The sun rose over the large shinobi village of Konoha, its rays lighting up windows wet with morning dew. Uzumaki Naruto stared at the rippled reflection of the sun-tinted sky below him. The young teenager was sat on the bridge that was the official meeting place of team 7, his legs swinging over the water and his chin resting on the lowest bar of the fence.

His sky blue eyes were dull and unfocused, and he wore the face of a troubled man, as thoughts of the previous day ran through his head.

FLASHBACK

"I want you to drop your mask," Minato said.

"WHAT?"

"You heard me Naruto," Minato's face was completely serious.

"Are you crazy? I can't just suddenly drop my mask like that! You know the uproar that would cause?" Naruto attempted to explain as panic and fear clutched his heart.

"It's the mask, or the Key Summons jutsu. Make your choice," Minato said, crossing his arms to stop himself from rushing over and hugging his panicking son.

Naruto stared dumbstruck at the blonde man stood opposite him, then frowned and glanced at the floor. Minato watched him triumphantly, knowing there was nothing Naruto would put above the importance of learning a new jutsu.

After several seconds of stretched silence, Naruto looked up, his blue eyes glinting with determination. "I choose my mask," he stated, then stormed towards the kitchen table, sitting down in a huff and glaring angrily at the wall opposite him.

Minato's eyes widened with surprise. This mask was that important to him? For a split second, Minato considered just dropping the whole issue and allowing his son and best friend to continue with his double-life. Then he remembered the angry whispers of the villages, the taunts and insults, and a new determination and fire grew within him. He wanted to prove the villagers wrong. He wanted to shove in their faces how brilliant Naruto was. How Naruto wasn't a monster, but a strong ninja ready to give his life in service of the village.

At the last thought Minato blanched. No matter how much it stung his heart, he knew his son would readily give his life if it meant the villagers would be safe and happy. Just looking at how Naruto had hidden his talent and strength all these years proved this to him. If only the villagers could realise this. If only they could see the true Naruto, the one that hid behind the mask. He was certain if they saw the real Uzumaki Naruto, they would regret their words.

Minato knew that if Naruto dropped his mask it'd be good for him and the village in the long-run. Minato also knew that every person had the right to be themselves, no matter the consequences.

As these thoughts settled, Minato knew what he had to do. It was a big sacrifice on both Naruto's and Minato's part, but it was necessary. Stepping forward, he placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto looked up into the steely determined eyes of his best friend, and felt a shiver of apprehension crawl down his back.

"Naruto," Naruto's eyes widened fearfully, "If you don't drop the mask, I'll never buy you ramen ever again."

END FLASHBACK

Damn that Minato! He knew all of Naruto's weaknesses. And now, because of him, Naruto was going to reveal his true self to his two teammates and sensei. Naruto had spent the entire night wishing curses on Minato and worrying over how team 7 would react when he dropped the mask. He'd barely slept an hour when nerves had attacked him in the form of a rather frightening nightmare (involving ramen being made illegal and all his jutsu scrolls being burned) and he'd awoken. Unable to get back to sleep, he'd dressed and headed to the bridge, three hours before they were scheduled to meet.

"Naruto?"

Naruto jumped as his name was called right beside his ear, banging his head on the fence above him.

"Itai!" he cried as he climbed to his feet. He rubbed the newly formed bruise on his head as he looked up into the green eyes of his female teammate, Haruno Sakura.

"Morning Sakura-chan," Naruto greeted her, his trademark grin slipping on automatically.

"Naruto you baka! What were you doing?" Naruto winced as the screeching tone of Sakura's voice reached his ears, the voice she always seemed to use on him. Naruto swore on more than one occasion that she was trying to make his ears bleed.

"Ah nothing Sakura-chan," Naruto said as he glanced up at the sky, the sun's position telling him he'd spent the last three hours doing nothing but thinking.

"You had to be doing something baka!" Sakura yelled as she made to hit Naruto on the head, like she always did when he said something that annoyed her. Naruto, though, wasn't paying attention so when the fist came hurtling towards his head he automatically dodged it before swinging his foot under Sakura's legs, making the unsuspecting girl fall to the ground with a thud.

"Naruto-baka! What was that for?" Sakura said as she stood up, rubbing her sore bottom gingerly.

"Uh sorry Sakura-chan. I didn't mean to, it was instinct!" Naruto, scratching his head sheepishly and hoping no one else saw his mask slip. However, it seemed the Gods felt like ruining Naruto's day as a familiar arrogant voice called out from the other side of the bridge.

