Hey guys. Guess what I have for you? It's an update. Yeah... took me forever. Don't judge me. Anyways, here you are. A chapter from Naruto's perspective. Guys... Guess what else. Chakra won. So, before those of you whom didn't want chakra freak out, allow me to explain. Yes there will be chakra, but on a somewhat smaller scale. Like there won't be all these 'destroy buildings and half of the damn house all the time' things going on. Also, chakra is a secret thing in modern day society. It is an ancient way that select people know about and can access. If you show promise with it, you get to be in the know. Likewise you don't have any indication you can use it, you're out of the loop. Thus why Sakura didn't use any of her skills (a.k.a. chakra enhanced ass-kicking/medical ninjutsu) in her chapter. Inners/Demons will not be an all the time thing. They will be just as they were in the anime. There sometimes as a major role, but otherwise in the background. You always know they're there, but they aren't always prominent. Now that that's over with and explained: On with the chapter!

- Pain's Rebel Angel ;)

'Thoughts'

'Inner/Demons'

"Normal"

(Anything else that I'm forgetting there will be a pattern so you'll know it when ya see it :P)

Porcelain

Naruto's POV

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

She was like one of those lovely porcelain dolls. Ya know, the kind that are so beautiful that they have to come with strict rules? She just seemed so regulated and controlled. So lovely inside and out, but could never make her own choices.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

I woke up fully after hitting the snooze button on my alarm twice. After quite literally rolling out of bed, I dragged myself to the door of my bedroom. I stood up reluctantly, opened my door and walked to the living room, and then promptly sat down on the couch as a reward for making it that far.

'Oh this is just so comfortable... Five minutes, and I'll get up and make food...'

When I opened my eyes I was in a familiar setting. Though I wished I weren't... A giant gate loomed over me, and two deep red eyes stared out at me from the dark abyss just beyond it.

"You... Haven't seen your ugly mug around for a while. What is it you want?" I said, staring right into the red eyes before me.

'Brat,' said the voice belonging to the demon on the other side of the gate. 'You should have learned some respect between the last time I saw you and now.'

"I respect you plenty, Kurama. Most of the time... It's just that you rarely pull me here though. Especially since your seal was renewed years ago... It drains more of your energy. So, you must need something."

'That may be true, but the seal is weakening once more. And this time, brat, you better not let them touch it,' Kurama said narrowing his eyes.

"As if I want to go through that again! Shit, you think that was all peaches and cream for me? It hurt! Not to mention it was your own damn fault in the first place. If you'd just calmed down it would've been fine."

'And if you'd just listened we wouldn't have been put into that situation in the first place.'

"Whatever, damn fox," I huffed crossing my arms over my chest, slightly annoyed. "What did you want anyways?"

'The seal will soon be to the point I can get out of this cage once more. It's deteriorated rather quick this time.'

"Not so fast, the last time I did that, everything went haywire. Perhaps the best thing to do is just... Lay low for some time. When it really needs to be done, it will be, but not until then."

'Brat, you are going to have adversaries that you will need my power for and—'

"No," I cut him off, shaking my head. "Not until that point in time when I really need you."

And with that being the end of the conversation on my part, I walked away from the gate.

I suddenly woke up feeling something sopping wet, and freezing cold peg my face. I spazzed out, and ripped the offending object off my face to see my roommate's eyes flickering in amusement from across the room where he was pulling on his shirt.

"What the hell, Gaara?" I said tossing his towel back at him.

He caught it effortlessly, and began to towel his hair halfheartedly before giving up. Instead he shook his messily spiked red hair, and let the water fall to the carpet. "You were sleeping on the couch. I thought you may need a wake-up call," he said in his normal soft, almost-monotone voice.

"Or you just wanted to be a jerk," I complained.

"There's that, too," he said.

"Remind me why it is that you're my best friend exactly?" I demanded sarcastically.

