In which there is training and Pep talks to be had.

Training.

For the genin at least. She was on strict bed rest. Which again, gave her a lot of time to think.

That she, Hamster Haruhi, defeated someone Kakashi originally couldn't.

She took out an S and B-ranked nin respectively. Abit on accident and by chance, because she had no idea she could do that until she did it. She was going to rub this in Kakashi's face up until she got back home.

The problem was he wasn't even here. As she said, he wasn't as injured as he was in canon, so he went along with the three genin to train and guard Tazuna. She wasn't worried about him sending anyone else, as Zabuza was about the best you could get. The point was, there was no reason for her to be cooped up here! And maybe she was lonely. Naruto had left a shadow clone to guard the house and well, Naruto by himself wasn't the most observant. Getting around one clone should be easy enough.

She steadily sat up, taking the washcloth with her. She wrapped herself in it and was gratified to find the beige cloth matched the woodwork. She padded down the hall before stopping in a dead halt.

How was she supposed to find them?

"Haruhi-Sensei! You need to go to sleep!" One of the clones shouted. She jumped and hid her wince, not knowing there was two. The clone was hovering, wanting to help but nervous to touch her.

"But Naruto, I need to get to Kakashi, he has something I need. Can you take me to them?" She asked kindly. The Naruto clone blushed, looking on in shock. Before slowly slipping his hands around the cloth.

Naruto had grown on her, but sometimes he was just too damn easy to manipulate.

He carried her awkwardly in both hands, not sure whether to keep her close of far away, and settled for the middle ground.

"He took us out to the forest. For training!" He blurted.

"Ah. Leave a clone here." He carried her over the muddy ground, and she was suddenly relieved he caught her.

"...That was really cool, but scary too." He mumbled, surprisingly quiet for once.

"With Zabuza?"

"Yeah..."

"I didn't mean to scare you guys, sorry."

"It's fine, but-" He cut himself off, giggling." -But none of us were as scared as Kakashi."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?"

"Yeah! He...was really upset, Haruhi-sensei! He almost left us behind, and after he caught you he refused to let you go until Sakura said she could help"

Well it was good to know Sakura was the one who changed her. But the guilty feeling was back.

"He did a weird thing, and made his chakra green. Sakura said it was his medical chakra. " He offered.

"Well, I'm glad everyone turned out okay."

"Yeah!"

Thunking sounds could be heard, and the pants as Sasuke and the real Naruto tried to catch their breaths. As the clone stepped into the clearing, the two paused in surprise.

"What are you doing here!?" They both shouted.

"Stop yelling at Haruhi-sensei! She needs to get to Kakashi-sensei!" The clone bellowed. She clapped her hands over her ears, washcloth slipping. After pointing the clone towards the right direction, the boys threw themselves into tree climbing, throwing looks at her to see if she was watching. She clapped and smiled, before telling the clone to head towards the bridge.

Is was misty and she felt a chill crawl up her spine. When she had woken up this morning, her entire torso was covered in bruises vaguely shaped like fingers. Maybe she should have stayed back there at Tazuna's house.

But she could see the sunlight through the thinning trees, and distant sounds of working people reached them. She lifted the washcloth over her head, making it seem like he was carrying just a cloth. They weaved their way through workers, machinery, and supplies.

Until-

"Naruto!" She heard Sakura hiss "What are you doing here with Haruhi?!"

"It doesn't matter. Sakura and Naruto stay here and guard Tazuna. I'll take her back." Looks like they found Kakashi.

While she couldn't see she felt herself being shifted and handed over. The stride lengthened and she knew they were out of range from other people when Kakashi spoke.

"Are you alright?" He asked, lifting the cloth over from her head. She clutched it to her chest so she would be covered and tried not to blush at his concern.

His pace had slowed considerably since the bridge, and he lifted her to eye level, eye zeroing in on her bruised leg that was sticking out.

"I'm fine. Just wanted to talk to you." Was it just her, or did he appear to be a bit nervous at that?

"Yes?" And then suddenly the cat got her tongue. She forgot what she wanted to say.

"W-well, I um, that Gato man won't just give up, will he? And are you better?" She stuttered. His expression turned serious, eye narrowed in thought. She blushed and averted her gaze onto the dirt path. His pace had slowed to a crawl until he had stopped completely.

