Inari couldn't believe that orange idiot. Why couldn't he see, there was nothing left.
No hope and only fools' dreams. That was life in the Wave. To fight was to die. And Inari didn't want these strangers to die.
"I know what your thinking." It was the pink haired girl. "You're thinking that Naruto should give up. But he won't. And you're mad at him. I'm going to tell you something. Something I only just learned. Our village hates him. Well not him, just…." She trailed off.
""Just what?"
"What do you know about the Nine Tailed Fox?"
"He destroyed the Land of Whirlpools, now named Wave, and nearly destroyed the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The Fourth killed the dam thing and died."
"And a child was born." The pink haired girl stated with sadness in her voice.
"An orphan with blond hair and whisker marks on his face. This boy later started to prank the village. Do you see where I'm going with this." by the look on his face he was thinking the worst. "No, he's not the Fox, but to many, that didn't matter. They hate him, and they either want him dead or they want him to become a weapon. So he's always been alone. And I helped them. I couldn't see past the mask he wears. So I hurt him. Like so many he reached out to, I hurt him. I never put it all together until I heard Kakashi talking about it." She looked over eyes watering. "I was a fool, so before it's too late, learn from him. If he can go on day by day, so can you."
With that she turned and walked into the dark.
She didn't cry just for herself. She cried for her team. She had never seen past the masks on her teammates face. Naruto only wanted a friend, and she had scorned him. She had thought she was too good for him, but it was the other way around. He was too good for any of those she had called friends. Only Ino and Hinata had seen past the fool. Ino saw a poor boy that would be a good minion, and a good second choice. For Sakera. And Hinata saw a strong boy, who needed nothing and no one. No one saw the pain he was going through. No one saw beneath the Beneath. And as for Sasuke, well just her luck right?
"So you know." There was no question in Sasuke's voice.
"Yes I know about the demon. All this time, I thought he was a bad kid. And not the sexy kind of bad.
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to tell him that I over heard you and Kakashi talking about him."
"And the rest?"
"I ran away when I heard about his…guest." She turned and looked into her crushes eyes. "You should have told me you were gay."
"I'm not gay."
"What?"
"Let's just say I'm just not ready to be with any one."
"Well, you could have said something."
"Would you have listened?"
"No, maybe not." She admitted.
"Now what." It was starting to turn into integration.
"We beat Zabuza then we deal with it. The Hokage will know what to do."
Haku found the stranger lying on a patch of grass. The blond boy was dead. Too bad,
Haku needed the grass for medicine for Zabuza's wounds. At that moment, he started to snore.
Haku poked him with a branch he rolled over showing her his long sword. That was weird; he didn't have that three days ago.
"Hey, miss, what are you doing?"
"Trying to get you to roll over. And don't call me miss, I'm I boy."
"No your not. Boys aren't that pretty."
"Why are you sleeping out here?" Haku tried to turn the conversation.
"Training." His answer was rather blunt.
"You don't look like a swordsman."
"I'm not, I started learning yesterday."
"Then where did you get the sword?"
"My mother left it here for me."
"It's a strange sword."
A four foot katana hung over his shoulder. The slightly curved blade was unadorned, with a simple oval hand guard. Dark silk cord wrapped the two handed grip. The dark blue sheath was held in place by silk cords running around his torso and waist.
"Why do you train like this? Is there someone you want to protect?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well if you don't have someone who you can protect, someone…precious, well then you really don't have a reason to become strong. And if you do, then you become truly strong."
"I'll remember that."
"What's your name? I'm Haku."
"Naruto Uzumaki. I need to get going. See you, and I still think you're a girl."
"Dynamic Entry!" Rin managed to dodge the green bodied man.
"Hello Guy. I see you still like to wear Spandex."
"Hello, my dear Flower. We of the Leaf have heard of this Gatou and his assassins. Not wishing to leave my eternal rival to take on this threat alone I brought my team of Youth to defeat this Zabuza and to bring home the Youthful glory that is this mission." His teeth managed to blind a low flying hawk.
Naruto turned to the sanest looking the new arrivals, a girl his own age. "is he always…?"
"Yes, always." Her reply came quickly as if she had answered many times on the subject.
"Ok. So Tenten, how are Lee and Neji working out?"
"Oh, you know, Lee needs to be Lee, and Neji needs to get over himself. How's Sasuke"
"Um, Naruto how do know them?" Sakura was getting nervous.
"Oh well, you see, last year I was in their class with Sasuke. They graduated, I didn't, and none of the Jonin wanted Sasuke. So we transferred to Iruka's class, and they work with… that guy."
Sakura remembered the boy's transfer, but hadn't put it together until now. That's a bad habit of ours, isn't it? Yes we'll work on it when we get home. That Lee has a nice looking I know, we'll work on that when we get home. Having an inner self was so hard.
Kakashi was assigning guard duty. "Ok, Guy and I will switch off at the bridge. Tenten work with Naruto, he needs help with his swordsmanship. Lee work with Sakura, get her stamina up to basic levels. Neji you'll work well with Sasuke."
Neji decide to speak up. "Sir, I must ask that you not bother asking me to train with them. Their fate is to never be anything more than a joke."
"Tell you what, if we live through this, we'll talk."
When she was talking to Inari, Sakura was lying about something's, and telling the truth about others.
And her inner isn't one of Sasuke's fan girls, so it's willing to take a look at Lee
Naruto's sword is inspired by pictures I saw online once. I think it was on Knights Edge, but I'm not sure.