DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO NARUTO. BE IT THE RIGHTS TO THE ANIME, MANGA OR MERCHANDISE. THIS IS A FANFICTION; NO PROFIT IS MADE.

A chill travelled the roads of Konoha on a calm breeze. It stole through windows and under doors, seeping through walls and creeping past covers to lightly brush its fingers against the citizens of Konoha.

It was about two hours left to dawn when the noise began. The loud sound filled a small apartment, reverberating through the house but never leaving it. It was a sound that would cause one to wince with extreme irritation and put their hands to their ears and yet still manage to to end up with headaches.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

A small body slowly rose from a bed, awakened by the noise that filled his apartment. Naruto slowly lifted a hand to scratch his head as heavy lidded eyes scanned his surroundings for the cause of the disturbance. Past his open curtains he could see that it was still dark; not yet time to wake up then.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

Slowly he slipped from his bed, much too tired to be properly irritated at whatever had decided to fill his ears with that awful noise. He trudged to the door, shoulders slumped, hair flying every which way. Slowly he opened the door then switched on the lights and then stopped. Immediately his countenance changed: his shoulders were straight again, eyes wide in surprise but alert and filled with curiosity, and his body was tensed in contained excitement.

Right there, standing beside his front door was a clock. It was rectangular and reached to his ceiling, and even under the glare of the lighting he could see the way the numbers on the clocks face glimmered.

Naruto tilted his head to the side trying to recall if he had had such a clock before and he immediately reached the conclusion that no, he had not had such a clock for he would remember if he had. The next question that flitted through his mind was who would give him such a clock and why had he not noticed this person. He gazed around his small sitting room for a moment as he tried to determine if the intruder was still around. But nothing seemed out of place. Still…

Clang! The sound of the clock chiming filled the room and lingered till it was overshadowed by the next chime. Naruto barely noticed it as he suspiciously viewed his parlour.

He edged towards the clock slowly, eyes darting form side to side as he watched for ambushes. A sharp pain through his left palm startled him, causing him to give out a yelp. He gazed down at the momentarily forgotten scar. It had not throbbed since the afternoon when he had first gotten it. At that same moment the door of the clock swung open. His eyes widened as he looked at it. Slowly he began to vibrate on the spot. He was sure he was meant to pass through the door but… Here caution stopped him from rushing forward. This could be a trap. It had been done once before. Some older kids had told him that they had something wonderful for him to see and had led him to a small room filled with cleaning supplies. One of the older boys had opened the door and gestured inside it with a flourish that had made Naruto curious and excited about what they had to show him... He had just started going to school and had foolishly thought that maybe the boys were really trying to be nice to him, trying to include him as a friend. He snorted at that, expression caught between bitterness and pain. He had been hopeful and, after several rejections and abandonments by people he had thought could be his friends, overeager. He had ended up locked in that cupboard all night and stuck with detentions for the next week for whatever mischief he had been planning. It was one of his worst memories. Here a vicious smile crossed his face; it wasn't like those boys had gotten away unscathed either. For a month they had not come to school seeing as no one could stand their stench. Naruto Uzumaki was no pushover.

Naruto backed away from the clock slowly. Once he had gotten far away enough he began a search of his apartment. He searched high and low for anyone who could be hiding in his apartment but he found no one. Finally satisfied that there seemed to be no one around and that this did not seem to be a setup, he made his way over to the clock. He had almost reached it when he tripped over his school bag, carelessly discarded on the floor as soon as he had returned home, and went tumbling down, his nose and forehead unpleasantly making the acquaintance of the hard, cold floor. A few choice words left his mouth as he glared at the misplaced item; meanwhile the bag remained in its position unashamed of its deed: it was not its fault it was there anyway.

