A Little Piece of Acknowledgement

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or this would all be a form of canon.

Chapter 1: Gratitude

He breathed in, his goofy grin breaching the sadness he felt earlier; these people were all so happy, and he was just happy to have played a part in it all. There were so many, they thanked him, told him they were going to name their kids after him, and some kids even saying they wanted to be a shinobi just like him. Not like Sasuke; but like him.

He wasn't ashamed to admit that it felt good. Compared to the stares, to the whispers and glares, this felt more like home than the leaf did. If he could achieve this here, then it could be done in his real home.

He kicked his legs from the rooftop, and a part of his mind, the pessimistic-or pragmatic-part of his mind rebelled. "These people are cheering, but for what? They don't know what happened. They didn't know that Sasuke almost died and so did we." it whispered harshly, and he shot back just as harshly. "That's why we have to get stronger."

He didn't know when he had began talking to himself, it was just sort of, one of those things, but more often than not, the voice usually made very good points. First and foremost, it advised him against Mizuki, and yet he didn't listen and look what happened? He may have made Genin but so many things could have gone wrong. Iruka could have died, he could have died. Or even been imprisoned.

He decided that maybe the voice wasn't as annoying as he once thought. It did make a good point, he could have died, Sasuke could have died, even Kakashi-sensei and Sakura were in danger. He had to follow what Haku said, he had to become strong enough to protect his precious people.

He got up from his position on the roof and scanned the buildings, while blocking the sun from his eyes by covering the area above his brow. He knew what he had to do, and it wouldn't be easy. He had to swallow his pride, but what else was there? That's right, he was going to thank… Sasuke.

Sasuke, he always looked so strong, so powerful and no matter what he tried; he could never reach his level. It was difficult for him to even relate to the Uchiha, never mind trying to match his teammate in a fight. He never gave up though, at his current level, he was as close as he had ever been to besting the Uchiha. Now that he had unlocked those …special eyes of his, the Sharing gun? Yeah he was sure it was called that. He didn't believe he could hold a candle to him.

However, at this moment, Konohamaru would make mincemeat out of the bast-out of Sasuke. He was wrapped from neck to ankle in medical wraps, midnight blue shorts covering his knees, so he wasn't quite sure how far the wraps extended.

"Loser, what do you want?" asked Sasuke, erupting into a coughing fit.

Naruto tightened his fist at his side, then relaxed it, he wasn't sure if Sasuke had taken note of it, but he was definitely eyeing him curiously. Almost how Shino looked at his insects. "I just want-" Naruto took another calming breath. "I just want to say thanks!" Naruto forced it out, god that felt good to say. "I know you said you didn't mean it. And I don't care. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here. And that means more to me than you know. I will become Hokage, and you will kill your brother!" Naruto clenched his fist, stabbing a kunai into it. He affirmed each and every word with that one action.

"Great way of showing your appreciation," Sasuke rolled his eyes. "it doesn't help if you try to kill yourself all over again."

"That is my word Sasuke. Nothing will break it. Not even pain. We survived the bridge, we better make the most of it and you better not slack. Or I just might became Hokage before you kill your brother." Naruto said firmly.

"Hmmf," Sasuke smirked, part of him wished he hadn't told Naruto about his ambition. He didn't know what came over him. Oh, yes, he almost died. "Its a wager then. Me against you, the first to fulfill their ambitions."

"Sasuke…" Naruto grinned, maybe he wasn't so bad.

"Now get out my fucken room," he scowled, leaning back.

"We share this room," Naruto exclaimed, once a bastard always a bastard. "but whatever, I know you have brooding to do."

Naruto turned his back, and opened the door. "Hey, loser."

"What?" the blond turned around, and he was hit flush with a bowl to the face. It was miracle the bowl hadn't cracked.

"Take that bowl to the kitchen for me, will ya." the Uchiha then turned over to his side and went to sleep, seemingly.

Naruto shrugged, he and Sasuke would never be best friends, or brothers as some called it. Rivals, that was good enough for him. In the end as long as they were both strong, there wasn't anything to worry about.

