Chapter 16

Zabuza was resting on a cot with a blanket over him. He did not like the fact that he had lost to Kakashi. That damn sharingan! He hated its abilities, copying off the hard work and dedication he had put into learning his jutsu in a simple blink. His fists clenched in anger, he could not wait to tear that eyeball out and stomp on it. Moments later, a short man dressed in a business suit and two samurais as bodyguards entered the room and went over to where Zabuza was.

"So the terrifying demon of the mist is crippled after facing a few kids and a ninja. I don't think I'm getting my money's worth when it comes to paying you, Zabuza. Perhaps I should just kill you and spare myself the pain of losing any more money", the short man sneered at the bed resting nin.

Gato walked over to Zabuza and reached out to strangle him when a figure appeared out of nowhere and grabbed his wrist, before ruthlessly twisting it.

"You will not harm Zabuza-sama. I won't allow it", came the hard voice of Haku. He twisted Gato's wrist further to just before the point of breaking it to drive his point home. Gato shrieked in pain and fell to his knees.

"Hands off our boss!" One of the samurai took a step forward when Haku grabbed a kunai and threw it at them. The samurai dodged it as it got buried in the wall behind them.

Seeing them distracted, she pulled out two of her senbon and threw it precisely at a point in both of their arms that it was rendered immobile.

The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees as Haku whispered with deadly intent, "I missed your vital points on purpose, so don't test me."

Gato snarled as he got up to his feet after Haku released him, "Insolent brat! You and Zabuza had better finish the job I gave you, or there will be consequences!" With that, he exited the house, followed by his bodyguards whose arms were still immobile.

"You know, you didn't have to do that for me. I could have taken care of it myself if it came to that", Zabuza commented as he fingered the kunai in his hands under the bedsheet.

"I was aware of that, Zabuza-sama. But as your tool, I will always protect my master in any circumstance", Haku said with a smile. Zabuza sighed, "In any case, I will be back to full strength in three more days. And when I am", his voice turned murderous, "Kakashi will die!"

XXXXXXX

After getting outside, he walked to the spot he was training in since morning. 'There's something I don't get. His father was killed, and while that is obviously the cause of grief, why hasn't Inari moved on?' Naruto asked Kurama as he neared the training spot.

Kurama bluntly pointed it out, 'Not everyone moves as fast as you do, Naruto. While you quickly moved on from a weakling to making yourself stronger, you are one of the few who can do it that way. Majority of the people are afraid to let go of the grief, afraid that they will lose the connection that binds them to the person who they held close.'

Naruto took his time understanding what Kurama told him. He knew that whenever a person lost their one of their close ones, they tended to hold on to that feeling for a long time.

But it never worked in Naruto's favor; holding onto despair. Instead, he made a choice on what to do about it. Every time when he fell down and had difficulty in finding a reason to get up, he would forcefully shake himself out of that state and willed himself to get up. Simply because he had no reason to stay down either. The purpose of life is to keep moving and staying down in one spot defied that very purpose.

Reaching the spot, he took a deep breath. With Kurama's help and dinner, Naruto had replenished a little less than two-thirds of his reserves. He was thankful for the fact that every time he spent chakra and replenished it, his reserves would grow, just by a little. At one instance, it won't even be noticeable. But in the long run, it would be beneficial.

He made a half ram and forty clones appeared, smokeless and soundless. The clones divided themselves into two groups of twenty as before and awaited their orders.

Naruto thought for a minute, and spoke up, "Twenty of you will work on the fuuton jutsu we learned today. However, I don't considered it mastered until I've managed to perform it perfectly with just one hand seal, considering how strong my affinity is." Th group on the right nodded and flash stepped away to a new location.

Naruto turned to the remaining group, "I will be working with you all. We will work on perfecting the suiton jutsu this night. After perfecting it, we will work on mastering it like the fuuton jutsu: with one hand seal."

"Hai!" came the chorus of the group. And so they began their training until all the clones dissipated and Naruto fell unconscious.

XXXXXXX

Haku wore a pink kimono with red cherry blossoms and wooden sandals. He was carrying a basket and slightly humming to himself. While boys of his age would cringe at his choice of clothes, Haku had no such problem. In fact, he wore them just so he could witness the absolute shock on people's face when they figured out he was a boy and not a girl. It was amusing, no, scratch that, it was always downright hilarious.

After an hour of walking, he came upon what he was searching for. Kneeling down, he began to pick herbs. His basket was almost half full when he felt something off. Getting up and turning around, he watched the scene with mild amusement and curiosity.

