Chapter Text
“Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though i must go, endure not yet, A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat”
-John Donne, A Valediction; Forbidding Mourning (1611)
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“Shit.”
Naruto Uzumaki is late for school again. Just another day like any other.
Naruto attends Konoha Village High School, and he has no parents, let alone any friends. School is a complete mess. Naruto is constantly bullied, and whenever he walks through the hallways, all the students keep their distance as if he were carrying the plague.
The reason? The demon sealed inside him supposedly slaughtered the entire Village Hidden in the Leaves on the exact same day Naruto was born. Not exactly the nicest memory of his “sweet” birth, let’s say…
Naruto quickly finishes getting ready and bolts out the door, leaving it open because he knows the ANBU squad will come to check his house at any time, in any way.
As he runs to school, the disgusted, frightened, and judgmental looks of the villagers follow him.
“Sasukeee!!” Sakura yells as she runs toward Sasuke, who is standing in front of the school.
At that moment, Naruto arrives too, but nobody pays any attention to him because nobody wants anything to do with a “demon” like him.
Sakura approaches Sasuke and hands him a container filled with food.
“Here, Sasuke. I made this for you… just to thank you for doing the presentation for the assignment.”
Sakura watches Sasuke take the container, and Sasuke nods in thanks.
Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke are in the same class and on the same training team.
The teacher enters the classroom, and all the students stand up to greet him. During attendance, the teacher calls each student one by one…
But when it comes time to mark whether Naruto is absent or present, the teacher pauses and stares at his name.
“Uhm… Naruto Uzumaki is present?..” the teacher asks, his voice trembling slightly.
“Present,” Naruto answers tiredly.
After classes end, Naruto gets up and leaves the classroom, heading toward the courtyard behind the school, where he sits on a bench.
But just as he is about to light a cigarette, three boys who have been tormenting him since the beginning of the school year approach him.
“Loser, give me one,” one of them says, looking at the cigarette.
Naruto, already exhausted from class, gives in and hands the cigarette over without complaining. He is already used to being treated this way.
After taking the cigarette, the three boys look at him. Naruto sighs and gets up, following them as they walk away.
They lead him to a wall hidden from everyone else.
They shove him against it and begin insulting him until things turn physical.
“What a loser. Imagine having a demon inside you and still being alive.”
One of them laughs while the other two knock Naruto to the ground and begin kicking him.
After all of this—or at least until Naruto can barely keep himself together—the three boys leave laughing, smoking the cigarette he had given them earlier.
Once they are gone, Naruto slowly and painfully gets back up. Every movement sends a sharp wave of pain through his body, making it difficult to breathe.
A thin line of blood slips from his mouth and stains his chin and shirt.
He slowly makes his way toward the school infirmary, breathing heavily and clutching his shirt as he tries to breathe more deeply.
But the students, frightened and shocked, press themselves against the lockers to make room for him. Some are so terrified that they refuse to even look at him, afraid he might do something to them.
Once inside the infirmary, Naruto sits down on a bed.
The nurse glances at him from the corner of her eye and, with a trembling hand, leaves a glass of water and a painkiller beside him.
Other than that, she ignores him. She is already used to seeing him like this—and she is also afraid of the demon inside him.
Naruto treats his injuries himself, then wipes the almost-dried blood from his mouth and drinks the glass of water, swallowing the pill.
He then walks back toward class.
The lesson has already started, and the teacher immediately notices him.
But he pretends not to.
By now, it is an everyday occurrence.
— After classes —
It is already afternoon.
The sky is orange, with a few bluish shades scattered across it. The school day is over, and the students are leaving through the main gate.
Naruto begins gathering everything from his desk when Sasuke and Sakura suddenly appear in front of him.
“Naruto! Are you coming tomorrow morning for training?” Sakura asks with a smile.
Naruto looks at her.
“…Sure.”
His answer is hesitant.
Sasuke watches Naruto, but Naruto seems determined to avoid eye contact with him at all costs.
On the way home, Naruto walks alone, as he always does because nobody wants to be seen with him.
As he looks around, he sees groups of boys and girls joking around together.
While walking, he starts thinking about the day he has just had—the constant lateness, the beatings, everything.
When he gets home, he throws his backpack into a corner of the room.
He feels horrible for not being able to fight back, afraid that they might expel him from school or, worse…
He locks himself in the bathroom and lets all the negative thoughts overwhelm him.
Afterward, he sits on the floor, leaning against the bathtub, staring blankly ahead.
“How stupid am I…” he whispers, feeling a knot forming in his throat as his eyes become watery.
He does not even bother taking proper care of himself.
After all, he thinks, the village would probably be happier without him.
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