Well sorry for the extremely long wait for this chapter. I have a reason though. Many actually. I just got a new job and it is taking literally half of my free time, I have school work, and I read my own stories also. Add it all together and you get a very busy schedule for me.
I would also like to say thanks for all the great reviews and the answers to the questions. I got 100 reviews!!! Thank you so much. You guys made me so happy. Thanks again for the great reviews everyone!!!!
Disclaimer: I never will own Naruto, if I did, he would kick ass and not be weak like in the manga!
Enjoy the chapter!
Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto
Training and Meetings
"Good morning Kakashi-san, why are you up so early?" Tsunami asked.
Kakashi looked up from his orange book at the table that he was sitting at and eye smiled at her. "Oh, just reading and planning what to train my students."
"Oh… well I'll be in the kitchen making some breakfast." With that she walked into the kitchen as she said.
Kakashi just went back to reading his book. After about thirty minutes everyone was sitting at the table talking about this and that. Sakura was asking Sasuke out on a date, Sasuke was turning her down; Sai was making sarcastic jokes at them all, Kiba was talking to Shikamaru and Choji, Kakashi was still reading, Tazuna was eating, and Tsunami was eating as well.
Then, the door to the home opened up and everyone looked over to see a sweaty Naruto walk into the room slightly out of breath.
"Have a good work out Naruto?" Kakashi asked clearly amused.
"Hai it was actually, I made some good progress on my new jutsu." Naruto sat at the table and took some food and started to eat while talking to the others.
"Interesting…care to tell us what it's called?"
"No not really, so you will have to wait and see what it is when I finish it like everyone else."
Kakashi said nothing and just went back to reading his book.
A little while later, everyone was done eating and excused themselves thanking Tsunami for the good breakfast. After that, everyone from the Konoha group headed out towards the woods that surrounded Tazuna's house. Once in a clearing Kakashi stopped and turned around to face everyone.
"As you all know, we faced Zabuza Momochi yesterday and the hunter nin killed him when Naruto was about to finish him off. But there was something off about what the hunter Nin did. Can any of you tell me what it was?"
After a few seconds of thinking it was Choji that spoke up. "Well…. aren't hunter Nin supposed to work in teams and not by them selves?"
Naruto nodded to him. "No….the hunter nin could have been working alone. It is not uncommon for a hunter Nin to go solo once in a while."
The others though for a little more time trying to find any thing that was wrong until Sai looked like he thought of something. "Don't hunter Nins destroy the body on sight when they kill a person?"
Naruto and Kakashi smiled at him. "Now that is the question of the day, why would a hunter take the body away if that isn't what they normally do?"
Choji caught on first. "You mean that the ninja was a fake?"
The others came to that same conclusion at that moment. Kakashi smiled that they could put the clues together. "Exactly, Naruto and I talked last night and figured it out. We would have told you then, but why bother you and make you have a restless sleep?"
Naruto continued were Kakashi left off. "After figuring out that Zabuza is alive and well, we came to the conclusion that he will attack us again when he is healed. We figure that we have about a week to a week and a half to prepare you guys for the battle to come."
"What do you mean for the battle to come? You can't expect us to be able to fight a Jounin can you?" Sakura asked a little frightened.
"Oh come on Sakura, it shouldn't be that hard to do. You guys are strong, I'm sure you will live to tell the tale about how you beat a Jounin." Kakashi said in a playful manor.
"Are you crazy?! We can't beat a Jounin!" She yelled back at him.
Kakashi just laughed at her further infuriating her. She looked ready to pounce when Kakashi held up his hands in a playful manor. "All right, all right Sakura, I was just kidding." She calmed down some but still looked pissed.
"You know, you're pretty loud for a girl."
"I AM NOT LOUD SAI!" She hit him over the head with her fist sending him to the ground for the comment.
