This is my first piece of fan fiction!

Blah. Hopefully you've been liking the story so far. I've had some fun writing it and coming up with ideas

– it's a great way to pass time.

This chapter took especially long to write, because of multiple tests and quizzes, essays, and what not. Going to bed at 1-2 in the morning and waking up at 6 doesn't put you in a great mood.

Did any of you guys resent the fact that I made Shikamaru the savior in the previous chapter? I noticed that that might be the case. Sorry if that's true.

Responding to some Reviews

Tristan76 wrote:

'I know the pairing says that its Naruto and Kurenai, but is that in the romantic sense or as her role looks to be now, as a mentor? I really like this pairing for the reason that I have a hard time believing that Naruto would be able to relate to the opposite gender that are around his age, unless they are Jinchuuriki too. I mean that all his life, he had no to very few friends that were around his age and the people he spent the most time with would've been the older generation. So, even though he can act like a moron at times, he is intelligent and more mature than any other around his age. Which would make him attracted to those of the older sex, like Anko, Hana, and of course Kurenai. He would have an easier time talking to and expressing himself to someone that age who would understand why he might be socially behind and have the greatest chance of helping him. Anyway, I just wanted to know when Naruto and Kurenai were going to start to fall for each other or at least when will one of them fall for the other. That's if this is that type of pairing. If its not, then who is he going to be paired with? Well, this chapter was great as always. Until the next chapter. Later.'

You bring up many, many great points. I too feel that it's more fitting if he is paired with an older character (barring Yugito, who makes a damn fine pairing as well). While I haven't really put any romantic shtuffs into these chapters so far, I probably will later. I'm pretty sure it will be a NaruKure fan fic, but to be honest I'm not 100% sure. I guess we'll see?

Johnny Eagle wrote:

'What about question 6?'

Heh. Wow I'm retarded. I completely missed that. I'll change that when I find the time. Thanks for pointing it out, by the way! Much apprech!

The Lonely Fox wrote:

'Dont get me wrong as im very much enjoying the story but I dont see how the Hokage could let Narutos team go to the Chuunin Exams when they have done nothing but D - Ranks. Just something that irked me, as it stands they have no combat experiance whatsoever. If they have gone on missions I must have not caught them.'

I never really put much thought into that, actually. If I'm not mistaken, team 10 and team 8 were the same way in canon. They never got a very challenging mission (at least to my knowledge) before being nominated to the chuunin exams. I think it helps their case that Naruto knows Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, as well.

Starfire99 wrote:

'Naruto's birthday is October 10th, not October 1st.'

Black Hearted Ninja wrote:

"w8 a minute how are u going to follwo the cannon exactly there are many
things tht will be different

naruto team 7 will most likely die when orochimaru attacks them
except sasuke of course
happened to the wave arc and if u sa that it never happened how will
sasuke activate his sharingan
3. since sarotobi is no longer the hokage how will orochimaru get anywhre near
him to kill him and ho will tsunade fight him she does not stand a chance
alone
happened with itachi and kisame are they not supposed to incounter
naruto and jiraya
5 (most important one) wil you please read my stories and review them please"

Well, I'm not going to exactly follow canon, but the plot will resemble it somewhat.

To your first question, you'll have to read this chapter. For the second question, technically Sasuke has already awakened his Sharingan, but needed to 'reawaken' it. If you assume something traumatizing occurred or he never needed to reawaken it, it works. In actuality, Sarutobi is still Hokage. I believe I wrote that he said he would be retiring SOON, and that when that happens, Tsunade would take over. If he dies has yet to be seen. For your fourth question, technically they left the battle before they could finish checking whether Naruto was in Konoha. I will try and read your stories ;D, since you have read mine. Cheers.

Yeah, I realized. In that chapter, I wrote that the date was October 1st, but that his birthday was in 9 days. Thanks anyway!

Thanks to everyone that reviewed!

I'm on break right now, so expect the next chapter in a couple of days max.

I also promised an omake. I guess breaking 60 reviews (and almost reaching 70) should deserve some kind of reward.

One omake, coming right up!

OMAKE!

The sun had set recently, and practice for team eight of Konoha had ended for the day. As they cleared out, Ino walked up to her red eyed sensei, the famed Mistress of Genjutsu in Konoha.

