The Student of Toad and Slug

by hwer

After the successful sealing of the Nine-Tailed Fox into Naruto, Jiraiya decides to pursue his duties as Godfather and takes Naruto away from Konoha to raise him away from the village with the aid of Tsunade and Shizune. They return thirteen years later when Orochimaru rears his ugly head... How will the Sannin-trained boy shake up the shinobi world and his place of birth, Konoha?

3. 3: Return to Konoha

Chapter 3: The Return to Konoha

Note: Naruto is rather vulgar in later parts of this chapter. This is intended. This is what he is trained to do in a fight. If you take offense of words such as faggot, cunt, asshole, bitch, etc, you may want to consider reading a K-rated story. Naruto will only be like that in certain situations.

It would be three years later, sometime after Naruto's 13th birthday, when the travelling quartet would return to the village with one serious goal in mind: to prevent Orochimaru from taking over Konoha.

During their travels after having left Yukigakure, around the time they travelled near Takigakure, the Village Hidden by a Waterfall, Jiraiya met up with an informant and then briefly returned only to disappear for almost two whole months. He instructed Tsunade to keep Naruto busy and stay in a hotel near Takigakure until he returned.

Training Naruto to exhaustion almost each day, Tsunade found she had more and more trouble fighting him in an all-out fight. Having been exposed to her techniques for years, Naruto knew exactly how to break a Genjutsu and how to not get distracted by one. Naruto far outclassed her in the Ninjutsu department and knew very well how to keep his distance from her, probably a side effect from having been on the receiving end of her fist plenty of times for doing something stupid.

When Jiraiya returned, he looked quite grim. He just walked in after two months during breakfast at a small stand near the hotel, sat down at the table and said, "We have a mission."

He took the surprised looks as his cue to continue, "Orochimaru is the Shodaime Otokage and plans on infiltrating Konoha during the upcoming Chunin exams next month. He's planning and invasion. Either to take over Konoha or to level it to the ground. My sources aren't entirely positive but we have good reason to believe that he is allied with another Village participating in the exams, and there is only one Kage I know that's dumb enough to try something like this."

Tsunade sighed and intertwined her fingers, which she used to prop up her chin. "Kiri's still undergoing transformation after the Civil War, Iwa doesn't have the balls or resources yet after what Minato did, Kumo has no real reason to anymore as far as I know, and none of the smaller Villages have the manpower to overpower Konoha, even if they all snuck in. Suna then?"

"I believe so. The Kazekage is a cold-hearted bastard who sealed the Ichibi into his youngest son by sacrificing the mother. From what I've heard, the sole purpose of this was to create a weapon for Sunagakure but backfired since the seal is weak and the boy is mentally instable. Even though Suna and Konoha are allies, the Kazekage's always seemed envious of our prosperity and rumours are that their Daimyo has reduced their funding for whatever reason." The Toad Sage concluded. His eyes focused on Naruto, whose eyes had narrowed at the mentioning of another Jinchuriki. He had no delusions about the life of someone like him growing up in a village, most likely shunned and hated for what they were forced to hold.

"So, what do we do?" The blonde Genin asked, looking quite determined.

"We return to Konoha as fast as possible. I don't want to spend more than a week getting there. We need to inform Sensei of the plan and start preparing counter measures. If Orochimaru is involved we need to assume the worst, anything from himself trying to assassinate the Hokage to Manda and his spawn being summoned to prey on anything that moves."

The three nodded in acknowledgement. "Right. Pack up, we leave now. I'll give you more intel as we travel."

- Break -

"Naruto," Jiraiya started as the three leapt from tree branch to the next, "your mission will be to infiltrate the exam as a participant. We still need to iron out details, but we'll probably pretend you're a random Genin from Konoha. Perhaps even a Genin team from Yukigakure. I sent a Kage Bushin to talk to Kazahane-chan and she's okay with it, even gave me a hitai-ate just in case."

Naruto nodded at the information. "It might be easier if I pretend to be from Yukigakure. It would be odd if none of the other Konoha Genin knew me or had at least seen me at some point around the Village. From what I remember, you must have a three-man cell to enter the exam as well as pass a portion of it. Kage Bushin I assume?"

Allowing himself to smile slightly, Jiraiya gave a proud grin. Even though the knucklehead could be hard-headed, hot-tempered and stubborn as hell, when it came down to business he was completely serious. Perhaps a habit he'd picked up from none other than Jiraiya himself. He'd immediately come with a viable plan. "Yes, very good. With your ability to liberally use Kage Bushin you won't have any trouble posing as a three unit cell. Henge them and you have able-bodied teammates. Your primary mission during the first two stages will be to hinder any of Orochimaru's movements, pinpoint any spies and determine any significant threats. By the time we get to Konoha I want you to have though to of at least 9 different personas including detailed physical description, plausible back stories and available skills – we cannot have your clones use the exact same skills as you to avoid suspicion. You're gonna have to allocate some jutsu to your clones that you'll refrain from using."

As Naruto pondered his assignment, Jiraiya turned to his other two companions. "Tsunade, your primary assignment is to subtly prepare the hospital for emergency treatment on a large scale. You will have the Hokage's permission to do as you please, so allocate rooms and staff to your liking. We need to minimize losses to not become an easy target once the invasion is repelled." Tsunade nodded grimly at her teammate's words. Even though she'd hate going back to Konoha, she had a few bones to pick with her former teammate and would be damned to not be there should her sensei be seriously injured.

"Shizune. Your primary objective will be logistics. I know you're a capable Jonin-level shinobi and you can hold your own in a fight, but most of all, you're a clever strategist and quick thinker. Without you Tsunade would've been dead years ago. You'll work under Tsunade with the lead strategist, Shikaku Nara. Your job will be to cover the placement of medical nins throughout Konoha as well as setting up defences for the medical facilities. Understood?"

"Hai, Jiraiya-sama." She resolutely agreed.

"Good. Then we're all set."

- Break -

Jiraiya had handed Naruto and Shizune the keys to one of his properties in Konoha and told them to pick out their rooms and do some grocery shopping while he and Tsunade went to the Hokage Tower to inform their sensei of the intel they had acquired. The house was right next to a moderately sized apartment complex. Naruto noted it was only a few minutes away from a large bookstore and dango stand. He had a fair idea why Jiraiya would have a place located there: cheap food and booze and a short way to his book-signings.

The house had three bedrooms. Having travelled together with the three, Naruto had no qualms about sharing a room with any of them but chose to bunk with Shizune this time around, mainly because he wouldn't need to worry about her crashing into the room at four in the morning, pissed beyond belief and waking him up in the process of destroying half the room on the way to the bed, which both Tsunade and Jiraiya were prone to accomplishing.

"Oi Nee-chan, do you even know where we can get groceries around here?" Naruto enquired as he filled his half of the closet with his clothes and gear that he normally kept sealed in scrolls.

Shizune seemed to ponder for a moment before nodding. "I think we'll be fine Otouto. How hard can it be for two ninja of our calibre to find a grocery store?" The two shared a chuckle before finishing with their preparation of the room before leaving the house.

Hatake Kakashi was bored. He sat on the roof of his apartment building, lazily flicking through the pages of his latest Icha Icha novel – Icha Icha Violence which was the second installation in the series and had a re-readability value of infinity. A quick glance at the sky with his uncovered eye told him he'd let his team, Team 7, wait for him for about 2 hours now. The Jonin contemplated showing up within the next few minutes but shrugged, preferring to read his smut for another hour. If the three Genins couldn't keep themselves entertained or god forbid, actual train without him holding their hands, then they didn't deserve to be Genin in the first place.

As he giggled perversely at one of his favourite scenes involving a chocolate bar, a passed-out princess and well-endowed hermit, he let his senses run a routine scan on his surroundings. He could make out two chakra signatures walking beneath him on the road, one feeling vaguely familiar, the other one completely foreign. With his curiosity spiked he glanced down from his position on the edge of his apartment complex's roof and easily spotted the two figures. One was a woman looking close to his age wearing a simple black Yakuta, who was, oddly enough, carrying a small pig.

Next to her walked a younger boy, probably the same age as his Genin team. He wore a loosely fitting white T-Shirt with a spiral on the front, black cargo pants and sandals. The only distinguishing feature was his bright blonde hair, but aside from that, he looked perfectly average. What Kakashi immediately noticed was that they could perfectly pass as civilians not just from looks but from behaviour as well. If they had bothered to supress their chakra, Kakashi doubted he would have even noticed them.

