III

Naruto pushed the girl off of him and gave her a look over. The first thing he noticed was the Konoha forehead protector that she had on. Apparently she was from this dump, which was confusing as he had never seen her before. She had fair skin and if he had to guess she was average height. She had brown hair that was cut in a chin-length bob that framed her face. She also had two rectangular, purple marks on her cheeks, one for each, which reminded him of the Inuzuka bastards that had seemed to enjoy sending their dogs after him. They had seemed to be more careful after he started to kill the dogs they sent after him, the hunters became the hunted. He gave his attention back to the girl who was still lying on the floor. She wore a black long-sleeved top and a light purple apron-skirt, under which she wore black shorts. She also had on a pair of black sandals, red stockings that stopped at her thighs, and a small, red bracelet on her left wrist.

Sarutobi looked at Naruto who was about to steal the girl's bracelet. "Naruto, leave her be."

Naruto pulled his arm back and stood up. "Well, as it seems our conversation is now over, I'll be taking my leave."

"Naruto, as you were a witness to this event, I'll need you to stay," said Sarutobi calmly, though on the inside he was slightly desperate to figure out what had just happened.

"Why?" Asked Naruto, clearly annoyed. "All of the ANBU in the room witnessed this event, why can't they vouch for your sanity?"

Sarutobi looked at Naruto surprised. How did he know about the ANBU? "How did you know about the ANBU in the room?"

"I heard one of them gasp when I was tackled to the floor." Naruto looked down when he heard the girl groan. He watched as she sat up and grabbed her head. Her brown eyes looked him up and down in confusion. "It's rude to stare."

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"Who the hell are you?" Naruto asked, completely ignoring her apology.

"Nohara, Rin…"

Sarutobi rested his head against his hand and let out a deep sigh. He was getting too old for this job. "Rin, do you have any idea where you are, what happened, or remember anything in the past hour?"

Rin took a couple of deep breaths before slowly standing up. She sat down in one of the chairs as she was finding it hard to keep her balance and looked up at the Hokage. "Well…I know I'm in the Hokage's office and that you are the Third Hokage… um…" Rin looked around the room, her gaze ending on Naruto. "I have no idea who that kid is…umm… Well, sensei was working on a seal that could summon someone to a specific area at a certain time, date, or both. It was for assassinations and such…I don't really know what happened… Sensei placed the seal on the wall his picture is hanging from to test it out and I accidently touched it and ended up here with a really bad headache." Rin rested her head against her hand and closed her eyes, her head was throbbing. "Speaking of Sensei, where is he?"

Sarutobi closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, greatly hoping that this was some kind of dream. "Rin, this is just as confusing for me as it is for you."

"What am I, chopped liver?" Mumbled Naruto

Sarutobi ignored the blond and re-lit his pipe. "Your sensei was killed twelve years ago. It appears that when you touched that seal it sent you here, a good amount of years ahead of your time."

Rin raised her head and looked at the Hokage in disbelief. "I'm sorry, did you just say that Sensei was killed and I somehow ended up in the future?"

Naruto looked between the two ninja's completely confused. He couldn't be hearing right, because he could have sworn that the Hokage had just said that someone from the past managed to find themselves in his present. Maybe the Hokage was losing it and the girl was on drugs, or maybe, just maybe, he had finally lost his mind and needed a good night's rest. Yes, that was exactly what he needed. Naruto turned around and grabbed the handle only to hear the voice of the senile old man pass through his ears.

"Not so fast, Naruto," said Sarutobi, his own head-ache starting form.

"Damn it," Naruto mumbled. He slowly turned around and folded his arms. This was complete shit. His entire night was ruined by some girl who just had to drop in.

Rin took a couple of deep breaths to help herself calm down. She could feel herself start to become light-headed and feelings of nausea enter her stomach. "What's going to happen to me?"

"We are going to get things settled." Sarutobi motioned for all of his ANBU to give their complete attention. "I need all of the Jonin not out on duty to report to me instantly." The only evidence of their departure was the slight shift of the breeze in the room. "Naruto, if you would please take a seat."

Naruto grudgingly walked forward and sat down next to Rin. "Why am I still here?"

Sarutobi just sighed into the palms of his hands. This was going to be a long night.

