AN: This is my kinda first story.

This has been fueled through my lack of satisfaction of finding anymore interesting Naruto fics other than the ones I a waiting to update. No not just Naruto fanfiction, but fics in general. Harry Potter, Code Geass, Percy Jackson, Bleach, etc. I am bored, so I decided to be a kind human being and put out a fic for the at least one other person who feels like I do.

You might wonder what makes this naruto different from other Naruto fics. Good question.

You also might wonder what is the pairing(s). That is a good follow up question.

You again might ask why does this plot seem recycled. Your three for three is what I say.

Seriously though, you can ask questions yourself. Review and ask, or say whatever you want.

Please excuse my crappy grammer, spelling, writing, etc.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

"haha wearing forehead protectors and acting like real ninja..."

...

"When I was about your age, these hands were already dyed red with blood."

...

"Is this the first time a comrade of yours has died...? such is a ninja's path."

...

"ninjas are not suppose to seek their reason to exist...It's important for them to serve as a tool for their village."

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"Don't look away…When you live like a shinobi, this is how it ends."

...

Naruto was lying on his bed, looking up at his ceiling, thinking back on the events of his first 'C-rank' mission. Ever since it ended he had been feeling downcast despite the favorable end to the past week or so. He couldn't help but feel a certain way from the truth spoken about the shinobi world. he realized that up until then he was painfully ignorant of what being a ninja would be like. Of course he knew that their would be some killing here and there, and some difficult choices, but he didn't expect it to be as ruthless as Zabuza, Haku, and Kakashi said it was. What he expected was grandiose missions to save princesses, taking down bad guys, and a lot of glory. The real world isn't even close to how simple he made it out to be. Naruto also found out that his skills were woefully not on par of where they should be. After all the practicing and hard work he had done, he still fell behind. he has been close to death more times in a couple days than he has been in his whole life.

Is that what it is? does he have to bury his heart, and unquestionably follow his village? Indiscriminately kill, whoever he is requested, no matter what he thought? To be able to risk it all for the sake of the mission, including the well-beings of others? Is that all a shinobi is? A tool for his village? Is that what he want to become, a merciless killer? He can't back out now, that goes against his own beliefs. Even if he wanted to, it's not like he could take up any other profession. Not with his reputation. Is the only option Naruto has is to end up like Zabuza and Haku?

This is what has been plaguing Naruto ever since he got back. He closed his eyes in thought, the rising moon's glow lighting up his bed. Naruto remembers something though. He can see flashes of moments, faces of people, feelings of words. The resolve he always had, being enlivened by these thoughts.

.

"Those who break the rules are scums… but those who abandon their friends are worse than scums."

.

"When a person has something important they want to protect.. that's when they can become truly strong."

.

"That's it I'be made up my mind Dattebayo! I'm going to follow my own Nindo! my way of the ninja!"

.

"That's right," Naruto slowly opened his eyes, filled with determination. "I've made a promise to become my own ninja!"

Naruto kicked the covers off of him, and jumped out of his bed full of energy and drive. He walked through a room brimming with empty ramen cups, and worn clothing, and walked up to his mirror.

"And anyone who dares to tell me different deserves whatever coming to em!"

Naruto looked at the reflection of his face, and noticed his slightly tired face. He hadn't been able to sleep in the couple hours since they came back to the village. Naruto also sees something else, his eyes. eyes filled with the same determination as always, eyes that say he could do anything he wanted if he tried. Eyes that he has had since he was young. Naruto knew that whatever comes his way, he will be able to get through it. As long as he works hard to do it, he knew he could overcome anything.

With that Naruto walked back to his bed, forcefully trying to get a hold of his rising energy in an attempt to finally get some rest.

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

It was the morning right after team 7 had came from their unfortunate mission, and the entire team had been given three days off for rest.

