TONFA
The Original Naruto Fanfic Archive

Main Categories

Het Romance [1092]
Any Naruto fanfiction with the main plot orientating around different sex couples.
Alternate Universe & Crossovers [651]
Where cast of the Naruto Universe are inserted into an alternate universe.
Essays & Tutorials [17]
An area to submit intelligent essays debating topics about the Naruto Universe and writing tutorial submissions.
 
General Fiction [1739]
Any Naruto fanfiction focused without romantic orientation, on a canon character in the current Naruto Universe.
OC-centric [865]
Any Naruto fanfic that has the major inclusion of a fan-made character.
Non-Naruto Fiction [291]
Self-evident
 
Shonen-ai/Yaoi Romance [1575]
Any Naruto fanfiction with the main plot orientating around male same sex couples.
MadFic [194]
Any fic with no real plot and humor based. Doesn't require correct spelling, paragraphing or punctuation but it's a very good idea.
 
Shojo-ai/Yuri Romance [106]
Any Naruto fanfiction with the main plot orientating around female same sex couples.
Fan Ninja Bingo Book [125]
An area to store fanfic information, such as bios, maps, political histories. No stories.
 
 

Site Info

Members: 11985
Series: 261
Stories: 5884
Chapters: 25418
Word count: 47689150
Authors: 2162
Reviews: 40828
Reviewers: 1750
Newest Member: Redxkenny
Challenges: 255
Challengers: 193
 


Faith in Humanity by karrafear

[Reviews - 15]   Printer Chapter or Story
Table of Contents

- Text Size +
Title: Faith (PG-13)

Title: Faith Arc - Faith in Humanity (PG-13)

Author: Karrafear

Summary: AU. What if Naruto survives a murder attempt on his life at the age of 6 and has to leave Konoha for his protection. Now 12, Naruto and Jiraiya returns to face the genin test.

Warning: Naruto OOC. PG-13. This story has a darker version of Naruto; he is very cynical, cold and somewhat rude. Um.. since this is a Nartuo-centric story, please don't be surprised if I don't put out too much detail on the other characters. In this chapter, Naruto will become exceptionally cruel to Sakura, so people you have been warned. Apologies to all Sakura fans, but she'll get better, I promise. I've got it all planned out in my head how Sakura finally builds a backbone and starts taking Ninja training seriously. Um... Grammar errors are bound to be there somewhere so don't mind me.

""..."" means "thoughts"

xxxxxxxxx means "time passed"


Chapter 2

After several weeks of these tedious missions, all three of the genins in team 7 have become pretty restless. Soon, Naruto had finally had enough and his anger and frustration burst.

"When I signed up to become a Ninja, I did not think I would spend my time baby sitting, doing gardening, painting walls, taking dogs out for walks or finding missing animals." Though said coldly, his voice hid the undertone of rage.

Hokage sighed and was about to tell him it couldn’t be helped, but he was interrupted by Naruto again: "Why can't we have at least 1 C rank mission? It's a lot more entertaining than all these D ranks." Sighing again, Hokage asked the other 2 team members if they agreed with Naruto. Sasuke raised his hand in agreement almost immediately, and Sakura also raised her hand once she saw Sasuke doing the same.

"Why don't you just give them a C rank mission if it'll shut them up for a bit." A nasal voice called out from the doorway.

Naruto's eyebrow twitched, he quickly turned around, raising a finger and directed it straight at his guardian, shouting in anger: "AND WHERE have you BEEN these 3 weeks?"

"I was busy." Jiraiya replied with a shrug.

"Yeah right! Probably peeking into the female public baths again." Naruto retorted hotly, folding his arms together and glaring at his guardian.

"If you must know, I was gathering information for my next book." Jiraiya tried to explain.

"Meaning you were peeking into the female public baths! Jeez! Don't you EVER grow up, Pervert Sennin!" Naruto’s eyes continued to twitch in irritation as he snorted in disgust.

"Stop calling me a pervert, you shrimp!" Jiraiya scolded, starting to get really annoyed at the blonde boy.

"Pervert! Pervert! Pervert! OPEN PERVERT!!!" With both hands in front of his mouth, Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Why you ungrateful little..." Jiraiya threatened with narrowed eyes as he lunged towards the blonde boy.

