Missing out.

The Konoha Ninja Academy, a nice, peaceful place that doesn't have any sort of madness going on. That was always a load of bull, what with the students trying to get ahead of each other at different paces, the teacher's being too few for too many students, one teacher always found time for each of his students, even if by the end of the day, he was stiff necked and exhausted.

Iruka Umino was always a great instructor, but sometimes he got so caught up in work, he forgot the basic things of his own life. For one, this was the first year since Naruto had left to go train with the old pervert and he was turning twenty-four tomorrow.

It seemed odd, his birthday was right in front of him, and he had barely even thought about it. He was too busy dealing with the backbone of Konoha, the children. The school doors had closed for the day, and those who had been in detention had been released.

The brown haired ninja sighed as he walked around his school, smiling lightly. He could have done many things for the village, but he liked tending to the children more then anything, they were his life. As he swept the hall way clean, he found himself missing one student in particular.

There were no random messes to clean up, ones that were so obvious who had done them, it was only natural Iruka punished Naruto, and stayed to make sure he had cleaned them all up. The two of them would normally go out for ramen afterward, so it made the lonely man pause his cleaning as he thought about the other ninja...

He'd grown up so much since back then, made so many new friends. He was so far away, and... Iruka was surprised when something wet hit his own hand, and when he brought his hand up to his face, he found the tears that were flowing down his face in small streams.

Naruto, everyone wanted a piece of him now, from those who wanted to rip his demon from him, to the village elders who wanted to keep him trapped in the village. His team was incomplete without Sasuke, so of course Naruto wanted to go hunt for him, but where was his Naruto?

Was he being so petty he wanted to have Naruto back JUST to go to the ramen shack with him again? To yell at him for going ten bowls over the ten bowl limit, and to carry him home when he ate too much.. He missed Naruto so badly. He had been the only one in the village that had made his day light up so much... and now... sitting alone in the hall way of the school, holding the broom he'd been cleaning with, Iruka found himself starting to cry for his missing son...

No one knew how much his heart ached for Naruto to come back safely, just to say his foolish little saying again, or to be a thorn in his side... Without Naruto, there was a void in his life.

A void that couldn't be replaced...

How lonely the poor man was, without his Naruto there, his ramen loving, orange wearing dork of a ninja... Could anyone save him from his loneliness before it destroyed him?