*Yaaaawn*

Naruto was waken out of his sleep by the sun rays that crept though his curtains. Stretching out his body, and letting out a big yawn, Naruto rolled out of his bed to begin his day. Naruto walked to his bathroom, skillfully ignoring the mess on his floor by habit. Naruto stripped his clothes off, and threw them with the other ones scattered through the room. He started the shower, adjusted the temperature of the water. His body relaxed under heat of the water

"Now that I am done channeling my inner duckbutt, I can try to figure out how to solve my problems."

Naruto turned off the running water, and stepped out of his shower. he dried off with a towel, and placed another one around his waist. he then began to absentmindedly go through his morning ritual.

Naruto had problems, issues he needed to resolve immediately. It was his weakness and lack of ability. Obviously Naruto knew he was the dead-last of his class, but he didn't really think that it meant much before. Sure he was sketchy in one or two areas, but in the important things he was just where he needed to be. Only now did he realize his thinking was wrong. The things they were tested on like math, or theory he still didn't see any use for, but for the other areas which he neglected, he has had a change of heart on. All he thought was important before was flashy jutsus and how hard he hit someone, and since he couldn't do nothing about the first one, the only thing he worked on was the second. This is why the only thing his training consisted of was punching and kicking, as well as strength and endurance exercises. Speed was barely something he cared about. Everything else like chakra control, taijutsu, genjutsu, etc. was ignored. His shurikenjutsu, surprisingly enough, was pretty decent for a skill he didn't particularly work hard at.

Naruto spit the toothpaste in his mouth into the sink.

After this mission he understood that while he may punch harder than most genin, if he couldn't land the hit, it meant absolutely nothing. Not only did he need to get faster, but if his attacks continued to be sloppy and unrefined then in close combat he would never succeed. He realized that every time he was able to do anything to his opponent it was only through resourcefulness and surprises, not skill. When Naruto completed the tree-walking exercise, he noticed a difference in his body. Clones were easier to make, his chakra felt more attainable, even if just a little. If had been refining it since years before, who knows if he would have been able to do a regular bushin. Naruto also doubted his ability to face the demon brothers in the forest without having to summon a multitude of clones, if he had even some of Sasuke taijutsu proficiency he knew it would be a less daunting task. And he could imagine what would have happen if the shuriken he threw at Haku missed it's mark. The basics taught in the academy can be the difference between life and death depending on how good you were at using them.

Naruto began to search his apartment for clothes that weren't dirty.

Maybe that was the reason kakashi-sensei hadn't taught them anything other than tree-walking. other than Sasuke, they had yet to get a handle on the concepts the academy taught. If Naruto looked at it like that, it was no wonder why they haven't learned anything new, they have yet to do anything with what they had already gotten. He wouldn't be surprised if Sasuke started getting trained on the side without him and Sakura. Plus this seems like something sensei would neglect to tell them, and leave it as something to figure out. Naruto did train everyday by himself, but it was only the same routine, with nothing that would increase his skills, or make him better. All Naruto had in his arsenal was the shadow clone jutsu, henge, a meager substitution jutsu, and a good right hook. Now that he looks back on it, for all his boasts he had nothing to back his words.

Naruto took his heated cup of instant ramen, and sat at the table to eat.

Now that Naruto thought about his flaws, he has decided to go against his previous thinking. Learning a new awesome jutsu is awesome and all, but if that is all he has to offer, then inevitably the moment someone isn't taken out by that one move he is a goner. There is no point in learning something new, if what he already has isn't mastered. That's what he has to do before anything. Before he request any training, before he ask for anymore c-ranks, before he picks anymore fights, he has to get good at the fundamentals. Naruto doubts that there are a lot of great shinobis who have totally disregarded them, if there are any at all. Besides what kind of Hokage would he be if he couldn't preform what was taught to kids. He had to train right this second.

Naruto grabbed his forehead protector off his nightstand, and tied it around his head.

An image of Haku in the forest flashed through his head.

"besides," He finished tightening the knot, and adjusted the metal with the leaf symbol on it. "as long as I want to protect Konoha, I can never be happy with how strong I am!"

