I am not the owner, just a leecher.

Island training

*Tazuna's*Nami no Kuni*10 AM*

Kakashi had woken up half an hour earlier, still groggy from his exhaustion. Something had bothered him ever since he had awoken, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure it out.

He glanced around the room; the kids were still sleeping, but… 'Where's Naruto?' The boy had been a cause of confusion for him; he was divided on how he should treat the red-headed boy.

He knew who the boy was, how could he not? He spent as much time in his sensei's home after the war as he did in the ANBU headquarters, he had been there when Kushina-sama had announced she was pregnant. But every time he looked at him, he was reminded of what he had lost THAT night; the night of the Kyuubi attack he had lost whatever remained of his 'family.'

Without Minato-sensei and Kushina-sama he drowned himself in his work, taking more and more missions, until he was ordered by the Hokage to watch over little Naruto. He hadn't seen the kid after his eight birthday.

His life in ANBU still haunted him: the corpses, the kills, every time he had gone after a… bounty. It clicked right then: Zabuza wasn't taken by hunter-nins, they hadn't destroyed the body.

"Sasuke!" He called to the boy, "Sasuke, wake up now!" The teen groggily complied, sitting up with a scowl on his face, in any other situation he might have found it funny. "Sasuke, wake everyone and tell them to gather here, NOW!"

On any other occasion the Uchiha might have discussed, but since his teacher was using a tone that he had rarely seen… He would prefer not to be punished.

*Forest*9:30*

Naruto sat up from where he had fallen the night before. The blood clone had gone hunting sometime during the night and was skinning through whatever it was it had caught.

He stood slowly, doing his best to ignore his mother ranting about how reckless it was to do the chisio bunshin alone and Kurama laughing in the background.

The clone looked up from his job and towards his creator. He was amused really; the boss had made a note to not do another of his class was without someone nearby.

"What do have there?" the original Naruto asked his clone, who went back to his job.

"Two boars and some rabbits, though one of them was white; I think it was grown in a cage" the clone, called CN from now on, answered.

Naruto searched his arms for his supply-seal, and took a bottle of pills from it, "when you are done with that, take two, they should keep you…" Naruto searched for words, "knocked, when I seal you, so you don't go insane" CN nodded and accepted the bottle.

The pills were a creation of his: during an experiment of what happened to sealed object when inside a seal he had made a shadow clone and sealed it in a scroll, before dispelling it when it was still inside it; the clone had gone nuts after ten minutes. The pills worked by causing the brain to shut down the sensory organs, keeping the drinker in a small coma until the counter pills were administered. It had taken him a full three years to develop them right,

It took twenty minutes for the clone to finish skinning the game with Naruto's help. CN gulped down the two pills and threw the bottle back to the original, who caught them and re-sealed them.

He moved behind CN as he fell back, making sure that his head fell in one of the seals on his arm, one that had less things, and sealed the clone until it was needed.

Naruto sealed the meat on a separate scroll and started running towards the house, he had to tell everyone.

*Bedroom*ten minutes later*

The gennin were seated around Kakashi, while Kurenai was leaning against the doorframe.

The Cyclops looked around; everyone was watching, and Naruto had yet to come back, "The reason I called you," he began speaking, "Is because of something I realized not much earlier," he sighed, "What can any of you tell me about hunters?"

Everyone looked down; trying to remember what was said in the academy. Sakura was the first to answer, "They are a special branch of the ANBU that deals with missing ninjas" a motion from her sensei prompted her to continue, "they track fugitives and kill them when they find their target."

Kakashi nodded, "what about the weapon the one that came for Zabuza used?" no one answered, "They were senbon, long needles used by iryo-nin for acupuncture," he noted that Kurenai's eyes had widened, "the reason few people use them for combat is that, while there are many nerves that can cause death, all are incredibly hard to hit from a distance" he paused for a second and looked at every gennin in the eyes, "the reason I am telling you this is because…"

He was interrupted by Naruto, who chose that moment to crash through the window, "Zabuza is alive and he has two prtners"

Silence was what followed his proclamation, so he explained further, "Yesterday I went scooping for information after I left the house," Kurenai and Kakashi nodded, seeing where this would probably lead, "I followed three scents into the forest, to a small hideout near a hill, Gato entered, followed by two wannabe samurais, and later left holding his hand.

