Konoha's Swordsman

Chapter Four

AN: A quick note I need to make, the Haku in my story is a girl, that's a big major change. And Sasuke in my story, of course has two goals, to restore his clan, and kill Itachi. But it is in THAT ORDER. Sasuke's first priority is to see the Uchiha clan brought back to their former glory. He is a little OOC in my story, so don't flame about it please? And a hint for people who are trying to guess who Naruto's swordsmanship sensei will be, it is not going to be Zabuza, as the most common belief is.

PS: I proof read this myself, and I had a friend beta read it for me, I have gotten a few messages or complaints about some grammar issues, but I am working on it, and for the most part, if there are a few issues, who cares? I am not perfect, but I don't want to wait an extra day or two to have someone beta read my story, it takes me long enough to really get around to writing in the first place.

Naruto and Sasuke were still bickering as they sat around the table for dinner, "Sasuke you KNOW I won, but you just don't want to give up your share of your dinner!" Naruto was very loud, so Sakura and Tsunami's conversation was cut off.

"No way Naruto, I beat you to the top of the tree, so you have to give me half of YOUR dinner!" Their bickering was going back and forth as neither boy would admit defeat to the other.

Catching on quickly, Tsunami spoke up, "Boys, boys! Quiet down, since neither one of you will let the other be the winner, neither of you gives up any of their dinner, so quiet down and eat your food." Both boys nodded, quieting down, while still glaring at each other from across the table.

Sakura shook her head and laughed at the boys, but still glad that the two of them were getting along well for the time being, better than the usual anyway.

No one really took notice of Inari, sitting quietly and picking at his food until he spoke up, "Why do you even try to get stronger? No matter how strong you are, you can't beat Gato! He just kills whoever tries to stand up to him! And he will kill you too if you don't stop!"

"What is your problem Inari! We are here trying to help you, and save you from Gato, and what he has done to the whole country of Wave, how can you say we shouldn't try to help you? We can help you, with the training we have, and since we beat the people Gato sent after your grandfather the first time, we can beat them the next time they come after us! How can you be so ungrateful to us, we are only here to help you!" Naruto was furious that Inari would just talk to them like that, put them down for trying to help, risking their lives to help them!

Inari was nearly in tears, "You don't know what it has been like here! You do not know the suffering that everyone here has gone through! You come in, the Konoha ninja, acting all tough like you can just stroll up and stop Gato, but you can't!"

Now that REALLY made Naruto mad, "I don't know what suffering is like? I have lived a life worse than anything ANY of you have had to deal with! I grew up in Konoha living in the slums, I lived on the street for nearly a year without a home! I came through all of that, and I even became a ninja! I went through Hell, but I never gave up! The worse thing you can do, is give up when things get tough, that is when you need to dig deep, and show everyone what you can do! I never give up, and that is my Shinobi Way!"

Inari looked down quietly, before getting up and running up the stairs as tears flowed down his face. Naruto looked down at his food, still pissed off, so deciding he needed to get away, he quickly ran out of the house, and out into the woods.

It was nearly ten minutes before Naruto stopped running. Needing to let out some anger, Naruto created several dozen shadow clones around him, quickly ordering them all to fight him, he launched himself into the fight, as he kept destroying his clones, Naruto noticed something.

As the last clone was destroyed, Naruto tried to focus. Digging through his memories of his fight, he noticed that there was more there than what he had done. He could see himself, the real him, fighting the clones. He watched as he punched himself, or maybe it was a clone?

'I made sure all of the clones were only deflecting or blocking, so how do I have the memory of being hit by a clone, I am pretty sure I was never hit by any of my clones. Maybe it is the memory of the clone? But if the shadow clones give me their memories why have I never noticed it before? I mean, the only times I have used them was against Mizuki and when Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke got hurt, so maybe I was just too preoccupied to notice?'

Naruto created one clone, giving it a quick order, "Think of a number, but don't tell me, then dispel." His double-ganger nodded, before dispelling. Immediately, the number 9 came up in his mind. 'Oh this is so COOL! I wonder what happens if I watch myself fight my clones?' Quickly, Naruto created a dozen clones, ordering one to stand aside and watch.

Destroying clone after clone, Naruto just kept creating more and more, going through dozens at a time as the one clone stood to the side and watched. As Naruto kept fighting through clones, he had a thought, "Maybe I can use clones to learn tree walking faster, and maybe that can work as well."

Naruto destroyed the last clone, and nodded to the clan standing aside, making it dispel. Focusing on the memories of his clones, Naruto noticed that the more memories he had to look through, the harder it was to clearly view any one of them. But with some effort, Naruto picked out the one clone's memories, watching as he made a few constant mistakes as he fought his clones, things that he would have to work on when he could.

But quickly acting on his tree walking idea, Naruto created three clones that quickly ran towards separate trees, each working their way up the trees, reaching the top at slightly different times, they then walked down, something that was definitely a lot more of a challenge than climbing up, as you had to use more chakra to hold yourself in place as you fought gravity as it tried to throw you down to the ground.

Having the clones dispel, Naruto got the memories of what amount of chakra each clone had used, which varied slightly between the three of them. Seeing that the clones each had a varied amount of success, Naruto could see which amount of chakra worked best, more so than the other two.

