Hello all,

Alright I've found that I'm developing a bit of a block on my Ouran/Inuyasha stories so I'm going to set them aside for a week or two. I'm going to use this story as a filler to keep the creativity flowing. This is my first time doing a Dresden files story as well as writing in first person. Please be kind and I hope all of you like it.

I've seen a lot of scary things in my life, way too much in my opinion. I've faced Vampires, Zombies, and Werewolves [Oh my] and they didn't scare me as much as the two people sitting in front of me. It wasn't their appearances; they looked rather normal, other than the fact that the woman's boobs had be at least an EE cup but that's besides the point. What was making me consider running away screaming was the amount of power that was coming off of them in waves. My wizard senses were screaming at me to get away NOW. Of course, I wasn't listening. They apparently wanted me to do a job and I kinda needed the money. Being a professional wizard doesn't exactly rake in the dough you know.

"What exactly do you want me to do Miss?" I asked, keeping my tone polite.

The woman's lips pulled up in a smirk and she leaned back in her chair, looking rather comfortable. The kid, there was no other word for him because he looked barely older than sixteen, sitting next to her was staring off into space as if questioning why he was here.

"You are very quick to the point Mr. Dresden." she said with amusement. I could detect a faint Asian accent in her voice. "I want to hire you to protect someone." Her golden eye flickered over to the boy next to her.

Ah, so that was it. Maybe the kid was her son? They did look a little alike now that I stared at them closely. I also noticed the look of anger that passed over the kid's face as she spoke. Apparently he didn't think that he needed protection…great. Though why ask for a Wizard's help when you obviously had a very large supply of power. I leaned over my desk, linking my fingers together in front of my face as I thought. So basically I'd be baby sitting Goldie Locks over there, shouldn't be too hard.

"I assume you know my rates?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at the woman. When she nodded I continued, a weary tone to my voice. "Fine, I'll do it."

A large smile broke out on her face and the kid groaned, obviously hoping that I'd refuse. The woman took out a very large envelope and placed it on the table. I reached out my hand and picked it up. I opened it and pulled out another envelope, peaking inside of it and seeing more money than I'd seen in a long time. She laughed at my expression and I could only stare at her for a moment.

"This is a lot of money to be throwing around Lady," I said, sounding incredulous. Her smile grew wider and she waved a dismissive hand.

"I'm the leader of the village and I'm willing to pay what ever it takes to keep Naruto safe," she said in a serious voice.

The kid, whose name I was going to venture to guess was Naruto, glared at her but she seemed to take no mind of it. In fact she didn't even seem to notice. How someone could not notice a glare that frightening I don't know, because I know it scared the shit out of me. And I was supposed to watch this kid for an undetermined frame of time? Lovely.

I turned my attention to the papers inside of the envelope and skimmed them quickly. Ninja, huh? Well that was certainly strange but I have no room to talk so I kept my mouth shut. The further I read the more and more these people made sense to me. The woman sure did take great notes; it explained everything from the ranking system in Konoha to everything there was to know about Naruto. I couldn't see why the woman wanted him protected.

"I have to be going now Mr. Dresden, we will be in touch." She said, rising to her feet.

Naruto made a move to follow her, perhaps to argue with her about being left with me but he didn't seem to get the chance. It seemed she knew exactly what he was going to say and stopped him before he could fully rise from the chair. She placed a hand upon his shoulder and shook her head.

"Naruto it's safer for you, and the village, for you to stay here." she said quietly. I could see his shoulders slump as he gave up trying to reason with her. I felt a little bad for the kid, he obviously wanted to be fighting what ever was after him not sit here and be protected by me. I could understand that.

We sat in silence for a moment after she left, he didn't meet my eyes and I didn't say anything. I glanced briefly down at the money and sighed. Might as well go get something to eat while I had the money – it'd been a while since I'd eaten anything other than spaghetti O's.

"Come on kid, lets get something to eat."

Ninjas: never thought I'd see the day. I took a swill of my beer as I read over the papers in more detail. Dear god, how was this kid still alive? It looked like more people wanted him dead than me, and that's saying a lot. I glanced up for a moment to look at the kid. He was picking at his food and I was surprised to see that he hadn't taken a bite of the godly food that Mac had made.

"What, afraid it's poisoned?" I asked, purely in jest. He glanced up at me, not amused.

"I don't even know what the hell this is!" he exclaimed, looking vaguely annoyed. I couldn't help but chuckle and shake my head. From out of the corner of my eye I could see Mac glaring at him as he cleaned the glasses.

"Just eat it kid, it won't hurt you." I said, picking up my fork and taking a bit myself. He watched me for a moment before digging into the food. I went back to reading and it was a few minutes before the he spoke again.

"So you're a wizard," he asked slowly. I didn't look up but nodded my head slowly. "As much as you're a ninja."

I glanced up and was surprised to see respect in his eyes. Normally when I told someone that I was a wizard they chuckled nervously and left quickly. Well I guess it wouldn't seem so strange to him, being a Ninja and all. Maybe he'd met a whole lot of Wizards back in his village, though I highly doubted that. I took another slow bite and thought of a way to phrase the question that was forming in my mind.

"Your record here says that you failed your exams three times, can I ask why?"

I saw immediately that this was the wrong thing to ask, as he immediately lowered his eyes and glared at his plate.

Great Harry, anger the Ninja that can most likely kill you in your sleep. Nice move.

