Ch6 ) The Dark Plot Thickens

Sasuke was stunned. "What, but when did he-?" He thought back to when all the Naruto clones surrounded Zabuza. "So that's when." He then saw Naruto, heading towards a knocked out Zabuza, while Kakashi was pulling himself onto the water. 2 projectiles flew out of a bush, striking Zabuza in the neck.

"What!?" Kakashi walked over to Zabuza, and placed two fingers on his throat, in an effort to see if he could find a pulse. "He's dead!"

"Where'd those needles come from!" Sakura was looking around frantically.

Kakashi studied the weapons. "Senbon needles. They are usually used by Medic-nins." A figure jumped out of the nearby bush to reveal themselves. "A hidden mist Hunter-Nin?"

"Thank you for taking care of Zabuza," the hunter-nin replies. "I have been hunting him down for months now. I must dispose of the body at once." With that said, he makes a one hand seal and disappears in a blue haze, with Zabuza on his shoulders.

"Kakashi-Sensei. What's a hunter-Nin?" Sakura asks, not fully understanding the events that just passed in a matter of moments, especially that Naruto just took down a Jonin Ninja, that even their Sensei could not defeat. Then again, Sasuke did help, so she chalked it up to him being the reason they were able to beat him.

"A hunter-Nin is a specially trained Ninja, who knows the body's anatomy inside and out," Kakashi begins to explain. "They know where to strike to cause the maximum damage to their target. Their job is to hunt down missing or Rogue Ninja, kill them, and dispose of the body. That way, they preserve their village's secrets and Jutsus. For example, if I was killed by an enemy Ninja, the secrets of the Sharingan could be revealed."

"Oh! That makes sense."

"From the look of it, judging by his height and voice, he's probably not that much older than you Naruto."

"Yeah," the blond replies, not really finding it of much importance.

Sakura, however, was astounded. "What! How could that be possible?"

Kakashi turned towards his pink haired student. "Well believe it or not Sakura, there are Ninja younger than you, but stronger than me." Like Naruto probably, he added as an afterthought.

"That's Amazing!"

"Well, we should probably get going. Lead the way Tazuna," Kashi instructed the bridge master.

"Yes...of course." He responds, still flabbergasted with the fact that Naruto beat someone that his own Sensei was struggling with. Not only that, but the blond also made it look easy, and from the looks of it, he didn't even break a sweat. Tazuna decided then and there never to underestimate Naruto ever again.

They started walking towards Tazuna's place, when Kakashi fainted all of the sudden.

Sakura jumped. "Kakashi-Sensei. Are you alright!"

"Relax Sakura, he's just tired from over using the Sharingan. It puts a lot of strain on the body, especially when you're not actually an Uchiha," Naruto says calmly and knowingly, which made Sasuke more than a little suspicious.

"How do you know so much about the Sharingan, Naruto?" Sasuke was starting to get angry that Naruto isn't even an Uchiha, yet he knows more about it than him.

Naruto ignored Uchiha's questioning. "That's not important right now, Sasuke. We need to get Kakashi to Tazuna's place, so he can rest." He took out one of his storage seals and infused some chakra into it. Then he touched Kakashi, and the man disappeared. He looked to Tazuna. "Shall we continue?"

Tazuna blinked several times. What just happened. "Yes, my house is just a ways down the road. Follow me." He gestures towards the horizon with his arm. "By the way Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"What did you do with Kakashi?"

"I put him in one of my storage seals. That way he's easier to carry."

"Alright," Tazuna relents, still not completely understanding the subject of sealing. He's just a civilian from an island with no Ninja. Can you blame him for not knowing really anything about them?

Tazuna's House (10 Minutes later)

The gang arrives at Tazuna's place, and his Daughter Tsunami, shows them to a guest room, where they could leave Kakashi to rest. Naruto unseals both Kakashi and a cot for him to sleep on, from another one of his scrolls. He tucked him in with a blanket over his face, before pulling down the mask, knowing Kakashi doesn't want people seeing what he looks like. Then he left to go back downstairs.

