A/N: Ok this chapter will be the tree climbing exercise and I may add in something extra to it and the start of the battle on the bridge. Hopefully I can end the Journey to Wave in the next chapter but I have to see. I've gotten a lot of requests for what to do with Haku so I'm going to let you readers and reviewers to decide her fate. You can have Haku either: 1. Play a big sister figure to Naruto and Hinata, 2. Pair up with Gaara, or 3. Make it a threesome with Naruto and Hinata. You can also have a mixture of choices 1 and 2 since Naruto befriends Gaara. I also want you guys to decide if Ino should be with Kiba or Chouji. Ok now time for the next chapter since I've been ranting way to long here.

Chapter 7: Tree Climbing and Water Walking

The group is now eating dinner at their first night at Tazuna's house. Kakashi has proposed that starting the next morning the Genin will train to prepare for the upcoming encounter with Zabuza. While they do this, Asuma will be guarding Tazuna at the bridge. As Tsunami begins to dish out the food, she yells upstairs, "Inari, come on down dinner's ready hunny."

The shuffling of feet could be heard from upstairs as the group began to discuss how they might be able to defeat Zabuza when he eventually attacked again and if he'd bring help with him. Asuma said, "Well Zabuza is certainly a strong opponent, probably the toughest I've faced in a long while." He then proceeded to rub the back of his head where Zabuza had kicked him.

"I've got a bad feeling that that masked girl who carried him off is his partner," Shikamaru said, obviously troubled. The others nodded in agreement since most of them had come to the same conclusion. "But Tazuna-san, didn't you say you were being targeted but that guy Gatou?"

Tazuna sighed, "Yea… the bastard's had a vice-grip on the whole country ever since he arrived. The people are too frightened to stand up to him since those few who have…" the bridge builder then trailed off showing signs that it was a sore subject he tended to avoid.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to Tazuna-san. Sometimes personal things can be difficult to talk about," the Hyuuga heiress said politely. She then looked over towards her blue-eyed boy friend who knew she was referring to his past.

The blonde then said, "I think I've got a plan for how we can deal with both Zabuza and Gatou at the same time and-" he was then cut off when a young boy in green suspenders, a faded yellow shirt and a striped blue and white hat, who had just walked into the kitchen and yelled, "Don't be stupid! You can't beat Gatou because the good guys never win!"

Tsunami sighed at the little boy and softly said, "Inari…"

Kiba stood up out of his seat and yelled at the boy, "What do you know squirt?! We're gonna kick his and Zabuza's asses!" While Kiba said this, Akamaru barked and growled at the boy causing him to take a step back.

Inari looked sternly at the dog-boy with a visible frown on his face. He then spat, "What do you know?! You're not even from here! What Gatou does isn't even any of your business so why don't you just leave, 'cause none of you know what suffering is like." The last sentence visibly shook Naruto since he now stood up out of his chair.

"Just shut the hell up you damn little brat! 'don't know what suffering's like' my ass! Try being the enemy of the very village you were born in and hated by nearly all of its inhabitants!" It was more than obvious that Naruto was angered by what Inari had said. The little boy however, now had tears welling up in his eyes. He turned and ran out of the kitchen and up to his room. Tsunami silently said, "Inari," as everyone heard him slam his door shut upstairs.

Ino turned to her fellow blonde and yelled, "Naruto-baka, you didn't have to be so harsh!" Naruto ignored her and walked over to the door. Asuma stood up and asked, "Where do you think you're going Naruto?"

Naruto opened the door and spat at his sensei, "For a walk!" He then stepped out, slamming the door behind him.

All the noise had woken Kakashi up, who said sarcastically, "Well that was a lovely talk they had just now, now wasn't it?" Everyone just sweat-dropped at the Sharingan barer.

Tazuna sighed when Ino asked, while looking at a picture of Tazuna's family, why it was torn, as if someone deliberately removed a person from it. Tazuna then told a story of how a man named Kaiza who had come to the Land of Waves and befriended Inari. He finished the story by saying how Inari changed after Gatou had him executed one year ago. Asuma then proceeded to head upstairs and said, "I'll go talk to Inari."

The young boy from Wave meanwhile was sobbing over a picture of a well built man, with spiky black hair and a ribbon tied around his forehead. Between sobs one could vaguely make out the word, "Dad" being said over and over.

As Asuma stepped up to the boy from behind, he lit a cigarette and placed it in his mouth. Inari quickly hid the photograph, but not before the chain smoking Jounin noticed it. He sat down next to Inari on his bed when the little boy said, "You know smoking's bad for you, ne?"

Asuma raised an eyebrow at Inari and nodded slightly, saying, "Yea I know, but it's an old habit I just can't break. But you know Inari, Naruto said what he said because, well, the kid hasn't exactly had a normal childhood. The poor kid grew up without a mother or a father and he has no family inside the village as far as anyone knows."

