sorry for the wait... work's been crazy. 12 hours a day, 6 days a week...

question: if you go in the past and change something drastic, is the future you were in the real future and you changed it, the new future the one that was going to happen anyways(and time stopped in the future you were in the moment you did said drastic thing and reeled back to restart), or does it even matter because time had already known you were coming back and nothing you do will change the future.

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN NARUTO!

i saw the awesomest OVA eva! it's called black rock shooter. it starts out slow but it's more of the relationship between mato and yomi than the fight scenes, which are short but epic.

okay, before i forget thank you everyone for all my reviews for all my stories, even the people who don't log in just to flame me(yes, that was sarcasm...) anywho, this is chapter 3 of S7R. read in the middle and review at the end. see you at the bottommmmmmm...

-LAST CHAPTER-

Squad 7 got ramen! Then they watched a movie! Then they beat Kakashi! Then they stole Kakashi's book! Which he has yet to recieve...

-START!-

"I'm tired of lame D-ranks, Jiji! Give me something with some... I dunno, action..." Naruto whined to the elder Hokage. Sasuki, Ino, and Kakashi all smacked him upside his head.

"Naruto~..." Sasuki whined.

"He's the Hokage..." Ino chimed in. While it was true they were tired of D-ranks, the Hokage's word was law. So if he wanted them pulling weeds, catching a tortured cat(that seemed to have had previous experience. Naruto voiced his opinion of the low rank of the mission, saying most ANBU couldn't complete the task...), painting fences...

"Can we have a C-rank, please~?" Ino and Sasuki pleaded in unison. Sarutobi smirked while Kakashi just sighed.

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama. I don-"

"Are they ready for one?" He interjected. Kakashi just stood there, eyes wide.

"W-well, I-I mean i-if you want them to. Their teamwork is good, almost as good as Saku-Shika-Cho. They've all grown considerably as both people and shinobi. So, yeah, they can go for a C-rank."

"Excellent!" Sarutobi exclaimed. "Bring him in..." The door opened to reveal an old man with a bottle of sake in his hand and a straw hat on his head. He looked at Squad 7.

"Eh, I've seen better. Ya got someone more, I dunno... capable?" He paused when three blades were pressed against his neck via the fact that all three genin had kunai placed on said appendage which weakly held his head to the rest of his body.

"We're more..."

"Than capable enough..."

"Of protecting you." All three said. Kakashi coughed.

"While I admire you three's enthusiasm of wanting to prove yourselves, endangering the client's life before the mission starts, is never a good idea..."

Afterwards, the Hokage gave them their mission paper, and they met half an hour later at the east gate, ready for a long journey

-END!-

(AN: Haha, JK, i would never do that. joke about it, yeah. But never have such a short chapter...)

-ROAD TO NAMI NO KUNI-

They walked along the dirt path: Naruto ahead of Tazuna, Ino and Sasuki beside him, and Kakashi taking the rear. The dust kicked up, a light coat forming on their sandals. The sun was relentless as always, even as they passed that puddle on the side of the road.

Wait, puddle! Dust, sun, heat... Why was there a puddle? It was and has been 90 degrees and sunny for the last week...at least! Whoever was doing that was obviously an idiot.

Naruto made some hand-signs, signaling to Sasuki and Ino the liquid intrusion that threatened their charge...possibly.

'They noticed. There may be hope after all...' Kakashi thought, as he allowed himself, or rather his clone, to get ripped to shreds before their eyes, which bugged out dangerously far.

The offenders: two hobo-looking twins with a shuriken chain attaching their gauntlets.

"One down..."

"Three to go!" They charged at the genin and Tazuna. Naruto summoned four KAGE BUNSHINs and had them guard Tazuna. Ino threw a few shuriken, causing them to shield themselves with their gauntlets.

When they lowered them, they were met by kicks to their face. They sailed through the air until their chain had wedged itself into a tree. Ino threw a shurkien and a kunai shortly after, pinning them to the tree. Kakashi came from the other side of the road clapping, telling them they did a good job and had great teamwork. They all nodded at that compliment, said "Arigato" and continued to Nami.

