AN: This chapter is mainly just filler and mandatory scenes. Anyway, thanks for all the comments and kudos so far, you guys are awesome! Enjoy! EDIT: beta'd as of 8/23

Naruto woke up tired and laying on the ground. He'd pushed himself hard training after his talk with Sakura. She had stayed with him the whole time, watching him and making sure he didn't over exert himself. She'd fallen asleep at some point though, leaning up against a tree. When Naruto noticed this he took off his jacket and had laid it over her so she wouldn't get cold before going back to training.

And eventually, he himself had fallen asleep.

He was woken up by someone gently touching his shoulder. Opening his eyes, he saw a pretty face hovering over his own, framed by long, dark hair. His heart clenched.

Haku.

"Sorry to wake you," he said kindly. "But I didn't think you would find it comfortable to be sleeping out here." He stretched out a hand to offer help up. Blinking, Naruto took it and sat up. Off by the trees, he heard rustling from where Sakura had fallen asleep followed by a startled gasp upon her seeing a stranger so close to them.

"Good morning, miss," he greeted, smiling in her direction.

"Uh, hi," she stammered out, trying to figure out who he was. Since she had never really met Haku before, she couldn't place him as easily.

"I'm sorry for interrupting you two," he said with a smile. "I just came out here to gather herbs and found you two asleep." Then, "Oh, you two are shinobi," he said, noticing their headbands, as if he hadn't already noticed it before. "You must be very strong."

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Sakura said wearily, standing up to join them on the grass. Naruto's jacket was clutched in her hands now that she was awake, and she handed it back to him upon sitting down.

"I'm Sakura, and that's Naruto," she greeted, gesturing to him. "Who are you?"

"My name is Haku," he replied, giving them both a kind smile.

"Hi Haku," Sakura said, returning his smile. "What kind of herbs do you need?" She continued, eyeing Haku's partially full basket. "I'm pretty good with medicines, so I might be able to help."

"Just these," he said, holding up what was in his basket. Sakura glanced at the herbs, her medical experience coming to the forefront of her mind and her features contorting in recognition. She wiped away the look, replacing it with a smile.

"Ah, I see," she said with just the slightest edge to her voice. "What do you need them for?"

A fleeting spark of recognition flared in Haku's eyes, but he looked back down at the ground - to focus on the plants. "A friend of mine was injured, I'm trying to help him recover."

"That's very noble of you to help," Sakura said.

"He's my precious person," Haku stated simply. "Of course I'd help him. Wouldn't you do the same for yours?"

Sakura blinked, slightly dumbfounded. She had never realized the bond between Haku and Zabuza had been so close. Unsure of what to say, she went back to picking herbs.

"I would," Naruto stated, jabbing a thumb towards his chest. "I'd never abandon my precious people!

Haku's smile returned, kindness and warmth flowing back into his cheeks at the boy's words. "Is that your dream? To protect them?" He asked. Naruto scratched his chin thoughtfully. Was it his dream? In part, he supposed. He'd always wanted to be Hokage. But being Hokage meant protecting everyone. And having everyone be your precious people.

"I guess so," he shrugged. "I've always dreamt of becoming Hokage, and the Hokage protects everyone," he said, reciting his thoughts. "So I guess that is my dream. Is it yours?"

"My dream is protect and serve my precious person," Haku replied soberly. "Without him, I'm nothing"

Off to the side, Sakura frowned. "That can't be true," she countered. "Your life isn't defined by one person. It's defined by you."

"Maybe," Haku replied. "But it's true for me."

Sakura frowned, eyes betraying sadness, but said nothing.

"What about you, miss?" Haku continued. "What is your dream?"

"Uh, to protect my precious people, I suppose," she said dumbly, still put off by his last answer to her statement. "I'm a medic, so I want to save people."

"Those are both noble goals," Haku told them warmly. "I hope you are able to achieve them someday, both of you." A genuine smile, one that made its way to his eyes, appeared on the boy's face.

Naruto stuck a thumb out in a thumbs-up gesture, broad smile plastered on his face. "I will achieve it, y'know, you can count on that!"

