"Ow, Kakashi-sensei is soooo heavy" Naruto complained as we all were carrying him towards Tazuna-san's house. "Naruto stop complaining and carry"Sasuke said annoyed to due to how annoying Naruto is when he puts his mask on. I mean have you seen him otherwise, he is basically emotionless.
"Don't worry I see my house in the distance" Tazuna reassured the Genin carrying their sensei. "That is probably so far away, I can't keep carrying any longer". Hinata was getting fed up of Naruto's complaining, oh how she wanted to give him a Jyuken too the nuts.
The rest of the walk contained friendly banter or from Hinata's perspective annoying chatter. Tazuna informing the team about other political and economical struggles in Wave due to Gato. I mean honestly the corruption Gato has is rivaling some civilian council members in the leaf. Not quite up to Danzo Shimura or the other two elders who I won't use enough effort to remember the names of though. Even the daimyo had only wealth equal to any average Konoha civilian. Even I had enough of a heart to feel bad for these guys. That just makes it all the more important to complete this mission.
Before we knew it we were already closing in on Tazuna's house. It seemed to be on a relatively secluded spot in a forest. Though if you really tried to you could some of the city through the cracks of the trees. The house was an average sized house, though from what we were told throughout the trip Tazuna wasn't affected by Gato due to being in the forest.
Hinata POV...
We finally had made it to Tazuna's house from our encounter with Zabuza. While I knew Zabuza would be a tough opponent I was disappointed with Kakashi-sensei. I mean one of the strongest Jonin in Konoha and rumored to be a borderline S rank shinobi. However he relied on his students to get him out of trouble.
Opening up the door we saw a lady wearing an apron at the doorway. "Tsunami, these are the shinobi that escorted me. Their sensei has been injured so please make a bed ready" Tsunami nodded motioning us to come in. Entering the house it looked to be another average cottage. However a delicious aroma drafted into the room. Even Sasuke seemed to drool a bit. Wait why did I take note of that. Slapping myself mentally about it before turning back.
"Oh ya I forgot dinner was almost ready. I will put your sensei in a spare room and then we can eat" she said before hurrying off. About two minutes later Tsunami hurried back into the room opening up the door. The rest of us filed into the room, as I noticed a child with a scowl on his face. I mean I kinda wondered why he had a scowl on his face. I mean Naruto has most likely a worse childhood then him and he had a perfectly contented smile on his face. I ignored the ongoing thoughts in my head as I sat down on a chair.
I watched as Tsunami laid bowls in front of each of us and lifted the lids. What was inside made me face fault. "RAMEN...". Oh good, poor Tsunami is going to run out of ingredients. I saw Sasuke and even the kid cringe at the zero manners emitting from him. I mean it was a pretty disgusting sight to see. I mean it took Naruto a whole 1 second to finish the ramen before he started begging Tsunami for more. At this point Tsunami was doomed.
After the eventful dinner which involved a lot of slurping. All of us were sitting at the dinner table. I was still wondering about the kid, I mean he hasn't said anything. While I was in my thoughts Naruto was spouting some nonsense about being Hokage. "Why do you even try...". "What do you mean". "You have no chance of beating Gato". The kid said before storming off. The kid seriously needs to chill, I mean what did Gato do to him kill his dad.
"Sorry about Inari his stepdad and role model, Kaira died while rebelling against Gato" he said some putting his hands to cover his face. "Eh, honestly it doesn't matter what the kid thinks, worst case we can send Naruto for a pep talk" Sasuke said with a shrug. "I'm not giving a pep talk to a emo kid like him" Naruto said with a roll of the eyes. He seemed to realize his slip of the tongue and ran away. I stared at him as he left, it was now clear that Naruto put on a mask.
I had a suspicion about it anyway so it didn't really matter to me. Sasuke also didn't particularly care about Naruto's slip off the tongue. He almost looked to calm like he knew something. I would look into that later though because it seemed those two had a relationship of some kind other than teammates.
Naruto POV...
I made two mistakes, people will start suspecting my mask. Luckily Kakashi wasn't here, but Hinata is not somebody he wants to know about his mask. While luckily she wasn't a gossip or anything like Sakura or Ino, she is his teammate and somebody he'll have to be around often. Her knowing his true personality will ruin their relationship. Well he didn't particularly care to have one in the first place.
