This chapter is slightly more focused on the relationship between Raiden and Naruto, with a little bit more of conflict with her and Kakashi. I can't wait until the next chapter, when I reveal the reason for Raiden's calling Kakashi by his surname, why he lost her respect.

Nicola

Raiden waited on the bridge, leaning against the thin railing and watching the water flow underneath. She was waiting for Naruto to get here, but she was early, and wasn't expecting him for another fifteen minutes. Knowing him, his sensei's bad habits had probably begun to rub off.

She really wasn't concentrating on Naruto at the moment, though. She was replaying what had happened between her and Hatake last night over and over in her head. The roses he'd given her were sitting on a vase on her dresser and the teddy bear in the middle of her bed. The bow around the bear's neck was red, so it matched. Of course, Hatake would have known to buy a bear that had something red or white on it, since he knew what her room looked like by heart. He'd spent many hours in there when they were younger, after all.

It still wasn't clear to her why Hatake had come to her room bearing gifts of a quality she wasn't used to receiving from him. Normally he would bring her something out of a twenty-five cent machine or something he won at a carnival. Never roses and a bear, a present he would've had to buy. And he had come without his mask, another maneuver she couldn't decipher. There had to be some reason behind his weird behavior, but whatever. She'd deal with it later; she could see Naruto coming towards her.

The kid waved, and she lifted her chin in greeting. He jogged the last few feet to the bridge and came to a halt in front of Raiden, an eager look on his young face. Raiden surveyed him with her hard eyes and looked him up and down, frowning.

"Lose the orange jacket," she told him.

Expression stunned, Naruto touched the fabric of his beloved orange jacket. "But, Namikaze-sensei…"

"You heard me," Raiden snapped, and reluctantly Naruto took his jacket off, leaving him in his gray shirt and his bright orange pants. She winced, but didn't tell him to lose the pants, too. She was not aiming to see him in his boxer shorts. Once he'd draped the jacket over the railing, she pointed to the water. "See the water?"
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, it's always been there." He said it like he was talking to a naïve child, and Raiden scowled.

"Not always." She gestured toward the river again. "I want you to dive into the river." She held her hand up to stop the outburst she knew was coming. "I've hidden three kunai knives on the bottom, and you have to retrieve them. This is only the warm up, if you think this is bad."

With a sigh, Naruto moved to take off his gray shirt, but Raiden grabbed hold of his wrists and shook her head. "No, you're going in with your clothes on."

Naruto grimaced and, after shooting Raiden a nasty look, he jumped feet first into the water. Almost immediately she hollered for him to come back up. He pulled himself onto the bridge again, dripping wet, his blonde hair plastered against his forehead.

"Okay, first," she began, walking closer to him. "You'd better tie your headband to your arm. If you're going to swim and search for things, you can't take the chance of having it slip over your eyes and blind you." Naruto untied his headband obediently, but unsurely, and retied it on his upper arm. "Second, you never jump feet first into any body of water. Always headfirst, with your arms pointed." She demonstrated, and Naruto copied her. "Good. Now dive in this time."

As she watched Naruto dive correctly into the water and disappear under the surface, she thought of her first time trying to swim. She'd been gently corrected by her older brother, and he had gotten in and swam with her. She knew that Naruto would probably have wanted a kind reprimand, but that wasn't the kind of person she'd trained herself to become. She didn't do nice, or kind, at least, not anymore.

For a moment, there was no sign of Naruto being in the water at all. She felt a quick flash of fear, but forced it back down just as quickly. She'd give him about thirty more seconds before jumping in after him. Ticking the seconds off in her head, she began to shrug off her Jounin vest when a blonde head bobbled to the surface, a triumphant grin stretched across it. She relaxed, shoved her hands into her pockets, and looked expectantly at the kid.

"Well?"

He held up his fist—with three kunai in it. She wanted to praise him, she really did, but she couldn't bring herself to do it and instead said, "You did okay. But next time," she snapped her fingers, and one of the kunai turned to dust, "recognize a replacement jutsu when you see one."

