Yay, it be done, yo!

Do I need to repeat it, folks? Thanks, as always, for caring enough about the story to leave a review and, if you have a concern with the story, it'll be answered at the bottom.

If it isn't, then just ask away, I read all reviews, always!


Shikamaru was not as dumb as he liked to make people think he was. Fact is, he was just too lazy to use his rather impressive intellect outside of the things he was actually interested in, such as Shogi or figuring out ways to put in the least effort. However, he is not so lazy as to simply lie there and wait to be killed in a fight.

He was also smart enough to understand that even if he was lazy, not training at all was a big no-no, because more likely than not that would get him killed horribly one day.

Even so, he really, really didn't want to take part in this exercise. He'd never fought Uzumaki and did not plan to, because everyone who did ended up in pain and the only one who stood a chance in hell against him in sparring practice had been the Uchiha, who even so had never managed to defeat the blond in a straight up fight.

Their teachers had a little wager going on about this, that much was easy to figure out from how they acted and what they said. So chances were that if they lost, Asuma would be insufferable. Shikamaru didn't really care, since even if he tried his hardest, he would not be capable of nagging to the level Ino or his mother could nag.

So he tried to surrender immediately. He did not want to be in the battlefield opposite Uzumaki. He was not dumb, like Kiba, who thought that one month of training would make up for the colossal difference there had been between Uzumaki and practically everyone else. Much less so considering that one of the village's Elite Jounin was the one who was actually teaching that particular genin team.

Heck, even Sakura, whom he'd believed would not be much of a problem seemed to move in synch with her teammates so naturally that Shikamaru had to assume that they'd trained together for quite a bit of time. Possibly they'd trained constantly the entire month, even despite the fact that they'd taken a C rank.

Both the Uchiha and the Uzumaki trained religiously, Shikamaru did not believe for a second that they hadn't forced or convinced Sakura to catch up or be left in the dust. Also, the fact that she hadn't looked over at Sasuke and blushed even once meant that she had also managed to shake her severe case of fangirlism away. This filled Shikamaru's heart with fleeting hope for Ino… Maybe he'd have to ask Team 7 how they managed to break Sakura's infatuation…

His surrender attempt had, predictably, been shot down. Asuma had told them not to hold back at all, which meant that even he recognized that despite the overwhelming odds, Team 7 was still an opponent to take completely seriously.

Were he to be quite honest, Shikamaru wasn't sure of their odds. Kakashi had been right. Sakura had been the best Kunoichi overall, Sasuke was the Rookie Of The Year and Uzumaki had basically been untouchable during the academy.

If their teamwork was anywhere near as good as Shikamaru expected it to be from merely watching how they moved, then they'd probably prove more than a challenge despite outnumbering them two to one.

Shikamaru suppressed a groan of annoyance when he saw two thirds of his team rush to combat them outright. Kiba knew that two of the three had been the top two for Taijutsu and Ninjutsu in the academy, did he really think that by jumping in on his own he'd do anything other than get his behind kicked?

"You have a plan." Shino said, distracting Shikamaru from where he saw the genjutsu that had covered Team 7 fade and the engagements commence. Shikamaru winced at how Kiba was getting his ass utterly handed to him by Sakura, which meant that his expectations of their general ability had been way off.

Shikamaru nodded in response to the Aburame's query. He had a plan that he could execute with just the both of them. Team 7 had taken care of the 'divide' part, and now Shikamaru had to conquer them one by one. Easier said than done.

When Hinata flew in his general direction, he saw Shino move to intercept her, and when he set her down and she stopped nursing her aching side, he decided he had to explain it right then and there. "Hinata… I will catch Uzumaki with the Kagemane no Jutsu. When I do, you will block off his Chakra. Start with his arms, if I'm correct, I'll only be able to hold the Kagemane for a few seconds at the most."

Trying to hold someone who vastly outclassed you in both brute strength and raw chakra, according to his father, was something that he had learned was an effort in futility unless your will was stronger than theirs. Shikamaru had no illusions of overpowering the will of the blond, either, so he would have to bank on the few seconds he'd be able to hold and one or two extra from the surprise of actually getting hit with the Kagemane.

Distractions would be pointless, Uzumaki would ignore him just like he ignored everything else.

