Hi everyone! Uncommon Guru here to give you a quick explanation for this story. The reason is simple; because I wanted to...hehehe.

In all seriousness, I was planning on continuing Desert Assassin, but found that unlike Word of Honor, my notes weren't there anymore. After looking for a bit, I found some of the outline for this story, and figured I'd write some of it to keep Word of Honor fresh and help keep me from being distracted. At least, until I read something I did not know about Inari's appearance; those who guess it will get prizes.

After I found that tidbit of information, it was hook, line, sinker, then gun show.

This story was loosely based off of Most Heinous of Crimes by Andrew D. Talon, as well as All Black by Evilsheeplordthatsaysmoo...who was inspired by the first story. Strange how that happens isn't it? ANYWAYS, I've seen Naruto get summons like this before, but I wanted to give a take that was unique and my own. Those who've read Word of Honor...you have an idea what you're in for.

To keep this simple, we're starting after the Wave Mission, because...well, it's where All Black started, and I'd decided that worked out well, so here we go!

For newbies and old friends alike, let's get on with the show!

Who Walks Among Dragons

He called them from obscurity. Looking into their eyes, he caused even them to bow. Now Naruto will grapple with a power none else had survived.

Chapter 1

"…we have several missions for you today. There's always someone who needs us to help walk their dogs, some civilians have hired us to paint their fences, oh! and Tora needs to be caught a – "

"GAH! All of these are boring. Kakashi-sensei, aren't there any more kickass C-ranks?"

"Naruto! Show some respect!"

Naruto huffed softly, turning his head from Iruka as he muttered grumpily. "The last C-rank mission we took was awesome. Why can't we just take another?"

The date – in Naruto's mind – was one week after their return from the most epic mission of all time to Nami no Kuni (Land of Waves). In that time, he'd fought against an A-ranked shinobi, learned how to walk up trees, and became an awesome hero to everyone there. Then, after getting a couple days leave, they'd gotten back to the grindstone and had D-ranked missions. After all that, they simply couldn't compare to what they'd experienced.

To all who heard him complaining, it was another thing altogether; he hadn't really learned some of the overarching lessons 'underneath' that he could've learned. He was still on that adrenaline high some shinobi experienced after their first mission with enemies outside their league. It was a dangerous, often detrimental trait a shinobi could have, and no one there was going to let him go until they were sure that he'd come off the high enough to be considered rational…or as rational as Uzumaki Naruto could possibly get.

Next to him, his teammates appeared to be taking his moaning differently than normal. Although the circumstances behind their last mission were far from normal, the turnaround for the other two was substantially more than their teammate.

Sakura fidgeted more then she used to, biting her lip and looking nervously towards those giving the missions. Her more firm standing was shaken, and it was further evident in the way she no longer lashed out at the blonde with ease and vigor. It was also probable that her other teammate might've been a reason for that though.

Beside both of them, Sasuke was calm, collected, and inwardly wanting to throw back his head and groan loudly. It wouldn't be obvious to the casual observer, as he had proven himself time and again as someone who was quite capable of masking many of his emotions clearly with a calm that even some chunin envied. However, to keen eyes, he had a twitch in his eyes when Naruto would be turned down from his requests for higher ranked missions. He wanted them as much as his counterpart, but knew he didn't have to do anything but sit back and watch as Naruto made a fool of himself until someone listened or crumpled. It was evident that the danger had brought back some memories he'd pushed back, and they were making him feel on edge, excited, and dangerous.

All crippling attributes of those who harbored frail egos.

But enough about egos, the Hokage was speaking.

"True, however, there are other tasks within the village that take precedence of 'awesome' Naruto." The Hokage said with a sigh, tenting his fingers as he glanced over the papers in front of him as he spoke. "One cannot continually leave the village and expect the civilians to recognize them as their future defenders."

"But how will the world know the future Hokage if I don't get recognized?" Naruto asked, putting his hands behind his head. Scoffing, he shook his head. "The people in Nami recognized me, and I even got to see them build a super bridge!"

For Iruka, this was yet another reason to pinch the bridge of his nose to push back his headache. How was Naruto supposed to get the respect of Konoha's villagers if he didn't help out and was always away? The boy didn't really think everything through in his grand scheme of 'becoming Hokage'. Then again, this is the kid who thought he should become Hokage after stunning him for a moment with his Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Technique).

As the Hokage glanced over some of the other missions, he spied one that hadn't quite gotten taken care of. Pulling it out, he mulled it over for a moment. It was slightly better pay then the average D-ranked, which would be a plus in many ways. It could also be done in a day or less if handled right. To top it all off though, was two things that made it stand out; it was C-ranked, but was still considered 'inside' the village's boundaries.

"Kakashi-san." The Hokage said with a firm voice. "Do you think your team is capable of handling another mission?"

Kakashi blinked, humming in thought with a fist under his chin. "Well…I suppose they might. Then again, the only one who wants a mission like that sounds like Naruto, don't you think?"

"WHAT?!" Naruto shouted, whipping from Kakashi to his team. "You-you don't mean that! They want a mission like that just as much as I do! Don't you guys?"

Sakura hummed, somewhat worried as she thought it over. They couldn't possibly have two missions like that back to back. Kami had to have some leeway in their lives right?

Speaking as their current Kami in this matter; not unless there is plot involved.

Sasuke on the other hand, was a bit more vocal. "You didn't answer his question Kakashi-sensei."

It was roundabout, and honestly Kakashi could have played with his words as being a rejection. However, he could clearly see what he was intending, so he shrugged to the Hokage. "I guess another mission couldn't hurt."

"YES! Yahoo! Alright, now we're talking!" Naruto shouted, jumping up in the air with surprising amount of height for someone his size as he clicked his heels together in joy.

