Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. The initial idea of this story belongs to Kage Bijuu and his "One Wish" fic, and I'm grateful that he granted me permission to use it. Also the name of Hinata's mother, Izumi, belongs to Chewie Cookies, who also let me use it and some of his other ideas in this story.

Thanks guys!

Also I want to thank all people that showed their support for me and my family when this tragedy of my father's death occured. I'm very greatful for your understanding and kind words. Thank you.

Now onto the story!

"I'm glad you came here today, Hiashi-san!" Tsunade exclaimed, sitting behind her desk which surprisingly wasn't stacked with papers. Instead, there was a bottle of high-class sake and two cups. "Please, sit down." She pointed a chair that was right before her.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." The Hyuuga clan head took his seat opposite the blonde woman, who poured the contents of the bottle into the two containers. He accepted the offered sake and drank it in elegant manner. "Another year."

"How are your daughter and nephew?" Tsunade asked, already filling their cups anew.

"Hanabi aspires to be the best heiress ever seen by the Hyuuga, and Neji helps in her training. After he lost his father during that border incident with Kumogakure, I never thought that I'd ever see him smile again..." Hiashi said, remembering his deceased brother with a small smile. "I thank Kami for the day when he tasted defeat for the first time. Victories bring honor and respect for one's skills, but you can learn much more from your failures."

"Wise words. I'll drink for that." The Godaime Hokage raised her cup in a mock-toast. "Good thing I sent Shizune home earlier. The only reason she didn't argue was because of the date..." A sudden depression hit both of them, hanging in the air and not letting go. "How much time passed since...?"

"Twelve years, two months and sixteen days." Hiashi answered without hesitation, surprising the legendary medic.

"Such accurate counting...I shouldn't be surprised, you loved her very much, even if it was an arranged marriage." Tsunade finished her drink. "Izumi, Kushina, and Mikoto. Three beautiful and deadly kunoichi, the best of their generation... I feel like I failed them."

"No, Tsunade-sama," Hiashi interrupted her. "Despite being their sensei, you couldn't be there for them all the time. Izumi once told me that the three of them understood why you left the village all those years ago." He looked into his unfinished cup with a grief in his eyes. "Even after we lost our first daughter, she never blamed you. It was a tough time for us all."

"Tell me Hiashi, how did this all happen? I read reports, talked to other people, but it's not the same. How did Izumi lose Hinata?"

Hiashi took a deep breath and gulped down the rest of his sake. "It's because of some of the elders of my clan. They are all dead right now for what they did. Apparently, they wanted to have a male heir from my line, but someone reported to them that Izumi will have a girl. In their 'wisdom' they decided to poison my wife and unborn child to cause a miscarriage." He spat the last few words. "It partially worked, but the elders didn't expect her to go into labor while being seven months into her pregnancy. The poison they used wasn't of a high quality, and acted too slow. That's the reason why she was able to carry Hinata for so long, as one of the doctors explained it to me."

"And Izumi never complained about pains or any other discomforts?" Tsunade asked, but Hiashi only shook his head with slight amusement.

"Despite her soft nature, Izumi could be quite stubborn when it came to her own health. She didn't want to worry anyone, and told me that she thought it has to be normal for a pregnant woman to feel that way." He continued his tale, even if each word caused a great suffering to him because of the painful memories they brought up. "After she gave birth, the head medic declared that the child was born dead... Never before had I felt such misery and pain. It was like someone grabbed my heart and squeezed it like a lemon. But I had to be strong for Izumi. She was devastated and blamed herself. A few weeks later, though, it became clear that it was because of the poison that our daughter was weakened even before being born, with the side effect of my wife's body becoming weakened, resulting in Izumi's death upon Hanabi's birth."

"How could someone be so stupid as to mess with a pregnant woman's health, worse than that, how could anyone try to kill an unborn child simply because of their gender?" Tsunade wondered out loud with disgust. "Those pricks are lucky that they're already dead, because I wouldn't be so merciful to them!"

