Chapter 1

"You may admire a girl's curves on the first introduction, but the second meeting shows up new angles." -Unknown.

Uzumaki Naruto, jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, is standing on the same bridge that Team Seven has used as their meeting place for the past month since the activation of their cell. Naruto is the shortest of the people standing there, standing only at 4'9" with blonde hair and bright blue eyes filled with mirth, happiness, and a hint of mischievousness. He is wearing an orange and blue jacket which is rolled up at the sleeves. His black undershirt peeks out at the top of the zipper of his orange jacket. On his back is a red swirl emblazoned between his two shoulder blades. His legs are covered in orange pants which are rolled up, a length of tape strapped to his right thigh, and above that is a kunai pouch for easy access to his throwing weapons of choice. His feet are covered in blue open-toed shoes common among ninjas. His hitai-ate, the proof that he is a ninja, flashes in the sunlight as it stands proudly on his forehead, holding back his spiky blonde locks.

Next to him stands his teacher and mentor since he graduated from the academy, Hatake Kakashi. He is the tallest and stands at an impressive 5'11". He is wearing the usual Konoha Shinobi attire, His Hitai-ate is wrapped around his forehead but slanted so the cloth covers his left eye. The lower half of his face is covered by a blue facemask, his silver hair and single black eye are the only distinguishable features available with his face so heavily covered. His chest is covered by his green jounin vest which has many pockets for placing various things. His blue undershirt is shown as his shoulders, and arms are covered in the blue fabric from his shirt. The only break of the blue is the same red swirl presented proudly on his left shoulder. His hands are covered in fingerless black gloves with metal handguards from his ANBU days. His pants are a dark blue which is rolled up allowing for his shins to be wrapped in tape and his feet to be covered with the common blue open-toed shoes. His leg is wrapped similarly to Naruto's with tape and his kunai pouch on his right leg.

Across from them the remaining two members of Team Seven stood, First was Haruno Sakura, she is the second shortest standing on the bridge and she stands at a rather normal height of 4'10". Her bright, bubblegum pink hair draws the stares of any passersby, and her green eyes are almost in the shape of a star as she looks at her crush. She is wearing a red qipao dress with circular designs, which reaches down to her knees. Underneath the skirt, she wears tight, form-fitting dark green shorts. Her legs are bare which leads to her feet covered in the same open-toed shoes that Naruto and Kakashi wear. Her Hitai-ate is used as a bandana to keep her long pink hair from fraying too much.

The final member is Sasuke Uchiha, he is the tallest of the genin there, standing at 4'10", only slightly taller than Sakura herself. He wears his Hitai-ate around his forehead much like Naruto, his black hair combined with his pitch-black eyes making for a very dark look. He wears a blue shirt with the Uchiha Clan crest, and a red and white fan, on the back of his shirt. His forearms are covered in blue and white bracers. His shorts are white with blue tape around his right leg and his kunai pouch on top of that. His shins are covered in warmers just as his forearms are. His feet are covered with the same open-toed shoes that the rest of his team wears.

Naruto smiled as he watched Kakashi poof away after their teamwork exercises. He turned to Sakura, still with that goofy grin on his face, "Sasuke-kun, would you like to go on a date with me?" Sakura asked Sasuke who was standing a few feet away.

Sasuke turned around and said, "No." before walking off. Naruto's eyes narrowed at Sasuke's back for turning down the 'beautiful Sakura-chan's' invitation for a date before he turned to Sakura, and his grin returned to full force.

"Ne, Ne Sakura-chan would you-" Naruto began only to find himself looking up from his back at the sky.

"Shut up Naruto-Baka," she said as she huffed and retracted her fist, which had planted itself onto his head causing his fall to the ground. "I will never go on a date with you, get it through your thick skull!" she shouted before turning around and walking away.

Naruto picked himself up out of the crater his body had made when being punched and dusted himself off. He looked back to the sky with a longing expression. "Is she never going to accept me?" he thought in a depression before his normal exuberance shone forth, "No Way, I will beat Sasuke-teme's ass then she will have to acknowledge me and go on a date!" he thought as he raised a fist to the air in a pump of victory.

Naruto sighed and let his arms fall, an air of depression around him as he looked at the ground, something not seen Naruto since his discovery almost a month ago when he found out about the demonic fox in his belly. "How can I beat Sasuke-teme when all Kakashi-sensei teaches us is teamwork exercises!" he thought still standing on Team 7's bridge meeting place. "I don't want to pester him as he said that he would teach us when he felt we were ready, but it has been almost a month and we haven't learned a thing!" he lamented. Naruto had asked Kakashi for help early on, but he had informed Naruto that their teamwork needed the most work and that he would not teach any of his genin something else until he felt their teamwork was up to his satisfaction. As such, Naruto had dropped asking his sensei for help since it was obvious the man was adamant about this requirement.

