Why Naruto is your best friend.

Sometime back, when I was checking my usual RSS feeds, Ronin caught my eye. I had realised this fact several years earlier (I think I was 19 too) when I realised that there is no one I can truly be honest with without being afraid of repercussions like betrayal or ridicule or stuff like that.

This post will be a story (or an analysis with an accompanying story) with a story. The quotes are my past while the rest are my current thoughts.

I had a best friend in primary school.

Lately, I’ve been less trusting of people. I suspect hidden intentions everywhere, although most of the time I keep it to myself (today I thought Mich was trying to interrogate me when she was only asking random questions). I tend to keep to myself more and not tell people how I feel at that time. Sometimes I think I’d probably tell people some other time or when the situation calls for it. But, I have another problem, I forget. I can forget how I felt within hours sometimes and the feelings would be gone. So it’s hard when I hide my feelings and are later unable to express them, I just feel more repressed. It’s in there somewhere and it gets built up but I can’t do anything about it. Then I just think, “fuck it lah, just move on!”

We did almost everything together.

You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this and what Naruto has to with me being emo. Just be patient. We all would love to have a friend who would stand by us all the time, through thick and thin. Even when you’re the one at fault, even when you do stupid things. We want someone who won’t judge us, someone who will accept us unconditionally. Talk to us whenever we want, shut up whenever we don’t want to hear them and generally go through shit with us and help with shit.

Every year we’d have a big fight and not talk to each other for the whole day.

I recently also watched two J-dramas, Mr Brain and Stand Up! (haven’t finished Stand Up! but halfway there). Both of these two dramas show different kinds of friendship (slightly) and sometimes I can’t decide which one I want more. In Mr Brain, the protagonist and his assistant don’t really work well at first and his relationship with the strict detective is also very hostile at first. But towards the end of the series, they grow so close that they can trust each other so well to the point of even gambling their lives. In this kinda of friendship, the friends aren’t always there when you want them, but always there when you need them.

But the next day, everything would be fine.

In Stand Up!, the protagonist has three childhood friends who form a group, an unbreakable group. They get emo, they fight, they say stupid stuff, but they always get back together in the end. They fight over stupid stuff, but they’re not always there when a friend needs them, but always there when a friend wants them. It may seem like an obvious answer to some people but sometimes, getting what you want is as important as getting what you need.

It was like nothing we did mattered because we knew we’d rather be friends than not be friends.

I probably should start about Naruto now, since this post is about him after all. We’ll actually, I’m kinda pinning most shounen anime/manga together with Naruto but you should get the picture. In Naruto, he always has unwavering faith in his teammates and himself because of his friends. They can work together so beautifully and just know that the other member will pull through for you. But Naruto has something special, and that is his friendship. His entire purpose in life right now (besides being Hokage), is to save Sasuke, his friend. Despite all the trouble and hardships, the beatings and thrashing, he still refuses to give up on Sasuke, and that’s what we want in a friend. We all want Naruto (I hate Naruto because he’s stupid and an idiot, but still…) to be our friend because we won’t have to worry about anything. We’d all be lile Sasuke and thrash everything, and killing people because Naruto is there to try and save me.

That changed in secondary school.

My theory is that this is why most guys are attracted to the shounen genre, the friendship. That and the action of course.

For some reason we drifted apart and we started to find more differences than similarities.

Now if we look at the situation, it seems rather unfair that Sasuke gets to be a dick and Naruto is still saving him. All of us would think that, we would be Naruto too. I’m a nice person, I’d listen to a friend. But how many of us actually do that? How many of us have best friends that implicitly trusts us and vice versa? Have you ever truly tried being Naruto to someone instead of just hoping that Naruto will be there for you.

He became something I hated, and I became something he hated.

I have personally tried being Naruto (because I couldn’t be Sasuke), and sometimes, you’re appreciated and they return the favour, sometimes, you’re appreciated only, sometimes, you aren’t even noticed, and sometimes, they’d be Sasuke and just take you for granted. Perhaps I didn’t try as hard as I was supposed to but different people have different limits of tolerence. I’ve never really had a best friend I guess. I definitely don’t have one now and I was scarred more than I gained. It’s probably what helped me reach my current state of not really caring about things. I’m more of an asshole and a fucker sometimes now.

And that’s how we were best friends from Standard 1 till Standard 6

You’re probably wondering where this is going and when it’s going to end. Don’t worry, I’m wondering the same thing too. In conclusion, we all want Naruto to be our best friend while we be Sasuke and do whatever we want. The real best friendship is when Naruto is friend with another Naruto. Because they would care for each other and take care of each other. So, if you’re still looking for a best friend, try to look for a Naruto or be a Sasuke and hope someone saves you.

And how we stopped being friends.