The morning after Tazuna's story about Inari's stepfather Kaiza and what had happened to Nami no Kuni, Naruto was outside bright and early with his clones in a single-file line as he could practice his more devastating attacks until someone else came out and his day could get officially started.
Another of Naruto's clones walked up to him to go through a walkthrough of one of Naruto's moves. It stepped in with a front kick that Naruto caught and spun through to smash it in the face with a back elbow, dispelling it. His mind was firmly planted on the story he heard the previous night. Hearing about what Gato had done to a man trying to keep his land prosperous and free made Naruto sick. If he could get one clean shot a Gato while he was there he would freely take it.
Also hearing about Kaiza made Naruto wonder how Inari could say such a thing, that heroes didn't exist. If not then what had all of Kaiza's actions been? Had they served any purpose to the boy at all? Such a traumatic experience would obviously mess with his world-view, but if that was how he really felt, that they were going to die, then what did the little boy think was going to happen to his grandfather? Did he think he was just going to walk on home after they were all finished off? No, he was the real target. If Gato could kill Tazuna without even having to deal with the Konoha ninja sent he would. The only reason he even would possibly care about them would be because they would be protecting Tazuna.
Naruto continued to work his attacks with his clones until the front door opened to reveal the remnants of Team 10 and Team 7 coming out the door. As the boys headed out to the forest with Kakashi, Asuma walked over to Naruto and motioned for Ino and Sakura to walk over to him and for Naruto to do so as well, "Okay girls. You both did well learning tree-walking, but today you'll learn water-walking like Naruto here has. Naruto, if you would demonstrate?"
Dispelling his clones, Naruto walked to the edge of the dock and jumped off, landing on the surface with his feet, "It's like sticking to the tree, except because the water is always moving you have to match the amount of chakra you need to go with the flow of the water." He stopped and thought for a moment, "You're going to want to take your clothes off too."
"Naruto!" Ino and Sakura yelled at him, "We're not getting undressed out here you pervert!"
Naruto's cheeks heated up and he looked away, grateful he was standing on the water, something they couldn't do at the moment, "I didn't mean it like that you guys! I meant-. You know what, nevermind. Go ahead and do what you want." He jumped back on the dock and circled around so that he had Asuma as a buffer between him and the rather perturbed females, "I don't know why you're looking at me, get to it!" He hid behind Asuma when they glared at him.
'Don't play with fire kid…' Asuma thought to himself, "Alright, he's right. Both of you get started. Naruto, leave a clone here would you?"
Naruto did what he was asked, making a clone to watch over Sakura and Ino's progress. He sent it over to the edge of the dock where it sat down and waited for Sakura and Ino to start, "Oi!" He shouted to them before they could walk away, "Don't pop him." Sakura nodded and kept walking, "Ino…" He said dangerously.
Ino rolled her eyes, "Fine, I won't destroy your clone if I get pissed off. Happy?"
Naruto gave her a dry look, "No, not really." He and Asuma began to walk towards the house, "So what are we doing tod-?" He turned his head around quickly before they reached the porch, "Actually, hold on for a second." Naruto eagerly looked at Ino and Sakura and Asuma let out a small chuckle as he saw them both walk towards the water.
"So how do we do this Forehead?" Ino asked Sakura as they passed Naruto's Kage Bunshin, ignoring its knowing smirk.
"Naruto said it was like walking on the tree so it can't be that hard." Sakura said, trying to work out Naruto's advice, "Let's just do it."
Ino smirked, "I bet I beat you out to the middle of the water Forehead."
Sakura growled at Ino's challenge, "You're on Ino-pig! Have fun sitting on the dock!"
Both girls channeled chakra to their feet and stepped off of the dock onto the water, falling underneath immediately with a resounding splash. Naruto and Naruto-clone began laughing uproariously while Asuma let out a few amused laughs as well. Naruto had been leaning on the wall of the house and his clone had been rolling on the pier as Sakura and Ino pulled themselves out of the water.
Naruto wiped a tear from his eye, "Okay Asuma-sensei, so what are we doing today?"
Asuma moved towards the front door, "You're going to help me watch Tazuna today, but since you've been so good about getting yourself in gear I guess I can throw you a bone and give you a jutsu to work on while we're out there. It's not like you can get any from anywhere else."
Naruto grinned at his sensei as the front door was opened until his smile dropped, "Hold on wait. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)." He made another clone, "Protect yourself this time." The clone saluted him and ran back to the dock where Naruto yelled back at the girls, "I said don't hit my damn clones! That's the last one! You do it again and you're on your own for the day, figure it out yourself!"
Asuma went inside of the house as the girls yelled back at him, Sakura in particular, "Then tell your stupid clones not to laugh at us!"
Naruto and his clone shared a look before both shouting out their reply, "It was funny!" Naruto elaborated, "If it had been me everyone watching it would have been getting their eight chuckles off of it!"
"So?" Sakura yelled back at him.
Naruto sighed, "Just don't break that one, he's the last one you're getting. I'm not wasting chakra just so you can have a punching bag to vent on Sakura-chan." Asuma came back outside with Tazuna in tow as they all began to walk to the site of the bridge for the day of work.
Sakura huffed indignantly as Naruto's clone took a seat to watch them continue to work on their water-walking. Sakura turned to Ino who was about to try it again, "Who does Naruto think he is? Telling us what to do like he's the leader."
Ino shrugged as she continued trying to channel chakra to her feet, "He's the strongest one on the team. I know it, Shikamaru knows it, the only one that really doesn't like thinking that way is Naruto himself, but it's true."