Once Naruto was done glaring at the bag he reached for his slippers and froze. Those were his bunny slippers. The soft, fluffy ones that Ayame had for some reason decided to give him for his latest birthday (old man Teuchi had been much more sensible and let him eat as much ramen as he wanted. Honestly, the slippers were soft and fuzzy and cute. Why had Ayame decided that he should have them? The only reason he wore them was because Ayame would have been sad if he hadn't…) If these were his bunny slippers then that meant that he was in his pyjamas. He looked down at his clothes and frowned. Well, this would not do at all. With that thought in mind he rushed back into his bedroom. Less than five minutes later he came back out attired in the clothes he had worn to school the previous day and a small kunai holster at his waist; they were practice kunai, and so were blunt, but if it did turn out that this was a prank then he could break through the glass door using one of these.

Naruto took a deep breath and then walked to the clock. He hesitated for a moment in front of the door and then stepped in. As soon as he did so the door closed behind him.

As he watched, everything outside the clock seemed to be moving further away from him. Then they became blurry like reflections on a water surface; the sound of loud chiming sound that the clock made also became more muted the longer he moved. Then finally he became enveloped in a moving darkness- he saw nothing and heard nothing.

Two and some hours later, at seven am sharp, a shrill alarm went off. But ring all it might no one came to switch it off.

After what seemed like a long time his body seemed to begin moving up and then, after some minutes, forward. Following that the space surrounding Naruto became brighter. As he looked forward blurry images, much the same as when he had first entered the clock, began to form and then slowly but surely they became sharper and more focused. As the images became clearer and clearer the sound of a clock chiming became louder and louder until finally his body stopped moving and he looked forward and found himself looking out the glass door into a space that was most definitely not his apartment.

The door of the clock swung open, Naruto stepped out and then the clock gave a single loud chime before it disappeared, leaving Naruto alone in an unfamiliar place.

Naruto looked around and found himself standing in a clear space surrounded on all sides, as far as his eyes could see and probably much further, by rows upon rows of dark brown, wooden bookshelves that were even taller than the Hokage mountain (which was the tallest thing his inexperienced mind had for a reference point) and were filled with books of various sizes and colours. The ceiling of the room stretched so high that Naruto felt like he was much smaller than normal, and the bright light coming from the ceiling lit up the library and obscured from his view both its source and the ending point of the ceiling. On the brown, wooden floor just below his feet was a large symbol- written out in black paint- that greatly resembled the number '8' lying on its side.

Naruto stared around at his surroundings in wander and couldn't help but be impressed by what he saw. This library was so much more amazing than he had ever imagined any library could be.

"Where is this place?" He breathed with awe.

This place was so much bigger than the library in Konoha and even he that did not like libraries could not deny how impressed he was.

Struck by curiosity as to what exactly the books in such an awe inspiring place would contain he moved to the closest bookshelf in his line of sight and reached out a hand to pick out a bright red book that was placed on the shelf closest to his eye level.

"Grrr,"

A growl coming from one of his sides caused Naruto to snap out of his daze and quickly jerk his small hand back to his side. At the same time he looked to his side and noticed that the isle was now blocked by white wolves. A slight sound coming from his other side caused Naruto to turn around and notice that it was also blocked by white wolves.

"Who are you?!" a wolf with a blue markings on its forehead asked in a menacing tone and something in the wolf's bearing made Naruto unconsciously decide that it was an important creature.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki." He said. At all times Naruto was a child that would claim that nothing scared him, but the truth of the matter was that these creatures were intimidating- even more so since there were so many of them.

"How did you get here?" the wolf asked.

Naruto shrugged, his eyes never leaving the wolf.

"There was this big clock that came into my house at night and it was making a lot of noise and woke me up. So then I got up and I thought it was a trap but then-"

"Show me your hands," the wolf spoke, interrupting Naruto's tale. Naruto was taken aback by the interruption but not enough that he was not indignant at it.

In the background all the wolves began to mutter to each other in a language Naruto did not understand or they could just have been speaking too low for him to hear what they were saying. He was not sure.

However the wolf that had been speaking to Naruto said nothing more as it strode towards the small boy. Each step it took was deliberate and filled with a majestic strength that fascinated Naruto. All through its approach the small boy was tense; the closer the wolf came the more he had to repress his instincts to take a step, or two, back and instead focused his eyes on the every movement of the creature that could probably kill him without much effort.

