Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.
Team 7's training session was just ending. This particular session included stealth and stalking training; mainly seeing how close each of the Gennins could get to Kakashi before he detected them. Kakashi had recently decided to up his team's stealth do to a character flaw he started to notice; namely the want to show off.
Each Gennin had this flaw but for different reasons. Sasuke wanted to show off to prove his innate superiority over the others, especially after Naruto had defeated a person Sasuke had not. Naruto showed off simply because he wanted everyone to notice him, twelve years of being ignored by just about everyone would do that to anyone. And finally Sakura felt the need to show off to impress Sasuke; ironically the more she showed off the less Sasuke wanted to do with her and thus making her want to show off more. The primary problem with this attitude was it would lead the Gennins into taking unnecessary risks in later missions, so it was best to stop such attitudes now.
The results of today's training were their group stalking skills still needed work, but were improving and training their individual skills showed a significant improvement with Sasuke and Sakura and a marginal one with Naruto. With Sakura her analytical mind would often come to bare and she would devise strategies that would distract Kakashi and allow her to move closer to him, the problem with this was her plans were often time consuming and lacked flexibility. Sasuke was more straightforward, if a little too simple. He was good there was no denying that, but he tented to use the same skill over and over again and become too predictable. Naruto, he was just to unpredictable to classify, sometimes he would use extremely complicated plans that while brilliant were too complex and would backfire or he would be too straight forward and walk right out into the open. Still they were improving; Kakashi had even convinced Naruto to turn his jumpsuit inside out so that the dark blue inside would be out, turns out his suit was reversible.
"Alright, you've all improved since the last time," Kakashi announced. "You still need to work on something; Sasuke you need to be more versatile, if you use the same strategy over and over you can get caught in a trap or ambush." Sasuke gave a slight frown but nodded anyway. The goal for the day was for him to reach within ten meters but Kakashi caught him at twenty and hit him with a water balloon. The idea that the water balloon could have been an acid bomb really brought the whole exercise into focus. "Sakura you need to think of shorter plans, if you take too long your target may not be there when you arrive." Sakura nodded, her task was to get within fifteen meters of Kakashi with in a fifteen minute window, she planned it out to the last second only to arrive and find Kakashi nowhere around. He came out of the tree line five minutes later saying that sometimes the target could arrive or leave early or late, it was best to be flexible in your timing. "Naruto, you reached your goal for today, you got with twelve meters of me and your plan was rather unique, but you still lack consistency. Being unpredictable to an enemy is a great advantage a ninja can have however if you are so unpredictable that even your team cannot count on you, you become a hindrance rather than helpful." Naruto grumbled for a moment but nodded. His plan of using Kage Bushin (Shadow Clone) disguised as various other ninja using Henge (Transformation) in the village to talk about a new book in the Icha Icha (Come Come) line distracted Kakashi long enough for Naruto to reach his goal. The problem Naruto was having was he could never get the same results with different plans more than twice in a row; his goal was to get the same results at least three times. Naruto would either be too impatient or jump the gun or too cautious and not act quickly enough. He really needed to find the right balance between the two extremes.
"Hey Sensei, when are you going to teach us something more then just stealth training?" Naruto asked as he took off his jacket to turn it orange out.
"Not until you all reach your individual goals," Kakashi answered. This got frowns from all three Gennins, they were hoping to get more something dynamic when Kakashi said he was upping their training after they got back from Wave. "Tell you what, if you three all reach your individual goals by the end of the week, I'll teach you how to seal equipment directly onto your bodies'. That way if you lose your primary equipment you will always have back up." That perked the Gennin up, knowing that kind of skill would be very useful for any ninja. "Well that's it for today, tomorrow you have the day off but the next day we'll practice your stealth and stalking skills again." With a puff of smoke Kakashi left.
Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura started to walk out of the training area together when they met an increasingly familiar face waiting for them, 'Hana.' When she moved into Naruto's building she started accompanying him or waiting for him during their training sessions. Her excuse was Naruto and Team 7 were the only people she knew in town. This was true, but not the entire truth. She was really there to determine their strengths and weaknesses for when her probation was finally up and she could move freely and then kill the members of Team 7.
"Hey Hana-chan," Naruto greeted with Sakura giving a friendly wave and Sasuke nodding just a little. Sasuke and Sakura liked having Hana around as she often kept Naruto distracted and a little quieter. "How was your job?"
"It was fine Naruto-kun," Haku answered. She started working for a kimono shop after the first couple of days in the village. One of Haku's many skills was how to detect hidden weapon on a person through different styles of clothing, this gave her an eye for different styles and what would look best on a person. "I am off for the rest of the day."
"That's great!" Naruto exclaimed. "Maybe you could help me some of my stealth training?" Team 7 knew that Haku was at least as good as a Chunin and knew something they did not, she had already taught them how to do a controlled slide down a wall using the tree climbing exercise; a great tool for moving silently as well as quickly.
