I got my first fanart ever. Happi tears. Thank you Bulu! It's beautiful!

bulu./art/ Les-petits-cadeaux-fanart-101255689

A/N: Happy birthday, Sasuke. This is your THIRD and final gift for this year's birthday. Like the two pictures, I really don't care if you like them. D (First two gifts were pictures, and can be found on my deviantART account... which can be found on my userpage.) By the way, this came out MUCH longer than I anticipated...

Please note that I've changed my username from 'algid' to 'brumal' to match my deviantART account.

Beta-read by Nadramon. Title and summary provided (again) by Nadramon.

It wasn't as if Naruto wanted to know his birthday. No…. But certainly, it was hard to ignore when seemingly all the girls in Konoha were gushing and whispering and gossiping about the Uchiha Sasuke's birthday—and what they would get for him.

Oh, Naruto was furious. No one cared for his birthday. They made a fuss about it on that day, but he knew it wasn't for him. It was for Kyuubi, the hated demon monster. He hated the fact that so many people died on that day. And his birthday was right on that day.

Why?

Well, where were the people who cared about his birthday, Naruto wondered. All they cared about were the people who got killed and died that day. Everyone seemed more hostile to him. Or was it just illusionary?

But well, that wasn't the point right now. Right now, every girl in the world was worrying about whether the Uchiha Sasuke would like her gift to him.

Gee, good for him, Naruto fumed.

Who cared?

Apparently everyone did.

So perhaps he just wanted to be joining in on the fuss. "Jump on the bandwagon" as some do say. Or perhaps he just thought…. But now, Naruto couldn't remember what he had wanted—when he, too, gave Sasuke a birthday gift on his seventh birthday.

He didn't just walk right up to the boy and give his gift with frills and flourish (that would have been awfully girly and awkward) like the girls did. No, he did it in a more tasteful manner. He tacked it up to a tree. But not just any tree. It was a tree that little Sasuke frequently went to for practicing his aim with shuriken and kunai.

Naruto knew for a fact that Sasuke would have seen it, despite the hoards of girls that barred his way to anywhere and anything. He always managed to scrape by them and squeeze in some practicing.

So on that day, he sneaked around like a runty thief, took out a kunai, and carefully tacked the gift onto a well-worn hole in the tree. He smoothed it down on the splinters a bit before he looked around cautiously and scurried away again.

It wasn't until later that Sasuke, now seven years old, discovered the ratty paper so haphazardly stabbed into the bark of his practice tree. He pulled out the kunai, rusty and dull, and examined the paper. It didn't have a name on it, but it was pretty easily recognizable. The style was at least….

Sasuke shook his head. Calling the paper with crooked scribbles on it "art" was by far an exaggeration, even to his young eyes. He re-examined the slightly crumpled paper.

It was an extremely crude drawing of Sasuke standing lopsidedly on a jagged piece of land. At least, that's what Sasuke thought the squiggly brown line with sharp spikes of green on it was. Land… with grass, right?

The rendition of his face was a little less than horrendous. His chin was sharp and pointy and his eyes were asymmetrical. And his body? Proportions? What proportions?

It certainly did make Sasuke's little eyebrows shoot up!

In the background of the drawing was a bright yellow sun, as big as any sun could get to be. Spirals of sunlight beamed out from it, filling the page with a waxy kind of warmth.

Nearly illegible in the corners were the characters, "Happy birthday, Sasuke-idiot!"

A twitch of a smile formed on Sasuke's mouth.

That dolt, Naruto…

So much could happen in a year and this year was no less dramatic. Though one would hope for good changes, this time around, it certainly was anything but.

While last year was spent happily with his mom, dad, older brother, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins, this year was—empty.

Mother was dead.

Father was dead.

Aunts, uncles, cousins—dead.

And older brother? Gone.

What was there to be happy about?

But be it sincerity or lack of complete comprehension on their parts, the girls seemed to be unfazed by this huge change and greeted Sasuke with equal enthusiasm and gusto. And gifts. Lots of thoughtful, love-written, store-bought gifts.

The few yen they saved up painstakingly for the entire year, held in abstinence for their little trinkets and toys in favor of pleasing him, was given to him that day.

But he threw them away.

Each and every single one.

Perhaps it was cruel of him to do that. But one must argue: was it any less cruel for the girls to pay no heed to his depression and still give him gifts?

