Uzushio Ruins

"We are getting out of here. Now."

"What's the rush? Are we really so desperate for money?" The Naruto-clone asked.

"I am sick of eating fish," Zabuza responded. "Besides, you improved even faster than I expected. Your ability to move silently and without signal is reaching almost jounin level now. You should be capable of using the Silent Killing technique in combat now, though you won't have any mist helping you. But since I'm taking care of that during battles for now, it doesn't matter."

"The speed at which you've learned is incredible, Naruto-san. Your special training method must be very effective," Haku remarked.

"Of course. Anyways, let's get going then."

Konoha

"That's it for today. I'm off to do some more research!" Jiraiya said while walking towards a brand new peephole.

He's perverted, but he sure knows a lot of stuff.

As Naruto jumped away towards Team 7's usual meeting spot, he reflected on his training in the past month.

As Jiraiya promised, he taught Naruto the method for training Earth chakra affinity, which to Naruto's surprise had nothing to do with trying to stay still. He had given Naruto a leaf and told him to use his chakra to make it hard enough that if he waved the leaf around, the leaf would not bend due to the force of the air. It had been several days of clone-enhanced training before Naruto had felt any difference in the leaf.

Strangely enough, this new Earth chakra actually felt different from the "earth" chakra that he had felt before, from his own training. But it didn't really matter, so he paid it no attention. He had only completed the task the day before.

The affinity training wasn't over though, apparently, as there was another step before it was mastered. But when he tried to do the Stone Armor Jutsu earlier, it finally succeeded this time. Upon testing, he discovered that most thrown objects such as shuriken no longer had any effect on him, as they simply bounced off. It was still possible to cut or damage him with melee attacks, though the effect was significantly reduced. It would probably become even stronger as he used the technique more. What he loved most about the technique was that he only had to activate it once, and it would stay until he dispelled it or it was overcome by force.

Another major development during his training with Jiraiya was related to chakra control. He had discovered about a week after returning from the Wave mission that his chakra control was no longer improving. It appeared that his chakra control was so well developed that the basic three exercises could no longer improve it.

When he asked Jiraiya about what he could do to further develop his control, Jiraiya suggested that he try to expel chakra from various points around his body, increasing the number of points as he progressed, and then try to expel the chakra as far as possible. This proved far more difficult than the three basic exercises.

But the most important development of all was Naruto's sealing techniques training. Jiraiya had only started to teach him the basics of seals a few days ago, but it appeared that Naruto was a natural at it, grasping the concepts very quickly. This wasn't something that he could "train" with clones, so that was a huge relief for Naruto. The one thing that was possible to train regarding seals was the use of chakra to produce seals on demand and "imprinting" it on an object or opponent, rather than having to prepare it before hand. Jiraiya had shown Naruto this technique that he said seal masters used, but he hadn't taught Naruto any seal techniques yet. For now, Naruto could only practice with explosive seals, but this was already quite significant. Once he mastered it, it would be that much easier to deal with the Fourth Mizukage. There was also an insignificant but cool way to use it: he would be able to engrave markings or writing on objects with just his chakra, and leave messages that way.

But still…I have to become Kage-level in about a year's time, if I want to actually defeat the Mizukage. Am I improving fast enough?

As he neared the Training Ground Three, he saw his clone and two teammates waiting around. He snuck in with his new almost-jounin level sneakiness thanks to his Silent Killing training and performed a replacement Jutsu on his clone, before sending it away.

'Teamwork seems to be suffering lately…'Kakashi thought to himself, as Team 7 walked in the streets of Konoha, after completing another mission.

Sasuke was brooding as usual, while Naruto was unusually quiet. The date was June 29, after all, and Naruto had been growing anxious as of late. He didn't know how the chuunin exam nominations worked, and that was the root of his concern. He knew that chuunin exams generally happened twice a year, which meant that two days later, July 1, should be the start of the next chuunin exam. Yet, he had heard nothing from Kakashi, not even a mention of the exams.

Did he actually not nominate us? If so…how can I get him to do so?

"You're pretty quiet today, dead-last. Is your pea-sized brain thinking about something?" Sasuke asked Naruto.

"Yeah, about how you always try to make me look bad!" Naruto accused.

