Struggle [On Hold]

Chapter 1: Arguments, Pondering, and the Mission

Original story:
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/2682159/1/Struggle
I'm taking the story line and not only continuing it but changing parts to my own liking ill probably leave the first 2 chapters the same but from there I'm going on my own.

Every day was the same thing. Naruto awoke, feeling especially down. It felt like the villagers were getting crueler than ever… but he never let Sakura or Kakashi notice. He always arrived in his usual excited fashion, the sun flashing off the metal of his forehead protector.

But today, he didn't feel much like putting on the usual show for the rest of Konoha as the villagers looked down on him. But, as far as he was concerned, he didn't really have a choice… he'd probably feel better after a shower…

With these comforting thoughts in mind, he headed to the shower, putting the water on cold, letting it run down his body, waking him up in no time at all. With a small sigh, he turned on some hot water to mix with the cold.

'Today is no day to just be lazy', he reminded himself. Today, they had a certain Suna kunoichi, Gaara's sister, coming to help them out with the mission. He didn't want to make a bad impression by being late… Kakashi already had that taken care of. One of the males had to show some responsibility, and he knew that Kakashi wouldn't, so he felt that he had to fulfill the role.

He washed the shampoo out of his hair and climbed out of the shower, drying off. He got dressed fairly quickly. Looking at the clock, he noted he still had enough time to go to Ichiraku's for ramen. So that's what he did, slinging his bag over his shoulder as he went. Lucky for him, Ichiraku's was indeed open. He didn't linger long though, strangely enough to the owners, he only ate one bowl, paid, and left.

He was early, and he had to wait for the others. Temari came along first, and seemed a bit surprised that only he was waiting. She joined him, waiting for the rest of the group to come. He wondered if she knew how late Kakashi always was. Probably not, seeing she came as early as she did. Even Sakura didn't show up until the exact meeting time, otherwise they'd be left waiting for even longer.

Naruto, who usually used this time to catch up on his sleep, was actually wide-awake. He sort of wanted to talk the kunoichi next to him, but he couldn't think of anything that didn't seem awkward. So he settled for the pleasant silence wrapped around the two.

That was, until the minutes dragged by. The temptation to talk while waiting for something he knew was going to take a long time was extremely overwhelming. So he started with a simple, "Kakashi-sensei won't be here for a couple more hours."

"…A couple more hours?" Her dark eyes turned to him, "But isn't the meeting time—"

Naruto cut her off nonchalantly, "He's always late. He'll make up some stupid excuse, we'll yell 'liar', he'll explain the mission, and off we go." He shrugged as if it wasn't abnormal in the least. It didn't occur to him that somebody would find an irresponsible sensei so…weird.

"…So that's why we're the only ones here?" She asked. It had been bugging her for a while. In Suna, Baki-sensei was always there, ten minutes early. She went around five minutes early, Kankurou came around two minutes early, and Gaara came in with just enough time to spare so Baki couldn't yell at him for being late.

"Yeah. Sakura-chan doesn't show up until around the actual meeting time. Then we wait. For a long time." He kept talking in a voice that showed Temari he didn't care much about how long he had to wait. And today, he actually didn't. He was still in that lazy mood. He still didn't feel like putting on a hyperactive show. Why? Because what was the point? No matter how he acted, the villagers would still look down upon him for something he couldn't control. Not now, not ever. It wasn't his fault that the Yondiame had sealed the Kyuubi inside of him. It wasn't, it never would be. So, who was he? He didn't have the will to go on, for once in his life. Without that, who was he?