"Ugh…" Naruto moaned as he gently clutched his raging stomach. It has been well-over 24 hours since either he or Gohan had a proper meal and, though he was not sure about his companion, the hunger was beginning to have a slight effect on his morale. "Gohan… Tell me there's another town nearby."

"Um…" Gohan glanced down at the map. His eye scoured the guide between his hands, but he couldn't find anything that would not disappoint Naruto. "There doesn't seem to be one on the map…"

The young Uzumaki groaned as the two continued down their path. "And that last town looked like it was gone for years. We need some food! I should have looked into the bag before leaving Smok! I'm craving some Ichiraku!"

Finished with his rants and now overcome with boredom, Naruto mindlessly reached into his backpack and pulled one of the Phantom Ruby shards out of his backpack, "If only I could make a wish with this thing now."

"Is that what they'll do when they're all together?" Gohan asked. Though he agreed to help Naruto on his quest and had an idea of what kind of value the shards had to Naruto, this was the first Gohan had heard what their express purpose was.

"Yeah." Naruto confirmed. "Smok said that if I can get these together I can make as many wishes as I want."

"Really…" Gohan stared intensely at the shard. If collecting all seven really resulted in having a wish granted. "Do you… Do you think that I could make a wish with it when we find the others?"

Confusion landed on Naruto's face before he shot a disbelieving look at his companion. Such a look was all the nervous Gohan needed to understand what Naruto's answer was."Are you kidding? Of course, you'll get a wish."

Gohan's eyes widened with surprise. "Really?"

"You didn't think you were just going to help me and get nothing in return, did ya?" he watched as a big grin stretched across Naruto's face before he was suddenly presented with the shard. "I promise that when we find all the shards you'll get as many wishes as you want too."

Staring at the offering, Gohan found himself deprived of speech. Naruto's assurance and how he said it like it was the most obvious fact in the world filled his heart with a little warmth. He had hasn't received such kindness from someone in a very long time.

He slowly reached out and accepted the shard, a small smile forming on his lips as he brought it closer to his face.

"Thanks, Naruto," Gohan said.

"Don't thank me yet. We still got to find the others," Naruto reminded him.

Gohan continued to stare at the shard in his hand. It was like his eyes were drawn to it and found it hard to look away. Suddenly, the young boy found himself on his knees, confused and horrified as he hovered over his master's limp body.

"P… Piccolo! Why did… you save me…?" he asked.

"Didn't I… Tell you to run…" Piccolo weakly reminded him. "Hu… Hurry up and get outta here…"

Tears welled up in the scared child's eyes."D-Don't die! My dad will be here soon! P… Please! Please Don't Die!"

"How pathetic… The Great Demon King Piccolo of all people… P-Protecting a little kid… It's disgraceful.

A weak smile formed on the Namekian's face. "It's because of you and your dad… You two must've rubbed off on me… Gohan, you're the only one who ever treated me with respect…"

Tiny droplet of tears crawled out of Piccolo's eyes as he felt his remaining strength quickly disappearing. "To be honest… These last few months weren't so bad…"

Finally depleted of strength, the warrior could only say one last thing as he closed his eyes. "Don't die Go…han…"

Despair filled the child as the realization that his master was gone sunk in.

"NOOOOO!" Gohan tearfully cried.

"Whoa!" Shocked by the sudden response, the young monkey-tailed child glanced up at Naruto. He could only face upon the disturbed face of his companion. "Why are you screaming 'NOOOOO' all of a sudden and… Why are you crying?"

"Ah…" Gohan wiped the tears from his eyes. Despite being sure that what he just witnessed never happened before, the pain he felt was too personal to ignore. "I… I just saw something really weird. I don't know what it was but… It was really painful…"

A worried look crossed Naruto's face. Not only was it slightly upsetting to see his companion so emotional, it also sounded like Gohan had just experienced something similar to what he had the night before.

"Hey… Gohan…" Naruto quickly averted his gaze as his companion looked up at him. He wanted to say something that could cheer him up, but he couldn't think of anything.

Suddenly, a pair of arms tightly wrapped themselves around Naruto from behind. "What the-?!"

"Got you this time, Fū!" he heard someone declare.

"The heck you do!" Naruto swiftly drove the back of his head into what felt like his captor's face. Soon the arms that ensnared him weakly loosened their grip, allowing him to escape. "And the name's Naruto, not Fū!"

Naruto glared at his attacker. It was clear from his build and moans of pain that it was a young man. His eyes were then drawn to his would -be captor's hair. It was short and spiky like his; the only difference was that the man possessed orange hair, not blonde.

"Looks like we got the wrong person," Just then, two more figures appeared out of nowhere. One was a young woman that had short, straight blue hair with a bun and grey eyes with lavender eye shadow. The other was a young man with pale white skin and straight red hair that covered his eyes.

