Chapter 3: Dragon's Flight

Team 7, also known as Team Kakashi, was restlessly fussing over their defeated leader. The elite jounin, Hatake Kakashi, also known as Sharingan no Kakashi and Ero-cyclops by some, was on a bed, trying to recuperate from his ordeal. His team was forced to fight the highly ranked nuke-nin Zabuza. The man had almost killed Kakashi too. In the most humiliating way possible, by luring him in an extremely obvious trap. The more Kakashi thought about it, the more he wanted to hit himself on the head. What was he thinking, diving into a mass of water, with a water specialist elite jounin as his opponent? He had practivally handed himself over to the man, the only thing he missed was a ribbon tied up around him like a belated christmas present!

Thankfully, he had done at least two things properly. He had instilled his team with the value of working together, if but momentarily seeing how their teamwork was broken apart as soon as Zabuza left them, and by sending his favourite nin-dog, Pakkun, to Konoha with requests of assistance. He could only hope he'd get a proper reinforcement that time, not another high-and-mighty ANBU rookie seeking to make a name for himself. As long as it wasn't him, he'd be fine. If only it wasn't him...

So, Kakashi set out to explain to his team, consisting of Haruno Sakura, 'genjutsu specialist' though she had nothing of the sort in her repertoire, Uchiha Sasuke, 'prodigial gennin of the Uchiha clan' with a total of 4 ninjutsu in his repertoire including the academy three, and Sai, just Sai, a member of the Root ANBU, placed there to watch over the flight risk Sasuke represented.

Sasuke Uchiha was the last surviving member of the Uchiha Clan, a natural born 'genius' and protege of the village. He was arrogant and prideful, seeing as how his clan and kekkei genkai were extremely powerful. However, he was hounded by a bloody past. His brother, Uchiha Itachi, murdered his entire family in a single night and forced the child to watch through the act repeatedly for seventy-two hours, almost driving the boy insane. Since then, Sasuke had never been the same, consumed by a powerful desire to get stronger and defeat his brother before restoring his clan to their former glory. At 16 years of age, he stood tall and proud, a nobleman's look as he was raised to be. He wore black and blue overalls, with a red and white fan stitched to his back like an emblem of pride. While one of the most skilled gennin of that year's batch, his arrogance and short temper, especially when his brother was mentioned, were his weakpoints.

Haruno Sakura was what most people recognized as a 'fangirl'. She had become a kunoichi in an attempt to draw the attention of her crush and so-called 'true love' Uchiha Sasuke, her team mate. So great was her infatuation that she even broke her friendship with her childhood friend, Yamanaka Ino. However, let it not be said that love leads to stupidity, merely stupid actions, as Sakura was an extremely intelligent and book-wise person. However, her infatuation with her childhood love caused her skills to suffer, dieting to the point of danger, not working out to maintain her feminine looks and taking too much time to look beautiful to her crush. She had bright pink long hair and green eyes, making her stick out compared to other shinobi, a situation made worse by both her bright red clothing and her shrill voice, a voice she used all too often, forgetting the part of ninja that made secrecy a necessity.

Sai was a doll-like, pale boy, somewhat looking like Sasuke. However, make no mistake, he was no mere gennin. He was ROOT, part of a special ANBU force created to protect Konoha through any means necessary, quite literally. His skill at bringing his drawings to life placed him at a Chuunin level, however his current assignment, watching over Sasuke for any signs of a flight risk, prevented him from rising through the ranks. Not that the boy cared. He only cared about protecting Konoha from all its enemies. His attire was mostly black cloth to let him meld in the shadows, but with the minimum amount of restriction, seeing as he was pretty weak in straight up taijutsu and needed to dodge, a lot.

The silver-haired jounin was explaining to his subordinates the facts that he was out of comission for a week, he had sent for re-inforcements and that they'd need to prepare for their next meeting with Zabuza. He did congratulate Sai though, on managing to cooperate with Sasuke (considering the Uchiha initially tried to fight solo) and releasing him from his watery prison. He was already getting a headache with Sakura's constant screeching. Initially it was because he would be downed for some time, then because they would have to fight Zabuza again and now it was because he congratulated Sai and not Sasuke, who in her opinion had done all the work.