"If you don't want to look bad…then just get stronger than me," Sasuke answered.

"I already am," Naruto shot back.

"Yeah, right…" Sasuke said sarcastically. "You wouldn't last five minutes against me."

"You wouldn't last five seconds against me," Naruto claimed.

"Hmpf!" The two turned their faces away from each other and crossed their arms.

'They're somehow worse than before…' Sakura thought gloomily. 'And Naruto always seems like he's thinking about something else, ever since the Wave mission.'

'Damn it. There are tons of guys stronger than me out there,' Sasuke thought while thinking of Haku. 'Yet I have to do these stupid missions.'

Kakashi then noticed a peculiar bird in the sky. He realized that it meant that he was being called to a meeting of jounin-sensei to nominate the teams for the chuunin exams.

"Ok, that's it for today. I have to go submit this mission report…" Kakashi told the team.

"Then I'm going home," Sasuke said as he walked off.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun, wait," Sakura called out.

Sasuke turned around and looked at her.

Sakura continued, "How about right now…we work on our teamwork, just the two of us…?"

Naruto's face crunched.

"If you have time to bother me, practice a Jutsu or two," Sasuke responded. "Frankly, your ability is below either me or Naruto." Then he walked off again.

Sakura looked down on the ground. 'He's right…In every mission, I do the least…'

Then Kakashi body flickered away.

Huh…we're alone now.

"Forget about him. If you would like, we could train together, Sakura," Naruto said in a serious demeanor.

Without turning around, Sakura's face looked annoyed for a moment. Then she realized, 'Huh? He called me by just my name this time…'

Then just before she turned around to answer, Naruto noticed the moving rectangular prism behind him.

"Lose the box, Konohamaru. It looks nothing like a rock," Naruto said as he turned around to face the box with two eye holes in it.

Suddenly three kids came out from under the rock. They were Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi. They also happened to be wearing goggles that looked suspiciously like the goggles Naruto used to wear on his forehead.

"What's with the goggles?" Naruto asked.

"Heh! We're copying the old you!"

"Ah…"

"What do you mean by 'Ah…'! You're so cold lately, bro!" Konohamaru yelled while pointing at Naruto.

"So…what do you want?"

Then Moegi spoke up, "Um…boss, are you free?"

Naruto thought for a moment. It was still early in the day, and he could be training his muscles, which was a big priority. It had been a month since he started his own training regimen, complete with the Four Limbs Weighting Seal(1) that Jiraiya had provided him with. Well, not that the Weighting Seal was actually that big of a deal. Generally, most ninja could enhance speed and strength with chakra, which Naruto did easily thanks to his excellent chakra control. But there were two key advantages to building up muscle mass conventionally. The first was that this enhanced his general stamina, increasing the "physical" portion of his energy pool. It would also benefit him spiritually because intense exercise generally induces greater alertness and mental capability. This would result in a greater chakra reserve, which would have a multiplier effect on his training because he could then use his greater reserves to make more clones for training. The other advantage was related to sneakiness. The more chakra he used, the more easily detectable he would be to enemy ninja.

He thought back to the first technique Jiraiya taught him, on the day they met.

Flashback

Jiraiya did some hand seals slowly as Naruto memorized it and then promptly…disappeared. A few confused moments later, Naruto felt something touching his shoulder. Jiraiya reappeared in front of him, with his hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"This is called the Transparent Escape Juts and I invented it myself! With this, you can easily peep into the women's bathhouse without being noticed!"

"WHAT? I would never do that!" Naruto responded, his face outraged.

"Be proud you're learning this technique, kid! This is a technique that only two kage-level ninjas in the world know: myself and the Third Hokage! And you're about to be the third," Jiraiya gloated.

"Well…I guess it might be useful. And thank you for your confidence that I'll soon be the third kage-level ninja to know this technique!" Naruto grinned.

When combined with the Silent Killing technique, it could be a deadly combination, even without the Hidden Mist technique. It would be even more useful if he could prevent the opponent from sensing any of his chakra.

But getting back to the issue at hand, Naruto realized that it really didn't matter. He could simply make a Shadow Clone to do whatever the trio asked of him.

"No, but I can be in two places at the same time, so it's fine," Naruto responded to Moegi's question. He then made a Shadow Clone.

