Five years later

The past five years were hard for Uzumaki Naruto. His sensei and training methods were hard and brutal not to mention excruciatingly painful as some of his scars will attest to. Anko had literally trained him straight into the hospital on a few occasions but he had never complained, never refused her training or methods and for that he had gained a lot of respect from not only Anko but anyone who had trained with her before.

Anko had completely destroyed Naruto's body and from the smouldering ashes she built him anew, strong, fast, smart and just as sadistic as herself when the occasion called for it. Naruto had changed so dramatically he had discarded his orange jumpsuit and opted for a full black outfit consisting of black combat pants a black long sleeved shirt and black zori. Over his shirt he wore a standard issue ANBU flack jacket in black and had the same standard issue ANBU greaves covering his lower legs. He also held two Wikizashi horizontally against his lower back at all times as well as a pair of shuriken holsters and two dark grey utility pouches. Over his forearms and wrists were a pair of retractable wrist blades that Naruto had built himself and had managed to make the two wrist blades with firing mechanisms to shoot the blades from his wrists at the enemy. (think of a predator's wrist blade vambraces except with straight edged Katana styled blades and only a single blade per wrist …. for now).

To top it all off he had recently been given his Hitai-ate, signifying he was now a shinobi of his village and he displayed his headband proudly on his forehead. He currently stood in a large grassy clearing within the forest of death, surrounded by several clones of himself, all wielding different weapons.

The first clone charged.

Naruto readied his wrist blades and blocked a powerful spinning strike from the clone before roundhouse kicking the clone into another headed for himself. He deflected a Katana strike, the momentum of the clones attack left it unbalanced and open. Naruto seized the opportunity with vicious speed, driving one one of his blades into the offending clones throat, spurting blood all over his forearm before decapitating the clone with his free arm.

Naruto grunted in pain, turning to find a clone had drove its spear into his calf and ripped it out with a twist before Naruto was forced to dodge and deflect a series or lightning fast jabs and swipes from the clone. He swerved around a lunge strike by the clone and swiped the clone across the chest with his right arm, gashing the clones chest open and reacted quickly aiming his left wrist at the clone and firing the blade from the vambrace at point blank range, tearing into the clones chest with a sickening snapping sound.

Once again Naruto found himself assaulted by a chained Kama aimed to remove his head. He raised his right arm to deflect the oncoming attack whilst at he same time grabbing the weapons chain and ripping it towards himself and the clone along with it through the air, only for the clones face to be impacted with his left fist and thrown skidding along the ground from the force of the blow.

The last clone charged in, utilising the same wrist blades as its creator. The clone managed to get through Naruto's defence and heel kicked Naruto up into the air. Naruto flipped in mid air and landed on top of the clone he had shot with his blade before pushing the end of the blade into the open slot of his vambrace, securing it in place with a metallic click. He stood, ripping the still embedded blade from the clones chest. He stared at his clone as they slowly circled one another.

A gentle breeze blew by, a leaf danced in the air between them and gently fell to the ground. In that instant the entire area was a scene of black and blonde blurs, sparks flew about the area as the distinct sound of metal hitting metal could be heard. Naruto and the clone suddenly appeared at opposite sides of the field from one another, both breathing hard as they stared at each other.

They leapt at each other once more, engaging in their deadly dance of blades, slash for slash they both were even until Naruto ducked low, slashing the clone above the knee with a fluid strike before rolling under the clones own swipe and around behind it before plunging both wrist blades into the clones lower back and with a single quick and powerful motion he pulled his arms wide of each other, causing blood to spurt in an arc all around the clone as it fell forward onto the now crimson speckled grass.

All at once the clones dispersed along with their weapons, leaving the area looking completely untouched. Naruto stood and retracted the blades into his vambraces and set to tending to his wounded leg with a weak medical jutsu one of the nurses at the hospital had taught him after the fifth time Anko's training had put him in there.

Naruto heard someone clapping as they approached him and turned his head to see who had been watching him to find non other than the Hokage himself, Anko and a few other Jounin.

"Hokage-sama …. everyone else, to what do I owe the pleasure?" asked Naruto with a small smile.

"Myself and some of the other Jounin were curious about your progression and I must say that was an impressive display of talent, could you explain the training as I am curious as to why you would fight kage bunshin when you are easily able to defeat them?" asked the ageing Hokage with a smile.

"I didn't use any Chakra in that fight whatsoever … and by training this way, I increase my endurance, stamina and hand to hand fighting skills by using the clones memories to analyse every detail of the fight … also if I am ever caught in the situation where I'm low on Chakra or I am in sensitive situation where using Chakra would have me exposed to the enemy then sharpening my hand to hand combat without the use of Chakra could mean the difference between a successful mission and a brutal bloody death" Naruto explained with a small smile to the group, earning nods of approval from a few people and the Hokage as where as Anko just smirked proudly at her prodigy student.

" And what would you do if in the event you were discovered in that exact situation?" asked the Hokage with a smirk.

