"Kyuubi talking"

'Kyuubi Thinking'

"Regular Talking"

'Regular Thinking'

I Do Not Own Naruto

Naruto the Crimson Chain Wielder

The team was stunned to hear what had happened to this very nice family and didn't know what to say after that. After a fairly awkward silence, Anko decides that its time to tell her story about the fight. "Let's get back to the fight. I had seen Naruto in front of Zabuza who was on the water. Zabuza had done a pretty high ranked water jutsu, the suiton daibakufu (water release great waterfall technique). Naruto, seeing the attack coming, prepares a wind jutsu that would be just as strong, the futon kami oroshi jutsu (Wind release: Godly wind from the mountains)." Anko says getting the undivided attention of the others in the room.

"The attacks collided and the wind beat the water and threw Zabuza into a tree. Naruto didn't give Zabuza anytime to recover and he kicked him in the stomach and elbowed him in he face. After that, he said some senbon came flying out from the trees and hit him in the neck killing him. But it turns out it was a death like state, he's not actually dead. The hunter-nin was a fake and she threw senbon at me when I wasn't ready, but Naruto jumped in front of me and took the hit knocking him out." She finishes making Tazuna and the others smile at Naruto's bravery while they also worry that Zabuza is still out there.

'I haven't even talked to this guy yet and he already reminds me of Kaiza-kun.' Tsunami thinks to herself with a small blush wanting to talk to the brave young man.

"What should we do now that Zabuza is still out there?" Kiba asks making the others look to Anko.

Seeing this, Anko says, "don't worry too much, we'll handle that when Naruto is up and able to move, which should be around dinner time or so knowing him." which makes them feel better that he would be alright soon. "Just give Naruto some time to rest and when he's ready we can train for the fight, I'd say we have about two weeks until Zabuza is back to normal."

"How does Naruto have chains coming from his body, I never saw them or anything." Tsunami asks curiously as they were also mentioned in the previous battle they were told about.

"Its a bloodline limit from the Uzumaki clan, that is simply called the chakra chain bloodline." Anko explains simply as she and the rest of the team finally get some rest.

Waking up, Naruto opens his eyes to see the same woman that opened the door for the team, but being unconscious he hasn't met her yet.

Looking into her beautiful dark eyes, he asks, "are you an angel?" He then suddenly remembers that he's not dead and blushes in embarrassment. But not as much as Tsunami does.

'An angel, he thinks I'm beautiful, that's so sweet.' "No, I'm Tsunami, I'm Tazuna's daughter." She replies with a beautiful smile and a pink tint to her face.

"O... uh... I'm Naruto Uzumaki, thank you for letting me and my teammates stay here." He says awkwardly while looking at her eyes. 'she has beautiful eyes.'

"No need to thank me Naruto-san, In fact thanks to you, my father came back safe and sound, I heard about your fight and I'm very grateful to you." She says making him blush in embarrassment, he just smiles at her and rubs his head sheepishly making the woman stare at his bear chest and blush harder.

"Dinner is ready, so I thought I could come and wake you up plus I would like to thank you again. My father said that if you didn't come then the others wouldn't have either, he said that you inspired them to follow you. I think that's what makes the perfect leader, and I can't thank you enough." She says to him with a small bow.

"Please, no bowing to me, stand up. I find it kinda awkward when people bow to me. And I wasn't alone in helping, my teammates and my sensei were there just as much as I was." Naruto says, making her smile at how modest and kind he was.

"Well, come down and get some dinner, I hope you like it I did the best I could so you could recover your strength." Tsunami said, but what she didn't say was that she cooked as good as she could to try and impress the young man.

"I'm sure I will enjoy it, thank you." He responds politely as he follows her lead down the hall.

When both, Tsunami and Naruto entered the kitchen the whole table just lit up from seeing their friend walking in.

"Naruto-kun!" Anko yells and glomps him but remembers that others are around and blushes. But while she was doing that she misses the slight glare she gets from Tsunami.

"Whoa, what's going on between you two huh, sensei?" Kiba asks jokingly, while also snickering.

"Shut up mutt, none of your business." Anko says a bit angrily, while still hugging Naruto as she is too happy to care that others are in the room.

