Desert Stars

Beginning

Y/n's POV

My whole life, I've been told that I'm different. And because I inherited my clan's unique purple chakra and enhanced speed and strength, I know that it's true.

Some people would probably say that their story began when they were born, or when their life took a turn for the worse. Or the better, I guess.

My story began five years ago, when my parents and I moved to the Village Hidden in the Leaves in the Land of Fire. they told me that we were leaving our ancestral home in the Village Hidden in the Rain because they wanted a change of scenery, but I knew that it was because it wasn't safe for us there anymore. Bad people had started to show up, wanting to take us away and figure out the secret to our powers.

And so, we left. It took us days of running to reach the Leaf Village, but we made it unscathed, which I see now was pretty lucky. We spent a few days settling in, unpacking boxes and stuff. My parents met with the hokage a couple of times. The L/n clan is notorious around the five great nations, being superhuman and all that, so it was important for the higher ups to know that we were around.

After that nice little settle-in period, I was enrolled in school.

That's where I met Naruto.

I was terrified on my first day, being the new kid and all, and it turns out that I had every right to be nervous. everyone already knew each other - they'd already made friends and formed alliances, and of course I was the odd one out. Not only that, but they'd already spent years learning ninjutsu and stuff, so I was seriously behind.

Of course I sat alone at lunch. The other girls were giving me dirty looks, like I was their competition or something, and all the boys were either weird (like the guy who had a puppy on his head) or had friends already, like the kid who looked an awful lot like a pineapple, and a chubby guy.

As I roamed the school grounds, picking at my bento, I saw a kid sitting alone on a swing, watching as everyone else ate and chatted. He looked kind of sad, so I walked up to him.

"Hi."

He jumped and turned to look at me, hurrying to collect himself. "You're that new girl."

"I am," I replied. "I recognize you from my class. What's your name?"

The boy grinned confidently. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to be hokage one day!"

"Wow, okay," I said. I remember being a little overwhelmed by his enthusiasm. I gestured to the space in the grass next to his swing. "Do you mind?"

Naruto blinked at me, as if he didn't really believe what was happened. "Uh. Sure."

"Awesome," I said, sitting down in the grass. "So, Naruto, give me the rundown. Who's who, what's the drama, who's friends, who should I watch out for, et cetera."

"Well, first off, there's Sasuke," Naruto said, narrowing his eyes at a pretty, broody kid with spiky black hair. He was sitting alone too, and all the girls were gawking at him. "He's a total jerk. Thinks he's above everyone else. All the girls are in love with him, for some reason. His whole family was brutally murdered."

"That's...interesting," I said, glancing at Sasuke.

"Then there's Choji and Shikamaru," Naruto said, gesturing to Pineapple and Chunk. "They're best friends. And there's Kiba, and Shino, and Hinata, and Ino, and..."

Naruto kept listing off names, pointing as he went. "Last but definitely not least, there's Sakura," he said, pointing at a pink haired girl. He sighed. "She's really beautiful and super smart."

"You like her?" I asked Naruto, wiggling my eyebrows suggestively.

Naruto blushed red. "No. Absolutely not. I don't...I mean..."

I smirked. "You totally do."

"Maybe," Naruto muttered. "But she likes Sasuke, so it's not like it matters."

The two of us ate in silence for a minute.

"Why aren't you sitting with any of them?" I asked Naruto, gesturing out to the rest of the Academy students.

Naruto's expression darkened a little bit. He pasted on a cocky smile, gesturing dismissively towards our classmates. "I'm just too awesome for them."

"Are you too awesome for me?"

Naruto looked at me for a second, like he was thinking about it. "Yes, but I think I could make an exception."

I smiled. I could see through his ruse. He was lonely. He told me as much later, after we'd been friends for a while. "Great." I extended my hand to him. "Friends?"

Naruto shook it. "Friends."

For the two years after that, it was us against the world. We studied together, trained together and spent a lot of time at Ichiraku Ramen together. I got a lot better at ninjutsu really fast, and I credit a lot of that to Naruto and his determination. He never let me slack off. When Naruto told me about the demon inside of him, I told him about my clan and our special abilities, and we bonded over being different from everyone else.

My parents didn't want me to become a shinobi, so I technically never graduated from the Academy. But I spent time with Squad 7. I went out for meals with them, even trained with them sometimes. We were friends. Sakura and I gossiped together. Sasuke and I bonded over our family drama, even though our conversations always stopped abruptly when his brother came up.

I was there when they got back from their first mission. I held Sakura as she cried over what had happened to Sasuke during the chunin exams. I watched Naruto beat Neji in the second round fights, and I saw Sasuke and Kakashi make their dramatic entrance into the arena. I witnessed Orochimaru's attack. I attended the Third Hokage's funeral, and Naruto gripped my hand through the whole thing, like it was a lifeline. Naruto told me about his mission to find the next hokage. I saw Sasuke run after Naruto when he heard that his brother was after him.

I was practically a part of their team.

I also witnessed it crumble completely.

I was there for Sasuke and Naruto's fight on the hospital rooftop. Or rather, the second half of it, just before Kakashi showed up and stopped it. I went after Sasuke, after his argument with Kakashi, and tried to talk some sense into him.

I stood next to Sakura and said goodbye to Naruto and the others as they went after Sasuke. As he made one of his promises to bring Sasuke back.

I sat next to Naruto's hospital bed, watching as he slept, battered and bruised and broken, and when he woke up, I listened to him ramble about he was going to save Sasuke no matter what.

But I knew, I knew that Sasuke didn't want to be brought back. And when Sasuke put his mind to something, he was never going to back down. Him and Naruto were alike in that way.

I didn't tell Naruto that. I couldn't. He wouldn't have believed me, and even if he had...

It would have crushed him.

So I just hugged him and promised that we'd go out for ramen when his wounds were healed, and he smiled and said alright.

Months later, he showed up at my house in the middle of the night and said that he was leaving in the morning, to go train with Jiraya, and he didn't know when he was coming back.

I was happy for him. Maybe now he'd be as powerful as he'd always wanted to be. Maybe now he would finally give up on Sasuke.

The moment he left, though, I felt the void. It was gaping and it ached and I wanted him to come back. Naruto, my best friend, my sun.

Before you think it, he wasn't my first love or anything like that. Oh no. That title belongs to Sasuke Uchiha. And I hate him for it.