An Alternative Path

Author's note: Apparently I can no longer tell what is crap and what is not cause I hated the last chapter but you all loved it xD Anyways this chapter is dedicated to Lord Myst who leaves really long reviews and PMs but who tells me things I need to hear. You rock! This chapter is also dedicated to cake, cause cake is awesome. Anyways this is both a time skip and a filler chapter, but it's still a good chapter I think, it goes into their training a lot anyways. Next chapter is another joint mission C-rank with Team 8. There will be a cool surprise as well. Heheheh.

And here's hoping that the next year will be as great as this one:

HAPPY NEW YEAR! WOOT!

IMPORTANT: This story is AU. That means ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. That means I can do whatever the hell I want and you have to suck it up and deal.

Pairings: Jeez, some of you people are serious about your pairings. I've even gotten some P.M.s about it. I wish to reiterate, FRIENDSHIP is the strongest influence in my manga. The romance will typically be the 'squint hard to find it' kind.

BTW: I don't own Naruto!

Chunin Exams What?

Four months passed quickly for Team 7.

Naruto had continued his morning training with Jiraiya and afternoons with the team, although once a week he was dragged off by Tsunade to organize her office again. When Jiraiya had left, off to who knows where, he'd dump a large amount of scrolls on Naruto's head, literally.

"I'll be back in a few months, until then, study these, commit them to memory, freaking marry them! There'll be a quiz when I get back." Jiraiya had told him as the blonde hurriedly picked them up from the ground.

"What are they?" Naruto asked him. The outside bands were blank and offering no clue.

"These are what you'll need to know before we can even touch the Yondaime's Hiraishin." Jiraiya's answer excited him and Naruto unrolled one of the scrolls immediately.

"Advanced Applied and Philosophical Mathematical Formula in Correspondence with the Spatial, Structural, and Quantitative Aspects of the Sealing Arts," He read out loud.

"…" Small birds could be heard chirping.

"WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS EVEN MEAN!?"

"... You may want to start with the blue one." Jiraiya sighed. Naruto picked it out of the small pile he'd placed on a stump in the training field.

"Everything You Need To Know About Seals But Were Too Stupid To Figure Out For Yourself," Was the titled of this one. "By Sajiki Atsuko... Is this woman crazy?"

"She wrote the other one too. In fact Sajiki Atsuko has written more treatises and theories on Fuinjutsu than anyone before her, and she's only 32! Not that she looks it. Like Tsunade she constantly changes her appearance and usually appears about twenty." Jiraiya picked through the scrolls before holding up one with a white and red band. "This one is the only one not written by Atsuko-chan. It was written by the first Tsuchikage."

"...So I have to memorize all of these?" Naruto looked of the pile of about ten scrolls.

"YES! If you don't have a thorough understanding of Fuinjutsu before you attempt the Hiraishin you just might turn yourself inside-out." Jiraiya lectured him. "I know this stuff looks tough but you don't really need to master all of it. As long as you get the basics from the scrolls I should be able to teach you the rest when I get back."

"...So I have to memorize all of these?" Naruto repeated.

Jiraiya had hit him in the head.

Naruto sighed as he took a seat on the bench he and Sakura had put on their bridge meeting location. Sakura had said that if Kakashi was going to keep them waiting all the time then they shouldn't have to stand or sit on the ground. So far no one had removed the cheap bench so Team 7 figured no one cared they had put it there.

Reaching into a pocket he dug out the blue banded scroll. For the past three days Jiraiya had been gone he'd been trying to make his way through it. It wasn't full of mathematical equations and 'genius speak' but it was still tough. The first paragraph in fact had been quite a doozy.

"When it comes to crafting Seals there are seven taboos which must at all times be heeded. Failure to conform to these taboos will lead, undoubtedly, to death. That is the nature of Fuinjutsu. There is no room for carelessness or error. Seals are the greatest Art upon this, our miserable world, given to a select few to master by the very Gods themselves and we must take it upon ourselves to abide their laws or else suffer their swift and brutal displeasure."

From what Naruto could gather Fuinjutsu required extensive understanding math and science in order to do, mostly math, and this Sajiki person thought a lot about herself.