"You okay, Yahiko?" the woman asked the orange-haired man.

"Is he okay?!" Naruto snapped. Hearing someone express concern over the man who had attacked him infuriated the young kitsune. "He grabbed me! Why are you asking if he's okay?!"

"Sorry." The young man with bright red hair, approached Naruto and Gohan with a calm smile on his face. "Sorry, you had a similar chakra signature to someone we were looking for and I just assumed."

"Yeesh, Nagato!" Yahiko jumped on his feet and shot the red-haired man an annoyed look. "You couldn't sense that he had a super hard head."

"That's why you should have waited until he further examined the source of the chakra, Yahiko," the young woman reprimanded.

"You have met the girl right, Konan?" Yahiko argued.

Naruto found himself confused as he watched the adults interact. Now able to see his face, Naruto noticed that Yahiko shared a slight resemblance to him. But that confusion was soon replaced with curiosity and annoyance.

"…Who the heck are you guys?" he bluntly asked.

"Oh right," remembering that they weren't alone, Yahiko returned his gaze to the children in front of him."The name's Yahiko."

The young man then placed his hands on his companion's shoulders, a proud smile appearing on his face as he prepared to introduce them. "These two are Konan and Nagato."

"Hello," Konan waved with a compassionate smile.

"Please to meet you," Nagato added with a small smile.

Though still confused, Naruto felt any annoyance he had left in his heart once again replaced with curiosity.

"Well, I'm Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki," he introduced himself. He then turned to his companion. "And this is Gohan."

"Hello…" Gohan shyly replied.

Konan approached the nervous child and kneeled in front of him. "Are you okay, Gohan?"

"Y-Yeah… It's just…" Gohan averted his gaze as he stumbled over his words.

"Can't let your guard around strangers, right?"

Gohan silently nodded his head.

"Not to mention he ran into all sorts of problems with girls ever since I met him…" Naruto silently emphasized. "Probably had more trouble before then too."

Konan raised her palm. As it hovered in front of Gohan's face, a cluster of paper appeared before her in quickly formed into a rose. She grasped the origami rose and presented it to Gohan with a smile. "Hopefully, this will prove that I'm not a threat."

Such a smile filled Gohan with relief. His eyes were then drawn to the paper rose. He couldn't hide his amazement as a reached for the gift, a feeling his companion shared.

"Whoa! How'd you do that?" Naruto asked.

"It's a little ninjutsu I developed as a child: Dance of the Shikigami," Konan happily answered.

"Ninjutsu?" the child's eyes widened with surprise. "You guys are ninja?"

"Yep," Yahiko proudly answered. "You're looking at the top three members of the Akatsuki."

"Akatsuki?" Naruto crossed his arms and shout him a confused look. "What's that?

"What? You haven't heard of us?" Yahiko sputtered. "The Akatsuki? Famed mercenaries that desire peace and even ended Hanzō rein over the Hidden Rain Village to prove that point?"

Naruto and Gohan blankly stared at Yahiko. They truly had no idea what the man in front of them was talking about. Sensing this, Yahiko was soon afflicted with despair.

"I don't really think children these days would be into politics, Yahiko," Konan pointed out.

"Yeah…" he scratched the back of his head as he considered her words. Thinking back to his childhood days, he couldn't help but respond with "But we were…"

"We didn't have a choice."

"Yeah," a solemn expression flashed on Yahiko's face before he turned back to Naruto and Gohan. "Anyway, sorry for trying to capture you."

"Wouldn't really be the first to try," Naruto casually shrugged. He couldn't really find it in him to stay mad.

"Moving on to a different subject," the two kids glanced up at Nagato. No longer smiling, he had the appearance of an emotionless man.

"Hey, Nagato, you're scaring people with the eyeless look again," Yahiko joked.

"Huh? Oh right," the pale young man parted his hair, revealing his right eye for Naruto and Gohan to see. It was a shade of purple and possessed ripple-like pattern that seemed to spread over the entire eyeball. Staring into such an eye filled Naruto with a sense of nostalgia, though he couldn't understand why.

"So…" snapping out of his daze, Naruto rejoined Gohan in listening to Nagato."What are you kids doing out here alone?"

Naruto grinned and wrapped his arm around his companion's shoulder.

"We're on an adventure for wishes," Naruto declared.

Silence interrupted their conversation after such a boast. Receiving nothing but blank stares from everyone, Naruto's cheeks steadily grew red from embarrassment.

"That sounded way cooler in my head…" he silently lamented.

"You two are travelling all by yourself...?" Nagato questioned further, breaking the awkward atmosphere. "Aren't your parents worried?"

A troubled look fell over Naruto and Gohan's faces. That was the second time in such a short amount of time they had to face such a thought. At the same time, a solemn expression crossed the three shinobi's faces.

