Let's take a better look
beyond a story book
And learn our souls are all we own
before we turn to stone

-"Turn To Stone" Ingrid Michaelson

XxxX

Rain was falling lightly onto the canopy of trees as Naruto stood still, his bright blue eyes locked on the small blue-gray house that was now his. He had moved in yesterday, an ordeal that had lasted all of the day and caused him to completely crash before he had a chance to appreciate the fact that he now lived there. At the moment he was trying to make up for it by standing in the rain as it sprinkled down onto his golden hair, plating it to his head in the way the rain always did in the springtime. The house was about fifteen years old and in fair condition. It was small but he didn't have a need for a big house so that suited him just fine.

The house itself was located along a pretty country road surrounded on all sides by large moss covered trees. It was in an old forest and the thickness of the trunks illustrated that point beautifully. This area had not been cleared of it's forests with the arrival of foreigners, they were ancient woods. Naruto had always been an outdoorsy person so he felt right at home in these woods, nature was home to him when he had no home. This area was actually quite unique and, in fact, that was why he was there. Naruto was a geologist and he had come to study the large cave system in this area, under this area to be correct.

The cave system, known as the Konoha Cave System, had been reportedly discovered in the very early 1900s although it had likely been explored before that time by the people of the area seeing as there were signatures carved into the rocky interior from before that time. Whenever it had been discovered, it had been fascinating geologists like him ever since with its strange formations and wonderful insights to cave life. A combination of acidic water and limestone was all it took to make something so beautiful and strange. The system was not entirely mapped out and every year the recorded size grew thanks to the dedicated explorers who made it their mission to find the cave's end.

Exploring caves like these was not always an easy task. The caverns were often very small, only just large enough to army crawl through. A lot of people couldn't take the feeling of being enclosed under miles of stone with only one way out. It was even more difficult because they couldn't take much in the way of supplies with them, it wasn't like they could just bring down a big backpack. Then there were all the issues of sleeping, animals, and eating surrounded by the dirt and rock of the cave walls. It could be a rather hostile environment at times but that didn't stop people from exploring. In fact, these challenges made the caves all the more interesting and enticing.

Naruto had always had his heart set on working here with the caves, but now he had finally sealed the deal. When he was little he had always been interested in rocks and minerals, he had been one of the weird kids who kept a massive rock collection. He had boxes and boxes of arrowheads, he had geodes both thinly sliced and whole, he had rocks that glowed under black light, he had showcase boxes of special rocks, he had crystals that looked like diamonds half inside chunks of stone, he had lots of little fossils, and more. He loved his rocks but they hadn't earned him any friends, nothing he ever did seemed to attract friends. People just didn't seem to like him no matter how hard he tried, he just made them uncomfortable with his loud voice and intense personality. He tried not to let it get him down, there was always a reason to keep his head high, he told himself. Naruto was never the type to show that he was seriously upset about something, it was much easier to deal with things with a smile than a frown. He had a of weight to pull him down though.

His mother had died in childbirth and apparently his father had never been in the picture, he had no idea who he was or if he was even still alive. He didn't know if he had any relatives but if he did then none of them had ever taken any interest in him. He had been an orphan and had cycled through foster care until he was nine which was when he met Jiraiya, a man who had apparently been friends with his mother. He just showed up one day and Naruto was never sure why he hadn't been there before but at least he showed up at all. Jiraiya was an explorer, although he worked as a biologist specializing in amphibious. He adopted Naruto and took him on his many adventures, some more traumatizing than others. Jiraiya did have the tendency of being a huge pervert after all. Naruto may have picked up on some of his foster father's bad habits but all kids tended to do that. Despite some of his serious flaws Jiraiya was always good to Naruto. He had even introduced the boy to what he discovered to be his one true calling.

At the time Jiraiya had taken Naruto spelunking, he was fourteen, and the kid had fallen in love with the caves as soon as they were underground. He decided immediately that he would pursue this wonderful thing until it became his job one day.

The blond boy passed through high school as the class clown, his grades were fair but not great. In college he picked up the slack and worked for his degree and then on for his masters, he was a geologist with a specialization in speleology, the study of caves. Now he was out and he had gotten a job in Konoha with the national park service. He had moved halfway across the country to be there. He might have hesitated in taking this job before but Jiraiya had died almost two years ago now so there was nothing holding him back. The old man had been unfortunate enough to be driving under an overpass when the thing collapsed, crushing his car and others like it. It must have been a very painful death, Naruto tried not to think about it too much, it always depressed him. Fate could be so cruel sometimes. This was the reason why he felt that the country would build more solid infrastructure, but no, money went other places so the countries bridges and dams were in decay, just waiting to collapse and cause harm to more people. Stupid infrastructure and people not wanting to pay taxes.

