A Parents Love

by trystanr

A nine year old Naruto stumbles upon his parent's home. He explores and finds that they loved him dearly, and wanted him to be the best ninja that he could be. He takes this seriously and starts training like a madman! He's not as dumb as he makes himself out to be. That aside how will this small change affect the shinobi world. Very small harem, rated M for scenes later.

4. The Beginning of Wave

A/n- Alright guys, here's the fourth one, hope you enjoy reading.

Oh, and I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 4: The Beginning of Wave

The group walked with Kakashi leading them and the three genin surrounding Tazuna. Everything outside of the village looked the same. It was trees, trees, and more trees as far as they could see. Every once in a while a small animal would catch their eyes.

"Tazuna-san what is your village like?" Naruto asked the drunk man. The blonde looked at him in curiosity.

"We're just a small fishing village. There aren't that many people and everyone there is like a close family, even if not by blood. It's very peaceful." He explained. They had been walking for little over an hour now and were at least a mile away from the village. The trees were swaying slowly in the wind as they passed two small puddles of water.

'It hasn't rained in days, why are there puddles of water on the ground?' Kakashi was thinking as they passed and Naruto was thinking along the same lines. He tensed up and his two genin teammates saw this.

They both got ready for anything as the two puddles expanded revealing two ninja with claw-like gauntlets on one's right hand and the other's left hand. The gauntlets were connected by a chain. The two ninja jumped at Kakashi first. They both swiped at him with their gauntlets and ripped the jounin to shreds! The genin were surprised and terrified that the jounin let himself be beaten so easily. They couldn't worry about that now, though! They had to get out of this little crisis!

Naruto took point as Hinata and Shino backed him up from the right and left flank, respectively. The two ninja, having killed Kakashi charged the genin. They didn't that that three mere genin would be any trouble at all. Naruto wasted no time with them, he took a kunai from his pound and deflected one of their claw swipes before forming several hand signs.

"Wind style: great breakthrough!" he yelled and send the powerful wind blast at both of them. They were knocked back, but recovered quickly. Hinata and Shino were stunned in fear at first, but then snapped out of it, knowing what they had to do. Shino started to launch kunai at the left one and Hinata went through a few hand signs herself.

"Water style: water whip!" she yelled and used the water from the two puddles to create a whip that she hit the right ninja with, hard. Neither of them had expected genin to be this well versed in the ninja arts. They were so stunned that Hinata's target took her jutsu head on. He was knocked back, and he knew that she had bruised his ribs badly with her whip. Shino's target barely dodged the kunai, but Naruto was waiting for him as he dodged the last one. He kicked the man's right knee from the side and almost broke it on impact. The ninja winced in pain and Naruto took this second opening to punch in the ribs as hard as he could. He felt at least two of them break as he connected. The man went flying and hit a tree trunk knocking him semi-conscious. Naruto followed his last attack up with a punch the face which knocked him out completely.

Hinata's target didn't know what hit him. Hinata swung her water whip several times, after the first hit in the ribs. The man was hit in the left arm, the side and the leg. She released the jutsu and started in on him with her taijutsu. She closed a few of his tenketsu, bruising the places she hit. Naruto waited for his opening and as soon as he saw one he jumped in to kick the man in the sternum. He flew back into a tree as well and was knocked out instantly.

After they were both knocked out Kakashi reappeared, he told the genin that they had done amazingly for their first real fight. "I wanted to see how you three would handle it. I also wanted to know what the two ninja's purpose was, whether it was just ninja attacking ninja, or if they were after the bridge builder. Tazuna we need to have a talk. Right now" he said when they asked why he had faked his death.

"Would you care to explain why two chunin level ninja just tried to kill you?" he asked the bridge builder. The man looked down and tried to think of a way to convince the jounin that he needed their help.

"Their employer doesn't want me to finish the bridge, so he has been sending ninja after me. I'm sorry for lying to you Kakashi-san. My village didn't have enough money to pay for a higher ranking mission or we would have! I swear to you." He said ashamed of himself for lying to them.

