Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 1: Meeting a tool

Naruto was tired. He, along with the rest of Team 7, had only been back in the village for a day after their first C-ranked mission to Wave. It had been a long month, with the team protecting Tazuna and his family while the old master bridge builder completed the bridge connecting his nation with the Land of Fire. It had initially gone poorly for the genin squad and their team leader, having been ambushed by the Demon Brothers first, followed by Momochi Zabuza. Even with Kakashi-sensei's help, they'd almost failed their assignment until Zabuza was killed by a Kiri Hunter-nin.

He crawled out of bed and got in the shower. The cold water hitting him helped to wake him up fully, and he finished soaping up and rinsing off quickly before stepping out and getting dressed in his normal orange and blue jumpsuit and blue ninja sandals. As he was about to make some ramen for breakfast, he heard a knock on his door. Grumbling to himself about early morning visitors, he opened it to see an ANBU standing there. A female with long purple hair and a Cat mask.

"Good morning, Uzumaki-san. The Hokage would like to speak with you about an urgent matter. Please come with me.", she said, her voice distorted some by the mask she wore. He grumbled for a moment before nodding his head in acceptance. She grabbed his shoulder, and they quickly disappeared, leaving only a few leaves behind them to fall to the ground.

They reappeared inside the Hokage's office moments later. Naruto was glad he hadn't eaten anything yet, as the multiple short jumps to get here had unsettled his stomach somewhat. Looking up, he saw the Hokage standing behind his desk, gazing out the large windows that overlooked the whole village. Standing straight, he glowered somewhat at his surrogate grandfather. "Hey Jiji, what's the big deal?! I haven't even had my morning ramen yet!", he cried out.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, turned to face the boy with a gentle smile. The boy was one of only a handful of people who never called him by his title, and he always found it refreshing. He turned to his ANBU, Cat, who was kneeling next to the boy, and signaled that she was free to leave before turning back to answer the hyperactive ninja. "Good morning to you, Naruto. I know it's early and you're officially on leave after your latest mission, but something was just cleared late last night that involves you directly and I wanted us to deal with it as soon as we could." He looked over Naruto's shoulder somewhat pointedly, causing the boy to look around and almost jump out of his skin in fright.

There were two people standing by the door. The larger one was someone he thought was dead, although his sensei had been making them train on the off-chance that he wasn't. Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist, and one of the last living members of Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Unlike the last time Naruto saw him, he wore a black half-mask that covered the lower half of his face, just like Kakashi, as well as a tight sleeveless black shirt. His pants and arm warmers were also different, dark grey with dark blue stripes going down their length. He also wore a dark blue waist guard, and he still wore his headband sideways on his forehead.

The second person he didn't recognize at all. It was a girl, a very, very, pretty girl. She had long black hair that went down her back, almost to her waist, and dark-brown eyes. She was wearing a nice pink kimono with red fabric lining the edges that went down to just above her knees, that was held in place with a plain white obi tied in a bow. He also saw she had a simple black choker around her neck, pale pink stocking-like sleeves that ran from mid-thigh to her ankles, and plain wooden platform sandals on her feet. Her toenails and fingernails were pained a deep sea blue-green color. She smiled at him as he looked at her.

He turned back to the Hokage and asked, "Hey Jiji, what're no-brows and the pretty girl doing here? WAIT!", he spun back around and pointed a finger at the now eye-twitching Demon, and yelled, "You were dead! We saw that Kiri Hunter-nin take you out! But Kakashi-sensei warned us you weren't dead and would come after us again on the bridge. But you didn't! And then Gato came with his goons and we took them out, and…" He was rambling now in his confusion and excitement. He stopped when the Hokage cleared his thought to get his attention.