But Naruto noticed this change. And there, at first, had been a huge swelling in his chest, a happiness that was far too great for acknowledging. Now there would be an equal to him. Did he, too, understand how hard it was to be alone?

And yet, there was no true joy in having a companion in such hardship.

That year, Naruto gave Sasuke a gift as well.

It wasn't overly thoughtful, or full of love, or store-bought.

All he did was cook some rice and make some dilapidated rice balls. He had seen Sasuke sit out on the pier day after day, staring at the unmoving lake. Maybe, he thought, that Sasuke would be hungry after sitting there for so long?

But if he had given him food on any other day, he'd be stuck in the same group as those girls were. Only love-sick girls would give their crush obento boxes and small treats. Today would be a good enough excuse.

So on that day, he, as carefully as his little fingers could manage, made a few rice balls and packed them into a presentable box. Oh, by no means was it as pretty as some of the presents that the girls gave the little Uchiha. The box was a little scratched up, yes, but it was clean. The handkerchief was serviceable… enough. But to say that the rice balls were good would be a lie.

The rice was undercooked in some parts and burnt in some others and the plums were too small. Not only did they not resemble the shapes they were supposed to, but they were also falling apart.

No matter, Naruto barely could even make food that he himself would be willing to eat. Sasuke would just have to deal with the fact that he couldn't cook.

With that in mind, he trotted purposefully down the path leading down to the pier with the gaudy orange handkerchief bundled in hand. He stomped down the wooden planks, listening to the hollow clanks his dirty sandals made and approached the hunched over figure.

By the way Sasuke's shoulders tensed, Naruto knew he had made enough noise not to startle the youth. He got about a meter away from Sasuke before he crouched down, put his gift down on the wooden planks, and turned around to walk away. He didn't run away, embarrassed. Again, that was only an action the girls did. Naruto was not a girl. And so, Naruto gave his gift and returned home.

A while later, once Sasuke was sure that Naruto was gone, he turned around. He blinked several times as he stared at the bright orange cloth wrapped around a box-shaped thing. It burned his eyes painfully. Quickly propping himself up, he went over to the box, slipping a bit. Tilting his head curiously, he wrestled with the dead-knot that Naruto had made. It wasn't on purpose, really. It was just that Naruto didn't really know how to tie knots just yet. After all, no one had ever taught him….

Once he untied the cloth, he found a worn wooden box underneath. Naruto had written on a small card the same words he wrote last year, "Happy birthday, Sasuke-idiot." To be truthful, his penmanship had not improved.

The lid was removed and the birthday boy found himself staring at some unidentifiable food item. Things. He swallowed thickly. Was this really edible? His eyes widened as he picked up one of the globs. Well, at least it held together.

His eyebrows furrowed and he clenched his eyes closed as he took a bite out of the lump. Oh, it tasted terrible. But so, so familiar that his eyes stung with tears.

The taste of it had reminded him of the first time he tried to help his mother make rice balls. She had entrusted him to the task of cooking the rice. Unfortunately, he had measured out the wrong amount of water and the end result was something akin to what he was now holding. No, not similar… It was the same. The exact consistency with alternating raw and burnt rice.

His mother did not scold him, but still he cried because he had "failed" her. He remembered that Mikoto had to cook the rice again and soothe him gently, patting his little head and kissing him on the forehead. After he had wiped his runny nose on his arm, he had offered his mother a watery smile. And she, in turn, smiled warmly right back.

And suddenly, Sasuke found himself laughing and crying hysterically at the memory.

The ninth year was better. The initial shock of loss had gradually ebbed away and a new, iron-hard will was beginning to form. Sasuke was starting to push himself to his limits to complete the task he had set for himself.

Nine year olds, Sasuke decided, were grown enough. There was no need to waste time on trifles like birthdays. There were more important things to do. Like train, and train, and train, and train.

Could it also be this mindset that made the girls focus on nothing more but to impress and flirt with Sasuke? For if Sasuke was so determined on one goal, then should the girls also follow suit? Or were they just following tradition now?

This year, the gifts were not even accepted when offered. He simply stared at them blankly and turned away, leaving the poor things gaping at him, stunned. Many a girl was heartbroken and cried that day. They didn't understand why Sasuke had turned so cold.

On that day, Naruto had watched him from a distance. Not because he was following Sasuke or anything but because it was decidedly laborious task to get through the day without crashing into a clique of girls sobbing and wailing over their rejection from Sasuke. The blond knew that they would be perfectly fine the next day and go right back to flirting with the Uchiha, but he kept his mind not to tell them. The only thing he did was to do an about face every time he spotted one of the groups down the streets.

