Howdy-ho, readers! I'm AuthorOfTheUniverse2401, and I am this lovely story's beta reader! I am here to tell you that you've got quite an author writing for you! Over the past day or two, I have looked through this and the first two chapters fixing up the grammar and spelling to make this an overall more enjoyable read. After all, we wouldn't want another My Immortal on our hands, now would we? I won't keep you waiting too long, so without further adieu, here is the third chapter of Yuyami. Enjoy!

Surprise Attack

Naruto looked at the dirt road along which he was travelling. It had been hours since he had fled the Village he had grown up in, and the feeling of solitude had started to settle. All of his life, he had told himself he was alone, that no one cared. Now, he understood that this wasn't true at all. There always had been one person, one man that gave his complete love for him, that made him feel a part of something greater.

The only person that ever acknowledged his existence as something more than an inconvenience was dead. He was truly gone.

He felt the crushing sadness rise once more inside of him. His face was crisping up to cry once more, but his eyes refused to well up with tears; he had no more to shed. His hands clenched tightly into fists as he continued to walk along the road aimlessly.

Naruto always known that the ninja life was one of danger and that people often were killed. He had already seen dead men a couple of times when rival gangs would have it out in the open close to his house. Yet death was still a strange concept that he didn't get.

He now understood the feeling of loss, like his whole life had just died with the man. The pit that had created in his stomach had only worsened as he realised he would never be able to look in the old man's crinkly eyes.

He stopped his mind from going back to thinking about all the times the man had cared for him. This wasn't the time to take pity on himself. He was on the last mission the Third Hokage would ever give a Konoha ninja, and he couldn't bear the thought of failing the old man that gave him so much.

He had successfully escaped Konoha, but now the hard part was coming. Where should he go? He didn't know anything else except what he had picked up from smugglers. He knew that there was a town close by, but he had no idea where it was or how to get there. He was lost, stranded on the side of the road in the middle of the night.

With a sigh of desperation, Naruto sat on a nearby rock. There wasn't anything in the area that could help him, like a sign of something. He also knew he couldn't stay on the road indefinitely, or he would be found out sooner or later. The Hokage's body had probably already been discovered, so he figured they would send out search parties sooner rather than later.

However, he was really hesitant to enter the forest, as dark as it was that night. He would surely get lost in there and who knew the dangers that were coursing in the forest, or even here? He could be mauled to death by wild animals, he could even be killed by evil men.

Naruto, who had dreamed of seeing the world all his life, who had dreamed of a life of excitement and of battles, realized that the real world wasn't anything like the stories the Hokage had told him. There wasn't any hero in the real world, there wasn't anyone that would come and save him if he was in trouble. Naruto realized all at once the harsh, cold reality. He could get killed at any moment, and he had to count only on himself to survive.

Fear wasn't a new emotion for Naruto. He was still afraid of most of the adults in Konoha, but never had he felt fear that almost oppressed him, that was suffocating and left him paralyzed. The idea of death being all around him was terrifying for most adults. So for Naruto, this was simply too much to take in at once.

He stayed on the rock, sitting down, his hands shaking with fear as he looked around himself in the dark, panic starting to rise through his being.

Eventually, the sounds of laughter came to his ears as the sounds of people walking approached. Naruto gasped as the panic that had bubbled inside started to burst through. He looked frantically at the forest in front of him, isolating the sounds as coming from behind the barrier of trees in front of him. The sounds were harsh, as if the people coming through the forest didn't particularly care if someone heard them.

A sudden thought crossed his mind. If he was to get killed or captured and sent back to Konoha, the least he could do was to make sure the scroll the Old Man gave him didn't fall into the enemy's hands. For all he knew, this was the man that killed the Hokage coming back to finish the job. No, Naruto had to make sure to take care of the legacy the Old Man had given him.

