Well I accidentally said at the end of chapter 5 that chapter 5 was already being written. Obviously I meant chapter 6. I apologize for this overwhelmingly egregious error.

Second, I hope you like the idea of Naruto more or less trying to copy Jiraiya, who at this point in time he sees as a hero. This will sort of be a theme as Naruto advances as a shinobi. If you didn't check out the Instagram (StolenHawk22) with the illustration I made... I don't blame you, I hate it already. It's not really my style, and I don't know why I drew it that way. I really love the next two though, so I will continue to encourage you as I post them.

Thank you for the helpful reviews and comments, except the person who said that Sasuke and Naruto shouldn't be friends because Uchiha's are all better off dead. They're eight and neither of them have friends at the moment, leave the chibi's alone. However, as it's said in the story, Sasuke won't be joining them forever, just a few months to let the village gossip cool down, and to be a foundation for Naruto and Sasuke's friendship/rivalry/arch enemy ship/ I'm not telling how it turns out because that would be a spoiler and I still haven't figured out how to flag those on reddit let alone on here okay I'll stop ranting in a run on sentence and get to the story.

-StolenHawk

Sasuke had decided that Naruto was the most annoying person ever. Without debate. No question.

The most annoying trait Sasuke had learned about him, was that he was good. The first time they had sparred, he had given Sasuke a run for his money, and nearly beaten him.

That had been a taijutsu only spar, one of Sasuke's strongest abilities. When they sparred using chakra, Naruto had whooped him. Whooped him. The Uchiha were supposed to be the strongest of the clans in Konoha.

'Were' repeated in his head cutting off his train of thought. His father had always told him about the might of the Uchiha, about how strong his clan was, and how an average Uchiha was an elite ninja amongst the Leaf forces. Not that it mattered anymore, there was only one other Uchiha now, and he was no longer part of the Leaf forces. That bastard.

If he couldn't even beat Naruto the dead last, how would he ever beat Itachi. His fireball was nothing if he couldn't figure out which version of Naruto was real and which was a fake. Which was a Kage Bunshin, a jutsu he knew that his big brother could also use.

He had begrudgingly asked Naruto to show him how to perform the technique. The blond loser had the audacity to laugh in his face and tell him no, that only the Hokage or Jiraiya-sama could give him permission to teach it to somebody.. Sasuke had about killed him then, though he wasn't sure how he would do it without any ninja tools. Punching the boy to death sounded good enough to him though.

So Sasuke had done what he thought was best to catch up. Catch up to the moron who was dead last in his class just eight months ago. Nine now after spending a month at the weird toad village.

Training with the toads had been… strange, though he couldn't deny the benefits of it. The old wrinkly toad Fukasaku, who's name reminded him far too much of his dead father's, had asked him and Naruto to run through their skills so he could get an idea of what they needed. Sasuke had shown him the standard academy bunshin and kawarimi, as well as his clan's coveted Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique) that his father had taught him. Sasuke told him he was the best in his age at throwing shuriken and kunai, and was learning how to incorporate ninja wire too. The old toad had explained there weren't any ninja weapons like that on Mt. Myoboku because toads didn't use them. Their webbed hands made it difficult

Fukasaku had seemed impressed with his skills, and commended him for having acquired them at such a young age. Sasuke had smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. His big brother Itachi had all he had and more at his age. He was already a ninja and had acquired his sharingan. Sasuke had a long ways to go.

His smile disappeared when Naruto took his turn showing off. He showed off the kawarimi, and though it was nothing special, it was almost faster than Sasuke's, which frustrated him that he was catching up so fast. The frustration turned to fury when Naruto made ten Kage Bunshin and they all high fives each other like the moron's that they were. It only grew when Naruto ran to the nearest tree and proceeded to walk right up it without any difficulty. He then ran to the nearest body of water and walked on it. He had only ever seen Itachi do that. Then he shouted, much too loudly, that he was learning the basics of Fuinjutsu too, something Sasuke knew nothing about.

He almost couldn't contain his rage. How the hell did this loser catch up to him. Sasuke knew if they fought, it would be close. Even his Uchiha pride was telling him it wasn't a guaranteed win. He couldn't do those things that Naruto could, but in turn, Naruto couldn't shoot fireballs.

