Za Kaze Shokkou The Wind Weaver

by Cloud1239999

Naruto Uzumaki has always been a hyper child. What would differ if Naruto grew up differently because he was able to learn how to read at an early age? Meet Uzumaki Naruto Wind user extrordinair. Watch and enjoy as Naruto hits the world like an hurricane

6. 5: Training and a new side to some

Alright people. Once again I thank everyone for the excellent reviews. (Is it just me, or am I starting to sound like a parrot with all these thank you's) However, I must say that just recently I got a particular review that really sparked my interest. It was my first review that could be considered a flame. Later though, the reviewer and I started along a path that I like to refer to as 'The Rant Wars'. Pretty well, how it started was with the one review that was sent to me by the reviewer: Firecanburn.

I know that normally I'm not supposed to do things like this (Answering reviews in a story), but really I'm not. I guess you can refer to this as a part of 'The Rant Wars'. What I'd like to do here is show you guys the review that started it all, along with my reply (yes, I copied and pasted it into a word document to save). I hope you guys don't mind this. It can be skipped after all. Here is the review as I received it in my e-mail.

If you'd like to skip straight to the story, just press 'ctrl + F' and type in 'OoOoO' without the brackets. That will skip past this straight to the story.

The following review has been submitted to: Za Kaze Shokkou The Wind Weaver Chapter: 5

From: Firecanburn (deleted to match guidelines set by ffdotnet)
Reply URL: (deleted to match guidelines set by ffdotnet)

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One problem that made me stop at the second chapter. You make Naruto talk like he is 20ish. He is a 12 year old i-d-i-o-t. Even if he can read and maybe make a simple jutsu or two. You make him learn kaze bunshin or kage bunshin. Not some strange seal thing that makes him look smarter than most of konoha. Number 2. You make him cheerful, happy-go-lucky teen. Then you make him out of the world smart and strong? PICK one. He can be either smart and darker, or happy,loud, and stupid. Yes, it is possible for him to be strong in both. For the happy side he has kage bunshin and uses kyuubi a ton. While in the dark side, he is strong by himself. That's what makes Naruto...attractive for lack of better word. You can twist and bend his character anyway you want. For example, in affinities, Sasuke will always have fire, he isn't Sasuke without fire. While at the same time Naruto can be ANY element you chose. It's that malleability that makes it fun. Your making him GOD. Make him earthlier, more natural.Keep working on it.
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At first glance when I read this I admit that I was pissed. To me it seemed that he was just insulting my story and putting down my views on what Naruto could've been like. Now, I will post my response. Please keep in mind that I just wrote the response to rebuke/argue against his points. There was no resemblance to order in mind.

I am trying to make a Naruto that is more intellegent that is the focus. The image that I'm aiming for with his personality is that he is a happier person, but not idiotically happy like in canon.

And no offense to people, but while reading about the idiotic Naruto is entertaining, I cannot entirely picture him being that way realistically. At least not with the way that he grew up.

Also in this he is a little more of a smart ass when towards people that he doesn't know very well yet like Kakashi.

Another thing that I found wrong with canon Naruto's personality is that he is too trusting of people right away. Kabuto for example before the first test in the Chuunin exams.

What I'm going for Naruto is not a personality that says 'Hey, my childhood was hell because of you', or the 'Hey, I'm a happy idiot who doesn't care if I've been beaten up in the past' Naruto. What I guess I'd have to say to describe his personality is. 'I am an intelligent person. I act happy and trusting towards people, but in reality I am a little withdrawn due to my past. I am trying to get past that though to get to know more people.' As many people have done Naruto wears a personality mask.

And the fact that he reverse-engineered that tattoo he used in the gennin exam. As I said, anyone could've done it. Naruto just came up with the idea while reading a history book about the first ninja and how they fought. Any of the semi-intellegent characters could've done the same thing, it is just that it was a time consuming process that Naruto stuck to diligently. As far as we know someone else could've started the same project but gave up on it. That wasn't done to make others look like idiots. That is one thing I'm trying not to do.

As for your comment about Naruto being too powerful. No, he isn't. In my opinion if Naruto was too powerful then he'd also be a god at taijutsu and Genjutsu. Not to mention the fact that after expending so much chakra performing his 'Grid Blade' technique he would of had plenty of chakra to spare. After all that technique is much more of a complex construction or shape. Multiple Air blades just set up in a formation. In the Anime/Manga when Baki kills Hayate, he uses the Air Blade technique in such a way that it doesn't seem that difficult (and without seals to boot), and he's only slightly winded because of the hit that he took in order to set up the kill. Naruto's technique is just a lot more complex in control. Also, I believe that there would be side-effects to having Kyuubi inside of him. Surely Naruto's chakra would become more potent due to being used with the seal to hold the demon back. I guess that's all I'm going to say on that.

Also, this is an AU story. The fact that Naruto learned how to read early is just the catalyst that started all of the other changes to Naruto's personality. You don't have to say it like it's the end of the world or something to that degree because I'm making Naruto out to be different then other writers.

Ah shoot, sorry if it sounded like I was ranting to you. When I first read what you wrote it sounded like a flame, but now that I've reread it I realized that it isn't really. Sorry about that. Anyways, I do thank you for what you said, but more then likely it won't change too much for what I'm doing with Naruto. I really am trying to make him a little more realistic. Also, I hope you don't mind it but I think I'm going to save this reply and throw it in with the AN for the beginning of the next chapter. I thank you for reading.

This is just showing how things started. Pretty well though, what I guess I want to say by showing you this is that I'm not afraid to take your criticism. I do like seeing positive reviews, but no offense to those who fit into this category I'm getting kind of bored seeing reviews where people just say 'Please update.' Or 'Great chapter' all of the time. I prefer seeing analytical reviews like this one. As you can see from my response, I'm not afraid to argue points either, and I will accept a defeat if I see good points made. I want to hear this stuff. I feel that it will make my writing better, and by proxy make the story more enjoyable.

Anyways, now that I've wasted two pages of your time I will now get onto the story. Oh, and if you haven't guessed already. As an apology for making you all go through this, I'm making this chapter longer than usual. Hopefully around fifteen-twenty pages as opposed to eight-ten and this will be the last chapter before my first custom arc (or non-canon mission).

'Ends rant mode'

OoOoO

Za Kaze Shokkou: A Naruto AU Fanfiction.

Written by: Cloud1239999

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. It is as simple as that. I'm only writing this story for both my personal and the enjoyment of others. I do not intend to make any form of money off of this story. If however you do see reason to sue you will find no money within my pockets. That's right; I'm a 21 year old with no money and still living with my parents. :P

Rated: M (For Swearing, Gore, and any other mature thing that may show up including a possible future lemon ((Don't know this one for sure)). Reader Discretion is advised.)

OoOoO

'Drip' 'Drip' 'Drip'

It was that annoying dripping noise again. Naruto groaned to himself as he sat up. He couldn't figure out for the life of him why he still found that noise annoying after hearing it every time he awoke for as long as he could remember.

