"Ugh, five more minutes." Our blonde snuggled into his blanket, ignoring the sounds of revelry below. The loudest noise seemed to be the clattering of glass cups. . . and liquid pouring. "What the hell?"

Naruto drowsily sat up, finding a large bottle, two glasses, and green. "GREETING'S MY FRIEND!" The yell almost jolted Naruto off the Kage face to certain death.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING LEE?!" Naruto caught himself with a clone and threw himself back, quickly looking to see if any villagers saw him. He looked back to Lee. "Why were you watching me sleep?!"

Lee looked offended. "I only just got here!" Both Lee's hands clasped onto Naruto's shoulders, shaking him back and forth. "I heard of your recent loss of youth through succumbing to the depression of hard times! I've decided that I shall help reignite your flames of happiness and joy with refreshments!"

Naruto almost felt the need to leap off the cliff. "Uhh. . . Choji brought me ramen last night. I doubt any drink could fix what ramen can't."

"Give it one try! They say depression and alcohol go great together." He started setting up the drinks.

"Mhmm." Naruto grunted before a lightbulb went off. He quickly snatched the bottle away from Lee frantically, taking a quick look. "WHY DO YOU HAVE GRANDMA TSUNADE'S DRINKING BOTTLE?!" He quickly chucked the bottle off the cliff, ignoring the safety of anyone below.

He could later swear to hearing a faint echo of 'MY SAKE!' in Tsunade's voice, but he didn't want to deal with that right now. Lee brought his fists up in a pose as if he was confident in his words. "I heard that those drinks help depression."

"And you were gonna drink too?!"

"It would be rude not to." He seemed offended. "I merely wanted to help reignite your youth!"

Naruto started to mumble too quietly for Lee to hear. "Yeah I'll reignite my youthful foot and shove it up your lower gate of joy-"

Suddenly, a familiar brown haired girl lands between them grabbing Lee and taking off, muttering, "Tag out." leaving a confused Naruto.

"Sorry, we didn't know he smuggled the bottle up here. . ." Naruto turned, finding Neji sitting next to him in a Lotus position pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Doesn't he know what it does?" Naruto asked, then remembering to be surprised. "WHA! What are you all doing up here?"

Neji replied passively. "He only blacks out. We never told him what it does to him since he might take it as a challenge. . ." He said with a grimace. "Also, Ino ran into us." He turned to Naruto. "Problems?"

Naruto smacked his forehead. "What is this? A fucking intervention?" He held his hands up peacefully. "Look. If I've gone this long fine with it, you don't have to be concerned."

Neji just stared his signature 'You don't know what I'm thinking' stare. Naruto just sighed, getting comfortable as he started to look at the clouds. "Why put the blame on yourself?"

Naruto expected that question, surprisingly. "Why wouldn't I? Being told that since you're born tends to put that idea into the fact area of your head."

"Yet you know the truth of it. You know that you had little to nothing to do with the incident. Your entire goal is to make people respect you despite that. So why-"

Naruto just threw his hand up, pointing off in the distance by instinct. Neji scanned the direction with his Byakugon, finding Naruto pointing at the cemetery. He found countless families visiting graves and mourning. Many cried while others were placing flowers and memorials. He looked back to Naruto, who was still looking to the sky.

"Each of those families lost someone. They also lost the fourth Hokage, who everyone loved." Naruto began with a monotone. "Everything is fine one day, then the boy who is to be the next jinchuuriki is born. Pervy sage was nice enough to let me know by accident that I was to be the container either way. Problems came up, and it got loose. The entire event was caused because I had to be born. They all lose family members and a hero, and they get to watch me go by every day as a reminder." Naruto turned his head to look at Neji. "You remember what I said back at the Chunin exams?"

Neji was surprised at the question, before it came to him.

So what? Let me tell you something, you're not the only special one around here!

Neji shot back. "But then you're doing now exactly what I was doing back then. You changed the way you were, and people have gotten a lot better towards you since."

Naruto chuckled. "You'd think that. . ."

(With Shikamaru)

"Come in." He heard from behind the door. He entered the Hokage room, finding a slightly intoxicated Tsunade and a frantic looking Shizune. "What is it, Shikamaru?" She asked grumpily.

He made sure not to step on any of the empty bottles on the floor before notice the smashed bottle on the balcony just outside the window. "I wanted to ask about some reports of vandalism."

"HA! On this date, I assume?" Tsunade scoffed. "It's a festival day. So much crap gets destroyed, it's too much hassle. What made you come to me? You should be out being young. Kami knows I want to." She finished with a slight glare at Shizune who seemed to cower.

Shikamaru coughed to clear his throat. "I was more wondering if you ever heard of any reports about Naruto's house being vandalized on this date. . . every year."

That sobered the blonde kage up. She got up, albeit lazily, and opened up a cabinet. She looked through several files. "mmmmmm nope. Not since I took up the title of Hokage. There are accounts for every year before, however, but apparently his leaving the village with Jiraiya stopped it somehow. Why you ask?"

Shikamaru seemed confused. "Naruto isn't even inside the village walls for today and seems to believe it'll happen again."

Tsunade frowned. "I see. . . I'll have an ANBU or two look into it. The last reported incident like that was during that month of training you all had for the third round of the Chunin exams three years ago."

Shikamaru pondered that. "Alright. I guess I'll look into it too." He bowed and left.

(With Naruto)

"Look. I appreciate what you guys are trying. Honestly, but I just wanna lay up here for the day. I'll be up and fun tomorrow." Naruto gave Neji a fake smile. Neji sat for a few more seconds, making Naruto think he wasn't going anywhere until he got up calmly and left. "Finally. . ." Naruto turned, finding Tenten sitting on the tip of the Fourth's hair. "WHA-!" He fell back, startled.

She laughed a bit while he sweat dropped.

"Your turn?" He said hesitantly.

"My turn." She said happily.

Fuck, he noted mentally.