Sadly enough, the man wasn't prepared for the headache that would come the following days by having exactly the support he didn't want to have. Not that he had anything with the boy, nothing of the sort. However, that particular boy not only was hyperactive, he was also very powerful with a habit of overdoing things. Overdoing them to the point of demolishing several stretches of road that is. Though, now that he reconsidered it, the kid would be a good influence, seeing as how he could teach Sasuke the importance of nakama, Sakura about finally getting serious and Sai how to relax sometimes.

While a certain jounin was weighing the pros and cons of a certain individual, said individual stood tall on the edge of a rowboat. His short, spiky, blonde hair framed his head like a mane, while his slitted sky blue eyes shone with an adventurous spirit. His enlarged incissors were visible through his grin, a grin that threatened to take over his entire face. He wore a long black waistcoat, bright flames curling from the ends of the coat, and as the wind blew, the coat swayed, the flames looking almost real and licking around the blond like a faithful companion. He also wore plain black pants/trousers made of sturdy, yet soft material, his shoes were plain black shinobi sandals that could be used for running, climbing and all sorts of vigorous activites. On his shoulders and around his muscular chest was a black open vest with a red rim. On the back of the vest was an orange-red dragon depiction, matching the scar on his back. And finally, there was his scarf, wrapped loosely around his neck, the material was orange and seemed to be made of some kind of shiny scales, somehow the scarf didn't fall off from the blond's shoulders.

The person's name was Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto to be exact, a person with many unique secrets and an even more unique approach to fighting. Or so he'd say, most just claimed he just went overboard. He also had a big apetite. Not just big, more like ginormous, easily competing, and blowing away, even the famed Akimichi clan. Only problem? He liked his food hot. Not spicy, hot, as in still-on-fire hot. He absentmindedly patted one of the scrolls on his belt, a storage scroll to carry, what else, food. Lots of food. The grin was quickly wiped out though when he also touched another scroll, the mission scroll. For Kakashi to request reinforcements, it had to be bad. Even though the cyclops was very confident, to the point of arrogance, in his skills, it was also a fact that he was extremely good. For him to request backup was almost unheard of unless the mission had gone to hell and he needed a crew to storm the place and drag it back out kicking and screaming. Then again, Naruto thought, having young gennin around him might have shown the pervert that he doesn't lead ANBU any more, the kids don't know much about fighting. Who knew? Maybe he'd eaten a slice of humble pie.

Once the rowboat reached shore, Naruto hopped off and merrily marched off, seemingly humming a cheerful song. The boatman shook his head and disappeared in the morning mists. It took some time for Naruto to follow the signs of passage Kakashi had some of his dogs make to lead the backup to the client's house. Once he arrived, he knocked the client's door a few times. A stunningly beautiful woman with black, cascading hair, deep black eyes and a kind smile met the boy.

"Yes? May I help you?" The woman asked, curious about the person's appearence.

Naruto laughed a bit, letting his incissors show. "Naruto, I'm Kakashi's reinforcements. Can you take me to the perv?"

'Kakashi-san is a pervert?' Thought the woman. "Y-yes, come in. I'm Tsunami by the way."

After the pleasantries were exchanged, the woman led Naruto to the injured man's room and backed off, leaving them in peace. Naruto looked at the door, then at his fist, before looking back at the door. 'Wish I was home, that would have been fun...'. He raised his hand and knocked before entering, surprising the group inside. His eyes wandered from the kunoichi, 'Homo Fangirlus', to the blue-dressed boy, 'Homo emus-emus', to the emotionless pretty boy, 'Homo Fakus' and finally the silver-haired jounin, 'Homo Arrogantus-Arrogantus'. He raised a hand in a laidback sort of greeting and spoke in a gentle tone. "Yo."

Kakashi blinked, but hid his surprise. Instead he raised his hand in an identical greeting, with an identical grin to match. "Yo."

Sakura's head swivelled from the newcomer to her sensei several times before crying out "EEEEH? Who's that!"

Kakashi looked at her in his classic lazy way. "Sakura, don't freak out. He's our backup. He's going to help us a lot."

