Α

The three genin of Team Seven had been surprised when Naruto told them to get their things together and follow along; they hadn't left Tsunami's house for almost a week, sparing a few short trips into town to scrounge up some sort of sustenance for the group. They'd been tempted to break into their emergency rations, one of those required items they were expected to take, but had been told not to by their teacher, much to their dismay. No, Naruto had told them that it 'would be really lame if we did that; we should eat as these people have to, until we fix it!' The three had to admit it had a bit of nobility to it, but their stomachs were slower to agree. Old vegetables and fish were not their preferred diet by any stretch.

But, instead of another 'mission' to buy some mushy vegetables, Naruto instead took them off to a small pond not too far from the house, but hidden away from curious eyes. The water was clear and pure, surrounded by a copse of trees that made it a suitable spot to sojourn to. While the obvious answer was training, Sasuke wondered what their strange teacher could be up to now, and was only more confused when he unfurled a small scroll that he seemed to have pulled from nowhere. That was becoming a strange habit for the jounin; he seemed to have an almost impossible amount of storage for his small frame. His confusion only grew when his teacher made a few quick seals, causing a pop of smoke to roll off the scrolls, revealing a four dozen or so empty buckets.

The trio simply stared at him for a moment as he turned around and wordlessly walked to the pond's edge, crouching down and settling a single hand onto the water's surface.

"S'nice pond, crystal clear. Bet it tastes good too!" he said with a grin, waiting a moment before he withdrew his hand, pulling a sphere of water up with it. He held the ball in his hand, showing it off to the now surprised and confused genin. Naruto brought the ball up to his mouth, took a deep gulp and then tossed the rest of the water back. It lost its shape as he released it, splashing back into the pond.

"Um... Naruto-sensei, what does this have to do with training?" Hinata asked, surprisingly being the first to speak up. That fact seemed to make Naruto smile even wider.

"Good question, Hinata!" he said, bringing that oh-so-common blush to her face. Sasuke groaned internally, really wishing he hadn't noticed that little fact.

"It's simple, really; you're going learn to pull water out with your hands," he said, throwing his hands up in excitement and making it sound as if they were learning to transform water into gold or alcohol or explosions. His genin seemed somewhat unimpressed.

"A-alright, but, um... why?" Hinata continued, her teammates apparently contented to let her have her moment of facetime. The other two either agreed, or had similar enough sentiments to keep their mouths shut... or simply didn't care, as was most likely in the case of one pineapple-haired young man.

"Another good question! And simple to answer! You see, the principles of chakra flow rely on a combination of conductivity, IE: the reciprocal of chakra resistivity, which is, conductivity I mean, defined as the ratio of the current density to the magnitude of the vector field, and also on the current chakra levels maintained as well as the practical applied chakra pool, or PACP, as measured by your spiritual and mental energy measurements as multiplied by the practical application coefficients." he began, continuing onwards for some time with rambling run on sentences that had far too many acronyms and obscure terms for even Shikamaru to follow. The three genin stared at their teacher with growing degrees of shock. It took five minutes for him to realize they were simply staring at him with mouths agape.

"Err... sorry..." he began, scratching the back of his head. "Um, how should I put this. Basically, learn to put chakra into water and then swirl it up and pull it out, and you'll learn to manipulate chakra through your body and through objects, as well as better control anything you manage to covert your chakra into, like flames or electricity and stuff!"

"I... see," Hinata said, still trying to process their teacher's very... strange outburst. "But, um... again, what exactly is this training?"

"Oh, that? You're going to fill the buckets! First one to finish twelve gets to learn a new technique! Alright, you guys get on that, and I'll be back to check up in a bit, bye!" Naruto said, waving for a moment at the end before he disappeared in a puff of smoke. The three genin just stared at the spot he'd been standing for a moment. It was Shikamaru who broke the silence, voicing, in his own way, what all three of the genin were feeling.

"What a drag."

Β

Naruto stood on the nameless bridge, impressed by its sheer size; this was no simple project, and he couldn't help but feel that labeling it a simple bridge was not doing it justice. More like superspan, or ultraviaduct, or some other suitably impressive sounding name. Of course, something stood out to his young mind; given how fast the workers were moving, how could this much bridge have gotten completed? How long had they been building, anyway? Faced with a conundrum, the curious young man set off to find Tazuna and find out. The answer was not what he expected.

"Three months?" Naruto had exclaimed, earning a fair number of strange looks from the sparse construction workers going about their various jobs. Tazuna sighed and nodded.

"I know it seems odd, but the pace you see now was not how fast it's always been. We used to have far more workers; it was stable work, hard to find these days, but unfortunately intimidation has severely cut down the work force I've got available. We're working hard, but we can only do so much..." he said, letting his voice trail off. Naruto frowned and turned around, watching the workers; the experienced workers, older and skilled like Tazuna, had remained. What they lacked was a workforce.

"I can help." he said with a smile, turning around and giving the elderly bridge-builder an eager thumbs up. The old man smiled as much as his weak heart could.

"I appreciate the offer, but one man isn't going to change our luck." Tazuna said, shaking his head. "I fear we may simply not be enough to finish this at all."

"Ah, ojii-san, don't worry! One guy may not change things, but I'm more than one guy, believe it!" Naruto exclaimed, forming the seal that had earned him his title years ago on the Iwa Front. Chakra gathered and flowed. Tazuna took a step back, able to feel the raw power that bled off the young jounin as he gathered and prepared.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he shouted, followed by the billowing clouds of white smoke that followed that particular call. Tazuna shielded his eyes by reflex, and was greeted by a sight he'd never expected. A thousand Narutos stood around the bridge, crouched on cranes and lifters, perched on top of building materials. The original just stood, arms across his chest, and smiled.