"Yes, Ino-kun?", Kurenai inquired, looking at her pupil, curious as to why Ino looked like she wanted to talk to her.

"How do you stay so thin, sensei?", the blonde responded, as they continued to walk in the same direction, headed for town. "Sasuke-kun will never love me back if I'm this fat."

Kurenai had half a mind to shatter that fan girl type of thinking, but decided that it was in her and her student's best interest to hear this out beforehand.

"I've tried diets.", Ino said gloomily, as they passed through the marketplace of Konoha. "I've also tried starving myself." They walked past a full restaurant of civilians who were eating and chatting excitedly about the upcoming Chuunin Examinations.

"Anorexia?", her sensei said with disdain. "Ino that's a very bad road to take. You should know that from the kunoichi classes you took at the Academy."

"Yeah, yeah.", Ino said, looking sad. "I only tried it for a week, but then I got really hungry and couldn't maintain the self starving. It was like torture."

"I'm glad it didn't work out.", the Genjutsu Mistress commented. "You wouldn't be half the ninja you are now if you still starved yourself. You need to eat a healthy diet, you know. And healthy doesn't mean meager. You need the nutrients you get from food."

"You know.", Kurenai added. "If you wanted to look nice for Sasuke, it would be best if you just looked normal. Be happy with who you are. I think you're over thinking how he sees you. Let me tell you something about men. They're not as smart as us women think they are."

She gave off a short, musical laugh. Ino's lips quirked at that.

"So try eating healthier for a while, and see if it fits you. I mean, it's never too late to change if it doesn't work out.", Kurenai said. "And perhaps, the thing you really need to look better is to get those necessary nutrients from eating a healthy diet."

"How do you, sensei, look so thin, then?"

"I've noticed that it's not so much what you eat that matters the most, but how much you eat. You see diets, but the more important part about the diets is that you're eating really small portions." Her sensei noted. "I don't recommend you going on a diet, but rather, eat a variety of foods. Don't gorge yourself, and you'll do better."

"So eat relatively limited portions, and I'll stay skinnier? Thanks, sensei!", Ino said with a grin on her face at the new revelation.

They just happened to pass by the Ichiraku Ramen stand at that moment, where they stopped a Naruto practically absorbing ramen at an insanely fast speed. The ramen flew towards his open mouth like an object being sucked into a black hole. Stacks of empty bowls of ramen, totaling 43 to be exact, stood next to him. It was a rather unappetizing sight.

Sitting next to him, was an obviously larger and fatter Chouji Akimichi, also gorging on ramen. However, his speed of eating, despite being multiple times that of a normal person, was still small compared to Naruto's eating speed. He had eaten a considerable number of bowls, but his stack was only at around 18.

Seeing a thinner Naruto eating more ramen and a fatter Chouji eating less ramen was quite ironic, to say the least.

Looking up at a shocked and appalled Kurenai, Ino said with a smirk, "You were saying, sensei?"

OMAKE 2 (Just because I got another idea and felt like it)

The wind blew gently, as if in a western styled film across the barren floor of the training area. In one side of the room was a black haired shinobi, a self proclaimed avenger. Sasuke Uchiha. On the other side of the room, a smirking ninja in an atrocious green spandex full body suit. Rock Lee.

The taijutsu specialist quickly jumped into a taijutsu stance known to many as the advanced stance of the Goken, an ancient and deadly hand to hand combat style.

The spectators and Lee were surprised to see Sasuke not making a stance of his own.

"What are you doing?", Lee inquired. "Are you underestimating me?"

There was no response from the former shinobi, which only aggravated Lee.

"You're making me angry!" he shouted, his features suddenly blotching a sickly green. "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry!"

His muscles contorted, before enlarging dangerously. The upper part of his suit ripped off, and Lee was completely green, and big. He growled, and then charged toward Sasuke. However, in his enraged state, he did not realize that he had run right past Sasuke and through the wall.

"PUNY HUMAN!", he roared. "LEE SMASH!"

His momentum carried him through the wall with a deafening crash. Lee stomped his foot, creating a small crater in the ground, and then ran around, causing destruction and chaos.

'Incredible…', a white eyed prodigy thought with a frown. 'Lee was holding this as a trump card this whole time?'

