I KNOW I KNOW ITS BEEN 'MONTHS' SINCE I LAST UPDATED THIS BUT IN MY DEFENSE I WROTE A CHAPTER AND IT GOT DELETED AND WELL I QUIT AND STARTED A NEW STORY (THAT FAILED) AND PEOPLE WERE STILL FOLLOWING THIS STORY. AT FIRST, I STILL DIDN'T WANT TO CONTINUE THIS STORY BUT THEN I REREAD THE WHOLE THING AND WELL, I'M GOING TO CONTINUE IT.

"NARUTO," Kakashi shouted after I didn't respond to his first five calls. Getting up with a start I subconsciously shot chakra chains at Kakashi's head. "Whoa," Kakashi said as he traced his finger against chains having narrowly dodged them earlier. "I see you've unlocked your chakra chains," Kakashi said with an eye smile.

"Yeah," I said rubbing the back of my head sheepishly, a habit of mine I haven't done in a while. I stopped immediately when I caught myself. However, my trademark apology still came. "Sorry."

"It's fine. It was my fault for surprising you anyway."

"So what did you want?"

"Oh, I just came to inform you that you're still on tree climbing duty."

"Really I thought this was a one-time thing!" I yelled

"Yeah but you did so well yesterday I thought I'd reward you with another day."

"I couldn't be more ecstatic," I said sarcastically.

"Right," Kakashi said, acting as if he didn't know I was being sarcastic. "Anyway, you're the last one up so you might want to hurry up. Students don't like late sensei's, I know from experience," Kakashi said as disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"When am I suppose to train if Kakashi and Asuma keep dumping their work on me?" I said with a sigh.

"You can always use clones to train on your chakra control by doing the water walking exercise and then at night we'll train in your mindscape in private."

'I didn't think I could practice taijutsu in my mindscape.' I thought back while retracting my chakra chains that were stuck in the wall.

"Well, you can because muscle memory starts with the brain."

'Oh, That actually makes sense. But now that I think about it, why are you helping me? I mean, don't you hate me?'

"Didn't you get the memo that if you die I die?"

'Well yeah but you still act rather nice to me. You could have gone about this is in a much more sadistic fashion.'

"If I did that you wouldn't trust me which means you'd be reluctant to do what I say if you even did it at all."

'Fair enough I guess.' I thought as I got out of bed. Creating a shadow clone I made him get my clothes ready as I went to freshen up in the bathroom. Quickly brushing my teeth and showering, I came out to my clothes that were nicely set on my bed that had been spread.

"I love shadow clones," I said as I slipped on my last wristband and was ready to go outside.

"Wait kit, you forgot to cover up your seal."

"Huh," I said looking at my hand having just remembered about the seal I made last night.

"Wrap some bandages around it."

'Wouldn't that look suspicious though?'

"Not as suspicious as you learning fuinjutsu overnight. Remember the truth behind the Uzumaki's Fuinjutsu ability is a secret."

'I guess.' I thought as I slipped off my wristband and started wrapping bandages up my arm leaving only my finger tips to be seen. "That should do it," I said finally leaving my room. I walked into the living room of Hikari's house to see everyone sitting and waiting for me.

"You're late," Sasuke scowled at me as I stepped into the room.

"Yeah well I didn't know I'd be babysitting you again."

"Like I need your help," Sasuke said as he got up and left. Apparently, he was done waiting.

"Yeah well Kakashi and Asuma-sensei apparently think you do," I mumbled under my breath so he wouldn't hear. "Well, you guys coming or not?" I question as the rest of the group who just sat there still gaping at me. In response, they all got and headed out the door after.

Of course, when we arrived back at the clearing Kakashi and Asuma showed up yesterday Sasuke was already there training. Quietly everyone just went to work climbing the same tree they did yesterday, which was surprising since we had Sakura and Ino in the same place. As nice as it was, it was weird to not see them bickering. With a sigh, I took seat ready to tackle another day.

It didn't take long for me to feel another presence come to rest beside me. I didn't need to look over to know it Hikari. She was fidgeting and playing with her fingers just like Hinata did, all while looking at the ground. What could have made her so nervous? It wasn't me, was it. I'm not that intimidated am I? Plus Hikari didn't seem like the type to get shy easily.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked eyebrow raised.

