The mayor of a small town called Konoha was spending his days like he usually did. Signing papers and smoking his pipe, he could not help but sigh though. The day before he had left to go fishing with his dear grandson Konohamaru. However that had caused paperwork to pile up more than usual which meant he had to take care of it today or he would not be able to relax during the weekend.

His work however was brought to a stop when the door to his office was slammed by a short boy. The old man sighed ``Is there something I can do for you Naruto?´´ he hoped the answer would be no.

The boy looked at him with wide blue eyes and said in a completely serious tone ``I'm a wizard gramps.´´. The old man's face remained blank and that really made Naruto angry ``I'm not kidding gramps just look at this!´´ he then looked around the office and decided that the best place to show his magic would be in the shadow cast by the old man's desk.

The old man looked as the boy held his hands out to the shadow, and then stood so for about twenty seconds. The old man lost his patience and told the boy ``Naruto I do not have time for your jokes right now.´´ the boy did not even look at him as he responded In a somewhat strained voice ``just keep looking it's gonna happen soon.´´

That caught the old man's interest, could it be the boy HAD actually unlocked his magic. He looked into the shadow that Naruto was focusing on and realized something was not right with it. It was midday and his office was brightly illuminated thanks to the number of windows behind him, yet the shadow Naruto was concentrating on was almost pitch black.

Naruto suddenly reached down and held his hand just over the darkness, then he brought his hand back up, and the darkness came with it. He held his hands in front of himself again but now the darkness, in the form a strange clump, hovered between them.

The old man stared with an analyzing gaze at the dark clump, he then looked at Naruto who smiled smugly. ``Do you have any idea how to use that Naruto?´´ the boy's face if possible became even more smug, ``course I know how to use it, LOOK!´´ he shouted before focusing on the dark mass once more. After a few seconds the clump of darkness changed shape into something resembling a short knife. He grabbed what could pass for a handle on the knife thing, and held it out to the old man.

The old man observed the knife thing carefully before reaching over to grab it. However the knife thing lost it's shape the second his finger even touched it, returning to a black mass and then disappearing completely.

``...´´

``...´´

``Naru-´´ the old man was cut of by Naruto suddenly yelling ``I just got a little tired! Lemme try again!´´

Naruto was stopped from his second attempt when the old man suddenly grabbed his shoulder. He bent his knees so he could get to eye level with the boy and said gently ``Naruto now that you have unlocked your magic there are a lot of things I will need to tell you.´´ he paused for a few seconds to look at his desk filled with different papers, he turned back to the boy and said ``lets go and get some food and ill explain there.´´

``can we get ramen!?´´ Naruto shouted excitedly, the old man nodded and chuckled when the boy started to jump around in a sort of happy dance. The boy seemed more happy about getting ramen than the fact that he had unlocked his magic, or maybe it had only slipped his mind for the moment.

As they left the office the old man called to a woman who was sitting at a desk close to his office door ``Shizuka, could you take care of the paperwork left on my desk, there is only a little left to do.´´ the woman nodded and got up to take care of it.

The second she opened the door the old man hastily told the boy to run. They both took off towards the stairs down, they heard a yell from the woman behind them ``this is more than just a little!.. get back here Mayor Sarutobi I don't want to take care of this!´´

xoxooxoxoxo

they continued their run all the way to the ramen stand, Naruto hopped onto one of the chairs. He tried to catch his breath, they had just ran a good 200 meters to get here and yet the old man didn't look winded in the slightest. Noticing the boys questioning look he said ``Naruto I have running from secretaries who want me to work most of my life this Is nothing to me.´´

They sat down and placed their orders and as they waited the old man, Sarutobi, started talking ``Naruto what you showed me in my office was magic, you know that right?´´ the boy nodded as he slurped up more noodles. The old man continued ``well from what I saw it seemed to be a variety of shadow magic, though I have never heard of one that created.. something from shadows.´´ Naruto nodded once again as he waved to the man running the small ramen stand for another bowl.

Sarutobi continued after eating a few noodles himself ``the problem now is that since your magic seems to be a new one you will need to find a magic instructor, or a guild with people who are willing to teach you.´´ the word 'guild' caught Narutos attention. ``a guild.. that would be soooo cool! I wanna join one, one of the big ones like.. uh lamia scale or fairy tail.. or umm´´

Naruto continued to list names of guilds but Sarutobi cut him off with by saying ``to join a guild you will have to leave konoha. Are you prepared to do that?´´ Naruto stayed silent for a few seconds before he replied with a steady voice ``yes´´

Sarutobi smiled ``then you should get to packing´´ Naruto looked surprised so Sarutobi continued ``some deliveries from the capital will arrive tomorrow morning, I can tell them to bring you to the capital when they leave´´

Naruto jumped to his feet and took of towards his apartment building. ``I'm gonna go and pack!´´ he yelled back to sarutobi. The old man laughed as the boy ran away, but his laughing stopped when he saw the stack of six bowls that naruto had eaten and left. That meant Sarutobi had to pay for them.

He cursed as his wallet became lighter than he would want it to be.

