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"Welcome to the wonderful world of D-ranks."

Naruto was starting to hate those words by now. It had been two weeks since the bell test had taken place. Kakashi had kept to his promise and started taking missions for the team the day after.

Only Naruto, and by extension his teammates, refused to believe whatever they were doing were missions.

Menial tasks such as fixing fences, taking dogs out for walks, manual labor on farms…Naruto was confused as hell as to how these tasks could be labeled in the same category as missions. He was sure Sasuke and Sakura were too.

Speaking of which, Sasuke had started asking questions about how Naruto knew wind and water ninjutsu, his taijutsu style. He even had the nerve to demand from him all the jutsu he knew. Naruto had told him in no uncertain terms that unless Sasuke was willing to share jutsu from his own repertoire, Naruto had no intention of telling him what he wanted to know.

Of course, Sasuke refused to share any jutsu of his, believing that they were Uchiha clan jutsu and as such, no one besides him could know. Naruto had scoffed at that, but Kurama had straight out burst laughing. The great beast had told him he knew at least twenty people who could perform the great fireball, only two of which were Uchiha.

Naruto had smartly countered that argument by toeing the line that was Uchiha Sasuke's pride. He had condescendingly asked if the great Uchiha library was not enough for him. Sasuke did not want to admit that he could not access it without his sharingan and he honestly believed all jutsus available outside were weak and so, did not bother to learn them.

He stopped bugging Naruto after that, much to the blonde's relief. However, Sakura had started bugging him on Sasuke's behalf to get him to hand over the jutsus, saying that a loser like him does not deserve them. Naruto was quick in shutting her up, turning her own argument against her.

He had smartly questioned her if she was implying he was weak. Sakura, unaware of what she was putting her foot into, scoffed and replied that she was not implying, she knew he was weak. After that, everything went smooth like butter.

Naruto replied that if he was weak, then by extension, the jutsu he used were also weak. And Sasuke wouldn't love Sakura if she handed him weak jutsus, right?

Sakura had adopted a worried frown at his question and seemed to come to the conclusion that he was right. She did not once question why Naruto accepted himself as weak, which was opposite of what he had displayed in the bell test. Regardless, after mocking him some more, she went back to Sasuke, who ignored her as usual.

Kakashi-sensei was also onto him, but he was a lot more cautious in his approach. He subtly framed his statements such that Naruto would have difficulty in avoiding the correct answer. But Naruto knew that if it got out he had received training from an early age, Sasuke might throw one of his tantrums, which would then result in the civilian council removing him from the ninja program.

No thank you.

Naruto, while subtle talking was not one of his strengths, decided that he would avoid talking to Kakashi outside of missions and training.

Speaking of training, Naruto tried out the taijutsu simulation his father left for him. Needless to say, he was excited as hell when he fought the first level. And he was more than surprised at how difficult it was. He may have reached a level in his resistance seals that actually permits him to try all seven levels, but only the first level's victory came at the cost of some very impressive bruises. It taught Naruto that his taijutsu, while very good, was not good enough. He increased the resistance on his body, believing if he was faster, he would be better

He tried the second level after a week and was pleased to note that the number of bruises he got were significantly less. A sign of improvement; he also learned a water and a lightning jutsu as well. A very interesting thing he learned about his red lightning was that it was very versatile and easy to use. He could mold it into anything with ease, almost like it was an extension of his body.

But enough of that. Right now, they were on a mission. A mission Naruto had absolutely no problem in failing.

The mission to capture Tora, the feudal lord's wife's cat.

It was a mission that always managed to give Naruto goosebumps. He could swear on his ramen that the old man was a sadist. He could see the joy at their pain in his eyes every time the mission to capture the blasted cat was handed out.

So far they had already caught it five times. This was the sixth. And he was ready to tear his hair out.

"This is Kakashi, everyone copy?"

"Sakura here, copy."

"Sasuke here, copy."

"Naruto here, copy."

"Does everyone have eyes on target?"

Naruto responded, "I have clear eyes on target. Just waiting for the go."

"Alright, go!"

A flash step later and Naruto had Tora secured in his arms. She was thrashing around, but he could care less. "Got him, Kakashi-sensei!" Turning to the cat, he pressed to fingers onto the cat's forehead and removed them, revealing a kanji for 'sleep'. Tora fell asleep instantly.

His teammates landed beside him, irritated expressions on their face which Kakashi expertly ignored and asked Naruto through radio, "Does it have the red ribbon on the right ear?"

Surprisingly, it was Sakura who replied, "Yes, red ribbon is there! Can we go now?!" Naruto couldn't fault her for being so infuriated. He looked over to Sasuke and saw him return to his normal brooding expression, but his clenched fists told otherwise.

Kakashi landed beside his team, eye scrunched up in that annoying eye smile of his. "Well done team 7! Capturing Tora is a success!" Naruto quietly mumbled, "Again." He seriously wanted to start doing actual missions.

XXXXXXX

After they returned to the mission hall, Kakashi asked for another D-ranked mission, much to his team's protests.

The Sandaime scrolled through the missions, "Hm, let's see….. There is a fence that needs painting, weeding to be done, dogs to be walked-"

"How about a real mission this time, jiji? Like a C-rank?" he asked the Hokage, tired of doing the chores these people called 'missions'.

Sakura was quick to scold Naruto, "Naruto! Show respect to Hokage-sama!" Surprisingly, she didn't try to hit him. Must have scared her back there, he mused.

"Naruto!" Iruka spoke with a frown, "You can't demand missions like that! Genin teams have to do D-rank missions for two to three months before they get qualified for C-ranks! And even then their jonin sensei-"

Hiruzen cut Iruka off with a gentle chuckle, "It's ok, Sakura-chan. He has called me that ever since he was little."

Sakura's eyes widened a bit in surprise as did Sasuke's. They didn't know Naruto was so close to the Hokage to the extent of calling the man a grandfather figure.

Hiruzen turned towards Kakashi, "Kakashi, do you think your team is ready for a C-rank mission?"

Kakashi thought about it a bit. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura's teamwork had progressed at a slow rate, but he can say that their teamwork had become decent. One development worth mentioning was that Sasuke now held a one sided rivalry with Naruto. With Naruto starting to hide less of his abilities, it became even more clearer that he had Sasuke outmatched in ninjutsu because of his wider repertoire of jutsus, not to mention that Naruto had shown he could use three elements and had monstrous chakra reserves due to being a jinchuriki and an Uzumaki, easily dwarfing Sasuke's reserves. Fuinjutsu already gave Naruto an edge that Kakashi knew Sasuke would not be able to match.

The jonin suspected Naruto was hiding a lot more, but didn't call him out on it. He kept a close eye on Naruto during the D-ranks, but Naruto held his edge. He didn't give the two boys any chance to spar, knowing that because of Sasuke's inability to accept someone, especially Naruto, was stronger than him would cause the spar to escalate into something much serious. Kakashi was not dumb enough to take that chance.

Anyway, Naruto had unintentionally become Sasuke's reason to get stronger. Kakashi reasoned that Sasuke held his brother, Itachi, in a much higher position than Naruto and wanted to become stronger than Naruto, so he could finally kill him. Another positive development was that Sasuke didn't completely alienate himself from his teammates. He held a strange… companionship with Naruto, deeming the boy tolerable. Maybe it was because Naruto had metamorphically extended a hand of friendship towards the lone Uchiha by displaying a bit of what he was capable of, and Sasuke respected those who had power.

Taking all of this into consideration, Kakashi finally spoke, "Hai, I believe they are ready, Hokage-sama."

All three genin had different reactions to this. Sakura sighed in relief, not wanting to do D-ranks anymore. Naruto pumped his fist, exclaiming "Yes! Finally!" Even Sasuke smirked a bit. He felt doing D-ranks held him back from getting stronger. Maybe getting some real world experience like encountering bandits and foreign shinobi would make him stronger, he mused.

Hiruzen nodded and browsed through the pile in front of him, "Let's see. Hmm…. Found it. Simple escort and protection mission to wave country. Your client is a bridge builder named Tazuna who wants you to protect him until he completes building his bridge in wave."

Kakashi took the scroll, "Mission accepted, Hokage-sama."

Hokage then turned to Iruka, "Send Tazuna inside."

Iruka nodded and went out of the room, returning two minutes later with an old man wearing a straw hat and holding a bottle which obviously contained alcohol. Naruto wrinkled his nose, the odor was not pleasant at all.

Tazuna looked at the team of genin and slurred, "These are the brats that are supposed to protect me? I paid for real ninja protection!"

"Funny of you to say that, considering you didn't even notice me move", a voice came from behind him. Tazuna whipped around with wide eyes, but couldn't spot the owner of the voice.

"Over here, you drunkard", the same voice drawled, making the man whip around again, eyes locking onto a mop of blonde hair. Intense blue eyes stared back at him, silently mocking him and his earlier statement.

Kakashi intervened before Naruto could scare Tazuna even more, "Naruto, please don't scare the client", he reprimanded in his usual lazy voice, which didn't sound like a reprimand at all.

"Kakashi-sensei, you're no fun at all", Naruto sighed despondently, walking back to his place beside Sasuke.

Kakashi assured the builder, "You have nothing to be afraid of, Tazuna-san. My genin are among some of the best upcoming ninjas of this village. We can easily take care of a few bandits."

Instead of making the man relax, Tazuna tensed up a bit at the word 'Bandits'. Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit at that. Protection from a jonin would be enough to make anyone relax, so Tazuna tensing up didn't make sense.

'He's hiding, or more probably, withholding some information, Naruto. Be on your guard', Kurama advised. He too, noticed Tazuna's tensing up.

'Will do, Kurama', Naruto replied before turning to Kakashi, excitement on his face. "When are we leaving, Kakashi-sensei?" he eagerly asked.

"We will leave tomorrow morning at seven", he answered. He then lazily waved them away, "That's all for today. Take full rest for tomorrow."

The genin dispersed to do their own thing for the remainder of the day. Naruto and Sasuke went separate ways to do their own training while Sakura headed home.

