A New Fate…

An: Hey guys, It's Dragon King again with another story! Confession time: Lucian Naruto mentioned this idea to me on Christmas, and I fell in love with it. I couldn't just let it NOT be written! So I asked him if I could write it out, and he gave me the green light! I hope y'all enjoy it

Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians is owned by Rick Riordan while Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto.

Chapter 1: Void Summoning

Twelve year old Thalia Grace gasped as she fell to the ground. Her body was battered, bruised, and a large gash on her side gushed blood. Her ankle was now completely broke, and her dark clothing was torn and covered in dirt and grime, as well as blood. However, despite it all, Thalia couldn't help but smile. She had prevented her crummy uncle from hurting her friends.

For you see, Thalia was the daughter of the Greek god Zeus, god of lightning, sky, thunder, justice, law, and order; and her uncle was the Greek god Hades, god of the underworld, the dead, and riches. Back during the time of World War II, these two, along with their brother Poseidon, god of the seas, storms, earthquakes, and horses, made a pact that they would no longer father any demigod children in order to avoid the catastrophes of WWII.

Naturally, Zeus, being the weaker willed of the three when beautiful women were concerned, was the first to break this oath.

And just as naturally, Zeus' breaking of the oath, enraged his brother Hades. He sent the worst monsters after her in retaliation.

Laughter bubbled up from Thalia's throat as she stared up at the black sky. 'At least…' she thought, turning her head slightly to see a group of teens holding back her friends Luke Castellan, the cute little Annabeth Chase, and even that scaredy cat satyr Grover Underwood. She smiled slightly. 'At least my friends are safe.' She turned her head back to the sky to see the lightning rolling. Thunder clapped in the sky.

'Complain all you want, you deadbeat, but I chose this,' she thought, mentally talking to her father, Zeus. 'I know good and well if it were up to you, Luke, Annie, and Grover would be lying here while I made it to camp. Sorry, bastard, but that ain't happening! You left me, left my mother to fall apart. You let my brother die! You never gave a damn about me as I ran away! All you did was give me a shield, a spear, and the ability to throw lightning and then said, "You're on your own!" So screw you! I'll die in peace, and then I get to go rant at my oh-so-loving uncle!'

You could practically hear the sarcasm in her last thoughts.

She gasped again as her vision began to darken. 'Well, so long Luke. Annie. Grover.' Smiling, the last thing she saw before darkness claimed her vision was a bolt of lightning streaking down at her.

Across the Void

Twelve year old Naruto Uzumaki giggled in delight as he unraveled the Forbidden Scroll once more. The blonde haired, blue eyed youth was sweating in exhaustion, and his orange jumpsuit was dirty.

The reason for his being out in the middle of nowhere was he had just failed his final examination at Konoha's ninja academy to become a shinobi…for the third time in a row. Dejected, he was given hope when one of his senseis, Mizuki, told him of an alternate test he could take to become a shinobi.

Naturally, this excited the blonde, so he did exactly as he was told and snuck into the Hokage's Tower, and into his library to steal the Forbidden Scroll. The test was for him to learn one jutsu from it, and Mizuki would promote him to genin, the lowest rank in the shinobi village. It was a straight, easy enough concept, and Naruto was sure he'd finally become a ninja and be one step closer to his dream.

In all honesty, Naruto thought gaining the Scroll would have been difficult. Really, the only person he saw was Jiji (or grandfather; that was what he called the Hokage) and the blonde took him out with a single jutsu!

Granted, it was his Sexy Jutsu, which was basically a glorified Transformation that made him look like an older naked female version of himself, but…hey! He took out the most powerful shinobi in the village with a single jutsu!

Who know Jiji was such a pervert, anyway?

But back to Naruto, he had just finished completing the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu, but was rather dissatisfied by the results. Sure, he now had a crappy clone jutsu (and one that only Jōnins, one of the highest ninja ranks, could actually use!), but Naruto decided that if one jutsu will make him a genin…

Then two might make him a chūnin no problem!

The reason for this simplistic solution in his mind was due to the fact that, Naruto wasn't well liked by…the majority of people in Konoha. For reasons he never truly understood, people treated him like he was a disease, ignoring him or belittling him at all times. This led the boy to seek out any attention he could get, whether it was from pranks or simply talking really loud, or even his orange jumpsuit. Most teachers at the academy, with the exception of Iruka and Mizuki, had actually did their best to sabotage Naruto's attempts at being a ninja.