Still, he persevered with the scroll, reading it whenever he had free time.

Suddenly a form flopped down beside his place on the bench. He turned his head to see a mop of pink hair.

"Hey Sakura-chan." Naruto greeted her.

"Hey..." She mumbled back, almost incoherently.

"You okay?" Naruto asked her.

"Yes. No. I don't know." She raked a hand through her long hair. "Today I had to be in the surgery room when some guy came in with a mangled leg. It had to be amputated."

Naruto sat in silence not knowing what to say.

"I mean, I know that if they hadn't it would have just gotten infected and gangrenous but it was still awful." She closed her eyes. "Sometimes I wonder if I can really be a doctor."

"I think you can do it." Naruto told her encouragingly. "You just have to remember why you're doing it."

Sakura smiled a little. Naruto was right. She wanted to help people, even if that meant hacking off a few limbs here and there.

"What're you reading?" Sakura asked him, changing the subject.

"Everything You Need To Know About Seals But Were Too Stupid To Figure Out For Yourself." Naruto told her. She made a face.

"Who the hell names something that!?" She cried.

"Sajiki Atsuko." Naruto told her.

"Who's that?" Sasuke asked as he walked up. "What're you talking about?"

"This Sajiki woman is apparently 'God's Gift to Fuinjutsu'. She's written a bunch of stuff on them and invented close to 500 seals. She's considered a genius and is known as Sajiki no Sen Fuin--Sajiki of the Thousand Seals. She's also still really young so everyone figures she's going to keep cranking out seals and stuff. She doesn't have a home village and she isn't a Kunoichi, she just kinda travels around inventing seals and writing things like this." Naruto waved the scroll around before Sasuke snatched it from his hand.

"Everything You Need To Know About Seals But Were Too Stupid To Figure Out For Yourself." Sasuke looked down at the scroll in mild disbelief. "Who names things like that?"

"How did you know so much about her?" Sakura asked, mildly impressed that he went to the trouble to learn so much about the author.

"It's written at the top of the scroll." Naruto shrugged.

Indeed it was. Sasuke found the appropriate paragraph and read aloud.

"I am the amazing and totally fantastic Sajiki Atsuko, also known as God's Gift to Fuinjutsu, and Sajiki no Sen Fuin. I know more about seals then you could learn in several lifetimes. Lucky for you I have decided to impart my genius and general awesomeness to you, you idiot. After all I am the beautiful and elegant creator of close to 500 different Fuinjutsu and seeing as I'm still incredibly young at the age of 32, will likely continue to craft outstanding Seals even as you attempt to merely read this scroll.

"Oh, and if for some strange reason you take offense at anything in this scroll or decide that I must serve you or whatever, know that I have no permanent village, am not a Shinobi, and you will never find me. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!" Sasuke read dully.

"That woman is insane..." Sakura said after a silent minute.

"Pretty much." Naruto agreed. "But she knows her stuff."

"I'm really glad Kakashi is simply pounding every conceivable war time strategy into my head instead of this stuff." Sasuke said as he skimmed over parts of the scroll.

"Tell me about it! I have ten scrolls to read and they only get harder! Nine of them were written by this lady." Naruto threw up his arms in outrage.

"Why?" Sakura asked him. "Do you want to become a Fuinjutsu Master?"

"No. But in order to learn some more of the Yondaime's techniques from Ero-sennin I have to know it." Naruto told her with a sigh.

To be honest, he didn't want to have to learn it. It looked hard and complicated and he'd never heard of a Shinobi using a seal in actual combat, what the Yondaime did with him and the Kyuubi was a different matter. He preferred the Ninjutsu and Taijutsu he'd been learning.

Naruto had been learning chakra draining attacks, mostly of the Wind or Water variety, whereas Sasuke had learned a few close combat Fire and Lightning jutsu, and Sakura had learned a couple of defensive Earth jutsus. Sakura however, was increasing by leaps and bounds in her medic training, although she'd stagnated a little on the Genjutsu, claiming she'd rather focus on medicine.

Taijutsu training however had increased greatly for all of them.