Before Iruka could attempt to embarrass himself, the Hokage slid the page in front of him. Picking up the page and looking it over with worry in his eyes, Iruka assessed the mission they were being given. After several moments, his look slowly softened as the parameters of the mission made him realize what this mission really was. Sighing softly, he passed it to Kakashi, who chuckled when he saw the details involved.

Behind him, Sasuke's body language read apprehensive, but quickly becoming one of one who was frustrated. Unlike the less attentive Naruto, Sasuke had watched the small transaction between the Hokage and Iruka, and it wasn't something that looked like it'd be the challenge he was expecting.

Naruto, for his part, was still oblivious. "So, who are we protecting Kakashi-sensei? Are we beating up villains to keep a boat maker safe? Or how about a carpenter who's going to make a statue? Ooh! Are we finally getting a mission to protect a princess? Come on Kakashi-sense, what are we doing?!"

"OH COME ON!"

"Mah, Naruto, there's no need to yell."

"Our mission is to walk over graves as we destroy their former homes. Excuse me for being a bit paranoid!"

Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto's statement. "Oh come on, it's nothing like that. The graves were already moved, we're just knocking down the interior of the houses so they can be quickly cleared so that Konoha can expand a bit. Why are you freaking out?"

"Because the ghosts might still be there!" Naruto whined, shivering at the thought. "You can't stab a ghost, you can't hit it, and you can't kill it. Why wouldn't you be scared?"

"Because I can breathe fire and make it run away." Sasuke said nonchalantly.

Naruto turned and glared at the Uchiha sourly, almost forgetting that little fact. He didn't actually know if ghosts were scared of fire, but then, there wasn't a whole lot about ghosts in the first place. The thought made him shiver. Now there was a ninja trait; being able to inspire fear, and yet leave no earthly remains as to who or what you were.

Still, they had their mission to complete, and ghosts or not it was their job to carry it out. To make it a bit more challenging, Kakashi was holding onto the sledgehammers that the demolition team had lent them, and had told them he wanted them to punch through the boards with their fists. When they got through an hour of it, he'd let them use the hammers. They would use them till they felt the need for a break, would get a short break followed by more punching and hammering. Effective taijutsu training, as well as heavy weapons training in its own way too.

Kakashi felt quite pleased with himself when he'd finished thinking of it.

Placing a hand on their shoulders, he gave them a gentle nudge towards the buildings. "Well, go on then. We're only here until tonight, and we don't get to take any other missions till this is done. So, hop to it."

Somehow Naruto felt that there was an unusual amount of cheerfulness in Kakashi's voice…like he was happy that he'd likely get a day or two without other missions. What he didn't quite put together was that with no other missions till this one's completion, Kakashi wouldn't have to hear him complain and could read his book in silence. And with the restrictions, likely take slightly longer than normal for a chunin team to handle.

Yes, he was quite pleased with himself.

Grumbling, and displeased, Naruto finally slapped his face and focused. "Ossu! This is totally my thing. I'm gonna knock down all these houses faster than you Sasuke!"

Sasuke stared at him with his usual flat look. "Did you forget I can make fireballs?"

Naruto blinked, growling again. Then, he grinned and pointed to himself. "I can make tons of copies of myself! Ha! Beat that!"

"Okay. I know one thousand jutsu, as well as various techniques in which to subdue you, as well as to sense chakra." Kakashi interjected, his eye curling up into a smile. "Remember, no jutsu from either of you."

Realizing that this evened the playing field, the two slowly looked at each other. As though they were in silent agreement, they turned and raced towards two separate buildings and quickly ran inside. Once again, Kakashi chuckled. It was good to be the man in charge.

Naruto muttered curses under his breath as his fist easily ran through the drywall. This mission was beneath him, hell it was beneath Sasuke, and yet here they were cleaning out houses in preparation for them to be knocked down. Civilians did this as their job, but someone had thought that they should hire a team of trained shinobi to do it for them? Someone must've been having an off day when they thought up that idea. Either that or they were being lazy and didn't want to waste the energy to do anything.

Growling, he pulled his fist back and punched the wall, only to flinch as a spike of pain shot down his arm and down his back. From the sound of it, he'd cracked something and judging from the pain it could very well have been his hand. Taking a slow deep breath, he kept himself remarkably controlled. When he removed his hand from the wall though, the pain seemed to escalate and his inner childishness won out.

"YEOWCH!"

"Mah, don't forget to punch through the board Naruto." Kakashi's voice floated into the house from outside. "There are some supports in the wall that could break your hand if you aren't careful."

Naruto, not without his own witty sarcastic retort, shouted over his shoulder. "Thank you sensei!"

"You're welcome!"

Naruto grumbled again, gently rubbing his knuckles. They were getting plenty of abuse as he did this exercise, and from the small amount of blood coming from them they weren't taking too kindly to it either. Sighing, he gripped some more of the plaster and pulled it away with a sharp tug. Throwing more of it into the center of the room, he contemplated what all had happened since their return from Nami no Kuni.

Really, nothing seemed different about the village in his eyes after the experience abroad; granted, he was working with a slate that had so much written on it that you couldn't guess where it began or ended, but that was beside the point. The looks he'd gotten in passing were the same, and it continued to feel cold whenever he'd walk down the streets. After being in the middle of a death trap of ice mirrors, that was saying quite a bit about how it felt.

Or maybe it was a bad comparison. The ice felt physically cold, but the village felt…different. A cold that made his skin crawl in the heat of summer, and his heartbeat would thump in his ears as the cold grip on it tightened.

On the other hand, he had money! It was just a bit more then he was used to, but more then what he'd been getting before that point. There were so many possibilities he could work with now, like foods, and clothes, and –

Oh who was he kidding? With the way he did things, he needed to save that money for later. Things like that could wait.

