It's been a while since Hisato has had some fun, and the Anbu in charge of watching him provided plenty. They hit every casino, only playing one game in each, testing Hisato's luck... of course he won all of them, but before anyone could see who actually won, he and the Anbu sunshined right out of there... taking their winnings with them of course. The worst thing that happened was when the Anbu decided that it would be a great idea to put Hisato on a slot machine. Let's just say they had to get a move on, not even having time to collect their 300 million ryo.

Hisato started out with the intention of just amusing the Anbu watcher, but he soon found himself having fun, adding a couple million to his savings. It was too bad that he couldn't take that 300 million. The Anbu was having similar thoughts.

"I wouldn't have to work ever again with just a fraction from that slot," he murmured, crying to himself beneath the mask, not that he would ever admit it to anyone. "I'd be living it rich."

After spending a fair amount of time gambling with this particular Anbu, Hisato had a pretty good idea of who he was. He only knew one man with all of the quirks and habits the Anbu in front of him did, although, Hisato knew he could also be mistaken, though, he hardly was.

Hisato has made many mistakes in his life, however. The one taking the top spot would probably spending more time looking for Sasuke than training himself to be better. Sure, Hisato has the Kyuubi, but what good does a chakra demon do if the people you're fighting are quite literally able to suck the demon out of you, or even stop you from even being able to use the demons power.

"I don't know if I should be flattered or not"

Hisato chose to ignore Kurama and continued to follow his Anbu escort. Besides, who he fought... who made him lose hope, who pushed him to the point of suicide. That person is here. In this very same village, and Hisato doesn't know if he has what it takes to face that person.

...

"You pass."

Those two words changed Naruto's life. He could literally feel the change coursing through him, but, that of course came to a stop when his beloved "team" left him by himself, tied to a pole.

"Guys?..." Naruto shouted, squirming a bit, trying to get himself free. "Hello?.."

The blonde boy let out a sigh. Of course they left him. Some teammates they are. Naruto reached his arm down, trying to get a hand on his weapons pouch on his right leg. Unfortunately, the rope wasn't just rope; it was ninja wire and it was cutting into Naruto's skin heavily.

"Of course it's ninja wire," he winced as the wire cut down through his skin, drawing a myriad of blood. "And they just left me here, those jerks."

Naruto eventually gave up with a heavy sigh. Someone has to come for him eventually, he just doesn't know when eventually it. Besides, the blonde has been through much worse than being abandoned by his teammates, wrapped in ninja wire.

After another 10 minutes of just hanging there, Naruto finally saw a silhouette of a man.

"Bought time, ya know?" Naruto called out in both relief and frustration. "I thought you forgot about me, Kakashi-sensei!"

"Well, I'm not this Kakashi-sensei you speak of, but you look like you need a hand," said a man who was most definitely not Kakashi. Naruto squinted at the man in suspicion.

"How do I know I can trust you? I've never seen you before, ya know," the blonde boy spat.

The man slowly came into view and he actually looked a bit sheepish. "Well, you know that I'm probably your only option if you want down. I'm pretty sure this Kakashi guy left you behind."

Naruto gave the man a look over. He was fairly tall, looking to be around 5 foot 11 inches, maybe 6 feet. The man had dull, blue eyes and a dark brunette hair coloring. Plus he was holding a kunai. Definitely a ninja.

Naruto slowly nodded, deciding to trust him. The brunette didn't seem like a threat anyway, but that didn't stop him from watching the man carefully as he cut the wire, careful not to cut Naruto up further. The brunette seemed to notice Naruto's gaze and began to converse with him.

"My name's Hisato Arata, by the way, and I'm pretty knew around here," the man, newly dubbed as Hisato, spoke. "What's your name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, the future Hokage," Naruto shouted proudly. Hisato smirked, making Naruto think he wasn't taking him seriously. "I will be future Hokage, ya know! Just watch!"

"With that spirit and attitude, I have no doubt," Hisato grinned, but that grin fell just as quickly as it came. "Don't ever lose that, and never lose sight of your goal."

