Summary: Orphaned at birth then kicked out to the streets sat the tender age of four, nothing seems to be going right for young Naruto. That is, until, a winter storm comes, forcing Naruto to seek Shelter in one of the many training grounds. Just as Luck would have it, another man was also seeking refuge in the same training ground. What happens when that man finds an underweight, undersized, and over all pitiable looking five year old sleeping under a large oak tree? Will the two finally find happiness, or is it all just another façade?
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Naruto. Though I do own this plot line and my few OC's.
The two had been walking for the past few hours. The entire time with Naruto looking over his surroundings then at the man besides him with a questioningly look in his eyes.
Ryuu chose to ignore the looks, preferring to keep his own eyes ahead of him. Well, that, or he was jus not paying attention to the teen.
Said teen frowned; he was beginning to grow annoyed with Ryuu's constant look of innocence that he had on his face.
Just as he was about to say something, Ryuu beat him to it.
"Well what do ya know, we're almost there."
Naruto turned his gaze from Ryuu to the front of him. What he saw made him raise an eyebrow, silently shocked.
From where he stood, he could see the outline of a great waterfall which lay between two equally large cliff sides. Even though he was not close enough to see, he could already picture the top of the waterfall, from his mind's eye, all of the hundreds of trees that could easily put a great forest to shame.
As they got closer, Naruto finally decided to speak.
"So who hired us in the Hidden Waterfall? I take it that Shibuki is still the village's leader, so is this his doing?" Even though Naruto didn't show it, he was starting to get excited.
Ryuu sighed, giving a fake look of disappointment. Folding his arms, he gave a pout before answering the teenager.
"Ah, it was supposed to be a surprise. How did you find out?"
Naruto resisted the great urge to hit his forehead, something he has been finding himself doing a lot these past years. Instead, he shot Ryuu a light glare.
"First, get that stupid pout off your face; you're not a girl." The pout quickly changed into a grin, amusement clearly in his eyes. "And second, how was it supposed to 'be a surprise'," Naruto did air quotes at this part, "when we're heading to a giant waterfall that leads to said village."
Ryuu gave a weak laugh, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish grin on his face.
"Yeah, I guess that the waterfall does kind of give it away doesn't it…"
The teen rolled his eyes, something else he seems to find himself doing a lot these days, but he also has a smile on his face.
The two walk for a few more minutes before they finally reached the base of the Waterfall.
Ryuu let out a chuckle, glancing at Naruto.
"I take it that you remember the way in?"
Naruto nodded.
"Then after you." Ryuu extended his arm to where it was almost touching the water.
Naruto sighed, glaring at Ryuu lightly, than led the way past the waterfall to the hidden village.
As the two walked through the main part of the rather large village, with Ryuu taking the lead this time, they both received many warm smiles, waves, and greetings from almost all of the people that are out and about.
They even had a little girl, who looked no older then eight, which came up to them at the insistence of her group of friends. Looking shyly up at them, she gave them each a small flower.
Ryuu chuckled lightly while Naruto could not help but to smile kindly and thank her for the flower beautiful.
She ran back to her friends with a bright red face, but a large smile on her lips as well. Naruto and Ryuu watched as all of the girls squealed loudly, surrounding the young girl that gave them a flower.
Shaking their heads, they continued walking.
Ryuu gave the usual emotionless teen a curious look. Naruto, catching the look, answered the man's unasked question.
"What? You try not smiling to the little girl." Even though Naruto's voice seemed to be void of emotions, Ryuu was able to pick up on the teen's embarrassment.
Ryuu smiled lightly, though he silently agreed with Naruto.
It was not long before the two arrived at their destination.
Both Naruto and Ryuu nodded to the two shinobi that stood on either side of the double doors. Naruto silently looked them over, taking in their appearance to determine their skill level the best he could. He guessed high chunin, low jounin at most.
Walking past the two no opened doors, then by-passed the front desk, only sparing the women working at it a nod before moving towards the set of stairs.
On the second floor, it looked like a plain hall that had a total of five doors on each side of the wall. On the other end was the second set of stairs.
Walking towards them, they passed a few of the ninja that were on the floor, though none of them stopped Naruto or Ryuu. They simply stopped what they were doing, smiled or nodded, then went back to work.
Quickly walking up the stairs, they stepped into what looked like a large waiting room. Against one wall was a few chairs, a slightly larger then usual desk with an elderly man working behind, and a pair of large double doors on the wall opposite of them with two jounin ranked shinobi standing on either side of. The two guards looked them over once, then nodded and smiled lightly.
Unlike the first floor, Naruto and Ryuu went over to the desk.
The elderly man looked up at them and he grinned.
"About time you two came and visited us. So what is it boys, business or pleasure?" He leaned back in his chair, looking back and fourth between the two, the grin never leaving his face.