As he thought, his body worked on autopilot. Get into a stance, punch, pull, throw, slide, adjust, and then repeat. Not having met too many of the boards, he figured that there weren't too many. Just to be safe though, he punched as though he was punching through Sasuke's ego and finally getting Sakura to notice him; farsighted motivation, but motivation nonetheless.

So lost in thought, he almost missed the flash of gold his wall-ripping had unveiled before he punched. As luck would have it, the sunlight caught it in a way that caused it twinkle just enough to make Naruto pause. Curious, and having his ADOS (Attention Deficit – Oh Shiny!) acting up, he slowly approached it, peaking behind the wall curiously. Not able to get a good look, he dug his heels in and yanked on the drywall. Having weakened it around this point, he was able to easily rip a large chunk off to give him a far better view of what was hidden behind it. Seeing a piece of board fall to his feet, he reached up to pull the rest of it off to unveil the fullness of his newfound secret.

There, hidden in the wall of the house, was a scroll. It was only slightly larger than the storage scrolls he rarely saw, and was at least twice as thick. Yet, it was bound in some kind of gold-tinted paper that made him think it was something important, and should be respected. Slowly picking it up, he turned it over in his hands. On the band that held the scroll together, faint, near illegible words were written on it. It actually took him several minutes to decipher it.

_ Summoning Co_act.

Naruto blinked, scratching his head at that. That was something he swore he'd heard before, but couldn't quite place. Sighing, he put it into the pouch that hung from the back of his belt and refocused on his work. He had drywall to bring down, and he would be damned if Sasuke knocked more down then him.

Despite his enthusiasm and zeal, Naruto's mind kept going back to those words. Summoning Contract. It sounded simple, but something about the implication behind it made him feel it was something he should remember. After all, he only remembered the cool stuff that Iruka taught in class. Most of it anyways. Only some of the time though. And only if he was having a really good day.

Like this day.

As Naruto struck through another wall, his mind finally began trailing off to the side as it remembered a lesson that Iruka had taught about some of the greatest shinobi's of all time. He talked about how the Hokage, and his students nicknamed the Sannin, were some of the best examples of a group of shinobi with a skill set no one could copy due to a simple fact; they were the holders of summoning contracts.

That lesson stuck out a bit in Naruto's mind, because he'd asked if anyone could get these 'contracts' and had been told that they were so secret that many didn't even get passed down in clans from one to the next. The reason behind this was not because of any lack between family, but because the child often didn't show a similar respect for the summons as the parent due to preconceived notions. Granted, there were some that were passed from one generation to the next, but that generally stayed in clans. Many of the other contracts tended to trade hands from teacher to student, and so on.

And now, he had one in his back pocket.

Naruto's first thought was to let out a loud cheer and rush out to show off his find. He could so rub this in Sasuke's face and show how awesome he was. With super summons on his side, Sakura would fawn over him and the Hokage would give up on being Hokage to let Naruto take over. It would be epic!

Turning on his heels, he darted over to the window and all but shoved his head out the window. "Hey Kakashi-sensei! I found something!"

Kakashi glanced up from his book, blinking up at his student with an intrigued, if humoring, look. "Oh? What did you find?"

Naruto's mouth opened, ready to spill it out, but he paused when he saw Sasuke poke his head out. Apparently he'd gotten his attention, and he was curious about what he'd possibly found.

And then reality gripped him just seconds before he said anything. He had a scroll. A secret jutsu scroll that no one else knew about seeing as no one else could know about something like this. The jutsu that summons taught were pretty exclusive to their summoners, meaning that if he got them on his side, he could learn those super awesome jutsu that he always wanted.

But only if he kept quiet.

The last time he had his hands on a secret scroll, he only had three hours with it, and learned one jutsu. One jutsu that had quickly become his bread and butter, but it was still just one. If he had more time to look over the scroll, surely he could learn more jutsu, and with an increased arsenal…what couldn't he do?

Glancing away and looking sheepish, his mind raced. 'Think, think, what would Kakashi-sensei buy?' Looking back at Kakashi, his eyes caught sight of the book in his hands. 'Perfect!'

"Well, it's kinda…I think it might be a dirty magazine. It looked like a scroll but inside there were…pictures." Naruto said, idly thinking of the ones he and Konohamaru had used when researching for the Oiroke no Jutsu. Ah good times.

"Naruto-baka!" Sakura shouted, her face blushing when she thought of what he could mean. "What-what are you talking about?" Slowly, she picked up some loose shrapnel from her own home destruction as ammo.

"Uh…" Naruto stammered, having forgotten in the heat of the moment that Sakura, his female teammate, would also overhear everything. It was one step forward, a slip and a tumble down the hill of friendship he was headed at this rate.

Kakashi in the meantime blinked, contemplating what to do. On one hand, that book shouldn't have been in the house as they were cleared out. Then again, people did crazy things to hide their goods, so someone like Naruto finding it wasn't out of the question when tearing a place down. Humming softly and ignoring the shouts of pain as Sakura bombarded Naruto with surprising accuracy from one house to the next with her improvised assault. Hm, he'd have to look into that later too now that he thought about it, might end up being a useful skill.

"Mah, Naruto." Kakashi called out. Hearing only shouts of pain and swearing, he sighed and turned to Sakura. "Sakura?"

Sakura paused mid throw, almost falling over in the process. "Y-yes Kakashi-sensei?"

"Can you wait till later? Naruto and I were having a conversation."

Sakura blinked, slowly nodding. If there was anyone who could help curb Naruto's habits, surely Kakashi would be able to. And now would be a good time to do it seeing how Naruto had plainly stated what he'd found. It was rather a shame that she forgotten about the book that Kakashi plainly carried around…which tends to happen when you become desensitized to the sight of it.