Sasuke 'hn'ed while looking at Naruto, wondering how someone that weak-looking would help them. Sai on the other hand, used his critical eye to analyze Naruto's stance 'Confident, non-threatening yet muscles are ready, he's watching everything in this room through peripherical vision, even breathing, almost doesn't blink'. Sakura just preferred to harumph at the newcomer, in favour of basking in her crush's dark and gloomy radiance.

At Kakashi's urge to introduce each other, in order to 'promote teamwork' as he called it, Naruto went first. "My name's Naruto, just Naruto for now. I'm 16 and a freelance contractor under the employment of Lord Hokage. My specialty's demolition, wide area assault and fire. I like dragons, fire and the other elements, ramen, dragons, training and ramen. My dislikes are open perverts, liars, traitors and those who can't read underneath the underneath. Pleased to meetcha."

Sakura, Sasuke and Sai simply reintroduced themselves just as they had in the first day they met as a team. Kakashi idly noted that they hadn't changed at all since that day, well, mentally that is. Naruto looked at the recovering Kakashi seriously, well as seriously as he can get anyway.

"So, how long 'till you can stand up again Cyclops? Don't tell me one lil' nuke-nin took you down? Unless you're getting rusty."

Kakashi, knowing that the blonde didn't mean any insult, replied in kind. "Yeah well, if I had carte blanche on the man, I'd be fine. But I can't really go all out in front of the kiddies. It'll take me a week to be close to full power, can you train them until tomorrow?"

The blonde jinchuuriki snickered, while half of team seven bristled at being referred to as 'kiddies'. They had some pride damnit! "Alright, but it's not my fault if they can't move tomorrow. Ya know who my teachers were, add Anko-hime to the group."

Kakashi's visible eye widened as he began to reconsider his choice of letting the blonde powerhouse train his team, even if it would do them good. "W-well, Naruto, no need to go to that level. Not everyone is as tough as you..."

Sasuke let out an ever-eloquent 'hn' sound, meaning something along the lines of 'bring it on, I'm superior', only much manlier, at least in his and Sakura's opinion. Sai on the other hand cocked (A/N: pun unintended but funny none-the-less) his head to the side and commented in his ordinary way. "You must either have a big penis or no penis at all to train with that woman."

Of course, the boy then had to dodge Sakura's fist, muttering something about 'how unlady-like' in the meantime. Naruto just sighed. They might have been high-ranked rookies, but that's all they were, rookies. Good compared to their class-mates, but compared to someone experienced, like Kakashi or even himself, they were completely out of their water. So, first thing would be showing them the gap between their skills. Wouldn't pay to have the rookies underestimating him now, would it?

The blonde gave them a toothy grin that, for some reason, made the group feel very uncomfortable, even Sai, although the boy didn't understand why. Naruto got up, dusting off his clothes from imaginary dust and turned to the rest of the gennin. "Alright little chibis, let's get crackin'!" With these words, the group of gennin, led by the new arrival, marched down. Though, in Naruto's case, he really acted like parading in a self-important way, even going so far as to shout commands like 'Uchiha, get in line!' or 'Haruno, keep you back straight, we have a reputation to maintain!'. In the time it took for team seven to get outside the house, they had all classified the newcomer as either insane or a very good actor.

Once outside, Naruto had the group line up, as if they were going through drills in some militant group. He stood in front of them at attention, glaring holes through them. What he really was doing however, was assessing them and their stances. He was quite pleased at Sai's body placement, seeing as he kept to the side as much as possible, next to a tree, ready to Kawarimi in case of attack, just as he had been taught to do. Sasuke however stood as far as possible from his team mates, right in the middle of the clearing, displaying arrogance more than confidence. Haruno was by far the worst of the group, shaking with barely repressed rage, possibly from his dismissal of her crush and his sudden arrival.

Glaring time over, Naruto sighed. "Alright, since Kaka-hentai's out of commission, I'm gonna have to train you a bit. Unfortunately, I don't know jack shit about you, neither am I in any mood to learn. I only need your combat capabilities. What better way to find out then, than sparring. So, with that in mind, Homo Emus-Emus, step forward." Naruto pointed at the brooder of the group, causing him to blink in surprise.

"Homo Emus-Emus?" Asked the surprised Uchiha heir.