Before Jiraiya could reach him, Naruto had performed a seal, the Oroike no jutsu seal (Sexy no Jutsu). Immediately, Jiraiya forgot about his previous arguments as he started drooling over the sexy, naked Naruta. Also at this time, several people in the same room spurted a large amount of blood flowing from their noses, some even rendered unconscious. These people included Kakashi (who was on the ground hyperventilating), the third Hokage (who had fallen over his chair and continued to twitch while lying on the floor), Iruka (who was currently sticking a lot of tissues up his nose to stop the blood flow), and even Sasuke (who had a hand covering his nose and mouth though a little trickle of blood can be seen, and he was currently standing with his back to Naruta).

Seeing that, Sakura immediately launched herself at Naruto and screamed at him until he returned to his normal form.

"Jeez! I didn't think Konoha had so many perverts." Naruto added while smirking.

Cough, cough. "Finet. I'll geeve youd a C rand mizzion." replied the Hokage, still reeling from blood loss. After detailing the protection mission, he introduced their client, a mister Tazuna. Afterwards, they set off on their first C rank mission.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The group set out, traveling on the way with few complaints. Sakura became curious and asked if the Wave country had a ninja academy of their own. Kakashi was just about to answer when Naruto interrupted them and started explaining the whole situation with the 5 kages and the 5 most powerful countries in the world currently. Sakura was surprised that Naruto knew something in which she did not, and so she asked him: "How did you know all that?" Naruto simply replied that he has been there before.

While Naruto was explaining about the "The five Great Shinobi Countries", Kakashi noticed a suspicious puddle of water on the ground. Once they walk passed it, two people emerged from the puddle and started attacking the group. Kakashi was visually seen being caught in their deadly chain and then ripped apart by it. The three Genins and Tazuna-san all fell into shock. Sakura screamed in fear as the two enemies raced towards Naruto to kill him. They've just surrounded Naruto when Sasuke came to the rescue. He struck their combined chain onto a nearby tree with a shuriken and kunai, and then managed to hit them both in the face using his feet. The two opponents released the chain from their holder and started running away towards different targets. One aimed at the paralyzed Naruto and the other ran towards Tazuna. Sasuke made a split second decision, choosing to keep Sakura and their client safe and leaving Naruto on his own. However, just when the enemy reached Naruto, that Naruto disappeared into a cloud of smoke, he was a bunshin.

Immediately after the bunshin disappeared, the real Naruto reappeared behind the opponent that went to attack him. Naruto grabbed onto his opponent's hand, slamming him down onto the ground and twisted said arm painfully until it almost broke at the elbow, rendering the man immobile. Kakashi had also reappeared, unharmed to take out the other opponent.

Even though Kakashi had planned on tying the two of them up and then asking Tazuna-san what was going on, Naruto did not have the patience to wait. He twisted the arm of his captive brutally, causing the man to scream in pain.

"Who is your boss? What is your objective?" Naruto asked coldly, without mercy.

Wanting to remain silent, the man screamed again as Naruto twisted his arm even more. "TALK GOD DAMN IT OR LESS YOU WILL KNOW THE MEANING OF PAIN!!!" Naruto shouted his threats.

"Stop it! You're gonna break his arm!" yelled the other man, frantic at watching his brother in so much pain.

"Naruto, stop. They have already been beaten, we don't need to torture them." Ordered Kakashi in a calm but slightly tensed tone of voice.

"LIKE HELL I DON'T!" Naruto yelled at Kakashi as his eyes started to gleam red while Kyuubi's Chakra started leaking out. He then spoke to his captive with a softer but deadly serious tone of voice, reflecting his current cruel desires. "Talk or you will wish that I had killed you now rather than later. I am a master of pain and I know over 2 hundred ways to make a man cry in agony."

"Stop! STOP! I'll talk. PLEASE STOP!!!!!" The man yielded. Naruto loosens his grip on the arm he held slightly as well as the three painful pressure points in which his other hand had been pressing on the man’s neck recently.

"Our boss.. Our boss is the Devil of the Mist. He.. We were hired to take out that old man," indicating Tazuna. "That's all. We were only following orders. That's all there is.. PLEASE LET US GO!" the man pleaded rapidly.

"Paid by who?" The icy voice of Naruto’s sent shivers down the man’s spine.