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Naruto arrived at one of the many training fields around the leaf village. It isn't very hard to find an empty training field in Konohagakure. All clans have their own private field, ditto with the anbu. Jonin usually have areas that are only on-hand accessible to them, and everyone else tend to recycle the same dozen fields, which also happens to be the closest to the village. With the village being located in an enormous forest, there wasn't really a limit to the amount of fields that could be created. All this ends up leaving a large part of the places you could train up for grabs for you to train alone, well as long as you are willing to walk a little longer of course. Naruto wasn't unaccustomed to wanting privacy, despite wanting the acknowledgement of others. He knew about these unused areas for years. At the moment he wanted to be undisturbed, and let nothing distract him or disrupt his focus.

Naruto picked a field that had a body of water nearby, he planned on being there for most of the day, so he would like something to cool off with. This training field was like most others. It was a large plain, surrounded by a dense collection of trees. This one had a river going through the back of it but that's it.

"Okay!" said naruto, stretching before he warmed up his body."how will I go about this?"

Naruto already knows his fallback, he just needed to know how to fix them. He could ask someone, but he learned more by execution than anything else. He would like to get a feel for whatever he was trying before he confused himself by technical jargon. Also he doubts his sensei would appreciate him knocking on his door the first day of his days off. And forget Iruka-sensei, all he would do is drone on and on before he even begun to show him anything practical. If he was going to get better he was going to do it by trial and error. Luckily shadow clone jutsu, the only thing he can put to his name, was perfect for this situation. It should give him more ways to train harder.

For his taijutsu, he decided to just fight his cloned in bulk. He doesn't really know any styles, and he doubt he could find one. So it was only a matter of making his hits count, and not being so straightforward when fighting. he needs to be able to give his enemy a hard time even if he is taking more than he has given. The only thing he could do here is feel out what works and what doesn't. He would get it from two perspectives. He would see what works against his clones, and he would also see what the clones did that won't work on him. If he kept fighting, eventually the things which made his form bad would be seen and adjusted. No matter how many hits he could take, even he doesn't want to take them.

Shurikenjutsu could be improved from old fashion target practice, he can even use clones if need be. There isn't really nothing he could do about genjutsu since he doesn't know the first thing about it. He could increase the exercises he did too, push his body to the absolute limits, and work on every part of his body. If his body can take more, and for it to do less, will allow him to do better in battle. He didn't sure exactly how to dramatically increase his speed, but old-fashioned running should do a bit. He can also speed through the forest or chase clones to increase his agility and acrobatics while going full tilt. speaking of agility if he wants to increase his ability to dodge and see incoming attacks, he can just have clones use him as a target.

From the training we did in the land of waves it's pretty obvious that the more intricately you use chakra the better you are with it. So if Naruto started doing more things while tree-walking he will little by little get better. but for him that isn't enough. Something he noticed now that he thought about it was that Kakashi and Zabuza was also walking on water. It shouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume there are similar mechanics behind water-walking and tree-walking. either way it's worth trying out, no doubt it is an invaluable skill to learn. he also should incorporate the exercises from the academy in his training too, while he was never good at the leaf sticking exercise, now is the time to get better. Chakra can pretty much be released from anywhere in your body, at most it might be easier for it to come out of your feet and hands. If he is able to control the chakra in his body to go all throughout himself, that would be proof his control is better. And if his chakra control becomes better, he only can become better with any jutsu he uses in the future. A good way to test if his control is at a good state is to see if he can use a bunshin. He doesn't know if he can ever get to that point, but if he can't at least he will always be improving.

With the jutsus he does know, it can't help to master them to a tee. For the only other useful jutsu he knows, the kawirami takes way too long for him to do for it to be of any help. So another thing for him to work on is hand seals, this also will prove to be helpful for the future when he seeks other jutsus. For all his boasts about learning new jutsus, he is pretty bad at even remembering the seals that would be needed to use them. He also decided to see how far his skills in henge could go. He knew he could turn into a demon windshuriken, and even cut through the air like one. What else could he do, mimic animals? other ninja tools? things of a large different size? It isn't hard to imagine the benefits of figuring out the full extent of henge.

Naruto finished his warm-ups, and got ready to start his real training.