"Naruto? You dead yet?"

"…no…" Naruto's voice slowly drawled out. Kakashi chuckled. Sounded like he'd been hit in the chest more often than the head; which was good considering how many brain cells he'd need for later.

"Well then, feel free to keep your book." Kakashi was almost surprised when Naruto's head rapidly returned to the window, but then he'd never had a whole lot of things that were 'his' either. "Consider it 'finders keepers', eh? I mean, it's not like it's going to hurt you to look through. Who knows? Maybe I'll lend you my Icha Icha Paradise someday."

Naruto blinked, Sakura turned red, and Sasuke…well he returned to his job once he'd gotten bored. For Naruto though, he wasn't sure what to think. Technically he had just been stretching the truth by saying he'd seen anything inside the scroll, but to think that Kakashi would not only allow him to take it home without inspection, but to keep it…Naruto's grin couldn't be stopped as he giggled quite loudly. "Thanks Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi blinked, unsure about Naruto's sudden enthusiasm. One moment he was grumbling about how he picked bad missions and now he was letting out a shout of how awesome his sensei was and how he was 'totally buying him ramen' and…wow he suddenly had a high opinion of him. He liked this arrangement. Hm, maybe he should got a step further and just get him his own copy of the book to keep. Yes that might work. Then he would be in the pantheon of his students mind. It was only a matter of time before the other two realized his greatness.

Greatness that unfortunately…

TWACK. "YEOWCH!"

"Punch through it Naruto, punch through it."

Yeah. He still had a lot of work to do with 'em.

It was near sundown when they finally separated and went back to their homes. They all had a slight haggard look to them, physical labor beating from beating down the walls of over a dozen homes having caught up with them. Admittedly they did better than Kakashi had expected, but then they still had a dozen they would need to finish up with tomorrow, so he simply waved happily as he watched them go with a small reminder.

Sakura had been the only one to outwardly show a great deal of frustration with this mission, moaning and swaying as she left after that. Sasuke, ever the stoic one, merely grunted and walked off. If one looked closely though, his arms were shaking, and there was a clear sheen of perspiration on his brow. Naruto looked a bit worn, but was stretching out and getting ready for round two. With a skip in his step, and a very happy goodbye, Kakashi couldn't help but smile at Naruto's infectious nature. He was a good kid…when he wanted to be. And now he was on his good list.

Heaven help those who crossed him; he now had a prankster he could and quite possibly would sick on them.

Unaware of the possible pranking war Kakashi might've thought of unleashing, Naruto raced happily towards his house. The weight of the scroll in his back pouch had felt heavier than the hammer, and it'd been more painful containing his excitement than punching through the wall. Then again, the wall was a great way to distract himself seeing how it was really quite painful. He could feel himself getting stronger already.

This mission was getting better and better.

Pausing on a rooftop as he roof-hopped to his home, he scowled at the sky as he saw the approaching thunderclouds. While not known for having much rain, what with the high concentration of heat from Katon Jutsu (Fire Release Techniques) in Hi no Kuni (the Land of Fire), that same heat meant that sometimes mother nature wanted to complain and sent a thunderstorm; no rain, just lightning and thunder. It wasn't optimal, seeing how often his power went out during said thunderstorms. Sometimes he swore that his landlord was doing it on purpose, but that would be just silly wouldn't it? It wasn't like he'd ever pranked his own apartment complex before, and he hadn't done anything to the man.

Well, nothing personally.

Shaking his head and slapping his cheeks, he sighed softly. "Get it together Naruto. Today is the makings of greatness! Alright, let's go!"

Leaping with increased vigor, he all but flung open his door and slammed it behind him upon arriving. Fumbling in excitement, he pulled off his pack and placed it in front of himself. With a gentleness that would be considered surprising for someone who was acting near crazed a second ago, he pulled out the scroll and set it in front of himself. Taking a deep breath, he slowly undid the seal on it and began to unroll it.

Almost immediately, it was jackpot. Hand seals were drawn quite clearly in sequential order, allowing him access to a jutsu with more than one hand seal needed for it. While that meant he'd actually need to practice his hand seal speed and usage in battle, with his signature Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clones) backing him up, he could more then pull it off. Giddy to see what other things the scroll had, he pushed it open further only to pause.

The next segment was a thin square, followed by a much larger square. In the first one was red, smudged writing that looked like someone might've tried writing something in it. The other one was five red dots, similar to fingerprints. Shrugging, and not seeing how this pertained to jutsu, he pushed it further open.

And futher.

And futher.

And futher. Only to find that each point after the initial hand seals, there was nothing but filled in boxes with red writing and dots.

Sitting back, he pouted and scoffed at the scroll. "Aw man, this sucks! What kind of useless scroll is th – "

KRACK-BOOM

Naruto leapt from his seated position with a yelp as the thunder crack startled him. His feet flailed out, and he landed back on his rump with a thud. Groaning, he glanced out to the storm and scowled. Stupid storm, ruining his angry monologue. Now he didn't remember where he was at!

Turning back to the scroll, his anger slowly died down as he discovered that, in his surprise, it had been rolled open even further. Glancing at his feet, he figured a foot had probably bumped into it and sent it rolling further than before. Standing up, he stared down at the scroll, he went to go get the end when he noticed something. Standing over it, and able to see more than one box at a time, his eyes were able to see something he'd missed before.

The thin boxes did have names in them, and half of each box was the same.

Kneeling back down, he inspected each one closely. Going from one, then to another, then back again, he started making out similar kanji that would make up a name. The writing had faded away quite a bit, meaning it had been done a long time ago, but it was close enough that he could make out basic shapes without needing to be all that smart.

