They had fireworks on his birthday.
Naruto watched them with hungry eyes, no dirty glass in between him and the fireworks this time; he'd sneaked out of the apartment. He couldn't go to the festival but he could bound around in the emptied streets, hearing the distant babble of the happy crowds and sometimes catching a whiff of delicious scents. He could not join in the games but dodging his jounin caretakers could very nearly be one.
(Of all the festivals, this one was when everyone's eyes on him were cruelest.)
When dusk began to fall he clambered up to an advantageous rooftop and lay there, staring at the sky. His chest heaved with the exertion of fleeing his exasperated caretakers; his clothes were soaked with sweat. A cool breeze whirled about him and he shivered.
His eyes glittered when the fireworks began. As an orange starburst flared against the darkness, lighting up everything for a moment like a million fleeting pieces of the sun, Naruto pretended the fireworks were for him.
take me back to the land
where my yearnings were born
-.hack/sign