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Alright, lesson learned. Don’t use screenshots from the anime itself. That being said, here is long awaited chapter five!! Well, for those of you who actually read this which probably isn’t a lot but if you are you are a wonderful person for giving me a chance! YOU ROCK!!! Now every story has to have filler and I’m afraid this is part of it, but I tried my best to spice it up but the good stuff is gonna probably start next chapter!

Patrick and the others all walked out of their rooms, sliding the door shut and making their way to Sakura’s room for dinner because the boy’s room was overcrowded and messy from Lee and Naruto messing up the bed and throwing their dirty clothes everywhere, so they just decided to eat in her room instead of cleaning up their room. As they walked down the hallway made with the same traditional paper and frame style that remind Patrick of his old home, the tension between the ninja made them extremely quiet, barely making a sound as their footsteps were amplified by creaking and groaning of the wooden floorboards.

They were being quiet because Patrick had refused to tell them how he healed himself or pretty much anything at all. After shouting at him for 20 minutes he agreed to talk to them about who he was after dinner, so after taking a shower, replacing his torn up white hospital robe with one of Naruto’s extra white shirts and a light blue robe, his black shorts and tattered brown sandals still wearable they walked to dinner.

Finally, after receiving his fair share of suspicious glares from both Lee and Naruto with Kakashi keeping a straight face the whole walk down, they eventually made it to Sakura’s room. Kakashi knocked on the door, “Come in!” Sakura yelled through the door giving the boy’s permission to enter her room by sliding the door open.

Immediately Patrick was intoxicated with the wonderful smells that filled the room with a the various scents of fish, meats, fruits, soups, pastries, and almost everything else that existed in Patrick’s wildest fantasies and more! The view was even better, various kinds of fish cooked in different ways; teriyaki glazed yellowtail, grilled salmon, marinated mackerel and more!! The meats were not to be downplayed though as they was pan fried beef, ginger pork, a few bowels of fruit, and even more things he had no clue what they were!! Patrick was dumbstruck by the spread set before him, there was no way it could be real!!

“WHOA!!! Sakura, this looks awesome!!” Naruto said as he sat Indian style in front of the small table and started filling his plate with almost one of everything on the table. “Naruto!! Wait until we are all seated!!” Sakura shouted as Kakashi, Lee and Sakura all took their seats around the short table. They were about to all dig in when everyone aside from Naruto realized that Patrick hadn’t sat down yet, and that he was still standing the doorway.

Sakura and Lee were a little confused “Patrick, come on it, sit down and eat! It’s really good!” “YES YOU MUST EAT IN ORDER TO-” Lee shouted but was cut by Sakura hitting him on the head. Patrick was a scared and confused, why did they get all this delicious food and want him to have some? “O-Ok I guess…” Patrick said as he sat down with the rest of them. Once he sat down all hell broke loose as Lee joined Naruto in with Kakashi filling and cleaning his plate what seemed like every other minute while barely making a dent in all the food. Plus the young fanged boy was starving!! He could eat a whole village if he wanted to at that point, but made sure to stay polite so he just sat there and nibbled on some bread, not to mention he needed to keep his fangs hidden and eating might reveal them.

That was before Lee, very dramatically, saw him and reached for bowl and put some small, fried balls into it “Patrick, you must eat something of substance. A strong diet leads to a strong body!” the spandex clad ball of energy shouted less boastfully afraid of a smack-down courtesy of a certain pink haired kunoichi. Patrick, thought it over, reluctantly grabbed the bowl, pulled apart a pair of chopsticks, and put one in his mouth…

‘INCREDIBLE!!! DELICIOUS!!!! MOOORE!!!!’ were the only things that screamed/echoed in Patrick’s mind now that he gotten a taste of some sort of delicious food. He was like a starving shark that had gotten a taste for blood and there just happened to be a large group of fat seals swimming right in front of him. The small robed ninja sprang from his seated position (neglecting a plate) and stuffed his face with every edible item his trembling fingered could get ahold of, from the rice to the lobster, not even needing to crack it but simply splitting it in half with his fangs!

The others were in complete and utter shock as the once quiet and polite boy who barely spoke a word and sat eating bread for 15 minutes suddenly turned into a wide-eyed animal using his hands as shovels scooping up pound after pound of seafood into his gullet, far beyond the normal human capacity at this point, until quickly only bones, shells and plates remains as the other ninja saw their expensive food quickly disappear!

“Ahhh…*urp* excuse me…” All five ninja just laid on their backs massaging their overly-stuffed tummies. They just sat there for around 20 minutes with the only sound being a burp from a boy followed by and ‘excuse me’, but everyone was starting to get their composure back as the Konoha ninja stirred into activity “Man, was that a meal!” Naruto said with a big grin on his whiskered face “Yeah, by the way Sakura, where did you get the money to pay for that anyway?” asked the cycloptic and oldest member of the team, a hint of worry in his voice “Oh, I told them you would pay for it.” she said rather cattishly with a o’ so slight grin “WHAAAT!!!” Kakashi was now fully active and fuming with rage that would rival the Kyubi’s.

“BWAAAH!! Kakashi-sensei it was a joke!! A JOKE!!” Sakura nearly hurt herself trying to get the words out as quick as possible, relaxing the elder ninja only slightly “So who is going to pay for then, it looked like it was quite expensive.” he asked in a calm yet still slightly agitated tone, not enjoying being the butt of a joke. “Well, I thought we could all pool together enough money, you know to celebrate! This is Team 7’s 100th mission!” the pinket said with a large smile “Oh, has it been that many already. A lot sure has happened hasn’t it…” they both stopped talking to remember their lost comrade but mostly about all of the crazy stuff that happened like the Chūnin Exams, the invasion of Suna, and a bunch of other stuff that normal kids didn’t have to deal with.

