Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Chapter 1

Your Eyes are Creepy

"Please Sakura-chan…" pleaded Naruto.

Sakura sighed, "Alright Naruto, but just this once."

Naruto jumped out and down with joy as he grabbed Sakura's arm and started plowing through the streets of Konoha, Sakura in tow. 'He's impossible,' ran through Sakura's mind as she wondered why she agreed to got on a date with Naruto after he asked for the umpteenth time this week. 'I've got a feeling where he'll be taking me too,' she thought as she realized what direction they were moving. This suspicion was confirmed as Naruto stopped and she looked before her to see the ramen stand which Naruto is a patron of.

Naruto let go of Sakura's hand a ducked around the flap, "Hey Old Man, I'd…" he started before a very annoyed expression covered his face, "HEY YOU, YOUR IN MY SEAT."

Sakura ducked around the store's flap in time to see the person Naruto was shouting at shift his from the seat he was in to the seat to the left of it. The person had shoulder-lengthed white hair and was clad in black cloths. Sakura watched as Naruto took his seat still giving the person an annoyed expression. Sakura sat to Naruto's right as Naruto turned back to the owner and placed his order.

"Yes, Yes, I would like red beef ramen and and what would you like Sakura-chan," Naruto said in his more cheerful tone.

"Oh, I'll have miso ramen," ordered Sakura.

"Mmm, good choice," mumbled a male voice next to Naruto.

"And just who asked you?" said Naruto, apparently still annoyed that this person was sitting in his seat.

"Naruto!" Sakura slammed her fist on the top of Naruto's head, "that's being rude," She turned to the person, "I apologize for my friend. He's a little slow in the head if you know what I mean."

The person looked up from their bowl of ramen and turned toward them with his eyes closed and an almost comical grin on his face, "Oh, I know what you mean, I used to have a friend just like him."

Sakura removed her fist from the top of Naruto's head and turned to find that there was a bowl of ramen sitting in front of each of them. 'That was fast,' she thought as she reached to grab a pair of chopsticks.

"Uhh! You have NO EYES!" Naruto shouted.

Once again her fist dropped on the top of Naruto's head as she turned to the guy again, "I'm sorry…" she trailed off.

The person's smile turned into an unreadable expression, and his eyelids where now open, revealing… nothing. 'Does he really have no eyes?' she asked herself removing her fist from the top of Naruto's head again. 'Wait, no, their reflecting the light… he does have eyes… two glassy…'

"Black eyes," she heard herself say.

"Yeah, well people have different colored eyes, mine just happened to be completely black," the person said, still in a somewhat pleasant tone.

"Oh… I'm sorry…" Sakura started feeling a bit guilty.

"Uhh… No need," the person said waving a hand, "I'll admit, my eyes do look a little odd, and people are usually a little uncomfortable when they first see them."

Still Sakura felt a little bad. After having seen Kiba, Neji, Gaara, and Kakashi's eyes, completely black eyes shouldn't be that much of a spectacle. 'Though, I've never read anything about that in any medical books regarding eyes. He must not be around a local, though, why would he be here?'

"A little uncomfortable, your eyes are downright creepy!" shouted Naruto, who was somehow able to yell and inhale ramen at the same time.

Sakura was about to drop another fist on the top of Naruto's head, but was stopped midway landing on the palm of the person on the other side of Naruto. The person's grip was rather light, but his hand felt a little cold.

"There's no need," he said releasing Sakura's hand.

"Are you sure, Naruto does act like a complete idiot and needs to eventually get that out of his system," Sakura noted.

"Yeah, well like I said I had a companion that was a lot like him, and we used to beat him a lot for his loud mouth," the stranger said ruffling Naruto's hair with his hand, much to Naruto's annoyance, "but he didn't get any smarter by blasting out his brain cells like that."

Sakura laughed for a bit from that comment and ate a little bit of her ramen, before remembering what she was originally going to ask him.

"Oh yeah, you're not from around here are, you?" She asked.

"No," he answered.

"Then why are you here?" Sakura asked.