He debated with himself a bit that day, wondering whether or not he should actually give Sasuke his gift for that year. Would it be a bad idea, he pondered. Oh, he decided in the end, screw that, he'll just give him the gift. He wasn't going to be heartbroken, like the girls were. It was just an act of kindness, he told himself and nodded agreeably.

Well then, now all he had to do was find Sasuke. Naruto looked around for a large group of girls. It was a facile task since it was also the source of loud babbling and chattering.

Sasuke was walking down the street with a particularly dark expression on his face. Naruto really didn't blame him. Even though he craved attention for himself, it must have been grating on the nerves to have your own population following your every step. The girls basically cleared out the streets by grouping up behind Sasuke.

The blond looked down at the hastily wrapped package in his hands. Perhaps it wasn't so easy a task anymore. It would be kind of hard to give Sasuke his gift without someone seeing him do it purposefully. He glanced up again. Sasuke was walking a bit faster now, as if doing that would allow him to ditch his followers. His eyebrows were pinched together even more and his eyes were firmly set straight ahead, though Naruto could see that he wasn't actually seeing.

Abruptly, an ingenious idea popped into Naruto's head. He grinned deviously and began to walk straight ahead as well, right into Sasuke's path of destruction. He lowered his head and pretended to be in a rush.

His ears rang slightly as the sound of a dozen or so girls pleading for Sasuke to look at me! take my present! have a happy birthday! but he plowed right on. His package was loosely held in his hands and in front of his body. As he neared Sasuke, he stole a glance up. There. Right there.

Roughly, he "accidentally" crashed into Sasuke, dropping the package in the process. He murmured something incoherent to follow up the show and walked quickly away again. The action had startled Sasuke out of his angry brood and he looked up, even angrier. Who had the nerve to bump into him like that?

He was only able to catch a blur of yellow and a smell that was suspiciously like miso ramen. The girls behind him had caught on to what happened and screeched indignantly since "that guy had the nerve to touch my Sasuke!" adding to the infernal noise. Sasuke ignored it all as he spotted a roughly wrapped package. It looked… sort of like a present?

Fluidly, he leaned down and snatched it up.

"Yes, this is for you, jerk," was scrawled on the brown wrapping paper on the outside. At least that's what Sasuke thought it looked like. He still couldn't read that idiot's writing.

He pressed his lips together tightly, to prevent the little smirk threatening to come out. He didn't want the girls to squeal any more than they already were.

Discreetly, he slipped the parchment into his pocket and walked on moodily.

Somewhere down the street, Naruto snickered at himself, feeling proud of his own genius plan that had worked. No one suspected that he had dropped that package right in front of Sasuke for a reason.

Back in the privacy of his apartment, Sasuke opened the present. The only present he accepted this year.

It was a scroll.

He unrolled it.

It was a scroll with tips and techniques on how to use weapons. A slip of paper fell out with it. He scanned the note over briefly and read the familiar words.

Sasuke lowered his eyes slightly. His expression bordered one of content.

Ten was a milestone. Ten! Two digits now. Most certainly it deserved a special celebration!

But like last year, Sasuke was dead-set on training and nothing else. And this time around, he was even sterner on it. Even gifts that were secretly tucked into his books, shoe rack, or desk were unceremoniously trashed.

And this time around, Naruto wondered how the girls could stand being rejected so many times and still go right back to trying to seduce the jerk. He shrugged his shoulders mentally and continued to stare at the sky outside of the window thoughtlessly.

The class wasn't concentrating very well today anyways. All the girls were whispering around and even the teacher was getting distracted. He kept losing track of what he was saying and repeating himself. Today was a lost day, so Naruto took advantage of it.

Eventually, class was over, and daydreaming had to come to an end. Naruto hadn't even bothered with flipping the textbook to the right page and now he roughly stuffed it back into his bookbag. He rummaged around for something at the bottom of it and pulled it out.

It didn't look like anything very special. Some relatively fancy looking paper wrapped around a small box. It wasn't even very big, only about five centimeters on all sides. There was no bow on the paper.

He waited a bit impatiently for the teacher to dismiss the class. And finally, he did.