"Because I'm emotionally stunted, and you have enough emotions to balance me out," he said not missing a beat.

"Right," I said as I chuckled and stood from the couch.

I brushed past him, and walked into the kitchen grabbing a cold piece of pizza from the fridge. Gaara walked in after me, and made himself a cup of coffee.

"So, why were you on the couch?" he asked taking a sip of his coffee.

"I was up around seven, and I laid down for a moment cause it was just so comfortable... I guess I kinda fell asleep."

Gaara raised an eyebrow. "Why were you up so early? Willingly. On a Saturday."

"I gotta meeting with one of Jiraiya's people. You're coming with me," I told him through the pizza that was in my mouth.

"Glad to know I have a say in this."

"Oh, please. I may be Jiraiya's right hand, but you're mine. Shit, you know that when I take over you're going to be the only one whose opinion matters when I need one," I say snorting. "Not to mention I'll call you up whenever I need someone to scare the shit out of people."

"Yeah, yeah," he says rolling his eyes. Suddenly he turned serious. "So... My father died."

I almost choked on the last bit of my pizza. "What? When?"

Gaara shrugged. "I got a call from Temari last night after I came home. She told me. She also said that they were having the will read this coming Friday."

"Well, damn," I say soaking it in. "So no more having to worry about his crazy out to get you shit?"

He shrugged again, and drained his cup. "I guess. You should probably go take a shower, Naruto. When do we leave?"

I looked at the clock on the stove. "Shit. I have to be at the meeting location in two hours," I say as my eyes widened at just how long I had slept. "I'll be out in twenty, and we'll leave."

Twenty minutes later, I was out of the shower dressed in an orange t-shirt, nice jeans, and decent shoes. I wasn't required to dress to impress for this meeting, thank God. After I looked myself over in the mirror, I walked out into the living room to see Gaara tying his combat boots.

He stood up from the couch, and walked over to the entrance way. "Same car or separate?" he asked me.

"Separate," I answered, walking over and grabbing the lanyard that held the keys to my jeep. "I got a feeling we'll have to split eventually, and I'd rather not be stuck somewhere because I don't have a ride."

"Fair enough," he said, pulling his keys from his pocket, looking over them.

I smiled slightly, and shook my head at his weird quirk. Gaara was somewhat of a gearhead, although I was the only one who really knew that. His first love may be fighting, but cars were something he liked as well. Granted, it was on a much smaller scale.

Finally, after he chose from his options of transportation, he looked up.

"You realize that you're never going to find a girl to keep, right?" I asked him grinning.

"Not that I'm complaining about that statement really, but why do you say that?" he said brushing past me toward the door.

"'Cause of many reasons," I responded following him out of the apartment and locking it behind us.

"Enlighten me."

"You would be too hard to please. So, you won't look at a chick seriously unless she's done something to get your attention, yeah? Well, say she does manage to get your attention. That alone would be pretty hard to do considering it's you we're talking about, but say she does. Then she'd have to meet the most basic requirements which is to be intelligent enough to maintain a conversation with you—"

"Naruto, what makes you think you're intelligent enough to carry a conversation with me," he said, interrupting me.

"Shut up, man. Anyways I'm your best friend. Not a chick that's into you. There are completely different standards for the two positions. Besides, I'm damn awesome. Now where was I," I told him as we stepped into the stairway of our apartment building. "Oh yeah! So she's gotta be able to get you talking. Then, she also needs to be cool. Like, she can't be a bitch. At least not a major one. You deserve to be bitched out sometimes," I said smirking when we finally arrived at the ground floor.

Gaara just rolled his eyes at me, and walked toward the building door to the parking deck.

"And—"

"Enough Naruto. This is too long of an explanation as to why you think I'll never get a girl. I however, can make why you won't short and sweet. You're too hyper, obsessed with ramen, and you're too much of a goofball."

Now, hearing hearing Gaara complain about how long I was taking made me smirk, but I had to let out a snort of amusement when he used the term goofball.