Naruto chuckled at his expression. "Well you're an emo. So, it's Homo Emus. Since your kind tends to cut their wrists all too often, there are really so few left. Good thing too. Anyway, with the emo population finally getting cut down, you are an endangered species. Hence, Emus-Emus. Now, let's have a small spar. Don't worry, I'll go easy on you."

The smirk on the blonde's face infuriated the Uchiha almost as much as his dismissive nickname. Nobody dismisses an Uchiha! An Elite!

So, without waiting for the signal to start, Sasuke leapt towards his trainer, hand cocked back in an obvious attempt to introduce his fist to the blonde's face. In the last second however, the blonde's face disappeared from Sasuke's view and he felt something hit his legs, causing him to stumble forward. The feeling of a pair of arms on his chest was the only warning he got before he was sent flying over his instructor and onto a tree. The impact expelled all the wind from Sasuke's lungs and the boy groaned.

Sai was impressed. For someone that didn't use chakra, that was one impressive maneuevre. Right before the impact with Sasuke's fist, Naruto had ducked very quickly and lashed out with his right leg, causing the speeding gennin to stumble. He had then quickly placed the leg to the ground firmly, restoring his balance, before grabbing the Uchiha by the chest and sending him flying over his head. No wasted movement, little exhertion and a lot of damage. Perfect execution. Such a move could have been deadly if Naruto had sent a few kunai towards the surprised Sasuke, seeing as the knives would fly through the air faster than the Uchiha heir himself, wounding him.

Sakura on the other hand was incessed. How dare that blonde mop of hair, that clanless nobody, manhandle her Sasuke-kun like that. With a warcry she charged Naruto. The blonde smirked at the notion of her hurting him and moved to counter. Seeing as the pinkette used a byproduct of the Academy's classic style, and a bad one at that, he knew what she was going to do almost as soon as she herself thought of it. He shifted his weight to his front leg, before turning around, placing his hands on the ground for balance and lashing out to the girl with a devastating variation of a roundhouse kick.

The surprised girl didn't have time to react properly, getting hit at the temple. She followed her crush's example and landed harshly at the roots of a tree. Naruto calmly put his leg down and righted himself before looking at the last member of the group. "Do you want to have a shot at this yourself Homo Fakus?"

Sai cocked his head to the side again, not quite getting the nickname, but he shook his head at the question. "No. It is obvious you are at a higher level and possess higher authority than me. It would be foolish to fight for something as trivial as bragging rights. Though, you did answer my question. You have a big penis."

Naruto chuckled at him and shook his head. "Well, at least one of you kiddies has a functioning brain. Wish that Homo Fangirlus over there would actually use her own. Anyway, team line up NOW!"

The blonde instructor's cry had the scared pink-haired girl at her feet in an instant. Sasuke took a few more seconds to follow, if but to display his own rebellion against the newcomer's authority. Sai shrugged, it wasn't really all that different than ROOT training. If someone higher ranked said jump, you jumped until you had permission to land back down. It was exhausting, but also made for very powerful shinobi.

Naruto layed out the dirt on the team. "Alright, first up Homo Emus-Emus, what the hell were you thinking? Charging a higher ranked officer? The spar hadn't started, meaning you just attacked me without clearence. I could get you court-marshalled for this buster. I'll give you this one as a freebie, but next time, I'm gonna kick your ass to next Sunday and introduce you to one of my best friends, the head of the Torture and Interrogation. Got it punk?"

The last loyal Uchiha grumbled something inaudible at first, causing Naruto to ask him if he understood, to which the boy voiced his understanding, albeit in much fewer words.

Seeing the brooding kid's rebellious urges curbed, Naruto turned to the next on his roster. "Homo Fangirlus... You suck at so many levels, it's hard to even explain. I can overlook emo-boy's charge, we all know he's not the sanest person here. But for you to charge me? Are you serious? You are weak, slow, nearly emaciated from your stupid diet and all in all pathetic. You charged me, your superior officer, with such an obvious, telegraphed move, that I doubt even an Academy student wouldn't see from a mile away. Heck, a civilian would have done a better job. Not only that, but while I can accept the fact I pushed the punk around a bit, you attacked me for hitting your crush? Your crush? Seriously, emotions such as a pathetic infatuation do not have a place in my squad. And until Kaka-hentai's up and runnin, you are not his squad, you're mine! Am I clear on this?"

