There are many versions of the Uchiha Massacre in the Hidden Leaf rumour mill and yet they all agree on one point, that Itachi Uchiha betrayed both his village and his family when he assassinated them all on April 1st 999 leaving only a handful of children alive. The motivations behind the Uchiha Massacre remain under suspicion, Itachi apparently claiming it was to "test his potential," and "ascend to his true power," during his capture after which he was summarily executed. Naturally this has bred accusations of Konoha covering up their actions with a scapegoat, especially among foreign powers, but accusations have been as far as Konoha's detractors have been willing to extend.

For the first and what would probably be the last time in his professional ninja career Naruto walked into the academy, feet following the same path they had nearly every day for six years. There was little urgency in his tread, excitement was pretty pointless if you knew what the outcome was going to be.

Today was the day his graduating class received their assignments. Most would be received into the rank and file that were the soldiers who made up the bulk of Kohoha's armed forces would take on most of the low level jobs Konoha was hired for. The second largest recruiters were the admin-ninja, the ones who stayed in the village most of the time and ran the place, sometimes being assigned to handle bureaucratic problems in the Land of Fire's other villages and towns. Occasionally, if they had the right skills and mindset a Genin might be drafted into one of the more esoteric professions like cryptanalysis, the medi-nin program and even more occasionally taken straight into the ANBU black ops unit. But the assignments everyone was on tenterhooks to find out was who was getting an apprenticeship under a Jonin.

Scarce were the Jonin who were both willing and able to take on a trio of Genin, and they only ever took on the best and brightest. There were some exceptions to this, mainly clan politics where the children of important people were promoted ahead of the pack because of their connections, sometimes no matter how you were doing academically you could get an apprenticeship because you were personally scouted for having traits the Jonin wanted in a student. Naruto knew a guy who had been in the year above him who had come last in everything but because the Jonin liked the cut of his jib he was granted an apprenticeship.

Naruto reached his classroom and walked through the already opened door and headed languidly toward his seat. His eyes darted around the room, taking it all in. Most of his class had passed, it was basically a shoe in if you made it to sixth year, and were already there sitting in groups or standing around and chatting with their friends.

The seats were arranged in order of name so Naruto, having the last name Uzumaki, was at the far end of the first row. It was a good seat, it didn't have a window but you could lean against the wall. He sidled behind the mostly empty seats until he got to his and casually slumped across it, his new awesome cool arm guards clunking awkwardly against the wood. Naruto frowned and took his elbows off his desk.

Naruto picked at his navy blue uniform sleeve where it met with the strap of his arm guard and slouched against the wall, keeping everyone where he could see them. He wasn't entirely sure whether or not he would be placed on a team under a Jonin who specialised in keeping Jinchuriki under control or if he'd just be placed under the Jonin directly. He was fiddling with his sleeve again and trying not to look at Kiba's dog when Sasuke, the guy who sat next to him, walked into the room.

If there was any one of his peers he could call friend it was Sasuke Uchiha, but that was mostly due to them being seated next to each other in every class they both took that required desks for the entirety of their scholastic career. They had clicked really well at first meeting, getting on like brothers who'd known each other for years, but Sasuke had gotten kind of weird when his older brother murdered most of his extended family that one time when they were seven.

Itachi Uchiha had eventually been caught and brought to justice and now all that was left of the famous, respected and once mighty Uchiha clan was Sasuke and a handful of children.

Naruto caught his eye and raised his chin in greeting as Sasuke slipped along the row and into his seat.

"Morning," said Sasuke less tersely than usual. The light reflecting off his shiny new headband caught Naruto's eye.

"Feels nice finally being able to get real missions now instead of just D ranks, doesn't it," Naruto said conversationally, flicking the metal of his own headband eliciting a metallic plink.

Part of their sixth year academy curriculum was to take D rank missions, unpaid of course, so they could practice actually working the job and free up Genin for more important tasks.

"Yes," said Sasuke, sounding like he meant it. "It does"

Naruto tapped his fingers rhythmically on the desk watching his former classmates trickle in, "how're the kids?"

He turned back to face Sasuke whose expression tightened a fraction.

"Chise starts this year, that's all of them at school now"

Naruto snorted. "So that's why you got here after me, adorable. I bet you held her hand all the way to the classroom too, and put a cute little note in her lunchbox"

"Of course I did," Sasuke looked at him askance, "why would I not?"

Naruto shrugged and looked back at the door, quashing the faint bitter feeling flittering around in his guts. He resumed his tapping on the desk and Sasuke apparently had nothing else to say so they sat in silence until the clock struck nine and their homeroom teacher of the past six years, Iruka Umino, arrived.

Iruka smiled as he always smiled, cheerful and warm. "Congratulation again, all of you. I know you probably got it enough at the graduation ceremony but I really am proud of you all"

He walked up to his podium and wiggled his clipboard at them, "I'm going to call out your name, position and where you will promptly report to. Serve proudly"

Iruka cleared his throat and began to speak in clipped, professional tone. "Aazama A. Aarashi, Infantry, report to Chunin Yumiko out on the parade field"

"Aizawa Butsujima, Infantry, report to Chunin Yumiko on the parade field"

"Aika Kana, Infantry, repor…"

Despite his best intentions to learn where all his former classmates were heading, Naruto zoned out, the names and assignments going in one ear and out the other. Using his forefinger and a bit of wind chakra he scratched a stylised representation of nine tails surrounding an Uzumaki spiral into the corner of his desk.

