Author's Notes

Okay, here is the second chapter. This chapter is quite a large chapter and contains two choices to be made. So here is the first part of the chapter. Please read, review and vote in which direction the story should proceed.

In The Land of Waves

The next day Kakashi and Kurenai woke their teams up before the crack of dawn and led them to a clearing in the forest.

"You six will spend your time training here for the eventual confrontation with Zabuza and his associate. Your days will be spent alternating between training and protecting the client once they wake up. Do you understand?" Kakashi asked them.

All of the Genin's nodded.

"Okay, today I'm going to teach you how to climb trees," Kakashi said with an eye smile.

"But Kakashi-sensei, we already know how to climb trees." Kiba and Yakumo said simultaneously.

"Oh really, but can you do it without using your hands." Saying this he walked up the nearest tree as if he was walking on a level field.

He looked at the Genin only to be shocked as Team 8 also climbed up a tree nearby.

"Really Kakashi, you brought your team out for a C-rank mission without teaching them even the basics of Chakra control like the tree walking exercise. What did you teach them all this while?" Kurenai scolded Kakashi.

Kakashi rubbed his hair and sheepishly replied: "I had focused on teamwork exercises to help them develop better teamwork with each other."

Kurenai gave a sigh before turning to the Genins again.

"Okay, I want team 7 to practice the tree walking exercise and while you are doing that you can use these to mark your progress on the trees." She said throwing a Kunai to each of the Genin in Team 7.

"While Team 7 are climbing trees, Team 8 follow me. We will start on your elemental manipulation."

She walked out of the clearing followed by Team 8. Soon they reached a small clearing near the shore, behind Tazuna's home.

"Okay, first we are going to check your elemental affinities using these," she said taking out 3 papers from her pouch. "These are Chakra papers. These papers are made from the bark of a tree which is made especially sensitive to Chakra. If you channel your Chakra through these papers, based on your primary affinity the paper will undergo some change."

She handed out the papers to her Genin. They channeled their Chakra through it. Shino's paper burned, Hinata's became wet and Yakumo's paper wrinkled up. The three Genin looked at Kurenai in confusion.

"Okay Shino, you have a Fire affinity, the most common affinity in the Land of Fire, Hinata has Water and Yakumo has Lightening affinity. Fire and Lightening are two offensive Natures while Water is a primarily defensive Nature. It seems that our team is quite a balanced one afterall."

Kurenai plucked out 3 leaves from a nearby tree and handed one to each Genin.

"Now for the first step of elemental manipulation, I want you to reproduce the effects of your Chakra paper on these leaves. Please note that unlike the Chakra papers, these leaves are not Chakra sensitive. Hence, if you simply pour Chakra into the leaves nothing will happen. What you must do is try to isolate your element from the rest of your Chakra and pour only that elemental Chakra through the leaf. Only then will you manage to do it." Kurenai paused for a couple of seconds before continuing. "Now Elemental manipulation is very difficult and most Ninjas do not start on it until they reach Chunin, and even then they take years to complete their elemental training so do not be disappointed if you cannot manage to do it as fast as you managed to master tree walking and water walking exercises."

With a nod the three Genins began to try to separate their Chakra and channel it through the leaf. None of them succeeded on their first try or the next tries either.

Meanwhile with Team 7, after the departure of Team 8, Sasuke glared at Kakashi for not teaching them anything and consecutively making him weaker. With hatred, he began to climb the tree only to be blasted back as the wood splintered under his feet. He managed to land on his feet and looked to the side where he saw Kiba slip of the bark of the tree.

'So if we use too much Chakra we are blasted off the tree and if we use too little Chakra we slip off the tree unable to stick on it.'

He looked over at his other teammate only to stare in shock as she managed to climb the tree and sit on one of the highest branches.

"This exercise is quite easy." She replied smiling.

Sasuke grunted in frustration as he was shown up by his annoying teammate and tried to run up the tree once again. This time, he managed to climb further before he was blasted back from the tree. He looked at Kiba to find that he had also improved and was slowly coming closer to his mark. With a grunt, he took off at the tree again not willing to be the last person to master this exercise.

