Naruto: Smoke and Dagger

-I own nothing-

The graduation age has been increased from 12/13 to 16

-x(X)x-

The third hokage sat on his large chair and lit his pipe while thinking to himself. Things around the village were fine as of now but he couldn't shake that 'calm before the storm' feeling. He had just learned that those pain in the ass council members had went and sent some of Danzo's root ninjas to leaf through his personal files. He had already executed the ninjas personally for being in his home, which the fools couldn't say anything to him about, but the damage had already been done. They had already sent a copy of three very important documents via messenger hawk to their master.

The documents were all regarding one boy, Uzumaki Naruto. He knew that Danzo had his men combing the lands for a days looking for the boy to try and turn him into a weapon and that they had probably figured that he would have more information on his whereabouts... which he didn't.

He hadn't heard anything about the boy for years, not even his students information network could find anything, much to his grief.

Thinking back, the day that Naruto left the village was probably the second worst day of his life, right after the death of his wife.

-Years earlier-

A ten year old Naruto marched down the streets, his body leaned forward, shoulders stiff, and hands clinched. Everything about him screamed danger, even the normally dopy orange jumpsuit and ratty book bag he wore didn't make him seem any less dangerous.

Civilian and ninja alike slid out of his way as he stomped down the main road. Many immediately left the area in fear, having never saw the young boy so angry before. Some were curious as to why he was angry, most suspected that it had to do with the bloody bandage taped over his whole left eye.

Naruto made it to the tower only to find his path blocked by a Chunin, "Move," he snarled.

The Chunin sneered, "Or what brat?" he said spitting at the child. "I'm a Chunin, do you really think some weak little punk like you can-"

Naruto drew back and nailed him in the gut, sending the chunin into the door, which shattered, and rolling into the main desk in the middle of the large room. Entering the tower, ignoring the looks of shock and horror as the Chunin laid there unmoving, Naruto stalked to the stairs and began climbing up to the top.

Three ANBU, one council member, a Jounin, and one assistant later, Naruto kicked the Hokages door open and slammed it shut.

"Naruto-kun what is wrong with you?" The old man said only to stop at noticing both the bandage and the look of anger.

"I'm sick and damn tired of this old man!" Naruto yelled pointing his finger at him, "This village, the villagers, everything! You keep preaching shit like: 'Give them time,' and 'They'll come around, but let me ask you something, if those fucking bastards deserve chance after chance, then why in the hell don't I?" He screamed, stomping up to his desk and kicking it.

Sarutobi was shocked at the language the child used, not only that but his extremely heavy desk slid back against him when that same child kicked it. "Naruto what are you talking about?" he asked urgently.

Naruto pointed to his bandaged eye, "My so called ANBU guard who you promised would protect me during last nights Kyuubi festival seemed pretty hell bent on killing me and making sure it was painful and if you are too fucking stupid to figure it out, YES HE CUT OUT MY FUCKING EYEBALL!" Naruto screamed.

Sarutobi gasped and, while annoyed at being screamed at, motioned for his personal ANBU to come forward, "Don't worry Naruto-kun, I'll make sure your taken care of and that ANBU will be punished," he reassured.

Naruto scoffed, "I'm sure you will, just like you always do," he told him in a sarcastic voice before taking off his bag.

Both the Hokage and the pair of ANBU stared openly at the boy. He had just yelled, insulted,and scorned the old man and didn't seem to care at all for any trouble he might get into for it. He was always such a nice little boy, not the bundle of anger and hate he was today.

Naruto took off the bag and threw it onto the desk and said, "Don't even bother sending out your useless ANBU,"

The Hokage opened the bag and gasped as he found a disembodied head staring back at him, it's eyes wide and mouth agape. The skin around its neck was torn and ripped apart.

"I quit old man, fuck second chances, fuck this village, fuck being the Hokage, and FUCK YOU!" Naruto yelled turning around and stomping to the door, "The only way I'll ever return here is of my own accord, send any ninja you want after me and I'll kill them. Fuckers wanted a demon, I'll give them a fucking demon, Kyuubi ain't got shit on me,"

-Flashback end-

Sarutobi breathed out a large plume of smoke with a sigh. Of all the documents that they could've found they had to find a copy of Naruto's real, unaltered birth certificate. The one that had not only his mothers name but his fathers, Minato Namikaze, his dead successor, the forth Hokage. They had also found the blood tests that proved Naruto's linage as well as Kushina's and Minato's wedding certificate.