"I think I can help you a little," Haku answered. She helped out Team 7 every now and then to instill a sense of trust in them, making it easy to stab them in the back later. At least that was the idea before, now she was not so sure of her reasons. The more time she spent with Team 7 the more she could relate to them on some level. Sasuke had the sense of betrayal she felt just before she killed her father when he tried to kill her. Naruto led a rather hard life, as so many people seemed to fear and hate him. And Sakura was like that unsure girl she used to be when she first started training under Zabuza. "Sakura-san, Sasuke-san would either of you like to join us?"
Sasuke took a moment for giving a polite, "No," and then walked off. Sasuke was polite around 'Hana' for one simple reason. Her mannerisms reminded him of the higher-class visitors that would come to the Uchiha compound when he was a child. Even if he did not like those people he was still forced to be polite by his parents. Although 'Hana' was a lot more tolerable then some of those people.
"Um, maybe later," Sakura replied. She wanted to spend time with another girl, who was not interested in Sasuke, but also wanted to spend some alone time with Sasuke. The desire to be with Sasuke won out so Sakura turned Hana's' offer down.
"Shall we go then Naruto-kun?" Hana asked. "We can discuss what happened today and see if anything needs to change or be improved." Naruto nodded and left with her.
After they left Sakura turned Sasuke, "Would you like to get something to eat Sasuke-kun?"
"No," Sasuke's reply was short and a bit cold but not as it could have been. Sakura took this as a good sign that Sasuke was starting to open up a little. In reality Sasuke was just too distracted with thinking up a new strategy for the next training session.
As Naruto and Haku walked through Konoha proper, she once again took notice of the hatred underlined with fear of those around them. It was a common occurrence now, but one that still confused her. Haku suspected the people's hatred came from Naruto's stranger power but she did not know what that power could be. She had made some small inquiries about Naruto, but the only thing she could ever get out of anyone was that Naruto was somehow 'no good.' Other than that the people were very tight lipped when it came to Naruto. This just made Haku look closer at the blonde, and the closer she could see a bit of herself in him. 'It does not matter how much a like we are, I will still kill him, for Zabuza,' Haku thought. But there was less conviction in these thought then there was even a week ago.
"Hey Hana-chan," Naruto spoke up, "After we're done talking about a knew strategy for tomorrow do you think, um you could…I don't know stay for dinner?"
Haku paused for a moment Naruto asking her dinner was a first and the way he asked was on the surface out of character for him. Just below the surface Naruto's unease was understandable, he could count the number of people who stayed to eat at his apartment on one hand and all of them were full grown men. She would be the first female near his age that might say yes. 'That would explain the slight blush,' Haku thought. "Yes Naruto I would be delighted to stay." Naruto's face shown like a the sun at that point, "With one condition, you serve something other than ramen. A little verity in your food can only be good for you."
Naruto's face dropped for a fraction of a second but then his smile returned. He was about to reply when his special awareness alerted him that they were being watched, and not by the usual villagers. Someone out there was a ninja trying to hide his or her appearance but for a brief moment lost their concealment. Looking around he tried to spot the person but his or her presences faded again and Naruto could not locate them.
"Is something wrong Naruto-kun?" Haku asked. She knew they were being followed, two Anbu assigned to watch her and a Gennin Kunoichi around Naruto's age. Naruto apparently detected the Gennin when her self-concealment dropped for just a second. 'Naruto's special awareness is improving, even a few days ago he would missed the slip.'
"I thought I felt someone watching us for a second," Naruto said.
"It was probably one of the Anbu that are assigned to watch me until my probation is up," Haku answered. Haku lied because she knew whom the Kunoichi was as she silently observed her when Haku first detected her. Haku deduced from her observation that the kunoichi had a crush on Naruto but was just to shy to say anything. If Naruto knew about her, the kunoichi might lose whatever nerve she had to even be around Naruto much less work up more to talk to him. 'Maybe I can talk to her,' Haku thought. 'Naruto could use another friend.' What Haku failed to realize at the moment was she was thinking about herself as Naruto's friend.
"I don't understand why Jii-san even has those guys following you," Naruto said for the tenth time sense learning of 'Hana's' escorts.
"I am sure he is just following the proper procedure Naruto-kun," Haku said for the tenth time. "Come we should head home." Naruto nodded as he followed her towards their apartment complex.
Down the street Hyuuga Hinata came out from behind an ally wall. Like most of her spare time she was following Naruto debating with herself on whether or not she should walk up to him and talk to him. And like every time before she found herself just to shy to take that first step.