As he was in the process of adding some fur texture Naruto heard Iruka say a name he recognised but didn't expect to hear and snapped back into paying attention.

"Haruno Sakura, Apprenticeship, wait here for Jonin Kakashi Hatake"

Kakashi had been Naruto's father's apprentice when he'd been young and had helped tutor Naruto in the ninja arts more than a few times, maybe he would end up being his team captain. That wouldn't be so bad, it might even end up being fun.

Naruto craned his neck to look at Sakura, her bright pink hair catching his attention. It was an unusual shade brought about by the funny things chakra sometimes did to your genes. It was apparently the same process that produced bloodline techniques, but with hair. For example a famous trait among the Uzumaki was, along with their longevity, outrageously red hair like his mother had. Naruto's own hair was an unusually bright canary yellow, much like his fathers.

Yeah, he thought, it wouldn't be bad being on a team with Kakashi and Sakura.

Iruka continued rattling off his list, and as expected Hinata, Chouji, Kiba and Shikamaru all received apprenticeships.

"Uchiha Sasuke, Apprenticeship, wait here for Jonin Hatake"

Naruto perked up a little, being assigned to Kakashi now seemed an increasingly interesting prospect. It made sense too, putting the student with the highest grades, the rookie of the year and the Jinchuriki on the same team. It was a team any commander would salivate at. It made sense in other ways too, Madara was historically able to control the nine tailed fox with his sharingan so there was that problem potentially out of the way. Maybe he and Sasuke could be friends again, too.

Naruto focused all his attention on Iruka, a weird butterflys sensation in his stomach, waiting for confirmation that his perfect career path would be laid out before him.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Apprenticeship, wait here for Jonin Yamato"

Who the fuck was Yamato?

Naruto leant forward on his desk, mouth slightly agape. So his dream team was ruined, hurrah. Was he to be stuck with some no name and kept around the village, never to leave and see the world? To be trapped and unable to complete valuable missions?

He took a deep breath and pushed it all down, now wasn't the time to work himself up. Now was the time for duty.

"Yamanaka Shirai, Apprenticeship, Wait for Jonin Yamato"

His body reacted faster than his thoughts, head twisting so suddenly his vertebrae cracked, turning to look at his new team mate. He'd interacted with her only a few times previously when they were on the same skirmish squad. Why were they put together, they hadn't had a class together since the first year? Unless…

Naruto closed his eyes and wracked his brains, he knew it was in there somewhere. Even though he hadn't really been listening he'd physically heard his other teammate, he was sure of it, the name connected to Yamato swimming just out of reach… Hiroshi Nara, he recalled with a start.

Bloody hell.

He resumed his earlier finger drumming, the beat now quick and agitated. He was pretty sure he knew what this was but refused to believe it until it was verbally confirmed to his face.

Iruka finished his list and gave another speech about their futures and his pride in them which Naruto was in no mood to listen to, before standing at the door to shake every students hand as they filed out to report to their new posts.

"Who's Yamato?" Sasuke asked, disrupting his sullen reverie.

"No idea," Naruto replied blithely, "you got lucky though, Kakashi's one of the best"

If you like waiting, he bit out internally. He realised it was petty to enjoy Sasuke's soon to be irritation, but he didn't much care.

Sasuke huffed, if Naruto had to guess it was because Kakashi was famous for having a surgically transplanted Sharingan; the bloodline trait of the Uchiha. Who were all dead. Because Sasuke's brother killed them.

Something inside him softened and Naruto punched Sasuke lightly on the arm.

"He taught me when I was a kid, and he's really famous. This is, like, career fast track for you"

"Yeah," said Sasuke.

Naruto turned from Sasuke and resumed his vigil of the door. He created some chakra and burned it, enhancing his hearing. Immediately he could hear Sasuke's breath as though he was right up against his ear, all the whispered conversations barely came into focus over the shuffling of his former classmates out the door. He caught a conversation between Shino and Iruka about a discrepancy on the list, apparently his name hadn't been-

"Sasuke!"

Naruto suppressed a flinch as the voice, to his ears, screamed. He stopped burning chakra and turned slightly to see Sakura slide into the seat next to Sasuke, their other teammate Densenbyo beside her.

To Naruto's practiced eyes Sasuke seemed to cringe, folding in on himself like a roly poly.

"Isn't it great we're going to be on the same team?" Sakura asked excitedly, "and our sensei is the Copy Ninja, you've heard of him I'm sure. They say he might even be considered for the Hokage position when Lord Third retires! And we get to learn from him! As I was saying to Densenbyo, this could get us in the door for any position we want later on-"

Naruto had no idea why Sasuke was being so reticent, nobody ever came up and talked to him. He resumed his tapping on the desk, blocking out Sakura's desperate attempt to coax a conversation out of Sasuke until the first of the Jonin arrived.