The pink haired kunoichi just shook like a leaf from the beratting, which wasn't anywhere near what Naruto could really do, before answering in a timid, subdued voice. "H-hai..."

Naruto looked at Sai and shook his head, the boy already knew his weakpoints, there was no point in him bringing them out to the light. "Now that we have established the pecking order, it's time for some training. Sai, you lead them around in a few miles long run. I wanna see how much stamina they have."

The emotionless boy nodded and turned to his team, fake smile in place. "Come on Forehead-san, Brooder-san. Let's go."

A few short hours later, Team Kakashi was panting for breath. Well, specifically, Sakura was sprawled on the ground hyperventilating, Sasuke was crumbled at the root of a tree trying to force his muscles to move and Sai was panting but somehow remained standing. Naruto, or the Slave Driver of Doom in Sakura's and Sasuke's eyes, eye-smiled at them. "Good, you've completed the warm up. Now, to get serious..."

The cursing that ensued inside Sakura's mind would have made a sailor blush. Sasuke on the other hand simply decided that if he completed the training regimen, he'd be closer to killing his brother. Sai just wondered if even his estimation of Naruto's penis was off target. Which of course caused Sakura to hit him on the head once he expressed it. She wouldn't dare raise a hand at her trainer, but against her team-mate? It was open season for the pinkette.

Naruto had the group perform several raw physical excercises, snickering at how much they had depended on chakra. While Sasuke was fairly developed for his age, he constantly trained for speed only. Also, since he had left the Academy, he allowed his skills to dull, believing that new jutsu would make physical skills redundant, or maybe that he would also be able to copy his enemies' physical stature as well as their jutsu. Sakura on the other hand, never was one for physical exhertion, always depending on her superior brain skills to get her through. While, yes, an intelligent mind was one of the, if not the, most powerfull weapons of a shinobi, it was just one tool. No matter how smart one was, if he didn't have the resources to be effective, he would fail, simple as that. Add being on a diet as a kunoichi, and Naruto was wondering how the heck she was still standing. Of course, knowing Hatake, he probably didn't train them all that much, believing they would realize their shortcomings and get to it on their own.

He didn't have anything bad to say about Sai. Though, on the other hand, he didn't have much good to say about him either. He was in the absolute middle between a new Chuunin and a veteran Chuunin. Either he was holding back expertly or, most probably, he had hit some sort of glass ceiling, preventing him from taking that extra step to jounin-hood. Naruto didn't really care about that. He was more of a hands-on type of guy, an opposite to Sai's meticulous planning and 'guerilla warfare' tactics.

By the time dinner was ready, cell seven was in the worst shape they had been in a long time, or in Sakura's case ever. Naruto had them work on anything, speed, strength, flexibility, instincts. Though, thankfully for the group, he didn't take a leaf out of Anko's book and start cooking them alive. He did force them to quit however, breaking Sakura's and Sasuke's belief of superiority. It was quite the eye-opener for the lonely heir. Not that it discouraged him, nothing of the sort. It just made him hate his brother even more and direct all that hate to his training, causing Naruto to frown as he saw the deepening scowl.

Deciding to give Kakashi at least some form of respect, even though he himself rarely did so, Naruto decided to report to the jounin. He knocked a few times and waited for the man to let him in.

"Yo Kakashi. Gotta report about your team's training."

The silver-haired jounin nodded. "Yeah. I kind of hoped you'd have reinforced us. My team is... not the best around. They look good on paper, but in practice they are not exactly 'clicking together' if you know what I mean."

Naruto sighed at that. It was painfully obvious. "I know, I know. Sai's completely emotionless, though he has a good head on his shoulders and quite a few skills, as expected from where he comes from. What worries me however, is Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura is for obvious reasons. She has the brains, but doesn't use them because she's too busy basking in the brooder's presence or something. When I manhandled the gaki, she charged me out of the blue for hurting him. Even though the idiot had attacked me first, without even waiting for my signal to start the spar. She is obsessive Kakashi. And she has the object of her obsession next to her all the time. Dunno 'bout you, but I don't think that's exactly smart."

