Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any characters in it.

This is my first fan fiction that I put any effort into, so any advice or critiques are more than welcome.

Review

"thoughts"

Prologue

It was a sunny day in the small town of Norwich; a rare occurrence considering it was February. There were still patches of snow and slush littering the town. The sidewalks, normally empty in the winter, were full of hormonal teenagers, and rushing housewives dragging their children around, shopping for their families. Despite the good cheer around the town, just outside of it, there was a gloomy cloud hanging over a lone country home.

Lounging on the couch in the living room of that very home was a sullen young girl, flipping through the pages of book, snorting quietly every so often. That girl was trying to get rid of the bitterness of her life, at least temporarily, by reading one of her sister's ridiculous romance novels, and inwardly mocking the characters. This was a favoured activity for the girl; one that always cheered her up. Unfortunately, with the situation she was in, she needed a lot more than some cheesy romance to brighten her day. Little did she know, "a lot more" was exactly what she was going to get.

First Person

I snorted again, reading about how the oh so pathetic female character would rather die than be without her unbelievably good looking boyfriend. Throwing the book onto the coffee table I stood up cracking my back as I started walking to the kitchen. The fact that I can't even remember the character's names after I just stopped reading is a testament to how much I hate romance novels. I sighed and opened the fridge, just to close it a second later remembering that I didn't actually have any food.

This has been my life since my parents went on a two month long trip to New York to visit their eldest daughter, whom they haven't seen for a year. I was, of course, pissed when they told me I would be left all alone for so long, but after a screaming match with mom about favouritism and unfairness, and a good cry in my room, I got over it. Truthfully, I didn't mind being home alone at all. In fact, I had been called a hermit more than once in my life because of my overwhelming need for privacy at all times. I really just missed Katie as much as mom and pop did. I haven't talked to her once since she left; no phone calls, no texts, no e-mails, no nothing. And whose fault is that? I quickly shut my inner self up, knowing that it was true. I was too lazy to be bothered to pick up a phone or even text a "hey" to her cell. I had just kept telling myself that I was going to see her in February.

Well it was February, and I wasn't seeing her. Originally, it had been the plan to take off two weeks before school ended for March Break and go with my parents there, then once March Break ended I would come back early alone. My parents would stay another month, because my father had business there, and then they would come home. The timing had been perfect for my parents, and I spent all of February doing extra work to make up for what I was going to miss. But then, disaster struck. A day before we were going to leave, my parents changed their minds, deciding it was too much school to miss. And well, you know what happened then. Luckily, mom entrusted me to tell my teachers that the plan was cancelled, as my mom had already called ahead of time, and attend school like a good little girl. Like that was ever going to happen. Now I had two months without parents, and one a month with no school. Life should have been good, but here I was completely depressed, and they had only left two days ago. I guess I'm not as cut-out for the hermit lifestyle as I thought I was.

Yawning I walked into the front room that housed the front door and a closet, and threw Katie's book into one of the boxes of her stuff that was currently residing at the bottom of said closet. Walking back to the kitchen feeling hungry, I didn't even glance at the fridge or the cupboard. I strode purposely to the small separate freezer and pulled out the last piece of my birthday cake from a few weeks ago, that I had hidden there and promptly completely forgot about, until now. Mmmmm cake was the only thought going through my minds I placed the creamy chocolate masterpiece onto a plate and started searching the drawers for a clean fork. I opened the emergency cutlery drawer (Yes, I actually have one of those), and fished out a fork, my hand brushing against something colourful.

Curious, I took out said object that just conveniently happened to be a stray birthday candle. Awesome. Grinning to myself, I dug through the rest of the drawer and found eight more equally colourful candles. The grin soon turned into a frown as I found out, the hard way, that trying to put nine candle into one little piece of cake only resulted in making a big hole in the cake. Meh, it's not like I can fix the damage anyways. With that thought in mind I left the candles, which by now were in a big bunch in the middle, and went to search for a lighter.

Lighter in hand, I practically skipped back to my yummy cake, singing happy birthday under my breath, my mood a lot lighter. I lit the candles, put the lighter on the counter, and took my prize back to the living room. Mindful of the small inferno on my cake, I gingerly placed it on the coffee table, and flopped carelessly onto the couch. Rubbing my hands together and licking my lips, I was really glad I was alone, as I probably looked like a complete retard. I closed my eyes and blew the candles out. I wish that I wasn't alone; that a bunch of friends would just show up and stay with me.

Opening my eyes I immediately snatched my fork and dug into the cake, like a starved lion would eat a gazelle. I never noticed the wind pickup outside or the lights flickering. It was chocolate cake; I wasn't really expected too anyways.