"Liking ramen isn't going to keep me from getting a girl," I said rebuffing his second claim, jogging over to my jeep. I look back at him just in time to see him roll his eyes.

"Says you. You take them out to ramen the first date, and they'll be running for the hills after seeing the way you eat."

With that said he turned and walked to a '57 Chevy Bel Air.

I groaned. "Can't you drive something more modern and less eye-catching," I call out.

"Can't you drive something less orange and more stealthy?"

"Point taken."

Hopping in my jeep, I started it. I backed out of the parking space, and drove off with Gaara right behind me.

I pulled into the first decent parking spot I could find in the mall parking lot. I got out of the car realizing Gaara must have split ways with me at some point. Feeling my phone vibrate in my pocket, I pulled it out.

Gaara
11:57 am
I'm parked at the entrance to Macy's.

I quickly typed him a reply.

Naruto
11:58 am
On my way man.

When I had gotten closer to the front of Macy's, I saw a shock of red hair and a classic car. Immediately, I started jogging towards it, coming to a stop beside Gaara. He was leaning against his car staring at the one next to him. I noticed that he had a calculating look on his face.

"What's with you, dude," I asked raising an eyebrow.

"This car," he said not taking his eyes off it.

I glanced at it and whistled lowly. "Now that's a beautiful car," I said raking my eyes across the 1971 Plymouth Barracuda.

Gaara hums. "The paint job is decent, but the person who restored the car definitely didn't do it. At least not originally."

"Do I even want to know how it is you know that?"

"The person who revamped the interior kept it the same for the most part other than the newer radio. They knew what they were doing. The person who painted the car began oddly almost like they were fumbling. Then they paused after this section, and switched to a different style. It's subtle and most wouldn't notice, but the spray changes after that. The color is off just a bit."

I couldn't see it really, but I took a closer look when he pointed it out. It was a very minute change that I wouldn't have ever even noticed if I wasn't looking for it really hard.

"I would have never even known, dude."

"I know," he told me shrugging. "So, exactly where are we supposed to meet this person?"

I shrugged and placed my hands behind my head, lacing my fingers. "Jiraiya is suppose to text me. I only got the general location. Apparently the guy we're meeting up with today is having a little trouble shaking off his higher up. He's one of Jiraiya's contacts from a smaller group so the guys there probably have more time to tail him."

Gaara nodded his head, and started for the door to Macy's. I followed after him at a slow pace, dragging my feet 'cause I really didn't wanna meet this guy.

'He'll probably be one of those paranoid jackasses... Not that he shouldn't be paranoid with the life he leads.' I sigh internally.

After about twenty minutes, my stomach had started to growl.

"Gaaraaaaaaa," I whined, drawing out his name.

He didn't respond.

"I'm hungryyyyyyyyy."

He rolled his eyes, but began walking in the direction of the food court.

'Hell yeah, food!'

When we got to the food court, Gaara paused. Curious, I followed to where he was looking in the distance. I saw two chicks sitting at a table talking. I couldn't get a good glimpse at them though because someone stepped into my line of vision just then.

'Oh no way... Is he... Actually looking at those chicks? Oh, shit,' I thought snickering in my head. 'After our conversation earlier, this is priceless.'

"So, Gaara," I said to get his attention. When he looked over at me I gave him a smirk. "Which one of those fine ladies has the pleasure of catching your attention?"

The red head just sighs through his nose. "Naruto, what the hell are you going on about?"

"Oh, no. You don't get to play dumb, Sabaku. I saw you looking at those girls. In fact, I think we should go over and say hey."

"Naruto get serious. We have a job to get done, and didn't you say you wanted food?"

At that, I paused. 'Nah, it can wait,' I thought. Out loud, I told him, "Yeah, but I don't want it as much as I want to know why you were staring."