Naruto thought for a moment and smirked the same way in which Anko usually did, which unnerved people that she had rubbed off on him perhaps a bit too much.

"I would strap myself with every explosive tag I have and take out as many as I can before I can fight no more and then detonate the tags for good measure, giving any team-mates ample time to retreat safely" said Naruto as he stood, crossing his arms over his chest.

"And that is why you deserve your Hitai-ate" said the Hokage with a broad smile before he glanced to Anko.

"You've trained him well Anko … I'm proud of both of you" he said with a full smile.

"Thank you Hokage-sama" Anko bowed.

"Hey Naruto … how did you get kage bunshin to last until after death?" coughed a Jounin in the standard Jounin attire with a Katana strapped to his back and his headband worn as a bandanna.

"It's real simple Hyate-sensei … simply put they are super charged … each are made with 90% of my Chakra rather than distributing the Chakra evenly between them, It took me several days to create all the clones and have enough Chakra back myself to fight them … they are infective in combat as they will drain your Chakra pools but they are useful, if extremely risky distractions to escape enemies" Naruto explained

"I have never seen kage bunshin utilised in such a way before ..." spoke another Jounin, clearly impressed.

"even Kakashi's Raiton kage bunshin aren't as resilient as these" another Jounin spoke with a small laugh.

"Naruto, I would like for you to write down everything you know about this supercharged kage bunshin for the forbidden scroll" spoke Hiruzen as he smiled.

"I'll have it done for you and deliver it myself tomorrow" Naruto replied before he spoke "I know its rude of me but maintaining kage bunshin for so long has left myself with an appetite only Ichiraku ramen stand can fill" Naruto said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

'It's good to see he still retains a bit of his childish antics' Hiruzen thought before he laughed "Go on ahead Naruto, but ill need you at my office at about 2pm okay?" asked the Hokage with a smile.

"no problem, see you later everybody!" Naruto said before he leapt off toward the village to go and fulfil his absolute reason for living … to eat impossible amounts of ramen. He thought about the day he had gotten his headband … he had been given a challenge by Anko to steal a certain book from one of the villages top Jounin. He had barely completed the challenge without being murdered by an enraged silver haired Jounin who had chased him clear across the village several times over before he was able to evade him completely by creating over 20 kage bunshin to scatter and confuse him. Naruto laughed a little at the memory as he hopped down between two buildings and down to the ground in an alley way across from Ichiraku ramen stand, one of the few places within the village he liked.

He walked in, using his arm to move the flap out of the way as he greeted the ramen stand owners with a smile.

"Hey Teuchi-ojisan! Ayame-chan!"

"Naruto! It's good to see you again! And with a Hitai-ate, congratulations! Your first bowl is on the house … the usual order I presume?" asked Teuchi with a huge smile as Ayame gave Naruto a hug and kiss on the cheek.

"congratulations Naruto-kun!"

"Thanks guys … yeah the usual order please Teuchi-ojisan!" Naruto replied and waited for his order, talking with Ayame in the mean time.

"So how's your training coming along?" asked the brunette teen.

"I must be doing good if the Hokage is putting one of my techniques in the forbidden scroll … I have to admit I only tweaked the jutsu slightly from its original use … the best part is I have a theory in which I can make it even better" said Naruto with a grin.

"Wow that's really something Naruto-kun" Ayame beamed at him before ruffling his hair, much to the blondes annoyance which made Ayame smile all the more.

Then it came … his ramen, his one true love, his absolute reason for living. He inhaled its aroma and shivered slightly before breaking apart his chopsticks and digging in, savouring the flavour of every single mouthful, even if he was rushing his meal … after all he did have another eleven bowls to get through before 2pm …

Once Naruto finished he patted his stomach and paid for his meal before getting up and heading to the Hokage tower on foot seeing as he had about twenty minutes to kill before he needed to be there. He noticed as he walked that a lot of villagers ushered there children away from him and a lot openly stared or glared toward him. He would be lying if he said he could ignore them completely but a part of him was always on edge around the civilian population. He simply walked on when something hit him and fell to the ground.

Naruto looked down to see a small girl there on the floor, rubbing her cheek.

"Hi there … what's your name?" Naruto asked as he held a hand out to help the girl up. The small girl reached for his hand but Naruto was suddenly shoved out of the way by what he assumed was the girls mother.

"Stay away from my daughter you monster!" she commanded in a harsh voice as she picked up her daughter and ushered her away from Naruto.

Naruto simply watched her walk away "what the hell are these people's problem?" he asked himself in frustration before he walked onward to see the Hokage.

He arrived shortly after the incident in the street and went to knock on the Hokage's office door when the secretary called out to him "He's busy! Go away!" she snarled.

Naruto spared her a glance before he simply walked into Sarutobi's office and closed the door behind himself, turning to look at the Hokage as he looked up from his paperwork.

"You know … your supposed to knock" the old Hokage stated with a small smirk.