"Just leave it to us, ojii-san, we'll have this bridge done in no time!"

Tazuna couldn't even muster up a reply; he simply smiled as a small tear began to form in the corner of his eye.

Γ

Naruto-sensei had tasked his three genin to do a simple enough task: fill up a dozen buckets each with water from a small spring pool. The pool was secluded, but with a good location; he'd found not relatively far from where they were staying. Yes, it was a simple task, so simple that for days they hadn't even begun to make a dent in the assignment; Naruto-sensei's little kicker that they had to pull the water out with chakra had made sure of that. All three of the genin faced different problems as they puzzled out the sparse and yet absolutely overly detailed instructions that their teacher had given them. Now, three days later, they finally were beginning to get the hang of things.

Shikamaru had the most experience with chakra flow of all three of the young shinobi, if one could call it that; his brute force method of imitating his teacher had exhausted him for days, though the principles were at least sound. In that way, he was in the most advantageous position of all three of them. His training with his family's special hiden jutsu also gave him a sort of boon; he was experienced in manipulating his chakra outside of his body, such as he did any time he performed his signature kagemane no jutsu. Thus, to most observers, one might assume that Shikamaru should, if not excelling, at least be taking the lead in this little exercise. They wouldn't be alone, as the young Nara would have agreed. However, Shikamaru was finding that academic thought was not translating as readily into practical application as he was expecting; he'd only managed to fill up two buckets, and that was after countless attempts, failures, and repetitions.

Sasuke had the most experience with manipulating the elements; the Uchiha clan started young when it came to teaching their trademark katon techniques. Sasuke had thrown himself into learning them, and had done exceptionally well for such a young age. That had been years ago, and he now had mastered the basics of the techniques to a point that they were simply second nature, yet he was doing so very poorly in this little exercise. This fact frustrated the young boy to no end, and it showed on his usually well-hidden face. The stoic demeanor he was known for was slipping away with each failure, and it was having a snowball effect on his psyche; exponential growth, exponential cracks in the facade.

The fact that Hinata, of all people, was making the most progress was not helping his mood either. His frustration made him miss something else about the young girl, something that their Nara teammate was more perceptive about: Hinata was not acting embarrassed about her successes, though that was not to say she wasn't being humble and quiet about it. It was slow work for the girl, but she was consistently pulling small balls of swirling, bubbling water out of the pool and depositing it into her buckets, four of which were now full, and she was almost halfway through her fifth. Sasuke turned and watched her drop another globule of water into a bucket with a soft smile. He stared for a moment, frustration rising to its peak. He let out a soft sigh and curse under his breath.

"Hey, how are you doing it?" he asked, unable to bring himself to look at her as he did. He scratched the back of his head as he stared out over the water, soft blush of uncharacteristic embarrassment coloring his face. She turned to look at him, confused expression on her face.

"W-what?" she asked, the small bit of her old self resurfacing as she was put on the spot.

"The water. You know what you're doing, it seems, so how are you doing it?" Sasuke pressed, gently, surprisingly, with an honest amount of curiosity and a bit of jealousy in his voice. Shikamaru fought the grin on his face; there was something just precious about seeing Sasuke on the edge of being flustered.

"O-oh, yes, right," she said, turning away and back towards the water. Hinata crouched over again, placing the palm of her hand against the gentle current and her second hand above it. The young girl began to focus, letting her chakra flow downward out of her hands and into the water beneath.

"I don't know... it just feels right," she said with a sudden boost of confidence, a smile on her face. "I let my chakra go, and focus on swirling it around. I see the shape I want in my mind, and then just focus on making that happen. I let the chakra rotate around so it keeps its shape. Once you feel the shape, you have to pull out and then just let it go once it's in the bucket."

Sasuke didn't say a thing, just let out a soft Hn and returned to his work, attempting to apply what she'd said. Rotation? Visualize the circle? He could do that, yes. He pressed his palm downward, imitating his teammate's set-up and began to force his chakra downward, he let it flow nice and strong, drawing on what he knew from those katon techniques he knew once more. He could feel it taking shape, and a small inkling told him to thank Hinata, but it wash pushed aside as his pride surged once more. He tore his palm up, holding the violently raging ball of water in front of him with a mad grin. And then it exploded on him, spraying the young boy with water and leaving him staring at his empty palm with a look of confusion and anger. Hinata giggled and Shikamaru busted out in laughter, earning both of them scowls from their soggy teammate.

"What the hell happened?" he said, forcing himself to ignore their laughter, once again choking down on his pride as much as he could. It was not happy about that, but the pragmatic part of his mind was struggling hard to keep it in line.

"You put too much force into it, Sasuke," a voice said from behind. All three genin turned with surprise; they'd been so caught up in the little scene that they hadn't noticed his approach. The jounin was grinning, arms folded behind his back as he approached.

"Hinata-chan figured it out pretty good," he said, earning a soft blush at the honorific from the girl in question, "but she left out the part about being gentle with it; you gotta learn to control your chakra flow and keep it just right, or the ball will just blow up on you, you know? Of course, I suspect Hinata has something else going for her too."