"How is Kakashi-San?" Tsunami asks, when Naruto makes it down the steps.

Naruto gives her a small smile. "Fine. I left him lying down in my travel cot, so he could rest comfortably. He should be up in a couple hours or so."

Tsunami smiles. "Well that was nice of you."

Naruto shrugs it off. "It's no problem really. I'm used to sleeping on the floor anyway."

"I'm glad he's in such good hands. I made some food, would you like some? I'm sure you must be hungry after your journey," Tsunami asks kindly.

Naruto gives her another smile, before rejecting her offer. "No thank you, I need to go train." If he was honest, he really wasn't that hungry. When he gave Kurama control over his senses, it had some after effects. One being he could store food in his system for longer periods of time than other people, allowing him to be able to eat less often. which is handy on long missions. "I'm gonna leave one of my clones upstairs, to keep an eye on Kakashi." He made the necessary hand signs, and sent the clone to Kakashi. Then the blond left out the door, and down the road.

Sakura stared at the door Naruto had just left through. "That's strange. I expected Naruto to be the most hungry out of all of us, given the fact that he's the weakest link on the team, and would need it the most." She remarks rather rudely.

"Hnn," Sasuke grunts with his signature look of indifference. But on the inside he was wondering 2 things. 1) Why isn't Naruto hungry, when he himself is starving and 2) What kind of training does he do without the Sensei. "I'm going to go for a walk." He slides out of his chair, and heads toward the door.

"Can I co-" Before Sakura was even done voicing her question, Sasuke was already out the door. "Damn it!"

Tsunami smirked at the entire ordeal. "Someone has a crush."

Sakura jumped in her chair. "Whaa-?! I don't, I mean he's not, ok yes. I really like him. He's cool, mysterious, handsome." She says dreamily, with hearts in her eyes.

Tsunami wasn't impressed "I see," She says, questioning some of the traits about the boy, given by the fan girl.

Sakura immediately went on the defensive. "What's that supposed to mean!?" She responds, having caught the underlying apathy in the older women's tone.

"Nothing," Tsunami answers, with her arms in the air in surrender. She was still not sure if she liked this girl or found her irritatingly dense.

With Naruto (Inside The Mindscape)

"Alright Kuruma! What are we doing today?"

"Walk out onto the water, and I'll show you."

Naruto listened and walked onto the water.

Kuruma smirks. The fox throws both a kunai and a Shuriken at Naruto.

The blond does a backflip and jumps to the side, avoiding both.

"Impressive, you've learned."

"Well I've had a lot of help from a friend, after your little stunt that day."

Flashback (2 Years ago)

The Last few weeks Kurama has noticed that Naruo has been really impatient, and has shown signs of extreme arrogance. He's hopeful that his training for today will knock some sense into the blond.

"Come on Kuruma, what type of training are we going to do" Naruto asks, quite impatiently.

"Relax Kit, now here. Put on this blindfold" Kurama tells him, handing Naruto a long strip of black cloth.

Why?"

"Because I said so!"

"Alright no need to get testy." Naruto wraps the blindfold around his eyes, making sure he couldn't see anything at all, and waits for further instruction. He was starting to get impatient. At that moment, a Kunai whizzed through the air and impaled itself in his shoulder. "Hey!"

"Calm down, while you remain in the mindscape you can't actually be hurt, remember?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that cool feature."

"The training we are going to do today is heightening your senses, so you can battle even if you're blinded. Given my control over your senses it should come easier to you than other people."

"Ok lets start!"

"First walk out onto the water using your sense of smell to guide you."

"Alright, this will be a piece of cake."

"I warned you about getting Cocky Naruto. It's dangerous."

"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Let's just do this already!" He started to walk letting his sense of smell guide him... right smack dab into a tree.

