Fated Meeting


I don't own Naruto.

Wow over 100 reviews. Cheers to everyone who's given one, its very satisfying hitting triple digits.


Sasuke watched the new arrivals, one of whom seemed to be related to his sensei and knew Mito as well. He felt a hint of jealousy when she hugged the boy. His team mates looked amused, but he didn't miss the fact that their eyes were darting around the room, identifying the exits and potential enemies.

"Well why don't we all introduce ourselves?" Kakashi said as he did that infuriating eye smile, the red head, Naruto he corrected himself stood up and grinned, Sasuke wondered how strong these people were, they were well trained that much was obvious.

"Fine, I'm Naruto Yuki." Naruto said, the smile faltering as he studied Sasuke, he was surprised that this was the team they were supporting, but it wasn't a bad thing, to be honest he was looking forward to seeing how good the last Uchiha was.

"Yamatchi Nara." Yama said before he yawned and walked over and sat in a corner, back against the wall and to all appearances asleep, although you could see his eyes darting around relentlessly.

"Rin Yamanaka." Was all the auburn haired girl said before she sat down watching the proceedings in a coolly detached manner.

"And I am Hanuba Hyuga." Naruto's sensei said, his voice emotionless and neutral, showing nothing of the person who lived behind the mask.

Kakashi nodded and said, "Well I'm Hatake Kakashi and these are my cute little Genin, Sasuke Uchiha, Mito Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno." The eye smile widened when both the girls exclaimed that they could have introduced themselves while Sasuke simply glared at his sensei before returning to brooding.

"So what is the situation Kakashi?" Hanuba asked his fellow Jonin, Hanuba was older than Kakashi by more than a good decade, in fact he was closer in age to the man's own sensei, Minato than the copy nin. But they had worked together often enough to be familiar with one another, few active Shinobi were unfamiliar with Kakashi anyway.

"Well..." Kakashi began and proceeded to explain the mess that the latest incarnation of team seven found itself in, from the fight with Zabuza to the swordsman's rescue by the fake hunternin and how they ended up in the house they found themselves in.

"So how long do we have?" Naruto asked when his older brother figure had finished speaking, to be honest he was rather looking forward to this, fighting a member of the seven swordsman was an opportunity that didn't come about often and he had heard that Zabuza had rebelled over the treatment of the bloodline clans, something that might mean he might be able to tell Naruto if there were any left aside from himself.

"About a week." Kakashi said, looking around before continuing, "I'm going to train my guys up a bit, the Genin will have to deal with the hunternin and its likely that the demon brothers were retrieved as well, and they will be warned at this point so the fight won't be as easy as last time."

Hanuba nodded, it all made sense, and Kakashi's reasons for calling in help were sound as well, fresh Genin weren't meant to deal with sort of stuff, even if the team was meant to become the second coming of the Sannin or whatever the council was planning for the three kids.

"Very well, we will continue with what we were doing, it makes little difference where we train." Hanuba said to Kakashi before turning and looking at the bridge builder's family, "Thank you for housing us. He said, bowing to the family who looked slightly shocked at the level of formality they were being shown, but then again, no one could do formal like the Hyuga's

XXX

"So what are we doing today sensei?" Rin asked as she and her teammates walked towards the bridge.

"We can't get much done here, and with a major fight coming up you lot can't exert yourselves too much so we'll just work on some light Taijutsu and weapons skills at this point, there's little else we can do, all three of you have enough control that anymore would make little difference in a week.

"So how are we going to do that?" Naruto asked, but before Hanuba could answer he was cut off by Yama sniggering.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked, before answering his own question, "It's the same thing we always do, sparing on the water." Hanuba nodded, while Naruto muttered various curses under his breath about what Nara's could do with their genius I.Q.

"Regardless, that is indeed what we will be doing, although at this point, it will be a three way spar between the three of you, unfortunately you have reached the point where for me to use the next level of the Jukon, would lead to some serious injuries due to the lack of trained medic nin in the area." Hanuba said, sounding almost regretful about this, which he actually might be, Naruto thought, 'he seems to enjoy sparring with us.'

Naruto strode forward, his usual chakra forged Kunai in his hands, Hanuba had drilled all three of them relentlessly until they were ambidextrous, and the skill had meant that Naruto could now wield a blade in either hand with almost equal skill, just as Rin could easily switch hands with her Tanto and Yama could do, well whatever it was Yama did, Naruto would have been the first to admit that he had no idea what the black haired boy would do when it came time for him to use weapons, the nature of the squad often left Yama acting as mid to long range support, and his jutsu's fulfilled that job admirably without resorting to any tools.

