AN: Thanks to all of you for reading! I was truly surprised at, and grateful for, how many views this story got within hours of being posted. You guys rock!

olivermarte15: Thanks for the review! I haven't seen too many fics that prioritize the Uzumaki clan outside the tropes of Sealing Masters and large chakra capacities and Adamantine Sealing Chains. All of those are cool, but pretty much most authors use in regards to the clan itself. I'm not sure how/if I'm going to reference the Uzumaki clan just yet, but feel free to PM me with your ideas when you can!

BigMasetheDon: I need more too!

James Meclould: I love overly protective Anko, but she's also their handler in this story. She's responsible for them while they're on probation.

Lorfofzzzz1: Thanks! I hope to keep it up for you!

Ryuujin96: I'm glad you like it so far. As to your concern, the title is a reference to each of the three in the grouping. Gentle Fist for Hinata, Ice Style for Haku, and Fox for Naruto.

Darth Tenibris2: Thanks for taking the time to read it! Sorry you feel that way. God bless you.

Sageofchaos: Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Chapter 2: New perspective, new rules

Naruto was up at 0500 the next morning. Yesterday had been a little overwhelming at times, but at the end of the day just drove home that he had a long way to go. Zabuza had picked his taijutsu apart, not even bothering to draw either of his new blades, and pummeled him into the ground. Each time he got up he was told to try again, only to get hit from a different angle. This repeated itself for over an hour before he was given a break. Haku then grabbed him and took him over to the training posts and took out shuriken, kunai, and senbon. While he had average aim with the first two, his ability to use the small needles proved beyond him completely.

Last, they had him show them each of the jutsu he had, and were both underwhelmed at the fact he only knew three. Before he could get depressed at their reactions though, Haku came over and just said that it was something to remedy starting in the morning.

They'd stopped by a grocer on the way back to his apartment that night, both to get him food for the coming week and to show his new instructors where he lived. Zabuza just waved goodbye once they got to the building, but Haku walked up to his unit to help him put away the food. He didn't see the look on her face when she saw his crappy living conditions. After softly muttering to herself to get him new appliances and furniture, she dropped off her bags, gave him a soft kiss on the cheek, and left him with a bright smile on her face. He still blushed when he thought about how soft her lips had been.

He started making a simple breakfast of rice with eggs and veggies. Haku had made sure to get him lots of healthy foods, commenting that if he didn't eat right he'd always be shorter than his teammates. He'd pouted for a while before giving in. She made sure to pick out vegetables that tasted good cooked and raw to make it easier on him, along with lean protein. The last thing she grabbed had been a simple cookbook that he'd taken the time to read last night before going to sleep.

Halfway through cooking, he smacked himself on the head. Making a quick hand seal, he created two shadow clones. One of them continued cooking the food, while the other started cleaning up the apartment. While they were working, he jumped into the shower and then got dressed for the day in one of his new outfits. They were pretty much all the same, just different colors for his undershirt and jacket. Today he picked up a dark blue jacket with a cream-colored shirt. His black ANBU-style tabi still felt weird, but he'd been told it would be a good idea to have the extra protection on his feet while he learned how to use a blade.

By the time he finished eating breakfast, it was 0530, so he grabbed his weapon holsters, including his new ninjato, put them on his right leg and the small of his back, and then locked up the apartment as he left. Sprinting through the early morning, he arrived at the training field by 0545. He was surprised to see both of his instructors already there stretching.

"Good, you're early," Zabuza said. "Go ahead and run 20 laps around the clearing and then come back and stretch. Once that's done we'll walk through the plan for the day." Having said that he went back to his own stretching, followed by getting down to start some pushups.

Naruto just nodded and started to run. It wasn't a very large clearing, maybe a quarter mile around, so it took him almost 40 minutes to finish. Once he was done, he was sweating but not really tired yet. He joined them in the middle of the clearing to stretch out and listen.

