A brand new story! All right! To tell the truth, this began as a title, it just popped into my head one day (in the same way as… well, everything else I write.) I hope you like it!

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My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and today I am turning fourteen. Nothing really special about turning fourteen, except it only happens once in your life….

I must be the strangest kids in the world. You see, I used to dread my birthday. It usually found me running all around the village, trying to avoid being beaten to death. That hasn't happened sense I became a ninja two years ago, but it's not like anyone's help me celebrate it either. But, who knows, maybe this year will be different….

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Uzumaki Naruto was having a wonderful dream, about ramen and a certain dark-haired kunoichi, when his alarm clock rudely awakened him with its loud buzzing. Said alarm clock was sentenced to death for its offence, a punishment that was administered swiftly and harshly. The chosen weapon of execution: the wall on the other side of Naruto's bedroom.

Yawning, Naruto stepped over the remains of the pulverized clock and went into the kitchen to fix his morning ramen. After waiting impatiently for three minuets, he began stuffing his face with his favorite food. He was halfway though the cup when realization hit him like of Lee's Dainamikku-Entorīs.

Today was his birthday.

"I turn fourteen today! Yatta!" Naruto exclaimed, to no one. He ate the rest of his ramen at light speed. A few minutes later, he was fully dressed and jumping from rooftop to rooftop, on his way to meet his team.

When he reached the bridge that served as his team's meeting place, Sakura and Sasuke were already there. Kakashi was, as usual, notably absent. Sasuke was being his normal stick-up-the-ass self, ignoring Sakura while the pink-haired kunoichi babbled on and on and on….

"Ohyao, Sakura-chan!" Naruto said cheerfully. "Ohyao, Sasuke-teme!"

"Hn," Sasuke replied.

"Don't talk to Sasuke-kun that way!" Sakura screeched. "Anyway, I was saying…."

Naurto tuned Sakura's voice out (he had learned long ago that she never said anything important when she ranted like this.) He was actually starting to fall asleep when something caught his eye.

"Oi, Sakura, look!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing down at the rived below them. Swimming past them, under them, were hundreds of fish, all brightly colored from reds to purples.

"Naruto," Sakura said, glaring.

"I know what they are!" Naruto said, oblivious to his teammate's irritation. "They're called Rainbow Fish! I saw them once when I was little!"

"Naruto," Sasuke growled.

"They only come up though here once every ten years," Naruto continued. "People say that they bring good luck…."

"Naruto, will you stop going on about the stupid fish!" Sakura shouted. "No one cares!!!"

"But Sakura…," Naruto said.

"Do you have any idea what day this is?" Sakura demanded.

"Of course," Naruto said, smiling slightly. "It's…."

"Are you really stupid enough to think that a bunch of dumb fish are important enough to even mention today?" Sasuke sneered.

"But, it's just…." Naruto said.

"Today is the day the Yondaime died," Sakura said. Naruto fell silent.

"You really are stupid, Naruto," Sakura snapped. "You're nothing but a pathetic brainless idiot who can never do anything right. I hate you, I hate everything about you!"

"Excuse me, team seven?" someone said. They looked up and saw a messenger nin.

"Yes?" Sasuke said.

"Your sensei gave me a message for you: there are no missions today." With that, the ninja disappeared.

"I'm going home," Sasuke said. "I suggest you go and try to find your brain, dobe. If you ever had one." He walked off. "Or, better yet, why don't you just die."

"Wait Sasuke!" Sakura called out. She glared at Naruto.

"I wish you had never been born," she spat. She ran after Sasuke.

Naruto stood there on the bridge, his head hanging. After a few minutes, he started to shake, all over. Tears streamed down his face, landing on the bridge like raindrops. Soon after, it did start to rain, lightly. Shopkeepers hurried to close as the rain fell faster. People hurried to get home before the bottom fell out.

And still, Naruto stood there, crying.

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Sakura had caught up to Sasuke when in began to pour. Both of them, unwilling to get wet, took refuge under a covered walkway, along with several of their fellow ninja: Hinata, Kiba, Lee, Shikamaru, and Neji.

"Where is Naruto-kun?" Lee asked, in his usual loud way.

"That idiot?" Sakura said. "He's probably stuffing his face with ramen and feeling sorry for himself."

"Did something happen between you?" Hinata, who had lost her stutter sometime last year, asked.

"He was being an idiot, like usual," Sasuke said.

"He had the nerve to go on and on about some dumb fish," Sakura said, "today of all days."

"You mean the Rainbow Fish?" Kiba said. "You actually saw them? Wow, you're so lucky!"

"They say that those who see the Rainbow Fish will have good luck until they return again." Shikamaru said.

"He was just so excited about them," Sakura said, "and then he forgot that today is the day the Yondaime died. You should have seen his face when I ripped him a new one… what?" Hinata and Lee were staring at her with a shocked expression. Kiba and Neji were glaring.

"You two," Kiba said, "are stupid."

"What?!" Sakura and Sasuke exclaimed angrily.

"You've been with Naruto for what, two years?" Neji said. "And you don't know?"

"What are you talking about?" Sakura demanded.

"Sakura-san," Hinata said, "today is Naruto-kun's birthday."

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And that's the first chapter, huzzah! The first little part was just a springboard, to help me get started, and I made up the Rainbow Fish on a whim.

I promise to update next Saturday; no, I swear!

Everyone R&R, and no flames, or I'll feed you to my Flamer-Eating Beast! Dewa kore de!