"Who's that?" The new girl, Raito, was looking quite pointedly at a blond boy, Naruto. She had just gotten to Konoha, and was waiting for class to start. The boy next to her, Haku, had yet to say anything to anyone but Raito. This had made Ino curious, and she had come over to investigate the new kids.

"Oh, that's Naruto. You don't want to talk to him."

Raito, who like Ino was blond and wore her hair in a ponytail, turned back to Ino. "Why not?"

Haku looked over in curiousity as well. His gentle features displayed a certain amount of concern.

Ino, in response, moved over to whisper something in Raito's ear. Haku's ears still picked up the sound, and he looked over at Naruto. He didn't like what he was hearing.

"Your point?" Raito asked when Ino had finished.

"He's a complete loser, I wouldn't bother with him."

"Then it's a good thing I'm not you." Raito made to walk away, and Ino gripped the darker haired blonde's arm.

"I'm being serious, nobody likes Naruto. If you're friends with him, no one's going to want to talk to you."

The grey eyed girl shook her arm free. "If people are really going to act that way, then I probably wouldn't want to talk to them anyway."

"Then you can't be my friend!" Ino called, but neither of them turned around.

"That's fine!" Raito called back.

"Hey, that was pretty cool the way you stood up to Ino! Did you really mean it when you said that you would be my friend?"

Raito nodded. "Hey, you want to show us around later? We figured it would be more fun if someone who actually lived here gave us a tour instead of jut wandering around."

Naruto beamed. "Of course! Let's go!"

"Naruto Uzamaki! Where do you think you're going?" a teacher with a scar over his nose asked.

"Iruka sensei, I was just going to show them around the village."

"I didn't mean right now!" Raito protested.

"Maybe we could go after school instead?" Haku suggested.

"But classes are so boring!" Naruto protested.

"Naruto!"

Naruto ignored the reprimand and stuck his tongue out at the sensei before running off. The much older shinobi chased after him.

"You know, we could always arrange for someone else to show you around."

Another instuctor had heard the commotion and walked over silently. Neither of them showed surprise, though, which is what he had been going for. Often times, a sure fire way to gain the respect of young ninja was to prove without a doubt that you were an excellent ninja.

"No thanks, I'm sure Naruto is perfectly capable," Raito replied. She studied the other man's face, noting that he frowned at her choice. Even the instructors were biased.

"Sasuke is far more reliable, and less likely to forget about it altogether," he enticed.

At the mention of his name, Sasuke walked over. The last thing he wanted to do was lead a couple of new kids around the village, but he wasn't rude enough to refuse. He braced himself for a fangirlish reaction.

"It's kind of you to offer," Raito's tone suggested that she thought it was anything but, "but we've already asked Naruto." She didn't even bother looking at Sasuke, instead choosing to glare up at the instructor.

Sasuke felt vaguely insulted that she was picking Naruto over him. That certainly hadn't happened before. He was torn between insisting if only because he wouldn't allow dead last to be superior in any way, shape, or form, and accepting it. If he did the latter, he would have the afternoon to train, instead of leading two girls around.

"I'm sure that Sasuke would make a far better guide," he insisted, effectively making it unnecesary for Sasuke to say anything.

"Oh yes, because the fact that he'd rather do just about anything but show us around the village is far superior to Naruto's enthusiastic personality. Forgive me," Raito said with scathing sarcasm.

"Fine, but when he doesn't show up, don't complain." The teacher looked upset that he had lost the argument, and walked away. Sasuke left as well, having nothing to gain from standing there.

"Raito, that was a little mean," Haku commented.

"It wasn't possible for him to show any more favoritism more obviously."

Haku didn't have anything to say to that, because he felt that to an extent she was right. It was then that the bell rang, signalling them to go inside. Iruka, their sensei, decided that he would sit them next to Naruto, in hope that they would get him to actually focus and pay attention instead of the goofing off he instisted on. The blond walked in about ten minutes late, and beamed when he saw Raito and Haku were seated near him.

"Hey, maybe you guys can come to Ichiraku's with me after school! They have the best ramen."

