Disclaimer: I hold no claims or rights over Naruto and its characters.

Chapter 1:

Peddlers from Wave

Clink. Clank. Clink.

Four travelers slowly made their way through Fire Country's vast forestland, keeping to the well-worn dirt path that was supposed to lead them to Konoha's front gate. Two young boys headed the group with two older men bringing up the rear; sandwiched between them was a large peddling cart that creaked and groaned with each step.

Seemingly oblivious to the two men struggling to keep up with them, the two boys kept a fairly quick, but constant pace as they conversed in light tones. The two men were too far away to hear what they were saying, but somehow, they found the boys' seeming contentment and quiet ease to be somewhat…annoying.

"Boss," the one pushing the peddling cart wheezed as he struggled to stop the cart from sliding back down the mini-sized hill. Then, cresting over, he immediately had to dig his heels into the earth to slow its descent and prevent it from running the two boys into flat pancakes. "Can't we slow down?" he gasped, slumping over once they had reached flat ground again. Even after eight hours of traveling through this terrain, he still couldn't understand why there were so many damn hills in the middle of a forest.

"Yeah, can't we take a break?" his fellow laborer piped in when it became apparent that the two boys were set on ignoring them. "I think my legs are going to break!" he groaned loudly, making a show of wobbling from side to side as he juggled the six oversized suitcases in his thick arms. "I don't think I –"

Both men immediately flinched when their boss stopped and turned around, finally acknowledging them with a blank look. "Three hours into the trip, you claimed you needed a break. An hour after that, you claimed you needed lunch. Then, two hours after that, you wanted a bathroom break. Because of you two, we're already hours behind schedule." He paused then, turning to confirm something with his assistant, before focusing his attention back on them. "I'm deducting pay from the next person who complains or tries to slow us down."

The two spluttered.

"What was that, Taki?"

The hulking man furiously shook his head. His pride be damned. The kid may only be 15, but he was freaky. He felt a twitch at his side as his friend shifted. He turned to warn him to drop the issue (it wasn't worth it), but their boss noticed it and beat him to it.

"Anything you wanted to say instead, Take?"

There was slight pause before the man (the brave, but foolish fellow, Taki thought to himself) ventured in a quiet voice, "W-Why don't you help us with the cart? Or…Or some of the luggage?"

The boss quirked an eyebrow, pinning them with a look that made them feel distinctly insignificant. "That would be because I am paying you. What's the point of hiring you two if I end up doing the physical labor anyway?"

"…"

"Right," their boss's assistant suddenly laughed, his usually gentle voice tinged with a hint of unease as he clapped his hands together in an attempt to break the awkward silence that had settled around them. "Konoha should be straight ahead. I estimate another hour or so, and we'll be able to call it a day."

The two men sighed, resigning themselves to another hour of torture as they began shuffling along again. The clinkering and clattering of the peddling cart immediately filled the silence as it groaned to life again.

"By the way," their boss's voice broke through the relative silence of the darkening night, "I am deducting 16 ryos off of each of you for the 8 minutes we wasted back there." His steps never slowed, oblivious and uncaring to the groaning and moaning of his two hired-hands.

The two men sighed in discontent, but experience told them that there was no point in arguing. Their boss was freaky and greedy, and on top of that, there was just simply no winning in an argument with him.

Uzumaki Naruto frowned as he was 'accidentally' shoved out of the market. Tumbling backwards into the street, he turned angry, blue eyes on the shopkeeper and shouted as loudly as he could, "What's your problem, old man? I just wanted to get some milk and eggs!"

Two cartons of milk were thrown at his feet as a large egg flew out of the grocery shop and cracked against his forehead. As the yoke slowly dribbled down his face and off his chin, he sat there numbly, torn between the usual sense of hurt and a growing sense of anger. He didn't understand why. He should be use to this by now, but somehow he never stopped hoping that one day, they would treat him like a normal customer.

"Damn you old man!" he shouted, hiding his hurt behind anger. "You'll regret this when I become Hokage one day! Believe it!"

He was immediately pelted with more eggs.