Time seemed to move slowly as the wolf came to a halt, above the silence of the library it spoke:

"Show me." Those two words were spoken as a command that was no doubt meant to be obeyed but Naruto made no move to obey. Instead, his hands remained in his pocket, balled up into fists. The request was not a particularly hard one but already the wolf had irritated him and Naruto was not about to let it get its way.

The wolf narrowed its eyes at the boy's obstinacy and then let out a snarl that showed off its very large and very sharp teeth. Naruto flinched a little and once again had to curb the urge to take a step back: he felt he would have lost the match if he did that so he stood his ground. Determined blue eyes met sharp black eyes, neither owner of the pair of eyes flinched: neither was willing to back down. After a short spell a strange glint passed through the black eyes of the wolf and in its low, gravelly voice it spoke again, making sure to emphasize its words:

"Show me your hands boy," the last word had a special weight on it that marked it out as a warning.

Naruto hesitated. Should he or should he not? He was not sure. He really did not want to let the pompous creature get its way… but he didn't want to get eaten either. So very slowly he brought up his arms and stretched them out to the wolf so that even his palms were exposed- all the while his eyes never strayed from the wolf.

Again the wolf moved closer to Naruto but once it was close enough that Naruto could feel the warmth of its breath on his skin he quickly pulled his hands back. The wolf looked up at the face of the small blond whose face was set in a grim mask and narrowed his eyes at him. Naruto's eyes became a little harder at that but once again he stretched out his hands only to retract them once more when the beast became a little too close for comfort.

The wolves that encircled the two watched the interaction between their leader and the human child and the general feeling of the onlookers was amusement.

The wolf moved forward for a third time and Naruto repeated his actions.

"Do not anger me boy," the wolf growled out at Naruto who met his gaze with an obstinate frown. But nonetheless when the wolf again moved closer he did not retract his arms.

The wolf barely glanced at his right hand before turning to the left and staring at the strange scar intently. The silence stretched on for a few minutes and try as Naruto might he could not completely dispel the nervousness that he felt at the intimacy, nor could he completely keep himself from trembling at the wolf's warm breath that tickled his skin.

When it was satisfied with what it had seen it moved away from Naruto with an extremely displeased look on its face.

"Tsk." It growled in obvious displeasure.

"What do we do now Naevar?" a voice asked- it was smoother than Naevar's and it sounded younger too. Naruto was startled when he heard the voice come from above him and looked up to see a white wolf with red markings on its body standing on a shelf that was two shelves higher than the shelf at the level of his eyes- for the short time of his interaction with Naevar he had mostly forgotten about the other wolves.

"Nothing." The wolf named Naevar replied simply.

"What do you mean nothing?" another wolf asked. "We cannot just disregard this boy since he has been marked."

"Yes," Naevar said, "We can. Our duty is to serve as extra eyes, ears and claws to the bookkeeper not to babysit-" Then turning around to face the child he said with a sneer, "Especially not to babysit pathetic, snot nosed human brats."

"Hey!" Naruto said heatedly. He had been following the conversation and did not fail to notice the insult to his person. Even when Naevar snarled at Him in a manner that dared him to say anything, he didn't back down. "I am not pathetic." Then after a short deliberation he added "Or snot nosed or a brat and I definitely don't need a babysitter! I'm Naruto Uzumaki and someday I'm going to be the greatest ninja ever then I'll be the Hokage so you shouldn't disrespect me!"

"Then this Hokage person must be extremely pathetic." Naevar said.

"What was that you stupid wolf?!" Naruto said enraged. "The Hokage is the strongest ninja in Konoha and everyone acknowledges him. Your stupid bookkeeper or whatever it is can't be compared!" His voice that had begun to increase at the beginning of his speech was now much louder than it had been initially so that his words were heard loud and clear by all that were present.

