Naruto rubbed the back of his head as a sheepish expression passed over his face, "sorry… I meant my sensei, Jiraiya."
Mei's eyes actually widened in shock, "You mean the Jiraiya? Of the legendary three?" at Naruto's nod Mei turned to her own thoughts. When she had first heard that Konoha was only going to be sending one person to help them, Mei had been while not displeased as she had not expected much, had at the very least found herself feeling disappointed. However the handsome young man before her seemed to have quite a bit of skill as he demonstrated with pulling off a successful infiltration mission, allowing them to destroy one of their enemies strongholds for the first time. They had even managed to capture the commander of the base; he had provided her with the location of even more bases which she was planning on having the young blond infiltrate. She could now see why he was so skilled, if he was trained by Jiraiya… she looked over at the blond to see him looking at her quizzically and became somewhat embarrassed at spacing out, "I'm sorry please continue."
Naruto smiled appreciatively, he did not know why but he felt comfortable in her presence as if he could trust her. Naruto went back to his story, "it had been at the start of the mission and I had just been about to sneak out of the medical room when the door opened. I… can't really remember much except for instincts kicking in, one moment I'm just getting off the bed and the next there's a young woman in my arms clawing at her throat…"
"You looked in her eyes didn't you?" Mei asked as an understanding light came to her. In the academy they had been taught that the worst possible thing you could do was stare into the eyes of someone you had killed. It had caused many problems for young genin who became plagued with nightmares about their first kills, many of which had to quit being a shinobi because they had become mentally unstable. It had been why the original graduation exam in Kiri had been to kill the person closest to you, they felt that if you could do that then killing some random person would be nothing.
Naruto nodded, "yes, I had looked into her eyes and watched her die, saw the helpless and pained expression on her face, I..." Naruto quickly wiped away a stray tear hoping Mei wouldn't notice, she had but decided to just file it away for later. "But that's not even the worst of it; I killed a doctor, someone who's purpose in life was to heal others. While they do have some minor combat training, they never take a life unless they have to. People like us," he gesture to himself and Mei, "we're killers. Our whole purpose revolves around causing more death then our enemy," Naruto paused. "I've never really liked killing, in truth when I first thought about what I wanted to be my first choice was a doctor."
"Why didn't you become one?" Mei asked in curiosity, a doctor was on the complete opposite end of the career spectrum.
"Honestly," Naruto sighed, "I have no idea why or even when I had changed my mind. Wouldn't have mattered anyway, from the moment I was born I was chosen to be a ninja by factors outside of my life. Both of my parents were ninja, extremely powerful in their own right," that was part of the truth. But the biggest reason was because of Kyuubi, even if he had been given a choice there was no other profession he could have chosen because of that rather 'small' detail.
"So… you became a ninja because of your parents?" Mei asked.
"Partially…" Naruto looked at her, "I actually didn't even know who my parents were until a few months ago. But the Sandaime knew them; he would always tell me great stories about how my parents were such noble people who fought to protect their home. Of course I had no clue he was talking about them at the time…"
"Sounds like he manipulated you," Mei scowled; she had never liked people who would manipulate an innocent child. It sounded like something Yagura would do so he could get a powerful pawn under his sway.
"Yes, I'm pretty sure that whether he knew it or not he was indeed manipulating me to become a shinobi. Though I would never blame him for that, he was the Hokage after all so I assume he was mainly telling me of his own feelings." Naruto took another swig of sake, "I'm not well liked in my village so this was really the only option I had available anyway." Naruto blinked in surprise, why did he just tell her that? This was only the second time he had even talked with her, it's not like they were close or anything. He couldn't blame it on the sake since he was unable to get inebriated; perhaps it was the aura she gave off? Maybe her comforting presence? Or perhaps it was some other factor he had yet to deduce? He looked over at Mei who seemed to be interested in that comment, deciding there was no harm in letting her know a little more he started again. "Because of events that happened at my birth, events that I had no control over I have been hated all my life."
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