Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

Author's Note: Chapter 10 now. Update times are slow, but I think chapter lengths are getting a little longer though. This chapter isn't going to be too long and there's no real action. I'm going to be introducing OCs so please don't flip too much. It's all for the sake of this arc which is dedicated to character growth and training. Thanks for the reviews.

To Leaf Ranger: Sorry about portraying Gai that way. I'm gonna try to redeem him in later on in the story. I did consider having him start them off in a not so intense way, but it seemed awkward writing it.

To ichi'nukenin-Namikazemaki: Not quite. I haven't quite worked out all the details yet, but he will find out about Fox/Naruto's identity. It won't be for a long while, though. I think most of Naruto's interaction with Sasuke will be as Fox.

Chapter 10

Training Camp, Part 2

"So, you're leaving for two weeks with Gai and some other fellow genin, right?" A woman in her mid-twenties said. She had long dark hair with purple eyes and wore a simple doctor's coat over a yellow blouse and black squirt. She also wore glasses and her hair was tied back into a ponytail.

"Hai, until our sensei's get back." Naruto said, rubbing his arms in the memory of the amount of push-ups he did earlier that day. He had no idea about whether to be thrilled or filled with dread. "All of the appointments during that time would have to be cancelled."

"Tch." The woman scowled while crossing out a few dates on her notepad. "It's so hard to get regular visits here for you, considering all your duties. Hell, you're still running some B-rank missions in between days! I'd be damned if you get another A-rank or Kami forbid, an S-rank."

"The village needs me."

"Well, the village can wait! They send me patients they want fixed, but can't wait for them to properly heal before sending them out again! REALLY!"

"Yuka-san, it's just a training trip this time." Yuka fumed. Naruto was the one who needed these sessions regularly. She knew that he didn't consider these appointments at the top of his priority list. But really, none of her other patients did either.

Akito Yuka was a psychiatrist, one of the few non-Yamanaka, for many higher ranking shinobi. She would take on mostly jonin and a few ANBU, which gave her a higher authority on classified matters. She'd seen and heard many screwed up tales but Naruto probably had the best of them.

Seriously, what did Danzo hope to accomplish sending a lone boy to a party only for everyone within that building to be eliminated? Guards, guest and servants, involved or not. Sadly, the Sandaime had limited influence on these things and even he agreed, reluctantly, that mission had to be done. Just not in such a... brutal fashion.

Her number one patient, Naruto, already had a torturous past that had to be sorted out. Danzo did not understand that. Hell, she was surprised when Danzo made no objections to his transfer into the regular forces.

Yuka glanced at the running camera beside them. It was part of the sessions and for her to better study her patients reactions. Naruto of course did not like it at all, but he understood its purpose and he did not complain about it.

"Fine. But... Enjoy your time off." she said, now rather quiet. Not many ANBU survive a year doing the most dangerous missions for the village. Plenty leave, unable to handle the immense stress for long periods of time. Hatake Kakashi being one. And he was lucky. All the lucky ones leave. Others die or, rather rarely, breakdown completely. Naruto had no option of permanently leaving. Well not yet anyway. He would have to wait until the village was in better shape. Until then, he was trapped in a twisted fate.

Originally, the Hokage wanted to promote him to jonin. However the civilians and some shinobi's animosity quickly made him reconsider it. Jonin made many public appearances and Naruto certainly did not like parading around as a high-ranking official when others saw it as an outrage. Jonin also had many other responsabilities and duties to the village such as leadership. Being the child he was, he could not fully adapt as a jonin without the experience that came with years of duty to the village and the teamwork they used consistently. There was only one person he was able to coordinate with and he couldn't be around.

Truth be told, it would've been too much of a drastic change from the life he had been leading.

Chuunin was also an option. However Danzo deemed it a place to be too ineffective and he was already above that level of skill. Besides, he liked to keep his weapon in the shadows.

Naruto blinked at her and gave a slight smile before walking out the door. Yuka smiled back at him before shutting off the running camera.
-

Naruto placed a plastic waterproof cylinder in his bag that contained a storage scroll for his books. It was the third day since his sensei and the other jonin left on an emergency mission. Yesterday, the Hokage informed them that it would be two weeks before they got back, judging from the mission status. Lovely. Everyone else looked like that they wanted to die right there.

