AN: I own nothing!

Naruto Re-Purposed

Created: 1/15/19 - Present

Chapter 1: Birth of A Ninja

Iruka looked around him in total astonishment at the sea of blonde hair and orange jumpsuits that suddenly were filling his vision that previously saw only a traitor and former friend and colleague getting ready to end his life. He couldn't believe it, his knucklehead prank king of a student had truly learned the shadow clone jutsu in one evening to a level the chunin had never seen before. He had witnessed the famous Kakashi and other jonins in his lifetime spawn a clone or three before, but never the numbers he was seeing in front of himself at this very moment and it made him smile to see his worst student finally succeed in something ninja related.

That smile quickly turned into a cough as he was reminded of the injury his former friend had caused him, that led him to be practically lying in the dirt outside of Konoha in the middle of the night as a twelve year old fought against his former sensei turned traitor, Mizuki. The cough rocked his body enough that he gasped out in pain, and tried to concentrate on his young student as he watched a veritable dog pile of orange and blonde deliver an epic beat down to the chunin traitor. When his student had left the defeated and unconscious Mizuki to return to one of the few precious people he had in this village, the older chunin was still in awe at the skill of Naruto Uzumaki, the number one most unpredictable ninja, that he said something that would change the Elemental Nations for years to come.

"Naruto, I'm so proud of you ...the shadow clone jutsu ...that is one of the original jutsu of the Nidaime Hokage," Iruka gasped between twinges of pain. "It was originally created for espionage ...make sure you don't dismiss them all together ...the memory feedback is supposed to be very difficult with more than one clone."

Memory Feedback

And just like that, the Elemental Nations changed as a young genin just starting out is given a gift that will rapidly accelerate his growth to unprecedented levels due to a series of unique circumstances, bloodlines and heritage, techniques and knowledge.

Naruto's face twitches as he dismisses the hundred plus shadow clones of himself one after the other, with each one causing his original body to wince as he is continually inundated with memories of the exact same event happening from hundreds of different perspectives, and each one carries with it just a little bit of knowledge and experience. That knowledge and experience are felt a hundred times over by Naruto after ten minutes of methodically dismissing his shadow clones and assimilating the short battle from several perspectives.

"Wow, what a rush," exclaimed Naruto after the last of the clones poofed out of existence and he once again saw himself jump on the pile and this time bite Mizuki in the left hand as they attacked and beat him down.

"You'll have to tell me about that jutsu sometime, it's one I always wanted to learn," replied Iruka-sensei fondly as he watched his young student beam in praise of anyone needing to learn something from him, but then quickly remembering where they were.

"Iruka-sensei, we need to get you to the hospital," yelled Naruto once he realized his teacher was still bleeding with Mizuki's windmill shuriken still embedded in his back. "Can you walk sensei?"

"Not easily," gasps out Iruka, "but you could have some clones carry me-" was as far as he got before another poof of smoke and a dozen new clones were spreading out to help lift their teacher.

"Why don't I escort you first to the Hokage?" spoke a silent new arrival with the white ANBU mask of a cat, as three ANBU appeared around them, taking in the scene of the battle quickly, and paying extra attention to the large scroll strapped around every copy of Naruto's shoulder.

"Hehe ...yeah ...Jiji's gonna want his scroll back," answered Naruto sheepishly, just remembering where he last left the Third Hokage and wondering about how much trouble he is going to be in.

"Wait!" called out Iruka who turned to Naruto and told him to first close his eyes. After listening to his teacher, Naruto felt his goggles being removed from his forehead, and a cloth being wrapped in its place. "Okay Naruto, you can open your eyes now."

When he did, he instantly reached up, and found a Konoha hitai-ate where his goggles used to be and a smiling Iruka without his own forehead protector looking at him in pride, "you did it Naruto, you are now officially a genin of Konohagakure. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks Iruka-sensei," answered a misty eyed Naruto that instantly tackle hugged his sensei despite his injuries, as he was overwhelmed with emotion before the Cat masked ANBU cleared their throat and closed ranks around the pair before using a shunshin along with Bear to instantly travel to the Hokage's office with Iruka and Naruto in tow while the last member of the ANBU team gathered up Mizuki's unconscious body and took it to T & I, leaving ten Naruto clones standing around a now empty clearing before they each realized they had nothing to do now, and all but one dispelled themselves one at a time, still remembering Iruka's warning about the memory feedback.

The remaining shadow clone, decided to pick up all the few shurikens he and Iruka used as well as the larger windmill shurikens of Mizuki before deciding to bring them back to his apartment so he could add them to his small and now growing collection of ninja gear. On his way, he passed a pair of training fields that seemingly glittered in the moonlight due to the scattered weapons abandoned throughout the fields. Quickly adding these to his growing pile of weapons, Naruto's clone soon made it back to his apartment, and dispelled himself after putting the weapons with his others, an action that had the real Naruto realize the unlimited potential of being in multiple places or doing a multitude of things at once.

The real Naruto, had just been dropped off at the Hokage's office by the ANBU Cat, while Iruka was also brought for a quick questioning and corroborating of Naruto's story, before being taken to the hospital to give the old Kage and his young ninja time alone. The man known as the Professor for his large knowledge of shinobi life and all elements of it, was quite pleased with the events of the night as it resolved several problems he was having in regard to Naruto, that no longer caused him any worry.

With Naruto now in the Shinobi corps, he was only answerable to the Hokage, and no longer under any authority from the Village Council who had been making his life miserable since they found out about the burden he carried. It also pointed out the problem with lessening results coming out of the Academy, and discovering a traitor who was seemingly sabotaging his academy students, giving him the right for a complete audit and eventual overhaul of the Academy curriculum. It also hopefully spoke of the bias that Naruto had struggled against, and hopefully with that out of the way, and him now on the path to being a ninja, he would excel instead of struggle as he has in the past.

Plus, with Naruto now passing with the class of Clan Heirs he can include him in the team assignments, and finally get Naruto some of the help he was hoping to give him as well as reward the jonin sensei who has asked after his own Sensei's son ever since learning of him. A sure fire way to both give Kakashi the student he has been asking for, as well as the last Uchiha that the Council has demanded, and making it so nobody would have any say in Naruto's development since it would also then affect Sasuke's. The old Kage was very pleased with how things turned out, even if he went through a severe panic when first learning of Naruto's theft of the Forbidden Scroll, all had seemingly worked out.

"Do you have questions for me Naruto?" asked the old Kage after watching his youngest and newest ninja squirm in the seat he was brought to, as he seemingly struggled to get out what he wanted to say.

"Were you ever going to tell me about the Kyuubi?" asked Naruto somewhat grumbling and pouty, as he stared at the old leader of his village he always looked up to and admired as a great ninja and more importantly friend, but who he now wondered about his motives and reasons. "Are ...are y-you only friends with me because of ...it?"

"I am sorry Naruto, I was always planning to tell you when you were older," started Hiruzen Sarutobi, looking every one of his sixty plus years, as he tried to convince the young boy he cared for so much. "And I would like to think you would still be my favorite even if the Kyuubi didn't exist," he finished with a warm smile directed at Naruto, that did a lot to convince the young genin that his Jiji still cared for him a great deal.

"Thanks Jiji," answered the young Naruto, who then winced slightly as his last clone just finished dispelling himself and providing Naruto with the last hour of looting training fields for weapons and his own conclusions about being able to do multiple things at once. "I don't suppose you know something that could help me with my new clones?"

"Hmm," contemplated the Hokage, as he thought over what he witnessed from Iruka's explanation, and decided he could help his young ninja out quite a bit by expanding on what the shadow clone jutsu is really capable of, "you know what Naruto ...I think I can help you."

Over the next twenty minutes the old Kage was back in his favorite teaching mode explaining to Naruto the intricacies, variations, and options in regards to the shadow clone with its Memory feedback and more importantly as a training aid for someone of Naruto's constitution. That discussion led to areas where the Hokage thought Naruto should focus on, namely the basics of speed, strength, taijutsu, and chakra control to begin with. He also recommended that Naruto read up on all the things he didn't understand now that he could enter the Shinobi Library, and his education was no longer being hindered. After that he just reminded the young troublemaker, that team assignments were in two days on Monday at 8am at the Academy, and that he had until then to get ready and prepare for the type of ninja he wanted to be.

That discussion was surprising to Naruto when he slowly began the walk home to his apartment just as dawn approached, and thought over all the things he needed to do and accomplish before he would be taken seriously as a ninja, and decided that he should start thinking things through more and have a plan in place that he could try to follow to improve. His first real obstacle no longer mattered, as he was no longer a civilian where he was continually denied entry to Civilian stores or the Civilian Library, and could now enter the Shinobi Library on his own. Deciding that he had nothing better to do at the moment, with so many things still floating around in his head, he changed course and headed to the Shinobi Library were genins were allowed to browse the Leaf's collection of jutsu scrolls, taijutsu styles, and ninja history books.

After nodding to the scowling chunin who glared at him and his hitai-ate, he emerged inside the first floor of the Shinobi Library dedicated to genin level shinobi or higher with no real idea on where to begin. Walking into a quiet corner, he decides to simply make a bunch of clones and start grabbing things off the shelves to see what's available, and a large explosion of smoke later and their are easily 50 cones looking around the shelves before quickly grabbing the nearest books and scrolls and starting the long process of going through it all. Naruto, not being used to reading much, quickly grew bored after grabbing a book on the Warring Clans Era and banged his head against the table.

This action was mirrored by almost half of the 50 cones he created, who like him were unaccustomed to reading much and growing frustrated at the slow process but were not made of as strong of stuff as the original causing almost two dozen clones to dispell themselves with the hit to the table at almost the exact same time. The poofs of smoke were then accompanied by the groan of pain from the original Naruto, who was quickly being inundated with almost two dozen memories in an instant of all the different books he started. Surprisingly, it only took a few seconds for all those memories to resolve themselves and get fit into the brain and understanding of Naruto to where he almost instantly felt just a tiny bit smarter and more capable of prolonged reading.

Deciding to again spawn several dozen more clones, Naruto had most of them pick up where their previous clones started and abandoned their books when knocking themselves out, while the others went looking for more things to read up on. After another half an hour of this, several of the clones near one section of the library started cheering and getting much louder prompting the original to investigate the noise. It turned out that the group found several of the E and D ranked ninjutsus available to genins, including more detailed accounts into the Academy Three.

Reading up on the basic clone, henge, and replacement techniques, Naruto was able to learn a bit more about all three ninjutsus to where he was at least comfortable with the two he was already capable of but not yet a master at. One of the books actually mentioned how to truly master these techniques and make them more formidable, and he learned that his henge was done wrong forever, and nobody noticed or mentioned that the henge is supposed to be only an illusion and not a physical transformation.

Regardless, the henge and replacement jutsu were both added to the growing list of things Naruto wanted to spend more time and energy training up on. He also found a E rank Echolocation jutsu for developing skills to be a sensor, a sensory enhancement jutsu that supposedly doubled the sensitivity of your senses; eyes, ears, nose, etc., and an entire series of camping and survival jutsus that allowed you to start a fire, find water, clean or filter water, and dig or move the ground to store food and clean up campsites.

By this time, it was nearing the regular morning time and Naruto had been awake for over twenty four hours and was starting to tire mentally, but not yet physically as he was still somewhat hyped up about all of his discoveries, and all the new jutsu he wanted to try. So, he went outside for a quick snack and then spawned another 100 clones and gave them instructions to head to an abandoned training ground and split into groups and practice the new jutsus and review the ones he already had until he was more comfortable with them, while he continued to read up on strength and speed training options with the remaining 50 or so clones that were still going through books and scrolls for more useful information.

Within twenty minutes of sending out the group of clones to practice, Naruto started getting steady memories back from them after every one was dispelled, usually trying to do one of the new jutsus he just learned. He quickly realized that after every clone dispelled, and their memories were incorporated, he and his clones instantly became just that little bit better, with more experience and understanding after every attempt. With that in mind, he decided to start refreshing his clones and began dispelling all those with him, and after several moments of assimilating 50 times worth of information learned over two hours he felt increasingly better.

He then re-spawned another 100 clones with all the knowledge he had learned so far, and sent them to reinforce the first group sent to the training field to keep practicing all the new jutsu while he made another 100 to continue his reading and studying. It was almost two hours later when Naruto spawned another 100 clones and sent them to the training field to keep practicing, and in that time he had made several very important discoveries both in the library and on the training field.

In the library, he finally came across a scroll on supplemental chakra control exercises beyond the leaf sticking one they all had to learn their second year at the Academy, and that he struggled mightily with forever. After reading about the exercises, and hints and problems others encountered, Naruto finally realized his basic clone problem too, he simply had too much chakra and nowhere near enough control. Likewise, all of his jutsu were huge chakra sinks as he had no control to regulate chakra flow, and usually just overloaded them with chakra until they worked in some fashion. This worked for everything except the bunshin, which was unusable to someone with too much chakra and not enough control, and subsequently turned his illusion henge into a solid transformation as the chakra cost was ten times what anybody else ever put into the henge jutsu.

Reading up on chakra control, and the various exercises as well as the benefits and drawbacks had Naruto cursing the Academy instructors for sabotaging him with unhelpful hints about putting more chakra into things, probably to try and get him to burn out his chakra coils, a very damaging and potentially deadly affliction that affects a few people every generation. Now knowing how important chakra control is to his health, and his ability to throw ninjutsu around like candy due to his large chakra capacity, Naruto realized why his Jiji told him to work on the basics as this alone will prove the most beneficial to Naruto's continued development. With those thoughts in mind he dismisses all of his reading clones and re-spawns them with new instructions to start practicing chakra control as he finally decides to call it a day and head back to his apartment for some mental rest.

His head was definitely feeling very full, more so than at any point in his past, and he knows it's because of how much information he has just learned about so many things related to him, his history, his burden, his chakra, his ninja career, and his new jutsu. As he makes his way home, he also realized that he is in fact very weary and physically exhausted too as he feels the combined effects of hundreds of hours of training, reading, and learning starting to take its toll. With these thoughts in mind he gets to his apartment, and spawns a pair of clones to clean the absolute mess he made while he passes out in his bed before his head even touches the pillow.

Chapter 2: Remedial Training

Ten glorious hours of sleep later, and Naruto is woken up to a brick being thrown through his living room window that causes him to immediately bolt upright in bed as his mind quickly tries to catch up and remember where he is. Recognizing his bedroom, and the now somewhat familiar sight of a broken window after some idiot throws something, he instantly is more awake and instinctively pops off ten clones, one to clean up the mess while the others scout and try to find and apprehend the suspect. As he slept through the whole day, and it was now dark again as evening approached, Naruto lost the vandal he was pursuing in the little light, and the slow and groggy start where also contributing factors.