XXXXXXX

Naruto headed to the abandoned Senju compound, more specifically the Nidaime's library. He figured that this C-rank might take them two to three weeks, so he might as well collect two jutsu scrolls to learn in the meantime. Browsing he picked up a Suiton and a Fuuton scroll.

Suiton: Suidanha (Water style: Water severing wave) was a powerful A-rank jutsu. After infusing chakra in your stomach and then converting it to water, the user spit the water out in highly pressurized, razor sharp jets of water, sharp enough to cleanly cut through rock and barks of thick trees if used perfectly.

Naruto was pleased to note that like all Suiton jutsus he had learned from the library until now, this one had two types of learning as well. One for a normal water user, another for a user who had extremely high affinity like Tobirama, who could perform the most complex water techniques with only one hand seal.

Fuuton: Kaze gyorai no jutsu (Wind style: Wind torpedo technique). A powerful C-rank jutsu that Tobirama himself created keeping explosive tags in mind. 'I'm starting to think our esteemed Nidaime was a man obsessed with explosives', he thought as he read on how to perform the jutsu.

After infusing wind chakra in your lungs, it is expelled as a highly explosive ball of wind, near invisible. Upon contact, it will explode with the force of two standard explosive tags. It required three hand seals of Ox-Horse-Snake.

"Should be enough to last this mission", he mused as he exited the library. Extending his senses, he checked if anyone was nearby. Finding no one, he shrugged and simply flashed into his apartment.

He had no idea what he was in for in this mission.

Author's note: Hey readers! Sorry for missing my weekly update. You see, I was in middle of a medical crisis and needed immediate attention. Axodus, thank you for your concern. I am quite alright now. Girrr, please calm down. For the guest who said I would cringe at my own story when reading it in the future, I have only one thing to say. We fanfic writers are working hard to deliver, so unless you have written a story that has more followers than mine or any other writer on the website, you have no right to call my story a dump. And fuck you, by the way.

That's all, and updates will resume as usual.Naruto woke up at his usual time of five o' clock, refreshed and recovered from yesterday's training. He got up from his bed, rubbing his eyes a bit. Walking to the bathroom, he finished his morning rituals and almost put on his regular running clothes, before remembering that he had a C-rank mission today.

He shook his head and just put on a lower and shoes. He opened the door to his balcony and breathed the fresh, cool morning air. He shivered once as the air hit his bare upper body, but soon adjusted to it. He flipped onto the roof and began a series of stretches to simply warm his body up. 'Wouldn't want to exert too much today before the mission', he thought as he stretched every part of his body. With that being the last thought, he emptied his mind and enjoyed the silence that the village experienced in the early mornings before it began its daily chaos.

After one hour, he had sufficiently warmed up his body and decided to have breakfast before heading to the gates. Making a half ram seal, a shadow clone popped into existence, already knowing to make breakfast. It flipped his way into the apartment and into the kitchen while Naruto sat there, simply taking in the peace for a few more minutes.

'Kurama, in your ridiculously long life, have you ever taken time to breathe and admire the sunrise?'

'What brought this on, brat?' Kurama's voice was a bit laden with sleep, signifying that he was napping as usual.

Naruto shrugged, 'Just asking.'

'Despite what people tend to think about me, I don't rampage all the time, you know. Even I take time to appreciate the simply joys of nature', he grumbled.

Naruto lifted an eyebrow, 'Wow, people really don't understand you as well as they think they do.'

Kurama nodded mentally before shooing him away, 'Now go away, let the me rest in peace', he said, cutting off their conversation.

Naruto shook his head, 'He must have a passionate hobby of sleeping which he adheres to like anything.'

He flipped himself back into his apartment, walking to his bathroom to freshen up. Ten minutes later, he was eating four scrambled eggs, all the while mentally compiling a list of what he should take with him. He created a shadow clone to clean up while he got ready.

He dressed up as usual and sealed up whatever supplies he would need in a large sealing scroll which he brought from the Higurashi weapons shop. The folks over there didn't up the prices for him. He was considering selling his ideas for a modified explosive tag over there in exchange for a discount on his future purchases and a bit of secrecy. After all, he also needed those in the future.

After double checking everything, he picked up his scroll slung it around him and walked out of his apartment. He activated the trap seals which he had designed himself. While he knew no one had any reason to come to his apartment, he couldn't help but create them, just to test himself. With that, he flashed the Hiraishin seal on top of the gates of Konoha.

XXXXXXX

Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke each had different thoughts concerning this mission. Kakashi didn't lose his sleep over it, figuring this would be a normal C-rank mission. Truthfully, he didn't think his team was ready to take on a C-rank. While Naruto and Sasuke had established a sort of friendship, this would be the first time their co-ordination would be tested.

Naruto was clearly skilled. His taijutsu was between mi-chunin to high-chunin level, but Kakashi suspected Naruto had some sort of seal, probably weight or resistance, on his body to increase his overall speed and strength. Naruto hid it well, but the occasional stumble in places where there was no reason to stumble gave him the idea of speed and strength increasing seals.

Naruto already had an effective arsenal of jutsus at his disposal. Kakashi deduced that Naruto must have very high chakra control to perform the jutsus that he did. While he only witnessed them in the bell test, he saw enough to put together that Naruto had no problem in ninjutsu. He also knew that he didn't have to worry about Naruto succumbing to chakra exhaustion, considering his status as jinchuriki of the kyuubi and an Uzumaki.

Fuinjutsu was a branch of the ninja arts that not many chose to explore, considering how complex and vast it was. However, Naruto had already shown his proficiency with seals. It wasn't hard to believe that Naruto would use seals, knowing who his parents were.

Sasuke was also skilled, but outclassed by Naruto. The boy had a loner personality, but had mellowed a bit in the last two months. Kakashi knew that the credit went to Naruto, who knew exactly how to push the Uchiha's buttons and had somehow created a bond of friendship between them.

The boy's taijutsu was good, but he could only go so far without the sharingan. Kakashi didn't worry about it, knowing that once Sasuke awakened it, he would close the gap between him and Naruto.

While the sharingan was an excellent tool to use for ninjutsu, it really depended on the size of the person's chakra reserves. And he didn't even need to speak about Sasuke's proficiency in using ninja tools.

Sakura was perhaps the only problem in team seven. Her actions leaned more towards an obsessed fangirl than a kunoichi focused on her career. She would always be asking Sasuke out for dates, leading Kakashi to consider if the girl only became kunoichi to get close to Sasuke. She wasn't physically strong, did not know any useful jutsu, proficiency with ninja tools was mediocre at best and tried to make others feel bad to make herself feel better, as was the case with her and Naruto. Thankfully, Naruto seemed to be well versed in the art of ignoring Sakura.

The only good thing about her was that she had excellent chakra control and intelligence, but that was of no use to her if she couldn't find a way to apply it on the battlefield.

He had only taken this C-rank to show his team that the ninja world wasn't as easy and forgiving as it seemed. They hadn't even experienced their first kills, though that could change if they came across bandits.

Sasuke had his normal, neutral expression on his face as he walked to the gates for his mission. His thoughts, however, were anything but neutral.

Sasuke couldn't understand Uzumaki Naruto, no matter how he tried. Every time he thought he had figured Naruto out, the blonde would seemingly switch angles and leave Sasuke confused again. At first glance, he gave off the impression of a clown, but that quickly changed on the day of the graduation exam. Since then, Sasuke kept a close eye on Naruto.

On the day of the bell test, Sasuke had been outraged at the skill that was displayed by the blonde. He suspected Naruto's taijutsu was at par, if not greater than his own. But to engage in a spar with a jonin, attacking and countering all attacks with a precision and fluidity Sasuke did not possess, was enough to ignite jealousy inside Sasuke.

His ninjutsu was something Sasuke did not expect, but didn't exactly know why he was upset about it. So he didn't think much about it.

Sasuke had somewhat expected Fuinjutsu and immense chakra reserves from Naruto, having read up on the Uzumaki clan and their prowess in the art. He could accept that, but that was not the most surprising thing that happened to him.

He had thought that Naruto would hold a grudge against him for how Sasuke treated him at the academy, but instead of giving him the same treatment, Naruto had extended a hand of friendship towards him, telling him that he was willing to put aside the differences between them in order to work together.

At first, Sasuke had refused, firm on his belief that he will be only held back. But Naruto persisted, to the point that Sasuke agreed if only to get him to shut up. And it was….alright, to work with him.

Naruto invited him to occasionally have ramen with him at Ichiraku's. Sasuke had accepted every time, desperate to piece together the puzzle of Naruto. They usually talked about their training schedules; more like Sasuke wanted to know how Naruto became so strong. They talked about their childhoods, surprising Sasuke just how similar they were. Sometimes, they just complained about Sakura, with Naruto rambling and Sasuke pitching in every five minutes. And the weird thing about these meetings…..it became easier to talk to him every time.

Sasuke was now pretty sure that he did not consider Naruto as a weakling to be dismissed at the first glance, but rather as a scale to measure himself against. He respected him; he wanted to become as strong as Naruto, in hopes that he would surpass him and finally become powerful enough to kill his brother. He had accepted Naruto as a comrade…for now.

Sakura happily made her way to the gates, Sasuke being the main thought on her mind. She was sad how Sasuke always denied her a date, but kept her spirits high, just in case he decided to accept the next time. But in the past two months she had spent with her team, she was witness to some rather troubling developments.

The first was that she was forced to accept that she could not use Naruto as a step to boost her confidence anymore. He had made it very clear that he would not tolerate her picking on him anymore. That made her realize with a small amount of shame, that she had very unnecessarily picked on Naruto, who had no hand in anything that upset her.

The second was that Naruto was strong. Easily stronger than Sasuke, and she was not just talking about chakra reserves. She knew about the Uzumaki clan; Naruto was the physically capable of them all, proven when he could physically exert even more than Sasuke. He would take much longer than her and Sasuke to get tired and recover much more quickly than both of them.

