It was safe to say that Naruto and Sasuke startled the crap out of their comrades and Tazuna's family when they kicked open the front door.

It was also safe to say it was equally unsettling when they took one step in...and promptly fell flat on their faces.

~xxx~

The boys came to quickly enough, no worse for the wear. With little need for encouragement, they sat themselves at the kitchen table and tucked into the humble spread waiting for them. It soon became evident that they were ravenous, particularly after Naruto ate the soup bone.

Tazuna's daughter remarked it was a miracle that two boys that had seemed dead tired a second ago could possess such enormous...appetites. Sakura remarked that it was a greater miracle that they hadn't barfed all that food up yet.

The latter was a near thing, staved off by the new arrival of Tazuna's grandson- a ponderously absent member of the household the prior evening and much of today. His mother and grandfather welcomed him back gregariously, with a milquetoast sort of murmur given in response.

Team 7, for the most part, spared the kid a glance, Kakashi even giving him an acknowledging wink-and-a-nod. The kunoichi of the group, however, studied the small, strange child as he'd ambled into the room.

As typical of a kid his age and size, he wore a sort of coveralls-jumper, worn with a very odd high-collared brim of his bucket hat almost hid his eyes, and his sandals noticeably dragged along the floor as if something was weighing them down. More to the point, he seemed considerably more at home in the village abroad- sullen and downtrodden in demeanor as he was- than here, with his two rather, er, exuberant family members.

Then again, perhaps that explained quite a bit about how and why the two grown ups seemed upbeat and warm, what with this kid being so much the reverse. It was obvious he still had feelings of love and affection, as shown as he made a beeline for his grandfather, whom he hugged tightly. However, it was also obvious that he hadn't always been this way and his family was trying to help him in the only ways they knew how.

Sakura was concerned, but as long as the kid didn't try to start any trouble.

And then he opened his mouth.

~xxx

It started simply- Tsunami prompted the boy, striking a paricularly 'parental' pose with hands on her hips.

"Inari, say hello to these people."

The boy "Inari" leveled a gloomy stare at the party arranged at the table.

"They are ninjas who protected Gran'pa," Tsunami (obviously the boy's mother) coaxed.

"Mom..." the boy began, pointing at the team, "They are going to die."

Sakura's gut instinct proved correct; this kid would be an instigator, if not an outright problem. Tazuna's complaints were bad enough- but Inari...The girl shinobi shot a glance toward the hothead on her team just in time to catch his eyebrow ticking.

She prayed whatever the kid said next, it wasn't anything that sounded like a dare. From her experience with boys (Naruto and Sasuke being front and center), anything that sounded like "You can't do this" or "It's impossible" would turn anyone vaguely male into a bona fide idiot.

"There's no way you can win against Gatō..."

"You freaking moron!" Sakura screamed internally. Cautiously, she turned her gaze back to Naruto- or, at least, Naruto's empty seat.

"I'm going," the blond announced, "See you guys later."

With that, Naruto walked out the front door, leaving a dead silence in his wake. Sakura blinked, and then sat back in her chair, confused. The client and his family quickly left the room, saying their goodbyes (or lack thereof, in the case of Inari) before heading off to bed.

Strangely, it was Sasuke that spoke up first, his hands steepled with his elbows planted firmly on the dining room table.

"This isn't going to cause any trouble, is it, Sensei?"

"Hmm. I've never been one to take first watch, so maybe-"

"I mean with the kid."

"Well," Kakashi began, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall, "There's always bound to be some random contingency when it comes to civilian clients, so something like this is fairly common. From what we've seen around town and heard from Tazuna, Gatō is a fairly effective tyrant, ensuring that those he oppresses are too convinced of their helplessness to do anything to resist him."

The Jōnin sighed, raising a hand to scratch his cheek.

"Although it would be nice to get some support from the populace, it's likely we're going to be fighting this battle on our own. Hopefully, we've already taken out any ninja Gatō's hired and it's just your typical thugs we'll have to face from now on."