Asuma Sarutobi, Hiruzen's son, the man who had taught Naruto everything he knew about wind nature chakra strode into the room and next to him a young woman with red eyes whom he didn't recognise.

"Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, with me," said Asuma, smoke drifting lazily from his cigarette and curling away into nothing.

"Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame and Kiba Inuzuka, follow me please," said the woman in a business like tone.

His former classmates all scurried down to their new teachers with varying degrees of enthusiasm. As he watched them leave Hinata turned and waved him goodbye with a smile which he reflexively returned.

The next Jonin must have been waiting outside for he entered just as the others left. Naruto didn't recognise him either which meant this man must be Yamato. He had a fairly young unassuming, plain face, black eyes and short brown hair with his Konoha insignia set into a metal mask that framed his face, much like the second Hokage had worn. He wore a Jonin issue flack vest over the standard navy blue Konoha uniform.

"Hiroshi Nara, Naruto Uzumaki and Shirai Yamanaka, I'll be your captain from today," he motioned for them to follow him.

Oh, thought Naruto as he recognised the voice, that Yamato. He'd known this man as Tenzo and his face had always been covered by an ANBU mask. It became immediately obvious, even more so than before, for exactly what this team had been constructed.

Naruto burned chakra lightly, enhancing his strength and balance, and vaulted over his desk in one smooth movement. He left his chakra on, as he usually did, and gracefully slipped along the row of seats and down the stairs to join Yamato and Shirai at the front.

Hiroshi quickly joined them and Yamato led them out of the room.

They walked along the cobbled streets of Konoha's business district towards the east gate and nobody had said anything yet.

Naruto ignored the thinly veiled look of disgust an elderly woman gave him as she walked by and realised this was his chance. It was time to speak first and start the dialogue, thus placing himself as the defacto team leader. He drew breath and opened his mouth-

"So you're like, the Jinchuriki, right?" asked Shirai in an almost whisper, her voice scratchy.

Naruto let out his breath and turned to look her in the eye.

"'Cause I mean," Shirai nervously scratched her face, "nobody really talks about it, but you do have the demon or whatever?"

Naruto glanced at Hiroshi who met his gaze for a second before averting his eyes, then looked back at Shirai.

"Yeah," he said with a careless wave of his hand, "Don't worry about that too much though"

"So what's it like," Hiroshi asked suddenly, the kind of sudden that suggested he had wanted to know this for a very long time.

Horrible nightmares of the beast, ones that drove icicles of pure terror into the marrow of his bones. The insomnia that followed, the first four years of his life a blur of exhaustion and fear. The cure was meeting It, seeing it for the first time as a small child. In a dark wet room red eyes bigger than him, teeth even bigger, pleading as it screamed and raged and feeling all that fear. Fear and rage and desperation and pain. It stopped eventually and the nightmares stopped with it, sometimes it was like he'd died inside. Strangers hating him for something he couldn't help. The only people who would talk to him were all at least twenty years older and because they had to. All the tests in the lab. Its power burning him and bringing wicked thoughts…

Naruto shrugged and made a so-so gesture.

"You two must be pleased though, being apprenticed," he remarked, trying not to sound as though he was changing the subject.

In the least insulting way possible Shirai and Hiroshi were ordinary. From their appearance, dirty blond hair and brown eyes and brown hair and brown eyes respectively, hair cut appropriately short and moderately fashionable, wearing their Genin standard issue uniforms and headbands. To their skills, slightly above slightly above average and even their social standing, they were very ordinary and certainly not the type of people given this sort of chance.

In that moment Naruto promised himself that if he ever so much as scratched either of them while using the nine tails power he would march into the Hokage Office and demand whatever backup plan he just knew Hiruzen had to control the beast if it ever went berserk, anything less would be irresponsible.

"Oh yeah, totally," replied Hiroshi enthusiastically, "it's literally the chance of a lifetime"

"Totally," agreed Shirai. "And we're even on a team with you so we'll probably be doing super high profile missions. And Yamato-sensei has got to be a huge badarse, too"

"Please," said Yamato, smiling over his shoulder at them, "call me captain"

"Aye aye, Captain!" Hiroshi grinned.

"Aye, Captain," Naruto and Shirai said in tandem.

Naruto immediately realised his folly, turning to face her and drawing a hasty breath to speak but…

"Jinx!" Shirai laughed, "You owe me a drink."

"Shit," said Naruto, clicking his tongue. He'd never been good at those games.

"Yeah," he drawled, "I'll get you one when we get back. Speaking of, Captain, which training ground are we going to?"

"Eighteenth, even if it's this team we certainly won't be skipping Konoha's time honoured traditions"

"What traditions," Hiroshi asked.

Yamato turned to face them, smiling serenely as he walked backwards. "The second test, the one with the thirty three percent failure rate, almost guarantees one of you won't make it"

Naruto frowned, he'd never heard of a second test. And one with such a high fail rate? He was starting to like being in this team, both Hiroshi and Shirai were way friendlier and nicer than he'd expected.

