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This is the Naruto universe, with war, political drama, hate, pain and a whole lot of murder. When you're making your character this should be at the FOREFRONT of your head :

You are bringing a character into a world of absolute despair.

It sounds fucking morbid i know, but that's just how it is. Your character isn't going into a world of rainbows and giggles and all, so you need to give them a sense of perspective of the situation.

What's their view on the shinobi system? Are they shinobi? How many people have they killed? How many people will they kill? Do they like murder?

The moment you answer these questions, it can actually shape their ideologies. What do they believe in, and why? What traits do they favour the most, and what traits do they absolutely despise? Why do they think they need to think the way they do?

How would they feel after killing a person? How would they feel after watching someone else kill a person?

Whenever i read Naruto Oc fictions set in the Naruto world, these questions are never answered for me. It's just these perfect ocs with no worries in the world going on missions and fighting people without fear or guilt.

There are a LOT of ways to make your character hyper-aware of the world they're in, whether they know it or not.

1. Fear Of Death

This is very common actually, and the truth is practically everyone is afraid to die, even those who say they aren't.

It's the fear of leaving everything behind, the fear of what comes next, the fear of the pain you're meant to feel as you fade away–ok I'm sounding too sinister here but you get what I mean.

Good depictions of the fear of dying is seen in Attack On Titan. Even Eren's mother, who sacrificed herself for her children, still silently pleaded that they shouldn't leave her because she was human and she was damn terrified of being eaten.

And weaving that fear into your character honestly depends on a lot of factors. In Konoha, a lot of kids aspire to be shinobi with absolutely no idea of what that entails, and they experience a hell of a shock when they go out into the battlefield. So they don't have a fear of death beforehand, until they actually realise that the bitter truth is they can die.

2. Survivor's Guilt

Survivor's guilt is the guilt someone feels when someone (or some people) die and they're left to live.

Thoughts like why me? I should've done... I don't deserve...I was meant to die that day...etc

A lot of Naruto characters don't show survivor's guilt even though half of them have this dead friend that sacrificed themselves to save them anywAY–

For example, my version of Sasuke from Masters Of Deception feels guilty that he didn't come home on time. Even though he's a child and couldn't have done anything to save them, he still feels guilty nonetheless.

Survivor's guilt is usually irrational.

3. An Obsession With Living

Orichimaru saw so much war, that instead of having a fear of death, he had a desire to live. And that desire turned into obsession.

Your character can have a need to want to stay alive, bordering from desire to obsessive tendencies, depending on how much they want it. This can also make your character a bit of a coward, and that's fine. Build on that cowardice lmao.

No one wants to die. So show their desperation to live in tough situations. Show their cowardly habits. And hell, you can even give them an obsession with immortality, bc what's stopping you?

4. Intrusive thoughts

Intrusive thoughts are usually horrific things that pop into our heads out of nowhere like "hey what if i flung this baby right across the room lmao" and then we're just like "what the fuck"

Your character can once a while have intrusive thoughts of their family dying, them dying, their village being burned down, them being captured by enemy villages and tortured, them killing a person etc etc

5. Ignoring everything completely

Sometimes when we don't want to deal with something, we ignore it. So your character can just push away all that bad in the shinobi world and focus on the now and everything

But just know that when something bad happens they will be in for a harsher awakening.

6. The First Kill

How do they see their first kill? Do they see it as just? As an act of God? Do they now see themselves as a murderer? Did they brush it off and go shinobi's duties like a lot of other people?

Do they remember their face? Their name? Their last words before they died? Was the adrenaline so much that they forgot everything entirely? Do they feel guilty for forgetting who they killed?

How often do they think about it? Do they want to think about it? Does it haunt them? Was it extremely bloody?

7. Self hatred or Self idolization

If your character has been praised for being a good shinobi, then you know that it means they're praised for being a good murderer.

There are two ways that I know of that it can go; either your oc knows they're a murderer and holds hate towards themselves for what they've become, OR, they now see themselves at the top of the food chain and idolize their murders.

Think of people like Suigetsu, who see the number of heads they've chopped to be a  testament to how good they are. Then there are people like Itachi, who see the people they've murdered as a testament to just how evil they are.

8. The Feeling of Being Trapped

Even though one can retire from being shinobi, it's a wonder how many of them actually don't.

It's because the system and the culture shuns running away from battle, so a lot of shinobi may actually feel kind of stuck in the situation they're in.

The feeling of being used by others, the thought that being shinobi means you're a weapon for the village can make people feel very caged, like they don't have freedom to think or do.

That's what happened to Kisame. The system trapped him, and he didn't know how to get out, so he just kept going.

Wait, exactly.

Shinobi don't know how to get out, so they just keep going.

9. Low self worth

A lot of shinobi see themselves as tools that can be used by the village. And such thoughts towards oneself can actually make one's self worth drop all the way to the ground.

And when one's self worth is low, they don't show it with words. It means they're more risky to the point that it's almost suicidal. It means that they don't think their opinions or thoughts matter. It means they are willing to let the village use them however the village likes, not giving a damn about their well being or happiness.

Think of Sakura from Stumble. She had the worst self worth, never took care of herself or tried to heal from her demons, and just focused on the task at hand which was making sure the war didn't happen a second time.

10. Rejection to love and care

Shinobi are more likely to push someone away than a civilian because of the thought that they don't deserve to be loved. I'll get to how it can affect a relationship in future chapters, but for now just know that.

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I hope this helped. Yeet.