"Gato and his men will be back. And we'll be ready for them." He then smirked. "Haruhi, I didn't know you cared." He crooned, laughing.

"Shut up, Shittake! I save your butt!" The laughter stopped abruptly, and he leveled her a considering look. Realizing what she said she tried to explain.

"I don't know how I did that, It's just that I was so scared, and just suddenly I could."

"Well, you are a summon, it makes sense you are able to control chakra like that." Under his breath he added "An A-ranked nin.."

"Yeah. But it's got me thinking, Kakashi. As soon as we get back to Konoha, we should go to the Hokage. I only won that because they weren't expecting me. It's dangerous! Get him to unsummon me. You're great but it's probably time I head back."

Kakashi had started moving again and his pace faltered. He sighed.

"You're right. But we won't be back in Konoha for a few more weeks at least. And during that time you will be training too."

Wait, what?

She was gonna be a ninja!?

Oh boy...

Turns out, no, she was not going to be a ninja. Kakashi had taken her back to Tazuna's home, and somehow without her knowledge, Tsunami found out about her existence. She was coddled by the woman-not that she minded, and was even given new clothes she had sewn. With her being so small, it wasn't too hard to come-by the materials, that is. Tsunami brushed off her stuttered thanks, saying it was a hobby of hers to make clothing.

She had also become, uh, acquainted, with Inari.

The brat was still sulking in his room. She remembered their first meeting, and maybe it could have gone better.

"I don't believe it and nothings gonna be good!"

"Who are you!"

"Ah, Inari, where've you been!"

"Welcome back grandpa!"

"Inari that was very rude! These ninja helped your grandpa and brought him here safely!"

The boy looked out from under his fisher's hat, with a cold dead glare. He turned to his mother.

"Mom don't you see these people are gonna die! Gato and his men will come back and find them and wipe them out!"

"WHAT'D YOU SAY BRAT!" Naruto screeched. "Listen up you know what a super ninja is? Well that's me only a lot better. I'm gonna be hokage! This gato or blato or whatever is no match for a real hero like me!"

"Huh. There's no such thing as a hero." He looked up so his face could be seen. A smirk was on it." You're just full of stupid ideas!"

"…"

"WHAT'D YOU SAY!" Naruto ran forward in a rage and Sakura held him back.

"Jesus Sasuke this kid could give you a run for your money. " She said out loud. Loudly.

"…"

"W-what was that?!" The kid-Inari said.

"It's me, your conscious. We don't talk much anymore."

Inari turned and ran.

'Inari where are you going?"

"To look out at the ocean, I wanna be alone!" A door could be heard loudly slamming shut.

Defiantly could have gone better. But after a bit more bed rest and Sakura's help, her bruises and the soreness had faded. Naruto and Sasuke would come into the room after Sakura left to get something and each would try to one-up the other.

"Well, I went higher on the tree! Just look at my markings, it's a half-inch higher than yours!"

"Dobe, you wish. Your kunai is just thick-like you."

She choked on her food, and Sasuke sent a smug smirk to Naruto. That was pretty good. Kakashi was done recuperating, back at full health. Currently he was sitting in the corner and reading his trusty porn.

She couldn't say the same for Zabuza and Haku though, they definitely had an edge over them.

Sakura came back and both boys sprung apart. Last night they had started throwing punches and Sakura had walloped both of them across the head before Kakashi could lift a finger. She then fretted over Haruhi.

Naruto whined but Sasuke looked a bit put out-having believed Sakura wouldn't hurt him. She later brought this up with Kakashi when he had sent all the kids away.

"Sakura seems to have changed since the bell test. She doesn't play favorites as much." Haruhi stated.

"Well, having another female to look, uh, up to helps a lot. " She kicked his hand, trying to hide the uncomfortable feeling welling up inside her. How else were they different because of her?

And then Sakura and Kakashi cleared her for movement. She was deemed able to exercise and move about, most of the bruises healing and the cut on her shoulder considerably better.

Kakashi giggled, before it turned into menacing laughter. "Shittake, was it?"

"Uh, I'm sorry?!" She squeaked.

As it was the most necessary for her to get her chakra under control, she would start with tree climbing. He had shown her the hands signs while she was still recovering, and she picked it up with some trouble. But putting a bucket of water under her every time she fell was maybe going a bit to far. He was just lucky she knew how to swim! And yeah, she knew it was because if she fell that far she would get hurt but still!

