I do not own Naruto.

What's up? Time for the next chapter. Woohoo! I'm over a 100 reviews! As promised there will be omakes after the next official chapter and maybe a lost one. To answer a few things...

brown phantom: Don't worry, Kakashi won't be a pussy for too long and I will explain why he is like this.

Kyukon: I'm debating whether to kill both of them at the same time or one after the other, that and to do it during which arc. Hell, I might even set up a poll for that.

Lednacek: Dude, I'm writing a fic where a orange dressed ninja can clone himself, has been trained by the spirit of a village, has a demon sealed in his gut and is abused beyond comprehension by said village...and your worried about him having too many weights.

Now that that's out of the way...HAJIME!

Chapter 10: Before the battle!

Team 8 was currently standing in much larger field than the previous one. Kurenai was facing the team, who were all in a row.

"Alright, I'm going to give each of you separate training. Shino, Hinata, has each of your clans given you something to learn recently?" They both nodded and each pulled out a scroll from inside their jackets.

"Father has given me the instructions for Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms."

"And I have been given Parasitic Insects: Typhoon." The jonin nodded and turned to Naruto.

"Good, what about you Naruto?" she asked. Naruto pulled one blue and one yellow scroll.

"I'm currently working on Water Style: Shark Bomb and Lightning Style: Fangs of Lightning with the use of my claws." he replied, causing Kurenai to raise an eyebrow.

"Your already on A-ranked jutsus?" she questioned as she was unaware of how advanced the wind jutsu he preformed against Zabuza was. Zabuza...that was something she needed to discuss tonight. Naruto nodded.

"Yep, my affinities are wind, water, and lightning. In case you're wondering, I got the scrolls from my family's estate." The genjutsu mistress's eyes widened at that. She worriedly glanced over at the other two, they both nodded and gave a look that said "we know everything." She sighed once more, you could never predict or understand Naruto, not even the new him.

"Very well then, for today I want you to practice those jutsus and tomorrow I'll teach you one of my genjutsus. Understand?" nods "Good, I'll be standing by to correct you on your forms and give you basic tips." she said as she walked to a nearby stump and sat down.

Time skip: One week

Over the course of the week, Team 8 have been training nonstop, why you ask? It's because a week ago Kurenai had informed the leaf ninja that Zabuza Momochi, the jonin Team 8 fought, was still alive to everyone's shock save for her, Kakashi, and Hinata. She told them that hunter nin always dispose the body by burning it at the spot to destroy any type of information from enemy villages, they don't carry it away. Kakashi also added that senbon were also used to put others in a false state of death should it pierce the correct spot. Hunter nin rarely used senbon and if they did they would have explosive tags attached to aid in the disposal. Hinata also said that she sensed two fairly high chakra signatures hidden in the bushes during the battle. She knew the hunter was one of them but brushed it off, thinking it was just her and her partner waiting for the missing nin to weaken. However, Kakashi said that hunter nin always travel separately to cover more ground

This could only mean one thing, that hunter nin was one of Zabuza's accomplices, and there was most likely someone else and judging by the wounds that were inflicted should take about a week to fully heal. This of course terrified Sakura and Sasuke, though the latter didn't show it. Sasuke demanded to know how the fight went and once he was told he up and right refused to believe a dead last like Naruto could even stand a chance to someone like Zabuza. Sakura of course was in full agreement, saying that they all just made it up to make Naruto look cool. Oh how everyone present wanted to smack the bitch around.

Speaking of Team 7, Kiba was by far Kakashi's favorite student. While he was still a little headstrong he was attentive and was always willing to learn. He managed to master tree climbing after the second day and was working on a modified version of his Fang over Fang. While Sakura struggled with tree climbing she immediately mastered it after Kakashi re-explained the method. This of course infuriated Sasuke and he flat out insulted her by saying she only got it down because she had so little chakra. That did bring her down a bit, she was just trying to impress him. She instantly shook it off, thinking he was just tired and frustrated. Kakashi was reallygetting sick of how damn delusional she was. She thinks she doesn't have to be a ninja because Sasuke will always save her, her "white in shining armor." The same person who has never even looked in her direction in her, or any other girl for that matter...it makes some people wonder. Kakashi tried constantly to explain the reality of what was going on but she always ignored him.

Sasuke was able to get the exercise down after three days but kept demanding that he be trained in advanced techniques. The village really did screw up these two by filling their heads with lie after lie. Team 8 was curious as to why the cyclops shinobi was putting up with their shit. Once this mission was over they need to get the answers out of him one way or another.

Team 8 was doing far better. Hinata was already up to 128 palms of her Eight Trigrams style and Shino improved his stealth and two other clan jutsus. Naruto was only able to use his Fangs of Lightning up to about a 200 meters radius before it stopped being effective, though the Shark Bomb was perfected. Kurenai also trained them all in tracking and stealth, as this was key should they end up facing Zabuza and his comrades. The only advantages they had was strength in numbers, so the element of surprise could be their ace in the hole. They all spent most of their non training time avoiding the brooder as well as his fangirl, and spending time with Kiba.

It was around 7:30 and the sun was just about to set. Naruto was currently lying on the forest floor near the house. He needed a bit of time to himself after he almost snapped.