Recently that first step had become harder with Naruto's new friend, 'Hana.' Hinata had first seen her the second day Naruto was back from his C-Rank Mission. 'Hana' had walked up to Team 7's training ground and waited for Team 7 to finish. At first Hinata thought she was one of Uchiha Sasuke's admirers trying to get close to him. This theory was shot down as soon as Naruto started talking to the new girl in an open and friendly manner. Hinata had never seen Naruto talk to anyone like that with the exception of Iruka-sensei and the Hokage. This meant the girl was a very close friend. Hinata had run off after seeing that not knowing if she should be happy or sad; happy because Naruto made a real friend close to their age or sad because that friend was not her.
It took her another three days; mostly do to missions and training, to look in on the new girl. She found out the basic information; her name was 'Hana', she was a Shouyou-nin (Wandering Ninja), and she arrived with Team 7 from their mission in Wave Country. This told Hinata other things; this 'Hana' was a strong confident young kunoichi that got to know Naruto and made friends with him. In other words everything Hinata was not.
Hinata was saddened at that revelation. However she decided to persevere just like Naruto had always done. She continued watching and following Naruto giving him her support if only silently. She also took to watching 'Hana' whenever she was with Naruto, which was a lot. Hinata hopped that she might learn a thing or two from watching 'Hana' and maybe boost her skill and thus her confidence.
This new routine brought her to now. She had just watched Naruto and 'Hana' talk about Naruto's training and what 'Hana' might be able to help him with. Then the shock came when Naruto asked 'Hana' to eat at his place. The shock caused Hinata to temporarily to drop her concealment technique, a method of softening ones foot steps as well as blending into the background, this caused Naruto to be alerted to her presence. Quickly Hinata ducked behind a nearby wall and resumed her technique while holding her breath. When she heard them walk away Hinata let out her breath and sighed in both frustration and relief. Relief that she was not found and frustration at once again hiding from Naruto. 'Maybe next time,' Hinata thought before leaving the small alley and heading home.
That evening one of the Anbu assigned to watch Haku stood before the Hokage. He was here to give the first bi-weekly report on his observations on the young woman. The Hokage who had just finished his paperwork for the day sat back with an audible sigh feeling he achieved a great victory. "So tell what you've seen," Sarutobi ordered.
"Hana-san appears to be a soft spoken young kunoichi," the Anbu replied. "She seems to have adjusted well to living here. With the first three days she found a stable job and has moved into the low rent apartment complex Uzumaki lives in. Her job is working at Ishida's Kimono's and appears to be doing fairly well. On her off hours she usually spends time with Team 7, mostly around Uzumaki. The two seem to have become rather close friends and she has helped him and his teammates with their training. Nothing serious as to subvert Hatake's training but it does seem to help. We are almost certain she is aware of our presence but she has given no direct indication only small gestures. Stiffening slightly if we get to close, waking up just as one of us passes her window, that kind of thing. If she is able to detect us that means her skills are above that of a Chunin." The Anbu paused for a moment then added, "I find this a bit disturbing as Shouyou-nin are weaker then Village shinobi. I believe she may be a Nuke-nin (Missing Ninja) that is trying to hid out here."
"Hhmm, while I agree with you that the possibility she be a Nuke-nin is legitimate your reason is false," the Sandaime reprimanded. "While most Shouyou-nin are weaker then Village ninja some are just as strong or stronger. Especially those that are on their own, they have to be. And you should know I check the latest bingo books from all the Hidden Villages, there are no Nuke-nin matching Hana's description." The Anbu nodded feeling slightly disgruntled at the light reprimand but kept silent knowing the Hokage had more to say. "Her interaction with Team 7 and others in the village how would you characterize them?"
"With Team 7 she is friendly if still a little guarded, though she seems more relaxed around Uzumaki. With Haruno she mostly gives subtle clues on how a kunoichi should act. Uchiha she's a formal though he seems to like that, a pleasant change from his fan-girls I bet. And with Hatake she is polite but the most guarded around. With the other villagers she is polite and professional at work but a bit cold and distant outside of work, especially around Uzumaki. I am confident that she figured how he is treated, not that it's hard not to figure out."
"Could she suspect why he is treat that way?" The Hokage asked.
"She has given no indication by her actions that she know but has made some small inquires," the Anbu answered. "She is clearly trying figure out why, but has not received any information other than Uzumaki is quote 'No Good.'"
"Has she shown any hostility to anyone?" Sandaime inquired.
"Other than stern looks at people who are a little to overt about Uzumaki, no," the Anbu reported. "As things stand I do not believe she is a threat to the village."
"Thank you, you are dismissed," the Hokage ordered. The Anbu nodded and with a puff of smoke left the room. 'So young Hana is doing more for Naruto and even a little for Sasuke than most have done for years. I hope things continue to go well; I would hate to have to imprison or kill her. She seems just what Naruto needs, a real friend."