"A clone? But that thing is just an illusion!" Konohamaru complained.

"Then, here's another lesson from your boss. Clones can be solid. And this one in particular, is actually intelligent too. He's identical to me in every way," Naruto explained.

"Wow! That's so cool!" Konohamaru said with stars in his eyes. "Alright! Let's play ninja then!"

"…Why would a ninja…play ninja…?" Sakura said with a dark expression.

The three Academy students turned to look at her.

"Hey, bro, who's this girl?" Konohamaru asked while pointing at Sakura. 'She's staring at bro like she wants to eat him alive…'

Then a light bulb went off his head. "Not bad, bro…She's your…This," Konohamaru said while showing his pinky finger, a gesture that indicated "girlfriend". Sakura's expression went from shock to anger.

"Not quite, but close. She's a valuable teammate and a full-fledged ninja, unlike you three," Naruto responded carefully, trying to skillfully defuse the situation with a subtle compliment. Unfortunately, Sakura was too caught up with the previous remark by Konohamaru to pay close attention.

"How dare you!" Sakura exclaimed while punching one of the two Narutos currently present. It flew into a nearby fence, before bursting into smoke.

"Bro! No, boss, don't die! " Konohamaru yelled, as he tried to run forward to help.

"Calm down…it's just a clone," Naruto said from beside Konohamaru, just as he grabbed his scarf, preventing him from running forward.

"You ugly bitch!" Konohamaru said while facing Sakura.

Sakura fumed while Inner Sakura raged. 'Stupid kid…!'

She charged at Konohamaru and hit him on the head before walking off angrily.

"Damn, it…that ugly huge foreheaded…is that really a girl? Seriously, bro?"

Sakura heard this and turned around, charging at the Naruto and Konohamaru's group.

"AHH!" The three kids screamed

Naruto body flickered away while the three Academy students ran for their lives. Having unintentionally closed his eyes from being scared, Konohamaru bumped into something.

"Ouch!"

"That hurts…" said a guy with a black, baggy, full-body suit with a red and yellow circle on the front. He carried some sort of thing wrapped in bandages on his back, only showing some…hair? His forehead protector was the symbol of an hourglass. Beside him stood a blond girl who carried what appeared to be a giant fan on her back. Her hair was gathered into four ponytails, and she wore her headband around her neck, also showing the sand hourglass symbol.

"That hurt you little piece of shit!" the fully-suited guy said while grabbing Konohamaru up by his scarf, in the same manner one would normally grab somebody's shirt under the collar area, if there hadn't been a scarf there.

"Don't, we'll get yelled at later," the blonde girl warned.

"I'm sorry, I was just messing around…" Sakura said in a small voice while looking down at the ground. 'Who are these people?'

The guy in the black body-suit noticed her and the headband on her head. 'Hm…looks like a leaf genin.'

"Let's play a little before the boss comes," the guy said while shaking Konohamaru.

"Konohamaru-chan!" Moegi yelled. "Konohamaru-kun!" Udon yelled.

"Let…go of me!" Konohamaru said and grit his teeth.

"How annoying. Basically, I hate midgets…Especially younger ones that are rude…makes me want to kill them."

'Wha…?' Sakura thought with a shocked face.

"Oh well…I'm not involved…" the girl with four pony tails muttered.

'What's with that guy…? This is bad…These are foreign ninjas, judging by their headbands,' Sakura thought.

Then the guy pulled his left arm back and prepared to punch Konohamaru. Suddenly a rock hit his arm, and he dropped Konohamaru. He looked up to see another leaf ninja sitting on a tree, throwing up and down another rock.

"What are you bastards doing in our village?" Sasuke demanded.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted.

The guy with the body suit gave him a dark look. The blonde girl thought he was pretty handsome, and blushed.

"Another guy who pisses me off…" muttered the guy while adjusting his gloves. Konohamaru ran back to Moegi and Udon.

"Get lost!" Sasuke told him.

"Kya! So cool! Get him, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said with hearts in her eyes.

"Hey, punk, get down here! I hate show-offs like you the most," the guy in the black body suit said while pulling the thing from his back.

"Hey, you even going to use Karasu?" The girl asked from behind him.

