A Birthday

Naruto woke up in his apartment, let out a deep yawn, looked out the window to see the sunshine and put on one of his huge signature smiles,

"Its Today!", he exclaimed in excitement, for it was 10th of October and the boy had turned 7 after waiting quite a long time. Why had he waited? Because he never knew what importance such a day had; he had no one to tell him. It was only by watching other people, some television screens and reading some picture books that he'd come to know, just a few months back, what this day was and what joy it brings; for on this day a person officially became one whole year older, though for him he was full 7 years older since he'd never celebrated one of these days before. Although he was slightly sad that he'd missed 6 of these without even knowing, but he had decided it way back when he discovered the day that he would emblazon it in such a way that all past 6 missed times would be satisfied.

For Yes, It Was His BIRTHDAY!

He recalled how he had found out about the date of his birthday not too long ago as well, right after he discovered birthdays in general in fact. After no one at the Hokage Mansion would tell him and the Old man Hokage being too busy, he had asked the only man he had some trust in; Old Man Ichiraku, who knew as well as anyone the infamous 10th of October Date when a demon fox was sealed inside this newborn Naruto. Ichiraku told the boy of the date and when he inquired of him where he'd found that out, he brushed aside the question saying all that mattered was that he know the when and to prevent him from asking any more, he even promised to get him a present when the day came. Remembering this little memory made the start of his birthday all the more brighter.

He got out of his bed, rushed to the bathroom and in honor of the day, brushed his teeth, took a bath, shampooed his hair, applied some perfume and even clipped his nails. "I've been saving to do all this stuff on my birthday so I'd be clean and nice looking for it…..even though it has been a week since that. I wonder if I shudda have a bath in between then and now, hmm….Nah!", he talked to himself while getting clean. Then he looked at himself in the mirror and smiled even wider, approving himself.

Finally he got out and decided to put on some clean clothes. So he went to his closet and browsed his fine collection of different clothes…..which were all jump-suits….which were all orange…which were all dirty too….."AAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHH!", he cried, "How could I forget to have atleast one set of clean clothes to wear for my birthday!". But then a glimmer caught the corner of his eye and he pushed aside all the clothes to reveal a shining jewel sitting in the corner of his closet. It shined so bright that he had to shut his eyes for a couple of seconds. Then as his eyes finally adjusted to the shine, he saw that the jewel had been replaced by a clean orange jump-suit. "Yes!" He exclaimed in happiness, "I knew there was atleast one clean left, and its so shiny too! Now I won't have to wash my clothes for atleast a few weeks." He said as if this all was an achievement. But then again, to Naruto, stuff like this always was.

He put it on, and then took one last look at himself in the mirror, nodded in agreement to his reflection and said approvingly, "Now I'm ready to head out and get those present thingys from all the people I know. This is gonna be so awesome!" The young boy was so excited that he even forgot to have his instant noodle breakfast.

As he headed out and locked the door behind him, he was thinking to himself of all the presents treats he would make people get him but little did he know, that this day was going to be anything but awesome for him. For this day, for the first time in his 7 year old life, he was going to witness the true horrors of man….

A gentle breeze was blowing across the village, Naruto closed his eyes and tilted his head upwards to feel it and the warm sunlight streaming down from the sky.

Its such an awesome day. He thought, It hasn't been this good for a long time, must be a gift from God for my birthday. And thinking that, he smiled.

He continued to walk down the road, which was empty. He thought to himself, How come no ones around? Its late enough in the morning for everyone to be up. But then he pushed that fruitless thought aside and started to count the names of people on his fingers whom he'd soon be forcing to get him presents.

"So there's Old Man Hokage, and if I can get him to give me something cool, I'll also force all his staff at the Hokage Mansion to get me something too. Hehehehe…", He said to himself, as a sly smile crept across his face, and then he continued, "Ok then there's good ol' Ichiraku and his family, they've always been good to me even when most of the other people of the village always look at me badly. I'll get ol' Ichiraku to give me a 'full day for eat-as-much-Ramen-as-you-want' deal, and then there's the present he promised me, and then I'll get Ayame nee-chan to give me something nice too". He turned around a corner, and the streets were still empty, but not focusing on that, he thought of where to go first, "I haven't had breakfast, so I guess I'll go over to Ichiraku and get my deal present as the first gift of the day". Having decided that, he increased his speed, quickly turning it into a full paced run, as he made his way to the centre of the village—Where Ichiraku's Ramen shop was.