Placing two steel square plates for a new project he was going to start, Naruto looked up to find one of his co-workers staring down at him. The newcomer was extremely pale with short black hair, somewhat reminiscent of Sasuke's hair, and wore his ROOT uniform, mask in place.

"Ohayo, 15." Naruto greeted. The only identity the ROOT branch used was numbers. Everyone member had a number. The smaller the number, the higher rank he had. Larger number, lower ranking. Naruto was 9, of course.

"Are you packing for a mission?" Came an emotionless voice. Man, even he couldn't pull off that lack of emotion.

"Well..." It was sort of a longterm mission being on a genin team. "It's a training trip."

"Oh."

"Yeah..." Naruto carefully placed a silver chain with a sharp spearpoint at the end in the bag. He wasn't quite sure why he wanted to take that.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..." It was damn hard to create a conversation with them.

"..."

"Hey, you do any drawings lately?" Strangely, 15 had an interest in art. Naruto took comfort in that knowing at least one of his roommates was not an inhuman killing machine. Besides, he liked to sketch during his free time.

"No." Naruto almost sweatdropped. So much for that...

"I'll get going then."

"Bye." Yeah, a conversation. Naruto swung a dark blue travelling cloak around him, picked up his bag and exited the building.

Thankfully, Gai actually decided to depart in a good time in the morning, at nine o'clock. He had his huge, blinding grin plastered on his face while Lee's own smile mirrored his own. Naruto was the last to arrive, though normally he prefered to be early.

"Well, let's get going then." he suggested. But Gai held up a hand.

"Before we go... I offer to you a special suit to amplify your Flames of YOUTH!" he cried out while pulling out several horrendous, green spandex outfits that he and Lee wore. They all blinked, then again and rubbed their eyes and blinked again for good measure. Silence descended amongst them.

Naruto struggled to not react at all, Hinata hid her face behind her hands and the sane half of Team Nine had their eyes twitching uncontrollably. Lee sobbed with happiness and Sakura and Ino hugged each other in fear. Sasuke glared at it as if the intensity of it would burn the spandex. Choji froze in mortification as he was about to chomp down on his last chip and Shikamaru muttered some unclean words along with his favorite catchphrase. Kiba's jaw opened unintentionally and Shino's bugs started to crawl over him. Even they were agitated by it. Surprisingly, Neji was was the first to respond.

"Hell. No." he said through clenched teeth.

"Gai-sensei, you already asked us this question." Tenten deadpanned.

"For you two, not for the rookies!" he replied with the huge grin on his face. "Well, anybody?"

"No thanks!" They all chorused. Nevertheless, Gai's spirit did not dim down at all.

"If anyone changes their mind, come and see me for your youthful spandex." And they set off without another disturbance. But then Gai decided to pick up the pace and everyone groaned. Thankfully, he didn't go inhumanly fast.

"Gai-sensei, if I may ask," Lee said. "Where are we going to train?" Gai flashed a smile and a thumbs-up.

"Up to a village in the mountains, near Takigakure's border. It is rather isolated and is a youthful place to train!"

'The Kuraudo mountains?' Naruto thought. 'There are strange legends about that place... Not to mention that thugs and bandits surround the area...'

Isolated areas were where the ordinary outlaw would roam freely. Places where ninja were rarely present for large amounts of time would have many gangs and criminals hiding out because of the lack of security.

Late afternoon, they really did run into said people. They were lined across the road that headed northwards. Scruffy and crude, they grinned maliciously at the approaching group. Naruto immediately went into high alert, scanning the whole area with his heightened senses. Some were hidden off of the road, hiding in the underbrush to ambush targets. Nobody seemed to have the strong chakra any chunin or jonin had so Naruto assumed that these were just your average thugs.

The group stopped abruptly ten feet away from the blockade. Gai stepped forward.

"What is the meaning of this unyouthful stop?" he asked the men with a low, serious voice. These situations were not to be taken lightly, despite a well-trained chuunin could deal with these guys fairly easily.

"Pay us and we'll let you leave here unscathed." The middle man responded with a sneer. The genin behind Gai all got into an immediate fighting stance. Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated.

