Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. Masashi Kishimoto does!

Flashback / Dream

The smell of fresh grass was so clear and the sounds of birds chirping in the distance felt familiar. The rustle of the leaves as the wind blew had almost felt like home. In the center of the meadow, a man who had not aged a day over thirty had sat there with a young girl by his side. His hair was spiky, short save for the long ponytail that reached his waist. The ribbon around his head swayed along with his hair in a dance the wind created. And out of this simply joy, Taiga remembered the swell of peace that flowed through her veins.

"Yoshitsune-sensei." She took it upon herself to interrupt their meditation, but he always wanted her to ask questions when they came to mind. If she saw no solution then it was better to ask than be without answer.

His eyes hadn't opened, but his ears heard her call his name. "What bothers you, Taiga?"

"Should a warrior be fearless?" Her eyes kept their steady gaze on him, "that way they have no weakness? How could their enemy kill them if they have no fear?"

A sound similar to a chuckle slipped past his lips, her eyes squinted as she had seen the shake of his shoulders. "Fear is a fickle thing among us samurai." Her eyes relented on their angry stare and widened in curiosity. "Samurai are taught that the only true fear is to become a warrior that doesn't know fear." His eyes finally opened, the hazel pupils now staring at her. "And it is also taught that if you fear death then you will die or that if you fear death then you will fight for survival."

With a pout, she began to massage her temples. "That's confusing."

He chuckled before laying his hand atop of her head, giving it a ruffle. "Samurai are a paradox, Taiga. It is how you choose to be that will make you into something great."

"Somethin' great, huh?" Her eyes fell close in a eye-smile, "I'd like to be somethin' great."

"All it takes is courage and a will." If there was one thing she loved about her sensei, it was that he always encouraged her dreams. "But do you remember what I told you are the highest attributes of a human soul?"

Biting down on her lip, she tried to recall the memory. "Uh… Valor and benevolence?"

"It's more than those two." A deadpanned expression took over his face as a nervous laugh clawed itself out of her throat. "I said that: "Valor, when at its peak, is akin to benevolence, the feeling of distress, love, magnanimity, affection of others, and sympathy and pity. They are the highest attributes of a human soul." Do you remember now?"

Sucking her teeth, her arms folded across her chest. "How am I s'pposed to remember all of that? I can barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning."

Unamused, a chop landed squarely on top of her head and she was left hissing and rubbing the area she was hit. "Remember it now, and remember it well. I will not always be here, Taiga. I cannot hold your hand into battle, so try to remember all that I have taught you."

"You say this as if you'll go away." Her eyes peeked over at him, her hands still caressing atop of her head to soothe the pain away. "You'll always be where I can find you, right?"

A smile tugged its way on his lips, "Of course, but I am a man; I can't possibly live forever, Taiga."

A hint of sorrow came across her heart at his words. Taiga liked to believe that her sensei would always live, and always be around.

End Flashback / Dream

It was difficult to sit in this room and be left alone to go over the events of last night over and over again in her head. The fact that Yuuma showed his face and she hadn't exact her revenge right then and there had left her furious. How she managed to keep her calm last night was beyond her. How she shriveled up in fear had annoyed her. She allowed him to capture her, render her useless, and her sword was by her side the entire time but she was afraid. She was a coward.

In her bones were the memories of what transpired all those years ago and they had her stuck. Instead of fighting for her freedom with just her body, she could've easy escaped with her sword. Every mistake she had made burned its way into her memory to serve as a reminder to not make those same mistakes again.

Another thing she kicked herself for was the fact that Naruto could have died. Of course, he held his own surprisingly well but that was because Yuuma was not giving his complete self in that fight. He was holding back, which was so far from her comprehension. Why didn't he kill them? He easily could have, but he only came to relay a message that Shi, Darui, and the other leaf ninjas were trying to decode.

Still sulking, she pulled her legs to her chest and rested her chin in-between her knees as her eyelids lowered halfway and her eyes stared at the floor in thought. Why did he want to kill all the samurai? What good would that do? Crime would just implode and all the heavy responsibility of the ronins that would be made would be pushed heavily upon the ninjas. They already had enough grief on their hands with their own problems. They shouldn't be forced to be entangled with the mess between samurai.

Maybe he just wanted to destroy the balance between samurai and ninjas? To send the world into complete chaos. He was evil enough; it was believable enough, but her gut didn't quite believe it just yet. Did anything Yuuma do make sense anyway? He was just crazy, right? She should just dismiss his thinking because there was no way to understand him.

The door to her room had slid open, revealing a very cheerful Naruto. Her eyes stared at him in confusion, but then looked away in shame and guilt. How could she be his teacher? He could've died by the hands of Yuuma. "Mornin'!" His voice filled the room with a tray of breakfast in his hands. Was it her or did it suddenly feel warmer with his presence? Maybe it was just the steam of the food playing tricks on her.