Inari was shocked at what Asuma told him about the blonde loudmouth who had yelled at him earlier. Asuma then continued, "Even though Naruto grew up without the love of parents, he knows how to love and treat others kindly, unless you piss him off that is. But he's got a strong heart like you wouldn't believe, and even though he was beaten up regularly by his own people, the villagers of Konoha, that kid's spirit never broke, hell, it may have made it all the stronger." Asuma took a final drag on his cigarette before flicking it out the window and saying, "The point I'm trying to make is, if you dwell on the past to much it'll only weigh you down and you'll never get a chance to enjoy the good things in life. Just watch us; we'll help get this land out of Gatou's grasp even if it's not our business." Asuma then stood up and walked out of Inari's room saying goodnight to the young boy.

After Naruto returned about a half hour later, everyone went to sleep, though due to a shortage of futons, Naruto and Hinata were forced to sleep together. The whole night as they slept, they both had a constant blush on their face.

Next Morning in the Woods Outside of Town

"So what's this training that you and Asuma-sensei are having us do Kakashi-sensei?" asked a certain brown haired dog-boy. Kakashi, who due to exhausting himself by overusing his Sharingan, needs two crutches to standup, sighs, "This is the last time I'm going to explain it Kiba, some of you aren't very good at manipulating your chakra, so for the next week you'll be doing two different exercises to help with that. First," Kakashi then reaches into his tool pouch and throws a kunai in front of each Genin. He continues, "You'll be climbing trees without using your hands. You can use these kunai here to mark how high you get just before you fall."

Ino then burst out, "How on earth can we climb trees without using our hands?!" Kakashi sighed for what must've been the hundredth time that day and walked over to a tree. Slowly, Kakashi started to climb up it as if he were walking on normal ground. Ino and Kiba were shocked at this, while Sasuke wasn't since he had seen family members do this before, and Team 10 had already done this exercise with Asuma so they knew exactly what to do. Eventually, Kakashi was hanging upside down from a low branch on the tree. He then quickly, well as quickly as someone with crutches could, climbed down the tree and said, "Now you guys can try."

Each Genin grabbed their kunai and ran towards their own tree. Squad 10 and Ino performed the task easily, all four of them making it more than halfway up their trees, while Sasuke walked up about fifteen feet before losing control. Kiba on the other hand, who didn't use enough chakra, slipped on his first step and the back of his head and a nice quick chat with Mr. Ground. (lol sorry I just had to put in something funny like that since nothing really funny has happened yet this chapter.)

Kiba was rolling on the ground clutching the back of his head, while Sasuke looked angrily up at his four teammates who managed to climb their trees. Kakashi walking forward, looked up at the four and started to clap, and then said, "Excellent, since you four did so well I'll hold the second exercise up till tomorrow. You guys can on back to Tazuna's house and find out where he and Asuma are."

Squad 10 plus Ino all smiled and cheered, then quickly ran down their trees, Naruto unfortunately went a little too fast and crashed into the ground, face first. The mumbled words, "Hello gravity," could be heard from the careless blonde. This got a laugh out of everyone except for Sasuke, who was still pissed that four of his fellow Genin could manipulate chakra more efficiently then he could.

As the group soon began to walk off, Kiba, who had just fallen for the fourth time yelled, "Hey Ino!" The blonde girl turned and said, "What do you want dog-boy? I got the rest of the day off from training and I sure don't want to waste here in this smelly forest."

Kiba whispered into her ear, "Do you think you could give me a tip or two on how I can get up this damn tree? I mean I know if I use too little I just fall and hit my head, and if I use too much the force just bounces me off the tree." Ino sighed at her teammate and said, "If you know that much all I can tell you is to focus solely on your feet and keep the chakra output as steady as possible." Kiba smiled at Ino and said, "Thanks," before running off to try to climb up his tree again. Though he didn't make it as close as the others, who ran about a hundred and fifty feet up, Kiba did get higher than Sasuke, which caused the "last" Uchiha to fume an enormous amount of killing intent towards the dog-boy.

All the champion brooder could think was, "How can I be the worst at controlling my chakra?! At this rate, I'll never be able to kill him." Sasuke and Kiba would keep on climbing until long after Kakashi left that evening, neither still making it as high as their fellow Genin, but they were closing the gap.

With Zabuza and Haku

"Dammit!" roared the Kiri-nukenin as he felt an uncomfortable twitch ring through his body. He then reached up towards his neck where two senbon had been struck through the previous day. "At this rate it'll be a whole damn week before I'm well enough to fight Kakashi again!"

The young girl Haku, gently applied some ointment to Zabuza's neck and back in order to relax the tightened muscles. "You should get some rest Zabuza-sama, it will help a great deal in your recovery."

The ex-ANBU captain sighed, "You're as right as ever Haku, just keep watch incase Gatou should decide to pay a visit."