Naruto was learning something called Form-Intent Fist. His movements still looked rough and untaught but they weren't. The style was simply meant to overwhelm his opponent with powerful attacks. There was little defense in it, the idea was to knock your opponent out without getting hit back. Speed was important and something Naruto lacked, so Kakashi and Jiraiya both had forced weights onto him.

Sasuke was learning Five Ancestors, and he loved it. Five Ancestors was actually a combination of five other Taijutsu styles, and was thus harder to learn as the basics of each style had to be taught first before learning how to combine them. The movements were concise and perfect; no unneeded energy would be expended. There was a mental aspect of it as well, called the Three Battles, combat preparation, combat tactics, and combat strategy.

Sakura was learning something that didn't have a name. This was because Kakashi was just taking elements from various styles he'd copied and was teaching her them. Almost everything had to do with the legs though, she never used her hands for anything but blocks, and even that was rare as she typically dodged anything that came at her. She was subjugated to weights as well to increase not only her speed, but the strength in her legs. Her movements were described by both Sasuke and Naruto, who were often at the other end of them, as elegant but brutal. The brutal came from Sasuke after she accidentally broke one of his ribs.

Sasuke sighed as he looked at his team. Naruto had gone back to reading the scroll and Sakura was hovering over his shoulder to get a glimpse of it as well. He never thought things would be so…peaceful with Naruto's loudness, Kakashi's sadistic tendencies and Sakura's propensity to lecture and give swift, painful punishments when you didn't listen.

Somehow, before he'd even realized it was happening he'd started to care about all of them. He hadn't meant for that to happen. He made a fist and stared at it as he leaned on the bridge railing. He'd made a promise months ago to Sakura and Naruto, and he was surprised to find that he really wanted to keep it. He wanted revenge for his clan as well, but if he was to be honest with himself he probably wasn't good enough yet and he had no idea where Itachi even was. Any information on him was sealed to anyone below Jounin or ANBU rank.

Besides, his team wasn't so bad. After Sakura had started the original training right after the Wave mission she'd been too tired to hound him. Even after she had less on her plate she still didn't constantly pester or fawn over him. Kakashi had said she was getting more serious. Although if Ino was around she reverted back to screaming, it was however less about Sasuke-kun and more about her teammates in general. Sasuke smiled when he remembered what Sakura had done to Kiba when he'd called Naruto a dobe a couple of weeks ago.

They'd just happen to run into Team 8 on their way home from training. Naruto was nursing a broken hand that he refused to let Sakura see or go to the hospital or Hokage for treatment. Sakura was pestering Naruto to go see a doctor and pestering Sasuke to convince Naruto when she couldn't. Sasuke was ignoring them both and thinking about what he was going to eat for dinner.

"Oy! If it isn't Team 7! Long time no see." Kiba called from across the street, Shino and Hinata beside him.

"Hello." Shino said mildly with a nod.

"Ano... H-hi." Hinata muttered, a small blush powdering her cheeks.

"Hey! What's up?" Naruto called as he crossed over to them; Sakura and Sasuke drifting along in his wake.

"Nothing much, training, missions, that kind of crap. What happened to you?" Kiba asked when he noticed Naruto cradling his still swollen and purple hand, although Sakura noticed it was looking a lot better than it had twenty minutes ago.

"Broke my hand training, but it's fine. Should be all healed up by tomorrow." Naruto shrugged.

"...Bones take six to eight weeks to heal." Shino replied.

"Really?" Naruto said lightly cursing himself in his mind for his mistake.

"Yeah really. No wonder you hurt yourself, dobe!" Kiba threw back his head and laughed for a second before he was punched right in the kisser.

"Don't talk about my teammate that way." Sakura growled before shaking out her hand. "Ow Ow Ow! Is his face made of steel?"

"Sakura-chan! Did you hurt yourself?" Naruto asked as Sasuke grunted agreement.

"No it's fine. He had it coming. Now let's go." With that she walked off, Naruto and Sasuke hurrying after her.

Sasuke frowned as he remembered that Naruto had indeed been fine the next day. When asked, he'd laughed lightly before claiming to have gone to see the Hokage to get it healed, but it was obviously a lie. Naruto was a very bad liar.

