Sorry that it's been a long ass time….. but I've been to depressed to write to this story… *sniffles* Well, enjoy

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN Naruto nor any of its characters, just my own!

Chapter four:

Naruto laid the little eleven year old Sana on a bed. He had taken the chains off of her wrists and neck before he found a family willing to take her in. Now he started at her as she curled up into a ball on the bed, breathing softly. He couldn't help but smile.

The wife, whose name escaped the blond, spoke after he left the room. "We'll look after her as if she was our own."

Naruto nodded. "Thank you for taking her in. You have such kind hearts."

'Oh please,' Kyuubi rolled her eyes.

The wife nodded and led Naruto out of the house. But before he left, she asked, "What will I tell the child when she wakes up?"

"Uh . . . that she is free and will never be owned again." The lady looked at him weirdly but shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I must go now. Take care of her."

With that, Naruto took off running through the town to the entrance. The lady was waving to him as she watched him go.

XxxxX

The twenty-two year old sat on a tree branch with one leg dangling over the side while the other was propped up. He rested his arm on his leg and scanned his surroundings with a sigh.

'You seem to be in an awfully gloomy mood today, kit. What's wrong?'Kyuubi purred, worried for him.

Naruto shrugged and answered aloud. "I don't know . . ."

Kyuubi stood up and sat down instead of her usual lying down. 'Hmph, well, maybe you'll feel better once you get home. It must be because you're homesick.'

Naruto shrugged again. That could be a possibility. He has been gone longer than normal, but, something in his mind told him that wasn't it. It was something more. "Well, break over. Might as well go home since there's nothing else to do." He stood up and dusted off his jacket.

Before he could so much as move an inch, Kyuubi's head perked up and had a hard glare set on her face. 'We have a followed.' She growled.

"Where?" Naruto crouched low to the tree and brought a kunai out. He hated it when people started to trail him. But, if they ever find him, they were usually punched to a pulp.

'I . . . can't tell. Everywhere?' Her voice was full of confusion.

"Everywhere? That can't be possible unless it was a group of people." Naruto stated, now sensing the followed. But, as he sensed it, he realized it was only one person. He pushed his back up against the trunk of the tree and braced himself. He carefully started to watch his surroundings.

The wind blew gently like it had been all day; the only change had been the sun slowly setting.

Naruto stayed in his crouching position for a few minutes, his legs cramping a bit. But, he never moved except for his heart beating in its normal beat. The kunai was in a death position, only needing to swipe at the person's neck for them to be killed.

'Intruder almost here and they're approaching pretty fast.' Kyuubi announced.

Naruto slowly peaked around the tree to find . . . more trees. No one was approaching unless they were invisible or so small that it would take a magnified glass to see them. "There's no intruder, Kyuubi," he frowned and turned back around. He almost jumped a foot in to the air and let a small shriek out.

Crouching before him was a little girl with long brown hair and bright, green eyes. Sana. She watched him with curious but hurt eyes.

"S-Sana! How, where, how did you get here?" Naruto stuttered out. He waited for her to respond but she didn't. She just simply tilted her head to the side as if confused.

"Um . . . okay. Why aren't you with that family? They must be worried sick that you left them!" But still, she did not answer. He furrowed his blond eyebrows.

'Maybe she wanted to be with you? You did save her, kit.' Kyuubi also sounded confused as she eyed the girl in front of them.

The blond bit his bottom lip, considering things. Finally, after a few minutes of silence, he said, "I'm guessing you want to come with me?" Sana's eyes brightened and she nodded her head. "Alright, but, to let you know, things might not always be safe. I'm always on the road, doing small missions like killing people." He waited for the girl to respond, but again, she didn't. "Hey, are you gonna talk to me?"

Sana only started at him with her green orbs. She didn't speak or nod her head or even shake it. She just simply watched him.

/What am I supposed to do? She won't talk!/ Naruto thought to the fox, half irritated, half disappointed.

'I don't know. Maybe she's mad at you because you left her.' Kyuubi guessed. 'But, let's not dwell on the past; we should be heading home. It's getting kind of dark….'