"So…is this supposed to be a declaration of war from Suna?" A voice asked from nowhere.

'What the hell? Did they find out?' thought the two ninja from the Hidden Sand.

Suddenly Naruto appeared from thin air holding a kunai to the antagonizing ninja's throat. All onlookers were shocked.

"You dare to attack Konohamaru, the grandson of the ruling Hokage, in his own village? If this isn't a declaration of war…I might kill you anyways for this assassination attempt," Naruto threatened while releasing as much Killing Intent as he could muster, which really wasn't much, as he hadn't practice that.

"Way to go boss! I knew you had my back!" Konohamaru yelled with stars in his eyes again. 'So cool…'

'Wow…even Naruto can be cool when he's serious...but I couldn't do anything…Can I even call myself a ninja?' Sakura thought, ashamed of herself. Then she remembered what Naruto said of her earlier. 'He called me valuable teammate…and a full-fledged ninja…does he…really think so?'

'What the hell? When did he learn that technique? And…that was jounin-level sneakiness! I didn't sense him at all until he appeared!' Sasuke thought angrily.

"Kankuro…stop it. You're an embarrassment to our village," said a voice from behind Sasuke. Everybody turned to see another ninja standing upside down on a branch of the tree Sasuke was sitting on. The newcomer had some sort of character marked on his forehead, and carried a huge gourd on his back.

'What? When did he— jounin-level sneakiness again…' Sasuke thought.

"Losing yourself in a fight, how pathetic…Why do you think we came to the Leaf Village?" the upside down ninja asked in a low and dangerous voice.

"Listen Gaara, they started it and…" Kankuro tried to explain.

"Shut up… I'll kill you."

"O-Ok, I'm sorry…" Kankuro apologized while holding up his hands.

"I'm also sorry…really sorry…" the girl said beside him.

'So he's this group's leader…he has strange eyes,' Sasuke thought.

Naruto put his kunai back into his weapons pouch.

These two seem really scared of that guy…

"Sorry to you guys," Gaara said while looking at Sasuke, 'To be able to hit Kankuro with a stone…he's good…', before looking at Naruto, 'and this one…he could've killed Kankuro if he wanted to…mother will enjoy his blood…' Then a flurry of sand engulfed him and he reappeared beside Kankuro, the blonde girl, and Naruto. "It looks like we got here too early, but…we didn't come here to play around."

"I-I know that," Kankuro spluttered.

"Let's go," he said before turning around.

"Hey, wait!" Sakura shouted.

"What?"

"Judging from your forehead protectors, you guys are ninjas from the hidden sand village, right? You may be allies with the Leaf, but it is forbidden for shinobis to enter each other's villages without permission. State your purpose. Depending on it, we may not be able to let you go," Sakura explained.

"Hah, talk about clueless…don't you know anything? See my pass?" The blonde girl responded with a smirk. "You're right, we are genins from the Hidden Sand. We have come to your village to take the Chuunin Selection exam."

So I was right! It IS starting soon…Damn it Kakashi, you'd better have entered us into the exams!

Then Sasuke reappeared in a burst of speed beside Naruto. "Hey, you, what's your name?"

"Huh? You mean me?" The blonde girl responded with a faint blush on her cheeks.

"No. You with the gourd." The blonde girl looked miffed.

"…Gaara of the Desert," came the reply. "I'm also interested in you, your name?"

"It's Uchiha Sasuke…" Sasuke answered with a slight smirk.

"And you, with the spiky hair. Your name?" Gaara furthered asked.

"It's Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage of this village. Remember it well, Gaara," Naruto answered with a grin.

Gaara nodded, before saying, "Let's go." Then the three sand ninjas body flickered away.

'Heh, this is getting interesting…' Sasuke thought.

"So, what do you think?" asked a ninja who wore a headband with a musical note as the symbol. His shirt had the character for death written on it. He was one of three ninjas, all wearing the same headband, who had been observing the proceedings earlier with the Sand and Leaf genins from a nearby tree. Two of them were male, and one was female.

The one with bandages wrapped around his face, who was also the only one sitting on the tree branch the other two were standing on, replied, "Well…nothing serious…but, that black-haired leaf, the yellow-haired leaf, and the sand with the gourd…let's keep our eyes on them."