Twenty feet away, he saw the boy his master had fought three days ago. 'Naruto', his mind supplied helpfully. From what he had seen in the fight, he was very skilled, both in body and mind. He knew how to perform elemental jutsu, which his master had told him that no genin is capable of. His use of them, incorporating them into his tactics, such as when he beat Zabuza's clone.

Granted, that clone only held one-tenth of the original's power, the feat was nothing short of impressive. And he had come up with a strategy to free his sensei, on the fly and had to land two hits on Zabuza.

This boy was extremely dangerous.

The boy was laying down, limbs spread away from the body. He was not even aware of the birds that had taken perch on him. Haku had an internal debate: he could either quietly collect his herbs now and leave, or he could kill him and save some trouble later on.

He stretched his arm towards Naruto's throat, silently deciding to kill him now and swiftly, to spear him the pain.

"I would advise against that."

Haku jumped back in surprise and watched as Naruto instantly open his eyes, as if he was not asleep at all. But his slightly puffy eyelids gave it away that the boy had been asleep, but woke up due to feeling his presence.

Naruto took a few moments to shake off the drowsiness from his eyes before turning to address the girl, "Jolting me awake hasn't been pleasant for anyone who has done that."

Haku watched as he kipped up to his feet before working out all kinks in his joints, all the while, completely ignoring his presence.

Naruto worked out the stiffness in his body while simultaneously going over the results of last night's training. The group of clones practicing the fuuton jutsu were able to reduce the number of hand seals to one and execute it perfectly.

'Well, that's one good thing', he thought. He and the group of clones practicing the water jutsu had also perfected it. Naruto could now use Suiton: Suidanha (Water style: Water severing wave) perfectly with all five hand seals. In addition to that, he also had the Nidaime's notes on that jutsu to help him shorten it to just one hand seal.

He finally turned to face the girl, who he found was quite pretty. "So, what are you doing here?"

His question snapped Haku out of his trance and he bent down to make it appear he was picking herbs. "I'm picking herbs for a friend. He's quite ill, you see." Haku sincerely hoped his voice did not waver.

Naruto, to his credit, only rose an eyebrow. "Then you might want to avoid that herb. I've read it's quite poisonous", he said, nodding towards the ground.

Haku looked down and an embarrassed blush came over his face. He was going to pick a herb that was more suited to make poison than antidote.

To cover up his embarrassment, Haku decided to introduce himself, "By the way, I'm Haku."

Naruto extended his hand, "Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you, Haku-chan."

Haku inwardly laughed as he imagined Naruto's face when he revealed he was a boy. For now though, "Nice to meet you too."

Naruto gestured to her basket, "Can I help you in collecting those herbs?"

Naruto and Haku collected herbs to fill Haku's basket. "Why are you collecting the herbs so early in the morning, nee-chan?"

Haku replied with a question of his own, "What are you doing here so early in the morning?"

Naruto internally narrowed his eyes at the attempt to avoid the answer, but answered nonetheless, "I was training in the night. Guess I fell unconscious due to exhaustion ."

Haku asked, "So, you are a ninja?"

Naruto nodded with a smile. Haku gave a small worried frown, "But isn't that dangerous? What if you get killed?"

Naruto shrugged, "I may. It comes with the territory. If I die, that means I was meant to, so running away from my death would be futile. If I was meant to die so soon, I would have been killed many times over already."

Haku gave a small sound of understanding, "I see. And why are you training? Aren't you strong enough?"

Naruto shook his head, "I may be strong, but there's always room for improvement. Besides, becoming stronger means I will be closer to becoming Hokage", he ended with a grin.

Haku stared at him for a few moments, then spoke, "You train because you want to be strong enough to protect your precious people, don't you?"

Naruto gazed at Haku with something akin to respect in his eyes. His azures stared into her light brown as he whispered, "Go on."

Haku knew from the moment he gazed into Naruto's eyes that Naruto fully knew what he was talking about. Nonetheless, he spoke, "I believe that you have precious people and you are working hard to grow stronger to protect them. If you have something to protect…..only then you can be truly strong."

Naruto kept his intense gaze on Haku, who returned it without flinching. After a long moment, Naruto smiled and said, "Never have I met anyone before except my jiji who shares my understanding of fighting to protect. You have the most accurate idea of where strength comes from, Haku-chan. You have my respect for that."