With a muttered 'okay', Hinata stood on wobbly feet, a hand pressed against the spot she'd been struck in. It'd probably bruise later, Shikamaru absent mindedly noted, as he went muttered a 'So troublesome', watching Team 7 manhandle his teammates like they were first year students in the academy against jounin.

"Drain Sakura's chakra. She doesn't have much of it, so it should be quick." Shikamaru said to Shino, who merely nodded in acceptance of his task. "Then, I'll move to hold Sasuke and Chouji will knock him right out."

He realized, vaguely, that there was a very big risk in this plan. Namely, that Uzumaki would break his hold before Hinata could render him harmless. If that happened…

Well, there was no use dwelling in Ifs, he had to act. He actually rushed for the first time in his life, as it was pretty much clear that Kiba would not be able to hold the blond off for much longer. When Uzumaki clasped his hands behind Kiba's back, Shikamaru yelled his technique's success and spurred Hinata on.

He did not look back to see if Shino had managed to do his part.

All that he was concentrated on, for a full three seconds, was his hold on the Uzumaki. Four.

Hinata was ready, the chakra in her hands had gathered and she had begun to pull her arm back to land the first attack against Uzumaki's Right shoulder.

Five.

Hinata had hesitated for an instant. She hadn't focused on his coils last time, paying a closer look to the way that he moved instead. Now that he was immobilized, she could focus on his chakra coils entirely. It still surprised her, despite the fact that she'd become aware of the boy's existence sometime around two years ago, when he stopped being the dead last nobody wanted to associate with and became the unbeatable Taijutsu monster that everyone feared having to face in a spar.

She had seen him with her Byakugan many times. And even so…

His coils were thicker and his chakra more dense than anything she'd ever seen. Whereas most people's chakra tended to be so thin that even the Byakugan would see through it, the exception being people with either exceptionally large chakra reserves, she could not see through Uzumaki's chakra coils.

Shaking off the distraction, her hands began to move quickly, sealing up the Tenketsu in Uzumaki's right arm, rendering it useless as she struck it repeatedly. She knew not if he would still be capable of moving the arm if she blocked the upper Tenketsu, but given the ridiculous amount of chakra coursing through it, it was a safer bet to block them all.

Hinata was not brave enough to gamble on something like this.

"HINATA, GET AWAY!" She heard Kiba yell, as she was twisting her body to change targets without dropping her stride…

… Only to get punched right in the middle of the face by Uzumaki, an attack that sent her flying back with a broken nose. Much to her amazement, it didn't even seem as if it bothered him that he had his arm rendered useless.

Kiba had jumped up and tried to hit Uzumaki before he could strike Hinata, but not only had he been late to stop him, he'd left himself completely open as Uzumaki spun on his heel and lashed out with his leg, avoiding Kiba's punch by barely tilting his neck away.

Sakura's roundhouse kick had been incredibly fast and near perfect, movement-wise. Naruto blew her out of the water, however, as Kiba heard the whooshing sound that his leg made as it cut through the air. The blond's shorter stature meant that he had to stretch himself to a greater extent than Sakura had, Kiba's jump had also added a further strain.

So it was with no small amount of awe that Shikamaru watched as the kick, executed perfectly, sent Kiba flying in the opposite direction from where Hinata had gone.

Yet, Kiba had actually managed to do what he'd intended to do, since his hand, which had missed Uzumaki's face by inches on its way forward, carved a very noticeable, jagged gash across the blond's whiskered cheek on its way back.

Shikamaru knew he stood no chance once left alone with the blond, so he took the few seconds he'd earned and ran to assist Chouji with Sasuke.

The small shock that had knocked the chubby boy out had only lasted for a few seconds of Chouji being out of it. Being a ninja, the Akimichi sat up and watched as Sasuke and Shino squared off, taking a few instants to gather his bearings. Since his jutsu had worn off, his arms had returned back to normal and he could shrug off the wire.

Yet Chouji found himself staring at the Taijutsu display that the Aburame and the Uchiha were showing, both displaying the prowess that had made them rivals. At one point, Shino used Kawarimi to set a trap with a Kikai Bunshin, but Sasuke had seen it coming and acted accordingly. Shino had to recall his Kikaichu lest they get incinerated by the grand fireball that Sasuke conjured.