Naruto and Kakashi sweat dropped at the scene. "Well like I was saying before, with Zabuza alive and well he will most likely attack in a week's time and he won't be alone. He will most likely have that hunter nin with him and a couple chunnin level ninjas this time."
The other stiffened when they heard this. "So seeing as we will be facing strong opponents we are going to train to become stronger."
"Do you think that we will be able to defeat chunnins sensei?"
"No worries Sakura, that is why we will train our hardest this week so we will be prepared for them. Now if there are no other questions please follow me." He turned and walked further into the woods and stood by a tree.
"This looks like a good place to learn. Ok, what we're going to be doing is an exercise that will help you with your chakra control. Theoretically, if you are able to do this then you are able to do any jutsu there is."
"What's the exercise sensei?"
"Glad you asked Sakura, you're going to climb trees."
Sasuke, Sakura, and Sai looked like Kakashi has grown another head. "What does climbing trees have to do with anything? We can already climb trees." Sakura asked with a stupid look on her face.
"But can you climb trees without using your hands?" Kakashi turned around and walked towards a tree and put one foot on it and then another and another. By now he was standing horizontal with the ground and defying gravity. He kept walking until he reached a branch about half way up and then stood on it upside down.
The others were gawking at him in awe. Kakashi just smiled at them. "This is what I meant. By doing this exercise, you will be able to fine tune your chakra control and be able to be more proficient with your chakra use. All you have to do for this exercise is concentrate your chakra to the bottom of your feet and stick to the surface of the wood. This won't be easy though, as the feet are the hardest place to concentrate chakra."
With that Kakashi flipped down onto the ground. "Now you try." Kakashi tossed down six kunai and had them stick into the ground right in front of his and Naruto's team.
Each genin took the kunai and stood in front of a tree. Kakashi's team put there hands into the ram seal to gather their chakra in there feet and ran to their own tree and tried to climb it.
Kakashi was surprised at the results of what happened. Sasuke made it about ten feet up before he pushed too much chakra into his feet and propelled himself backwards and onto the ground. 'To be expected'
Sai made it twelve feet high before he started to slip and fell to the ground. 'Not bad'
Sakura made it about three fourths of the way up and was sitting on a branch. 'To be expected of her, she has very little chakra so she would need to have more control than the others.'
Then there was team ten though. He looked at their trees and found each of them at the very top of their tree, hanging upside down.
Kakashi raised his eyebrow at that. "Hey Naruto, you already taught them the tree walking exercise?"
Naruto looked at him with a neutral face. "Hai I taught it to them two weeks ago, a week after our first C-rank mission."
"I see…well since they know the exercise so well already, then you should take them to go get there own training done while my team perfects this one."
"…I suppose." Looking up at his team he yelled up to them.
"He guys! Let's go! We'll train in some other place where we won't get in the way!"
Team ten ran down their trees and jumped the last ten feet or so and walked off with their sensei, never even catching the looks on team sevens faces.
Sasuke looked pissed, scratch that, he was beyond pissed. 'How are they so strong? I was the top of the class! I was the student of the year! Not them! I'm an Uchiha! I should be the strongest!'
Sai looked surprised. 'Wow, they really are strong; they're nothing like they use to be when we were in the academy.'
Sakura looked angry also. 'How did they get so good? No one can be better than my Sasuke-kun! No one!'
Kakashi watched the looks play across their faces and smirked to himself. "Well looks like their done with the exercise. They are ahead of you guys right now."
It got the reactions he wanted, they all looked pissed even Sai some what. "I guess the great Uchiha clan isn't as great as they say it is." Kakashi said with a bored look and a shrug of the shoulders.
Sakura was about to yell at him when he beat her to speak. "You, Sakura, used seven eighths of your chakra stores after only one run up the tree, you are no better."
Sakura looked down in shame at that. Kakashi turned to his last student. "You, Sai, have a normal chakra reserve, but still suck at controlling it."
