'WHAT?!' Naruto's shout must have reverberated through out the Hokage Tower, 'What do you mean I'm not going?'

'Che, what did you expect, dobe', Sasuke muttered from beside Naruto, sending a smirk his way.

'Naruto-baka! You can't yell at Hokage-sama!' Sakura almost bonked him on the head with a well-placed punch, if he hadn't stepped forward and slammed both his hands on the Hokage's desk.

'That's not fair, Jiji!' Naruto said adamantly. 'I haven't even done anything.'

Of course, he knew that wasn't true. He knew what this was about and why he was being punished. In truth, it was a bonus to him. But lest he show it, he had to act the part. And that meant being enraged about the perceived unfairness of it all.

'Naruto, this is your punishment', Kakashi sighed looking at the blonde idiot who was busy glaring at the Hokage. 'I told you this would happen yesterday.'

Naruto whirled his head around, 'I came to the lame-ass mission, today didn't I?' he asked the Jonin heatedly.

'Naruto!' he chanced looking back and saw that the Sakura was nearing the edge of her very limited patience, gritting her teeth as she was.

'Be careful Sakura, your face might get stuck that way', he told her, and resisted the urge to laugh out loud at her exasperated look.

'What did you say?' Sakura hissed holding her sleeves up as if preparing for cooking.

'And with your forehead as big as it is, it won't be a good combination', Naruto ignored the gasp of shocked intake of breath from Kakashi, the muttering of 'idiot' from the bastard and looked straight at her, counting down the seconds it would take to get her to explode.

'One, two, three….'

'NARUTO!' she screeched, 'I'm going to kill you, baka!'

'Bingo!'

Hiruzen palmed his face. He can't be dealing with another pair Jiraiya and Tsunade come again. Once was enough and he was getting too old for this shit, no matter how much these two reminded him of his ex-students.

He coughed getting their attention, and halting Sakura's punch from landing on top of the boy's head. Not that he didn't deserve it this time.

The Hokage resisted from chuckling, reminded as he was about Jiraiya similarly commenting on Tsunade-chan's figure, and sent a stern look towards the genin.

'Regardless, but you did send your clones to do the missions for a week, Naruto, even if they were D-ranks', Hiruzen told the genin. 'And that was not acceptable. In a combat mission this can easily get yourself and your teammates killed. You will face the consequences of your actions!'

His stern reprimand left no room for argument, and Naruto straightened, his deception for the time being, complete.

'As you wish Jiji!' Naruto exclaimed, giving a mock salute to the old man and marching straight out of the office, ignoring the envious look from Sasuke and the heated one from Sakura. He was secretly glad that his observation skills were clearly improving.

A month ago, he wouldn't have been able to distinguish between a bored Sasuke look and an envious Sasuke look. Sakura was much easier to read, since she doesn't hide her emotions at all. Much like he used to be.

Now, since he was not going with the team to Wave to collect the first instalment of the payment, he could spend that time productively. Without having to worry about his sensei, or Sasuke nosing around in his business.

'Are you sure, Hokage-sama?' Kakashi asked, as they stood in the old man's office yet again. Not many jonin and certainly no one under that rank could even think to ask the Hokage if he was sure. But the silver-haired cyclops had always had a special relationship with the Hokage.

Not to mention he was part of the old man's legacy. For Hiruzen had trained Jiraiya, who had trained Minato, who had trained Kakashi, who was now training Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura. Out of the Rookie nine, it was commonly accepted that the Sasuke was the most likely candidate for Hokage in the future.

Even if Naruto liked to yell to the world about his dream, no one, save for the Hokage himself even thought he could achieve it. Kakashi probably shouldn't think so about his own student, but Naruto just didn't have what it takes. Sure, the boy was unnaturally stubborn and had immense stamina but that wasn't enough to be Hokage.

And it was here, the day after the blonde had blown up in front of the Water Princess, his team now stood without Naruto. For the boy who had just walked out, was probably going to the library again. At first, Kakashi had been quite curious and more than a little concerned about what the boy could be studying there all week.

But yesterday had put his fears and curiosity to rest. He didn't know how Naruto had even gotten entry into the Konoha Shinobi Library, seeing as the chunins previously used to bar him from entering.

Honestly, he was a little disappointed when he realised that Naruto was still researching the academy three jutsu but perhaps that had its uses. After all, it showed that Naruto was at least listening to him about working on his basics. Now only if the boy learns to manage his studies with his team exercises, they wouldn't be having so many problems.

