Chapter 39: No One Ever - Nia's Story

She kept her head low as she walked through the streets of Kumogakure. Nia didn't wanna make eye contact with anyone as she was very self-conscious about her looks. However, this was a futile attempt cause nearly everyone she passed by pointed out her flaws.

All the girl wanted to do was get some fresh air, maybe buy a few things and then get back to her home. But no... none of that was possible with everyone either talking behind their hands or flat out laughing about how unattractive she supposedly was. This was normal—an everyday routine.

No one ever bothered to make friends with her, to say hello to her, or to even just give her a compliment. No... they were very cruel. Heartless even.

"There's that shit no one likes." A man talked to another male next to him as they passed by the teen.

Nia ignored this and continued on her way though she heard many many insults and laughter as she did. When she finally made it to her home, she went up to her room and sat on her bed.

'Why do I have to be the laugh of the village?' She thought as she stared at the floor, 'Why does my looks always have to cause people to hate me? I didn't even do anything wrong. I never chose to look this way!"

The girl then layed on her bed on her side with her arm supporting her head. She didn't really think of anything but felt a stab of aloneness consuming her. No one cared for her. Her family did of course, but no one else. She had acquaintances, but not friends. Perhaps, maybe those people may had considered her as a friend, but Nia never saw them as such. No, they weren't there for her like a friend should've been. Heck, some of them were against her! Always whispering and talking about her behind her back.

Always agreeing with everyone that she was a good-for-nothing, a loser, a failure, ugly, worthless, someone who should die and much much more. She didn't belong, and she knew that.

The girl stared at her clock as it ticked away. A minute turned into an hour, and then an hour turned to another hour. All she could do was think. All she really felt was emptiness—Like she was just in a room she couldn't get out of no matter how hard she tried or wanted to.

She didn't feel loved nor did she feel like she mattered. Over and over she wondered why she was born and if she really was deserving of anything. Did she have a purpose? Was she meant to change the world in any way? And if yes, in what way?

Nia was no stranger to death threats. She was threatened on a daily basis by those who hated her. And what for? For simply her appearance... because she's different... because she doesn't look like everyone else. She was discriminated against and had to be reminded everyday why she would never have anyone love her in any way. To them... she wasn't human. She was an animal... and a monster.

The girl was drained of life. Constantly, she wondered why she just had to be made differently. Why she was made to be hated... why she was made to only give people a boost in their ego just by looking at her. She wondered why she had to fear for her life at times and why no one wanted to be close to her.

In her mind, she was alone. Yes, she did have a family but that was it. No friends, no nothing. There were times she couldn't even be by her family because she was out on missions... with a team who couldn't care less about her. They constantly put her down and made her feel inadequate and out of place.

During her most darkest and loneliest hours, she did think about throwing her life away. About committing suicide. After all, many encouraged her to do so whether it was by their words or actions. She was complete trash and clearly someone who should be murdered in the worst way possible to many.

No matter how hard she tried to be kind, no matter how hard she tried to show off her personality to people, they didn't care. Nothing mattered but her looks. It was absolutely ridiculous how much emphasis they put on her face and body than on any other quality about her. One day, she decided that the only way to protect herself from getting hurt was to hate everyone back.

She didn't hate them because they found her unattractive. No... she hated them because they wouldn't show any type of kindness toward her, thought she was a monster, an animal, treated her cruelly, isolated her, offered no support, destroyed relations she developed with people, threatened her, victimized her, slandered her name, murdered her in their hearts, gave no respect, laughed at her, mocked her, two-faced her, bullied her, and wouldn't even show any empathy or desire to make her feel better.

Truly, these people were the real monsters. Tormenting and breaking someone's mind and self esteem to the point where they would cause the person to want to commit suicide... there's no tailed beast worse than a human being with a heart of a devil.

Her bed had turned into a branch of a tree which she continued to lay on. Her eyes looked drained and she had bags under it too. The sky was bright yet her soul was dark.

She pondered over and over to herself: Should she take her life or shouldn't she? Should she run away or no? Should she find someone to take her life or not?

Everything she thought of were closely linked to death. She didn't want to live, or at least, she didn't want to live the life she did. It really was just so ridiculous to her... the fact that she was hated, laughed at, and scorned just because of the looks she received. She was cursed to live a life without any relations besides her family.