But in the middle of the nostalgia-fest, Patrick slid open the door to the hallway, his white hair a bit messy with his robe opened slightly showing his bandaged midsection “Oh! Hello everyone, thank you very much for the meal.” he said as he bowed and the others just said it was ok since he was a part of their group, however temporary.

“Oh, I hope you don’t mind, but I paid for the meal while you all were comatose.” Everyone’s jaws dropped, “YOU WHAT?!” the two currently conscious ninja shouted in shock “But I thought that you said that you only had that old piece of bread to eat until you got the next village, if you could pay for a meal that expensive why didn’t you just buy more food!?” Patrick just smiled turning his head to the ground.

“Yes, but that I bought with money from a job, I had to… give something… to pay for such a wonderful meal.” Patrick said while he pulled off his backpack pulling out the small leather pouch that Naruto asked about earlier in the day. “I had to sell one of my mementos, but I think it was worth it and I think I can trust all of you to see what it is.” the small white haired boy said as he pulled open the draw string, dumping the contents into his palm “Oh, Patrick there was no need to do such a WHAT THE-!!!”

The pinket shouted while Kakashi, Lee, and Naruto just stared in disbelief and shocked expression slapped onto their faces, but with Kakashi you could only see about a quarter of the shock. “What… How… Uhhh…” “How… did… you…” the four leaf ninja were completely without words, that a young nobody like him would be carrying something so valuable. “Yeah, I don’t show these to everyone for obvious reasons.”

In Patrick’s hand were various assorted gems ranging from grape sized emeralds, almond sized sapphires, peanut sized diamonds, and even an almost apple sized piece of ruby among various other kinds of extremely valuable stones of different shapes and sizes, all of them shining and sparkling like they had just been polished.

“HOLY CRAP, WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE!!!” all of the younger ninja shouted at once, almost making Patrick almost spill all of the precious stones in hand but caught himself just in time and put them back in the draw-string bag. Kakashi was still shocked but hid it the best out of everyone there.

“Well, *ahhm* Patrick, how exactly did you get those… those…” he didn’t quite know how to finish his sentence but luckily Patrick finished it for him “Gems?”

“Y-Yes, the gems, where did you get them?” Patrick was getting a bit intimidated so he stared at his hands still holding the bag, tightening his grip slightly. “I didn’t steal them or anything like that, they were actually a gift… but I suppose it’s like my… inheritance…” Patrick said with a far off look in his eyes still staring at the bag of gems.

*3 and a half years ago*

In the Ice village, Patrick was continuing his training with his sensei, who wasn’t present at that moment, this time working on his ice shuriken jutsu and having trouble with the aiming. “Man, this is WAY harder than sensei made it look… hmmmm…HI-YAA!!” Patrick made a few hand signs and a few dozen spinning shuriken shaped like snowflakes floated around him, then he pointed both of his arms toward a snowman and the throwing stars moved quickly, but at medium speed for ninja standards, toward their target.

But most of them missed with a few in the mid-section and one in the head, although he had managed to cut of the snow man’s stick arm. “Ahhh, this is hard!” Patrick pouted puffing out his cheeks as he sat down in the snow that hung around his village year-round, even in the summer. “Well, you have been working very hard child, come inside and take a break, hmm?” Patrick immediately stood up to see his sensei standing in the doorway of the building he had come to call home, but was not much more than a refurbished dojo.

“Okay sensei!!” the little white haired boy shouted as he rushed inside the traditional style building decorated with lotuses and cherry blossom trees. Whenever he was inside this building he felt safe and comfortable, but the thing he loved the most was sensei, the man who helped him coup with the responsibilities that were thrust upon him by those old meanies.

But sensei was really nice and made him feel better when the voices in his head said scary things. He was the one part of his life that he truly enjoyed. “Hey Patrick, do you know what day it is?” The old bearded man said with a smile slightly hidden by his extremely long white facial hair “Uhhh… OH, is it the winter solstice, I heard some adults talk about how there used to be a festival today!” he said pretty sure of himself.

“Why yes it is the winter solstice, but that’s not what I’m talking about.” Patrick put his hand on his chin like he was a detective, “Hmmm… I don’t know sensei, what day is it?” the small boy asked with the curiosity and innocence only a child could have. “It’s…your…Birthday!!” The old man shouted happily and Patrick’s face went from mild confusion to pure joy in two seconds flat “REALLY!! WHAT’D IT GET, WHAT’D I GET!!!?”

Patrick said as he was practically jumping off the walls with excitement. He didn’t remember a lot about Birthdays, but what he did remember were the presents! “Easy, child easy! You’ll give yourself a heart attack if you keep that up!!” Patrick suddenly stopped moving and sat on his knees, “Okay sensei!!”

Patrick so excited that he looked like he was vibrating in his shoes. “Okay, okay my child, calm down I have your present right here!” the kind old man then reached under his robe to an inside pocket and pulled out a small draw-string bag. “Okay now open it, but be careful!!” Patrick slowly opened the bag, put his hand in and pulled out an emerald “S-Sensei what is this!?” Patrick was freaking out, knowing the deep recession his village was in seeing something like this was beyond rare.

“Go on, there’s more inside.” the old man then sat down and just watched for what seemed like hours but could have only been five minutes as he just pulled gem after gem from the medium sized bag and after a while Patrick caught on that the near impossible size pile of jewels at his feet all came from the bag no bigger than his fist.

“Sensei, how did-” but he was cut off “The bag is bigger on the inside as to hold more items. The Fourth Hokage taught me this jutsu, although this is the extent of my ability to use it whereas the Fourth could seal an elephant in a dime bag!! Hahaha, ahhh, well at least I can give you your present, but be careful. If anyone found out about this it would be very VERY bad Patrick, do you understand?” “Yes sensei, thank you very much.”

