Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Chapter 11: The pride of Konoha

(One month after the Hyuga Incident)

Negotiations had ended with the Kumo representatives and things were looking up. Kumo and Konoha had come to an agreement and now a formal alliance was in the works, and on top of that, Suna had agreed that no retaliatory measures would be taken due to the events in Kanto. Iwa still hated everyone and Kiri was in the midst of a civil war, but that being said a 3 village alliance looked good as far as hope for peace went.

Obito had returned from Suna and immediately threw his students into a hellish training routine. They would exercise from 0500 until 1100 to build up their stamina, these 6 hour training montages were supervised by Konoha's very own Maito Guy. Naruto and Itachi adjusted relatively well to the new training regiment, although they were left entirely drained at the end of each session and were barely able to walk on their own after the past 3 weeks of nonstop training. Kabuto, on the other hand, was on death's doorstep by 0900 each day, but somehow managed to continue with the other two genin. If not for Tsunade the boys wouldn't have been able to continue after the second day. And the days only kept getting harder.

Obito decided that their teamwork was exceptional so chose to spend the time after lunch developing their individual techniques, whether it be taijutsu, kinjutsu, fuinjutsu, ninjutsu, or genjutsu. Needless to say they all opted out of taijutsu training with Guy-sensei still in such close proximity.

Itachi was training in the kinjutsu style that many of his sword wielding clansmen prefered, while Naruto was still struggling to develop something of his own. Konoha didn't have many who were proficient enough with swords to actually teach but luckily for Naruto, Konoha shinobi weren't the only shinobi in the village at the time. He had noticed that A's bodyguard, a dark skinned blonde man with tattoos on either shoulder, wielded a katana.

One day, after a particularly hellish day of training, Naruto sought out said man.

Flashback:

Naruto could sense the location of A very easily, a man with so much chakra and no sense to try to conceal it was not difficult to find for the young sensor. Oddly enough Naruto found the Goliath of a man and his comrade at his own favored dining establishment. Naruto entered the ramen stand to find that A had consumed an ungodly amount of ramen, nearly 40 bowls worth.

"Now this is the best ramen I have ever tasted!" A exclaimed. Teuchi and Ayame merely looked on in wonder as A finished his 40th bowl. His comrade was sitting quietly at his side enjoying his own bowl of beef ramen.

"They don't make it like this in Kumo, do they A-san." the tattooed man said, "although I think our gyoza is better." Teuchi's eye twitched slightly, the quality of his gyoza was a touchy subject for him.

Naruto decided to go for the bold approach. After ordering his own food of course. "Hello Teuchi-ojiisan, can I get a large miso ramen with extra pork and Naruto fish cakes?" he asked as he took a seat next to the man he came to see.

"Sorry Naruto-kun, we're all out."

"Oh... Ok can I get a large duck ramen with extra duck?

"No I mean we're completely out of food." the middle aged ramen chef said.

"WHAT!?" Naruto snapped his head to the left and glared at the large man sitting two seats over. The sight of Naruto glaring daggers at a man 10 times his size, leaning over the other stranger was a comical sight for Ayame, who let out a giggle.

"What're you looking at brat?" asked A, pulling out his wallet to pay.

"You know damn well what! You ate all the ramen!" Naruto yelled. The swordsman stuck his finger in his ear to stop it from ringing.

"Well I have to eat a lot in order to recover from my training, not that a runt like you would know much about that." said A goading the boy he recognized as Minato's prodigal son.

"I do know about training dammit! That's why I'm here!"

A raised an eyebrow curiously before exploding into a fit of boisterous laughter, "get a look at this, the Hokage's brat asking a Kumo shinobi for training! No, no I won't train you, no matter how much of a middle finger it'd be to your father. You and I simply don't have compatible styles."

Naruto's eye twitched, "not you," said Naruto pointing to the other man, "him."

It was the other blonde's turn to raise his eyebrow now, "me?"

"Yeah you! I need a kinjutsu teacher and Konoha doesn't have many of those to go around."

