New story again. I'm coming up with lots of ideas and I want to share them now. This one I was working on last night and I just decided I would stick it up already and not bother waiting for ages like all my other stories. I'm still working on other ideas as well which I hope to stick up sometime soon. So, this is the first chapter – I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 1 – First Encounter

Naruto ducked behind a tree as arrow after arrow penetrated it.

"Crap, he's too good with that bow. I'm going to have to find a way to get it off of him", he thought. Naruto ducked down and crawled through the piles of dead leaves that covered the ground and ran behind each tree as more arrows were aimed in his direction as the criminal attempted to make his escape.

Shino Aburame – worth 100 Silver Kyes; a nice sum of money. Enough for Naruto to live comfortably for a few months – wanted for the theft of expensive jewellery at Nara Manor.

Naruto hid behind another tree, crouching down low and judged how far away the thief was from him. There was a good distance of about hundred metres. Shino was wanted alive so throwing knives were out of the question, so was his bow and his sword was not a long range weapon. If he could somehow close the gap between them somehow.

Naruto looked around and analysed the forest. It was a deadwood forest; the trees were practically black from the lack of life the forest held and there were piles of dead leaves everywhere. Naruto looked up to see the braches on the trees all broken or too delicate looking so going above was not an option. The sky was cloudy so Naruto knew it was going to start raining soon if he didn't wrap this capture up. The rain would pose difficult problems for both him and Shino.

Naruto knew that Shino was very good at avoiding capture; he was like an insect – flying out of reach, clever enough to evade capture of at least fifteen different bounty hunters. But he was not going to get away from Naruto.

Naruto saw that Shino had stopped – thinking that he managed to get away from him. He was catching his breath – Naruto had to act quickly so as to catch Shino before he made his escape. Going straight for him would mean risking a potential life-threatening injury – the thief was a very quick archer. Risking the long way meant that it was safer but more time consuming and he might lose his chance to capture the criminal.

Naruto decided on the long way and as quickly and silently as he could he sprinted and dived from tree to tree and managed to catch Shino from behind, unsheathing his sword and bringing it to the thief's neck.

"One slit across your jugular vein and you are a dead man. Do you want that to happen?"

"Huh...you can't use your scare tactics on me: I know I'm wanted alive", Shino sneered.

"Oh but didn't you see? They want you dead now since you are SO hard to catch", Naruto cooed, lying so easily, watching Shino's eyes widen slightly.

Shino smirked and managed to push Naruto back and get away from his grip. This annoyed Naruto so he grabbed Shino and kneed him in the stomach, who stumbled backwards. Shino reached for his sword and Naruto waved his around threateningly. The clang of metal on metal resounded through the silent forest and echoed loudly for what seemed like miles. Naruto clearly had the superior hand in the fight – he could see the beads of sweat appearing on Shino's forehead and his moves were getting slower. He expected that Shino relied too much on his archery skills and his sword was for emergency cases. Naruto continued to beat the man down expecting Shino to give up. However, Shino continued to press on – Naruto had seen plenty of openings where he could have cut off a number of limbs but he didn't want to damage the thief – the bounty would be reduced if that happened – and Naruto continued to dance with the thief. After several minutes, Naruto managed to knock Shino's weapon out of his hand and catch it. Shino immediately took the opportunity to punch Naruto who flipped backwards to avoid the full blow. Naruto quickly sheathed his sword and threw the other sword in to a nearby tree. It went straight through the first tree and continued onwards until it embedded quite deep in to another. Naruto got in to a defence position and started defending himself from the various blows he was being dealt. Naruto could see it was taking up all of the thief's energy and he knew that he was relying on a decent knock out punch. He managed to get a blow through Naruto's block which made Naruto stumble back slightly.

"Catch this!" Shino ran forward, reaching for an arrow at lightening speed and jammed it as hard as he could in to Naruto's arm. He watched and waited him to fall. Naruto looked at his arm and sighed – he yanked the arrow out and gently threw it aside to the ground. He looked in to the astonished face of his capture. There was no evidence of any pain or blood – what the hell?