To be perfectly honest, sometimes Naruto seemed like a complete moron, yet other times he would say or do something genius, especially in the midst of battle. Kakashi had once commented to him that Naruto instinctively knew more about combat than he could teach. Sasuke was surprised and had asked what he meant.

"Sometimes there are people who exist for battle. In everyday life they might be plain, or normal, and seem average or even stupid; but you get them in a fight and it changes. Suddenly they are smarter than you, faster than you, and all around better than you. It's a humbling thing to witness." Kakashi told him.

"Are you one of these people?" Sasuke had asked him.

"No, I'm not. These are rare people and they are getting rarer." Kakashi replied. "Still, there is no one I'd rather have beside me on the battle field, and no one I'd least like to see fighting me. Haven't you noticed it though?" Kakashi asked suddenly.

"Noticed what?" Sasuke asked.

"Naruto never loses." Kakashi said simply. "He either wins or forces you to draw. Even if he is beaten momentarily he comes back at you with a new strategy, and that's usually enough to do it. Naruto fights like a beast or a man possessed. You can't tell me you haven't noticed at least that?"

But Sasuke had noticed, he simply had refused to recognize it. At first Sasuke had been incredibly jealous and mad that Naruto would be better at combat then him, an Uchiha. But going on missions with Naruto and sparring against him Sasuke realized, Kakashi was right. There was no one he'd rather have on his side.

Naruto was fierce in battle.

Luckily Naruto's ability to think on the fly in battle meant he could direct them what to do too. In the beginning, the Uchiha had resisted any suggestion or command Naruto had given, but then he realized that Sakura and even Kakashi followed Naruto's directives to impressive results, so he'd begun to listen as well. Sasuke wondered if Naruto even realized what he was doing. He didn't seem to.

Sasuke had, mostly, gotten over it 'cause he had his place too. Sasuke had, despite his intense dislike for it, become the official social liaison between Team 7 and any civilians. This was due to many reasons: 1. Sasuke had training as a child to deal with tricky situations, 2. Kakashi couldn't be bothered, 3. Naruto was inept with dealing with anyone who wasn't a ninja, and 4. Sakura was too hot tempered to do it.

Sakura's temper had come a little as a surprise to him, Naruto had already had to deal with it and Kakashi just didn't care, but he never had to face it before. Sakura's changes were perhaps the most noticeable.

She'd gone from being almost withdrawn and shy around him and overly critical and nasty around Naruto to treating them both as equals (well, okay, she still insulted Naruto but it was mostly teasing, except when he deserved it.). She'd also taken to mothering everyone on the team, even if her idea of mothering was to tell everyone what to do loudly. Still, there was comfort in having someone tell him (loudly) to eat all his rations and sharpen his kunai, even if it was slightly irritating, too.

He sighed as he spotted Kakashi coming from his vantage point of standing. He made a small motion at Naruto and Sakura and they both looked up and over at Kakashi.

Today he was 43 minutes late. Kakashi never changed.

---

Today Kakashi actually had a good reason for being late, not that he'd tell his team that. To them he gave some excuse involving peanut butter and rabbits. They'd all given him the stink eye and moved to the training field wordlessly.

Even as he set up Naruto and Sakura to start sparring and told Sasuke to watch them with his Sharingan active, Naruto and Sakura agreed long ago to allow him to do this after hearing about its copying abilities, Kakashi's mind was elsewhere. Specifically, it was on his reason for being late.

---

"I am sure you can all guess why I've summoned you here." Tsunade rubbed her temples as she looked around at the milling Jounin. "The Chunin Exams are to be held in Iwa in a week. I've called you here to tell you that only one team will be allowed to participate this time."

Instantly loud murmuring filled the room.

"Quiet!" Tsunade called and the mass once again became silent. "There is a good reason for this. As you know, Iwa, though professing neutrality to us, holds deep grudges for the last war, as does Kumo which will be sending several teams and still has an alliance with Iwa. I fear that, in their home environment, Iwa might join with Kumo and attack our genin teams, and not with the intention to knock them out of the competition, but rather to kill."