Kurama face faulted. "Yeah, a total piece of cake. Too bad the goal was not to run into a tree or else I'd be bowing down to your greatness." The beast put as much sarcasm into his voice as possible. Which did not go unnoticed by Naruto.

Naruto glared at him. "Whatever! That was just my first time. No one is perfect at the very start." He tried again, got a little closer to the lake, but crashed right into a rock. Once again he got further, before tripping over a log. Now he was getting annoyed.

"Don't just try to find the lake, watch out for the scent of objects in your path as well."

"I GOT IT!" Naruto responds rather ticked off that he didn't think of that in the first place, given how smart he was. He eventually made his way to the water and walked out onto the middle of the lake. "Now what?"

"Come back, conjure up 50 clones, and have them all do it over until they can do it flawlessly. That means no bumping, crashing, tripping, or stepping on anything but the ground and the water. Once you can do that with all of them, then will continue onto the next part of the training."

"Come on I just did it. Isn't once enough for someone like me?"

Kuruma blinked. "What exactly do you mean, by someone like you."

Naruto began listing titles on his fingers. "Prodigy, awesome, amazing, strong, infallible. You know?"

"Uh huh." He really had to put a stop to that as soon as possible. He figures he will show the boy that he's not as 'Infallible' as he thinks.

"So does that mean I don't have to do it again?"

"No, you still have to do it."

"Oh come on!"

"Do as I have instructed, or I will not train you anymore. Do I make myself clear?"

Naruto stayed silent, frowning at the water.

Kurama asks again, louder this time: "I SAID, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!?"

"Finnne! Gosh I'll do it."

"Good, now get to work!

Naruto takes off the blindfold, walks back to his previous location, does the Kage Bunshin Jutsu, and finally, he instructs every one of his clones to tie the blindfold around their eyes until they absolutely can't see anything but the color of the cloth.

"Make sure you look out for the smells and sounds of other things as you navigate to the lake." He says, reminding his clones of the tip that Kuruma gave him just a few minutes ago.

After an hour of mess ups, each of his clones eventually got to the lake without any mishaps, making sure not to step on any bugs as well, just as Kuruma had instructed. The hardest part for Naruto and his clones was not stepping on any bugs due to the faint sound they would make as they scurried across the ground. "Now What!?" He was still angry at himself for not being as awesome as he proclaimed.

"Disperse all the clones and do it again, without making any mistakes."

Naruto did as he was told, though very begrudgingly. Luckily, he had no problems, so Kuruma decided to go onto the next part.

"Good job. Now the hard part. I'm going to start throwing all kinds of weapons at you as I did earlier. I want you to avoid them as best as you can."

"Ok, I'm ready." Right away a kunai and shuriken lodged into his stomach, one after the other. "Oomph!" Naruto grunted, and was upset at how he didn't even hear them coming.

"I thought you said you were ready," Kurama says, clearly mocking him.

"Again!" He heard the sound this time, and sidestepped to avoid them. "Ha-" A Kunai hit him right in the forehead. "What the heck was that!?"

"You can't stop and gloat. Always expect there's more to come. If you don't, it could be the difference between success or failure in battle." He hoped Naruto would get over his pride and take what he was saying to heart, but it didn't seem to be working. He'll just have to try harder.

"Just go again! I can do this! He back flipped over a kunai, sidestepped a Shuriken, ducked under another Kunai, and pressed off the water to jump over a couple more Kunai and Shuriken. This continued for a few minutes of Naruto dodging everything he could. Eventually though, he got tired, and became sluggish with his movements. A couple minutes later, he was too slow to avoid a Senbon needle that struck him in the knee as he was landing from avoiding a demon wind Shuriken that came out of nowhere, to which he only barely avoided. "What kind of weapon-" He pants "is this?!" He exclaimed clearly exhausted.

"It's called a Senbon needle. It's particularly handy for medical Ninjutsu and used by Hunter-Nins."

"I see. So I'm guessing you want me to make 50 clones and do it again until I don't get hit for a certain amount of time?"