"Naruto, stop it. If you continue, you're just as bad as the two of them!" Kakashi commanded, seriously considering the option of physically stopping his student.

Naruto glared right back at him with blood red eyes and slitted pupils. The features of his eyes shocked all four of the group members, and Kakashi started to sweat a little. ""If the seal is broken now, then there is no way to stop him."" He thought.

Naruto turned away, closing his eyes for a moment; he took a deep breath and released it. His eyes reopened again to reveal their normal sky-blue shade. He released the arm of the opponent he was holding, but didn't release the hold he had on the man's neck. The free hand is raised slightly, forming a 2 finger pointing seal. "Hakke Juni Tenketsus Yonshyou" yelled Naruto, and he quickly pushed 12 points on his opponent's back in seemingly random order. After that, he completely releases his captive, turned and started walking towards the other enemy, still held incarcerated by Kakashi. Naruto then did the same thing with the second enemy.

Kakashi was confused over what Naruto did to the two of them. The previous man, having been just released, thought that he could take his chance at revenge. He launched himself at Naruto, aiming to strike his back. Both Sakura and Sasuke stood ready this time, awaiting the blow but it never came. They were again shocked when the man tried to do certain seals, and suddenly ended up screaming on the floor half way through making the seals. His body continued to shudder in pain, while the chakra he had summoned for the seal slowly dissipated, leaving a burning sensation through out his body. .

"What did you do to him and me?!" yelled the other man in fright, having watched his brother shake in agony.

Naruto answered calmly. "12 of your most precious opening points on the Chakra inner coil system have been rendered useless for life. If you try to use any Chakra at all, it will burn your inner coils as well as your surrounding organs. I suggest you never try to use Chakra again unless you wish to die."

Shaking out of his reverie, Kakashi released his prisoner also and the group slowly but surely left on their journey again. Not wanting to make Naruto even more angry, Kakashi decided not to press Naruto for the reasons why he acted the way he did against the two mist Nins.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After Tazuna-san had explained the real situation to Kakashi and the kids, they all decided to continue on with the mission though Naruto had become even more quiet and sullen than usual. None of the others tried to talk to him for they all knew that the only question to come out of their mouths would be to ask him about that new technique he had used against the Demon brothers. This particular question however, they were certain, he wouldn't answer anyway. The group continued on their journey in silence, passing through the rivers and seas without incident, even admiring the new, yet unfinished bridge with awe in silence. Finally, they reached the shores of the Wave country.

The group walked for a while. Suddenly, Naruto stops in his tracks and threw a kunai into the surrounding bushes. Sakura and Tazuna gasped in fright, waiting for the next attack, but the rest of boys just stood still. For a while, nothing moved, Sakura breathed in a sigh of relief.

"Naruto. Could you stop acting cool for a second!" she yelled. "Stop trying to scare us to death!" Tazuna agreed and glared at the non-moving boy. However, Naruto ignored them both. Naruto had narrowed his eyes while Kakashi went to investigate what he had hit. It was a snow rabbit. Sakura took one look at the freaked out rabbit and felt sorry for it. She settled in to glare at Naruto. "Naruto! Look what you did!! You scared the life out of it!! You moron!" Naruto continued to ignore Sakura and shifted his gaze to a position inside a near by tree. Suddenly, a shifting of wind was felt by Naruto instead of being heard.

"EVERYONE, DUCK!!" shouted Kakashi. Sasuke ducked instinctively to his instruction; Naruto had to push Sakura and Tazuna-san out of the way while he too, ducked under the spinning weapon. Once the massive spinning sword flew by their heads, the group looked up in surprise. A man, whose face was wrapped up in bandages, stood on a massive sword like object embedded in a tree a few meters up from the ground.

Naruto silently analysed the man's ability and ignored the conversation between Kakashi and Zabuza. He already knew that Kakashi was the renowned Copy Cat Kakashi, so it was no surprise about the Sharingan and it didn't interest him anyway. ""Mist Missing Nin. Specialty - silent killings within the mist. Over confident in his own abilities. Best way to defeat him is to trick him and force his hand, once confused, he'll be easy picking."" Naruto resigned himself to sit outside of this battle. He didn't really want to get so involved in a fight against a Jounin anyway.

