I do not own Naruto and I don't plan to in the future. I do, though, own this fanfiction and original characters in it.

"Speech"
'Thought'
Flashback
"Umu speech"
"Kyūbi speech"

Eleventh Unmei: Courage

After Naruto ate, everyone went to bed. The guys all slept in one room while the girls slept in the one next to it. In the morning they were awoken bright and early by Kiiori.

"Come on Naruto, get out of bed. We need to go train." Kiiori nudged Naruto but he got no response. He tried again, but still couldn't invoke a response. So he picked him up and left. "Come on let's go." He ordered as he walked past. No one even asked why he had Naruto hung over his shoulder. Kiiori led them into a forest with giant trees. "Your goal is to climb up these trees." He told them.

"We can already climb trees." Sasuke replied cockily.

"You have to climb these trees with out the use of your hands." Kiiori further explained while simultaneously wiping the smug look of Sasuke's face.

"How?" Sakura inquired.

"Well you have to channel chakra to your feet and let it flow between you and the tree. If you do it right you will be able to climb." He explained and then began to walk up a nearby tree. Hinata, Sakura, and Sasuke watched him climb up to the first branch. "Now time to wake sleeping beauty." He laughed as he jumped Naruto. Naruto transformed by instinct and landed on all fours. He looked as surprised as a cat that had been snuck up on. "So, it looks like fox boy really is an animal. Though I think he looks closer to a cat." Kiiori laughed from above.

Naruto transformed back to normal. "That wasn't funny! What's going on here?" Naruto shouted.

"Training. Ask Hinata for the details. I'll be going now, but by the end of the day I expect at least two of you to make some progress." Kiiori shouted back before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Hinata explained what was going on and then everybody set out on climbing. Hinata got all the way to the top on her first try, because her family specializes in using chakra. Sakura made it about 20 feet before falling. Sasuke got about 15 feet, while our hero got about ten. After a few tires Sakura was almost to the top, but Sasuke and Naruto were making slow progress.

(Jump to the evening)

"Okay, show me how high you can get." He ordered as he appeared next to the four. First Sakura went, and was able to reach the top. Then Hinata, who also reached the top. Sasuke went next and was about half way to the first branch. Lastly, Naruto went; He was able to reach about the same height as Sasuke. 'Figures, the two guys would make the least progress.' Kiiori Thought to himself. "Okay, that's it for today. Let's go back to Tazuna's house." He told the four.

"Food!" Naruto shouted as he ran past Kiiori. The rest walked at a normal pace back to the house.

"What took you so long?" Naruto asked when the rest got to the house.

"We enjoyed the scenery." Kiiori smiled sadistically. He enjoyed torturing his student whenever possible.

"Inari, time for dinner." Tsunami called out to someone Naruto hadn't met.

"Who's Inari?" Naruto asked Hinata as she sat down next to him.

"He's Tsunami's son. He isn't exactly a people person." Hinata explained as she remembered the night before.

"Who's this? Another ninja." A childish and detached voice questioned. "You won't be able to be Gatou." Naruto could tell that the question was about him. Naruto turned around to see a boy standing in the staircase.

"It's Naruto, Future Hokage. I'll be a hero and beat this Gatou guy." Naruto introduced himself with stern voice.

"What's the point, your going to die." Inari stated coldly. "If you want to live, you should leave. I'm not hungry." He said as he walked back upstairs.

"What's with that punk?" Naruto questioned.

"That's not important." Naruto recognized Kakashi's voice behind him. "Zabuza isn't dead." Kakashi said as he walked to the table.

"Kakashi-sensei, are you feeling better?" Sakura asked.

"Mostly. I'm still recovering." He answered. "I'm sure you have realized this by now Kiiori."

"Yeah, but I wanted to talk to you about it to be sure." Kiiori replied.

"Hey, how can that guy still be alive?" Naruto asked.

"He was working with the hunter-nin." Sasuke scoffed at Naruto's inability to put things together.

"But, the good news is that we have some time until he fully recovers, so until then you will train." Kiiori explained with a long tensioned silence following.

"Let's eat." Tsunami said to break the tension.

For the next few days Naruto and Sasuke trained to climb the tree but were making slow progress. Hinata and Kiiori would follow Tazuna everywhere he went to make sure he was safe while Sakura and Kakashi stayed at the house to make sure it was safe. Inari hadn't outburst since the day Naruto met him, until one day at dinner.

"Who was ripped out of this picture?" Hinata asked innocently.

"Why do you ask?" Tazuna questioned.

"Well, I noticed Inari-kun stares at the picture a lot." Hinata answered meekly, feeling slightly ashamed for being nosey.

"I've notice it too." Sakura agreed with Hinata.

"That was my husband, Kaiza." Tsunami answered solemnly.

"He and Inari were like father and son, but they weren't blood related." Tazuna further explained with a serious mood. After he said that Inari got up and left the room. Tsunami got upset but Tazuna continued to explain. "He was the hero to the village and Inari. When he first came here, he saved Inari when he was about to drown. Later, he saved the whole village from a flood. He was the symbol of courage for this village. He stood up for his belief no matter what the cost. Unfortunately, that was his downfall. Gatou came here and began his monopoly. Kaiza stood up for the villagers but Gatou got annoyed of that. So, one day, in front of the whole village Gatou put Kaiza to death. From that day on everybody of the village lost faith in courage. They had lost faith in heroes." After that Naruto got up and proceeded to exit.

