Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the Warcraft series; all related materials are the properties of their respective owners. In other words, watch where you point those lawyers, you big rich corporations.

A/n: First chapter up, for my first foray into a WOW crossover. Don't worry, you don't need any knowledge of WOW to read this. Hope you guy's enjoy it.

Also, thank you to my beta-reader- Hououza who helped immensely with this project.

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They stood facing off against one another, his face resolved, even in the face of her tears. He was breaking with every continuous second of her falling tears. Did she not understand that he could not do what she asked of him? He had given her his word, what kind of ninja would he be to go back on such a sacred vow? He saw the emotions swirl in Sakura's almond eyes and almost broke down himself…it was now or never. He turned to face her and tried to form a coherent sentence but as it so often does, his brain failed him. Instead he walked forward and embraced the object of his desire, he crushed her to his chest, not wanting to let go. By this time Sakura was a mess of tears; her normally neat hair was strewn over her face, some strands clinging to her wet cheeks. She just hugged him back, trying to convey just how much she had come to care about him…more than she could express in words. But as all good things come to an end so did their embrace. He bent down and picked up his pack, all the while he could feel Sakura's eyes boring into his back. There, it was all ready. He had trained long and hard for this, he had given his word…he would bring Sasuke back, for sure no matter how much it hurt them both.

There were no goodbyes; he just walked forward without looking back. He knew that if he did look back at and say goodbye he would not be able to walk away. No, he had to do this; this was his way of the ninja.

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Sakura watched him go with a feeling of utmost sadness; Team seven was now officially no more. She felt responsible for this; it was her that made him promise to get Sasuke back all that time ago. Her childish infatuation could be the thing that could kill the young ninja she cared so deeply for. She knew that it was just not his leaving that caused her present state; it was another piece of information. Naruto did not know but he was deteriorating, the seal was starting to fail and in time it would fail totally and he would become little more than the Kyuubi's avatar, before that happened they would have no choice but to either imprison or kill him to protect the village.. Tsunade was in tears when she had said this to her. She wanted to tell Naruto, she really did but how do you tell someone as positive as Naruto that his days were numbered? That the curse that had been placed upon him since his birth, that he had fought so hard to win the respect of those around him despite its presence, would now only undo his good work. Now she could only pray for his safe return and maybe…his forgiveness. She looked at the retreating figure in the horizon, the sun dipping down in a very apt picture. She almost cried again as she realized that it was on this very same pathway of stone that years ago, Sasuke had said his good bye. Here, she had lost her teammates and friends both because of circumstances beyond their control. She wondered how life would be if Sasuke had not embarked on his mission of vengeance or if Naruto was had been spared the demon sealed upon him just after birth…dreams will only be just that, fleeting possibilities that might and most likely will, never happen. All she could do was hope and wait…forever if she had to for him to come back.

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It had been three days since Naruto left the village, he knew that he would be declared a missing Nin in another four but he did not care anymore. He had one purpose and one purpose alone, to fulfill his promise to Sakura…whatever the cost. He vaguely knew his destination, the hidden Village of Mist. He had gone there with Jiraiya during their training and it was said that the best spies and espionage experts in the world resided there. He would start searching for leads regarding the whereabouts of Orochimaru and Sasuke there. There was only one problem, the only directions he had to lead him there was one of Jiraiya's hand-drawn maps and what his memory remembered. It was in a south westerly direction, that much he knew for sure, if the map was right he was about half a day's journey away.

He trudged forward, swatting at a mosquito which had landed on his neck. Naruto knew one thing for sure, he hated jungles. He had been in this damn forest for almost a day now with no end in sight, he sighed as he set his pack down against a large trunk. He rummaged through his pack and fished out the last of his sandwiches. From the next meal it was only pickled fish and instant Ramen, the latter not an option because of the lack of fresh water. He bit down on it, the bread by now mushy; the fillings had spilled into each other making a wet noise as he swallowed. It did not take him long to finish his meager meal. He got up and did a routine inspection on his equipment. It was something he learnt from Jiraiya: Never underestimate the power of a Kunai and a few exploding tags. He opened his packet of tags and noticing the humidity had made them slightly damp, Naruto decided to test them out. This was all pretty routine for him, Jiraiya's training was, if anything, effective. He stood up and tied the tag around a kunai. He picked his target; a dead tree stump about thirty yards away. With pinpoint accuracy his throw hit its mark and the tag exploded as it should have. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief; he did not have the funds to restock on new equipment.

