Scroll 1: The Next Level

Naruto had promised to break records when he was in the Chuunin exams. He did, but not necessarily for excellence. The tests that year in Konoha had consisted of a stealth test (of which Naruto passed due to his clones creating a weird smoke screen and making it impossible to found out which one was actually Naruto), a retrieval exercise (Naruto got through that somehow on sheer, unadulterated brute force), and a guard mission (where it turned out that his years of pulling pranks made him the perfect person to create elaborate, hazardous, and just plain goofy traps that even the instructors had difficulties finding).

At the end of it, though the examiners and proctors were very hesitant to do so, Tsunade awarded Naruto his vest on the sheer audacity he displayed. She had never seen someone pass a Chuunin exam in a manner resembling that. He was far too proud of himself when he heard it.

Team Seven met up at Ichiraku's for a big celebratory dinner. Iruka would be joining them shortly. Originally Naruto had humored the idea of bringing his entire graduating class, but Kakashi vetoed that immediately due to the budget. Besides, he wanted it to be the four of them.

"Gah, wish this came in another color." Naruto complained. He promised to wear it for his induction party, but he was hesitant to keep doing so after. "Green just looks so tacky and dull."

"Naruto, if you even attempt to think about painting that orange, I will slug you right into the next village." Sakura groaned. "It was bad enough seeing how you turned the final stage into a slapstick comedy, but now you're whining over fashion?"

"That was some of the most fun I've had with the exams in years." Kakashi chuckled. He, Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai couldn't help but lose it when Izumo and Kotetsu got bombarded with what could best be described as a rotten egg launcher and then watching three more Chuunin get assaulted by air horns. Poor men would be spending weeks shouting "WHAT!?" when people talked to them.

"Hey, at the end of the day, I passed and that's what matters, right?" Naruto grinned.

"But what did you learn is what really matters." Iruka ruffled his old student's spiky hair, taking a seat next to Kakashi. "Your performance was great, but if you just passed that would mean nothing."

"I have learned I probably shouldn't look at the guys who got hit by the rotten vegetables for the next few months."

"Well…I can't argue with that one."

The four gave cheers as the feast arrived. Matsutake soup, grilled sanma, sweet potato croquettes, tonkatsu, candied chestnuts, it all looked good. Naruto would have liked ramen to go with it, but he knew Kakashi and Iruka spent quite a bit for the occasion. Besides, even he couldn't eat ramen for every meal.

They had a great time. Naruto would occasionally make a cocky comment about how great he was, but they all let it slide. He had admittedly earned his rank, in his own unique way.

"Didn't you meet Guy-san for the first time during the Chuunin exams, Kakashi-san?" Iruka said around a bit of fish.

"Yeah, he wouldn't shut up after we fought. Never would have thought at the time he'd be so damned tenacious."

"What about you, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"It took me forever to get through them. I think it was around four times until I finally made Chuunin. I was around your age when it happened."

"Ha! I beat you!"

"I also wasn't trained by one of the Sannin. Naruto, that vest is more than just a rank. Like how your forehead protector is meant to symbolize your graduation as a full-fledged ninja, the Chuunin vest is supposed to mean you're now qualified to be a leader. You're one step closer to being an adult now."

"Hey, I won't bring any shame to it if that's what you're thinking. I'm not planning on screwing up."

Iruka snorted at the thought of that. Even after three years Naruto hadn't really changed that much. He had gotten more cunning and maybe a little less mischievous, but he was still brash and charged in without thinking a lot of the time. His plans always relied on being able to be lucky as they could be brilliant or disastrous. You needed a little bit of crazy to survive in the more dangerous missions in the ninja world, but not too much crazy. Under those circumstances you either lived forever or were snuffed out in a flash. Hopefully Naruto would not become the latter.

Eventually Naruto got too stuffed to go on, bringing everything to an end. Sakura had to carry him home, far too languid for his own good after all that rich food. The four of them parted at a crossroads, Kakashi reminding them they had to be up for exercises at the training grounds. They were still working on Sakura and Naruto's nature manipulation.

Kakashi and Iruka parted ways when Kakashi was going to his own place. It was so weird; Naruto's birthday was only a few weeks away now. He was going to be sixteen. Wasn't even old enough to drink yet and he'd already faced obstacles and threats that most people wouldn't encounter their entire lives. Though, Kakashi wasn't one to talk, having been in the ANBU for several years by the time he was sixteen. In fact, he was already reporting directly to the Fourth at that point.