The third and hardest to accept was that Naruto and Sasuke came from very similar backgrounds. She refused to believe that at first, going so far as to call him an orphan and could never match Sasuke. She was shocked though, when Sasuke came to Naruto's defense. He admonished Sakura, saying that she had gone too far. He harshly reminded her that he and Naruto shared the fact that they were orphans.

Since then, Sakura had felt tremendously guilty and had tried to act nicer towards Naruto. She wouldn't call them friends though, they were far from that.

She began to see Naruto in a new light. Though he always acted like he was indifferent, the subtle actions made it clear that he always cared for his comrades. She noticed that in the two months, Naruto and Sasuke had grown closer as friends. Sasuke too began to see Naruto in a new light. She saw that Naruto clearly knew that he was stronger than Sasuke, but he never rubbed it in the boy's face, instead he used this fact to encourage Sasuke to grow stronger.

She was, by no means, a friend to Naruto, but hoped that he would at least consider her a worthy comrade in time.

The two reached the gates exactly fifteen minutes before seven. Sakura's eyes lit up as she saw the dark haired boy.

"Sasuke-kun!" she waved enthusiastically, and like always, was disappointed when he replied with his customary "Hn."

Sasuke looked around, trying to find Naruto. 'Perhaps this mission may force Naruto to reveal what he is hiding from us', he thought. A hand fell on his shoulder and he barely caught himself from yelping. Instead, he turned his head back as calmly as he could to see Naruto's smirking face.

Sasuke tried to play it cool, but knew Naruto had already seen his moment of weakness. Before he could do anything else, Naruto chuckled and patted his shoulder, "It's ok, Sasuke. Even ANBU would be hard pressed to detect me in the middle of my pranks."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that, silently waiting for Naruto to elaborate, but he didn't. Naruto simply leaned against the wall, waiting for their sensei.

Sakura had a confused expression on her face, "Naruto, why don't you have a backpack like me and Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto replied, "Well, for one, sealing scrolls are just more practical to use. It takes time to take of your backpack, and rummage through everything to find what you need. All you need to do in a sealing scroll is unroll it, push chakra into the required seal and voila! So much quicker than backpacks, don't you think? Also, I modified this scroll to suit my needs. I trust my creation more than anything else."

"That's an interesting outlook, Naruto."

The three genin turned around to see Kakashi and their client coming. Tazuna was still drinking, but he didn't seem as drunk as he was yesterday.

Kakashi looked at Naruto, "While your logic isn't wrong, it is a bit unconventional for shinobi to use sealing scrolls instead of backpacks. However, if it works for you, I have no problem with it", he finished, shrugging in the end.

Turning towards his other two students, "Are you two ready?"

Seeing them nod, he turned to their client, "Let's go, Tazuna-san."

XXXXXXX

They had left the gates over four hours ago. Four hours of torturous silence. While Naruto appreciated silence, four hours of travelling with someone and not talking at all felt really awkward. He would talk with Tazuna, but nothing came to mind about what to talk. Talking with Kurama wasn't an option; the fox was easily snoring away.

Sakura seemed to sense the awkwardness as well, and she did not have the same problem as Naruto of finding a topic to talk about. "Um, Tazuna-san, you are from wave country right?"

Tazuna turned his head towards her, "Yeah, what about it?"

"Do you have a ninja village in that country?"

Surprisingly, it was Kakashi who answered, "Actually, wave does not have a ninja village. Each of the elemental nations has their own hidden shinobi villages. But the smaller countries don't have the resources to fund, let alone maintain their own hidden village. Budget, people, missions….there are so many resources to account for that the smaller nations can't afford. So they prefer to hire ninjas from other countries."

Naruto only paid half attention to the explanation, the other half of his attention focused on the puddle to the side of the road. It looked so out of place on the sunny day that a word automatically rang through his mind, 'Trap.'

He glanced at Kakashi-sensei, who had also seen the puzzle and figured out it's a genjutsu. He nudged Sasuke, motioning him to glance at the puddle. Sasuke raised an eyebrow for he didn't understand what Naruto was trying to imply, but it suddenly clicked after a moment. He nodded his thanks to Naruto who nodded back. They subtly re-positioned themselves in front of Tazuna.

As soon as they passed the puddle, Naruto's sense of danger buzzed loudly and he called out, "WATCH OUT!" He and Sasuke both jumped back in time, but Kakashi was apparently too slow to react.

Two ninjas jumped from the puddle and attacked Kakashi with a bladed chain, tearing him to shreds. At least that's what Sakura and Sasuke saw. Naruto's senses were fast enough to follow the kawarimi followed by a minor genjutsu.

"One down", the one on the right declared. They both then turned their attention towards the genin.

"Sakura, guard Tazuna!" Naruto shouted. He then turned his attention towards the one who was closing in on him. Holding a half ram seal, a shadow clone popped up beside him. Together, they both held kunai in their hands, reverse grip and coated with wind chakra. Due to his excellent chakra control and the chakra conducting metal of the kunai, the wind chakra got shaped like a second and a longer skin to the kunai.

Not wasting any time, both of them engaged the ninja from different sides. The ninja scoffed and tried to use his chain, but both the Narutos' easily dodged it. One of them attacked the chain while the original attacked the ninja. The ninja, whose eyes were wide after seeing the wind chakra on the kunai, was sufficiently distracted with trying to hold of the clone from cutting his chain off.

Naruto took advantage of this and executed a diagonal slash along the torso of the ninja. The wind chakra easily tore through and made a deep cut. Not enough to be fatal, but deep enough to hurt . The ninja cried out in pain and instinctively held his left hand to the cut.

The clone took full advantage of the opening and hit the back of the ninja's head with the blunt head of his kunai, rendering him unconscious.

Naruto and his clone smirked down at the fallen ninja and bumped fists, the action causing the clone to disappear. He looked over to Sasuke, who was about to clash with his opponent, a kunai and shuriken in hand. But before he could do that, a hand appeared in the ninja's path, right in front of his throat.

Needless to say, Kakashi's block easily knocked out the ninja cold. Eye smiling at his students, he said, "Good job on taking him out, Naruto. You too Sasuke, keeping the enemy away from the client. Sorry Sakura, I didn't know you would freeze up like that."

He tied up the two ninja against a tree. He missed the frustrated look on Sasuke's face, which turned into jealousy as he gazed at Naruto, who was watching Kakashi. 'He was easily able to knock out the ninja in less than half a minute! Why couldn't I do that?! I got stuck in engaging the ninja instead of trying to take him out as quickly as possible!' He clenched his fists in agitation.

Kakashi explained, "These guys are known as the demon brothers. They are rogue chunin of Kirigakure no sato. They are…somewhat dangerous."

Tazuna looked scared out of his wits, "If you were not skewered to pieces, why did you let your genin handle them?"

Kakashi eye smiled, "I had to test them how they would perform in the field. Besides, I had to find out who they were attacking. Us because of the grudge between our villages, or you", he finished with a serious expression.

At that moment, the ninja with one horn, the one whom Naruto had knocked out, seemed to waked up. He groaned in pain, "How…did you know….we were going to attack?"

Naruto spoke up before Kakashi could, "A puddle on a completely sunny day, added to the fact it hasn't rained in weeks. Well done, genius", he sarcastically clapped.

Sakura let out a light giggle at this. Naruto's snark was funny when it was aimed at others. Kakashi narrowed his eye at Tazuna, "We need to talk."

Tazuna adopted a nervous expression, "About wh-what?"

"It was stated in the mission scroll that you needed protection from bandits, not rogue ninjas. Especially from Kirigakure, where the ninjas complete their missions, no matter the cost. Why would they be after you?" his tone was light, but the suspicion was heavy.

"Unless they were hired specifically to take you out", Naruto added his two cents, pointing at Tazuna.

Tazuna tried to think up an excuse, but it was already too late. With a resigned sigh, he asked them, "Have you heard of a man called Gato?"

Kakashi questioned with a thoughtful frown, "Do you mean one who is among the richest men in the nations? That Gato?"

"I've heard of him", Naruto stated. Kakashi raised an eyebrow, silently asking to elaborate. "He is the owner of a shipping company. When I last read about him, he was among the top fifteen richest in the nations. Suspected for criminal activity, but no proof", he said with his arms crossed.

"The very same", Tazuna agreed. "Though now he is among the top five. He came to Wave Country a bit more than two years ago. First we didn't think anything about it, but soon he had bought up all the shipping industry of our nation. You see, Wave Country is an island so we are dependent on the shipping to get goods. But that wasn't the worst part. He used his monopoly to drain the country dry."

"The people live in poverty. Many lost their houses to Gato. Whoever protested is killed. He takes what he wants with his hired thugs, making sure nobody dares to oppose him. His shipping business covers his criminal activities. He deals with drugs, alcoholics, rare goods, even slaves. Everything and anything that brings him money. The only thing he fears is the bridge I'm building. If I finish my bridge, his monopoly will be rendered obsolete and our country will be back in business because we will be connected to the main land."

"So why didn't you just tell the truth to Hokage-sama?" Kakashi glared at him.

Tazuna threw his hands up, "I couldn't! Wave country has been sucked dry. We don't have enough money to pay for more than a C-rank mission!"

Kakashi shook his head, "While that is sad, you had no right to lie to the Hokage. This mission is now at least a B-rank, requiring a team of chunin and jonin. This is not a job my genin are suited to perform!"

Glancing at his students briefly, he said, "But as they are ninjas of Konoha, they have a say in this as much as I do now."

He then turned to his students, "What do you think we should do?"

Naruto was the first to answer, "Protocol dictates that during times like these, the assigned genin team is to immediately abandon the mission and report back to the village for reassignment."

Sasuke glared at Naruto, but before he could speak Naruto continued, "But I say we continue, Kakashi-sensei. This mission is not just about Tazuna wanting to save money. A whole country is about to lose the last shreds of its economy because of one man who wants too much."

Surprisingly, Sasuke brought up a good point, "And we can't afford to let people think that Konoha will let a country fall to such a man. I say we continue, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi looked at the two genin and then at Sakura, who still looked a bit scared. "What about you, Sakura?"