Patrick said as he put the gems back one by one into the bag still admiring them, thinking once the war was over he could buy all the candy he wanted, he could buy… HE COULD BUY THE WHOLE CANDY SHOP!!! He was so excited, but sensei just sat there with a loving look on his old, bearded face.

‘I hope that you don’t mind me giving our life saving to our child, of course with one foot in the grave I could call it his inheritance, hehehe… I hope I’m doing the right thing. I’ll see you soon… my dear Yuko.’ “Sensei, SENSEI WAKE UP!” “Huh, wha.. Oh Patrick! Sorry, I dozed off for a second, now let’s get back to training.” “Ok sensei!”

*Present*

After Patrick finished telling them his story, leaving out any details about his village or jutsu style, he put the baggie back into his backpack. After asking Patrick some questions to which he gave vague answers, they decided enough was enough and they all went to bed.

The next morning they set off for Konoha, not saying much on the way there but engaging in light conversation between Naruto, Lee, and Sakura but mostly just a fast, quiet walk or occasional run when Kakashi would carry him through the forest to make a shortcut. After about half a day of travel they finally reached to Leaf Village and Patrick was already interested “Woah, big doors!” although he tended to focus on the more miscellaneous.

As they passed through the gates into the village Patrick noticed a lot of similarities between this village and the way his used to be, people smiling and having fun, the smell of delicious food wafted over the entire village as multiple restaurants that were cooking amazing food by the smell of it, children running through the streets playing games, even a few ninja could be seen occasionally jumping from rooftop to rooftop. The only differences were the bright blue sky as opposed to a dome of ice and the noticeable heat; although this was the capital of the Land of Fire, so that seemed like a given.

After a brief tour of the city that mostly just consisted of places between the gate and the tallest building in the city that he was told was the Hokage Tower and that he would have to meet with her before he was admitted to the hospital. ‘Great, another Kage, whose next the Raikage!? This just isn’t my week.’ Patrick thought to himself as they finally reached the building next to the monument dedicated to the previous Hokage where their faces were engraved in the side of a mountain. This he thought was pretty cool considering all the Kōrikage got was a life-size ice sculpture outside of his office, while cool it just didn’t have the same flare as a giant 30ft face.

As they approached the building he noticed less people around this part of town, but that was mostly because other than the tower there wasn’t much else but a large walking ground between the tower and the city. As they finally made their way up the tower to the office of the Hokage, Patrick was instructed to stay outside of the door and wait until he was told otherwise.

“Ah, Team 7, how did it go?” Tsunade asked the four ninja who walked into her office, and Kakashi was the one to answer being team leader and having the highest rank. “Well, not as well as we wanted it to go, Lady Tsunade. The demon we were hired to capture escaped from the village after causing extensive damage and casualties before escaping south to the Land of Water. We attempted to peruse it but the demon used some kind of Ice-Style and created a giant wall that was able to shoot projectile weapons and was too slick to stand on even with the tree-walking technique.

After realizing that it was pointless to fight the wall I attempted to go under but a thick layer of permafrost prevented any attempt to go underground and the wall’s unlimited amount of projectile weapons prevented any close-range attacks. We had no choice but to go around which gave the enemy more than enough time to escape to the Land of Water.” Tsunade did not look happy about this but kept a calm demeanor until Kakashi finished his report.

“Hmm, so it was a failure? Well that’s not good, that demon pops up once in a while and every time the village that it attacks is left frozen and massacred.” Tsunade pulled out a map with a red line drawn in a zigzag showing no pattern but going from north to south with small dates written at every point on the line, the oldest running from over 3 years ago.

“We assume it originated the Land of Iron and then moved south to the Land of Rice Patties, through the Land of Fire and now it’s in the Land of Water. This is just great! There is still no pattern at all to this map except it WAS going south and now it decides to go east! We need to send word to the Mizukage and tell her to prepare to send out some tracker nin.

Too bad none were available for you mission, it would have gone easier. Now did anything else happen?” Everyone turned toward the door, but Kakashi was the only one who told the Hokage about the child around Naruto and Lee’s age who they found badly beaten on the side of the road and sent Lee to go get him.

A moment later Lee returned with Patrick right behind him. He looked a little scared because he wouldn’t raise his head and he was rubbing his right arm with his left hand while shaking slightly. The shirt and robe they bought from the spring covered most of him, but the bandages around his arms, torso, and part of his legs were still semi-visible but didn’t bother him too much apparently as he was still able to walk without assistance.

“So, this is the mystery boy huh?” The Hokage said with a bit of curiosity and intimidation. “Well, look up kid, I won’t bite.”

Patrick then slowly raised his head and for the first time looked at the Hokage. She was pretty, like the Mizukage, but with almost no similarities aside from maybe a similar figure. She had long blonde hair that was split into two ponytails that went down the length of her back with a pair of bangs that looked like smaller ponytails on either side of her head. He also noticed she had a small diamond shape on her forehead.

She was wearing a grey kimono-style blouse with no sleeves, held closed by a broad, dark bluish-grey sash used a sort of belt. He also noted that her kimono might have been a bit small on her because he could see some of her cleavage though it but decided it best not to say anything about it, so instead he decided to introduce himself “H-Hello, my n-name is Patrick. It is nice t-to meet y-you.”

The slug sannin was a bit interested in him due to the fact he had no apparent village and had some interesting healing abilities, maybe he could show her. “So, Patrick…. Nice name! Would you mind telling me were you come from and how you got so beaten up? Not only am I concerned as Hokage, but also as a doctor. From what your friends told me you have a very interesting method of healing yourself.”

Meanwhile, inside Patrick’s mind, ‘Crap, she knows! I’m so screwed!!’he was panicking, and on the outside, “Well, I’m from… a village… from the North.” he dropped the ball…the stupid, stupid ball. ‘Yeah, real smooth buddy, she’ll never-’ “Ok then, welcome to the Leaf Village Patrick.”

