He gently wiped away the small residue of blood on his face and noticed that he wasn't in the Southern forest anymore; instead he was in the Northern forest. He took the bandana off and the hitai-ate that was wrapped around his arm off. He silently folded the bandana and placed it onto the ground. He hesitated when he looked at the worn-down forehead protector, thinking if he should keep what was left of his small childhood and Iruka. After two minutes of deciding he gently placed the protector on top of the bandana and silently walked away.

(Entrance of the OMC; about a year later – Normal POV)

A young man around the age of 17 growled as he picked himself off the cold and bare ground. He stared with hatred and malice as he looked upon a surer of version of… himself.

"I see you're still alive… Azrael... Why must we play this game every day? Just to make you feel like you're alive… HAH! What an excuse!" the clone said calmly as he stood in front of the real Azrael with a smug look on its face. "Is it not true you summon me here to kick some sense into that thick lug of nothing that resides on your 'gloomy' shoulders?" the clone snarled suddenly changing from a normal human appearance of Azrael but to a more sinister version of, well of Orochimaru… looking more snake-ish if that was possible. Being an actual demon, one could say anything is possible, even if that meant getting one's butt massively handed to you by a shadow clone.

"Yeah I guess your right. Then again why the hell did you change to look like that!" Azrael asked shrugging off the pain he felt and traded it in with a massive amount of curiosity, "You do know as well as I, that neither of us like him."

"I know. Trying to give you motivation to actually do something, now get off your ass and actually making me poof out of here!" yelled the clone as it launched at Azrael.

"…"

Azrael moved slightly out of the line of 'fire' from where the clone was trying to attack and suddenly disappeared. Before the clone could do anything to stop or look around Azrael reappeared right behind it and slammed his palm into the nip of the clone's neck causing it to fall to its knees and dispersing to a shadow before it fell all the way to the ground.

"Nope, still bored I swear I need a new partner to fight with… or at least follow around," rather put out at how easy it was to finish the clone. "Apparently I'm too good even against myself," Azrael thought as he jumped into a near by tree to rest.

(Where ever Naruto is… ((That's obviously near Azrael –coughs-)) say an hour later.) (Normal POV-)

Through the trees one could what looked to be a shadow weaving in and out of the forest trying desperately to lose the shadows that some how manage to tag a long. The said shadow jumped onto a rather special 'branch' and tumbled to the ground along with the branch and the branch's previous occupants out into the small clearing. Slowly all three parties came to a rest in the small clearing, two sitting up and one staring at them with kunai and shiruken ready in hand, not to mention a bunch of hands already in hand seal ready to perform kami knows what.

"…Eh?" muttered the tree's previous occupant looking rather out of place in the scene, "…Remind me never to fall asleep in a deserted forest again."

"Sorry," came a slightly muted and short response from the man that sat next to him. "I just seem to attract this sort of crowd where ever I go," came the same muted baritone of a voice.

"…Oh," stated the young male looking at the man not really paying attention to the others. "I used to have that problem before… kinda disappearing off the face of the world. Name's Azrael… if you don't want to tell me your name that's alright," Azrael said smiling slightly before suddenly his attitude changed and he looked back over at the 'intruders' lacking his previous emotion.

The male looked rather startled that someone would be nice to a stranger but he himself smiled before he to looked back at the ANBU from his past home.

"Uzumaki Naruto; vessel of the demon Kyuubi no Kitsune, we ask that you come with us now or we will use force," huffed out one of the hunter-nin from behind his/her mask.

"Kyuubi… But I thought…" Azrael's eyes widen as he looked over at Naruto. "I… hn… That does actually make sense now… you smell of the king," Azrael said softly allowing only Naruto to hear, "Guess this day is going to turn remotely better than I thought."

Naruto was momentarily stunned at what the young male said and looked rather taken aback. "You… I… What?" he managed to struggle out before collapsing backwards and sat there letting his mind process everything leaving him, well in the sense of the hunter-nin, in a vulnerable state.