"You guessed it, genius," He responds sarcastically.

Naruto ignored the sarcasm and created 50 clones. Kuruma once again started hurling weapons at all of the clones and him at the same time. This went on for a couple hours, until he could avoid all the weapons for 5 minutes, without any of his clones being hit by a weapon. He dispersed them and swayed a little off balance, due to the fact that this was the second time he had to go through the memory overload in the past day. Once Naruto was stable again, Kuruma started ambushing him with dozens of flying weapons, to which he successfully avoided for 15 minutes, until Kuruma stopped and smiled at him.

"Good job kit!"

Naruto turned to the Kyuubi and smiled. Then he lost consciousness. Even though he can't feel pain, he can still experience fatigue.

He lasted longer than Kurama thought he would. Even considering his abnormal amounts of stamina.

Next Day (Still inside the mindscape)

Naruto woke up, and looked around for a while. Then the events of the previous day came back to him like a bullet train. "Ow! My head!"

"So, you're finally awake!" Lets hope his Pride is gone too. "Are you ready for the next part of the training," he asks, a smirk present on his face.

"There's more!" Naruto paled at this new found information. He was sure he looked like a ghost right now.

"Of course! It's not enough to just dodge and avoid attacks, you need to learn to defend yourself against weapons as well."

"Of course it isn't. Alright let's go"

Kyuubi was able to hear the dread in his tone but continued anyway. "Good. Now we're going to start working on your Bokujutsu (weapon skills). Unfortunately I've never needed this particular skill, so I can't' help you here."

"What! Then how am I going to learn!?". Naruto was worried. There was no one else who would train him.

"You'll have to find somebody else to train you in this, sorry!"

"Ok. Let me think about my options. I can't ask the old man, he's probably busy doing paper work or something. I can't ask Teuchi, cause he's not a Ninja, neither is Ayame. There is a girl in the academy named Tenten who specializes in weapons. I guess I could ask her." He wonders if she'll help him though. She doesn't seem to hate him, like everybody else. "I guess I really don't have anything to lose. I might as well ask. What's the worse she could do, say no." With that said he left to find Tenten, Disappearing out of his mindscape, and heading into town.

Konoha (1 hour later)

Naruto has been searching all throughout town with no luck of finding her, until he remembered that she and her family owned a weapons shop not far from the ramen stand. "Here it is," he says, glad he finally found it. He walks in to find her sitting behind the counter, with a bored expression on her face. "Hey Tenten."

"Do I know you?" She asks, never actually having paid attention to him in the academy.

Naruto gaped. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. We both go to the Ninja Academy. I'm a year below you. Ring any bells"

Tenten blinked. "Nope, sorry," she said, a sheepish look on her face.

Naruto relented. "That's alright. Anyway, I had a favor I wanted to ask of you."

The girl perked up at this. "Yeah?" She asked, suddenly curious of what the blonde wanted from her.

"Since you specialize in weapons. I was wondering if you could help me work on my Kenjutsu?"

She thought about it for a second, then figured, hey she's got nothing else better to do. "Sure, but not right now. I've got to work, but I'm off in a few hours. I could help you then," she says, a smile taking over her previous bored expression.

Few, he was worried she wouldn't help for a second there. "Thanks" Naruto gives her a smile, relieved. "So I'll see you in a few hours then. How does 2 o'clock sound?"

The young girl nodded her head in agreement. "Sounds fine. See you later," she says waving to him, as he begins to depart from the shop.

"Later!" With that stress off his shoulders, he walks back to one of the training grounds to do his workout routine.

Well this is an interesting turn of events. On the bright side, she will no longer be bored out of her mind today. She smiled before regaining the same far off look she had when Naruto entered, waiting for a customer.

With Naruto (1:45)

Naruto was finishing his workout routine when he remembered something. He forgot to tell Tenten where to meet him. "I guess I have to go back to her store, wait. I can just send one of my clones." He made the necessary hand sign, and sent the clone off to meet Tenten, to tell her where to find him.

