The next morning after Naruto had woken up and created several hundred clones to work on his jutsu and his elemental training, while he had left with Tazuna to head over to the bridge. When they got there the place was already fairly busy and Naruto was forced over to one of the sides of the large unfinished bridge so that he could watch the 'master bridge builder' work while at the same time not getting in the way of him or the others working on the bridge's construction.
Naruto looked over at all the construction workers who were doing construction on the unfinished, but still impressive, bridge. He had been here for several hours and had to admit he was getting kind of bored really bored if he were honest with himself. Standing around watching an old man and a bunch of people running around working without doing anything himself was really boring.
Naruto sighed as he looked up at the sky, I'm really beginning to regret letting Kakashi-sensei talk me into this. Even staying with Sasuke-teme and Sakura would have been better than this.
"You seem kind of bored standing around here all by yourself," Tazuna commented as he carried a large piece construction metal from one side of the bridge to another.
Naruto turned to look at him with a grin, "Are you kidding. I'd much rather deal with an old drunk like you than a girl who would rather smash my face in than say even one kind word, and a brooding emo teme who only speaks in one syllable grunts."
"Hahaha, you know kid, you're alright!" Tazuna laughed as he set down the construction metal for the other workers to grab and weld to the end of bridge where they were extending the length that would eventually reach the mainland.
"Hey Tazuna!"
Naruto and Tazuna turned to see one of the workers coming over to the old bridge builder. A man wearing an outfit similar to Tazuna's who was bald and looked around the same age as the bridge builder himself was.
"Hn?" Tazuna scratched his ear as he looked over at the man, "What is it Giichi?"
Giichi looked at Tazuna with a small frown, "I've been doing a lot of thinking recently and, I'm thinking about stopping my work on the bridge."
"What!" Tazuna yelled in surprise, "This is so sudden! Why would you do this!"
"Tazuna, we've been close friends for a long time now," Giichi started, and Naruto sensed a 'but' coming. "I want to help you, but if we continue this work Gato will notice us. And if you get killed, then what's the point?"
Naruto walked over to the two of them with a small frown, he did not like this man's cowardice. It seems Tazuna-Ojisan was right; the people here have lost their courage.
"We should quit building this bridge while we're ahead," The man continued on, trying to impress the reasons he wanted to quit upon his friend.
"I can't do that," Tazuna placed a hand on his construction helmet and tilted it down as he looked at the man. "This bridge is our bridge. This is the bridge we started building together believing it would bring resources to our super poor country."
The man looked at Tazuna imploringly, "But if we lose our lives-!"
"It's already noon, let's stop for today," Tazuna interrupted Giichi, turning around and leaving the man before he stopped and spoke without looking back, "Giichi, you don't have to come back tomorrow."
Naruto found himself frowning as he followed Tazuna into the city and took a look around. Said city looked more like a hovel than anything else. The buildings were run down and in a state of total disrepair and looked even more dilapidated now that he could see them up close.
The grocery stores had very little in the way of food, and what they were selling was un-fresh and rotten.
People were looking over their shoulder as they walked, almost as if they expected to be attacked or stabbed in the back by some unknown enemy. Parents were shooing their kids down the streets in an effort to get home faster.
But worst of all were the many people who obviously had nowhere to go and were simply sitting on the street sidewalks and alleyways. Some of them held signs that said they were willing to work for food, some just sat or leaned against buildings looking like they had not eaten in months. Many of these people who were starving appeared to be children.
Looking at this place and seeing how bad the people here had it brought pain to the young blonde's heart. It reminded him a lot of his childhood, the year after he had been kicked out of the orphanage and had been forced to look through the garbage in the hopes of getting a decent meal. Fortunately, he was snapped out of his reverie and growing depression by Tazuna.
"I'm supposed to bring home food for lunch." He started saying as he and Naruto made their way to what looked like it was supposed to be a store, if it weren't for the fact that there was only a small amount of food and it was almost all rotten.
"Here we are," Tazuna said as he entered the store.
Naruto followed in and watched as Tazuna looked around at the meager amount of food they had. There's hardly any food here, the blond thought to himself.
Naruto had known what it was like to starve, having been kicked out of the orphanage when he was five. He had lived on the street for a year and had taken to eating out of the trashcan. In fact, it was because he had gone to try and get something out of the trash can at one Ichiraku's Ramen that Naruto had been able to get an apartment. It had been a stroke of luck that the Sandaime Hokage had been eating there at the time and had spotted Naruto. After getting the story from the blond, Sarutobi had made sure to get the boy his own place to live.
Seeing the poor amount of food and the state said food was in made him wonder whether it was better to have food all around you, but not be able to eat it. Or better knowing there was not enough food to feed yourself with.
It probably doesn't matter in the end, he said to himself as Tazuna finished buying his goods and left the store.
Naruto followed soon after and as they began to walk down the street again, felt a small tug on his leg. Stopping the blond turned around and looked down to see a child, who couldn't be more than five or six, he was twig thin and wearing nothing but dirty rags. He had his hands sticking out in front of him, making it obvious what he wanted.
