A re-load of Ordeals of a Yokai ch1.

To those who have read ch 1 of this before, DISREGARD. Thank you. To sum up my reasons, the first chapter was a craptastic bomb that made me wince at it's very thought. That should be enough of a reason for anybody. I won't leave anything close to the first chapter up because

A) It was short (not including the summary of the original chapter of Naruto)

B) It was vague, the detail sucked. And finally...

C) I hated it as soon as I reread it after the post

Disclamer: I don't own the pilot chapter of Naruto. By writing this I do not claim ownership of Naruto, the series or pilot chapter. This is merely a fanmade work.

Attention: This one fanfiction is based off of the original pilot chapter of Naruto. I will not do a summary because I only want you to be familiar with the pilot chapter. So go onto google or some other search engine and type in Naruto pilot. It is a good short story.

Here is how the first chapter should have been, to a degree.

That First Foot Out the Door

A man walked to his house, a bag of groceries in his hand. The bag, paper, rustled in his arms and its insides clunking together as he walked down the street. It was pleasing to him to have to walk to and from places, as he got to take in the surroundings and breath the air. Though the air was not that fresh because of all the cars, it more pleasing than the air in his stuffy apartment.

He passed a gang of kids playing outside, laughing and absorbed into their little game. Passing by he didn't know exactly what the kids were doing but it was obviously some game of imagination. It didn't really matter to him, whatever kids did made him smile and laugh. One of the children bumped into him yelling, "Beat all enemy ninja!" and accidentally made him drop his bag of groceries. The kid paused for a second to apologize before another kid ran up saying, "A ninja never leaves himself open!" and hit the kid with a marble.

The assaulting child proclaimed the other dead, but the other one denied it by saying he was in time-out because he was apologizing to the man. The attacking kid told him that he didn't call "times" and proceeded to throw another marble, hitting the other on the head. The kid who had bumped into the man started to chase after the other child, the other calling out, "Head shot! Head shot! Your dead! Stop it! Mommy!"

The man watched as the kids ran off to the rest of their friends. He sighed with a small smile on his face as he kneeled down to pick up his fallen groceries. He was lucky he had not bought anything like eggs. One by one he picked up his groceries, before one more was left on the ground. He paused as he reached down for the last item. A cup of instant ramen.

This time with an exasperated sigh, the man picked up the cup ramen and made his way back to his home.

He reached the door to his apartment, the groceries heavy in his arm from walking from the market to his home. He reached out his hand to open the door, fully expecting a clean home with the light scent of paint and charcoal dust. He turned the knob of the last obstruction between him and home.

The man walked into the front room of his apartment, finding that the floor was still not clean from earlier. He turned his head to the pre-teen he had asked to do the job earlier, who was sitting inverted on the couch watching T.V.. The blonde pre-teen had a bag of chips next to him, which he pulled a handful of at a time and stuffed into his mouth. The kid seemed to not notice the man in the doorway, his attention focused directly on the box of flashing lights in front of him, periodically switching between channels.

The man looked around at the dirty apartment, most of the mess centered around the couch. The man looked at the blonde and cleared his throat. The blonde looked at the man for nothing more than a second before saying, "Ah, hey Kuroda-san!" The blonde then flipped off the couch, landing feet first on the floor. He walked up to the man and asked, "What did you get for me?" with a big smile on his face.

Kuroda's lips pursed into a frown and he glared at the boy, seeing if he would pick up on the sign. The boy looked anxiously, waiting for the answer, the smile dropping a bit in waiting. The message not getting across, Kuroda decided just say it, "You were supposed to clean up while I was out. Remember Naruto?" The blonde boy's, Naruto's, expression drooped and formed a frown, equal to that of Kuroda's. Naruto stared down Kuroda for a moment before speaking just above a whisper, loud enough for the man to hear him. "You are going to give me what you have in the bag old man." Naruto said with a glare. Kuroda's frown turned into an arrogant smile as he stared down the blonde and said, "Try it."

