Once more, an Authoer's Note. A few people asked why Anko hated Naruto, so I guess I didn't make it clear enough. If something is even vaguely connected to Orochimaru, Anko will hate it with a fiery passion. It was sort of implied in canon that she didn't like Sasuke because of the cursed seal, I just took it to the next step. She didn't know that the curse mark no longer funcioned because she could still see it on him, and naturally assumed that the unremovable mark hadn't been removed. Add to that the automatic distrust everyone has of Naruto because of Kyuubi and you get a pissed off Anko. As for everyone else, not all of the other Jonin hate him. Kurenai holds a particular sort of anger at him and the others are just wary of him thanks to the combination of him having the mark of Orochimaru and Kyuubi. The other genin didn't notice the red chakra that healed Naruto because Kyuubi was trying to keep it quiet and their view was blocked by debris and the positioning of Naruto's body. Basically, Gaara noticed, because he's Gaara, and all the Jonin noticed, meaning his relationships with his fellow genin won't change that much as a result of the Kyuubi chakra after his match with Neji.

On with the story.

Chapter 7

They made it through the forest rather quickly, a series of assisted shunshin getting them out in mere minutes, far faster than Naruto's first journey through. As they traveled they talked to one another, and a bond rapidly developed.. They were both very similar in personality, sharing a very intense like for jokes, especially pranks, and both desperately craving attention and love while trying not to show it.

Then, they arrived at the village.

Instantly, Naruto noticed something was wrong. Normally people glared at them with varying degrees of hatred, or ignored him. However, this was an entirely new level. Now, the whispers were louder, less hidden, and the glares seemed to have intensified. He was mystified as to the reason, however, until someone spit at Anko, and then someone else spat at him, both of the people muttering about snake lovers.

She stoically ignored them, and Naruto followed her example. But now he knew, she was more like him than he was willing to believe, and his being with her was magnifying the hatred towards him, while the fact that his new impotent cursed seal was easily visible through his essentially nonexistent shirt obviously wasn't helping him any.

It was a sobering experience indeed, just to know that there were others in the village treated just as he had been treated, and for reasons just as foolish, just as stupid, just as wrong.

It only took a moment for him to realize that he wouldn't escape this new level of hatred just by leaving her side. Dozens of villagers had already seen his cursed mark, and they obviously knew what Anko's was. That meant that they would know what his was, and that meant, above all else, that their hatred of him would only grow. Suddenly, he was associated with the worst traitor in the history of the Leaf and the worst disaster in the history of Leaf. The redoubled hatred hit him like a sledgehammer, and he might have given up altogether if it wasn't for one thing.

Anko was still right next to him, bearing her burden with a smile and a laugh, trying to cheer him up when she realized what he was now facing along with her.

Naruto straightened his back and raised his head. She gave him the confidence to lift himself out of the depression that he might have fallen into otherwise. And, unknowingly, a woman on the edge of giving up on the village of Konoha was drawn back from the brink by the strength that she had loaned to the boy next to her.

Then, she shifted her jacket to cover her seal.

Naruto looked at her for a moment, and then looked at his own shoulder. His seal was already at least partially covered up by tattered chunks of his jacket, and it would actually be pretty simple to cover it up the rest of the way, shifting chunks of cloth around until it was hidden from the world.

Naruto reached up and took his jacket off completely, slinging it over his opposite shoulder as he did, revealing his cursed seal to the world with nothing to hide it.

Anko looked at him with surprise evident on her face, and he glared back up at her defiantly. Realization flashed through her eyes, and an entire conversation happened in an instant, their shared experience letting them say what needed to be said without ever saying a word.

She moved her jacket and revealed her seal once more.

The glares intensified, but neither of them noticed.

Eventually, they both arrived at Naruto's apartment building. Anko was right about to turn to go, her seal out in the open, proudly shown to the world, when Naruto grabbed the back of her coat, tugging it a little.