Sakura sat up, her posture calm but her eyes indicating the underlying worry.

"But what if your theory turns out to be true and that hunter-"

The Jōnin got off the wall and walked over to his proteges, laying his hand on one of their shoulders, each.

"Then we'll come out on top. You have come a long way since graduation. Out of all of you, I'd say you've grown the most, Sakura."

Kakashi appeared to smiled, although it was hard to tell when his students could only make out his regular eye crinkling at its corners.

"But...but what about Naruto, sensei? He-"

"-is going to become very familiar with Mop-san and Bucket-kun. I advise you don't try to imitate him, either of you?"

An odd chill ran up the two genins' backs.

~xxx

Naruto found himself rambling about the forest. Besides the fact that it reminded him of the village, it was...calm. Quiet. Secluded from prying eyes. Something about being alone helped him find solace in reflection.

He didn't need to hide from the world, but rather to hide the world from himself. There wasn't much point in resolving oneself with so much noise- aural or otherwise.

Here it was simple. Here it was clean.

Here he didn't feel the potent desire to murder everything. Sasuke...Iruka...Sensei...that kid...random passerby...

The impulses didn't leave. They didn't abate. They screamed just beneath his skin, roaring for release. Only when he hurt and killed did he feel untroubled.

Not for want of the impulses, oh no. The impulses were there and strong in his veins, on his skin, in his breath. They didn't leave- they became him. They burned.

Naruto felt a queer sensation within his chest, neither thrilling nor disturbing, and from that feeling came a question:

What was he, really?

He knew he wasn't human- not completely, at least. What kind of twisted transformation did he go through that he felt such an outsideness? If not for Sasuke, he would have thought himself utterly alien in Konoha.

Even though the Uchiha was not truly the same, his eyes held the same understanding that Naruto was sure he felt as well- of being apart from everyone else.

Seperation...is that what it boiled down to? Where did begin- hell, where did it end?

The blond stroked his chin, considering his past experiences with others. When he was in the Academy, it seemed like he unnerved most of his fellow students, but others were conversely drawn to him.

If not for his team, he would have concluded that either something was wrong with him...or wrong with everybody else. Now he felt like he was simply different, rather than out-and-out dysfunctional.

Then again, Naruto was pretty sure most people didn't have the impulse to kill blameless others at random. For that matter, he-

Here Naruto caught his foot and tripped over something, sprawling into a nearby thicket in mid-thought.

~xxx

It quickly became apparent that Naruto had had the misfortune of bumbling over some girl a few years older than himself. He was immediately on guard against any bizarre shifts in disposition, given his prior experiences with older girls.

After some quick thinking and half-mumbled apologies, it came out that the girl was out in the forest to pick wild herbs of various medicinal varieties. Why she was out there, though, was a bit tougher to ferret out...

So now Naruto found himself leaning back against a tree, arms crossed and holding a terse- if polite- conversation with the strange girl.

"How come you're out here all by yourself doing this? It's not exactly safe around here- or so I gathered."

The girl smiled.

"I wouldn't saying I'm altogether helpless~"

She brandished the small knife she'd been using to harvest herbs, flourishing it with a confidence Leaf Academy students barely had when twirling pens. Naruto's eyebrow quirked, the boy humming noncommitally.

"All the same...whoever you are," he replied, trying not to act particularly suspicious (in either sense), "It's best to go it with a friend or two."

The stranger offered a dubious smirk this time.

"And what about you, young sir? Wouldn't you rather 'go it with a friend'? Or do you think you're strong enough to do without people?"

Sighing, the genin shrugged, leaning off the tree and taking to pace across the small clearing.

"Oh, I came with some friends, but I'm certain I can avoid getting hurt too bad before bravely running away..."

The blond gritted his teeth, turning away quickly. Somehow he felt that his odd companion had caught that. Naruto shook his head, consciously dismissing his underlying worry, then turning back to the girl.