"Hey Tazuna," Naruto said in a soft voice, but still loud enough for the bridge builder to hear. The man turned around to see Naruto looking at the small child. "I'm sorry, but do you think I could stay here for a while…?"
Tazuna looked from Naruto, then to the child and back to Naruto again.
"Sure thing kid," Tazuna said, realizing what was going on.
Naruto smiled as he created a ram seal. "Kage Bunshin No Jutsu," he said, causing a clone to appear next to him, "My clone will escort you back home."
Tazuna nodded to Naruto as the clone caught up with him. When the two of them started leaving Naruto looked down at the awed kid who was looking at his retreating clone and smiled.
"Do you have any friends or family that are also hungry?" Naruto asked.
The kid looked away from the direction his clones took off and looked at him. "Uh huh, I've got my onii-chan, and lots of friends who are…" He trailed off and looked down.
Naruto nodded in understanding as he held out his hand, "Why don't you show me where they are, and I can make all of you some food."
The child looked at Naruto's hand for a second before taking it and leading Naruto to where the other orphans and homeless people he knew were.
"Tsunami! I'm home!" Tazuna called out as he entered the house, taking off his helmet and putting it on the coat hanger next to the door.
Kakashi who was reading over on the couch looked up and frowned underneath his mask, "Tazuna-san, where is Naruto?"
"Oh the kid," Tazuna rubbed the back of his head and gave an excuse to cover for the blond. "Don't worry about him, he made one of those clones to escort me, he said he still had some things he needed to do in the city."
Kakashi's frown deepened, Naruto has grown a lot in the past month, so I don't think he'll do anything reckless. Still, this is Naruto we're talking about, so it may be good to ere on the side of caution…
"Thank you Tazuna-san," Kakashi said as he stood up and made his way towards the door. "I think I'm going to check and see how my other students are doing."
Tazuna watched as Kakashi left before shrugging and moving into the kitchen where Tsunami most likely was.
When Kakashi left the house, he bit his thumb and began to make several hand signs. He sighed as he felt some of the small amount of chakra he had leave him, he would only be able to use this once until his reserves were completely recovered. Slamming his hand into the ground as he called out a jutsu,
"Kuchiyose No Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!" As soon as his hand touched the dirt, a seal array appeared on the ground under his hand.
There was a puff of smoke and when it cleared, Kakashi saw a small pug sitting there. The pug was wearing a blue vest with a Konoha headband, and had a lazy expression on its face.
"Yo Kakashi," The pug said as it lifted a paw in greeting. "You haven't called me lately, is there something you need?"
"Pakkun," Kakashi greeted, reaching into his pouch and pulling out a small torn bandage. "I need you to find the person this scent belongs to, come back and tell me if he's alright."
Pakkun nodded as he took a whiff of the scent. Putting his nose to the ground, he sniffed around a bit before looking up, "I got the scent Kakashi, I'll see you later."
As Pakkun took off, Kakashi looked after him before sighing and going back inside.
"… And then the chunin and jonin of our village all started chasing me around the village." Naruto finished telling the story of his grandest prank of defacing the Hokage Monument to the kids who had gathered around him.
The child who had come up to him begging for food, had led Naruto to where a group of fifteen people ranging from the ages of five to twelve had been, all of them wearing the same rag-like clothes that he was and all of them starving from lack of food.
With a talent for showboating that only a prankster of his caliber could have, Naruto had proceeded to wow the entire group by creating fifty clones of himself. He had divided them up into groups. Group one was twenty-five clones who had used his still-fledging water-walking skills to stand above the water with a net and catch as many fish as they could. Clone group two had been twenty clones split into two groups of ten. One group had gone to get fire wood, while the other built several fire pits to cook the food caught. The last group had been five clones who were given the task of helping Naruto play with the children.
They had done everything from playing tag to giving piggy back rides. Naruto had even shown them some of his less destructive jutsu such as the jutsu he had now taken to calling the Kage Henge (Shadow Transformation), due to the fact that Anko had told him his jutsu was not an illusion like the standard Henge but a real transformation.
Once the clones had finished cooking Naruto had gotten the children to settle down, and he and his clones had passed out food to them, watching in a mixture of amusement and sadness as the group of ragtag kids devoured their meal as if they had not eaten in months. The blond suspected that this was actually very close to the truth.
"That's so cool Onii-chan!" One of the kids said, a little girl with long brown hair and green eyes.
Naruto grinned at her, "Yeah it was, until Iruka-sensei caught me at least." He finished with a bit of a sheepish expression.
"Who's Iruka-sensei Nii-chan?" asked another kid.
"He's the person who taught me to be a ninja," Naruto replied, leaning back on his hands as he looked at the group that was gathered around him. "He's pretty cool, except that he always seems to have this magical ability to find me after my pranks."
Naruto stayed with the kids for the next several hours, regaling them in tales of his pranks. He had to admit it was nice to have a receptive audience who loved to hear about his pranking career, since before it had never really been seen in anyway except a negative light aside from his 'rival for Hokage' Konohamaru, but he had only seen the kid a few times in passing since he became a ninja.
