So I was off by one day on the whole, "end of the week thing". Sorry bout that.

Disclaimer: I like pie, I like cake better, but I like ice cream best of all. Oh and I also don't own Naruto.

Chapter 9, Training with Konoha,

Naruto sighed as he watched the three Gennin from the trees. He was certain that the scarlet eyed Jounin had discovered him, but he was glad that the Gennin were not quite as perceptive. He wanted to watch them without any obstructions. He didn't want them to act any differently then they ordinarily would because of his presence. He had made a few observations about these three. The Inuzuka had an enormous amount of potential, he worked hard, he had the guts, he pushed himself until his hands bled, and he was talented. Naruto was very impressed. His major weakness would be his temper (something that Naruto shared with him). He was also gruff and rough and almost brutally honest. Naruto liked him, he could see himself being friends with him if they had met under different circumstances.

The little Hyuuga girl was not quite so skilled. She slipped up a lot and it always made her flustered, at which point she would slip up more. She wasn't bad, but she had a serious problem with her confidence. Naruto suspected that if she could get over that, she would be a force to be reckoned with. Her Jounin-sensei tried to comfort her, and the Inuzuka looked like he desperately wanted to as well, though he wasn't sure how to go about doing it. The bug boy just ignored her as well as everyone else. Naruto felt sort of sorry for her. She seemed very, very nice.

The Aburame was more skilled then either, but not as hard working. It would not be long before the Inuzuka passed him by unless someone could light a fire under him. He was quite, kept to himself, but not out of shyness like his lavender-haired teammate, he just preferred to talk to his bugs (or at least that is what it looked like to Naruto). The guy was odd, no doubt about that.

Naruto all in all was very impressed with team. They each had a whole lot of potential, and he generally liked them all (even the bug boy). They were interesting.

He looked down to where Kiba and Hinata were training in Taijutsu. Kiba was going light on her, but the fight was still somewhat mismatched. Naruto sighed. He hated just watching like this, it wasn't in his nature. Zabuza had ordered him to only observe and not interfere. But sitting in a tree and just watching was not something that Naruto was capable of doing. And Kurenai was currently distracted speaking to the Aburame. There was nothing stopping him. Zabuza-sama really should have known better.

Naruto moved, catapulting himself into the air. He landed directly in-between the two training Gennin, just as they both were moving to attack each other. Neither attack reached their target, Naruto deflected them both and, with a simply twist of his arms, sent both Gennin sprawling to the ground. Naruto began laughing.

Instantly and predictably, Kurenai was behind him, a kunai at his neck. Naruto stopped laughing, though continued to grin. "Hey Jounin-san" he spoke in a completely calm and composed voice, as though he were greeting an old friend as apposed to someone who had a blade at his neck, "Nice to see you again. I just thought I would take a moment and play with your students."

Kurenai glared at him but didn't move.

Naruto chuckled, "Well if you don't mind I would very much like it if you would take this kunai off of my neck." With shocking speed he reached up and grabbed onto the Jounin's arm and began pulling it away. Kurenai may have been more skilled in every way, but Naruto was physically the stronger, and so to the shock of everyone the blade slowly moved away from his neck. When it had reached a safe distance Naruto ducked his head down and slipped out from underneath it.

Kurenai glared at him, "What do you want, punk?" she asked with contempt in her voice.

Naruto shrugged, "Like I said, I wanted to play with your students for a while." He placed right hand over his heart and lifted his left into the air, "Don't worry, I swear to Kami I wont break them."

Kurenai readied her kunai again, "And why on earth should I let you do that?" she asked.

Naruto was grinning "Because you are one person trying to teach three and I could be a big help with that, and also because I have a whole lot of experience and I could really help them."

"What motive could you possibly have for that?" The Jounin asked, "We are your enemies."

Naruto never stopped grinning, "Well because it would be fun, and because I like these guys." he gestured to the two confused Gennin on the ground, "And we are only enemies by circumstance after all and I would like for them to be as strong as possible after this is all over so that they will be better prepared for future dangers." He chuckled again, "Besides, no matter how much they improve in the short amount of time they have, they won't be strong enough to stop us when my sensei has recovered." Suddenly his face turned grave, though he did not elaborate further.

Kurenai scoffed, "And why should I believe you?"

Naruro shrugged, "I don't care if you believe me or not. I just thought that I could help you out a bit."

"Well you can't, so get out or I will make you get out."

Naruto rolled his eyes, but locked his hands into a hand seal and shun-shined out.

Naruto cursed as he walked through the woods. He had had similar results with the two Sharingan users. Not only had Kakahsi killed the clone that he had used to watch them, but by the time another clone reached their training spot, they had left. Naruto has searched for them for another few minuets but they seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth. Wherever they were training, Naruto had not been able to find them. He wouldn't aid Satsu if he had no other choice (and besides, the jerk didn't seem to be into training at all. Apparently he didn't feel very threatened by Naruto's display).