Slowly following the scroll, he saw the pattern continue. Name, dots, name, dots, and it continued down the scroll till he got to the scroll itself. Blinking, he noticed that it had a ways to go before it reached the end, so how far did this family manage to get before they'd had to stop. Shrugging, he pulled the paper and let it roll out the last bit and then inspected it.

To his shock, he was in luck. One solitary space had been left open, one set of thin box next to wide box. It was like it was just waiting for someone like him to come along and fill it. And he was more than willing to fill that position.

The only problem? How was he going to do that?

He scratched his head, glancing back to all the names. They were all in red, so that meant that red ink of some kind was something that was needed. With his low salary, low desire to interact with people who sold things like ink, a need to get this done now, it was unlikely that he'd go out and get some. He didn't even have any before anyways. Luckily, Naruto was quick on his feet, and was able to improvise – ironically doing the correct thing in the process – an alternative method.

Biting down on his right thumb, he quickly leaned over and filled in the scroll with his name. Feeling proud of himself, he glanced at the big box and then to his hand. With a shrug, he poked his bleeding thumb onto each finger and then put the five dots down like the others all appeared to have. Nodding to himself in great satisfaction, he mentally patted himself on the back for his quick thinking. Walking over to the beginning of the scroll to pick it up, he paused as he stood over it, glancing between his name and the hand seals.

Slowly, the cogs in his brain made a connection.

"Wait…Iruka-sensei said that it was a contract…and that people could summon animals to help them. So, by signing this contract…and being the last name on it…"

Ding.

"HA! Take THAT Sasuke-teme, I have something you CAN'T have because I'm the last one! YAHO – "

Another crack of thunder silenced him with another yelp as he saw the sky illuminated by the thunder. Scowling at the weather, he returned his attention to the scroll. He had work to do after all.

Slowly going over the hand seals, and making sure he got everything right, he slowly nodded to himself. He was going to do it, it was now or never and he didn't have the time for never.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)!"

A plume of smoke enveloped him, causing him to cough lightly as he waited for his epic fighting animal of awesomeness to reveal itself. He'd put enough chakra to summon at least a dozen shadow clones, so it had to be something great!

To his shock, and slight dismay, what appeared wasn't what he expected. There, seated in front of him, was a statue.

Naruto moaned, falling onto his back and flailing. "Kami-sama why do you hate me?! What did I do to make you want to do this to me? No wonder there were so many names in it but no one's heard of it. Who wants to summon a statue?"

Pushing himself back up, he scowled, leaning close to the statue in question. Upon closer investigation, it was actually really well made. The metal was crafted with sharp cuts that drew light in and prevented it from reflecting it. Carved into it, he could almost see a sense of liveliness to the pose of it, like it was drawing back to stare forward with a look of rage…or terror, he couldn't quite tell. Picking it up, he turned it over in his hands as his mind began to remember what the statue looked like.

It looked like one of the creatures he'd sometimes see in parades; when a group of people would dress as a dragon.

"To bad you aren't a dragon. That could've been really cool, you know?" Chuckling softly, he flicked the statue's nose. With a sigh, he set the statue down and headed into the kitchen. There was no point in holding onto it for now, and all this thinking and work had made him hungry. Plus, with his wounded pride, he needed some ramen to fill the void.

As he left the room, traces of blue began to filter over the steel where he'd flicked the statue. From where his hands had held it, the blue spread as well. Like a fire that encompassed it, the little statue soon began shaking and rattling as cracks began to form from within the steel.

Finally ready to eat his ramen, he clapped his hands together as he boisterously shouted. "Itadakimasu!"

CRACK!

Pausing before digging in, he froze at the new sound. Unlike thunder, it had been a single cracking noise, with no accompanying boom. Worse still, it had come from his room. Slowly, hesitantly, he pushed himself back and made his way back to the room. Reaching into his kunai holster, he silently grunted when he realized his pouch was in the room too. He'd have to improvise until he got it then. Peaking around the corner, he kept his breathing slow, his eyes darting around to try to see who it was.

"I LIVE!"

Naruto jumped and shouted as he tried to recover and get into a defensive stance. All attempts at defense were dropped when he saw just what it was that had just yelled. Crawling up to him with a look of determination and readiness, was a foot long red dragon.

"So tell me what mortals need my protection, Great Summoner. You just say the word and I'm there."

"Uh…"

"And let me just say something, anyone who's foolish enough to challenge OUR family, vengeance will be MINE! Grr…arrgh…"

Naruto stared down at the spunky little dragon silently, slowly kneeling down to his height with one knee up for him to prop his arm on as the dragon snarled with its head darting around. Looking behind it, Naruto saw bits of metal strewn about the other room, and no sign of the statue in sight. Never let it be said that it was impossible for Naruto to figure things out; he just figured them out slower than most others did. Which meant that, even he, was able to guess where this creature had come from. How though, was another question altogether.

Slowly, with as deliberate a motion as possible, he cleared his throat to get his attention. The dragon, now realizing it wasn't alone, whipped his head towards him with wide eyes and an excited expression. Naruto, unsure what else to do, decided to be polite. "Um, hi?"

"Well hey~ there!" Racing up to him, he climbed up onto his knee to look Naruto in the eye even as he leaned back. "…hm, you're blonder then I heard your family being."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, before remembering that the scroll all had the same last name. Scratching his cheek, he chuckled nervously. "Um…is that right?"

"Yeah! I mean, it's been a while…uh, a long while…hm." The dragon scratched his chin, leaning towards Naruto before looking deep into his eyes. "I don't remember blue eyes being mentioned either. Mostly brown, or black. You must be the funniest lookin black sheep of the clan I ever heard of."

