Yeah, I'm really sorry about the wait, but I had some technical issues. For starters, some viruses got on my computer when my brother borrowed it to watch anime. And no, Kakashi's books made into video are not responsible. So, I lost everything, including the will to write for a while. But, it's back. And so are the rest of my files. And my settings. (sigh) I hate having to do an OS re-install. Anyway, here's the story.

Also, I would have posted this back in may, but my beta didn't get back to me :( WHERE ARE YOU IMORTAL?

A/N: For those of you who are worried, I don't own Naruto. So there.

Chapter 6: The Lunar Awakening

"So, what are we gonna focus on today, Susano'o-sensei?" Naruto asked in curiosity, sitting cross-legged in a clearing near the temple.

"From now on," began the aged deity, "we will be taking more time out of everything to train your godlike powers."

Naruto's eyes widened. "So, you're gonna teach me how to wield your amazing powers?"

Susano'o laughed. "Yes, my young pupil. You will begin to learn a myrid of abilities from me, first and foremost being the ability to wield the powers of the storm."

Naruto jumped up from his seat and into the air. "Yatta! This is gonna be so cool!"

"The very first lesson," rumbled the storm god, "will be to become one with Nature itself." He gestured around himself. "As you can see, the plants don't do much of anything. Your first task is gonna be something similar to this." Seeing Naruto's expression, he sighed. "Yes, you must meditate until you no longer move. Take the time to just relax, or maybe search yourself for something important that you missed. The point is that you cannot move for a large period of time."

"How am I supposed to do something like that?!" Naruto cried out.

"Expand your senses, child." Susano'o sighed. "Realize that you are just a part of something much bigger than yourself."

Naruto sighed. "Alright. I guess I'll give it a shot." He thought for a moment. "Wait, how do I meditate?"

Susano'o slammed his forehead into a wall. "For the love of... Just relax! There is no special way to meditate!" He shouted. He sighed and calmed himself. "Traditionally, a lotus position is what is generally used, but contrary to popular belief, it is not the only way. Really, just find a position to relax in. Anyway, I'm out. Since you're gonna meditate, there's no reason for me to be here. Later!" He said, walking away.

Naruto sat down in a huff, crossing his arms. 'What an ass.'

"Language Naruto!" Scolded Kushina.

Minato chuckled from inside of Naruto's head. "Get to meditating, son. It'll go faster if you actually try!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. 'Yeah, yeah. I'm doing it."

And so Naruto sat down in a lotus position, closed his eyes, and curled his hands together. And waited. And waited. His eyebrows twitched. 'This is gonna take a while.'

Sasuke Uchiha, last loyal member of the Uchiha, scowled as he left the grocer. 'Irritable assholes.' He thought to himself. He had just gotten his weekly food supplies, and like always, the people that ran the grocery stores practically bowed to him. It was so INFURIATING! 'I hate those people.'

Turning down the street towards the Uchiha compound, his thoughts drifted to his classmates, and specifically, Naruto Uzumaki. 'What are you hiding dobe?' He thought back to class. He always was doing enough to get a passing grade, but that was it. There was one other like that, Shikamaru Nara, but then again, he was a Nara. But that was irrelevant. "What are you hiding, Uzumaki?" he asked aloud.

"I'm glad that you asked." Came a voice from behind him.

Sasuke dropped his grocery bags to the ground, pulled a kunai from his pouch and spun in a circle to face... an older looking man.

"Easy, Sasuke." the man raised a hand. "I mean you no harm."

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, picking up his bags and turning around to leave.

"Sasuke!" Called the man. "I thought that you wished to know the Uzumaki's secret!"

Sasuke stopped for a moment, then continued walking. "And I'm sure that you know, old man."

The old man chuckled. "Well, yes actually. I do." Then he frowned. "But such knowledge is not to be given about freely or spoken about in public. I will speak to you alone at your house tomorrow night after school when the moon is full."

Sasuke turned around to glare at the old geezer, but he was already gone.

"...ruto? Naruto? HEY NARUTO!" Screamed a voice.

"Argh!" The blonde yelped, jumping into a ready stance. But it was only Susano'o.

The old god laughed. "That was actually pretty amusing. But really, I said meditate. Not to fall asleep."

Naruto sat down in a huff. "Well maybe if it wasn't so boring, I'd be able to keep myself interested in it." He said, crossing his arms.