Ryuu gave a dramatic sigh. "You know what they say; business before pleasure sadly. Shibuki-Sama contacted me a few days ago. It seems that he wants the two of us to help out on an important mission."
The elderly man raised an eyebrow. "Really? Well, if that's the case, then good luck! Shibuki -Sama's not busy, so go on in." He spoke, nodding to the two guards at the doors.
Nodding back, one knocked on the door before he opened it silently.
Naruto and Ryuu both thanked the man behind the desk and went over to the double doors, walking though the now opened one.
Ryuu entered first, Naruto fallowing at his own pace. Once the two were both inside, the door closed just as silently as when they opened.
Naruto looked over the rather large room; looking for anything that might be out of the ordinary. Covering three of the walls, including the one behind him, were pictures and paintings that told of the now large and grand village. Some were of the past leaders; others were paintings of what the village use to look like. There was even one painting of the great waterfall itself.
Off to one side, there was a somewhat large couch that faced them, a stand beside it that help an ancient looking scroll which Naruto knew contained the village's long history, from when it was built up till now. In front of him sat a rather large desk, much larger then the one the elderly man was using just outside the double doors.
In front of the desk were two large, pleasant looking chairs. The wall, unlike the other three, had two large windows, one on either side of the desk.
The older teen sitting behind the desk looked up at them and smiled both kindly and widely. His eyes were a coal black, as well as his hair. His hair was tired back with a long blue ribbon, resting between his shoulder blades. The shirt that he was wearing was a teal color. He had what looked like a shoulder pad on one shoulder, while the other did not. His village's headband was tied around his forehead.
"Naruto! Ryuu! You've finally arrived. I was beginning to worry you didn't get my message."
Naruto and Ryuu bowed lightly to the man before them, both of them returning the smile, though Naruto's was barley there.
"It's good to see you to Shibuki-Sama. It's been some time since we've been here."
Shibuki playfully glared at Ryuu, "Come on Ryuu, I've told you two that you don't have to add the Sama. It's bad enough that everyone else calls me it."
Naruto rolled his eyes, taking on an appalled voice. "Your right, heaven forbid people like and respect you!"
Ryuu stifled a laugh while Shibuki's eye twitched and he truly glared at Naruto. "You know what I meant Naruto."
Said teen just shrugged and acted like he could care less.
"You know, Shibuki, if looks could kill, I'd have a small paper like cut on my little finger." Naruto held up one of his hands pinky finger for effects.
Shibuki's twitch grew. His glare deepened.
A cough interrupted the two teens from possibly starting a fight. The two looked back at Ryuu.
"Now that I have both of your attention, may we move on and get to why you called us here please?"
Shibuki gave Naruto one last glare before looking back at Ryuu.
Naruto hid a grin with the skills that he achieved over time while doing a mental victory dance.
Ryuu, as if knowing what he was thinking, jabbed his elbow in his side.
Naruto shot Ryuu his own glare, rubbing his side as he did so.
Said man didn't even acknowledge the look he was getting, instead placing his full attention on Shibuki.
"So, Ryuu, I take it that you have yet to tell Naruto what I want you two to do yet?"
Ryuu shook his head, grinning slightly.
Naruto raised his eyebrow lightly, not getting a good feeling from that grin. He turned his attention to Shibuki as well, and for the first time noticed that he was glancing at him nervously.
Naruto frowned.
Shibuki silently pleaded with Ryuu to tell the younger teen. Ryuu, after a few seconds, sighed and nodded. He turned his head to Naruto with a sheepish look on his face now.
"Well, you see, the chunin exams are coming up soon, and Takigakure is going to be taking part of it." Ryuu looked back at Shibuki, signaling for him to continue.
Shibuki also gave a sigh before continuing where Ryuu left off.
"And even though since your last visit here, when you and Ryuu saved us from Suien and his followers those three years ago, we have stepped up our training, but I still fear that our village is still going to be one of the weakest there. So, as I was going over who to send with the village council, a member brought you two up. His idea was to have you two pretend as two of our shinobi, just for the exams, and help represent us. And since everyone believes Takigakure to still be one of the weakest villages, they will most likely end up underestimating us. Now, if you don't wish to, you won't have to actually fight unless really needed. We also want to ask if you can watch over your 'teammates'. The two teammates that you'll have to work with will be our top two genin, so all you'll really have to do is make sure that they don't die or get to badly injured."
Shibuki started at Naruto intently, knowing that his answer would also be Ryuu's.
Said teen was looking just as intently at Shibuki, mulling over what was just said. After a few seconds, he spoke.
"And if I'm to be one of the genin, what is Ryuu's job in all this?"
Shibuki didn't miss a beat answering. "He will be acting as your jounin teacher.
Naruto nodded. He asked one more question.
"Where are the exams taking place this year?"
Shibuki turned his head, not really wanting to answer, knowing the younger teen's past already.
Ryuu, too, was not looking forward to this question, but see as how Shibuki really did not wish to, he answered Naruto.
