A/N: Wahhh! My first Naruto fanfiction! Sorry if the characters are a bit OOC in any part of this story (mainly Iruka and possibly Naruto...? Yeah)

So I'm gonna be up front about the warnings. There will be cursing, blood, smut (it'll take a while, but it'll get there, I promise), mild violence, plus anything else that might pop up sometime later.

Hellos and Strange Strangers

"You treat me just like another stranger. Well, it's nice to meet you, sir. I guess I'll go; I'd best be on my way out."

Paramore, "Ignorance"

Naruto slammed the trunk closed on the car and made his way to the passenger side, flopping down in the seat and running his hands over his face. He'd hardly gotten any of the sleep he'd been told to get, and he knew he needed it, but he just couldn't do it; his mind wouldn't allow it. Too much had happened too quickly, and now his life in this town was a disaster. Just like his past lives in his previous towns. All that he cared about now was leaving this place—and the memories it held—far, far behind him.

He started a little when a firm, but gentle hand came down on his shoulder, and he turned to look up into dark black eyes in a tan face framed with dark brown hair.

"Your hair is down," Naruto muttered lamely, stating the obvious.

The man next to him laughed and mussed Naruto's spiky blonde locks. "You didn't get any sleep like I told you to, did you?" he inquired. The teen shook his head, and he sighed. "Make sure you get some sleep on the road, okay? We have some places we need to go when we get to our new home."

The blonde let his head fall against the window. "Yes, Iruka…." He was snoring in less than a minute.

Iruka smiled indulgently at the sight, trying in vain to smooth the boy's hair. "Get some rest; you'll need it." Iruka backed out of the gravel driveway with a heavy sigh. He'd actually liked this town, and he'd wanted to stay a little longer. However, Naruto's past had eventually caught up with them, and there was no way they could just stay here and hope for the best. It would endanger both of them.

In an effort to dispel the dark thoughts, he turned up the stereo, not worrying about it being too loud because the blonde slept like the dead. For a moment, nothing played, and Iruka glanced at the rectangular screen in confusion. And then loud, screeching, bass guitars were blaring from the car speakers, causing him to jump and curse. He shot a dirty look at the slumbering body in the passenger seat. That was the last time he'd ever let Naruto drive his car; the blonde was always changing his CDs. He frowned and pulled it out, glancing at the cover art and rolling his eyes. My Chemical Romance—of course. He slipped in his favorite classical CD, From the Yellow Room by Yiruma, and carefully put Naruto's CD in the freed case. Naruto would kill him if he scratched up his favorite CD.

As he drove down the nearly deserted streets, he picked up his cup of coffee, taking a careful sip. It was just after two in the morning, and he could feel his eyes prickling, begging for the sweet release of sleep. He knew that he needed to snap out of it. They had a long drive ahead of them, and there was no way that they would have been able to get anywhere if they'd traveled in the daylight; they would have been found. He glanced over nervously at Naruto. He had to do whatever was in his power to keep him safe; he'd promised himself, as well as the blonde, that he would never let anything happen to him, and their was no way that he was going to break his promise anytime soon. He returned his attention to the moonlit road in front of him, turning up the volume once again to drown the dangerous thoughts that wanted to drag him into the pits of misery.

Naruto awoke when they were about an hour away from their destination, stretching and yawning loudly, the bones in his back popping. He glanced over at his guardian and frowned. "Hey, pull over, alright?"

Iruka looked over at him sleepily. "Bathroom break?"

"Nah, but you look like crap—no offense. Maybe you should let me drive."

The brunette shook his head. "No, we're almost there, and besides, you don't even know where we're going, so I'd have to stay up anyway."

Naruto sighed and leaned back in his seat, staring out the window and noticing that it was really bright outside. "How long have we been on the road, anyway?" he asked, remembering that it had been pitch black when they'd left their previous town.

Iruka yawned. "Ah, a little over eight hours."

