A/N: Thank you Skreech! I wish I could actually reply to your messages, but alas your PM's are blocked.

WebHermit : Well for the whole wall walking thing, I was thinking that Peter's "bloodline" automatically augments his chakra and he has super tiny hairs all over his body that lets him stick to things. Of course, when he tries to learn water walking, that'd probably be super difficult.

A bit of insight on the people, on their motives, their dreams. With a bit of fighting of course. As for Peter's strength, I as looking over the comics and most of his incarnations and it was a bit difficult to peg exactly how strong he is. But he's certainly faster and stronger than regular genin. He can lift 20 tons when he's an adult. He could dodge bullet fire point blank. So..yaa

He's also a lot smarter, so that will be put into play.

Peter's disadvantage in this is that this isn't his world. Ninjas are sneaky and don't go around, shouting I AM VICTOR VON DOOM

Also, their magic is kinda...magicky. Like Haku's little bloodline trick is ...just...no. Just. No.

Also this is before Peter's transformation in the comics. I'll probably dabble in some sort of Spider God and spider contracts and stuff like that.

Sakura yawned and stretched as she sat on a wooden box. This mission was steadily becoming something akin to a C-rank and she was quite glad of it. She didn't want to go up against those two dangerous nin. Unlike the boys, Sakura knew that victory would not be assured after a few weeks of training. Or that they would be fated to win. Bad things happen to people. She was from a civilian family, having chosen the path of a ninja to follow someone. She could have so easily chosen to do something less dangerous, and yet here she was. Unlike Sasuke and Naruto, whose own dreams were to become great ninja, she wanted to be recognized by Sasuke. She wanted Ino to realize she was a serious rival for his affections. Now that may be rather selfish and a bit odd, but it was no stranger than anyone else's dreams.

She watched Peter pick up a box and carry it across the bridge and return to repeat the task. "Peter-san?"

Peter paused, box in hand, blinking owlishly at her.

"I'm sorry, about last night. I shouldn't have brought up Kaiza." It was foolish to bring up something like that. Their jonin-sensei should have been the one asking the questions, not stupid genin like herself.

"Hm." The brunette looked puzzled by her apology. "It's fine. I really shouldn't be the one that you should apologize to."

Sakura recalled how angry Inari was, but that anger was directed at Peter and she never understood why. Not to mention Sasuke's intense stare at Peter during the whole dinner. "What did happen? Why was Inari so angry? Arn't you brothers?"

Peter placed the box down, sitting on it. "It's not that simple. And I deserve his anger. I should have helped Kaiza, I could have..."

"But what could you have done? It's not like you're a ninja. You're just a kid."

His eyes focused on hers. "You're right." Peter got up and walked away leaving Sakura flabbergasted.

"Eh?" Sakura blinked, shaking her head. Boys, she didn't understand them. She walked over to the box and knelt down to pick it up. It didn't budge.

What in the...

Sakura grunted, pushing with all her might. It didn't move.

Naruto woke up, blinking his eyes. He had passed out again while training. He yawned, barely catching an apple from above. It was bright and red.

"You looked hungry." Said a voice above him. "Were you here all night?"

"Yeah! I've got to train!"

"Train all night?"

"Yep!" Naruto continued to stare at the direction of the voice, which was he thinking would have been rather strange given that the voice was coming from the treetops. "I've got to beat Sasuke!"

"Working yourself into exhaustion will help you beat Sasuke?"

Naruto actually began to think. "Exhaustion?"

"..."

Naruto sat up, rubbing the leaves out of his hair. Peter was standing a few feet away looking amused. Odd, didn't his voice come from the tree tops?

"What are you doing?" Peter pointed to the marks on the tree.

"Tree climbing! It's super secret ninja training." Naruto jumped up to his feet, and as to demonstrate just how super secret ninja training it was, ran up the tree.

As Peter predicted, the exhaustion kicked in and Naruto came crashing back down to Earth.

"Huh."

"Ow." Naruto gripped his head in pain, squirming on the ground.

There was the sound of a light snicker causing both boys to turn around. A rather pretty girl stood in the clearing, a basket in hand. She was laughing at them. Or at Naruto and his antics.

Naruto immediately went to help her, grabbing Peter and dragging him along as if they were old friends. "This is medicine?" He asked as he plucked the plants from the stem and deposited it into her basket.

Haku nodded. "It is for my friend."

While they chatted, Haku was busy identifying threats and weaknesses. It was the same orange clothed boy who had shouted at him. "You were training? Are you a...ninja?"

"Yeah!" It was almost painful to see the happiness of acknowledgement in Naruto's face. It was just like his when Zabuza found him. "Why do you want to train more? You look strong enough."

"I want to be the strongest ninja in my village. I'm going to make everyone acknowledge my strength. And I also have something to prove to someone."

Haku felt himself smile. Naruto's energy was infectious as was his resolve. Had they met another time, he would have believed him. "And you?"

Peter raised both eyebrows. "I'm not a ninja."

Liar, thought Haku. He had seen Peter drop an apple from under a tree branch, his feet sticking to the wood. If Peter wasn't a shinobi, he'd eat his mask.

The quiet boy looked to have been distancing himself from the conversation. "Naruto, are you training for yourself? Or for someone else?"

"Eh?"