The Jonin quickly flared his chakra, just to see what would happen. Unsurprisingly, the two unknown shinobi glanced right at him over their shoulders. Seeing her face for the first time, Kakashi almost fell over. There was no doubt about it, the woman down there was none other than Shizune.

Leaping down from his spot quickly he landed in front of them, smiling with his eye and waving casually with his free hand. "Yo Shizune, long time no see!"

Shizune looked surprised. "Kakashi?" She exclaimed, smiling.

"You know this guy, Nee-chan?" Naruto asked. Of course he knew who he was facing here; Hatake Kakashi was as famous as he was infamous in different parts of the continent. What surprised him was that Shizune seemed to know him on some level.

"Yes, of course! This is Hatake Kakashi, he and I were in the same graduating class!" Shizune explained, smiling the whole time. "He used to get a lot of guys jealous over him for being so young yet so strong, especially when the girls all fawned over him." The medic elaborated, causing Kakashi to look sheepish.

"It's been a long time, Shizune. I haven't seen you since…" Kakashi stopped abruptly, all three of them knowing what he was about to say, causing a short and uncomfortable silence. "Ever since your uncle died and you left with Tsunade-sama." Were the unspoken words.

Smiling with his good eye again, he turned to Naruto. "Mind introducing us, Shizune-san?" He lazily requested, much to Naruto's amusement.

"Kakashi, this is Naruto. He's, uh, been travelling with us. Jiraiya-sama has been teaching him. Naruto this is Hatake-" Shizune started, only to be interrupted.

"Hatake Kakashi, I know who he is nee-chan, I'm just surprised you know him personally. Hatake Kakashi, also known as Sharingan No Kakashi, the Copy Ninja who has copied over a thousand techniques. Known for his exploits starting during the Third Shinobi War, taught by the Yondaime. Also known for his personal assassination technique, the Raikiri. Classified high A-Rank to S-Rank depending on which Hidden Village or country you ask, bounty ranging from 35 million to 60 million ryo. Specializes in combat and assassination, former ANBU Captain, one of the youngest shinobi of Konoha to be promoted to both Chunin and Jonin, and allegedly the only non-Uchiha to ever use their Dojutsu to its fullest extent. Pleasure to meet you, Hatake-san."

Kakashi looked genuinely surprised that the blonde kid knew so much about him, but when he thought about it, all that information was public knowledge if you had access to any Bingo Book. He had the decency to chuckle in embarrassment. "The pleasure's all mine Naruto-san. I guess it does sound pretty impressive when you list all those facts about me."

His attempt at being humble caused both Naruto and Shizune to laugh, until Naruto spotted the book in his hand. "Oh, you're reading Icha Icha: Violence? Have you finished it yet?"

Surprised that a mere kid would know of the series, Kakashi nodded seriously. "Yes, I've read both Volume One and Two dozens of times."

"Oh man, you're gonna love Ero-sensei's next one then. If you think the scene with the royal highness, oppressive tyrant and young liberator was good, then you're going to have to take a few days off to recuperate from the sheer dirtiness of the next one!" Naruto proudly proclaimed, causing Kakashi's eyes to widen in unadulterated glee and Shizune to facepalm.

Before the two could start discussing more inappropriate scenes, she cut in, "You wouldn't happen to know where we can get some groceries, Kakashi-san? We'll be staying here for a while and are going to need to get some food to cook for Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama."

"Oh, sure. Follow me." Kakashi said, leading the two down the main road while making small talk with Shizune, sharing funny stories they experienced in their lives apart. Kakashi had visited many of the places Shizune and Naruto mentioned so he could relate. Kakashi referred to some embarrassing moments of other members of their graduating class, causing Shizune to giggle in delight and Naruto to ask lots of questions about the people they were talking about. As they got to the grocery store, Kakashi bid them farewell, saying he had his boring Genin team to attend to. He did promise to come over sometime soon to properly catch up with Shizune and show Naruto the best ramen stand in town.

- Break -

Dinner at Jiraiya's place that night was lively. Jiraiya and Tsunade told them of the Hokage's grim acceptance of the information they brought and his readiness to let them lead the preparations. They would meet with Shikaku the next day at his clan's home. Shizune recounted their encounter with Kakashi, causing Jiraiya to laugh loudly at the exchange between the silver haired Jonin and a certain blonde Genin in regard to a certain novel, causing Tsunde to hang her head in defeat.

"Dear lord where I have gone wrong in raising you Naruto-chan?" Tsunade complained.

"You raised me just fine oba-san! I'm not a pervert like Ero-oji over here!" Came the immediate retort.

"Excuse me? Pervert? Are you asking for a beating, kiddo? I'M JIRAIYA, THE LEGENDARY SUPER PERVERT!" Jiraiya proclaimed, causing more laughter, and exasperation on Tsunade's side.

After dinner, Jiraiya handed Naruto a stack of files. At his questioning look, he explained, "Those are the files on Genin in your age group that will be participating in the Chunin exam. These have been updated last week, so the mission record is fairly recent, as are the skill evaluations by their Jonin senseis. Read them carefully, it'd be good for you to know what you might be up against or what you might have to work with should the situation arise."

Naruto nodded. "Ne, you've read them already, haven't you?" Jiraiya nodded at his question. "Just by the data, where do you think I rank amongst them, Ero-oji?"

"Did Tsunade hit you too hard last night or something, kid?" Jiraiya deadpanned. "You've been raised and trained by us three for 13 years now, and we're about as strong as they come. I'd be disappointed if you couldn't hold your own and beat most of the Jonin in this town. Maybe not quite someone of Kakashi's level in a life-or-death fight, but anyone else you should be able to handle. As for the Genin, some of them are so pathetically weak, it's a joke. The Haruno girl knows only academy level techniques according to her sensei who happens to be Kakashi. The last Uchiha seems above average, knows a few Katon jutsu and has awakened the Sharingan a few weeks ago. The Yamanaka girl knows a single technique of her clan's arsenal, which is pathetic. I remember when her father was her age, he'd mastered about a third of them already. They are truly dangerous if you don't know how to combat them, but this particular Yamanaka should be sent back to the academy. The Akimichi is lazy and only knows the very basics of his clan techniues. Be careful about the Nara though, he takes right after his father."

Naruto nodded, having been taught about all of the high-ranking shinobi of Konoha by Jiraiya himself. Shikaku Nara was also well known for his incredible mind, and if his son was anything like him, he'd be a force to be reckoned with.

"The Aburame might be a dark horse, he also takes after his father but even more after his mother. The Inuzuka has absolutely no mid or long-range fighting capability but is said to be decent in combination techniques involving his partner. There are two Hyugas too. They are polar opposites from what I've read, but like all Hyugas they are limited to their clan techniques, especially the boy who seems to be quite the arrogant one. There's a girl that specializes in weapons, she looks stronger than any other kunoichi of her age. There's a kid who can only utilize Taijutsu due to a deficiency in his chakra system, but he's been trained by Maito Gai since his third year in the academy, so he can probably keep up with you in terms of strength and speed. A fight against him would come down to pure technique. And lastly, there's a kid called Sai. I don't like him at all, there is far too little information about him for the fact that he went through the academy and is a Genin. He reeks of ROOT to me, got Danzo all over that."

Naruto nodded and made a clone to read through the files in his room. "Do we have any info on the foreign teams?"

"Nope, not really. What we do know is that the Kazekage is sending a team that has all three of his children on it, including the Jinchuriki."

- Break -

It was the day before the start of the exams when Naruto was roaming the street, playing 'Ninja' with the Hokage's grandson and his friends, whom he met in his first week of staying in Konoha. As Naruto was giving the Hokage an overview of his recent doings outside Konoha, the kid had leapt through the office door straight at the old man, brandishing a kunai. Reacting on pure instinct, Naruto had dodged the boy, stood up from his chair, and punched the kid right in the jaw, sending him crashing into the nearby wall where he promptly passed out. That had happened in less than two seconds, causing the Hokage to groan out loud at his grandson's most recent attempt to take the title of Hokage.

Konohamaru had quickly recognized Naruto as his rival and they had become friends too with Konohamaru demanding him to teach him "awesome moves."

As they played, Konohamaru ran to find a good hiding spot to ambush Naruto from before running straight into a black figure, sending the boy sprawling all over the sidewalk. Before he knew it, he was hoisted into the air by the collar of his shirt, causing him immediately to struggle against his assailant and causing his friends to freeze up at the sight.

"Little brats like you should watch where they're going or they might regret it." The voice said, belonging to a figure dressed in all black and paint applied in straight lines on his face. "Maybe I should rough you up a little so you don't forget your lesson, hmm?"

