Hey, I was reading one of my reviews and someone made a good point, but I wanted a second opinion. Should I delete the first two chapters?

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Disclaimer: I own nothing

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Chapter 12- To Know Suffering

The next morning was...odd. There was no sign of Naruto for one thing.

The weather was good, if a bit windy, and they were all in a good mood.

Tsunami was in the kitchen preparing breakfast; Inari was sulking in a corner. Shino, Hinata, Kiba and Sakura were talking in the living room and Kurenai, Kakashi and Tazuna were discussing the progress of the bridge.

Then something happened that non of them would ever forget. It was one of those moments that engraves itself into your mind and you're never able to get it out.

And that moment was when Sasuke Uchiha, one of the most uptight people any of them had ever met, came down the stairs in a yellow sun dress.

The room was filled with stunned silence, no one new what to say.

Then, to everyone's shock yet again, Sasuke walked through the front door with a pile of chopped wood in his arms.

The two Sasuke's stared at each other for a few minutes, still no one saying a thing, then the Sasuke in the dress fell on the floor and started laughing.

Before their eyes the Sasuke on the floor started to ripple. When it was done there was Naruto, still rolling around on the floor.

"Hahahaha! Y-y-y-you should of haha s-s-seen your faces! Hahah."

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Time skip- 2 and a half weeks later

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The bridge was almost complete; Tazuna said that it would be done in about three days.

Sasuke's training in Naruto's Drunken Spinner style was progressing well; he was now actually using the katana and could fight, not very well yet, but he could fight. Naruto was actually impressed with him.

Kakashi was completely healed and it was decided that for the rest of the mission they would all be guarding Tazuna at the bridge. Kiba had asked what they would do about Tsunami and Inari, but the jonnin had assured them all that if Gato was going to try anything he would have done it by now.

They were currently all sat around the table eating dinner.

They were all talking about how their training had been going and planning what to do depending on the situation. Everyone was stressed, Zabuza would be making a move any day now and the wait was getting to them all. Well, except Naruto, he was as happy as ever.

It was then, in the middle of the meal, that Inari stood up and started shouting.

"Why do you even bother? You're all just going to die anyway! No one can beat Gato, you should just leave!"

By the end of his outburst Inari was in tears and his voice had started to waver. They all stopped talking and stared at the young boy. After a moment Kakashi got up and walked over to him and placed his hands on his shoulders.

"Look, I understand that it may seem like that, but people like Gato are nothing more then cowards that hide behind their money. He may have a small army of bandits, but compared to a ninja they are all but useless."

When he finished talking Kakashi gave him one of his eye smiles and moved to sit back in his seat, until Inari through his food at the back of his head.

"Shut up! What would you know about our pain! In your big fancy village, sheltered from the outside world! You know nothing of suffering!"

The room went deadly quiet, all the genin turned to the enraged Sasuke. But before anyone could say anything to prevent the young Uchiha from leaping at Inari, Naruto started laughing.

It wasn't his normal, slightly insane yet pleasant laugh; it was a full blown bat shit crazy, call the people in white suits with the big needle kind of laugh.

Without saying a word Naruto stood up and turned towards Inari. Kakashi, worried that he might lash out at the boy moved to stand between them. But Naruto didn't move from his spot, instead he slowly reached up to his head and started to unravel his bandages.

When he was done there was a long trail of white bandages going from his neck line and piling onto the floor. The ninja all stared at Naruto's face in horror, except Kakashi, who got a sad look on his face and Sakura, who ran to the kitchen sink to throw up. Tazuna stared wide eyed at the blonde and took a long drag from a bottle of sake he had hidden under the table while Inari lost all colour from his face.

Tsunami didn't know what to think, at first she had stared in horror like the others, but that soon changed into a look of sadness. Naruto's face was nothing but one big scar; almost like it had been melted off and what was left of his skin was a bright red and white mess. You could see his teeth and gums through the two holes that used to be his cheeks and most of his nose was gone.

He said nothing, just stared at Inari with what now became a horrifyingly disfigured grin without the bandages to cover his face. Then something else occurred to the middle aged woman, something that brought tears to her eyes. When she had taken his clothes to clean them, she had seen that he had his whole body covered in bandages.

Satisfied that they had seen enough, Naruto started to re-wrap his bandages. When that was done the blonde turned to them, grin still in place. Sakura had come back, but still looked pale.

"On my seventh birthday a mob came to my house. They dragged me outside, tied me up with wire and beat me for I don't know how long. I was stabbed, strangled and beaten. I had my throat cut, my stomach slit and my eyes ripped out of my head. And you want to know the best part? I never lost consciousness. And I healed almost as fast as they hurt me. Then, to finish everything off, I was tired to a log in the middle of the street where they had built a bomb fire."

Here his grin stretched wider as he watched there eyes widen in understanding. Letting out a dark chuckle Naruto continued.

"Yep, that's right. After a nice little speech by the leader of the mob, four ninja with there faces covered lit the wood on fire around me. But yet again that wasn't the best part. You see, it turns out that my healing factor works at he same speed as a human body takes to burn. I was burning for three hours straight before the Hokage came and put the fire out."

