AA: Hello, once again! We sure are edging closer and closer to not only Chapter 10 but 50 reviews! That is insane and incredible and thank you so much everyone for your support! Summer break is almost over and I know personally, I'm looking forward to school and furthering my education. How about you guys? Are you happy or sad that the summer is over? I know one thing I'm not going to miss is when things start cooling down. I hate the heat.

Guest: Aw, you are so sweet! Thank you so much for all the love! It is really nice just to hear someone out there likes what you do, means the world. I'm really looking forward to Sasuke and Naruto bonding as well. Did you know that the original author of Naruto wanted to end the show as a Shonen-AI? I think it would have been a great way to really elaborate on their bond, but alas, they skip around so many juicy things.

Tee: Same. It is a double edged blade when a show doesn't go how you want it to go. On one hand you are disappointed because characters have a way of coming to life and you want what you want for them. Then on the other, part of not having the control over them is what gives them that life, gives you new ideas to see someone think of something you did not, etc. I'm having that issue with Fairytail right now.

drmona lord: I know those feels. Sometimes you just have to take a step back and look at your story from start to finish, weed out plot holes, and the like. I am having that problem with an original story of mine, too. It is especially hard to write something entirely from scratch unlike fanfiction, which gives you like the Lego blocks you need to create whatever you want from there.

T. K. Virgo: Thank you so much, always so flattering! -blush- I think I read a lot of Harry Potter when I was starting out on fanfiction, too. I think I liked the Heromine x Draco ones, the good girl making the bad boy less bad cliché was always cute. Heromine x Harry was of course a favorite, too. I can't believe NOW J.K. Rowling is coming out saying that Heromine was supposed to be black and how she wishes that she had written Heromine ending up with Harry instead of Ron. Come on, woman! A little late to be trying to change our childhoods! I absolutely know what you mean when you say you lose interest in writing. For me, once I have it all planned out in my head, my mind is just like 'Well, I already know what happens so let's move on to the next story to create!'. I could only ever get past a few chapters and I think this is the farthest I have ever gotten. Reaching Chapter 10 is going to be a huge milestone for me and it helps that I have people like you guys and LL supporting me and cheering me to the finish line.

Chapter 7
Sasuke's POV
Whose Improved the Most?

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise as Naruto began crawling towards Kakashi. "Naruto!" She hissed under her breath nervously, afraid her voice would wake up their sensei. "What do you think you are doing?"

"What does it look like?" Naruto chuckled quietly, a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. "I'm going to solve a mystery."

"How do you still have so much energy?" Sasuke murmured glaring at him from where he sat. He was just now starting to relax. It felt nice to be off his feet and not needing to carry his heavy backpack anymore. He hadn't felt like this in a long time. Hungry, tired, and sore didn't even begin to cover it.

Naturally, Naruto seemed to take his question as a compliment and completely missed his mocking tone of voice. A smirk quickly spread across his lips causing Sasuke to sigh internally. He was so dense. Naruto had always been hyperactive and high maintenance. Then again, having a lot of energy to burn was a good thing for a ninja. "What do you mean? As if that easy walk home would wear me down, I could do that in my sleep!" he boasted. It was hard for Sasuke to resist the urge to roll his eyes at him.

"You collapsed on the floor, Naruto." Sakura reminded him with a small scowl.

"Yeah, well I got right back up again, didn't I?"

"Keep your voices down." Sasuke muttered. "Kakashi needs to rest."

"Which reminds me, I wonder what happened to him." Sakura hummed in thought. "He seemed fine one moment and the next he just fell over."

"Hey, do you guys think it had something to do with that freaky eye of his?" Naruto asked, as he looked over at Kakashi and seemingly forgetting about his mission to peek underneath his mask. Sasuke felt his muscles stiffen again at the mention of the Sharingan.

"Maybe... I don't really know much about Sharingan, though. Hey, Sasuke, do you know?" she asked, having picked up on what he had said during the fight. It was Sasuke who explained to them what it was, who knew anything about it. It was only logical she would ask him for more information about it.

