Sorry if this first scene seems perhaps half-assed or rushed, it's just I really want to get this bit over, ya know? The bit that's evident in every single Naruto fic. Like ever.

His blood ran polar as he saw his own sensei cut in half by a huge carving knife, one with a circular hole located a bit below its centre of gravity. The man holding the sword was just as chilling. His face was nearly entirely covered by bandages and was of a muscular build. He was also leaking killing intent that made Naruto, alongside his two teammates, tremble and gag in the presence of it.

Then, suddenly, hope was restored as Naruto could hear his sensei's voice once more, feeling elated at the sound.

"Don't move." Was all spoken. It was all that was necessary. Kakashi had a kunai blade pressed against Zabuza's neck, nearly forcing a small amount of blood it.

'Sensei... I don't think that's going to be enough." Naruto thought grimly as his body still failed to animate the movements he was attempting to create.

Naruto found himself right as he watched the Zabuza with the kunai to his neck dissaperate into nothingness as water fell from his place. Then a new Zabuza found himself behind Kakashi and went to swing his blade cleanly through his waist. That was narrowly avoided by Kakashi when he performed a Matrix esque dodge, leaning backwards so far his head nearly touched the ground.

A low chuckle could be heard throughout the land.

"My, my, Kakashi. You really seem to have lost your touch. Chunin at six, jonin at ten and ANBU at thirteen. You really should be a kage by now, ne?" Zabuza sneered, expecting a challenge, but was unpleasantly surprised when he found himself capturing Kakashi in a water bubble. "That was anticlimactic." Zabuza sniggered.

"Run, guys!" Kakashi screamed from inside the bubble, not wanting his cute little genins to suffer the same fate as him. Too bad Zabuza was ex-jonin. They could not physically escape.

"Ha. Ha. Ha." His laughing was painfully sarcastic. "You honestly think three green behind the ears genin could run away from me, even if I were to be blindfolded?" Seeing Kakashi's face twist and turn, portraying incomprehensible amounts of emotion made Zabuza grin wide. He figured it out. "Now, let me kill them real quick and we can have some proper fun, ne?" Nobody could do or say anything. All was lost at this point. Why live and give the bandaged freak the satisfaction of killing you?

Sasuke's thoughts were dark. He wanted to kill himself. He was going to. He raised a kunai and pressed it against his larynx and was about to apply the killing pressure when Naruto suddenly burst with power, halting his movements.

Naruto-

Seeing Sasuke raise the kunai to the point where his larynx was located caused something deep within Naruto to stir. Some omnipotent power found in the cavernous crevices of his gut. Naruto found something. And that something was just what he needed.

Naruto speculated; 'Could this be the fox?' He got a deep grumble in response.

"Sorry?" Naruto questioned again, a little shaky. He knew what that was, but didn't want to believe himself.

"I SAID OF COURSE IT IS YOU GARGANTUAN MORON! What other omnipotent power would you expect to find INSIDE YOUR STOMACH? Omni. Potent. All powerful. Are you catching on?" 'The fox' spoke, shouted bellowed, Naruto couldn't decipher. His voice was so loud, he didn't know whether or not he was speaking normally or shouting. Nevermind that though, Naruto had to put the stupid fox in its place.

"Of course I've caught on. I knew from the first moment I heard it, I just didn't want to confront you just yet. I..." Naruto stumbled, not wanting to verbalize his innermost emotions to a clearly arrogant fox who'd more likely than not resort to teasing.

"Ah, yes. The pitiful human emotions. I know, I know. You didn't want to show this demon fox your weakness. I understand, there's been more than just you. All caught up in their pasts, their emotions, their futures. Where will they go, what will they do? Tsk. Just move on, I've been alive for hundreds of generations, I've had regrets, but I don't dwell damnit! You'd be good doing that too."

Naruto was stunned. This so called demon fox was giving him a lecture on... bettering himself? That's a first.

"Ah, as much as I, erm, appreciate this, Fo- Kyuubi-san, but why are you telling me this? Like, all this?"

"...Don't you dare think this is an everyday thing. I'm only lecturing you because I don't want a weak jailor. Disgusting thought that. Kyuubi with a jailor like Kakashi Hatake, never once gave up on the past." The fox spoke with a tad bit of caution, not wanting Naruto to believe him to... care. "Now. This is also a one time thing. That man is strong. Too strong for you, and Kakashi will likely struggle if not fail, him being arrogant and all. I suggest you attack him with shadow clones, loads from all angles. Try to make him drop Kakashi, you can't beat him by yourself just yet. Now GO!"

Naruto didn't even think, he ran off pure instincts. He summoned over a thousand shadow clones, all materialized in a puff, and sent them in quaquaversal directions. All the clones took their own reigns and aimed perpetual jabs at every single tenketsu point. Zabuza saw the danger, and could only break the hold he had on Kakashi to defend himself. It was fantastic by Naruto.

Kakashi was stunned, but didn't dwell on Naruto's magic act of incredible for more than half a millisecond. He took the offense and aimed very precise jabs at every vital, from the head down respectively.

Zabuza, constantly on the defensive, decided to up the annie and charge up insane amounts of chakra, obviously the beginnings of a jutsu.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"

Zabuza was taken by surprise. That was his voice and anothers. Kakashi's. But how on earth did he know what to do?