With The Naruto clone (Tenten's shop 1:55)

The clone walked in, right as Tenten was coming out, and they bumped right into each other.

"Umph, oh I'm sorry." The clone apologized getting back up.

Tenten smiled, when she realized who it was. "That's alright. It's a good thing you came though. We never discussed a location to meet at."

The Naruto Clone smiled. That was exactly what he was there for. "That's actually why I came back in the first place. He wants you to meet him at training ground 7"

Tenten tilted her head to the side, in confusion. "Who's he?" What's with the use of the third person like reference to himself.

"Naruto," the clone answered.

Tenten was even more confused. "Aren't you Naruto?"

"Sort of. I'm a clone."

"But you're just an illusion. Wouldn't it have been better for him to tell me himself, since nothing you learn will transfer to him?"

The clone smirked. "I'm not an illusion. I'm actually a shadow clone. So what I learn will be transferred to the original," he explained. "He sent me so he could finish his workout regiment."

"Oh, I've heard of that. WAIT." She displayed a shocked expression, "Isn't that a Jonin level skill. How could he possibly have enough Chakra to maintain it for this long, let alone do it in the first place?" Wasn't Naruto a year behind her? He shouldn't have enough Chakra to use it, regardless of knowing how to do the Jutsu or not.

"Naruto's a special person, let's just leave it at that."

"Alright, but I wanna know sometime," she says, suddenly very intrigued with the young blond boy.

The Clone shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe he'll tell you eventually."

"I hope so."

"Well, I've done my job here. So I'm gonna disperse now." He looked back up towards the girl. "Remember, Training Ground 7." Then the clone disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Tenten alone with her thoughts.

Well that was unexpected. She left to find the Training Ground, with a new interest in the boy.

Back with Naruto

He finished his final sit up, when the memory of his clone flooded into his brain. Maybe he will tell her sometime. Yeah, that'll happen, NOT.

Kurama sighed. "If you become friends with this girl, you should consider telling her. It would do you some good to have someone who you can hangout with and talk to, besides me of course."

"I'll think about it," he says, still doubting if he will actually ever tell anyone. He'd have to really trust them, and right now. There was no one like that who didn't already know the secret about him.

Tenten showed up as he finished that thought. "Hey Naruto. Are you ready for the training?" She smiled, walking up to the boy.

He smiled as well. "Definitely. let's begin."

"Okay." She nods her head. "But first. I want to gauge your skills as of now."

They both took out their Kunai and ran at each other. With a loud clang of metal against metal, the Kunai intercepted each other. Tenten pulled back and swung at his leg, to which Naruto jumped back to avoid. He then threw the Kunai at her, and she ducked under it easily. The girl used his moment of surprise to her advantage, and rushed him. Before the blond knew it, there was a gash straight through his jacket that left a thin trail of blood across his chest.

"I'm sorr-'' She began to apologize for taking their little spar too far. But paused as she notices the wound healing. Then it was completely non existent. "How-"

Naruto interrupted her. "It's alright. I heal fast," He says, trying to make her feel better.

"Is that one of the things that makes you special?" She asked, remembering the conversation she had earlier with his clone.

Naruto blinked. "What?" He asked, confused. Then he remembered his clone's memories. "Oh yeah. that's one of them."

"How many are there."

"A few, but you don't have to worry about that right now. Let's get back to training," He brings the attention back to their fighting, wanting to avoid the topic of him, before he says something he shouldn't.

Naruto came at her again, this time with both Kunai and shuriken. He threw the first Kunai at her, and the second one to where he predicted she'd dodge to. With speed he couldn't even see, she blocked the second Kunai, before it hit her in the stomach. Thinking she was distracted, the blond hurled the five Shuriken in his hand at an angle where they would intercept her on the sides, and to his bewilderment, she easily jumped up and out of range, while the 5 shuriken instead hit each other, and were cancelled out.