"Regardless of what your motives were this mission has just changed. You three, I'm going to tell you how it is and then you can decide whether we continue or not." The three genin nodded.

"These two ninja were ex-chunin from the mist village. They are known as the demon brothers and they will be the weakest ninja we face if we choose to keep going. The next opponent we face will most definitely be a jounin in skill level. This mission has just moved up from a C rank to a B, or possibly even an A ranked mission. Think about this you three. It will be very dangerous if we continue, so I want you to make sure that this is what you want. I will agree to continue only as long as you three are sure you're ready for this." He explained to them that it was up to them.

"We can't leave him unprotected Kakashi sensei, what kind of people would we be. What kind of ninja backs down from something like this! Not me, that's for damned sure!" Naruto told his sensei, the other two agreed wholeheartedly. They wouldn't be quitting or giving up on this mission. That much was clear to the jounin. He smiled "alright then, we will keep going, but you have to tell us everything after we finish off these two Tazuna. If you leave anything out and I find out about it you will never finish that bridge of yours" Kakashi said.

By this time the demon brothers, who were both tied to a tree were waking up. Everyone saw this and Kakashi walked over to them. "Who are you working for and tell me who the other ninja being sent is." Kakashi said to them, but they both refused to tell him anything. He knew this would be the case, but it didn't hurt to try. In the end he cut off their heads and sealed them into a scroll before burning the bodies. He told his genin that they would collect the bounty on those two and split it once they went back home. The three of them were excited to be getting more than just a C rank pay for what they were going to have to go through.

After killing the two demon brothers Kakashi told everyone that it was time to set up camp. He told Tazuna that they would talk after camp was set. The old man nodded and watched as the three genin set up what was to be their campsite. There were two small tents. One for Hinata and the other would be for whoever wasn't on watch, along with Tazuna. The two boys had gone to gather firewood and were back after everything was set up. Naruto started a fire with a simple fire style jutsu and Kakashi started cooking the food that they would be eating. After he got it started he sat down next to Tazuna and the genin followed suit.

"Alright Tazuna-san, tell me everything. I want to know why there are ninja after you and who hired them. I want to know what is so important about this bridge. Who is the one that doesn't want it to be finished? Leave nothing out." Kakashi said to the old man, who nodded and started to speak.

"Well to answer all of your questions in one, Gato is the reason I needed you four in the first place. He is a business tycoon who has basically enslaved the people of the Land of Wave. If you don't do what he tells you, or don't pay him what he thinks you owe him you are dead. He sends men after you to kill you." The bridge builder sighed and looked at them with a small glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"The bridge that I'm building will change all of that though. We will be able to get all of our own provisions by trading with other villages. It will bring us money and we won't have to live as a poor fishing village any longer. The bridge is our only hope Kakashi –san. If I'm not able to finish it, then my people will continue to live in poverty! Gato hired those two ninja, I'm sure of it. He has others too. I don't know who exactly, though. I'm sorry that I lied to your village, but the only way I will ever be able to finish the bridge is if I have ninja protecting me while I do. My village was too poor to afford anything higher than a C rank mission though. I hope you guys will forgive us for the lack of honesty." The man finished looking down, as if he truly was remorseful about lying to them. He hoped that they would understand and help him. He didn't hear any of them speak for a while.

To his surprise it was Naruto who spoke up first. "We have to help them Kakashi-sensei. They had no other way of doing things than this, I know were over our heads, but I'm sure that we can handle it! Right guys?" he said looking at his other two teammates. They both agreed wholeheartedly. They wouldn't give up on this mission no matter what.

Kakashi was proud of his three genin, now he only hope that they would be able to face what was to come. "Alright, alright. I feel the same as you. We will finish this mission to the end, but Tazuna-san I want it understood that once your village can get back on its feet you will compensate us for this."

Tazuna nodded and that was all that was said on the matter. Kakashi told everyone to get some sleep, and that they'd continue tomorrow morning at first light. They all went into their tents and left Kakashi to watch over the camp for the night.

