I'm not going to do one of these for every chapter so PAY ATTENTION!...thank you

*clears throat* this is a story that I have been writing with a friend of mine. It can also be found on quizilla. Anyway: we do not own naruto. All characters, except for the OCs, belong to Masashi Kishimoto. We're just borrowing them for entertainment purposes.

-Two Years Later-

Naruto trudged angrily through the busy Konoha streets. He dodged person after person, looking for one specific egomaniac in particular. Just thinking about that self-centered jerkface caused him to emit a low growl in agitation. He just couldn't understand why everyone always fawned over that guy. He wasn't that great. "Stupid Sasuke..." As luck would have it, at that exact moment, he spotted him.

"Sasuke!" he yelled.

Nothing.

"HEY! SASUKE!"

Still nothing. His dark haired classmate simply ignored him and continued on his way. Somehow miraculously angrier than he was five minutes before, Naruto acted on his first instinct: chase that jerk DOWN.

Unfortunately, he was halted in his tracks almost immediately as he accidently slammed into a random passerby. Quite roughly. He wasted no time in apologizing profusely to the woman, but she obviously wasn't going to hear it. She glared viciously at him and began slapping imaginary dust of herself. Then, without a word, she pushed passed him, her awkward looking husband trailing behind. Naruto hadn't even noticed the man until, as they were leaving, he finally spoke.

"That was him wasn't it?"

"Shut up!" the woman hissed.

'Well,' Naruto thought, 'at least she's horrible to everyone.'

That's when he heard it. A small cough, so quiet he almost missed it. It was coming, he thought, from the alleyway to his left.

At first, he didn't see anything. Confused, he continued on, away from the bustling streets and into the dank, depressing side street. He hit a dead end almost as soon as he started, yet he still didn't see anything that could have possibly...

There it was again. He turned toward the source of the noise and his shining blue eyes landed on a small figure hidden in a corner out of the way, head buried her knees and shaking slightly. He approached her cautiously, not quite sure what to expect.

"Hey..." he said. He spoke softly, so as not to startle the small girl.

Her head snapped up suddenly at his voice, and now Naruto could see her clearly. She was very small, pale, and obviously malnourished. She looked to be about his age, but she was so gaunt it was hard to tell for sure. She seemed as if she should be very pretty, if not for the fact that she hadn't been well cared for, probably for quite some time. She had long, untrimmed black hair and wild, nervous black eyes that he couldn't tear himself away from. They held untold amounts of pain and fear, yet something about them also seemed...somewhat insane.

"It's okay...I won't hurt you," he said, holding his hands up in front of him as proof. "Is it okay if I sit here by you?" The girl stared straight into his kind, bright blue eyes and simply nodded. Naruto slowly sat, and then smiled sweetly at her. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. What's your name?" The girl opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again. "That's okay," Naruto smiled again, "You don't have to say anything. I can talk enough for the both of us."

He watched her silently for a moment. She had visibly calmed some, so he tried another approach. "Do you have a home? Someplace I can take you back to?" She simply shook her head. No. She was alone. Just like him. "I don't have anyone either," Naruto said sadly. Then he got an idea.

"Hey," he smiled wide, "you can stay with me!"