A/n: I do not own anything except my OC.

I'd like to say, thank you all who are watching this story.

A/N: Chakra Hops idea was made by The Third Fang. Please read his story if you have time.

Now on with the show:

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Chapter 5: Encounter

Over the two months, Naruto was trainged to the ground, and then he was told to get up and train some more. Kina thought that the water walking and tree walking exercises were thoroughly mastered, and she moved him on to the next chakra control exercise. Point balancing.

If Naruto thought the first two we're hard, he was in for a big surprise. He was expected to to stand on the tip of a kunai planted in the ground using only his chakra to keep him from getting impailed.. Not only that, but hold a kunai with the tip of his fingers, essentially meaning, he had 5 kunai balanced on each hand, again, using chakra to hold them. Of course, he was only expected to balance on the kunai first, but over time Kina added in the kunai to his hands. He lost many clones to this one, as Naruto clones would often lose control, and the kunai would either spike up into his foot or the clone would lose his hand. (A/n: I couldn't really find a definition for point balancing exercise, so I made one up. If anyone can tell me what it really is, please PM me.)

The scroll that the gods had given him made 3 new techniques show up on it. The first was a small katon(fire) jutsu, which just made a small flame appear on his thumb. The second was a suiton(water) jutsu, which made water move in many ways. Naruto learned that he could do it without handsigns at all. The third was a rather different one. It was a futon technique that could make a vacuum in the air around him, like a shield. He had to do a lot of handsigns to get it done though.

Of course, not all the clones working under Kina was on point balancing. The others were doing a new exercise that Nelrim had called, "The chakra hop." Essentially, Naruto was to use only his chakra to launch him off the ground. At first, it's a little weird to get used to, but over time the clones got used to hopping off the ground with only chakra bursts. Soon, the clones managed to make a fun game out of it. Using the same amount each time, they would launch themselves as high as they could go, and then do some air tricks. Most of the time, they would do flips, other times they would do gravity defying poses in midair. (A/n: I just thought of a way to do something cool with this one... You'll have to wait till the next time skip training period to find out though...)

On the other hand, Nelrim had him learning something new altogether. At first he thought the leaf balancing was yet another control exercise, but he was soon told that it was the first step for, in the words of Nelrim, "two really cool techniques." So Naruto didn't complain. He was expected to balance leaves on all 367 tenketsu points on his body. Normal humans have only 361, but an extra 6 were on his tail.

Meanwhile, the original Naruto was trained with, not only by Nelrim, but also Anko. Nelrim had 'bumped' into Anko one day, and he had 'asked' her to help him train Naruto. So he not only had one, but TWO sadistic beings with sharp pointy attacks chasing him. Needless to say, Naruto learned very fast how to dodge. He had also been getting faster in both speed and reaction time wise.

He was also being taught how to sharpen his already heightened senses even further through meditation. When Naruto asked why, Nelrim just said something about 'tunnel vision' and 'smelling things like glass.' Naruto didn't know what Nelrim meant. Nelrim knew this, and decided to teach what he meant about tunnel vision. Nelrim told Naruto to deactivate his gravity seal, and then told to take all his chakra out of his eyes, and then run as fast as he could in a straight line. Naruto ran into a tree about 100 feet away from his starting point, and both Kina and Nelrim were laughing so hard that people in Konoha could hear them. After that, Naruto stopped asking so many questions.

Now, normally, this would take years just to LEARN how to do this stuff, but because of the infamous shadow clone skill, and getting trained by sadistic people, that sped the process up by many, many years. After the first month was over, Naruto, out of curiosity, asked Nelrim exactly how many years Naruto had 'mentally' trained. Nelrim responded with 'somewhere around 10 years' offhandedly, like it was nothing.

Of course, during these two months, Naruto finally learned why some shinobi dreaded the words 'D ranked mission.' Hinata, Shino, and Naruto had done a lot of them under Kurenai's supervising. When Naruto asked, "Why are we doing all these chores?" He got hit over the head by Kurenai, and then was told that the missions were important to the 'economy of the village.' These words, of course, were lost on Naruto.

Hinata, who still hasn't gotten any ground on getting rid of her stuttering, still stalked Naruto from the shadows. There were times when he would just disappear, right in front of her eyes. She had activated her byakugan several times to look for him, but she had never succeeded in finding where he went after the team was dismissed.

Shino, on the other hand, was still shaking his head of how dense our now-silver haired hero is.

Speaking of which, Kina thought back to the day after Naruto got his hair color changed.

Flashback

Naruto walked up to the teams meeting point. The team's meeting point was a fenced off part of the fields near the stadium. "Hi guys," he yelled out.