"There's a ninja tournament that is happening in a couple of days," he said turning up from his bowl of ramen, "Unlike that Chunin exam, this is supposed to only be very skilled Jonin. I couldn't let the opportunity pass by… but uhh… I guess you already know about it being ninja yourselves… are either of you in it?"

"No," said Sakura.

"I'm not but I should be," stated Naruto, finally speaking again after finishing his… fifth bowl of ramen.

"Are you a Jonin?" the stranger asked Naruto.

"No," answered Naruto, then after a pause, "I'm still a Genin."

"Well then you should be happy that you aren't, you'd probably get massacred," that stranger said with a bit of a chuckle.

"No I wouldn't!" yelled Naruto, "I would be a Jonin now, if I didn't leave the village for three years."

"Left the village," the stranger said giving Naruto a skeptical look, "I thought they hunted down ninja who go missing and kill them."

"No, No, I was training under Ero-sennin," said Naruto with a grin.

"Ero-sennin?" asked the stranger, clearly confused.

"Jiraiya-sama," Sakura answered, knowing Naruto never referred to him as anything other than Ero-Sennin.

"Jiraiya?" the stranger looked flabbergasted, "He should be an old man by now."

"Yeah, Yeah, but he taught me jutsus like the Rasengan," Naruto said, not passing up the chance to gloat.

"Rasengan?" a slight look of seriousness fell on the stranger's face, "I though the only person who could do that was…" he trailed off sorta gazing off.

"The Fourth Hokage," Sakura finished.

"Yeah," the stranger said, snapping out of his gaze.

"Yeah, well now Ero-sennin and I can do it too," said Naruto, still happy to be gloating to a stranger, "Wait, did you know the Fourth Hokage?"

"Huh?" the stranger turned to him, "Yeah, uhh… well I knew him a long time ago, before went by the name Hokage, though."

Sakura choked on her ramen and turned toward him. 'Before the fourth was given the name Hokage?' she eyed him, 'he looks like he's about twenty, that would mean he couldn't be older than four years old when he met him…'

"I was a younger then," the stranger added, seemly reading Sakura's mind, then looked like he was thinking intently on something.

After a minute of silence, Sakura decided to try to start up some conversation, though not really wanting to talk to Naruto all that much, "Oh, even though we aren't competing in the tournament, we do know people who will be."

"Really? Do you mind telling me who?" the stranger asked turning back to them.

"Well uhh… Kankuro and Temari from the Sand, and Gai and Kakashi-sensei from here," Sakura answered.

"Kakashi…" started the stranger looking intrigued, "as in The copy ninja Sharingan Kakashi?"

"Yes," piped in Naruto, "he was my teacher as well."

"I see, well I think this tournament will be very interesting," he stood up, "but I must away for now. Hey Old Man," the owner turned toward him, "I would like to pay for my meal and… I'll also get the check for these two here."

Sakura saw Naruto's eyes glow, as he didn't have to pay for his meal now, "Are you sure you want to do that?" she asked pointing at the stack of about a dozen empty bowls of ramen in front of Naruto.

"Sakura-chan…" wined Naruto.

"I don't mind," said the stranger dropping a large amount of money on the counter, "though there is one thing I want to ask in return for paying for your meals."

"Huh?" Naruto and Sakura looked up at him.

"Did that Jiraiya teach you any seals?" he asked Naruto.

"No, he said that I didn't need to know any," answered Naruto.

"Good," the stranger rather coldly stated, then before either of them could ask anything else, "may your days be long and your nights pleasant," and ducked out of the stand.

"That guy was strange," Naruto noted to Sakura.

"Well, I should be heading home," Sakura said, standing up.

Before Naruto could do anything else taking advantage of the fact that this was a date, she ducked out of the stand into the cool evening air. She shot a look at the figure walking down the street before turning the other direction and starting home. 'There's more to that guy than he saying,' she told herself the speculated, 'maybe he is older than he looks but just changes his appearance like Tsunade-sensei. If anything strange happens in the next few days, I'll tell her about him.'

A/N: It'll take a few chapters to get the ball rolling on this