"Alright, every morning you'll come here and start running laps like you just did before stretching out. As you get faster we'll add more laps, as well as start having you wear weights on your legs and arms while dragging a log behind you in a harness. The goal will be to always finish your laps within 30 minutes, so you'll need to increase your speed tomorrow to meet that goal." He saw Naruto nod along as he stretched his legs out before moving on to his arms. "After your stretches, you're going to split time between physical workouts, muscle memory exercises, and chakra training." Zabuza paused as he went through some quick hand seals and a water clone appeared next to him. "Go ahead and create 20 clones for now. From what the Hokage said, you can do more than that, but we want to make sure you can handle the memory feedback before we go any further."

Naruto did as ordered and created the 20 clones. Zabuza had 10 follow him and 10 follow Haku, while he told Naruto that his water clone would be making him go through physical workouts until lunchtime. Considering it wasn't even 0700 yet, Naruto knew it would be a long morning.

5 hours later, he was gasping for air as he lay on the ground. He'd never been pushed this far by someone before. Sure, he'd been chased around the village by the victims of his pranks all the time, but he'd never been pushed to this extent on purpose. Pushups, sit-ups, planks, squats, suicides, pull-ups, chin-ups, and more that he didn't even know the names of. He'd done all of them until he couldn't push anymore, only to rest for 2 minutes and start over again. He'd been lifting logs up over his head repeatedly, pushing even larger logs up the trunk of a tree with his legs, while using the tree walking technique to keep the log attached to his feet, repeatedly. He'd been chased around the clearing, jumping from tree to tree to avoid getting hit by stones.

As he was about to get back up and start another round, he grabbed his head as he was flooded with a large amount of information. Seeing this, the water clone Zabuza left behind released and became a small puddle on the ground. As the memories finished hitting him, he was amazed at what he'd learned. He tested out a few things as he sat up. Running through hand seal exercises was much faster than what he was able to do in the academy, not to mention smoother. He wasn't getting his fingers caught up as he moved from one seal to the next. Then he stood up and walked over to the tree closest to him.

Sure, he'd already learned how to tree walk from Kakashi-sensei, but now he could walk, run, stand, handstand, and even lay down in any position on the tree. The last one was still hard, but he hadn't even thought it was possible before.

Lastly, he started going through the forms of a simple kata he'd learned. The movements were much more natural than what he'd created himself but still had that brawler feel to them. He then drew his ninjato and went through the same forms again, marveling that the movements were just as easy with a weapon as they were without one. By the time he was done, he saw Zabuza and Haku had both returned to the clearing.

Haku walked up to him with a smile. "So, Naruto-kun, how do you feel about the training so far?" He just jumped up with his fist in the air.

"It's amazing, dattebayo!", he cried out. Haku just giggled behind her hand before putting both her arms behind her back, making her chest stand out a little more than usual. She was wearing the same style of clothing as the day before, in a pale blue this morning instead of the pink from yesterday, and he'd learned from watching her moving around during training that she wore tight shorts that came just short of the bottom of her kimono. Her toeless stockings still came up to just about mid-thigh. It was hard not to stare at how beautiful she was.

"Well brat, we're gonna break here for lunch and come back in a couple of hours. We'll be testing out your chakra affinities when we get started again, but regardless of what your affinity is, we'll begin teaching you water-style chakra exercises. It's what we know best and so what we can teach. That'll be the routine every day this week, and it'll only change a little bit when you're back to working with your team. You'll have to keep up the physical training on your own and send your clones here first thing in the morning, as well as another batch in the afternoon so we can work you through everything daily." Zabuza grinned behind his mask. "I'll be testing you on your physical training every weekend to make sure you're not slacking." Naruto shivered a little as he said that. He promised himself to never let himself become lazy like a certain Nara he knew.

Somewhere in the village, a boy with black hair pulled into a pineapple-shaped ponytail sneezed as he stared up at the clouds. "Troublesome", he muttered.

