So yesterday, I entered the bathroom and noticed that for some reason, the sunlight entering through the window was orange. When I went outside, I noticed that all bright reflections from cars and other shiny things were orange and everything was bathed in a strange orange tint. I think it's caused by the fires going on in California right now. But it got me thinking. We all know why Naruto dresses in orange, which is to catch the attention of everyone else. But why did he pick that color specifically? Yellow or some other bright color would have done the same thing as well.

Anyway, that's the reason why I wrote this oneshot. It's very short, so it doesn't need too much stuff.

Thanks to Solatrus for betaing the story.

I do not own Naruto

Onwards!

Edit: Oops, just realized that I left a bit of my own notes in the story. I cleaned them up though.

Orange Sun

The sun was orange that day. Naruto didn't know why, but the sun was orange. It wasn't a true orange, just a tint of it in the sunlight, but it was there. Surely others would have noticed as well, because the sun was always depicted as yellow or white, maybe even a red sometimes, but never orange.

He was at Ichiraku Ramen, his favorite place to eat. It was cheap and delicious; two things that he believed should always go together for a restaurant to be successful. Still, the idea of an orange sun lingered on his mind. After eating and paying the bill, he asked the shop owner why the sun was orange today.

"Well," the owner started, "I don't know why it's orange right now. I've never seen something like this before." He thought a bit longer. "It's like a blue moon, almost. It's something that you don't expect to see very often, and in fact I don't remember it happening at all."

"It's like a very rare anomaly," the chef concluded.

Naruto asked him what the word meant.

"It means something that is out of the ordinary."

With that, Naruto thanked the man and left to continue his errands.

He needed to purchase some new clothes. He was starting school the next day, so he figured that he ought to go and buy some new clothes, to mark his transition into the next stage of life. He did this alone, of course, as with everything else. No one ever helped him with anything, save the social services that were provided by law. He was given money, something that the adults called "welfare", but he could care less. Money was money, and money meant he could buy things.

He found that he wasn't attracted at all to the things that other little children his age were attracted to. When they wanted toys, he looked for necessities. Much of what he bought were food, clothing, and other tools (rent was specifically provided for him by the government, and only him; he did not know why).

When he walked into the store, he immediately noticed that there was an orange set of clothes in the back. He thought back to what the restaurant owner said the orange sun, that it was an odd little thing to occur in Konoha.

After seeing that they fit, he bought the clothes.