He plopped down next to her, aggravatingly so, as she kept her eyes focused away from him. "What do you want, Uzumaki?"

Confused, his brow arched as his head slightly tilted. "What's your problem?" He asked, not all too enthused to deal with her random mood swings.

"What's my problem?" Taiga echoed, infuriated by the question. Her head whipped towards him, eyes ablaze. "You could've gotten yourself killed, you idiot!"

Ah. He wasn't surprised anymore, but in fact grateful she cared enough about his well-being. "I was fine. Besides, you saw that cool stuff I did with the katana? I'm totally ready for my own, dattebayo~"

How could he managed to smile and be carefree when a serial killer could've ended him last night? "You really are crazy." Taiga reeled, sighing heavily. "You could've died."

"Nah." He shrugged, "If things didn't go as planned with the sword, I would've rasengan his ass."

"Rasengan?" Taiga repeated, confused but intrigued. "You have a special technique?"

His nod was fervent as well as childish yet she had to bite down on her lip not to show a smile of amusement from it. "Sometimes I forget you're a ninja. You're so reckless sometimes…"

Offended, his eyes drooped and squinted. "H-Hey, I am not reckless!"

"Sure." She replied sarcastically before looking towards the window. "Thank you, though, for… saving me."

At first, he thought he heard wrong. He even dug his finger into his ear to clean it because he was sure he misheard. "Uh, what? Did you just… I'onno, thank me?"

Annoyed, her eyes rolled and she laid back down on her futon. "Forget I said anything, you numbskull!"

"Hey! I'm not a numbskull!" Naruto argued, "But… no need to thank me. We're a team, I told ya before."

Ah yes, that "team" word again. Taiga was most certainly not used to it still, given the fact that before she could be signed into her genin team… the massacre had happened. She never knew what it was like unless she counted the times where she was assigned missions with Sasuke, Karin, and Suigetsu from time to time. Their team dynamic wasn't exactly the best and not often enough for her to get used to them. Sasuke was a horrible partner too. He wanted to do everything himself and hardly left any work for anybody else while at the same time called you a "lackey" or "slouch". She still missed those times though.

She mumbled, "I know."

"You should, uh, eat." He pushed the tray toward her, his eyes studying her as she sat back up and looked down at the tray. She took the bowl of white rice, picking up clumps of rice with little to no enthusiasm.

Naruto watched her eat, his the soles and heels of his feet together as he began to wait patiently. The look on his face proved that he wanted to talk but she wasn't sure if she wanted to. In fact, Taiga was sure she liked that look of boredom on his features. He was just itching to say something.

Her eyes then looked towards the tamagoyaki ( rolled omelet ) and cut into it with the chopsticks to separate a bite-sized piece. Her magenta eyes occasionally glanced at Naruto as he seemed to be staring into nothing with such a dull expression. Eventually, he would want to leave right? If she wasn't going to entertain him, he would have to be entertained elsewhere but a part of her was a little bit hesitant on letting him leave.

The blond wanted to speak, he was practically going to die if he sat in silence. The only sounds he could hear was her soft chewing and the occasional sip of miso she would take now and then. He wasn't sure what he had expected for coming in with breakfast. Maybe some praise? Yes, he wanted to hear praises for the skill he had done with an actual katana. Why wasn't she praising him? Why wasn't she speaking to him?

Did he do something wrong? Had he irritated her somehow? Why was she so hard to read and so hard to befriend? It was starting to grate on his nerves, but Naruto wasn't one to give up. No, he fought his way through everything and he was damned if Taiga was going to shut him out forever.

They hugged before. She relied on him, in a way nobody ever did before. Naruto couldn't forget that look on her face as she struggled to not get lost in her memories of her traumatic past. The way she let him be the one to guide her away from it; an escape and comfort. The memory of it all made him blush from time to time. He never embraced a girl like that before. Were all girls just soft and warm? Her hair felt nice too. He was sure she hadn't taken care of it like Sakura and Ino had, but it still felt soft and there was even a hint of cinnamon in the scent.

Taiga smelled sweet yet spicy; the kind of smell that was overpowering up close but comforting from afar. In fact, her whole personality seemed like that, but the sweetness of her he had seen in small doses and heard from others. He wasn't sure why but he felt envious of that. During that meal with Shi and Darui, and seeing Shi and Taiga talk so comfortingly and teasingly made him angry. It was as if he wanted to pull her away, force her to his side right then but it felt stupid and childish to do that. Besides, he was sure he would've heard an earful if he had.

"Thanks for bringing me breakfast." Her voice tore him from his thoughts, his blue eyes now on her form as she closed her eyes and released a soft sigh. "I ate most of it."