He remained silent, though, His head bowed in frustration as he glared at the ground. His family's special jutsu once made the Uchiha's legends and now because of him, the people of their village didn't even know what it was. The only one in the village who had the great power of his clan, wasn't even a Uchiha. This isn't how things were supposed to be.

"Here you guys, are." Tsunami's voice sounded from the doorway as she brought in a tray of tea for them. "You must be exhausted from the trip. There is a bath house in the back you can use to wash up. I'm cooking dinner but you should have some time." she informed them, handing each genin a cup of tea, except for Sasuke who had refused it. He didn't even look at her as she slowly turned and made her way back into the other room.

"I hope she is making ramen." Naruto purred happily as he sipped at his hot drink.

Sasuke painfully pulled himself to his feet, ignoring his body as it screamed in protest. With any luck, a nice hot soak would help ease the pain. He filled the tub with hot water and bath wash before he slowly sank into the water. Sure enough, relaxing in the hot liquid brought him almost instant relief. Leaning his head back against the cool rim of the tub, he sighed in contentment and closed his eyes. Between the hot water and the humidness of the room, Sasuke felt very comfortable and unknowingly drifted off to sleep.

He didn't even realize he lost consciousness until he heard the bathroom door slide open with an abrupt shake. Even then, he was reluctant to wake. "Aw, man. Only one tub?" Naruto scowled, seeing that Sasuke was asleep in there. With a huff, he moved over to the shower stall instead. At the sound of his jarring voice, Sasuke pried one eye open just to glare at him out of the corner of his eye.

"This is someone's home, Naruto. Not a communal hot spring." He muttered, stretching and sitting up as he forced himself to become more alert. He was normally a light sleeper, but he had not been feeling and acting like himself lately. He wondered if there could be something causing this…

"I know that." Naruto scowled, taking a seat on a small stool after setting his towel and clothes to the side so he didn't get them wet. He kept his back to Sasuke for the most part, as he went about washing himself. Sasuke clicked his tongue in annoyance. He hadn't really planned on sharing the same space as Naruto. If he wasn't going to leave which he clearly wasn't, then he would. The water had cooled down a lot anyways.

He didn't say anything else as he reached for his own towel. He simply did his best to pretend like Naruto wasn't even there and began to dry off. From the corner of his eye, he noticed that Naruto was staring at him. At first he was confused as to why, it wasn't the normal glare they usually exchanged. Instead he almost looked sad. Then he remembered his pale skin already heavily bruised with dark purple patches. Zabuza had really laid into him. Nearly half his torso was covered in these marks, no wonder he didn't feel good. He continued to get dressed in silence, choosing to ignore Naruto's stare to the best of his abilities. It really only made him angrier. He didn't need his pity.

As he shot Naruto a dirty look on his way out, he paused as he realized something about Naruto's own injury. He had stabbed a kunai nearly through his hand only a day or so ago and it was completely healed. There wasn't even a scar. He paused at the doorway, his brows furrowing in confusion. How could he heal that fast? he wondered.

"AHH!" Naruto screamed in surprise as he fell backwards. He had been inspecting Kakashi as he slept, once again trying to work up the courage to reach out and pull down his mask. He was not prepared for his eye to suddenly pop open. "K... Kakashi-sensei! You're finally awake!" He exclaimed while stuttering.

Sakura had let out a small gasp of surprise as well, since she had been intently watching from a little further away. She wasn't expecting Naruto to suddenly erupt like he did, either. "Naruto!" she instantly began to try and cover any involvement she had in the blondes' shenanigans. "What are you doing!?"

"Did I hear right?" Tsunami called from the next room as she followed the sound of their shouting. At the sight of Kakashi's awakened form, her hands move to her hips as she strikes an almost disapproving pose. "So, you are up. How are you feeling?"

"Fine, I just won't be able to move for a week or so." he groaned, attempting to remain aloof despite his obvious pain as he tried to sit up.