Looking up at the sky Naruto frowned when he saw that the sun was starting to set,
"Well it looks like I have to get going." He stood up, much to the disappointed of the kids.
"Awww! Do you have to Onii-chan?" asked the one who had led him here.
Naruto smiled and ruffled the kid's hair, "Yeah I do…I have to help protect the bridge builder. He's going to save this country from Gato, to make sure that you guys can all live happy lives again."
"Really?" the boy said in an awed tone.
Naruto gave the boy his foxy grin, "Of course! Which is why I have to protect him, that way Gato doesn't try to pull anything funny!"
"Wow…you're like a hero!" one of the girls said.
Naruto chuckled a bit; hiding the small amount of hurt those words gave him. Sarutobi had said he was the hero of Konoha, the one who protected it from the Kyuubi; but none of the people saw him like that. However, here were people he had just met, kids, but people none the less, that thought he was a hero. It was both a heartwarming feeling and slightly depressing.
"You think so…? Maybe," Naruto said, giving the little girl a smile, "it's nice to know some people think that anyway."
Less than fifteen minutes later Naruto walked through the front door to Tazuna's house.
"I'm back," Naruto called out as he went over to the table where his team along with Tazuna and his family were sitting, eating dinner.
Kakashi looked up from his book and gave his blond student the ever famous eye-smile, "Ah. Naruto, did you take care of whatever business you had?"
Naruto nodded as he sat down and began piling food onto his plate, "Yep. It's all taken care of."
I think I should have realized something like this would happen, Kakashi thought to himself as he went back to his book, but didn't read in favor of his thoughts. Given that while different, the situation a lot of these people are in is similar to Naruto's earlier years.
Kakashi had been able to find out what Naruto was doing through Pakkun. What he had found was both surprising, and at the same time not so surprising.
Having been in the ANBU at one point, Kakashi was one of the people who Sarutobi had placed as a guard for Naruto after giving the boy his apartment. It was an unnecessary precaution for the most part, as most people would follow the law and only a few would try and break it, mostly drunks that he and the ANBU dealt with before they became a threat to Naruto.
The blond had rarely ever been able to get any food for himself. Most if not all of the stores refused to sell to him, and the one store that did charged triple the price for rotten goods. Even after having this reported to the Hokage nothing had changed for Naruto, especially since the civilian council had managed to horde more political power after the Kyuubi's attack before Sarutobi had reclaimed his position and now controlled nearly all of the stores, and those they did not were blacklisted if they allowed Naruto entrance, making it very hard for his student to get food.
That he would already be working on water walking is impressive. It still looked a little shaky, but the fact that he can already stand on water shows he's training hard.
Kakashi was actually impressed with the initiative of his blond student, as most would wait for their sensei to begin teaching them. That Naruto had taken to learning things himself showed that he was willing to go above and beyond to learn and grow stronger.
Kakashi looked over at his other two students, both of whom did not have the same motivation and determination the blond had. Hopefully he can help me with the other two.
As everyone began eating again, Naruto looked over at his two teammates. Sakura did not look like she had done nearly as much as he had her do the other day. Obviously Kakashi had not been going as hard on her.
He probably stayed in the house and read his smut, the blond thought with a sigh.
The problem Naruto had realized when he had his Kage Bunshin helping Sakura was that she lacked the motivation to actually train. During the time his Kage Bunshin had been training her, the pinkette had taken to complaining about how he was a slave driver and how all this training would make her look 'manly'. It did not help that she refused to eat properly, preferring to diet rather than remain skinny and toned by exercising.
His eyes then landed on Sasuke who was once again bruised and dirtied, and scarfing down food even faster than him.
At least one of them knows how to work hard. While Naruto did not feel Sasuke had the proper motivation to get stronger that Naruto did, he knew that the raven-haired Genin always worked harder than the others on what he was being taught than the others that had been in their class.
"Hey teme," Naruto said, making Sasuke pause mid-bite to eye the blond. "How's that tree climbing coming?" Naruto asked with a cheeky grin.
Sasuke glared at Naruto as he swallowed. His tree climbing wasn't coming all that well; he had only managed to get ten steps higher then yesterday.
"Better," Sasuke lied with a smug look, not wanting to give Naruto the satisfaction of knowing he was having difficulties with the exercise. "Pretty soon I'll have this exercise complete."
"Oh?" Naruto said with a raised eyebrow. "So you call ten steps higher than last time better? I didn't realize that an 'elite' Uchiha felt such a small amount of progress was something to be proud of."
Oh no, Kakashi sweatdropped as his blond student began antagonizing his raven-haired student. This doesn't look good.
"Naruto-baka! Stop-" Sakura did not get to finish as Naruto tossed her a small glare laced with killing intent, not in the mood to listen to her shouting.
Sasuke stiffened in his seat as he glared at Naruto, "How did you know that? Were you spying on me?"
"Hardly," Naruto scoffed, "I have several clones stationed around the house for added protection. One of them simply saw you training."
"And what do you care!" Sasuke hissed, angry that the dobe was making fun of him. And that the dobe had surpassed him in something he should be able to do easily.
