A 10 year old Sasuke stood on the balcony of Uncle Obitos house near the western end of the Uchiha Compound, his Uncle standing to his right, both watching the beautifully purple sunset. "Always remember, Sasuke, it is not power that makes a good man, nor a good Ninja. It is the strength of ones will, ones skill and diversity as well as ones dedication that make you a good Ninja, and it are ones friends, dreams and virtues that make a good man. Be ready to lay down your life for your friends as you are for your family or Hokage, and they will show you the same service. Always be true to your ideals and your friends, and you cannot really go wrong." He smiled, even his glass eye seemed to gleam, when he turned to look at Sasuke. "You make me proud of being your teacher and uncle, Sasuke. I firmly believe that you will find your way. And if you find yourself straying off the path you wish to walk, or cannot find it anymore, come to me and I will do everything to help you." His warm hand rested on his nephews shoulder as he said that, and Sasuke felt warm, safe, at peace.

The watched the sun set and the evening star and the waxing moon rise before they went into the house again.

Sasuke slowly opened his eyes, seeing a rather ramshackle roof above himself. Just as he was about to ask what had happened, a entirely huge wave of pain raced through his body, and he lost consciousness again, only a small glimpse of the worried face of Sakura accompanying him back into the darkness...

Naruto dispelled his clones, turned to Kakashi and said: "I've checked the area. No one except some civilians within 2 miles, I don't think we have been followed." This time he had used massive amounts of clones and searched as good as he could, unlike the time Zabuza had surprised them. Not really subtle, but effective.

"Good. Then place 3 of them to protect Sasuke and 6 to guard the prisoner. I will try to regain some chakra as quickly as possible, but until then it is all up to you." His Sensei`s voice was strained and tired, but he was still able to walk to the bed Tazunas family had provided on his own, which was more than Sasuke or their strange prisoner could say of themselves. So Naruto just nodded and made more clones. He would not disappoint his team!

Kakashi sighed as he sat down on the bed. The battle had been really intense, Zabuza and himself blasting each other with Jutsu faster than he liked, as his chakra reserves had never been among the larger ones. Suddenly Sasuke had intervened, hitting Zabuza with 2 Shuriken and following up with a well timed Hosenká, creating enough diversion and sight obstruction for Kakashi to go for his opponent with a quickly charged Raikiri. However the notorious Nukenin had been able to evade it almost completely, only suffering a wound on his left forearm, preventing him from doing most Jutsu, but nothing too serious. They separated but Kakashi was sure he could win now. At that exact moment a masked Ninja had attacked Sasuke with extreme speed, but his pupil had somehow managed to not only evade the Senbon attack but stabbed the attacker in the right shoulder deep enough to cripple him. Zabuza had ticked out at that and shunshin`ed there to kick Sasuke with his full power, throwing him over the lake, only to immedeatly turning to flee. Kakashi had only had the choice of saving his pupil or following Zabuza, which was no choice at all. He had jumped onto the lake, running across the water as fast as he could, and catching the limp Sasuke in the last possible moment. Zabuza had been gone by then, but the (obviously fake) Hunter Nin had been trying to limp away while loosing a lot of blood from the stab wound Sasuke had inflicted, so Kakashi had motioned Naruto to capture the traitor. Which 5 Kage Bunshin had done rather easily.

He sighed while lying down. Why did his team lack a medic Nin? He had only received basic field treatment lessons, enough to ensure that their captive would survive, but not enough to treat Sasukes multiple crushed ribs and broken right arm. So he had to inject him with the (only dose!) Emergency Serum. That would save his life, and most likely career, and heal his wounds within a few days but it would also haywire his chakra system for at least a week, if not more. And they still had to protect their client, and now also themselves, from Zabuza and whoever else this Gateau had hired. He sighed again, nothing he could do now, and as their opponent was wounded as well he had to get his reserves back up NOW.

And so he fell asleep with practiced ease.

Outside Naruto (the original one) and Sakura were sitting on a bench eating the rice balls Tsunami had brought them, while Narutos clones stood guard. Sakura had been rather quiet since their Sensei had brought the unconscious Sasuke into his room, which Naruto enjoyed. He was worried enough already without Sakura adding to it. Just as he swallowed his last rice ball she suddenly spoke.

"Naruto, I...I am sorry for being so useless." her voice was very quiet and almost toneless. "If I had been an asset to the team, maybe Sasuke would not …..would not have..." she swallowed a sob and trailed off, her vibrant green eyes full of pain and tears. Damn, what was he supposed to do now?