Sakura flipped her wet hair back and smirked, "Well no matter what he's still not stronger than Sasuke-kun." Ino didn't immediately leap to agree with her, which surprised her, "Right? He's not stronger than Sasuke-kun."
Ino stopped concentrating as she honestly thought about her answer, "I… I don't know. I honestly can't answer that question Forehead. If I just said yes it wouldn't be fair. I mean… he's not weak. Not even close."
"I'm so glad that you think that the boss isn't a wimp." Both girls turned their heads to see Naruto's clone sitting nearby giving them a deadpan look, "But you guys should really get back to working on this. It should take you all day to get it, and by 'get it' I mean be able to fight freely on the water."
Blushing at getting caught trying to talk about someone behind his back and failing, and taking Naruto's clone's words to mind, Ino started focusing her chakra again, "Now stop distracting me Forehead. I have to get this." With that, both girls returned to their new training exercise for the day.
XxX
Naruto sat off to the side of the work area with his clones posted as sentries all over the bridge building site. Though surprised at first, the sight of that many functional orange-clad, blonde ninjas put the workers at more ease and had the day of work carry on rather smoothly. Every so often Naruto was letting out a burst of Chakura Hankyouteii no Jutsu (Chakra Echolocation Jutsu) to monitor places he couldn't readily see on his own and found that when it came to people he knew, it was getting easier to distinguish more subtle figures, as it was getting easier and easier to locate Asuma and tell which outline was his no matter where he followed Tazuna at on the bridge. Up close he could even start to make out people's facial features and physical details with nothing but the jutsu and not his eyes.
Asuma walked over with Tazuna to check in on his more or less 'Head of Security', "Do you have anything strange Naruto? Anything suspicious to look out for?"
Naruto shook his head, "No Asuma-sensei. The clones that went ahead and popped themselves to show me something were all false alarms. Everything's clear as far as I can find."
"Well then." Asuma said with a grin, "I guess it's time to teach you a new jutsu to use." He saw Naruto hop to his feet in eager anticipation, "Kid you're going to be learning something a lot of genin don't get to learn, especially this early. You're learning Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Jutsu)." With that, in order to demonstrate he immediately disappeared in a burst of smoke and reappeared atop a crane a good distance away before doing it again and returning to Tazuna's side in a matter of moments.
Naruto's eyes widened as that had been the jutsu he had bugged the Sandaime Hokage to learn and ended up in the library for the first time, "How do I do it?"
Asuma placed the boy's hands in the ram seal, "You're going to have to channel chakra through your body enough for a temporary boost of speed. Your movements should be covered by a puff of smoke that usually covers you when you use it. When you get better at it you can make it even flashier to distract your opponents, but for now you'll have smoke."
Eager to begin his training on his new jutsu, one that he had actually wanted to learn for a while, Naruto began to get to work before asking a question, "Any advice?"
Asuma nodded, "Yeah, don't try going too far with it or too short a distance. It's meant to cover some ground, but it isn't anything to move long distances with, it's more along the lines of something that can get you out of sight. Going too short would be a waste since anyone with half an ability to sense chakra could tell where you're going and it's not fast enough to get the drop on someone that already knows you're there. Don't use it in the middle of a battle. Only one guy I've ever heard of could, and that's because he cast genjutsu before he started using it." He ruffled Naruto's hair, "Now get to it kid. It helps to have a good knowledge of where you want to go, either by being able to see it, or by it being a familiar place."
Naruto shrugged and began to go through the motions while Asuma held Tazuna back from continuing on his way so that they could watch his first attempt. Naruto thought of aiming for the top of the crane like Asuma did and did so, "Okay then, Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Jutsu)!" Naruto's body was shrouded in a puff of smoke.
CLANG
Asuma burst out laughing loudly when he saw Naruto belly up right next to the crane with a massive bump on his head, "Watch that tunnel vision Naruto! It's hard to see properly when you use that move. That's why it's good for moving in straight lines… the guy that mastered that move had Sharingan so he could see things slower, he didn't have that disadvantage."
Naruto rolled over amid the laughter from the workers and even his own clones who had seen and heard him hit, "I hate you Asuma-sensei."
Asuma walked up and picked him back up onto his feet, "Oh you don't mean that kid. Take it slow with this one." He pointed at a group of around ten Naruto's clones who were using the jutsu back and forth along the bridge, "They're getting it. Just do it along the ground for now before you try using it in elevated spots."
Naruto growled at his clones, "Oi! Get your asses to work, I didn't say you could train!"
A few of the clones flipped Naruto off, "We're bored and now we've got a new jutsu to learn. You watch the bridge, we already saw how much you suck at using it."
Naruto dispelled his clones and created more before using Shunshin to make it back to his original position, "Huh. It didn't feel as forced this time. Like I had already been practicing it." He looked down the bridge at Asuma and smirked as he again used Shunshin, only this time he appeared right next to his sensei, scaring the hell out of Tazuna, "Sorry old man." He quickly apologized before looking at the bearded jounin, "Hey Asuma-sensei, either I'm really good and can move already or this wasn't as hard as you and Hokage-jiji made it sound."
Asuma gave Naruto a strange look, "You should have crashed about five more times before you started getting it. This is only your second tr-…" He looked at Naruto's clones who were back on sentry duty, "You said that you use your clones to study things right?"
Naruto nodded, "Yeah, I had them read all of the stuff that Shiho-chan gave to me. I can learn what they learn."