As he put it out of his mind again Naruto grabbed one of his scrolls. A small smirk formed on his face as he though about what everyone was going to think upon seeing the new look he was about to show off.

OoOoO

Many people thought that Uchiha Sasuke was a naturally broody person. Anyone would agree with that assumption, but they truly knew nothing. Sure, he dwelled a lot on his brother, the murder of his clan (especially his parents' death), and how he was going to become strong enough to kill his brother. What nobody knew about him though was that he wouldn't be nearly as broody if it wasn't for the fact that he was a shinobi.

Now you may ask yourself: What does that have to do with it? Well, the answer to that was hidden within one little known fact about him. For you see, Uchiha Sasuke is not a morning person. He definitely enjoyed most things that come with being a ninja. The one major thing that he hated was the fact that every day whether for training, missions, or many other miscellaneous things that shinobi were involved in, he had to get up at ungodly hours.

Civilians thought that seven or eight in the morning was early. They knew nothing of the hell of early mornings for a ninja. Being up at four or five in the morning, now that was hell to the young Uchiha. If Sasuke hadn't of picked up on the fact that his sensei was chronically tardy then he'd certainly resemble more of a soldier in the armies of the living dead, than a proud ninja.

So that takes us to our scene right now, where five young zombie soldiers drinking coffee and the 'too chirpy for this time of day' Kakashi were sitting at the table in the dining room at five in the morning waiting for the male blonde who was part of their mission to join them.

After five minutes all of the gennin suddenly switched from 'Zombie Soldier' mode back to Ninja. Whether that was from the coffee finally kicking in on their young bodies or from the person that just came down the stairs has yet to be figured out.

Ino blinked, repeatedly at that. Sasuke chose to try to out blink her (well not really). Chouji looked once before ripping open his first bag of chips for the day looking like he was unwrapping a Christmas gift. Hinata blushed before fainting. And Hinata's faint spell caused Shikamaru to look down at her while mumbling about troublesome people and their troublesome ways. Kakashi just nodded in agreement with the Nara before complimenting the blonde.

"Now you look more like a real ninja Naruto."

"Thanks Hatake-san."

With their reactions one would think that Naruto's new outfit was something either extravagant or just plain ridiculous. That is until they remembered that Naruto was somewhat famous for being one of the most unpredictable ninja in Konoha, second only to Anko, who proudly holds that title for now, though the gennin didn't know about her yet.

What he was wearing is what civilians would consider an Assassin Squad ninja to look like. He wore black ninja sandals, black pants designed for maneuverability and versatility with a kunai pouch on each leg, a black t-shirt thought that was hidden by a sweatshirt that he wore overtop of it that had many pockets for scrolls and throwing weapons, and last but not least he wore what looked like a black turban that completely covered his blonde hair. The only distinguishable features on the boy were his whisker birthmarks and his bright blue eyes that were currently filled with mirth at the other's expense.

"So what's on the schedule today?" Naruto asked.

"Training. I'm not absolutely certain, but I believe that Zabuza managed to survive the fight he had with Asuma-san and I."

"Whaaat? But we all saw that hunter-nin kill him with those senbon needles." Ino answered.

"The weapon is the exact reason why I think that Zabuza is alive. That along with the fact that he took Zabuza's body away."

"Hunter-nin are supposed to destroy the body right away." Naruto cut in. "There is also the fact that someone skilled enough with senbon can actually put a target into a death-like state, where by all detectable methods the person appears to be dead until after the needles are removed. Of course if they are left like that for too long it can really kill them."

"That is correct Naruto. Therefore I believe that it would be best for us to train during the time that it'll take Zabuza to recover. I believe that will be ten days. Next time he comes after Tazuna he will more than likely have reinforcements with him." Kakashi let that sink in for a few seconds before clapping his hands once to regain everyone's attention. "Alright then, let's head outside to start your training."

OoOoO

Ten minutes later the gennin of the two teams were outside a short distance into the forest. A fuming Sasuke had of just landed from making a fifteen foot run up the tree before he was repelled from using too much chakra, Chouji was right next to him after making it sixteen feet up on his third try, Ino and Shikamaru were sitting down on branches half way up their trees, while Hinata was standing on top of her tree with Naruto, who was on the same tree, laying on the underside of the highest branch after a casual walk up the tree.

"So Hatake-san, now that Hinata and I have proven that we've mastered this exercise can we go off for our own training now?" Naruto broke the silence other then Chouji and Sasuke's grunts of effort trying to get the exercise down.

Kakashi raised his eyes from the book and looked at the two. "What are you two planning to do?" He asked.

"I'm going to continue teaching Hinata how to walk on water, while I have my own chakra control exercise that I want to practice for the next few hours before I do a little bit more reading." Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow when he heard the blonde boy's answer.

"Alright, you two can go. I expect the two of you back here in three hours though. I'd like to see some spars then." Naruto raised an eyebrow in reaction to Kakashi's statement.

"Hai Kakashi-sensei." Hinata answered. Then Naruto did a short flip landing on the branch underneath him and he joined Hinata who was already jumping through the trees towards the lake behind Tazuna's place.

OoOoO

About ten minutes later Naruto stood out on a lake with Hinata a few feet in front of him. Naruto stood looking totally relaxed with his hands in his jacket pockets and leaning back on one leg casually. Hinata stood in a basic stance of her family style. They stared at each other watching for who would make the first move. They stayed like that for another few minutes before Hinata finally acted with a charge.

Naruto continued to stand there casually until the last second when he ducked under Hinata's left handed palm strike and retaliated with a leg sweep which was flipped over by Hinata. As soon as Hinata landed she spun around, which Naruto was doing as well, and performed a right handed palm strike which Naruto dodged to the side of before throwing a right hook back which was parried by Hinata's left hand. After that short exchange was finished they both backed off, Hinata by doing a back flip, and Naruto by gliding backwards on the water. When they both stopped a total of fifteen feet away from each other they both took a few seconds before Naruto continued the fight. Naruto did so by quickly pulling out a kunai which was launched at Hinata and following behind it. Hinata caught the kunai with her right hand as she spun and performed a sideways slash with the kunai which would of cut Naruto across the gut if it had of connected, but Naruto wasn't following that path anymore.

As Hinata caught the kunai and spun Naruto had of changed directions and followed the spin halfway through to behind where she was facing when she stopped. Naruto followed this up by finishing his charge while Hinata was caught off guard and striking her right shoulder with a straight kick using his left leg. This forced Hinata into an opposing second spin that she wasn't prepared for and she wound up falling into the water. As Hinata resurfaced Naruto decided to give his thoughts on their short spar.

"That was very good Hinata-chan. You're getting faster on the water." Naruto offered his hand to pull her up and out of the water as he continued. "It's almost getting to the point now for you where you don't need to think about it. Then it will probably go back to having you hand me my ass all the time. I was also very impressed with that flip you performed over my sweep. For a second I thought you were going to forget to temporarily change the chakra flow to make up for the landing from the jump." Hinata blushed at the praise.

"Arigatou Naruto-kun." Naruto grinned at her in reply while pulling her up.

"Shall we go for another round?" When Hinata nodded Naruto put his hands back in his pockets and glided back on the water until he was fifteen feet away from her again.