Suddenly, the door to the two Kirinin's apartment was broken in soon followed by a pompous, "Knock knock." A short, grey-haired man with a cane and an arrogant smile on his face walked in followed closely by two katana wielding thugs.

Zabuza looked at the man coldly and muttered, "Gatou."

Gatou walked over towards Zabuza's bed with a smirk on his face and said, "I thought I ordered you to kill that damned bridge builder Tazuna. I'm paying you good money for you to kill him and the job still isn't done!" Gatou then reached out to grab the nukenin, but Haku grabbed his forearm and spat, "Don't you dare lay a finger on Zabuza-sama!" Gatou tried to get the girl to release his arm and spat back, "You brat! Let go of my arm!" Haku did this and the cirrupt tycoon grabbed his arm in pain. The two thugs began to draw their katana when Haku suddenly appeared behind them with a senbon at each of their necks. Both said, "When… How did she?"

Zabuza said to the young girl, "Down Haku!" Haku did as Zabuza ordered and lowered her senbon and walked back to his bedside. As Gatou began to step out, he yelled back, "I'll remember this!"

Tazuna's House Later that Evening

The group had just finished eating dinner, Sasuke and Kiba had eaten more than everyone else and ended up hurling some back up. Naruto turned his head to Hinata and Shikamaru and asked, "Hey you two want to go out for a little bit of practice before we get set for bed?" Hinata nodded her head furiously, while Shikamaru said, "No thanks it would be too troublesome." The lazy genius then walked over to Asuma and the two were soon playing a game of Shogi.

As Naruto and Hinata walked along the walkway away from Tazuna's house, the blonde snaked his arm around his girlfriend's waist and pulled her close to him. The white-eyed girl giggled lightly at the blonde's antics and a sweet smile crept onto her face. Inside Naruto's mind, the Kyuubi was cheering on his container, "You really know how to please your lady don't ya Kit. At the rate you're going, you'll be fu-" "Quiet you damn fox, I'm too young to do stuff like that with Hinata-chan," Naruto cut off the demon. "Age is nothing but a number Kit, remember that when you start lusting for her." The Kyuubi started cackling madly as he retreated back into Naruto's mind.

The couple soon found a small clearing in the nearby woods and sparred for about half an hour, before returning to Tazuna's house.

The Following Morning After Breakfast

The group was now split in two, Kiba and Sasuke were off tree climbing with a Kage Bunshin of Kakashi to monitor them, and Squad 10 plus Ino were with the real Kakashi preparing for their second training exercise. Asuma was still off guarding Tazuna at the bridge, until some of the Genin had completed both exercises. Kakashi led the four Genin to a small secluded bay near Tazuna's house. When they arrived Naruto asked, "So what's the second exercise Kakashi-sensei."

The silver-haired Jounin calmly said, "Water walking." It took about half a second for this to register in the four Genin's heads before they shouted, "WHAT?!"

Kakashi laughed silently under his mask at his students' response and said, "The previous exercise was to see if you could output chakra efficiently to hold your feet to a tree while climbing it. This exercise is to see how well you can maintain a constant output of chakra and keeping it at the same level to keep you from sinking." The four shinobi nodded their heads indicating that they understood. "Your goal is to stand on the surface for five minutes without sinking or having to return to solid ground for a break," the masked ninja explained. "Once you complete this exercise you will join Asuma in guarding Tazuna-san."

So carefully, each of the Genin took a few steps out onto the water. What happened next was pretty much what Kakashi expected. Hinata gracefully walked around on the water with so much as losing her balance, almost as if walking on water was second nature to her. The case was pretty much the same with Ino, though she had a stumble here and there, she didn't sink. Shikamaru had some difficultly, since at first he started to sink then after a few minutes he started tire and began to sink further. Naruto walked around on the surface successfully in the beginning, then, he got overconfident and lost focus, causing him to sink like a lead weight.

Hinata and Ino were first to finish after only half an hour and Shikamaru was able to just stay on the water for the five minutes before chakra exhaustion got the best of him and he sank. Kakashi told him to go rest for the rest of the day and that Asuma, Hinata, and Ino would be enough of a guard for Tazuna. It was getting close to sunset when Naruto finally managed to keep his focus long enough to stay above water for five minutes. By this time, Sasuke and Kiba had both finished the tree climbing exercise and joined the blonde in training on the water. The dog-boy and the brooder had even less success than Naruto did when he first started. Sasuke and Kiba wouldn't complete the water walking exercise until the next day.

A/N: I'm so sorry this is up late I've had a bad case of writer's block the past two days so I didn't get this done. Anyway, chapter 8 will be up later today I swear. I need votes if you guys want Tsunade to return before the Chuunin exams start or if you want her to be found like in the original story. Please vote in your reviews for this and what I mentioned in the A/N at the beginning of the chapter. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your reviews.