"Oh, no there's nothing wrong," She said finally looking up from the ground, smiling to try and reassure me. Taking her word for it, I closed my eyes intending on meditating. We sat in silence before Hikari broke it.

"No on seems to need your help huh," She said making a tick mark appear on my forehead. What was that suppose to mean?

"Well Sasuke's too full of himself to ask for help, Sakura and Ino hate my guts, Shikamaru knows what he's doing being a genius and all and Choji will probably just ask's Shikamaru for help since their best friends," I said as Hikari gave me a weird look. "What?"

"It's nothing I'm just curious as to what happen to you and Sasuke. Your eyes, they don't sparkle like everyone else." Now it was time for me to give her a weird look.

"Sparkle huh. Sasuke's brother killed his entire clan in a night and forced him to watch."

"That's horrible," Hikari almost shouted as she gave Sasuke a sympathetic look, not that he noticed or would care if he did.

"He's been obsessed with killing his brother ever since."

"What about you."

"Me?"

"Yesterday you said you hated your village, why." Immediately my face darkened. I looked at the floor causing my bangs to cover my eyes. Noticing this Hikari apologized "I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked such a personal question." At least now I know why she was nervous earlier. She didn't know how to bring up the topic.

"My whole village hates me and has since birth. They either glare at me or ignore and if they feel like it, sometimes worse."

"What do your parents do about it?!" Hikari asked surprised by my explanation.

"My parents died the day I was born, I never even got to meet them. Heck, I don't even know who they are." That was a lie of course, but it's not like I could tell Hikari who they actually are. Plus in my past it was true that I didn't know them, in fact, I just figured out who they were recently.

"But why do they treat you that way. Is it something you've done?" Hikari asked, her voice shaky.

"It's not about anything that I've done," I said with a lot more venom than I intended to use. "They hate me over something I didn't do. They hate me because I'm a ..." I started before I laughed at how stupid I was being. I was being so open with a stranger, telling her about my past, something I never like to talk about with anyone, something I haven't even told Tenten. But if I were to tell her she'd only be scared of me like everyone else. Plus, she probably wouldn't know what a Jinchuuriki was unless I spelled it out for her, being a civilian and all.

But I really wanted to get it off my chest. I wanted someone other than those darn villagers to know, someone other than the jonins, someone other than the Hokage. Someone who'd know and wouldn't run. Someone who be my friend after knowing and wouldn't turn me away. A real friend, even if it's just one, someone my age. 'Stop it!' I thought harshly, clenching my fist, angry at myself for letting my emotions run wild.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Hikari said as she took my hand gently to comfort me. I blushed at the contact. Don't get me wrong, I'm not retarded. I know she's just trying to make me feel better, I've seen people do this before. But I've never experienced it for myself for the obvious reason. But remembering once again that she didn't know about the nine tails, I lost my blush.

I immediately felt like ripping my hand away but that would make things awkward. So I decided just to suck it up.

"So what about you?" I asked changing the conversation.

"Hmm."

"I'm no expert on sparkling eyes so I can't tell if your's does or not but I can tell you've gone through your own shit," I said causing Hikari to blush at my language.

"My mother died recently in one of the attacks. She died saving me," Hikari said with a sad smile. "But I got the better end of the stick as my friend Akiro, the one you fought lost his whole family. Now he's obsessed with getting revenge, just like Sasuke. But I can't stand him the thought of him fighting bandits and now ninja's so I asked him to stop being a guard. I'm selfish aren't I?"

'So that's what they were fighting over the other day,' I thought before responding to Hikari's question.

"You are being selfish," I said causing Hikari to look at the ground in shame before I continued,"but understandably so. It's obvious your just scared of losing him after losing your Mom recently."

"Thanks." After that, we sat in a comfortable silence until Ino came towards us panting. She was standing before me bent over, her hands holding her knees, as she tried to regain her breath.

'I guess she's actually taking practice seriously,' I thought as I looked in her eyes. She was looking at me differently. However, I didn't pay it much attention since it was Ino. "I'm guessing you need some help?" I asked which Ino nodded in the affirmative.

"I was doing well yesterday but today I can barely get to the last place I marked with my kunai."

"Hmm," I said as I went on to thinking.