With that Kakashi got up off the ground were he was resting and started to walk away. Before he left he turned his head to address them. "Keep trying to get up the tree until you can climb it ten times up and down in a row." With that parting order, he walked away from an angry, sad, and disappointed team left in the clearing.
After walking away from the others, Naruto didn't stop until they were a good distance away. Satisfied with the distance they put between them Naruto turned around to look at his team.
"We'll train here."
"What do you plan to train us in sensei?" Choji asked with some hope in his voice.
Naruto put his hand on his chin to think for a few seconds while looking up at the blue sky. After a few seconds he looked at them each. "Before I teach you any thing else, I want to see how your own training has been going on the jutsu I taught you."
"Kiba you go first."
"Hai Naruto-sensei." Kiba then stood in front of the others and said the name of his attack.
"Raikyu no jutsu." (Lightning Ball) and made some hand seal before he held his right hand to the side and a ball of lightning formed there and stabilized before he ran at a tree and slammed his hand with the lightning ball into it.
To the others it looked like Kiba ran up to the tree and just hit it but if you looked closely you could see the electricity run through the tree before it stopped. Then Kiba took his hand away from were he hit and you could see a small scorch mark on the tree.
"Well done Kiba, you've nearly mastered it. The only thing you still need to do is stabilize the attack, just a little more, and then work on the speed it forms at. You're still to slow with the attack. Choji you go next."
"Hai Naruto-sensei." Like Kiba, Choji stepped forward and called out his attack.
"Doton: Doryuheki no jutsu." (Earth Style Wall) Choji made some hand seals and then thrust his palms onto the ground and a wall of earth rose from the ground in front of him. The wall was ten feet tall and two feet thick by seven feet wide.
"Good job Choji, you made it the right size and everything. Now let's see how strong it is."
Naruto went in front of the wall and made some hand seals of his own.
"Suiton: Teppodama." (Gunshot) Naruto took a big breath and his cheeks poofed up and then he shot out three balls of water at the wall of earth. The wall held strong not even denting it.
"Very nice Choji, now let's try something even stronger." Naruto made some more hand seals and kept on going for ten seconds.
"Suiton: Suiryudan no jutsu." (Water Dragon Blast) A dragon of water rose out of the river near by and circled Naruto once before it flew at the wall. The second it hit the wall, the head of the water dragon blasted apart but also took at least a foot of earth with it. A second later, the rest of the dragon went clean through the earth and was heading directly towards a stunned Choji. Luckily the dragon swerved sideways and went right on past Choji and hit a tree completely obliterating it.
The others could only stare at the dragon in awe as it tore through the earth with ease.
After Choji picked himself up off the ground and the earth wall returned to the ground he stood up on shaky legs.
"Well done indeed Choji, it took the gunshot with ease. That is the level of attack you should have to worry about at your current level. As for the dragon blast, don't worry about it breaking through the earth barrier, it is after all an A-ranked jutsu."
Choji nodded at that and felt better that his wall wasn't weak. "But you still need to work on it a little more; it should be able to withstand a jutsu like that if you master it. Just add more chakra and then compact the earth more when you create it."
"Hai Naruto-sensei."
"Ok, your last Shikamaru."
"Hai." Shikamaru stepped forward and walked to the middle of the clearing and stood facing a tree.
"Futon: Renkudan." (Drilling Air Bullet) After making the seals, Shikamaru took in a deep breath and exhaled it all at once facing the tree.
The others watched him take a deep breath and exhaled. They saw a blob of compacted air that was visible to the naked eye move towards the tree at a moderate pace. When it hit the tree, the air left a fist sized dent in the base.
"Well not bad for the level of difficulty the jutsu takes. Once you master this move you should be able to knock down the tree with it. Right now you are at a beginner level."
"I see." Shikamaru said in a quiet voice that clearly was depressed.
"No need to worry Shikamaru, if you practice this jutsu enough you'll get it eventually. You have practiced the Futon: Gofujin (Formation of Wind) right?"
