Ch. 7

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Academy, With Naruto 7:00 AM

"Let me get this straight. You have the day off of training with your squad because you already know what your sensei is teaching you, and you decided to spend it helping me teach the academy students?" Iruka asked. Naruto nodded in response.

"Alright, I'm teaching the kids about what chakra is and how to mold it properly, think you can help with that?" Iruka asked as he got together a bunch of paperwork that he needed to sort through...eventually. He put it away for now.

"Yeah, actually. In the scroll of seals, there was this jutsu that I saw that I managed to remember the steps to. It was called the Rasengan(Spiraling Sphere) and it's pure chakra molded into a perfect sphere, totally visible, and it can carve through just about anything. It's a perfect visual aid." Naruto replied as he formed the jutsu in his hands.

"Wow...it's beautiful." Iruka said as he stared at the spinning ball of chakra, captivated.

"I know, it's deadly too! I tested it out on a giant rock and I was able to bore through three feet of solid stone before I lost it." Naruto said as he let the chakra disperse.

"Alright, you can help. I'm not paying you for this though." Iruka said.

"Really, Iruka-sensei? I did thirty D-ranks yesterday, I don't need anymore money right now. I just wanted to help out my favorite teacher." Naruto replied. As the two of them walked into Iruka's classroom, Naruto spotted a few familiar faces.

"Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon? I'm helping Iruka-sensei teach your class?" Naruto asked, surprised.

"Boss?" The three kids asked, equally surprised.

"Naruto, how do you know Konohamaru?" Iruka asked, puzzled.

"I was talking to Hokage-sama and I saw him run up saying "I challenge you!". After that, stuff happened and I taught him my special version of the Henge no Jutsu(Transformation Jutsu) and...yeah, a lot happened that day. He introduced me to his friends a few days afterwards." Naruto explained.

"Alright." Iruka replied, simply deciding to move on.

"Today, we will be learning about chakra and how to mold it in order to properly utilize jutsu." The scarred chunin began. "Chakra is a combination of a person's physical and spiritual energies that, when mixed together in the right proportion, can produce a vriety of different effects."

"I'm going to stop you right there Iruka-sensei. How many of you are totally lost right now?" Naruto said. Over half of the class raised their hands, and only about five students, including the Konohamaru Corps, looked confident about the lesson. "Okay, a little less than I thought."

"Okay, simple version; Chakra is physical and spiritual energy put together. Physical energy is basically your physical condition, strength, speed, stamina, that stuff. Spiritual energy basically means intelligence and wisdom. A really big, strong guy that's dumb as bricks would have almost all physical energy and barely any spiritual energy. If that's true then what would really smart weak person have?" Naruto lectured.

"Lots of spiritual energy and no physical energy?" One of the students guessed.

"Close! He would have little spiritual energy." Naruto replied. "Chakra can't just be one or the other, you have to have both. Luckily, they don't have to be in perfect balance, meaning that you could be more on the physical side and you'd still be just fine, same with the spiritual side."

"The three types of jutsu are-anyone?" Naruto asked. He pointed to a little Hyuga girl with long brown hair that looked a bit like Hinata and had her hand raised. "Yes, Hyuga-san?"

"Those would be Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu." She answered.

"Correct, can anyone tell me which of those would be best for someone that was more muscle than brain? Not you Hyuga-san, I want everyone to have a chance." Naruto said, as the Hyuga girl had raised her hand again.

"Taijutsu?" A girl with glasses and brown hair asked.

"Correct, girl in the glasses! Now, does anyone know what would be best for some one that was more brains than muscle?" This time it was Moegi that answered the question.

"Genjutsu!" She answered.

"Good! Now what would be best for someone that was perfectly balanced in mind and body, but had small chakra reserves?"

"Ninjutsu." The Hyuga girl answered.

"No. With small chakra reserves, using ninjutsu would exhaust a shinobi quickly, rendering them nearly useless, if not a complete liability. A person like that would be better off specializing in taijutsu or genjutsu while learning a few ninjutsu that require little chakra." Naruto corrected, getting a slight glare from the Hyuga girl.