"Heh" is Kiba's awkward laugh in reply not wanting to make Anko angry as he looks away from them.

Seeing this, Anko smirks, 'that's right mutt.' "Anyway we should all start some training today so lets go into the woods for it after dinner." She said as they would be rested enough after that.

"Naruto, leave some clones behind at the house to protect the others while we go out." Anko said later as they left the house after dinner.

"Got it" is his reply as he does just that and follows them out the door, waving at Tsunami as she blushes a bit and waves back at him. 'He's so handsome, but am I too old, I don't know what to do...' She thinks to herself.

As the team gets out into the woods a bit Anko stops and turns to them.

"Alright guys, this is a chakra control exercise that focus completely on pure control. Take out a kunai and hold it in your hand, you must use your chakra to make the kunai stand up in your hand. Keep it perfectly still," She says while taking out a kunai and showing them what to do. "ANBU are taught how to do this training to prevent any accidents. If you use too much chakra, the kunai will shake violently and shoot upwards. Using to little the kunai would wobble a bit before falling back down. Understand?" She says while the others look at her and nod.

"This is tricky and I have already taught you how to tree climb and water walk, so if you get this you will have your control down good. If you combine the other types of control training with this one, you will get even better. Like tree climbing and the kunai balancing at the same time. We will also be working on sticking to the trees and sparing for an hour to master the exercise completely."

"An hour of sparing on a tree, are you crazy or something?" Kiba yells out at the crazy lady he has to call sensei.

"Want to make it two hours?" She shoots back with a evil grin on her face shutting him up really quick and they all get ready to work.

"Good, and Naruto, I want to talk to you after training today." Anko says a little nervously which Naruto picks up on.

"Alright Anko-sensei, I'll see you then." He says with a smile. 'Maybe I could tell her how I feel.' He thought a bit nervously. 'I wonder if she will take it as well as Hinata-chan did.'

"Yea, see you then."

Each member of the team took out a kunai and immediately got to work. All of the boys had about even control due to having used all the chakra control exercises.

"Alright guys, let's see who can do this the fastest, losers have to buy the winner all the food he can eat when we get back home." Naruto challenges them to encourage them to do better.

"What!? You could out eat the entire village if you wanted too." Kiba complained loudly.

"What? Don't think you can beat me or something?" Naruto shots back with a cocky smirk making Kiba snort and start his training.

"Whatever, deal. I'll definitely beat you though, so get ready to buy me some food you guys."

"Actually I think you meant that I was gonna win this little challenge and both of you will buy me food." Sai said back to the two guys.

"No way, I'm gonna win this one, just like I won the other ones. It was fricken hilarious when I had you two idiots run into the woman's hot springs when you lost. Compared to that, buying me all I can eat is nothing." Naruto says with a laugh while his friends glare at him like he is the most horrible person on the planet making him laugh even more.

"Bastard, we could have died doing that!" Kiba yelled only slightly angry while suppressing a shiver.

"Yea, yea let's just get to work already." Naruto says as they all start to concentrate on the ANBU control exercise they were doing.

Hours later we see the boys in the woods all leaning on their own tree barley standing and panting like crazy. Well, everyone but Naruto, who is only a bit more winded than he usually would be.

"Alright, I'm out of chakra, how are you guys doing?" Sai asks while taking a break.

"Me too, let's head back to the house; I think is dinner time anyway." Kiba replies while heading off, praying that food is ready as he is starving.

"Fine, but I'm not all that tired. I guess I'll give you guys a fair chance though, let's go." Naruto says jokingly as they walk back to the house together.

As they enter the house they all practically fall into their seats across from their sensei making her smirk. "Out of chakra already, how far are you guys at now?" Anko asks them with a grin.

"I held the kunai up for a minute almost." Naruto says proudly as he had trained very hard to get his chakra control down right.

"I barely got mine to stop wobbling for like 25 seconds." Kiba says groaning that he might lose another challenge.

"I got mine to stay still for about 30 seconds." Sai says also not happy with the thought of losing the challenge? 'at least me and Kiba will be splitting it.'

