With the state of affairs after the Warring clans period coalescing into the Hidden Village system as the more powerful countries aped the actions of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, the structured militarisation of society really took off. Powerful warlords gained legal legitimacy as they built their own city states in the first peace time in more than a hundred years, offering protection and wealth to those who would join them. Needless to say this did not go over well with the existing feudal lords, sparking tensions between the divine rule of birthright and the right to rule through strength.

Naruto placed two halves of a severed twig onto the small pile of detritus on his left and stretched over to pick up a leaf, desperately trying to think up a battle plan. That bloody old man had done this on purpose, he was sure. Standard four team practice skirmish in front of all the important investors, merchants, nobles and misc. who were still hanging around Konoha after the Chunin Exams; and he was in charge of one. It was the last skirmish of their whole school career, too.

He focused on the mental image of the cutting edge produced by a pair of scissors with magical spinning blades, the standard mental shorthand for wind nature chakra, and focused his chakra around the leaf between his fingers. The leaf split along the middle as though cut by the finest of blades and Naruto put in in the pile with the rest. He was after roughly four years of practice competent enough at the second stage of wind nature manipulation that he could partially disrupt the flow of a waterfall, but chakra exercises helped him think.

He had to win today, and he had to win by a landslide. He looked over his squad, brain straining against the problem of fighting against three other teams and everyone one of them had unrestricted access to use all three standard jutsu. It was going to be an absolute clusterfuck.

The biggest and most obvious problem was the transformation jutsu which let you cover yourself in an illusory shell, allowing you to take the appearance of other people, pieces of the terrain, animals or pretty much anything else you could imagine. Due to nobody being allowed to use any of their sensory jutsu and the only way to forcibly dispel the transformation was to hit the other person its main purpose, just like last time they got to use it, would be to bait people into thinking you were someone from their team so you could take them out or spread false information or whatever. But they would also be doing the same thing to you, so whoever you met might not be who you thought.

The obvious solution to this was a series of passwords known only to the in-group, it was a standard tactic taught by the academy. That would serve as a base and if and when the passwords ran out the other default was to ask the other person to slap themselves hard across the face which was only a viable tactic because seventy five percent of the students weren't yet skilled enough to hold their transformation under self-inflicted shock. He'd heard stories about the wars where every combatant was good enough to use the transformation jutsu wordlessly and without hand signs, and could keep it on under sustained assault. A worthy part of Konoha's victories came from their superior sensory abilities in the Byakugan and Sharingan which could see right through the illusion, and their alliance with Whirlpool's many skilled sensor ninja.

Fortunately today wouldn't be quite that bad.

Naruto stood up, tossing the shredded leaf is his hands aside and cracking his neck. "Alpha squadron, form ranks!" he addressed his soldiers.

The twenty four shinobi in training assigned to him all immediately moved as he commanded. Naruto liked to think this was because he was a cool guy and they trusted his command, but they were being graded on this.

"Tactics as per usual, passwords, chakra disruption and slap test. We'll divide up into five groups of five and primarily stay together but if, y'know, we get separated or something try stay with your group so we don't all get scattered. In the event we do though, regroup at," Naruto pulled the map of training ground 8 out of his pocket and unfurled it, "point A." He pointed at a spot he'd marked earlier.

Naruto folded back up the map once his team had memorised the location and tapped it against his palm lightly. "Right," he said, "so the password schema is you, like, when you're seeing someone you don't know if you're on the same side, you use the ram seal to transform and say a word and the other person replies with a word starting with the last letter of the word you just told them. If that phase is completed show them your right hand which will have an orange seven pointed star, which means it's one of us. So uh, Yamada," Naruto motioned for Yamada, his team mate, to step forward.

Naruto clapped his hands together and transformed, weaving an illusory shell around his right hand and letting off a puff of smoke to signify that he'd performed the jutsu.

"Coriander," he said.

Yamada hesitated for a second, working through the process in his head before mimicking Naruto's actions.

"Radical"

Naruto nodded and slowly presented his right palm emblazoned with the star. Across from him Yamada produced an almost identical star on his own palm.

"Perfect," Naruto clicked his fingers and pointed at Yamada, "just like that. Everyone get it?" he asked his team.