Naruto's mouth dropped in shock. "Wow! You're really good." Sure she specialized in this type of combat, but she was still just 11 years old after all.

Tenten blushed. "Thank you. I try." She smirked, a pretend cocky attitude in her tone. "You're good as well. Where'd you learn how to aim so accurately?" She was surprised by his show of skill.

"I can't tell you. I'm sorry."

"Alright, well now that I know your skill. I can train you more effectively. First, Bokujutsu is a lot like Taijutsu, just with weapons instead of your hands and feet. For example. Let's say you were to slug someone in the cheek or neck. It's the same motion with your arm, the only difference is now your holding a weapon. So it's going to be the thing that does damage, instead of your fist. Do you get it?" She asked, hoping her little lecture wasn't too much information at one time.

Naruto smiled. "Yeah I got it. I catch on quick, so you don't have to worry about making your explanations detailed to the point where it'll be too much to comprehend. At least not with me anyway. With other people, you probably want to simplify it. Just for future reference."

"Good to know. Now of course that tip doesn't always apply. It depends on the weapon you're using. For instance. If you're using a sword that's held similarly to the way you hold a Kunai, then the rule applies. But if you're using a Katana or something like that, then the motion will of course be different. Like I said, it depends on the weapon."

Naruto nods his head in understanding. "That makes sense."

"Next, it's obvious I don't have to teach you accurate weapon throwing for projectile weapons. Keep in mind though, the weight of the weapon determines how difficult it is to use accurately. Let's focus on your close combat Bokujutsu skills for now."

Kurama alerted Naruto in his head. "One thing I just thought of Kit. Utilize your senses to figure out where she's going to try to strike you. Good luck."

Naruto face faulted. Of course, why didn't he think of that?

"Are you alright Naruto?" She asked having seen him just standing there as if he was deep in thought.

"Yeah I'm good," he responds. He's got to be careful talking to Kurama when he's around people.

"OK, if you say so. Are you ready to spar again?"

"Let's do this thing."

They rushed at each other again, with Naruto trying a swipe at her leg. She saw the move and moved her leg back and out of reach of the weapon. Using her momentum she swung her leg back to the previous position, adding to her overall speed, while swinging her arm that had the kunai at Naruto's abdomen. He however, utilized his sense of sound, and heard it coming. So he flipped back to avoid it. While she was stunned that he was able to dodge, Naruto rushed back at her and cut her on the arm.

Teten grabbed her arm. "Ahhh." How did he do that, his skill has already increased since our spar earlier, how is that even possible.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking. Here give me your arm, I'll heal it for you."

The kunoichi was astounded. "You can heal other people as well?" She asked, even more amazed with the boy than she was before. She extended her arm out to him.

Naruto smirked at her. "yeah, good thing too. I tend to get carried away when I'm training. This may sting a little, but the feeling will go away after a couple seconds." He said as he took her arm, and started pouring his Chakra into her. So her scar would be able to heal exponentially fast.

She watched in amazement, at how like with the scar on his chest earlier, the mark on her arm disappeared, as if it never was there in the first place. It hurt for a little bit like he said it would, but after it was done, her arm felt stronger than it was before "That's a useful ability to have, I guess you'll be like the medic on your Genin team."

Naruto pondered on that thought for a moment. "Yeah I guess." He hadn't really thought of the idea of using his healing ability for anyone but himself, until now that is.

"Question?"

"Yeah?" He asked, turning his attention towards her once again.

"Are the Muscles in my arm supposed to feel stronger than they already were?"

"Yes, it's because when I healed you, my chakra also repaired any damage done to your arm muscles prior to today. I can do the same for the rest of your body if you want me to?"

Tenten blushed.

Naruto's face paled. "WAIT, that came out wrong. What I meant was, I can take your arm again, but this time send my Chakra all throughout your body. That way it will heal any and all damage done to you during your lifetime." Naruto explained trying to fix the misunderstanding in his previous statement.

