Sunlight filtered through the windows of the residents homes in Konoha. Everyone was still asleep, not surprising as it was still early in the morning. The only sounds heard in the neighbourhoods were those of cats and dogs still prowling the area for some sort of early morning meal, and the quiet hum of the early birds in the trees, preoccupied with feeding their young. Everything was tranquil, peaceful, quiet.

BOOM!

Or at least it would be, had it not been for one hyperactive, knuckle-headed blonde ninja who spent the entire night training well into dawn.

"It's finally ready." Naruto said to himself as he glanced at the damage he just caused to the training ground. A rut was dug in a straight line in the ground before him, and the trees in the surrounding area all had their bark splintered in the center, almost as if they were hit with one of the 4th Hokage's infamous Rasengan, except the damage was on a much smaller scale.

Naruto grinned, "Finally, I'm ready to beat down Sasuke. That bastard won't know what just hit him." He dusted off his bright, neon orange jacket, which still seemed bright at the break of dawn, and headed to his home for a quick breakfast.

As he left, Naruto couldn't help but wonder if things were finally going to look up for him. 'Maybe Sakura will actually agree to go on that date with me! He mused. 'Once she sees me beat Sasuke there's no way she'll still like him right?' Images of himself kissing Sakura flooded his mind and he couldn't stop the red tint that spread onto his whiskered cheeks. He giggled lightly. "Man, everything's gonna change today! I can feel it!"

Little did Naruto realise just how right he actually was.

When Naruto got home he fixed himself a nice bowl of instant ramen, got some milk (not expired this time) from his fridge, and sat down at the kitchen table to eat. 'I wonder what I should do as a victory pose when I beat Sasuke?' A picture of himself standing with one foot on Sasuke's back, while he was flashing the peace sign at Sakura who had hearts in her eyes while his sensei, Kakashi nodded his head in approval flashed into his mind. Naruto grinned at the thought of that happening and he ate his food with more gusto. After 6 bowls of ramen and 2 boxes of milk, Naruto grabbed his blue, Konoha shinobi headband, tied it around his forehead, slipped on his shinobi sandals and headed out to training ground 7 to meet with his teammates.

As expected, Naruto was always the last one to arrive (before Kakashi-sensei) at their designated meeting spot. "Yo Sakura!" He greeted the pink-haired, petite girl sitting at the base of one of the 3 training posts. Sakura's eye twitched. 'Why does he have to be so loud!' She forced a smile on her face. "Hi Naruto. How was your morning?" She inquired. Though one could clearly see the annoyance on her face from just talking to the blonde.

Naruto, however, was completely unobservant. "It was actually pretty good thanks for asking." He grinned at her. "I think you'll be surprised at what I can do now."

Sakura sighed. "Naruto, I'm not interested in how many bowls of ramen you can stomach without throwing up."

Naruto's cheeks flushed. "It's not like that!"

"Or how you think you know what's underneath Kakashi-sensei's mask."

"It's not that either!"

"Then what is it Naruto?"

"I created a jutsu this morning!" He exclaimed excitedly.

That threw Sakura for a loop. "A jutsu?" She asked, as though she had misheard him. "How did YOU of all people create a jutsu?" After all, Naruto was the dead-last, almost drop-out, failure of their year at the Academy. There's no way he could've created a jutsu right?

Naruto looked offended. "Oi! I may be called an idiot, but that doesn't mean that I'm stupid."

Sakura gave him a deadpan stare. "Did you really just say that."

"Yeah, why?"

"Naruto, you are a complete idiot."

"HEY!"

"Can you people keep it down over there, you're being too loud." A third voice spoke.

"Huh?" Naruto looked up. In one of the high branches of a nearby tree, sat Naruto's rival and teammate, Sasuke Uchiha, completely clad in his black jumpsuit that he wore during the chuunin exams. Naruto felt anger rise up in his chest. Everything that Sasuke did seemed to show him up in some way and embarrass him in front of Sakura. But that would end today.

"Oi Sasuke, fight me!" Naruto demanded.

"And why would I waste my time on you?" Sasuke asked in a monotone voice.