"Hai Naruto-sensei. I mastered that one but I just can't seem to get any better at this one."
"Hemmm….. well can you tell me what you've been doing with this one so far?"
"Hai, let's see, first I gather air in my lungs and then I breath it all out like you said. When it's out of my mouth I compress it and it only does minimal damage."
Naruto had a look of understanding on his face now. "Well I know what you're doing wrong. Instead of compressing the air once it's out of your body, why don't you try to compress the air while it's inside your lungs. Try doing it that way."
"If you say so." With that he went through the seals again and called out his attack.
"Futon: Renkudan." (Drilling Air Bullet) He sucked in a breath and held it their for a few seconds before releasing said breath and a much larger ball of air came out of his mouth and went sailing through the air at almost twice the speed as the former one.
When the ball of compact air hit the tree it made a lot more damage than the previous one. Where the first one was fist size and about two millimeters deep, this one was about seven inches wide and about an inch deep.
"Now that is an air bullet! Now all you need to do is practice it and you should be able to master it, compact the air in your lungs even more and then practice it until you can destroy one of these trees with it."
"Hai Naruto-sensei."
After a few seconds to let everything sink in, Naruto spoke up again. "Ok, now that I've seen your guy's level, I am happy to say that you are each doing well in your particular jutsu. You only need practice and that's that. Now you guys have been learning and practicing your own family jutsu's right?"
"Hai." They each said at the same time amazingly.
"Good, well I'm not going to teach you guys any thing else on this mission, it would just be a distraction from mastering the skills you already have and…"
"What, don't you think we could master another jutsu in a week's time?" Kiba interrupted.
"No." Naruto shot him down instantly. "You may be able to learn the jutsu in a week's time but it will be virtually useless in combat and that is what you need right now."
Kiba had his mouth in a 'O' shape of understanding. "So for the rest of the week I want you guys to practice and hopefully master the jutsu I gave you and then work on your family jutsu also."
"Naruto what are you going to do during this time?" Choji was wondering.
"Me?" He got nods. "Well I have my own jutsu that I need to master; it's my first completely original jutsu that I've made."
"But my mom said you made a move called Kaizuki?" Kiba asked confused.
"Well that is true, but I don't consider that move original." Naruto looked away slightly.
Kiba was now more confused. "What do you mean, did some one else make it?"
Naruto looked back at them and answered. "No I made the jutsu by myself, but I did it after I watched Kakashi-san use his own original jutsu on an enemy ninja, I just changed the attack from being lightning to fire."
"So the rumors were true after all." Said Kakashi after jumping down from a tree and landing in front of them.
"Kakashi-san what are you doing here?" Naruto arched an eye brow at him in question.
"Oh I just though I would see what you guys were doing for training and happened to overhear the last part of your conversation; and what have I told you about the san suffix, you don't need to use it with me anymore."
"Ah yes, I forgot Kakashi." Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly with a grin on his face.
Kakashi himself eye smiled. "So you recreated my Raikiri did ya?"
Naruto looked uncomfortable. "Well yeah, do you mind?"
"No, not at all, you made it on your own, you just happened to use me as inspiration. All that I ask is that I can see it." Kakashi had a half serious, half gitty look on his face.
"I guess you have the right to see it, just no copying or teaching it to others ok."
"Sure no problem. It wouldn't really matter anyway though."
"Oh and why's that?"
"I made the Raikiri to be so it couldn't be copied by any one. Even with the Sharingan you can't copy it. If yours is anything like mine, then I wouldn't be able to copy it. Also I don't have fire manipulation down enough to use it like I do for lightning." At the end he was smiling at Naruto.
Naruto just smiled and turned to the forgotten genin. "You guys can watch if you want, but right after this you have to go practice your own jutsu."
They each nodded their heads in the affirmative and stayed put. How often do you get to see a jutsu that was created by Hatake Kakashi and then recreated by Namikaze Naruto? Almost never!
