Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I wish I did.

Italics: thought

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Clouds filled the sky adding to the gloom that was felt today. There were people of all shapes, ages, and sizes gathered around in memorial. Today was a sad day for the village hidden in the leaves. It almost seemed like the whole village was gathering to mourn the death of the last loyal Uchiha. Not only did the village lose a powerful ninja with much potential, they had also lost hope for the future of the Uchiha clan. As the memorial progressed a light rain began to fall adding to the sullen atmosphere.

The surviving members of team seven paid little attention to the words that were being spoken about Sasuke, only catching cliché phrases like '….his fire burned out to soon…' and '…will be remember and dearly missed by his friends…'

Naruto was thinking about the friendship he was beginning to develop with Sasuke. He knew it would never have been a very strong friendship, but it was his first bond and he had a lot of hope for it.

Sakura was mourning the loss of her first crush. Although she knew the raven haired boy had no interest in her she always hoped that she could improve herself enough that he would take notice of her.

But now the tie between Naruto and Sasuke were cut short, and whatever could have happened between him and Sakura could never be.

The rain was falling harder and harder. Naruto was glad for this because where Sakura was openly weeping; the rain was hiding the presence of the tears rolling down his whiskered cheeks.

One by one people walked up to the memorial that had been set up. A single picture of Sasuke had been put up. It was a picture of him when he was younger, one of the few they could find of him smiling. They each paid their respects before placing a single white flower on the coffin.

Naruto Watched as the crowd of mourners dispersed. They were genuinely sad, but he knew over time they would slowly forget Sasuke and that someday he would just be a distant memory. He wasn't go to be like them. He would never forget what Sasuke did for him no matter what, and he would find a way to pay him back for saving his life.

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Naruto was sitting on top of the Hokage monument. He had taken refuge on the head of the third Hokage. This was the spot that Naruto came to whenever he needed refuge from the village. He usually came here when the angry glares from the villagers became too much to handle.

Since the encounter with Mizuki where it was revealed to him that he was the Kyuubi container he understood better why they hated him so much, but it was still hard to handle. Now he feared it was going to get worse. Everyone knew that he was on the same team as Sasuke, many openly objected that the Uchiha heir be placed on the same team as a demon. He feared that they were going to blame him for his death, make him a scapegoat for their anger again and that the death threats might return.

It was really thanks to the hokage that Naruto had survived his younger age. The orphanage had abused him so he had to be moved into his own apartment when he was five. ANBU followed him throughout town when he was younger to make sure no one attacked him. He was almost denied entrance into the academy, until the Hokage rallied for him. Most feared that he would become a ruthless killing machine and eventually bring about the destruction of the village.

But Naruto was going to prove them all wrong. He was going to become the strongest shinobi in the history of the village, then he was going to become the best Hokage, surpassing the previous leaders, and everyone was going to see that he wasn't some evil, demonic being. They would see he was a shinobi of the village hidden in the leaves and he loved his village and everyone in it and would protect it with every fiber of his being.

But until then he would put up with the glares and the threats and the people blaming him for the death of their friends and family all those years ago when the demon attacked and he had the burden of carrying the demon for the safety of the village.

The time passed quickly and before he knew it, it was almost midnight and most of the village had retired for the night. He took one last look at the village below him before getting up to head back to his apartment.

He ran across the rooftops, appreciating the feel of the cool night air rushing across his face. He ran as fast as he could while enjoying the feeling of exertion he was putting on his body. He loved to run. He had gotten quite good at it, having a lot of practice after pulling pranks. He most enjoyed painting the stone faces of the Hokage's, seeing it as a testament of skill that not only could he sneak up there and paint all the faces without getting caught, but that he could outrun the jounin that were chasing him.

When he got to his apartment building he entered as quietly as he could, so he would not wake anyone and risk getting chewed out and threatened with eviction again. He knew the Hokage would never allow him to get kicked out for no good reason, but that didn't make the landlord any more bearable. He reached his apartment and went inside, found his bed, and without even changing into his pajamas fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

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Three days later

Bright morning sunshine shown through the windows, falling on Naruto's face, but that wasn't what woke him.

