Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, One Punch Man, or any other Anime/Game/Movie referenced to in this fanfiction.

Naruto: First of his Kind

Chapter Eight: Encounters in the Forest

"Talking"

Thinking

"Shouting" - Emphasized Word - Jutsu

It didn't take him that long to find his team, especially given the fact that he had only been gone for a few hours at best. They were still traveling down a road toward Wave, and he caught up to Sasuke, falling in stride beside his pupil and leaning close.

"Sorry about that, something happened that required my immediate attention." He said simply, and the other Genin just nodded. He knew Sasuke didn't care what he did as long as he trained him on his special regimen, but he was trying to humanize the dark haired Uchiha, and he believed he was making some breakthroughs with the boy.

"Anyway, anything interesting happen while I was gone?" He asked Sasuke, and the boy turned his attention fully to him for a moment before turning back to the road ahead.

"Not really, we mostly voted on continuing the mission, and Kakashi-sensei said something about reprimanding you once the mission was over." Naruto sighed at that, but nodded nonetheless. He turned his attention from Sasuke to the other teammate, who was watching the exchange with some interest.

"Where did you go?" She asked simply and he watched her for a moment before answering, something that seemed to unnerve her but before she could reformulate her question or even withdraw it outright, Sasuke nodded and turned his attention to Naruto as well.

"I would also like to know, sensei. It wasn't long since you were gone but the technique used is quite like that of the Fourth Hokage…the Hiraishin." Naruto sighed, leave it to Sasuke to put two and two together for a solid four. His eyes darted from one teen to the other before he nodded seriously and replied.

"I was here and then I was there…but then I came back here." His tone was serious as he spoke and his face a mask of impassiveness. The two other Genin facevaulted at that and Sakura was about to really let loose on the blonde, when she heard Sasuke sigh and smack his sensei upside the head.

"This is serious, sensei! You're going to be reprimanded, and by the sound of Kakashi's voice he was dead serious about it, so don't think it will be just a stern talking to you're getting!" The words were harsh and said in just the right tone that Naruto couldn't help but nod and look seriously at his pupil for a moment, before regaling him with the tale of Anko's plight.

"…and that's why I disappeared the way I did, Anko-chan was in trouble and I needed to help her with her…problem." He knew Kakashi was listening in on their conversation, despite walking beside the bridge builder quite a few paces ahead of the trio. Naruto then turned his attention from the other two, and toward the road ahead, they were coming close to a boat, which would be their transport through the riverbank.

"I doubt Kakashi-sensei is going to be too harsh with the punishment, given the reasoning of why I had to leave, but I'm willing to accept almost any punishment he sees fit to give me, if it means Anko-chan is safe." He said simply before quickening his pace and walking ahead of the other two, who had pensive looks on their faces.

The trip across the riverbank was a short one thanks to an enthusiastic Naruto who offered to row the boat. Once they were on the other side the other occupants of said boat left dizzily, Sasuke even going as far as kneeling on the ground and kissing the sandy shores. "Sweet earth, I'll never leave you again!"

"Dramatic much?" Naruto said, a deadpan expression on his face. Kakashi gave everyone a moment to recompose themselves, before they continued on their way. As they walked Naruto kept thinking on Anko-chan's mission and how it seemed like someone was trying to set her up to die, or worse, get captured. He had to wonder if said someone would enjoy a fist to the face as much as they seemed to enjoy fucking with other people's lives.

His attention came back to the outside world when Sakura threw a kunai at a random bush, causing a snowy white rabbit to jump out of it in fright. Naruto went to the poor thing and held it to his chest caressing its fur. Sakura looked apologetic, and Kakashi-sensei seemed to be pensive about something as he watched the rabbit.

"Everyone, get down!" Came the shout from Kakashi-sensei, and everyone save for him dropped to the ground. Naruto on the other hand stood there, watching as a big ass sword came whizzing through the air, and caught it by the handle as it approached him.

"Ne, Kakashi-sensei…what do I do with this?" He asked, sword still in his grasp, looking at Kakashi, whose lone uncovered eye was wide in astonishment. It took the man a moment to recompose himself, but as he did so, he came to Naruto and from the look he was getting, he was about to be reprimanded, but a voice coming from within the forest stopped Kakashi-sensei.