Behind him stood a girl with dirty blonde hair, knotted into four short tails. "Let the kid go Kankuro, we don't want to be causing a scene."

"Tsk, he started it. He should learn to take responsibility for his actions." The boy now known as Kankuro retorted before turning his attention to his prey.

Naruto, who had witnessed the whole exchange from the shadows, sighed. He couldn't risk Konohamaru getting hurt, especially since the kid was his responsibility while they were out playing. Briefly considering putting a mask or disguise on, Naruto shrugged, deciding to play it by ear. He frowned as Kankuro looked like he was about to do something and concentrated quickly.

Kankuro froze as the unmistakable sensation of cold steel pressing against jugular vein registered with his body. His eyes followed the kunai pressed against his throat, to the arm which held it. Next to him, stood a boy no older than thirteen or fourteen with bright blonde hair. His posture was relaxed and fairly casual, well, except for the kunai pressing to Kankuro's throat. The newcomer's eyes spoke volumes though – one wrong move and the last thing coming from his throat would be blood.

Temari was extremely startled by the appearance of the new guy, so much in fact that she reached behind her for her battle fan. She hadn't sensed him at all. Her movement turned out to be the wrong one though, as she too felt a blade against her throat. Glancing behind her she could see another blonde. 'A clone?'

A moment of silence passed before Naruto spoke. "I highly recommend you let the kid go, now. He's my responsibility for the moment and given that he's the Sandaime's grandson, I don't take such a responsibility lightly. Perhaps you should find someone your own size to mess around with, hmm?" Naruto drawled, sensing another approaching presence as well as a spectator. 'The Uchiha's watching. The Jinchuriki is coming. His bloodlust is quite intense, too.'

"Do as he says Kankuro." The girl harshly whispered. It wouldn't do to have both of them die right here for messing with the wrong kid. With reluctance, Kankuro slowly lowered Konohamaru until his feet touched the ground, where he immediately scrambled backwards to his friends Udon and Moegi.

"Good job listening to your sister." Naruto said. Once more he vanished from sight and his clone poofed out of existence before he reappeared a few meters away, standing right in front of Konohamaru with a kunai twirling around his index finger, looking completely at ease and relaxed.

"You punk." Kankuro growled before reaching for the taped bundle behind him, slamming it on the ground in front of him. Naruto merely raised an eyebrow. Given the solid thud the thing had made when put on the ground as well as Suna being famous for its puppeteers, it was quite obvious to Naruto what the thing in front of the Suna shinobi was.

'A puppet user and that girl looks like she's proficient with a battle fan, so probably more of a long-range fighter. Good information to have.' Naruto thought to himself.

"Think you're a big shot, eh? I'll show ya." Kankuro said, his hand itching to rip the cover off of his favourite puppet.

Naruto laughed in response. "You talk big, for a queer at least." He goaded, having been trained in this art for many years on and off by either Sannin. "Oi Suna-chan, did you voluntarily give him your make up or did he steal it from you?" Naruto asked the girl, causing her to involuntarily snicker at Kankuro's obvious rage.

Before either could retort, a wave of killing intent washed over them, causing the two Suna Genin to freeze immediately. Naruto looked completely unaffected though, for it wasn't nearly as impressive as when Jiraiya tried to peep on Tsunade or when Naruto didn't finish eating his vegetables.

"Stop being such a disgrace, Temari, Kankuro." A cold voice said. Naruto glanced up to see a red haired Genin stand atop a nearby tree's branch, carrying a large container of something on his back.

"S-sorry Gaara, they started it!" Kankuro managed to stutter out, not daring to look directly into his maniac brother's eyes.

"Silence, or I'll end you." Came the cold reply. Now fixating his gaze on Naruto, he continued, "Ignore my weak siblings. We'll leave, now."

Naruto merely shrugged. "Fine by me."

A second of silenced passed as no one moved and Gaara just seemed to intently stare at Naruto. "I am Sabaku no Gaara. What is your name?"

Seemingly taken aback by the question, Naruto shrugged and said, "I'm just Naruto. I guess I'll be seeing you in the exams then, Gaara-san?"

"Indeed." Gaara replied. "I hope you're as strong as you seem so I can prove my existence."

The blonde seemed genuinely amused by the statement before his eyes darkened and he disappeared from sight, only to reappear right behind Gaara with a kunai to the neck, moving far faster than he had to intercept Kankuro, faster than Gaara's sand could even hope to react to.

"You're just like me Gaara-san," Naruto whispered, "We'll see which one of us is the real demon, eh?" This caused Gaara's eyes to widen marginally, before his expression turned gruesome. Before he even had a chance to reply, Naruto had disappeared, leaving two genuinely intimidated Suna nin, one excited Jinchuriki and one confused Uchiha.

- Break -

Naruto stood in the corner of the room, flanked by his two disguised clones. They all wore forehead protectors with the symbol for Yukigakure. He had arrived just on time after a warning from Tsunade to not die otherwise she'd beat him to death, a hug from Shizune, and a fist bump from Jiraiya who told him to not hold back anything should he run into Orochimaru.

It had taken the last Namikaze a lot of willpower to not die of laughter when a sizeable chunk of the Genin inside the academy building couldn't see through a very simple genjutsu and henge on the two Chunins. With interest he witnessed Team 10 pretending to be weaker than they were before blowing their cover when Rock Lee blocked both Sasuke's and the Chunin's kicks without much effort. Following was the single most hilarious love confession he had ever witnessed, one that he'd surely tell his kids about one day, as Rock Lee loudly proclaimed to love the Haruno girl with all his heart. This quickly escalated into a fight between Lee and the Uchiha in which the Uchiha had his arse handed to him on a platter. Naruto's respect skyrocketed for Lee after actually seeing him in action, a shinobi severely limited in his arsenal by only using Taijutsu, yet he was damn good at it. Naruto had no doubt that Lee would make an excellent training partner for his physical regimen.

The Uchiha moved in slow-motion compared to the spandex-clad who rendered his famed Sharingan useless. The Haruno, Sakura was her name he recalled, seemed shell shocked that the Uchiha had been beaten so easily and their third teammate, Sai, bombarded the loser of the match with insinuations that his lack of penis size was directly proportional to his lack of performance. Naruto greatly enjoyed Sai's puns on Sasuke Uchiha's "shortcomings" and "incapability to penetrate defences" to a point where he had to shove his fist into his mouth to not be too loud.

Standing in the room filled with Genins from many Villages, Naruto did his best to seem bored and uninterested. The group of Konoha shinobi seemed to be the loudest, with two girls hanging off of the Uchiha's shoulders which only fuelled Sai's cannon of never ending insults and puns. "Limp dick, flat chest and saggy tits here should form a band," He commented to no one in particular, "they could all wear paper bags and call themselves The Defect Kunai. Just like Sasuke's penis."

This time Naruto couldn't help but snicker at his insults, especially when the blonde and pink haired girls started yelling at him. Despite his weariness of the boy, Naruto had to give it to him, he was hilarious, ROOT or not.

A silver haired Genin walked up to them and Naruto fuelled chakra into his ears to hear what he told them. Kabuto was his name and he claimed to have taken the exam seven times, as well as having insider information on all participants and their villages. This naturally spiked Naruto's interest. Sasuke requested information on Gaara and oddly enough, about "some blonde kid called Naruto."

Kabuto's intel on Gaara was about the same as Naruto's. Not much was known except that he'd never even been scratched on a mission and had even completed B-Rank missions in his first year as Genin. Reports indicated strong Ninjutsu but nothing else. When it came to Naruto's records however, the blonde was curious what it would say.

"Huh, this is odd," Kabuto said, showing everyone Naruto's card. The card had a recent picture of Naruto, the same on from his shinobi records, but most of the information was blacked out, "So much classified information. Sorry Sasuke-san, but the records don't even display his last name, mission record or known Village affiliations."

Sasuke grunted in acceptance, frowning at the ever mysterious blonde he had witnessed move at incredible speeds. His eyes scanned the crowd before landing on Naruto, intently staring at his forehead protector. He nodded towards him, "That's him over there. What Village is that on his forehead?"

Kabuto seemed to ponder for a moment. "I'm unsure, but it's not one of the major ones."

Naruto cheekily grinned and waved when he noticed the majority of the Konoha Genin staring at him.

Before anything else could develop, a puff of smoke appeared at the other end of the room, revealing a group of shinobi. 'Oh, he looks like Morino Ibiki, torture specialist. It's said that he can break any and every target. Quite the reputation.'