It was on that day that Konoha learned the real reason that Rock Lee was named the Green Beast of Konoha. It wasn't because of that full body suit, either. At least, not totally.

Without further ado, the next chapter starts now!

The morning air was crisp and cool, refreshing with a near perfect amount of moisture, making it not too dry nor too wet. The genin that had successfully survived the test of the sadistic proctor, Ibiki Morino, were all gathered outside of Training Grounds 44, one of the largest training grounds Konoha had to offer.

The grounds consisted of one large forest fenced in with steel fences that had security seals pasted all over.

The confidence of the genin had diminished significantly since before the first exam. Many were visibly shaken by the near terrifying experience. Over the course of an hour the previous day, they had experienced extreme confidence in themselves, which gave way to crushing despair after reading the problems, which became nervousness while they cheated, hoping they weren't caught. Then, as their confidence was rebuilding, it met another large drop into depression again as the final rules were exposed. And then, a tremendous amount of relief when they were told they had passed the exam. It was enough to unnerve almost all of the genin, save a few.

Shikamaru was lying on the ground, sleeping peacefully. Standing next to him with a rather ticked off expression, was Ino, who was fiddling with a kunai in a mixture of nervousness and aggravation. Naruto was pacing back and forth, trying to find something to kill time before their proctor of the second exam arrived, Anko Mitarashi.

"Oi, brats!", a loud voice shouted. The genin turned to see Anko Mitarashi standing and leaning against the fence that encircled the grounds. She was munching on a piece of dango, scrutinizing them.

'I didn't even sense her…', Naruto thought.

"Welcome to the second part of the examination.", she said with a devious smirk. "This part will be taking part in this training ground, known to some as the Forest of Death."

There was a slight intake of breath at that last proclamation, making Anko's eyes bright up.

"The rules are simple. Anything goes – even killing. Here are some waivers that you'll have to sign before taking the exam saying that if you die, it's not our fault. If you don't sign this, you fail."

The crazy examiner grinned as she passed out papers from the stack she had conjured out of a seal, relishing the frightened and unsure expressions on the genins' faces.

After about five minutes, most of the teams had passed in their waivers, fully completed and signed. The rest that had not, had cleared out.

"The rules of the actual exam are like this. You see these two scrolls? A heaven and an earth scroll.", she said, holding two scrolls up. One had the kanji for heaven inscribed on it, and was white. The other had the kanji for earth on it, and was brown.

"Your teams will be getting one scroll at random, either heaven or earth, each. What you basically want to do, is go into the forest and get your hands on the other scroll – earth if you started with a heaven, and heaven if you started with an earth. Alright. As I said before, anything goes. Once you have one of each, go to the center of the forest, where there will be a tower. Now, if each team would send a representative up to me to get your team's scroll…"

Ino volunteered immediately to go get their scroll, right after Sasuke had volunteered on his own team.

As she walked back, she pulled out an earth scroll out of her pocket.

"We have a heaven scroll.", she explained. Naruto looked at her incredulously.

"Heaven scroll? Take a look at it yourself!", he replied.

"Henge.", was the only word Shikamaru said to that, making Naruto nod in understanding.

"Alright.", Anko said finally, as the last of the teams got their scrolls. "I warn you not to look inside these scrolls, as being trustworthy is a trait you will need to possess to be a chuunin – you don't look inside the scrolls you are retrieving or carrying. That is classified information, and you could be executed."

"Anyways, let's get this started. Whenever you're ready, you can just head into the forest and begin.", she said simply, sitting down and pulling a bag of dango out of her pocket. She snapped her fingers, and an explosive tag hidden among the security seals detonated expertly in one of the fence's weak spots, blowing a massive hole in the barrier.

Team eight rushed towards the forest, jumped in and went as deep as they could. The trio flipped through underbrush, canopy and large trunks, dodging animals and the occasional branch. As they ran through the long grass on the forest floor, they discussed.

"I think we should avoid team nine.", Shikamaru said. "They seem very powerful. They're also not rookies, meaning that they have some experience under their belt."

"Agreed.", Ino responded. "We should also avoid team seven, because of Sasuke-kun. He's the rookie of the year, you know."