He glanced down the rows of the class. A few of his friends were in the rows below him. Between them was Sasuke's row. He hefted his bag over his shoulders and held onto the small box in his right hand. Down the sides he went, then turned into the row where Sasuke was still sitting at. Sasuke was making no move to even pack up his stuff. Casually, Naruto ran his hand over the tops of the desks and left the object in front of Sasuke before he moved on to greet his friends. As if nothing had happened, he began to joke and laugh loudly with them.

Sasuke eyed the box suspiciously but didn't say a word as he tucked it into his bookbag along with his pencils and paper. He stood up and brushed past Naruto and his friends without a second glance.

Getting home was a problem again with half the girls of the Academy crowding around him. It was a miracle he didn't get crushed. But somehow he was able to scrape by and return home.

After eating his dinner, Sasuke remembered the latest gift Naruto had given him and went to retrieve it. He sat at the dinner table and picked at the wrapping. Seriously, he thought to himself irritably, couldn't the dead last use a few less rolls of tape on such a small box? Several minutes after the initiation of tearing away thin, clear pieces of sticky tape, Sasuke reached the actual box. By then, his fingernails had small wads of tape wedged underneath them and the pads of his fingers were smoothed out by the strips that had stuck onto them.

It was obviously a store-bought gift this year.

There was a yellow sticky-note stuck on the top of the lid. Again, like the past few years, it had the same words on it. Gingerly, he lifted the lid of the box and peered in.

It was a pastry-cake. It was small and cylindrical, shiny with a clear, sweet gel all around it. There was some fruit adorning the top of it, with a loop of chocolate curling up from the fluffy frosting of the cake.

He recognized the cake from the display windows of a very popular pastry shop in Konoha. The pastries there weren't particularly expensive, but very pretty and delicious. But Sasuke wouldn't know that first-hand. He didn't like sweets. There was no reason for him to buy cakes.

All the same, after staring at the poor, innocent cake for a few still minutes, Sasuke went to get a fork and poked the soft spongy cake and put a small piece in his mouth.

And grimaced.

It really was too sweet.

But he ate it all anyways.

There really wasn't anything special about being eleven. But really, the girls didn't get the hint at all. Despite the last few years of flat-out rejection and humiliation, his fanbase had unfortunately grown. He really began to wonder where in the world these girls came from! He didn't remember all those new faces in the eleven years he had been living in Konoha….

Each year, he found it harder and harder to escape the accursed girls and their silly presents. The world didn't have enough landfills for Sasuke to use if this kept up. But in the back of his mind and deep, deep subconscious, he was really shocked by their perseverance. Of course, his actual personality denied this fact from ever surfacing. Besides, that fact was irrevocably banished each time a girl jumped on him and confessed their undying love and ardor to him in his ear.

But weeks before his birthday even rolled around, Sasuke found a nice hiding spot from the girls, so he could seek at least a few hours of refuge away from the high pitched squeals that no boy could ever achieve. Or want to, really.

It was a hard-to-reach place, but it suited him just fine. A nice tall tree overlooking much of the village. It was calm and cool up on the high boughs of the ancient giant and no one could bother him up there. He had discovered a comfortable crook in the tree to hang out at every day after school. The branches were big enough for him to even do his homework on.

But unbeknownst to him, he wasn't the only one who knew the hiding spot….

Right after school, Sasuke had literally and descriptively fled the school grounds in hopes that he would be able to get away from a majority of his fans and their eternal admiration to him. Ninja school was good for the fact that he learned how to run—and fast.

When he had reached the tree, he looked around cautiously to see if anyone was around. Though it was difficult to get to, it wasn't impossible for someone to follow him up there. This was further proved to be true once he reached his hang-out place.

His eyebrows rose slightly as he hefted himself up onto the branch, feeling the bark scratch familiarly against his rough palms. Tied to the junction of the trunk and the bough with thin wire was a small plastic pot, one of those brown-reddish, cheap pots that you could buy with some plant. In fact, it was a plant. A small fern-like thing to be specific.

Sasuke looked around again carefully. There was no one around. Either this mysterious visitor had come right after he left yesterday, or early this morning. He walked closer to the plant and discovered a small scrap of paper attached to the pot.

Don't forget to water him! Oh yeah, happy birthday, Sasuke-idiot.

Him, Sasuke asked himself. He looked dubiously at the plant. Was this "him"? Well, that was stupid. Just because plants can reproduce doesn't mean you can just give them genders. Well, Sasuke supposed that you could but who in the world does?

