Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

AN: I apologize in advance for having to summarize the first chapter, but I felt that rather than skip over the mission report, I would rather write it out, so that you know exactly what transpires. Sorry for the wait for this, I completely forgot that I had set out to actually post my stories, and I only remembered that I was supposed to post another chapter after I checked my email for the first time in a few months.

Team Seven and Haku walked into Konoha with relatively little questioning, the two chunin on guard duty asked the minimal amount of questions about Haku's identity before simply brushing the whole ordeal aside, trusting in Kakashi's judgment to bring the girl to Konoha. A few minutes later, the whole team, plus Haku arrived in the Hokage's office to give a debrief to him of the entire mission, since the mission parameters had been completely changed, and since the bounty of two rouge Kiri chunin were to be discussed, they were to meet with the Hokage personally.

With the whole team and their charge in his office and quiet, Sarutobi nodded his head towards Kakashi, "A full report of the mission, if you would."

Kakashi likewise nodded before he began to tell the tale, "Things began to take an unexpected turn after we were ambushed by the missing nin Gozu and Meizu, also known as the Demon Brothers. However, they were shortly incapacitated, and bound so as to be picked up by an ANBU squad later. At this point, I questioned Tazuna as to why two chunin ninja would have been hired to assassinate him when he had hired us to protect him from petty bandits.

After a short discussion, we found out that the shipping business tycoon Gato was not the simple businessman that he had seemed on paper, and in fact used his shipping business as a front to ship drugs, contraband and other illegal things, and had bought up all the shipping on the island of Wave Country. He crippled the economy and spirit of the people, forcing taxes from the people, under threat from his private army of thugs, slowly draining the life from the people.

I asked my genin whether or not we should continue the mission, knowing that the next person to be sent by Gato would be stronger, at least a jounin in strength. They were determined to continue on, believing that since we had agreed to protect Tazuna, even though things had changed, we were still bound to help him, and they also felt a moral obligation to try and help the people of Wave, something that I also shared with them."

Kakashi took a moment to let the Hokage take in all the information, and at a curt nod from him, continued with the tale, "Shortly after, we were ambushed before we could arrive at a boat that would take us across the water to Wave Country, this time by the jounin missing nin from the Hidden Mist named Zabuza Momochi. After a brief skirmish with Zabuza, while keeping the genin out of the way, I was caught by surprise and trapped in a water prison by Zabuza.

After this, I told the genin to leave and take Tazuna and run, but they stayed, and with Sakura staying near Tazuna, Naruto and Sasuke used clever teamwork to outsmart Zabuza and force him to release me from the water prison. After this, me and Zabuza engaged in a full fight, after which I was about to kill him when an accomplice of his, disguised as a Hunter-nin used senbon to stop Zabuza's heart and trick me into thinking that Zabuza had died, before I passed out from chakra exhaustion. After this, the fake Hunter-nin took Zabuza away, and Naruto's shadow clones carried me the rest of the way to Tazuna's home.

The next 6 days were spent training the genin, while I guarded the bridge and began to recuperate, preparing for the battle with Zabuza that I knew would have to come eventually. This fight did commence on the seventh day, I engaged Zabuza, while Naruto and Sasuke were entangled with fighting Haku, the fake Hunter-nin from earlier." At this, Kakashi gestured to Haku, who had up to this moment only gained a curious glance from the ancient Hokage, "My fight with Zabuza went well, as before, I was ultimately able to win the upper hand, while the fight between Haku and Sasuke and Naruto did not go as well.

Haku trapped both Sasuke and Naruto into her own original jutsu, "Demonic Ice Mirrors" through which she could move through at incredibly high speeds, and throw senbon at them both, slowly but surely wearing them both down, even after Sasuke awakened his Sharingan during the fight. Now, I need Naruto to tell the rest."

Hiruzen looked curiously at Naruto, wondering as to why Kakashi would feel the need to have Naruto tell the tale, rather than himself, 'Something important must have happened, but what, exactly?'