Naruto's cyan eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "Eight hours!" Had he really been asleep for that long? He glanced at the clock; it read 10:08. Leaning back again, he asked, "So where exactly are we going?"

"Somewhere called Konohagakure," Iruka said in a tired voice.

Naruto frowned in confusion. He was half Japanese, and from the little Iruka had taught him of the language, he could understand what the name of that town meant; who the hell named a town "The Village Hidden in the Leaves"? He shrugged to himself. Maybe they had a lot of trees or something.

He realized that this was the understatement of the century when Iruka stopped the car, and all that greeted them was what looked to be miles and miles of trees. He gulped a bit.

Iruka, seemingly unfazed, hoped out of the car and made a beeline for the trunk.

"Um…Iruka?"

Iruka peered at him from around the car as he pulled the trunk open. "Yes?"

"How exactly are we going to get to the town?"

Iruka sighed. "Well, it's not really a town…. I mean, the name is actually quite literal."

Naruto glanced back over his shoulder in surprise. He was going to stay in an actual village? Did that mean that they didn't have electricity or something? That wouldn't work at all; he needed electricity.

The brunette caught the apprehensive, slightly panicked expression on the blonde's face and rolled his eyes, already knowing what he was thinking. "Don't worry; it has everything that any town or city would. The only difference is that it's not as populated and it's so small that it doesn't even show up on most maps."

Naruto raised his eyebrows, impressed. "Then how did you find it?"

Iruka yanked Naruto's duffle bag out of the trunk before making for his suitcase. "I have a friend that lives here; he told me all about it and said that it would be the perfect place for us to hide out for a while." He tossed the duffle bag to its owner, grabbed their bag of toiletries, and slammed the trunk closed.

Naruto noticed that Iruka hadn't answered his previous question. "So how do we get there?" he asked again.

Iruka opened his mouth to answer, but he was interrupted by the sound of a horn. He glanced to his left, smiled, and nodded to the small car waiting for them. "That's how."

….

"I still don't see why we couldn't have taken our car," Naruto was grumbling about fifteen minutes later.

The brunette rolled his eyes. "I told you our car was too big for the conventional entrance; someone will take it to the carport for us."

Naruto turned back to the window, mumbling something about the driver stealing his CDs. Iruka rolled his eyes again.

When they made it to the main gate, Naruto felt his jaw drop in complete shock. There was no way that a village had a gate that huge and intricately designed. Where had they even gotten the funding for something like that? This was insane.

The driver chuckled. "This is nothing compared to the inside," she said, taking a swig of what both men in the back seat fervently hoped was soda. She turned and grinned at them, winking. "Now, get out," she said in a playful tone, jerking her head toward the enormous gate. Naruto couldn't help but wonder how her spiky purple ponytail retained its shape when it moved so freely in the wind.

And then something she said caught his attention. "Wait…so you're not going to drive us inside?"

She downed the rest of her suspicious drink before turning around to give him a not-so-polite onceover. "You too lazy to walk, kid?"

The blonde blinked, taken aback by her sudden change of demeanor. "Uh…I…."

Iruka sighed and opened his door. "The streets aren't wide enough to accommodate cars," he explained, concluding that the driver was most likely drunk. "Come on, we have places to go once we get inside."

Naruto grumbled incomprehensible complaints under his breath but got out of the car nonetheless. The second their things were free from the car, the woman drove off, tires squealing in protest to her sharp turns and kicking up mud in their wake. The teen scowled. "Well, isn't she charming?"

"Grab your stuff," Iruka called over his shoulder, already making his way to the entrance.

"Yeah, yeah," was Naruto's brilliant response.

When they reached the entrance, the guards asked for a hell of a lot of paperwork that Iruka already had filled out. One of the guards, a brunette man with an abnormally long toothpick wedged between his teeth took one look at his name on the lease, glanced up at him, and then chuckled. He then looked at Iruka, a more serious expression on his face, his eyebrow raised.