"And what is that, Naruto-sensei?" Shikamaru said, suddenly curious at his teachers cryptic little statement. He watched as Naruto dug into a pocket on his jacket, and Shikamaru idly noted that it was the first time he'd actually seen Naruto draw something from one of them; the jounin always seemed to just have anything at hand. In this case he drew out three sheets of paper, each of them about the size of a regular exploding tag, but without the markings that would make them one. The grin on his face was almost a mile wide, a fact that only made Shikamaru more confused.

"Right, come here you three, we're going to find something out, like if my hunch is correct," he said, fanning them out for them to take. Shikamaru took one first, examining the blank page with an inquisitive eye, and then let his hand fall to stare at his teacher. Hinata took one tentatively, while Sasuke snapped his up last but suddenly.

"Right, so, how did my sensei explain it again..." Naruto said, finger scratching his chin thoughtful as he did. He waited a moment, and then made a eureka expression as he drew a fourth piece of paper from his jacket.

"Ah, right. See, this paper is made from specially grown trees that are fed chakra as they grow, and when you feed chakra into them, they react in various ways to show what elemental affinity you have," he said, and forcing a small bit of chakra through his fingers and into the paper. Instantly, it split into two... and then those split, and then those did, and so on and so forth. Naruto chuckled, "Err, yeah. Well, mine is a bit overactive, but that shows I've got a wind affinity. Why don't you try it, Sasuke?"

Sasuke stared at a moment, and the looked at the sheet with a small grin. He focused his chakra into it, and then watched as the paper crinkled up in on itself as he held it. Naruto smiled wide.

"Wow, Lightning affinity. Guess I shouldn't be surprised, Itachi was the same way; he had a different affinity than what the Uchiha do usually, or at least so I hear," he said. Sasuke's expression was mixed between smug satisfaction and annoyance at not beating his brother in at least something. Still, it was something... now he just had to learn some lightning techniques. Naruto smiled as he watched Sasuke drift into his own world; the more the blond-haired jounin watched them, the less he was reminded of Itachi, and for some reason that made him smile.

"Alright, you try now, Hinata," he said next, shaking Sasuke from his little daydream as he did. Hinata stared at the paper, confused look on her face as it began to darken and then droop; it was wet, she realized after a moment, causing Sasuke to chuckle.

"Way to go; forget to dry your hands?" Sasuke asked somewhat smugly, causing Hinata to blush and shrink back. Naruto's expression turned rarely stern. He shook his head at Sasuke before turning to the girl with a smile.

"As I suspected: water affinity. Makes sense why you were so good with this exercise, in addition to your clever use of rotation. I guess it must have been the Hyuuga's... well, never mind, just... well done, Hinata," he said, cutting himself off before he delved too deeply into his past. He wasn't quite ready to think about that, not when he was seeing her so much lately...

"Anyway! It's a useful type, good for defense and offense, but now it's Shikamaru's turn. I have another hunch it's gonna be... well, something interesting," he said. Shikamaru frowned; interesting for Naruto likely spelled out trouble for him. He focused just a bit of chakra into the paper, feeling no need to overdo it, and then watched as lines of black began to trace across the page, swirling up into a spiral pattern. Naruto seemed excited.

"Yatta! I was right! Pretty cool, huh?" he said excitedly, but Shikamaru still seemed just confused. What the heck did this mean?

"It's yin and yang; an affinity for it, that's pretty surprising. Well, maybe not, given your family techniques. You manipulate the mental and physical energy rather than elemental changes. Makes sense, really," he said, nodding his head thoughtful. Shikamaru just raised an eyebrow; somehow less troublesome than he'd thought, even if he wasn't entirely sure what Naruto meant by it 'making sense.'

"Plus, now I can teach you a bunch of secret hard stuff, but it shouldn't go so bad 'cause of that little gift of yours," Naruto added, folding his hands behind his head. Shikamaru's expression turned to resigned dejection; yep, he knew it would be something troublesome.

"Speaking of which, here is the deal: I'm going to teach you guys some new tricks. My teacher waited, but... well, I've a feeling we're gonna need it, and you guys are more than ready, believe it! So, first one to finish their buckets learns first, alright? Great!" he finished, waiting just a moment to wave before he disappeared in a puff of smoke; it was becoming a reoccurring habit of his. The three genin just stared for a moment before looking back, staring once more before a look of surprise crossed their face: Naruto had apparently swapped out the buckets with water in them and replaced them with empty ones. Once again Shikamaru found himself vocalizing the feelings of the entire team.

"Our teacher," he began with a sigh, "is so troublesome."

Δ

Hinata looked down at the dozen buckets she'd filled with a mixture of surprise and glee; she hadn't realized she'd been working so quickly. Ever since Naruto-sensei had shown up and tested the team for their elemental affinities she had taken things to a whole new level. She looked around, noticing that Sasuke was close behind her, and that made her happy in a way; she obviously had no ire for her teammates, and while she'd enjoy the personal time with Naruto-sensei, she knew that Sasuke was likely even more eager to learn something new to use his new abilities. She watched him closely, able to do so precisely because he was even more engrossed in the exercise than she'd been.

The young Hyuuga girl had decided she liked Sasuke. She was not one to truly dislike anyone, of course, but more and more she was willing to make a distinction between people whom she cared, if not negatively about, than at least only little or none about, and with people she truly cared for. The group was growing quite quickly, compared to what it had been; Naruto-sensei had taken an early spot, joining with Kurenai and her family, despite her father's disappointment in her. Shikamaru had become a friend of sorts too, and she enjoyed playing games with him, even if she never won. He was patient, still, always willing to explain what she did wrong without scolding or insulting her. It was nice to have friends like that.