"You sound pretty confident," said a voice from above them. They recognized it as the voice of the yellow-haired leaf nin from earlier. They looked up to see said leaf nin standing sideways on the tree. "What village are you from? I don't recognize that symbol. Is it a new village?" Naruto had never seen the musical note as a symbol anywhere before, and he was pretty sure he memorized the symbols of every village. He had detected them earlier, probably thanks to his training with Silent Killing that allowed him to feel such presences with only slight movements.

"…Sound. We might be new, but we're not weak. So, we'll see you in the exams then then?" the bandaged one asked.

"Hmm…maybe. I'm only a rookie, so who knows?" Naruto said before poofing into smoke.

The three Sound ninja looked surprised. If this was a rookie of Konoha…then what were their experienced genin capable of?

"Sorry, Konohamaru. Looks like I'm going to be busy in the next little while, so I won't be able to play with you. Later." Then Naruto body flickered away.

Sasuke walked off on his own, while Konohamaru grumbled as he walked away with his group. Sakura stayed a while and wasn't sure what to do. She thought about the genin that she had just seen, 'They're's so strong…the chuunin exams sure are scary…' She wondered if Team 7 would also be entered into the exams, but decided it was unlikely since they hadn't even heard about it. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly Naruto reappeared again in a flurry of leaves.

"Oh hey, Sakura. Sorry, I just remembered that I offered to train with you earlier. So, how about it?" Naruto had just ordered his training clones to stop training for the day and scout out other foreign genin in the village. He himself had waited nearby until Sakura was alone again.

Sakura looked a little surprised to see Naruto again. "Um…" Earlier, she would've flatly refused. But now…it seemed like Sasuke was right when he said she was weaker than either of them. Still, she hesitated.

"You know, the chuunin exams will probably be in two days. Knowing Kakashi, he'll probably nominate us without warning and expect us to show up the next day not knowing anything. If I'm right, then this will be one of our last chances to do some serious training. Judging from the Sand genin, the exam is probably a team exam with 3-person cells. And out teamwork hasn't been very good lately…" Naruto elaborated.

"That…makes sense. Ok, I guess I could train with you today…" Sakura agreed. She was surprised at the level of strategic planning Naruto seemed to show just now.

"Alright, then, give me your hand."

"What? Is this something perverted! Because if it is, I'll—"

"No, no! We can get to a training ground faster if I use Body Flicker. Unless you know that Jutsu already?" Naruto defended.

"Huh? Okay then…" Sakura held out her hand, eyeing Naruto suspiciously.

They two teammates were back in Training Ground Three.

"Well, since there's only two days, there's no real point in training taijutsu. So if we're training teamwork, we should come up with ways to use our specialized Jutsu in combinations. Speaking of which, I've never seen you use any before. Do you have any?" Naruto started.

Sakura looked uncomfortable. She replied, "No…I don't come from a clan, so I don't have any way to learn anything special. All I know are the Academy Jutus."

So they had hit a roadblock. Naruto empathized with her. After all, he found himself in the same situation, as he too had no clan (that was alive and known to him, anyways). At least Sasuke would probably have inherited scrolls and possibly received training before the massacre happened. It was intriguing, actually; out of the three teams he knew had passed the genin exams from his class, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were the only clanless ones, and they had been put on the same team. Maybe somebody who had the power to make decisions thought that Kakashi would know more than enough techniques to teach them what with his status as having copied over a thousand Jutsu, but unfortunately, it seemed to Naruto that Kakashi was too lazy to teach them any. Or was it actually laziness? It's also possible that Jounin were not supposed to teach a lot of Jutsu in the first place. It's not like he'd heard that Shikamaru or Chouji had learned a lot of Jutsu…well, he might found out during the Chuunin exams, if anybody showed any Jutsu that were uncharacteristic of their clan-

"Uh..Naruto?" Sakura tore him out of his rapidly becoming irrelevant thoughts. But suddenly an old memory surfaced.

"Huh, sorry, I was just thinking about something. Anyways, it looks like we have a problem. But you're smart and amazing with chakra control, right? So it should be easy for you to learn genjutsu. From what I heard, genjutsu techniques are mostly self-made, according to the situation. I know most ninja techniques are restricted from access for those below Chuunin level. But I remember finding a book in the civilian library on how to perform very short and safe genjutsu, that was perfect for those with no ninja training and had miniscule chakra reserves."