Thankfully, the mess was easily cleaned and after waking further, he decided to continue from where he left off yesterday, and spammed 200 clones and sent half of them to the training field to continue with his practice and the other half back to the library to continue studying. Meanwhile, the original Naruto got dressed and headed to Ichiraku Ramen for some much needed "Food of the Gods" and some all you can eat celebratory dinner. His mood had never been better, he had finally achieved his dream of becoming a shinobi, and was now on his way to getting stronger one clone at a time, and currently heading to his favorite ramen stand ...life was great!

"Uchiha-sama, are you sure you don't want more kunai? Free for our favorite new genin," came the loud and sleazy voice of Himaro Buki, the leading weaponsmith in Konoha for several years, and also a royal ass kisser and member of the Civilian Council that favored the last loyal Uchiha something fierce.

Naruto just scowled as he watched the sleazy weapon merchant try to give away more stock to his hated rival for nothing other than his family name, and it really pissed the young blond off. He had been thrown out of Buki's store more times than he could count, and he still didn't have all the gear he knew he needed for the start of his ninja career, and wondered how he could go about getting his own ninja supplies filled, to bad he wasn't an Uchiha. WAIT! He had something that could make him pass for an Uchiha, and it would only cost him a little chakra to get the henge applied and he could be using Sasuke's face to get all of his needed gear at below average prices as most in the village bent over backwards if it meant helping the last Uchiha.

Deciding that he couldn't show up right after the real Sasuke left, he instead started making a mental list of all the supplies and gear that he needed to shop for before being assigned a jounin sensei and team. With a henge of the teme, he could probably get everything he needed for half the cost and couldn't wait to pull one over on the stupid prejudiced shopkeepers. But first he needed to eat and so, he planned to get his shopping done after he had his fill of Miso Ramen.

"Oi! Oji-san ...Miso Ramen and keep em coming," called out Naruto in a loud voice as he pulled aside the curtain into his favorite Ramen stand and made his way happily to the counter.

"Naruto," calls out Ayame happily as her favorite customer and honorary little brother comes and sits in his spot, a smile larger than she can ever remember seeing on his face makes her own lips curl. "Where have you been for the past few days? Dad ...get out here ...Naruto's here!"

Despite all the recent changes in such a short amount of time and everything he has learned in the last few days, Naruto was still very much the same loud obnoxious bragger and couldn't stop himself from grabbing and showing off his hitai-ate and his megawatt smile. Ayame eyes widened at seeing the symbol of their village on Naruto, and couldn't be happier or prouder of her little brother and smiled back congratulating him when her father finally stuck his head through the kitchen curtain.

"I like the new accessory Naruto ...the symbol of the Leaf looks good on you," came Teuchi Ichiraku's happily worded praise before ducking back into the kitchen and then emerging again a moment later with a steaming bowl of Miso Ramen for his favorite customer, who had reason to celebrate it seemed.

"Dattebayo," exclaimed Naruto with enthusiasm as his eyes followed the approaching bowl of heavenly goodness and his smile never waivered, "and thanks Old man."

Naruto paused barely enough to say thanks and break apart his chopsticks before attacking the bowl of Miso Ramen with gusto, as he finished in moments, and over the next half hour put away a dozen bowls of his favorite food with no end in sight. After the first two bowls, he was able to slow down enough to talk to Ayame and old man Teuchi between kitchen runs for more food, and tell them all about failing the exam and ending up being tricked by the traitor Mizuki to steal the Forbidden Scroll. He didn't go into too many actual details but was able to give the pair a good picture of basically what happened and what he has been doing since.

The Ichiraku family couldn't be prouder or happier for their young friend, whose dream of becoming a ninja and eventually Hokage was very well known. They knew how he was treated by most in the village, and knew all the difficulties he constantly had to overcome and deal with, and had always felt for the spirited boy. Seeing him happy, and seemingly turning his life around for the better, had them both overjoyed and also a little worried for their emotional friend as they knew the dangers of the ninja life despite being civilians.

"Just make sure you train hard, and always be careful ...we wouldn't want anything to happen to our favorite customer," pleaded Ayame as she watched the younger boy demolish his 15th bowl of ramen and finally seem to slow down.

"Dattebayo, Ayame nee-chan," responded an excited twelve year old to his favorite people in the village outside of Jiji and Iruka-sensei.

Once he was finally finished eating, he paid a tidy sum to the two Ichirakus for all of his food, and then decided on his plan to get supplies cheap by henging into Sasuke. He had three stops to make to get all the supplies he had slowly been thinking about, and decided to make Buki's weapon shop the last one. With that in mind, he headed towards the heart of the merchant district where his first stop was, Higurashi Outfitters.

Higurashi's is where you go to get the very best of custom and overly specialized weapons, and not necessarily the shopping place for fresh out of the Academy genin. But, they sold one thing that Naruto had seen mentioned several times in all of his recent reading, and that was storage scrolls and fuinjutsu supplies. The Art of Sealing instantly caught Naruto's attention while doing all of his research, as his life was defined by the Seal for the Kyubi, and storage scrolls were just about the coolest and most helpful things to use.

So, before ducking into the store, Naruto henged to look like Sasuke Uchiha and entered the large high-end weapon shop with his head held high and an arrogant sneer on his face that he thought resembled the teme pretty well. It didn't take him long to find the corner of the store dedicated to Fuinjutsu, and he quickly picked up all three books they had for sale, as well as six storage scrolls, and a small starter Fuinjutsu kit that had a small amount of usable paper, ink, and brushes to create your own seals. Taking it to the counter, the middle aged man there scowled down at "Sasuke'' which surprised Naruto as he thought everyone loved the last Uchiha, before demanding the full price of 20,000 yen and taking a sizable dent out of Naruto's available funds.

Luckily, the owner Itoi Higurashi showed him how to load everything he purchased into one of the storage scrolls and sent him on his way. The next stop was just two stalls down, and was one of the better clothing shops for the more standard ninja gear. There, a younger female clerk instantly recognized "Sasuke" and was all over him the entire time he was in the store, trying to help in any way she could.

Claiming that he was only buying training clothes, and didn't want the Uchiha fan on anything was a little more difficult than he thought it would be, but eventually he just got the civilian girl and former Academy dropout to "do him this little favor" with anime hearts in her eyes. On the plus side, he got ten standard black pairs of pants and shirts, as well as three pairs of black sandals, three sets of arm and leg guards, five shuriken and/or kunai pouches, and a few other basic necessities that caught his eye including a beginner set of training weights. Due to his stalker / helper he was also able to get the entire purchase for half off the would be 20,000+ yen price tag, and leaving him with still plenty of money to fill up his new weapon pouches.

As he planned, the last stop was to Buki's Weapons, and he was instantly greeted by the sleazy Himaro Buki, who was quick to tell him he knew "Sasuke" would be back for more supplies. He instantly started pulling senbon, kunai, and shuriken by the bucket loads and began piling it all up at the counter. Within twenty minutes, there were more weapons on his counter than Naruto had ever seen in one place before, but he was more than happy to seal them all in a storage scroll and take up Himaro on his generous recommendation to have them for free, or a later returned favor that had Naruto laughing his ass off on the inside ...take that teme!

After that, it was a return to his apartment as stores were now closing and all the civilians were starting to turn in for the night as was their usual. Naruto however was just getting started and after a quick trip to drop off his new things and put on his new weights and training outfit, he hurried to a nearby training ground he sometimes frequented and put his new training plan in motion. He wanted to know how many clones he could spawn if he really tried, and just decided to do what he usually did and throw a bunch more chakra into the jutsu and hope for the best.

Naruto surprised even himself when well over 500 shadow clones appeared all throughout the clearing, and did a little happy dance as he realized he could really step up his training even more now. Knowing how much it had already helped him, he sent the first hundred clones to the Shinobi Library to continue reading everything they could and after his henge success with shopping he also decided to send 100 henged clones to the Civilian Library as well. The next hundred were sent to work on chakra control, then a hundred went to work on his ninjutsu, while the last full hundred went to work on taijutsu, leaving the original with about sixty remaining clones.

Knowing from the Hokage's little lesson on the shadow clones capabilities, he knew that all physical training had to be done by his original body, but also wanted to test himself fighting against his clones. So he decided to just have them attack him in waves, starting small as he still didn't really have a very well defined taijutsu style, even if it had quickly started to improve over the last day. Because they could only really take one good hit, Naruto quickly worked his way through the sixty clones for a pretty good warmup and was pleased with his quickly growing skill in his basic taijutsu.

Naruto spent the next two hours running himself into the ground physically, through actual running as well as several other calisthenics exercises he vaguely remembered from the Academy. Shortly after he began he spawned and popped a clone with instructions to research other exercises and was able to incorporate them into his workout as memories of his researching clones would occasionally pop into his head at random moments throughout his activity. At the end of two plus hours, as the hour approached midnight Naruto felt that his chakra had recovered enough to try another mass clone creation, and this time was able to spawn over 650 of the dopplegangers.

Knowing that his library clones only needed a few replacements, he sent two dozen to each Library with focusing instructions for the Civilian side to start on learning about the body, and ways to improve it without chakra. He then sent half of the remaining 600 clones to the group working on taijutsu as they had suffered the most losses due to their activity, and then split the remaining 300 in half and sent each group to one of the two remaining groups, chakra control and ninjutsu. These last two groups had not lost too many people, as they only expired when they screwed up a jutsu, exhausted their chakra supply, or got too close to a neighboring clone.

With all of his clones now occupied again on improving his basics in the areas he had them working on, he stopped by the small stream in the training ground and got a long drink before once again starting up his physical exercises. He ended up doing the exact same thing another two plus hours later at 2 a.m., and spawned as many clones as he could with his recovered chakra adding them as reinforcements to all his others still out there before getting a long drink and small snack of three ration bars and starting up the physical exercises once again. When 4 a.m. came around, Naruto again had recovered enough chakra to easily spawn another 600 clones to add to his training troops, even if he knew that he was running out of room in the current two training grounds his clones were already occupying.

Taking a longer break this time to get a drink and snack, Naruto started processing the hundreds of memories and experiences he had gained over the last several hours and couldn't be happier with his overall progress in all fields. The Shinobi Library team reported to being over half-way through the genin section, and had even managed to slip three henged clones into the chunin section while the Chunin Librarians changed shifts. The Civilian Library team was still in its beginning stages, but he was pleased with what progress they had made, and he learned they almost completed the fitness section and were moving onto beginning medical texts to learn more about the body.

The chakra control team had finally mastered the leaf sticking exercise to an insane degree, keeping 20 leaves on different parts of the body and being able to move them around without dropping them, and had since moved on to the tree climbing exercise which was going very well. They had almost reached the top of the trees they were practicing on, and were then going to work on their endurance and ability to multitask while stuck to the tree. The book mentioned being able to fight or train while stuck to the tree for over an hour, as the ultimate test of this skills mastery, and Naruto was planning to master each of these skills before moving on to the next chakra control exercise on the list, water walking.

The taijutsu team was moving along relatively well, but without a specific style or proper instruction, he was kind of stuck as an unpredictable brawler just practicing the few limited moves he knew to exhaustion. His moves were getting increasingly better, but they still lacked the cohesiveness of a true style or the fluidity of a master of the art. He was hoping his jounin instructor would be able to help him pick out and practice a taijutsu style that was more tailored to him so he could really improve in that area too.

The ninjutsu team was probably the most behind and uncoordinated, as there were now a half dozen skills and jutsus that they were trying to learn and master simultaneously. The first jutsu he had really tried to master, was the kawarimi or replacement technique, and he reasoned that it was probably best to learn to dodge and stay alive first before moving on to others. Likewise, after that first day, his replacement was practically flawless now, and he only needed to keep working on his speed with the technique as he continued to dedicate several clones to continually improving it, as well as his hand signs.

With the help and increase in his chakra control, by the end of that second day he was able to get the standard henge illusion, and not just his overpowered true transformation but still couldn't produce a viable bunshin clone although he was getting closer. The survival skill jutsus were all coming along really well, as he was able to start fires, find and filter water, move earth for fire pits, latrines, and the cleanup of campsites and food preservation. He was also now working on some of the tracking and hunting skills he read about in the hopes of surviving out of the village while on missions, and couldn't be happier to find a way to not always have to eat ration bars.

The only problem the ninjutsu team was having was related to the two sensory jutsus Naruto picked up, the Echolocation one and the Enhancement one. He didn't understand the concept of echolocation and it made it really difficult for the young genin to do anything more than expelling chakra into his surroundings with no understanding of any "feelings" he was picking up. The Enhancement one he was capable of pulling off, but it left his head spinning, his eyes stinging, his nose burning, his ears ringing, and in no condition to do anything other than want to curl up in the dark and quiet.

Finished with his break, he was just getting up to start another round of physical exercises when he saw just at the border of his training ground a pair of green blurs, and heard the unusual sounds of two men screaming about their "Flames of Youth" as they raced passed. Amazed at their speed and dedication (as it was just 4 am), he shook his head and with a more determined look on his face jumped right back into his physical exercise. He was pleased to discover too, that his speed had almost caught back up to normal even with the first level of weights on and knew he would be turning them up a level soon.

At the next two plus hour interval, it was nearing 7 am and the village was truly starting to wake up and come alive, and Naruto was slowly becoming more weary and tired both mentally and physically. So this time, after spawning another 600+ clones and sending them off to reinforce their brethren, the real Naruto headed towards Ichiraku's Ramen to partake in some breakfast of the Gods, and a well earned break. It was somewhat amusing to see Teuchi and Ayame again so soon, since he had just had dinner there several hours and several hundred clones earlier.

"Back again Naruto?" asked Ayame as she saw him approach their stand while cleaning up the counter and finishing the last few tasks before opening.

"You bet ...I'm starved," responded the young blond tiredly as he seemingly dragged himself to his usual seat, "can you get me at least 5 Miso Ramens to start?"

"Um ...sure Naruto," replied Ayame as she looked at her young friend with concern, as she rarely saw him that tired or worn out. "Are you alright?"

"Um, yeah," responded Naruto with a little chuckle to himself, "just training a lot!"

"Oh ...well, that's good!" came Ayame's reply, before calling into the kitchen to her dad for Naruto's order, before continuing around their little restaurant and preparing everything to open, while peppering the young blond with questions about his training schedule as he obviously wasn't keeping normal hours.

Naruto told her a little bit about the shadow clone, and the memory transfer and then what all was going into his training and why the schedule was so wonky until team assignments tomorrow morning on Monday. His plan was to continue training through today until he dropped hopefully this evening, and then sleep it all off and be ready and refreshed Monday morning. He didn't know what to expect from team assignments, but had read enough to learn that every genin team consisted of three genin and one jounin sensei at least until Chunin Exams where promotions usually broke up the genin teams.

Naruto was somewhat worried about the makeup of his future team, as there were not a lot of people in his class or any of the others that he liked and got along with. What if he got paired with someone who hated him and wouldn't work with him, or with some losers that are likely to get themselves killed the first time they face any opposition. Not to mention, his jounin sensei might not be a good teacher, or hate him or the Kyuubi and hold it against him or any other scenarios he was dreaming of and possibly dreading.