Sasuke, though? Always so distant, and so cold. She knew he'd lost a parent, much like her, but at the same time that similarity seemed to do little for their mutual respect or understanding. Sasuke was driven, skilled, and distant. The latter element had only just now began to shift, bit by bit, she'd noticed, the more they did missions. He no longer gave her those looks, watching her with eyes that reminded her so much of her father. Now they were more like Naruto's looks, if only slightly, and only some times. Other times he gave her the same neutral expression he gave everyone else. But he was starting to make jokes now; sometimes at her expense, and often at that of their sensei, but still, he was smiling.

Idly, she wondered if Neji-niisan could have been like this with her; if not openly brotherly, at least subtly friendly. She would have liked that. It wasn't a conscious thought, but deep in her mind, she realized that Team 7 was becoming very much a part of her family; her brothers, or perhaps close cousins, and... whatever Naruto-sensei was; very hard to think of him as a father or brother or even a cousin or uncle (and he was very much unlike her father, uncle, AND cousin) given how red her cheeks got whenever he had more than a short conversation, or gave her some words of praise and encouragement. She wasn't sure she was ready to acknowledge just what that was; it was so strange to her, after all, and she'd never felt like that about anyone. Naruto made her feel just... good, and yet odd, all at the same time.

'And,' she thought with a brief embarrassed blush at her own mind, 'in strange places...'

Unfortunately for her, her timing for adolescent wonder proved poor when the object of those strange feelings appeared right next to her in an instant, sweeping her up before she could even gasp and then once again pulling her through the veil of time and space. Her mind blazed as it snapped back into place, and was shortly joined by her cheeks; she had landed on her back this time, laying face up in the grass, and her teacher was propped up over her, staring down into her large off-white eyes.

It was not the first time she'd noticed how beautiful his blue eyes were, nor how his wild blond hair framed his soft face, accented by the cute marks on his face. However, it was the first time that face was around three inches away from her. She felt the heat rise up in her, cheeks burning bright as he sat for a moment with a lost look on his face. After a moment he quickly pushed himself up, chuckling as he resorted to his standard nervous tick of scratching the back of his head. He quickly spit out something about the process not being entirely accurate just yet and how he's still working on the balance issues of something or other, but Hinata was still lost in her own little world. It would take Naruto bending back over her with a concerned expression to bring her out of it.

She leapt up with a small 'eep' and shrunk back slightly, her own old nervous tick of pressing her fingers together surfacing. The pair simple stood in silence for a moment until Naruto managed to recompose himself.

"A-anyway! Time to teach you some new moves!" he said with a sudden burst of excitement, rapidly changing the tone of the encounter and shifting things away from the awkward start. Hinata watched as he unfurled a scroll, once again seemingly drawn from nowhere, across the ground and made a few short seals before pressing down against it. She turned away from the poof of smoke for a moment, and then found herself staring at around a dozen and a half buckets full of water. It took her a moment to realize it was the ones she'd filled... as well as the ones that Team 7 had filled before Naruto-sensei had come to test their affinities.

"Given you're a water type, I figured I could make good use of this already chakra-infused water. It should make it fairly easy to work with, compared to normal water. Good for training, and then we can move onto normal water, and finally water affected by chakra other than your own. See, the presence of different chakra makes it significantly harder to manipulate due to..." he began, and then caught himself. Hinata had gone from watching with interest and confusion to almost pure confusion, and Naruto realized he'd been about to launch into yet another likely far too advanced explanation of the hows and whys when he really just needed to teach her the how. He forgot that people didn't absorb information as fast as he did some times. Idly, Naruto pondered what it would like to be, well... normal.

The thought was gone in an instant, returning to his young student. He smiled and grabbed one of the buckets, setting it in front of her with a smile.

"Watch close, this is the first thing. I figure you might be able to use some of these to augment your taijutsu; a pure style is just no good, it needs a bit of spice, to keep the enemy guessing, you know?" he said, forming the seals in a slower and methodological way as he spoke. Ne, Rat; Inu, Dog; Ushi, Ox. A simple chain, not hard to remember or utilize in any way. However, while the seals helped mold and gather the chakra up, it took the user's mind and 'intent' to truly give form to the technique. Naruto pressed his hand down, looking at the bucket for a moment.

At first, nothing seemed to be happening, but slowly a swirl began to form in the still water, slowly gaining speed. And then, suddenly, a line of water began to rise up, dancing like a charmed snake. Hinata watched with wonder as he pulled it up into his hand, actually holding onto it like a rope or chain, and then pulled it out. He smiled at her obvious expression.

"This is Suiton: Suiban. As you can see, it makes a whip of water that you can use to entangle an opponent or manipulate objects with. It's surprisingly durable too, lots of pressure and whatnot," he said, lashing out with the liquid 'rope' and yanking on a nearby tree branch.

"Sensei... this reminds me of what you did back with Zabuza," Hinata said, her mind's eye recalling the glowing chains that her teacher had summoned up to grab onto the missing-nin's massive sword. Naruto nodded.

"Similar in practice, really. The water whip is easier to do because it uses water as a channel and material for your chakra, rather than trying to manipulate raw chakra itself. Well, to learn at least," he said with a chuckle. "It's kinda funky, but while this is easy to learn, and I'm sure you'll have it down after a few tries, what I do is actually easier to pull out on the fly, once you figure out how to do it. It... wasn't easy."

