Next day
Inside a forest
Naruto has made a full recovery so they can start the training now. Sasuke was still upset with Naruto for hiding things from him just ignored him. While Sakura felt herself really uncomfortable standing next to Naruto, after what happen yesterday. Kakashi standing opposite if his students and observe them with critical eye. He then turned to Naruto. This boy has secrets and even made sure that they won't be able to discover easily. Just what kind of secrets did he hide that he won't even trust Hokage-sama to know?
"Alright, we will start out training now. As I said yesterday, today we will learn to improve our chakra control by the exercise, which called tree climbing exercise" explained Kakashi, and then he turned to Naruto and said. "Naruto, you said that you already knew how to do so could you show Sakura what need to be done"
Naruto nodded his head and replied
"Ok, sensei". Then he turned to Sakura and began the explanation. "What you need to do is to mold your chakra to the bottom of your feet then maintain them to stick to the tree, like this...". Just that Naruto began to walk to the tree calmly that amazed Sakura greatly. He walked to a branch and hang upside down. "Only when you were able to fully master the exercise, you can do something like this. For the first time, just run up the tree and used a kunai to mark your progress. Try to make a mark higher with each time you climb".
Sakura nodded her head, understood Naruto's explanation. But she was still curios about this exercise usefulness and asked Kakashi.
"Ne, sensei?". Kakashi turned to her. "I understood what need to do, but how this exercise will me make stronger?"
"Shinobi need to concentrate chakra and maintain them most of time during battles. But, most of shinobis wasted much of their chakra to execute the technique. In a battle if you waste chakra like that, you will quickly become exhausted and become an easy target for the enemy. To repeat this exercise multiple times will not only improve your chakra control, but also your chakra reserves. That's why even Kages doing this exercise to improve both their chakra control and chakra reserves" explained Kakashi then was about turn to leave. "Sakura, you try to master the exercise". He turned to Sasuke and Naruto then asked."I guessed that you two will do your own training, right?". Both of them just nodded."When you all have done, return to Tazuna's house, I will be there". With that he left team 7 to their training.
Naruto then looked at Sasuke who turned away from him. Naruto approached him and pulled out two scrolls from his pouch and said
"This is two new Katon jutsu's, I promised that I will teach you. Try to master them by the time we will fight Zabuza. Also increased the gravity seal to Lv 7, you will be handle it just fine". Naruto was about to walk away, but he stopped and said "I understand why you not want to talk with me. But I just want you to understand that even if you considered you like my brother there were somethings that I can't tell you. Not because I don't trust you, but because it will damage your heart greatly". Sasuke turned to look at Naruto's back with confused expression. He doesn't understand what Naruto want to say.
Naruto was about to walk away, but Sakura's voice called out to him from behind cause him to turn to her.
"Naruto-kun!"
"What is it, Sakura-chan?"
Sakura fidgeted nervously recalling yesterday's incident.
"Um...ano...about yesterday. I..."
"I understand what you want to say, Sakura-chan. But, forgive me because I can't reply your feelings, for now". Sakura looked down hurt and tried not to cry. Naruto seeing that started to rephrase. "No, no don't get me wrong. You are an incredible girl, Sakura-chan. You smart, determined and very kind girl. The problem is not in you, but in me. Not because I don't feel anything to you. But because I have matters. The matters that I need to do. I can't be allowed to be distracted until I finished that goal. That's why I didn't respond to your feelings yesterday night. The same is with Ino-san. I can only be your friend Sakura-chan. That's all, I can offer now"
Sakura heard that Naruto said that he felt something to her and that calmed her down a bit. But she still feel disappoint because he didn't want a relationship now. But she won't give up. Naruto said that he felt something to her, so that is her hope to win his heart.
"I understand, Naruto-kun. Then I will wait for you. Wait till you are ready to accept my feelings. Wait till you ready to accept my heart" said Sakura with so much emotion and touching her heart. Naruto looked wide eyes at her reply. Sakura looked up and smiled a little at Naruto, which cause Naruto to smile faintly. Sakura then recalled what she really wanted to ask. "Naruto-kun, I want you to train me". Naruto looked surprise at her request and was about to ask why she suddenly decided to do that. "After yesterday's encounter with Zabuza, I understand that I was completely useless back then. I could only stand there and watch how sensei and Sasuke fight. Even when you were caught in Suirou no jutsu, I could only do one thing and that is to scream out your name". Sakura looked down and gripped her knuckles tighter. "I don't want to be a burden to the team anymore. I want to be strong. I want to be a proud kunoichi that could stand by your side and fight together with. Not to stand aside and watch how my own battle was fight for me. I want to be strong to be worthy of you, Naruto-kun". Sakura finished with so much determination in her eyes. He never saw so much determination blazing in her eyes. Naruto smiled and rubbed her head.
