Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other works that I use for inspiration.

"Speaking"- Speech

"Thinking" - Thoughts

"Speaking" - Non-Mortal Speech

"Thinking" - Non-Mortal Thoughts

Chapter 3: Change

5 years had passed in the Hidden Leaf since the night Sasuke swore his fealty to Naruto. With a new lease on life and someone he could truly depend on, Sasuke focused his efforts on becoming a Knight worthy of the title, as well as becoming strong enough to establish and lead the new Uchiha, one of the soon to be founding clans of the New Uzushiogakure.

Naruto and Sasuke with the goal in mind, spend their time training, honing the skills they would need to take on the world. Naruto had instructed Sasuke in the Uzumaki chakra techniques and to say Sasuke was surprised would have been an understatement. He was flabbergasted!... That was the only word he could think of to aptly describe how he felt when introduced to what he described as some sort of "cheat". Sasuke had even questioned how a clan equipped with this sort of ability could be toppled? Naruto had informed him that while the Techniques were powerful, they took dedication and patience to master, and took constant training to hone and improve. It wouldn't be odd if it was a skill only a few had, and even fewer mastered, and once he had undergone the training himself, Sasuke understood what Naruto meant. It took time, and A LOT of pain, but Sasuke became proficient in these techniques himself, as well as the advanced techniques he learned along with Naruto.

The techniques of Gyo(Focus), which allows one to focus a larger than normal portion of energy on a part of themselves to enhance it, leaving the rest of themselves more vulnerable. In(Conceal) allowed one to completely erase their presence, a skill both of them felt would be crucial in their world. En(Circle) would allow once to project energy in a radius around themselves and detect all that goes through it. Shu(Enshroud) allowed the user to wrap the object in their energy, strengthening it. Ko(Temper) would put all one's energy in one part of their body, leaving the rest of them defenseless while Ken(Fortify) was keeping a defensive layer of energy around yourself for prolonged periods. Finally, Ryu(Flow) was the maintenance and fluctuation of one's energy depending on what one might need. For example, shifting 50 percent of one's power for a punch then immediately distributing the necessary power to guard or go for another strike.

Sasuke learned that not only did the Uzumaki art vastly improve his stamina while using his Sharingan, it also improved his progression and its performance. He was glad he had a valuable tool like his Sharingan, but Sasuke didn't want that to define him, he would become strong without relying on it. Especially when he was able to see what Naruto was capable of for the first time, without relying on anything you could consider inherited. He had always thought Itachi was strong but after seeing Naruto, he felt like that world needed to be revisited. Then to learn that Naruto was the container of the strongest tailed beast, it was fair to say that Sasuke was numb to it at that point. But in all that time, with all the training, the sneaking in and out of the village with the help of their shadow clones, and all the stuff they experienced out in the world, Sasuke learned that he was right to put his faith in Naruto.

Both of them had grown from the young and ignorant children they once were. They knew they had much to learn, much to experience but they were men in their own right. After years of bidding their time, the day had come for them to be able to start moving towards their ambition. Question was, how would the world react?

Konoha

The two were walking beside each other headed towards the Ninja Academy on what was to be their last day. They would receive their team assignments and Jonin sensei today, it didn't matter to them who they would end up with, but it was a conversation subject to past the time.

"So who do you think we'll end up with Naruto-sama?" Sasuke asked. He had grown to be about 5'2, just an inch taller than Naruto. He was wearing a skintight, grey and black, high-collared shirt, pants of a distinct feudal Japanese style. His belt is tied like an obi-sash and he wears hakama (traditional samurai pants distinguished by the large pleats). His hakama are dark grey near the top, with several loops for his belt and two buttons, both of which are undone. The rest of the pants were black with a small, lighter stripe of grey on the bottom hem. To finish the ensemble, a slightly modified katana, with a slightly wider than average blade and a dip along the back, near the hilt. It had a red and black handle and rested in a matching sheath, on the back of his waist.