"Since when does an idiot have instinct, dobe?"

Growling as he turned to face the Uchiha, Naruto barked "Shut it Sasuke-teme!" Sasuke just smirked in response and leaned casually against the fence. Seconds later Sakura had latched onto Sasuke's arm and Naruto was once again staring into the clear blue water of the river, the three man team settling into their familiar routine easily.

Half an hour passed and Naruto was still stood in basically the same position, though his eyes were closed as if he had fallen asleep standing. Contrary to outward appearances, though, Naruto was in fact focusing his entire attention on enhancing his senses. He was alert and looking out for Minato, just in case he decided to check up on Naruto to ensure he kept up his part of the deal. Naruto was fairly certain that Minato wouldn't show though, due to the sleeping tablets he'd accidently slipped into Minato's ramen the night before.

Another half hour passed before Kakashi showed up; the bridge filled with the familiar shouts of "YOU'RE LATE!" from Sakura and Naruto. Kakashi's eyes crinkled up as he smiled under his mask, spouting out the usual nonsense about 'rescuing an injured dolphin' or 'getting lost of the road of life'.

"What are we doing today?" Naruto asked, hoping it wasn't more pathetic D-rank missions. Honestly, he had to find that cat Tora one more time he'd return it to the Daimyo's wife as a new fur-rug.

"We're going to spend an hour sparring then if I think you're good enough for the chunin exams I'll give you the forms," Kakashi explained.

"What do you mean good enough?" Naruto shouted indignantly, "You already said we were being entered into the exams."

"Ah...I did didn't I? Well then, we're going to spar and if you do rubbish I'll take you out of the exams," the copy-nin said, his eyes still upturned as he smiled. Really, he just loved screwing with these kids.

Naruto grumbled something incomprehensible under his breath (Kakashi raised an eyebrow when he thought he heard the word 'jackass') but obediently followed his sensei and teammates as they turned to head towards their usual training grounds.

Team 7 had just left the bridge and were beginning to walk up the crest of the hill, Naruto still with the irritated expression on his face, when a voice suddenly shouted "Naruto!"

Naruto froze, instantly recognizing the voice. 'Please no, please Kami if you have ever loved me let him disappear' he prayed mentally, but obviously Kami had a personal vendetta against Naruto that day since the voice came again, only much closer.

"Naruto!"

Team 7 turned to face the approaching black-haired teen, Naruto turning last and not bothering to hide his angry glare from his other teammates. The teenager stopped in front of team 7 and panted for a second, before grinning and saying in a cheerful voice "Glad I caught you Naruto."

After several seconds of silence only punctuated by the curious looks he was getting from the rest of team 7 and the furious glares Naruto was directing at him, he rubbed his head sheepishly in a fashion amazingly similar to Naruto and introduced himself to the majority of the team.

"Hi. I'm Tetsu. I'm a friend of Naruto's. Naruto promised me yesterday that I could watch him train with you guys but the baka forgot to meet me! Isn't that right, Naruto?" Tetsu, known to Naruto as Minato, gave Naruto a sharp glance as if daring the blonde boy to contradict him.

Naruto, realising at once that his daily ramen intake for the next month probably depended on his answer, replied through gritted teeth "Yeah, that's right."

Minato, safely hidden within his Tetsu illusion jutsu, grinned and turned to look at Kakashi. "You don't mind, do you? I'm just a civilian so I wouldn't understand any of this business with catra or whatever it's called, but I'd really love to see Naruto fight."

Kakashi's eye crinkled as he smiled under his mask. "Sure, just try not to get in the way, ne?" Underneath this though, Kakashi was curious; curious why he had never heard of this 'Tetsu' character from Naruto, and why Naruto kept showering the black-haired teen with annoyed and angry glares. Intent on discovering whatever secret he was missing out on, he'd decided to allow Tetsu to join them for their training.

"Don't worry I won't." Tetsu grinned and then Team 7 continued on their way to the training grounds, Kakashi leading the way reading his book followed by Sasuke and Sakura, the latter glancing curiously at Tetsu and Naruto, who were trailing behind the rest, Naruto staring pointedly at the floor while he walked and Tetsu giving the sulking blonde a foxy grin.

Ten minutes later the group arrived at their destination and Kakashi momentarily looked up from his trashy novel to inform the group of their training arrangements.

"Sakura you need to work on your stamina so do some tree walking until I tell you to stop and after you can spar against whoever loses the first spar." Sakura nodded and headed towards the nearest tree, happy that she'd actually be doing some training but kind of annoyed that she'd have to spar with Naruto-baka after he'd lost to Sasuke-kun. "Naruto and Sasuke you'll be sparring. No ninjutsu."