Naruto growled. "You think your so tough huh?"

"I know I'm tougher than you, that's a fact."

"Oh yeah? Than why don't you prove it?"

"Because," Sasuke began, "Doing that would make you incapable of thinking with that peanut of yours, and you can't afford to lose what little brain cells you have."

Sakura tried to muffle a laugh, but ultimately couldn't help the giggles that escaped her lips. Naruto growled. "You won't be taking so tough when I beat you today!" He exclaimed.

"How do you plan on doing that?" Sasuke asked boredly.

It was Sakura who answered, "Maybe he plans on hitting you with his new perverted jutsu."

"It's not perverted!" Naruto defended his creation.

"A new jutsu?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "As if you could create a new technique."

Naruto shook his fists wildly. "What would you know about creating a jutsu anyway? All the Uchiha ever did was steal everyone else's hard work. It's no wonder they got wiped out!"

Sakura gasped. Sasuke was still. Naruto realized that he made a big mistake mentioning the Uchiha massacre, but he wasn't going to apologise for something that wasn't his fault.

Sakura looked worriedly at her two teammates. 'Where is Kakashi-sensei? I need his help now!' If these two started fighting right here and now, there was nothing that she could do to stop them. She could only hope that they'll ignore each other for the rest of the morning.

Sadly for Sakura, her hopes were dashed away as soon as Sasuke leapt off of the tree and charged Naruto.

Naruto was somehow prepared for it and blocked Sasuke's punch with his forearm, before throwing a punch of his own. Sasuke caught it effortlessly, and drove his left knee into Naruto's gut, making him gasp for air before following up his attack with a right roundhouse kick that sent Naruto staggering back a few steps.

Sasuke took his usual fighting stance. "Come Naruto, I'll show why it was stupid to mock the Uchiha."

Naruto righted himself , narrowed his eyes in concentration, and took his own fighting stance. "Let's go Sasuke!"

And as they charged at each other, Sakura could only stand back and watch while wondering, 'Where the hell is Kakashi-sensei?!'

"I take it you understand why this object must be investigated?"

Said one-eyed jonin was currently in a meeting with the 5th Hokage, Tsunade Senju. A busty blonde who loves gambling as much as she love sake. "Yeah I get it." Kakashi responded. "This is some strange sphere that is said to somehow bring about the Apocalypse?"

On the desk standing on a little podium was a strange object. A small tennis-ball sized ocean-blue sphere, with strange electronic-blue markings drawn along the entire thing.

Tsunade nodded. "It's still not clear exactly what this sphere is capable of, but from the intel we gathered in the interrorgation, this device needs a pretty potent power source for it to kick-start."

Kakashi nodded in understanding. "But it's not like we have any such sources of power, now do we?"

Tsunade bit her lip for a moment, "How sure are you about that Kakashi, it's still unclear as to what will set this device off. It seems very ancient in design, but the technology on it is astounding."

Kakashi glanced down at the sphere before looking his leader in the eye. "So, what exactly do you want me to do with it?"

Tsunade tapped her pencil. "It's simple really, I just want you to hold onto it until that fool, Jiraiya, comes back so he can take a look at it."

"Is that it?"

"A bit too much for you hm?" Tsunade asked mockingly.

Kakashi narrowed his eye. "No. Not gonna be a problem at all."

Tsunade smirked. "Good. Now you better get going, I think you left your brats waiting a bit too long."

Kakashi gave her his famous one-eyed smile, the one that miraculously curves, before he picked up the sphere and vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Training ground 7 looked like hell. Several trees had kunai, shuriken and scorch marks all over them, and the ground in the area had skid marks all over the place.

Sakura was found hiding in the base of a tree that was slightly burnt, curled up in a foetal position with tears streaming down her cheeks. She knew from the moment Sasuke activated his sharingan that this fight was serious. The tree she chose was a good one. It withstood all the damage so far, and she still had a clear view of Naruto and Sasuke trying to destroy each other. 'Where's Kakashi-sensei? He must've felt all this chakra by now.' Both of the boys were putting out a lot of chakra, so much so that they both had a slight blue tint surrounding them. They kept going at it, exchanging punch after punch, kick after kick, and still they showed no signs of fatigue.

