Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and company, their world, the organizations in that world, or anything else you read in the manga. I do own the characters I bothered to give personalities to and the organizations I put them in and I shall flame you to hell if you use them.

Start Here

Neither kidnapped boy remembered much from that point 'till this one, but if they concentrated enough, they could pick out half memories, blurred, and often ending in someone yelling

"He's waking up, quick, pass me the bottle!" then they were put back into a drugged sleep. Judging from what he saw in those brief moments of half-consciousness, Naruto judged that maybe four days had passed since the Chunin exams, but he never would have guessed where they ended up after those five, actually, days.

(space/line)

Naruto's sleep was brutally cut short when he was shoved onto his feet.

"Wakie wakie sleepy-head" an overly cheerful voice said, keeping him upright. The next thing that woke him up the smell, it was a slightly fresh but rotten stench covered with a smell of fresh water. Blinking his eyes, the first thing he noticed was the patchy sunlight. Next were the amazingly tall and thick trees looming out of the water.

"Wow," he whispered, glancing up at the thick foliage of the trees above him.

"Cool ain't it?" Naturu said, sticking his head besides Naruto's. "Close your mouth, it's unbecoming." Naruto blush, looked down, and, of course, closed his mouth. After he had taken his gaze from the sky, he notice the almost lattice like boardwalks that were raised about a foot above the water and let to small buildings built on stilts and…the trees? Now that he looked closely, Naruto noticed rope ladders, small flights of stairs, doors, and window hidden among the natural vegetation.

"Where are we?" he asked, realizing for the first time he was in someplace completely different.

"Welcome to Everglade." Kaito said chirpily, "Hurry up Kaito, Madame doesn't wait all day!" What, Naruto thought turning around, to see an exact replica of Kaito sullenly get off a small wagon that was perched on the edge of dry land. Naruto started at the replicas until they noticed.

"What, never seen a set of twins before?" they said in perfect unison, making Naruto wonder just how long he'd been out.

A messenger was waiting for them at the first crossroad the group came to.

"House the new ones and take them to the Office in the morning." He said, had them sign to verify that the message had been received, jumped on his bike and off before you could blink.

"We're not taking them," one of the twins said.

"But you don't even know their signs." Da Ten pointed out.

"I don't care; there isn't any room for either of them in our place." The same twin said stubbornly.

"Blonde's tanuki, other's bennu." The other twin said quietly fiddling with an odd wind up doll composed of sharp, dangerous items, but not quietly enough to be missed by the energetic teen that didn't want houseguest.

"Well then, it's settled, bird-boys' stick together and Naturu gets the other one. I'm going home, good night." Then he grabbed his twin and ran.

"See you tomorrow," Mitsu said, disappearing in the shadows. Da Ten had already left without saying a word, and the rest of the carts had left. That left Yuri (Sasuke), Naruto, Neji (who was still groggy and seemed to have a headache), and Naturu.

"Well, anti-song birds should stick together. Too much silence makes me nervous." Naturu said, pulling Naruto along one of the many walkways and out of sight, but not before Naruto could give Sasuke a deadly glare.

Several silent seconds ticked by after the indignant yelling of one obnoxious blond faded into silence.

"You've screwed most people over, particularly the genin. I hope you found what you were looking for."

"No, I didn't, I found something better." Sasuke said cryptically, "so, do you want a metaphorical roof over your head?" he said, walking away. Since Neji didn't have anywhere else to go, he followed, cursing fate.

(space/line)

Sasuke led him to the edge of the city, where the trees weren't as dense. There wasn't a building in sight and the path ended sharply in a ragged edge. But Sasuke didn't stop; instead, he jumped up into a nearby tree. When Neji jumped too, he noticed the worn edges, like this was a popular step up to heaven. They climbed higher and higher into the sky, reaching the top of the foliage, so high that they could see the night sky that had dawned during their travels. It was then that they made it to Sasuke's "house".

"You live in a nest?" Neji said with disbelief. Amazingly, it was no exaggeration, Sasuke's home made of a number of large branches supporting stiff mats on which meager belongings such as a cot and camp-stove stood. But there was a thick woven canopy of living branches above, so there was some protection against the elements, but not much, as there were no walls.

"Bit chilly, but nice view." Sasuke commented staring out over the swampy grasslands to the west.

"Why don't you have walls or, something to keep the wind and rain out?" Neji asked, bewildered by the arrangements.

"You'll see in a few days." Sasuke said, smirking before tossing Neji a sleeping bag from the sack under the cot.

(space/line)

Across town, Naruto was having a similar experience. But his host lived near the middle of the city and in a tree.

"Neat place you have." Naruto said, glancing around dark room, the only illumination a small window set high in the twelve-foot ceilings. From what he could see, a solid floor was placed halfway up the wall, which he assumed to be the bedroom as there was no bed on the main level.

"It's alright, better then living in Dormitories or the Office in my opinion." Naturu said, sliding a chain lock into place.

"What's the Dormitories and the Office?" Naruto asked.

"The Dormitories is like a boarding house for people like us and the Office is like our headquarters, our leader lives there, all important paperwork happens in there, that sort of thing." Naturu replied, rooting around in a large trunk. He straightened, holding a blanket.

"Do you know why the Office asked for you particularly?" Naturu asked, laying the folded blanket over the back of a slightly mildewed couch.

"No." Naruto said, half-lying.

"Well, whatever's inside you must be important if they risked civil war to get you and girly on our side." Naturu said flatly.

"Inside me?" Naruto asked, a slight panic in his voice, how would a guy he'd never really met know about the Kyuubi?

"Yeah, the demon inside you." Naturu said, like informing a person that they knew you were a demon was an everyday thing.

"What?" Naruto said, in a fully-fledged panic now. "How do you know?"

"You're tanuki, you have a medium/small ground dwelling mammal demon inside you, I'm one too, don't worry about it," he added, trying to quell the fear he saw swelling in Naruto's face. "But could you not tell anyone we had this conversation?" he asked after realizing something "You're suppose to learn about this tomorrow."

"Um…okay."

"Great" a look of relief spread over his face. "Now you can sleep on the couch for tonight, I'm sure they'll have a place set up for you tomorrow." His host jumped the six feet to the second level, "Good night." He called down.

"Good night" Naruto yelled back.

Stop Here

The next morning didn't dawn well

thank you for you input rralou! it is going remarkable fast though...i blame the caffine. but just for you, i went and re-edited the chapter after this one (so six?) so you and those who think like you (myself included) can consider that the first 'real' chapter if you like. although, if you've been keeping track (which i doubt anyone is) about thirty five days have past. but i agree, the chapters are a little too concise. but don't worry, the next day takes three chapters to slog through (and the only thing i can complain about is another tournement). it's a full day yes, but still, even i think three chapters is a little too much. but hey! if people are willing to read my stuff, i'm glad, even if they flame me. so...press the pretty purple button?