Fukasaku had smiled at Naruto and told him he was doing an excellent job as well, and the dummy had grinned back like a loser. Then it was time to spar, and even the moron's taijutsu had gotten good. Not just better, but good. He could probably be Kiba and Choji at this point, who were the next best in their class.

Then came the chakra spar. Sasuke had thought he had him, but when the fireball collided with the blond, the eight year old just went poof. Up in smoke, and not the way Sasuke wanted him too. Next thing Sasuke knew, a short blade was being held to his neck.

"Gotcha Grumpy!" Naruto had shouted.

"Where the hell did you get that blade, I thought Fukasaku-sama said toads didn't use them. You cheated!" Sasuke spat out.

"Language Sasuke." The moron had sad with a fake looking stern face. "And shinobi rule number says that a shinobi's life isn't fair, if you don't like it, then you should do something about it." Naruto said gleefully.

"Fine." Sasuke replied, and grabbed the blond by the wrist and flipped him over his head, landing him on his back. In the process, disarming Naruto and holding the kunai up in front of him in a general stance. The blond shot him an upside down scowl, which turned into a blinding grin, and he hopped back to his feet and spun around to face the Uchiha.

"I like the way you think Sasuke!" He had almost giggled out. Putting his left hand to the side of the ugly scroll he carried on his back, Sasuke saw Naruto make a puff of smoke, and suddenly he also had a kunai in his hand. "Round 2 starts right…" Naruto made a feint to his right and then came back to the left with a slash of his kunai. Sasuke blocked Naruto's strike with his own Kunai, and the two held the stalemate. "NOW!" Naruto shouted. And promptly disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sasuke was shocked. It had been a clone the whole time? But the kunai in his hand was still there, so that was real. He heard laughter coming from behind him to the left. He whirled around to find Naruto on the ground holding his side, laughing hysterically.

"You shoulda seen the look on your face hahahaha! You were like" Naruto made an exaggerated surprised face, holding his hands to his cheeks, mouth and eyes wide open. "Hahahaha, the great Uchiha looking like a fool." Naruto continued laughing.

Sasuke was almost more surprised at Naruto's reaction, they were in the middle of a spar and he was on the ground laughing? This one was probably a clone too he had decided. "How could you tell what my face looked like if you were behind me you idiot?" He spat out, throwing the kunai at the clone. The kunai struck the bunshin in the shoulder, and the clone… yelled?

"OW YOU BASTARD THAT HURT!" Naruto screeched.

Huh, guess it wasn't a clone then. Tough luck for the loser. Good thing it was a blunted kunai and hadn't actually cut him at all.

"I'll get you back for that!" Naruto yelled and then paused. "You make a good point though, I couldn't actually see your face, I just know it looked stupid ya know." Naruto said in a completely normal, for him, tone of voice.

Sasuke was surprised yet again, this time by the 180 in his attitude, but wouldn't let him win. "And how could you possibly know that it looked stupid?" Sasuke asked monotonously, and immediately regretted it when he saw the grin break out on Naruto's face.

"Because it always does HAHAHAH!" Naruto hollered back.

Sasuke had had enough. He didn't what any sane person would do when facing a crazy person. He charged.

The two had fought until they dropped, Sasuke winning more than losing since he had a blade to work with. He just felt better fighting with one his hand, more confident than without.

That had been the first day. It was now day 30.

Naruto had been shocked when he had beat Sasuke on the first day, and kept up with him in most aspects throughout their training, though the bastard could still spit fire and he was definitely jealous of that, and definitely not going to tell him.

Still, training with Fukasaku was really fun, and most of the time Sasuke wasn't so bad, though he was grumpy all the time, kinda like that giant fox he had met when he was back in the village.

They both had gotten faster, stronger, and better at chakra control in their month with the toads. Naruto had also been learning the Gamayudan (Toad Oil Bullet) which was totally awesome! And he was getting to meet all the cool toads who were all also totally awesome! His favorite part though had been when Sasuke had thrown up after eating Shima-sama's cooking. Then he had to fake that he just wasn't feeling well so that she wouldn't wack him on the head the way she did with Fukasaku.

