Melancholia

Chapter 2

As Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto headed towards the Hokage's mansion, Sakura and Sasuke couldn't help but notice the harsh glances from random civilians that kept being directed at Naruto, who pretended to not notice it at all.

Why did everybody always look at him like that? They'd both noticed the glances and heard the whispers before on numerous occasions, but never said anything about it, because they figured it wasn't any of their business. Honestly, though, it was really starting to irk them. For one, it almost felt like the glances were being directed at them as well since they were with him.

Sakura began to think back to when Mebuki and Kizashi had told her on numerous occasions to avoid Naruto, just as many other parents had told their own children to do so without giving a clear reason. At the back of her mind, there was always a voice making her want to question why they treated him like he was some kind of plague. He may have pulled pranks before, and did sometimes do troublesome things, but he had never committed any crime that warranted being ostracized and hated by an entire village, right...?

Hell, for that matter, even though she herself never particularly cared about Naruto back in the academy, and thought of him as kind of a nuisance, she never actually hated him.

In fact, as of late, she had really found herself starting to grow closer to him, and she dare say, despite how much of a pain he could be sometimes, she did care about him.

"It's that kid...," She heard a woman mutter to her husband, with her child noticing the hostility. "He's the-"

"Yeah, we should get out of here..." The young man beside her nodded. "Come on, Sora."

"Why? What's wrong, Mama? Papa? Who is he? Who is that boy...?" The child asked confused as he was pulled off.

"That's none of your concern, sweetheart. Just don't look at him..." The mother responded in a seemingly pained voice, as she momentarily met Sakura's eyes.

Something rose inside of Sakura, and she almost had half a mind to say something, a sudden urge to chew the woman out consuming her. However, she decided that starting trouble wouldn't accomplish anything. Besides, they had to focus on getting to the Hokage to receive their mission. Getting into a fight... it wouldn't be worth it.

Sasuke himself wasn't any more comfortable about the whole situation than Sakura was, managing to scare off one lady with an irritated glare of his own, but he too decided it was best not to get involved. It wasn't really his problem, but nor was it theirs. They should just mind their own business already. How the hell was Naruto able to put up with all of this negative attention all of his childhood without going insane?

He looked over to his blond teammate. He didn't seem bothered in the slightest, but Sasuke knew all too well, as did Sakura, that he had to have been noticing their looks, surely. Naruto may have been dense but he wasn't that oblivious. All throughout Naruto's childhood, during the days in the academy, there had been times where Naruto actually spoke out against the people who had ostracized and belittled him.

So then why...? Why did he effortlessly keep up such a happy-go-lucky-expression?

Had he just... accepted this...?

Actually, now that he thought about it, it wasn't that surprising...

He briefly thought back to the days following the Uchiha Massacre.

There had been numerous glances of pity he'd received from others, non-stop whispers about Itachi and the whole situation revolving around it. It make him sick to listen to them, everything did, but he chose to ignore them, to pretend he didn't care what they were saying. It wasn't the same situation, of course, but he did understand it some.