"Hmm," the girl hummed, a sound approaching mockery of Naruto's own reaction a moment ago, "You'd struck me as the type to run toward danger, rather than away from it."

Now that had Naruto's attention. The girl's statement seemed a little too sure to be purely conversational- then again, it might be simply his paranoia talking.

But whatever; come what may, it was just a girl in a flowery dress, for crying out loud.

"Then obviously your impression of me is entirely too cynical- or is that optimistic?"

The genin tapped his cheek, humming. The girl hummed in response, nodding as if she was condescending agreement with him. Their gazes met and locked for a moment, measuring the other.

Naruto was the one to break the silence, turning his back on the girl as he made to leave the clearing.

"I guess I'll head on back. I hope what you find what you're looking for..."

"And you, too, young sir."

Naruto sniffed, a feeling different from before writhing in his chest.

~xxx

When Naruto returned, he wasn't subjected to any probing questions from the team other than the obligatory "How are you feeling" type queries. It wasn't long before Naruto was back staring down the crack of light under the front door as he drifted off to slumber. Before he knew it, it was daytime again- as examplified by him being roughly picked up by the collar of his shirt and the waist of his pants and tossed outside into the bracing early morning breeze.

He was starting to question his decisions- particularly after he heard the faint orders from Sensei to Sakura to "fetch Bucket-kun".

~xxx

It was undeniable that Naruto was being singled out- Kakashi made it very clear by having him go first for demonstrating the latest technique the Jōnin had to offer. As the genin had positively murdered the normal record for learning handless tree climbing, Sensei had deemed it necessary for them to learn a similar "exercise", one that would help them in possible scenarios in the days ahead.

This technique also focused on the feet, although it dealt with a different kind of issue. Whereas handless tree climbing was meant for solid surfaces that were normally too steep (e.g: vertical) to traverse, this latest exercise would deal with a more...fluid obstacle.

In brief, Sensei would teach the kids how to walk on water- starting with the upstart blond as the test dummy.

"Sensei...isn't this a little extreme, even for you?"

"Nonsense, Naruto," Kakashi replied, waving the boy off, "I've heard of others using less forgiving methods."

The genin quivered, sweat rolling down his face in waves.

"S-sensei...isn't this a bit much, even for Naruto?"

The Jōnin chuckled gently.

"I wouldn't worry too much- it's a handy workaround for one of Naruto's typical level of stamina and control."

"But..." the fledgeling kunoichi began, "won't he get tired before long?"

"Sakura~," Kakashi-sensei tutted, "have more faith in your teammate. I'm sure he'll make it through today without breaking a sweat."

Sasuke, standing silently to the side, cut a glance toward his fellow genin on the water. He noted the spreading stains on Naruto's decreasingly dry shirt, though he said nothing. His "better half", however, had no such inclination.

"You're making him do this with a literal stone tied around his neck- which you're having him hold above his head!"

"Now, now, Sakura-chan," her instructor replied, "This exercise serves a necessary purpose and Naruto needs to learn it the most of all of you. Besides, it's only about twenty or thirty kilos..."

"Twenty or th-thirty-"

"Oh, well, that's enough talking for now," Kakashi interrupted, making an abrupt exit toward the village, "I'll take care of guard duty for you while Naruto's practicing. Come get me when Naruto's feet are above the water!"

"S-Sensei!" Sakura cried out, making a grab for the man just as he disappeared into thin air.

The girl ninja sagged. "...Crap."

Sasuke grunted, coolly watching Naruto as he struggled with his burden in the middle of the river. His drier compatriot stared at him judgingly.

"How can you just stand by as Sensei abuses Naruto like this?" Sakura asked, tears beading in the corners of her eyes, "Aren't you his comrade? Aren't you h-his ffffriend?"

She hiccoughed, trying to hold down sympathetic sobs.