But lastly, they had found the last thing he wanted them to see, the paper documenting the positive results that Naruto's blood test gave for having a high chance at holding a bloodline limit of some sort.

A knock on his door reached his aged ears.

"Come in,"

His sectary stuck her head in, "Hokage-sama, the council has called an emergency meeting,"

Sarutobi sighed again, today just wasn't his day.

-X-

(Hidden Mist Village)

The sound of a lighter clinking open echoed across the silent streets, echoing loudly as the sounds bounced around. The soldiers fighting to free mist of their tyrant leader held their breath, ready for a fight. They were all dirty and muddy, testament to how long they had been holding their position at the front of the barricade.

Again the clicking echoed, followed by faint foot steps. In the distance they saw a small red glow and tensed as a figure in the mist appeared, walking closer with each second.

"Halt!" the man in charge yelled, only for the man to continue walking, stopping just before exiting the mist.

The guards could all see a sack in his hand and a silver glint in his hand which he flicked open and closed every now and then along with a cigarette jutting from his mouth, which explained the glow earlier.

"STAND DOWN!" a voice called from behind them.

They turned and found their leader, Mai Terumi, a young and slender woman that looked around the age of 30.

"M-Mai-sama?" the guard said unsure, never expecting the woman they fought under to come to the front lines suddenly.

"I said stand down," she seethed, scaring them as she always tried to be nice to her soldiers, always smiling and acting cheery.

They lowered their weapons and bowed their heads, "Yes Mei-sama,"

Mei then smiled and walked out into the open towards the figure, much to the shock and worry of her ninja, hoping that she wouldn't be attacked.

Mei was dressed in a more... elegant way than most would suspect, being a rebel leader it was amusing to see the fearsome yet cheery woman charge into battle in a dress and high heels then kick some ass.

Walking towards the figure she breathed though her nose and smelled a strange odor coming from the man, it smelled like smoke but more acidic, thicker even. The man noticed her discomfort and snapped his fingers, causing the smell to lessen then disappear completely.

"I believe that you owe me now Terumi-san," the man said opening the bag, "Or should I say, Mizukage-san,"

She felt the near permeate sense of dread that you got from war fade as the man pulled the severed head of the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura from the bag and held it up.

"Y-You really did it!" she said in a unbelieving voice, "Y-you," she stopped and turned towards the encampment where her ninja were waiting to her from her, "THE WAR IS OVER, THE BLOODLINE PURGE IS OVER!" she yelled loudly, her pale red hair waving wildly as she did.

A full second passed before the whole village seemed to burst into cheers, even the ninjas who fought for the old Mizukage seemed to be happier, having only supported the man out of fear.

Mei turned around and both she and the man stared at eachother, ignoring the men and wemon rushing passed them, dancing and cheering their victory.

She walked closer and stopped just inches away from the hero, studying him. He wasn't overly tall, just a few inches shorter than her, or taller without her heels. He wore an ordinate eye patch over his left eye that covered his eye brow and just above his cheekbone. He had blond spiked hair that gave him a feral look and his uncovered eye held a fuck up and die glint to it. His clothing consisted of a pair of dark brown, almost grayish black leather like pants, a blackish-purple turtleneck with the left sleeve ripped off at the elbow, a pair of metal knee-pads and a pair of closed toe sandals.

"You know," Mei started, tracing circles on his chest with her finger seductively, "You know, I could really use a man of your caliber..." she said, stressing how she had said 'I'.

Most would believe that a woman like Mei wouldn't ever say or suggest such things but he had helped them more than the Water lord up in the capital and as much as she hated to admit, during her Genin days, she had been a sucker for those mysterious storybook heroes who would appear out of thin air and save the day, much like the blond before her had done.

The blond cupped her cheek with a grin, "You and every other village Terumi-chan, what could you possibly offer to permanently buy my loyalty?" he asked only for her lips to meet his.