"Now, if a person with balanced energies had massive reserves, you'd be right. Tell me, if a person was equally balanced between mind and body and had reserves that were naturally larger than most jonin's, what would be their greatest weakness when using chakra?" The blond genin asked. It was quiet while the class thought until the Hyuga spoke up again.

"It would be their chakra control, they would use too much chakra and essentially overload any ninjutsu or genjutsu they attempted to use." She answered.

"That's correct little lady. Tell me, what's you're name?" Naruto replied.

"My name is Hanabi, I am the daughter of the head of the Hyuga clan, Hyuga Hiashi." She replied calmly.

"Oh, so you're Hinata-san's sister. That explains the resemblance." Naruto said. "Alright, now that you all seem to have a decent understanding of what chakra is, I'm going to show you what it looks like." He said as he began to swirl chakra in the palm of his hand until it became a perfect sphere with a swirling pattern inside.

"This is the Rasengan(Spiraling Sphere), it's a powerful offensive ninjutsu that has chakra so dense that it becomes visible when done properly. Normally chakra is invisible, unless you have a dojutsu, but I've always thought it was easier to comprehend something if you can see it. Since I've got this thing out anyway, I want to make something perfectly clear; if you see this, do not let it touch you. I can carve through three feet of solid rock with this, so I'm pretty sure it hurts." He continued before letting the jutsu fade.

"Wow Naruto, who would've thought that you were such a good teacher. I can't believe how simple you made chakra sound." Iruka said as he walked up to the blond who had more-or-less hijacked his classroom.

"Thanks Iruka-sensei!" Naruto said.

"I honestly don't think their's anything else I can add to his explanation other than...be careful when you use chakra, if you use to much it could kill you." The scarred chunin said with a straight face, making everyone realize that he was dead serious. "I expected this lecture to last until lunch, including the questions I figured I'd have to answer, so now I'm not quite sure what to do."

"How 'bout drilling them on handseals? I mean, we use 'em for about ninety percent of everything that isn't taijutsu, so it's kinda important to be quick with your hands." Naruto suggested.

Iruka approved of the idea and the rest of the class period was spent going over hand seals, starting with the sequences for the basic academy jutsu and ending with Naruto showing them the longest chain of hand-seals any of them had ever seen, Iruka included.

When the bell rang, the kids went to lunch, Naruto and Iruka relaxed and made small-talk, and when lunch was over they repeated the lesson with a different class.

Team Eight's training ground, 4:00 PM

"Come on Kiba, you've almost got it!" Ino cheered, sitting atop the highest branch on the tree she had chosen to climb...which happened to be at least three yards shorter than Kiba's.

The Inuzuka grunted. He had been doing this all day and had almost reached the top before he fell off the tree.

"Hey guys!" Naruto called as he approached the training ground with his hands behind his neck.

"Hey Naruto!" The two of them replied in stereo.

"Naruto, can you give me hint or something? This is driving me crazy!" Kiba asked, frustrated.

"Sure." The blonde jinchuriki replied, taking Kiba's right hand and placing it against his own.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Kiba asked, confused.

"I'm using a certain amount of chakra to keep our hands stuck together, if you can match it within a reasonable margin of error then our hands will seperate." Naruto explained. "I'm using the same amount of chakra that I use to stick to a tree in this case, so if you can get loose and channel this amount of chakra to your feet then you should be able to walk up a tree no problem." He concluded, getting a look of comprehension from the Inuzuka heir.

"Okay, so match the chakra to make you let go, use that amount on my feet and I can climb the tree?" Kiba asked, wanting to make sure.

"Yup. I would have had Ino do this woth you, but then you wouldn't be as motivated to escape." Naruto replied, getting a giggle from his fellow blond and mock glare from his feral friend.

Several minutes passed and nothing changed. Kiba was still stuck, Naruto looked amused, and Ino just seemed bored. Asuma didn't seem to be anywhere nearby.