"Have a few practice goes to get into the flow of it. Word, word using last letter, show star on hand"

As his team split into pairs to practice the gang sign Naruto checked his time piece, almost eleven thirty. Almost time.

Xxx

Eleven thirty came and with it one of the academy chunin, Hijikata sensei. He bustled them through the village and out the east portcullis, leading them away from the village walls.

The training grounds, the safe ones at least, were only a ten minute walk from the village and all four teams were being led to the furthest northern, southern eastern and western most points of the training ground respectively. Training ground eight was one of the more sparse grounds they'd fought on, with few trees but plenty of low lying scrub.

As they walked Naruto kept patting at his pockets to make sure he had his substitution log safely sealed away like it would vanish on him unexpectedly. On real missions, the academy stressed, it was vital to have at least one on you at all times as it could easily be the difference between getting killed or failing your mission and living.

And there was no way he was ever going to let that happen to him.

"Right," said Hijikata as they reached the westernmost corner of the grounds, "you may begin at exactly quarter to twelve. Good luck everyone, do your best!"

Hijikata favoured them with a smile and a crisp Konoha salute, which they all promptly returned, before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Naruto watched Hijikata's momentary blur as he ran back to regroup with the other teachers and took a deep breath. He wasn't exactly nervous as such but he had a lot riding on this, he couldn't let Hiruzen down, couldn't betray his parents legacy by losing, couldn't fail himself either.

Naruto let out the breath and clapped his hands. Swivelling on his heels he turned to face his team, spreading his hands out to encompass the group he assumed the persona of what he thought a Great Leader acted like.

"The battle plan is to set up an ambush on the north team but to get to the ambush location we're going to have to really run to beat them to it," Naruto took out his watch again. "We have two minutes 'till go time. Any questions?"

"What type of ambush spot is it?" asked Minori Hyabusa, his second in command.

Naruto pointed in the direction they were to be heading, "Big tree, big enough to hide most of us with some shrubbery around it for those who can't fit. Three hundred and sixty degree view coverage in the middle of a big open space. We'll hide there for now and plot a course of action as it becomes necessary."

It was as straightforward a plan as any but sometimes straightforward was better Naruto reasoned as his team nodded their assent, "Ok, get ready," he said, turning in the direction of the tree and lowering himself into a runners crouch. He put the watch back into his pocket and filled his lungs with air.

3, 2, 1… "Run!" he shouted, and ran.

The wind whipped through his hair as he sprinted, careful not to leave his team behind. Twenty five sets of careful footsteps making as little noise as possible as they wove around shrubs, keeping as much foliage between them and their destination as possible. Naruto veered right and indicated they slow down and stay close to the ground, they were narrowing in on their spot and it wouldn't do to be hasty. At a pace that was still faster than a sprinting civilian they picked their way up to a dense patch of scrub and hunkered down.

Naruto pointed to the shrub and made the signal for 'hide', as one his team put their hands together and concentrated, weaving their chakra into an illusory shell, becoming to outside view an extension of the scrub.

"Ok," whispered Naruto as he addressed his team, "the tree is within twenty meters behind me. Square defence formation while me, Minori and Yuuta check it out"

Barely waiting for their acknowledgement Naruto slunk around to the edge of the bush, counting on his transformation to not look too out of place, and peered around.

To his disappointment he saw a team already surrounding the tree having a standoff with himself. This was obviously a trap, if ever he saw one. They must have had a scout who saw them coming. Bits of speech wafted from the enemy team towards his.

"I don't sound like that at all," he muttered as his two backup eyes joined him in peering around the leaves.

"Yeah you do," said Minori in as businesslike a tone as possible, "whoever it is has you pegged"

"Nah," breathed Yuuta, "it's missing something, the voice is right but the rest is off"

"Well then," Naruto rummaged around in his equipment pouch for his log. "Do not lose this," he told them, "I'm going to go spring their trap, unseal it and if I mess up I'll switch with it. That'll be our signal to all attack at once. Watch your backs"

They all gave each other brusque nods, invisible to those outside their transformation. Naruto slunk in an arc around his team, putting them between him and the tree and took off back the way they came until he came level with a smaller bush. He exhaled, igniting his chakra within him. Feeling the warm burn as strength suffused his muscles and clarity broadened his senses. With a sharp burst of power he took off at full speed for cover. His body flicker wasn't as fast as Hijikata's and he didn't need the cover smoke to alert people to his location, but he was reasonably confident nobody saw him.