"…Hey, there's a town not too far from here. Why don't we stop there for something to eat?" Yahiko suggested.

As if on cue, the children's stomachs roared, pleading to be fed.

"We'll take that as a yes," Konan chuckled.

The children followed the three shinobi to a nearby town and a local restaurant.

"So, where were you two before you're current big adventure for wishes?" Yahiko asked.

"It seriously sounded cooler in my head!" Naruto screamed in his head.

"Um…" Gohan nervously scratched his right cheek. "I was living on Mount Paozu with my mother and father."

Snapping out of his thoughts, Naruto added, "And I was living in the Hidden Leaf Village,"

"Hidden Leaf?" the two noticed a slight change in Nagato's visible eye. "The same village as Jiraiya Sensei."

"'Jiraiya Sensei'? Who's Jiraiya?" Naruto asked.

"You don't know?" Konan said, surprised. "He's a pretty well-known ninja,"

"Which he has a tendency of letting people know," a smug smile appeared on Yahiko's face. It was as if was mimicking the mannerisms of someone else. "He's the world-renowned toad sage of Mt. Myoboku and one of the Legendary Sannin. The handsome white haired shinobi of the leaf: Jiraiya!"

Naruto blankly stared at Yahiko. He couldn't believe how dramatic and long such an introduction

"You ever see him, the introduction will likely be even more dramatic," the young man continued as if what he just did was normal.

Hearing all of that, all dumbfounded Naruto could think was, "Toads and drama… I think dad mentioned someone like that before…"

With Naruto once again lost in his head, Gohan took it upon himself to ask, "You mentioned before that you three are part of some organization called the 'Akatsuki' right? What's that?"

In response, Yahiko simply extended his right pointer finger. Even though they didn't say anything, one thought flashed through Konan and Nagato's mind, "He's trying to act wise again."

Suddenly, their friend cleared his throat as he exchanged quick annoyed glances with them. Not even bothering to hide their true feelings, the two simply chuckled as Yahiko returned to his previous position.

"Well, right now, we're a mercenary outfit that does things that both big shinobi villages and governments don't want to do or provide assistance to smaller places," he explained.

"But you also said that you ended someone's rein over a village. Does that mean that you help overthrow current leaderships?"

"That's a different story that actually ties back to the beginning of the organization…"

Gohan and Naruto's eyes lit up with interest. Recognizing this, the young man continued, "You see, me, Nagato and Konan; we were all war orphans."

"War orphans?" Naruto repeated, confused.

"All orphaned by war. We all had parents until they were killed during the Second Great Ninja War," Yahiko explained.

"What was that?" Gohan questioned.

"It was a war between most of the shinobi villages and countries: The Hidden Stone, Hidden Sand, Hidden Leaf, etc," Nagato explained. "It was a very bloody war that not only exceeded expected death tolls from soldiers, but also included many civilian deaths.

The pale young man glanced at Naruto; his solemn expression unable to hide his pain. "My parents were one of the many civilians that died."

"Were they at the wrong place at the wrong time?" the child asked.

"You could say that," Nagato answered. Despite his expression screaming, "Don't say anymore!", he still decided to continue."My parents and I… We lived on the outskirts of the Hidden Rain village. We didn't have the protection of the village and naturally the enemy wanted to infiltrate the Hidden Rain, so there was fighting all around us. We couldn't do anything but take shelter; hide in our home, wishing the fighting would just go away."

Then one day, a couple of uninvited guests arrived. They were ninja from one of the enemy villages trying to gather some supplies from a seemingly abandoned home. My parents and I tried to sneak out, but luck just wasn't on our side. We were discovered and my parents flung themselves at the intruders just to buy me a chance to escape. Of course, they were only civilians; they didn't stand a chance against war-hardened ninja. Though it was self-defense, my parents were killed, leaving me alone in the world."

Silence deprived the young man of his words. After a minute of nothing being said, he concluded, "Those ninja. I remember through my teary vision the headbands they wore. A symbol of a leaf. They were ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village."

"Uh…" a sense of sorrow and dread filled Naruto after hearing that.

Suddenly, Nagato smiled. "Don't worry, I don't hate you just because you come from the Leaf nor do I bear a grudge against the village. After all, if that was the case, I would have hated the man who decided to look after us."

"I know you're just a kid, Naruto, and it's tough to hear that your village murdered people, even in self-defense, but that's just how the world works," Yahiko added. "Every ninja village, every government, every country has there dark secrets. Out home village wasn't any different. That's why we formed the Akatsuki; to free our village and give it some kind of light. To stop the needless bloodshed and give it a chance at peace."

The two kids stared at the three ninja, their faces glowing with respect. But the moment didn't last as they soon heard screams from just outside the restaurant. The group rushed outside where they were greeted by the sight of avian creatures swooping down and terrorizing the citizens of the town.