So Naruto's knowledge of how shinobi are actually selected was lacking severely because of this.

'Now let's see,' he thought as he looked over the Scroll. 'What other Jutsu are as cool as my Shadow Clones. Edo Tensei? Nah. Exploding Clones? Awesome! But…if I really want to impress Mizuki sensei, I need something REALLY awesome! Something so amazing he'll be begging me to be chūnin! But, exploding clones…'

Placing the Scroll down, he brought two fingers from each hand in front of his face in the shape of a cross. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Two solid clones appeared next to him. "You guys, write down this Exploding clones jutsu thingy. I'm going to continue rolling this scroll out to find something that will knock Mizuki sensei's sandals off!"

"Got ya/Roger!" the two clones said in unison, and quickly searched the building behind Naruto for paper and a writing utensil. Naruto payed them no mind as he continued to read through the scroll, hoping for some super awesome jutsu. Finally, he found what he was looking for.

"Void Summoning Jutsu?" he read aloud, his interest peaked. "'This variant of the Summoning Jutsu allows the summoner to summon from The Void. According to the Summon Animals, the Void is the black expanse that, according to legend, exists between worlds. No one knows what actually exists in the Void, or if anything actually does exist within it. All attempts to summon anything from the Void have proved useless due to the high amount of chakra needed to fuel this Jutsu.'"

Naruto grinned giddily. "Yatta! This is it! Alright, so all I need to do is sign my name here…in blood?! What?! Ah, who cares! Super awesome jutsu here I come!" he yelled and activated the seal.

A large, pitch black scroll appeared in a puff of smoke, and Naruto was quick to unravel it. He quickly bit his thumb and wrote his name out on the scroll. "There! Done! Now, basically, all I do is bite my thumb again, mold my chakra and perform the hand signs! Cool! Now, the hand signs are boar, dog, bird, monkey, and ram! Right!" Naruto bit his finger again and flew through the hand signs, thoughts of some powerful summoning beast, like a dragon or something, playing through his mind.

Unbeknownst to Naruto, deep within his own subconscious, a dark malevolent entity stirred from its slumber and heard of the Summoning Jutsu. It grinned darkly.

'What luck!' it thought. 'If I act fast, I can be whole again! Be grateful to me, gaki! Because I think I'll be helping you just a little!' With that, it sent its own, dreadful, malevolent chakra into the seal that kept it from escaping, intent on using its evil presence to regain its lost half.

Maybe it was fate. Perhaps destiny. Or it could have been luck. Whether or not either was the case, neither Naruto nor the dark presence in Naruto got their wish. For as Naruto finished the final hand sign, he slammed his hand to the ground and shouted, "Void Summoning Jutsu!"

An intricate pattern made of Kanji spread across the ground at a rapid pace, and soon smoke erupted around the area. Naruto was excited to see what he may have summoned and eagerly awaited the smoke to clear. However, as it began clearing, he saw something that made his eyes widen. "W-what the heck?!"

Before him was a body. The body of a girl, no less. She rested on her side and she wore a black shirt with odd lettering on it, and pants made of some sort of blue material and boots. She had real short black hair, cut just below her ears, and looked to be in pain. Her clothe were also in tatters. That scared Naruto. Did he do that to her?

"H-Hey!" he cried out, reaching over to her and shaking her slightly. "Are you ok?! You alive?! Say something, Dattebayo!" She groaned softly as her eyelids fluttered open to reveal bright, electric blue eyes.

Thalia hurt. Everywhere. After her vision went black, she had the sensation of floating as she felt a sharp, excruciating pain race through her. It felt as if something was forcing fire throughout her body, as everything burned. Jolts of pain racked her body, and she instantly knew she was being electrocuted. It was a rather odd feeling since she'd had never been electrocuted before and it was even odder that she knew what the sensation was.

This went on for what felt like hours before she finally felt herself land on solid ground. Groaning, she struggled to open her eyes. When she did, she saw a boy who looked to be her age with spikey blonde hair and caecilian blue eyes. He wore an outrageous orange jumpsuit and green goggles on his head. He looked rather alarmed at something.

However, self-preservation instincts kicked in, and she quickly punched the boy in the face. He cried out in pain as Thalia jumped and activated her shield Aegis. Or at least, she tried. The instant she tried to stand, pain racked her body again, forcing her to fall to the ground. She yelped.

"What the hell was that for?!" Naruto yelled, glaring at the girl. "I was trying to be nice!"