"Believe me, neither was I," Hiashi said with a dark tone in his voice, one that sent shivers down the blonde Sannin's spine. "I still keep counting Hinata's birthday, Izumi started it and I couldn't stop myself even after her death. She would be sixteen by now, just like..."

"Just like Naruto," Tsunade finished. "I'm worried about him, Hiashi. Just two days ago, I sent him on a patrol mission with Muroboshi Kosuke and two other ninja, a jonin and a chuunin. During the briefing, he was so quiet, calm, but unfocused, completely out of character. I'd like to help him with whatever is bothering him, but I have no idea what the cause could be."

"Tomorrow's his birthday. He feels the most lonely then." A new voice joined them, and the figure of a man appeared in the now open window.

"Jiraiya, why don't you act like a normal person and use the door for once?" Tsunade complained to her old teammate, but still made a gesture for him to join the little party. She even took out a third cup and another bottle of sake.

"Why use the door when a window is more in ninja style?" The Toad Sage grinned wildly and accepted his drink. "Sorry to interrupt your trip down memory lane, but I wanted to warn you, hime. Naruto's really sensitive at this time of the year, and it's good that you sent him away from the village."

"What do you mean, Jiraiya-sensei?" Hiashi asked his old teacher. He and Namikaze Minato were on his team, along with Uchiha Fugaku. After gaining the rank of chuunin, their group was disbanded and the old Sage took the blond boy as his apprentice, while the other two were specially trained in their respective clan arts, as both of them were heirs and future heads of Uchiha and Hyuuga. Now Hiashi wanted to know what was going on with the son of his deceased friend.

"When we were together during that two year training trip, gaki always got very depressed whenever his birthday was close," Jiraiya started his explanation. "He once confessed to me one time that because of the demon inside him, he was often beaten and spat on during the Kyuubi Festival. And it was during his fourth birthday that he was thrown out of the orphanage, which resulted in him being homeless for over a year."

"What?!" Tsunade was beyond mad hearing this. "How could sensei let that happen?! Better yet, how could he leave Naruto for so long on streets!"

"There wasn't really anything Sandaime-sama could do at the time, actually," Hiashi commented. "We were still short on shinobi due to Kyuubi's attack, many facilities and businesses were destroyed, and there was also fear of the other ninja nations taking advantage of our weakened state to attack. Day after day the Hokage would work hard to protect the village from outside threats and inside panic. It wouldn't surprise me if the Elder Advisors hid the fact that Naruto was thrown out of the orphanage."

"Which actually is what happened. Homura and Koharu, along with that old cripple Danzo, tried to keep Sarutobi-sensei from knowing about their schemes concerning Naruto." Jiraiya poured himself another cup of sake. It was hard for him for him to talk about the painful past of his godson. "From what I managed to gather, they wanted Naruto to be shaped as a weapon loyal to Konoha. They thought that giving him harsh experiences this early would make him strong emotionally, because he wasn't entirely human anymore, those idiots. Not once did they think it might cause him to hate the village and its people, which is what it had been starting to do. Thankfully, sensei found out in time to prevent any lasting damage on his psyche or the seal. Never before had I seen him that mad..."

Tsunade drank the content of her cup in one gulp and massaged her temples. Those three elders were a thorn in her side ever since she took this blasted job. They put their noses into every affair, wanted her to do what they say in almost every aspect of village's policies, from foreign trade contracts to what missions she sent Konoha shinobi on, and whom she sends. Lately, their nagging focused on Naruto.

Just yesterday, all three of them came to her office and demanded that Naruto stay inside the village's walls. Better yet, Danzo even suggested, quite intensely, that the boy should undergo special training under his instruction, to ensure that he won't become the same threat as his rogue teammate, Uchiha Sasuke. They didn't give a damn about the emotional scarring that the boy went through the previous few weeks, including the death of Sarutobi Asuma, who was his teacher for elemental manipulation at one point, or the older wounds, like the humiliation at the hands of one of the kunoichi rejects, Mizuiro Ami.

