disclaimer_blah blah blah I don't own Naruto so blah blah blah please don't sue.
note1_a part of the prompt insanity going on btwn me and my friends. If you don't know it's okay :)

Supernova
the brightest stars die the fastest

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"Haha! I'm really gonna do it!"

"Don't be a dumb ass."

"Yeah man! Do it! Do it!"

"Go for it bro!"

"All right you handsome bastards, watch and learn!" Naruto slammed the red cup down on the table and grinned. Music blasted through the room's stereo, vibrating through the cavities in his chest. His friends were cheering behind him, his head was pounding, the room was see-sawing, and his gut was burning with alcohol.

How many had he had again? Nine…? Thirteen…?

"Do it!"

Right.

With a yell of exhilaration Naruto shot forward and jumped, twisting slightly as he tossed himself out the second story window in one graceful maneuver.

It was the dead of winter and the nighttime air felt sharp against his hot skin. His t-shirt flapped around him as he fell, and just as he was beginning to think this was maybe a not-so-smart decision, the air was slammed out of his lungs as he landed in three feet of freshly fallen snow.

"Hey idiot! You still alive?" Kiba called down. The seven of them were all crowded against his window, peering through the darkness, trying to catch a glimpse of blonde hair.

"Hell yeah I'm still alive bastard!" Naruto yelled back up.

His friends whooped, someone turned up the music, and they returned to their game of beer/vodka/whatever pong.

Naruto felt his shirt growing damp with melting snow. He knew he should start getting up, but he was comfortable where he was. The cold had sliced through the alcoholic fog hanging over his thoughts and for a moment, he was lucid; he looked up. When the white smoke of his breath cleared, the stars wheeled above him, glittering in the clear December sky. He stretched his hands out towards them, grasping nothing but empty air.

So damn far away.

"Naruto?"

His arm flopped back into the snow, "Hmmm?"

Footsteps crunched towards him. "What're you doing out here?"

He raised his arm again and pointed up. "I jumped."

"You what?" he felt her cool touch against his face, "oh god, are you drunk?"

He brought his thumb and forefinger close together, a sloppy smile splitting his face, "A lil' bit."

"Wasn't Sasuke-kun with you?"

Naruto snorted as he once again pointed back up to the room. "He's out. Bastard's a two shot wonder— hah!"

"How many did you have?"

"Uh—I don't remember," he answered truthfully.

He thought she might of sighed.

"Come on, lets get you back to your room."

"Yes ma'm!" he saluted obediently. As soon as he stood, the ground tilted violently beneath him and his knees buckle under the sudden movement. "Whoa," he laughed and let gravity pull him back down.

"Careful!" She grabbed him by the arms, but it was useless— he was limp in her grasp, already sinking bonelessly to his knees. "Naruto you need to get up, come on," she urged.

"No… I like it here," he slurred. What little sobriety he had a few moments ago had been crushed beneath the seventeen shots of hard liquor.

"Don't you have a midterm tomorrow?"

"Fuck midterms!" He shouted, suddenly angry, "I fucking hate school."

She threw his arm over her shoulder, and using her body as a lever, hefted him up, supporting him by the waist. He was heavy. "Huh, and that's why you do so well in it? Mr. 4.0?" She teased, trying to keep the atmosphere light.

His head lolled into her neck. "Fuck that shit," he grumbled. "It's not like I have a choice."

"No choice?" She asked as she began steering them towards the dorms. She knew Naruto was drunk, but curiosity got the better of her. School always seemed effortless for both him and Sasuke-kun. Hell, life always seemed so effortless for those two, it was unfair. Well, that's what she got for being childhood friends with a famous senator's son and the heir to the country's largest business conglomerate.

Naruto's head hung forward; she could hardly make out his low voice. "Pop's perfect, that pervy Uncle's perfect, fucking...everyones so fucking perfect..."

She figured "pervy Uncle" meant his godfather Jiraiya. The man was a world renown writer who also moonlighted as a erotica novelist under the pen name "The Sage"— or so went the story according to Naruto.

"Yeah, I mean your dad and uncle are pretty amazing," she agreed.

His head popped up and leaned in unnervingly close to her face, those blue, blue eyes boring into her, "Yeah?" The heat of his breath tickled the tip of her nose. He reeked of alcohol, "You think so?"