"Why didn't they tell us about this?" Shirai asked, her voice very high pitched.

"It was a surprise," said Yamato. "Surprise!"

"But all genin apprentice teams have four members," protested Hiroshi, "you can't have a team with only two genin!"

"He's right, you can't," Naruto cut in. "It's an official unit, they all have four members. What happens to the other two who pass?"

"A black mark on your record and you get sent back to the academy for another year," Yamato turned back around, his voice taking on a hard tone. "Konoha has very high standards, if one falls we all fall"

"But we can all pass, obviously" Naruto ground out. "Since there are only ever four man teams, some must pass"

"Good luck," said Yamato as he led them to the training ground, and their uncertain future.

Training ground eighteen was a flat expanse of close shorn grass, a single modest tree in the exact centre being the only thing providing variety. Naruto frowned at the sun, squinting his eyes. There was something wrong with this second test but nothing in his memory was providing any clues, it just seemed very un-Konoha.

Still, at least it wasn't Bloody Mist.

With a sigh he returned his eyes to the problem at hand, their new Captain Yamato. He still hadn't told them what the test was yet which meant no plan. Naruto glanced to his left at his new team, both looked worried and clammy; which he supposed was how he would feel if he didn't have a Jinchuriki's job security.

Just as he was wondering what to say to reassure them Yamato came to a halt some two hundred meters from the tree, facing them with a grave solemnity.

"The test is simple," he said. "The first two to lay a hand on me will pass, the other will be excised from active service. You have five minutes to plan"

Naruto stared at him in mild disbelief, was this test supposed to be hard? The answer was blindingly obvious. He continued staring for another few seconds until he realised their time had already started. He whipped around and took a step forward to place a hand on each Hiroshi and Shirai's shoulders, pulling them together into a huddle.

"I have a plan," he told them then threw a glance over his shoulder at Yamato who was taking a few extra paces away from them. "This'll be a piece of cake"

"We all touch him at the same time"

Naruto smiled proudly as understanding dawned in his team mates eyes.

"Are you sure?" Shirai asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," said Naruto. "It's obviously the hidden win condition"

"Yeah, ok," agreed Hiroshi. "Sounds textbook enough to me"

Naruto smiled at him, "its genius. He's a Jonin, which means we won't be able to touch him unless he wants us to. So all we have to do is work together and show him we're worthy and he'll pass us. Me and Shirai herd him in and you," he looked at Hiroshi," trap him in your shadow. Then we all touch him at the same time, easy peasy. Well, not easy since he'll likely work us to the bone before he lets us catch him, but yeah…"

He trailed off and shrugged, "either of you have anything?"

"Uuuhhh," said Shirai as she grasped at whatever straws she could. "Could the test…" she glanced at Hiroshi.

"Be…" Hiroshi started sounding out the starting syllables of various words.

"Fake?" Shirai picked up off on a drawn out F. "It feels weird enough"

"And the real test is we have to call him out on it," Hiroshi said with a confident nod. "You know, that 'underneath the underneath' stuff they went on about in school"

Naruto frowned, stood up and pointed dramatically at Yamato. "You're bullshitting us, this test is a sham!"

"Nope"

Naruto returned to the huddle, "worth a try"

"So with the herding," Hiroshi said, "let's try get him close to the tree, it'll give me a bit more range if I use its shadow." He glanced at the sky, "it's still pretty early anyway so my range is better"

"Oh, and Naruto," he added as he tapped him on the shoulder. "Try to get your shadow onto his if you can. If you do I can save a meter or two of space by spiking my shadow through yours onto his"

"Nice," Naruto replied. "Things to watch out from me is I've got a C rank Wind justu, it's about the only thing else I've got that's safe enough for us never having practiced this. Just a big gust of wind, nothing fancy but just a heads up so I don't accidentally get you in it"

"And my jutsu won't be of much use here," said Shirai in a tone that may have been either relief or disgust.

"Anything else before we start?" Naruto threw another glance over at Yamato who was watching them impassively, arms folded.

Shirai and Hiroshi shook their heads, expressions tight.

"Thirty seconds," called Yamato.

"Right," said Naruto, "I'll go in first on the left and force him to go nearer the tree and then we'll just wing it from there?"

He looked imploringly at his team mates who nodded their assent. Naruto stood, squaring his shoulders and stuck out his open hand, palm face down. This was Crunch Time and he would not allow failure.

Realising they hadn't been told what their team number was he blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "Red Squad!"

Through the tension a glimmer of zeal shone through Shirai and Hiroshi's faces and they lay their hands over his.

"Red Squad!" they echoed, and with that the three turned to face their enemy, taking their first solid step towards victory.

Naruto's hands flickered between seals as he ran. Bird, Snake, Ox, Tiger, Hare, Horse.

The development and discovery of hand seals was the greatest breakthrough since its creation for the art of ninjutsu. By performing certain, precise gestures one could force their chakra to move in certain ways instead of relying solely on weaving a technique by feel. This could reduce the casting time on a jutsu tenfold, allowing one to bypass years of practice and letting a relative novice cast jutsu it would have once taken a grand master to perform. Of course, they didn't completely remove the need for practice and skill altogether, you did still need to practice for weeks or even months or years to achieve the smoothness ninjutsu required.

