Chapter X

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

The next morning, on her way to join the others at the table, Sakura paused to look at a photo that was hanging on the wall. "Hey Tazuna-san," she said, "Why was someone removed from this picture?"

Sasuke noticed Inari lower his head so that his hat hid his eyes and watched as the small boy's hands convulsively gripped the edge of the table.

Kakashi looked up from the book in his hand. His eyes flickered between Tazuna, Tsunami, and Inari. Slowly, he stowed his book in his kunai pouch. "You don't have to tell them," the Cyclops said quietly. "I'll do it." Tazuna nodded wordlessly, taking his glasses off and rubbing his eyes. Kakshi waited until Sakura was seated before he began recounting what Tazuna had told him the night before. He explained about Inari's feelings of adoration towards his father and how Kaiza had aided the village. He explained about what Kaiza had tried to teach everyone, Inari particularly, about being so devoted to a cause that you ought to lay down your life. Inari sat through it all, until Kakashi reached the part about how Gatou brought about Kaiza's death. It was then that the small boy stood up, allowing his chair to crash back. There were tears dribbling down his face and onto the table and his knuckles were cut and bleeding where he had been biting them. He turned and blindly fumbled for the door. He threw it open and went racing off, angry tears whisking off his chin. As Kakashi came to the end of the story, there was total silence. Everyone felt fiercely and agonizingly for Inari, but none were so deeply moved as Sasuke and Naruto. Both had childhoods that were not unrelated to the small boy's and both knew just how hellish that could be. They stood, chairs scraping loudly in the choked silence.

Sakura half rose from her own seat, staring at her teammates. "What-"

Sasuke answered her question before she could get all of the words out. "We need to train. This Gatou needs to be shown our strength." Naruto nodded silently, eyes resting on his sensei, seeking permission. Kakashi indicated neither assent nor denial, so the Uchiha and Uzumaki left side-by-side. As soon as they had left the house, they exchanged a brief look and turned away from each other, heading for separate clearings to train in.

On the sixth morning of training, Naruto lay spayed out on the forest floor, though was not quite as dead to the world as he would have everyone believe. He was not actually asleep, for one thing. For another, he had posted sentry clones in the treetops around the clearing henge'd to look like innocent squirrels and birds and beetles. He knew immediately when a girl emerged into the clearing and bent to gather medicinal plant samples. Somehow, he could also tell the moment she noticed him. Something about her smell or her unusual stillness tipped him off that he had piqued her curiosity. From the rustle of her kimono, he tracked her movements. She straightened up, closing the distance between them in a few steps and knelt down again. Naruto could smell the faint traces of natural oils and sweat on her hand as she lowered it over his face. Before she could touch him, he caught hold of her wrist and sat up, kunai gripped tensely in his left hand but resting on the grass, not quite threatening.

"Did you want something?" he asked, politeness evident but with an edge of suspicion.

"Well," the girl said, making no attempt to free her hand, "I was wondering a little what you're doing out here. Because of that forehead protector, I'd hazard a guess that you're a ninja. Why don't you help me gather these herbs while you tell me about how you got out here."

Naruto scrambled to his knees, releasing her wrist as he went. After a moment of silent consideration of her proposal, he relented. "Alright, then." He watched her hands carefully to see which plants she was picking before getting to work. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki." He paused, making it perfectly clear that an introduction was being demanded.

The girl smiled, remembering the open hostility this boy had shown her when all he could see was her mask. "I am Haku. I appreciate you're help. This medicine is for a friend of mine who is in need of it at the moment. What exactly are you doing in the forest so early?"

"Training," was the joyful reply.

"Why?"

"So I can get stronger," the blonde boy flashed a confident grin.

"Aren't you strong enough already?" Haku asked probingly.

"Oh no. That's not possible. Even when I become the strongest shinobi in my village, I'll never be done training. The thing about good assassins is that they like to catch you unawares when your guard is down."

Haku raised an amused eyebrow. "Can't argue with that logic. However, Is that your only motivation?"

"Um, do I need more?"

"I'm just asking if there's, I don't know, someone back home who you're looking to protect as well as yourself."

