Naruto woke up before sunrise the next morning and sat up against the wall. It had been almost 6 days since anyone had seen him in Konoha. Another 10 days before that he had returned from his failed mission. 16 days. He could still feel the sting where Sakura had slapped him.

Could he really blame her? He had made a promise he couldn't keep, and it wasn't like she owed him anything. Its not like had helped her before. After all, wasn't it Sasuke who had defeated Haku to protect his friend, Sasuke who had protected them in the forest of death, Sasuke who saved her ungrateful ass from Gaara…

Naruto blinked at where his previous train of thought had taken him. It was rare for him to be this bitter; he had years of practice with being abused.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that no one would cry for him if he never went back. Sure, Tsunade would be sad, but her duties would quickly consume her life and he would be forgotten. Jiraiya had left Konoha again, so it might take him years to even find out that Naruto had left. Damn, now he was just being depressing.

Naruto jumped out of bed, looked around the room to see his cloths laying, clean and folded, on a table near the door. He silently blessed Tsunami as he rushed to get dressed.

Tazuna was peaceful. He was the only one ever up this early, so he spent his time drinking green tea in meditative relection. He was calm, one with himself and his surroundings. Then came Naruto.

Like an orange bullet, Naruto bounced into the kitchen.

"GOOD MORNING! Tazuna-SAN" he called, causing Tazuna to spit out his mouthful of green tea and glare balefully at the boy who had the nerve to be this energized this early in the morning.

"Good morning Naruto, would you care for some tea?" Tazuna asked, but Naruto waved him off.

"So old man, where do you keep your instant ramen?" Tazuna blinked

"Ramen?…..there isn't any here, I don't like the instant stuff and my daughter won't let Inari touch the stuff, she says it causes insanity"

Naruto laughed, "insanity? I eat ramen 2-3 meals a day, and look at me!"

"Actually," Tazuna replied, "I think you're where she got the idea in the first place"

Tazuna smirked to himself as he watched Naruto grumble. "But," he continued, "I hear there's a great 24hour ramen stand on the corner of 18th and Swordfish"

Naruto blushed, "well see, I didn't actually bring any money with me, so…"

Tazuna looked at him for a second, and tossed him some money. "1000 yen, knock yourself out kid"

Naruto grinned and dashed out the door, calling back over his shoulder,

"ThanksoldmanIhavesomethingstodothismorningnotsurewhenI'llbeback."

The door slammed. Tazuna went back to his tea.

Naruto sprinted through town and found the ramen stand exactly where the old man said it would be. He hopped onto a stool and ordered 3 bowls of beef ramen (he didn't have time for a full meal) and while waiting pondered the mystery of why all ramen stands were owned by kind old men with cute daughters to take orders. His musings were short lived as said cute daughter quickly brought out his ramen. He wasted no time, and a small crowd of people on their way to work had gathered to watch him eat by the time he was finished.

Ignoring his fans, he leaped over the crowd and again started to run, he figured he only had about 12 minutes before the sun rose.

He arrived at his destination just as the first rays of sun were peaking over the horizon. Everything here was almost exactly as he remembered it, as if this place had been untouched by time. It was really nothing more than a small clearing in the woods, but it was one of Naruto's most important places.

It seemed like yesterday, he had carried Haku's body here all the way from the bridge, and he was soaked with blood and tears. Sakura had been fawning over Sasuke's injuries, so he and Kakashi had dug 2 graves, carefully placed the bodies in the holes, filled them in, and placed 2 crosses made of bound wood to mark the spot. Naruto had then, with all his strength, taken Zabuza's great sword and slammed it into the dirt.

It had also been here, 2 weeks later that he had sworn to never ignore his heart in favor of what his village told him to do. Those had been some of the most naïve words of his life.

Kakashi had smiled at him as he said that, everyone Kakashi loved had died for putting the mission first, but Kakashi had had reason to believe in his village, it was a place of belonging for him and it was all he had left. As long as a shinobi had a village, the village had to come first.

Considering how Konoha treated him, Naruto wasn't sure he could live with that.

As he approached the graves he had his breath taken away. His musings had slowed him down, and dawn was well underway. There was Zabuza's sword, right where he had put it, but the suns light had ignited the sky and clouds, making the sword look as if surrounded by a halo of fire.

Some imperceptible force drew him to it, and as the light reflected red off the exposed part of the blade, he unconsciously reached and grabbed the handle. This, for him, was the embodiment of Zabuza's spirit, everything the demon of the mist had done or felt, had done with this very blade at his side.