Hinata just nodded, not really understanding but not having the drive or reason to say anything. Naruto guided the whip back towards the bucket, releasing it without much flair and letting it return to it's starting position.

"Let's get started. Once you get this done, I can show you some cool moves to do with it, and then we can move on to some other stuff too. It'll be great!" Naruto said, the childlike joy he found in training showing through and through. Hinata just smiled at him and nodded with a simple 'Hai!'

She had to say, today was turning out to be a very, very good day.

Ε

Kakashi walked through the gates of Konoha at a leisurely pace, whistling a jaunty tune and gazing down lovingly at the pages of one his favorite books. Icha Icha Paradise was a classic, and it never got old no matter how many times he read it, and he had long lost count of how many times that was somewhere around a few dozen. The chuunin at the gates didn't bother to stop him, knowing quite well who the famous ANBU captain was, both by reputation and habit. They waved, which he returned without even looking up from his novel, once again not surprising either of them. The routine had been old a long time ago.

What hadn't been old were the peculiarly dressed shinobi he spotted every so often; they wore a flak jacket similar to the Konoha standard but colored black instead of the traditional green, and wore it over an outfit, which seemed like a jacket or military blouse and a set of matching pants in a pattern of stripped forest camouflage. On their heads they wore a black beret, marked with a symbol Kakashi had never seen before: a white eagle diving down over a stylized leaf symbol that had an equally stylized and angled H etched over it. He frowned beneath his mask; this was an unexpected development, particularly given he'd only been gone for a few weeks.

"Ma, ma. Seems I'll need to get there a bit faster this time; no time to be late, sadly," he said to himself, flipping the cover of his book closed and tucking it away before he leaped off to the rooftops and headed for the Hokage's office. He needed to report in anyway, and this new group made him too curious to wait. The more he looked, the more he found them; mostly Hyuuga, he realized, but with a smattering of other groups, notably the Inuzuka. The populous seemed wary, but the group was hardly doing much to earn ire. Their purpose was revealed when he saw a pair stop a young boy attempting to steal something from a store.

'A police force-?' Kakashi thought as he pushed off another rooftop, wondering just what Itachi had gotten up to while the ANBU captain had been gone. He pushed harder, curiosity only rising as he neared his goal.

Kakashi landed softly, perching himself on Itachi's open window. He was just about to wave and say his customary 'Yo' when Itachi spoke first, already facing his old comrade.

"Kakashi-sempai, I have always said I have an open door policy, but you still insist on the window, hmm?" Itachi said, wearing the traditional robes of the hokage, sans its wide-brimmed hat. He smiled softly; Kakashi was a good face to see, even with the dark knowledge that Itachi knew he was going to be bringing him. That was the nature of the mission he'd given, but at least he'd be getting it from a friendly face. Kakashi eased himself in, scratching the back of his head and chuckling slightly as he did.

"You're also... on time," Itachi continued with a slight frown. "That rarely bodes well when you're reporting."

"It's less the report, though I'll admit that's hardly good news either, and more the shinobi in the fatigues and berets wandering about and policing the place that got me here," Kakashi said, taking a spot against the wall near his entry window. He leaned back and folded his arms across his chest, single normal eye locked on the hokage.

"Ah, I see you've noticed our new division, the KSFS."

"KSFS?"

"Konoha Security Forces Squadron. It formed a few weeks ago, and has shot up fast; the Hyuuga do know how to organize," Itachi said, folding his hands in front of him with a small grin.

"I see. Hiashi made a power play, then," Kakashi said, nodding thoughtfully for a moment. The Hyuuga were smart to make such a move, but that made Kakashi wonder what exactly they'd given in return for their new found place of power in the village.

"Yes, but he may find the price somewhat unbearable after a time. He gave up the secret of the seal, and..." Itachi said, tossing a sheet of paper in the way only a shinobi could. Kakashi caught it and scanned it, single eye widening for a moment, mind drifting from his report.

"Itachi-san, this is a wedding contract."

Ζ

Sasuke had, surprisingly, managed to prevent himself from getting completely infuriated, both by his own failure and the antics of his teammates. Hinata's sudden aptitude he had to admit he respected, and her drive was making her less insufferable, but that didn't mean he enjoyed being actually beaten by her; the sheer concept of it boggled his mind. Shikamaru, on the other hand, and perhaps ironically given his dislike of one teammate's sudden success, he found himself disliking once more due to the boys return into lackadaisical laziness, barely even bothering to put too much effort into filling the buckets and spending a significant portion of his time on a break in some sort of meditative stance; where had the tactical mind from their battle with Zabuza gone?

Of course, he consoled himself by simply reminding him of his natural skill; to have learned to use another elemental transformation than his affinity so young was perfect evidence of his natural aptitude and dedication. And now, he'd also managed to manipulate a third element, or the basics at least. He was catching his brother, he was sure of it, even if he hadn't been first. But, dammit, he just knew he was. He had to be!

Sasuke realized that he had finished the last of his buckets only as he was about to drop another ball of water in; he'd been so, once again, lost in his thoughts that he'd completely moved into automatic and lost track of time. The young Uchiha wasn't even sure how much time had passed since Hinata had gone off with Naruto. A self-satisfied smile crossed his face, and he looked up to announce his success to Shikamaru when he found himself instead in the middle of a forest and his teacher leaning over him with a grin as satisfied as his own.