"A likely story, monster!" Thalia growled, trying to reach her spear. "I've heard that before!" She looked for her spear, only to find nothing there! She panicked and looked at the area, desperately trying to locate her weapon.

Naruto, however, glared at her harder. "Hey! I'm not a monster! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Future Hokage of Konohagakure! Dattebayo!" he shouted at her. He didn't like being called a monster. Everyone in the village called him that, not really giving him a real explanation why.

"I don't care what your Zeus damned name is!" Thalia growled again, forcing herself to sit up. "Or if you're a future…whatever you said! It's just a damn disguise to get me to lower my guard! Now go away, or I'll send you to Tartarus!" She finally pushed herself up to her feet to glare at the blonde.

Naruto was quick to jump to his feet as well. "Oh, yeah?! Well I don't know who this 'Zous' is, or what a 'Tarteris' might be, but if you think you can beat me, you've got another thing coming, girly!" he shouted.

"Ha! You? Beat me?!" Thalia mocked. "Aren't you a little short to be making such big claims?" That did it. Naruto's rage meter had boiled over.

"THAT'S IT!" he screamed and rushed her with an amount of speed she wasn't expecting. He landed two hard punches to Thalia's chest, making her cry out more as the pain intensified. He went for another punch, but Thalia responded by lashing out with her leg to his shin. Despite suffering from a mysterious onset of pain, she put a surprising amount of strength into the kick. She then quickly responded by punching him in the face twice.

Naruto shouted out in pain until he quickly pushed the pain away and punched Thalia again. She dodged each strike, however despite both never having a formal education in fighting (Thalia having been a runaway and Naruto's training being sabotaged by narrow minded academy instructors), she was not prepared for Naruto to send a roundhouse kick to her sternum, knocking her down. Naruto had experience fighting kids his own age who were more skilled than himself. He picked up a few tricks here and there.

She cried out in pain again as she hit the ground. Naruto ran to intercept her, but she quickly rose up and screamed loudly, sending a lightning bolt from her hand at her opponent. It felt…different than it usually did. Before, it had always been like a tug at her gut, like she had to force the lightning to do what she wanted.

This felt…more natural. Less…forced.

Naruto screamed in pain as the lightning hit him in the chest full force, sending him flying into a tree headfirst. He hit with enough force to crack the wood, knocking him unconscious. Unbeknownst of him, his clones had somehow got electrocuted as the bolt ran past them, dispelling them.

She gasped in exhaustion as she sat there for a moment. Shakily, she made her way to her feet and, cautiously made her way to Naruto. He lied on the ground, twitching every so often. She wondered if she needed to hit him with another lightning bolt to make him turn to dust when she saw something red trickle down from his head. Her eyes widened.

"B-Blood…?" she whispered. Panic swept her. "H-Hey! Kid! You ok?! Wake up! Don't die on me! Hey! Wake up!" Oh, gods, how could she have been so blind?! She mistook this guy for a monster! She shook him. "Hey! Wake up!" He groaned weakly, making Thalia exhale in relief. "Hold on! I'll get you to a hospital!" She moved to pick Naruto up, when her danger senses went haywire.

"Hey! What's going on here?!" Thalia looked to see some guy wearing a blue body suit and green vest and blue sandals appear next to her. He had white hair hidden under a bandana with a metal strip sewn onto it with a weird leaf symbol on it. He also had some strange looking weapons strapped to his back.

But what caught Thalia's attention most was that he was practically oozing killing intent. She may have been wrong about this Naruto guy, but if this guy wasn't a monster, she was Aphrodite. "Stay back!" she shouted, and activated Aegis. Mizuki was shocked when the girl's bracelet became a giant round shield. He wondered if it was some sort of fuinjutsu until the shield was complete and he flinched back at the visage etched on it.

'W-What is this? Some sort of widespread genjutsu?' He thought. He tried to shake off the feeling and readdressed the girl, trying to play the concerned academy instructor: "Listen miss, it's not safe for you out here! Please let me escort you back to the villa-"

"Get near me, monster, I'll barbeque you!" she growled, lightning dancing off her shield as if to accent her point. Mizuki scowled and tried again.

"Look, miss, I don't want to hurt you, but-" He was again interrupted by the irate daughter of Zeus.