Hinata, who had her head held down and sitting on a bench next to the fence, "He-hello, Na-naruto-kun."

When Shino, who is standing next to Hinata, looked at Naruto, he just raised an eyebrow. Naruto was kind of disappointed when he didn't get a big reaction out of Shino. "Hello... Naruto-san." He almost had made it to sound like a question.

That's when Kurenai walked up to the team. "Hello, team." She looked at Hinata, then Naruto, then Shino, and then did a double take on Naruto. "Naruto?" He looked at her. "What's with the hair?" she asked.

In a typical Naruto fashion, he just scratched the back of his head. "Well, I got tired of my blond hair, so I decided to change it, a little."

At this point, Hinata looked up at him. She paled a little, then grew 5 shades redder then a tomato, and promptly passed out. She slumped down into the bench.

"Hinata!" Naruto yelled out. She would always turn red around him, but she rarely passed out now, but this was even faster then usual. "Agh, don't pass out on us now, Hinata-chan." He shook her a little.

"Naruto... exactly, how did you change your hair?" Kurenai asked.

He shrugged, "I just thought a little bit, and it changed." It was true, he only thought about it. Though it wasn't the whole truth.

Kurenai dumbly nodded. And Kina? She had passed out from laughing at Hinata's and Naruto's antics.

End flashback

Now it has been two months since that day, and Hinata still passes out at first sight each day. How the blond doesn't get it, Kina doesn't know.

Team 8 walked into the mission room, where all the missions D to B class missions were assigned by the Hokage.

"Team 8, reporting for mission of retrieving target: Tora." Kurenai said all business like.

Hinata was holding a cat in her arms. Said cat had a collar on it with the name Tora. Hinata was stroking the cat, getting it to purr slowly.

Shino was just idly standing by, and trying not to look at his silver-haired companion.

Said silver-haired companion was in bandages. Mostly on his arms and face. Kina on his shoulder was trying to hold in a laugh at Naruto's 15th time at trying to catch the cat. Hinata looked over at Naruto, and let out a small tear that her crush had gotten hurt... again. Kina, for the 15th time, felt a weird chakra crawl off of Hinata when the girl was sad. She couldn't place what the chakra was.

Hinata turned around, and handed the scared stiff cat to it's owner. The Damyou's wife then crushed the poor cat in her bust, paid the Hokage and left.

Naruto then mentally counted down. '3..... 2.... 1...' There was a loud cat screech, the sound of something breaking, and the Damyou's wife yelling out, "COME BACK TORA!" as she chased the now free cat down the hall. Naruto sighed, and looked back up at the Hokage.

Sarutobi just chuckled. "Well, seeing as how you completed the mission so fast, I can assign another one today."

"Great, what are they, Hokage-sama?" Kurenai asked.

"Well. We have gardening, painting the house, baby sitting, catching Tora, AGAIN, walking the do-"

"Enough" Naruto whispered, "I'm tired of these missions. When do we get to do a REAL mission? I want to do something that has to do with shinobis. Not some chores!"

Naruto would have yelled out, but for some reason, he still couldn't yell anything.

"Naruto," Iruka started, "Don't talk back to the Hokage like that. You aren't being assigned anything more then this, because you aren't experienced eno-"

"I'm still tired of all these chores!" Naruto said. "Give us a mission that's worth my time, or don't give us one at all."

The Hokage chuckled. "Well, if that's what you want. All of you come here tomorrow, packed 2 weeks worth of supplies. I'll give you a C-ranked mission then."

Iruka and Kurenai looked at the Hokage like he had grown another head.

"Hokage-sama, with all do respect, I knew these gennin in the acdemy. They're just fresh out of there, and you want to give them a C-ranked mission?"

"Iruka, are you implying that Kurenai has not trained them at all, and that you undermine my judgement?" The Hokage asked.

Iruka started to sweat, "Not at all, Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi puffed out a bit of smoke. "Still, it is up to their jounin instructor, whether they can except or not." Sarutobi smiled.

At that point, all three genin looked up at her expectantly. She made a sour face at Naruto, but then said, "We'll come in tomorrow, and hear the details before we except."

Naruto got happy. At least she was thinking about it. The group then bowed before the Hokage, and left out the door. Outside the door, Team 7 had been waiting. Before the door closed, Naruto could hear the Hokage say, "Now, you asked for a C-ranked mission yesterday. Your mission is to escort a bridge builder... Come in Tazuna." A man went into the room, and the door closed.

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Team 8 had been told to pack the stuff needed for a week, and then was dismissed for the day.

Naruto had run all the way to the training ground's where Nelrim was waiting for him.