"But Hokage-sama, these things are to be expected. Each team goes knowing they are putting their life on the line, indeed that is the whole point of being a shinobi!" A Jounin replied.

"True, but I am the Hokage, and as such my whole point of existence is to not put my shinobi in detrimental situations for no good reason." Tsunade snarled back. "The fact is, with the judges being so critical of Konoha and with Iwa being so far and expensive to travel to, it just isn't expedient for us to send our genin there to fail." Many of the Jounin's present began murmuring again, this time in agreement.

"How many of you really expect your team to pass? How many of you even plan on nominating your teams? One team will go, because it would be horribly rude of us to snub Iwa and we can't disrupt our precarious peace with them, but it will be a team I think is most likely to pass or if not pass, at least survive." Tsunade sighed. "Now, which of you is willing to nominate your teams?"

Nobody moved, but instead glanced among each other. Finally Kakashi stepped forward.

"I, Hatake Kakashi, instructor of Team 7, nominate Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto for the Chunin Exams." He said formally. Tsunade paled noticeably.

"You really want to send him, THEM, I mean, into Iwa after all I told you?" She said with a forced calm.

"I believe them prepared." Kakashi replied monotonously.

"I see." Tsunade swallowed the lump in her throat and turned back to the others. "Who else?"

In the end only three other teams were nominated, all with members between the ages of 17 and 20. Tsunade closed her eyes and rubbed her temples again.

"Those that have not nominated a team are free to go." She turned to Shizune as the various Jounin exited the room. "Get me the files on these teams." She told her. Shizune nodded and scuttled off towards one of the bookcases lining the room. She returned in only a minute, having no difficulty finding them. Tsunade raised and eyebrow. "That was fast."

"Naruto-kun did an excellent job organizing this place." She explained, handing them over.

Tsunade flipped through the folders, all about equal thickness despite the fact that Team 7's should have been shorter. She instantly saw it was due to a variety of information on Naruto.

The remaining Jounin shuffled impatiently, unsure what to do. After 20 minutes, however, Tsunade closed the last folder and looked up at them.

"I've made my decision. Yamura Hitao, your team will go." She announced.

"Tsunade-sama," Kakashi said. "Forgive me, but I can't help but wonder what your thinking was."

"Do you think I made the wrong choice?" Tsunade leveled Kakashi with a look that suggested he shut up and back away slowly, but Kakashi ignored it.

"I just wonder if you didn't perhaps let personal feelings enter into your decision." He stated.

By now the other Jounin were looking at him like he was crazy, and maybe he was, but he just wanted to make sure his team had been fairly considered.

"… Maybe I did." Tsunade said.

"But that-" Kakashi began before Tsunade held up a slim hand to silence him.

"Your team has incredible potential, more than any other genin team in existence today." She told them. "I want to see them all reach that potential. I would rather they be held back six months then potentially fail now, and risk losing their life in the interim." She sighed yet again.

"…All of them or just Naruto." Kakashi asked. He was angry that Tsunade might be preventing them for no other reason than her desire to keep Naruto beside her.

"SHUT UP!" Tsunade screamed at him and he and the other three Jounin recoiled slightly. "You're right. I care greatly for Naruto. If something happened to him, if he died, I don't know what I'd do, but I will never, ever, carelessly prevent him from achieving the greatness he deserves for such a selfish reason. But this time the risks far outweigh the potential benefits. Your team is strong, Kakashi, but they need more time to face what might come at them in Iwa."

"I apologize. I see now you were merely looking out in their best interests." Kakashi bowed to her.

"6 months." She said in reply.

"Huh?" Kakashi asked oh so intelligently, straightening up.

"In 6 months the Chunin Exams will be held here, in Konoha. They will compete then, and no doubt be made Chunin." Tsunade told him.

"Why are they being held here again so soon?" He asked.