He then turned to Tsunami and laughed.

"The most painful thing I have ever experienced. But don't just take my word for it, if you want more information you could always ask Kakashi, after all... you were their."

As he said this he turned to the masked man, whose eyes widened in shock before they became filled with sadness and regret.

"So you knew..."

At his words everyone but Naruto gasped and stared at the one eyed jonnin in shock.

"Of course."

Letting out a sign, the cycloptic jonnin locked his eye with Naruto's deep blue.

"That day was one of my biggest regrets. I got sloppy; let someone get the jump on me. By the time I came to it was too late. I'm sorry. More so then you can ever imagine."

At the end of his explanation Kakashi averted his eye to look at the floor.

"If I blamed you for what happened, I would have killed you the first moment I saw you."

Shocked at his words Kakashi turned to look at the boy, only to find him walking towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

He didn't get an answer until the blonde got to the door, stopped and turned to look over his shoulder at them all.

"To release some stress. Oh and sad sack, if you don't get your act together, I'm going to tie you upside down to a tree and show you how I started duck ass's training."

If it was possible Inari would have gone even paler, but instead he just went and hid behind his mum. Grinning to himself Naruto turned to go, but stopped again and turned to face Sakura.

"You once asked me why your dad asked for my forgiveness. Your mother was the leader of the mob."

The young pinket's eyes went wide at his words and she ran back to the sink to be sick again. But when they all turned back to Naruto he was gone.

Turning back to Sakura, Kurenai went over to comfort the girl as she cried on the floor.

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Naruto was running through the forest to try and calm himself down. The boy had gotten to him. He knew that. The problem was that he could feel how close he had come to losing himself. He needed to get out, get away.

As he ran he could see the shadows of the creatures that ran with him, they were the only living things that stayed in the area as he ran. All the other animals had run away when they felt his presence.

They made no noise and stayed in the darker parts of the trees, away from the moon light. Every now and then he could see breath flashes of black fur, or yellow eyes.

He finally came to a stop in a fairly large clearing. It was then he noticed the moon was full and there were no clouds in the sky.

Turning back to the tree line his throat and head rippled for a moment, leaving his face looking more wild, almost wolf like.

"Merry moon night, my brothers."

Without making any noise seven of the biggest wolfs stepped out of the shadows. They all stood at the blondes shoulder in height when they were on all fours and had black fur; there well muscled legs showing that they were built for speed and power. The only exception to this was a slightly thinner and smaller wolf that had a pure white stripe running down his back from the top of its head to the tip of its longer then normal tail. It was this wolf that stepped forward.

"Merry moon night pup, what makes you run so?"

"I needed to run."

The wolf just nodded its head and turned away.

"Will you hunt with us tonight?"

"Not tonight brothers, my head is not right, it would not be good for me to hunt with you."

"I understand...may the moon smile at you."

"...May the moon smile at you."

Without saying another word, the wolves all turned and ran back into the shadows and Naruto let his face return to normal.

For the next hour Naruto just stared at the moon, every now and then he would here the cry of the wolves in the distance, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them and started screaming at the moon, which morphed into a terrifying roar.

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The next morning found a young girl walking through the forest with a wicker basket under her arm. She had a pretty face and long black hair. She was wearing a pink yukata that hid most of her figure and her soft brown eyes were scanning the ground around her as she walked.

Then she heard it.

At first she needed to strain her ears but as she quickened her pace it got clearer and clearer. The most beautiful, yet mournful music she had ever heard. She could feel it in her heart, the pain and the sadness that reflected in those notes.

Haku soon found herself running in the direction of the music, desperate to find the source of the sound. But slowed to a walk when she came to what used to be a part of the woods. Some of the trees looked like they had been pulled out of the ground, while others had claw marks.

She had never seen anything like this, but the music was still calling to her. So, getting over her shock, she made her way through the wreckage.

A few minutes later Haku came to what looked like a natural clearing and stopped in her tracks. There, sat in the middle of the clearing playing a violin, was the blonde boy Zabuza had been talking about.

Not knowing what else to do she made her way to the centre of the clearing and sat next to the boy. He didn't stop playing, didn't even show any sign that he new she was there. But Haku knew he did. So she just sat there, listening. Eventually the music came to an end and, with slow movements, the strange boy put the violin away, though she didn't see where he put it, and turned to her with the same grin on his face she had seen the day they met.

"You play beautifully."

"You're a bit out of the way, for a civilian, so what brings you out here?"

Thinking quickly, Haku decided to tell a half truth.

"I'm looking for medicinal herbs for my friend, he was hurt and I have been taking care of him."

Nodding his head Naruto stood up and looked down at her.

"I think I saw something that might help you."

Getting up Haku was surprised when the blonde started to walk on his hands, then do flips, then back to walking on his hands. She couldn't help the giggle that came from her throat.

"What are you doing?"

Looking at her from his upside down position Naruto looked at her, confused.

"Handstand."

Giggling again Haku elaborated.

"I can see that, but why are you doing a handstand?"

"Why not?"

When he said this is grin spread wider over his face.

They didn't say anything for the next few minutes until they came to another, smaller clearing filled with different flowers, walking over to a patch of small purple flowers Haku turned to look at Naruto over her shoulder.