"That'd be nice." She said, still blushing at her previous thoughts that entered her young mind, surrounding the misunderstood statement.

This time when Naruto grabbed her arm, he sent his Chakra everywhere in her body.

After the pain subsided, it actually felt really nice and soothing. She could get used to this feeling. After he let go, she felt so much looser and less constricted with her movements. "Awesome!"

"Yeah, you feel better now?"

"Totally, so much better."

"If I may ask, what does it feel like? With me it comes subconsciously, and I've always had the ability. So I don't really know the difference."

"It feels like my whole body just loosened, and I can move it more freely now."

"Cool, you wanna get back to the spar now?"

"Sure."

Time skip

It's been a couple weeks since Naruto has met Tenten, and in that time they've become good friends. They Train with each other almost everyday from 2 o'clock-7 o'clock. Her curfew is 9, and she likes to hang out with her other friends for the remaining hour and a half, before she has to go home. She told Naruto she wanted to meet up with him today, but she wouldn't tell him for what reason. So here he was at their usual Training Ground, which is Training Ground #7, waiting for her to show up. After a couple minutes, he saw her running towards him.

"Hey Naruto! Sorry I'm late, my dad had to hold me for a few minutes longer to handle some extra customers."

Naruto gave her a smile "That's okay. So why'd you wanna meet me here?"

"I have something for you." She said handing him a box wrapped in orange wrapping paper, with a red bow.

"Thank you! You didn't have to get me anything though." He said, shocked. No one besides The Third Hokage had ever given him a gift. It gave him a feeling of true friendship, that he's never had with someone close to him age wise before. He unwrapped the bow and paper to find a small black box. He opened it up to reveal dark orange fingerless gloves with metal plates for defense over the front of them. "Thanks a lot Tenten" He said as he gave her a hug in appreciation.

"You're welcome! There's a cool feature with the metal plates though."

"Oh yeah?"

"I remembered you were an Uzumaki, and I know they excel at Fuinjutsu. So I had my dad create the metal plates with the ability to seal extra weapons, like Kunai and Shuriken so you'll never run out of tools on missions.

"That's awesome! Tell your dad I said thank you to him as well."

"I will."

"Now how can I repay you?"

"You don't have to, it's nice giving gifts to friends."

"I want to though." An idea suddenly popped into the boy's head. "Oh I know, here come with me." He started to walk away from the training ground, with her following beside him.

"So where are we going?"

"You'll see.

A couple minutes later Naruto came to a stop in front of one of his favorite places in the village, Ichiraku Ramen.

"You like ramen right?" He was hoping she did, this was one of the only restaurants that took his business.

"Yeah I like ramen." She replied, unknowingly filling him with a sense of relief.

"Then let's head in, shall we?" They walked under the curtains hanging from the roof of the stand and began to look over the menu. "Hey old man, I'll have the miso ramen with extra pork."

"Naruto! Long time no see kid. Where have you been lately?"

"Training, studying, and going to the Academy."

"Alright, and what will your friend be having?" Teuchi asked, gesturing to the young girl beside him.

"I'll have the same thing, just no extra pork please."

"Ok, Ayame!

"Yes father?" She Came out of the kitchen and noticed Naruto with his new friend. "Oh! Who's this?"

"This is my new friend Tenten. We met a couple weeks ago."

"Good for you Naruto, You finally made a friend your age. So what did you need, father?"

"I need you to make 2 bowls of miso ramen. One with extra pork, and one regular for Naruto and his friend."

"Will do." She said as she disappeared into the kitchen once again.

Tenten was confused. What did Ayame mean by 'finally made a friend his age?' Doesn't he have any other friends? "Hey Naruto?"

"Hmm?"

"What did Ayame mean? Don't you have other friends beside me?" She was starting to get concerned for the boy sitting next to her.

"No, you're the first."

"But why?"

"I can't tell you, maybe later when we're older?"

