Authors note: Hello! I'm rewriting the whole thing because I'm pretty sure it sucked! So here you are! Just to note, this isn't actually a chapter, think of it as a preview of what's to come.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. They all belong to their rightful owner and stuff.

Prologue

He looked over to the cross marked calendar- four days left until the inevitable day when he was to return to the academy.

With a sigh he took up his paintbrush and swept it across the canvas, leaving a trail of a blue so dark it could almost be black. This painting would be no different to the hundreds of others he'd painted over the summer, indeed over the last few years, and that fact left him feeling unnaturally cold. Colder than the times he'd sit outside in the rain and let himself be soaked by it. Colder than the times he'd gone out in winter and fallen asleep under a tree despite the fact he knew he'd come home to a worrying carer.

Hitting nineteen seemed to have done nothing for the way he felt about life, himself and certain other people that he'd rather not think, let alone talk, about. In fact the years seemed to have done nothing at all for him, because not only did he feel the same, he looked the same as well. The blue eyes (a shade that reminded him of the colour you see when the sun hit's the surface of Caribbean seas) hadn't dulled in his near two decades of life and his hair certainly hadn't darkened or tamed in anyway. In fact, if anything, he thought perhaps his features had only become more vivid.

He trailed the brush across the canvas a final time before placing it down on the easel and lifting the painting to be stored away in a cupboard where no one would ever see it, not even his friends. If they knew exactly what- or rather who- it was that he painted so much they'd… Well they wouldn't understand for a start, merely because they weren't apart of the catalysis events that led to his minor obsession with painting the most sought after man he'd ever known.

"Another Naruto?" Iruka had snuck up on him again. He knew about the art, he knew why, what had happened. He understood. "Perhaps it's time you stopped Naruto. This room is almost full and you're only damaging yourself more by holding onto the memories."

"Not that easy Iruka and you know it." Naruto mumbled as he propped the painting up in the corner, the walls were full of his favorites and the first which was framed and signed and dusted almost everyday. Sometimes Naruto couldn't stand to look at them, so he took one outside and burned it. He watched the fire lick at his work and he'd sit and smell the acrid stench of acrylics burning…

"Naruto, I wish you'd let it go… You should start getting all your things packed, there's only four days left now until summer's finished and I don't want a repeat of last year's 'day-before' packing. I left your ramen on the kitchen side, I really don't think you're going to fit it all in though…" And just like that the Naruto felt better again, because Iruka always knew what to say and when to say it

Three hours later Naruto found himself sweating and yelling down to Iruka for help. He couldn't fit the last of his ramen in his suitcase and there was no way he was going without it!

"What is it Naruto? Are you hurt?" Iruka puffed as he wrenched the blonde's door open.

"The last pot won't go in Iruka! I've tried everything!" Iruka deadpanned but couldn't help smiling after watching Naruto wrestle with the instant noodles.

"Have you even packed your clothes yet?" Iruka asked despite knowing that the blonde hadn't. Naruto just looked up at him and rolled his eyes. Ramen was always more important that clothes; he'd walk around naked quite happily if he could eat his ramen whilst he was doing it.

" I was getting to that… But I need to get this ramen in first. Besides, I can fit all my clothes in that little bag over there! I don't want any of my precious ramen to get squashed. That's why I'm using the other four bags! Now help me Iruka!" It was funny to watch him take everything out and put it back in differently only to realise that there still wasn't enough room for that last pot.

"Don't you think you're maybe a big deal out of nothing Naruto? You could eat that now and the problem would be solved." Iruka pointed out as Naruto was in the middle of removing everything once again.

"But Iruka, what if I don't take it and then run out on my last day? I'd always know that if I'd only been able to fit that one last pot in, if I hadn't eaten it, then I'd never have run out!"

Melodrama was always high on Naruto's agenda, the more stupidly dramatic he was the more achieved he felt.

"Naruto, stop being silly and get the rest of your stuff packed. Your ramen will be done in three minutes so I suggest you hurry it up." Iruka took the last pot out of Naruto's hands and made his way out of the room and down the stairs. Naruto smiled and looked towards his closet where creased clothes were spilling out. Three minutes was a challenge if he ever saw one and Naruto had never turned down a challenge, he wasn't likely to start. He rushed over to the closet and grabbed as many clothes as he could without suffocating himself, shoved them down on the floor and began stuffing them haphazardly into his bag.

Two minutes and forty-eight seconds later he was downstairs inhaling ramen under the watchful eyes of Iruka.

"You can't do your bag up, can you?" Iruka asked, smirking.

"Nmmoope"

Naruto had a feeling that this year would be different. Better or worse, he wasn't sure. But it would be different.