"Then I think you need to relax." she said.
"Right." He chuckled as he complied with her orders, slowly laying back down.

"Sensei... The Sharingan is incredible and all," Sakura began to hesitantly say, "But if it puts that much stress on your body, is it really worth using it?"

"Well," Tazuna gave a half-hearted laugh of relief. "We defeated Zabuza because of it. It saved our lives and we can finally breathe easy for a while."

"Well, there is still that masked kid to worry about, isn't there?" Sakura asked as she stroked her chin in thought.

"That mask..." Kakashi murmured, his tone becoming somewhat serious. "It is supposed to be worn by the Hidden Mist Special Tracker Ninja. They are known as body erasers since it is their duty to completely dispose of the bodies without leaving a trace."

"What!?" Sakura gasped, horrified by such a title and duty. Naruto seemed just as repulsed.

"Why do they do that?" Uzumaki questioned.

"A ninja's body has within it secrets of the village's ninjutsu. Information on different chakra types, herbs, and secrets that could leave a village exposed. For example, if I died, there would be those after the secrets my Sharingan could reveal. If you aren't careful, there is the possibility the enemy will steal your jutsu." Kakashi explained. "Because of the important information a shinobi's body could reveal, tracker ninja are vital to the villages. By killing and disposing of the missing or rogue ninja who have died or abandoned the village, they protect that information from falling into the wrong hands. They are specialists specifically trained to guard their villages secrets."

"That's s-scary..." Naruto whimpered under his breath. "If that is the case, I don't want to know what that kid did to Zabuza's body!"

"No sight, no sound, no evidence. That is a ninja's end." Kakashi paused... his hand moving to cover his face.

"...Something wrong?" Sasuke asked, watching him closely.

"Hm? Well, it's just that body erasing teams usually dispose of the body right then and there. They do it as quickly as possible at the scene of the crime to try and rid every last drop of blood." he murmured. Sasuke blinked in surprise, his brows furrowing in confusion and anger. That kid from before...

"So what?" Sakura tilted her head, not understand what Kakashi was getting at. Neither did Naruto for that matter as he hummed to himself in thought. You could see the gears in his head trying to grind together, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get them to budge.

"Don't you see? The so-called tracker ninja from before. How did he dispose of the body?" Kakashi quizzed, peaking at her through the cracks between his fingers. Sakura shrugged in response.

"How could we know? That masked guy took the body with him." she answered.

"Exactly. If he needed proof of his work, he would have just taken the head." Kakashi murmured lowly and removed his hand from his face. "Not to mention the weapon he used to 'kill' Zabuza with..."

"Medical needles." Sasuke whispered, "No way..." That child from before, he played them!

"Exactly." Kakashi sighed, sounding more tired than ever.

"What in the Hell are you guys talking about?" Tazuna huffed, frustrated that he wasn't able to follow along with their 'ninja nonsense' as he called it.

"Most likely..." Kakashi paused, "Zabuza is still alive."

"WHAAA!?" Naruto, Sakura, and Tazuna all roared in outrage. Their explosion was due to a mixture of both shock and fear. Tsunami, who did not know the dangers the man possessed, merely watched in confused silence.

"How is that possible!?" Naruto cried out as his voice wavered.

"Kakashi-sensei! You checked and said he was dead yourself!" Sakura shouted.

"I did and there wasn't a pulse... but most likely it just a death-like state. Playing possum or something like a momentary death, if you will." he sighed, slowly sitting up despite needing to rest. "Those needles are used by doctors in acupuncture therapy. Unless they hit a vital organ, it has a low probability of killing your opponent. As a requirement of their job, hunters like Tracker Ninja thoroughly know about the body's structure. Manipulating the body and putting someone in such a state of low bodily function is probably easy for them."

"Come on, what proof is there?" Tazuna tried to reason, beads of sweat beginning to drip down his forehead as any relief he felt before left his body entirely.