"Y-yeah…sure." Naruto said, remarkably dismissive about the whole thing. It was clear that this was meant to be a family thing, which meant that he might've been breaking a long line of tradition.

In his defense, they shouldn't have left it in a wall.

"So, um…what's your name?" Naruto asked, finally getting his head wrapped around enough to look at the creature without feeling weird that it had popped into his room.

"What?" He reeled back in shock. "You don't know about me? Wait, of course you don't! This is the first I've been summoned in…ever!"

Getting off Naruto's knee, he displayed himself before Naruto. Inhaling, he let loose a cloud of smoke that gave off a much larger shadow on the far wall. Needless to say, Naruto's full and undivided attention was now given to the small creature.

"Ehem…" A small pause. "Ask me who I am again, it adds to the effect."

Naruto planted his face into the floor for a second, before deciding to play along. "Um…who are you?"

"Who am I? WHO am I? I am the guardian of lost souls! I am the powerful, the pleasurable, the indestructible Musshu." The dragon, Musshu, said as he stepped out of the cloud of smoke covered in little sparks as though he was Kami's gift to all things that walked upon the world at large. To his credit, he had Naruto as an audience, so he did get a bit of clapping for his little performance. "Ah, I'm pretty hot huh?"

Naruto reached over and grabbed a board, scribbling on it quickly before flipping it around. "Eight out of ten. You needed a bigger fire to come out of."

"Aw, I knew it was missing something!" Musshu said, snapping his claws (how do you even…nevermind) at this revelation. "Still, better then what the rest of the dragons give me. I'm lucky to get higher than a four nowadays."

"Dragons?" Naruto asked, his eyes wide in glee. Giddy, excited, and just about as hyper as Naruto could get by this fact, the possibilities were endless to his young mind.

"Yes, dra–gon's, we don't do that tongue thing." Musshu said, sticking out his tongue to do exactly what he said dragons don't do.

A small sweat drop appeared on the back of Naruto's head at this, causing him to cough nervously. "Are…all dragons as funny as you?"

"Nah, some of 'em are real stiff and others are jerks. There's even this one who…" Musshu paused, staring at Naruto as something seemed to click. "Hey wait a minute. You summoned me here. Which means we have a summoner."

"Um…yeah?"

There was a tense silence between the two of them as Musshu blinked, trying to process all this new information. Then, he let out a very high pitched scream, raced into the other room, and disappeared in a rather large puff of smoke.

Gawking at the sudden whiplash from Musshu's mood swing, he scowled. He didn't even get a jutsu out of him before he left. Sighing, he slowly picked himself up and moved back to his table. When he bit into his food he moaned and put his head onto the table in displeasure.

His ramen had gotten cold. Could his day possibly get any worse?

On the other side of the summoning contract, in the realm of the dragons, Musshu popped back into existence still screaming like a little girl as he rolled up the summoning scroll. Holding the scroll that was practically as big as he was, he raced over the rocky terrain as he headed towards the one person he knew could help.

Around him, the landscape was remarkably diverse; ranging from exotic mountainsides to rolling hills, and even a lake off in the distance. The stone under his feet was coupled with traces of ash, indicating a volcanic eruption had happened at some point nearby, though not recently. Musshu was silently thankful for this, seeing how even dragons didn't think lava was safe for them. Seeing how he'd previously been made of steel, he could only imagine how a death by melting would feel. He quite honestly didn't want to though, as he had bigger things to worry about.

Breathing heavily, Musshu silently cursed the scroll in his hands as he ran on his back legs. More accustomed to running on all fours, the scroll slowed him down and made it harder to get where he was going at the speed he wanted. Worse for him, his claws dug deeper into the ground in his position, which meant that more ash was displaced with each step as he ran. Near a deep pit, he nearly lost his footing and dropped the scroll, but was able to catch a lucky break when his claw caught on a rocky protrusion. Shivering slightly, he winced when the small clicking noise of a rock falling into the pit caught his attention.

Slowly, fearfully, he turned to follow the stone's decent. Once it reached a certain point, it vanished into darkness; only the faint noise of it knocking off of other rocks let him know that it was even still moving. Holding his breath, he was now completely still as he waited. This was a bit bigger in the moment then his former objective, seeing as this could be the difference between life and death. Mainly his.

Not hearing anything for a couple of minutes, Musshu let out a slow breath and wiped his forehead. Glancing down at the scroll, he blinked for a moment before he remembered what he'd been doing previous.

"Oh, right. Ehem…" Taking a deep breath, he once more began screaming as high pitched as his tiny form could muster as he raced up towards the topmost point on the mountain, where one of the wisest and greatest dwelled. If anyone would know what to do about this, it would be him; especially since he actually remembered when the dragons had summoners.

Reaching a flat plateau, Musshu froze as he took in the sight before him. It had been years since he'd been up here, and probably years more since there had been any need for anyone to be up here. The scene had changed little, and it made him grateful seeing how he would have been lost otherwise. Four stone pillars were placed on the four corners, dragons etched into the stone crawling up each with their heads pointing in their respective direction in honor of the four dragon kings from centuries ago when dragons had set first claw upon this land and established themselves as a nation rather than as nomads. The ground was unspoiled and even from the many who'd once walked here, except for a few places where dragons had agitatedly dug into the ground with their claws.

Musshu paused and stared at his own claws briefly. Would he be that strong? Time would tell soon enough, but the waiting was killing him.

Sighing, he looked the last major object on the plateau, situated directly between the four dragon pillars. It was massive, even when he could see that the heavy body was wrapped around itself, and towered over him a hundred times over. Its visible arm was thick and ended with hooked claws that were more likely used for traction then attack if the blunt ends were any indication. The face was shorter, and more broad then Musshu's own, displaying the raw physical power behind the creature.