Naruto face palmed at this blatant show of fan girl-ism, but then said, "Why don't we go for one of the foreign teams? Apart from Suna, I mean." The three of them shivered in unison at the thought of facing off against the cold, heartless eyes of Gaara of the Sand.

Team eight nodded in unison, and then surged forward more quickly, hoping to find a team that wasn't too powerful for them.

The room was full of jounin and jounin senseis, most of them watching a certain television screen that was set up in the front of the room. The screen was attached to multiple cameras scattered throughout the forest, and switched between views every so often. Right now, they were watching a battle that was taking place on a patch of land within the forest that had no trees.

Gaara was staring impassively at a team of rain shinobi, who were glaring at him back.

"I suggest you take your leave, before I make you. You are not the ones I wish to face in this forest."

The leader of trio barked up some laughter at this. "You alone? Taking on three of us? Unless your team mates back there are going to help you, you're not going to win!"

Temari and Kankuro were standing in the back, just watching. Gaara could handle this.

'Underestimating Gaara?', Kankuro thought with an inward grin. 'That'll be the last thing they do.'

"Really.", was the Gaara's lone retort, before he turned slightly, pointing the gourd opening at him. There was a pop as the cork on the top disconnected, and it flew towards the rain genin at tremendous speeds. The leader barely dodged it, and so did his team mates.

"Let's do this!", the foremost rain ninja shouted, before charging at Gaara. He unsealed an umbrella from his arm, and slashed down at Gaara, who didn't move from his spot.

The shinobi smirked, expecting an easy win.

However, he underestimated the Sand shinobi. Below his feet, sand shot up at a breakneck speed, not only causing the attacker to stumble slightly as he twisted to dodge the attack, but completely absorbing the blow.

From the viewing room, the jounins were impressed.

"That is one powerful jutsu.", one of them said, whistling. And it was impressive. The ability to control individual grains of sand using pure chakra alone, without the use of hand seals, especially tons at once, would require inhumane amounts of chakra control.

"Hah! That sand won't protect you from this!", the shinobi shouted, leaping in the air and unsealing two more umbrella, which he flung at Gaara forming hand seals quickly.

The umbrellas flew around in the air, encircling Gaara, and then pointed down at him, firing a barrage of needles.

"Will that sand be able to protect him here?", Kakashi mused.

Yes, apparently so. After the sand formed a protective wall around the shinobi, the sand shot up, and a single coil flew out, weaving through the needles before wrapping around the foot of the airborne genin, who gasped in surprise.

"GAME OVER.", Gaara barked out a laugh, before he raised out a hand, and sand exploded out of his gourd, flying at the rain shinobi, who could only look at Gaara helplessly. His team mates had no time to react. Coils of sand flew rapidly, wrapping themselves tightly and spreading out until it encased the rain shinobi leader entirely except for his face, which held an extremely frightened expression and a bit of awe despite himself.

"You mentioned that you had someone you wanted to fight.", the trapped shinobi said, bowing his head as if accepting defeat.

"That is right.", Gaara said with a demonic smile on his face. "And you will live. Oh yes. But only if you tell me where he is."

The jounin senseis watching the spectacle were amazed at the skill of the Suna genin, but also slightly scared at the way he threw around death threats like an emotionless killer. They also knew he could carry out that threat.

"W-who is the one you wanted to fight?", the rain shinobi spluttered out, fearing for his own life.

Gaara looked down at the ground, before looking at the rain shinobi again, meeting his gaze and making an eerily creepy expression on his face.

"UZUMAKI NARUTO."

There was a collective gasp in the room of jounins from the Konoha senseis who recognized the name

"W-who is he?", the rain nin said questioningly.

"Wrong answer.", Gaara said, amused, and put his hand down by his side. The rain shinobi in his sand's grasp was about to sigh in relief when the sand suddenly compressed, crushing him into particles.

Blood flew everywhere, and small remnants of the slaughtered genin accompanied it.

The jounin were shocked at this horrid and brutal display. Kurenai especially, was feeling sick to her stomach. Some genin with this power wanted to fight Naruto? Why? How? And the worst part was that she could do nothing about it, as killing was a common happenstance in the Chuunin Exams and she wouldn't be able to interfere.