The swordmaster pondered the request for a moment, "why do you want to be a swordsman? Or better yet, why do you want me to train you? You're an Uzumaki, that clan is renowned for their kinjutsu prowess."

Naruto's eyes hardened, "because when I become the strongest shinobi in Konoha history I don't want them to be able to say they had anything to do with it." He received a shocked look from all due to his blunt and rather contemptuous statement.

Naruto's eyes were hard and full of determination. After another moment of consideration he looked over to A who nodded slightly. "I don't know how much longer we'll be in Konoha, but until our departure you can call me Darui-sensei."

End flashback.

Naruto had trained with Darui late into the night for just over 2 weeks before they had to head back to Kumo. During that time Naruto had all but mastered basic kinjutsu. Darui and A were both astonished by how quickly the Konoha prodigy picked up on the art, he had reached a level that it normally would have taken months, if not years, for the average shinobi to attain. If not for A's rivalry with Minato he may have regretted allowing Darui to train the Hokage's son, but he couldn't have been more elated after learning of the poor relationship the two had.

They had not left Naruto with nothing either; Darui had given Naruto scrolls for a long forgotten style, Shinmei Muso Ryu. The style wasn't used anymore because of its difficulty to master, along with the lack of masters to teach it.

Darui had told Naruto that the shinmei muso ryu was supposed to be very fast and hard hitting. While fast it also required accuracy and near perfect timing to master, with wide powerful slashes it relied on a lot of misdirection.

Naruto had also been taught to channel chakra into his blade to increase its cutting power, and was told that elemental chakra would have an even greater effect; luckily for Naruto, one of his elements was wind, the element with the greatest cutting potential.

Naruto had noticed a fatal flaw in the style, in that it left him open to be picked apart by faster more agile enemies, the larger foes would not be a problem if he could get past their guard. Naruto was training to mitigate the weakness by using his scabbard in his left hand to be used as a blunt striking weapon, and a tool for blocking.

The three genin had also developed a few new ninjutsu over the past month: with their chakra reserves at an appropriate level they were now all capable of producing kage bushin effectively. Kabuto, being the physically weakest, could only produce 3 before they were no longer a viable option, Itachi was up to 12, while Naruto was able to produce over 20 before becoming too fatigued to fight. Aside from that they all began to develop more of their elemental jutsu: Itachi learned a plethora of new katon techniques from his clan, Kabuto was just starting to use his suiton affinity and had discovered he could use suiton to further advance his medical ninjutsu, and Naruto was learning a multitude of B and C rank jutsu for all of his affinities.

"You all are doing well, even by prodigy standards," said Obito, smiling at how far his already talented genin team had come over the past three months. "It seems to me that you all have outgrown your current rank, so I would like to talk to you about the next step in your careers." said the one eyed Uchiha.

The three boys looked at their sensei attentively so he just continued. "The chunin exams are coming up in just over a month. Kumo will be hosting it this time around and has extended an invitation to Konoha as a sign of good faith."

Kabuto and Itachi nodded in understanding.

"One month!? Damn! That's barely any time at all! I wanted to master Shinmei Muso Ryu before I saw A-san and Darui-sensei again!" Naruto whined.

"Naruto, you're 8 years old, nobody expects you, or anyone else for that matter, to master a long forgotten and extremely high level kenjutsu in just two months. And without a Master to teach you no less. I'm sure A and Darui will be more than satisfied with your progression."

"Fine." Naruto grumbled crossing his arms, receiving a chuckle from Kabuto and an eye roll from Itachi.

"Here, fill these out," Obito handed the three the exam entry forms, "and for the next month we will continue training to prepare you for the exams."

The three genin took the forms and looked them over, "hey, this says the responsible village is not responsible for any deaths that may occur during the exam." Naruto said.

"These exams should not be taken lightly. People die in the exams almost every time they come around." Obito informed them. They all nodded, unfazed by the prospect of being put in a life or death situation when faced with older more experienced genin.