"You're my teammate, of course I would care," Naruto said with a shrug, surprising Sasuke and the others. "I may dislike your stuck-up attitude, but you're still my teammate." Naruto looked over at Sasuke, the sides of his mouth twitching upwards a bit. "And if you ask nicely, I may just be willing to lend you a hand."
Everyone looked over at Sasuke, who seemed to be having some kind of inner debate. The raven-haired Genin looked over at Naruto to see the blond looking at him with a calm expression.
When did the dobe become like this? He asked himself. Ever since that Genin test he's been like this. No…I think he was like this even before that. But I don't know how or when. When did he change?
Sasuke closed his eyes for a second as he tried to decide what to do.
"I…" Sasuke paused, as if what he was going to say next was some kind of sin, "I would like your help…"
Those who thought Naruto might say no just to string the Uchiha along were surprised when the blond just gave a nod, "Then wake up around 7:00 tomorrow morning and we'll get started on tree climbing."
Kakashi looked at the two and gave a small smile that went unnoticed under his mask, I guess there was nothing to worry about. Naruto seems to be getting through to Sasuke after all.
What's going on? Wondered Sakura as she looked between her two teammates. One minute Naruto-baka is insulting Sasuke-kun, and the next he's offering to help him? Does he have some kind multiple personality disorder or something?
CHA! THAT'S GOT TO BE IT! WHY ELSE WOULD HE ACT LIKE SUCH A BAKA! SHANNARO! Inner Sakura ranted, seemingly in agreement.
However one person there was getting fed up with the way these ninja were acting. Tears began to form in Inari's eyes as he glared at Naruto. An act which did not go unnoticed by said blond.
"You got something you want to say kid?" asked Naruto as he eyed the now ready to burst Inari.
Inari stood up and slammed his hands down on the table, "Why do you guys bother to try so hard! No matter how hard you train, you're no match for Gato's men! No matter what glorious claims you make or how hard you work when facing the strong, the weak will only end up getting killed!"
Naruto smirked at the kid, "You know you're exactly right."
Everyone who had been expecting some kind of outburst looked over at Naruto in surprise as he spoke.
"The weak will always be defeated by the strong," The blond looked up at Inari, his smirk widening a tad. "Gato and his men are weak, there nothing but cowards who pick on people who can't even put up a fight against them. They can only fight against people who don't have the strength, or the will to fight back. Against a fully trained shinobi, a bunch of thugs means nothing." Naruto put his head down on the table as he looked away from Inari, "We are not weak. Don't lump us in the same category as you, we're nothing alike."
Inari's tears began to run down his face even harder than before as he glared at Naruto, "I'm glad we're nothing alike! I'd hate to be like you! You don't know anything about this country, yet you keep being so nosy! What the hell do you know about me! I'm different from you; you're always acting so happy, like you don't even have a care in the world! You don't know how hard life can be!"
Naruto lifted his head up and glared at the kid, unconsciously channeling killing intent into his gaze, enough so that Inari's eyes widened and he began to shake. Having never experienced killing intent, Inari was unable to properly defend himself and was forced to sit back down, as his legs were no longer capable of supporting him.
"Listen to yourself, bitching and moaning about your life. Thinking you've got it so hard," Naruto's voice was soft, an almost unnoticeable whisper. Yet it somehow managed to carry across the entire room, and was thick with a rage that even Sakura, oblivious as she normally was to Naruto, could hear. Several of the people in the room flinched, including Inari.
Naruto stood up and walked over to the kid who was too frightened from the blonds killing intent to move. Naruto's glare seemed to increase as his mind went back to the children he had met in Nami. The ones that had nowhere to go, whose parents had disappeared, most likely due to Gato having his men kill them.
"You sit here in this home with your loving family, with a mom who cooks for you, and worries about you, and loves you unconditionally. You have a grandfather who is building a bridge so that you and your country can be free of Gato's reign," Naruto snorted at the boy in disgust. "What a hard life! Oh my tou-san died, boo hoo, look at me whine and bitch like some little pussy!"
Having enough of her teammate berating the kid Sakura stood up and glared at Naruto, "Naruto-baka th-"
"Shut! Up!" Naruto punctuated both words with a harsh glare, his killing intent turning on Sakura who paled and sat down as she found her legs unable to support her.
Naruto turned his gaze back on Inari, "I bet you've never even stepped foot outside this little sanctuary have you? Never even been into the town recently, where children even younger than you have lost their parents, both of them! Children who don't have a mom to cook them food, or a grandfather who's willing to stand against a tyrant for them!"
Naruto remembered his own past, being kicked out of the orphanage at a young age, living on the street for nearly a year. Not being able to buy food from the stores unless it was rotten, being forced to find a lot of the stuff he owned in the garbage cans from the people who had thrown their stuff away.
But most of all he remembered the loneliness he had to deal with.
The glares and harsh whispers people had given him.
'Look it's 'him'!'
'Who does he think he is, walking around this street like he owns the place!'
'Listen you are not to go near that 'boy' again!'
'I'm so glad he didn't become a ninja.'
