Disclaimer: i dont own naruto or any other subject i decide to use... i do ownthis plot though, so thats got to count for something right?

Dreams are the minds way of coping with reality… or is reality the minds way of escaping the dreams that haunt us?

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"Speech"

'Thought'

"Demon/summon speech"

'Demon\summon thought'

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…"Everyone is safe now….. As long as you are alive….. you keep destruction at bay… you are the hero I could only wish I could be….." with that said he finally rested his eyes, yet the moment his closed the bundle stirred and a flap on it fell to the side exposing a head of shocking blonde hair and cerulean eyes to the world…

BRZZT! BRZZT! BRZ-SMASH!

'Damn it….. Stupid alarm clock. That's the third time this week (sigh)' The misshapen covers on a twin sized bed slowly started to move and a shadowy figure slowly disentangled itself from their death grip. The figure stretched and, on impulse, dropped down to a knee, allowing a slightly bigger figure to fly above unimpeded, all the while yelling, "GOOOOD MOOORRNNNNNIIINNNNNGGGG, RYUUUUUUUUU!" before the obnoxious wakeup call could even try to attempt a landing, Ryuu had placed all of his weight onto his hands and mule-kicked the intruder out of the window that was situated above his bed.

"Well there goes my quiet morning….." Ryuu mumbled running a hand through his medium length, unruly red hair. Looking back at his night stand, he saw the remains of his once faithful, persistent alarm clock. 'Hehe…. Looks like you need a good burial, huh?' Grabbing an empty shoe box, Ryuu scooped up the broken bits and changed into his school uniform. After buttoning up the last button on his jacket, he grabbed his satchel and headed downstairs.

Upon arriving on the bottom floor he heard his father's voice as he complained about how his mum was pulling the shards of glass out of his backside. "Well if you wouldn't do that every day, then he wouldn't have a reason to kick you out of the window, Hun" a sweet, melodic voice chided, silencing his father's cries for pity. Pushing open the door to the kitchen, Ryuu saw his father draped over the counter with his mom behind him with tweezers and a bucket that already had a few large chunks of glass in it. "Hey honey! You might want to hurry; you're going to be late." His mother looked up revealing her heart shaped face and vibrant purple eyes to him. Her smile brightening even more when she realized he was wearing his new school uniform. "My my… don't you look handsome. You're going to have to beat the girls off of you at this new school aren't you?" he had to say, he didn't look all that bad. His new uniform consisted of black slacks, white button up shirt, and black dress jacket with silver buttons and red lining. As an optional, or better yet mandatory, item was a tie that was graciously placed in the uniform box as well as the school handbook that he had already leafed through. In about three places on the first page it had even stated that any student not following dress code will be punished, and just to be sure he didn't get punished the first day at the new school he decided to wear the fashionable noose.

Looking at the clock on the oven, Ryuu casually asked, "What time does this school start?" deciding it was time to make an entrance, his father raised his head and calmly stated, "In about fifteen minutes."

"!" watching the cloud of smoke in his sons once occupied spot Ryuu's dad, Kenji, stated with an amused look on his face, "you know, after seeing that, I think he just did shunshin on instinct….YEE-OOUUCH! DANG WOMAN! WATCH WHAT YOU PULL WITH THOSE THINGS!"

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Most people would say the streets of Ryuu's town to be confusing and ever winding, but for Ryuu, as long as he had a direction he could get somewhere with ease. Unlike other people, he didn't walk the streets; he took what his grandfather called "the forgotten road". Otherwise known as the roofs. His grandfather taught him how to free run up until he was too frail to do it himself. Even then Ryuu still knew that if it came down to it, he was still no match for his grandfather in terms of speed, or strength. 'DAMN IT! My first day and I'm already almost late….' Leaping across an alleyway, Ryuu suddenly grinned and started leaping even faster and faster. To most people he would be a blur, but to those who could see he was still jumping fast enough to look like he wasn't touching the roofs or walls. This is what he enjoyed, being able to cut loose and test himself, to just lose himself in it until he felt like he was flying. Add in some aerial maneuvers and wall runs, most would think he was a ninja or something like that.

