Naruto - Shadow

by RinneganSage

After the successful Sasuke retrieval mission, Naruto is shunned by his friends, avoided by his girlfriend Hinata; distanced from his team and sensei and put on trial for unleashing the Kyuubi's chakra in his fight against Sasuke. Disillusioned by everything, Naruto accepts the sealing of his chakra as punishment. What will he do? He becomes Shadow? Strong/Dark Naruto. Naru/Hina.

1. Chapter 1

I do not own Naruto.

'WHAT?!', Naruto's enraged scream rang out through the Hokage tower. 'But I didn't do anything wrong! It's not fair Baa-chan!'

'Naruto, you did resort to using the Kyuubi's chakra', Tsunade raised her hand when Naruto was about to interrupt, 'And you used an A-rank assassination jutsu on a comrade!'

'He used the Chidori on me too!', Naruto waved his hands around exasperatedly. He couldn't believe this was happening. He hadn't done anything but accomplish the mission. And now this. Of course, he shouldn't really be surprised. The village would do anything to please their precious Uchiha. He just didn't think Tsunade would be one of them. Or maybe she was under pressure from the council. But it didn't matter. She was the Hokage.

'Yes. That's why he's receiving the same punishment. Even worse in fact', Tsunade replied, trying to hold her anger at the immature brat at bay.

That seemed to placate him somewhat. He decided he might as well listen her out. 'And what's that?'

Tsunade smirked. He was too easy. 'From today for six months, you will both be on probation along with having your chakra sealed. Since Sasuke was the one who attempted to defect, no matter how misguided his reasons were, he will be confined to house arrest while you will not', that seemed to dumb down his anger at the situation somewhat.

Shizune looked down at her depressed, adoptive younger brother as he tried to rally his spirits from plummeting. He was obviously trying to prevent himself from crying in front of them as he kept staring steadfastly at the floor.

'At the end of both your probation, Team 7 will be reformed pending a test and your chakra unsealed', Tsunade continued. 'Make no mistake, Naruto. I'm disappointed in you'

Both Naruto's and Shizune's heads snapped to her. Naruto could see the disappointment clearly visible in her eyes. He couldn't hold it in any longer. He only managed to nod in resignation as tears streamed down his face. Tsunade nodded at the ANBU at the back of the office who stepped forward and applied a chakra suppression seal on Naruto.

Immediately, he felt incredibly fatigued and drained. As if his body couldn't properly function anymore. But that wasn't the surprising thing. Just as he lost access to his chakra, he somehow sensed other people nearby. Immediately, he identified two of them as Tsunade and Shizune but there were two others. He couldn't see them, but he could sense them.

He fought to keep the surprise of his face. It made no sense. If he didn't have access to his own chakra, how could feel the presence of others. He resolved to think about it later.

Regaining his composure slightly, he asked, 'But at the end, I'll still be a ninja, right?'

Tsunade forced herself to keep from breaking down at the forlorn and broken voice coming from Naruto. Nodding fiercely, she replied, 'Of course you will gaki. As I said, this is only a probation.'

They watched as thoroughly defeated Naruto left the Hokage's office, not through the window that he always used, despite Tsunade's yelling but through the door.

'Are you sure that was wise, Tsunade-sama. He does have a point.', Shizune asked her mentor. She pitied her younger brother and wished more than anything to be able to go over and console him.

'Yes. I am. His mission was to bring him back. Not to break him. As it is, Sasuke only fractured a few ribs and fractured his ankle. He should be fine in a couple of weeks', Tsunade knew it was unfair, but Naruto needed to learn how to control his emotions and the consequences of not using his head.

His actions had not only almost cost the village the Sharingan, but they came very close to losing it's Jinchurrikki. The upset in the balance of power would have been great and the consequences severe if word got out to other village's such as Iwa and Kumo.

And he had acted out of mission parameters. News of his and Sasuke's punishment quickly spread throughout the village. There were some of course who blamed the Kyuubi brat for everything that happened and the beaten down condition in which Sasuke was brought to the village was the forefront of Naruto's crimes apparently.

Most of them called for Naruto's blood. Some however were firmly siding with him especially those who were on the Sasuke retrieval mission. Neji was still in the hospital and was Kiba. Shino and Lee had firmly sided with Naruto. As had Hinata.

However, speaking of the shy Hyuga heiress. She was apparently forbidden by her clan from seeing him, at least until the probation lasted. He missed her dearly. She was his girlfriend after all. Even if they hadn't announced it to their friends for fear of what the Hyuga clan would do to her for associating with the Kyuubi brat.

She knew about the Kyuubi as well. Naruto had told her a few months ago. Just before the third part of the Chunin exams. And she accepted him whole heartedly. But it still hurt that she wouldn't try to get sneak away to meet him. But he supposed he couldn't blame her. She was only a thirteen-year-old girl. But then again, so was he.

His two senseis of course had wasted no time in telling Naruto how disappointed they were in him and that he would resort to using the Kyuubi's chakra and rasengan on his teammate and best friend. Jiraiya said he didn't teach Naruto to use it on his comrades but to protect them. After which he disappeared, possibly to do some research or some espionage mission. Who knew?

Kakashi, after making his disapproval clear, hadn't even talked to Naruto or even met him once. After a week of sulking, Naruto finally had enough. No longer was he going to be their scapegoat and their punching bag. No longer would he let people walk all over him.

Sakura had even gone as far as to beat him up and opening some of his wounds for his part in Sasuke's condition and punishment, going as far to say how she hated him and wished he was never on their team.

He realised the metaphorical mask of stupidity he had constructed in his childhood to escape from the village's persecution had become his actual face and personality.

And he was disgusted by such weakness. Never again would he allow himself to be this weak; this easily manipulated and controlled. Never again would he trust someone so blindly like he had with Jiraiya, Kakashi, Tsunade and Team 7.

His anger which at first had been a raging inferno was now like a cold blizzard. Now he was far from resentful for his punishment. He was actually thankful. In hindsight, if this had never happened, he would still be the happy go lucky idiot who trusted everyone and everything blindly, who gave his loyalty unflinchingly and who was stupid enough to be everyone's favourite chew toy.

For almost six months from now, he was but a civilian. And that, while had its downsides, also had its perks. For a few months, he had his recently acquired knowledge of his heritage a secret from everyone. He was sure Tsunade wouldn't want him knowing. Not yet at least. Kyuubi had shown him the last memories of his mother and father before they died. He was the son of Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage.

At first, when he learnt of it, he had been incredibly angry at the man he once idealised. Why would he condemn Naruto to a life of hatred and loathing? But, then slowly, he had come to terms with it. He was the Hokage and it was his job to protect the village in whatever way he could.

If it meant sacrificing his son to be the village's Jinchurrikki to prevent it from destruction, then so be it. In a way, he even respected such resolve. After all, if it had been him, he wouldn't have been able to ask someone for their child when he had his.

After that acceptance, he had under the cover of night, when he was sure he was being followed by anyone, made it to the Namikaze estate and put a bloodied hand over the gate. Inside the compound, when he was sure he hadn't triggered any alarms, he had found letter from his mother.

In it she explained how she had sealed all the knowledge she currently possessed of Uzumaki Fuuinjutsu and whatever jutsu scrolls she had. His father, for safety of the village had destroyed scrolls to his two most famous jutsus, the hiraishin and rasengan for fear if found, it could be used against the village and Naruto himself.

There weren't a lot of jutsus in the house library and if there had been, he had no idea where they had gone. Even her mother didn't have much knowledge in the way of Fuuinjutsu, only a few books and scroll she had received from Mito Uzumaki, the wife of the Shodaime.

His mother had left him a enormous amount of money, both as heiress of the Uzumaki clan and from the Namikaze estate. That was the only useful thing apart from the Sealing material in the house. Though, he supposed having a decent place to live was worth it as well, but it was too much of a risk to frequent the estate.

So, a week after his punishment had started and he was all but shunned yet again from the Konoha populace and even some of his friends, he had decided to take matters into his own hand. Even though him and Sasuke were supposed to be on probation and their chakra sealed it was only on paper, he had discovered.

He had snuck into the Uchiha district and had been practising his newfound sensory ability. He didn't even have to sneak into Sasuke's house to sense the familiar chakra of his sensei and Sakura. So they were together while ignoring him.

So much for being teammates. It was then he sensed the flare up of Sasuke's chakra and Kakashi's response to it. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were training. So that must mean that Kakashi had somehow unsealed his precious student's chakra.

He didn't even know why the revelation surprised him. It honestly shouldn't have. By now he had grown used to being treated like trash while everyone exalted Sasuke, even after his attempted defection.

By now he had accepted the fact that Kakashi will probably never teach him anything useful. Hell, the bastard had only taught him tree walking while teaching Sasuke taijutsu and even a few fire jutsu, in addition to Chidori. He had even taught Sakura a couple of basic genjutsu. Every time Naruto asked him, his answer was always the same. 'You need to improve your chakra control Naruto'

How the hell was he supposed to do when he wouldn't tell him how and when the library wouldn't let him enter; when the weapon stores wouldn't sell him any scrolls. But he knew one thing. He couldn't improve on his own. He needed a teacher or at least someone to spar with. But someone to teach him.

First, he made a list of what he could actually do. And it turned out to be more than pathetic and served only to depress him further as he cursed his own mediocrity.

He knew the Kage Bunshin but not how to use them effectively; he could pull off the Henge and the Substitution jutsu. The only other ninjutsu he knew were the rasengan and the summoning jutsu. The latter wasn't much use in increasing his own strength and they likely wouldn't teach him anything without Jiraiya's approval.

That led him to thinking about the current Jounin he knew. Asuma was one. He was the Third's son and from what Kakashi said once, he was the Fire Daimyo's bodyguard. So, he must be good. But he had his own team and likely wouldn't want to poach Kakashi's student.

Gai could be persuaded given how much the man said he was in debt to Naruto for bringing back Tsunade and convincing her to heal Lee. But honestly, the man was too much. He doubted he could handle so much weirdness. The one advantage was that he and Lee trained without chakra all the time and with his chakra sealed, it was ideal. So that he a maybe.

Kurenai seemed capable as well except she was a genjutsu mistress and Naruto absolutely sucked in that department. His chakra control was atrocious for even the basic ones. But he would master genjutsu. If only to throw it in Kakashi's face when he ridiculed his chakra control again.

But other than that, with his new mindset he identified greatly with Genjutsu. Much like him, the field was made fun of, as being second rate and not worthy of taking the time to master.

Shinobi like Kurenai were seen as weak because they weren't ninjutsu powerhouses like Kakashi or taijutsu masters like Gai. Unlike what Jiraiya had been preaching to him, he wouldn't limit himself to only Ninjutsu.

No, he would become a well-rounded shinobi and would master the art of Genjutsu and show the Leaf village and the world not to take such a dangerous art lightly. But before he could any of that, he needed to find a good teacher.

As much as that revelation irked and annoyed him, he eventually came to the conclusion that the best teacher was probably Ebisu, the closet pervert. Not only was he an elite jounin but he had the experience to teach, that Kakashi did not. The problem would be to make him agree to teach him.

He would have preferred not to have to resort to someone he had blatantly rejected before the third part of the chunin exam, but beggars can't be choosers. And if Tsunade objected, he had the argument that she only put him on probation and not forbade him from training. Honestly, if Kakashi was training Sasuke, then Tsunade had to be aware of it. He had even sensed some ANBU on patrol in the Uchiha estate. So they must have reported it to her. Either Kakashi had used his position as former Head of ANBU to stop them from doing so or Tsunade had overlooked it.

Naruto didn't know which one irked him more. But he vowed not to spend so much of his time and energy thinking about it. After having a hearty lunch, he purposefully made his way to the Hokage tower, across town, taking note of the increased pointing and whispers and the wide berth people were giving him.

Eventually, his sight came up on a most peculiar scene. A chunin, being thrown out of a restaurant on his ass and high tailing it out of there, with the busty purple-haired proctor of the second part of the chunin exam, hot on his tail.

It hit like a thunderbolt. This was Anko Mitarashi, former apprentice to Orochimaru; had the same cursed seal as Sasuke and was hated almost as much as Naruto was himself in the village. He could see the sneers of the men and women threw at her. But that didn't stop many of the men hitting on her. Not that he blamed them. She was one hot kunoichi.

He decided. He would get her to train him. Sure, she wasn't as strong as Gai but hell of a better option than Ebisu. She was however a little insane. But who was he too judge? He had a rampaging, hate filled demon locked in his gut.

So, he threw all caution to the wind and high tailed after her. Even though, he didn't have access to his chakra, he was still pretty fast. Years of pulling pranks and then outrunning ANBU gave him the stamina and the speed.

'AAHH!', on instinct he lurched to the side as a kunai whizzed through the air, slicing his right cheek. Shit. He looked back and saw sadistic smile on the jounin's face as she walked towards him, like a predator stalked his prey.

'Why are you following me gaki?!', Anko twirled the kunai in her hand expertly. What surprised him was that she wasn't twirling it using the rung like Kakashi but on her palm chakra.

Anko was surprised that the gaki had been able to keep up with her pace. Of course, she hadn't been going all out but when she had detected him at the start of her run, she decided to toy with him. Now though, instead of being scared of her like most others were, he was looking fascinated by the way she spun the kunai. 'Well, gaki! Are you gonna answer me?!', she said more forcefully this time.

He snapped out of his daze and looked her sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. 'I have a proposal for you, Hebi-chan!'

Her eyebrows raised to her forehead as she heard the nickname, he had given her when he was young, and she protected him from the mobs during her time as an ANBU. 'So, you remember, huh brat! And here I thought you had the intelligence of a beetle'

Naruto glowered at being insulted, 'Of course I remember you. You protected me!', he exclaimed but grinned nonetheless.

'Right', she came up to him, grossly invading his personal space and nearly pushing her breasts in his face. 'So, what's this proposal brat? You're too young for me', she grinned.

Blushing profusely, Naruto had a hard time not looking at her chest. Somehow, he knew it would be bad for his health. Instead, he gulped and backed away slightly and looked around as if to see if there was someone to overhear them.

If Anko was surprised by his need for secrecy, she didn't show it. But she was curious as to why he would follow someone of her reputation, knowing full well that she could put him through a lot of pain if she wanted.

She even got more curiouser when he elaborated, 'You probably know what I carry and about my probation', he paused and she nodded, motioning for him to continue, 'And since I am, for the next six months, of the shinobi roster and a civilian more or less, I would like to give you a mission'

Anko narrowed her eyes at that. It wasn't unheard of for civilians to give their own ninja missions, but it was done through the Hokage's office, officially. 'What kind of mission?' Did he want her to kill someone in the village?