'Yeah could you imagine what would happen if he did. I mean he's the-'
Naruto gritted his teeth as voices flashed through his mind, "I'm glad I'm nothing like you! You're nothing but a pussy, sitting here whining about how hard your life has been when there are people in your own town who have it far worse than you! A sniveling little bitch whose disgraced Kaiza's name!"
Inari's eyes widened as the blond mentioned the name of his father figure.
Naruto snorted in disgust before turning around and heading towards the door.
"Naruto, where are you going?" Kakashi asked as the blond opened the door.
"Destructive therapy!" Naruto yelled as he slammed the door shut.
Every one stared at the door Naruto had left through; wondering what had caused the blond to have such a strong reaction to Inari's words. Inari sniffled several times before he too ran out of the door.
This is a disaster, though I can't say I'm surprised that Naruto reacted like that, Kakashi thought as he stood up, putting his book for the moment. He stood up and walked out the door. Walking around to the back, he saw Inari sitting with his feet dangling over the water.
"Can I join you?" asked Kakashi, causing Inari to turn his head.
"Tajuu Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!"
There was a large puff of smoke that covered the clearing as Naruto summoned over four hundred clones. Without preamble Naruto unsealed his bo staff and charged them. Smashing into their midst with a furry that seemed to give his namesake new meaning.
The clones who had been surprised by the sudden and brutal attack began to retaliate. Striking out with limbs and kunai in an attempt to take down there creator.
Naruto snarled as he dodged some attacks, blocked others and then retaliated with a vengeance. A strike to the head for one clone, a dazzling set of spinning maneuvers that ended up taking out a horde of the Naruto copies. The blond shinobi did not stop at just using his staff however. He used feet, elbows, head butts, knees, anything he could think of as he tore through his Kage Bunshin.
He did get a hit a few times, several kunai got stuck in his torso, a few cuts appeared on his arms, and bruises came to his face. However Naruto continued on, fighting like a man possessed until the last clone had been killed.
When they were all gone Naruto stood there, hunched over and panting. His eyes began to droop as he fell onto his back. One last thought passed through his mind as he fell into blissful unconsciousness.
The nerve of that brat, thinking I don't know what it means to suffer…
"It seems we're out of medical herbs," Haku mumbled with a sigh. Closing the pantry the hunter ninja walked back into Zabuza's room.
Walking over to the bed, Haku looked down at him. "You were far more injured than I thought. We're all out of herbs."
"What's your point?" grunted Zabuza.
"My point is I need to go out and get some more for you," Haku's gave the man a blank stare, slightly irritated by Zabuza's cavalier attitude. "I'll be back some time around noon, I should be able to get enough for you to finish healing."
"Whatever," Zabuza grunted, trying to shift his position in the bed despite the sharp pains he felt as he moved.
Haku looked over at the Akuma brothers, "Take care of him while I'm gone. If I find out that you've let him bully you into letting him so much as sit…"
The two brothers gulped at the implied threat, "Don't worry Haku, we won't let him talk us into anything," Said Gouzu, the older brother.
Haku looked away, "You said that last time as well." Not waiting for a reply Haku left the room.
Haku hummed a small tune while walking through the forest, looking for the herbs that the fake hunter ninja had found a few days ago. After passing a particularly large tree Haku found the herbs. Bending over to pick one up before pausing, having caught sight of a figure lying on the ground a little ways away.
Acting cautious Haku approached the prone figure to see who it was, recognizing the blond that had come up with that plan and used the collaboration jutsu to nearly kill Zabuza. The hunter's breath hitched, wondering what should be done.
Kneeling down Haku looked the figure over. The boy had tears in his cloak and clothing, showing off the blonde's surprisingly muscular figure underneath. There were also a lot of kunai and shuriken strewn around him, and dried blood over his clothes and on the ground.
Haku reached a hand out to the blonde's throat. The boy was a hindrance to Zabuza's plan; the best option would be to remove him before he could cause a problem. However, Haku paused midway to Naruto's throat, sighed and gently began to shake the blonde's shoulder.
"Hey, wake up. You'll catch a cold if you sleep out here," Haku said.
Naruto stirred; stifling a groan he opened his eyes. And the first thing he saw was…
"Tenshi?" he asked as he saw a beautiful girl with a heart-shaped face and a set of chocolate brown eyes. His slightly groggy and his sleep addled mind coming to what he obviously thought was the correct conclusion.
Haku blushed at being called an angel, "I'm afraid not. If I was, you would have to be dead in order for us to meet."
Naruto blinked a bit as the blurriness to his vision began to clear up. Sitting up he stretched his arms above his head as he let out a loud yawn. Bringing his hands back down and leaning against them, Naruto turned to look at the person who had woken him.
It was a young woman who looked to be maybe a year or two older than him. She had long dark brown hair, and chocolate brown eyes. She was wearing a pink yukata with blue floral designs on it. A small black choker was around her neck. She was currently smiling at him with a kind smile.
Naruto blushed a bit, "Um…sorry. I just um…" he said, unsure what to say.