Of course, things must come to an end, as all good things do. The roofs started to run out and in the distance he could see his new school. It was a tall building surrounded by a forest that just teemed with life. Above it flew a banner that displayed the school's coat of arms, two serpentine lizards, one black and one white, entwined around a sword. Approaching the school at top speeds, Ryuu leaped with all of his might and landed across the street that divided the buildings and the school. Rolling through his landing, Ryuu popped up and dusted himself off. Loving the fact that his uniform actually breathed and wasn't stuffy, he looked at his watch. 'Five minutes to go… damn I love the rooftops.'

Walking up the steps to the Academy, Ryuu realized that he didn't even have a schedule yet. As he walked into the Academy, he noticed something…. There weren't any signs! Muttering to himself, Ryuu chose a direction and went that way.

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back at the house…..

Shortly after Ryuu had left, and Kenji had finished having the shards of glass removed from his rear, Kenji and his wife, Tsuki, had sat down to discuss some stressing news.

"He's on our trail again. I don't know how far back he is yet, but he's definitely coming for us." Tsuki stated in a somber voice. "Do you think Ryuu will be ready?"

"Well even with me masking my presence and not giving anything away, he still managed to kick his old man out of a second story window off of pure instinct. So I would say that he can at least manage to fight enough to survive…..hopefully." Kenji replied seriously over his steepled hands. Gone was the joking carefree goofball nature, and out came the cold, hard warrior who would do anything to keep his family safe.

"I hope you're right honey, I'd hate to put him through such pain," she said while she gently leaned into Kenji and he silently wrapped his arms around her. Looking down at her, he brushed her obsidian curls out of the way of her face and gently said, "If anything happens at least he won't be alone."

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"FUUUUUUCK!" Ryuu shouted as he bolted down the hallway. Just a few seconds ago he had opened a door thinking he had found the main office and what did he see just after he opened it? A pack of hungry damn wolves that's what! Turning a corner he barely stopped in time from implanting himself in a wall. 'Shit it's a dead end! What do I do? What do I-'

Relax….. Concentrate and relax. It will come to you….

"Who's there!" looking around, he couldn't see anyone. The wolves were almost at the corner, they had stopped running but that didn't mean they stopped coming. They knew they had him trapped, they could take their time.

Relax… remember all that you've learned… clear your mind….

'Right clear my mind. That'll be easy with me about to die!... Clear my mind... clear my mind….' His mind slowly stopped running at a million miles an hour and he slowly slipped into a defiant fighting posture and readied himself for a fight for his life. As soon as the first wolf leaped at him, Ryuu whipped out a devastating kick that caught it in the side, but as soon as he felt the impact of his leg on it, it poofed into a small stuffed animal. And with that a slow clapping started, echoing and as it started the rest of the wolves poofed into nonexistence. Around the coner came a blonde man in a white trenchcoat, smiling all the while, his hands moving in that slow clap. With a huge grin the man finally spoke "Well aren't you a talented one? You were so close to failing your entrance test, but I guess no one told you anything about this did they? oh well, at least you calmed down enough to think about your survival." With a flourish the man turned around and started to walk down the hallway into the room from which the wolves had come from. Turning to look back the man grinned and stated happily, "welcome to your first class….. hmmm I seem to have forgotten your name. oh well ill learn it when you tell the rest of your class about yourself. Come now, don't want to be late do you?"

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Across the street from Ryuu's house there is an old church. Essentially gothic in style, yet it had many oriental twists. On one of the towers is a ball, suddenly there is a tear in the fabric of the world and a cloaked masked man steps out of the tear and kneels on the ball. Gazing intently across the street, this masked man started to chuckle to himself as he slowly stood back up and let the sunlight run across the mask. The sun outlined the single red whorl in the orange mask around the only eye hole, the right one. "so you thought you could hide forever from me? I don't think so…."

hello again! im back with my new chapter for this fic. sorry for the delay but when your anti-spyware software people decide that you need to re-buy their software, they send you an email asking if you want it... AND GIVE YOU A DANG VIRUS SO THAT YOU HAVE TO BUY THEIR SOFTWARE! but enough about me. hope you enjoyed the cliffie, slightly obvious yet most probably didnt catch it. next chapter!: information on whats going on and who exactly is Ryuu and his parents, and why does this mysterious figure in a mask want them so bad?

you know what to do, R&R!
ja ne,

DiaSha