Sasuke shot his teammate a cocky stare but was surprised to see Naruto was still glaring daggers at the floor, his arms crossed as he mumbled something about 'persistent assholes who couldn't leave him the hell alone'.

"Hey do-" Sasuke's insult was effectively cut off when Tetsu suddenly shouted "Naruto stop daydreaming!"

Naruto's head snapped up at the sound of his name. Realising what, or rather who, the cause was, he turned a full-force glare on Tetsu, allowing an inhuman growl to escape his throat as he released a significant amount of killing intent. Sasuke felt an involuntary shiver crawl up his spine and even Kakashi looked up from his book with raised eyebrows, but Tetsu just beamed at the blonde and slapped him on the back.

"Come on Naruto, you got to spar with your teammate."

Naruto broke from his angry stupor and pulled in his killing intent. "No ninjutsu right?" he said, his eyes shifting from his sensei to Sasuke.

"Yeah dobe you got lucky. I'll just have to use you as a kunai target instead" Sasuke smirked, twirling a kunai in his hand in a threatening way.

"Yeah whatever teme," Naruto replied half-heartedly as he slipped into a fighting stance while Kakashi and Tetsu backed away to the tree line. Minato narrowed his eyes when he spotted the obvious flaws in the boy's posture. It seemed Naruto wasn't taking his threat seriously.

Naruto, meanwhile, had automatically slipped into the security of his 'mask' and was preparing to charge headfirst into the Uchiha, like his idiotic persona normally did. He lifted a foot, ready to run for the teme, when Tetsu's voice cut through the air.

"Hey Naruto! If you win this spar I'll take you for ramen later," Tetsu yelled. Kakashi and Sasuke heard the shout with differing levels of amusement, both fairly certain Naruto wouldn't be getting his ramen. However Naruto was the only one who heard the underlying message: 'If you don't win this spar you'll never get ramen again'.

Shuddering at the mere thought he reluctantly dropped his mask and corrected his stance, noting the surprised look on Sasuke's face as he did so. He didn't blame him. Before his stance had been that of an academy student, his feet and arms in such awkward positions it wouldn't be surprising if he tripped over his own feet. Now though, his stance was completely and perfectly balanced, his hands already shaped to deliver effective blows and his arms positioned in such a way that he could both block and attack at the same time. The transformation in stances was like a harmless squirrel changing into a deadly leopard.

Sasuke, realising he was gawking, quickly hid behind his usual emotionless front and smirked. "Looks like you've been practising dobe, but don't think a new stance will help you defeat me!" And with that he charged forward, for the first time making the first move. Naruto simply nodded his head at his teammate's words and sprinted towards Sasuke, grinning at the shocked look on Sasuke's face at his increase in speed. Heh, he would've dropped his mask sooner, if only to see the look on the teme's face!

The two genin reached each other and Naruto immediately launched a fist at Sasuke's face. Sasuke blocked, pushing his surprise at the strength behind the blow to the back off his mind, he launched his own fist at Naruto. Naruto grabbed the pale fist with one hand and brought his other hand round and hit the joint in Sasuke's arm. Sasuke winced in pain as his other hand grabbed the joint on reflex, and Naruto used this opportunity to aim another punch at Sasuke's face. Unable to block in time the punch hit Sasuke's jaw straight on, causing the Uchiha to reel backwards. He would've stumbled, but Naruto still held tight onto the fist he'd made earlier. Keeping his hold on Sasuke's fist he pulled the black-haired youth towards him and brought his leg up, effectively kneeing the unprepared genin right in the stomach. Deciding his teammate had had enough of a beating, at least for now, Naruto released Sasuke's fist and jumped backwards, slipping back into his stance a few metres away from the panting Uchiha.

Kakashi looked up from his book, expecting to see the usual (Naruto on the floor with Sasuke stood over him gloating) and was beyond surprised at the scene that greeted him. Sasuke, the last Uchiha in Konoha and rookie of the year, was bent over clutching his stomach, a bruise already forming on the joint in his right arm and spitting blood onto the grass while Naruto, knucklehead ninja and deadlast of the year, was stood in a perfect stance without even a scratch on him.

Kakashi blinked a few times, thinking he might be hallucinating, but the image stayed the same. Directing his gaze to the teen that stood beside him he was again surprised to see the smirk on Tetsu's face and the knowing look in his eyes. He was about to ask the teen what he knew that he didn't when he Naruto's voice stopped him.