His eyes then traveled to the tray to see a few seaweed, an empty bowl of rice, a little of bit of miso, and a tiny bit of tamagoyaki left. She ate the pickles, surprisingly so.

"No problem." He gave her a small smile, opting not to bother her too much since she seemed to be in an odd mood today. "I'll just take this back."

His hands went to the handles of the tray to lift it up but her petite hand rested on top of his as if to cease him from his movements. His eyes widened before darting directly at her, "You don't have to leave."

"Uh… w-why not?" He could kick himself for stuttering, and for feeling odd as his heart beating wildly in his chest cavity. Why was he so nervous suddenly? What could she have possibly meant?

Her lips parted to speak but then closed. Her eyes seemed clouded with something, but he couldn't read them. She then repeated the process, but said something this time. And he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to hear it, his heart seemed to be beating so loud that he could hear it loudly in his eardrums. "Did Kakashi and the others decipher Yuuma's message?"

And like that, Naruto felt as if he turned into stone; not even stone but dust that the wind could surely, and hopefully, blow away and scatter within it.

Why was he so disappointed just now?

"Tch," sucking his teeth, his eyes looked away from her and stared randomly at something. "They haven't."

Nodding, she took his word for it. "I see. We'll have to start training again soon. I'm sure the village is on the alert since Yuuma was here."

"I know, I know." Naruto sighed, "But when am I gonna get my own katana? I showed that I deserve one last night."

"Impatient much?" Of course, she was teasing but he hadn't realized it. "You'll get it when I deem you ready, Uzumaki."

Picking up the tray, she heard a mumble of curses slipping past his lips as he left and she couldn't help but chuckle at that.

oOo

Several weeks had gone by and Naruto had noticed Taiga's constant disappearances. One minute she was around, and the next she was gone. Since there was no sightings of Yuuma at the time, he knew she wasn't endangering herself but he couldn't help but feel upset over the fact that she was hardly around. Out of boredom, he took some errands from Darui whenever he had the chance to keep himself active and to not fret over what Taiga seemed to be doing. At one point, he was sure that following her might be a good idea but opted out since that was too creepy and she would likely get mad if she caught him.

He also couldn't help but be a little green about it because Shi would mysteriously disappear around the same time as well. Had they run off together? If so, why? Why would they need to be together? It was really getting under his skin, but he knew that Taiga was secretive and so asking her about it would lead to argument, which he didn't want. He wanted less arguing and more talking. If he played his cards right, she would trust him more; at least that's what he thought would happen.

Also while she was away, he went onto a strict training. He knew that practicing long hours gave greater results, no matter how tiring it was. And there were also some techniques that he needed to perfect. Next time, Yuuma wouldn't be able to push him back.

Around the end of the last week, news had broke out that a sighting of Yuuma was near the land of fire and Tsunade messaged them to return in case another village was attacked or if he boldly showed up in Konoha. They hadn't done anything ( whether it was Yuuma or his subordinates ) but were probably scaring people and causing rumors, probably to put people on high alert or gain their attention. Maybe they were tired of surprised attacks too, Yuuma had to be sure that nearly all samurai were ready for an attack now.

When they met at the gates of Kumogakure, Taiga was nowhere in sight and neither was Shi. And Naruto found himself borderline furious and antsy. "Where the hell is she?!"

Sakura, Sai, Kakashi, and Yamato had looked over to him, surprised by his outburst of anger. "Be patient, baka." Sakura scolded him. "She's not a kid, you can't keep tabs on her."

"I know that!" He didn't want to yell but he couldn't play it off as if he was calm either. "Its just… she hasn't been around in weeks. What could she be doing?"

With that mischievous closed-eye smile that Sai was famous for, he leaned towards Naruto. "Are you… worried, Naruto?" He asked.

"N-No! Why would I be worried? Taiga can take care of herself." With a huff, he looked away.

Sai would not relent, "If you know that then why are you angry? Do you miss her?"

Now his face was borderline red from a mixture of anger and embarrassment. "Shutup, Sai!"

Sakura sighed, rolling her eyes and looking away from them. "Darui says he hasn't seen her lately. So, I don't know where she could be."

"Its been awhile since she has been back here." Kakashi decided to speak on the matter. "So maybe she's revisiting places she knows. I'm sure it is nothing to worry about." Although he had his suspicions, he opted to act optimistic about the situation.

Yamato looked more confused than anything with his arms folded. "Maybe, but after that Yuuma situation. You would think she wouldn't put herself in too much danger."

They waited a few more minutes until Taiga appeared with Shi beside her. Something flared inside Naruto and he could feel his face contorting into one of anger. His hands balled into tight fists. 'I knew she was with him! What for anyway?!' He angrily thought to himself.

