Two updates in one night? I must be crazy. This one hasn't been active in a while (well, I haven't been active in a while). I blame it all on laziness.

A middle-aged man sat in a ramen stall, eating with chopsticks in his left hand. He wore a long, shabby cloak that covered his body and a cloth mask that covered the lower part of his face up to just under his eyes.

'I know it's cheap and all, but do you have to eat it all the time? Can't we get something like rice or udon?' The man didn't seem surprised or bothered by the voice that only he could hear. 'Shut up, I like ramen. It's mostly my body, so deal with it. Anyway, this is where our customer agreed to meet us.'

'If I had known the outside world would be like this, I think I would've stayed in my cage. At least I don't have to deal with your disrespect as often.'

For a normal person, this internal exchange would have been strange. But for Uzumaki Naruto, the boy who had run from Hidden Leaf five years ago, this was his life.

At the moment, his still boyish appearance was changed into that of a middle-aged rouge ninja. However, he was not hidden under a normal henge; the technique actually physically altered his external appearance instead of masking it under chakra, making it harder to detect. But he could only make basic sructural changes, unable to hide his very defining features, including his blond hair and whisker-like scars. Because of the loss of his right hand, he wasn't able to do more advanced techniques that required hand symbols, but he gained a far greater power: the Kyuubi, who had instructed him how he could fully use their power out of need for survival and boredom.

Naruto had long finished his twelfth bowl before his client arrived. An older man had the appearance of a drunk, but Naruto could sense the aura of caution around the person. He sat on the stool next to Naruto. "I thought you said you would take care of the privacy of this place, but it's full of people." The other man had a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Naruto ordered his thirteenth bowl, brushing off the other man's comment. "You want one too? You should, they're free." The other man took a closer look at the vendor and realized that Naruto had taken care of the privacy of the place; the vendor's eyes had a very slightly unfocused look, and a glance at the other patrons proved to have the same. 'I could not even detect such a genjutsu. What kind of technique is this man using?'

Slurping down the rest of his bowl, Naruto added it to his small collection. "Let's get to business." He turned to face the man. "What do you want me to do? And remember, I don't come cheap."

The man gave a shudder at the look in Naruto's eyes: in them he saw blood, fire, and destruction. He swallowed. "We would like you to infiltrate Hidden Sky and retrieve for us a certain scroll." He showed Naruto a picture. It was very old, many of the outer designs and markings on the faded blue parchment nearly faded away. You could almost make out the design of a dragon, and it was wrapped shut with a simple whie cloth, a seal written on it.

"Huh, that's it? You sure you don't want me to kill anybody on the way?" As far as jobs went for him, this was quite simple; he had infiltrated several of the other hidden villages, but this was the first time he was going to sneak into one of the big five.

"That's fine, this scroll should give you enough trouble." He gave a 'you'll-know-when-you-get-there' sort of look.

"What's in it?" Naruto studied the picture carefully. Though he wasn't that interested himself, he knew that there would be a few decoys.

"We can't tell you that, but if you're worried about duds, here's a simple test." He took out a piece of paper. "This is similar to the material that the scroll is made of." He then set fire to the piece of paper.

The fire burned for a few minutes, and then extinguished itself, leaving the paper completely unharmed.

"The material is fireproof, waterproof, tear-proof and cut-proof, with the exception of a blade that we make that can cut it."

Nodding, Naruto went over the last, and most important, term to the agreement. "Payment."

The man pulled a bag out of his top. It was stuffed, and inside were pure gold pieces. "That's the advance. The rest of the payment will be ten-fold of that once you bring us the scroll at the place specified in the bag. You'll have one month, starting tomorrow."

"Okay, I accept."

The man nodded. "Good." He stood up and left. Once he stepped outside the stall, he resumed his drunken stupor.

Naruto stayed behind and finished ten more bowls before getting up. He opened the bag and put two gold coins on the counter. Then he, too, stepped outside and disappeared.

Outside of the village and in the safety of his own encampment, Naruto reverted his appearance back. Though he could keep his disguise on as long as he wanted, he secretly feared forgetting his own face, and spent as much time in it as possible. He also dropped his cloak and lowered his mask so it bunched up around his neck. Long gone was his orange jacket and matching pants, which he had outgrown almost immediately. His undershirt was black, right sleeve torn to shreds when the Kyuubi had to go through. He wore a vest of deep red, the only other shirt Kyuubi would agree to. He had a pair of black cargo pants, tapered at the shin with red cloth shinguards and a pair of off-white socks. Kunai holster and back pouch were standard. He also had to buy a pair of less-expensive straw sandals, stained as dark as they could get.

The kyuubi was wrapped in bandages in a way that would be easy to remove if in battle, in case the cloak was to be moved in any way that would reveal his former right arm (the kyuubi had only accepted this after a guard requested that the boy reveal what he was hiding under the cloak. The move had almost blown their cover.). The kyuubi growled, and Naruto released the bandages covering the fox's head. Naruto's tails were wrapped around his body, covering important organs and sensitive areas that would be dangerous to leave exposed. For now, he stretched them out, working out the kinks and knots from leaving them in an awkward position for so long.

Recovering his sac from a patch of grass laden with traps, he checked his supplies. They should be good for another week, at least. The kyuubi worked out its mouth and shook its head. 'God, I hate that thing. Can't you wrap it a little looser?'

Naruto continued checking the area for any intrusion. 'Of course not. Any looser and the bandages would fall right off. Anyway, you have to have some punishment for leaving your prison.'

The kyuubi snorted. 'Prude. If my life wasn't directly linked to yours, I'd have killed you long ago.'Satisfied with finding no signs of tresspassing, Naruto sat down on the grass.

'Well, if you weren't a part of me, I might have actually lived a normal life. So deal with it. Your fault for escaping the Fourth's prison.' He wrapped his tails around him as a makeshift blanket. 'I'm going to bed now. Be sure to keep a lookout while I sleep.'

'I am not your personal watchdog, brat!' Naruto didn't respond. 'I know you aren't sleeping, bastard.' Still no response. 'Tch, do what you want.'

No afterword; too tired to write one.