Sixteen; had Naruto ever had someone celebrate his birthday with him? Kakashi couldn't imagine it. He wanted to make sure he had a decent birthday for once, but couldn't think about what to get him.

As Kakashi was opening the gate of his house he noticed it wasn't locked and the lights were left on. He never did that.

Despite knowing no proper intruder would do something that stupid, Kakashi's body went into a tense stance anyway. Just as suspected, the front door was unlocked too, prompting Kakashi to open it slowly. He heard someone moving in his living room. He tip-toed towards the sound, his hand moving to his thigh where a kunai was sheathed. However, something came up behind him and bear-hugged him. And then blew into his ear.

"Why so tense, Hatake-san?" A feminine voice purred.

"Shizune…" Kakashi groaned. "You shouldn't be using clones for something like that."

"But you're so cute when you're serious." She pulled down his mask to give him a kiss. "Besides, if you don't want me sneaking in you shouldn't have given me a key."

She rattled her keychain as if to toy with Kakashi. A bunch of empty boxes were lying around, Shizune's clone having been sorting through them for the past hour she'd been here. With Kakashi here, she dispelled it. She picked up one of the cardboard boxes and set it near his couch.

Shizune couldn't help but want to keep things organized. The first time she had seen Kakashi's living room she'd nearly fainted. She then declared she wouldn't rest until everything was put in order. By the time that was done it was so late she just crashed on the couch. Not the best first date in the world, but Kakashi at least had the courtesy to make her breakfast the following morning.

"So, what were you doing that kept you so occupied?"

"We were having Naruto's promotion party. He was way too happy."

"I thought Tsunade-sama was going to have an aneurysm during the Chuunin exams. He wouldn't be Naruto without being unpredictable."

"Yeah, he certainly wouldn't be." Kakashi set aside the boxes Shizune insisted on messing with. "So, what are you really here for? Usually you jump me in the afternoon, not at night."

"This."

Shizune removed a black envelope from her kimono and handed it to Kakashi. He read over it, his single, lazy eye scanning everything. His attention darted back to Shizune when he was done.

"She's absolutely certain?"

"Yes, apparently people from Otogakure have been seen at the borders of the Land of Whirlpools. People fitting Orochimaru and Kabuto's descriptions have been reported as well."

So Sasori hadn't been bluffing about what he told Sakura. It was a curious place for Orochimaru to take interest in, not because of its destruction and that the entire city was abandoned now, but because there was once someone very dear to Kakashi who had come from there.

Shizune gave him a peck on the cheek and left, saying that even if she wanted to stay that Tsunade would no doubt be slacking if she wasn't around to keep an eye on her. Probably for the best too, Kakashi really didn't want to be around anyone after reading that and being reminded of old days.

Uzushio, it was where Kushina was from. He'd never been there himself hearing almost everything about it straight from her. She'd always go on about beautiful the city was, how its temples were unrivaled, how its clear waters sparkled in the summer, or how the caves underneath the islands had stunning rock formations. She never shut up about it, mostly because she missed it. She was young when it was abandoned, leaving her childhood nothing but a memory. It broke her heart.

Kakashi rummaged through the boxes again, trying to find it. He'd spent three days searching, but he knew it was in here. He needed to find it, even more now that he knew he was going to Uzushio. Minutes passed into hours, and by the time Kakashi finally managed to dig out what he had been looking for it was probably around midnight.

It was buried in a tiny photo album Kakashi kept, the only one he had before he finally started Team 7. The pictures were all worn due to neglect, appearing dull in some places. The one he wanted was in the back. There she was. She was as beautiful as he remembered her; soft violet eyes, a gentle face that hid that fiery spirit, and the long, crimson hair that plummeted down her back. Uzumaki Kushina, Naruto's mother.

Kakashi was hoping Naruto and Sakura started their drills without him tomorrow. He was going to be late trying to find that place that could restore old photos.

XXXXX

Naruto was giving it everything he had to do his nature manipulation training. The training grounds had been turned into a complete mess with him and Sakura. It was never pristine, but now the landscape was a bit rearranged. Over the past week, Naruto had been testing out his skills whenever he could with techniques which tended to end with trees toppled or a big hole in the ground. Now with nature training that had gotten worse, especially when Sakura started getting better with her own elemental manipulation. There were entire sections in the grounds that were wrecked.