Naruto sighed. The true purpose of the test was clear to him and it was obvious that at least three of the teams in the room were actually Chunin with pre-written answers. That was, quite frankly, boring. He had a whole hour for only nine questions, so instead of obtaining the answers the ninja way he decided to let his mind go for a jog and figure out the answers through analytical skill. Raising his hand he got the attention of a supervisor.

"Excuse me, could I have another sheet of paper? I'd like to run some calculations." He politely requested and got what he asked for.

His attention focused on the first question. There were several factors here, but by deconstructing the question it became quite apparent that all he needed here was some basic trigonometry, multiplication and knowledge of physics. Drawing a triangle on his separate sheet of paper he filled in the known information before quickly doing some basic algebra for the physics side. A minute later he knew exactly how long the kunai needed to hit the target, factoring in wind resistance, weight, gravity, force used in the throw and distance. 'Huh, this is actually pretty fun.'

Half an hour later and Naruto was done. Before succumbing to boredom induced-sleep, he quickly decided to spend the rest of the time trying to see what skills the people around him employed to cheat without getting caught, as a significant amount of teams had already been eliminated for being too damn obvious.

The Hyuga girl next to him was clearly using her bloodline, the Byakugan. His clone mentally informed him that the Uchiha was using his Sharingan to copy pencil movements of the person in front of him. The Aburame naturally used his bugs to gain intel. What Naruto found most impressive was the teamwork of Team Gai. The Hyuga and weapons girl figured the test out immediately and immediately set to getting the answers to their disadvantaged teammate through clever use of reflections and wordless communication.

- Break -

Naruto had to admit that Anko was kind of hot, as odd as he found he had to admit it to himself. She had lots of redeemable qualities from what he could gather: she was strong, didn't take shit from anyone, was comfortable in her skin and wore a badass trench coat. As soon as he was let into the Forest of Death, he closed his eyes and touched the ground, sending a pulse of chakra out to attune himself to the nature of the forest to locate the nearest Genins. Finding three teams to take on, Naruto made a few clones to take the teams out and bring their scrolls back to him. He himself travelled towards the nearest river to catch some fish – he was really hungry. Catching fish was easy, especially if you had experience with Suiton jutsu. Using his senses to predict the fishs' movement combined with a wind chakra laced senbon equalled one dead fish. About a dozen grilled and gutted fishes later, Naruto felt full.

An hour later, Naruto finished his lunch and to his pleasure, had three of his clones return with scrolls. He'd been given a heavenly one, now he had two sets of both. His clones and their henged clone partners took out a team from Kiri, a team from Kusa and even a team from Kumo who were by far the strongest of the three teams, actually wiping out most of his clones.

As he prepared to head out and explore the forest a bit, a massive spike of chakra attracted his attention. He frowned. 'That's a lot of chakra, easily more than many Genins are capable of. It felt like a summon.'

Speeding through the trees Naruto arrived just in time to see a pale Genin pummel the Uchiha boy. Deciding to observe the situation first, Naruto suppressed his chakra and stayed in the shadows of the trees. Sasuke managed to break the Kusa nin's suppressive killing intent by stabbing himself, stalling long enough for Sai to return, looking like he'd just been swallowed by a snake. Sasuke and Sai held on quite admirably for a while, bombarding their enemy with technique after technique but it was obvious to Naruto that they were being toyed with. Sai's ink-based jutsu were very intriguing and seemed to be great at holding their opponent off, but didn't do much damage at all.

Sakura just stood in the back and watched on, helpless. 'If she actually contributed something to the fight, they might have had a shot at chasing him away.' Naruto idly thought, as Sasuke managed to bind the enemy to a tree with wire while Sai blocked the pale nin's limbs with his ink animals as Sasuke summoned the rest of his chakra to spew his strongest Katon techniques at their opponent.

The smoke from the fire obscured everyone's vision for a second, causing an eerie silence to descend over them.

"Ku ku ku ku," Came the creepy laugh from where a crisp burnt corpse should have been melted into the tree, "quite impressive Sasuke-kun, yet nowhere near as impressive as Itachi-kun was at your age."

The smoke cleared, revealing a very much disfigured something stand on the tree branch. Naruto's eyes widened before he quickly made three clones, one to find Jiraiya, one to find Tsunade, one to find the Hokage. Naruto immediately recognized the face of Orochimaru as he casually peeled off the melting skin covering his real face. The comment he made to Sasuke clearly agitated him if the hate in his eyes was anything to go by.

Orochimaru casually strolled across the clearing, picking up a sturdy branch on the way, coming to a stop before Team 7. Sai carefully reached into his pocket and threw their Earth scroll at the approaching nin's feet, saying "You have our scroll. We'll leave now."

The Legendary Sannin looked amused. "And what would that accomplish?" Before any Team 7 member could react, the launched the branch he had picked up at Sai, hitting him right in jaw and knocking the exhausted boy out.

"Sai!" Sakura fearfully exclaimed, frozen in shock. The branch would not have weighed as much as a kunai yet that monster had thrown it hard enough to knock Sai out.

Laughing quietly to himself, Orochimaru continued his slow approach. "I'm not here for some scroll, no, I'm here for you, Sasuke-kun." He explained, fixing his serpent-like eyes on the last Uchiha in Konoha.

Naruto tensed in the trees, he would have to interfere any moment now. He prepared himself mentally. 'So that's what Orochimaru is after. The Sharingan.'

"Since your older brother is too old to take and too strong to beat, I thought I'd visit you, little Sasuke-kun. I'll never understand what your brother saw in you to keep you alive, but I'll thank him for it once I get your precious little eyes. Yes Sasuke-kun, you'll make an excellent host. You should feel honoured to be a tool for me to fulfil my needs." The pale man drawled. He stopped about two meters away from Sasuke and turned his killing intent on full blast, freezing the two members of Team 7 in place.

Slowly raising his hand to form a half seal for whatever twisted technique, Orochimaru loosened his neck which started to expand and then shot forward, aimed at Sasuke.

With a strong leap, Naruto jumped…

Just in time to slam a bright blue orb into the extended neck of the Snake Sannin as his fangs pierced Sasuke's skin.

Orochimaru's neck made a sickening squelching sound as it was easily ripped in half by Naruto's Rasengan. Glancing at the Uchiha quickly, Naruto frowned. Whatever Orochimaru had done had caused Sasuke to fall to his knees with his teeth grit in pain, panting hard while clutching his neck. He looked up with a agony in his eyes, yet still managed to look shocked at Naruto's sudden appearance.

Naruto looked at Orochimaru, whose limp neck retracted to the body before slowly spewing forth another, in slime covered, head.

"My my, how rude. I was busy giving Sasuke-kun a present." He commented as he cracked his new neck and head. The Sannin would never admit it, but he was certainly surprised to have this blonde kid interfere out of nowhere. He hadn't sensed this newcomer at all and anyone strong enough to get the drop on Orochimaru was of interest to the corrupted man.

"Sorry, sorry," Naruto said happily, tapping two seals on his wrists, "but, while I have nothing against gay people, faggots like you who give prostate exams with both hands on someone's shoulders just rubs me the wrong way, y'know?"

Naruto's arms were covered in poof of smoke, revealing his gauntlets. A humming sound could be heard as he channelled charka into his weapons in preparation. "Now, Orochimaru of the Sannin, I don't think we've met. My name's Naruto and I'm going to be your opponent for a while."

With speeds known only to the strongest of shinobi, Naruto appeared next to the Snake Sannin, launching his fist straight at his target's side which Orochimaru couldn't sidestep, so he blocked it, quite surprised at the blonde's speed. Realizing his mistake, Orochimaru felt the charged chakra before its actual effects, breaking straight through his block and sending the surprised Sannin straight into an adjacent tree.

The Sannin's eyes narrowed in anger as he dusted himself off, dodging Naruto's next attack and quickly retaliating with a roundhouse kick which Naruto expertly dodged, countering with a leg sweep. He knew that Jiraiya was stronger than Orochimaru in Taijutsu and that most of the rogue Sannin's close quarter prowess came from his skill with his sword, the famed Kusanagi. With this in mind, the Taijutsu battle continued, Naruto determined to not let Orochimaru summon his sword otherwise his stalling techniques would become less effective. He needed to keep him busy until Jiraiya and Tsunade came.

Orochimaru growled in annoyance. His assailant was good, far too good for a Genin. The kid was very gifted in Taijutsu, especially with his deadly gloves. The Sannin's eyes darted to the right, just in time to block a Kage Bushin's leg, barely leaving him enough time to sidestep another Kage Bushin's upper cut. He hadn't even sensed the Genin create the clones. Orochimaru idly pondered his situation as he dodged another fist. He noticed the increased attacks from clones as well as increased ferocity and speed displayed by the original. 'At this rate I'll need to draw Kusanagi.' He thought, genuinely impressed that a mere Genin could corner him far enough for him to resort to using a weapon.