‘…wait… she bought it!?’ He had heard that she was a bad gambler, but he also heard she was like 50 something so he just assumed that was also a lie because she looked more in her late 20’s or early 30’s so he doubted some of the things he heard. “Naruto, since you’re about his age, I want you to show him around the village after we run a few test to make sure he’s ok. Sakura, you and Lee escort Patrick to the hospital. The rest of you are dismissed.”

As after everyone exited the room, Kakashi was left alone with Tsunade. “Kakashi, is there something I can help you with?” “Yes, you might have guessed it but I get the feeling that the demon and this child are connected. The demon and this child both use some form of Ice Style and since it’s a rare form of chakra I can’t help but feel that it’s not a coincidence that we found him so soon after chasing the demon. Most of the villagers who survive recall the demon as a short man but that could easily be a mistake. And finally the bag he had on was found by Naruto near the campsite of the demon which is defiantly not a coincidence.”

Kakashi seemed a bit somber after telling the Hokage this. While he hadn’t known him that long, Patrick genuinely seemed like a kind hearted boy and it felt wrong to associate him with a killer monster, but facts are facts and when you’re a ninja you can never underestimate your enemy.

“Hmmm, so all this is true? Then that complicates things. If he was in the Land of Water as long as you said he was then he was most likely seen by some ninja. I’ll send the Mizukage a letter asking if she had seen a young white haired boy and sell it off as a missing ninja search. If she confirms that some of her people had seen someone fitting Patrick’s description we’ll ask him about it. He doesn’t seem like a good liar but that could be an act. Keep an eye on him; report back to me if you see anything suspicious.”

“Understood” and then he just vanished while Tsunade went to work on the cover-up missing ninja story and fake records.

During Patrick’s checkup, he noticed how nice everyone was about it. How they asked if he had any aches or pains in his joins, inspecting the area the wounds were, and they even gave him some candy! ‘Yes candy! Sweet!… literally, haha, pun.’ Patrick thought to himself. He hadn’t been this happy in a long time. He didn’t mind going to the doctors, he enjoyed the feeling of having someone care about him, however short the appointment, but since the village was destroyed he couldn’t afford to go to the doctors except in emergencies so checkups were pretty overdue.

As he was escorted out of the hospital he noticed how nice the spring weather was. He was never one for the sun or heat and sometimes he got bad allergies but apparently not today. As Patrick walked with Naruto through the streets of the Leaf Village he was shocked at how similar it was to his own village. The happy faces, the various brightly colored stores, and the occasional ninja passing over the rooftops.

“So anyway, I’m supposed to show you around the village or something like that. I can take you wherever I want, so were gonna make a pit stop at my favorite ramen place. But grandma gave me some money so you could buy some food, now let’s go!” Patrick nodded “Ok.”
After they ate a butt load of ramen, Naruto introduced Patrick to some more kids from his class. Most of them were very nice, like a guy named Chōji, who was a nice guy but his friend Shikamaru was kind of boring. All he did was complain and sleep, not too much to do there.

He also met a group called Team 8 which consisted of a creepy, quiet, sunglass wearing guy named Shino, Kiba who smelled like wet dog and gave him even more creeps, but on a much deeper and instinctual level then the reason he was creeped out by Shino. Like his DNA was telling him this guy was bad news. And a girl called Hinata who was pretty and acted really shy around Naruto. Now Patrick wasn’t the smarted fish in the… aquarium-thing… but he could defiantly tell that she like-liked Naruto. He thought it was cute and decided to make fun of them later for it, not in jerky way but a friendly teasing way while being careful not to give anything away too soon.

After meeting a few more people it was time for bed in the hospital and he was pretty beat. Today was a great day and he would always remember it. Patrick loved all the people here and would have loved to stay, but it was because he liked them so much that he had to leave. Patrick could never live with himself if any harm came to these nice people. Patrick decided he’d have to stick with his ‘Live at the Base of Cliff’ plan in the Land of Lightning. But for now he decided to enjoy himself in this nice place since those two jerks were still hibernating. He fell asleep happy, a rare but much more common occurrence for him recently.

Later that night, in the Hokage’s office, Tsunade was going over a pile of papers on her desk, but a certain scroll seemed to take priority as she had moved all of the others to make room for it to use as reference for the others.

She was shuffling though a rather thick stack of documents when a knock on the door was heard. “Yes come in.” The person who entered was none other than Kakashi Hatake. “You wanted to see me, Lady Tsunade?”

“Yes. Shortly after I sent the request to the Mizukage I received a scroll. It arrived too quickly for it to be a response letter to the one I sent so it was written at least one day ago before it arrived here.” She then rolled up the scroll that was in the middle of her desk and tossed it over to Kakashi. He opened the already unsealed scroll and read it quickly then his eye widened “This is…”

“Yes, the descriptions are similar but I can’t guarantee it’s him. Keep a much closer eye on our new guest until I can confirm he’s the same person. As you know this is an S level secret and in addition to you, I’ll be assigning a group of high level ANBU to monitor him as well.”
“I understand, but this plus the evidence I’ve already provided doesn’t look good.” Kakashi’s head was still absorbing what he had just read, but as a ninja he processed it quickly.

“Yes I know. I had the same reaction but now that we know he was in the Land of Water… you can guess the rest can’t you?” Tsunade closed her eyes, thinking deeply about the next course of action to take. “You’re dismissed.” A second after the Hokage said that Kakashi vanished in a cloud of smoke. Tsunade then got up out of her chair and looked out her window over the Leaf Village.

“I really hope were wrong…”

Alrighty then, really long arse chapter but I wanted to get most of the filler stuff out of way. I hope you enjoyed it even though it’s not really my best work. I promise more stuff is gonna happen in the coming chapters in greater detail. Hope you enjoyed, comments and critiques are very much appreciated, thanks for reading!!