Naruto knew that this was his only chance of making her interested. So, against his better instincts honed over years of having to save every penny, he said, 'A kind that pays double an A-rank mission and you won't even have to leave the village'

Anko's eyes widened. This was getting more interesting by the minute. 'Well, don't leave me hanging, brat'

Naruto eyes narrowed. He really hated being called that. It seemed she had caught onto that. 'Go to the Hokage's office. It should be there', smirking mischievously, he popped out of existence.

'What?' Anko was furious. She had been fooled by a simple Shadow Clone. Oh, how she would make the brat suffer for his insolence. But not before she found out what this mission was.

She hurried to the Mission Office. She didn't want some other lazy Tokubetsu Jounin like Genma taking it from her. She was mildly surprised he had even found the time to fill the bloody paperwork needed to hire Konoha ninja for missions.

She had thought it was a spur of the moment thing when he had followed her. But she supposed the ability to create shadow clones like they were nothing did have its perks.

'Ah. Anko-san. Looking for missions', said the receptionist on the desk.

'A specific one actually', Anko replied, ruffling through the files till she found what she was looking for.

Shuffling through all the boring admin crap, she went straight to page eight where it detailed the mission specifics. For the first time since meeting the brat today, she wasn't surprised. She had figured it was something to do with training. She had heard that Kakashi had spent the entire week with the Uchiha and that the pervert Sannin, who was rumoured to training the brat had left the village.

So, the brat wanted a jounin to give him 'wilderness survival training' him for six months and labelled the mission as a C-rank, but with double the pay of an A-rank if he and the jounin came to an understanding. She supposed what she was going to be doing could be called wilderness survival. Quite clever brat. She was mildly impressed. So, he had rightly surmised that she would want to be training in the forest.

Not only would the mission not be handed to her by Tsunade as it wasn't B-rank or above, it would only go to her when Shizune informed her of the C-rank missions the teams had volunteered. Technically, anyone could volunteer for them, but it was mostly genin teams who did them. And once Anko accepted the mission, she would have to fulfil it and can't leave it halfway. Sneaky brat. She liked it.

Quickly, she signed over her copy and put it in the folder at the very bottom. There was no need for Tsunade to find out sooner than necessary. But she was curious as to how he wanted to be trained since his chakra was sealed. Not that it stopped him from following her.

So, from the next day, Naruto packed necessary clothes and weapons and made his way to the gate of training ground 44, also known as the forest of death. Momentarily, he lingered around town to see if he could get a glimpse of his girlfriend who had been steadfastly ignoring him for whatever reason.

No, he refused to think about that. It was too painful. He forced his mind to think about whatever the crazy sensei who had accepted her mission was going too teach him and got the gate in time.

'Finally, runt!', Anko pointed her finger at him. 'I thought you were going to take after your lazy ass sensei'

'I am not a runt!', Naruto exclaimed. 'I'm on time and as of now, you are sensei'

'Chh. Whatever', Anko grumbled. She had to be stuck training the useless, chakra-less genin who was the dead last of his class. 'How the hell did you manage to beat the Uchiha?'

Naruto glowered and grumbled something she couldn't hear and was promptly treated with a senbon stuck in his nose. 'Oww!'

'Speak louder runt!', Anko yelled, trying to see how much she could push before he lost. He had quite the reputation being very quick to anger.

'I said, I didn't. I had to use the Kyuubi's chakra', Naruto tried to contain his anger and his own shame.

'Good. At least you aren't in any delusions about your strength', Anko said, nodding her head. 'So, what can you do?'

'Nothing much. Just Kage bunshin, Henge, Kawarimi, Rasengan and Summoning jutsu', he replied, still in somewhat of a funk.

'So, it was you who fought the Suna Jinchurrikki', she mused, rubbing her chin as if she had a beard. 'I heard it was the Uchiha' True, that is what she had heard from the various shinobi. That Sasuke had rescued his failure teammate and Haruno and fought of the Sand demon until Jiraiya arrived.

'It wasn't Sasuke!', Naruto yelled, outraged. 'He was down, and I fought Gaara!'

Of course, they would belittle his achievements and give them to the Uchiha.

'Fine, fine. No need to get your panties in a twist', she motioned for him to follow her into the training grounds. 'This will be our home for the next six months. How do you plan to train without your chakra anyway? And why did you single me out instead of Kakashi or someone else?'

'I don't necessarily need chakra for now', Naruto replied, wondering whether to tell her that he knew how to unseal his chakra. It was one of the first ones he learnt from the sealing book written by Mito Uzumaki. 'And besides, Gai and Lee train without chakra all the time. And Kakashi-baka is useless. The only thing he's taught me is tree walking'

Anko's eyes raised at this. It had around six months they'd been his team and he had only taught him tree walking. That was beyond pathetic. Even she knew and she had never trained anyone before. Let alone a genin. 'Yet he taught Uchiha the chidori'

Naruto growled at this. 'Not surprising. He is his favourite. But I know the rasengan so it's fine'

Anko nodded. It was good that he was letting go of this stupid rivalry thing he had going on with the jutsu thieving Uchiha. If only he knew how much potential the brat had to be far superior to the hate filled Uchiha.

'Follow me brat! Onwards to the central tower', she yelled speeding off towards before Naruto even had processed what she said.

It took nearly a day for Naruto to get to the tower, panting and sweating and on the verge of death. He had avoided as many beasts as he could including huge snakes, wolves and tigers. It was really a blessing that he could sense them but running for so long without chakra had really tired him out.

'Okay stop', they stopped in a clearing. It wasn't likely he could go any further without collapsing from complete exhaustion. Anko stared at the boy, mightily impressed. She had thought he would have collapsed a few hours ago and he had come close to but pushed himself past his limits and followed her. How he did she didn't know but she would damn well find out.

An hour later, they had both feasted on a deer Anko had killed on her way to the tower and were lazing about inside the tower.

It was time Anko learnt what had brought this on. This couldn't have been just out of the blue. And then there was the issue of the payment. For six months, two A rank pays weren't enough. She could do more B-ranked in that time and earn more.

'So, runt', she started. 'Why don't you be straight with me now and tell me what brought this on?'

Naruto sighed. He had been expecting this. It was too much to ask her to train him somewhat illegally for six months without knowing the reason for it. But he had to get it off his chest and talk to someone or he would go nuts. Well, more than he already was.

'A revelation you could say', Naruto started, wondering what to tell her. 'My friends are avoiding me after the mission, and some are even mad at me for some reason. Even Hinata-chan is avoiding me. I get that her clan ordered her to, but it wouldn't be too hard to sneak away for a few minutes. Kakashi hasn't even talked to me since. Sakura's mad at me and says I shouldn't even have been on their team. They've been training together, and they left me out of it. Didn't bother to tell me to practise chakra control like they usually do', he said morosely.

'And how do you know that?!', Anko asked with narrowed eyes.

'I kinda snuck into Sasuke's house and spied on them', Naruto replied with his head lowered. He was ashamed of it, she figured. No that won't do but she'll get to it later.

'And I overheard Tsunade-baachan and Pervy sage talking about her taking Sakura as an apprentice', that got him even more depressed. No matter how many times he had asked her to teach him something and she had steadfastly refused, saying how she couldn't show favouritism to anyone genin.

Now that was surprising to Anko. She actually felt sorry for the kid. Sorry but not pity. Because she had heard from Kakashi that Jiraiya was planning on taking this runt as his apprentice when his probation ended and take him on a training trip.

That, in her mind, didn't make up for the lack of neglect that they both showed him. If he was so depressed about it, she didn't think he knew about it, yet. But what he said next corrected her. 'Doesn't matter though. Pervy sage is going to be taking me as an apprentice. But I know all he is going to teach me is how to control the fox's chakra. That's all he ever talks about. So, before that happens, I took matter in my own hands so I could actually learn something useful.'

Hearing all that, Anko actually felt bad about asking him for more money. This boy, like her, had been shunned all his life, neglected by his teachers and treated like trash by his team. Whatever teacher student dynamic they had with him wouldn't work anymore given how they broke his trust by calling him in the wrong when he brought back the traitorous Uchiha.

That made her blood boil. Damn Oro-sensei. If it had been her who was on the mission, she would have brought back the Uchiha half dead with only his junk working so they could later use him to reform the Uchiha clan.

But she couldn't lie to herself. This neglected boy in front of her was a flight risk. 'Okay then. But before I train you, I need your promise on something', she said to him seriously.

'Yes. Anything!', he exclaimed. She sighed. He was still too trusting. She would have to reteach him everything. What did the academy instructors even teach this boy?

'First, I need your promise that anything I teach you, you will not teach anyone else without my permission or tell them how you learn it. A ninja must have his secrets and I can't have you exposing mine', she looked at him expectantly.

'I promise!'

'Second. You will not defect from Konoha', Anko observed his reaction. He was clearly thinking on it. 'And if you do, I will make sure it's me who hunts you down!'

Naruto pondered over the pros and cons. He had thought about leaving this accursed village before Team 7 and before Hinata. But he hadn't in many months now.

'Agreed. As much as I'm loathed in this village, it still beats constantly being on the run for the rest of my life as a missing-nin', he nodded. 'So yes, I promise!'

'Good. Now for training, we will start every morning at six after a healthy breakfast. We'll use shadow clones to for chakra control and taijutsu every morning, followed by weapons training and if we have any time left, some ninjutsu or genjutsu. Then we'll go onto a game I call Hide and Hunt until nightfall', she said with a disturbingly, feral grin that reminded him of a snake toying with its prey.

'Hey! What about food!', he asked. He couldn't go on all day without eating.

Anko grinned manically, 'Didn't you remember what I said at the second exam. You what you hunt, brat! After all, this is survival training'

Naruto frowned, 'I have no chakra'

'Correction. You have limited chakra. That will help you in chakra control and increasing your stamina. Now go to bed, tomorrow, we'll start at nine since it's your first day and I have yet to make a training regime', Anko said, pushing him towards one of the rooms.

Naruto grumbled all the way there, wondering if he had made a mistake with this psycho sensei. But she was still miles better than Kakashi who only told him to focus on chakra control and went on to train Sasuke or even Jiraiya who kept harping on about Kyuubi's chakra. Couldn't he see that he wanted to strong by himself.

At the Hyuga mansion:

'How did the meeting with the Inuzuka go, Hiashi?', an elder asks.

'It went well. As brash as he is, he was wise enough to bring us the news of my foolish daughter secretly dating Uzumaki.', Hiashi replies.

'Aah yes. The demon brat. The Hyuga clan cannot be associated with such trash. What have you done to separate them?', he asks Hiashi.

'Not doing anything actively would be better in this case. She has had a crush on him for years but hasn't acted on it. But now she's coming of age, she should know worthy candidates from the worthless ones. As such, I have been given Kiba my permission should he wish too court Hinata. A subtle push in his direction might wane off Hinata's crush on Uzumaki', Hiashi replies as stoic as ever.

Next morning, Naruto was treated to a huge breakfast of eggs and oatmeal, out of his own pocket of course. Last night, Naruto had offered to pay for everything during the six months. He didn't want Anko slacking off because of lack of money. Hell, he had way more than he could spend with the Uzumaki money his mother left him and that's not even mentioning the money his father had stashed.

All in all, Anko was getting paid 2 million Ryo out of the money Naruto had gotten from Zabuza's bounty. And so, before they started, Anko had done him the courtesy of going to the vilage's premiere ninja weapon store and bought a crap tonne of shuriken, kunai, ninja wire, storage scrolls, sealing ink and brush.

She had had even bought him some black ANBU pants and black t-shirts. Nothing too fancy but they were training in a forest with no human life but them. Who cares?

Not only had she brought the normal ninja weapons but two swords for each of them, nothing fancy though. When asked, she said he seemed like a dual sword shinobi. They wouldn't be focusing on kenjutsu as a separate art like Yugao or Hayate but using it in conjunction with other things such as kunai and ninjutsu and perhaps even genjutsu if Naruto showed any skill with it.

Unsealing his chakra for a while, she told him to create 20 clones. 10 worked on chakra control by sticking leaves on their foreheads and moving it around using chakra and the other 10 picked a tree and copied what Anko taught Naruto after resealing his chakra.

'Now then', Anko handed him a kunai. 'I want you to take this and pick a tree'

Looking around, he saw that all the trees near them had been marked with several bull's eyes circles several feet apart along their lengths.

Producing her own, she stared at him levelly, 'Now you need to watch what I'm about to show you very closely. This is very difficult'

And then without breaking eye contact with them or looking at the tree or moving her body, she launched the kunai, driving it into the tree all the way to the handle.

Seeing the surprise etched onto Naruto's face, she said, 'In Hebi Style, this is considered a basic move but very few can actually manage it. The key is to keep your shoulders straight, not let your eyes stray to where you are striking and move with the speed and the unpredictable suddenness of a cobra', she showed it to him again.

'Right', Naruto attempted to do the same, but he missed he missed the mark by two inches, his shoulders moved, and his eyes strayed to the bull's eye.

'Keep trying', Anko said, uncharacteristically. Naruto growled and grumbled and even ranted for a bit but quickly got back into it as he dodged Anko's expertly thrown kunai by a hair's breadth. She lost count of how many times his body had moved, or his eyes had strayed to the target or how many times she told him to keep his shoulders still.

After an hour, he had gotten it down halfway decently and Anko was counting the reasons not to kill him.

'Why do we have to do it this way?', Naruto asked. Never before had he been taught this way, either in the academy or the few times Kakashi had seen fit to teach them anything.

Anko had to bite back her annoyance, 'Because an enemy can't read your movement if you don't telegraph your intentions. That's the basic principle. Everything we do is to deny our enemies the chance to predict our moves'

'Ohh!', Naruto said, impressed by the reasoning. 'How did you come up with this?'

'What makes you think I did?', Anko raised an eyebrow and struck a kunai, cutting a gash in his cheek as he stopped practising in favour of talking to her.

'Oww!', Naruto yelled, glaring at Anko and quickly got back to striking the tree whilst staring at her. 'I haven't seen anyone else using this style that's why'

She supposed it was a logical conclusion but that didn't mean she was happy about him being so unobservant. After all, he had fought her sensei in the chunin exams.

'I didn't', Anko walked between the clones, correcting them on their postures and the way they were launching their kunai. 'Oro-sensei did when he was a genin. To negate the abilities of Uchiha and Hyuga'

That broke his concentration immediately as he turned to her, 'So if I get this down, I can beat Sasuke-teme's ass?'

Anko grinned manically, 'Not if you keep talking runt!'. Rivalry really seemed to motivate this kid. 'Keep practising an after an hour or so, I'll show you the next move', Anko said as she sped off into the forest.

