Chapter Three

The team and client met up at the Eastern gate early in the morning.

The air was crisp and cool this early despite the sun that was rising rapidly into the brightening azure vault of the sky, chasing away the last vestiges of the night as its light banished the last few remaining stars and set the sky ablaze with bright oranges and deep, dark rust reds.

Clouds were slowly gathering in the sky, glowing fiercely like hot embers from the suns strong light, though they did little to offset the growing heat and as such Naruto had forsaken his jacket for now as had Sakura.

Naruto was leaning up against one of the gates great wooden posts that supported the large and rather impressive wooden doors that not only held the leaf symbol all the Leaf ninjas wore, it was also painted green. Not a job he envied doing.

The gates were wide open this early, a welcoming sight for returning Anbu and ninjas in general. Though a great security threat, it could be argued.

The two gate guards looked just about dead on their feet from the twelve hour shift they had done the night before where nothing much had happened, further deadening their brains as they leant on the gate itself, though one looked to have fallen asleep standing, quite the feat all things considered.

Naruto was relaxed despite the slight chill of the air, reading a book he had picked up from the livery earlier while Sakura dosed on the ground. She had only been in training with Naruto for a few days and already she was tired almost all the time from his training, he had given her yesterday off and that had helped, but she still had plenty of sleep to catch up on.

"You two are here early" Kakashi said as she walked up to them, smiling slightly at the sight of Sakura asleep next to the gate post.

"Good morning Kakashi-chan" Naruto said absentmindedly, waving at her half-heartedly, obviously absorbed by his book. Kakashi raised an eyebrow but otherwise said nothing and took up a position leaning on the other pillar directly in Naruto's line of sight, closing her eyes and leaning back while they all waited for the other member of their team along with their client.

Sasuke arrived at the same time as Tazuna, his permanent scowl deeper than ever from the early morning and the fact that he was the last to arrive.

"Alright then people" Kakashi said, a bit too cheerfully, as she clapped her hands together, snapping Sakura awake, who proceeded to glare weakly at Kakashi with her sleepy eyes.

"Let's go" Kakashi said taking her place in front of Tazuna, Sakura and Sasuke flanking him on either side while Naruto guarded the rear. They had barely taken two steps out of the gate when Naruto suddenly spun around and caught some sort of black blur as it crashed into him, startling everyone.

"Naru-kun~!" it shouted as it impacted Naruto, easily allowing all present to guess as to who it was, knocking him off of his feet and sending him skidding along the ground for a few feet before stopping, a purring Anko lying on top of him, rubbing her head against his chest.

"Bloody hell" he groaned as he pushed himself up on his arms and looked at Anko who seemed quite happy where she was now, all the while purring like some kind of cat. He raised his eyebrow but otherwise opted to say nothing about her action. It wasn't like he wasn't enjoying it, after all.

The two gate guards just looked on, one utterly confused, the other chuckling to himself at the sight the two of them presented.

"I've got to go Anko-chan" Naruto told her

"Hmm..." she replied, obviously not paying him any mind as she rubbed herself against his chest. He sighed and pushed himself up before standing as Anko clung to him until he was standing up again.

"Come on" he said gently, prying her hands away and stepping back as he brushed himself off

"You didn't say goodbye" Anko whined, looking at him with fake tears in her eyes, Naruto sighed dramatically. By about this point Kakashi looked amused, Sakura looked slightly confused, Tazuna was totally lost and Sasuke looked just like he always did

"Fine" Naruto said, kissing Anko on the cheek "I'll see you in a little while Anko-chan" he said, smiling at her. Though he did not miss a slight flicker of something in Anko's eyes, he kissed her cheek once more before walking off

"Come on then" he called out to the others who hurried to catch up with him as he waved goodbye to Anko who stood waving, in an all too exaggerated fashion, back at the gates.

The sun was stronger now, baking team seven as they walked along the dirt path towards Wave. Tazuna looked fine, though his hat probably helped in that endeavour considerably, Naruto was still reading and everyone else was mostly silent due to the heat.

To either side of the team sat great trees that towered above them, holding some of the forest in cool shade with a mixture of dark and light greens that looked like a collage of random greens an artist had chosen. Alas, the high sun meant their shadows did nothing to aid the team.

"So how's your training going Sakura?" Kakashi suddenly asked Sakura out of the blue as they trudged along the dusty path.

"Hmm, I think it's going well, I'm definitely better than I was" Sakura mused to herself, Sasuke frowned, wondering why Kakashi had been training Sakura and not him

"I can imagine, especially if it's Naruto who's been teaching you" Kakashi said, blowing Sasuke's thoughts clean out of the water as Naruto smirked

"What can I say?" he said, looking at them and smirking "I'm just that good" he said, dodging out of the way as Sakura playfully tried to smack him

"You're a bloody slave driver!" she exclaimed as she tried to hit him again

"That may be so" Naruto said as he quickly hid behind Kakashi as Sakura tried to hit him again "but you have to admit I get good results" he told her

"Whatever" Sakura huffed, crossing her arms childishly, Naruto nearly tripped over his feet as he was suddenly reminded of Anko doing exactly the same thing.

