The young man in question just walked the remaining ten feet and sat in an eight stool bar with a cloth covering the backs of the patrons. It was empty except for Iruka, who was well on his way to finishing his first bowl. The others followed suit and took their own seats.

The woman behind the counter asked all of them as one, "What kind?"

Bruenor replied "Something with meat."

"Is pork ok?"

"Fine, just hurry."

"Right….. One bowl, barbeque pork!" She yelled into the back. A man's voice answered "Ok!" She then turned to Naruto.

"The usual? Never mind." She amended as the blond shinobi just stared at her. "Naruto special! Five count!

"How bout you, with the hood?" She asked Drizzt.

"Same as Bruenor." The drow answered without taking the hood off.

"I'll have it too." Catti-brie added

Regis looked uncertain. Did he want what the dwarf wanted? Could his stomach take it? Only one way to find out. "I'll take a double order of the Barbeque pork!"

The dwarf in question just snickered.

A few minuets later Bruenor's order was brought out. The king eyed it with suspicion. Looking to his right, he saw Naruto slurping his with chopsticks. Grabbing a pair for himself and trying to match the young ninja's years of practice, he grabbed some noodles out of the bowl. One of the sticks slipped out of his slightly stubby fingers and plopped into the bowl. Growling, the dwarf just grabbed the container and poured the contents into his mouth. Upon doing this, the king's expression shifted back and forth between two expressions. One was pleasure, for it obviously tasted good and the second was pain, for the water was still partially boiling when he drank it.

As the other's orders arrived, they, especially Drizzt, had no trouble copying the finger positions of the two shinobi and therefore had no trouble with the chopsticks. The dwarf king simply stomped away and leaned against the fence across the street.

The rest of the companions of the hall had to agree, the food was very good, if a bit on the weird side. Then there was the minor, but quickly growing war between Regis and Naruto. An epic in the making, Iruka looked a Drizzt, holding his wallet and begging with his eyes for the drow to stop this before it got started. Luck was with the chunin teacher then, for Gai and Lee happened to run by and spot Naruto at the ramen stand.

"Hey, Naruto! What happened to that sparring match?" Lee yelled from about twenty feet away.

Naruto was too busy looking for a place to hide to reply. Taking pity on the adult shinobi, Drizzt stepped out of the curtain, taking a couple quick steps in the direction of Gai and his younger clone. "Naruto has a meeting with his Sensei but I would be happy to spar!" Iruka sighed with relief as Naruto ran off, leaving half a bowl of ramen on the counter. Naruto yelled something mostly unintelligible about "Finding Kakashi" as he ran down the street.

Lee, never one to pass up a fight, simply shrugged and settled into his stance. Drizzt removed his hood and as before, the only thing on his opponents face was surprise but no fear or hate. The drow's scimitars seemed to leap into his hands as he steeled himself of the taijutsu ninja's attack. Lee did not disappoint as he charged, then ducked as he tried to sweep the ranger's feet out from under him. Drizzt simply hopped over the attack and responded by, in-mid fall, thrusting Twinkle at his opponent's leg. Lee twisted, moving his thigh out of harms way and bringing his other leg around for a hit on Drizzt's shoulder. The dark elf ducked and slashed at Bowlcut's arm. That arm was planted on the ground, so Lee simply pushed off, flying ten feet in the air and coming down with an ax kick to the rangers shoulder. Drizzt summoned his innate drow power of darkness over the two and then side stepped. As Fuzzybrows was yelling at him, some deranged rant about the "power of youth", the ranger silently slipped behind him and had Icingdeath and Twinkle crossed at the back of his neck. Lee shut up at the feeling of cold steel ready to take his head off.

The globe was dispelled by the drow. Gai was stunned to see his star student beaten in two minuets flat. The lack off words lasted as long as it took for him to get the breath to start ranting about "the power of youth!" Drizzt plugged his ears and walked back too the ramen stand, both the teacher and the student still ranting. Then the most unexpected thing happened, the tall one doubled his ranting, this time about a rival, and the short one walked over to Drizzt and shook his hand.

"I must apologize for my rudeness. I am Rock Lee, shinobi of the hidden leaf!"

"Drizzt Do'Urden." The drow replied, taking the ninja's hand.

"That is some style you have! You must have practiced from a young age!"

"You have no idea. You are good also. You have the conditioning down but you need to get the mental stuff to advance as a fighter much further."

"Ok! Can you teach me?!"

"Maybe…" Drizzt replied, not wanting to make commitments.

