Chapter Seven

Battle with Fox

"I'm no longer apart of Akutsuki." Naruto stated as he held his umbrella hat in his hand, ring on his right hand on his pinkie and cloak with red clouds surrounding his body before it burst into ravens. A certain Uchiha's signature genjutsu. Sasuke's eyes widened at the technique.

"I'm here to have a battle, no holding back you three. I need to gage your abilities and see what area suit's the two genin best and how long the Copy Cat Nin can last in battle." Naruto's voice echoed as he talked, his tricks working absolutely perfectly.

"Damn it, get moving, don't stay in one spot for long, he's still injured so he won't last for long!" Kakashi ordered as he moved around, but not fast enough as a group of ravens circled him and attacked, transforming into spinning shurikens in a second. Kakashi went to form the hand signs for Kai only to be stopped instantly as a shuriken lodged into his hands.

Sakura and Sasuke watched as their sensei just stood there, as if he couldn't move. Sakura was the first to realize that he was trapped in a genjutsu since the ravens around Sasuke and her had disappeared. They had been released from the genjutsu earlier so they weren't affected. She ran up to her sensei, made the hand signs and slammed her hand into her sensei yelling "KAI!" Kakashi was instantly released.

The silver haired man looked around for a second, looked down at Sakura and then back up to the spot where Naruto once stood. The blonde was gone, but Kakashi knew he was near by, ready to attack. "Get into a defensive position, we don't know when he'll attack or who he'll attack." Kakashi ordered immediately.

The two genin followed his orders and the three got into a small three people triangle, each protecting each other's backs. "Better have a better plan then this, it won't work on Zabuza." Naruto whispered from within the circle, making team 7 leap apart and look at the blonde in the middle. "If you can't keep up with me and keep track of where I go, you'll lose in this fight, meaning one of you will die if not all of you." Naruto lectured as he slowly put his umbrella hat on the ground and then simply slipped out of his Akutsuki cloak. His eyes switched back to sapphire but stayed slited.

"What are you talking about. I won't let any of you die. Those who don't follow the rules are trash but those who abandon their friends are lower then trash." Kakashi stated as he rushed forward into an attack. Kakashi went to slam his fist into Naruto's cheek in a side punch but the blonde dodged easily, stepping to the side and avoiding the attack. Naruto then grabbed Kakashi by the wrist, twisted it and pulled the silver haired jounin over his shoulder where he disappeared and reappeared over said man's back, kicking him into the ground…where he disappeared in a poof of smoke.

A log laid where Kakashi once did. Naruto raised a single eyebrow. "Good Kakashi, you can keep up slightly, but then again, you can't hide from me, but I can from you." Naruto stated as he slipped into a shadow of a tree, concealing himself perfectly. Sasuke and Sakura both watched carefully in a tree. Sasuke had to drag Sakura up it so they weren't in the way or in any danger as Kakashi fought, but he realized they were still in danger as the blonde slipped into the shadows.

Sasuke couldn't sense him at all and he couldn't see said blonde. "You know, maybe if I help you activate you Sharingan, it will keep you alive." Naruto whispered in the young Uchiha's ear, crouched right next to the two. Sasuke jumped back, dragging Sakura along.

"If you can't even sense me right next to you Uchiha, then you'll lose in the up coming fight." Naruto stated, trying to rile the Uchiha up and fast. It worked, Sasuke bristled at the insinuation and jumped at Naruto. He kicked and punched, and all the while, Naruto dodged. Finally when Sasuke went for an upper caught, Naruto dodged, and round house kicked the Uchiha's legs, and kicked him again into another tree. Sasuke fell unconscious.

"I'll need to work on his taijutsu and teach him another fire jutsu, that might make him stronger." Naruto said to himself. The blonde smiled as he silently moved over to the pink haired girl who was frozen to the spot, on the tree from earlier. To terrified to move after watching her Sasuke-kun get beat easily. Naruto landed in front of her, sapphire staring into emerald.

"You freeze to easily, but you have the Chakra control to become a great medic nin, I'll teach you some easy to use medical knowledge and some more fighting styles, so you don't have to worry about that." the blonde stated. The girl nodded her head silently as she herself, was left behind to think of what the blonde had just told her.

Naruto easily moved through the trees, tracking the scent of the older shinobi. He couldn't wait to attack the Copy Nin. Even though Naruto had fought against a full fledge Sharingan many a time, he had heard Kakashi only used his in dire situations. He wanted to see if Kakashi would use it against him. It would be intriguing to see if Kakashi could last anyways.

Naruto silently passed over the Copy Nin who was looking around wildly, hoping to catch a glimpse of the genin. Naruto had to shush himself because he was about to laugh. Watching a jounin act like a genin was rare but funny at the same time. "You know flailing about like a genin won't help you much, I mean come on, you are of no use right now." Naruto stated as he dropped kicked Kakashi in the shoulder, knocking some of the breath Kakashi had, out.

"Now calm down and think properly, and I'm sure you will win. Now lets get back to the other two and we will talk." Naruto said as he wondered back to where he had knocked Sasuke out to see Sakura ignoring the Uchiha in favor of reading a scroll she must've had hidden in her pouch. Kakashi had been behind him the entire time.

Naruto sighed, went over to Uchiha, did some hand signs and had water falling over the Fainted one easily waking him in an instant. "Gah, what happened?" Sasuke spluttered as he sat up and spat water out. It was a total pain to take care of another Uchiha heir. "Now that we're all awake and here, I believe we can begin training since we only have five days left to train." Naruto said calmly, looking at the three in front of him as if they were academy students.