The next morning the sun shone through the trees as the genin woke up. They slowly exited their tents and found Kakashi still up, and Tazuna already up with him. Kakashi told the three of them to get everything packed up. "We will head out as soon as you three finish." They nodded and started sealing the tents away into scrolls. Soon everything was sealed and they were ready to go.

They started walking in the direction of wave in the same formation that the left the village in, with Hinata on one side and Shino on the other. Naruto took point. Nothing really special happened for a while. They talked about Tazuna's village, and Naruto told him that they wouldn't let them go through that anymore. Tazuna had started to take a liking to the blonde. It seemed to him that the boy was honorable, and that was a rare quality to the man.

Soon they arrived at a boating dock and found a man that would take them into the village. The sun was starting to go down by now, and it was very foggy along the river. They got onto the man's boat and were rowing towards the village. It didn't take them long to land on the other side, when they got out of the boat they bid the man that had taken them goodbye and were on their way.

They were walking through the forest when Naruto heard something. He launched a kunai into the bushes, and when they found what he had been aiming for they were surprised. It was a white rabbit.

"Naruto! You almost hit that rabbit, why'd you do that?" Hinata asked him, but he was busy worrying about what the rabbit symbolized. 'That's weird, these rabbits are only white during the winter." were the thoughts going through his mind when Kakashi suddenly yelled.

"Get down!" not a moment too soon, Naruto ducked and felt the whoosh of a blade being thrown over his head. It passed over him and stuck into a tree about ten feet from him. The blade was huge! Whoever wielded it wasn't someone to be messed with. He was thinking, suddenly very afraid as he saw someone land on the blade.

This man had a headband from the mist village that was tied so that the metal was on the left side of his head. His face and neck were bandaged so that you couldn't see his mouth. He wore a black sleeveless shirt and black ninja pants. He also had bluish grey armbands on his forearms and he wore the same on his shins.

"Give me the bridge builder now and you don't have to die, little genin." He spoke in a menacing voice that made the three genin's neck hair stand on end. Kakashi told them to get into manji formation, which was where they surrounded the bridge builder. Their task was to protect him no matter what the cost. They got into formation and the masked man jumped from the tree, grabbing his sword on the way down.

"So who is it that I get to kill today?" he asked looking at Kakashi. "Ah, I know who you are! You're Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan eye. You're in all of the bingo books nowadays. The man who has copied over a thousand jutsu. What are you doing with these runts?" he looked at the genin.

"They are my team, and I will not let anything happen to them. You're Zabuza Momochi right? The Demon of the Hidden Mist. I'm your opponent." Kakashi said moving his headband to uncover his Sharingan eye. He launched at Zabuza throwing shuriken and slashing with the kunai in his hand. Zabuza dodged the shuriken, but was too late for the kunai. The man exploded in a shower of water surprising the silver haired jounin that attacked him. 'Water clone, huh' he thought and turned around to see his target slashing down at him with his oversized sword.

Kakashi exploded into water too, surprising the jounin of the mist.

'He copied it that fast?' he thought and jumped back. Kakashi appeared in front of him close to the river. Zabuza launched ten shuriken at the copy ninja, and Kakashi had no choice but to retreat into the water.

Zabuza smirked, 'wrong move Kakashi' he thought and jumped onto the water. Kakashi resurfaced in front of him, but he was already doing hand signs

"Water style: Water Prison Jutsu!" he said and stretched his arm out in front of him, creating a spherical prison of water around Kakashi trapping him there. Zabuza created two water clones to take care of the three genin.

Naruto, Hinata, and Shino all watched the fight unfold in awe. They had never seen two people that skilled fight before. They knew that both wanted to kill the other, and it scared them to think that that was what the life of the shinobi was about. When Kakashi got trapped in the water prison they panicked, not knowing what to do. Kakashi knew that was what was going through their minds and yelled

"Run! Take Tazuna and get out of here! You can't take him by yourselves!" this snapped Naruto out of his stupor and he decided that he wasn't going to run.