Already Naruto's changes, and his now recent isolation in the library was affecting the team dynamic greatly. And not at all how he would prefer it.

Truth be told, he was glad that Naruto wasn't looking at more advanced, elemental jutsus, not that the boy would even understand them. Which is what makes them so dangerous for someone who had such terrible control of his own chakra.

Not to mention the other source he had as well. It was well and good that the boy hadn't seemed to realise any of it. The later the better in his opinion. And he knew that the Hokage and the advisors also agreed with him on this. That is, the advisors except Danzo. Who the hell knows what the man was thinking at the best of times?

A look at Sasuke and Sakura told him that they too were uncomfortable with the idea of leaving Naruto behind, no matter how annoying they found him.

Perhaps this would be what brought them closer, he thought. At least, they were thinking about each other now, instead of only themselves, as opposed to be a week ago.

After Kakashi had threatened Naruto with an official reprimand, he seemed to have gotten his senses back together. For Kakashi had checked if the Naruto during the morning's mission was a shadow clone or not.

And surprisingly, it wasn't. But it seemed that the Hokage had a different idea. No matter how much the Sarutobi liked Naruto, he couldn't just show such favouritism. Especially not with his rivals being more outspoken in the shinobi council as of late.

And so, the Hokage had to punish Naruto somehow. Even if Kakashi personally thought that the boy had learnt his lesson… for now.

'Yes, I am Kakashi', Hiruzen answered, sighing and blowing out a puff of smoke from his pipe. 'Naruto is a very emotional child.'

Sasuke snorted at the proclamation. Emotional didn't even begin to cover the dobe. He wore his heart on his sleeve and knew nothing of being subtle. A must for a Shinobi. They were just lucky that the Princess hadn't taken offense to his stunt yesterday.

'Regardless', Hiruzen sent a stern glare towards the young Uchiha, 'He needs to learn that there are consequences for his actions and that sending a Shadow Clone to team missions, without informing his teammates is not acceptable.'

Hiruzen knew that Naruto most probably will not take this well, but even if the boy was maturing before his eyes, he couldn't let this go. He had made the mistake with Orochimaru, and he was determined not to make the same with Naruto.

On that note, he still needed to talk to Kakashi about it. And so, he dismissed the two genin and told the Copy-Cat, his most likely successor, to stay behind.

'I am disappointed in you Kakashi', he said, brooking no excuses. 'I thought you would know better than to dismiss one of your students like you have done.'

Kakashi had put down his smut, knowing that sat before him wasn't the kind, old man most of the village knew him as. Before him was the God of Shinobi who had successfully guided Konoha through two wars; the Professor who had single-handedly thrown Kyuubi out of the village's borders by himself.

None of his sass would be appreciated or tolerated in this instant. And such, he couldn't even pretend to not understand what he was talking about.

'You're not denying it, good', Hiruzen nodded, glad to see that the boy wasn't so arrogant to think himself infallible. As strong as he was, it had been the death of many a strong shinobi. And Kakashi still had a lot to learn.

'What do you have to say for yourself. And your favouritism?' Hiruzen asked sternly. 'Surely you didn't think such an act would not come back to me.'

'I admit I made a mistake in not giving Naruto enough attention, Hokage-sama', Kakashi bowed his head, wondering if it was Naruto himself who had complained or if it was Kurenai.

The boy he could understand, even though what he had said was eventually in the blonde's best interest. The newly-minted Jonin however, had no business butting into how he deals with his own team.

The Hokage saw the calculating look in Kakashi's lone eye and was quick to clarify, lest Kakashi go looking for a fight where there was none to be had. 'It wasn't Kurenai-san.'

'Naruto then', Kakashi nodded, having already figured that out. 'And I can't honestly say I blame him.' Honestly, now that he thought about it, his sensei would have ashamed of him. Hadn't he taught his own students that abandoning a comrade made one worse than trash.

How had he forgotten his own philosophy, or rather, the philosophy he had adopted from his deceased teammate.

'Yes, a week ago, Naruto was predictably annoyed', the Hokage answered. 'And I don't blame him either.'

Kakashi nodded, waiting for a reprimand or a demand for an explanation. And it wasn't like he didn't have an explanation. For he had a perfectly reasonable and legitimate one.

'Sasuke needs me to teach him to master the Sharingan and –'

'I know. But that does not mean you neglect your other students Kakashi!' Hiruzen saw through his excuse as easily as a veteran of two shinobi wars sees through a genin's henge. 'Just because you feel like you owe Obito, doesn't mean you don't teach Sakura and Naruto.'

