Disclaimer – See chapter one, I mean really, if I owned any of this (Aside from Drakus) would I really be living in a basement…

A/N – A big thanks to my bud Whitedragon17 for his review, I've been bouncing my chapters off of him as of late and he pointed out something rather important I had been leaving out for some odd reason (I blame the late hours I've been keeping…) and I intend to fix that, honestly, I don't know how I missed it. Oh, and as it may throw a few people, I'll be saying 'sword' and 'knife' a lot here, you all saw it in the last chapter, to Naruto, the dagger may as well be a sword for its size, to Drakus, it's his belt knife.

Poll is still up and will be for a good bit of time in all likelihood, as the true pairings will not be appearing until they have come back to the village (Honestly, did anyone NOT see Naruto going with him? That said, he still doesn't trust him, I don't see trust ever coming easily for someone like Naruto) I'd honestly forgotten Hana initially, but I'm not going to put her up there unless I get a few requests, I don't know much about the character really, making her flexible, but the same can be said for many of the girls, as they seem to be focused a bit more heavily on Naruto/Sauske for the most part (and understandably so, being rivals) however, I tend to prefer a strong female character in these tales, and Sakura never really fit the bill in my mind, hell, Shizune is more so, and she is mostly reprimanding Tsunade… Anyway, enough rambling, let's get on with it ya? I'm going to be using line breaks to help keep things a bit more orderly, usually to show they they are going from person to person when they are a bit further away from one-another.

Journeys: Shadow of the Leaf

Chapter 4

Okay...how was this guy doing it…

The young blonds' movements were near frantic as he dodged left and right through the crowd, and still the only thing he had to go by was the night-black furred cloak that Drakus wore. Dodging between another set of legs, an act that sent the person stumbling and shouting words the Hokage told him never to use he managed to get closer. It was almost as if the man was playing a game with him, trying to see how much he wanted to follow.

"SLOW DOWN!"

Yellow eyes appeared over his shoulder as he looked back at the gasping boy, still he didn't break stride, instead reaching with one massive hand for the boy to follow, urging him to catch up. "Pup, did you forget? Were on a mission for the Hokage. If you want to be in charge one day then you have to lead, pick up the pace!"

Naruto's step faltered for a moment as that little fact hit him; this really was a mission from the Hokage, the God of Shinobi! With a whoop of joy he ducked into an ally, pausing long enough to sling the dagger across his back, the brilliant blue gem shining above his left shoulder like he had seen the mask wearing tower guards wearing before dashing back into the streets, his mind racing as he tried to recall where they were supposed to be going…Dango!

With a sudden burst of speed Naruto took a running leap at a nearby lamp pole and, using the momentum, ran a few steps up the surface to gain a bit of height before he latched on with arms and legs, startling several of the patrons on what he had dubbed 'Market Street'. Spotting the larger man was easy enough, the crowd seemed to be giving him a wide birth, many of them then stopping to chat about the odd man. He was quick to put the scene out of his mind as he started looking for a shortcut, he had to catch up!

Drakus smirked as he caught the shock of blond hair above the crowd, it was easy enough to spot after all, not many had blond hair in this city. As he made a turn he decided to move his thoughts onto other matters, letting his senses keep track of the boy along with one partition of his mind. 'I see the boy knows better than to stick to the main roads when heading off a target, good…now let's see how he adapts…' His grin grew once more as he returned his full attention to the boy; an absent part of his gathering attention noting the hairs rising on the back of his neck, Sarutobi must be using his toy again. As he was debating on heading toward the scent of the dumplings his ears twitched, picking up an odd group of voices. He paused for a moment, the blond taking the chance to get closer, before he made a sharp turn down an alley, his brow furrowing at what he had heard. An errant thought ran through his head just before his grin turned feral, 'I wonder how Naruto will handle this…'

The blond had a problem.

His problem was simple.

However, it was also quite large.

He had run into a group of people that he knew usually went well out of their way to bully others at the park, one reason why he would avoid the place at times. How, you may ask, would he run into such people when he was moving down a busy street? It was simple; he had dodged to a side street to make better time by not fighting the flow of foot-traffic when he had spotted them. There, on a bench not far away, was a young girl a few years younger than himself currently huddled in an upright fetal position, her face buried in her knees as her shoulders shook, a shock of pink hair further obscuring her features. Surrounding her were a group of girls, all currently chanting something he couldn't really make out, toward the back her saw another girl being held back by the group, struggling fruitlessly against the more numerous hands and arms, her blond hair having been pulled from the ponytail at some point in her struggles. Not so foolish as to rush in he inched forward and hid himself behind a trashcan to listen in.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!"