"Do you know how the village is chosen to host the Exam?" She looked at each of the Jounin in turn. They all shook their heads. "It's basically bribery. The Exams can only be held in one of the Five Great Countries so the village that wants it pays the other villages to let them have it. Typically, the amount is huge so a village can't afford to host it but once every couple of years. Thanks in large part to Naruto's ungodly luck at gambling, I amassed enough money to successfully bribe the other countries, although my debts are still huge." Tsunade scowled at the reminder. "I only did it to show the other village's that Konoha was not weakened by the Suna-Oto attack."

"That week long 'training trip' Jiraiya and Naruto took a month ago, that's when you got all the money isn't it?" Kakashi asked suddenly. Naruto had come back from that trip exhausted but with nothing new to show for it and he refused to speak of it.

"Yes. They went to Tobaku, the big casino town at the edge of Fire Country. Naruto played twenty hours out of the day for five days to get us the money for it. Although, now Naruto is refusing to gamble anymore." Tsunade grumbled something under her breath about unthankful twerps.

"Is that all, Hatake? I still have a lot of work to do, you know." Tsunade told him. He shook his head. "Anyone else?" she called out and the other Jounin gave the negative as well. "Then what are you doing? Get the hell out!" They scrambled.

---

Kakashi watched dispassionately as Naruto avoided a kick to his navel from Sakura and instead whirled around the leg, stood nearly toe to toe with her, bent forward slightly, and drove a fist into Sakura's side, elbow still close to his own side. He stepped back instantly as Sakura jumped back before racing back to him.

Sakura attempted a high kick to the head but Naruto simple slid into the Forward Stance, head, spine and left leg aligned in a straight line with his front leg bent, lowing him enough for Sakura's kick to fly harmlessly over his head. He then used a Water Strike to drill his open hand into Sakura's stomach, causing her to slide back a couple of inches on the hard ground.

Just as Naruto had lifted himself into the High Stance, the starting stance of Form-Intent Fist that left the user's head, chest and feet in the same vertical line, Kakashi called a halt to the fight.

"Gah! About time!" Sakura cried as she doubled over to catch her breath. Naruto's style focused almost everything on the torso, leaving her winded and feeling slight nauseous.

"Sorry Sakura-chan." Naruto apologized. She waved it off.

"It's fine. It's me. I'm just not good enough." She frowned even as she panted for air.

"That's not it at all. It's simply that Naruto's style clashes badly with your own." Kakashi told her.

"Yeah, my style without a name." She mumbled. Sometimes Sakura had to work twice as hard as the boys to pull her various moves from various styles into one cohesive form.

"Well, if you refine it enough you can give it a name and have the honor of being the first master of it." Kakashi smiled at her.

"Now Naruto, you're still leaving you arms too far from your body. Remember, 'the hands do not leave the heart and the elbows do not leave the ribs'. The closer you keep your arms to your torso the more power you can give the strikes," Kakashi lectured him.

"I know, I know." He grumbled.

Kakashi then looked at the sky. Close to three.

"Why don't we go to the tower and pick up a couple of quick D-ranks. I could use some pocket money." Kakashi said.

His team quickly agreed. D-rank missions were like payed breaks from hard physical training.

---

"Hello Baa-chan!" Naruto called as they walked through the doors to Tsunade's office. He then quickly dodged the flying clock. "Ha! Can't get me with tha-" He was cut off by an empty, but rather thick, jug hitting him in the face.

"Ha! You shouldn't call me that, bad things happen to people who call me that." Tsunade scolded the boy.

"Bad things you cause!" Naruto replied, jug (it appeared to be a sake jug) firmly in hand.

"So? It's still bad!" Tsunade told him.

"Naruto! Stop arguing with the Hokage!" Sakura told him, slapping him in the back of the head.

"She's right, make yourself useful instead." Tsunade handed Naruto a thick stack of forms. "File these for me while I talk with the rest of your team."

Naruto grumbled but did what she asked. If he refused she'd simply do it herself, messing up his careful filing system.

"What can I do for you?" Tsunade asked pleasantly.

"We want a couple of D-ranks we can finish up before today's over." Kakashi told her.

"Right, we'll just have Naruto grab a couple out of the stack after he finishes filing." She said before turning back to the paperwork she'd been filling out concerning the Chunin Exams.

"Right," Kakashi agreed blandly, watching his blonde student file.