Naruto nodded. Aloud, he said to Sana, "Well, I'm on my way home, but, that's a day's trip from here if I run. But, seeing as you should probably be able to keep up with me, we'll walk. Sound okay?"

Surprising him, she shook her head and stood up. "We'll run." She spoke with such a soft voice, she reminded him of one of his friends, Hinata. She took one step away from Naruto and jumped down from the tree.

The blond raised an eyebrow. "Uh . . . okay," he got to his feet and jumped down from the tree,

Already a few trees away from him, was Sana. She was waiting for him patiently.

/How'd she get over there so fast?/ He asked Kyuubi. The fox just shrugged like she didn't care and lay back down, stretching. Mimicking her, Naruto also shrugged and ran over to Sana.

Together, the two ran at a pretty fast pace. Amazing him, Sana kept up with him when the blond doubled his speed.

'Who is this girl,' Naruto thought to himself. 'No one should be able to keep up with me. The only person that could was always Gaara. Jiraiya could try to, but soon I was passing him.'

A few hours passed before they stopped for a break. They rested next to a huge oak tree and Sana sat down on one of its roots that was sticking out. Naruto stayed standing and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Where'd you learn to run like that?" He asked, breaking the silence.

She looked at him. "I've always been able to run like that, even since I can remember." Her voice was still soft and wasn't panting.

The blond nodded before asking, "Do you what I am?" the girl shook her head, wondering why he was asking that. "I'm a ninja. Do you know what ninja are?" She nodded but didn't say anything. "Alright . . . one more question, do you know what chakra is?" Like her first answer, she shook her head.

Naruto paused thinking. 'Hm . . . she has the ability to become a ninja, but she doesn't know what chakra is. From her aura, I can tell she has some, well a lot. Hm . . .' ((Weird that he's asking her that, but why not?))

"Sana, how would you like to become a ninja? I could teach you anything you would like to know, and I take it you wanted to be traveling with me. But, if you do, I need to be able to trust you not to get killed because you didn't know anything. What do you say?"

Sana's eyes rounded like a kids on Christmas. She nodded her head eagerly.

Naruto smiled but looked her over. "But first, we need to get you out of those clothes."

XxxxX

Naruto and Sana had continued to run and in half an hour, they stopped at the next town. They found a clothes store, and for the next hour, Sana was trying on clothes, just like any particular girl. Though, she was very nervous and shy and felt like she was doing something wrong. Naruto couldn't blame her, after being with an abusive father. Naruto had to keep reminding the girl that it was alright and she was doing nothing wrong.

Finally, without breaking Naruto's wallet, she found herself a ninja outfit.

As they were leaving, Naruto holding the bags, he said, "We'll be staying here tonight. Tomorrow, while we travel, I'll teach you the basics. But, after dinner and showers tonight, I'll explain what chakra is." He glanced over at the small girl to find her looking around. At her sides, her hands were curled in fists.

'Strange,' Naruto thought.

For the next hour, Naruto checked into a hotel with nice springs. They ate supper at a ramen shop, well, Naruto ate, and Sana played with hers but ate some of it like her stomach wasn't able to contain it, all the while with the blond watching her. He wasn't going to take an eye off of her, one, because he didn't trust her (Cause they just met) and two, well, he just didn't yet trust her.

"So," Naruto said, finishing his ramen. Sana instantly looked up from her ramen bowl. "Let's start the lesson." He turned his to the side so it would be easier to address her. "You said you didn't know what chakra was, right? Well, to make the definition easier for you to understand, it's the energy required in order to perform ninjutsu."

"What's ninjutsu?" Sana asked.

"Um . . . ninjutsu is-,"

Before he could explain, Kyuubi asked, 'Are you sure it's alright to teach her? What if she doesn't have what it takes to become a ninja?'

/She does. If she didn't, she'll figure that out./

'I don't know kit. For some reason, I don't think you should be anywhere near her. She doesn't . . . feel right.'

To Naruto, it was almost rare to hear Kyuubi feel uneasy. If they were ever in a tough situation, she never sounded like this. He could count on one hand how many times Kyuubi felt uneasy and said something about it. And most of them was when he was sick and was about to be ambushed by people, or was close to dying.

/What kind of feeling?/ Naruto thought, become alerted.