Azrael sighed lightly when he noticed Naruto's reaction to his small statement and looked over at the… hunter-nin? yes it the hunter-nin. "Well… I guess you have to fight me since the pri… male here, Naruto was it? Ah yes Naruto here is kinda out of it at the moment and I do hate to see a rather nice person being taken in without a legitimate reason," Azrael said through a forced relaxed and lazy smile.

"We want nothing from you and besides we came only for the boy; but if you side with the demon we can kill you as well. Being a demon is reason enough for us boy!" snarled one of the hunter-nin.

"! Enough the Hokage only wants Naruto alive and no other casualties!" growled another member of the hunters.

"Who will tell? Hmm? No one else will know except us. And that boy gives me the creeps!" screeched a more feminine voice.

Azrael looked onto the conversation rather amused every now and then checking on Naruto out of the corner of his eyes and noted with a rather small amount of amusement and curiosity when he saw the Prince asleep behind him. "Well I hate to break this lovely conversation up but… well I actually don't give a damn so if you continue arguing I'll be taking Naruto-sama away now," Azrael said quietly as he backed up almost near Naruto before one of the hunter-nin turned his/her head towards him and growled. 'Intelligent… stupid humans,' Azrael thought sarcastically.

"Stop there! You're not leaving any where!" yelled the hunter-nin. "Put away your childish scorn and let us get Naruto and we can drag that boy back with us to Konoha where we can do whatever we want to him!" order the nin as he started to surround Azrael and Naruto.

"Geez if you were going to actually attack me then actually be INTELLIGENT about it," sighed Azrael throwing his hands up into the air in mock defeat as the remaining hunter-nin… maybe they weren't really hunter-nin… gathered around him and his new found 'partner.'

"Men," –a cough- "And woman. Let's get them!" growled the hunter-nin that took notice to Azrael.

To be continued…

Chris- Alright then… Uh sorry for not updating had some things happen but all is good ;. Hn… If anyone would like to help email me at . One question that goes with the vote of pairings and such… do you want Naruto and Azrael (OMC) on their way to Konoha when they meet Itachi and Kisame with the bouzo of a hunter-nin group? Or do you want them to 'defeat' the group and meet them some place else? The group either way survives because the 'hunter-nins' are 'special' in a way. Pairings…

So far I've had people tell me they want several pairings but I'm placing the top 3 since I need it sooner than later but if you guys want I'll post the winner and 'losers' in the next chapter.

No Pairings: 9

Itachi X Naruto: 11

Naruto X OMC: 9 –Although if someone really, really wanted this pairing it might happen… right now it ain't happening.

Funny how that last one worked out. Too many of my other viewers want my OMC to be with Naru-kun since they actually know what the male looks like… It'll get explained later in the next chapter. Or I could put a teaser… hmm teaser sounds nice. But only if one asks me personally through review or otherwise will that pairing happen. I myself am leaning to no pairings but too many people want Itachi and Naruto to be together. Anyway teaser view of what Azrael (OMC --) looks like.

Teaser:

Azrael has Elvin-pointed ears with slightly silver tips. His eyes are the iciest shade of blue anyone had ever seen before; and were like this ever since his mother and father died. Yet, the uniqueness of his eyes didn't stop there; his eyes also had elongated pupils like a cat. Azrael's hands and feet were gifted with very strong and very sharp nails. He also had elongated upper canines that reached past his lower ones making him seem more like a vampire than a (-------.) Azrael also had tattoo like birthmarks engraved on his body that were all a deep shade of silver. There was one on his upper right arm and two on lower part, four bunched up on his mid upper arm, and two on each side of his face. He also had a black tail with a sliver tip. And the tail itself reached all the way down to the ground. The tail was slightly bushy but felt like silk. Azrael's hair was of the same deep shade of silver but had natural black highlights. His hair went past his ears down to the nape of his neck and his bangs were slightly shorter just reaching past his nose. Azrael was only 5'9" at the age of 17 (yet looked even younger sometimes) and probably about 120 lbs.

(-------) –You'll learn this later . Well there's the teaser. I'll give you a cookie to who ever figures out who/what Azrael really is. –Laughs- Although it is actually rather easy if you think about it.

Review please and I'll update faster with longer chapters .