-M-

Naruto's head instantly shot-up from his pillow when a loud banging on his front door filled his apartment. He forced himself to get out of bed and slowly made his way to the door. He grabbed the handle and opened the door and, to his surprise, saw Sasuke standing on his doorstep. "You have ten seconds to tell me why you thought it would be a good idea to wake me up before I shove my foot up your ass."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. He was used to this kind of greeting as it was a daily occurrence for him and the blond. "You're late."

"For?"

"Graduation," Sasuke answered. "And I thought you might have wanted to see the new girl."

It took Naruto a second to remember that until they could figure out how to get Rin back to her present she was going to graduate and be placed on a team under the story that she was out of Konoha on a training trip. The only people who knew about the real story were him, and a bunch of important people. "So let me get this straight. You went to the Academy, saw I wasn't there, left, and started to disturb my peace."

"Not only that, but I looked through the Uchiha Library for answers and figured out what you are."

"Oh, and what am I?"

"I'll tell you once you get dressed and start walking towards the academy."

"I think I'll remain in the dark," said Naruto as he shut the door.

Sasuke clicked his tongue in annoyance; this wasn't going as smoothed as he had hoped. "Why waste all that time in the Academy if you don't want to graduate!?"

"So I could defend myself!"

"How are you going to defend yourself against a Jonin if you don't continue your training? You can't accomplish your goal when you are still at the level of an Academy student!"

The door swung open to reveal a fully dressed Naruto glaring at Sasuke, the orange shinobi pants replaced in black. "I hate you."

"The feeling is mutual," said Sasuke with a victorious smirk.

Naruto shut the door behind him and started to walk towards the Academy, Sasuke right beside him. "What's the real reason you want me to graduate?"

"We work well together and you understand the need for power. I have a goal that is similar to yours. I know you didn't join the Academy to defend yourself; you have a different set of motivations. I think we can help each other. You and I took out four other students at the same time which is obviously something two academy students shouldn't be able to do so easily."

"You have no idea what my goal is. How could you know yours and mine are similar?"

"It doesn't take a genius to see how you treat the people of Konoha. Either you're just an asshole, or they did something to you."

"Maybe you're not as blind as I thought you were," said Naruto, pushing open the front doors to the Academy.

Sasuke quickly put himself in front of Naruto so he couldn't walk into their classroom. "We could help each other out, figure out our weaknesses and build up on them. I have seen that notepad of yours, and it shows that you are better than you let on."

"How did you find out about that?" Naruto leaned against the wall. The Uchiha was giving out an interesting idea.

"You fell asleep with it open on your desk once."

"Oh…"

"Anyway," said Sasuke looking up at the clock and noticed they were almost twenty minutes late. "We need to get in class. I'll explain more after you graduate."

Naruto pushed himself off the wall and grabbed the door handle. "Alright Uchiha, you have yourself a teammate." Naruto looked at Sasuke who nodded, satisfied. "But let me tell you something Sasuke," said Naruto, his tone becoming cold. "If you betray me in any way, I promise that I will make sure your clan becomes extinct."

"Same goes for you."

Naruto grinned and opened the door. "I wouldn't want it any other way."

Iruka turned his attention away from the students who were taking the written portion of the test when he saw Naruto and Sasuke walk into the room. He stood up, grabbed two sheets of the test, and escorted them to the back of the room. "You two only have forty minutes to complete this test," said Iruka quietly.

Naruto pulled the test towards him and sighed. This was going to be a long day.

-M-

Rin picked at the grass, ignoring the lunch that was sitting in her lap and all of the kids that were talking with their friends. She didn't understand why she had to do this. Why couldn't they just let her do something else while she waits for them to sort out this mess? Apparently no one could know what had happened, mainly because there was no way to explain what had happened. She stopped picking at the grass when she saw Naruto walk past her with Sasuke right next to him. The kid didn't even spare her a glance after last night, and didn't seem to even acknowledge that she existed.

She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard someone sit down in front of her.

The girl looked at Rin who was staring at Sasuke. "Eyes for the best student have we?"

Rin gave the girl a confused look. "Sorry, but I don't know who you are talking about."

"You weren't looking at Sasuke?"

Rin shook her head. "No, I was looking at Naruto. Who are you?"

"I can't believe you were giving that bastard attention." The girl held out her hand, "I'm Noru."

Rin took her hand and shook, "Rin." She let go of the girl's hand and glanced at Naruto who was wrapping a piece of paper around a rock. "What's so bad about Naruto?"