'One, two, three, four, five... about a dozen hidden.' he sensed.

"We are shinobi, do not triffle with us." Gai said, attempting to intimidate them. This obviously did not work as the thug sneered again.

"You're only twelve kids and an old man. Not to mention that we've got you outnumbered." he said and the twenty thugs around him nodded. Neji discretly activated his Byakugan.

"They've got another dozen in the woods." he hissed to them quietly enough so that the enemy hadn't been alerted. Naruto almost sighed. He had forgotten that they didn't have an acute ability to sense chakra yet. Gai was about to retort something when Naruto decided to take this matter into his own hands. Things could get bloody without the proper words to say. Not that Gai was dumb or anything, but he sometimes lacked the right thing to say at certain times.

"Let us through, we have you outnumbered." Naruto said in a calm voice. The thug turned to him with the same sneer he gave Gai.

"Are you stupid or something? You don't have an army that could take us down!" Naruto sighed and made a t-shaped hand seal.

"Multi Shadow Clone jutsu."

About a hundred clones popped into existence around the genin troop, all crossing their arms. The outlaws gave a surprised gasp and stumbled back. Everyone was stunned at the newfound army Naruto had simply created with a single hand seal. It was an intimidating sight even though they were a little on the short side.

"Call off your men in the woods." he said in a dull tone. "We know you've an ambush prepared for us."

Despite the thug's attempt to compose himself, he still looked stunned at how the odds had shifted so quickly on to the genin's side. He quickly signaled for everyone to back off and retreat.

Naruto sighed in relief. It was nice to go without bloodshed for a while.

"Hey, why don't we go after them?" Kiba said. "We can take them, plus they're criminals! We shouldn't let them get away." Some of the other genin nodded in agreement. Naruto looked to Gai, hoping that he could answer for him. Fortunately, Gai already understood why.

"Now, it is best to avoid conflicts." he began in a serious tone. "It could end in death if you're not careful. Any fight could end the life of a comrade no matter how skilled they are. Also, a conflict can easily escalate beyond your control, normally depending on who you're dealing with. Were it foreign shinobi, it could lead to war."

They all gulped at that revelation. Apparently they got it. The group continued on in silence after that. Due to the fairly fast pace they travelled by, they arrived at a small village only a few kilometers away from the mountains by dusk. However Gai stated that their destination was up those mountains and still a few more hours of running to get there. Everyone groaned quietly, but the mood lightened as they stopped at a nearby inn. All the boys were in one room and the girls in the other.

After cleaning up himself from a full day of travelling, Naruto collapsed onto the futon. The boys were all fast asleep except for him. Naruto feared the nights. Three hours of sleep was a blessing to him as nightmares were constant and very vivid.

It had been like that for three years.

Naruto closed his eyes, allowing the night to take hold of him.
-

"Clone jutsu!"

And out popped another sick, absolutely dead illusion of himself. A five and a half year old Naruto sighed. They'd just learned this jutsu in class a week ago and everyone was able to create at least one half decent clone.

Nobody's were like Naruto's clones.

"Clone jutsu!" he screamed out after forming the hand seals. And out came another dead clone. He facefaulted at his unsuccessful attempt and proceeded to knock himself silly on the nearby tree. He spent hours practicing it and still got nowhere!

"Yo, gaki!" A voice rang out. Naruto turned around and saw a boy with crimson red hair and bright green eyes. He looked to be about fourteen years old and wore a simple white t-shirt with a red swirl at the front and black sweatpants. "Need any help?"

"Oh, yes please! This Clone jutsu doesn't work! Can you please tell me I'm doing wrong?" The redhead winced slightly at his loud voice.

"Sure, show me." Naruto gulped, forming the hand seals, expelling his chakra like the instructors told him to and...

"Clone jutsu!" Naruto opened one eye and promptly collapsed out of sheer exasperation more than exhaustion. The clone was dead again.

"NOOOO! I swear that jutsu is cuuuurrrsed, dattebayo!" The redhead eyed him with amusement.

"Alright gaki, let's see what you did here..." he said and waved his hand through the illusion. Well, supposed illusion. He raised his eyebrow. The clone actually felt like liquid! "Hey gaki, your clone's supposed to be an image."