Sakura looked less scared than before, but still scared. "I-I say we g-go forward, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi gazed at her a moment longer. He sighed and then said, "Very well, let's go."

They missed Tazuna's sigh of utter relief.

XXXXXXX

Naruto put seals on both the brothers' foreheads, putting them to sleep. Kakashi told him the Konoha shinobi would be arriving to take them, so he should leave instructions for them on how to release the seal.

After that, the team and Tazuna continued without any further delay until they reached a coast where Tazuna had organized transport to wave country. The man greeted Tazuna and cast a wary eye on the Konoha shinobis, but kept his words to himself.

He stirred them, appearing extremely nervous despite of the dense cover from the morning fog. As soon as the bridge came into view, Kakashi let out a low whistle, "That is one impressive bridge, that is."

Naruto shook his head in wonder, "I've never seen anything as awesome as that bridge before." Sakura was gaping at the sheer size of the bridge and Sasuke was, like always, neutral faced.

Once they reached the shore, the fisherman wished Tazuna best of luck to get home safely while Tazuna thanked him for his help. Kakashi asked Tazuna, "How long is your home away from here?"

"A journey of about one hour and a half."

Kakashi nodded and motioned for his team start walking. Though he didn't know the reason why he suddenly felt a sense of foreboding. Glancing towards his team, he wasn't entirely surprised to see that only Naruto seemed to share his wariness, eyes darting around, ready to react at the slightest notice.

And react he did.

Without any warning, a shuriken flew into a bush on the side, courtesy of Naruto. Sasuke and Sakura jumped at that, along with Tazuna. Kakashi just narrowed his eyes, "What is it Naruto?"

Naruto walked to the bush, a kunai ready in hand. Though he was confused when he only spotted a white rabbit, scared to the bone.

Sakura scolded him, "Baka! Look what you did to the poor rabbit!"

But Kakashi and Naruto were too busy concentrating on the fact that they spotted a white rabbit. 'A snow rabbit whose fur is white? In the spring? The absence of brown fur indicates it was raised in captivity', were the thoughts going through the jonin's head. He suddenly realized its purpose.

His shout ran out a second after Naruto's danger sense kicked in. "DOWN!" Everyone dropped to the ground, just in time to avoid a giant, spinning from cutting off their heads. Naruto saw that Sasuke was able to bring Tazuna just in time.

Everyone stood up and turned towards the tree in which the sword was buried, a man standing on the handle. He had black hair and brown eyes, his slashed Kiri headband tilted upwards to the left side of his head, signifying his status as a missing nin. He wore mist stripped pants and hand warmers that extended to his biceps.

Kakashi's voice took a tone of mock surprise, "Well well, if it isn't Momochi Zabuza, rogue nin and former member of the seven swordsmen of the mist."

The now identified Zabuza raised a non-existent eyebrow, "So you have heard of me." The man's posture radiated confidence and power. "I'm going to ask you to hand over the old man to me. You do that and you get to escape with your lives."

Kakashi had a bead of sweat running down the side of his face. 'This is really bad. Zabuza is a high A-rank missing nin, bordering S-rank, which easily upgrades this B-rank to a high A-rank.'

Naruto had similar thoughts running through his head, 'Damn, our luck must be really bad if we have to face off against a swordsman of the mist. I don't stand a chance against him. But we have no choice other than to fight. Damn it !'

Naruto took out two kunai from his hip pouches, held in reverse grip and ready to engage, but Kakashi held a hand in front of him. "Everyone stay back. He is not someone you can take on. It'll be tough, even for me. Unless I use this…", he said, lifting up his hitai-ate and exposing a blood red eye with three tomoes in a circular pattern.

Zabuza gave a dark, amused chuckle, "The sharingan, this early Kakashi? I'm honored. I've read about you, back when I was in ANBU. The man who is said to have copied over a thousand jutsu, Sharingan no Kakashi."

Sasuke's head whipped around to stare at Kakashi, more specifically, at his left eye. 'How does he have the sharingan? It's supposed to be an Uchiha clan dojutsu! Did he steal one on the night of the massacre?'

Before he could think of anything else, mist slowly started to surround them. In just a few moments, the mist was so thick it was hard to see two feet in front of them.

Suddenly, an incredible amount of killing intent filled the air, causing all of them to tense up. But Naruto relaxed after a moment, having gathered his wits. This was nothing compared to what Kurama put him through. Sasuke and Sakura were another story; Sasuke was frozen in his place, while Sakura was barely keeping herself from crying. The killing intent seemed to relax and Kakashi's voice rang out, "Don't worry, Sasuke, Sakura! There is no way I will let my comrades die!" Kakashi had released his own killing intent, easing up some of the pressure.

Turning back Kakashi said, "He'll come after me first. Zabuza is a known master of the silent killing technique. Before you know it's over."

Naruto whispered back, "But sensei, aren't you at a disadvantage here? The sharingan is not meant to see through dense fogs like this. You would be needlessly wasting your chakra."

Kakashi had to admit Naruto had a point. Before he could say anything, Zabuza's voice came from all around the mist, "Eight points: Liver, lungs, spine, clavicle vein, jugular vein, brain, kidneys and heart. These places, if hit too hard or cut too deep, are a one hit kill. Where should I strike first?"

Naruto formed a single bird seal. 'Fuuton: Toppa!' (Wind style: Breakthrough) The burst of wind he expelled blew away all the fog, revealing Zabuza standing a few feet away from the group, sword in hand.

"Now it is better for you, sensei", Naruto smiled, kunai held in reverse grips. He had already released all his resistance seals.

Zabuza clicked his tongue in annoyance, 'Annoying brat, he cancelled out my jutsu. How the hell does a genin know wind manipulation anyway?!'

Naruto saw it. Zabuza was staring at him with annoyance, but before he could react, Kakashi appeared behind his back, slashing at him. Zabuza collapsed in a puddle of water.

'Mizu Bunshin, huh?' Naruto and Kakashi thought simultaneously. Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi, slashing him off. A flicker of surprise was visible when Kakashi too, collapsed into water. Kakashi came up behind him, "Nice try", he mocked.

Zabuza chuckled, "So you copied my jutsu, hiding in the trees and waiting to strike. Clever."

He swung his blade towards Kakashi, who ducked under it and slashed his own kunai as a counter. However, the force behind Zabuza's blade was much more than Kakashi anticipated, and almost went down to his knees. Zabuza did not hesitate in giving a chakra enforced kick to Kakashi, who was unable to dodge in time.

Gritting his teeth, he crossed his arms and blocked it. He was rewarded with promptly being sent flying over into the water. Surfacing, he instantly knew something was wrong. The water was too heavy.

"Too slow!" Zabuza said as he appeared behind Kakashi, weaving hand seals. "Suiton: Suiro no jutsu!" (Water style: Water prison jutsu). In a matter of seconds, Kakashi was trapped in a dome of water maintained by Zabuza. Though both of them didn't notice Naruto's smile, having successfully copied the jutsu.

"None of you know what it means to be a ninja. When I was your age brats, I already had blood on my hands."

Sakura asked, "What do you mean?"

Kakashi said, "He is talking about the reason he became known as the demon of the mist. Fifteen years ago, a child killed over a hundred students. A child who wasn't even a ninja."

Naruto lamely uttered, "Oh…..". However, he was quick to recover, "Well, here goes!"

Kakashi tried to stop him, "Don't, Naruto! We have lost! Take the client and run!" "Hell no sensei! We are not going without our team leader! You still owe us some real training!"

Naruto was about to use the water chain jutsu to disrupt Zabuza's control on the prison, but was forced to dodge the water clone that tried to take his head off. His heart was pumping, his adrenaline levels rising, his mind entering battle focus.

He complimented Zabuza, "Using a jutsu while maintaining another one? That's some really impressive chakra control!" He easily weaved between the slashes.

Zabuza, the clone, chuckled, "Thanks kid. You aren't too bad yourself, dodging my strikes like that."

Naruto flipped back, putting some distance between him and the clone. "Well, having a giant butcher knife like that doesn't exactly do you a favor in the department of speed, pal", he offhandedly commented.

Forming the hare sign, he thought 'Suiton: Mizurappa!' (Water style: Wild water wave) A wave of water rushed at the clone from his mouth, who jumped up to dodge. Smirking, Naruto formed the half ram to weave the water towards the clone, who couldn't dodge mid-air. He was expelled into water.

Not wasting any time, Naruto maintained the half ram and formed over twenty shadow clones, who moved to engage the real Zabuza, who scoffed and easily dealt with them with his blade one by one.

While this was happening, Naruto took the opportunity to shake Sasuke out of his stupor. Gripping his shoulders tightly, he harshly whispered, "Get your head back in the game, Sasuke! I need your help to free Kakashi-sensei!"

It seemed to do the trick as Sasuke snapped back into awareness. In a moment of acknowledging Naruto as leader, he asked, "What should we do?"

Naruto unrolled his scroll and slapped his hand onto a seal. A puff of smoke revealed a fuma shuriken, folded. Naruto rolled the scroll back and slung it. All of this happened in just ten seconds.

He handed the folded shuriken to Sasuke, who glared at him, "A simple fuma shuriken won't work, dobe." Naruto thrust it into his hands anyway, an impatient look on his face that said, Just follow my lead.

As soon as Sasuke held it, a look of realization came onto his face and he looked at Naruto with wide eyes, who smirked and winked at him. A predatory smirk of his own appeared as he prepared to follow Naruto's plan.

Zabuza had just finished off the clones when he spotted the Uchiha holding a fuma shuriken and running at him. The brat leaped impressively high and threw it at him. Zabuza was not impressed.

He simply plucked the shuriken from air as if catching a freeze bee. "Is that all you can think of, brats?" Suddenly, another shuriken appeared, hidden in the shadow of the first.

Zabuza scoffed angrily, "You are underestimating me, brats! Still not good enough!" He simply jumped over the shuriken, his other hand still maintaining the water prison.

"Got him", Sasuke murmured with a smirk as Naruto beside him disappeared into smoke. Zabuza's eyes widened as he heard a poof behind him, seeing the second shuriken turning into Naruto, who had a kunai in hand.