Naruto's face fell, and he was about to dive back underwater to retrieve the actual third kunai when Raiden motioned him forward. He swam to the shore, clambered onto the grass, and sat there, staring at the water. Raiden could see the frustration building up in him for making such a stupid mistake and strode casually off the bridge to stand sit on his left side. She stretched her legs out in front of her and leaned back on her hands, watched the water ripple back and forth against the shore.

The kid was still brooding, his whole demeanor miserable, even in the way he held himself with his knees against his chest and his shoulders slumped. If Raiden had looked in the mirror the previous morning, she would've seen the exact same thing, except for one difference—Naruto was upset because he had failed. She'd been miserable because of her hangover.

She took the few minutes he was silent to study him, really study him. His blonde hair stuck to his forehead and the back of his neck, but she knew it normally stood up on end, spiky and unruly. His eyes were downcast, and the iciest, most expressive shade of blue. He was not good at hiding his emotions, she knew, but he would get there, she would make sure of it. The three whiskers on each side of his face acted like a brand, the mark of the demon that distinguished him from all other kids his age, and not in a good way. Anyone who looked at him could tell he was the boy with the nine-tailed fox spirit trapped inside of him.

His mouth was tight and drawn; sagging at the corners in a sure sign he was disappointed in himself. She knew how hard it must be to be the average one on a team made up of the last remaining Uchiha loyal to Konoha and a brain like Sakura. Sure, Sakura wasn't much of a fighter, but she was the thinker of the team and was like the glue that held them all together. After one day with them, Raiden had been able to tell that their little group was made up of a love triangle that went astray.

Naruto was in love with Sakura, Sakura liked Sasuke, and Sasuke thought they were both annoying. Okay, so it was more of a two-sided triangle with one piece forcibly separating itself from the others, but still, it was like a mini-soap opera going on.

Raiden took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to think of what to say to the obviously upset kid. There wasn't much she figured she could say to cheer him up; it was just Naruto's way of dealing with things. She was a little disappointed herself, too, because she'd watched him grow up into a strong six-year-old kid who'd dealt with more hell than anyone, and had seen the way he fought back at every insult made to him. He had stayed up in his room, belting his feet to the mattress to keep them down while he did sit ups, heading out to the training fields at the academy to work on his aim and strength, practicing his chakra control by holding a leaf to his forehead. So why was he moping now?

"Naruto," Raided said sharply, and Naruto snapped to attention, looking at her with said blue eyes. "Quit moping. That's not the kind of kid you are." Her expression became fierce, she could feel it. "You are going to get up and we are going to train, do you get it? I don't care how much Hatake worked you three this morning, today is one-on-one training, me and you. So quit laying around feeling sorry for yourself and let's get to work." She finished on a lower, but still just as urgent note, and stood up.

It didn't take long for Naruto to take her words into consideration and he, too, was on his feet. He was literally bouncing on the balls of his feet in his eagerness to get going, and Raiden shook her head. He was a moody little sucker, wasn't he?

"What're we going to do now, Namikaze-sensei?" he asked, his eyes bright with excitement. "Run up trees, walk on water, what?!"

Smiling, Raiden said, "We're going to go for a nice, long run."

Obviously disappointed, Naruto exclaimed, "What?! A run?! That's not training! That's something bushy brow and his sensei would do!"

Having to rack her brains for who bushy brow was, Raiden reminded Naruto, "And look where all that got him. He's the best taijustu specialist at the Chunin level, and even though he's injured, he's still trying. And Gai might me strange, but he's skilled, too. So a jog it is."

Raiden started running, with Naruto dashing after her. She didn't realize she was going too fast for him, but that wasn't her fault. He hadn't realized what her definition of "jogging" was.

vvv

"What's the matter, can't keep up?"

Raiden laughed tauntingly as she ran several yards ahead of a tiring Naruto. They were on their third lap of Konoha, and though she wasn't winded at all, the kid was dripping sweat and panting for breath. But their run wasn't over yet, and she had no intentions of stopping until four laps were over.

She heard Naruto's gasping breaths but didn't slow her pace a bit. This was part of their training—he would have to learn to go faster and keep up, or else he'd lag behind like this every single day, something that his rather large ego wouldn't take nicely. And since she had no idea if he could activate his demon chakra yet or not, she wasn't counting on him using that to boost his endurance and speed.