"He doesn't give anyone the respect they deserve; he acts cold towards everyone. He is brutal when he fights too, no mercy for his allies in friendly spars, and he almost killed Sasuke one year." Noru turned her attention towards Naruto, a pissed off expression coming onto her features. "He cut my boyfriend's face. You should have seen it, rocks and dirt were stuck in the cuts and there was a lot of blood. Naruto tackled Shiri and slammed his face into the ground. He even got a kid purposely expelled from the academy one year. I hate him."

"Oh…" Rin looked over at Naruto once more and had to admit that he didn't give respect to people, if what she saw from his attitude towards the Jonin last night was any indication, but he certainly didn't give her, or any of the other Jonin cold looks. She looked back at Noru who had stood up when she heard the bell go off.

"My advice to you would be to stay away from that kid. He is bad news, and won't treat you any differently just because you are new here." Noru glanced at Naruto before walking off towards the academy.

-M-

Naruto sat in the back of the classroom with his head resting on his arms. He looked at all of the students who had already graduated talking with their friends excitedly. He was the last one in the room to be called and he had a feeling the Bunshin was going to affect his score badly, not that his score was good to begin with. He just simply put in the effort that would let him pass, except for the written test and Tai-Jutsu. He had actually tried on that knowing it could fail him.

He looked at Rin who was leaning on her hand looking out the window; though the faraway look she had told him she wasn't really paying attention to anything outside or inside.

"Uzumaki, Naruto!"

Naruto stood up and walked towards the room where the final portion of the exam was. He shut the door behind him and folded his arms already knowing he failed.

Iruka looked over Naruto's test scores before looking up at the blonde. "All you need to do is perform the Bunshin with at least three perfect copies of yourself."

Naruto placed his hands in his pockets and sighed. "No thanks."

Iruka looked at Naruto completely confused, "why not?"

"Because I can't."

"Well in that case you failed this part." Iruka wrote Fail on the paper before going through each one that went to each part of the exam. Iruka grabbed a headband and held it out to Naruto with a smile on his face. "Congratulations Naruto, you passed! Even though you failed to perform a Bunshin, you passed everything, including the written exam! You showed great teamwork with Sasuke yesterday during the exercise and came out on top!"

Naruto grabbed the headband and nodded. "Thank you."

Iruka watched Naruto with a big grin on face. He had a very talented bunch this year.

Naruto walked into the classroom and sat next to Sasuke who was smirking. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got me to graduate, keep your arrogance to yourself."

Rin who overheard the small-talk couldn't help the smile that came onto her face. She looked at Iruka who was beaming at everyone in the room.

"Congratulations to all of you! I am very proud and know that you will serve your village well!" The smile Iruka had on faltered a little bit. "I am sad to say that I will no longer be your sensei, but I know that you'll make whoever you are assigned to proud! Now, in one week you'll be assigned to your teams and start your official careers as Shinobi. Make Konoha proud!"

-M-

Naruto sat on the roof of his apartment looking at the view it gave him. The night sky was completely clear which gave him a good view of all of the stars, something he actually enjoyed looking at. The soft sound of footsteps landing on the rooftop alerted him of someone's presence, but he didn't pay it any attention.

Rin sat down next to Naruto and looked up at the stars. "This is a beautiful night."

"Have to enjoy it while it lasts."

Rin studied Naruto for a minute or so before looking back up at the sky. He wasn't acting cold or anything like that; he just seemed like a normal kid. What caught her curiosity was how all of the kids seemed to avoid, or glare at him, most of the time it was both. "Can't disagree with that."

"I saw you talking to Noru during our break today. She's charming."

"She doesn't seem to like you very much."

"She's a cunt," Naruto replied, not taking his gaze away from the stars, "and her boyfriend, Shiri, is a dick."

"Why do you say that?" Asked Rin a bit surprised by his language.

Naruto looked at her and grinned slightly. "I got Shiri expelled one year; they weren't going out at this point, just really good friends. Shiri's father got angry and was able to prove to the Hokage that Shiri was innocent and was enrolled back into the Academy."

"What did they do to you?" Asked Rin, surprised that the story was true.

"They jumped me and after they were done beating me up, Shiri pulled out a kunai to scare me. Once I heard Iruka coming over to see what was going on I punched Shiri and stabbed myself with the kunai in his hand. I didn't actually stab myself though, just made a deep cut on the side of my stomach. Anyway, that made it look like Shiri was attacking a fellow student with a deadly weapon which we weren't allowed at the time and I successfully got him expelled."

