Title: Swallows
Series: Naruto
Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters do not belong to me.
Notes: Drabble. This is the end result of putting character names in a hat, along with a subject, and drawing them out. I just wanted to experiment with characters I don't normally write for. Not sure if it was a success.

Naruto knew he wasn't the smartest shinobi on the block; he couldn't scheme like Shikamaru, remember facts like Sakura-chan, or assess a situation with the innate calculating swiftness of Hyuuga Neji. When the situation called for it, he reacted on bare instinct alone, and weathered the consequences as they came.

So he wasn't quite surprised with himself, when he turned to the fidgeting, pale eyed girl beside him and blurted: "You remind me of swallows." He couldn't explain himself when she asked why (he palming the back of his head, she impossibly wide eyed), but he could react quickly enough to swipe the swollen glistening of almost-tears from her eyes.

"Ne, ne, Hina-chan. Forget it."

He couldn't have possibly known that the only swallows she'd ever seen had fallen from their perches, half-dead fledgling birds, twitching helplessly in a puddle.