"Hinata, Shino, I have a plan." he summoned fifty clones to keep Zabuza's clones busy while he explained it to them.

"Alright we will do it!" they said after he told them.

Naruto created ten more clones and ran at Zabuza's clones, with a kunai in hand. He threw it at the left clone and that was the one that the clones went after. He was doing hand signs as he ran at the other clone. The other two were doing hand signs as well.

"Earth style: Mud Wall Jutsu!" Shino said and a wall of earth was brought up behind both clones.

"Wind style: Great Breakthrough!" Naruto yelled and shot the powerful blast of wind at the right clone. The clone was blown back into the wall and that was when Hinata yelled.

"Water style: Water Bullet!" she shot a small water bullet as hard as she could at the clone. It was dazed so it didn't dodge and when the bullet hit, it went through both the clone and the mud wall. The clone dispelled into water and Naruto took this chance. He started doing hand signs.

"Wind style: Wind Blade!" he yelled and slashed through his clones and the last clone of Zabuza. After that he started doing more hand signs along with Hinata. They were standing right in front of the mud wall when Shino brought it down.

"Wind style: Air bullet!"

"Water style: Water bullet!" Hinata and Naruto said at the same time.

They shot two bullets of wind and air at Zabuza 'shit I'm going to have to let him go if I don't want to be hit by that!' Zabuza thought and let go of the water prison. He jumped out of the way of their attack, but what they wanted had happened. They had freed Kakashi.

The genin backed off after that, knowing there was little they could do about the jounin that they faced. The two seasoned ninja stood atop the water staring at each other. It seemed as if Kakashi was copying every move that Zabuza made! When he would run to the left, Kakashi would do the same. Zabuza started weaving hand signs and Kakashi started weaving the same sign. Soon they were both done.

"Water style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" they both said at the same time. Two dragons rose up from the water and collided showering them both in water. Kakashi kept copying everything Zabuza did.

"Stop copying my moves Kakashi! You won't be able to beat me with cheap tricks! Ill crush you!" Zabuza and Kakashi both yelled and started doing hand signs. Kakashi started doing the same signs, but when it came time for their jutsu to meet only one voice could be heard.

"Water style: Giant Vortex Jutsu!" Kakashi said and suddenly the water In front of him rose up and made a whirling vortex in front of Kakashi before it shot out at Zabuza. 'I was just about to make a vortex, but he made one first!' Zabuza thought asit hit him hard and he was tossed and turned everywhere before finally smacking against a tree. Kakashi threw several kunai at him, hitting him in both arms and legs. The mist jounin winced in pain with every hit.

"You're finished Zabuza." Kakashi told him from a branch above him in the tree that he was leaning on. Zabuza coughed up water that was mixed with blood

"Can you see the future Kakashi? You copied everything perfectly! And that last attack, I was just about to do the same thing." Zabuza said weakly.

"Yes I can, and this will be your last battle, ever!" Kakashi replied with a kunai in hand.

As Kakashi was about to jump down and kill the jounin from the mist two senbon flew out from the trees and hit him in the neck, killing him. Kakashi looked to where the needles had come from and saw a hunter ninja.

"You were right Kakashi-san, this was his last battle. Thank you for weakening him for me. I have been hunting Zabuza for many years now." The hunter ninja said and shunshined to the dead body of Zabuza. Kakashi jumped down and checked the man's vitals. There wasn't a pulse, so he relaxed a little.

"I will take this body and deal with it. Thank you again Kakashi-san" the Hunter Nin stated before picking up the body and transporting it who knows where. Naruto and the others were watching this. They were relieved to finally be finished with the battle and with Zabuza.

"You guys can stay at my house while I work on this bridge, it's the least I can do to repay all you've done. Come on it's this way" Tazuna told them.

"Good work you three." Kakashi said, and after he finished the silver haired jounin passed out onto the ground.