Haku smiled and stood up from where he was sitting and picked up his basket. "You will become strong", he stated to Naruto before walking away. Time to reveal his secret.

"Oh and by the way, I'm a boy", he said turning to flash a smile and Naruto. He almost lost it when Naruto's eyes bulged to the point Haku feared they would fall out of his eye sockets.

Naruto couldn't believe it. He thought he was talking to a girl, a very pretty one at that. Hell, even prettier than Hinata! Finally regaining his composure, he narrowed his eyes at Haku, who was barely restraining his laughter, "I bet you do that to everyone just to see their reactions, don't you?"

Haku shook his head, "No comment." That was an answer in itself, Naruto thought as he watched Haku walk away. As he walked away, Naruto allowed his though process to take over.

Haku was obviously not a normal civilian. When Naruto opened his eyes, it was quick, but Naruto had managed to note that Haku had almost taken a fighting stance. The reaction was performed on instinct, which left no doubt that Haku was a fighter, and an experienced one at that.

Second thing, Haku's chakra felt strange to him. While he was still refining his sensing abilities to the point where he could sense people's affinities, he sense the bare minimum. Haku's chakra definitely had water, and something which was rough and sharp at the same time. 'The closest thing to that description is the wind', he deduced.

But what did those to add up to? Multiple affinities usually point towards the presence of a bloodline limit.

Before he could continue his thought processes, he sensed Sasuke coming to him. Putting on a smile, he greeted his teammate, "Good morning, Sasuke."

Sasuke grunted in response before saying, "You missed breakfast, Naruto." Naruto blinked in response, then shook his head. He would go back to see if any breakfast was left. He always went crazy on an empty stomach.

He walked past Sasuke, who was warming up with some stretches. Naruto had no doubt the boy was going to put his tips to test while climbing the tree.

Reaching the house, he went inside and found Tsunami washing the plates from breakfast. Hesitating a bit, he called out, "Tsunami-san?"

The woman turned and smiled upon seeing Naruto, "Naruto-kun! You're back!" Her smile turned into a concerned frown, "Are you alright? You were training all night! What if you had caught a cold?"

Naruto shook his head, amused at the notion. He had never been ill in his life, courtesy of having the kyuubi residing in him. "I don't catch a cold, Tsunami-san. I was wondering if you had any leftovers from breakfast?"

Tsunami's face instantly brightened, "Oh right! I do have some leftovers I saved in case you came for breakfast. It explains why it seemed Sasuke-kun ate only a little", the last part was said in a mutter, but Naruto's sensitive ears easily heard it.

"What was that about Sasuke, Tsunami-san?" He enquired ever so politely.

Tsunami explained, "Sasuke-kun seemed to eat only a little of the breakfast. When I asked him he said that you would probably be late for it, so he was saving it for you."

Naruto blinked twice at that. That was probably the kindest thing Sasuke had ever done for him. 'Then again, I gave him the tips to master tree walking. He must have saved breakfast just to get even', Naruto thought, knowing extremely well that Sasuke hated to be indebted to anyone. Now usually, saving breakfast for someone was not that big of a deal, but since it was coming from Sasuke, Naruto would call it even.

Sitting down at the table, he swiftly ate everything that Tsunami laid out for him. While not nearly enough to get him full, it was more than enough for him to call it a satisfactory meal.

He finished his meal and washed his plate, easily ignoring Tsunami's protests. Stretching his senses, he found that Kakashi and Sakura were upstairs. He had already seen Tazuna in the room next to the dining room, so he thought that Kakashi was probably going to have Sakura guard him today.

'Well that won't do', he scowled as he headed upstairs. He opened the room where he sensed Kakashi's chakra and saw that they were both ready to head out. They both blinked when they saw him.

"Naruto? You're back?" Sakura dumbly asked.

Naruto scowled deeper, "Very astute observation, Sakura", he commented, sarcastically, of course.

Sakura blushed a little at being embarrassed by him. Naruto turned towards Kakashi, who was looking vaguely amused. "Kakashi-sensei, can I guard Tazuna-ossan today?"

Kakashi rose an eyebrow at the new suffix, but did not say anything. Thinking over, he thought that having Naruto guard Tazuna was an excellent choice. Naruto was the strongest of his genin, and was easily able to hold himself against Zabuza long enough to escape. He didn't need to worry about him for another three days, unaware that the man would recover in just one more day. Also, Naruto had an excellent way of retreating should the situation gets worse. He answered, "I don't see why not. Have you completed the training that you were doing last night?"