Now the only thing it needed was for it to actually be breathing, seeing how the dragon before him was completely covered in stone.

"Uh…stony?" Musshu said quietly, holding the scroll tightly as he slowly made his was up to its feet. Reaching hesitantly forwards, he tapped the stone and stared up at it. "Great Stone Dragon? Are…are you awake?"

No reply.

Whimpering, Musshu placed the scroll on the ground and began crawling up the dragon's face. "Come on, please be awake? I haven't had anyone to teach me how to get you up yet." Moving up to where he could stare into its eyes, he slowly waved his hand in front of it and darted between both of them as he stared with a small amount of hope. "Stony?"

Only smooth stone of closed eyes stared back at him.

Wringing his hands together, he turned around and stared at the world behind him. Surprisingly, despite being the realm of dragons, there were remarkably few to see. By few meaning he could see none, and the few he knew where they were he didn't necessarily want to find. Even among dragons there were bad eggs that gave children nightmares. Which was why he needed the 'Great Stone Dragon' to wake up first; no one opposed his decisions, and he was considered amongst the wisest and strongest in dragon-kind. The only problem was that Musshu was considered the youngest, and possibly the dumbest of dragon-kind.

Life has a funny way of working things out.

However, Musshu did have one advantage that few other dragons did; he had a lot of traits that could be considered parallel to one Uzumaki Naruto's. One such trait was remembering extremely obscure details only mentioned maybe once and then using them to his advantage. In this case, it was how he himself had been awakened from his steel-skinned slumber.

"Okay, so…what happened?" Musshu muttered, pacing back and forth. "I was…no that was before I was sleeping. Okay, so when I woke up, I was surrounded by…what, blue smoke? Okay, and then I saw the human…who~'s name I didn't get. Stony won't like that part. Gah! Focus, focus! Okay, so blue smoke…um…what the hell makes blue smoke? Smoke bomb? No it wouldn't wake me up. Solvent blue? Where the hell would he have even had that? Hm…chakra?"

Pausing at that though, he looked at his red claws with a focused stared. After a few seconds, the area around his scales began to wisp gently, as residual chakra was heated against his body in a release of energy. Grinning, he took a deep breath of the smoke, making sure not to waste what he'd just released, and turned to the Great Stone Dragon. Letting the chakra sit for a second, he reared back and unleashed the chakra at the stone with a much stronger blue fire that crackled along the stone scales of the dragon. Once he was done, and he'd finished coughing at the first release in a long time, he waited to see the results of his work.

There was silence for what felt like a long time to Musshu; in actuality it was around three minutes, or the time it took to heat up ramen. Then, at the end of that wait, the fire suddenly erupted from in front of him and caused Musshu to yelp and scramble off its face as it began to quite quickly consume the stone before it. Scooping up the scroll on his way, he ducked behind a statue and slowly peaked out as he watched. Arching over its back, it raced in various patterns and shapes as it dug into the scales and rapidly began forming cracks in the stone.

Within moments, the entirety of the stone was on fire, and the cracking was becoming a rumble. As the fire died down and sunk into its stone skin, the rumble became an outward blast of fire and stone as it was launched off of the dragon, revealing a green dragon slumbering beneath. Each scale seemed even larger as it protruded outwards, no longer given the layer of covering from the stone, and was at least twice as long as Musshu was. On top of his head, two antler-like horns stuck up and arched slightly back towards his neck, with four points on each going down it.

Hesitating, Musshu slowly peaked around the pillar again. Gulping, he made his way up to the still semi-slumbering dragon. "Um…G-g-great Stone Dragon?"

There was a slow snore that erupted, almost dragging Musshu into the dragon's nostrils. It did pick him off the ground and just barely let him land on the scales just before his face. Knowing better then to wait for the release of air, Musshu clambered over its snout to sit on it with the scroll as he cleared his throat. With a slow movement, traces of dust and pebbles falling from its eyelids, it opened its eyes and stared at the small dragon seated on its nose. The black sclera contrasted the glow of golden yellow eyes that slowly adjusted to the light and focused on Musshu, to which he swallowed heavily.

"Uh…hi?" Musshu said nervously.

Blinking slowly, it refocused on Musshu, only to tilt its head slightly upon seeing the scroll. Musshu barely caught himself, the 'small' tilt throwing off his balance due to how much of a change it was comparatively. Once he got himself situated, he had to stumble again as the Great Stone Dragon returned its head to its former position, rumbling deeply in thought as it stared at Musshu.

Shaking slightly as he was one more reminded of how much smaller he was, Musshu slowly cleared his throat. "I-I-I come with-with news, oh Great Stone Dragon." Slowly, he thrust his hands forward with the scroll in his hand. "I was summoned to the realm of human, and met with the one who summoned me. We…we have a new summoner."

There was a silence between the two of them, causing Musshu to twitch. While he wanted to glance up, he didn't wish there to be any disrespect in his position. Dragons were a proud race, and it was more often than not that even a small slight could end with a battle to the death as two dragons engaged in honor-bound mortal combat. However, they were also rather curious, and so it was that Musshu eventually lost his internal war and peaked over the scroll. To his surprise, the look he was getting was one filled with mirth. A small chuckle escaped the giant dragon, causing Musshu to relax slightly in confusion.

"My name…is Shinryuu. Do you not remember, that one should be addressed by name first? A title should only be used in reference to an enemy, or those that you've become close to young dragon."

The booming masculine voice of Shinryuu caused the stones around them to rattle as he spoke. Despite the kind tone in his voice, Musshu squeaked softly, suddenly realizing his error as he bowed quickly. "I apologize Shinryuu! There…have been scarce few who have been around to tell me, and my time of molting not yet come. Please forgive my mistake!"