"You know, don't you?" he asked in voice so low that Naruto could barely hear it.

The blonde couldn't make out Iruka's mumbled answer, but whatever it was, it made the guard step aside, though he continued to watch Naruto as he made his way through the door. He didn't know why, but something about the way the guard looked at him made him uneasy, set him on edge…. Naruto had the feeling that the guard and Iruka knew something that he didn't…something important.

The thought was pushed from his mind when he heard someone yell Iruka's name. He turned to watch a tall, skinny man who seemed to be somewhere close to thirty walk up to them. It must have been the old friend that had referred Iruka to this village. Naruto found his eyes widening in shock.

It wasn't his shock of startlingly spiky silver hair or even the fact that he had one black eye and another that was completely covered by a navy blue bandana that held Naruto's attention; it was the fact that he had a mask covering the entire bottom half of his face. There was a little voice in the back of his mind, telling him that it was rude to stare, but he couldn't help but ignore it's warning—or rather, he couldn't seem find the controls to his body anywhere in his brain to listen to it.

A wide grin nearly split Iruka's face in two. "Kakashi!" he said, his bags dropping to the ground, his arms spread wide, ready to embrace his old friend.

Kakashi smiled back—or at least Naruto thought he did; his eye scrunched up like he was, even though he couldn't see his mouth.

Naruto watched as Iruka hugged the newcomer a little too tightly. Naruto vaguely remembered Iruka talking about some long-lost schoolyard crush from high school; this must have been who he was talking about. Kakashi must have been thinking the same thing because he stiffened slightly, pulled away and averted his eyes. Naruto understood; he didn't want to see the disappointment in Iruka's eyes, either.

There was a short moment of awkwardness where no one said anything, and then Kakashi glanced around at him. He saw something that looked like recognition flash in his visible eye, but before he could say anything, someone else called toward them.

"Kakashi! Iruka!"

All three males turned to see a dark-haired man with a beard and a cigarette held between his lips and a woman with jet black hair and eyes red enough to rival an apple. Purple hair? Red eyes? What the hell was with the people in this place?

Iruka smiled gently, though the hurt was still brewing behind his eyes. They both slapped hands with Cigarette Man and hugged Red Eye Woman.

Cigarette Man glanced over at him, a grin on his face as he extended his hand. "Asuma Sarutobi," he said. "Nice to meet you."

Naruto shook the hand and blurted the first thing that came to his mind. The wrong thing. "Naruto Uzumaki," he said, flinching mentally when he'd realized what had come out of his mouth. He'd never given anyone his real name before, but something about this place…it made him feel like he was already at home; he'd spoken without thinking.

Asuma raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't comment on his name like the teen had expected him to. Instead, he gestured to the woman that was sort-of-but-sort-of-not smiling at him. Her eyes were doing all of the work; her mouth hadn't moved a bit. "This is Kurenai Yuhi," he said, his eyes sparkling a bit as he said her name. Naruto immediately recognized him as one of those guys that were easily embarrassed about his romantic life, but wasn't very good at hiding it. He could tell because Iruka was like that.

Kurenai blushed at the look on Asuma's face and shook hands with Naruto.

There was another moment of awkward silence.

"So…," Naruto said trying to break the tension, "how do you all know Iruka?"

Iruka stiffened. "We all went to the same high school," he said through rigid lips. Naruto was about to ask what was wrong, but Iruka spoke over him. "We live in the Western Division of the village—why don't you go check with the landlord to see which one is ours?" He sounded rushed, urgent. It was the way he sounded when he was going out of his way to hide something. "You can go wherever you like for about an hour; then we really have somewhere to be."

Naruto locked eyes with his guardian for a short moment, letting him know that he knew he was keeping something from him. Iruka stared back, lips pressed together, eyes hard as stone. He wasn't giving whatever it was away, not without a fight, and now wasn't really the time for that.