"I'm sure a deal could be worked out," She whispered in his ear, "After all, I owe you for more than assassinating that bastard Yagura for us."

"Really? I don't recall doing any other missions for you besides killing Yagura,"

Mei smiled sadly at him, "Yagura had a thing for my niece, the creep even had her father, my brother killed during mission just so he could use his power to take her in. I've been able to protect her but he had her placed on the top of his bounty list, guess I should be grateful that he had her under a 'Capture alive and unharmed' order," she told him then sighing.

"Hmm, your heart wrenching tale aside, I have to say sorry, I don't have the patience to deal with a village council, they are probably already planning on finding a way to get me under their thumb," he told her while pulling away and backing up, "I'll expect my payment by the end of the week, one of my pets will be come by to pick it up... oh and next time you want to send me a contract, use a messenger bird," and with that said he gave her a small, theoretic bow then disappeared by bursting into a flock of noisy crows which flew in different directions.

Mei hummed to herself and picked up a feather, "You're a cruel man Uzumaki, not only leaving a girl wanting but leaving her with a bill..." she spun the feather in-between her fingers, 'But I guess my hunter ninjas report was right about one thing, he really can make you wet between the legs with a single touch,'

-X-

Sarutobi grumbled to himself as he returned from the council meeting. As he had expected, they were ranting and raving about how he hid the fact that Naruto was Minato's son, as if the fact that Naruto looked like a clone of Minato wasn't a big ass neon sign saying, 'Look at the fucking resemblance,'. Now they were calling for his return, saying to send out any and all hunter ninja to find him and return him, which ment more paperwork for him.

But at the same time he figured that since he was the one who had to issue such orders to his ninja, why not make sure the ones he sent saw the boy as that, just a boy instead of the Kyuubi... or hero for containing the Kyuubi, whichever came first.

-X-

-Three days later-

Sarutobi wrote a mission scroll of his own, something that he hadn't done in years and had brought back memories of his days during the war when he helped his sensei with assigning missions when he had been injured and was on medical leave for a while. Shaking his head to rid himself of those distracting thoughts, he started back writing. It had been a few weeks since the new genin had started training and doing missions with there senseis so he planned to do what his sensei had thought of years ago.

It was a rather ingenious plan but because of the war, it was considered too dangerous. The idea was to have the rookie genin and their instructors go on a joint mission outside of the village that would have them travel a lot and during their travels, have the senseis teach the teams together. His sensei was smart and saw that like many ninja, himself included, tended to focus on what he was best at which meant that his students would only get the most out of what their teacher was best at. So a student on a taijutsu centered senseis team wouldn't gain much ninjutsu or genjutsu so why not send those teams together where they could get training in each field?

He wanted to send this years rookies on the mission to locate Naruto, seeing as they were the same age he figured that at least one of the genin would connect with him despite the rough past he had with the village. If he remembered correctly, the young Hyuuga heiress had a crush on him back when he was in the same class, heck maybe they'd even get together.

-X-

Naruto pulled his shirt off as he walked into the candle lit room. He had been island hopping for the pass two days trying to find a boat that would take him back to the main land but due to the civil war, he was hard-pressed to find a captain who would believe him when he said the war was over. But luckily, he had just found one who agreed to take him but had to wait while the ship was prepared for it's trip, so to pass the time he explored the port town and found himself by one of Water countries many spas.

"Sir,"

Naruto turned to see a cute girl in a red robe with black flower petals sewed on it standing in the doorway with a towel in hand.

"Strip down and cover yourself with this, I'll return shortly so if you would, please lay down and make yourself comfortable," she said to him with a small smile while she handed the towel to him.

Naruto nodded and did as she asked, undoing his belt and unbuttoning his pants before dropping them and his boxers before wrapping the towel around his waist. The room smelled like incense and the exotic oils they used and with the candles around the room, Naruto had to admit that the room was quite relaxing.

He didn't have to wait long as the door slid open and the girl came back in, she had her jet black hair fixed into a bun with two chopsticks pushed through the middle in an X and her eyes were a nice shade of green. Naruto laid down on the table with his chin on resting on his forearms, his single blue eye watched as the girl walked over to a small table with her stuff on it and picked up a bottle before smearing it on her hands.