A spike in chakra caught his attention as he looked below to see the ground erupt into a stone fist, slamming into his abdomen and launching him in the air. A fireball flew at him from the ground, causing him to fly through his own hand seals and shoot and equally large fireball back, causing an explosion which propelled both of them apart.

'Shit,' Naruto thought, 'that explosion put enough distance between us for him to use Ninjutsu or access Kusanagi. Damn.'

Naruto concentrated on a decent amount of chakra for a strong Shunshin to close as much distance between him and his enemy. As the smoke cleared he saw Orochimaru wield the legendary sword and cursed mentally. 'This just got a whole lot harder.'

"You're pretty good Naruto-kun, I'm very impressed. Let's play a bit longer, shall we?" Orochimaru said with a grin, dashing at him with his sword trailing behind him. Forming a quick set of seals, Orochimaru thrust his free palm towards the blonde Genin, "Futon: Great Breakthrough!"

A blast of concentrated wind slammed into Naruto's crossed forearms as Orochimaru leapt into the air with a suddenly burning Kusanagi in mid slash towards Naruto whose gauntlets glowed as he met the Sannin head-on. A loud clash rang through the forest as the two chakra enhanced weapons met, the clashing Fire and Water chakra fighting for dominance as they created trails of stream as Naruto weaved out of and dodged Orochimaru's vicious strikes, slashes and stabs.

Orochimaru himself had a vicious smirk on his face, he was greatly enjoying fighting this little Genin. He wasn't going all out, but he was definitely putting in as much effort as he would fighting someone of Kakashi's calibre. Not quite as high as he would against his former team mates or any of the Akatsuki members, but for a mere Genin, this Naruto brat was excellent, perhaps stronger than Itachi had been at the age.

Replacing his severed head and neck earlier as well as being interrupted in the Curse Seal transfer technique had taken up a very sizable chunk of Orochimaru's chakra, hence his decision to resort to less intensive jutsu and Kusanagi should their clash attract the attention of the examiners.

Naruto changed the chakra in his gloves to Wind and swiped at the blade with his left hand, violently deflecting it due to the rotation effect the chakra had on his gloves. His other arm was covered in violently rotating Wind chakra too, reminding Orochimaru of a drill as he barely dodged, causing Naruto to land a glancing hit, which still left Orochimaru's free arm and shoulder significantly shredded, sickly green blood flowing down his shoulder. Orochimaru leapt backwards and curiously examined the damage on his body.

Naruto moved his gloves behind his back, tapping a seal on the back of his pouch and threw two kunai, before using his speed to throw a flurry of punches at Orochimaru. The Snake Sanin kept up easily, noting that Naruto was moving his feet a lot more, attacking from more obscure angles. Before he could interpret the meaning of the change in pattern, he found himself flung off his feet and slammed into a tree. His smirk widened at what had happened. The two kunai Naruto had thrown at him had been attached to ninja wire, wire that Naruto had attached to his gloves too. He used his strikes and quick sidesteps to weave the neigh invisible wire around Orochimaru's body and then used his Kunai as anchors to pin him to the tree. Very smart.

Naruto grinned as he saw Orochimaru look at him in understanding. "Not done yet."

With that, the wire glowed before cutting into whatever part of Orochimaru's body they were tied around. Realizing that the wire was loaded with chakra, Orochimaru suddenly melted into the tree and reappeared on one of its low branches, bleeding out of thin slits all over his limbs.

"Those gloves of yours are quite something, a very appropriate choice for someone of your fighting style." Orochimaru commented casually, focusing his chakra as his wounds closed slowly, leaving his skin and flesh unmarred.

"Thanks you creepy fuck. Do you shove that sword up your arse regularly, by the way? It looks pretty well lubricated, I'm sure a scientist of your statue has found a way to convert it into a massive dildo." Naruto retorted, using the verbal jabs to come up with his next approach. Even if he hit the blade head on it didn't seem to even scratch, so he'd have to keep it blocked or occupied to land free hits on his opponent.

Orochimaru merely raised a non-existent eyebrow at the verbal jabs before raising his hand and shooting a mass of snakes at Naruto in an attempt to keep him in place. Naruto scoffed before his hands flew through a set of seals, "Raiton: Senbon!"

Launching a dozen of senbon from his pouch, Naruto imbued them with Lightning chakra before flashing through another set of seals. Suddenly a dozen of senbon were closer to three dozen, all crackling with electrifying energy. The needles found their targets and neutralized the snakes, each snake's brain fired and overloaded from the electricity just in case the needle didn't hit it in a vital spot.

Orochimaru pointed Kusanagi at Naruto and to the Genin's surprise, the weapon extended at a very rapid rate, forcing him to twirl to his side to very barely avoid being impaled. The tip left a gash in his shirt and a few mere milliseconds later would have probably killed him. The sword impaled the tree behind him with ease. Even in its extended form, Orochimaru seemed to have no issues swinging a sword of that length, forcing Naruto to drop and roll to deflect the blade with his gauntlets while trying to get closer. Frustrated and knowing that it'd be a matter of time before his opponent would get a lucky swipe in, Naruto sped through a moderately long series of hand signs.

"Doton: Swamp of the Underworld!"

Slamming his hands on the ground, the Snake Sannin's eyes narrowed as he recognized his former teammate's technique. Scoffing, he retracted his blade and leapt high into the trees where he was immediately put on defence by Naruto's vicious strikes. His eyes widened as he blocked Naruto's glove just short of his chest, before two spikes of Wind chakra bent around his blade and pierced his torso. Once more, Orochimaru shrugged off his injuries and continued his assault with renewed vigour, wanting to see the boy bleed and handle the slow acting effects of being poisoned by his sword.

Naruto pumped more chakra into his body to keep up with the Sannin. Orochimaru didn't even look winded but Naruto felt his attacks get stronger and stronger – one misstep here and he could easily die. Fortunately, luck was Naruto's side. His eyes widened slightly as his clones dispelled and he prepared himself. Jumping back to the ground, Naruto engaged Orochimaru shortly before finalizing his plan. He jumped back and created close to a hundred Kage Bushin, once more surprising the Sannin. 'Not even I could make that many clones with ease… Which means he must have some sort of chakra amplifying technique, seal, or something to increase his reserves.'

His train of thought was interrupted by the incoming wave of clones as Orochimaru started dispelling them with Kusanagi while preparing another technique with one handed seals. Throwing Kusanagi at a clone, he took a deep breath before exhaling.

A deep purple liquid spew forth, instantly dispelling any clone it came in contact with before evaporating. The clones inhaling the evaporated fumes dispelled too. After another spewing of the acid, all of Naruto's clones were gone, leaving Orochimaru to hold out his hand to summon Kusanagi back to him.

However, the clones had served the purpose of keeping the Sannin busy for a little while as Naruto prepared his next move, hidden in the shadows of the absurdly tall trees. Beads of sweat ran down his face as his brows furrowed in concentration. The Genin held his hand similarly to how he heard Kakashi held his when charging the Raikiri, with his left hand clutching his right wrist, pumping a lot of chakra into his arm. In his gloved palm Naruto held a seemingly transparent orb or pure wind, slightly larger than the Rasengan which was wide enough to cover most of his hand. The wind was wildly rotating around itself, like a miniature hurricane in the shape of a ball, generating enough passive wind for Naruto's clothes to flutter. His forearm was similarly covered in a cone of wind reaching all the way to his elbow, rotating clockwise in one layer and counter-clockwise in the other.

Orochimaru felt the large surge of chakra and looked on, curious as to what the child had come up with this time. He was contemplating killing him before he would reach the level of Itachi, but perhaps he would find another use in letting the boy live. All of a sudden Sasuke-kun didn't interest him as much.

He saw Naruto burst forth from a tree, running down perpendicularly to the ground, his right arm trailing behind him while his other hand went through a sequence of one handed seal, causing Orochimaru to smirk – this boy was full of pleasant surprises. The Sannin prepared for whatever Naruto was charging with, willing to see what this young genius would throw at him, so he casually held Kusanagi at his side. Naruto finished his sequence just as he reached the ground, causing Orochimaru's eyebrows to rise as he saw the numerous senbon Naruto had thrown earlier around him begin to twitch. They all jumped into the air before impaling themselves into the ground. A second later, each place a senbon penetrated the earth, an arm in the form of mud came alive, grabbing onto Orochimaru's limbs.