OoOoO

A couple hours later Hinata and Naruto were enjoying a quiet walk back to the clearing where everyone else was training. As they went Naruto was analyzing what he'd of seen of the jyuuken fighting style so far.

'Alright, I know that Hinata was banned from explaining to us exactly how her family taijutsu style works but lets see what I can figure out from what I've seen so far. I guess the most obvious thing about the jyuuken is that it isn't a style that relies on brute force.' He glanced out of the corner of his eyes for a second. 'That is kind of obvious if someone like Hinata can still cause major damage with the style. No offense meant to her, but she isn't the most physically strong of shinobi. It seems to cause damage to the inside of the opponent's bodies, usually cutting off the flow of chakra through a point in the body. I'm guessing that it is done by shooting chakra out their hands into the opponent's body. From what Hinata has told us about the Byakugan, I'm guessing that they use their doujutsu to aim for specific parts of the chakra circulatory system. The forms and stances that are used in the style seem to be focused on speed. Maybe I could use them or variations of them to create my own style replacing the act of damaging the inner body through the act of shooting chakra through my hands, but instead use my wind manipulation abilities to cause the damage through blunt force blasts of wind. Yeah, then I can also practice creating gusts of wind to help me maneuver my opponents into better positions or to assist in parrying my opponents attacks. I already do something similar with that jutsu of mine. Yeah, maybe I could get Hinata to help me a bit in the development of the fighting style. I will have to come up with a name for it though.'

As Naruto was deep in thought he didn't notice Hinata's small smile that she got when she saw Naruto face scrunched up in thought. She'd of always found it cute.

OoOoO

"Ah, Hinata, Naruto. Finally back I see." Kakashi greeted the two as they walked back into the clearing.

"Ano, were we late Kakashi-sensei?" Hinata asked.

"No not at all. In fact, you two are just in time. Why don't you two come over here and sit with the others. Then I'll explain the rules of today's sparring session." When Hinata and Naruto sat down Kakashi continued. "Alright then, we are all going to do a taijutsu only spar. So that means that I do not want to see any ninjutsu or genjutsu being used at all, even if you can do them without seals." Kakashi plainly looked at Naruto here who nodded his head to show that he understood. Then Naruto chose to ask a question.

"Can we use chakra control exercises like the tree climbing exercise?"

"Only if you know that your opponent can do the same exercise as well."

Naruto snapped his fingers looking disappointed. "Dang, then I'm probably only on par with Sasuke for speed then." Kakashi raised his eyebrow when he heard Naruto say that.

"And also, there will be no weapons used during these spars. Those are your rules for today. I would like to see you guys paired off as follows. First Ino, I would like you to spar with Hinata. Then Chouji, I'd like you to spar with Shikamaru, and finally Sasuke and Naruto, I would like to see you two go at it." Here Kakashi got a gleam in his eye. 'Whichever one of those two loses will probably be knocked down a peg or two. I think they both need it.' The gleam in the eye and the thought that accompanied it only lasted for a split second and was gone by the time anyone could notice it. "Alright then, let's move aside so that we can get this show on the road people."

After Kakashi said that the gennin other than Hinata and Ino stood up and walked off to the side to clear some space for the combatants. Hinata stood from her spot on the ground and closed her eyes, she took a few deep breaths to calm herself, a handy trick she learned from Asuma to calm her nerves down to better prepare her for a fight and to help push any self doubts away. She then settled into the same basic jyuuken stance that she did in her earlier spars with Naruto.

Ino stood up and did a couple quick stretches to loosen up her upper body. She was prepared to try and show off to Sasuke and show him how strong she is. She settled herself into a basic academy taijutsu stance.

Kakashi looked back and forth between them for a few seconds before speaking. "Alright then, if you are both ready" he got nods from both girls "then begin."

Even before their team was made official, Asuma had of started on teaching his soon-to-be students about the one thing that he believed was important to nearly all aspects of being a shinobi, patience. There was very little that Asuma had to drill into his team's heads on the subject since all three of his students already had patience to some degree. It quickly became obvious to Hinata and her team mates that Kakashi paid very little if any time teaching his students to be patient. They came to this conclusion from Ino's immediate actions after the start of the fight. She charged. Not a calculated charge like Naruto tended to do where he is usually testing his opponent's reaction or trying to create an opening. No, she just charged in like a bull with tunnel vision and performed a basic jump kick. Hinata's reaction was similar to how she reacts to a sweep kick, yet different at the same time. She jumped. But when she was in a position to she flipped into an upside down position in midair, then proceed to grab Ino's extended leg as she continued the flip and using the force of her spin carried Ino with her before slamming the poor blonde back first into the ground just as the purple haired girl landed. Ino was unable to get back up; she was so winded from the force of the slam. Not to mention the dizziness from when her head hit the ground as well.

Kakashi and the other members of team seven blinked a few times as Kakashi spoke up. "I guess that's that. That was a nice reaction there Hinata." Then he whispered to himself. "Maybe I should work with Ino a little more on strategy and taijutsu."

Naruto chuckled to himself when he saw team seven's reaction, while Shikamaru just shook his head. "Well Shika, you going to go now?" When he heard the question Shikamaru gave a barely noticeable smirk.

"As troublesome as it is to spar with one of my best friends, never mind just sparring at all, I'm actually looking forward to seeing if Chouji has improved any since we all graduated from the academy." Chouji tilted his head at this and stuffed one last handful of chips into his mouth before patting his hands on the sides of his pants to get rid of the grease from the chips before standing up.

"Sure Shikamaru. I guess I'll take this seriously then." Chouji answered Shikimaru's unspoken challenge.

"My clan may not be big on taijutsu like yours is Chouji, but I'll be putting up the best fight I can anyways." He glanced from Chouji over to Naruto. "So troublesome, I still can't believe that I picked up your enthusiasm for a good challenge." With that said Chouji and Shikamaru headed down to the center of the field where Kakashi had of just finished moving Ino out of the way.

While they were walking up Kakashi approached Naruto. "So what do you think are the odds of Shikamaru winning Naruto?" When Kakashi asked this Sasuke couldn't help but be interested in what Naruto would say.

"Hmm, I can't say" Naruto responded. "Like Shikamaru himself said his clan isn't the best at taijutsu, but unless Chouji has increased either his speed or stamina by a lot then Shikamaru might win. It's tough to say. Speed is one of the few things our team constantly trains together in."

Hinata chose to join the conversation too. "Pardon me, but I agree with Naruto's assessment, though I can't say since I don't know much about Chouji at all." By the time Naruto and Hinata finished talking Chouji and Shikamaru were down on the field and waiting for the signal to start the spar.

Chouji stood there in one of his family's taijutsu stances. He stood so that his weight was on his right leg which was slightly bent at the knee and the toes were pointing to his right, his left foot was half a foot in front of his right and was pointing straight ahead. His right arm was bent at a ninety degree angle pointing in the same direction as his right foot, and his left arm was pointing dead ahead with his elbow bent at a one hundred and thirty five degree angle so that his fist was pointing slightly towards the sky. Unlike many times that his team mates had seen, he looked ready to fight in a serious matter.