"Ok, but I will not be able to presence myself to watch over your training so I will leave my clone here. I also need to training in order to prepare for the fight that will come"
Sakura hearing that and her eyes shine with gratitude. "Arigato, Naruto-kun. I promised you won't regret it". Naruto smirked darkly and replied "Oh, but I assure you, Sakura-chan. You will regret it, because my training is hell"
Sakura shivered and already felt regret at her decision. But first she must master the chakra training exercise first.
With Sasuke
Sasuke is reading the first scroll, which contains Naruto's original Katon jutsu. Katon: Ryūō Bakuenjin aka Dragon king's exploding flame . The technique is an offensive move that surround yourself with chakra and then shaped it to a dragon. Then unleashed it with a blinding speed with destructive force at your opponent. Naruto's second technique is called Katon: Enjinken aka Blazing God Fist. It's a ninjutsu technique to surround your fist with Katon chakra to execute deadly taijutsu moves as well as unleashed blazing chakra attacks from the fists. So far his progress was not really good. But as expected those techniques that was invent by Naruto all are A-class technique bordering S-class. And Naruto gave him this techniques for him to master. It is really am honor to have these techniques in his arsenal. Naruto truly is a genius in shinobi arts.
With Sakura
Sakura, as expected, had managed to finished the climbing tree exercise really quickly, due for her being a female so her reserves were not so big. But because of that, Naruto's clone ordered for her to do that exercise again until she exhausted herself. Sakura already regrets about her decision, but even so she want to be stronger to not be a burden to her team anymore. She wanted to be a medic-nin, but she didn't want to be like regular medic-nin, that could only support. No, she wants to be like Senju Tsunade to be able to fight as well as heal her comrades. Naruto's clone said Sakura has a nearly perfect chakra control so she also planned to learn genjutsu incase she need to fool her enemy.
With Naruto
Naruto walked further into the forest and began to tried out his new Fuuton moves.
"Fuuton: Fuujintoppa!"( Wind God Breakthrough)
Naruto inhale and exhale a spectral figure that roared loudly and rushed forward and destroyed everything in his path. The trees were seen flying up from the technique. After executing the technique, Naruto took a deep breath, while closing his eyes. Then he opened his eyes and narrowed them as he saw there was a hidden cave that was hidden between two really old huge trees, but they upper part was already being destroyed by Naruto.
Naruto approached the cave carefully, looked inside for anything unexpected to happen, but nothing happened so he stepped in slowly and took one of the torches, which were surround the side of the cave. Naruto slowly walked in and find different ancient images portrait on the wall of the cave, like it was some kind of story that was engrave on the walls of the cave. Finally, he reached the end of the cave, opposite of him there was writing on a huge bolder:"If you are the Chosen one, then you must have the eye of fate. Opened this entrance and reclaim what rightfully belong to you, the descendant of Sakamoto Reiji"
After he read the writings, Naruto began to think about what this writings is about. Eye of Fate? Sakamoto Reiji, who is he? He thought for a while and suddenly an idea came to him. Maybe the writing is talking about his Uzureigan, though it said that he was the descendant of Sakamoto Reiji. But how is that possible for him to wield Uzureigan if he was not Uzumaki. Besides the only one that should be able to have that eye is he, the Sadame no Uzumaki. But according to what Jushiro-sama told him, that millennia ago there was a person that first wield Uzureigan. Maybe that person was this Sakamoto Reiji. Either way he still needs to try out his idea. So, Naruto closed his right eye and concentrated chakra into it to activate Uzureigan. Then he opened his right eye to reveal Uzureigan in his eye.
Suddenly, the cave began to shake and slowly the huge boulder began to split in half and when it completely opened and the cave stopped shaking, it revealed a treasure chest inside. Naruto moved closer then opened the chest, which reveal a scroll inside, a very old-looking scroll. He opened it carefully and read.