Part of Naruto screamed at him to let go, turn around and run back to Konoha, but his decision had been made long ago, he just had never realized it until that moment.

"Nukenin: Uzumaki Naruto" he said, as if introducing himself to the sword, and with one sharp pull, he drew it from the ground. He held it up with his right hand, and though significantly taller than Naruto himself was, the sword was surprisingly light.

He rested the back of the blade on his other hand and examined it. He had never really taken a close look at the sword before, as he had usually been trying to dodge it. The blade was mostly straight with a short curve at the end, the handle was about half as long as the blade, and was wrapped in some rough material as well as having ridges every 6 inches or so. Both, Naruto imagined, were there to help grip it. In total, he estimated the swords length at about 7½ feet.

As he looked closer, he saw an inscription. Engraved in the blade, right above the handle was written: 'Kubikiri Houcho'. Naruto snickered; it would be like Zabuza to name his sword. But then again, he supposed, it was also like himself.

His examination had only taken a couple of minutes, but the sun was now above the horizon, and Naruto quickly decided that he would need some way to hide the sword before the majority of the populace started to go about their business. He glanced around the clearing again, and with a short prayer and a promise to return, he was rushing back to the edge of town with Kubikiri over his shoulder.

He arrived at the edge of town to see, just as he had feared, people getting up and starting to fill the streets. The first thing he saw was a clothing store, so he rushed inside, being careful not to cut the top of the doorframe, and glanced around the store.

A young woman who had been working at a sewing machine was now staring rather pointedly at his sword.

"Hey lady, I have" (Naruto reached into his pocket and grabbed his change from breakfast) "508 yen, and I need a 7 foot by 4 foot piece of fabric, what can you give me?"

The young woman quickly composed her self and thought for a moment "Do you care about quality? I could give you a piece from the end of a roll, but ends are always frayed on one edge."

"I don't care about quality or color, but I would like it soon" Naruto said nervously. He was hoping that no one had recognized the sword and each second increased the risk.

The woman disappeared into a back room and appeared moments later with the requested cloth. It was thick, white, and almost exactly the size he needed.

Naruto grabbed the cloth, shoved the money into her hand, spread the cloth over the table, set Kubikiri on it… and stared. It hadn't really occurred to him that he had no idea how to wrap it.

The woman (who Naruto now took the time to notice, had a name tag that read 'Rio') laughed slightly at the flabbergasted look on his face.

"Would you like some help with that," she asked, still giggling.

Naruto had the grace to blush, "uh… yeah, I've never wrapped anything before and it really wouldn't be good if the cloth fell off in the middle of the city" he said a bit uneasily.

Rio laughed again and went to the other side of the table. Within a few minutes she had taught him how to wrap the sword, tucking in the cloth at the ends so it wouldn't come loose.

During all this time, Naruto was just marveling that he had just walked into a random store with a 7-foot blade and was being treated with nothing but kindness. He smiled at her and grabbed his newly wrapped sword.

"Thanks, Rio-san!" he called back as he left the shop.

Back in the shop, Rio sighed. She had just sold 2500 yen worth of high quality cloth for 508 yen because the boy had been cute, the owner was going to be pissed.

Naruto was happily walking down the street with his new cloth wrapped bundle. He was getting some weird looks but he had decided that looking weird was much better than looking dangerous.

With his minor panic attack over, it was just starting to sink in that he was now a self- declared missing-nin. Though the decision to leave the village left him much more relaxed, he realized that he had a lot to do. He started to make a mental checklist.

First of all, he had to change his appearance. Naruto was not so arrogant as to think he could take on the Konoha Hunter-nin, so that meant that he had to hide from them, no one could ever recognize him. He also realized with some sadness that he'd have to change his last name.

Secondly, he had to learn to use his new sword. This mostly would consist of simple Taijustsu training but Naruto also wanted to learn some of the Ninjutsu that Zabuza had used so effectively, most specifically, Kirigakure no Jutsu.

Thirdly, he had decided that Zabuza and Haku needed true gravestones, not just the wood crosses he had make with nails. This would require him to earn some money, which he obviously needed to do anyway, but it also meant staying in wave country, maybe for as long as 2 months, and that would be cutting it tight.