"The old man will most likely place us on the same team together, with Kakashi being out sensei. With him being my father's last student, plus the fact that he is the only other person beside you in the village with a Sharingan, it probably seems like the most logical option." Naruto wore a white, red-lined haori that has a hood, along with slightly shorter than normal, light-colored hakama. Underneath his haori, he wears a navy blue shirt with a large white X pattern on the front, along with a piece of armor, a dull orange section that covered his abdomen. Tied to his side was his Paradokkusuejji in its black sheathe with a red line running down the middle.

"I guess that makes sense, although I doubt that a non-Uchiha has much to teach me about our dojutsu. And if we're being honest he probably doesn't have much to teach us, I doubt anyone in this village does." Sasuke responded. Though he did address Naruto with respect, he was told from early on to speak openly and freely.

"That may be true, but it is far too early to put ourselves under the scope of the village. We will play the parts of loyal shinobi, maybe reveal a trick or two, but besides that, we will do our best to seem like above-average genin." Naruto spoke with wisdom, a clear sign of his maturity in the last couple of years.

"I understand your reasoning Naruto-sama, with our operatives moving throughout the elemental nations, it will only be a matter of time before we can end the farce. I don't care to play the "brooding" Uchiha role any longer." Sasuke said annoyed. He had acted like a cold unfeeling jerk yet it seemed like most of the girls in their class only gravitated more towards him. He thought that doubling down and ignoring all their advances would fix the problem but it only seemed to make the girls more enamored with him.

"It must suck to be the most popular ladies' man in school, meanwhile I'm the worst of the worst...But if the village thought that the Kyuubi brat could be a threat at such a young age it would have made a lot of our work much harder. I agree, acting like hormone-fueled adolescents can be taxing, but in all fairness, the clones did a majority of that acting." Naruto retorted.

"My King with all due respect, you are better off burning this village to the ground! It's done nothing for you or the Uchiha and it would be one potential obstacle out the way" Kurama let her thoughts be known. She was his teacher, his surrogate mother, his closest advisor. Sure she spoke with malice and animosity towards the village, but Naruto knew she was making an honest suggestion and it would be foolish to ignore her words.

"That look on your face tells me that Mistress Kurama probably feels similarly to me, the farce is more annoying than anything." Sasuke had been introduced and on occasion trained by Kurama in Naruto's inner world. She wouldn't admit it but she grew to like the boy and thought he was a perfect fit for her King's Head knight, especially with what he was capable of.

"*Sigh* Anyways, the teams are usually made of three-man squads, meaning we need a third. It will most like be one of the females in our class. No need to put two dojutsu on one team so it would be Hinata." Sasuke deduced.

"So we get fangirl #1 or fangirl #2? Question is, which ones worse?" Naruto remembered how boy crazy these girls seemed to be for Sasuke. They were his number one fans and had gone from close friends to bitter rivals in pursuit of his affection.

"I can't see how much either one could contribute. I'd have to go with Ino though, he at least has access to Yamanaka clan jutsu which could be quite useful, and valuable." Sasuke made it a point to evaluate all those he came across to see if they might be an asset to the empire they were working to build.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see. No use stressing over what we can't control. If anything, explaining our sudden change might be a better use of or efforts." Naruto laughed and tap Sasuke on the shoulder while they made their way into the academy to their class.

They were the last ones to arrive and their entrance certainly turned heads. The class was thrown for a loop. The only time these two would be seen together is during spars for class, and the occasional squabble, but now here they were, looking like they had gone outfit shopping together. They even had some straps forming Xs on their chests! The class was abuzz with the chitter-chatter of the kids in class until a pink-haired girl decided to get some answers

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH SASUKE-KUN, NARUTO!? AND WHY THE HELL ARE YOU DRESSED IN THO.." Sakura shouted before she and felt that she had the wind knocked out of her, stumbling to the ground.

No one but Naruto knew what happened. As everyone just stared at Sakura wondering what happened, Naruto whispered to Sasuke: "Was that necessary?" Trying his best to hide his amusement.

Sasuke responded simply: "She spoke out of turn, it was a justified course of action." Then he simply took his seat before Iruka came in to give out the teams. Naruto was quick to find his seat as well.

Iruka noted that both Naruto and Sasuke had different appearances, that were oddly similar to each other, but he pushed it aside making a note for later. He also noted Sakura being assisted by some of the other students. She seemed to be out of breath but overall fine, he assumed it was probably just another screaming match between the girls over the Uchiha. With all that out of his mind, he proceeded with the team assignments.