"Naruto," said teen looked at Ryuu with a curious gaze, "It's being held in Konohagakure. Your birth village.
Naruto visibly flinched.
Naruto and Ryuu entered the hotel room that they rented for during their stay at Takigakure. The hotel room was decent looking, having two beds and a large sliding glass window that led to a small balcony.
Naruto flopped down on one of the beds, his grace gone the moment the door closed. He closed his eyes, ignoring the feeling of his weapons digging into him at different parts of his body.
Ryuu looked worriedly at the teen, torn between wanting to go over to comfort him or giving him his space to sort out his emotions.
In the end, Ryuu settled with sitting on his own bed, looking at the teen.
"You know Naruto," Ryuu spoke slowly; "You don't have to do this mission. If you want, we can go back to Shibuki and tell his that you changed your mind. I'm sure he'll understand."
Naruto stayed quite. Ryuu was just about to add more, but didn't get a chance when the teen finally spoke.
"No…" He spoke so quietly that Ryuu had to sit foreword in order to hear him better. "I told Shibuki that I'll do this mission, so I'll do it." He sighed lightly.
"It's just…" Naruto trailed off, finally opening his eyes. It looked like he was searching for the right words. After a few seconds, he continued. "Weird I guess. Having not been there in all of these years. I can barely even remember the place. And what I do remember makes my blood boil, thinking of how I was treated. How the supposed leader just kind of forgot about me. When ever I try to picture the place, I always picture the hateful glares and sneers that I would get from both the adults and the children. I can remember having to live on the streets since I was not allowed in the orphanage. I can still picture a younger me rummaging through garbage cans behind restaurants, searching for food to eat."
Naruto sat up, his legs hanging off the edge of the bed. He was staring at his hands.
"It just seems that all of the memories that I have of that place seems to be the terrible. I just can't bring myself to remember one signal good thing about living there."
Ryuu gazed sadly at the teen across from his. Yes, he knew about what Naruto had to go through when he had to live there, but Naruto never went into that much detail about his old life. And Ryuu could respect that, so he tried to never bring it up.
At first, when Ryuu first got the message from Shibuki about a mission that he needed their help on, he was excited. He knew that Naruto enjoyed visiting the older teen, what with them knowing each other since Naruto was seven years old. In fact, Shibuki and his father are one of the few people that knew both of their pasts, or as much as each was willing to tell others.
Then he read the short summary about the mission itself.
Even though he appeared happy and calm when telling the teen of the mission, on the inside, his mind was racing though all of the possible outcomes of the teen's reaction when he found out.
The reaction that did happen was one of the betters one. Still, though, Ryuu felt slightly angry at Shibuki for asking them to do the mission in the first place, though he knew he shouldn't be.
Ryuu sighed lightly, still looking at the teen.
He was once again going to say something but was once again beaten by Naruto.
"Ryuu," his voice sounded determined; "I'm going through with this mission. I need to do it. I need to face them. To prove to myself that things have changed and I'm no longer that five year old that can be pushed around."
Naruto turned his eyes to lock with Ryuu's.
"Please, Ryuu, let me do this."
Ryuu looked into the teens eyes, searching for anything that might make him deny the teen's request. After a few long seconds, Ryuu sighed and closed his own eyes.
"Alright. Just, promise me. Promise me that if it becomes too much for you, that you'll tell me and we'll leave. No questions asked. Okay?" He opened his eyes, looking intently at the teen.
Naruto smiled lightly, nodding.
"Promise."
Ryuu nodded back, than stood. He suddenly ginned down at the still sitting Naruto.
"So what do you say we go and met our new teammates? Eh?"
Naruto returned the grin, standing up as well.
"Sounds like a plan."
Ryuu lifted his hand and ruffled Naruto's hair, making the teen frown at him. Batting at Ryuu's hand, Naruto tried to fix his now messed up hair. Ryuu chuckled, watching the teen fuss over his hair.
Walking over towards the door, he looked back at Naruto.
"Come on, let's head out."
Naruto huffed, but fallowed after Ryuu.
"So where did Shibuki say we could find them at?"
Ryuu made a noise in the back of his throat, thinking.
"I'm pretty sure that he said at the training ground eight."
The teen nodded, than asked another question to the man in front of him. "So where is training ground eight?"
Ryuu visibly faltered before stopping. He looked over their surroundings a few times. Naruto waited patiently.
After a few minutes, Ryuu finally answered Naruto's question.
"Hmm, good question."
Naruto couldn't help it. He tried to resist the urge, but it won out in the end. He slapped Ryuu on the back of the head; hard.
He smiled lightly, not caring that people were watching them with amused expressions. Ryuu landed on the ground, face first.
'Ah, that felt good' Naruto thought, snickered lightly. He walked past the dazed man, heading towards a random direction, hoping it to be the way to the training grounds.