Those Hands - A Naruto SI

Two weeks is a long time. Long enough for novelty to wear off and for a strange new routine to form. Two weeks ago, Yuji Yamashita's life was marked by a self-created tranquility, a fortress of laziness and quiet contemplation. Now, his life was marked by the random and unexpected arrivals of a blond-haired hurricane.

That afternoon, Yuji was sitting cross-legged in his backyard, surrounded by the evidence of his failure. Wood shavings clung to his shorts, paint stains adorned his fingers, and before him lay the object of his suffering. Technically, it was supposed to be a mask. His father had given him a piece of soft wood and some basic carving tools, patiently showing him how to make the first incisions. "It's in our blood, Yuji," Kenji had said with a proud smile.

Apparently, Yuji's blood was thinner. The thing in front of him looked more like a piece of wood that had been in a tragic accident. One eye hole was too big, the other too small and slanted. The nose was more of a pathetic lump, and the mouth that was supposed to be a smile looked like a grimace of pain. It was a masterpiece of terribleness.

"This is garbage," Yuji muttered to himself, poking the object with a chisel. "It's not even artistic garbage. It's just... regular garbage."

He didn't really care about the result. This was more of an attempt to do something. Something that didn't involve lying down and staring at the ceiling. But as it turned out, doing something could be just as exhausting as doing nothing.

"YUUUUUJIIIIII!"

Yuji didn't even flinch anymore. He just closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. That voice, approaching at high speed, had become the new soundtrack to his life. He had gotten so used to it that he was too tired to even curse. The tranquility of his life had been seized, replaced by a playdate schedule he had never agreed to.

The backyard gate creaked open and Naruto shot in, coming to an abrupt halt just inches from Yuji's "masterpiece."

"I have arrived!" he announced, as if this were an announcement the whole world had been waiting for.

"I know," Yuji said without opening his eyes. "I could hear you from the next village over. I thought there was some kind of festival or natural disaster happening."

Naruto ignored his sarcasm, his bright blue eyes fixed on the lump of wood in front of Yuji. He tilted his head, a look of pure confusion on his face. "What is that?"

"It is the physical manifestation of my despair," Yuji answered flatly. "Also, it's a mask."

Naruto blinked. "A mask?" he repeated, disbelieving. He crouched down to get a closer look, poking it with his finger. "I thought it was a squashed turtle. You know, one that tried to cross the road but didn't make it."

Yuji's eyes snapped open. He looked at Naruto, then at his mask, then back at Naruto. An irrational annoyance began to smolder within him. He didn't care about the mask, but he cared about the principle of the thing.

"A squashed turtle?" Yuji sputtered, his voice rising an octave. "Of course you'd say that. You don't get it. You have no eye for art."

"But it really looks like a squashed turtle," Naruto said, with the brutal honesty only a six-year-old can possess. "See, this is its cracked shell, and this is its head poking out a little."

"That's not a cracked shell, it's intricate carving detail!" Yuji retorted, now sitting up straight. "And that's not its head, it's its nose! This is abstract art, Naruto! It's not about what it is, it's about what it feels like!"

"It feels like weird wood," Naruto said, still poking.

"No! Listen," Yuji began, going into full lecture mode, as David Gerald often did after a few beers. "True art isn't supposed to be obvious. If I wanted to make a mask that looked exactly like a face, I'd be a photographer, not a sculptor. This... this is a journey. This wood started as a tree. It had a life. It saw the sun, felt the rain. Then it was cut down, chopped up, and given to me. I did not impose my will upon it. I collaborated with it."

Yuji pointed dramatically at the mask. "I asked this wood, 'What do you want to be?' And the wood replied, 'I want to be a representation of the mortal struggle against existential uncertainty.' So that's what I made."

Naruto stared at Yuji with a blank expression. "You talk to wood?"

"It's a metaphor, you uncultured savage!" Yuji exclaimed, running a hand through his own hair. "You only see the surface! You don't see the suffering, the hope, and the tragic irony carved into every fiber! Those uneven eye holes? They represent the duality of our vision of the world! One sees harsh reality, the other sees naive possibility! That crooked mouth? It's a smile in the face of the abyss of nothingness!"

"So... it's supposed to look ugly?" Naruto asked, genuinely confused.

"It's not ugly!" Yuji shrieked, his voice cracking. "It's... emotionally complex! You wouldn't understand. Go back to your ramen and your shouting. Leave the artists to work in peace."

He leaned back haughtily, crossing his arms. He knew he sounded insane, but he was in too deep to back down now. This was a matter of artistic honor.

Naruto just shrugged. "Alright. But it still looks like a squashed turtle to me." He then smiled brightly, the topic completely forgotten. "Are you done with your art? Let's go play!"

"No," Yuji said firmly. "I have met my social interaction quota for the decade. I need time to recover."

"Come on! We can train again! I'll teach you how to do an even better headbutt this time!"

"A very tempting offer, but I'll have to decline," Yuji said. "Besides, we should conserve our energy. The Academy is starting soon."

He said it casually, but the word 'academy' felt heavy on his tongue, like a stone.

Naruto's face lit up instantly, forgetting all about playing. "I know! Isn't it great?! The Academy! The first step to becoming Hokage, dattebayo!"

