The next day Naruto goes to the training grounds where they had met with Asuma wearing a grey t-shirt and sweatpants with his weapons sealed away in a storage seal on the palm of his right hand for quick access. (He had spent a good part of the night working on the seal to make sure that every brush stroke was perfect) He had expected many things to happen today like exhaustion or being there after Asuma-sensei but none of those things were to find Ino had been the one to be there earlier than him nor to see what she was wearing. Ino wore a black tank top and black yoga pants with dark blue ninja sandals and was doing her stretches! Naruto fainted with a nose bleed.

(Ino's POV)

I had done my morning routine quickly, took a shower, dressed in clothes i felt were fitting for today's training, ate a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and a side of grits, ran to the training grounds, and started my stretches. After about 4 minutes i heard the oh so familiar thump of someone fainting and sighed. 'Which perv followed me this time?' I went to where the sound originated from thinking i was gonna find Kiba, Neji, or one of the other idiots who tried peeking on me before but i was shocked that i found none other than my long time crush Naruto layed out with a trickle of blood coming from his nose.

I heard a sound as if he was talking and his mouth was moving ever so slightly so i got closer and heard it. 'So cute… naughty thoughts… bad Naruto… '

I giggled to myself. 'So he does notice my looks and obviously from how he acted yesterday knows i'm smart… but does he know I'm stronger than the average kunoichi of our age group?'

I shrugged and picked up the boy to bring him into the actual training grounds. 'Well if he doesn't know yet he'll know soon enough and hopefully ask me out!'

(Naruto's P.O.V: mindscape)

The damn fox was rolling around laughing his tails off and it was honestly pissing me off. "IT'S NOT THAT FUNNY YOU DAMNED FUR BALL!!!!" When the bijuu had been able to calm down his laughing he nodded his head. "Yes it is kit, just think about it, you've spent 4 years closing yourself off from your emotions and from other people other than your cousin Sasuke so that you could do what you feel needs to be done to kill Itachi without fear of him being able to use anyone else against you then you finally notice that human girl who has been trying to get you to open up since you two met, (Why she goes for the guy who seemed to be dangerous for everyone's health i will never understand and I've been around much longer than your villages have existed) and now you faint with a nosebleed because of the clothes she wears."

I huffed and sat on a dry spot in my mindscape which refused to change from a sewer no matter how hard i tried. "I still say that it's not funny, what's going on out there?"

Kurama seemed to zone out for a minute as he connected to the outside world to see through nature chakra, since he was a literal chakra construct given life it was easy for him to use nature chakra as if it was an extension of himself so he had taught me how to use it in the most basic of ways and said that he would soon allow me to sign the fox summoning contract and become the first human fox sage.

Kurama had focused back onto his environment and grinned. "She moved you into the shade of the trees and returned to her stretching."

I blushed and looked down at the ground. "I can wait to wake up."

The fox chuckled evilly. "I don't think so." With that i felt as i was kicked out of my own mind. As i felt myself leaving my mindscape i screamed out. "YOU DAMN FOX!!!!"

(Naruto's P.O.V: real world)

I jumped up and had a kunai in each hand, a reflex that i still haven't been able to get rid of ever since that night.

As soon as i had truly known where i was i sealed away the kunai and calmed down.

(Normal pov)

Naruto had relaxed but had obviously closed himself in even further than before which confused Ino. 'What's going on with you Naruto, why must you close yourself in?' thought the girl.

She was about to speak to the boy but both Asuma and Shikamaru walked in at that moment with lazy looks about them. "Ok now let's get started, run 10 laps around this training ground then drop in front of me and do 4 sets of 8 push ups." said the jounin.

The three did just that with all of them finishing at different times. (Naruto finished first in four minutes

and thirty two seconds with his weight seals active, Ino finished in a solid five minutes and Shikamaru finished in six minutes and twenty two seconds)

The three preteens where breathing a little heavily but could easily keep going so they looked at Asuma for what was next to which they were told just to run for as long as they could which ended up with Shikamaru running for an hour and thirty minutes, Ino running for an hour and forty minutes, and Naruto running for a solid two hours.

After that Asuma passed out bottles of water that he had unsealed from a storage scroll along with bento boxes that he said Kurenai had prepared for both her team and this one.

"Ok so, you're all doing better than expected of you especially you Ino because from what i seen of your files you shouldn't have been able to do nearly half as well as you did."

The girl grinned happily. "Well a shinobi's best skill will always be deception, i could have been higher ranked in the academy but those ranks don't mean anything in the real world because even rookie of the year is still a rookie just with a target painted on them during the chuunin exams that even fellow Konoha shinobi will go after."

Naruto was impressed by the girls deduction and had even more respect for her.

Asuma nodded. "Very true, now eat up, once you have rested long enough we'll begin the next part."

While they ate they talked about a lot of subjects but the main one was their time in the academy.

