AN: I hate first chapters, probably because they're a huge pain to write. You have to introduce, or reintroduce, a whole bunch of characters. You gotta get the setting and… Well that's just me being lazy. If you guys haven't figured this out by now, I happen to be very VERY lazy. On that note, who's excited for back to school time?! I probably don't need to tell you guys and gals this, but I really won't have a whole lot of time to update my stories during the early to mid fall season. Sure it might happen, but I tend to rather pessimistic about these sorts of things.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Kenichi. What? Did you just automatically assume that I was going to make a smartass comment? You should be ashamed of yourself.

"What's wrong with you ya' bastard? You tryin' to pick a fight with me?" Ordinarily, a man who is twenty five years old wouldn't usually say such things. Uzumaki Naruto was an exception. He wasn't what most would call ordinary, and for good reason. Who, or better yet, what was the individual in question getting upset at? The answer could be found shining brightly and rather disgustingly in the midmorning sky.

The sun, was currently at the perfect angle to where it shone through his window directly onto his face. And he was not very happy about it. "Stupid rundown piece of shit. Why the hell did that good for nothing old bastard send me here any way?"

Finally realizing his defeat at the hands of the bright ball of life, he sluggishly dragged himself out of his futon. Upon standing, he stretched his arms out in an attempt to work out the soreness of sleeping on the floor. "Tchh. Can't even afford my own bed, being poor sucks.

In the nearby town a rather attractive looking fifteen year old blonde girl who could have passed for someone a little older stopped doing her morning training for a moment. "Miu-san, what's wrong?" She turned to face a rather plain yet extremely beaten up boy with brown hair who appeared to be about her age.

"Oh it's nothing Kenichi, I just felt for a moment that someone rather close understands me on a better level now." Kenichi, being rather dense, assumes she is talking about him. 'Wow, maybe Miu-san is finally realizing my feelings for-.' He was cut off from his thoughts by kick that smashed into his rib cage and sent him flying into a nearby wall.

"Kenichi! Are you okay?!" Her only answer was a rather shaky thumbs up coming from his broken and mangled form on the ground.

Naruto, still half asleep, trudged through a rather narrow yet traditional Japanese looking hallway. Coming to a door near the end of the hall, he slid it open to reveal a bathroom. As he entered closing the door behind him, he stopped to look at himself in the mirror.

At twenty five years of age he was rather pleased with his physical appearance. His hair, which he left on the long side, was still as unruly as it was during his childhood. His height was another matter entirely however, as now he was almost 180 cm tall. A rather impressive feat, considering how short he had been in his youth. Wait, that was how old people thought. He wasn't old yet dammit! Speaking of feeling old, the stubble on his face didn't really help much with that particular image."Should I shave today?" He peered at himself in the mirror for a moment longer before shaking his head. "Nah. I always look badass no matter what, so there's no need."

This had nothing to with the fact that the stubble hid his whisker marks almost perfectly, not that they needed it. This was another change that had taken place in, or in this case on, him. It made him a little sad that the marks on his face continued to grow fainter with each passing year.

Twenty minutes later he was standing out front of his house. Actually it wasn't a house at all. He was currently standing in the middle of a long abandoned shinto shrine. He wasn't trespassing or anything, technically he owned the shrine and the grounds around it. It just looked abandoned since he was the only one taking care of it. It wasn't his fault really, he was just one man. A badass yes, but someone with the ability to make dozens of copies of himself he was not. Inwardly he scoffed at such a ridiculous idea. 'As if that could ever happen'

"Let's see here… what do I need to clean up today?" He looked around and noticed that quite a few trees were obscuring and overhanging the stairs that led up to shrine. Walking up to where the trees were located he put his right hand on a sheathed katana that was currently strapped to the side of his all white kimono. What? He lived in a shrine so he figured that he might as well look the part. He positioned himself in a basic iaijutsu stance with his left foot slightly behind his right. If a flash he was at the bottom of the stairs with his hand still resting on his sheathed sword. He inhaled and then a moment later released the breath. As he did so seven of the full sized trees were felled. They had all been sliced cleanly through as if they were made of paper.