Naruto grumbled. She was much too impatient to stay in one place and watch him mind numbingly strike kunai into trees. Something which he should have learnt at the academy. Not for the first time, he cursed his own inattention in school. Little did he know the instructors had deliberately taught him the wrong moves, in bukijutsu and taijutsu.

Anko returned after an hour and a half with a dead two rabbits and a host of vegetables. While Naruto trained, she skinned the rabbits and prepared a simple soup. She was training him to survive.

As they ate, Anko set up a TV and a few cassettes which she had brought with herself. 'Now brat! You promised never to share my secrets with anyone remember'

'Yes, sensei', Naruto replied.

'Oww!', Anko rapped him on the head.

'What did I say about that brat?', Anko glowered at him. She hated being called sensei.

'Fine. No sensei', Naruto went back to his soup, curious about what they were going to watch. Whatever it was, this wasn't what he was expecting.

It was a recording on Uchihas and Hyugas training in their respective taijutsu styles. The tapes were slowed down to show their specific katas. 'Cool!', Naruto exclaimed.

Anko snickered, 'Just keep watching brat'

A few minutes, what he was watching was enough to make his stomach turn. In between recordings of Uchihas and Hyugas training, there were recordings of a few of them fighting and being slaughtered by Orochimaru. It was enough to make his stomach turn, almost.

'Oro-sensei might be a genius but he's a complete monster', Anko growled. But this was how Orochimaru had shown her the katas when she was his apprentice. Neither Anko nor Naruto could deny the effectiveness of the tapes.

An, so after lunch, they got back to training, this sparring using the different Hebi style katas Anko showed him and he watched on tape.

As Naruto practised the katas again and again, Anko studied him most curiously and intently. It was obvious to her that the brat was trying to change his own personality. He was putting in obvious effort not to be as hyperactive and stupid as he had been for his whole life and to pay attention to whatever she said and his surroundings. He was beginning to use his head.

She was however impressed by the amount of effort he was putting into his training. Now that they had started proper taijutsu training, Anko had ordered him not to use anything he had learnt previously. To throw it out the window metaphorically.

When it looked like he had gotten the basics of the katas down, Anko lunged without warning. What followed next for hours on end couldn't be called anything other than a severe beating by a completely psychotic, sadistic bitch.

At the end of the first, Naruto had no strength to even more properly, as he lay on the bed bloodied and bruised. His nose had been broken more times than he could count. He had been stabbed, beaten, arms broken, healed, rebroken and re-healed.

Grumbling about sadistic bitches he fell into an uneasy sleep.

Naruto and Anko had taken a few trips into the village on weekends. It was important to keep appearances. At least that's what Anko had told her student. In reality though, they had no real use of it since Tsunade was well aware of what she and Naruto were doing in the forbidden forest.

Not that she knew Naruto could do much without access to his chakra. All she knew was that Anko was just showing Naruto how to survive in the wild, teaching him about poisons, venoms and how to counteract them. Which she was when she wasn't beating up Naruto and taking a sadistic pleasure from it all.

Naruto for his part couldn't bear to be away from ramen for more than a week. It was incredibly unfair that Anko had packaged dango with her in the tower and he was only allowed ramen one day a week.

But on Sundays, he went all out and ate as much ramen as his stomach could handle. Some of his friends were still avoiding him but Neji, Shino and Lee and Tenten and to an extent Shikamaru treated him as they had previously.

He had tried trying to see Hinata a few times, but her clan guards never let him, and on the times, he got to see her with her team, Kiba and sometimes Kurenai would stop him. Hinata however was clearly struggling not talking to him but she never did anything when they stopped him except look at him apologetically. He would have to find a way to catch her alone.

It was at the end of his probation period and he was called into the Hokage's office in an hour. He was still wearing his hideous orange jumpsuit that both he and his sensei had come to despise. Anko had insisted that he buy proper shinobi clothes as soon as possible but Naruto didn't want to give anything away that he had changed somewhat.

In reality, he didn't think he had changed that much. But he knew he had improved a lot under Anko's tutelage or rather torture. But he had a very bad feeling about today. And he didn't know why?

But first, before anything else he would go and see Hinata. He had gotten better at his sensory technique but not so much that he could sense all the way across the village. Not for the first was he jealous with someone with the byakugan.

On his way to the meeting Hinata, Naruto spotted the incredibly familiar pink hair of his teammate. She seemed to be conversing with her rival/friend Ino. Happily, he made his way forward. Surely, if Shikamaru and Choji weren't mad at him, why would Ino be. In one inane moment, he had forgotten she was just as much a fan of Sasuke that Sakura is. He paused slightly. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. He didn't want his mood spoiled before meeting Hinata-chan.

But by that time, he was close enough to hear what they were saying.

A confident and outspoken blonde girl with blue eyes; in a high collared blouse with a matching apron skirt; is conversing with her pink haired friend / rival. The pink haired girl is seen wearing a red qipao dress with short sleeves; tight dark green bike shorts with shuriken holster on the right thigh and a Konoha headband tied around her forehead.

'What's the deal with you and Naruto now?' Ino nudges Sakura. 'I haven't seen him around you guys much?'

'What do you mean what's the deal. He's a comrade and teammate, nothing special. He's not been around because I told him Sasuke-kun needs to adjust into the village. And that's true. Naruto-baka does nothing but screw up, make him angry and get the team into trouble with Kakashi-sensei. He can do nothing right', Sakura replied to her inquiry, saying Naruto as if the word was venom.

'Well I don't know about doing anything right, but he did bring Sasuke-kun back right. Don't you think you guys are being a little harsh by keeping him out of the loop. I mean you could include him in trainings.', Ino eyed Sakura curiously and with a little disappointment.

'Hell no, Ino pig. I finally have a shot with Sasuke-kun. I'm not gonna ruin it because of that blonde loser. At least he's over his silly little crush on me courtesy of Hinata. He's annoying and every time he is near Sasuke-kun, he only gets antagonises him by trying to look cooler than him or be stronger than him. Doesn't he realise that he just can't beat him! Our team dynamic doesn't need that right now. That loud idiot is gonna get us killed with him along with himself one of these days if he doesn't improve. I sometimes doubt if he even suitable to be a ninja so does Kakashi sensei', Sakura rants, not knowing of the stab of pain in his chest.

He couldn't believe it. His own sensei thought he wasn't worthy of being a ninja. Sure, he did say he was disappointed, but Naruto thought he would have been over it by now. And Naruto had even apologised for using excessive force. What else did he want from him?

'Hahaha, I mean what's with the orange. That's such an eyesore. I know he's toned it down ever since he started going out with Hinata but still. Such a weird colour', Ino agreed with her friend making Sakura snicker. 'But I think…', she paused when she sensed something.

As they both left the stand, they came across Naruto walking away with his head down.

'Ohh look there he is', Ino says. Wondering if they had messed up and he had been listening. 'NARUTO! There you are!', Sakura called to him. She made a move to hug him but he turned and walked off, leaving Sakura baffled. She had never been ignored by the blonde moron.

'You think he heard us?', Sakura asks. 'I don't know. Maybe. We should apologise to him just in case he did. He did look a bit upset.' Ino replies. 'Oh yeh. I'm gonna go over to his apartment later in the evening to see if he wants to train with us tomorrow. And then apologise then', Sakura thought of the solution. Naruto never takes anything to heart. It'll be easy to get in his good graces again.

Yes, Naruto was upset. No, Livid more like it. His friends thought of him as a liability, only good to bring their precious Uchiha back. Nothing more. Nothing special, as Sakura-chan said.

'No! Not Sakura-chan. Just Sakura. Just Haruno.', If he's nothing else to her and she is the same to him. Enough is enough.

With the loss of his teammate, Naruto wanted to spend time with his girlfriend. It was always around Hinata that he could drop his mask. His fake smile. And he genuine around with. He collected the present he got for her. A couple of crystal Macaw parrots sitting on a branch with a heart between them. And so, he made his way to Team 8's training ground. Most probably Hinata would be there pounding the wooden poles mercilessly with her Jyuken.

Supressing his chakra as much as he could to surprise her, he made his way to her usual spot. Only to stop when he heard with Kiba. Ofcourse he trusted her. It was him he didn't trust. He had seen how he had been leering at Hinata like she was a slab of steak. Now it was time to put him in his place. He saw her laugh, albeit hesitantly. And blush! She was blushing with Kiba. That bastard.

She drew closer to him. Kiba says, 'You know Naruto is not worth your time, your name and your family's prestige and most of all you. I know you like him but all I'm asking is for you to give me one chance.'

'But Naruto-kun is my boyfriend Kiba-kun. I do like him. I've liked him ever since the academy. Yes, he is loud and sometimes childish, but I like that about him', Hinata defended him.

'Well Naruto isn't here. Its just me and you right now. One kiss. Just once. I'll show you I can make you happier than he can. I can please you better', Kiba says drawing even closer. Now she was confused. She didn't know what to do. She can't betray him. But what Kiba was saying was making sense for some reason. Didn't she deserve to see who can make her happier. Who she wanted to be with. With that she replied, 'J… just one. K... kiba-kun'. And they locked lips and snogged for a good half minute eventually drawing apart.

Naruto's heart was crushed. First Tsunade, then Haruno, now his beloved Hinata-chan. Why?! Why is it so hard for people to be loyal to him? Was there something so fundamentally wrong with him?

'I want you all to myself Hinata. I will rock your world and show you what you've been missing out on. Let's go on a date Hinata. Tomorrow. I'll take you some place fancy. Naruto probably can't afford something like that. All he takes you to is most probably ramen', Kiba comments, intent on driving away any of Hinata's feelings about the blonde demon bastard. Before Hinata could reply, Kiba drew in closer for a second kiss. 'K… Kiba-kun, you said one kiss', Hinata squealed. 'What if Naruto-kun finds out'. Kiba bristled as she called him -kun. It was going to take some time for him to occupy her heart but no matter. He was as stubborn as Naruto. Before they could kiss again, they heard a crash and turned on instinct and into defensive stances.

What they saw made Kiba excited with joy and Hinata scared, guilty, sad and number of fluttering emotions she had no chance to analyse right now. There in front of him, Naruto with his hands by his sides clutched into fists, tears streaming down face; fists trembling; a broken crystal heart at his feet, separating the two love birds for what seemed like eternity.

'N… Naruto-kun this... P…please… Listen..', Hinata tried to speak but before she could finish, Naruto says in the most devoid of emotion, broken voice she had ever heard come out of his mouth and it broke her more than she could explain.

'Gomen Hinata, I'm sorry I didn't know you liked Kiba. If I had I would have stepped aside', he wipes away the tears that flowed down his face like a river and flees the scene. He refused to cry in front of her.

Hinata was crushed. Her heart was in pieces. She had never seen Naruto cry. It was breaking her and she didn't know how she could put herself back. If she wanted to put herself back again. All she needed right now was to see him.

She had to make this right. 'NARUTOOOO', she cried after him, but he was gone, and she ran to catch up with him, faster than she had ever run in her life, pushing as much chakra as she could in her legs.

Eventually she found him huddled to a tree, sitting on the ground shaking. Approaching carefully, she quietly says, 'N…Naruto-kun. I'm s… so sorry', she blurted out.

'No… I'm sorry. I was so blind and stupid. Forgive me, Hinata. I will step aside and give you your freedom. I wish you happiness in life. Goodbye, Hinata Hyuga', he looks at her, eyes pull of pain and despair, like his whole world had come crashing down in the space of a few minutes, his lips quivering and his face red.

'N… no. It's not', she couldn't finish her thought, his pained eyes changed to cold, emotionless, piercing blue looked at her as if looking at her for the last time. Then he was gone in a shunshin.

She fell to the ground in despair. As if all the happiness been sucked out of her. What had she done? She looked to the spot where her Naruto-kun had been moments ago. No. Not her Naruto-kun. Not anymore. The puddle of tears on the ground confirmed that now. He was hers no longer. He was too fast. She couldn't see where he had teleported to.

Naruto, in consecutive shunshins was across the village on top of the Hokage Monument. Surprisingly clear headed. He wasn't emotionally broken anymore. Perhaps because he was still in shock. It would take a while for his emotions to catch up to the events of this day. And no doubt like a storm. This was just the calm before it. All he felt was a cold, burning rage.

That was it. He had made his choice. There was no use staying in a loveless village where his friends fear him; his teammate thinks of him as trash; his girlfriend betrays him; his godparents don't believe in him; his sensei ignores him, and the villagers hate him.

It occurred to him now, he been wearing a mask of the fool for so long; had been playing the fool for so long that somewhere along the road of life, he had become the fool. That was probably why nobody cared for him, treated him the idiot he made himself out to be. Years of hate was catching up to him now.

'Shit!', he screamed in anger. He just remembered the promise he made to Anko. He would never run away and abandon Konoha. Now he was regretting it more than anything in his life.

'Brat, there comes a time in every person's life where he must choose between what is right and what is easy', Anko had said to him once when he had told her that sometimes the pain of hatred got too much and he wanted to end his life or flee from the village.

'Do you know why most ANBU don't take marry and have children, at least when they're still serving?', she had asked him, still beating him down with every punch or kick he threw at her.

She didn't care that he was in a world of pain and his left arm was broken or two of ribs cracked. She was educating him.

'No', he had wheezed with difficulty.

'So, they will not love', Anko replied sagely and like a cobra, she struck again, a palm heel to his face and he went down again, spluttering and spitting blood. 'Love is the death of duty. Everyone does their duty when there's no cost to it. Honour comes easy then'

Naruto was pulled from his reminiscing of Anko's lessons when he said the approaching ANBU. He didn't need to see who it was to know them. Before they even appeared, Naruto turned towards them, 'Neko', he greeted her.

He didn't see the look of momentary surprise etched on her face behind her mask, 'The Hokage has summoned you in the council chambers, Uzumaki-san'

Naruto narrowed his eyes. Why had she changed the meeting place suddenly? There was something else going on here. This was one moment where Kakashi's lesson of 'seeing underneath the underneath' was very useful. He nodded as Neko took her leave.

Why were his instincts screaming at him that he was walking into a trap? Surely Tsunade wouldn't change his probation, would she? She can't be that heartless.

Making a split-second decision, he created a shadow clone and instructed it to go to Namikaze compound and gather all the money and scrolls that were there. He didn't have much time until an ANBU came looking for him again.

Biting on his thumb, he sped through hand seals, 'Summoning Jutsu', and instantly from a puff of smoke came a purple viper, about 80 cm long.

'Hatchling', she greeted him. 'What is it that you need? Where are my rats?'

'I'll get you the rats later, Amy-chan! Right now, I need help!', he quickly explained what was going on and what he suspected. She quickly agreed to help him in whatever way she could and went back to her realm to gather the summoning contract.

With a heavy, pounding heart Naruto made his way to the Hokage tower, forcing himself to be calm. This could all be in his head after all.