"Alright," Haku agreed.

Naruto smiled, giving him a thumb's up. The rest of the lesson, there were no pranks or disruptions. After school, Naruto was one of the first out of the building, as usual. He waited impatiently for Haku and Raito, who walked at a more normal pace.

"Alright! It's time for the grand Naruto Uzamaki tour of Konoha! Over there," he pointed to the Hokage monument, "is the Hokage monument! Look closely, because one day my face is going to be up there!"

Naruto then led through Konoha, pointing out all of the "cool," "interesting," and "haunted" places as they passed by each. About two hours later, they passed by Ichiraku's. Naruto insisted that they stop and get some food.

"So, how do you guys like Konoha so far? Pretty cool, right?"

"I can see why you'd want to live here, it's beautiful."

"Konoha is the most beautiful of the hidden villages," the store owner said, coming back with hot bowls of ramen. "It's also one of the most successful. A lot of other villages tend to get run down or in debt."

Raito nodded. "I heard that Cloud is going through some tough times."

"Cloud? What kind of name is that?" Naruto asked between bites of ramen.

"Please eat with your mouth closed," Haku requested.

"Oh yeah, right. Sorry."

"Cloud is just north of here, they're one of the stronger villages. If I remember correctly, they rank just below here and Sand. Don't they teach you this stuff?"

"Yeah, but it's not really important so I don't pay attention."

"You should at least know the names of the other villages. When you go on missions, it's kind of important to know where you're going. And didn't you say that you wanted to be Hokage some day?"

Naruto made a face. "Yeah... but it's just so boring."

"I hate to break it to you, but a lot of the Kage's job is boring," Raito pointed out gingerly.

"Yeah, but they're the most respected person in the village! Everyone looks up to the Hokage!"

"Half of that's because he puts up with the boring stuff," Raito said under her breath, and then she changed the subject. "Forgive me for asking a stupid question, but what happens after you get out of the Academy?"

This wasn't the only village she and Haku had been to, nor was it the only Academy they had attended. In fact, it was the only one they hadn't graduated from yet. Haku and Raito were meant to become some of the strongest ninja by learning techniques from a whole bunch of different hidden villages, and while their loyalties would for the most part lie with Mist, where they were originally from, they would work for the other hidden villages as well. The main reason why this worked was because if this arrangment did wind up working out, the villages were hoping to use their innfluence over the ninja to their advantage.

"You become a ninja," Naruto answered, giving them looks. "And you say I don't know the important stuff!"

"Well yes, but are you trained individually, put into teams and trained, put on teams and just start doing missions..?"

"Oh. After you get out of the Academy, you get put on a team and you also get a sensei to help you train between missions. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Is the sensei random, or do you get to pick?"

"They're assigned, same as the teams. Don't they do that where you come from?" Naruto asked.

"Kind of, but there you you have to pretty much train yourself after you become a genin. I mean, you get an instructor, but that's more to make sure you don't screw up the mission. Their job isn't to train you."

"Where do you come from, anyway?"

"Mist village, it's kind of small, and Fire Country is the only country it connects to."

"What's it like?"

"It's an island, and it's cold most of the time. Especially during winter. And it's not like here, it's less inviting, and smaller. Still, it's home." Raito took a bite of ramen.

"Then why'd you leave?" Naruto asked.

"Because we wanted to see the rest of the world, too," Haku said. "This is the only village that we haven't been too, and it's also one of the prettiest. I like Tea Country too, the marshes were really interesting to see."

"Marshes?" Naruto asked.

"It's kind of like a swamp. There are these patches of dry ground sticking up over the water, and most of the houses are built on stilts to keep people from getting wet. To get from one place to another you have to walk on bridges or ride in a boat over the water, and it's really green. It doesn't snow a lot in Tea Country either, because it's further South," Haku explained. "And most of the people there are really friendly, and they have some awesome stories. We heard one about how a giant toad lives in the middle of the country. It was massive, as big as two houses put together! And it was so old and covered with plants that no one realized it was there, and everyone thought there was a ghost in the marsh because they would hear this really loud croaking..."