"I don't doubt it, Naruto," Haku chuckled. Then, dusting his kimono, he stood up, grabbing his now full basket of herbs. "Now, I must return to my friend. Thank you both for helping me gather herbs."

"No problem," Sakura smiled. "Hopefully we'll see each other around town. Maybe we'll even get to meet your friend if they're feeling better." She added. They would. Two days from now. They already knew.

"Maybe," Haku agreed. "Farewell Naruto, Sakura. It was a pleasure to meet you."

"Bye Haku," Naruto waved. "Take care!"

And with that, the kimono clad boy disappeared off into the trees. The two shinobi left behind sat together in silence for some time while they waited for the Kiri ninja to vanish completely. Then, just as they were sure he was gone, Sakura turned to Naruto.

"So that was Haku?"

"Yeah."

A sigh from Sakura. "Oh boy. I don't want him to die."

Naruto shifted where he sat, a small pit forming in his stomach at the thought. "Yeah," he agreed. "Me neither."


The rest of the day was spent training for Naruto as he tried to get his jutsu down. He had made a lot of progress, and even managed to drill many holes into some poor trees. But the goal was to go clean through, and that hadn't yet happened. Sakura had remained at the house after breakfast, as had Sasuke, so Naruto was on his own. He was working with about fifty shadow clones, each one taking up a tree as target practice. But it still didn't feel like enough. There was something he was missing. If only he knew what…

"Having fun there?" The sudden voice distracted him and caused him to lose focus, resulting in his next shot losing velocity and only making a small dent on the bark.

"Damn," he huffed, turning to see who'd spoken.

He wasn't surprised to find Kakashi-sensei leaning against a tree that wasn't currently being used as a target, eyeing the area with mild interest.

"I see you're taking advantage of your shadow clones," he noted, looking around at the sea of orange.

"Oh, yeah," he replied. "I'm still not getting anywhere though."

Kakashi-sensei raised an eyebrow before pushing off from the tree. He no longer needed the crutches to get around, so he strolled on over to Naruto easily. "Well what are you doing?" He asked, his tone mild.

Naruto frowned, scrunching his face up in confusion. "I'm doing what the scroll said," he supplied. "What else should I be doing?"

"Well, you could try looking at it from a different angle," he suggested in his annoyingly cocky voice. Naruto scowled in response. What kind of advice was that? He said as much.

"I mean trying to think of it differently," he said clarified, undeterred by Naruto's attitude. "But to do that, I need to know. What are you doing now?" Naruto opened his mouth to argue but Kakashi-sensei held up his hand to stop him. "Yes, you're doing what the scroll said. But what is that exactly?"

"Just read it yourself," Naruto grumbled.

"No, I want you to tell me," he said. God, why did he have to have such a frustrating sensei? In that moment Naruto would have killed to have a sensei like Kurenai or Asuma. Maybe even Gai. At least with them you actually knew where you stood or what they were talking about while they were teaching - if you could even call what Kakashi-sensei did teaching. It felt a lot more like lecturing.

"Fine," Naruto finally sighed. "I'm building wind chakra in my chest and then exerting pressure so it shoots forward. Just like the scroll said."

"Ah, and are you building pressure before or after you've amassed wind chakra?"

"Uh, after, I guess," he shrugged.

Kakashi-sensei hummed pensively, looking him up and down in thought. Finally, he spoke up and said, "Next time, I want you to build up normal chakra first, enough to build a substantial amount of pressure, before you form any wind chakra." He nodded to himself. "Can you do that?"

Naruto shrugged. "I suppose." Kakashi-sensei gestured for him to do so. Turning back to the tree, Naruto built up the chakra just like his sensei said, holding it down to form pressure. Then he used change in chakra nature to form the wind chakra he'd need for the jutsu to work. With a few hand signs, he shot the bullets out of his mouth, hitting the tree squarely in the center.

They drilled almost all the way through.

"Woah!" Naruto gasped, straightening up. "Did you see that!"

"I did," Kakashi-sensei replied coolly. "Now this time," he continued. "I want you to condense the your wind chakra more so that the bullets have more effect."

"You got it!" Naruto exclaimed, jumping back into position. He formed the chakra, built the pressure, condensed the wind, formed the hand signs, and then-

BOOM!