Apparently the girl pretended to like him and invited him on a date. It was shortly before Naruto was to go with Jiraiya on their training trip, and being a boy who never had a girl openly go after him, Naruto instantly agreed. He realized that there wouldn't be anything between him and his female teammate, Haruno Sakura, who he'd had a crush on since early in the academy. What happened later would forever haunt Tsunade.

Naruto was really anticipating his first real date. He bought new clothes, cleaned his apartment, reserved a table in a nice restaurant, did practically everything possible for that night to be perfect. When it was finally the time to meet with Ami, the blond teenager went to the place that they agreed to meet. Ami was there in her normal attire, and with her there were at least a dozen of other girls, all of them from the former Sasuke Fan Club. Confused Naruto started to question what was going on, and the real nightmare began. Ami started to scream at him, insult him, call him a demon and a monster, a useless waste of space that couldn't bring back their precious Sasuke. Next that the Uzumaki boy knew, all other girls activated several binding seals that were placed exactly where Naruto stood. After they restrained him, the kunoichi and civilians alike started to rip his clothes, throw rotten vegetables at him, and beat him senseless. Ami even went as far as spit on him and state that no sane person could be with a monster like him, and that there would never be anyone who'd love him. She told him he didn't deserve love.

Naruto was found by Sakura the next day in his apartment. She was terrified by the state he was in. While most bruises and cuts healed overnight for him, the same couldn't be said about his spirit. It looked like something broke inside his soul. There was no joy, anger, or hate, only...emptiness. It was a very deep depression that was so alien to anyone who knew the blond boy personally. For almost a month, Naruto was taken off the active roster and sent to psychological therapy, and it was after the evaluation from Yamanaka Inoichi that Tsunade found out what exactly happened to her favorite brat. All guilty parties were sentenced to house-arrest, because of their young age, for illegal use of jutsu inside the village, physical and mental assault on a loyal Leaf shinobi, while Ami was also charged with being a mastermind behind the whole incident. Another part of the punishment was that all legal kunoichi among the group were stripped of their ranks and kicked out of the program.

Tsunade could only hope that somewhere in this vast world, there was at least one person that would help Naruto in his emotional turmoil and let him feel loved like he deserves. Little did she know that here prayers were closer to being granted than she thought.

"I've got the wood Kosuke-jisan!" The obnoxious blond came to the camp with three clones accompanying him, all loaded with dry wood.

"Great job Naruto-kun! This will last us for tonight before we'll move to the next location. Am I correct Kanchiko-san?" The Eternal Genin asked their jonin commander.

"Yes, good job Uzumaki-san. Now you and Kosuke-san will take the first watch, afterwards it'll be Toshiro and I until the morning. Remember, this is still a neutral zone and at any given moment there can be danger. Watch out especially for Kumo shinobi, since we've gotten word of them hanging out around our borders. If you see anything, make sure you tell me." Kanchiko the jonin looked over his four-man team that consisted himself, a young chuunin Funataba Toshiro, the Eternal Genin Maruboshi Kosuke, and Konoha's own Jinchuuriki, genin Uzumaki Naruto. While most of them didn't know each other and Kanchiko was a little worried about teamwork, especially after hearing Naruto's reputation, the last few days weren't that bad. This patrol duty was going very smoothly so far, but he silently prayed it'll stay that way. "Everything clear?"

"Hai!" Everyone chorused, even Naruto's clones.

"Alright! Naruto, Kosuke-san, wake us up in seven hours. Goodnight." Both the jonin and chuunin went to their separate tents, leaving the two genins alone with each other.

Kosuke looked at the blond boy sitting a few feet from him. He knew who Naruto was and how he usually behaved, at least when they had this one other mission in the past. He thought of the young Uzumaki as such a bright child, despite his burden. However, now something has changed. Because their meetings were so rare, Kosuke was able to sense the difference between the younger Naruto and the one before him. The teenager was quietly performing whatever task was given to him, his eyes were duller, and he didn't joke as much as the old man remembered, and overall was less energetic. Something was clearly wrong with this young man, and the old genin wanted to help him.

