title :: "A Fool's Day in April"
author :: ayatori
written :: October 10, 2004
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Rating: G. Very, very G rated. :(
Warnings: Sap, fluff? And more fluff? Killer amounts of fluff? /dies
Timeline: Uh...? What timeline? You can place this wherever you want, but I made them all 15, rather arbitrarily. There are no real spoilers, really. I apologize that the Naruto world is somewhat rose-colored, in this fic.
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Naruto remembered the first birthday party he had. It didn't happen like he imagined it might (if he had ever imagined having a birthday party at all). In fact it was almost funny. Even now, he couldn't decide if they had planned it that way -- to completely hijack his birthday from it's original date to something completely different. But he could no longer complain, because every year, on one spring day, he'd get a party.
The first year it started, he had been a part of Team 7 for more than two years. Old crushes and destructive rivalries dissipated into hard won friendships, trust and acknowledgement.
That day, it had been a cool, cloudless spring day -- the first day of April. Definitely not October at all. So, of course, birthdays were the last thing on Naruto's mind, especially after they had just finished a tiring week of missions. He really couldn't wait for a chance to sleep in, or train, or perhaps pester other people -- like Tsunade-baba, whom he seemed not to see all that often anymore.
But, unfortunately, on that day they were stuck once again on that familiar bridge, waiting to see if they had yet another long line of missions awaiting them. On this quiet morning, it was Sakura who was pestering Naruto and not the other way around.
"Hey, Naruto, when's your birthday?" she asked, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Uh, what?" He answered, quite intelligently. He stopped absently twirling the kunai he held in one hand.
"You heard her," Sasuke, ever helpful, offered. "Or have you gone deaf again?"
You see, birthdays were a foreign concept to Naruto. Of course, everyone had one, but celebrating it was something completely different, so, he never really expected anyone to ask. He'd gone 15 years without celebrating a single birthday. If you asked, he could tell you that it had something to do with cake, candles, presents and people being grateful you were born. But to him, it was just another tradition on the list of things one could only do with "family" and "friends," both of which he'd spent 12 years learning to live without. He figured, there were things more painful than no one wishing him "Happy Birthday" like coming back to an empty apartment at the end of the day or enduring endless taunts and cold glares.
So, days like that never crossed his mind if he could help it. Not to say, he never tried persistently to give Sakura a present every year or make sure he played out an extra special prank just for Sasuke when the day of his rival's birth came around. But his own birthday might as well have not been one at all, except to keep track of when he got one year older.
October 10th -- every year, that day -- he thought, as he was about to answer Sakura, just to get her off the subject, but quickly thought the better of it.
"It's a secret," he said, instead, with a plastered, false grin.
Truth be told, he didn't care that they'd be suspicious of a birth date falling on the same day and year as the Kyuubi's defeat by the Fourth Hokage. Even though Sakura aced history and Sasuke's memory was excellent. Everyone knew what that day was, but Sasuke and Sakura weren't nearly old enough to know what it really meant, to be born 15 years ago that day. Other than being rather inauspicious.
No, the real reason was that the day itself was always depressing. Sure there were people celebrating the life of the Fourth and his victory, but more than that was the sheer amount of memorial services held on that very day.
Almost every family in Konoha lost someone and some more than others. October 10th was the one day a year that all those families left flowers on those gravestones, took offerings to the dead and adopted somber expressions. It was a day marked with death.
For that reason, Naruto hated that day. Sure, the hatred against him might have been stronger. Since he was little it was always frightening to go outside on that day. But it was the heavy air of mourning that made it all the worse. He could take the jeering and the taunting, but he couldn't take the air of sadness and death -- of people who had lost friends, family members, loved ones. It would never really be a day meant for joy, as long as he lived. Wouldn't a "Happy Birthday" on a day like that, just be more depressing?
"What do you mean 'It's a secret,' you dummy!" Sakura huffed in annoyance. She'd probably hit him for that soon enough.
"Not telling, that's all," Naruto said, with a shrug and turned to lean against the bridge, his head resting on his arms as he watched the clear water rush by and he wondered if any of it had been melted snow.
"But, Naruto, no one's ever celebrated your birthday, have they?" Sakura said, softly. It kind of annoyed him. Why'd she have to say things, in such a girly way, that it always made him feel guilty?