He giggled again as she plunked into the water.

"You look like a drowned rat!"

"Kinda like how you did when Zabubu or whatever donkey kicked you into the lake!"

He was silent and she was about to crow in victory. Until he turned the bucked upside down.

"GET ME OUT OF THIS MUD!"

"No." Kakashi said petulantly.

Not to worry-training wasn't usually like that. At the end of the week and after much mud she was able to climb the tree eye level with Kakashi and hold it for a solid minute. She also practiced landing with chakra.

Could she talk about that for a minute? Chakra, that is?

Well she figured out why she had been feeling so weird for the past week. And what that weird feeling was when they were attacked by the demon brothers. Chakra. Over the weeks it must have slowly assimilated into her body. Every time she called upon it, it was like a kick in the ass, like she was hooked up to an IV drip full of 5-hour energy.

When she awkwardly twisted her fingers into hand-signs, she felt tugs behind her gut.

But one of the kids was always there to cheer her on. She kissed Naruto's cheek one time when he said something particularly sweet, and Kakashi shooed him away and pouted.

Teasingly she asked if he wanted another one, only for him to disappear in a shower of leaves that completely covered her.

At first they were all hesitant about the whole training to take down missing nin thing.

"Why was I able to stop Zabuza? Because you've all helped me. You've grown." Kakashi said.

And then Haruhi helpfully pitched in with the small detail of her taking down a clone and the other nin all by herself.

Even if it was a fluke.

It still helped moral though.

But make no mistake- they were working harder than she had ever seen before. Both of the boys had mastered tree climbing, and Sakura had even make huge steps in water-walking. Kakashi was going over what he knew with them with Zabuza, and speculating about Haku.

It was, in fact when she had worriedly went with Sasuke to check on him after he hadn't come back to the house that she realized he was talking with Haku.

By this time she had nagged at Sasuke the entire morning to hurry up. And while she was in no hurry to go anywhere with Sasuke, she couldn't help but worry about Naruto, the knucklehead. They were almost at the training clearing and still no sign of Haku along the path. Would Sasuke recognize him? Asking to slow down or turn back would look way too suspicious, especially since she was the one who wanted to get here as soon as possible.

Shit.

Sasuke walked silently, and she gripped the wide collar as he crouched into the bushes. Soft murmuring could be heard and she could just make out the bright orange of Naruto's jacket.

A piece of his hair-damn they should cut that-fell and partially blocked her vision.

She tossed it back over his head band and he leaned over a bit more.

"…"

"You can come out now."

!

She ducked back down behind Sasuke's neck, his hair and high collar hiding her. He stepped into the clearing.

"Behave!" She hissed as quietly as she could. She couldn't see much of anything from this angle, but she could hear.

"Sasuke! What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, dobe. Whose this?" Sasuke said, barely masking his hostility.

"My name it Haku." Haku said in a voice that actually was very feminine. She could feel Sasuke sizing him up. Maybe he recognized the long hair?

"Yeah Sasuke! They're gathering herbs, their friend is sick!" She noticed the lack of gender pronouns.

"Why don't you sit with us?"

Sasuke sat down carefully and far away from the two. Naruto went back to talking like nothing happened. He told Haku about his dreams and motivations, and Sasuke perked up in interest.

"So are you doing it for this certain person? Or are you doing all this training for yourself?" Here they go. A cornerstone of the Naruto series about to be set.

"You see, when a person has something precious they want to protect, then they become genuinely strong."

There was a silence in the clearing, and she felt Sasuke become as still as stone. She wondered how Haku would affect him.

She heard rustling.

"Let's meet again sometime."

Silence. She could hear Naruto get up, but Sasuke surprisingly sat in place. He was frozen.

"Hey." She whispered, leaning back into sight. "It's something you can think about, but not now." He nodded slowly, lifting her out of his collar and getting up. It was a testament of the impact of Haku's words when Naruto didn't even argue he should be the one holding Haruhi.

"...It's like when Kakashi was freed from the prison and needed to protect us, he was able to take down Zabuza. Because he had something precious to protect." Sasuke spoke aloud.

"Yeah." Said Naruto.

"And it's like when you two had to protect me and Sakura. You two worked together and freed Kakashi. " Haruhi pointed out.

"Who was he?" Sasuke asked.

"You heard them. You'll probably find out."