The team decided to camp for the night, deciding it was worth taking their time rather than rushing and exhausting themselves, though neither Naruto nor Kakashi missed the slight look of panic in Tazuna's eyes as they made camp. He was obviously on edge, and he had yet to mention why to the team.

Sakura made the meal while Sasuke collected the wood and Naruto hunted down some food. Tents were kind of put up, the clear skies convinced both Naruto and Kakashi to not bother with their tents as it wasn't going to rain. However Sakura and Sasuke weren't willing to take the risk. And Sakura seemed to want some privacy anyway.

The night shift consisted of Naruto and Kakashi who took up guarding the team and client. Sakura needed her sleep thanks to Naruto's regime, and neither of them wanted to be awake with Sasuke, the human ice cube that he was. So they both did three hours each on and off until the sun began to peek over the far horizon and warmth started to bleed into the chilly early morning air, banishing the dew off of the leaves and moss where it had gathered, gently sparkling in the early light as it did so.

The following day they made very good headway considering they were travelling with a civilian, though Tazuna's desperation to get back to his home town may have sped him up slightly considering how twitchy he seemed to be.

They were travelling on the road when Naruto noticed something almost stupidly out of place, namely two puddles on a road where rain had not fallen for the last week or so, at the very least, considering how dry the road was at the moment.

"Hmm, nice weather we've been having recently" Naruto said, a bit too loudly, Tazuna and Sasuke looked at him like he was slightly dumb while Kakashi nodded subtly and Sakura took it for what it was, a warning of some sort. Training, if only for a short while, with Naruto had given her a slight insight into how he functioned on the battle field.

"Yeah" Kakashi replied "hasn't rained at all for at least the last few weeks" she said as the passed the two puddles.

Just as they walked past two figures jumped out of the puddles and attempted to wrap their chain around Kakashi, only to find Naruto already there, blocking the chain

"Idiots" he said coldly and jumped back, letting loose a hail of kunai as he did so.

"Shit" one of the men said, disengaging the chain that was attached to his gauntlet and leaping away, the other couldn't disengage the chain quick enough and so found himself pinned to a nearby tree.

"Take him Sakura!" Naruto shouted out as he shot towards the one who had managed to leap away. The man swiped at Naruto, Naruto ducked and lashed out with a sweeping kick, forcing the man to jump as Naruto came up and slammed a solid punch straight into his jaw, sending the man onto his back. He flipped back up only to be forced to block as Naruto slashed at him with his combat knife, he lashed out with the other hand only for Naruto to back-flip away, landing in a crouch he shot forwards again, the man slashed at him only for Naruto to block his strike, spinning suddenly he caught the man with a back-handed swipe that stunned him for a brief moment, but in that time Naruto managed to get behind him before swiftly knocking him out.

Sakura had engaged her opponent as soon as she heard Naruto's shout, seeing the man was pinned to the tree she moved forwards quickly to try and end it, only for the man to suddenly pull, the chain snapped off and he swung his gauntlet at her, forcing her to jump back as they squared off, watching each other. The man was the first to move as he leapt towards her, once more aiming a swipe at her face, she dodged and she punched him in the gut, hard. He coughed, the air rushing out of his lungs, however he still manage to swipe at Sakura once more forcing her to leap back, giving him enough to recover.

She landed and threw a number of kunai in quick secession as she moved towards him again, he blocked most of them and dodged the rest before moving forwards as well, she ducked quickly under his initial swipe only to see the other claw coming upwards towards her too fast for her to dodge, her eyes slammed shut. Suddenly she heard the man cry out and her eyes snapped open to see that Naruto had kicked him straight in the head, knocking him into a tree where he was out like a light.

Naruto stood back up and sighed

"C-rank my ass" he muttered before pulling Sakura to her feet "you okay?" he asked her and she nodded, feeling embarrassed at her loss, Naruto just smiled reassuringly and turned to look at Kakashi who had just finished tying up the two brothers and sent off a message to Konoha

"Some help Kakashi-chan" he said, she smiled and rubbed the back of her head

"Ah, sorry about that, just wanted to test you" she said before turning to Tazuna "and I believe you owe us an explanation" she said to Tazuna darkly, he gulped

"Well, ah..." he trailed off as Naruto yawned

"It's quite simple, recently Wave has recently been virtually destroyed by the shipping magnate Gato, because of this they have no money, as such Tazuna was forced to tell us that it was a simple C-rank rather than the actually B, or possibly A-rank mission it should of been, correct?" he asked a flabbergasted Tazuna who nodded

"Y-yeah" he stuttered, Naruto just smiled

"Let's go then" he said, a bit too cheerfully, already walking off with Sakura trailing behind him, Kakashi just blinked before sighing and walking after them as did the other two.

Almost four hours later and they had crossed the stretch of ocean that separated Fire country and Wave and were almost at the town when Naruto stopped suddenly, tilting his head to the side as Kakashi also went still.

