|Naruto Various x Reader|

○Lucky, Lucky[Forest of Death, Part III]○

I feel a sharp pain in my stomach.

Yup, it's what you think it is.

Not really.

The ninja knees me in the stomach and pulls my chin up, bringing my face closer.

He definitely knew what he was doing, because that kick made me weak.

Ouch.

Naruto bolts.

And I mean bolts.

Wait... what's with his chakra?

It changed all of a sudden.

Is this Naruto? I mean, based off of his looks, that's Naruto. But his chakra's so different. What happened?

There's no way a completely different ninja could replace Naruto in that instant. That's not how any of this works.

What concerned me was how powerful it seemed.

Naruto's chakra switched from the blueness of his eyes to the orange of his jacket in an instant, and it worried me.

He rushes towards my attacker with lightning speed, chakra forming in his hand.

Clones he created begin to grab and pull at it in multiple different directions, forming the air around his palm to spiral into a spherical shape.

What?

And the rest happened in an instant.

The ninja is knocked down and off of me with amazing speed, and he doesn't get up. The weird orange chakra also disappears and is replaced with his normal sky blue chakra.

"Don't ever hurt my comrades ever again!" the hothead yells at the now unconscious boy without a care in the world.

"S-Shh... Naruto. You'll give away our position."

"...Sorry," he sighs. "You alright?"

I slowly pull myself away from the tree, placing a hand on my stomach.

"Thank you, Naruto. You were... really brave, I guess."

"O-Oh! Uh, that's what a ninja has to do, obviously! I, uhm... I have to be hokage, believe it!"

He was twiddling his thumbs.

I don't understand his odd behavior, but I can deal with that later. This is the chuunin exams.

"Does he have a scroll on him?"

The ramen boy searches the ninja for any scrolls, to find none.

"Guess he wasn't carrying his team's scroll, someone else was," I sigh, straightening out my pouches. "I was lucky for you to save me, though. Thank you."

"I told you it was nothing, believe it!"

Damn... even during the chuunin exams? When will he ditch that catchphrase?

I honestly don't think he will at this point.

At least it's not that dumb.

What's dumb is my catchphrase. Why? I don't have one. I just spout whatever dumb words come into my mind.

Eh. It works.

"Do you see Sakura and Sasuke?" I mutter.

"No. Let's go look fo them."

During the quiet stroll through the forest, we weren't interrupted at all so far. I allow my mind to wander to Naruto's power move.

I remember him forming this super strong spiral of chakra in his palm and then hitting his opponent with him. Since when could he do stuff like that?

I guess I wasn't the only one who improved over our break.

But it concerns me, because he's able to learn something so amazing in such a short period of time yet I still have trouble coordinating.

It's so frustrating and I honestly can't deal with the stress of realizing my peers are rising above me, that I'm falling down lower and lower into the abyss of failure.

And do I even have an admirable dream like Naruto's in the first place?

I don't.

He wants to become someone admirable, to prove everyone wrong, to help people.

Sasuke wants to take revenge on someone. It seems dark, but he's super ambitious about it. He even mentioned once it was about his family. An admirable goal, too.

Even Sakura has some sort of goal. She wants to become a successful kunoichi while simultaneously finding the love of her life, getting married with him, and later raising a healthy, well-balanced family with him. A very sensible dream for a woman.

What about me?

'I kinda wanna protect my family, I guess.'

My family's war is over, we're safe.

Kai and uncle are strong enough.

Mother is in good hands, and so am I.

I'm just following in the footsteps of my brother when he doesn't need an extra pair of hands.

My dream is empty.

No.

Calm down, [Y/N].

It's okay.

It's not my fault.

I'm not any less important than any of the other ninjas or kunoichi here, or anywhere. I'm not any less important than anyone in the world.

I'm human.

I make mistakes.

I approach failure from time to time.

And I recieve a block of certain emotions, like I don't have motivation for the one thing I used to be so passionate about.

That happens to people.

It's like that sometimes. I just have to get over it.

I just need to keep myself from becoming a kinda.

You know, a kinda.

I kinda want to pursue my dream.

I kinda wanna be successful.

I kinda wanna help my family.

But if I kinda want something, I'm gonna kinda get it.

I need to accept it with my entire heart.

My dream may not be as major as everyone else's, but it still means as much to me.

I am not a kinda.

• • •

what's up fellas

i took forever to upload again

big whoop

but i'm trying my hardest. I'm not the most writing-saavy, plus im so streeeeessed smh

I'm trying a different approach to writing this story, which might be better for you guys. Basically, the chapters are a bit shorter(800-100 words) but I update more often. I think this would work very well with my writing block and my spontaneous way of updating.

this chaper I wanted to introduce some more personal topics that I think everyone needs to notice when they think badly of themselves or have regrets on pursuing their dreams. I've incorporated two themes into the speech at the end, actually, and I wrote them both to the bottom of my heart. I really hope you all take it to heart as well, since I was pretty emotional.

Thank you so much for reading and your support!

Cya next chapter!