The jounin stared at Naruto for at least thirty seconds before popping a cigarette in his own mouth and lighting it, keeping a cool façade despite the storm going on in his head, 'Okay Asuma calm down… so you have a gold-mine ninjutsu specialist prospect on your own team? Big deal, it's cool… no need to get all fired up and start raving about it. You'll swell the kid's head. We've got to test this clone thing out later.' Asuma had to fight the urge to begin frothing at the mouth and running back to Konoha to brag about what he had just found out about Naruto.
Instead he gave Naruto a smile, "Good work Naruto. If you can do it without stumbling or falling on the ground I want you to practice using it to switch elevation, but stay out of the way of the workers and stay sharp."
Naruto grinned at his sensei and gave him a salute before going back over to where he was. He and Tazuna continued on their way of overseeing the bridgework, "That's one energetic kid. Do you mind if I put him to work on the bridge? We could use the extra hands."
'Well… the faster it finishes the faster we can leave…' He looked back at Naruto who was practicing on a pile of steel girders and back to Tazuna, "Let me think about it, let him finish learning his jutsu, maybe." In his head he was thinking about how much better his team was going to get now that he knew absolutely what to do about Naruto, 'Maybe I should start thinking exams?'
XxX
(Forest Around Tazuna's House)
Sasuke looked over at Shikamaru who was simply sitting and watching the tree. He couldn't believe this, he had been trying to get up that tree since yesterday and he hadn't gotten any closer, and here this guy was, not even trying. Hell, Chouji had made more attempts that Shikamaru had. The pineapple-haired genin had only made one… maybe two attempts between then and yesterday.
They were the only ones left, and the only solace he could take in this disaster of an exercise was that he wasn't the only one still doing it and neither of them had gotten any higher than him yet.
Naruto, from the other team and the dead-last in the Academy, already knew the exercise. He could accept that at first since his jounin sensei didn't look as lax as Kakashi did, but then he found that his sensei hadn't taught his team either and he had learned it on his own to go with a fighting style. If it weren't enough that the kid at the opposite end of the graduate spectrum had beaten him in learning this exercise and mastering it, the two fangirls from his and the other team beat him in learning it within hours.
It didn't matter. He had more important things to worry about than people who weren't there, namely getting up that thrice damned tree!
As Sasuke focused to prepare for another try of running up the tree, Shikamaru suddenly stood up and grabbed his kunai, "Are you finally going to start trying this out?" Sasuke said to him.
Shikamaru rubbed his neck, "Well it seemed like a waste of effort just going up and falling off again and again. I'm not a machine like Naruto who could keep going and going. I know enough about how this works by now though to give it a go."
Sasuke paused in his own attempts to watch Shikamaru give it a try. He channeled chakra towards his feet and took off at the tree. Sasuke's eyes then widened when he saw Shikamaru blow past his best mark of seventeen feet off the ground and keep going, all the way to the first branch where he stopped, "*sigh* So that's how you do it. Okay I've got it down."
He really didn't want to ask such a lazy guy how he did that, but he wanted to do better. Luckily for Sasuke, Chouji asked the question for him, "Hey Shikamaru, how'd you do that?"
Shikamaru looked down at his rotund friend, "You've got to find a balance and keep it. If you lose the balance you'll slip off and fall from the tree even if you had it in the first place… it's so troublesome."
Sasuke quickly understood what was being said and he looked at the tree with renewed vigor as did Chouji. Kakashi took that moment to interject and talk to Shikamaru, "It's good that you've got the theory down Shikamaru, now put it into practice. Come down here and start again until you can get to the top of the tree on one go."
Letting out a groan in disappointment, expecting to be done, Shikamaru jumped down and slowly walked over to his starting place before looking up, "But it's so high. Can you just tell Asuma I made it all the way up there and then let me wing it later?"
Kakashi gave him an eye-smile, "No can do Shikamaru. Until Asuma comes back, despite not being on my cute little genin squad I am in charge of you until he returns and you need to be able to do this, now get to it."
"Come on Shikamaru." Chouji tried convincing his friend, "The sooner we do it the sooner we can get out of here, right?"
Finding no success in being able to just sit it out in this instance, Shikamaru decided to keep going. Maybe if he just did the least amount he needed to keep Kakashi off his back he would fluke out and get to the top on one of his tries?
XxX
(In Front of Tazuna's House)
"Wah!"
SPLASH
"Get up." Naruto-clone ordered with a grin on his face and a pebble in his hand while he stood out a fair distance on the water, "You guys aren't good enough at this yet if I can make you fall like this."
Sakura pulled herself out of the water next to Ino on the dock and wrung out her hair as both of them glared at Naruto, "You're throwing rocks at us! How are we supposed to focus on standing on the water if you keep doing that?"
Naruto-clone chuckled, "You have to know how to fight and dodge on the water too for this to be useful Sakura-chan. I can't fight, so when you can reach me out here without falling in you pretty much are done."
Ino stood up and squeezed the water out of her clothes, "I am going to kick your ass when I get a hold of you."
Naruto-clone shook his head, "No you're not. When you get close I'm going to dispel. I'm not getting killed by you guys." He noticed someone walking in the background, "Oi! Inari! Come and pick up some rocks to throw at the girls, it's great!"
The little boy just glared at Naruto and ran off away from the house, confusing the clone and the two genin girls greatly before they both looked at him sadly, "Poor kid." Ino said, "After what happened to Kaiza I guess he would be like that huh?"
"Don't do that." Naruto-clone said firmly, getting the two girls to look back at him oddly, "That's exactly what he wants, for you to fall for his whole 'woe-is-me' stuff."
Sakura took offense to what he had said and let him know about it, "Naruto, he lost his father!"