"Oh? Restraining me Naruto-kun? This better be your best shot!" He said calmly, preparing himself. Surely the kid didn't know anything more destructive than the Rasengan?

"I hope you're ready for this, you child molesting punk!" Naruto yelled, having reached his maximum speed.

About ten meters away from the passive Orochimaru, he came to an abrupt stop by stomping on the ground with his left food, thrusting his right, Wind covered, arm in front of him, as if hitting the air with an open-palm strike.

'He'll regret being underestimating me and giving me a free shot!'

"Futon: Bladestorm!"

Orochimaru's eyes widened at what he witnessed happening the second Nartuo's hand had shot forward. The orb in Naruto's hand seemed to explode outwards and then seemed to be directed by the wind spiralling in opposite directions over two layers surround Naruto's forearm. When the orb and spirals combined, shooting forward instantaneously in the shape of a very large cone, far too large for Orochimaru to dodge on such short notice. He quickly channelled his remaining chakra into his torso and ripped his arms free from their confines to protect his head to the best of their ability.

The wind inside the cone or tunnel of wind quite literally consisted of tremendous blades of chakra in form of Wind chakra, obliterating everything they cut through. The chaotic nature of this was caused by the fact that Naruto had managed to create two opposing spinning layers of chakra to combine the already volatile orb with.

The effect lasted for just over five seconds, in which an extremely noticeable section of the forest of unnaturally large trees had been reduced to splinters and kindling. Naruto was panting heavily, hoping he had caused enough damage to at least disable Orochimaru as he doubted he could perform it again under such perfect circumstances. He hadn't managed to perform the jutsu on this scale before, its expansion and destructive power greatly amplified by him running down tree at full speed before unleashing his technique.

Orochimaru looked terrible. It was a miracle that he wasn't part of the kindling around him, mainly thanks to the various scientific and ritualistic changes his body had undergone. He mentally berated himself for underestimating the child, such a technique was truly devastating, even though it had several drawbacks, such as high preparation time, which he had given Naruto freely. His body was now covered in deep, bloody gashes; no part of his body had been spared. He was now dangerously low on chakra, ensuring his survival had taken almost too much out of him.

He considered Naruto in front of him, the kid's breathing was already stabilizing and he straightened, tapping his gloves together, sparking them with Wind Chakra once more while wearily staring at Orochimaru.

"Tell me Naruto-kun, who taught you?" He inquired as he ignored the state of his body – Kabuto could fix him up easily enough once he got out of here.

"That, Orochimaru, would've been us." A new voice said from behind him, causing the Sannin to quickly turn around. Behind him stood his two former teammates, Jiraiya and Tsunade as well as their old sensei, the Sandaime Hokage. Flanking them were two squads of ANBU.

He sneered at the mere sight of them, letting out a disgusted grunt as he freed his legs with a simple movement. "I see you still have a thing for blonde kids, Jiraiya-chan."

"And I see you still enjoy blowing yourself with that extendable mouth of yours." Jiraiya instantly replied.

Orochimaru was now in a bad position: any of the present ninja could finish him off. He only had one escape technique that would ensure his escape, but would weaken his body significantly in its current state. 'It certainly beats being captured.' Was the reasoning. With a smirk, he formed a single seal before his skin started to glow brighter and brighter, putting everyone on edge. Before anyone could react, Orochimaru's skin shone as bright as the sun, causing everyone to avert their eyes instantly. "Next time you won't get off so easily, Naruto-kun…" was the last thing everyone heard before the light faded and the ever elusive snake was gone.

- Break -

"Would anyone else like to forfeit now?" The sickly proctor Gekko Hayate asked. The two disguised clones behind Naruto raised their hands before silently leaving the hall after Kabuto, and surprisingly, Sai. Sai said he was still unstable after receiving a massive concussion and had no charka left to fight, hence the forfeit.

As questioning looks settled on Naruto from the proctor, the blonde shrugged, "What? They were dead tired; we took out, like, eight teams." He explained casually. This was true, actually. After informing the two loyal Sannin and the Sandaime about his fight, giving an accurate recount and being commended for his actions, he was allowed to proceed to the tower. On the way he was ambushed by a few teams which he quickly knocked out, while hunting down some more on the way to the tower just to pass some time.

Jiraiya had immediately taken a look at Sasuke's neck, finding only a singular tomoe imprinted on his neck. Jiraiya seemed extremely relieved about that, saying that Naruto interfered in just the right moment and that with only a third of the seal applied, he could either reverse engineer it to remove it or bind it.

Right after Naruto had attacked Orochimaru, a pair of clones had taken Sakura and Sasuke high into the trees and applied what field aid he could, snapping Sasuke out of his paralysis and calming Sakura down. Another pair had taken Sai, mainly to confirm Jiraiya's suspicion of him being one of Danzo's operatives. True enough, they had found the same seal on the back of his tongue as every ROOT operative had.

Speaking of Team 7, Naruto's clones had taken the two conscious members far enough for them to be safe from the collateral damage of the fight between Naruto and Orochimaru, but still close enough for them to see everything comfortably as they nursed their wounds.

Both of them were awed at Naruto's display of fighting prowess, holding his own against an S-Ranked missing nin. Once the pain in Sasuke's neck died down, he asked, "Your name is Naruto, right?"

One of the clones turned around and nodded. "And your name is Sasuke, last Uchiha loyal to Konoha."

Sasuke nodded – that much was common knowledge. "How did you get so strong? Strong enough to fight someone like Orochimaru? You can't be older than us." He asked. There was nothing more he wanted than to avenge his clan and he was confident that he could easily take on most Genins of his year and perhaps most of the older Genins too, perhaps even a few Chunin, but he wasn't delusional. This blonde kid was on a whole different level, a level he needed to reach before ever being able to kill Itachi. It didn't even irk him to admit the blonde was stronger than anyone he'd ever seen their age, that's how explosive his power seemed.

Naruto's gaze seemed to pierce Sasuke, scrutinizing him for a moment before allowing himself a small smile. "I had good teachers, but that's not it. Not even the best teachers in the world could teach an unwilling student. I don't fight for the sake of fighting, or even for myself. I fight to fulfil my dreams and protect my friends. That bastard down there is someone who has hurt people precious to me more than anyone else and I want to kill him so he can't ever again hurt someone so deeply." The clone explained, looking deadly serious, noting the look of understanding in Sasuke's eyes.

"I trained every single day. I can't remember the last time I did nothing productive. Every single day of my life I've spent doing something to further myself, even on my birthdays. Many of my presents were jutsus to use or skills to learn. I train to failure, without breaks. Even on my off days, my teachers ensured I'd do something else to sharpen my mind or body, even if I didn't realize it when I was a kid."

The clone turned back to the fight and scoffed. "But I'm not strong enough yet. He's toying with me. Orochimaru isn't even going all out. He has 40 years' worth of experience and skill on me, but I'll make up for it. Right now Boss is about to unleash one of his strongest abilities in hopes of forcing Orochimaru to retreat. I know all about you, Sasuke-san, and your ambition to kill your brother. If you want to become stronger, you're gonna need help – a lot of it. We can talk later, for now, watch closely. This move is awesome." Naruto-clone said, turning back to the fight.

And it had been awesome indeed. From their vantage point they could see exactly how much damage Naruto's technique did to the forest.

As Gekko explained the rules for the preliminaries, Sasuke legitimately hoped he wouldn't have to fight Naruto. Naruto seemed energized and relaxed, a sure sign of confidence, meaning the effects of the fight against Orochimaru were already gone. Sasuke on the other hand had only about half his chakra, a throbbing neck, little in terms of equipment as he had blown most of it against Orochimaru and the two teams they took out in the last two days to get to the next round.

He glanced at the screen.

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akado Yoroi

Sasuke sighed in relief. While he wanted to get stronger to kill Itachi, he didn't want to remain a Genin forever as that would bar him from getting on high ranked missions which could make him stronger, nor would he have access to the same resources that someone like Kakashi had to spare. Fighting against the freakishly strong blonde would set him back by 6 months in that advancement apartment before he even had a shot at the finals. As that freaky Rock Lee had proven, his Sharingan was useless if he was physically incapable of keeping up with eyes or opponent.

He recalled the words of the Hokage and the blonde haired woman in the forest. Whatever that Snake bastard did to him could interfere with his chakra control and access should he run too low and should he show signs of influence by the seal the Hokage himself would interfere.

The Uchiha paid little mind to the taunts of the odd looking Genin and charged in. Sasuke quickly regretted that decision, as he felt an odd drain on his chakra as his opponent had grabbed his arm in an attempt to pin him. Jerking his arm violently, he jumped backwards, panting. 'This guy can absorb my chakra by holding onto me? Tsk.'

