Sakura sat in her parent's house, a few days after their failure. She had done some thinking and decided to stop her diet, to her parent's delight; but the academy only began again in a month, so she had no way to start learning her shinobi skills. A knock at the door cleared those thoughts.

"Who is it? Sasuke-kun? What are you doing here?" She asked the Uchiha. Sasuke looked unsure for a minute, blushed slightly, then trying to regain some semblance of respect but failing, asked with much stuttering, "Sakura, do you wa-want to … t-train to-together?" A certain blue haired Hyuuga sneezed, feeling oddly ripped off.

"Sure! I'd love to! You have to teach me a few things, but I have lots of supplies." After a few minutes of packing, she followed Sasuke to the back of the academy to work on shuriken throwing, since the training grounds are off-limits to academy students.

With Naruto, earlier

Our favourite jinchuuriki was trying hard to remain impassive as his eyes considerably widened and he leant forwards. "W-what?" He quietly muttered, not trusting his voice just yet.

"You heard me. Hokage-sama has finally allowed me to take you on as a student. His direct orders are to train you in time for the Konoha Chuunin exams in half a year; in that time you'll have to become as strong as a chuunin. I don't know the details, but I suspect the Sandaime has a plan that requires you to be a higher rank. Either way, we will focus nearly entirely on training, unlike other teams."

'This is… unexpected. But not entirely. I thought we would be split up afterwards. Oh well. Wonder if Kakashi is observing my reactions?' Naruto looked deep in thought for a few seconds, until he looked straight at Kakashi –"I accept. I'll become a chuunin in the next exams!"

"Now Naruto, I'm sure you're wondering exactly what we will be learning and what our plan is for the next six months. I'll divide it up into three segments. In the first month, we will get you some good ninjutsu and chakra control. In the second and third, we'll work on your taijutsu, then in months 4-6 we can work on abilities only you can use, namely the Kyuubi's power."

"Sure, but are we going to do missions in this time?"

"No, we will not do regular missions. Though we may do one or two with a high chance of bandits to get some combat experience. Any more questions?" At Naruto's head shake, Kakashi continued. "Well, I have somewhere to be now. You have three days off. But now being a gennin, you have access to the training grounds. I would use them. Also, here."

Naruto caught a scroll aimed at his head, unrolled the top and skimmed the contents. 'Chakra control for beginners, huh. I always knew I needed more, but the academy doesn't teach any good control techniques. With this I can make all my jutsu more efficient.' "Thanks, sensei. I'll meet you back here at 4 am in three days then?" At Kakashi's nod then body flicker away, Naruto created a clone to go back to his house and gather some things. He himself then had to restrain himself from running back to the training ground.

'Looks like there's a note here from Kakashi about shadow clones… hmm, 'check your memories after dispelling a few?' That sounds helpful.' The clone from earlier arrived at the training ground with a backpack full of instant ramen, some kunai and shuriken, and a scroll. The clone, about to explain, popped when Naruto simply stabbed it. He then noticed he knew why the scroll was there – the clone had found it on his bed. 'I guess shadow clones give you their memories after they are dispelled. I'll have to experiment to figure out if they can transfer gained skills as well…'

Opening the scroll, he saw some very sloppy writing, as if someone was ecstatic about something. 'Let's see… To the youthful apprentice of the green beast's eternal rival. Youth blossoming youth something youth hard work dedication youth… Ah, here's something. Two training weights with seals to determine their weight.' With a quick application of chakra, the two weights poofed into existence. Naruto strapped them both on to his legs, at a weight of twenty kilograms (~40 pounds) each.

Ten seal-less clones phased into existence around Naruto. Already knowing what to do, five began the chakra control exercise, two did weightlifting exercises, while the last three and the original picked up kunai and began throwing them accurately at targets from a distance.

After an hour, all clones were dispelled. 'I have gained a bit of chakra control but no more physical strength. But I've gained the experience from the kunai throwing. Therefore shadow clones do not effect muscles, but they can contribute to training chakra and jutsu, as well as muscle memory which is stored in the brain.' Naruto then created as many clones as possible (~200), and set half to work on tree walking and the other half to begin sparring to get combat experience. He himself then started running around with difficulty, struggling against the weights, to build his muscle strength.

Kakashi and an Anbu officer both watched this all, scrutinising everything that occurred. "He really has changed hasn't he, neko?" The purple haired Anbu then slightly inclined her head in a nod, then vanished in a plume of smoke. "Hard to think this is the same brat we protected. It's like he's become suddenly much cleverer. Though I guess in his excitement he forgot about his mask. Shame." He looked forlornly with a hint of regret at Naruto's impassive face that revealed nothing. Oh how he wanted to see him smile again, but seeing that would indicate that the jinchuuriki was happy. As with most jinchuuriki, this was simply not the case.

Skip – three days later

Naruto had already gotten the hang of tree walking and water walking and noticed that with enough practice he could perform jutsu without handsigns. He trained his substitution jutsu enough for this, though he did not have as much control over it as he would wish. He had also increased his weights to thirty kilograms each. He had arrived at the meeting point at 6am, just in time to see Kakashi appear. Naruto slouched down and looked really bored, then perked up at seeing Kakashi and exclaimed "Where were you?"