"You're talking about 'Illusory Gifts', right? I read that too. But I never knew you went to the library."

"Heh, you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, right? Don't tell anyone…but…I've actually memorized every book in the library. Well, excluding any they might've added in the last month." This was only partially true. He had gone through plenty of books as a child with nothing better to do because he mastered everything that was taught to him too quickly. With his clones, he had managed to go through the rest of the library. But the key word was "go through", because for those books whose content was clearly useless, like most fiction, he simply memorized the title, summary, and author, before skimming the book without memorizing that content. He did memorize information books, such as the ones on medicinal and edible herbs.

"What! You're lying!" Sakura accused. Inner Sakura mused, 'And I thought we were a book worm!'

"No, but that's not important. You said you read Illusory Gifts, right? Did you try practicing those jutsu?" Naruto got back on-topic.

"Actually…I did. But those are useless, they only last for less than ten seconds at most, and I have to concentrate hard on them so I can't fight while I'm doing them."

Naruto smirked. "That's good enough. Have you forgotten? Teamwork means I will do the attacking while you concentrate."

"Oh yeah…" Sakura's face lit up as understanding came to her.

"Hey, why don't you try practicing your genjutsu on me? I need to practice dispelling genjutsu as well. This will also let me get familiar with the timing."

"Okay!" Sakura said enthusiastically.

After several hours, Sakura had exhausted her reserve of chakra and could no longer train. Thus, she and Naruto sat against one of the three training posts at the training ground, one person on each side.

Naruto was pleased with himself. With his new chakra control, he had been able to dispel Sakura's genjutsu easily using the Release technique. An interesting phenomenon he had discovered was that Shadow Clones already present at the time of the genjutsu would not be affected by the genjutsu, but those that were made during the genjutsu would be. Those that were already present could even perform the Genjutsu Release technique on Naruto himself, which was also interesting.

"Naruto…" Sakura's voice reached him.

"What is it?"

"You…you were so serious today. And, ever since the Wave mission, you stopped smiling as much."

"Did I? Well I don't know about that, but I was serious today because we needed to be," Naruto answered. He was surprised though, because he thought he had acted the same since the Wave mission with the exclusion of today. Although, recently he had a lot more to think about than before, so that might've been it.

"I didn't know you could be serious."

"You'll be seeing this lot more after we enter the chuunin exams," Naruto answered. It was true, he had planned that. It was also why he decided to drop his usual mask today. It's not like two days would make any difference, and she was her teammate, after all. It would be bad if he suddenly became a different person during the most crucial time of the exams. Thus, there was definitely a legitimate reason for him to be training with Sakura today, and it was most definitely not simply his hormones thinking. At least, this is what he hoped.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Sakura asked, confused.

Naruto stood up and turned towards the Hokage Monument in the distance.

"I'm sorry, Sakura. You're my teammate, so I should've stopped that act after we became a team. But I guess…after being alone for so long…after I found out an S-class secret about myself…I wasn't ready to trust anybody yet, even then. It's the fundamental rule of the ninja world, right? Deception," Naruto explained.

"What? What are you talking about? An S-class secret?" Sakura asked in succession. She was even more confused.

"I can't tell you just yet. Maybe I will, someday. And don't try to ask around, either, you might be executed if you found out from somebody who's not supposed to tell you, along with that person. And as for what I'm talking about…" He turned and faced Sakura, staring at her eyes. "I mean that all those years in the Academy…they were just a lie. I only acted like an idiot, attracting attention to myself, in order to divert attention from my skills."

"A-a lie?" Sakura was in disbelief. But this Naruto seemed so radically different that she couldn't but feel there may have been a sliver of truth there. "But, why? I mean, how could you stand acting for so many years as a different person?"

"There was another reason for it as well. Traditionally, the top male and female ninja are teamed up with the dead-last, as genins. To ensure that I would get a strong team, I made sure that I came dead-last. But it wouldn't make sense to just do horribly on the graduation exam and never before. That would be too suspicious, and somebody with the power to do so might mess with the teams if they noticed. So, I had to act that way all the way through." He didn't actually know whether it was true that the top male and female ninjas are paired with the dead-last. But, it had certainly turned out that way, hadn't it? So, there wouldn't be any reason for Sakura not to believe him.