Well, there wasn't much Naruto could do about worrying over something that hasn't happened yet, or plan for all possibilities, so he instead just tried to keep an open mind and promised to work hard. He wouldn't stop training that was for sure, and as long as he was doing that, he felt that he was improving and working towards his goal of being a kick ass ninja and Hokage. Finishing up his seven bowls of ramen, he thanked Ayame and Teuchi before returning to the training ground he had been using and jumping right back into his physical exercise.

Needing another bigger food break around lunchtime, after another longer exercise circuit and spawning of 600+ clones, Naruto decided to try somewhere different as his reading on nutrition showed that his diet was severely lacking in a lot of the essentials he needed for growth. Needing to incorporate more protein and vegetables, he ended up going to a nearby barbecue restaurant that Choji and Shikamaru from his class often frequented, and he at least knew of. Deciding to play it safe, he henged into a nondescript person before entering the restaurant and being led to a counter with a small grill in front of him, he started ordering everything to see what he liked the most.

After a large meal where he tried several different types of meat and vegetables, and discovered that they weren't all horrible, Naruto was pleased with ordering seconds of his favorites and really enjoying them. That afternoon, Naruto first upped his training weights to the second setting before attacking his physical exercise once again and pushing himself to always go faster and longer in order to improve. Around three in the afternoon, Naruto's chakra was recharged enough to spam another 700 clones that he quickly put to work reinforcing others and also setting a group aside to just work on hand seals.

By that evening when he practically collapsed onto his stool at Ichiraku's counter, Naruto was beyond fried mentally and physically and not really looking forward to assimilating all the remaining clones' memories and experiences. But first, he needed some serious food and asked his favorite father and daughter pair if they could make him a loaded Miso Ramen with additional vegetables so he could try and get a more balanced diet. They agreed to make him his own batch under two conditions, the first of which was they had creative control over the ramen still and could add things they felt were important that he might not know about. The second, was that he had to pay for and eat at least ten bowls any time they made him his own batch, otherwise they would be losing money.

The ten minute wait for a new batch to get cooking was pretty difficult for the overly hungry young genin surrounded by the smell of his favorite food, but he was able to remain seated and patient as he mentally reviewed anything else he needed to accomplish before team assignments. When he finally was delivered a large bowl of steaming ramen, he almost cried out in thanks due to his massive hunger and then in praise at the wonderful creation of the Gods after his first taste. Easily plowing through over ten bowls, Naruto ended up eating the entire batch of his new Naruto Special Ramen* and happily paid the Ichiraku's and promised to return for more.

Naruto then decided to head back to his apartment now that evening was approaching, his bone weary tiredness was starting to affect him and he knew he needed some serious sleep to recover from the almost 22 hour training day he just finished. Getting back to his place, he quickly got ready for bed and laid down on his lumpy old mattress, before beginning the long process of dispelling all of his remaining clones scattered throughout the village. The amount of knowledge and experience that was coming in from his clones was almost overwhelming, and he realized that some of the clones had survived almost twenty hours, and with the numbers he kept sending out, there was a staggering amount of returning data.

Even with the excessive tiredness from the night before, Naruto still only needed eight hours of sleep before he woke up fully refreshed and ready for another great day filled with team assignments and hopefully more training. As it was still only six in the morning, Naruto quickly put on a training outfit and made just a dozen shadow clones to clean up his apartment, make repairs to the broken window, go grocery shopping and prepare breakfast while he went for a morning workout. Keeping his training weights at the second stage for now, he pushed through a reduced physical workout until just after seven a.m. when he returned to his apartment for breakfast, and to gather his things and head to the Academy by eight for team assignments excited about what this first chapter of his ninja career would entail.

*Naruto Special Ramen, more protein and vegetables than usual, but much better for a growing boy and ninja.

Chapter 3: Team Assignments

Naruto arrived at the Academy with ten minutes until eight, and quickly made his way to his old classroom to learn about his new team assignment and jounin sensei, and he could barely wait to get started. Arriving at the classroom before Iruka-sensei, Naruto simply walked in and headed to one of the back rows to just sit down and wait. He recognized most of the students already in the room as his fellow classmates, and there were growing mumbles from them all as he found and took his seat until someone had to say something.

"What are you doing here, Naruto ...this is only for those who passed," scolded Kiba as he stood from his seat and turned to glare at the shorter blond, while a few others grumbled in agreement and even Shikamaru lifted his head off his desk for a moment to look at Naruto and then listen to his answer.

"Those ninja observation skills are top notch Kiba," responded Naruto with a slight glare to the feral bully who often tried to ridicule or pick on Naruto, while patronizingly tapping his hitai-ate and otherwise ignoring the fanged boy with his canine companion on his head.

"How'd you get one of those ...they are only for those who passed the exam ...we all saw you fail ...who'd you steal it from?" argued back Kiba aggressively after several snickers were heard after Naruto's last comment, not liking to be shown up especially by the class dobe as he started walking towards Naruto threateningly.

"Iruka-sensei gave it to me after I passed," responded Naruto with a flat emotionless voice, which should have tipped everyone off that something was very different with the blond, and to stop antagonizing him, but Kiba was never known for his restraint or common sense.

"Bullshit," yelled Kiba as he finally reached Naruto's spot and made to reach for the hitai-ate on the blond's head, without paying any attention to the blond himself.

What happened next had every witness in the classroom stop immediately what they were doing and watch wide eyed as Naruto moved without warning or seemingly even seeing the movement. He easily avoided the outreached arm of Kiba by sliding underneath it and coming up behind the feral Inuzuka, grabbing his outreached arm at the wrist and quickly twisting it behind his back and forcing the older boy to bend over the desk he just vacated or risk having said arm snapped by the smaller blond. Naruto simply held the arm in that precarious position that any more movement would surely see it shatter before practically growling to the usually arrogant young Inuzuka.

"This is the only warning you will get Kiba ...leave me alone, I am done taking yours or anyone else's crap," replied Naruto in a flat voice that still carried with it a great deal of barely controlled anger.

It was of course to this scene that the final two members of the class showed up with their former teacher and sensei right behind them and causing the two immature girls to stop their ridiculous fight over sitting near Sasuke to stare at the strange scene. Naruto, saw the new arrivals and simply decided to cut his losses and released Kiba's arm right after giving it a small twinge so the boy knew how close he came to breaking it. The added shove of the feral boy back towards his own seat, and Naruto sitting back down without a word had most of the class staring with open mouthed shock at the blond, who they were just now realizing wasn't wearing his usual bright "kill me" orange jumpsuit or screaming at the top of his lungs about becoming Hokage.

"Stop trying to be cool like Sasuke, Naruto-baka!" yelled Sakura Haruno after she regained her equilibrium from the unusual scene, and glared at said blond before turning to the object of her affection and seemingly swooning before parking herself at the desk right next to the last Uchiha.

The other girl however, a fellow blond named Ino Yamanaka just continued to stare at Naruto as though she was seeing him for the first time, and something about him triggered a memory that she tried to hold onto but couldn't. Ignoring it as unimportant for now, she instead found a seat on Sasuke's other side and proceeded to stare lovingly at the emo avenger and forgetting all about her fellow blond classmate. The final arrival was also watching the scenes with Naruto very carefully, as he couldn't remember a time that his hyperactive knucklehead student had ever shown such skill or composure around others and hoped it was a permanent change.

"Settle down everyone," started Iruka as he stood at the front of the class with the team assignments written on a piece of paper in front of him, "I am going to read out the team assignments in one second, and afterwards you are going to be able to join your new teammates and wait to get picked up by your new jounin sensei."

"Iruka-sensei ...why is Naruto here ...he can't even make clones ...didn't he fail the exam?" came the question from a sneering Kiba, as he glared at Naruto, probably in retaliation for showing him up earlier.

"He did more than simply pass the exam, ...he protected the village ...captured a traitor ...and saved my life," continued a proud Iruka to a now speechless class, giving a small bow to a stunned Naruto before pulling out his list and reading out the names. "Team 1 is …"

Naruto only somewhat paid attention to all the team assignments, as he was shocked by Iruka's honest and blunt admission and bow of thanks. He was then just listening for his own name to be called, and still somewhat embarrassed by the looks others were now occasionally sending him. Glancing around the room, he was reminded of some of his reading on the history and Clans of Konoha and how unusual it was that his Academy graduating class had so many heirs to those Clans and wondered if it would be important in the future.

"Team 7 is ...Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Naruto Uzumaki ...your jounin sensei is Kakashi Hatake," continued Iruka without pausing, despite the high pitched squeal of Sakura when she realized she was on her "true love's" team. Her scream drowned out the many groans from the other fangirls who now missed out on being with the last Uchiha, and Naruto slamming his head down into his desk knowing this team would be really difficult with the anti-social and arrogant Sasuke, and the useless fangirl Sakura whose only thing they had in common was their mutual dislike of their final teammate.

Iruka continued on with Team 8 that had Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame & Hinata Hyuga, under jounin Kurenai Yuhi, and Team 10 with Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, & Ino Yamanaka under the Hokage's son, Asuma Sarutobi. The rest of the teams were filled with generic graduates who at times showed maybe a skill or two in certain areas, but were never going to be great all around ninjas without some serious training and help. It made Naruto wonder if the teams were actually put together with the thought of keeping the stronger teams and Clan children together, or if they were put together for specific purposes like tracking or frontline fighters or some other factors came into play as well.

Naruto decided it probably didn't matter yet, as they were all starting out together at the bottom, it would be up to them to train and get stronger individually and as a team, and become one of those specific types of teams if that was what they were supposed to become. He wondered though, what was the purpose of his team, both he and Sasuke were frontline fighters while Sakura was anything but so maybe she was simply supposed to grow into a supporting long range role of medic nin or genjutsu specialist. Either way, he knew what his job now was ...to constantly work to get better and keep pushing himself until he was recognized as the greatest Hokage in the village's history.

Just because he decided to tone down his expressing of those desires, didn't mean the desire itself had disappeared in any way. Naruto was going to become the Hokage, he was going to prove to everyone that he is the best, he was going to change peoples minds about him, he was going to be a legend, and that started now. He was now a genin, out from under any civilian authority, and free to grow and live his life as he wanted. Ready and able to work hard and train himself into the ground until he earned the respect of his village and the Shinobi Nation.

His inner monologuing however had him miss most of Iruka's pep-talk about becoming ninja of the village, and what to expect and how to represent yourself and your village with pride. Naruto did catch the gist of it all, and was pleased when his teacher again affirmed how proud he was of everyone who made it this far. But then, jounin senseis started arriving and pulling their teams out one after another until only the three students of the new Team Seven remained behind with an exasperated Iruka.

"Well ...I am to report to the Mission Desk at noon, so I can't wait any longer for Kakashi-san to get here," spoke Iruka after waiting over a half an hour after the last team left with still no sign of the tardy sensei. "I'm sorry you three ...Kakashi has a bit of a reputation ...you may want to get comfortable," he finished before waving to the final three waiting students, ignoring the glaring Naruto for his laughter at their expense, "come find me later Naruto ...I think I owe you some dinner at Ichiraku's."

"Dattebayo!" cheered Naruto in excitement, his mind instantly going to dream about his beloved ramen while he happily waved goodbye to Iruka, and settled in to wait.

"Ugh ...is this guy ever going to show?" exploded Naruto fifteen minutes after Iruka left, his patience almost completely out now and just itching to get out there and continue training at least.

"Shut up Naruto-baka!" shouted Sakura in her high pitched wail that physically hurt Naruto's sensitive ears, that still hadn't fully recovered from his experiments with the Enhancement Jutsu and seemed to be getting even more sensitive as time went on.

"Hn," grunted Sasuke, though neither Sakura or Naruto understood what he was grunting at, both thinking that the Uchiha was just agreeing with them.

"Whatever ...I have better things to do than just sit here doing nothing," grumbled Naruto to himself as he got up and threw open the classroom window before going through the already very familiar cross hand seal and spawning 700 clones on the Academy grounds, and one clone sitting in the seat he just vacated.

Jumping out the window moments later to his lone clone in the classroom's shout of "traitor," he quickly led his clones around the building and over to the Academy training ground and obstacle course. He then started his physical exercises as he had his clones run through their own chakra control training in the surrounding trees, tired of waiting around doing nothing while he waited for his new sensei to arrive. He got in a good hour of training before he was alerted to the arrival of his sensei by the classroom clone dispelling, and learning of the five minute window he gave them to meet him on the roof.

Naruto took off like a shot as soon as the memory was processed and using his almost perfected tree climbing technique, ran straight up the outside of the Academy building until he reached the roof seconds before either of his teammates came through the door at the other end of the roof. Seeing the gravity defying silver hair of the man claiming to be his new sensei Kakashi Hatake was impressive, and watching said ninja as he sat on the edge of the roof reading an orange book, Naruto was impressed with the man's physique. He was tall and muscular (though not too bulky), and despite carrying himself as a lazy ass, Naruto could see his single eye not covered by his slanted hitai-ate taking in everything around him.

"So it's true ...that was a shadow clone in the classroom," spoke the tall veteran ninja as he looked at the blond ninja standing in front of him in surprise. He was a lot less orange and loud than he remembered from both personal observation and reading his file and records, and was really starting to look like someone Kakashi loved as a father figure and sensei.

"Um ...yeah," mumbled Naruto somewhat self-consciously, not sure if he was already in trouble with his new sensei for the perceived prank, even if that wasn't his intention, his reputation would demand it. "Sorry ...I just didn't know how long we were going to have to wait."

"So instead of staying with your teammates to meet your new sensei, you would rather train by yourself?" asked the older ninja with a bit of hardening in his lone visible eye, that let Naruto know that his answer here would be very important to his continued relationship with the silver haired jounin.

"Well ...I didn't want to train by myself ...but, I know Sasuke would never lower himself to listen to me or train with me on his own, and Sakura could care less about training all together unless Sasuke was involved ...you weren't there yet, and I was getting antsy and needed to let off some energy before I did something stupid," responded Naruto, slowly at first as he carefully chose his words, but getting quicker as he became more comfortable laying out everything he could think of. "I left a clone that would alert me the moment you arrived, and didn't leave the Academy grounds so I would be close by."

"Hmm, well reasoned," began Kakashi slowly, "but I am not sure how I like my cute little genins not wanting to train together or listen to one another. Doesn't sound like a very good team. In the future you should also ask before assuming that your teammates wouldn't want to train with you."

"Hn," grunted Sasuke, though nobody knew what exactly he was grunting about as the three others on the roof all looked at him waiting for him to elaborate ...they waited a while.

"O-kay," replied Kakashi after a minute of awkward silence, where they waited in vain for the last Uchiha to continue, "... let's try some introductions? You know ...likes, dislikes, dreams, and goals for your ninja career."

"Could you show us how?" asked a timid Sakura, having a hard time trying to understand what was going on, and what their new sensei wanted or was getting at with his questions of Naruto, and the blond's responses were rather cutting for the usually goofy and lovesick Naruto.

