Authors Note: As much as I wish I did, I don't own Naruto or any other characters aside from Yuri and Cricket. They, however, are MINE! Also, this is sort of like a crossover with my original fic, Demons Will Never Hurt You, Angels Will Never Help You. But Yuri and Cricket are the only characters from there…

Intro-

Blood, tears, and screams ran all around the room, forming a chaotic scene. Yuri could make out seven forms, but they were only silhouettes, chained to the floor as she was. Shadowed figures darted around, while others moved slowly yet gracefully. They were winged, some with small, dainty wings, others with large, draconic ones. She watched as one of the large-winged forms made its way towards one of the humans chained to the floor. As it turned its head, she could see that it was a red-haired boy. However, Yuri did not get to see the end of the boy's fate as something grabbed her arms from behind and she blacked out...

Chapter 1-

"Finally! Summer's here!" Naruto exclaimed happily as he walked down the streets of Konoha village with Sasuke and Sakura. The normally peaceful town was buzzing with activity as happy villagers went about their business, enjoying the warm summer air. Even anti-social Sasuke had a small smile on his face.

"Umm… Naruto, you may want to watch where you're going…" Sakura's warning came too late. Naruto crashed into a small girl who looked to be about their age. As both stumbled away, confused, the girl glanced at Naruto, making brief eye contact before promptly collapsing into Sasuke.

"Uhh…" Sasuke looked completely bewildered and looked down at the girl. "You really should listen to Sakura more often…"

"Is she okay? She doesn't look so good…" Sakura placed a finger underneath the girl's nose to test her breathing. A look of relief washed over her when she felt soft, rhythmic breaths. "We should take her to Kakashi. He'll know what to do with her…"

"Okay," Sasuke shrugged and dumped the girl into Sakura's arms. "You carry her then."

Minutes later, they had arrived at their teacher's apartment, and the mysterious girl was lying on the sofa as the others studied her. She was quite small, but with large, violet eyes. Her shoulder-length black hair was pulled into a bun and her arms were wrapped in bandages as well as her legs. The hitai-ate tied around her neck bore the symbol of the Hidden Waterfall village. Naruto, who was perched feline-likely on the crest of the sofa, was looking curiously at something almost golden on the girl's neck. He softly brushed the cloth of her hitai-ate away, but there was nothing on the skin underneath. He sighed but his attention was brought back to the girl as one eye fluttered open, then the other. She yawned as she sat up, then looked around in confusion.

"Huh? W-where am I?" She asked softly, and Kakashi smiled.

"Glad to see you're awake!" Seeing the look of confusion on her face, he continued. "According to my students, you passed out on the streets… You've been unconscious for an hour."

"Is… Is this Konoha village?" She asked in the same quiet voice. Now it was the others' turn to look confused.

"Err… Yes." At this, the girl cursed silently.

"Cricket!" She swung her legs over the side of the couch. Naruto, surprised at her sudden movement, fell off the couch and landed on the floor, cursing to himself. When the girl stood up, however, a jolt of pain ran up from her ankle to her spine, sending her stumbling back onto the couch. "…My ankle… Is fine!" She lied, seeing the look of concern on the gray-haired man's face. "Aheheh… I hurt it the other day, but now it's fine!" They seemed to accept this as an answer, and she got up again, this time ignoring the throbbing pain in her ankle. "Umm… Thank you so much, but I need to get home… My little brother is waiting for me…" Kakashi's eyes, or at least the one that could be seen, narrowed in suspicion, but he shrugged anyway.

"Naruto, you go with her," he instructed to the blonde boy on the floor as the girl started for the door.

"What? Why me!"

"Because. You're the one who crashed into her." Naruto grumbled something under his breath as he got up, but followed her out the door anyway. She looked surprised to see Naruto coming out after her, and paused a moment.

"Umm… I'm Yuri. Takei Yuri." She said awkwardly, and Naruto looked surprised. Of all the things he had expected her to say, he hadn't thought she would introduce herself.

"Uzumaki Naruto." He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jacket as he caught up with her. "…So, do you really have a little brother or was that just a cover-up like with your ankle?" Yuri was taken aback by how much he had figured out.

"Umm… Yes, I have a little brother. His name is Cricket…"

"Okay, next question. If you're from the Waterfall Country, then what are you doing in Konoha?"

"We're looking for Cricket's parents."

"Wait… If Cricket's your little brother, then wouldn't his parents be yours too?" Naruto asked, confused.

"It's a long story…" Yuri sighed after a moment of hesitation, and brushed a green bang from out of her face. "In my village, there's a… Well, I guess you could call it an organization… All the outcasts of our country – runaways, dropouts… orphans. – we all came together and sort of isolated ourselves… All the members of our organization took a younger one under their wing and taught them... That way, none of us would have to face humiliation at the Academy." As she struggled to explain this, her foot hit a rock, sending her stumbling forward. Naruto caught her before she hit the ground, but she didn't try to mask her pain this time. Seeing this, Naruto put her arm around his neck and a hand around her waist so that he was supporting half of her weight. Yuri looked surprised for a moment, but then gave a sheepish smile and they continued walking. After a few minutes of vague conversation, Naruto looked around to find that they were at the edge of town. Where does she live, anyway? Naruto's thoughts were interrupted when Yuri stopped at the bank of a small pond nestled in the woods. "Home, sweet home…" She chuckled, then spotted something in a nearby tree and sighed. "Idiots love to climb to high places… Watch your back. Literally."

"Hunh?" Naruto didn't have time to ask, as a boy about ten years old pounced on him from the tree Yuri had been studying. He instinctively reached for a weapon, but once again too late. The boy crashed into Naruto, sending them both toppling to the ground. Yuri sighed again as the younger boy came up laughing.

"Ha-ha! You should have seen the look on your face!" His attacker flashed a toothy grin as Naruto studied him. The boy was indeed ten, with short black hair and brown, almond-shaped eyes. It was quite obvious that he and Yuri were not blood relatives.

"I told you to watch your back…" Yuri chuckled as she helped Naruto up. "Naruto, this is Cricket. Cricket, Naruto."

"Can't exactly say I'm pleased to meet you…" Naruto muttered, but shook Cricket's eagerly outstretched hand. Cricket, however, was more interested in his hitai-ate.

"Are you a Konoha Shinobi?" Naruto nodded and this sent the boy into a long speech about his dreams of becoming Hokage. With a pang, Naruto soon realized that Cricket was just like him.

"Aheheh! I'd better get going before it gets dark…" Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head. As he left, Yuri relaxed and Cricket watched as two pairs of small, golden-feathered wings sprouted from her back, the golden markings that covered her body reappeared, and two pairs of matching, cat-like ears fluttered up from beneath her hair. It was a transformation he had seen many times, but it still freaked him out a bit.

"Wow… It's hard to stay in that form for so long…" She said, exhaustion evident in her voice.

"Umm… Yuri-chan… You may want to be a bit more careful next time. Naruto almost saw you…" Cricket warned before heading back to his tree.