"So did Sasuke." Naruto-clone argued back, silencing her, "You remember that right? Everyone remembers that, it was a big deal, he didn't come back to school for the entire month after his clan was killed. He lost his whole family." Naruto-clone then let off a shrug, "And at least he knew him and knew the guy loved him. I don't know what the hell happened to my parents." He juggled the pebbles in his hand, "Alright enough, back to training. That Zabuza guy isn't going to care about any of this when he shows back up."
From his tone, Ino and Sakura could tell that he didn't want to talk about the subject anymore, but gave them something to think about. Both boys had lived very hard and they didn't act like Inari did, the little boy just seemed like he had given up.
The clone started getting impatient, "Come on, I've got my pockets loaded down with rocks, let's go already!"
XxX
(Later That Evening)
Around the same time that Naruto, Asuma, and Tazuna came back from the bridge, Kakashi, Sasuke, Chouji, and Shikamaru came from the woods and their training. The two groups converged and walked the rest of the way to house together.
Naruto moved over to the other genin, "Did you guys get it yet?" Sasuke let off a 'hm', Shikamaru let off a troublesome, and Chouji held his stomach and complained about being hungry, getting a sweatdrop out of Naruto, "I guess that's a no." The group continued to walk towards the house when they saw Sakura and Ino moving about on the water before falling in, "What's going on?"
Naruto-clone looked up at Naruto and the other new arrivals and paled, "Boss run!" It then dispelled.
Naruto stood with a plain look on his face as Ino and Sakura climbed out of the water, until the information from his clone began circulating through his head, "Shit."
"Na-ru-to!" Both girls yelled as they saw the original orange-clad shinobi himself standing at the end of the dock and charged at him.
Seeing his life flash before his eyes, Naruto screamed like a girl, "No!" He quickly formed the ram seal, "Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Jutsu)!" Ino and Sakura missed him as he disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared on top of the house, "It was training!"
Shikamaru eyed Ino, who was huffing and puffing angrily and glaring at Naruto on the roof. He almost thought they were going to start circling the place to keep him up there, "What's the matter with you?" He almost ran for the hills himself when her angry eyes turned to him.
"He threw rocks at us…" Ino growled out, "He threw rocks at us while we were trying to stand on the water.
Sakura shook her fist up at him, "You're dead when you get down from there Naruto!" She yelled at him threateningly.
Naruto dug out his ear in a bored manner, "My clone did all of that, not me. He must have been bored though. And if that's the case I guess I just won't come down will I?"
The angry pink-haired girl placed her hands on her hips, "So are you just going to stay up there all night?"
Naruto kicked back and lay himself down on the roof, "It's a nice night. I don't have to go anywhere." Eventually he would get hungry, but he was certain that if things were really that tense and dangerous for him he could send a Kage Bunshin inside to grab a bite to eat for him, "Go change clothes before you catch a cold, you've been out here all day."
Ino stomped her foot angrily, getting a squish noise from her sandals, "You made us fall in the water all day!"
"I told you to take your clothes off, but no one ever listens to me the first time." He defended, flinching slightly when he felt the killing intent directed at him from the girls who he forgot could get up there in a matter of seconds, 'Open window!' After rapidly pulling off his sandals, Naruto darted in through the window just as they started jumping up to where he was.
"No running or shoes in the house!"
The others walked inside as Tsunami yelled at the genin already in there.
XxX
"Naruto-kun." Tsunami asked the boy from her spot at the table, "Are you sure you want to be all the way over there while we eat?"
Naruto looked up from his bowl and gave her a thumbs up from his spot a safe reactionary distance away from Ino and Sakura, "Yep, this is just fine. I'm great!" And it was. He'd rather not get beat up by girls right then.
Shikamaru and Chouji were trying and failing to hold in their laughter, "So you're saying that Naruto's clone spent the entire day after you could both stand on the water throwing rocks at you and making you dodge them?"
Ino nodded and stopped eating for a moment, "At least it had the good sense to stay away from my face, but these bruises aren't going to go away for a week."
"I didn't hit you that hard with them Ino." Naruto disputed from his position far away, "He would have tried fighting you both on the water, but if you hit him once he would have popped… So he threw rocks at you. It did the same thing. I bet you guys will have it down perfectly soon."
Sakura looked over at Sasuke, "How about you Sasuke-kun? Did you finish yet?"
Sasuke looked up from his food for a moment to answer, "Tomorrow." He said before he went back to eating.
"Same here." Chouji said before holding his bowl out, "Can I get more please?" He let out a happy laugh when his request was fulfilled and his bowl was refilled.
Asuma looked at all of the genin around the table and the one that was still keeping a safe distance away from the potentially volatile pair of kunoichi his clone had been picking with all day and smiled, "Well it looks like you're all as prepared as you're going to be for Momochi Zabuza. You've all done very well."
"I can't take it anymore!" Inari yelled, standing up from his seat angrily, "You all can't beat Gato! He's going to kill every single one of you!"
Naruto snorted from his spot away from the table, "Kid, we're not just going to roll over and quit. Your grandfather isn't, your dad didn't, well neither are we. We're not like you."
Inari turned his venom on Naruto, "Yeah, well I'd hate to be like you! You laugh and joke all the time, but people like you don't know how hard life can be!"
"You done?" Naruto asked, his temper getting more and more spiked by Inari's attitude, "I'm tired of hearing your nasty little mouth kid. You haven't said one positive thing since I've shown up here. You say we're going to die, well what do you think is going to happen to your grandfather if we die? Do you think Gato's going to let him go home? No! He'll kill him even if he swore to quit working on the bridge. You're pretty much wishing death on him by wishing death on us!"