…...

At the end of the day, it truly didn't matter, but both Naruto and Sasuke were disappointed by the turnout. Sasuke's assessment was accurate, but it was also a nice way of saying that he considered Sakura useless. Ino's use might have been circumstantial but at least she could serve a purpose if she had to. Naruto commemorated Sasuke on being kinder with his choice of words when describing the girls. He had told Sasuke years ago that if he had nothing nice to say not to say anything at all, it seems like he was applying it.

All the other genin teams had been picked up by their Jonin senseis, yet the three of them had been left waiting for hours by their tardy instructor. Naruto was quite annoyed by this. A shinobi as decorated and respected as Kakashi, someone trained by the fastest shinobi the world has known! How the fuck could he be late!? Minato had to have rolled over in his grave.

"Whatever...I'll have to come up with a proper punishment for this jester." Naruto thought with a sinister smirk on his face. Sasuke caught the look on his lord's face and knew he was planning on punishing their instructor for his tardiness.

After another hour and a few minutes of Sakura's infuriating yelling, Kakashi instructed them to meet him on the roof and decided to show off by using the Shunshin to get to the roof. He was quite surprised to see Naruto and Sasuke standing on the roof, looking quite bored.

"Took you long enough sensei, we were thinking about sending out a search party." Naruto chirped which got an amused grunt out of Sasuke.

"Well well, how'd you genin manage to get up here before me?" Kakashi tried to mask it, but he was genuinely curious. From the files he had read over, neither of them possessed the skill to outspeed him to the roof.

"Who knows Kakashi-sensei, maybe you're just getting slower with your old age." Naruto continued to badger the man. He wanted to see how Kakashi would respond, but before he had the opportunity to, Sakura had busted through the roof door.

"Why the hell did you guys leave me?!" Sakura asked in a huff.

Naruto began to laugh at her annoyance, but before she could yell up a storm, Kakashi tried to get them back on track, he had admittedly wasted enough time.

"Let's not dwell on the past here. Why don't we go around and introduce ourselves? Such as things you like, dislikes, goals?"

Sasuke retorted: "Why don't you start then sensei?"

"Alright...my name is Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate… I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future… never really thought about it. As for my hobbies… I have lots of hobbies. Why don't you go next Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked at Kakashi with a cold glare. For a second, Kakashi could have sworn that Sasuke looking like a looming giant standing over him. He quickly shook his head as Sasuke took a step forward and said: "My name is Sasuke Uchiha, there isn't much I like and there are many things I hate. My goal is to usher in a new era for the Uchiha."

Kakashi was glad to see that Sasuke didn't seem fixated on hunting down and killing his brother Itachi. Kakashi then turned to Sakura for her to begin her introduction.

"I'm Sakura Haruno. What I like, uh… I mean the person I like is…My hobby is, uhh... My dream for the future is... *Squeal*" Sakura managed to get out, occasionally looking and glancing in Sasuke's direction.

Sasuke did his best to hide his annoyance with the pink-haired banshee and Kashi just eye smiled and turned towards Naruto.

"And last but not least it's your turn blondie," Kakashi said pointing to Naruto.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen, especially Ichiraku's. I also like to train. We don't have to talk about what I don't like, but as for my goal it's simply, I'm going to change the world!"

Kakashi couldn't wrap his mind around Naruto and Sasuke, the feeling they emitted, the confidence they carried, and their looks. When Kakashi looked in their eyes he could've sworn he had been looking at ANBU agents, ready to go on a deadly mission. Sakura fit her file perfectly, but what he expected to see out the other 2, the arrogance of the Uchiha and the attention fiend in Naruto were nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe they're just trying to seem cool in front of their new Jonin Sensei? I'll just have to see what they are made off." Kakashi thought to himself.

Kakashi then informed his new genin team that they will be evaluated turn a test they will be having in the morning. If they are unable to pass the test, they will be sent back to the academy. After he told them to meet him at their team's training ground at 7 in the morning, he Shunshin'd away, leaving the newly formed team 7 on the roof of the academy.