Kakashi shrugged. "Not much I can do there Naruto. I couldn't fail them and I didn't want to pass them. I tried talking to Hokage-sama, but he had none of it. He probably thought that she'd quit the program after her first time seeing blood, which isn't far from the truth. She almost did when she was just exposed to Zabuza's unfocused killer intent. I'd like to break her, but you know they'd never let me use the good old ways of doing so. It would be 'bad for our image' or some crap like that. As if marketing images have anything to do with combat. What about Sasuke?"

"Sasuke is unstable. He is overly proud and arrogant, not that I blame him too much on that. He does come from a highly respected clan and he had the entire village wiping his ass since that. Problem is that he doesn't even fight his enemies. He fights Itachi. Whenever he goes to fight someone, he only sees Itachi in their place. He isn't ready for the burden of fighting and killing yet Kakashi. Sasuke needs professional help on that and a lot of companionship. But you know how that ended up huh?"

Kakashi nodded in acknowledgement. "Yeah, I heard your orphanage asked him to come and join you, but he refused in favour of staying at the Uchiha clan's compound. Not the best thing for a wounded mind like Sasuke's. You couldn't force him though."

Naruto grunted, before flexing his muscles a bit. "I know. Doesn't mean I have to like it. Kakashi... try to limit Sasuke's access to high-ranked material. Sure, neither of us is completely sane, but heck, he just takes the cake. Though, I wonder, if we had him force-read some of your Icha-Icha, he may come around. You know, he get's laid, he breaks out of his funk. Though I highly doubt that..."

Kakshi could only chuckle at the blonde's declaration. However, it was the end of the report as Tsunami came in, bowl of food in hand, and forced Naruto out in order to let Kakashi rest.

Downstairs, at the dining room, the members of team seven were gawking at Naruto. The blonde was eating faster than they could blink. Not only that, but he had pulled over a log on a metallic saucer, lit it on fire and put his food over it to 'heat it up. Then he proceeded to eat the still-burning food, without any sign of pain or annoyance. The food was much better than usual because Naruto, being his kind and caring self, unsealed a large amount of food for Tsunami to use. It was then that a boy, no older than eight or nine years old decided to speak up.

"Why are you so damn happy! You're all going to die!"

Naruto blinked at the kid and tried to speak out, spraying the table with half-munched meat (venison to be exact). Realizing his mistake he gulped before looking at the child, bored. "Gomen for the food. But, kiddo, why the heck do you think we're gonna die? I mean, I dunno about the chibis over there" He pointed towards team seven. "but this isn't my first serious mission. Been off the kiddie board for quite some time, I don't think some midget's gonna take me down. After all, I am a hero." Here Naruto chuckled remembering his past.

Inari on the other hand was incessed. "There's no such things as heroes! Gatou's going to kill you all! You're all going to die so don't barge in here, thinking you can do anything, because you don't know us! You don't know real pain!"

Naruto looked at the boy seriously. "What powers does that 'Gatou' person have? What can he do? Nothing that's what. And don't you dare talk to me about not knowing pain. By the time I was your age, brat, I had already been called a hero. Wanna know why? Because an insane Uchiha thought it would have been fun to burn some people alive! He chose to come to the orphanage I lived at, because it had the least security possible. I charged head into the flames gaki, dove right into the fire to protect MY prescious people, MY friends, MY nakama. By the time help had arrived, my back had become like a well done steak, so don't you try to force your little sob story on me gaki. You're not even in my top-ten of shitty lives list. Heck, Sasuke-teme here, he's had a much harsher time than you. And, even if he does it in the wrong way, he's still fighting. Now tell me, if we didn't give up, then why do you?" Naruto, angered by the whiny brat's actions.

Inari's little world shattered. His thoughts, his world, his absolute belief in something he considered to be a given, was shattered. Tears in his eyes he ran off, ignoring his mother's calls or the worried and hurt look on his grandfather's eyes. Naruto sighed as he got up. "I'll go get the gaki. Someone has to show him what it means to fight."

Inari was sobbing in his room, looking outside the window, his adopted father's portrait stained with his tears. Suddenly, he heard a hand knock on his door and the blonde's voice cut through the night's air. "Can I come in?"

Inari sniffled, neither allowing nor denying entrance to the blonde. The door opened, steps echoed in the room, breaking the monotony of sobs and the creaking sound of a closing door was but a warning before a large body sat down next to Inari.