'If we're being technical it would safe to say that Ino chakra control is almost as good as mine, her clan technique needing great chakra control to perform. Which why she's made it the highest up her tree than anyone else, except for Sakura of course,' I thought looking at the last place Ino mark with her kunai.

While waiting for my answer, I noticed that Ino eyes had been focus elsewhere. Following her line of sight, I noticed that she was staring at Hikari and I hands, which were still entangled. 'I didn't even notice we were still holding hands.'

"She's distracted by the fact that you're holding hands with the civilian girl."

'Really? But why?'

"I don't know, maybe she's jealous!"

'First of all Hikari and I aren't even a thing! Plus Ino hates me so I'm pretty sure she wouldn't give a damn about who I date!' I stated matter of factly.

"Well its clearly bothering her." If what Kyuubi said was true all I had to do was let go of Hikari's hand. But then that would make things awkward for Hikari who probably hasn't noticed yet. But then again we have to let go of each other's hands eventually. Uh, what the fuck do I! And why does Ino care in the first place. This isn't making much sense.

"So am, can you help me?" Ino asked after waiting a while for my reply.

"Huh, oh yeah just try clearing your head. If you keep losing focus it becomes harder to control your chakra."

"You know what," Ino said she to one last glance at our connected hands,"I'm going to take a break." I sat there confused just staring at Ino's retreating form wondering what I should do.

'Should I chase after her?' I thought before quickly diminishing that idea. Ino and I aren't friends so I doubt that would help plus, I'm not good with emotional stuff. Especially since I have no Idea whats wrong with her.

"I think I'm going to go after Ino," Hikari said before trying to stand up but was pull back down to the ground. Finally noticing that she was still holding my hand Hikari let go with a quick apology before chasing after Ino.

'Well, that was weird.'

"Hey, at least now you can train in your mindscape with me!" Kyuubi said enthusiastically. Deciding to put whatever this was in the back of my mind with one last thought.

'If Ino was really that bothered by Hikari holding my hand then that she means really she doesn't hate me. Wonder when that changed.'

"Ino wait up," I heard Hikari's voice saying as she chased after me.

"Hikari, what are you doing," I asked in confusion.

"I saw you walking away so I thought we could hang out," Hikari said with a smile.

"Sure," I said returning her smile.

"So, you okay," Hikari asked concerned,"You seemed upset when you left earlier."

'Maybe because you barely know Naruto yet you're already holding hands!' "Yeah I'm fine," I lied with a smile trying to seal the deal but it was obvious Hikari wasn't buying it. "I'm just worried about the next attack," I said with a sigh. "I'm already far behind the other's skill wise. I'm not sure this training will be enough to help me survive."

Which was true. This was what was going through my mind before I saw them holding hands of course. "Maybe you can ask Naruto to help you with your personal training schedule?"

"I doubt he'd help."

"Why not, your friends aren't you?"

"Not really. To be honest I've never been the nicest person to Naruto." I felt ashamed as I could see Hikari frown slightly at my answer however, she didn't say anything.

"Do you hate Naruto?"

"No," I said with a frown, not sure where this was going.

"Then apologize."

"Apologize," I said mostly to myself than Hikari. While I understood what Hikari was saying the thought of apologizing still put a bad taste in my mouth. Sure I wasn't the nicest person to Naruto and admittedly would bully him sometimes but Hikari was making me feel like I was some villain.

"Yeah, why not? I mean Naruto already thinks you hate him which you don't, so if you apologize that would make him know you don't hate him. Then you can ask for help."

"I guess I will," I said so Hikari would back off. I'm in a bad situation. 'I regret destroying my friendship with Sakura' I thought noticing how alone I was. Sasuke doesn't give me the time of day and Naruto hates me for what I've done in the past. And I'm not even on at team with my childhood friends Shikamaru and Choji. 'If I hadn't wasted my time chasing after Sasuke t and dieting I could have been stronger than this,' I thought, angry at myself.

Especially when I noticed I was about to do the same thing to Naruto. 'Its time to stop chasing boys and start to take my job seriously,' And with that thought, I took off running back to the clearing.

"Ino where are you going now!" Hikari yelled annoyed.

"To train!"