Naruto smiled nervously, a sharp contrast to his usually outspoken and charismatic self, "Well, after dodging senbon as long as I could, Haku finally caught me, and a wave of senbon aimed at my chest and neck could have certainly been the end of me. Except, something happened that saved me from the senbon. I felt a drain from my chakra, and then between me and the senbon, a large number of blood red crystals had grown out of the bridge, and stopped the senbon."

If it were not for decades of practice maintaining composure, Hiruzen would have surely dropped his pipe out of his mouth in surprise at this news, whatever he had expected, blood red crystals were certainly NOT among his theories.

Naruto shuffled his feet nervously before continuing, "Haku was distracted by the crystals, and I was too, so Sasuke took the opportunity to catch Haku with several kunai, hitting her arm and forcing her out of the ice mirrors, and she had to dash away to pull the kunai out of her arm. I had finally snapped out of my astonishment, as Haku came back to attack us again. For the next several minutes, the red crystals kept appearing and saving me from harm, until the mist that had surrounded Kakashi and Zabuza's fight finally disappeared, and Haku tried to run to go save Zabuza, but I managed to run and catch up for a moment to control the red crystal to cover her foot and keep her trapped to the bridge.

So Zabuza died, and just then, Gato appeared with almost two hundred thugs, and he was going to have them kill our team and Tazuna. But then Inari showed up with nearly the entire village armed with whatever they could get, they had all finally stood up to Gato. But then Haku told me to release her, because Gato said he had never had any intention of paying Zabuza, and was planning to kill him, so I did, and in a moment, she set up ice mirrors around Gato and all of his men, and just killed them all, except Gato. She made Gato sign over his business and all his assets to her, and she let him live, penniless."

Kakashi put a hand softly on Naruto's shoulder, before finishing the tale, "In three more days, the bridge was finished, and we finally departed for home, going over the new bridge as we did so. After getting a distance away, Haku approached us to say that she wanted to come here to negotiate for the freedom of the Demon Brothers, and was willing to pay the bounty prices on them to free them."

Hiruzen rubbed at his chin absently before replying, "Usually I do not negotiate a trade for missing nin like this, but in these circumstances, I will be willing to do so if you can pay the 42,000 ryu bounty on the two of them, if you tell me why you wish to free them."

Haku stopped for a second before telling the truth, "Gozu and Meizu may not be the kindest men, but they were loyal to Zabuza-sama, and his dream, to overthrow Yagura the tyrant Mizukage, and establish someone as Mizukage that would be better for the village. I am going to need their help, because with the funds I took from Gato, and the quarterly income he made from his legit shipping business, I am going to form an army to oppose Yagura."

Hiruzen nodded, "Then the arrangements will be made, and Meizu and Gozu will be released to you when you pay for their freedom, if you would wait outside of the office, I will send someone to collect the bounty from you while Gozu and Meizu are retrieved. After that, an ANBU squad will accompany the three of you until you are out of Fire Country."

Haku bowed her head slightly, "Thank you, Hokage-sama." After that, she left the Hokage's office, the large oak doors creaking shut behind her as she left.

Hiruzen pulled out his tobacco pipe, lighting the tobacco already in the pipe with a small fire from the tip of his finger, and took a long draft from the pipe, "Sasuke and Sakura, you are free to go, I am sure you are ready for more than deserved rest after your journey."

As they turned to leave, Sasuke and Sakura threw a questioning glance at Naruto, who for his part, also looked confused, "Am I free to go too Jiji?"

Hiruzen shook his head, "Not quite yet Naruto, I just have a few questions to ask you about the abilities you displayed during your mission."

Sasuke opened the oaken doors to the office, leaving with one more questioning glance at Naruto, while Sakura followed behind him rather silently compared to her usual charisma, clearly absorbed in her own thoughts. Once again, the oak doors creaked shut.

Naruto looked confused for a second, before realization spread across his face, "Oh you mean the cool crystals? Here, let me show you!" On Naruto's command, a crimson crystal began to grow out of the floor, spiraling beautifully up to about five feet high before Naruto stopped flowing his chakra to it.

This was surprising to Hiruzen, as what Naruto had just done was raw nature manipulation of the bizarre crystal, not controlled in a jutsu using to hand seals, but done on an instinctual level simply using his chakra, and transforming it into the crystals, the crimson color of which was ominous, obviously matching the color of the chakra of the Kyuubi, not that Naruto would know that.