Haku giggled a bit, "That's perfectly alright. Though, you should be more careful, if you stay out here all night long you may catch a cold and die. Then you really would be seeing angels."
"How is that?" Naruto asked, scratching the back of his head. "I didn't know colds could kill. And in any case I've never been sick a day in my life." He paused as he looked over at Haku and tilted his head and gave an expression of curiosity, "So what about you? What are you doing this early in the morning?"
Haku smiled and lifted the basket she was holding, "I'm picking some herbs for my…friend who got injured a while ago. I'm gathering these to help in his recovery."
"That's actually pretty cool," Naruto said, gaining an interested look in his eye. "I've been reading about herbs since I have picked up a small hobby in gardening a while ago, but I don't really know too much. Do you need any help picking them?"
"That would be nice," Haku said as she bent down, setting the basket back on the ground and grabbed a few of the herbs.
Nodding his head Naruto formed a quick hand seal, "Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!"
A clone appeared next to Naruto before it hopped off towards the house. Bending down Naruto looked over to see Haku looking at him curiously.
"It's a clone" He explained, figuring that was why she was looking at him. "I had offered to help my teme of a teammate with his training; if I don't show up he'll probably come looking for me."
Haku nodded at the explanation and, feeling this would be an opportunity to gain some insight into Zabuza's enemies the fake hunter decided to start a conversation.
"So you're a ninja?" she asked.
Sasuke frowned as he looked around the living room and saw no sign of Naruto, "Hn. I should have known that idiot wouldn't be here. He probably realized he couldn't help me and left."
"Well that's not very nice teme," Naruto said as he walked in the door. "If that's the way you feel then perhaps I shouldn't help you."
"Hn," Sasuke grunted, looking away from Naruto. He looked back after a few seconds. "Why were you out already?"
Naruto looked over at Sasuke and shrugged, "I usually wake up this early in the morning to do my own training."
Sasuke smirked, "You sure you didn't just fall asleep in the forest?"
Naruto blushed in embarrassment, "Shut up teme! Are we gonna do this or not!"
Smirk still in place Sasuke left with a grumbling Naruto following him.
"I can't believe I'm actually going to help this teme with his training," the blond mumbled. If I wasn't a Kage Bunshin and given orders to help this prick, I would kick the boss's ass!
Naruto looked up and blinked as he registered the question. A second later he grinned, "Yeah, I am! I bet the totally awesome headband gave me away huh?"
"Maybe a little. That and the clone you made," Haku said with a smile. "So why did you decide to be a shinobi?"
Naruto paused as he grabbed a herb, he shook his head and pulled it out. "I became a shinobi so I could gain the respect of my village!" he said enthusiastically, "I plan on becoming the greatest Hokage to ever grace the elemental nations!"
Haku raised an eyebrow as Naruto jumped to his feet and pumped his fists into the air. "I see…that's quite a grand dream," Haku paused for a second before plunging on. "So what's a ninja doing out this early in the morning?"
"Erm…" Naruto blushed a bit as he remembered his destructive therapy session, "Training!"
He answered with enthusiasm. After all, destroying several hundred copies of one's self can constitute as training, right?
Haku noticed the lie but let it slide, "So why are you training?"
"To become strong of course!" Naruto shouted with a wide grin that stretched across his face and closed his eyes, making him look like a fox.
Haku looked the blond up and down, noticing the tightly packed muscles underneath Naruto's cloak, "You seem plenty strong now."
Naruto shook his head, "Maybe, but I'm not strong enough. I have to become stronger."
"To become Hokage?" asked Haku.
Naruto nodded, "Not just Hokage, but the greatest Hokage."
"Are you doing this for someone else? Or yourself?" asked Haku.
Sitting back down Naruto looked at her curiously. "Er…huh?" was his rather unintelligent reply as he scratched the back of his head.
Haku noticed the look and covered a hand to her mouth as she released a giggle.
"Hey!" Naruto shouted, a blush adorning his face at the sound of Haku's giggle, "What's so funny!"
"Nothing," Haku replied with a smile, "So do you…have someone who is important to you?"
"Someone…important?" Naruto asked in a questioning and perplexed tone.
Haku nodded, remembering the day Zabuza had come and gave her a purpose. "When a person has something important to protect, that's when they become truly strong."
Naruto paused in his herb picking as he looked up at Haku. Listening to those words, Naruto remembered Iruka-sensei protecting him from Mizuki and allowing him to graduate afterwards.
His mind flashed to Hokage-Ojisan who had been with him ever since he had been kicked out of the orphanage.
And he remembered the Ichiraku family, who owned the only restaurant (AKA food stand) that did not kick him out.
More images played through his head. Anko helping him with his tort…training in the Forest of Death, sparring against the literal fighting Hurricane Rock Lee. His growing improvement with a bo staff and recently a katana, thanks to Tenten. And her father Kaito, who sold him goods at the same price as everyone else and had given him said staff for free.
They were all people who he had grown close to. He would easily fight to protect them, even give his life.
"I know exactly what you mean," Naruto said solemnly, his usual enthusiasm and occasional snarky attitude diminished.