It was hours later I found myself lying on the floor exhausted. I was soaked in sweat but I didn't mind one bit. I had completed the tree climbing exercise which had me in a really good mood.

"You okay?" I heard a voice say from above me. I was surprised to notice it was Naruto who was hovering over me.

"I'm fine just exhausted," I said sitting up.

"Yeah well training will do that to you," Naruto said as he offered me a hand. "If you don't hurry up everyone's going to leave you behind," Naruto said after helping me up, pointing towards the retreating crowd.

"What about you? You don't seem to be leaving?"

"I'm going to train."

"Can I...train with you?" I asked hopefully, afraid that Naruto would shut me down harshly.

"No offense but I think you should get some rest. Overworking yourself does more harm than good." Naruto said as he seemingly begun to trail off. It was almost like his mind was somewhere else.

"What about tomorrow?" I asked again as Naruto paused to think about it.

"Why do you suddenly want my help training anyway?"

"Because I don't want to die!"

"I don't think anyone does," Naruto said matter of factly before trailing off again. It was like he was having a conversation with someone else.

"In the last attack if it wasn't for you I'd be dead. Even when they held me and Sasuke hostage I couldn't do nothing but cry and ask for someone to save me, I was helpless," I said almost whispering the last part. My hand clenched into a fist as I stared at the ground, casting a shadow over my eyes. The memory had me angry at myself because I now noticed that my uselessness almost cost Naruto his life. The memory of him lying unconscious in bed fresh in my mind.

"I'll help you train on one condition," Naruto said as my face brightened at his words. "You have to stop dieting and chasing after Sasuke." Naruto said with a serious expression.

'More like stop chasing after you,' I thought before replying."I actually stopped crushing on Sasuke a while ago," I lied not telling Naruto that it was fairly recent.

"Then I guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow," Naruto said with a smile. "Meet here whenever you wake up."

"Why not a set time," I asked confused.

"Because I don't like being woken up," Naruto said as he took off into the forest.

"First the Uchiha now the Yamanaka? And yet you insist you haven't gone soft."

'I don't know what happened to her but she's trying to change. I'm not going to keep a grudge over the silly things she's done in the past and not help her,' I thought as I cruised through the forest searching for a secluded place to train.

"So your soft is what I'm hearing. Personally, I'd get revenge on her and I thought you would too, especially after how much you enjoyed getting revenge on that Inuzaka." Kyuubi said bringing me months back to when I injured Kiba in a spar. I hadn't forgotten what I've felt then, not for a second.

I thought about reliving that same experience with Ino. Taking revenge for all those times she called me names and cheered for the Uchiha, overall making me feel shit, that was before I stop caring of course. It wasn't too late, I could always embarrass her tomorrow and completely end our relationship.

It was then that I remembered back when we were taking Kakashi's test how she actually seemed concerned for me. Or when she slept by my bedside after my fight with Greed and Envy.

'Taking revenge on her when she's changing her attitude towards me would just be wrong. That would make me no better than Konoha scum I've despised my whole life. When I do take revenge on someone it's going to be completely justified, well at least in my eyes,' I thought, giving Kyuubi my thoughts on the situation.

"Well, in that case, you should really start thinking about what you're going to teach her tomorrow," Kyuubi said with a smirk.

'About that, I was hoping you would tell me what to do?' I said/asked hoping the Kyuubi would accept my request. He's been doing a lot for me lately, though he claims that it's only because it helps him in the long run so I wasn't sure if he'd be willing to help someone other than me.

"I'll give you tips if you get completely lost and have no idea what to tell her." I nodded, okay with the Kyuubi's suggestion.

"Also a piece of advice, don't let that Yamanaka into your head. We wouldn't want her finding out about me would we now." I took Kyuubi's advice to heart. I honestly didn't think much of how my classmates would react to finding out I held the Kyuubi. I've never thought of telling them, mostly since we're not friends but they had to find out eventually. Not even Tenten knew.

I didn't need anyone to tell me that most of them if not all would react badly. They already hated me without knowing that fact. And what if Tenten reacts badly, what do I do then? Was there even a point in staying in the village after that, other than to maybe inherit my heritage.

And If I had to leave the village where would I go, what would I do? I stopped running through the tree, taking to standing on a branch instead. My irresistible urge to train quickly died as the thought finally hit me, 'I'd be alone.' I'd be lying if I said the thought didn't scare me.