"I'm pretty sure there are other things I need to add," Naruto made his signature seal. "but I can figure them out later. Kage No Bushin Jutsu!"\

*poof* *poof* *poof* *poof*

hundreds of clones appeared around Naruto.

"Alright," Naruto says, while cracking his knuckles. "let's get to it!

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Three days later team 7, except for their sensei of course, waits for Kakashi at the bridge. Unexpectedly they have been waiting hours for the team leader to show up. Sasuke silently leans his back on the bridge railing. Sakura ,has for the entire time, been contemplating whether to bother Sasuke or not. This has been all per usual. The difference between other times and this one, is what Naruto has been doing, or what he hasn't been doing. The usual boisterous and loud blonde genin has been quiet the entire time, after saying his greetings when he first arrived. While both of his teammates noticed, neither felt raising any concern about it. Naruto sat on top of the bridge railing, with his feet hanging off. He was staring at his reflection contemplating his last few days.

Since it has only been three days he hasn't made any huge leaps in improvements, but Naruto has seen the start of it. After really trying to increase what he could do, and fix the things he was having trouble with, he could honestly say that he was lucky to survive his last mission. With the way he was, if anyone had been seriously trying to kill him, he wouldn't have returned to the leaf village. The good news is that he was so bad it was obvious what he was doing wrong, and it didn't really take long to improve those aspects. The bad news is that he basically has to do more than everyone else to get to the same place. To Naruto thought that isn't really bad news, it's just one more reason to push himself.

Taijutsu went about how he expected, with so many clones swarming him, he couldn't afford to waste any hits. He gradually saw it easier to counter, and attack clones as he continued that training. He also realized how dumb he was for charging in with dozens of clones at once. He saw early on of the same strategy being used against him that it was uncoordinated, and impractical. It was too many to properly move around, and impossible to attack an opponent without running into another clone. Striking in smaller groups, like three or four was more manageable. It was far more effective to have different groups of four clone squads swooping in then having them all go in at once. His taijutsu wasn't anything amazing, but a lot of his holes disappeared after getting punched too many times, and he was able to find more effective and quick ways to pull off moves.

His shurikenjutsu was an are he was pleased with. He didn't really see any major breakthroughs or anything, but after adjusting his grip a little, and trying to increase his usual speed, he was glad to see it getting better. After trying to hit multiple targets, and even trying to aim without the target being in front of him, he was surprise to note how good he was at throwing shuriken and kunai. Maybe that's the one thing he has actual talent in, if it is, it's probably the one field where Naruto doesn't appreciate it in. He decided he should increase the speeds he could see, it would be ideal for him to see what's coming to him. While Sasuke doesn't have to worry because he has the sharingan, if a situation like the ice-mirror dome happened again, then Naruto was shish kebab. He had taken to countering shuriken and kunai thrown by his own clones with his own weapons. If he can do that successfully against a greater and grater amount with his rising shurikenjutsu skill, what he could see with his eye should expand.

He increased his exercises by an insane amount, and it was how he wrapped up his training. He wanted his entire body aching after every session. He discovered that he had some weights at home he could use to increase his speed and his strength. Turns out years ago, when he was in the academy, he found four weight bands left in the field. He was going to use them back then but they were too heavy. He couldn't handle them much better now, but it turns out that there were slots where he could take out the weights. There are about five to every band, of 5 different increments, and each was numbered. Each weight was two times heavier than the last number, so the fifth one turned out to be 16 times heavier than the first one. He trained with the first weight on all the bands, and exercised, and ran with all the weights. He really wasn't getting anywhere when he ran with full weights, but he should eventually get used to it, and he speed should increase dramatically.

Chakra control was slow and steady. He did his exercises while hanging off trees, and he tried to tree-walk as much as possible when fighting his clones or practicing his shurikenjutsu. He wasn't able to do much on water, except stay on top for a few minutes without moving, and that was after two days of trying to figure out how to stand on it. He has taken to picking up random objects and trying to keep them on different parts of his body. He is successful only have the time. He had tried to mix the leaf sticking exercise with something else, but that required more concentration than he had. The bushin jutsu still made a pitiful version of himself, so no improvement there, but that was expected.