"Hello, gaki." Nelrim greeted. "Ah, I see. You're going on a 2 week mission tomorrow. Well, we'll do some light training today." He nodded to Anko. "Sorry, Anko-san."

Anko looked a slight bit sad, "Awwwh. I wanted to get him with senbon today." She knew all about Naruto's secret, and she was trusted by the group to keep said secrets. She almost did do a back flip when she found out that the 'cute fox' she had seen Naruto with all these years was kyuubi, but she learned to love the little 'fox-chan.' Anki sighed, "Okay, well, I guess I'll see ya in a couple of weeks squirt." She disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Nelrim looked back at Naruto. "When you get back, I guess we can start on your new techniques." After he said that, he promptly disappeared like he wasn't even there.

Kina, still on his shoulder, looked at her kit. "Well, kit. I think we should do that light training, and then go pack supplies at home." Naruto nodded and proceeded to do some katas for a new taijutsu style they were teaching him.

The taijutsu was known as Quick Claw. It involved moving fast with high agility to get around your opponents attacks and techniques. Every once in a while, Kina would stop him, and tell him what he was doing wrong, then Naruto would proceed. After a few hours, she stopped him, and they went to his apartment to pack.

When Naruto got there, he immediately grabbed all the stuff he would need. Tent, extra kunai and shuriken, food rations, explosive notes, ect... He placed all the stuff in the middle of the room, and then grabbed a scroll off of the table nearby.

Naruto hadn't been trust training, he also had been studying as well. The things he studied were advanced chakra theories, and, at Nerlim's advice, fuinjutsu (Sealing jutsu). He had been studying the basics of the jutsu itself, but he was still having trouble getting the concepts. Nelrim had given him a book called "Basic sealing theories." When Naruto first opened the book, he noticed all the text and pictures, but then noticed that on the sides were hand written notes with the initials MN on it. The written notes helped Naruto learn a lot faster, then if it were the book text alone.

Of course, when even the notes couldn't help him(Nelrim and Kina didn't know fuinjutsu), Naruto would go to the Hokage and ask him for help. At first, The Hokage was astounded that Naruto had THAT book. He helped him out after a few dead end questions, and Naruto and him would sit down once a week to help the kid out with the theories. The Hokage went even further, and said that if the boy managed to learn the entire book, he would give him the advanced sealing theories book, complete with the hand written notes by MN. The kid thanked him for that.

Naruto placed the scroll on the ground, and then scribed a few symbols on it. He placed his equipment on the circle in the middle and channeled some chakra. The stuff disappeared, and then Naruto picked up the scroll. "We're good for 3 months with this scroll, Kina-chan." He said smiling. His tail was flickering, like a cat would when it was happy.

Kina chuckled, and the two got ready for bed.

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The next morning, Naruto managed to get up early, and got a new set of clothes he had bought for missions. The new set of clothes were a pair of black loose fitting pants with many pockets on it, A skin tight black shirt with long sleeves over that was a dark, dark red sleeveless shirt. He put on fingerless gloves that had a metal plate on the back of the hand. His normal shinobi sandals were replaced with black boots. His headband, which was usually around his neck, was replaced with a black bandanna that went on his head with holes cut out for his fox ears. A metal piece with the konoha leaf symbol on it was on his forehead. Once he tied it, two long strands used to tie it went down his back along mingling with his silver hair.

Naruto looked in the mirror, and smiled. His silver tail, which had grown to three and a half feet, was dancing around behind him. If he let his tail hang loosely, his tail would drag on the ground, and get dirty. So with that in mind, he learned how to control his tail at all times, and when he didn't concentrate on it, it would dance a little behind him, or wrap around his waist. (A/N: having a dirty tail is really inconvenient. XD)

He activated a few fuinjutsu seals on the wall next to his door, so that people wouldn't be able to break in easily, and left for the Hokage's tower.

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When he arrived at the door to the mission room, the team were waiting for him. "Hi, Shino-san, Hinata-chan." He said, as he approached them. When they looked up at him, Hinata grew five shades redder then any other time he's seen her, and she promptly passed out. Shino... just raised an eyebrow.

5 minutes later, and three wake up sessions for Hinata, Kurenai showed up. "Hello, team 8." she said. "You ready for a Mission today?"

"Yeap!"

"I concur with Naruto-san."

"I-I also thi-think we're ready K-kurenai-sensei."

She nodded then knocked on the door. A muffled "come" was heard and they entered the room.