He scowled darkly but crouched down to untie the pot when a small strip of torn fabric caught his eye. It clung onto a sharp, protruding piece of bark. It was bright orange.

If he had needed any further confirmation as to who in the world gives plants specific genders, he no longer did.

That was proof enough.

The year right after his eleventh year of living was decidedly different. For one thing, there were actual people he had to deal with on a daily basis. His fangirls, he just had to dodge them. But this year there was Kakashi, Sakura, and Naruto. And while Kakashi didn't make a big deal of it, Sakura did. And in a more subtle way, so did Naruto.

Sakura had shyly walked up to him the day before to ask him if he was busy on his birthday, which he replied with not much thought, "Yes." Granted that she looked a bit crushed, she still smiled brightly and nodded, saying that she understood, before she left.

On the actual day of his birthday, she had given him a grandly wrapped present, which he later opened to find that it was a brand new set of shuriken and kunai. He appreciated it enough. Sasuke had thanked her after receiving the gift. She was also particularly pestering and a tad bit more "annoying," as Sasuke would put it, that day. Every now and again, she would smile at him happily and give him a knowing look that obviously was to remind him to have a "Happy birthday."

Even Kakashi seemed to have gotten the hint and let them get out of their mission a few hours earlier.

Over all, he agreed, it wasn't such a bad day at all.

But what surprised him a bit was Naruto's gift.

See, a few days before Sasuke turned twelve Naruto had given Sakura a few pressed flowers as a gift. She loved flowers, but Naruto couldn't afford buying fresh ones for her, so he went out into the forest to collect some pink, fragrant flowers to press. She had taken in the gift with an embarrassed sort of a smile and thanked him slightly, which caused Naruto to grin stupidly for the rest of the day. In fact, even Kakashi received one or two of the dried blossoms.

Yet today, when they were all splitting their separate ways, Naruto hung back a little and gruffly walked up to Sasuke with a small slip of an envelope in his hands. While Sasuke looked at him disinterestedly, Naruto thrust the thin package at him saying, "Here. Be careful with it," and shrugged his shoulders before he left.

The Uchiha carefully tapped the contents of the envelope out onto his hand. As expected, there was a note that fell out with it, along with a few pressed flowers. They were very much different from the ones that Naruto gave to Sakura and Kakashi only several days before. They weren't as fragrant or fancy as the pink blossoms that Sakura got, nor as plain and simple as the white flora that Kakashi was given.

For a fact, Sasuke knew that the two types of flowers that Sakura and their teacher received grew in very close proximity of each other. He went out in the forest often enough to observe the plant life that grew within the trees. But the ones that he got….

They were a pale, faded sort of blue and carried a weak, sweet smell. The stems and a few carefully pruned leaves were still attached to the fragile, paper-thin blossom. These flowers only bloomed in the chillier months of autumn and certainly not in the blisteringly hot months of summer, when Sasuke's birthday occurred. It stunned Sasuke that Naruto had saved the flowers for so long just for this event.

The gifts that Naruto gave him never showed that the blond went out of his way to get them. The picture he drew for him was scribbled almost mindlessly, the rice balls were nearly indigestible, the scroll was simple and cheap, the cake was purchased from a bakery that was located along the path to the Academy, and the fern was easily found inside of the Yamanaka's flowershop. But these flowers….

They didn't belong in this time, this month.

Sasuke stood under the hot, beaming sun and cautiously stroked the petals of the flowers.

After another year of interacting with Team Seven, the four of them got along with each other reasonably amiably. But even so, this year's birthday was celebrated with even more gusto than the last.

Sakura had given him another rather extravagant gift: a hand-knit scarf (perhaps for later use… in winter?). It wasn't a very complex pattern, but it was obvious how much time and effort was placed into making it. So he thanked her for it.

Naruto decided to be more of a brat this year.

He openly gave Sasuke his gift and told him to open it immediately. It took several hours of buggering, but Sasuke, who treasured his eardrums and brain cells very much, finally opened the box. The displeased look on Sasuke's face made Naruto guffaw and roll on the floor crazily. It didn't take long for Sasuke to join him—except, Sasuke was throwing punches and kicks at Naruto and not laughing at all.

In his hasty act, the present box was thrown aside and the contents within it scattered over the floor.

