"Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit-" Naruto repeated, grabbing the branch before he fell off.
He was off in one of Konaha's surrounding forests, training. It was something that pervy sage had showed him a couple weeks ago; a chakra training exercise. It was October, sp it was autumn, and the tress were shedding their leaves. He was running a thin stream of chakra through the tree, preventing even a single leaf from falling.
Like usual, Naruto had picked the hardest candidate, though the tree he had picked seemed like a lost cause already. The very tree was dead, he'd set in on fire a week ago. The leaves were still attached, though, but every time he moved, they broke off. Naruto did what he always did- try harder.
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Sasuke was actually bothered by the fact that something seemed so very wrong with Naruto. Normally he really didn't care, but the dobe seemed unusually disturbed today, and now it had gotten to him. Finally, he decided the best course of action was to go find out whatever trivial thing was upsetting Naruto so that he could call it stupid and go home.
With that in mind, he arrived at Naruto's rather run down apartment, and was about to knock on the door, when he noticed Naruto slip out the window and go darting off into the woods. Of course, Naruto's perception was virtually nonexistent and was completely oblivious to his teammate not ten feet away.
"Dobe always has to use a window…" Sasuke swore, then went off following him, "Always causing me trouble…"
Sasuke traveled a fairly slow pace for him, and found Naruto clinging to a branch of a tree swearing vulgarities at a pointlessly loud volume. He was about to start yelling and make his presence known, when something odd happened.
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
"God damn them all!" Naruto yelled suddenly, grabbing his head with his hands.
"What the hell." He said, much softer." "Why would anybody care, anyway? Another year with a demon in the village isn't anything to celebrate." He dropped back, hooking his legs around the branch and just hanging. And suddenly, he didn't want to stop the leaves anymore.
And in a silent cascade, every leaf fell from the tree.
Naruto looked up at the empty branches, "Stupid, dead, useless tree." He commented.
One tiny, green leaf was peaking out just a foot from his face, the last on the tree. Naruto stared at it for a moment, wondering if there was some sort of irony in that.
"Huh. A little bit of life left in you, huh?" The leaf didn't respond. "That makes one of us, anyway." Naruto sighed, grabbed the branch with one hand and unhooked his legs in one fluid moment. He dropped to the ground. He paused, then his face lit up, a brilliant Naruto-class smile. Then it disappeared.
"Yeah, that'll do, I guess." And then, Naruto was gone.
.
.
.
Sasuke stood back, even after his friend had left. Well, he honestly hadn't expected such a depression to come out of such a perky person. But, it would make sense. Not only did Naruto have no one to celebrate with, he had no one to tell because no one wanted to listen. Sasuke felt his heart drop.
He wondered for a moment what it would be like to never have had anyone who cared you'd managed to survive another year. Sasuke at least had his memories. Naruto had nothing.
And then, Sasuke was gone too.
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
"Hello? Hello-oo?" Naruto called. Usually he was late to missions and everyone but Kakashi was waiting on him. Today, no one was here. He waited for a good hour and a half, fruitlessly. Finally, frustrated and confused, he turned back towards home, planning to chew out his teammates later.
He paused at his door. Even his poor perception noticed something funny about his apartment. On guard, he shoved the door open, ready to tackle whoever it was that had snuck into his apartment. He stuttered out a sort of funny choking noise when he saw how many people could possibly fit into his tiny space.
And at the giant chorus of 'Happy birthday Naruto!' from all of his friends, classmates or not, he felt his heart pick up, and his eyes smiled too.
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Naruto: D'aawww!
Draik: You see? You SEE how nice I am?
Naruto: You're the one who made everyone forget me in the first place…
Draik: …
Draik: Don't make me hurt you. I can and I will.
Sasuke: Nuuuuu!
Draik: Dammit Sasugay, go away. D
Naruto: Don't yell at him!
Draik: I'll yell at you!
Naruto: I KNEW NO ONE LOVED ME! *jumps off a bridge*
Draik: …Dammit. I killed another main character.
Sasuke: …omg.
Draik: And you're a witness!
Sasuke: D8
Naruto: *wet* lol gaiz im fine.
Draik: Oh. Nevermind then.
Sasuke: phew.
Draik: Anyway, this got two reviews. So I really wasn't going to finish it. But it got a bunch of favorites and alerts, and I was bored as hell and I don't feel like photoshopping anything because I am lazy.
Sasuke: She IS lazy.
Draik: I sure am! So I finished this instead.
Naruto: Enjoy. :D