Disclaimer: No. Naruto not mine.

Metatron let out a long, drawn-out sigh, and pressed his face into his pearly-white desk. Seraphiel, dressed in light body armor sat next to him, idly picking at some food that'd found its way onto his wing.

"I'm so bored." Metatron whined to his bodyguard. The naturally silent and stoic angel who'd been assigned to the idiot gave him a long side-ways look, before going back to ignoring him.

Unperturbed, the almighty secretary continued to moan. "'Celestial scribe' Shinigami-sama said. That's what he told me. He told me I was important. And you know what he told me my job was? I could've been writing down history, like Kiraman and Katiban. I could've been the librarian, like Pahaliah. But nooooo, instead I get to spend an eternity in heaven as the damned secretary!"

At this, Seraphiel, quick as lightning, flicked his wrist. A fraction of a second later, a gleaming silver blade buried itself inches from Metatron's prone head.

"Gaaah!" The secretary yelped and leaped back, wings instinctively pressing around him in a comforting barrier. "What was that for?"

Seraphiel was quiet for a few seconds, stoically extracting his blade from the desk, before he let out a low, simple growl. "You're annoying."

Metatron let out another long, drawn out sigh. "I thought we were friends!" He complained, and lowered himself back to the desk. "Shinigami-sama put you up to this, didn't he." There were a few moments of blessed silence, in which Seraphiel let out a soft, relieved sigh, and continued to play with his wing feathers.

It lasted only a minute.

"I miss Gabriel. He appreciated me…"

Seraphiel slammed down his fist, drew his short sword from his belt, and lunged for Metatron's throat—

A whirlwind of feathers plunged through the doors and landed on the floor, giving the two quarreling angels a heart attack.

A second later Seraphiel drew his broad-sword, glowing white with celestial energy, and sheathed his short sword. With little effort he leapt onto the desk in front of Metatron, before flipping off and landing in a battle-ready position in front of the writhing mass of feathers.

Metatron reeled back and pulled a small black dagger from his sleeve in case the intruder managed to get past Seraphiel, before tugging a piece of parchment from the confines of his desk and pulling a long glowing feather from his wing. He made a quick scratch on the paper with the feather (it left a golden streak behind), and settled so he could still see the battle.

He was, after all, a celestial scribe. He had to record what happened, screw Kitaman and Kiraban.

The writhing mass of feathers settled, leaving bronze wisps floating aimlessly around the room. The mass of feathers on the ground was breathing heavily on the ground, and it looked awfully familiar…

"Gabriel!" Metatron shouted, leaping over the desk. "Thank heavens you're okay!"

Gabriel, who had until recently been on the front lines of the battlefield, flopped onto his back, moaning in pain. A long scar stretched from his shoulder to his thigh, though it was already healing. All in all, Gabriel looked worse for wear.

"A message…to Shinigami-sama…" He gasped out, then winced, and rolled over. "Urgent…Help me up, Metatron…Seraphiel…"

The two angels instantly complied, taking his powerful, muscled arms in their own and lifting him to his feet, letting him lean on them. It was no mean feat; Gabriel was very big and strong.

"Thank you…" He smiled, eyes half closed.

"What's the message, Gabriel?" Metatron prodded, earning a look from Seraphiel.

"News from Ezekiel…" Gabriel bent over, curly golden head shaking slightly. "Abaddon has targeted the prime…"

"No!" Seraphiel nearly dropped the Messenger; for a moment, Metatron and his spindly arms struggled to hold Gabriel up, before Seraphiel quickly helped him. "But what about David and Mary? And Ezekiel? Shouldn't they be able to protect him?"

"Ezekiel is needed on the front lines," Gabriel said cryptically, eyeing Seraphiel steadily. "David and Mary are not as strong because they are in the mind field of the prime. They have been discussing a plan with…" Gabriel trailed off, and shook his head. "It's a very dangerous time. More and more angels are being taken as POWs."

"Who?" Metatron asked, though he was more curious about who Mary and David were discussing the plan with. "Who has been captured so far?"

"Mostly just soldiers—none of the seven, none of their helpers. Thankfully." There was a very sad note in his voice as he spoke; after all, no soldiers being captured are better than any at all.

"How is the war going?" There was just a hint of fear in Metatron's eyes; the cowardly secretary hated even the thought of battle.

