Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and gang. Just playin' with 'em ;P. Any OCs you see in the story are mine.

Review Replies:

XxSNOWxxDROPxx: I'll try, but I can't guarantee anything ;)

Dragon Man 180: No she doesn't. Iikagen isn't really a central OC.

Merpleshnerple: …ok. Um, dude, I know Haku is a boy in the manga. Now, please, go to the FOURTH, yes, the FOURTH chapter that read the first line.Yes, the part which says: "Warnings: Female Haku." Ok, now that you've read that, any other questions?

kd8gun: Perhaps. But you must remember that the Haku in the manga is not this Haku. This Haku wasn't raised by Zabusa, or whatever his name was :P

Dajare: Yes, yes he is.

Zhuyou: You get your wish.

DarkAngel5290: XD

Wake-Robin: Thanks!

Notes: This chapter may appear rushed. Sorry. Technically, ALL my chapters are rushed. I take a month and more to write a good chapter XD.

Chapter Seven: Luck in the springs, Bets on a plate.

The lights shimmered and glowed with a tingling excitement. Naruto grinned as he watched Haku spun round on her feet, laughing merrily in her chirpy voice.

Apparently, the girl that been confined to her house for almost all her life.

Ugh, that's quite sad, thought Naruto. Although the blond himself had never stepped into civilisation before, or at least not when the place was celebrating a festival, he had amused himself with his own chakra, summoning the strange energies and twisting them in exotic displays.

It had been two days since the incident Haku's house. The girl had been withdrawn on the first day, but recovered on the second day.

Perhaps this trip would do her well, thought Naruto wryly.

Then Naruto took a deep breath, and began to focus.

A blank grey engulfed his mind immediately. A deep silence blanketed him.

Exhaling, Naruto felt himself dissolving, falling backwards into the black veil. Slowly, blue, flickering shapes appeared. They were blobs, barely in an human position. He turned his 'head'. Slowly, Naruto felt his awareness increase as more shapes blurred into view. Zipping through the blue mist, Naruto twist and turned, diving through them as he sought for Tsunade.

Suddenly, he felt a calm, soothing presence. Dashing towards it, he found two greenish shapes lazily drifting in the dull grey. Slowly, the shapes sharpened, and he found himself looking at a young, ravishing blond, with a diamond-shaped tattoo on her forehead. She had a enticing grin on her face, while her eyes were a pairing of glittering orbs.

Her companion had black, frizzy hair. Her face was youngish, while her eyes were a dull black. She wore simple clothes, and had a small, cute smile on her face.

Finally. I found them!

"NARASHI! OI!"

"Huh? Wha---" stammered Naruto as he was shaken violent.

Shaking his head, blond cleared his vision to see a worried, yet fuming Haku in front of him.

"Oi! What's wrong with you?! I've been trying to talk to you for the last half an hour!"

"Half an hour?!" exclaimed Naruto. Wow, that took longer than before. . .must have been the extra people in the village.

"Sorry Haku-chan," grinned Naruto sheepishly. Before Haku could start scolding him again, the blond grabbed her arm and started pulling her through the crowd.

"But never mind that! C'mon, I think I know where Tsunade is!"

Haku protested, but it was futile as the blond just ran through the mass of people. Finally, they skidded to a stop outside a bright, flashy casino.

A raging woman had just exited the place. Her companion was desperately trying to console her while holding a squealing pig in her left hand.

"ARGH! THEY MUST HAVE CHEATED! I JUST KNOW IT! DAMN THEM!"

"Don't worry. ..we'll get the money back later."

Naruto, relieved that he caught them, hurried up to them.

"Um. . .excuse me, but I can't help but overhead that you two have financial problems?" asked the blond in his most polite tone. "Perhaps I can help. . ."

The two women glanced at the strange boy. "Help? What do you mean by that? Look, if this is some scam, I break your head open, shrimp!" yelled Tsunade, her temper already big due to her losing in gambling.

"Oh, no, no. I'll help you earn back three times of what you have lost."

Shizune raised her eyebrows. "What's the catch?"

"Hmm. . .the only catch here is to take my friend here," said Naruto as he jerked a thumb at Haku, "as your apprentice. . ."

. . .Tsunade-sama," he finished, looking at the white-haired Sennin in front of him.

The two women froze. Haku stared her companion in mute shock, her eyes goggled as her gaze flickered between Naruto and Tsunade.

Shizune gave a weak, shaky smile. "You must be kidding. . .my friend here isn't the great Sennin Tsuna---"

"You lie. Your medical chakra is too potent to be unnoticed."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes. "You are a ninja. A powerful one, or else you wouldn't sensed my chakra signature."

Naruto chuckled and bowed. "I beg to differ, my great Tsunade. I am no powerful nin."

"Then how were you able to sense us?"