The boat ride was so uneventful, Naruto fell asleep three times.

When they reached land, Naruto saw some commotion from a bush and threw a kunai at it. A snow rabbit bounded away.

Wait, snow rabbit! 90 degrees, summer, no snow... Why was there a snow rabbit? It was August for Kami's sake!

'Why does nothing make sense...' Naruto thought, just as they all had to duck as a giant sword almost cut them in half before embedding itself into a tree. A very wierd man landed atop it. Kakashi uncovered his sharingan, making Sasuki think he was herfought the man while Naruto, Ino and Sasuki guarded Tazuna. Kakashi got caught, though. Naruto charged headfirst, but the man, now known as Zabuza, knocked Naruto down. Naruto lost his headband in the scuffle. Zabuza slammed Naruto's headband into the ground.

"mumble, mumble, mumble..." Naruto said, clearly inaudible. Sasuki and Ino, who heard, gasped.

"What was that, brat?" Zabuza sneered, before shivering at the KI that radiated at the boy and was completely directed at him. Even if it was a clone, the real Zabuza still felt the chill.

He raised his head, his bangs shadowing his eyes, but he could still see them and the one emotion that was shown in them.

Determination.

"I said give me my headband back! Iruka-sensei gave it to me and I will not let you push it into the mud!" Naruto snarled. The Zabuza clone back-pedaled, having not nearly as much resolve as the original(for he could only take one substantial hit while the regular could, as the saying goes, 'roll with the punches'.).

A quick mental reprimand and the clone steeled his resolve, ready to face the shinobi who, for all intents and purposes, was the Yondaime Hokage himself.

Naruto charged, creating three more of himself. The first was dispatched easily with an elbow to the stomach. The one behind that one jumped over and double-kicked him in the chest. He reeled backwards, not expecting the attack, and tripped over the two behind him. The one that kicked him landed gracefully and placed his hitai-ate back on his forehead in the most ninja-like manner(causing Sasuki and Ino to do a mental 'Kawaii!') before the other two KAGE BUNSHINs expanded before they exploded, destroying the Zabuza clone. Smoke billowed outwards.

When it cleared, Sasuki was between Naruto and Ino holding a shadow windmill. She hurled it at him, which he caught easily. Another one was hiding in the shadow of the first, causing him to jump over it.

"P-POOF!"

The shuriken Zabuza was holding transformed into Naruto, while the other one turned to Ino, who threw a kunai at Zabuza's arm. He released Kakashi, while Naruto stabbed a kunai in his left leg.

Zabuza kicked Naruto, who skidded across the lake, and turned towards Ino. Kakashi stopped him mid-spin, though. They went through hand-seals at a dizzying pace and shot water dragons at eachother.

Ino was slammed underwater as the two jonin-level ninja clashed. Out of some stroke of luck, she found a large branch and held on to it for dear life. When they were finished, Kakashi was faring slightly better than Zabuza.

"I'm ending this now, Zabuza..." Kakashi's hand becomes encased in lightning, but Zabuza falls over, three sebon needles in his neck.

"Thanks to you, I had a chance to kill him." A masked person with medium length brown hair said, sounding slightly girly. The person couldn't have been older than the three genin.

"It's okay hunter-san. Glad I could help." Kakashi said, as the masked person left via SHUNSHIN. 'Interesting...' Kakashi thought, before succumbing to the welcoming darkness of unconsciousness.

-TAZUNA'S HOUSE-

Kakashi was upstairs sleeping, while the other three members of Squad 7 were sitting on a couch in the living room.

"So you three kids are ninja?" Tazuna asked.

"Hehe, yup!" Naruto said, in his usual cheery voice. Tazuna sweatdropped.

"But shouldn't ninja wear all dark colors. I mean, blue I get. Purple... not so much. But orange? Seriously kid, you're gonna get yourself killed." Naruto just chuckled, but was cut off by a small boy with black hair who looks like he just lost his best friend.