Sakura had to place a hand quickly over her mouth to cover up the slight smile of amusement that crept onto her lips. Kakashi barely even looked at the contents before lazily stepping forward to separate the two boys before any serious harm came about. Unfortunately for all of them, when it came to Sasuke and Naruto, serious harm came about very, very frequently.

Pink, glossy hair clips, adorned with cute little flowers and happy faces, had spilled out on the dusty floor. Obviously, it was a gift fit for a girl. Any girl.

And obviously, Sasuke was not a girl.

"Naruto, you idiot!" Sasuke yelled as he was indignantly dragged away, still kicking and clawing at Naruto, by Kakashi. A trickle of blood came from his nose and formed a dark line across the dry cracks on his lips. Each word and curse was accompanied by a spray of blood.

Naruto's own mirth was quickly doused by a forming bruise on his cheek and a trail of wet red dripping from his split lip. "A joke! It was a joke, you jerk! Damn it, you have no sense of humor!"

Half an hour later, the verbal fight was not relenting at all and Sakura was kindly told to leave by Kakashi's request. It was apparent that whatever mission they got today would not be completed. In the end, Kakashi was forced to tie the two of them up onto separate wooden posts and left them there (thankfully for them, in the shade) to figure out their differences. Once they calmed down, he knew that Sasuke would be able to untie himself. As for Naruto… that would depend on what kind of mood Sasuke would be in after releasing himself.

The two boys' conversation started out with mindless curses and death threats but eventually, the two of them ran out of steam and merely hung there breathing hard.

Naruto spat out on the floor, leaving a puddle of spit-blood in the dust. "Those hair clips fit you perfectly, you prissy princess," he dared to say.

"What?" Sasuke growled angrily, twisting his neck to glare at the blond again.

"You heard me," Naruto sneered. "You've been acting so moodily lately, you're like some girl or something."

The Uchiha was about to spout some nonsense about hormones and typical teenager growth, but all of that would go right over Naruto's head. So he stopped himself and gritted his teeth instead.

"Idiot," he muttered darkly.

"Jerk."

"Dead last."

"Princess."

"Brat."

"I hate you."

"Hn."

Both of them hung limply from the posts for a few minutes before Sasuke wriggled about a bit and managed to cut himself loose from the ropes. He rubbed his wrists and flexed his feet. After a bit of stretching, he walked haughtily over to Naruto's post, glaring at him hostilely.

"Hey, let me down from here!" Naruto thrashed about, just barely missing Sasuke's shins with his feet.

The dark-haired boy crossed his arms and looked at him angrily. He stood there, contemplating for a bit before he walked away from the blond.

"Hey! Hey! You jerk! Come back here!" Naruto screeched loudly.

Sasuke walked over to the previously discarded hair clips and picked a handful of them up. Then he proceeded to walk right back up to Naruto and smirked a bit, a rather devious glint in his eyes. He walked up to Naruto's side silently.

"Hey—what are you doing? No, what! Don't clip them on!" Naruto shook his head about furiously when he saw Sasuke snap the clips open and lift his hand up to his hair.

The somewhat one-sided struggle lasted for another few minutes as Sasuke nearly jabbed out Naruto's eyes out on several occasions. In the end, Naruto's wispy hair was clipped together with a little less than a dozen of the girly clips. Only then did Sasuke cut Naruto loose from the post with a slightly pleased expression on his usually blank face.

As soon as Naruto's feet reached solid ground again, he started to yank out the clips, taking a more than a few strands of blond hair out in the process. Meanwhile, Sasuke merely stood nearby and watched the blond with amusement and a look that was clearly translated into, "Serves you right."

"Stuck up prick," Naruto murmured lividly. "It was just a joke."

"I didn't find it funny," Sasuke retorted hotly, feeling his skin prickle with cold heat from the words. His previously cool countenance shattered quickly.

Blue eyes glared sharply at Sasuke. They lowered quickly and crossly as he examined his red wrists. He plopped down and leaned his back on the post he was previously tied up to in order to allow recirculation in his limbs.

The nearly tangible atmosphere evaporated as quickly as it had come. Sasuke stood a ways apart from Naruto for a few moments before he jerked from his stance and joined Naruto in sitting down.

As comfortable a silence they could ever get to settled down over them and the birds covered up any more rough spots.

Sasuke could not see Naruto except for the far edges of his peripheral vision. He saw the blond shuffling through his pockets agitatedly until he found something and murmured something that sounded suspiciously like, "Thank goodness," under his breath.