It didn't even seem to tire the Uchiha, which meant that he had considerably larger chakra reserves than what most genin would have, as elemental jutsu tended to be harder to learn for genin due to their chakra cost.

"Sakura, get up already!" The Uchiha yelled, engaging in melee with the Aburame again, though Shino was moving more warily now that he was certain that he was outclassed in the stamina department.

Just as Shino leaped back, Sasuke prepared to follow but found himself unable to.

"Kagemane No Jutsu, success." Shikamaru called. "Chouji, end it now!"

The Akimichi nodded, engaging in his most powerful jutsu, the human meat bullet. He grew in size until he was a huge ball and, propelled with his chakra, began to rush forward. This was not as advanced a technique in the Akimichi skill tree as many thought it to be. In fact, it was a precursor to the partial multi-size technique since it required far less delicate control and more raw chakra and mass.

He was a ways away from where Sasuke had been frozen, but he was going fast.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw the rolling human boulder.

"What the- Oof!" Shikamaru had apparently tried to say something, but got cut off as a slender, feminine hand buried in his gut. "Sorry I'm late, but I was enjoying my nap." The pinkette said, grinning at the Uchiha who took the chance to leap away from the incoming Chouji-ball.

Chouji, deciding he might as well try again, steered himself to perform an U-turn and rushed at Sasuke again…

Until his path was blocked. A pair of tiny hands slammed on the rolling boulder and for the first time, Chouji found resistance from this jutsu from someone other than his clan, who boasted ridiculous physical strength. Heck, he'd been ground to a halt and had only managed to push whoever had stopped him back a few feet.

Even Chouji could tell that the only one in the 'battle' with enough physical strength to pull said feat off was Uzumaki.

"Wasn't the chakra in his right arm blocked?" Asked Shikamaru, holding his stomach and looking with wide eyes at how the Uzumaki kept Chouji from advancing. "He shouldn't be capable of moving that arm!"

Shikamaru didn't know that Kurenai had mirrored the question to the silver haired jounin sitting on the same log as her. "How is he moving that arm?" She asked, raising one eyebrow at Kakashi.

"That's a secret." The silver haired jounin replied.

"Bunshin." Shino suddenly cut. "That's a bunshin!" he warned, and everyone then looked at the second Naruto whose arm was hanging limply by his side.

Sasuke smiled. "I told him to make a few and hide them around the training ground in case something like this happened." The Uchiha's smugness was pretty much warranted. "We had an hour to plan how to beat you all, you think we wouldn't take precautions against the Jyuuken?"

"We can't beat you three on three." Shikamaru said, sighing. "I yield." The Nara said, once he'd realized that he, Shino and Chouji were pretty much screwed at that point.

"Dammit!" Asuma yelled from the sidelines.

Shikamaru groaned. "Troublesome… so you probably had plans on how to beat all of us, then?"

"Pretty much, yes." Sasuke admitted. "Sakura had the intelligence and I had the tactics."

"Kiba would underestimate me." Sakura began, smiling as she stood with her arms folded over her nonexistent chest. "I only needed to distract him long enough until Naruto finished with Hinata, but I could have beaten him if we'd fought for longer. Ino needs someone to immobilize her opponents before she can take them out, so all I had to do was keep attacking."

Shino adjusted his sunglasses. "How did you get back up after being drained by my Kikaichu? They should have taken most of your chakra away." He said in a flat tone that was nonetheless laced with curiosity.

"Oh, that's easy. I have small chakra reserves so I get tired really easily." Sakura said, shrugging. "I'm used to running on fumes, training with those two, so… it doesn't really bother me as much as most people, and even without using chakra to enhance my muscles I'm still in better physical state than Shikamaru is so I really had no doubts about taking him out."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "If you hadn't toyed around with Ino, you could've taken out Shikamaru and we would have won without skirting defeat." He said, glaring at the pinkette.

"We were prepared for that, anyway." Sakura said, shrugging.

Chouji had returned to his normal size and sat on the ground, a bit dizzied, after a simple punch to his giant ball form that had shown him just why exactly Uzumaki had been capable of stopping him at all.

"Was getting caught part of your plans?" Shikamaru asked, looking not unlike someone who had just been told something very shocking, like Hitler having Jews under his employ during WW2 or along these lines.