While a thick, heavy cloud of mist surrounded the group from Zabuza's Kirigakure no Jutsu (Hidden Mist Technique), Naruto had closed his eyes and concentrated. When he re-opened his eyes, they had become a different shade of violet, enhancing his vision to be able to see through the thick mist. Mixing his original blue Chakra and Ninetail's red Chakra, to create something like an intermediate Chakra with the violet colour.

Kakashi had tried to calm his students down by telling them he will ensure their safety, but these comforting thoughts were immediately cut off in Naruto's mind as he suddenly pushed the other members of the team away and parried Zabuza's big sword with his own small kunai. Being pushed back by the heavy weight of the big sword, Naruto was relieved that Kakashi had managed to grab onto Zabuza, rendering him immobile, and giving Naruto the time to drag Tazuna away from the fighting.

After a few seconds of watching water clones beat water clones, Naruto was slightly disappointed when Kakashi fell easily into Zabuza's Water prison trap. He frowned as the new Zabuza water clone disappeared from sight and reappeared instantly in front of him. He easily blocked the water clone's weak kick with one arm and slammed his other hand's palm into the centre of the water clone. Using the Jyuuken style of fighting, he pushed Chakra out of that open palm which resulted in blasting the clone back into water molecules.

From the wide-eyed expression on the real Zabuza's face, he seemed surprised that a supposedly weak genin was able to beat his water clone. ""What did he expect, the water clones are 10 times weaker than the original."" And Naruto (if he really wanted to) could very well rival the mist jounin in strength.

Zabuza narrowed his eyes in annoyance and started ranting about his past being the devil and how he had killed all his classmates. Naruto ignored the talk and concentrated on thinking up a plan to free Kakashi, he still didn't want to use his full power against the mist jounin so he'll find a way to leave the rest of the fight to his supposed teacher. Coming to a decision, Naruto interrupted Zabuza's continual monologue. "Enough with the speeches, are we gonna fight or not?!" Naruto rolled his eyes at Zabuza's resulting angry expression.

Being unable to move from his position holding Kakashi in a prison, Zabuza had made several more water clones (Mizu Bunshins) to fight against Naruto. Naruto rolled his eyes again at Zabuza's dangerous underestimation of his abilities. When Zabuza's clones started running towards him, Naruto performed his favourite seal, Taiyuu Kage Bunshin no jutsu (Multiple Shadow Replication technique). At once, there appeared over 30 Naruto clones clashing against the 10 Zabuza clones. Simply put, the Zabuza clones became overwhelmed and the Naruto clones immediately tried to close in on the real Zabuza.

Having seen how his clones were nothing compared to Kakashi's brat of a student, Zabuza decided to try something different. He called upon a tidal wave of water to crush all of Naruto’s clones at once. When the water finally subsided, Naruto surprised Zabuza once again when a Wind shuriken (Kaze Shuriken) flew passed the air at high speeds, aiming straight at Zabuza. Calmly, Zabuza stretched his free hand out and grabbed onto the massive shuriken before it came to close.

Thinking that was all the kid had up his sleeve, Zabuza was taken back again when another shuriken detached itself from underneath the one he was holding and continued to fly towards him. ""Shadow Shuriken no jutsu! Kisama!"" Zabuza mentally swore and jumped up quickly , just in the nick of time to avoid the shuriken cutting off his legs. Once again to his shock, the shadow shuriken disappeared into a cloud of smoke revealing the hidden Naruto, whom immediately threw a kunai in Zabuza's direction.

Being cornered and having no choice, Zabuza jumped away to avoid the kunai, but it still managed to get a scratch his face. Furious at the damn annoying brat, Zabuza tried to throw the shuriken currently in his hand back towards Naruto but was stopped by the newly freed Kakashi. Naruto, on the other hand, landed lightly on the water's surface, trying to gain his balance. Watching both Zabuza and Kakashi perform the powerful jutsu – Suiryuu Dan no Jutsu!! (Water Dragon Blast no jutsu), Naruto decided now would be a very good time to leave the vicinity. He quickly left the water's edge just in time to watch both the Water Dragons cancel each other out.

Seeing the torrents of water coming towards them due to the previous assault, Naruto quickly grabbed onto Sakura and Tazuna, one with each hand, yelled at Sasuke to get out of the way just as he himself jumped away to avoid the impact of the water blast. Kakashi then played a Genjutsu trick on Zabuza to confuse him, while he completed the seals for Suiton: Dabakufu no Jutsu (Water Element: Water Explosion no jutsu), Naruto yelled at the rest of the group to hold on to any big trees as tightly as possible, because the resulting force of water almost knocked all of them off their branches.