"Sure," replied the silver haired jounin with an eye smile that had all three genin looking at him in shock at how he does it. "My name is Kakashi Hatake, I have a lot of likes and dislikes, my dreams are not for your young ears, and my goal is to ...nevermind, not important."

Sakura looked at her sensei in open mouthed shock, they didn't learn a single thing about him other than his name, which they already knew before this. Turning to her two male teammates, she noticed that Naruto had a slight glare directed at their sensei, while Sasuke was so cool and seemingly ignoring everything around him. Sighing in happiness that she was now on his team, and was afforded the opportunity to watch her crush everyday, she couldn't be happier and didn't want anything to ruin this, and that included Naruto-baka.

"Pinky, why don't you go first," returned Kakashi with an eye smile at Sakura's frown and scowl at her nickname.

"Um ...I am Sakura Haruno," she started. "I like ...(the starry eyed stare and drool at the object of her affection left little to the imagination as to who she was referring), and I dislike Ino-pig and Naruto-baka, my dream is to … (again with the drooling stare at the last Uchiha, accompanied by a giggle this time), and my goal is to start a family (another drool filled stare that had Kakashi raising his eyebrows in shock at the overly obsessed fangirl)."

"You next broody," replied Kakashi with a shake of his head to clear it of the insanity that was his only female genin.

"Sasuke Uchiha," grunted out the last Uchiha unpleasantly, probably still suffering from internal convulsions from the fangirling he just witnessed. "I have no likes, and I dislike most things. My dream ...no, my goal is to kill a certain man and restore my Clan, and I won't be held back by others."

Kakashi couldn't believe that these two were the top shinobi and kunoichi in the graduating class, they both suffered serious delusions and they were going to get someone killed one day. An overly obsessed fangirl with no strength or skills or even the desire to train and become a ninja, and a brooding nutcase, who is most likely an undiagnosed psychopath with both an inferiority and superiority complex according to his Academy records. That neither of them value Naruto is a given after learning what he did, and made the blond kid's earlier declaration about not training together pretty accurate, and also Sasuke was going to have problems with any teammate or fellow ninja of the Leaf with an attitude like that.

"Okay blondie, you're up," continued Kakashi seemingly uninterested, but in fact very curious about the boy he was most looking forward to working with and getting to know as he reminded him so much of four of his most favorite people (Minato, Kushina, Rin & Obito).

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki," responded the blond genin more seriously than what anyone expected from the usual loud mouthed prankster, but still not without some of his original personality shining through. "I like training and ramen, especially Ichiraku's and dislike the three minutes it takes to heat instant ramen, and those who can't tell the difference between the kunai and the storage scroll it's sealed in. My dream and my goal is to be the greatest Hokage in Leaf's history and someday start a family."

Kakashi was mildly impressed with Naruto's introduction, he seemed much more mature and prepared for what was to come. Even his proclamation of wanting to become Hokage, was said so matter of factly, that it didn't seem like a childish boast, but the realistic goal he would do everything in his power to make happen. The part about the kunai and storage scroll said a lot about how he viewed his Biju burden, and spoke well of his continued good spirit and attitude towards others despite having every reason to hate the village that scorned him his whole life.

He actually found himself looking forward to training and working with Naruto, hoping to see more of his former friends in his new charge's actions and mannerisms, which were a perfect mix of all four of his deceased friends. He had the look of Minato, the mannerisms and verbal tics of Kushina, the burden of Rin and Kushina, and the attitude and openness of Obito. He really was a unique blend of traits and qualities, and Kakashi was actually finding himself excited to bring out the very best in one of his new students, and hoped they could get past their issues and work together.

The problem he now faced was really on how to get these three very different young genin to work together, because he already knew that he couldn't fail this team with the last Uchiha on it, and the true legacy of the Fourth. The Civilian and Shinobi Councils both were putting pressure on the Hokage to pass Sasuke Uchiha and get him onto the mission rotation as soon as possible. Maybe that is the real reason Naruto was included in Sasuke's team, both Councils would never risk the Uchiha just to continue blocking Uzumaki from advancing as was seemingly the case in the past.

"Okay, good," replied Kakashi to his young team of genin, "now, tomorrow we will have our first mission ...so you better prepare tonight."

"What kind of mission?" asked Naruto in excitement.

"Survival Exercises," responded the older jounin lazily, "with just the four of us."

"What kind of mission is that?" asked Naruto, thinking they would be doing something awesome.

"Didn't we do survival exercises at the Academy?" added Sakura softly.

"Oh, these aren't like the Academy survival exercises at all," answered Kakashi with a bit of an eye smile that did not seem nearly as friendly as any earlier ones he sent to his genin. "Only 33% passing rate, and all the failures get sent back to the Academy for another term."

"What!" shouted both Naruto and Sakura almost simultaneously, while Sasuke also looked on in surprise and a little uncertainty.

"But, we already graduated," continued Sakura. "What about the exams we just took to pass the Academy?"

"Those were just to weed out the hopeless cases," responded Kakashi with a bit of pleasure leaking through his voice as he crushed the three genin's hopes. "The ones that pass that test are just the ones who have the 'potential' to become genin. I'm the one who gets to decide whether the three of you actually pass or fail. Be at training ground seven by 5am tomorrow morning with all your gear and weapons ...and don't eat breakfast unless you want to throw it up."

With that, the jounin Kakashi disappeared with a shunshin in a poof of smoke that left leaves and three angry and/or worried potential genin behind. Sakura was terrified of another test, but hoped that her true love would win the day, and that her destiny to be with Sasuke would allow her to pass this test with ease. Sasuke was a bit worried about the test, only because it was another obstacle for him to get past on his bid to reach and surpass Itachi, and hoped his loser teammates didn't get in his way.

Naruto was probably the only one of three with an idea of what was actually at stake, having failed to become a genin now for three terms, he knew that he wasn't going back to the Academy by any means. If that meant going all out and preparing for anything to ensure he passed, then his new sensei wouldn't know what hit him. He gave them all day and the night to prepare and even the training ground where the test would go down. Naruto, decided that it was about time he used his prankster mentality, and really tipped the scales in his favor and decided to head to the mentioned training ground early to get a feel for the terrain and start trapping the shit out of it in preparation.

He also thought about what Kakashi did tell them, and realized that he was trying to set them up to fail by recommending they not eat and have any energy for the test, hoping they would handicap themselves from the start. The other part that stuck out to Naruto, was the 5 am start time, this being earlier than most ninja teams began their day as most ninja did individual training in the morning before getting together with their teams. Naruto has been around the village enough at odd times to know that few missions started so early unless time sensitive, and wondered if his sensei was planning to be late as well again tomorrow as that would fit into the misdirection he seemed to provide for the rest of the 'instructions.'

If he was wrong, it shouldn't be a big deal for Naruto, as he has only ever thrown up food when it was completely rotten or spoiled and never from just overeating or over training. So, with those thoughts in mind, he started planning out how much time he had left until the test started tomorrow morning, and how many clones he wanted to put on this assignment versus continuing his training. Spawning the well over 800 clones now, he split them in half, and had one half continue the training schedule he had been operating under for the past few days before sending the remaining 400 clones to Training Ground 7 to first scout and then trap the hell out of it while he went back to his physical exercises after upping the training weights to the third setting.

Naruto was able to get in almost four hours of speed and weight training, and had worked himself back to his normal speed, despite still having the training weights set to the third setting. He thought about reducing the training weights so he could show off his greater speed, but thought it would probably be better to have that ace up his sleeve in case he needed something to tip the scales later, and wanted it to be a surprise the first time he went against Sasuke. Besides, getting his speed back to where it was in the Academy with the training weights on, was quite the feat of only three days of hard core clone training as most took weeks to get past the first setting.

Naruto was really starting to see how amazing and powerful his new shadow clone technique really was when he thought back to how far he progressed or grew in just these last three days versus the three previous terms of Academy instruction. He also realized, that he was actually helped greatly by the stupid fox sealed in him, as all his sore muscles were constantly being filled with Biju Chakra and refreshed and repaired from the over-working. This constant repairing of torn and sore muscles, actually made them grow back stronger and denser, and allowed for his body to recover from injuries and ridiculous levels of training much quicker than most and was a real benefit to the training method he had developed.

Realizing that it was nearing dinner time, he decided to spawn another round of 800 plus clones to reinforce both the others he already had training on their own and those trapping training ground seven in preparation for tomorrow's genin test. With that taken care of, he headed towards the Hokage's Tower and the Mission Desk, where Iruka said he was working this afternoon to take him up on his offer of free Ichiraku Ramen. It was as he was nearing the Mission Desk that he encountered his first glimpse of one of the other passing genin teams, as Kurenai Yuhi was leading her three young genin outside after seemingly finishing their first mission of their career based on the proud looks of accomplishment they all wore.

"H-Hello Naruto-kun," whispered a shy Hinata Hyuga as she saw the young blond boy she had crushed on for years in the Academy, which had both Kiba and Shino come to stops as they watched the usually loud mouthed Uzumaki approach them, both noticing the more confident and casual way he moved since the end of their Academy days not too long ago, and for Kiba, remembering the way the other boy had stood up for himself and put him in his place.

"Hi Hinata," greeted Naruto happily to the pale eyed Hyuga heiress. "Yuhi-san, Shino ...dog breath," he continued with nods to each of the other members of Team 8, until his greeting to Kiba resulted in said feral boy growling angrily and getting right up into Naruto's face, completely forgetting the thought he just had to show greater restraint in front of this particular young ninja.

"Any time ...Dead Last," sneered back Kiba threateningly, causing both Hinata and Kurenai to gasp at the tone and insult, but Naruto to simply tilt his head and continue to glare at Kiba until the other boy turned his head away in supplication, as the memory of earlier this morning played on a loop in front of his eyes and realized he didn't want to get shown up again.

Kurenai was then very quick to pull Kiba away from Naruto, and get in between the two young genin to diffuse any tension still lingering. Shino and Hinata were both watching wide eyed, as their third teammate tried picking a fight with a fellow classmate who seemed to have significantly changed very recently, as he wasn't the loudmouthed hothead he was even last week. Instead, Naruto was the calm one dictating the pace and seemingly unconcerned about Kiba completely, showing a level of confidence that neither Shino or Hinata had ever seen from the usually worst student in their class. Deciding that something serious had really changed with Naruto, they both promised to themselves that they would be looking into this change, and hopefully trying to get Kiba to back off as the Naruto they see now, isn't the same doormat he was just a few days ago.

"Sorry Uzumaki-san," placated Kurenai after a moment of staring down her feral genin and getting him to back off completely and hang his head like a kicked puppy. "We are going to be working on Kiba's temper and attitude a LOT over the next few weeks."

"You might also need help removing the Uchiha 'pole of arrogance' up his ass," mumbled Naruto quietly, but not nearly quiet enough to get passed Kurenai or Shino's bugs, causing them to both look at Naruto in shock for taunting Kiba some more and also giving a very telling statement about his own arrogant ass teammate. "Oh well ...see you all around. Bye Yuhi-san ...bye Shino ...bye Hinata ...congratulations on passing!"

With that, Naruto left the somewhat stunned Team 8 behind as he entered the Mission office by himself, ignoring the open mouthed stare of several others who were nearby and witnessed the recent confrontation. Many of them wondered about the many changes to Naruto, as he wasn't overly loud or obnoxious, but still rather argumentative and a little hot headed. Team 8 was probably analysing the encounter the most, as it involved one of their own, and his relationship with what most people assumed was a useless waste of space in Naruto, but who in fact had started to show real promise of late.

Naruto, was oblivious to the stares and whispers that followed him practically everywhere, primarily just out of habit, but even he could tell that a lot of the looks he was receiving over the last few days were starting to change especially among the ninja population. Where before he always saw raw hatred and/or total disgust in the eyes and faces of both the civilians and shinobi alike, now he was starting to recognize other looks of speculation, or even a few small nods of acknowledgement. He hoped that it signified a change in how the village saw him as a whole, but knew he would have a long way to go until he won the acceptance of the Leaf Village.

For now, he was content with his growing skills, new found maturity and intelligence, and beginning the career he always dreamed of and would worry about all the other things he couldn't completely control at a later point. He quickly found Iruka-sensei sitting at the same Mission Desk he often would watch his surrogate grandfather, the Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi operate out of during the days when he could get away from the paperwork in his office. Unfortunately, he also noticed that his favorite teacher was in the process of being yelled at by an overweight civilian demanding that somebody complete the D-Rank mission he requested of painting his fence.

"If the painting is pretty straight forward, and you don't mind me working on it ...I bet I can knock it out pretty quickly," interrupted Naruto as he approached the pair, and instantly had the yelling civilian turn towards him with a glare.

"You?" questioned the middle aged man with the small beady brown eyes, as he continued to glare at the young blond weighing his hatred of the Demon-child against his desire to get his fence painted. "If you can get it done before the sun rises tomorrow ...I will allow it."

"Great, just show my team where you need us," responded Naruto, who quickly formed a cross hand seal and spawned ten shadow clones, who were all lined up standing at attention, ready for orders. "Is that alright with you Iruka-sensei?"

"Sure Naruto, and thanks!" responded his former Academy teacher in somewhat stunned shock at seeing the usually hyperactive and obnoxious boy acting so mature and professional, and also really helping them out by taking that mission today.

So, with the ten Naruto clones following the older civilian man back to his house to paint his fence, the real Naruto turned to the still somewhat stunned Iruka and grinned wide, showing off his teeth. He was inordinately pleased with his last second idea, and that it helped out Iruka was even better, and now he would even be able to get a D-rank mission under his belt. He had always dreamed of elaborate and dangerous missions involving rescuing princesses or saving towns, but he had seen all the genin around the village always seemingly doing chores for the civilian population and knew that was the reality of a new genin.

"So, Iruka-sensei ...are you ready for some Ichiraku Ramen?" replied Naruto with a definite twinkle of anticipation in his sky blue eyes, as his mouth started to salivate in preparation.

"Hehe ...sure Naruto ...just give me a second to fill out this mission log, sign it, and turn it in before I can leave," responded Iruka with an amused grin as he was again shaking his head in shock and exasperation at the antics of his young blond friend, who really was the number one most unpredictable ninja, especially when ramen was a possible reward.

With the paperwork done, the unusual pair headed to Ichiraku's stand for a well deserved dinner and chance for the two to catch up and chat about everything that has been happening in the last few days since the Mizuki incident. After sitting down and placing their orders, Naruto quickly launched into everything he had been doing since leaving Iruka-sensei to go to the hospital on the night of Mizuki's defection, including the tons of training he had been getting in. Iruka was beyond impressed when listening to everything his young student had been up to, and couldn't believe how much of a game changer the shadow clone technique would end up being for the young genin.