"You know... I don't hate you, or look down at you. Truth be told... I was scared shitless when I charged in that flaming building... I think that even Kaiza was scared when he dove in the water."

Inari stopped crying only to glare at Naruto's implication that his adoptive father was scared. He wasn't scared, he wasn't terrified. He was a liar, a false hero. Naruto looked wistfully at the full moon that was shining down at the place. A bird's cry echoed through the night, gentle waves splashed through the beach. "It's alright to be scared you know. After all, a hero is not a hero unto himself. People like Kaiza... don't like to be called heroes. They are not perfect and they know it. I know I do. But... they have to take up that mantle, appear fearless to others so that they can follow their example. There is no man that isn't afraid. But the difference is... a hero conquers his fears."

The young boy sniffled next to Naruto. "B-but why? Why did he have to die? Why did he have to go against Gatou?"

A chuckle, dark and mirthless slightly startled the child. "Because he loved you. He cared. That's what gave him the power to overcome his fear. He hoped that his actions would have led everyone else into the same path. Sure, one man's strength isn't great, but if you had all taken up arms at that time? Gatou wouldn't have entrenched himself here, you would have been free. What's done is done, but you can use this knowledge to prepare yourself. Because this world isn't a kind place, it doesn't care about you or me. That's why... that's why you have to follow your father's footsteps and protect your nakama... With your hands, with your body, with your heart and soul. That is what a hero is all about kid. That's why noone declares himself a hero, but others do."

With these words and a pat on the child's head, Naruto left the boy to consider and think, understand and realize. After all, some things can only be understood alone, without outside involvement. The blonde sighed as he exited the room. Seeing a child down like that hurt him deep, seeing as he had to go through a harsh childhood at the begining too.

Naruto walked down, hands in his pockets, finding team seven lounging in the living room. Hearing him walk down, Sakura turned her head towards him. "You... you're Uzumaki Naruto aren't you?"

The blonde felt somewhat weirded out by the declaration, using his hand to scratch the back of his head. "Yeah, that's me. What's it to you?"

The girl nodded once before looking back at her surprised team mate and crush. "You should remember him Sasuke-kun. Back in the first year, he was in our class but something happened with the Hyuga clan and he was forced to stop the Academy."

The brooding boy looked at Naruto and hn'ed. "An Academy dropout is our back-up? Pathetic."

Before Naruto had time to correct him, Sakura did. "That's wrong Sasuke-kun. Rumours said that Kumo tried to kindnap a Hyuga and almost managed it if not for Naruto-san's intervention. He killed the criminal, but the Raikage demanded his life for attacking the ambassador, even if it was a fake one. Sandaime-sama refused and had to force Naruto-san to stop his ninja training and forbid him from learning any ninjutsu or genjutsu to avoid a war."

Now the Uchiha was reconsidering his actions. If his memory served him well, which was true since good memory was a side effect of the Sharingan bloodline even if hadn't activated, the Hyuga incident had taken place several years ago. That meant that Naruto, being his age, should have been a child. For a child to defeat an ambassador, a grown shinobi... The blonde must have been some sort of genius, a genius like him. The boy clenched his fists in anger. Why... why did everyone have to be stronger than him? Why couldn't he be the strongest? Even that blonde-haired baka was a chuunin, without even using jutsu!

Naruto took no notice of the dark haired boy's mood drop. He turned to Kakashi and asked for permission to leave the building, to which Kakashi agreed. The boy could do some scouting, some training and maybe vent some of the anger he had burning inside.

In the morning, a person walked through the woods, dressed in a pink kimono and a small hand basket in hand, looking for several herbs. The person saw a blonde teen sleeping in the root of a tree and shrugged. What one did, was his own choice. Walking by the boy, the person was quite surprised to hear calm voice speak.

"You know, if not for that scent of blood on you, you'd smell quite nice nee-san..."

A/N: Another chapter, for your reading pleasure. Sorry for the delay, but exams are coming up, so my life got kinda hectic.

Once again, this chapter has been beta-read by my dear friend Libra of Fairy Tail.

I hope you liked the chapter, even though I couldn't for some reason show Naruto as 'hyper' as he usually is. I'm also having trouble with Happy, but I'll see what I can do about the damn cat. I may not include him at all. I'll see.