He knew the way to the council chambers. He had pranked Sarutobi there a few times. What he had expected was nothing like what he actually saw when he got there and opened the double doors. Immediately, it looked like his heart was about to leap into his throat.

In the chamber, one side sat the civilian council and on the other side sat the shinobi council, with Heads of each clan. What surprised him was the number of his friends that were present. As heirs and heiresses of their respective clans, they had the right to sit in on important meetings so they could learn for the future when they were the heads.

On the top right was a table where the three elders sat. Anko had told him the names of each. Danzo Shimura, Himura Mitokado and Koharu Ututane.

Out of everyone present, Danzo was the only who had the darkest chakra. Naruto had met him a few times when he had pranked Hiruzen and the man gave him a very creepy vibe.

Next to them sat Tsunade looking very sombre. It was her face that immediately told him that this was bad. It wouldn't turn out well for him. Jiraiya, who stood next to her had a tightened jaw.

Naruto could sense other ANBU present but hidden. Anko was also in the room but he couldn't see her. He wondered why. If this was a council meeting why was she present. He was confused even more when the doors opened and Sakura, Kakashi and Sasuke entered the room.

'Good. We're all here', Tsunade started with a defeated expression but a strong voice. Her eyes were hard, but he could see she had already agreed to whatever was going on. Now all he could do was wait.

'What's going on, Baa-chan?', Naruto said with a goofy fake smile plastered on his face.

'Naruto-baka!', Sakura clubbed him on his head. 'Show some respect!'

What was the use, he thought? They were never going to respect him anyway. They only see him as the demon and the fool. It's much easier to fool them all if he kept acting the part. No need to make them more suspicious.

'Naruto Uzumaki. The council has debated on what would be the consequences of your actions six months ago', Tsunade said looking straight at him.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. Did they mean to execute him? No. She would never allow that. 'And?', he asked. There was no point reminding her that the probation was the consequence.

'The council has been informed of your status as the container of the Kyuubi and reminded that it is an S-class secret that cannot leave this chamber, on pain of death!', she continued. He could see that that Sakura was beyond confused and looked somewhat horrified as he looked at him.

Sasuke however seemed angry. No, he was livid. Probably thinking why, he wasn't given that power to defeat Itachi. Naruto mentally scoffed. The Uchiha had a one-track mind. Extremely selfish.

Hinata was trying to catch his eye but he refused to look her. He couldn't face the pain of her betrayal right now.

'Six months ago, when Sasuke Uchiha attempted to defect to Orochimaru', Koharu took over from Tsunade. 'You were given the mission to bring him back under the team led by Chunin Shikamaru Nara'

Naruto nodded. He finally understood what was going on.

'Sasuke Uchiha was being controlled by Orochimaru's seal when he defected and he told you so but when you fought him, you deliberately used Kyuubi's chakra and injured his gravely', Koharu added. Naruto eyes widened. Sasuke had said that?! Of course, he did. The bastard was saving his own skin.

In a way, Naruto even respected that move. Deception was a shinobi's greatest weapon. A shinobi has no honour.

'Now we understand things can get out of hand in the heat of battle and Sasuke Uchiha used a Chidori on you. As such you were both punished and put on probation without missions for six months', Koharu continued.

'This meeting wasn't about that. It was about you consciously using the nine tail's chakra and its consequences. Do you deny it?', asked Tsunade.

Naruto jaw tightened. He had to find a way out of this. 'No, I don't'

He could see Tsunade as well others were shocked. They were expecting him to plead his innocence. He was shocked as well but he knew playing into their delusion was the best way to go for now.

Tsunade regained her composure quickly. 'Very well then. Time to decide what your punishment will be'

What followed next was a shouting match between the civilians who screamed for his execution and the shinobi council who said it was a bad idea.

'I say we let him off with a warning and training to control the beast's chakra', Danzo said, shocking the entire room, even Naruto. He had always thought the elder's hated him and would do everything to see him dead. There had to be another reason why Danzo was siding with him.

'No! Absolutely not!', said Tsume Inuzuka, Kiba's mother who glared at Naruto and Danzo. Her clan had lost a great many members to the Kyuubi including her husband. Kiba agreed with her mother, if the hateful look he was giving Naruto was any indication.

'We can't lose a weapon like the Kyuubi', Danzo said calmly. Internally, he wanted to kill the idiotic woman. 'Every great village trains their Jinchurrikki and yet we have done nothing. All his jounin sensei ever taught him was tree walking. That is beyond pathetic'

Naruto smirked. Kakashi even looked slightly ashamed.

'That loser doesn't deserve being trained!', Sasuke spat. 'I'm the last Uchiha! I need that power and training to kill Itachi!' That sparked another debate between the council members.

Naruto was wondering when Sasuke would lose it.

'The only other choice we have is too seal Naruto's chakra completely and lock away the Kyuubi's chakra for good', Tsunade said shocking everyone else.

'Tsunade. You can't mean that!', Jiraiya implored. 'I thought we agreed that I would take him on a training trip and teach him to control it. Naruto, you have the right to appeal this decision and defend yourself!'

Naruto couldn't believe that she would stop him being a ninja. His anger was quickly reaching his boiling point but forced himself to breathe slowly and the mental exercises Anko had taught him. Soon, he could think clearly.

'That is still what I am saying. Until he learns to control the Kyuubi. His chakra will be blocked, and he will not be a shinobi', Tsunade stated ignoring the outcry from the civilians. They didn't understand.

Konoha couldn't lose the asset like that. If the other village's got wind of it, they will surely attack, not to mention the Akatsuki.

Naruto's mind was speeding through possible ways to get out of this. And surprisingly, he came up with a plan. And unpredictable one as always. He had an advantage here and sure as hell he was going to use it.

He coughed, getting their attention. 'I agree… with the Hokage. It is safest for Konoha to have my chakra completely sealed and the Kyuubi locked'

All his friends and even Kakashi looked at him in extreme shock as it registered what he said.

Even Tsunade was beyond shocked. She was expecting him to vehemently object to it and as a compensation, she would have Jiraiya take him on a training trip for three years.

Jiraiya had told her that it would take the Akatsuki three years to be ready and coincidentally, it would take Orochimaru three years to be ready to change bodies and come after Sasuke.

This was all going wrong. But she still had a way to fix this. To remind him of his dream. 'But…Naruto. What about your dream?'

Everyone who was present had heard him say numerous times how he would be the greatest Hokage ever. That was his dream.

To their shock, Naruto laughed. But it cold, unemotional. 'You were right. Only a fool would want to be a Hokage. I no longer do'

It broke her how hopeless he looked in that moment. She couldn't even say anything when the council decided to seal his chakra completely and immediately.

And so, a sombre faced Jiraiya placed several seals on Naruto's body after he stripped down to his boxers in front of everyone and Tsunade watched in horror as the seals activated.

Naruto screamed. The pain was beyond anything he had ever felt. It was agonizing. As if being stabbed with a thousand knives and every muscle burning.

After a few minutes of excruciating pain, he fell to the ground, panting and sweating. Naruto hobbled to his feet with great effort. He didn't see the faces of his friends. He didn't want to. They had betrayed him when they hadn't fought for him.

Naruto took out a paper from his pocket and gave it to Tsunade, 'I resign my commission as ninja of Konoha and the Land of Fire'

She took the paper and seeing as he had no chakra usage now, she stamped. There was nothing that could be done. They didn't know what was happening but apparently one of them did as he walked out. Anko followed him out leaving a silent and surprised council behind.

'Nooo!', they heard a shout. Surprisingly, it was the shy Hyuga who had spoken up, all red in the face. Hiashi looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. 'We c…can't do this! We s…shouldn't. All he did was c…complete his m…mission!', she glared at Sasuke. 'He should be punished…'

Unknown to Naruto, the council meeting went on for another half an hour thanks to Hinata's outburst, much to Hiashi, Kiba and Tsume's displeasure. Most of the shinobi agreed that it was too harsh a punishment especially when the Uchiha was well.

'You've already made up your mind haven't you brat?!', Anko shouted at him as they exited the dango restaurant an hour later, Naruto having treated Anko to crap tonne of dango. 'What about your promise?!'

'Anko-chan, I'm not breaking my promise', he smiled at her sadly. 'I promised not to defect and I'm not defecting'

'But you still want to leave!', she spat, refusing to show any tears.

'Anko-chan. How can I stay? I can't use any chakra now', he pleaded. He didn't need to, but he at least wanted her consent if only to assuage his guilt.

Anko searched for an answer but couldn't find one. After six months of living together and training him, she had come to look at him as her younger brother. Not that she will ever say it to his face. 'Promise you'll return', she said quietly.

'Only if you promise me to give love a chance', he answered sagely. After everything she had been through, Anko had convinced herself that she wasn't going to love anyone. Lust yes but not love. Not after Orochimaru.

She scoffed, 'As if there's anyone of my standard brat!'. Naruto raised his eyebrows, 'Fine', she acquiesced. If anyone found out that she had agreed to anything so easily to the blonde haired baka, her reputation would be ruined.

'Then I do too', he grinned her.

Completely out of character, she hugged him tightly, squishing his head into her well endowed chest, 'Be careful out there, runt'

'I will nee-chan', he nodded, pleased to see that she wasn't as cold as she portrayed. She kissed his forehead and disappeared in a shunshin, probably to drink and drown her sorrows.

He made his way purposefully to his dingy apartment that he hadn't used in more than six months, carefully scanning the area around for people he knew. He didn't want to see any of them.

Sasuke was seething as he left the Hokage's tower. No scratch that. He was livid. First, the loser ruined everything by stopping him using the beast's power. Figures, he couldn't beat Sasuke himself, so he had to resort to the beast. He hadn't even denied it.

Then Sasuke had been forced to remain under house arrest for six months and barely training, if sparring with Kakashi could be called training. But now, he learnt that the dobe wasn't even being punished for his insolence. And after he had gone out of his way to convince the council how he had been forced by the cursed seal, he had thought Naruto would at least get what's coming to him. But no, the council and the Hokage had decided that he was to be taken away from the village by Jiraiya and trained to use the beast.

Why would that idiot, no good loser, Naruto get to be trained by a Sannin and have the power of the beast when he, the last Uchiha, the avenger didn't. Even Sakura had objected to that when Tsunade had ruled it. He needed that power, not that Naruto. And now, after stopping him from being by a Sannin, Naruto gets to go and do the same thing. It was bloody unfair.

So yes, he was livid. Of course, they had tried to placate him by making him an apprentice to Kakashi and to be trained by Tsunade. He supposed that would do, for now. It wasn't like the dobe could get any stronger. He couldn't even use any jutsu now. That was the only good thing Sasuke could think of. At least, Naruto got what he deserved for becoming a thorn in his side.

Naruto, on the other hand, was quite happy. He had taken a couple of soldier pills and had replenished his chakra after having an insane amount of ramen. The ANBU watching over him were terribly confused. As was Jiraiya who was spying on him. This wasn't the mood expected of a former shinobi who dreamed of becoming Hokage and now had his chakra sealed off.

However, that good mood wasn't to last, however. Naruto sighed. He was standing in front of the post he was once tied to, in training ground 7 and had been reminiscing of the first time Team 7 did anything when he felt the familiar signatures.

Of course, leaving him alone was too much too ask. He should have known they wouldn't leave him alone.

'Hatake, Haruno, Uchiha', he said without turning to them. If Kakashi was surprised he was detected, he didn't show it.

'Naruto', Kakashi replied. 'How are you?', immediately, he winced internally. What a stupid question to ask of someone who had his chakra sealed and dream taken away.

'I've been better', Naruto still didn't turn to them, 'And I've been worse'

'Chaa! Naruto… Stop trying to look cool', Sakura yelled. 'You aren't even a shinobi now'

Naruto slowly turned and merely smirked, 'You're right, Haruno' and then started walking away towards the monument stone

Sasuke, still seething, wanted to put this idiot in his place, 'You think you can just ignore us and walk away, loser! I'm talking to you'

Kakashi saw the confrontation about to happen and made to put a stop to it. Granted, he wasn't happy with Naruto's cold attitude towards them but given everything that happened today, he understood. 'Ma Ma Sasuke. No need to be so rude'

Naruto resisted the urge to scoff as he continued on his way. There was no need to bother with the likes of them. He heard Sakura's yell of 'Naruto-baka! Don't ignore Sasuke-kun!'

Naruto however paid no attention, bending down and tracing his hand over a name on the monument, Kushina Uzumaki, 'Goodbye, Kaa-chan'

Sasuke had now reached his boiling point. How dare this no clan, classless, chakra sealed, idiot treat him like he wasn't even worth acknowledging? 'You dare pretend that you're my equal, loser!'

Naruto was well aware of the surrounding hidden ANBU and Jiraiya in the dense foliage of trees. He had sensed them the moment they had arrived.

Jiraiya gasped. He had been channelling chakra in his ears to hear what Naruto did at the monument. Never in a hundred years would he have expected him to know the identity of his mother, Kushina.

How in the hell did he even find out. But more importantly, what did he mean by goodbye.

Naruto chuckled, 'You're right. I'm not your equal'

Instantly, Naruto sensed the spike in Sasuke's chakra behind him. He smirked. The idiot was so predictable.

Sasuke charged, fist cocked back, in a burst of speed.

'Shit!', Kakashi cursed but refrained from interfering. He knew them well enough that they would need to work out their differences by the only way they knew how. By fighting.

What no one was expecting was for Naruto to shift his head to the right at the last second and avoid the punch without even looking at Sasuke.

Momentarily surprised, Sasuke didn't stop. He followed it through with a roundhouse kick. Naruto instantly turned, bent right and within a second, he was within Sasuke's guard and like a cobra, he struck with his palm to his throat.

Sasuke instantly went down, chocking and coughing, unable to get up with tears in his eyes. All the onlookers watched with shock etched on their faces. No one had even seen Naruto move for the strike.

'Sasuke-kun!', Sakura yelled and ran forward to her crush as he tried to breathe on the ground.

Naruto watched him with a raised eyebrow, 'Pathetic'

Kakashi was shocked out of his stupor at watching Sasuke go down like a brick and hurried towards his genin. How had Naruto done that? But neither he nor anyone else get to ask him that they saw Naruto put his right wrist over a seal on his left forearm.

Before anyone could say or do anything, Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke.

'It was a shadow clone?!', Sakura yelled, shocked. So were others.

'Impossible', Kakashi said, now that Sasuke had recovered and wasn't choking anymore. 'He doesn't have access to his chakra and he can't do any ninjutsu'

'Then how did he do that!', Sasuke yelled, completely outraged.

'No no no!', saw a red blur as Jiraiya sped out of his hiding place and rushed to Naruto's apartment. He just realised what Naruto had meant.

