Don't own Naruto but I know real ninja techniques.

"Speech"

'Thought'

CHAPTER 9: PROGRESS

A slow creaking noise resounded through the air. This was due to a door opening.

The creaking was followed by sounds of dripping water. This would be because the guy who opened the door was soaked from his head to his toes.

"Had a nice swim?"

That was the sound of someone asking an annoying question. At least it was to Sasuke. The source was one seemingly amused Kakashi.

Sasuke's response would be a grunt of sorts as he climbed up the stairs to their room just as Sakura and Tomoyo started coming down. Both the girls stared at the stoic boy as he passed by them.

Kakashi sighed.

"Well at least they're taking things seriously," murmured Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei, why is Sasuke-kun all wet like that?" asked Sakura as she and Tomoyo sat at the table with him.

"Probably figuring out how to walk on water," answered the man. "I should probably teach you and Naruto how to do that too when I feel up to swimming."

"Speaking of Naruto, where is he?" inquired Sakura.

"He's probably sill out working on something. But somehow I doubt he'll get anywhere with water walking just yet. That is, if he is working on water walking."

It was after Kakashi finished saying that Tsunami came in from the kitchen with their breakfast.

Dressed in something that girls would wear, Haku, Zabuza's partner in crime plucked a small herb out of the ground and placed it in a basket filled with others that the boy would use in making medicine.

After picking plants the boy thought were useful, he moved to another spot to look for any other flora that might be useful. This action would be repeated over and over without much variation until he came to one particular clearing.

This clearing was different from the rest he's been to that day as all the trees in that particular clearing were scratched up one way or another.

No, scratched up would be an understatement as there were at least dozens of different gashes of different sizes on each one. It was almost as if some demonic creature passed by here and decided to vent its rage into the trees. If that was true then it must have been something big as the scratches even reached up to heights that were too high for normal humans to climb up.

Haku would probably have gone on to speculate the possibility of the creature being one of the mythical flying piranhas that were supposed to have lived in that area three centuries ago. He definitely would have if it weren't for what was about to happen.

CRAAAAAAAACK

Before the boy could search for the source of that ominous cracking sound he felt a sudden rush of pain invading his senses. Everything went black after that.

The first thing Haku noticed when he woke up was that the pain he felt before blacking out had dulled down to a sensation that could be likened to being sat on by a very large sumo wrestler.

He slowly made to sit up while looking over himself to check for any injuries. The pain had subsided a bit once he managed to raise himself off the floor.

Haku looked around for whatever it was that hit him and found that two things had changed while he was knocked out.

The first was the relatively large branch a few feet away from him.

'That's what probably hit me," thought the boy rubbing the sore areas of his neck.

The second thing he noticed was that there was another person in the clearing with him.

'It's one of those leaf-nin!' thought Haku suddenly feeling much more alert. This realization took place just when the leaf-nin decided it was time to check on his unconscious acquaintance.

"Oh, you're up!" said Naruto cheerily. "You were out for about three hours now. Sorry about that."

"Sorry about what?" asked Haku.

"For falling down of you," said Naruto offering an apologetic gesture to Haku.

Haku only had one response for that.

"Huh?" said the effeminate boy. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I fell down on you from up there," explained the blonde as he pointed towards somewhere above Haku. "You see, I was so beat from training last night that I fell asleep on that branch over there. I thought it was strong enough but looks like it decided to snap when I woke up."

Haku stared at the boy wondering just exactly what kind of ninja would sleep like that.

"I see… So who are you?" asked Haku.

"Me? The name's Uzumaki Naruto, the next Hokage of Konoha," replied the blonde.

"Konoha? Isn't that one of those ninja villages?"

"Yup! The best one in the world! We have the best ninjas at home and the old man's the best one!" said the boy excitedly. "Well, he's supposed to be since he's the Hokage but then again he is really old."

"So that's why you were training? To become Hokage?" asked Haku.

"Not exactly…"

"Then what were you training for?"

