Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, just my ideas and OC (well, the OC is kind of you…but you get the point).

I woke up to the sun shining and the sound of birds chirping, but my peaceful morning bliss was quickly brought to an end by the overwhelming stench of rotten milk. Plugging my nose, I got out of bed and walked into the kitchen to see Naruto eating a bowl of cereal…with an open carton of milk next to him.

He greeted me with a mouth full of corn flakes. "Hey, (Y/N)-chan! How'd you sleep?"

Ignoring him, and the weird 'chan' he kept adding to my name, I reached over the table and grabbed the carton of milk. I gagged as I dumped the disgusting liquid down the sink, resulting in a very surprised—and slightly upset—Naruto.

He shot up out of his seat. "Hey! What was that for?"

I turned to face him. "Are you serious? Naruto, that milk was beyond bad. How long have you been drinking that sludge?"

He sat back down and scratched his head. "Bad milk? Oh man, I don't know…a week? I've been on so many missions lately I guess I didn't get a chance to go shopping."

I was still in shock. "You didn't smell it? The smell alone woke me up."

"That's not how all milk smells?"

I held my face in my hands and shook my head. How does this kid live by himself? Then I paused. He couldn't have been older than me…why was he living by himself? Where was his family? I was pulled out of my thoughts, however, by a strong yank on my left arm. Naruto pulled my hands away from my face and handed me a bowl of instant ramen. "You need to eat breakfast, (Y/N). We have a big day ahead of us!"

A big day…? What the hell did I get myself into? To think this is all because I told Ben 'no'…

I sat down at the table, and began eating the ramen faster than I thought possible. The food tasted so incredibly amazing that I didn't realize it was burning my mouth until I had finished. Why was I so hungry? I had two bowls of Ichiraku's last night before we came back here…I sat back and tensed up as I began to remember the pieces of last night and how incredibly close I was to my goal…only to be brought right back to where I started.

But Naruto promised that he would help me…so he has to. Right? Can I trust him, or is he going to sell me out to Lady Tsunade? As if to answer my question, the blonde wonder boy yanked me—quite violently, I might add—out of my seat in the kitchen and threw me my backpack. "Come on, (Y/N)! I have to go train and I can't leave you alone, so you have to come with me!"

The barely-digested food in my stomach sloshed around angrily as Naruto pulled me through his apartment. "Train?"

Naruto grinned and pulled at his protective headband. "Yeah! If I'm going to become Hokage someday, I need to train more than ever to be as strong as I can be!" I thought about Hokage. For some reason, I guess I attributed it to Chinese Dynasties and some sort of linear succession. Wait…Naruto isn't Lady Tsunade's son, is he? I was pondering genetic effects on the different shades of blonde hair when Naruto stepped towards the door in front of me and knelt down. "Here, let's go!" He looked over his shoulder and motioned for me to hop on his back again. I was wary, but knew that I could either get on his back on my own accord or be pulled down. I chose the former.

Naruto shot off, laughing at something he saw in the street below us. How someone who just drank week-old rotten milk could have so much energy, I would never know, but he seemed to have a never-ending supply of it. I smiled at his child-like nature and nuzzled my head into the back of his neck again. The nausea and dizziness was going away the more I traveled like this, but that didn't mean I was totally comfortable with it.

My stomach growled audibly. We'd been at this same training field for hours now, and although the initial interest I had in his seemingly impossible quick and strong movements was high, it was beginning to wear off.

"Hey, Naruto?"

"Eh, what's up (Y/N)?" He landed three more blows on a wooden post that looked well beyond its prime.

"Is there any way I can swing into the Village and get some food? I don't want to interrupt your training, but I'm not really doing anything here and I'm really hungry." I looked down at the ground while muttering out the last few words. I had a feeling that traveling alone was a luxury I wasn't going to get, but I figured I might as well at least try.

Naruto stopped kicking the post and walked over to me. Panting, he held out a green frog bag. I took it, and opened the zipper. I gasped.

"Is this money?"

He grinned.

"You have so much of it!" It was true. The bag was stuffed beyond what it should have been, and I had never seen so much tangible money before in my life. Suddenly, I felt awful. I held the bag back to him, and tried to put it in his hand.

"Take it back. This is way too much." While he denied it, I absolutely could not take this frog from him. It was kind of ridiculous how much trust he had in a near-complete stranger. He couldn't seriously be meaning for me to hold this much money. Maybe he didn't realize what he was doing? AsI was starting to break through to him, my stomach growled again. This time, though, I nearly doubled over in pain. I guess that instant ramen this morning wasn't enough…

Naruto laughed. "Don't worry about it. It sounds like you need it more than you're letting on. Take that into town and get yourself whatever food you want!" He started heading back to his post, when he held his hand up. "Town is that way. Oh, and get me some lunch too! I'm starving!"

I looked down at the massive green frog in my hand. It seemed to be begging me to spend money just to ease the pressure on his seams. He honestly looked like he was about to burst. I looked up to ask Naruto if he was sure that it was okay for me to have all this in my possession, but he was already back at it, throwing knives at a tiny black mark on the post in the middle.

I smiled. I could definitely stop my hunger pangs with this. I began to head out into town in the direction that Naruto had pointed me, when I realized that I could no longer see him. I was completely alone.