Apparently so did Kakashi and soon he was hot on Jiraiya's tail. A few shunshins and a few minutes later, they had broken down the door to Naruto's apartment.

Inside, everything was as if it hadn't been lived in for months. Hurrying, they made their way into his room and only found two letters.

Hurriedly, they opened them up. As soon as Jiraiya read them, he didn't wait for Kakashi as he sped towards the Hokage's office.

A few minutes later, a heartbroken and livid Tsunade had ordered the few genin they could muster to report to Kakashi on the north gate.

'This is an urgent mission', Kakashi said to the group gathered in front of him. 'We have just realised that Naruto has left the village. Our mission is to track him down and bring him back!'

'So, the idiot defected and he's a traitor!', Kiba growled, 'Figures'. He didn't see Hinata's death glare.

'Actually. Naruto is now a civilian since the Hokage sealed his chakra and accepted his resignation', Shino said to his teammate.

'Which means that Naruto-san can go wherever he likes', Neji completed his observation.

Kakashi sighed. He had been hoping that they wouldn't realise that and be more motivated if they thought Naruto had defected. But before things could get out of hand, he said, 'Regardless, we've been given a mission to bring him back'

'Shouldn't be too hard since the dobe has no chakra', Sasuke snarled. This was his chance to make dobe pay for that insolence before. How dare he call Sasuke pathetic when all he got was one lucky shot.

Just then ANBU appeared, 'Uchiha-san. You have been ordered to stay back by the Hokage'

Kakashi sighed. So, she still didn't trust him enough to not run away again. Hardly unsurprising when Naruto had just done the same, regardless of if he was a shinobi or not.

'What?!', Sasuke growled. 'I should be the one to hunt him down!'

Kakashi ignored Sasuke's protests and Sakura's agreement for now as he summoned to two ninja dogs. 'Pakun which way did Naruto go?'

Pakun sniffed the air for a moment before replying, 'There are three trails. One north, one west and one south'

Kakashi was somewhat impressed. How had Naruto been able to form shadow clones with his chakra sealed?

'Okay. Team 8 go south. Team 10 take Gakun and go north. Sakura, you're with me and Pakun and we'll take west. Sasuke, I'm sorry but you'll have to stay back', Kakashi ordered and at once the three squads were of, intent on bringing back Naruto Uzumaki to the village.

It's been almost two hours since each team set off in their chosen direction.

'Hold on! There's another scent with him now', Pakun said as they ran after Naruto's blood clone.

'Who is it, Pakun?', Kakashi asked. He had hoped it wasn't Akatsuki. If it was things just got a whole lot more complicated.

'I don't know but it smells like a toad. They're fighting. We're almost half an hour away from contact', Pakun replied.

'Good. Let's hurry it up. Jiraiya-sama must have sent the toad to stop Naruto from advancing any further', Kakashi stated.

A green toad the size of Naruto jumped onto Naruto-clone attempting a horizontal slash with his katana. A clone jumped upwards and landed a demonic chakra powered kick to its face. Before the toad could recover, taking out a kunai he embedded it to the toad's head without mercy. Having chakra sealed really did a number on him. It felt like he can't do anything without it.

'They've stopped fighting and Naruto's on the move', Pakun informed.

'Shit!', Kakashi cursed. How had Naruto defeated the toad so quickly.

Teams 8 and 10 had given up their chase as the Naruto they had been tracking suddenly vanished, signifying they were both shadow clones.

'This means the one team 7 is tracking is the real one, right Shikamaru?', Ino asked.

'Maybe. I wouldn't be so sure.', Shikamaru replied.

'What do you mean "maybe". There were only three trails. With two gone, it only leaves the original.', Ino exclaimed. She didn't like it might have been her fault that Naruto was trying to flee the village.

'What I mean is, this is Naruto we're talking about. He'd never do something so predictable as leave through the west gate himself and head straight to the border. I wouldn't be surprised if they all turn out to be clones', he explains.

'Yes, but the scent is stronger for that one. Much stronger. Means it is probably the original', Gakun said.

'Let's see', Shikamaru relented.

Having decided it was far away and feeling he would be caught any moment now, the Naruto-clone stabbed itself in the heart and dispelled into a pool of blood.

'He's stopped moving.', said Pakun, Gakun and Akamaru to Kiba.

'Good. This means he's either out of stamina and doesn't want to run anymore', Kakashi was glad. Of all the times he had fought the dobe, he knew it was never this simple with him. He always a had a trick up his sleeve.

Ten minutes later all three teams descended onto the same spot. The blood pool with a kunai on the ground. Needless to say, the genin were confused.

'Wait. What the hell is going on? Where is Naruto?', Ino asked.

'Troublesome… I told you, Ino. We played right into his hands' Shikamaru replied.

'I can't believe it!', Kakashi was perplexed. They had been outfoxed. By the blonde idiot. 'It was a blood clone.', Kakashi explained. 'That's why it had a stronger chakra and scent than the others.'

'Ano… What's a b…blood clone?', Hinata asked. 'We've lost him.' She was breaking inside.

'It's a forbidden jutsu. I don't even know where he learned it', Kakashi replied to her.

'And since all the clones took off in the direction of the border, this probably means that the real Naruto went in the opposite direction. And he probably fooled the toads into thinking he left from the west gate and had his clones leave from there', Shikamaru added. 'We should have expected this from him. This is Naruto we're talking about.'

And so, the team headed back to report a failed mission and dead toad.

'Jiraiya! Where have you been?', Tsunade yelled. 'Did you try summoning him? How could he have left?'

The pervert had appeared in the window and looked solemn but determined as he regarded both Tsunade and Shizune. 'It's much worse. The toads tell me that he summoned them and demanded the key to Kyuubi's seal'

The others gasped. 'How did he know?!'

'I don't know yet', Jiraiya replied. 'Maybe he figured it out himself. From the looks of his apartment, he had been studying fuuinjutsu. He's an Uzumaki. It comes naturally to them. But that's not all. When Bunta refused to give it to him, he cancelled the contract with the toads and declared a blood feud with the Gama clan'

'WHAT?!', Tsunade yelled, slamming her fist into the table, cracking it in two. 'How did things go so wrong?' Tsunade sat with her head in her hands. Not two hours ago, they had gotten the council to agree to send Naruto with Jiraiya for training for 3 years. Not only would it have kept him safe from the Akatsuki who won't be ready for another three years or Orochimaru trying to take Sasuke back.

Now not only had Naruto taken it upon himself to leave the village, which was Tsunade's objective anyway, they couldn't even label him a missing nin since he wasn't a shinobi of their village anymore but a civilian. And as a civilian, he had the right to go anywhere he wanted. Not that the council would care about something like that. The brat contained the Kyuubi. They'd never let him go like that.

'You should read this', Tsunade handed Shizune the letter Naruto had written to her.

'Shizune

I can't begin to thank you enough for the kindness you have shown me. For always being there for me. For being my confidant and the light in the darkness. My family. Yet, I must pain you when you find out about my departure. I cannot stay here anymore. I can bear it no longer. Know this though, I am not becoming a criminal. I will try to do this as legally as possible. I will not betray Konoha, but neither will I stay here.

This accursed village has taken too much from me – my childhood, my friends who betrayed me, the girl I loved and now my chakra and my dream.

But I am not an idiot. I know that even if I resign my commission, the Hokage and the Council will still send hunters and retrieval squads after me, even when they have no right to. Simply because they can't lose the Kyuubi. Even after they sealed it and my chakra.

I'm deeply sorry for the pain I must have caused you by doing this, but it was necessary. This is the shinobi world after all. Please give the necklace back to the Hokage. I no longer deserve it or have the right to keep it. Perhaps she can give it to the Uchiha when he becomes the Hokage. Say goodbye to her for me.

Oh, and give Iruka some encouragement. He likes you a lot but is a little shy and possibly intimidated. You are a Sannin's apprentice after all. I might see you sometime in the future. Please take care of yourself.

Love,

Naruto Uzumaki'

She didn't know what to think. That she means so much to Naruto. She had no idea. His light in the darkness. She had thought that honour would go to Tsunade-sama or Hinata. Certainly not her.

Tsunade fell in her chair in despair as she looked at the necklace in her hand. Which she had so lovingly given to him. Which was the symbol of their love, their unbreakable bond. Not in a hundred years did she think this day would come. Which he had just returned. Just to see if Naruto would give Konohamaru any useful information in his letter to him, she read it too. As expected, she was disappointed that he hadn't.

This wasn't the overly emotional, blonde, orange wearing gaki they had come to know. This was a person with forethought and calculatedness. But no matter, he was obviously overestimating his own abilities if he thought he could run away without any chakra. Within a day, they would bring Naruto back and she would pound some sense into him. Then everything should be all right. She consoled herself and Shizune as she ordered an ANBU to take the letter to Konohamaru.

Unknown to them all, Naruto hadn't used a shadow clone in front of the monument stone. By pushing what little chakra he could into a seal on his left forearm, he had signalled the snakes that he was ready.

Then, the snakes, already stationed at the border of Fire Country had simply reversed summoned him.

Currently, he sat in the ruined Uzumaki temple on the border of Fire Country, the only place he could think of where they wouldn't be able to get him. In her letter, his mother had told him how she had altered the barrier around the temple that only he could enter.

And since he hadn't travelled here, they wouldn't be able to track his scent. Neither would Jiraiya who was currently dealing with a load of shit with the Gama clan concerning a dead toad.

The next day, the elders sat in Tsunade's debating what was to be done about the Kyuubi brat.

'We can't just let him lose', said Koharu, she had been against this whole training trip idea from the start.

'That goes without saying', said Homura. 'I always told Hiruzen not to be so soft with the brat. Now he's betrayed us'

'I agree with you Homura. He should have been trained properly from the beginning', Danzo said shrewdly. He had already known about the brat running away. No matter how had had portrayed it by giving his resignation, it was still the same. The brat was a Jinchurrikki. He had a responsibility to his village, much more than other ninjas.

Though, in a way he understood why he left. Given that his chakra was sealed, he probably that he could no longer be a shinobi and the civilians would not have let him live peacefully here if he had stayed.

'We all know how you train your ninja, Danzo', Tsunade growled. She hated even the thought of Naruto becoming a mindless tool like another of his ROOT.

Danzo sighed disappointedly. She was young and naïve. 'That is true but in Uzumaki's case, if I had been allowed to train him, I would have taken a different approach. Jinchurrikki need to be able to control their emotions and not lose them lest they become like that unstable Sand Jinchurrikki.'

'The problem remains what do we do now?', Homura brought them back to topic. 'I say we put him in the Bingo book'

Tsunade looked about ready to explode, 'No. Absolutely not. I refuse'. She was not going to allow that to happen.

'I hate to say', began Koharu. 'But I agree with Homura. We need to hunt him down'

Tsunade even surprised herself when she said, 'Danzo. Can your people find Naruto discretely? That way we don't announce to the world that we've lost our Jinchurrikki.'

Even Danzo was surprised that she would ask for his help. It was true that he had spies everywhere and that he was much better at espionage than the perverted fool, but never would he have expected her to ask for his help. So perhaps she was better than Hiruzen in that regard.

'Yes. I can have them start searching', Danzo replied. 'Though it might not be a good idea to force him to come back'

The meeting went on for another house as to how they will proceed should they find him. In the end, Tsunade gave Danzo 2 squads of her ANBU for this mission and he agreed to work with Jiraiya.

Elsewhere, a thoroughly defeated and depressed Hinata lay in her room, crying all day. She hadn't left her room since she returned from the failed Naruto retrieval mission.

A week later, Naruto had gotten tired of the constant presence outside the temple and decided to deal with it. Without access to his chakra, he didn't have much to do except work on his fuuinjutsu and research on how to get rid of the damn seal Jiraiya had placed on him.

The first two fingers of both his hands were covered in seals and the first time he had tried to make a tiger seal he had broken two fingers accompanied with an immense pain.

As strong as Jiraiya's chakra blocking seal, Kyuubi's chakra was stronger. As such, a minute amount still filtered through when Naruto needed it. Although, it did take a couple of days for his fingers to heal.

'Itachi Uchiha', Naruto addressed the man standing in front of him, dressed in Akatsuki black cloak with red clouds, just across the purple barrier. 'What brings you here?'

'Naruto-kun. I've been looking for you', the stoic man replied. 'You ran away from the Leaf'

'I didn't run away!', Naruto replied. Would he have to keep explaining it to everyone he met that he wasn't a missing nin.

'You escaped and created diversions to fool your inevitable pursuers', the man replied just as calmly as before. It nerved him how monotone he was. 'I call that running away'

Naruto chose not to answer that. Instead, he asked, 'Are you here to capture me again?'

'No. I'm not here on Akatsuki business', Itachi replied, extinguishing the fire he was sitting in front of. 'I knew you would find your way here sooner or later'

Naruto narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He found that hard to believe. 'Really? How?'

'Where else would you go except look for some traces of your lost clan', Itachi replied as if it was obvious. Just then Naruto realised how incredibly stupid he had been. Of course, if Itachi had figured it out, then so had Konoha.

It must have showed on his face because Itachi said, 'Worry not. It seems Konoha hasn't figured it out yet'. Itachi walked forward and just when Naruto thought the barrier would stop him, the man walked right through.

Startled, Naruto jumped back, taking out a kunai. This was bad. Here he was thinking that the barrier would work. Tough luck.

'How did you get through?', Naruto growled. Had he realised how to edit the barrier?

'I came here with your mother when she created changed the barrier and she included me in those permitted to enter', he said heading inside as if he already knew the place.

Sensing that the man didn't mean him any harm yet, Naruto followed him in, eager to know more about his mother.

'Why you?', he asked.

'She was my jounin sensei', Itachi replied surprising him. He really wasn't expecting that. 'She told me one day you would look for this place and asked for me to help you when the time came if she wasn't there'

Naruto didn't know what to think. What did he mean?

'What does that mean?', Naruto asked, still suspicious of his motives.

Itachi smirked, a rare occasion, Naruto thought. 'It means I'm going to train you'

'Wh…what?', whatever Naruto expected the mercenary to say, that wasn't it.

'Unless of course, you'd rather train yourself', Itachi continued with a deadpan expression. Naruto resisted the urge to grumble annoyedly. However much he was trying to change, there were still his previous urges which were sometimes stronger.

He knew he had no other choice. On the other hand, he was also curious. Why would he choose him? Could it be that he only wanted to repay him because Kushina was his jounin sensei just Jiraiya only looked for him when the Akatsuki became a threat and not before? Perhaps.

'Fine', Naruto agreed, feeling slightly guilty about acting petulantly but hey, he was a soon to be thirteen-year-old growing boy, he was allowed some leeway.