He breathed deeply, moulding the chakra inside himself, applying function and nature to neutral energy. The jutsu began to take hold, he reinforced himself as his lungs started expanding and opened his mouth to expel the huge influx of newly created air.

He'd broken a lot of ribs during the learning process of this.

A faint distortion erupted from his lips and blasted across the field at the still stationary Yamato, aimed slightly off to his left. At higher levels of jutsu the faint distortion of wind would be perceivable as a huge jagged smudge ripping through the air, capable of vast amounts of damage instead of rustling a few leaves.

Yamato skipped gracefully aside to avoid being knocked off his feet and wove around Shirai, avoiding her strike by an inch. He stomped forcefully with his left foot and the dirt under her heels rose sharply, toppling her forwards.

Shirai recovered instantly and launched a double kick back at him but Yamato was already stepping out of the way again to avoid the dark black line of Hiroshi's shadow as it whipped across the ground like a snake.

Naruto shot forward and landed on the shadow as it connected with Shirai's. With a sudden explosive addition of length the shadow snagged the edge of Yamato's and he went still.

"Pick me up," Hiroshi called. "He's facing the wrong way, I can't make him get closer"

Being the closer of the two Naruto carefully went back while Shirai stood guard. Hiroshi raised his arms up to make himself easier to lift and with enhanced strength it was a simple thing to carry him over to Yamato.

Naruto placed Hiroshi directly behind Yamato and stepped around to the left, enough to see his face. Yamato's expression was blank.

Everything about this screamed Trap.

"We'll proceed with the plan," said Naruto, looking into Yamato's black pit-like eyes, trying to discern his intent. They would trip this trap and come out on top.

Naruto stretched his hand out, "on three" he said. "One"

"Two"

Shirai and Hiroshi reached out as well, Yamato being bound in Hiroshi's shadow mimicking his action.

"Three"

As he reached out Yamato leaned back out of his grasp like the shadow bind meant nothing, his back and arm connecting with Shirai and Hiroshi's hands.

Naruto whipped his head around to look at Hiroshi, had he betrayed him? No, he wasn't leaned back like Yamato was and his face showed surprise.

A cold feeling welled up from his guts as he narrowed his eyes at Yamato.

"You're a cheat" he said, unsure as to whether or not this was part of the test or what. It didn't really make any sense, he was the Jinchuriki. What would be the point of removing your superweapon from active service? And this was Yamato, he had been an important part of Naruto's training in the past as his skills were perfect for controlling a berserking Jinchuriki. Who better to be his teacher than an ex Black ops agent?

"Why did you do that?"

"Because," Yamato knelt down as almost all light was extinguished from the world, the only illumination serving to cast his ghoulish expression into sharper relief. Words in a strange language, harsh and unforgiving, spewed from his maw as brackish fluid welled up in his eyes and left streaks down his face. His face became gnarled and wooden, blood weeping from cracks in his now pockmarked wasteland of a face.

It was at this point Naruto realised he was in an illusion.

He clasped his hands together and sharply spasmed his chakra in an attempt to throw off Yamato's hooks, but the scenery and audio didn't go away.

His best effort spent Naruto simply gave up. He couldn't beat a Jonin. As his hands dropped to his sides the illusion melted away, revealing Yamato standing before them all having a sensible chuckle.

"I'm sorry," he continued his laugh, "but I now understand why this is a tradition. The looks on your faces"

"What?" asked Hiroshi blankly, mouth slightly agape.

Yamato let out a mirthful sigh. "You were right at the start, by the way, the second test is just a joke to mess with new apprentices"

"Oh," said Naruto, feeling quite foolish. That made perfect sense. "I bet the hazing they get in the ranks is way worse than this"

"It's not that bad," Yamato shrugged. "And you of course can never tell anyone who might let the secret out about this. Ever"

"That was way too cruel," whined Shirai petulantly, "I really thought you were going to axe us!"

Yamato gave another chuckle and shook his head admonishingly, "I'm sorry. I do prefer to be nice, but I can't buck our valuable traditions."

He motioned for them to follow him over to the shade of the tree. Yamato clasped his hands together as they neared and the sound of creaking wood filled the air as timber tendrils snaked out of the ground and wove together to form a comfortable looking park table.

Hiroshi and Shirai gasped.

"But that was Wood Release!" Shirai exclaimed, hand over her mouth.

"Are you related to Lord First?" Hiroshi asked, eyes wide as saucers.

The first known user of Wood Release was none other than one of Konoha's founding duo, Hashirama Senju; the man who became the First Hokage. Legend said he used it to create the very forest that gave the village the moniker 'Hidden in the leaves', that it made him unrivalled in battle and most famously that he could use it to tame the great nine tailed beasts; and apparently he once had, but sold most of them away to the other villages.

That last point was not a thing often discussed, Naruto figured, because the man had first tried to give them away for free only to be stopped by his brother.