He promised after dinner to give Naruto some help and pointers on the Echolocation jutsu, as well as the Sensory Enhancement one that he couldn't seem to get exactly right. He also promised to review the camping survival suite of jutsu, to make sure Naruto wasn't missing anything regarding that suite of jutsus, and show him a few others he might like to learn and incorporate into his arsenal. Naruto was easily convinced of Iruka-sensei's greatness and couldn't wait to get started learning new jutsu, or perfecting the ones he was struggling with.

So after they finished their meals, they headed to the abandoned training ground near his apartment where he had been doing most of his clone training, and Iruka got his first look at a Naruto clone training session. To say he was shocked to see the organization, and just the numbers of Naruto clones running around training was a complete understatement. But, after looking over all the different areas of training clones, he was beyond convinced that Naruto was both ready for his help, but also that his goal of becoming a Hokage was a LOT closer than he thought this morning.

For the next hour, Iruka went through all the jutsu Naruto was learning to ensure he was doing everything correct, and also to check his work and verify that he really was ready for the next stage in his training. His survival camping skills were rated as top notch, with him only needing experience now, and his trap skills continued to impress even jounin level opponents. His henge and replacement were both superb, with his added physical transformation blowing Iruka's mind when Naruto demonstrated it for him, and also told him how he was using that transformation to get his shopping done much easier and cheaper.

His shadow clone was at ridiculous levels, and even his basic bunshin clone was starting to form almost looking as he was supposed to, a real testament to Naruto's continued training in chakra control. That was also a real surprise for the Academy teacher, as he watched his three day old genin fight shadow clones among the treetops without a single slip or misstep really showing how far his chakra control had come. The echolocation jutsu was next, and Naruto demonstrated it for Iruka, who was able to easily see where his student struggled and knew he could help.

It was a familiar jutsu for the former ANBU Dolphin, who used the echolocation jutsu himself to develop into one of the best non-Inuzuka trackers and sensors in Konoha, and the reason he was recruited into ANBU during his Chunin days. It also tipped Naruto off as to how his former teacher was always able to find him when few others ever could, and he insisted the older man show him everything he could about being a sensor. That led to the Sensory Enhancement jutsu, which Iruka was able to explain and work on with Naruto until he could successfully pull chakra into his ears, nose, and eyes to increase the sensitivity each organ had, which felt a little confusing and disorienting at first but got easier to understand the more he used it.

Iruka was so proud of everything Naruto was capable of already performing, and what he was able to learn on the fly after just a few attempts to show and demonstrate all the parts to it. Likewise, once they finished with everything Naruto already knew about or was at least working on, Iruka decided to show his young student a few others he thought might be helpful. The Rope Escape technique and the Temporary Paralysis Techniques were E and D-rank techniques respectively, and Naruto was able to quickly pick them both up enough to start really practicing them on his own later.

He did however draw the line when Naruto asked about learning the Body Flicker technique or Shunshin, made famous by Sushui Uchiha in the Third Great Shinobi War. He promised him that if he was still interested in a few weeks, that Iruka would gladly show him the very helpful technique and that maybe next time they got together they could spar some too. Despite having been in ANBU years earlier, Iruka had not practiced much over the last five years of working in the Academy, and a lot of his skills had atrophied considerably and he could use the workout after only an hour trying to train with Naruto left him winded and needing a break.

When the pair finally said their goodbye's outside of Naruto's apartment, it was nearing 9pm, and Naruto was turning in a little early to make sure he got plenty of rest before his genin test with Kakashi tomorrow morning. Before going to sleep, he started dispelling all the clones he had setting up the traps in Training Ground 7, so he knew what to expect and where everything was, leaving several dozen to continue scouting the training ground all night to ensure nobody came in and messed with his preparations ...tomorrow he was taking down a jounin.

Chapter 4: Bell Test

Naruto was woken at 4:30 am by a pair of bored shadow clones lingering around training ground seven, who decided to have a small spar and dispelled each other simultaneously while providing the cringe of new memories that woke the young blond. After groaning in frustration, he simply got up and put on his new clothes, his brain assimilating the two sets of memories he just got and his mood slowly improving as his anticipation for today started to leak through. Putting on one of his new sets of clothes, he marveled at how much better quality they were than anything he owned previously, clearly being overcharged for goods wasn't the only thing the shopkeepers did to keep him miserable.

The sturdy heavy weight black pants and over shirt would hold up to quite the beating, and the surprisingly soft mesh undershirt fit his torso comfortably and left him looking very different from what he had in the past in the bright orange jumpsuit. He decided to go with the boot-style shinobi sandals in black, and for his only bit of color, he included two dark orange bandolier straps that he criss-crossed over his chest rather tightly that he used to hold several smaller kunai and shuriken pouches on top of the larger ones he had on each thigh. His hope was to someday incorporate a sword and sheath into the bandolier and/or even a large storage scroll like the Forbidden one to hold all of his stuff.

For now though, he spawned a pair of clones to make him a large breakfast and pick up his apartment from yesterday's mess. After learning at least a dozen different easy recipes for every meal, he was happily making a large omelet with a few vegetables mixed in that were almost completely overpowered by the egg, cheese, and sausage he added as well. He figured that if he was going to force himself to eat vegetables, that he should at least try to hide them in other foods he really liked so as to at least get some in his diet. He wasn't too worried about Kakashi's warning either, as he didn't expect the seemingly lazy shinobi to be on time giving him plenty of chance to digest and a lack of food for him would be very detrimental to his chances of success.

Strolling into the training ground at exactly 5 am, he was easily able to spot his two waiting teammates by the small bridge that crossed the stream running through training ground seven's main clearing. Sasuke was leaning against one end of the small wooden footbridge with his hands across his chest in his classic brooding pose, while Sakura was sitting by a nearby tree stump with stars in her eyes as she drooled over her dark haired teammate in a very stalkerish way that creeped Naruto out, probably almost as much as it bothered Sasuke himself. They both glanced up when they heard him approach, and then did double takes as they saw him in his new outfit, looking very different from his Academy days with only the tiniest amount of orange, and a dark orange at that.

"What are you wearing Naruto-baka?" shouted Sakura once she realized that her usually bright orange teammate looked completely different just from wearing black and more normal ninja attire, and not sure why it bothered her, "stop trying to be cool like Sasuke-kun."

"Hn ...nice clothes, Dobe," greeted Sasuke with a dismissive sniff to his other male teammate while completely ignoring the female one who had been pestering him for the better part of a half an hour, before going back to his brooding.

"Thanks teme!" replied Naruto calmly, and almost politely if not for the casual name calling that was pretty standard with the two, as he too decided to simply ignore his female teammate and look around the clearing to get his bearings on where everything he setup was. "I think I am going to go check something out ...be right back."

With that, Naruto quickly jumped out of the clearing and into the surrounding trees so he could be out of view of his teammates before spawning 800 plus clones. These clones had the express purpose of hiding among the numerous traps, keeping them all up and running or replacing ones that need it, and lending numbers in support of the original when the fighting finally came down. Several of the clones used the henge transformation jutsu to become small woodland creatures or pieces of debris to blend in to their surroundings, and a few even turned into logs and pieces of branches for Kawarimi material.

The creatures set up a rather large network throughout the training ground, that left almost every square inch of the place in the viewing range of at least three clones at all times, a necessity if he wanted to have any chance of pulling this off. Grabbing a protein bar in case Kakashi does arrive close to on time, he quickly eats it to restore some of the energy he used for his mass clones and then returns to the clearing with his teammates thinking of anything else that might help. Realizing that Kakashi's words from yesterday were in fact true, and that he didn't in any way plan to incorporate or include his teammates in his plan he thought about how he could change that.

"Look guys," started Naruto, once back in the clearing and facing Sasuke and Sakura to get their attention, "if this is really a survival exercise, Kakashi is most likely going to try to split us up ...knowing we are always more of a threat when together. I say, we team up and hit him hard and fast ...it's going to be really hard ...he is a jounin after all, but together we stand a much better chance."

"I don't need help from losers," responded Sasuke harshly, and with a glare directed at first Naruto, and then Sakura causing the earlier to scowl and the later to break down and cry hysterically.

"Real nice teme," clapped back Naruto as he saw their third teammate shrink into herself and sob like a baby, knowing that she would be even more useless now than she would have been if Sasuke had simply included her. "At least I offered this time," continued Naruto more to himself, before moving closer to Sakura and the tree stump she was sitting on and awkwardly standing nearby. "Don't worry about the teme, Sakura ...he just doesn't know how to play with others. You are a great ninja."

"Um ...thanks ...Naruto," sniffled Sakura slowly as she tried to get herself back under control, completely missing the shocked face of Naruto who was surprised not to be yelled at by the object of his Academy crush, having very few memories of her or anyone else really saying nice things to him and not really knowing how to respond.

"Y-your welcome," he eventually stuttered out, before deciding to simply sit down and wait for their lazy sensei ...wondering how long it would be.

It only took about ten minutes of silence before Naruto was again up on his feet and antsy about moving around doing something productive, but knowing he couldn't leave the training ground left him with few alternatives. Deciding that he had nothing else he could think of to do while sitting around that didn't require too much chakra as he was trying to get his reserves back up after the massive shadow clone spawning, he remembered a scroll on meditating as both a chakra control exercise and a calming re-centering. Figuring he had nothing but time to lose, and he was losing that already by waiting on his sensei, Naruto closed his eyes and thought back to the instructions one of his clones read about internalizing your breathing and focus…

"Yo!" came the lazy greeting from Kakashi after he appeared in a swirl of leaves near the tree stump that Sakura was sitting upon, causing the three genin to react each in different ways.

"You're late!" shouted Sakura predictably, although to be fair, he was over three hours late.

"Hn," responded Sasuke, though nobody understood what that meant and continued ignoring him or drooling over 'how cool' he is.

"I'm awake!" came Naruto's exclamation after being abruptly wrenched out of a deep meditative state that he managed to maintain for a very respectable two hours, before being interrupted.

"Sorry, I got lost on the road of life," answered Kakashi easily, and almost disinterestedly, before looking around the clearing and getting a slight feeling of something he couldn't quite put his finger on, causing his glances around to increase and the feeling of anticipation almost to build.

"What kind of lame excuse is that!" shouted Sakura in near hysterics, at the same time as Naruto also responded.

"Was it a fun road at least?" he asked, seemingly serious, and neither Kakashi or his two teammates could guess if he was joking for a long moment before he continued, "and are you on that road every day?"

"Um ...yes," responded the one-eyed jounin slowly, wondering if Naruto was his new favorite for indulging his excuses or if Naruto was just discovering if he was always going to be late.

"Cool," came the flat reply that left everybody somewhat confused and answered nothing for Kakashi, and for some reason didn't lessen the somewhat lingering feeling of anticipation that seemed to be growing.

"So …," started Kakashi after several awkward moments of silence, as he looked back and forth at his three genin," today's test is pretty simple. You have until noon to get one of the bells I have tied to my waist."

"But there are only two bells?" screeched Sakura loudly.

"Yes," replied Kakashi with an eye smile, while cringing on the inside at the girl's volume level and seeming to need to have everything spelled out for her. "Only two of you will pass, the other will be sent back to the Academy for another term ...and be tied to a tree over here while the rest of us eat lunch," he finished as he pulled out three bento boxes and placed them on the tree stump next to a small clock, that had both Sakura and Sasuke's stomachs growling in hunger.

Kakashi looked over all three potential genin, and was pleased to see the desire and hear the stomach pains of Sakura and Sasuke as they looked at the food with longing, while somewhat disappointed that Naruto wasn't displaying those same needs. In fact, Naruto didn't look upset, tired, hungry, or stressed at all, he seemingly was just waiting for him to start with a quiet confidence that Kakashi found cute for a genin that was going up against a jounin that outclassed him in every way. Oh well, the kid would learn the hard way once the bell test began, chuckled Kakashi to himself quietly as he gave one more look around the clearing as the feeling of many others watching was still very strong, but he easily dismissed it ...what did he need to worry about with a trio of fresh out of the Academy genin.

"So," began Kakashi slowly with a one-eyed glare directed at Naruto, who met his look with an intense and ready look of his own, "you ignored the rules again and ate breakfast ...didn't you?"

"You just said not to eat if we didn't want to throw it up," answered Naruto evenly, and maybe with a bit of sarcasm near the end, "I have no intention of throwing up the breakfast I ate over three hours ago sensei."

Kakashi's glare intensified at the young blond's remarks, because he both saw through his 'suggestion' he tried to word it as an order, and called him out on the order not having any effect when he was three hours late, and was well fed to boot. There was just something about the quiet confidence of Naruto that was unsettling to the veteran jounin, his expectations of the village jinchuriki had been ridiculously shattered after just a day with the outdated and biased information he had been operating under. Now he was faced with what appeared to be a ready shinobi, with none of the arrogant bravado most new genin displayed and that smile hinted at something he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to discover.

"Just remember," started Kakashi getting the three gein's attention, and deciding to ignore the uneasy feeling he got every time he looked at Naruto, "you better come at me with intent to kill if you want any chance at getting a bell."

"What!" screeched Sakura again, "what if we hurt you?"

"Haha," laughed the silver haired jounin sensei patronizingly, "you are genin ...you're 100 years too late to be able to even touch me," he continued in a goading fashion, "let alone hurt me."

At the completely dismissive comment, Naruto's eyes narrowed dangerously, hating to be underestimated and not seen as a threat, and with now something serious to prove all bets were off. He instead decided to start gathering and building his chakra for another overcharged mass shadow clone once they were given the go ahead. Kakashi for his part, seemed to notice his blond student bearing down on is temper, and mistakenly thought the loud mouth was preparing for an ineffectual verbal blow up, and likewise wasn't prepared when said blond lifted his eyes and he saw the normally sky blue eyes bleeding almost reddish purple as a slight smell of ozone seemed to be growing.

"Wanna bet, Kakashi-sensei," growled a Naruto whose whole body was practically buzzing with anticipation and the excess build up of chakra as he brought his hands together in his now favorite cross hand seal and held it there waiting on the silver haired jounin to start the test as his chakra just continued to build.

"Uh," stuttered Kakashi for a moment as he looked at his youngest and supposed to be the worst student in the recent graduating class gathering kage-level amounts of chakra, and wondered if maybe his students could in fact hurt him very much. "Begin"

The moment the word left his lips, the entire training ground exploded in a chakra fueled cloud of smoke, that could be felt throughout Konoha by even the most basic sensor and to those sensitive to such things, it was like a blinding supernova. Kakashi himself cringing violently, remembering that day twelve years ago when the Kyuubi descended upon his beloved village, and the wave of killing intent laced with chakra was even more overwhelming than this expression of just pure chakra buildup was. Thankfully, the chakra was pure Naruto's and none of the Kyuubi's chakra had bled through which was good in that the nine-tailed demon wasn't influencing or in control of Naruto, but also shocking that Naruto could produce this much chakra on his own.