"So the gaki thinks he's tough." The voice was rough, and seemed to be somewhat muffled by something, and as the figure walked out of the tree line, Naruto understood why. The man wore bandages covering his mouth and up to his nose, his hitai-ate worn sideways on his forehead. He was shirtless; his chest only covered by a belt, which probably served to strap the big ass swords currently in Naruto's grasp.

He wore baggy striped pants, and mimetic wrist warmers that extended to his elbow, along with leg warmers that matched the wrist ones. But what really caught Naruto's attention was the fact that the man appeared to have to eyebrows, and he just had to make that a known fact.

"You've got no eyebrows." He said simply, in his bored monotone, but it seemed to do wonders for the newly arrived enemy's disposition, as the man grew a tick mark and growled at the Genin.

"God damn it! That's it, the gaki dies first!" The enemy proclaimed loudly, and even Kakashi had to chuckle at that, but no one said anything, and Naruto allowed his eyes to travel from the sword he was still holding to the man who was still pointing at him. There was a pause in speech before the man sighed and extended an arm. "…can I have my sword back?" He asked and Naruto nodded, tossing the blade back to the man, who caught it and thanked him before dropping to a stance.

"Kill or incapacitate?" Naruto asked, turning his attention to Kakashi-sensei. Said man looked at him and put a hand to his chin, thinking for a moment.

"Incapacitate, we need answers only he can provide." Naruto nodded at the order and turned his attention back to the missing-nin in front of him. The man was going through handseals when Naruto walked forward, disappearing from sight and reappearing within range of the man. An arm shot forward, a simple punch to the face, caused the man to be sent flying back and dropping to the ground, unmoving.

"One punch, again…" Naruto muttered dejectedly as he walked to the unconscious form of his enemy, before two needles flew and hit the man in the neck. That caught Naruto slightly off guard, and he turned his attention to a newcomer, a masked ninja who dropped to the ground beside Zabuza.

"Thank you for allowing me to kill my target." Naruto looked from the masked ninja to the unconscious one and shrugged nonchalantly.

"We needed answers from him, but what can you do." He spoke in his bored monotone, turning his back to the scene and walking back to his team. "Ne, Kakashi-sensei, he's dead…this masked ninja threw some senbon at his neck and he wasn't breathing anymore." Naruto regaled his story before walking past the Jonin and toward the shocked bridge builder. "So, where's your house, old man? I'm hungry." He said simply, and as Sasuke came to be beside him, asking about the masked ninja and why he let them get away.

"The mask had the symbol for Kirigakure on it, so I assumed he was a ninja from the village hunting him…" Naruto said simply, and Sasuke seemed to accept the answer. As they resumed their trek to the old man's house, Naruto continued to look around for possible threats to them, hoping beyond hope that said threat was someone strong enough to give him a good fight.

They arrived at the old bridge builder's house without any further bother, and Naruto was all the more bored for it. He had spoken to Sasuke and Sakura during their trip, giving pointers to the girl as to how she could carry her training, and when prompted by Sasuke, answering about his own training regimen.

"Tsunami! I'm home!" The old drunk called into the house, and led the four of them inside, Kakashi, ever thoughtful, was the first one inside, dropping to a nearby sofa upon being prompted by Tazuna. Sasuke and Sakura were next, and Sasuke opted to stay standing, and Naruto thought he knew why. He was still wearing the training weights Naruto had told him to wear, and the long trek had probably exhausted the trainee, so if he sat down now he probably wouldn't be able to get back up.

Sakura had no such obligation, and graciously sat down at a chair in one corner of the room, thinking to herself. Naruto decided to leave her to her own devices, focusing instead on the arriving Tsunami and the kid that came with her.

"These are the ninja I've hired to help us." The old man stated, and Naruto tilted his head slightly, listening in on the conversation. "They don't look like much, but the blond brat beat one of the stronger ones with one punch!" Naruto lost interest in the rest of the conversation, preferring to think about other things, like what they would be eating that night. He was, as always, partial to Ramen, but he could eat just about anything with how hungry he was…it'd been busy few days with little to eat.

Eventually they were led to the dining room, where a small feast awaited them. Naruto took his seat next to Sasuke and thanked Tsunami for the meal before he began to help himself to the food. Rice, beef, some sauce and vegetables…it all looked absolutely delicious, so he got a bit of everything on his plate before he began eating with gusto, but not fast enough to be seen as bad mannered.

