Hi there! ^_^This is my first Naruto fic and first submission to the site, hope u like it! This is a novel length story.

Disclaimer: don't own Naruto unfortunately, but the fan character that appears later on is mine!

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I want to be like the others…

I want to live in the light…

what is light…

I have not seen it before…

All I see is darkness, endless darkness. I want to see the faces of the ones I love, I know there voices, their smell, their touch and their warmth, but, I want to be able to imagine.

What are dreams, what do they look like? When one has never seen the sun, the brightness of a endless blue sky with lazy clouds drifting by, how can you dream of flying above them, reaching up and past the stars?

Darkness is all I see, what I've always seen, an endless night.

When will my morning rise?

***

The bright yellow disk rose into the morning sky, casting a warm glow across the horizon, illuminating the profiles of the mountain that was carved into great faces, the faces of the Hokage looked down upon the slowly waking village of konoha. It's residence began to spill out onto it's dusty streets as a new day began.

One of konoha' more…sleepy residents, rubbed his eyes cursing the now dead alarm clock that has been screaming at him for a good few minutes, as it lay rather sadly in pieces on the floor. Glancing through squinted eyes he looked at the calendar on the wall just at the side of him, a wide smile stretched across his face, he now remembered why he had set his clock so early.

"Ah ha! Today! Today's the day!" he shouted happily, suddenly very awake. He jumped out of bed, not realising his legs were rather tangled up in the sheets, he ended up right next to his dead alarm clock on the floor. He rubbed his bruised chin as he walked to the table, his breakfast was already laid out in readiness for the important day, one of the very few times he actually prepared for something. The three minutes it took for the noodles to soak up the boiling water was almost agonizing, he glared at the pot of instant ramen, willing it to hurry up.

It took only half the time before the cup was emptied and the boy got ready to get dressed. It had been over a year since he received the title of a chunnin, and well deserved as it was he still felt very proud donning his vest. The circled of red that embossed the back reminded him of all the battles he had fought and the powerful gennin he had defeated to receive it. Leaving his usual orange attire he wore the garb of a middle ninja, the black suit and army green vest were somewhat less aggressive on the eye, but they did contrast nicely against his golden hair and his deep blue eyes shone with excitement.

He marled his reflection in the slightly grimy mirror, he posed a couple of times, then finally resting a hand on his hip.

"He he, I look just like Iruka-sensei!" he chuckled. Apart from his noticeably different complexion he really did resemble his old teacher and to his glee had come close to his height over the couple of years. His daydreaming ended abruptly as what must have been a stone hit against his window. He strolled over, opened it and glared down getting ready to shout at the little brat trying to annoy him. To his surprise, better than an early morning argument with the brat downstairs, a girl with pretty pink hair starred up at him, her green eyes flared with rage.

"Sakura-Chan!"

The girl pointed her finger angrily.

"NARUTO!!! You were supposed to meet me fifteen minutes ago! Did u forget what were doing today! We cant be late!" she scolded loudly. Naruto gazed down at Sakura, he still had his big crush on her even though most of the time he spent with her she was ogling Sasuke. She had matured a lot in the past two years, enough so that she was able to pass the chunnin exam the next time round, thanks to some extra training she received from Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto smiled down at her widely and chuckled. " Yeah I know! I know!" with that he jumped straight out of the window and landed a few feet away from where Sakura was standing, still smiling he straightened up.

" Trust you to be late for our big mission Naruto, this is the first A ranked mission our team has had, and I'm not going to let you ruin it!" she waged her finger in front of his nose. He continued to grin.

" Well if you would stop telling me off we could go, I was afraid of moving in case you poked me in the eye!

Sakura scowled. " lets just go already, I'm not going to waste any more time arguing with you!"