Naruto put his head on one side. Pale lavender eyes flitted before his mind's eye. He nodded slowly, the grin melting off his face, replaced by an intense seriousness so that Haku knew that she had struck close to home. "Oh yes," Naruto said. "I understand. You may be right. Perhaps I really have been training for that one special person all along."

Haku smiled gently, "I see that I do not need to tell you about protecting someone with all of your soul and being. You've been there, haven't you?"

Naruto was visited by the image of himself protecting Iruka-sensei from Mizuki-sensei. "I know. I know that you must always protect that precious person, even if they think that they do not want your help."

"Why might they not want your help?"

"Because a truly precious person will want to protect you as much as you do them." This struck Haku as unusual. She herself lived only to lay her life down for Zabuza. She had never questioned it, never resented it. She had always been fiercely devoted to him. Though her feelings remained unchanged, she for once allowed her mind to explore the question of whether or not her feelings were reciprocated. She shook away the thought and rose to her feet, collecting her basket as she went. "Thank you for both the help and the conversation. I should let you get back to training again." She turned away before looking over her shoulder as if she had remembered something that she had meant to say. "Oh, by the way, I'm actually a boy."

Naruto was truly shocked and it showed until a teasing smirk settled onto his face. "Yeah right. I've hung out enough with people who try and catch me off guard enough so that I can almost positively say pull the other one, it's got bells on."

Haku allowed her hair to drift in front of her face. "Can't pull the wool over your eyes. Good luck, then. Perhaps we will meet again." She left the clearing, passing Sasuke on his way in to see Naruto. The Uchiha spared only a preoccupied glance for the strange girl.

The next day, Oscar, Sakura, and Kakashi-sensei stood behind the house. "Where did they go?" Oscar asked.

"Naruto never came in last night and Sasuke went for a walk this morning and hasn't come back yet," Sakura responded, peering through the trees as if hoping to catch sight of her elusive teammates.

Kakashi did not say anything, simply drew his two students back as a kunai came plummeting down to impale itself in the ground at their feet. Looking up, the three saw both Naruto and Sasuke splayed out on the same branch facing each other with arms and legs dangling down on either side of the branch. Sasuke was sweaty-faced and his hair was rumpled as if he had kept pushing it out of the way. As for Naruto, they could see that he was scratched and trembling with fatigue. Both had wide insane grins. "We did it!" Naruto said, voice cracking. Through his one open eye, the blonde boy watched those on the ground rejoice.

"Yeah," Sasuke was truly satisfied for once. He had caught up to Naruto at last. The fixed smile never left his face, but there was a quaver in his voice when he next spoke. "We'll probably have to stay up here for a while, though."

Sakura's smile diminished somewhat. "Why?"

"Well, I don't know about you, Naruto, but I'm in no position to get down from here without help." Naruto's smile vanished entirely as he realized the truth in these words. He gave a lurch of dismay; just enough to tip his precariously balanced weight off of the tree limb. Before he could even register that he was in freefall, he felt a jerk and a painful grip around his ankle. He craned upward to see who had hold of him and saw Sasuke hanging from the tree branch with his knees hooked over. The Uchiha was grimly hanging onto Naruto's ankle. He must have the reactions of a maniac! Naruto thought incredulously. Through gritted teeth, Sasuke said, "Can. Someone. Get. Us. Down?"

Oscar and Sakura jumped guiltily and swarmed up the tree to help. Because of that, Sakura disgustedly found herself having to bail all three boys out of the tree, as Oscar went panicky and useless when he noticed the height from the ground.

When Sasuke and Naruto had been brought back inside, both immediately slumped forward and fell asleep, sprawled across the kitchen table. Inari's eyes roved over them. They were both clearly exhausted. Suddenly, the small boy was furious. He stood, his chair scraping back and his fists clenched on the edge of the table, tears flowing free. Everyone looked at him, startled. "Why do you bother?" he asked, voice low and tight. Naruto and Sasuke raised their heads. "What?"

"Why do you bother? You nearly kill yourself training but you'll just be slaughtered anyway by Gatou! You haven't got a hope. It's not worth dying for!"