"What's the matter Naruto-san?" Sakura asked Naruto who sniffed the air then frowned slightly

"Hmm..." he trailed off before his eyes went wide "get down!" he shouted, grabbing Sakura and pulling her down as Kakashi did the same for Tazuna and Sasuke. A massive blade, taller than Naruto, whizzed over their heads to embed in a tree by the water's edge. Naruto and Kakashi jumped up, both ready to battle at a moment's notice just as a well muscled man with bandages wrapped around his mouth appeared on top of the large blade.

"Well" he said, his tone dark and deep "what an honour it is to meet the great Kakashi at last" he said.

"Momochi Zabuza" Kakashi replied, her own tone cold and steely.

"As much as I'd like to kill you for the bounty, you don't think you could just give me the old man?" he said as he crouched down on his blade, hand gripping the handle. Kakashi narrowed her eyes before removing the eye patch over her left eye.

Naruto didn't make a sound; neither did Sakura though Sasuke gasped when he saw the sharingan eye that Kakashi possessed.

"I can't do that" she said and Zabuza seemed to grin before flicking through seals at a very fast rate
"Then I'm going to have to kill you" he said as mist began to form all around the team. Completely obscuring their vision as the bandaged man vanished in a blur of speed just as the mist finally thickened.

Naruto held his breathing steady. The increasing KI was simply another mind trick to force them to make errors, next would come the taunting, and then finally the attack. It was the way all hunters liked to play, to toy with their pray before the catch was made. Like a cat playing with a dying mouse.

His eyes flickered around as he stretched his senses to their maximum limits

"Sakura" he said, voice calm but hard, the girl flinched at the sound of his voice

"H-hai?" she responded, he shifted his stance slightly as he thought he saw a movement in the mist

"Remain calm" he told her "take slow, deep breaths and relax your muscles. This is how hunters work, fear is their weapon. None of us will die today" he told her. She nodded and sighed before taking a few calming breaths. Sasuke also did so, though he did it without thinking as Kakashi readied herself to blow away part of the mist.

"Your very confident, brat" they heard Zabuza's voice echo from all around them.

"He's here" was all Naruto said before suddenly spinning and blocked an attack that would have cleaved Tazuna in half. Zabuza looked surprised as did Tazuna, though for completely different reasons.

"Your pretty decent kid" he said, grinning down at Naruto who simply glared back with hard eyes

"And your dead" he said as Sakura stabbed the man in the back. The man dissolved into water and Naruto span around and jumped, just dodging the blade aimed at his legs before he put one foot upon it and leapt over the man, twisting and slashing his neck as he did so.

Kakashi made her move, engaging the man in combat as they began to move closer to the water, the mist beginning to disperse now that Zabuza's concentration was disrupted. However Naruto knew the dangers Mist ninja's proposed when they were on water and so he acted.

He shot towards the lake faster than a genin should be able to move, and tackled the Demon of the Mist just as he knocked Kakashi away and tossed his blade upwards to start a chain of handseals. He never saw Naruto until he'd ploughed into the man's side and sent them both skimming along the water to the other side of the large lake.

Zabuza rolled and sprang up, looking quite murderous while Naruto pushed himself up. Both were silhouettes in the dense mist that was part natural and part not.

"You're gonna pay for that brat" Zabuza snarled, less than pleased about being separated from his blade, whatever the reason.

Naruto just chuckled darkly

"You know, I've been waiting to try this out for some time, the book speaks about a partial transformation that would make me far more powerful, but I can't test it out properly within Konoha, it'd been too obvious and I'm sure I'd be killed for it. But here..." he trailed off and Zabuza watched in surprise as something seemed to shift around Naruto's right shoulder.

Naruto himself was having trouble controlling the darkness now spilling out like black ink down his arm where it was solidifying and morphing into something that looked distinctly demonic. Its biting coldness made it seem as though he had dunked his arm into ice as it took shape.

The arm seemed to become thicker and much, much darker, with spikes rising from the shoulder blade like they had been driven through, and a long, thin blade jutting from his hand

"Boo" Naruto whispered into the air, voice raspy and deadened as he vanished only to reappear before Zabuza, his thin obsidian black katana already singing through the air as it suddenly sliced into the man's flesh with such speed Zabuza barely had any time to register Naruto's movement from in front of him.

Zabuza grunted in surprise and replaced himself with a water clone before retrieving his blade form the surface of the water and turning around just in time to meet a savage blow from the transformed genin that shook his arm and made his bones ache. He pulled away once more and leapt back to the shore, unaware of the jonin standing behind him as she readied an attack, the look on her face quite murderous to be sure.

Naruto appeared, the transformation gone, it had all happened so fast that Zabuza wasn't sure if it was a dream or not before the genin called out

"Everyone hold onto something!" as he himself shot over the startled man and into the tress where he firmly anchored himself to the tallest tree he could find. Zabuza turned just in time to see a water dragon looming over him, dark eyes looking at him as its jaw opened.