Yamato nodded and bid them to sit, "I'm the only known person to have this power, though this too is not something you should really spread around willy nilly"

"I already knew," said Naruto as he sat beside Shirai and Hiroshi opposite Yamato. "We've worked together in the past"

"Part of why I was assigned to be your team captain was I had helped train Naruto in the past," Yamato explained.

"Captain," Hiroshi raised his hand like they were still in the classroom, "why are we on this team, then?" He gestured to Shirai.

"I'll get to that shortly, but first," Yamato produced a scroll from a vest slot and spread it out on the table. In the centre was a Seal of Holding which he waved his hand over, releasing a plate of some sort of fruit slice and an icy pitcher of lemonade with four cups.

Naruto immediately leant forward and helped himself, cramming a whole slice into his mouth and reaching over everyone to grab a drink. He settled back and tried to rest his arms on the table like he usually would but the arm guards got in the way again, he clicked his tongue and sat more properly.

"What's with those, anyway?" Shirai asked, pointing at them. "I don't remember you ever having them in school"

"They're part of my new and improved fighting style, suggested to me by Orochimaru of the Sanin himself," Naruto preened. "See how they taper to a ridge up along the centre? That's to…" he paused.

"Captain," he said brightly, pointing to the table. "Do you mind?"

Yamato shrugged and made a go ahead gesture.

Naruto smiled smugly and got up so that everyone had a proper view, a demonstration would be far better than words.

Drawing upon all his training he began to stream wind natured chakra into his right arm guard, the energy projecting a field over the ridge sharper than any razor, and let his arm drop. His armguard bit deeply into the edge of the table, sinking at least an inch before stopping.

"Cool, yeah?" he asked as he sat back down, "Imagine blocking a punch with that"

"Nice, looks like you'll get covered in blood though" said Hiroshi.

"It'll be worth it," said Naruto automatically. Why didn't Orochimaru mention that when he suggested this? Play it cool. "Wanna see my other stuff?" he asked casually, not one to miss the opportunity to show off.

Naruto smiled at their expectant nods and licked some cake out of the gap in his teeth where Sasuke had elbowed him some weeks prior.

"You'll like this one," he said and stabbed his fingers through the table.

This was accomplished by a constant focused stream of wind nature chakra being expelled from the chakra points in his finger-tips. He pulled his fingers out and wiggled them around, gouging slices into the table top.

"It was pretty easy to figure this out after I reverse engineered the Gentle Fist," he laughed. "The Hyuuga hate it"

Of course, the Hyuuga hating it was only a happy side effect, and even then that was meant for only one Hyuuga. Thanks to his Jinchuriki status he could expend chakra like this all day, turning already useful techniques into something uniquely deadly.

"And then there's this," he began to gather chakra above his palm, pouring all his focus into making it sharper, giving it form. A silvery green shimmer the size of a coin flickered into existence and he strained, pouring more and more chakra into the technique. The shimmer coalesced into an opaque, roughly octagonal disc which thrummed in his grasp. "It's not really stable and the range isn't great, but it cuts through anything"

He levelled his hand at the tree's canopy and let fly the disc which flew from his hand as fast as he'd ever thrown a shuriken. Immediately he felt a relief of tension in his hand, it took a lot of chakra to make one of those even for him, and expelling too much chakra in a short amount of time was uncomfortable. And he had to keep expelling it or else the disc would fly off on its own.

A few leaves drifted down where he'd cut them from the tree, some sliced in half with the fineness of a dissection scalpel.

"And finally," Naruto regarded his teams shining eyes and impressed faces, "my magnum opus, my very own original jutsu"

In truth, he'd stolen the idea wholesale from the late Second Mizukage. But nobody needed to know that.

"I'll eventually lose the hand seals," he said as he wove the three needed to make the jutsu usable if he didn't want to spend thirty seconds every time he wanted to use it.

He felt his chakra move down his arm and gather in the finger tip of his right index finger, becoming wind as it did so. It curled in around itself, growing tighter and tighter like a ball of twine. He casually levelled his hand at another leaf in a shape the Second Mizukage termed a 'gun', whatever that was, and fired.

The leaf was torn to shreds as the wind bullet blasted through. Naruto crowed in delight and let of a few more shots, each decimating another leaf.

Truly, he was the coolest guy.

Shirai and Hiroshi applauded politely, as well they should. Shape and nature transformation equally applied in the same jutsu? It was not an easy thing.

"Deadly as," complimented Hiroshi.

To his utter mortification he blushed, having never received a compliment from a peer before… it was heady stuff.

He laughed awkwardly in an attempt to draw focus away from his reddening cheeks, "what good am I if I can't stab someone to death with my fingers?"

The smiles slid off their faces, replaced by some sort of unease. Naruto inwardly cursed himself, he thought he learnt his lesson about saying things like that. Telling people you wanted to become strong enough to defend the border of the entire Land of Fire by yourself, no matter how high the pile of corpses you had to wade through was, well, it made people uncomfortable.

Naruto sat back down and sipped at his lemonade.

