The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins

Part 1

Snow fell softly over the Village Hidden in the Leaves, the light of the setting sun was hidden behind bleak, gray clouds casting a bleak pall to the streets below. An overly large backpack, overstuffed to the point of being comical and with a sheathed sword hanging from its side, weaved through the snow covered roads. Hidden underneath this bulging monstrosity, a man trudged through the slush of the streets black hair covering his eyes, worn traveler clothes stained with the dust of the road and his tattered cloak covered by the newly fallen snow. Every now and then the traveler would stop and angle his head as if listening to something only he could hear. Eventually he stopped, looking around he found himself in a small and dirty alleyway.

Something had drawn him here, a voice in the emptiness, but now it was gone swallowed by the all-encompassing silence. Looking around he realized he had no idea where he was. "Dammit! Where did it go!?" he shouted. A sound to his left drew his attention. A small boy, maybe three or four years old huddled up against the side of some nameless building. Bright, spiky yellow hair was the only thing he could make out as his head was downcast. The boy's body was curled in on itself whether to hide or for warmth he didn't know, but that wasn't what truly caught the man's attention. That would be the state of the clothes the kid was wearing, and he was using the term clothing quite liberally, and with no protection from the elements save a ragged blanket.

Looking at the boy gave him the oddest feeling, that there was more to the child than met the eye, so he peered deeper. Past the outer shell of the body, past the flame of the youth's chakra, deeper and deeper still. That's when he felt it. The malevolence, the hatred, the anger waiting to be unleashed upon the world and destroy all in its path. Its sheer overwhelming presence caused him to stagger as if struck by a physical blow. Now he knew why he was drawn to this place, like a moth to the flame. 'And that was not a reassuring metaphor to use in this situation' he thought to himself. 'Walk away, turn around and leave, that's all I have do.' He was about to do just that when he looked back at the child one more time. He was able to peer even deeper than before, past even the overwhelming malice, and he saw the soul of a lonely four-year old boy just hoping to stay warm for the night. He hesitated arguing with himself until he seemed to deflate and his shoulders slump. The man sighed knowing his path had been set since the moment he heard the kid.

Naruto had been kicked out of the orphanage, again. He had managed to take his blanket, so there's that. He was currently huddled in an old alley mostly just to avoid the crowds and their hate filled glares and barely concealed whispers calling him a monster or demon. 'Why do they all hate me? I only put toothpaste in the cookies once, and maybe I put itching powder in the orphanage owner's wig, but no one could prove that! So why?' the child thought to himself.

The reason he had been kicked out this time was because prospective parents were visiting the orphanage today, "And I don't want them to be scared away by you, you little monster," had been the orphanage owners excuse. As if the owner really needed an excuse, he just so happened to have one this time.

'What if they didn't hate me and had wanted to adopt me?' This thought had been continuously running through his mind all night. Followed quickly by the realization that no one would want to adopt the hateful demon. These warring thoughts filled Naruto with hope only for said hope to be ruthlessly carved out leaving him feeling emptier than before. He was brought out of his constantly cycling thoughts by the sound of someone walking down the alley. Naruto curled deeper into himself hoping that whoever it was wouldn't yell or throw something at him. He liked his chances since the man didn't smell like that stuff some of the adults drank before trying to chase him.

"Dammit! Where did it go!?" the stranger yelled out. Naruto flinched at the harsh tone in the man's voice causing the piece of cardboard he was sitting on to scrape across the ground.

'Please don't see me, please don't see me, please don't see me,' Naruto was close to hysterics thinking that the man was looking for him. All he could do was curl in on himself closer and hope he wasn't seen. He almost screamed when he felt something heavy land next to him.

The traveler plopped down right next to the mystery boy after shrugging his overworked backpack off his shoulders. The kid started like he had been struck by lightning turning his head to look at the new arrival. Giving the man his first look at the child's face, his eyes were a nice shade of cerulean and he had three odd whisker marks along each of his cheeks, which was twisted with terror and trepidation. The kid looked like he was about to scream and bolt. Panicking the traveler started rummaging through his various pockets trying to find something to pacify the child. He felt the crinkle of plastic in one of his pockets and, realizing that sacrifices would have to be made in order to walk this path, pulled out a small bag and offered it to the child. "Want a gummy bear?"

"W-what?" Stuttered out the surprised boy.

"A gummy bear. You know a piece of candy." The stranger replied while waving the small bag in front of Naruto's face. Naruto, not being used to kindness, was suspicious of the man and shook his head. "Suit yourself then, more for me," The stranger said while popping a few of the delicious gems into his mouth.

