time never came either, and Naruto learned to stop asking. But what hurt the most was what he had heard Iruka say.

Flash Back

Naruto walked up the stairs of the apartment building and towards his old and favorite teacher's apartment, but just as he got to the door and was about to knock was when he heard the voices inside.

"-Stop coddling the boy, Iruka." A very familiar voice said.

"I know Kakashi but sometimes I worry about him." Iruka's voice said as it came through muffled through the door.

"Don't." The voice, who was now Kakashi, said. "He's twelve years old and a ninja. He can take care of himself."

"I know, but being a monster that everyone hates must be hard." Iruka said.

Naruto felt his heart shatter and fall to the ground. Iruka really did think of him as a monster. Tears welled up in Naruto's eyes as he turned and ran from the apartment building.

Naruto ran all the way home and curled up into a ball on his bed, crying himself to sleep.

End flash back

Now it was Naruto who made excuses to Iruka, and other than that Naruto just ignored Iruka's presence or Kakashi's for that matter too. Kakashi didn't seem to care but Iruka would stand back and wonder but never said a thing.

Naruto shook his head of thoughts of Iruka and decided to think of something else.

His thoughts came to another ninja team.

Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji.

It was true that Ino wasn't as bad as Sakura but she was still annoying and yelled a lot too. It was worse when the two of them were together, especially when Sasuke was around.