The blonde tossed his duffle bag over his shoulder and grabbed the bag of toiletries from the ground at Iruka's feet. He turned on his heel and stomped off without another word or a backward glance.

The apartment they were staying in wasn't very big, but it was big enough to accommodate comfortable stay for two people whose belongings didn't take up much space. He helped himself to a tour around the place: a tiny, walk-through kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living area big enough to fit the couch and television only, and a balcony that over saw the entire village.

When he had first heard that they were staying in a village, he had thought of some kind of small, tribe-looking place. Konohagakure was far from his expectations. It was huge, bigger than any village he had ever heard of or seen in textbooks. Sure, it wasn't as big as a city, but it was darn close. It was small enough to feel homely, but just big enough not to be claustrophobic. He could easily find himself falling in love with this place.

He tossed his duffle bag into the smaller of the two rooms, grabbed a towel and the soap and made his way to the bathroom to shower. Eight hours of travel had left an uncomfortable gritty feeling on his skin that he didn't like at all.

When that was finished, he padded back to his room and pulled out his favorite orange sweat pants and a white t-shirt. He glanced at his jacket, lying forlorn across his naked bed. It wasn't cold outside, so he didn't need it; but it would feel weird wearing the sweatpants without it. He knew it was ridiculous, but he stood there for at least fifteen minutes, contemplating whether or not to wear the jacket. He decided that he would tie it around his waist, just for the comfort of it being there.

He tucked one key in his jacket pocket and slid the other on top of the door frame since they didn't have a door mat yet. He then took off down the street, whistling a familiar tune. He knew he was most likely way off key, but that didn't really bother him; he usually was.

After about twenty minutes of aimless walking, he was beginning to get bored. The village was beautiful and all, with its tiny family-owned shops, decorative foliage on the balconies, cafés bustling with people…. He'd bought himself a bowl of ramen at a place called Ichiraku's (he'd have to remember that for later reference; he absolutely loved ramen) and a new frog-shaped wallet from some needy-looking old man on the street so that he wouldn't have to carry his money around in his pocket, but there was only so much he could do with twenty bucks. He turned to go back home, but he realized that he had no idea which way home was. He hadn't exactly been watching where he'd been going.

It was then that he saw a group of kids around his age, one lying leisurely across a park bench while the others sat on the asphalt in a circle in front of him, seeming to be having quite the discussion. He couldn't make out what they were saying, and without really noticing what he was doing, he inched closer to them. After a moment of listening, he realized they were arguing about bands. They had split off into two sides: Green Day and Paramore. Or rather, one had split off from the rest of the group.

"Paramore's lyrics have more meaningful messages," a blonde with more hair than he had ever seen protested. The majority of it spilled over her back and rested on the ground, some was pulled back into a ponytail, the rest hung over one of her brilliant sea-blue eyes. Naruto couldn't help but admire her appearance. She was skinny, but had figure; her clothes seemed to fit her just right—her skinny jeans hugged her legs in a way just subtle enough not to seem vain, her thin white shirt hanging just so off her shoulder, a royal blue tank top underneath.

A different girl, who obviously favored Green Day, scowled. "You're so stupid, Ino," she sneered. "Green Day's lyrics have just as much meaning as Paramore's. Plus, they have better sound." She was just as tiny, but not as shapely as the other girl (whose name was apparently Ino). She wore a bright red shirt that should have clashed with her shoulder-length, bubble gum pink hair—but amazingly, it didn't—and loose white shorts that seemed dangerously close to falling. Her clothes didn't fit her as tightly, but honestly, they shouldn't have; it would have just emphasized how little curves she had. Her beauty was far more subtle than Ino's. She even looked pretty with her vibrant green eyes narrowed in irritation.

Ino slapped the chubby boy sitting next to her on the arm. "Hey," she snapped, "tell Billboard Brow that Paramore is way better."