"Sakura, calm down."

"CALM DOWN?! LOOK AT HIM! HE'S-!"

"-Look," the Uchiha said, grabbing Sakura's shoulder with one hand and pointing at Naruto with the other. When the distraught girl turned her eyes back to her supposedly imperiled teammate, worry was rapidly supplanted by shock.

Naruto had risen just above the water's surface, stone still firmly in hand. Not only that, but he was taking his first shaky steps toward the shore.

Sasuke shot Sakura a knowing smirk.

"You should have more faith in Naruto, Sakura."

"Yes, Sakura," Kakashi said, stepping out from behind a tree, "learn to put some trust in your teammates."

"You're one to talk, Sensei! First the Demon guys, then the other Demon guy, and now this bullshi-"

"Now, now, Sakura," the Jōnin said, a familiar patronizing tone slipping into his voice, "There's a perfectly reasonable explanation behind my training methods..."

A squishy splurch issued from the bank, drawing all attention to it. Naruto had made it ashore.

Panting, the boy heaved the stone into the soft soil with a meaty thud, slitting the rope connecting the cursed rock to his neck. The blond raised his head, a murderous grimace set on his face.

"Going...to kill...Sensei..."

~xxx

Obviously, Naruto did not, in fact, kill his sensei. It was not for lack of trying, either- he'd found his wind quickly enough and immediately came after the Jōnin.

What followed was a study in martial humiliation- this boiled down to Sensei dodging everything and ending the insurrection with a simple, if powerful, poke in the-

"AAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

~xxx

After a brief moment of recovery allowed for the "injured" party, Kakashi continued with his lesson. He had paid careful attention to his students and found out where they were lacking in their individual use of chakra.

Sakura, first to master tree climbing, was lacking in the stamina needed to mix with the large resource of spiritual energy she had at her disposal. Sasuke, the intermediate, was lacking in a proper grasp of the bipolar energies used to "mold" chakra. And Naruto, the hardest working of the three, lacked discipline and thus had to wrestle through new techniques disproportionately- even given his ridiculous potential chakra pool.

Knowing this, the Jōnin doled out exercises utilizing the technique of waterwalking as followed:

Sakura would run laps alongside the shore at as fast a pace as she could maintain, moving into deeper waters as she successfully progressed.

Sasuke would walk, rather than run, from one side of the river to the other, releasing his chakra once he arrived at the opposing side and forming his chakra anew immediately after.

Naruto was tasked with simply standing on the water, but doing so without sinking or, conversely, floating above the surface. The catch was that he could not create ripples in the water, nor could he use any handsigns.

"Remember," Kakashi said, "Water-walking, as opposed to tree climbing, does not require you to stick to the surface- however, it requires an awareness of your chakra in relation to the environment you're sending it through.

"If you don't produce enough chakra to support your mass, you will sink. Sinking, obviously, is bad. Not to mention you end up exhausting your stamina unnecessarily.

"Produce too much and you'll disturb the water or even float a little above it- dispersing your chakra through air, which is much more difficult to transmit or feel chakra through. This wastes chakra, even if you turn out to be of Wind chakra affinity.

"Chakra affinity, by the by, is a lesson for another time- I'm sure we'll have the discussion at some point after you rank up, genin."

It was about five minutes into the personalized regimens, and Kakashi's initial prognoses seemed to be playing out.

Sakura, although nowhere near winded, was already beginning to flag in speed and control, varying widely from lap to lap. Sasuke was predictably impatient, sometimes forgetting to release his control before crossing the river again. These issues would be worked out in the routine. As for the blond one...

Naruto was remarkably placid. When allowed to focus on a given task, he latched onto it with a fervor unparalleled. Of course, the obvious issue was that one didn't have the time required to attain the kind of focus one could in these practice sessions.