"I entered the building through the ventilation system and listened in a conversation, Zabuza was alive, a girl and a boy, older than me by a couple of years, were discussing how to proceed, the girl was telling Zabuza that he would probably be at his top by next Tuesday "

Kakashi looked proud that a gennin could sneak around the enemy lines, "I am surprised that they didn't discover you, but considering the number of times you managed to infiltrate and prank the clan compounds and ANBU HQ it doesn't come as much of a shock" judging by the faces of the brats, it did come as a shock for them. He clapped his hands, "Alright, acting upon the information Naruto brought, we will start training as soon as Kurenai says."

Said woman raised an eyebrow, "Kakashi, you won't use this as an excuse to stay in bed and read your smut"

She was fixing him with THE glare, damn, "ma, ma, of course not, I'll help you as soon as I can stand up" he sighed when her glare was lifted, a shuriken dodged there.

Naruto's voice made him look at the other end of the room, "Ano, Kakashi-san, do you have some of this paper?" the boy was holding four paper squares that didn't look as much, he knew better though.

"Yes, I always carry a pair with me; I use them as bookmarks" he patted one of his breast pockets, "why?"

Kurenai answered this, "I was about to test my students in what their affinities were, and since I'm in charge of your squad until you can fight I was going to test them too"

The gray-haired man nodded and moved his hand to his pocket, opened his book and took three slips of paper, "Here you go," he handed them to Naruto, "piece of advice for you, little miss Hyuuga: don't be disappointed if you get no results, almost no one of your clan does."

Kurenai cleared her throat, "alright kids, follow me. Everything we've talked about will be clear when we get to a clearing, wait for me downstairs." The children nodded and left the room, leaving the two adults alone, "Get well fast Kakashi, we can't afford anything but one hundred percent."

The bed-ridden man nodded, "I know, I should be up and about tomorrow, and in fighting condition by Friday". He laid down again, "have them complete the water walking before you start them on elemental affinities, it will help them if they can't complete the first level"

The woman nodded and left the room, leaving Kakashi alone.

Tsunami would later on walk in on him reading his 'special' book, and would use a cooking pan to knock him out again.

*Clearing* Half an hour later*

Kurenai stood in front of an eager group, well, some were eager; Sakura was staring at Sasuke and Naruto was spacing off.

She cleared her throat to get everyone's attention, "Since we know that Zabuza is still alive, we will be training every day until he attacks," the gennin nodded, though Naruto was still not paying full attention, "There isn't much to teach you right now, so I will show you something EVERY ninja should know" she nodded towards the lake they were standing by, "The water walking exercise"

At their incredulous faces she demonstrated, walking to the middle of the lake "It is the same and different from the tree walking because water is in constant change, so the chakra output needed for the platform you need to create is always different"

She looked around for questions, only to find herself confused when Naruto nodded at nothing before walking up to her, on the water, "Kurenai-sensei, I already know this, do you think you could give me something more… advanced" he scratched the back of his head in nervousness.

Kurenai looked at him, shock obvious on her face, and judging by the faces the kids were pulling, they were surprised too, "How do you know this? I'm pretty sure I haven't teached this to any of you" she told him in disbelief.

Naruto looked even more nervous, and his answer was whispered, "THE seal leaks IT'S chakra into me after purifying it," he pointed at the spiral on his stomach, "I wouldn't be surprised if I got more chakra than Jiji, I had to learn to control it before the academy 'ttebayo"

She nodded, the Hokage probably knew this. She made a seal she was sure the boy would recognize, and a clone appeared by her side, leaving her slightly winded.