"I. . .have a disease. I believe you should know it. It's called chakra chaos," said Naruto. "You should know this eh? Because of this disease, I have an increased sensitivity to chakra types and signatures. That was why I was able to detect you. You may have cloaked yourself to normal chakra-finding techniques, but no one can cloak themselves from me.

"But we aren't here to talk about me. We are here to talk about you giving my friend, Haku-chan here an apprenticeship under you."

Haku was jerked out of her shock with the boy's words. "Narashi! Stop being rude!"

Naruto smiled wryly at the girl, before facing Tsunade again.

"Look, how about this: I will raise five times the amount you lost. If I do, you take Haku-chan under you."

"What?! Narashi, are you insane?!" hissed the girl frantically. "You can't possibl---"

"Five times eh, kid?" interrupted Tsunade. Her right eyebrow was raised while her face had a disbelieving expression. "I lost about 100,000 yen. . .can you raise five times of that?"

Naruto just gave a cocky smile. "Watch me."

He then slowly started making seals, hesitantly wriggling his fingers and twisting his hands.

What is he doing? Is he trying to do a jutsu? But the seals are done in the wrong order. . .I doubt there's any jutsu with that order, wondered Shizune.

A huge blast of chakra and smoke filled the area when the blond finished his jutsu. Coughing, the three onlookers waved their hands, only to see five Narutos staring back at them, a large grin peeking through the thin veil on his face.

AN: I JUST REALIZED THAT I HAVEN'T BEEN EMPHASISING THIS VERY MUCH THE LAST FEW CHAPTERS, BUT NARUTO STILL WEARS THAT MASK ON HIS FACE. IT'S THIN ENOUGH TO SEE SOMEONE SMILE THROUGH IT, BUT THICK ENOUGH TO HIDE CERTAIN DETAILS.

Then the five blonds started on a shorter, faster chain of jutsu. With another 'poof!', five gruff, unshaven looking fishermen stood there. Each looked completely different: a scar here, a tattoo there.

They quickly trooped into the casino.

---

It took an hour and a half.

In one hour and thirty minutes, Naruto, along with his clones, bagged 100,000 yen each, thus totalling up to half a million yen in total.

Tsunade, Shizune and Haku stood there with their mouths wide open as they looked at the blond struggling with his gigantic money bag.

"What?" asked Naruto, wondering why they were so surprised. "It's nothing. . .my aniki told me that I'm a good gambler."

Shizune, unable to comprehend the young boy in front of her was more of a gambling god, fainted.

The blond grinned at the sight of her falling face first into the ground, before asking Tsunade, "So, will you take Haku-chan as your apprentice now?"

The sennin could only dumbly nod.

"Great! Why don't you revive your friend over there, and we could find a place to stay!"

---

They quickly found a moderately lavish inn at a corner of the town with some hot springs behind.

Dumping the sack of money on the carpeted floor, Naruto watched happily as he saw Tsunade swearing Haku in as her apprentice.

"By the way Narashi-san, why are you not trying to be Tsunade's apprentice?" asked Shizune, curious.

The boy shrugged. "I already have a teacher," was his firm, simple answer that ended that discussion quickly.

Tsunade, raising an eyebrow at Naruto's reply, seemed to mentally wave it away, and brightly asked, "So. . .anyone up for a soak in the springs before dinner? My treat."

"Heh. . .you girls go ahead. I'm a male after all. . .can't have me ogling at you beautiful ladies, eh?" said Naruto in an lazy drawl, his eyes smiling with mirth.

Shizune and Haku blushed furiously, but Tsunade just smirked. "Beautiful, eh? Well, what if I told you I'm actually much older than I look? This appearance is but a complex genjutsu."

"True, but your soul is lovely and alluring in its unique way: like white angel above a raging sea," retorted Naruto playfully, his eyes closed in an 'happy arch' as he tease the older woman.

A faint shade of pink tinged the pale-haired sennin. "Charming boy you are, eh Narashi?"

"Glad to be of service, my lady," replied Naruto, bowing deeply with a cocky, teasing smirk on his face.

---

Naruto travelled with the legendary Tsunade for three more months before leaving to see the rest of the world. When the year was up, he left again with Iikagen, never to be seen for another 3 years. (Naruto is now nine.)

After two years (Naruto is eleven), the Snake Sennin Orochimaru attacked Konoha with fox demons he had summoned. Tsunade and her apprentices, Shizune and Haku, returned to the Leaf to help defend it. Jiraiya was also seen in the battlefields. Although the Sound Orochimaru was pushed back, Konoha suffered heavy casualties.

After another year, Naruto finds himself once again dumped back into civilisation, this time with his metal condition increased by five times. . .

Naruto struggled, trying to bend his stiff arms while screaming his head off at the fading, smirking figure.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!"

"I just did. Deal with it blondie," laughed the golden-eyed god before he disappeared from view.

Cursing, Naruto twisted his neck (which luckily wasn't paralysed) and glanced at Konoha.

"The Village of Leaf," he murmured softly.