"For the Land of Fire your winters sure can be uncomfortable," the man continued picking out all the green gummy bears in his bag, "Nothing compared to the Land of Snow mind you, but the name really misleads people. You'd think that the Land of Fire would be hot." Naruto continued to stare at this stranger who was talking to him and not down to him, or calling him a monster. "Geez you look colder than me, here I think I have something that can help." This was accompanied by the stranger rifling through his pack. Eventually he pulled out a horrendously bright orange wool blanket he had been given as a gift, which meant he couldn't just throw it away and he didn't hate anyone enough to re-gift it to them. Luckily he now could make use of the ugly thing.

"Here use this, it should keep you warm," he said as he tossed it over the kids head. The child struggled trying to get his head out of the tangled up fabric, when he finally did he was greeted by an outstretched hand and the voice of the man who had given him the blanket.

"Ziren Adair traveling merchant at your service." Tentatively Naruto reached out and shook the now identified Ziren's hand before retreating back and wrapping the warm, orange blanket around him. "Generally it's considered good manners to introduce yourself after someone else does the same," Ziren chided the child gently.

"N-Naruto U-Uzumaki," Naruto stuttered out.

"Well Naruto are you sure you don't want a gummy bear? They're tiny but full of fruit juicy goodness?" Ziren asked while offering the plastic bag he was holding one more time. This time Naruto reached into the bag and pulled out a sizable handful, he then tried to stuff as many as he could into his mouth at once. "No, no, no, you only put a few of them in your mouth at a time, otherwise you can't taste them. Kids," Ziren sighed in exasperation.

"Haou ooo," Naruto said around a mouthful of candy.

"Swallow, then speak," Ziren said while bopping Naruto on the head. After a bit of chewing Naruto managed to swallow the gummy bears in his mouth "Thank you."

"So what's a kid like you doing out here in the middle of the snow?" Ziren asked.

"They kicked me out of the orphanage." Naruto replied

"Well that seems uncalled for. You hungry? I'm pretty sure I have something in here more substantial than candy." Ziren said as he rifled through his pack.

"I'm fine with candy," Naruto replied while stuffing the rest of the gummy bears into his mouth.

The merchant turned back around and bopped Naruto on the head again. "No! You are a growing boy and need a balanced diet." Naruto just looked at him dubiously. Ignoring Naruto, Ziren started to rifle through the various pockets on his pack again. "Besides I'm out of gummy bears. Let's see trail cheese, no that's too hard. Trail bread, no that's even harder. Ate all the jerky earlier. Let's check my produce pocket… wow I need to clean this out more often! Well trail food it is." Ziren handed a piece of hard cheese and an even harder piece of bread to Naruto.

"How does this balance with a diet?" Naruto asked in the way only children can.

"It's just a turn of phrase, pay it no mind," Ziren replied waving Naruto off.

"How does a phrase turn?"

"Just eat the food."

Naruto wanted to ask more questions but was too hungry to ignore the food in front of him. It tasted terrible and was tough as nails but was seasoned with the greatest of all spices, hunger, and Naruto ate all of it. Chewing through the trail food tuckered Naruto out and afterward his head began nodding from fatigue. Eventually Naruto snuggled up to the nice merchant and fell asleep.

Naruto awoke to something unusual, warmth. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes Naruto found that he was curled up against someone. That someone being Ziren the nice man who had given him some food, candy, and a nice blanket the night before.

"Finally awake I see. You are quite the heavy sleeper, it's almost lunch time," Ziren said while putting away the ledger he was working on.

Naruto was confused nobody, aside from the friendly grandpa with the cool hat, was ever nice to him.

"What's more confusing is that you think that I need a reason to be nice to a kid." Ziren answered Naruto who hadn't realized he had vocalized his thoughts.

"Now let's go get some food, you ate the last of the stuff I had on me, but first," Ziren said as he stood up and made a cross with his fingers "Shadow Clone Jutsu," he said and with a poof of smoke two exact copies of himself came into existence. One of them rifled through the originals pack before pulling out a folder filled with papers. The other grabbed the pack and slung it onto his back. With a wave the two clones left the alley separately.

"Are you a ninja?!" Naruto yelled after he snapped out of his star struck state.

"No but I can use jutsu like one, kid," Ziren replied while striking a heroic pose and looking off into the horizon.

"Can you teach me how to do that?!" Naruto basically shouted as he jumped to his feet.

"It's a pretty hard jutsu to perform I don't think you're ready for it." Ziren answered him while ruffling Naruto's hair.

"Well I'm going to be the best ninja ever," Naruto replied defiantly.

"I don't doubt it kid, now let's go get some food I'm hungry." With that Naruto happily skipped after Ziren who had attained hero worship levels in his eyes.