"Why are you even trying?" Came a voice from the stair, which Naruto promptly ignored, and continued eating his food. "Gato will just kill you like he does everyone that opposes him!" The boy continued and if Naruto was honest his whining was getting on his nerves, Sasuke rebuked him saying they wouldn't lose as long as his sensei was with them, but the kid wouldn't budge. "You know nothing of suffering! You live a good life in your village while the rest of us suffer!" Naruto raised an eyebrow at that.

"Live a good life?" He asked in his usual monotone, but not bored, it was just devoid of emotion. "Kid, you have had it rough, I won't deny that, but there's always someone who's got it worse…take Sasuke here for example." Naruto stopped and looked to his pupil for confirmation before continuing, which he got when Sasuke nodded to him. "His own brother murdered his whole family one night, and made him watch it all over and over again in a Genjutsu" Naruto could talk about his own life, but really, no one needed to know all the things he went through before he was even five years old. "He was alone and angry for many years before we met."

Sasuke had gotten up as he spoke, the memory of his family's murder apparently being too much for him, and left the house quietly as he spoke. Naruto noticed that Kakashi was looking at him with a questioning look, but didn't answer it, just turning back to his food and eating some more. As Sakura was about to leave to go after Sasuke, he took her by the arm and shook his head.

"Leave him be for tonight, I'll find him tomorrow if he doesn't return by then."

"You'll catch a cold if you sleep outside like this." Came a soft voice, and his opened to the sight of the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. He watched her smile down at him for a moment before he pushed himself off the ground. He'd really spent himself training the night before, to not wake up as she approached.

None of them spoke, and he looked at the person's outfit, noticing she wore a pink sleeveless kimono, with pale-red edges and decorated with plum-colored whirls, she also wore a dark choker on her neck, sandals and an obi tied in a bow around her waist. Deeming her not a threat at the moment; he couldn't sense any chakra from her, and although not being a sensor himself, he had prided himself in his sensing capabilities; Sasuke introduced himself and asked her what exactly she was doing out there on her own, as it was rather dangerous given Gato was still out and about.

"I'm Haku, and I'm collecting some herbs for a friend who's fallen ill." Sasuke grunted in answer and offered to help, which she gracefully accepted. He blushed a little at the smile she gave him, averting his gaze slightly. What was this feeling? He'd never felt anything like it before, being shy in front of someone, blushing, of all things.

"Judging by that hitai-ate, I'd say you're a ninja, yes, Sasuke-san?" She asked and he nodded, it wasn't like he was trying to hide it anyway, not with wearing the hitai-ate out in the open like he was. "So you must be really strong, yes?" She asked, and not really waiting for a reply, continued. "You must have someone precious to you that you want to protect. I believe that only when one has someone precious to them, can they truly become strong."

Sasuke was about to outright scoff at the mere idea, when Naruto-sensei flashed in his mind, always accompanied by that woman, his Anko-chan. How he would talk about her most of the time, how he disappeared, leaving them to go to her side when she was in trouble…maybe that phrase had some merit after all.

"…not really. I've been focusing on my training, I haven't met anyone precious to me yet." He answered finally, and he saw a sad look cross her face before she gave him another one of those beaming smiles of hers, and he blushed again, averting his gaze once again.

"I'm sure you'll find that someone, eventually." She said, and looked down at the basket she carried with her, to see it filled with herbs. "Ah, I have more than enough now…thank you, Sasuke-san." She got up and began walking away, leaving him to his thoughts, but stopping just short of disappearing into the trees. "By the way…I'm a boy." The girl said and left, leaving Sasuke alone.

"…I call bullshit."

He dropped down next to his student who was sitting, alone. He had been searching for Sasuke for the better part of an hour now before finally finding him in the middle of a clearing in the tree line. "Found you." He said in his bored monotone, causing the dark haired Uchiha to turn around and look at him for a moment.

"Sensei…do you believe that having someone precious helps make us strong?" He asked outright and Naruto tilted his head in curiosity for a moment, thinking about the question. When he began training, he'd wanted to become strong enough that he could protect his precious people, like the Sandaime, the Ichiraku family…and after meeting her, Anko-chan. His focus later on became mostly Anko-chan, as she was one of the few that didn't lie to his face about things, she told him what she thought every time they spoke, not holding back even when it hurt his feelings to hear…like that one time she said he had as much a chance of becoming Hokage as she had of becoming the next Snake Sennin.