'I haven't ignored them –'

'Kakashi!' Hiruzen turned sharply to the brat who dares argue with him, silencing the Jonin instantly.

'It was in Kurenai's report that your team hadn't known tree climbing during the Wave mission. And that Naruto was still practising the tree climbing exercise and shuriken throwing a week ago when Kurenai gave her team the reconnaissance mission.'

Kakashi took the pause as his queue to offer an explanation now. He sighed, unwilling it to admit the truth, not because it was painful but because it would mean he would have had failed with the second Uchiha brother if it comes to pass. 'Sasuke is a flight risk. He needs more attention and Naruto's basics are abysmal.'

'I agree, he does and they are', Hiruzen wasn't blind to the hatred festering within the boy. It was as visible as the book's bulge in Kakashi's pocket. 'But surely you know that Naruto is a flight risk as well.'

Kakashi nodded, having already known it. But honestly, it was frankly impossible for Naruto to leave the village. Not only because of his dream of becoming Hokage, but because of his status and importance to the village.

'But?' Hiruzen prompted the man who expound further and reflect on his own folly. 'Perhaps… perhaps we have been a little unreasonable. Neither of the previous containers could perform the three basic jutsus to a satisfactory level after all.'

'I agree that perhaps telling Naruto to focus again and again on the academy jutsus was not the best idea even though it was in best interest', Kakashi admitted. 'But his other basic skills are still very weak and need work.'

'Perhaps if you teach him a jutsu or two, he will not isolate himself as much as he has started to in the past week', the Hokage offered the man a possible solution. It will also solve the boy's problem of finding a tutor, which he had witnessed yesterday and hopefully also improve team 7's dynamics.

'I agree. I will work with him on his taijutsu and give him an incentive of a jutsu to strive towards', Kakashi said, already planning on what jutsu he would teach the blonde. Surely Naruto would appreciate being given a technique and it will satisfy his ongoing rivalry with Sasuke, for a time at least, until Sasuke surpasses him yet again and they would be back to where they started.

'Or perhaps take him to Guy to fix his messed up taijutsu stances?' the Hokage, wondering if the Jonin was blind to that one fact.

Kakashi shook his head, 'If Naruto hadn't already met him, I wouldn't have put him through it. I don't even know how they met. I know Guy wouldn't have gone out of his way to find another student. He has his hands full.'

'Ah so you do know.' Hiruzen chuckled, remembering how he had been taking a walk in the early morning light and saw their first meeting. 'It wasn't Guy. Naruto actually found them training and asked to join in.'

Kakashi shook his head in apparent exasperation, hoping his errant student wouldn't start taking after the weird Jonin. His current changes were bad enough. Kakashi was certain that the team wouldn't be able to handle if Naruto suddenly started wearing a neon green skin-tight suit.

'There were weight marks on his arms and thighs last week. And there's only one person who uses weights strapped to his body. But it has only been a week. Even if weights do get the job done, they will not work so quickly.'

And at least, they slowed him down somewhat from being so hyperactive. At least until he gets used to them. Which Kakashi didn't think would happen anytime soon, given the amount of weights the blonde has strapped to his person.

Another thought had him worried though. What would Sasuke's reaction be if Naruto started getting faster, albeit, gradually since weights take a lot of time to have that effect. Perhaps he would have to employ some type of weight training for the Uchiha as well, in time.

The Sandaime nodded, agreeing with the Jonin's conclusion. Even though he had given Naruto the homework to research the academy three jutsu and he was using Guy's method of conditioning training, it would take some time for it to show results.

Just enough, conveniently for the rest of Team Seven to return from the mission to Wave. 'I agree. But you will teach Naruto and Sakura more from now on.'

Hiruzen didn't need to remind the experienced Jonin what would happen if Naruto started getting desperate. For desperation always attracts the vultures. And for once, it wasn't his teammate he was worried about now. Little did he know, his fears were about to come true… somewhat.

Kakashi agreed, knowing that it was an order even if Naruto would not and most probably could not get the basics down, ever. It might just not be in his blood. He remembered another Uzumaki who couldn't perform them either.

With that, he left the office to wait by the gates for his team, hopefully they would have sorted out their bickering long enough to go pack for two weeks.

Naruto however, hadn't waited for his teammates to catch up to him after being dismissed from the Hokage's Office. After leaving the office, Naruto had filed the mission request at the Mission Desk.

