Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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

If there is an * after a word/phrase, explanation for usage on the bottom.

Chapter 16: Pink Hair; Hyperactive Blond; Really Boring Uchiha

Today, Naruto would be assigned to his genin team. This should be quite amusing. And at least Naruto would be around children his age more. Even if he and his team are children trained to…kill.

Ninja humans, I supposed. At least it was not the only thing they did.

I had also been thinking about something. But I would have to talk to wrinkly human about it.

So, before Naruto was even awake, I left the apartment and flew over to the Hokage tower. I flew through wrinkly human's window. He was…predictably, doing paperwork.

"Akarui-san! Do you need something?"

"As a matter of fact, I need to talk to you about something."

"What is it?"

"Today, Naruto is getting assigned to his team, correct? Well, I would like to help him."

Wrinkly human looked unsure. "What do you mean?"

"Help Naruto. As in…aid him in battle. There is a human, in Naruto's class, that has a nin-dog. While you should not compare me to the dog, I think you can see the parallel."

"You do?" The wrinkly human seemed surprised.

"Yes, and I have a question. Some nin-animals can talk, right?"

"Yes. So you also want to talk to the other people?"

"Yes. That can be an excuse of mine. So…would that be fine with you?"

"Of course. But our old agreement still stands, Akarui-san. You are not allowed to harm the village."

"Yes. I remember that, wrinkly human. Naruto would never attack any villagers." He would never. Naruto loved this village. I do not know why, but he does.

"Wait, Akarui-san." He hesitated. Then, "You will need this." He was holding a ninja headband*.

Then it was I who hesitated. To take it meant to be loyal to this village. To take it meant that I would defend this village. To take it meant that I was a defender, a ninja, of Konohagakure.

I was not loyal to the village. But I was loyal to my friend. And Naruto was loyal to the village. I took it. I wanted to help Naruto, so that meant receiving this headband.

And should I tell wrinkly human about my human form? No, maybe later…

"Thank you, wrinkly human." With that I left, making myself larger in order to carry it. I would ask Naruto to tie it on or something later.

Wrinkly human was a nice human. I would remember him.

Now, for Naruto to get assigned to his team. Somehow, I had a feeling that it would be disastrous…

When I got back to the apartment, Naruto was still asleep. Of course, he would be. Now, what to do with the headband? In order to wear it, I would always have to be in a larger size than what had become my normal size-my sparrow size. I would at least have to be the size of one of the smaller hawks.

Would I still fit on Naruto's shoulder? I think I would be able to. And where was I supposed to wear it anyway? Did wrinkly human even think of that? Around my neck or something? That could lead to me to being strangled…though I do not think that could kill me.

Anyway, it was certainly time to wake Naruto up. For now, I could go to the academy in my sparrow size.

So I woke up Naruto. He rushed around getting ready. I would tell him about my new status as a nin…bird…later. Would it be nin-bird?

After breakfast, Naruto replaced his goggles with the headband. He was actually running a little late.

"You know that if you do not leave now…you will be late."

"Ahh!" He ran out the door. Without me, again. I had to fly over to him and land on his shoulder.

When he made it to the academy, some of the other humans asked him what he was doing there. It was obvious he graduated…but apparently, they did not think of that.

Then, a human wearing…a very strange outfit came in. She was one of Naruto's classmates…and she had pink hair. So strange…

This girl Naruto liked. Sakura human. As in he saw her as a potential mate. But…the human girl did not view him in the same way. The girl was also quite…violent. I think that is a trend among human females.

From what I could see…human females were quite violent. Sometimes, when I was walking around town in my human form, there would be some of them following (stalking, I think it was called) me. Occasionally…I could see some of them…beat up, as humans say, other poor humans. All the while yelling, "That's for getting in my way!" I did not know what the beaten human did in order to "get in their way", though. For all I knew though…maybe human males prefer violent females? Perhaps it was attractive? It was so confusing.

She was heading in Naruto's direction. At this point, I had jumped onto Naruto's head to see better and I was hidden by Naruto's hair. I could still see out of it though.

"Naruto! Move! I want to sit next to Sasuke!" Sakura human said, or rather, yelled that.

Sasuke…the child I had spoke to on the day of the Uchiha Massacre, as it came to be called. I still was not sure if he remembered me, so I had been avoiding him. This was the human that Sakura human herself saw as a potential mate. Poor Naruto. Or…would it be lucky Naruto. She was prone to violence.

Naruto did not seem to like Sasuke. According to Naruto, he was…arrogant. (Actually, Naruto put it in a lot worse words, but that was the summary, anyway.)

While I had been thinking, Naruto had gone over to Sasuke human. He was now perched on the desk in front of Sasuke human. A bit too close…Naruto was going to fall.

As I expected…he fell. The person behind Naruto had accidentally pushed him over. I was still on Naruto's head, but I was fine.

Naruto was not. When he had fallen, his lips had come in contact with Sasuke human's…

I thought that was an intimate act for humans? I dearly hoped it was an accident. Apparently, it was. The next thing I knew, both humans involved were gagging and spitting. It was actually quite amusing.

Then I could feel some killer intent…coming from Sakura. I sensed upcoming violence.