Creating a dozen more clones, he set them to climbing trees, as another dozen were created as Naruto launched himself into another fight.

It would be hours before Naruto would quit, hours after dark had fallen, he sat down and leaned up against a tree, 'It is a nice night, and this tree sure does seem so comfy, I might as well just sleep out here.' Closing his eyes, Naruto let sleep slide over him as he continued thinking about what he could use the newly discovered shadow clone's ability for.

Opening his eyes slowly, Naruto sat up off of the tree, cracking his back. "Ugh, in hindsight, sleeping up against the hard tree really wasn't a good idea." Naruto grimaced at how stiff his back felt. Standing up, he took a look around.

The sun was filtering through the trees, it really was a beautiful sight. He could hear birds chirping, the sun was shining, and it was a warm morning. It was such a beautiful morning, all of the anger Naruto had felt towards Inari was gone by now, 'I just feel bad for yelling at Inari like that, I just couldn't believe he would just give up like that, because no matter, you never give up.'

Again looking around in a circle, Naruto wasn't sure how far into the woods he had gone, but he could tell since the sun was rising to his left, the house would be off to the right, because Naruto could see the sunset from the window of his room every night.

So moving at a slow jog, Naruto started towards Tazuna's house. After running for nearly two minutes, Naruto started to wonder how far he had run in the woods the night before. 'Well I think I ran for at least five minutes before I stopped, then I was moving around while I fought my clones for hours, so who even knows how far out I got?'

Moving through the forest, Naruto caught sight of something white off to his left, when curiosity got the better of him, he decided to check it out. Moving closer, he saw it was a girl kneeling down among some flowers.

"Oh excuse me Miss but what are you doing all the way out here in the woods?" Naruto wasn't sure if it was rude for him to just ask her, but he was curious why someone would be so far out in the woods so early in the morning.

The girl turned to look at him, showing a very pale face, long beautiful black hair, and she was wearing a beautiful white kimono, she really was very beautiful. "Oh well why are you all the way out here Sir?"

'Wow she has such a beautiful, soft voice.' Naruto really was stunned by how beautiful the girl was, "I was out late last night training!" Naruto felt proud to proclaim that he was training to help save the Land of Waves. "Me and my team are here to protect the bridge builder Tazuna, so he can finish his bridge and get everyone out from under the tyranny that Gato has put them under! I was out training so late last night that I decided to sleep out here, because it really is beautiful out here, wouldn't you agree?"

The girl smiled, a warm smile that made Naruto's cheeks red, and gave him butterflies, "Yes it is very nice out this morning, a perfect morning really. And since you told me why you are out here, I guess I can tell you why I am out here so far. My friend is very sick, so I am out gathering some herbs for him that will help him get better sooner." The girl knelt down and plucked a few flowers, taking a few steps to place them in a basket that Naruto hadn't noticed.

"Oh well I could help you! I always want to help people in need, that's why when my sensei was going to have my team leave Tazuna when he had lied about the mission, I told him we couldn't do that, and after seeing how bad the village here has, I know that I will do whatever I can to help them."

"Is it really so bad around here? Me and my friend are just passing through, I haven't really been into town yet." Haku was a little worried, 'How bad is it around here? And if me and Zabuza really do kill the bridge builder, are we really condemning this country to poverty? I don't think I could do that, maybe that is why Zabuza forbid me from going into the town, I knew that we would be doing a bad thing by helping Gato, but Zabuza needs the money to help Kirigakure, but is it really worth it if we doom one country to save another?'

Naruto still had a bright smile on his face, hoping the girl couldn't see his blush, "Well my name is Naruto Uzumaki, what is yours?"

"My name is Haku, and if you want to help, I am looking for white four pedaled flowers, they have short stems and grow very low to the ground." While Naruto didn't know it, the flowers would help Zabuza recover from the fever he had gotten after being nearly drowned under the combined force of two Water Dragons.

Naruto's smile widened, "Sure thing Haku, I will have it done in a second!" Naruto held a hand sign, and a dozen Naruto's poofed into existence around him, running off in random directions to search for the flower.

"My Shadow Clones will find those flowers soon enough, much faster than just the two of us could, don't you wait!" Naruto felt proud to show off his clones, hoping to impress Haku, the only time he had ever tried to impress someone else so much, was Sakura when he tried to show her he was better than Sasuke.

Haku did smile again, "That is a really cool jutsu Naruto, I am sure they will help, it could have taken me another hour to get enough flowers." 'And since Zabuza won't be expecting me for another hour, maybe I should check out the village and see if it as bad as Naruto says it is.'

Naruto and Haku watched as clones ran all around, searching all over for the flowers, running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. Haku giggled as several clones came running back with handfuls of white pedaled flowers, several of them running into each other as they ran, causing a mass dispersal as several clones ran headlong into each other in their rush to get back.

Even with all of the clones tripping over each other, a couple of them still got through, dropping the flowers into Haku's basket, as she smiled and said, "That's enough, thank you."

Naruto sent a mental order to his clones, and the remaining half a dozen clones all dispersed themselves, leaving little clouds of smoke in their wake.