"Oi! I said –"

"Excuse me."

Turning, he glared at the idiot that had interrupted him. "What?"

The boy gave him a slanted look. "Are they hosting a special event?"

"Special event?" he squawked indignantly, waving and flapping his arms in anger. "Are you blind? They just threw eggs and milk at me." At that, he glared pointedly at the unharmed egg that the boy was holding between his thumb and forefinger.

"Only for you?" the boy asked.

Scowling, Naruto puffed himself up. If the boy was trying to pick a fight, then – Naruto flinched when the boy's hand suddenly wrapped around his wrist. "O-Oi!" he shouted, eyes wide with fear. "What are you –" He immediately quieted when the boy placed the unharmed egg in his palm before bending down to pick up the two cartons of milk that was lying at their feet.

"Konoha's a strange place." the boy murmured, seemingly to himself. Then, handing him the two cartons of milk, he continued musingly, "Do you think I'd be able to get the same response if I tried?"

Naruto blinked, rather confused. Was the boy…insane?

The boy offered him a slight smile that wasn't really a smile at all. Yet, it was the first kind look that someone – outside of Iruka-sensei and the Old Man Hokage – had directed at him in a long time. Unwittingly, Naruto found himself grinning back. He guessed that it didn't really matter if the boy was insane.

"Does this always happen?" the boy asked, gazing curiously at the shop.

Naruto stamped down the urge to frown again. "Yeah," he muttered, "I don't know why you'd want them to throw things at you, but you don't have to try. It only happens to me." He glanced at the boy through the corner of his eye then, wondering if he was going to ask him why people treated him like that. And then, he wondered if the boy, like the rest of the villagers, was going to start avoiding him as well. It was not the first time that something like that has happened after all. The boy was not the first traveler or visitor to pass through Konoha, and Naruto had enough experience with 'newcomers' to know that it was only a matter of time before they picked up on the village's dislike towards him and began avoiding him too.

The boy, however, didn't take the bait. Instead, Naruto realized with growing confusion, the boy looked rather…disappointed…by his answer. "Are you crazy? I thought you were joking. Do you really wantto be pelted by food?" he asked without thinking.

The boy gave him a look that suggested that he was the crazy one. "Why are you looking so scandalized?" he asked. "I would love it if I could just stand here, tell them what I need, and have them throw it to me for free."

Naruto tried to inconspicuously scoot a little farther away from the wacko. He didn't want to take the chance and find out that insanity was contagious. Though, he mused to himself, it did kind of make sense…No. No! He was not going down that insane road of –

"…at the Konoha Leaf Inn."

"Huh?" Naruto asked, snapping out of his internal horror when he realized the older boy had been speaking to him.

The boy gave him a mildly irritated look. "I said my group is going to set up our peddling cart at the Konoha Leaf Inn tomorrow. Come by and I'll give you a discount."

Naruto's eyes widened. "You want me to go to your shop?"

The boy gave him a blank look. "It was just a suggestion; you don't have to go if you're so opposed –"

"No!" Naruto shouted loudly, attracting a good amount of attention to them. "I'll go! I'll definitely be there, believe it!" Then, lowering his voice slightly, he asked excitedly, "Are you really going to give me a discount?"

"Isn't that what I just said?"

Naruto's lips stretched into a brilliant, wide smile. "Thanks, Freaky!"

The boy twitched, eyes narrowing. "Don't call me that."

"Ehehehe," Naruto laughed, scratching the back of his head in nervousness. He hadn't meant to say that out loud. The boy was just so weird that it had seemed right to call him Freaky. But when the older boy turned away, Naruto was suddenly afraid that he had made the boy angry. Clutching the egg and two cartons of milk carefully in his arms, he hurried to catch up with the boy. "Hey."

The boy continued walking as if he hadn't heard.

"Oi, teme, I'm talking to you!" Naruto shouted, slightly angry as he shifted all his items to one arm so he could grab the boy with the other.

The egg slipped from his arm. The boy caught it with his free hand before it could crack against the ground.

"T-Thanks," Naruto murmured, subdued, as the boy handed it back to him.