While Sasuke was doing this Kakashi strolled up to the branch Sakura was sitting on and stood beside her.
"Congratulations Sakura, it seems that the female member of this team has the most Chakra control. I now want you to continuously run up and down the tree to improve your Chakra capacity. The reason you have near perfect Chakra control despite never having done any control exercises prior to this is because compared to the boys you have a very small chakra capacity. This makes it easier to control. However, all the control in the world will not help you if you do not have enough Chakra to spend, so continue running up and down the tree until you are exhausted." He said

Sakura nodded to him and climbed down the tree only tp climb back up again. She continued this for another half an hour until she couldn't do it anymore. She looked at her teammates and saw them still going at it. It made her feel a little down at how little Chakra she had. They continued doing this until eight-thirty when they finally returned to Tazuna's house for breakfast.

They met Team 8 outside Tazuna's house and together they entered it. They went to the dining room to find Tsunami and Naruto putting the final touches on the breakfast. After they had all seated themselves around the table Tsunami and Naruto brought in the food. They began to eat breakfast making small talk between them. As they were about to finish breakfast a sharp knock came from the door. Immediately Kakashi and Kurenai were on guard. With a nod to each other, they stood next to the door and Kakashi swiftly opened the door, coiled to attack. When he saw the people outside, he immediately calmed down.

"Hey Tazuna, your protection has arrived," Kakashi announced. Outside the door stood Gekko Hayate an A-Rank Special Jonin along with Uzuki Yugao, Anko Mitarashi two A-Rank Special Jonin and Hana Inuzuka a B-Rank Chunin along with her Ninja hounds stood.

"We have been deployed in response to a request for protection to Tazuna-san while he builds his bridge from missing-nins. Gekko Hayate said giving the mission scroll to Kakashi who read through it and invited them in. Kurenai gave a small smile at the team and followed them into the house.

They saw everybody at the table watching the newcomers. Kakashi proceeded to introduce the newcomers to them. After the introductions were finished a pensive look came on Tsunami's face.

"Ah, I don't mean to be rude but I'm afraid we don't have any more space where you can stay. The house is as cramped as it can get."

"No problem Tsunami-san, we are accustomed to living in the open. It is not a great deal for us." Hayate replied reassuring her.

"Okay, now that Hayate's team has arrived from Konoha we can spend more time training. I want one person to protect Naruto at all times while the others train. The person protecting Naruto shall change every day." Kakashi said.

They then drew lots to see who would protect Naruto for the day and the lots were decided as Yakumo, Shino, Sasuke, Hinata, Sakura and Kiba.

After breakfast was completed Tazuna along with Hayate's team left for the bridge. While the rookies with the exception of Yakumo also left for training until only Inari, Tsunami, Yakumo and Naruto were left in the house.

"What are you planning to do today, Naruto-san?" Tsunami asked him as they were washing the dishes.
"I'm planning on going to the village and seeing if there is anybody that would be willing to rent me a place to start my tavern," Naruto replied.

They continued washing the dishes before Tsunami broke the silence once again. "Could you do me a favor Naruto-san?"

"Hmm"

"Could you buy the following things from the market for me. The unexpected increase in people has caused my food stocks to run low. I'll pay you if you want."

"No need Tsunami-san. I would be glad to be of service t you. It is the least I could do for you."

After they finished washing the dishes, Tsunami handed a list to Naruto. He went through the list once before putting it in one of the pockets of his jumper. He then went back to his room and hefted his backpack on his shoulders. Then he left the house with Yakumo by his side.

After they had left the house and while they were on the way to the village Naruto looked at Yakumo. She was pretty attractive in a way Naruto noticed. What caught his attention, however, was the leaf she was carrying in her hands and glaring at.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked her.

Yakumo jumped a bit startled as she had not noticed him staring at her while she was trying to channel lightning Chakra through the leaves.

"I'm trying to do the first step of Elemental Chakra manipulation. I have to separate the lightning component of my Chakra and channel it through this leaf causing it to wrinkle. However, it is very difficult to split my Chakra despite my exceptional Chakra control. Kurenai-sensei told me to visualize something that would help me characterize the piercing nature of lightning and proceed further from there. But I have no idea what to visualize." She paused here for a bit. "Why am I telling you all of this. You might not have understood half of what I have said."