"You'll get strong," Haku said, seeing the understanding light enter Naruto's eyes. Standing up Haku looked at Naruto. "By the way…I'm a boy."
Naruto froze for a second, his eyes went wide, his face turned green and he felt like he wanted to vomit.
Oh no! Oh No oh no oh no! If I called a boy angel I'm gonna- he paused mid rant as Haku began to walk away and his nose caught a scent.
"You're lying," Naruto stated, causing Haku to freeze and look back at him. Grinning Naruto stood up and walked over to her, "You almost had me fooled, but there is no way you can be a guy."
Haku kept calm and merely raised an eyebrow, "Oh? What makes you say that?"
"Well, the first thing is you have no Adam's apple" Naruto had been reading up on human anatomy and so he knew that was one of the…differences between male and female.
The other differences are… he shook his head, Mind out of the gutter Naruto. Looking back at Haku he continued.
"Second, you're far too pretty to be a man," He grinned as Haku blushed, It's too bad I can't make Anko turn red like that…Gah!
He shook his head again and cursed Anko for corrupting him. "And finally, no self-respecting male would ever smell of lavender and lilac."
"I…see," was all Haku said, to surprised that someone had called her out to actually say anything, though a part of her mind was trying to come up with an excuse for posing as a boy.
"I'm guessing you're posing as a male because of Gato's reign of tyranny over the island?" Naruto asked.
Haku felt herself relax as the blond unwittingly provided a cover story. "Yes, Gato's men have been known to do things that were…less than savory to women that they catch alone."
Naruto nodded, "Yeah I could imagine that slime who already works for someone as slimy as Gato would do…things like that." He tilted his head for a second before smiling and thumping his chest, "I know! Why don't I escort you home? That way if any of Gato's goons even try to touch, I'll beat the shit out of them."
Haku giggled but grew worried as she tried to find a way out of this situation, "That's ok, I don't want to interrupt your training. I have already taken too much of your time."
Naruto opened his mouth to protest but Haku cut him off, "Please do not concern yourself with me, I have been evading Gato's men in the morning ever since he came here."
"…Oh, well ok," Naruto said in a somewhat dejected voice. He perked up again after a few seconds. Looking up he saw Haku walking away again. "Wait!" He called out as he ran to catch up with her.
"Yes?" Haku asked as she turned around, wondering what the blond would want this time.
"Um…well I was just…" Naruto blushed and squirmed a bit before pressing on. "I was just wondering if…if I could see you again…like tomorrow maybe?"
Haku bit her lip as she was presented with this new dilemma. On the one hand this would be a good opportunity to learn more about Zabuza's enemy. On the other hand, she would be playing with a young boy's heart, someone who for some odd reason reminded her of herself. However, her desire to help Zabuza overrode her desire to keep the young blond from being heartbroken.
"I can do that," She said with a smile, even as her stomach churned a bit. "What time would you like me to meet you?"
"How about 7:00 tomorrow morning?" Naruto suggested with a smile, relieved that she had not turned him down. Though he had hung out with Tenten a lot, and gone out to get dango with Anko, he had never actually considered those to be 'dates'.
Though I'm not sure if this would be considered a date, He thought to himself before shaking his head and dispelling the thought. It really didn't matter if it was or wasn't.
"Ok," Haku said, "I'll meet you here tomorrow at 7:00 am tomorrow. Until then," She gave him a small bow of her head before leaving Naruto alone.
Sighing Naruto scratched his head, "So what should I do now…?"
He could start training again. He had not been able to train his body yesterday because he had been protecting Tazuna, and he did not actually count his enraged clone slaughter last night as training.
"Yeah! That's exactly what I'll do! Time for some training!" he shouted as he pumped his fist in the air.
Then his stomach growled.
"Hmm…perhaps I should train after I eat something…"
In another clearing Naruto watched Sasuke run up the tree with a frown. The raven-haired Genin had made some decent progress, going twenty more steps up the tree. But it still was not anywhere near the top.
Sasuke grunted as his foot was blasted off the trunk from using too much chakra. He scratched the spot with his kunai before rebounding against several trees before landing on the ground. Looking up he scowled.
I only made it four more steps! How can I gain the strength needed to kill Itachi when I can't even do this!
"Looks like you're using too much chakra still…" Naruto commented.
Sasuke glared at Naruto, "Shut it dobe!"
"Don't yell at me!" Naruto glared at his raven-haired teammate, "I'm here to help you!"
Sasuke scoffed, "Some help you are. All you do is tell me I'm 'using too much chakra'," He said in seeming imitation of Naruto.
"I see," Naruto paused for a moment. "Fine then, I guess you'll do better off without my help," Turning around Naruto began to leave.
"Wait!"
The blond stopped and looked back at Sasuke who looked like he was swallowing something vile.
"I…I'm…I'm sorry," He mumbled out at last, "Please help me."
It sounded like he was choking on the words, Naruto thought with a mental chuckle. "Weeelll, I suppose I could."