Naruto headed back to his apartment to make his lunch, with Haku tagging along. They were just talking to each other about some of their experiences so far as shinobi, him complaining about the D-rank missions he'd had to do in the village, and her talking about some of the creeps she had to deal with while on the run with Zabuza. Walking into the apartment, he created another clone to start cooking while he grabbed some bottles of tea from the fridge, handing one to his guest. She smiled in thanks and happily sipped at the refreshing beverage.

After a few minutes, still waiting for lunch to be ready, he asked her. "Haku, why me? I know you said you saw some weird flashes of memory, but what was it that made you pick me?"

She looked him in the eyes for a while before putting her bottle on the floor and getting up. Moving in front of him, she kneeled down and grabbed his hands in her own. "Some of the memories that we saw had different impacts on us. For me, it was a conversation I had with you, had we stayed in Wave. My whole life, I've dedicated myself to being of use to Zabuza-sama. He saved me from the Kiri blood war and taught me how to be a shinobi. My whole focus was to be his tool, to be used for whatever purpose he had for me. I said to you, that true strength came from doing whatever it took to protect those precious to you." She smiled then as Naruto thought about those words. "You took those words and made them a part of your nindo. But as I was dying, in protecting Zabuza-sama, you cried for me, saying that I was more than a tool and that you'd live your life as proof of that. When I later learned that Zabuza-sama died after listening to and accepting your words, it made me wonder what my life could be, had I learned to accept being more than a tool earlier. To know that Zabuza-sama loved me like a daughter." She had tears in her eyes by now.

Naruto was stunned as he listened to her. He had made such an impact on her from a conversation that they never even had? He tried to find the logic in that, but couldn't. Instead, he thought about what she said about his nindo. His nindo had always been to never go back on his word. His promise to himself was to work hard until he became Hokage. But thinking about it, he could see how her words would fit. To become Hokage, he would fight for his village. Do everything he could to protect them. Right now, it meant fighting for his team, his friends.

He felt her lips on his cheek again as she stood back up. Blushing red, he stammered for a minute as she giggled and went over to the kitchen area, hips swaying side-to-side, where his clone was finishing up and plating their lunch. He had a hard time not looking at her backside as she walked, making his face turn even warmer. From the look she gave him as she looked over her shoulder, she knew what he was doing. And approved? "Girls are weird", he mumbled to himself as he went to grab his own food.

-=BREAK=-

It was a week later, and Naruto found himself excited to see his team again. He'd been training really hard, and making decent progress he thought, so he wanted to show his teammates what he could do.

Arriving at their team's training grounds he found Sasuke leaning against one of the trees, already brooding it seemed, and Sakura sitting nearby talking to him. Or, trying to talk to him. He didn't seem to be responding to her at all. As he walked up to them, both of his teammates looked up. Sasuke stared at him silently for a few seconds before grunting out a greeting. Sakura had her mouth open as she stared at his new look.

He was still wearing a light jacket with colored shirt and mesh, dark grey and red today, along with his ANBU style pants and tabi. He was openly wearing his short ninjato on the small of his back, as well as weapon holsters full of shuriken and kunai on his right leg and back.

After about a minute of staring, Sakura got up and charged up to him. "What do you think you're wearing, Naruto-baka!? Are you trying to look cooler than Sasuke-kun? I bet you don't even know how to use a sword, so why waste your money on buying one?", she was really building up steam and volume. Naruto just stared at her as she ranted at him. She would have gotten even louder if their sensei hadn't shown up right then. Everyone froze and looked at him, wondering if hell had frozen over.

"Good morning, my cute little genin! We have so much to do today!" He said in a very uncharacteristic voice. It was overly cheerful, as was the single eye-smile that he was showing them. Each of them took a step back and prepared to pull weapons on this imposter. Seeing their reactions, Kakashi just tried to keep the cheer in his voice and on his face as he told them to start warming up for training. As he did so he mentally reviewed the meeting he'd had this last week with the Hokage.

