Author's Notes: Well, I wrote a great chapter, but my Macintosh totally destroyed the file format! So, until I figure out a way to recover the file, you'll have to read only part of chappie 3. Sorry!
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I'd be so rich I'd be wearing those cute new red-and-black lacy-lingerie-style Louis Vuitton shoes with those tres-francoise little bows, and… Ahem. You get the picture.
Warnings: Extremely strange angst, courtesy of Naruto. Momentary appearance of random OC. The author pleads temporary insanity.
Naruto's POV:
The night was chilly, so Naruto is very annoyed at the wind. He usually likes the cool night breeze, so he leaves the window open, but today it is too cold, and he doesn't want to stand up to close the window, because that would make him cold. What a nuisance! Naruto knows he is being diva-like, but he can't help it. Besides, Sakura's selfish all the time, and nobody hates her for it! Naruto wishes that, just once, people would be as nice to him as to Sakura.
Naruto wishes that one day a beautiful girl would come up to him, push him up against the wall, and kiss him senseless. Then, she'd say she fell in love with him from first sight, and they'd live happily ever after. Suddenly, his fantasy disgusts him, sickens him. Naruto remembers this evening…
He was watching the sunset near the riverbank, and a girl came up to him asking for directions to Ichiraku. He showed her the way, and she invited him along. They talked on the way, and found quite a lot of shared interests. But not only was the girl polite, pleasant, and nice, she was also beautiful. The girl had rusty red hair dyed golden with the rays of the setting sun. Naruto couldn't believe that someone like her would even talk to an outcast like him. Her deep, black eyes enchanted him, and he barely noticed that the day was over and the girl was gone. Naruto was distraught. Why did she leave him without even saying goodbye? Didn't she like him, or at least enjoy his company?
But now, Naruto realized with a start that any emotional distress he was experiencing was most likely his fault. After all, the girl barely knew him, since they had just met. Just because they shared a lot in common did not automatically make them soul mates. And the girl only let him come along with her was because she was either paranoid or polite. It wasn't her fault that Naruto jumped to conclusions, as his enchanted eyes saw things that weren't really there…
Naruto is so damn lonely that it hurts more than any physical wound. But external wounds are the only ones people see. Scratching his wrists and cutting his fingers was the only way he could get any attention, or any love. And that was ok with him. Only on really cold nights did he wish somebody truly cared for him without any pressing reason…
The rain and wind made the mild August night seem colder.