Suddenly, Naruto looked up, "Well, guess I will just have to try and train by myself, just like always." he thought with some slight bitterness at the end. He was a happy-go-lucky guy. He could even ignore many of the bad things in his life. But he was completely tired of being alone. He had been alone since his first memory, it was of him walking along the street from the Hokage tower back to the Orphanage and he was being glared at as he walked by. Alone, again. That was all of his memories. Even his times as a team made him feel alone, though less so as his teammates did interact with him. He knew they only interacted with him because they had to though. He shook off those bad times and began to walk into the forest heading to a clearing he had used since the formation of his team.

Not a single person saw the shake of a head with spiky silver hair and a single eye shining in the darkness as Naruto's teammates left him and then Naruto left himself. Kakashi shunshined away, disappointed at his team's teamwork.

Naruto walked onto Training Ground 7. He looked over at the memorial stone and wondered, not for the first time, who his parents were. He hoped they had been awesome shinobi that took down corrupt governments and rescued princes and princesses alike. He imagined his father, tall, handsome, with one wicked set of kunai standing in a ferocious pose as he looked out along the battlefield ready to risk life and limb to defeat his enemies. His mother stood beside him, her mouth spread into a fox-like grin much like his own, she had a dangerous-looking katana that seemed ready to drink the blood of her foes as she stared down her enemies. He let a smile cross his face as he thought this, though it was bittersweet as he knew that he had no idea who his parents were.

He shook the bright image out of his head before extending his senses a bit as he didn't want anyone to find his new practice clearing. His previous clearing had been disturbed after his last training session thereafter he had graduated. As such, he searched for and found a new training clearing for his awesome new techniques that he would create and learn as a ninja. So, once he found it, he tried as best he could to keep others from finding it this time. Once he knew that no one was watching him, Naruto used the stealth techniques he had learned while running from the ANBU after his pranks to sneak away into the forest and headed off to his clearing.

Naruto crept along the underbrush keeping quiet and making nary a sound as he continued on his way. His orange clothing was not the best for his stealth but he loved the color orange and no one would ever talk him out of wearing it! He smiled as he finally walked into his training clearing. He looked around and nodded his head as he was satisfied he hadn't been followed. He walked into the middle of the clearing and put his fingers together in a cross-like shape, with a soft cry of "Kage-Bunshin No Jutsu" 3 other Naruto's popped into existence next to him. Two went and sat down on opposite ends of the clearing as one clone faced off against Naruto. Each took the beginning stances of the academy style and began to lunge at each other.

Instead of hitting his clone, when Naruto would make contact, Naruto would lightly tap his clone easily stopping almost all of the force from his attacks. He had learned early on that his clones did not last for strong hits so he had adapted his hits so he could pull his power away from them at any point he wanted. The first clone continued fighting him for close to 30 minutes before it was dispelled. When it did, his other clones did not give him a chance to rest as one of them jumped in and continued the furious fight he had begun with the other clone. Continuing in this manner until he had beaten his three clones and fought for an hour and a half straight, Naruto collapsed on his back breathing slightly labored as he lay there.

"Kuso!" he screamed. A few birds leaped from the trees as they heard his scream but many just flicked their feathers and looked down at him as if they were trying to understand why he was making such a noise. Naruto took a deep breath and let it back out while relaxing his muscles, "This is pathetic! I can't train anything other than my own Taijutsu and it doesn't even get any better because I can not improve on it at all!" he yelled in his head. "I wish the librarians would let me into the library so I could look for stuff." he thought sadly with a downcast look.

Naruto sighed and picked himself up, deciding he didn't have any other workouts he could do, he began to walk through the underbrush heading towards a little waterfall he knew was near so that he could wash the grime of his training away. The amazing thing about this waterfall was it was slightly heated, he had followed the river back to the natural hot springs that gushed from the mountains around Konoha. So, it was better for him to take a bath out here than to take a cold shower in his apartment. The water heater never seemed to be working and Naruto could never understand why.

The best part of it though, was no one but himself knew about it. He had never seen anyone ever come to the waterfall and he had once camped out there for 2 weeks during summer vacation. It was fun and he quite enjoyed the experience. Of course, he returned to the village every few days for some supplies but he lived out in the forest, he hadn't known about his new training clearing, having never searched for it. So, he quietly crept to his heated waterfall so no one could follow him.

He made it close to the edge of the brush and was pushing the last bush out of his way as he stepped forward when a woman shunshined in front of him on the banks of the small pond the waterfall emptied into. Naruto froze for a second before slowly putting his foot back down and crouching down with the bush hiding his presence as he watched the woman. Normally, he would immediately jump ahead and ask who the hell she was. Still, something stopped him from even revealing his presence to her, a sixth sense he had honed over the years running from the occasional mob that would happen around his birthday compounded with the constant glares his village gave him. This sense told him not to move nor to make a sound or horrible pain would befall him. He had always listened to the voice as it protected him from the mobs until he could defend himself. When he could defend himself, the mobs stopped. So he listened and crouched down spying on the woman he now inspected scrutinously.