"Rokushiki?". Then he proceed to read more. "Rokushiki was a taijutsu style created by Sakamoto Reiji. This style was specifically developed for incredible strong humans with incredible endurance. Rokushiki itself consist of six moves: Geppo, Tekkai, Shigan, Soru, Kami-e and Rankyaku. Geppo is a Rokushiki move that allowed the user to kick the air to float in the sky. This technique could be used to travel to long distance while not touching the ground. Tekkai is a technique where the user enhanced his muscule to the extent of iron to nullify the damage caused by enemies attack. Tekkai also could be used as an offensive move by enhancing the density of muscles to produce devastating attacks, like Tsunade's chakra infused punch. Shigan, is a move where the user could drill fingers to target's body, at very high speed, that leave a wound like that of bullet wound. It is very deadly if you could use this technique at enemy's vital points they will die instantly. Soru is a speed technique like Shunshin, that helped the user to move very fast. It can be used as defensive to avoid enemy's attack through high speed, or as offensive to deliver fast blows at the enemy so that they will be dead before they could realize anything. Kami-e is a defensive technique, that made the body go limp and float like a paper to avoid attacks. And finally Rankyaku is an offensive technique. The user must kicked the air with such speed and strength that it created a compressed air blade that could slice objects and when hit the human body the effect will be very deadly. The one that could fully master all six moves will gain acces to the ultimate move of Rokushiki, Rokushiki Ougi: Rokuougan. The user concentrate an incredible amount of chakra in his fists and unleashed them at his target, which will then caused a shock wave that could easily destroy a building"
Naruto was in awe at the power of Rokushiki. He just wondered why no one managed to find this cave though. He decided that he will start practicing Rokushiki from this moment to increase his stamina as well as his taijutsu techniques. He proceeds to create as many clones as he could and ordered them to practice one move each.
With Sakura
Sakura felt like crap from all those trainings. First, she must stick for a tree and fight like an hour with Naruto's clone. Then he ordered her to increase the LV of gravity seal to 6 and told her try to get used to the weight and again told her to climb trees with the gravity seal active. Then he told her to punch a tree so that she could pulverize it with one punch like Tsunade. It's not really difficult for her to do that because of her near perfect chakra control, though the problem was her chakra reserve. Even though, the tree climbing exercise managed to expand her reserve, but there was still room for improvement. She asked Naruto clone, so that she could rest a little and to be done for today. Naruto's clone agreed, this is her first training with him after all. So he dispersed and Sakura sighed in relief and sat down to the ground exhausted.
"Man, never knew that training with Naruto-kun will be this hard. But I could feel it" said Sakura and looked down at her fist, which she clenched and unclenched it slowly."I could feel that I've become stronger than before. I will need to train harder in order keep up with my teammates"
Sakura stood up and go to Tazuna's house. On the way, she wondered what kind of training Sasuke and Naruto is doing now? She went in the house and walked to the kitchen. There, she saw Tsunami was about to prepare to go to the market, but she was also seen cooked, so Sakura offered her help. Tsunami thanked her for that. Tazuna decided to go with her to guide her to the market.
As they are walking, Sakura looked around and saw that most of the people were on the street. They all looked really miserable and homeless.
"This is what all started after Gatoh has take over our country. All who opposed him will be taken care off. That's why the bridge is our only hope. It will be the symbol of courage to this village once more" said Tazuna.
Sakura looked around the people once more and thought with determination
'Naruto-kun... Sasuke..., we must help the people of this country'. Then she recalled something in Tazuna's story and asked.
"You said that the bridge will become the symbol of courage once more. Did that mean that there was a symbol of courage in the past?"
Tazuna didn't answer but just looked down to the ground and the hat shadowed his eyes. Sakura began to feel horrible for offending him, she was about to apologize, but Tazuna replied
"I will tell you about that at the dinner"
Sakura blinked questionably, but decided to stay silent.
Time skip
After the shopping, they returned to Tazuna's house. Sakura helped Tsunami with the cooking. When they are done, Sasuke appeared, he looked pretty roughed up and there was some burn mark on his clothes. He was panting and his hands on was on his knees to support him. Kakashi was reading his Icha Icha, noticed Sasuke and looked up and asked
"You looked pretty rough up, Sasuke. What kind of training did you do?"
"Naruto gave me 2 high level Katon jutsus and I am trying to master them. Pretty hard, if you asked me. But I will master them when Zabuza decided to return" said Sasuke and sat to his seat.
"Naruto-kun still but here yet. Maybe I will go and search for him" proposed Sakura in concern.
"No need for that. Naruto was a slave-driver when it comes to training others, but his own training is far more insane. He will return when he want. I've known him for 5 years, he will he fine" said Sasuke and began to dig on his food with lightning speed. And so they start to eat the dinner.
After the dinner, Sakura looked at the picture and and so that the far right part was ripped so she decided to ask.
