It's a Matter of Perspective

By

LigerJager

Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto

Chapter 1: There Once was a Flawed Ore

It was a good night.

The weather had been spectacular and everyone seemed to be in the best of spirits. It also helped that the Fourth Shinobi War had finally ended and the villages had time to recuperate. And as it was a good night, friends came together and celebrated their lives and futures.

Over the years, the once named Rookie Nine, grew into formidable shinobi and now were the figureheads of the elite in their forte having gained their own reputations and prowess through the war. And as comrades went, they were a close knit group.

As things went, they met often, to keep in touch and their bonds strong. And tonight was one such night. And as always, there was much noise and laughter coming from their group. There were more than the usual as they had included the addition of a few others.

They were gathered in one of the more popular bars that catered almost exclusively to the shinobi populace and were having a great time reminiscing. It was the enjoyment of company and thankfulness that everyone had made it through the war.

One name, however, stood out from the rest.

Uzumaki Naruto.

The blond legacy left behind by the Yellow flash, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, Jounin class Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf and the premier Candidate for the Hokageship.

And he was currently laughing at his former teammate.

The pinkette stared at the blond in mild incomprehension, as well as some others around their table, as he roared across the table from her. What had she said that was so funny?

All she had pointed out was that they owed a lot to their old sensei and that he should have been given some kind of acknowledgement for his contributions, especially to Naruto's success. And that was when the blond had lost it.

As he finally calmed down, the Fourth's legacy brushed tears away from his eyes before he regarded his former teammate. She had grown over the years, it was true, and she'd always be beautiful to him, to say otherwise was a lie. But he just couldn't look at her the same way as he had all those years ago. Which, all things considered, was probably for the best, but that was for another time.

It wasn't that he wasn't grateful for her, on the contrary, he regarded her more as a sister figure than anything else. But what she said about their former team's sensei…just tickled his funny bone the right way.

"Sakura-chan," he began affectionately, "the only thing Hatake-san ever did for me, was find me a real sensei."

He rose a hand to forestall the protests on the girl's tongue. "Just think about it."

And she did. She thought long and hard. After a few moments she shrugged.

The blonde grinned at her incomprehension. For someone so smart, the pinkette was so clueless sometimes, that it was a comedy show just to watch her. The others at the table were watching silently. Somehow they knew they were going to get some story from the man and it was going to be good.

As much as the blond loved to talk about his accomplishments, he was surprisingly good at avoiding anything to do with his past. So much so that even Shikamaru was jealous of his ability to steer others clear of such topics. He only talked about the things that others had witnessed, such as the chuunin exams, or something that was common knowledge. Too bad the guy wasn't interested in Shoji or Go. He would have been fun to play against, especially with his unpredictability.

Sure enough, a glare from Sakura caused him to chuckle. He leant back in his chair and hailed down the waiter for another sake before turning back towards his audience.

With a grin he relaxed into the back of his seat, letting an arm dangle behind him.

"Let me tell you a story."

…

A sew seats away, with his back to them was the infamous copy nin, his customary orange book in position, seemingly oblivious to the world. It was a good guise for him.

The reality was that he was acutely aware of the conversation happening behind him. As indifferent as he acted most of the time, he was anything but. It was just hard for him to relay anything because he was somewhat emotionally stunted himself.

As it was he never thought that his actions would affect people the way they had. And no one had questioned his judgment either, except for maybe one or two. And they were high ranking officials at that.

Now he wasn't so sure. The copy nin casually leaned back in his chair and waited. Somehow his intuition told him that this was a story he wanted to hear.

::Tsuzuku::

A/N: Until Next Time! (LJ 1/4/2009)

(LJ 4/9/10: I had completely forgotten about this fict. It's a short one, enjoy)