Naruto's birthday

Evening, by the Naka River.

Kiyoshi walked along the embankment, the tin can in the outermost pocket of his small bag bumping against his waist with every step.

Someone sat on an abandoned bridge pier, hands braced behind him, legs swinging.

Across the river, a family was airing out a quilt, beating it with sharp smacks.

"Hey." Kiyoshi walked over. "Happy birthday."

Naruto whipped his head around. Delight flashed across his face, then fell away as he narrowed his eyes warily. "How'd you know? Did sensei send you?"

"I found out myself."

He handed over the tin can wrapped in cloth strips. "A present."

Naruto unwound the cloth and turned the can over in his hands. "...A Smoke Bomb? You're giving me a Smoke Bomb?"

"It's flashy."

"What does flashy mean?"

"Set it off and you'll see."

Half convinced, Naruto pulled the fuse, swung his arm in a full arc, and hurled it.

The can burst above the water, pink and gold smoke billowing across half the river with a boom.

The setting sun slanted through the edge of the smoke, making the river look as though someone had wrung the juice out of the sunset.

"Whoa!!" Naruto bounced on the spot, his voice cracking. "Flashy! It's really flashy!! Kiyoshi, you weren't lying!"

Before the smoke cleared, panting came from the slope. Iruka came running down, his face pale. "Naruto! What happened..."

Iruka saw the smoke over the river, then Naruto, who was still bouncing.

The boy standing straight beside him was Kiyoshi. He froze.

"It's his birthday," Kiyoshi said. "Today."

Iruka took a deep breath, then let it out.

"The smoke's drifted all the way to the shopping street!" His voice rose at first, then lowered on its own, until all that remained was, "...Happy birthday, Naruto."

Naruto bounced even harder.

Iruka scratched his head, looking from one boy to the other, as though he had made up his mind. "Come on, let's get ramen. My treat today. Your friend can come too. We'll make up the classroom lesson another day. The office isn't going anywhere."

"His name's Kiyoshi!" Naruto rushed to introduce him. "He's my friend!"

At Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto was halfway through a large bowl with extra meat when he suddenly stood and shouted to the whole shop:

"Listen up, everyone! Today is your grandpa Naruto's...no, it's my birthday! Kiyoshi gave me a present! Iruka-sensei's treating us!"

The shop went quiet for a moment.

The owner's hand stopped wiping a cup.

Two customers in the corner exchanged a glance and shifted their stools inward, just a little.

"Mom, what's he shouting about?"

"Eat your food."

The woman with the child stood to pay, ushering her child behind her.

Before leaving, she gave Kiyoshi a couple of extra looks, her eyes on the Clan Crest at his collar.

No one spoke. The water in the pot kept boiling.

Kiyoshi picked up a mouthful of noodles, blew on them, and ate.

The noodles were going to get soggy. No matter how big a deal this was, he couldn't let the noodles get soggy.

The system panel popped up.

[Awkwardness Value +40]

Under the table, Iruka clenched his hand, then relaxed it. Smiling, he added a ladle of broth to Naruto's bowl, his voice just as it always was. "Slow down. There's plenty."

Naruto noticed nothing and ate until his head was covered in sweat.

Two eggs nestled in his bowl. No one said who had added them.

After paying, Iruka paused at the entrance and turned to Kiyoshi. "Thank you."

"Mm."

"Not for the present."

Kiyoshi glanced at him. He didn't ask, only nodded.

As dusk fell, Iruka walked the two boys home and stopped beneath Hokage Rock.

The Memorial Stone stood beside the road, rows of names carved into its surface, indistinct in the fading light.

"You two go on ahead," Iruka said. "I have something to do."

Naruto didn't move. "Sensei, why'd you come here?"

Iruka said nothing.

Naruto went up to the stone and tilted his head back to look. Unable to make sense of it, he turned back toward his teacher.

Iruka's eyes were fixed on two names just below the middle of the stone, his stare too intent for them to belong to strangers.

"Those are my parents," Iruka said. "They died six years ago tonight."

Naruto still had his head tilted back. His smile faded bit by bit.

"A lot of people in the village died that night." Iruka's voice was level, as though he had rehearsed this many times. "Everyone was sad and afraid. They wanted someone to hate. Then they found you."

"I..." Naruto opened his mouth, his voice catching halfway out. "The day I was born?"

"The day you were born." Iruka crouched to meet his eyes. "Did I ever hate you? I'd be lying if I said no. My parents were gone, and people need something to hate." He paused. "Later, I figured something out. The person I hated had only just been born that day, too. He didn't know anything. He didn't even know why people were yelling at him."

Tears suddenly spilled from Naruto's eyes. He didn't wipe them away, just stood there letting them fall. "Then why doesn't everyone yell at someone else...why me..."

He sniffled and tried to go on, but all that came out was a thick, nasal sound.

"Because they needed a name." Iruka reached out and drew Naruto's head against his shoulder. "Remember this, Naruto. You aren't the reason that night happened. You're a child who was born that day. There's a whole life between those two things. One word can't blur them together."

Kiyoshi stood a few steps away without speaking.

He didn't recognize a single name on the stone.

But in less than a year, this village would lose an entire clan's worth of people who wore the same crest. He knew that better than anyone.

When that day came, if he still had a chance to speak, he wanted to repeat today's words to those who remained alive.

No one spoke on the way back.

Iruka held one boy's hand in each of his.

When he took Kiyoshi's hand, Kiyoshi hesitated for half a second, but didn't pull away.

At the entrance to the alley, Naruto wiped his face and suddenly turned back. "Iruka-sensei, are we celebrating my birthday next year too?"

"We are," Iruka said. "Every year. My treat."

"Kiyoshi has to come too!"

"Mm," Kiyoshi said. "The noodles were good."

Naruto ran into the alley with a smile, then stopped halfway and turned to wave at them, saying he would come again tomorrow.

The panel flashed inside his sleeve: Awkwardness Value 412.

He still had a long way to go before he reached a thousand.

When he got home, the light in the main room was on.

Two pairs of shoes sat together in the entryway. No light showed beneath the bedroom door.

His parents were back and asleep.

The signature slip lay on the table, signed.

Two names were squeezed into the bottom field. One ended with a heavy stroke that had roughened the paper.

The other was slender, its ending controlled.

Beneath the slip was a line of writing: Keeping warm in the pot.

He folded the signature slip again and tucked it into the innermost section of his schoolbag, in the same compartment as the Clan Studies Primer.

This time, he could hand it in. He just had to wait until tomorrow.

He went to eat the food in the pot. It was warm.

After finishing his five rounds of Hand Seals, he washed up, lay down, and hung his small bag over the back of the chair.

The spot where the tin can had been was flattened. Naruto still had the cloth strips; he would have to get them back tomorrow.

On the rooftop across the alley, the Anbu finished writing the day's report.

The target attended school as usual, remained alone during breaks, and did not speak with classmates.

After school, he took a detour along the river and gave the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki an unidentified object in a can, suspected to be a ninja tool.

A cloud of pink and gold smoke appeared over the river. Composition unknown. No harmful effects.

He subsequently ate with Ninja Academy instructor Umino Iruka, then remained at the Memorial Stone for approximately half an hour.

At the end, the Anbu filled in the usual phrase: No abnormalities observed.

Once he had written it, his pen hovered without touching down again.

Contact with the jinchūriki had been noted once by the previous shift, too. Two lines, then it was over.

Today, three terms had landed on the same page. However he wrote it, they stood out.

He pulled the page free, put it in a separate envelope, and pressed the seal firmly shut.

This page didn't belong among the routine reports.