Ziren whistled as he walked down the street looking for what he needed, Naruto was sticking to him like a shadow. Ziren's mood had started out pretty good, Naruto had kept him in one place long enough to get some actual work done. The sun was shining and he had a companion to spend the day with, a good start. His mood, however, deteriorated quite quickly. Not because he was hungry, no he had been hungrier. His deteriorating mood was due to the glares and not even concealed whispers being directed not at him but the four-year-old kid holding onto his cloak. Looking down he noticed Naruto's downcast expression, unfortunately Naruto was perceptive for a four-year-old, poor kid.

Their first stop wasn't somewhere to get food but a clothing store. "You need some new clothes," Ziren answered Naruto's questioning stare while ushering him into the store. The man working turned to Ziren smiling but that smiled turned into a grimace when he saw Naruto hiding behind Ziren's legs.

"I'm sorry sir but you'll have to leave." The employee said with a sneer.

"And why is that may I ask?" Ziren asked in a biting tone having lost his previous good cheer.

"We don't serve that here," The employee said gesturing to Naruto "Now leave before I call security."

Taking the hint Ziren led an almost crying Naruto out of the store. "What a jerk," he said just loud enough for the unhelpful store associate to hear. Learning from the past Ziren had Naruto hide in an alley while he went into another store and bought some children's clothing. Having nowhere else to change Naruto hid behind a dumpster and changed quickly, it was still cold outside after all, into a pair of jeans and a green shirt with some cartoon character on the front that Naruto didn't know.

"Now let's find some food shall we," Ziren said trying to cheer Naruto back up.

"We don't serve his kind here."

"It's not allowed where normal people eat."

"Get that thing out of here!"

"No monsters allowed."

"Away with you demon!"

Needless to say Ziren's mood had gone from bad to worse quite quickly, getting yelled at and kicked out of various eating establishments will do that to a guy. It was even worse for Naruto who had been reduced to quiet tears multiple times. It was late afternoon at this point and both Ziren and Naruto were hungry. Thankfully the crowds in the street were giving them a wide berth, not because of Naruto but because Ziren was unintentionally releasing killer intent at the village as a whole.

He was pulled out of his murderous thoughts, quite literally, by Naruto who was holding onto his traveling cloak and had stopped and was staring at a ramen stand named Ichiraku. The heavenly aroma wafting from the stall had both of their stomachs rumbling. 'Well one more try won't hurt more than the rest,' Ziren thought to himself as he ushered Naruto into the stand.

Teuchi was a large man, both in height and width, and had spent quite a bit of his life running his ramen stand with his daughter Ayame. He was born and raised in Konoha, living in a hidden village all your life will give one immunity to both the weird and against being bullied by shinobi. Some of these ninja thought that by releasing killer intent they could get him to lower their bill or forget about it entirely, but Teuchi was no pushover and never backed down. That's why when someone came into his stand releasing some major killing intent he turned towards them immediately saying "Hey no killer intent in my restaurant! Knock it off or take it outside!"

"If I knock it off will you serve us?"

The man who had just entered asked glaring daggers at the chef. Teuchi wondered at the question. Why wouldn't he serve the man? That's when he noticed the child cowering behind the man's legs. The first thing he noticed was the eye bleeding orange blanket wrapped around him, the second thing he noticed was the blonde hair, blue eyes, and whisker marks on his cheeks. That's when he realized it was the demon child. He was about to send the two of them packing, with some choice words, when he took a closer at the kid. Said boy was staring at a bowl of ramen, drool pouring generously from his mouth. That wasn't what really caught his attention though, that would be how malnourished he looked. From what Teuchi could see the kid was thin, very thin, as though he hadn't had a decent meal in a long time and that broke the kindly old man's heart, he was after all about to deny a four-year old kid a place to eat. Feeling ashamed of himself he looked away saying "You two can eat here."

Immediately Ziren dropped his killing intent "Thank goodness I'm starving." Ziren lifted Naruto up onto one of the stools and then took one for himself. Around this time some of the customers seeing that the "demon child" would be eating here left in disgust but not before throwing various unoriginal insults at them. Naruto was too stunned by the fact that a restaurant was letting him eat there to care.

"I apologize for before," Ziren said to Teuchi "We've had a rather long day. The name's Ziren and this is Naruto, a pleasure to meet you and to support such a wonderful eatery."

"Name's Teuchi and if you think it's great now, just wait till you actually try my Ramen," Teuchi replied trying to act cheerfully.

"I wanna try the pork!" Naruto yelled interrupting the adult's conversation and bringing their attention back to him. "Can I, please, please, please, please," Naruto pestered Ziren.

"Sure," Ziren replied to Naruto. "One pork for the kid and I'll have a miso," Ziren said turning his attention back to Teuchi.