Kakashi briefly felt the temptation to try and disrupt Naruto's focus- but then, he reasoned, Naruto had been through enough for one 24 hour period. The issue would be addressed soon enough, but not until the boy could keep this up for a good hour or so. If nothing else, perhaps he'd learn how to more precisely utilize his energy once the sheer bulk of it was drained off...

~xxx

Team 7's honorable instructor only allowed the practice to end once the group was sufficiently near the end of their given rope. The practical heap assembled in front of Kakashi was a sight to behold.

Sasuke was trying to put up a stoic front and failing, his shoulders slumped as he glared defiantly at his sensei. It had been an unpleasant surprise for him to discover the seemingly childishly simple task he was given had gradually eroded his patience and energy to the bone.

The unnaturally still Naruto seemed to have returned to his adopted attitude from when Team 7 had been oriented, though whether this was a good thing or a bad thing had yet to be determined. He was drenched in sweat more than ever, but looked positively fresh as a daisy compared to the civilian-born of the team.

Haruno Sakura was a quivering proverbial pile of elbows and assholes, positively gleaming with a thick sheen of perspiration. Had she any extra energy left, Kakashi imagined, she might have given him yet another hefty piece of her mind. Thankfully for all involved- primarily Kakashi- this was irrefutably not the case.

Although the training insofar as intended results was a success- the genin being pushed out of their comfort zones- the unwanted yet predictable side effect of at least one of his students being rendered temporarily useless left Kakashi with the task of having to negotiate getting his team back to Tazuna's house. The image of the entire team quite literally falling in just in time for lunch was picturesque, to say the least.

Once again, the boys found their legs quickly enough once they smelled food. Oddly enough, Sakura joined in with a more ladylike enthusiasm, although how ladylike one could appear with cheeks bulging with food was debatable. Kakashi decided to simply sit this one out, seeing as the feeding frenzy practically engulfed the whole table.

~xxx

After gorging themselves ridiculously, the genin lapsed into a mild food coma. Well, the genin minus Naruto- Tazuna casually remarked that the blond might have a good pair of hollow legs. The boy didn't mind the remark, sufficing with sitting by the window watching the sun drift closer to the horizon.

A stray thought passed through Uzumaki's mind, barely cohesive and relatively unvoluntary. Tick. Tick. Tock.

With no warning at all, Naruto bolted upright, startling the hosts. Pausing for a moment, he bowed meekly before excusing himself, walking out the back door with nary another word.

~xxx

The forest again. This was purely coincidental, of course. Sure, there was the rather nice beach, but that was near the docks and kids of all sorts were always around, so that was out. The village was depressing, if what Sakura had mentioned was anything to go on, although it was doubtful if it was as full of "perverts" as she'd alleged...

Tazuna's house was only really peaceful at night, which he wasn't in a mood to wait for. Plus the kid. The kid was pretty annoying. And Kakashi-sensei might randomly decide to impugn or oppress him again.

So why the forest? This was even the same general part of the forest he was in before. Wasn't this a little too convenient for happenstance? While Wave Country was pretty tiny, the forest wasn't so small that Naruto could find everything to know about it in less than two days.

Oh well...

He eventually tripped over a familiar something. Well, more like he almost-tripped over a familiar something. That is, a familiar something, having been subjected to Naruto tripping over her once, was generally prepared enough from the past encounter to actually duck out of the way of the bumbling blond.

Acknowledging this, it was safe to assume that Naruto almost-tripping meant he merely stumbled past this familiar obstacle. In a huff, he turned to face the non-threat that was what was obviously the girl from before.

"You again," The-Girl-From-Before remarked, obviously put off, "Was once not enough for you? Did falling on me last time sate some secret urge of yours?"

Naruto looked blankly at the strange girl, at a loss for anything particularly witty to say for once. Girl-From-Before obviously recognized an opportunity when she saw one and took it without hesitation.

"That..that is it, isn't it?" She brought a delicate hand up as if to hide her mouth behind it.

"You're one of those strange people who fixate on staging perverted accidents, aren't you?"