"Okay, when were older." Now she was even more confused. A minute later, their food was set in front of them, and they proceeded to eat in a bit of an uncomfortable silence.

They continued to be friends and train together occasionally. Still to this day they train together, but considerably less often, now that they're both on genin teams.

Flashback end

"Yeah, she's been a really good friend to you over the 2 years you've known her. I still think you should tell her about everything."

"I will soon, I'm just waiting for the right moment. Maybe after the Chunin Exams."

Sasuke's P.O.V. (2 hours later)

After he went for a walk, Sasuke came across Naruto in a field. The blond said he was going to train, but he was just sitting there with his legs crossed. Sasuke waited a few minutes, to see if he would do anything, but he just continued to sit there.

Third Person's P.O.V.

Sasuke was walking towards Naruto, wondering how the heck was this training? Naruto, having sensed him coming, opened his eyes and turned to look at him.

"Can I help you with something, Sasuke?"

"Yeah, you can tell me how you're so much stronger than me when your idea of training is sitting on your butt, doing nothing!

"This isn't the only type of training I do Sasuke. There are many others, you just happened to show up a couple minutes ago when I was in the middle of this type of training."

"How do you know if I just showed up a couple minutes ago. I could have been watching you the entire time."

"I know for a fact that you only showed up a couple minutes ago."

"How so?"

"Because, that's when I started to sense you."

"You can sense me? How?" He was even more intrigued with the blond's skill.

"I can't tell you." After that, Naruto walked back to the house, while Sasuke tried to think about how sitting and doing nothing was an effective form of training. nothing came to mind, so he just blew it off and walked back to the house a little ways behind Naruto.

With Zabuza and The Hunter Nin (Third Person's P.O.V.)

In the middle of a clearing, we find Zabuza unconscious with The Hunter Nin kneeling beside him. The Hunter Nin unwraps a tool scroll, and takes out a pair of scissors, reaching towards Zabuza's face.

"First I'll cut off the bandages to drain the blood." Just then Zabuza wakes up and grabs the Hunter Nin's arm, stopping her from what she was doing.

"That's enough, let me do it." He pulls down the wrappings, revealing his sharp shark like teeth and glares at her. "Brutal as always Haku" He said as he began to yank the needles out of his neck.

"You're the one who's brutal Zabuza. If you keep pulling them out like that, you really will die."

"How long are you going to wear that ridiculous mask! Take it off!"

"I have fond memories of this mask. Plus it proved pretty useful in tricking that Ninja. If i hadn't intervened, you'd be dead. There's no doubt about that."

"Putting me in a temporary death like state is fine, but you didn't have to do it through the pressure points in my neck! Cruel as always, I think you enjoy it."

"It was the only sure way, and I didn't want to scar your flawless body. You'd complain about that even more." She said smiling at him. "The neck is more vulnerable. There's no layer of muscle, so I can go straight through to the pressure points."

Zabuza tries to get up, but grunts in pain when he realizes he is barely able to move.

"Don't try to move, it's futile. Your body will be out of commission for at least a week. Of course knowing you with your stubborn attitude, you might be able to move even sooner than that."

"So innocent, but yet so clever. A rare combination. That's why I keep you around."

"I'm still just a kid, what else would you expect?" She stands up and looks out towards the water. "The mist is cleared. Next time, will you be alright?"

"Next time, I won't underestimate that kid. My blade will be the last thing he sees, before I run him through!" He said, narrowing his eyes, vowing to put an end to Naruto, no matter what. He does not take the fact that he was beaten by a kid lightly.

[Okay I'm finally done with this chapter. I hope it did not take too long. Now about the pairings. I have decided to make it a Naruino relationship, and a Naruten friendship. The Naruino won't happen until Shippuden, I want it to build overtime, not happen way too fast. Plus remember she still does not know about Naruto's act, which will make it more interesting as their relationship develops. I will try to update soon. Thanks to all my readers for your support. Have a good night, and I'll see you next time. Later!]