"Now. Does either of you know where he is?", the Suna ningen said, looking at the deceased shinobi's team mates. He didn't get a response, as they were still traumatized and in shock about the untimely demise of their comrade.

The last thing they saw was a wave of sand rushing towards them, and a maniacal expression on a Suna genin's face.

The carnage faded out from view as the television chose that moment to switch between screens. Once jounin sensei, presumably the one whose team just got slaughtered, fainted on the spot and had to be carried out of the room.

There were lots of murmurs about what they had just seen that erupted throughout the room.

"That was… unexpected.", said a shocked Kakashi Hatake, who had his orange perverted book held in his hand, forgotten with such a strange battle on screen.

"Agreed. How does he know Naruto though?", Kurenai mused.

"This could mean trouble.", Asuma noted, rubbing his beard. "I don't think any of the genin could take him down. I myself could possibly get through that, but I severely doubt and of the rookies could find a way around such a powerful defense and offence."

"Unexpected too!", Kakashi pointed out. "Who would ever have expected sand?"

"Hey! I think I see my team on the screen!", Kurenai said suddenly, catching their attention. They turned from their short conversation to see Shikamaru, Ino and Naruto center screen, dashing through the forest.

"We've been in this damn forest for hours now!", Naruto whined. "No sign of another team yet!"

Shikamaru grumbled in agreement. "Maybe if we're lucky, we'll find one?"

Ino snorted. "With our bad luck? As if!"

The jounin watching from their room with the television noted shinobi tracking them in the background, unbeknownst to the center stage ningen.

Shadowing them while under the cover of trees somewhat, team seven was tracking team eight.

"We'll strike so fast, they won't stand a chance!", Kiba muttered to his team before drawing some kunai out of his pouch.

"Psh. Like they had a chance to begin with.", Sakura scoffed, pulling out kunai of her own.

"You'd be surprised.", Sasuke muttered under his breath, but out loud he grinned and said, "Let's get this started." He pulled out shuriken with ninja tied to them, and flung them right at the team.

Naruto heard the whizzing of something cutting the air behind him, and his eyes widened.

"Under attack!", he shouted simply. "Scatter!"

He himself jumped up, flipping over the incoming kunai. Looking down, he noted the ninja wire tied to them. Shikamaru leapt to the right, and Ino, to the left.

"Sasuke.", he said with a smirk. Twisting in mid air, he drew a kunai and slashed through the ninja wire, before landing back on the branch, team eight in one of their team formations.

The jounin were all surprised at this.

'How did Naruto see through Sasuke's ninja wire tactic so quickly? His response was so quick, it was almost as if he'd seen that move multiple times before… but he's only faced Sasuke once…?', Kakashi thought.

"GATTTTTTTTSSSSSSUGA!", a loud voice cried from behind them.

A giant spinning pair of tornados blew their way towards them, and they were forced to break apart again to avoid it.

Shikamaru landed on the ground, and formed a rat seal, extending his shadow in long vein like lines, trying to catch an opponent off guard. Helping him in his quest, Ino and Naruto threw kunai at the opponent in such a way that it pushed opponents into Shikamaru's shadow.

Sakura was not very lucky, and while artfully dodging one of Naruto's well timed kunai throws, one of her feet accidentally caught in the shadow. Suddenly feeling all her muscles halt randomly, she was helpless. Noting Sakura's position, Shikamaru walked in such a way forward that the pink haired genin stood in front of a tree while he wasn't.

He reared back his head, and swung it forward, muttering 'kai' at the same time to ensure that his head didn't get bashed in as well. Sakura's forehead crashed into the tree with a dull thump, and she crumpled into an unconscious heap.

From the viewing room, the jounin sensei couldn't help but feel impressed. Kakashi was the first to note. "That is some impressive team work they possess."

Asuma gave his 2 cents on the situation. "This is a 2 on 3 situation. I think your team has their best chances separating the squad and testing Kurenai-san's team in individual combat."

As if hearing his statement, Sasuke had already analyzed the situation and figured this out. He flung more kunai at the group, trying to find a weakness as Kiba threatened to pulverize them if they didn't pay attention.

Seeing Kurenai's squad split slightly at each volley of kunai, he smirked as he came up with a plan. Throwing another barrage of kunai, he quickly followed up with another kunai, this one having an upgraded explosive tag wrapped around the handle.