An hour later, they had packed whatever scrolls and books there were in the temple, along with the oni masks and set off wherever Itachi was leading him.

'We really shouldn't be moving out in the open like this', Naruto said after a day's travel. They were travelling east as far as he could tell. 'I'm trying to stay away from Konoha and Akatsuki dattebayo'

He resisted the urge to slap his palm on his face. Naruto had been trying hard to get rid of his verbal ticks. They were too much of a giveaway.

Itachi watched him emotionlessly, with a raised eyebrow as Naruto's jaw tightened. So, he was angered at his verbal tick. Interesting. That means that his passive, stoic personality was quite recent. 'You can't be stupid enough to think that the Akatsuki don't know where you are already'

Naruto's head snapped towards him. 'What?!'

'Zetsu is the best infiltrator and spy in the world', Itachi replied. Which means that Tobi and him already knew where Naruto was. Whether they had told Pein was another matter.

'B…But why haven't say come for me then', Naruto was so confused.

'They won't be ready to seal the tailed beasts for another three years. They only sent Kisame and I to judge the extent of your abilities and those of your protectors', Itachi told him.

It made sense, he supposed. But then that means, 'So I only have to hide from Konoha'

'Yes', Itachi got rid of the fire and they set off again. They had only stopped for ten minutes at a time after every two-hour run. However, he didn't know what the hell they were actually doing?

Itachi was mildly impressed. Almost. But also slightly disappointed that Naruto hadn't figured it out yet. They would run in one direction at a fast face then change direction to ninety degrees and continue and at a slower pace and then run back the way they came to get on their original route. Naruto however, had no idea why this was happening.

Other than that, Itachi was impressed that a genin could keep up with him. Granted, he wasn't going at his usual fast speed, but for a genin to still keep up with him without the slightest bit of complain was impressive. And when he had his chakra sealed, even more so.

Finally, in the dead of night, having avoided ANBU patrols, they arrived at their destination. It was only an opening in front of a cliff, covered by trees and vegetation. Itachi sped through hand seals and slammed his hands on the ground.

Naruto recognised complex fuuinjutsu when he saw it and this was a highly complex one, judging by the number of third and fourth level arrays that appeared on the floor. He didn't get much time to think as Itachi gave him a piece of paper to read.

'Uchiha Hideout number 10, Fire Country'

Instantly, a compound appeared out of nowhere as the vegetation slid away. Itachi hadn't said a word so Naruto assumed they had to keep quiet. He might be a little stupid but after everything with Anko, he had learned to be observant. Granted, his observation skills still needed work.

On the large, front, wooden doors was the Uchiha symbol, painted in all its glory. Naruto followed him in. All in all, it looked like Sasuke's house in the Uchiha district vaguely.

'Where are we?', Naruto asked. A stupid question since he had just read it on the piece of paper Itachi had just burnt.

'One of many Uchiha hideouts from the Era of Warring States', Itachi informed him. 'Eastern border of Fire Country'

Naruto thought that was really cool. That way the whole clan wouldn't be located in one location to be wiped out in one night, like Itachi had done with his and what happened with the Uzumaki.

Naruto looked around the house. It was grander than Sasuke's house but not much different. Quite bland and boring.

It was also in quite bad condition. The paint on the walls was coming off, the wooden beams were broken in some places, walls cracked, stones and rubble lying around. He guessed they would have to fix it during their time there. In the end, he was quite content when he went to sleep.

The next day, he didn't need to be woken up when Itachi came into his room at six in the morning. Training with Anko, he had learned to get up early or risk her pummelling him into the ground. He forced the fond memories away else he would miss her too much. Her, Shizune, Konohamaru and Iruka were now they only people he actually cared about in the accursed village.

In a large village without thousands of people, having only four precious people was actually sad.

After his morning runs and a large breakfast, he sat with Itachi outside in the veranda discussing his training.

He learnt that Itachi wasn't a fan of mincing his words after Naruto relayed to him what he knew. 'Your speed is average. Your form in sloppy. As a ninja your skills include Rasengan, Kage bunshin, Kanashibari and Mesaigakure and Fireball jutsu. Other than that, your taijutsu is … subpar'

Naruto tried hard to contain his anger. He had tried so hard with Anko and he had learned more from her than Kakashi and Jiraiya combined.

He was about to say it when Itachi continued, 'Yes, I know about your training with Anko. The fact is your taijutsu is subpar because you were taught wrong in the academy and had no style to begin with. Six months ago, you fought like a drunken brawler. Now, you fight like a slightly drunk brawler.

'What do we do then?', Naruto asked. He was well aware that even now, he still had meagre skills compared to Sasuke, even though he had improved a lot.

'So, we will start with chakra control every morning until your control is up to jounin or ANBU level. You will probably never have control like a med-nin or a Hyuga because of your vast reserves. So, we have to play to your strengths. Then we will spend a few hours taijutsu sparring', Itachi said.

Naruto grew very suspicious at this. He had made Anko a promise and no way in hell was he growing to break it. 'How do you know Hebi style'

Itachi smirked, 'You are more observant than people give you credit for Naruto-kun'. Indeed, he was the only person other than Orochimaru and Anko to know Hebi style before Naruto. 'I served under Orochimaru as my ANBU captain for a while and I memorised some of his techniques and katas'

This was getting even more suspicious, 'I thought that the Sharingan…'

'Yes, the Sharingan can't read Hebi style movements when executed properly but that doesn't stop anyone from learning them without the Sharingan, like you did'

An hour later, a panting and thoroughly beaten Naruto lay on the floor. He hadn't been able to land a single hit on the damn Uchiha. All of them had so far been avoided or blocked and he was thrown around like a rag doll. He couldn't believe it. Even Anko wasn't this fast. Though she more brutal.

'What did you learn, Naruto-kun', Itachi asked, unfazed and not even slightly winded.

Naruto thought over the last hour for a few minutes. There was only answer to the beating he had received, since he was sure Itachi wasn't using Hebi style. But he wasn't using Sasuke's style either. Sasuke's style was much more like Kakashi's with some variations.

'Hebi style is useless for someone who defends instead of attacks', Naruto said, now slightly depressed. He had thought that this style was the best, invincible. Now he was learning how wrong that was.

Itachi was slightly impressed. He hadn't expected Naruto to be able to pick that up. However, he had also been right about Naruto fighting as if he was a drunken brawler, despite being trained in taijutsu by Anko. Right now, it was a bastardised version at best.

'Good', said Itachi. 'Now tell me, how many secret taijutsu styles are in Konoha?'

How the hell was he supposed to know if they were secret, Naruto thought grumpily. Still, he wasn't one to give up and history was never his strong suit. He hated studying and now it was showing. He had never done good in school, partly because the teachers didn't make any effort with him but mostly because Naruto slept through everything.

'The Jyuken, Akimichi style, Inuzuka style…Hmm', Naruto forced himself to remember more. 'I don't know any more'

Itachi had been expecting this. Naruto had only started taking him and his shinobi career seriously only recently.

'You're right. The others are the Hokage's Monkey Fist which he learnt from his summon monkey king Enma; the Senju style which Tsunade perfected by enhancing it with chakra and the Goken, which Gai and Lee use', Itachi said.

Naruto noticed he hadn't included the Uchiha in it.

Itachi seemed to know what he was thinking and gave him a slight smile. 'I didn't include the Uchiha because for many years now, the Uchiha haven't had one complete style of their own. They copy different styles and meld it into one. What's the benefit of that?'

Naruto felt as if he was being schooled, which he essentially was. 'It's unpredictable. Each shinobi can have different styles so it's hard to counter'

'Exactly. You might have noticed that Sasuke doesn't fight like that', Itachi continued with the lesson. Naruto nodded. He had seen Kakashi and Sasuke sparring many times with fancy moves and katas. 'Sasuke prominently uses Kakashi's style which is the Humdinger style of the Yondaime. Your father'

Naruto's eyes widened at this. Smirking, he thought what Sasuke's reaction would be when he found out. Or he might know already seeing as he was probably Kakashi's apprentice now.

'So now, what my style. How do I fix it?', Naruto asked him. Hebi style's weakness now was glaringly obvious to him.

Itachi gave a slight smile, 'Simple. Hebi style focuses on counter attacks. We need to teach you another style which focuses on offense'

Naruto didn't really like that idea. He liked Hebi style. Everything about him fit that style. Itachi seemed to sense his reluctance and said, 'Then we can meld the two'

'Which style?', asked Naruto, though he had an idea already. It was whatever Itachi used.

'The Uchiha Interceptor Fist', Itachi said.

Naruto had never heard of it before, 'What's that?'

'It's the original style used by Madara Uchiha. It was forgotten and discarded later in favour of copying other styles', Itachi sighed disappointedly. Just another example of Uchiha arrogance and overdependence on the Sharingan.

And so, the morning was spent with Naruto training in the basic katas of the Interceptor fist.

Itachi couldn't help but see the glaring problem. Naruto's self-made and wrongly learnt katas were so inbuilt that he would revert to them almost automatically.

He had to find a way to stop that.

'Okay. Naruto look at me', Itachi ordered. Naruto looked towards Itachi and almost instantly was drawn into Itachi's spinning red eyes. Unlike normal Sharingan, his eyes had a curved shuriken.

Itachi ventured into his memories and found several in the earliest days of the academy with the instructors purposefully teaching him the wrong things. He searched for as many similar memories as he could and blocked them, burying them under a mountain of other memories.

It was time and chakra consuming but eventually after almost an hour, he was done. The pain in his eyes was almost unbearable as they bled.

Naruto was horrified at Itachi's condition, who was groaning and clutching his bleeding eyes. Naruto dragged the Uchiha inside to clean him up.

As he prepared lunch, he went over all the scrolls he could find in the library in the compound on the Interceptor fist. He wasn't an idiot. He knew there was a reason Itachi thought this style would suit him even if he didn't have Sharingan. Just practising the basics, he could see it was strong. And if Madara had used it then it had to be kickass.

Next time, he would surely kick Sasuke's ass if he ever met the guy. What he didn't understand was why Itachi trusted him enough to teach him the secret Interceptor Fist style. He would ask him later when Itachi was feeling well.

The other question was what the hell he was going to do about his still sealed chakra. He didn't have nearly enough knowledge to be able unseal it and he didn't want to test untested seals on himself. That could be disastrous.

The next few weeks, Naruto spent religiously training his body and in both taijutsu styles and sparring with Itachi whenever possible. Itachi spent half the week away from the compound, doing missions from Akatsuki no doubt. Not that he would tell Naruto even when he asked.

Naruto's knowledge in fuuinjutsu was also increasing in leaps and bounds. So much so that, Naruto had begun using his resistance seals on his body to emulate weights.

Itachi wasn't a big fan of weight training as it only worked on certain muscles and not the whole body. That was more of Gai's thing.

Ever since Itachi had subdued his memories of being taught the wrong academy katas, his skill in taijutsu had shot up significantly. Thought that something to do with Itachi shooting him with lightning and electrocuting him every time he digressed back into his previous brawler form.

The bastard was sometimes more sadistic than Anko. Naruto had noticed something else as well. When he returned some days, he had unexplainable lightness in him. His aura was also lighter, as if he was almost…happy. Naruto scoffed at the idiotic thought. Itachi was perhaps the sullenest bastard he had ever met. Much more than Sasuke.

He wondered if brooding ran in the Uchiha genes. Training without chakra had strengthened his body by quite a lot and he had increased in speed. His stamina had greatly improved as well. Now, he could run at 60% his maximum speed for two hours without getting tired. When he left Konoha, it wasn't nearly 60% or 2 hrs long.

On his break, Naruto was lounging around when one of his newly created sentry seals sounded the alarm of entry of someone who wasn't authorised o recognised by the seals. In an instant, he was on his guard, hiding and two kunai in his hands, waiting to ambush the intruder. How the hell did they get in anyway? Didn't someone have to know the location of the compound beforehand. It was then that the seals alerted Naruto of Itachi's entry into the compound.

Relaxed, he came out of his hiding place and saw a beautiful older woman, with a triangular face, dark red eyes and dark brown hair, wearing a simple dark grey kimono. While she was beautiful, all his experiences with Jiraiya peeking on women and Anko, he knew staring at her would not be good for his health.

Instead, he quickly diverted his eyes to the person behind her, Itachi.

'Ah Naruto-kun', Itachi said, 'I'd like you to meet Misaki from the Demon Country'

Naruto smiled and instantly bowed, remembering the manner and etiquette lessons Itachi had been pounding into his head lately, 'Misaki-san, nice to meet you'

'You as well, Naruto-san', Misaki smiled at him serenely. 'Itachi-kun has told me a lot about you', looking admiringly at said man. This didn't go unnoticed by Naruto.

Instantly, several perverted jokes came to Naruto's but for his own health, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

'So…what brings you here?', he said, following both of them inside.

'You actually', she surprised him.

'Really?', Naruto raised an eyebrow at Itachi for an answer.

But it was Misaki who replied, 'Yes. Itachi-kun told me about your situation asked me if I could help'

The other two in the lounge as Naruto got up to brew Camomile tea, 'What situation exactly?'

Naruto didn't like tea but for some reason, Itachi adored it so Naruto put up with it. What he really did miss was his precious ramen. He hadn't had any in weeks. Though what he really wanted to know was what the hell was really going on between Itachi and this woman. He was beyond suspicious and his guard was up even though Itachi seemed relaxed.

'Oh just that your chakra's sealed and even when it is unsealed, you have poor chakra control because of your large reserves and the Kyuubi coupled with the malnutrition, you haven't grown properly in years and that has severely hindered your ninja ability', she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Naruto was vaguely aware of his dropped jaw and open mouth as he stared from Misaki to Itachi. 'Right'

Misaki seemed to sense his reluctance and suspicion and smiled, wanting to ease it, 'Don't worry. I'm not an enemy. I'm here to help you with those problems'

Naruto blinked a few times. How would she help him? He could sense that she was a kunoichi even though she couldn't be a fighter, her chakra pool was sufficiently large, condensed and controlled. If anything, she seemed like a…

'I'm a medic', Misaki said as she accepted the cup of tea. 'Itachi-kun asked me to help'

'And your priestess just let you go with a rogue-nin wanted in nearly all the great nations?', Naruto found that hard to believe.

To his surprise, Itachi actually smiled as Misaki laughed. He didn't miss how Itachi gaze seem to linger on her, as if wanting to memorise her features. Something was definitely going on.

'He's definitely a suspicious one', Misaki said to Itachi.

'That he is', Itachi nodded, sipping his own tea. 'Misaki-chan isn't a ninja Naruto-kun. So, she just had to ask permission from the hospital, and they let her go'

'Oh right… In that case thank you', Naruto said, pleasantly surprised. He was happy that someone actually cared for Itachi beyond his mass murderer status.