Naruto took the challenge and pounced on the older man. The pre-teen, having the strength of just that, would not have been able to move the older man, though that was not what he planned. To not offset his balance Kuroda quickly set down the bag and prepared to take the child's assault. Suddenly Naruto transformed in midair, turning into a monkey with a fox tail.- The monkey landed on the man's chest and kicked off onto the ground, heading for the bag. Kuroda seen Naruto's plan and made a break to get to the grocery bag. The monkey, being more agile that the older man quickly grabbed the bag before the man. The monkey started rummaging through the bag when Kuroda picked it up by its foxtail. The monkey screeched and squirmed as Kuroda held its tail. Kuroda chuckled at the little guy and was about to scold him, but he failed to notice the can of tomato soup that was previously in the monkey's hands that was now making its way to his face. The can smacked Kuroda in the face, making his head jerk to the side. To break the bond on his tail, Naruto bit Kuroda's hand with his monkey teeth. Kuroda dropped the monkey, which made a quick process of rummaging through the bag and taking the ramen cup.

The monkey ran to the couch and turned back into Naruto's original form. Naruto looked at the ramen cup's label finding that the flavor was chicken. Naruto's mood fell suddenly and he looked toward Kuroda. The man was still holding his hand. Kuroda gave a nasty glare to Naruto, who didn't mind and gave a glare of his own. "You got me chicken? I told you that my favorite was pork! How hard is it to get pork flavored cup ramen?" Naruto scolded Kuroda, who received it as all adult men would receive a scolding from a child. "You little brat! I did something nice for you and I get a can thrown at my face, bit, and some condescending lecture, all by some kid!" Kuroda yelled out, loud enough for Naruto to press his hands against his ears. Kuroda walked up to Naruto, some anger dissipated enough to stop yelling, and continued, "What's more you don't deserve it in a bit, as you didn't do the one thing that I asked you!" Kuroda gestured around the room to let his scolding sink in.

Naruto sat looking at him for a second before finally saying, "I'm sorry." and going back to watching T.V.. Kuroda sighed and left it, there would be no use in arguing with the kid. He picked up the bag and the lone can of soup on the floor and made his way to the kitchen.

As he was putting away the food he heard Naruto calling out to him, "Kuroda? How far is the grocery store?" Kuroda looked back at the kid, who held a questioning gaze. Kuroda scratched the back of his head in thought, "Hmm, I don't know... about four blocks, not a long walk at all." Kuroda told Naruto this as he hoped the boy would leave. The boy hadn't left the house in a week and a half, since he first started staying there.

The boy stared off to nowhere as he said, "Well then I guess you shouldn't complain about having to go back there."

Naruto heard what sounded like an entire cabinet of canned food falling to the ground. His eyes were not pried away from the T.V. If he decided to take notice then he would not have been surprised when someone picked him up by his collar.

"You little brat!" came Kuroda's voice to Naruto's ear. Naruto squirmed and moved as much as he could, but to no avail, he was still stuck suspended by the man. Kuroda started to yell again, "If you want that damned ramen so much, you go and get it!" The man started to shake Naruto around while he yelled, hoping to get the message across. The seeming flawed reasoning proved to have some hold as Naruto started to plead. "Okay! Okay! Put me down and I will get it!"

Kuroda then, 'accidentally', dropped Naruto on the floor. The thud made by the blonde falling on the ground made him glad that he lived on the bottom floor. Naruto got up and wiped the chip crumbs off of his coat. He then walked to and out of the door, but not before calling Kuroda a dirty old bastard.

Kuroda stared at the door for a second before sighing. Kuroda then walked back to the kitchen to pick up the cans on the floor.

If he didn't know better, Kuroda would have guessed that he was going through having a college roommate again. Naruto acted like that and more, as this was only little more than a week with the blonde fox spirit. There was at least a month's wait before you realize all the crap that your roommate puts you through. Naruto took all the hot water during a shower, bugged him while he painted, put more food away than a garbage truck, and, if the boy would get out, probably would bring home all the women in the city and party all night. If the last two happened at all then it would be college all over again.