When the smoke finally cleared, Kakashi's eyes felt like they were playing tricks on him as well over 1000 shadow clones of Naruto filled every bare space in and around the clearing of training ground seven, further than his eye could see, and everyone had a look of determined anticipation. Before he could really even register them all, he was being lept upon by dozens of the nearest Naruto clones, who instead of just charging blindly, tried working in smaller groups to cover each others weaknesses and overwhelm the much more experienced jounin who was given no time to mount any kind of defensive plan. Naruto knew his clones had to keep the pressure on Kakashi and not let him get space to maneuver, and turn this battle back to his favor.

Likewise, he had several of the newest clones incorporating his many prank items in order to tangle up and bog the older ninja down with paint, honey, and ninja wire traps in a relentless stream that probably frustrated Kakashi more than hurt him. But the constant pressure was doing several things, the most important being that the real Naruto was learning quickly as his sensei quickly began tearing through his clones with minimalist moves that slowly Naruto was learning and incorporating into his haphazard taijutsu. It also provided the decoy for Naruto to again try and get his teammates to join him in attacking Kakashi together, though after Sasuke took a jealous look at all the Naruto's currently fighting their sensei, he scoffed and left the clearing saying he would do it on his own with Sakura following after him like a lost puppy.

The final advantage of so many attackers, was that Kakashi wasn't in control of the flow of the fight, as he was constantly tearing through the ranks of Naruto's clones, he was unaware that he was also being slightly directed and led to the edge of the clearing where the majority of Naruto's traps and reserve forces were stationed and waiting in ambush. Then Kakashi seemed to have understood what was happening just before he reached the treeline traps, and tried to make a stand in the clearing, and prevent the fight from moving into the trees where he could sense several traps and other things waiting for him. His next few moments were spent spewing out fireballs that did significant damage to Naruto's nearest clone forces, and made the original realize he would need more help to keep up the assault on his sensei.

With almost half of the most recent spawning of clones already taken out of the fight in the first five minutes, Naruto was down to about 500 clones still engaging Kakashi at the other end of the clearing from where the original was trying to plan out the continued strategy. He ended up making another two pairs of clones, this time henging one into Sakura and the other into Sasuke where he sent them with another clone of himself to try again and convince them to help. Hoping that seeing the other teammate already helping it would sway the other, and then not telling them that he tricked them once they were working together.

With that part done, he quickly ate down a pair of nutrient bars to regain some strength, which along with the returning chakra of his continually being destroyed clones, left him with enough energy for another large round of clones, this time only numbering around 600 to reinforce the others. It was at that point however, that Kakashi changed up his strategy, and instead of standing still and mowing down all comers as he had been doing, he instead started using the shunshin to escape the attacking waves and trying to get behind them or lose them completely. This didn't work as well as he would have liked however, because the moment he arrived anywhere he was attacked by the nearest clone (disguised as animals, branches, and debris) and once they were dispelled the rest of the hoard now had a bead on their location to converge and start the process all over again.

This game of cat and mouse was better for Naruto's clones as it slowed down their destruction considerably as the attacks were now smaller at first, and over before too many got involved as Kakashi moved on to other locations. It seemed he was both avoiding Naruto's clones, and scouting for the real Naruto and the other two, to test them individually. Him trying to avoid clones to not alert them to where he was, had the added benefit of giving Naruto and his clones more time to learn about their sensei's skills and convince Sasuke to join them.

Sakura joined the moment she saw Sasuke was with Naruto, even if she didn't know it was another clone of Naruto henged to look like her crush, she was in the moment "he" asked her. Sasuke was harder to convince, as he didn't see Sakura working with Naruto to be any great asset, and it wasn't until Sasuke witnessed an ambush on a nearby Kakashi, that he felt that he could at least use his teammates as distractions while he showed off his Uchiha superiority and got both bells for himself. With the three of them now working together, Naruto sneakily hid the two henged clones once they were within visual range of the real ones to not give up his ruse.

The two henged 'Sakura' and 'Sasuke' Naruto clones, where quickly met up with another Naruto clone, and began acting as a decoy team that Naruto had go around to the other side of the training ground making a good bit of noise, to prepare for the next confrontation with Kakashi. It didn't take the clone 'team' long to find Kakashi still attacking Naruto's clones in mass, and allow themselves to be seen before ducking back into the trees towards the main ambush site. Kakashi was just about at his wits end dealing with all of these shadow clones, and getting increasingly frustrated that he couldn't simply overpower a finishing move and clear out the whole lot of the clones without the risk of killing the real genins among them. He was also very reluctant to have to use his hidden sharigan eye on a new genin, and instead kept it covered with his slanted hitae-ite as he took out that frustration on the next several batches of clones.

A nice chidori rain storm would take care of this entire mass of clones in seconds, but would most likely also completely fry and kill the three real genin among them. Instead, he decided to throw out a shuriken rather lower than normal before performing the shuriken kage bunshin and taking out over two dozen of the Naruto clones in one throw. By throwing low, he also avoided a possible lethal hit to one of his real genin if they were among the clones in the attack range and allowed him to replicate the move another ten times quickly eliminating Naruto clones by the dozens.

The disadvantage to this technique though was shown a minute later, when several Naruto clones had seen and studied the move enough to replicate it on their own, and soon the amount of weapons flying back at the jounin were significantly greater than before. He had to abandon his makeshift perch under the growing onslaught, and returned to using the body flicker technique and many kawarimi exchanges to escape the seemingly never ending pursuit of his supposedly worst student. Even the woodland creatures, and branches on the grounds and in the trees ended up being Naruto clones, after Kakashi witnessed several of each come to life in order to attack him during his many escapes.

The next time he paused for a moment coming out of another shunshin, he changed up his strategy again and spawned his own trio of shadow clones before descending underground and letting his clones continue to eliminate the Naruto clones while he went hunting for some genin. It took almost no time to find them hiding half assed outside the main clearing so they could see, almost not even trying, and making him somewhat disappointed that they didn't have something better planned after the pretty impressive start. Popping up out of the earth behind them was child's play as the three fresh genin gave no indication they had any idea he was among them, until he went to pull all three and bury in the ground only for them to explode as shadow clones.

"Shit," he cursed as a veritable wave of shuriken came flying at him, after pausing at the explosion of his supposed genin and being caught flat footed again.

"Damn," shouted the nearest Naruto clone who thought they were finally going to get the more skilled jounin, before sending out the memory of Kakashi travelling through the ground to avoid detection.

Soon, with the liberal use of the newly learned echolocation jutsu, every Naruto clone was able to follow Kakashi around the training ground with amazing precision. Though that also included the silver haired man's clones as well, so they were currently tracking four separate chakra signatures ...oh, make that three. Naruto didn't have any of the same restrictions as his sensei, and was aiming to kill every time, and the clones only needed a single hit to dispel, so within minutes of using the echolocation jutsu he had tracked and eliminated all three Kakashi shadow clones, until he was just dogging the original.

Throughout this now rather long running battle, Naruto had been trying continually to get his hands on the bells at Kakashi's waist without much luck, though he had come surprisingly close on several occasions. He decided that he needed to step up the pressure on Kakashi, and grabbed a nearby squirrel and then henged several clones into his teammates and sent them off to be ready for their sensei to appear in a shunshin, grabbing more small animals along the way. When Kakashi appeared at the next ambush site following a henged clone of Sasuke, Naruto had his Sakura clone get on the ground among the group of other clones with the squirrel bleeding out from the fresh wound.

Kakashi's shuriken shadow clone jutsu, predictably tore through the huddled clones dispersing them in clouds of smoke that obscured the view for a moment and covered the high pitched scream of pain his 'Sakura' clone made upon the other clones' destructions. That scream had Kakashi instantly stop and pale completely, fearing that he may have accidentally just killed one of the genin he was testing and terrified the moment the smoke cleared and a heavily bleeding Sakura was lying collapsed on the ground. The older silver haired ninja froze completely at the scene in front of him, shocked that his overconfidence against his new genin had allowed the current tragedy to take place and wondering if there was any way to save the young girl.

"Don't move," called a frantic Kakashi as he rushed to his downed genin in order to provide aid and see if there was anything he could do to help, and was then shocked when he reached the bloody scene and things didn't completely add up.

He didn't have any time to consider what was wrong, as the moment he bent over the downed genin, said genin and several others that were hiding nearby accosted him and clung to any part of his body they could. Two clones even managed to get their hands on the bells before the veteran ninja realized what was happening and lashed out harshly to the unfortunate clones who suffered quick deaths along with all the other nearby clones. With the dispersal of several clones almost simultaneously, the large cloud of obscuring smoke actually helped hide the next wave of clones that arrived to fight for the bells.

That fight was quick and brutal though, as Kakashi was no longer underestimating his genin and dealing truly brutal attacks that had the original Naruto wincing in memory of the many very painful deaths he was experiencing one on top of the other. He was not making any real headway against his sensei, but kept getting close to the bells and forcing Kakashi to continually try and defend against his many theft attempts. It was at this point though that the real genin arrived, with Sasuke throwing out a Great Fireball that destroyed the dozens of clones that had been engaging Kakashi and keeping him busy.

"No teme," shouted Naruto as he saw the fireball heading into a largely concentrated area of Naruto clones and traps that he knew couldn't react quick enough to avoid, unlike their now freed sensei.

With his own teammate clearing all of his numbers near and around Kakashi, the three original genin were left too exposed in the now empty clearing to do anything other than succumb to the small hits by their sensei that knocked them all out in seconds and bringing the bell test to an abrupt end. Kakashi though wasn't able to get to Naruto though, as his hidden clones all throughout the training ground instantly came to life the moment he was knocked out and engaged the older ninja in mass, while other clones pulled him to safety and woke him up. That wake up didn't last long though, as Kakashi created another pair of his own clones he had literally tear through Naruto's remaining ones until there were none remaining and he knocked out the young blond genin again…

"Well, your teamwork is absolute shit!" came the clear voice of Kakashi, cutting through the groggy head fog as Naruto slowly seemed to be coming to, and finding himself tied uncomfortably to a tree while his sensei and teammates sat around nearby. "Though ...I will say, you really surprised me."

"Really?" asked a hopeful Sakura from her spot near the tree stump she was at when this test began.

"Not you Pinky," continued Kakashi with an eye smile directed at Sakura, before sweeping his gaze across Sasuke to rest on Naruto. "You and Emo-King here were as pathetic as I expected you to be …" he trailed off while searching Naruto's face intently. "Naruto on the other hand ...well, he just showed me something pretty impressive."

"What! Naruto-baka!" shouted Sakura in disbelief.

"The Dobe!" growled a glaring Sasuke, trying to kill both his sensei and teammate with just his stare, as he curled and flexed his hands into fists repeatedly, seemingly unable to accept that anybody else might deserve praise or have some skill.

"Yes," answered Kakashi plainly and definitively, "he had several very good and unique plans and strategies that he wasn't afraid to try and adapt around, trapped and scouted the hell out of this training ground, came prepared ...and held his own against a severely greater opponent. I'd say he was hands down the best of you all."

With those words, Sasuke practically growled into a scream of rage and disbelief that HE would ever look up at the dobe as a greater ninja, and couldn't fathom how the Dead Last had already surpassed him in seemingly no time at all. Sakura too was in disbelief, but where her dark haired teammate struggled with his own comparison to Naruto, she knew her strengths lie elsewhere and didn't really think anything Naruto did was any better than everything that Sasuke did. Naruto though was a different story, never had another ninja complimented him in such a positive way about his own growing ninja skills and he was almost bursting with pride and determination to keep improving ...take that teme!

"So, did we pass?" asked Naruto after a moment of reveling in his excitement for the received praise, and realizing he hadn't heard about that yet.

"No, team seven did not pass," answered Kakashi slowly, seeing if anybody would pick up on it.

"Only Team 7?" asked Naruto with a tilted head as he thought over the words of his silver haired sensei, and found that phrasing unusual.

"See …," continued Kakashi seemingly talking to Sasuke and Sakura, before turning and smiling at Naruto, "he noticed it immediately."

"Naruto passed?" screamed an outraged Sakura, finally registering what was being said and inferred by Kakashi's words.

"He demonstrated enough to show me what he is capable of, and I was very pleased with everything I saw from him. He thought and acted as a true shinobi and teammate, and if it's what he wants, I will sign off on him entering the Reserve Genin Pool until a spot somewhere else opens up," answered Kakashi plainly to the three young ninja who all reacted very differently.

"What!" screamed Sakura in outrage, complaining about fairness and repeating how much better Sasuke was over Naruto at everything, while said dark haired boy just seethed quietly on the verge of a blowup at any moment.

"If it's what I want?" asked a curious Naruto, cutting off Sakura's incessant chatter and the Emo's brooding, and getting a large and somewhat creepy looking eye-smile from Kakashi.

"Yes, that is an option for you," Kakashi continued, seemingly happily that the young blond figured out to look underneath the underneath, and not just accept straight away. "Or ...you could try the bell test again as Team 7 with Pinky and Emo-King over here after lunch, but if you fail to get a bell ...the deals off and you are back to the Academy too."

It didn't take Naruto too long to think his options through, having known and heard about the Reserve Genin he knew it probably wasn't a great fit for him. He wasn't well liked and chances of being selected by other genin or chunin and jounin instructors for anything would constantly be a battle even if his skills were adequate. That was the real problem though, Reserve Genin didn't have instructors, everything they learned had to be done by themselves, and likewise few if any ever make it passed the genin program and into the higher ranks of ninja, hence the somewhat mocking term of Career Genin.

"I think Team 7 needs another chance at the Bell Test sensei," responded Naruto after several long moment of contemplation, and causing both Sasuke and Sakura to sputter in shock that Naruto would chose the team option and likewise give them both another chance to become Ninja of the Leaf.

"Good answer," replied Kakashi with that weird eye-smile thing he seemingly does often directed at the young blond. "Okay, Sasuke and Sakura ...here are your lunches, eat up you are going to need your strength ...I will be back in 15 minutes to start the Bell test."

"Um ...Kakashi-sensei? Aren't you going to let me down to eat lunch too?" asked Naruto just before his sensei left, and getting the other two to look up at the interaction, finding the whole thing rather odd and still wondering what exactly was going on as they opened the tasty bento boxes both beyond hungry.

"Nope ...you ignored my instructions yesterday and ate this morning, these two haven't eaten anything and need their strength if they are going to help get bells," answered Kakashi flippantly, before turning to Sasuke and Sakura and continuing in a serious tone, "don't share your lunch with Naruto."

With that, Kakashi gave a sarcastic little wave to the fuming and sputtering Naruto, before he vanished in a swirl of leaves to who knows where and leaving the three young genin alone in the clearing. Naruto was beyond pissed and pretty damn hungry after everything he put himself through this morning, and couldn't believe that after all that, he was still right back in the same position as he was this morning without a team or sensei. He was seriously having second thoughts now on his choice, and thinking he may have just been better off as a Reserve Genin, since he was pretty exhausted still from chakra drain and didn't think he would be able to convince Sasuke and Sakura to work with him again.