But just in case some smartass Chunin got the brilliant idea of throwing his request in the bin, he had filled multiple copies of them. Just in case he would need to file one again.

And as he walked to find an isolated training ground, Naruto threw one glare at the Yondaime's head on the Hokage Mountain and quickly turned away, his eyes becoming just slightly darker in that moment.

Even if the Sandaime had done him a favour – even if it wasn't his intention – Naruto wasn't in a good mood. No, in fact he was in a terrible mood today. As such, he didn't spare a glance to the varied number of glares he got, as usual, from Konoha's populace.

It used to bother him quite a lot. And as recently as a month ago, he would have tried anything to gain their acceptance. To try and figure out what he had done wrong for them to behave this way towards him.

Now though he knew it wasn't his fault. It was that bastard right there on the Hokage Mountain. It was his fault. Naruto didn't know he could have been so stupid to not be able to connect the dots before. How many times before had he cursed himself for not being able to win over the villagers and not paid attention to the evidence which staring him right in the face.

'Look underneath the underneath', baka-Kakashi says. And Naruto never knew its significance more than this moment.

He vaguely heard a civilian woman whispering not to subtly to her friend, and looking pointedly at him. Whipping his head towards them, Naruto glared with his narrowed eyes at the pair of gossiping fools.

What did they know of anything? The women, startled that the boy who used to give blinding grins was now glaring back at them, quickly looked away. Whether it was embarrassment at being caught or fear, Naruto neither knew nor did he particularly.

Unbeknownst to him though, that particular interaction was observed by a frowning old man looking into a crystal ball.

All of his misery stemmed from one stupid night. And the fucking fox in his gut, as he had found out last night.

Ever since discovering his surprising affinity for being able to sense chakras, Naruto had been intent on figuring out what the hell was wrong with him. Even with his gruelling hours of training chakra control, he was unable to even cast a single fucking bunshin or substitution without messing it up somehow. His clone still looked dead and sickly, and he could barely substitute himself with the objects he needed to.

But his week of researching chakra theory and handseals had showed him one indisputable fact. That he had too much fucking chakra. An insane amount in fact. But, so did the Hokage. Compared to all other Jonins, the old man's chakra was like an ocean. And so, for him merely the amount of it would not, and should not have created so many problems.

And that was what led him to discovering the fox. After going home, he had meditated like was his habit ever since being given Tobirama's book. But doing it with his increasing sensing ability had alerted him to the two types of chakra in his system.

If he was to give them a colour, one would be blue and the other would be an angry red. The blue felt calmer by comparison. The red however, felt like a flood of rage, hate, anger. Like an oceanic wave crashing against a dam.

Not knowing what else to do, he had let himself sink in. Hours, or perhaps it was minutes later, he had found himself standing in a sewer with large pipes all going in one direction in the maze. Following them, the feeling of the angry, red chakra had grown steadily stronger and soon enough, he had followed it to its source and came up in front of a gigantic cage in hall like room.

An angry huff, a burst of chakra his way, and a lazy opening of a large red eye with a black slit, he realised this was no mere nightmare or dream. Or maybe the moving shadows, like many tails, behind the eye gave him that impression.

Either way, he didn't go nearer to the cage. It was clearly sealing something. The tag on the front of it said so clearly.

And it wasn't until the gruff, deep voice spoke that Naruto understood the reality, and the gravity of his situation; the literal unfairness and the contempt and hatred he had to deal with all his life.

'So, my jailer comes to visit me at last', said the voice.

Naruto, in that moment, was barely able to keep himself from breaking down, in tears. Not of despair but of anger.

'Kyubi', Naruto replied, surprising even himself with how calm his voice came out, given the rage he was feeling.

'Who else could I be, pathetic mortal!' the beast snarled in anger. 'Come closer so I can rip you to shreds!' he yelled.

Naruto, surprisingly understood the beast's anger, maybe not completely, but at least some part of it. And so, ignoring the fear he was feeling and wasn't afraid to admit, he walked straight to the cage, wondering perhaps foolishly what would happen if the beast did harm him. Surely, they were in his mind, so this wasn't physical.

Suddenly, five large claws crashed into the metal sounding gate, protruding out of the space between the spars and nearly impaling him, coupled with a roar of the fox.

With all the courage he could muster, Naruto forced himself to stay even as his apparent death became imminent, his eyes never straying from the fox's red, hateful orbs.

Silence… absolute silence followed what he presumed was the fox's attempt at getting out, and Naruto clearly wasn't dead… yet.

'Interesting', Naruto said, now looking down at the still visible razor-sharp claws which looked to be even bigger than him.