"I can't believe that little bastard! He actually had the gall to say that not only a ninja's life was easy, but that we didn't know what it was like to suffer. It took every bit of self control that Kasumi-neesan(1) and Kyuubi taught me to not break that little fuckers neck." He thought. Hell even Kyuubi was telling him to reach out and smack Inari up something fierce. Thank Kami he learned how to cut off that damn mental link. During dinner time with everyone, Inari came out of nowhere and asked why they were doing this. Naruto calmly explained that they were hired to and felt it was right to help protect Tazuna. Almost immediately following that sentenced Inari yelled at him and said they didn't know what is was like to go through pain, to suffer. As soon as he said that Naruto's team and Kakashi snapped their heads in Naruto's direction. To their shock he kept calm and coolly stated that it would be best if he understood something before he opened his mouth, which made the whiny bitch run to his room crying. He quietly excused himself and here he was. His inner ranting was halted when he heard footsteps. He turned his head to see his sensei walking towards him.

"Hey Naruto, can I talk to you?" she said in a calm, almost motherly tone.

"Sure sensei," he replied as Kurenai sat down on the ground.

"Look Naruto...I just want to tell you we're all proud of you the way you handle it." Naruto gave a small smile.

"Thanks...I suppose it isn't entirely the kid's fault. He has probably been sheltered his whole life and thinks he deserves all the pity in the world. I'm just a little pissed that Tazuna-san and Tsunami let him talk like that." he said. If he was Tsunami he would've slapped that child and told him to grow up years ago. Kurenai nodded.

"Same here, If it makes you feel any better me and Kakashi had to hold Hinata and Shino back after you left." she said as she literally had to restrain Hinata from going into the kids room and giving her a piece of her mind. Naruto chuckled at that.

"Well hopefully they don't end up scarring him too much."

"I also came here to tell you to take tomorrow morning off. You have been training the most out of everyone." albeit reluctantly Naruto agreed.

"Thanks sensei," he said as he saw Kureani get up and walk back towards the house. He closed his eyes and tried to relax but was interrupted when he heard yet another set of foot steps approach. He opened his eyes and gazed over at the sound to see a young girl, roughly his age walk toward him. She had long black hair that reached her shoulders and a figure that made Kyuubi cat call inside the blonde's head, much to his ire. She was wearing a pink dress and was holding a basket filled with an assortment of herbs.

"You know you shouldn't be out here so late, you could catch a cold." she said in a gentle voice that was all to familiar to him. Naruto sat up and and looked at her.

"Thanks for your concern but I'm about to leave." he said as he looked over at the girl's basket's contents.

"Herbs huh? Do you study medicine?" he asked as he could of sworn he saw a faint pink blush adorn her cheeks. Was her eyes lowered to his abs? Nah. She smiled and knelt down beside him.

"Yes actually, I'm no medic but I'm doing fairly well. These are for someone precious to me who is heavily injured." Naruto looked a little confused at the term she used.

"Precious?"

"You know, someone you truly care about and would do anything for them. Friends, family, loved ones." Naruto contemplated that...precious...Kasumi, Iruka-sensei, Kurenai-sensei, Hinata, Shino, Kiba, Shikamaru, Sarutobi, Teuchi, Ayame, and Konohamaru came across his mind. He must have been thinking for quite sometime as he was brought out of his thoughts by the girl thanks to a her placing a hand on his shoulder..

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" he questioned as his gaze returned to the girl

"I asked if you were a shinobi." she repeated while pointing at his headband..

"I am, I've been training for almost a week straight."

"You seem pretty strong to me." she pointed out.

"Well as someone close to me said: You can only get stronger." he said as he remembered Kasumi using those exacts words countless times.

"Why do you fight?" the black haired girl asked. Naruto blinked, that was out of the blue.

"What?"

"Why do you fight? For money? Fame? To protect somebody?" Naruto gave a light chuckle.

"I've been wondering about that myself. It use to be to gain the respect of my village but that's changed." The girl could sense a small amount of venom in his voice and didn't peruse the matter.

"Well if I was a ninja, I would protect the ones precious to me. To me, that is the only way to become truly strong. I care about them more than myself and that would push me to greater lengths. With them, I could overcome anything." Naruto sat their stunned. It was starting to make sense to him now. Why did he punch Sasuke a week ago? To defend Hinata's honor, to protect her. Why did he stand up for Shino when he was being picked on back in the academy? To protect him because he related to being an outcast to most people. He always felt a little bit stronger when he was fighting for other instead of himself. While he was thinking about the new window to a new philosophy the young girl glanced at the now fully set sun.

"It's getting late, I should be going. I hope you think about what I said. My name is Haku by the way."

"Okay see ya, I'm Naruto, goodnight Haku." she smiled.

"Goodnight Naruto." she replied while leaving the forest, mentally berating herself for coming here alone and without her senbon. Once she was out of sight, Naruto stood up and walked back to the bridge builder's home, all the while reflecting on Haku's words. But then an ever growing thought crossed his mind.

"Kyuubi, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Unfortunately yes, that was definitely the hunter. She didn't bother changing her voice and their scents are identical."

"Damn, she seemed nice. I just hope we don't have to face off in battle."

"Me too kit, Me too." Naruto cut off the link and opened the door. He walked in and slowly made his way to his room. He closed the door and lied down on the mat, closing his eyes his last conscious thought before drifting off to sleep was.

"Well at least I might have found my new goal."

And...done! I know I took a while to write this and promised the omakes and shit this chapter but I got a bad case of food poisoning the other day and I'm still not fully recovered, which might explain any spelling mistakes.

I know I said that right. Nee-san means big sister.

In case your pissed that Naruto let Inari talk to him like that, remember that he's just a kid and Naruto was being mature about the whole situation. Plus I've seem too many fics where Naruto scars the poor bastard for life by going nuts on him.

I know you probably have some questions and I'll be happy to explain them as best I can. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

FLAMERS ARE NOT WELCOME!

R&R JA NE!