Sometimes, you just come across one of those days that no matter what you do, its wrong. Well that was Naruto as a whole. His entire life, no matter if he was getting a ball of a roof for someone or offering to share his candy with another kid, he was shunned and treated like an imbecile. He spent 12 years of his life completely ignored by society, except when he did something bad. Or when he entered a room, the surroundings grew quiet and people shuffled away from him.
In this twelve year struggle, only 3 people acknowledged him as somebody worth their time. Iruka, Ichiraku and the old man Hokage.
Sure the kids talked to him, but it only took one glance from a parent to send them packing home. With warnings never to go near the 'scary' boy again.
He didnt understand, what was so scary? The only thing even mildly out of the ordinary were the whisker like lines on his cheeks, and if they were worried about stuff like that, they should definately shun people like the Inuzuka clan, who were essentially dogs in human form.
He finally understood why during the incident with the forbidden scroll after everybody graduated from the ninja academy.
He was the fox that everyone hated for the disaster that happened on his birthday some twelve years ago.
Although he may not have looked any different in the weeks following to those around him, he became deeply depressed. The number of pranks was decreasing, he was spending more and more time in his room, and he was eating less and less. Even ramen didnt hold the same appeal. He was becoming like the duck butt haired Sasuke. It was one of the most upsetting times in his life so far.
That is until that same duck butt nearly died saving his life.
Seeing him laying there in front of him, he could honestly say he had never been more enraged in his life. Something just snapped, and suddenly all he could see was red, suddenly moving at great speeds... if he wasn't so distraught it would have been fun.
And when he found out he was alive, it was as if the world started moving again, the frozen blood in his veins flowed free and tears of joy slid down his face.
This was when that feeling appeared. Just a niggling, as it were, in the back of his mind. A pounding of the heart when suddenly confronted with the duck butt. A slight blush when he remembered the accidental first kiss.
It confused him.
Why was he suddenly acting so?
He shared his problem with Iruka and the man started blushing like crazy and asking lots of weird questions like 'do you feel umm... attraction... towards him'
He didn't think it was that, he didn't feel any of those 'special' urges towards Sasuke.
What he did feel was a warm and floaty feeling in his chest, as if he was going to take off and fly at a moments notice.
This annoyed him.
He proclaimed to him that they were rivals and felt a tad better. Maybe the feeling was his urge to beat him!
But that could not have been it. Over the months spent fighting and training side by side and eventually becoming quite close friends, the feeling grew. He no longer felt the need to challenge him at every turn, no longer threw insult at him as often. Sure they were jokingly arguing, but it wasn't the same. It had somehow become more mellow.
Again, he simply could not understand.
His understanding changed when they first faced Orochimaru. Seeing what a quivering mess he had become, he understood, he idolised the raven haired boy. Seeing the pain and fear on his face, it made his heart ache. Knowing that he couldn't protect him, made him yearn for the strength he needed.
And it happened again. Something snapped, power seeped into him, he could feel his muscles getting stronger, his fatigue was waning, and the tinged red vision was back. But this time he could control it. He held the gigantic basilisk back simply with his twelve year old body and some kunai.
And when Sasuke decided to leave, he finally completely understood.
He loved him. Plain and simple.
From that moment, Every time he saw him, it was as if someone had plunged a blade into his heart. He watched his friend and love do things that he could never dream of doing because of the sheer inhumanity they required the perpetrator to posses.
It ripped him to shred inside.
But now the war was over.
'Tobi' had vanished.
The tailed beats were given new containers, which he was now in charge of training.
The truth about Itachi was out.
Tsunade had pronounced him as Hokage in training.
And beyond all, Sasuke was back by his side, even if only during times when he would not be caught. He was, after all, still a rogue ninja.
But laying here on the side of a hill in the middle of nowhere, with him in is arms under the starry sky, none of that really mattered. And thinking back on it, he supposed there was nothing to really understand.
So to end his thoughts, and as revenge for an earlier sneak attack, he swooped down and claimed those lips for his own once again. A low chuckle in his throat, a head full of dreams of the future, and eyes that sought only the stars and his eyes, finally life had worked in his favour.
And even if there was nothing to understand, he finally understood.