"You ready for round two Sasuke-teme?"

Sasuke wiped the blood from his mouth and straightened his posture into the classic Uchiha stance before gifting Naruto with his darkest glare yet.

"I don't know how the hell you got so strong dobe, but I won't underestimate you a second time."

"Really? Then you don't mind if I use my full strength?" Naruto said with a foxy grin.

Then suddenly Naruto moved, his movements blurs as sprinted straight for Sasuke. Grinning as adrenaline flooded his system Naruto feinted another fist to Sasuke's face and Sasuke made to block again, but Naruto suddenly brought his leg up in powerful kick to the Avengers chest, sending Sasuke flying several feet backwards. Not yet finished with his teammate Naruto sped forward, focusing chakra to his legs to increase his speed he reached Sasuke's location in mere seconds and aimed a punch straight at Sasuke's laid out figure on the ground. Sasuke, sensing the attack, rolled over just in time and jumped to his feet, his hands already prepared to block the attack Naruto sent to his head seconds later and his eyes tingling as chakra poured into them.

Naruto's eyes widened slightly as he stared into the sharingan eyes of his teammate. He'd almost forgotten the teme had gotten them in that mission in the wave country. Damn it, now one of his biggest advantages, his speed, had gone down the drain!

Flipping backwards to escape Sasuke's attack range and to give him time to think up a new strategy against the infamous sharingan, he was mildly surprised when Sasuke was suddenly in front of him and just barely managed to duck under the scrunched-up fist that had been heading for his jaw.

Jumping backwards again, buying time while his mind created a winning strategy, he groaned mentally when Sasuke again appeared in front of him and jumped over Sasuke's swinging kick. Using a manoeuvre Naruto had only recently come up with in his weekly spars against his Solid Shadow jutsu, he twisted in the air and swung his leg round so it would connect directly with his teammates cheek. Sasuke however just ducked and grabbed Naruto's leg with both his hands, and with the help of ever-annoying gravity pulled the blonde teen to the ground.

Naruto landed on the grass with a thud and made note of a sharp pain in his tail bone. Ignoring it he turned his attention to the blow coming his way, courtesy of his teme teammate, and almost instinctively he grabbed a handful of dirt and launched it at the Uchiha's face.

Sasuke stumbled back as the dirt blinded his sharingan. Wiping furiously at his face he failed to notice the sound of Naruto climbing swiftly to his feet, the only sign to him that the blonde had moved being the sudden cold touch of a kunai on his neck and the words "I win" spoken rather loudly beside him.

Meanwhile, outside of the adrenaline filled match, Kakashi openly gawked at the level of skill shown by his blonde-haired student. Where had this sudden increase in speed, flexibility and strength come from? Who could've trained Naruto to reach such a skill level? Had Naruto always been like this and he's just failed to notice? At this latter thought guilt ripped through him. He was a sensei, he was supposed to know everything about his students, all their weaknesses and all their strengths, he was supposed to support them and help them become strong enough to achieve their goals. Now, as he thought over all the time he'd spent with team 7, he came to realise he'd hardly ever helped Naruto get stronger, he'd openly ridiculed his goal of becoming the next hokage and what he'd thought he'd known of the boy's strengths and weaknesses seemed to be false, at least judging by his spar with Sasuke.

Kakashi was so caught up in his thoughts of how he had failed as a sensei that he didn't even notice Naruto drop the kunai from its threatening position on Sasuke's main artery. Naruto slipped the kunai back in his weapons pouch then turned on his heel before marching straight over to Tetsu. Stopping a few feet away he placed his hands on his hips and directed an annoying glower at Minato's illusion jutsu.

"Happy now?" he said between clenched teeth.

"Very," Minato replied with a foxy grin.

"Asshole," he growled under his breath before turning his attention towards his sensei. "Hey Kakashi-sensei I beat Sasuke-teme can I have the form for the exams now?"

"Oh yeah sure," Kakashi said in a distant voice as he handed Naruto a form, still thinking over how he'd failed Naruto and how his student could've improved so fast.

"Thanks sensei. Well now I've done me and Tetsu are going to go now, okay?"

Kakashi just nodded dumbly, his single visible eye glazed over as he thought about kami-knows-what.

"Come on Tetsu, we're leaving," Naruto said as he gave Minato an angry stare. Minato, however, didn't notice. He was too busy celebrating the success of his own personal mission.

Mission to get Naruto to drop his mask: successful.