"Bull shit!" she snarled. "You reek of killing intent, and have been giving me the stink eye since you appeared! So here's your one chance to turn tail and run, monster, or I start throwing lightning at you!" He scowled at her and was about to say something else until he saw Naruto unconscious behind her. He smiled cruelly and started laughing maniacally.

"What luck!" he gasped. "The demon got himself killed! Now that's just too rich!" He laughed louder, which made Thalia angrier.

"What are you talking about?!" she shouted. "He's no demon! He's a person!"

Mizuki looked at her condescendingly. "Look, missy, you're obviously not from around here, so you wouldn't know, but that gaki right there is a demon!"

"The only demon I see here is YOU!" she screamed, thrusting her hand forward and sending a bolt of lightning at Mizuki. His eyes widened slightly, but he quickly dodged the attack and ran at speeds that surprised Thalia. She raised her shield just in time to block a hard punch that knocked her to the ground. She cried out as she was thrown to the ground.

"If you're with the demon," Mizuki said sadistically, grabbing one of his fūma shuriken from his back, "then you need to die with him!" he shouted as he threw the massive shuriken at Thalia. She raised her shield again, but suddenly a green streak blurred in front of Thalia and grabbed the fūma shuriken out of the air.

Thalia gasped. It was a man about the same age as the person trying to kill her wearing the same getup. Only instead of a bandana like the other, this one had a simple headband tied around his head. He also had black hair tied up in a ponytail and a scar racing across his face. Thalia wasn't sure what to make of the newcomer, only that he was pissed.

"Oh! Iruka! When'd you get here?!" Mizuki asked, a sickening grin plastered on his face.

The man, now named Iruka, turned his head to glare at Mizuki. "Just a moment ago," he replied tersely. "Just in time to hear your derogatory remarks towards Naruto and then see you attack him and this young lady." His glare intensified. "What's going on here, Mizuki?" he demanded. "From what I can gather, you're not here to retrieve the Scroll and bring Naruto back to the Hokage." Mizuki laughed again.

"I guess there's no denying it now," Mizuki said grinning. "You're right! I'm not! I planned to have Naruto steal the Scroll! It was so easy too! He really thought there was a secret test to graduate! Such a fool!" Thalia wasn't sure what he was talking about, but she could plainly see he was mocking the blonde, Naruto. She growled at him. "When he finally retrieved it, I was going to kill him, and make off with the Scroll! It was all too easy!" He narrowed his eyes at the black haired girl. "But this bitch got in the way! And it seems I'll have to go through her to get to the damn demon fox!"

Thalia growled at him again and moved to get up, but Iruka stopped her. "Miss," he said sternly, "look after Naruto, for me. I'll take care of Mizuki." She scowled at him, but remembered how this Mizuki guy dodged her lightning before. While she wasn't sure on this Iruka, and really didn't want a normal guy fighting a possible monster, Naruto was still unconscious and needed protection.

And Naruto was the only person here she was absolutely sure was human. She nodded to Iruka, who nodded back and turned back to Mizuki. Mizuki just laughed like a lunatic.

"You? Think you can beat me, Iruka?!" Mizuki mocked. "And for what?! The demon that took your parents?! You truly are a fool!" Mizuki began laughing.

"Naruto is no demon," Iruka said evenly. He began spinning the fūma shuriken. "But something tells me you don't care. Out of respect for our friendship, Mizuki, I'm giving you one chance to turn yourself in, or I'll take you in by force." Mizuki laughed maniacally again.

"Sorry, Iruka, but you can't defeat me!" he shouted, and threw several shuriken and kunai at Iruka. Iruka simply threw the fūma shuriken and knocked the projectiles out of the way. Mizuki abruptly appeared at Iruka's side and slammed his spare fūma shuriken into Iruka's head. Thalia gasped in horror until Iruka suddenly burst into some, which dispersed quickly to reveal a log. Mizuki cursed.

"Kawarmi (Substitution)!" he hissed, but suddenly he was knocked away from Thalia and Naruto by a flying kick to the head. He made a noise of pain as Iruka reappeared and flashed through several hand signs. Thalia felt…some sort of energy radiating out of Iruka.

"Earth Style: Great Mud River Jutsu!" he called out, and the ground around Mizuki turned to mud, much to Thalia's shock. Mizuki tripped and the 'mud river' carried Mizuki away from Iruka, Thalia, and Naruto. However, he jumped out of the mud, but Iruka was aready flying through more hand signs. "Earth Style: Earth Flow Spears Jutsu!" Several earth spears formed out of the mud and flew at Mizuki, who flashed through hand seals of his own.