I remember the days when I was all alone as a child before I even knew Teuchi or Iruka-sensei. If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be able to stop caring about what the villagers said about me. If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be alive, I probably would have committed suicide long ago.

The pain of being alone was far more painful than the physical pain the villagers inflict on me a few times in my past. They didn't do it much and it was nothing on the scale of what happened with that store owner.

I felt something wet hit my hand and I looked up seeing the rain starting to fall as water slid down my cheeks. It didn't take long for the rain to start pouring down hard on me. I rested my back against the tree behind me before slowly sliding down to sit on the branch I was previously standing on. I had my right leg fully stretched out while my left leg was up with my knee out, acting as arm holder for my left hand.

My normally spiky hair quickly fell over my eyes as I sat there and let my tears mix with the rain.

I woke up still in the forest. The sunlight that slipped through the leafs of the tree shining brightly in my face. "I can't believe I slept out here," I said to no one as I shielded my eyes with my hand. 'I most have cried myself to sleep,' I thought slightly embarrassed.

That was my first time crying in years. I don't like crying and for very good reason. Crying meant that I hadn't let go of hope. I tried being cold and selfish only caring about myself or the few people who cared about me and to some extent I had accomplished that.

But I was never able to do it as well as Sasuke could, another reason why I hate that bastard. He honestly didn't care about anyone, not even himself, as long as he had his revenge. If I could be like that then being denied affection wouldn't hurt nearly as much if it even did at all.

"Crying isn't a bad thing. It's actually normal for you humans to do," The Kyuubi said as I rolled my eyes.

'No shit,' I thought sarcastically, even though I was happy for the Kyuubi's interjection. My thoughts were probably going down that road again and Kyuubi was helping me get my mind out of the gutter, so to speak. It wouldn't help to have another emotional breakdown, especially when I had to train Ino today.

With that thought in mind, I headed back to Hikari's house. I was still wet so I was going to take some time to get ready. Plus, I had some explaining to do to Kakashi-sensei for sure. Hopefully, Ino wasn't an early bird.

I wasn't surprised to see Kakashi-sensei waiting for me in front of Hikari's house. He was leaning against a wall reading Icha Icha paradise. "I..," I said ready to make some excuse before Kakashi interrupted me.

"Don't let it happen again," was his simple reply.

I was stunned at first but quickly replied, "Yes sensei." With that, Kakashi disappeared via shunshine. 'Well, that wasn't so bad.' I thought as I made my way inside.

"Since you're so worried about everyone hating you I'll be happy to inform you that that man was a student of your father and knows about your heritage as well as me." I didn't reply but Kyuubi knew I heard what he said.

I kind of wanted to brush off last night and move on but the Kyuubi didn't look like he was going to let me. Not wasting anytime I headed to the bathroom and quickly freshened up.

It didn't take as long I thought it would for me to ready, courtesy of my shadow clones making breakfast and preparing my clothes. Luckily for me everyone else was still asleep except for maybe Asuma-sensei, but who knows where he and Kakashi have been this whole time. In the meantime, I also made bento for Ino and I as we were going to get hungry after hours of training.

"Naruto?" I whipped around to see a groggy Ino behind me rubbing her eyes. She must have just woken up.

"I didn't expect you to be up so soon but I guess it doesn't hurt."

"What's with all this food?"

"Breakfast and lunch," I say placing a plate with fried eggs and toast down on the table. "You can help yourself to it whenever you're ready, I'll be waiting outside," I said leaving Ino to her own devices. I brought the boxes of bento outside as I leaned against Hikari's house as I waited.

I had my eyes closed I tried to think what to teach Ino. "Well, first you have to figure out how strong she is."

'Well that shouldn't take long since she has a personal training schedule, I can get the general idea based on that. I should have told her to bring it,' I thought as started heading back inside.

However, while heading inside I almost crash into Ino who was coming outside. I was able to stop us from colliding however, we were still awfully close. So much so that I was able to feel her breath against my skin. With us being so close I couldn't help but look into Ino's eyes. 'Eyes that sparkle,' I could practically hear Hikari say in my mind.

"Naruto," Ino said bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Do you have your personal training schedule?" I asked as I went back to leaning against the wall.