"Here Naruto ...you can have some of my lunch," came the small voice of Sakura as she shuffled forward a bit and moved to start feeding an absolutely stunned Naruto, "you are going to need your strength too ...and you can probably help a lot more than I can," she finished somewhat dejectedly.

"You can have some of mine too," came the unexpected reply from Sasuke as he too started forward to feed the final member of their team. "You too Sakura, we are all going to need to be at our best ...this guy is no joke!"

"WHAT IS THIS!" came the loud shout of Kakashi as he appeared in another swirl of leaves just as all three students started eating from the two bento boxes, and causing them all to stiffen in fear at getting caught breaking the rules.

"U-u-um …," stuttered Sakura in shock and fear, as the three young ninjas all cringed at the anger they saw on their sensei's face, all three expecting to be exploded at any moment.

"You all pass," announced Kakashi to the now stunned in shock faces of the three newest Genin of Konoha, who all had no idea just what the hell was happening.

"Huh?" questioned Naruto confusedly, trying to follow along with his new sensei's way of thinking.

"Team 7 has passed ...you proved you can work together ...the individual skills will come with practice and hard work, but I am pleased with what I've seen," explained Kakashi calmly as he eye-smiled at his new genin team, and enjoyed their looks of confusion turned to happiness. "We will meet here every morning at 8 am for some training and teamwork drills, and then do a mission or two in the afternoon."

"Awesome!" cheered Naruto excitedly, before remembering his earlier exchange with his tardy sensei and asking somewhat apprehensively so as not to upset his new sensei, "um ...are you going to be spending some time on the 'Road of Life' again tomorrow?"

"Ummmm," came the unknowing reply from Kakashi as he thought about how to answer the question while looking back and forth between his new genin while tearing the ropes around Naruto, and not coming up with anything concrete, "see ya tomorrow!"

With those words, he disappeared in another shunshin leaving the three new genin of Team 7 alone in training ground seven, all with varying levels of smiles, or smirks in Sasuke's case, on their faces. Even Naruto, who was realizing his sensei never answered him, and was probably constantly late while "on the road of life" couldn't keep the happy and proud smile off his face at finally being a real Ninja of the Leaf. Turning to his new teammates, he also realized that they had a lot of training to do, in order to be ready to fight and protect the village or accomplish any of the more difficult missions.

"Well," started Naruto to get both of his excited teammates' attention, "do we want to train together? Or spend time getting to know each other better?"

"I train alone," came Sasuke's quick and predictable reply.

"I am not going out with you Naruto-baka," shouted Sakura after a moment of thinking over what her teammates said, before turning to Sasuke, "do you want to celebrate Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn," grunted the monosyllabic Uchiha, before turning around and taking off down the street as fast as he could, leaving a dejected Sakura behind that Naruto usually would have tried cheering up or asking out himself if she hadn't just screamed out her refusal to the unasked question, but just couldn't find it in him today to do so.

"See ya tomorrow then," replied a somewhat dejected Naruto, who thought now that they were teammates they would also become friends, while a distracted Sakura watched the object of her obsession recede in the distance, and ignored the loud blond completely as she lived in her own world.

Naruto's dejection though wouldn't last but a moment once he realized that he was now a real ninja, and that he was one big step closer to becoming Hokage and a respected member of Konoha. Deciding to treat himself to an Ichiraku Ramen feast in celebration of his greatest personal accomplishment to date was definitely in order, and led to him running happily through the streets of his beloved village. He ignored the stares and mutters even easier now than before, having been validated by the last few days of accomplishing goals, becoming a real ninja, learning of his burden, and just not caring anymore about the idiots in the village who couldn't tell he wasn't the Kyuubi.

With Kakashi reporting to Hokage:

"Team Seven under Kakashi Hatake passed," came the flat response of the silver haired jounin after appearing inside the Hokage's office to see his fellow jounin instructors still there, and now staring at him in shock with their mouths hanging open and disbelief on their faces.

"What ...you passed a team?" came the shocked voice of Kurenai Yuhi, jounin leader of Team 8, and relatively new jounin and Genjutsu Mistress, who knew and hung out in the same circles as Kakashi, and could hardly believe what she heard.

"What can I say, they worked well as a team ...and Naruto almost got me several times, and probably would have if it had continued much longer," came the very matter of fact response, that had the stunned crowd gapping even more at the revelation that the demon child was that good when his Academy results spoke of an abject failure in every sense.

"B-but he was the Dead Last?" came the disbelieving voice of a random jounin in the back of the room, that just had Kakashi shrug nonchalantly.

"He's not the Dead Last any more," came the swift reply from Kakashi, "you all had to have felt that chakra spike a half an hour ago ...he created over 1000 shadow clones in the blink of an eye ...give him one month, and he will be ready to take on any Chunin in Konoha."

"Oh please," came the sarcastic and disbelieving voice of Ebisu, a tokubetsu jounin specializing in training elite ninjas, a sentiment that seemed shared by the majority of the room minus only Kakashi and the Hokage himself.

"How about a bet?" came the goading response of Kakashi, to his former classmate and fellow ninja. "Naruto fights Kotetsu Hagane or Izumo Kamizuki in one month from today ...if he wins ...I'll have a teaching assistant for the Chunin Exams."

"Oh please," came the sarcastic reply from Ebisu, "he has no chance against a real chunin ...even if you gave him a year."

"Okay, then let's sweeten up the pot then?" responded Kakashi, already enjoying having new students to talk about and bet on. "Say 10,000 yen?"

"You're on Kakashi," came Ebisu's immediate reply, as anime tears began running down his cheeks as he thought about how to spend all that money he was sure to win off Kakashi, and he seemingly checked out into his own little dream world, that had most of the onlookers wondering if something was seriously wrong with the usually very rule oriented ninja who was mumbling about "easy money" all the while.

"Good," replied Kakashi with a meaningful look at the Hokage, before searching out and finding his 'Eternal Rival' who he also gave a small look to indicating that he had something he wanted to talk to Konoha's Green Beast about once the meeting broke up.

Back with Naruto:

Arriving at his favorite ramen stand, and greeting two of his most precious people Ayame and Teuchi Ichiraku, he quickly orders himself some of his new "special" Miso Ramen and recounts his day of becoming a ninja to his captivated audience. After a dozen bowls of the 'Food of the Gods' he had finally exhausted his tale of bravery and awesomeness, that saw him by the end a Genin of the Leaf. Promising the Father-Daughter pair that he would now be able to come by more often once he started earning money from missions, he said his goodbyes before heading back to his apartment to get a few more things he needed before he continued to train.

Having replaced all his kunai and shuriken that were lost or destroyed during his recent bell test, he also grabbed the Fuinjutsu starter set he purchased the other day before making his customary clones to start spamming his training. With each of the now 1000 clones having a chakra version of the starter set brushes, ink, and paper he had them spread out throughout the training ground before getting to the practice of increasing his penmanship until he was capable of creating his own seals. While the clones slowly worked through the many calligraphy type exercises related to Fuinjutsu, the real Naruto upped his training weights back to the third setting and set about running himself into the ground again.

Throughout the next several hours as the afternoon bled into the evening and then the night, Naruto continued with his clone training and his own physical training, only stopping to grab snacks, or to dispel and then spawn more clones. By the time he was ready to drag himself back to his apartment for some well deserved rest, he had worked for over seven hours straight on his Fuinjutsu with over 1000 clones and had some serious memory transfer to deal with. As he finally laid down, he started dispelling them in groups of ten as at least their memories were all very similar and by the time he was finished was completely drained mentally now as well as physically and couldn't keep the smile off his face as he fell asleep stronger than he was the day before.

Chapter 5: D-Ranks & Growth

The next several weeks saw a remarkable improvement in Team Seven's most unpredictable member, as he showed up every day ready to work his ass off and did just that. Luckily, Naruto had taken Kakashi's reluctance to ever talk seriously about why he was always late to everything, as permission to do his own thing most of the day. He would usually show up at Training Ground 7 around 10:30 or so, since Kakashi had yet to arrive before 11 am yet, and was always moving and doing something physical to increase his training. They would practice until lunchtime, usually separate to get a small bite to eat, and then head to the Mission Desk to pick a D-Rank 'chore' for that afternoon, then rinse and repeat.

The other really great thing Kakashi did that first week as his sensei, was introduce him to his fellow jounin and self-proclaimed 'Eternal Rival' the ninja Might Guy in order to find and develop a Taijutsu style that worked for him. Guy was beyond eccentric with a ridiculous green spandex monstrosity he wore as a ninja outfit, a somewhat childish looking bowl cut, and a pair of the bushiest eyebrows anybody has ever seen. He also came complete with a mini-clone in the person of Rock Lee, a fellow genin to Naruto who specialized in taijutsu as well, and as a mini-clone of his own sensei, looked equally ridiculous and who was quick to label Naruto his own 'Eternal Rival.'

Regardless of their eccentricities though, the pair really knew their stuff, and within days had Naruto competing against Lee almost constantly, despite being on very different weight training levels. Likewise, he was constantly being pushed in one of his weakest areas, so that over the course of that first week, he had improved to a level that had even Sasuke look at Naruto in a new light at times when they were working on team training. He had also exhausted the starter weight training set, but was fortunate that Guy knew of a better set of training weights he used for himself and Lee, and now Naruto who was quickly trying to catch up.

Because of his massive clone training so many things for long periods of time that others just couldn't match, it gave the real Naruto so much time to work on his growing taijutsu as much as possible at the beginning without neglecting other areas of growth. He was truly getting better at an astounding rate, and by the end of the third week, could probably battle Sasuke to a draw more times than not, and still increasing with every day and every clone. His penmanship had quickly advanced to and then passed the required level for Fuinjutsu, which he was just now starting to experiment on and make his own beginning seals.

One of the biggest other areas of growth though, was in his chakra control which he had continually spawned clones every day just to continue to work on. It was a never ending cycle though, as every time he trained and used his chakra, it grew back a little stronger and denser and therefore in need of more fine tuned control, and then simply rinse and repeat. He had progressed to the water walking exercise, and had it mastered within days and continued use and training in it, had allowed him to reach a milestone he never expected to reach ...he created perfect basic 'illusion' bunshins (useless though they were) and brought a proud smile to his whiskered face.

On the mission side, he was still bored senseless over all the 'chores' disguised as D-Rank missions they had to do, especially since Kakashi wouldn't let him spawn clones to do all the work when his whole team was there working on their teamwork. His sensei did however, allow him to take his own D-Rank missions with his clones any time he wanted as they provided a good service to the village, bringing in money to Konoha and himself which was a real help. His Fuinjutsu supplies were starting to really add up, and he was finding himself in need of more money almost constantly to get the things he wanted to experiment with and continue training on.

His schedule had kept him so busy, that he didn't even realize that it had been weeks since graduation and the last time he was actually able to talk to either Iruka or the Third Hokage, and decided he needed to remedy that soon and pick the two men's brains. Iruka had promised to teach him the body flicker jutsu, and he also wanted to ask the Hokage about any fuinjutsu teachers he could direct him to as the art of seals was very difficult to trudge through on your own. With that thought in mind, he returned to the Mission Desk his team left an hour ago, having finished painting Maiko-san's fence, to find the two people he was thinking about still there handing out missions.

"Hokage-sama," bowed Naruto respectfully, getting several raised eyebrows from those nearby not used to seeing the formal side of the blond, "Iruka-sensei."

"Hi Naruto," greeted Hiruzen Sarutobi happily, as he looked over one of his favorite people, and couldn't help but be impressed at how much the young blond had grown in such a short amount of time. "What can I help you with today?"

"Well," came Naruto's somewhat embarrassed reply as he ducked his head a bit before glancing over to his former Chunin teacher, "I was hoping Iruka-sensei would help me with my training tonight ...he promised to show me a new jutsu and maybe spar."

"I did?" questioned Iruka, as he thought back to the last time he met with Naruto, right before his bell test with Kakashi before it suddenly came to him just as Naruto replied exasperatedly.

"Yes," came Naruto's reply. "I'm ready to learn the Body Flicker jutsu."

"The shunshin? Really?" asked a now curious Hokage as he looked between the pair, wondering how far Naruto had come in such a short time as a genin.

"Dattebayo Hokage-jiji," came Naruto's exuberant exclamation, and had the old Hokage smile warmly at the personal moniker only Naruto would ever use to speak with him, and which always made him happy. "One step closer to taking that hat from you jiji."

"Is that so?" asked an amused Hokage, who could always count on Naruto to lift his spirits, and who also saw some truth to the young genin's claim after having watched him train to levels that would kill most men and barely slowed him down at all.

"Dattebayo," responded a determined Naruto as he locked eyes with the old leader of the village, trying to show him how serious he was about that goal and not wavering a bit.

"Fair enough," replied Hiruzen seriously, knowing that while usually a prankster of the highest order, this was one thing Naruto didn't joke about anymore, now knowing what it took to be a ninja of Konoha, and eventually to become the Hokage. "Iruka, thanks for your help today ...but it looks like you have a prior engagement I wouldn't dream of keeping you from."

"Thanks Jiji," came the honest and heartfelt reply of Naruto, who then turned to the scarred Chunin with a large grin on his face, "Ready Iruka-sensei?"

"Ugh, I guess," came the lazy drawl of the older Academy instructor, as he got up and made his way out of the mission office trailing behind a bouncing and excited Naruto, who was already talking about everything else he had been working on since the two last met up.

Iruka knew Naruto was not a fan of theory, so only touched on the basics of the shunshin, how you had to flood your body with chakra and then aim it at your desired target. It was really just chakra enhanced speed in a very fast and short application that had been refined into a technique over the years, instead of simply building up one's speed naturally. After several side-along trips and self-attempts at it, Naruto was able to perform his first shunshin ...directly into a tree.

"Oww!" exclaimed a bruised Naruto, in both body and ego as he fell to his backside after crashing face first into the large and unmoving tree.

"Haha," laughed Iruka a little, "that's usually what happens to first timers Naruto ...the same thing happened to me too."

"Really?" asked a curious Naruto, who despite getting to know the older chunin better in the last year of Academy classes and even more since the Mizuki incident, didn't really know much about one of his few friends and wondered what that said about him as a friend to others. "Could you tell me about your first genin team?" he continued curiously, figuring he may as well start learning about his precious people sooner, so he could better get to know them, and knowing he owed them his attention as most of their past interactions were always about him and his problems.

"Sure Naruto, but let's save that discussion for Ichiraku's afterwards," answered the older chunin, ignoring the happily cheering Naruto as he learned about their next stop and couldn't wait already.

Over dinner that night, Iruka explained all about his first genin team under the jounin Kaena Uchiha and his first teammates, both of whom were no longer with us. Rookie of the Year, Kaeda Uchiha his sensei's own son and Reyna Hyuuga, a branch member of the Hyuuga clan, and also the Kunoichi of the Year. He went on to explain that he too was a prankster and the 'Dead Last' and got paired with the top two ninjas in class, and was constantly being ignored and overlooked in favor of his two more well known and more promising students.