XXXXXXXXXX

(the training grove, with Naruto and Itachi, one month later)

The two teammates and best friends stood on opposite sides of their old training ground, their swords were drawn and they were panting, completely soaked in sweat. They had decided to have one final spar before heading off to Kumo for the exams.

News that a rookie team of underage genin (Naruto and Itachi age 8, and Kabuto age 10) were going to what would be the largest chunin exam in recent memory, spread across Konoha like wildfire. You could thank Tsunade's boisterous bragging about her favorite genin team for that. The three soon became known as 'the pride of Konoha', a title none of them were particularly comfortable with.

Naruto and Itachi stared each other down, both completely drained of chakra and on their last leg. Itachi's black eyes, no longer able to hold the sharingan active, and Naruto's blue ones locked and both boys rushed at the other one last time. They pounded their feet against the scorched earth of the new crater they had made, before their knees simultaneously buckled forcing the two best friends to land flat on their faces.

"I would've gotten you," Naruto grunted, completely exhausted.

"Yeah right, like you ever stood a chance," Itachi jabbed back jokingly.

"Aww, what the hell guys." Kabuto said as he walked through the trees. "You know, I could hear the explosions all they way from the Senju compound." Kabuto had been training in medical ninjutsu under Tsunade's tutelage for the past month.

"We're just having a friendly spar." Naruto groaned, face still pressed up against the blackened earth.

'How the hell is he talking like that? How is he even breathing like that?' Whatever, Naruto was an enigma to most, "only you two would call this," Kabuto motioned to the surrounding area, for nobody's benefit but his own, "as a 'friendly' spar." Kabuto sighed as all he received in return was an amused grunt from both of his friends. "How fucked up are you two this time?"

A pained groan was their only reply. Kabuto sighed and opened the water skin on his hip and drew out some of the medicated water and sent it to heal his teammates. Infusing some of his healing chakra into the water he immediately got to work on their injuries. Both Naruto and Itachi sighed in relief until they were able to sit up on their own after several minutes.

"Training with Tsunade-sama is coming along well then?" asked Itachi rhetorically as he massaged his still aching muscles. That spar had lasted for hours... he was going to feel this in the morning.

"Yes, with the mizu no chiyu gijutsu (water healing technique) I should be able to seamlessly heal the two of you in the middle of a battle if need be." Kabuto smiled.

"That's so fucking cool!" Naruto exclaimed, "I swear, we've got to be the most badass team of all time!"

Both Itachi and Kabuto beamed at the analysis. It was hard to argue with that logic.

'I wonder... is this what friendship feels like...' Kabuto thought to himself. For the first time in his life he truly felt... accepted? Loved? Wanted? He liked it.

XXXXXXXXXX

(10 days later, Kumo)

Team 5 had finally arrived in Kumo after a week of travel. None of them had ever seen anything like it; the festivities were in full swing, and the streets were crowded with people, both shinobi and civilian, from all over the elemental nations.

"Like I said, largest chunin exams in recent memory." said Obito to his longshot team.

"Whatever, they're going to take it all." said Tsunade, who couldn't resist venturing to Kumo to support her favorite group of genin.

"You three go enjoy the festival and find me no later than 2000 tonight. The first exam starts at 1000 tomorrow. I'll go check us in." Said Obito.

It didn't take Naruto long to find what he was looking for, the ramen stand that supposedly had the best gyoza in the entire elemental nations. "Hello, can I get a large miso pork ramen with extra pork and 5 orders of gyoza?" Naruto asked the dark skinned waitress behind the counter.

"Coming right up," she said, "you three don't look like you're from around here, did you come for the festival?"

Naruto pointed his thumb at his headband with a big smile on his face, "nope! We're here to win this thing!"

The girl behind the stand looked at the three Konoha genin with a puzzled look on her face, "but you're so young, you can't be older than 9."

"8 actually. Well except for Kabuto, he's 10." Naruto said eyes squinted.