The fox then sighed. 'I'll tell you later . . . the girl is confused.'

He blinked and realized the fox was right. Sana was watching him confused eyes. To recover, he smiled his goofy trade smile and scratched the back of his head.

"Uh . . . sorry, was just thinking about the old days." He lied. "Well, ninjutsu is like martial arts . . ."

Sana looked away feeling stupid. "Oh, I should have known that."

Naruto chuckled. "Hey, don't worry about it. Some people have no clue what it is, and they are like, a hundred years old. But, anyways, you now know what chakra is. C'mon, let's go find a nice tree to climb." He set some money on the counter for their meals and stood up.

Sana followed him without a further comment.

As they walked, Naruto looked over his shoulder. Sana was directly behind him with her eyes casted downward, not looking up. The he noticed her still in the torn tan dress he found her in.

"Hey, do you wanna take a bath and changed into your clothes first?" He asked.

She looked up, wide eyed then looked down to what she was wearing.

"I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to," He quickly said. But the girl shook her head.

"A bath would be nice . . . . Especially wearing something new." She said and glanced up to see if he was okay with it.

The blond nodded before changing direction and heading back towards the hotel they were staying at.

Within twenty minutes, the two were cleaned and dressed. Naruto was still wearing exactly what he was wearing, but first got it washed. Sana was entirely different. Instead of wearing the filthy, torn dress, she now was wearing a black tank top, black short shorts, fingerless fishnet gloves that went up to her elbows, fishnet leggings and knee-high black boots that had a heel to them. On her right hip was a pouch containing knives, other useful thing, and a medicine kit. On her leg held all of the paper bombs. Her long brown hair had been trimmed by a lady from the springs and was now pulled up into a high pony tail.

"You look great," Naruto observed when she had walked out of the changing rooms.

A light pink spread across the eleven year old girl's face. She looked down at her feet, embarrassed. "T-thanks."

The blond chuckled. "C'mon, let's go find a tree first, then I'll explain things."

As they were walking, He couldn't help but look over his shoulder. "So Sana," she looked up and met his blue eyes. "I gotta know, especially if I'm taking you under my wing. Why did you want to come with me? I don't accept people tagging along with me, so you better have a good reason."

He waited for a few minutes, watching curiously as the girl's face turned from a curious expression to expressing nothing.

"Like I said before, I have to follow you; you're my mater." Her voice had gone so soft, that Naruto would have missed what she said if not for his high hearing that he adapted from Kyuubi. Since he heard the answer, anger flickered across his face and his eyes turned blood red. He stopped walking.

Unaware by the suddenness, Sana bumped into him.

"I am not your master!" Naruto growled and spun around, grabbing her arms tightly. The small girl's eyes widen in terror. She tried to take a step back, but he wouldn't let her. His blood red eyes stared into her green, and she then noticed that his pupils were slit like a cats.

Naruto kneeled down until he was at eye level with her. "I never want you to think that way again, Sana. You are free to say and do what you want. You no longer have a master, nor is anyone going to be one. Do you understand? I don't want you to say that again or I will leave you in a village and won't give you time to come after me."

Sana barely nodded her head. She could feel tears wanting to form, but couldn't/ She couldn't cry, it was against her own rule; never show true emotion. But, how the blond had yelled, scarred her so much . . . how could she not cry?

Naruto must have noticed. His eyes averted back to his original, hard blue gaze and his grip on her softened so much that he was barely holding her.

"I didn't mean to be so harsh. Sometimes I forget about being gently. But, just remember, feel free to speak what's on your mind. There's no one here to hurt you, or to judge you. If they do, considered their asses kicked, alright?" His voice softened so much that you would have thought he was a totally new person.

"A-alright, Naruto." Sana whispered, still a bit scared.

He chuckled and stood up. "That's the first time you've said my name. C'mon, let's go."

Sana could only nod and walk after him, unsure what to feel.

XxxxX

It was well after midnight when they stepped into a small clearing that was surrounded by trees. Naruto leaned against one of the trees and watched Sana look around and came to a stop a few feet in front of him.

"Your first lesson," Naruto started. Sana flickered her green eyes over to the blond. "You'll be climbing trees."