Naruto figured with a tiny smirk that just throwing a kunai won't do the job, so he would let loose the flying thunder god just this once. The kunai he was holding had his jutsu shiki on the handle. Just to maintain the appearance of a kawarimi, he had another kunai ready.

He threw the kunai with his formula towards Zabuza, who cursed mentally. 'I can't dodge that unless…', he released his hold from the water prison, jumping to the side.

Just as the kunai cut Zabuza, Naruto threw the normal kunai a little bit upwards beside him and vanished in a blue flash, holding the handle of the marked kunai in his left hand. Spinning mid-air once, he landed a clean, open palm thrust into Zabuza's chest, who was too stunned at the fact that Naruto appeared in front of him in an instant.

The purpose of the thrust was not to injure, but rather to mark Zabuza, so he would know where he is. Still, Zabuza skid back a few feet from Naruto, who landed on the water.

Zabuza glanced to where Naruto had thrown the kunai from. He saw the kunai buried in a rock over there. 'Was that kawarimi?... No, if it was, the brat wouldn't snatch the kunai mid-air, but would appear with the kunai. Just what was that?'

His thoughts were spinning furiously as he gazed at Naruto, who was now holding two kunai in reverse grip, dark blue wind chakra sharpening them into mini swords. 'He can use Fuuton and Suiton ninjutsu, has enough chakra to use the shadow clone jutsu without worry, his chakra control is good enough for him to water walk, AND he can use wind chakra to sharpen his kunai? Is he a genin for real?!'

He dashed towards Naruto, who prepared to flash step away and if necessary, defend himself. "That's enough from you, brat!" Just as he was about to stab Naruto, he was blocked by none other than Kakashi.

He had halted the sword using a reverse gripped kunai, rage swimming in his eyes. "You've got some nerve…..", the whisper was deadly enough that even Naruto shivered a bit. He was not only angry at himself for making a rookie mistake and getting himself caught, but the man had the gall to attack his genin.

"Your trick won't work twice, Zabuza", he promised the man, slowly. Without turning his gaze away, he spoke to Naruto, "Brilliant plan, Naruto. Distracting Zabuza by getting Sasuke to help you. Excellent job!" Zabuza tsked, "I lost concentration for a moment and cancelled the technique-"

"Don't give yourself too much credit. You were forced to cancel it", Kakashi's sharp voice cut it.

Naruto nodded and seeing his work was done, he put the kunai away and flash stepped back to Sasuke, who jumped a bit at his suddenness.

He observed Kakashi, who had jumped away from Zabuza and was using the power of the sharingan to its full effect. Immediately, he put his index and middle finger into the water, eyes on Kakashi's hands and senses on his chakra. He carefully sensed how chakra was being molded inside Kakashi.

After a chain of forty four hand seals, two identical water dragons appeared, taking each other out. Zabuza moved in to engage Kakashi with his blade, while Kakashi parried back. They continued this for two minutes after which Zabuza jumped back, starting a new series of hand signs. Kakashi wasted no time in copying them, and Naruto wasted no time in using his own style to copy Kakashi.

Sasuke was in a daze, seeing the power of the sharingan so close. 'Did he really copy all the hand seals?'

"My moves. He is...", Zabuza thought, before they were interrupted.

"...Reading them." Kakashi said, finishing Zabuza's thought.

"Did he read my mind? He is..."

"...Really pissing me off with that damn eye of his." Kakashi finished, for Zabuza. Continuing to copy Zabuza's hand signs.

Continuing with his hand seals with Kakashi copying Zabuza, the man yelled, "All you're doing is copying me!" "You can't beat me with those cheap circus tricks, you monkey bastard!" Kakashi yelling the same thing, continued to copy hand signs.

Zabuza came to a slight stop, seeing an image of himself behind Kakashi. "What is that, a Genjutsu?" Zabuza thought.

His slight falter cost him the victory as Kakashi finished the jutsu ahead of him, "Suiton: Daibakufu no jutsu!" (Water style: Giant vortex jutsu)

Literally, a giant vortex formed around Kakashi, much larger than his body. It approached Zabuza at incredible speeds, who was unable to do anything. It slammed into him, and he was washed away like an insect under the force of the jutsu, slamming roughly into a tree and leaving him dazed.

Kakashi approached Zabuza with a kunai in hand, intent on finishing him off. Groaning in pain and bracing himself for his death, Zabuza asked him, "Can you see the future?"

Kakashi answered, "Yes…and your future….is death."

Naruto sweat dropped, 'What a corny guy!'

Just as Kakashi was about to finish the job, two senbon came out of nowhere, hitting Zabuza in the neck. The man fell to the ground with a thud.

All of them looked around to spot where the senbon came from, but Naruto pointed towards a tree, from which came a soft chuckle. A masked person was standing on a branch, "Looks like you were right."

The person had long black hair along with a slender frame. The outfit was Kirigakure pinstriped which stopped at his knees. There was a brown sash around the waist with a tail, wrapped around twice. But the most identifying thing about the person was the mask they wore. It was white with thin, curved eye-holes and a red wavy design in place of the mouth, as well as the Kirigakure symbol etched in the top.

The person was a hunter nin.

Naruto couldn't quite place the voice as female or male. It was…..unsettling. He would assume it as a male, though.

"I thank you for your help", he said as he jumped down. Kakashi knelt and checked Zabuza's pulse to see if the man was truly dead or not. Finding nothing, he concluded that Zabuza was dead.

"I have been hunting him for quite a while", he said. Picking up the body, he prepared to shunshin away when Naruto's voice rang out.

"Wait!" The hunter nin turned to face Naruto's narrowed eyes, "As a hunter nin, isn't it your job to dispose the bodies on the spot?"

The hunter nin saw the suspicion in the blonde's eyes and explained, "This body holds many secrets. The village would like to know them before doing that." With that, he was gone.

Kakashi pulled his headband down, "Well, that is over with…", and promptly fell face first into the ground.

Sakura rushed to him, "Kakashi-sensei!" She turned him over to see that his eye was closed.

"It's probably chakra exhaustion, Sakura", she turned towards Naruto. He explained, "The sharingan is an Uchiha kekkei genkai. It is not meant for him and as such, consumes his charka faster. He just needs time to recover."

Tazuna spoke up, "Well in that case, let's hurry to my house where he can recover safely." Naruto nodded and created three shadow clones. One of them henged into a stretcher while the other two put the exhausted jonin on it and started walking.

Sasuke walked beside Naruto, "Hey Naruto", the said boy looked at him,"How did you know about the demon brothers before they attacked us? And what was that earlier, putting your fingers in the water?"

Naruto turned to him, confused, "Haven't I told you before that I am a sensor?"

Sasuke's eyes immediately narrowed at him, "What?!"

Naruto sighed; this will take a while.

XXXXXXX

Meanwhile, back in the village, the Sandaime was sitting in the meeting room with the shinobi council on one side and the civilian council on the other. The three elders, Homura, Koharu and Danzo stood on his right side.

A civilian spoke up, "Why have you called this meeting, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen did not reply to this, eyes closed and expression of deep thought. At last he spoke.

"Do you all, especially the civilian council", he glared at the mentioned council, "Know why the civilian council was established by my sensei, Nidaime-sama?"

There was no answer from both the sides, but the elders and Shikaku seemed to grasp the true purpose of the meeting from the question.

Koharu moved forward, "Hokage-sama, you can't-" She was silenced with a wave of killing intent. It made one thing very clear in everyone's heads, 'He is in a bad mood today.'

"To assist the shinobi council in times of war. Last I checked, Konoha hasn't been at war for the last fifteen years. Therefore, your entire existence is debunk." Outraged cries came from the civilian section, but killer intent from the shinobi side for interrupting the Hokage silenced them.

The Hokage glared at them, "If anyone interrupts me one more time, I will have that person executed. Understood?" He enforced that threat with killing intent. After seeing their urgent nods, he continued.

"The only reason, and I have checked the records thoroughly", he said motioning to the big pile of paperwork beside him, "That the only reason they exist is because of political mongering and bribing some members of the shinobi council." His eyes swept the entire room, intensifying the tension.

"My hands were tied after the Kyuubi's attack and the Uchiha massacre. The civilian council took advantage of this and began to take charge of more important tasks by bribing the shinobi side", he said while glaring at the two elders, who didn't even look into his eyes.

"Until they finally managed to get their hands on the shinobi academy, the most important stage of the shinobis' career. Changing the syllabus and actually lowering the standard of shinobi, the council gradually became more corrupt. Tell me if I'm wrong", he finished, practically glaring at everyone and daring them to disagree.

Danzo grit his teeth. The civilian council was easily manipulated and as such, was a form of power that he could control, not the Hokage. But it seemed Sarutobi had finally had enough of their bullshit and was going to dissolve the council. The worst about all of this: He could not lift a finger to do anything without resorting to Shisui's eye, and he would rather die than attempt something that foolish.

No one spoke in the council room, which was enough of an answer that the Hokage had hit the bullseye.

"I will hold a vote now. To dissolve the civilian council", he declared. A fat man stood up, face red and red to shout at the Hokage. He didn't even finish the first word that came out of his mouth before his head rolled on the ground, courtesy of the ANBU. They cleaned up and vanished back into the shadows.

Suddenly seeming to remember something, he turned to the elders, "Before I commence the vote, the elders will not be voting seeing that their position only allows them to advise and as such, have no say in any final decision made by the Hokage."

Koharu and Homura had a defeated posture. Heads down, shoulders sagged, an aura of dismay. Danzo simply stared ahead, not showing any emotions. Sarutobi had caught them totally unawares with this maneuver.

"All against dissolving the civilian council on basis of the charges that I have read." The entire civilian side raised their hands, but they knew that they were defeated.

"All in favor of dissolving the civilian council on basis of the charges I have read." The entire shinobi side raised their hands. Their numbers were equal to that of the civilians, but the air of smugness was unmistakable in the room.

A tie breaking vote was required of the Hokage who said, "I am in favor of this notion."