Yuji looked at his overly enthusiastic friend. Naruto's enthusiasm was so pure and boundless it was almost painful to look at. It was like staring directly into the sun.

"Great?" Yuji repeated in a flat tone. "What's so great about it? Waking up early, sitting in a boring class all day, and then spending the afternoon getting wooden blocks and dull knives thrown at you? It sounds like a child's version of hell."

"But we'll learn jutsu!" Naruto countered, his eyes sparkling. "Imagine it, Yuji! We could make clones, walk on water, maybe even breathe fire from our mouths! We'll be real ninjas!"

'Real ninjas,' Yuji thought cynically. 'Yeah, real ninjas who get sent on suicide missions to protect the political interests of the village elders. Real ninjas who have to kill other people before they get killed. What a delightful prospect.'

"I don't know about breathing fire," Yuji said. "I'm more worried about the possibility of accidental combustion. Or worse, having to fill out the incident report afterward. Do you know how much paperwork is involved in a work-related fire accident? It's a bureaucratic nightmare."

Naruto frowned, trying to understand. "Paperwork? Who cares about paperwork when you can breathe fire from your mouth?"

"I care!" Yuji said. "I am a person who cares about practical matters. Like, how are we supposed to focus on learning medical ninjutsu if we're constantly setting our own notebooks on fire? And what about insurance? Does the academy have adequate insurance coverage for students who accidentally turn their classmates into ash? These are important questions, Naruto."

"You think too much!" Naruto said, waving his hand dismissively. "What's important is getting strong! I have to get strong so everyone will acknowledge me! I'm gonna be the best in the class, then I'll become a Genin, then a Chunin, then a Jonin, then ANBU, then Hokage!" He rattled off the ranks as if it were a straight, easy path.

"You're skipping a few steps," Yuji said. "Like 'get seriously injured,' 'suffer psychological trauma,' and 'question all your life choices in the middle of the night.' Those are important parts of a ninja's career progression, from what I hear."

"That won't happen to me!" Naruto said with unshakable confidence. "I'm gonna be invincible!"

Yuji looked at him, a strange mixture of admiration and pity welling up inside him. The kid's self-belief was truly astounding. He was an impenetrable fortress of optimism. On one hand, it was foolish and naive. On the other hand, maybe... maybe it was the only way to survive in this world with one's sanity intact.

"And you, Yuji?" Naruto asked suddenly, looking at him intently. "Why do you want to go to the academy? You don't seem excited at all."

Yuji fell silent. That was a good question. Why? He couldn't tell the truth. 'Oh, I'm from another world where this is all a TV show, and I know that being a weak civilian is a death sentence, so I'm reluctantly joining this child army as the lesser of two evils.' That would probably get him locked up in the Konoha psychiatric ward.

He looked away, back at his squashed-turtle mask. "I don't have a choice," he said quietly, more honest than he intended.

"What do you mean you don't have a choice? Everyone has a choice!"

"Not really," Yuji said, his tone becoming more serious. "Look, Naruto. This world... it's not safe. There are bad people out there. There are wars. There are things worse than that. Being weak in a world like this... it's not a good option."

He picked up a wood shaving and twirled it between his fingers. "My parents, they're mask makers. They're good people. They make people smile. But they can't fight. If something bad happens, if someone evil comes to the village, what can they do? What can I do?"

He lifted his head and looked at Naruto. "I don't want to be the strongest. I don't want to be Hokage. I just... I don't want to be helpless. I don't want to see the people I care about get hurt because I was too weak to do anything. And in this world, the only way not to be weak is to be a ninja."

He said it with a bitter resignation. It was the ugliest, simplest truth of his new life.

Naruto was silent, for the first time in a long while. He looked at Yuji, his usual grin and enthusiasm gone, replaced by a deeper, more understanding expression. He seemed to get, on some level, what Yuji was saying. Naruto, more than anyone, knew what it was like to be helpless.

"So..." Naruto said softly. "You're becoming a ninja... to protect them?"

"I'm becoming a ninja so I can at least try," Yuji corrected. "There are no guarantees. But it's better than just sitting around and hoping for the best. I'd rather be a reluctant participant than a terrified spectator."

A silence settled over them, broken only by the sound of the wind rustling through the trees. The squashed-turtle mask lay between them, no longer looking like an artistic failure, but more like a symbol of Yuji's reluctance. Something being forced to be something it wasn't.

Finally, Naruto nodded slowly. "I get it." He then smiled, not his usual wide, boisterous grin, but a smaller, more genuine one. "Then we'll just have to get strong together, Yuji! You can protect me, and I can protect you! And together, we can protect everyone!"

Yuji just stared at him. The idea was so simple, so optimistic, so... Naruto. And somehow, it didn't sound as stupid as it should have.

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Yuji muttered, though there was no bite in his words.

"It's not a promise," Naruto said, standing up and dusting off his pants. "It's a goal! Now come on! Training won't wait for itself!"

Before Yuji could protest, Naruto was already running around the yard, throwing punches and kicks at the air. Yuji could only sigh, a familiar weariness settling over him again.

He picked up his mask, looking at it one last time. A squashed turtle. Maybe Naruto was right. Maybe it was just garbage. But maybe not. Maybe, like him, it was just a work in progress. Something ugly and awkward, but trying to be something more.