"Kakashi sensei!" the three genin exclaimed, worried about their teacher.

"It's just a case of mild chakra exhaustion from using his sharingan too much." Naruto told them after looking the jounin over for a moment, he had seen this before during training. His teammates relaxed visibly at that. Naruto summoned two shadow clones and they slowly made their way to Tazuna's home.

Tazuna's home was average in size. It had two stories, and there were three bedrooms upstairs along with the two that were downstairs. The living room was of a decent size and that is what they walked into when they got there. Tsunami, who was Tazuna's daughter greeted them

"Dad! You're home, I'm glad you made it back safe." She saw Kakashi and told Naruto to bring him inside and put him upstairs in one of the rooms. Naruto did this and then they all ate dinner. It was a good meal, Tsunami cooked the genin team fish and bread for dinner. After dinner they all went to bed in one of the rooms upstairs.

-APL-

At an undisclosed location underground.

"Why does he always push himself like this? It's going to be at least three weeks before Zabuza-sama recovers from the temporary death-state that I had to put him in." the Hunter Nin was talking to herself, she didn't know that her master was listening to her.

"Haku why do you have to be so cruel, that hurt like hell you know!" Zabuza said as he rip the two senbon that were still sticking out of his neck free.

"Be careful Zabuza-sama, you could really hurt yourself ripping them out like that, and besides the neck is the easiest place that I could hit you to get the desired results. Also, are you even for a second saying that if I had marred that precious body of yours that you would be less pissed than you are now?" she looked at him asking.

"Still, you could have been a little easier." He replied, joking with the girl that he had raised as his tool since she was a child.

"Normally it would take around three weeks for someone to recover from something like this, but with your track record, you'll probably be as good as new in a week and a half." She replied, ignoring his comment.

Zabuza was furious that he'd been beaten by that copycat of a ninja, 'I'll get my revenge for this defeat for sure.' He thought as he laid back down to rest a little more. He watched as Gato came into the room and started to berate him about losing to Kakashi, getting closer to the bandaged man with every passing sentence. Haku surprised him by breaking the man's wrist and telling him that if he ever got that close to Zabuza again that she would kill him.

He was proud of his student, oh so proud.

-APL-

The next morning Naruto woke up and walked downstairs to find that everyone was already there waiting for him, Kakashi was bandaged and had to use crutches to walk. Naruto's teammates were sitting at the table. Kakashi looked over to see Naruto come down the stairs.

"Ah Naruto you're awake. Good, now I can tell you all this and don't have to repeat myself." The genin all wondered what he wanted to tell them. Naruto sat down and tsunami put a plate of breakfast in front of him.

"Alright you three, I have my suspicions that Zabuza is still alive. That means were not out of the woods yet, and I'm going to be training you all into the ground for the next week. The next time we fight him you will be better prepared for it. He will probably bring back up with him this time so be forewarned." Kakashi stated without letting them process completely that Zabuza was still alive.

"What?! I thought that the hunter ninja killed him sensei." Naruto said and the others nodded not wanting to believe that he wasn't dead.

Kakashi sighed, knowing what they were thinking. "Think about the weapons that that hunter ninja used. What were they Hinata?"

"They were senbon Kakashi sensei, or throwing needles." She replied starting to put it together.

"Right, senbon are small and precise, and able to hit vital spots easily. If that hunter ninja wanted to suspend Zabuza in a deathlike state it would be child's play for him. What do you know of hunter ninja in general Shino?" Kakashi asked the bug user. By this time the three genin had all put together the pieces of information that they were given.

"I know that hunter ninja are sent after rogue ninja to kill them and destroy their bodies so that the ninja's village secrets aren't able to be taken from it. They are supposed to destroy the body on sight, but the hunter that we met didn't. He took Zabuza's body somewhere else." Shino said knowing that their sensei was right.

"So that hunter ninja had to be working with Zabuza then?" Naruto put in, finishing all of the thoughts going around in the room.