"Figured it out you little brat? Not so high and mighty now, oh great Uchiha?" Yoroi taunted, his words once more falling on deaf ears.

'He won that last trade too easily. I'm at a quarter chakra now, his absorption rate is stupidly fast.' Sasuke mused, 'I don't have enough power for any of my Katon techniques, no time to prepare a Genjutsu so I'm stuck with Taijutsu which plays directly into his hands. Think, think, think. How can I fight him close up without letting him touch me to drain me?'

Glancing at the stands for a moment his eyes spotted Naruto looking at him with calculating eyes. 'What would that guy do?'

An idea struck him right as Yoroi charged at him, causing Sasuke to quickly leap away, focusing on maintaining his distance. His plan would use up all his remaining equipment and was a gamble anyway, if he couldn't pull off what he had never even tried before then he was done for.

"Running away you brat? C'mere, I'll show you what a real ninja can do!"

Before Yoroi could get his hands on Sasuke, the raven haired boy smirked as he dodged a swipe and retaliated with a leg sweep, causing Naruto in the stands to grin. A side-kick to the older shinobi's groin caused him to yelp in pain before leaping away. Before he could regain his senses, a smoke bomb went off, covering the area Sasuke was occupying with smoke.

'I have 20 seconds.' The Genin thought, quickly reaching into his pouch to retrieve his last two kunai, six shuriken and roll of tape as well as his last twenty meters of wire.

Taping his fingers and hands palms quickly, Sasuke nodded and took a deep breath. He'd need the last of his chakra for his Sharingan – he had one shot at this or he'd be done.

Yoroi had regained his senses and wearily regarded the smoke, furious as hell. "You fucking cheap bastard, kicking me in the groin! Pathetic!"

Again, Sasuke didn't verbally retaliate. Yoroi pulled out a kunai to throw into the smoke to find out where his enemy was. A kunai shot out of the smoke before he could though, causing him to deflect it with his own, lodging it in the wall below the stands. Another kunai flew out which was also deflected, embedding themselves in the ground. Yoroi threw his own kunai into the smoke where he guessed Sasuke was.

Sasuke easily dodged and leapt out of the smoke, instantly striking at Yoroi with his fist. Yoroi immediately regrated his decision to block instead of dodging as his forearm now sprouted three moderately deep cuts.

Looking at his enemy, he noticed that Sasuke had changed his hands, or rather, had weaponized them. He had taped the three shuriken to his hand, one in between each set of two fingers, the inner side of the stars' blades blocked by tape from cutting his hand and then taped so that they were stuck to his hand. This would block Sasuke from opening his hands for now, but it would do.

Sasuke immediately continued his assault, his eyes blazing a furious red. His two shuriken-taped fists were just below his eye level and Sasuke kept his weight on his toes, continuously shifting his weight from one leg to another. Yoroi lept backwards but Sasuke was right up his alley, not letting the opposing Genin put any space between them. The bespectacled Genin lashed at the Uchiha who merely ducked the right hook easily thanks to his enhanced vision. His plan was working so far, the only part of his body he'd let get in contact with Yoroi were his now very dangerous fists while staying close enough for the Genin to not use and long distance attacks.

The raven haired ninja was patient, all he needed was a good opening and for that he needed to frustrate his opponent or get him desperate. Another side step to the left followed by a quick jab to the guy's shoulder and the enemy Genin spouted another three bloody cuts.

Yoroi realized that Sasuke was wearing him down while not giving him enough time or body contact to make use of his absorption technique, shutting him down. He didn't let him move backwards to use a Ninjutsu to keep Sasuke rooted. His concentration wavered as felt the toll on his body as he tried moving his injured shoulder. Sasuke's Sharingan eyes immediately picked up on that detail, anticipating another attempt to grab him and driving his fist into the incoming leg's calf. Yoroi cried out in pain which fuelled his adrenalin induced rage.

"I'll show you, you fucking little bastard!" He cried out, jumping out with his leg bent to strike Sasuke's head from the side.

'There, finally. Perfect.'

Suddenly Sasuke took a step backwards before moving both fists above his head. Just before Yoroi kicked him, he slammed his fists downward with a loud grunt.

The effect was instantaneous. Yoroi's flight patch was drastically altered as he was ripped from his position mid-air and got slammed into a wall. He was now hanging sideways, with his two injured limbs attached to the two kunai he deflected earlier which had lodged themselves into the wall. His injured limbs were covered in what he now identified as ninja wire and his eyes widened as he saw Sasuke slowly walk up the wall, his Sharingan deactivated and his feet imbued with chakra to let him walk up the wall. His hands were freed from the tape and shuriken.

Despite the wounds and blood loss, Yoroi was still conscious, trying to reach the strings with his good arm, fighting gravity which by now had forced several streaks of crimson blood to strain the wall.

"Yield." Sasuke's tired voice demanded just before he reached the bound Genin.

"Fuck yo-"

A fist slammed into his temple, knocking the injured Genin out.

"Winner, Uchiha Sasuke!"

Sasuke looked up at Naruto's widely grinning face, giving him a nod of appreciation and acknowledgement. If it hadn't been for the blonde using that little trick against Orochimaru he would have been out for sure. Naruto shot him a thumbs up.

"Good fight man! You didn't even copy that with your eyes yet managed to imitate my boxing style pretty well! Very nicely done." Naruto complimented as he walked past the blonde towards his waiting sensei and Sakura.

"Thanks." He managed to mutter, feeling a bit odd for saying it. He'd never really thanked anyone in what was perhaps years' worth of time.

The other Genin looked suitably impressed with his performance. Kakashi smiled proudly and Sakura just stared at him in star-struck awe.

"Well done Sasuke, I'm proud." Kakashi said, ruffling his hair. The boy didn't even have enough energy to fight off his teacher's affectionate praise. He slumped to the floor and leaned against the wall where he could rest and still watch the rest of the fights before visiting the infirmary.

He glanced around the room. Ino seemed similarly awed to Sakura, Kiba looked at him with respect, muttering something about him showing off cool shit. The rest of the Genin didn't look too affected. The red-haired Suna kid glared at him, the Rock Lee kid was yelling about the match being youthful alongside his sensei and the Hyuga gave him a cold penetrating glare which he happily returned despite his physical state.

The Hyuga's teammate, Tenten he recalled her name, looked at him appreciatively. He figured it was due to the fact that he had neutralized the enemy using weapon based attacks and tactics, something she could appreciate more than anyone else.

- Break -

And so the matches continued, giving Sasuke some good intel on the fighting style of all the competitors that made it through to the finals. Shikamaru could bind people with his shadow and physically control them, Shino could absorb chakra with his bugs and get into any orifice, neither Sakura nor Ino could do anything impressive except for yell at the other much to his annoyance, swearing that Kami showed mercy on him as the two knocked each other out, disqualifying them both from the rest of the exam. Kankuro had easily tricked his opponent into thinking he had been captured only to crush Misumi's body, disabling the nin immediately. The sound nin, Dosu, could manipulate sonic waves to throw off one's sense of balance, which he used to knock out Choji in one clean hit.

Temari and Tenten had been interesting to watch, Temari had barely won. After she had negated Tenten's long distance weapon barrage, Tenten had merely discarded that idea before picking up a Naginata and charging at the dirty blonde to engage her close up. Temari had been forced to pull out all stops and only won after she blew almost all her chakra covering the entire arena in wild hurricane to throw Tenten off balance and knocking her out by slamming her into a wall with a blast of wind. Temari was a typical area-of-effect fighter and seemed to have little in terms of single-targeted techniques.

The Gaara kid, though, was something entirely different. Sasuke had witnessed in well-disguised horror as he decimated Rock Lee, the same Genin who had beat him without breaking a sweat or activating those gates to use his special aerial move. Sasuke hadn't been able to keep up with the spandex-clad kid with his weights and without the chakra boost, he was sure he would have been crushed instantly of Lee had used his maximum power against him, Sharingan or not.

Gaara still defeated him. His control over the sand was impeccable and could only be defeated by being faster than his reaction time or somehow brutally breaking through the defences, both of which Lee managed at stages in the fight. The redhead had almost killed Lee, only managing to crush half his body before Gai interfered.

This caused Sasuke to pause in his analysis of the matches. This day was very odd for him as he experienced many new things. He was used to being the best of the best among his peers and it certainly felt very strange to acknowledge that he had seen at least three people of his age and status that he knew could beat him fair and square if he was brutally honest with himself. This sense off strangeness quickly changed into determination. If he could become strong enough to beat these Genin, he was a step closer to killing Itachi.