"I don't want to be the Hokage," started the boy. "I'll definitely be Hokage someday but that doesn't make me the strongest. I want to be much stronger than that. I want to be strongest!"

Haku considered Naruto's words for a moment before speaking.

"I suppose that's an amazing dream, but Naruto-san, do you have a person in your life that you treasure?" asked Haku.

"Well, yeah I guess."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well…" spoke the boy. "I don't know if I can say if I have them. I haven't seen them for a long time and with them being ninjas too, there's a good chance that they might be dead. Iruka-sensei won't have as much time to spend with me anymore plus after that night I'm not too keen on hanging around him. The old man was…"

Naruto started going into rant about the people around him. It was a while before Naruto stopped ranting.

"I can see why you have trouble with that… but do you really think you'll be able to become strong without others around you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Naruto-san, a person's true strength will only come out when they are protecting their loved ones. It's when they are fighting for others that they can find the power to overcome all odds," said Haku smiling.

Naruto looked surprised.

"Huh? You think so too? The old man said something like that too," said Naruto. "Guess there's something to that, huh?"

Haku started to stand up.

"Well then Naruto-san, I have to be on my way now. My precious person is waiting for me. Please think about what I said," said the boy in girl's clothing.

Naruto watched the boy leave but remembered something.

"Wait! What's your name?" shouted Naruto.

Haku looked back.

"It's Haku!" Haku shouted back. "And I'm a boy by the way."

Naruto suddenly had a disgusted expression pasted on his face. He was reminded of his unpleasant wake up call.

"Yeah… I know," replied Naruto in a rather depressed tone.

Haku went on his way.

After stopping by a nearby pond to cool off a bit, Naruto proceeded to walk back to the bridge builder's house. On his way he met up with a pair of the opposite sex.

"Ah! Naruto! There you are!" shouted Sakura as she spotted the boy from a small distance. She ran towards him with Tomoyo behind her. "Where have you been? You probably haven't even eaten anything yet."

"Ohayo Sakura!" greeted the boy cheerily. "Don't worry about me. I had some ramen for breakfast."

"Naruto!" said the girl. "That's not good for you. You have to eat something more nutritious than that in the morning."

"Yeah yeah, I know! That's probably the thousandth time you've said that to me," said the boy smiling as he said that.

"And you probably won't learn even if say it a thousand more times," said Sakura smiling. "I still don't see how you have so much energy from eating just that…"

Naruto could only grin back.

"Uzumaki-san," called out Tomoyo.

Naruto turned to her.

"Yeah, Tomoyo-neechan?" asked the boy.

"I am under the impression that you and Sakura-san have been acquaintances for quite some time now, am I right?" asked Tomoyo.

"Yeah that's right," answered Naruto.

"Are the two of you also well acquainted with Uchiha-san?" inquired the 17-year old girl.

Naruto and Sakura glanced at each other for a moment.

"You could say that," said both Naruto and Sakura at the same time.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Tomoyo raising an eyebrow at their response.

"Well… about Sasuke-kun. We're the only two people he really ever talks to so I guess that puts us closer to him but even that isn't very frequent," said Sakura. "He still doesn't trust us even after all this time. I keep trying to get him to open up more but he just shies away if I start getting to close."

"Sasuke still doesn't trust us even after that time in the academy. He's still brooding about his family and getting his revenge. He hasn't ever told us who killed them but he said that he needs to keep getting stronger if he ever wants kill his target," said Naruto. "That guy really has some trust issues to work on."

"I see what you mean," said Tomoyo. "But what do you mean by that time?"

Naruto and Sakura frowned slightly.

"It was something that happened to us nearly two years ago in the academy. We were all out on a field trip when it happened," said Sakura. "We only really got to know each other better thanks to that but I think that it might have been better if it didn't happen at all."

"Why?" asked Tomoyo.

Sakura tried to avoid eye contact with Tomoyo. Naruto had a bittersweet smile on his face.

"Because if it didn't happen," stared Naruto. "No one would have died."

Tomoyo blinked.