The fox sneered at the boy in the dark. He had seen what the boy's life had been like up to this moment. He knew the rage that the boy carried within him. He had seen the darkness lurking underneath, which the boy consciously ignored at times when it was threatening to overwhelm him.

It pleased the fox to see that his jailer wasn't at least a complete idiot, given by the fact that he wasn't surprised at his presence. He had come to the conclusion fairly quickly.

But still, he was born from that bitch! And he hated Uzumakis as much as he loathed Uchihas. Perhaps even more than Uchihas. And it looked like this boy was going the same way as the ones that came before him.

'What do you want mortal!' Kyubi snarled, enraged that his claws didn't even touch the blonde rat. He so wished that this troublesome seal wasn't there so he could consume this boy's consciousness and take over his body. 'If you think –'

'It was you', Naruto interrupted the Kyubi's rant midway.

'What! You dare to interrupt –'

But Naruto wasn't the most stubborn ninja for nothing, for he did it again, 'It was you who enabled me to defeat Haku.'

Naruto knew that with as much certainty as he could say that the sky was blue.

Kyubi snarled in annoyance. 'Of course, it was me fool! Surely, you didn't think you were strong enough to think you did it by yourself!'

No, he hadn't. Naruto knew it was some other power as soon as he had come to his senses. Only did it make sense to him when he was staring at the evidence in the face.

'What? No moaning about how I ruined your life, you pathetic worm?' Kyubi goaded him. Perhaps, he could use this boy's hatred to eventually get him to free him.

Naruto shook his head, 'A month ago when I still a stupid idiot, I would have. But I know this is neither of our doing', he felt for the seal on his stomach. If only the library had any elementary sealing books, he'd be set to start his research on the subject. Alas, there weren't any apart from the ridiculously complicated ones he had no chance of understanding. Nor would he allowed to view them.

But his answered questions didn't erase the anger and the pain he was feeling at this betrayal. And so, he had pulled himself out of his mindscape and tried to distract himself last night. But not before he had made a deal with the fox.

With everything that had happened since last night, Naruto's mind was in a whirlwind, much like after Wave. Only so much greater. And so was the pain that accompanied it when he looked at the bastard Yondaime's face.

'A Hokage protects his village and all those who live in it', he remembered the old man telling him. But apparently, the Hokage wasn't above sacrificing new-born orphans for their ungrateful village either.

What kind of the leader was that? Did he want to be like that? No! He would never be like the blonde bastard!

What would Tobirama have done, if he was alive? After all he had read about the man, he still couldn't say with any certainty of how he thought. Therefore, he could only speculate. And he was tempted to think that the Nidaime would not have sacrificed just some orphan he had found.

He would not have asked some other parent to sacrifice their child either. No, he would have used himself for the sealing. That much was certain. He wouldn't have been like the Yondaime, he thought hatefully.

'But isn't that what a shinobi is. Sacrificing and using others. Like I sacrificed Haku', a traitorous voice which sounded suspiciously like Zabuza, rang in his head.

But even with the disastrous earthquake to his belief system, one thing stood out clear to him, as clear as the fact that Kakashi was a pervert, that he did not want to be a Hokage. At least, not a Hokage like the Yondaime. Why defend such a foolish, ignorant, hateful population when they mean absolutely nothing to him.

But then, what did want to be?

A shinobi! The answer was just as clear to him now as it was two months ago. Was the Demon of the Mist wrong? After all, what he had said went against the Will of Fire that Tobirama had talked about in his book.

'But what even is a shinobi?' he asked himself, hating the fact that he was back to square one; back where he was after the Wave mission.

Naruto felt like he hadn't improved a bit in the time since he had his epiphany to start getting his shit together. True, he hadn't learnt a new jutsu or gotten particularly smarter, but he thought he had at least learnt something.

He needed to do better. But it was clear that he couldn't trust either Kakashi or the old man until they justified their reasons for hiding something so big from him. A traitorous part of him said that it wasn't his place, as a lowly genin to ask the Hokage or a Jonin for explanation on anything, but in his angered, and rightly so irrational mindset, right now he couldn't care less.

'Wow, you're more of an idiot than I thought', Naruto whirled around, cursing his inattentiveness as he heard the voice of the white-haired Kiri genin from the old man's office.

Unlike the day before, she wore a light pink battle kimono and walked towards him with an arrogant smirk plastered on her face.