Once he had it, the Hokage started to explain. "As you can see, Momochi Zabuza-san is clearly alive. After being put into a temporary death-like state by his associate, Yuki Haku-san, it took him almost a week to be healed. During that time something happened that caused both of them to decide to give up their last job and make their way here to Konoha and request a meeting with me. What they had to say was startling, to say the least, but they have been under evaluation from our ANBU T&I division for the past several weeks and were just cleared last night to begin their new careers as shinobi of the leaf. The agreement was that they would be on probation for the next year, and during that time they would be passing on their skills to a predetermined shinobi we have selected." Here the Hokage sat down behind his desk and pulled his pipe from out of one of the drawers. Packing it with tobacco, he lit a flame on one of his fingers long enough to light the tobacco and draw a deep, relaxing breath before he continued. "That shinobi is you, Naruto-kun."

Naruto stared at him as his jaw began to drop. He turned his body halfway as his head kept going back and forth between the Hokage and his guests. Finally, he pointed his finger at Zabuza as he looked back at the Hokage and screamed, "Why would I want to learn from no-brows?! Kakashi-sensei is finally starting to teach us stuff now, so what could I learn from a guy that we defeated?!" Behind him, the twitching above Zabuza's eye increased as the vein on his forehead started to throb. Haku just covered her mouth with her hand to hide her small giggle that was trying to escape.

Chuckling a bit himself, Hiruzen shook his head at the boy's antics. "Whether or not you defeated him, Naruto-kun, doesn't change the fact that Momochi-san is one of the most skilled kenjutsu practitioners in the Elemental Nations, along with his unparalleled skill in the Silent Killing technique and mastery of water style ninjutsu. And Yuki-san, herself, is also quite skilled. They have much that they can teach you that Kakashi, gifted though he may be, won't have the time for. You'll still be joining your team training and missions, so you'll still be spending time with them." Hiruzen made a mental note to speak with Kakashi about Naruto's 'finally starting to teach' comment. They'd been a team for a while now, and there was no reason to take so long to help each of his genin to develop their strengths.

Naruto frowned, his finger still pointing at 'no-brows' forgotten for the moment, as he thought things through. He looked back up at his Jiji. "How will that work? If I have training with my team, how will I be able to train with them too? Kakashi keeps us waiting long enough every day before he shows up as it is, I can't wait for them too." Hiruzen frowned at the fact Kakashi was forcing his team to wait for him each day. It has been long enough to mourn his former teammate's death, some habits needed to stop. He shook his head gently to refocus.

"That shouldn't be too much trouble for you, Naruto. You have the perfect solution for it already." He smiled at the look of incomprehension.

"…Huh?", came the intelligent reply.

Hiruzen just smiled and asked, "Naruto, you know the shadow clone jutsu, do you not?" At the boy's nod, he continued, "And you do know that anything your clones learn gets transferred to you when they dispel, don't you?" The boy stared at him in confusion, before his eyes got wide and he swung his finger to point at the old man. "So you see? You already have a method to learn from both of them and Kakashi at the same time. We'll just have to limit how many clones you use at the start so you don't overload your brain from the feedback. It's the reason that jutsu was in the Scroll of Seals, to begin with. Overuse can lead to brain damage from the feedback, as well as chakra exhaustion for those that don't have strong enough chakra reserves to use it."

Naruto just stared at his Hokage for a minute to process it all before he finally lowered his hand back to his side. A little while later he looked up at the man and asked one last question. "Why me?"

The answer came from behind him. A small, soft hand gently rested on his shoulder, causing him to look back into Haku's pretty face. "Because we asked it to be you." She knew he wouldn't understand, and so looked at the Hokage for permission to explain. Getting a nod, she refocused back on Naruto. "Naruto-kun, for you, the mission to wave was a small hurdle to overcome. After I faked Zabuza's death, the original plan was to let him heal to full strength before we met you and your team on the bridge to kill you and then our target, Tazuna-san." His eyes hardened a bit when she said that. "The plan changed, though, the next morning. Zabuza-sama and I had a…let's call it an inspiration, that led us to believe the likely result of us going through with that plan would be our deaths." She watched his expression soften with concern a little.

"How could you know that?", he asked.

