The air was crisp and fresh, the sun gentle on the skin with a cool breeze filtering through his blond, unkempt locks. Naruto stood atop a bridge spanning across an inlet by the bay of the ocean. Traveling was a general guilty pleasure and his secret way of escaping the reality we all call life.
Though orphaned and later on adopted by Umino Iruka, Naruto was anything but unloved. Yet, the unbridled part of his emotions could not help the sense of growing melancholy. Don't get him wrong, he loves Iruka, loves his life, his friends, his puppy, the kitten next door and the colour orange; but growing up is serious business. There are choices to be made, sacrifices to accept and dreams to be, finally, put aside.
Naruto is definitely the last person anyone would call pessimistic and his happiness is certainly not an act, but we all need our break sometimes. So, he found his in traveling.
Carrying his backpack, taking nothing but photographs and leaving nothing but footprints. That, is when Naruto feels that he is most at ease.
He breathes in harder, taking in a chest full of minty sea breeze. Tomorrow, he will be on a plane and on his way back home. He knows he will miss this but he also knows, he will be back.