"Ano, why is this picture was torn up there?". Sakura asked while pointing at the ripped out part. "I saw Inari-kun, looked at the picture the while time during diner. This torn part looks like someone intentionally tore away the person who was there"
After she said that, Tazuna's, Inari's and Tsunami's face become solemn. Kakashi and Sasuke also noticed that and began to pay attention.
"It's my husband" answered Tsunami while washing dishes.
"I did say that I will told you about the former symbol of courage when everyone will gather, right?" Sakura nodded her head and Tazuna began to tell then the story. "He was a man that was once known as the hero of this town..."
When Tazuna started to retell the story, Inari stood up and walked away. Tsunami asked where he is going, but he just left and slammed the door. Then she turned back to Tazuna and said displeasingly. "Tou-san, I told you to not talk about him in front of Inari". With that she left to follow Inari.
"What's wrong with, Inari-kun?" asked Sakura.
"There must be a reason behind this" deduced Kakashi.
"Inari had a dad that wasn't related to him". And so Tazuna began to tell them about the man named Kaiza, a simple fisherman but managed to bring the courage from people's heart by proving that with enough desire you could make the impossible possible. He proved that when he swam to the other side when the flood happened. But then Gatoh came and execute Kaiza in front of everyone to make example. Inari never believed in heroes since that time, because to him heroes didn't existed, because they will eventually die.
Next morning
In the forest
Naruto was sleeping heavily lying in the ground. From all those training yesterday, he felt really tired. Not far from him, there was a pretty girl with brown eyes and pink yukata that gathering the herbs. She noticed Naruto and recalled that it was the same boy, that nearly killed her master. At first she decide to snap his neck and end his life, but for some reason she rethinks and decided to wake him up.
"Hey, wake up! You are going to catch a cold if you sleep there" said the girl.
Naruto groggily woke up and rubbed his eyes to clear his vision then asked
"Who are you?"
The girl jutsy smiled softly at him. Naruto blinked then looked at the girl and asked "Did you wake me up? And what are you doing here so early?"
"Picking herbs" the girl answered simply.
"Herbs? For who?"
"For my precious person"
Naruto decided to offer his help then.
"Then would you not mind that I will help you?"
"No, of course not" replied the girl. And so they began to pick up the herbs. The girl decided to ask, while looking from the corner of her eye. "Why are you up so early in the morning?"
Naruto didn't looked back at her but continue to pick up the plant on the ground, though still answered "I trained since yesterday, but exhausted myself too much so I slept here to replenish my energy"
"Training? So you are a shinobi or something?" asked the girl.
"Yes, I am shinobi. The hitai-ate on my biceps proved that after all" replied Naruto.
"You are pretty strong already. So why you need to train even more. For what or who do you fighting for?" asked the girl.
Naruto turned to face her and asked back. "Do you satisfy with the current world?". The girl looked at him strangely while wondered why he asked something so strange. "All these fightings, all these killings. Children were forced to become shinobi and then died on missions. Do you satisfied with a world like this?". Naruto then looked up at the sky and continued. "I am not. That's why I need to be stronger in order to change this world with my hands"
The girl was shocked at what he just said. She looked at his eyes and saw controller hatred, justice and leadership in his eyes.
"You are really amazing. But do you have precious person or people?"
Naruto narrowed his eyes and wondered why she asked that question.
"Why does it matter?"
"I believed that the person is able to become truly strong when they wish to protect someone they cherish"
That phrase caused Naruto's eyes to widen in wonder and agreement. He completely agreed with her, but not everything is so simple, sometimes your precious person won't be able to understand you and you will be forced to hurt him or her.
The girl then stood up with a basket of herbs and was about to walk away. But before she do that she decided to ask.
"You are a really interesting person. Could you tell me your name? I'd like to meet with you one more time. I am Haku by the way. Oh, and I am a boy, by the way"
Naruto snorted at her reply and said
"You may be able to fool the others, but not me. You are a girl". Naruto then smirked at her and asked"Or do you want me to prove that fact by tearing your clothes apart?". Haku blushed heavily at his suggestion, she covered herself on instinct which proved the fact that Naruto was right.
"I am Naruto Uzumaki. And you won't need to wait for us to meet again. I am planning to go Zabuza's hideout just now" said Naruto, then narrowed his eyes and finished his sentence. "Ne, hunternin-san?"
Haku widens her eyes at being found out and prepared to fight Naruto. All the while looking at Naruto's crystal blue orbs nervously.