"And secretaries are supposed to be polite … so what do you need me for?" asked Naruto just as Anko entered the room through the window.

Sarutobi sighed slightly at the manner in which Anko had started to enter his office recently "tell me about it, bitch has a tree branch stuck up her ass or something" Anko agreed.

Hiruzen gestured for the two to sit down in front of his desk before he began to speak...

"This is about team assignments for today's graduating academy students … seeing as Naruto has the most experience out of any of this years Genin … I have decided to let you both decide who you want on your team … within reason of course, cant have you picking the strongest of the lot … I need the teams as balanced as possible" Hiruzen said as he handed a stack of folders over to Naruto and Anko who quickly skimmed through each of them.

He noticed Naruto hold onto a single file and set it aside before he continued browsing.

Anko didn't really care all that much, to be honest she was happy with letting Naruto choose as it was him that would have to work with them more than herself. She gave the files to Naruto and he skimmed through them. After a few moments Naruto picked out another file before he placed a neat pile of folders on the Hokage's desk.

"You've chosen?" asked Hiruzen, to which Naruto nodded and handed the two files over.

The Hokage looked the files over and his eyebrows raised "You do like a challenge don't you … you do realise that you may have to work on some team building exercises with them and get both in decent shape before you take on even low C-ranks" Hiruzen stated as even he was shocked with his choices.

"I'm positive … and I know that our work is cut out for us … I'll pick them up from the academy myself tomorrow, I know Anko-sensei has a mission tomorrow … so ill get them properly dressed and equipped for actual missions then run them though the training plan we have been talking about … from what I've heard about Genin cells, the team only gets serious about the job once someone on the team gets killed. I don't want that happening to my own team" Naruto said as he looked between the Hokage and Anko.

"Why didnt you take the Uchiha?" asked Sarutobi curiously.

"Honestly … I knew what this meeting was about before we came here, I've been observing possible candidates, knowing who had passed yesterday let me quickly choose who I wanted on my team and I didnt make my decisions lightly … I've observed the class for some time and the Uchiha is arrogant and selfish, he thinks of nothing but his own advancement in power … if anything he's the graduate who poses the biggest risk to himself and his team …" Naruto explained.

The Hokage nodded his head, not that Naruto could have chosen him anyway but everyone seemed to worship the ground the Uchiha walked on, including the civilian side of the council of Konoha.

"Then its settled … Haruno Sakura, Hyuga Hinata and Uzumaki Naruto are now team seven under Mitirashi Anko. Good look … both of you" Hiruzen said before he dismissed them both from his office to get back to the most evil and dreaded force in the elemental nations … paperwork. It wasn't until he left the room he noticed a note left on his desk, he picked it up and read it.

"Kage bunshin is handy for doing huge amounts of tedious training in a short amount of time … Naruto."

for the first time in years Sarutobi Hiruzen, the man hailed as the god of shinobi by enemies and allies alike was dumbstruck that a mere Genin could defeat an enemy he had been fighting for over forty years of his life.

"That kid is going to be Hokage one day" Sarutobi said as he rubbed his temples before using the kage bunshin technique to divide and conquer the life sucking paperwork on his desk.

Meanwhile Naruto and Anko were headed back to the forest when Anko had to ask what had been on her mind when she left the office.

"Why those two?" she asked plainly.

"Because I think we can use their abilities quite well … the Haruno girl has perfect Chakra control so we should work with her to use Genjutsu, a skill that I myself do not have adequate control for and the Hyuga's eyes and Taijutsu are good not to mention her profile says she makes healing salves … if we could get her some medic training then I think we will have the perfect team, myself being the weapons and Ninjutsu specialist" he said with a smile at his own reasoning.

"that's a pretty smart idea brat …" Anko complimented him and surprised he had made such plans with only briefly scanning the files.

"I aim to please!" Naruto grinned at her.

They stopped on a large branch, overlooking an elegantly built two story tree house of relative size, a gift Anko had presented him for his birthday during their second year of training. Anko had had 'persuaded' one of her ANBU friends to build it in secret for her student as she herself had a few bad habits and Naruto hated being around her when she was relaxing.

The tree house itself was well hidden, high up off the ground and the surrounding tree's were littered with traps to stem the approach of unwanted guests, be it shinobi or beasts of the forest.

Naruto turned and smiled at Anko "I'm gonna turn in early tonight … after all I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a long and stressful day"

"Okay brat, good look tomorrow … let me know how you get on" the Jounin replied before bounding off to the central tower, aka Anko land as she liked to call it as it was often used in the Chunin exams which by her explanation made the forest come to life with the screams and the blood that gets spilt …

Naruto jumped over to the tree house and walked along the wide deck outside the house until he reached the front door. He unlocked the door and entered, locking up behind himself as was his habit before he made his way upstairs to the bathroom for a shower. then he would have an instant cup ramen before finally going to bed.

Ive fixed spelling mistakes, added to some things very briefly and ill update the third chapter tomorrow when I wake up.

Hope youve enjoyed it so you better review D: