Disclaimer: HorsesRain does not own Naruto or any of it's characters! ;p
Chapter 1: Introductions to Old Surroundings
Naruto stepped outside into the wintery air, it was cold and crisp, just as it always was, but something seemed off about today. But... What could it be? He began walking on his normal weekendly routine to the park, taking in all the familiar sights and sounds, it made him feel more at home then at that place he forced himself to call his own. He looked around for familiar faces, but when he saw none, he frowned, he couldn't have been in the park that early, could he? He looked down at the watch on his wrist. "6:30, huh..? Ok, I guess I am early... I'll go get breakfast at the ramen shop and come back later I guess..." He trudged off quietly, which was very unlike him, and headed to his new destination in haste.
It wasn't suprising that he hated being alone, with his naturally loud demeanor, he needed people to listen to it in order to keep sane, the demon in his stomache was no excuse. 'Hey kit! Why so silent today?' Came the foxes dominating question, or so he thought, he had a really bad superiority complex. 'Nothing's wrong, something just... Feels off about today...' 'Maybe because it's your birthday and you can't seem to find anyone to spend it with?' 'No!...Well... Ya... Damn.. I really hate that you can read my mind but I can't read yours!' The Kuubi shrugged, 'It's not my fault kit, though I do prefer it.' The fox then smirked, 'Kit, I'd stop walking, you just walked right past the ramen shop you love so much...' Naruto snapped out of his conversation with Kuubi and looked behind him.
He had indeed walked by it, at least by three yards, he then smiled, shook his head lighthly, and turned back, noticing his good friend Sakura was sitting there with Ino and had watched him walk past. "Something on your mind Naruto?" She seemed to look worriedly at him, as did Ino, but he sat down and smiled widely at them. "No! Everything's fine now! I just had to sort some stuff out, that's all!" 'So they hadn't remembered it was my birthday... Oh well! It doesn't matter!' 'Are you sure kit..?' 'Ya ya, it's fine!' He then mentally blocked Kubbi, which he had forgotten to do earlier I guess, and began eating the ramen that the ever familiar shop owner laid out before him, he thanked him and received a smile in return, making his heart warm up ever so slightly.
When he had finished, he placed the bowl by the front counter, like he'd always done, said his goodbyes to Sakura and Ino, even though he'd probably see them later, and headed back towards the park. On his way, he'd even bumped into Kakashi and Iruka, Iruka was like an entire family to him, he protected him like an older brother would, he would teach him things he'd always need to know and remember like a father would, and he'd fuss and worry about him like a mother would. Iruka was indeed the whole package, it's just that to get him as a prize, you'd have to take the pervert at his waist as a rejected booby prize as well. But hey, Naruto could deal with that. Having no family of his own, he found it reasuring that there were actually people out there who cared.
He was then snapped from his thoughts as Iruka spoke, "Naruto, are you alright..? You seem a bit off today..." Naruto shook his head violently, "No Iruka-sensei! Nothing's wrong!" Iruka looked at Kakashi, who shrugged then looked back over to the blonde, "Ok... But here! Happy Birthday Naruto!" He handed over a rather large box, making the blonde turn a deep crimson color, and Iruka smile. "You didn't think I'd forget what today was, did you?" Naruto shrugged and got wapped upside the head lightly, "I would not! Don't even think like that!" He then huffed and Kakashi gave him an awkward look, then looked back to Naruto and placed his own smaller gift on top of Iruka's. "You use these gifts well now, you hear?" Naruto nodded and Kakashi chuckled and ruffled his hair, making him scrunch his face in protest. He then let go of the blonde and began dragging Iruka off with a slight wave, Iruka on the other hand, continued talking until he was out of earshot. "Well, we gotta get going! We'll hopefully see you later today Naruto! Make sure to stay warm, don't talk to strangers, and have a happy B-day!!!" Naruto sighed, what was he? Four? He then smiled lightly and shook his head. Man was his parental figure over protective. He then looked up, he'd guessed that he'd started walking again on instinct, because he'd suddenly found himself directly outside the park.
"Hey! Naruto! What took you so long?!" Came Kiba's loud voice, his was the only one that could rival Naruto's. "Me? I was here at six thirty, and left for ramen when no one was here! Then I got side tracked on the way back!!" He saw Kiba snort. " You and your bloody ramen! And why were you here that early?" Naruto thought about it as he closed in on Kiba and the rest of the group and shrugged, he didn't know what had compelled him to wake up that early, if anything, it was probably Kuubi or some noise that got him out of his 'dead sleep'. "H-hi N-naruto..." At his name, he looked over and noticed Hinata. Actually, while Naruto's thinking about it, he'll give you brief descriptions of each.
Hinata is a girl who'd moved there about a month ago, she was very shy, even when coming from such a prestigious backround as the Huuga's, but her twin brother Neji was very close to her and kept a good eye on her. Actually, as a matter a fact, he personally inspected each one of the members of the group in order to find a 'suitable setting' for her, and finally, after much thought, he agreed that Naruto and his group were 'worthy' of hanging out with her. He doesn't need a description, he's just who he is, you'll understand him eventually. But for a little random info, despite him refusing to be popular, he's still got a ton of fangirls. Soon after the 'Worthy Incodent', he'd become very intrested in Gaara, who was rather quiet but when he wanted to be, quite dangerous. Speaking of Gaara, he also had a demon within him. It's name is Shukaku and he completely loathes Kuubi down to his very demented soul. It was quite a pain for Naruto to hang out with Gaara on some occasions, seeing as their demons would always attempt to fight each other verbally through their container's bodies. Then their was Shikamaru. Well, to put him simply, he's a genious who thinks life is troublesome and does nothing but laze about as much as possible, to prove a point, the teachers gave up on him in P.E., but passed him to get him out of there so they wouldn't have to mess with him anymore. Him and Naruto and Kiba had been best buds since grade school. Next we have Temari. She's a gothic 'hottie' as Kiba puts it, and is also the year older sibling of Gaara, though she's a bit easier to work with on some occasions. At the moment, she's dating Shikamaru. Yes, shocking, I know, but it seems to be working out ok. Choji now, is a whole nother story, he's kinda... Well, boarish, but he's very easy going, and is willing to help when he can. Now the final combatant is Kiba. He's rather hotheaded, but he'll lay down his life for you if need be, plus he's extreamly loyal, and... Well... He's obsessive about dogs... Now, you must be asking, "Oh, but you forgot Sakura and Ino!" No, I didn't forget about them, they only count as friends when none of their own is around, they're rabid fangirls of Teme-I mean Sasuke Uchiha, but he's not worth explaining, you'll probably hear about him later anyways. But the two fangirls that were just explained are also some of the most popular kids in school in Konoha... I'll explain status and crap later. Now that you are all aware of the characters, lets get back to the plot.