Naruto nodded. Kakashi nodded in approval, before turning to Sakura, "Sakura, you are with me and Sasuke today. Naruto, you will guard Tazuna today. However", he paused and frowned as an uneasy feeling settled in his stomach. He didn't know why, but he trusted his gut feelings. "You will return two hours early today. I have a feeling we will be facing Zabuza much sooner than three days later."

Naruto frowned but nodded. He would keep lookout for any trouble while Tazuna worked. His danger sense would come in extremely handy in that field.

'Don't forget about your training', Kurama reminded him sternly. Naruto nodded absently as he changed his clothes into an identical set and restocked his hip pouches from his sealing scroll. After double checking that he was ready, he quickly exited through the window and briskly walked to the front where he found Tazuna waiting.

Tazuna looked surprised at his presence, "You will guard me today, Naruto?" When Naruto smiled and nodded, Tazuna chuckled, "Well, it looks like I have nothing to be afraid of. Now, let's go already! I'm late!"

Naruto held up a hand, "Wait a minute, Tazuna-ossan. I'll back back in a moment." With that, he flash stepped away at his highest speed to last night's training spot. Wasting no time, he created created ninety shadow clones. The whole clearing was full of them in mere moments.

"Thirty of you will work on mastering the suiton jutsu we perfected last night. The rest of you, divide yourself into groups of thirty each and practice on learning and perfecting the two suiton jutsu I copied from Kakashi in the fight against Zabuza", he commanded his clones.

All of them nodded as one and divided themselves, but Naruto was already gone. Appearing beside Tazuna so fast that the man yelped in surprise.

Naruto spoke as if he had not noticed, "I have a solution for your late problem, Ossan." Not waiting to hear any protests, Naruto picked Tazuna up in a fireman's carry and flash stepped away, the man's cries echoing into the distance.

Appearing on the bridge in just ten minutes, Naruto set Tazuna down, who looked a little green. "…Next time, give me a warning before you do that."

Naruto blinked innocently at that, causing Tazuna's eyebrow to violently twitch. But he sighed and walked away to start today's work, grumbling about brats who are way too fast. Naruto only smiled and sat down, intent on working on his sensing abilities. This way he could train and keep a look out for danger as well.

While he stretched his senses as far he he could, he reflected on what he saw on the way to the bridge. The town was barely alive, with all its people caught in the jaws of poverty. It was not a sight he wanted to see again. Children begging on the streets, even fighting among themselves for food.

Naruto kept his senses active the whole time, trying and partially succeeding to make it second nature to him, something that would keep running in the background by itself while he focused on the more important tasks. Overall, it was an uneventful day, for which Naruto was thankful for. His clones had disappeared sometime in the afternoon, with good news.

Suiton: Suidanha was now considered mastered, as Naruto's clones were able to reduce the number of hand seals to one. Suiton: Daibakufu no jutsu (Water style: Giant vortex jutsu) was surprisingly easy to learn and perfect, considering it was a high A-rank jutsu. It helped that it had only eighteen hand seals. He would work on mastering it when he returned to Konoha, when there was no threat.

Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu (Water style: Water dragon jutsu) was something he'll work on later. That jutsu was incredibly complex, consisting of forty four hand seals and requiring an extreme amount of chakra. While chakra amount was not a problem for him, he wanted to be cautious while using it so he did not waste a single drop of chakra while executing it.

He took Tazuna home, via flash step. They were just five minutes early of the assigned time Kakashi had given them. Going inside, he found Tsunami preparing dinner. "Hello Tsunami-san."

The said woman turned, surprise in her eyes. "Tou-san, Naruto-kun, you are quite early today."

Naruto shrugged, "Kakashi-sensei's orders. Anyway, can you please tell me how long before dinner is ready?"

Tsunami smiled, "It will be ready in twenty minutes, Naruto-kun."

Naruto nodded and walked outside, deciding to have a little fun. Walking over to where Sasuke was, he was not surprised to note the boy was easily sticking to the bark of a tree. 'Time for some torture', an unholy glint entered his eyes.

"Sasuke!" He called out. Seeing the boy look at him, he motioned him to come to him, which he did. "How about some training?"

Moments later, Sasuke was standing on the side of a tree, a scowl on his face. "What kind of training is this, dobe?" Naruto made a half ram sign, causing five shadow clones to appear, as well as causing Sasuke's scowl to become deeper.