Secluded Kuroda would complain while 'life of the party' Saburo decides that his goal in college would be to be the virginity thief. Little bastard, thought Kuroda. He then blinked, not knowing if he was talking about Naruto or Saburo anymore. Kuroda decided he was talking about Naruto as talking like that about a dead man would be wrong, even if it was true.

When Kuroda finally got all the cans put away, he went to the living room closet and got out a vacuum, sighing. He had vowed to make Naruto do it, as it was his mess, but here he was, cleaning his mess. Just like college. Kuroda shook his head, not wanting to go over that again in his mind. At any rate, chip crumbs were better to clean up than panties after the 'drink 'till you piss' game. Kuroda shuddered, bad memories.

While Kuroda ran the vacuum back and froth, he reminisced on Naruto's behavior after coming to stay. He had allowed the boy to stay since Naruto didn't know anybody in the city except him, and it was far better than sleeping outside or in one of the seedy motels, which were worse than sleeping outside. One only needed to open a newspaper on any day of the week to know how bad they were.

But since day one, Naruto refused to go outside. He was working against his goal of bringing a friend to the mountains. Kuroda was working too hard so he couldn't go, and if things continued as they had, 'friend' would hardly be the word he would use to describe Naruto.

Finally the living room was done, the carpet around the couch actually visible. Kuroda looked at the couch itself to see that the couch was covered in crumbs of it's own. Kuroda cleaned that with an attachment on his vacuum. Finally the heavy mess was cleaned up. The only thing now was how stale the air was. The boy seemed to like his privacy, as the windows and their blinds were all closed. Kuroda opened all of them, even the door for good measure.

Finally with time to relax, Kuroda went to his little corner in the living room. His art corner. He sat on the stool before his easel, a half painted still life on it. He reached for his paint and pallet, only an arm's length away. He only had the colors red, blue, yellow, and white. But one could get any color they wanted by mixing these colors, even black. After getting all the colors he needed on the pallet, Kuroda looked at his subject, a purple jar and a yellow bowl. He hummed as he painted, enjoying the time. Naruto didn't get his fascination with painting, something Kuroda couldn't even explain. All he could say is that it wasn't a spectator's activity.

Speaking of Naruto, the boy wasn't back yet. In fact, as he thought about it, the boy didn't have any money to buy the ramen. He left in such a huff he didn't remember that the cup would cost him money. Kuroda chuckled to himself; the little brat deserved it. He probably took so long because he was too embarrassed to admit his mistake. Well, it is time without him, Kuroda thought.

Kuroda continued to paint as a fly started to buzz around him. It started to fly around his face, almost deliberately. No matter how many times he would wave the thing off it would keep coming back. The fly probably came from the open door. To prevent more of them from coming in, Kuroda walked to the door to close it.

Just as he was about to get to the door, a cheetah ran swiftly through it, scaring Kuroda into an inch of his life. The cheetah came to a hard stop in the house, crashing into the wall opposite the door. The big cat's folly didn't do anything to ease Kuroda's fright of it. He pushed himself up the wall behind him, not thinking of escaping through the door just to his side. The cheetah got up and looked around the room, flicking its foxtail.

It took the cheetah to look directly at him, with a cup of ramen in its mouth, for Kuroda to realize just what he was looking at. Fear ebbed away, giving way to anger. "You little bastard! You realize you scared the living hell out of me?" Kuroda yelled directly at the cheetah. The cheetah, still looking at him, closed its eyes and its mouth curved into a smile.

Naruto replaced the cheetah, a smile illuminating his face. The cup of ramen was still right there in his mouth. He took it out and said, "Well, I needed some way to get my ramen for free then run away from the store owner."

"You mean you stole that?" Kuroda asked, though he knew the answer. Naruto tossed the ramen form one hand to the other as he said condescendingly, "Well, somebody forgot to give me money for it." It was obvious that the blonde blamed the theft on Kuroda. Kuroda told himself that he should have guessed the boy would try to blame him.