"Ok guys, this is an S-rank jutsu used for assassination. I created this bad boy after working with Kakashi on a mission once. Watch closely because I'm only doing this once; that goes for you too Kakashi."
Naruto stepped into the middle of the clearing and went through twenty hand seals so fast that the genin could only see blurs and Kakashi barely saw them.
After the hand seals he hunched his back over so he was leaning forward and then gripped his right wrist with his left hand. His right hand was pointing down towards the ground with his hand open.
Suddenly everyone could feel the chakra spike and the next thing they knew, there was a strong wind coming from where Naruto was standing. His right hand had a slight glow to it and then a fire started in his open palm. It grew to about a foot in size and then compressed to the size of a fist. A ring of fire also formed around Naruto and circled him; there were flares of fire flying about his body in a three foot radius.
This all happened in two seconds and then the fire ring and flares stopped just as suddenly until Naruto stood there hunched over with an oblique ball of fire dancing in his right hand with sudden flares of fire jumping off of it at random intervals.
"Kaizuki!" (Fire Blade) Naruto yelled pushing the Kaizuki to his right side and then burst out into a full speed sprint at a tree ten feet away. He was at the tree before a second passed. He pushed his right hand with the Kaizuki straight into the tree and it went right through.
He didn't stop there though, Naruto pushed left with the blade of fire and cut through the tree and threw the same hand at another tree two feet away and put his arm right through the two foot thick tree.
The first tree toppled to the ground before every ones eyes.
Kakashi was staring wide eyed at the effects of the jutsu. 'It's the same as my Raikiri! Good god! He really did recreate it!' He thought in aw.
Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba were no better than Kakashi if not even more surprised by the attack. Their sensei took down a whole tree and then put his hand through another like they were butter!
Kiba's thoughts were this. 'Holly hell! He cut down that tree like it was nothing and he still has his hand through that other one!
Shikamaru and Choji were thinking along the same lines.
Finally Naruto pulled out his arm from the tree showing a perfectly clean scorched hole the size of an arm going clean threw the tree.
"Well that's my Kaizuki. How'd you like it?" Naruto had a cheesy grin on his face while he said this.
The others were speechless and gawking at him. After a few more seconds Kakashi finally found his voice. "Well hot damn."
Yep that summed up every ones thoughts.
After some more discussing and explaining to team ten, they each parted to do their own training.
After telling the team to keep training and improve; and Kakashi going back to supervise his own students training, Naruto left to go do his own training.
After walking some distance and looking around, Naruto took out a scroll and started to read and edit some things on it here and there. After about thirty minutes of this he got up and stood staring intently in front of himself.
He took a step forward, moving his right foot forward and then just when the foot connected Naruto disappeared. Not even a millisecond later he was standing a foot in front of where he was just a second before, with his right foot firmly on the ground.
The next moment Naruto fell over onto his knee and grabbed his right leg. "Damn! Still not good enough to use."
Standing on shaky legs Naruto took another step forward and the same thing happened. "This is going to take a while."
Later that night everyone was back at Tazuna's home sitting at the table in the dining room waiting for dinner. Everyone there looked tired except Kakashi who was guarding the bridge most of the day.
After some time Tsunami came into the room with a platter of food in hand. They learned the other day that she was Tazuna's daughter and she has a son that they had yet to see.
"Thank you Tsunami for the food." Kakashi gave her an eye smile in her direction.
"It's no problem Kakashi-san; after all you are protecting father's life." After that there was an awkward silence where everyone just ate their food until a young boy came into the room and sat down with a scoff.
Their was some small talk about this and that when suddenly the small boy slammed his hands on the table. He stood and glared at the ninja before speaking in a pissed voice.
"Why do you even try!? You'll only get killed by Gato and his men anyways! You can't win against him, no one can!" With that the boy ran from the room and up the stairs.