The boy she'd slapped was a large brunette with rosy, cherubic cheeks and more hair than normal for boy, looked up from the bag of potato chips he'd been devouring. He wiped his hand on his jeans and stood, smoothing his plain white t-shirt. "I honestly don't have a side to take," he said. "I think they're both pretty cool." Obviously, he was a pretty smart kid; he knew better than to take sides when both girls were glaring at him like PMSing lionesses.

"I kind of like Green Day better," the girl next to "Billboard Brow" spoke up. She blushed and looked down at the ground, twiddling her fingers. She was a quite the looker as well. Her long, thick hair was a rather odd shade of black, almost on the verge of purplish-blue. She had a white and lilac jacket tied around her waist, a black shirt with the Yin and Yang symbol clinging tightly to her body, emphasizing her large chest. Her jeans hugged her as tightly as Ino's did, though hers flared at the bottom, hiding the heels of her flip-flop-clad feet. Her hair was hiding her face, so Naruto couldn't tell what color her eyes were.

Ino turned on her like she was about to yell at her, but something about the girl's expression seemed to stop her. "Honestly, you two don't have any good taste in music at all."

"I prefer Green Day as well," a boy Naruto hadn't even noticed interjected. He was leaning against a tree in a dark green hoodie, baggy jeans, and black combat boots. He had on a black hat and sunglasses, so Naruto couldn't really see much of his face; there was barely any of it showing.

"Thank you," Billboard Brow, the pink-haired one, said, sticking her tongue out at Ino, who blushed furiously.

"Oh shut up!" Ino snapped. "Kiba!" she barked over her shoulder.

Kiba—a brunette with hair spiky enough to rival Naruto's clad in a white "Hugs, Not Drugs" shirt, loose-fitting skinny jeans, and black Converse—glanced up from the puppy he had been playing with. "Yeah?"

"Green Day or Paramore?"

Kiba snorted. "Green Day, duh," he answered simply before he returned to the tug-of-war between him and his pet.

Ino let out of growl of frustration. "Shikamaru," she whined, hoping to get at least one valid ally.

Shikamaru, the boy who had been lounging on the park bench, rolled halfway over to stare blearily at Ino. "I'm not getting in this," he muttered. He yawned and scratched his head before redoing his spiky ponytail he'd messed up. He was wearing a form-fitting army green shirt with a simple symbol on the back of it—a circle with a line going straight down the middle—loose jeans, and gray, new-looking Vans. His light brown eyes were tired and his eyelids drooped, dangerously close to closing.

Ino pouted and looked around, trying desperately to find someone to recruit to her side. That was when she finally noticed Naruto. She pointed at him. "You!" she barked. "Green Day or Paramore?"

Everyone except Shikamaru, who appeared to have gone back to sleep, and Kiba, who was still engrossed in his game, turned to stare at Naruto expectantly. He wasn't sure what was weirder: the fact that they didn't seem at all bothered by the fact that he had obviously been eavesdropping on their whole conversation or the fact that they were actually asking him to join it. He blushed at the attention and scratched the back of his head. He wasn't in any hurry to die, but…. "I don't think you really want me to answer that," he said.

For some reason, he couldn't understand, everyone started laughing, including Kiba; even Shikamaru, who didn't look like the type for laughing, let out a low chuckle of his own (he hadn't gone to sleep after all). Ino, however, jumped up and stomped off, her out-of-season black snow boots making virtually no noise as they slammed down on the concrete of the sidewalk. He found himself snickering a bit at her overreaction.

The chubby one, who had sometime taken refuge under the shade of a tree asked, "So what's your name? You have to be new here because we know all the kids here our age." He opened another bag of chips, and Naruto couldn't help but wonder where they had come from.

Shikamaru rolled completely over and propped himself up on his elbow, keenly watching as Naruto contemplated whether or not to give them his real name.