Naruto and its characters © Masashi Kishimoto

Description
Alright, lesson learned. Don’t use screenshots from the anime itself. That being said, here is long awaited chapter five!! Well, for those of you who actually read this which probably isn’t a lot but if you are you are a wonderful person for giving me a chance! YOU ROCK!!! Now every story has to have filler and I’m afraid this is part of it, but I tried my best to spice it up but the good stuff is gonna probably start next chapter!

Patrick and the others all walked out of their rooms, sliding the door shut and making their way to Sakura’s room for dinner because the boy’s room was overcrowded and messy from Lee and Naruto messing up the bed and throwing their dirty clothes everywhere, so they just decided to eat in her room instead of cleaning up their room. As they walked down the hallway made with the same traditional paper and frame style that remind Patrick of his old home, the tension between the ninja made them extremely quiet, barely making a sound as their footsteps were amplified by creaking and groaning of the wooden floorboards.

They were being quiet because Patrick had refused to tell them how he healed himself or pretty much anything at all. After shouting at him for 20 minutes he agreed to talk to them about who he was after dinner, so after taking a shower, replacing his torn up white hospital robe with one of Naruto’s extra white shirts and a light blue robe, his black shorts and tattered brown sandals still wearable they walked to dinner.

Finally, after receiving his fair share of suspicious glares from both Lee and Naruto with Kakashi keeping a straight face the whole walk down, they eventually made it to Sakura’s room. Kakashi knocked on the door, “Come in!” Sakura yelled through the door giving the boy’s permission to enter her room by sliding the door open.

Immediately Patrick was intoxicated with the wonderful smells that filled the room with a the various scents of fish, meats, fruits, soups, pastries, and almost everything else that existed in Patrick’s wildest fantasies and more! The view was even better, various kinds of fish cooked in different ways; teriyaki glazed yellowtail, grilled salmon, marinated mackerel and more!! The meats were not to be downplayed though as they was pan fried beef, ginger pork, a few bowels of fruit, and even more things he had no clue what they were!! Patrick was dumbstruck by the spread set before him, there was no way it could be real!!

“WHOA!!! Sakura, this looks awesome!!” Naruto said as he sat Indian style in front of the small table and started filling his plate with almost one of everything on the table. “Naruto!! Wait until we are all seated!!” Sakura shouted as Kakashi, Lee and Sakura all took their seats around the short table. They were about to all dig in when everyone aside from Naruto realized that Patrick hadn’t sat down yet, and that he was still standing the doorway.

Sakura and Lee were a little confused “Patrick, come on it, sit down and eat! It’s really good!” “YES YOU MUST EAT IN ORDER TO-” Lee shouted but was cut by Sakura hitting him on the head. Patrick was a scared and confused, why did they get all this delicious food and want him to have some? “O-Ok I guess…” Patrick said as he sat down with the rest of them. Once he sat down all hell broke loose as Lee joined Naruto in with Kakashi filling and cleaning his plate what seemed like every other minute while barely making a dent in all the food. Plus the young fanged boy was starving!! He could eat a whole village if he wanted to at that point, but made sure to stay polite so he just sat there and nibbled on some bread, not to mention he needed to keep his fangs hidden and eating might reveal them.

That was before Lee, very dramatically, saw him and reached for bowl and put some small, fried balls into it “Patrick, you must eat something of substance. A strong diet leads to a strong body!” the spandex clad ball of energy shouted less boastfully afraid of a smack-down courtesy of a certain pink haired kunoichi. Patrick, thought it over, reluctantly grabbed the bowl, pulled apart a pair of chopsticks, and put one in his mouth…

‘INCREDIBLE!!! DELICIOUS!!!! MOOORE!!!!’ were the only things that screamed/echoed in Patrick’s mind now that he gotten a taste of some sort of delicious food. He was like a starving shark that had gotten a taste for blood and there just happened to be a large group of fat seals swimming right in front of him. The small robed ninja sprang from his seated position (neglecting a plate) and stuffed his face with every edible item his trembling fingered could get ahold of, from the rice to the lobster, not even needing to crack it but simply splitting it in half with his fangs!

The others were in complete and utter shock as the once quiet and polite boy who barely spoke a word and sat eating bread for 15 minutes suddenly turned into a wide-eyed animal using his hands as shovels scooping up pound after pound of seafood into his gullet, far beyond the normal human capacity at this point, until quickly only bones, shells and plates remains as the other ninja saw their expensive food quickly disappear!

“Ahhh…*urp* excuse me…” All five ninja just laid on their backs massaging their overly-stuffed tummies. They just sat there for around 20 minutes with the only sound being a burp from a boy followed by and ‘excuse me’, but everyone was starting to get their composure back as the Konoha ninja stirred into activity “Man, was that a meal!” Naruto said with a big grin on his whiskered face “Yeah, by the way Sakura, where did you get the money to pay for that anyway?” asked the cycloptic and oldest member of the team, a hint of worry in his voice “Oh, I told them you would pay for it.” she said rather cattishly with a o’ so slight grin “WHAAAT!!!” Kakashi was now fully active and fuming with rage that would rival the Kyubi’s.

“BWAAAH!! Kakashi-sensei it was a joke!! A JOKE!!” Sakura nearly hurt herself trying to get the words out as quick as possible, relaxing the elder ninja only slightly “So who is going to pay for then, it looked like it was quite expensive.” he asked in a calm yet still slightly agitated tone, not enjoying being the butt of a joke. “Well, I thought we could all pool together enough money, you know to celebrate! This is Team 7’s 100th mission!” the pinket said with a large smile “Oh, has it been that many already. A lot sure has happened hasn’t it…” they both stopped talking to remember their lost comrade but mostly about all of the crazy stuff that happened like the Chūnin Exams, the invasion of Suna, and a bunch of other stuff that normal kids didn’t have to deal with.