"Now did anyone know what they did wrong in this battle against a single person that lead to your down fall?" Naruto asked as he stood away from his Team.

Sakura instantly raised her hand. Naruto nodded to her. "Well, I rely to much on my teammates and we didn't work as a team." She announced a little annoyed. Naruto nodded and then turned to Sasuke. "and what of our resident avenger?" Naruto said sarcastically. Sasuke growled and looked away. Naruto sighed tiredly as he answered for the Uchiha. "You ignored Sakura instead of asking for help, you can't win against an Anbu level ninja by yourself, your just fresh out of the academy. Plus I didn't see very good taijutsu from either of you. We'll work on jutsu and taijutsu with you two." Naruto explained as he turned over to Kakashi who was fidgeting.

"Now we get to Hatake." Naruto ignored the scowl and growl coming from the two genin as he addressed his supposed sensei. "You're a leader, the head of our little…'Team', and you froze in the middle of the attack. You panicked when I attacked you alone. Slow and reflexes just as slow. If you don't speed up your game, you'll lose cause I can promise that Zabuza uses speed and silence to win a fight." Naruto chided and explained, ever calm and firm. He still stood ten feet away from the team at the moment, not letting them touch him.

"How do you know all of this, you didn't fight Sakura and you took me out immediately!" Sasuke shouted out as he stood instantly to defend himself. Naruto turned to him, his slited sapphire eyes glowing with fire. "Do you expect the enemy to just let you get ready for an attack or attack straight away Uchiha!" Sasuke cringed at the volume Naruto used as he addressed him. "They are going to attack straight away and not give you a chance, and if they are given a chance, they will kill you." Naruto stated firmly.

The two genin and jounin bowed their heads in shame, especially Kakashi since he was supposed to be the leader of the group. "Now I suggest that Kakashi goes guard Tazuna for an hour and helps build the bridge wearing weights and then after that he can run around town five to ten times to increase his speed. Sakura and Sasuke will stay with me as I teach them jutsu and Taijutsu." Naruto instructed as he handed Kakashi weights, about five, each weighing twenty pounds.

"But shouldn't Kakashi be telling us what to do?" Sakura asked, looking a little nervous. "Yes, but since he seems incapable of doing this, I will be taking over for a little bit, but this will be our secret, so no telling anyone." Naruto stated firmly. Everyone who wasn't Naruto nodded their heads in agreement.

"Okay Kakashi-sensei, get going." Naruto ordered as he pointed to the house. Kakashi put the weights on and disappeared. Naruto turned to the two genin and handed the two black looking wrist bands. "Put these on, no taking them off." Naruto ordered and once the genin had them on, he told them what they were, which sent them into a fit afterwards. "those wristbands have a jutsu to were you won't be able to remove them until three days are up, so in other words, you can't use your chakra for three days." Sasuke and Sakura were clawing at their wrists, trying to so vainly remove the bracelets. "Just to give you a chance, I will wear one too." and just to add insult to injury, Naruto slowly put his on.

"But I can remove mine whenever." he slid it back off. Then put it back on. Sasuke and Sakura were glaring their strongest at him. "These will be used to help your taijutsu, no using chakra to rely on and no jutsu. This way your fighting styles will be strengthened and I too will improve. Two on one doesn't sound to hard for you weaklings." Naruto mocked.

The two instantly attacked, Sasuke pulling out a kunai and Sakura a shuriken, throwing the weapons instantaneously, but missed as Naruto dodged and disappeared. Sasuke and Sakura were on the ground instantly, faces in the ground, and dirt in their mouths. "Now, are you going to listen to me or am I going to have to knock you down every single day?"

34

Naruto sat at the end of the table as he ate dinner, on the other side of the table sat a bunch of disgruntle genin and jounin. The three were absolutely tired. They had been training non stop to be ready for Zabuza. It was currently two days from the fight against said man and now the two genin were working on tree climbing using chakra, Sasuke had been given twenty pounds of weight for each limb while Sakura got ten pounds.

Their strength and power, speed and control had grown. Naruto was impressed entirely since fighting him wasn't easy and now two Genin were at least Chuunin level. Kakashi had regained his speed he had when he was in Anbu and Sasuke was only a little ways behind in his speed. Sakura was good at genjutsu but Naruto chose to teach her Med jutsu, knowing that this team would need a medic nin in the future.

But what really annoyed Naruto was the fact that he couldn't get Sasuke's Sharingan to fully evolve or awaken for a matter of fact. He'd come close, but it would just fade out, making him lose his temper and attack harder, trying to get it to awaken. But he just couldn't, it just refused to do so.

Naruto wasn't sure, but he was beginning to think that when Itachi had used Tsukiyomi on Sasuke, it had messed with the connection to the Sharingan and making it impossible to awaken it. Chances were that Sasuke would never get his famous Sharingan.

But for now, Naruto wouldn't worry about that, he would worry about the fight coming in only a couple of days. Naruto looked up at his team, seeing that Naruto wanted to say something, all three looked up at him. "We'll take the next two days to rest, we need to be in good shape when the battle comes and for that, we all will guard the bridge." A collective sighs broke out, but Naruto smirked from what he was about to say.

"But we will help build the bridge. From what Kakashi said, Tazuna is lacking helping hands, so we help." Groans echoed the next few minutes throughout dinner.