And so he was following the same path that Haku had the day before, searching for the pink-haired girl that he hoped would be there. He debated what he would say as to hopefully not scare her. He didn't want to do that.

He reached the clearing faster then he expected and jumped into a nearby tree. Sakura, as he had hoped, was there, shadow boxing now. He sighed as he watched her pathetic attempts at improving herself. He admired the desire, but he knew from experience that without someone or something to show you what to do, no matter how hard you tried, you could never improve very much. She needed someone to train with, and he was going to give her just that.

Naruto shun-shined behind her and placed his hands over her wrists. He rested his head on her shoulder and smiled as he watched her eyes open wide in shock and fear. "Your stance is too high" he whispered into her ear, "Place your legs farther apart and bend your knees a little more. It will give you more stability."

Sakura's breathing was heavy with a mixture of fear and excitement. "Wha-what are you doing here?" she asked.

Naruto smiled kindly at her, "I wanted to help you. You obviously cannot train with your sensei and the Uchiha, and I doubt anyone would tolerate that brown haired freak, so I thought I would give you a few pointers."

Sakura twisted around, finding herself face to face with the blond boy. "Why...why should I train with you? You are the bad guy aren't you?"

Naruto frowned, "I helped you before didn't I? You can trust me. I promise that I will not harm you." Sakura looked doubtful. Naruto smiled as warmly as he could and continued, "Please trust me Sakura-san, I promise that, until my mission requires me too, I will not allow anything to harm you."

Sakura shook in fear as she thought what he said over. She didn't really trust him, despite what he had done earlier, honestly she knew that it would be a stupid thing to agree to train with him. But on the other hand if she declined his offer, she seriously doubted that he would just go and let her continue on her own. There was no Jounin around to drive him away now, and she certainly wasn't strong enough. She had to placate him. Against her better judgement, she nodded.

Naruto smiled at her and she dropped into a fighting stance, making sure to position her legs as he had suggested.

Naruto allowed Sakura to attack first. She swung her fist in an uppercut toward Naruto's jaw. He grabbed her fist and with a gentle nudge, sent her sprawling onto her back. Naruto sighed.

"Don't just try for the strongest attacks, Sakura-san. They are all too often easily deflected. For a ninja, faster is better."

Sakura looked ashamed for a moment, but nodded and readied herself again.

The mock fight continued in the same general manner for the next few minutes. Naruto was never even close to being touched. His eyes watched Sakura almost as if she were moving in slow motion. Her moves were slow, though they did pack a decent force behind them. Occasionally he would give her some advice and she would try to adapt to them, but her improvements mere minimal. Of course Naruto knew that to improve in only a couple of minutes was a ridiculous expectation, but he still wanted to help her in some way before his time with her was up and they became foes again.

Naruto was so caught up in his thoughts that he almost missed Sakura's kick. He caught it at the last possible second and twisted her leg until she fell onto the ground. "Lets take a break for a minute Sakura-san. I want to talk to you for a moment."

Sakura looked sad, but nodded and shifted into a sitting position. "I have a question." she asked.

Naruto grinned and sat down across from her, "Shoot."

"How did you know I was out here?"

Naruto chuckled, embarrassed, "Well...a friend of mine told me that you would be here actually. He stumbled across you yesterday."

Sakura looked shocked, "You mean that lad-uh...guy who I talked to! The one who was gathering herbs!"

Naruto burst out laughing, "Don't worry." he choked out between breaths, "You aren't the first person to mistake Haku for a girl, and you probably won't be the last. Actually it comes in handy in some of our missions. Horny men are much more willing to help pretty girls."

Sakura lowered her head, "Who are you?" she asked in a quiet voice, "One moment I am terrified of you, the next you are helping me and talking to me like we were friends or something. I don't understand you at all. My job is to protect the man who you are trying to kill," Naruto frowned at this, "You shouldn't be doing this for me."

Naruto chuckled, "The truth Sakura-san is that if we are stopped, it will be because of the Jounin, not you Gennin. I want to help you because I like you. I don't want you to die, now or in the future. I am hoping that if you can become stronger now, then you are less likely to die in the future."

Sakura shook her head, "But why? I mean I don't hardly know you at all. Why should you care?"

Naruto turned his head to the sky and smiled, "I was a boy from Konoha myself." Sakura's eyes opened wide in shock, "I was run out of the village when I was only five for reasons that I would rather not talk about. I didn't actually do anything bad, the villagers were just prejudiced. One day they gathered their torches and pitchforks and chased me into the forests." He looked down and smiled sadly, "I never really hated them for it you know. I don't know why, but instead it just made me want to earn their trust. I suppose I still love the village hidden in the leaves despite all that it has done to me." He looked up and smiled, "That's why I was first drawn to you and your teammates, although I also like you all as people too." His eyes narrowed, "Except for that Satsu freak...and the Uchiha."