But in the middle of the nostalgia-fest, Patrick slid open the door to the hallway, his white hair a bit messy with his robe opened slightly showing his bandaged midsection “Oh! Hello everyone, thank you very much for the meal.” he said as he bowed and the others just said it was ok since he was a part of their group, however temporary.

“Oh, I hope you don’t mind, but I paid for the meal while you all were comatose.” Everyone’s jaws dropped, “YOU WHAT?!” the two currently conscious ninja shouted in shock “But I thought that you said that you only had that old piece of bread to eat until you got the next village, if you could pay for a meal that expensive why didn’t you just buy more food!?” Patrick just smiled turning his head to the ground.

“Yes, but that I bought with money from a job, I had to… give something… to pay for such a wonderful meal.” Patrick said while he pulled off his backpack pulling out the small leather pouch that Naruto asked about earlier in the day. “I had to sell one of my mementos, but I think it was worth it and I think I can trust all of you to see what it is.” the small white haired boy said as he pulled open the draw string, dumping the contents into his palm “Oh, Patrick there was no need to do such a WHAT THE-!!!”

The pinket shouted while Kakashi, Lee, and Naruto just stared in disbelief and shocked expression slapped onto their faces, but with Kakashi you could only see about a quarter of the shock. “What… How… Uhhh…” “How… did… you…” the four leaf ninja were completely without words, that a young nobody like him would be carrying something so valuable. “Yeah, I don’t show these to everyone for obvious reasons.”

In Patrick’s hand were various assorted gems ranging from grape sized emeralds, almond sized sapphires, peanut sized diamonds, and even an almost apple sized piece of ruby among various other kinds of extremely valuable stones of different shapes and sizes, all of them shining and sparkling like they had just been polished.

“HOLY CRAP, WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE!!!” all of the younger ninja shouted at once, almost making Patrick almost spill all of the precious stones in hand but caught himself just in time and put them back in the draw-string bag. Kakashi was still shocked but hid it the best out of everyone there.

“Well, *ahhm* Patrick, how exactly did you get those… those…” he didn’t quite know how to finish his sentence but luckily Patrick finished it for him “Gems?”

“Y-Yes, the gems, where did you get them?” Patrick was getting a bit intimidated so he stared at his hands still holding the bag, tightening his grip slightly. “I didn’t steal them or anything like that, they were actually a gift… but I suppose it’s like my… inheritance…” Patrick said with a far off look in his eyes still staring at the bag of gems.

*3 and a half years ago*

In the Ice village, Patrick was continuing his training with his sensei, who wasn’t present at that moment, this time working on his ice shuriken jutsu and having trouble with the aiming. “Man, this is WAY harder than sensei made it look… hmmmm…HI-YAA!!” Patrick made a few hand signs and a few dozen spinning shuriken shaped like snowflakes floated around him, then he pointed both of his arms toward a snowman and the throwing stars moved quickly, but at medium speed for ninja standards, toward their target.

But most of them missed with a few in the mid-section and one in the head, although he had managed to cut of the snow man’s stick arm. “Ahhh, this is hard!” Patrick pouted puffing out his cheeks as he sat down in the snow that hung around his village year-round, even in the summer. “Well, you have been working very hard child, come inside and take a break, hmm?” Patrick immediately stood up to see his sensei standing in the doorway of the building he had come to call home, but was not much more than a refurbished dojo.

“Okay sensei!!” the little white haired boy shouted as he rushed inside the traditional style building decorated with lotuses and cherry blossom trees. Whenever he was inside this building he felt safe and comfortable, but the thing he loved the most was sensei, the man who helped him coup with the responsibilities that were thrust upon him by those old meanies.

But sensei was really nice and made him feel better when the voices in his head said scary things. He was the one part of his life that he truly enjoyed. “Hey Patrick, do you know what day it is?” The old bearded man said with a smile slightly hidden by his extremely long white facial hair “Uhhh… OH, is it the winter solstice, I heard some adults talk about how there used to be a festival today!” he said pretty sure of himself.

“Why yes it is the winter solstice, but that’s not what I’m talking about.” Patrick put his hand on his chin like he was a detective, “Hmmm… I don’t know sensei, what day is it?” the small boy asked with the curiosity and innocence only a child could have. “It’s…your…Birthday!!” The old man shouted happily and Patrick’s face went from mild confusion to pure joy in two seconds flat “REALLY!! WHAT’D IT GET, WHAT’D I GET!!!?”

Patrick said as he was practically jumping off the walls with excitement. He didn’t remember a lot about Birthdays, but what he did remember were the presents! “Easy, child easy! You’ll give yourself a heart attack if you keep that up!!” Patrick suddenly stopped moving and sat on his knees, “Okay sensei!!”

Patrick so excited that he looked like he was vibrating in his shoes. “Okay, okay my child, calm down I have your present right here!” the kind old man then reached under his robe to an inside pocket and pulled out a small draw-string bag. “Okay now open it, but be careful!!” Patrick slowly opened the bag, put his hand in and pulled out an emerald “S-Sensei what is this!?” Patrick was freaking out, knowing the deep recession his village was in seeing something like this was beyond rare.

“Go on, there’s more inside.” the old man then sat down and just watched for what seemed like hours but could have only been five minutes as he just pulled gem after gem from the medium sized bag and after a while Patrick caught on that the near impossible size pile of jewels at his feet all came from the bag no bigger than his fist.

“Sensei, how did-” but he was cut off “The bag is bigger on the inside as to hold more items. The Fourth Hokage taught me this jutsu, although this is the extent of my ability to use it whereas the Fourth could seal an elephant in a dime bag!! Hahaha, ahhh, well at least I can give you your present, but be careful. If anyone found out about this it would be very VERY bad Patrick, do you understand?” “Yes sensei, thank you very much.”