"Just tell me what I must do! The power of youth shall prevail!"

Drizzt looked at his new friend. Iruka simply gave him a look that said "don't ask". Taking the hint, the drow turned back too Lee and said "I don't know…."

Wulfgar interrupted "I will teach him if he can beat me. If not….." The barbarian trailed off an evil gleam in his ice blue eyes.

"I accept your challenge!" Gai looked like he was drooling as his pupil said this.

"I will avenge my student! You will lose!" Gai yelled at the ranger, who had gone back to eating his ramen.

"I will not be involved in a meaningless fight only to determine who is better." Drizzt responded calmly after consuming a bunch of noodles. Gai's face went red at the ranger's refusal. Cattie-brie nodded slightly, glad that her friend was sticking to his philosophy.

About thirty minuets later, the Companions left for their apartment, a beaten Wulfgar setting a date for Lee's instruction later that week. Drizzt had memorized the way back, so they got there in about a half hour, as they where in no hurry.

Once they got back, they held a meeting in the trio's apartment. Once the door was shut and the blinds closed, the drow stated "I don't see a way back."

"With none of these folk even hearin' of magic, neither do I." Added Bruenor.

Wulfgar and Regis just hung their heads with resignation, knowing that the others had far more experience than their own.

Catti-brie opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by a nock on the door. The group turned and Bruenor answered "Come in!"

Jiraiya walk through and took a seat with out asking. "I know you are not from around here. And by around here I don't mean the continent." The toad sage said in a serious voice.

"And yer tellin' us now." Bruenor responded with a small mountain of sarcasm.

The sage just laughed "Yup. And I can also say that you five don't know how to get back, am I right?"

"Give the man a prize!" Catti-brie said in a rough dwarven accent with a sarcastic edge.

This time the old man just chuckled "You're too kind!" he responded, ignoring the tone the woman had used. "I do have a suggestion, if you will hear me."

Since he was responded to with silence, he continued "I have seen a lot in my age. Shinobi have done amazing things across the world. But I don't have so much pride that I believe I have seen everything. If you search this world, you may find a way home that you can use." Jiraiya finished with a shrug.

Bruenor was nodding, as was Drizzt, both having come to the same conclusion. The halfling just hung his head and sighed. Catti-brie and Wulfgar shared a look with the drow and dwarf and then nodded to the toad summoner.

"I will talk to Tsunade about getting you work and a place to stay here, in the village. By far the easiest way to look for a way back home would be for you to become shinobi of the hidden leaf." Jiraiya suggested.

"What would ye have us do?" The women asked the old man.

"Most of the time, you would protect people that pay for it, retrieve items and rescue people. But the best part is, you would get to travel all over the world. With plenty of time to investigate things that might help you return."

"Ok…. would we be assigned jobs?" Drizzt probed, his curiosity peaked.

"Yes… but in your case, Tsunade, nor the council, have any authority over you, so you could leave and find a new base at any time. Plus, it has always been a pride of Konoha's that if you think a mission is wrong morally, then you don't have to do it. The hokage might find some one else to do it."

"So let me get this straight, if we don't like the mission, we can turn it down?" Regis spoke up.

"Yup, that's about it. No criminal charges or anything like that. Now… a lot of people also have a thing about putting the village before your self. But if you honestly think that the mission is wrong, then most likely there are other who would feel the same. If others agree then…. There won't be repercussions in the community."

"How do the missions benefit the whole village?" Wulfgar asked, figuring a set up like his old tribe.

"Obviously, you get paid for the mission. Missions are ranked by danger: D, C, B, A and S. The higher the rank, the more money. Part of the money goes straight to improvements for the village. You get half, give or take, depending on the rank and duration. Duration being how long you are out and away from the village. You also get, depending on rank, a solo apartment, plenty of food and access to any health care you need. Those things come from the half of the mission revenue you don't get. The little over half goes to feeding and housing the shinobi, the rest goes to various other places."

"Oh…. You lost me at Ranks" Wulfgar sounded and looked confused.

Drizzt however was nodding "Alright, talk to the hokage about it. If she accepts, how long till our first mission?"

"A week, maybe two." The sage responded

"We need information. Like a crash course on the shinobi and non shinobi parts of the world." Catti-brie broke into the conversation.

"And we need to understand how you fight. Even if we can't fight like you."

"I will have Tsunade give you library passes for the first request and as for the second…." Jiraiya trailed off. "I can call in a favor and have someone teach you about shinobi tactics…. probably Kakashi.