I was now close to the boarder of the hidden leaf village. Over the past year I had been rounding up criminals most of the orders had been put out by the leaf village. I had gotten to know some of the people and I had become a regular visitor. I had a man I had just captured with me and I carried him along thanks to one of my summons Kimishiro. He was a large black wolf with white accents on his fur. He was the one that I mostly summoned for the escort of my bounties. I had him thanks to the seal that was placed on me by my brother, which gave me the ability to summon from the wolf tribe.

I made my way to the leaf village gate. As I approach I heard someone call out, "well well, look who we have here!" I got closer to see it was Izumo, and Kotetsu sitting at the gate. "Welcome back Emiko, I didn't expect to see you back so soon," said Izumo.

"Well you know I don't waste any time on catching these guys," I said with a light laugh.

"So who do you have this time?" Kotetsu asked.

"Not anyone big, Kyi Takeki, a thief from the mist."

"Ok, you know the drill just bring him to Lady Tsunade," Kotetsu added.

"Will do," I said walking away giving a slight wave to them. I headed straight to Tsunades office, Kimishiro at my heel with the prisoner. I knocked on the door and Tsunade answered, "Enter."

I walked in closing the door behind me, and approach her desk. "Well Emiko back already?" Tsunade asked with a smile.

"Well this guy wasn't that hard to catch," I replied.

"Anyway good work, you know my offer still stands if you're interested. You've obviously proven your skills and it would be a plus to have you as a leaf Shinobi."

"Thank you Tsunade, and maybe one day I'll take that offer but for now I have to refuse," I said politely. She nodded in response and buzzed in 2 ninja to take away the man I had brought in. "until next time," Tsunade said as she waved goodbye. I smiled in return and went on my way.

I left the village and made my way toward a nearby lake. I was walking through the woods when I saw a person laying face up in the middle of my path. He had short spiky blond hair and wore an orange and black outfit. He had a leaf village head band on so he was obviously a ninja. I kneeled down beside him and checked his vital signs. He seemed fine but I couldn't just leave him in the woods like this. I nudged him a bit but he didn't wake up, my guess was that he was probably out here training and had just worn himself out. It was getting dark so I started a fire and stayed there to keep an eye on this person.

A few hours later he began to stir. Suddenly he sprung up and quickly looked around, "hey where am I? How did it get so dark already?" and then he looked to me and added, "and who are you?" he asked with a finger pointed at me.

"It's ok," I said in a soft tone, trying to ease his worry, "my name is Emiko, I was passing through the leaf village when I saw you in the middle of this path. I didn't feel right just leaving you here so I wanted to stay until you woke up." After that was said he eased his panicked stature and introduced himself. "Oh, well I'm the one and only NARUTO UZUMAKI!" I couldn't help but giggle at his enthusiasm.

~NARUTOS P.O.V. ~

I sat down next to this Emiko, "so what are you doing out here besides looking out for me" I said with a big smile.

"I actually had to turn someone in to Lady Tsunade, I'm a sort of bounty hunter," she answered.

I stared at her and replied, "really, but you're my age! You must be pretty strong huh?"

"I think that's up for interpretation," she joked, "well now that you're up I should probably get going."

"Well you did look after me and you're a friend of the leaf why don't you stay at my place for the night it's already too late to travel." I offered.

"I don't know if I should" she said as she thought, "well I could use a bath if you don't mind?"

"Not a problem! Come on," I replied as I pointed it the direction of the village. Once she got up and I could get a good view of her. She had shoulder length black hair and green eyes. She wore a pair of black shorts and boots along with a white pin-striped shirt that hung close to her body. She had white and black arm warmers on and a small weapons pouch bound to her right thigh. She looked like a ninja to me only without a headband.

She got up, put out the fire than began to follow me. We made our way back to the village in only a few minutes and headed to my house. We stepped inside and I showed her to the bathroom, "you wanted a bath didn't you?" I asked,

She nodded, "if it's not any trouble"

"Of course not!" I exclaimed. I showed her the bathroom and left her to make her a place to sleep. After which I laid on my bed and fell asleep.

~EMIKOS P.O.V. ~

The bath was amazing! It was exactly what I needed, and it was nice of Naruto to invite me over for the night. I got out and changed back into my clothes and went out to see Naruto sprawled across his bed... asleep again. 'He must have trained hard today to be this tired' I thought. I saw the bed he had set up for me and laid down, finally a good night's sleep...

"BANG! BANG! BANG!" someone was knocking on the door. My eyes stayed closed and I heard a husky voice call out, "Naruto...NARUTO! Come on open up!" a few seconds past and suddenly the door was burst open! I sprung up and stared at the boy in front of me. He had a grey outfit on and spiky brown hair along with 2 red marks on his cheeks. He stood there with his mouth open just staring at me. Naruto shuffled in his bed and slowly sat up rubbing his eyes, "hey Kiba, what's up?"

"n-Naruto w-who is this?" he ask shocked.

"Oh this is Emiko... I'll explain later" Naruto said as he yawned.

"Oh," he said as he sweat dropped, "well lady Tsunade is looking for you." And with that the boy left the room.

I sat there a bit confused when I turned to Naruto. He got up, and rustled his hair. "I guess I have to go see grandma Tsunade," he said with a sigh, "you wanna come along?"

"Sure," I replied with a light smile. I got up and followed him out the door. We came to the Hokage's building, and I stayed below and Naruto went up to see Tsunade.

I walked along not quite knowing if I should stick around or go on my way. My minds said go but my heart said stay. I hadn't had a home for so long, and I had started to miss it.

I scuffed around, not quite knowing what to do with myself, when the boy from before came into sight. He approached me and introduced himself, "I'm Kiba," he chuckled, "we really didn't get introduce before."

"I guess you're right," I said with a smile, "I'm Emiko."

"So are you new to the Village?" he asked.

"Well I was actually just passing through, but now I'm thinking about staying."