note:

Heyo guys! So, this story is one that I originally posted on another site, wattpad. My account there is clair5987. The naruto fans there seemed to like this story i made, so I thought id publish it here. ;)

~One~

Naruto skipped through the backstreets or Konoha, extremely excited. No, he was more than excited, he was overjoyed! Tommorow his team would be going on there first c-rank mission! There client wasn't that cool or important, but there was another reason Naruto was so eager to get out of the village. It was two days before Naruto's birthday. So, for once the villagers wouldn't be able to get there hands on him!

"Yoooosha!" Naruto yelled as he continued to journey through the run down area. "Just gotta grab my stuff and we can get outta this place!" He exclaimed, his joyful spirit unrivaled by anyone else in the village. He was pumping his fist into the air.

He continued running through the streets, untill he came to his old apartment. That's right, old. The apartment owner kicked him out a few weeks ago. He didn't dare tell the old man hokage, however. He was worried for the apartment owner's safety. She had sheltered him for 12 years, after all.

Her name was Kaya, which means "a place of resting." She was pretty nice, with a fiery personality too. She had long red hair, and wouldn't tell him her last name. Kyuu-San would chuckle at this, for some reason. Naruto had looked up to her as a mother, and still did. She would wake him up early, (though he would still be late) and sometimes even make him breakfast. Even if she didn't talk to him that much, and even if she occasionally yelled at him... She and Iruka were like his... Family, he supposed. He didn't know why she kicked him out, but she was drinking sake before that, which she never does, so he knew it was for an important reason.

"KIT! Stop dilly-dallying and get your stuff!" Kyuu-san's feminine voice resounded in his ears. Naruto chuckled.

"Yes, mother." Naruto replied, saying 'mother' excruciatingly slowly.

"I'm not your mother!" She yelled, and Naruto's heart sank. Untill Kyuu-San continued.

"I'm not that old... Am I? I think I'm more like a... Guardian! Yeah, that suits me!" Naruto laughed at this.

"Kyuu-San, you are a thousand year demon old fox. You are old enough to be my mother." Naruto replied, and continued on the road to his new home he built in a abandoned training ground.

There were a few snakes and spiders here and there, but at least now the villagers didn't know where he lived.

He arrived at his house a few minutes later. It was a wooden one, made from logs he found nearby, but with his mom's help, he managed to figure out how to glue them together with his Chakra. This meant that his house would collapse if he died, but that didn't really matter, because when he died, he would be, well, dead.

"So Kyuu-San, what should I bring?" He asked the fox mentally, and after a moments wait, she replied. Her voice was quiet and a bit scratchy, but Naruto loved the sound of it.

"Well, the necessities, of course, but also remember to bring some bandages, some paper bombs, some traps, and the academy training book you STOLE." Naruto laughed sheepishly, he had stolen the book so he could work on his techniques without having to go to the library to read it. The people at the library were nice ENOUGH, but Naruto wasn't taking any chances.

Especially not this close to his birthday. Birthdays hadn't been so bad when he was younger, but now that he was older, they got worse. He used to spend his birthdays camping out in the hokage's office, but the hokage decided that he was too old for that when he joined the academy a couple years ago. The Hokage didn't want Naruto missing any school, and he thought that the villagers had simmered down.

That's when his "stupid and clueless" act started, because Naruto DID NOT want any more attention than he already had. It was a bit counter productive, but the suspicion people had that the demon gave him powers lowered. (If they knew she did they're probably kill him.) That's when Kyuu-San appeared in his life. Feeling sorry for the young kit, she let him display his true personality to her. Cheerful, but smart.

Very smart.
She hoped he was smart enough to survive this mission, however...

As Naruto was packing, Sakura was waiting with Kakashi and Sasuke at the front gate out of Konoha. They had been waiting there for hours, dammit, and Sakura was tired of it.

"When is that guy gonna get here!?" She whined loudly, and Kakashi sighed.

"Sakura, the reason he's taking so long is because his house is far away from the Hokage's office." He told her, and Sakura crossed her arms in reply. Still, she thought, it's been thirty minutes already! His house can't be that far from the Hokage's office, as long as he's still in the village! Kakashi sighed, watching his student thoughtfully. "Why don't you got him for us then?" He sighed, pulling out his famous "Make Out Paradise" Sakura nodded, and prepared to run off to get him, when a thought came to her.

"Kakashi-sensei, umm... Where does Naruto live, exactly?" She asked, chuckling sheepishly. Kakashi face palmed.

"Sasuke?" He asked. Sasuke just slowly looked away, before murmuring quietly.

"Hn..." Kakashi face palmed again while Sakura fawned over Sasuke.

"Haven't you guys been in the same class for over a year?! Naruto knows where both of you live." He groaned, before continuing in a whisper. "I knew where he lived before, but now I'm not so sure."

But before any of them could reply, a smiling Naruto appeared before them.

"Hey guys!" Naruto smiled, waving his hand back and forth, his trademark grin plastered on his face.

"NARRRUTO!" Sakura screeched, all guilt disappeared along with her kind outward appearance as she ruthlessly broke everyone's eardrums. "YOUR LATE!" She continued, pounding her fist into his skull.

"ITAI!" He yelled, caressing his head while rolling on the ground. "Geez! Respect your elders Sakura!" He shouted, and his teammates looked at him strangely. "What?" He sniffled, getting up off of the ground.

"What do you mean by elder? Dobe." Sasuke muttered, glaring at Naruto. Naruto tilted his head to the side, and then sighed.

"I know I'm short for my age, but geez! How cruel..." He muttered, and Kyuu-san howled with laughter.

"AHAHAHAH! I can't believe it! Your teammates are such idiots though..." She shouted, and Naruto glared at her mentally.

"You realize you just glared at the Uchiha, right?" Kyuu-San chuckled, and Naruto laughed out loud, not realizing that by this point his teammates were watching him like he had mental problems, (not that they didn't before) and Hatake-San watched him suspiciously.

"Why do you call everyone older than you San?" Kyuu-San muttered, and Naruto shrugged. "... You did that outside of your mind again."

"Dobe! Stop acting mental and explain yourself!" Naruto puffed out his cheek and crossed his arms.

"Geez. Meanies. I'm three years older than you." He pouted, and sakura's mouth fell open. "I failed the graduation exam two years in a row, remember? And I started the academy a year later than you. It took me a year to convince the academy to even let me through the front gate." Naruto muttered, amazed by there stupidity. "Anyway, hiaku! Ikuzo!" He yelled, and pushed open the gate to exit konoha. "It's gonna be my first time out of the village! I wanna see what's outside!

Your first time out of the village, huh? Well, if you count your house inside the village, then...

"Kyuu-San, I think it's best if we don't dwell on that. The training ground may be out of the village, but it's still part of Konoha." Naruto thought, taking care not to say it out loud. Living in an abandoned training ground, it had become a habit. He couldn't slip up in this mission, or he would blow his cover. A c-rank might not be much to Sasuke and Sakura, but to Naruto it was one he could not mess up on.

"Let's do this! Believe it!"