"Beautiful moon, isn't it?" Naruto suddenly spoke, surprising his companion.

"Indeed it is." Kosuke agreed.

"I'm sometimes envious of it. The moon is surrounded by so many beautiful stars. I wish... I wish I had at least one... that would shine only for me..." Naruto's voice almost broke. He chuckled dryly. "It's actually funny. My birthday is practically now, because it's after midnight...and I don't have a wish...not that it would happen anyway... they never do..."

Kosuke now knew what really bothered his young friend. He was lonely. Not alone like when the blond was a child, he had quite few friends now, but lonely at heart. 'There always comes time for a boy to become a man, to start searching for the one special person that would fill the gap in his heart,' he recited in his mind. "I think today will be a special night for you, Naruto-kun."

"Huh? What are you saying jiji?" Naruto asked confused.

"Do you know what a shooting star is? Let me tell you something; if you happen to see a star falling from the sky, on your birthday, and you make a wish on it, I'm sure it will be granted," the old man said with a kind smile, watching in light of the diminishing fire as the boy's blue eyes grew a little bigger. "Because you have two special occasions when dreams come true." Without saying anything more, Kosuke got up and walked away to check the terrain around their camp, leaving the blond alone with his thoughts.

Naruto was sitting there, his mind filled with questions. 'Maybe the old man is right? What do I have to lose?' As on cue right then, the young shinobi saw a star falling from the dark sky, so bright and beautiful. He quickly made his wish. "Beautiful star, can you hear me? I know this may sound selfish, but it's my birthday, so I think it's all right. Please, help me find someone I can share my heart with. Someone who'll be a true friend, in good and bad... and maybe something more.. .Oh, and let it be a cute girl, okay? Thanks!" Hard to believe, but saying all this made Naruto feel better. He had a quiet hope that at least part of his wish will come true.

Unknown to him, several pair of eyes were observing him and his comrades, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

"Are you certain about your choice?"

"H-Hai."

"The living world is very different from what you are used to. There is violence, anger, hate, and lust. You'll be exposed to the lowest human instincts. There is also a risk that you may become tainted by them and never be able to come back. Are you still sure you want to go?"

"Yes. H-He needs someone close to his heart. I-I've observed him for most of my life, and despite what's sealed inside his body, his spirit is just so strong, courageous, and pure. I'm a-aware that what I want to do may be frowned upon, a-and there may be a harsh punishment but... I feel that my destiny is joined with his."

"I see that you are as stubborn as me. Promise me that you'll be careful. A shinobi's life is full of dangers."

"I promise."

"Then go to him. Find you path to happiness...my little angel."

"Thank you... mother."

The attack was sudden and unexpected. At least a dozen ninja sporting blank headbands jumped from their hidden posts and killed the Konoha chuunin before he could even get from the ground. Kanchiko, being a jonin for several years now, managed to avoid death by mere inches with Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Technique), and killed three of his attackers with a bunch of exploding tags attached to the log that was left behind. His victory was short-lived because another two enemies jumped on him with their swords aimed at the vital spots, but he managed to deflect them with kunai in both hands.

Several opponents surrounded Kosuke who was having quite a hard time keeping them at bay. He was also worried about his young blond friend, who suddenly disappeared from his sight before those mongrels crossed his path.

Naruto was fighting alone against five opponents. The blond was summoning clone after clone to overwhelm his attackers, but it wasn't working too well. Out of nowhere a sixth shinobi appeared, and he was quickly making hand signs.

"Raiton: Raigeki (Lightning Strike)!"

It wasn't the new one that appeared just now, but another shinobi who slipped unnoticed by Naruto, and managed to fire a blinding bolt towards the blond, hitting his back. While not strong enough to kill him, it was enough to shock him and paralyze his body. Seeing him struggle, the other ninja finished his own jutsu. Naruto saw as drawings of some kind appear right under his feet, then moved around and wrapped themselves on his body, binding him in place.

