"Speaking"

"Thoughts"

"Jutsu"

"Demon"

"Writing"

Hey guys sorry about taking so long for the update but apparently October is a busy month at my job. Things are settling down now and I should update sooner than I have been. I want to thank everyone for their comments and also I am looking for a beta so if you know someone who would like to let me know.

chibi monsta: Yes and No, he more wants to have Naruto indebted to him so that he can manipulate him to his way of thinking later on in life if need be.

roboguy45: Naruto had no plans that was an excuse so he didn't have to go with them and possible get kicked out of the restaurant in front of his team because of the Kyubi.

I do not own Naruto or Gamaran.

======================== Konoha =================================

Asuma smiled as he lite one of his cigarettes and watched as his team finished painting the Academy fence for their mission. They had come far in the past three weeks and done better than he had expected. The first week he had focused on getting them to work as a team and it went surprisingly well, each of them seemed to know where best to fit in during the exercises. It became obvious to the blondes that Shikamaru was a better strategist so they usually listened to his plans but it was Naruto who the two looked to in a pinch.

After the first week it was obvious to not only him but also Shikamaru and Ino that Naruto was beyond their level, though they didn't get upset about it as they knew he was better than them from the academy. Not wanting to stunt Naruto's growth he decided to give each of them more personalized training, along with team, so he could insure they were learning everything correctly and get to know them on a more personal level. Shikamaru was the easiest to get along with, as he assumed the boy was smarter than he let on and learned everything he taught him rather quickly. His lazy personality held him back some but Asuma was sure that during missions he would pull through for his team. With him relying on his family techniques often Asuma trained him to increase his chakra reserves and stamina so he could avoid being hit and hold targets longer.

Ino was a harder nut to crack, while it was obvious she wanted to be a shinobi and make her family proud he had trouble getting her to work. She was quick to complain and always worried she was going to mess up or damages her clothes. Naruto did his best to manipulate her by saying Sasuke only like strong girls but that only helped so much. After some time and thinking about the team dynamic he decided to work on her aim so she could support them from a distance and it would improve her ability to use her family techniques.

Naruto was by far the easiest of the trio to train, not only was he willing to learn but had a drive to become the greatest. Asuma had talked to Kakashi and found that Sasuke was the same way and it seemed the two refused to let the other grow stronger than the other. He difficult part about training Naruto was that he knew most of the skills a Genin needed to learn so Asuma decided sparring was the best option and would help him where need be. After the second week it was obvious to him that Naruto was already at a level above Genin in almost everything except Genjutsu and Taijutsu, mainly due to his use of Kenjutsu and his large reserves keeping I'm from using most Genjutsu. He had spoken to Kurenai about his Genjutsu problem and she theorized he might be able to use more advanced techniques but told him it wasn't smart to try learning Genjutsu at a high level. Asuma agreed and focused on helping the boy with his Taijutsu.

"We're all done sensei." Asuma looked up to see his team, slightly covered in paint, standing in front of him and Ino had an annoyed look on her face.

"Great, lets head back and turn in the mission and then I have a special training exercise to show you" this brought a smile to all of their faces and they quickly made their way to the Hokage tower. After dropping off the mission scroll, and Naruto glaring at an amused Hokage, the team made it to their training ground. Asuma finished his cigarette and tossed it to the ground as he looked at his team.

"Alright team, today were going to learn how to tree walk." He smirked as he got a confused look from two members of his team. "Like this." He turned around and walked to the tree behind him, without stopping he placed a foot on the trunk and began walking up the tree. Once he was a few feet up he turned to look down at his team. "Tree walking is about using channeling chakra out of your feet and using it to attach yourself to the tree. Now use too much and you will blow yourself off of the tree and to little won't stick, it's all about finding a balance." He jumped down and pulled out two kunai and handed them to Ino and Shikamaru. "Use these to mark your progress, if you start feeling fatigued take a break for a couple of minutes."

"Why doesn't Naruto have to do this?" Ino asked with a confused tone as she looked between the blonde and her sensei.