Inari looked at Tazuna, tears forming in his eyes. The old man sadly nodded to Inari, "I can't back out of this Inari, even if I wanted to. I'm seeing it all the way through. Kaiza would have, and I am too."
Naruto stood up, "He's doing what he can for you, for this country! I walked through town today, when was the last time you went?" He asked Inari who couldn't answer him, "Obviously you clearly don't know how hard life can be, because if you did you would be shutting the hell up right now! So you can sit on the sidelines and whine and try to get everyone to feel just as useless as you or you can do something about it. I don't really care which one it is because I just can't deal with you anymore." Naruto stood up and started walking towards the door to leave.
Ino shook her head as she saw tears start streaming down Inari's face, "Naruto that might have been too much. Hey, where are you going?" She asked him before he could exit.
He looked over his shoulder, "To beat the hell out of my clones." He said angrily, "You shouldn't follow me." He shut the door behind him as his footsteps thudded off of the wooden porch.
After the sound of his footsteps disappeared, Ino and Shikamaru stood up to go after him when Asuma stopped them, "Let him go. Guys like Naruto need some time to vent. He'll be fine by himself."
XxX
Naruto stood in the middle of the forest, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" Naruto surrounded himself with countless clones that all shared his expression. One turned to one of his brethren and punched it in the face, dispelling it. From that moment on a free-for-all was declared.
The rest of the night the sounds of angry pitched battle filled the woods.
XxX
(The Next Morning)
A teenage girl with long black hair and brown eyes wearing a pink, sleeveless kimono walked through the woods with a basket in hand when she saw a boy laying down covered in scuffs and bruises. As she got closer she took note of the headband wrapped around his neck, 'A Konoha ninja? But this one isn't any of the ones that we saw last time. Did they get reinforcements? I left all my weapons at the hideout.'
She narrowed her eyes and set the basket down before quietly creeping up to him, slowly extending her hand to strangle him right then and there. Right as her hand got in range of touching his throat he grabbed her wrist and forearm with both hands and wrapped his legs around her neck and arm, proceeding to turn the tables and choke her with his legs, "Bastard clones… I knew I didn't get 'em all. This is the third time this happened." He mumbled sleepily until he failed to hear a pop that usually occurred when he choked his clones for too long.
Naruto opened his eyes and didn't see a clone of himself, he saw a girl his age slowly turning red in his grasp. Naruto yelped and quickly let go before backing away against a tree, "Oh Kami, I'm so sorry! I've been fighting all night and my opponents were being dicks and started hiding from me. I didn't mean to do that to you, I'm sorry!"
The girl sat on her knees coughing as the color of her face started returning to normal. She looked up at the boy that had almost killed her as he looked back at her with apologetically fearful blue eyes.
Naruto dropped forward and started bowing frantically, "I'm so sorry!" He got up and rushed over to her, "Are you alright? It looked like you were about to go out… thought that does mean that I'm getting better at the Sankaku-Jime (Triangle Choke)… But still, I didn't want to use it on a pretty girl like you! That one was meant for someone like Sasuke-teme!"
She stopped trying to regain her breath and took note of Naruto's appearance. She hadn't even noticed until it was too late that even in his sleep his muscles were tensed and even now he seemed prepared to retaliate to an attack from anywhere. He didn't look very fast, but from what she had experienced firsthand he didn't have to be, he was sudden when up close, able to close small distances up to a foot before she even knew what had occurred. Without any weapons and with him this close to her already, a fight wasn't going to go very well for her. Even if she managed to get away far enough to try using Ninjutsu she didn't know what else he could do, and getting away once he realized she was a threat was something else altogether. When he had her in his grasp she couldn't budge an inch.
It wasn't in any kind of tactical interest to fight him here, even if it would have thinned the opposition out for when Zabuza recovered.
"It's okay." The girl finally said, "You must have been quite on edge to attack like that. My name is Haku by the way." She said with a disarmingly beautiful smile.
Naruto grinned at her and let out a sigh of relief, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. And I kind of came out here to safely pick a fight. I more or less went overboard." He looked around, "It's pretty early. What are you doing out here so early?"
Haku turned and pointed to the basket of herbs she had been walking with before, "I'm out here collecting herbs for someone close to me. He was injured not too long ago and I just want to help speed his recovery."
Naruto tilted his head to the side slightly and smiled, "Well then I guess I'll help you out. I did almost choke you out for no good reason. The least I can do is help you out and pick some herbs for you." He stood up and offered Haku a hand, "Just tell me what I need to grab for you."
Taking his offered hand with a smile, Haku stood up and went to collect her basket before leading Naruto to a nearby area to collect herbs. The two worked in a comfortable silence until Haku spoke up, "So Naruto-san, what were you doing out here, and who were you fighting?"
Now Naruto didn't want to say, 'Oh I was out here fighting with more than one hundred copies of myself to blow off a murderous temper that was initially directed at some sniveling brat.' That would be weird and would most likely scare the girl, who was already possibly terrorized of him, away for good. But he was Uzumaki Naruto, and thinking on his feet was what had gotten him famous.
The fact that he wasn't famous was irrelevant.
"Oh, I was fighting nature!" Naruto said before fighting the urge to facepalm, 'That was so stupid! Ugh… fine, roll with it. Combat etiquette says you cannot judge a battle plan while the battle is still carrying on, you have to wait until it's over.' He kept up his grinning face, "Yep, last night was pretty nice so I decided to camp out. The weather is great in this country."
"You're not from Nami no Kuni?" Haku asked. She knew where he was from. That headband was clear in its specification of his village allegiance.