Naruto walked forward until he was about fifty feet from the shore, water walking came easily to him, just as tree walking when they had done that exercise, it mattered little here however, the other two were just as good as him after all.

"No holds barred?" He called out to his sensei as the other two walked forward to meet him, Yama hanging back and Rin fingering her sword excitably.

"Naturally." Was the droll reply and the Rin rushed forwards even as Naruto jumped back after throwing his kunai at the girl, and flashing through hand signs rapidly.

XXX

"So what are we gonna do Kakashi-sensei? Huh huh?" Mito asked excitedly as she followed her sensei and teammates into the forest that surrounded Tazuna's house and the bridge he was working on.

"Very important training." Was all they could get out of Kakashi until they came to a tree that was larger than the other ones.

"Today…" Kakashi began before pausing dramatically, "You're going to learn to climb trees!"

"That sounds really boring." Mito said, voicing every one below fifteen's thoughts on the matter.

"Without using your hands." Kakashi added before he demonstrated by walking up the tree, this meant that Mito's enthusiasm rapidly returned and she excitedly began to voice her eagerness for the exercise. It was Sasuke that asked the question that everyone should have asked in the first place.

"Why do we want to this?" the raven haired boy asked, which immediately caused his female teammates to turn to their sensei for an explanation.

"Well," he began "This improves your control which is essential to learning higher level Jutsu and not wasting your chakra during battle. Some people find it easy, usually due to their low chakra reserves or due to another factor, like being naturally blessed with good chakra control, like Tsunade of the Sannin or even Naruto, who's always had good control. But anyway you need to practice if you want to be any good at Genjutsu, ninjutsu or any aspect of the Shinobi arts really. This is just the first step too, in fact..." Here he paused again closing his eye before he opened it and jumped down, landing gracefully in from the three pre-pubescent teens he had been assigned to teach.

"Come I'll show you what good chakra control leads too." He said and turned away walking towards the bridge, the others followed. Ten minutes later all four of them were watching the three way duel that was in progress, each of them with the exception of Kakashi who already knew what the three older Genin were capable of, shocked at what they saw.

Sasuke smirked, these people were strong, especially the Naruto kid, he could use ice it seemed, which was odd, there was no record that he knew of in the village about people that could use ice, he didn't like not knowing, and it was especially odd, as it was a skill set that his clan would usually have copied, the ice senbon that he had just spat out were a testament to that.

"Sensei, can you use ice too, seeing as Naruto's your younger brother?" Sakura asked, Sasuke and Mito turned to look at Kakashi who was concentrating on the fight, marveling at how much Naruto had improved since he had last seen him.

"Naruto isn't really my brother, I adopted him years ago, and no Sasuke you can't copy those techniques with a Sharingan eye it's a Kekkei Genkai unique to his clan." Kakashi said still watching the fight.

"How come he never told me that he could do all this awesome stuff with ice?" Mito asked, clearly put out with the boy from withholding this from her.

"It's not common knowledge in the village and I think Naruto prefers to keep it that way," was the response, Kakashi paused as he watched Naruto and Rin dish out a flurry of blows each, none of which managed to hit. "Naruto's not even of the village originally, his clan came from Kiri, the same as Zabuza, but there's a civil war going on there at the moment between people who see bloodlines such as what Naruto possesses as an abomination and are killing off the clans and those that are pro bloodlines. In any event it's not public knowledge and the Hokage prefers to keep it hidden that there is a Yuki in our village, and I imagine that Naruto doesn't really feel comfortable about telling people about something that led to him becoming an orphan."

He purposely didn't tell them about Orochimaru, they still weren't sure what the man had done to Naruto and the only person who could tell them aside from the man himself was miles away from the village and refused to return for any reason. And he didn't want to have to tell them about the man at all, the further away the day was that the topic of Orochimaru arrived the better it would be.

"Anyway, this is water walking it's a higher level of control from the tree walking and there are further levels that build on it, as well as many that individuals have come up with to help aid them in improving their personal skill set. Anyway, here use these Kunai to mark your progress and you'll need a running start at first to get up now pick a tree and get to work." He said, tossing a Kunai at each of them and then sitting on nearby rock and pulling out his copy of Icha Icha, the clearing was soon filled with the sound of perverted giggles and the sound of Kunai slashing at bark as the three Genin attempted to complete the exercise that they had been assigned.