Straightening up, he declared, "The civilian council is dissolved as of today. I will appoint a shinobi committee to review all the corrupted laws they have passed related in favor of themselves. A separate division will be responsible for reviewing shinobi areas. The civilian council can leave now."

All of them slowly got up, an air of defeat around them all. They filed out of the chamber one by one. "The elders please leave, I have some important things to discuss with the shinobi clan heads."

The elders couldn't protest against this as well. Clan business was serious, and no one, even the Hokage was to interfere unless it concerned the integrity of the village.

As soon as they left the room, Hiruzen snapped his fingers. An ANBU appeared with a scroll held in his hand. He put it on the Hokage's desk and went back to his post. A signal from the Hokage caused all the ANBU to leave the room.

Hiruzen opened it, revealing it to be a storage scroll. He slapped his hand on the scroll and in a puff of smoke, a bottle of sake and the same number of cups as the shinobi council appeared. Hiruzen smirked, "Who wants drinks?"Naruto had the others arrange into a formation. Sasuke and Sakura would guard Tazuna from the front while he would protect them from the rear. Sasuke had rudely questioned who had made him the leader. Naruto had coolly responded that if he had a better idea, then speak up.

As Naruto suspected, Sasuke didn't exactly have a lot of bright ideas. With a glare hot enough to burn metal, he had growled at Naruto, "Just because I am doing this doesn't mean you can order me around, dobe. You will tell me everything about your sensing ability."

Naruto had sighed at that. It seemed Sasuke's inferiority complex was acting up, probably because of what happened with Zabuza and the demon brothers. Maybe he was also pissed about seeing the hunter nin from before. Someone their age and already a part of the hunter nin program must set him off. They thankfully made it to Tazuna's house without any more attacks.

They all saw it, the lakeside house. They all waited on the porch as Tazuna went and knocked on the front door. After a minute, the door swung open and a slim, pretty woman rushed out and embraced Tazuna. Naruto raised an eyebrow at her, 'Probably must be his daughter.'

"Tou-san, I'm so glad you are safe!" She spoke with obvious relief in her voice before she spotted the ninja behind him. She gave them a small bow, "I'm sorry, where are my manners? I'm Tsunami, please come in. Is he hurt?" She asked, pointing towards the half-conscious Kakashi on the stretcher. Her eyes widened at the three identical blondes, but she was quick to recover.

Naruto spoke up, "He's simply exhausted, Tsunami-san. Is there a room where we can put him?" She smiled and moved aside for them to come. Sasuke and Sakura removed their shinobi sandals and went inside while Naruto first removed Kakashi's sandals and then removed his shoes, going inside. The small gesture of caring brought an unseen smile onto Kakashi's face.

Tsunami answered, "I just need to put down a futon. I'm sorry, but I didn't get your names….."

Sakura smiled, "Haruno Sakura, Tsunami-san." Tsunami smiled tightly at her. Something about the girl just unsettled her.

Sasuke was much ruder, "Uchiha Sasuke." He barely glanced at her, dismissing her as unimportant. Naruto threw him a dirty glare for that, which was whole-heartedly reciprocated.

Naruto turned around and smiled, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, Tsunami-san. Nice to meet you." When you are nice to others, they are nice to you. This was demonstrated when Tsunami returned his easy grin and replied, "Nice to meet you too, Naruto-kun. Follow me upstairs where you can lay your sensei down for rest."

After the futon was laid down and Kakashi on it, Naruto just stared at the wall blankly, processing what happened to them so far. A hand on the shoulder snapped him out of trance. He looked up to see Tsunami's face, full of concern. It was a bit strange, having someone look at him like that. It gave him a funny feeling in his stomach.

"Are you ok, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto took some time to respond, "I'm ok." Standing up and putting a small smile on his face, he turned to her and asked, "So, Tsunami-san, how about I help you cook dinner?"

XXXXXXX

It took two days for Kakashi to regain consciousness. Naruto dutifully changed his bandages, helped Tsunami cook dinner and kept a watch on Kakashi while Sakura and Sasuke…..Well, they really didn't do anything significant. Sasuke trained; Sakura did too, but not as much. She only did a little before sitting on a rock and watching Sasuke with hearts in eyes. What those two didn't know that twenty of Naruto's shadow clones, divided in to two groups were learning the two new jutsu Naruto brought with him, far deep into the forest.

Naruto was in Kakashi's room, drawing up ideas for new types of flash tags and explosive tags when he noticed Kakashi's breath hitch. Putting his sealing supplies aside, he walked over and knelt down, removing the wet cloth from Kakashi's forehead. Something just in case Kakashi caught a fever.

"Sensei?" he whispered. He saw as Kakashi attempted to get up while keeping his eyes closed. He placed a firm hand on the man's shoulder, pushing the man back down, "That would be unwise, considering it might set your recovery back."

Kakashi opened his eyes with a pained groan, persisting even when the light seemed to burn through his eye. After finally opening his eye, he looked around and assessed that they had safely made it to Tazuna's home. He figured that his genin might have gotten pretty bored, especially Sasuke if the occasional tremors indicating Sasuke's great fireball to burn off some steam.

He looked to his side, seeing a mildly concerned Naruto looking down at him with his azure blues. He was reminded of another blonde who used to give him the same look. He pushed that aside and smiled cheerily.

"Oh hello, Naruto."

A small smile came onto his face and he replied back, "About time you woke up. I'll alert the others." He stood up and walked over to the window and saw what he had been seeing for the past two days. Sakura sitting on the ground and having hearts in her eyes and Sasuke blowing off trees. He decided to break their peace.

"HEY SAKURA, DUCKASS!" He ignored Kakashi's snort at the nickname. "SENSEI IS AWAKE!" With that he went back to Kakashi's side, not even checking if they were coming or not.

Two minutes later, Sakura and Sasuke walked through the door, coming to stand in front of their sensei. Sakura sat down in a whirl of pink and red, exclaiming in relief, "Sensei, you are awake!"

Naruto quietly scoffed and looked to the side. She was saying it as if she was the one looking after him for the past two days, skipping her training. 'Quick to claim others' credit, isn't she?' Kurama's voice spoke, faintly lined with disgust.

Naruto mentally rose an eyebrow, 'Quite a long nap you took.' Then he shrugged, 'Also, she's not taking credit. She's just …useless. She just wants to be seen doing something. I'm actually glad sensei keeps his sharingan covered, otherwise he would hate to accidentally copy her uselessness', he commented, prompting a snort of laughter from the fox.

Kakashi decided to find out what he'd missed. "So, what happened after I went down?"

Sakura spoke before Naruto could, "Well, after you went down, we carried you to Tazuna-san's house. You've been out of two days, Kakashi-sensei. We've just been training and guarding the house."

Naruto wanted to say that she has been only fangirling Sasuke, who was the only one who watched the house. He also wanted to say that he has been taking care of Kakashi the whole time, but decided that it would look very petty on his part and opted to keep quiet. Also, what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them. He decided to speak up.

"Sensei, we're gonna have to train to fight Zabuza again", he said with a serious look on his face.

Sasuke turned to him, an eyebrow raised as if mocking him, "Zabuza died when that hunter nin hit him with the senbon. Or did you forget that, dobe?" Sakura nodded, as always, in favor of Sasuke. Does she even think for herself or does she just follow him, he mused.

Naruto shook his head, "I never forget, Sasuke. But you probably have forgotten what we read about hunter nin in the academy. They are supposed to destroy the body on the spot, not take it away. Also, the senbon hit a very specific spot, in the back of the neck", he trailed off, opting for Kakashi to continue.

Sakura scoffed, "Please Naruto, sensei checked and there was no pulse-" "I'm afraid that Naruto is right, Sakura. It is very much possible that Zabuza is alive", Kakashi grimly said.

Sakura and Sasuke both had disbelieving expressions, letting Kakashi continue, "The back of the neck where the senbon hit…I think that the nin most likely put Zabuza in a death like state, which is most likely why I couldn't find a pulse as it was so weak."

He further explained, "The weapon that nin used has a low fatality rate unless it hits a critical spot. The nin took Zabuza with him, even though Zabuza was much heavier than him. Also, he used a weapon with low fatality rate. With these two points, we can conclude that the nin wanted to help Zabuza."

Tazuna looked skeptical, "Is it possible that you are over thinking this?"

Kakashi's reply was swift, "No. Once a ninja fells that there's something out of place, they must prepare for it before it's too late."

Naruto folded his arms across his chest, "So how long do you think we have, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi rubbed his chin in thought and said, "I'd say….about one week. He'll need that much time to come back to full strength from a death like state. That's what I'd need as well."

Sakura gave him a look as if he was crazy, "Sensei, how are we supposed to train if you're to rest?"

Kakashi eye smiled, "Don't worry, my cute little students. I don't need much to train you. A crutch is all I need."

"Excuse me everyone, dinner is ready", a voice came from the door and all of them turned to look at Tsunami, who was wiping her hands of a towel.

Kakashi eye smiled and asked her, "Hello, you might be…?"

Tsunami smiled, "Oh, so you've finally woken up. Naruto-kun took good care of you then." He looked at Naruto who had a faint blush on his cheeks and was looking away, arms still crossed. Kakashi resisted the urge to ruffle his hair, because the kid looked damned cute right now.

"Anyway, I'm Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter. Pleased to meet you", she bowed. Kakashi bowed as much as he could while sitting, "Pleased to meet you too, Tsunami-san."

Tsunami turned to Naruto, "Please help your sensei down, Naruto-kun. And thank you for your shadow clones' help in the kitchen."

Naruto waved his hand, "They are an excellent kitchen crew for me too. Don't mention it." With that Sakura and Sasuke filed out of the room, not bothering to help Kakashi up.

Naruto gave a disgusted shake of his head and stood up. Putting Kakashi's left arm over his shoulders, he helped him up, supporting his full weight like it was nothing.

"Arigatou, Naruto. For taking care of me", Kakashi murmured, eye smiling. It was quite weird for him. Only two cared for him like Naruto did in the last two days and they were both Naruto's parents. Naruto shook his head, smiling, "You are my sensei. I didn't do it because it was my duty to take care of you like you do, I did it because I wanted to."