Gabriel's earthly green eyes were distant and old. "It is a battle of two great powers. At the time there is no thought on who will be the victor. Just bloodshed."

"So what do we do?"

Sakura had immediately dispersed my clone with a fist to the face (ouch—that had to hurt), and was now sobbing loudly on 'Sasuke-kun', wailing something about blood, death, and a head. She was most likely put under a genjutsu—after all, Sasuke was alive and unharmed.

Anyway, with a new ally like Sasuke, it would be so easy to get Sakura to work with us—and claim those stupid bells. With Sasuke's brain, my clones, and Sakura's…whatever…we were certain to win.

Sasuke twitched at my question, before bending down and tracing some lines in the dirt. In the end, all I saw were a bunch of squiggly lines and x's, but Sakura was crooning to him about his incredible art skills. I tilted my head to the side, then switched sides, but still could not figure out what on earth he'd drawn.

"Right…Sasuke, what is this?"

"Baka! It's…!" Sakura finally stopped fawning over Sasuke and looked at the drawing. "It's…Sasuke, what is it?" She did not appear in the least bit embarrassed. Girls are so weird.

"It's a battle plan, idiots." Sasuke gritted his teeth. I chuckled.

"We could plant traps here," He pointed toward the little dots. "While Kakashi is distracted, we could confuse him with a genjutsu," He indicated the little x's. "And Naruto, you could overwhelm Kakashi with your clones while he's caught." He leaned back, smirking in triumph, obviously thinking that his battle plan was infallible.

I stared hard at the plan. "…Nope, still not seeing it." At his annoyed stare, I shrugged. "No, I mean I got the plan, but the drawing…you have terrible art skills."

Cue Sakura's loud shrieking.

I twisted a finger in my ear and wrinkled my nose. "Sasuke…make her shut up."

Sasuke gave me an incredulous stare, and it took me a moment to realize that A) Just because we were allies didn't mean we were buddy-buddy all of the sudden, and B) Every second Sakura screamed at me was another second she wasn't paying attention to him.

After a few seconds, Sasuke got tired of Sakura shrieking at me. "Sakura, you know genjutsu, right?"

The pinkette stopped shouting, and glanced at Sasuke. "Yeah, I guess…it's not very good, though."

"It'll be good enough." I interjected, smiling to soften my words. "I can get Kakashi-sensei over. You better be ready by then!"

I ran off, leaving my two teammates behind me.

Meanwhile, Kakashi was seriously freaked out.

One minute he'd been enjoying his book, keeping an eye on Naruto, sending clones to chase after the other genin, when two winged beings had jumped out of the bushes and started attacking him! And not only that, but the only person who was close by was Naruto—so either they had come from him, or they were spies! Either way, it was bad news.

Thankfully, they were slowing down.

The bad thing: he was slowing down too.

Now that he looked at the two of them, he realized that he was actually faster—it was just the pair's strategy, their complete trust in one another was what made them so hard to fight.

The male angel clipped him in the shoulder, and the force was so great Kakashi span around and hit the dirt—and had to roll away as the female landed where his head had been.

Then she paused, looking over the tops of the trees, as though listening for something, though Kakashi could not hear it. After a few seconds, she nodded, turned to her partner and blinked to him. He blinked back.

And suddenly Kakashi was flying through the air, though he hadn't seen either of them move. The wind blew past him with such ferocity that his hair whipped wildly at his face, stinging where it hit. Trees flew by him, some missing him only by inches. After a moment of shock, Kakashi curled into a ball, spun once, then landed in a crouch on the ground, alert and ready for any attack.

The strange beings had been playing with him. They were obviously more volatile than he'd originally thought.

He took a step back to hide in the trees, only to jerk forward when his foot hit a tripwire. Unfortunately for him, it was too late to back out. His world exploded, and he only just managed to dodge the giant fireball that detonated in his face.

I have to admit, that was probably the highlight of my day.

Sakura, who'd been standing nervously in the trees, (all the while marveling at Sasuke's incredible trap-making), quickly realized that now was the best time to cast her genjutsu. She hurriedly weaved the chakra, watching her teacher with weary eyes.

The genjutsu was light; it was simple; it wouldn't have slowed an alert, experienced jounin at all; however, this jounin was slightly disoriented from the fireball and still shocked with the strange clone's/spies/Whatever the hell they were. The genjutsu took hold, and I took advantage of this by creating a dozens of clones and sending them to converge on his future sensei.