Haku closed her eyes for a bit. "We're not entirely sure how, but Zabuza-sama and I received flashes of memories. Some of those flashes were of a battle on the bridge that was being built, where you defeated me only for me to jump in the way of your sensei's final attack on Zabuza-sama. I died, Naruto-kun, in those memories. Then, I was alive again, somewhat, and Zabuza-sama and I were joined with other members of the former Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, attacking an army. Your sensei was there again, and as we were finally defeated again, told us that you had gone on to be a great shinobi since our last meeting, years before." Haku opened her eyes and stared directly into his. "These memories were potential futures, and while some of the things we learned from them brought a sense of peace, it changed our priorities."

Zabuza moved away from the wall at this point and joined the conversation. "What she means, brat, is that some of the things we learned from these memories directly linked to you. And while the peace Haku mentioned certainly helped us deal with some things, neither of us feel like dying just to prove these memories right or wrong. With the way things are going in Kiri right now, even with our help, we don't think the civil war will end any sooner than we want it to. Our best move was to surrender ourselves to Konoha, the most likely of the hidden villages to at least hear us out instead of just executing us for our bounties." He shrugged his shoulders, "If the cost of our lives is a little bit of teaching, it's better than having to constantly look over our backs while we moved around and sleeping with one eye open all the time." He wasn't going to admit that he was impressed with the brat's improvised plan to save his sensei back in Wave. Quick thinking like that was a vital skill to any shinobi, but was something most didn't develop until they were ready to be chuunin. From the conversations he'd had with the Hokage over the past few weeks, he knew the kid had only been a genin for less than two months.

Naruto looked at the two of them before turning back to the Hokage. "Is this really something that can help me, Jiji?", he asked his surrogate grandfather.

Hiruzen nodded his head as his face became stern. "It is, Naruto-kun, as long as you take this opportunity and give it everything you have. It will be very difficult. You will be learning several different skills at the same time, but I believe you have what it takes to achieve great things. It's your dream to take my hat, is it not?", he asked the boy. Getting an emphatic nod, he continued, "Then you must take every chance to learn that you can, my boy. A Hokage must be strong, yes. But they must also be skilled in many different disciplines, and masters of several. Pure strength, power without focus, is useless. It must be tempered by knowledge and wisdom that only comes from experience and training." He drew another deep relaxing breath from his pipe before he laid it down in an ashtray and stood up. "Now, you have a week before your team begins doing missions and training again, which gives you a week to get settled into a routine with your new teachers, if you accept them, that is."

Naruto took a deep breath before nodding firmly. Behind him, Haku smiled, and Zabuza's mask hid an excited grin. "You better be ready to hand over that hat, Jiji, 'cause I'm gonna be taking it soon, dattebayo!" Haku giggled at his verbal tic while Hiruzen just smiled.

As the three, now teachers and student, began to walk out the door, Naruto paused before turning back to the Hokage. "Jiji?", he said.

"Was there something else, Naruto-kun?", the Hokage said as he started to pull some forms from the massive pile of paperwork on his desk and read through them.

"You mentioned that shadow clones transfer information when they dispel, right?", he asked.

Hiruzen just nodded, his attention still on the papers in front of him.

Naruto frowned in confusion, "Then why don't you use them to speed up your paperwork? I mean, you could make a couple of shadow clones and cut down how much time you spend in here to a third. Then you'd have more time to spend with Konohamaru and training, like you always complain about."

The Hokage just nodded again for a second before he froze. There was a muffled groan from the corner of the room that everyone except the Hokage turned to look at, which turned out to be a Monkey masked ANBU handing a large stack of ryo to Cat. She took the money, gave Naruto a small salute, and disappeared back to her hidden position in the room. Evidently, the rumors of ANBU making bets on any given subject were true.

The Hokage slowly reached into another drawer on his desk and pulled out a single piece of paper and placed it on his desk. The sheet simply said "strike here", and the Hokage proceeded to slam his head on the paper while repeatedly crying "Stupid, stupid, stupid…" while Naruto just shrugged and led the other two out of the room. As they left, he heard Haku call out, "As he's agreed, Hokage-sama, we'll make sure to get him fully geared out today like planned. I'll make sure they send the bill to the village civilian counsel, as we discussed." The Hokage paused long enough to grunt in agreement, before returning to slamming his face down on his desk.