Then a thought crossed Kuroda's head. "You transformed in front of some people?" Naruto only gazed at the man questioningly before saying, "You think I am an idiot? No, I came in as a cheetah, left as a cheetah. ' Chose that because they run so fast." Naruto rubbed his head as he looked back to the wall. "Too fast." he commented to himself. He shook his head and looked back to Kuroda, "They weren't able to follow me. A mob of people, all for a little ramen. Either this is special ramen, what I am hoping, or they over reacted."

"I'd over react if a cheetah ran into my store and took some ramen." Kuroda said, trying to get the boy to feel guilty. It didn't work. "I didn't run in! What do you think; I wanted to scare every one? I just walked in, as normally as possible." Kuroda started to massage his temple.

"You mean as normally as a cheetah could." he said.

"Yeah, I mean cheetahs are everywhere right?" Naruto said; his arms crossed definitively.

"You were watching T.V. all day, right?" Kuroda said as he rubbed his head with more force.

"Yeah. That is where I got the idea. That animal channel was talking about them and how fast they run." Naruto said, nodding his head.

"They didn't talk about where cheetahs are located?" Kuroda asked gritting his teeth.

"Nah, that was after the commercial, but I couldn't wait since I was bored, so I changed the channel." Naruto ended, his teeth flashing behind his smile.

Kuroda was about to yell, but decided against it. The kid made a mistake, a big mistake, but a mistake, nonetheless. "Cheetahs are a continent across form us. They are only there." Kuroda said slowly, hoping the boy would pick up on it. Naruto seemed unaffected by it. He only answered to that with, "Well, at least there won't be a cheetah to take the punishment for me."

Naruto walked to the bathroom, but before entering he looked back and said, "I going to take a shower, I'm exhausted since the owner of that market chased me around. ' Never knew that someone could go that fast on a bike. I want that ramen cooked by the time I come out." With that Naruto threw the ramen into Kuroda's hands and closed the door behind him. Kuroda, who caught the ramen cup, stared at the bathroom door with about as much admiration as an office grunt that looked at the man who took his cushy promotion.

Still, like a grunt, he turned to make the ramen. He still had the dignity to say out loud, "I have more than enough time."

Naruto came out of the bathroom with a billow of steam following him out. A towel hung tastefully from his waist. Before entering his room to get a change of clothes, Naruto yelled to Kuroda, "That ramen better be done!" Before he closed his door, Naruto heard Kuroda groan.

After a short time (A/N why should I explain the dressing process to you?), Naruto came out with his trademark coat, the third one since he came, and orange pants. "Alright," he yelled out, "where is my ramen?" Kuroda, who stared at the T.V. with a defeated look, merely pointed a lax finger to the kitchen. Naruto ran into the kitchen and grabbed the cup ramen. After taking the lid off, he unceremoniously ate the noodles as if he was drinking a cup of water. A cup of water a friend dared him to chug.

Naruto savored the taste of the ramen juice on his tongue. He gave a contented sigh. Though the ramen was a little cold, it hit the spot.

He walked to the couch and sat down near Kuroda, who still stared forward. Naruto grabbed the remote out of his hand and switched channels. Nothing that interested Naruto was on. He continued to switch channels even after he had gone through them all. He blamed the lack of entertainment on the fact the Kuroda didn't have nothing more than the advanced package of channels. He wondered if he could find anything to watch after getting those hundreds of channels he heard about.

But still it was T.V. "Man, I am glad about this, back up the mountains we don't have anything like this." Naruto voiced out, trying to start conversation. He only heard a groan come from Kuroda's mouth as a response. "Although, I do want to go back up the mountains. I do have to finish my training, and that old man probably doesn't have much longer."

As a response, Naruto heard barely understandable mumbling come out of Kuroda's mouth. He grinned inwardly at the fact he was making progress. "What was that Kuroda-san? I didn't hear you." Naruto asked the man. The man mumbled once more. "What?" Naruto asked again.