"Damn. Still not there yet huh?" His gaze wandered to the tree closest to the bottom. It was the only one of its brethren that remained. After a moment, this tree fell as well. Though as it did one could see a that it was only most of the way cut through, and had fallen due to the strain on the remaining portion that was still connected. "Well, guess I'll just have to wait till the old pervert gets back here so I can finally finish that last bit of training of his." With that he marched back up the stairs leading to the place he called his home.

It was late in the day by the time he had finished his daily cleaning/training. The shrine looked a little better everyday that he worked on it, but it still had a long way to go. Sure he probably could fix it all up in one day, but he prefered to take his time and get things done with as little effort as possible. Hence the fact that he only actually worked on cleaning the place up for five to ten minutes each time and spent the rest of his days off lazing around. Which is what he was doing now, or so it seemed. He was actually in the middle of some rather difficult training.

He was currently seated in the lotus position with his eyes closed while seated on top of a stone platform. Said platform was currently balancing on the point of a rock spire that conveniently was right behind the main building. 'Convenient my ass, that old bastard probably had that put there some how.' If Naruto had a problem with his life then he usually found it worked out for the best to blame it on his teacher. Not only was it a convenient way of dealing with the problem, it was also usually true to some extent.

He didn't really know how long he stayed seated in that position. It felt like minutes when he concentrated hard enough, but it could have just as well been several hours. After a few more minutes he flipped himself into the air and landed on the ground ten feet below him. He lifted one finger above his head, and after a moment the small stone slab landed perfectly on the tip. He let it drop to the ground, the object making a sizable indent into the ground as he did so. "Atleast I got this stupid shit down I guess."

He walked back inside to clean up from everything he had done that day. After eating a quick meal that consisted of bread dipped in some miso. 'Fuck being poor, I want large bowl of some fuck mothering ramen.' He went to bed rather early for one his age, this was mainly due to how early he had to wake up most mornings so he could head into town for his job. Despite owning a shrine as massive as the one he lived in, he was broke. Unfortunately being a bum who lived all alone in some obscure location doesn't exactly rake in the cash. And to make matters worse he lived rather far from his work place, and no trains or buses ran in his neck of the woods. So he was forced to walk(read: haul some serious ass) to work every day.

Hauling ass was a rather good way to describe the pace that Naruto was moving at right now. As he passed several moving vehicles, much to their shock, it became apparent that he was running a little late. It became even more obvious by his appearance, his clothes looked like they had been thrown on rather hastily, and he still had a piece of toast in his mouth. 'Ten minutes left huh? SHIT I ONLY HAVE TEN MINUTES!' Much to the continuing shock of all the people on the road Naruto bent his legs a little while still keeping his current pace. He then used the slight bend to propel himself like a bullet into the air. He landed on top of one of the shorter buildings a good distance away.

His destination was in sight now, he would be there in less than two minutes. As he got to the final stretch he did the unthinkable, he slowed down to match the pace of the other regular people running next to him. None of them seemed to pay him any mind however, as they were all also in a hurry. Naruto burst through the front door just as a bell rang signalling it was time for the day to start. He then ran through a few hallways and a flight of stairs before coming to a door. He slid it open and dove inside just as the last bell rang signalling it was time for school to start.

He skidded through the entry way, somehow managing to shut the door behind him as he did so. After which he did a forward roll that he landed perfectly, all while still having the bread in his mouth. He came to a stop at the front of the room. He didn't move for a moment however, he only raised his head and looked at a few people in the front row who looked to be contemplating something. After a minute they all raised signs with numbers on them. They all read 10.

As Naruto stood he smirked to himself at his results, brushing himself off as he did so. He then pushed on a pair of glasses and walked up to a podium at the front of the room and began to address the rooms occupants. "Alright then." He said in a calm yet firm tone, a complete one eighty from his earlier actions. "Class is now in session."

This is one idea i've had in my head for a while now, and it feels kinda nice to get it written down. Just to let you all know, even though I hinted at it, this Naruto was born in the Kenichi world. You know what that means, no chakra, no smartass talking demon, and no crazy organization out to get him. Well the last one will probably change but, meh. The Naruto of this fic is rather strong, but not overly so. He is currently just under the level of most of the masters of Ryozanpaku, except the elder (that man doesn't mess about), so expect some challenging times ahead.

Oh and here's what Naruto's digs look like, just imagine it with less people and looking a lot more run down. Don't forget to remove the spaces.

japan-web-magazine en /mie /ise-jingu

Till Later