"Lightning Style: Lightning Signal Flare Jutsu!" Thalia's eyes widened again as a bolt of lightning streaked out of Mizuki's hands and hit the earth spears, destroying them instantly. Mizuki was about to go through more hand signs when he saw a fūma shuriken fly at him. His eyes widened as he quickly substituted with a log and hid in the forest, but Iruka simply half turned to the side and quickly threw a kunai into the woods. It hit its mark, as Iruka her Mizuki gasp as the knife hit him. He ran off in that direction but suddenly the other fūma shuriken flew out of the woods. Iruka tensed up, but the shuriken wasn't going for him. His eyes widened as he whirled to see it flying for the girl and Naruto!

Thalia was in shocked awe at the fight that went down between the two men. She had never seen anything like it before, people manipulating the elements like that and zipping around at super speeds (to her at least). It was, admittedly, amazing to watch. However, her awe turned to shock as something came flying out of the woods at her and Naruto! Acting quickly, she raised her shield up, but just before he could, something appeared in front of her, and blocked the weapon! A pained gasped reached her ears, and she looked up to see Iruka standing there! She gasped in shock.

"H-Hey!" she shouted at him. "Why'd you do that?! I have a shield!"

Iruka gasped, coughing up blood. "I-I couldn't take that risk!" he admitted. "Besides," he grunted, "I simply reacted!"

Mizuki laughed again. "Oh, you truly are a fool, Iruka!" he mocked, making Thalia growl menacingly at him. "Saving that miserable demon fox and his whore!" He started laughing, unaware of the lightning that began dancing off Thalia's shoulders.

"Did you just call me a whore, you sorry sack of shit?!" she screamed. He just smiled cruelly.

"What if I did?" he taunted. Thalia was about to start sending lightning bolts at this bastard, but Mizuki continued speaking: "It doesn't matter, as you're about to be dead anyways! But first I gotta ask: Iruka, why are you defending that gaki? Don't you remember that he has the Kyūbi sealed inside him?! The demon that killed your parents?! You're defending the monster that stole everything from you!"

Thalia was confused as hell. Kyūbi? Sealed? She didn't know what was going on here, but she understood one thing: this Mizuki guy WAS a monster.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the other three, Naruto was finally beginning to wake up. He felt really groggy and wondered what hit him, until he saw the back of a girl with short black hair, and it all came rushing back to him. 'Oh, yeah! This chick hit me with a bolt of lightning!' he thought.

But before he could jump up and demand to know what her problem was, he looked over and saw Iruka with a fūma shuriken in his back and Mizuki mocking him. He was confused. What was going on here?! Then Mizuki mentioned that the Kyūbi was sealed inside him! Naruto was floored by that. The demon fox that destroyed the village years ago…the one that killed Iruka's parents…was inside him? 'I…Is that why people hate me?' he thought. 'Because of that?' However, before he could think any more depressing thoughts, Mizuki spoke up again.

"You know it's only a matter of time, Iruka!" he shouted. "Soon, he'll find out about what he is, and then he'll go on a killing spree! He murder anyone he sees and do whatever it takes to see this pathetic village burnt to the ground!"

"You don't know the first thing about monsters, you shitheaded bastard!" Thalia shouted at him. "I've seen monsters! I've fought them, and the only person here that fits that bill is YOU!" Naruto was shocked. This girl was defending him? She didn't hate him? He…He was elated, thinking that someone didn't think he was a monster. Mizuki was unimpressed.

"You're not in this conversation, demon whore!" he hissed, barely dodging a lightning bolt aimed at his head. "Wait your turn, bitch! I'll deal with you after I deal with the demon and Iruka!" He turned back to Iruka and said, "You know it's true, Iruka! What I said. It's what monsters do! Use your head!"

Iruka started chuckling as he took the fūma shuriken out of his back and turning to face Mizuki. "Your right…" he said, making Thalia look at him in shock and anger. Naruto winced.

'So…Iruka sensei is just like the ot-' "Monsters are like that," Iruka continued, breaking Naruto's train of thought. "But that's not who Naruto is. He's my student, and a hard worker. Sure, he may mess up and not pay attention in class, but his Will of Fire burns brighter than anyone I've met! He is Naruto Uzumaki! The future Hokage of Konohagakure!"