"Fuck" he snarled in annoyance as the thing took him into its jaws and sent him right over to the other shore as it smashed him into the surface of the lake, causing a massive swelling that almost swept the team and Tazuna away.

Kakashi rushed over just in time to see yet another shadow, looking quite effeminate and wearing some form of mask, grabbing the man's fallen body and leaping off into the forest faster than she could follow.

She sucked her teeth in aggravation and returned to the other shore where her team was standing. Sakura and Sasuke were both soaked and frozen to the spot, as was Tazuna. Naruto was out of breath and looked rather tired while sitting on the ground, looking rather dry considering what he'd gone through and done.

"Okay" Kakashi said, sending a sharp glare Naruto's way, though he ignored her for now "for now we should get..." she suddenly felt a wave of tiredness flood her and she nearly collapsed. Naruto caught her, quickly replacing her eye-patch as he did so, much to her relief

"Trust you to forget that" he said to her as she drifted off, she just muttered something unintelligible and fell asleep, the last sounds those of Naruto ordering the other two to get moving.

Naruto and the other members of team seven along with Tazuna made good headway to Tazuna's house considering that both Naruto and Sasuke were having to carry Kakashi along in turns.

They eventually entered the village itself and what they saw made Sakura and Sasuke gasp in both shock and horror. The once lively and bustling town that had been one of the centres of trade for Fire country was now a mere shell of its former self.

Buildings sat along the shore, derelict, disused and silent, a sharp contrast to the days where they produced ships daily. Elsewhere people sat and lay in the streets, some dead but many starving and ill. Children hung in doorways to their homes, empty eyes watching everyone on the street, no doubt deciding who they could get away with pick pocketing.

The air stunk of despair, the dead, dying and disease. Tazuna and Naruto strode on as though used to such sights

"Keep up you two" Naruto sharply ordered Sasuke and Sakura, bringing them both out of their shock sharply as they hurried to catch up with him.

They trudged up a slight incline to get to Tazuna's house, through the ground was still as wet as the rest of the surrounding countryside. The house was moderate in size and looked fairly well looked after considering the state the rest of the town was in. Though Naruto doubted it was because the man had money, and more likely he simply fixed it himself.

Tazuna walked up, more spring in his step than the team had seen since they'd met the man, and he knocked on the door three times, sharply. There was the sound of something being dropped followed by running feet and the door was flung open by, obviously, the man's daughter who looked at them all in shock before embracing the man

"Father!" she said joyfully "you made it" she said as she pulled away, a smile gracing her lips as she looked at him. Tazuna laughed and motioned back to the team

"I wouldn't have, if not for them" he told her and she bowed lowly to them

"Thank you very much for bringing my father back here safely" she said to them sincerely. Naruto smiled at her

"It was nothing. But please, may we come in?" he asked politely as he motioned to Kakashi who was slung over his shoulder. The young girl nodded and withdrew, Tazuna entered after her before team seven went in.

Inside the house was much as Naruto had expected, sparse but not so much so that you couldn't live fairly well in the place. Everything was clean and looked in a fairly good state considering the state of the town as a whole.

He managed to get Kakashi up the stairs and into a bed, making sure she was comfortable before making his way back down stairs to where the other two were sitting with Tazuna as Tsunami poured them all tea. He sat next to Sakura with a heavy sigh, leaning back as he rubbed his right shoulder

"Are you okay Naruto-san?" Sakura asked him, he waved her off before leaning forwards as Tsunami poured him a cup

"Thank you" he said, offering her one of his more cheerful smiles. She smiled in return and moved to sit by her father. Though Naruto caught sight of a young boy out of the corner of his eye, hiding in the doorway, he ignored him for now.

"Now, until Kakashi is in a fit state to move around we're going to have to make do ourselves" he told them, Sakura shifted

"But didn't Kakashi-sensei kill Zabuza?" she asked Naruto who hummed as he put down his tea cup and smiled at Tsunami once again

"Delicious" he said, making her blush prettily before he turned to Sakura "make no mistake, such a technique wouldn't of killed Zabuza, and since she didn't return with either his head or any of his blood on her, we must assume that he is still alive" he turned back to the two clients to see them looking quite pale

"You mean...?" Tazuna trailed off and Naruto put a hand up

"You are quite safe for the moment. It is likely that Zabuza was badly wounded, and as such it will take him some time to recover, how long I cannot accurately say, but we have at least a week before we are under any threat. By which time Kakashi-chan will be ready" he said as he stood up and motioned for the two of them to follow him.

He wondered outside the house with the others following him until he reached a small lake before stepping onto the water's surface

"Now" he said as Sasuke looked on slightly stupefied while Sakura listened intently "since we have only a short time, I'm going to run the two of you into the ground to get you to a decent level of skill" he told them. Sakura put her hand up

"Um, what will you be, um, teaching us?" she asked slightly uncertainly as Naruto grinned

"Well, since you already know water walking, I'm going to run you into the ground with physical exercises, while Sasuke learns this water-walking technique" he told them, Sasuke smiled slightly at the thought of learning something this good while Sakura paled slightly. She had seen Naruto train and dreaded the idea of having to go through the same thing for the next week. She wasn't sure if she would survive.