I could practically feel the exasperation rolling off my best friend at this point. "Uzumaki, go get your fucking food."

"Why were you staring, Gaara," I questioned him.

"Naruto," he said as a warning.

I sighed dramatically. "Fine, I'll just have to tell her you were checking her out," I said, feeling like messing around since the rest of the day would most likely be serious.

His eyes darted toward me, but quickly went back to watching the people around us. "You won't do it Naruto."

"Oh, I won't?"

"Not unless you feel like being my personal punching bag," he said.

I snorted. "I already fill that role, thank you very much. As a sparring partner, I do a damn good job of taking it. As well as giving it back. Tell me why you were staring."

He didn't reply, instead he chose to close his eyes. Just like that, I was off with Gaara snapping his eyes open and following not far behind. I raced across the court, dodging people until I jumped over a table and paused. Gaara gracefully stopped on the other side.

"Uzumaki... I will kill you slowly," he threatened darkly. Even though I didn't take it as seriously as I should have, I knew it held a bit of weight behind it.

"No, you won't," I said sounding about three times surer than I actually was. "I'm your best friend."

I watched as he narrowed his eyes slightly. "That just means I'm more inclined to resurrect you, Naruto. Not that you won't die."

I feigned a hurt tone with a solemn look. "You're so mean to me Gaara." Then I sniffled, being dramatic.

"You'll get over it."

I heard a soft laugh come from my right quickly covered by a cough. I actually look at the table I had jumped over to find two girls.

'Hey, aren't these the two that Gaara was looking at?'

"Whoops," I said rubbing the back of my neck. 'I really should have payed more attention to my surroundings.'

I looked at the girls more closely, and noticed one seemed familiar. She had bright pink hair, large green eyes, and with her sitting down I could only estimate her height being around 5'5".

"You look familiar..." I mumbled.

She flashed me a smile before she opened her mouth to speak. "Naruto," she addressed me. "It's been a while. Not that I blame you for forgetting me, but you seriously can't remember someone with pink hair?"

I could feel my eyes widen as the memories came back with images of a girl with bright pink hair smiling freely while hanging around Sasuke and I. Her smacking me upside the head. Hard. And finally, slight worry over her not showing up in class.

"Sakura-chan?! God, it's been so long! I mean, one day you just stopped coming into class, and it was like you up and vanished!"

She just smiled at me once more, and then looked at the girl across from her. This prompted me to glance at her as well.

I swear, I just paused for a moment. She was lovely, ya know. Her skin was pale, but she seemed like the type that got flustered easily so I'm sure it gave a healthy pink to her skin. Her eyes were like this pale pearl color. Pair those features with her dark hair, and whoa, she was beautiful.

Sakura chose to introduce her and I at that point. "Naruto, this is my sister-like figure, Hinata. Hinata this is Naruto, one of my friends from middle school."

"Nice to meet ya," I told her. Although 'nice' didn't exactly cover it, so I decided to add something to it. "Say," I said, figuring a compliment would open up the conversation. "You're really pretty."

She blushed. "T-thank you," she responded softly.

'She stuttered. That's adorable.'

"Oi! Don't hit on her, idiot!" Sakura rebuked me.

'What? Now that's not fair, Sakura! How are you gonna do this to me just when you get back in my life. What a cruel friend,' I thought, mentally crying out against her unfairness. Outwardly, though, I settled for, "Ehh? Why not?"

She gave me a look. "Because I said so."

'That's not really a reason Sakura-chan...'

Suddenly, I felt pain blossom on the upper part of my arm. Gaara, who had just caused the pain in my arm, said, "That was for earlier. And you should listen to her Naruto. If you don't, I won't save your ass when she attacks you."

"Owww. I thought you let that go," I complained. I heard Hinata giggle which reminded me of the two girls once more. "Oh by the way, Gaara, this is Sakura-chan. She was in my class up until the sixth grade. Sakura this is Gaara. My closest friend."