"What's with him?" Sakura asked Tsunami.
She sighed before telling them everything and Tazuna would pitch in where he thought appropriate.
It turned out that a guy name Kaiza came to their town and made great friends with everyone in town. He was like a father to Inari and a wife to Tsunami. Then Gato came and took the town over, Kaiza fought him and eventually ended up dying in a public execution. That broke the town's spirit and made Inari how he is today.
"How sad." Sakura said with a few tears in her eyes.
"Yes, this world can be a pretty bad place sometimes. We ninja get to see the worse of it more often than others." Kakashi had a solemn look on his face.
"Excuse me Tsunami, but I think I'm done for now. Thank you for the great dinner." With that Naruto got up from the table and headed up stairs.
Once up stairs, Naruto heard crying and he walked up to the door that it was coming from with the utmost silence, so as not to disturb the person inside. What he saw surprised him a little. There was Inari sitting on his desk holding a picture of what he assumed was this Kaiza person that he heard of. Inari was crying slightly while holding the picture.
"Is that Kaiza?" Naruto asked in a soft voice right behind him.
Inari nearly fell off the desk he was sitting on, hearing a voice so close to him. He spun around to see Naruto leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.
After a few seconds of staring at him he replied in a soft voice. "Hai."
Naruto nodded and pushed off the wall walking over to the window. He looked out into the sea and just stared out into space for a while.
"It's hard isn't it? To loose some one important to you right?" His voice was still soft.
Inari only nodded because he was currently watching all the different emotions go across Naruto's face.
"You know I never knew my parents, but everyone around me at my home village speaks so highly of them, and yet I have never even seen them in person or spoken to them." There was sadness in his voice now.
"Where are they?"
"They both died on the day I was born, I never got the chance to meet them."
"Oh."
"…. You're lucky really…you got to spend some time with your step dad before he died. You should cherish those memories not cry about them."
"I miss him so much though!" Inari cried out in anguish.
"…I once lost a friend on a mission because I wasn't strong enough; I was depressed and wouldn't talk to anyone until my sensei told me something that made me rethink things…"
"What? What did he say?"
"He said, 'When a person dies that is close to you, it is truly a sad day. But to wallow in the past is not healthy and will only dishonor his death and what he lived for. If you truly wish to make that person proud of you and honor his life, you should move on and live your life to the best of your abilities. Always do the most that you can and never give up, there is always hope there, you just have to find it. Besides, would your friend really want you to be sad about his death? No, he would want you to move on and make him proud.'" At this, there were a few tears that came out of Naruto's eyes and he quickly wiped them away.
"Your sensei really said that?"
"Hai"
"Who was he? You guy's sounded close."
"His name was Kaito Rashimero, my best and only friend at the time. He was a prodigy like me, we were both chunnin at the time, we were both eight years old and we were sent on a mission together by request, since we were best friends we always did things together, even missions. If I could, I would go back and stop that mission. It was suppose to be an easy mission of taking out ten bandits but things went wrong. It happened that the bandits were hired by some other ninja and they were disguised as bandits too. We thought nothing of it and we attacked them. The hidden ninja were all Jounin level and be were hard pressed to stop them. We managed to some how beat one of the Jounin and some of the other bandits in the process."
He took a shaky breath and continued on softly. "Then one of the Jounin got behind my friend and killed him. I…. I lost it and attacked blindly, needless to say I got beaten…easily. They were just about to finish me off when a squad of Anbu came and took them out. I-It turned out that the Hokage heard some rumors about bandits working for some Jounin in the area where our mission was. He sent us back up…but it was already too late for my best friend."
"I'm sorry….I didn't know."
"There is no need to apologize Inari. It's in the past and I've moved on."
There was a rather calm silence after that, where they both just stared out into the ocean outside. Then Naruto turned and walked to the door. Inari followed his every movement until he stopped at the door and turned slightly so he could speak to him.