"Naruto, how much of your chakra does it take to create a crystal like that?"

Hiruzen's question seemed odd to Naruto, but he responded anyways, "Not much at all, I barely feel any drain at all when I create crystals. And it really didn't take long to get the hang of either, it is so easy make them!"

Hiruzen smiled at Naruto's enthusiasm, while he exchanged a glance with Kakashi, who still stood off to the side silently, and from the look in his eye, Kakashi had the same thoughts, with the ease with which Naruto could control the crystals, and the color of them, it was obviously the Kyuubi's doing, especially with how it appeared at the moment when it was needed to save his life, and now the Kyuubi had given Naruto the ability to control the crystals so as to protect himself.

Hiruzen smiled at Naruto however, decades of experience keeping any of his thoughts from showing on his face, and after taking another draft from his pipe, before he suddenly became more serious and told Naruto, "That is all that I needed to know, you are free to go now, but first, there are a few things I am going to tell you, and I need you to listen to me."

Naruto nodded his head enthusiastically, "Whatever you need Jiji!"

Keeping a smile on his face, Hiruzen instructed Naruto, "I don't want you to use your ability to control crystals anywhere where someone other than me, Kakashi, or your teammates can see you, okay? I want you to keep it a secret for now, can you do that?"

Naruto was puzzled, his first nature was to go around and show off to all of his friends how cool his new ability was, but sensing how serious that the Hokage was, he nodded his head, "I guess I can do that, but I am sure that everyone would think it is really cool."

"I am sure that everyone will, but let's keep it a secret for a little while longer, okay?"

Naruto again nodded his head, "Okay, I can keep it a secret for now, I guess."

Hiruzen smiled, "Good, now you are free to go, go get some rest, and relax after your mission."

Naruto turned, and rather sullenly left the room, obviously dejected that he could not share his new ability with his other friends besides Sasuke and Sakura, who weren't much in the way of friends, even if him and Sasuke were starting to get closer, he was still a jerk, and Sakura resisted any attempts to go on a date with him.

With Naruto now gone, Hiruzen turned to Kakashi, concern finally showing on his face as he was alone with one of the men that he trusted most in Konoha, "You obviously have the same thoughts as me, Kakashi. Obviously Naruto's new ability is given somehow by the Kyuubi, but I am concerned as to how the Kyuubi could have manipulated the seal, even if it was for something that seemingly only helps Naruto."

Kakashi was silent, his usually ever present Icha Icha novel still in his back pocket, due to the potential seriousness of the situation, "By my guess, there must have been catch in the seal, that when Naruto's life was in potentially mortal danger, allowed the Kyuubi to do something to save Naruto. I would have thought that if such a catch was in the seal though, it would have been the Kyuubi's raw chakra that would have been given to Naruto to save him, but instead, Naruto manifested the ability to control the strange crystals."

Both Kakashi and Hiruzen were now looking at the five foot high crystal spiral that was still formed in front of the Hokage's desk. "It is rather strange, and a matter that I am going to have to discuss with Jiraiya to find out more, for now, we keep an eye on Naruto and his control of the crystals, and attempt to keep it a secret, especially from Danzo, who knows what he will want to do about this. In the meantime however, I guess the only thing to do is watch, and try to study this crystal he made to attempt to learn more about it."

As Naruto left the Hokage's office, and closed the door behind him, he saw Haku still standing outside patiently, and nervously walked over to her, "Hey Haku, I wanted to ask you something."

Haku glanced up at him, his voice obviously taking her from deep thoughts, "Yes, Naruto-san?"

Naruto chuckled lightly, "You can just call me Naruto you know, there isn't any reason to be so formal, besides, and I think we are friends, aren't we?"

Haku took a moment to think, 'He stopped me from saving Zabuza-sama's life, but you he is a kind and caring person.' "Yes, I think that we can be friends, putting everything behind us, we both have the same ideals, that only by fighting to protect those we love, can you truly be strong."