He greatly envied Naruto's ability to make shadow clones, and that too in no small quantity. He hated to admit it, but Naruto could spam more clones than he could make regular ones, the ones that are an illusion. He had demanded Naruto once to tell him the secret to shadow clones. Naruto had scoffed at him and bluntly told him that he had no intention of doing that. Besides, shadow clones require a lot of chakra, something Sasuke didn't have to spare.

He may not have his sharingan, but once he had it, he had every intention to copy Naruto's jutsus. But the problem was, for a sharingan to successfully copy a jutsu, all the hand seals must be performed. Sasuke had noticed that almost all of the jutsus he had seen Naruto executing, they were done with only one or two hand seals. The shadow clone jutsu was done only with a half ram, which meant Sasuke could not copy any of them. He was not an idiot; Sasuke knew that jutsus have multiple hand signs, which indicated Naruto was highly proficient in performing them with only one or two.

Quelling his frustration, he focused on what Naruto was saying. He had a very innocent look on his face, something that did not bode well. "The rules of this training are very simple. You have to remain stuck to the tree and not fall on the ground", Naruto said, choosing his words carefully. There was a loophole in what he said, but he was curious if Sasuke could read in between the lines.

Sasuke scoffed, "Is that all? Then this will be easy." However, he was suddenly forced to dodge the shuriken that almost cut him. He was given no time to recover as a hail of shuriken came towards him, forcing him to dodge like his life depended on it.

Naruto grinned savagely as his shadow clones gave Sasuke no time to rest. He saw Sasuke almost fall onto the ground, but he barely recovered in time. Deciding to give the guy some inspiration, he called out, "I don't see how this is easy for you Sasuke! You are barely clinging onto the tree! And you've got three cuts, which means you are dead three times over!"

Absently creating five more to replace those whose shuriken were finished, he added salt to the injury, "When I mastered tree walking, I could dodge them with my eyes closed!"

That did it for Sasuke. He was already sour about the fact that he was the last one to master tree walking. But he had to admit, this training was good, excellent even. Naruto was forcing his body to make the tree walking almost second nature, so he could concentrate on the more important tasks.

But he did not need to taunt him like that. He growled and concentrated on sticking to the tree first, then worrying about the shuriken. But Naruto gave him no time, forcing him to act on instinct.

Naruto continued this for fifteen more minutes and by the end of that, Sasuke was a sweaty mess, lying flat on the back on the ground. He didn't even have the energy to glare at Naruto, who was looking entirely amused with him.

"You…..son of a….", he wheezed out. Naruto shook his finger at him as if reprimanding a child. "Now now, watch your language. There are children around here." That bastard. He was having too much fun at his expense.

Abruptly turning around, he said, "Dinner's ready. Let's go." He started walking, not waiting for Sasuke.

Dinner was uneventful, the only thing amusing was watching Sasuke eat. The boy had attacked the food with the speed of a snail; he didn't have energy to even eat.

After the dinner, Naruto was sitting at the table as Tazuna happily reported his progress. "The bridge will soon be complete. Though I have to ask, why did you guys stick around even after I lied about the mission?"

Kakashi folded his hands as he thought about the answer. "Not doing right when you know it is right is the coward's way. Those are the teachings of our previous Hokage. That is the way of the shinobi. We don't work just for money."

Inari, who was looking down at his plate, looked at Naruto and immediately wished he hadn't. Naruto had his arms folded across his chest, eyes facing the ceiling and a small smile on his face. He looked completely carefree, as if he had no worries.

Flashbacks of his father triggered inside his mind. Kaiza saving him, protecting him, making him happy. However, those thoughts only brought pain now. Something snapped inside him at that moment.

Slamming his hands on the table, he stood up on his chair. It was enough to bring all the attention in the room towards him. But didn't care, he had had enough of Naruto's carefree/indifferent and bored attitude.

"Why are you trying so hard when you will only fail? You can't beat Gato's men even if you keep training! No matter how hard you try, weak people always lose to the strong ones!" Though it addressed all the ninjas in the room, somehow, everyone felt that Inari was only shouting at Naruto.

Naruto leaned on the table, chin on his hands and expression vaguely confused. "It seems you are confusing us with the weak people kid", he said, his confusion from earlier gone.

However, Inari was on a roll. "Shut up! It pisses me off when I watch you! You're always fooling around and having fun! You don't know a thing about suffering or how hard life is for people like us! You'll only end up getting killed!" Tears were streaming by the end of his shouting.