"I said-" Kuroda yelled out, breaking Naruto's eardrums. "I said, 'then why don't you hurry up and go out to make that friend!" Though Naruto was covering his bleeding ears and crouched up against a wall half a room away, the message was received easily. Naruto escalated the pressure on his ears as Kuroda walked up to him.

Kuroda stood before him, ventilating his breaths with tightened fists. Naruto could only watch as, with one swipe, Kuroda picked him up by his coat. Kuroda brought Naruto's face level to his own, so the blonde could see the anger in the black of his eyes. "You told me that you would go out and make friends, since I'm busy! Yet, you lay like a lump of flesh in my house and use my things as you will!" Kuroda shook Naruto to put the words in the blonde's head.

"Why haven't you left yet," Kuroda asked the blonde, with gritted teeth. Naruto stared at Kuroda for a second, before the man threatened to shake him again. He didn't like it when he did that. It felt like a bad carnival ride.

"I-I just though that you would get off work soon," Naruto stuttered out. Kuroda looked the blonde in the eyes and asked, "How busy have I been recently?"

"You- you only had today off." Naruto answered. Kuroda loosened his grip on the blonde. "Is one day enough to go up into the mountains?" He asked the boy. Naruto shook his head. It took at least a week depending on what mode of transportation one had.

Kuroda lowered the blonde, without letting him touch the ground yet. "I have another week of work to do after today, exactly as much as last week. As with the week after and so on. I am booked for a year Naruto. Do you have a year to wait?"

"No." Naruto answered simply. Kuroda anger was finally sated with finally getting through to Naruto. "Then?" Kuroda started Naruto off.

"Then I have to go outside." Naruto said, with a nervous grin. Kuroda set the boy down on the ground, gently this time. When the blonde's feet finally touched the ground, Kuroda turned around and sat on his couch and picked up the remote. "Good, now get out, this has been the most stressful day off I've ever had to live though." Kuroda didn't look over to Naruto as he started to periodically switch through the channels.

Naruto stood watching the man. There was a mild discomfort in his expression. Kuroda was kind of a big guy, a bit too big to be an artist. Getting yelled at a guy like him was like getting threatened. Although, Kuroda did threaten Naruto a little.

Naruto looked out the window, finding the day still bright and active. He wasn't going to be able to use the excuse of 'it's getting late'. Though, the more Naruto looked out that window, the more he anticipated going outside. He didn't know why but he felt that he might just have fun outside. A bright day, families would be out, kids his age would be playing. And most importantly, what lay before him was an entire city who didn't know him, or the tricks of his trade. He couldn't help it; he flashed the biggest grin he could that would show each of his teeth.

Kuroda noticed the expression on Naruto's face as the blonde passed in front of him to get to the door. It seemed as though Naruto was trying to hide it, but Kuroda could easily see that Naruto had planned a disaster for the outside world. Kuroda felt somehow responsible for whatever might happen from that point on.

But none of that mattered as the man on the game show he was watching had gotten the easiest question in the world. As the door closed behind Naruto, Kuroda shouted at the T.V., "The answer is Van Gogh! Van Gogh painted The Starry Night!" The man on the T.V. seemed to ponder the question, without the answer coming to him. Kuroda clenched his fists and repeated the answer over again, as if it would help the man.

"Van Gogh! Van Gogh! Van Gogh!" Kuroda yelled at the man, who was sweating under the question.

"Da Vinci?" the man on the show guessed.

Chapter End

There you have it, the first re-written chapter of Ordeals of a Yokai. It took me a while but I got it done.

I am asking you, the reader, who should be paired with Naruto in this story. Mostly because I can be indecisive at times. I have narrowed down the listing because I could only fit those characters in the series for now. The pairings are as follows:

NaruIno

NaruSaku

NaruTayu

I might start a poll for it, making it easier for me, but not many hit my profile page. Make it clear what the pairing you want is, or else I will be too lost to list it. I can be a very clueless person, espessially when I am away from school.

Review. Later.