Sana buried her eyebrows down in a confused way. "But, I already know - -,"

"With your hands, yes," Naruto interrupted. "But, we'll be climbing the trees with our feet using chakra."

To demonstrate what he was talking about, he crossed his fingers to form a cross and pushed off the tree. Sana watched in wonder as he walk towards a different tree and . . . started to climb up it.

"Being able to focus all your chakra to your feet is harder than it looks, but it's very useful in battle." By now, he walked to a high branch. Instead of standing on top of the branch, he was standing upside down with his arms crossed at his chest.

"How do you do that?" Sana asked, very surprised and looked eager to learn.

Naruto smiled. "You have to build enough stamina necessary to complete you task once the chakra has been focused." He said, reciting what his old sensi had told him, so many years ago. He unfolded his arms and reached into his pouch located on his left hip. As he was talked, he rummaged around it and pulled something out. "Now, cross your fingers together like how I did, it's how you form a jutsu."

Sana did as she was told and crossed her fingers together.

"Now, focus all of the energy of your chakra towards the soles of your feet and use that power to climb the tree. Pick any tree you want." The object Naruto had pulled out, he thrown it to the ground where Sana was standing. She peered down at it to see a kunai.

"I want you to mark each time you run up the tree. The object of this is to mark higher and higher with each try."

Sana nodded and reached down to pick the kunai up. She looked at Naruto, who nodded, before taking a running start at a tree.

Ten minutes hadn't even gone by when Sana made it to one of the top branches of the tree. She threw the kunai to the earth floor where Naruto was leaning on a tree.

The blond smiled. "Great job, Sana. C'mon down."

The brunette nodded, but instead of jumping down branch to branch, like how most people did it, she disappeared.

Naruto blinked, confused, but then going on defensive. A kunai was immediately in hand and he took up a fighting stance, scanning his surroundings. 'Where'd she go?' You never know when someone is out to get you. And as if answering his thoughts, he felt a presence beside him. Turning that way, was the eleven year old girl.

'See? This is what I've been talking about . . .' Kyuubi suddenly growled.

Naruto blinked and lowered his weapon. "How'd," he pointed to where the empty tree was to where Sana was just standing. "How'd you get here so fast? Where did you go?"

"What do you mean?" Sana asked.

""I mean, usually it takes about, well, a lot longer to get back to the floor than what you did. How'd you do it?" He tried to explain.

The ninja in training just shrugged. "I don't know. I've always been able to do that. I'm in one place, then I think about a different one, and poof, I'm there. Sometimes, I can poof to a really far place, like miles away."

"Oh, that makes sense . . ." Naruto said, putting the pieces together. "Well, at least we found one of your special jutsu's."

Sana looked at him with curious eyes. "We do? What is it?"

The blond smiled. "Not many ninja's can doing it, especially go as far as you said. And it is Teleportation."

XxxxX

And there you have it! If I can, I'll try to bring the next chapter up soon… but I doubt it. And to also remind you, this is my first Naruto fic, so it won't be that good….. :/

R&R!

Nicklaren: Thank you very much!

Zenbon Zakura: Sorry it took so long! I've just been depressed lately and what not. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Hektols: And okay, so what if you do not like it? I don't care. And I'll have you know, Naruto ain't pathetic. The reason he left was because he was tired of being there. He didn't exactly do what the elders wanted him to do. He was going to leave regardless. :\

To the anonymous writer that went by the name of Blue: For your information, this is a FANFICTION STORY WHERE NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO GO WORD FOR WORD WITH THE ACTUAL ANIME/MANGA! Kyuubi ain't the same! I made it a girl, and she ain't that vicious! Go read other stories, maybe then you'll know what I mean. And like I said, this is a FANfiction story, I can make anything happen, so what, what the elders did, who cares if they don't get the final law or whatever. Third, I don't understand what you meant, jerk. And fourth, why is that even a reason? I find it cool when you add your own character to the main cast! Sana is very important and without her, this story wouldn't be what it is! Sorry 'bout your luck of finding a 'horrible' story, Jerk.

Thanks to those who reviewed and liked it! I'll try to bring the next chapter up as soon as I can!