The Chuunin peered over the wall. Some lone person was running down the path, heavily panting. He was the first person to come in all day, and the Chuunin noted the boy's ragged clothing. He couldn't be a genin back from a mission, because his team would have been right alongside him. "Halt!" The Chuunin shouted, alerting his partner to the boy's presence. "State your name and business!"

The boy sat down, exhausted. "Is this Konoha?" he asked, and the Chuunin on guard duty frowned.

"We'll be asking the questions! State your name and business!" He shouted back down, and his partner reached a hand over to him. The Chuunin gave the guard a look that clearly said, "It's just a kid. Give him a break." The guard sat down in a chair, muttering to himself. "Softy." The man's partner turned around and fixed him in a glare that clearly said, "You're really immature, you know that?" Turning back around to face the kid, the Chuunin noticed that the boy was about 13 years in age, and wearing an almost shredded black cloak, and an orange and black shirt with dark grey pants. (Sorry, not the best outfit. But my first one was even lamer, so feel lucky.)

"Yeah, this is Konoha!" the friendly guard shouted down to him. The grumpy guard just muttered something to himself about being "too nice to random strangers." The kid breathed a sigh of relief, and collapsed, lying on his back in the middle of the trail.

"You have no idea how good it is to hear that. I've got business with the Hokage, so could he spare a moment?" The mean guard mumbled something along the lines of "No, you miserable little urchin." And the nice guard immediately offered to take the boy to him. Along the way to the Hokage's office, the boy talked to the nicer man. "You know, I had expected that he'd come to me, instead of letting some random stranger into the village." The guard smiled.

"If you had any idea of the amount of paperwork he has to do, you'd know that there's no way the Hokage could possibly leave his office for anything other than an emergency." The man stared down at the kid. Up close, he could see that his rips in his cape went through the other clothing as well, but there was no scar from a cut in any of the places. "What's your name, kid?" He asked, wondering who this boy was, and why he had holes in his clothing.

The blonde haired kid looked up. "I'm Kaguya Naruto. May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?" The Chuunin smiled back at him.

"Why, I'm Sarutobi Asuma. On a different subject though, who ripped your clothes like that?" The boy looked down, and it seemed to Asuma that there was something he wished to hide.

"It'll suffice to say that it was the work of my kekkai genkai. That is sort of why I'm here in the first place, and I'll tell you the details once we meet the Hokage, Sarutobi-sama." The Chuunin nodded, and the two of them continued on to the tower.

"Excuse me, but there's a visitor for Hokage-sama." Asuma said, as he reached the Chuunins stationed outside of the Sandaime's office. They let him enter, the mysterious boy following without a sound. Once the two entered the Hokage's office, Naruto immediately bowed so deep it was slightly disturbing. "Why are you doing that, kid?" Asuma asked, slightly confused. The Hokage gave a big smile as the boy returen to his normal position.

"Cause he's the Hokage." He stated, as if it was the dumbest question he'd ever been asked. "Everyone knows that the Hokage is the greatest of the seven kages! He deserves respect!" Both Sarutobi began to laugh.

"Ah, I was never one for all that nonsense anyway." The Sandaime said, the smile still on his old features. "Come now, tell me why are you here." Naruto sat in the seat that the Hokage indicated, and Asuma made to leave the room. "Hold it Asuma. Do you mean to tell me that you are completely uninterested in this boy's story?"

The Chuunin sat down, and smiled. "Well, I just assumed that…" He trailed off, and the Hokage smiled.

"Well, I think your team can wait." At this comment Naruto stared at the older ninja with a look of confusion.

"I didn't know Chuunin could take on a Genin squad." He said, and the man laughed.

"Well, they can't. I'm a Jounin, you see." Although the question had been answered, Naruto's expression did not change. Asuma understood what he was thinking and decided to answer the question before it was asked. "I know, it isn't normal for jounin to have guard duty. I was volunteering. Good thing too, or you may have never got in." Naruto's mind flashbacked to the grumpy Chuunin on guard duty.

"Yeah, you're probably right." He said, and gave the jounin a sheepish grin.

"Now, about why you're here…" The Hokage said, and Naruto began to explain his story.

Far away, a snake-like man smiled. "He should have reached Konoha by now… He should fit right in with the other two…" He hissed, a truly frightening smile coming onto his face.