The genin fumbled for words managing a meager offering of "No, I-" and "But-" to little avail, the girl pursuing her strange goal with extreme diligence.

"You were going to try and get a look at my underwear, weren't you?"

"Er-"

"Or," the girl supplied, blushing seemingly on command, "were you intending to see my bare virgin body?"

At this point Naruto was riled up, a bead of cold sweat rolling down his temple as he finally found his voice.

"Now wait just one second here! I'm not like that! I'm-I'm not old enough to be like that...a-and I'm nowhere near that-"

He petered off as the girl lost her composure, her soft, mellow giggling washing Naruto's mind clear of any objections or complaints.

"Too easy-"

The girl broke off, eliciting another fit of giggles before then composing herself, "ah'em"-ing behind her hand in a "just so" kind of way.

"As I was saying," she continued, giving Naruto a pointed look for seemingly no reason, "You left yourself pretty open there, young sir."

"It's not every day that I get accused of being a pervert," Naruto said, turning his head to the side and crossing his arms.

"Well," the girl replied, "It's not an everyday occurence for someone to run me over-"

She sent Naruto a sidelong glance.

"-at least, it's not supposed to be."

At that remark, the genin threw up his hands.

"Well, it was hardly intentional the first time-"

"And what about this time?"

Naruto spluttered indignantly, the girl hiding her mouth behind her hand in response- and the blond was sure that was a smile he saw peeking out.

"Of course not!"

"Well, if that's the case, young sir," Girl-From-Before said, looking away in a decidedly imperious fashion, "I shall forgive you."

Naruto pursed his lips at that. "Shouldn't I receive an apology for the rather ridiculous accusation of perversion?"

The girl scoffed lightheartedly.

"Everything I say is a blessing upon mankind, so even my insults are wonderful- and therefore have no need to be apologized for."

Naruto studied the girl for a moment, stroking his chin. The strange girl simple offered him a blank look that could mean just about anything given the context.

"...You must give the boys in the town a hard time."

At this the girl chuckled, this time without as much girlish refinement.

"I wouldn't give the boys in town any time at all."

"Does that make you a lady of discerning taste."

"It makes me Haku."

Naruto opened his mouth to respond, then paused. A small frown creased his brow.

"Er..." he began, "I beg your pardon?"

Girl-From-Before leveled a mildly judgmental look on the blond.

"Haku- that's my name."

"Hmm," Naruto hummed, "Charmed."

"That wasn't a name I expected."

Naruto looked away, as if glancing at something in particular, before returning his gaze to, er, "Haku".

"My real name is Naruto."

"But," Haku began, a little frown of her own forming, "Why introduce yourself as 'Charmed' at all?"

"I didn't-"

Naruto was about to voice another objection, but caught the look of deadpan sarcasm the named girl aimed his way.

"You are ruthless."

"So my father told me."

~xxx~

Jiminy Christmas why did this take so long?

Lots of writer's block is why.

I need to learn to end my sessions on parts with more direction than "and then THIS happened"

To be honest, this was held up by me looking at the words leading up to the empty space for a couple seconds, and then just going to fuck off on the internet for a couple more fricking hours.

Whole days of potential genius wasted because of this crap.

Believe me, if you think that fan fic writers spend most of their time writing, you are dead fricking wrong- unless it's some lifeless mofo with a 700k word story that he started three months ago or something.

On a vaguely related note, really huge stories often scare me- because I expect them to be terrible. Thank goodness for Rathanel proving me wrong on that count.

Speaking of said author, you guys could do with wasting your time browsing my meticulously pruned Favorite Stories section- this is the sort of stuff that inspired me to write this, although none of said stories inspired me directly- save maybe Returning the Pain by insomaniac1

Anywho, review now that you've read this chapter.

Also, feel free to vote in my brand spanking new poll

I could do with some feedback, which may or may not fuel further updates, as seemingly inevitable as they are.