Ages-

Naruto- 10

Kakashi- 25

Mystery Person- 13

"But why do we have to go to Wave?" Naruto asked sullenly as he allowed his feet to drag on the well worn dirt path.

Not even bothering to look up from his book Kakashi responded, "If you haven't listened for the first five times I told you, what would make the sixth time different?" Both walked on in silence as Naruto pondered upon how to respond.

Finally giving up on giving a calm response Naruto threw up his arms in exasperation. "Just because the Hokage said some trouble makers were there. There were plenty where we were already!" Pouting at how unfair things were Naruto stomped on. "I was gonna beat Gaara soon too." The aggravated boy grumbled trying to guilt trip his sensei into taking them back.

"It seemed to me that he had you beat pretty badly." Eyes curved in a smile Kakashi recalled the blond pounding his bare fist on a solid wall of sand only to have a tendril snake around the offending limb and whip the boy twenty feet away before the sand crept back into a gourd shape revealing a very smug redhead.

"I meant for him to do that." Naruto defended stiffly not looking at his mentor.

"Training time." Halting in his steps Kakashi turned off the main road and into the surrounding wooded area as his charge crashed along after him. "Stealth training, two hours, ten mile radius, find me." After delivering his requirements Kakashi faded out of existence leaving Naruto to the hunt.

Scrambling up a tree he masked his chakra to the best of his abilities as he hid in the foliage debating which way to go first. I'll go back the way we came and then sweep along to the…east! Kakashi-sensei will never know what hit him! Rocketing off the tree branch he pushed chakra to his feet in order to propel himself forward and to cushion his landing on each limb making his movements little above the natural hum of forest activity.

Stretching out his senses to encompass a bubble of roughly five hundred yards in any way Naruto was careful to keep hidden as he made his way along scanning diligently for any disturbance. Hardly fifteen minutes into the exercise, a faint tingling at the edge of his awareness caused him to veer of course to investigate. It was far too early in the game for Kakashi to be discovered so it was probably just some travelers, but why would they be so far off the path?

Heroic images of it being some missing nin intent upon wrecking havoc which would be quickly put to a stop with Naruto on the scene. Other such images flashed through his mind as he closed in on the unknown person(s), one of these involving a woman captured that looked startlingly like a certain pink haired girl that he would of course save.

Slowing down Naruto inched forward careful not to make a sound lest he alert the person of his presence. It was a girl; a very pretty girl Naruto noticed settling on a spot to watch her movements. She just sat there eyes closed as long brown hair stirred by the faint wind moved over her face. Throwing himself out of the tree Naruto barely managed to avoid being pinned to the oak by five eight inch needles. I didn't even see her move!

Abandoning any pretense of stealth since he had already been spotted he swore profusely as he twisted his body in order to grab a tree branch on the way down. Using the tree limb to swing his body to the next branch he narrowly missed another volley of needles. "What the hell!" Naruto shouted at his attacker whom hardly looked any older then he did. "I didn't even attack you!"

Jumping to the next branch down Naruto noticed there wasn't a number of needles in the tree where he had just been. Cautiously he waited for her to speak, ready to move if necessary.

"Why were you watching me?" She asked voice pleasant but tinged with distrust.

Scratching his head awkwardly Naruto realized what she had thought; "I wanted to see why someone would be so far out here." She had not relaxed her stance and Naruto realized that she wanted a different answer.

"I'm training with my Sensei; we're from Leaf." Since she was from Mist, or so Naruto presumed, there would be no problems, their countries were allied.

Slowly her posture relaxed and the icy flint to her eyes thawed. "So, why are you out here?" Naruto jumped the remaining feet from the tree to land gracefully before cocking his head as he awaited her response.

"I was also training with my Sensei." Giving her a wide smile he plopped down on the ground eager to converse with the foreign kunoichi. With a noticeable amount of grace she also sat. "What are you learning?" She asked politely.

"Stupid stealth stuff. How am I supposed to find Kakshi-Sensei? He's the teacher for a reason!" Waving his arms around to more accentuate his point Naruto stopped when he heard a giggle. Looking at this new girl who was laughing he couldn't control the blush that heated his face.

"I'm Naruto."

"Haku."

"Haku? Isn't that a boy's name?"

"It is." Feeling very confused Naruto examined the person whom was sitting across from him that now had a light blush decorating their face. Eyes widening at the realization Naruto leaned forward taking in every feature.

Blinking owlishly and leaning back Naruto couldn't help the, "Holy shitt," that escaped him.

Wow! Now was that a zippy update or what?! You can chalk that up to a snow day and my inability to get out of the house. Anyone who knew who it was before I revealed the name, treat yourself to a cookie.

Ok, since I'm so excited about hitting the hundredth review I shall offer up a bit of incentive. You request a pairing (has to include Sakura) and I shall write it for you. If you don't want this I'll simply pass this opportunity down to the hundred eleventh reviewer as 111 is a simply amazing number. One other thing is that I would prefer that it wasn't ChickxChick action but if you're absolutely dead set on it, I'll try my hand. –Cloey Marie-