"Wow. Not bad guys, try to have that done in the next 3 days with holding it up for a half hour and then fighting on the tree for an hour for the rest of the time, or maybe we could do the fighting on the water if your done early." Anko says with her trademark grin on her face. "Naruto, let's head outside real quick before dinner."

"Alright, let's go."

As they get outside Anko leads him out to the back to the dock behind the house and turns to him. 'How do I say this?' she thinks nervously as she had never done this before in her life. "I'm really glad that you saved me from taking that hit by those senbon." She says with a nervous but still grateful smile, not really looking into his eyes.

"Your welcome, but I'm thinking that you have something else to say with the look your giving me." Naruto says with a smile and hope in his eyes. 'I hope she's going to say she likes me.'

"Well, I was just wondering why you would go that at for me? I like that you did and it makes me happy but I was really worried about you and I could have handled it." She says softly with a little blush.

'Well she didn't say it directly but I can tell she is feeling something for me,' Naruto thinks happily. "I... I really like you Anko-chan, and I don't want to see you get hurt. I know you can handle pain but I just didn't want you to get hurt if I could help it."

Anko freezes while her heartbeat quickens, 'he said he liked me' "wait... did you say you liked me?" She questions hopefully, almost thinking it was too good to be true.

"Yes, I would really like to date you, but I already have Hinata and she already agreed to it because she knows as the last of my clan I need to marry like 5 to 7 women. Are you okay with that?" Naruto asks nervously while scratching the back of his head and looking away.

'He likes me... wow, this is great. But he does have to have a few other girls to marry, but as long as I'm one of them along with Hana and Ayame, I'm okay with it. He will definitely treat us all equally.' "I really like you too Naruto, I have for a long time. You have always been an inspiration to me with all you've been through and yet you still stay strong and protect people. I have always really admired you for that. I also will be with you even knowing about the other women you will have to have. I know you will treat us equally." She ends with a huge smile, that Naruto loves to see as its her genuine smile.

'Wow, she agreed, this day can't get any better,' "I will treat you all equally, I promise. I would love to take you out to dinner some time when we get back to the village, sometime when your free if you want." Naruto asks happily as he gives her a big hug and kisses her cheek making her blush a pretty pink.

"I would love too, just come through the Forest of Death to my little hut anytime."

"I will. Now let's go get some dinner." And with that they head inside with huge smiles on their faces thinking about how good they are feeling now.

Back in the hidden leaf village Sakura is still out and about spouting lies about Naruto being a demon and still being ignored.

"Hey, we should burn down his apartment, he's too dangerous too live here anyway." She shouts into a crowd of people with an evil smirk on her face, waiting for an answer. 'Come on people, this is gonna be great, he's dangerous and is only trying to be cool to steal me away from Sasuke-kun.' She thinks as she truly is losing her sanity and is only thinking about getting Sasuke.

"Will you give it up already you stupid little girl." Yelled some random civillian women. "If he was a demon then he would have slaughtered us all after we almost beat him to death. He's a good boy, with nothing but good intentions in his heart and I am glad that he is here in the village protecting us." She said getting some nods from the other women who were even blushing at the thought of the handsome boy.

"What? He is just using his demon powers to confuse you." Screamed the pink haired girl. 'Come on, he's just messing with you, if you don't believe me then I'll just leave.'

"Your the one whose confused, give it up we will never harm him again." Yelled another random civilian, this time a man in his late thirties who had never really hated the young boy.

"Fine, then I'll just leave the village, and I'll show you all that he is a true demon in human disguise." She screeched back at them and then just storms off.

"Yea, yea girl, whatever." Some younger teenage girls say as the crowd dispersed.

'I will get you for this Naruto-baka, I'm gonna find someone to help me get you, then the village will love me and I will get Sasuke-kun all to myself.' She thinks as she is packing her things to leave, not even caring for her own parents. She only cares about ruining Naruto's reputation which will hopefully get Sasuke to liker her.

Back with the team at the dinner table they are all having a nice conversation not knowing of the new traitor and possible threat to the village leaving. They are all having a good time until Inari screams at them making everyone get quiet.

"Why are you even hear, you are all acting so happy and having fun, while we suffer by that evil man Gato!"