Kakashi gazed at Naruto with a wide eye, who ignored it and slowly helped the man downstairs. Using what little strength he had, he pulled Naruto into a one armed hug. Naruto initially stiffened, but relaxed after a few seconds. No words needed to be spoken.

He helped Kakashi sit on the table and sat beside him, close in case he needed to feed him. But he hoped Kakashi had enough pride to not face fall during eating. The small gesture caused Tsunami to smile, 'Such a sweet boy.'

Kakashi couldn't stop the eye smile. He didn't show it, but he was glad there was someone like Naruto to care for him. Kami knows he has no one left close to him now. This feeling made him want to do everything not to disappoint Naruto.

Naruto gazed at the small boy who was sitting beside Tazuna. Somehow, he cast a somber atmosphere around him. Half of his face was hidden beneath his hat. Tazuna smiled and spoke up, "Inari, greet these nice ninjas. They will make sure I'm safe while building my super bridge!"

Inari looked up and Naruto immediately understood why the boy felt so sad. He had that look in his eyes, he had lost someone very dear to him.

"But jiji, they're all going to die!" he cried out, as if he was stating a fact.

Naruto suddenly understood the boy's position a whole lot better, so instead of being angry, he just felt a deep sense of empathy and sadness for such a young child hurting.

Of course, Sasuke didn't take it too well. "You don't know that, brat", his voice had a little bit of scorn added into it along with his usual rudeness.

Naruto's head snapped to glare at him, "Sasuke!" he snapped. That was not how someone talks to a child. Particularly a child who has eyes like that.

Sasuke returned the glare, but he to turn his eyes away after a few seconds. He didn't speak after that.

Dinner went quietly after that, though Naruto got a bit embarrassed when Tsunami thanked him again for his help for cleaning the dishes. They set up their beds in separate rooms. Naruto and Sasuke would take the room with Kakashi while Sakura would share the room with Tsunami. As soon as he went into the bathroom and quickly made a half ram sign to dispel all the shadow clones. As the memories came into his mind, he sorted through them and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

The two jutsu needed a lot of work. The fuuton jutsu was a bit too complicated, so it would require time. He had to first gather air in his lungs, which was the easy part. The hard part was the shape manipulation; it was not easy to compress all of the air into an explosive ball of high density. He also had to be extremely cautious about it; if that ball exploded while inside him, game over. All of his clones practicing this jutsu were dispelled because of this, so Naruto had to discreetly create another batch and have them flash to the other clones' location. It was also taking him too long to do all of this.

'Well, I can personally work on it tomorrow, now that Kakashi sensei is awake', he thought.

The suiton jutsu was not as hard as wind jutsu, just tricky. He already knew how to expel water from his mouth. But making that jet of water highly pressurized so it could cut through stones was no piece of cake. Still, his clones managed to make it sharp enough to put a deep scratch on the barks, but not cut through it. 'Better than nothing. I have to master these jutsu before we confront Zabuza again", he thought resolutely.

He walked out of the bathroom and laid down on his bed, closing his eyes and trying to work out theories to master the two jutsus faster. He found himself laying beside Kurama in their mindscape, and it looked like he wanted to talk.

"You had quite a fight", he remarked, looking faintly amused. Naruto shot a blank look at him.

"Just how long do you sleep in a single stretch anyway?"

Kurama gave a graceful shrug as he settled his head on his hands, eyes gazing peacefully at the moon. "Depends. You handled you first actual fight quite well", he commented.

Naruto raised his eyebrows, unimpressed, "You were impressed with my fight with the demon brothers ?

Kurama returned his own unimpressed stare, "I don't mean those weaklings. I meant Zabuza. You kept your mind calm, analyzed the situation, figured the best way to escape and a way to attack your enemy. Nice touch with the Hiraishin, by the way. Gives you a way to track him now", he said, grinning at the end.

Naruto smiled, "Thanks, it means a lot to me."

Kurama sat up a little, "I saw that you had some trouble with the two new jutsus."

Naruto gave a grunt.

The fox glanced at him, "If you want, I can give you advice on how to master them quickly." He got the desired response as Naruto sat up, curiosity almost burning in his eyes.

"Really? Thank you so much, Kurama!" he smiled, his big blues shining a bit.

Kurama made a disgusted face, "Keep your sappiness to yourself, you brat."

Naruto laughed, "Sorry, couldn't resist it." He didn't look sorry at all. After he was finished laughing, he gave Kurama his full attention.

Kurama began his explanation, "Your fuuton jutsu is only a bit tough, if you look at closely. You are simply overthinking it. What you should do is when you gather the air inside you, gather it in a way that it is spinning and compressed. That way you can control its explosive effect and power. It should be fast enough to catch someone off guard, so build up a lot of pressure simultaneously when you create the air ball by creating a bit of vacuum. Use that pressure to give explosive speed to the ball."

Naruto nodded, having made sense of the entire explanation. He would try that tomorrow, and hopefully prevent a Sasuke tantrum. If he saw what Naruto was practicing, he would throw a fit.

Kurama continued, "Your suiton jutsu isn't hard as you think. Think of it this way; if you have a pipeline with water blowing out of it onto a wall, you would only get a wet wall. But if that pipeline's opening was as made a whole lot smaller…"

He left it to Naruto to finish his line of thinking, and he wasn't disappointed. "Then the pressure would be considerably high if the speed were to be kept the same. The high pressure would make the water sharp enough to cut through rocks. You are brilliant, Kurama!" he exclaimed with wide eyes.

Kurama looked considerably smug, "Of course I am. The jutsus of you humans are laughably easy to us demons! There are only a few of them we can't do!"

Naruto shook his head, smiling softly. Kurama was entirely too proud of himself, but Naruto bit his lip, not wanting to offend the demon by pointing out that he got sealed for a total of three times.

"Alright Kurama, thanks for your tips. I'll master them in no time!" he flashed a monstrous grin, which was returned by the demon in front of him.

With that, he finally entered REM sleep.

XXXXXXX

Naruto's eyes opened at his regular time of five, but he stayed in bed, thinking things over. He suspected that Kakashi might know about his use of Hiraishin against Zabuza. He hadn't exactly hidden himself with smoke bombs, after all. And Zabuza might have been surprised by his trick, but Kakashi had already seen it in the bell test. Even though it was kawarimi, but this time Kakashi had seen it with his own eyes. With him watching with the sharingan, there was no way he would dismiss it as a simple replacement.

He sighed heavily. He was not looking forward to the talk. There was so much to explain…..

Realizing his thoughts were leading him into nothing but distress, he got up, hoping to get some morning air. Keeping his steps quiet so as to not disturb Kakashi and Sasuke, he dressed up and headed outside, hoping to put Kurama's theories to test.

He got outside, getting some relief from the slight chill of the morning air. He allowed his senses to spread and a tiny frown made its way onto his face when he sensed someone making their way from behind him. Noiseless steps, probably hoping to catch him off guard.

"I didn't know you were awake, Kakashi-sensei."

"Well, I wasn't until I heard you move out", he came up beside him, eye scrunched up in a smile. Naruto returned a small smile.

The two of them sat in silence for a while, lost in their own thoughts. Kakashi finally broke the silence with a question.

"What jutsu was that on the bridge, Naruto?"

Even though he had prepared for that question to be asked, Naruto was still caught off guard. Kakashi noticed the minute flinch that Naruto couldn't hide, accompanied by a slightly fearful glint in his eyes. Realizing he had probably scared the boy, he backtracked.

"I was just curious, Naruto. It was something like what you tried in the bell test", he trailed off, silently asking Naruto to elaborate.

Naruto hated when Kakashi got like this, demanding answers from him. And the worst thing was that Naruto had no reason to hide anything from him. Steeling himself, he looked into Kakashi's single eye.

"Before I say anything, Kakashi-sensei, can you promise me that you will keep this to yourself and only yourself?"

If Kakashi looked surprised by his request, he didn't show it. He wondered just what Naruto was hiding that was so important as to not tell his team members. He was also requesting total secrecy, but Kakashi drew the line there.

He narrowed his eye, "If Hokage-sama asks me, then it's my duty to tell him, Naruto."

Naruto relaxed a bit at that, "The old man already knows of this."

Kakashi too, relaxed at that. Keeping secrets from his leader, then having the said leader interrogate you was not fun at all. "So, you will show me?" The slight hope in his voice made Naruto smile, if only a little.

Naruto gestured to his hand, where his sleeve was folded, exposing his wrist before the metal plated gloves. Kakashi shrugged, offering his wrist, "Sure."

Naruto wrapped his hand around Kakashi's wrist for a moment, then let go, turning back to watch the sunrise. Kakashi examined his wrist curiously, wanting to find out just what Naruto did.

His eyes widened and he almost choked on his spit upon seeing a seal formula that looked remarkably similar to what his sensei used. His neck snapped towards Naruto, who was looking back at him with a smirk.

"I-is this…..?"

"Yup! Sure is!" Naruto claimed proudly. "But unlike his, the flash is blue. Since my chakra is a deep blue, you know…"

Kakashi tried to recover from the surprise that Naruto had figured out the technique that made the Yondaime the most feared shinobi across all lands. Trying to keep his voice steady, he asked, "Can you….demonstrate?"

Naruto frowned but nodded. He flash stepped to a tree about a hundred meters away, missing Kakashi's look of surprise at the use. Without wasting any time, he flashed behind Kakashi, the jonin's neck turning so fast Naruto sworn he heard it crack.

Kakashi's mind was blown out of proportions when he saw the blue flash of Naruto's Hiraishin. The fact that Naruto had mastered one of the most complex techniques he had ever seen, hell, even his sensei had ever seen was nothing short of stupefying. He recovered and looked at Naruto, who was watching him carefully.

"…..I can see why you want to keep this a secret. Sasuke would throw a fit if he saw you using something that", Kakashi admitted. He could already imagine the scene.