It was slow going and it proved to be far harder than they had assumed it to be although Sakura seemed to find it much easier than the other two, it was unsurprising to Kakashi who despite appearances was actually watching them intently, he would have stepped in, but he felt that the best way to get them to improve was to allow them to grow as individuals, to be honest he felt that if he showed them too much attention then they would hamper their own development when the time came to do individual training.

XXX

Naruto jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding Rin's sword and the barrage of Kunai that Yama had thrown at him, they were blunt of course, all the edged weapons they were using were, but they still hurt when they hit. He ran through a couple of hand signs and breathed out, the Jutsu didn't really have a name, or at least Naruto hadn't found one for it, all that happened was you breathed out very cold air and could freeze surfaces, it was a tactical Jutsu, not very useful or flashy in a straight up fight, but a spar on the water on the other hand…

Rin took a step forward intent on beating her red headed team mate into the ground, she still hadn't forgiven him for yesterday in the forest, when she suddenly felt her foot slip, cursing she fell forwards and lost her concentration falling through the water and soaking her clothes. Grumbling she went to stand up and after regaining her purchase on the water she looked around and watched as her two male teammates and best friends proceeded to try and beat each other to the ground in a brutal Taijutsu exchange that would likely end with Naruto on top. She wasn't sure why it usually turned out that way, Naruto was just naturally more aggressive and it meant that in a straight fight against someone who was at best his equal; the red head usually came out on top.

She glanced around, she had sensed the presences of the other team, but they had left her sensing range by this point. She smiled Kakashi, who Naruto talked about frequently, although she had never met the famous nin until today, had clearly intended to show the rookies just how far they had to go. She wasn't arrogant or anything, but she did recognise that the Rin Yamanaka who had just graduated the academy, couldn't hold a light to the Rin Yamanaka who was at this moment standing on top of the water, dripping wet and glaring at her sensei who's amusement was obvious if you had learnt to read a Hyuga face.

She heard a splash and looked back to the boys seeing that Yama had indeed fallen beneath Naruto's relentless assault. She watched at the red head pulled the Nara from the water and aided him in standing on the surface again. 'He didn't do that for me.' She thought bitterly, momentarily forgetting that had he done so he would have found himself in the water as well.

"Good, now do it again." She heard Hanuba say and repressed a groan, great, now she was going to have to go the entire day with wet clothes, or at least until they stopped for lunch. Still there was a silver lining in all of this, 'At least I'm not covered in blood like that time in Mori no Kuni. Although now that she thought about it that was Naruto's fault too, she gritted her teeth, he was soo getting a serious beat down.

XXX

It was a tired and wet team eleven that returned to the bridge builder's house that night. Much to Rin's chagrin and Hanuba's silent amusement, Naruto had managed to avoid falling into the water, right up until the end. Upon their arrival they saw that Team Seven was already there. Naruto looked at each of them; Sakura seemed to be immensely pleased with herself if the intensity of her attempts to get Sasuke to go on a date with her were any indication. He frowned; he hadn't had an opportunity to talk to the last Uchiha and it was something that he wanted to do now more than ever, the boy reminded him of Neji, only he didn't obsess over fate. He wondered what Sasuke thought about when he brooded, but gave up in the end. He assumed that it would have something to do with Itachi, which bought up a whole new kettle of fish.

He had met Itachi a few times, not many but often enough that they could recognise each other, and he had to admit that the older boy was a puzzle. If he was honest with himself, it was Itachi that Naruto strove to model himself off. Well as far as skills go that is, he personally wasn't too keen on the massacre part. Still the fact remained that he wanted to understand Sasuke, it was something he doubted anyone could claim anymore.

After dinner, which shocked the civilians with how much everyone apart from Sakura who was on a diet ate. Naruto stood up and went to sit outside, No one followed him, those that knew him had long since accepted Naruto's need to be alone at times and neither Sakura or Sasuke wanted to go and sit with the red head, well at first that is.

Naruto watched the blood red sun sink as nightfall came. He wasn't sure why he did this, but ever since he could remember he liked to watch the sun set. Of course the view here wasn't as good as the one he had when he watched from the top of the Hokage monument, but still traditions were traditions because they persevered in the face of adversity. So focused on his ritual was Naruto, that he didn't notice Sasuke arrive.

"Uchiha-san, what brings you out here?" Naruto asked when he finally noticed the presence of the younger boy beside him.

"Hn." Was the reply from his companion and Naruto was forced to try and work out what the boy wanted.