He also made a few discoveries from his effort, chiefly a new use of the shadow clone jutsu. Apparently whenever a clone dispels it's experience gets transferred over to the Naruto and to whatever clones are still there. Naruto guesses he never noticed before because they had always been doing the same thing as the original just from different angles. With this finding the benefits from his training increased, and he gained even more feedback from one thing. Even with this though, Naruto preferred to do most things himself. In some way he feels cheated if, he wasn't really there to learn the skill himself. As for sharpening skills he had no problems with, so he delegated shurikenjutsu off to clones as soon as he could.

Another thing he achieved during training was manipulation of his chakra. While thinking back on the wave mission for the dozenth or so time, he remembered how when they learned tree-walking there feet glowed when pushing chakra from their feet. Also from what he can remember from his fight with Haku, that when he tapped into the nine-tails power, not only was it extremely visible, it also tore through the hard surface of the bridge. It's possible to manipulate chakra in a pure form outside of your body, Naruto realized. He figured if he could aptly bring his chakra to the surface now, that later when he is able to use jutsu it would be more effective. During breaks, he would reach down inside and try to move his chakra to different places in his body. The most he could do so far is make his hands glow slightly. This, of course, made him try walking on trees with his hand. Still a work in progress.

All in all while he isn't going to be killing rogue ninjas any time soon, he is still way better than he was three days ago, and that's all that matters. Naruto is fine competing against others like Sasuke or whoever, but growth can only be measured by using yourself. While Naruto was thinking he was completely blind to the world around him.

"Would you like to join us back in Konoha Naruto?" A voice said to the right of him.

"AH!" Naruto yelled, while jumping. He whipped his head to the side of him and saw a familiar face. "Kakashi-sensei?!"

"Next time Naruto pay more attention to your surroundings, an enemy shinobi could easily get the drop on you like that."

Naruto gritted his teeth.

His sensei was right, there is no reason it should have taken him that long to notice his sensei. He should have at least heard his teammates indignant cry, that he was usually apart of. He had to add perception and awareness to the things he had to work on. He had to always be attentive, it didn't matter how much he sharpened his skills, if someone was able to sneak attack him. The events of the demon brothers come to mind, the way hey hid in the water is something he wants to catch next time.

His sensei looked at him with a gaze that read that he knew something was up, but it seems he wasn't going to say anything about it.

"Anyway, let's go pick up a nice d-rank mission, I trust no one will complain if we only do them for the time-being." Kakashi sensei said, while walking back to the village.

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

It was now the afternoon, and it has been a long day of pulling weeds, feeding cattle, and moving rocks. They had completed a generic d-rank request, and they were now in front of the hokage mansion, just having turned the mission in. Kakashi looked up from the book he was reading, and down at his team.

"Well I guess this has been a nice change of pace." he said with his usual eye-smile."team 7 is dismissed for today, let's meet tomorrow at our usual time."

'usual time my ass.' all three genin thougt, deadpanning.

"Hey kakashi-sensei!" called Naruto to his sensei before he could leave. "I have something I want to ask you."

Kakashi has been a little surprised at how quiet Naruto has been this whole mission, so he figured that his blonde genin had enough of holding back. "Yes, my cute little genin, what could you want."

"I had a question about Haku," He ignored the teasing remarks from the one-eyed man. "When me and Sasuke fought him, I saw that he could use one hand to form seals. How is that possible? I thought we had to use two hands to form seals, and those seals were the only way we could use jutsu."

'That's a better question than I was expecting from him' Kakashi mused. ' I was half expecting him to ask for training, or kami-forbid another c-rank.' Kakashi rubbed the back of his head. "Naruto, do you know what hand seals are for?"

Naruto had a clueless look on his face. "...um, not really. I forgot, did we go over this in the academy or something?"

"Of course we did idiot!" Sakura scolded him. "Since you don't remember, I guess I'll have to remind you. The exact amount of chakra necessary to perform a technique is manipulated through hand seals."