"Actually, no." Sakura admitted, with a sheepish smile and tone. "I kind of got distracted with Ino when I should've just knocked her out and dealt with you as soon as possible."

"We came pretty close to losing because of that." Sasuke said, his voice deadpan as he did.

"Hey! I had to work out my frustrations." Sakura said with a huff. "Besides, I'm trying to pound sense into Ino, it's kind of my duty as her best friend." She said, gesturing with her hands at the unconscious blonde.

Sasuke sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"That was a rather ingenious stratagem." Shino stated, looking at Shikamaru, who was still in the ground. Shikamaru groaned and mumbled a 'thank you'. "I must train more intensely to make up for my deficiencies, if this is the level that is to be expected from a proper genin." The Aburame said, turning to Sakura, who blushed at the indirect praise.

The pinkette, however, wobbled on her feet for a second, making everyone remember the fact that she was dangerously close to Chakra Exhaustion, only to be caught by Naruto as she began to fall to the ground. Well, the Naruto bunshin, anyway.

"What is that clone? It's solid and it seems to be autonomous…"

"It is." Sasuke confirmed. "That's a Kage Bunshin. You guys did enough to beat one of those."

"Sounds important." Chouji said, shaking his head to eliminate the last spells of dizziness from it.

"It is. It's a B Rank jutsu." Sakura said, shrugging. "I don't know the details, though." She explained, sitting down next to Shikamaru as the clone gently laid her down. "Anyway… I'll… take a nap now…"


"There's nothing to it. My team kicked ass, plain and simple." Kakashi said, leaning against the bar and propping his elbows in it. "We made a bet and you two have to pay up. Don't worry, I'll be nice." Kakashi said, smirking. "I'll help your students with their Taijutsu, Kurenai, and I know how to kick your kids into high gear, Asuma… though it will cost you."

Asuma raised one eyebrow. "It will cost me what?"

"You'll have to teach Naruto wind Ninjutsu on top of teaching him how to use his affinity."

"I thought those went hand in hand." Asuma said, raising one eyebrow.

"Hien (Flying Swallow)." Said Kakashi, eye-smiling at him. "I don't know what kind of weapon would fit Naruto best, but he needs one and I'm thinking of getting all of my team to try out for weapons when I get the chance."

The Hien was something that went beyond simply channeling wind chakra through your weapon. That would make your weapon sharper, yes, but that's it. The Hien turned Asuma's trench knives from extremely dangerous weapons in melee range into a meat. It was designed for knives so that meant that Kakashi had an idea of what'd fit Naruto best. "I'll… think about it."

Kakashi shrugged. "And as for you, Kurenai…"

"If it involves something perverted, so help me, I will force you to make out with Gai." The kunoichi jounin grumbled, causing both Asuma and Kakashi to cringe.

Kakashi shook his head. "I'll need you to help me with Sasuke too." He said, rubbing his chin. "Even with the Sharingan doing the heavy lifting, having an idea of how Genjutsu works is very important. It's what separates an Uchiha Genjutsu from a master's Genjutsu." He explained.

Kurenai, of course, knew this. Ocular genjutsu were actually rather easy to break and avoid, as most relied on eye-to-eye contact and if one got away from the user's line of vision they'd break instantly and the variety in them was rather limited, which meant recognizing them was easier. While every Uchiha had the ability to use mid level genjutsu as a result of their sharingan, only Itachi was really capable of using master-level genjutsu on par with Kurenai.

Meaning, Genjutsu good enough to fool even the Sharingan and Byakugan.

"I'll agree, I guess."

"Tell you what, I'll also help you with Kiba and Akamaru. I know a thing or two about Ninken that I'm sure would surprise Kiba." The silver haired jounin said, an eye smile on his face.

Asuma sighed. "Kakashi… how the hell did you train these kids? I've never seen teamwork that good on a rookie team, even Inoichi, Shikaku and Chouza had a rocky start." The Sarutobi heir spoke, the stool that he'd been sitting in creaking as he leaned over to look past Kurenai, who'd ended up in the middle this time.

"I… had absolutely nothing to do with it! In fact, I only really began training them yesterday!"

Kurenai and Asuma felt their jaws hitting the floor, but they were busier contemplating the sentence that Kakashi had oh so cheerfully dropped. It was a bomb that left them feeling kind of cheated.