"Well?" the boy asked, eyeing the hand he still had around his arm.

Naruto promptly released his grip. "I, uh…I," he mumbled, suddenly at a loss for words.

The boy sighed, his blank look melting away to something kinder. "I'll be expecting you tomorrow."

"Um, yeah, I-I'll be there…"

"Itachi."

"What?" Naruto asked.

"My name." the boy answered before continuing on his way.

Naruto stared quietly for a moment before quickly snapping out of it. Raising his voice, he loudly shouted, "Naruto! My name's Uzumaki Naruto!"

Itachi gave no indication that he had heard.

"You okay, Naruto?" Chouji asked, giving the blond a slightly worried look. Naruto had looked extremely distracted today – even more so than usual – and he kept glancing at the clock every few minutes. "You need to use the bathroom or something?" he asked when the blond began wiggling uncomfortably in his seat.

"No, just promised someone I'd be somewhere after class."

"Tch, troublesome." muttered Shikamaru, giving him a blearily look that suggested he had just woken from a long nap. "Stop moving around so much, it's annoying. Class ends in a few minutes."

"I know." Naruto pouted, going back to looking at the clock.

"Who're you meeting?" Chouji asked, popping open a bag of chips.

There was a slight pause before he answered, "A...friend." However, the slight hesitation in his tone was obvious.

"A girl?" asked Chouji, grinning slightly.

Shikamaru looked like he wanted to roll his eyes, but then figured it was too troublesome and settled for an exasperated sigh instead.

"…No." Naruto answered.

"You had to think about that?" Chouji asked, lifting both eyebrows. The unspoken question was obvious: Are you stupid?

"Well, he looks damn girly!" Naruto defended himself, jumping out of his seat. Immediately, everyone's eyes were on him. "Uh…" he blinked.

"Naruto, detention!" Iruka shouted.

Groaning, Naruto slumped back in his seat, forehead slamming against the flat surface of the desk. Why did this always happen to him?

"So," Chouji continued in a whisper once Iruka had resumed teaching. "What does he look like?" When Naruto stubbornly refused to answer or even look at him, Chouji nudged him with his foot. "Well?"

Sighing, Naruto gave in and answered in a whisper, "Well, he has really dark eyes and his face is kind of pale, but not in the sick kind of way. He has long, black hair and he's…kind of…um…" Naruto struggled to find to describe how Itachi had looked without making it sound wrong.

Chouji, however, thought Naruto was done. Giving him a hard look, he asked "Are you talking about Sasuke?"

"What?" Naruto immediately shouted, jumping up again in horror.

"NARUTO!" shouted Iruka.

"Eek," Naruto promptly sunk back into his chair.

"Obviously not," Shikamaru yawned tiredly, laying his head on top of his crossed arms. "Sasuke doesn't have long hair."

"Oh, yeah," Chouji blinked. "So what are you –" He didn't have a chance to finish his question as the bell rang, signaling the end of class. Naruto was gone faster than he could blink. Or, at least, he would have if he hadn't been caught by Iruka at the doorway.

"Bye Naruto!" Chouji grinned, ignoring Naruto's burning glower as he left the classroom with Shikamaru.

It was already late in the afternoon when Iruka-sensei finally allowed him to leave, and to make matters worse, he had forgotten where Itachi had said his group was going to be setting up their peddling cart.

Thus, when he finally arrived, huffing loudly and out of breath, most of the peddlers were already gone. Only a few were still around, packing up their goods. A quick glance around revealed that none of them were Itachi. Frowning, Naruto glared glumly at the ground. He had been really, really looking forward to this. And now Itachi probably thought he had broken his promise or something!

"Hey, you okay?" a gentle voice asked from behind him.

Glancing back, Naruto instantly flushed a light pink when he found a pretty girl looking at him with concern. "Y-Yeah, of course!" he shouted. Then, not quite sure what else to say, he added, "Believe it!"

The pretty girl laughed, and Naruto found that he immediately liked the gentle sound. "If you're interested, we haven't completely cleaned up yet. Our humble cart is over there," she said, pointing to large cart that had an assortment of clothes and little trinkets laid out. Above the cart was a thin wire holding up several strings of metal pots and pans.