She stopped, and turned to look at him, and then followed him up to his apartment.

He unlocked the door and stepped in Anko right behind him.

Soon they were both drinking some homemade tea with homegrown herbs in complete silence. Naruto was the first to break it. "How long?"

She sipped her tea. "Since I was 10, for eleven years."

"Because of the seal?" Naruto asked as he poured himself a second cup.

"No," replied Anko as she fiddled with her hands. "Well, not exactly. I was his apprentice. I, well, I loved him. He never loved me back, but he was basically my father. He was the one that raised me, from age five to age ten. Before then I was just another orphan, but he saw the potential in me, and he raised me the way he felt I should be raised. He experimented on me, he forced me to fight for him, he forced me to kill for him, and I loved him for it. Then he put the cursed seal on me, and… and something happened. I'd like to think I left him but… But I honestly don't know. I looked up to him more than anything in the world, and… I think he abandoned me."

Naruto and Anko were both silent, and then Naruto spoke again, staring at the steam rising from his untouched second cup of tea. "How do you bear it? How do you take it all and stay loyal to Konoha?"

Anko smiled, and picked up her cup again, bringing it to her lips and draining the last of her first cup. "I don't."

Naruto picked his cup back up again, imitating Anko in bringing it to his lips, as she poured herself a second cup. "What do you mean?"

As Naruto took his first sip of his second cup, Anko stared at the steam rising from hers. "I hate this stupid village, and almost everyone in it. But the one person that I do love, the only person I've ever loved outside of Orochimaru, is the Hokage. I love him, and I'm loyal to him. If Orochimaru was my father, the Hokage was my grandfather, he raised me after Orochimaru left me, he was one of the only people that didn't give me that damned look. He's the only reason I'm still here, and not some rogue ninja out there, trying to destroy Konoha or go back to working for Orochimaru, that fucker."

Neither Naruto nor Anko flinched at the harsh language, but Anko did take her first sip of the second cup. "What about you, how do you stay loyal?"

"Same as you I guess," was Naruto's despondent reply, even as he finished off his second cup, placing it back down onto the table. "I love the Hokage, and a few others too. My teacher from the academy, Iruka, risked his life to protect me, and basically told the traitor Mizuki that he knew I was human. He was the first person to ever say so much in words. And the Ichiraku family, they fed me when no one else would, they accepted me too."

Anko smiled, and put down her now empty cup. "Sounds like you and I are the same brat. The only things keeping us here are the people precious to us. You have the Hokage a teacher and a ramen stand, I have a landlord the Hokage and a Dango stand."

Simultaneously, they rose to their feet. Naruto held out his hand to Anko, who was grinning, not the mad grin of a prankster or a mad woman, but the grin of someone who was happy. The same grin was adorning Naruto's face.

Anko held out her hand back, and they shook.

"Nice to meet you."

"And you too."

And with that, she was gone.

Naruto left soon after, heading towards a training ground to get started on his preparations.

"Alright brat, I have some interesting news for you."

'What is it?'

"Over the course of the next two weeks, your chakra reserves will increase by a half, if not more."

"What?"

"Quiet! Don't talk out loud, people think you're crazy enough as it is."

'We're all alone, what does it matter?'

"Habits are important."

'Alright, sorry. What?'

"Better. Now, you need some history to understand this. When the damned Fourth Hokage sealed me in you, he tore away half my chakra, my Yin chakra, and locked it in the stomach of the Death God, for all eternity. However, something went wrong, I don't know what. That seal should be eternal, immortal, everlasting, but it isn't. There's a leak, a little hole built into the contract with the death god, and I don't know why, but it appears to have been intentional. For some reason, the Fourth left a loophole that is letting me regain my chakra now that it isn't being drained and I can think clearly enough to drag it back."

'Ok, so you're getting half your chakra back, what does that have to do with me getting a chakra increase?'