"Correct Naruto, and I'd say we have about a week and a half before Zabuza is ready to fight again. I will be using this time to train you three to be able to do more against him. Anything you learn will help you than nothing. I may be injured right now but that doesn't mean that I can't instruct! We will get started after breakfast." Kakashi finished and resumed eating so that his genin could process all the information.

After breakfast Kakashi told them to follow him. He led them all to the riverbank. "Alright you three. None of you have learned this skill yet, so I will be teaching it to you today. It's a skill known as water walking. It will help you build your reserves and to better control them. This will make jutsu cost you less chakra and help in controlling your jutsu more."

"But how are we supposed to walk on water Kakashi sensei? That's impossible!" Naruto said, voicing all three genins' thoughts aloud.

"If you remember correctly, Zabuza was standing on the water while he held me in that water prison of his. You do it like this." Kakashi said and slowly walked out onto the surface of the water. The three of them did remember that, 'oh yeah' they all thought stupidly.

"This exercise is a lot like tree walking. Yu concentrate chakra to your feet to hold you up onto the water. The difference is that you have to constantly change the amount of chakra at your feet. This will cause you to burn your reserves quickly and therefore increase them. Get started on this, and if you can finish the exercise in less than five day I will teach each of you a new jutsu." Kakashi instructed giving them incentive to work harder.

Naruto, Shino, and Hinata all slowly walked into the water, and concentrated chakra to their feet as they did. All three of them stuck to the surface for a small amount of time but sank almost immediately. Hinata stayed up the longest, with Shino being second and Naruto being third because of his immense reserves. Kakashi walked to the nearest tree and sat down, pulling his orange book out, he started reading his smut.

After three hours of working at it, the only one any closer to finishing was Hinata. She could stay on the surface for a little over five minutes now. The other two however weren't even near that good, they could both only stay up for around two or three minutes. Kakashi called them over for a break. "You guys can take a break and then I want you to all to do your routine exercises and then get back at it. He told them, knowing that they were starting to tire. Naruto wasn't starting to tire at all, but that was because of the kyuubi.

Soon they were starting their exercises. Naruto started running up and down the riverside. Shino started on his push-ups and Hinata started on her punches and kicks. It wasn't long before they finished their respective exercises and went to the next set that they were supposed to do.

About an hour later they were all back at water walking. This continued until it started to get dark and Kakashi told them to call it a night. They all went back to Tazuna's and sat at the table for dinner. Inari, who was Tazuna's grandson was there, and he kept glaring at all of them. Naruto wondered what his problem was.

After dinner they all went to bed. They were dead tired after that day of training.

-APL-

The next day Naruto and his teammates got up before dawn so that they could get to training. Kakashi was still sleeping when they left Tazuna's house. They had been sure to take better clothes for swimming. They all brought shorts and Hinata brought a tank top as well. As they got to the riverside they were getting more and more ready to get started. Hinata was extremely nervous about showing her teammates what she looked like without a jacket. She blushed and wondered what they would think. She was mostly worried about Naruto though.

They did their morning routines and started in on water walking. Hinata slowly took her jacket off revealing the tank top underneath and Naruto and Shino both blushed, looking at her young developing body. Shino would never admit this to anyone if asked of course. Naruto sputtered nervously that they should get started. Hinata was pleased at the reaction she got from him, and hoped that it meant that he thought she was pretty.

Hinata had gotten the farthest the day before of course, she could stay up for almost twenty minutes before falling in. Naruto had pushed himself to ten minutes and Shino could stay up for twelve.

They got onto the water and Naruto said blushing, "W-what if we try g-going farther o-out? It will be a lot harder, but I t-think it will help us master this faster, since we'll be g-getting used to the rougher current further out!" the other two shrugged and started walking with him as far as they could. They were both surprised at this new timid and shy Naruto, they weren't used to it. They shrugged it off and before long all three young genin fell in due to the unstable current farther out, just as Naruto had thought they would. They got out of the water and tried again. They would walk slowly out until they fell in, and each time they would get a little farther across the wide river.