"Uh, yeah, sure." answered Naruto, the dilemma about Itachi temporarily forgotten.

"Taki, Take," the pretty girl called out to the two large men manning the peddling cart as they neared it. "We have another customer."

"Another?" one of the men groaned, frustrated. "When is it going to end?"

Naruto paused, wondering if he was being rejected again. But, the pretty girl had invited him! Right…?

The other man must have noticed his troubled look because he immediately called out, "Nothing personal, kid. It's just that we've been working since morning without lunch or break! The boss said no breaks until all the customers are satisfied."

Convinced that they weren't going to shove him away, Naruto quickly bounded up to them and asked, "Really?" At their solemn nods, Naruto gave them a sympathetic look. "Wow, your boss must be one hell of a bastard!"

"Indeed," a bemused voice answered, causing both men to stiffen.

Naruto paused. That voice sounded familiar…Looking back, a wide smile immediately stretched across his lips when he spotted the boy from yesterday. "Oi, Itachi!" he shouted, waving his hand wildly to the approaching boy. "Do you work for the same boss as these guys?" he asked, unaware of the terror that had suddenly entered the two men's eyes.

"No," Itachi answered with a blank look as he stopped before them. "I'm the bastard you were commiserating about."

"Commit it what?" Naruto asked, tilting his head in confusion. But then, after a moment, the implication of it finally set it. "Wait, you mean you're the boss?" At Itachi's slight nod, Naruto squawked again. "But you're like only 13!"

Itachi pinched the bridge of his nose. "Are you going to insult me every time we meet?" he asked, earning a guilty look from Naruto. "And for you're information, I'm 15." As Naruto processed the new information, Itachi directed Taki and Take to begin cleaning up. He doubted that anymore customers would be coming today.

"So, where are we going to go eat, boss?" Taki asked excitedly, his mouth watering at the thought of food. He was so hungry.

"Yeah, boss." Take continued, eyes slightly gazed at the thought of food. "I heard that there was a pretty good barbeque place around here. Or, or we could go to that one seafood grill we passed yesterday!"

Itachi gave them a deadpanned look. "Now," he asked, "Why would we eat out when I've already gone through the trouble of making us dinner?"

The two men blinked. "You cooked?"

From the two men's surprised tone, Naruto guessed that Itachi didn't cook often. But then, the pretty girl spoke up in a slightly hesitant and suspicious tone. "Itachi-sama, what exactly did you make? And how did you convince the inn to let you borrow their kitchen?"

"It wasn't that hard. All I needed was some boiled water."

"Boiled water?" asked Taki.

"That's it?" echoed Take.

Naruto watched as the pretty girl slapped her hand against her face. "Itachi-sama," she began in a longsuffering tone, "Did you, by any chance, make ramen again?"

"Ramen?" echoed Naruto, his voice joining the other two. However, unlike their tone of disgust and disappointment, his voice was raised in excitement.

"But Boss," the two complained. "We had ramen last night! And we've worked all day!"

However, their complaints were washed out by Naruto's exuberate shout of "Ramen? You're having ramen? The heavenly food of the gods?"

"Please don't encourage him," the pretty girl cut in, exasperated.

Naruto bit his tongue. Must resist…He wanted to defend his precious ramen, but he didn't want to irritate the pretty girl who had been so nice to him earlier. Thus, unknowingly, he contributed his own part to the awkward silence that had settled around them.

Itachi shifted, breaking the silence. "The ramen is getting soggy."

The two men grimaced.

A loud stomach growled.

Realizing everyone was staring at him, Naruto awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Hehe," he laughed, a little embarrassed. "I didn't eat lunch."

The pretty girl sighed as she turned to him. "It's not much, but if Itachi-sama's alright with it, you can join us for soggy ramen."

Hopeful, Naruto immediately turned wide, pleading blue eyes on the older boy.

Itachi sighed. "Help them pack up."

"Aye, aye, Boss!" he shouted, giving him a salute as his face split into a wide grin.

