For the fourth day in a row, there was a noticeable absence in the Academy courtyard that afternoon.
Sasuke pretended not to notice. But he was too skilled of a ninja to avoid eavesdropping— just a bit— when he hears his classmates muttering amongst themselves about the very same idiot Sasuke wasn't not noticing.
"Huh. Naruto's gone already," Shikamaru huffed, kicking at a rock as they collectively wandered toward the schoolyard gates, "He's been leaving early a lot, hasn't he?"
"Not really— you're just too busy sleeping to notice," Chouji nodded sagely, "He's been running out of class real quick at the end though."
"… That guy has somewhere to be all of a sudden?" Sasuke watched Shikamaru's shoulders shift in a nonchalant shrug, "Good for him, I guess."
Sasuke scowled to himself as the pair veer off toward the playground a few blocks away.
Naruto? *Uzumaki Naruto*— of all people— had somewhere to be after class?
Unable to let the idea lie, Sasuke made it his mission to figure out what the heck was going on with their doofus classmate.
He fumed to himself as he stormed through the village— checking the familiar places he wouldn't admit to knowing Naruto frequented. Sasuke was a great ninja, and great ninja knew things like that, that's all.
If that loser suddenly had places to be instead of haunting the village like a damn poltergeist, Sasuke *needed* to know. Don't ask him why.
Finding no luck at the training grounds or the ramen stand, Sasuke paused to assess his options. Having no idea where Naruto lived, he was at a bit of a loss for how to proceed.
Eventually, he was forced to concede defeat— for the moment. For lack of anything better to do, his feet carried him down familiar paths toward the one corner of the village he could count on for both solace and solitude these days.
Only when Sasuke reaches the top of the embankment overlooking the dock— *his* dock— he finds *his* spot very much occupied.
By the very kid he'd wasted his whole afternoon searching for.
To his shock, it was Naruto perched at the end of the dock, legs dangling over the edge. That wasn't the most surprising part of the scene though— no. That would be the winding chain of colorful paper birds twisting and curving over the worn wooden planks, reaching almost to the shoreline itself.
Was *this* where Naruto had been the last few days after class? Infringing upon *Sasuke's* place with his ridiculous little project, or whatever the heck he was doing down there.
Bemused, Sasuke inched down the slope, determined to get some answers out of the nitwit—
Only to halt just before his feet met the boards, Naruto's voice reaching him at last, carried by the lazy breeze drifting off the river.
"Just a couple more— ow, *shit*," Sasuke flinches at the harsh word. It hasn't been long he last heard his mother scolding their cousins over such crass language, "Dammit!"
Naruto pulled his hand back out from the box at his side, sucking his index finger with a perturbed look on his face. Even from this distance, Sasuke could see his hands were nicked and pocked by what appeared to be… paper cuts?
What the heck was the moron doing?
As if Naruto would give up his answers easily. So Sasuke is left with little to do but wait. Content to watch the odd scene play out for the sake of his budding curiosity and nothing more.
"Last one," Naruto muttered, excitement bubbling up in his tone, "Just a little more— *there*!"
Naruto launched to his feet in evident triumph, holding one last orange crane aloft, he and his creation backlit by the warm light of the setting sun.
"Just in time, too," Naruto cackled, turning slightly to pick up the end of his serpentine chain of birds— Sasuke ducking quickly behind the nearby bushes just in time to avoid being spotted, "Okay, okay— what did it say to do next?"
Pulling a wrinkled scrape of paper from his pocket, Naruto squinted at whatever's written there, face twisted in a scowl. After a moment, he drops it to his feet with a sigh. The wind picks it up immediately, carrying it toward the shore.
"Aw, man," Naruto huffed, turning back to the water, the end of his apparently complete chain in hand, "Months of work and I just gotta— this is so stupid, y'know."
Before Sasuke could wonder what the heck the idiot was grumbling about, he nearly jumped out of his skin as Naruto aggressively bundled up the lengths of origami birds and hurled them into the river.
"Alright!" Naruto suddenly shouted, loud and clear, pointing angrily at the colorful paper creations drifting slowly downstream, their shapes slowly dissolving into the gentle current, "I did your stupid art project— so it's *your* turn now!"
… Had the idiot fallen and hit his head? Should Sasuke call an adult?
"Just once," Naruto continued to yell at no one, "Just once I want tomorrow not to *suck ass*, y'know!"
Sasuke blinked. Tomorrow? What the hell was tomorrow?
"I don't want anyone spitting on me or stealing my stuff," Naruto went on, "I don't want anyone breaking my stupid windows or turning off my damn heat! I just want everyone to leave me the fuck *alone*!"
What was the significance of tomorrow and why would Naruto feel the need to shout about the villager's bad behavior on that day of all days? From what Sasuke had seen, Naruto's ill treatment was hardly restricted to any one day in particular.
Naruto rambled on for a little while about various other offenses, until his voice began to waver— from emotion or the physical strain of his bellowing, Sasuke couldn't say.
"And— ugh," Naruto folded his arms across his chest, "Would it kill anyone to give me a birthday present for once, huh?"
The realization hit Sasuke light a bolt of lightning. Tomorrow. The anniversary of the demon fox attack Konoha.
Naruto's… *birthday*?
Something in Sasuke's chest clenched at the thought.
"Would that be too much to ask, y'know?" Naruto wondered aloud, at a slightly more reasonable volume— before kicking the box of folding paper off the dock into the river and storming away.
As the dust behind him settled, Sasuke stepped out from behind the shelter of his bushes, staring off after the noisy weirdo.
With a sigh, Sasuke made to head for his apartment, prepared to chalk the whole incident up as one of Naruto's weird fits—
Only his first footstep toward home was met with the sound of crinkling paper. Glancing down, he found the paper Naruto had so carelessly tossed away crumpled beneath his sandal.
Picking it up, Sasuke scowled down at Naruto's chicken scratch handwriting.
*Senbazuru: how to wish upon a thousand cranes*
*TOMORROW*
Naruto cracked open his door cautiously.
It had been an uneventful day so far. No obnoxious tricks or rude shouting so far— though in fairness, he *had* skipped class to spend the day holed up in his apartment, so there hadn't been many opportunities for anyone to fuck with him yet. But his lights still worked, and there weren't any eggs dripping down his window panes, so maybe… maybe his wish had worked after all?
Still. Teuchi always slid him a free bowl today, and like hell he was gonna miss out on *that*. It was his birthday, and dammit if he wasn't going to get some ramen out of it.
He inched out his door, casting his gaze suspiciously back and forth to make sure the coast was clear—
Only to trip and fall flat on his face with a *very* dignified yelp.
With a scowl, he turned over— glaring down at his feet toward whatever dumb prank had tripped him—
But it wasn't a prank. At least he didn't think so.
It was a box. Wrapped in plain blue paper and tied with an orange ribbon.
With a huff, he sat up, picking up the box and turning it over— scanning its surface for traps or some indication of what the hell it was doing on his doormat of all places.
Noticing nothing amiss, he tore it open.
Inside is a… frog? No, not a frog. A coin purse *shaped* like a frog. He stared at it a moment before a grin breaks through his bewilderment.
A present. A stupid, dumb frog shaped *birthday present*.
Maybe there was something to this wish making business after all.
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