Naruto dumped the bowl in the kitchen sink. The bridge would be complete in two weeks, he hoped to use that time to get stronger. "Why not visit Zabuza and Haku's hideout? They should have at least something there." his other voice said, and Naruto didn't think it was that bad of an idea. Now he just needed to find it. Fortunately, he had the ability to be a one-man search party.

The blonde crossed his right pair of index and middle fingers over his left pair and called out his technique. "Multi-shadow clone jutsu!" there was fog of smoke, and as it cleared, legions and legions of orange-clad, whiskered-faced, blonds were formed. "Yosh! Lets go find their hideout!"

Naruto thought it was odd that they already knew what he wanted them to do, but in the end chalked it up to just being part of the technique. They were clones of him after all. In a storm of orange and yellow his clones spread out in almost every direction, kicking up sand and dust, until only one of them remained within the center. The original.

He ran his hand through his golden spikes, dusting the sand and dust from his hair. "I really need to make sure that I'm not in the middle the next time that happens." complained Naruto, spitting sand from his mouth.

Before he ransacked the two missing ninja's-well, not really two, more like one missing-nin and his follower-base, he would pay his respects one last time. The two resided through the light green trees, on a large hill, overlooking the the deep blue ocean around wave. Zabuza's ridiculously large cleaver blade was embedded in the ground, as a grave marker.

Except, Naruto's mental image was ruined by the presence of tall, dark haired ninja. Naruto learned a lot from his failures during this mission. One such failure being that he never took the time to think things through before action. This time he wouldn't make that same mistake.

Naruto created a clone. "Run back to Kakashi if things go bad."

His clone nodded, quickly taking refuge behind a tree. Naruto started his trek up the hill and the dark haired man faced him. The first thing Naruto noticed was a red-grid tattoo over his mouth, and upon further inspection he noticed that his teeth were razor sharp. "Just like Zabuza's!"

"Hoho, you knew Zabuza?" the man asked, fully exposing his razor sharp teeth.

Naruto cursed, he really needed to keep his thoughts to himself, instead of vocalizing them so… well vocally. "And just who the hell are you?" Naruto looked at his forehead protector, four vertical wavy lines, just like Zabuza's and just like Zabuza's it had a horizontal line cutting through the center. "Are you another one of those seven swordsman?"

"You could say that," grinned the older man. "And you must be a little leaf genin."

"So, what if I am?!" exclaimed Naruto, okay so maybe he was a bit loud. But nobody spoke about his village like that!

"Relax, I didn't mean any offense by it. I know of a lot of strong shinobi from your village." said the missing-nin. Casually resting his hand on the handle of Kubikiribōchō. "heh, actually I should have a bit of grudge. That Dai Maito almost killed me and what was left of my team."

"Wait… you fought my village?" Naruto took a step back, reaching for his shuriken holster.

The missing-nin wasn't worried, and casually replied. "Yeah, but that's old news. Back during the third shinobi war. Then I worked with a leaf shinobi too. Those guys are good to have on your side. Heh, brings back memories of Itachi."

"Wait… Itachi," Naruto stopped reaching for his shuriken holster. He felt as if he should know that name.

"Yeah, Itachi Uchiha. He took down the third Mizukage with one move. That guy really was something else." the missing-nin pulled Zabuza's sword from out the ground and slung it over his shoulder. "Out of respect for those leaf shinobi, I'll help you out. You should never underestimate any opponent. Be they civilian, ninja or samurai. Keep this lesson in mind in everything you do and you will grow strong, leaf genin."

The missing-nin disappeared, leaving only a puddle of water behind. Taking Kubikiribōchō with. "Hey! That's not yours!"

His clone came up to him once he saw that it was safe and said, "Its not like we're any different. We're stealing from Zabuza too."

