Chapter 1: The Heir

"Naruto, the way you recklessly throw yourself in harm's way may be admirable but it isn't intelligent. Think about how you getting injured could potentially handicap your team."

"Naruto, now look at you! Your hand is bleeding, weren't their gauntlets poisoned? Kakashi-sensei!"

"Hn, if you can't handle a mere Chuunin then stay out of the way Dobe. Save your heroics for your dreams."

These words were being mulled over inside the head of Uzumaki Naruto as he thought about the brief encounter his team had experienced earlier. From his point of view he had merely been reacting to the situation that had happened, but to his team he was showing off.

'I don't see exactly what it is that I did wrong!' Naruto vented inside his own head. He had merely reacted to the threat that the Demon Brothers and Zabuza presented. Instead of angrily spouting off at the words that his team had spoken towards him he took his aggravation and applied it towards his training. He was attempting to complete the task that was given to Sakura, Sasuke, and himself by their Sensei Kakashi.

"Stupid mission! Stupid team! Stupid tree!" He grunted with aggravation as he tried to run up the tree in front of him again. With each footfall against the bark he declared something stupid, trying to focus the irritation into productivity.

"Yah!"

After his fall back down to the ground he realized that it wasn't working. He couldn't quite seem to get the progress right. He had spoken with Sakura and tried to get some help with the exercise but her answer to his questions didn't seem to help him much. 'How am I supposed to use less chakra? I feel like I've cut my usage in half and I'm still being pushed away!' As Naruto sat and pondered on how to climb the tree he didn't notice the eyes watching him from the forest, taking in his current actions.

XXX

"Zabuza-sama is that not the boy we ran into?" a soft spoken voice asked, peering more intently at the blonde who had failed to do whatever it was he was doing, if his frustrated demeanor was anything to base that assumption off of.

"Yes." Zabuza answered shortly to his apprentice. 'It looks like the runt is struggling to achieve a simple chakra exercise.' Zabuza thought to himself as he watched the blonde fall back and sit on the ground seemingly giving up for the moment. 'Either he is a sorry excuse for a ninja…'

"Take this!" Naruto yelled triumphantly as he hurled a kunai at the surprised Zabuza, forcing him to remove his hand from the water prison that Kakashi was trapped in.

"Admit it. He fooled you Zabuza." Kakashi muttered as he rose from the water, preparing to resume the battle they were in.

"…or he doesn't know how to control the power that he possesses." Zabuza spoke aloud gaining the attention of his apprentice. "I'm still too weak to risk attacking him right now and getting the attention of the Copy-Cat Ninja. Keep tabs on him Haku so we aren't surprised by any tricks that he may have up his sleeve when it comes time to attack the bridge."

"Yes Zabuza-sama." Haku responded with a bow, returning her attention to the blonde who had resumed his training. "Shall I keep to the foliage so he doesn't see me?" she asked before he master left her alone to her actions.

"Do what you think will help us best. If your cover is blown though-"

"I will make sure that this task is done without fail Zabuza-sama." Haku declared before Zabuza could insinuate that she would ever fail in anything directed of her. With a small grunt of acknowledgement the man made his way back through the forest to the place that they had holed up in during their stay in the country.

XXX

"Stupid tree! Don't you know I'm supposed to be Hokage? Let me climb you already!" Naruto yelled at the tree, waving a kunai that he had been using to mark his progress back and forth, as though the overgrown plant could hear or see his actions. He growled in determination before charging forward again, chakra beginning to glow around his feet.

He planted his first foot on the wood and began to run up the tree, ignoring the bark that cracked and splintered in his overpowered steps. '1,2,3,4,5,6…13!' Naruto mentally declared before feeling as though he were going to be propelled backwards. Before this could happen he made a slash in the bark and flipped backwards off the trunk. As he landed on the ground he felt his legs get wobbly and he collapsed backwards, barely catching himself with his hands.

Before he could get up again and resume his training he heard a soft giggle behind him. As he turned he found his eyes landing on a girl who looked only a few years older than him. She was holding one of her hands in front of her mouth as she giggled and in her other hand she held a woven basket. 'Beautiful!' was the first word that came to Naruto's mind as he looked at her, a slight blush gracing his face.