The apparent leader of the group ignored the shout as she picked up a sick and used it to lift the pinkette's bangs from her eyes, a satisfied smirk forming on her features as she saw the tear streaked face flinch away from the group.

"Honestly Megumi, have you ever seen a head that big before? I mean, seriously, are they going to use your head to carve the next Hokage face, it looks like it'd fit."

"I don't know Ami, I think they would have too much room leftover…" the whole of the group let out a loud laugh as the huddled form let out another choked sob. She heard her friend call out to her again only to be silenced by a grunt of pain.

That finally jarred the pink haired girl from her sadness as she heard a thud from the back of the girls, "INO! What happened!? Ino!?"

"The pig's the least of your problems, billboard brow…" Ami's hands tightened on the stick as her eyes grew hard; she had been in the academy for a year now and was looking forward to trying out some of her budding kenjutsu skills. As her off hand came to grip the stick in a basic forward stance there was a shout of alarm from the girls in the back of the group, she had only begun to turn as she felt the impact on the back of her knees before she saw only sky, then a sharp 'thud' echoed through her head as darkness took her.

Naruto's eyes hardened as he saw one of the girls holding the blond drive her knee into her stomach, folding the girl like a chair before she dropped to her knees, then her side with a dull thud. He had seen them push others before, taking advantage of their size and numbers to push others around, but he had never seen them go this far. The one that had struck the now downed Ino took a moment to grind her loose hair into the dirt underfoot as she turned back to the others, laughing at their easy win. He felt his hands clench into fists as the one with the stick seemed to be moving closer to the girl on the bench. He didn't even feel himself move at first, all he knew was that he was there, kneeling beside the downed blond before he took the chance on pushing her towards the trashcan he had just darted from, her prone form rolling with a pained groan as Naruto dashed between the girls as fast as he could before launching himself into the legs of the leader.

As his back slammed painfully into the bench it took him a moment to realize what had happened, he had knocked her cleanly off of her feet and had come to a jarring stop, his head still spinning. He was worried for a the briefest of moments as the girl he just knocked down wasn't moving, however, seeing she was still gripping the stick he pushed that thought aside as he rose on shaky legs. "Hey…" He got no answer, "HEY!" The pinkette looked up with a start to see a boy dressed in rags, a large sword strapped to his back, "Are you alright?"

She gave a nod in answer as the shock began to wear off the crowd. Megumi's face was a mask of anger; her shaggy brown hair obscuring her face tattoos slightly, the twin streaks under slit eyes marking her as part of the clan he had seen around town, a clan with dogs. "W-What did you do!? YOU KILLED AMI!"

Naruto fought the urge to run at the feral girl's roar, she wasted little time in drawing a pair of kunai from a hip pouch as she moved to stand over her downed friend. Naruto spared a moment to look back at the girl on the bench only to growl in annoyance, it seems her shout had caused the girl to shrink back into herself once more. As his eyes moved back to his soon to be opponent his eyes caught the gleam of an ice blue gem, causing them to go wide in realization, for once in his life, he wasn't defenseless! He could fight! He could save them!

Drakus was watching the scene unfold from a rooftop with a critical eye, the boy was rough, but he had potential. He had avoided rushing into the situation without thinking, managed to get one victim to partial safety, take out the leader of the group with an apparent knockout, and was now defending the pink one against an armed opponent. He saw the edges of the boy's mouth twitch towards becoming a smile as he eyes his new dagger. Drakus was no fool, he saw how this was about to get grossly out of control, but he also picked up another scent in the air; it seems he wasn't the only one interested in this fight.

"You're not going to stop this?"

He smiled softly at the sound of the familiar, slightly rough female voice. He could hear a tint of amusement there, but part of him was wondering at what it was directed at, the upcoming fight, or himself. "Not in the slightest, he's defending an innocent and believes he's all alone, what better way to learn?"

A slightly exasperated snort met his ears as the figure stepped closer, a shock of wild brow hair dominating the figure as a large dog moved up beside them. "You were never one for the easy lessons, were you Drakus…"

"Nope, but neither were you, Tsume." She let out a bark of laughter at that before her face grew stern at the sight of Naruto drawing the dagger.

"That's your knife…"

He grinned once more at the scene before him as the pair were staring one another down, each refusing to make the first move. The remaining girls were all backing away, forming a semicircle around them. "Not my knife anymore, it accepted the boy. Now tell me, are you going to do something about this, that girl's in your clan."