Fourthly and finally, he had to send some kind of message back to Konoha, he wanted to give the impression he was dead, so a suicide note would be appropriate. No one who cared about him would have problems understanding why he would kill himself, and everyone else would celebrate, so that would work out well. The only problem would be that the note would have to come from somewhere far from wave country, he would have to think about that.

Naruto continued down the street and noticed a couple of sailors staring at his forehead, cursing himself, he realized he had his forehead protector on. He rushed into a side street and shoved it into his pocket before hurrying back to Tazuna's house, annoyed at his own stupidity, but happy that he had at least some vague plans.

He opened the door and walked in to the now eerily silent house. He knew that Inari had school and Tazuna had to run his business, but it didn't make their absence any more disconcerting.

His unease was alleviated slightly when he heard the sound of water running and humming in the kitchen. He peeked his head in to see Tsunami washing the breakfast dishes. He ran upstairs to his room and climbed out the window onto the roof, he found a secluded spot facing away from the road and hid Kubikiri.

He then snuck back inside and crept into the kitchen behind Tsunami. He cleared his throat and she jumped, spinning around, only to smile upon seeing who it was.

"You've got to learn to make sound when you move, Naruto," she said shakily. "You scared me half to death."

As she was collecting herself, Naruto took a moment to think. He didn't want to lie to Tazuna's family, but he also didn't want to leave a trail. He decided not to tell too much of the truth, he was afraid of Hunter-nin more than he was afraid of Tazuna's discovering his lie.

"Ne, Tsunami-san," he tried to look embarrassed, "I kinda lost my pack on the way here, I really don't mean to impose but…"

"Stop," Tsunami cut him off and smiled at him, "Father makes enough money that he could buy a new house every week, your shopping expenses wouldn't even make a mark on the books."

"Thanks Tsunami-san, and by the way, I noticed the monument in that park near the market, do you know who made it?" Naruto was hoping she did, he had noticed the stonework was superb, probably someone he could hire to carve the two gravestones he needed.

Tsunami thought for a moment, "I think it was Soba Akira, he runs a stone and metal work shop near the north end of the city, why?"

Naruto needed an excuse, and suddenly got a great idea, "I was thinking I might stay in the city for a while, and figured I'd need to get a job. I thought that any guy who made such an amazing monument to Konoha would be the kinda guy I'd want to work for."

Once again, Naruto had to internally laugh at the irony of his words, but he had gotten what he wanted.

"So," Naruto started again, "would you be willing to come cloths shopping with me or am I on my own in this?"

Tsunami glanced around at the house, looking a bit harried. "Would it be okay if you shopped on your own, Naruto-kun, I really have a lot of work to do today" she continued apologetically as she reached into her purse, "Will 40000 yen be enough?"

Naruto was ecstatic, but tried not to show it, that much money would normally sustain him for 2 weeks, he was determined to save a large portion of it.

He realized she had been holding the money out for half a minute and took it, trying to respond. "40000 yen? That will be more than enough, but I'm not sure how long it will take and really don't know where to go, my cloths have always been pre-ordered and paid for by the Hokage"

Tsunami looked as though she were shocked at the thought of someone having never gone cloths shopping, she grabbed a pad of paper and wrote down an address, "Here, Naruto-kun, start at this shop, the lady who runs it is a friend of mine, if you don't find anything you like there, she'll help direct you"

Naruto thanked her profusely for both the money and the advice and soon found himself back out in the bustling streets.

He followed the directions on the paper, but started to get suspicious as the streets started to look familiar, he arrived at the address Tsunami had given him only to start banging his head against the nearest lamppost.

Rio sat in her chair staring at the ceiling, apart from the cute boy with the sword this morning; the day had been really dull. She had finished three minor alterations and helped an old lady pick out some socks and was now attempting to count the bumps on the stucco ceiling.

All of this essentially meant that she was more than happy for the distraction when she saw cute sword boy smashing his head against a lamppost outside the shop. She walked to the door and called out, "Hey, can I help you with anything?"

Naruto glanced around, and realizing he had once again drawn attention to himself, rushed inside the shop. "Yeah… see… I'm looking for some cloths"

Rio blinked, "This is a clothing store, care to be more specific?"

Once again Naruto found himself embarrassed, "Um, I really can't be more specific, I've never really shopped for cloths before."

Now she was interested, "Never shopped before?" Rio didn't actually find that hard to believe as she looked at his orange jumpsuit. "Did you at least have something in mind?"

Naruto having never had any choice as to what he wore found that if he thought about it and looked around the store, he did have some ideas. He wandered over to the pants and started to pull things off the rack.