"How did his father figure out he didn't actually stab you?" Rin found her-self not so surprised by the way he treated Noru and Shiri, those two disserved it.

"Yamanaka looked into his mind or something; I don't really remember what happened except for being suspended for a week or two." Naruto looked at Rin who had stood up.

"The Yamanaka have a tendency to do that," said Rin as she turned herself towards the Hokage Tower. "I need to go and speak with the Hokage, see how much progress they made. What are you doing tomorrow?"

Naruto looked at her curiously, "Nothing, why?"

"I was thinking we could maybe do something tomorrow, enjoy the week."

"Okay, just come over when you're ready I guess."

Rin nodded and smiled before waving and jumping from roof to roof top towards the Hokage Tower. She caught the suspicion in his voice; it was as if he didn't believe a word she had said.

Naruto watched Rin leave before he stood up and dusted himself off. He raised an eyebrow when he saw someone very familiar jumping across the rooftops with a giant scroll strapped to his back. The sound of panicked ninja rushing and shouting throughout Konoha meant that his hunch was correct, it was Mizuki. Naruto jumped off of his apartment and landed onto the roof below, a dark expression coming onto his face.

Rin looked around at all of the panicked ninja in confusion. What was going on? She looked behind her and saw Naruto jump off of his apartment. She made an abrupt stop and ran off in Naruto's direction. The only people she saw running around were Chuunin and Jonin, so that meant Naruto knew something the others didn't.

Naruto ran into the forest gaining up on Mizuki. Apparently the Ex-Chuunin didn't realize he had been found and slowed down considerably. Naruto stopped suddenly when he felt a foot slam into his gut. He dropped to his knees and held his stomach in pain; he looked up at Mizuki who had a wicked grin on his face.

"Well, if it isn't the little shit that got me locked up and stripped of my rank." Mizuki grabbed Naruto by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off of the ground so they were face to face. "Coming after me was a very stupid idea, but it seems luck is on my side tonight." Mizuki pulled out a kunai with his free hand and placed the tip against Naruto's stomach. "I am going to do what nobody else could."

Naruto placed both of his hands together and started to rub them together as fast as he could. He still hasn't been able to figure out how to pull fire out of the air, but he did know how to create some. He felt his hands start to get really hot at the same time Mizuki plunged the kunai into his gut. His hands instantly went up in flames and he grabbed Mizuki by the neck, squeezing as hard as he could. They both fell to the ground with Naruto on top not letting go. Mizuki desperately tried to get Naruto off of him as he was finding it hard to breathe and he could feel the skin on his neck melting, the blood flowing down his neck didn't help him feel confident at all. Mizuki brought his knee up in a desperate attempt to get the demon-brat off of him and forced the kunai deeper into Naruto's gut.

Mizuki felt his eyelids become heavy and closed his eyes, death was much better than this torture. His eyes snapped open when he felt his forehead burning and opened his mouth to scream in pain but all that came out was the sound of him choking on his own blood. His hair had ignited, followed shortly by his clothes. He grabbed at the boy's wrist only to let go when the flame latched onto his hand.

Naruto let go of the burning Chuunins neck and ripped the scroll away from Mizuki so it wouldn't burn. Breathing heavily, he scooted himself away from the burning Chunin, the scroll clutched to his chest tightly. Naruto set the scroll down, gripped the kunai tightly and pulled it out of his gut, his shirt instantly becoming soaked with blood. He could feel the flow of blood stop and his skin stitch itself together, causing him to sigh in relief. His cold blue eyes looked at the burning body of Mizuki and gave a small satisfied smile. He lied down on the grass and tried to get his breathing under control. He didn't really think that one through and it almost killed him. This was a lesson learned and he was going to be sure to never let it happen again. He could hear the other ninja getting closer and sighed. He slowly stood up, legs shaking and breathing still heavy. He grabbed the scroll, strapped it to his back and took a step and felt himself fall forward. He closed his eyes waiting for the impact, but instead felt someone grab him.

"I got you," Rin said softly. She ignored Mizuki, finding it better to not become distracted, and lifted up Naruto's bloody shirt expecting to find a wound, but didn't see anything. Even after wiping away the blood there was no wound, or even a scar, there was nothing. She lowered his shirt and gently laid the unconscious boy on the ground, and started to check his body for any other possible wounds. She had seen the entire thing and was confused as to how he had no damage, and was able to create fire without any hand-seals; it was like he just pulled the fire from thin air. She looked away from Naruto when she heard feet hitting the ground next to her and saw Kakashi looking relieved.