"First, he carried Zabuza's larger and heavier body. Second, he used a weapon with a low chance of killing. These two points alone indicate that he had a motive other than simply destroying the body. His purpose might not have been to kill Zabuza at all but to save him. We can't ignore that possibility."

"Aren't you thinking too much?" Tazuna swallowed tightly, obviously in denial of the suspicious circumstances. "Tracker ninja are supposed to kill and destroy ninja, like you said."

"No. With all this suspicion, we will prepare before it is too late. That is a shinobi rule." Kakashi stated with no room for debate. "Plus, whether Zabuza is dead or alive, there's no assurances that Gatou hasn't haired an even stronger shinobi to take his place." Kakashi's gaze rested on Naruto, who seemed to be so focused on his thoughts he stared straight through his sensei. An eager smile pulled on his lips, one that almost looked twisted on his face. Sasuke couldn't help but feel that the look in Naruto's eyes, was one of blood lust. Is he actually excited that Zabuza might be alive? Why? Does he want to fight him again or something?

"Sensei, what do you mean 'prepare before it is too late'? You can barely move." Sakura pointed out.

"Hehehe. I can still train you." he assured her. Instead of calming her, it seemed to only make her angry.

"Train!? What is a little training going to do!? Our enemy is a ninja you struggled against even with the Sharingan! We don't stand a chance at all, we are just going to get killed!" she snapped at him, afraid.

"Sakura, who saved me while I was struggling? You three. You guys have grown rapidly, especially you Naruto." He praised and even flashed Uzumaki a smile. His approval causing his blue eyes to light up and a light blush to spread across his whispered cheeks. "You have improved the most."

"...I guess." she murmured softly. Sakura begrudgingly followed Kakashi's gaze to Naruto's now beaming face. Even Sasuke had to admit Naruto had gotten better. Honestly? It pissed him off a little. Naruto started at the bottom and now he's done so much. Him on the other hand? Sasuke had natural talent and he had plenty of room to grow but didn't improved at all. If anything, he felt like he was getting worse.

"Obviously, this training is just until I get better, you won't be able to defeat him without me." he sighed, as if wishing that wasn't the case. A person who was in a state to mimic death, it should take even him awhile before their body returns to normal. You guys have plenty of time to improve if you work hard." he promised.

"Sounds like fun!" Naruto chuckled, his fists clenching with determination as he began to fidget excitedly. He was already itching to get to it. Whatever it was, he wasn't going to lose. Now was his chance to improve to.

"That's not fun." a small voice said from the doorway, causing the three genin to turn and look at a younger kid who was glaring at them.

"Oh, yeah!? Just who are you?" Naruto questioned, offended.

"INARI!" Tazuna beamed as he held out his hands for a hug. "Where were you!? Did you got to bed early last night?"

"Welcome home, grandpa." the kid said as he made his way over to the old man to give him a hug. From below his hat, his dark eyes bore judgmental holes into their faces.

"Inari, say hello to these people. They are the ninjas who protected grandpa." Tsunami said quietly, trying to make sure her child remembered his manners.

"Mom... they are going to die." He said plainly, pointing at Naruto in particular. "There is no way they can win against Gatou."

"What did you just say!?" Naruto glared, upset at the child's lack of faith. The child's head bowed at his anger, but it was not in submission. It was more in defeat. It was almost eerie how empty the child's eyes seemed to be. Sasuke knew that look, knew what it meant. This child had lost something or someone very close to him. "You brat!" Naruto cried out in irritation.

"NARUTO!" Sakura growled, reaching her hand out to yank him back. "What are you doing, getting yelling at a child!"

"Inari, was it!? Listen up! I am a really powerful ninja who will one day become an even more incredible ninja called the Hokage! I don't know this Gatou guy, but he is nothing against me!" Naruto smirked and held out his fist as a gesture of his determination. Sasuke just started at him, blinking at his stupidity. It seemed that Kakashi's compliment had gone straight to his head.