"Ne, Rio-san," he said as he browsed, "do you know of any good barbers nearby, particularly any who specialize dyeing hair?"

If Rio was confused by the question, she didn't show it.

"There's an old man who uses some weird technique to make his own dyes, he can supposedly make dyes that alter the roots themselves, but I don't really believe that."

40 minutes later, Naruto had picked out what he thought were enough cloths. He had two pair of black pants, a couple white T-shirts, a dark navy vest with all the needed pockets, and new sets of sock and underwear. He was well aware that this ensemble clashed horribly with his hair, but he intended for that to be the next thing he changed.

He left the store, after giving Rio a 500-yen tip, happily holding the address of his next destination, and wearing his new cloths. He didn't wear a shirt and left the vest unzipped, letting it hang so his seal would show if he molded any chakra.

Naruto had a bit more trouble finding the barbershop because the owner had never bothered to put up address numbers and the sign was pretty small. When he did find it, he walked in with every intention of giving the owner a piece of his mind.

He took one step in and his mind ground to a halt, the old man was out of within another room but Naruto sensed what was undeniably chakra manipulation. Cursing whatever luck had caused him to run into shinobi, he started the seals for kage bunshin while backing out of the store. He only managed 2 steps before he felt a kunai at his throat, on the other end of which was a rather pissed of looking old man who had just moved faster than Naruto could follow.

After his initial moment of panic, and realizing that he wasn't dead, he looked at the man. He wasn't wearing a forehead protector, that was good, he did appear to be a barber, and that combined with the fact that he was old made Naruto sure this was the man he was looking for, the only problem was the knife still at his throat.

"So, I hear you specialize in hair dye?" Naruto asked, causing the old man to raise an eyebrow.

"Yes, you heard correctly, though if you're a customer it's generally preferred if you don't perform jutsus in the shop, I like to keep it clean." The man replied perfectly calmly, as if he weren't threatening Naruto's life.

"So then," Naruto asked, "how much do you charge for that special dye of yours? I'm looking for the permanent root altering stuff."

The man leaned over and studied Naruto's head. "7000 yen, 4000 if you have any good stories"

Naruto was confused. "Stories? What kind of stories?"

The old man's eyebrow rose higher, "you ARE a missing-nin, aren't you. I don't see a forehead protector, no village I've heard of has a uniform like that, your too slow to be an under-cover ANBU or Hunter-nin, and to top it off, you come here wanting permanent hair dye, so I think its pretty obvious."

When he put it like that, Naruto had to agree that it was pretty obvious. That didn't, however, help with the current situation, so he decided to gamble and tell the truth; he had aversions against lying to people who could a)probably detect his lie and b)kick his ass.

"Yeah, I'm a missing-nin, though I really just decided that this morning."

After a moment of thought, the old man removed the kunai and dropped it into one of the many pockets in his smock, did a 180 turn, and walked back into the back room.

"What color?" the old man called.

It took a second for Naruto to realize that the man was asking about hair dye.

"A dark maroon" he called back to the man. Naruto had thought carefully about his choice of color, he wanted something drastically different from his current blond, but not something he wouldn't like.

The man emerged holding a bottle and a bucket and gestured towards one of the barber chairs. Naruto sat as the man rubbed an odd chemical into his hair before telling him to rinse his hair in the bucket. Once that was done, the man took out a pair of scissors, started to trim and told Naruto to start a story.

The next hour was one of the most bizarre and interesting of Naruto's life as he and the man exchanged stories of their lives as shinobi. Naruto talked about the mist tecniques he wanted to learn and how he hoped to learn them, and the old man told Naruto of missions he had done in years long past. No introductions were made and no names were mentioned, neither even knew what village the other was from, but both felt as if they knew the other by the end of the cut and dye.

Naruto gave the man his money, a little salute, and walked out the door with his hair now a dark red. It would be hours later that he would find the small scroll in his pants pocket labeled 'Beginning and Intermediate Stealth Jutsus' and with the mark of the hidden mist.

Translations

Kubikiri Houcho - Head Chopping Cleaver

Nukenin – Missing-nin

Kirigakure no Jutsu – Hidden Mist no Jutsu

Kage bunshin – shadow replication (but you should know this one…)

Authors Note: It should be noted that I don't intend to have OCs be major characters in this story or have any Naruto/OC pairings. I'm also not really sure about the speed of the plot, whether its moving to fast or to slow, so feel free to add your input.