Gaara sighed at the fact I was being talkative, and forcing him be social as well. He and Sakura nodded at each other in greeting, and I figured that would probably be the max amount of social effort I would get out of him today as far as other people went.

Turning my attention back to Hinata and Sakura, I asked, "So if you guys aren't doing anything, wanna catch a movie?"

"Naruto, we're doing something," Gaara said as he gave me a look.

'Oh shit. Right.' "Oh yeahh... What about some other time then," I suggested to the girls.

"If it were up to me I'd say sure, but Hina's father is a very strict man." Sakura looked at her watch. "Shit! We have to go. It was nice meeting you Gaara, and good to see you again Naruto," she rushed to say. Her and Hinata both stood up.

As Hinata stood I made sure to make a note that her height made her the perfect size. She would probably come just below my shoulders. I shook those thoughts out of my head real quick. 'I can't believe I'm so attracted to a girl I don't even really know...'

I watched as she grabbed Hinata's hand, and only gave a moment's pause so the shorter dark-haired girl could turn to us. "I-it was v-very nice to meet you t-two," she said. Then, she and Sakura left in a hurry.

I heard Gaara chuckle as I watched them leave. I turned to look at him.

"What?"

He just smirked at me and said, "You've got it bad. And you haven't even known her for twenty minutes."

"Shut up, Gaara."

"At least it's not the one with bright-ass pink hair."

I laughed. "Whatever you do, don't say that in front of her. She was an awesome person in school. Pretty, smart, and nice to boot, but when someone mentions her hair, all bets are off."

Gaara looked at me and raised his brow. "Are you telling me that her hair has been that way since the beginning of middle school?"

"Nope."

He started to say something, but I cut him off. "I'm telling you it's been that way since elementary school."

"Bullshit."

"Nope."

"What sane parent let's their kid dye their hair pink," he asked.

I gave him an amused look. "It's natural."

He gave me a dead look.

"No, honestly. I've never once seen any roots or anything. Not to mention her eyebrows would be a pain to maintain with that color. Also, I remember the girls in our class talking about it in the sixth grade after gym one day," I admitted.

Gaara just shook his head. "So you were friends, huh?"

"Yeah... She, Sasuke, and I were put together a lot as kids. Eventually it just stuck, and we became a group. After fifth grade we didn't really talk with Sasuke," I said shrugging. "That was the year he became a douche."

I saw Gaara nod saying he knew what I meant.

"She left in the sixth grade. Just like that."

He just nodded. I looked at him suspiciously. "Why the interest?"

He rolled his eyes. "Not for the reasons you're thinking. I saw her after I got groceries in a park that was nearby. She was about to get attacked, and I was ready to jump in right? Well, I didn't need to be. She had them all down before I could do anything."

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. 'Then again... Sakura had a mean punch. If she were training... Yeah, I could see it.' "Oh."

"Oh...?"

I felt my phone vibrate so I just gave him a look saying we'd talk later.

Jiraiya
12:49 pm
He's at a cell phone case kiosk.

I groaned. The pervy old guy wasn't making this easy by being helpful. 'Now to go hunt a damn phone case kiosk. Yay...'

On a side note: some of you may have realized that both Gaara and Naruto's chapters had contained them guesstimating Sakura's height. That's the entire reason that it is different. I will probably find a way to add that if not in this next chapter, then in the one after.

So, the introductions are finally done! Woohoo! Now, I'm not exactly thrilled as to the fact these overlapped so much, but I won't have to do it as much, if at all now. We can finally progress with the story. Hope you enjoyed it!

I want to give a big, giant, awesome !Thank You! to my lovely beta: Yesteryear's Killer Liner. She is amazing and the reason I really didn't have any hug grammar mistakes this go round. I also want to say thank ya to all of you who reviewed. Reviews motivate me to write faster ^-^ And last but not least, thank ya to all of you who added this story to your favorites/alerts lists.