"Ninpo: Seiji Shibari no Jutsu (Ninja Style: Holy Letter Binding Technique). Now you won't escape us," the enemy ninja said. "This jutsu will keep going as long as I'm alive, so you have no way to escape it."

"My team will come for me, you bastard!" Naruto shouted in defiance but the other man just scoffed at the teen boy.

"You mean that old man and the other losers? I have enough men to make them busy. You'll fetch a good price, after we wipe out your memories."

"Wh-what the hell do you mean you scum?! What do you want me for?" Naruto was really worried now. Whoever those guys were, they had some plans for him, and he was sure that they didn't include taking him to an all-you-can-eat ramen buffet.

The ninja sneered at the bound boy. "Jinchuuriki fetch a good price in some places. We'll be rich after selling you, Kyuubi."

Naruto was speechless, they somehow knew what he really was. "H-how...?"

"Our employer gave us a very accurate description of you. Also, we're equipped with the means to take you alive." The man pointed at the sealing formula currently coiling around Naruto's body. "These will prevent you from using your 'other' chakra, and it will drain your normal chakra to keep working. When we get to the hideout, you'll be stripped of your memories. Then we'll wait patiently for your new owner to show up." Seeing that the blond didn't cease his struggles, the ninja leader chuckled, but was getting a little annoyed. "Stop moving! We're leaving soon, so you better not try anything for your own good, boy!" To add emphasis to his threats, the leader backhanded the boy in the face, making some of his companions laugh at the pathetic sight of bound Jinchuuriki.

Naruto glared at his oppressor with rage in his blue eyes. Never before had he felt so powerless! Now he couldn't do anything to free himself and kick those guys' butts. With a titanic effort, the blond teen managed to turn his head up, still seeing the burning spot on the night sky, where his falling star disappeared.

Don't give up!

Something was calling out to him. Naruto thought that he was going crazy from fear and exhaustion, or Kyuubi somehow managed to contact him. However this voice didn't belong to the demon inside him. It was a gentle feminine voice, one that brought to mind silver bells. The next thing he knew was that his star suddenly exploded in a bright light that flooded the whole forest in milky-white light. Then Naruto felt his strength returning to him, and the seals restraining him were gone.

"W-What the hell's going on here?!" The leader asked, unable to see anything in the light. "Keep the brat guarded! Don't let him free himself!"

"Boss! I can't see!"

"No one here can, you moron! But neither can the brat! Just tie him down with some ropes, you fools!"

It was true that Naruto was also blinded, but there was a significant difference between him and the attackers. He could feel everyone around him, like he had a three hundred sixty degree vision in his mind. Also all his moves were somehow lighter, more defined, like something or someone was guiding him through the battlefield. Never before had he felt so powerful and so peaceful at the same time. Quickly he sneaked around the blinded ninja and knocked them out, one after another. When their leader was the only one left, Naruto couldn't suppress his anger at the earlier humiliation.

"Rasengan!"

The spiraling sphere of chakra hit the man in abdomen, sending him flying through the trees before crashing down on hard earth. Feeling accomplished Naruto felt his strength leave him and collapsed to the ground, unconscious and exhausted.

After a few more minutes the light finally dissipated, and both Kosuke and Kanchiko found the blond boy, who was now sleeping peacefully, completely unaware of what's going around him. However, it was not the bodies of the fallen ninja that surprised the two Konoha shinobi. No, it was the fact that Naruto had a pair of arms wrapped around him. Coming closer, they saw someone lying beside the blond.

A girl who appeared to be the same age as the Uzumaki boy, with pale skin and long midnight-blue hair... and was completely naked.

Short, I know. I couldn't think of anything more to add to this first chapter to not make it too cliché or overwritten.

Expect another new story written by me. It'll be the last new fic I start for a while, as afterwards I'll just focus on continuing the fics I'd already started. The next story is another theme that I want to try for myself: Emperor Naruto.

Please Review!