Chapter 1: Jun Sato

'Shit this stuff is heavy.'

Jun had been walking for almost 25 minutes, and the shopping bags he was holding had started to dig in his fingers 10 minutes ago.

'5 more minutes and your home. Come on.'

He'd just about managed to get by with his stipend this month. Of course his lock had broken on the one week the discount store had been shut down. Didn't the owners know his livelihood depended on cheap food?!

Obviously, he didn't really blame them. Summer was just around the corner, and no shop owner would dare take a break in peak times, even if the break was in the Land of Hot Water. He could only imagine what it would be like to spend a week relaxing in a hot spring. Never mind that, he couldn't even imagine what it'd be like to not have the hot water go off every 10 minutes in the shower.

Coming to the end of the path, he stepped out onto the main village road instead of carrying down the side streets. He usually wouldn't walk anywhere with large crowds, but his fingers were in pain, and right now getting home quicker was worth the stares. Jun kept his head down and sped up. Hopefully, he wouldn't be recognised by too many people, especially with that loud-mouthed idiot always causing trouble.

As if on cue, an orange blur shot past him, followed by 3 chunin covered in what seemed to be feathers, pink paint and... glitter? He could barely make out the Uchiha clan insignia on their backs.

"Catch me if you can idiots!" she shouted, her long blonde hair whipping back as she stuck her tongue out at them.

The one in front scowled, eyes turning red, and started chasing her even faster, his two partners with bored looks on their faces not as bothered to keep up.

"Get back here right now!"

Naruko only laughed at his expression, and Jun watched as she continued to speed past, prolonging the inevitable. Although if you were the daughter of the Hokage, the inevitable didn't mean much.

'Must nice to be her.' he thought with a tinge of bitterness. 'No consequences for your actions, even for the ones you do commit.'

It wasn't long before he reached his apartment complex and took the stairs up to his door. He dropped the bags and fished his pockets for his keys, opened the lock, and stepped inside.

'Home sweet home.'

He took off his sandals and slid on his slippers before putting away his shopping. Some milk, bread, eggs and cereal, a few bags of rice, veggies and a small amount of meat.

Jun walked past the small canvas by the window and placed a finger into the soil of the plant pot on the window sill.

'Dry.'

He filled a quarter of a glass with water and slowly poured it in, making sure he covered the soil evenly.

'There you go little guy.'

Sighing, Jun dropped himself back onto his couch, turning on the TV. He'd just bought groceries but there was no way he had the energy to cook tonight. Practising for graduation almost every day for the past 8 weeks was exhausting, and it was no different today.

A cup ramen later it was time for bed.

He'd taken a quick shower, cold of course, he was used to it by now, and was just about to get under the covers when there was a sharp knock at his door.

"Oh come on, what could you possibly want this time?" he grumbled to himself as he walked to open it.

He turned the lock and pulled the door inward.

As he expected it was his landlord. A short, round man with slicked back hair, who frequently sported large gold chains and rings, sunglasses no matter what time of day it was and always smelled of cigarettes. It also didn't help that he never seemed to learn how to button the top half of his shirts, or shave his chest.

'Come to bother me for the millionth time for no other reason than to be a dick, have you?'

"Hey Jun."

"Hey Hiroto."

"You comin' back late again, huh? I don't like troublemakers livin' in my apartments y'know." he sneered. "Pisses me off when I'm the one that's gotta deal with 'em."

"There's nothing to deal with. I was out shopping. And I'm not causing any trouble."

"Don't talk back to me boy." he spoke sharply.

'Get to the fucking point and leave me alone please.'

"Now I'll let you off for that 'coz I'm a nice guy, but I get any more troublemaker behaviour from you and you're outta here, I don't care what Lord Hokage says."

'How many times have you threatened me with eviction now?'

"Got it Hiroto, sorry for bothering you."

"That's what I like to see, some fucking respect. This is my apartment so you follow my rules. You got it?"

"Yeah got it Hiroto," Jun replied deadpanned.

"Good, glad to see you're finally listening for once. Now get lost and don't make me come up here again."

With that Hiroto left, his phlegmatic coughs shaking his stomach as he walked away.

'Yeah fuck you too, you greasy bastard.'

Jun shut his door and went back inside. He hoped he could fall asleep quickly and get enough rest for graduation tomorrow. He'd been practising his Henge, Kawamiri, and Bunshin every chance he'd had. There was no way he was going to let lack of sleep be the thing that caused him to fail.

But as he heard the woman next door moaning and groaning again, he stared at the ceiling hoping it would crash down onto his face.

'Welcome to the life of Jun Sato.'

I'll be the first to say a bit of an unorthodox first chapter. Originally I was going to start it on graduation day of the academy, but I thought a quasi-prologue of sorts would be good to help flesh out a little of Jun's character and life.

It's not an angst fic, so don't worry there won't be any beatings or rapes or drunk villagers screaming 'Demon' on October tenth. Just some dickheaded-ness at most.

And yes it is a Naruto fic and it will heavily focus on ninja stuff more than Jun and his landlord.

Yes Jun is an OC.

Yes Naruto is female, 'Naruko.'

Yes you'll find out more about this world as the story continues and the minute differences in them.