"I told you, I got the best three students from the academy and I wasn't kidding. Sasuke and Naruto have been friends for a long time and Sakura was extremely receptive to the verbal beatdown that Sasuke gave her to break her out of her Fangirlism. She's still got a lot to make up for, but her own innate talent more than makes up for it." The Elite Jounin stated, sounding as cheerful as he looked. "They passed the bell test before they even took it."

"Okay… You weren't kidding, then." Kurenai said. "I thought you'd only meant their grades but… they're that good by training on their own…"

Kakashi sighed. "They train very hard." He said, looking at the glass he held in his hands with apprehension. "I kind of feel like a dick for waiting for an entire month before actually teaching them anything. They learned tree walking in a couple of hours and they've already got the gist of water walking. I'll have to test Sakura's affinity and move on to Ninjutsu pretty soon, since they don't need my help for their Taijutsu… Maybe I should ask Gai for help on that end…"

It was really odd how, at times, Kakashi would Shunshin away the moment he was made aware that Gai was in the vicinity and how sometimes the Jounin would actually go looking. One would even think that they were friends rather than 'just' Eternal Rivals. Kakashi didn't seem to give much thought to their rivalry whatsoever, often coming up with ridiculously simple challenges he could beat Gai easily in whereupon the other would rant about Youth and leave Kakashi alone for a few hours while he beat his self imposed punishment training.

It left most people deeply confused as to what their relationship really was.

"You… probably shouldn't introduce your students to Gai yet." Asuma said. "It's tradition to scare them with him after their first year as Genin." He admitted.

"I don't think they'll spend a full year as genin." Kakashi said, smirking.

"They're good…" Kurenai said. "But being a good fighter isn't all that you need to get through the Chunin exams."

"That may be true." Kakashi said, granting her the point. "But I'd still bet on them. Heck, I'd put them in the chunin exams right now if I could. I don't know if they'd get promoted as they are now, but they'd survive and gain valuable experience and that's something I can't teach them." The copy nin said, shrugging.

Kurenai frowned, but said nothing.

"Anyway… I've got to go. I'll show up on time tomorrow to spice things up, too much of the same routine gets boring after a while…"

Without a further word, he got up from his stool and left, Kurenai and Asuma remaining there in complete shock.

"Kurenai." Asuma's voice sounded deeply disturbed.

"Yeah?" So did Kurenai's.

"Did we just witness the day when Kakashi decided to be on time for something?" Asked the male, his voice sounding almost fearful.

"We did." Answered Kurenai, her voice also having that same quality as Asuma's.

"Am I in a genjutsu?" The bearded jounin asked.

"Kai!" Kurenai yelled, disrupting her chakra flow. "No, we're not. My god… I… we have to see this. If this is true…"


Kurenai blinked, seeing how Kakashi was gleefully putting his team through the ringer by making them spar while clinging to a tree. More than once, she saw one of them fall, hit the floor and then get right back up to continue fighting. Naruto had fallen much more than the other two, since they were ganging up on him.

Seeing how even despite that he carried the least bruises, it had to be necessary.

Still…

She had something more important to report. That day, after confirming that, in fact, Kakashi had met his team at the designated hour (5 AM, which explained why Kakashi went to bed early last night) and actually stuck around for practice, she decided she needed to speak to someone.

"He wasn't only on time…" She mumbled, her face white as sour cream. "He was… early!"

It was just her luck that Asuma and the Hokage were in the same room. So was Itachi as well as a messenger of the Fire Daimyo, who'd come to negotiate the price of the standard Tora Retrieval Mission (that mission, hilariously enough, was actually one of the most paying missions in the entire roster because no one wanted to do it otherwise) by which I mean he was basically a courier who carried a letter where the Daimyo agreed to the new price.

Everyone except the delegate paled immediately. Even Itachi, who was already pale. "Then… we're headed for a disaster of epic proportions." The Uchiha said, his tone of grim finality, as if there was nothing that could avert the incoming tide of darkness.

The messenger raised one eyebrow. "Epic proportions?" He asked. "What does that mean?"

Asuma was tempted to just say 'it means it'll be big. Dumbass.', but reigned in his need at the last moment, instead leaving his father to deal with the unaware man.