Disgust contorted Naruto's face as he watched the event take place. The attacking creatures didn't look any different from the zombie rat he helped Chrome capture not too long ago. Their flesh was barely adhering to their skeletons and the smell was almost too much to bear.

"Konan! Nagato!" Yahiko called.

"Right," knowing what she needed to do, Konan thrust her arms forward. "Shikigami Dance…"

Following those words, her arms transformed into tiny slips of paper. Like a bullet form a gun, the paper shot forward at the creatures at lightning speed, circling and slowly encompassing them. As expected, such an act sent the creatures in a crazed frenzy. They raged and raged as more papers covered them until one was about to direct its destructive movements towards a little boy.

"Not happening," Nagato swiftly raised his left palm in the direction of the beast. At the same time, the creature froze in place. The pale young man then raised his hand upwards. As if following the movements of his hand, the creature rose off the ground and towards the sky.

With the monster firmly in his grasp, Nagato directed his right palm to the other creatures and did the same to them. Once they were in his desired position, he slightly retracted his arms."Almighty Push!"

He thrust his arms forward, sending the creatures flying out of the village.

"Whoa!" Naruto and Gohan said in unison.

But there was no time to celebrate as more creatures begun swarming the village. In response to the new attack, Yahiko jumped into the middle of the street and quickly performed three specific hand seals. "Water Style: Wild Water Wave!"

He puffed his cheeks before spewing a torrent of water from his mouth, blowing the creatures back.

"Let's finish this, guys!" Yahiko declared.

Following his lead, the three ninja continued to fight against the invaders. Watching all this, Naruto felt excitement he hasn't felt in a long time."

"These guys are awesome!" he cried.

"No!" surprised by the sudden cry, Naruto immediately looked up to find one of the creatures carrying a girl in its arms. "Why are you all so aggressive?!"

Spurred on by the heroic acts he has witnessed, the young kitsune quickly scaled one of the nearby buildings and launched himself towards the creature. He then clapped his hands together and hammered it down on the creature's head as hard as he could. The force of the strike dazed the beast, causing it to release the grip its victim.

Naruto then grabbed the girl and rode the creature back to the ground.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah?" the girl pouted her cheeks as she looked down at the dazed creature." I thought they would have been friendly, but it turns out that they're really mean."

Naruto examined the girl in front of him. She possessed tan skin, layered mint green hair and orange eyes. Such an appearance gave him déjà vu. But that wasn't the only thing that confused him. Despite just escaping such a harrowing experience, the girl didn't really seem too bothered. The girl suddenly returned her attention to Naruto, sporting a bright smile.

"I'm Fū! Wanna be friends?" she suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Taken aback from the sudden proposition, Naruto found himself speechless.

Not too far away, Yahiko turned around and noticed Fū. "Guys, she's here!"

Before any action could be taken, the creature that Naruto had earlier dazed rose up and violently smacked Fū out of the town.

"Hey!" enraged, Naruto quickly hammered the creature again before watching it rise up in the air and join the other trapped creatures.

With a simple flick of the wrist, Nagato treated the creatures to the same fate as the earlier attackers.

"Good job, guys," Yahiko congratulated. "Unfortuantely, we just missed a chance to grab Fū, but at least we protected a village."

"Why're you guys so calm about that?" Naruto chided. "She just got smacked to who knows where!"

"We're sure she's fine, Naruto. We've seen her take more punishment than that," Konan assured him.

Naruto closed his eyes as he pondered those words. Perhaps that's why the girl had such a caviler attitude despite what had just happened. "So… that girl was the one you confused me for?"

"Yep. She has a pretty similar chakra signature to yours," Nagato answered. "Funny thing is… I've never really seen people with signatures that similar before."

"Yeah, well, tune his out," Yahiko said.

"They're his eyes, Yahiko," Konan chuckled. "Tuning is for hearing."

"Really? Then what's for the eyes?"

"Vision is filtering."

"Huh," Yahiko turned his gaze back to Nagato. "Well, filter Naruto's chakra signature out, Nagato. We can't let her get too far ahead of is again."

"Actually…" Nagato turned to the aforementioned child. "Naruto, may I ask for your assistance?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Just remain calm," Nagato placed his hand atop Naruto's head. After an entire minute of silence… "Found her."

"Already?" Yahiko exclaimed. "How?"

"I figured since Naruto had a similar chakra signature to Fū, he could provide me a way to focus on searching for chakras that were like his," Nagato explained.

"Wow, I didn't know you could do that, Nagato?" Konan said, amazed at the revelation.

"Neither did I," Nagato chuckled. "Naruto, I hate to interrupt you and your friend's own journey, but do you think you could accompany us and help us catch up to Fū?"

"We're in!" Naruto excitedly answered.

Though surprised by his companion's quick answer, Gohan nodded his head in agreement.