Speaking of the old toad, he spoke up to the two boys, who were sitting in front of him in a large clearing away from the village. "Today we will learning about combination techniques boys. Do either of you know what that means" he questioned. The raven haired boy didn't respond, but the blond did, very enthusiastically.

"Ooh! Pervy Sage says that that's what Old Man Third is best known for right?' He asked eagerly. The blond either knew or was able to do many things that he hadn't expected and even he himself couldn't do, but he had started to adjust to the unpredictability that was Naruto, and no longer got upset about it. After all, he was still winning more spars than he lost, and while he wasn't gaining ground in their training, he wasn't losing it either. He also knew he was getting stronger than he would be in the academy right now. It had to move too slow so that the lesser students could keep up.

"Very good Naruto boy, but do you know what it means?" The boy shook his head, still enthusiastically, which would be weird for anybody but Naruto. "Combination techniques, are when a ninja, or ninjas, use multiple techniques that together, make a much stronger technique than the two or more would separately." The Sage explained, "The most well known one, would be using a wind jutsu with a fire jutsu. The wind powers the fire to not only move faster, but to gain size and burn hotter. There are plenty of other techniques that can be combined, but today, we're going to focus on one that you two can do together." The toad finished.

Naruto loved the idea of that. Sasuke hated it. He didn't need the blond to make him stronger, he would get plenty strong on his own.

"Now I'll demonstrate it first since it's complicated, but you will be combining Naruto's Gamayudan (Toad Oil Bullet) with Sasuke's Gokakyu no Jutsu (Great Fireball technique) which will create a bigger and stronger fire, but instead of being faster, it will spread more, a like like water, or like the plain Gamayudan would." He explained.

"Sasuke, would you shoot a fire ball out into the field? Once you start I will shoot the Gamayudan. Normally it's the other way around, but the difficult part about combination jutsu is that in order for them to be most effective, and safe, the chakra in each jutsu must be matched nearly exactly." Fukasaku said.

Sasuke nodded and rain through his hand seals ending on tiger, and after building the neccessary pressure and heat up, shot a large fireball out over the field. Immediately, Fukasaku ran through his own hand seals and shot a high powered stream of toad oil at the fireball. The two collided and sent of a wave of heat that was almost like an explosion, and both of the eight year olds had to shield their faces. When the heat died down after a few seconds, they lowered their arms.

The whole field was on fire. The whole thing. Sasuke was sure that the fireball alone wouldn't have lit more than a tenth of it on fire. The wrinkly toad had made his techniques ten times more powerful? This didn't seem right, and he voiced as such.

"Well, it isn't technically ten times more powerful, but it burned hotter and covered roughly ten times more area than just your fireball would have. If it were a wind technique I had used, it would have been much hotter and more powerful, but it wouldn't have covered as much area as a liquid like toad oil does." Fukasaku explained after dousing the filed in a Suiton (Water Release) jutsu.

That was crazy to Sasuke. How did that even work? He didn't know enough about chakra to understand, but he wanted to. Techniques like that would help him defeat his brother, and that's all that mattered to him now.

—-

It had taken three days for the Uchiha and Uzumaki to get the combination technique down. Three days. Most of the that time was spent with Naruto trying to perfect the toad oil bullet. In reality, they had only tried the combination seven time. The first 5 hadn't gone well, mostly Naruto shooting out too much oil, which overwhelmed the flames. Then Sasuke, never one to be outdone, had shot out an even bigger fireball to try and top the blond, who had successfully lowered the amount of oil, and suddenly there was too much fire, and the oil couldn't properly fuel it. Finally Naruto said he think he knew how much to use, and told Sasuke to use a normal sized Gokakyu (Great Fireball) and the two synced their chakra near perfectly, lighting the field ablaze. Fukasaku had been a little shocked. It had taken him and Jiraiya 2 months to be able to combine their toad oil and fire technique. Granted it was a much more devastating scale, but they were both wielding nature energy, which gave them enhanced sensory abilities, which in turn made it easier for them to judge the chakra. The two children were special, of that he was certain.