Naruto tilted his head, considering the irate child. "Is that what you think? I'll allow that you've had reasons to think that in the past, but it's over. Finished. Let go and move on. Your grandfather is trying to save your country. He's almost been killed more that once, and you have the gall to say that this cause isn't worth dying for? There's nothing to cry about. You ought to be proud of these people who are building the bridge. They're voluntarily laying their lives down to make sure that you don't grow up a slave in your own country." Everyone was startled by Naruto's cold voice and harsh words. Inari narrowed his eyes and made to slam out of the room, but found himself gripped by the solid hands of a shadow clone, which gazed pitilessly down at him. It jerked its head back at Naruto, who was standing, wearily unfolding himself from the chair. To keep himself upright, he had to lean forward over the table, fingers splayed on the surface. "If you want to earn what these men are doing for you, I suggest you help in an way you can. Can't you see how much it's killing your mother and grandfather to see you so unhappy? They go out of their way to make your life better and you cry and wail like no one understands you. You're being self-indulgent and selfish. You grieve for your father, and yet you ignore his most sacred ideal, turn your back on it. If you ever want to live up to the gift that man gave you, you'd better man up and start acting like the rest of us." No longer hungry, Naruto dispelled his shadow clone, straightening up and sweeping from the room. A few seconds' silence followed. Inari sank blindly into his chair. He sat for full minute, eyes unfocused. Then, dreamlike, he stood again and left out the back door, heading for the docks.

Naruto woke up very suddenly, gasping and retching. He was clammy and feverish all through, the last details of that horrible nightmare still drifting through his mind like suffocating trails of mist.

Men missing all but the torn stumps of their arms and with their faces half melted off had chased him. They chased him across cindered wastelands strewn with blood and dead soldiers. They kept calling out to him, so he ran even faster. He ran until he had no more strength and was forced to kneel on the ground, panting, blood thundering in his ears. And yet the armless, faceless men crept closer, eyes glowing like red, searing coals. They knelt over him and he didn't even have the strength to crawl away. "What do you want," he had choked, though, somehow, he remembered that his mouth and jaw had been torn and bleeding in a way that he could never have spoken through in real life. They had surrounded him, whispering though their not-mouths and bending low over him.

"All we want is your gratitude," They whispered. "Be grateful to us. Your gratitude is all we ask of you, child."

He tore back the sheets and got up, still trembling. He took a quick shower, which, unfortunately provided him with dead time to fill with thought. The nightmare would not clear out of his head and it was putting him all out of sorts. It wasn't until he was pulling on clean clothes that he finally realized the quiet of the house. Struck by a horrible suspicion, he threw open the bathroom door and dove back into the bedroom, searching frantically for a clock. When he found it, he stood staring for a full minute before dropping it and letting loose quite a long string of curses. His team had left him behind! Damn it, he would have welcomed them waking him up. He'd just have to catch up. He made a dash for the stairs, leaping down them so that his feet barely touched the worn treads in a way that usually proceeded slipping and falling. He slowed about halfway down the stairs, listening to the quiet voices below, Tsunami and Inari, perhaps. He cocked his ears and narrowed his eyes, hearing a soft scrunch of wood from outside and then a sudden, deafening splintering noise, like someone had just broken a table. He clutched the banister, wishing that he could get a view of what was happening without revealing himself. He flattened himself to the wall and listened to what was being said below…

A/N: Annnnnnd cliffhanger! So, I know production is sporadic, but I'll try to aim for at least one chapter per week. Yeah, there was a bit of NaruXSasu bonding in this chapter, but this is still a NaruXHina fic!

Believe it or not, that nightmare bit was based off of actual events in the story, namely: Naruto's childhood of being mobbed by marauding villagers, Kaiza's death, and the things that Naruto told Inari the night before. Apart from that, It was mostly invention. I couldn't find a place for this explanation in the story, so I thought I'd explain it down here.

What else? Er, really people? Hundreds of people read this stuff, so why oh why won't you take a brief half minute to review? You don't have to say anything more than ':)' in your review (although actual substance is preferable) but please review! I'm dying here! I would like to give a special thanks to the four or so people who have actually reviewed for this story so far. Four! They are the bestest. I've done 10 freakin' chapters already! Why do I only have 7 reviews? Doesn't anyone care? Doesn't anyone like this stuff that I spend my time writing? TT-TT Review!

So, After that lovely heartfelt rant that's been coming on for a while, just...review...and...keep reading my stuff...and...worship the Log...and...don't kill the lepers! And Review!