Hi! I got more reviews for this chapter! 'cheering and singing in my head right now' Anyway, thank you all for the favs, watches and reviews! I love it when I get them so much I start typing again! I happy to give this 4th ch in my cross over story! Enjoy.

Ch. It's never easy... is it?

Morning came quietly in Konoha as the vigilant gate guards greeted those coming into the village. They are required to keep a roster and to check the goods of all those coming in as would be obvious. "You remember that kid?" Izumo asked as he leaned back in his chair.

"You mean Rin?"

"Yeah, I heard he was working for Teuchi Ichiraku."

Kotetsu looked at him with his brow raised. "Really? Wonder what he's doing now then? I heard Teuchi left the village for family reasons yesterday around noon."

Izumo seemed surprised as he stood up. "Hmm…. I wonder. Old man Hiro and his wife already left….." He then made his way to greet 3 interestingly dressed people. The one in front had long black hair, a monk's khakkhara (Ringed staff) and a traditional priest robe. The man to his left held a vajra, wore relatively colorful priest robe, ans a wooden mask. The third was a woman dressed as a shrine maiden and held a tree branch with paper tied around it.

Izumo was quite surprised at the group as he proceeded with his standard duties. "Hello, what business do you have in Konoha?"

The stern man in front pulled a rectangular envelop from his robe and handed it to the man. "We are exorcists under the order of the feudal lord. We are pursuing a demon we believe to have entered your village."

Kotetsu rose to look over the order with Izumo. "Alright, this looks to be in order." Kotetsu then looks toward the group. "Will you be needing anything during your stay here?"

The priest shook his head. "We have made arrangements." He then took the letter back from Izumo and headed into the village with the other two following silently.

"Exorcists?" Izumo scratched his head. "You don't see those every day."

Kotetsu nodded in agreement. "Makes me wonder, what kind of demon are they looking for? I haven't heard of anything strange happening in the village recently."

Izumo shrugged and headed back to the station. "I'm sure we'll hear about it if its anything serious."

"So this is him?" Naruto scrutinized the paper in his hands. He tried turning it and squinting to try and make out the crudely drawn picture. "A….. rabbit?" Rin grabbed the paper away and pointed at it. "No! Kuro is a cat!... Crap I wish I could draw….." He sighed. "Bon is so lucky!" He looked down at the kindergarten grade drawing and then proceeded to ball it up.

"We could just ask around? A two tailed cat is sure to be noticed by at least one person right?" Naruto said as he made his way to the door.

"I guess….. though not a lot of people notice him back home." Rin was quick to hide his tail as he followed his host out the door. They then spent the next hour asking random villagers about a two-tailed cat they may have seen. It didn't take long to notice how open a lot of the people were with Naruto. Most of the ones who were, seemed friendly to the point of it being unreal.

Rin watched as yet another woman bowed her head and apologized for not seeing the cat in question. "Well that's a no." Naruto said as he started to feel a bit frustrated.

Rin shrugged. "I guess maybe he's not here after all. Maybe he got lucky and didn't wind up in this weird place with me."

Naruto wore a frown as he responded. "Hey, don't call my village weird! Anyway, finding one cat in this place is a lot harder than you'd think. When I first became a ninja I was given this one crappy mission where I had to catch some lady's cat. That thing was a veteran at getting away. It took us hours to catch it."

Rin laughed at the outrageous story. "Man that sounds like it sucked. Not to mention as an Exwire I get my share of crappy missions. You know Kuro's not a pushover either, and he doesn't run away from a fight worth fighting. "

Naruto folded his hands behind his head. "When you fight demons right?"

Rin nodded. "Yeah, Kuro's awesome. We're partners!"

Naruto wore a grin as he turned to Rin. "You guys sound like Kiba and Akamaru. Kiba's a ninja like me and he has a ninja hound, Akamaru."

Rin turned to him with a sparkle in his eyes. "Wait, a ninja hound!? That sounds awesome!"

Naruto was a bit confused by his enthusiastic reaction but played it off. "Yeah well, Kakashi sensei has like…. 9 of 'em."

Rin stopped in his tracks. "Wait, 9!? Holy crap! I gotta see that!"

Naruto simply laughed until they both heard a bark from behind them followed by a shout. "RIN!" Rin instantly turned to see Kuro running towards him at full speed followed by a dog and a young man. The dog was very large and had mostly white fur with a bit of brown on the ears. The young man wore a ninja headband, had messy brown hair and had red markings on his face.

Rin's eyes almost watered with joy at seeing his buddy run up to him. "Kuro!"

Kuro jumped into his arms and after a little greeting proceeded to tell Rin about a million things at once. "Rin! Where were you? Where are we!? I got lost! I was chased by these weird humans! I was attacked with a broom!"

"Calm down, Kuro." Rin pleaded. "I can't take all that at once."

Kuro's eyes then began to water as he looked up at Rin. "I missed you!"

"So that's your cat?" The young man asked as both he and the dog finally caught up.

"Hey, Kiba." Said Naruto as he waved.