"I'm so glade you decided to stop in," the girl said looking behind her with a impish grin, "If I had to deal with another old man I'd scream,"

"Hmm,"

"I'm serious, if one more old man asked me to give him a full body massage I honestly would had stabbed him in the eye my nail file,"

Naruto didn't say anything, just laid there waiting.

The girl walked over with a small pout, "Oh I see, not a big talker huh? Well since your such a nice young man, not to mention cute, I'll give you a treat,"

Naruto looked at her and cocked his head to the side as the robe pooled on the floor and he was greeted by her pantie clad ass.

"Want to say something?" she asked, turning around and covering her nipples with an arm.

Naruto blinked and smirked, "Words can not express the level of beauty I see, my I know the name of this creature of perfection?"

The woman blushed deeply, so much in fact that she held her cheeks and giggled, forgetting the fact that her chest was bare. "Emiko,"

"How fitting," he started, stiitng up on his elbows, "such a good looking girl like you needs a name like that, Beautiful child... or blessed," he stopped and leered at her chest, "And from what I see, very blessed,"

-X-

Jiraiya combed through any infornamtion he could find, trying to get leads on his godson. He had already compiled a whole pile of written reports from years back when he had first learned that Naruto had ran away and like before, he couldn't find had even considered asking Naruto's godmother Tsunade if she had seen him but figured that since she had abandoned him after the kyuubi attack, much like himself, that it woldn't have helped.

Sitting in a brothel that he went to normally, he nursed a bottle of sake while a pair of girls tried to cheer him up.

"Wow I've never seen him like this before, Keiko" one said as the white haired man beside her seemed unable to be cheered up.

Keiko nodded, "I know what you mean, Miki,"

The girls patted him on the back, "What's wrong Jiraiya-sama?" Miki asked in her cute voice.

"I cant find any leads on someone I'm looking for, it's like he dropped of the face of the earth,"

"Who?" Keiko asked this time.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he answered, not seeing any problem with telling her.

"Hey Miki, I've heard that name before,"

The girl nodded, "Me too, but where?"

Miki then jumped, "Oh, wasn't he the blond guy with the eye-patch from about a year ago,"

"Oh yeah, he did something and breathed out a bunch of thick smoke that knocked a couple yakuza out,"

The girl blinked, "Oh well yeah that to, but I remember he took mistress Suki home and wore her out. Remember? She had a bad limp when she came back the next day."

They giggled together and sighed with smiles on their faces before noticing that Jiraiya was gone, "Hey where'd he go?"

-X-

Naruto pulled on his clothing and smirked at Emiko's limp form laying under his towel on the massage table. Buckling his belt, he grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head before sliding his shoes on and running a hand through his hair. He had to admit, the water countries reputation of having some of the best spas was well deserved.

Fully dressed, Naruto pulled out a thin silver cigeratte case and popped it open, pulling one out, he searched his pockets for his lighter and lit it before taking a deep draw on it. Opening his mouth wide, the blond exhaled, beathing out a thick grey smoke which snaked around his body compleatly before imploding, leaving the room without a trace.

Hours later, Naruto stood on the bow of the ship with his arms crossed, a half smoked cigertte in his mouth and his silver lighter in hand. Every few secounds he would click it open then closed, causing the lighter to clink which echoed across the strangly quite ship. Due to the civil war, trade ships like this one were forced to stay in port while fishing vessels were only allowed to go out if they had permits. They didn't want trade ships to go out on the off chance that they were sempathedic to the rebels, giving them food, water, or a way to smuggle their familys out of the warzone. He was lucky that his island hopping took him to the furthest island from the capital, (the largest island which the hidden village was built on) where the sailors were a lot more daring.

The captain told him that he was origanally a tradesmen from Wave, but when the war broke out, he was forced to stay within Water countries bounderys due to the increased sucurity. Due to the fact that he didn't have the money to pay off the guards like some could, he was unable to return home. So when Naruto told him that the war was over and that he was a ninja who could protect him should there be trouble, the man jumped at the chance to leave and quickly started to prepare.