They continued this for hours, and soon the sun was high in the sky. By this time Naruto had finally gotten over his nervousness around Hinata, and talked normally again, without stuttering. He wondered why he had reacted that way, but shrugged it off for now, thinking that he would deal with his reaction to her later. This was when Kakashi decided to join them. By this time they had all gotten a fourth of the way across. It surprised Kakashi how they were going about this training, but he was impressed at how far they had come.

"Come on in guys it's time for a break and then I want to see how long you can each stay standing still." They walked back to the riverside, becoming more confident as they got closer to the bank of the river. After a ten minute break they all stood on the water for as long as they could. The two boys were even at twenty minutes and Hinata could now stay on for thirty five without falling in.

"Alright you three, good work so far. I have something for you all. It's the next set of weights for each of you. I bought them before the mission started. This will make water walking harder but you'll all be stronger for it. Hinata you're at twenty pound, and Shino you're at forty. Here you go" he handed Hinata and Shino their weights to put on. They both put them on and groaned realizing how much harder this would be.

"Naruto you're at 60 now. I want you all to do your morning routines again once to get used to the new weight. These new sets have a seal on them to release them. Touch them while channeling chakra into your hands and they will fall off. Here you go Naruto." He handed Naruto his weights and the blonde put them on without question. His two teammates were beyond surprised. 'I can barely move at where I'm at! How does he do it?' were the thoughts running through Naruto's teammate's minds. After they were all outfitted with their weights they each started on their routines for the second time that day.

This run through of exercises was a lot slower going than the one before. They all struggled immensely to get through each exercise. They knew it would be a while before they were used to this added weight. Two hours later they were done and Kakashi told them it was time for a late lunch. It was around two o'clock now, so they headed back to Tazuna's house. They ate their lunch happily, they all felt like they were starving!

After lunch they went back out to the riverside, but not before Kakashi told Naruto to send a squad of five shadow clones to go and watch over the bridge builder. Naruto did so and they were off. They had to basically restart the water walking exercise because of the new weights. They each started walking across the water, and when one of them would fall in they would all start back at the riverbank.

By nightfall they had started to get used to the weights that they were given. It was time to go back to Tazuna's and have dinner, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

-APL-

They next two days went by in much the same way. The genin team would wake up and go out to the river at dawn and train until they had to take a break, and then they would break for lunch and start back after resting a little while.

They all progressed very quickly with the help of support from each other, when one would figure something out about the exercise they would clue the other two in. they were all up to almost an hour of standing still on the water, but it wasn't enough for them. They knew that if they were going to be able to use the skill in combat that they would need to be able to fight on the water's surface for at least two hours.

They had completely acclimated to their added weights by the end of the two days and were now resting on the river bank. Hinata had gotten a little bolder after that first day and now she wore her tank top without being so nervous around the boys. Speaking of those two they both noticed that their female teammate was starting to develop in ways that they wouldn't have seen if she had kept wearing her jacket.

Naruto in particular still felt himself blushing countless times as he watched as Hinata would get out of the water after falling in. Her wet tank top clung to her skin tightly, leaving little to the imagination. While the dark haired girls assets were nowhere near a certain blonde medical kunoichi's, they were definitely farther along in development that all of her other classmates.

"Why does this have to be so hard, guys?" Naruto was complaining because their progress hadn't gotten much better from the day before.

"We will get it, I know we will." Hinata said, she still stuttered during some conversations with her blonde crush, but it was almost nonexistent now.

"We just have to keep working at it." Shino agreed, he had opened up to them more, even telling them about his clan a little. Naruto thought it was cool that a whole clan specialized in housing insect that they could use in battle inside themselves. Hinata thought it was just a little creepy, but didn't tell her teammate so, because she hadn't wanted to hurt his feelings.

They still had a few hours of daylight left, so they all stood up and started back at it. Instead of standing still, they were now walking around on the water. Shino had come up with idea, he had said that if they were going to have to fight on the water they should be able to walk around.