"Get to it" he told them as he quickly explained the basics of water walking to Sasuke who didn't look put out at Naruto knowing something he didn't for once, Naruto then grabbed Sakura and walked off into the forest with her whimpering the whole way in fear.

He and Sakura stopped a little way from both the house and where Sasuke was practising, sounds of his cursing as he fell into the water could be heard on the wind, making Sakura giggle and Naruto grin.

"Right then" he said as he pulled his shirt off and threw it away before standing in front of her "attack me" he said, his tone clipped and serious. Sakura didn't argue, she just let fly at him, entering the academy style of fighting as she attacked him.

Naruto gracefully dodged many of her punches and weak kicks before gliding around her and striking the back of her knees, sending her to the floor as he bounced away, waiting for her to regain her bearings

"Come on Sakura" he said and she turned to him, once again lashing out, he calmly deflected her punch and tripped her up. She rolled and stood almost immediately, he nodded in satisfaction at that before she attacked him once again.

She let her fist fly and he caught it, twisting it as he turned he used her momentum to throw her over his shoulder and into a tree on the far side of the clearing. She groaned as she slumped to the ground, Naruto stood over her

"Good, much better than last time" he told her as he stretched briefly before slipping his shirt back on "get up, I'm not done with you yet" he told her as she groaned and stood up, swaying slightly as Naruto grinned at her

"What now?" she asked, somewhat irritably and Naruto frowned at her

"That's not very nice. But anyway, time for some triple S and then were going to do some combat training. First of all, speed" he said, eyes flashing dangerously as he pulled out some kunai. Sakura gulped, she'd done this once before and it had ruined her outfit

"Get going" he growled softly and she was off like a shot, Naruto cackling as he ran after her.

Six hours later and an exhausted Sakura, soaked Sasuke, and lively Naruto, entered their clients home

"We're back" Naruto called out as he grabbed a towel and passed it to Sasuke who muttered a brief thanks and began to dry himself off as Sakura collapsed in the hallway. Tsunami walked in to see this and opened her mouth to say something before closing it and pointing at Sakura

"Is she alright?" she asked Naruto who just smiled and picked up the pink haired girl

"She'll be fine by tomorrow" he told her as he put Sakura next to the table as dinner was being dished out.

They ate in silence, with the other two too tired out from the day's activities to make so much as a sound as they ate. Both Tazuna and his daughter were also silent, though it was more likely out of worry for the following week than anything. The boy by the door still didn't enter.

Naruto was the first to finish

"Thank you Tsunami-chan, that was wonderful" he told her with a soft smile once more "if you need any help I'm sure my teammates will provide it" he said as his teammates groaned in annoyance and pain as he collected Kakashi's meal and moved upstairs.

He entered the room to find Kakashi sitting up and looking out of the window. He pulled up a chair next to her and sat there patiently

"Naruto-kun" she said as she turned to look at him. He knew that look in her eyes and he sighed

"I know what you're going to say. But as far as I'm concerned I made the correct decision" he told her calmly

"What?" she asked him, her voice rising

"You heard me. I knew his power level and I knew mine. If you had stepped into that trap he was laying then how well do you think we would have done?" he asked her, sounding slightly aggravated himself

"Better than you throwing yourself in recklessly without thinking or being concerned for the safety of either your teammates or the client!" she nearly shouted at him.

Naruto stood up sharply, knocking the chair back. His eyes were hidden beneath his hairline and he appeared to be struggling to control himself. He handed her the food he had brought before looking at her, his eyes dark and angry

"You have no idea what you're talking about" he told her bluntly "you're letting your personal feelings get in the way. I'll send one of the other two to give you your meals from now on" he told her as he pulled away was walked over to the door, pulling it open sharply. He turned to her just before he left

"I've started training them properly, Zabuza is still alive" he told her before leaving, leaving her to sit there while berating herself for acting so out of character.

The next day went on much the same, with Naruto running Sakura into the ground with combat training and increasing her chakra reserves while Sasuke struggled to complete the water-walking technique Naruto had demonstrated so casually both in the fight with Zabuza and when he'd shown him how to do it.

Kakashi had still not gotten out of bed. Her chakra was still rather low and Naruto had essentially told the other two to make sure that she stayed in bed until she was fully rested, regardless of what she said. She didn't mind, it just made her feel even worse for what she'd said to him the night before. She knew that Naruto was careful and extremely perceptive; he wouldn't have just leapt in like that without first carefully planning everything through. But her personal feelings had blinded her, just like he'd said, and now she would have to pick up the pieces and try and make things right with him again, which was never an easy thing to do, especially with someone like Naruto.

That night Naruto did as he had said he would, he had Sakura deliver Kakashi's meal, much to her disappointment.

Later that night Naruto was sat on the roof of the house. His eyes locked onto the starry night sky as the moon rose higher and higher into its depths. Like a thousand diamonds scattered upon a sheet of black silk. He was relaxed, the chill of the night barely noticed by him after so many years spent in the forest, sometimes without any real shelter. He stood.