Naruto had bought this new house after he had landed the job in Konoha and was confident that this was exactly what he wanted. Now that he was here he could understand why it was called the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The place was surrounded in old trees, sheltering it from the outside and much industrialized world. The trees might have been a fire hazard if not for the large amount of rain they received, always keeping things soggy and not especially flammable.

Naruto smiled as he walked back inside, he had a full day of boring unpacking to do before he could start working tomorrow. The blond slipped off his boots and passed back inside to make himself breakfast. It was nothing fancy, just some cereal. Now he wished that he hadn't gone outside, the dampness of his clothes was making him feel all gross. Oh well, at least now he smelled like nature. Petrichor, more exactly, the wonderful sent of rain.

He finished his breakfast quickly, changed his clothes, and started unpacking after feeding his toads, of course. He had kept the toads in honor of Jiraiya and because he thought they were awesome. Toads kicked butt after all. He had an intricate fish tank set up for them and his five fat toads lumbered around inside happily, or unhappily; it was impossible to know, them being toads and all. At least he liked to think that they were happy. Once he finished dumping crickets into the aquarium he watched the toads lazily hunt the chirping insects and have their meal. Then he set to work. So much to do, so much to do, and so little time.

Unpacking was such a dull task. It made one realize just how much useless shit they had. Trinkets, silverware, clothes... Etc. If only he had magical powers, then he could just wave a wand and put the clothes away. That would be pretty amazing.

The idea seemed very Harry potter. Harry Potter was the best though, so that was okay. There was probably some spell for putting clothes away. There always seemed to be a spell for things like that. How the heck did a spell get made in the first place? Was it the word that made the magic do what it was supposed to? Because then you could say anything in Latin and make it happen. Were spells like elements on the periodic table? Was there a set limit of spells to be discovered? And why Latin? Was magic invented my the Romans?

Magical Romans, that was a very interesting idea. Just imagining all those dramatic marble statues posing with wands in their hands was enough to make Naruto giggle a little bit. No, not giggle, he did not giggle. He was a man dammit. To help reassure himself Naruto leaned over the mirror he was carrying and made a manly face. Grrrr, he was so tough, that was a face that could take on the world. Or so he told himself. Men could be rather insecure about their masculinity sometimes. Personally, Naruto was content was his boyish face and decent body shape. They served their purpose.

Naruto lined the mirror up on the nail on the wall, carefully nudging it as he leaned over the wooden he had placed against the wall. This was a decorative mirror after all, designed to make the room look bigger or something like that. As he set the mirror into place the blond's hand slipped and the mirror slid to the side, tumbling off the nail and shattering on the hardwood floor.

Naruto stood there staring at the shattered glass for a moment. Welp, there was seven years of bad luck right there. A curse of a thousand cuts in the feet if he didn't go find his vacuum cleaner. Luckily for him, the glass hadn't managed to break his skin when it shattered nearby but it had gotten all over the floor. It took him nearly an hour to locate his stupid vacuum and by that time he had already stepped on two pieces of glass that he had to removed from his foot with tweezers, which he also had to find stored away. His bad luck was already starting, so it seemed. Hopefully, the luck would have no negative repercussions on his new job. Naruto was not one who actively believed in superstitions and bad omens but they made him uneasy. He would just have to suck up the broken glass, bandage up his foot, and hope for the best.

By five pm he had a majority of his stuff out in a place that seemed at least a little logical for the time being and he had just seen a car pull up the driveway at the house next door to his right, so he decided that he should introduce himself to one of his neighbors.

The geologist went out to the road to walk down their driveway, he thought about cutting through the woods to get over there but while it would be short it might be a little weird. He would feel a little weird about meeting someone who had just emerged from the woods surrounding his house. There was just something a little suspicious about someone you don't know emerging from the woods to the side if your house.

As he approached the house a dog started barking and continued its verbal assault until he had rung the doorbell. Moments later a man with sharp features and spiky brown hair answered the door, a large white dog at his heel.

Naruto smiled brightly. "Hey, I just moved in yesterday and I saw you drive in so I thought I should introduce myself." He stuck out his hand. "Naruto Uzumaki."