"I learned how to do this from my family scrolls already." Naruto calmly stated, he made sure not to sound arrogant.

"Of course you did, troublesome" Shikamaru stated as he studied the tree and processed what his sensei said.

"Now I'm going to leave a clone with you two while I go with Naruto." The duo nodded and headed towards the trees as a clone appeared. "Come on Naruto."

The boy nodded and followed Asuma to the middle of the training field, once there the Jounin pulled a piece of paper from his pouch and showed it to Naruto.

"Alright Naruto, I'm guessing but to be sure do you know water walking already?" after receiving a nod he carried on "Good, well since your skilled in pretty much everything else I think it's time to learn your elemental affinity." Naruto's eyes widened and a huge smile split his face, he had wanted to learn his element but chakra paper wasn't sold in stores so he wasn't sure how to find his out.

"Now all you have to do is channel chakra into the paper, it reacts differently to the types of chakra. Fire burns it, water soaks it, wind split's it, and lightning crumples it and earth makes it turn to dust." He said as he handed the paper over to Naruto. The boy nodded and took a breath to calm his excitement before slowly channeling his chakra into it. Nothing happened for a second and Naruto grew worried until it suddenly split into two pieces, both he and Asuma smiled brightly.

"So that means I have a wind affinity right?"

"Yup, futon is one of the rarest of all of the affinities in Konoha" Asuma said with a little pride but noticed Naruto look slightly sad, he assumed Naruto thought that meant no one could teach him. "And it just so happens to be my affinity" he said amused as Naruto snapped back to attention.

"Sweet, so what do we do now?" Naruto asked as he began to bounce on the balls of his feet from excitement but Asuma held up a hand.

"Futon is a powerful affinity, like all the elements it has both offensive and defensive jutsu but is primarily used for offense." He pulled out one of his trench knives and channeled some chakra into it before swinging it at a tree; Naruto watched a blade of chakra fly through the air and cut into the tree. "With a chakra blade like mine you can learn to do that."

"Awesome." Asuma smirked at the look of excitement that was in Naruto's eyes.

"That's my original Flying Swallow technique, depending on how much chakra you put into it you can change the distance it will fly." He placed the knife back before walking over and pulling a leaf off of a tree. He walked over to Naruto and placed it into his open palm than covered it with his other hand and channeled chakra. Naruto watched intently as chakra covered Asuma's hands and he heard a small rush of wind, Asuma smirked and lifted his hands to reveal the leaf cut in half with one clean cut. "The first exercise is to take a leaf and channel your chakra to cut a leaf in half like this. When focusing try to imagine your splitting your chakra in two and grinding them together, do it so that the two sharpen one another into fine pieces. The thinner and sharper the better." Naruto nodded and walked over to a tree right before he held his hand in the ram sign and created ten clones, each one grabbed a leaf and sat on the ground focusing their chakra.

"So you know the secret of the shadow clone huh?" Asuma asked with a chuckle.

'Ya it was in the scroll I learned it from, I could make a lot more clones but I'll see how it goes with these few first." Asuma nodded as the original walked over a grabbed a leaf before sitting with his clones. Asuma pulled out a cigarette out and walked over to check on Ino and Shikamaru.

=================== Uzumaki Compound, One Week Later ===================

Naruto stood in his yard staring across the field at Sasuke, both standing in the ready positions of their particular fighting styles.

"Ready" said Naruto as he summoned his Bokken to his hand.

"Set" Sasuke said as he crouched slightly lower to the ground and activated his Sharingan.

"Go" both said simultaneously, Sasuke quickly launched himself at Naruto and drew a kunai. Naruto stood ready with his Bokken vertically in front of him. Once in range Sasuke launched his kunai at Naruto's right shoulder and went to attack his left side.

"Renkaiten" Naruto started to swing his blade with his right arm before pulling it with his left and pushing it with his right towards Sasuke. The raven haired Genin followed everything with his eyes and marveled at the amazing Kenjutsu skills of his friend before ducking under the quick strike and attempting to hit the know open stomach of the blonde. Naruto quickly jumped back when he realized his strike missed and barley avoided the blow, sliding back some he charged forward after gaining his footing and switching his sword back to his right hand. Sasuke quickly dodged a vertical strike at his head and countered with a quick jab to Naruto's jaw, the blonde took the blow and brought his elbow up hitting Sasuke's chest as he feel back.