To say The Hokage looked a little grief would be an understatement. "Good, you're here." he started. "I would have given you a patrol mission, but something came up with Team 7's C-ranked mission, and it has promptly become a B-ranked mission. Despite the ranking, the team had decided to continue on with the mission. I would request that you go and back them up, but this is something only Kurenai can decide whether or not to go with this mission." He picked up a scroll and handed it to her. She read it over, while The Hokage explained. "The mission was to escort a bridge builder named Tazuna to the land of waves, there they would protect him from bandits while he finished his bridge. A problem came up on the land to waves, and the demon brothers, chunin level shinobi, had attacked the team. When the bridge builder begged them to keep going, Kakashi had asked the team whether or not they needed to go on. They all agreed, but Kakashi decided to call for back-up, hence, why I'm asking if you wish to join on this mission. Be aware, this mission is a b-rank borderline a-rank mission. Choose carefully."

Kurenai read over the mission specs. She looked at her team and then said, "Guys, I can choose whether or not we can go on this, but you have to choose for yourselves. Let me hear what you think on this matter."

Shino spoke up first, "I believe there will be danger on this mission, but I think we can handle it if we work together with team 7."

Naruto spoke up next, "I vote yes for this. I do realize the danger, but I want to know my limits." Kina yipped. "Oh, and she votes for it, too."

Kurenai nodded, then looked at Hinata. "I-I w-want to g-go on this mi-mission, Kurenai-sensei. I wa-want to see wh-what the sh-shinobi world is re-really like." Of course, she was only saying yes because of another reason, and kurenai knew this, but since it was a unanimous decision by the team, Kurenai couldn't deny this.

She looked back at the Hokage, "Team 8 will accept this mission, and we will leave in 20 minutes at the east gate." With that, the team was dismissed, and Naruto went to Ichiruka's for a quick snack.

After only 3 bowls, he went to the gate and managed to show up on time. The team all looked at Kurenai, who, without word, nodded, and they went out the gates.

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After about 20 minutes of running, they run into team 7. "Kakashi-san, team 8 is here to be your backup on this mission." Kurenai said, as soon as she say him. Team 7 was sitting around waiting for them to show up.

"About time you losers got here." Kiba said. "We've been waiting all night."

"We got the mission details not an hour ago. You seriously think that we would be that slow?" Shino said effectively shutting Kiba up.

"Alright, enough you guys." Kakashi said. "We will be moving out now." as he turned to the bridge builder. "Kurenai, I assume you've been given all the mission details?"

"Yes, and we understand that this is a b-rank borderline a-rank mission. We will help you out on this mission." Kurenai responded.

Kakashi pulled Kurenai off to the side. "Alright, I need you to tell me each of your team members specialties."

"Hinata is an expert tracker, and has a deadly close range taijutsu." she point at the pail eyed girl. "Shino is a bug user, and is both a close range, and mid range fighter. He can also track using his bugs."she said pointing at Shino. "And Naruto is a close range endurance fighter. He can also track and gather information with his clones."

Kakashi nodded. "Sasuke is a close range fighter, with a few ninjutsu to back him up at midrange. Sakura is our groups strategist, though she is a bit slow. And Kiba is yet another close range fighter along with expert tracker." Kakashi said. "That makes you and me the only long range capability users in this group."

Naruto smiled. He didn't know just close range taijutsu. He also knew a few tricks of his own, and of course one of these was advanced hearing.

Kakashi and Kurenai walked back up to the group. "Alright, here's how it's going down. Naruto, Sasuke. You two are up in front. Kiba, Sakura, you two will be on the left side. Hinata, Shino, you twol will be on the right side, and Kurenai and I will be on the back of this formation with Tazuna in the center." The group nodded, and they continued on in the new formation.

A few hours after passing the border, the group make it to the edge of a body of water with mist making it very hard to see. Tazuna walked forward, and blew a whistle that had a very low tone to it. After a few minutes of waiting, a boat came up to them from inside the mist.

"About time you guys got here, I was expecting you here yesterday." The boat rower said. "What happened, and why is there so many people here?"

"Long story." Tazuna said. He turned to the group. "This is the only way across to our island. We have to cross with this boat." Tazuna looked them over, and then back at the boat. "Obviously, all of you can't fit on it."

Naruto got a bright idea. "Everyone but Kakashi and Kurenai, get on the boat." They all looked at him funny. "Just do it." he said. They all shrugged, and got on, though the emo was sort of reluctant.

"How are you going to cross?" Kiba asked. The boat was already filled up to the brim, and couldn't fit anymore.

"Well, just push off, you'll see." Naruto smiled. The jounin were looking at him with skepticism, but wondered what the kid had planned.

Naruto whispered, "You two walk by the the boat, I'll bring up the rear." Now both of them looked at him surprised.