"Now where were we?" Naruto smirked.

Naruto used the thief's bewilderment to his advantage and began delivering a few soft blows to the already weary and fatigued thief. Shino stumbled backwards and looked rather dizzy; Naruto kicked his legs out from beneath him. Shino collapsed on the floor, coughing and spluttering. Naruto put his foot on the thief's back.

"Wh-what are you? Shino gasped.

"Well, I don't know", Naruto said mockingly, "Maybe I'm human?!"

"No human can not be in pain and not be bleeding from my attack".

"Well, let's just say, I'm...special". Naruto smirked, "And you're coming with me".

Naruto picked up the thief. He tied a rope around his hands and then another around his feet. He attached another rope to his hands. Naruto walked over and yanked the sword out hard from the tree and sheathed it in the thief's belt. He took it off of him and attached it to his own belt. He rummaged through the thief's bag and found the jewellery that the thief had stolen – they were really beautiful pieces; emeralds, sapphires, rubies, diamonds and even several gold and silver pieces. Naruto sighed and attached the bag to his belt. He picked up the rope holding the thief, who had now passed out and started making his way to the nearest local village.

Naruto left the local jail-house with his money. He counted it blissfully, putting it in his money pouch he made his way to the local tavern. There were no big bounties up on the board so Naruto decided to check the local tavern for information instead. It was a small place but was still rather crowded. It was decorated with bright reds and all the furniture was made of wood, chestnut coloured. Lanterns were suspended from the ceiling to give light to the rather dark place – there were not very many windows and the windows there were very small, not letting in a lot of light. It had the look of a mysterious place for very hardened men.

Going to the bar meant he could eavesdrop on conversations of other bounty hunters to pick up the juicy gossip of the big expensive captures that had not yet been placed on the board. He also wanted to drink to his victory.

He walked up to the bar, several heads turning to look at him.

"Hey, who's the blonde idiot?" several people asked as well as other comments. Naruto ignored them and walked right up to the pretty bar lady. She had short curly blonde hair, rather pale skin and bright red lips. She gave Naruto a rather seductive look as he approached the bar with a small smile.

"Hey, can I get a large glass of whiskey please?" Naruto asked the smiling bar maid politely, sitting down on one of he rickety bar stools.

"Why certainly sir".

"Thanks, fair lady".

"Hey you! The prissy git sat at the bar, keep yourself away from my woman!"

A large man, fairly bulky with a stubbly face and a large nose came over. He had muddy brown eyes and he had the appearance of a strong man even if he wasn't. He glared at Naruto who seemed to find the man rather amusing.

"And how am I supposed to order a drink?" he answered, cocking an eyebrow at the man.

Naruto was at least a head and shoulders smaller than the man. It looked quite odd from any angle that Naruto was standing up to the man. Naruto was rather small for his age and had blonde hair, sparkling cerulean eyes and quite tanned skin. He had scars across his face that looked like whiskers and his smile made everyone else want to smile too. He was quite an odd guy considering he was only eighteen and was walking in to a bar ordering whiskey and getting in to fights with really large men. People around him shook their heads or laughed – whether it was at Naruto's statement or his stupidity he couldn't tell. It was obvious the guy was some local hotshot.

"Hey! What the hell is some tiny idiot in here trying to take my lady and acting like he owns everything? If you ain't careful, you'll just find yourself pretty badly hurt".

"Really?" Naruto scoffed.

"Right, your attitude is pissing me off! Get out of the bar!"

"I haven't had my drink yet – I intend to finish first". Naruto watched the man get more and more worked up by his responses and found it very funny.

"Right you asked for it". The man aimed a punch at Naruto's head but felt himself fall through the air, not hitting anything. Naruto was no longer sat in his chair.

"Well, if you move that slow, you can't really have that unbelievable look of amazement on your face", Naruto said from behind him. He was sat on the barstool behind the man, drinking his whiskey.

