Naruto: The Rules of Playing a Beautiful, Tragic Character

[Third-person narration. Started on a whim, writing wherever inspiration takes me.]

You died.

To bring you back to life, you became bound to a Tragic Beauty System.

System: I'm a livestreaming system. Popularity is the foundation of our survival. With enough popularity, not only can I become the number-one system, you can come back from the dead and even live forever.

System: I've studied all the major anime series. I found that nine out of ten of the most popular characters are tragic beauties, and the last one is especially tragic. So the safest way for us to gain popularity is to follow the tragic beauty route.

System: I'll give you the worst possible start. What happens after that is up to you.

You were baffled and at a loss. You had no idea how to play the part of a tragic beauty.

After all, you had grown up surrounded by love. Your parents adored you, and your friends liked you too.

System: If you don't know how, learn. I've picked out several tragic beauty characters for you. Surely you can copy them? Learn from them.

So, in order to become a textbook tragic beauty, you humbly and diligently befriended the real tragic beauties.

Your first tragic beauty friend was Kakashi Hatake. His father had given up on a mission and been condemned by everyone, then chose to take his own life. After that, Kakashi became quiet, sensitive, and extreme.

Your second friend was Obito Uchiha. He had no parents and lived with his grandmother. He was the runt of a clan of geniuses, yet he remained cheerful and sunny, never giving up in the face of hardship.

He wasn't a tragic beauty, but the System said sunshiny characters like him were popular too, so you studied him frame by frame.

Your third friend was also an Uchiha, Uchiha Itachi. He bore the burden of being a double agent. For the sake of the village and his clan, he lived in pain and suppression.

Your fourth friend, your fifth...

You made many friends and formed deep bonds with them. Gradually, you could no longer see them as mere study aids. You began to want to save them.

Don't bear it alone. Don't carry the burden alone. Let me share half your pain, and let me help carry your despair too.

Because we're friends.

Later, the System watched the popularity numbers in its dashboard skyrocket and frantically sucked in oxygen.

Stop! Stop!

Host, I told you to play a tragic beauty, not become one yourself!

Theme: Face hardship and never give up.