There was a moment of silence and Sakura absorbed the information.

Sakura's thoughts went back to Sasuke's comment that had been bothering her all day. If this was true, then what about all the other ninjas in the Academy? She had never thought the blonde, loud-mouthed idiot could be anything else. If so, then how much were her other classmates hiding? She realized how little she knew about any of them, except maybe Ino. Was she the only one that had never hid anything? Was she the only one that was truly weak and pathetic? And what about Ino? Could their rivalry be fake as well? Maybe…maybe it was all just a front to distract Sakura from being focused on her studies…

Then Sakura spoke up again. "If what you're saying is true…then…you're telling me all this now because I'm useless, right? I'm so weak that I'm not threat to you, even if I knew, right?"

Naruto looked surprised for a moment. Then he smiled. "Don't be stupid, Sakura. That's not why I'm telling you. If that were the case, and I only wanted to prevent strong guys from knowing about my skills, then I wouldn't have bothered hiding my skills from everybody, except maybe Sasuke and Shikamaru."

Sakura was curious as to why Naruto chose to name those two as being the only ones who weren't weak. Sasuke-kun she could understand, but Shikamaru? That guy was just barely better than the dead-last—

Naruto continued, "and you're not weak either, Sakura. You just didn't have the opportunity to become strong, unlike those who came from respected clans. I'm sure you would be very powerful now if you had come from a powerful clan. But sometimes, when there's nobody to teach us and nothing to learn, we can't help but focus on what we have. And you were able to do the best of the class, academically. You should think yourself better than the rest who were too arrogant to see that knowledge is power, especially in the world of ninja." This was probably somewhat exaggerated. Unless they had incredible ability, it would have been a tremendously difficult task to both excel in the academic portion of the Academy and the physical/Jutsu portion. And if you had powerful clan Jutsu to learn, why would you waste time studying knowledge that everybody would have when you could be getting stronger with unique Jutsu? But of course, unless Sakura figured that out herself, it would be better to tell her what Naruto just told her, as that would boost her confidence and probably also her willingness to learn Jutsu. It was a psychology technique Naruto had learned from books: provide a reason for somebody's failures that makes them appear good and that they failed only as a result of external, uncontrollable, circumstances, and they would be likely actually believe it and try to follow through on it. It was called…self-serving bias(2), he noted.

Those words were spoken with a deep passion. To Sakura, these words felt like wisdom that could only be acquired after many years of experience. The level of intelligence and analytical thinking Naruto was showing now, it was completed unexpected.

Naruto then turned again to look at the Hokage Monument. Sakura followed his gaze.

"Real strength though…that comes from our will. I believe that today, Konoha is the strongest village in the Elemental Nations because of our philosophy. Real strength is when you look to the future…when your Will of Fire fuels your quest to achieve your dream and create a better tomorrow." He paused for a moment for dramatic effect. He was actually surprised Sakura had listened to him rant on for so long. He turned back to face her. "And that's the real reason I chose to confide in you today…My dream, to become Hokage…it demands that I do this now."

"What do you mean?"

"There will be spectators during the exams, at some point, including the Hokage and foreign Kages, and various high-ranking ninja. This is precisely the time that I have to stop acting like a fool, and show my worth as a ninja," Naruto explained. He noticed that the sun was going down. "It's getting late, we should go home."

Sakura then also noticed the sun going down. "Yeah…you're right." She got up.

"Wait, before you go…" Naruto started. "Not everything that happened in the Academy was a lie…I wasn't lying when I said I liked you."

Sakura found that she suddenly couldn't look away from his cerulean eyes. This serious side of Naruto…it was kind of…cool. "I…I-I'm still not going to go on a date with you!" she got out, while finally looking away. "About the exam…you think we'll be able to enter?"

"Of course. I'll burn Kakashi-sensei's book if he doesn't enter us," Naruto claimed.

"He's a jounin…there's no way you could get your hands on that book," Sakura reminded. Meanwhile, Inner Sakura was thinking, 'We should burn that book even if he does enter us! He deserves it for reading something so perverted around us! Shannaro!'