A tear slid down her right cheek. Deep down she believed—no knew that it was impossible for anyone to care about her. It was the cold hard truth. Her whole life would be spent being in complete darkness, loneliness, and isolation from the world. She would never be happy. No person would ever think good of her, and even if they did, the verbal abuse she suffered through would always drown the sincere fair thoughts few would think of her to be.

True friends could never be found and she would never ever have anyone view her in a romantic light either. Her looks made absolute sure of that.

It was funny to her... as a small child, though as young as she was, she always dreamt of finding someone to fall in love with, get married to, have children with, and grow old together till death did them part. However, though she was considered to be rather average-looking, maybe even pretty as a child till about the age of thirteen or fourteen, Nia had always been immensely afraid and extremely shy with the boys she would have crushes on. She couldn't talk to them and would even be too scared to look them in the eye.

Her shyness destroyed the potential romances that could've emerged while she was around this age. By the time she was able to break pass this barrier to where she could actually speak with these crushes, her looks then became the problem as she had developed into rather very displeasing young woman to look at. Guys didn't care about her being, they just cared about how pretty or sexy a woman was physically. It was if physical beauty was the only thing valuable about a woman.

She was lucky enough to be acquainted with some of her interests and befriend them even, but of course, they all turned out to be shady. They pretended to be all kind to her face, but behind her back, they would always make fun of her and tell their friends about how ugly she was and how they could never possibly see her romantically. Hell, they even loathed her just speaking to them. They felt insulted that such a nasty looking girl would even do such a thing. To them, she was a gorilla, a dog... an animal.

This only lead to her becoming immensely hesitant toward acting upon her feelings towards anyone she potentially may end up liking. No, she erased them.

Eventually the girl hopped off the branch and walked down an empty path in the town. Everything was grey to her; her eyes were blind to the vibrant beautiful colors of the sky and nature itself. Soon, the path began to spring up with villagers to the side of her.

"Ugly." One said as she passed by.

"Look at her: Disgusting." Another commented.

"I hate her so damn much! Why is she still here?! Someone beat her!"

It kept going on.

"Bitch."

"Failure."

"Gorilla."

"You look like a dog."

"No one could ever love her! Just look at her. Ugly ass."

"Fat."

"Whore."

"Gross."

"She looks like a monster."

"Loser."

"Everybody hates you."

"Kill yourself."

And on.

"She makes me so mad, I just wanna bang her head against a table."

"Worthless."

"Piece of shit!"

"Get out of here!"

"No one cares about you."

"Trash."

"Somebody needs to smack her... no, drown her."

"I hate her!"

"Choke her!"

"Go to hell!"

"Jump off a cliff!"

"Rat-looking bitch!"

And on.

"Fugly."

"Put her in a coma."

"She'll always be alone."

"Don't be her friend!"

"Why are you talking to her?!"

"Who cares if she's sad. That's a good thing if she is, look at her! She deserves to be treated like this!"

"Only a mother could love a face like that. Just kidding, even she would wish she aborted her."

"Just die already, my god!"

"Ew!"

"Hell no! I would never date her! She's so ugly, man."

"She really does need to die..."

The comments and insults mixed in with laughter and giggles. No one disagreed with what was being said. Everyone agreed with each other. Everyone...

Nia completely lost all hint of life in her eyes. Just like the other ninjas of the Leaf, hers were just a void of darkness. Emptiness.

"They're right..." She continued walking with her head down, 'They're absolutely right..."

Nia stopped and fell to her knees then placed her hands over her face.

"I'm so ugly! I'm so fat! I'm so useless!" She sobbed into them, "No one will ever care for me! I'm not human! I'm an animal! A monster! No wonder why I'm hated so much! I wish I never existed! I don't deserve anything!"

A sudden breeze interrupted Nia from her self-loathing. Leaves began to fall all around her. She could see light though her eyes were closed. Curious, she slowly brought her hands down to the bridge of her nose.

Someone stood some yards away from her with their back toward her. Nia still could see grey but it was slowly clearing up, turning into color.

"Who.."

The girl tried to get a better glimpse of whom was there.

"..."

Nothing was being said. When Nia was about to stand, the person suddenly turned around and smiled at her.

She blinked a few times.

Wait, that's Naruto.

Her eyes began to regain life back into them. Soon, even Jiraiya appeared next to the boy and looked at the girl in a calm manner. Seeing this managed to bring Nia back to her senses. She wasn't sad no more. She felt calm.

"You guys..." The kunoichi stood up and gazed ahead.