"Better get going" he muttered to himself and flickered away towards the darker depths of the forest where the moonlight didn't reach the ground thanks to the large trees.

He arrived back in the clearing that he and Sakura usually trained in, and took a moment to gather himself. Settling his emotions and reining in his straying thoughts he began, once again, to concentrate on the darkness that sat deep within him.

It felt cold, as usual, calm and settled. A stray thought of his argument with Kakashi entered his mind and the darkness flared, struggling against his control until he pushed the thought away and out of his mind. He focused once more.

He began to push the darkness out of him once more, a single black dot, darker that even the night sky, formed in front of him. He frowned as he pushed more energy into the dot, forcing it to expand more and more, like a great 2d sphere slowly engulfing reality as it grew. He stopped after a few moments, opening his eyes to the black oval doorway now sitting in front of him.

A gentle breeze had sprung up once again, drawing the cool night air towards itself before forcing it away so that it seemed to swirl around the object that was hanging there in the air like a rip in the fabric of reality itself. Naruto waited a moment.

Suddenly a hand thrust itself through the fabric, as though pushed. Naruto shifted his stance slightly; cautious of whatever was stepping out of the gateway this time. It seemed to struggle, finding it more difficult than the partial level two creature that he had seen last time.

It stepped out as Naruto watched. It appeared much the same as the creature he had pulled through last time only this one was covered in almost intact armour, though it still had several bolts of metal sticking through itself. It was around eight feet tall and looked like some kind of undead giant. It looked at Naruto with empty eye sockets that seemed to be crying blood

"Mortal" it said, its voice held some emotional inflection, more than the last demon to be sure, though it seemed more interested than anything.

"Greetings" Naruto responded, bowing slightly as the creature examined him.

"Yes, you are the one he spoke of. Indeed the darkness has tainted your soul" it said, seemingly grinning at Naruto, though it could have been a trick of the light "you are strong enough to wield it, it has tainted your flesh and still you live" it continued, motioning to Naruto's right shoulder. Naruto nodded

"Indeed, I believe a partial level one transformation was achieved" he told the thing which inclined its head as though searching for something it couldn't quite see

"Hmm, indeed you speak the truth human. Most interesting that a soul such as yours should carry such a taint" it said "you will do well to learn further. Your power is still in its infancy and as yet can do little to nothing" it told Naruto who nodded, heeding its words.

"You will inform your master?" he inquired as the creature took a step back into the portal, its time on this plane of existence swiftly vanishing. It nodded

"Indeed mortal, they shall be most interested in your progress. I eagerly await our next meeting, Naruto" it said before vanishing completely.

Naruto sighed, running a hand through his hair before leaping off to get back to the house before it was time for shift change. The creatures voice still ringing through his head as he waited for Sakura to take over, his mind alight with ideas and plans.

The third day came and went as quickly as the others. Naruto left the other two to their own devices as he took to guarding Tazuna while helping out with the construction of the bridge.

"Where do you want me?" he asked the man who blinked at him

"Huh?"

"Where do you want me to help?" Naruto clarified

"Oh, you could help the guys at the far end of the bridge, they need the wood here" Tazuna replied, pointing to several rather large beams sitting on the bridge. Usually it would take several men to lift them. Naruto rolled up his sleeves and formed a shadow clone that picked up the heavy piece of wood along with him as they carried it over to the other side of the bridge with all the builders and Tazuna looking on slightly stupefied.

Late that same day he had gone on a trip with Tsunami down to the town to pick up supplies that one of the shop owners had managed to hold on to despite Gato's thugs nearly destroying his shop several times.

They walked down the street. The air still damp and smelled rotten despite the bridge now being so close to completion. People wandered around like zombies, shuffling this way and that as though their very life had been sucked out of them by the bane of their existence. Tsunami kept her eyes forwards, not as used to such a sight as her father or Naruto, the many people looking starved or homeless. Naruto felt a hand dart into his back pocket.

He spun around and caught the young girl before she could flee. Tsunami walked on, too focused to realise he had stopped walking beside her. Naruto knelt down before the girl

"L-let me go!" she nearly cried, obviously fearing him like he was death himself. Naruto pulled out some money and handed it to her along with several energy bars he kept on himself at all times. She looked at them and then back up at him as he smiled at her and ruffled her hair

"Good luck kid" and with that he turned around and caught back up with Tsunami, leaving the small girl standing there stupefied and quite a few other people watching him with desperate eyes.

They approached the shop in silence only to hear the sounds of shouting and cursing from inside the run down building. Naruto moved forwards, kunai out and at the ready as he moved up to the door and listened

"Give us the food or me and my men are going to get a taste of your daughter here" one man said, a young girl was crying, obviously stuggling against her captor

"Good damn it!" the owner of the store shouted at them "fucking take it, just leave me and her the alone!" Naruto decided to intervene.