"Pfft." Inari huffed, clearly not impressed. "What are you, stupid? You think you are some kind of hero or something? There is no such thing. If you don't want to die, you should just leave." he muttered before he turned and began to walk out. Once again, Naruto erupted, insulted by the kid's words and attitude. Sakura quickly held the enraged genin back. Like grandfather like grandson. Sasuke thought as he watched the child somberly.

"Inari, where are you going?" Tazuna called after, his tone saddened by the kids' behavior.

"To my room." he said simply as he quickly ran upstairs. Tsunami sighed softly, giving a small shake of her head as she slowly turned and made her way to another room.

"Sorry..." Tazuna murmured quietly and slouched forward. The drunk and Kakashi began to talk about something involving children nowadays, but Sasuke tuned them out. Instead, his gaze was locked on Naruto who had managed to slink away and was following after Inari.

Annoyed, he stood and followed after. Naruto was at least twice his age and he was still going to pick a fight with him? Pathetic. Downright disgraceful. He could hear Naruto muttering under his breath as he silently followed after him, not wanting to draw attention to them. It would have been easier to just ask Naruto where he was going, then Kakashi and Sakura would have stopped him and he wouldn't have to get involved any further. Watching Naruto walk away, something about him being oblivious to the fact he was watching and now stalking after him, made his heart race.

"Dammit. Where is that brat, he needs to learn a lesso-" Naruto said before freezing in place. Did Naruto actually realize what an idiot and an asshole he was being? Unlikely... Then the soft sound of crying echoed down the hall. That's explains it.

Sasuke paused, his jaw tightening as he heard the soft whimpering of a lost and broken little kid. Inari cried for his father and Naruto stood there, eyes glazing over as he watched the scene. At least he had enough common sense not to pick on a crying kid. Honestly, he wasn't sure why he had even followed Naruto, it wasn't his place. Perhaps out of curiosity at what the child was experiencing or perhaps he was just looking forward to a chance to teach Naruto a lesson instead.

The realization that he had no idea what he was doing or why he was doing it gave Sasuke control of his body again. Quickly, but silently, he took a step back and began to create distance between him and Naruto. What was happening to him lately? He was starting to become concerned. Perhaps he should talk to Kakashi or a doctor when they return to the Leaf? Was it just his imagination or was something actually... wrong?

With a small shake of his head, Sasuke made sure he was fully snapped out of it before he snuck back downstairs. He did not want to be caught by Naruto or anyone else for that matter. When he came downstairs, he saw that Tsunami was helping Kakashi stand as Sakura held a set of crutches, waiting to give them to her sensei.

"Alright. Let's start training right away." Kakashi said once they made their way outside and a little ways into the forest flanked the house.

"Woohoo!" Naruto cheered with excitement.

"-Before we actually begin, I'd like to recap on what you learned at the Academy." Kakashi added, quickly putting a damper on Naruto's spirits. He liked the physical part of being a ninja, not the mental. "Let's start with the shinobi ability, chakra."

"Umm... What about it?" Naruto murmured, scratching the back of his neck.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted in disbelief. "You're a ninja and you don't know about chakra? What did you do in school!?" It wasn't until now that Sasuke realized that she was actually just as loud as Naruto, was. The only difference was Naruto yelled at everyone while she only yelled at Naruto.

"Of course I do!" he yelled back, pausing to give a nervous chuckle. "Though... I did sleep during the hard classes." he admitted sheepishly. This is sad, Sasuke silently sighed.

"Sure you do. Sakura, would you care to explain?" Kakashi prompted, obviously doubting that Naruto knew what chakra was.

"Alright, Naruto. Listen up I will try to break it down for you. Try to remember it this time around." She huffed indignantly. "Chakra is the energy a shinobi uses when performing different kinds of jutsu. There are two different forms of chakra physical and spiritual. Physical energy is what keeps every cell in your body alive and spiritual energy is channeled through your soul. Ninja use hand signs to help channel their two chakras. This allows them to use jutsu."