Naruto shook his head, "No, I'm from Konohagakure no Sato. I'm a ninja here on a mission in this village."
"A ninja?" Haku repeated in amusement, "You must be very strong."
"I'd like to think so." Naruto said, laughing slightly, "But I'm not that good yet. I've got a long way before I'm as strong as I want to be. I've been training really hard for a while now."
Haku nodded and spoke again, "Why is it that you want to gain strength?"
"So that I can be Hokage." Naruto answered with confidence, "That way people will see me as someone important."
"So you do this for others?" Haku said seriously, "You gain strength and train for others?" Naruto looked at her with a blank face telling her that he didn't understand, "It's just, I believe when a person has something important that they want to protect, that's when they can become truly strong."
A smile slowly spread across Naruto's face, "I like that. You're absolutely right Haku-chan." He thought of his team, of Iruka, of Shiho, and of the Hokage, "I have things that I want to protect, and I'll definitely keep getting stronger to protect them."
Haku stood up with her basket full, "Then I believe that there won't be a limit to how strong you can get Naruto-kun." She began to leave before turning around, "Oh, and by the way. I'm a boy."
Naruto paled for a second before calming himself down prior to freaking out and thinking, "You've got a good poker face, but that's a lie."
"Wha-?" Haku was surprised at him calling her out on that, "I don't see how you can say that to me Naruto-kun."
Naruto shrugged, "It was a good double bluff. Dress like a girl and call yourself a boy to throw others off." He growled lowly, "I can only imagine with Gato's goons lurking around why you did that." He then brightened back up, "But remember, I did choke you… and it wasn't like I…" He took a gulp of fear, "…It wasn't like I didn't feel anything when I had you." Both Naruto and Haku blushed brightly.
"I… see." Haku said, breaking the silence.
Naruto simply took more time in silence before mustering up the will to talk, "So should I start running now, or are you not going to try and kill me for that? Because I swear it was an accident."
Haku waved off his trepidation, "It's okay. I have to go now." She said, turning to leave again.
Naruto was about to let her go when he stopped her, "Hey, do you think you could come back here tomorrow? This was nice."
Haku was about to tell him no when she saw the smile on his face that was almost begging her to say yes… and even though she knew she couldn't, she just didn't have it in her heart to turn him down, "Not tomorrow…" His face fell, "Maybe we could meet up the day after tomorrow?"
Naruto's good mood returned full force as he gave her a thumbs up, "Actually that works just fine too. Right here? So we both know where to find the other?"
Haku nodded, "Yes that sounds fine Naruto-kun. Goodbye." She returned his smile with one of her own that brightened his disposition even further.
"Goodbye Haku-chan." Naruto said happily, "I'll see you soon." He was ecstatic. It was never this easy for him to make friends in Konoha, and she actually agreed to come back the day after tomorrow. His morning was shaping up nicely to say the very least.
'Yes Naruto-kun.' Haku thought sadly as she walked away, 'I will be seeing you soon, sooner than you think. And not in the most amiable of conditions either.'
As Haku got out of sight, Naruto had a thought, if he was able to find out she was a girl then who's to say that none of the brutes under Gato could either. Naruto quickly formed a Kage Bunshin and pointed in Haku's general direction, "Follow Haku-chan and make sure she gets home alright. Don't let her see you either… she might think we're creepy if you get caught."
XxX
Asuma stood out front of the house with Tazuna, Kakashi, Team 7, and the remainder of Team 10 when Naruto came ambling out of the forest, "There he is. And from the look on his face he's not angry anymore. Are you ready to guard Tazuna? You'll be with Kakashi today."
Naruto nodded, "I'm fine Asuma-sensei, I just had to blow off some steam, but I'm completely calm now. Sorry about last night, but that kid just-."
"It's alright Naruto." Asuma said, "You don't have to say anything." He motioned to Sasuke, Chouji, and Shikamaru, "You guys are with me today. Let's go." They nodded and followed Asuma into the woods to continue their training.
Kakashi looked at the remaining genin, Naruto, Sakura, and Ino and gave them all a smile, "And that means that the rest of you are with me. We're on Tazuna guard duty today." They all agreed easily enough and began walking with Tazuna from the house to the bridge.
Before they got too far away, Naruto turned back towards the house and saw Inari looking out the window until he realized that Naruto had caught his gaze and moved to hide. Shaking his head, Naruto turned his attention to the work he was meant to do that day.
XxX
"Is this what you were doing all day yesterday? How boring Naruto."
"Why did you say all of that to Inari last night?"
"Where did you go?"
"What did you do last night?"
"Why is your face all scuffed up?"
Naruto leaned against the finished portion of the bridge railing as did Sakura and Ino on both sides of him, only they were badgering him with questions. Naruto never would have thought that he would be the one that wanted silence. Hell, part of him wanted them to start yapping about Sasuke, at least then they would stop asking him stuff.
He honestly wished that his windbreaker was something akin to a soundproof barrier, because he would have liked nothing better than to not have to hear them at the moment, "In the order you asked; yes I was doing this all day yesterday. Don't worry why I said that stuff to Inari, it's not important. I went to a strip club. I got a lap dance. And the strippers were a little rough." Two fists deposited themselves on his cheeks, "Ow… but worth it."
"Why didn't that hurt you more?" Ino fumed. It didn't even look like he had registered the hit.
Naruto swished his mouth around… did one of them dislodge a molar with one of those hits? Oh well, he didn't care right then, "It did hurt, but I'm leaning against the railing and I get punched in the face by myself every single day. I hit harder than you."
Sakura crossed her arms and looked away, "Stop trying to be cool Naruto."