'What do you want', Naruto spat at her, not in the mood for any of their bullshit. He wasn't about to befriend another foreign ninja. He might be a slow learner but he had learnt his lesson from the dressing down Kakashi had given him for trusting Haku so quickly.

'Nothing', the girl shrugged. 'Was just out for a walk and decided to check out the calibre of ninja Konoha has. Must be pretty pathetic if an idiot like you, who doesn't even know what a shinobi is, can become a genin.'

The look she was giving him made her look remarkably like the female Sasuke-teme. And that annoyed Naruto even more, 'Like I care about what you think.'

She scoffed back at him, 'Well clearly you don't care about what people think. Otherwise you wouldn't have killed a defenceless man in cold blood like you did with Zabuza.'

Naruto flinched back momentarily, not because of the heat in the girl's eyes but at the honest and brutal accusation. 'I… I didn't…'

He didn't know what to say in his defence. He had nothing to say when he had killed Zabuza in cold blood when the man was injured and down, and clearly wasn't a threat to anyone. It was one of the most shameful moments of his time.

But why in the hell was she so pissed off about it? Didn't she and her team call him a rogue ninja the day before and even congratulated them? He was a rebel, wasn't he? Weren't they fighting the rebels? Was that not why they here on a mission from the Daimyo? It didn't make any sense whatsoever.

'Of course, you're going to deny it!' she scoffed, shaking her head as if she had known what he was going to say.

'Shut up!' Naruto yelled, 'What do you even know about him, huh! You're still fighting for the insane Mizukage that Zabuza died fighting against! You don't care about what he sacrificed himself for!'

He backed up as the girl came forward suddenly, standing almost an inch for him as she hissed, 'Sacrificed! He didn't sacrifice for anything! You murdered him!'

But Naruto was beyond the point of thinking rationally, and drew closer still, his eyes darkening significantly, and unbeknownst to him, his nails were lengthening into claws, 'Yes! Yes, I murdered him!'

Even admitting such a grave truth pained him more than he thought possible. He had avoided thinking about that horrendous action, the squelch of blood, the tears of sinew and flesh under steel as he jammed the kunai in the Demon's heart, for more than a month. Even worse was the fact that he didn't know, or didn't remember why he had done it.

But now the pain was rearing its ugly. His eyesight was becoming cloudy, and little did he know tears were welling up in those dark blue orbs.

The girl's eyes widened as she saw the changes in his visage. Could it be…?

'What are you gonna do about it, bitch!'

WHAT?! What did he just call her!

'Why you little, good-for-nothing bastard!' the girl spat, banging her head against his forehead. 'Not only did you kill him in cold blood, but you had the nerve to steal what is ours. How dare you!'

Naruto momentarily blanched as she hurled another painful accusation but rallied quicker this time, remembering what he had read about the 'Right of Conquest' in the library.

'I stole nothing', Naruto growled.

'Liar!' she snarled, 'And I'm going to make you give it to me! It doesn't belong to you!'

That elicited an unnaturally cold laugh from the Kyubi container, one that sounded vaguely demonic. 'Make me!'

Rather than hurl another insult at the blonde, she acted far faster than he could even see and threw a punch right into his gut.

'Ooommph!' Naruto almost curled over; his stomach seemed like it almost shattered upon contact.

He coughed out spit and blood as he realised with eyes scrunched up in pain. What had just happened? How in the world did a simple punch make him feel like he had been hit in the gut with a hammer?

But he wasn't Naruto for nothing. He was up almost instantly, and without thinking it through like he had been training himself to, he hurled himself forward, swinging him arms and claws, hoping to get a hit on her.

He snarled as he missed for the umpteenth time, and once again she retaliated with a swift kick to the side of his head, making him see double.

'AGGHH!' Naruto let out a frustrated roar, charging in yet again and throwing all he had learnt for the past month out of the window. He swung a right hook but she ducked under it, and lashed with a knee to his gut.

'Even if you hit me, fool, you can do no damage to me!' she spat, lashing out with a foot to his face.

'Ooof!' Naruto was thrown backwards a few feet yet again. But he wasn't the most stubborn ninja for nothing. Ignoring his bleeding nose, he got up, 'I'll crush you!'

Hidden nearby however, were two masked ninjas observing this impromptu fight between the two children. There was no question that the girl was strong, and since she was a foreign ninja visiting their village, it was standard protocol for her to be watched.

They hadn't counted on her seeking out one of their own, however. Let alone, the resident troublemaker. Which really was an oversight on their part. They should have expected it, given what she had witnessed in the Hokage's office yesterday.