Finally thinking this battle was over, Naruto calmed down slightly. But the peace was interrupted as flying needles suddenly flew across the cleaning and struck through Zabuza's throat, surprising even Naruto. ""Damn! I didn't even feel his presence at all,"" Naruto thought as he narrowed his gaze angrily at the intruder, a young hunter Nin from the Mist.

After a long pause for introductions, Naruto narrowed his eyes again as the Mist hunter Nin picked up the supposedly dead body of Zabuza. If his memories served him right, hunter Nins usually burn the body of their victims immediately. ""This is suspicious."" And just when the boy was about to leave their presence, Naruto snapped back at him. "Hey! Aren't hunter Nins usually suppose to burn the body of their victims immediately after death and bring back only the head?"

The boy stopped moving for just a split second before Kakashi quickly turned around, his eye wide with realization, but it was already to late. The boy had made a few quick hands seals and disappeared with Zabuza's body in tact. His voice rang overhead: "Until the next time we meet." Kakashi cursed visibly at his own incompetence, but there was nothing else that can be done. Naruto snarled in anger at being tricked, he didn't like being overmatched. Soon after the impromptu battle, the group decided to leave the area, the sooner the better, but things became complicated again when Kakashi fell unconscious due to exhaustion.

"Kakashi sensei! Are you alright?! What happened?! Kakashi sensei!!" Sakura screamed in panic, frantically shaking Kakashi’s unmoving body. Tazuna, too, became a bit pale at the realisation that he only had three kids to protect him now, if the jounin was to fall dead. Naruto calmly pressed his fingers against Kakashi's throat, finding his pulse.

"He's fine!" Naruto emphasized. "Just exhausted from the overuse of his left eye."

Sakura sighed in relief but the relief didn't last long. "What will we do now if they attack again?" She asked nervously.

Sasuke grunted. "We'll just have to beat them up. It's as simple as that." Even though he was already very shaken from simply watching the extraordinary fight between the two jounins, but he didn't want to look bad compared to Naruto. Sasuke was raging inside at how calm and collected Naruto had reacted to the whole thing, and he himself, had almost ran away as Kakashi had instructed them to do. If he couldn't even withstand watching these types of fights, then he would never be able to even participate, let alone defeat his brother.

"No, they won't be coming back so soon anyway." Naruto replied calmly as he stood up and looked at his other two team mates. "We have to carry Kakashi back to the village." They looked back at him in silence, waiting. Naruto sighed again, ""What good are team mates if they don't help each other"", he thought as he performed his favourite seal for the second time that day. The Taiyuu Kage bunshin clones easily lifted Kakashi's unconscious body and started walking again. Naruto began leading the group when he was interrupted by an aggravated Sasuke.

"Who made you leader? If I remember correctly, you're only an outcast." Sasuke sneered cruelly, he had to find some way of getting rid of his frustration and it seems easiest to aim the anger at Naruto.

Naruto turned around to glare at Sasuke icily, "What do you suggest, then? Oh great and powerful Uchiha-san?"

Sasuke immediately became extremely angry. ""No body, NO BODY INSULTS THE UCHIHA NAME IS MY PRESENCE!!!""

Sakura, seeing the tension building between the boys, decided to intervene. "Sasuke-kun, you know Naruto doesn't mean that! And Naruto, apologies to Sasuke-kun immediately! You have no right to talk like that to Sasuke-kun!!" Sakura shouted at the blonde boy, hoping he would step down from the challenge. But to her surprise, Naruto only turned his icy gaze back at her.

"You have no right to call yourself a Shinobi." Sakura blinked in shock at his announcement and was about to rebuff when he interrupted again. "You have been nothing but a burden on your teacher and classmates. You have done nothing to earn the title of Shinobi. Until you earn the right to bare that title, you are nothing, Haruno-san. Nothing but a waste of space and time." With that said, Naruto quickly turned around and stormed away with his clones and Kakashi trailing behind him.