"You must not be so quick to judge Yakumo-chan, in the ninja world the first to die are the first to categorize people. You must always be ready to accept anything."

Yakumo blushed a bit at the suffix, she had noticed that the boy was near her age and was quite handsome too. The whiskers added an feral appeal to him. She was cut out of her fantasizing when his remaining words finally registered in her mind.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I might have a way to help you complete the first step. It is more like a cheat code to achieve the same result. Do you want my help?" he asked.

Yakumo thought for a bit and then nodded. Kurenai-sensei had told that the elemental manipulation generally took years if this boy knew some method to shorten it she could, at least, give it a try. A little skeptical, she nodded.

Naruto stopped walking forcing her to stop walking as well. He the grasped both of her hands with his own and raised them to her chest level closing his eyes. Yakumo turned red in embarrassed fury and was about to place him under a fearsome Genjutsu for violating her private space like that when she felt a tingling sensation in her palms. Soon in spread to her entire arms and slowly made its way across her entire body.
"Try to emulate the sensation you are feeling using your Chakra." Naruto said.

Yakumo frowned but tried nonetheless. After a couple of minutes, she was able to emulate the feeling. Naruto then let go of her palms and stepped back.

"Now while you manipulate your Chakra in the same manner I want you to channel some of your Chakra through the leaf."

Yakumo again did so and was surprised when her leaf wrinkled as soon as she passed Chakra through it.
"How is this possible?" she asked in awe.

"I stimulated your Chakra pathways by inserting pure lightning Chakra through it. The lightning Chakra passing through your Chakra system made it easier to emulate it, sort of like muscle memory. Then when you passed your Chakra through the leaf, it was actually pure lightning Chakra that you passed which caused the leaf to wrinkle."

"But… But this is impossible. Kurenai-sensei told us that elemental manipulation takes years to complete. If there was a short-cut method like this then wouldn't people prefer to use this method."

"Not everyone can utilize this method. As in addition to having a common Chakra nature, the person inserting the pure elemental Chakra must have incredible Chakra control, and the other person must also have phenomenal control otherwise, the pure elemental Chakra can cause severe damage to the Chakra passageways of the other person, permanently crippling him. People who have such good control generally do not have much Chakra or they had to train for several decades to attain such perfect Chakra control."

"So, were you a Ninja Naruto. You seem to know many things about Ninjas and already know your affinity."

"I have never been a Ninja, nor have I ever been enrolled in Konoha's Academy. Didn't you hear me when I said that the people who achieve high Chakra control generally do not have much Chakra or train for several decades to achieve this level of Chakra control."

"Then how do you know so much about elemental manipulations and Chakra. You seem to be quite well versed in Shinobi conduct as well, I remember your discussions with the fake hunter-nin about Zabuza's sword."

"A person's secrets are to be valued more than his life in the Shinobi world, Yakumo-chan. I'll just tell you this much, when you run a tavern in a Ninja village you tend to overhear several things. While most of them are simply drivel, some important nuggets of information also pass through."

Yakumo did not appear satisfied with his answer but did not pressure him.

"Now why don't you continue practicing with more leaves. This time, try generating the lightning Chakra on your own."

Yakumo nodded and picked few leaves from a nearby tree and tried to channel Chakra through it. Nothing happened to the leaf, though. Frowning, she again thought of the feeling in her palms and generated it, she then channeled her Chakra through the leaf. The leaf wrinkled this time. The entire process took almost a couple of minutes.

"Very good, now work on trying to reduce that time." Naruto advised.

She continued working on the leaves as they walked towards the village and by the time they reached the village she had reduced the time to just ten seconds. They both entered the village and were shocked at the sight before them. Yakumo more than Naruto. Living in her clan's mansion in the mountains she didn't have much interaction with the poor sections of the society, whereas Naruto having lived in the slums in his early childhood was quite familiar with poverty. The scene in front of him was entirely something else. Naruto had seen people in poverty, despite being poor, most of them had the will to survive. A will to live and see the next day. Most of the people here lacked that will, he realized. This made him all the angrier at Gato and the mercenaries.