A few of the wolves growled at him but by now Naruto was too far gone to be cautious and he ignored them. The word bookkeeper even sounded lame; not like 'Hokage'- Fire Shadow: Now that was impressive!

Naevar turned to him with a look of disdain on his face that easily conveyed, even without words, his thoughts about Naruto: 'Loser. Not worth the time.'

His silent disdain just served to further aggravate the already furious blond. Why exactly did people tend to look down on him? First it was his teachers, then his classmates and the general populace who laughed at his dream and now some random wolf who he barely knew was dismissing him as unworthy to be some lame 'bookkeeper' person or the other. Well no more! He was Naruto Uzumaki and he refused to be looked down upon by anyone. And one by one, without a doubt, he would show them that he was someone worthy of respect and acknowledgement.

"Fine! Then just you watch me." And what better way to start than by proving it to this Naevar wolf that was right in front of him. "I'm going to become this 'bookkeeper' person and then when I do you're gonna have to acknowledge that I'm awesome and not pathetic. Got it?!" Naruto said. He had one hand outstretched with his finger pointing straight at the wolf as he gave the challenge.

At his declaration several murmurs broke out among the other white wolves but Naruto paid them no heed.

"A brat like you becoming a bookkeeper?" The wolf sneered at him. It was obvious what he thought of that declaration.

"Yeah!" Naruto enthused, becoming even more fired up by Naevar's attitude.

"Ha!" was all Naevar said.

With that he turned around and walked away with the other wolves silently following after him. Soon they were all racing through the library; some ran along the isles and some on the shelves of the bookcases. A short time later he couldn't see them anymore.

Naruto remained there for some seconds glaring at the direction in which the wolves had disappeared before he remembered something very important- he had no clue what a bookkeeper was or how he was to become one.

It was quiet. There was sound to be heard: no laughter; no talking; no chirping or croaking or barking. Yet, the silence was not oppressive: the atmosphere in the library was one of an absolute and undisturbed peacefulness.

Somewhere in this gigantic library a small figure with unruly blond hair sat stiller than he had in a long time. With his legs crossed under him and his two hands supporting his chin Naruto Uzumaki sat quietly his eyes fixed intently on the floor beneath him while his mind wondered to parts unknown.

It had been several minutes since the wolf called Naevar and his pack had left him alone and since then Naruto had been focusing on one question: 'How do I become a bookkeeper?"

Of course the question 'What is a bookkeeper anyway?' had once or twice crossed his mind but it had quickly been filed away as irrelevant.

He sat there, unmoving, his mind going over his confrontation with Naevar as it tried to glean something useful from the conversation they had.

Bookkeeper, bookkeeper, bookkeeper, bookkeeper… pathetic: he let out a small growl as he remembered the word that had been applied to him by the annoying wolf then just as quickly pushed the thought away.

"I can't think of anything!" he cried out in frustration before he flopped back on the cool floor and stared into the lights.

"So beautiful," he murmured as he watched the white lights that seemed to grow and recede continuously. He quietly turned his head from side to side as he took in the library once more "So many books." He whispered to himself then he sat up again and crawled to the shelf closest to him.

"The library in Konoha never had this many." He spoke aloud into the stillness as he turned his head from side to side. Even he who had made it a mission to go in there as little as possible- never- knew that it could not compare. He sighed. He ran his fingers along the spines of several books, taking in their titles as he did so.

If I were in Konoha I could just ask a librarian. He snickered. The librarians were one of the reasons that Naruto disliked the place. They had made his every experience at the library a pain in the neck; when they were not pretending that he was a ghost they were unhelpful, snide and rude. That was of course till the Hokage had stepped in and one of them had lost his job then they started answering his questions, clipped and brief their answers may have been. In retaliation for past wrongs Naruto had taken to asking some utterly ridiculous and absolutely annoying questions, and they had been forced to answer. It had been pleasant: having them unable to pretend that he didn't exist.

At that thought his face turned back into a frown but then he slowly sat up.

"What I need is a librarian." He murmured.