"Exactly." Kakashi praised. "Good to see Iruka had some students that pay attention." Now it was Sakura's turn to smile and blush. It seemed like almost everyone was getting their ego stroked today.

"Hey, what does it matter? Isn't that something we can learn without studying? Who cares about the text book definition." Naruto huffed, trying to cover the fact he still didn't really understand chakra.

"Naruto is right." Sasuke said, surprising everyone. "We can already use jutsu." He was eager to skip the academy lessons as well and get to the real training. He needed to improve.

"Wrong." Kakashi deadpanned. "You guys are using chakra, but you are not using chakra properly."

"What!?" Naruto gasped in surprise. Even Sakura seemed a little shock.

"Like Sakura said earlier, when you use jutsu you release chakra. You use both forms of chakra and there are even different types those two forms can be broken into as well. Lightening, Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth are the main ones. The jutsu decides the amount, the type, and the form of chakra you will be using. To put it simply, you are not using your chakra efficiently. Even if you have the ingredients, you aren't measuring it out to the perfect mixture. You're just guessing. Even if you release high amount of chakra, it will be worthless and nothing but wasteful if you cannot mold it properly."

"So what can we do then?" Naruto questioned, rubbing the back of his head nervously. He was clueless.

"Learn to control it. The training will be tough." he murmured solemnly, causing them all to sweat a little.

"What are we going to do?" Sakura asked nervously.

"Tree climbing." Kakashi said simply. It took a moment for his words to register and when they did, it resulted in anger in the three genin. This was just like the stupid bell test, where he made it seem all dramatic for something ridiculously simple.

"What!? Tree climbing!?" Sakura and Naruto exclaimed in disbelief. "That sounds boring..." Naruto added with a groan.

"What kind of training is that?" Sakura questioned doubtfully as she looked at Kakashi in annoyance. Sasuke failed to see the potential benefits as well.

"Well, shut up and listen. Maybe I would be done talking by now." Kakashi sighed. "This isn't normal tree climbing. You will be climbing without using your hands."

"...How?" Sakura questioned, seeming less enthusiastic by the second while Naruto seemed to be cheering up. It seemed slightly more interesting than regular tree climbing.

"Watch." Their sensei said simply as he made a sign to help him focus his chakra. A small swirl circled around his feet for a brief moment before it was gone in an instant. Slowly, he began to meander his way towards a tree. As he made his way to the trunk, instead of going around, he stepped on to the tree. Defying gravity, he walked his way straight up the tree and even hung upside down as he continued on to a branch.

"He's climbing!" Naruto whispered in awe.

"Vertically. With just his legs." Sakura nodded, shocked at what she was witnessing. It was less like he was climbing and more like he was just walking. Altering reality.

"You understand now?" he hummed as he smiled down at them. "Gather your chakra in the bottom of your feet and climb up the tree. This is something you can do once you learn how to better manage your chakra."

"Wait a second!" Sakura shouted up at him. "How is learning to climb without our hands going to make us stronger!? Our lives are in danger, here!"

"The main point is to teach you to control your chakra. You'll need to bring out the proper amount in the proper area. This is the most important aspect of using jutsu. This is difficult for even skilled ninja. The amount of chakra needed to climb a tree is small, but it must be exact. Not to mention it is said that the bottom of the feet are the hardest parts of the body to gather chakra. Basically, if you can learn to master this than theoretically, you can master almost any jutsu."

"Alright!" Naruto grinned, that eager glimmer returning to his eyes.

"That is not all. The second thing you must do is develop the stamina needed to properly control chakra for a prolonged period of time. Depending on the jutsu, controlling your chakra properly can be very difficult. In battle, a ninja needs to be able to gather his chakra while moving, which just makes it that much more difficult. Well..." he drawled off. "Talking about it all day isn't going to accomplish anything." he said as he pulled out three kunai knives.