Kakashi stood over him with an empty glass of water. The contents had been poured onto Naruto's head when he couldn't wake the little blonde up.

"Kakashi-sensei, what was that for?!" Naruto yelled.

"That was for making me pound on your door for ten minute, just to get yelled at by your neighbor, then break in to your house to get you to wake up. Be glad it wasn't ice water."

"Okay, but why are you here? It's really early."

"First lesson, a ninja must be aware of his surroundings, even when he's asleep." Kakashi said, crossing his arms and giving Naruto a one eyed stare.

"That's what you sneaked into my house to do?" Naruto said as he jumped out of bed pointing an accusing finger at Kakashi.

"No, I left a note on your door yesterday that we would be doing some early morning training, but I guess you didn't get it."

"Oh yeah, I guess I was out a little late last night doing a little training myself, so I was pretty tired when I got here." He said putting his hands behind his head with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Well hurry up and get ready, Sakura is waiting outside for us and she doesn't like to wait."

"Tell her to come inside while get ready, it will take a few minutes."

With that Kakashi walked out of the room to go get Sakura, and Naruto got a fresh orange jumpsuit out of his closet and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

When Sakura walked into Naruto's apartment she was surprised to see the mess. In the kitchen there were empty ramen cups all over the counters, in the small living room there was a shabby little couch that had rips on it and there was dust, and dirty clothes everywhere. She sat down on the couch and decided he probably didn't get many visitors, if any, so he probably didn't have any reason to clean, but is still wasn't okay to leave you apartment this dirty.

When Naruto stepped out of his bathroom a few minutes later she confronted him.

"Naruto, your apartment is a mess! You shouldn't let it get this messy!" she yelled, getting up from the couch to stand eye level with him.

"Sorry Sakura," he said scratching the back of his head. "I'll get right on it." He formed the ram seal and created four shadow clones. "Clean this place up while I'm gone." He then turned back to where Kakashi and Sakura where standing with confused looks on their faces.

"Naruto, you use shadow clones to clean your apartment?" Kakashi asked.

"Sure I do, that way I don't have to do it, and they can clean faster. Now can we go train?" His replied, looking proud of his ingenious idea.

"Well I thought we would go out to get something to eat first. I'm guessing you're a little hungry."

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Sarutobi left the office every once in a while to take a walk around town. Being Hokage wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and he needed a break from the paperwork.

Today as was walking through town he heard many loud feminine shouts and turned to look around to see a familiar sight. A man with long white hair, a long sleeve green shirt with a red vest over it and a scroll on his back was leading the pack and desperately trying to get away from the enraged women. The Hokage sighed as he watched his most perverted student ran towards him, not even taking notice of his former sensei.

At the last second as Jiraiya ran past him he put his arm out, clothes lining him. Jiraiya fell to the ground and looked up to see who it was who stopped him. The women giving chase stopped too.

"Holy hell! Sensei!" Jiraiya yelled realizing who it was.

'Oh, I'm glad your back in town Jiraiya, I have a job for you." The hokage said, with a smile in his face. "you ladies run along, I'll take care of the pervert for you"

"Hey, how do you know I was being a pervert?!" Jiraiya yelled, offended

"Well I doubt they were chasing you for your looks, I'm guessing you were doing more 'research'" Sarutobi said, his smile growing as the perverted sannin got up from the ground rubbing his head.

"So what's this job you were talking about?' Jiraya asked, taking on a serious attitude.

"We can't talk about it here, lets go to my office." Sarutobi said, glad that things were finally getting a little more interesting.

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Sorry about the cliffhanger, I've always wanted to try one of those. Tell me what you think. If there are any mistakes or if you have any questions/suggestions let me know. Sorry about the wait, too. Its coming up on finals week so I've been working a lot and I couldn't get anything done last week due to thanksgiving.

Review please.