"Well then," said Yamato amiably. "Why don't we indulge in another of Konoha's valued traditions and tell each other our dreams for the future. Where do you see your shinobi career taking you?"

This was an easy one, he'd had a canned response to this for ages. "I want to do something about my clan," Naruto set his glass down with a clink and touched the Uzumaki spiral stitched into his uniforms upper arm, as it was with all Konoha uniforms as a sign to respect their once closest allies. "A lot of stuff was lost when Whirlpool fell, even though I've never had much to do with it I feel like I should do something. Something with seals maybe, or fix up that old mask shrine"

In truth, he despised writing seals. They were obstinately difficult, like a complex mathematical equation that changed depending on what you were writing on, or what you were doing. Even Seals of Holding had to be prepared for exactly what you wanted, one extra biscuit and it wouldn't work. And after that you had to know how to shrink the formula down into a pictograph of some sort. It was maddening, and to think his father could apply a Flying Thunder God tag with a touch.

Naruto had seen that seal and he couldn't imagine writing it let alone writing it in his head in a fraction of a second and then stamping it on something with metaphysical ink.

But they were a part of the Uzumaki legacy, they were famous for it, and as far as he knew he was the only Uzumaki in any sort of position to do anything about it. It was what his mother had known, too. Apparently she was the one who had taught his father Sealing method which led to his improvement on the Second Hokage's Flying Thunder God.

"A handsome dream, though not really one I can help with," Yamato swirled the ice around in his glass. "Lord Third is your best bet for that"

As the next in line Shirai spoke.

"I was probably just going to work until I retire and hopefully by then I'll have a plan"

"I've got nothing either," Hiroshi shrugged. "I'll figure out my dream later"

"Now I feel like a drama queen," Naruto huffed, stuffing another piece of slice into his mouth. And his other future plans were all even more melodramatic, but being one of nine unique beings in the world gave him a bit of leeway in that, he thought.

Yamato nodded, "now as to why this team has been formed, who knows, maybe it'll even inspire you?"

Hiroshi and Shirai leaned in, eager to discover the reason.

Naruto chewed disconsolately on his slice as Yamato regarded them all with a serious air.

"The reason this team has been formed," Yamato said gravely, "is to invite the two of you, Shirai and Hiroshi, to join the Special Jinchuriki Suppression Squad. You've both been scouted for having aptitude to learn skills that will help make Konoha a safer place in the event of an unfortunate accident. You'll be joint trained by and eventually be inducted into our ANBU division to develop the skills necessary, and your continued presence on this team is necessary to foster a good relationship with Naruto, which will aid you in your work; if you choose to join that is"

Naruto looked at them out of the corner of his eye, both looked worried.

"Uhhhh… isn't that going to be incredibly dangerous, I mean…" Shirai's voice harkened up another octave or two. "I thought we were just going to be extras for his missions and stuff"

"No offense Naruto, you're really cool but, everyone says Jinchuriki are really dangerous to work with. I mean, didn't it escape and wreck half the village a decade ago?" added Hiroshi, his eyes downcast as though he couldn't say it to his face.

Naruto had expected this, of course.

"I'm literally the safest one in the world," he said heatedly. "The conditions of our one and only failure are literally impossible to recreate with me, and even then only about two dozen people lost their lives"

Twenty six.

"Every other village's count is three digits or more, Cloud's number over one thousand, and my seal is better than any before it. The best in the world. And after that line of defence, you have me. There's no way I'd ever put a comrades life in danger because of my own incompetence so this will probably end up being the cushiest job offer you'll ever get. Nothing has gone wrong yet and the chances of it going wrong get smaller every year. You have my one hundred percent guarantee"

"You don't have to decide immediately, of course," Yamato cut in. "Throughout the week you will receive a full briefing, a representative will come and provide you with information packets so you can talk it over with your parents. And since you would only be trainees as this stage you would be safe behind the rest of the squad, and me of course. Chances are it will be like Naruto said, no accidents have occurred yet and if things continue as predicted, none will"

"In fact," said Naruto loudly, "why don't we give them a little demonstration of how safe it is?"

"We were going to save that for next week, Naruto, before they make their decision and when the entire squad will be there to show what their job might potentially entail," Yamato said slowly, meeting his eyes. "Are you sure you want to do this right now? It might over pressure them"

"Yeah, why not?" Naruto threw up his hands in a shrug, "they'll see it anyway, it's not like they'll get hurt. And it's not even that scary, besides, I want to grow that tooth back"

Yamato drummed his fingers on the table, "if you're absolutely sure, don't blame me."

He then addressed Shirai and Hiroshi directly, "it is safe, if there was any chance of you being harmed this wouldn't even be considered. Should you agree it will actually be quite frightening, the chakra of a Jinchuriki is a terrible thing to behold, but it will be fear only. You can choose for this not to happen and wait a week to give yourselves time to prepare"

Hiroshi chuckled nervously as he sipped his drink, hiding behind the glass. "Didn't expect this, hey? This isn't another Jonin joke thing, is it?"

