Chapter 1: The Anniversary

It had been a long year, just another one tacked on to the running count in which he remained unable to help his best friend, in which he was not strong enough, was not smart enough, in which he still failed. He did not like it, but there was nothing he could change to help that, nothing at all. He had lost several people during that time, lots of good people, he knew there was nothing he could have done to help them, not with everything that had happened, but he was different. There was still hope him, he could still be helped; but first he had to find him.
He had been working on it for years, training to be stronger, training to be smarter, he had done everything he could think of to improve himself and find a way to help his best friend. He had searched and searched, and always seemed to be a few steps behind, so close and yet so far away.
He took a deep breath of the cool night air sitting in one of the upstairs windowsills. Today, tonight, was the anniversary of his departure. The anniversary of everything changing, the day he changed. The next few days would be tough, they were every year, remembering what they had done, what had been accomplished, remembering how it had all amounted to nothing, it had not made any difference. He clenched his fist and banged it on the wooden frame slowly watching the sky fade to blue-black and saw the stars twinkle into view above the rooftops; and the full moon.
He was so tired of full moons, this was the first time it had been full on this day since he left, since it started, since he learned how powerless he really was. Everything terrible seemed to be happening on the nights hosting a full moon, he feared to think about what would happen this time; the date seemed to be begging for a double dose of bad tidings. He let out a long sigh and gave the window frame one last hit and with one last look at the moon, turned to reenter the house.
This room was in a terrible condition, dusty and slightly in disarray. He could never seem to keep it in order, the rest of the house was okay, she always kept everything nice and neat, he had tried to in here but he was always coming and going, this one particular room just sort of fell into disarray and he always had to leave on short notice, cleaning up was just left undone; and she did not come in to clean it, she did not want to disrupt what he was doing. He stepped around the clutter to the door and moved quietly down stairs to the front door.
They would be asleep, his wife and children, well his children at least, she might be working on something still. He made it to the door without a sound slipped on his shoes, he was not just going to sit around this time, he would not let the moon bring in more bad news, if the bad news could not find him until in the morning that would be enough for now. He stood up, opened the door and left, silently closing the door behind him.
The streets were empty, the buildings were all lit up though, as he walked he could hear people talking, laughing, going on with their lives like nothing had happened, but it had been such a long time ago, most people had moved on; most of friends said it was time for him to do the same. But he could not, he had said he could bring him back, he had given his word and he never went back on his word; never had and he had no intentions on starting now.
If only he could find that one thing he was missing, get that one clue that took him to where his friend was, not where he had been. It was frustrating and getting more so by the year, but he refused to stop until he had found him and brought him home. There was something that he was just missing, and could not help but hope he was close to finding it, close to getting to his friend and helping him, saving him from himself.
He stopped in the middle of a side street and looked up at the moon, was he also looking up at the moon? What was he thinking about? Was he thinking about him, about all his old friends? Had he thought about any of them since the brief encounter they had had early on in their separation, back when they were teenagers? Back before the war? Did he want to come back, but was unsure if he would be welcomed? Had he started a family? Had he changed? Had he given up on whatever plans he had been scheming back then? Or had he kept them, planed them better, made them bigger and more elaborate? Where was he now?
He heard footsteps behind him, he turned quickly to see his wife walking towards him, she was holding her fingers up to her lip and was looking at him with large rounded eyes. He smiled holding his arm out to her; she came in close and nestled against his side; holding his hand and wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"Are you thinking about him?" she asked in a small voice. He gave a brief nod.
"It's the anniversary, another year gone."
"I know, I've been thinking about it all day." He looked down at her and gave half smile.
"The moon is full tonight, just like the night he left."
"I know, it's the first time since then."
"Maybe it's a sign that we'll finally find him. That we'll get him home, finally." That sounded nice, but that probably would not happen; full moons always harbored bad news, bad things happened, and he would be torn apart again.
"It's getting late, we should go home," he said quietly hugging her gently; she smiled up at him as they started home.
They entered the house and walked up to their bedroom, it was getting late and he was due in for a meeting in the morning; they both were. Stretching and yawning they climbed into their bed and went to sleep.

A/N I wrote this story back in 2011, and I'm transferring it from the original post site. At the time, the war was just beginning in the weekly releases from Shonen Jump. Some of the details will be incorrect due to the progression of the actual timeline in Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto.
Other than that, I hope you enjoy!