"Ah, yeah I do," Ino said showing me the scroll in her hand.

"Here take this," I said handing Ino her bento. "It's lunch." With that, I started towards the forest with Ino trailing behind.

"So where are we going."

"Somewhere secluded where we can train in private." If I had trained last night we would have had a place to train I thought bitterly. Trying to speed up the process I made ten shadow clones to spread out and search. Luckily the search wasn't long as I found a nice clearing in 10 minutes.

"We'll train here," I said coming to a stop. Ino followed me hesitantly into the clearing.

"You better not try anything on me," Ino said fiercely.

"I wasn't planning on it. I came here to train. Now hand me your schedule," I asked holding out my hand. Ino threw the scroll at me which I easily caught with on hand. I quickly opened the scroll and quickly scanned it contents. It basically said Ino's taijutsu sucked and she needed more Nin-jutsu in her arsenal. I could see Ino watching me out of the corner of my eyes. She was fidgeting.

"Channel your chakra into this," I said as I walked over to Ino to hand her a piece of paper.

"Okay," Ino said as she channeled her chakra into the paper. The paper became damp before it started to crumble away. "Woah, what was that?"

"Chakra paper, it tells us what our element affinity is."

"So what mine," Ino asked excitedly.

"Water and earth."

"So you're going to be teaching me Nin-jutsu?"

"Well yes and no. When we head back to the house I want you to try and turn this rock into dirt," I said throwing a small rock at Ino which she caught. "Until then we'll be working on your taijutsu."

"My clan has their own taijutsu style."

"Well you'll be learning another type of taijutsu," I said bluntly.

"But-"

"No but's, I don't your clan taijutsu so I wouldn't be able to help you learn it so this is the only option we have."

"Fine but first I want to ask you a question. In the academy, everything you did, was that an act," Ino asked with a serious expression on her face.

"What do you think?"

"I think it was."

"Then you have your answer. Now before we play 21 questions you might want to start practicing these stances," I said as I threw a scroll at Ino. It was my Chinese Kempo scroll. I thought the fighting style would fit her.

Quickly reading over the scroll, Ino proceeded to practice the stances. "So what about you in the academy was true?"

"You're doing the stance wrong. Bend your knees more," I instructed.

"Just answer the question," Ino snapped as she went to correct her stance.

"Well the fact that I have blonde hair was true," I said I started my own training, shadow fighting an invisible enemy. I had already sent out hundreds out clones to train in various things, mostly fuinjutsu.

"That's not even fully true, you're half red headed now as well as one of your eyes changing color. What happened anyway? I'm pretty sure you were blonde headed with two blue eyes before your fight with those guys."

"Long story," I said brushing off Ino's question.

"So who are you then?" Ino asked causing me to stare at her strangely only to notice she was doing her stance wrong.

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"I mean if the 'you' in the academy was an act you made up to throw of off then that means were really strangers."

"So," I said not see her point.

"So, I want to be able to say I was the first friend of the real Naruto Uzumaki," Ino said with a smile, and that's when I saw it, the sparkle in her eyes.

So In this chapter we see Naruto getting emotional multiple times. Naruto will still be the same cold and sarcastic 'don't have time for your bull shit type person' type person but even he has to have his fears and what not. I want Ino in the harem but I don't want her to fan girl over him because that wouldn't end well considering his personality so I also fixed that as well as putting in a scene (the ending obviously) that could lead to their friendship or at least Naruto tolerating her presence for now. Another reason for making Naruto get emotional is because if he wasn't he'd sorta just be like Sasuke and well it would be hard for him to get someone like Tenten to like him.

I only have two more girls in mind for this harem and one of them might be an inserted character, and the other from canon. I might have more. The self-inserted character will 'Not' be Hikari nor will the last canon member of the harem be Hinata. I ship NarutoxHinata stories but I feel like when you change Naruto's personality (Which I did) it wouldn't be the same Naruto she fell in love with. I could change my mind tbh since I just go with the flow a lot but I don't think I will.

And lastly another reason (and my last one) for making Naruto emotional in this chapter is to establish the difference between him and Dark Naruto who may or may not be getting some action time soon. Which is why in the past I've made him struggle with things like killing Mizuki.