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Speech

Thought

Kyuubi

Wolf In Fox's Clothing

Chapter 9: Do The Wave.

Naruto sat panting, his head was pulsing from so many shadow clones dispelling at one time. He had set close to 50 working on tree and water walking, balancing on kunai, and levitating them. When they vanished after completing the task, the sudden influx of info sent him reeling.

"Oh yeah. That's something you should really watch out for. Too many going at once'll really mess you up." Kyuubi commented

"Really? Gee, thanks for the warning." Naruto muttered sarcastically. The two got along, but the fox could still be twisted at times.

"Anyway, you better get going. You still have to see the old man about those kunai and find yourself a weapon to work with. Once you do that, we get down to the nitty-gritty."

"Finally." The blond said before darting off to down, "I think I know just the place. Lee mentioned it one time. Said one of his teammates gets a discount."

Before long, he was soon in an older part of town. Most of the buildings there showing their age, a few looked slightly dilapidated. He wandered around until he found a small building with a sigh saying 'Higarashi Arms' over the door.

"This looks like the place." He said, going in. He was greeted by an impressive and somewhat intimidating sight. Weapons filled the place; shelves, boxes, axes, swords, even warhammers and spears were mounted on the walls.

"DAMN! I've seen people who enjoy weapons, but this takes the riceball."

Naruto could only.nod as he wandered around. He ran his hand over a pair of fontons and checked out a kodiachi before moving on. As he looked, he examined several weapons until he rounded a sword rack and saw IT...

"Whoa..." Was all he could say. Hanging on the wall in front of him was a huge greatsword. From tip to tip it was 6 feet long with a 4 foot long, 1 foot wide blade and gleamed almost pure white. The tip was curved, like a popsicle stick, making one continuous edge around the entire blade. The handle was a simple rod wrapped in leather with a spherical pommel capping the end. Naruto was nearly mesmerized by the weapon and reached out to pick it up.

"I see that one's caught your eye." A voice nearby jostled him from his trance. He looked over to see a heavily scarred man in his late 30s standing behind the counter that Naruto assumed was Higarashi, " I wouldn't really bother if I was you. That thing's pretty damn heavy. The only one I've seen able to lift it is Might Guy, but he never wanted it."

A smirk crossed Naruto's lips as he took hold of the handle, "I'll take that as a challenge." With a hefty lift, he pulled it off the mounting hooks, much to the man's shock. He had to admit the guy wasn't joking when he said it was heavy. As soon as it was off the hooks, he was forced to grip it with both hands, but he was holding it.

"I gotta admit, impressive choice, Kit." Kyuubi remarked.

"Holy crap." The man whispered. When Naruto rested the blade on his shoulder and turned to face him, he saw the whisker marks, "Well, Naruto Uzumaki." He grinned at the blonde's reaction, "Yeah, I've heard of you."

"Well, I guess you know about my...circumstances.. then." He said, setting a hand on his stomach. He didn't sense any ill-will from the man, but he still stayed alert in case something did happen.

Higarashi raised an eye, "So you know?" A nod was his only answer, "To be honest, I kinda pity the ignorant bastards that seem to think you really are the fox. Hell, if you were, then this place would've been leveled years ago thanks to them.But enough of that, I gotta say you surprised me, son. That's one of the first weapons I got when I first opened this shop. It was supposedly made in Whirlpool Country. Never found out the name of it, though; but my daughter decided to christen it Silverfang..

Naruto's eyes widened at that bit of info, "This sword came from the same place as Mom? How much do you want for it?"

Higarashi chuckled, "Hell, your the only guy that's managed to lift AND want the thing; you can have it. To be honest, people who've wanted it just wanted to make a decoration outta it. Higarashis only sell weapons for use."

"Cool." He started admiring the blade again, "Got a scabbard or sheath I can put this in?"

Higarashi rubbed his chin for a moment, "Nothing big enough for that; but I think I can work something out. Let me have that vest of yours real quick."

Naruto gave him a puzzled look for a second before shrugging and handing it over. As soon as he had a hold of it, he nearly doubled over from the weight, "Damn, son! What's in this thing!?"

"Heh, I train a lot with weights." Naruto chuckled at the man's expression.

"Kami, you're as bad as my daughter's teammate."

"You mean Rock Lee? Guess that explains things."

"That's the one. I still say he and Guy gotta be related somehow." Higarashi lugged the vest into the back and Naruto set the sword up on the counter and decided to restock on supplies while he waited. He grabbed up a few extra kunai and explosive tags when he heard the man coming back out and a loud thump on the counter. He grinned when he came back to see that a holster had been attached to the vest so he could just fasten the sword into it.

After insisting he at at least pay for that, Naruto took his new weapon and headed to his next destination: the Hokage tower for his father's Hiraishin kunai

Sarutobi was pleasantly surprised when the blond came into his office asking about the technique, much less wanting to learn it. After a brief, and rather colorful, argument with Homura, the Hokage handed over a scroll belonging to Minato containing a set of the required kunai along with instructions for them.

The next few months quickly became some of the busiest in Naruto's life. Thankfully, Kyuubi had gotten him used to the idea of multitasking; while he worked with his taijutsu and on getting used to the Silverfang's size and weight, a small army of shadow clones would be fine-tuning his chakra control, practicing sealing items into scrolls and jutsus that the fox would select, even working on catching thrown weapons. In between, he would work on the Hiraishin, although for now all he could get was little more than a foot or two. Fortunately, things to improve when his team finally caught him during one of his training sessions. Kurenai and Shino were rather startled at the sheer number of clones he was able to make, though Shino hid his reaction. Hinata, on the other hand, could only think, 'wall-to-wall Narutos!'. Once they got over the surprise, it didn't take long before they were joining in when they weren't on missions.

"That looked painful.." Naruto commented when Shino's kunai hit his clone square in the face, making it vanish. Kurenai had been called to the Hokage's office so it was just the three of them.

"Kit, nows your chance. Get over there and say something to her! You KNOW she likes you!" Kyuubi called out, trying to egg his container on. Truth be told, Naruto knew how Hinata felt; he had even grown to find her attractive; the only thing keeping him from acting on it was knowing that the clan's elders hated him with a passion and would probably try to punish him through her if they ever did start dating.

"You crazy?? You know as well as I do what those old geezers might pull." Naruto snapped.

"Hello?! Hiashi Hyuuga: her dad. The guy doesn't mind you. Hell, he could probably whoop off their asses."

Naruto started to argue when Kurenai appeared in front of them, a determined look on her face.

"We have a mission! A few days ago Team 7 was sent to escort a man back to wave country. On the way they were attacked by a pair of chunin-class missing-nin, then a A-ranked named Zabuza Momichi. They sent word for backup in case things get ugly and since the other teams were currently on missions already, Hokage sama's having us go. I suggest you all get prepared and meet at the main gate, we leave in 30 minutes!" She said before vanishing again.

A short while later the three genins arrived at the gate with Kurenai waiting for them. Naruto could barely hide the grin on his face; his first big mission had finally come.

Sorry 'bout the big delay, but I had trouble getting the start of the chapter how I wanted.

I know this chapter's kinda short; planning to make the wave arc one chapter.