'No problem', Misaki put her cup down. 'Do you mind if I see the seals?'

Naruto hesitated for a moment but then decided to go through with it. Hell, if Itachi trusted her, then she should be trustworthy enough. He nodded and took off his shirt, aware of how four of his ribs were sticking out and how he was on the skinny side.

He had improved his diet, but years of malnutrition couldn't be cured in six months. Misaki seemed to notice that as she frowned, clearly not satisfied with his physical condition as she shook her head sadly.

Misaki took out a camera and circled him, taking pictures of the seals placed on various parts of his body. There was one on each leg and arm; one on top of Kyuubi's seal; one on the back of his neck and two on the first two fingers of his hands, stopping him from making any signs.

'This is incredibly complex, Naruto-san', she commented as she finished taking the pictures. 'I'll need a month or more to study them before we can do anything else'

He had expected it. 'Are you seal master, Misaki-san?'

She chuckled, 'Not I'm not. I'm a level four Intermediate'

Naruto was immensely surprised. Practitioners of sealing jutsu had various ranks. The most basic ranks started from apprentice (beginner) from which one then advanced to intermediate, levels one to five. If the intermediate apprentice passed that, then he was an advanced student, which contained two levels. When one passed that, then he or she was a master of fuuinjutsu. But that only worked with Uzumaki fuuinjutsu. There were other clans and monks who practised it albeit were less of experts than Uzumaki.

Which posed the question, how was it that she knew it. Naruto only knew it because of the few scrolls he had recovered from the temple, 'How do you know the levels, Misaki-san?'

'That is classified, Naruto-san', she smiled sweetly at him, enough that Naruto understood it won't end well for his health if he pushed it.

'Okay then', Naruto made to get up and leave these two weirdos alone when Itachi interrupted him. 'Misaki-san will be living here from now on, Naruto-kun. At least on some days'

Naruto looked from Itachi to Misaki. Now he was sure something was going on between them. 'Why?', he asked. There was a slight looko of hurt on her face. Naruto hastened to explain himself, 'I'm still being hunted, Itachi. By both Konoha and Akatsuki. If they track me here, I won't be able to protect her especially with sealed chakra'

Surprisingly, Misaki brightened up at that, which just confused him more. Who the hell is happy at being hunted by two shinobi organisations? 'Oh, that's okay, Naruto-san, I'll protect you'

Naruto wanted to scoff at her declaration but then he remembered both Shizune and Tsunade were medics and were dangerous opponents in their own right. It was then he remembered something.

'Okay. Hey, if you're staying here, could you please teach me the chakra scalpel technique?', he asked hopefully. He had been wanting to learn it ever since Kabuto almost stopped his heart with the damn technique.

Although, it was nowhere near as good or dangerous as the Hyuga gentle fist, where one strike could destroy or liquify organs, it was something at least. And he had no hope of learning the Gentle Fist without a Hyuga to teach him or the byakugan.

'Of course, I will', she replied, happy that they had something in common at least, other than their age. Itachi was around 17 or 18 years from what he could tell and from what he knew of Sasuke. The woman looked around 16. But he knew better than to ask. 'That's what I'm here for'

That threw him for a loop. It must have shown on his face because she chuckled, 'You didn't think I came all this way from Demon Country just to see a seal, did you?', she asked amusedly.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Admittedly, he had.

'Itachi-kun asked me for help in training you', she continued. 'So, I'll be here for maybe four days out of the week. I'll be your trainer for fuuinjutsu and kenjutsu'

Fuuinjutsu he understood but kenjutsu was a surprise. 'Kenjutsu?'

'Hai', she nodded.

Six months later:

Konoha had changed drastically. On the one hand, they had begun to face drastic problems with their economy. News of Naruto's chakra being sealed and him leaving the village as a result had spread to other villages and Naruto's powerful friends in other countries had reduced their ties with Konoha.

It had also quietened down considerably, at least to those who knew Naruto, friends or not. Even those who hated the demon brat noted the lack of wide-spread pranks, the yelling of 'becoming Hokage', the orange blur racing up and down the village.

Tsunade stood in her office, overlooking the accursed village which the gaki had convinced her to return to and now, the same gaki wasn't even present. She had even reduced drinking so much in her depression and worry. Granted, it allowed her to do more work, but nothing was good anymore.

The ANBU, hunters and Jiraiya had spent six months looking for her blonde gaki but couldn't find any sign of him anywhere. According to Jiraiya who had informants everywhere, it was like he disappeared of the face of the earth or at least the Land of Fire. There weren't many places he could go without someone of his spy network identifying that bright blonde hair and whiskers marks.

So, it was with heavy heart that she had done what she had to. Jiraiya had returned unsuccessful in his mission to locate and bring Naruto back. So now, it was inevitable. She glared at the hated black book on her desk.

'It sure has gotten quiet since Naruto-kun left', said Shizune standing a little further from her, with the pig ton-ton clutched in her hands. She had requested Tsunade to go back to practising medicine at the hospital, instead of being her assistant.

So, begrudgingly, she had replaced Shizune with a chunin who she thought was overly eager to please Tsunade. Nonetheless, it allowed them both to get more work done.

'Yes, it has', Tsunade sighed. 'Wasn't that long ago when he was barging in the office all the time, demanding missions'

'I'm sure he's fine, Tsunade-sama', Shizune added. Her master had become increasingly upset and depressed ever since Naruto had left. She had even suggested therapy with the ANBU therapists but Tsunade had steadfastly declined.

There was a knock on the door followed by silence. After a few seconds of making sure she wanted to do it, Tsunade called them to come in.

Even Shizune didn't know what this was about when all the genin from Team 7, 8, 10 and Team Gai were present along with their respective jounin senseis.

Tsunade took a while to look at her elite genin. Contrary to what they may think, they weren't the only genin to graduate from their class. Hell, 9 genin out of every class per year would be a pathetic amount for a village their size.

They were in the elite ninja training program in the academy. The other standard military program had a lot more graduates and not everyone of them was appointed a jounin sensei or team for training. They made up the majority of the village's genin and then subsequently chunin.

Kakashi looked bored as usual but for once he wasn't reading his kami forsaken porn. She had threatened to burn his entire collection if he read it in her presence. But one look at him and her medic eyes told her everything she needed to know. The man wasn't getting enough sleep and by the slight lounging forward, he was working himself too hard.

Sasuke had his permanent scowl etched onto his face. Even though he had been taken off probation six months ago, he wasn't allowed to do missions higher than C-rank for two more years. Less, if he behaved himself.

Sakura was the one who had surprised Tsunade. Two weeks after Naruto had left, Sakura had paid her a visit and requested, more like demanded to be taken as her apprentice. Of course, Tsunade had been briefed on Sakura's sharp eyes, analytical mind and tough spirit but she had only struck her as a fangirl.

She was coming out of that delusion but the flitting of her eyes to scowling Uchiha beside her showed Tsunade that her apprentice had a long way to go.

Speaking of sharp eyes, she looked towards the shy Hyuga girl. Now she looked entirely different from Sakura. While Sakura looked alert, Hinata looked depressed. Her eyes were firmly fixed on the floor and she had held her hands together as if trying to keep herself together.

Of course, Tsunade had asked Sakura what had happened between Hinata and Naruto but all she was told was that they broke up. Tsunade was sure that was one of the reasons why her blonde gaki had the village.

Hinata felt Tsunade's critical eyes on her and fought the urge not to blush at the scrutiny. Ever Naruto had left the village, she had been very depressed. For the first month, she hardly even came out of her room if she wasn't on missions. Her meetings with her team had also been limited, mainly because she didn't feel like seeing anyone outside of team training.

Kiba however was grinning like a goon, from ear to ear. What about this situation was funny, Tsunade couldn't tell? But Kurenai had told her that for some reason, Kiba was acting more and more like Naruto. Telling odd, awful jokes, being extra loud and being the self-claimed alpha.

Kurenai saw Tsunade's unasked questioned and nodded subtly. They would talk later. Shino looked as stoic and calm as ever, hidden by his large cloak and his sunglasses, much like all the all males in his clan, it was hard to read him.

Team 10 by far looked the most normal out of them all. If one can overlook the perpetually bored out of his mind look of the lazy Nara, Chouji who was most certainly thinking about lunch, by the look on his face and Ino's admiring looks to the Uchiha.

Tsunade threw a hated glare at Asuma who hadn't stopped smoking since coming into her office. Damn the Sarutobi men. Her sensei had been the same way.

She resisted the urge to puke at Gai's and Lee's sickly green outfit that hugged their bodies like a second skin. She couldn't decide what was more awful, that or Naruto's kill-me orange jumpsuit. The Hyuga, Neji looked alert and stoic as did his teammate, Tenten.

For her highly observant and practised eyes, it only took a few seconds to make all the observations she needed.

'Do you know why I called you all here', Tsunade sat her desk, throwing one hated glance at the pile of paperwork still to be done.

Kurenai took it upon herself to answer, seeing as none else volunteered, 'Is it about Iwa's bingo book?'

Kurenai wasn't surprised that she knew. Most jounin kept themselves aware of bingo book updates of major villages.

'Partly yes', Tsunade answered. 'As you all know, we have abandoned the search for Naruto after seven months of not finding him. The council thinks we cannot spend more resources on it than we already have.'

Immediately, some looked solemn. No one had forgotten the wild goose chase Naruto had led them on and ultimately fooled everyone. Even the Hyuga's byakugan and Kiba's nose.

'But that's not all. We didn't send out any official parties of missions after Naruto to prevent other villages knowing about our secret. However, that seems to be irrelevant now', Tsunade pushed the book towards the nearest jounin, Kakashi.

'What do you mean, shisho?', asked Sakura, looking at the book in Kakashi's hands as he flipped through it.

Everyone else was curious as well but as usual, Shikamaru figured it out. 'He's in the Bingo Book isn't he?'

'WHAT?!', Sakura almost yelled. Everyone else was surprised as well.

'It can't be!', Ino gasped. 'Naruto may be an idiot, but he isn't a criminal'

Tsunade raised her eyebrow at the Yamanaka's statement.

Even Asuma looked at his student disappointedly as he answered, 'Bingo book entries aren't always for criminals. They also include strong ninja from other villages who could be a threat to their rival villages. In this room, Kakashi, Hokage-sama and I are in the Bingo Books for Kumo and Iwa. It seems that Naruto has somehow made it into Iwa's Bingo Book as well'

The genin looked on in shock. For some, they couldn't believe that the two laziest jounins were so strong as to merit entries in two countries' bingo books. For Sasuke, his scowl deepened. From jealousy or concern, Tsunade didn't know.

'How? What did the baka do?', Sakura said. Kakashi handed her the book and she read his entry to the group.

'Wanted alive. Bounty 100,000 ryo', Sakura finished. 'It doesn't say what for'

'Jiraiya thinks that it was Akatsuki or specifically Itachi's doing. What better way to find someone by having two countries look for him', she said drawing several emotions from group.

'Which brings me to why I assembled you all here', Tsunade continued. Now the group looked even more alert, even Hinata was looking straight at her instead of down. She smirked. She would instil some confidence in her soon enough.

'What is that?', Sasuke asked somewhat rudely. He didn't care about the slight growl from the Hokage's lips or the warning look from Kakashi. Now he was in a foul mood as it is and didn't want the old hag, as Naruto would say, to waste anymore of his time.

The dobe, even though had no chakra or was even a shinobi now, was still surprising him. It bugged him greatly that his brother was so interested in the loser as to orchestrate this entire thing. Not to mention, being in the Bingo Book was an honour in of itself, if one didn't do any crimes that is. And the loser had made it into the book before Sasuke, even if it wasn't on his own merit.

Tsunade threw the Uchiha brat a glare. Hopefully, he would be brought down a peg or two soon. Ignoring him, she continued, 'Our spies have informed us that neither the Akatsuki nor Orochimaru would be ready for another two years, maybe three. That gives us or more specifically you plenty of time to prepare.'

'Prepare for an attack from them?', Asuma asked.

'Yes. Akatsuki's goal is to collect the tailed beasts and use them on the Great Villages. It's a safe bet that even without the Kyuubi, they will be paying us a visit', she answered.

'Well let em bring it. We'll kick their asses no problem!', Kiba exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air.

'Yosh! I agree with my youthful friend!', Lee gave her a thumbs up.

Before they could get started on their rant, she continued, 'That means, as the elite genin of your class, I will need all of you to up your training. Shikamaru and Neji are Chunin already, the rest of you will be entered into the next exams being held in Iwa. I want all you to be chunin within a year and jounin within three or four years.

The council and I have also reformed our shinobi program. You all have three years to get the most of your senseis at which point, they will be given another graduating genin team in addition to you. As you will likely be chunins, you will also help in training them.'

'YOSH!', Lee and Gai gave her thumbs up.

'I have also taken the liberty of asking your respective clan heads to increase your trainings in your respective clan jutsus', she looked at them. She had talked to the perpetually lazy Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka, Choza Yamanaka, Hiashi Hyuga, Tsume Inuzuka and Shibi Aburame.

'We need to be ready for another attack from either Akatsuki or Orochimaru. As such, Tenten, I hear you are interested in Kenjutsu?', she looked at the double bun haired girl in the Chinese style qipao blouse.

'I am very much Tsunade-sama', Tenten replied enthusiastically. It had always been her dream to be a powerful kunoichi like Tsunade, but she learnt that she didn't have the necessary chakra control needed for a medic. But she didn't give up, instead pour all her training into weapon skills and fuuinjutsu.

'Perfect', Tsunade replied. 'Cat!', she called seemingly to no one. Instantly, an ANBU with long purple hair and a katana strapped to her back appeared kneeling in front of the Hokage. She wore a white ANBU mask resembling a cat with three red whiskers on each side.

'This is Cat. She is the premier kenjutsu master in Konoha. If you pass her test, she will train you', Tsunade informed a thoroughly shocked and surprised Tenten.

'Hai! Thank you, Hokage-sama!', Tenten nodded happily.

Sasuke stared at the ANBU and the idiot weapon throwing girl he remembered from the Chunin exams, barely able to hold in his jealousy. Of course, he had heard of her. She was trained by Hayate himself who was her master. Why does that idiot girl get to train with her and not him?

'Hinata!', Tsunade addressed the shy girl.

'H…Hai. H…Hokage-sama', she stuttered in shock at being singled out.

'I've already talked to Hiashi and in addition to your training with him, you will be training with Shizune and later me, in medical ninjutsu. I expect your best effort, understood', she looked at her expectantly.