"Guess we'll see you tomorrow Sakura. C'mon Sasuke" Naruto and Sasuke turned to the door of the roof."

Sakura walks in front of them to block the way.

"Hold on! Where are you guys going? And why are you two suddenly buddies? What did you to Sasuke you idi…" Sakura wasn't able to finish her insult towards Naruto before she noticed Sasuke holding his sword to her neck.

"Try to insult Naruto-sama again and it will be the last thing you do" Sasuke warned her. Sakura felt like she was being crushed, she couldn't even breathe.

"Sasuke…Let the poor girl be...we have the training to do." With the weight of his voice, the impact, Sakura had never felt anything like it. The closest thing she could compare it to was whenever she saw the Third Hokage speak to the village or came to speak to her class. He spoke like a leader and everything he had to say seemed important.

As quickly as the sword was drawn, it was sheathed. Naruto then made his way towards the edge of the roof, with Sasuke following behind him. Naruto looked back at Sakura, with a huge grin on his face and said: "Oh Sakura, be sure to eat some breakfast. Regardless of what Kakashi said, breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

The boys then proceeded to walk off the roof falling straight down. Sakura ran towards the edge of the roof to see what happened to them just to look over and see...nothing… They were gone…. It didn't even look like they hit the ground….

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!?" Sakura was getting a migraine trying to wrap her head around the events that just unfolded.

The Next Day

Sakura had been waiting for 3 hours before Naruto and Sasuke showed up. Usually, she would have run up to Sasuke, showering him with affection, but after yesterday's events, she was hesitant. She had never been as scared as she was when Sasuke threatened her. And the weird vibe naruto gave off, the only word Sakura could come up with to describe it was dangerous.

"Good morning Sakura, you look well. I hope you had a filling breakfast, I'm sure whatever Kakashi has in store for us will be a challenge." Naruto greeted with his signature smile.

"Good morning Naruto, yes I did...Good morning to you as well Sasuke-Kun." Sakura greeted them both. Trying her best not to anger Sasuke, at least until she knew more about the new relationship these two seemed to have.

"Good morning Sakura, how long have you been waiting for Kakashi?" Sasuke returned the greeting and asked.

"About 3 hours. I've been here since 7." She was upset that she had been waiting so long but was glad to see that Sasuke didn't seem like he was still upset with her.

"Well you won't have to wait too much longer, Kakashi should be here in the next couple of minutes." Naruto informed Sakura, which just raised more questions for her.

Soon after Kakashi appeared

"Good morning team, Sorry I'm late. I'm afraid I got lost on the road of life." Kakashi was quite surprised to see all of them looking rested and ready. It seems like they were a bit smarter than he gave them credit for.

"Let's get this started already Kakashi-sensei. We are wasting daylight and there are better things we could be doing with our time." Sasuke spoke frankly. He could've thought of a couple of things he would rather do, like training, especially with the method Naruto had devised for He and their comrades.

"Now now, let's calm down Sasuke. Since you guys seem to be so eager why don't we have some fun? I was going to give you some boring tests but you guys seemed to have been able to see through my "no breakfast trick". So all you have to do to make sure you guys don't end up back in the academy is to impress me." Kakashi smiled. He thought that putting these two boys in their place might be good for the overall development of the team.

"How about if we get you to lift your headband, it's an automatic pass right then and there? I don't want to sound rude, but Sasuke's right, it's just too good of a day to waste." Naruto said as he put the hood of his haori over his head to cover his eyes from the sun.

"Oh, and why my headband Naruto?" asked Kakashi.

"Simple, if you get Sharingan no Kakashi to use his Sharingan, you must be worth something as a shinobi, right?" Naruto knew he was starting to get of Kakashi's nerves, but he wanted to see just what made up one of Konoha's elites.

"Fine, you kids get me to lift my headband you all pass. But do your best not to get hurt, I plan on having a bit of fun with you all." Kakashi let a small amount of Killer's intent lose and he got the response he expected from Sakura, shaking like a leaf. But those boys yet again, looked at him like he was nothing but a genin himself, or maybe even less.

"What the hell is going on with these kids?! I'm just going to have to see for myself." Kakashi thought as he stepped close to the group.