He kicked the door in, the hinges snapping as the door hurtled inwards, striking two of the men and sending them to the floor as the third, the one holding the man's daughter, looked at him in shock.

He didn't look for long, Naruto's kunai struck him between the eyes, sending in backwards as the girl rushed out of his loosened grip and ran to her father who embraced her and pulled her behind the counter as one of the bandits stood up

"Who the fuck...?" was as far as he got before a second kunai found his throat, sending him back in a spray of arterial blood and slickened the floor as the last one stood. Naruto rushed him, drop kicking him into the wall and feeling his ribs crack before plunging an elongated kunai into the sods chest.

Everything was silent for a moment.

"Bastards" Naruto spat, breaking the silence as he pulled his blades out of the bodies and cleaned them up. The man, still clutching his shaken daughter to him, stood up and looked at Naruto who now had blood on him from the arterial spray.

"T-thank you" he said, looking shaken and a tad ill from all the blood on the shop floor

"No problem, it's what I'm here for after all" Naruto told the man "sorry about the mess" he said, the man just shook his head absently as Tsunami walked in. She took one look at the bodies and ran, her quiet sobs as she left the shop pulling at Naruto as he watched her leave.

He sighed and collected what they had come for before removing the bodies and destroying them before cleaning up the blood to make sure the bandits wouldn't think that it was the shopkeeper who'd killed their comrades in arms. The man had thanked him profusely after he'd gotten over the shook and the daughter, much to Naruto's surprise, and kissed him in thanks while blushing furiously, muttering something about her first kiss.

Naruto had smiled at her and told them both to stay safe before returning home with the food they had originally come to collect.

That night was odd. Tsunami was oddly quiet and seemed withdrawn somewhat; she kept on glancing at Naruto out of the corner of her eye while everyone else sat there mostly oblivious.

Naruto just ate his dinner quickly

"I'm gonna take first watch again alright?" he told his two teammates who just nodded, not noticing anything strange yet. Naruto moved past Tsunami, his hand rested on her shoulder for a brief instance before he moved into the kitchen. Not a few moments later there was a sudden crash.

Naruto was back in the room, kunai out, before anyone had a chance to even realise what was happening

"This is so stupid!" the young boy shouted. Naruto just frowned at the outburst and leant on the door frame; twirling the kunai around one finger as he watched the boy tremble in, what appeared to be, rage.

"What is it kid?" he asked with a cool detachment

"You can't beat Gato!" the boy shouted

"Inari" Tsunami tried to soothe him, but the boy was having none of it

"No! They'll just die, like all the others! You have no idea what we've gone through!" Inari continued to shout.

"Kid" Naruto said as he slammed the kunai in the door frame with a dull thud as he moved over to the kid before kneeling down to his height "I know suffering" he told him simply "I've sought acceptance my whole life and spent almost my entire life being ignored and living by myself" he told Inari who was sniffing as he fought to hold back tears as Naruto put his hand on the child head and smiled gently at him

"Don't worry Inari-san, we'll get Gato and his thugs. No one needs to suffer needlessly for someone else's greed. Okay?" he said, Inari nodded slightly, wiping at the tears running down his face

"But..."

"And then, when your old enough, you can become strong enough to protect those you love yourself" he said, closing his eyes and smiling at the boy who smiled shakily back

"T-thank you, Naruto-san" he said and Naruto just smiled and ruffled the boys' hair before walking out of the house.

The sky was pitch black and the moon had risen by the time Naruto moved back into the house, as silent as a spectre as far as everyone was concerned.

He moved past Kakashi's room where Sakura was also asleep, the smaller bedroom where Sasuke was sleeping along with Naruto's stuff, though he hadn't touched it at all yet. He arrived at the end of the hall; the bedroom door was slightly ajar as he moved into the darkened room.

The pale moonlight streaming in from the open windows illuminated the sparse room. It was filled with memories from a life past, from a jacket that was hung on the wardrobe to a photograph of them together, all present and memories of the same man.

The light bathed its sole occupant in pale luminescence that set her pale skin aglow with its soft, cool silvery light. She was covered by only a thin sheet, the night not yet befit of all its warmth, and the house was kept warm enough anyway. Naruto moved over to the bed silently before crouching down before her as she faced the window, his silhouette blocking the light from her troubled face.

She opened her eyes and looked at him as he watched her, his eyes calm but caring

"Naruto-san" she whispered as she stroked his cheek while tears began to gather in her eyes. Naruto just carefully wiped them away

"Shh" he quietly soothed her "it's okay now" he told her as she began to sob quietly. He climbed onto the bed and wrapped her up in his arms as she gripped his shirt and cried while he gently rocked her, murmuring sweet nothings into her ear as he did so.

The fourth day passed by with the same routine, with Kakashi still confined to her bed via Naruto's orders and Naruto still choosing not to speak to her, having Sasuke and Sakura bring her meals to her rather than himself.

Both Sasuke and Sakura had made rather good progress considering that they were left exhausted at the end of each and every day. Sasuke managed to get the water-walking down so continued to practise to perfect it. Meanwhile Sakura had improved by leaps and bounds physically and in her combat abilities under Naruto's intense regime of torture, as she liked to call it.