"They all are..." he said. "Just by coming here and challenging Gato, they've all killed themselves." Naruto growled lightly, just loud enough for Tazuna, Sasuki, and Ino to hear.

"Inari..." Tazuna whispered, just as Inari's mom, Tsunami, came in.

"I've lost my dad to Gato. Just because he inspired people... You have no idea how I feel..." Naruto clenched his fists tightly as blood dripped to the ground.

"I've lost the person closest to me... And you just jump around all happy and stupid without a care in the world. YOU DON-"

"SLAM!" Naruto stood there, Inari slightly elevated from the ground. Naruto's forearm pressed against Inari's throat. Noone but Inari saw Naruto's eyes flash from blue to red so fast even he thought it was his own imagination.

"You... are soo... WRONG! You have your mom and your grandpa! You know NOTHING about me!" Naruto lifts Inari up by his collar and pulls his other fist back.

"Naruto, don't..." Sasuki pleads.

"He doesn't know..." Ino adds. Naruto turns to them and his face softens. He drops Inari who crumples to the ground and begins to cry. Naruto walks past them, not turning back as he leaves the house.

"Why..." Inari says as he overcomes his sobs. Sasuki just leaves. Ino turns to leave too, but stops at the door.

"Because... He has no parents." They all gasp at this. "He didn't have anyone who truly cared about him until me and Sasuki-chan, and even that wasn't until two weeks ago."

"But... Why doesn't he cry? How can he be so happy?" Inari asks, wiping his nose.

"He's almost all cried out. All that's left is the ones for when someone he truly cares for dies. He smiles all the time so noone can see how much hurt he's in. He... He just... want's everyone to be happy... with-without everyone worrying about... hi-him..." Inari stares in disbelief at the blonde even as she begins to cry and follow after her raven and blonde haired teammates. Inari goes upstairs to talk to Kakashi.

"Do you really think it was that bad?" Tsunami askes her father, staring back and forth between where Naruto pinned Inari and where Ino basically told Naruto's life story.

"I hope not..." was all Tazuna could say.

-OUTSIDE-

He applies chakra to his feet, a light purple sheet covering the bottom. He takes a tentative step forward, testing his bouyancy. His shoe sinks a few millimetres of an inch before bottoming out. He places his other foot forward, it too sinks but levels off. His breathing calms as ripples distort the surface ,small tadpoles scattering from the inhuman feat.

He takes another step, and another, and another. He looks back to see Sasuk iand Ino both walking up. They looked like they had been crying, but their eyes instantly widened at where Naruto was, which was ten feet from shore, on top of the water.

"N-naruto-kun... How did you..." Sasuki asked, kinda... Naruto just shrugged and walked towards them.

"I dunno... I saw Zabuza and Kaka-sensei doing it and Inari pissed me off and the only way to calm down for me is to use chakra so i said 'What the heck.'"

"Well you just skipped the first part..." Kakashi, who was limping towards them, said.

"First part?" They all asked. Kakashi ran his fingers through his hair.

"It goes: tree or wall climbing, water walking, point balancing, and waterfall splitting. I just came here to teach you three tree climbing. But since Sasuki and Ino are girls, they more than likely have great chakra control but low chakra reserves."

"And from the looks of it, Naruto is a fast learner..." he added as an afterthought.

They made their way to three trees that were somehow parallel to eachother with no branches on the side facing the clearing that the four ninja were currently at. Kakashi walks up to a tree and, without using hands, walks up it.

"Basically, you put chakra to your feet as a suction cup and it allows you to walk up the tree." Naruto yawns.

"So how does it keep the top half of your body from falling backwards?" Kakashi just eye-smiles.

"I don't know... And frankly, I don't care." Kakashi tosses each of them a kunai.

"We already have one."

"Well, here's another one... Use the kunai to mark how far you get up and when you get to the top, help the others."

