Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Avatar: The last air bender...too bad.

Naruto winced as he felt the cut on his scalp, gifted to him courtesy of one blind Earth village drunkard and his Shinobi friend. Apparently, they didn't like Konoha shinobi, like just about every other nation out there. Sighing, he slowly brought out one of the few treasures he owned and gently unscrewed the cap on it, spreading it's pleasurable ache all over the cut in as little amount as he could. Healing salve like this was hard to come by after all, even if it was common.

For some reason though, the Kyuubi would always reject the damn medicine, boiling it away as if it was a poison or something. Sure, he had bought it off a shady vendor, but the guy promised him it wouldn't hurt him, only heal, and Uzumaki Naruto knew that no one would lie when they gave their word! No one!

Grabbing a nearby rag frustradedly, Naruto rubbed the now useless salve from his head and grumbled about the baka fox, only getting a growl in his mind and a stomach ache in response.

Cursing the damned fox again, Naruto rolled back onto his bed and looked out his earth-stained window wondering...what would happen tomorrows? It had been at least a year since Sasuke had left, nearly a year since Sakura had started her training and nearly a year since he had left to travel and train with ero-sannin. Life sure had changed for all of them but...

Naruto had the strangest feeling then, thinking back on all of the times he had shared with his team and nostalgia overtook him before he knew it.

Wishing for those younger, more innocent days, Naruto thought to himself, 'Ya know, it's too bad we can't go back to times like that, I really miss calling Sasuke what he truly is...a stupid teme.'

And with that, Naruto fell into an easy sleep, dreaming of the old days of his Sakura-chan pummeling him for asking for a date and Sasuke ignoring them, simply waiting for Kakashi-sensei to arrive with another hair brained excuse.

What Naruto didn't notice was the winking star, far in the distance smiling down at the young boy and deciding to tip the scales in his favor...just for this once though.

-0-0-

Sakura looked out at the night sky and twitched her sore muscles, tired and half past dead from the hard day's workout that Tsunade had given her. Sighing, she fell into her pillow with a silent wumph and a cacophony of groans resounding from the old spring mattress, making her want the sleep more and more. Sighing, she looked out at the first harvest moon of the year and, suddenly, found memories unbidden of a certain blond haired prankster enter her mind.

'Naruto...Sasuke...'

She thought back to when Naruto would ask for a date and she would throttle him until he was only a heap of smoking meat, and then she would ask Sasuke for a date and he would just ignore her like usual, waiting for their perverted but good natured sensei.

Then she thought about all the times that followed, from the life altering fight at the bridge to the forest of death, when they were ambushed by Orochimaru. To the fight on the hospital roof to the constant bickering and arguing all leading up to the climactic battle at the valley of the end.

'When did it all go wrong?' she wondered. 'When did it all go so horribly wrong?'

Tossing in her bed angrily, she looked at her bedroom wall in silent frustration at the events and then rolled over, once again looking at the deep orange harvest moon.

Anger was soon replaced by weathered sadness as she stared longingly at the orange moon in the black folds of the the night sky, wondering the about the simple question she had been asking herself since she had started training with Tsunade.

"What would it be like if Sasuke hadn't left Konoha...and me?"

Falling into a fitful and worried sleep, she had no idea of the little star twinkling in the distance, listening to every word and smiling down on her, more than ready to give her an answer.

-0-0-

Sasuke fell onto his plain and moth eaten cot in Otogakure and sighed, wondering for the umpteenth time why he had left Konoha for this.

For the constant beatings, the training, the slow but methodical loss of his humanity, and the psychological rapes and reformation attempts by the Sannin, and then he remembered.

'Brother...'

He had to avenge his clan...his family...he couldn't stop just because he got a bruise and a welt here and there. He couldn't stop over childish qualms, no, not when Itachi was still alive and breathing. He could only stop when his brother, his aniki was dead.

Suddenly, a pink cherry blossom fell through the door slot in his room and giggling was heard as a single pair of footsteps ran from the door.

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke opened his door to see a definitely female shape run around the corner and dissapear.

'Fangirls,' he thought, 'even in a barely formed hidden village I have them!'

Picking up the Lotus, he fingered the soft petals of the pink flora and snorted, wondering why he was playing with such a petty and fragile thing.

Snorting, he felt compelled to destroy the colorful monstrosity that had invaded his drab and gray colored room just to be done with and so he did...or at least tried to.

Looking down, he saw his hand twitching, but not crushing the tiny insignificant flower.

'Why? Why can't I kill such a simple and frivolous thing?'

Sasuke looked at the flower and willed, no, ordered his body to crush the pink menace. Yet his body betrayed him, instead deciding to close his fist around the tiny lotus to save it.

'Why? Why can't I CRUSH YOU! I did it once when I left Konoha and I can do it aga-'

All his mental ramblings were cut short as he realized just what exactly he was about to say.

'Why?', he wondered yet again, sitting down on his cot and glaring, 'Why can't I forget about...you?'

Sasuke glared at the little Sakura blossom and sighed, simply thinking about his time spent with the young Kuonichi.

Letting a sigh laced with sadness and longing escape his mouth, the second to last Uchiha laid down on his cot and closed his eyes, laying the pink blossom on his chest and inhaling it's intoxicating and familiar scent.

For one moment in his short yet abused life, Sasuke felt true loneliness in his life and wondered, 'What...what would it have been like if I had stayed in Konoha with...my friends?'

Falling into a fitful and nostalgic-like sleep, Sasuke would never see the little star winking at him in the distance, even if his room had a window. Nor would he know of it's secretive little smile as it decided to tip the scales of luck in his favor, for he deserved some after his short, but torturous life.

-0-0-

Aang looked away from the fire lighting up the night and sighed, wondering how his life could have ended up like...this. He had somehow ended up from leading a normal, happy life, to a fast and hectic life.

Rolling over, he pulled out the three practice marbles from his pocket and began twirling them in their fast, but soothing pattern. Despite popular opinion, this trick took a lot of skill and time to do correctly, but hey. He wasn't a master air bender for no reason right?

'airbending...airbenders...air...'

Aang's thoughts slowly drifted towards the air temple and all of his old friends...his family.

Wanting more than anything now to have someone who he could relate to, Aang looked up to the stars asking...no, wishing for someone to relate to. Someone who knew the burden of having the fate of the world on their shoulders and the expectations of everyone they knew and didn't know pushing him further and further along on his path to confront the his inevitable enemy. Ozai, the firelord.

And then, as Aang finished his thought, he swore he could see a star wink at him in the distance. Blinking his eyes, he looked back to the see that the star had gone, leaving him wondering if he had even seen it all.

Shrugging his shoulders, he rolled over and burrowed into his sleeping bag, knowing that tomorrow would be an interesting day.

What an understatement.

A/N: Well, sorry! I've been caught up in my MA. Anyway, From here on out, the action picks up and so will the length, now that I've set up the whole intro. So from here, enjoy! And anyone interested, I've got a Martial arts forum up, check it out if you're interested!