Seeing their innate ability at wielding chakra, and fighting in general, Fukasaku decided to train them differently, perhaps in a way that they couldn't receive in the outside world.

"You want me to do what now?" The little blond questioned stupidly.

"The next portion of your training will be meditation, so you must sit as still as you can. Try and become one with nature if you will." Fukasaku explained.

"Uh... Grandpa Toad Sage, do you know who you're talking too here?" The blond questioned. The Uchiha snorted at this, in a very un-Uchiha fashion. Nobody was here to admonish him though, and as much respect as he'd gained for the toads, he didn't feel like he had to keep up appearances for them. He certainly didn't need to act respectfully around Naruto, that moron wouldn't even know the difference, so he let some of his discipline slip from his Uchiha facade, and acted a little more naturally. It felt good if he was honest with himself.

Fukasaku nodded at that, and leaned in to whisper to Naruto. "Remember that

Sage technique that I showered you when you got here?" Naruto nodded aggressively, all thoughts of the proposed torture gone. "Well this is actually the very first step in learning that. I suppose if you're not ready for it then we can move on to something else." Fukasaku laid the bait, and Naruto fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

"No way, Old Toad. I can sit still as long as you need me too, just let me know when I can move again." He said resolutely, and closed his eyes, taking on the position that the toad had showed him.

The craziest part was, he was telling the truth. For five hours Naruto sat there and didn't move. Sure he was swaying and twitching, but he never got up to move, and never opened his eyes. Sasuke, who made it an hour and a half before peeking over at Naruto, mostly to check to make sure he was alive, was shocked. Too shocked.

After Fukasaku told Naruto he could move again, the boy calmly stood up, before Sasuke threw a rock at him.

"OW YOU BASTARD THAT HURT!" The blond screeched.

Sasuke's lip curled up slightly, and very smugly if you asked Naruto. "Language, Naruto." He corrected. "And I had to make sure that you weren't a clone or something. I didn't think you could sit still for that long and be that quiet."

Naruto nodded like this made sense, then smiled devilishly, "I'll be getting you back for that." Sasuke paled, which Naruto thought meant that he was nearly translucent. Mission accomplished.

In truth, Naruto hadn't been quiet the whole time. In fact, he'd been yelling, quite a bit, at a giant grumpy old fox in a sewer, which was also his brain? But was a sewer? He still didn't understand how a whole sewer system fit in his brain, let alone a gigantic fox.

"Well I had some company that helped me pass the time." Naruto said. Then before Sasuke could question what he meant he added. "Alright Grandpa Toad Sage, I did all that, so I can burn off some energy with some real training right!?" He shouted, once again back to his normal Naruto self.

It was at that moment, that Jiraiya made his first appearance in a little over a month. "Oho, Naruto, what's rule number six again?" Jiraiya asked with a grin.

"Pervy Sage!" Naruto yelled giving him a flying hug. When he let him go and stepped back and proudly lifted his chin and said, "Shinobi rule number six: Everything is training… But how is sitting around doing nothing training?"

"You are never doing nothing Naruto, if you must remain still, then you are training your patience. Meditating like you were is also useful for several other things, including chakra and body awareness, which will help you during fighting." Jiraiya responded.

"Well I don't know about patience, I just did it because Fukasaku-jiji told me it was the first step to being able to lift that stone toad above my head!" Naruto explained, "It was actually kind of peaceful until that grumpy old fox started talking to me and calling me weak and stuff."

Jiraiya saw Sasuke quirk his head at that, but the Uchiha didn't say anything. "Let's go talk about that then Naruto, we wouldn't want your meditation to keep being interrupted would we?" Jiraiya then turned to Sasuke. "I'll be back Sasuke, do you mind waiting with Pa? Maybe he can teach you a little more about meditation."

"Hn." Was all Sasuke replied with, though Jiraiya noticed he was eager to learn, and just hiding it well. So, Jiraiya took Naruto over to an empty field and sat him down, and explained to him how the Kyuubi (Nine-Tails) ended up sealed inside of him.