-M-

Naruto opened his eyes and instantly closed them from the sunlight. He blinked a couple of times and looked around the white room, recognizing it as the hospital, a place he has spent a lot of time in. He slowly sat up and felt hands gently grab his shoulders, and slowly pushed him back into the lying position.

"Don't sit up just yet."

Naruto recognized the kind voice of Rin and felt himself become confused. He knew she was just making sure he was okay, but what he didn't understand was why? She didn't know him, spoke to the biggest bitch in Konoha who had probably told her some nasty things about him, and yet, she was still here with him, checking over him once more. He didn't know how to feel about it and just let her continue. This has never happened to him before as even the medical staff didn't really do anything for him. "I'm fine."

"I know," she said simply. "I'm just double checking."

"Oh…"

The door opened to reveal the Hokage looking at Naruto with a kind smile on his face. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," replied Naruto as he watched the Hokage set a bag down next to him. "What's in the bag?"

"Your payment!" The Hokage pulled out a scroll and handed it to the blonde.

Naruto opened the scroll and read through it, a small grin coming onto his face. "Not even a day out of the Academy and I completed my first mission." Naruto had to make sure that no one found out that his real reason for going after Mizuki was to kill him for the way he treated him, not to save some stupid scroll.

The Hokage took the scroll back and turned around to leave. "Have a nice week, Naruto."

Naruto watched the Hokage leave before looking at Rin. "Can I get up yet?"

Rin nodded and sat down in the chair next to his bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," replied Naruto, throwing the covers off of him. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you killed someone and I don't know if it was your first or not," said Rin observing him. He wasn't showing any kind of sign that he was struggling with the fact that he took a life.

"Oh, well I'm fine, he deserved it," said Naruto as he got out of the bed.

Rin stood up out of the chair so she could catch him just in case he fell over again. "That's not the best way to look at it, but it's good to know you're okay."

"Whatever," Naruto muttered as he put his shirt back on. "Have they made any progress?"

Rin shook her head, disappointment clearly shown on her face. "No, they said that the seal looked unfinished which made it extremely complicated. They said it could take years for them to figure it out."

Naruto walked over to the money that was on the table and placed it in his pocket. "Well, thanks for helping me, and I hope you have a good day."

Rin quickly chased after Naruto who had left the room. "Wait! You said that we would do something today!"

Naruto stopped walking and blinked a couple of times. He completely forgot about that. "I don't think Noru is doing anything important today, and she seems to like you."

Rin grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and started to drag him down the hallway. "Well I don't like her, so you're stuck with me, and I swear that if you try to ditch me I'll put you back into that hospital bed."

A small smile crawled onto Naruto's face as he let himself get pulled out of the hospital. Even though she had threatened him, he could hear the playful tone in her voice and found it pretty hard to say no.

Rin glanced at Naruto and grinned. "You're also paying for everything since I took care of you. It's only fair."

-M-

Naruto sat at the Academy in between Rin and Sasuke with his head resting on his hand. He had spent most of his time with Rin over the break which turned out to be fun when he actually had a say in what they did. Not that she was controlling, but she had a way of getting what she wanted while still sounding innocent. She tried to get him to buy new clothes, but he had luckily managed to get her to change her mind a couple of times, though there was this feeling that told him she would get her way sooner or later. Sooner was most likely the case. Naruto was brought out of his thoughts when Iruka started to call out the teams. His focus started to drift away when he didn't hear his name get called, but didn't completely fade out. He gave his attention to Iruka who had finally called out his name.

"Team Seven will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Nohara Rin. Your squad leader will be Hatake, Kakashi."

Everyone looked confused. Noru glanced at their table before raising hand, not waiting for Iruka to answer. "Why do they get four people in their team, but everyone else only gets three?"

"To pick up Uzumaki's slack!" Shiri gave his friend a high-five while laughing.

Naruto just simply ignored them. Shiri would get what was coming to him sooner or later.

Iruka cleared his throat before continuing. "Team Eight will consist of Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino. Your squad leader will be Yuhi Kurenai." Iruka flipped the page before continuing. "Team Ten will consist of Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Choji. Your squad leader will be Sarutobi Asuma." Iruka set the clipboard down and looked over his class. "Your squad leader will be here to pick you up shortly." With that, Iruka left the room.

-End-