Authors note: Thank you all for your reviews! I forgot to mention at the end of the last chapter that the technique that dream Tao is teaching Naruto is not something you'll find on a list of all shinobi techniques 'cause I made it up! With real Japanese words too…Hehe anyway I'm glad people are enjoying my fan fic… and to show my happiness I shall write chapter four!

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Kakashi walked back to his apartment hands stuffed in his pockets face down as he was lost in thought. There was something odd about that fox, no question about it. When a fox proved able to out maneuver a Jonin… well ok he wasn't going full out against the fox…but it was a fox! He thought to himself for what seemed to be like the hundredth time, it wasn't the first time someone had managed to take him by surprise. But it was defiantly the first time he was out smarted by an ordinary animal. Kakashi sighed and unlocked the door to his apartment. Walking in he looked up and around at his apartment, his hand paused in the process of closing the door. He walked back out again and checked the number on the door as if checking he walked into the right apartment. Yep, it was the right number… he walked into the apartment again and looked around with the same expression of disbelief before walking out again to slip his headband from over his eye quickly before replacing it as if to see if anyone had placed a Kokuni Arazu no Jutsu, the False Surroundings Skill technique on the number on the door. But there were no traces of any such thing. Walking back into his apartment he closed the door and looked around. His apartment had been an absolute mess when he had left a few days ago… it even looked like it might've rivaled Naruto's when the hokage had showed it to him before he had even met the boy. But now… his apartment was spotless, everything was clean, neat, and tidy. Even when he tried the apartment was never really that tidy, but this… he would've thought that no one lived here if there wasn't food in the fridge and cupboards. Walking around into each of the rooms he found they were the same. Walking back into the kitchen he pulled out one of the chairs and slouched down into it folding his arms across his chest as he sat back and thought. Who the heck would bother to come round and clean his place up like this? No matter how much he mulled it over in his head he just couldn't place it. So he just stood up and shrugged deciding just to be happy that it had happened. Looking into the fridge he simply pulled out one of the prepared meals that he guessed the same person had left. Deciding to just not think about any of it he simply took off his mask and sat down to eat then took a shower and went to bed before he could discover anything else that had happened to his place while he was away.

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Naruto awoke yawning widely, he stretched and linked his fingers together before stretching them out in front of him cracking his knuckles. He gave a small half awake grin as he looked at his hands. Thinking back on his dream and tried to mirror the hand sigils he'd just been taught. To his surprise not only did he remember the hand gestures that were needed… but the words too. He grinned and repeated the technique he'd learnt in his dream, after the fifth time he paused and tried to remember what she had said before he woke up… something to complete the technique… ah well! He thought to himself as he got out of bed, it was only a dream so it didn't really matter if he could recall it all or not. That decided he got ready at his usual slow morning pace. As he ate breakfast he realized he was still trying to remember what it was that completed the technique… almost like it was something really important to know. Naruto just growled slightly deciding it was far too early to be trying to think before he placed his bowl in the sink and headed out the door.

Naruto tried his best not to cry or fuss as they returned to the same boring D level tasks that they performed with master Iruka. Naruto could've sworn it had taken a week for that day to end, it was just so different than training with Kakashi Sensei… sure he was hard, but at least he wasn't boring! As Naruto smiled and waved bye to Iruka he turned about to try and talk to Sakura he noticed a large rock in the shape of a box sneaking up behind him. Frowning Naruto started walking around the rock box always following him. Finally he came to a stop and shouted;

"Didn't I already tell you that rocks are not square!"

"…… I suspected nothing less from the best…" a voice from the box said before there was an explosion of far too many smoke bombs being set off as three young kids appeared coughing from the smoke. They looked up from their coughing at Naruto who was grinning down at them.

"Hey boss! You said we could play ninja today!" one of the boys said stepping forward.

"Yeah ninja ninja!" a girl and a boy with glasses chanted in unison.

"Hey Konohamaru…" Naruto said idly placing his hands behind his head as he looked down at them.

"Hey come on don't sound like that boss… you promised to play ninja with us today." The three of them looked up at him with pleading eyes. Naruto chuckled while Sakura and Sasuke looked from him to the kids; Konohamaru was the honored grandson of the lord hokage...