-=FLASHBACK START=-

Kakashi walked into the Hokage's office with his face stuck in his little orange book. He waved to his Hokage without looking up from it. He'd arrived on time this time, meaning he was only 2 hours late to the meeting instead of his normal 3. "You asked to see me, Hokage-sama?", he said as he continued to peruse Jiraya's latest entry of the Icha-Icha series. When he didn't get a response he looked up from his book, and his eyes immediately widened at what he saw.

The Hokage was looking at him over his shoulder as he faced the window behind his desk. The Hokage was also sitting at the desk going over paperwork, along with two other Hokages sitting at another table off to the side. They were going through the paperwork at an unprecedented rate. The one standing by the window continued to stare at the copy-nin, and Kakashi somehow felt he was being judged and found wanting. He slowly put his book away and knelt before his village leader.

The Hokage sighed as he looked at the shinobi in front of him. In so many ways, he was an example of what it took to be the best. And in so many ways, he was an example of what it was to completely fail. It was time he set things right. "Take a seat, Hatake Kakashi. We have many things to talk about today."

And so began the longest, most painful, and most brutally honest performance review of Kakashi's life. From his graduation to genin, his chuunin promotion, being made jonin, as well as ANBU. Every detail of his career was covered. And then the Hokage stared at him and asked, "If Minato was standing here today, would he be proud of the man you've become? Would he be proud of how you've handled being his son's sensei?" Kakashi had never felt so low in his life, but it didn't end there. "Would Obito-kun and Rin-chan want you to live their lives, or your own? I understand guilt, Kakashi. I feel it every day when I think of Tobirama-sensei sacrificing himself for me and my comrades, when I think of Biwako dying when the Kyuubi attacked. But I have to live my life, not theirs. And so do you. Honor them, by being your best, Kakashi." He'd then been told he had by the time his team was back in rotation the next week to get himself put together.

He spent the first night drunk. He didn't remember the next day, although he was pretty sure he woke up at Anko's place. His former ANBU team stopped by to check on him, but left him alone when he was unresponsive. He spent the next two days reading in front of the monument. He broke down as he looked at all the names, all the people he'd lost in his life. And then he went home and slept. Finally, he woke up and started going through the routine he'd started when he'd just made jonin. The routine he'd picked up from his dad's old journals. He was startled to see how much harder it was now than it was then. He'd really let himself go these last few years. Knowing what he needed, and hating the fact, he went out in search of the best person to help him.

He gave Maito Gai his first challenge. And lost.

He went back and gave his second challenge. And lost.

And he'd keep going back every day until he was back to his peak.

-=FLASHBACK END=-

As the team began their warmups, Kakashi went over everything they'd done so far as a team. And he had to admit, he'd done a piss-poor job of teaching them. Their teamwork was getting better, the success in Wave had helped there, but individually, he had a long way to go in helping them become successful shinobi and kunoichi. He had a plan already for Sasuke, having asked for a favor that should be coming this morning. With Sakura, he was going to have to start at the bottom. She had a lot of habits to break, and was too far behind the others when it came to physical capabilities. It was surprising that he was least worried about Naruto, but only because he was aware of his new instructors. That had initially been a hard pill to swallow, but he understood why it was needed. With a plan in place, for today at least, he called the team over as he sensed the arrival of his helper for the day.

He made two shadow clones as they approached. "Alright team, today we're doing things a little differently. Instead of our usual team-building activities, we're going to focus on individual strengths and weaknesses. To that end, Naruto and Sakura are each going to go with a clone here to begin your training. Sasuke will be staying here with me." Naruto shrugged and followed along while Sakura glanced longingly at her Sasuke-kun before leaving as well.