I took a moment to let that seep in. I am completely alone.

I took a deep breath and sat down, ignoring the pain in my stomach. I leaned my back up against a tree, and looked around me. The trees were tall and healthy, shooting up towards the sky to indescribable heights. The leaves were vibrant colors of green, and there seemed to be an infinite amount of them. The sunlight fell between the leaves perfectly, lighting up patches of the tall, soft grass below. Beautiful and strange flowers seemed to bloom everywhere; on the ground, up the sides of trees, even in between the crevices in rocks. I heard the chirping of birds above me, and—since I had stopped moving—saw all sorts of animals come out from their hidings spots. Animals that I was familiar with, like squirrels and rabbits, and animals that I had never seen before that were indescribable but a definite part of this area's natural environment.

I felt a pang in my chest, but this time it wasn't from hunger. As I looked at the strong, vibrant plant life around me and watched the natural interactions between animals, I began to feel the intensity of the impact we were having on the environment back home—wherever home was. Somehow, this area of the world had remained untouched and untainted by machinery and greed, and was better for it. The aura of life and beauty that I could feel in this place was amazing, and the amazement I felt in the wilderness back home was dead in comparison.

If it wasn't for the weakness that hunger was spreading through my body, I never would have left. But as the pain in my stomach subsided, I knew it was long past time for me to get food.

I used the tree to get up, and walked myself to the Village. I was careful not to step on any flowers or animals on my way back. I had never been this conscientious of nature beforehand—more rather, I never even thought about nature outside of the few hiking trips I went on—but this was an overwhelming amount of beauty. I had no choice but to be amazed and careful in these woods.

I admired how the sun fell through the leaves, and thought about how people at my school would react to a place like this. Sure, a few of them were cold-hearted like Ben, but maybe they would change if they visited here. Become a little more aware of their surroundings and the people they affected. Maybe they would realize that even though they weren't directly affecting the things around them, that an indirect effect is still an effect. They could realize that people are much like flowers: stepping on them may not kill them, but it will affect their quality of life. That things like that can never be fixed. A crumpled flower will never straighten, and the wounds serve as constant reminders of their imperfection. How they'll never be as tall or as beautiful as the other flowers again because of what they've gone through. How they're incomplete without the leaves that have been ripped off by the sole of the person's shoe. How they're slowly dying, but the life flowing through them tells the world otherwise.

Back at the edge of town, I turned to look at the woods again. I realized that my face was stained with tears, and I tried in vain to wipe them off. After years of holding it in, it seemed that even last night's tears weren't enough. I was crying even more than before, and this time it didn't seem to stop.

I slowly walked through town, the only thing keeping me from staying in the woods being the need for food. The tears kept streaming and I looked at the ground, trying to pick food based on smell rather than risk showing my face. I refused to show this much weakness to these people.

I had walked past a few stores, and smelled lots of things. Most of it, unfortunately, I couldn't determine just by smell. The spices used and the different types of food were way out of my sensory abilities. I was about to give up and start to look around, when I smelled something sweet. Chocolatey. Delicious.

Just like my mom's special chocolate chip cookies.

That was the breaking point—I lost it. I ran through the streets sobbing, and ducked into an alleyway. I held my face in my hands, and cried harder than I thought possible. The audible sounds and constant sniffling must have alerted people to my presence, but nobody stopped to help. I probably wouldn't have noticed them even if they did. I pulled my knees up to my face and was flooded with memories: my dad pushing me on the swing in our backyard, pretending I was an airplane. My brother and I laughing on a bike ride to a nearby ice cream shop. My best friend Annette and that one time we accidentally knocked over a beehive and her mom had to pull five bee stings from our arms alone. My mom baking her special chocolate chip cookies, and my dad's reaction every time: 'Wow, Jennifer, you have really outdone yourself this time!' Lastly, despite all of my attempts to stop it, I remembered what I was trying so hard not to remember. What I had tried so hard to suppress for all of these years.

There was smoke, so much smoke…I tried to turn the doorknob, but it burnt my hand at the touch. I staggered back from the pain, and knocked into a chair. I could hear my mom somewhere on the other side of the door screaming my name. I called back to her, but she couldn't hear me. I got up and pounded on the door, crying as I tried to get her to hear me. To know where I was. She needed me. I needed her. She called me one last time, but her screaming stopped halfway through my name as an impossibly loud noise echoed throughout the house. That was the last thing I would ever hear her say.

I felt a nudge on my arm. I slowly raised my head, my face still soaking wet from tears, and saw a kabob with meat and vegetables on it. Instincts took over and—while keeping my head down—I grabbed the food without thinking, forcing myself to chew and eat slowly. Finished, I set the stick down, and pulled myself even tighter into my knees. Another nudge brought forth another kabob. I took this one too, eating it more slowly than the first, but my stomach was not satisfied until I had finished the third one.

"I thought you might be hungry," a voice said in a hushed tone.

Thanks for reading! Sorry it took so long to post—work is exhausting and I just haven't had a lot of free time lately. Again, please review! I would really appreciate your guys' comments and critiques, and I am so glad that so many of you are reading! Thanks guys, keep doing you.