"Really? How?" the girl was genuinely curious as to how these three kids were already testing to become chunin, where most didn't achieve the rank until they were twice their age.

"You'll just have to watch and see us win this whole thing," Naruto said cryptically.

The teenage girl smiled at them, she liked them and kind of hoped they did win. "Okay, what'll it be for you too then?"

"What do you want to do now?" Asked Itachi after they left the ramen stand. Naruto was had a bulging belly from all the gyoza he'd eaten.

"How about we... ugh... find some games we can play," Naruto suggested, struggling to speak after overeating so much. That gyoza truly was delicious.

"Sounds good to me," said Kabuto as he led the group to some shuriken throwing games.

Itachi made quick work of the targets, winning game after game. He had drawn quite the crowd and had won most of the prizes from the stand. He was left with a huge stack of stuffed animals as winnings.

"Hah, you want a storage scroll for those Itachi?" asked Naruto.

Itachi smiled and started handing out his winnings to the younger members of the crowd that had gathered to watch. He received some squeals from some of the girls around their age, but mostly looks of gratitude from parents and looks of awe and admiration from the younger kids. "Beat that Naruto," Itachi challenged after distributing the last of his prizes.

"Heh, choose the game."

"You just want to see me get pelted with balls didn't you," Naruto said as they stood in front of the batting cages.

Itachi shrugged, "you said I get to choose. Do you forfeit?"

"Yeah right, give me the bat mister!"

Itachi handed the man the money, "turn it all the way up please," Itachi said quietly.

The man smirked and did as he was asked. Naruto got in the batter's box and a ball immediately hit him in the face as soon as he turned around. "WHAT THE HE-" another ball hit him and got stuck in his mouth.

Itachi let out a hearty laugh, "You have to hit the balls Naruto!" The next ball flew directly at Itachi after a loud crack from the contact with the bat. Itachi's eyes widened, 'good thing there's a net there.'

Naruto found his groove after his first two misses, and he didn't miss again until the machine finally puttered out. The man running the stand was on his knees crying as Naruto passed out his prizes similar to how Itachi had, however he kept four for himself. 'One for Ayame, one for each of the twins, and one for the new baby when she's born.' Naruto still loved his siblings, they weren't at fault, and he had promised Ayame to bring her something back before he had left to Kumo. "And this one's for Ayame-chan," he said as he sealed a stuffed flaming blue cat twice his size into a scroll. He ignored the jealous growls many of the girls let out when they heard him say he was saving the best prize for some other girl.

"All right Kabuto, your turn, what do you want to play?" Asked Itachi.

Kabuto led them to a stand where he had to use a paper net to fish out goldfish from a bowl. He too dominated at this game thanks to his mastery of suiton and delicate touch, but drew a far smaller crowd due to the game being far less action packed. Because of a single 4 year old girl was the proud owner of 40 new goldfish.

For the rest of their free time the boys simply wandered the village, fully aware of the three girls following them around, before making their way back to Obito to go over what they might be doing the next day.

XXX END CHAPTER 11 XXX

Finally, the chunin exams are here!

Again, not a whole lot happened this chapter. We got a training montage, and Naruto now has a kenjutsu style unlike any other. In case you're curious Shinmei Muso Ryu is a real kenjutsu from the 16th century, when the katana became the weapon of choice for the samurai class, but it has since evolved into more of a sport in japan known as battojutsu after the fall of the samurai's prominence and the end of the shogun rule.

Yeah, Kabuto's healing style is like Katara from Avatar the last airbender. Don't care what you say, Katara is bae.

I kind of brushed over team 5's popularity in Konoha, but just to be clear, they're like the most popular genin in the village. Pretty much they're more popular than Neji and Sasuke were during the chunin exams in canon.

What will happen in the biggest chunin exam in decades? What's the first test going to be? What other familiar faces will we see? I mean seriously, everyone is there, except Kiri... they're busy with a mass genocide.

Can't wait to write Killer B! My own rap skills will be able to portray his shitty rhymes perfectly!