Shikamaru stood opposite of him in what was quickly becoming known to his team as the Naruto pose. The stance where he just stands there casually with his hands in his pocket and putting all of his weight on his right leg which is slightly bent at the knee.

Kakashi raised his eyes at Shikamaru's stance but continued anyways once he realized that Shikamaru was ready for the spar. "Okay then, go!"

Unlike Ino, Chouji showed some patience. He stood there in his stance analyzing Shikamaru, as Shikamaru was doing with him. After about fifteen second both fighters charged. Upon reaching each other Chouji threw a right jab at Shikamaru's head which missed when Shikamaru dove to Chouji's left doing a dive-roll. As soon as his feet touched the ground at the end of his roll Shikamaru pushed off and sent himself back at Chouji with an aerial sidekick that Chouji blocked with his left arm. Before Chouji could grab onto him Shikamaru jumped off of the arm sending both Chouji and himself away from each other a few feet Chouji sliding backwards while Shikamaru flew through the air backwards. As soon as he stopped his backwards movement Chouji reversed his momentum and dashed at Shikamaru who was just landing from his jump. Shikamaru only had enough time to duck under the powerful haymaker that nearly nailed him in the chest. Shikamaru answered the attack by twirling clockwise around and throwing a leg sweep which was jumped over by Chouji. However, when Chouji jumped he also threw his knee forward into Shikamaru's forehead knocking him back a good meter.

After rolling backwards to get on his feet Shikamaru stood to rub his sore forehead. "That's it, I forfeit." Before Kakashi could say anything Shikamaru decided to state his reason. "I'm barely able to keep myself from falling back on my ass right now. I'm dazed enough from that hit that if we continued it would only be another minute at most before Chouji would be finished beating me into the ground." When he finished talking Shikamaru walked back over to the tree next to Naruto a little woozy on his feet. Upon reaching him Shikamaru sat on the ground and leaned against the tree. "I'll be fine in a few minutes."

"That was a pretty good spar, both of you. I'm quite surprised that you did so well Shikamaru." Kakashi stopped talking as he heard Shikamaru quietly say 'Thanks, I guess'. "That was a pretty good show of acrobatics. It was also good how you never gave Chouji a chance to grab onto you when he blocked your jump kick. Again, that was very good, both of you." As he finished talking he turned to look at Naruto and Sasuke who were leaning against trees looking like they had no cares in the world. "Now you two, I'm actually expecting to see the best performance yet out of the two of you."

When he heard this Naruto scoffed at Kakashi. "Then I guess you'll be disappointed Hatake-san. I've never been much for taijutsu. Since I believe Sasuke and myself to be about the same speed I would have to say that Sasuke clearly has the advantage. He actually knows a decent style, while all I've got under my belt are some parts of the basic academy style mixed in with a little bit of a brawler's fighting style." Never the less, Naruto still stood up move towards the center of the field where Sasuke was already waiting for him.

"Dobe, I hope you're ready to acknowledge that I'm the better ninja." Naruto sweat dropped at Sasuke's words.

"Well I hope that you realize that if you win this it would just show that you're better at taijutsu than I am. Nothing more, nothing less." He said this while waving his hands at Sasuke. Then he went into his fighting stance, the same one that Shikamaru had of just used when he started fighting Chouji.

"Pfft, whatever dobe. I'm still the better ninja anyways. I'll just have to beat some sense into you." That just got another snort from Naruto.

"Whatever baka, let's just get this over with. I've still got more of my own training to do when we're finished here." Sasuke didn't say anything back; he just entered his taijutsu stance which was similar to Chouji's except that he ducked down lower and instead of having his left fist pointing slightly skywards he had it facing straight towards Naruto.

"Alright, now that the banter is out of the way, begin." This fight Kakashi decided he would watch from the top of a tree branch instead of from ground level.

By the time Kakashi had of finished talking Naruto was already analyzing Sasuke's stance, and there was just one thing that the stance screamed at Naruto. And that was, DEFENSE! So Naruto started things off immediately. He gave a quick dash towards Sasuke with his hands still in his pockets the whole way. Upon reaching the Uchiha, he gave a small hop and threw his right knee at Sasuke's face which was easily blocked by a forearm even though the blow did send Sasuke sliding backwards a foot. While he was still in midair from the knee Naruto gave a quick counter-clockwise spin that morphed into a reverse side kick with his left foot that barely missed Sasuke's head. After the short exchange Sasuke quickly took his chance to backpedal a few feet and reassess his opponent. The one thing that went through his head was 'Damn, that first kick fucking hurt'.

"I thought you said that you don't know much taijutsu dobe." Naruto smirked hearing Sasuke say this.

"You're right. I don't know much about taijutsu. What I never mentioned though was that I am quite strong and physically fit especially in my lower body. After all, one doesn't end up running from chuunin and jounin a lot without becoming fit." As he spoke Naruto had of pulled his hands out of his pockets and was slowly closing his fists one finger at a time cracking each knuckle. "Now are we going to continue this fight, or was that your resignation teme?"

Sasuke smirked in return. "You're on."

When he finished talking Sasuke quickly dashed towards Naruto with a right jab towards Naruto's head. It was dodged when Naruto tilted his head to his right and retaliated with an uppercut towards Sasuke's diaphragm. Sasuke took a step back to dodge and threw a roundhouse kick with his left leg towards Naruto's head which was blocked by Naruto's right forearm. Naruto took the opportunity to grab onto Sasuke's leg and spun Sasuke around twice before throwing him towards a tree. Sasuke did a back flip in mid air and landed against the tree. He then proceeded to use the tree as a springboard to launch himself back towards Naruto who took the opportunity to throw a clothesline towards Sasuke. Sasuke countered though by flipping over Naruto's arm and throwing a kick into Naruto's back dealing the first solid hit of the fight. Naruto stumbled two steps before turning back to Sasuke and watching him land. Both fighters stared at each other for a few seconds before simultaneously jumping towards each other. Both fighters had their right arms cocked back ready to punch each other square in the face. When they did throw their punches Sasuke dealt the more solid hit since had longer arms than Naruto. What Sasuke didn't see coming was that Naruto took the force of the punch that received and turned it into momentum into the spin kick that landed in Sasuke's gut before both of them hit the ground again, with Sasuke on his back and Naruto on his feet. They both stared at each other again for a few seconds before Sasuke started to get back to his feet.

"That was very good, both of you." Kakashi had of chosen this time to stop the fight. "I know that neither one of you is finished yet, but I've seen what I've wanted to. Naruto, if you could tell us what your view is as to why you were able to keep up with Sasuke in your fight if, as you said yourself, you're not as skilled in taijutsu as he is."