Naruto paid rapt attention as Haku told the story about the giant toad, and then went on to talk about the snake that he and Raito found in the water. Even Old Man Ichiraku and his daughter listened to the stories about how at night the people used fireflies trapped in jars as lights, and then they would release them at a certain time when people went to bed. According to Haku, they would settle on everything in the village, making it glow.

"That sounds so beautiful, I wish I could go there," Ichiraku's daughter said when he had finished.

"But I'm sure there are things in Konoha too," Haku said. "Like that monument, we've never seen anything like that before."

"That's the faces of the Hokages!" Naruto proclaimed. "One day, my face is going to be up there! Believe it!"

"Maybe some day," Raito said. She got off the stool. "Thank you for the tour, it was a lot of fun, but I think Haku and I should be getting to our apartment now. We still have to unpack."

"I can help!" Naruto volunteered.

"Thanks for the offer, but we've got it," Haku said with a smile.

"Ok! I'll see you guys tomorrow, believe it!"

Naruto then walked off, and Raito and Haku headed towards their apartment building.

"I wonder why everyone seems to avoiding him," Haku said as they walked up the steps. "He seems perfectly friendly to me."

"I'm not sure, but I intend to ask the Hokage tomorrow. If there's a real reason for all of this, then I want to know what it is."

Ino had earlier said that none of the adults talked to Naruto and that was why they shouldn't talk to him. She had also said that Naruto was the worst student in their class, and that no one expected him to graduate. The way the adults on the street reacted though, made Raito curious. It semed that every one of them knew something that they didn't, and that Naruto had done something to them personally to warrant such hate. It didn't really make sense, Raito couldn't imagine on boy having that much influence on an entire village.

After they finished unpacking what things they had brought, they ate dinner and went to sleep. Anything else could be dealt with in the morning.

"You're not going to pass the exams, you know."

"Yes I can, and I will! Believe it!"

Raito and Haku paused on their way to the academy when they heard the conversation. That last voice sounded like Naruto.

"We should go see what's going on," Haku said.

Raito nodded and followed him to where Naruto was being harrassed by some other kid, who was in the academy but not their class.

"What's going on?" Raito demanded.

The kid smirked. "This idiot thinks he's going to pass the exams, can you believe it?"

"Why wouldn't he?" Raito retorted.

"Because he's, he's dead last! There's no way, he hasn't gotten a good score on any of our exams!"

"I will this time! I'm going to score higher than you or Sasuke or Sakura, even!"

"Yeah right! That's impossible! You can't even throw straight!"

"I will! I'll get really good, and then I'll be Hokage!"

"You're funny! No one's going to let you become Hokage. Never."

"Don't you have a class to get to?" Raito asked the boy.

"What do you care?"

"I'm not going to stand here and watch you harrass him. That was a polite way of saying 'get lost.'"

"Why should I? It's not like it's any of your concern."

"Raito, you don't have to do that, I can take care of it, believe it!"

"If you say so," she said. "But we're going to be late."

"Raito, shouldn't we stay and help him out?" Haku asked when they were some distance away.

"I'm sure he can handle it himself."

"Yeah, but..." Haku looked behind him. He was worried about their new friend.

"Alright, fine," Raito conceded, and both of them turned around. Naruto was still in a shouting match with the other kid. "Naruto, we're leaving. Let's go."

"Raito, I can handle..."

"Notice how I wasn't asking. Besides, this kid isn't worth the effort anyway. He's going to be an idiot no matter what anyone says."

"Say that again!"

"Again with the 'not worth the effort.' Naruto, are you coming or not?"

"Why you..!"

The kid rushed at her, fists ready to attack. Raito stuck her foot in front of him last minute and moved out of the way so he fell on the ground behind her. Apparently satsified with his defeat, Naruto rejoined Raito and Haku on their way to school.

"Naruto, you're late!" Iruka said when he stepped into the classroom. "And you two as well!"

"Sorry, sensei," Haku apologized with a low bow. After being nudged, Raito followed his example.

