Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Sad but true.

It was starting to rain slightly as Naruto made his way across the grounds to the dean's office. One of his professors had requested that he take some papers to her. Apparently they weren't all that important or professor Iruka would have asked a more responsible student to complete the task.

Naruto glared at the murky clouds and made to pull his hood up but froze midway through the gesture as he heard a sound coming from the trees to his left. He listened closer and quickly discerned that it was a person crying.

Naruto made his way through the bushes surrounding the forest and found a girl about his age sitting on the ground with her back against a tree. She was curled in on herself and her body shook with her sobs. Naruto also noticed that her shirt, though reddish brown at first glance, had actually been white but was now stained with blood. The girl had many small cuts adorning nearly every inch of exposed skin and some rips in her tattered clothes revealed larger gashes that were still oozing blood.

"Holy shit! Are you ok?" Naruto said as he quickly crouched down next to the girl. She flinched violently at his voice and swift movements but once she realized he meant no harm, she eventually calmed down.

"I'm fine," she said quietly. Naruto scoffed loudly at her.

"Are you kidding me? You're practically bleeding out right in front of me! We've gotta get you to a hospital or something," Naruto stood as he spoke and offered the girl his hand.

"No! They'll find me if I go there. I can't let them find me," she said as she curled back into herself. She ignored Naruto's hand.

"Well at least let me take you to the nurse," said Naruto.

Naruto waited for the girl to decide but it didn't take her long. She took his hand but when she got to her feet she nearly fell. Naruto ended up carrying the girl to the nurse's station. He could deliver those papers later.

"Naruto! What happened? Who is this?" Shizune exclaimed as Naruto walked in with the strange, bloody girl.

"I found her like this around the edge of the grounds in the trees. She never did tell me her name," said Naruto as he placed the girl on one of the examining tables. The girl looked up at him when he mentioned not knowing her name and pulled him down to her level with surprising strength.

"My name is Shirasu. Okita Shirasu. Don't let them find me Naruto. I trust you. Please don't let them find me," she whispered.

"Shirasu, I promise I won't let anyone hurt you again. You can count on me," he said as he looked down at her. Looking past the grime on her face he could tell she was quite pretty. She had dark green eyes and a pale complexion with a light dusting of freckles around her nose and cheeks. She smiled gratefully at him with a set of pearly white teeth before letting go of his jacket.

"Naruto, I think you should leave. I need to dress her wounds and I can't do that while she has a shirt on. You can come back later to check on her if you like," said Shizune as she bustled around gathering all the things she would need to bandage Shirasu's numerous wounds.

"Sure thing Shizune-san," he said cheerily, then to Shirasu, "I'll come back. You'll be safe here. Try to get some sleep or something. You look like you could use a good nap," he said quietly and squeezed her hand gently before exiting the nurse's station.

Naruto shook his head as the cool air cleared his thoughts. He zipped his jacket up, pulled his hood up against the rain, and turned in the direction of the dean's office once more.

When he got there, Tsunade was asleep on her desk with an empty sake bottle precariously held in her limp hand. Naruto rolled his eyes at the spectacle and made his way into the large office.

"Hey! Granny! Wake up!" he said loudly to the snoring woman in front of him. She snorted loudly as she jerked into a sitting position, somehow managing to not drop the bottle she'd been holding.

"Naruto! You little shit, what the hell do you want?" Tsunade said grumpily.

"Professor Iruka sent me to give you these papers," Naruto said as he handed them to her across the desk. She snatched them away and Naruto smirked at her. He always managed to find it hilarious when Tsunade was pissy. Most normal people ran away in terror.

"Well, you did your job. What are you standing around for? Get out," said Tsunade as she waved Naruto away. He shrugged and left the room. He was debating telling her about Shirasu but at the last minute he decided Shizune could take on that task. Naruto wasn't in the mood to stress over it at the moment. Besides, he was anxious to see how she was doing. He had promised her that he would come back.

On his way back to the nurse's station he ran into Kito…literally.

"Naruto! Ugh, can you try to watch where you're going next time? Aw, man! Grass stains. These are my favorite pants!" said Kito as she examined the knees and back pockets of her jeans. She wasn't really paying much attention to Naruto anymore even though she was technically still talking to him.

"Sorry Kito. I'm just a little distracted is all. I just had an extremely weird half hour," he said as he looked at her with his apologetic face. Kito rolled her eyes at the look and indicated with her hands for him to continue.

"Well, I was on my way to Tsunade's office when I heard this girl crying in the forest around the outskirts of the grounds. Anyway, I found her and she was all bloody and cut up like she'd been in a bad fight. I took her to Shizune and told her I'd come back to check up on her. I was just on my way to do that," he finished with a shrug.

"What did she look like?" Kito said, now rapt with attention.

"She's really pale with freckles. Her eyes were really green. She looked like she could be a couple inches taller than you and she had brown hair. I remember, she's really pretty when she smiles," Naruto said as his eyes drifted away from Kito to stare off into space. Kito rolled her eyes again and snapped her fingers in his face to get his attention.

"Did she tell you her name?" she asked curiously.

"Uh, yeah. She said it was Shirasu. Okita Shirasu,"

"Is it okay if I come with you to see her? That name sounds kinda familiar," said Kito as she picked up her backpack.

"Yeah sure. Come on. You shouldn't be out in this weather anyway. I wouldn't want my little Kito-chan to catch cold," Naruto said sweetly as he draped a warm arm around Kito's shoulder. Kito scoffed lightly and smiled at the cheesy flirting.

As they made their way across the lawn, Kito asked Naruto a few more questions about the strange girl Shirasu.

"What did her wounds look like? Obviously she'd been bleeding a lot but did they look like knife wounds or just scratches like she'd fallen or something?" Kito inquired as they walked together. Naruto appeared to look thoughtful for a moment before answering.

"Now that I think about it, she had a lot of both. It looked like she'd been sliced open a few times and most of the smaller wounds looked like scratches from thorns or branches, like she'd been tearing through some rough woods for awhile." Kito nodded as she listened.

Naruto held the door to the nurse's station open for Kito but then nearly ran into her when she froze in the doorway.

"Whoa Kito what's up? Why'd you stop?" Naruto walked around to face Kito but even when he was right in front of her, she ignored him completely. Her eyes were totally fixed on the sleeping girl inside.

"Okita," she said slowly.

Thanks for reading. If you get a chance, check out the companion to this story written by my best friend Protector of the Pharaoh.