Devils in the Background

Beware of the Shadows

Last Time:

"Mom told me years ago about being adopted, but this letter ... something doesn't sit right with me. Go search for anything that happened the day I was dropped off at the orphanage and find this Sparrow." The lizard nodded and flattened itself against the wall before fading away ...

XXXXXXXXXX

Naruto was back at Ichiraku the next week eating a bowl of ramen, "This ramen is excellent, Teuchi!"

The ramen chef grinned, "Why thank you, Naruto. So how are you settling in?"

"Very well. Everything is almost done. I just need to start looking for clients." Naruto said as he sucked down the ramen broth.

"I'll put the word out for you and if you want you could go over to the clan compounds and try to get signed up there. Most people wouldn't even try, but you would have a really good shot since you know how to use chakra." The ramen chef suggested.

A young woman came into the ramen stand staring intently at her phone, "Hey, Dad. Hi, hokage-sama." She mumbled as she wandered into the back room.

The tattoo artist twitched, this wasn't the first time he was mistaken for the hokage, but before he correct the girl, who's name was Ayame, Teuchi said, "Hokage-sama, how was your day?" The ramen chef winked.

"Very busy, but not too bad" Naruto said with a smirk.

"And how's the wife?"

Naruto shrugged, "No clue, I've been too busy shacking up with all the men in town to notice."

*crash* Teuchi and Naruto burst out laughing the girl came out of the back room covered in various ingredients looking completely embarrassed for mistaking the guy for someone else, "I'm sorry, sir."

"It's ok, you're not the first person to mistake me for the hokage." Naruto chuckled as he paid for the food and left. He could hear the distant yell of, "It's not funny, Dad." Which was followed by the sound of a ladle hitting bone as he walked away. The anbu following him were easy enough to spot. Hell, he was tempted to wave to them, but he decided to save that for another time. They were only doing their job of making sure the newcomer wasn't a threat. Hikaru mentioned this might happened, but that it wasn't a big deal.

XXXXXXXXXX

It didn't take long to find the clan compounds. Naruto stopped a moment and wondered how he should approach the clan heads. After all, he didn't want to insult them accidentally. As he pondered how to approach this situation a group of women, who were chatting happily after a clearly successful day of shopping, pass by him and a helpless orange dropped from its owner's bag.

Being the gentlemen he was he picked up the fruit and caught up to the group of women, "Excuse me, miss. You dropped this."

The blonde haired woman turned and smiled as she took her orange, "Why thank you- oh, is your name Naruto Kazama?"

Naruto blinked, "Actually yes, how did you-" The woman pulled out a magazine that had the blonde on the cover and shirtless. "Oh, I didn't know that issue reached this far."

"Well it doesn't, but I had a mission near where this was released. We have been dying to meet you! Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Ino and this is Hinata, Tenten and Sakura." She said as she pointed to each girl in the group.

Tenten smiled, "We're getting ready for a party. You should come with us!" The girls didn't even let him answer, they just dragged him away ...

XXXXXXXXXX

"This is going to be boring. What a drag." A raven with pineapple styled hair complained as he walked alongside his friends, Shino, Neji and Choji, and their Dads. Even Shikaku, Hiashi Hyuga and Inoichi were dragged along. As they approached the place where the party was to be they heard laughing and saw the girls talking with some tattooed guy.