She grabbed him by the chin and twisted his face away from her, "Yes, I know so. Now stop breathing on me, you stink."

His face shook in her hand as he barked out a laugh. "Yeah! Right? They're perfect! Haha, Even you think so….everybody thinks so...fuck. Fuck, they're so fucking perfect. So goddamn perfect!" He was yelling now, his voice echoing wildly through the still winter air, the frustration in his voice so raw it was palpable, "And everyone wants me to be just as fucking perfect as them! God damn it—" His head suddenly flopped forward again and he gagged, spittle and saliva slowly driveling out of his mouth. He was panting hard to catch his breath.

"Naruto! Hey! Hey, hey, hey, calm down, okay?" She held his face between her hands, trying to calm him. Without her body for support, he collapsed on his knees again; she went down with him. "Listen to me Naruto, nobody expects any thing from you, all right?"

His eyes were unfocused, looking far beyond her face. "Shut up," he gasped, "everyone expects everything." He was falling apart.

She was kneeling in front of him, not even registering the ice as it melted and seeped into her sweatshirt and jeans. "No, Naruto, no one does, okay? You're amazing because you're you."

He pulled his face out of her grasp and let it droop. "This isn't me," he said in a defeated voice and weakly punched the snow, "This isn't me at all...I fucking hate this. Damn it.. fucking...hate...this…"

She put a hand on his shoulder. She knew it was pointless to say anything—he was so far gone— but she couldn't bear the state of him before her eyes. She needed to do something. "Hey, Listen Naruto—"

He inhaled a shuddering breath, and she paused.

"Naruto?" She asked hesitantly. "Hey come on, you're not really…"

She gingerly touched his cheeks—wet. Tears. He was crying. She was dumbstruck, and for a moment she didn't know what to do. He sniffed once, and it was enough to shake her out of her reverie. She rushed forward and enveloped him in a fierce, protective hug, wishing she could bury him deep inside of her. She could feel his breath, hot and heavy against her skin, and the warmth of his tears as he wept silently into her neck.

This was Naruto Uzumaki, the one who would beat up her bullies when she was four. The one who, along with Sasuke, held her hand when they were walking back home together from kindergarden. The one that spent all day and all evening in middle school searching the field for the favorite necklace she had lost. The one who made the guys that made her cry, cry even harder. The one who was always smiling and laughing, coasting through life. And here he was, for the first time in eighteen years, shaking in her arms— broken.

"Come on Naruto, lets get you inside. It's freezing out here." She tried to help him stand but he wouldn't budge. "Hey come on, Naruto, please? Let's get you inside," she was pleading him now

"Fuck...this...shit…." he repeated.

She blinked back her own tears. Why was she so useless?

She sat there, eyes growing hot and damp with frustrated tears, when suddenly Naruto's weight was taken off of her. She looked up, wiping quickly at her eyes. Relief surged through her when she saw who it was. "Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke stood, hefting the blonde up along with him. He motioned with his head, "Take the other side."

She hurried to comply. "Naruto said you were passed out."

"That dumb ass. I just went to put my laundry into the dryer. When I came back, he was gone. Then the fucking idiot Kiba told me they let him jump out the window. Give me your backpack, what are you doing out here anyways?"

"I'm fine, thanks," She said as she readjusted her grip around Naruto's waist, "I was just on my way back from a lab and I see his arm poking out of the snow."

They slowly trudged back towards the dorm, Naruto hanging like a rag doll between them; half-stumbling, half-dragging his feet. Their footsteps scraped against the pavement as they made it onto the sidewalk.

"Has he always been like this?" She tried to sound casual, but Sasuke had known her for too long; he could hear the guilt in her voice—the I can't believe I was too stupid to notice.

His nod was so imperceptible that she could just barely make it out. She almost wished she hadn't seen it.

This was Uzumaki Naruto. Her best friend. Her pillar. Her personal sun. All her life he had always been so cheerful—so bright— that it seems she had been blind to everything else.

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author's notes_

1. the prompt was "The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes" given by Bruhaven

2. Like most of my AU's this is a little strange...sorry if the ending may seem like it's been cut off with a blunt object, but most of my one shots tend to be like that anyways so...hahah? :P

3. Inspired by true events. Sortof.

4. thanks for reading!