"Where are you going?" Kiiori asked.

"I'm gonna prove that heroes exist." Naruto said coolly before he left. For the rest of that night Naruto trained to get up the tree and fell asleep on the forest floor.

"Wake up." Naruto heard a voice calling to him.

"Hina-chan." Naruto moaned as he tried to cuddle into the person trying wake him up.

"No, I'm not your Hina-chan." The voice replied. This got Naruto wide awake.

"Sorry." Naruto said embarrassed that he was trying to cuddle with a stranger. When he looked at the person he quickly realized that it was female, a pretty one at that.

"It's okay, I just thought that you shouldn't be sleeping out here or you would catch a cold." The girl said sweetly.

"Thanks, my name is Naruto; what's your?" Naruto introduced himself.

"I'm Haku; it's nice to meet you. I noticed that you're a ninja; what are you doing out here?" Haku asked politely.

"I'm training to get stronger." Naruto said proudly.

"You look pretty strong to me." Haku pointed out.

"But I need to become stronger." Naruto interrupted.

"Why?" She asked innocently.

"So the people of my village will acknowledge me for what I am." Naruto explained.

"So this is for yourself?" She asked rhetorically.

"Huh?" Naruto said confused. Haku giggled at his response.

"A person is true strength comes out when they have something important to protect." Haku stated.

"I know. I have many precious things that I would give my life to protect." Naruto smiled happily. "So what are you doing out here?" He asked.

"I'm picking herbs to use for medicine." Haku explained sweetly.

"I'll help you than." Naruto offered.

"Thank you for the offer, but I was leaving when I saw you." Haku said as she got up.

"Thanks for waking me up." Naruto said as she was walking away.

"Your welcome. I'm sure we will meet again." Haku said as she walked off.

"Who was that, dobe?" Sasuke asked as he walked up from the opposite direction.

"Some nice girls who woke me up from my sleep." Naruto responded cheerfully. For the rest of the day Naruto and Sasuke practiced the tree climbing exercise.

(The Next Day)

"Sasuke and Naruto haven't been back in a day.?" Kakashi wondered aloud.

"I'm worried about Naru-kun he hasn't come back since he left two nights ago." Hinata worried apprehensively.

"Plus, Sasuke just left without saying a word." Sakura added with concern.

"Don't worry, they can take care of themselves. They're probably training." Kiiori told the two. "Come on let's go find them." So the three traveled to the training site and found Naruto sleeping on a branch.

"Hey, Naruto! Wake up!" Kiiori yelled, waking the sleeping hero.

"What? Oh, hey, what's u­--" Naruto got up but slipped off the branch. Everybody expected for him to hit the ground but he simply flipped to the underside of the branch.

"Idiot! You scared us." Sakura yelled as she shook her fist at him. Naruto began laughing at the sight of the three, but his feet lost the connection to the tree and he began to fall for real. This time everyone thought he was kidding until the saw his feet weren't touching the branch. Luckily Sasuke appeared out of nowhere and grabbed his leg.

"Sasuke's the best." Sakura shouted.

"Thank you." Hinata told Sasuke for saving Naruto.

"Looks like you have mad so progress." Kiiori said as he signaled for the two girls to leave with him.

(Jump to the evening)

"Ha! We did it." Naruto shouted from the top of his tree.

"Let's go back." Sasuke said tiredly.

(At the house)

"We're done." Naruto announced as he entered the room, using Sasuke for support.

"Yeah, this idiot trained until he didn't have energy." Sasuke taunted, setting Naruto down at the table.

"I'll make you some food." Tsunami said as she began taking out food.

"Tomorrow, you guys will help protect Tazuna." Kakashi told them.

"Cool." Naruto yawned before he fell asleep.

Inari stared at Naruto. 'Why? Why do you try so hard?' He thought as he was reminded of his father. Tears began to well up in his eyes. "Why?!" He yelled, waking Naruto up. "Why do you try so hard when you will fail? The strong always beat the weak. You'll end up dying!"

"The strong don't beat the weak, they beat the fearful." Naruto told him.

"You guys don't know anything about us yet you butt in anyways!" Inari continued, tears flowing from his eyes.

"You don't need a reason to help those in need." Naruto replied.

"You always clown around and act so cheerful, you don't know how hard life is." Inari finished. This broke the last straw in Naruto.

"Don't preach to me about how hard life can be. I know who hard it is, but I don't cry like a sissy." Naruto began to raise his voice. "That's because crying won't fix anything. The truth is that the world doesn't care what you want. So to get what you want you have to do it with your own two arms. I don't think that you're honoring what your father did by crying about it." He yelled at the boy.

"Naruto, enough!" Kiiori silenced the boy.

"I'm going to bed." Naruto stated angrily.

"I'm going outside." Inari said angrily. Kiiori got up and followed him out.

