Naruto doesn't know or understand why he had decided to go to the cemetery, but there he was. It's his thirteenth birthday and he was alone.
He had received a cake with a drawing of a dog and a new set of orange clothes from Kakashi-sensei. A pair of ninja gloves and an all-you-can-eat coupon from Ichiraku from Sakura, even Sasuke had given him a crate of tomatoes (Naruto doesn't understand why) and a ninja arts manual. Iruka-sensei took him out to eat in the morning and gave him several gifts that Naruto still hadn't opened. Even his other friends had given him gifts, like Shikamaru or Hinata. Although deep down it made him very happy, he still feels somewhat alone and it is ironic, because he told his friends that he wanted to be alone.
He may not be the smartest, but Naruto knows that thirteen years ago, on the day of his birth, the Kyubi attacked the village and killed hundreds of people, including the fourth Hokage and his parents. He has always wondered what kind of person his parents were. Was his mother a beautiful woman? Naruto has no proof, but he knows she was. Maybe his father was kind of stupid.
Were his parents shinobi or simple villagers? How did his parents meet?
Did they love him?
Naruto sighs and kicks a rock on the ground.
Sometimes (always), he imagines what it would be like to wake up and see his parents making him breakfast. He imagines his father teaching him jutsus and imagines playing with his mother.
Does he look like his parents? Does he have his father's or mother's hair color? And his eyes?
The more he walks, the more questions he asks and more and more, his eyes fill with small tears.
Naruto stops when his foot hits a cement step on the floor. He look up, realizes that it is the space dedicated to all the people who died during the kyubi attack. The beast sealed in him...
Naruto rubs his stomach for a second and, hesitantly, decides to climb the three steps.
"Is it okay for me to be here?" the boy asks the whisper of the wind. "After all... All these people died because of the beast sealed in me."
Naruto had never been here before, not even once in his life, but he had heard his classmates talk about how they came here to leave flowers and their condolences for family members who died during the attack.
In the center was a tombstone larger than the others with the Hokage symbol on it and the name of the fourth Hokage standing on the old rock.
Naruto is drawn to the tombstone and his fingers trace the name before sitting in front of the grave, for some reason it felt good to do so.
"Hello fourth, this is the first time I've spoken to you, but you must already know me, right? After all... You sealed the kyubi in me."
Naruto rests his hands on his cheeks and sighs.
"Ever since I learned the truth, I've asked myself, why me? I never knew why the people of the village hated me, but when I learned that I was the Kyubi, I understood. Did you hate me too, Fourth Hokage?"
Naruto's blue gaze saddens and his eyes fill with tears again. He hates crying and being weak, but there was no one here who can see him and judge him.
"Why me?" Naruto sobs and his shoulders shake as he hugs himself. "Fourth, w-why me?"
Naruto doesn't know how long he was crying and sniffling, but when he manages to calm down, he decides that continuing there won't do him any good and stands up on shaky legs.
Wiping his face roughly with the sleeve of his jacket, Naruto is ready to leave when a familiar name catches his attention.
Right next to the fourth Hokage's grave, there was a name Naruto doesn't know, but a last name so familiar it makes him sick to his stomach.
Uzumaki Kushina.
With his legs giving out, Naruto approaches the grave and falls to his knees. His hand rises tremblingly and traces the letters on the stone.
Naruto feels very strange the moment he touches the stone, as if his chest will fill with warmth and someone will hug him from behind. He felt connected to this piece of stone with a simple name.
"Uzumaki Kushina, mother and wife..." Naruto murmurs and quickly stands up to read each name carved on each tombstone. Nothing, there's no one else with the last name Uzumaki. Naruto knows that his parents died during the kyubi attack, the third Hokage told him, so... "Maybe you... Are you my mother?"
Naruto blushes a little and laughs, nervous.
"W-well... I know I'm not a genius, but you're the only one with the last name Uzumaki here, that means you're my mother, right?"
Naruto staggers on the ground with a playful smile. Now he have a grave to cry on, right? He has a name and can search for information. He may know more about his mother. Just thinking about it makes him excited and his smile gets bigger.
"Today is my birthday and I would have liked to spend it with my parents. I have always wondered what kind of person they are and... I know that my mother was very beautiful."
Then Naruto sits with his back to the grave and imagines a faceless woman hugging him from behind while he looks at the clear sky.
"Mommy, did you love me?"
Obviously he doesn't get an answer...
The rest of the day Naruto talks and talks non-stop with Kushina's grave, telling her about his adventures as a ninja and about his friends, he also complains a lot about Sasuke.
As night falls over the cemetery, Naruto rises from the ground.
"It's late and I'm really sleepy..." Naruto yawns and smiles weakly. "I'll come another day... I-I love you, mommy."
Naruto greets the grave with tear-filled eyes and leaves.
It wasn't such a bad birthday after all, right?
The wind picks up several leaves on the ground that surround Naruto for a moment and if he thinks about it too much, it feels like a caress.
Smiling, Naruto wonders if he can convince the third to tell him more about his mother, after all, he already knows who she is.