"Thank you Naruto, and thank you for your help, but I really must get going, my friend needs to get better as soon as possible, so I should get going and get these to him." Haku knew who Naruto was, but she could never kill someone, it was the one thing she wouldn't do for Zabuza.

Naruto smiled nervously, "It was no problem, I was just glad to help out. But I hope we meet again someday, you seem like a really nice person Haku."

Haku smiled wistfully, "I would like that Naruto, and it was nice meeting you." Bowing slightly, Haku turned and walked away, soon getting out of Naruto's line of sight.

'Once this mission is over, maybe I can get Kakashi-sensei to stay around for a little while, I would like to talk to her again, maybe I could get Haku and her friend to stay in Konoha.' Turning away, Naruto started his jog back to Tazuna's house.

Getting close to the house, Naruto was only a minute away from Tazuna's, when Sasuke jumped down from the trees above him, standing in his path. "Hey Naruto, wait a minute."

Confused, Naruto replied, "Yeah what's wrong Sasuke?"

Sasuke seemed hesitant about something, but he continued, "Are you really a jinchuruki for the Kyuubi?"

Naruto completely stopped, 'Please just let all of this be a dream.' "Yeah, I am. I didn't even know about it until right after the academy final exam, but I am not even entirely sure what it means to be a Jinchuruki."

Sasuke was confused, "But when Zabuza made you mad, and you had that red aura around you, was that the Kyuubi? Because you got so much stronger and faster, you almost beat Zabuza there for a second when he was so surprised."

"Umm, well I don't know. That has never happened before, but I don't really remember much of the fight after Zabuza talked about us like we were show pieces to be sold off. Is that really what happened? I just remembered fighting him, but not really much about it."

"Yeah it is, you had red chakra flying around you, and you were just so strong like that, you really did almost beat Zabuza. But I have to ask, why did the academy instructors all tell us that the Yondaime Hokage killed the Kyuubi? Why don't they just tell us that it was really sealed in you?" Sasuke didn't understand why something like that would be a secret.

Naruto sighed, "It's because all of the adults know about, but the Sandaime didn't want kids our age to know about it, so they wouldn't treat me differently like the adults do. He created a law so no one could tell their kids about it."

Sasuke frowned, "How do the adults treat you?"

Now Naruto was slightly freaking out, this wasn't something he liked to talk about, "Well some adults are nice to me, but most of them just ignore me, and act like I don't exist. Some overcharge me for clothes and food if I go to their shops. The reason I wore that orange jumpsuit for so long, was because it helped people notice me, and I did all of those pranks so people would pay attention to me. Most adults would pull their children away if I tried to play with them when I was little, so I was so lonely that I just had to do something for attention, because any attention was better than how they just ignored me."

Naruto hadn't really meant to tell Sasuke all that, it was just that once he started talking, it all just flowed out and he just couldn't stop talking. As Naruto had talked, tears had started to fall, tears that he had kept at bay for years, he didn't even cry when he failed the academy tests, because he had been all out of tears.

Sasuke was unsure of what to do, he was expecting Naruto to say something about how cool and amazing it was that he was the Kyuubi Jinchuruki, he wasn't expecting Naruto's whole life story, so he just looked down and waited for Naruto to stop crying. Sasuke hadn't known that the whole time Naruto did wild pranks, or did something to get the class's attention, it really was the only time anyone paid him any attention.

Naruto sniffed, looking up as his tears stopped falling, "Even my crush on Sakura isn't real, I don't even like her, it was just another way to get the class to notice me." Looking at Sasuke, he saw how uncomfortable he was, "Sorry for getting so emotional Sasuke, I just don't talk about that much, I don't think I ever told anyone this before."

Sasuke looked back up, "No it's, it's okay. I can understand about the attention, but for me it is the opposite. With my clan gone, I am "The Last Uchiha." All the girls in class wouldn't leave me alone, they would follow me around. I had clans jumping to adopt me, so they could have the last Uchiha. Everyone was so obsessive about me, when all I want is for all of them to leave me alone. I stopped talking in class, hoping the girls would leave me alone, it didn't work. Many clans even fought over temporary ownership of the Uchiha compound in the village."

Sasuke stopped, why was he telling Naruto all of this? Just because they had gotten along yesterday and Naruto told his sob-story? "Okay look, we should get back to Tazuna's, Kakashi wants us to get back to working on tree-climbing, and we should ask him about the Kyuubi's chakra and see if he knows anything about it."

Naruto nodded, and the two of them started to walk back to Tazuna's, both embarrassed for telling the other their whole life story, but both of them now thinking about what if Naruto had used the Kyuubi's chakra?

AN: Okay so the Sasuke in my story is different than Canon Sasuke, Haku is a girl, feels a little less indebted to Zabuza, and is about to go check out the village, and see just how bad off they would leave Wave if Gato gets his way. I know, big changes to Haku and Naruto's meeting, Sasuke is curious about the Kyuubi, while Naruto is still pretty clueless about it himself. What does Sakura think about the Kyuubi? And what will Haku do when she sees the horrible shape of the Village of Wave?