Rather than answering he saw the woman begin to run through hand signs before whispering, "Tsuchi Bunshin no Jutsu!" At once a small tide of earth, unnoticed by the group below them, rose up and created a perfect copy of the Inuzuka matriarch, another half seal from Tsume and the bunshin was shrouded in smoke before fading to reveal a second Megumi. After a moment of eyeing the scene they saw the girl moving in to attack, crouched low as per the family style, however, just as the girl was about to strike home there was a puff of smoke beside the older pair and Megumi found herself falling from the rooftop, only to be caught by her ankle by her clan head, whether her eyes were wide in fear of the fall, or Tsume was something that he would leave for later debate.

Naruto twisted the blade sideways in an effort to keep the twin daggers from finding their marks, sending one high and the other low as he spun, trying to use the sudden motion to confuse the girl before him. He brought the butt of the sword around fast, trying to catch the girl in the head and maybe knock her out like he had her friend, the move was useless as the girl had dropped low, lashing out with her left foot to sweep him. Naruto gave a short hop to avoid the blow but didn't expect her to stop the motion below him. She shot straight into the air with that foot leading, catching the blond boy in the chin as she back flipped into the air.

Naruto landed hard on his shoulders and neck, his vision filled with stars as he hit the bench behind him, ending up beside the shaken pinkette. With a groan he shook his head clear of the lights as he rolled to the side, pulling the sitting girl into an embrace as a pair of thrown kunai lodged where the pair had been. Jumping back to his feet he pushed the girl behind him further, doing his best to shield her with his body, "Hey…"

The pink haired girl looked at the boy in fear, "W-W-W-"

"What's your name?"

"S-Sakura…"

He gave a short nod, "I got that other girl out of the way already, get to her, and run."

"Why are you helping us?"

Her eyes widened as she saw strangely sad, but kind blue eyes lock on hers, "Because I'm going to be Hokage, and the Hokage protects his people." It wasn't said with any kind of bravado, just a calm statement, as though it had already happened and was the most common knowledge in the world. Unknown to them a smirk from a nearby roof grew into a wild grin. "You go left, I'll go right."

Naruto lowered his sword so that the tip was hovering over the ground trailing behind him when, with a shout of, "NOW!" he dashed with all the speed he could muster toward Megumi, slanting to the right as, after a second's hesitation, Sakura ran to the left, making a bee line for her downed friend. Every other step Naruto took the tip of the sword struck the cement, trailing a finely gouged line and a shower of sparks. With a roar that had the matriarch's grin matching Drakus' he swung the blade up at his opponent. Both of the older duo's eyes widened in surprise as the move seemed to be much too fast for someone his size. The blade, however, didn't find its mark as she brought a kunai up to block, only to have her eyes go wide as the kunai was sliced neatly in half, before her eyes were forced to slits at a burst of icy air, as her vision returned she saw that the remains of the kunai, and her hand, were suddenly encased in ice, at once the cold bit deep, earning a scream of pain from the young girl and rendering her right hand useless. With a snarl she spun to follow Naruto's mad dash, making a weak swing at the passing blond before dropping to one knee, cradling her hand to her chest. She, Naruto, Sakura and the now awake Ino all stared in shock at the now frozen limb as she slammed it into the cement repeatedly, not even managing a crack in the thick ice.

"What the FUCK did you do to my HAND!?"

Naruto began to shake at the scene before him before his eyes darted to the sword still in hand, he could see the first four of the symbols blazing purple and froze, Drakus' words echoing in his head, 'when you swing the blade with the proper intention, the intention to kill, the force will be increased several fold, it holds the desire to take life.' Had he really wanted to…kill her?

"Tsume, I have a test for the pup…"

Megumi snarled at Naruto as she drew a brace of shuriken and drew back, her body bowing almost to the breaking point before she brought them forward with her full bodyweight behind them…straight at Sakura and Ino.

Naruto's eyes were wide in horror as he saw the intended target as he sprung forward with strength he didn't know he had, covering the ten meter distance with startling speed for a boy his size, he was only a few meters from them when her hand snapped forward and let the blades fly, with a last jump he managed to dive in the way, landing on the ground hard and skidding to a stop, gasping for air as blood poured from shredded knees and elbows.

Naruto rolled onto his back with another groan of pain, the skinned limbs already healing as he struggled into a kneeling position, looking back at Ino and Sakura in terror, the shuriken hadn't hit him, so surely…

The sound of clapping drew the trio's attention as Megumi was momentarily forgotten as they looked to the source, a pair of adults standing on a nearby rooftop. One, a massive man adorned in a fur cloak had been the one clapping, at his side was a slightly older looking woman with a massive dog, tied securely to the animal, hog style complete with gag, was Megumi. The trio looked from the bound woman to the one with the frozen hand in time to see her turn into large sections of dirt before crumbling into nothingness on the concrete. The large man stepped smoothly off the rooftop and dropped the short, at least for him, distance to the ground, the echoing sound of steel on stone ringing through the emptying street. The original group of girls were quick to make their escapes, seeing the pair of truly terrifying adults.