"Aren't you talkative?" Naruto shot back sarcastically, giving up trying to work out what the boy meant.

Deciding that he would have to be the one to get the ball rolling in the conversation that he had waited weeks for Naruto turned and looked back at the sun, only a quarter of it was still showing, and even now he could see that it was getting smaller and smaller, even as the shadows lengthened.

"What makes a person strong Uchiha-san?" Naruto asked, there was no reply but he could tell that the raven haired Genin was listening to him. He hadn't expected an answer so he continued talking.

"I used to think that it was my dedication to making my village strong, to pay them back for all that Konoha has done for me was enough, but that's not true anymore." Here he paused seeming to gather his thoughts before he began talking again.

"Now I think that what makes people strong is protecting the things they love, be it a village or people who mean something to them." By this point he was looking at Sasuke, although Sasuke wasn't meeting his eyes. "I used to be a lot like you, stoic, unwilling to let anyone in and I suffered for it, be careful and try not to let your goals consume you Uchiha-san." He said even as he stood up and went to walk back to the house. He turned suddenly and spoke again "There is a possibility that your eyes will only awaken once you are put in a life and death situation, that's the theory anyway."

Sasuke was shocked than a non Uchiha had a theory on how the Sharingan was awakened, but decided to worry about it later, it was a good point in any case. Instead he asked the question that he had struggled with day in and day out.

"How do you live with it?" Sasuke asked suddenly, causing Naruto to stop and look at him.

"I just keep going and hope that they will understand, but I always wonder… I never knew them you know." Naruto said the last part little more than a whisper before he turned and walked back inside. Tomorrow would be a busy day and he needed to sleep.

Sasuke remained siting there looking at the empty sky, his hands clenched and for the first time his hatred overtook the fear he felt towards his brother. He stood up and made to follow his red haired companion, ignoring the small part of him that said that he still loved Itachi, despite all that his brother had done to him.

XXX

Naruto looked at Sakura who was standing on the bridge along with him and the workers.

"So why are you two here?" Tazuna asked curiously, he was pleased he had the red head, from what he had heard he was supposed to be the best of the kids, both Kakashi and the Hanuba fellow claimed that he was going to ace the Chunin exams once he got the last of his issues worked out, whatever they were.

"Well, I'm here because I'm superior and finished the training before the other two." Sakura said proudly before muttering, "Especially Mito-baka." Naruto resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"No, you're here because as a first generation Shinobi you have the smallest reserves, Sasuke comes from a clan, as does Mito so it will take them longer to get the exercise down, especially considering Mito comes from a clan that's focus was having massive reserves." Naruto replied shortly, for the smartest Kunoichi of her year she didn't seem to have too much knowledge about the clans.

That shut Sakura up, although, he suspected that no one had ever explained to her the difference between first generation Shinobi and those that were descended from Shinobi.

"And what about you?" Tazuna asked looking at Naruto, who matched his gaze, the grey eyes betraying nothing although he detected a hint of mischief that was hidden behind the stoic gaze. It would have been impossible to see, had Tazuna not had a lot of experience reading people. 'Professional.' The word seemed to echo around his skull and he thought it described this Naruto Yuki pretty well really.

"My teammates need to work on some techniques that restrain the target and it's best if they practice on each other, seeing as many of them work well in collaboration, Sensei has gone to make sure that they work effectively. My talents run in different directions and I can't use the techniques I need to practice on my teammates easily." He finished looking out to where you could see the rest of his team, once again practicing on the water.

"What do your uh techniques do?" Tazuna asked, curious despite himself.

"Kill people." Naruto replied shortly making Tazuna blanch and Sakura let out a small shriek in shock. He guessed she didn't really have any idea about the profession she was getting involved in, or tried not to think of that part. But it was something he had had drilled into him when he was a child, when Kakashi had returned from some of the nastier missions.

"Um well I'm pleased that you're the one guarding my super awesome bridge!" the man exclaimed dramatically while Sakura looked at Naruto with a shocked look on her face, 'she's going to need to come around to it at some point.' He thought before he went to sit down and absently started playing with a Kunai, one of the few tools he actually kept on himself. He watched the workers going about their tasks with some interest, he found the building process fascinating and he really hoped he would get to watch the whole process.

"Tazuna." A man said as he walked up to the older man, Naruto's interest picked up, something was going to happen he could sense it.

"What is it Giichi?" Tazuna asked, although Naruto got the feeling that the man already knew.