Then the air in front of him shifted and the next moment a figure appeared, floating before him. Naruto scrambled to his feet and stared at the figure in open mouthed wonder. She was dressed in a dress so black it looked purple; it flared out at the sleeves and was tied around the waist with a black sash. It was a long dress that spread out at the bottom like water but flickered like a strange black flame. It was loose fitting but at the same time highlighted her curves. Her hair was long and black and she wore a tall pointed cap of the same colour as her dress. Of the figure nothing but her nose and mouth, painted light blue, were visible.

"What do you want?" the figure spoke, her impatience showing through.

Her words and voice were at odds and with her image. Naruto was taken aback by her abrupt appearance and question and quickly tried to collect his stray thoughts.

"Well?" she demanded "Speak quickly before I decide you are naught but a fool and depart. Well I already know that you are a fool so speak quickly enough, I do not plan to spend my eternity here."

Naruto gaped up. She was so rude! Even worse than many he had met- and that was saying something. But he needed this and so he collected himself quickly and blurted out:

"I want to know how to become a bookkeeper!"

The figure stilled for some seconds before its lips curled in a derisive manner.

"A fool through and through then child,"

"I am not a fool!" Naruto protested heatedly.

"As you are you think you will survive the quest?" she ignored his words and he felt his anger rise to the point that he could barely hold it in. "Young, weak and Foolish! It is your naïve arrogance that drives you. Do not doubt it- you are not worthy to become one; you will not survive to regret your arrogance." Naruto bristled at her dismissal of him. Blue eyes flashed red and his jaws clenched so that his teeth hurt. Unnaturally long nails dug into his skin where his palms had been balled into fists. A single drop of blood hit the ground and his view blinked red before returning to normal in time for him to catch the object that came flying at his head.

He blinked. It was a compass. The blinding anger was gone.

"What is this for?"

She looked at him. Even with only half a face her contempt was clear, "It will direct you where you need to go."

"I don't know how to read a compass." He said, looking from the device to her then back again.

"This is a library." Was all she said then she was gone.

Naruto pursed his lips at the spot she had been in. He felt his annoyance come back again "Unhelpful hag." He said to the empty space. Then he turned back to the little bronze compass. The pointer spun nonstop more like fan blades and less like the compass he had been shown in class. He muttered some very uncomplimentary adjectives under his breath before he turned and stomped away, the unhelpful device clutched tightly in his hands- he really did dislike librarians.

In Konoha he had always known that it was him against the world. The citizens looked through him, the teachers hated him, the students looked down on him, the Hokage was too busy with Konoha for Naruto to feel justified disturbing him, Teuchi and Ayame… they gave him ramen- and that was enough. In here it looked like it was going to be pretty much the same, except that this time he had no ramen. But he had made a decision to someday show them that they were wrong about him. That he was worth more than they thought. And he would do it, he'd show them all. After all, Naruto Uzumaki was no pushover!

Hello everyone. Thank you guys for the support, I really appreciate it. This here is the second chapter. It's out early because, like I said, this chapter was already written so a bit of editing and it was done. After this chapter updates will slow considerably (Now that I've started working on this ideas are flowing more so its kind of disheartening that I can't focus on this). Thank you for your continued patience and support.

For those who read the original you will notice the changes:

In chapter 1 Crell's part was scaled down because Crell (the character image I have of him) is not the type of person that will risk a child's safety so carelessly. There are OCs like that who might be making an appearance in the story (I have no clue right now) but he is not one, so his involvement became indirect.

In chapter 2 it occurred to me that such a huge library will be almost impossible to navigate so if the anyone manages to find it then they should be able to at least get someone to give them some sort of direction and that's why the librarians will come to you if you ask. Others won't get what they want nearly as easily as Naruto but that will be expanded on later.

Anyone able to guess how the compass works? Because it's not staying still long enough for Naruto to even try to follow it :P Ah well, that's all the help this librarian is giving him and I doubt he's going to try calling another one anytime soon.