Iruka blinked, not expecting that. "Well... take your seats and don't do it again."

The rest of the class passed smoothly with no interuptions or pranks from Naruto. He occasionally whispered something to either Raito or Haku, but it was better than the pranks he was always pulling.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Man, this target is impossible to hit," Naruto complained. He was training, trying to practice throwing kunai.

"Here, try throwing it like this," Haku suggested, adjusting Naruto's grip. Raito was running laps around Konoha while he had come to practive throwing senbon when he ran into Naruto.

Naruto did, and it stuck in the tree. It didn't hit the target, but the aim was much better. "I hit it that time! Believe it!"

"It does help if you throw it properly." Haku pulled a senbon out of his pocket and aimed it for a second before throwing it at the target. It hit the bull's eye, but not the dead center he had been aiming at. It hit the edge instead. This was the exact reason he was here. In order to throw senbon most effectively, the aim had to be just right. He was getting better, but didn't have the prescision he wanted.

A few hours later, Naruto was hitting the bull's eye every time, and Haku was a little better with the senbon. Raito stopped by, a healthy pink tinging her cheeks.

"Hey," she greeted. "You're getting better, both of you," she remarked upon seeing the targets.

"Thanks," Haku replied.

"Haku showed me how to throw it better, believe it!"

"Were you going to join us?"

"Nah, I'm going to go spar with Lee. Thought maybe you two would like some peace and quiet, so we were going to go to the other training ground."

"Ok, just remember about our meeting," Haku requested.

"Meeting?" Naruto parroted.

"Yeah, we're supposed to talk to the Hokage," Raito said, sounding exasperated. "Anyway, have fun."

With that, she walked off to find Lee. After finding out that he had the same sort of impediment that she had, not being able to use chakra, she was curious as to how their skills compared. She was not expecting a man, jounin, to be there. He wore the vest, but the rest of his outfit was more... eccentric. Raito had never met anyone daring enough to wear a bright green jumpsuit with yellow leg warmers.

"Hi, I'm Raito," she said somewhat dubiously.

"So you must be Lee's most youthful companion!" he boomed. "I'm the handsome devil of the leaf, Might Guy!"

He struck a pose that made Raito internally sweatdrop. "Right..." She shook herself out of the shock. "Anyway, ready Lee?"

"Thank you, Raito, for coming here to spar with me. Most people won't fight me!" His eyes shone with passion, leading Raito to believe that for some reason people avoided training with Lee.

"Weird," she replied. As far as she could tell, there was nothing wrong with Lee, and she had seen him fight before on the school training field. He was pretty good at taijutsu, better than most, and in Mist Village a lot of people would want to work with him and learn how to be that good.

"That does not mean I'm going to hold back though, so prepare yourself!"

Raito discovered very quickly that with her weights on, she was just a little bit better than Lee at taijutsu. Mostly it was owed to the fact that she had studied all over the place, and taijutsu was one of those things that villages didn't hide quite so much. Lee also seemed to realize this, because he took his weights off.

Raito did the same, because when she saw the impact they made on the earth she was pretty sure she was going to need to. This proved to be a wise descision. Lee wasn't faster than her, they were almost perfectly matched in that, but he was stronger. The only thing that saved Raito from being beaten terribly was her training with Haku, who was the fastest person she knew. Even that didn't really help, except to teach her how to predict the movements of her opponents. This ability allowed her to get Lee about as many times that he hit her.

Fifteen minutes in, and they were both panting from exertion. Raito knew she was going to have bruises, and that she was probably going to have to concede first. Lee had more stamina than she did, though it didn't look to be by much.

"I concede," she said after twenty minutes of fighting. She rested her hands on her knees and bent over, trying to catch her breath.

"It was... a good fight," Lee said. He was panting heavily as well, it had been a while since he had met someone with that amount of taijutsu skills.

"It was a very good fight!" the jounin, Guy, agreed. "It's fights like those that fan the fires of youth!"