Naruto looked at her and then at Ino, "I'm cool aren't I?"
Ino gave him a wry smile, "You're cooler than everyone thought you were, but you're still not as cool as Sasuke-kun." Both girls let off a swoon and repeated Sasuke's name wistfully.
"And on that note…" Naruto said as he got off of the railing and walked away from the girls to find Kakashi before they could get started on their Sasuke kick. A burst of his sonar jutsu located Kakashi's tall, spiky silhouette easily enough and the young blonde bounded over to him, "Hey Kakashi-sensei."
The silver-haired jounin looked down at Naruto, "Oh, Naruto. Any trouble?"
The boy shook his head, "No, nothing so far." Naruto said, somewhat downtrodden. He was getting antsy. As much as he tried hiding it he wanted some action to go down, he couldn't help himself. Sasuke had fought a jounin, he hadn't gotten to fight anyone yet, "Kakashi-sensei, what can you tell me about this Zabuza guy? You fought him and beat him didn't you?"
Kakashi nodded, "He's a top-level ninja Naruto, the kind of guy that a new genin like you shouldn't even consider fighting even under the most auspicious circumstances, because he will always be dangerous. He almost beat me and killed the entire team."
Naruto gulped, "What did he do?"
Kakashi looked up in thought as he remembered the events of the battle, "He managed to trap me and target my genin. Luckily Chouji showed a lot of heart and destroyed the clone with his family jutsu, that let Sasuke shoot off a jutsu of his own that forced Zabuza to let me go. From there on I refused to let him get any other chances… still, he got away when that hunter-ninja showed up. I should have been more attentive. We were lucky that after the trouble with the Demon Brothers earlier Chouji had the idea to send to Konoha for some assistance."
What if it had been his own team? What if Team 10 had gotten this mission instead? He was certain that they wouldn't have turned back either. They would have wound up fighting whoever this Zabuza was. What if Asuma had been the one who had gotten trapped and unable to defend the students, could he Ino, and Shikamaru have been able to get him out? Could they win if they had to fight?
"I believe when a person has something important that they want to protect, that's when they can become truly strong."
"It won't matter now Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said, prompting Kakashi to look at him in mild surprise. The blonde had a look of determination on his face, "We won't lose to Zabuza, or that hunter-ninja, or anyone. We're not going let this keep happening to this country Kakashi-sensei. If we're going to show this place that heroes still exist then we're going to have to be those heroes aren't we?" Naruto's face morphed into one of shock before his gaze hardened over, "Trouble."
"Zabuza?" Kakashi wondered. It didn't really fit his M.O. to be this blunt in his approach.
Naruto shook his head, "No, it's a bunch of thugs coming this way."
Kakashi took note of the serious look on Naruto's face, "You take Ino and Sakura and handle it. I don't believe you have any combat experience. While fighting a powerful ninja and taking on some thugs are completely different things you still could use the experience. I'll stay back with Tazuna." Naruto nodded and made the ram seal before popping off in a burst of smoke, 'He already has that jutsu down well enough to feel comfortable using it like this? You really do have your father's talent inside of you Naruto, and your mother's tenacity.'
XxX
Naruto appeared in front of Ino and Sakura in a puff of smoke, "We need to go. Now."
"Where?" Sakura asked as she and her fellow kunoichi stood up and followed Naruto who immediately took off running, "What's the matter?"
Naruto and the girls kept running for a few minutes before reaching the edge of the bridge where several of Naruto's clones had their kunai out and at the ready behind the construction gate. On the other side stood around twenty of Gato's men preparing to storm the site. Outside they stood, terrorizing people off of the streets and otherwise harassing people joyfully, "You don't want to be on the side of these fools. What do you all care anyway? This isn't your country, it isn't your problem."
"It is now." Naruto said cracking his knuckles as he stared down the thugs holding a myriad of weapons, from simple household tools to actual swords, "Now I think you don't want to be on Gato's side. You should leave now." He pulled up a fist full of shuriken.
The men all laughed at Naruto, "A bunch of punk kids are going to tell us to leave? Get in there and tear that brat apart!"
Naruto didn't say a word, he simply formed the seal for his most battle-ready ninjutsu and wound up side-to-side with fifty clones, all with shuriken in their hands, "Who's going to tear who apart?" With that, half of Naruto's clones jumped up over the height of the fence and pelted every thug in their range with their weapons.
That lone attack cut down several of Gato's thugs that were unable to run away and hide behind any cover fast enough, "Is that all you've got brat? You're dead when we get in there!"
Naruto again didn't say anything. Half of his clones simply boosted the others over to allow them to jump to the thug's side and begin a melee battle. The clones beat down the men and took them by surprise before they realized what was now happening. The return assault began claiming the lives of the Kage Bunshin sent after them, but not fast of efficiently enough. The remaining clones on Naruto's side took the tops of the gate and began picking off hapless men in the middle of their scrum against the infantry clones one by one with precise kunai shots that grievously wounded many.
Eventually the casualties were too great for them to continue fighting and they started retreating, leaving their wounded comrades moaning in pain in the streets as the retreat started becoming a rout, Naruto's clones chasing them all the way. The people who had been watching from safe points came outside and started cheering at seeing someone show Gato's goons up for the first time in a long time.
As they began cheering, Naruto dispelled his clones and let a sheepish grin cross his face as the attention fell on him.
Ino and Sakura stood back, having watched the whole thing firsthand. The original Naruto hadn't moved an inch the entire fight. His clones had done all of the fighting and had been an overwhelming force against the group of men. They were largely untrained thugs meant more to intimidate than to fight actual battles, but he hadn't even needed to go over and fight himself. He hadn't even needed to say a single word.