"I know! But it always comes out like that no matter how much chakra I use!" The redhead frowned. No matter how much chakra I use? "You know, it just seems to be getting worse, dattebayo!"

He ran his hand through the clone again. A sudden thought hit him.

"Gaki, try it again, but use as much chakra as possible." Naruto nodded and grinned.

"Clone jutsu!" The redhead almost gasped as chakra swirled around the boy. The clone popped out dead, yet again. This did not disappoint Naruto, though.

"So... How'd I do?"

The redhead did not reply and examined his clone. Then he tried to pick it up. To his surprise and slight disgust, he did. The clone was actually a large glob of chakra. Hell, it was purely chakra! If his assumptions were right, this kid was almost using an A-rank jutsu!

"Gaki... Errr, how do I put this..." he paused. Naruto nervously rocked on his heels. What was wrong? "Okay, you're... overloading the jutsu with chakra."

"Overloading the jutsu?" Naruto asked, testing the word. "What do you mean?"

The redhead sighed, reminding himself that he was talking to a five year old kid.

"It means that you're putting to much chakra into the jutsu. But it seems pretty natural that you're emitting this much chakra," he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "And you aren't even tired yet. I tell you what, I'm going to teach a better jutsu."

"Really!? REALLY!?" Naruto excitedly shouted.

"Woah, settle down kid. I think it would take far too long to improve your chakra control for that little E-rank jutsu. So I'm going to show you a better jutsu."

"What's it called?"

"It's called... The Shadow Clone jutsu..."
-

Naruto groaned slightly at the dim light that shined down on his eyes. He sat up slowly and looked at the nearby clock. 5:45, it read, he had actually slept through the whole night. Gai was beginning to stir. It wouldn't be long be fore they headed out again. He rubbed his eye absentmindedly. It was wet.

'What... No, it's tears...'

"Calm yourself, kit." Kurama's voice said in his head. "Just a memory."

Naruto quickly wiped the rest of it away before anyone noticed. He snapped on his eyepiece and put on a clean shirt. By the time everyone was up, he was ready to go.

"Gai-sensei, I'm gonna check the girls." he said before exiting into the hallway of the inn. Naruto knocked on the door.

"Who i-is it?" A soft voice answered through the door.

"It's me, Naruto."

"Oh. I'll b-be right t-there." The door swung open, revealing a readily dressed Hinata.

"Just checking if you're ready."

"D-Don't worry, we'll b-be out i-in a minute. S-Sakura-san is having a-" However at that moment, a certain pink haired girl appeared out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel.

"Hey Hinata, I was just wondering-" She froze up, seeing that they had company. More importantly, male company. Naruto's well honed instincts for dealing with bad tempered girls immediately flared up, warning imminent danger. Before he could react, Sakura shouted: "You PERVERT!"

And then almost out of nowhere, a comb came flying out and smacked Naruto full on the face.

"Ow."

"Get out!" And what he quickly backed away from the doorway as a dismayed Hinata attempted to calm her down.

"I'll be back later, Hinata-chan."

'Why do woman have to be so crazy?' Naruto wondered.
-

A few hours later, the whole troop found themselves at the beginning of a steep mountain path. Sakura had avoided looking at Naruto ever since that little incident earlier that day. However, she did mumble her apologies under her breath. Naruto heard her anyways.

The path was rather steep and more than a few times did one of the genin slip and nearly take a hard tumble down. Thankfully, Gai caught them every time, which upped the opinions on the eccentric green man. The tree climbing technique really helped here. The Rookies stumbled constantly, having little experience in utilizing that level of chakra control for long periods of time. Team Nine fared better, since they were a year ahead of the rest.

Gai called for a water break two hours before noon, stating that they were almost there. Everyone practically collapsed besides Lee (who was still jumping around energetically), Neji (who simply sat down in a much more graceful manner) and Naruto (who was thankful for his large chakra reserves and great stamina). Naruto leaned against the rocky cliff, catching his breath when Hinata walked up to him.

"N-Naruto-kun, I-I want t-to t-talk to y-you a-about something." He noticed that she was rather agitated as her stuttering had increased. He signaled Gai with the ANBU sign language and led her away from the resting genin. Once they were out of hearing range, he put a hand on her shoulder.