"What happened?" asked Tomoyo.

Sakura started murmuring about something. Naruto knew what that meant.

"Could we talk about something else? It's not really something we want to talk about," stated Naruto. "So where were you two going?"

Tomoyo noted the Naruto's attempt at changing the subject. It wasn't subtle but it'd do.

"Well actually, the both us were going to work on Sakura's taijutsu," replied Tomoyo. "Isn't that right, Sakura?"

"Um, yeah," said Sakura. "Tomoyo-san's going to show me some of her fighting techniques."

"Fighting techniques? You mean that super fast kicking thing you used on Zabuza?" asked Naruto eager to know.

Tomoyo smiled.

"That," began Tomoyo. "And a few other things."

"Cool!" burst out Naruto. "You better get started then! See you later!"

Naruto ran off towards the house.

"Well then, this looks like a good place to get started," said Tomoyo.

Sakura and Tomoyo were now at clearing not unlike the one Naruto used recently. At least before he used it.

"So what are we going to do first?" asked Sakura.

"I'll start by teaching you the history behind the Hansunohara no Shubi style," replied Tomoyo.

Sakura blinked in surprise.

"The what style?" inquired Sakura.

"The Hansunohara no Shubi style," reiterated Tomoyo.

"The anti spring meadow self defense style? Am I misunderstanding the name?" asked Sakura.

"Yes, you are," answered Tomoyo. "In this case 'Sunohara' refers to a man one of my ancestors kept fighting off. Every firstborn girl in my clan is named after her. Apparently among all the other Tomoyos in my clan, I resemble her the most."

"Wow…" said Sakura. "So you're saying that your family's fighting techniques were invented to fight off a single man? Was he really that bad of a person?"

Tomoyo nodded.

"What did he do to your ancestor anyway?" questioned the pink-haired girl.

"This man and all those who bear his name are the natural enemies of all women in the world. Every firstborn boy of the Sunohara clan also follows a tradition in naming much like mine. To the women in my clan, all men called Sunohara Youhei should be beaten up without hesitation."

Sakura blanched and sweatdropped.

"They can't all be that bad, can they?" asked Sakura.

Tomoyo's unseen aura flared. Sakura who had some talent in sensing chakra could feel it quite clearly.

"They are," hissed Tomoyo. "Every generation of Sunohara Youhei are all disgusting desperate degenerates who demean women everywhere with their attitude."

"Seriously?" asked Sakura.

"Trust me on this, every single creature named Sunohara Youhei on this planet carries an attitude that is as traditional as their name," declared Tomoyo. "They are the SCUM of all men."

Sakura was somewhat scared at Tomoyo's resentment towards those individual. She gave off a weak laugh.

"If you say so," said Sakura.

"Well enough of that, onto the next part," stated Tomoyo.

Tomoyo pulled out a grey stone dagger out from behind her.

"There are knife techniques in this style?" questioned Sakura.

"No, this is something Reiji gave me," stated Tomoyo. She held the dagger out for Sakura to see.

It was just over half the length of Tomoyo's forearm and seemed to be a normal dagger except that the sides of the blade had intricately designed engravings on them.

'It looks so…' thought Sakura unable to find a word to describe it. There was something about it.

"I know, it's really… something," said Tomoyo with an amused smile on her face. "Just like the guy who made it."

"Hmm? The guy who made it?" said Sakura.

"Reiji, I mean," continued Tomoyo. "He made it himself. He made them for everyone in our organization. There's no one else in the world who could make anything like this."

"What do you mean by that?"

Tomoyo smiled.

"Watch," said Tomoyo.

Tomoyo showed her the dagger in her palm.

"Now you see it," started Tomoyo.

She clenched her hand and the dagger vanished as it closed.

"Now you don't," finished Tomoyo.

Sakura had her eyes wide open in shock.

"How did you?" she managed to say after a brief silence in awe.

"Like I said, only Reiji could make something like this," said Tomoyo.

"Naruto where are you going?" asked Kakashi just in time.