"What he means is that this will be huge." Explained the Hokage, which reminded Asuma that yeah, every once in a while the family resemblance was there, at the very least, in their attitudes. Which kinda made him wonder if he'd ever become a perverted grandpa. Well, it'd mean becoming an insanely epic old man, too, so it wasn't all that bad. "Much like the wrath of a god."

"Exactly." Asuma said, taking in a deep drag from his cigarette and letting it out as the eldest in the room took over again.

The Hokage continued. "Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies." He said, to give the man a clear image. "River and seas boiling!"

"Forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes!" Kurenai said, shaking her head at the horrifying idea.

"The dead rising from the grave!" Asuma said, gesturing wildly.

"Human sacrifice." Itachi began, his tone grim and completely serious, yet somehow frantic as well. "Dogs and cats, living together!" He added, shivering. "Mass hysteria!"

"Okay, okay, I get it, I get it!" The man said, holding up his hands as if to placate the hysterical nins as they continued to panic. "But why is he being early such a big deal? Aren't ninja supposed to be responsible?"

"They are. Kakashi is special." The Hokage informed.


"Okay, kids, you did good. In fact, you impressed me. So, just for that, today I'm gonna teach you a few basic ninjutsu you can use for fighting! First, though, we'll test your affinities. I thought I'd have to buy Chakra paper to do this, but I stole some from Itachi." He absent mindedly say.

"So that was why he was raving today. Itachi-nii keeps careful stock of everything he has, so he was quite shocked when he couldn't find it." Sasuke said, glaring at Kakashi.

"He'll get over it." Kakashi said, dismissively. "Anyway, I only got two. You already know your affinities, right Sasuke?"

Sasuke nodded. "Lightning is my main affinity and I've got a minor affinity in fire." The Uchiha informed, nodding at the tall jounin, who hummed appreciatively.

"Luckily for you, I know plenty of Raiton jutsu for you. It's my main affinity, as well, though I can more or less use all elements with a bit of proficiency." The Copy nin spoke, pulling out two rectangular papers from one of his jacket's pouches. "The way this works is simple, you pour chakra into it and it reacts to tell you your affinity. Telling you what to expect is pointless since I'll be able to tell you anyway."

Sakura nodded and took her slip, eyeing it curiously. She began pouring chakra into it, little by little, and it grew wet within seconds.

"Okay, that's water." Kakashi said.

"Obviously." Sakura snarked.

"Anyway, I know some Suiton jutsu that you should be able to do. So long as you've got a water source, water is actually one of the most versatile elements. The chakra control and handseals are a bit of a problem to most people, but you should be able to get through both with no problem." Kakashi said, eye-smiling at Sakura. "Though in your case I don't recommend focusing too much on elemental ninjutsu, since your chakra control would do you better as a medic or genjutsu specialist, the choice is ultimately yours."

Sakura nodded, humming in thought. It was a heavy decision, after all, and was ultimately about what she wanted to do with her career as a ninja as she was still in her forming years and thus where her development went today would have ripples in the future.

"And now, Naruto!" Kakashi said.

Sasuke was actually rather curious what Naruto's affinity would be. He didn't expect anything silly like a twelve year old genin have three affinities or something, that was ridiculous and needed a bloodline. There is a reason why two affinities are necessary for the jounin promotion for ninjutsu specialists, because it's hard to do and requires a degree of elemental mastery that only people who actually train their affinities whenever they can achieve.

Training an affinity can take upwards of a decade if you're not innately talented in it and most people were only innately talented in a single element.

Even so, Naruto was a box of surprises and anything could come out of him. Sasuke had not expected the specific details of the Kage Bunshin, when Kakashi had explained it. It was a shame that the memory backlash would eventually cause Naruto to develop a split personality disorder, because the idea of using the jutsu to speed right through chakra control and theoretical studies was… kind of awesome.

The jutsu took most of Sasuke's chakra to make a half dozen clones, though, and they lasted only a couple minutes, so it'd be useless for him. A bummer, but you can't have them all. Still… again, that only made Sasuke think about his friend and the burden that he'd carried for so long.

Naruto's ridiculous chakra was a byproduct of having the Kyuubi sealed within him. Some of its chakra supposedly bled into Naruto's own and in a pinch, Naruto could draw from the fox's pool, essentially giving Naruto pretty much unlimited chakra.