The man gave him a strange look for a fraction of a second before he returned the gesture. "Kiba Inuzaki, uh, wanna come in?" He jerked a thumb toward the interior of his house.

"Yeah, thanks." Naruto stepped inside behind Kiba. They moved to the dining room, it was simple but pleasant. They sat down in chairs facing each other, the dog laid down on the floor beside it's master.

"Want some tea or coffee or something?" Kiba offered although they had both just sat down.

Naruto shrugged, why not? "Coffee, I guess."

There was already a pot waiting, which Naruto assumed that Kiba had been making when he had arrived, and it was poured into two mugs as Naruto knelt down to pet the big white dog.

"Want anything in it?" Kiba asked.

"Nah, just black." Usually Naruto took his coffee with a bit of chocolate milk poured in but he didn't feel like asking for anything right now.

"Good man," Kiba smirked as he drank his own black coffee. Kiba handed him the coffee and he took a sip. "So, where did you move from?"

"I lived up near the Gama lake," he said thinking about the shimmering cloudy waters and diverse lake critters. He felt a pang of sadness but he brushed it aside for the moment. He was going to be living out his dream after all, there was no place for sadness now.

Kiba snorted, "Did you grow up chasing toads? I've never been up there but I hear that's all they do." That was true. There was an abundance of toads up by the lake, that was why Jiraiya had lived up there.

Naruto grinned, he had spent a lot of time chasing around toads in fact. He was an expert toad catcher after many years of experience. "Of course I did, no one can pass up a nice big toad. Toads make even better pets than dogs." He watched as the dog nuzzled it's head against Kiba's ankles.

Kiba leaned over and covered the dogs ears, "Don't listen to him, Akamaru, he's just a mean little toad boy, he doesn't know what he's talking about."

The blond laughed, "What kind of dog is that anyway?" It was large and fluffy and wild looking.

"A Great Pyrenees, the best breed of all time. No toad could ever compare." Kiba scratched at Akamaru's ear affectionately.

"I've never had a dog, dogs where I grew up went around eating the toads and dying a lot." He frowned, that had always been sad for him, he didn't like watching dogs die it was super depressing. "I do have some pet toads."

"Remind me never to go up there, I value this dog's life more than most humans." He looked like he meant it, but then, many humans valued the lives of dogs above those of people.

"Fair enough, the toads would probably appreciate it as well." They probably didn't appreciate being eaten by the dogs after all.

"So wait, you actually have pet toads?" Kiba laughed like the idea was ridiculous. Was it really that weird?

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, they sit around all day getting fat. They're all smug, like they've got it all figured out. I like putting a mirror by their aquarium to keep them humble, they don't seem to understand his small and ugly they are." Small but oversized, sometimes he fed them too many crickets so they ended up a little bit too fat and happy. Smug little bastards.

"Man, that's the life right there." Kiba sighed, "So, why did you move here if you love your precious toads so much?"

"I'm a geologist-" he started.

"Oh, that explains it." Kiba cut him off and rolled his eyes. "This place is always attracting your type." He gave Naruto a mock in glare and shaking his head.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Is that a good or bad thing?"

He shrugged, "Well, they never last long, so I guess it's not really a bad thing. More of a neutral really."

"Where do they go if they don't stay here?" Naruto asked, he just wanted to be sure that they weren't all being murdered or something like that. That wasn't something he wanted to deal with. If his options were to live out his dream while at risk of being murdered by some crazy person he would like to be told beforehand.

Kiba scratched his head. "Mostly they just move away, I guess the caves aren't as interesting as they sound."

Naruto frowned, "Geez, don't make me doubt my job now, I haven't even started yet!" He doubted that Kiba could appreciate the nature of the caves, given his general attitude toward them. Neither could the other geologists, apparently, if they all moved away.

"The tunnels might also be haunted," he snickered, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Right, because every creepy cave needs a creepy ghost story to go with it." Naruto rolled his eyes. Not that he didn't like the ghost stories, they just made things more interesting. It was just tiresome when people took them too seriously.

"Yeah, but seriously, beware, but I think Gaara might be the one that's really scaring them all off," Kiba snorted.

Naruto scoffed, he had met with the man for his job interview and, sure,
he seemed a little uptight but not the type of scare people off... Well, maybe a little. "Why would the head of the geology department want to scare people off?" Naruto asked.

"Because he's an unfriendly bastard." Kiba huffed, crossing his arms.