"Hey! What're you laughing at?" He asked embarrassingly, knowing that the beautiful girl in front of him had seen his tumble to the ground. He quickly got back on his feet, dusting his clothes off in the process, and then put his hands in his pockets. He looked away, flustered, as the girl laughed again at his antics.

"Oh nothing! I just never expected anyone else to be out here in this part of the woods." The girl spoke as her giggling subsided and she slowly closed the distance between the two of them. "Not many people are brave enough to venture out here with Gato in control and his thugs imposing his rule." She clarified so that Naruto could understand which he did as he nodded as he watched her carefully. He learned growing up to watch people carefully, just in case they decided to try something funny.

"But I can see that you're a ninja, am I correct?" the girl asked pointing, with her free hand, at Naruto's forehead protector.

"You bet! Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage, at your service!" He proudly answered while pointing at his forehead protector with his thumb. "You can believe it when I say I'm not sacred of any lackeys that Gato can send out here!" At his declaration the girl laughed again making Naruto drop his shoulders in discouragement.

"No worries future Hokage-sama, I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing because I'm happy to have met such an important person!" she said, making Naruto perk up again. "My name is Haku and I'm here collecting different herbs for medical remedies. What is it that you are doing out here?" she asked curiously despite knowing the answer already.

"I'm training to become a better ninja. I know it sounds crazy but learning to climb this tree will help me." Naruto responded as he gave her a grin, throwing his arms behind his head. As he did see his legs wobbled again and he lost his balance and fell flat on his ass. "As you can see this is part of the training." He quickly said with a halfhearted laugh.

"Oh my, how long have you been out here Uzumaki-san?" Haku asked as she crouched down next to him, gazing at him intently. Naruto got slightly nervous under her gaze and he chuckled nervously.

"Ah! Not the long. Just since this morning, very early in the morning. Technically that morning started right after I got out here during the night though." Naruto said in an attempt to hide just how long he had been struggling to complete his training. 'Jeez, why am I even embarrassed about it?' He thought after he responded. 'The girl isn't even a ninja! For all she knows it's supposed to be this hard!'

"You must really want to be the Hokage." Haku said as she ran her hand through the grass below them, casting her eyes around as she looked for herbs. "Would you mind sharing your story with me while I look for herbs?" she asked, looking up briefly to smile at the blonde in front of her.

Naruto was taken aback for a moment. Not many people asked about him, he was used to just expressing himself without their approval. With this sudden change in mind he responded to the request in a different attitude than he was showing earlier.

"Yeah, do you mind if I help you while I talk? I like plants and it may be useful to learn about herbs." He asked and after receiving a nod of affirmation from the beautiful girl in front of him he began looking around. Quickly he held up a piece of vegetation in excitement and presented it to Haku.

"You need this?"

"That's a dandelion Uzumaki-san."

"How about I watch for a little bit first and tell you my story." Naruto chuckled as he cast the weed behind him to drift away on a sudden gust of wind. Haku giggled again and Naruto took that as the go ahead to tell her about him.

"Well, I guess you could say my life all started when the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked…"

XXX

"I can't quite place it but he looks very familiar." Zabuza thought aloud as he watched his apprentice and the blonde communicate from the shadows. Ever since he first met the blonde he had a weird sensation that had been creeping through his body, something he had only felt when he had been a very young kid.

'Who are you kid?' Zabuza wondered as he melded back into the shadows. He would await Haku's return and he would question her from there. Zabuza wasn't superstitious but he felt as though attacking the bridge might be a mistake until he figured out more about this specific Konoha shinobi.

A/N: Well here is the first small chapter. I felt like just writing this as work suddenly and before my muse went back into hiding I dusted off the cobwebs and threw it on some paper. Looking at my last story I realized that my idea while good wasn't presented in a realistic way. I overpowered Naruto and made characters out to be who they really weren't. Also a fatal flaw that I made while writing was guessing about canon names and events. I didn't research as much as I should have before writing.

I like to think that I'm a little bit more mature now so bear with me folks while I oil up the machine and get it running again. Chapters from here on out will be no less than 4-5k words. I'll also be working to add a bit more depth to characters and reasons. Bad ass scenes are fun but if they don't make sense then their nothing.

As for pairings? I'm not sure yet.

Until next time!