"Sakura-chan, we were facing someone who is as strong as Kakashi-sensei. Even if you had been stronger, it would not have helped. But I, and you, WILL train and get stronger! We will protect Tazuna and his family until Sasuke is back up again, and together we will win next time!" His trademark enthusiasm actually seemed to help this time, as Sakura stopped crying silently, wiped her eyes and nodded. Sasuke had told her to be a better team-player. Well, now was her chance! She would do her utmost best not to disappoint her crush!

"Do you 2 need anything else?" Tsunamis voice sounded from inside the house. "More food perhaps? Or something to drink?" Tazunas Daughter had been almost too friendly the whole time they had been here. "Something to drink would be great, thank you!" Naruto shouted back. Sakura shook her head, but said nothing. After all, Naruto was her teammate, and she had promised to treat him better. Seeing his clones were doing all the work he had earned a little leeway anyway. Especially since he had not asked her out for almost a week.

And so they spent their first day in Wave.

Early morning the next day Kakashi entered the room where his 2 conscious Genin were taking their breakfast. He had just checked on their captive and found him still unconscious, as was Sasuke but aside from protecting him from assassins there was nothing he could do for his pupil right now anyway. "Naruto, Sakura, after you finish breakfast I will show you some exercises that you will devote yourself to. Your clones, Naruto, will still patrol the area, but 5-6 should do, as I will patrol too, all the rest of your efforts will go into that training. We need to be ready next time, am I clear?" He sounded very serious, so Naruto just nodded quietly, as did Sakura, instead of shouting his readiness as he would have done normally. "Good, now lets go..."

And off they went to learn to walk on trees. Sakura mastered that within a few hours, Naruto though...caused widespread tree damage.

Kakashi therewhile had begun to ….. check on his captive, including using his Sharingan, and what he found out was rather bad news. Obviously Zabuza had access to support well above what he had expected, if he could muster Kekkei Genkai users like this one. He could hardly wait for him to wake up, as he had a lot of questions...

His chance came roughly 12 hours later, when his captive finally awoke.

Now while he was no master in the art of torture, he DID have the Sharingan, so Haku did not have much chance to oppose him, though it was good that Sakura and Naruto were not here, as he was everything but gentle. After all, this Ninja had attacked his student, and would ahve no doubt attacked him, with the intent to kill, as was to be expected by anyone serving Zabuza. Still, after about one hour he knew what he wanted to know.

He called his pupils for a briefing in the forest where the 2 had practiced tree walking (or in Narutos case tree kicking, but he got better; still Sakuras ability had come as a welcome surprise!).

"Now my pupils, listen well. Our captive goes by the name of Haku. He was an orphan when Zabuza found him and decided to train him because he has a Kekkei Genkai that allows him to manipulate Ice. As the Hidden Mist tends to kill all bearers of a Blood Limit and Zabuza not only did not kill him but trained him he is very devoted to his master." Narutos gaze showed that he could understand that pretty well, as Kakashi had expected, while Sakura looked shocked.

"However I did manage to gain valuable information. Mainly the fact that Zabuza only arrived in Wave with Haku and the Demon Brothers as support. Together with the fact that he was wounded in our fight this gives us at least another week until he will come back to settle this, which no doubt he will. I intend to use this time for training. Naruto you will continue to practice tree walking. Sakura, I will teach you a Genjutsu that allows you to stay hidden. As soon as Sasuke is awake we will adapt to the situation as well as possible without knowing what support Zabuza will bring. Do not be fooled however, I will fight Zabuza. You are not ready to face such an opponent. Also, following Hakus memory, Gateau is dead by Zabuzas hand. Which means we might have to fight whoever manages to gain control of his organization later. That usually takes lots of infighting however, so I do not expect it to be an issue until well after our confrontation with Zabuza. Now off you go."

With that he left the 2 to their training.

Which they did, with all the fervor of young people eager to please.

Wind slowly moved the leaves overhead, rustling sounded from all around, light and darkness shifted, the occasional beam of bright golden sunlight touching the ground marked by the remnants of 2 hours of Taijutsu training, Itachis long black hair surrounded him like a cloak, tiny strands moved by the breeze, his dark blue training clothes spotless, only a few drops of sweat showing in his face. An eleven years old Sasuke leaned slumped against a tree, his face showing dozens small bruises, his clothes dirty, his Sharingan still spinning.

"Are you satisfied now, little brother? You wanted me to actually spar with you, didn't you? Now you are beaten, out of breath and almost out of chakra and still you did not manage to hit me even once. All the blathering about your goals, virtues and your so called "talent", and still you lose, even when I am only using Taijutsu on you."