"It's simple really. Unlike Sasuke I wasn't just reacting to my opponent's moves. Fact of the matter is that I was always trying to think a step ahead in the fight. Of course there were flaws in my foresight, like when Sasuke flipped over my follow up move to throwing Sasuke. After all, I figured that he'd use the tree to throw himself back into the fight therefore lining him up for a clothesline. In our final exchange I knew that he had longer arms than I do so I went with the flow of his hit and used the momentum created by his punch to add power to my real attack. Even if the added power wasn't that much, the attack still served its purpose." Naruto shrugged at the end before looking over at Sasuke expecting him to try and argue against what Naruto said. Naruto was surprised to see that Sasuke was actually thinking about what Naruto said. Naruto smirked seeing this. "So you may become a worthy rival to me yet, Uchiha." That was said in a sarcastic tone as Naruto wore a smile on his face that contradicted the tone of voice he'd of used.

When Sasuke heard Naruto's statement he was about to blow up at Naruto but he stopped himself when he saw Naruto's smile. He then thought for another second and smirked at Naruto. "As great as I am dobe, one should pay attention when the village idiot actually says something smart." Surprised at Sasuke's reaction to his jibe, it took Naruto a second to recover, and when he did he stuck his tongue out at Sasuke earning a chuckle from Kakashi and a giggle from Hinata.

"Alright, now how about we all head back to Tazuna's house to rest up for a bit and maybe have some lunch, then we'll decide what to do from there."

OoOoO

They arrived back at the house at the same time that Asuma and Tazuna came back from the bridge deciding that they'd eat lunch at the house. The two groups greeted each other as they headed into the house.

"Good afternoon. Welcome back everyone." Tsuname greeted them just inside the door. "My you youngsters are covered in sweat. How about you wash up before lunch, it'll be ready in about ten minutes. It's just some fish soup. I hope you all don't mind."

"Fish soup is just fine ma'am. We are sorry to impose on you like this." Asuma responded for the teams. "For some of the other meals we'll pit in our own fair share. Does anybody have any ideas?" Hinata was the one who spoke up.

"Ano, earlier I saw some deer close by. We can probably hunt one and cut it up. That would probably last us a few days at the least." Asuma smiled down at her hearing Hinata's suggestion.

"That sounds good. Either Kakashi or I will go out and get us a deer sometime today. Now you all go along and get washed up.

"Hey, I don't need to be babied" was Naruto's indignant reply followed by a fist in the air. "I've been living on my own for over five years now." Sasuke nodded in agreement to Naruto's statement.

"Yeah, yeah. Now you two join the others. When you're with the team us sensei will do what we want." Asuma replied with a smirk before pushing Naruto after the others. Sasuke quietly followed after them.

Tsuname wound up laughing aloud along with Ino when she heard Shikamaru berate Naruto for being so troublesome over something so simple.

OoOoO

After lunch was over the two teams found themselves back outside. They were with Asuma this time instead of Kakashi. The gennins were whispering amongst themselves quietly until Asuma clapped his hands once to gain everyone's attention.

"Alright everyone, I was told by Kakashi that you guys were working on chakra control for the first few hours this morning followed by some sparring." He stopped to watch each gennin nod. "That's good. Kakashi told me that he was impressed by everyone's performance even though he never did watch the two of you' he pointed at Hinata and Naruto here 'train since you got his permission to train with water walking." He stopped to think for a few seconds. "Alright then, since it probably won't do any of you any good to be sideways or upside down so soon after eating lunch, we will be doing some stretches followed by independent practice for the rest of the day along with instruction on a new type of control that most of you are unfamiliar with. I will go around to each of you as you practice so you can get some help if need be.

"Before we start though, I'd like each one of you, except for you Naruto, to take one of these slips of paper. These papers are used to tell if your chakra has a natural alignment with any of the elements. Keep in mind though that not everyone has a connection to an element. So don't be surprised if nothing happens. Now what you need to do is hold the paper in your dominant hand, the one that you write with, and push a little bit of chakra into the paper. Depending on what element you are, if you have one, the paper will react differently." As he was explaining this he handed the papers out to each of the gennin, except Naruto. "Now I'd like each one of you to push a bit of chakra into the piece of paper when I tell you to. I'll tell you what your paper did."

"Alright then let's start with Team seven. You first Ino." Ino pushed a bit of chakra into the paper causing it to crumple a bit. "Ah yes, that's the lightning element. What this means for you is that say for example you were given a chance to learn an A-rank jutsu of the earth type and the lightning type, then you would have an easier time learning and using the lightning jutsu. Another thing though is that you may learn to manipulate the element in its purest form. Though that is extremely hard to do direct elemental manipulation often takes over a decade for most ninja to learn. Unfortunately I don't know any lightning jutsu so you'll have to ask Kakashi about that."

"Wow, that's awesome. I can't wait to get started." Ino was starting to hop up and down in place. Asuma chuckled to himself before moving onto the next person.

"Okay Chouji, you next." When Chouji pushed some chakra into his piece of paper he watched as his piece of paper turned blocky and fell apart in his hands. "Okay then, that's the earth element. If I were to use an example to explain what this means it would be the same as Ino's example. Of course you'd choose earth element over lightning. However, if you choose to try to learn the pure element manipulation you'd have an easier time than Ino would. That's only because earth, dirt, and rock are much easier to come by then a bolt of lightning or a source of electricity is." Upon receiving a nod of understanding Asuma moved on.

"And lastly for this team, you Sasuke." When Sasuke pushed his chakra he was only mildly surprised when the paper burst into flames and just as quickly turned to ash. "Well that was predictable. It's not commonly known, but it is believed that your bloodline has its own connection to the fire element so any Uchiha who is capable of awakening their bloodline will always be aligned to the fire element."

"And now for my team. We already know Naruto's element so we're going to skip him."

"Um, pardon me Asuma-sensei, but can we know what Naruto's element is?" Ino interrupted.

"Is it alright with you Naruto?" Asuma asked first.

"They'll probably know before the end of this mission anyways." Naruto replied as he nodded his assent.

"Hey, why didn't you give us the option of doing it without your team knowing?" Sasuke didn't show it but he thought Ino had of asked a very good question.

"Ah, well I didn't think that it mattered to you all. However I do know that at times Naruto can be quite secretive about himself and his past." Asuma answered before things could get heated between Ino and an indifferent Naruto. Ino and Sasuke were the only gennin who noticed the cold look that crossed Naruto's face as soon as Asuma mentioned Naruto's past. It was gone within the next few seconds though, replaced by what the two were now able to recognize as a fake smile. Ino looked over at Sasuke who gave a hand signal telling her to leave it alone.

"Naruto is a wind element user. Naruto's connection is really strong with his element too. He's actually the only person in any known records that has mastered manipulating his elemental before he turned ten." That got surprised looks from team seven, even the normally near-unflappable Uchiha, and a genuine smile from Naruto. Ino couldn't help but feel a little better seeing that Naruto wasn't one of those people incapable of real happiness.

"Um, wow" was all Ino never mind the other members of her team could think to say. After a few seconds of the team staring at Naruto with an amused Asuma behind them Naruto finally gave in to their silent inquiry.