Kiba hadn't seemed to notice him until he spoke. "Oh, hey Naruto. Sorry, didn't notice you were with him." He then turned back towards the unfamiliar boy. "So he is your cat right?"

Rin nodded. "Yeah, his name is Kuro. Did you find him?"

Kiba pointed to the dog. "Nah, Akamaru did. At first he was barking at the cat in some bushes, but before I knew it we were looking for you."

Kuro gestured his paw towards the dog. "Yeah this one helped me out. When I met him he seemed angry, but after I explained my situation he seemed nice enough and helped me find you, Rin."

Rin then bowed in thanks to Kiba. "Thanks for helping Kuro out." He stood up straight again to continue. "Me and Naruto were just out looking for him, though I wasn't sure if he would even be around here."

Kiba waved off the praise. "It was nothing, right Akamaru?" Akamaru barked as if to reciprocate the comment.

The realization finally hit Rin that Naruto had just been talking about these two. "Oh! Wait, Kiba and Akamaru!" He turned to Naruto. "You were just telling me about these guys."

Naruto nodded. "Kiba, this is my friend Rin, and he's new around here. He works for Mr. Ichiraku but since he's out of town right now, I was helping him out." Naruto decided against giving out too much information right off the bat. If Rin wants him to know then he'll tell them. Kuro then proceeded to climb up onto Rin's head and laid down.

"New huh? Where're you from?"

Rin, who was looking up at Kuro as he pawed at his hair, gave an absent minded answer. "True Cross Academy in Academy Town."

Kiba looked at him in confusion for a bit before turning to Naruto. "Never heard of it…." He gave his fellow ninja a confused glance as he gestured to Rin.

Naruto shrugged. "You got me."

Rin, now back in reality noticed the exchange. "I know you've probably never heard of it. Nobody else has either. Then again, I never knew a giant village full of ninjas existed, so yeah."

Kiba now looked extremely skeptical. "What the… You're kidding right?"

"Nope." Naruto answered. "I had to explain the whole system to him last night."

Rin sighed. "I don't even know how I got here."

Kiba simply nodded in a ridged manner before he grabbed Naruto and walked a ways away. He huddled away from Rin as he whispered to Naruto. "Okay….. where did you get this guy. He sounds crazy."

Naruto sighed before responding. "I told you he was working for Ichiraku. I only met him last night."

Meanwhile poor Rin was left just standing around waiting for them to finish talking. "What are they doing, Rin?"

"I don't know…. Talking?" He scratched the back of his head as he watched them from afar. "Geez…" Rin let out a sigh as he looked up to Kuro. "Well, I found you….. now all we have to do is figure a way back to True Cross."

"Yeah!" Kuro yelled with enthusiasm as he pointed a paw in the air. His ears then perked up as he turned to the side. There was now a man staring at him just to the left of Rin. "Whoa!" He shouted in surprise and almost fell off of Rin's head. Rin turned to see the man. He had grey, broom like hair and his headband covered one of his eyes. He also wore a cover over his mouth and nose.

"H-Hello?" Rin said with a raised brow.

"Hi." Was the quick and snappy response he got. He then continued to look at the cat with an emotionless half lidded stare.

"C-Cut it out! Its creepy!" Kuro shouted though the man could never understand.

"Kuro says to stop staring at him…. He doesn't like it."

The man seemed surprised and apologized with what looked like a smile. "Oh, sorry about that."

"Kakashi sensei!" Naruto called out as he made his way over and out of Kiba's grasp.

"Hey, Naruto. This guy a friend of yours?" He asked as he pointed towards the demon pair.

"Yeah." He stood beside Rin and gestured to him. "This is Rin Okumura."

Rin rubbed the back of his head. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Kakashi."

He then turned to Rin. "This is Kakashi Sensei. He's the leader of my team."

"Hi there, sorry about staring, but I just thought your cat was interesting. Is that a split tail?"

Naruto raised a brow and looked at Kuro. "I didn't even notice it. I completely forgot you said he had two tails."

Rin nodded. "Yeah, his name's Kuro."

Kakashi gave the cat a smile. "Sorry about that, Kuro."

"So what are you doing Kakashi sensei?" Kiba asked, reinserting himself into the conversation.

"Oh, well I was on my way to meet with a team that's about to head out. Lady Tsunade asked me to join it last minute."

"Anything big going on? It's not normal to have last minute additions like that."

He gave him his best poker face as he waved it off. "Oh, nothing big. She just felt having a good tracking ninja on it would be a good idea. The group we're after has been pretty slippery."

Naruto seemed interested but not enough to put up any kind fight about it. "Man, I guess we're on standby till you back then huh?"

Kakashi turned to him with a sympathetic look. "Probably, but you should enjoy the break. Especially after all that's happened recently." Naruto gave a nod but with a slightly sour look on his face. It was precisely those recent events that made it hard for him to sit still. What could he do though? It's not like he knew where Sasuke was. "Anyway, see you later, Naruto. Try not to stir up trouble." He then continued on with an interesting thought on his mind. He'd been told about that boy by Lady Tsunade. According to their information he showed up in the Village a few days ago and he's been under surveillance ever since. They also can't seem to figure out any other information about him or where he came from.