Naruto jogs backwards and holds the kunai in a reverse grip. "Watch this, Kaka-sensei!" Naruto hunches down as light purple chakra surrounds his feet. He charges as he emits a battle cry, the chakra on his feet burning and tearing the ground up behind him. He takes his first step...

"CRACK! WHOOSH! SLAM!" Naruto's foot embeds itself three inches into the tree before rocketing him across the clearing and slamming him into a tree opposite the one he had mutilated.

"WOOH! That was awesome! It hurt but it was AWESOME! You three just gotta try it!" Naruto yelled, ranting about the rush of being slammed headfirst into a tree. The three in question just sweatdropped.

Sasuki and Ino hesitantly approached the tree, chakra rolling lazily around their feet. They took their first step and calmly walked to the top of the tree and made a small nick. They walked back down, beaming.

"Good, now you two can teach Naruto what he did wrong..." Sasuki and Ino grimaced but nodded nonetheless. Naruto began for the tree again and got a few more steps up before being rocketed off, but not as badly.

'Why was his chakra purple instead of blue?' Kakashi thought. 'Oh well, it doesn't matter. Minato-sensei's was green but it was still like normal chakra...' He walked away contemplating how long he should wait before going back for them.

'They're big kids... They can find their own way.'

He righted himself in mid-air before charging again and going three times as high before losing concentration. His chakra slipped and he was frozen trying to run up the tree while trying to fix his chakra.

Gravity took over soon after. Naruto fell with an audible 'woosh' as the air left his lungs. He stood up groggily.

Ino and Sasuki walked up to him and helped him stand.

"Naruto, try lying on the ground to get a feel for how much chakra you need and then try running up." Sasuki suggested. Ino nodded in aggreance(new word?) and Naruto in in understanding

He lay on the ground, motionless. His feet glued to the tree. Chakra expeling or receding on par with the ninja's commands.

"I think i got it..." he said to himself as he stood. Sasuki and Ino watched intently as proverbial fire burned in his eyes.

He charged again, each step a conscious effort to make it to the top and with that, back home.

He went up, up, up...

He could almost touch the top and reached out.

'Just... a little... more...!'

He lost his concentration soon after. He fell the few hundred feet but stood and slapped himself to concentrate. He growled at the tree slightly and walked back to where he started.

"Naruto, we can jus-"

"No! I couldn't live with myself if you two could do it and I quit two inches from the top!"

He turned and brushed himself off.

His heartbeat slowed.

His breath steadied.

His eyes focused only on the next step.

Chakra pooled around his feet; violet flames of determination.

He bent his left knee and slid his right foot back.

He placed both hands on the cool earth.

And charged.

"WORRAGHHH!" The wind forced his hair back as he crushed through the small branches that were blocking him from his goal.

He flew past the top, relishing the cool night air as he went higher into the sky. He slowed and twisted himself so he landed feet-first. The tree shook lightly as he did. He pulled the kunai out of his pocket and carved his name into the bark.

When he reached the bottom, both girls were smirking and Naruto had a full-blown grin on his face.

"So?" Ino asked. If possible, Naruto's smile go bigger.

"I did it, dattebayo!" Naruto's stomach growled in appreciation.

"We should be getting back." Sasuki said, staring at the orange-tinted sky. "It's about to be nighttime."

They both nodded and made their way home.

'No matter what, I'll make myself be stronger for you two...' Naruto thought as he, Ino, and Sasuki walked through the quickly darkening forest.

-END-

if you haven't noticed, this story is very closely following canon. there will be differences, some more noticeable than others.

Noticeable- Ino and Sakura swapped and Sasuke is a girl: higher teamwork

Not so noticeable- Naruto is more mature and smarter: quick learner and has answer to haku's question without meeting him.

sorry again for the long wait next upload is HOFM(his only failed mission) then SP(shared pain), TDYSIA(the demon you say i am), N&K(nibi and kyuubi), AFY(anything for you), and back to S7R(squad 7:rewritten)

Ja Ne!

NamikazeNaruto6hokage out...