Many beggars roamed the streets. Old and often spoilt goods were seen in the shops. The prices of the goods were also ridiculously high. Yakumo was also quivering with anger as they walked around the village.
"Please, business has been poor, I cannot pay you the taxes this month, I'll pay them the next month." They heard a voice crying out as they walked. Both stopped walking and headed in the direction of the voice.

"Unacceptable, Gato-sama has told us to be very strict when it comes to collecting taxes from you people. If we show any leniency to you, you make use of that and stage an uprising." One of the thugs said.
"Besides, if you cannot pay the taxes in money, you can pay it to us in another way." Another thug said licking his lips as he eyed the woman who was in her mid-twenties, and quite attractive.

A frying pan hit his head causing him to go starry-eyed and slump down unconscious. The other four thugs, the woman and all the other bystanders watched the blond who had thrown the frying pan at the thug.
"Pardon me if I'm wrong, but only the Daimyo is authorized to levy taxes on the populace of a nation." Naruto said as he retrieved the pan "Gato has no right to impose taxes on the people here."

"Look at this boys, we've got a hero with us. Let's show him what we did to the last hero, shall we?"

The four thugs charged at Naruto but they simply stopped a few feet in front of him.

Magen: Hell Viewing Technique

Within a couple of seconds, all four of them began frothing and collapsed on the ground unconscious.

"Thanks, Yakumo-chan" Naruto called out to her as he helped the woman back onto her feet.

"You shouldn't have done that, now they will come after you." She said.

"Don't worry about me miss, what were they troubling you about?" he asked her.

The woman hesitated a bit in answering to a complete stranger before she decided that he had saved her, it was the least she could do in return.

"Once Gato rose in power and managed to establish a monopoly on the seas he began demanding the people to pay taxes for various establishments in the village. At first, it was no problem and we didn't want any trouble with the thugs, so we paid them. Later as our businesses began to fall It has become more and more difficult to pay up. Now the thugs have taken to extort the villagers."

As she was saying this Yakumo also came up to them tieing up the thugs with Ninja wire. One of the children on the streets tugged her Kimono when she looked down the girl put out her hands.

"Please… can you give me some food?" she asked. Yakumo's heart wrenched at the state of the poor girl.

he reached into a pouch and took out a scroll containing her emergency rations. She unsealed her rations and gave it to the girl. Seeing these many other children also came near her and she gave up all of her rations to the hungry children. She saw many of the older men and women watching passively from their homes or shops. Seeing this she was angered.

"Why don't the people try to fight against Gato and the thugs. If everyone works together then they could try to prevent Gato from controlling their-"

She was cut off as Naruto placed a hand over her mouth. He then proceeded to drag her away into a side alley and then explained to her, "They have lost the will to fight. Once a person loses their will to fight in such situation they lose all hope and begin to make do with what they have. Never striving for anything more. They tend to resist any change in their life even if it is for their betterment. Now let us continue the task for which we came here into the village."

They emerged out of the alley together and proceeded to the nearest grocery store. All of the goods available were shriveled and not of good quality. With a sigh, Naruto walked out of the store without buying anything.

"Naruto, wait up. Why aren't you buying anything?" Yakumo asked him.

"You saw the goods there. None of them are of good quality. Besides, I have all of the vegetables that Tsunami-san mentioned in my bag. So now we just have to find a place where that is willing to let me set up a tavern."

Naruto and Yakumo walked throughout the village asking several of the businesses if they could set up a tavern there. Most of them looked at them as if they were crazy and refused, some glared at them while some didn't even pay them any mind. At last, they came back to the same woman whom they had helped in the morning. Apparently the woman ran a restaurant.

"Excuse me miss, I wish to set up a tavern here. Could you let me set it up in your building? I'm willing to buy the building off you."

"Most of the people in this village are poor as dirt. You won't be able to earn much money if you start up here. It would be better if you set up your shop somewhere else." She said trying to dissuade the boy who had helped her.

"No ma'am, I believe that Wave shall emerge from this crisis and I want to help Wave regain the hope that it has lost."