"Okay fine, I'll give an example. Since the technique is normally only known in wind country I had to find out how it works and recreate it myself. Here is a wind blade." Naruto took the moment to make a blade in his hand which was nearly invisible. "This blade not being made of any solid matter is sharper then any sword or blade that I've ever heard about. Being as such" here Naruto quickly threw the blade and cut several branches off of some trees before the blade went past the tree tops and into the sky " it can cut through any solid matter, whether it be steel, wood, or flesh, and can only be blocked by another similar blade. I say similar because I've heard of a technique that makes a sword out of pure chakra, though I don't know that technique. I've theorized that only two other elements can make a similar blade. They are lightning and fire. I say that because earth and water are a solid and liquid respectively."

"Was this what you used to kill that ninja back in the forest?" Sasuke's team was surprised to hear him ask that question.

"What I used was what could be called an upgrade of the wind blade. Well not really but I just used as many wind blades as I could simultaneously, putting them in a formation where the only way to get out of the attack was to get out of the area it was heading towards." Sasuke nodded his head in understanding. He was starting to plan on ways to create his own version of the technique with his fire element. Maybe he'd get Kakashi's help with it.

Asuma clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "Can we move along now?" The gennin before him had the sense to look ashamed of wasting so much time.

"Thank you. Now Hinata, how about you go first. When Hinata pushed her chakra into the paper it darkened in color and became damp. Asuma whistled. "Sheesh, now that's all five elements covered between the six of you. I don't know too many water jutsu so you may have to ask someone else later, maybe Kakashi, anyways I'd guess that Hinata hasn't been having that much trouble learning the water walking exercise?" At Hinata and Naruto's nods he continued. "Your elemental affinity has something to do with that. It'll make anything you do involving water easier than it would be for say Ino."

"And last but not least, Shikamaru." Asuma turned to Shikamaru who pushed his chakra into the paper to get a surprising result. His paper split in half. "Well I'll be." Asuma could only blink almost stupidly at the piece of paper that was split in half. He was quickly joined by Naruto.

"What is it?" Again Ino had to be her curious self.

"It seems that if I include myself there are three people of the wind element on my team. Now that is incredibly rare for the leaf. Before the gennin exams this year, if I exclude Naruto, I was the only known wind user in Konoha who is under the age of sixty. The only other one being a Hyuuga clan elder, you'll have to pardon me since I never learned his name." Hinata was surprised to hear this. "Wind alignments are pretty popular in Suna and a little less so in Kumo but not in Konoha. Not by a long shot."

"You mean to say that team ten is the only active team right now that has any members that are aligned to the wind element?" Chouji asked.

"That is correct." Asuma answered. After thinking for a few more seconds while looking at Shikamaru, Asuma shook his head and continued. "Now that we know which elements you guys are we can start the training that I wanted to give you. Let's just say that you are all going to start on the same path that Naruto did when he was seven years old." Asuma smiled proudly down at the gennin who looked back at him surprised. "Team seven, your sensei asked me to start teaching you elemental manipulation since I know more about it then he does. For the next week we will be working on elemental manipulation." Asuma turned to Naruto. "Do you mind assisting me in this task Naruto?" When Naruto shook his head in the affirmative Asuma continued.

"Thank you. Naruto, I'm going to start working with Chouji, Hinata, and Shikamaru. I know that you aren't too experienced with the first two's elements and I want to teach Shikamaru myself, but if you could work with Ino and Sasuke it would be greatly appreciated." Naruto nodded and then motioned for Ino and Sasuke to follow as Naruto walked a little further into the forest towards the next clearing which had a small creek running through it.

OoOoO

"This will be perfect." Naruto was the one to break the silence between the three of them that lasted the ten minute walk to the clearing. "In case you're wondering, I do know that the creek and moisture in the air here will make it a little harder for Sasuke to do his exercises, but it readily gives me a good enough water source to work with in case one of the two of you winds up accidentally starting a forest fire."

"How would that work with me Naruto-sensei?" Naruto was quite surprised by the suffix that Ino attached to his name. Ino noticed his discomfort and smirked at him scaring him even more. Naruto quickly shook his head to clear out the surprise and nervousness generated by Ino's actions.

"Think about it Ino. I know that you won't be making bolts of lightning today, but a strong enough surge of electricity is quite capable of heating the stuff up that it travels through to the point that it catches fire. I'm not sure of the exact scientific reasoning as to why those things happen; but please trust me when I say that it does." Ino and Sasuke nodded their heads in understanding. "Alright now, moving onto getting you two started on your training. I need you Sasuke to make a small campfire. I'm asking you to do this because it's easier to manipulate an element that is already there then to have to use your chakra to create the element and then manipulate it."

"Alright, I'll be back in a few minutes." With that said, Sasuke ran off into the forest to collect the wood for his fire.

"Ok then Ino, just after we got off the boat I was reading about some stuff that should actually be a great place for you to start out with on your training. As you know lightning, or electricity, is a source that we cannot just make so easily as what Sasuke is doing. Instead I'm actually going to talk to you about the human body and how you can use your own body as a source of electricity."

"Woah, woah, woah. Since when does the human body have electricity in it?"

"Since forever Ino. Every movement, every sensation, that the human body experiences will create a tiny surge of electricity. That small bit of electricity will run to and from the brain. It is just how the brain communicates with the rest of the body in order to run things. This also means that everyone's chakra has a little bit of electricity in it." When he finished describing this Naruto waited a little bit for Ino to get what he was saying.

Ino had her face scrunched up in thought. She was thinking about what Naruto said and what this would lead to her having to do. She thought about it for about a minute before she snapped her finger. "So what I'm going to be learning to do is to amplify some of the electricity in my body to be used in element manipulation?"

"That is correct Ino. What it also means though is that you'll also have to learn how to block the amplified electricity so that it doesn't come back and shock you. Too big of a shock can actually cause your brain to shutdown or become damaged, and that would be a bad thing." Ino nodded in complete seriousness, picking up that even though this was the best thing they could do to get her started it would still be at least somewhat dangerous to herself. "A good thing about this is that it will definitely increase not only your chakra control, but it will increase your chakra reserves very quickly." When Naruto saw Ino getting excited about that part he decided to quickly bring her back down to earth. "However, don't go thinking that just because the exercise is good for raising your reserves quickly that you'll be catching up to Sasuke or much later myself any time soon in chakra reserves.

"Hehe. Also, don't go thinking that this exercise will be useless to you once you've moved onto a newer and better control exercise." Naruto whispered to her conspiringly.

"I still find myself using the first wind control exercise I ever used frequently on days where it is hot. Your lightning manipulation will be easier for you to start with then it was for me with my wind and Sasuke's fire manipulations. I say this because unlike electricity Sasuke and I have to manipulate our elements outside of our bodies. I'm still not exactly sure the path that Sasuke will go down in his manipulations if he keeps learning, but I have to bleed out some of my chakra into the air around me to manipulate the air around me. I have to use more chakra if I want to do the manipulation from a starting point that is away from my body."

"For an example I'm going to create a breeze that will head towards us from just on the other side of that tree over there. If you want to be sure that I'm really doing the starting point from that tree, I'll guess that it's about twenty feet away from us, then watch the tree's leaves. They will rustle before you feel the gust of wind blow over us, ok?" When Ino nodded and looked towards the tree Naruto did exactly as he said he would. When the small breeze passed them by and ended Ino blinked a few times in surprise before recovering and nodding her head to show that she understood. Naruto smiled to this.