"Well…to be truthful, I began training to become stronger because I wanted to be able to protect Jiji and the Ichiraku…nowadays I would train mostly to keep Anko-chan safe…anyway, yes I do believe that having someone precious helps make you strong. But that doesn't mean only having someone precious makes you stronger, you have to pour your sweat into training, no matter how hard, no matter how exhausted it makes you…" He saw Sasuke brighten at that, and felt he had done the right thing for his student.

"Besides, you'll find you precious people eventually. I didn't know Anko-chan from the start, you know." He said, and that seemed to be the right thing again, as Sasuke's mood brightened further still. The two of them stood there, one facing the other for a while, before Sasuke dropped into a fighting stance and asked for a spar.

"I feel like I can fight better with these weights now…maybe I'll even beat you this time." Naruto smirked at that and stood there. He had never studied a fighting style, doing it mostly on instinct and reflexes. One could say his stance was having no stance. Sasuke launched himself at him at speeds he could easily dodge, but had to hold himself back, knowing he was to fight at a certain level to give the boy a chance.

He was forced to block a few strikes that came too close to hitting him for comfort. They fought like that for a while, Naruto on the defensive and Sasuke attacking nonstop. All the while wearing the weights he'd made the last Uchiha use for training. He had improved, obviously, but unfortunately, not enough. Naruto saw an opening as he blocked another kick aimed at his face, and launched into the offensive. The first punch connected with the boy's chest, causing him to stumble backward, a hand coming to the place hit.

Not giving him time to recuperate, Naruto continued, a low kick to drop the boy to the ground, and after that he mounted the downed Uchiha and began the assault, raining punch after punch on his face. He stopped after a while and pulled back, a bored look on his face.

"Yeah…you're almost there, but not quite yet. You've improved quite a bit, Sasuke, I bet that without the weights on you'd have won the match, but until you can beat me at this strength with the weights, you haven't advanced enough." Naruto said truthfully before he dropped down next to Sasuke and looked at the boy. He wasn't gritting his teeth as he would when being beat before, he didn't have that scowl on his face this time around, he looked pensive, and almost at peace with his current condition.

"Ne, sensei…I was thinking…" Sasuke began, and he turned his attention once again to the Uchiha, letting his thoughts of Anko-chan and if she was okay fall to the back of his mind for the moment. "You're the last Uzumaki, right?" At his nod, Sasuke continued. "How did you dodge the CRA?" He laughed at that, not at Sasuke, but at what he believed to be the thought behind the question.

"In my case it was pretty easy…the Uzumaki aren't a Konoha clan, they were from Uzushiogakure. That simple fact ceased all talks of placing me under the CRA's grasp. I don't know how you will be able to dodge it as well, but you have my full support whatever you decide to do to dodge it…short of leaving the village, that is." Naruto said before he tapped the boy on the forehead and got up from his position beside him.

"Let's go, I bet Kakashi-sensei is dying of worry for us right now." He said in his bored monotone, causing the last Uchiha to laugh outright, even as he followed him.

AN: Took a while to post a new chapter, sorry. To be completely honest with you all I had a small case of writer's block during the last week, up until today, when new ideas came whirling into my head. For example, I might be rewriting Immortal Effect completely, as well as Into the Age of Dragons. I love both stories but didn't exactly like where they were going, so I'm going to rewrite them...well...Immortal Effect is gonna be a minor rewrite, a lot of things will remain the same, but there will be some changes. Into the Age of Dragons is the big rewrite.

Anyway, expect the rewrites to come out soon enough...well as soon as the new ideas for this story stop =P which could be a while yet, as I'm brimming with newfound energy to write this ._.

Let's answer them reviews shall we?

Grounded Forever: Hmm...sorry? I was pretty sure it would be an easy to understand chapter...maybe I was wrong then '-'

BeastyD22: Thanks =D Here's to hoping you continue to enjoy my story.

Resurrection99: You're breathtaking...ahem...thanks =D

Guest: Yeah I've seen a few myself and it's always Wakanda Forever...I can't speak for others but I'm not much of a movie goer, I am however, a huge Comic/Anime/Horror/Gaming fan, and I've watched Avengers and Black Panther a few times now...so I know him from there personally, and I really loved T'Challa as played by him, so my small tribute to the man was in the form of the role I knew him from.

As always, thank you all for your time and reviews 3

See ya \o