His anger subsided immediately though when he had seen a sword in her hands. His eyes stayed focused on it until she was standing clearly in front of him. The sword rested on both palms of her hands and she had extended it to him. "Is that…"

"Yep." She answered quickly. "I know I've been distant for a while, but I was trying to make this as quickly as I could. Forging a sword is a sacred act in my religion."

Shi smiled, nodding. "She even went as far as cleaning and dressing herself with special care before she forged it." He then sighed, "So dedicated for this thing."

Her eyes cut Shi a glare, "You act as if I did it especially for him. I did it because it is tradition."

Now he was beginning to feel dumb for being so angry and worried about her whereabouts. Naruto gently took the sword from her hands and looked at the sheath, which was a golden glow of orange that reminded him of sunrise. It was made of pure magnolia.

When he unsheathed it, there was a shiny groove along the edge of the blade, running from top to bottom. It was thoroughly sharpened and polished, he could literally eat off and see his reflection. He wouldn't dare try it though, the blade was obviously hard and sharp.

The sword handle ( tsuka ) was attached to the blade with a mekugi stick made of bamboo ( a small peg for securing the tsuka to the nakago ), but was decorated with fuchi ( the hilt collar between the handle and the hand guard ) and kashira ( the pommel on the end of the handle ). The fuchi was perfectly oval, a flat ring that protected the end of the handle facing the blade. The decoration of it was circles in inside the ring.

He checked the scabbard again to see the design of the Konoha spiral on one side and the sun on the other. The detail of it was perfect and he knew she must of worked hard to do this. He eventually sheathed the sword and he couldn't wipe the big smile off his face. "This is… more than I expected! Its… Its!"

"I don't wanna hear it." Taiga was satisfied. His smile satisfied her, and to see how he looked at everything down to the fine detail was good enough for her. "So, what are you going to name it?"

"Nakigitsune!" It was honestly the first thing that came to mind.

"Nakigitsune?" Sakura repeated.

"Howling Fox, hm?" Taiga rubbed her chin in thought, "It fits."

"Why yes, it suits Naruto perfectly." Sai chided in, but he was a bit more teasing with his words and Naruto knew his game. In fact, he was being glared at this very moment.

"I think you should shut it before I use this sword on you." He playfully threatened, a smirk on his face as he felt even more invincible with the weapon in his hand.

Taiga rolled her eyes before turning to look at Shi. "Thank you for helping me. I'm used to the Sanemori way of making a sword, but I learned some new things."

"It was fun watching you work." Shi admitted, "If you need to make a sword, I'll be glad to assist again."

Bothered, Naruto grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward. "We should be going now. Gotta catch Yuuma! Bye!" He quickly said as Taiga's wide eyes were staring up at him.

"W-What the hell?" Taiga immediately questioned, unsure of what he was rushing her for.

Kakashi and Yamato had looked at one another in confusion before looking at the backs of the young teenagers walking ahead. "H-Hey! Wait up!" Sakura shouted with Sai following closely behind.

Darui had walked up to Shi, waving a goodbye. "Do you think the Raikage trusts them enough with Yuuma?"

Shi turned to look at his comrade and gave a short, sharp nod. "I do. After the reports we gave them about their stay, he said they were "adequate enough", especially Naruto since he managed to stand up to him."

"Hmm…" Darui hummed in thought. "It takes a lot to impress him, don't you think?"

"I don't think Raikage-sama is thoroughly impress, but he's satisfied enough. We'll still have to follow close behind. You never know what could happen."

And Naruto gets his sword! He still has a lot of training to do, but its canon that Naruto always finds his way to master things.

Yes, Nakigitsune is an actual, real sword~ There's not much said about it, but it was rare among the samurai class during the Kamakura period. Also, I think it fits Naruto really well. Although the Howling part of the name can be translated to Crying as well, but Howling is what I chose. I was going to name it a mythical name like Totsuka, but I discovered that was the name of Itachi's sword. And I was like, "? His sword had a name?!" Plus I totally forgot Itachi had a sword, but then I quickly remembered that one time he used it against Kakashi during Tsukuyomi. Man, how could I forget that so quickly? But Nakigitsune is much better for Naruto, and real! I changed the coloring of the scabbard to make it more into Naruto's own, but you can check it out on certain Japanese websites if you can.

Look at all this samurai stuff I'm teaching you guys. You gotta love me for that. I'm straight up educatin'.

Anywho, next chapter shall introduce some of Yuuma's subordinates; one of then is pretty crazy so far. I think the next chapter will probably be rated M for sure. There will also be some extended Taiga and Naruto bonding! I never realized I was gonna make this such a slow burn for them, but you guys love me anyways from the faves and follows.