"Inari, you still have family left in this world. They all care for you and hate seeing you sad, it makes them sad also, if you really wish to make Kaiza proud, you should move on and be happy for his sake. Think about what I said, would ya?"
With that, Naruto walked out the door and into the hall to see Kakashi leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and eyes closed.
"So you heard us Kakashi?"
"Hai I did." He opened his eyes and looked at Naruto to see him walking away.
He sighed and stood up off the wall and looked out the window to the forest. "We have all lost people, haven't we Obito?"
After that night, every one woke up with renowned vigor and started to train some more. Kakashi was asked by Naruto to guard the bridge so he could hopefully figure out the jutsu he was working on.
When Kakashi asked what technique it was, Naruto said it was a secret. He reluctantly agreed to do the guard duty though.
On the sixth day, everyone returned to the house except Naruto. His team asked if they should go look for him to make sure he was ok, but Kakashi said he was a Jounin and could take care of himself.
The next morning a person in a Jounin vest on was laying by a tree when he suddenly shot up and looked to his left. There he saw a girl his age walking over to him with a basket in her hands.
She was wearing a light pink dress that covered her body well in all the right places. There were no sleeves, but a sash on her waist holding it up, and there were spiral designs all over it for decoration.
She kept walking towards him and when she was close enough he saw her face. She was perfect in his eyes and he blushed slightly at the improper thought to come into his brain. 'Damn you ero-sennin!' Shaking his head to focus again he saw that she had dark brown eyes and black hair that went to her mid back with a little of her hair in front of her face also.
"Hello, what are you doing out her in the middle of the forest sleeping?" She asked with a small smile on her face.
Naruto narrowed his eyes for a fraction of a second in doubt. 'How did she know I was sleeping? A civilian's eye sight shouldn't be able to see me from that distance. I could have just been lying down.'
Even with these thoughts he kept his face neutral and answered. "I was just resting from a hard day of training."
The girl was now a good five feet distance away from him, kneeling over and looking at some herbs he recognized. "Oh, so you must be a ninja right?"
That just made it more suspicious. "Yes, how'd you know?"
She giggled and pointed to his head band with the leaf symbol on it. "All ninja wear a head band of some sort."
'Wow, I feel dumb' He scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment, chuckling a little. "I must look really stupid right now."
"No, not at all, just a little harmless mistake."
"So you know what I've been doing, but what are you doing out here miss…"
"Oh, I'm sorry; my name is Haku and you?"
"Naruto, Namikaze Naruto."
"Well it's nice to meet you Naruto-san."
"Same to you Haku-san, I can't help but notice you're picking herbs. What are they for?"
"Oh these things are to help heal my friend that got injured about a week ago. There suppose to be medicinal herbs and help the healing process along."
"I see...do you need some help collecting some?"
"Sure why not."
With that they started to collect the herbs that were scattered around the field they were in. While they were doing this they talked some more.
"So how'd your friend get hurt Haku-san?"
"I…well he was walking on the dock and slipped on some water and fell over the side and scrapped his side pretty badly."
"I see." 'She hesitated there for a second. She was lying to me, but why would she need to lie to me?'
"So what are you training for Naruto-san?"
"…Well I'm currently on a mission and I have to stop some people from hurting my client. So I've been training to try and complete my newest attack."
"Have you had any success yet?"
"I'm doing ok so far."
"Oh…"
"Do you live around her Haku-san? Because I can escort you back home, that way nothing happens to you."
She visibly stiffened. "No that's alright. I'm sure I can get home by myself."
'A chakra spike! She has more than a normal civilian should have for chakra! Who are you?' On the inside Naruto was alert but on the outside he showed no signs of it.
"Are you sure, there's a man named Gato around here and I heard he has some thugs and bandits that work for him wandering around, I'd feel safer if I made sure you got home safe."
"No no that's ok, I'll be fine." She reinsured him far too quickly.
"If you say so Haku-san."