"That's correct Sakura," Kakashi said."but what you might not know is that you can manipulate the chakra in your body yourself, and if the jutsu is familiar enough, you could use it with less or no hand-signs. The second hokage could take a jutsu which required 44 seals, and do it in one. You also might remember when I substituted in the beginning of out c-rank mission how I used no hand seals in advance. There are a good amount of ninja that can use the three basic jutsu and the shushin with no seals. Beyond that, is extremely rare. The same concept applies with one-hand seals, if you train enough you can get your body familiar with the feeling of a jutsu, and you can pull off the jutsu with only one hand. Do you understand now Naruto?"

Naruto was silent for a few seconds before he replied."yeah, I thank I get it."

"good question, by the way."Kakashi looked at his other genin."anymore questions? If not we can call it a day.

Team 7 disbanded for the day.

Naruto decided to go to Ichiraku's.

While walking there, Naruto thought about what his sensei just told him. It wasn't too hard of a concept, it made sense if you thought about it. It also sounded like something very difficult to accomplish. As he thought about what he could do if he could create clones without using seals, he had to admit that it was worth learning. It had to take a backseat thought to his other training. To think they would run into someone like that in their first mission out of the village. He had to be prepared for the next time, if anything like this always happened again. He couldn't predict the future, so all he can do is try to prepare for all outcomes. If he felt he had polished his skills enough, maybe he could look into ways he could offset any disadvantages that might arise against his team. He had a lot of work prepared for him, but that's all for later, right now...

"I'm coming Teuchi-san,I hope you have a seat warm and ready for me!"

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

One month later and Naruto and the rest of team 7 are walking through the academy halls. All around them were other genin, and weirdly enough even some from other villages. The atmosphere was full of excitement, anxiousness, and competition. Any ninja worth their salt would recognize what day it was. Today was the day of the Chunin exams.

Naruto had no idea why Kakashi-sensei signed them up for the exam, Naruto didn't think they were ready yet. He was confident in himself, but he didn't think he was ready to take on genin that were ready to become chunin. He suspects that they are here primarily for the experienced, but he knows people die in the Chunin exam, and doesn't understand why his sensei thought that he and Sakura were prepared enough. They barely received any training even after the wave mission. Naruto believes that out of all of them that only Sasuke was even kind of good enough, and even then, without a team behind him he was probably toast too. He had to play this smart, and keep everything close to the chest. His and Sasuke's teamwork has slightly increased after fighting Zabuza, and the Haku. Hopefully it will be enough to help them get through this.

The past month Naruto has been training himself into the ground everyday without fail. The only exceptions were when they went on three other c-rank missions. Fortunately they were vastly better than their first one, and went according to expectations. Unfortunately they were all boring as hell. The first two saw some bandits and thieves here and there, and Naruto admits that even before wave he would have trouble not easily mopping the floor with them. The last mission saw no action at all, despite being the one that required the most distance to be traveled. Naruto didn't know how to feel about that. On one-hand he didn't know if he was ready to face any other ninja, but on the other hand he craved some action, and wanted a more exciting mission. The only good thing from those missions were the pay, Naruto finally was able to fatten up gama-chan again.

He finally was able to walk on water, with his feet and his hands, but other than that there were no clear indication on how far along his skills were. It was a little easier to run with all the weights, and he had to increase the intensity of some his training a couple times, but that was it. He still couldn't produce a clone for crap. He expected that by this point in time he would be at least to where he saw Sasuke was during the wave mission, but as far as he could see he was still far way from that. Because of his lack of improvement he had to find some trump cards. While he couldn't be completely satisfied with his progress, at least he was closing the gap between him and everyone else.

Whatever the case he was going to give the Chunin exam his all.