He stood up, and with haste he ran to the other side of the road, taking the scroll from his shoulders. He threw the scroll over the lowest branch so that it wasn't immediately visible. With that done, he walked back to his position on the rock, a determined look on his face. The fear was still there, but another feeling had arrived, a feeling of purpose.

Finally, a group of men crossed the trees, their clothes leaving no doubts left in his mind. From the rusted weapons and weary armor, to the growing beard and dirty skins; they were obviously bandits, and not rich ones at that. He felt a bit relieved, as this wasn't something new to Naruto, who frequented the worst projects in all of Konoha. The man in the front stopped when he saw the young boy sitting alone by the road. He smiled at his brothers of crime, his teeth shining in the dark.

"Hey there, kid. You here alone?" he asked Naruto, his hand resting on his blunted short sword, prepared to defend himself in case this was a ninja plant. Those fuckers had begun to train their little killers young in the wars and more than one bandit had fallen under their skills.

"Hey, I asked you a question runt," added the man, a bit of anger coming in his voice. Naruto shook a bit before throwing his best impersonation of the look the old man used to give to the criminals living in Naruto's neighborhood. His threatening look was obviously not on par with that of the Hokage as all three men started to laugh. The man in front started to walk up to Naruto, a sinister grin on his face. With a quick backhand that Naruto never saw coming, he slapped Naruto, sending him straight to the ground.

"When I ask a question, I expect an answer, get it brat?" he said, his grin becoming even scarier for Naruto.

The boy picked himself back up, holding back tears. After the horrible night he had just lived through, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. He felt defeated. He couldn't do anything against these men, even if they were lowly criminals. What a failure he was that he hadn't even been able to make it to the next town. What would he tell the old man? That he had failed because of some assholes on the side of the road? He couldn't disappoint him like that.

He stood back up. He started to put his hands together, like he had seen the teacher at the ninja academy teach the students to do. It had never done anything for the boy, but maybe this time it would be different.

The men stopped laughing immediately, drawing their weapons from their sheaths and tensing up for an attack. The leader let out a sigh, "Shit, this kid is one of them."

The big man that was on the right gave two swings of his weapon in front of him, a small grin appearing on his face, "We should kill him before his friends come looking for him."

The last of the three was a smaller man, and Naruto could hear the nervousness in his voice. "Why not just disappear into the forest? We could be gone in the time they get here, and every one would be fine!"

The leader shook his head, "No, they would catch up to us instantly. We're going to maim him so that when his people find him, they'll have to transport him to the hospital."

Naruto followed the conversation. The now familiar panic started to rise through him again as he tried to make something happen with the different positions he put his fingers through. It had to work! He had seen some black haired boy make those signs then let out fireballs the size of houses.

The leader didn't hesitate. He took two steps toward Naruto, his eyes devoid of any compassion. Naruto was visibly shaking, pouring all his energy in trying to make something happen to the man. He raised the weapon before the shaking child when a small blade entered his throat, effectively ending his life. Naruto flinched back in horror, the blood pouring out of the wound reminding the poor boy of scene where the Hokage had lost his life.

The leader stumbled for a second while the other two watched, horrified, before he fell to the ground, dead. As soon as the body hit the ground, the sound broke the other two men out of their horrified trance and they started to shout defiantly about gods and death and other ramblings Naruto didn't truly understand.

A single man walked out of the dark, his face severe and hard. His strong body moved in a manner that showed strength and when the man stopped a couple of feet before both bandits, they flinched at power and gravity the man commanded.

"You will leave the area right now; this is your final warning."

The air stilled when the man finished his sure statement for about a second before the bigger of the bandits roared and rushed to the man, not even bothering with weapons, flinging fists in his direction. The man slid into a hard stance and blocked both fists with his forearms.

Naruto watched, his eyes growing bigger and rounder each second. The big bandit's fists were the size of his head and the man had blocked them as easily as if they had been flies.