There was another awkward silence were neither spoke. "Can you tell me why you fight?" Haku asked all of a sudden.
"Wha… what kind of question is that?"
"Why do you fight? I know you're a ninja and that's your job, but why do you fight. Do you have to prove something?"
"I…well…I guess I fight to uphold my mom and dads names and to make the village proud. Especially the old man."
"Do you fight only for acknowledgement by the village?"
"…Sometimes yes, but more for my friends….and to make my parents proud of me. I also have some people in that village that I would die to protect."
Haku smiled at that. "So you have some people that are precious to you."
"Hai."
"Well you'll become strong Naruto-san. When a person protects someone their true power comes out and they become stronger than ever. Do you know what I'm talking about?"
He nodded his head to her. "Hai, I've had to protect people a lot and when I do, I have the determination to not give up and it makes me stronger than ever."
She smiled again before standing up. "I must go and get these to my friend now. It was nice talking to you Naruto-san. I hope we meet again."
She stood there smiling at him before turning and leaving. She heard him speak from behind her. "Your friend wouldn't happen to be Zabuza Momochi would it?" She stopped dead in her track and froze.
"From the fact that you stopped I'd have to say you do know him Haku-san, which would make you the hunter nin."
Haku whirled around with a senbon needle in hand ready to defend herself.
Naruto narrowed his eyes at her and spoke in a calm but deadly voice. "I should kill you right now Haku-san. You are putting my mission in potential jeopardy…but I think I'll let you live if you pass on a message to Zabuza-san for me."
Haku herself narrowed her eyes at him. "And why should I not just kill you right now."
"Because I have a proposition for you and Zabuza that you can't refuse."
"Oh and what would that be?"
"Our mission is to protect the bridge builder, but you are trying to kill him because Gato hired you to. If you abandon your mission, I will give you and Zabuza the offer to come and live in Konoha."
"Why would I want to come to Konoha with you? You could just turn us over to the Kiri hunters once there."
"Your right, we could." Haku tensed getting reading to fight. "But we won't."
"Why would you want us in Konoha any ways?" She asked suspiciously.
"I would like for you two to join our forces as ninja of Konoha. A member of the Kiri seven swordsmen would help our villages' strength out greatly and I'm sure you are strong also."
"I won't let you take advantage of our strength!" Her voice was deadly with a harsh tone to it.
"I meant no disrespect to you or Zabuza, I know you must have lived a hard life and want to stop running from hunter ninja that are after your heads." She visibly flinched at that.
He continued on seeing her actually interested. "All I am offering is a position in Konoha for you two, you could be safe and stop running and settle down. I don't want to have to kill you or Zabuza but I will if I have to."
She didn't respond for a few good seconds. "Can you give me any promise that your village won't turn us over to Kiri?" Her voice was slightly hopeful.
"Hai, I'm personal friends with the Hokage and I have a lot of leverage in the village because of who my parents were and what I have done there."
Haku visibly relaxed and put her senbon back inside her dress hidden from view again. She stood up straight and looked at him with sad and hopeful eyes. "I will tell Zabuza about what your offer. It's really his choice to decide, not mine."
"I see, in that case we will meet when you show yourselves again."
"Hai, I look forward to seeing you again Naruto-san."
"I also look forward to seeing you again Haku-san." With that Naruto smiled at her and burst into a pillar of flames to a location unknown to the girl left in the clearing.
Haku smiled to herself. "So that is the famous 'Shunshin no Namikaze' huh? I like his style." She said to herself and walked back the way she came to have a nice talk with Zabuza.
Authors Notes:
Well that's my chapter.
As always, any questions will be answered when asked in a reply or PM.
Thanks for reading the chapter and story. Next chapter will be out when it comes out. No promises any more. My schedule is to busy to be exact anymore. Sorry.
Review…
'Never beg, and earn by winning, or else you won't get anything at all.'
Battousai222
