Falling in Love with a Dragon

Disclaimer: What would I do, IF I owned this? Well, let's see, I have a whole list! That should tell you that I don't own it! So don't go tryin' to sue me!


Naruto and Sasuke walked through Konoha, heading to the place where they would meet up with their sensei and Sakura. Naruto glanced at his friend, taking in the blank look on his face, nothing new there, but there was a thoughtful in his eyes, signaling that he was thinking about what had happened the day before.

Naruto sighed and looked away. To him it wasn't that hard. Either Sasuke tries to make up with Sakura and they live happily ever after, or he leaves her to be picked up by the new guy. 'Easy right?' Another glance at the Uchiha gave him the answer. 'Apparently not.'

Naruto looked up as the bridge came into view. 'What's Kakashi doing here already?' Their sensei was talking to an ANBU and looked like he had a scowl on his face, well, from what could be seen of it, anyway. Naruto nudged Sasuke and pointed. The Uchiha narrowed his eyes at the sight then narrowed them further as Kakashi sighed and appeared to consent to whatever the ANBU said. The cloaked figure vanished and the jounin turned to them with a sad eye, as they came onto the bridge. "What did that ANBU want?"

The scarecrow sighed again and stuffed his hands into his pockets, not bothering to get out his normal porn. "It seems Hokage-sama has found someone more… 'appropriate' to take care of Sakura, so she won't be joining us anymore."

Naruto looked crestfallen while Sasuke's eyes narrowed in jealous anger, already feeling like he knew the answer to the question he was about to ask. "Who would be more 'appropriate' then you, Kakashi? You used to be ANBU!"

"Well, yes, but this sensei was already trained by Tsunade and Jiraiya, apparently." The jounin sighed again. 'Now who is going to keep these two in line for me?' "He just applied to become an elite jounin this morning, and already rumors are flying through the village about him. 'Passed with higher marks than anyone has in the past two decades' is just one of them." At this Sasuke's fist clenched.

Naruto squinted his eyes, tilted his head, crossed his arms and looked at Kakashi in what the jounin recognized as the jinchuuriki's 'I'm confused, please explain' look. "Put simply, it means that this boy has done so well in the exam that he is going to be the target of much attention for a while."

Sasuke looked away as Kakashi explained to Naruto. 'It must be that new boy from yesterday…' His clenched fist tightened until his nails pierced his palm.


Sakura walked down the hall to her shishou's office, wondering what the Godaime could want. She was supposed to meet Kakashi and the others but the ANBU that had come to deliver the message had told her that it was already taken care of. She knocked on the door and waited for a reply. When she didn't get one she opened the door a little and peeked in. "Shishou?"

Tsunade looked up from her desk and smiled, waving her in but gestured for her to be quiet. At the younger kunoichi's questioning look, the Sannin smiled fondly and pointed across the room.

Sakura turned around and gasped slightly at the sight. Ryuu sat in a chair against the wall, asleep. His long hair fell down his back gracefully and his cloak was covering him like a blanket. "He fell asleep there this morning after he took his test." Sakura heard an affectionate tone in the Godaime's voice that she usually reserved for herself, Shizune, and Naruto.

"Oh yeah, he did take the test today, didn't he?" She turned around and saw Tsunade grinning. "How did he do?"

If possible, Tsunade put on a grin larger then Naruto's. "He is now an elite jounin, stronger then all of the others, and passed with the highest marks recorded in the past 20 years."

Sakura's jaw dropped in shock. "What?! I thought he would easily be in ANBU."

Hearing her student praise the boy caused the Sannin to chuckle. "He would have, heck, I would have made him Hokage the moment he stepped into my office if I could." Sakura's eyes widened and her jaw dropped even further.

Once she was able to overcome her shock she looked back at her new friend. "Okay, so why am I here?"

It was at that moment that Ryuu decided to wake up, having actually heard the whole conversation. He opened his mouth as wide as it could go in a yawn. Smacking his lips twice, he looked around the room through half-lidded, tired eyes. When he saw Sakura he gave her a very Naruto-like grin. "Yo."

Tsunade watched as Sakura smiled back at him and she saw the tiniest tinge of pink on her cheeks. "You're here, Sakura, because Ryuu wants to take you as his student." Both the Sannin and the jinchuuriki watched amusedly as she blinked and had a complete 'I'm sorry, what did you say?' look on her face.

Ryuu stood up, stretched, and draped his cloak over his shoulders while he looked into the kunoichi's jade eyes. "You have potential, quite a bit more potential then I have seen from a lot of people." He saw the look of utter amazement on her face and smiled slightly. "Thanks to your perfect chakra control, you could learn nearly any jutsu thrown at you, and in some cases, they literally will be 'thrown at you', whether my me or an enemy, you have to be prepared for that."

"I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that it'll be easy or that I'll coddle you like others might because of your age or your gender." An ironic smirk made its way onto his face. "In fact, some of the strongest people I know, not including myself, of course, are female. Obaa-chan, Lyn-chan, etc, etc. You'll be on that list shortly."

Sakura couldn't help but stand there in shock at the words before throwing herself at him, laughing happily. Ryuu caught on instinct and let her hug him in shock; not many people dared to get this close to him. In fact, he could count on one hand how many people did: Tsunade, Jiraiya, Lyn, Arashi when he was still alive, and now Sakura. 'Enjoy it while it lasts, Gaki; I know I am.'

The long haired boy resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Shinn's comment and instead wrapped his arms around Sakura, smiling softly as she continually thanked him. It wasn't often that he was freely given physical contact with another human without blood being spilled, and he was now realizing how much he had missed this feeling. Though… Sakura seemed to provide more comfort then he remembered receiving from a hug, except from his sister, Lyn. It made him relax more then he wanted to admit.

Tsunade smiled at the pair, happy to finally see that someone other then herself saw the potential lying within the young kunoichi. She knew she had made a good choice in allowing him to teach Sakura, and maybe come closer to her then just a sensei and student relationship. 'Gomen, Naruto, but I'm taking this out of your hands.'


AN: Well, there's chapter 2, and I still need a fight scene for Ryuu and Kisame, but it's in ch.5 now.

Thank you all for your kind reviews! We got more than I expected, and, again, it seems that there are girls out there that have fallen in love with Ryuu XD Hey, I would, if the guy who made him up wasn't my brother. Darn you Aniki! ;P Love you all, even Aniki, who is 'Hitokiri Ryuu' if you want to look him up.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please leave more of your loving reviews!