Kakashi had tensed up during Inari's shouting. To say Naruto doesn't know suffering…it wasn't possible to be more wrong. He expected Naruto to lash out and prepared to defend Inari, but nothing happened.

Naruto was sitting there as if nothing had happened. There wasn't a silver of rage on his face. However, inside his mind, a storm was raging. His emotions were going wild. But he had to control them, push them towards a temporary goal.

This kid needs a reality check.

Keeping his voice even, he spoke, "You know, you're exactly right." Kakashi looked at Naruto with surprise. That was the last thing he expected Naruto to say.

"The strong will always defend the weak. Gato, and by extension his organization, are weak. Nothing but a bunch of cowards who pick on people who can't out up a fight. They can only win against those who don't have the will to fight back. Against us trained shinobis, they are nothing." A dangerous look crossed his face, a look that even Sasuke and Kakashi got terrified of a bit, "We aren't weak. Don't lump us in the same category as you." He scoffed disgustedly and turned his head away, "We're nothing alike."

Inari cried harder as he glared even more heatedly at Naruto, "I'm glad we're not alike! I'd hate to be like you! You don't even have a care in the world! You don't know how hard life can be!"

The tension in the room was thick as everyone stared at Naruto, who for the first time in his ninja career, felt truly angry. His azure blues were as cold as the coldest ice, anger swimming inside them. Though he held back from channeling killing intent, his eyes were just as effective.

The rage in his eyes was enough to put fear inside Inari, whose legs lost strength and was forced to sit down.

"Look at yourself, bitching and moaning about life. Thinking you have it hard", his voice was a whisper, yet it was so thick of rage that terrified his team. While Kakashi felt his rage was justified, Tazuna and Tsunami were wide eyed. They had no idea such a sweet boy as Naruto held so much rage inside him.

Naruto straightened up in his seat. His mind went back to the children he had seen on the way to the bridge. The ones who he had no doubt were orphans.

"You sit here, with a loving family, with a mother that cooks for you, worries for you and loves you. A grandfather that is building a bridge so this country can be free of Gato's reign." Naruto looked upon Inari with clear disgust, "Some hard life you have!"

Sakura finally had enough of Naruto berating Inari. She felt that Naruto was being unnecessarily harsh on the boy. "Naruto! That's too far-"

That was all she had gotten out before Naruto pinned a fierce glare on her, enforced with killing intent. "Shut! Up!"

Sakura was not so terrified of the killing intent as much as she was of the smoldering rage in his voice. She fell back like a bag of potatoes.

Naruto turned his gaze back on Inari, "I'm willing to bet that you've never stepped a foot outside this house! Never seen the town, where children younger than you have lost their parents, both of them!"

He finally raised his voice, and felt a dark satisfaction in seeing everyone flinch, even Sasuke. "I'm glad I'm nothing like you! I actually decided to do something with my life instead of becoming a crybaby, sitting in a place and whining how hard life is! News flash, there are people out there who have it far worse than you do! You are nothing but a coward who refuses to do something right!"

Even though his words were fueled with rage, his actions were anything but rough. He gently pushed his chair away and headed to the door.

Kakashi asked him, "Naruto, where are you going?"

Naruto did not look back as he replied, "To burn off some of this anger." The door closed gently behind him.

Everyone wondered what caused Naruto to have such a strong reaction to Inari's words. Inari sniffled before he too ran out of the door.

'That was a disaster, though not entirely unexpected', Kakashi thought, putting his book aside for the moment. He followed Inari out to the back, where the boy was watching the ocean.

"Do you mind if I join you?" asked Kakashi, startling Inari.

XXXXXXX

Kakashi sat beside Inari, both looking out at the ocean. "Naruto didn't say any of that out of spite. He's just a bit stubborn is all", Kakashi gently said. While what Naruto had said was the cold, bitter truth, the weight of those words was not something an eight year old can handle. Naruto was different; he had been handling such weight ever since he learned to walk on his feet.

"Naruto is just like you in the regard that he has no father." That was a lie; Kakashi knew that Naruto knew who his father was, but Naruto had no memories of him.

"In fact, Naruto has no memories of his parents at all. They were taken away from him at his birth, so he doesn't understand what parents are. He also had no friends", he explained.

Inari's head lifted up to face Kakashi, confusion in his eyes. Kakashi continued, "However, there wasn't a single moment when I saw him cry or get sulky." That was true; Naruto, until now, had faced the difficulties of life head on and won, becoming stronger after defeating each challenge.