"Well I've had a pretty laid back day… so hey why not?" Naruto said and was answered by the three's joyous cries as they tackled him hugging him in thanks.

"So boss, what will we be learning today?" Konohamaru asked. But before Naruto was able to answer, a tall man with short black hair and sunglasses appeared not too far off.

"Konohamaru! There you are." He said walking over to them "I want you to come with me right now, in fact… I think its best if all three of you come with me."

"No Ebisu! I don't want to!" he shouted as the others nodded agreeing with him.

"You will get away from that boy right now and come with me!" Ebisu said giving Naruto a hateful look causing Naruto to shiver and Sakura and Sasuke to look at Ebisu wondering why it seemed to be such a big deal for the kids to be around Naruto. Ebisu picked up Konohamaru and locked him under one arm before he could get away and then tried to get the other two who were trying to get away and free Konohamaru at the same time.

"You will all come with me right now! I will not allow you to be around this this… miss directed, delinquent, ignorant, poor excuse for a Genin who should not have been allowed to graduate from the ninja academy…" Ebisu continued on as he tried to wrestle the three into his hold while Naruto just stood there and said nothing. Sakura and Sasuke on the other hand were looking at Ebisu in almost complete shock. What in the world had Naruto done to deserve any of that? Sakura thought to herself…sure he acts up and deserves a good scolding sometimes… but this is a bit much! Ebisu left with the three Naruto trainees trying their hardest to pry themselves out of the mans hold to no avail while Naruto continued to stand there all the while with an expressionless look on his face as his eyes seemed to be just looking at the air in front of him. Sakura chanced a few steps towards the blonde leaning forward slightly to see his face but he turned his head away.

"Naruto…" Sakura whispered softly but was unable to finish as the boy suddenly bolted from the two as fast as he could. Sakura watched him leave before turning to look at Sasuke a sad look in her eyes.

"Sasuke… why do you think Ebisu said that about Naruto? Sure he's a prankster and he acts up a lot…"

"But he always knows where to draw the line… there was really no need or reason for what he said to Naruto." There seemed to be a cold edge to Sasuke's voice his eyes still looking the way Naruto ran. Sure Naruto got on his nerves a lot of the time, but a small mutual respect had grown between the two.

"Let's go after him and take him out for ramen!" Sakura said smiling at Sasuke "I'm sure a couple of bowls of ramen will cheer him up." Sasuke looked at Sakura and gave a small smile.

"No, it's a good idea… but I think Naruto might want to be alone right now." He said as he took one last look down the way Naruto went before turning to walk home. "He might prefer it tomorrow though," He added as an after thought "He'll be more up to it then." Sakura gave a small nod before turning to head home not even thinking about offering to Sasuke that the two of them go off for ramen together.

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Everything was a blur around Naruto as he ran home. His teeth and fists were clenched tight as he scolded himself telling himself not to cry. He struggled a few moments with the door to his apartment as his key didn't seem to want to go in the lock nor did his hands want to stop trembling to help it. But finally he was able to throw the door open and close and lock it behind him. He rested his back to the door and slipped down to sit on the floor as he tried to choke back the tears. It was always the way… there was always someone with that hateful look in their eyes, someone who seemed to despise every breath he took… but why? It wasn't his fault… it wasn't. He wasn't the nine tailed fox that had nearly destroyed the village all those years ago… he was Uzumaki Naruto, just like master Iruka said… but he couldn't help it as a few tears fell from his eyes. Pulling his knees up to his chest he wrapped his arms about them as he lowered his face and cried softly and silently to himself before he drifted to sleep where he was.

When Naruto woke in the dream world he felt the sadness had followed him there. Looking around he heard Tao was singing. He had never heard her sing before; she sounded wonderful. Following the sound of her voice Naruto found her sitting by a stream. She smiled as she looked up at him standing next to her, but her smile faded as she looked into his eyes.

