Legend Of Zelda: The Lost Years

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Legend of Zelda; I'm just a fan! ^_^

Chapter 1: Chapter the First

Blue eyes opened to a blue sky before slowly surveying the tall trees around them.

Seeing no immediate danger a boy sat up from amongst the foliage. He was tall and blond, and was wearing a dark green tunic and brown pants. He wore dark, brown boots, leather braces on each wrist and a sword strapped to his back in a metal sheath. Underneath his tunic he wore bronze chain mail. Taking a better look around he saw nothing familiar. A sigh broke through his lips. Link, for that was the boy's name, knew that he had led a very odd life. Born a Hylian, but raised by the Great Deku Tree as a Kokiri, Link often looked back on his short life and wondered. He had been affianced to a Zora princess, become a clan brother to the Goron, and to top it off had traveled back and forth through time to save all of the kingdom of Hyrule, and he did it all before he hit puberty! Well technically any way, seeing as when he had gone forward in time he had become a teen, but he had just been a kid in a teen's body then. However despite his odd life, Link had always prided himself on the fact that he never got lost. Oh sure he would wander in the wrong direction for a while before realizing he was going the wrong way, but he had never been truly lost. Even in the so-called Lost Woods he had never had a problem navigating his way home, but as he looked around the clearing he knew he was well and truly lost. Nothing looked familiar, and he knew that if nothing looked familiar then he most likely wasn't in Hyrule. That was another thing Link took pride in. He had been to every corner of Hyrule and so knew it like the back of his hand. Unfortunately, it seemed that knowing Hyrule would most likely not help him now.

Sighing again, Link stood up and brushed the dirt and leaves from his tunic. Taking stock, Link checked to see what he had managed to keep with him. Sword? Check, thank Farore for that! Shield? Unfortunately it seemed to have been left behind. Not a big problem, but it would have been nice. Bow? Ah Great still there. Arrows? Apparently not, which made his bow all but useless. Slingshot? Yep still there and oh look seeds for ammo too! At least that's something. Last, but not least, Link checked his wallet and promptly let out his fourth sigh of the day. Empty just fantastic. Link sometimes wondered if the Goddesses didn't need a hero at all, but rather an errand boy that they could use for some amusement when the urge struck them. Running a hand through his hair, Link then realized that he also didn't have his hat. It didn't really bother him, as he had never really liked the hat in the first place. He just wore it because it was a part of the Kokiri way. Boys wore funny green hats, that's just the way it was. Chuckling softly to himself, Link picked a direction and started walking hoping that he would find a village or town before nightfall. Little did he know that in the opposite direction, just ten minutes away, lay Konoha where a team of Genin was getting ready to embark on their first ever C ranked mission.

Uzumaki Naruto was bouncing on his heals, blue eyes frantically searching for his teacher. His blond hair bounced up and down with him and he made quite the sight in his orange jump suit. Groaning, Naruto wondered, not for the first time, why Kakashi-Sensei was aloud to be late to everything. He was a Ninja of Konoha! Ninja had an obligation as protectors of the village to be prompt! When Naruto became Hokage he promised himself that he would make sure none of his ninja were ever late to anything! Groaning again, Naruto looked at his teammates. At first he had been thrilled to be on the same team as his long time crush, but as he looked at her now he wondered what he had seen in her in the first place. Unfortunately like any boy of twelve he had been taken by her pretty face, long pink hair, aqua-blue eyes and her book smarts, but as time passed he realized that she wasn't anything like he had pictured her to be. Haruno Sakura had been the smartest girl in their class and now Naruto just saw her as a ditzy fan girl. She never trained, caring more about her appearance or about her "Sasuke-Kun" than her lack of ninja skills. Her ninjutsu was non-existent and her tiajutsu consisted of hitting him upside the head whenever she felt like it. Sakura also never spoke to him unless it was to insult him or demean him. He didn't know what he had done to deserve getting punched and insulted all the time, but he had decided that he found it very unattractive. Thus he lost any affection he had for her and had decided he was certain that he never wanted to go out with her. Uchiha Sasuke on the other hand was a whole different cup of noodles.