"What the hell?" the man gaped.

"Well, I wasn't about to let you punch me. I want a drink". Naruto downed the rest of his pint glass whiskey. "If you want a fight, let's take it outside – what weapon?"

"Bull, don't go fightin' tha' guy", the bar lady said sternly. "You jus' saw wha' h'ppened, you won' win!"

"Stay outta this Sandy!"

"Well, what weapon?"

"Fists! Real men fight with their fists!" Bull replied, relishing the chance to kick the blonde's ass and reclaim his dignity.

"Fine". Naruto took off the belt that held all his daggers, sword, arrows and his bow and placed them on top of the bar. He also took out the knives from all the concealed places in his clothing, the poisons and toxins he had stashed and placed all the other items he had for hurting people with the rest of his belongings. He took out of his pocket a pair of gloves with spikes on the knuckles.

"What? You said fists, right?" Naruto looked at the gob smacked man in front of him. It was quite hard to believe that the little blonde in front of him carried that amount of weapons around. Unnoticed – and also if he was carrying all that, it meant that he was experienced enough with all of the weapons.

"They're not allowed. This is a bare fists", Bull answered gruffly, trying to hide his already obvious surprise.

"Fine – I guess I should set the bar down really really really low for someone like you", Naruto said to himself aloud, "After all you must be so amazing and all", he added sarcastically.

"Yeah he is!" some men stood up and crowded around him.

"Do I have to fight all of you at once?" Naruto asked, "Because if you can have them and I can't have my gloves that's not fair!" Naruto said mockingly annoyed.

"No, you're just fighting me", Bull answered. He had a look on his face that was a mix of determination, anxiousness and wonder. Naruto knew how it was going to turn out and sighed – another village.

"Come on then, let's go". Look after my stuff darling – this will only take me a minute. And I know everything that's there so don't try and take it or you will feel my wrath", Naruto glared at everyone in the room.

Naruto walked outside, followed by his opponent, his lackeys and a lot of other spectators. Naruto could pick up the bets being made about the fight with his ultra sensitive hearing. "I guess, being in such a small village that I brought a little excitement", Naruto thought.

Naruto stood in position and waited for his opponent to be ready.

A man stood in-between the two contenders; "Now on the count of three", he stepped back out of the way, "1...2...3!"

Naruto stood there as the large man charged at him – "I'm guessing he's called bull because he charges like one", Naruto thought. Naruto dodged the punch, jumping on the man's beefy arm ran up and spun a kick around his face and flipped down to the other side.

The guy stumbled slightly from the force and turned back around. You could see the beginning of a bruise appear and blood trickled out of the corner of Bull's mouth. He spat the blood on to the ground and growled at Naruto, who stood there with his hands in his trouser pockets, simply staring at Bull. Bull charged again and this time he slid down to get a kick underneath. Naruto simply jumped over the man, watching him grind to a halt several metres away. Naruto charged at him as the man got up and punched him in the face – he delivered a series of blows all over the man's body finishing it off with a kick to the man's stomach, sending the man flying to the floor.

"Well, that was my workout for the day", he said, walking back to the bar, he smirked slightly as he glanced at the various people exchanging their money.

Naruto walked in to see several people turn and look his way – noticing that there was not a single scratch on him. Many people got up and went to look outside. Naruto picked up his stuff, placing it all back where it should be, gave the bar maid a wink and a cheeky kiss on the lips – watching her blush and wave at him as he left the bar.

Naruto walked over to Bull who was semi-conscious on the ground – he hadn't moved yet. He looked up at Naruto who was looking down at him, smiling he said, "The name's Uzumaki Naruto, don't forget it!" That was when Naruto spotted a piece of paper sticking out of the man's jacket pocket; the word WANTED was printed across the top. Naruto fished the piece of paper and read it. Folding it up and placing it in his own pocket, Naruto looked up the road leading out of the village.

"To Sangrella it is".

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