"If it gets any more youthful... I think I'll collapse," Raito joked. She stood up straight and retrieved her weights. Might Guy laughed and slapped her on the beck a few times, nearly knocking her over.

"Perhaps next to time you'd like to take on the green beast of Konoha!"

"Maybe." Raito had no intention of taking on a jonin who specialized in taijutsu. No thanks, she didn't need to get her butt kicked quite that badly. "Hey, I've got to get going, but it was nice fighting you, Lee."

"I felt the same, Raito! We should do it again some time!"

"Yeah," she agreed, meaning it. Then she went to find her apartment, where she could shower.

"Hey Haku, do you know any cool jutsu?" Naruto asked. He was still practicing kunai, but that alone wasn't going to get him through the exam.

"Define 'cool'."

"You know, like really powerful jutsu."

"I have a kekki genkai. Is that what you're asking?"

"Show me!"

"It only really works if there's water around." He was working on a jutsu that allowed him to pull water from the air, but it was hard to master. Nontheless, he went through a series of hand seals before doing a one handed seal. The little water he had pulled from the air turned into ice senbon, which he directed into a tree.

"That was so cool! How did you do that?"

"I just pulled water out of the air, the rest was using my kekki genkai."

"Show me!"

Pulling water from the air, seemed not too difficult as long as you weren't trying to control how much, and Haku couldn't see the harm in teaching Naruto the series of seals. "Ok. Pay close attention."

He went through the signs again, this time much slower. Naruto watched him carefully, and then repeated the sequence. Water splashed in throughout half of Konoha and the air went suddenly very dry.

"I did it! Believe it!"

Haku brushed a piece of dripping hair from his eyes. "You just..."

When he had taught Naruto the jutsu, he hadn't expected the effects to be so enormous. He stared, wide eyed, as Naruto continued his victory dance.

"Naruto Uzamaki, the greatest ninja who ever lived! Believe it!"

"Naruto, you have to be careful," Haku said. "A lot of people in town probably just got soaked."

"Oh. Whoops. But I still did it! Teach me another one!"

"Limit it to this training ground first," Haku said. "A lot of the jutsu I know can be really destructive, and I don't want anyone getting hurt."

Naruto frowned, but complied. The second time, he able to keep it roughly around the training area, but a lot less water fell. His frown deepened.

"Why isn't it working?"

"There's not a whole lot of water left in the air to use," Haku explained. "You got a lot of it the first time. Give it an hour and it'll evaporate."

"But I don't want to wait..." Naruto complained. "Is there another jutsu you can teach me?"

Haku shook his head. "Most of the ones I know get pretty destructive if you can't control them right... Maybe I could teach you a little taijutsu instead?"

"But I don't want to learn taijutsu, I want to learn something really cool!"

"Ok," Haku replied. He grabbed another senbon and aimed it at the target.

"Hey, hey hey! Don't ignore me!"

"I'm not ignoring you. You said that you didn't want to learn more taijutsu, and I'm not qualified to teach you ninjutsu... I don't really think I should have taught you that." When Naruto had asked, Haku hadn't thought about the laws specific to Konoha. A lot of villages allowed students to train themselves, but he was pretty sure that Konoha restricted it to within the clans.

"Please?" Naruto begged. "I promise I won't pester you ever again!"

"You don't pester me, I like being around you. I just can't teach you ninjutus. I don't think there's any rules about hand to hand combat, though..." Naruto pouted, trying to win him over. Haku just smiled. "Sorry, I would if I could, but I can't."

Haku truly sounded apologetic, as much as was necessary, anyway. Point was, Haku didn't sound like he was trying to appease Naruto so he would stop asking. He was being sincere.

"Ok... then teach me some taijutsu!"

Naruto, had he no had the demon fox, would have gotten his butt kicked. Since he did, though, he didn't mind the repeated blows quite so much. He also scored a few hits on Haku, which made him proud of himself. They didn't feel like he had done any damage, but that wasn't the point, and Haku showed him how to do it better anyway. Naruto was ecstatic.

"Haku, you ready to go?"

"Sure. You want to do this again, Naruto?" he asked

"Believe it!"