'How does this kid know how to walk on water?' they both thought. Naruto moved back, then ran forward.

"Cannon ball!" He semi-yelled. Everyone in the boat covered there faces for the inevitable splash, but when none came they looked back up to the water. Standing there on the water was our hero, like it was solid ground, Kina standing on the water beside him.

"Haha, very funny, Naruto." Kakashi said, as he walked out onto the water along with Kurenai. "You didn't say he could walk on water, Kurenai."

"I didn't know he could." She responed.

Naruto walked behind the boat, while Kurenai and Kakashi brought up the sides. Sasuke's eyes were twitching.

'How can some dobe out class me! ME! An Uchiha!' He looked up at Naruto. "If the dobe can do it, so can I!" he said, as jumped off the side of the boat.

…. Kakashi looked at the Uchiha, currently struggling to stay afloat, then he looked at Kina. "In all my life, I've never seen a fox pass out from laughing, and still be able to stay afloat on the water." was all he said about the situation.

Kurenai was giggling, Shino was trying his hardest to suppress a laugh.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled out, as she tried to help the boy back into the boat.

"Be quiet, all of you." The rower said. "Gato has eyes everywhere. Why do you think I'm rowing instead of using a motor." The group immediately got quiet.

"We should be approaching the bridge soon." Tazuna said. That's when a large shadow appeared in the mist.

"Whoa, that huge!" Sakura said.

"Hey, old man." Naruto started. "You wouldn't be compensating for something, would you?"

Tazuna grunted, and Kiba snickered at Naruto's comment.

When they reached the ground on the other side of the water, the group got out, and said good-bye to the rower as he disappeared in the mist.

"Naruto, make a few shadow clones, and send them out to search. I have an ominous feeling about this mist." Kakashi said. "Hinata, please search with your eyes, while Shino uses his bugs to scout. Kiba I want your nose on high alert." The four nodded, and did their own things. Naruto created 10 clones without seals and soundlessly and they scattered outwards. Kiba focused chakra into his nose. Hinata focused chakra into her eyes. Shino just stood there, but bugs were walking away from his feet.

The group walked on for a little while. They reached a clearing, and Kiba threw a kunai into a bush nearby. The group tensed.

Naruto went up to the bush, and grabbed a white rabbit. 'I felt someone here!' was all Naruto could think, before one of his clones popped. "Everyone, get down!" he said, wishing he could yell. No faster then the words got out of his mouth, then the group lunged for the floor, with kakashi bringing Sakura down, and Kurenai bringing Tazuna down. A blade spun over their heads, narrowly missing Sakura by a literal hair. The blade spun upwards and lodged into a tree. A man appeared on the big blade. He had leg and arm warmers on his legs and arms. He had white camouflage pants, and bandages on his face. He didn't have a shirt on, and a lone strap was going across his chest.

"Zabuza Momochi. nuke-nin of the Land of the Mist. A-ranked in the bingo book." Kakashi called out.

"Ah, Copy Ninja Kakashi, Genjutsu Mistress Kurenai. What a welcome it is to see you all here, just for me." Zabuza said. "Now, I would love to play with you, but I have a job to do. Hand over the old man, and I'll let you go freely." as he released Ki.

Everyone but Kakshi, Kurenai, and Naruto froze. They couldn't breathe.

'So this is what a jounin is like, this is a real battle!' The Uchiha thought.

"I cannot let you have the old man, sorry Zabuza." Kakashi said, as he raised his hand to his headband.

"Ah, the fabled Sharingan. I'm so honored you would use it so soon." Zabuza mocked.

Sasuke looked at his teacher. 'HE has the Sharingan? But how!'

"Listen up, genin." Kakashi said aloud. "You stick to guarding the old man while we take care of Zabuza. You are to not interfer, this is not your fight. Do you understand me." He said more as an order then a question.

"Hmm, you need to train your students better, they're frozen with fear. All but one it seems." Said the mist nin.

Kurenai raised an eyebrow. She looked back to see that Naruto was the only one to not breathing normally, and keeping his senses up. She quickly looked back up at Zabuza. 'Questions later. I'll have to focus on this guy for now.'

Zabuza laughed, and made two signs. "Hidden mist Jutsu." He said quietly, as the mist in the area got thicker.

And thus, the battle began.

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tbc...

CLIFFHANGER NO JUTSU!

A/N: Decided I need to stop soon, and this felt like a nice spot. ^^ I'm evil like that.

Again, if you see any mistakes, please tell me, and I'll go and fix it.

Flamers will be preyed upon by Kina and Nelrim.