Sakura looked contimplative for a moment and then a look of understanding washed over her, "I remember you!"

Naruto looked surprised, "Really?"

"Yes. You were that little blond goofball who was always pulling pranks on everyone. I watched from my window when you were run out of town. I wanted to say something to try and stop them, or at least understand what was going on, but I was too afraid." She suddenly looked ashamed.

Naruto smiled kindly, "Ah don't worry about it. If I haven't blamed the things Konoha did to me, then I certainly don't think anything bad of you."

Sakura shook her head as though trying to erase her thoughts, "So what happened then?" she asked.

Naruto beamed, "Then I met my savior, Zabuza-sama. He has been harsh, he has done bad things, but he saved me when I was almost nothing. I will willingly give everything of myself to him. Despite his flaws, he is the most important person in my life, and the greatest man I have ever known. Anyways, I spent the next seven years with him, running from hunter-nins, fighting, training, living off of whatever money we could make, and even killing. And here I am."

Sakura slowly shook her head, "I don't understand how anyone can live such a life."

Naruto shrugged, "You get used to it I suppose. It is easy for me now." he paused for a moment but then smiled, "But enough story time for today, we need to continue training."

Sakura looked worried for a moment but shook it off. She stood up and took a fighting stance.

Naruto slowly shook his head, "I am going to teach you one of my jutsu, but first you need to learn another exercise." Sakura looked confused. Naruto continued, "I heard about how that cockroach of a teammate of yours was able to walk on water, a pretty darn advanced technique for a worm to use." he chuckled to himself, "With the chakra control that you have, you should be able to master it pretty easily, especially for how easily you were able to climb the trees before.".

Sakura slowly nodded, "Alright, what do I have to do?"

Sakura cursed as she fell into the water again. She had been trying so hard to learn this for the last few hours. Naruto simply told her that it took far more control then climbing a tree but the idea behind it was the same. She couldn't help but feel that she should have this down by now. She turned her head to Naruto, who was practicing his Taijutsu with a shadow clone. She felt sort of pathetic watching him, he obviously wasn't even trying when they had practiced before. His attacks now were faster then she could possibly follow.

At that moment he seemed to realize that she had fallen again, "Huh? What's the matter Sakura? Maybe I should have been paying more attention to what you were doing." He looked sheepish. Sakura glared at him.

Naruto walked over onto the water and lifted her up onto her feet, "Come on Sakura-san, I'll help you this time." Without warning he twisted her around until her back was pressed into his chest and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Wha-what!?" Sakura blushed, confused.

Naruto smiled, "Just like with the tree climbing exercise, I will hold you steady until you can connect to the water on your own. That way you can get a better idea as to how to mold your chakra into your feet."

Sakura gulped but nodded and Nartuo set her feet onto the water, making sure that he didn't let her fall any further. Sakura focused her chakra into her feet. It wasn't exactly right, she could tell that if Naruto let go she would fall into the water again. She tried again. Again it wasn't right, so she made another adjustment. She smiled as she realized the point of this. It was as though she could try ten times per second rather then once before she fell.

After about a minuete she felt as though she had succeeded in getting her chakra just right. She held it for a moment, making sure that she wouldn't lose it, and then turned her head up to her unlikely teacher, "Alright, I'm ready."

Naruto nodded and slowly and gently let her go. She felt as though she were going to lose her balance for a moment and swayed from side to side before steadying herself. She smiled as she realized that she had done it.

Naruto grinned, "There see, you can do it. But just to let you know, this isn't complete yet. You were able to get your chakra right this time because you could make it that way over time. Now you have a good idea as to how your chakra is supposed to be, but you still need to learn to get it that way in an instant."

Sakura nodded, but her face was still beaming.

Naruto smiled at her, "But either way, your chakra control should be good enough now to be able to learn my special jutsu!" he spoke in a loud, excited voice.

Gravenimage: Perhaps...he certainly deserves it.

UnderWearNinja: I always assumed that any Suiton user can generate water, it just depends on how much water you need. The second Hokage was famous because he could generate an entire lake's worth of water. Naruto, being much weaker, can only generate a small amount. But that might just be me reading things incorrectly.

Kaiser Spartan: No sound village. That would not be right.

Fury Cutter: Thanks again for the great review. Sakura will eventually realize the truth in Haku's words, but that will take a short while. I am pretty sure that I fixed all of the Konoha things this time around. And I like her reaction to Haku as well.

TheUnrealInsomniac: I figured that Zabuza would not but up with much stupidness and work that out of Naruto real quick. Thanks for all your good reviews.

Everyone else: Thanks a buch to all of you. You really have made me a happy sort of guy.