"You need to use more chakra, like, what you're using now plus 50%." Naruto said, not wanting to waste too much time. "Hey! Akamaru's got it down!" Naruto said, pointing at said dog that was chasing a squirrel up a tree.

"Akamaru! Stop showng me up!"Kiba yelled before he returned his attention to his chakra. After about another two minutes, Kiba did it. "Finally!" The Inuzuka cheered.

"Alright, now do it again with your left hand." Naruto ordered. Kiba was able to get in thirty seconds. "Good, now climb the tree."

Kiba quickly sprinted at the tree and easily made his way to the top, stabding on the highest branch that could support his weight. "Yeah!" Kiba cheered.

"Great, now just keep doing it so you can get a feel for it!" Naruto shouted up to his celebrating teammate. "Hey, Ino, do you know where Asuma-sensei is?" Naruto asked his fellow blond.

"Sorry Goldie, I haven't seen him since he left us to our training." She answered.

"I see..." Naruto said, taking his new nickname in stride. "How many times have you climbed that tree from the ground to the top?"

"Twice, why?" Ino asked.

"Because you're going to do that until it becomes instinctive, now get to it!" Naruto replied, turning into a temporary drill sergeant as he watched his teammates learn something that he was skilled at.

He could read a book while he stuck to his ceiling and form a Rasengan in his free hand. He knew. He tried.

"I thought you were planning on sparring with that guy today...Lee, right?" Asuma asked from his spot behind Naruto. Naruto, to his credit, did not flinch at Asuma's sudden appearence.

"I didn't even sense him." The blond thought. "I was going to but he and his team are out on a mission today, B-rank." Naruto answered. "They might not be back for over a week, depending on how it goes."

"I see...that was an interesting method you used to help Kiba out, and it was smart to make sure they could all but do it in their sleep." The jonin said, a touch of admiration in his voice.

"Well it's not like they'll be able to focus on it in a fight. If they have to split focus between combat and tree-walking they won't last long against an actual threat. Same with water-walking." Naruto replied, not taking his eyes off of his teammates.

"That's very true. I thought you were the dead-last of your class?"

"Only because I chose to be." Naruto replied.

"Why would you choose to be a dobe?"

"Everybody loves an underdog, plus it makes people underestimate me."

"Huh...I like you kid, you're interesting."

"Thanks, I am aim to please. I think they've done enough for now, what do you think?"

"Yeah, let's go get dinner."

"Guys!" Naruto called. "You can stop now, let's get dinner!" That statement got all two-ahem, three of them excited. They loved Ichiraku's almost as much as he did.

"Ichiraku's, here we come!" Kiba yelled, with Akamaru barking in agreement.

"Yeah...I'm glad I got placed with you guys, I could have been stuck with people that would do nothing but spite me for the hell of it, like Uchiha-san." Naruto commented as they walked towards their favorite ramen stand. Surprisingly, Ino didn't say a word about it...probably because she knew it was true.

"Seriously Ino? No comments or threats about how he insulted your precious Sasuke-kun?" Kiba asked teasingly.

"Nope." She replied, stunning the entire team, even Asuma. "It's not like he's wrong, Sasuke-kun probably would mess with him like that. It's not like we were any better before he kicked our asses." She explained.

Naruto blinked. "Who are you, and what have you done with Yamanaka Ino?" He asked, deadpan.

"What? Just because I'm not some obsessed bimbo I can't be Ino?"

"Yes." The rest of team eight deadpanned. Even Akamaru yipped in agreement.

"Naruto, I think you broke her." Kiba said, looking at the be-whiskered blond.

"No...I think she might be...growing out of her fangirl phase." Naruto said, still a bit stunned at this new development. He blinked as the pieces fell into place. "Bravo, Ino! You're planning on toning down your inner fangirl so Sasuke will be more inclined to pick you as his girlfriend/fangirl repellant." Naruto deduced, getting a sigh of relief, along with disappointment, from Kiba and Asuma.

"Was it that obvious?" She asked dejectedly, slumpng forward in defeat without breaking stride.

"No, it took me a minute to realize it and I'm the one who gave you the idea." Naruto replied. As they approached their favorite restaurant, they noticed that their was a certain team of genin already there.