Naruto walked forward to retrieve his kunai and drew back in shock as his eyes relayed messages that his brain could not comprehend. When the smoke had cleared Naruto saw a hole big enough for ten men to climb into side by side. Naruto was faced with a decision here; ignore the gaping hole and go on with the journey leaving behind the possibility for adventure….Yeah, Right

He took a last glance around to make sure he wasn't being watched before jumping down. He landed softly, with the grace of a trained shinobi. The air around him was damp and still with a smell that almost overpowered his senses. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he strode forward and noticed an arc leading somewhere further. At this point, Naruto almost felt like getting the hell out of there, but even though his instincts told him to go back there was something…calling out to him, something indescribable that drove him forward. As he walked further into the cavern he used his hands to grope his way around but alas he did not notice the little vine poking out from beneath his feet. Upon which he tumbled down most unceremoniously. As he attempted to right himself his head suddenly bumped into something hard, not stone, this was more like…metal. But what would metal be doing here, in a place like this. Who created this?

His eyes adjusted somewhat for him to make whatever it was that caused his current headache. The object he hit his head upon was a stone altar of sorts. It was not more than four feet high and seemed to have been made of a strange materialIt looked impossibly old but there was a certain ethereal beauty about it that seemed to defy logic.

He got up, brushing the dirt from his clothes and inspected the altar further. There were letters in a script Naruto had never seen before, a lot of curly lines weaving around in a systematic and repetitive fashion. Now, Naruto was an extremely straight forward and well grounded person, thus he was shocked out of his mind upon seeing what he had uncovered when his head banged into the altar. His impact had loosened a tile from the lower portion of the altar and out fell a small pouch made of a cloth Naruto had never seen. It was as light as a feather and felt softer than Sakura blossoms. He reached into the pouch and his fingers felt something metallic, he pulled it out to discover a ring, a weird ring with two words of the scrawl upon the band. It was a greenish-blue color and made of an ore Naruto knew could not possible exist anywhere nearby. He reexamined the altar and tried to make some sense of the scrolls but to no avail. The only thing he could make out was the crest at the end of the message; it was a blue box within a white border and with the head of a lion inside it, but then next to it was yet another crest. This one had two serpents intertwining around what seemed to be a well of sorts.

Naruto really could not make heads or tails of any of these and decided to let al this nonsense be and continue his journey. Then he suddenly remembered the ring in his hands and did something that every bone in his body was screaming not to do; he slipped the ring on his index finger. At first it all seemed fine and he felt totally normal, it did not take long though for him to figure out that this was no ordinary ring. All of a sudden he felt a tugging pull on his abdomen and a light, too bright and too powerful to be normal. He whipped his head around and saw that the once illegible scrawl was very much legible. Naruto gasped as he read what little words he could before succumbing to the tug and disappeared into thin air within the dark carven with a short burst of light.

I, the prophet Medivh in the name of the Guardians of Trisfal

Bequeath to you stranger, a gift both powerful and terrible

Do with it as you may but never must you succumb to Sargares and his legion

Azeroth doth burn fire and brimstone if he holds the artifact

Protect it always as you journey onwards, brave traveler.

Azeroth awaits….

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A/N: Finally got the first chapter up. This project has been on my mind for a while and after weeks of writer's block, this chapter percolated through. Second chapter will see Naruto, IN the world of warcraft. As for factions, even though I would like to throw Naruto in with my beloved horde, certain…physical restraints prevent me from doing so. Of course there will be the usual big bad plot, probably centering around the guardians of Trisfal, Medivh and the tower of Kargrath and maybe some Molten Core thrown in for good measure. I would suggest reading the fantastic warcraft lore on the WOW website, it does explain certain aspects of the game in better detail, stuff like who is Ragnaros and how was Black Rock mountain created, to name a few. Well that's about it, hope you guys enjoy this fic.

On a side note, should you want to contact me in-game my char's are:

Lihar- Troll Warrior- Azjol Nerub

Calimos- Human Paladin- Shadow moon

Pls also send me a mail so I know who you are, thanks.

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