Thalia was amazed at the faith this Iruka guy had in Naruto. She felt kind of bad now, having judged him too soon. Naruto, meanwhile was crying big, crocodile tears, feeling unbelievably happy. Iruka didn't think he was a demon! He believed in him!

Mizuki, however, was not impressed. "Well, I knew you were sad, Iruka, but this just pathetic!" He began running at Iruka, but suddenly, Naruto jumped up and head butted Mizuki, sending him flying backwards. Thalia and Iruka gasped as Naruto landed in front of them. He looked up and glared at the chūnin.

"If you ever try and lay a hand on my sensei, I'll kill you!" he growled. Thalia looked at him like he was crazy.

"You idiot! You can't win with your injuries! Get back here!" she shouted. Naruto scoffed.

"Bah! These injuries won't slow me down! Plus I need to beat Mizuki sensei to a pulp!" he growled as Mizuki pushed himself up and glared at Naruto.

"So the demon gets his claws, huh?!" he shouted, grabbing a kunai. "But it won't matter! You can't beat me!" Naruto simply responded by making a cross hand seal with his hands.

"Take your best shot, bastard!" he challenged. "I'll send it back at you a thousand fold!"

"Oh, yeah! Well, let's see it!" Mizuki called his bluff. "Show me what you got, Kyūbi!"

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto shouted, and instantly the area was covered in smoke. But it dispersed quickly to reveal several copies of Naruto! Thalia gaped at the sheer number of them. How many did he create?! There were even clones in the trees! Iruka, however, was stunned to silence as his amazement rose.

'They're not illusions. They're solid clones! He's perfected a highly advanced jutsu in only a span of a few hours!' he thought. Mizuki was shocked that the demon could perform such a powerful move. He turned trying to find the original, but all he could see was a sea of orange. The Narutos grinned.

"What's wrong, Mizuki sensei?" one mocked.

"Thought you wanted to kill me?" another said.

"If you don't come to us, then we'll come to you!" a third exclaimed, and all the clones raced at him. Mizuki panicked and jumped high into the air, hoping to avoid them, but suddenly he was convulsing in pain. He screamed in pain as one of his eyes caught sight of Thalia sending a bolt of lightning at him. This proved to be all the Naruto clones needed in the trees to jump at him and tackle him to the ground.

What happened next was the one of the most highly amusing things Thalia had ever seen in her entire life. The Naruto clones all dog piled on top of Mizuki and began to beat him senseless. Thalia had to admit she got a sense of vindication out of watching him get the snot beat out of him. Served him right for calling her a whore!

By the time the Naruto clones were done, Mizuki was little more than a giant bruise. The blood leaking from his broken nose did impact Thalia a bit, since finding out he was human, but to her, he was still a monster. The clones disappeared to reveal a sheepish looking Naruto, who was rubbing the back of his head as the sun finally began to rise and shine through the trees.

"Hehehehe…Sorry, looks like I got carried away!" he said cheerfully.

'All those clones, and he doesn't even look winded!' Iruka was growing more and more impressed by the moment.

"Nah! I think so!" Thalia said, getting to her feet and walking towards Naruto. "If anything, I think he's getting off very easily!" She looked to Naruto and looked uncomfortable. "L-Look," she spoke, cursing how weak her voice sounded, "I-I'm…" She tried forcing out the next word, "…Sorry…about the lightning bolt thing. I…The last thing I remembered before waking up here was fighting monsters and dying…"

Her eyes widened as her hand went to her side, feeling the ripped shirt, but no wound. "W-What the Hades…? She looked down at her ankle and rolled it, feeling no pain. "W-what happened?!" she shouted. "I…I remember dying! I remembered being cut open! I-"

"Um…" Naruto called out, hoping to gain her attention. "I think…I may be responsible for that…" She turned to him in shock.

"What are you talking about?!" she shouted, her hysteria growing.

"W-Well…" Naruto explained. "I was looking for another jutsu to impress Mizuki sensei…when I thought he was a good guy…and found this cool summoning jutsu. I signed the Scroll like it said and put as much chakra as I could into the jutsu, and you appeared. M…Maybe my chakra somehow healed you?"

Iruka contemplated what he just heard. He was even more shocked Naruto was able to learn a Summoning Jutsu in the same span of time as the Shadow Clone Jutsu, but he was confused as to why it would summon this girl. But Naruto's idea did have some merit. While he doubted it was Naruto's full chakra that healed her, he didn't know how summonings worked either. He stared at the girl, who looked very shocked at the idea. He couldn't blame her.