Suddenly, a small envelope, one that looked very similar to the one he got last year, was shoved in front of his face. Utmost control of his reflexes was the only thing that kept Sasuke from jerking his head back and hitting himself onto the wooden post.

"What is this?" he growled with a bit too much vehemence.

Naruto only grunted something unintelligibly.

Sasuke snatched the envelope from Naruto's hand and opened it. A regal looking feather fluttered from the flap, as did a thin piece of white parchment. The Uchiha didn't even need to read the note, but instead picked up the feather which had fallen into his lap. He held it carefully between his finger and thumb by its clear shaft and turned it around a few times to examine it. It was brown with bold, black lines accentuating it. It was in good condition, telling Sasuke that the bird whose feather it belonged to was a healthy bird.

"What is this?" Sasuke repeated, though this time the inquiry was laced with more curiosity than the want to hurt someone badly.

"A feather, duh."

"What kind of feather, idiot?"

"Hawk."

Sasuke grunted in acknowledgement.

The clips were given to Sakura on a later day.

Fourteen years of living.

This birthday was spent truly alone.

Sasuke was nowhere near home. He had no home now.

But he did not feel any regrets for leaving. He felt nothing.

There was no birthday this year.

But Naruto didn't care or know that Sasuke no longer had any concern for his birthday.

He was alone too, sitting in the middle of some forest and Jiraiya was asleep. Naruto had not bothered to tell his tutor that today was Sasuke's birthday. Or perhaps the old pervert already knew but did not say. No matter, Naruto only shrugged his shoulders.

He didn't have the chance to find a gift for Sasuke, but wrote a simple card for him instead. Perhaps one day, he hoped, he would be able to give the card to him. There weren't many words in it, and to anyone else, it might not have meant anything. But to Naruto, it did. It meant a lot.

It meant everything.

Happy birthday, Sasuke-idiot. I miss you.

This year was no different from the last.

He saw Naruto and Sakura after so long this year.

It meant naught at all to him.

Happy birthday, Sasuke-idiot. I miss you… a lot.

The next year changed. Everything changed.

Every little, tiny speck of a thing changed.

All the minutes and seconds he toiled and trained to achieve his goal—was shattered and meaningless. What good would it be to strive for something that he tried so hard for, just to realize that it was all in a huge case of conspiracy and secrecy?

For the first time in who-knows-how many years, he had cried. Cried for someone he thought he would never cry for.

And it was a little after that when he realized that the world can flip over and everything can change.

Years of masking over everything he ever, ever felt and it finally was let go.

And his world split apart to spill forth the insides of everything he had ever kept back.

…

And now, he was sitting in front of a fire that his team had recently built. He had taken up first watch, as he always did at night-time. It was a calm night and they were in an area where it would be hard to reach, animal or human. There really was not much need to take such a vigorous watch. So Sasuke took some small advantage in it.

Near the fire was a pile of everyone's bags. They were all small and light for long distance travelling. Silently, he reached over to his own bag and took something out. It was a small, worn piece of folded paper. The yellowing edges were tearing apart fiber by fiber, showing signs of age.

With deft movements, Sasuke carefully unfolded the ancient-looking piece of paper.

In the bright flickering light of the fire, the paper took on an orange-red hue. It snapped and popped almost hungrily. Whenever it licked a piece of untouched wood, the flames crackled angrier than before, snatching at the air and flickering out.

There were soft, white lines that creased the papers into eighths. In the corners of the folds, small holes were visible. It was clear that the paper had been folded and unfolded an infinite amount of times over the years. It was almost as well worn as a piece of cloth. Only the most fragile bonds kept the paper from completely falling apart.

Nine years ago, the waxy colors were bright and clearly visible. Nine years later, the colors were faded and nearly nonexistent. Only pure memory aided Sasuke in remembering what was drawn on the page in the first place.

Half with his eyes, half with his memory, Sasuke saw the crooked lines of grass and dirt, his supposed-to-be face and eyes—and the bright, bright yellow of the brilliant sun.

And though the drawing was only faintly there, a kind of childish joy still emanated from the paper.

Sasuke ran his thumb lightly over the fraying sheet of paper—

and threw the paper and memories which stuck onto it like flypaper into the fire, which devoured the cloth-paper, leaving nothing more than ashes mingled with charred pieces of wood.

A/N: Again, this account is now going to be 'brumal' and no longer 'algid.' Thank you.