—

Naruto was a little shocked to learn that the demon fox that had nearly destroyed the village was sealed inside of him. He couldn't wrap his head around the fact that the Yondaime, his hero, had sealed the fox in him. He also couldn't wrap his head around having another living thing sealed inside of him. It was weird.

The fox while definitely grumpy, and full of hate too, hadn't seemed all that bad to him. Sure he called him weak, but that didn't mean much considering the fact that he was the one that was locked up. There was that sadness in him too, the fox would never admit to as much, but Naruto could feel it in him, deep down.

Jiraiya could see the emotions on Naruto's face as they came and went, what he didn't see a lot of, was anger. Which was what he had been expecting. He voiced his thoughts, "How come you don't seem very angry?"

"Why would I be angry? I'm not the one that got sealed into a baby." Naruto replied simply.

"Well, the fox is the reason the villagers treated you like they did. I wo—"

"THAT'S why they're all jerks? That makes so much sense now that I think about it. They think I'm the one who killed all those people and almost destroyed the village?" Naruto asked incredulously. "Well that doesn't give me a whole lot of faith in the people of the village. They'd have to be stupid to think a seven year old was the one that attacked the village ya know." Naruto quipped.

"Well… yes, but they don't think you did it really. They know the fox did it, they just think that you're the fox. Or they know you're not, but are in denial and want something to take it out on. A young boy is an easy target.

Naruto nodded, as that kind of made sense. Then the boy, ever pure as he was, smiled. "Well I guess I'll just have to show them how awesome Naruto Uzumaki really is!" Naruto shouted with a fist pump. "That still doesn't explain why the fox is sad though. Sure I'd be sad if I got sealed away, but if I killed a bunch of people and destroyed a village I'd probably feel like I deserved it." Naruto explained.

"He's probably not sad Naruto, he's most likely trying to manipulate you so that he can find a way to escape or send you on a rampage." Jiraiya responded.

Naruto frowned at this. If the fox was trying to manipulate him, then why was he trying to hide the sadness? Naruto didn't say anything, but this bothered him.

After a minute of pondering, Naruto's attention span wondered. He perked up, "Pervy Sage, Sasuke and I learned a combination technique and IT. IS. AWESOME. YOU HAVE TO SEE IT C'MON!" He shouted.

Jiraiya was surprised by this, as combination techniques were really difficult to do, between experienced Jonin who had been teammates their whole lives. Nonetheless, he followed Naruto back over to where Sasuke was meditating.

Naruto threw a pebble that pelted Sasuke in the shoulder, breaking him of his inner thoughts. "C'mon, Bastard!" Naruto ignored Jiraiya's call for him to clean up his language, "I wanna show Pervy Sage the combo jutsu!"

Sasuke was rubbing his shoulder and looking awfully grouchy, but he did enjoy doing the jutsu. It was pretty cool.

The two boys started off towards one of the clearings that they were allowed to use the jutsu in, with the Toad Sage and sage toad following behind, talking in hushed whispers.

They got to the grounds, and got right to it. "Ready?" Naruto said, Sasuke nodded. "Alright go for it then!" Sasuke and Naruto both ran through their hand signs, Naruto finishing slightly before Sasuke and spewing out his Gamayudan while Sasuke spat his Gokakyu. The two jutsu collided and nearly exploded, covering ten fold of what the normal fireball would have, and doing way more damage than the toad oil otherwise would have.

Jiraiya was impressed. Very impressed. That technique could easily take out some Chunin, though it would need a little more speed, or surprise to get a Jonin. He let the boys know that he was proud of them, but didn't let on to just how impressive it was.

"Alright Naruto, I need to speak with Sasuke now, why don't you go with Pa and see if he'll teach you something another jutsu huh?"

Naruto's eyes went wide and he looked at Fukasaku and the toad couldn't help but smile and nod at him. They took off for another training area, leaving Sasuke and the Sannin alone.

"How are you holding up?" Jiraiya asked.

"Fine."

He most certainly didn't look or sound fine. "We don't know where he is unfortunately, he seems to have escaped us." Jiraiya lied, it was what the Sandaime had told him Itachi wanted though.