Walking back into the clearing Naruto stopped in front of Sasuke. Taking a deep breath he began to speak, "Your first problem is you're using too much chakra." Sasuke scowled but did not say anything. "I think the reason is you're not thinking with a clear head. Whenever I did this exercise, if I thought about anything other than climbing the tree, I lost my control and would fall off the tree."
He paused to see if Sasuke understood his words, receiving a nod he continued. "So what you need to do is clear your mind. Don't think of how you can't do this, or how superior you are to everyone else, or even of how you want to kill your brother for what he did to your clan."
"How do you know about that?" Sasuke asked with a glare.
"I read a bingo book and your brother was in there, it said he was wanted for killing the Uchiha clan," Naruto said with a shrug, patting the pouch where his bingo book was located. "It wasn't hard to figure out who the 'man you intend to kill' was after that. And while I can understand why you want to, right now thinking about him is merely a distraction for you. Now, clear your mind and being channeling your chakra."
Sasuke sighed and decided to do as ask. It couldn't hurt more than anything he had been doing recently. When all thoughts, even the many plotted ways he would kill Itachi, were gone, he channeled his chakra to the bottom of his feet. Feeling ready he ran at the tree, jumping on and sticking his feet to the trunk he began to move up, two steps, four steps, ten steps, fifteen, thirty, fifty five, sixty. Before Sasuke knew it he had reached the top of the tree.
Blinking in a bit of surprise he grabbed onto the top and swung himself on the top most branches. He looked out over the forest, seeing how far it went on. He looked back down to see Naruto looking at him with a smirk. Unbidden a smirk came to his own face.
It looks like the dobe has his uses after all…
Later that night Naruto came in with a beaten and battered looking Sasuke, said raven-haired Genin's arm was around the whiskered blonds shoulder as Naruto held him up and walked over to the table.
"SASUKE-KUN!" Sakura screeched as she saw Sasuke. Everyone winced and covered their ears at the loudness of her voice. Except for Sasuke, who was simply too tired to cover his ears, and Naruto who was holding Sasuke up. "Naruto-baka! What did you do to Sasuke-kun!"
"Quiet down Sakura," Naruto said in an annoyed tone. "I was just helping Sasuke with his training," The blond looked over at Kakashi. "He can reach the top now, so we're working on perfecting his tree walking."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow as he looked up from his book. "What do you mean perfecting?" he asked in curiosity.
Naruto grunted as he set Sasuke down at the table, said raven-haired Genin resting his head on the table as soon as he was seated. "What I mean is, perfecting. I was told that the tree climbing exercise is not truly mastered until you can stay on a vertical surface for one hour, while in combat," The blond answered as he grabbed a plate and some food.
"That's actually a good idea," Kakashi said, looking over at Sakura. "Sakura, tomorrow, Naruto and I will be guarding the bridge; I want you and Sasuke to work on mastering tree climbing."
Sakura paled a bit at the thought of doing what Naruto had said, but nodded as it would not be wise to go against her sensei, "Yes Kakashi-sensei."
"Good," eye-smiling Kakashi turned to Naruto, "You don't have a problem with this do you Naruto?"
Naruto shook his head, "That's fine; I can get my training done early in the morning before we leave."
"Excellent!" Kakashi said with another eye-smile, "I'll be counting on you to back me up in case something happens."
Naruto grinned, "You just want me there so that if a something does happen, you can read your porn while I do all the fighting."
"Now you know that's not true Naruto," Kakashi said with a fake tone of hurt, which may have been more believable had he not gone back to reading his porn. "I would never let a comrade fight on his own if I could help it."
"Uh huh sure," Naruto rolled his eyes as he began eating. "You would be more convincing if you weren't reading your precious Icha Icha right now sensei."
"Well, you never know when I'll get another chance," Kakashi said as he turned the page and dutifully ignoring the glares from the two females in the house. "Especially if something happens tomorrow; I have to use my time wisely after all."
"Hah!" Naruto laughed, "Just admit it; you're a lazy ass bastard who simply doesn't want to do anything other than read his porn."
Throughout the whole conversation Sakura who had been getting increasingly red, spoke up. "Would you two shut up! I don't want to hear you talking about sensei's porn addiction!"
CHA! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT OUR DIRTY OLD SENSEI READING PORN! SHANNARO! Inner Sakura raged.
Kakashi and Naruto looked at each other before shrugging.
"Sure Sakura," Naruto said, another grin coming to his face, one that Kakashi recognized as the grin when the blond was doing his pranks. "If you want we can talk about how you have a shrine of Sasuke hidden in the back of your closet instead…"
As soon as Naruto said that several different things happened. Kakashi dropped his book as he fought to keep from laughing. Tazuna did laugh. Inari looked confused as he wondered why someone would have a shrine of another person in their closet. Tsunami blushed a bit as she wondered if Sakura might have some kind of mental problems. Sasuke blanched, turning as pale as a ghost and praying to every Kami he could think of that Naruto was lying. And Sakura…
"Na-ru-to!"
…Was red with anger, red enough to make a tomato seem pale, wondering how he knew she had a shrine dedicated to Sasuke in her closet that she paid homage to every morning.
"You're dead!"