Ino laughed about the pranks Naruto used to pull on the staff at the academy then got wide eyed with excitement. "Ooh, do y'all two remember the class mission for stealth class?"

Naruto smirked. "Well of course i do though i think Shikamaru doesn't like to remember that one… so we'll tell it to Asuma-sensei in detail."

(Flashback)

A 10 year old Naruto had been teamed up with Ino Yamanaka and Hinata Hyuuga for this stealth assignment which had them get passed the rest of the class to retrieve a scroll then bring it back to Tsukiko-sensei, their stealth teacher.

The three academy students were at the beginning of the tree line and both Ino and Naruto looked to Hinata. "Well, please use your eyes Hinata-san" said Naruto.

The girl activated her byakugan and put all of her focus into looking further into the forest. "I found them, the rest of the class is directly in the middle of the forest in a large building that seems to be pretty old, it seems that they left a big hole in their defensive patrol, maybe we can…"

Naruto instantly stopped her. "That would be a bad idea, they are being led by Shikamaru so that hole in the defenses had to have been on purpose to lure us into a trap, are there any other ways that you can see?"

The girl nodded. "Y-yes, if you can get us close enough i can put a few of the patrolling kids under a low level sleep genjutsu that I learned in my spare time."

Naruto nodded. "Right, we'll go to the opposite side of where the hole is at and start the plan.

They moved quickly knowing that they had ten minutes to get there, take the scroll, and get to Tsukiko-sensei if they wished to pass.

As soon as they were in position Hinata hit two of their classmates dead on with the genjutsu and watched them fall asleep.

Naruto picked both Hinata and Ino up then jumped up onto the wall of the building before putting them down to hide the two unconscious students.

The three oddly enough stuck to the plan and worked well together, sneaking passed group after group without a problem then grabbed the scroll and took the same route out and made a mad dash out of there to the academy where they had been given top grades.

(Flashback end)

Shikamaru grumbled about not expecting a Hyuuga to know genjutsu which got the others to laugh even more.

Asuma smiled at Naruto. "You are obviously a natural born leader, no matter what team they put you with the others naturally gravitate towards you for a plan, for guidance, for reassurance. These kids that graduated with you seem to be willing to follow you through hell and back all because of the leader like qualities that you possess my boy, be proud of that."

Asuma looked up at the sky and smirked. "Well enough of that, time for strength training."

(1 month later)

For a month team 10 trained constantly gaining strength, speed, flexibility, endurance, and chakra control. Once Ino asked why they hadn't taken any missions yet and Asuma answered with a simple 'making sure you're all prepared' before going back to his own training.

Throughout out the month Ino and Shikamaru would go out of their way to include Naruto in conversations, invite him to lunch, dinner, or even to just hang out with them but 9 times out of 10 he'd refuse.

Ino could see that it hurt him to do this as if he yearned to get close to them but something was stopping him.

'I just don't understand, he was such a happy child before, he was always befriending people no matter who they were, now he's become cold and distant but i can feel it, he wants to rejoin his friends and be happy. It's like he feels like he has to… NO! I will get the old Naruto back no matter what!'

And she went for it, she tried the next day, then the next until a week had gone by then 2 weeks, then 3, then another month until she finally got what she wanted.

Naruto had dropped his walls and let his team in and he was having fun but he'd still stay on guard as if he expected something to go wrong but Ino was happy with the progress she had already made so she decided to let him slowly ease back into his old cheery ways.

Now after 2 months of training under Asuma the team had been assigned a C rank that could be upgraded to a B rank mission later on to go and protect a nobleman and his daughter from bandits and a few suspected missing ninja of low rankings. Naruto had just finished sealing away his weapons, extra clothes, food, and a bedroll when Sasuke walked in and leaned against the door frame. "C rank already?"

Naruto nodded. "Yes, Asuma-sensei has decided that we're ready for this ranking though i say with the training my teammates and i have gone through we should be ready for higher levels, but i have no authority to question a jounins decision so I'm just going along with it."

Sasuke glared at his cousin's back with his active 3 tomoe sharingan. "You've been getting too comfortable with that team of yours Naruto, you haven't really forgotten what we have to do have you?" The young Uchiha clenched his fists and glared at the wall in front of him. "No cousin i have not, Itachi will die for his crimes."

This obviously satisfied Sasuke as he walked away with a grunt. 'But he'll die without the use of that evolution no matter what i have to do.'

XXXAN: Hello my wonderful readers, here's another chapter to read. I hope it has enough detail to satisfy you all for the moment.Now we start to see the way Sasuke treats Naruto as just another tool to be used in killing his brother and restoring the clan, how Naruto wishes to kill Itachi but wants to go about it without the use of Mangekyou as he understands what kind of price you would have to pay to gain such a power.Anyway, please enjoy and as always MCL homies