"Hey Naruto!" Choji called from his seat.

"Hey Akimichi-san!" Naruto replied as he stepped inside the ramen stand. "Hinata-san, Uchiha-san." He greeted as he took his seat.

"Hey, Naruto, what can I get ya?" Teuchi asked.

"Large pork ramen today, Teuchi-ojisan!" Naruto replied, grabbing a pair of chopsticks in preperation for the meal.

"Hm, Dobe." Sasuke muttered his customary greeting, visibly agitating the blond jinchuriki. He may have been trying to go for the image of the pathetic failure, but he really did hate that nickname.

"Teme." Naruto replied, getting a surprised look from both his team and Team 7. Ever since his 'change in attitude' he had always greeted everyone formally, even Sasuke despite the 'rivalry' he had created to aid him in crafting his loser persona. It seems not everything was an act.

"I knew you were just pretending to be different. No one could fake being that pathetic." Sasuke said smugly, the arrogance practically oozing off of him.

"If you'd like to fight me Uchiha-san, I would be more than happy to show you the difference between us." Nauto said calmy as he ate his newly served pork ramen, savoring the flavor.

Needless to say, everyone was shocked by Naruto's challenge. Sasuke must have really irked him if he felt the need to issue a challenge as opposed to his usual goading. Ino, unsurprisingly, leapt to Sasuke's defence.

"Naruto, I know you're better than we thought but there's no way you could beat Sasuke-kun in a fight!" The young Yamanaka heir declared, though she lacked her traditional deafening volume.

"Alright Dobe, I'll humor you and kick your ass like I always do." Sasuke said as he finished eating and paid for his ramen. Naruto's mouth twitched slightly as he tried not to smirk.

"Alright, the hot springs, one hour from now. I have spectators to contact and bets to arrange." Naruto said, downing his ramen quickly and placing the money on the table. "Guys, operation Sponsor is a go!" Naruto said before he rushed out of the ramen stand, no doubt spreading the news of his imminent fight with the Uchiha prodigy.

Hot Springs, 5:30 PM

"He's late." Sasuke said, smirking at the prospect of Naruto backing out.

"Actually Sasuke, Naruto's still got about five minutes until we hit the one-hour mark. Not to mention he said he was looking for spectators, so giving him a few more minutes is only fair to accomadate for civillian speed." Kakashi said, not looking away from his book.

"If you have such a good sense of time, why are you always late?" Sasuke asked, completely serious.

"Because it's fun to mess with you guys and everyone else." Kakashi replied, turning the page of his book. "Ooh! Plot twist! Hehehe!" The masked jonin said, giggling perversely.

"Goldy's coming!" Ino said, pointing towards a familiar head of spiky blond hair as it walked in front of a large crowd.

"Sorry I took so long, I had a little trouble setting up the betting system." Naruto said nonchalantly. Everyone was surprised to see Iruka and the Hokage. The Konohamaru Corps. was expected by anyone that knew them. Their entire graduating class was present, including a crowd of fangirls with 'We love Sasuke' posters and flags, and there were many shinobi present as well.

"Before I let this fight proceed, I need you two to swear not to use lethal force." Iruka said as he stood between the Uchiha and Uzumaki. "I won't have you two killing each other."

"Don't worry Iruka, the Dobe couldn't kill me if he tried and I had both hands tied behind my back." Sasuke boasted, recieving cheers and shouts of approval from the crowd. Iruka simply disregarded his boasting and looked over to Naruto.

"Don't worry Iruka-sensei, I might put him in the hospital but he won't take more than three days to heal." Naruto said, getting a small smirk from the scarred chunin.

"That's fine Naruto, he needs to be knocked down a few pegs." Iruka replied, stunning most of the crowd. It was no secret that he disliked the idea of favoring one student over another, despite having a soft spot for Naruto, so it was surprising that he would so openly back Naruto in this fight. Naruto snapped his fingers and a clone holding a stereo moved its way out of the crowd before sttling in the branches of a nearby tree.