"Well done, all of you." Kakashi eye-smiled at them, which caused one student to cheer, one to smirk, and one to grin widely (Can you guess which one of us was who?). "However, there were still some flaws."

I flinched, knowing that we were probably about to get a major lecture.

"Sakura, we'll start with you!" Sakura, on my left, flinched as though knowing what was coming; I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. "Your performance was a little disappointing, considering your academy grades. First of all, you did nothing to assess the challenge; you were much more focused on other things." Kakashi eyed Sasuke, who looked like he was going to cringe, but just managed not too. "You made no attempt to take the bells at all! You just went looking for Sasuke. Did it even occur to you to think of Naruto?"

She hesitated, and then shook her head shamefully.

"You were so panicked when you saw Sasuke injured; you fainted, which is very unbefitting of a kunoichi. However in the beginning you showed some skills in stealth, and in the end, you did help out your teammates (though it was only because Sasuke told you too). You also showed some skill in the genjutsu area." Kakashi nodded, and sighed. Her performance was the most disappointing of the three genin; Rin was probably rolling in her grave that a girl like this had ever attempted to be a ninja. Though his former teammate was a fangirl, at least she knew something.

"Next, we'll go on to Sasuke." Kakashi addressed the black-haired Uchiha on my right—the bastard had decided that since we had a 'partnership' now, I could protect him from Sakura. "Your performance was as expected; you did not care about your teammates at all in the beginning; you thought of them as nuisances that would get in your way, and instead tried to fight me one on one—did it never occur to you that I was a jounin and that it was pretty much impossible for you to beat me?"

Sasuke didn't say anything, just glared. Typical Uchiha response.

"However, you did show some skill in trapping and taijutsu—you nearly got the bells, but nearly isn't good enough. Did you even consider teamwork? Is Naruto going to think for you every time?" Sasuke let out an indignant snarl. "In the end, though, you did come up with a viable plan to get the bells, and even formed a makeshift alliance." Kakashi added the last part as an afterthought. "Good work."

Sasuke's chest swelled up like a balloon with pride. I grinned over at him, and when he caught my eye he blinked, and his lip twitched.

Oh my God, did Sasuke nearly just smile? I thought, shocked. Then, I shook my head. Nu-uh. No WAY.

"Naruto!"

I jumped to attention. "Sir!"

"I like that reaction." Kakashi eye-smiled at me, while I blushed furiously. It wasn't my fault that before I'd come to the academy I'd gone to a military boarding school!

Right. I should probably explain that.

See, when I was younger—five or six or so—I tried to go the academy. However, there were so many complaints, so many children being taken out because of me, that Jiji had to take me out. Instead, he sent me to a military boarding school in a little town in Fire Country until I was eight, and then I came back to be a ninja. I was actually pretty proficient in military tactics and self-defense—and could also fly an airplane, which I have to admit, is pretty freaking cool. Not as cool as flying, though; you know, real flying.

"Naruto, I have to say your performance was the most unexpected in a good way.

"The first thing you did was assess the surroundings and set up multiple traps in the forest; I didn't expect it, so I spent a few minutes dodging your clever little tricks. However, I know for a fact that Sakura and Sasuke spent a bit dodging them; this tired out your teammates." He gave me a pointed look. "When you first began the task, you did something that was unexpected of the dead-last; you sat down and thought about the challenge. Then, you tested out whether or not I could still react while I was reading my book." Kakashi chuckled, while I shivered. My poor, poor clone…

"You then made several clones to keep me distracted while you went to go find your teammates." The sentence was matter of fact, but I knew that he was just buzzing to know what the hell they were. "When you did find them, you managed to get Sasuke to listen to you, which you knew was the key to getting Sakura to listen." Kakashi eye smiled at me, and my eyes widened in shock and happiness. "Good job, Naruto."

Good job.

He said good job.

My grin widened exponentially, and I knew that inwardly I was throwing a party in my head—most likely David and Mary would throw one for me. That was just the way they were.

Then, when I realized that a certain Uchiha was leaving, an idea sparked in my mind. "Oi, Sasuke!"

Sasuke turned around, looking as stoic as usual, though there was still a note of distain in his eyes. "What?"