When he got there, he saw that there was a large number of people gathered in the street and all holding some candles and banners, and all were wearing black. Not understanding what they were doing, he just decided to look for the shop. As his eyes fell upon his destination, he saw it was closed, "Aww man!", He practically shouted," Why is it closed at this time!? Its always open. I wonder if ol' man is sick or something….."

Suddenly, there was a sound.

.

It was like a rock hit something soft close by and was attempting to crack it. Then there it was again.

CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.

Then he felt something streaming down his face, it was warm and red….Blood! He touched his head, he was bleeding! He turned around to see the whole procession of villagers now staring at the little boy, their faces read with hatred and anger. All of them were holding rocks in their hands, and they were the ones throwing them at him, although only 3 managed to hit him so far. But now he realized what was going on, they were trying to hit him, beat him for some reason, and the pain of the rocks hitting his skull finally set in as he clutched his head and sat right there in agony. Few drops of tears starting to trickle down his face.

"DEMON! ", Suddenly a voice came from the crowd, they'd all been shouting for a while but it was only now that Naruto began to hear what they were saying, "MURDERER!", "DEVIL CHILD!" , "GO AWAY!", "LEAVE US IN PEACE!", "YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM US!", "WE HATE YOU!", they were saying so many things to him, and all the while doing so they continued to throw rocks at him. But he didn't understand anything.

Why are they doing this? What did I do? He thought, as he finally gathered the courage to say something, "Im just here to go to Ichiraku's for my birthday present, please don't beat me. I didn't do anything!", he said as the few tear drops from his eyes turned into a full stream of river, "Im a good boy! Look I even took a bath today and brushed my teeth and changed my clothes. Why are you doing this to me!?"

"Why!? Why are we doing this to you!?" A young man in his mid twenties shouted in reply to Naruto's cry, "How dare you even say that! You devil! You dare to celebrate a birthday, be happy and go around asking for presents on this day! You mock us! You mock our families! You mock our deceased! The very people you snatched away from us! On this very day, all those years ago!". Naruto barely made out what he said over the noise of people, but he didn't understand a word of it.

Is it wrong to celebrate a birthday? Or ask for presents? He thought, But all those commercials and books and other families were doing it, then why are they all being so mean to me?! As he was thinking this, the same young man climbed above a bench and addressed to all the people of the procession at the top of his lungs.

"My fellow villagers! This demon child is defiling our procession be being here and mocking us with his words and actions. We only wish to honor our dead, that the demon took from us 7 years ago. That is why we hold these candles, and wear these clothes! We will not let anyone, and least of all this devil brat to ruin our ritual for our families!"The whole procession roared at his little speech and their emotions were set ablaze.

They all shouted, "LETS KILL HIM!" ,"LETS THROW HIM OUT!, "HE DOESN'T BELONG WITH US" , "HE TOOK SO MUCH FROM US", "HE DOESN'T DESERVE TO LIVE AFTER HAVING THE GUTS TO SHOW UP HERE AND ASK FOR PRESENTS!" All the people became even more emotional, and even those who hadn't noticed the boy started shouting and throwing things at him. And now the whole gathered village was united against a small boy, bent on beating him up for defiling their procession, even if it meant killing him.

Naruto was crying, harder than he ever had, harder than when he was told that his parents had died long ago, harder than when he could make no friends, harder than when people sent cold hateful looks his way and told their kids to stay away from him. This was the cry of a boy not only afraid, but also hurt badly from within and without. He was crying out continuously, "I don't understand! Im a good boy! Please don't beat me! Im sorry!" But they paid no heed to his desperate words. Finally instinctively his body gathered the energy to stand up and run in the other direction.

He ran and ran harder, crying all the while and glancing over his shoulder to see some people chasing him and still throwing hard stuff at him. He used every bit of energy his small body had to get away from them, he kept on running, not even breathing properly. His muscles were aching, his body was tense, and he was still bleeding but he kept on running. Finally the village gates came into view and he ran past them into the forest.

The mob of people stopped at the gates and shouted, "DON'T COME BACK EVER!" , "IF YOU DO WE'LL KILL YOU FOR SURE, YOU DEVIL!" Then they decided to all head back to their procession to honor their dead who had died all those years ago while protecting their village from the rampage of a demon nine tailed fox, which was now trapped in the body of the boy they successfully chased away from the village.

Naruto kept on running, even when no one was chasing him, even if his face was covered with a mixture of tears and blood, even if his whole body was crying with pain all over. He just couldn't stop running. Such was the fear they had instilled in him. Such was the fear of hateful people. Such was the fear—of man.

He kept on running, but little did he know that there was a shadow watching him from a tree branch at some distance…..

TO BE CONTINUED