Both had come to see Naruto as something more than just a teammate. Sakura thought of him as a teacher, not unlike Kakashi, as did Sasuke, which was odd considering how he'd been concerned only about how powerful Naruto was before this mission.

The following morning Naruto was awoken by the sun. He had fallen asleep while practising several new techniques of his; as such a rather large clearing was now present, the many fallen trees attesting as to why there had been a sudden increase in space in the vicinity around Naruto.

However something felt off, he opened his eyes and looked over to see a young...girl? Slowly making her way around the clearing, picking herbs as she went. Naruto groaned and sat up; she didn't seem too startled by his sudden movement

"Are you okay?" she asked and Naruto groaned as he rubbed his neck

"Hmm, I'm fine" he replied as he stood and stretched, his muscles stiff from lying on the hard ground. "What are you doing out here?" she asked him

"Training"

"Why?"

"To become stronger. So I can protect those I care about and fulfil my dreams" he said

"I see" she said, she seemed pleased with his response. He frowned again and glanced at her once again

"Why are you collecting herbs?" he asked her

"Oh, my friend got himself hurt fighting off some of Gato's thugs" she said in that same soft tone. He hummed in thought, still feeling as though he was missing something.

"Oh well, my names Uzumaki Naruto" he said, holding out his hand

"Haku" she responded, shaking his hand delicately. Naruto smiled at her

"Well then, I'll see you soon Haku, oh, and please tell your friend to not go near the bridge" he said, noticing her slight tensing. He smiled; she was the one who had saved Zabuza then. Well, at least now he knew his enemy.

The fifth day came and went in the same routine. The sixth day arrived

"Go on you two, I'll catch up later" Naruto told his two teammates, Sasuke just nodded and made his way out to the lake in the forest, Sakura was less sure

"Are you sure?" she asked Naruto who just smiled at her

"Go on Sakura-chan, I just need to talk to some people" he said and she nodded before taking off after Sasuke.

Naruto made his way up the stairs to Kakashi's room. He had never really stepped inside the upper floor of the house, preferring to sleep under that stars and moon whether he was keeping watch or not.

He walked up to her closed door and knocked before pushing it open. Kakashi was sitting up in her bed, though she had a book in front of her for a change, she wasn't wearing her jonin uniform as usual but had borrowed something more comfortable from Tsunami, a loose white shirt and grey bottom.

"Naruto-kun" she said, somewhat surprised at his sudden appearance in her room. He calmly sat down in the chair beside her bed and leant forwards, resting his hands in his lap as he waited for her to say something.

Kakashi coughed, looking rather uncomfortable

"Well?" Naruto eventually asked. Kakashi frowned

"What do you mean 'well'?" she asked, sounding rather peeved though for the wrong reasons.

Naruto sighed and stood up before turning to leave. Kakashi's eyes went wide and she quickly grabbed his arm before he could leave. He stood still as she held him

"Don't" she said quietly "I'm sorry" she said, Naruto just nodded and pulled away from her. She sat there as he looked at her.

"I shouldn't have said those things to you. I know that you wouldn't have done that without thinking it through first. I guess that my personal feelings got to me. Sorry" she said, apologising again, Naruto gave her a small smile and kissed her cheek

"Get better" he told her "and don't leave your bed" he said as he left her alone, feeling like a heavy burden had been released from her heart.

Finally the Day of Judgment had arrived. Naruto awoke to the sounds of smashing and cursing followed by a scream that was certainly made by Tsunami. He groaned and flipped out of bed, grabbing his stuff as he leapt out of his window and flipped up onto the roof before making his way to the front of the house where two ronins were standing with Tsunami in their grip while Inari stared them down.

Naruto sucked his teeth in annoyance; this day just hadn't been going well so far

"Just kill the brat and lets go" one of the men said to the other who grinned sickeningly and pulled out his blade before starting to move towards Inari.

He never heard his friend dying behind him, nor noticed the blade entering his field of vision until it had already slicing through the flesh of his neck.

Naruto stood behind the fallen man, blood on his clothes as he wiped his blade clean

"Stealth, a ninja's best and most reliable weapon" he said to himself before looking over at the mother and son who were embracing now

"Are you two alright?" he asked as he slipped the blade back into its holster

"Y-yes, thank you Naruto-k-san" Tsunami said. Naruto just smiled at the slight slip of the tongue

"That was so cool Naruto-niisan" Inari said, looking quite impressed while Naruto just laughed gently, ruffling the kids hair

"If you say so Inari-san, now then, I need to go" he said before taking off towards the bridge, the cool morning air whipping past his face as he moved swiftly through the trees.

He arrived on the bridge to find Kakashi already engaging Zabuza in combat, Sasuke being held in a dome of ice mirrors, and Sakura standing guard over Tazuna, looking quite sure of herself despite all that was going on around her.
"Let's go" he muttered to himself as he stepped into the thick mist, adrenaline already pumping through his veins.

THE END.