"I call dibs on the last bowl!"

"No way, it's mine."

"I did more work!"

"I pushed the cart!"

"Well, I –"

"Hey! Where's the ramen?" the two men shouted when they finally realized the last bowl of cup ramen was missing. A quick glance at their boss immediately earned them a cold look, and even without looking, they knew it wasn't the assistant manager. The kid hated the soggy stuff even more than they did (and they only ate it because it was better than going hungry during the night).

Naruto blinked when he suddenly found himself at the other end of two hungry looks. Knowing the look and understanding his ramen was in danger, he quickly inhaled it in one gulp. He burped as the two older men sat back with a groan of disappointment.

"Damn, you ate even more than we did!" The two shared a look, counting the number of ramen cups stacked in front of the blond kid. Twelve – the kid had inhaled twelve cups of ramen in less than 30 minutes. "How is that even possible?"

Naruto grinned, leaning back in satisfaction as he watched the others finish their meal. The ramen was nothing compared to Ichiraku's, and the noodles were a little soggy, but for some reason, it felt like the best meal he had ever had. Silently, he wondered if this was what it was like to eat dinner with a family. Although, something about the entire setting seemed a little off. "So," he said, waving a hand around the room, and barely missed stabbing Taki in the eye with his chopsticks. "Do you guys always come to eat in the same room?"

"It's not like we have a choice." Taki answered, pulling the makeshift, wooden weapon from his hands to prevent him from swinging it around (and endangering his eyeballs) again.

"Huh?" Naruto asked, turning his head towards Itachi, who was sitting crossed-leg on the only bed in the room.

It was the pretty girl who answered his unvoiced question. "Naruto-kun…We all sleep in the same room."

Naruto's eyes widened comically. "What!" he shouted in surprise. The room was smaller than his bedroom! He barely had enough room to move his arms without hitting someone; how did the four of them sleep in one room?

The girl shifted, pressing her back against the wall as she struggled to find the words to explain the situation. "We were trying to save money. You see, Itachi-sama…he's…"

"A cheap bastard," Take blurted without thinking. Then, realizing his boss was right there, he quickly slapped his large hands over his mouth. "I mean –"

"Wait!" Naruto shouted, cutting Take off as he jumped up, scattering the empty ramen cups across the room. Pointing a finger at Itachi, he shouted, "I can understand saving money, but how can you let your wife sleep in a room with three guys?"

"…"

"I mean, it's wrong, right?" Naruto looked around in confusion, his exuberance quickly dwindling when he realized everyone was looking at him like he was a freak. H-Had he said something he shouldn't have? "Well, that's what Iruka-sensei told us. When we went camping, he said guys and girls can't share the same tent, and…"

"Naruto," Itachi cut in, rubbing a hand over his eyes. "Are we talking about Haku?"

Staring at the depressed girl, who had her shoulders slumped in defeat, Naruto was suddenly unsure what he should say. "Y-Yes…?" If possible, the girl's mood darkened even further at his answer.

"First off, the idea of me having a wife at 15 is simply…ludicrous."

"Lewd and crust?" repeated Naruto, cocking his head in confusion.

Itachi sighed, "Haku is not my wife. He's –"

"…Your girlfriend?" Naruto asked.

"No, he's –"

"Wait a second! Did you just say HE?"

"I see your brain does function every now and then."

Ignoring (or missing) the insult, Naruto continued loudly, "But that's impossible! You're prettier than a girl, but at least I can tell you're a guy!"

Itachi blinked, wondering if he was supposed to take that as a compliment or an insult. But then, realizing Naruto was prone to speaking before thinking, and there was no way he had put that much thought into his words, he let the matter drop.

"…and there's just no way Haku is a guy!"

Itachi tuned out the rest of Naruto's rant as he slanted a slightly worried glance at his assistant. He wondered how long it'd take Haku to pull out of depression this time. Hopefully before morning, or else he'd have to take over the accounting himself tomorrow. Taki and Take were reliable workers, but they were prone to miscalculating simply math and giving back too much change…

TBC