"What did you want to talk about?" he asked.

"U-Ummm, I just w-wanted to talk a-about my seal..."

"What about it?"

"I-I think... S-Something's wrong. My c-chakra control has b-been worse a-and sometimes s-strange bursts o-of chakra come around a-and cause p-pain."

Naruto feared the worst. Her seal was already weakening. Ever since the Wave mission and the large outburst of chakra she managed to draw upon, he noticed that the seal formula's symbols became less precise on her stomach. It seems that some chakra had leaked through, though it was small bursts of chakra at random times. Due to her lack of exposure to it over the years, her chakra system almost completely rejects the foreign.

Naruto guided her away from the sight of the others and pointed to a nearby rock.

"Sit down." Hinata sat down on the rock without a word. Her fingers were twiddling together, revealing her anxiety. Naruto knelt in front of her. He gestured for her to lift up her shirt so he could see the seal. She did so with a rather furious blush and somehow got redder when he placed a hand on the seal.

'No thoughts like that...' she silently chided herself as she fought to keep the slightly nauseous feeling in her mind she usually got when she was very embarrassed or just extremely nervous.

Chakra emitted from the palm of Naruto's hand. Hinata inhaled sharply from the alien-like feeling of his chakra searching through the seal. He frowned slightly.

'It's just like I thought. The outer seal would've been fine for a couple more years but the recent breach... It has only accelerated the deterioration process. Should the outer seal fail, the main seal would only remain for a short duration before collapsing under the extra strain without the outer seal. I should get my shadow clones working on a new seal. Unfortunately, I've never had to seal something with such a huge chakra density...'

"Hinata, I'm afraid your seal is weakening." She blinked at this and fear crept into her eyes.

"W-What e-exactly do y-you m-mean?" she stuttered out nervously.

"It means that the Nanabi could be released back into the world if your seal fails. Don't worry, you still have time before that happens." Hinata gulped and turned way paler than she was already despite his reassurance.

"A-Ano..." she tried to say but was interrupted by the cry of a bird. Naruto looked upwards.

"A messenger hawk." Then he whistled in a low tone and held out his arm. The bird screeched again and landed on his arm. Naruto untied the small scroll on the bird's leg and proceeded to read it. Hinata saw his brow furrow slightly, indicating something important in the message. "We should get going." he said after a while, rolling up the scroll.

She nodded, but she knew definitely that something was up.
-

"Yosh! Let's get going now!" Gai yelled out after the fifteen minute break was up. The genin stood shakily to their feet, moaning about sore legs. He spotted an unsettled Naruto returning with an equally anxious Hinata in tow. What happened?

"Gai-sensei," came his voice. He was holding out a scroll in his hands. "A message came."

"Ah, thank you Naruto-kun." And he unfurled the message. Gai frowned. A sense of foreboding fell upon him despite the reassurances it said in the scroll.

Intelligence Report 286a, Northern border, Section 3:

Four unidentified shinobi and two unidentified kunoichi have entered through the border to the Sound. No forehead protector shown.

Kunoichi 1: Short blond hair, green eyes, black travelling cloak, carrying a whip, around 5'6ft

Kunoichi 2: Long dark brown hair in high ponytail, simple silver earings, silver eyes, black travelling cloak, katana on her back, around 5'1ft

Shinobi 1: Silver eyes, black bandana over his head, short light brown hair, black travelling cloak, two tanto strapped to his back, around 5'9ft,

Shinobi 2: Wild spiky black hair, dark blue eyes, heavy build, steel gauntlets, black travelling cloak, around 6'2ft

Shinobi 3: Light brown hair, silver eyes, round glasses, freckles, small, agile build, black travelling cloak, carries modified crossbow, 5'0ft

Shinobi 4: Violet hair in a short ponytail, stubble, golden eyes, large stocky build, carries iron staff, around 5'10, believed to be the leader

Objective: unknown

Destination: Westwards

Two teams of chunnin will be dispatched to investigate. All teams in the northwestern region to be on high alert.

Foreboding indeed.

End
-

There you go. Next chapter will focus on developping their skills and training. I still don't know about pairings yet. Until next time.