"Hit play as soon as the fight starts." Naruto told his doppelganger, who only grinned in response.

"Alright, 3...2...1...begin!" Iruka said, jumping away as Sasuke charged the blond. It was at that point that the stereo started playing a interesting song (U Can't Touch This by MC Hammer. I had too!).

"U can't touch this...U can't touch this...U can't touch this...U can't touch this..." The song went as Naruto literally danced his way around Sasuke's attacks, earning stunned looks and chuckles from the crowd from the crowd. The impressive part was that he seemed to be dancing in tune with the music as the song played, not just making dodges look like dance moves. Every step was flawless, as if he had rehearsed it a hundred times, and his eyes were closed to add insult to injury.

"Listen to the song Teme, 'cause U Can't Touch This!" Naruto said, pointing to himself, before suddenly popping Sasuke in the jaw, followed by a literal kick in the ass. Sasuke retaliated by drawing a kunai and slashing at the blond that dared toy with him. When slashing failed, he jumped back and threw the kunai. Naruto just dodged it the same way he dodged everything else; by dancing around it.

Sasuke roled through a few hand-seals before shouting, "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu(Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!" He unleashed a large wave of fire at Naruto, planning to roast him alive after how the blond had embarressed him. Naruto just stood their, smirking.

"Congratulations Teme, you bored my Kage Bunshin to the point of suicide." Naruto said from behind the Uchiha before spin-kicking him into the trunk of a nearby tree, getting a groan of pain for his efforts. "Do you give up?"

"Why would I give up just because you managed to get a lucky shot?" Sasuke snorted, arrogance dripping off of every word.

"Because I just now started fighting back and you only beat my Kage Bunshin because it was bored of messing with you." Narut deadpanned, getting a glare from the Uchiha who tried to make more hand-seals, only to find his opponent suddenly right in front of him. "Goodnight!" Naruto said cheerfully before punching Sasuke in the forehead-protector, bouncing the back of his head against the tree. "This victory was brought to you by Ramen Ichiraku!" Naruto shouted, pointing at his two favorite ramen chefs.

"Pay up, bitches!" Kiba shouted, having bet the majority of his money on Naruto finishing the match before the song was over...and it was still playing.

"No way! He must have cheated!" One of the civilians shouted, causing others to agree and refuse to pay their wagers. The shinobi all honored their bets, though many of them weren't happy about it. Eventually, Hiruzen had enough.

"Naruto-kun did not cheat! No rules were set other than no usage of lethal force. I'm fairly certain a direct hit from a katon ninjutsu of that calibur is not survivable, so if anyone cheated it was Sasuke! Now pay your debts or I'll make you all Naruto-kun's sparring partners!" The Hokage said after people began sugesting that they had drugged Sasuke to hinder his performance and other things of that nature. Everyone quickly paid their dues and went on their way.

"Kakashi-san, you may want to start training him now that his ego's been deflated a bit." Naruto said as he walked off towards his apartment, his teammates following him simply to bask in his greatness...Alright, Ino was pissed that her crush lost and she lost the money she bet on him while Kiba was beaming from the money the young jinchuriki won him.

"Ino, I told you Naruto would kick Sasuke's ass! If you weren't so obsessed with him you would've seen it just like I did and you wouldn't be broke!" Kiba said, defending their de facto team leader from his fellow blond's wrath.

"Kiba's right Ino, it would have been obvious if you looked at it objectively." Naruto chimed in as he walked up to his apartment.

"Hey, Naruto, where are we going?" Ino suddenly asked. Naruto stopped in place before turning to face his kunoichi teammate.

"You're kidding, right?" Naruto asked. Ino shook her head while Kiba also looked curious. "You guys have been following me to my apartment, I don't know why, and you guys didn't have a clue where I lived?" Naruto asked, getting a sheepish look from Ino. Kiba just blinked.

"Nope...never had a clue until now." The Inuzuka replied, scratching Akamaru behind the ears. The nin-ken shot Naruto an apolagetic look.