"Finished, are we? Good," the jounin said, straightening up and placing his hands on his hips, "'cause I've got a lot to teach you, believe it!"

Sasuke couldn't help but keep smiling. Yes, he was going to get even stronger; next time he met up with that Zabuza bastard, he'd be more than ready. Maybe he'd misjudged Naruto after all; he was finally teaching him something the genin could really use. Sasuke instinctively activated his young sharingan, single tomoe appearing in the red field of the eye.

"I'm ready," he said, simply standing himself up at double time, eager and set. But Naruto shook his head and wagged a rebuking finger.

"Ah, ah, ah! None of that; your sharingan is cool and all, but if there is one thing I've learned, it's that to really get better, you need to do more than copy and imitate, you need to learn and understand, you know?" the jounin said with reprove in his tone. Sasuke reflexively scowled; what the hell was that supposed to mean?

"But I've finally got my sharingan, why wouldn't I use it?" the boy exclaimed. Naruto was fast to reply.

"Because it's a waste! You've got talent, and you need to keep nurturing that, else it's useless, you know? You can understand things that the other two, and most people your age can't," he said, and Sasuke had the distinct impression he was talking about more than just techniques.

"Learning hands-on will let you understand the intricacies more than even your eye can show, the way only hands-on can; you can't fake it, you gotta earn it, you know? That way, you can take what you've learned and improve it, make it your own, not just copy everyone else," he continued, pausing for a moment to let his words sink in.

"Besides, you're too good to end up as just another copycat, believe it! You've got the skill to do more than imitate, you could create! And these are the building blocks right here," he said, hands flying through a series of short seals. He held up his right hand, grinning as small arcs of electricity danced around his fingers. The jounin flicked out his left, sending a kunai out. He followed up with his charging hand, sending a small bolt of lightning arcing off to the mostly-metal spike, which then impacted the ground with a sizzle and a thunk. Naruto looked back and chuckled; he'd never seen Sasuke look so... well, hungry was the only thing that came to mind.

"Raiton: Jinkourai," Naruto said, sparks dying in his hand. Sasuke nodded eagerly, showing his attentiveness. Naruto simply smiled.

"And this," he continued, bringing his hands back up and going through the seals at a slower pace, "is how you do it."

Η

In a hidden enclave, safely placed away and above any reasonable discovery site, Zabuza Momochi pored over a stack of scrolls, filled with secrets both old and forbidden for all eyes but those approved by the Mizukage, including a number containing the special techniques of the Kirigakure no Sato Hunter-Nin. His search was furious, for he had to find something to even the playing field with that damnable brat, else his entire time in the Land of Waves would have been for naught.

Zabuza had done more than simply make an attempt on the life of the Mizukage. The Demon of the Hidden Mist had planned a wide-spread coup, and had more than a few agents still in waiting for the go command that had never come, and might never come if he couldn't finance his little rebellion. Truthfully, Zabuza knew he was doing it as much out of personal greed and desire for power as it was out of any loyalty or love to his village; although the Mizukage was clearly being driven by some dark force, it was the opportunity rather than the cause itself that drove him. But it had failed, and now he found himself scrambling to reassemble the forces scattered by his failed attempt and make another march on the Mizukage's palace.

But that meant he needed money, which meant he needed jobs. Jobs meant money, but they also meant publicity; one he needed, the other he loathed. Publicity brought Hunter-Nin, and while he had no illusions that he could take on nearly any shinobi still retained in the service of the Mizukage, he could not take on all of them at once, nor fight a fully operational Hunter-Nin team with unkind designs for his head. Thus, he was stuck in this small floundering nation, run by an ineffectual government reconstituted after the fall of the last nation to call the island its home, and then that 'new' government finding itself quickly usurped by the rising stars of political power: corporations.

Zabuza hadn't liked working for the worm Gatou, but he could not deny the money it had brought, and would continue to bring. The final payout was coming, and then he could dispose of the tyrant. It was not due to any moral concern, per se, not that most would recognize. Instead, it was a combination of his disgust at the way the man conducted himself combined with his innate hatred of anyone who attempted to exert undue control over him; Gatou pretended to be his superior, when it was clear that Zabuza could bisect him without a second thought. The squat man hadn't the strength to cause Zabuza to bow, even for a moment. He was a tool, and nothing more. Zabuza towed the line just to get what he needed.

He had briefly entertained the concept of murdering the man and taking his place as the ruler of the broken land; it would not be hard to turn it into a productive plot of land. The only problem was the attention it would draw, attention he was not yet ready for. Thus, he'd discarded that idea, making a note to return at a later date, so that he might take its resources, perhaps as a Revolutionary Warlord. The zeal he might get from that would produce useful soldiers for his efforts against Kirigakure. But not now. And not until he'd dealt with Naruto.

It was this reason that he was tearing into the massive piles of scrolls he stolen when he left Kirigakure no Sato, his raid on the palace of the Mizukage not being a total failure in at least that way. He'd already adapted a number of techniques, even if he knew quite a few of them due to being, at one time, a favored son of the village and given ready access to many of the forbidden records as a result. However, while formerly a member of the ANBU, he'd never been a member of the Hunter-Nin, and their techniques had both intrigued and eluded him for quite some time. Thus, his theft of some of their secret scrolls seemed logical, though he hadn't found too many techniques he was just dying to learn. Until now.