Noting this, Naruto shouted out warning, and there was a loud explosion as dust and rock flew everywhere. Amidst the confusion, Kiba and Sasuke took this time to their advantage.

As Naruto backed away from the explosion, an airborne Uchiha flew out of the smoke, throwing a powerful aerial kick. The blonde genin was caught completely by surprise and took the entire blow to the chest, spiraling backwards into a bunch of bushes and rolled out of sight.

His sensei gasped in horror. Was Naruto alright? Sasuke smirked.

"Dobe, I know you're not done yet.", was all he said before drawing a kunai and leaping after him.

Kiba went on a frontal attack on Ino and Shikamaru, who got into defensive positions to block the attack, the latter's brain whirring quickly. However, they did not note that Akamaru was not with Kiba, and was, in actually, sneaking up on them from behind…

As Sasuke followed to where Naruto was, he was disappointed to see him sprawled on the ground, unconscious.

"I kind of expected a better fight from you.", he admitted, when his senses suddenly became alert. He felt some kind of disturbance in the air… almost like…

He jumped up suddenly to avoid a handful of kunai being thrown at him from behind. Taking this advantage, the 'unconscious' Naruto opened his eyes and jumped up with a kunai, swinging at Sasuke's torso. Blocking the swipe with a kunai of his own, the Uchiha found himself on the defensive, as Naruto continued the onslaught.

The blonde male of team seven was definitely keeping on the pressure well. He would strike, and while he prepared for the next charge, multiple clones would shower Sasuke in kunai, forcing him to constantly be on the move while Naruto waited.

As this kept going, Sasuke started to get frustrated.

'He knows my style of fighting too well.', he thought with a grimace. 'I need space and time to execute my katas.'

The duck haired Uchiha decided to surprise the blonde genin by breaking his style and throwing an awkward punch, which grazed Naruto's chin, forcing his aggressor back temporarily, and gave him some space. The clones jumped out, getting ready to throw more kunai, when Sasuke closed his eyes and flipped upwards, drawing 8 kunai in his hands, 4 in each hand.

Time seemed to go in slow motion as the clones watched Sasuke flip through the air, eyes closed and kunai glimmering between his fingers.

He suddenly outstretched his hands, flinging all the kunai in different directions. There was the distinctive sound of eight clones popping, and then Sasuke gracefully landed.

"Hn.", he said with a smirk. "How'd you like that?"

"I've seen better.", Naruto said with a grin, causing Sasuke to scowl and charge forward, and they engaged in a one on one taijutsu duel.

"What is this?", Kakashi and Kurenai asked at the same time as they watched the battle between Naruto and Sasuke.

"Sasuke seems to know Naruto's abilities a bit too well.", Kurenai said out loud with a frown, looking at Kakashi suspiciously. Kakashi ignored her suspicious look, continuing to read his book.

While seemingly tuning out everything in favor of the book, his mind was whirring furiously.

'Sasuke's only seen Naruto's style once… Likewise, Naruto has only seen Sasuke's style from that duel they had a while back… what is going on here?'

"Judging by the battle we are seeing here,", one of the jounin sensei from the Sand said, "they seem to have fought each other many, many times, to have created taijutsu styles just to counter the other's."

"Or", another jounin brought up with a grin, "they could just be inherent quick thinking geniuses. Which I doubt, judging by blondie over there." He pointed at Naruto, who was boisterously shouting out trash talk.

There was a chuckle throughout the room.

Sasuke hopped up slightly, throwing another aerial kick. Instead of blocking, Naruto fluidly dodged and threw a punch at Sasuke's body that was still going through with the attack. The latter noticed this and had anticipated this.

"Fell into my trap!", Sasuke said gleefully, taking his hand and latching onto the wrist of the hand that Naruto was using to throw a punch.

Sasuke yanked back, causing Naruto to stumble forward, and followed up with a quick chop to the neck, and there was a rather large explosion of smoke as the 'Naruto' he was fighting dispelled.

"Ne?", he said in shock. "I could have sworn that was the original, because it had more chakra than the others…"

"It was you that fell into my trap.", came Naruto's voice from behind. Sasuke spun around to see Naruto throwing kunai from his vantage point, forcing Sasuke back on the defensive.