-APL-

Three hours later night had fallen and they walked into Tazuna's house completely exhausted. They had gotten further than they had ever gotten before tonight. They were able to walk around on any part of the rivers surface for an hour and a half before falling in. they decided before the three of them left the riverbed that the next day they would start sparring on the water.

Dinner was already ready for them and everyone was already waiting for them at the table.

"We're finally ready for the next step of this training Kakashi sensei. We made it an hour and a half so were going to start sparing tomorrow." Naruto said excitedly.

"Why do you even try? You're just going to end up dead!" the little boy Inari suddenly yelled at the three of them.

"Why do you think that? We're going to beat Gato and help your village kid!" Naruto replied getting more annoyed at the boy with every passing minute.

"No you won't! You're all just going to die! Like he did!" Inari yelled back.

"Look I don't know who you're talking about kid, but I'm not going to die. Stop acting like such a victim! You have no idea what real pain is like. You don't know what it's like to live in a village where you're despised for something you can't even control! Something that happened the day that you were born that you didn't have any say in! So why don't you shut up and stop acting like your pain is the only thing that matters! Stop acting like a little wimp!" Naruto practically screamed the last part at the boy and stormed off telling the others at the table that he was going to go train.

"Kakashi sensei what was Naruto talking about? What happened when he was born? I've noticed how the villagers look at him." Hinata asked, forgetting about what the boy had said almost entirely, she had been wondering what made the villagers look at Naruto like they did for longer than any of her classmates.

"Please tell us Kakashi sensei" Shino said wondering the same things that Hinata was.

-APL-

"You know they are going to want to know, and that I think you should be the one to tell them Naruto" Kakashi had made a clone to talk to his student, without the others noticing. They were walking through the forest, Naruto didn't want to train with walking on water tonight. He had something else in mind that he didn't want any of the others to know about.

"I know Kakashi sensei, but I don't think I can tell them right now. I know it's not your place, but if they ask just tell them everything. I just hope they don't look at me differently." Naruto said looking down.

"They won't Naruto, if I know anything about those two on your team it that they won't see you as the demon. They will see what your father wanted everyone to, that you're a hero. I'm going to dispel now, be careful out here tonight." Kakashi's clone replied putting his hand on Naruto's shoulder before dispelling.

"I won't" Naruto replied to no one before summoning five hundred clones.

This was going to be a long night.

-APL-

Kakashi received his clone's memories, getting the okay from Naruto to tell the two genin in front of him. As he began to tell the story of how the Kyuubi was really dealt with Inari realized just how wrong he was. That blonde boy dealt with hate and prejudice every day for something that he couldn't do anything about, and yet every day that he'd been at his grandpa's house he had been happy and cheerful. Acting like he had no other cares in the world except for helping Inari's village get through the strife it was going through with Gato.

'I need to apologize to Naruto' he thought as the blondes teammates listened raptly to the story that Kakashi was telling.

They both felt sorry for Naruto, they knew that they could never do anything to make it better for their blond teammate. To think that he had held the beast all this time only learning about it recently. The villagers had it all wrong in their opinions. Naruto wasn't the demon, he was keeping the demon at bay. He was saving the villagers ungrateful asses every day, and none of them cared.

"What can we do to make what he goes though better Kakashi sensei?" Hinata asked although she had a feeling that she knew what the silver haired jounin would say.

"Don't treat him any different than you do now. Just be his friends you two. That's all he really wants, is friends to count on that like him for who he is." Kakashi replied confirming Hinata's suspicions.

The two of them decided then and there that they would show Naruto that he had friends, and that they both cared deeply for him.

-APL-

We find Naruto back in the forest panting in fatigue as he continued to fight his clones. He wasn't holding back and neither were they. He dodged a punch from one of them, and a kick from another. He was starting to get tired finally, and he knew it. Deep cuts and bruises littered the blonde's body as he finally passed out on the forest floor from exhaustion.

'I just hope they don't see me any different.' were the last thoughts that passed through the blonde's mind.