When Naruto awoke he was greeted by silence, but he didn't need any alarm clock. He always woke up at the same time every day. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes he stared at the ceiling of his room. This would be the last time he woke to this sight. A fact that, oddly enough, he didn't seem to mind. Placing his hands behind him he pushed himself up, out of bed, and made his way towards the bathroom. It was completly dark save for the light of the full moon shinning through the window however, years of living in the small appartment allowed him to make his way to the bathroom unhammpered.
After brushing his teeth and splashing some water on his face he made his way through the pitch black corridor towards his kitchen, if you call it that. It was really just a small alcove in the wall in which resided an old refrigerator, a stove, a sink, and about 3 feet of countertop with two cabinets underneath. It wasn't much, but it was he needed to make his ramen so he didn't complain. Reaching for a small pot under counter and turning the water on at the same time he began to let his mind wander as his body continued the rather simple process of making ramen.
He found it somewhat sad that he could count the number of people that would be affected by his 'death' on one hand. Even sadder, were the reasons why they'd care. First there was Sakura. She would be devastated. Without Naruto around her chances of ever returning Sasuke to Konoha were slim to none. He loved the pink haired girl with all of his heart but she didn't feel the same and he knew it. She had given credit for all of his great accomplishments to Sasuke, assumeing Naruto to be to incompitant to have achieved them himself. Holding off Haku, and defeating Gaara of the sand, were all great accomplishments of Uchiha Sasuke in her eyes. He was bitter, he had planned to show Sakura just what he was capable of when he came back from his trip with Jiraria however, comming back as someone else entirely kind of destroyed the point.
Next was his sensei Kakashi. The man had spoken of treating friends and teamates equally but in the end he had favored Sasuke over both Sakura and himself. Naruto was lucky he had stumbled upon Jiraryia when he did, or he would have been killed by Gaara or , if he had survived that encounter, remained a second rate shinobi until the day Akatsuki decided to come pick him up. Kakashi would be affected by Narutos 'death' if only in so realiseing that he had been an incompitant teacher...mabey his death would move him to teach Sakura... he could only hope.
And Finally there was Iruka sensei. The man had always been mean to him in his early days in the academy and often called on him to answer questions he knew the blonde couldn't answer. He had been the bane young Narutos exsistance until the night of his graduation. He was the first person that ever put themself at risk for him and because of that Naruto couldn't help but like the older man. After he graduated he and Iruka had gone out for ramen a couple of times and had gotten to know each other a little better. He was one of the only people in the village that Naruto could think of that may actually miss him.
Reaching for a bag of ramen to place in the now boiling water, Naruto raked his mind to see if he could find anyone else that would be greatly affected by his 'death'. None of the other 'Rookie Nine' would really care. Almost all of them had ridiculed him back in school and at the prelimnaries of the chuunin exam neither them nor their teachers had expected him to defeat kiba...if it wasn't for the stupid seal thatsnake bastard put on him he would've beaten kiba easily. Even in the final exam itself none of them thought he could beat Neji. Even Hinata didn't think it was likely but, she was kind enough to wish him luck.
Noticeing that the ramen was done cooking he turned off the stove and left the pot there to cool for a few minutes while he moved to the window. Looking out at the pre-dawn sky he decided to take a walk while waiting for the his meeting with his team and, his revelation to them of his trip. He honestly didn't know what to expect of them when they found out...he'd just have to wait and see.
Takeing a fork from a nearby draw he quickly scarffed down the ramen straight from the pot. Placeing said pot in the sink he went back into his room to change into some clothes...somehow he didn't think pajamas would be suffcient traveling ware.
After getting dressed in his usual outfit , though foregoing the orange jacket and opting for a black tee shirt do to the warm weather, he walked out the front door, locking it behind him.
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Naruto stared out across the water from his usual perch on the bridge that marked team 7's meeting place. The walk he had taken around the village had served its purpose. Strolling down the streets allowed Narutoto relive a few of the memories that he had forced himself to forget. Memories of drunken villagers and shinobi taking their problems out on the disgraceful 'demon' had helped him steel his resolve to leave the village. He cared about this village as its people were mostly good...but he would never achieve his dream to become their protecter and leader as Uzumaki Naruto.
He was interputed from his musesings by the sound of a quiet 'poof' comming from behind him. Glanceing to the side he was mildly surprised to see that it was Kakashi. It figgured that today would be the one day that the chronically late Jounin decided to show up early.
Looking casualy to his left he noticed the silver haired man observeing him curiously, probally due to his lack of reaction. Usually he'd yell at the jounin for scareing him or accuse him of not being the real Kakashi however, it wasn't really worth it. Why bother acting like that if this was the last time they ever saw Naruto.
"I'm surprised," the masked ninja commented."usually you'd be screaming at me at the top of your lungs...Is their something wrong?"
Hearing this Naruto turned fully towards his sensei with an eyebrow raised.
"Heh, careful there Kakashi-san." He said slowly and in a flat tone. "That almost sounded like you cared." He turned his attention back to the water flowing under the bridge upon finishing his replie.
"Whats that suppo..."
"Kakashi-sensei! you're here early!" came a shout from his pink haired teammate from the other side of the bridge, saving him from what would have been an akward conversation.
"Ahhh Sakura good. Now were all here." Kakashi said while giving one of his trademark eyesmiles.
"Huh? Oh Naruto you're here already to...wow were we suppose to meet at dawn or something...i never figgured I'd be the last one here..."
"No no," assured Kakashi."It's just that a friend of mine informed me that it would be in my best intrests to show up on time today."
Huh so thats why he was here on time...what was Jiraryia playing at? Did he want him to spend as much time with his team as possible before he left? Well he wouldn't be having any of that. Naruto had better things to do with what little was left of his time in the village hidden in the leaves then spending htis day with these two. Besides, if he stayed any longer than he had to his resolve might weaken.
"And on that note I have something to tell the both of you." Said the blonde, grabing the other two shinobies attention."I'll be leaving on an extended training trip with Jiraryia-sensei."
"Jirariya-sama? As in one of the legendary sennin? Why would someone as important and powerful as one of the sennin waste his time with a gennin like you Naruto? If your going to make something up at least make it believable...geeze."
Okay that hurt. She didn't think he was good enough huh? Just a gennin. She really didn't have any faith in him did she? Fine if thats the way she was going to play it then he'd just ignore her.He turned to face Kakashi.
"I'll be leaving tonite Kakashi-san. Jiraryia-sensei told me that we would be gone for a little over 2 years. I can't really tell you anything more than that. Unfortunatley I have a few things to do before I leave tonite so I'll just be going now...goodbye Kakashi-san." And with that Naruto turned and walked away from the two, leaving one stareing calculatingly at him through one eye and the other rather bemused by the whole situation.
Well I was gunna make the chapter bigger but I'm a notrious procastinator and I probally wouldn't have gotten it done for another week and here seemed as good as any place to stop it.
And wow I got 2 reviews... I feel badass...no really I do. Its just cool to know that other people are actually reading this.
Well on that note please read and review I'll love you forever! XP till next time!