Maybe his affinity would be affected by the fox, too? The fox hadn't displayed any elemental affinity in its attacks, but what was to stop it from having one? Its chakra mixed with Naruto's, so it was a very real possibility…

Naruto poured chakra into the paper…

… And it got neatly cut in half.

"That's wind." Kakashi informed. "Fortunately for you, since you won yesterday, I've got a great sensei lined up for you." The silver haired Shinobi said. "Also, since you all did so well, I've decided to let you guys get a weapon for yourselves and I will even teach you what I know of whatever weapon you choose to use!"

Sasuke scoffed. "We could pick a really exotic weapon and then you'd have nothing to teach us."

Kakashi chuckled. "Ah, so nice to see you're still an innocent, cute little genin. Sasuke, I got deployed more often during the Third War than the frequency with which genin take D ranks." Explained the scarecrow-named-man as he patted Sasuke's head. "If it can be used as a weapon, I've seen it used as such, and back then I had to rely on the Sharingan a lot since I'm not as ridiculously strong as I am today!" Chirped the overly cheerful sensei. "Anyway, it's optional, guys, you don't have to if you don't want to, but it's always useful to have a second set of skills you can fall back to. Overspecialization will cripple you."

The three genin nodded at that. Dedicating yourself to a single set of skills, no matter what they were, would be crippling for a field Shinobi, since there were ways to counter just about anything and the few techniques that couldn't be countered often required huge sacrifices, were ridiculously complex or outright bloodlines.

All three of them knew that much.

"Anyway… Off we go, to the biggest weapon shop I know of!"


I'm glad to see you guys actually like my depiction of Naruto. Keep in mind, I don't hate the original. Heck, he works within part one precissely because he's an idiot, because the story is upbeat and generally doesn't require you to look deep into it. I loved Dragonball and while I can't say I will ever like Naruto as much as I did Dragonball (mostly because Dragonball is the first anime I ever remember watching from start to finish and the widely reviled GT is one of the few animes that can make me cry like a baby, no really, just put in Piccolo's final death or the last clipshow and I. Will. Cry.), I did like it and would probably like Shippuden more if Sasuke hadn't done like the Fonz and jumped the shark. It's not that it's bad, it's just... Not for me.

I also love writting cheerful!Kakashi. The fact that I can use him to include that reference to one of the greatest comedic lines of all time is just icing on the cake. I am a strong believer in Troll!Kakashi, as well.

As for the Sharinhax's capabilities... Sasuke didn't copy the ability to treewalk. He observed how Sakura was molding chakra in her feet with it and worked from there. You cannot copy something that isn't a jutsu with the Sharingan. I do not like the Sharinhax since it's basically the rocket thrusters behind the jetpack that the series used to jump the shark, which means I won't add more ridiculous powers to it. If I do anything to it, is take away some of its power because otherwise it's the Easy Mode button for the Uchiha. Maybe I'll just pronounce its weaknesses more than canon did.

As for the team sitting down to read porn... Let's just say that since Naruto isn't going to bring the funny like in canon, Kakashi has to pick up the slack. The fact that he also got his students hooked on the masterpiece that is Icha Icha is just a byproduct. For the record, the one who bought and gave them the copies of Icha Icha was Naruto. Yes, he's Team 7's pusher. And I do believe I explained that there are censored versions of Icha Icha floating around...

As for the fight scene... I've come to realize that when you're writing a fight in a fic, making it a complete curbstomp is... boring. Even if it's because one of the characters is holding back, it's more interesting if the fights are close and it's even better if the characters have to go all out when fighting each other. And even when it's a curbstomp, you have to make the losing side look good. Have them fight smart and actually pose a threat. Otherwise, it just gets dull after a while, and I'd have to introduce more and more powerful villains to keep up with the heroes' growing power.

If you've noticed, there are parallels in Sasuke and Naruto's relationship to how standard yaoi doujinshi work. This, as many other things, was done in purpose. Yes, it's entirely deliberate. I'm completely aware of the Ho Yay between them and milking it for all its worth. If Kishimoto can do it, then so can I! As I've said before... I frikkin' love teasing fangirls. It's just something that is endlessly amusing for me.

Hey, at least I'm upfront about it, unlike the many assholes who pull bait and switch!