"The first time the Teacher failed me because he didn't like me and the other times I just goofed off and decided I didn't care if they passed or failed me," he muttered, taking a bite of his food.

I stared at him for a long moment, surprisingly feeling angry for this boy I'd only known for a short time. How could people treat other people like this? I knew the answer of course but it still made me angry. I took another bite and let the subject drop. From what I'd read about this kid he was one of the most stubborn person I'd most likely ever encounter, other than myself of course. I also knew that he was trying to get stronger, maybe I could help with that. Why I was thinking about teaching him after I already had an apprentice I don't know. I'm not too bright at times.

"Who's Sasuke?"

It'd been bugging me while I read his information. It kept repeating that he wanted to get stronger to drag this Sasuke person back to the village. Never once did it say who this person was. I hoped that I could get this information out of him without a fight. He was silent for a long while and I began to worry that I'd struck another soft subject.

"He was my best friend before he betrayed the village. I'm going to get stronger and drag him back even if I have to break every bone in his body to do it."

I glanced up at him quickly, not expecting that. What did 'betrayed the village' mean? Hmm, another mystery. Just what I needed. Oh well. I yawned and drained the last of my beer. I needed to get home and let Mouse out before he decided to use Mister's litter box. I did not want to clean that up. I slapped some money on the table and pushed my chair back.

"Come on, time to head to my place."

Naruto stared around the apartment in wonder, but apparently like it because he immediately let his face split into a large smile and he plopped down on the sofa. I opened my mouth to say something when Mouse came barreling out from my room and jumped up onto the sofa...right onto Naruto.

"MOUSE OFF!!!" I yelled, rushing to pull the dog off of the teen. But I needn't have worried because within seconds Naruto had the dog sitting on the side of him rather than on top of him.

"Nice dog," he said, rubbing his chest.

"Yep, and it seems like he likes you." I chuckled, moving toward the trap door in the floor. I needed to speak to Bob about a few things and now seemed like the perfect time. "Make your self at home, don't leave the house. I'll be back in a minute," I said, pulling the trap door open.

"Whatever."

I didn't glance back at him as I climbed down into the basement and felt my teeth chatter. I hadn't grabbed my robe but I'd deal with it. I was only going to be down here for a few minutes anyway.

"Bob, wake up. I got a few questions that might challenge your almighty knowledge," I called, moving toward the skull on the shelf. It took a moment but orange lights blinked to life in the eye sockets of the skull. Bob stared down at me in silence for a moment.

"What is it now, got some murder case you have to investigate? Or is it some missing kid?" He asked sarcastically.

"No, I need to know what a Jinchuriki is," I said, sitting down on the stool near my work table.

"Someone you don't fuck with and if you're thinking about messing with one don't," Bob said, a slight bit of panic in his voice. "I'm serious Harry, Jinchuriki are very dangerous if you get on their bad side." I held up my hand and shook my head with a sigh.

"No need to worry, I've been hired to protect one but I don't know what they are." I closed my eyes wearily.

"Wow, that's strange. Most of them are powerful enough to protect themselves. Anyway, in basic they're human containers for the Tailed Demons," Bob said, a rare kind of respect in his voice. I opened my eyes to stare at him for a moment. So the kid sitting in my living room was a human container for a demon? Most likely a very powerful demon if it had to be sealed inside of a human, something I hadn't thought possible. "Which one are you protecting?" Bob asked, not noticing my preoccupation.

"Um...The Kyuubi...I think..." I muttered.

"Holy shit on a shingle Harry! That's the most powerful off all; it's the Nine Tailed Fox! This means that the kid you're protecting is from Konoha...that's the last place I heard the Kyuubi being. Nasty temper he had." Bob's eyes glowed brighter. I stared at him and let the information sink into my brain. So Naruto contained one of the most powerful of these demons... What had I gotten myself into now?!

"Anything else I should know about them? Any possible danger from him?" I asked, rubbing a hand over my eyes. Bob's chuckle only made me want to throw him. I just needed the damned answers.

"Not unless something really, really pisses him off or he's in great danger of dying. He'll be more likely to taking 'gifts' of the demons chakra. That might temporarily cause him to loose a bit of his reasoning abilities and go on a rampage," Bob said, his voice growing serious once more. I stared at him, understanding some of what he was saying. I didn't understand one thing though.

"What's Chakra?"

"Chakra is kinda like your magic, it's a type of life force. It allows them to use their techniques and such. It's a bit different than magic though, it's more versatile," he said. "I'm being totally serious here Harry, you might want to get some back up on this. Maybe Michael can help with this. Whoever is after this kid is big league if their going outside of the village to find help. Who's after him anyway?"

I nodded and rubbed my eyes once more. It was time to get some sleep and possibly a shower. "Some group named the Akatsuki." I muttered. I glanced up to see Bob frown, which was a feat all by itself seeing as he's in a skull and all.

"You sure have your hands full here Harry, they're a bunch of criminals that most don't fuck with."

"Yeah well I'm not most people, am I?" I got up and walked toward the trapdoor. I needed sleep and time to think of a plan. "Thanks for the info Bob, I'll be sure to get you new romance novels."

"No problem. Hey, ask the Container if he can get a hold of some Make out Paradise books, okay?"

I hope all of you like it, I'm going to start work on the next chapter soon and seeing as Thanksgiving break is coming up I'm going to get time to work on it then. Well until next chapter

Sailor Emerald