Sasuke didn't respond, but tears filled his eyes.

"Go on, let it out. It won't do any good to bottle it up." Jiraiya said.

"How could he do that. How could he kill them. He said he would always protect me, that we should always stick together, but then he killed our whole family and left me alone! How could he." Sasuke's words got colder and more filled with rage as he worked himself up. The tears started spilling from his eyes. "He's my big brother, how could he do this to me?" He was so quiet now it was almost a whisper.

Sasuke felt like all the fight was leaving him. All the pent up anger and resentment he had building for over a month now just gone. He felt ashamed at that. He had to be the one to avenge his clan, there was nobody else to do it. He had to be the one to kill his brother and restore the clan. Yet he didn't feel that way. His brain said he needed to kill Itachi. Yet, all he felt was that he missed him. Missed his big brother, who used to help him train, who was the best ninja he had ever seen. Who had been growing more distant from his family, but still took care of him. Who murdered his whole clan. He felt ashamed.

Jiraiya could see the boy struggling with his emotions, and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Has Naruto gotten around to telling you the Shinobi rules I have given him?" Jiraiya asked. Sasuke didn't respond, just kept looking down at the ground with fists clenched and tears falling. "Rule number one says that a shinobi's life is unfair. I know a little bit about how you feel kid. My old teammate left the village after it was discovered that he was kidnapping and experimenting on villagers. It was heartbreaking for me. I had considered him my best friend, and I felt like he betrayed me for doing that." Jiraiya said solemnly. "Worse yet, I was more upset that he abandoned me, and not because he was doing awful things to the people of the village, the people that I had sworn to protect." He explained. "I felt so ashamed for feeling that way." Jiraiya whispered

Sasuke looked up at him with wide eyes, surprised that someone like a legendary Sannin had felt what he was feeling. He thought ninja that strong were invincible.

Jiraiya read his face like a book, "Yeah kid, we're human too, just like the rest of the world. Maybe even more so." Sasuke tilted his head in question at this. Jiraiya obliged. "Three legendary ninja. None of them stay in the village anymore. Tsunade isn't a ninja anymore, she just gambles and drinks her sorrows away. I travel about the world spying for Konoha, because the village reminds me of my failures. They offered me the spot of Hokage, but how could I take it if I couldn't even save one friend? And Orochimaru is out doing who knows what, giving in to the sickest of his temptations, all to try and become more powerful. Greed has turned him into a monster. All three of us are equally messed up, just in different ways." Jiraiya explained softly.

Maybe that was what had happened to his brother. He had said he did it to test his abilities, maybe he had given into his greed like Orochimaru had. Did that mean that he could still be saved? He tried to put that thought away, telling himself that Itachi didn't deserve it, but it wouldn't completely vanish. It sat there in the back of his mind like a weight.

"He told me that I would have to gain hatred in order to defeat him." Sasuke whispered so quietly that anybody below Chunin wouldn't have even known he had spoken.

"Hatred is not the answer Sasuke. It just breeds more hatred. If you spend your whole life building it to defeat him and you do, then what? He'll be dead, and you'll have much of your life left to live, but you'll be overwhelmed with hatred. Then you won't be any better than him or Orochimaru." Jiraiya explained.

Sasuke nodded at this, but he didn't know what he was supposed to do. "Can we go back to training?" He asked, "It's the only thing that clears my head."

Jiraiya looked up and found there were still several hours left of light so he nodded, and started off to find Naruto and Fukasaku.

—

Jiraiya had left the next morning, saying he had another mission to go on. Naruto had been sad, but promised him he would kick his butt when he came back. Sasuke had thanked him and bowed deeper than he had for any non-Uchiha in his life.

The next couple of weeks had been spent working on their meditation and their minds, just like they had on the first day. Fukasaku encouraged them to be as still as possible, and feel as much as they could. They both made progress on their chakra, as well as their bodies. Their movements were a little crisper, they recovered from losing their balance a little faster, and they could perform their jutsu a little bit quicker. Naruto had talked to the Kyuubi a few times during meditation, which often led to the blond yelling at him, and the fox pretending to be asleep.