"Naruto," he finally answered. "Naruto Uzumaki." He glanced away, all of a sudden very interested in the bickering squirrels in the tree above Nearly-Faceless's head.

Everyone but Shikamaru stiffened for a short moment as they all thought the same thing: had they really heard him right? Was he really the Naruto Uzumaki?

"Cool name," Shikamaru finally answered, effectively breaking the tension. "You were named after the city, right? The one in Japan?"

To say that Naruto was surprised would have been an understatement. He blinked a couple of times…then a couple more…and another, but yet, he still couldn't formulate an articulate answer through his shock. There was hardly anyone—no, scratch that. No one he'd ever met had swallowed that information whole like that, and yet Shikamaru had just brushed it off to the side like it was nothing but any old regular name, like it had no meaning at all. Then he remembered that Iruka's friends had done the same. They hadn't been fazed by it either.

The people in this town were getting stranger and stranger.

Ignoring Naruto's mini freak-out, Shikamaru went on. He nodded to the chubby one under the tree. "That's Chouji,"—then to Kiba—"Kiba,"—the blushing girl—"Hinata,"—Billboard Brow—"Sakura,"—Nearly Faceless—"and Shino. The one that stomped off is Ino, and I'm Shikamaru." Everyone waved and forced smiles as their names were called.

This bewildered him even further. No, they weren't uncaring about his identity like Shikamaru, but they were trying to pretend they were. That had never happened before. He'd half expected them to glare at him in disgust and tell him to go away and never talk to them again. That's what all of his other "friends" had done when they'd discovered who he was.

"Hinata," someone called from behind them, and everyone turned to watch as three teenagers that looked to be around their age walked up. The one that had spoken had pale skin, long brown hair and a lean build. His black button down shirt contrasted nicely with his skin and was rolled up to expose his muscular forearms. His dark jeans didn't look cheap at all, and neither did his gray loafers. He had a slightly arrogant, unapproachable aura surrounding him that instantly sparked Naruto's irritation.

The other two looked nice enough. The female had brown hair that she kept pulled up in two buns on tope of her head. She wore a pint tank top and a frilly black mini skirt with black flip-flops. The proximity between her and the speaker suggested that they were dating.

The other was tall and rail-thin and black-haired with a terrible bowl-shaped haircut and dressed in a deep green tracksuit—the kind that no one wore anymore. His eyes were almost bulging, his eyebrows bushier than any he'd ever seen, and he wore a wide, friendly grin. Naruto kind of felt sorry for him; he looked like one of those nice guys that were always laughed at behind their back because they were sort of dorks.

"Your father told us to come get you," Mr. Arrogant (that was Naruto's name for him until he learned his real one and maybe even after he did) said, looking only at Hinata. "Apparently, Hanabi is sick, and your father has a business meeting to go to. He needs you to watch her until he gets back."

Without a word, Hinata stood, brushed nonexistent grains of dirt off her backside and waved to her friends. She glanced hesitantly at Naruto and blushed again before looking away.

It was then that Naruto noticed something: Hinata and Mr. Arrogant had the weirdest colored eyes. They were both a light, almost clear shade of lavender that he'd never seen before in his life. They had to be related somehow.

Mr. Arrogant followed his relative's gaze, and raised his eyebrows at Naruto. He opened his mouth to say something, but Shikamaru spoke over him.

"Neji, this is Naruto."

Neji held out his hand, something unidentifiable lurking behind his pupil-less eyes. "Nice to meet you," he said stiffly. "I'm Neji, and this is Ten-Ten and Lee." He gestured to the two standing behind him.

Naruto was tempted to point out that Shikamaru had just said his name, but he held his tongue. "Nice to meet you too," Naruto said, talking more to the others than he was to Neji. Naruto's eyes flickered between Neji and Hinata, trying to find some kind of resemblance other than their eyes.