Thalia was still very confused. What did he mean 'he summoned her?' Chakra? Her brain was close to short circuiting at this point, so she decided to focus on the one thing she did understand from his speech.

He saved her. He, somehow, saved her from dying. The weight of that revelation hit her like one of her father's lightning bolts. She quickly threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "T-Thank you!" she whispered. "Thank you so much! I thought…I thought I was dead! I thought…" She didn't finish her sentence, not wanting to speak on the unpleasantness of having to wake up in her uncle's domain.

Naruto was shocked she actually was hugging him. He had never been hugged before. It was a…rather new experience. It felt…nice. However, he was left at a loss of what to do now. So, he simply patted her shoulder and gave her a wide, foxlike smile. "No problem…um…er…" He stopped, realizing he didn't know her name. Thalia looked up to him and smiled slightly.

"Thalia," she said.

"Huh?"

"My name," she said. "It's Thalia." Naruto frowned slightly.

"Thal-i-a?" he pronounced. "Thalia?" She nodded to him. He then smiled. "Then, no problem, Thalia-chan!" She looked confused at the honorific, but before she could comment on it, Iruka spoke up.

"Hey, Naruto," he called out, gaining the two preteens attention. "I hate to break up you little moment with…Thalia, was it? But I need you to come here for a moment." Thalia and Naruto blushed, and Thalia pulled away from the blonde. Naruto then walked over to Iruka, confused as to what he wanted. "Close your eyes for a moment. I'll tell you when to open them."

Naruto was even more confused now, but complied with Iruka's request. Thalia watched in confusion as Iruka then reached up and took Naruto's googles off his neck. He then reached up to his headband and untied it from his head. She was wondering what he was up to until he tied it around Naruto's forehead.

"Um, Iruka sensei? Can I open my eyes now?" Naruto asked. Iruka closed his eyes and smiled.

"Yes, Naruto, open them." Naruto did as he was told, but was confused when he saw Iruka holding his googles in his hand, and his headband missing. Naruto blinked when the sensation of something wrapped around his head finally registered in his mind.

"Congratulations, Naruto!" Iruka said. "You graduate!" Naruto's face went blank in shock. "And to celebrate, we're going out for Ramen! The good stuff!" Naruto's jaw quivered. Iruka opened his eyes in confusion, wondering why Naruto was so quiet.

However, the shock of graduating finally wore off, and Naruto's face morphed into an incredibly wide smile. "Iruka sensei!" he screamed and threw his arms around the man. Iruka laughed as the two fell to the ground.

"Hey! That hurts!" he laughed. The two laughed like old friends as Naruto expressed his gratitude at graduating. Thalia couldn't help but smile at the scene. It was sweet, almost, but she couldn't help but feel she was eavesdropping. So she tried to discretely move away from the two, but then a group of people in dark clothing and animal masks appeared behind her! She let out a noise of surprise and turned, raising her shield in defense. Her sudden gasp gained the attention of Naruto and Iruka, who looked up alertly.

"Iruka Umino, Naruto Uzumaki, Thalia-san," the one in the middle of the group spoke, shocking Thalia that he knew her name. "Hokage-sama wishes to speak to the three of you." Thalia was about to demand how he knew her name and ask who this 'Hokage' was, but Naruto had jumped up and ran to her side, seeing her apprehension.

"Thalia-chan, it's ok! They're good guys!" he told her. "And Jiji will figure out what…um…happened to you. He won't let anyone hurt you! I swear!" She glared at Naruto for a moment before turning her glare to the men before her.

She didn't trust these guys; heck, she wasn't sure she trusted this 'Hokage' either. However, for some reason, she felt she could trust Naruto. Maybe she felt bad for attacking him, or maybe it was something else, but she had this gut feeling that Naruto could be trusted. And if there was one thing she learned, it was trust your gut feelings. She grunted, trying to get her tough girl persona up and running.

"Sure, whatever," she mumbled.

Chapter 1 End. Kai!

An: And the first chapter is done! I hope you guys enjoyed it! And before anyone calls me out on using English translations for jutsu but using Kawarmi instead of substitution, Kawarmi is less of a mouthful. So, like Rasengan, I'll be using the Japanese words for certain techniques if I think it sounds better. If that doesn't make sense to you, don't worry. It makes sense to me.

Next chapter: The Hokage learns how Thalia was brought to Konoha, and they learn just how the Kyūbi's involvement effected Thalia. See you then!