The next day, Kakashi showed up three hours late as usual.

"Morning people! Today, I got lost on the road of life."

"You used that excuse before!" Sakura exclaimed, exasperated that she'd been forced to wait like this every day.

"Well, anyway…This is sudden, but…I've nominated you guys for the chuunin selection exam." Then he pulled out three rectangular pieces of paper. "Here are your application forms."

Finally…I was getting scared for a while.

"Sudden is right. You should've at least told us about it long ago," Naruto commented.

"Though this is just a nomination. Whether the take the exam is up to each of you."

What? I thought for sure it was a team effort—Oh.

Naruto realized what Kakashi meant to do: he didn't want anybody on the team to pressure anybody else into competing. Then Kakashi handed the forms to each of them.

"Those who wish to take it should sign those and return it to Room 301 by 4pm tomorrow. That is all." He body flickered away.

The three genin walked away, having been dismissed.

The next day, Naruto met with Sakura and Sasuke right outside the building they were supposed to return the forms to. The other two had already arrived.

They both noticed Naruto approaching at the same time.

"..!"

"You have a new outfit…" Sakura remarked in a surprised tone. Sasuke didn't say anything, but he had an eyebrow raised.

Naruto had shown up in a full cloak without any sleeves. It was a dark orange with black flames stemming from the top and bottom. On the front, the black flames swirled to form a circle, which showed the character for "Will". On the back it was the same swirl and circle design, but with the Uzumaki clan symbol of the red spiral. As Naruto walked towards them, it wasn't possible to see what he wore under the cloak, but it was a black jacket—which again had the character for "Will" on the front and the Uzumaki clan spiral on the back—with the standard blue pants that Konoha ninja wore. By covering up completely with a cloak, Naruto would be able to do hand seals without an opponent seeing them, thus giving him the element of surprise all the time.

As he walked by them and glanced at each of them with a slight smirk, he only said, "Let's go."

(1) Four Limbs Weighting Seal – This is a game-only Jutsu from Ultimate Ninja 4. I know the whole gravity seal thing is overdone in fanon, but at least I have a legitimate almost-canon source for this. He will not become ridiculously taijutsu capable like Lee is with just this seal though. He's still going to use chakra-enhancement for higher speeds and strength.

(2) Self-Serving Bias – This is a concept that was only developed in modern behavioral psychology. But the world of Naruto has frequently been shown to include advanced research into the sciences and some modern things (like people wearing modern business suits, for example…and also the research into cellular biology, DNA, etc.). And, Naruto would be able to know this because it's a very simple concept you can understand by looking it up on Wikipedia (to prove that it's simple, I'll just say that I'm no psychologist, yet I understand it well enough, even though it's not quite the exact same thing in the explanation provided by the narrator speaking from the perspective of Naruto).

A/N: Well, there you have it. Naruto's true self is making its appearance to the public. What did you think of the character interaction? Was there too much development in comparison to the plot? But I figure this was a good opportunity to reveal Naruto's ambitions and core beliefs. Thus far, you've only seen the goals he claimed while under a mask, but now the stuff he's saying this time are actually serious.

Also, just to clarify, unless it's written that it's Inner Sakura thinking, any thoughts that Sakura has are simply her own, not Inner Sakura's. Furthermore, the training scene does not constitute the beginning of a pairing either. This is a Naruto-centric fic, so there will probably be no pairing until an epilogue, which I might not even include. But, some of the things I pointed out, or rather, Naruto pointed out, about Sakura's apparent weakness…it's more or less true under the premise of this story, which was explained in chapter 1, that stuff about why Naruto was "weak" even though he was driven and had intelligence on the level of Shikamaru. Sakura wasn't quite as driven as Naruto, nor as smart, but nonetheless the same obstacles applied.

The stuff about the book, 'Illusory Gifts', is just stuff I made up to explain how it was discovered that she apparently has a natural affinity for genjutsu in canon even though we don't see her doing any genjutsu except the "Genjutsu Release" technique.

Naruto's new outfit is a sort of mix between the cloak he wore as a sage and the cloak he wore during the Sasuke-chasing mission when they met Madara and Itachi got killed. The difference is the symbols on it.