Shirai seemed to be grinding her teeth before she said in a small voice, "if it's going to happen anyway…" she took a deep breath and looked up to meet Yamato's eyes. "And we will be safe, chickening out won't do any good"

Hiroshi put down his now empty cup and squared his shoulders. "Yeah, bring it on, we can hack it"

"Very well," Yamato stood up and walked around to their side of the table, he clasped his hands together and nine wooden totems wormed from the ground some ten meters away in a circle. "Bear in mind this is likely the closest you'll ever be to him while he's in the Jinchuriki state for years. After this you'll be surrounded by professionals when we practice with it"

Naruto knew the drill. He got up and walked over to the circle, hearing Yamato tell them it was just a basic precaution and they didn't expect anything to go wrong. Already he was starting to regret flying off the handle like that, he didn't like using the nine tails power.

When he got to the circle's centre he turned to face the table. "Ready?" he asked, throat suddenly dry.

He saw Yamato nod, glanced at Hroshi and Shirai's nervous faces, and closed his eyes. The process to access the chakra of the Nine Tailed Fox was a strange one, for there was no physical location involved, it was all entirely inside his own mind. Or an expression of the seal his mind created, which was for some reason a dank labyrinthial concrete basement. He supposed the unpleasant nature was due to the fox because the ankle deep water rose whenever he was accessing its chakra, clearly a representation. He supposed that if ever he were to use all the chakra he could, he would 'drown' there.

Luckily for what he wanted today, he wouldn't have to access the seal so directly. He would have to send a 'request' to the fox, and he didn't know if it was a function of the seal to activate when it deemed him to be in danger or due to the foxes own perverse nature but the request was easiest sent by as pure a terror as he could feel. And his memories of the beast provided that.

He could feel himself starting to sweat, tears creeping into his eyes as he remembered, nausea wrenching in his guts. A deep growl echoed from deep within himself and he could feel as the beast awoke. He could feel it watching him, and when it watched it raged. The growls turned to deafening shrieks, something huge battering relentlessly against something metal. More memories of fear, the worst day of his life…

The surge of red washed it all away.

Red in his eyes, red in his skin, red in his mind. Everything burned as its power washed through him, the burn reducing to a crawling tingle as it began to change him. He could feel his finger and toenails grow, feeling like someone was pulling them out with pliers, lengthening and sharpening into brutal claws. His lips were forced open into a dread smile as all his teeth expanded upwards, outwards, turning into inch long fangs. At least that tooth had grown back.

He opened his eyes and beheld the world in razor sharp clarity, not even enhancing his vision could he see so clearly. Or hear so clearly, feel so sharply.

Every line of fear was visible in their pasty white faces, every little motion betraying their brave masks. Fear, desperation, hatred; it was all he ever saw with these eyes. Red eyes, the eyes of a monster.

And oh how he loved it.

He opened his needle fanged maw and licked his lips with his ghastly tongue, delighting in their revulsion and fear.

This was why he was so dangerous, why all Jinchuriki were dangerous. And this was only a fraction of his power, his true form would be wondrous beyond imagining.

This was why he was so dangerous, why all Jinchuriki were so dangerous. A fraction of The Foxes power and all he wanted to do was stab his fingers through their eyes.

"I told you it was safe," he rasped and started expelling chakra in huge waves, carefully studying them for the moment they fell under its pressure.

Bad Naruto.

"Naruto," Yamato said warningly.

I would never.

He let up on the smothering chakra, watching them straighten their backs once more and wipe the sweat off their greasy little brows, fear turning into revulsion and, oh.

He looked at his hands where he had driven his entire finger through his other palm. The pain was exquisite and helped him focus slightly, to be Naruto again.

"I just thought I'd demonstrate how fast I heal," he hacked out, resisting the urge to lick the blood off his hand and instead wiped it with his sleeve.

This would obviously be his transformation shirt from now on, not getting those stains out.

He held up his hand and showed them the gaping wound as it writhed, knitting itself back together as good as new. No wound was permanent for him, save for perhaps decapitation, everything healed.

"I even grew back a hand once…" he trailed off.

Don't want.

It wasn't easy, going back. And the further he was the harder it got. Going back was unpleasant.

The red vanished, gurgling back down inside him like water down a drain pipe, and his humanity hit him like a sack of bricks. He could remember wanting to hurt them, wanting it so much. That was the worst part. Knowing that if he ever hurt someone he didn't want to while transformed he would have to remember enjoying it for the rest of his life.

He sagged, squatting down, steadying himself against the ground as the withdrawal hit him. One of his claws detached, hanging off by the edge of the cuticle, the breeze stinging the raw exposed skin.

This was the second worst part, having all his teeth and nails fall out and the annoying process of having them grow back in.

Naruto heaved himself to his feet and stretched, making his way back over to the table, his stomach writhing like an eel and butterfly rodeo.

"So," he said as he ripped one of his rapidly loosening teeth from the gum and held it before him. "You guys want one of these? I have a box full at home"

Shirai and Hiroshi stared at him blankly.

With a shrug he pocketed it and, with a set of seals that removed the rest, set to work healing the raw skin under his nails as best he could hands now aglow green.