"Yeah… but, arrgh, you're right." Naruto cursed.

he felt a little weak and manually dispelled his clone, hoping that the chakra would return to him. He was lucky that a fight didn't break out between him and that mist missing-nin. Using so many clones really wasn't-suddenly images flew through his mind, almost too quick for him to catch on to, but he did. It was of hill he stood on now, and at first he thought it was just memories he had of the place, but he was wrong. It was an image of the hill, with figures standing atop it, talking. One in black and the other in orange… wait in orange? That was him. How in the hell was he seeing himself?

The images faded but Naruto's questions were not answered, until just a few moments later, his mind was assaulted by many more images, this time there was a greater length. He saw himself jumping through tree's, crossing a river, and then jumping, weaving and swinging through a mass of closely intertwined trees, before he came across a cave with a door where a open hole should be.

He reached out, the door was smooth, and then something froze him, it was warm and it vibrated through his whole body, and then, then he knew no more.

"That must be their base." Naruto stopped mid-step, and leaned against the base of a particularly large tree. "So, my clones give me their memories. Kind of? I mean I see all these pictures in my head." he massaged the sides of his temples. "and I hear their thoughts too? This is weird."

The biggest question on his mind was: why hadn't he noticed this before? He had used the jutsu over fifty times since learning it. Then he thought back to after his confrontation with the Hidden Mist missing-nin. He was feeling kind of low on energy from all the chakra he had used on making his search party. So, he focused on getting his chakra back from one of his clones and it gave him its memories too.

"So, that's it?" thought Naruto, smiling. He could use this. The amount of training he could do with this technique would be awesome. He brought his hands together in a ram hand seal and closed his eyes. He reached out to his clones, he could just feel their chakra on the edge of his senses. He breathed in, and when he breathed out, he focused on the clones losing form, and their chakra returning to him.

Sweat formed on his brow from the exertion. Then, as if a million voices were all trying to speak at the same time, his mind was assaulted with noise, both loud and soft, and yet he could hear every single voice. He fell to his knees clutching his head. His eyes closed, and creases twisting through his forehead, it was plain to see he was in pain.

Then his own voice shouted, it screamed, vibrating in his throat.

He saw trees, and then that image was replaced by another where he saw himself in a tree, and then another where he saw a clone running, and another was sleeping in a tree, while the next image showed him the beaches of wave, all of them superimposing the next, fighting to have their voice heard, the volume becoming louder and louder, he couldn't take it any more, and he collapsed into unconsciousness.

Naruto awoke, and for a second he thought he was blind, then light began filtering through and he found that he was only in a very dark tunnel. Which was odd, because last he saw there was a lot of light, and he was surrounded by trees, not concrete stone.

More light began filtering through and he noticed a steel pipe above his head, and upon closer inspection, he noticed, small red puddles at his feet. "Am I in a sewer?"

He walked down the passage way, towards the light, and noticed more puddles, they were getting smaller and smaller. He looked up, and dim bulbs of light were mounted above, on the ceiling. He turned a corner, and another and one last, all in the same direction and he found a chamber.

Great gates of gold toward above him, with bars thicker than he was. In the middle, where the two gates met was a large sheet of paper with the kanji for seal drawn on to its surface.

"Just what is this place?" Naruto asked curiously, Naruto jumped to the side when he saw his twin. Except for the fact that he had a pair of red eyes, instead of blue, and they were devoid of any pupils.

"I don't know either. I usually keep away from here." shrugged his twin. "but since you're here, well I had to back you up."

"Okay, just who the hell are you?" Naruto pointed and accusatory finger at his look-a-like,

"you don't recognize my voice?" the red eyed boy asked, quirking his brow.

"Your voice…" Naruto's eyes widened. "you mean that's… you!"

"Yup, who else would I be?" asked the boy in amusement.

"So what do I call you?" asked Naruto, while studying the gate.

"I'm your darker half. All your repressed emotions, it was I that helped you get over all the hate directed at you and get out of it with nothing but a smile on your ugly mug." said his darker half. "You can call me, Yami for short."

"Silence!" exclaimed a loud, booming voice, it reverberated all over the chamber filling the two up, and vibrating outward. They took three quick back steps; almost in-sync. "if its not bad enough that there is one of you whiny little brats, now I have to deal with two of you."