Naruto smiled, "Good, because you are a good person Haku. And that is why I wanted to ask you this, do you really think that you could take on a whole ninja village, even with an army? I mean, if that Yagura guy is Mizukage, he must be crazy powerful."

Haku nodded, "Indeed he is, he is the Jinchuriki of the Sanbi, and has terrifying powers granted by it. But that does not worry me, Zabuza-sama told me that many in Mizugakure hate and fear Yagura, and would be more than willing to join a fight against him. With those that would stand against him, and whoever I can hire to help me, I will remove Yagura from power."

Even though Haku was passionate, Naruto had stopped paying attention, even though he had pursued the conversation, because his mind was stuck on a few words she had said, 'he is the Jinchuriki of the Sanbi, and he has terrifying powers granted by it.'

Many people may have thought it, and based off of his usual behavior, Naruto seemed to be rather stupid, but he wasn't. Naruto was actually fairly intelligent, which was why those few words blew away the entire theory that his powers to control crystal were a bloodline, now he understood that they had to be from the Kyuubi, it couldn't be a coincidence. Now that his mind saw the clues, Naruto put the pieces together, he had heard of the appearance of the Kyuubi, a mass of blood red chakra, matching his crimson crystals no doubt.

Haku had quickly noticed that something she had said seemed to bother Naruto, as he had become distant, and lost in some train of thought, "Naruto-san, are you alright? Was there something that I said that confused you?"

Haku's voice took Naruto out of his thoughts, as he remembered that he was still standing in front of Haku, "I told you not to call me Naruto-san didn't I? And no, Haku, it is just that I remembered something that is probably very important, and I have to go, good luck to you, and your mission, Haku-chan, I hope I see you around someday, it would be great to meet up and see what we have both accomplished."

Naruto left in a hurry, his thoughts still mostly on the suddenly obvious connection between his crystals and the Kyuubi the foremost thing on his mind. He was so lost in his thoughts, that he didn't see the faint blush on Haku's face as she heard the "chan" added to her name.

Haku cleared her face as another man approached, a chunin judging from the vest he wore, "Haku I presume? My name is Kotetsu, I am here to take you to the village gates, where Gozu and Meizu await you with an ANBU team, if you would give me the promised amount of money, then we can be on our way."

Haku nodded, reaching inside her kimono, pulling out a check that was already pre-filled out with the 42,000 ryu that was asked for the release of Gozu and Meizu, handing it over to Kotetsu, who nodded, and the two of them left the building, heading towards the village gates.

As they left however, Haku's thoughts were drawn towards Naruto, the energetic blonde was a person she would likely never forget, and a part of her hoped that the someday that Naruto had referred to would not be too far into the future, she wanted see him again, before some other girl realized what a kind and good hearted man that he was.

As Haku was leaving the village, the four members of team seven were all in various places, but they were all doing the same the thing, trying to find out more about Naruto, and his ability to control red crystals.

Sakura was searching the public library for a mention of an Uzumaki family, because if Naruto had some control over crystals, to her it had to be a bloodline, and one that would have to have been relatively well known with how powerful the possibilities of such a bloodline could be.

Sasuke was likewise trying to find out more about Naruto's apparent bloodline, though with a different approach, he was breaking into the academy records on students, where they would have a copy of Naruto's birth certificate, with the names of his parents listed on it.

Naruto, however, had previously tried what his teammates were doing, and knew that those routes would lead nowhere, as he had tried to find out about his family a long time ago. But it wasn't a family bloodline, instead, Naruto was also in the public library, though he was looking for any reference to Jinchuriki that he could find.

Meanwhile, Kakashi was following a similar route as Naruto, trying to learn more about the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, but he had access to the ANBU's collective library, a resource that was hundreds of times more likely to grant some insight to the abilities that Naruto possessed.

Author's Note: And there you have it, chapter two, mostly filler at the moment, as I build up to a number of significant plot points that should begin to unfold in the next chapter, what with Sasuke and Sakura digging into the Uzumaki family name, Naruto and Kakashi looking into Jinchuriki, and Haku started on her quest to fulfill Zabuza's dream.

Plus, Haku has a crush on Naruto, isn't that cute?