The woman thought for a while before replying "This shop has been in my family for generation. I inherited it from my father, who inherited it from his and so on. I am not keen on parting with it."

"You don't need to part with it. You could continue to work here. I would be returning to Konoha once my Tavern is set up and running, I need someone to take care of it once I've gone. You could manage the Tavern in my absence."

She again thought for a while, not finding any more reason to refuse him she reluctantly agreed to his demands. Naruto puts his bag down and takes out another briefcase similar to the one he had given Kakashi.

"Here is the payment for the building, if you want we can head inside and finish the paperwork." She opened the briefcase and was surprised at a number of precious stones within it. She nodded in a daze and led him inside the shop. After completing the paperwork she then gave him a tour of the restaurant.
After seeing everything Naruto gave a small smile, and put his bag down in the kitchen.

"Could you both help me in one task?" he asked them.

Both of them nodded.

"Could you please invite people inside and tell them that free food is available here?"

Both the girls were shocked at his declaration. Slowly they got out of their shock and nodded They went outside and began inviting the people. Most of the adults were skeptical and did not pay them much heed. They themselves did not believe it was possible. The children, however, were curious and decided to check it out.

After a while not meeting with much success when the two girls returned back to the shop they were surprised to see the children eating happily in the restaurant. Right before their eyes, they saw Naruto bring in some dishes for them and go back to the kitchen. The laughter from the children drew in curious adults and soon they too were taking part in what was probably their first good meal in a long while. After some time, both Yakumo and the woman who was named Tsuki began helping Naruto by serving the people who entered. This went on late until night and then they bid Tsuki farewell, who he had made in charge of the shop and trekked back to Tazuna's home.

"So, how did you manage to feed so many people with the limited amount of goods you have in your bag." She said eyeing the bag which still looked just as it had before.

"You know, why don't I show you?" Naruto said before placing the bag down and opening it. Yakumo peered into it and was shocked at the contents of it. Scrolls, the entire bag was filled with various scrolls.
"These scrolls contain the means to obtaining the necessary ingredients I require while preparing my food."
"So you are a Ninja." Yakumo said pointing at him.

"No, I just know how to use Chakra. All who use Chakra are not Ninjas. The monks and the Samurais also use Chakra. By that I remember, how far have you come on your elemental manipulation."

Yakumo grinned and plucked out a leaf from a nearby tree and in under two seconds managed to wrinkle it.
"That's great. Now you have to do the second step. It is about maintaining a constant flow of Chakra instead of the burst of Chakra you just used to wrinkle the leaf. There are many ways to do this, I suggest you ask your Jonin-sensei about which method she would prefer."

"Which method would you suggest? You seem to have a very good grasp on lightning nature manipulation"
"If I were to give you my training method, then I would have to ask you not to tell anybody about it. Are you willing to do it. Think carefully, if you want to me to tell you a training exercise then you would have to hide my involvement from your Jōnins."

"But why don't you want the Jōnins to know?"

"It's not that I don't want them to know. It's more what they would do once they know. If they knew I could manipulate Chakra, the council would force me to become Ninja, and that is something I don't want to become."

"Why not," Yakumo asked confused, for her a Ninja was a glorious profession and she had tried as hard as she could to become one, she could not bear the idea that someone would try not to become one.

"A Ninja is a person who deals with the darkness of the world. I do not wish to deal with it as darkness tends to corrupt and the missions Ninjas take lead to the spreading of hatred, and hatred leads to war. Hence, I do not like the Ninja profession. Moreover, I've taken a vow never to kill anybody unless absolutely necessary which makes me unfit for a Ninja, and I never go back on my promises."

Yakumo was shocked speechless by Naruto's words. She didn't even realize that they had stopped moving and were standing a little way off Tazuna's home.

"So what will it be, will you agree to keep my secrets and complete the second step under me, or would you disclose my help to your Senseis. If you reveal my help, I won't be able to help you with the second step."

Author's Notes:

First Part of the story done, now the choice is should Yakumo accept Naruto's help or not. there are four options please vote before the second part comes out.

This vote determines the base chemistry stat, so please vote carefully based on whether you want it to be a quickly developing romance, slow romance, or barely keep it romantic.