Patrick said as he put the gems back one by one into the bag still admiring them, thinking once the war was over he could buy all the candy he wanted, he could buy… HE COULD BUY THE WHOLE CANDY SHOP!!! He was so excited, but sensei just sat there with a loving look on his old, bearded face.

‘I hope that you don’t mind me giving our life saving to our child, of course with one foot in the grave I could call it his inheritance, hehehe… I hope I’m doing the right thing. I’ll see you soon… my dear Yuko.’ “Sensei, SENSEI WAKE UP!” “Huh, wha.. Oh Patrick! Sorry, I dozed off for a second, now let’s get back to training.” “Ok sensei!”

*Present*

After Patrick finished telling them his story, leaving out any details about his village or jutsu style, he put the baggie back into his backpack. After asking Patrick some questions to which he gave vague answers, they decided enough was enough and they all went to bed.

The next morning they set off for Konoha, not saying much on the way there but engaging in light conversation between Naruto, Lee, and Sakura but mostly just a fast, quiet walk or occasional run when Kakashi would carry him through the forest to make a shortcut. After about half a day of travel they finally reached to Leaf Village and Patrick was already interested “Woah, big doors!” although he tended to focus on the more miscellaneous.

As they passed through the gates into the village Patrick noticed a lot of similarities between this village and the way his used to be, people smiling and having fun, the smell of delicious food wafted over the entire village as multiple restaurants that were cooking amazing food by the smell of it, children running through the streets playing games, even a few ninja could be seen occasionally jumping from rooftop to rooftop. The only differences were the bright blue sky as opposed to a dome of ice and the noticeable heat; although this was the capital of the Land of Fire, so that seemed like a given.

After a brief tour of the city that mostly just consisted of places between the gate and the tallest building in the city that he was told was the Hokage Tower and that he would have to meet with her before he was admitted to the hospital. ‘Great, another Kage, whose next the Raikage!? This just isn’t my week.’ Patrick thought to himself as they finally reached the building next to the monument dedicated to the previous Hokage where their faces were engraved in the side of a mountain. This he thought was pretty cool considering all the Kōrikage got was a life-size ice sculpture outside of his office, while cool it just didn’t have the same flare as a giant 30ft face.

As they approached the building he noticed less people around this part of town, but that was mostly because other than the tower there wasn’t much else but a large walking ground between the tower and the city. As they finally made their way up the tower to the office of the Hokage, Patrick was instructed to stay outside of the door and wait until he was told otherwise.

“Ah, Team 7, how did it go?” Tsunade asked the four ninja who walked into her office, and Kakashi was the one to answer being team leader and having the highest rank. “Well, not as well as we wanted it to go, Lady Tsunade. The demon we were hired to capture escaped from the village after causing extensive damage and casualties before escaping south to the Land of Water. We attempted to peruse it but the demon used some kind of Ice-Style and created a giant wall that was able to shoot projectile weapons and was too slick to stand on even with the tree-walking technique.

After realizing that it was pointless to fight the wall I attempted to go under but a thick layer of permafrost prevented any attempt to go underground and the wall’s unlimited amount of projectile weapons prevented any close-range attacks. We had no choice but to go around which gave the enemy more than enough time to escape to the Land of Water.” Tsunade did not look happy about this but kept a calm demeanor until Kakashi finished his report.

“Hmm, so it was a failure? Well that’s not good, that demon pops up once in a while and every time the village that it attacks is left frozen and massacred.” Tsunade pulled out a map with a red line drawn in a zigzag showing no pattern but going from north to south with small dates written at every point on the line, the oldest running from over 3 years ago.

“We assume it originated the Land of Iron and then moved south to the Land of Rice Patties, through the Land of Fire and now it’s in the Land of Water. This is just great! There is still no pattern at all to this map except it WAS going south and now it decides to go east! We need to send word to the Mizukage and tell her to prepare to send out some tracker nin.

Too bad none were available for you mission, it would have gone easier. Now did anything else happen?” Everyone turned toward the door, but Kakashi was the only one who told the Hokage about the child around Naruto and Lee’s age who they found badly beaten on the side of the road and sent Lee to go get him.

A moment later Lee returned with Patrick right behind him. He looked a little scared because he wouldn’t raise his head and he was rubbing his right arm with his left hand while shaking slightly. The shirt and robe they bought from the spring covered most of him, but the bandages around his arms, torso, and part of his legs were still semi-visible but didn’t bother him too much apparently as he was still able to walk without assistance.

“So, this is the mystery boy huh?” The Hokage said with a bit of curiosity and intimidation. “Well, look up kid, I won’t bite.”

Patrick then slowly raised his head and for the first time looked at the Hokage. She was pretty, like the Mizukage, but with almost no similarities aside from maybe a similar figure. She had long blonde hair that was split into two ponytails that went down the length of her back with a pair of bangs that looked like smaller ponytails on either side of her head. He also noticed she had a small diamond shape on her forehead.

She was wearing a grey kimono-style blouse with no sleeves, held closed by a broad, dark bluish-grey sash used a sort of belt. He also noted that her kimono might have been a bit small on her because he could see some of her cleavage though it but decided it best not to say anything about it, so instead he decided to introduce himself “H-Hello, my n-name is Patrick. It is nice t-to meet y-you.”

The slug sannin was a bit interested in him due to the fact he had no apparent village and had some interesting healing abilities, maybe he could show her. “So, Patrick…. Nice name! Would you mind telling me were you come from and how you got so beaten up? Not only am I concerned as Hokage, but also as a doctor. From what your friends told me you have a very interesting method of healing yourself.”

Meanwhile, inside Patrick’s mind, ‘Crap, she knows! I’m so screwed!!’he was panicking, and on the outside, “Well, I’m from… a village… from the North.” he dropped the ball…the stupid, stupid ball. ‘Yeah, real smooth buddy, she’ll never-’ “Ok then, welcome to the Leaf Village Patrick.”