The wood creaked behind him as the captain Hansen, an older man with greying hair, a matching goatee, and muscle to prove just how hard he worked on the boat, walked over and leaned on the railing of his ship.

"It's been years since I've seen wave, I wonder how much it's changed,"

Naruto looked at him from the corner of his eye, "I'm sorry to say Captain, that Wave is a mere shadow of it's former self," he told the man.

The captain turned with confused and shocked eyes, "What?"

Naruto closed his eye with a frown, "Wave has been overrun by Gato, he's been bleeding it dry for years,"

"Your... jokeing?" he asked in horror.

Naruto shook his head slowly.

The captain gripped the rails until his knuckles turned white, "And no ones done anything about it?"

Naruto shrugged, "A few, but Gato murdered them publicly and broke their fighting sprit, the last I heard was that a bridge builder named Tazuna was building a bridge to the mainland dispite the fact that Gato has an army of thugs on payroll,"

"Naruto-san..." the man said after a minute.

"Hmm?"

"Your a ninja right?"

"Yeah,"

The captain seemed to consider his words and sighed, "I have a son back in wave, I don't know if he's still there but I'm sure he hates me for leaving, but please, can you kill Gato as payment for the ride, I'll even let you ride and ship things whenever you need to," the captain asked in a near broken tone, "I love my home town and can't help but think that had I stayed, I could've helped stopped Gato,"

Naruto continued to look out on the misty sea as he blew smoke out of his nose, "You couldn't have stopped him, Gato used money to buy out the larger shipping companies then strong armed the smaller ones into bankruptcy. Everything he did was legal until people started falling into poverty because of him, that's when he started shipping drugs and kidnapping people to sell as slaves when debts started piling up," he told the man.

Naruto took one last draw from his cigarette then took the end in his hand before dropping it over the edge. He pulled out his case again and sighed as he found it empty.

"Here, have one of these," the captain voiced, reaching in the inside pocket of his coat.

Naruto turned and watched as Hansen pulled out a couple of thin cigars and handed them to him

"There the best exports from Mist, made just before the war. Use to have crates of them but most of them were burned when a supply warehouse was torched, now all I got left is one of those small boxes they come in." he said a small shrug. "I've been trying to stop, figure that giving em to you will make it easier to stop if I don't have em,"

Naru took them a placed them in his pocket with a small "Thanks," before re-crossing his arms.

"So, what are you gonna do when we reach port?" Hansen asked, figuring that he wasn't interested in killing Gato since he didn't say anything.

"I figure that Gatos days are numbered," the blonde said, turning around and walking to where he could go below deck where the captain had given him a hammock to sleep in with the three deckhands who worked during the day.

The man turned, "So you mean-"

Naruto waved him off, "Pleasant dreams, Captain, but I do expect you to uphold your end, when the time comes,"

With that, Naruto vanished below deck while the captain turned to stare out at the vast sea. "Thank you," he said under his breath a small smile on his face.

-X-

The ship lurched and abruptly jerked violently, flipping Naruto's hammock and sending him to the wooden floor with a thump.

Cursing, he stood up and rubbed his eye before looking over to the spiral stairs that had sunlight beaming from the opening. He heard a lot of laughing and cursing as well as a lot of stomping on the floor above him and stalked towards the steps angrily, if it was the captain and his crew fucking around, there would be hell to pay.

"These waters are Gato Corporation territory, since you're not one of our ships you have to pay a toll… that is, unless you want to swim the rest of the way,"

Naruto climbed the steps and found the ship pulled along side of another, tied to each other by large ropes while thugs littered both boats, each carrying a weapon.

"Hey guys look, it's another sailor," one of the thugs said pointing to him.

The one who looked to be the leader turned to Hansen, "I thought you said that is was all your crew," he said pointing to the three behind the man, "Looks like I'm going to have to fuck you up for lying,"

"Excuse me, but I'm not a part of his crew, he's taking me to Wave," Naruto said suddenly.