Naruto waved kindly to Hinata and smiled, making her blush. Naruto then turned to Gaara, "What's up Gaara?"."Hn.. I'm fine." Choji then jumped into the conversation, "Wha'd you do over the break Naruto?" Thinking hard, Naruto thought of everything he'd done that summer, which wasn't all that much, so he settled on a, "Well... I worked.. Heheh.!" Then, out of no where, a green blur appeared and jumped on Naruto. "Oh, for the love of youth! You wasted all your time working? What a shame for such young energy to be spent in such a way!!!" Everyone sweatdropped and replied, "Hi Lee.." The Lee we all know and love, yes, I know, love is an overstatement, is also a jock. He's just one of those really weird nice ones that you meet once in a lifetime, if at all. "Hello my wonderfully youthful friends!" More sweatdrops, "How are you on such a fine day as this? Are you ready for school to start back up today?!" He got random 'fine's and 'yes's, as well as a couple of 'no's from a certain two I'm sure that you know already.
Suprisingly, Neji was the one who broke the silence, "So... What's going on in the grape vine Lee?" Did I tell you Neji loves gossip? No..? Well, you know now... "Oh! Other then the usual, nothing new's about... Oh, wait! There was something! All the fangirls are saying Uchiha Sasuke has a crush on some chick... Said they heard him mumbling something while walking home from the market about 'taking them outta the way to get to the prize', or something like that... It was quite odd, it seems that some of the girls from our school are stalking him..." The sweatdrops are back, 'Everyone who's anyone already knows Sasuke's been stalked for most of his life Lee..' Lee chuckled nervously at the gazes he was recrieving then looked over to Naruto when he spoke, "You know, the Teme is asexual, right? He wouldn't like anyone other then himself because he's a concieted bastard. What if he was talking about, well, a prize in some contest or something? People could be dieing right now and we'd never know it!" They all looked at Naruto, he actually looked like he was thinking deeply on the subject, then Temari pulled out a camera from nowhere and snapped a picture, snapping Naruto form all thought that he was attempting to use. "What was that for!?!" He yelled and waved his arms madly. "You thinking hard, it's something I wanna remember, and pictures always help." Temari smirked evily, giving off the hidden meaning of 'And I have a feeling there'll be a lot more were that came from!' And that statement-like grin gave Naruto a cold sweat, it lasted about as long as Naruto's mindtrack though. "H-hey... Should w-we be getting to c-class now..?" Everyone looked at her, then at each other, and smiled. They headed off, ready to see what their junior year of Highschool would bring.
For a first day back, it wasn't as bad as Naruto thought it would be, he'd helped a couple freshman find their classes, and now they seemed to follow him around like baby chicks, a little annoying, but intresting all the same as he saw that Shikamaru also had kids following him around, making Naruto giggle miscifously and ask, "How's it going with you Shika? Having fun?" He heard a mumbled 'Troublesome kids...' and watched as Sikamaru passed a note to him and told him it was for Temari, since he was currently... Preoccupied and all... So Naruto had a new mission objective: Find Temari and give her the (possibly dirty) note from Shikamaru... Should be easy, right..? Wrong! That chick could be anywhere in this god forsaken school! Naruto then thought of a good idea for once, and decided to send off his new little freshman on a man hunt... Er, ok, 'women' hunt... He showed them a picture that he had in his wallet of all of his friends and pointed to Temari happily, "Ok you guys! We are now in chase of a girl named Temari, this is her right here, and if you see her, tell her to find Naruto, all right? Who ever finds her and gives her the message gets a free lunch today!" All three of the kids looked pumped and ran off in different directions, each wanting to beat the other. Naruto chuckled and walked off in the direction that hadn't been taken, "I guess I'll search too... There's always a chance I might win!" He continued on his merry little way, not once noticing that there was someone watching him up until he went around the corner.
End of Chapter 1!
Man! This is one of the coolest stories I've made in a long while! I hope you all enjoyed it, even if it did seem rather... Well, probably boring, I tend to go into too much detail on somethings and not enough on others! But tell me what you thought because I like feed back! Questions are good too! All my 'On-a-whim' stories are sometimes pretty good, so I hope it was sweet!... Oh ya, and I don't own Naruto either, if I did, well, I'd make sure I had spell-check on my computer (Which I don't, I write everything in wordpad) Plus, I'd be anouncing it to the world andprobably go on a stupid whim and make a themepark or something... See, it's for the best that I don't own Naruto. I'm one of those crazies that for some odd reason actually act like the main character (AKA Naruto) and don't even know it until their weird friend who acts kinda like Gaara tells them!.. Wow, that was a long sentence! But back to other importances, I'd like to ask you readers to reveiw! It makes it all the more fun to write when I get reveiws!