Naruto was getting frustrated. Most of the attacks he threw so far Sasuke always blocked with his damned sharingan. All of his usual combos didn't even land a hit, every clone he summoned was quickly dispelled, every kunai he threw was intercepted, and it was driving him crazy. 'Looks like I'll have to do THAT then.' He grinned and wiped some sweat off his chin and dropped his fighting stance.

'What're you up to hm, Naruto?' were Sasuke's thoughts when he saw the blonde drop his stance. He shifted slightly and locked his two tomoe sharingan eyes on his rival, trying to anticipate his moves. He was very surprised, however, to find an orange leg connect to the side of his face. The impact caused Sasuke to fall face first into the ground. He shakily got to one knee, before a fist met his right cheek, causing him to fly back into a tree with a thump. 'Wha-what just happened?' Sasuke wondered when he stood shakily again. A few meters away he saw Naruto, standing with his left fist extended, and a blank expression on his face, but what really got Sasuke was the fact that Naruto's eyes were blood red, with slits for pupils. 'Is this really Naruto, how did he-' and Sasuke saw an image of Naruto's fist a few inches from his face before his instinct told him to duck, and he narrowly avoided the right hook that went flying over his head. Sasuke retaliated with a right roundhouse that Naruto stopped by pushing his leg down with his left hand. This unfortunately left Naruto wide open for the right hook that shattered his nose and sent him flying back. He placed his palm on the ground and back-flipped into an upright position. He saw Sasuke blazing through hand-signs and widended his eyes. "NO SASUKE DON'T!" He heard Sakura scream, before a massive fireball was sent barreling his way. Naruto narrowly avoided being hit by combat rolling to the left before saw a dozen smaller fireballs heading his way. 'Crap! No time to dodge!' were his thoughts before the fireballs collided.

Sasuke panted, glaring at the fire he just created. The dead-last, of all people, took so much out of him. How was he supposed to beat Itachi if he couldn't beat Naruto? He grit his teeth before he tasted something that surprised him. Blood. His blood. He wiped his mouth and sure enough, there was blood on the back of his hand. Sasuke bristled with anger. Naruto drew blood from an Uchiha, he must pay, but then Sasuke calmed, remembering that Naruto was being roasted in the fire right now. He glanced at it, only to do a double-take. Naruto Uzumaki was alive and well in the center of the flames, holding some strange blue sphere in his hand. His jacket was completely destroyed, only being kept up by the fabric on his left shoulder now, with the sleeves being completely burned off, his black T-shirt completely fine, and his left pant leg only went down to his knee. The clone at his side, which Sasuke just noticed was fueling the sphere in his hand. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS, NARUTO!" Sasuke screamed, before forming a set of hand-signs and encasing his left hand in blue lightning. "THEN BRING IT SASUKE!" Naruto screamed. The clone popped, and Naruto and Sasuke charged at each other, full force.

When Kakashi appeared at training ground 7, he expected to his genin squad interacting with each other as they usually do.

He did not expect to find the place completely ruined. There was way too much damage for this to be caused by a genin sparring match. Trees were burnt, two of the three logs were completely destroyed, and there were several trees that had their bark splintered.

He did not expect to find Sakura curled up in the base of a tree, crying her eyes out. Her usually clean clothes were smudged with dirt, and her eyes were red and puffy.

But what he really didn't expect, was to see Naruto and Sasuke about to throw 2 A-rank ninjutsu at each other. His eye widended, for a brief moment he was proud and surprised to see that Naruto was able to perform the 4th Hokage's Legendary Rasengan, but he knew if that had to collide with the Chidori…

Kakashi sprinted as fast as he could, trying to intercept the two boys before it got too late. He just barely managed to make it, but in his haste he forgot to place the sphere in his pouch and forgot about it in his hand, and when that made contact with Naruto's Rasengan…

The sphere changed to red, the markings on it suddenly fading to black, Kakashi realized his fatal mistake…

And training ground 7 exploded in a bright red light.