"Why don't you and I grab a lunch?" I grinned. "We can discuss our trade agreement there."

For a second it looked like he was going to refuse; then, he nodded slightly.

Just before I left, Kakashi called out, "And by the way, Naruto, you and I are going to have a little talk tomorrow!"

Later that night, I lay on my bed, wings stretched out to take advantage of the privacy (keeping them wrapped up was annoying—they were starting to get sore), lazily swinging my feet back and forth. On the pillow in front of me, lay the History of the Angel's, the golden words glittering on the page.

This time, I was reading about the generals.

The original seven generals were human once; however, after they were bathed in a mysterious concoction, they found themselves with wings and immortality.

The first born angel, Ezekiel, was the Shinigami's assassin; he could easily blend into the background, and strike with the speed of light. Humans often consider Ezekiel as the symbol for darkness.

The second born, Michelangelo, was the general of Shinigami's great army; he was highly skilled in battle tactics, and could fight like a demon. Many general's pray to him for luck before entering a battle.

Lucifer, the third oldest, was the Shinigami's advisor; he was highly intelligent, and looked at life realistically. Before the First Great War, Lucifer was often portrayed as a scholar, and because his name means 'Morning Star', he was often thought of as the star in the morning.

The fourth oldest, Raphael, was the Shinigami's healer; he was extremely proficient in medicine, and could heal almost anything. Raphael's caduceus was considered the symbol for healing, and many doctors begged him for luck during dangerous times.

Azrael, the fifth oldest, was the angel of death; when humans were about to die, he appeared to them in a golden light and carried their souls to the afterlife. Azrael was the 'bright light' humans saw before dying.

The sixth oldest, Gabriel, was the Shinigami's messenger; he was exceptionally quick, and could cover hundreds of miles in just a second. Gabriel is often mistaken for a comet, or a meteor.

David, the youngest, was the angel of love; he was a romantic who enjoyed creating 'soul mates', and preached the wonders of 'true love'. Due to his short stature, David is often thought of as a cherub, though he doesn't carry a bow and never goes around naked.

Everything changed when Lucifer turned; he got greedy, seeing all the power of the Shinigami all the time. He converted a small band of lesser angels, and attacked the Shinigami; He struck down Azrael, and as Raphael was going to heal him, he struck down his younger brother as well.

After the attack, Azrael and Raphael went down to earth to take forms—the Juubi and bloodlines, respectively.

"What?" I blinked, staring at the page. "Oi, Mary! David! What does this mean?"

I felt their presence come forward, and I directed their attention to the bit about Azrael and Raphael going to take forms.

There was a momentary pause.

"Oh, well." David began, perhaps a bit awkwardly. "Well, angels are immortal, right?"

I nodded.

"So what happens when we die?"

Ooh. I hadn't considered that.

"Well, we go down to earth and take forms. Super powerful earthly forms."

"So Raphael actually created the first bloodlines?" This was hurting my brain.

"Yes." Mary butted in. "Your sensei had one of Raphael's gifts. He used it well, for one not of that bloodline."

"Right." Okay, too much info. "And what's the Juubi? The ten tails?"

There was another, more prominent pause, and then they both responded simultaneously. "Classified information."

"That's enough for tonight, don't you think?" Mary said, obviously trying to direct my attention away from whatever the Juubi was. "Big day tomorrow. First flying lesson! Get some sleep—you're going to need it."

I frowned, sighed, and put the book under my pillow. "'Night, Mary, David."

"Night, Naruto."

And that's a wrap! I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while—I lost a bunch of notes for this story and couldn't update until I found them. Also, I procrastinated a bit.

I hope that this chapter explains a little more about what I meant about 'Raphael's gift'.

Naruto is going to have some explaining to do…

Note: This never will be a SasuNaru, you hear? Never ever ever.

About the military boarding school: It's an idea that I've never seen people use; wouldn't you think that parents would take their children out of the school? It's like when they first starting integrating the black children into the white schools.

Also, one reviewer asked me to change from first person to third person. Usually I would (First person drives me crazy, too), but I'm trying to keep this as close to the original story as I can, and the original was in first person, so...*shrugs*

And one more thing I've been wondering: I have another story up, a D. Gray man/Naruto crossover, and for some reason it is more popular than this story. It has few chapters than this story. WTF?

Silver Writing Bug