Because she felt anything but negative, a strong wind came passing by her and roughly blew and pushed back the villagers of the Cloud far back. Their opinions suddenly didn't matter to her in that brief moment.

Jiraiya and Naruto turned and began to walk further. Nia took a few steps forward then began to jog before she broke out into a run.

"You guys!" She called out as she chased after the two, "Wait!"

However, like in Neji's dream about his father, Jiraiya and Naruto only got further and further away out of reach. As they did, the area became darker and darker as they took their light with them.

"Please don't go! Don't leave me here!" Nia once more begged.

It didn't do her any good. When she cried out for their names individually, Naruto was the only one who stopped. He turned to her as she finally approached him.

"Naruto." She smiled as her cheeks grew warm.

He didn't say anything to her. Nia looked to the ground and placed her hands behind her back so that the boy wouldn't see that she was trembling. She then looked back up at him then said, "Thank you."

Naruto still didn't say anything. The only thing he did was hold his hand out. It was as if he was saying that though anyone hardly recognized her as a human being instead of a creature, he acknowledged her as being a person with feelings that shouldn't be hurt over something so minor. After all, just because she wasn't as normal looking as everyone else, it didn't mean she deserved to be ridiculed, treated like an animal, and abused by everyone.

Nia seemed confused as to why Naruto made the gesture he did. However, it did make her feel calm and peaceful. She felt happy even. So, of course, she quit hiding her hand and brought her right one up to meet with his left hand. Her stomach ruptured with butterflies as she did so and her heart also skipped a beat for the first time.

However, before she touched his hand, all she heard was:

"You're hideous."

Naruto then smacked Nia's hand away from his and said, "I'll never accept you. I can accept anyone else but you. You're too ugly, terrible at ninjutsu, disgusting, and shouldn't even exist. I hate you too... just like everyone else. You don't deserve to be treated right. You're a creature... just die already. Kill yourself."

Nia's heart completely shattered. Naruto's words definitely finished her off. That had to have been the most hurtful rejection she'd ever had to deal with. Again, her eyes resorted to being a hollow shell. Her bangs hid them also as tears quickly raced down her cheeks and fell to the ground.

She bit her bottom lip as she stared at the ground.

'What... was I thinking...?' She felt a horrible pain in her heart, 'Why... would I ever think... that... that...'

Chains grew out of the ground and wrapped itself slowly around the girl. She didn't even bother trying to escape from it. Naruto also didn't bother helping her out of it, he only shot her a glare then turned away and walked away. He soon disappeared out of sight.

The villagers appeared in his spot and placed duct tape on Nia's mouth as they repeatedly abused her with their words. They connected the chains around her feet to a very heavy stone. The ground began to break away like glass. What was revealed underneath it was a body full of water.

Nia was shoved into it by them and began sinking. Her natural instincts forced her to hold her breath. However, her eyes remained open as it remained to look absolutely dead. Her mind was blink as the stone tied to her dragged her further down to the depths of the ocean.

What was happening to her was symbolic to what she was feeling outside of the genjutsu. The duct tape put on her by the villagers represented that she felt as though nothing she said or did would ever get them to see her as someone who deserves better. It represented the fact that her personality was ignored and didn't matter. Only her looks did.

The chains around her symbolized that she felt as though she couldn't get out of the cruelty fate had given her. It represented that she was meant to live a life of rejection, hatred, and no love of any sort. She was made to suffer for all her life.

Next, the stone and body of water represented her feelings of being depressed. She was drowning in her suffering.

Lastly, the villagers act of shoving her into the water was symbolic to them repeatedly wishing for her to die. It was symbolic of their deep hatred for her. They murdered her in their hearts and this genjutsu brought their feelings to reality. Their feelings would be granted.

This exact scene was what Hanshin had peaked into and declared that he truly believed that the girl was done for. No one could save her at this point.

No one cares... No one is gonna save me... I'm all alone...

Nia slowly accepted her fate and began to close her eyes.

At least now I can finally escape from it all... I don't have to live this life anymore...

As she was about to completely close her eyes shut, she spotted something swimming towards her. It was dark, but the other thing was surrounded with light. Nia tried to get a better look but she was just getting way too wary to do so. She closed her eyes.

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A/N - I don't usually update on Wednesdays but I just felt like it today. This chapter is really freaking dark. Sadly, I don't have a video to show you guys this time. However, they'll be one next chapter which I'm planning on updating on Monday, if I can.

Anyways thanks for reading ❤️ please comment and vote and have a great day 💕😊