"Then allow me to introduce you guys to the Uzumaki Estate. Lower your expectations." Naruto said as he unlocked the door and walked in, followed by his three teammates. They saw a rather clean, yet small apartment, consisting of a bed, a small kitchen that was just a stove, fridge, and microwave, and a door that presumably led to the bathroom.

"You...live here?" Ino asked, completely uncomfortable with livivng in such a small, bland, and seemingly uncomfortable place.

"Yup! Ever since I was kicked out of the orphanage when I was four." Naruto replied, walking towards a small dresser that he had. "I was going to give these to you guys when we met for missions tomorrow, but since you're here..." Naruto said, grabbing two slips of paper and giving one to Kiba and the other to Ino.

"You're giving us paper?" Kiba asked. Ino was equally confused.

"It's chakra paper, you channel chakra into it and it tells you what type of elemental jutsu you have a natural talent for using." Naruto explained, getting excited looks from his teammates. They quickly channeled chakra through the slips of paper, not even waiting for further instruction, and their papers had two different reactions.

Kiba's paper crumbled to dirt while Ino's became very moist, almost soaked. The two were confused on what that meant.

"Kiba, you have an affinity for Doton (Earth Release), and you, Ino, seem to be suited for Suiton (Water Release). Looks like Kiba has the elemental advantage.

"So...what element do you have Naruto?" Kiba asked as ino sulked about being the weakest member of the team.

"My primary affinity is wind, but I also have a second affinity for lightning, which trumps earth and does great combo tactics with water. I suggest learning a few jutsu that can counter your weakness, element-wise, just in case you fight someone that's almost born to fight you." Naruto said. "I also happen to know a number of Suiton ninjutsu and I know a couple Doton ninjutsu as well, so I can give you guys a good base to work with." He continued, tossing them a scroll with various ninjutsu relating to their element, along with the weakness of their weakness.

"You have two!?" Kiba yelled, astounded.

"I developed my lightning affinity by using a bunch of Raiton (Lightning Release) techniques, so it's not like I got it for free." Naruto replied. "If you guys need help with any of those, just let me know. Or Asuma-sensei if it's a Fuuton (Wind Release) jutsu."

Ino and Kiba were speechless once they realized exactly what Naruto just gave them. He gave them tools in order to get stronger in the form of a scroll full of what they assumed to be various badass elemental ninjutsu as well as offering them help if they needed it. Of all the people that insulted Naruto in class, they were the two most vocal and obnoxious. Sasuke was quieter than they were, but his arrogance in how he hazed Naruto made it seem worse than it was.

"Thank you, Naruto." The two of them said in perfect stereo...they had been doing that rather often since being teamed with Naruto.

"It's no big deal, I learned all those jutsu and put them in scrolls so I could barter with other shinobi for new ones. I just figured that the stronger you guys are, the stronger the team is as a whole. It wasn't an act of kindness, it was an act of selflessness that stemmed from selfish desires." Naruto explained, stopping them from thinking he was trying to help them just to help them.

"Doesn't matter, we've still got a bunch of new jutsu to learn!" Kiba declared, instantly brightening the atmosphere with that simple statement.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just don't blow anything up with those, and try not to get caught with the scrolls, if people figure out where I learned those jutsu..." Naruto replied, trailing off as he thought of the repercussions if people learned how many jutsu he copied from that giant scroll.

"Where did you learn these jutsu, Naruto?" Ino asked, curious.

"I'm sorry, but I'm keeping that information to myself." Naruto said, refusing to budge. "Now get out of my house! You two have training to do!" Naruto yelled suddenly, scaring his teammates.

"Got it!" They replied, bolting out the door to start their training. They would be disappointed when they realized that they had to learn how to channel their elemental chakra before they could get to the good stuff. Naruto grinned at the thought.

"Well...I guess I just have to wait until tomorrow's mission." Naruto said to himself, flopping onto his bed and shutting his eyes.

AN: Please review and let me know what's good, what's bad, and ways I can improve. I do not have spellcheck so feel free to point out errors.

PS, I will not respond to reviews in-story, please PM me if you have questions.