Kakashi then turned to the broody Uchiha that was left in the clearing with him. "The plan for you today, Sasuke, is for you to not die." The boy's eyes went wide as he leaped to the side and barely avoided a shower of ice needles that shot at him. Kakashi just backed away and leaned on a tree as he watched the village's newest bloodline limit user systematically and brutally show his student that he wasn't anywhere near the top of the totem pole. It was painful to watch, but he kept his focus so he could see where Sasuke still needed to improve. While he was the best genin in his class, that didn't mean anything once you got out into the real world, and Sasuke was learning that lesson the hard way.

-=BREAK=-

Sasuke had no idea who this person was. All he saw was a pink kimono with black shorts and lavender stockings. The faceless mask gave no indication of what they were thinking. Every time he tried to engage with taijutsu, they overpowered him. Every time he tried to use hand seals for jutsu, they sent more ice needles his way. He finally managed to back off enough to catch his breath, only that turned out to be a huge mistake.

"Hidden Ice Style Technique: Demonic Ice Mirrors." The voice seemed to come from everywhere around him. He watched in shock as mirrors made from crystallized ice formed around him, with his attacker appearing in each of them. Ice needles continued to strike at him from every direction now. He couldn't keep up, his Fire Style: Great Fireball had zero impact, and he only managed to move enough to avoid being struck in his vitals. Within minutes, he looked like a walking advertisement for body piercings, ice coming out of each of his joints and impeding his movements. And then it happened. A grouping of ice needles that he wouldn't be able to avoid at all. Fear gripped him completely as they dove straight toward his heart and there was nothing he could do to stop it. His vision turned red, and everything seemed to slow down to a crawl as he watched his death come at him.

The next thing he knew he was outside the circle of mirrors, carried over Kakashi-sensei's shoulder before being placed against a tree on the ground. He looked over as the girl, he could see her clearly enough now to know it was a female, walked calmly towards them both while the ice mirrors shattered and fell to the ground. She bowed silently to Kakashi before disappearing, a small splash of water being the only evidence that she was there at all.

Kakashi was busy removing the needles from his joints and checking him over, so Sasuke had to broach the subject himself. "Who the hell was that?" His breathing was still labored from the fight he'd just gone through. He'd never fought someone so…clinical in their attacks. So methodical in tearing him apart. It almost reminded him of…

"Hmmm? Oh, that's one of Konoha's newest acquisitions. She's quite good, as you can see, and was born with the Ice Style bloodline limit. In spite of how she fights, she's not a coldhearted person. We just figured she'd be the appropriate way of working towards our objective today." His sensei continued to check him over for injuries.

Sasuke growled. "What objective, proving how weak I still am? I know I need to get stronger if I'm going to go after…", he stopped himself from going further with a great deal of effort.

"Oh, if I wanted you to feel weak, I'd have torn you apart myself. No, we needed someone who you didn't know, someone you wouldn't instinctively feel wouldn't go for the kill against you, in order to bring out your potential. Haven't you noticed yet?", his sensei asked with his normal eye smile.

"Notice wha…", and then he did. He saw exactly what he was saying.

His eyes…they saw clearer than he'd ever seen before in his life. That girl, making him feel like he was about to die, had helped him to awaken his own bloodline limit. He finally had his birthright.

The sharingan!

-=BREAK=-

Sakura was having a miserable day. Sasuke-kun was still ignoring her, Naruto had tried to get her attention by getting a new look (it did look good, but Sasuke-kun will always be cooler!), and then she'd been trained into the ground by her sensei. It was horrible. Normally they'd be done with training by now and going to the Hokage's Tower for a mission before heading home. Not today, it seemed.

She had been running up and down the trees for the past hour. When she started to slow down, Kakashi-sensei 'encouraged' her to move faster by either throwing a kunai at her feet or charging at her to engage in a one-sided taijutsu fight. When she asked how long she had left, his only response was "Until I'm tired." She wasn't sure what that meant, as he was sitting there watching her while playing with a kunai. Come to think of it, she hadn't seen his orange book all day.