And now that boy was being beaten down like a ragdoll by an obviously stronger opponent.

'Should we intervene?', her partner whispered, eyeing the blonde whose yet another rather sloppy punch was dodged and the boy was rewarded with a roundhouse kick that he couldn't fully avoid.

'No', Neko replied, shaking her head, dismissively at her partner. True, he was a recent recruit, but he needed to learn that ANBU were much different than normal ninja. The normal rules and code of conduct don't apply to them. It was only her luck that she got stuck babysitting the newbie.

'We've only been ordered to watch this girl, Harui. Besides, his life isn't threatened.'

That's not to say it won't be any time soon if this keeps up. Honestly, she was a little disappointed. How could the student of her senpai be so weak? Hadn't the lazy brat learnt anything from him? Or was he just wasting his time in the library instead of being out here, training?

Putting his hands in the familiar cross seals, he shouted, 'Shadow Clone Jutsu!'

'One clone is useless', she smirked at him and but it quickly turned into a frown. He had released a crazy amount of chakra. What in the world?

The field of green was instantly covered in smoke and out of that, poured almost a hundred clones. By this time Naruto had bitten his own palm, forcing himself to calm down.

'Focus, Naruto. Don't be an idiot', he told himself, smirking at the idea in his head.

He might not be the most strategically thinking shinobi, but he wasn't the number prankster in Konoha for nothing. And besides, he just had to see what the hell was up with this girl. Why did her hits feel like he had been hit with a lead bo staff?

However, it soon became clear that she was the greater taijutsu user among them. None of the clone that attacked were able to land a single blow against her. She dodged around them as if they were nothing, and slow through his feints and attacks as if the clones were moving in slow motion.

However, not all was useless. Naruto had been able to gather one thing: she wasn't as good at defending as she was in attacking. She evaded at all times possible, only resorting to blocking when evasion wasn't possible.

This was confirmed when his clones were finally able to successfully surround her from all sides and launched their attacks at the exact same moment, flanking her and covering her retreat.

'Ugh', Harui snarled, glaring at the annoyances, as she jumped into the air, avoiding a sweep from two clones only two set upon by two more coming down on her.

She had been hoping she wouldn't need to show it, but it seemed that the blonde idiot was getting pissed off. His clones were planning to slaughter her with their kunai held in both hands.

'Got you now, bitch!' Naruto yelled, grinning viciously.

'Crap!' she cursed mentally, channelling chakra as much as possible to her extremities and forearms, hissing at the sudden flare of open. She still had to get used to the fact that it hurt every time she used her bloodline.

Finally, Naruto had been able to land blows on her, stomach, face, and back when the unthinkable happened. He only had ten clones remaining and just when it looked like he would be able to pound her down, he sensed surge of chakra from her.

'Fool!' she spat, smug grin on her face.

'What the fuck!' Naruto was astonished. What in the hell was that?

He had no time to think on it though as he backpedalled quickly, ignoring the disturbing image of the girl whose bones were literally jutting out of her arms and palms, and trying to defend himself against her oncoming strikes.

'Kuso!' he cursed and was barely able to keep up with her. In a burst of speed, she was in front of him, and her bone swords landing strikes faster than he could see, the girl not even bothering to stop his feeble counter attacks seeing as they weren't doing anything.

'AGHHH!' Naruto's head whipped to the right, pain searing through the torn flesh of his jaw where the bone sword had struck him.

Slam! A punch right into his nose broke cartilage. Naruto was barely able to get back up in time to see the sharp bone sword coming straight at his chest, pushing himself to the right just to avoid it barely.

'Enough!'

Turns out he didn't need to avoid it at all, as the weird bone girl's sword was gripped by a decidedly feminine looking hand, attached to the beautiful Kiri Jonin dressed in blue.

'Harui!'

Naruto could barely comprehend her name, as he stared wide eyed to the girl who had nearly torn his jaw and flesh, blood leaking on his jumper, pain coursing through him like never before.

'Sensei!' the girl, Harui actually looked scared up for a second, having not expected for the older Kiri kunoichi to show up, before she whipped her eyes to him and glared. 'He's a thief!'

'Enough, I said', even Naruto knew that that tone wasn't something you argue with. It promised pain and punishment. 'I will deal with you later!'

With that, she turned to him as he staggered to his feet, 'Uzumaki-san. I would like to apologise for my genin's behaviour. She has problems dialling down her strength when sparring with those weaker than her.'