He knew he'd seen it before when he'd scanned them the first time: a screen of mist that not only provided the obscured vision Zabuza was already known for, but also a significant benefit that could turn the tide for Zabuza. He simply had to find it first, something that seemed far harder than it should have been. The missing-nin tossed another scroll behind him in frustration. Where was it? He slammed his fist down on the table, causing a stack of scrolls to jolt and fall, rolling out. He stared down at one of the scrolls that had unfurled right in front of him, simply looking at it before a sinister grin crossed his face.

Finally, the Hijutsu he'd been looking for; he'd found the Kirisame.

Θ

Shikamaru deposited the last of the watery orbs into his bucket at a leisurely pace, having taken nearly twice as long as even Sasuke had to finish the goal; he felt no rush to finish the practice, really. He was no fool, and he knew Naruto-sensei was going to train them all eventually. He didn't need to be first, as even if he'd gotten done first he'd still just end up doing some other exercise no doubt. So, he'd enjoyed what had more or less amounted to downtime. Besides, the clouds had finally come out, making it even more enjoyable; he intended to milk it as much as he could. Of course, now that he was done he doubted that would last long.

And, as if on cue, Naruto came walking out of a nearby copse of trees, hands folded behind his head as he whistled a simple tune. Shikamaru watched him with an appraising eye. It didn't escape the notice of his teacher either. Naruto let off a huff and moved his arms to his hips in mock displeasure.

"There you go again, Shikamaru; always thinking about everything. I know we teach you guys to do that whole 'see underneath the underneath' or whatever, but you need to learn the way of 'conceiving without conception,' you know?" he said, taking a place by leaning against one of the thick trees. He crossed his arms across his body and grinned. Shikamaru recognized a challenge when he saw it, but was that the point? Was he supposed to see it as a challenge? If so, was he supposed to respond to it. Or was responding to it failing the challenge? Or was the challenge seeing if he saw the challenge in the first place? Shikamaru frowned, and Naruto just laughed.

"See, right there? I can just see your mind getting all busy 'cause of what I just said, but you miss the point. Seeing underneath the underneath doesn't mean you have to try and work out absolutely everything, you know? You gotta know when, and even then you gotta know how to react! Life isn't shogi, Shikamaru," Naruto replied, laughter dying down but smile remaining on his face. Shikamaru looked bemused; Naruto just did love surprising him. Now it was Shikamaru's turn to surprise him.

Shikamaru had long pondered his teacher's true nature; he'd spent countless hours pondering the young jounin, and so he decided to take Naruto's advice, cutting right to the source: he'd just ask him.

"Naruto-sensei, what are you really like?" he asked, causing Naruto's smile to fall into a small grin. His head fell as well for a moment, eyes closed in contemplation.

"I was wondering when one of you would ask; figured it would be you, you know?" he said, looking up as he did.

"You're not ready for the why, hows, and whos of it all, though. Or maybe I'm not, you know? But I'll put your mind at ease at least; I'm a simple guy, Shikimaru, always have been. It took a lot of hard work to get to where I am, but I couldn't live a lie like I think you suspect I may be; I am who I am, had to make peace with a lot of stuff, but you know... its just a better way to live. Learn that young, and you'll be set. Ain't easy, but you'll get the hang of it. I know you will," he finished with a smile. Shikamaru just stared at him thoughtfully.

"Anyway," Naruto said, pushing up off the tree, "it's time to get started on training. I've got some tricks I'm sure you'll love."

"Like what, exactly? I'm not going to be all that good at any elemental techniques and you can't teach me any hiden." Shikamaru asked, honestly curious as to what exactly his teacher could be thinking. Naruto's smile grew wide and beaming.

"My favorite techniques of all, of course: seals."

Ι

From a distance, Naruto Namikaze watched as his kage bunshin went about training his young genin in their various techniques; he had positioned their training spots beforehand, both to provide ample room and to make it easier for him to watch from this location. He'd replaced himself with a clone when they hadn't been looking, returning to this spot afterward to watch over them all. He pondered how a jounin sensei could get by without having a few hundred dozen copies running around taking care of everything he needed to have taken care of, though he wasn't looking forward to the headache was no doubt in store for after the hours of labor he was putting in on the bridge and the more mentally intensive process of teaching his team their new jutsu. Still, despite the mental pain, his brute force method tended to get results, even if it was a bit inelegant.

The trio were picking up their respective techniques quickly; Sasuke had managed to get the hang of his as fast as Naruto had expected, though the jounin had him practice in applications a bit deeper than just the basic technique. Naruto had him running drills, showing him as many creative uses of the technique as the Uchiha boy could think of. Sasuke proved a keen mind, applying masterful mixes of taijutsu with it, along with a number of moves using wires, shuriken, kunai, or a combination of the three.

Hinata, on the other hand, hand learned not only the water whip, but also another few basic water techniques. She and her clone had moved on to merging the new techniques with her traditional style, and the young girl was obviously surprised by Naruto's familiarity with the family forms, though she kept it to herself. Naruto knew that question was coming soon too, and wasn't sure how ready he was for it.

Finally, Shikamaru actually seemed eager to learn, though this was mostly after Naruto told him that the basic sealing techniques would allow him to seal away his gear and lighten his load, as well as let him carry countless extra items without weighing him down at all. When asked about the limits of what he could carry, Naruto told him it was limited only by his ability to remember where the seal was and the right mental state to unlock it. Shikamaru seemed the most gleeful after that, and Naruto was momentarily afraid he'd created a monster.