Well it didn't really matter right now he could start training in these woods. Someone finding him is highly unlikely due to his sensory abilities, but also the woods were very dense. He quickly found a small clearing. Deciding to train in the area he got to work unraveling scrolls on Ninjutsu, Kenjutsu, and Fuinjutsu.
Six Hours later...
Naruto was exhausted, darkness has overcome his vision as nighttime arrived. He has been training for six hours with no breaks in his Kenjutsu style, Fuinjutsu, and Ninjutsu. He was now laying exhausted on the ground feeling like his heart was going to fall out of his chest. As he felt his consciousness started to fade he wondered what exactly Hinata and Sasuke were up to.
Next Day...
I woke up with a start, not knowing exactly where I was. The events of the day before channeled into my mind as I realized I had passed out. Looking up I squinted my eyes realizing it was probably mid day being around 12. How could I be so careless, usually my mind has a schedule of when to wake up. "Kurama-sensei what happened" Naruto asked confused. "Well kit you trained yourself to exhaustion and passed out". I nodded my head mentally while slowly sitting up. The Kyubi and him had met when he was six, and immediately hit it off as teacher and student. Now he relied on Kurama for advice and other things.
Sensing his surroundings he felt a high Chunin level signature coming from the other side of the clearing. Looking to the side he saw the prettiest person he had ever met however the signature felt slightly familiar. "Oh your awake" the person said. They had long black hair and wore a blue kimono with a gold hairpin. "Oh yes sorry for the inconvenience" Naruto said getting into a sitting position. They seemed to be picking herbs for sobering. Naruto still couldn't over their visual, but realized their voice was deeper than a females should be. "Are you male or female" he asked getting up approaching the person. "I am a boy" they said in a calm voice. "Do you want me to help you pick herbs" Naruto said forming a fake grin. "Sure, but the way my name is Haku". "Names Naruto". "Say Naruto your a ninja right" Haku assured with a smile. "Yup " Naruto said with a thumbs up. Suddenly he realized who the person was the hunter nin. He tensed up, but the other boy didn't seem to realize. Naruto realized he could gather info about the ninja by talking. "Say Haku who are you gathering herbs for". "For a friend" He said. He's for sure an accomplice to Zabuza. Haku's basket was filled with herbs as he agreed a question Naruto was slightly shocked at.
"Naruto why did you become a ninja". Naruto was caught off guard by the question and took a few seconds to come up with an answer. "For my precious people I guess". "Good answer" Haku said turning around to leave. "Wait Haku, can we meet here tomorrow" Naruto said with an uncharacteristic blush on his face. She nodded with a small smile on her face. "Looks like you have got a crush kit". "Shut up Kurama" Naruto grumbled crossing his arms. Remembering that he had to go back to Tsunami's house to not worry the others he hurried off.
Tsunami's house...
Naruto approached Tsunami's house slowly opening the door. "I'm back" He said waiting for a response. When no response came I slowly walked into the living room. Looking outside I saw the rest of my team even Kakashi outside. Slowly making my way outside I overheard my team talking about how Zabuza wasn't dead. "Oh Naruto your back" Kakashi said with an eye smile. "Ya I was training to hard and slept in the forest " Naruto said rubbing the back of his head with a huge grin. "Well we were just talking about how Zabuza is still alive". "Ya I heard". "Ok then he will most likely be ready to fight again in a week. This gives us ample time to train" Kakashi said motioning for his team to follow him.
They arrived at a clearing with trees all over the place. "Ok team today we are going to learn tree walking" He said. How had he not already taught us this at this point. To be honest he was a pretty bad sensei in general. "What's tree walking Kakashi-sensei" I asked. "Let me show you" Kakashi said putting both his feet on the tree and climbing up the tree. Honestly Naruto did not want to waste time on this. He'd much rather train or meet Haku. As Kakashi came down the tree he motioned for his students to start. So started the most boring week of Naruto's life.
The only exciting thing that happened the whole week was when him and Haku met. Haku was reliable and someone Naruto knew he could trust. Haku was like the best friend that Naruto never had. Though Naruto knew in reality he was the enemy. However as the days passed by Naruto felt more and more reluctant to fight Haku and started to slowly have a bigger and bigger crush on her.
Slowly they're last day came and went as the fight in the bridge would start.
1. Hello thank you for reading this chapter.
2. I'm sorry for the misleading messages about update times, but I have lately had a lot more pulling on so I will only be focusing on finishing one story. I will probably start updating my Naruto stories again by the end of the year.
thank you for reading!
