Uzumaki Naruto found a small spring of glowing, greenish blue liquid in a cave at Wave Country while out exploring. Thinking it's some plant nectar, she drank it and a world of pain and soon, power and knowledge followed. She just drank the Lifestream itself! FFVII X-Over SOLDIER Type!Fem!Naruto


Preparing

After the exams...

'Waaah...I met a guy as good as me in this dump! Isn't that great?' Naruto laughed boisterously as she got out of the shower on full frontal assault, with her towel-drying her hair, causing her teammates to sputter. 'I'm done so it's your turn!' she spoke, clearly in a good mood.

'PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!' they yelled while horrified that they saw EVERYTHING.

'Eh? Nande? It's just us here...' Naruto blinked while toweling the rest of herself dry.

'You're a growing girl and girls shouldn't be naked in a guy's room! Didn't ma tell you that over dinner?' Shikamaru spluttered out as he ad Choji were shutting their eyes tight.

'Yeah but it's just us. I don't see the big deal.' said Naruto as she started putting on her panties. 'I'll get mad if it was an adult who saw me naked. We're just kids so I don't care.'

'Has it ever occurred to you that we're adults in the eyes of the law because we're ninjas?'

'Really? I didn't know that.'

'You don't because we skip class everyday and mom makes a point to drill what we skipped into my head at home! Don't do this again!'

'How should I know we're emancipated adults already, gimme a break!'

xxx

Hokage's Office...

Team 7 and 8 watched the exam proceedings on July 8, the Forest Test and then the prelim days on 13 using Cloud's Mirror(that has to be recharged with chakra to keep the jutsu on it running). The purpose was to show them how far can teamwork take them and their shoddy teamwork was the reason why they couldn't take the exams.

Most were in shock regarding Shikamaru and Choji's performances who were two of the worst students in the Academy for the boys, and Naruto who was the worst in the girls yet she could fight with Lee on a great taijutsu match?

'T-that is Naruto? Seriously? That can't be right!' Sasuke cried in denial. His eyes wide from disbelief. This was the dobe? He was sure he was facing an alien who made a switch...

'That's right man, not even I know she's really this strong and we're pals!' Kiba choked out, bug-eyed.

'She takes being a ninja seriously. Especially since she's a girl.' said Kakashi. 'She leaves lecture-type lessons to play and train, hence she always has failing grades but she's always one of the top-notchers on physical activities, right?'

'Play and train?' Hinata mused. 'I understand the train part, but play...?'

'Naruto, along with Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji are the resident village pranksters. But the one supplying the pranks and the planning was Shikamaru and the one placing them strategically without getting caught while leading Kiba and Choji in for planting, was Naruto, so everyone gets to pitch in. If their pranks were real-life killing traps and poisons, Konoha would be dead long ago. That's how good they really are.' Kurenai told them to their disbelief. 'The fact that they can do it in broad daylight and not in pitch dark until it's too late speaks well of their stealth, especially Naruto who gets to vandalize the monument in bright paint and NOT get noticed until she's done. Sure, the kids run for it. The first to get caught is Shikamaru whose laziness cost him his stamina and endurance. Choji can't run for long either because he gets tired faster because of his obesity so Chuunin can easily catch them. Kiba stays out of the way for an hour or two at most, and it's his sister who catches him since he expertly uses scent killers that can evade a human's sense of smell, but never an Inuzuka and their dogs. Lastly, Naruto who gets to run for several hours to the point of ANBU of all people giving up on her, making them resort to asking Iruka-sensei to catch her as he is the only person who can find her with a jutsu unique to him. He's a last resort as he is a busy teacher.'

'As for playing, their idea of play was climbing on things, and running around, effortlessly scaling and hopping over obstacles which doubles as evasion training and escape. They make excellent saboteurs, assassins and demolishers. With the right equipment and planning, they can blow up a village on their own and manage to vandalize the Hyuuga Compound of all places with neon pink paint without the Hyuuga the wiser. That's the true skills of the supposed slackers and dobes you look down on. They are the most dangerous people in your graduating batch unlike those who scored high in the Academy as Rookie of the Year and Kunoichi of the Year.' Sasuke and Sakura who got the rank(the latter 'bought' by her mother) looked like they were stabbed.

Kiba was basking in the praise with pride, while the others have a hard time registering the truth. 'Awww shucks, sensei~!' Kiba grinned while blushing, 'You make me blush!'

'I'm just stating the facts we ALL know Kiba.' Kurenai snorted. 'In a way, your slacking paid off as your kind of goofing around actually trained your future ninja skills, so the Hokage let it slide. If you guys were goofing off for nothing, you'd be dropped from the program long ago as you'd be seen as not taking your training seriously and a waste of time and resources on the Academy's part. Luckily, the four of you did the former than the latter with great results.' Kiba snickered.