Sakura looked at Naruto uncomfortably soak up the praise from the workers who had seen him fight, "When Shikamaru said that Naruto was a one man army…"
Ino nodded, smiling fondly at Naruto's victory, "Shikamaru loves Naruto's Kage Bunshin more than Naruto does himself sometimes, I swear. He says, 'Why play shogi when I actually have real soldiers to work strategies with?'" She looked at Sakura who still could hardly believe the usefulness of Naruto's signature jutsu, "That's why I said that I don't know whether or not Sasuke-kun was stronger than Naruto. It wouldn't be fair to Naruto to just say that he was blindly."
Naruto ran over to the girls, cutting their conversation short, "I think I should stay here in case something like this happens again. If something happens on your end I'll have some clones with you so that I can find out for myself. Tell Kakashi-sensei would you?"
Ino playfully faux-saluted Naruto, getting him to roll his eyes amusedly. Sakura put on a tentative smile, "Sure thing Naruto. You've got it." They both took off back towards the unfinished part of the bridge where Kakashi and Tazuna were.
Naruto's smile dropped as he turned towards the wounded men that had been left behind and found one that wasn't too bad off. His attitude shifted as he remembered one of the most important lessons Shiho pounded into his head early on. That information was one of the most powerful tools in the shinobi world.
Taking this to mind, Naruto made his way over to the man who saw him coming and fearfully crawled along the ground until he reached a weapon and got to his feet. He stood with a small club in his hand and glared at Naruto hatefully, "You think you'll get away with this you monster! There's more where we came from!" He yelled before charging Naruto outright.
"I know." Naruto said lowly as he prepared himself for the incoming attacker. Naruto darted forward as the club was swung. He maneuvered himself so that the dangerous portion of the club didn't hit him, instead, the inside of the man's fist hit his bicep and shoulder. Naruto used his diminutive frame to jump up and use the top of his head as a battering ram that snapped the man's jaw shut. He was sure it cracked his jaw when his teeth audibly clicked.
As the man stumbled back, Naruto grabbed both of his wrists, freeing up his front with no defenses whatsoever. Naruto kicked out the insides of his legs to drop him to his knees and planted the sole of his foot right on the man's face, sticking with the use of chakra. Naruto jumped forward, ignoring the fact that the man was on his knees already and drove him onto his back to deliver a stomp kick that pressed the man's head between his foot and the ground, "Yousai no Houkai (Collapsing Fortification)!"
Naruto let go of the man's limp arms and peeled his foot from his face to see that he was unconscious with multiple broken bones on his visage. Naruto formed a Kage Bunshin to drag him off somewhere to possibly interrogate him and let out a sigh. He looked down at his hands to see that they were shaking and he couldn't will them to stop. He hoped that was just nerves from the adrenaline wearing off.
He decided to stake out the entrance to the building site for the rest of the day and took a seat near the gate to stand watch. He reflected on the battle he had just had. It wasn't a jounin for sure, but he thought that he had done awesome.
As he started thinking on what he had done, a clone had popped and had given its memories back to Naruto. A memory that caused Naruto to gasp in shock, "Haku-chan…"
How To Train Your Genin: Tip 5
Cultivate your genin's interests
Unless you have a ninja based from a clan on your squad you will usually be dealing with a blank slate as far as potential ability goes. The grades that they make in the Academy are good indicators towards where their strength may lie upon graduating, but that usually won't tell the whole story of any one ninja's potential. The best way to make a splendid shinobi out of your raw genin is to pay close attention to how they do everything, and I mean everything.
How your young ninja goes about doing basically anything in their everyday life is an indication of where their strengths lie. Something as simple as the way they tackle the simple D-ranked missions they will undoubtedly be saddled with early on will give you good signs of what they feel best doing. Before taking the mission do they ask many questions? That could be a sign for someone interested in an intelligence career. During the mission do they work fast and complete the assignment with more than enough energy to burn? That could be a quick-response ninja or maybe a potential ninjutsu specialist once their chakra reserves increase higher.
The point is, do not have them settle into a cookie-cutter mold of what you see most ninja doing. The more unique a ninja is, both in skill and possible eccentricity, the more likely they are to be powerful or good at what they do. (Tell me you haven't seen a couple of wing-nuts around the village and then after asking about 'that crazy guy over there' come to learn that they're ten times better than you.)
Individuality is important towards a ninja's overall skill set. Having everyone be just the same as everyone else in their talents makes a very uniform, one-dimensional military, and that is and always has been a detriment to martial might.
-Shiho
Jutsu List
Sankaku-Jime (Triangle Choke). C-rank taijutsu. Offensive, defensive. A type of figure-four chokehold which strangles the opponent by encircling the opponent's neck and one arm with the legs in a configuration similar to the shape of a triangle. The technique is a type of lateral vascular restraint that constricts the blood flow from the carotid arteries to the brain. Unconsciousness when properly executed will come in under 7 seconds, death will occur in under 20, not even adding in the variable of lower body strength. From this position one could also deliver powerful elbow strikes to the head, or draw a kunai or other sort of bladed weapon to kill an opponent.
Yousai no Hokai (Collapsing Fortification). D-rank taijutsu. Offensive. Using the sticking effect of chakra to grab onto an opponent's arms and keep them from breaking your grip, the user then has a wide open close range avenue to begin assaulting an opponent with knees, headbutts, and front aimed kicks. The effectiveness of this technique is dependent on your enemy's and your own skill in fighting without the use of their own arms as both of your arms will be unavailable for the duration of the technique.