The tree shattered at the base, splinters of bark flying everywhere. With a groan, the tree toppled over onto the ground, a loud crashing sound following its decent. Then, silence.

"That… was awesome!" Naruto suddenly shouted, jumping up and down with excitement. "Did ya see that! I did that, y'know! Like, it just toppled over, just like that, y'know! I'm awesome!"

Kakashi-sensei watched the celebratory dance with mirth and pride sparkling in his eye.

"Hey, hey, can I try that again?" He asked, turning to his sensei. Kakashi-sensei shrugged in a "why not" gesture. Naruto grinned happily before going to do it again.

And again, the same result happened.

"Yes!" He shouted. He proceeded to continue his celebratory shouting as he jumped around the clearing.

"Maa, now that you've mastered your jutsu," Kakashi-sensei drawled, interrupting his jig. "You should dispel your clones. No point in wasting anymore chakra today."

"Oh, right," Naruto said, pausing his victory dance. With a single hand sign he dispelled them all.

Only to topple over onto his face. But not before his sensei caught him.

"Right," Naruto groaned, wariness taking over his bones. "Forgot about that drawback."

Kakashi-sensei let out a short chuckle before hiking him up onto his back into a piggyback, arms hooked under his short legs.

"Maa, let's just get you back to the house," he said. Naruto would have agreed, but he was already drooling onto his shoulder, fast asleep.


The next night, all three genin were gathered in the clearing for a meeting. Kakashi-sensei was taking watch at the house and was under the impression that the three had gone off to practice drills; when the reality was that they had needed to discuss the plan for the Bridge battle the next day. Naruto was still reeling from having completed his jutsu, excited energy buzzing under his skin at seemingly all hours of the day. The other two found it annoying, but they didn't say much to make him stop.

"Alright," Sakura said, breaking the silence. She always seemed to be the one to talk first at these meetings, so the other two often looked to her as their "leader" of sorts. The role fit her very well. "The bridge battle is tomorrow," she said. "And I know we've sort of discussed this, but we really need to form a solid plan."

"Inari and his mom are going to be attacked," Naruto reported. "So someone needs to stay behind to help them."

"I can do that," Sakura volunteered. "Then afterwards I can go to the bridge to guard Tazuna."

Sasuke nodded, agreeing. "We should leave Zabuza to Kakashi-sensei," he said. "So Naruto and I can fight Haku."

"Right," Naruto agreed. "And we should try to detain him so he can't form those mirrors of his. They're a bitch to fight."

"Not with my Sharingan they're not," Sasuke said, throwing a satisfied smirk his way. Naruto scowled in response, but didn't take the bait any further.

"Whatever happens," Sakura cut in, diffusing the tension between them. "Your goal is to make sure Haku doesn't leap in front of Kaka-sensei's Chidori. And making sure he doesn't form those ice mirrors that trap you two."

Sasuke let out a frustrated huff, shocking the other two. "Haku chose to take that chidori," he said darkly. "If he wants to kill himself, that's his problem."

"Sasuke," Naruto frowned. "Saving the world means saving its people. And that's what we're doing, isn't it?"

The Uchiha shot him a dark look, onyx eyes cold and unrelenting. "The only person I care about saving is my brother," he said. "And Haku is a rogue ninja. He should be killed just for that reason alone."

Anger built up inside Naruto, and he suddenly found himself on his feet with clenched fists facing Sasuke. "If that's true then we should have killed you! You abandoned the village on your stupid revenge quest, after all."

Sasuke's eyes flashed sharingan red, the iris' glowing in the dim light. Sensing the two seemed about to break into a fight, Sakura stood up and shoved them away from each other, reinforcing her movement with chakra for added effect.

"The both of you need to cool down!" She exclaimed, glaring at them. "We're not here to bicker over what happened in the past. We're here to complete a mission." She spoke, her eyes locked in a staring match with their own. "Got it?"

Naruto muttered something in response while Sasuke remained quiet, but both nodded in reluctant assent.

"Good," she growled. "Now, back to the plan." She sat back down and gestured for them to do the same. They complied, however reluctantly. "Here's what we'll do when we get to the bridge…"

AN: Next chapter, battle on the bridge!