Naruto readjusted his view of the man in front of him. The man helping him. No one has ever willingly helped Naruto before... well, except for the Hokage, but he's a different matter. The Hokage has always been there for him, but he was blind to what was happening outside his office doors. Outside the time he spends with Naruto. But Naruto is okay with that. There is no need to worry the old man more than he already is. Besides, the Hokage has a village to run, who was he to add another problem to his plate.

"There we go, now for your wounds," Hisato began, rummaging through his pockets, pulling out some bandages. Naruto was going to tell him not to worry about it, but the man was already wrapping the bandages around his cut up arms.

Naruto just stood there awkwardly as the man continued to bandage him, and then put some sort of salve on the rest of the little cuts and scrapes that Naruto knew would be gone in ten minutes max. The blonde wasn't going to tell the man that though. He looked so concentrated and focused, and honestly, it made Naruto feel warm inside just watching him. Never before has anyone put this much focus on him, it was almost unsettling.

"And there," Hisato said, tightening the final bandage. "I'm not used to doing this sort of thing since I'm such a fast healer, so I hope this is suitable."

Naruto nodded. "Yes, thank you, ya know."

Hisato smiled warmly. "You are very welcome," he replied.

They both stood in silence, waiting to see who would speak first. Naruto, not liking the silence, took the initiative to fill it.

"So, what are you doing here, ya know? I've never seen you around before," the blonde sputtered, stumbling over his words a bit.

Hisato just smiled, one that didn't quite reach his eyes like the others. "Well, you see, I'm trying to become a ninja here in this village, but I decided to ditch my Anbu guard for a bit to get some air." Naruto smiled at this. "He should have noticed that I'm missing by now, and I'm looking forward to him finding me. That Anbu is a bit too prideful to admit he messed up."

Naruto snickered, remembering the times he pranked the Anbu and gave them quite a chase. They never caught him unless he wanted to be caught, but were too embarrassed to take him to the Hokage. What would they say? That some academy student successfully pranked them and they actually had to bring out their best sensors to find him? Yeah, 'Konoha's elite' would never do that. The only ninja with the balls to tell the Hokage were the Chunin, either giving the Hokage a good laugh or a major headache.

Hisato took in Naruto's reaction, smiling fondly at the memory that Naruto was sure to be thinking of. Only now could Hisato see that he-Naruto, was a genius in his own right. No one could hide with those big of chakra reserves, with a chakra demon to boot. Yet, somehow, Naruto had been able too, orange clothes and all. And no one acknowledged it. No one ever thought of Naruto's potential to be a spy. A damn good one too. It was no small feat to outdo the Anbu. Naruto may not be strong in the sense of jutsu and overall strength, but his stealth, even with the kill-me-now-orange jumpsuit, is almost unequalled. And with a little bit of help, Naruto's stealth could be unequalled. The only people that Hisato could think of at the moment that truly beats Naruto is Orochimaro and Zabuza. However, they were also the only two ninja that he knew practiced hiding- other than Anbu.

Hisato's head perked up a bit, sensing a small spike of chakra in his new apartment. "Well that took longer than I thought."

"What did?" Naruto inquired.

Hisato stood up and stretched. "It seems as if my 'guard' has finally noticed that I have disappeared." Hisato looked over at Naruto again. "Let's talk again soon. I believe you and I are neighbors now." And with those words, Hisato sunshinned away, straight back to his apartment.

Naruto stood their for a second, dumbfounded. He knew that someone was moving in next door, but he figured it was some old hag or a merchant who would only be staying for like a month. Not many people stayed in those apartments, mostly due to the crappy quality of the place and the fact that it's so close to the red-light district, and no one liked it there.

Naruto shook his head. No time for those thoughts. Might as well get some training it while he was at the training field.

Thank you Weirdly_Lazy for editing!

{December 23, 2019}

Sorry it took so long! I had to study for finals and work on some other school activities, such as NHS. Finals went pretty well. I only had to take two, and I got a 98% on American History and 100% on my English. I hope I can get updates out more often than not now, but we'll see.