-=BREAK=-

As they left the Hokage's Tower, Naruto was scratching his chin in thought while sneaking occasional glances at the girl walking next to him. He'd walked through town with Sakura-chan enough times to know that this was not a normal thing. At least for him. Finally, he got enough courage to ask. "Umm, Yuki-san? Could you tell me why you're hanging onto my arm like that?"

Haku just lifted her head from where it rested on his shoulder and blinked at him. "Is this a problem Naruto-kun? And please, call me Haku-chan. We're going to be spending lots of time together now, we should at least be comfortable with each other's names, don't you think?", she said with a bright smile. He just chuckled nervously in response. Yup, this was definitely a new experience for him. He looked around at the people they were passing, and most of them were either scowling at him or looking at Haku with pity.

Before he could so much as scowl back, he felt a heavy killing intent from behind him. Turning, he saw that Zabuza's eyes shined white as a dark miasma seemed to surround him, slowly taking the form of a grotesque demon behind his head. The civilians were gone in moments, running in fear for their lives, before the killing intent went away. Naruto felt Haku place her head back on his shoulder, so he just decided that he wasn't going to ask.

As they walked down the street he realized he had no idea where they were going. When he vocalized this, Haku just said they were walking over to the shinobi shopping district to meet with someone. He accepted that and adjusted the direction they were walking to get there faster. Within a few minutes, they were standing in front of one of the more well-known ninja supply stores in the village. Higurashi's Shinobi Emporium. He'd never been inside, being told it was the highest quality supplier in the village, and he wouldn't have the funds for it. Thinking back now, it was Mizuki who told him that, so he wasn't sure how true that was.

When they entered, it looked pretty busy. He saw several jonin and chuunin browsing the wares, as well as a few genin who he remembered graduating the previous year. Haku quickly dragged him over to the clothing section and started perusing what was available. Confused about why she was looking at the men's clothing, he asked what she was looking for.

"Oh, I'm looking at what they have available for you to wear. Part of our agreement with the Hokage was to get you into some actual ninja clothes, something that wouldn't stand out like the orange you're wearing now. Part of being a shinobi, Naruto, is making sure you take every advantage you can. Clothes that keep you hidden and have a decent amount of armor for protection while you're on missions are important." She smiled at him as she spoke. "How many other ninjas have you seen wearing orange like you do?"

Naruto was stunned. Everyone else just said he was stupid for wearing his jumpsuits, they never explained why. It wasn't his fault it was all he could afford while in the academy! Well, the color had grown on him a bit, true, but if he could get clothes to be a better ninja he'd jump at the chance. His biggest concern was…

"I'm not sure they'll…", he was cut off before he could finish.

"There you are, Ice-chan! Demon-kun! I was wondering when you'd get here. Oh, foxy-kun is here too? That works, I guess. What's the plan?", an extremely cheerful voice came from behind Naruto that caused Haku to freeze in fear for a moment. He watched as she slowly turned to face the person standing behind him with a forced smile on her face.

"Ah hahaha, Mitarashi-san, I wasn't expecting to see you here. How nice to see you today!", she got out with fake cheerfulness. Naruto turned around to see what was going on only to stare at a woman who was obviously very comfortable in her own skin. Obvious, because she was wearing a tan-colored trench coat open to show a mesh suit underneath that hid nothing from view and nothing else other than a short mini-skirt and shinobi sandals on her feet. His face went red at seeing her chest so close to his face like that.

"Like what you see, gaki? Take a good look now, the next time you stare I'll see how good you are at dodging practice. I prefer to lace my senbon and kunai with poison, so it's usually a short experience for most people." The bright and cheery voice of Mitarashi Anko jolted him from his thoughts and he looked up at her too happy smile. His blush drained and left his face pasty white as he recognized the only person to actually catch him in the middle of a prank. He'd tried to dose a group of people at a dango stand once, but she seemed to have a sixth sense about her favorite food and pinned him to a tree while explaining the next time he tried to ruin, in her opinion, Kami's gift to all ninja, she wouldn't be as careful with her aim. Considering she had a kunai set right by his crotch when she said that, he got the message loud and clear.