Sasuke rolled backwards with the blow and rose back in a crouch staring at Naruto while the blonde shook his head from the blow to the chin. He smirked at his friend before rushing forward with a sword, Sasuke saw with his eyes what was about to happen but didn't fully grasp what he saw.

"Tanryuu Hibaku" Still out of his range Naruto pushed his blade forward and let it slip through his fingers, grabbing the hilt before it left his hand and twisting his body so his right arm extended more. Because of the position of the blade his eyes did not fully see the technique and he was caught in the shoulder full force. As he flew back he saw Naruto approaching, quickly he threw a shuriken with his left hand and kunai with his right, forcing the blonde to halt his pursuit. Sasuke landed on his feet and quickly flew through some hand signs.

"Katon: Great Fireball" A large fireball, the size of Sasuke, formed in front of him and flew towards Naruto.

"Futon: Drilling Air Bullet" Naruto took a deep breath and then slammed his hand into his stomach to release a large ball of air at Sasuke. He had found the jutsu in his family scrolls and had been practicing it after learning he had Futon. The two jutsu clashed and it caused the fireball to swell in size before exploding. Naruto stood ready as smoke filled the field and moved quickly as kunai shot out of the cloud at him before returning fire with his own kunai. Soon Sasuke emerged from the smoke, no cuts visible, and rushed Naruto with a fist drawn back. Naruto went on the defensive as Sasuke went through a flurry of jabs and straight punches to keep the blonde moving. Sasuke followed the movements with his Sharingan forced Naruto into a pattern and when he threw a left jab he pulled it and brought his right up, catching Naruto's chin and throwing his head back. He followed through by spinning on his foot and kicking Naruto in the ribs and sent him tumbling across the yard.

"Damn, that one hurt" Naruto said as he rose up from the ground and rubbed his ribs.

"Well that stab wasn't exactly a tickle." Sasuke said with a smirk on his face "Now let's end this."

Naruto let out a sigh before gripping his Bokken with both hands and nodding at Sasuke. The two rushed each other, Sasuke with his fist back and Naruto drawing the blade back. When they meet Sasuke punched Naruto in the face as the blonde connected with Sasuke's open side, both flew back from the force of the blows and lay on the ground breathing heavily. They turned their heads as they heard clapping and saw Yugao sitting in a tree.

"Bravo boys." She hopped down from the tree and walked over to them as they sat up to look at her.

"How long where you there Yugao-neechan?"

"I heard you to walking through the house and came out to see what was going on, a very good match I must say." Both boys smiled at the praise. "So how is our team Sasuke?"

Sasuke sat quiet for a moment thinking about his team, they had barely passed Kakashi's test for them. They were told to get a bell from him to pass but he only had two for the three of them, at first they all went out on their own trying to get the bells. He had at least touched one while fighting Kakashi but none of them got a bell, at lunch Kakashi tied Kiba to a tree and told them not to feed him and the true meaning of the test. Once he left Sasuke realized if he wanted to pass they needed to be in top form so he gave Kiba some food and Sakura followed suite, of course Kakashi appeared and they feared they had failed but he told them they passed. Since then they had worked solely on team work exercises and it wasn't going well, Kiba wanted to prove he was better than Sasuke and the leader, Sakura only wanted to get his attention and he just wanted to train and become stronger. He let out a sigh and looked at Yugao and Naruto.

"It could be better, if Kiba would stop trying to prove himself and Sakura would leave me alone for five minutes we could make some progress but were fine for now." Yugao let out a sigh; she was sure if Sasuke was a little friendlier it would help but nodded and stood up.

"Well I'm making sushi for dinner, Sasuke will you be joining us?"

"No thanks, I have some leftovers I need to finish or they will go bad." He stood and groaned as his body ached but headed for the front gate, waving goodbye as he left.