"I added more chakra to one of the clones to make you think that it was the original. Cool, huh."

The Uchiha smirked. "Not bad, dobe."

He started forming hand seals in a quick succession, which Naruto recognized immediately as one of the signature Uchiha fire techniques.

He reflexively created 12 clones around him. When Sasuke breathed in deeply and exhaled sharply, shooting out an array of fire balls, Naruto send his clones at the fire balls, 1 clone at each fireball. The sacrifices of Naruto's clones caused the fireballs to explode prematurely, much to the chagrin of Kakashi.

"How did Naruto know what move Sasuke was going to do?", Kakashi wondered, growling a bit with frustration. "And how did he know that 12 fireballs was Sasuke's limit?"

"It seems they have been keeping something from us.", Kurenai noted, also slightly frustrated at this lack of knowledge.

Naruto jumped up, reached into his kunai pouch and drew some strangely shaped kunai. He flung them wildly at Sasuke, some of them seemingly going off mark.

"This technique of Naruto's will definitely land a hit.", Kurenai said with a smirk.

"Technique? He's throwing kunai!", Kakashi commented.

The point of this technique was that the kunai were, in actuality, henged kage bunshin. Any ordinary shinobi would have simply dodged the technique, and then the bunshin would take them by surprise. But not Sasuke Uchiha, who had seen this technique multiple times in their secret sparring times.

Instead of dodging them, he twirled a kunai and plunged it into the shuriken as they approached, surprising everyone in the room of jounin senseis.

They watched as the henged bunshin dropped the henge as they were struck, and then exploded into billows of smoke.

"I see.", Kakashi said with an eye smile, his lone visible eye crinkling into an upside down U. "Well, it seems Sasuke has seen through that attack."

Kurenai growled. That was one of Naruto's signature moves! He hadn't used that against anyone outside of sparring with his team mates yet! What was going on?

Shikamaru wasn't faring so well. Akamaru had snuck up on them, hitting Ino squarely on the back with a Gatsuuga and causing her to quickly lose consciousness. He flipped backwards, avoiding a slash of a claw from Kiba.

His highly advanced brain was coming up with plan after plan and analyzing the situation as he dodged attack after attack.

"What's wrong?", Kiba shouted out with a grin as Shikamaru narrowly dodged another lunge from Akamaru. "Need the girl to fight for you?"

Kiba was starting to push Shikamaru into a corner with his and Akamaru's team effort. The only thing was, Kiba and Akamaru thought Shikamaru didn't know this.

The pineapple haired boy forced down a victorious smirk as he jumped back and landed, feeling behind him and realizing that he was cornered. "Cornered". All according to plan.

He turned around swiftly, acting as if he was looking for an escape when he formed a rat seal with his hands and watched as his shadow was bolstered by the shade of the trees. Yep, all according to plan.

'Now that just leaves Sasuke.', he thought with a sigh, muttering about troublesome things as he forced Kiba and Akamaru to smash their heads against the ground through his shadow possession technique.

The fight between Naruto and Sasuke was still relatively equal. Naruto would force Sasuke onto the defensive, but Sasuke would find a way to force Naruto back onto the defensive and the cycle would continue. How much longer was this going to continue?

Naruto put his hands up to block a strong roundhouse kick from Sasuke, leaning back with the momentum before twirling around and shoving a fist forwards. Unfortunately for him, the Uchiha crouched under the foot and spun around, his foot connecting with Naruto's shin, causing the latter to stumble awkwardly.

The blonde genin inwardly groaned. A mistake like that would not go unnoticed or unpunished by Sasuke's keen eyes. The Uchiha grinned, seeing this blatant opening, and was about to throw a follow up kick, when there was a whistling noise as something flew through the air.

A kunai embedded itself into the trunk between Sasuke and Naruto, hissing dangerously as an explosive tag tied to the end flared ominously. This random action forced both genin to stop their fight to deal with the threat. Their eyes opened wide.

"What the-…", was all Naruto could get out, before a large explosion overtook the area with a deafening bang.

Reviewing is a great thing to do! Remember: If you review, I'll write omakes xD.

By the way, I've been thinking of a new story line to try out. We'll see, won't we?