"All Jinchuriki are linked to their demons. If a demon is hurt, so is a Jinchuriki. Not in small things, of course, I don't get hurt every time you scrape your knee, but when you are close to death, so am I, and vice versa. Fortunately for you, I can't die, but unfortunately for me, you can, meaning that my death can only happen with yours death. For most Beasts it isn't a problem, because we will simply come back to the life, but this damned seal... That's beside the point though. The point is, we are linked. A portion of your chakra is natural, around a quarter of it. The rest is a rough fraction of my chakra, a hundredth, let's say, for arguments sake. It is likely more than that, but that doesn't really matter. Since my chakra is increasing, so is yours. It translates roughly to you getting half again as much chakra as now in around two weeks."

'If you don't know all the exact fractions, how can you tell how much it will increase by?'

"Instinct, really. We're connected in ways that even I don't understand, even more connected than most demons with their Jinchuriki thanks to the unique nature of our seal."

'Ok, so what does this chakra increase mean for both of us?'

"Well, for me it doesn't really mean much. I can't fight in here anyway, so it doesn't really matter. But for you, it means quite a bit more. For you, it means that you will regain chakra faster, and that you can use more techniques, better techniques, stronger techniques, with less of a drain."

'Wait, will I have to totally work on my chakra control again?'

"In a manner of speaking. It won't be all at once, like I said, I'm spreading it out over two weeks, so it will at least emulate natural growth. You will need to practice chakra control essentially nonstop over that period, but if you do so you won't have to relearn anything."

'Well that still sucks!'

"Yes, but there's nothing to be done about it. You will get stronger, your reserves increasing makes that inevitable. The only downside is that half of the training time given to you for the finals will be taken away from you, but such a massive chakra increase makes that all worth it."

'Do chakra levels really matter that much? I mean, I've never ran out before!'

"Yes they do, and yes you have. Remember the Wave mission? Tree climbing is what you were doing I believe, and you ran out of chakra. It all came back incredibly quickly, in part due to my influence, but nevertheless, you can run out. You already have Kage level chakra, after this, you will be beyond Kage level in this aspect, approaching the chakra levels of the weakest of the Tailed Beasts, Shukaku. Get the experience that goes with that chakra level, and you will be the most powerful ninja in the world, as was the Fourth's intention. If the seal had worked the way he intended, you would have been a god by age five. As it is, you'll get there eventually anyway."

'What do you mean?'

"Like I said, all you're lacking is experience, and maybe a few more jutsu, and you will be the most powerful ninja in the world. In this next month, we will work on a few things. The first is chakra control, I have some ideas for how to take it to higher levels even as we just work to keep it from falling. We want those as soon as possible, because even though you can't lose experience, chakra control becomes more difficult to learn the more chakra you have, and your chakra will be increasing rapidly in this next two weeks. After that, we should probably spend a week figuring out your bloodline, and the last week will be nothing but battles."

'Against who?'

"Naruto, you know, and have come close to mastering, a jutsu that grants you infinite sparring partners, and the memories that they have, meaning you learn twice as fast with only two clones."

'Wait, what?'

"…"

"SHIT! HOW DID I NOT NOTICE THAT?"

"THE FUCK? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? YOU NEVER NOTICED THAT?"

"OH MY GOD I'M SO STUPID!"

"You are the dumbest person I have ever met."

Naruto hung his head low, and, forcefully keeping himself from speaking out loud, thought, 'I know.'

"Ok, idiocy aside, it's time to start. Remember when your teacher fought Zabuza the first time? They were both standing on the water, you noticed right?"

'Yeah. I was kind of wondering how they did that, but I never got around to asking…'

"Well, we're going to find out. I don't actually know how to do it either, but it should be a relatively simple matter to find out. Let's start out with what you do for tree walking and we'll experiment from there. I'll start retrieving my stolen chakra now, so get to work."

As Naruto walked towards the water, he had a grim look on his face. This month was going to suck, training to fight a genin he knew next to nothing about, beyond ridiculous speed and ridiculous eyebrows.