"Inari, don't yell at them, they are protecting us when they didn't need to." Scolded Tsunami as she was forever grateful for all they had done for them.

"Come on, you don't have to be afraid, were gonna help you." Naruto says calmly.

"Shut up, you don't know anything about us, you don't know what suffering is. You probably have a nice big house with food and a family waiting for you. But Gato killed my dad and I have to go hungry sometimes. You wouldn't know what its like at all." Inari shouts again making Anko so angry that she wants to pummel the little kid into next year.

The whole team is angry at him, having heard a little about his life and seeing some of it for themselves. They all knew that he didn't have a good life at all and they all wanted to pummel the little kid. Too bad Anko beat them to the punch.

"How dare you say that to him you little brat! He knows more suffering than all of us in this room combined and that's saying a lot since I've had one messed up life." Anko yells back with a red face from anger as she reaches for the kid only to be stopped by Naruto's hand gripping hers.

She looks to see Naruto with his head down with his hair covering his eyes. He then pulls her hand down to his side and looks up making all the people feel sad at seeing the pain in his eyes.

'A boy like him shouldn't have eyes like that at that age. What happened to him?' Tsunami wonders as tears come to her eyes.

'Wo, his eyes...' Inari thinks while regretting what he said. 'Maybe I was wrong about them.'

'It must have been hard to live like he did.' The others in the room thought sadly while waiting for their blond captain and friend to speak.

"Have you ever felt so helplessly weak knowing that you just might not be strong enough to pull yourself back home at night? Have you ever been soaked in your own blood waiting for death, just wanting it all to end." He says softly making the girls in the room burst into tears. Inari also starts to cry and the other guys have water in their eyes and their heads down in silence.

"Have you been beaten, stabbed, used for target practice, burned? Have you ever went without food for weeks on end eating only garbage and some small animals? Have you ever been glared by almost your entire village and not know why? Have you been called names by those same people all the time when you walk by? Have you been refused service to most places in the village and when they actually let you in, you would be triple charged for broken things or rotten food?" He speaks with a slightly more forceful tone.

"I have felt all of these things. I know what pain and suffering is much more than you do. I have grown up a hated orphan, so I don't know what it's like to lose a parent. I am sorry for your loss but you have your older sister here, and your dad while I had nothing."

Tsunami, despite the situation blushes as the comment about being Inari's older sister. 'Well, I guess I'm not too old in his eyes then. Why does the thought make me feel so good?'

"We are here to help you whether you want us to or not." He continues as he stands up from the table and heads towards the door, only to stop and turn is head behind him with a small sad smile on his face. "No one will suffer like I did," is the last thing he says to the family and team of ninja as he leaves them to sit in silence.

"Is, that all true?" Tazuna asks after wiping his eyes.

"Yes, but that was mostly the watered down version of his life." Anko says sadly, "He has so many hidden scars on his body you couldn't count them all. He hides them under a genjutsu so no one can see them, I think he is ashamed by them." She says sadly while wiping her tears and leaving the room with all the horrified people in the dining room.

"O my god, it was worse than what he said, how could they do that to him?" Tsunami asks while finally breaking down and sobbing uncontrollably.

"I- I never knew." Inari says while running to his room to think about what he did.

"I knew it was bad but never that bad, he gave us an even more watered down version before but it was nothing compared to this one." Kiba says sadly while Sai just remains silent.

Naruto is now walking around outside where they were training earlier, 'I don't think I should have told him that and made all the others cry. Do you Kyoshi-chan?' He thinks to Kyoshi who had heard what he said.

'He had to learn that some people always have it worse than others, if you didn't tell him he would always have acted that way to anybody. I think you did the right thing, so just do some training to take your mind off of the argument.' Kyoshi says back softly.

'Good idea, I always feel better after some training, let's get this kunai balancing thing down already.'

'Yea, just focus and you should be able to hold if for a couple minutes, I heard about your bet and I think you did a good job of motivating them. You could out eat the entire village and still be hungry after all, so no one would want to pay that much.' She giggles at that trying to lighten the mood.

'I don't eat that much, just a little more than the average family of three.' He says back jokingly.

'Haha, alright whatever you say, just get to work already.' Kyoshi says to him.