Sakura stood completely still as Naruto's harsh words slammed into her reality. ""Nothing but a waste of space and time?..."" Sakura felt herself falling into depression after she realized that Naruto was right. His words struck true. ""What have I ever done for the good of the team... nothing..."" She was snapped out of her musings when Tazuna-san suggested that they all follow Naruto's example and leave, which they did.

However, the same thoughts went through both Sasuke and Sakura's minds at the exact moment while they continued travelling to Tazuna-san's home in the Wave country. ""I have to become stronger.""

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Finally, they’ve reached the relative safety of Tazuna-san's own home. There, they met Tsunami, Tazuna-san's daughter and had Kakashi laid down to rest. However, the tension was still high in the air and everyone realized that even though they've won one battle, they haven't won the war. They all understood that Zabuza and his assistant, the Mist boy, were still out there, ready to kill them at any time. And with Kakashi out of battle for some time due to his exhausted body, everyone was worried about their future.

Kakashi sighed loudly to get his student's attention; it had been a few minutes since his awakening. Knowing he couldn't fight for another week at the minimum, Kakashi understood that he will need the kids to do some of the upcoming battle for him. Even though he was very reluctant to do so, but sometimes you have to do things you don't like. However, he was also very aware that Sasuke and Sakura were not yet ready for these types of demanding battles without at least some intensive training. That idea basically left everything on Naruto's shoulders. Kakashi does not know exactly how strong Naruto really is, but if he had to harbour a guess, Naruto was probably as strong as a jounin level now. So decision made, the hard part was to actually convince Naruto, Kakashi sighed again. ""This is going to be hard.""

"Naruto." Kakashi called.

"What?" Snapped the irritated Naruto sitting by the window.

"Can you do me a big favour?" Kakashi asked reluctantly.

"... depends on what this favour entails..." Kakashi mentally rolled his eyes. ""Motivating Naruto to do anything is like trying to push a herd of elephants away from their favourite water source. Very difficult.""

"I need you to train Sasuke and Sakura for me." That comment earned him three full death glares. Naruto glared at Kakashi - as if he would ever want to train these pathetic kids. Sasuke glared at Kakashi - he refuses to need this upstart dobe's help in training him, not to mention he'd rather die than ask for his help anyway. Sakura glared at Kakashi - their teamwork was already strained enough as it is with an unmotivated Naruto and a slightly selfish Sasuke, to ask Naruto to teach them would be like asking a bird to teach a frog how to fly, it just wasn't probable.

But being the logical kid she is, Sakura tried to curb the anger in the room away with some reasoning. "But Sensei, what is a little training going to do?! Our enemy is a ninja you struggled against even with the Sharingan!!" (1) She persuaded.

"Sakura, when I was in trouble, it was you guys who came to my rescue and protected Tazuna-san from harm. I have great expectations for all three of you. You all have such high potential. Not to mention, I believe that Naruto here, (indicating Naruto with his eyes and Naruto scoffed at the attempt to pinpoint him) is just as capable of fighting Zabuza if he really wanted to." Kakashi said evenly.

The rest of the house's inhabitants instantly shifted their gaze on the seemingly shortest kid in the lot, but Naruto turned away from their attention and ignored them.

Kakashi sighed and tried again. "Naruto. You know you're the only one that can teach them right now. There isn't much I can do until I've recovered and unless you want your own team-mates to die, please just teach them some basics so that they could defend themselves." And for the final motivational push. "Your father would have wanted you to do this." Kakashi added lightly.

Naruto swivelled around immediately and glared at Kakashi full force; his voice was icy cold with rage. "That's blackmail and manipulation, Kakashi."

Kakashi nodded in reply but continued with his reasoning. "Yes, it is called manipulation but it is also the truth." He looked at Naruto evenly, trying to will the child into understanding how important this task actually was. Soon enough however, Naruto turned around again showing his tense back as he contemplated whether he should agree or not.

A long silence ensured after that, until Naruto broke it with his final statement on this matter. "Fine. Meet me at the woods south of here at 5 in the morning."

Naruto was about to get up and leave the room when he was interrupted by another voice. "No amount of training will help you guys. You're all going to die. There's no way you can win against Gatou."(2) A whining voice complained from the sidelines.

These statements came from a small child, no older than 8 or so. He was later introduced as Inari, Tazuna's grandson and Tsunami's son. Naruto gazed at the boy evenly, then turned around again and proceeded to leave the house. Just before he left though, he told the child: "Only a coward gives up hope when there is still a chance to win." And he left.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto needed some peace and quiet while he thought about what to do tomorrow, so he entered the woodland area south of the house. But his musings were interrupted.