"Oh really?" the thug asked in a rat like tone, "Well didn't you know, you have to buy tickets from us to pass through these waters,"

"Really?" Naruto asked in a fake happy voice, "Well let me see how much cash I got on me," he said before pulling out one of the cigars Hansen had given him the day before, "You wont mind if I smoke while I do, right,"

Naruto held the end with his teeth and took his lighter out and flicked it open before lighting the end and taking a deep draw on it.

"Hurry up already," the guy said impatiently as Naruto took to long.

"What's the rush?" the blond asked coldly, letting the smoke roll out of his mouth, "Your already dead,"

The smoke changed from a pale white to a thick gray as it got thicker and thicker, there seemed to be no end to the amount of smoke the blond exhaled and it was starting to engulf the ship. Soon there was so much thick smoke that nether party could see each other. Hansen and his crew shook as they could see the smoke roll around them making a ring around them protectively while they heard the Gato Corporation goons choke and cough.

"I can't breath!" some yelled out as the smoke invades their lungs and even spread out to the ship next to it, doing the same to them as well.

"Ah it's starting to burn," another screamed, as Naruto pumped more chakra into his smoke, causing it to turn more acidic when breathed in.

Minutes passed and the screaming died down, followed by a series of thumps .

"Imagine that…" Naruto's voice echoed as the smoke cleared almost instantly, revealing that everyone trapped in the smoke was now dead, blood running from their mouths and noses, anywhere that directly connected with the lungs, "Those anti-smoking guys are right, smoking can kill you,"

Hansen and his crew stared wide-eyed as Naruto smoked like a train with a sly grin on his face, "What?" the smoker asked after their stares got annoying.

"Y-you just…"

"Committed a massacre on the high seas with nothing but a cigarette?" he supplyed.

"Well… yeah," the captain said lamely.

Naruto shrugged, "Not the first time I had to take out a pack of bandits or thevies, now I can add pirate to the list of things I've killed," he said before nudgeing one of the bodies with his foot, "Come on, lets throw these overboard and untie the ropes holding the ships togethor,"

Each of the bodies were picked up and were either thrown into the water, or onto the ship beside them before one of the crewmen took a small hatchet to the ropes, cutting them so that they could push the two ships apart. No one said a word as they worked, the fact that they had just witnessed a single man kill a whole group of pirate goons of the Gato Corporation with only a cigar was a real shock and also made them a little nervous. If the blonde could do something like that, whose to say that someone else couldn't do the same to them if they made the wrong person angry?

-X-

Kakashi and team 7 gazed at the unfinished bridge in awe.

Tazuna puffed out his chest in pride, "Once this bridge is complete, Wave will be able to recover,"

"Shh," the boatman hissed, "you know that Gato has pirates patrolling the waters,"

The builder grumbled but none the less obeyed.

-Sniff- "Hey whose smoking?" the man ferrying them across demanded.

Kakashi looked around as did everyone else, "No one,"

"Well I smell smoke from somewhere," the man said.

"Look!"

Kakashi turned to his genin, Sakura to see what she was pointing at in the mist. "It's… a boat?" he said slowly, making Tazuna and the ferrymen pale in color.

"Oh no, Gatos men have found us!" He said while clutching his paddle tightly, "Were done for,"

"No…" Kakashi interjected, "Do you hear that?"

They all got quite and started listening, "But… sensei, I don't hear anything,"

"Exactly,"

-THUMP-

The boat moved slightly as it bumped into something, "OH MY KAM-" Kakashi slapped a hand over Sakura's mouth as she started to scream, shocked at the sight of a body. The rest of the genin looked sick at the bloated thing and turned green as Kakashi flipped it over, exposing sickeningly pale flesh and glassy clouded eyes.

Sakura covered her mouth and nearly flipped the boat at she puked over the other side. Nearly knocking Sai out of the seat and on to the floor.

The ferryman gagged to but held it in, "That's one of Gatos pirates," he told them before turning away and heaving.

"Whoa," they looked at Tazuna who stared wide-eyed at the boat, which had floated closer, while they were distracted.

It was like a ghost ship from a horror movie, bodies laid around the deck, rotting and torn from birds, much like the few crows which pecked at them and 'cawed' every now and then. Some of the bodies were even hanging over the rails or held their throats, unable to move as their bodies stiffened.