'The adults are confident that two or three of them will make Chuunin in one shot.' said Kakashi. 'These four slackers are worth looking at for ideal shinobi but also, some of you have talent. It's just that you never bothered to apply it. It's locked in because of your own limitations and day-by-day, that potential slowly disappears. Hinata and Shino: They have the natural talent to mask their presence without much effort and can sneak up on people and kill them, making them good assassins. Their family techniques also make them good spies with Hinata doing the seeing, and Shino the listening by using his bugs and his ability to communicate. However, their potential to be great is hindered by their social shortcomings and lack of confidence.'

'Next is Sasuke. He has a great potential to be a Weapons Master, a front-line shinobi and a combat specialist...if only he would lose his arrogance and superiority complex, and learn to work with others because there is no way you can do anything alone unless conditions are met. Then there's Ino. Being a Yamanaka Clan member and with her knowledge in flora, she could be an Interrogator following her father's footsteps or a medic-nin specializing in pharmacy but she prioritized her looks, boys and love-life concerns more than training. Sakura has the same problem when with her intelligence and perfect chakra control, she can be the next Tsunade or surpass her even. If all of you overcome the flaws I've stated, all of you can be great. We are showing you their progress through the mirror because it's to prepare all of you to face the real word Team 10 already knew of and prepared for accordingly. Now that you have seen their level and competency, I hope all of you have motivation to work harder and strive to be just as great or be better. Better than Shikamaru's fearsome intelligence, Choji's devastating brawn and Naruto's skills.'

xxx

Back at Konoha...

'Ne ne, the finals are a month from now right?' Naruto asked them. 'What will you guys do in the meantime?'

'Well...train. Kuroudo-sensei's been scarier on us while Asuma-sensei's nicer.' said Shikamaru. 'We'll be continuing the drills he gave us and that's it. He'll know if we did nothing after all.' he sighed in lamentation.

'Haha, sou da na!'

'Ah~! I can't wait to be a Chuunin and relax!'

"If only he knew the truth." Choji snickered. Chuunin is much, much busier...it's just that his aunt's post hardly does anything, but she still gets paid. And too bad for Shikamaru her department's full.

In the time of that one month, Shikamaru and Choji continued their physical training drills, while Naruto continued her kenjutsu drills of getting her arms used to waving a sword in high speed for two weeks, and squats to strengthen her legs, especially her knees and core. 500 drills each per arm which she stubbornly tried to accomplish in a day, and winds up only eating at night...but a big dinner nonetheless. She wound up eating two pots of rice, and lots of meat and fish her clones make for her. If an Akimichi saw her eat, even they would be in shock. Not even Choji or Choza ate as much as she did.

Shikamaru looked at himself in the mirror. Sure it's just two months and two weeks, but even he could see some muscle in himself. He thought that he should ahem, hide his growth by wearing long sleeves. He didn't want fangirls on his case any day. Sasuke can have them!

To Choji...he's not allowed to eat chips anymore by Cloud since too much sodium is NOT healthy just as Naruto is no longer allowed to eat Ramen unless extremely sparingly. Cloud told his mother by letter that she should make a sealing scroll's worth of healthy foods for her son to snack on while still gaining the necessary weight needed for family jutsus. But he too, is starting to sport some muscle under that weight. It's just hardly seen with that thick layer of fat over it.

To Naruto, her body's clearly well-toned, yet remaining slim, slender and curvy. Her only changes were that she gets physically stronger and her body gets more conditioned the more she works on it. The repetitions are annoying but she had no choice. It's her body she's training, not a jutsu! She can't cheat her way using Kage Bunshin! Then Cloud hasn't been coming home at all recently...wonder why?

xxx

The Cave...

'I barely managed to rescue these two.' said Cloud as he pulled in...Roshi and Han. Both men were unconscious. 'That man is on the move.' he said as Vincent and Shelke proceeded to seal in the men in the crystals using the Protomateria.

'Yes...sooner or later, he will target the vessels.' said Genesis. 'The only way to save them is to inject them with Mako. Mako killed Kurama in Naruto and she inherited the massive bulk of his power, didn't it?'

'It'll be hard trying to prove that to the world without revealing what we did which in turn reveals what we are.' Vincent deadpanned. 'How about simply turning the beasts into Summon Materia?'

'That could work.' said Shelke. 'But we must also change them by making them truly their own beasts, and not a part of the Primordial Demon. That way, even if that man acquires them, it'll be a futile effort.'

'Indeed. It'll require all four of us to do that and ugh, ten days per materia...' Genesis grumbled. 'I hope that we get more of us soon because four of us against the whole world's band of idiotic humans is so not fair!' he whined. 'WEAPONS we are but even we have limits too!'

The Planet's response to his whining?

He's 'born' in Konoha's river.

'Uggghhh...my pounding head...' he moaned as he got off the river, waterlogged and sopping wet. He was a tall, beefy man with slicked back long black hair, a strong, broad musculature and wore Military Fatigues. 'A lot of stuff is flowing into my head. Uhhh...I feel like having a hangover.'