Another 30 minutes of sprinting up trees and her legs had given out. She had absolutely no strength left in them. She heard Kakashi-sensei walk over, and looked up at his disappointed gaze. As tired as she was, and as much as she hated him at the moment, she felt ashamed when she saw that look.

"Sakura-chan, your physical capabilities have had no growth since you joined this team. Outside of our team activities, how much are you training each day? How much are you eating?" She had to take a few seconds to get enough air into her lungs to reply.

"What do you mean…sensei?… I thought…that the training we…did together was…all we needed. That's what…it was like in…the academy." She continued to breathe deeply. "And, I can't eat much…you know how important…it is to me to look…my best. I don't…want to look fat…for…" At this point, he just cut her off.

"Sakura-chan, right now I would wager that any other genin that has graduated in your class would wipe the floor with you. You may have been kunoichi of the year, but from the exam results that I saw, your taijutsu was towards the bottom of the class, as were your overall fitness levels." He paused as he looked at her. "Your mind is quite impressive Sakura, and your natural chakra control will be an asset for your entire career. But it will mean nothing if you die on a mission because you weren't strong or fast enough to avoid an attack." He watched as she internalized what he said and continued. "You want to look good for Sasuke? That's not the mentality of a kunoichi, that's the mindset of a fangirl, and fangirls die when they leave the village. If that's what you are, Sakura-chan, I'll drop you from the program now. I won't have your death on my conscience. I've lost too many friends and teammates to real dangers." He looked at her for a minute before turning around.

She was gasping for breath, but for an entirely different reason now. Dropped from the program? How could he do that? She'd earned her spot on this team! She'd fought and scraped her way to the top of the class rankings just so she could be with Sasuke-k…and that's when it sank in.

She'd been doing it for him, not for herself. She'd stopped moving forward because of a boy. She'd always looked up to the kunoichi around the village. They were strong and independent and sure of themselves, and she wanted to be just like them.

She took deeper and deeper breaths to both fill her lungs, but also to calm down and think for a minute. When she managed to get her heart rate down she looked back at her sensei and asked, "What do you need me to do to stay on this team?"

He looked into her eyes and nodded to himself, before pulling out a scroll from his pocket. Unrolling it, he pushed some chakra into it, unsealing a notebook and a guidebook. Handing them both over to her, he explained what they were. "The guidebook is what ANBU uses to assess prospective members by breaking them down into categories and numerically listing their strengths and weaknesses. While not foolproof, it's a good place to start in your situation. The notebook is where I've listed down where I am currently marking you in each category. You have 1 week to show me you are making progress in at least 3 of your weakest areas. I don't expect you to be perfect, but show me you're serious about this." When she nodded in acceptance, he added, "And if I hear that you are dieting from any source, I'll cut you immediately. You need at least three times the calories than I've seen you eating just to make it through daily training and missions. I expect to see full meals while you're with us every day." Having said that he dispelled, leaving her alone with her thoughts and the books to look over.

Gritting her teeth, she opened the guidebook first to get an idea of what she could expect to see. After getting halfway through, she knew she was going to be very disappointed with her scores.

She wasn't wrong.

-=BREAK=-

Naruto was going through a fairly intense full-contact spar with his sensei. The only thing he wasn't using was his new ninjato, at Kakashi-sensei's order, so he focused on his new, cleaner, brawling style of taijutsu, along with a couple of water jutsu when he got the chance. Even with a full week's worth of training with Haku and Zabuza, his progress wasn't where he wanted it to be.

He finally got a good score on Kakashi when he feigned a right hook before spinning into a tight leg sweep. Not enough to dispel the clone, but enough to make him feel it. Kakashi jumped back and frowned for a second. "Naruto, are you wearing weights?", he asked.