"Wait…up!" Naruto yelled in between pants, and Raiden only glanced over her shoulder.

"Why? Just because you can't keep up doesn't mean I have to slow down!" She could feel the frustration vibrating from the determined Genin, and smirked. He'd get there eventually, oh yes.

They passed the bride again—they were on their fourth lap. She didn't hear him cry out in relief that they were almost done, though, like she'd expected, and had to look back to see what was going on. What she saw made her nod her head in approval.

Instead of lagging behind even more, Naruto was, slowly but surely, beginning to close the distance between them. His skinny legs were hitting the ground harder, his strides lengthening, and his arms pumping faster. He'd finally gotten the idea in his head that he was not going to quit now, and that he was going to do this, even if it killed him.

"Alright, Naruto, you're getting there!" Raiden called encouragingly to him, but kept her tone slightly aloof. "Just go faster!"

And he did. They were halfway through their last lap, and Naruto was only a few feet behind her. As they closed in on the bridge again, Raiden caught sight of something bright yellow bobbing along beside her, and she grinned. Naruto finished the fourth lap running right next to his Namikaze-sensei, fighting all the way to edge in front. Raiden wouldn't let him, though, always keeping half a stride between them.

At the bridge, Naruto seemed to want to collapse from exhaustion, but Raiden stood firm, without a drop of sweat on her forehead. The kid had sweat literally pouring off of him, but he was up, and he'd done it.

"Go jump in the river," she demanded of him, and he looked incredulous but dove in anyway without a moments hesitation. He resurfaced in two seconds, looking a little more refreshed than he had on land. Raiden took off her vest and long-sleeve shirt and dove in next to him, wearing only the tank top she always had under her ninja clothes. She came up after smoothing her hair back in the water, and took off her headband, tying it securely around her arm.

"Why're we in the river?" Naruto gasped, still winded from the run.

"Because we are going swimming," Raiden replied and laughed when he stared at her as if she were insane, which she probably was.

"Are you kidding me?! We just got done running around Konoha four times! I'm not going to swim!"

Raiden gave him a warning look, and he shut his mouth. "Quit whining, you baby, and start swimming." She set off swimming against the current, not caring when Naruto started complaining about that, too. It was growing into the evening, and the current was picking up with the winds. She had no trouble fighting against it, but Naruto did, and he struggled as she swam up ahead.

"Don't leave me here! I can't swim against the current! You're crazy if you think I'm doing that!"

"Then you'll never be Hokage!" Raiden shouted back over her shoulder, and all was silent for a moment. Then she heard the sounds of a person grunting and gasping as if they were trying extremely hard at something extremely difficult. She paused in her swimming to see what he was doing, and saw that he was battling the current with everything he had.

His legs kicked hard out behind him, and he pumped roughly with his arms. She felt a bit of sympathy for the kid, and swam towards him, reaching him and treading water beside him. He was completely focused on the task of swimming against the current, she noticed, and smiled

"Don't kick so hard," she advised, placing a calming hand on Naruto's legs, "and try going under to swim. It makes it a little easier if you go under, come up, go under, and come up, etcetera."

She didn't know if Naruto heard her, so she started swimming away, and grinned when she heard him coming after her. Hatake was right: the kid was determined. And headstrong, too, but that could be fixed in time. She swam a little more slowly than normal so as to keep a better eye on her student; he was still struggling a little bit, but he was doing better, much better. Soon, she knew, he would be able to keep up with her usual pace.

The swam until they reached the mile marker—which Raiden had put up herself—and Raiden motioned for him to go ahead and get on dry land. She easily stood up on the water and walked onto the shore, but Naruto struggled to focus his chakra in his weary state. She sighed—maybe she should've told him that using his chakra to swim helped, too—and held her hand out.

Naruto looked at the outstretched limb in perplexity before grasping onto her wrist and hauling himself onto the ground. There he lay for a moment, breathing heavily and sprawled flat out on his back. Raiden stood next to him and waited for him to catch his bearings. She had the presence of mind not to push him right now, because he'd already been shoved to his limits. Well, maybe she would give him a little prod.