For a moment, he was stumped as to why she would even apologise, but then spotted the two ANBU who had landed behind the girl Harui and had their hands on their swords. He could only nod to her, partially because of his torn jaw flesh, but mostly because he couldn't even believe that this girl was a genin.

But then what she had said registered to him, and he coloured in embarrassment and shame, his anger rising to new levels. But unlike before, it was directed at himself.

And as he was escorted to the hospital, holding his bleeding jaw, Naruto constantly berated himself for the idiotic way he had fought; for getting beaten so easily by yet another Kiri-nin. Unlike Haku, she hadn't even used a jutsu and she had still handed his arse to him.

Naruto couldn't see either of the ANBU's face but for some reason, he could feel that they were disappointed in his showing. Hell, even he was disappointed in himself. Here he had been thinking that he had improved, even just a little. But his battered state, while Harui only had a few bruises clearly showed him how much he had been mistaken.

He had no idea when he was led to the hospital room, what the healer had said or asked. He didn't pay attention to the glowing green palms of the woman, or his skin and muscle knitting back together. Neither did he feel the gel she applied to his face or the resulting immense sting.

To the ANBU woman and the healer, it may look like Naruto was sulking, as he lay there nursing his broken and rehealed ribs. When in fact, it was quite the opposite. There was no doubt that if this had happened a month ago, he would be doing exactly what they expect.

Neither was he analysing his fight, as he would have expected. With every difficult breath and aching chest, he remembered the last hitching coughs of the Demon; of Zabuza's heaving breath as kneeled in front of him.

There in the clean hospital room, as his companions left him to his own devices, Naruto replayed the first real traumatic moment of his life, Harui's voice echoing in the depths of his mind.

'Shame!' they yelled.

'Murderer', they called him.

But among the calls were Haku's saddened and disappointed eyes, 'You insulted my sacrifice. You killed my precious person.'

And just like that, as if a blind had been lifted from his memories, he came bursting forth. At last, he remembered in full what happened on the bridge. At last, his questions were answered.

Naruto may have been lying on the pristine white sheets, but he walked down the accursed bridge to the Demon who had swords and spears sticking out of his back. His sides slashed and cut, his arms dangling and useless, his muscles torn and bleeding.

'Come here… brat', the pointy-toothed man wheezed.

Naruto didn't hear his sensei telling him to stay back. He didn't hear Kurenai cursing as he walked among the field of mutilated corpses littering the bridge.

He didn't hear the villagers of Wave Country banding together behind Inari, holding spears and pitchforks, intent on defending their village from the pillaging marauders, as he knelt on the blood-soaked concrete in front of the injured Demon.

His black beady eyes haunted Naruto's dreams to this day even now, staring into the depths of his blue orbs. The Demon motioned him closer and Naruto obliged so the man could whisper without Kakashi hearing him.

'K…Kill me', Zabuza coughed. 'Now…'

Naruto flinched back as if touching a hot pan, his horrified eyes wide with shock.

'N…No', Naruto whispered back, shaking his head in denial, his hot tears streaming down his face. He couldn't… he just couldn't do it. Not when his first friend had given his life to protect Zabuza.

Zabuza shook his head, 'K…Kiri…. Hunters!', his eyes pleading with someone for the first time ever in his life.

In that moment, Naruto didn't know how or why, but he understood. Zabuza did not want to die by the hands of the village he had fought for.

Slowly, as if his muscles of his arms were made of lead. As if his bones were filled with heavy iron instead of calcium, Naruto bent down and inched his hand towards the kunai which had fallen out of Zabuza's mouth.

'Naruto, stop! What are you doing!' Kakashi's alarmed voice came from somewhere behind him, much too close. Enough to come and stop him.

Zabuza's eyes never left Naruto's own, even as the Demon nodded and accepted his end.

He could sense Kakashi's surging chakra as he hurried forward. But not fast enough. With a speed previously unknown to the blonde, Naruto buried the kunai hilt deep into the Demon's chest, past the crunching bone and the squelching flesh, pushing through the tearing arteries and veins.

Zabuza's eyes widened for the last time as the sharp iron pierced his heart.

'What have you done', Kakashi was shaking his head dismally but Naruto didn't see it. He walked away, thinking about the content smile on Zabuza's face as he greeted death like an old friend, fighting for his village.

With no one to mourn him or remember his sacrifice, thus departed a true shinobi of Kirigakure, loyal to the last breath.

AN: So, I need to decide on a tutor for Naruto since Kakashi conveniently isn't in Konoha at the moment. What do you guys think it should be?