"Well well pup, it seems you have some teeth after all…"

Naruto led the blade drop limply in his hands, not releasing it, but letting the relief run through him at the thought of safety, "Y-You were watching?"

The duo smirked at the young blond as Drakus advanced on him, clasping his shoulder in a large hand, "Ya kid, and you did a great job for someone so young. Tsume, you say that girls' in the academy?"

The woman and her partner dropped silently to the earth beside him, an annoyed sigh escaping her, "Yes she is, first year. I'll be having words with her and her mother when I get back to the compound, believe that."

He let out a snort as he made to pull Nartuo onto his shoulder, only to feel a hand on his wrist. He looked down at the boy only to see his eyes hidden by his bangs, he seemed to be shaking slightly, "Why didn't you help…"

Naruto was a bit surprised to see the large man kneel before him, placing his other hand on the hilt of the dagger, "Tell me pup…what did you feel when you remembered the knife?"

Blue eyes met yellow where the widened slightly, he had yet to see Drakus this serious, even in the restaurant there was a level of playfulness in his eyes. These were different; he had seen eyes like this from some of the people in the mobs, people that were so beaten down by life that they had nothing left. However, beyond that, there was a level of curiosity, and a hint at the other Drakus that he had met that morning. Looking down at the sword in his hand he saw the symbols' glow had faded and for the first time he was noticing the angle at which his arm was hanging, and the rapidly growing burning in his shoulder. Pushing it aside for a moment he looked back into the yellow eyes and felt a slight smile grow, "I…I felt…"

"You felt…"

He reached over and took the dagger in his other hand, letting the seemingly useless right arm hang, it was not the first time he had a limb that refused to function, "I felt like…a Hokage."

After a moment both Tsume and Drakus let out barks of laughter, the pair almost reduced to rolling on the ground, as the pair tried to regain their composure Sakura helped Ino over towards the boy who was now sheathing the knife once more. "Um…uh…T-Thank you…Thank you for helping us."

The older duo's eyes narrowed slightly as the boy, with a motion that looked like it had far too much practice, pulled his right arm up into his shirt and with a few quick twists created a makeshift sling for the damaged limb. He gave a pained smile at the young girls before leaning into Drakus's hands. "It's not a big deal; you would have done the same right? She was trying the whole time, I just got lucky…" He had pointed for a moment at Ino before pulling back to scratch the back of his head with a blush. Before the young pair could answer there was a shout of alarm coming from down the street, at once sever sets of eyes turned to the end of the street to see a woman with strangely familiar features pointing and screaming for help, the group looked at one another for a moment before looking to the downed girl and groaned, it was Ami's mother.

Naruto felt himself lifted onto Drakus' shoulder's once more with a grin, "Well ladies, I think that's the signal for us to go! Naruto, let's get to the tower, we have a mission to complete." To accent the statement he held up a large box that gave off the sweet scent of dumplings before leaping to the rooftop once more. "Pup, hold on, were going to have to make this quick!"

Naruto only had time to look at him with slight confusion before the world started to blur past him, a scream of surprise and fear carrying though the Hidden Leaf Village.

A/N2 – Ok, before anyone gets any idea, no, the mud clone was not fighting at full strength, wouldn't be much of a test for a jonin to take on a civilian kid, now would it? She approximated Magumi's skills so she could have a bit of a show. Drakus' test should be rather obvious, so ya…

Got an introduction to Ino and Sakura here, Sakrua is still sans the ribbon, so she is getting picked on still, the whole situation escalating is more common that many would prefer to think, egged on by a crowd people can do anything, when coupled with the fact that kids can be some of the most cruel things in existence, I think whacking someone with a stick is a small stretch. While it's not expressly said here, Tsume and Drakus do know oneanother, that will be explained later on.

In all honestly, I wrote two versions of this chapter, this one and one where they instead make it to Anko, however, I wanted to establish Naruto a bit more before moving on to some of the other characters, so I'm thinking I'm going to have to re-write the first draft to fit into the slot of the fifth chapter. While this should make the next part come out faster, I make no promises, as I've been drafted into a Bloodbowl league and have to get my team built and ready to go by Thursday…eleven players plus name and other bits, we'll see how well I manage…I'm looking at an undead team, but can't decide which one I want to play yet…