"Well, um, you see, I, uh. I think we should stop trying to build the bridge." He finally managed to say, his voice rising the closer he got to the end.

"Not you too, why, this is so sudden, why is everyone giving up?" Tazuna asked, a hint of panic in his voice.

"Well you see, even if we have nothing, at least we're still alive right, and if we keep building the bridge, then Gato might kill us, or our families!" Giichi said his panic obvious.

Tazuna sighed, "Its midday, well stop today, Giichi you don't have to come back tomorrow." Naruto stood up and walked to the man, he had to admit he felt kind of bad for the man; he was trying so hard, He reminded Naruto of the Hokage and his attempts to get the people to see Mito as a person of worth.

"I have to go and buy food, will you two come with me?" he asked when everyone had left. Naruto nodded, it was no skin of his back and Sakura followed them, not saying anything.

Walking through the town, Naruto was shocked at just how bad things were, Sakura was far more vocal in her comments but Naruto kept his thoughts to himself, opting to simply observe, Hanuba-sensei would want a report on the situation anyway and he didn't want to miss an important detail.

They walked into the food store and once again Naruto was shocked at the lack of available food. He followed Tazuna back, frowning all the while, ignoring Sakura and whatever she was doing behind them.

XXX

Dinner that night was subdued, or at least it was until Sakura saw the picture. Which led to another round of chaos, although Naruto got his reason why Inari acted the way he did. Meanwhile Mito yelled at Inari and ran off. Naruto made to follow her but was stopped by Kakashi who simply said,

"Leave her, she needs to let off some stream go and get her tomorrow, I'll talk to Inari." Naruto nodded and returned to his seat, he would deal with this in the morning. He stood up and went to his futon. It had been an oddly draining day.

XXX

Haku looked out at the crisp, dark night. She would have to go and collect some herbs to aid Zabuza's recovery in the morning, she was looking forward to it actually, there was something calming about walking in the forest. Still she couldn't explain why she had such a strange feeling about tomorrow, something was going to change she knew it, but she wasn't sure whether or not it was a change she wanted in her life. As much as she hated it, the predictability of her current life made it something she wanted to last.

XXX

Naruto woke early and was soon dressed and heading out to search for Mito. He was slightly worried about his friend spending the night in the forest wasn't always the best thing for your health, although he doubted that the Fox would let her die. He had never worked out why the Biju were so keen on keeping their hosts alive, maybe he would be able to ask one someday.

It took him a while but eventually he came across Mito who was with another girl. A beautiful girl now that he thought about it, with inky black hair and pale flawless skin, close to his own skin tone actually. She was a bit shorter than he was, but it wasn't by much and as he got closer he noted that her eyes were a very dark bordering on black. She didn't seem to have a very big bust, but that was a minor matter compared when compared to how beautiful she was. He walked into the clearing and interrupted their conversation, something that Mito agreed with in any case. He arrived into the clearing and didn't realise he was staring until he heard her say, "Hello."

Naruto started and attempted to get his tongue under control so that he could respond.

"Uh hi, I'm Naruto, Naruto Yuki." He noted that she started when he said his clan name and her eyes widened, interesting she recognises the name, 'might be ninja trained in that case, in which case she's probably wearing wrappings.' He thought as he studied her more intently than before, he noted the slight blush on her pale skin though.

"Haku, just Haku." She replied, shocked at finding a clansman here of all the places to meet, and a Konoha nin as well.

"It's a nice name." Naruto said with a smile causing the blush to deepen, enough to become even more noticeable.

"Thank you, but I really have to go, I have my herbs for my friend and I really must get back to them. And by the way I'm a boy." She said as she turned around and began to walk away.

"No you're not." Naruto replied smiling. This statement made her stop although she didn't turn around.

"How do you know?" She asked, not denying what Naruto had just said.

"You don't have an Adam's apple." Naruto replied steadily,

"Well you're right." She said, blushing very deeply at this point before all but running away, although Naruto noted that she moved very gracefully, despite her apparent rush. 'Interesting' he thought, 'ninja trained and recognises my clan name, most likely from Kiri in which case she's most likely Zabuza's accomplice.'

"Do you think we'll see her again?" Mito asked him, even as he continued to look at her retreating figure.

"I'd say that we will Mito, after all she's the one working with Zabuza."

Mito's scream of "WHAT!" could be heard throughout the forest, prompting Haku to move even faster, not sure what to think of the very handsome member of her clan that she was going to have to fight the next day.

Once again she cursed Wave, why did this place have to complicate everything in her life?