The clone nodded at her creator, "follow me, Naruto-kun, I know something you'll probably find the use for" the clone left, followed by the red-head, leaving gaping gennin behind.

No one noted the angry scowl on the Uchiha's face.

*Fifty meter from lake*

Naruto was waiting for his sensei to explain the exercise and then dispel so he could try and figure the second part of the reasengan while his clones worked on the control exercise that was about to be explained.

Kurenai looked to the sky in an effort to get the explanation right inside her head, so her student could get after the first time; he was smart, but only so much higher than average, his wit only came out under pressure.

The raven-haired woman nodded, the exercise would be perfect for someone like Naruto; a chakra juggernaut, "Alright Naruto, what I want you to do is called chakura no pointorirīsu, a release of chakra from a single, or a group, of tenketsu." Naruto tilted his head, that wasn't much useful, was it? "Most jonin learn this when, and if, they enter ANBU, the only reason I learned it was because of my specialty on genjutsu,"

Huh, so it was either hard, unpractical, required higher reserves or both. Kurenai continued as I reading his thoughts, "The reason it's so unused is because of its impracticality on the field and its price as time goes on." So he could use it as much as the kage bunshin then,

"I works by sending a… beam, of chakra through a tenketsu, and them lowering and getting the output of chakra higher. The more practice you have with it, the more tenketsu you can send 'beams' from: if you manage to get your output and nuber of tenketsu high enough, in theory you could stop your momentum or change its direction, giving you a way to dodge mid-air"

That was so useful! Why the hell didn't more jonin learn this? Once again anticipating his words she talked before he could, "the reason only ANBU learn it is because unless you have a wind affinity, iryo-nin control or way too much chakra, you can't really use it in the field, and that's not taking into account the burns using chakra in such a way could cause"

Naruto 's mouth formed an 'O' at that, he had forgotten about chakra burns, the last time he had suffered from one of them was when Kurenai had started them on the weapon balancing, almost three months ago.

"So…" he began, "the only reason you are teaching me this is because the healing factor Kyuubi gives me, plus my HUGE reserves and wind affinity?"

The Genjutsu Mistress nodded, "yes, you are probably the only person I can think off that can make use of this" she gave a small smile when the boy grinned at her praise, "start with places you don't have seals on, I don't think they would react well to the influx"

She watched as the boy took of his coat and shirt, leaving him with only his pants on; his arms were full of tattoos up the elbow. When she saw his back she gasped; six line were marked on it, running parallel on groups of three, they looked almost like, 'claws, anima claws' she realized, yet another thing to tell the Hokage.

"Ne, sensei," Naruto's brought her out of her musings, "how do I know if I'm doing it right?"

She smiled, he had noticed she didn't give that bit of info, "release as much as you can and then make the quantity smaller until you can no longer diminish it"

She saw him nod before sitting down. He put his hands on a ram sign and started leaking chakra.

The result was… unexpected, to say the least; his chest felt as if something was pushing it. He had to put his hand behind him so he didn't hit head, but just as he did the stream cut off, leaving him panting.

"That," he said, "didn't go well" not only had he underestimated his reserves, there was a blister on his chest, and it was big.

Kurenai only smiled, "don't worry, Naruto-kun," she told him, "I'm sure you'll figure it out" She was sure, he had managed harder things.

The rest of the day he spent burning himself on different places.

*Dinner time*Tasuna's house*

A group of soaking gennin found a red-skinned Naruto helping Tsunami on the kitchen. He had offered to help the woman with the food when he arrived because she didn't have much to prepare, so he had given her some steaks from the boar his clone had caught.

His torso was uncovered, showing his toned back to the teens as they entered and making Inner-Hinata drool.

His full concentration was in front of him: he had found a herb that when prepared right would make the rice taste incredible, but would make it uneatable if made wrong.

So immersed into his recipe he was that he didn't notice when his teammates and team seven entered, he only noticed them after the rice was done cooking, so he was surprised when he saw five wet teens inside the living room.