Naruto's eyes went wide. He'd totally forgotten they were on. Scratching the back of his head sheepishly, he nodded. "Yup, forgot they were there. Zabuza-san makes me wear them for my morning workouts, and I didn't take them off before coming here this morning."

Kakashi nodded as he came to a quick decision. "I want you to keep them on as much as possible, even when sparring. But I do want you to take them off for at least 1 hour a day so your body can adjust more readily to when you drop them, okay?" Naruto nodded quickly. "Take them off now, so I can see how fast you are."

Naruto rolled the sleeves of his jacket up to remove the weights on his wrists. The weights on his legs quickly followed and he jumped up and down a bit while swinging his arms to get a quick feel for the lighter load. Getting back into his stance, he showed he was ready to go.

Kakashi started it this time, rushing in to see the boy's reaction time. It was definitely faster than before, as Naruto shifted his body around the punch Kakashi sent. As he shifted, he reached out to grab his sensei's arm and pull it down, only to jump back as Kakashi tried to sweep his legs out. They each punched, blocked, kicked, dodged, and tried to get the upper hand. After he'd seen what the blond was currently capable of, Kakashi slipped into his guard and sent a light elbow strike into his solar plexus.

Naruto wheezed for a minute as he tried to catch his breath. Even if the strike didn't have much weight, it still knocked his breath out for a bit. Once his breathing was under control again, he looked up to see Kakashi-sensei tapping his chin with his eye closed. Deciding to let the man think for a minute, he walked over to where his weights were and started putting them back on. He looked back over when Kakashi called over to him and signaled they were heading back to the clearing. They were about halfway there when Haku showed up wearing her new plain mask. Taking it off, she smiled at Naruto while she bowed to Kakashi.

"I take it the plan worked?", Kakashi asked. Seeing Haku's nod he released a sigh. It was both a good and a bad thing. He just hoped they managed to keep the Uchiha grounded for now. "Thank you again, Haku. I'll be sure to return the favor when I can. We should be wrapping up with training in the next hour or so if you'd like to wait that long to steal Naruto-kun away." He gave her his signature eye smile and dispelled. Haku just turned to look at Naruto.

"How did your training go?", she asked him. He just shrugged his shoulders.

"I think he just wanted to get a sense of where I'm at right now. He didn't let me use kenjutsu, thought. Something about me still being new to it." Naruto grumbled a bit at that last part. Haku just giggled before kissing his cheek. He blushed red as he turned to look at her.

"It also might be because he was a clone and not the original. Even rookies can get lucky, and he probably didn't want to deal with making another clone to send out to you." She said as she continued to giggle behind her hand. He hadn't thought about that. "I shouldn't keep you any longer. Your team is probably waiting for you. Good luck with the rest of your day, Naruto-kun."

Naruto smiled as his red face started to fade a bit. "Thanks, Haku-chan. I'll see you tomorrow." With a wave, he turned back towards the clearing and his team and leaped into the trees.

Haku watched him leave before turning around herself. As she sped off towards her current living arrangements, all she could think was how glad she was they were here in Konoha now.

-=BREAK=-

End Chapter 2.

AN: Well, that's 2 down. I'm trying to be as realistic as I can be on the growth of each individual, both in their ninja skills and their character development. I don't want a godlike Naruto or Sasuke that steamrolls everything, but I don't want them to be weaklings that prevail due to luck, enemies 'playing' with them, or just relying on Naruto's patented "talk no jutsu".

I also needed to have a valid reason that Sasuke gets his sharingan, as he didn't fight Haku on the bridge, and for Sakura to shape up into the kick-ass kunoichi she eventually becomes.

I'll try to keep the focus on Naruto, Haku, and Hinata for the next little while in the story, but I already have plans to introduce some other characters in the next chapter, at least peripherally, in a scene I'm going to do with the village council. Fans of Konoha bashing should enjoy it.

Like before, please review and comment. I'm still new to writing, so let me know how I'm doing.

-Phail