"You know, Inari doesn't really mean what he said. I'm apologizing on his behalf."

"You shouldn't be out here, old man. It's not safe." Naruto didn't turn around but his voice addressed the old bridge builder, which was enough for now.

"I know, but you'll protect me anyway, right? So there isn't any threat. And anyway, if I feel threatened in my very own home, then there really is no place safer, right?" Tazuna-san said in amusement, but in a very hollow and cynical sense.

"I guess" Naruto reluctantly replied back.

"Hey. I don't mean to intrude or anything... but I'd just like to know ya a little more, you know. Get to become friends and stuff." The old man continued, shifting nervously. "So ah.. , what do you say to some sake and stuff, huh?"

Naruto smiled slightly, though he still didn't turn around. "I'm not old enough to drink, old man." He answered, slightly amused.

Tazuna chuckled. "Heh. I forgot that you guys are only twelve, ne. Guess I'll have to save up the sake for another eight years at the very least, hn?" (3)

"Thanks." Naruto answered quietly, and finally, decided to turn around and greet his guest properly. Once turned, Tazuna was surprised at the slight smile that graced Naruto's face. In the few days that he had travelled with the young lad, he had never seen Naruto smile. He looked... well... younger when he wasn't scowling at someone or just generally annoyed. The Naruto presented to him right now, showed him how truly young he must really be. ""Still a child and yet so powerful. I wonder what he had been through to become the way he is now."" Tazuna thought to himself.

Tazuna was about to start another conversation when Naruto beat him to the punch. "You don't have to worry about me being out here alone. I'm use to it already. Tonight, I'm going to be standing guard around the house and in the surrounding bush lands to make sure no assassins come this way. Don't worry about me. I've done this hundreds of time in the past so it's really not that difficult for me. I'll be back for breakfast tomorrow and I'll pick you up and protect you on the bridge work as well."

""Wow. Seems the kid has got everything figured out already. But I still feel sorry that everything has been dumped on his shoulders so suddenly. It ain't fair for a kid like him to not smile often."" As Tazuna thought over what Naruto had just said, he came to a conclusion. ""Done this hundreds of time before? How the kid gets himself into these types of situations? Doesn't seem like his teammates are anywhere near his level of expertise, so they couldn't have been together long. Damn, I'm starting to feel really sorry for the kid.""

As if reading his mind, Naruto interrupted his thoughts again. "What happened in the past already happened, and there is nothing we can do to change it. So just let it go. I've got a busy day tomorrow so if it wouldn't be to rude to ask, could you please return to the premises, sir?" Though sounding like a command, the smirk on Naruto's face indicated his amusement and emphasized the fact that he was being sarcastic.

Tazuna gave in, sighed and nodded, then left the boy alone in the woods. Behind him, Naruto lost his smile. ""Why do I always push people away? Am I so afraid of being hurt again that I'd rather live alone and without human contact at all?"" He thought to himself depressingly.

""I.......don't know....""


(1) Same thing as what Sakura said in Book 2, chapter 17.

(2) Very similar to what Inari said in Book 2, chapter 17.

(3) Um. I'm not very sure at what age Japanese people are allowed to drink alcohol, but if my memory serves me right, then Naruto should be 20 before he can taste alcohol. Strange, isn't it? Other places allow people to drink at 18 or so.

Um... sorry about the crappy ending. And I apologise for the psycho reaction Naruto has to the demon brothers. The incident will be explained as well as the rest of the special "Training" schedule in the upcoming chapter. I hope you like my little insight into Naruto's insecurities. Yes, he is strong, both mentally and physically, but he does have his own weaknesses, and that, my friends, is TRUST.

I'm working as fast as I possible can people, and I'm currently neglecting my other story as well, so feel very privileged. n_n I'm really desperate for a beta so if anyone is interested, email me (shella [the At symbol] iinet.net.au). I really have tried my best to fix up the tenses but as you can see, I CAN'T do it alone because most of the time, _I_ don't even pick the errors up. Please. Help needed and you also get to the read the Chapter first.

Okay, once again. Your reviews are required to help keep pushing me.

You must login (register) to review.