"Get up," she commanded, and when Naruto didn't immediately obey, she nudged him firmly with her toe. "I said get up."

With a grunt, Naruto struggled into a sitting position and stayed there, as if he couldn't get up onto his own two feet. Raiden sighed.

"Naruto, up on your feet. Now." He didn't move. "Naruto!" He turned his head to look at her, and she stopped her advance towards him. The look in his eyes made her heart skip a beat, and she saw that he was, really, truly trying with everything he had to stand up like she'd told him to. She could see him shaking all over as he gave it another go and collapsed onto his bottom again. The initiative she could see radiating off of him made her step backwards with her hand pressed to her mouth, her eyes wide.

Before the kid could see the expression on her face, though, she turned cool again and sat down on the ground, but not too close to him, for fear of another breakdown. She'd seen someone like this before, unable to stand up trying their damnest to. She remembered the feeling of shaking uncontrollably and the way her legs hadn't listened to anything she told them. She was putting this kid through the exact torture she forced herself to do these past six years. Oh, Kami, she was cruel.

But she wasn't going to back down, oh, hell no. If Naruto was going to catch up to his teammates, and surpass them, he was going to train and as hard as she had. There was no turning back now.

"Are you alright?" she asked him in a quiet, serene voice. He didn't answer, and she looked over to make sure hadn't had a heart attack or something. Naruto was looking straight at her, disbelief in his always emotional eyes.

"Are you crazy?" he said wearily, and offered her the smallest hint of a smile. "I've never been better."

vvv

"You know," Naruto said, his mouth full of ramen, "I've never seen a girl eat so much ramen in my life! And I thought I was bad!"

They were in the ramen shop, of course, for a late dinner, and Raiden had just finished off her fifth bowl. She was currently rubbing her stomach, wondering how many laps it would take for her to burn off the food, and watching Naruto stare at her in amazement.

"Hey, I never said I couldn't eat," she reminded him, and he chuckled. It had taken two hours itself for Naruto to get up enough energy to stand and creep slowly towards the ramen shop, his mind set on not having any help. But halfway there, he managed to collapse and Raiden had had no choice but to throw his arm around her waist and half-drag him to the village. She shook her head as she thought about his many weak protests and wondered how Hatake managed to put up with him. Hatake must have a lot more patience than she remembered, but he'd always been a resigned person. It shouldn't really surprise her that much.

Again her attention turned to the flowers and bear sitting in her room, and she sighed, still unable to figure out what had spurred the gifts. Maybe he was feeling bad that he'd upset her so much last night after taking her home drunk and putting her to bed. Or he could be trying to make up for all those birthday's he'd missed.

Really, she hadn't figured he would remember the date, but Hatake never did forget much. Which meant he wouldn't have forgotten why she'd left. She smirked, thinking of how he'd always been the only one to give her a birthday present even when she denied that it was her birthday, how he'd brought her whatever cheap gift he'd been able to scramble together at the last minute and handing it to her with an aloof demand she pay him back as soon as possible for the "expensive" item. That was just Hatake for you, and she'd never been able to fully understand him.

At that particular moment, when Naruto was downing the last of his fourth bowl, the curtain was pushed aside and Hatake walked in with Sasuke trailing behind him. The copy ninja took one look at Naruto's bruised, scratched, and still shaking figure, shook his head, and said, "Sasuke, take Naruto home. He's had enough ramen for tonight and I don't think he'll make it by himself."

The Uchiha boy sighed as if this task utterly bored him and took Naruto by the collar of his jacket, muttering, "Come on, dobe. Let's go."

Naruto flailed meekly and whimpered, "But I wasn't done yet! Hey! Sasuke, let go of me! Get off!"

Raiden could make out Naruto's complaints even as he was dragged down the street by his teammate. She shook her head and chuckled lightly, playing with her usual glass of water in front of her. Hatake took the seat next to her, but didn't order anything, and leaned his arms against the countertop. He didn't look at her, but she could tell he was slightly irritated just from the way he held himself. His shoulders were more rigid than normal, and he didn't automatically reach for the pocket in his vest that would've held his orange book.

She ignored his being there and downed the rest of her water, slapped some money on the counter, and stood up, ready to leave. As she pushed the curtain to the side, she felt someone's hand on her shoulder and stiffened. What did he want now?

