Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work. I do own my own original character.

Chapter 3: The Miniature Human, Uzumaki Naruto

I stared at the blue eyes and then I dropped my gaze and stared at the offending hand. Somehow, this little human had caught me. Me. I was…not happy. A human had caught me. On top of that…this human was really…short. At least compared to the other humans. To me though…at my sparrow size, he was huge.

Then, "Yay! I caught the little birdy!" said the miniature human, with a voice full of glee.

I was annoyed. I was not a "little birdy!" I opened my beak and spat a small ember at the hand holding me. It was a small ember, not intended to actually do too much harm, just to make the human let me go.

An "ouch" could be heard from the small human as he squeezed harder. This human did not know the definition of letting go, did he? (Is it even a boy? I will assume he is.) I was even more annoyed now. I did not like being squeezed to death. Well, the actual squeezing did not really affect me, but I did not like being held.

I opened my beak, "Let go of me, you stupid midget human!"

He did. He dropped me like I was a hot ember. Which was not that far from the truth, really.

The midget human stared at me, mouth hanging open like one of the fish demons in Makai. "Wow, I didn't know birds could talk!" the human said, like it was the greatest discovery in his world.

I noticed that the burn that I had given him was gone now. That human…had regenerative powers maybe even better than mine. Was that normal for humans? On closer inspection, I saw that the human had blond hair, blue eyes, and whisker marks on his cheeks. He was wearing shorts (at least, they were really short pants…so shorts?) and a shirt. I never saw whisker marks on any humans before. But maybe it was just because I have not seen many humans yet. He was also, by far, the shortest human I had yet seen.

"I do not know if birds here usually talk, but I can," I said in response, still thinking about his appearance. Then I wondered if the birds here even talked. All I heard them do was chirp. Whatever. I wondered how old this human was, and what was his name? I decided to ask the human. "What is your name?"

The boy(?) did not say anything, suddenly suspicious of me. Why was that? Maybe because I am a talking bird?

"Um, then how about answering this. Are you a male or a female?" I had to know. He just looked at me. He had a confused expression? At least…I think it was confusion, or it could be an "I am sick expression." Maybe he did not understand me? I could rephrase that question. "Are you a boy, or a girl?"

"Uh…What! Of course I'm a boy!" The…boy (it was confirmed) seemed shocked that I had asked such a question. Maybe that is why he decided to answer that question.

"Well, it is not like I can tell…at this point, all you humans look alike!" I retorted. I was a little…miffed at his tone. He sounded like he thought I was stupid. "Then…are you going to answer my first question?" I had to ask.

"What first question?" was the reply I got.

"Fine…do not answer if you do not want to…" I was a little…sad at this point. My first conversation with a human was not…going well. He did not even want to tell me his name.

He seemed to notice that I was feeling sad. "Uh…don't be sad. I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Believe it!" He said this while striking a pose, with his one of his fists in the air. He beamed at me.

"Oh," I perked up a little, "what am I suppose to call you then? Uzumaki or Naruto? Or both?"

"Huh? Oh…Call me Naruto!"

"Well then, Naruto…it is very nice to meet you. I am Akarui, the Phoenix." Akarui would be the translation for my name in his language anyway.

"Oh…then, are you a boy or a girl?"

The little midget human was a little annoying, I decided. I also think he did not know about phoenixes…judging from his reaction. But I had asked the same thing, about the gender I mean. "…I am a male…a boy."

This human was very hyperactive though, judging by his voice and the fact that he had trouble keeping his voice quiet.

I also wanted to know one more thing. "Why are you so short?"

"Hey! I'm not short. I'm only seven! I'm still growing and one day I'll be really, really tall!" I decided I liked this human…child. That must be what he was, since he was still growing. The number of years he had stated to be his age was really small, miniscule even. Seven? But growing to be "really, really tall" was my goal also, so I could relate.

Then I could hear approaching footsteps.

"Look! It's the demon!"

"Really? Don't let him get away!"

Faster footsteps then started to approach us. I looked at Naruto, who had a frozen look of…maybe fear?…on his face. He turned and started to run in the opposite direction of the two voices. I looked in the direction of the voices, only to see they had come from two other full-sized humans, who were now chasing Naruto. They were spewing what seemed to be threats at the child human Naruto.

At this point, I decided I did not like those two adult humans. Issuing threats at a seven year old child? Furthermore, the child had not done anything to provoke them, at least that I knew of. They had just appeared out of nowhere and stated to chase Naruto. My expectations of humans suffered. What kind of creatures would not care for their children?

Then I wondered if they would actually carry out their threats of harming the midget human. At this point, I was a little worried about the midget-y human. Children..are not really adapted for taking care of themselves. I followed, flying after the two humans and Naruto.

Naruto ran into the space between two buildings…an alley. I think he was trying to hide in it once he thought he was out of sight of the two other humans. Unfortunately for him…he was not out of sight like he thought he was. And do not some alleys end in dead ends? I followed the two adult humans into the alley.

The alley was indeed a dead end. Naruto was not in sight though. He must have hidden. I could hear him behind the one of the containers that held human trash though. And so could the two adult humans. The two advanced on the container of trash…and Naruto. They definitely meant him harm.

Normally, I would count this as a dangerous situation, but a child, for Kyuubi's sake, was being threatened. My own world was violent, yes, but at least we cared for children. And these were humans, what harm could they do me?

I was in the back of the humans, so I flew closer to them. Nothing exceedingly…violent was needed, just something that was enough to make the humans run away. I did not want to destroy the two humans…there was no need, and not to mention Naruto would probably run away from me and then I would never get to talk to him again.

I was now right over the heads of one of the humans. He did not see me, being too intent on Naruto, who was now in view. Naruto's eyes widened quite comically, I think it was at the sight of me. At least, it would have been comical if not for the situation.

I spat an ember at the head of one of the humans. It had the expected result. His hair burned. The human grabbed his hair, felt the fire that now was in it, and ran screaming out of the alley…panicking and looking for something to put his hair out, no doubt. The other human looked around for the source of the fire, but I had flown behind Naruto, out of sight, while he had been watching his partner run away. Seeing nothing, that human also panicked, yelled obscenities at Naruto…and promptly ran out of the alley.

Naruto turned around to look at me with his huge eyes, human children had larger than normal eyes it seemed. "Thanks," he whispered to me.

"You're welcome. It was not a problem, but why were they chasing you?" I was curious. I wanted to know the reason two adults of his own species would try and threaten him.

"I don't know. It's just that everybody hates me…and they always call me a demon…" This was said with a…sad, I decided, expression. There looked like there was some kind of moisture in his eyes…but I did not know what that was. And why would other humans call him a demon? He certainly was a human. That much I could tell. Maybe the other humans could not?

I did seem to have gained his trust though. I decided I would like to keep it. It would be nice to know someone in this foreign world. I was, otherwise, alone. I did not like being alone. So what I said next was a testimony to that. "Well, I do not hate you…"

"Really?" Naruto seemed so…surprised. He really had not heard that a lot had he? There was water leaking out of his eyes now. What was that? "Then…could we be…friends?"

Friends? Friends…I did not have any in this world…and I would not mind one. I accepted. "Of course."

Author's Note 1:Akarui apparently is the Japanese word for bright. I think it would work as a name…would it? Anyway, the two humans were civilians, so it would not be hard to chase them away.