‘…wait… she bought it!?’ He had heard that she was a bad gambler, but he also heard she was like 50 something so he just assumed that was also a lie because she looked more in her late 20’s or early 30’s so he doubted some of the things he heard. “Naruto, since you’re about his age, I want you to show him around the village after we run a few test to make sure he’s ok. Sakura, you and Lee escort Patrick to the hospital. The rest of you are dismissed.”

As after everyone exited the room, Kakashi was left alone with Tsunade. “Kakashi, is there something I can help you with?” “Yes, you might have guessed it but I get the feeling that the demon and this child are connected. The demon and this child both use some form of Ice Style and since it’s a rare form of chakra I can’t help but feel that it’s not a coincidence that we found him so soon after chasing the demon. Most of the villagers who survive recall the demon as a short man but that could easily be a mistake. And finally the bag he had on was found by Naruto near the campsite of the demon which is defiantly not a coincidence.”

Kakashi seemed a bit somber after telling the Hokage this. While he hadn’t known him that long, Patrick genuinely seemed like a kind hearted boy and it felt wrong to associate him with a killer monster, but facts are facts and when you’re a ninja you can never underestimate your enemy.

“Hmmm, so all this is true? Then that complicates things. If he was in the Land of Water as long as you said he was then he was most likely seen by some ninja. I’ll send the Mizukage a letter asking if she had seen a young white haired boy and sell it off as a missing ninja search. If she confirms that some of her people had seen someone fitting Patrick’s description we’ll ask him about it. He doesn’t seem like a good liar but that could be an act. Keep an eye on him; report back to me if you see anything suspicious.”

“Understood” and then he just vanished while Tsunade went to work on the cover-up missing ninja story and fake records.

During Patrick’s checkup, he noticed how nice everyone was about it. How they asked if he had any aches or pains in his joins, inspecting the area the wounds were, and they even gave him some candy! ‘Yes candy! Sweet!… literally, haha, pun.’ Patrick thought to himself. He hadn’t been this happy in a long time. He didn’t mind going to the doctors, he enjoyed the feeling of having someone care about him, however short the appointment, but since the village was destroyed he couldn’t afford to go to the doctors except in emergencies so checkups were pretty overdue.

As he was escorted out of the hospital he noticed how nice the spring weather was. He was never one for the sun or heat and sometimes he got bad allergies but apparently not today. As Patrick walked with Naruto through the streets of the Leaf Village he was shocked at how similar it was to his own village. The happy faces, the various brightly colored stores, and the occasional ninja passing over the rooftops.

“So anyway, I’m supposed to show you around the village or something like that. I can take you wherever I want, so were gonna make a pit stop at my favorite ramen place. But grandma gave me some money so you could buy some food, now let’s go!” Patrick nodded “Ok.”
After they ate a butt load of ramen, Naruto introduced Patrick to some more kids from his class. Most of them were very nice, like a guy named Chōji, who was a nice guy but his friend Shikamaru was kind of boring. All he did was complain and sleep, not too much to do there.

He also met a group called Team 8 which consisted of a creepy, quiet, sunglass wearing guy named Shino, Kiba who smelled like wet dog and gave him even more creeps, but on a much deeper and instinctual level then the reason he was creeped out by Shino. Like his DNA was telling him this guy was bad news. And a girl called Hinata who was pretty and acted really shy around Naruto. Now Patrick wasn’t the smarted fish in the… aquarium-thing… but he could defiantly tell that she like-liked Naruto. He thought it was cute and decided to make fun of them later for it, not in jerky way but a friendly teasing way while being careful not to give anything away too soon.

After meeting a few more people it was time for bed in the hospital and he was pretty beat. Today was a great day and he would always remember it. Patrick loved all the people here and would have loved to stay, but it was because he liked them so much that he had to leave. Patrick could never live with himself if any harm came to these nice people. Patrick decided he’d have to stick with his ‘Live at the Base of Cliff’ plan in the Land of Lightning. But for now he decided to enjoy himself in this nice place since those two jerks were still hibernating. He fell asleep happy, a rare but much more common occurrence for him recently.

Later that night, in the Hokage’s office, Tsunade was going over a pile of papers on her desk, but a certain scroll seemed to take priority as she had moved all of the others to make room for it to use as reference for the others.

She was shuffling though a rather thick stack of documents when a knock on the door was heard. “Yes come in.” The person who entered was none other than Kakashi Hatake. “You wanted to see me, Lady Tsunade?”

“Yes. Shortly after I sent the request to the Mizukage I received a scroll. It arrived too quickly for it to be a response letter to the one I sent so it was written at least one day ago before it arrived here.” She then rolled up the scroll that was in the middle of her desk and tossed it over to Kakashi. He opened the already unsealed scroll and read it quickly then his eye widened “This is…”

“Yes, the descriptions are similar but I can’t guarantee it’s him. Keep a much closer eye on our new guest until I can confirm he’s the same person. As you know this is an S level secret and in addition to you, I’ll be assigning a group of high level ANBU to monitor him as well.”
“I understand, but this plus the evidence I’ve already provided doesn’t look good.” Kakashi’s head was still absorbing what he had just read, but as a ninja he processed it quickly.

“Yes I know. I had the same reaction but now that we know he was in the Land of Water… you can guess the rest can’t you?” Tsunade closed her eyes, thinking deeply about the next course of action to take. “You’re dismissed.” A second after the Hokage said that Kakashi vanished in a cloud of smoke. Tsunade then got up out of her chair and looked out her window over the Leaf Village.

“I really hope were wrong…”

Alrighty then, really long arse chapter but I wanted to get most of the filler stuff out of way. I hope you enjoyed it even though it’s not really my best work. I promise more stuff is gonna happen in the coming chapters in greater detail. Hope you enjoyed, comments and critiques are very much appreciated, thanks for reading!!

Naruto and its characters © Masashi Kishimoto