Naruto was so excited to be eating in an actual restaurant that he didn't immediately interrupt Ziren and Teuchi's 'adult talk'. Something about shrimp and a civil war. He had heard the term war before and was about to ask what the difference was between a regular war and a civil war but was interrupted by the arrival of a bowl that looked like it was meant to feed the gods themselves. He immediately gave thanks pulled apart the disposable chopsticks and dug in with gusto.

"The tariffs in the Land of Water aren't that bad. People just aren't used to them. Now if you want some truly terrible foreign trade policy look no further than the Land of Sound. Man now that's a country no one wants to trade with. Heck no one even wants to travel through there." Ziren had struck up a conversation with Teuchi while eating his ramen.

"True as that may be that doesn't change the fact that I've had to raise prices on my dishes." Teuchi angrily replied while pouring a cup of sake and handing it to Ziren. "Besides as long as the war continues it's only going to get worse."

"True and from what I heard it won't be ending soon…hmm…here," Ziren said as he pulled out a pen and began writing on a napkin. "This is the name of a guy I know from the Land of Lightning. He fishes for shrimp and he's been hoping to go international for a while now. Everything's all set up he just needs some customers." Ziren finished as he handed the napkin to Teuchi.

"Land of Lightning you sa-"

"Bwhaaa, that was delicious!" Naruto shouted as he slammed his bowl down. He looked at the two adults who were staring at him but his attention was quickly captured by the unfinished bowl of ramen sitting in front of Ziren. Seeing that Naruto was drooling over his unfinished food Ziren pushed the bowl towards him, and had to pull his hand back before Naruto pounced on the food.

"He certainly has an appetite," Teuchi said with a laugh.

"So it would seem," Ziren replied while rubbing his hand. "Anyway just tell the guy I sent you he'll set you up with a good deal. Spread the word too, for every guy I send his way he treats me to a luxury dinner."

"Bwhaa, delicious. Can I have some more please?" Naruto asked as sweetly as he could as he put his second bowl of ramen down.

"Sure why not. Another bowl for me and another two for the ramen disposal here," Ziren said with a chuckle.

"Three bowls coming right up." Teuchi said as he turned around to prepare more food. After a couple more bowls and some more friendly banter Ziren paid for their meals and the two left Ichiraku in much better spirits than when they arrived. Naruto wasn't even bothered by the glares he was so happy. The two simply walked around for a bit before Ziren abruptly pulled Naruto into an alley. Confused Naruto was about to ask why they were there when the two clones Ziren made earlier appeared. The one who had taken the folder of papers handed them to the original. After looking through the papers Ziren nodded and the clone disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Did you get everything?" Ziren asked the remaining clone.

"Yes sir," the clone replied with a salute.

"Good, you know what to do," the original said as he took his backpack back from the clone who promptly vanished as suddenly as he came, but not in a puff of smoke like the other one. "It seems that my business has concluded here in Konoha," Ziren said as he turned his back on Naruto. "And that I need to be leaving soon."

Tears started welling up in Naruto's eyes. "Why? Can't you stay longer? Weren't we friends? Why do have to leave?" he sobbed through tears.

Ziren turned back around and bopped Naruto on the head. "Let people finish when they're talking." Ziren watched Naruto who was rubbing the spot Ziren hit and trying to hold back his tears for a bit to make sure he wasn't interrupted again. "As I was saying I will be leaving Konoha soon. BUT! The open road is a big place and I could always use a traveling companion." Ziren finished.

"W-what?" Naruto stuttered out not quite understanding what Ziren was saying.

"Do you want travel across the Elemental Nations with me Naruto?" Ziren asked completely serious.

Naruto was stunned for one minute then two. "Are you adopting me?" The dream of every orphan, adoption. The idea that someone would come along and say that he wanted you to be another member of their family. Naruto was scared that he had misunderstood the question entirely, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to make sure he heard right.

"If you want to get technical yea, I guess I am," Ziren replied rubbing the back of his neck.

Naruto no longer holding back his tears rushed Ziren and tackled/hugged him to the ground. Sobbing Naruto simply held onto his new family and never wanted to let go. Ziren just smiled softly and ruffled the crying boy's hair.

A few hours later found Ziren ready for another journey, and Naruto, a backpack of his own, walking out of the front gates of Konoha. The chunin on duty let them pass without contest glaring daggers into Naruto the entire time. Naruto was so excited, he had a new family, he was going outside the village for the first time, and he never had to go back to the terrible orphanage. Ziren started whistling some half remembered song, Naruto seeing this tried, and failed, to copy him. After all why not whistle, an endless path was open before them waiting for a traveler to walk it. Life was good.