With little more than a flick of his wrist, he sent the three knives rocketing towards them. They shot into the ground, one landing in front of each of the genin. "Gah!" Naruto exclaimed, jumping in place. "What are these for?"

"Use these kunai to mark how high you make it up the tree. You won't be good enough to just walk up the tree on your first try so get a running start and let your momentum help you. Try and make it past your previous mark and make it higher and higher on the tree. Got it?" he asked as the three yank the knives from the soil.

"Yeah, no problem!" Naruto grinned. "This training isn't going to stop me because I'm the one who improves the most!"

"You're also the one who talks to most." Kakashi shot back with a groan. "Why don't you just get to tree climbing?" he asked, though it didn't sound like much of a question. The three of them separated a little, each standing in front of their chosen tree. They paused, mimicking Kakashi and the hand sign he formed as they took a moment to gather their chakra.

Sasuke could feel the energy bubbling around his feet. "Here I go!" Naruto shouted, charging towards his tree and signaling for the others to do the same. For all his talk, the dobe didn't even make it two steps up the trunk before he fell back onto the ground. "Ouch!" he whined, sitting up to rub his throbbing head.

Sasuke sprinted almost eight feet up, before he felt the bark suddenly explode under his foot. Quickly, he swiped the knife across the bark as he was blasted backwards. He landed on his feet like a cat, glaring up at his foot sized impression. I didn't think it would be this hard, he thought to himself. Controlling chakra was exhausting. Too much and the wood cracks. Too little and you aren't planted at all.

"Hey! This is pretty easy!" Sakura cheerily called down from above. She giggled and stuck her tongue out at the boys down below. She was already at the top, sitting on a tree branch as she swung her legs. Sasuke's jaw clenched in envy. Sakura was able to make it all the way up there?

"Sakura-chan! You're amazing!" Naruto gushed.

"Looks like you are the best as controlling your chakra, Sakura. I'm impressed." Kakashi once again praised. Anger flashed through Sasuke as he glared down at the ground in shame. This was not good enough! "You know, not only is she smart but she has great control of her chakra. If anyone out of you three is going to become the Hokage, it looks like it's going to be her. As for the great Uchiha clan, it looks like they aren't so great after all." he goaded them.

Sasuke knew what he was doing, but it worked none the less. It angered him. Humiliated him. Made his desire to improve that much greater. He needed to restore honor to his clan. He needed to prove him wrong.

"SHUT UP, SENSEI!" Sakura snapped at Kakashi. The remaining two ninja genin ignored her yelling, and just glanced at one another. A strange understanding passed between the pair. Now it was just the two of them and training had simply become a competition to see who was better. It was a test to see who was closer to their ultimate goal.

Sakura jumped back down and the three of them continued to train. It wasn't long before Sakura became completely worn out and Naruto grew frustrated from landing on his head for the umpteenth time. "Ouch!" he cried out as he stood and stomped his foot angrily. Sasuke was pretty worn out too, especially since his torso had some ways to go before it would be good as new. He had to take a moment to rest, kneeling down as he tried to catch his breath. It wasn't easy.

He wasn't making much improvement... How frustrating. What was he doing wrong? What could he do to make it better? "Damn it!" Naruto huffed, stomping away from his tree. Sasuke's eyes followed him. Was he giving up already? No, that didn't seem like Naruto. Then again, what he did next was even less like Naruto. He crouched down in front of Sakura, using his hand to block his mouth, he began to whisper to her. It didn't take a genius to figure out about what. He was asking for tips. He would never have expected Naruto to ever do something like that. It was something he refused to do for now. Not only would it look like he was copying Naruto if he did, but it would be accepting that he couldn't figure it out on his own. He didn't need anyone's help. He would never get stronger like that.

LL: So it's the last week of summer break, how sad. I'm going back up to college next week. I'm excited but I'm also kinda bummed out. Thing 2 doesn't start school yet, so you guys are good. The updates will continue to flow on a regular schedule! See ya soon. The next time you hear from me, I won't be a free man. :(