Naruto was silent, sweat dropped from his brow and impacted the floor with a splash that could be heard shuddering through the tunnels and pipes around him. "He's the Nine tails, isn't he, Yami?"

"I think so, Naruto. I think so." replied Yami, and Naruto could tell he was just as nervous as he was.

"Did you not hear me? Silence! I'm trying to sleep!" roared the fox, "Now begone!" it roared unleashing a beastly, animalistic roar that launched Naruto through the underground tunnels, and he awoke with a start.

"What the hell?" he asked himself, looking around, he found that the sky was darkening and the sun was dipping.

"Are you alright?" Naruto heard the voice in his head ask.

"I'm fine," he thought back. "Why does your voice sound so strong?"

"I dunno. I guess ever since you came down here our connection must have become stronger." Yami replied.

Naruto nodded, though his other half couldn't see it. He brushed some of the twigs and leave that had accumulated in his hair, and sighed. He'd have to wait for tomorrow, if he wanted to get into their cave-hideout without Kakashi-sensei becoming curious about his absence. He started his walk back to Tazuna's house, going back through the small town. He wasn't afraid, or even nervous anymore.

When he first came here, he always put up a front. He smiled at everything. Even though no smiles were warranted. The sorry state of the town, which did not even have a name brought back memories he'd rather not dredge up. Now, though he wasn't nervous anymore, he and his team had helped this town, and their residents, they looked at him with eyes of gratitude. There wasn't any expectation from him. He'd just be himself.

Some kid waved at Naruto, and he waved back, smiling easily at the boy and he went on his way. He rubbed his temple, his head still pained, but it had descended into a dull ache. As he went, all he got were smiles, waves and laughter. He definitely had to come back here and spend as much time in the town as he could before he left.

"You should give them throwing lessons. Especially the kids." offered up Yami, his voice seemed softer, somehow. Naruto filed that into the back of his mind and nodded. He was no Sasuke, but he was still a ninja.

The next day Naruto found himself in a patch of forest surrounding Zabuza's and Haku's hideout. Not forgetting the memory of one of his clones from the day before, he summoned a clone, with a cross of his fingers, "Shadow Clone jutsu," it appeared in a puff of smoke, and tried to pry open the door, but it received a shock for its efforts.

He repeated the process, and had it touch the door, only for it to shock the clone once more. Naruto wasn't deterred however, he wasn't called the prankster king of the leaf for nothing. he wrapped a kunai in explosion tag, and threw it just on the hinge of the door.

He made a ram hand seal, and it exploded, sending bits of rock, wood and dust in all directions. When it cleared, the ground was littered with charred black stone fragments, and almost unrecognizable strips of blackened wood.

He coughed, when some of the toxic smoke filled his lungs, he managed to cover his mouth before any more got in, and he waited. The smoke finally cleared completely, and he noticed a light coming from the inside of the cave.

The cave was sparse, with little in the way of anything of note. There was a light bulb hanging from the center of the cave, while the corded end was attached to a seal on the caves, jagged ceiling. He wondered around, and found a bed to the one side, while right next to it laid a bedroll.

He found a pistil and mortar with the left overs, of some kind of pulp, and to its right was a metal pot with three thick legs at its base. It smelled somewhat minty, and it looked as if a hardened green substance had built up at the bottom.

He looked through the cave from bottom to top, and he found were a few books on chakra theory, jutsu theory, the nuances of the hand seals, what they mean, and how they effect one another. He took them regardless, because on the inside of each cover, there was a small name in the upper left-hand corner. Haku.

All these books belonged to Haku. They helped him get strong, so the chances of it helping him were just as likely. He then took note of a dull black handle, poking out from the bedroll that Haku must have slept on.

He moved the bed roll, and found sword in a scabbard, in total it seemed to be around the sixty centre-metre range.

He picked it up and drew the blade, it had a square tsuba, and a cord on the top of the handle. All in black. The blade itself was very square, only falling short at the bottom end of the blade. The blade was, oddly, very dark in color, as opposed to the close to reflective properties of most shinobi blades that Naruto had seen.