"How do you know him?" Naruto was slightly surprised.

"I'm a park naturalist. I organize hikes and tours and projects and stuff. We sometimes have to work together. The guy's impossible. He needs to surgically remove that stick from his ass and learn to chill out."

"Well, I came a long way for this job so if we don't get along I'll have to make us get along... Or annoy him until he gives in to my every whim," the blond grinned evilly.

Kiba laughed, "I like the way you think. Do you wanna play Xbox?" He pointed to his Xbox.

"Sure." And they spent the next few hours playing GTA 5 and screaming at each other. Instead of making real food Kiba popped a ton of popcorn and they ate while they played.

When Naruto left later that night he felt that he'd made his first friend.

XxxX

The next morning Naruto strode confidently into the geology building, marched up to the head office and knocked on the door. He was let in and greeted by the sullen face of a mister Gaara Shakaku whose expression did not change as he walked into the room.

"Naruto Uzumaki," he stated, his eyes unwavering. He handed over a series of papers. "This is yours to do, there is an open desk for you out there." He nodded his head toward the door. Not much of a conversationalist it seemed.

Ignoring the short and to the point attitude of his new boss, Naruto took the papers with a smile too bright for this office like environment and headed out. There were five of them in this department: Rock Lee, whose name must have guided him to this kind if work through some twist of fate, Sai, who when Naruto asked for a full name he only offered a creepy smile that scared him away, and Hinata Hyuga, who smiled shyly at him, then there were himself, and Gaara.

They were all working on things that seemed way more interesting than what he was doing, he figured his boss must me hazing him so he got to work without complaint. He would keep this job if it was the last thing he ever did on this earth. So, he sucked it up and did a bunch of boring paperwork.

So maybe his first day wasn't the super amazing, mind blowing, fun fest he had imagined when he had first conceived the idea of working here, but it was a job after all. There was always a trade off with jobs. You have to do all the shitty stuff, then maybe later you could do something awesome. Maybe.

He could deal with that, just push through until things got awesome. Despite the boring paperwork, the day passed relatively quickly and Naruto soon found himself home once again. He didn't have much of an idea what people around here did so he decided that he would just continue to unpack his things, even though he really wanted to go outside.

That didn't last long. Almost as soon as he started unpacking the blond gave up and went outside to hike around in the woods behind his house. The day was overcast but warm, a breeze rustled the still budding leaves of the old trees about Naruto's head. When he was driving home he had seen dark clouds rolling in on the horizon but things seemed to be okay for the time being, he would just have to make sure not to stay out too long.

In the woods, he traveled along a deer path so as not to become tangled in the various thorny plants coming to life in the spring air. Spring was such an interesting season. A time of transition. After a long, cold winter it was always a relief to be able to see the ground again. After the final snow the grass was always ugly and dead but then the rains would come and they would regain their former rich coloring. Everyday there seemed to be more and more plants popping up to bathe in the sunlight.

Naruto smiled to himself as he walked down the path, making sure to remember the way he took. The woods were quieter than he would have expected, but then it was early spring, maybe all the little critters weren't quite out yet. As he neared a creak he could hear the chirping of spring peepers. Frogs weren't quite as awesome as toads but they were close, and along with the banjo like thumping of a bull frog, the amphibians played a wonderful choirs through the otherwise still forest.

He continued on past the creek and found his way into a small valley. Limestone cliffs rose up from the far side of the dip. It was very pretty, very natural. Sometimes it seemed a shame to have humans coming in and messing all this nature up but then again, Naruto did love his technology. Everyone was too hooked in new age technology that they couldn't see far enough past their phones to see that they were doing real harm. It was quite sad, but it was a gradual decline so it lost attention easily.

Sighing, Naruto turned at the cliff face and started back on his way home before the rain started. The sky was starting to swirl with dark clouds and he could hear the rumble of thunder somewhere off in the distance.

His trip back was made more swiftly but he managed to make it home before the skies started dumping water on him. The rain didn't last very long, it was there and then it was gone. The weather could be fickle like that sometimes.

Later that evening, while Naruto was feeding his toads the doorbell rang. He walked over and pulled it open to see a small woman with short pink hair holding a basket full of muffins. When the door came open there was a brief second where she had given him that same strange look Kiba had but then her expression jumped back to the friendly face she had before as if nothing had changed it. He wished that people would stop giving him that look, everyone did it
and it made him feel weird. Was his face really that weird looking? It just looked like a normal face, honestly.