"...I just realized that," she continued, "I always get something for Sasuke-kun, but I never bothered to ask you. And you never mentioned it at all."
"Eh, Sakura-chan, you don't have to be like that, it's alright," he said looking at her, but laughing nervously, "It's always been that way so it doesn't bother me."
There was a lapse of silence and Naruto swallowed uncomfortably, not realizing his grip on the kunai had gotten a little bit tighter, before he decided it'd be better if he put it away.
"Ah, I know!" Sakura said suddenly, so that it startled Naruto, who had gone back to imagining how nice it would be to still be in bed. "Today can be your birthday!"
He heard Sasuke snort in mock amusement, "You can't just make people's birthday's up."
"Be quiet! You're the one who brought it up with me, anyways. You wanted to know his birthday too!" Sakura said pointing a finger accusingly.
"Sasuke?" Naruto said in disbelief.
"I don't know what she's talking about," he said turning away with a stoic expression, but there was a tinge of laughing mirth in Sasuke's eyes. Probably thinking of ways to get back at him for all of his birthday pranks, Naruto thought, and felt a smug sense of satisfaction that his rival didn't know his birthday.
Before Naruto could proceed to taunt his rival, once again, a cloud of smoke heralded the arrival of Kakashi.
"Yo," Kakashi said giving his usual greeting. "You all look spirited today," he said, cheerfully.
"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura interjected immediately, with a grave expression on her face. "I think we should have the day off, since we'll all be busy today."
"Sakura-chan, what are you talking about?" Naruto asked bewildered.
"Busy?" Kakashi asked, the eyebrow above his uncovered eye rising in curiosity.
"It's the idiot's birthday," added Sasuke.
"Hey what are you talking about!?" Naruto squeaked indignantly, "Don't make up stupid excuses to get out of a mission and call yourself a ninja!" And besides, Kakashi would obviously know they were lying!
"Hm..." Kakashi hummed, holding his chin thoughtfully. "Good point! Coincidently, I received a very important mission that involves throwing Naruto a party. So, this fits perfectly with your orders!"
Naruto face faulted. "Hey, wait it's not my birthday!" he complained.
"You always seem to be getting stupider. Now you have amnesia too?" Sasuke smirked.
And, so, against Naruto's constant protests, he was dragged to Ichiraku's for lunch, his teammates invaded his apartment and somewhere along the line Iruka, of all people, showed up with a cake, gleefully lighting all its 15 candles.
As their small group sang "Happy Birthday" (Sasuke rather reluctantly under his breath), Naruto turned to the brown-haired chuunin.
"But, Iruka-sensei, you know it's not my birthday," Naruto said, staring at the cake, still feeling rather awkward about this all.
"Well..." Iruka said tilting his head to the side, as if trying to think of something he'd forgotten. "Maybe you're right, but we aren't celebrating a date are we? We're celebrating that you were born. So, it's alright isn't it?"
"I don't get it, but, um, alright," Naruto said, thinking this whole situation was rather surreal. It was funny feeling to have people celebrating for him. It felt a bit embarrassing, but at the same time it was something warm. He couldn't help but smile. They'd finished singing and Sakura had poked Sasuke for being grumpy, and Kakashi smiled behind his latest copy of "Icha Icha Paradise." It felt nice.
"Come on, idiot, blow out the candles already, before you get wax all over the cake," Sasuke said, while Sakura elbowed him.
"Shut up, Sasuke! If it's my birthday, aren't you supposed to be nicer!?" But as he said it, he was unable to hide the grin on his face. Sasuke was smiling too.
15 candles were blown out and thin trails of smoke drifted up, their scent mingling with the scent of icing and the sound of laughter. And it was then that Naruto decided; maybe this sort of birthday wasn't so bad after all.
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Author Notes:
Uh, so, I don't know what brought me to write this. I don't usually care much for celebrating the birthdays of fictional characters. I guess this is a bit inspired by the fact that a friend's birthday was just recently and I had a rather crappy birthday myself this year, so I wanted to play make believe with the Naruto-verse. Uh, yeah.
I'm sorry for the sickening amount of fluff, I really am.
Small Footnote:
If you notice, "April 1st" is the day that they have Naruto's "birthday" party. I don't mean that his party is a joke, but this is a slight homage to CLAMP's favorite "false" birthday (or not so false birthday?), which is April 1st.
I hope you enjoyed this and please read & review.