Title: Swallows
Series: Naruto
Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters do not belong to me.
Notes: Drabble. This is the end result of putting character names in a hat, along with a subject, and drawing them out.
Naruto knew he wasn't the smartest shinobi on the block; he couldn't scheme like Shikamaru, remember facts like Sakura-chan, or assess a situation with the innate calculating swiftness of Hyuuga Neji. When the situation called for it, he reacted instinctively and weathered the consequences as they came.
He wasn't exactly surprised at himself when he turned to the fidgeting, pale-eyed girl beside him and blurted, "You remind me of a swallow." He couldn't explain himself when she asked why (he palming the back of his head, she impossibly wide-eyed), but he swiped the swollen glistening of almost-tears from her eyes.
"Ne, ne, Hina-chan. Forget it."
He couldn't have known that the only swallows she'd ever seen had fallen from their perches, half-dead fledgling birds, twitching helplessly in a puddle.