Grace: A Naruto Fanfiction (Book 1)

Chapter 56: Hesitation

It was a plan that was created by a genius without a second thought. And the said plan survived through almost 2 decades until it made it way back to him.

"Ah, Naruto-san! Glade you could make it to this fine day!" Another sparring sessions was being held the day after the previous sparring sessions.. He nodded, seeing as he had free time to kill and watch these matches for the time being.

Naruto moved away, opting to lean on a tree just a few meters away from the group. After minutes of observing, someone had decided to confront him.

"Why aren't you with the rest of us? What you're doing right now looks rather. . . lonely?" Naruto looked to the side, seeing Sakura crouch down and sit on a tree. Naruto shrugged.

"This feels more natural to me. I'm not the greatest when interacting with others." Sakura had a puzzled look before nodding her head at that answer. A solemn smile appeared on her face as the day dimmed.

"I never really got to say this but thank you, Naruto." He raised an eyebrow, wondering why she was thanking him when they were just simply withholding a simple conversation.

"I do not follow?" He questioned her.

"Oh, what I mean was that when Satsuki left, I felt like I lost a friend. When I woke up on that stone bench after being knocked out easily by Satsuki, I berated myself for not trying hard enough." Sakura looked around, taking a glance at everyone.

"Then when the mission failed, I berated myself even more even when I wasn't even there. I locked myself for days, hating the fact that I was so. . . powerless. Then you and Kakashi-sensei managed to pull me up even though you did do most of the work for him." Naruto nodded, remembering when everyone was down to their lowest point.

He said a speech that went along the lines of:

"Maybe this self-loathing is deserved for not trying hard enough; or because you were not strong enough. But moping around won't change anything, will it? To be able to truly change and correct something, power and resilience is necessary. Not doing something about anything is worse than failing. It just means you gave up."

It may not be the exact same words, but it was a close enough replica to the point where it was credible. Soon enough, they had Naruto come up and fight someone.

"Why me?" Yawned Shikamaru, getting up from his laid down state. They just did a simple bet and he had lost, now having to spar with Naruto.

And following that lost in the best was another loss that he received from Naruto. Don't get him wrong, him and Naruto were very intelligent and were able to adapt to situations when needed, but when it came to Naruto -- he was overwhelming.

But, luckily, he managed to land a few hits that managed to make Naruto bleed. But in the end, the outcome was already decided from the beginning.

Of course, this was only a spar and wasn't anything serious on both ends. Naruto walked back to his spot, seeing them tend to Shikamaru. He sighed, seeing the abundance of cuts he had received.

He's gotten stronger. Naruto thought to himself, amused that such a lazy person like Shikamaru has gotten immensely more stronger.

"Ah. . . um. . . Naruto-kun?" Naruto heard someone call out to him. He turned around and saw Hinata approaching him with something in the grasp of her hands.