Naruto had never had any misconceptions about Sasuke. The black haired, black eyed, heartthrob of Konoha was a total jerk. He had always either looked down on or ignored him and unlike Sakura was always training. In fact, Naruto was pretty sure that when he wasn't looking down on the people of Konoha or ignoring the populace, he was training. Of coarse training for him half the time consisted of angrily throwing Kunai at a log post and angsting about his clan's murder. Naruto understood that Sasuke wanted to avenge his clan, but spending all your time moping around or snapping at people, couldn't be healthy. Him and Sasuke had never really gotten along. Naruto had tried and had thought that, out of all the people in the village, Sasuke would understand his loneliness, but the baka had just sneered at him, called him a dobe and went on his merry way. Which was actually a hunchbacked shuffle, mumbling under his breath about how unworthy everyone was compared to him because he was an Uchiha. Naruto had considered him a lost cause and had given up. It wasn't worth the trouble when someone was that far gone into their own little world. Naruto just hoped that Sasuke didn't get himself killed while he had his head in Uchiha land.

Naruto sighed and thought about where he fit into their mismatched group. Naruto knew he had a good gig. Play stupid, be loud and obnoxious, and play a prank or two and the world would leave you to your own devices. Not only that, but a bonus was that everyone also underestimated his abilities. Even when he did something cool or got out of a tight situation, showing the world a glimpse of his true self, everyone just wrote it off as a fluke. Take the episode with Mizuki-Sensei for example. He played stupid and innocent and then beat the crap out of him. No one even paid attention to the fact that he had learnt an incredibly hard, forbidden jutsu in just an hour and a half, or the fact that a mere academy student had beat a chunin into the ground. They just wrote it off as a fluke and sent him on his merry way. Naruto was proud of the fact that he was smart enough to play dumb and had fun with it. Naruto considered himself as something in between Sasuke and Sakura. He liked training and trained a lot, but not to the exclusion of all else like Sasuke. He also would be the first to admit that he was obsessed with ramen, but he didn't let his obsession consume him like Sakura did. In fact it could be said that he consumed his obsession rather than letting it consume him! Naruto snickered at his own joke, which caused their client to look his way. Tazuna stared at him with distain before opening his mouth to speak. He didn't get the chance however because at that moment Kakashi decided he was late enough. As the tall, silver haired veteran walked out of the crowd Naruto noted that his head was stuck in his favorite pink book.

"Your late!" Sakura screamed, her eyes flashing angrily.

"Isn't he always?" Naruto mumbled, "You don't have to scream about it every time."

"Sorry I got lost on…" Kakashi started.

"LIAR!" Sakura screamed again. Tazuna winced,

"Is she always like this?" he asked.

"No, this is her being calm." Naruto said with a laugh at Tazuna's incredulous expression.

"If you were looking for normal ninja, I'm afraid you'll be hard pressed to find any."

"Your team seems fairly normal…. For the most part." He replied eyeing Sakura. Naruto laughed again.

"Sakura is a know-it-all ditz with a obsession with duck-butt head over there and Sasuke is a first class jerk with a "holier than thou" complex. Sakura doesn't train at all, Sasuke trains too much and neither really have a life." Naruto explained.

"What about you?" Tazuna asked.

"Me? I'm the hyperactive, idiotic pet that eats nothing but noodles." Naruto said with a fox-like grin. Tazuna looked rather upset that he had paid for protection and had gotten unstable children instead. However, he just turned to Kakashi as if nothing was wrong and asked when they were leaving. That was Naruto's first hint that their mission wasn't all that it seemed. The fact that Tazuna was letting them escort him when he obviously wanted a more professional team, made Naruto question why. Deciding that he would keep an eye out just in case, Naruto pushed it to the back of his head. Kakashi finally gave the green light and they were off. Naruto felt a smile slowly grow on his face as they left the village. For the first time ever he felt free as the hate filled villagers were left behind.