Well, perhaps it was for the best. Naruto knew they only had a short bit of time before Zabuza made his move again, and his team had to be ready for that. He just hoped he'd given them the right tools. They, himself included, were going to need everything they could get.

Κ

"I hope you know what you're doing," Kakashi said as he lowered the sheet and frowned beneath his mask. Itachi said nothing, silently acknowledging the minor rebuke; it was subtle, but one did not get to the position Itachi had without being more perceptive than most. Kakashi did not approve, though the hokage had expected that. Of course, that still didn't make him feel any better about it.

"It's an option we can exercise if we have to, nothing more," he said, perhaps more defensively than he'd intended. Kakashi looked at him in a strange way, as if asking if he really meant I when he said We. Itachi's face finally showed a small frown, barely a twitch on the edge of his mouth. His chair turned around, and Kakashi sighed. This was not how he'd hoped to report in. Itachi seemed to read his mind; not an uncommon experience when dealing with the hokage.

"What did you find, Kakashi-sempai?" the hokage said softly. Kakashi took the subject change in stride.

"Something that, as Shikaku might say, is quite troublesome," Kakashi said, invoking the name of the current jounin commander of the ranks of the Konohagakure no Sato regular shinobi. Itachi's chair spun around.

"You have a lead," Itachi stated, not asked; it was a subtle difference that Kakashi noted quite well. He'd suspected as much: Itachi hadn't been entirely forthcoming.

"Yes. Orochimaru," Kakashi said simply, as if it was the most obvious thing. However, the former ANBU's expression turned dark when he noticed that the hokage's own had. Perhaps he had been wrong; perhaps Itachi hadn't been as prescient as he'd thought.

Ω

Gaiden Α

Iruka watched the recess with a keen eye, making sure all of the academy students were behaving. Many were simply socializing or playing simple games, passing the time in leisure. Others spent it training: sparring was popular, along with some other simple exercises. Many of the younger students spent time playing various forms of cat's cradle and other rope ladders; although it seemed to be pointless at first, it became more important when someone realized they were practicing the flexibility and speed of their fingers, an invaluable gift when they learned techniques later on in their academy career.

However, his eyes fell to a single child who stood alone, trying to work out the precise movements required without much success. Iruka frowned; he was well acquainted with the boy, an orphan without much talent but so much heart. He truly saw the potential in the boy, but his status and awkwardness was making every step a challenge. The other children's rejection of him wasn't helping either; they watched him with barely hidden contempt. Iruka knew saying something would only draw more attention and ire towards him, though he was beginning to think he needed to step in; the child needed someone to help him along. He stood up from his seat, only to be suddenly surprised.

An elder boy, only a year or two from graduation, approached the orphan. At first, Iruka was worried, but his worry turned into wonder as the elder student crouched down, pulling out his own set of strings and beginning to work through the movements slowly but surely, explaining each step bit by bit. Iruka watched for some time as the elder boy was laughing, and the orphan was joining in bit by bit. Iruka found something warming deep inside him, and a distant memory brought itself to the forefront of his mind.

There had been a time when another elder boy, this one with a scar across his face, had approached a young, blond-haired and whisker-bearing boy that had so much ire in the village. But Iruka held no ill-will for him, only pity. They both were orphans, weren't they? They both had lost so much. Iruka realized that the elder child had just made a friend for life, much like Iruka had so long ago.

He sorely hoped Naruto and his team returned; they were sorely overdue to catch up over a bowl of ramen.

Gaiden Ω

Author Note:
I'll make this short and sweet, something I was mostly unable to do with the chapter. I've had this in the works since last year, and much of this was cut off from chapter 6, then expanded with more scenes so I could get one out for Christmas. Originally, I intended this for New Year's, buuut that sort of fell through. Part of why it started getting away from me; it's by far my longest chapter in this story, maybe in any of my stories. I've a feeling this is going to become a pattern. Expect longer delays for longer chapters. Fair enough trade, yes?

In the good news, I've planned out no less then sixteen arcs for this story, and have every intention and desire of getting to the last one. I've more or less decided to scrap Pack Light for now, as I've said, party because of it's bloat and, well, lack of goal: I'd been making it up as I went along for plot. I've managed to fix that here, though. Planning ahead is good for the drive.

Oh, and just so you know, these seven chapters are just the first arc, and it's not even done yet. It'll be a long haul, and at this rate we're not going to be done for at least a few hundred more chapters. Daunting, but a good goal.

I intend to start using the Gaiden sections to show some scenes that explain the backstory a bit more, and minor details. For example, I wondered about it bugging anyone that Iruka and Naruto still knew each other, given Naruto was in the field long before Iruka would have been a teacher. Hence, I thought of and did up the scene to explain their relationship. Expect similar such scenes in future chapters, particularly ones explaining how the Naruto of Naruto-sensei got to be the way he is.

And, for jutsu notes:

Raiton: Jinkourai is Lightning Release: Artifical Lightning. Self-explanatory really; C or so level lightning creation technique that can make simple bolts of power. Useful with kunai, shuriken, and other conductive objects, and it makes a good basis for other techniques and learning the lightning style.

Suiton: Suiban is Water Release: Water Whip. Also self-explanatory, no? Whip, or rope, of water.

Hijutsu: Kirisame, Secret Technique: Mist Rain, is a bit different, and I wont explain what it does yet. You can google it to find out, as it's a canon technique, or you may know already. Don't feel obligated; you'll see it in action next chapter.