Hinata was too shocked to reply. It was a great honour to learn from the best medic in the world. 'Hai… I'll…do my best'. Truthfully, no one but Kurenai even knew of her wish to be a medic. She hadn't told anyone in her clan, not that anyone would listen, about it since they would think her weak.

Could it be that Kurenai had informed that Hokage? But why her? She wasn't anything special, unlike Sakura who was brilliant and a genius in her own right.

'Ino, if you pass these chunin exams, Ibiki has expressed an interest in training you', she continued. Truthfully, he hadn't but the Hokage had forced him to.

Ino grimaced but nodded, nonetheless. She didn't know what she thought about being trained by that sadist. But she knew that he was once her father's apprentice and had surpassed him in interrogation skills.

Kakashi narrowed his lone visible eye. It seemed like Tsunade had taken this Bingo Book news very seriously and to the heart. And coupled with Naruto's continued disappearance, she wanted her elite genin to be as strong as possible. Was she expecting them to fight Akatsuki or Naruto himself, should he be found? Was she expecting Naruto to turn against them?

'Sasuke. You will be training under Kakashi and Jiraiya. You wanted to be trained by a Sannin, now's your chance', she told him.

For the first time, in nearly six months, Sasuke was genuinely glad and happy. A grin made its way to his face. He heard from both Naruto and Gai how Itachi had fled after Jiraiya had shown up to rescue Naruto.

Under his training, Sasuke was sure he could defeat Itachi. Finally, the village sees sense. The dobe wasn't worthy of having such a strong sensei. Hell, he was even stupid enough to get rid of the summoning contract and make an enemy of the toads. Sasuke won't be making that mistake. Granted, he didn't much like toads, but they were one of the strongest summoning clans, so he'll take it.

Kakashi looked on in shock. Never in a hundred years would he have expected Jiraiya to agree to training Sasuke. Kakashi had asked him that six months ago but he had refused. What had happened to change his mind?

The others looked at Sasuke in surprise and awe except Neji who still resented him for almost betraying the village. Now he was taking what was Naruto's as well. Surprisingly, Kiba had the same feelings Neji. He had also almost died on that mission. Why did that bastard and the dobe have to be given such a strong sensei, a Sannin and not him?

Why did he have a genjutsu mistress as a sensei? Something he couldn't even use because of his chakra control. 'What about me?!', he asked, somewhat petulantly.

Kurenai looked at her student, not at all. She also felt that Kiba should be taught by someone else. She didn't know many ninjutsu and Kiba couldn't pull of the most basic genjutsu if he tried. But recently, his behaviour had begun to change drastically.

'What about you?', Tsunade looked at the brat who had a part in driving Naruto away. She hadn't missed the way he looked at Hinata. She couldn't confirm it, but she was sure he was involved in whatever happened between Naruto and Hinata. Alas, she couldn't let her personal feelings get in the way of the strength of the village or its shinobis training.

'I also a need a teacher to teach me badass ninjutsu!', Kiba exclaimed. Akamaru barked in approval.

'Oh… why?', Tsunade obliged the brat.

'Because I'm the alpha! And I'm going to become Hokage!', he replied to her. Everyone looked at him in shock.

Tsunade didn't know what to say to the brat. What she saw wasn't a genin trying to become Hokage. She saw a genin trying to emulate Naruto. And she wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

'Right', Tsunade looked towards Kurenai who shrugged. 'I've already talked to Tsume. She's going to be training you herself. Other than that, Asuma can teach you ninjutsu and Kurenai can teach Ino genjutsu'

He seemed placated by that somewhat. But what he really wanted was Jiraiya as his sensei. Which is why he kept glaring at Sasuke's back. First the dead last, now the broody bastard Uchiha. What do they have that he doesn't? He's much better than either of them.

He also hated Sasuke for going after Hinata when he could have any girl he wanted. But Kiba wasn't going to let that happen so easily.

Tsunade dismissed them all, after telling them on the missions they will be assigned for next or so. She held Kurenai back.

'Now, what's happening with him?', she asked her jounin.

'Well…I'm not completely sure, Tsunade-sama', Kurenai paused trying to think of a slightly easier way to breach what she was sure was a sensitive topic for the blonde Hokage. 'Ever since…Naruto left, Kiba has been…'. She didn't know what he was trying to do exactly.

Tsunade nodded. She had guessed as much. 'He's trying to emulate Naruto, right?'

Kurenai nodded, 'Yes. It's like he's either trying to fill a gap so that others don't feel his Naruto's absence'. She didn't say the other thing she suspected.

But Tsunade wasn't the best medic in the world for no reason. 'Or he's trying to replace Naruto in someone's heart', she spat angrily. She knew what the boy was doing. Honestly, she was mildly impressed. Quite sneaky. She wouldn't have expected such a cunning move from the brash Inuzuka.

Kurenai cursed internally. She didn't want the leader to think badly of one of her genin.

Tsunade pondered over this. 'Well. At the moment it looks like it's only teenage rivalry. I don't care what they do in their personal lives just make it doesn't get out of hand'

Kurenai nodded and left the building, intent on talking to Kiba about his recent behaviour. Maybe, he only needs time to think about it.

A year later, Naruto walked along the desolate and quiet bridge leading towards the Kiri rebels. He could barely see a damn thing in the thick mist, but he could at least sense Misaki walking beside him. This was Itachi's idea and they had all discussed it at length. Naruto still thought it wasn't worth it but both Itachi and Misaki disagreed.

The fact of the matter was, no matter how much Naruto trained, he still couldn't be good enough if he didn't have actual combat experience. So, he had reluctantly agreed. No matter how much Itachi had tried to change Naruto, he still retained much of his stubborn and naïve personality. But that would change soon enough, Itachi hoped.

'If we die here in this hellhole, I'm gonna kill Itachi', Naruto grumbled.

Misaki chuckled, 'Don't worry, Naruto. They have no reason to kill us'

No later had she said that, they were surrounded by at least a ten Kiri ninja, dressed in their usual slate grey flak jackets with extended shoulder guards worn over black shirts and trousers with basic ninja sandals.

Nearly all of them had some sort of blades in their hands, whether it be kunai or katana. Since they weren't even close to where Itachi's spies had told them the rebels were located, Naruto realy hoped these weren't the bloodline hating people. If so, they'd be in considerable amount of trouble.

'Halt!', one of them with the captains badge said, 'Who goes there?'

Naruto looked at Misaki and decided to just come out with the truth straight away. He was never one to hide his motives. That at least in Itachi's eyes was a great weakness on his part. 'We've come here to meet with Mei Terumi'

'Why?', asked a subordinate. 'Answer or die'

Misaki chuckled and to his horror said something he really hoped she wouldn't, 'If you think you amateurs can defeat us, then you're sadly mistaken'.

Someone in the crowd growled, 'We'll see!' but before he could make another move, Misaki continued, 'We've got a proposal for her that we believe she will be interested in'

'No deal!', just as they were about to attack Naruto flicked his wrists and readied his kunai, not wanting to go down without a fight, they were halted by another person's arrival. 'Halt!'

To Naruto's great surprise, the man in his forties had an eye patch on his left eye. That wasn't the surprising part, it was the popping veins around it that made Naruto's blood boil. 'Byakugan!', he nearly growled. Why it that a Kiri shinobi had a Konoha bloodline?! But if there was any doubt of these people being the rebels, it was erased instantly.

'Indeed. So, you must Aoi', Misaki greeted him, but still cautious.

Naruto forced himself to hold back on his question until they made more progress with the rebel leader. He was mildly surprised when the man addressed him, 'Tell me. What is Naruto Uzumaki doing here?'

It eased his tension somewhat that they didn't know who Misaki was. He didn't want her to be in even more trouble because of him or be put in someone's bingo book.

'We want to meet your leader', Misaki said, not liking being ignored.

Aoi seemed to be considering it for a few seconds when he nodded, 'Alright. But you will leave your weapons here'

Not liking this but hesitantly Naruto gave up his kunai and shuriken pouch and the katana on his back. He a few more emergency weapons in one scroll which he too handed over and the second he held aloft, 'This is for her'

Aoi scanned it with his byakugan and seemed in not a threat and they were led in.

They were perhaps an hour or so outside of Kiri but the further they travelled; they couldn't see any sight of the camp. It was when Aoi told them to touch some part of him, the camp was revealed. It was set up like a traditional siege camp which confused him further. So, it must have been hidden under a complex genjutsu.

As soon as they entered the camp clearly made for the leader, Naruto had to force himself to look in her eyes and not focus on the impressive amount of cleavage or her massive bust.

The woman was beautiful. That much he had learned from Itachi, much to his amusement when Misaki had proceeded to bash him on the head for being a pervert. Mei Terumi was tall, slender woman with fair skin, and long auburn hair reaching to nearly her knees, with four bangs on the front, two long reaching her breasts, one covering her left eye and the other near her right.

She had dull, green eyes and wore an ankle length dark blue dress, covering her arms and the underside of her breasts, leaving her shoulders exposed, which Naruto thought was stupid. It was closed by a zipper but open from the waist down.

She also wore a dark grey skirt under her dress, He couldn't see a kunai or shuriken pouch anywhere on her person, but it could very be hidden. For the sake of his own health, he didn't spend any more time observing her lest he come off as a pervert.

'Terumi-san', Misaki started, 'Thank you for meeting with us'

Naruto preferred to let the women talk. He didn't understand them anyway. But when the woman spoke, her voice could only be called seductive. He wondered if she was a seductress.

'Well I must say I was intrigued when Itachi informed me you were coming', Mei said surprising them both.

'You know Itachi?', Naruto asked, shocked.

'Indeed. He's helped us with a few things', Mei replied cryptically. 'So, I owe him to hear you out. So, tell me, why is Konoha's jinchurriki here?'

This surprised her own guards, Aoi and a younger blue haired boy when he stuttered, 'J…Jinchurrikki!

Naruto grit his teeth, not wanting to be reminded of his ex-girlfriend. But that came off as him being annoyed at being called a Jinchurrikki as Mei observant eyes narrowed at his reaction.

'I'm not Konoha's Jinchurrikki!', Naruto almost growled.

'Hmm', Mei was slightly disappointed at his idealistic view which he no doubt held of the world. But she didn't like wasting time. 'If you say so. Why are you here?'

It was Misaki who answered, 'You are aware of the Akatsuki and their goals?'

'To collect the tailed beasts yes. Although I do not why', Mei said. It was one of the reasons why she had rebelled, apart from the bloodline massacre. The Mizukage had allowed the Akatsuki to trample all over their village and country for far too long.

'Neither do we but collecting all nine of them can't be for anything good', Misaki continued, taking a seat when Me motioned her too. Naruto preferred to keep standing. Defending was easier when one didn't have to stand up first. 'In return for assisting you with the war effort, we ask for training for Naruto'

Mei raised her elegant and beautiful eyebrow. This was surprising, not only for her but for Aoi and the blue haired boy wearing headphones. 'Really?', she said, amused at the request. 'And what would you give in return?', she wiggled her eyes suggestively at Naruto.

For his part, Naruto looked down and blushed, 'Not that', he replied.

'Hmm', she sighed. 'Too bad. Such a fine boy. What a waste', she smirked flirtatiously.

He could see Misaki's left eye twitching in annoyance. 'We give you back the Kubikiribocho', Misaki stated, unsealing the storage scroll.

Mei's eyes widened for a fraction of a second at the sight of the large zanbato used by Zabuza. Naruto thought he saw a hint of sadness in her eyes before it was covered up. Did she know Zabuza?

'Thank you', she said, as she motioned for Aoi to take the sword. 'Tell me, did you defeat him?'

'Our team fought him at the bridge in Wave Country but no. He gave his life killing Gato', Naruto replied sadly.

This wasn't missed by their hosts. 'You admired him', Mei stated. 'The demon of the Mist. I didn't think the softies in Konoha could admire such a man'

Misaki really hoped he wouldn't go off the handle. Even though it's been more than year and half since Naruto left Konoha, he was still weirdly defensive about it. To her surprise, Naruto chuckled, 'He may have been the demon of the mist; but he was fighting for the same reason you are. He wanted to liberate Kiri from Yugura. He and Haku taught me the greatest lesson of all, one even my worthless jounin sensei couldn't'

'Oh?', this intrigued Mei even more. She was quickly learning there was much more to the Kyuubi boy than their spies in Konoha had surmised. He was quickly proving himself to be more than the loudmouth, impossibly naïve child who constantly proclaimed his ambition of being Hokage. 'What was that?'

Although, some intel was correct. He was still easily angered but it seems he was more in control of it now. She wondered if that was a side effect of the Kyuubi or his upbringing.

'That when one fights to protect those precious to him, that is when he becomes truly strong', Naruto smiled, remembering the time within the woods when Haku had pretended to be picking herbs.

Misaki knew at that moment, they had won this battle of words. Mei's eyes, which had been hardened at the sight of the blade, softened upon hearing Naruto's words.

'And I suppose you want training in wielding it?', she pointed to the blade in Aoi's hands.

Misaki suppressed a smirk when Naruto surprised their hosts yet again. He wasn't known as the most unpredictable ninja for nothing, 'No. Misaki is already training me in kenjutsu. I need training in combat, and water ninjutsu'

'And she couldn't teach you that?', it was Aoi who said that. 'Why in my time, there was only one sensei given to a student and even then, they didn't hold their students' hands and…', he would have gone on longer if Mei hadn't said, 'Shut up. Or I'll kill you!'

Naruto chuckled seeing his gobsmacked expression.

'We have a deal. You and Naruto will help us in the war effort, and I shall do my best in training him', she said. 'I'm assuming you have a water affinity?'

Naruto nodded. 'Water and Lightning and a weaker affinity for wind'

'Three chakra natures?! Like me?', Mei asked surprised. 'Do you have a Kekkei Genkai?'

'You mean Ranton? No, he doesn't', Misaki replied. 'I'm assuming his water affinity came from his mother and lightning from his father, but they didn't make a bloodline seeing as they are needed in equal amounts and be genetically predisposed to it'

'Hmm. Surprising but not unexpected', Mei nodded. 'Very well then. Chojuro will show you to your tents. I look forward to our partnership'

They bid her goodnight and made for the tents. Naruto let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Infiltrating Kiri hadn't been easy. In fact, it was incredibly hard, particularly because Naruto couldn't completely suppress his chakra due to the Kyuubi.

The fact that Naruto's sensory skills had improved vastly was the only reason they got past Kiri's borders and ANBU patrol undetected.

The good thing was that when Jiraiya would hear of this, for he would undoubtedly hear of it, it would be incredibly hard to track him down. But he was an infiltration specialist. Naruto had an idea how he accomplished that, but he had no proof. The theory that Jiraiya could travel in the belly of toads across borders was a bit farfetched. Not to mention disgusting.

He had no idea what he would do when Jiraiya found him.