"How? I can read your mind. I can see your future."

What? How on earth did Kakashi do that? Is he really reading my mind? No, no, he's just looking at my chakra system with that darned Sharingan eye of his. Maybe I'll entertain him though.

"Oh really?" He spoke with false fear, curiosity but a little bit of apprehension as he awaited Kakashi's answer.

"By the end of this passing hour, you'll be dead."

With no sign of him doing so, inspired after Naruto's incredible actions, Kakashi body flicked behind Zabuza and thrust a kunai into his liver. Without medical assistance, he'd be dead in a minute.

Just as Kakashi was about to slice his head clean off, however, multiple senbon raced through the air and hit the muscle surrounding the trachea, affectively killing him- or so was thought.

Then, a hunter-nin was stood holding onto Zabuza almost a little carefully, as if they wanted him preserved. Though Kakashi didn't bare that mind as he went over to check his pulse, and found himself feeling nothing.

"I thank you for your help, I've been tracking this specific one down for a while, quite evasive. I will be off." Without a word of warning, the nin was gone, leaving a still frozen Sakura, Sasuke; who was fairing not too much better, Kakashi; who looked a tad remorseful- must be dwelling on this past, like Kyu-san said- . And Naruto.

Naruto was supporting Kakashi, as he was suffering from severe chakra exhaustion, grinning like a madman. He had saved everyone!

With Sakura and Sasuke up, the latter glaring at the back of Naruto's head, the gang had gone on their not-so-merryway back to Tazuna's house.

The gang got to Tazunas home later than anticipated, but had all managed to eat before passing out. Well, that was Sasuke and Sakura. Kakashi didn't want to sleep until he got things cleared up and Naruto wasn't tired, he wanted to train. Train all night. He wanted to train until he passed out.

"Naruto, could I talk to you for a moment?" Kakashi wanted to know. He needed to know.

"Sure thing, Kakashi-sensei." Was Naruto's quite chirpy, yet very cautious reply.

"Well, you see, erm, Naruto. That was some move back with Zabuza. You withstood his killing intent, you managed to form a perfect strategy for getting me out of his water bubble and you helped everybody get away mostly safe and sound. Have you been holding back? Or do you have just that much potential?"

Naruto sighed, he knew this was coming, but he didn't want to be confronted like such so quickly. Though, he thought, this was probably for the best, having him teacher be able to help him in his ventures.

"A few days ago, I figured something out about the Shadow Clones. Once they dispel, I get their memories. Their experience, even sometimes their pain. It had me thinking. What if I could use it for other things besides fighting? That had me on a roll, I could use them to do things whilst I do others, which led me further down the path of using them to read up on material such as politics, history, geography, all the shinobi arts- including fuinjutsu- the amount I read was ridiculous, but after a long talk with Hokage-sama, I came to the conclusion that, if I want to truly become a strong ninja, I'd have to cut the act, start being a real ninja. This also meant I managed to get a basic grasp on the more advanced concepts of the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and figured, why not use it for training? If I get its memories when it dispels during reconnaissance, surely I get them when they dispel after anything. So I had them all doing different things, groups of ten doing taijutsu, ninjutsu, reading and about thirty on fuinjutsu- I was and am so intrigued. I haven't been holding back, Kakashi-sensei, I've had an epiphany with led and may lead to many things. All good, I hope."

Kakashi was awestruck. He would never in a million years believed his stupid-knucklehead student to be so... smart. He talked intellectually, knew what he was talking about and had come up with ideas not even the great Hokages had implemented, though maybe they had thought about it. He was showing true signs of prodigious skill, and was everything Kakashi thought him not to be. Maybe, just maybe, Kakashi would have to start taking Naruto seriously. His training, his attitude, him. Everything. He'd have to be reassessed, revalued. Oh the time that would take, but it would be worth it. Maybe, just maybe, Naruto is going to be the revamp he needs to kickstart his life once more. Sasuke turned out to be a huge let down, being so arrogant, despicable and showing less skill than Naruto.

"Wow. I'm going to have to unthink everything I've already thunk about you, Naruto, for you are clearly not what I thought. Now get some sleep, my intelligent little genin."

...

...

...

...

"Well that turned out better than expected."

"Ano, Foxy-chan, why do I sometimes dream about the death of hundreds a massive frog-toad-thingy pinning you down with a huge tanto and weird face markings?"

"SILENCE, INSOLENT FOOL! I AM THE GREAT KYUUBI KITSUNE, THERE'S NO WAY IN THE BURNING DEPTHS OF HELL FROM WHENCE I CAME THAT I'D BE, BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION, HOWEVER BIASED YOU MAY BE, PINNED BY A KAMI DAMNED FROG! Now SLEEP, leave me be in SILENCE!"

Hey all! I do hope this chapter did some justice to what you came to see, as I really am just winging it. I do think the plot needs some shaping, moulding, ya'know, but overall I think it's turned out pretty nicely. The next chapters onwards will follow the description a bit more, I suppose and this will have other things implemented. There will be a Naruto pairing but I don't think I should say just yet. Though be warned, as I am not fussed about yaoi or straight. I go with it.