He flickered from cover to cover, small bushes large enough to hide only one or two people, until he was roughly ninety degrees further than his team around the perimeter of the tree. In the clearing the false Naruto looked like he was gearing up to fight the north team, who were all warily defensive, all cocky smugness and pithy quips.

Naruto, as he readied his chakra for another body flicker, was sure he'd never acted like such a tit but whatever. In a burst of speed he seemed to appear in a cloud of smoke out of nowhere, the fake him betraying their identity by making a stupid expression you'd never see on his face.

"Which one of you bitches wants to dance?" he asked them, stepping suavely from the smoke and eyeing their shocked faces.

Only it became glaringly obvious only a few of them were real. Blank expressions, no reaction, clipping through one another as they went clumsily through the motion. These were clones.

"You've got some nerve coming here with that shit disguise," said the fake Naruto, recovering admirably and managing to stay in character, "I don't sound anything like that"

Naruto rounded on them, face contorting into a rictus of incredulity. "Any last words before I kick your arse? Something like, 'Oh shit, come down out of the tree and stop him he's feeding me my own trachea?'"

The leader of the enemy faction slowly slid into the academy basic fighting stance, "Ok so you are the real one, nobody else would say something that dumb"

The fake Naruto took a step back, their whole body language changing in an instant into something Naruto actually recognised.

"We can maybe make a short truce," said the fake Naruto in what was definitely Hinata's voice, edging closer to the leader of the second enemy faction.

Naruto frowned, apparently this wasn't a trap for him and he'd just ruined someone else's plan and incurred the wrath of two full teams. He scanned around for places the second enemy might be hiding but could see none.

In front of him the two enemy faction leaders, or faction leader and spy, or faux faction leader and scout or whatever touched pinky fingers and exploded into smoke.

Skin contact was needed to force your chakra into another's system which would destabilise the other person's control. As a rule two persons chakras would not touch, thus injecting your chakra into someone else's system would cause their chakra to move chaotically as it was pushed aside for the short duration your chakra was present, but that second of destabilisation was all you needed. This method was most commonly used to remove transformations and to release someone from a genjutsu. Even medical ninjutsu wasn't immune to this restriction, the Separate Chakra Principle was an age old problem nobody had ever been able to solve or come up with a convincing hypothesis for.

"Oh!" Naruto exclaimed as the smoke dissipated, the enemy faction leader was Sasuke. Perfect! Now he wouldn't have such an easy time because if he was being honest with himself he'd been holding back in all his fights during the academy. Everyone had, obviously, but he had a suspicion he was even stronger than everyone else even more than he thought.

He reached within himself and grabbed a hold of his mental and physical energy, moulding them together into chakra. A huge surge of energy became available to him and he began burning it as hard as he'd ever done, strength thrummed through his muscles as he converted his chakra into physical strength and toughness. His whole body felt warm from it, all his senses sharpened into razor clarity. And with that he flickered forward, Sasuke turning to follow him just a shade too slow.

Naruto bent low, his feet sliding around into position, and grabbed Sasuke by the ankle with both hands. All his forward momentum and spin added to the strength of it as Naruto torqued his frame and hurled Sasuke bodily into his own team mates, sending them all to the ground.

You didn't spend four years as the student of Orochimaru without learning to go hard.

Using the tail end of his spin as momentum Naruto leapt and lashed out a kick at the previously fake him, who had in fact been Hinata, catching her on the shoulder as she tried to dodge and sending her to the ground as well.

The second his foot touched the ground Naruto expelled more chakra through his sole, gripping the ground for more traction and shot off into the crowd, burying his fist into someone's stomach. Their form flickered as the transformation dispelled and they fell to the ground. Naruto grabbed the wrist attached to a fist that was rocketing at his face, pulled and slammed his palm into the hinge of his enemies jaw. A kick slammed him into the ground but he barely felt it as he bounced back onto his feet, eyes darting about, categorising who was real and who was a clone.

