Kakashi woke to the sound of his genin chattering somewhere and the smell of salt in the air. He realised someone had taken off his jacket and tucked him into a futon.

He winced as he tried to get up. His head hurt and his body felt unbearably stiff.

'Chakra imbalance' thought the jonin. 'I should've been more careful.'

"Sensei?" said someone.

It was Naruto. He entered along with his two other teammates.

Kakashi faced them. "I'm guessing this is Mr. Tazuna's house?"

"Yeah. We arrived here yesterday just before dusk" said Sakura.

"Is everyone alright?" Kakashi asked.

"We're all fine" said Sakura. "But sensei. Your sharingan is amazing and all. But if it puts that much of a strain on you maybe you should be more careful when you're using it"

"You're right" Kakashi said agreeing with her.

Tazuna scoffed. "Well you did take down one of the most powerful ninja assassins so we'll be safe for a while" he said.

"Right...but you know that boy with the mask. Something about him has been bugging me" Sakura said with her hand resting thoughtfully on her chin.

'She's right. It's like I missed something' Kakashi thought.

"Sensei?" Naruto asked peeking at him.

"Huh? Oh yes. Well Sakura has a point" Kakashi said. Then he remembered Amara. "Where's the other girl?" he asked.

"She's outside" Naruto said.

"Go get her. There's something we need to talk about" said Kakashi.

Sakura went outside and brought her in.

Amara had taken off her cloak. The could now clearly see her face, with clever dark brown eyes and a soft smile framed by her wavy neck length silver hair. She wore a two coloured kimono of black over white tied together on her waist by a belt of a soft red colour. Underneath she wore tight black quarter length pants.

As the girl studied him Kakashi had the a fleeting sensation that this girl looked like...

He shook his head. 'My head's not feeling right'

Kakashi began discussing about the boy in the mask and explained about Tracker nin to his genin.

"They have a lot of knowledge in the medical department. Their job is to track down and kill rouge nin so that information or kekkei genkai of the village they came from don't get stolen" Kakashi concluded. "Since the job is so important there's no room for error..."

Then it finally struck his mind. 'Ah hah. That's what is was'

He then looked at Amara. "Do you know that boy?" he asked her.

Amara shook her head. "The mask was definitely real but I'm sure you've guessed it by now. He made a very noticeable error"

"What, what?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"Think about what he did" Kakashi said encouraging his genin to think.

"He pierced Zabuza's body...and then took him away" Sasuke said.

"Wait...Aren't tracker nin were supposed to work on the spot?" Sakura asked. "At least that's what I learned in the medical course"

"That's correct. And the one we saw didn't" Kakashi paused. "Which means Zabuza isn't dead" he said in a serious tone.

Gasps and an outburst of questions followed but Kakashi raised his hand and instead addressed Amara.

"You say you've been tracking him. For how long?" the jonin asked.

"It's been about two weeks" Amara said fiddling with her kimono belt. "I set out from the Hidden Mist three weeks before that. When I was close to finding him, he suddenly changed direction. He seemed to have noticed he was being tracked. I noticed there was someone else he was travelling with"

Amara looked at Kakashi. "When I caught up I noticed his companion had gone off in a different direction. And...well you know what happened after that. If I try following them I'm sure I'll end up in Gato's hideout. The whole place is swarming with bandits and rouge shinobi and I'm not taking my chances."

Kakashi nodded thoughtfully. "That masked figure...he was with Zabuza. Judging by his weapons and his skills he must've temporarily stopped his heartbeat. And once he manages to recover..."

"He'll come back to finish his job" said Amara.

There was a long silence.

'If that's the case, taking both on of them alone will be troublesome' thought Kakashi. He turned to face the others.

'Maybe...they might just be able to fight against the masked figure'

"Naruto, Sasuke Sakura. I'm going to train you three"

"Ooh what kind of training are we doing Sensei? " Naruto's eyes widened with excitement.

Instead of answering him Kakashi faced Amara. "What will you do?"

Amara folded her arms, deep in thought. "The truth is...I was sent on this mission as a punishment" she said with a grim face.

"Punishment?" Sakura questioned.

"That's right. There's no way someone like me would ever stand a chance against Zabuza" she said nervously. "If I don't complete this mission they'll deem me worthless and kill me...but if I can't hope to kill Zabuza either..."

The genin stars at her in a mixture of shock and pity.

"What kind of insane people send genin to track assassins?!" Naruto said angrily.

"That's just how the Hidden Mist is" Amara shruggged. "Shinobi nations are not allowed to interfere with each other. But we have the same goal and if you succeed, I might survive. So if we could just quietly pretend this was a coincidence, I'll help you in any way I can"

Kakashi nodded. He then addressed his genin. "We'll start as soon as we can. I hope you're ready"

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The next day Kakashi walked along to the forests near the bridge builders home on a pair of crutches. He set Amara to watch over the house while he trained his genin.

"We won't be far" he told her. Secretly Kakashi wanted to check if the girl was trustworthy.

Kakashi stopped in front of a tree. "Right. This'll do"

"So what kind of training are we doing sensei?" Naruto asked for the hundredth time.

"Well...You are to climb a tree *without* using your hands" the jonin stated.

"Huh?" The genin stared at him in confusion.

Kakashi then demonstrated by using his feet and climbing up firmly. Still leaning of his crutches he explained the benefits of the exercise.

"You'll be able to control the amount of chakra you use and make sure you don't deplete it too quickly. In theory if you master this exercise you'll be able to master any Jutsu"

Afterwards the genin began climbing. After a few tries Sakura was the only person to reach the top. "Hey this is fun!" she said, climbing nimbly up to the topmost branches.

"Good job Sakura. Keep an eye on these two. I'll go check on Mr Tazuna" Kakashi said as he turned to leave.

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The sun began shifting steadily towards the west.

Sakura had long since left to go with the bridge builder. Kakashi meanwhile was resting up inside the house.

By now Naruto and Sasuke were too tired and hot to continue.

Right on time Amara appeared with a basket full of snacks and water. "Sakura told me to bring you this. Mrs Tsunami made them."

"Snacks?!" Naruto immediately perked up. He quickly thanked Amara and scrambled towards the basket.

"Amara. Aren't you going to train?" Naruto asked while stuffing himself.

"Your sensei has that covered. He's making me practice some genjutsu" she replied.

"Wow cool" Naruto said.

"I have to go but Sakura said she'll come by later" Amara eyed Sasuke for a moment. "If you need more water there's a stream towards the south. It's safe to drink" she said. "Good luck with your training."

"Right" said Sasuke. As Amara turned to go he briefly wondered why she had stared at him like that.

Naruto and Sasuke sat down on the grass and with a lot of arguing, shared the food.

Naruto stuffed his mouth with a rice ball. "Mmm mm mmnn mm"

"Talk after you finish chewing" said Sasuke annoyed.

Naruto groaned "Ah~ I'm so sweaty. I wish I could take a bath... or wash my face at least"

Sasuke remembered Amara mentioning a stream. He suggested this to Naruto and the two of them agreed to go and freshen themselves up.

They walked on for a few minutes until they saw it. A steady stream wound through the forests and joined the ocean. The afternoon sun glimmered as tall trees shading it swept along with the wind . Along the lush green grass near the stream grew some small yellow flowers.

The two splashed themselves with the cool water and refiiled their bottles. Sasuke watched as Naruto excitedly pointed out the little frogs crokaing along the banks.

"Hey Sasuke" Naruto called. The said boy looked over at him.

Naruto was lying down on the grass shaded by a tree. He patted the spot next to him.

Sasuke crouched down and sat on the grass. He put his back against the tree and looked up at the sky.

"Sasuke?"

"Hm?"

There was a moment of silence before Naruto spoke. "How strong do you think the guy in the mask is?"

Sasuke pondered over it. He recalled the boy attacking Zabuza and taking him away. There was no doubt he was skilled.

"He's strong and more experienced but his chakra level is the same as ours. We might stand a chance against him if we can figure out his moves" said Sasuke.

"So how do we beat him?" Naruto asked.

"He must have some kind of weakness" Sasuke replied. "We just need to figure it out"

"Oh yeah. Thats a good idea" Naruto commented. He turned to his side resting his hand on his head and glanced nervously at Sasuke. "You know...I.."

Sasuke waited patiently. He could sense that Naruto was opening up to him.

"I'm not good at that kind of stuff" he said, plucking the grass beneath him.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke questioned.

"Y'know. Looking at your opponent and figuring them out and stuff. I don't know exactly how to do all that and...I just do what I think feels right y'know" he mumbled to the grass.

From his few words Sasuke realised that Naruto was holding a lot more guilt than he let on about being a burden on the team. He didn't want others to think of him as being reckless. 'He's never been the smart type of person' he thought.

Almost immediately he regretted his thoughts. He remembered how they'd taken on Zabuza and freed Kakashi. "You did okay the last time we saw Zabuza" he said.

"That was more of a team effort" Naruto conceeded.

"Then you don't have to worry. We're a team and we can work it out" Sasuke said softly. "Your brain wouldn't be able to handle that level of thinking anyways" he teased.

"Hmph. Who says I can't?!" Naruto pouted angrily.

Sasuke chuckled. He reached out and thumped him on the shoulder. "Just do what you've always done, dobe"

Naruto smiled happily. "We're gonna be an awesome team."

Sasuke, with a content look on his face stayed silent. Naruto knew that it meant he secretly agreed. The thought made his heart blossom wildly.

He shifted himself towards Sasuke and abruptly put his head on Sasuke's lap. He looked up and giggled cheekily.

"Dobe" Sasuke said looking at the blonde with a slightly amused expression. He moved so that both of them could settle comfortably.

In response Naruto poked Sasuke's cheek. He giggled as he squished Sasuke's face.

"You..." Sasuke poked Naruto's cheeks and played around with his face. He snickered when Naruto pouted his lips and made funny noises at him.

Sasuke's mind had abandoned all reason and he moved his hand towards Naruto's neck. The blonde's body jerked for a moment and he giggled. " Hey! Ha ha~ That tickles!"

Sasuke had a smug look on his face. "Someone's sensitive" he teased and he attacked Naruto's stomach.

"EEE~ HA HA HAh AHHH! Stop it!" Naruto cried out laughing and trying to avoid him. He lifted himself up and looked into Sasuke's eyes with a fierce look...

CHOMP

He bit Sasuke's nose.

"Naruto!" Sasuke shouted in disbelief.

"Heh heh" Naruto laughed cheekily.

The Uchiha rubbed his nose with an annoyed look on his face. But as he looked at Naruto, his eyes bright but deep blue like the sea with a playful smile on his lips his heart warmed unexepectedly.

Naruto relaxed his head on Sasuke's lap and looked up at Sasuke. For some reason his heart felt light and happy. He reached up once again to touch the Uchiha's dark hair.

As if by instinct Sasuke clasped Naruto's hand and intertwined them together. Naruto looked at him curiously.

The two sat there for a while, Naruto feeling strangely comforted as Sasuke held his hand. At some point Sasuke stared caressing Naruto's hair, playing around with the tangles and combing the golden locks.

Sasuke felt something changing within him. He had never felt comfortable like this before. He questioned himself as to why he felt compelled to be around Naruto and comfort the boy when he could. It was something that gave him a strange kind of satisfation and made him feel, if he could admit it, slightly happier.

As for Naruto he marvelled at seeing a softer and gentler version of Sasuke. He was snarky and arrogant but could be so unexpectedly kind. Naruto realised that he was shy of showing his emotions and the thought made him smile.

Bored the blonde stretched his hands outward and brushed the grass. It was then he noticed the small yellow flowers that grew along with the grass.

Excited he got up and started gathering them while Sasuke watched on curiously.

Naruto turned around and reached into Sasuke's hair. He started decorating his hair with flowers and smiled madly like he was enjoying how Sasuke looked. "There, you look pretty now" he giggled surveying the crown of yellow flowers that complemented his dark hair.

"Tsk usuratonkachi" Sasuke said with an amused look. Looking at the flowers a memory surfaced in his mind.

It was a childhood memory of the days he had spent with his older brother. He and Itachi would go out into the forests to train and afterwards they's sit on the grass and have a picnic. Then Itachi would play around with him using flowers...

Sasuke plucked one of the flowers and took Naruto's hand. The blonde watched, his azure eyes full of curiosity as he carefully wrapped the stem around one of his fingers.

When he was done Naruto lifted his hand and stared at the flower ring Sasuke had made. Naruto smiled and a noticeable blush covered his cheeks. His heart jumped as he saw Sasuke looking at him with soft eyes and an amused smile.

Naruto giggled again and grabbing more flowers threw them across Sasuke's head.

Golden blossoms rained down and as Sasuke bent his head he heard Naruto laughing happily. He stared up at the boy and sheepishly plucked the flowers off of his hair and clothes. The flowers had some kind of yellow powdery pollen which had spread all over his clothes and hair. "Achoo-" Sasuke sneezed. "You idiot"

The blonde smiled and sat next to Sasuke. Sasuke relaxed and Naruto used the opportunity to rest his head on Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke said nothing and instead rested his head on top of Naruto's.

On that beautiful afternoon under the bright sun, listening to the birds and feeling, the cool sea breeze the two fell asleep their hearts content at receiving what they had long been yearning for.

But when Sasuke woke up Naruto realised there was something terribly wrong with him.

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A/N: Happy Pride Month Lots of love to all my readers. I hope y'all come back and read.

Did you enjoy this chapter. Please give me some feedback it's been long since I've written.

Love y'all.