Hey everyone, sorry about the wait. Here's chapter 2 of Traveling Nin. This is my first story, so please r&r. Since I adopted the first chapter of the original Traveling Nin, this is the first completely original chapter that I have ever written, so please tell me what you think.

Dawn came quickly to Konoha. As civilians and shinobi alike rose to go about their days, a certain spiky-haired demoness opened her eyes.

"Damn sun," she grumbled. Perhaps she shouldn't have drunk so much sake before bed.

After dealing with her hangover, Ryoko decided to find some breakfast.

As she yawned and scratched the side of her head, Ryoko remembered the ramen stand that she found the night before (as well as the amusing company that she encountered there).

"Ichiraku it is," she decided.

As she set out for the humble ramen stand, she took notice of the thriving village around her.

She also noticed that she was attracting a great deal of attention, mostly from the male half of the population (who were all promptly slapped over the head by their wives/girlfriends).

"Oh yeah," she gloated, "I still got it."

When she finally reached Ichiraku's, she noticed a familiar mop of blond hair. "Hey Naruto," she called.

Naruto looked up from his twelve bowls of ramen and replied "Hey, you're… you're… who are you again?"

Ryoko felt a tic mark form "I'm Ryoko you dimwit!" she yelled. "You know, the traveling nin that you met last night." "Oh yeah," he mumbled sheepishly.

Ryoko sighed; it was too early to be angry, and for some strange reason she just couldn't stay mad at the blond idiot.

After stuffing their faces with as much ramen as they could hold, the two resident gluttons decided to head to the training grounds in order to meet up with Naruto's team.

When they arrived at Team 7's assigned training ground, Ryoko noticed that they weren't the first to arrive.

The other boy that she met last night, Sasuke, was there along with a pink-haired girl who was staring at the Uchiha with a love-struck look on her face. '

Fan girl," Ryoko thought to herself. As the two looked up at the arrival of their teammate, they instantly noticed his companion.

'It's her" Sasuke thought in shock, instantly recognizing the strange traveler that he escorted to the village last night.

As for Sakura, she was amazed at the strange foreigner that both of her teammates seemed to be familiar with. Instantly she became suspicious.

'Cha!' Inner Sakura yelled 'She'd better stay away from Sasuke-kun if she knows what's good for her!'

Fortunately for Sakura, Ryoko couldn't read minds.

After introducing Ryoko to Sakura and Sasuke, who revealed that they'd already met, the group settled down to wait for their ever-tardy sensei.

Three hours later, and a familiar poof of smoke signaled the arrival of the perpetually tardy jounin.

"You're late!" yelled Naruto and Sakura in sync. After clearing his ears, Kakashi noticed a familiar mop of cyan hair.

"So sorry," he replied, but an alligator came out of my toilet this morning and tried to attack me.

"Liar!"

It was then that Kakashi noticed their visitor. After an exchange of pleasantries Kakashi set Sasuke and Naruto to sparring, while Sakura worked on building her chakra reserves via tree climbing.

As the three trained, Ryoko and Kakashi decided to have a practice spar. Taking up their separate stances, both analyzed the other, looking for a weakness.

At an unspoken signal, both flickered forward and began an intense taijutsu battle.

The three young chuunins quickly took notice, and stopped to watch in awe.

Even though Ryoko was holding back significantly in order to maintain her cover, she was still amazed at the skill of the seemingly lazy jounin.

Fists and feet clashed in an earth shattering display as the two battled forth, leaving the observers amazed.

To be honest, this was the first time that team 7 had ever seen their perverted sensei fight so hard. Not even Zabuza had given him this great of a challenge.

Finally after a last furious exchange, the two jumped apart and bowed in mutual respect.

As their audience clapped and whistled, Ryoko felt herself blush; she had been so caught up in the moment that she had completely forgotten about the rest of the team.

On their way back to the village, Naruto pranced around his new friend, asking rapid-fire questions, and generally making a nuisance of himself until Sakura took it upon herself to shut him up by the usual method: violence.

Whining and rubbing the new lump on his skull, Naruto invited everyone for ramen.

Sasuke turned him down, citing the need to train, and Sakura trailed after him like a lost puppy.

The three remaining members of the group decided to hit Ichiraku's anyway.

When they got to the stand, Ryoko realized that this would be a perfect opportunity to see what lies beyond the mask of the mysterious jounin.

As she leaned forward in anticipation, the tension within her rising like a boiling kettle, she was suddenly distracted by the yells of Konoha's resident Green Beasts and their horrible genjutsu.

When she turned back, she saw Kakashi laying down his chopsticks with a muttered "Gochisoosama." Naturally, she was devastated at such a wasted opportunity.

She glanced over at Naruto, and noticed a similar look of disappointment mingled with forced resignation, stating that this was a regular occurrence.

Leaving the ramen stand she noticed, as she had last night, the diverse reactions garnered by her blond companion. Some looked at him with respect, some with disgust, but most simply chose to ignore him, as though he didn't even exist.

This caused a great deal of anger to bubble up inside the demoness, along with confusion; why did the people of this boy's own village treat him in such a distasteful manner?

Ryoko may have been called many things over the centuries, but she was far from heartless.

As such, she felt the need to not only get to the bottom of this mystery, but also to do what she could for this boy, who was so undeserving of the scorn that he received.

A bit shorter than the last chapter, but I couldn't think of a good way to end it. I know that Team 7 wouldn't be chuunins yet according to cannon, but that's what fanfiction's for. To be honest, that's how it was in the original chapter, and I missed it when I proofread the new one so please don't flame me on it! Also, I know that Sandaime didn't survive the chuunin exam, but just give me a bit of time and I'll find a way to adequately explain everything.

It seems as though people really liked the first chapter, and I hope that this one is up to snuff. As I said at the top, this is the first totally original chapter that I have ever written, so I look forward to hearing what you think. Constructive criticism is always welcome, but flamers will be ignored as a matter of principle.

Please read and review!