"Hello," she greeted warmly, "I'm your neighbor," she pointed toward her house to his left. "I thought I would bring you a housewarming present." Oh, what a friendly and neighborly thing to do.

Naruto graciously accepted the token of neighborhood, "Thanks, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, nice to meet you."

"Sakura Haruno, can I come in?" she replied.

"Sure," he stepped back to let her inside.

She cast a look around as she was led into the living room. For a second Naruto felt very conscious of the fact that there was a lot of stuff still packed up in boxes but he brushed the feeling aside. The first thing Naruto did was open the basket and start eating a muffin; it was amazing. "Want one?" he asked.

"I was the one who made them," she said like it somehow prevented her from eating them. Somehow it didn't seem right to offer her her own muffins. A weird social thing maybe.

"Doesn't mean you can't eat one. You only get one though, they're too good for me to give anymore up than that." Naruto warned her.

Sakura smiled a the paise and accepted the muffin. "So, where are you from?" she asked.

"Up near Gama lake, I'm a geologist so I moved down here for the caves," he said quickly. According to Kiba his story was not very original in this area. Damn other people for making him seem less cool.

She smiled in understanding, "So, you're going to go crawling through the caves then?"

The geologist grinned. "That's the hope. So, what do you do?" He would much rather get to know her, she was very pretty and he defiantly wanted to put 'the moves' on her.

"I'm a doctor, I work for the hospital in town. Sometimes I have to patch up geologists like you who slip and fall in the caves." She gave a sly smile.

Ooh, pretty and quick. Naruto thought that he might slip and fall on purpose just so she could patch him up but he refrained from saying that. "A doctor, eh? Ever get any really weird patients?"

Sakura groaned, "There are a lot of weird people out there." Everyone loved a good medical horror story.

"What's one weird thing that happened?" Naurto pressed excitedly.

She considered this for a second, "Once was doing a check up on an older patient and he literally started having a hard attack right there and while he was falling he grabbed my breast for support." She crossed her arms and looked away, an indignant expression on her face. "That wasn't really one of my weird patients, it just happened today and I'm pissed off about it," she grumbled.

"Did he live?" Naruto was trying to restrain his laughter for the purpose of seeming like a decent guy.

"Yeah, in he was a very good mood when he woke up. Too good a mood, I think. As if it's not hard enough to be a female doctor." She huffed.

"At least he was okay?" he said uncertainly. That was the main goal of being a doctor, right?

Her face softened a little bit, "Yeah, that's all that matters. For every weirdo confrontation there's that one patient you feel proud you save and that's why I became a doctor." There was always that little glimmer of hope.

"Wow, I feel so overwhelmed with inspirations right now I could just explode into a cloud of happiness," Naruto laughed.

Sakura made a face. "That would be pretty weird."

"Yeah, probably also dangerous to be inhaled too," Naruto imagined.

"Good thing I'm a doctor," she smirked.

"You're a doctor, not a meteorologist!" Naruto laughed loudly but Sakura gave him a confused look. "It's a Star Trek thing, because clouds and yeah..." he explained awkwardly.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, you must be a nerd then."

"A tiny bit," Naruto said sheepishly.

Sakura shrugged. "The extent of my nerdyness extends only to my vigorous study of medicine for my job."

"That is pretty nerdy though," Naurto judged.

"Yeah..." she trailed off, "Well, I have to go make myself some dinner."

Naruto would offer to cook her dinner but he had, like, zero food in the house. "Alright then, it was nice meeting you," he grinned at her, opening the front door to let her out.

"You too," she chirped as she walked off toward house. She had walked through the woods and Naruto found that he actually didn't that mind as much as he thought he might.

XxxX

A/N: I've never written Naruto before, thought I'd give it a try. It just feels a little... Not right. I can't find the rhythm. I don't know, but I'll do it anyway. Hopefully it doesn't suck too badly, I promise it gets more interesting.

The setting is somewhere halfway between the real world and a made up place. But if I had to pick an area it was in I would say Washington. The cave system is like that of Mammoth cave or the Wind caves. Caves are awesome and you should go see one. Seriously.

Oh, the Parahypogean are threshold regions near a cave's mouth, extending to the last penetration of sunlight.

Gaara, mister sand man himself, seems to fit a job in geology.

I think the heart attack boob grab came from Parks and Recreation but I can't really remember. Oh well.

Literally listed my rock collection for Naruto's...

Thanks.