During his time with Jiraiya Naruto had done some elemental training, but not enough to get past the first hurdle after figuring out his nature type and finally managing to cut that leaf. Naruto was a bit disappointed too. He hoped to get something nice and flashy like fire or lightning. Heck, even water and earth manipulation were way more extravagant in their presentation. Then Kakashi asked Asuma to display to Naruto how wind manipulation had its perks by cutting a boulder in half and that was all Naruto needed. Now he just needed to cut a waterfall in half.

"Naruto, I think you can get out of there, you'll catch hypothermia if you're under there any longer!" Sakura yelled, sitting nearby with a tent and a portable space heater to help dry him.

"Bah, this crap is nothin' compared to the Land of Iron!" He grinned, trying his best to hide the fact that he was shivering under the deluge of water pouring over him.

"And it was a bad idea there too!"

Kakashi had given more pointers since the leaf. To really start making his techniques uniquely powerful, he needed to add nature manipulation to them like how Kakashi fused his lightning affinity to the Chidori to create the Raikiri. This was definitely on a different level than a lot of other exercises. Kakashi had allowed the use of clones to help speed things along, but no more than fifty at a time. Even with that limit the process would be immeasurably shortened. Still, doing this elemental recomposition was hard.

Naruto and his clones set their hands against the waterfall again, shoving as much of their chakra out as possible. The water gave way a little, but not enough to split it. He needed to stop the fall itself. Man, Sakura's training was a piece of cake by comparison; all she had to do was keep punching the earth.

"Yo, see you guys are hard at work!" Kakashi finally showed up. An hour late.

"Where the hell were you!?" Naruto disbanded his clones and hopped out of the frigid water and back onto dry land. Sakura threw him a towel to dry off.

"Sorry, I had to attend to something suddenly. Also, we might be getting on a new mission faster than I had anticipated." Kakashi showed a black envelope. "Sakura, I do believe I need to thank you for getting that info."

"You mean, Sasuke-kun?"

"Well, not Sasuke, but Orochimaru has been spotted around what used to be the Land of Whirlpools. I don't think I need to ask how you feel about it."

"Then what are ya waiting for, get yer butt to Granny and tell her we're going right in!"

"Well, first we need to check on your progress. Sakura, a demonstration."

She nodded and planted her fingers in the ground, concentrating hard. A small shockwave hit, reducing the earth into sand, though merely that around Sakura's hand. Even that much left her worn out. Kakashi nodded.

"Very good; you really need to make one big enough to sit down in before we can get into more advanced stuff."

"Wish I had Naruto's bottomless stamina."

"Speaking of which…"

Naruto was way ahead of his sensei, standing next to the waterfall with his clones and pressing his hands against the torrent. He gave everything he had, expelling his chakra into the waterfall. It rippled, it shook, but Naruto couldn't split it.

Only this much, Naruto thought. Yeah, Kakashi-sensei had said before that the leaf-cutting was supposed to take six months on average while Naruto did it in two weeks and this level of training was supposed to take about a year, but that wasn't the point. It still wasn't enough. He needed more, he needed to get stronger faster. He could see that next level, but he couldn't reach it yet.

"You're doing well. You should have this down in a month."

"…And when do we go on our mission?"

"Well, this is a bit special due to the Land of Whirlpools and its borders. If everything goes smoothly, it should take about a week."

"Then I need this done in a week."

"No." Kakashi said bluntly. "In fact, from this second forth, both of you are banned from elemental training."

"Sensei!" Sakura objected too. "We need to be better if our mission involves Sasuke-kun! What if the level we're at isn't enough?"

"Sakura, Sasuke is my student as much as he's your comrade. I get it. But killing yourselves won't help anything. You two are doing great, you're doing amazing, but you need to rest for now. If you're not properly rested then things could go sour really fast."

"So, nothing at all then?" Naruto groaned.

"Light training is still allowed to keep you on your toes. However, intensive stuff is off-limits. And to make sure you're not going against my orders, I've asked Shizune and Guy to keep an eye on the both of you."

"That little faith in us, eh?"

"One strike, you'll be watched at all times. Two strikes, you're under house arrest until we leave for Uzushio."

"I get it, I'll be a good boy until we leave."

Kakashi nodded and told the two of them to get cleaned up so they could meet with Tsunade.