He was more like a filing demon, he thought, than a fox demon…

--

OMAKE!

The Academy Mission

When they'd asked for a mission they hadn't expected it to turn out quite like this.

Sasuke glared over the crowd menacingly but inside he didn't know what the hell to do.

Naruto was quickly shuffling through several documents trying to find those damn lessons plans.

Sakura was trying not to scream at them all to SHUT THE HELL UP!

And Kakashi was reading his book, until Sakura noticed and snatched it from him, showing a degree of speed she'd never before exhibited, telling him firmly 'No smut in front of the children.'

How on earth had they gotten roped into filling in for a sick teacher at the Academy?

Finally Naruto let out a whoop. He had found not only the lesson plans but the attendance log as well. Looking over it he began calling out the names of various 9 year olds.

"Amari Jien." He called and the child replied 'Hai', ticking it off he swiftly moved down the list as Sakura looked over the lesson plan.

After Naruto finished he joined the rest of Team 7 in a small huddle.

"Okay." Started Sakura. "I'll cover history and mathematics, Sasuke you do Taijutsu, and Naruto you can do Kunai practice and stealth training." She said.

"What shall I do?" Kakashi asked her.

"You go huddle in a corner somewhere and try not to give any of these kids your bad habits, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura snapped at him. She was in a bad mode because she did not want to be doing this.

Kakashi then performed a strategic retreat to a far corner, mumbling something about cold female students. Naruto and Sasuke watched him without much sympathy.

---

By lunch they were all exhausted, even Kakashi who had eventually been roped into taking care of disciplinary issues. Naruto wondered if he had been half as bad as some of these kids were.

"Oh dear Kami-sama, we still have half the day to go!" Sakura cried as she dropped herself into a chair in the teachers lounge.

"At least you don't have to do any more teaching." Naruto told her as he handed her a cup of tea he'd gotten from a pot on the stove.

"Yeah, but next is Taijutsu. Remember what our Taijutsu lessons were like?" Sakura told him.

Naruto and Sasuke instantly began picturing it. Simultaneously they both groaned before slumping down in two chairs.

"...Where did Sensei go?" Sasuke asked. The other two looked around. Kakashi wasn't there.

"Damn him! He must of run off!" Sakura cried out.

Back in the classroom Kakashi had been cornered by a dozen nine year olds wanting to know what he kept under his mask. Attempting to ward them off all he could think was 'Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, HELP!'

---

Taijutsu practice hadn't been so bad. Or at least no one had actually died and the kids did learn something; Don't Piss Sasuke Off.

Sasuke deposited the brats into Naruto's hands.

"Good luck, remember we can't kill them." He told Naruto seriously.

"Right!" Naruto said before turning to look over his students. "Well, we'll start with Kunai Practice, BLUNT ONES ONLY, and then move to stealth."

"How is a bright orange eyesore qualified to teach us stealth?" One of them called. It was an arrogant punk that had hasseled each of them in turn. He belonged to the Hyuuga clan, though he was only a branch member, and both Sasuke and Sakura were careful when dealing with him, deciding that the trouble they might get in if they threatened him wasn't worth it.

Naruto sighed before rubbing his temple.

"Stealth just happens to be one of my strengths as a ninja. You only see me cause I let you." Naruto told him with another sigh.

"Yeah right. You look like an idiot not a ninja."

Naruto got a twitch in his jaw as he tried to prevent himself from saying something stupid.

"They're just stupid kids, they're just stupid kids. We do not maim the stupid kids." He mumbled under his breath as he passed out the blunt kunai. A couple of the meeker students backed away slightly from the expression on his face.

After they all managed to hit the target three times in a row, it took forever and Naruto wondered if he'd ever been that bad at it, he directed them all to the small patch of fake forest the Academy had.

"Alright the first, and only, rule of stealth is don't get caught." He informed. "Someone sees you and its game over." He looked over the students. "We are going to play hide and seek."

"But that's a kid's game!" Someone cried out.

"And you are all kids." He told them. "Alright, you," He pointed at the Hyuuga. "You're it first. No fancy eye things, use it and you'll get in trouble. Everyone else, hide, I'll hide too. Now start counting."