He dove back into the fray, weaving around attacks, delivering ten strikes for every one that hit him. His fist slipped through Sasuke's face and the real one hidden behind the clone elbowed him so hard in the cheek Naruto felt one of his molars come loose. He had no time to react as one of the enemy hidden in the tree drop kicked him, sending him bouncing along the ground and onto something soft.

The patch of grass he'd landed on turned into the second enemy faction. As one they leapt to their feet, Naruto a shade faster. He jumped up, using whoever it was in front of him's chest as a springboard to propel himself backward, sending the person crashing into one of their team mates.

Naruto saw Sasuke coming back in for him as he span so he used his tongue to push his loosened tooth out and spat it in his face. Sasuke flinched as the tooth hit him in a spray of blood and spittle giving Naruto the opening to grab him around the neck and rip a knee into his stomach. Using the crumpled Sasuke as a plank Naruto flipped over him and kicked someone else.

This was fun. Nobody was trying to kill him, he didn't have to cut anyone to shreds, just a safe match of martial prowess. He could do this for days, quite literally the Hokage had him tested. Fighting was what he was made for, he was born and bred for it. All Jinchuriki were, war machines through and through. He'd probably used as much chakra in two minutes as one of his classmates would in this whole skirmish and it was barely a drop out of his reserves. Even his tooth would grow back in after a fashion, his bruises from being hit were already starting to heal and would be gone in a few hours. Though even if he wanted to do this until time was up this match was still being tested.

Naruto brought his hands together and a dozen clones burst from him in a cloud of smoke which Naruto used to conceal his next jutsu. Without the puff of smoke this time he transformed into someone he'd seen earlier and moved carefully into position like he'd been part of their assault.

The clones ran about, flailing at random causing both enemy teams to fall into disarray as they got out of their way or their attacks slipped through the clones.

Muttered curses shuffled through their groups as they realised what he'd done, Naruto would have joined them but he didn't know how to mimic the voice of the boy he was disguised as so he settled for clicking his tongue and looking miffed.

At the height of their confusion Naruto attacked again, managing to fell three more of the enemy before a blow to the spine disrupted his control and the transformation failed. Naruto brought his hands together again and spawned another batch of clones, this time running with them through the crowd and heading toward the tree, the plan he had just now concocted hinged on as many people attacking him as he could possible manage.

He leapt and landed on the trunk, feet catching on the bark he ran up it as easily as he would the ground, well trained muscles keeping his torso from bending over backwards. By the time someone shouted in alarm he was already among the boughs lashing out attacks at likely hiding spots.

A lump on the side of the tree blocked his hammer fist so he grabbed the offending wrist and wrenched, pulling as hard as he could but failing to dislodge the person whose transformation turned to smoke. A fist appeared out of an innocent looking clump of leaves and smacked him clean on the nose. Naruto reeled, his eyes tearing up and lashed out cleaving into the muscles of the forearm of whoever had punched him with his second knuckles which he knew bloody hurt.

Naruto gave up the tree as a bad job and turned his sights back onto the teams below him. He flipped off the tree and dive kicked the person closest to him before fighting a defensive retreat in a circle around the edges of the enemy group. Now all he had to do was take out their commanders and rile them up some more, which would be harder than he liked since Hinata mightn't even be a team captain and both she and Sasuke would have transformed into someone else again.

He gathered up his chakra again and funnelled it into strength, running like a spear into the haphazard formation before him, striking at places he knew would hurt most, slapping faces and shoving them to the ground.

He whiffed a punch as the enemy ducked beneath his jab and lightly tapped a series of spots on his chest. Naruto recognised that smirk, that bloody Hyuuga smirk that told you if this was a real fight you'd be choking to death on your own blood right now. As nice as Hinata usually was she knew that irritated him, because it was something they both despised due to her cousin. God he hated Neji. Not because he was a sore loser or anything, the guy was just a dick.

Naruto grabbed her by the shoulders and slammed his forehead onto her crown as hard as he could and Hinata appeared in a puff of smoke, eyes crossed and glassy. Naruto was forced to drop her to avoid Sasuke's foot flying towards his face, not able to take the chance this was the real one he jerked to the side only to meet with another Sasuke. His fist slipped through Sasuke's clone's wrist as he tried to get his footing and something hit him in the back of the head like a sack of concrete.