He shoved the books and the sword into his gray, travelling backpack. If he trained with that blade, he had no doubts that he would be just as awesome as Zabuza was. Maybe he'd even get his own cool nickname. Whatever the case, he was sure that this was the path to earning the respect of his home village.

"You've sure been busy, eh Naruto." said Kakashi. He was sitting across from Naruto, eating dinner, reading his little orange booklet and studying Naruto, all with one eye. "We barely see you anymore."

"I'm just taking in the awesomeness of wave before I go back home," said Naruto, his tone dropping towards the end.

Kakashi caught it. 'So the kid has grown attached to the hero worship, huh?' he guessed internally. 'Whatever, I'll let Naruto have his fun while it lasts.'

"What have you been up to, anyway?" asked Sakura.

"Not much, just looking around town and visiting the beach. Its my first time seeing one." he said softly. "Its pretty awesome. The way the waves just make you sleepy."

"Doesn't take a bunch of waves to make you sleepy. All you need is a lecture from Iruka and you're out like a light." Sasuke quipped.

Naruto stuck his tongue out, "Don't act like you are beyond his power!"

Sasuke turned his head to the side and crossed his arms. "Whatever, loser." he said, but there was no heat to it.

"Sasuke's wounds will be healing soon, and when it does we will continue training." said Kakashi, not bothering to look up from his booklet. "Unless the bridge is complete before then."

"You better rest up, Sasuke." Naruto grinned. "or I'll have a major head start on you!"

"Feh, as if that will help." Sasuke smirked in return.

"Don't count me out. I'm still stronger than you, Naruto!" Sakura pumped her fist, and Naruto suppressed the urge to laugh. Maybe at one point he liked Sakura; maybe even loved. But this mission had illuminated his way of thinking, and besides the constant nagging from Yami and slowly shown him the error of his ways. She was still his teammate, but nothing beyond that.

"Heh, academy scores aren't everything." Naruto replied, picking up his bowl and carrying it to the kitchen. "Thank you for the food, miss Tsunami."

Naruto sat on the roof of Tazuna's house, reading through one of the books that he had picked up. The front cover was titled: Our life Energy: Chakra and its basic components.

What he found was the most interesting were the underlined words, sentences and paragraphs in some places, while other sections of the book had little notes scrawled in the margins. Apparently he had been saying chakra wrong his entire life-as short as it was. he called it "catra" when it was in fact "Chakra".

That aside, he found out what actually gave chakra form. Spiritual energy, or anything related to the mind, and physical energy, otherwise known as the energy of the body. These two energies came together and formed chakra. The rest of it seemed a bit out there for him, but by the time he began covering that area, he started feeling very drowsy, so he closed the book and returned to his room.

Naruto was up early the next day, he took his gray travel bag with him to a dense patch of forest. He had no point of reference for his training, but he hoped to at least get a feel for it before he got back to the village. Then he'd ask Kakashi-sensei for his help.

He pulled out the black scabbard from his backpack and drew the sword. He left the scabbard on one side, while he got into a stance. It was lose, with the sword in a one-handed grip. Leaned his weight on to his right leg, then shifted around, trying to get comfortable.

He swung the sword across himself, and he almost stumbled. "So, that was terrible."

He shrugged and attempted the attack again, only to actually stumble this time, and almost impaling himself on his own sword. Sshit!" he cursed.

He would have to rethink this. There was no way he was going to commit sepukku. "Just go about it slower. You're not used to using a blade and you're going at full speed."

Naruto nodded. "You're right. What happened to you anyway? You went all silent on me there."

Yami went silent for a short while, and then he heard a shout, that sounded like it was coming from far away. "Come to the seal, and I'll tell you."

Naruto didn't have the faintest idea how to get there. He followed Yami's advice and slowly drew the blade across his person, he could feel from his shift in weight that his front leg wasn't in the right position because his knee kept buckling.

Naruto focused on the major sword strokes for what felt like hours, and kept fixing whatever he felt was wrong. He could, by no means, use the sword in a fight, but he was getting there.