He also made sure to prank her in her apartment the next time, filling her bedsheets with itching powder and her shampoo with red dye. It was a safer experience to prank her when she wasn't there.

"So, you decided to spend your first day out of T&I shopping, eh? Not a bad idea, Ice-chan. Let's get this gaki a nice little makeover so he actually looks like a ninja, shall we?" She moved over next to Haku, who was still somewhat frozen in fear, to look through the selection they had. Naruto blinked in confusion before looking over to see Zabuza was ignoring everything and just looking through the different blades on display with a keen eye.

Haku finally relaxed enough to see Naruto's confusion and explained quietly. "Mitarashi-san is our handler while we're on probation. She's currently one of the senior members of ANBU's T&I division, and was involved in our vetting process to become shinobi of the leaf." She paused a little bit before admitting, "And she scares the hell out of me."

Haku froze again as Anko draped herself over her shoulders. "Awww, Ice-chan says the nicest things!" Then she extended her tongue well beyond what people would consider normal to lick Haku's cheek, causing the girl to shiver. "Now, let's focus on getting gaki's new look, shall we? We'll have plenty of time to visit later." She then started grabbing several different styles of clothes off the shelves and tossed them at Naruto's face. By the time he reacted, he had a pile almost as tall as he was in his arms. "Go ahead and take those to the dressing rooms, gaki. Try on something and come out for us to see. This might take a while, but I don't want to hear any complaints from you." Orders issued and received, Naruto quickly left to obey.

-=BREAK=-

Hyuuga Hinata was not jealous. It wasn't possible. Just because some cute black-haired bimbo was walking around hanging off of her crush, did not mean that Hinata had any reason to be jealous. Even when they continued on into Higurashi's Shinobi Emporium, she was fine. Not that she was following them or anything, she had to come here anyway. She was looking at replacing her…sandals. Yes, she needed a new pair of sandals, that was it.

She did have to admit to getting flustered when she saw her Naruto-kun staring at that purple-haired harlot's chest. She wondered if she could pull that look off, but shook her head quickly as it turned bright red and steam started to come out of her ears. No way, she couldn't do that. It was too embarrassing. She was so focused on calming down she didn't notice either of the girls she'd been…monitoring…make their way over to her.

"Well, it looks like the little stalker finally came out into the open, wouldn't you say Ice-chan?" Hinata didn't squeal when she heard Anko speak behind her. Turning around quickly she saw both women grinning at her, making her face turn red all over again.

"I…I d..don't unders..stand what you m..mean." She managed to get out, with difficulty. She saw the grins on their faces get wider as she started fiddling with her fingers, a nervous reaction she hadn't been able to stop doing for years now.

'Ice-chan' tilted her head as she continued to smile at her. "You mean, you're not the little Hime-chan Kurenai-san keeps mentioning has a huge crush on Naruto-kun?"

Hinata had two thoughts. First, how dare this bimbo refer to her Naruto as 'Naruto-kun'? Second, since when did Kurenai-sensei say anything!? She'd said all those things in confidence!

Before she could get anything out, they all turned when they heard someone coming from behind them. "Hey, Haku-chan, I'm not sure why you gave me this to wear…while it isn't orange, it still makes me stick out a little more than you were saying I should." Haku's face went red, Anko's face went gleeful as she quickly pulled out a camera. And Hinata?

She fainted. It was just too much for her heart to take.

There he stood, wearing a black leather vest, open because it was too small to button up. Along with that he wore a pair of black and white chaps, styled to look like a milk cow's hide, with a black leather codpiece and black boots. He just stood there looking like an underage porn model coming to make her dreams come true.

-=BREAK=-

After what seemed like hours, Naruto finally had several outfits that didn't scream out "here I am, please kill me" to work with. They'd gone with mostly neutral colors. He wore a dark green light jacket with the sleeves rolled up to just before his elbows. Underneath was a grey colored t-shirt and mesh armored undershirt under that. His black ANBU style pants now went down to his ankles, and his ninja sandals were traded out for black ANBU style tabi shoes that had steal threads sewn into them for reinforcement. He also had black fingerless gloves on his hands, Like Kakashi-sensei wore, with a steel plate sewn into the back of the hand. Finally, Zabuza's contribution, he had a short ninjato sheathed at the small of his back, a handle coming out on the right side of his waist for easy reverse grip draw. Zabuza had picked up two for himself as well, saying that he had given his Kubikiribocho over to the Hokage for safekeeping. Until they were off of probation he wouldn't have access to the sword unless given it by the Hokage himself.