That would have likely ruined him, Naruto realised as his face slammed into the ground, if he hadn't been so reinforced at the time. He rolled onto his side in time to narrowly avoid a foot which stomped where he had just been. Naruto swept the leg but it didn't budge, the person anchoring themselves to avoid being grounded. Naruto grimaced as a foot grazed his ribs as he leapt to his feet. The second he had halfway decent footing he flickered through a gap and choke slammed the poor unfortunate who was in his way.

Throbbing headache kept at bay by liberal use of chakra Naruto turned to face them once again, mentally redacting his desire to do this all day and labelling it as the silly daydream of a childish fool; as Orochimaru used to say.

This next part would require some careful acting.

Naruto gave the encroaching horde of twelve year olds who would love nothing more than to break his nose the finger and legged it.

Nailed it! He crowed as he leapt over the shrub his team was hidden behind, ran a few meters and masterfully faked falling flat on his face. He looked over his shoulder as he scrambled to his feet to check if anybody was following him. They were.

"He's injured," shouted a random classmate in the voice of Sasuke. "Get him!"

Three dozen or so enemy soldiers poured over the shrub, Naruto sincerely hoped they'd jump all the way over his team or the plan would be ruined, as he took off again affecting a slight limp. He led them as far out as he dared before turning around to face them with an air of a man giving his life up for the greater good.

"Eat shit!" Naruto screamed as he leapt at them like a mad man. He gathered chakra and activated his replacement jutsu.

He felt the seal keyed to his chakra painted on the log react, consuming itself as they were instantly switched.

Naruto landed on his knees among his team and whipped around to see someone punch the log.

"Attack, attack, attack!" he hissed to his surprised team. "Pincer formation, groups one and two go left. Three to five go right, hurry, while they're off guard!"

Like a well-oiled machine they sprang, splitting up and catching the amalgamated enemy teams from either side.

Maybe he would get his wish, Naruto grinned wildly, and it wasn't every day his plans actually worked! He could do this, they could win!

Xxx

"This is bullshit!" Naruto fumed, blinking blood out of his swollen eyes and going his best to glare from where he was trussed up like a pheasant with wire on the ground.

Shikamaru eyed him dispassionately, shoulders moving in the smallest possible motion a shrug allowed.

"You tried"

Naruto hissed. He'd done more than try, they'd nearly won. He even managed to catch Shikamaru off guard using the scattered remnants of the other teams as bait in a plan that was as clever as any he'd ever come up with before the hammer of Shikamaru's feint came crashing down on their heads.

"The others are eliminated," said Chouji as he strode up to Shikamaru's right side, "we've gotten them all"

Shikamaru nodded once, a drawn out motion of absolute disdain.

"Surrender," he said, for the game was not over until every threat was eliminated.

"Never!" Naruto rasped, his voice cold blooded murder and iron.

Shikamaru snapped his fingers nonchalantly and Chouji blurred with movement and everything went black.

Xxx

Naruto's last year in the academy ended without much fanfare, he passed all of his exams; some exceedingly well and others painfully mediocrely. Anything that involved the physical aspects of active shinobi service, fighting ability and chakra manipulation etc. he received the highest possible score while in book learnings like maths he barely scraped through unlike his dad who scored a perfect mark in every single subject.

But apparently his mum had gotten similar grades to him, so similar in fact that it was rather heavily remarked upon how like her he was which made it a little better; though he was, apparently, better behaved.

Amid the few boxes that held all his possessions in the world Naruto sat on his new, battered, second hand couch and admired his new apartment. The Hokage, being the military dictator of what was widely considered the most powerful and hidden village in the world, had managed to score him a sweet penthouse suite in one of the more scenic districts of town. One of the vaunted 'five minutes to the shopping centre but not noisy with prime views of cultural landmarks' kinds of places. Naruto dreaded what the rent would be like if he ever had to start paying it.

Life was good. He hadn't placed first in the year but he held in his hand his new badge of office, an official Hidden Leaf insignia carved into one of the shiniest pieces of steel he'd ever seen and affixed to a length of strong yet soft cloth, more commonly known as a forehead protector.

He was in the military proper now, something he'd been preparing all his life for.

It was the start of the rest of his life.