"Naruto… what's the matter, what happened?" she asked looking up at him with a worried look. The question almost seemed to bring everything back afresh as Naruto clenched his fists looking down telling himself that he was no more allowed to cry in his dreams than in the waking world. However Naruto opened his eyes in surprise as he found Tao had knelt and had drawn him into a reassuring hug. Gritting his teeth he buried his face in her shoulder and cried as she comforted him much like a mother would her child. As he cried Naruto wondered fleetingly if this was what it was like to have a mother… to have someone to comfort you when you cried…

"I wish you were real…" He sobbed into her shoulder.

"What was that?" she asked kindly

"I wish you were real… I wish you were real." He repeated, meaning every word of it. "I wish you lived outside my dreams… I wish that more than you helping me to be hokage…" he sniffed before continuing "I can make hokage by myself if I try… but..." a sob racked his throat as she petted his back reassuringly.

"You want me to be real…" she said softly eyes staring into the distance. Naruto nodded before letting go and smiling at her as she helped him wipe his tears away.

"Don't worry; I'm not going to cry anymore." He said grinning at her; he did actually feel a bit better after having someone to cry with instead of alone as always.

"Shall we continue with out practice from before?" she asked smiling at him.

"Yes please! Oh yeah… what was that last bit you told me, what I need to do to complete the technique?" he asked smiling impishly. She chuckled at him as she stood up.

"You need to say the name of what it is you want to teleport and picture in your mind where you want to send it to, but only if you can't see where you want to send it too. Now… why don't we try teleporting something, something small to begin with of course… like some of the pebbles from the bottom of the river." Naruto grinned and nodded and he spent the rest of the dream trying to teleport pebbles from below the waters surface to above it.

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Kakashi sat up straight in his bed looking around as if suspecting an attack. He was certain he had just felt a large pulse of charka. He tried to calm down his breathing as it came apparent that he must've been dreaming. Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead he got out of bed and walked towards the bathroom to shower making sure to take longer than usual to get ready that morning not really liking the idea that he was going back to his post in the woods. Despite his efforts he was still out the door by nine am, he blamed this mainly on whatever the heck it was that caused him to wake up so darn early. As he walked slowly over to the main gates he thought he heard someone call out his name. Turning to see who it was he gave an exasperated sigh, it was Gai.

"Kakashi! Good morning! My it's a rarity to see you up and about so early this morning… not heading somewhere to get there on time now are you?" he asked in a bright voice as he walked up to Kakashi.

"Hey Gai… yes I'm just off somewhere."

"Well if your not too busy Kakashi… perhaps we should try and tilt the score some more eh?" he said raising his large fuzzy eyebrows inquiringly as he held his chin in his fingers.

"Well actually Gai-" Kakashi said holding up his hands not really feeling like it.

"What's the matter? Is the great Kakashi afraid of losing yet another battle to me?" Gai asked a slight taunt in his voice. Kakashi sighed, but before he was able to try and talk Gai out of having a bout an angelic voice interjected into their conversation.

"Excuse me," The two turned to look at the speaker. The woman's emerald eyes were the first thing that caught Kakashi's attention. His eyes then wandered to her long yellow black tipped hair. She wore a simple white shirt with a pair of dark rust colored red pants and a pair of simple boots, but Kakashi thought she turned them into the most beautiful garments ever. He looked back to her face and was caught again by her beautiful eyes that seemed to have an edge of yellow to them in the center. She had a pair of small but full lips, a cute nose… taking a quick side glance at Gai he noticed he was just as taken by the young woman as he was. Blinking he tried to gather himself not wanting to be the awe struck fool.

"Yes, my name is Kakashi, how can I help you?" he asked her kindly, Gai's head snapped around to look at Kakashi's singular use in his question and frowned.

"I am looking for an apartment complex, I just came here to Konohagakure village and I'm not too sure where everything is." She said smiling at him. It was all Kakashi could do to keep himself together. Kakashi looked at Gai who seemed about to try and pull off some sort of supposed 'cool' maneuver or line, but Kakashi grinned and said quickly:

"I have some free time, I would be more than happy to show you around." He said his smile showing in his eyes.

"Hang on Kakashi don't you have to go…"

"You know I'm early Gai…" Kakashi said a slight taunt in his voice "and besides, you have your team to oversee don't you?" Gai looked a bit taken aback and before he could come up with any remark Kakashi turned back to the woman and gave her a polite bow. "If you would please follow me?" he asked sweeping a hand out beside him almost as if he were addressing someone of royalty. She smiled and giggled.