The last thing they'd picked up before they left the store was a simple blank porcelain mask, much like the ones ANBU wore, and similar to the one Haku wore in her Hunter-nin guise. She said they had permission from the Hokage for him to use it, as well as put his own design on it, so long as it wasn't animal in nature. They didn't want anyone to think he was pretending to be ANBU. He was currently thinking of using the swirl motif he always had added to his orange jumpers before, and having it done in orange paint. Haku had reluctantly agreed that would be acceptable.

He'd been surprised to see Hinata-chan join them when he came out of the dressing room at first, but they just said she'd come to do some shopping of her own before deciding to stick around. He just smiled at her and said thanks, before freaking out when she fainted again for some reason. Was she sick all the time or something?

Now that they were done, they were stopping by someplace to get a bite to eat. He'd immediately recommended Ichiraku's and began dragging Haku and Hinata by the hands. Zabuza's eyebrow started twitching again as he followed, and Anko just laughed as she came along.

As they sat down, Haku pulled out another slip of paper, like she'd used at the outfitters, and handed it to the owner of the ramen stand. He looked at it and grinned as he started preparing for what he knew would be a large order. Naruto gave her a questioning look when he saw that, so she explained. "Because of a few things that the Hokage has learned about since you became a genin, he's decided to bring the members of the civilian counsel down a peg. Evidently, they've been sending some proposals that snuck through his approval process to give them more control of shinobi concerns than they would otherwise have. Most of, if not all of those counselors, have been responsible for the difficulties you've had when shopping for food and equipment since you started the academy, so the Hokage is charging all your purchases, through Zabuza-sama and myself, to those counselors responsible for the next 6 months." She grinned at him. "Feel free to eat as many bowls of ramen as you'd like tonight." His answering smile made it clear he understood as he turned and ordered 20 bowls from the start. He did wince a little when Haku asked the owner to add as many vegetables as possible to the orders.

He still managed to down 34 bowls in the end. Haku and Hinata just wondered where he put it all.

Meal finished, Hinata excused herself to go home. She hadn't expected to spend so long away from her clan's compound today, and still had training to do. She shyly thanked them for the meal before taking off. She and Haku had spoken quite a bit while Naruto was going back and forth in the dressing room. She had much to think about.

Anko was next to leave, saying the ramen was good, though not as good as her favorite dango. She was actually scared for a moment when she felt killing intent from the girl who worked behind the counter, Ayame, and made a quick exit. When everyone else looked at her, Ayame had her normal smile on her face like nothing was wrong.

Zabuza stood next. "Alright brat, let's head on over to one of the available training fields. We'll do a quick evaluation today so we know what we have to work with. Then you can head back home for the night. We'll start the real training tomorrow morning, and we'll be going as hard as possible." Putting action to words, he started heading towards a field that he'd been introduced to by a member of ANBU the day before. It had a small stream running through it, along with a large number of trees, and training posts set up in the middle of a clearing. Once they arrived, he turned to the blond and let loose some of his killing intent again. "Show me what you've got, brat!"

-=BREAK=-

End Chapter 1.

AN: Alright, so this is a Naruto AU with a play on time-travel/premonitions with a couple of characters that originally helped define Naruto's outlook on what it means to be a shinobi.

Yes, Haku is a girl here, and yes, it will be a Naru/Haku/Hina grouping. While I may label this as M in the future, there will be no Lemons here. Just plenty of innuendo and implied activities in the future.

I like the idea of Naruto learning how to use short blades. Longer than tanto, but shorter than a traditional katana, ninjato are described online as short swords with a straight blade. I have an image I'd like to eventually use for a custom weapon in the future for him that will have those characteristics, but we'll see if it works out.

Please read and review, comments and questions are welcome.

-Phail