~~A cloak of darkness fell over the Hidden Leaf Village. A boy clad in orange was sprawled out in one of the alleyways. He had bruises and cuts adorning his small, helpless body. The stench of blood clouded the air with its suffocating aura. The boy twitched- then slowly stood up on shaking feet. He placed his hand on the alleyway wall for support and breathed heavily.

A raspy and quivering voice could be heard as the boy whispered out, "Why?"~~

I weaved the stems of the flowers together as the breeze ruffled my golden sun-kissed hair. I could feel everyone's eyes on me as I focused on the half formed flower-crown in front of me. It was break time, the one hour break they give us students during the day. Usually I would have been off training, or fighting with Sasuke.

But to be honest, I just really don't have energy for that right now. I guess I'm still mentally and physically healing from last night. I hear the grass crunch as someone approaches my spot underneath a tree. "Are you feeling okay Naruto?" I hear the soft voice of Sakura asking. She sits down next to me cautiously as I finish my flower-crown. "Yeah," I say with a fake smile. "Just a little tired," I add as an afterthought.

"Oh," She says, still sounding worried. "Well, everyone just kinda thought you seemed- I don't really know.." She trailed off sounding unsure. "Off?" I offered. "Yeah, that." She replied.

"Well sorry 'bout that. Guess I've been training harder than usual." I hope she buys the lie, and leaves me alone. "Here," I say as I place the flower-crown on her head. "As a sorry gift," I chuckle, the flower-crown is crooked on her head. I fix the crown and look at my masterpiece. The blue and white flowers complement her beautifully. Even though she's mean to me, I still like to think of her as the sister I never had.

"Now, I do believe that Sasuke will be missing you about now." Even though I know he isn't. I glance over to look at him. Yeah, he's glaring at me like usual. Not really sorry I had to use him as a diversion. Sakura stands up quickly, carefully holding the flower-crown to her head, and trots over to Sasuke. Poor Sasuke.

Why is Naruto acting this way? This isn't like him. I look at Sasuke. I think everyone is a little worried about the ramen-loving freak. He isn't smiling that often, or making any jokes. It's unusual to say the least.

When he came in this morning, he just sat down without so much as a word. He slept through most of the morning classes, like usual- but when the teachers woke him up, he wasn't loud about it, he just let out a faint 'Sorry' and tried to pay attention. During lunch, the class didn't even see him at all. One moment he was there, and the next he was gone. Naruto somehow managed to get back by the end of lunch though. After another class period, it was break time.

He was leaning against a tree making a flower-crown. Then, all of us decided that someone had to figure out what was going on with him. We had a vote and I was the one that ended up having to go check on him. Then Naruto and I had that conversation. He just said he was tired and that he's been training hard lately. I want to believe him, I really do, but I just can't.

Sasuke and I walk over to the meeting spot we had all decided on. I see everyone's nervous faces as we approach. I flop down on the grass with a tired sigh as I look at everyone around me. They are all leaning forward, sitting on their knees waiting to hear the news. "Well," I start. I take the flower-crown off my head and fiddle with it. "He just said that-"

"He's an alien? Because I called it!" Kiba butted in. "Kiba be quiet!" Hinata says with frustration in her voice. We all look at Hinata with surprise. "Uh.. Anyways, he said that he was 'tired' and has just been 'training too hard'" I say doing air quotes. Everyone is silent for a few moments as they process this information.

"I don't know about you guys. But I don't buy it," Ino finally says, breaking the silence.

Yeah. I don't think anyone buys it.