Naruto took his first tentative steps onto the water, or rather, he tried to. Instead he fell in with a resounding splash, and jumped out with a decidedly unmanly shriek.

'Hey Kyuubi.'

"What is it brat?"

'Do you think all of the other Jinchuriki are like Gaara? Can they all be crazy?'

"I don't know. And now isn't the time to be wondering about things like that, this is the time to train, to get yourself to the point where you can win against your opponent, win the whole tournament."

'Yeah, I guess so.'

Reluctantly Naruto headed back towards the water, this time trying to create invisible pads of chakra to stand on, figuring maybe water walking was like snow shoes. He fell in again, and once more emerged with a shriek and a splash.

"Listen brat, if it really is that important to you, we can find out later. I'm sure this village has intelligence on the others of your kind, they would be mad not to. Ask the Third after the exams are over, I imagine he will be most willing to help you."

'Thanks Kyuubi, I think I'll do that.'

"No problem brat."

Naruto tried again, this time

'Hey, I did it!'

"You learn way too fast. Alright, the next step is…"

A month later, Naruto stood in the center of the arena, listening to the cheers.

The proctor, a new one, not the sickly man from the preliminaries, stepped forward and said, "Alright kids, this is it. The whole world is watching, this is your chance to impress them all. Same rules as the preliminaries, anything goes, but no endangering the crowd, and if I call a match, it's over, no dispute. Anyone that keeps on attacking after I call the match is disqualified. Now, the first match, Sasuke Uchiha vs. Gaara of the Sand, has been delayed due to the tardiness of one of the participants. Because of this, we will be moving straight on to the second match, so could everyone except for Tenten and Shikamaru Nara please head to the competitors box."

Naruto, unfortunately, kept his full attention on Gaara, and never noticed the confused looks one of the other contestants was throwing his way.

It was fairly easy to notice that Gaara seemed pretty pissed off, which probably meant the half crazy Jinchuriki hadn't killed Sasuke yet. If Sasuke was dead at the hands of Gaara, Naruto might have been forced to take Gaara out just to avenge his teammate, and he still wasn't entirely sure he could do that, even with all the training he'd done.

By the time they all arrived at the competitor's box, the fight, if it could really be called that, was already underway. Shikamaru was randomly running around in the shadows of the arena wall, while Tenten was furiously throwing weapons at him, missing him by only the smallest of margins each time, actually ripping his clothes to shreds with each near miss.

It was clear to everyone that Shikamaru stood no chance, and apparently, everyone included him, because a few seconds after the other competitors made it to the box, he surrendered, leaving behind a thoroughly frustrated Tenten.

The proctor called out, "Winner, Tenten! Could Kiba Inuzuka and Choji Akimichi please enter the stadium?"

Kiba grinned, and just hopped off the edge of the competitor's box, despite the several story height. He hit the ground lightly, making it clear that his chakra control had improved over the break, and reached up to his hood, pulling Akamaru out with a grin on his face. Then, he strode to the center of the arena, clearly basking in the approval of the crowd.

Choji, on the other hand, walked down the stairs.

When Choji was at the bottom with his foe, he walked to the center, clearly nervous, and pulled out a bag of potato chips. Soon enough he was munching furiously, while Kiba stared at him with an incredulous look. Akamaru barked, and Kiba looked at his dog for a moment before looking at Choji and grinning. "Hey, you got a lot stronger over the break. This might actually be a good match!"

Choji smiled, revealing a mouth full of food, and said, "Yeah, I trained pretty hard with my dad. I don't know if I can win, but I know you'll know you've been in a fight!"

Kiba grinned, and said, "Hey, same to you! Let's get this party started!"

Choji nodded, and settled into his ready stance, Kiba and Akamaru matching him with their own stances.

The proctor looked between the two for a moment, and then nodded, as if affirming something to himself. "Begin!"