The man spun around launching a kick directly his opponent's stomach, folding him in two. Not wasting any time, the man launched a strike so fast Naruto couldn't see it at the other's neck. The bandit crumbled, his neck bent in a weird shape. When the man turned back to the smallest bandit, he couldn't find anyone. The man had fled when the brute had charged the newcomer, using the distraction to save his life.

The man relaxed out of his stance, and suddenly seeming smaller and less impressive to Naruto, he approached the boy.

The man's face brightened into a smile. "Hello, are you alright? I'm sorry you had to see this; death is really a horrific thing. Say, are your parents anywhere close-by?"

Naruto just shook his head, not wanting to open his mouth. He didn't trust himself to talk and not vomit all of his day's food. Today had been a rollercoaster of emotions and after thinking this was his end, he really thought he would be sick.

The man stayed silent for a while, just standing there, thinking. Naruto shivered, the night was getting cold, and his sweat from his earlier run stuck to him. The man put a comforting hand on his head and crouched down to his level.

"Do you have anybody that can take you in? Maybe some relatives or some friends?" tried the man once more. Naruto shook his head again. The man looked torn for a couple of seconds before finally smiling gently at Naruto.

"What's your name kid?" he asked, his smile kind and affectionate. Naruto, for no reasons other than instinct felt he could trust the man. "Naruto Uzumaki."

"Alright Naruto, my name is Ishi, I'm a merchant from Kitohui. Where are you going?"

Naruto shrugged, "Anywhere that can teach me how to get stronger." He had no idea where to start.

The man appeared to be surprised by Naruto's answer, "Why do you want to become strong? You are young, you don't have to worry about that until much later in your life."

Naruto shook his head. "I was given a mission by...a precious person. I need to become strong because I need to protect everyone else from what happened to him." His voice broke off at the end, sadness engulfing him once more.

Ishi nodded, his eyes full of understanding. He had wrongly assumed this was a normal kid, but this not the case. The sadness and loss in the boy's eyes reminded him of the looks he used to see in Iwa on the face of the trained ninja. This wasn't the look of some lost child. This was the look of someone that had their childhood ripped from them and would never get it back.

An idea popped in to Ishi's mind and immediately he knew this was the right decision. It would be hard to convince his wife, but he was sure she would eventually see it his way.

"Naruto, I have an offer for you," he began, weighing his words carefully. "I'm actually a trained ninja, and as such I know a thing or two about being strong. The thing is that I now own my company and I can't escort all the shipments myself. Plus, always hiring ninjas to guard them in my place is starting to get really expensive. I started to train my daughter in the ninja arts, but I think it would be better if there was someone else than her out there. So what I'm proposing is training and a job when you're ready. You'll live with me and my family and work for my company at a decent wage."

Naruto's eyes went wide. This was more than he had ever hoped. This was an opportunity to actually become strong and to work for the man that had just saved his life. The man had just proposed a purpose and a destination for Naruto, two things he clearly lacked.

"If you don't want to, I can always drop you off in any city you'd like. It's no skin off my nose," said Ishi, his eyes showing concern for Naruto.

The boy shook his head. "No, I'll go with you," he insisted.

Ishi stood back up, a smile on his face. He offered his hand to Naruto, who took it gladly, and led him back to his caravan. Naruto broke away and grabbed his scroll from the tree he had hidden it, causing Ishi to give him a strange look before shrugging it off.

As the two reached the caravan, Naruto, for the first time that night, started to feel better. Things were finally looking up, and he hoped he would be able to keep it like that.

A/N: Hello all, welcome back to Yuyami! As you've seen, we have a wonderful new beta reader! He is incredibly helpful and I wanted to thank him for his work!

Now this chapter sets up the next arc, and while necessary, wasn't the most exciting ever. Alas, these chapters have to be there to keep the story flowing and the characters evolving.

As always, comment or hit me up in the PM if you have a comment or anything!

PS: Thanks to LazyVulpes for the head's up about the screwed up chapter, dunno what happened.