Naruto hmmed, not at all bothered. He will keep it a secret until the chunin exams, and if Sasuke finds out before that, it's not like he could do anything. Sasuke could throw all the tantrum he wants; he would never be able to learn the flying thunder god, ever.

"It's not like Sasuke can do anything. The amount of understanding of fuinjutsu, chakra theory along with the dimension of space time was just unreal. He won't be able to make it beyond just level 7 fuinjutsu. Also, space-time is a very rarely studied branch of ninjutsu and fuinjutsu. I very much doubt the Uchiha library has any research materials related to that. I was lucky my father had done his research so thoroughly", he shrugged.

Kakashi nodded; he would hate to see, even though it was inherently and incredibly selfish of him, his sensei's legacy fall into someone else's hands other than his son.

He got up, using the crutches Tazuna was able to find him last night. "C'mon, let's get some breakfast."

They arrived inside to find Sasuke and Sakura already at the table, surprise in their eyes when they saw Naruto and Kakashi entering together. Sasuke narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but thankfully kept silent.

Tsunami was mildly surprised, "I was just coming to see if you two were out there, Kakashi-san, Naruto-kun."

Kakashi smiled, "We were just enjoying the morning air outside, Tsunami-san. It's quite peaceful."

Tsunami smiled and gestured to the table, "Please sit, breakfast is ready."

After everyone's breakfast was over, Kakashi took his squad outside, into the forest to train.

"Ok, training will begin now! You will learn chakra control exercises so you don't waste chakra in excess while performing jutsus. This exercise is one of the basics, so you have to master it, no matter what." He observed their reactions closely.

Sasuke had a….. predictably disappointed expression on his face. He was hoping that Kakashi would teach them powerful jutsus, but he conceded the fact that basics were important to master. There was, undeniably, a small amount of curiosity on his face.

Sakura was also curious, but she was more confused than she was disappointed. She didn't exactly know what Kakashi-sensei was trying to teach here, so she just waited until he explained.

Naruto….well, he looked supremely bored of Kakashi. The one-eyed cyclops found his right eye twitching at the distinctly unimpressed look Naruto was giving him. Sasuke was looking faintly amused at the looks Naruto was sending to Kakashi.

"You're going to teach us tree walking, aren't you?" the deadpan in his voice was unmistakable.

Kakashi sweat dropped. 'This could be trouble. Naruto already knows how to walk on vertical surfaces. I could get him started on water walking, but then Sasuke and Sakura might get the impression that I am favoring Naruto', he thought as he tried to figure a way out.

But Naruto and Sasuke were starting to get impatient. Naruto spoke up, "I already know tree walking, sensei." This revelation caused Sakura and Sasuke to stare at him, one with confusion and the other with a twinge of jealousy.

Kakashi mentally sighed, 'No use hiding now.' "And before you ask, I know water walking as well. Remember where I was standing after pushing Zabuza back?"

Kakashi's memory was jolted as he suddenly remembered jumping in between Naruto, who had his kunai out coated in wind chakra and Zabuza, who was just a moment away from beheading his student. Naruto was standing on water.

'Is he deliberately making this worse for me?' Kakashi thought. Sasuke walked up to Naruto with a scowl on his face. "When did you learn all this?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at him, "What will you do if I tell you?"

Fortunately for Naruto, Sasuke didn't have an answer for this question and with a deeper scowl than before, walked back to his place.

Kakashi, to avoid any further trouble, immediately explained the exercise. "What you have to do", he said while walking up to a tree. "Is to direct your chakra to the soles of your feet", he put a put onto the bark, "And stick to the surface." He was now walking perpendicular to the ground until he turned onto a branch and looked up, or down, to them.

Sakura looked up at him with awe in her eyes, while looked at him with narrowed eyes. Probably thinking about how this will make him stronger, Naruto mused.

Kakashi threw two kunai in front of Sasuke and Sakura, "Get to it, then." As Sakura and Sasuke picked up the kunai and walked away to a tree, Kakashi slowly walked down to Naruto, who was simply looking at him. "What do you plan on doing?"

Naruto said, "I'm currently working on two jutsus that I took from the shinobi library. I'm planning on mastering them before tomorrow night."

Kakashi rose an eyebrow, "Nobody can master two elemental jutsu in span of a day, you know."

Naruto shrugged, "This 'nobody' that you speak of, can't use shadow clones like I can, sensei."

Kakashi's visible eye widened, "You know the secret of Kage bunshin?"

Naruto smirked, "Figured it out a long time ago, sensei. Now if you don't mind, I'll be training. Try to keep Sasuke away from me if you can." With that, he flash stepped away, leaving a gaping Kakashi.

XXXXXXX

Naruto found out that Kurama had hit bullseye on the analysis of both the jutsus. He created forty clones, dividing them into two groups to practice while he tested the memories of last night himself.

He was able to reduce the time required to form the compressed, explosive ball of air, but it took the clones the better part of four hours to reduce the time required to form the high pressure inside him to launch the ball off at high speeds.

At the end of five hours, he was panting, sweating flowing down like waterfall on his naked upper body. All his clones were dispelled, including the ones practicing the suiton jutsu, just to return him the chakra needed for one last try at the jutsu, before he fell to chakra exhaustion.

Naruto had his hands on his knees, trying to get his breathing to get normal. Once he had, he wasted no more time in thinking. Speeding through the hand seals, he mentally shouted 'Fuuton: Kaze gyorai no jutsu!'

He expelled a compressed ball of air from his mouth at great force at a tree. His satisfaction knew no bounds when the ball exploded on the bark, blowing away a large section of it and making the tree fall.

He chuckled tiredly, falling on his back. 'Man! These elemental jutsu sure are tiring! Hey Kurama, would you mind replenishing my reserves just enough so I can walk? I would rather not eat the soldier pill I have."

Kurama's chakra rushed into his system, though not so much that he went into a rage or was full of energy again. He groaned as he sat up, putting on his t-shirt and jacket. He walked back to the house, thoughts of tasty food filling his mind.

He walked across a clearing when he heard the sound of bark exploding. Curious, he walked towards it and had to suppress the chuckles in him.

Sasuke was tree climbing….and falling off. Naruto could see with the many slashes on the bark that showed Sasuke had improved much in just one day, but he was nowhere near the top.

Naruto would have moved away if it wasn't for Sasuke discovering him and calling out, "Naruto? Is that you?"

Naruto turned around, "Yep."

Awkward silence descended upon them as Naruto waited for Sasuke to speak while Sasuke did not know what to speak. Naruto, tired of the silence, made to walk away when Sasuke called him out. And dare he think that he was…hesitating and nervous?

"Um….well…"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, 'It's rare for him to come to talk to me. Especially that he's hesitating.'

Sasuke glanced away, a faint blush on his cheeks and voice hesitating, "You said you have mastered this exercise before, right? C-can you g-give any tips?"

Naruto was inwardly laughing with Kurama at how awkward Sasuke looked while asking him. 'As much as I hate to say this, he looks more normal in his usual, arrogant self.'

On the outside, he smiled and walked to Sasuke, putting a hand on his shoulder. Sasuke looked surprised by this, even when he heard Naruto speak, "You know, you could save a lot of trouble for yourself if you just asked instead of demanding." Amusingly, the faint blush on his face was instantly replaced by his regular scowl.

Naruto spoke up before Sasuke, "But I will help you. You know, out of the goodness of my heart", he added sarcastically.

Sasuke reminded himself to calm down, otherwise he wouldn't be able to master this exercise. Hell, even Sakura mastered it before him! He was never in this position of being last, ever!

Naruto spoke, holding up a finger, "First, chakra uses your spiritual energy, so don't be tense or angry. Basically, don't allow your emotions to reach an extreme point. Second, relax and concentrate on your energy, and collect a constant amount of chakra at the bottom of your feet. That's all I will tell you."

Sasuke nodded and for the first time in his life, he thanked someone other than his family, "T-thank you."

Naruto simply smiled and turned around, "Though you should save it for tomorrow. Dinner is ready, and it's no use training on an empty stomach."

Sasuke looked like he wanted to train more, but ultimately agreed on dinner and they walked away.

Dinner was a quiet affair. After eating, Naruto helped Tsunami wash the dishes as the others relaxed. Sakura was inspecting a picture on the wall, which had a piece torn off from it. When she enquired about it and how Inari was gazing at it, Tazuna replied that the person whose face was torn off was the hero of this town. The atmosphere in the room was very somber, Naruto noted.

Inari had walked off after that, his mother going after him to console him. Tazuna told them the story of Inari's stepfather, how he was considered a hero by everyone and how Gato killed him. Inari had began to rely on the man to the point where he wouldn't stand up for himself. Gato had him killed to destroy any form of hop in the land and succeeded, traumatizing Inari in the process.

Naruto digested this, and slowly got up from his seat. He had enough of this depressing atmosphere.

Sakura spoke up, "Where are you going, Naruto?"

Naruto didn't turn back as he answered, "I've got some unfinished training to do." That was all he said before the door was gently shut.

Sakura turned towards Kakashi, "What's up with him?

Kakashi shrugged.

XXXXXXX

[Sorry for not putting up this part earlier. The timeline is same though, Zabuza wakes up after a few hours of the fight]

The mysterious nin had taken Zabuza to a small house far away and took him inside, placing him onto a bed.

"I will have to remove the bandages so he can freely cough up the blood, if he has any to cough", he mused, his hand reaching to pull down the bandages. A rough hand suddenly reached out and grabbed his wrist.

"I can do that myself, Haku."

Zabuza opened his eyes, which were quite bloodshot. He sat up, painfully groaning. He reached behind him to take out the senbon in his neck, small squirts of blood coming out as he pulled them roughly.

"Please don't pull them out like that Zabuza-sama or you will really die", Haku commented with a light voice, which failed to convey his seriousness.

Zabuza grunted as he laid on his back, "You're as vicious as ever, Haku."

Haku watched his master lay on the ground. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke up, "How will we face them next time, Zabuza-sama?"

Zabuza got a murderous look in his eyes, "Next time", he growled out, more to himself than Haku, "I'm taking away that sharingan from that damned monkey!"