"Well Naruto how about you come talk to me in the kitchen while I prepare dinner" she said with a smile but Naruto could tell it was more of an order than a request. He smiled and hopped up from the ground and followed her into the house as she asked him about his team.

========================= Hokage Office ===========================

Hiruzen sat behind his desk smoking his pipe as he finished the last of his paperwork for the day when a knock came at his door and Asuma poked his head in.

"Hey pop, you got a second?"

"Of course, I was just finishing up." He waved his son in and put his pipe down as he leaned back into his chair "What can I do for you?"

"Well it has to do with Naruto." Asuma said as he sat across from his father and let out a sigh. "I'm worried about how the civilians are acting around him, none of them have caused problems but I can see it the hate in their eyes every time we take a mission in the village. It's the main reason I only do the chores you and the elders assign, I just feel like he is going to snap one day if people don't lighten up."

A frown came across Hiruzen's face as he thought about what his son said, he had hoped people would have gotten over their hate by now but it seemed it was just wishful thinking. He let out a long sigh and turned to look out at the village.

"Have there been any problems"

"No, but you can see the hate in their eyes and anger in their voices as they whisper while we walk past. With me there no one tries anything funny but it's only going to take one slip up and Shikamaru and Ino will start asking questions." Hiruzen nodded and rubbed his temples, why did these people have to be so stupid.

"How is he doing on the team?" He asked wanting to hear any good news, Asuma smiled and let out a small chuckle.

"Great, the three of them get along well and he seems to have become the unofficial leader of the group. He helps me teach Ino and Shikamaru stuff he already knows and doesn't complain one bit about the missions. His skills are amazing for a kid his age and he absorbs everything I teach him like a sponge, did you know he has a wind affinity?" He watched his father turn around and shake his head with a small look of surprise. "Well he does and he's already on the boulder cutting exercise."

"Impressive, I take it you're going to teach him your Flying Swallow technique."

"Yup, it will be his reward for finishing the boulder exercise, his control is good enough and with his crazy swords techniques he's going to be a force to reckon with." The two Sarutobi chuckled together for a minute before a thought came to Hiruzen and he looked at his son.

"Do you think their ready for a C rank mission?" Asuma thought for a minute before nodding.

"Sure, they've proven they can work together and have great teamwork."

"Good, I have a perfect mission for you" he reached into his desk and pulled out a scroll "This is an order for minerals and supplies from the Land of Iron, nothing vital is in it and I usually have a Jounin run it for me but it would be a good place for Naruto to visit and clear his mind. Plus it give them all some experience outside the village." Asuma thought it over for a second before nodding in agreement.

"Sounds good, do you mind if I take it know and go inform them we will be leaving in the morning?" Hiruzen shook his head and handed him the scroll before looking back at his desk.

"I will fill out the paperwork tomorrow."

"Great well I'll go inform my team and see you at home" Asuma stood and took the scroll before heading to the door.

"Of course and do tell Kurenai hello for me" he said with a smirk as his son stumbled and blushed slightly before leaving the room and causing Hiruzen to chuckle.

================================ Uzumaki Compound ====================

"So how's your Kenjutsu training going Naruto-kun?" Yugao had been questioning the boy for a while now and after being satisfied with the information she moved on to how he's been since she's been gone on missions.

"Well I've learned all of the techniques in the scrolls but I need to practice with them more to bring out their full potential." She looked at the boy in surprise, she had seen how many different techniques he had to learn and the fact he knew them all was surprising for someone his age.

"So that's why you were sparring with Sasuke even after your team training" she said in understanding as the blonde shook his head.

"Yea, no one else I know is close enough to my level to give me a fight where I can go all out. Asuma sensei and Hayate help out to but they don't have as much free time for sparring as Sasuke." He let out a sigh as he finished.

"I understand, well I have a week off so maybe tomorrow we can go a few rounds." A smile spread across his face and he jumped to pull her in a hug.

"Yes, we haven't sparred in forever!" Yugao chuckled and pried the blonde off of her.

