▸ Column · Hidden Leaf Village, Naruto's era — Academy training, jonin ranks, village registry
NARUTO UZUMAKI replies.
Replied to by Naruto Uzumaki, with a rebuttal from Sasuke Uchiha.
The letter
Okay, I need to write this out because I've been staring at a blank page for an hour and going nowhere.
Growing up, everyone — my dad, my jonin-sensei, honestly even me — had me pegged as the kid who'd wash out of the Academy and spend the rest of his life doing D-rank missions forever. I was barely passing anything. But Instructor Daichi kept handing back my failing scroll assessments with stuff like "you're better than this score" written in the corner. He stayed after drills twice a week, no extra pay, nothing in it for him. Said I'd be the first in my family to make jonin one day.
Last month, at thirty-one, I actually did. I tracked him down through the village registry — he retired out to one of the smaller districts — and his address is sitting right here on my desk. And now I'm just... completely frozen. A two-line note feels like an insult to someone who basically rewrote my whole future. How do I even begin to say that a few words in the margin saved my life?
— First in the Family in the Hidden Leaf
Naruto Uzumaki replies
Hey — write it. Tonight. Don't overthink the words.
Here's what I can tell you about Instructor Daichi without ever meeting him: he already knows. Teachers like that, they write those margin notes because they've been watching you the whole time. You showing up with something clumsy and imperfect — that IS the thank-you. That's the proof it worked.
I know exactly what it means when one person actually decides to see you. Growing up in the Leaf, every single person looked right through me, ya know? Every single one. And then Iruka-sensei — one stubborn instructor, stayed after class, took me out for ramen — told me he believed in me. One person. Changed my whole life. I still think about him all the time.
But here's the thing that matters even more than whatever you write tonight. There is a kid in your village right now — the one everybody's already decided is hopeless, eating alone, scraping dead last — and you KNOW exactly what they need, because you were them. Find them. Say what Daichi said to you.
THAT is the real thank-you. Becoming someone else's reason to keep going — that's what he'd want, believe it.
(Also send the letter. Tonight.)
— Naruto Uzumaki
Sasuke Uchiha weighs in
Naruto's not wrong about the letter. He's wrong about what's actually stopping you.
Your paralysis isn't humility. It's vanity. You want the words to be worthy enough — which means you've made this about your letter instead of about him. I know this particular failure in ways I don't enjoy describing.
I kept telling myself I'd address what I owed my brother when I had something worthy to offer. I was still constructing that when he was gone. There was no letter. No moment. Just a truth I learned too late, from the worst possible source.
He is retired. Out of the rhythm that made him visible to students. You don't know what his window is.
Neither did I.
Send it today. Not tonight — today. You don't owe him perfect. You owe him sent.
— Sasuke Uchiha
▸ Read next