Pretending that the hand wasn't there and that Hatake wasn't following her outside now, Raiden walked down the street as if everything was just peachy. But Hatake didn't go away, and she finally stopped to look at the gray-haired man walking next to her. He stopped, too, and shifted his stance so that he was tilted towards her, but not standing directly in front of her.

"What do you want?" she snipped, irritated and wanting to get home already. Her warm bed was waiting for her, and she knew she'd have to get up early tomorrow to be at the training field with Hatake and his team, and then for training with Naruto.

"Oh, I was wondering why you had Naruto working so hard today is all," Hatake said in one of his most casual voices. Raiden rolled her eyes.

"Look, I offered to give the kid extra practice, and when he trains with me, he's going to get worked hard. There's no other way he's going to advance his level," she explained, crossing her arms and staring coldly at her former friend. She hadn't considered him much more than an acquaintance for twelve years, and wasn't planning on changing that anytime soon. "Besides, weren't you just finishing up extra practice with your obviously favored student, Sasuke?"

Hatake shrugged. "Yes, but not for the same reasons you're training Naruto."

Raiden bristled and clenched her fists, fighting to keep her cool. "And what would those reasons be, Hatake? Enlighten me."

"Guilt," Hatake said simply, gesturing briefly towards the mountain with one hand while the other stayed in his pocket. She really had to fight to control the fury building up in her, fueled by the guilt Hatake claimed she was helping Naruto because of.

"And you only favor Sasuke because he's stronger than the rest, correct?" she retorted, and her old comrade chuckled lightly.

"Whatever you'd like to think. And it isn't a lie that Sasuke is very talented. Everyone knows it, whether or not you'll believe it."

As Hatake turned to walk away, Raiden grabbed onto his shoulder and spun him back around, her expression one of forced calm. "By the way, Hatake, those flowers you gave me last night? I don't like roses. I like petunias."

With that, she spun on her heel and strode up the street, her shoulders shaking from the anger slowly bubbling to the surface. If those words hadn't stung, she didn't know what would get to that dumb copy ninja. Actually, she did, but she wasn't going to sink so low as to mention his father or his old teammate, Obito. Hatake might fight nasty, but she didn't, and as long as he kept his toe off of that line, she wouldn't cross it either.

On her way back to the temple, and to her comforting room, she caught sight of the mountainside Hatake had gestured to. The four faces—with the fifth in progress—stared solemnly down on her, as if reprimanding her for all the sins she'd committed in the past twelve years. Ignoring her friends, refusing to attend the funeral of the Fourth, going back on her promise, leaving the village, returning with a bitter attitude that she was supposed to have lost. And those were only a few of them. Those didn't include her selfishness or her tendency to push people over the edge.

She sighed heavily, meeting the eyes of each of the Hokage's until she rested her gaze on the Fourth. His stone eyes glared at her, as if speaking to her personally. She could see the vibrant colors his eyes had possessed, and this dumb carving didn't do him justice. She bit down on her lip and shoved her hands into her pockets. Nothing would ever capture the spirit the Fourth had had. Nothing.

Turning from the mountainside, she tried to think of anything but the face of the Fourth. She could feel his empty eyes boring into her back as she walked away, and it sent chills crawling up her spine. He seemed to follow her everywhere, no matter how far she ran or how cleverly she hid—he was there, a shadow, a spirit, haunting her, reminding her of the promise she had miserably broken that had ended in the unnecessary pain of a child and begun because of bitter finger-pointing. She shuddered, and walked faster, trying to get away from the prying eyes. If she could only get into her room, hidden away from the haunts of her past decisions, she would be okay.

Okay, in the next chapter (as stated way way above), I'll tell you why Raiden calls Kakashi by his surname, Hatake, instead of his first name like everyone else. And yes, there'll be more obvious hints as to what her connection to the Fourth is. So please bear with me, because she has to admit and remember what happened and begin to deal with it before she can begin to realize what's going on between her and Kakashi again (yes, something happened when they were younger), so please tell me your thoughts and opinions, etc, in your reviews!

Thanks!

Luv ya

Nicola