"Ok then, Sasuke should be back any second now to start his fire so you better get started. I'll watch your first few attempts and see if I can help you improve. When Sasuke gets his fire started though I'd like you to stop until I finish getting Sasuke started." When Ino threw a quick glare at him he was quick to explain his request. "I only ask this because what you're going to do is a little dangerous. So I want to either have Asuma-sensei, Hatake-san, or myself around you when you practice. At least until one of us feels that you have enough experience doing it that there's only a very small chance of you shocking yourself." Ino lost her glare and gave a small blush that was completely lost to Naruto when she heard the concern in his voice. Naruto let go of the breath that caught when Ino glared at him. "Alright then, go ahead and try it out now."

OoOoO

As Naruto said, it was a few minutes before Sasuke got back. It only took thirty seconds for Sasuke to get a decent fire started with a basic fire jutsu and now Naruto and Sasuke sat by the fire on opposing sides of it. Ino stood a few feet away watching with curiosity. Sasuke had of also built a small lean-to to help keep some of the air's moisture away from the fire.

"Alright Sasuke, when you manipulate fire it will really be very similar to what I do when I manipulate air. As I explained to Ino a few minutes ago, what I do to manipulate air is to let some of my chakra bleed out of my body. From there I attach that chakra to the air around me and will it to move how I want it to. Since the element you're going to be manipulating is fire you will have a little more difficulty then I do with my element since yours isn't as plentiful. So right away you will be bleeding out your chakra in a larger amount then I started with in order to attach your chakra to the fire. I would like you to practice bleeding out your chakra first for a few minutes and directing it before you do anything with the fire. It is very simple to do so it should only take you a minute or two to figure out. I'll watch and then when I think you're ready I'll explain a bit more about attaching your chakra to parts of the element that are a distance away from you." Sasuke grunted and nodded to Naruto. He was then head deep into focusing on bleeding out his chakra.

OoOoO

For the rest of the week training continued like it did that first day. They worked on chakra control in the mornings with, or without in Hinata and Naruto's case, Kakashi, then in the afternoon the teams would split into their two groups to practice with their manipulation.

As Naruto told Ino, she was having a hard time with her control exercise. She'd of given herself a large enough static shock to make her hair stand on end more then a few times and Naruto and Sasuke still laughed aloud just thinking about how she looked when that happened.

Since his exercises were simpler, Sasuke was moving along in his fire control at a decent clip. It only took him an hour to be able to manipulate the fire to lean in a specific direction for thirty seconds. Sasuke spent the next two days working on extending the length of time that he could hold the fire into position for. After the third day Sasuke moved onto moving the fire over a distance. He started this off by using his chakra to pick up a small amount of fire from one burning pile of kindling and moving it over to another pile half a meter away from the first. Once he got the hang of that, which only took the rest of the fourth day, he started increasing the range that he could move the fire. He was now up to two meters.

Chouji's exercises from Asuma were simple enough, but he had a difficult time doing it since his chakra control wasn't as great as the others. What he had to do was bleed his chakra out and into a rock. Then he had to lift and throw the rock with just his chakra. As difficult as the exercise was for him, Chouji managed to pick up on it quick and chose to stick to practicing the one exercise. On the last day of training that week he could be seen lifting a ten pound rock with his chakra to the height of his waist, then throwing it a distance of three meters away.

Hinata's training was also simple enough. She just had to bleed out her chakra into some water, and then she would make a small orb that would act like a balloon would hold the water inside of it. She was the slowest in progression with the elemental training. This was because she refused to do her training anywhere else but on top of the water behind Tazuna's house. She was doing two different types of training simultaneous.

As for the third wind user, Shikamaru, Asuma had Shikamaru doing a completely different kind of training then what Naruto would of. When proposed with the idea of being taught Asuma's style of elemental manipulation and fighting he jumped head first into the training and worked his ass off the whole week. He was given Asuma's spare set of trench knives, which strapped onto his waist, and he never took them off. Shikamaru really liked what he saw of his sensei fighting. Also, being in Naruto's team had of caused him to become a little bit more competitive. At least so that he wouldn't get left in the dust and become a burden to his team mates.

With the end of the week's training and the honed skills that they'd of obtained through their improved chakra control the two teams were prepared for what they expected to come in two days. They spent one day resting to prepare themselves while Kakashi went to guard Tazuna and the bridge workers for the whole day.

OoOoO

During the middle of the week though, Naruto had of chosen to stay out late one night after dismissing Ino and Sasuke from training. He started walking towards the lake that he and Hinata had of been trained at the first morning of their training. On his way there he started to walk through the clearing before seeing a girl down on her knees in the middle of the field. She was picking what Naruto guessed to be herbs. He decided to announce his presence to the admittedly cute girl who looked to be slightly older then him.

"Good evening madam." He didn't see any reason not to try and be polite. "I don't think that you should be out this late right now. I've heard that there are some big bad ninja out around here lately." The girl looked up at him when he greeted her politely listened to the rest of his words before replying.

"Good evening to you too sir, if you're correct about the 'big, bad ninja' around here then what, if I may ask, are you doing out here unless you are one of them yourself." She smiled softly at the boy when he blushed upon realizing that she had a point.

He chuckled softly. "No, I'm not one of the big bad ninja. I'm just out for a walk to clear my mind. Assisting my sensei in training my team mates can be pretty tiring." The girl smiled again once she realized that he just gave out a hint that he's much stronger then he seems, even though she already knew that from seeing the end result of the attack that killed one of the other ninja that Gatou had of hired.

"I see." She spoke while giving him a soft glance. "I'm about to head back to where I'm staying. I'm sorry to impose on you like this, but could you walk with me please. I wouldn't mind some company as I walked. Or is it that you have a specific destination in mind for your own walk?"

"Sure, I'll walk with you. I did have a spot I wanted to go, but it's nowhere that needs to be seen. I was just teaching a friend to walk on water a few days ago there." Listening to him she came to the conclusion that out of the gennin on his team he was the only one who knew how to effectively walk on water. She filed that bit of information in mind for later as they started walking in the direction of the town.

"Well then, may I have the name of my escort?" She asked trying to sound shy and joking about it at the same time. She was becoming curious about some of his reactions to her earlier.

"I don't see why not. It is Uzumaki Naruto. I'm a gennin of Konoha. Now may I have your name?" As he spoke, Naruto had of noticed the way that she moved.

"The name is Haku. No last name." They walked in silence for a minute before Haku chose to break the comfortable silence between them. "I'm sorry if I'm intruding on something private, but I was just wondering what your reason was for becoming a ninja."

Hearing the question Naruto instantly became suspicious of the girl even though he managed to hide the suspicion without as much as a twitch on his face. His face never even dropped the smile he still wore. "I became a ninja to show my village that I am not the useless plague that the adults think I am." Haku was surprised at his answer and she showed it. For some reason she was also feeling a little bit of disappointment.