"Kami it stinks," Sakura moaned as the smell made her gag again. The smell of rotting flesh and smoke overpowering her sense of smell, making her eyes water, "Can we please get out of here?"

Kakashi pushed the body away slightly, sending it adrift again and nodded, his mask helped a lot with blocking out most of the smell but his students were able to smell it 100 percent so to keep them from throwing up stomach acids, he agreed to get a move on.

But something was odd, the bodies were already decaying and the ship had to have been at drift for awhile, so who did it? Was there something else that Tazuna had neglected to tell?

As the small boat started back, no one noticed a crow land on a body over the railing and look at them with its beady black eyes before 'cawing' loudly and flapping its wings as it flew towards Wave. A small tube attached to its back from a pair of straps that went on like a backpack.

-X-

-Caw-

Naruto looked up and saw a crow circling overhead. Bringing his fingers to his mouth, he whistled then waited as the bird dived at him before flapping it's wings violently and landing on his shoulder. It cried out softly before rubbing its head against his cheek then hopping to his arm when the blond held it out in front of him.

"Hello my feathered friend, did you bring me something?" Naruto asked.

It cawed again, almost irritably then leaned down, showing the tube on its back.

"Ok, ok don't get you feathers in a bind," he muttered as he pulled the tube off, making the small clip on the side make a popping noise as it unclasped.

The crow hopped back up to his shoulder again as Naruto unscrewed the top and shook out it's contents, three rolls of cash, each with a paper band with 10,000$ written on it, followed by a check worth 20,000$. All together it was 50,000 dollars his fee for taking care of Mist's tyrant problem, normally he would've charged more but with the war and all, he figured that having the village leader owe him one was worth more, especially one with such great… assets.

A letter fell out last and he unfolded it; Thanks for the help, make sure you come and see me some time, a girl needs a break from paperwork every once and a while. -Mei Terumi

Naruto hummed and folded the letter again, stuffing it in his pocket before unrolling the thick stacks of cash and pulling out his wallet. The reason why he asked for most of it in cash was sadly… he was nearly broke. Opening it, he watched as a little moth flew out before being caught and eaten by crow with a small wet scrunch.

"Gross," he said looking at the crow who turned its head in the other direction.

Placing all the money in his wallet he watched as it glowed, the seals inside it activating and sealing a large amount so it wouldn't be too thick so it would be able to fold.

They had reached Wave a day ago and he had been walking around, watching as the townsfolk were harassed by thugs and the children tried to pickpocket or steal from the few places still open.

'How sad," he thought walking into the town and seeing a little girl get caught stealing, only to be slapped by the shopkeeper and thrown to the ground in an alley as he took the item, a small loaf of bread, out of her little hands and walked away.

The girl pushed herself up and sat against the wall, pulling her legs to her chest and crying with her forehead on her knees. The slap probably wasn't what was making her cry; he himself was in the same position back when he was in Leaf, trying to survive on the streets after being kicked out of the orphanage. He to had days where he was so hungry that when he was caught stealing food, he would start crying from the pain.

"What do you think?" he asked the crow while crossing his arms.

It cried out and flapped its wings, taking off and flying towards the girl, landing on a trashcan beside her.

-CAW-

The little girl jumped at the sudden sound and fell to the side, scrambling away from it.

"It likes you," Naruto said, uncrossing his arms and walking over.

He studied the little girl and was slightly shocked at her exotic features, her hair was grimy and dirty but he could see that it was a light blue color, her eyes were also strange, a color somewhere between pink and purple. She had to be around the age of 8 or 9, given her size, but he wouldn't be surprised if she was older and hadn't grown much due to black of food.

"W-what do y-you want?" she stuttered.

"To help,"

The girl looked at him with wide, unbelieving eyes, "W-what?"

Naruto leaned toward her and held out a hand, making the girl flinch back, "To… help," he said slowly, as if she was stupid.

Slowly, she reached up, "Who are you?"

Naruto gave her a small smile, "Name's Naruto… you?"

The girl answered slowly "Tira," then took his hand.

To be continued

-x(X)x-

I don't know anything about the Naruto universes money system, so I'm going to use what I know.