"He is desperate to make people recognize him", Kakashi said. Even now, when Naruto had a bored/indifferent expression on almost all the time, Kakashi could see it in his eyes. The hope that someone will recognize him for who he is was naked for all the world to see. Unfortunately for Naruto, the world acted ignorant.

Kakashi chuckled softly, "He got bored of crying at the world a long time ago." Inari looked down, beginning to understand what Kakashi was trying to say.

Naruto was not born strong, he chose to get strong so he could live his life in a better way. "Naruto knows where true strength comes from, just like your father. In fact, Naruto might be someone who understands you the most", Kakashi said.

Inari was slowly understanding that Naruto might be the only one who was most similar to Inari. Kakashi eye smiled, "The words that he said to you earlier….He's probably told himself that over and over again."

Naruto flashed to his training spot, fists tightly clenched. He felt a little bit of guilt creep over him for shouting at such a young kid, but that feeling was easily overshadowed by the rage he was feeling.

'THE NERVE OF THAT BRAT! I DON'T KNOW ANY SUFFERING?! HE WON'T LAST A DAY LIVING MY LIFE!' he raged inside his mind. Kurama kept quiet, but was concerned for his host. He decided to let Naruto burn his anger off by himself, instead of talking it out of him.

Making a half ram sign, causing a hundred shadow clones to appear. He was about to charge in headfirst and eliminate them in the most brutal ways he could think of, but visibly forced himself to think logically. This could be an opportunity for training. It slipped his mind completely that he would be too exhausted to go the bridge tomorrow.

He dispelled half of the clones, causing the other half to look at him in confusion. "We will try to reduce the number of hand seals in suiton: daibakufu no jutsu from eighteen to ten for now." He could reduce them further when he was back in Konoha.

The clones nodded as one and flash stepped to the nearest water body, eager on getting it done by tonight. As he flash stepped after them, he frowned and thought, 'I really should learn the body flicker technique. Flash step is good and all, but it is for short distance purposes, not to mention I can quickly travel long distances, much faster than shunpo. Also, the body flicker is good for traveling quickly where I haven't marked.'

As he saw the clones working, he considered another idea. 'I wonder if the Nidaime has a scroll written on how to draw water from nothing. It would be incredibly useful in suiton jutsus and survival as well.'

The whole night Naruto worked on reducing the hand seals of the suiton jutsu. He was able to bring it down to ten, but it left him incredibly exhausted. He was barely able to drag himself back to Tazuna's house and as soon as he was in front of his futon, he fell face first, asleep before even hitting the mattress.

That is how Kakashi found him when he woke up. He woke Sasuke up, who looked at Kakashi who was motioning him to be quiet, pointing at Naruto. Sasuke understood and they both quietly got ready. Heading downstairs, they found Sakura eating breakfast on the table. Her eyes held confusion when she saw a member missing, "Sensei? Sasuke-kun? Where is Naruto?"

Sasuke spoke up before Kakashi could, "That idiot trained so hard that he's knocked out. He won't be coming with us today." Kakashi nodded in agreement. They quickly had their breakfast and stood up, ready to leave.

As they went outside, Kakashi turned to Tsunami, "Please take care of Naruto. He's exhausted himself after training and won't be coming with us today."

Tsunami frowned in concern, "Are you feeling well enough, Kakashi-san?"

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and chuckled, "Yeah, I'm good."

Tazuna nodded, "Well then, let's be off." They walked away after that.

XXXXXXX

Zabuza and Haku gazed at the workers on the bridge from their boat. "Now is the time to attack", he murmured as he drew his blade.

Naruto's eyes snapped open and immediately closed due to the brightness in the room. Groaning, he got up and slowly opened his eyes, letting them adjust. 'Damn, I trained too much last night', he thought. He checked his chakra reserves and winced slightly. They were a little less than half. 'Guess I did push myself too much last night', he thought.

'Oh, you think?', Kurama's voice oozed sarcasm. Naruto winced again, 'Sorry Kurama. But I was a bit angry last night', he defended himself.

Kurama snorted, 'A bit? Brat, you scared the hell out of everyone. A bit is an understatement. I'm proud of you.' Naruto shrugged and got up, noticing for the first time that the bed around him were empty. Eyes narrowing, he deduced that Kakashi must have decided to let him recover today rather that come with them.

He quickly completed his morning rituals and dressed up. Tying his hair into a neat ponytail, he ran downstairs to the dining room, where Tsunami was washing the dishes. She turned to him and smiled, "Ah, Naruto-kun. If you are wondering where everyone is, your sensei said to let you rest today."