Rin scratched his head a bit as he watched the man leave. "Speaking of tracking, your dog must be pretty good if he could find me without ever smelling me before huh?" Rin said with a smile as he looked back at Akamaru.

Kiba crossed his arms and nodded. "Of course he can. All it takes is a small trace like the one Akamaru got off that key to find you. Don't underestimate a Ninja Hound's nose."

Rin gave a nod of agreement but stopped after only a moment. "Wait…. Key?"

"Yeah! I have a key that you always keep with you." Kuro pulled it out of his collar where he kept it so he wouldn't drop it. He held it down to Rin in his teeth. "See?"

Rin squinted at the key a moment before his eyes widened. "The Cram School key!" He grabbed it right out of the cat's mouth with excitement that surprised both ninja and hound. "Yes! I can't believe it!"

Naruto scrutinized the key in his hand. "What's so great about this key?"

Kiba then lowered his head to get a good look as well. "Yeah…. It looks like some ordinary key to me…. If not a bit flashy."

Rin started looking around for a suitable door as he explained. "No this key is special. It's given to the Exorcist Cram School students and it gives them access to the building from anywhere….. at least that's how it's supposed to work. Now that I think about it though, I wonder if it'll work at all. I mean, I'm not even in Japan anymore."

"Try it, Rin! Try it!" Kuro encouraged as he pat down on Rin's head from above.

"Exorcist?"

Naruto decided to fill him in since Rin seemed preoccupied looking for something. "Yeah, he's something called an Exwire which is a student Exorcist. They go around battling demons and stuff."

Kiba gave him a skeptical expression. "Are you kidding me?"

Rin turned to him with the same expression. "Hey, I'm in the middle of a Ninja village, and you're a ninja. That sounds way weirder than Exorcists and demons." He then gave a laugh. "I guess it can be rather hard to believe though. I used to be a skeptic too until…." He stopped mid-sentence and hesitation could be heard in his voice before he continued. "Well, I had a bit of a rude awakening to that." He then brightened his expression with a bit of a forced smile. "Anyway, I'm going to try out my key on that door." He pointed to what looked to be some kind of storage house behind a shop nearby.

Once Rin had walked away Kiba decided to ask Naruto another question. "Isn't exorcism something usually done by priests and monks? I don't know about you but he doesn't look like a monk in training."

Naruto shrugged. "Maybe it has something to do with the True Cross place he's from?"

They both watched as Rin stood in front of the door a few yards away. He was hesitant to attempt it, but in the end he pressed the key in and turned the knob. When he opened the door his expression was that of surprise. He wasn't staring into a storage room but the Cram School hall way. "No way….. It really worked!?"

Both Naruto and Kiba rushed over with Akamaru on their heels. "What worked? The key?" Naruto looked over his shoulder at the strangely colorful hallway and then traded a glance at the equally surprised Kiba. "This….. is your Cram School?"

Rin's smile continued to grow as he responded. "Yeah! Th-this….. is my ticket home!"

Kuro jumped for joy on his friend's head. "Yeah, home!"

"Am I the only one thinking this is… crazy?!" Kiba said turning to see Naruto's surprise had dwindled.

"Well…. I guess I didn't really believe him either until….. well we talked a bit more. This key thing is amazing though. It's like a some crazy ninjutsu that can teleport you."

"Only with a key." Kiba deadpanned. He then reached forward into the room to see if it was really real. As soon as his hand passed through the threshold he retracted it immediately. "Whoa! Its real!"

Rin started to get even more excited. He then moved to take a step forward. Unfortunately, he was cut off during his second step just as he was about to pass through the door. It was as if some invisible wall was placed up in it. He regained his composer and rubbed his nose a bit since he had smacked it into the invisible wall. "What the…?" He lifted a hand to reach through, but just like when he walked it stopped right before the threshold. His eyes widened and he placed another hand up on the force field. "Come on!"

Kuro decided to test it out and jumped right on through with no resistance at all. "Whoa…." He looked around and he was able to confirm for himself that he was indeed in the Cram School hallway. "What's wrong, Rin? Come on."

"Damn it! Its like there's a wall right here and I can't see it!"

Naruto looked at him in confusion and walked through. He was able to do it rather easily and came back to the Konoha side. "Well it didn't stop me."

"Or me. I was the first one to try it." Kiba added in. "So whatever it is only seems to effect Rin."

Rin slumped down the ground. "Aw come on….. why me?"

Because its never that easy Rin! anyway, poor Rin right? Home's right there in front of him and he still can't reach it. On another note, this is the first real cliff hanger I've put into the story though there isn't any real drama... not till later anyway. Hope ya'll enjoyed my latest installment and will tell me in a Review! Remember kiddies, reviews mean the difference between waiting a week or a month... or two for the next chapter!=^-^=