"Can I join you?" He asked as he sat next to the boy. "Naruto didn't mean any harm in what he said. He often thinks with his heart more than his head. The thing is he understands quite well what you feel. He grew up not knowing either of his parents and never had a single friend. But I have never seen him cry or complain once. He always tries his hardest to get the people of our village to acknowledge him. He will risk his life for that dream. He, like your father, understands what true strength is. So, he doesn't want you to grow up the way you are, that why he yelled at you." Kiiori explained.

(The Next Day)

"Take care of Naruto." Kiiori said as the rest of the group left with Tazuna.

A few minutes after they left, Naruto woke up. "I can't believe that the left without me." Naruto said as he changed into his clothes. "Bye." He yelled as he ran out the door.

(Meanwhile at the bridge)

When the group got to the bridge they saw injured workers.

"What happened?" Tazuna asked as he kneeled next a worker.

"Demons…" The man said before he fainted.

(With Naruto)

Naruto was racing through the forest to catch up with the rest. He felt slightly betrayed that they didn't wake him, but they probably thought he was too tired to do anything.

"Kyaa!" Naruto heard Tsunami scream, so he turned around.

(At the House a few minutes later)

"Stop fighting and just come with use lady." A tall man with the sword ordered.

"Gatou's orders." Said his comrade. Just as he tried to grab her, Inari smack his hand with a frying pan.

"I not gonna let you take my mom." He said as he mustered up the courage to fight these men. 'Naruto was right. Crying won't stop these men.'

"Then we will kill you." The two men said together as they were about to draw their swords, but found something stopping them.

"I don't think so." Naruto said as he knocked the two men out. He then proceeded to tie them up.

"Naruto…" Inari said quizzically.

"The hero always shows up at the last second." Naruto smiled as he finished tying the men up.

"How did you know?" Inari asked.

"Didn't you know? I'm a demon." Naruto told him as he revealed his animalistic features. "Sorry about yesterday, your really strong." He said as he rubbed Inari's head.

"Thanks." Inari cried as he hugged Naruto.

"It's okay. But I gotta go, so take care of your mother." Naruto said as he pulled Inari off of him. "It's tough being a hero." He smiled at the boy.

"Yeah it is." Inari sniffed.

(At the Bridge)

"Mist…" Kakashi mumbled as a fog began to roll over the bridge,

"Look what we have here." Zabuza voice echoed through the mist. Then suddenly eight water clones of Zabuza surround the group.

"Do it, Sasuke." Kakashi told his student. Sasuke then pulled out his windmill shuriken, and in a flashed, destroyed all the clones.

"Well, well. Looks like Haku will have a challenge." Tsuki laughed.

"Looks that way indeed." Haku acknowledged.

"Take off your mask and fight us like a man." Sasuke yelled.

"I can't do that." Haku denied.

"Let's go." Zabuza order as all three vanished and reappeared in front of Kakashi group.

"Hinata, guard Tazuna." Kiiori said as he confronted Tsuki.

"Sakura, you help her." Kakashi ordered as he faced off with Zabuza.

"Looks like I will fight you." Sasuke smirked at Haku.

"Think you can keep up." Haku said as he (Sasuke's under the impression that Haku is a boy.) appeared behind Sasuke.

"Think you can." Sasuke whispered behind Haku.

"I don't want t have to kill you." Haku said as he attacked Sasuke. "But you wouldn't give up would you?

"Not a chance.' Sasuke smirked as he blocked the attack.

"I see, but I already have two advantages. You will only be able to run from my attacks." Haku pointed out.

"Huh?"

"All this water and I have your hands occupied." Haku said as he began to perform one-handed seals. "Flying water needles." Haku shouted making thousand of sebon needles form in the air. They just float there for a few seconds before the closed in. Right before impact Haku jump back, so not get caught in the crossfire. After all the needles collided Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. Then from above Haku shuriken came raining down. Haku dodged them all but when he stopped moving Sasuke appeared behind.

"You can only run for my attacks." Sasuke said arrogantly as sent Haku flying with a kick.

"Looks like your comrade isn't as fast as he thinks." Kakashi told Zabuza.

"You haven't seen anything yet." Zabuza informed him. "Haku, at this rate we will be driven back."

"Yeah, we can't have that." Haku responded cheerfully. Slowly white chakra could be seen flowing from him to the water. As the chakra poured into the water, large sleets of ice began to rise out of it to surround Sasuke from all angles. "Demonic Ice Mirrors." He said as he walked into one. Sasuke could see his reflection in all the mirrors surrounding him. Kakashi tried to butt in but was stop by Zabuza.

"Remember, your opponent is me." He said sadistically. "He won't be able to survive this Jutsu."

"Now, I show you my real speed." Haku's voice echoed through the mirrors. Then Sasuke was being attacked from all angles, not able to block at all.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried. "Hinata help me." Sakura said as she threw a kunai into the mirrors, Hinata following her lead. Unfortunately, Haku caught them both. Suddenly as shuriken came from the opposite direction and hit Haku on his mask, making him fall out of his mirror.

"The hero finally arrives." Naruto boasted.

Zabuza was about to attack him but Haku stopped him. "Zabuza, let me fight them my way."