Sasuke said nothing, but his glare spoke volumes. He had been so sure of his abilities, after all he had activated his Sharingan a full 2 years earlier than Itachi and his focus had been Taijutsu, Obito had told him that Itachis abilities where elsewhere, namely that he was THE Uchiha Genjutsu prodigy, so he SHOULD have been able to at least challenge his brother despite the age difference if Itachi restricted himself to Taijutsu. But no, not even one punch or kick had managed to connect. Yes, he had been able to evade or parry most of Itachis attacks, but still a good 2 dozen had hit him, some throwing him a few meters, and now he was exhausted, his whole body ached, yes, he had lost. Badly. He "hn"ed, both anger and irritation apparent in his face.

"Little brother, you have been listening too closely to what Obito taught you. Yes, teamwork is important, yes friends are as well. But remember, while he is an Uchiha, he never was as gifted as we are, which formed him into what he now is. All his talk about virtues has clouded your head." Face still impassive he walked towards Sasuke, bending down to put their faces on the same level. His voice was quiet but very intense. "Always remember this, little brother: Power is the prime virtue. All other virtues are born out of it. Without it, you cannot achieve anything. Without it, all other virtues are nothing more than the fancy dreams of naive children."

He stood again, his gaze saying "Think about it! Hard!" as he shunshin`ed away. Sasuke slumped even deeper, completely defeated...

The light dimmed, and he felt like waking up.

He slowly opened his eyes, just to be greeted with the sight of Naruto and Sakura arguing. Great, at least now I know I am still alive. The thought shot through his head even before he registered that he was in a considerable amount of pain. He grunted, and both his team-mates focused on him.

"Sasuke-kun! You are awake!" Sakura looked and sounded extremely happy and obviously barely managed to restrain herself from hugging him. However she was also rather loud, so Sasuke winced. "Man Sasuke, good to see you waking. I was worried there for a bit." Naruto for once showed great wisdom and spoke quietly. He would teach the blonde a Jutsu for that alone! He strained to speak, but only grunted. "Here Sasuke, drink." Sakura put a small mug to his lips and he eagerly drank. Ah, wonderful. After a few sips he spoke. "How long have I been out? And how did the rest of the fight go?"

Naruto answered him. "About 3 days, Sensei said you should wake up today as the Serum he gave you should have finished healing your bones by now." Sasukes brows lifted. Bones? So the extremely hard impact he remembered had been real. He tried to move and pain shot through his torso and right forearm, so he decided he would rest for a while longer. "We managed to capture a guy masked as Mist Hunter Nin who tried to kill you after you threw your attack at Zabuza, but the big man himself got away. Sorry." At that Sakura intervened. "Sasuke needs to eat and rest for now, Naruto. You can tell him the rest later on." With that she went to get some soup. Sasuke would NOT let her feed him though, so he painfully got himself into a sitting position, realizing that while it was painful he was able to move. More or less. After finishing his soup (by himself! He was almost proud) Kakashi came to check up on him, and seemed relatively satisfied with the healing progress. Still he was commanded to sleep. "Tomorrow we will determine how long it will take until you can start training again. Rest now." And with that he succumbed to fatigue.

The next day had come quickly, Kakashi had been very pleased when Sakura had shown a quick grasp on the Genjutsu and he was sure she would be able to master it until the end of the week. And even Naruto had managed to learn how to walk on trees, now it was time to see what Sasuke would (and if he was honest COULD) do. "Now then, Sasuke. Naruto and Sakura have been training the last 4 days, mostly treewalking, in order to prepare for Zabuzas next actions." At that Sasuke raised a brow. Treewalking was rather hard to learn unless your control was very good. Hearing that Naruto had managed that surprised him. "Well Sensei, I learned treewalking almost a year ago, so..." he trailed of.

"I thought as much, seeing the training that you received. I will teach you waterwalking starting tomorrow, as water is abundant around here, and leave the rest of your training to you 3 for the next few days." Kakashi was not sure Sasukes chakra system would be functional enough for anything new, even waterwalking might prove very hard to learn with that handicap, so leaving him to start it slowly was the best option. He left his pupils to their own to scout again, even if he was pretty sure no one was close enough to them to prove any danger, better safe than sorry.

Left to their own Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke talked for hours, Sasuke carefully probing them to get a feeling regarding which of his many Jutsu might help them the most (he had after all decided that Naruto would get a Bonus one), and catching up to what had happened while he slept. He was sad to hear about Inari, but until they had defeated Zabuza there was nothing he could do to help someone so submerged in despair, so he let it drop. He was very happy though to see that his teammates got along fine now. Maybe his talk with Sakura had been the first step to become friends with them indeed. Even considering his ribs still pained him, he felt pretty good ...

AN: Here you go. An early chapter, just for the weekend if you like.

Again I thank my "persistent" reviewers (you know who you are) and ask the rest of you to review. Positive feedback, neutral or negative, all is better than no feedback. Tell me what you think.