Glancing up at Kakashi he saw the man on edge and looking very grim and angered. He had obviously been about to interfere as well, angered by the extent Gaara unnecessarily inflicted harm on Gai's student.

The second last fight was between the two Hyuga. Sasuke closed his eyes and sighed. He had an odd sense of respect for the girl. She never fawned over him in the Academy, her grades had been top notch, and she only spoke when necessary and generally kept to herself. Yet she was easily flustered and seemed to lack confidence, the exact opposite of her dick of a cousin who exuded confidence.

It was a massacre, really. She had no chance and after a few minutes of losing trades against Neji she collapsed. Surprisingly enough she got back up, muttering about wanting to change, only to be knocked down twice again. Sasuke grit his teeth. On one side, it was her own fault for being weak and lacking confidence, on the other hand, he'd never senselessly beat someone like that. She was spewing blood for god's sake, the proctor should've called the match when she collapsed the first time.

He looked to his left to see Naruto looking extremely displeased. His eyes were narrow, his one fist was clenched tightly, the other was slowly bending the rail it held on to. If Sasuke had been more empathetic he'd know that Naruto could see a lot similar traits in the small and frail girl, wanting to never give up on her dreams and change so she could fulfil her goals, yet that Neji boy was systematically decimating her, taunting her, and verbally abusing her, gloating and basking in his superiority, spewing some shit about fate.

When Hinata got up a second time, her cousin charged at her in rage and fury, his palm visibly glowing.

"Hyuga Neji, stop!" The Sandaime yelled, not willing to see what would happen should Hinata the Hyuuga Heiress die here, especially at the hands of one of her own clan members.

Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma and Gai leapt instantly, but were all too late.

Not too late to save Hinata, too late to save Neji from a black blur clashing into him, sending the boy flying ribs-first into a stone pillar.

Neji looked up, coughing painfully. Above him stood a blonde haired Genin, probably even shorter than Neji by half a head.

"You dare disobey the direct order of the Hokage? For such a genius prodigy you sure are an incompetent shit stain." Naruto growled aggressively, shocking many with his vulgar language. A certain purple-haired Jonin cackled in glee; she liked that kid already. "Don't even let me get started on that little speech about fate, Hyuga Neji. For all your praise as a genius and rookie of your year, you sure are a blind retard. Pathetic. But since words don't work with your kind, I'll just have to beat some common sense into your head, no?"

A glove appeared on Naruto's hand, which he cocked back while his other hand grabbed Neji by the collar and lifted him to his eye level without breaking a sweat. Seemingly intent on staying true to his words to do exactly what he declared, a firm grip caught his wrist before he could send the Hyuga's brain all over the ground.

"Stop, Naruto." His eyes met Tsunade's. She didn't look very happy either, but grimly asserted her will over his in a spike of killing intent that had many Genin gasping for air.

Naruto's fiery eyes stayed locked on her calm ones for a tense moment before he unceremoniously dropped Neji to the ground, who scrambled backwards. Many Jonin looked on in surprise as they observed the unknown blonde Genin as Hinata was rushed to the medics. None of them would've had the gall to just blow Neji into a wall like that, nor would they have hesitated to obey an order from Tsunade like that.

As he walked away from Neji to the centre of the arena where he'd be fighting as only him and Kiba were left, he turned his head back slightly to glance at Neji once more, before coldly speaking, "Mark my words you pathetic excuse for a shinobi of this village, I will come for you in the finals, if only to teach your arrogant and pompous ass a lesson. Since words obviously don't work on you, I'll just hiy you so hard over and over that the only coherent thought you'll have left is that you are wrong. That much I promise you."

A very disappointed looking Maito Gai picked a stunned Neji up and slowly walked to the infirmary with him to make sure Naruto didn't damage him too significantly.

Kiba leapt down to the arena, looking at Naruto cockily. Sure the blonde had seemed fast enough to blindside Neji, but he hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings.

"Naruto vs. Inuzuka Kiba, begin!" The proctor yelled as the senior shinobi cleared the field. Everyone seemed intrigued by the fact that Naruto had no last name, which wasn't terribly uncommon especially in kids born right during a war.

Naruto still had a very cold edge in his eyes, Sasuke observed. He had leaned forward the second Naruto had leapt, not at all surprised at by his speed and power, having witnessed it before against someone far more fearsome than a Hyuga boy.

"Heh, nice showing against that stuck up Hyuga, but against me your speed is noth-" Before Kiba could finish his taunt, he was sent flying into the far wall of the stadium, leaving an imprint in the concrete wall, passing out immediately.

A deafening silence settled over the spectators. Naruto looked at his hand which was covered in smoke before the glove disappeared; shot a cold glare towards the unconscious form of Kiba being peeled off the wall by Kurenai and slowly walked out of the hall, leaving behind a stunned crowd, a manically grinning Jinchuriki and a contemplative Uchiha.

- Break -

"You shouldn't have lost your temper like that, gaki." Jiraiya said in exasperation. He had found Naruto sitting atop the Hokage Mountain reading Icha Icha.

"I know." Naruto simply replied. "And normally I would not have given a shit but that kid pushed all the wrong buttons. You know what I think about people putting down others for their pleasure. The girl was obviously outclassed and still struggled on to continue to prove her self-worth to herself yet he continued when he could have knocked her out in the first five minutes of the fight. She was fighting for her own dream and goals and he tried to kill her, let's not even mention that they are family. The fact that he disobeyed Sandaime-jiji was just my excuse to hit him." The blonde explained to his teacher, who only sighed before lying down next to his pupil.

"You know I agree with you there, I had to stop Tsunade from jumping down there and giving the kid a piece of her own mind. But the real issue that you've attracted a lot of unwanted attention, people are curious about you now, especially all the Jonin and the Suna Jinchuriki. Your little display of speed didn't help when you pounded that Inuzuka. The Ichibi's host was practically drooling when you showed your strength, we're really gonna need to find out what kind of seal his village used on him." Jiraiya said as he lay on his stomach to scribble down some notes for the latest Icha Icha.

A moment of silenced passed.

"Your disguise as a Yukigakure nin isn't going to hold for long, not to mention that we could attract some very unwanted attention to Koyuki-hime's village if they think you're her soldier and people want answers or think that Yukigakure produces nin of your calliber easily. People are going to want to find out more about the Genin that destroyed the Inuzuka Clan's heir in a matter of seconds and put the Hyuga prodigy in his place without blinking." The Hermit continued nonchalantly, as if they were discussing the weather. "We can't keep your identity hidden for much longer, neither your Namikaze nor Uzumaki side."

Naruto grunted in agreement. "I don't care Ero-sensei, just tell people who I am. The Namikaze name is famous for dad's legendary status and the Uzumaki side is famous for being the best in the world at seals, so either name is gonna attract attention and enemies. Iwa will want to kill me when they find out whose son I am, everyone else is gonna wanna kidnap me when they found out I'm mom's clan's legacy, so it's really just that you need to pick a lesser of both evils and let them come. Nothing short of them sending their very best will be a threat to me, especially since you and Baa-chan are there to watch my back." The blonde casually commented, having known that his heritage would be revealed sooner or later.

"I think we'll go with Namikaze, for now." Jiraiya sighed, "Iwa has no remaining teams in the competition and aren't strong enough at the moment to send people for you. Since there's no choice of peace between Konoha and Iwa for the foreseeable future we might as well piss them off, or scare them, even more. I was hoping to avoid this; I know you're stronger than most people I could think of, but still."

"Well once I master dad's Hiraishin it won't matter anyway." Flipping a page, Naruto turned his head to his sensei. "Orochimaru will come after me too. I hope you have something good planned for me this upcoming month."

"Oh yes, I got a lot good stuff planned for you, gaki." Jiraiya said, looking serious. "We're going to be working on a way to fight the Ichibi without you having to draw on the Kyubi's power. Since you can summon something of equal size without breaking a sweat we've decided to have you deal with the Jinchuriki. Tsunade and I are going to be taking out Orochimaru." He informed his pupil who snapped his book shut at the information.

"Take on the Ichibi's host, eh? How much scarier than Yugito-chan do you think he might be?" Paling at the mentioning of that woman, Jiraiya thought back to when she and Naruto had met after he tried to peep on her, resulting in him being burnt in some very unfortunate places.

"Having seen that woman set fire to water without blinking, I don't think he'll be that much scarier."

The two shared a good laugh at that, having effectively broken Naruto out his bad mood.

A/N: Well, this one was 13k words long. Hope you enjoyed it. More to come soon.