'Actually, Naruto...' began his father, 'If this is the beginnings of what I think it is, you'll want to learn it.'

'Why is that?' the blonde jinchuuriki asked.

'Because with the ability to sit still and become one with Nature, you can achieve what only few are able to do. Sage mode.'

'Sage mode?'

Susanoo sighed. 'Why must they speak in his head?' He cleared his throat, drawing Naruto's attention back to him. "Now, I can only guess about what he was talking about, but I assume you just asked your father about Sage mode?" Naruto nodded. "I thought so. While it can lead to Sage mode, this training is about your god-like powers. Well, the ones that you will get. Speaking of, come here a second." Naruto did. "Now, this is gonna tingle a bit." And he shocked Naruto with a good bit of his powers.

Naruto however was anything but "tingly". He just got shocked by lightning! As soon as the power stopped flowing from the Old god, Naruto was lifted of his feet and sent flying.

"What the hell?!" Naruto demanded.

Susanoo rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "So, it did more than tingle. My bad."

Naruto's eye twitched. 'I won't kill him. I won't kill him. I WON'T kill him.'

Susanoo laughed at Naruto's face. "Ah, that was pretty funny. Now, what I did isn't exactly obvious, but you should have an easier time relaxing. But, that's an exercise for another time. For now, you have a shinobi test to pass tomorrow. And you yourself are going, not a clone. Just in case."

"Oh yeah." Naruto said. The shinobi exam was tomorrow. "I'd lost track because of all of the cool training that we are doing."

Susano'o looked a little smug. "Yes, I AM pretty cool, aren't I?"

"Meh." Said Naruto, causing the god to facefault.

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!"

"Amaterasu-sama is cooler." Naruto shrugged.

"Stupid brats and their lack of respect." Susano'o muttered as he walked away.

"Well, today's the first step in my road to Hokage!" Naruto declared loudly upon arriving in class.

"Can't you be any quieter?" Shikamaru grumbled from the front of class.

"Hmm?" Naruto looked confused. "Why should I be quiet on a day like this? It's so exciting!"

Shikamaru's head slammed down onto his desk. "Troublesome blonde." he grumbled.

Naruto laughed, then shifted his gaze to glare at Sasuke, as per his morning ritu- er routine. Yeah. That.

But instead of a glare in return, as per normal, he got a calculating gaze in return.

Sasuke couldn't glare at him though, not that Naruto knew that. Not when an actual god told him about Naruto's extra training. So, instead of glaring back on instinct, Sasuke thought about what the idiot- no, not an idiot, not if he could paint the Hokage monument in broad daylight. Not if he could hide all that special training with none the wiser. He thought about all of this, and came to an interesting conclusion. 'I will make him my measuring stick. I will surpass him, then Itachi will pay for his crimes.'

Naruto meanwhile was confused about the whole thing. As the testing went on, when nobody, aside from Hinata, was looking, his gaze would gain depth as he analyzed Sasuke's behavior. 'There's no way that Sasuke should know about my extra training or my sensei(s). If he could, he would have reported it already, or demanded similar training. Or in the case of Itachi-sensei, attempted to kill him. No, he must know something else.' He nodded at Hinata, then pointed to his eyes and gestured to Sasuke, letting her know to keep an eye out.

Hinata nodded, already forming her own opinion on the matter. With who her sensei was, it was no surprise that she already figured some things out. And the fact that Sasuke was analyzing her love interest- not that she'd actually tell him that- gave her pause. 'Sasuke respects power, and the only way he'd find anyone interesting or worthy of respect would be if they achieved power beyond or near his own. So logically, Sasuke knows something about Naruto's training. Whether or not that's a good thing remains to be seen.' She concluded, frowning ever so slightly, then going back to the part of the shy introvert to avoid suspicion. Not that she acted totally like that. Being from the Hyuuga clan, she knew about the tradition of putting the top Shinobi and Kunoichi with the bottom Shinobi in order to balance the teams out. If she got all of the answers correct on the written test, and passed everything else, she would hold that top kunoichi spot.

And that's exactly what she did. In fact, everything went exactly according to that plan, down to Naruto "barely" passing the class. So, Hinata went home with a skip in her step, feeling like the world couldn't mess up. And as she did so, the plants around her all bloomed in response to her happiness, as if Nature was happy that she was happy.