****

The journey through konoha to the training ground where they were supposed to meet wasn't very long, about a half hours walk from Narutos' apartment, but to Naruto it seemed like forever. The adrenalin had already started to course through his veins making his heart pound loudly in his ears, but it was not quite loud enough to drown out the sound of Sakuras' ranting. One moment she was moaning about having to get up so early, then it was about having to wait for Naruto next she was daydreaming about spending three days with Sasuke. He wasn't really listening to what she was saying, he had other thoughts on his mind. The mission they had been set was not reserved for their team alone, another group was also assigned to the mission, it hadn't bothered him that kakashi didn't think he would be able to complete the task without additional help, it was the other team they had to cooperate with.

They were already at the training grounds when Sakura and Naruto arrived, the three older ninjas stood near the posts in the centre of the grounds, two standing with their backs facing them, the other leaned up against one of the tall wooden posts. It had been a while since they last saw them, although they were easily recognisable, slight differences in there appearances showed that they had grown quite considerably in the past two years. Noticing there arrival, the man in the middle looked up, his pale eyes glared straight into Narutos', who froze glaring straight back. Naruto was farmiliar with the cold glare of Hyuga Neji having had a few run ins with him in the past, he could deal with it, he didn't scare him, but the coldness of the Hyugas' stare softened slightly and a rare smile warmed his face. A feeling of mutual respect had formed between them over time, respect as shinobi, although he didn't think much of his icy demeanour and attitude, Naruto partly understood what Neji had been through. They were both cursed, something they both had to deal with.

" Uzumaki," Nejis' voice caused the other two ninjas to turn around. Lee and Tenten looked at Naruto and Sakura with a smile. Sakura, not noticing the atmosphere, beamed a warm smile at them, then started to look around. Diverting his attention to the pink haired girl next to him Naruto broke his gaze with Neji to join her.

" The Uchiha is over there," said Neji, Naruto and Sakura followed his gaze over to the trees that surrounded the training grounds. Among the cloak of shadow stood Sasuke, calm and collected, standing with hands in his pockets, the way he always looked when he was preparing himself for anything.

Sakura eyes gleamed happily. " Sasuke!" he merely glanced at her, just for a second, then nodded toward Naruto, who returned the nod.

***

It was mid spring, the days were starting to get warmer and longer, the trees were in full bloom and in the air was the sweet fragrance of the cherry blossom. A strong breeze floated through the trees, northward towards the Earth country, the same direction as the group of shinobi. They made their way across the fire country, using the help of the trees to hide their presence from any who might hinder the mission, leaping nimbly from branch to branch. They stuck closely to their respective groups naturally, remaining mostly silent, the slight sound of foot against bark and clinking of weapons in their ears.

As always, Naruto found long silences dull, giving in to his mischievous nature he decided to strike up an argument.

" How come we got stuck with you guys anyway! I'm strong enough to handle this mission by myself!" Sasuke snorted, for once agreeing with him. Neji stopped suddenly, forcing the others to do the same, he turned, looking Naruto straight in the eye. The look on the Hyugas' face told the younger chunnin that he was not in the mood for Narutos' fooling around.

" Were here, to put it simply, because you alone do not have the skill to complete this kind of mission by yourselves, your lack of concentration is proof of that!" he folded his arms.

" We are about to enter a neutral zone, a part of land in between the fire and the country of the grass, this is an important mission requiring the combined talents of both our groups members, hiding in the neutral zone is a group of rogue shinobi that have been seen moving in and out of the fire country, they seem to be from the village of the cloud as they have been using ninjutsu to create a fog to hide themselves, if we are to find them, we will have to rely on my Byankugan to see through their techniques, if you can not see your enemy you risk death!"

Naruto scowled. " Alright! Alright I got it".

" Make sure you do Uzumaki, working in a team is as important as being strong on your own," Nejis' words seemed to surprise Tenten, who looked up at him eyes wide. "A couple of years ago Neji would have said the same thing as Naruto, he was never really one who found it easy to rely on others strengths, ever since his fight with Naruto he seems to have changed a lot, his eyes are no longer filled with pain".

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So what do you think? Not to wordy is it.

Anyway things get a bit more exiting in the next chapter as Naruto and the others enter the neutral zone!

Next chapter 2: the target