Naruto nodded. He figured as much, however, he could feel somehow that today would be different and as such, he needed to get to the bridge. Reaching into his left hip pouch, he pulled out a small black pill. 'I've got no choice but to eat this', he thought as he put the food pill in his mouth.

'It would allow me to fight three days straight without rest, but I would be left totally exhausted at the end of that', he grimaced at the taste. 'It tastes like shit, though.'

Not even ten seconds after he had swallowed it, he felt his chakra getting replenished to the maximum. Hell, he even felt it expand a bit! His hunger disappeared, making him smirk. 'Time to go', he thought, his smirk getting replaced with his neutral scowl.

"Ittekimasu!" he called out as he departed. He had managed to master another level of his resistance seal in one week of training, increasing his raw speed even more. He tree hopped normally, choosing to conserve his energy for the battle he somehow knew will happen. As he crossed a clearing, his eyes landed on something, making him stop. "That's interesting."

Tsunami was cleaning up the kitchen when she heard the sound of the door breaking. Two men with swords came inside and one of them grinned, "Daughter of bridge builder Tazuna, you are coming with us."

Inari heard the noise and saw his mother going with the men. He felt afraid, however, he forced himself to remain strong. 'I will save my kaa-san!' Flashes of how Naruto called him weak fueled his courage.

Naruto arrived back at the house just in time to see two wannabe samurai rushing at Inari, swords drawn. Wasting no time, he immediately released his seals and flash stepped to Inari, quickly grabbing the mother son duo and flash stepping back just in time too. The swords sliced at the space where he was a moment ago.

The thugs were dumbfounded. "What just happened?" Only then they noticed that Tsunami was gone! They turned around and saw a blonde kid in dark blue clothes, holding Tsunami and Inari a safe distance away. The presence of a hitai-ate beneath his left shoulder confirmed the fact he was a ninja.

Naruto settled Tsunami down cut her ropes. "Tsunami-san, please stay behind me. Inari, good job on keeping them here", he smiled. Inari brightened up at the compliment.

Turning to face the thugs, he adopted the expression when he was dealing with thugs who had no brains. An indifferent expression to convey that he didn't feel threatened at all. It served as an excellent way to piss them off. Every time.

"So Gato sent dumb and dumber to kidnap a woman. I'm not surprised at all." He kept his tone light enough so they would lose their cool.

The one wearing the hat scowled and said, "You are just an incompetent ninja that Tazuna hired, aren't you?"

Naruto pretended to inspect his nails, "Incompetent? I don't know about that…I literally snatched Tsunami-san from you and you didn't even notice."

The one with the eyepatch scoffed angrily and said, "Let's see how you stop us!" With that, both of them prepared to rush at Naruto, intent on slicing him into pieces.

Naruto decided some mind games were in order. Snorting, he pointed his finger towards them, "If anything, you are the ones incompetent. You failed to notice the two clones standing behind you."

As he predicted, the two stupidly turned their backs towards him to inspect behind them. Finding no one, their eyes widened 'He tricked us!' But it was already too late.

Naruto flash stepped in between them and delivered a flawlessly executed split kick to their heads, easily knocking them unconscious and sending them on the opposite sides of the aisle and down the river. He doubted they would survive.

He suddenly realized that he just performed his first kill. He had just ended another being's life. However, instead of puking his guts out like he thought, he only felt empty. He waited for some terrible feeling that one got after their first kill, but nothing came. And somehow, it made him feel even worse.

Tsunami and Inari watched with growing horror as both men went flowing down the river. They turned to watch Naruto, who only had a blank expression on his face.

Concern grew in Tsunami and she reached up to touch his shoulder, "Naruto-kun…"

Naruto snapped out of his trance and looked at her. Regaining his senses, he gave a serious look to Tsunami. "Tsunami-san, I must get going now." Putting two fingers onto the ground, he easily sensed his team's chakra and two other signatures, one of them very familiar and the other distinctly familiar.

"Zabuza has already arrived on the bridge", he declared, ignoring Tsunami gasp. He had to get there quickly.

Turning to Tsunami, he said, "Go inside the house and lock every door and window. Make sure no one can get inside", he warned her. The mother nodded and immediately went back inside the house.

Naruto turned his gaze in the direction of the bridge. It was good that he had put his Hiraishin formula at one end of the bridge. He was gone in a blue flash.