Xoxooxxoxoxo

Naruto looked down at his backpack and sighed in relief. It had taken two and a half hours but he had done it. He had stuffed his backpack with his orange tracksuit, he was already wearing an identical tracksuit but he needed a spare when one was being washed. He had also stuffed in some boxers and t-shirts, also the pair of shorts he had gotten a while back but never used. In the limited space left in the backpack he had stuffed in two cups of instant ramen.

Naruto got up from the floor and went over to his bed and laid down, looking up at the roof he thought about what was going to happen. Tomorrow he would leave his home and go to the capital city. When he was there he would have to get directions from someone or a map because he had no idea where he would find any of the big guilds.

What would he do when he got there, would he be able to master his magic, would he make many friends, and so on. Naruto could not stop thinking about it. And when he looked over at the clock next to his bed, which read eleven thirty he tried to focus on sleeping.

Xoxoxoox

Sarutobi looked down at the boy who had fallen asleep leaning on his backpack. He had gone to the gates of konoha village to greet the people who came with the deliveries and to ask if they could give Naruto a ride to the capital city. To find that Naruto was already there was a bit of a suprise, but then again he never told Naruto when to be there. Sarutobi chuckled a bit at that.

``Naruto wake up´´

``...mhhnm... ramen nooo... not there´´ Sarutobi stared wide eyed at the boy, whatever dream he was having seemed to involve ramen and acts of perversion. ``mwehehe.. don't worry.. ill eat you too... hehheee´´ the boy started to drool.

Sartutobi decided to put an end to the boys weird dream as fast as possible, and so grabbed Narutos nose and pulled it around a bit. Naruto opened his eyes quickly and shook his head to free his nose from the old mans grip. When he finally got lose he shouted ``the hell are you doing you geezer!´´

``I had to wake you up, you looked like you were having a nightmare.´´Sarutobi answered calmly, lying with a straight face was easy for someone his age.

Naruto looked up defiantly at the old man ``that wasn't a nightmare! I was dreaming about.. wait what WAS I dreaming bout?´´

Naruto started to mumble over what he had dreamed about, but Sarutobi had stopped paying attention. He was looking down the road at the large carriage that was approaching. ``looks like the deliveries are here Naruto.´´

Naruto was brought out of his mumbling to look down the road ``so i'm going with those guys?´´ ``you might be going with those men Naruto. I will have to ask if they are fine with giving you a ride first.´´

The carriage arrived and two men got of, one of them started unloading the goods while the other approached Sarutobi and Naruto. The man was big and had large muscles, he has a rough beard, he could be mistaken for a bear. He greeted them with a deep rumbling tone ``Hello there! You must be mayor Sarutobi! Nice to meet you! HAHAHA!´´

``hello and nice to meet you too.´´ he smiled pleasantly ``well then with greeting out of the way I have something to ask of you.´´

The burly man smiled widely ``you have a request for me!? Very well ask on! HAHAHA´´

``well then I would like if you could take young Naruto here with you when you go back to the capital city. Are you willing to do so?´´

The bear like man started laughing loudly again ``HAHAHAHA! Of course we can bring the kid to Era! HAHAHA! Also would the Naruto you mentioned be the kid sleeping over there by the gate!? HAHAHA´´ Sarutobi looked over and saw that Naruto had indeed fallen asleep by the gate. Again.

Sarutobi nodded to the man and he said ``Well we will be going when we are done delivering all the wares! Though that might take an hour! OR TWO! HAHAHA!´´ Sarutobi let the man get back to work, and walked over to where Naruto was sleeping. Sitting down next to him he nudged Naruto with his elbow to wake him up again.

Once he was sure Naruto was awake he handed him an envelope. ``what's this?´´ Sarutobi smirked ``that Naruto is 150000 jewel.´´ Narutos eyes grew wide and Sarutobi chuckled ``it may take a while for you to get to a guild so I want you to use that money for food and places to stay the night.´´

They sat there in silence for a while before Naruto says ``hey gramps.´´ sarutobi looked down at the boy ``this is a bit scary ya know? I mean it's the first time im even leaving the village and i'm doing it all alone too.´´ Naruto was smiling but sarutobi could easily see how nervous the boy was.

``Naruto, when I was young I went on several adventures to places I knew nothing about just like you are now. Back then then there were not as many wizard guilds as there are now and many areas were inhabited by monsters and the like. And I was scared when I left alone to go on adventures, but on all my travels I met people who I became friends with. So Naruto believe me, on this adventure of yours I am sure that you will see amazing things, meet wonderful people, and learn all kinds of things.´´

as he finished sarutobi was smiling remembering his many journeys, and when he looked down at naruto he saw that he was smiling too. They both sat there smiling thinking about what was to come, suddenly they were brought out of their thoughts by a loud laughter.

``HAHAHA! We are done unloading all the wares mayor Sarutobi! And Naruto my boy if you are ready then hop on into the cart and well be off to ERA! HAHAHA!´´

Naruto stood up quickly and ran over to the large horse driven cart. Before he entered though he looked over at Sarutobi and shouted ``Hey gramps! Im gonna be the stongest wizard in the world!´´ he quickly ducked into the cart as it started rolling down the road.

Sarutobi laughed as he looked at the retreating cart ``it will be a harsh path for you if that is your goal Naruto. But I do not doubt that you will one day be very strong.´´ he gave a light hmph before turning to go back to his office. ``good luck Naruto´´