"Do you have someone important to you?" Asked Haku, thinking of Zabuza-sama. Of his own past, and his own history.

Naruto looked between the two, confusion on his face.

"With great power, comes great responsibility." Said Peter softly, staring at the ground. His own thoughts had drifted to the dreams he'd been having. About an elderly couple, apple pie and a woman with red hair.

"When you fight for someone else's sake, therein lies true strength." Haku smiled gently. "Do you understand?"

No, not really. But Naruto knew about protecting others, and being protected in turn. His precious people, those who he would die for. He grinned widely. "Yeah. I understand."

Haku stood, grabbing the bag of herbs. "I know you'll be strong." He turned to walk away. "Let's meet sometime later." As he walked away, another thought occurred. "By the way, I'm a guy."

He passed the other two genin, without suspicion. It was a good two miles away before he began traveling at faster speeds, towards the base that Zabuza-sama had set up. The intelligence gathering mission had gone off with success. The blonde was no threat he had poor chakra control. When they had briefly met when he had come to retrieve Zabuza-sama, Haku had the suspicion that he would be. Naruto had felt dangerous. It was an odd feeling, much like the way a rabbit would feel before a fox.

As for the other boy...

He was an unknown. Before accepting Gato as a client, Haku had done some research to figure out as to why someone like Gato would wish to higher them. Missing-nin always carried the risk of hunter-nin interfering. To hire a missing-nin was risky and mostly out of desperation. What Haku found out was there was a mystery assailant who would beat up Gato's thugs. No one knew who this person was. The last straw was when Gato's own personal guards were found beaten up.

Zabuza-sama had came prepared to fight another missing-nin, someone who had made a home out of the Land of Wave. What he didn't expect was to fight the Copy-Cat Kakashi.

Haku worked over his memory, recalling every detail of the brunette. A bit younger than him, decent chakra control and fairly fast. Aside from that, there was nothing else for Haku to work on. Oh well. That wasn't the issue. The jonin and his genin team were.

A pity, Haku liked Naruto. That kid had the same loneliness he did. The same starved look for affection.

Naruto just about slumped on the table. So this was exhaustion. What a long word for a horrible feeling. Maaaan, it felt like his limbs were going to fall off. And his head! Just gonna rest it here. Yep. Oh this table was so nice and cold. Ah, feels so good. Hmmm, ramen.

"Why do you guys try so hard? You're no match for Gato's men! No matter how hard you work or how loudly you yell, you're still going to die. When facing the strong, the weak will die!" In a quieter voice. "Even Aniki couldn't do anything."

"Whatever, I'm not like you."

Inari was bawling at this point, his temper tantrum determined to run its course. He'd done this before, yelled at his older brother for being unable to save Kaiza. Yelling at anyone who would try to comfort him. Crying alone in his room.

"Who the hell do you think you are! You come here, being all loud and nosy! You don't even know me. You clown around, acting cheerful! You don't know how hard life could be!"

Naruto flinched, sitting up, a cold fury building up inside his body. This brat had no idea who he was, what he had to get through. "Shut up." He glared at Inari, furious. "What, are you going to just cry at me? Think that's going to change anything?!"

"Stop crying and do something about it. You little shit." And with that eloquent response, Naruto stormed out of the room. He didn't listen to Sakura's angry words, he just walked out to the docks. There he watched the waves.

He had promised himself a long time ago to stop crying. It didn't help him. His tears had abandoned him. The only way he got through life was to be strong, to never give up on himself. To never let other people's judgement hurt him. He closed himself off, plastered a fake smile on his face and let everyone see the mask. It worked and Naruto never cried for anyone.

But then Iruka-sensei began to teach and began to care. Soon Naruto's little world was filled with another occupant. And then another.

Naruto stared blankly at the stars and the moon. He might break that promise to himself, he'd already cried for Iruka. He cared deeply for his team. He didn't want to disappoint them, not Kakashi-sensei, not Sasuke and surely not Sakura. So deep in his musings, he didn't notice a figure jump past him.

Peter stood at the corner, listening to Kakshi explain to Inari about Naruto. And when he finally left, Peter walked by and sat on the docks. "Hey."

Inari looked up, his face still red and his cheeks still wet. "Aniki."

"Want to go for a ride?"

A few minutes later they were in the mangroves where they used to hang out. He placed Inari on the tree limb, while he sat next to him, legs crossed.

"I'm sorry." Peter said after a long silence. "I wished I was there to save Kaiza."

In a surprising show of maturity, Inari simply said. "I know." There was still a slight hiccup in his voice, his words marred by tears.

"Can I tell you a story?"

"Unh."

"There was once a boy who had two loving parents. Well, they were his relatives. His parents died a long time ago." He was starting to make sense of his dreams, however vague them may be. "He lived with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May..."

By the time Kakashi and two-thirds of his team arrived on the bridge, it was a sight of carnage. The workers lied on the ground bleeding. "What is this?" Tazuna asked, rushing forward to one of the workers. "Who did this?"

"A monster." Rasped the worker. "He-your grandson saved-"

The mist rolled in. Kakashi grabbed Tazuna and dragged him with them. While he was mildly concerned for the injured workers, Tazuna was his client.

"Here they come!"

Hopefully the training for his cute little genin worked.