Team 7 walked into an open hall packed to the neck with genin. Three kids seemed to be the center of attention, two beating down on one. Naruto really couldn't care less at the moment though about some petty fight, he just wanted to get to the examination room. He didn't understand why everyone was crowded around here anyway, this was only the second floor...Wait what. Naruto now saw that the sign around the door two of the genin were barring people from indicated this was the third floor. Was this some kind of test, surely most people could see through this front. Maybe everyone is going the appear weak root, but that's unlikely. This competition is-

"You will let me pass through, and also remove the genjutsu from the surrounding." his teammate said, cutting off Naruto's thoughts. "I'm going to the third floor."

'I guess we aren't going to hide our colors. Sasuke's arrogant and I am a braggart.' Naruto laughed loud."Heh, how dumb can these guys get. We should have just left them out here to fail." Naruto remarked. 'There with that some of the aggression should spread more evenly.

Sasuke then said some words to gave some confidence to Sakura, which brought up another reason I was originally worried for this exam. Ever since we got the news about the Chunin exam, Sakura had been less than happy. I doubted anything I could say would change her attitude, with how she sees me, but luckily Sasuke actually did something. Since it was Sasuke as well, it was a more profound effect on Sakura. Maybe we aren't so ill-equipped for this after all.

!

Suddenly Naruto saw something in the corner of his eye coming at a moderate speed right at Sasuke. It seems it wasn't going for a surprise attack though since it made a remark just before striking. Then suddenly an even faster green blur got in between Sasuke and the other offender who turned out to be one of the genin that were guarding the door. Naruto didn't know how, but he could tell that the green boy, wasn't going anywhere near his top speed.

"What happened to the plan? Your the one who said we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves." said a stoic faced hyuga in the corner.

At least that confirms Naruto suspicions, some of the teams are downplaying their abilities.

"Well..." the green boy, with ridiculously sized eyebrows started. He walked towards Sakura, eyes full of passion, no not passion something else."My name is Rock Lee, so yours is Sakura." He then gave a thumbs up, and a blinding smile."Let's go out together, I'll-""No way, your lame."

Naruto couldn't say he didn't see that coming.

The two emos seemed to be having their own little confrontation off to the side. Hell Naruto half expected their cute girl with the buns, who was apparently their teammate to start talking to him, since both of our team members had paired up already. Naruto knew that was too much to ask for from the start though.

"Naruto, Sasuke-kun let's go!" sakura exclaimed.

Naruto guessed being encouraged by her crush then hit on eased any nervousness she held.

They walked out of that hall into an even bigger hall. It was surrounded by a banister. At the top of the room was a familiar and creepy person waiting for them.

"hey guy with the dark eyes."

It was lee requesting a fight from the resident brooder. Naruto would be lying if he said he didn't want to see the fight between the two, so he did nothing at all to deescalate it.

"Your about to learn what this name means." Brags Sasuke.

"Please" Lee beckoned.

"Sasuke wait! we only have 30 minutes until the exam starts!" Sasuke cries out.

"I'll be done in 5" Sasuke runs at Lee.

Naruto knew right there that the speed Sasuke was running wasn't fast enough to combat Lee. It immediately showed when Lee blurred out of existence and appeared in front of Sasuke mid-kick. Naruto, was thankful, that he never lost focus with Lee during his little speed trip. Lee wasn't only faster than Sasuke, but also better in other areas. Sasuke couldn't block because Lee was too strong, and it broke through his guard,, and Sasuke couldn't doge because Lee proficiency in taijutsu was incredible. Lee all of the sudden did a hand seal, and Sasuke flew back a couple meters. Naruto didn't understand the point of that since all he did was deck Sasuke. Was Naruto missing something, he didn't think Lee used any chakra yet, so what was the hand-sign for.

"This gives me the perfect opportunity to try this out."

Sasuke got up brandishing his sharingan.

Sasuke's sharingan was different from the last time Naruto saw it in wave. Now instead of only having two tomoes in one eye, it was now in both. Naruto understood what this meant. He didn't think for a second that while he was training that the rest of the world would stop so he could catch-up. Sasuke could now see more than before. Sasuke could probably see Lee's moves before but the his skills were so that they were impossible to avoid. With his sharingan activated he will be able to read Lee's moves more. He still wouldn't be able to match the speed though.