"Hohoho. I won't harm you young dragon." Shinryuu said, slowly uncurling to allow Musshu to feel a bit safer as he moved closer to the ground. "I am surprised though, that one so close to the time of molting would awaken…it does not sound as though it was necessarily planned though. Tell me…"

"Musshu."

"Musshu. Where is this summoner you brought?"

Musshu blinked, his voice nervous as he slowly rubbed his hands together. "Uh…yeah, about that. You see I…kinda sorta…forgot to bring him back with me."

Shinryuu raised an eyebrow at that. Had no one told him? Then again, with all that had happened between the dragons, it wasn't all that surprising. With no summoner in his lifetime, Musshu likely wouldn't know the old customs that the dragons had in place. This would need to be amended soon, though it did give him some hope as well. Maybe…maybe they could keep this one?

"Musshu, after being summoned, one is to bring the summoner to our realm so that he may judge him worthy. It is not your fault for not having known, but this will put us back a ways. Do you understand?" Shinryuu asked, watching as Musshu nodded vigorously. Noting the scroll in his hands, Shinryuu blinked and decided to take note of it. "Musshu…why do you have our summoning scroll in your claws?"

"Huh? Oh this?" Musshu glanced at it, shuffling nervously on Shinryuu's snout. "Well…you see, when I got a look at it, the kid had rolled it all the way to the end. His name is the last one in our scroll. He…might be our last chance, so I took the scroll so we could make a new one. Maybe, you know, have another summoner later?"

Shinryuu's eyes became downcast, a heavy sigh kicked up dust as he spoke. "Truly you have not been taught our traditions. We have slept longer then we needed having none who required us. However, it will not do for me alone to speak of these things."

Musshu blinked, slowly pointing to the statues around him. "You…don't mean."

"Go wake them. All of them." Shinryuu said, tilting his snout so that Musshu could slide off onto the ground. Raising himself to full height, he gazed up at the clouds with a wistful look on his face. "We will have the council ready before the child's summoning." Suddenly, small droplets of rain began falling, bringing a smile to Shinryuu's face. "Hm, it seems Haru is awakening again. Perhaps this child will allow us all the same gift he has…"

Completely unsure of what he was talking about, Musshu simply shrugged and moved the scroll out of the way so it wouldn't be damaged by the falling rain. Staring up at the massive dragon, he took a second before finally coughing into his hand to get the dragon's attention. When Shinryuu looked down at him, he rubbed his hands together nervously. "Ahah, Shinryuu-sama…when you say 'the council', you don't happen to mean…every single one do you? I mean, one missing dragon won't offset things that much…right?"

"Without even that power, the boy will not be fully tested, and should he fail the testing…not even Inari himself would stop the necessary punishment."

Musshu winced, whimpering softly as he bowed his head. Rubbing his hands together, he groaned. "…yes Shinryuu-sama. I understand. I…will go wake Haru first. He is the furthest away…so…"

Shinryuu nodded, making a 'shooing' motion with his clawed hand. Musshu, needing no more incentive, took off like a bolt of lightning down the mountainside towards where he'd been told Haru slumbered. After watching him depart, Shinryuu sighed.

"…even the young ones fear you. I wonder, were you to be the same dragon you once were, would you truly believe that this outcome was the one you'd ever want?" Shinryuu muttered. Knowing there would be no reply at the moment, he turned and began lumbering down the mountainside as well. "It would be best to awaken you now…so as to save young Musshu the displeasure of having to deal with your awakening. Sigh, I just hope you awaken in a better state then before you laid yourself to rest."

With a flick of his tail, he once more looked at the sky with a smile. Things were changing for them; for better or worse, it remained to be seen. However, one thing would be true; this gathering of dragons could prove to be the greatest event in all their long lives…or it could prove to be their last.

AN: Well, that was fun! Now, to address a few things before I get the paperweight thrown at me;

1. For those of you who don't know, Naruto is an idiot. That's why I can see why Sarutobi and everyone else didn't tell him his lineage after the Wave Mission; he still wouldn't have understood the gravity of what he was being told. In a later scene, Naruto basically says he didn't even know he had called on the Kyuubi's chakra while he was mad; just that it was a 'different chakra' that was 'red' and not 'blue'. This means he didn't recognize just how close to destruction he'd walked, and how worried he'd made people like Kakashi, even if only momentarily.

2. Yes, I broke the fourth wall as Narrator a bit. Don't worry, I fixed it. Mostly. I think...maybe?

3. Kakashi let him take the scroll because he didn't think it would be anything dangerous for two reasons. One, they're in a civilian sector of the city, and...well...Naruto's an idiot. Don't get me wrong! Naruto will be smarter, it's just...well...see number 1 again. Kakashi didn't really pay attention to what Naruto said, and simply let it slide. In case you didn't notice though, Kakashi is not a bad guy; he let Naruto keep it after all.

...oh great, he's going to start corrupting the child. Fan-frickin-tastic.

4. Yes, Musshu is based on someone else (guess who, another prize winner you shall be). If you don't know who it is...wow, did I not make the signs glaringly obvious? However, he won't be exactly the same as his counterpart. There will be a few other mentions (via names and appearance) like with Shinryuu (if you get who he's based on you get a prize and a cookie) and other shows (which is the point of the x-overs part), however they will be playing by my rules.

My rules tend to involve things becoming more of a spiral and with more things bumping into each other then the Rasengan.

5. Criticism is wanted, but if you say "it sucks" I will likely end up laughing. Come at me bros! I want you to show me you paid attention so that we can rob that thief and give you something good!

And that should about do it for that. Oh! Also, the pairing for this is undecided, so cast your vote so see! I have a personal hope/preference, but then again I'm willing to see what others want to see for this story. So~ yeah, bring it on!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you all enjoyed Chapter 1.