As I predicted, she tried to punch Naruto. The mistake she made…was trying to hit Naruto on his head. I was on his head.

How dare she try to hit me! (Actually, she did not know I was there…but I did not think of that at the time.) So, before her hand actually came into contact with me…I bit it. (I did not want to light Naruto's hair on fire…already did that once. On accident!)

I let go as she pulled her hand up and shrieked. "Naruto! What do you have in your hair?"

"My hair?" He reached his hand up. I jumped into it. "Oh…this is Akarui. You must have come to close to hitting him. Sorry, Sakura-chan." He sounded sheepish. "Akarui is sorry, right?"

I just turned my head in the other direction. She has almost hit me! Of course I was not sorry for biting her! She deserved it.

Before Sakura human could yell more (thank Suzaku*), Iruka human came in. He began, after a short speech, to divide the children into teams.

"And team seven is Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto…" At this, Naruto jumped up while Sakura slumped. The Iruka continued. "And Uchiha Sasuke." At this, Naruto slumped while Sakura jumped. Humans were so amusing.

Naruto was annoyed. "Why do I, an outstanding shinobi, have to be with him?" I think some of my formal language rubbed off on him. It only appeared when Naruto was mad though.

"Naruto! Out of all the graduates, your grades were dead last!" Iruka human was mad now. Poor Naruto.

Sasuke human spoke. "Just don't get in my way." Naruto was right about him…arrogant human.

Sakura human started to try and beat him up again. So I bit her again. She really should stop trying to hit me. Naruto was going to be mad at me. Oh well, it was worth it. As of now, she probably would not make a good mate for Naruto anyway. He would end up dying early if she was. Possible later…or not, at the rate things are going.

So now that Naruto received the teams, it was time for lunch. While Naruto stayed. I flew back to the apartment. I wanted to get my headband and show it to Naruto.

To my surprise, I could hear voices from inside. One of them was wrinkly human's. I flew through the high open window left open for the purpose.

I landed in front of the humans. There were two humans, wrinkly human…and a silver gravity-defying hair human. Maybe I should call him that? No, too long…

"Akarui-san!" Wrinkly human noticed. How very observant, considering I was in front of him and all.

I just looked at the silver-haired human next to wrinkly human. Lazy-looking human? No. I should just call him by his name and species…like I have done for a while now. There are just too many humans.

Wrinkly human continued. "This is Hatake Kakashi. He will be the jounin instructor for Naruto and his team."

The…Kakashi human just looked at me with a confused expression. "Hokage-sama, why are you talking to a bird?"

Wrinkly human just looked at me. Then he said, "Well, Akarui-san, aren't you going to say anything?"

Why not? The Kakashi human would find out soon as it was anyway. Wrinkly human only told him because he knew that. "Wrinkly human, Kakashi human…what exactly are you doing breaking into Naruto's apartment? Explain. Now."

Kakashi human looked surprised. Wrinkly human just made a funny sound. Naruto told me it was called a chuckle. A chuckle. Such a strange word. "Akarui-san is Naruto's nin-bird."

At this, Kakashi human nodded. I had absolutely no clue what went on in his head. He had a mask covering his face, and his headband covered one eye. His other eye gave the impression that he was a lazy human…but still showed no expression. I could not read the human at all.

"I do not belong to Naruto. And explain. Now. What are you two doing here?" Honestly, I did not really care. I just wanted to see what they would say.

Wrinkly human was the one who responded. "We were just checking up on Naruto and his apartment."

Then Kakashi human spoke. "This milk went bad a couple of days ago."

"Again? I thought I told him to throw it away…in fact he did throw a carton away. Wait, that means…he threw away the new milk!" The milk…I liked it. He threw away the new milk! What a stupid human!

After my small rant, I looked back at the wrinkly human and the Kakashi human. "So, you will be Naruto's new teacher?"

The human nodded. I could hear him mutter, "This will be so troublesome."

I felt a little sorry for him. He had to deal with Naruto. That was a handful. He also had to handle a traumatized arrogant child and another human female child that was infatuated with said traumatized arrogant child. Poor Kakashi human.

"…I feel sorry for you. They will be…quite troublesome indeed. I wish you the best of luck. And, you better teach Naruto well. Or else I will light your hair on fire. And that is just the beginning." I said this all quite cheerfully. Lighting a human's hair on fire was quite fun.

He just stared blankly at me. What was that tear-shaped drop on the back of his head?

With such interesting humans around, I would not be getting bored anytime soon. So this was Naruto's new instructor? This should be interesting. I was looking forward to what was going to happen next.

Author's Note: Yay! Finished. Below are the things I *. And my explanation etc. for them.

*Headband for Akarui: I know that Akamaru and the rest of the Inuzuka dogs do not have one. But Kakashi's nin-dogs do. So I gave Akarui one.

*Suzaku: One of the Four Celestial Guardians of Four Directions. Suzaku is the Red Bird (Phoenix) of the South. While Akarui is actually based on the Arabian phoenix (bursts into flames…reborn) I wanted to make a mention of the Chinese/Japanese equivalent of phoenixes.

Thanks to all who helped out!