This idea was circulating in my head as I watched my brother play Assassins Creed 2, and I just figured out how the hell I want to start it. So, without further ado, I give you The Eagle Flies Once More!

None of these guys and girls are mine. If any of them are, I'll be sure to let you know.

"words" talking

'thoughts' thinking

"quotes, kinda" remembered speech

(Dattebayo!) Naruto interrupting me

{sigh} Me

The salt air scratched at Naruto's face in the cold wind. Naruto was sitting on the edge of a cliff overlooking the western coast of Wave Country. Naruto had a distant look in his eyes, his mind lost in thoughts of his C-gone-A-Ranked mission.

He had watched his sensei get butchered by two Mist nukenin, and only slipped out of his shock when his sensei revealed his deception. He had vowed in blood to never let that happen again. He had faced down Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Bloody Mist, and in the process saved his sensei's life and been given a front-row seat to a battle between two true shinobi. He had earned that bastard Sasuke's respect by tying with him at learning the tree climbing exercise (I really won, but I felt like slowing down at the end to make Sasuke feel better…no really! I did dammit!). He had shown that brat Inari what it meant to be a man, and lit the fire under the kid that he needed to prove it to the rest of the island as well. He had watched his best friend (he's my rival! Stop writing this weird shit you damn author!!){can it you! Or I'm throwing in an orgy between you, Orochimaru, Kabuto, Kimimaro, Itachi, and Kisame!}(*pales whiter than Orochimaru and tries to hold in his lunch, breakfast, and dinner from the night before* OK OK! I'll shut up!){Good. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, *Ahem*} He had watched his best friend die in his arms and nearly killed that Haku boy (I still say Haku was a girl){don't make me add Kakuzu, Deidara, and Sasori's puppet army to that list!}(*fails to hold in his lunch this time* I'll be good! I'll be good!){you better be. Now, one more time} He had watched his best friend die in his arms and nearly killed that Haku boy with that weird red chakra (*opens mouth*){*glares*}(*closes mouth*){*nods*} only to watch, powerless, as Haku gave his life for his mentor. Then he had watched the last charge of the Demon of the Bloody Mist and the death of Gato. He remembered laying the two Mist nins to rest, and vowing his nindo on their graves.

Naruto sighed, remembering his first meeting with Haku. "Do you have any precious people?" he had said…

Naruto turned at the sound of a twig snapping behind him, only to be met with a spearhead heading straight for his own skull. He reacted purely on instinct, instincts honed by years of avoiding capture in the streets of Konoha serving him well. He jumped over the spear and slashed out at the man, a bandit who had fled the bridge, with one of his kunai, attempting to ward him off and get some breathing room. The only problem was, Naruto miscalculated. His instincts, honed against experienced ninja that could react faster than the blink of an eye, were not attuned to burly civilians with an obvious weight problem. The slash that should have scared off the bandit instead dug deeply through his neck. By the time Naruto realized what he had done the man had fallen limply to the ground, his blood pooling underneath him and Naruto, with a copious amount staining the front of Naruto's jumpsuit and hands.

Naruto stared at the man for a moment in shock, before redirecting his attention to his hands. 'Did I…did I just…d-did I just kill him?!' Naruto's cranberry tinted hands stared back at him as if screaming "Yes you dimwit! How else do you think I got this color?!"

"No...no…" Naruto whispered as he backed away from the dead body. Backed away right over the edge of the cliff. Naruto was still too shocked to register that he had just killed someone, so it came as no surprise that he forgot to scream like a little girl on his way to the rocks below.

Naruto hit the ground with a resounding thud, but amazingly he was still alive, even conscious. He was conscious enough to register pain anyways, and that the ground beneath him was shifting for a split second before it gave away entirely and he fell some more. He felt himself impact with something hard and, by the clanking noise his head made when he landed, metallic. Then he knew no more.

Thank you for reading. Please review.