Fukasaku taught Naruto a Suiton (Water Release) jutsu after Naruto begged for one, claiming he wanted to 'put out Sasuke's fire'. To keep things 'fair' Fukasaku taught Sasuke a new Katon (Fire Release) jutsu.

Jiraiya stopped by every two weeks or so to check on them, more than happy with both boys' progress. Naruto was filling in the basics he had missed over the beginning stages of his life and time at the academy. Sasuke was learning to deal with his emotions, and even express them when he wanted.

The rivalry between them was enjoyable to watch. Sasuke still had the edge, but Jiraiya could tell Naruto would soon overtake him at the rate he was going. Sasuke would likely pass him once again if he unlocked his sharingan, which he curiously hadn't done yet.

When it came time for Jiraiya to take Sasuke back to the village. Nine weeks had passed. Neither boy had sufficiently mastered their new elemental jutsu, but both were getting close, and working extremely hard at it. Naruto was determined to master Suiton: Teppodama (Water Release: Gunshot) so that he could go head to head with Sasuke's fire and not have to dodge. Sasuke was determined to master Katon: Endan (Fire Release: Flame Bullet) so that he could quickly ascend as one of the strongest Uchiha and restore his clan. His thoughts of his brother were still there, but they were more confused than anything. Sadness and rage didn't mix well. One demanded he spill blood, the other demanded that he lay down and cry. He ignored them the best he could and focused on things that would actually help.

When it came time for the boy's to part, they stood apart from each other, Jiraiya at Sasuke's side, Fukasaku and Shima at Naruto's. There was an awkward silence as neither boy knew what to say. Naruto fixed that.

"Next time I see you I'm gonna kick your ass you bastard!" Naruto yelled, though his tone was light and playful.

Jiraiya just facepalmed. The boy would never learn any manners.

Sasuke smirked at the blond, "I'm looking forward to you failing, loser." He replied.

The two stared each other down for a whole minute before Naruto blinked and Sasuke Hn'd at his victory. Sasuke and Jiraiya turned to leave, so Naruto turned his own back and huffed indignantly, crossing his arms. He was going to miss Sasuke, but he'd die before he said that out loud.

Sasuke was thinking similar thoughts. There was nobody in the village that understood him like Naruto did. Naruto had explained how he was also from a clan that was all but extinct, and that his goal was to rebuild it. Sasuke of course hadn't believed him until Naruto had whipped out the scroll and a few of the items in it to prove that he really was an Uzumaki.

How could anybody in the Leaf measure up to that. They were both orphans now, and both trying to rebuild their clan all by themselves. He begrudgingly admitted that Naruto was even near his skill level in most of the shinobi arts, though he was hopeless at genjutsu, and nowhere near his level with shuriken and kunai. He had Fuinjutsu on him he supposed, though he didn't know how that would help him in a fight.

Sasuke's thoughts were interrupted when he and Jiraiya reached the 'portal' that would bring them out to the outskirts of Konoha. He didn't really understand how that worked, but it had worked on the way in so it must work on the way out too.

Naruto was already moving on. Fuka-jiji had promised him a sweet headband if he took the oath and memorized all the toad names, and he nearly had them all down. He wasn't positive he had them all down perfect, but that wasn't going to stop him from making a pass through the village with the elderly toad to try and name them all.

Jiraiya was beyond happy that the two boys seemed to get along, even if there was a rivalry between them already. It was going to be good for both of them to have another person in a similar situation. They could lean on each other when they needed it.

Now he needed to focus on what Orochimaru was up to, and he supposed he had a new hair jutsu to teach Naruto. He was excited to get back to traveling with him again after all.

Alrighty, that's the chapter, I hope you liked it, please review if you did or if you didn't and feel free to ask any questions!

Just to get out ahead of potential complaints, Sasuke will not be learning sage mode (too little chakra) or signing the toad summoning contract (not a good fit). The meditation training is to help him come to terms with the massacre and his emotions, as well as other general meditation benefits.

Lastly, I know I said that the academy graduation was coming up, but it'll likely be another chapter or two, I just like writing them at this age, and feel it's important to lay this ground work. Hope it's not moving too slow for anybody.