Sasuke seemed to stare at Lee for a moment, then Lee came and kicked him into the air.

Naruto was confused, he knew that he could have avoided that kick, Sasuke definitely should have. Maybe Sasuke was distracted by something? Lee was still holding back a lot, that was the scary part. The speed he was going now was a little below what Naruto thinks his to speed is. In a real fight where no one is holding back, he didn't know how he could win.

Sasuke hovered face up in the air after reaching his peak distance upward. his shadow seemed to come to life, as Lee sped under him, in the same upward position.

"Yes my techniques are simple Taijutsu. You may not believe it because it is so basic but, Even if you can read my movements with your eyes, your body does not have the speed to react to my taijutsu."Lee was saying in the air, as the wraps around his body began to shoot towards Sasuke.

Naruto thought that was completely wrong. No one in this room fell for that fake seal you put up, everyone saw him clearly hit him afterwards. Lee must have came to that conclusion after Sasuke used his sharingan after he did that fake-out, as bad as it was. Naruto was offended for his teammate and also worried. Whatever Sasuke problem was, it was about to get him seriously hurt, those bandages didn't seem like they were going to be used for anything nice. Naruto started thinking up ways he would've escaped this situation in Sasuke's place. Naruto was wondering why Sasuke was still not doing anything, it was time to stop playing around.

Just as Naruto thought that, a shiruken flew and pinned down the bandage before it could advance on his teammate.

A turtle appeared.

/For the sake of the readers the next scene has been edited out./

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Naruto has a theory why Sasuke got his ass handed to him at the end of the fight, despite having his sharingan open. It was because he felt that eyebrow monster coming towards us. Gai-sensei is definitely a monster no doubt about it. His speed was way outside of Naruto's perception range, he couldn't even see him move before he was behind them. With a teacher like that, combined with the hard work Lee already does, there is no wonder he's so strong. Naruto was wary at first of this event, but after seeing everyone, he couldn't help but be excited. After looking at his teammate he could tell he was also revved up.

"Oh it seems Sakura came too." Kakashi was standing outside of the door we needed to go in.

he explained some crap about how we would be barred if we didn't have a fool team, and how he didn't want us to pressure Sakura. Whatever. Naruto was distracted by the blood roaring in his ears. Beyond those doors right in front of him, were dozens of ninja looking for blood. Why wasn't he scared. He thought he decided to play it safe. Wait until he was ready to face the shinobi world. Why was he trembling with energy, and anxious for a fight. Maybe he has been denied action for too long. Naruto hasn't been in a serious fight since wave, and Team 7 rarely spars against each other.

"heh heh ha"

"Are you okay Naruto?"

"Never better Kakashi-sensei"

What has he been hesitant all this time for? He already decided he was going to become his own ninja right. So what if his skills aren't up to par. He managed to make even the great demon of the hidden mist disable his jutsu. Naruto is going to lead a village one day, he has to face the world, whether he thinks he is ready for it or not. He will knock down all obstacles in his way! He never backs down! He never gives up! That is his Nindo!

Naruto walked up to the door and pushed it open.

Inside the room was filled with ninjas. All of them staring at team 7 like they were there new meal. Naruto met their glares unflinchingly. It just mad the fire in his stomach burn hotter. He saw the rest of the teams from his graduating class. He saw Gai's team as well. At the top he saw the weird sand genin they had met earlier that week. In the corner he saw a mint-green haired girl with orange eyes. Finally near the front he saw two entire teams seemingly glaring with fury at just him, spearheaded by a black-haired girl with pupil-less, pink eyes.

Naruto put on a feral grin.

'It's time to show everyone what a future hokage can do!'

AN: That was longer than I expected. A couple things to note.

Naruto is obviously doing that thing the MC did in Overlord. Naruto after the wave mission put everything on like ten whole extra levels. Also Naruto doesn't see any growth because he has no one to observe him from outside his perspective.

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"I did my waiting! Twelve years of it! In Azkaban!"

Damn now I want to write a HP fic, but Alas I need my beauty sleep. Trust me, I really do.