He closed his eyes and started counting, making sure to follow Naruto's chakra. He'd show Naruto, he'd catch him without even using his Byakugan, not that he could really use it that much anyway. He stumbled over the numbers when Naruto's chakra seemed to just vanish. Reaching fifty he opened his eyes and began searching for people.

Thirty minutes later everyone had been found except Naruto. The Hyuuga and the rest of the class were standing together in the woods.

"Where did he go?" One of the female students asked.

"Humph, maybe he just ran off somewhere to trick us." The Hyuuga suggested. Suddenly a orange blur jumped down in front of them.

"No I didn't." The entire class reared back. "Jeez did you even think to look up? Most people, when searching, only look at eye level and below, this is cause most people only hide at eye level and below. Remember that next time."

He pointed someone else out to be it and the game started all over again.

---

Three o'clock came and the students vanished in a loud stampeding mass out the door, leaving Team 7 slumped around the desk, exhausted.

"Never again!" vowed Naruto loudly. The other's simple nodded.

Author's Note Reprise: Phew, chapter done, and Snicky's right it is more of an interlude than anything else. Not to worry, the next chapter is half-way done and a lot of fun. I hope you weren't dissapointed that they didn't go to the Exams, there is a reason for that though and I swear you'll see the exams in just a couple of chapters or so. Anyways I'm upping the amount of reviews needed to get an omake again, cause I got 64 for the last chapter. By the way that's amazing, thanks so much.

Look for the next chapter in about a week or so, although it might be delayed due to me having to go to the surgeon.

Also: Because someone asked, the omakes aren't vital to read but they do have insights to the characters and events that might be mentioned later, I do try not to make it to confusing however and I explain things again in the course of the story. But still, the omakes are fun, even if they do seem to be getting longer and longer...

Snicky's Note! Hah! I am in love with Miss Seals Master of the Universe. She's going to be an interesting character, I mean:cough: if we ever see her. Not much to say, other than this was really more of an interlude than an actual chapter. Next one should be fun, though. Teehee… But oh, be glad! Zessei got this out pretty fast!

Taijutsu Notes: New Section, Fun!

The two taijutsu styles mentioned are actual Chinese Martial Arts Styles whose names really are Form-Intent Fist (Xingyiquan) and Five Ancestors (Wu Zu Quán). There were some creative licenses taken however in portraying them although I tried to keep them as true to reality as possible.

For those of you who think I should have used Japanese Martial Arts, Japan has very few, most not involving weapons (and some that did) were derived from China. Plus China just has a greater variety of them. A lot of thought went in to picking the two styles for Sasuke and Naruto however I couldn't find anything that fit Sakura.

Form-Intent Fist uses concise, but somewhat blocky movements, that deliver a great amount of force with each it. It has limited stances and very few kicks, as kicks unbalance the fighter. There are a variety of blows named after the five classic Chinese elements and blows based on twelve animals. These series of blows are called Forms. The Water Form focuses on drilling horizontal palm attacks. You will see other forms as they are used in the future.

Five Ancestors Fist is a martial art that consists of techniques from five different styles:

-The hand techniques and the complementary softness and hardness of Fujian White Crane

-The agility and footwork of Monkey Kung Fu

-The precision and efficient movement of Emperor Taizu

-The posture and dynamic power of Luohan

-The breathing methods and iron body of Da mo

It also has a mental aspect in the Sam Chian, or Three Battles. Combat Preparation, Combat Tactics, and Combat Strategy. This style is often considered free formed in that teachers of it tend to had whatever forms and attacks of the five listed styles they want.

I hope you enjoyed that brief lesson.

PREVIEW:

"I am the one you're guarding you brat." The heavily tattooed young woman hit him over the head with a paper fan.

"Well excuse me!" Naruto replied. "Doesn't seem like you need guarding with all those Yakuza tattoos."

A vein over the woman's right eye twitched violently as her pretty features twisted into a sneer.

"They aren't tattoos, idiot, they're Seals."

REVIEW OR I'LL EAT YOU! RAWGH! 55+ Reviews Gets An OMAKE!