"My name is Haku, what's yours?"

"Naruto"

"That's a nice name."

Turning back to the flowers, Haku started picking the leafs off.

"Tell me, Naruto-san, are you a ninja?"

"Yes"

"Do you have a precious person back at your village?"

Seeing that he didn't understand Haku explained.

"I believe that for a person to be truly strong, they need someone to fight for, to bring out their inner strength. Do you have someone like that?"

Naruto laughed at this, taking a full five minutes to calm down before he could answer.

"I have no one, I have no true purpose. There is no one in that place that I would truly fight for. I would just as soon kill them as I would save them."

Shaking her head sadly Haku went back to picking the leafs.

"I see... that's sad. You must be very lonely."

Nothing was said for a while after that, Haku would move to different patches of flowers from time to time, taking different parts, until Naruto broke the silence.

"This friend of yours, is he your precious person?"

Smiling to herself Haku turned back to the blonde.

"Yes, he is very special to me."

Nodding his head, Naruto's grin stretched back over his face.

"Your friend is lucky to have such a beautiful girl such as yourself taking care of him."

He couldn't help but laugh as Haku's face turned red and she started stuttering. It took several minutes for her to calm down, but even then she still had a light blush.

They talked for another hour before Haku left to get back to her friend and Naruto to guard Tazuna.

"I hope to meet you again Naruto-san."

"I'm sure we will."

Turning her back to the boy, Haku missed the mischievous look that came to Naruto's face.

"I'm sure we will."

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Naruto went straight to the bridge to meet up with the others, knowing that they would have already left for the day. When he got there he went straight to Tazuna and asked what he could do to help.

He didn't miss the looks he was getting from the others. Or that the old bridge builder couldn't meet his eyes.

So, in true Naruto style, he walked up to Kiba and hit him in the face with a fish, then turned away to start working. No one knew where he got the fish, or why he hit Kiba with it.

Getting up off the floor, face red with rage Kiba got right up in the blondes face.

"What the hell!"

"What?"

"WHY DID YOU HIT ME WITH A FISH YOU FUCKING HEAD CASE!"

The innocent look on Naruto's face didn't fool anyone.

"I don't know what you're talking about; I don't even have a fish."

That was when they realized he was right, the fish was gone.

Screaming, Kiba lunged at Naruto in an attempt to claw what was left of his face off. Faster then any of the other gennin could see Naruto grabbed the dog like boy's arms, stopping him in his tracks, much to the shock of Kiba and pulled him into a bear hug. Kiba was so shocked that he didn't even notice that Naruto had walked over to the edge of the bridge and dropped the young Inuzuka into the water below.

Clapping his hands together and smiling as Kiba shouted curse after curse at the blonde he turned to the others on the bridge and shrugged.

"I kept telling him that he smelt of dog piss; now he smells of wet dog instead."

Shaking there heads everyone got back to work. It wasn't until an hour later that anyone thought to help Kiba out of the water.

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The next day when the two teams set off for the bridge there was no sign of Naruto, so they just went ahead.

Tsunami was going around the house cleaning when she heard someone at the door. Putting down the duster in her hands she made her way to the door, only to have it broken down just before she made it.

Stood in the doorway were two men with swords. One of them, the smaller of the two had on a purple hat and a cocky smirk while the other had no shirt and had multiple scars over his body.

Stepping forward the smaller of the two drew his sword and pointed it at her, the smirk never leaving his face.

"Gato would like to have a few words with you."

Backing away from the two men Tsunami made to run out the back door but wasn't quick enough. Grabbing her by the arms the two men dragged her outside kicking and screaming. Hearing his mother in trouble, Inari came out the house with a knife.

"Let go of my mum!"

The tow men looked at each other for a moment, then the man with the hat stepped forward, sword in hand. Tsunami was screaming for the boy to go back inside, but he just kept running straight towards the man.

What happened next was so fast that she almost missed it. Just as the sword was about to cut Inari's head from his shoulders a shadow came running out of the wood, shortly followed by six more. Before they knew what happened the man in a hat was rolling around on the ground screaming as he clutched the blooded stump that had once been his arm.

It was then that Tsunami heard a low growl behind her. Slowly turning around Tsunami came face to face with the biggest wolf she had ever seen, and its maw was covered in blood.

The thug holding her arm backed away as quickly as he could and raised his sword in a poor attempt to defend himself, never seeing the other wolf that was running at him from behind. The wolf was on him instantly, jumping on the thugs back and biting into the back of his neck, and with one quick shake the man went limp, his spine broken.

The thug with the hat was soon dealt with in a similar way and the area was filled with nothing but silence. Tsunami ran to her son and pulled him into a hug while shielding him from the wild animals at the same time. Then Inari said something that made her eyes widen in realization.

"Naruto was right."

That's right, Naruto had said that he met a pack of wolfs and that as long as they gave them scraps of meat they would help them. She couldn't help the laughter that escaped her throat as she cried into Inari's hair, thanking the blonde in her head over and over again.

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Haku is not the pairing, I will say that now. Let me know what you think of the chapter. :)