"I would be most happy to." She said. The two of them walked off leaving a very confused and put out Gai behind who simply walked off muttering to himself something along the lines of… 'You've won this time Kakashi… but I'll get you next time.'

Kakashi pointed out almost anything of any relevance as they walked along. He tried to place her age as he looked at her out of the corner of his eye, she seemed to have the youthful look of someone about eighteen or nineteen years of age… but there seemed to be some depth of wisdom and intelligence in her eyes that told Kakashi not to judge her age just yet. After a few moments of walking Kakashi remembered she was looking for an apartment complex and asked her which one it was. To his surprise it was the same one Naruto lived in, he momentarily wondered whose hair was more yellow, Naruto's or this woman's. She continued to ask questions to which he happily explained until they reached the check in of the apartment complex.

"Ah miss… we've been waiting for you, here is your key." The man said handing her a key. Kakashi thought it was a bit odd for the man not to ask for her name, but then again there was probably no one else who looked like her to confuse her with… so Kakashi didn't pay it any more mind.

"Thank you so much for showing me the way here Kakashi, I apologize if I took up too much of your time." She said turning to him once they reached her room.

"No problem at all I was happy to help." He said smiling as he ruffled his hair with one hand.

"Could you perhaps show me the rest of the village another time? I don't know anyone here, so if it's not too much to ask…"

"No no! No trouble at all, I would be most happy to show you around any time you like." If it wasn't for the mask she would've seen him grinning happily.

They said goodbye with the agreement to catch up in a few days. Kakashi walked back over to the gate almost skipping, though it wasn't till he got through the gate that he realized he had completely forgotten to ask her what her name was. Smacking himself on his forehead he scolded himself for rambling on when he could've been asking her about herself. Like her name, where she came from, and how long she intended to stay. There was something about her that seemed to intrigue him. She stayed in his thoughts all the way out to the forest where he simply walked up a tree and sat in one of its higher branches giving him a good outlook. Drawing one leg up, he folded his arms and rested them on his knee as he prepared for another boring day.

She stood still on the other side of the door as she listened to Kakashi's footsteps fade as he walked away. The moment she was sure he was gone she began to giggle, then laugh as she ran into the room and twirled about on one foot throwing her arms out wide joyously. She had done it… she thought she would fail… that she'd be caught… but she had done it! She gave a yelp of surprise as she fell her balance wavering as she landed smack on the floor. She sat there still grinning happily as she closed her eyes and rubbed them with her palms. Opening her eyes they had turned back to their usual yellow. She sighed as she lay down on the floor staring up to the ceiling. Ahh… so tired… she thought to herself. It was one thing to change shape in a dream projection, and another to change her solid form in the waking world. Raising her hand to run her fingers through her hair she brought it up to her eyes to examine it inquisitively. She still wasn't sure she'd gotten all the mud and dirt out of her hair… but if Naruto was to recognize her and that she was the same person from her dream then she had to look herself… her human self anyway. She sighed and relaxed letting her hair slip from her fingers as her hand rested back by her side. As she lay there her hair began to grow and weave over her skin, her body seemed to shrink as she curled over on one side. Her ears lengthened while her fingers shortened and her nails curled like claws. She lay still for a moment before a yellow fox with black tips on its ears and nose and black socks on its feet and… two tails behind it? One of them looked bigger and bushier than the other. Turning to her tails she sat and washed them, and as she did a silvery mist drifted from her mouth to cover her tails. Once she was done she waved a now singular tail. Walking over to the bedroom she jumped up on the bed and circled a few times before lying down curled up in the center. While her solid form was far too tired to go looking for anyone… she could always send her dream projection out to find Naruto then go to him in solid form once she knew where he was. That decided Tao left the waking world and began to run the streets of Konohagakure village like a phantom spirit.

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AH HAH Chapter four! Hope that wasn't too long… I was going to cut it short somewhere in the middle and make it two separate chapters… but it wasn't quite long enough for that… ah well! Hope you enjoy it anyway and please R&R as always : )