"I see." She spoke up after a few silent seconds. "I'm sorry, for some reason I was expecting you to say something along the lines of being able to protect your precious people." Naruto was surprised to hear this. A second later though the calm smile was back on his face as he answered her statement.

"Before I went into the ninja academy I only had one person that was precious to me. He is the soul of the village, the Hokage. At that time he was literally the only person in the village that showed me any kindness. I guess you can say that I also became a ninja to show the villagers that I'm more then willing to fight to protect those that are precious to me." Naruto smile grew a little bigger as he turned to Haku. "I'm glad that I joined the ninja academy even though my goal at the time was as childish as it was. Since I joined the academy, I've actually added four more people to my list of precious people. My favorite teacher who was always there for me even if he was a little harsh sometimes, my first friend Hinata who has always quietly supported me, my other friend Shikamaru who always kept an ear open for me whether we talked about things we learnt or the few times that he let me vent some of my frustrations from the latest bout of hatred that the villagers threw at me, and last but not least my jounin sensei who has never looked down on me once and respects my opinions and advice." Naruto stopped walking and watched as Haku took two more steps before turning to look at Naruto curiously. Naruto couldn't help but notice that she had a few tears in her eyes. "Pardon me, I'm sorry for burdening you with my problems."

Naruto looked at Haku for another few seconds watching the way she stood there and came to a conclusion that he was going to explore.

"You look sad. I'm guessing that you've only had a few precious people in your life like myself?" She smiled at Naruto before wiping away the tears before they can fall.

"Yes, that is correct Naruto-san. I only have one precious person." She stopped talking for a second to debate with herself about telling this boy a little about her history. "I met him a few days after my parents died. I was living on the street here in wave country and was just looking to survive. Three days after I was forced onto the streets he stood in front of me. He was a traveling man who was traveling and looking for assistance. We just stood there in an alley staring at each other for a while. Finally he spoke up and asked me if I'd be willing to aid him. I knew that he was only looking for someone that he could use for his own ends but I still am happy to this day, just because he saw something in me that was worth something. I will follow him till the day I day." Naruto smiled ruefully having his suspicion confirmed by her story.

Naruto turned and started walking away from her. This confused Haku so she called after him. "Where are you going?"

Naruto turned back to Haku as he was about to step out of view and smiled at her. "I'm going to head back to my team Haku. I know you can take care of yourself so I'll be seeing you later." He turned back around and threw one last comment over his shoulder as he left. "Say hi to Zabuza for me."

Haku was shocked that he'd of figured her out when she spoke so little of Zabuza. She smiled again, this time to herself. She looked back to where Naruto left her view from and hoped that she wouldn't have to kill him when they met again. She couldn't help but get the feeling that Naruto probably thought the same thing.

OoOoO

It was the morning of the tenth day after the encounter with Zabuza on the trail. Asuma and the two gennin teams approached the bridge with their client. They were all on edge, ready for anything that could happen.

When they did step onto the bridge the first thing that they noticed was the unnatural mist that was lightening up ahead of them. Out of the smoke stepped Zabuza and three other figures. They were the hunter-nin and the Demon Brothers.

"Ah, I see that Kakashi-san isn't with us today." Zabuza started his mind games without any preamble.

"Yeah, today's his day off from bridge duty." Asuma spoke up from his position as he unleashed his trench knives from the holder on his wrists and entered a fighting position similar to the praying mantis, except that he ducked down instead of standing on one leg.

"That is too bad; I was hoping to have a rematch against the both of you. Oh well, it just makes it easier for me to kill my target." As he spoke Zabuza took his zanbatou off of his back and held it in front of him in a basic swords stance. "The rest of you know your jobs."

When Zabuza finished his statement the battle started. The first to move was Naruto. He grabbed his fan, which he wore on his back that day, and mimicked Zabuza's stance before popping open the first third of his fan and launching a gust of wind towards Haku.

Haku was quick to dodge the attack and charge towards Naruto only to be met by Hinata who threw a palm strike towards Haku's chest and a roundhouse kick towards Haku's head. Haku dodged to the side of the first strike and ducked under the kick before finding herself kicked in the face by Sasuke who'd of taken his chance to charge in and get the blow in. As Haku flew back a few feet Hinata and Sasuke glanced at each other and nodded to say that they knew they'd need the others help against the hunter-nin.

As that was going on Naruto had of charged after his wind gust to attack Haku but was intercepted by the demon brothers who were quick to take the opportunity to knock Naruto over the side of the bridge and onto the water. When Naruto stood up he looked up to find the brothers falling down after him. Naruto jumped out of the way of their attack to get some distance. Naruto was surprised when they stopped their attack and spoke to each other, not even caring if Naruto heard them.

"You know brother I don't think we should hold back on this kid this time." Naruto was surprised to learn that they purposefully lost in their first encounter. He quickly sent his mind to work and came up with an answer as to what they meant.

"So you purposefully lost in our first encounter just so that the hunter-nin I saw afterwards, who I'm guessing to be the same one as up there on the bridge, could get an estimate on my team's abilities."

"By golly, the brat is right younger brother." The taller of the two spoke.

"Maybe we should 'give him a prize'." The shorter suggested. Naruto could've sworn that they were smirking behind their masks, and he didn't like that at all.

When the shorter one lifted his gauntlet and pointed it at Naruto he prepared himself for anything. A few seconds later the fight was on.

OoOoO

End Chapter

OoOoO

End AN: Wow, that chapter was much longer then I expected it to be. I'm sorry to say that I've actually forgotten what the Demon Brother's actual names are. So I'm just describing them as the taller and shorter one.

So I finally throw in some real action to this story. I'd like to hear what you people think of it, ways I might be able to improve on the fight scenes, etc. I didn't really say much about it but Naruto does consider Chouji to be an acquaintance, not a friend really. It's actually more like a 'He's a friend of my friend' situation.

I hope you like my idea of having Naruto teach Ino and Sasuke elemental manipulation. The plan behind this is that it was the beginning of Naruto making two new friends. If you're wondering Naruto was talking about when he was describing to Ino about the way that she'd have to make electricity, I'd just like to say that another way of describing it is that it is the same thing as Kakashi talks about in the Manga about super-activating one's flesh, like with the chidori. I just said it as I saw to what Kakashi must do in greater detail. Surely he must use some sort of precaution to prevent himself from electrocuting himself.

For those of you who have guessed, then yes, I am going in the direction of Sasuke's fire manipulation that many of you may think I am. To give a hint to those who picked up on it I'll add a little hint to confirm it. No, I do not own Full Metal Alchemist. If that doesn't confirm the path of Sasuke's training, then I don't know what will before Sasuke finally uses it in a fight.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know that I said that I was going to end the wave arc this chapter, but I just wound up going into way more then I originally planned so I decided to split it up into two chapters. The end of the next chapter will explain what my custom arc is going to be. I'll just hint that Naruto gets into a major one-on-one battle with a certain powerhouse.

I'll be seeing you all later. I almost can't believe that I made this chapter around 12k words. That's 24 pages in Microsoft Word, nine longer then what I originally planned on.