Naruto was halfway out the door when he answered Kakashi.

"Training!" shouted the boy as he ran towards the woods.

Kakashi sighed just as Sasuke came down the stairs.

"Looks like you'll be handling the bridge alone today, Sasuke," said Kakashi.

Naruto reached the clearing he'd been using for training and looked around.

After deeming it safe enough, Naruto took out a seemingly worn out scroll out of his jacket.

He stretched his arms apart holding both ends of the scroll revealing its contents to the blonde.

Naruto scanned through the scroll looking for something.

"I remember seeing something like it in here somewhere," thought Naruto out loud.

He rolled past three quarters of the scroll before he finally found what he was looking for.

"Here it is," said Naruto to no one but himself. "The key to my problem."

On the section that Naruto was looking over, there were illustrations accompanied by paragraphs of text explaining the jutsu he was reading on in detail.

Hiashi no Michi

That was the name of the technique he was looking up.

That was one of the many jutsus that were listed down in the scroll he found all those years ago. The author's name had become illegible over time but Naruto still remembered the name that was once scrawled on the exterior of the scroll.

Naruto still didn't know who actually wrote down all these jutsus. He didn't know that most of the jutsus inside were the author's original creations. He didn't even know that the author was someone he knew. But at least he knew the author's name.

He'd have to thank this Itachi person someday.

Okay this is it for this chapter. My schedule is pretty damn busy nowadays. Hopefully this chapter will be enough to attract more interest in my story. Lately I've been debating on whether or not to continue with my plan for a three part story or scrap parts two and three. The reason? It's because the ideas I have for the final battle of part three just can't match the ideas I have for the final battle of part one. There's a lot on my plate now and I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish part one in a year's time.

Like the changes I've made to the story so far? It'll only get more interesting from here.

Next chapter will bring us to the fight against Zabuza and Haku. If you managed to get the hints I've been dropping then you should be expecting something interesting to happen. You'll get to see Reiji again in a couple more of chapters.

Here are meanings behind the techniques I've introduced in this chapter:

Hansunohara no Shubi – Anti Sunohara Self Defense

Thought it'd be funny to include Sunohara into the story somehow. You'll probably get to see the guy and his descendants in the future but they won't be significant to the story.

Hiashi no Michi – The Path of Spreading Fire

Can't wait for this technique to be used in the story. You'll see it about the same time Reiji comes back into the story.

By the way, should I get a Beta-reader for this story? I keep noticing that my use of language isn't quite so natural. I find a little bit of trouble with finding the right words for the characters to use to match their personality.

And finally the side-story for this chapter.

TOMOYO AND THE DAGGER

"So what else can it do?" asked Sakura.

After demonstrating the dagger's disappearing trick, Tomoyo showed Sakura what it could do. So far Sakura discovered that the dagger can be used to communicate with the other members of Jukuchi Sesou, to write, to heat up food, to light up a dark place and to conjure up a training dummy.

"Well there is this ability he put in just for me but it's a rather odd function," said Tomoyo.

"What's that?" wondered Sakura.

Tomoyo traced something on the dagger's blade with her fingers.

POOF

Out of nowhere came out a training dummy that looked incredibly lifelike.

You could tell that it wasn't alive from the straw coming from under the neck of the dummy.

"Hold this and point it at me," instructed Tomoyo before Sakura could say anything.

Tomoyo proceeded to kick the living daylights out of the dummy.

Sakura watched in awe as Tomoyo kicked it high into the air before chaining that kick with dozens more.

"Pay attention to the blade!" ordered Tomoyo still kicking the dummy.

When Sakura turned her attention to the knife, she didn't expect to find white numbers on the blade. The funny thing was that the number kept increasing and increasing with time.

'What's going on?' thought Sakura. 'It can't be a watch since the numbers are increasing too quickly.'

But then for some reason the numbers stopped at 1356 just when Tomoyo stopped Kicking the dummy and let it fall down to the ground.

"What is it?" asked Sakura.

"It's a combo counter," answer Tomoyo.