[Naruto] Like the Old Picture Frame
Title: Like the Old Picture Frame
Author: kannachan27
Fandom: Naruto
Characters/Pairing: Naruto, Sasuke [mentions]
Challenge: Broken
Bonus: glass, picture frame, heart
Word count:733
Summary: Naruto was used to having things break. But sometimes, even the broken things are beautiful.
Notes: This is my original entry for
naruto100 I just...realized that it was too long [limit of 500 words], and changed one little part for my entry.
Naruto was used to things breaking. There wasn't a day of his life that something didn't get broken. Well, okay, maybe that wasn't true. Things didn't always break. Just most of the time.
When he was younger, he'd sneak into the Acadamy before everyone else would be there, just so he could have some time alone. Away from the villagers, away from the children. It was--well, he wouldnt' call it a sanctuary, but it was close enough. People usually didn't find him there. Or, if they did, they would just scowl and leave him alone. It was a public building, after all, and their children went there. These people who attended the school would, one day, become their protectors. So, they mostly left him alone when he was in there.
After that one day, that is. When one of the younger village children had saw him through the window and had thrown a ball through the glass, shattering it and causing Naruto to duck under the desks, shaking.
When one of the chuunin entered the room and saw him, hiding under a desk, and a ball not two feet away from him, the glass of the window broken, he frowned. "Uzumaki, get out of there. Class is starting in less than thirty minutes. Pick up your mess."
When he left, Naruto was left to pick up the glass. He could hear the other boy's laughter as he did so, even though the boy was long gone.
The next day, when he went to the Acadamy, he stayed away from windows.
----
When Team Seven had their picture taken, way back when they were still just the "new genin team," Naruto had gotten a picture frame for it. The only picture that he had that he deemed important enough to have a frame, he had to search for one that wasn't broken, wasn't ruined. He looked through the windows of all the stores in the village, he searched the insides of the stores for the perfect frame.
He finally found one. There was only one frame that would work, he knew, and this was it. It was not broken, not cracked, there were no flaws. It was a bit expensive, sure, but he'd been saving. The few missions that he had completed with his team while searching, the money that he had been paid for them, it would be just enough to pay for the frame.
Thirty minutes later, he walked out of the shop with the picture frame in his arms, wrapped carefully. He expected to walk out of there with a large grin on his face, victorious. That was not the case. After nearly tweny minutes spent arguing with the store owner, he managed to get his picture frame. It had taken all of his wages and his dinner money, but he had managed to get it.
It wasn't perfect anymore, though. The edge was cracked from where the owner had slammed it down on the counter. But that was okay. It was almost perfect.
When he got home, he carefully placed his team picture into the frame and set it next to his bed. It was, by far, the nicest thing in his 'home,' perfect or not, he decided.
---
Before Sasuke had left, Naruto had thought life was as close to perfect as it could be for him. Well, at the time, anyway. It was, in a way. He had two best friends, people who cared about him, and he even had some admirers. There was a bridge named after him, and he was getting stronger.
And then came Orochimaru. who just had to mess everything up.
Orochimaru took one of his two precious people away, but he might as well have taken the three of them. With Sasuke gone, Naruto felt like nothing. He was... broken.
He was just like that old picture frame, worn with age by now, but still the most perfect thing in his room. The edges were chipped and the picture was covered in dust, there were spider-like lines in the glass, and it had been thrown into walls more than once.
In the years that Sasuke was gone, Naruto carried that picture with him whenever he was out of the village. It was always with him, always nearby. Reminding him.
This was what it was like before I was broken. Before we were broken.
Before Sasuke left and took their hearts with him, smashed them when they finally saw him again.
Hope that you all enjoyed~