The surprise didn't last much though, after only a few seconds of staring he started to laugh like a madman.

Sasuke scowled at the laughing red-head, though whatever he was going to say was put in harsher words by a wet-and-moody Inuzuka, "What the hell are you laughing at, reddie?"

Normally the slight at his hair would have made him angry, but coming from the wet dog-boy, Nah. "It's-it's," he managed to say in-between laughs, "I didn't realize it would be this funny to see another gennin trying to water-walk," his composure only stayed for a few second before he was reduced to another fit of giggles.

The members of team seven growled at the purple-eyed boy while he tried to get his laughing under control, Shino too, was 'staring' angrily at the boy; his laughs were reminding him of one of his last failures at the exercise, a bug a had crossed him and his concentration wavered while he was thinking on how to add said insect to his hive at home.

The only dry ones were Kurenai and Hinata, who were only wet around the ankles, they had probably lost control a couple of times before getting it back.

Kakashi had descended from the stairs and the sound of laughing, and he started cackling as soon as he saw his team.

Naruto and the man stayed like that for a while, and only stopped once Tsunami had told them that dinner was ready.

Much like the day before, the meal was a silent affair, once again with the only noises being the scraping against plates, but something change this time: Inari was particularly broody.

The boy suddenly put his chopstick down, "Why do you even try?" his whisper made everyone's attention go to him. His head snapped up, "WHY DO YOU TRY TO GO AGAINST GATO? YOU ARE JUST GOING TO DIE" he pointed to Naruto, "and you are going to be the first to go, so carefree," he didn't notice the room got colder, "I bet you don't even know what it is to suffer"

That made it. Faster than the teens could follow Naruto had jumped over the table, grabbed Inari and was now holding him by the shirt against the wall. The room was freezing now, and not a single trace of KI was present.

"You think you have it hard" his whisper was loud enough to be heard by everyone, even if not intended, "try dealing through the fucking HELL I live in a daily basis, every adult, save the few smart ones, treat me like the plague, I was alone most of my childhood, shunned, starved. Do you know what the worst part is?" everyone but Inari shook their heads , "That when I did found someone who cared for me, they were inside a seal so complex I can't even think about how to break it," the kid's eyes strayed towards the tattoo on his stomach, "I have to see them as they seat around, trying to find a way of braking free without killing someone on the process, and even if they don't show it, I can tell that they hate being like that"

Silence fell for some seconds after that, but Naruto ignored it and continued after taking a breath, "Do hate Gato? THEN USE YOUR TWO DAMN ARMS AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, DON'T JUST SIT IN YOUR ROOM AND BROOD" The hand griping the shirt let it go, making Inari fall.

Once again Naruto made his way to the door, "I'm going to train, don't wait for me, I won't be back until midday tomorrow," he said without glancing back.

Unknowingly he had sparked Inari's memory, and he heard a whisper on the back of his mind, 'if something is truly important to you… even it's heart-breaking, even if it's sorrowful… you keep on trying and trying, even if you lose your life, you keep on protecting it with these two arms! …Then, even if you die, you leave behind the proof that you are a man… forever…' he would do a lot of thinking that night.

I am particularly proud of how this chapter came along,, I honestly expected to barely reach the 2,000 words, yet I couldn't stop until my 'done' alarm sounded, leaving me to end it there.

I'm sure most of you will be wondering why the hell did I make a blood clone, and the answer will be revealed in or around the battle of the bridge as it was planned.

Update on the poll

1st Fuu and Karin

2nd Shizuka

3rd Haku and Temari

Whatever happened to the Shizuka/Naruto supporters out there, I honestly expected her to be the first by a large edge.

On the updates: around next week onwards and those general dates of every moth my school starts with projects so they can grade the sucject, So unless I start them now (not likely since they haven't explained but two out of eight projects) the updates will be slower around those days, at least until december or on the easter break, or on the summer.

That's all for today, wait for the next chapter.

Translation

chakura no pointorirīsu=chakra point release