"Then let's begin shall we?" as soon as Kakashi finished speaking, Sasuke has already appeared beside him sword in hand.

"What the-" Kakashi couldn't even finish before the Uchiha started an onslaught of what may have been the best swordsmanship he had seen to date. He couldn't even manage to dodge all of Sasuke's attack jumping away with shallow cuts on his right shoulder and left thigh.

With no hesitation, Sasuke begins flying through hand signs. As Kakashi tries to close the gap and stop him, Naruto seemed to outspeed him, appearing between him and Sasuke. Naruto then delivered a powerful blow to Kakashi's chest pushing him back. He also noticed that naruto seemed to have a black glove or gauntlet on that he didn't when they started.

Naruto turned to Sasuke and they shred a look and a nod. Naruto started doing hand signs of his own and by the time Kakashi was able to react, Naruto and Sasuke let their Jutsu loose on the Jonin.

"Wind Release: Pressure Damage"

"Fire Release: Great Flame Flower"

Multiple massive fireballs appeared in the air and shot towards Kakashi as Naruto released a powerful gust of compressed wind. The two techniques seemed to combine effortlessly to create a massive firestorm, which tore through most of the wooded area of the training grounds. It seemed like Kakashi was swallowed whole by the technique but at the last moment, he was able to substitute away to a tree a bit deeper in the forest. He wasn't able to escape unscathed, having several burns littered all over. Their jutsu was just too fast.

"This is insanity! No way genin should be able to perform an elemental jutsu let alone high-ranked ones like that!" Before Kakashi could get his bearings, he felt something grab onto his leg and then he was jerked up into the air and started being swung around like a rag doll, until he was thrown out of the forest and back to the still burning training field. He was able to get back on his feet to see the two boys just staring at him.

"C'mon Kakashi-sensei! At this rate, we're gonna fall asleep here!" Naruto shouted, finishing up with his signature smirk.

"Naruto-sama, I could finish him now using my Hatsu. I see no need in continuing with this game."

Meanwhile, Sakura didn't know what to think. They had begun this bout with their sensei a couple of minutes ago, but her teammates seemed to be playing with him the whole time. They were fast, they were strong, and they were skilled. Sakura suspected that Sasuke would be able to use jutsu because he was just, well the coolest. But Naruto, she was blown away when she saw him use wind release, at it was so strong!

"I-I don't get it! They are making Kakashi-sensei seem like the genin and they just keep antagonizing him." Sakura thought, unable to understand what she was seeing.

"No need Sasuke, the is no need to use Mugen against someone of Hatake's level. I'll take it from here." As Naruto started doing some stretches.

"Are you sure Naruto-sama? Even without Mugen, I'm confident that I would be able to finish this quickly. There's no need for you to bother yourself with-" Sasuke was interrupted when Naruto put his hand up.

"No need to worry Sasuke, it will be a good workout before today's training. Plus I wanted to have a little fun with our tardy Sensei." Sasuke knew that Kakashi was in for it now.

"You ready Kakashi? Cause I'm coming for ya!" Naruto once again showed off his speed by almost instantly appearing in front of Kakashi as the two got into a taijutsu battle.

Both Kakashi and Sakura were frying their brains trying to make sense of whatever was going on. Naruto was skilled, strong, and fast. Nothing like he had been growing up in the village, nothing like the Naruto that was described in his files. Sure he still seemed to be a bit brash and bold as far as his personality, but that seemed to be the only recognizable quality he still had.

Kakashi had fought Might Guy over the years in many a spar, a man revered for his prowess in taijutsu, yet Naruto was in front of him, giving him a run for his money. He had no intention of failing them after this showing but still, he was interested in what else they were hiding.

Suddenly, a shadow clone appeared next to Naruto. Kakashi was yet again surprised since at the time they were in a grapple lock with each other, therefore none of them could weave a hand sign. The original naruto disengage and made a single hand ram sign, suddenly the naruto clone burst, causing a sizeable explosion and smokescreen.

"Hokage-sama's going to have my head for all the damage to the training field." Kakashi deadpanned as he once again substituted out the way of a devastating attack.