"Yes, yes, now go read or something while I finish dinner." Naruto nodded and headed back out into the backyard where he quickly created twenty clones and sent them towards the far area of the compound. He had purchased a large amount of stone to train his wind affinity and was nearly finished, he could cut one but Asuma said the cut could be better and wasn't going to help him with the final step until it was. He watched as the clones headed off to practice and pulled out a fuinjutsu scroll and began looking it over. He was very happy with his skills in fuinjutsu and his Jiji had told him that he was unmatched in the art by anyone in Konoha.

Currently he was working on lowering the amount of hand seals he needed for some of his combat seals. The hardest part of that was not only did you need to work on the proper amount of chakra but he needed to be able to envision the seals and create them with chakra. It was an extremely difficult to do and he has only been able to do it for one of his so far and that was, ironically, the chakra suppression seal.

"Naruto! Asuma is here for you." The blonde looked up from his scroll and looked towards the back door as Asuma came walking out towards him.

"Hey Naruto, what are you working on." A loud crack made them turn to see one of Naruto's clones standing next to a broken stone "Other than that."

"Well I'm working on seal less fuinjutsu." Asuma looked slightly shocked by the console statement but chuckled and shook his head.

"Of course, any way I came by to tell you was going on a C rank mission tomorrow morning. We're delivering a scroll to the Land of Iron so pack for a week. The area is also high in the mountains and snows almost year round so pack warm clothes."

"Really?" the boy stood shocked at the sudden news and his mind began rushing with thoughts of everything he will need.

"Yup, also would it be possible to borrow three of your storage scrolls so me Ino and Shikamaru can use them?" Asuma asked breaking his Genin from his thoughts.

"Sure, hold on let me go get a couple for you guys." He led Asuma into the study of his house and pulled out three scrolls about two feet long and six inches wide. "Here these should be able to hold everything you'll need for a week."

"Great, meet at the front gates at six tomorrow, I want to get an early start." Asuma said as he collected the three scrolls before saying good bye and heading to find his other students. Naruto watched him leave and then went to work collecting clean clothes, food rations and equipment for the trip.

"So your first C rank huh?" Naruto looked up and saw Yugao standing in the doorway looking at his things. "You should pack extra socks, keeping your feet dry during long trips will help to keep you from getting blisters."

Naruto nodded and went back to packing as Yugao gave him advice on what to pack and even advice for the trip.

========================== Konoha Front Gates, Next Day ==================

Naruto stood by the gates with Shikamaru bouncing on his toes from the adrenaline in his system. He normally wouldn't be this excited but this was the first time he was going to leave the village since his birth and he could barely sleep the night before from all the thoughts of new things to see. He was wearing his standard clothing but had changed his shirt to a long sleeved blue one to help when they entered the more frigid climates. He had also spent most of the evening looking over seals that could help block the cold or keep them warm in the mountains.

"It's too early for you to be this troublesome" Shikamaru said through a yawn as he lay down on the ground.

"Sorry but unlike some people I've never been outside the village plus were going to the Land of Iron. I wonder if will have time to do some shopping or maybe find someone to spar with?" Shikamaru rolled his eyes at his teammate but held a small smile. He wasn't as oblivious to the actions of the civilians as Asuma and Naruto believed but he didn't know the reasons for them. While a part of his mind told him to investigate a large part said that it wasn't a good idea, he figured whatever the reason Naruto would tell him if he trusted him so he has been trying to slowly get the blonde to open up.

"Well it's a two day trip and sensei said pack for a week so I bet we could get him to let us stay for a day." Naruto smiled at Shikamaru's idea and then noticed Ino walking towards them with an annoyed look.

"Morning Ino!" Naruto chirped happily only to back away in fear as the girl gave him a glare that promised pain.

"What's so good about it?" the boys made a mental note of the fact Ino was not a morning person. They stood in a comfortable silence until Asuma finally arrived.

"Moring Team, ready to hit the road?" Ino let out a small growl and Asuma quickly learned the same fact Shikamaru and Naruto had found moments before. "Ahem, alright then let's get this mission started.