I'M NOT ALONE

Do you know how it feels like when everyone despises you? When, everyone wants you dead? What if you find out your own father would like to kill you? Or the only person who you thought cared for you the most attempted to assassinate you? Can you live with that kind of life?

I bet YOU CANNOT but I know someone who definitely can. His name is GAARA, my favorite anime/manga character.

Gaara is a fictional character in the Naruto manga and anime series created by Masashi Kishimoto. He was born under the Sand Village and is the son of Sunagakure's leader, the fourth Kazekage (highest title on each nation)

Initially, his father attempted to turn him into a human weapon by placing a tailed beast into him -- the SHUKAKU. With the power of shukaku, he was able to manipulate the sands. He was personally trained by his father to have full control of one-tailed beast but still everyone in their village see him as a monster. For them, he's more of a threat than a weapon.

Gaara became so furious with the villagers to the point where he used the power of Shukaku to get rid of them. These attacks on the villagers convinced the Fourth Kazekage that he was a failed experiment. Thus, a direct order from his own father was made to kill him however all attempts failed because the beast would always protect him and kill the assassins.

What changed his character the most was the event when his uncle, the only person who he thought cared for him tried to assassinate him. With this incident, Gaara told himself that he can't trust no one but himself and the Shukaku. He wanted to kill everyone to prove his existence!

Then, time comes when Gaara was able to meet Uzumaki Naruto, a young boy from the Leaf Village of Konoha. Like him, this boy was also a container of a beast called the Kyubi. As expected, people from his village were so afraid of him thinking that any moment, they will be killed. They are not safe with him.

Surprisingly, not all people see him as a threat. This young Naruto was able to gain friends and family who he can really call his own. When their paths crossed, Gaara forced Naruto to fight him by hurting people he loves just to prove one thing. He wants to determine which of their philosophy is correct: his belief for fighting for himself or Naruto's belief of fighting for his friends and allies?

Naruto defeated Gaara and as a result, he lives with the former's philosophy. As much as he can, he apologized to all people he hurts and improved his relationship with his family. The new Gaara protects the people he loves and in doing so, he knew that he will be able to find true strength.

The story of Gaara is a story of most of us and I am one of them. We are so afraid to build relationship with others thinking they abhor us. So what we do, we build a huge wall to protect ourselves from other people's judgmental opinions. We choose to close our doors instead of reach their hands to understand us/them better. We create this barrier to get rid of those significant and insignificant people who tried to pull us down until we meet our NARUTO.

Naruto in today's world are those people who influenced us to be a better person every single day, every single time. They are those people who made us understand the importance of families and friends. They changed our philosophy and made us realized that we are not alone in this world. They helped us to appreciate everyone around us until such time that we're able to find our true character, our stronger form, a much better us.

If you will ask me who's my Naruto, this allotted space won't suffice to put all their names but let me just put it in its simplest form: My bestfriend, best half, family, significant others, friends and of course you, my dear readers.

So I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you guys/gals for giving me the privilege to meet someone like you. Someone who's not afraid to correct my mistakes and someone who never failed to give invaluable advises just to bring out the best in me.

Though at times (or should I say most of the time) you thought I'm just ignoring you or I'm only hearing you, I need you to please extend your patience with me. Please don't get me wrong. The truth is I'm actually listening and reflecting every word that you said.

It's just that what you're actually seeing is not the real me -- it's my ego and my impulsive behavior but please allow me tell you this... deep inside my heart, I really really appreciate you.

I am Gaara and YOU guys are my NARUTOs.