"Well… I saw a black cat. This made me turn around and go the other way. Then I walked into some drying clothes that soaked my mask. I then had to go back and get another mask. Then I came as quickly as I could, avoiding going under bridges. But then there was a celebration on the one road leading here, so I had to haggle my way through the entire thing. But then I had a lot of useless tourist souvenirs, so I-" Naruto interrupted, glaring slightly. "Just say you forgot to set the alarm in the morning. Let's go."

Arriving at the training ground, Kakashi took out a piece of paper and explained what chakra paper did. Naruto grabbed his piece of paper, then channelled his chakra through it. The paper evenly split in two, with one side crumbling into dust and the other simply crumpling. Kakashi looked very shocked for a second, then calmly explained to Naruto.

"You have three natures. Wind, earth, and lightning. This means you can use all three more easily than others who do not have the natures. But three natures… When you become much more powerful you might be able to combine two or even three natures to create sub-elements. But for now I'll give you one easy jutsu from each to learn. You've learned the shadow clone trick, I presume?" At Naruto's emotionless nod, he continued. "I'll create three clones, you make a few for each of me. They'll teach you one jutsu each, but you'll have to practice what you learned here. As for the real us, we're going to work on getting you used to those weights for the taijutsu training next month. We'll get the weights up to 100 kg each leg."

Naruto created 400 clones. They went about their tasks, with a hundred for every Kakashi, and an extra hundred who worked on chakra control by standing on turbulent water next to a waterfall. Then the real Kakashi suddenly pulled a kunai and charged Naruto, who had some trouble but stayed just a few centimetres away from being hit by the blade. The chase continued nearly all day, with a break for food (at the Akimichi shop, who let the blond in with a glare from Kakashi). After that, the training ended with Kakash leaving down the street, reading his book and giggling perversely while those around him made a wide berth around the strange giggling man.

Naruto then sat down in the training ground, watching his clones continue trying their jutsu. He then made sure they dispelled one at a time to give information to the other clones so they could continue practicing. He himself then meditated and sorted his memories. Emerging in his mindscape, he went down a corridor of the dirty sewer but took a different turn than the one with all the hatred down it – he did not want to meet his tenant just yet. Arriving at what looked like a library, he grabbed a pile of unsorted books that represented his new memories and quickly slotted them into different shelves.

The rest of the week then continued like this, with Naruto learning three new jutsu, as well as increasing his weights to 40kg each. He also now was able to read Kakashi's moves and could quickly predict what the ninja was about to do by how his muscles tensed, though he needed a lot more experience to be able to use this on other people.

After experimentation, Naruto discovered that he found it very easy to learn something by watching another person doing it, then copying their moves. Pumping chakra through his eyes made him able to see much more accurately and notice smaller details, though Kakashi theorised this was Kyuubi's doing. Continuing to learn more jutsu, Naruto's day was roughly divided up like this:

6am- spar with Kakashi while clones continue learning and perfecting three techniques.

9am- Slowly start dispelling clones one at a time to give the rest pointers and tips

10am- Fight Kakashi just using ninjutsu, to get used to using them in battle

12pm- Finish with Kakashi. Dispel clones and meditate, then spar against clones to work out and fix holes in his style.

Skip – 4 weeks/ 1 month later

Kakashi appeared at 6am sharp with an eye-smile, two hours after the actual start time. Though the copy-nin didn't need to know Naruto also only just arrived. Though this time, Kakashi held up a hand to Naruto to get his attention, then told him to meet in the Hokage's office. He then poofed away, leaving Naruto to glare slightly at the dispersing smoke. Then the blond himself disappeared in a blur, arriving at the office a minute later.

The Sandaime smiled at him grandfatherly, released some smoke from his pipe, then handed a scroll to Kakashi who was already in front of him. "You two have a new mission. I had planned not to have to send you on any for a while, but this is urgent and you need experience outside Konoha. The details are in the scroll, but, simply, you are a reinforcement mission. Kurenai's team 8 is on a C-rank mission to Wave, but they have encountered two mist missing-nin. Therefore I am sending you two as back up. Your orders: Help Kurenai's team in any way possible."

'Well, this is the ideal opportunity to get out of the village for a while. If I tried to leave on my own, despite his smile, Sarutobi would order his Anbu to recapture and potentially kill me. After all, he can't let his trump card loose.'

"I accept, Hokage-sama. When do we leave and what do I need?" Naruto directed his questions to Kakashi, who smiled and replied. "Half an hour, east gate. Take essentials for a week-long trip. I'll take the tent." And with that, Naruto nodded and blurred away.

"He's become quite the shinobi, Kakashi. How much of this was your work?"

"Hokage-sama. I believe he was always like this, but simply uses a mask when around his peers so that he fits in and to cheer himself up. It is saddening, to see someone so young so impassive. Reminds me of another certain young prodigy…"

"Yes, well, make sure Naruto does not go down THAT path. One clan dead is more than enough for me. Make sure he stays loyal to the village, maybe through friendship. Though if you think he may pose a threat to us all, and there is no other way… end him."

Kakashi gazed sadly at the retreating orange blur. He then steeled his features and nodded.


A/N

The training's finally started! This story will be moving incredibly fast up to the Chuunin exams, and if a section from the original has been skipped, assume that it happened as canon. Also, if anyone does not know who Hiruzen is alluding to at the end, I'll give a clue. His name starts with an 'i' and rhymes with 'tachi'. As for updating, I think I will be able to post a new chapter a week at the slowest, though other work I have takes priority.