He returned the blade to its scabbard; he had all the time in the world to learn to use a sword, and besides that he had other ideas for that method of training.

"Are you okay?" Naruto kneeled beside a young girl. Her skinny knees were scraped, a line of scarlet cutting across her very pale knee.

"Ow!" she cried, Naruto was quick to reach into his kunai pouch, "I hurt my leg when I was running away from these other guys." he pulled out a roll of medical wraps.

He unrolled a bit of the wraps and cut it with a kunai before wrapping a small piece over her knee. "Aah, that hurts!" tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, and she scrunched her nose up. "W-wait, that feel's better."

"So, why were those guys chasing you?" he asked the girl, she had chestnut brown hair.

"Oh, well uh we were playing hiding-go-seek, and I found all of them." she said.

Naruto remembered Yami's suggestion and thought that it would work. "Hey, do you want to learn how to be a ninja like me?"

She looked at him with star sin her eyes. "Yes! I would love to!" she replied.

"Okay good." Naruto grinned. "with my help you're going to be awesome. Dattebayo!" he then thought about for a second, and he had an idea. "Why don't you get all your friends and meet me at the bridge."

Naruto met the girl, and her friends, there were four of them in total, two boys and two girls. He brought Inari with him. From everything that he heard about Inari's past, he knew that the boy had no friends. He really wanted to help the kid out. He reminded Naruto of himself when he was younger.

"Before I start teaching you guys, why don't you tell me something about yourselves." said Naruto. He remembered how it went with his sensei, so he started. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. And I'm going to be Hokage one day." he kept it simple, if it went the same way as it did with his team, there was no telling how long they would be here.

"My name's Bachi Hana and I don't want playtime to stop. So I will protect wave from evil guys like Gato!" said the girl that Naruto helped.

The next one who spoke up was a boy, he had shoulder length curly hair and green eyes. "I'm Eiji Jinsoku and I'm going to be the fastest guy in wave!" grinned the boy, he must have been the same age as Konohamaru.

"I'm Inari, and I'm going to make my father proud by protecting wave with nothing but my two hands." said Inari; Naruto raised his eyebrow at how determined the boy sounded. He really was just like him.

"I'm Zashi, no last name. And I'm going to do the same as Inari." the boy was taller than he rest of the group, almost Naruto's height. "I heard what Inari did, and nobody besides Lord Naruto is stronger."

Naruto blushed slightly at being called 'Lord' but let it pass, it wasn't like this was going to become a common thing, right?

"I'm Kazuyo," said the other girl in the group, she had dirty blonde tresses above her brow, while the rest was gathered into pigtails. "Kazuyo Murasaki, and I'm going to marry Lord Naruto one day!"

Naruto was taken aback, "W-what?" a dust of pink graced his cheeks.

"W-well you s-saved wave." she stuttered, her bravado now forgotten.

"L-lets just get to our training." Naruto said uneasily, he really was in a foreign land.

A/N: So how was it? Loved it or hated it? Leave a review with your opinion. A lot of what I wrote was spur of the moment. I was inspired by a fic I read that takes places post the battle for the bridge. I started writing this after a fic that I have up on my profile, and I've already completed it, while that story has only a 2k word count. I have to say this chapter wrote itself. From the appearance of the mysterious mist ninja-who I only decided to include after watching a video on facebook-to some of the aspects of Naruto's mind.

Then there was the fact that almost every fic that start with a change in Naruto during the wave arc has him acquiring some jutsu in some way, shape or form from the island. Whether it is in the form of one of the islands inhabitants, Gato's 'secret stash' not even sure what he is doing with jutsu scrolls, but meh its ffn. Any lose explanation will do. Or in my case finding jutsu in Zabzab's hideout. So I decided that why not have no jutsu scrolls whatsoever in the hideout. I mean come on, they're shinobi, people are after them. There is absolutely no ways they're keeping jutsu scrolls around.

I'll probably not use this kind of logic all time, but I hope to keep it going.

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read, VG out.