Neji smiled—was Naruto just imagining the mocking edge to it? "We're cousins," he said, answering the obvious question floating around in Naruto's head. He looked around at everyone else, waved, then walked off, Ten-Ten, Lee, and Hinata trailing behind him.

Naruto watched them leave, frowning.

Shino caught the look on his face and said, "Don't hold it against him; he's actually a really nice guy once you get to know him."

Naruto snorted. That guy? Nice? Yeah right, and his favorite color was pink. Not likely.

"No, really," Sakura piped up. "He is."

Before Naruto could reply, his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He didn't have to look at the Caller ID to know that it was Iruka. He flipped it open. "Yeah?"

"Meet me back at the apartment. We have somewhere to go."

"'Kay," he said. The line went dead. "I gotta go," he said to his new sort-of friends. "I'll see you at school tomorrow, right?"

Everyone smiled and said their respective goodbyes, but he caught a look Shikamaru and Kiba exchanged that he wasn't sure he was supposed to. They were smiling at him in a way that left a sense of apprehension in his belly. But maybe that was just him being paranoid. These people had accepted him even after learning his name. There was no way they'd screw him over like everyone else.

He let out a calming breath. Right, everything would be fine. He had friends now. Naruto couldn't help but grin as he jogged off in the direction he hoped his apartment was. He actually had friends here. Real ones that accepted him, bad reputation and all. He could get used to life in Konoha.

He was going to punch someone. Really, he was. Hopefully, it would be one of the old bags of bones sitting in that room. He had to keep thinking of his favorite things to calm him down. He fumed about what he had heard in the Hokage's room (the village's leader was called the Hokage for some odd reason).

"He's a danger to this entire village," the old man (he'd forgotten his name as soon as it was spoken) was saying.

Tsunade (he remembered her name because she was the only one not irritating him), glared at him. "I don't see him as a danger at all," she protested, her honey brown eyes narrowed. She tossed one of her long blonde ponytails over her shoulder and straightened her shirt, concealing her plethora of cleavage. "How in the world would they find this place? It's not even on any maps you can get anywhere but one of our corresponding village. What, do you think they're going to comb every little place in the world looking for him? I don't think so."

Iruka stiffened next to him at Tsunade's words. She had obviously said something that Naruto wasn't supposed to know. "Lady Tsunade," he whispered.

Tsunade jumped at the sound of his voice, having forgotten that they were there. When she saw the confused look on Naruto's face, she gasped. "I'm so sorry," she said.

Iruka sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Naruto, you should leave."

Naruto leapt out of his seat. "The hell I am!" He glowered defiantly at his guardian, who stared back with steely eyes. "I want to know whatever it is you're hiding from me."

"No."

"Why—"

"Naruto," Tsunade interrupted, "you'll find out eventually, just not right now. Go out and enjoy the village. Make some new friends."

And he had listened.

So now he was shuffling down the street, kicking stray rocks out of his way. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the couple walking in front of him until he smacked right into them.

"Ow," he muttered as he bounced back, rubbing his nose. "Sorry about that."

"Oh, don't worry about it," the lady said, adjusting a cooing toddler on her hip. She then asked if he wanted to buy a peach from her, holding out a basket of the biggest peaches in the world (maybe not, but they were still pretty huge).

He bought three since they were only a dollar each. He thanked her and then walked away.

The people in this town were so friendly, oddly so. But he couldn't really complain. It was kind of nice.

Sasuke flipped open his ringing phone, muting the television he wasn't really watching. "What is it?"

"So we're going to have a new kid at school tomorrow." The voice sounded amused, excited.

Sasuke chuckled to himself, running a hand through his spiked, jet-black hair, his onyx eyes glinting with mischief. "Then I guess we'd better give him a proper welcome."

So, what do you think? Should I continue it? It's odd writing a story that isn't a one-shot for something that isn't Bleach. Now I'm not gonna wanna go back to those...But I will. Enough of my babbling. Review! (Unless, of course, you don't want to, which is totally cool)

~Burns