The next morning after Naruto's training there is a small building in the middle of the woods.

"I'm heading out to get you some herbs to heal up, I'll be back Zabuza-sama." The young girl who saved Zabuza says to him as he is in bed.

"Fine, just hurry back and don't do anything stupid while your gone Haku." Zabuza says to her not really caring for her life, just the fact that she could bring trouble to him.

"I will." Haku says with a conflicted look on her pretty face, not showing it to Zabuza. She couldn't stop thinking about her life ever since she met the handsome blond boy. She feels that she could find something better than a cold and uncaring master who makes her do things that she really doesn't want to do.

Walking through the woods, Haku goes to a spot where the herbs could be, dressed in a pink kimono while carrying a basket for the herbs and with her hair down. Suddenly she sees someone laying in the grass nearby the herbs she needs and she looks closer.

'It looks like that handsome boy who fought and beat Zabuza-sama somehow. I really don't want to hurt him though.' Haku thinks to herself as she walks over slowly trying not to wake the boy up. What she didn't know is that he knew that she was there but he didn't want to scare her.

'This is interesting, I wonder what she'll do and who she is?' Naruto questions while keeping his eyes closed tensing his muscles to move at any second just in case.

She stops next to him and is reaching towards him to shake his shoulder. "Hey, get up. You'll catch a cold if you sleep here." She says kindly with a genuine smile on her face.

Slightly stirring from his sleep, Naruto stretches and rubs the sleep from his eyes. "O, hello tenshi-chan." Naruto says with a smile making her blush like crazy from his complement and more from his smile. 'God he is so handsome with that smile and he called me an angel, how sweet.' She thinking to herself.

Trying to control her blush she stutters out, "my name is Haku, what is yours?"

"Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki, nice to meet you Haku-chan, what are you doing here so early?" Naruto questions innocently.

"I'm picking herbs for my friend, he has been injured recently and is healing up. But I think I should be asking you that question." Haku asks with a light giggle trying not to seem threatening to him.

"I was training, I must have fallen asleep before I went back to my client's house." Naruto says back to the girl.

"Training? Are you a ninja then?"

"Yep, I'm a ninja alright." He said proudly making the girl giggle again, "so do you want some help picking your herbs?"

"Sure, thank you. Why were you training out here anyway, you seem pretty strong already?" Haku asks and blushes some more when she remembers his skill and charisma.

"I'm pretty strong I guess, but I want to be even stronger."

"Why? Do you have some precious people to protect?" Haku asks, "I think when someone has precious people to protect, that makes them truly strong." 'Though Zabuza helped me, I can't say that I really find him all that precious to me.' She thinks sadly as she was only really indebted to the man.

Naruto then goes into his patented thinking pose making the girl giggle to herself even more, while holding herself to the ground so she doesn't glomp him. "I do have precious people and I would give my life in an instant to protect them. I wouldn't be half as strong as I am now without them." He says confidently making Haku's smile widen.

"Good, then you'll be very strong in the future." She says honestly as she starts walking away.

"Well it was nice meeting a pretty girl like you Haku-chan. I really wish you would not fight for Zabuza though." He says as he could fit the pieces together which makes the girl freeze.

'How did he know I'm working for Zabuza-sama.' She tenses her muscles to run as fast as she can. "How did you know that?"

"I'm not going to hurt you Haku-chan, I just want you to live the life that you deserve and want. I knew you were working for him by the way you act. You have the grace of a ninja, added to the fact that you have the same hair and are the same size as the other person I saw. I would rather have you as an ally rather than enemy." He says calmly and truthfully.

'I don't sense any lies from him and it would be nice to get to know him better.' Haku thought with a small blush. "Alright, I'll have to think about this." She says calmly but her mind is really going inside out right about now. "It was nice meeting you Naruto-kun." She says and starts moving but she remembered what she just said and freezes hoping he didn't catch the kun suffix.

"Kun?" He questions with a mischievous grin which makes her blush harder. "I could get used to that."

'Well that was fun, I can't wait to see him again, I just hope we don't have to fight.' Haku thought to herself as she wandered back to her master while thinking about her future.

Chapter End

PepticCaesar Out