From the smoke, a black blade connected to a chain of the same color shot out at remarkable speed, headed straight for Kakashi's head. He ducked down quick enough for it to miss but Kakashi was surprised when the weapon cut clean through the tree he was standing on, which caused the top half of the tree to fall towards him. He was quick to move to another tree by maneuvering through the air, but while midair, another chain came heading towards him. Kakashi made a clone to help him move mid-air, dodging the chain but as he hit the ground, the chain made a sharp turn, and shoot towards him.

It was a game of cat and mouse for a couple of minutes until Kakashi decided to fire a Fireball Jutsu to the center of the smoke. Kakashi watched as his jutsu was just cut to pieces and blown away by the quick maneuvers of the Kusarigama. With the smoke cleared, Kakashi saw Naruto with the weapon in hand, at least one of the bladed parts was in his hand, the rest of the chain was littered over the training grounds.

"So you can use Kusarigama as well? Well well well, you boys seem to have a good deal of secrets. What else can you do I-" Kakashi was once again cut off when the chains littered on the ground snapped to life. In an instant, Kakashi was completely wrapped up. He praised the boy for being able to capture him, but he wasn't too worried about breaking free, that is until…

"Something's wrong...I feel like I'm getting weaker and weaker..." Kakashi thought as he was brought to his knees due to the fatigue.

Naruto walked over and pulled Jonin's headband away from his eye, revealing the Sharingan. He then kneeled to make eye contact with his sensei.

"Tsk tsk tsk, I barely got to do anything sensei, this is such a disappointment. *Sigh* I guess we're done here. I don't think you're in any shape to continue. So do we pass?"

He had no idea what was happening, how he ended up in this position. Genins brought him, a seasoned vet to his knees, and both of the boys looked at him with disappointment. Even though Sakura just stood there and watched, how could he fault her? He was embarrassed to admit it but the looks he caught on Sakura's face during the whole bout probably mirrored his own. He had no choice, especially while he was on his knees, trapped by one of them.

Trying his best to seem cool and in charge of the situation, Kakashi delivered an eye smile and said: "Yes, after that impressive showing how could I not pass you? Congrats team 7! Our first mission will be 3 days from today." Kakashi thought he would need that much time to regain his strength, he was feeling more and more drained the longer he was ensnared.

"Sounds good to me!" With a flick of his wrist, the chains seemed to simply fall off Kakashi.

Naruto turned and made his way towards Sasuke, who was trying to ignore the barrage of questions being thrown out by Sakura. Once Naruto stopped in front of them, Sasuke asked: "Are you ready to go Naruto-sama? I think we've wasted enough time."

"C'mon Sasuke, we're an official Genin team now, thats something to be happy about right?" Naruto asked, receiving nothing but a blank stare.

"Fine, fine let's get out of here." Naruto said but before they could leave both Sakura and Kakashi wanted some answers.

"Before you two leave, there are some things id like for you to clarify for me." It was clear Kakashi was still quite drained.

"Yea I've got some questions too!" Sakura shouted.

"Sorry, but you've wasted enough of the King's time." That was all Sasuke said before a purple mist was emitted from Sasuke and covered both of the boys. Kakashi moved forward to grab one of them with the little bit of energy he had left but his hand simply went through the mist, revealing that they were already gone.

Kakashi couldn't feel a trace of them at all, it was as if they were never there, to begin with. All Kakashi could this was: "I have to report to Hokage-sama!"

Chapter 3 End

Author's Notes: Hello everyone, hope you enjoyed chapter 3 of this story. If anyone has any ideas they would like to suggest or any critiques that will improve the reading experiences I would love to read them. I want this story to be enjoyable regardless of it being my first and I think feedback will be one of the best ways for me to improve.

With that said, until next Time everyone!

To help provide better imagery:

Naruto's outfit is based on Master Eraqus' outfit from Kingdom hearts with a color change on the armor to orange.

Sasuke's outfit is based on Terra's from Kingdom Hearts

Sasuke's Sword is based on Mugen's Crystal Form from -man

Naruto's Paradox Edge has a Kusarigrama form based on Tsubaki's from Soul Eater, with the color scheme of black and red for the handles.