The thing that saved him was the small friendship he created with Sarutobi Hiruzen after the death of his parents in the Kyuubi attack, and the little help and hints the older Hokage would slip into his things over time. He also taught him about the Will of Fire, and how important that was to Konoha, and was one of the main reasons Iruka was an Academy instructor now. Anyways, shortly after they started doing more regular C-Rank missions they encountered one that just went wrong.

They were given bad mission information, and were ambushed by a team of Iwa nins out near the border of Kusagakure, and would have all died if not for their sensei. The Iwa jounin successfully engaged Kaena from the very beginning of the ambush, as the team of Iwa chunin quickly ganged up on the less experienced Konoha genin team, focusing first on eliminating the Uchiha they felt was the biggest threat. Within moments of the fighting starting, his teammate and rival was dead and the only female member of the group tied up, knocked out, and being carried like a sack of potatoes by the largest of the Iwa nins.

The two remaining Iwa chunin continued to taunt and play with Iruka, sensing absolutely no threat and also with him not part of a clan, was completely expendable and they were simply playing with their food while slowly wearing him down. But then, Kaena saw his son's severed head and simply lost it, exploding with chakra before his eyes changed into something Iruka would never forget, the tomoe of the Sharingan evolved into a pinwheel pattern then everything changed. A large chakra construct grew out of his sensei, the size of a boss summons, that tore through everything in its path including the Iwa nins and their Hyuuga hostage.

Kaena was never the same after they came back to Konoha with the dead bodies of both of Iruka's more powerful teammates, and it definitely changed things for him as well. Kaena committed Seppuku shortly after returning to the village, not able to handle the loss of his only son and the destruction of his first and only genin team. After that, Iruka became a Reserve Genin and had to wait a while until a team lost a member to promotion until he was brought on so they could enter the chunin exams, but broke up afterwards when all three passed and became Chunin of the Leaf, each going into different fields from there.

Naruto was a little shocked that his teacher had so much trauma to deal with from such a young age, and also how similar their team assignments were, and even how they were seen within their teams as the 'Dead Last'. He was also fascinated by the tales of the Sharingan dojutsu of the Uchiha clan, having heard Sasuke mention it enough times to know it was a very big deal, and wanted to know more about it from what Iruka experienced and its history in Konoha. Iruka told him most of that information he sought would not be available to the main population, and the only true history of the Uchiha would be in their Clan Library, with the Chunin section of the Shinobi Library with just a basic primer that told of the known stories related to the founding of Konoha with Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.

By this point it was starting to get relatively late, and Naruto asked Iruka if he had time for the spar he promised him weeks ago ...wanting to test himself against a superior opponent, and still much too energized to sleep this early in the evening. The pair ended up heading to the Academy training grounds, as they were the nearest and most familiar to them both to get in some training. Once there, they set up quick ground rules as this was a friendly spar, and both went through a quick stretch to loosen up before they were both ready to go.

"Are you ready, Iruka-sensei?" asked an excited Naruto, who Iruka was surprised to see enter an unfamiliar taijutsu stance and look pretty comfortable as he bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited to begin.

"Hajime," answered Iruka, as he exploded into motion charging at the younger blond hoping to throw him off and end the fight relatively quickly, but was surprised when Naruto's grin just grew as he neared him ready to deliver a basic Academy knife strike.

"Ha ...you'll have to do better than that sensei," laughed Naruto as he redirected the knife strike lazily, and landed a quick two punch combo just under the extended arm of his former teacher that had him cringe and realize that this wasn't the same Naruto 'dobe' he was used to dealing with, and made him re-evaluate the young blond even closer.

For the next twenty minutes, the two friends traded blows back and forth, both taking turns seemingly leading the fight as they attacked while the other defended until a counter switched up their roles. Iruka couldn't believe it, as he was pushed to his admittedly rusty limits by a genin who had only graduated less than a month ago, and was showing real skill in the area of taijutsu. At the next small pause, the Academy instructor created some actual space before he started making hand seals and was soon throwing around a few low level earth jutsus to hopefully break the taijutsu stalemate and take control of this spar.

That however, was met with his young blond opponent also deciding to switch to ninjutsu, and made his favorite cross hand seal before spawning only a dozen clones, and then instantly switching out with the one furthest away from the incoming earth attacks. Iruka quickly realized that fighting Naruto with ninjutsu would be a huge disadvantage to him, as the shadow clones of Naruto were too numerous (or could be if the blond wanted) and skilled to simply overpower them all without going all out, and maybe even then. So, he quickly abandoned his next ninjutsu attack, and switched it up to genjutsu, something he expected Naruto had not yet overcome and may be his only chance to win this spar and save face from being defeated by his probably worst ever Academy student.

"Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique," spoke Iruka, after a quick set of hand seals, that had his young opponent in front of him come to an instant and complete stop along with all of his nearby clones.

Only a single pair of clones managed to avoid the genjutsu initially, but with the remaining clones almost immediately freaking out from the genjutsu they were now under, it wasn't long before clones started dispelling. With them dispelling, their memory of the genjutsu was then transmitted to all the others, so very quickly Naruto felt as if he was hit with two dozen horrifying ways to die all created by his own subconscious viewing of the genjutsu, which only seemed to add merit to the illusion. It definitely made for two confused clones, who after watching the many imaginative ways they could die, both simply dispelled themselves by tackling the original Naruto to the ground in an effort to also see if they could shake the blond awake in the process.

Luckily, the dual tackle / dispelling did in fact shock Naruto out of the genjutsu he had still been stuck under, but unfortunately it did nothing as Iruka had the match well won by this point, as a grumbling Naruto complained about stupid genjutsu. Iruka ran him through the normal ways people dispel genjutsu, and Naruto had no problem upsetting his internal chakra system to dispel the illusion, but still struggled with having the illusion placed. If he was aware of the genjutsu, he could disrupt his chakra easily enough to dispel the illusion, but he most struggled with simply knowing when he was under a genjutsu.

Much later that night while brainstorming ideas, he came up with a possible idea he would try to implement the next day in order to better combat the problem he had with genjutsu in general. He would create a Shadow Clone Genjutsu dispelling team, three very hearty clones continually cycling through the process of dispelling and respawning clones away from any action. This would have the added benefit of keeping all of his clones and the original with the newest set of memories, and with the continual internal chakra disruption, that would make dispelling genjutsu a continuous thing that he wouldn't even need to worry about anymore.

For now though, he thanked Iruka for all his help and for the spar to give him an idea of how far he had come and still has to go, and headed back towards his apartment before his training continued. Despite the time getting to when he usually turns in for the night, Naruto this evening has a bit more energy still to burn when he returns to his apartment and decides he can always send out more clones. With the thought to research other clones and ways to make them stronger or more durable, Naruto spawns close to the now customary 1000 clones and tells them to get to work finding the solution.

Over the next few days, Naruto's clone research and later experimentation really started to pay off as he discovered the many different elemental clones available even if they were currently beyond him, and found ways to increase both the chakra capacity and the density of his favorite shadow clones. He also seemingly stumbled upon a shadow clone explosion technique that allowed him to use his shadow clones as kamikaze bombers, which really increased his offensive output and made his opponents' standing still and taking on his clones a suicidal prospect. The real gem of the research though, was a blood clone which was very durable and could act as an independent clone spawning station if Naruto took the time required to set them up.

The process was relatively difficult, but not impossible by any means, and required a beginner's knowledge of Fuinjutsu, which Naruto had slowly been acquiring over the last three weeks since becoming a genin and almost a kage's worth of chakra. He started with his ultra dense shadow clone, pouring copious amounts of chakra into the clone before moving on to the next step. Using his own blood, he wrote Fuinjutsu seals all over the clones body in the pattern discovered from the old scroll he "found" behind the rack of old scrolls in the Chunin section of the Shinobi Library, and watched after activating it, as the seals lit up as the blood was absorbed into the glowing body of his clone until he looked exactly like the original.

The whole process took over an hour, and left Naruto on the verge of exhaustion, but after a large meal and a little rest, he was ready to try again for blood clone #2 knowing how valuable they would become for him. That night, the original Naruto went to bed immediately after creating blood clone number two from his exhaustion, but left his two new blood clones with instructions to continue spawning more clones until they were out of chakra, then wait a while and do it again. Naruto was awoken several hours later to more noise than he was accustomed to in the morning, as he could see over two dozen Naruto clones all throughout his apartment fixing things, cleaning, studying, preparing breakfast, you name it, and there was probably a Naruto clone currently working on it somewhere in the cramped space of his apartment.

Taking a moment to process several hundred new memories from the night, which all came from newly spawned clones while he slept, he realized that he was running out of room and really needed to expand his operations to keep up with his clones' demands. With that thought, he sent out word to start developing clones for civilian jobs to start bringing in more money, sent teams of clones to clean out the training grounds of scrap metal and weapons for resale, teams for hunting and foraging in the forests around Konoha, and even sent out a search party to scout and look for a large enough space to occupy. He marvelled a bit at how much he had grown in just a short month of real 'clone' training, how much further he still had to go as a ninja, and how his clones were going to lead the way to his continued growth and development.

He then went to his early morning workout / training with the Green Beasts for several exhausting hours until the sun was actually up, and he could take a break for a late breakfast until he had to meet his own team. Realizing that he better head towards Training Ground Seven for his team meeting before he too was considered late, he left his blood clones in charge of his apartment and the expansion project. He contemplated other ways of increasing his funds, and promised to remind Kakashi about his deal to let him perform D-Ranks with his clones separately from the team as long as he was still working with said team as well. He also wondered if his growing Fuinjutsu skills had reached a level where he could start making money selling his sealing scrolls and explosive tags, which would be a huge boost to his financial resources.

"Hey guys," came Naruto's greeting after arriving at Training Ground Seven to find both Sasuke and Sakura already waiting in their now customary spots by the little bridge.

"Hn," grunted Sasuke in his standard non-verbal reply, before going back to brooding as he leaned against the bridge.

"Hi Naruto," came Sakura's pleasant response, having considerably warmed up to Naruto now that she knows how strong he is as a ninja, and since he stopped pestering her for dates almost completely and was even trying to help her train, she found him a rather easy going teammate. "What's our plan today?"

"I was going to keep working on chakra control while I wait," answered Naruto easily to the pink haired girl who he had been trying to help some for the past week, "want to join in again?"

"Sure," came her immediate reply, "can you show me the Tree Climbing exercise one more time, I think I've almost got it."

"No problem," said Naruto as he led the way towards the tree line, and before even arriving made the familiar seal and brought forth over 1000 shadow clones that he then sent out to practice before turning to his female teammate and walking her through the steps of the basic chakra control exercise.

Sakura had no problems picking up the Tree Climbing exercise very easily due to her immaculate chakra control, and Naruto then simply had her continue to go up and down the tree as much as she could to continue pushing herself and increasing her chakra reserves. The real Naruto, switched out with a clone early into the practice so he too could continue training his body physically as he killed time until Kakashi decided to show up and get the day's team training started. Sakura was pretty exhausted once Kakashi did finally arrive a little after a half an hour, but was still able to go through the team building exercises and formations practice relatively easily before being dismissed for lunch.

That afternoon's D-Rank mission, was the fourth Tora retrieval mission completed by Team Seven in the last two weeks, and again left every member with claw and scratch marks and a strong desire to see that cat suffer. Naruto was able to corner his sensei for a brief bit to confirm he had permission to run unfinished D-Rank missions with his clones, and quickly picked up all remaining D-Rank missions not assigned and sent a batch of clones off to complete them all before the end of the day. He also learned from his sensei, that there was a small exhibition match in two days that Kakashi arranged for Naruto to show off his skills against a real opponent who would really test his improved growth, and didn't mention anything about the side bet he had on it.

Naruto didn't think much of it either, other than showing excitement at getting to fight against another strong opponent to test himself and see how far he was coming along. He didn't really care about who it was, probably another genin team to practice, and dismissed it as unimportant compared to his continued training. That night after creating another blood clone, and when he was finally getting ready for bed, the work of his clones brought a large grin to his whiskered face, as he reviewed all the money they made him from missions, the promise of money from his many new civilian jobs, and from all the metal they found and sold.

That night, with three blood clones continually spawning clones, Naruto again woke up with many hundreds of sets of memories to go through over the night, and couldn't believe how quickly things were starting to happen. His "horde" of clones had already secured enough funds to make a legitimate offer on the current apartment complex he lived at, which would provide a great starting point to his expanding empire. They also discovered some underground tunnel systems that had a point of entry very nearby his apartment, that he made plans to explore and expand into as a way of moving around the village undetected. Doing a massive clone spawning of his own, he added almost 1200 clones to those created by the blood clones through the night, and had them push forward with his plans as he headed off to start his training with the Green Beasts of Taijutsu for a few hours until he was supposed to meet his own teammates for their team training.

"Hi guys," greeted Naruto as he arrived at Training Ground Seven to again find his teammates in their customary spots.

"Hn," came the Uchiha's usual grunt.

"Hey Naruto," responded Sakura, who got up without even being asked this time, and headed towards the tree line to continue where they left off yesterday in her training.

When Kakashi arrived and witnessed Sakura working on building her chakra reserves by working on her Tree Climbing with Naruto, he was pleasantly surprised that they had already learned that skill, and wondered if they had started on Water Walking, and why Sasuke wasn't joining them. He soon learned that Naruto offered to show them both the Tree Climbing exercise a few days ago, but only Sakura took up the offer since Sasuke didn't think Naruto knew anything worth learning. Liking the initiative it showed, Kakashi rewarded Naruto with one new jutsu he would teach him after learning he already was capable of Water Walking, and felt he deserved something extra.

Kakashi then had Sakura and Naruto move towards the small pond in the Training Ground to practice Water Walking, while he went and got Sasuke set up on the Tree Climbing exercise. After a half an hour, Kakashi was watching Sakura struggle to maintain her footing on the water for more than a few seconds at a time and encouraged her to keep at it, as her chakra reserves were growing exponentially. After watching Naruto run through a taijutsu spar against two dozen clones on the surface of the water without a single misstep, Kakashi smiled at the younger blond who looked so much like his own sensei, Minato Namikaze.

He really was impressed with how quickly Naruto was progressing, showing an initiative and drive that reminded him of his parents and his own upbringing and hoped the young blond didn't burn himself out working so hard. Thinking about what else to show the hyperactive young jinkurichi, he decided it was probably time to give him the start to elemental chakra, as his clones just gave him such an edge on learning that he could literally take years of training and condense it into one day with the amount of clones he could get working on something. Unless Naruto had something specific he was looking for, he made up his mind to get his hands on some chakra paper for tomorrow, but first was going to run a little experiment with his favorite little blond genin.

"Hey Naruto," called Kakashi once he saw the young man about to start another taijutsu clone battle on top of the water, "come with me over here ...I promised you a technique."

"Is it a super cool one?" asked a Naruto that appeared before his sensei in a flash, that almost had Kakashi wonder if he inherited more than just his dad's looks, and had his customary eye smile twinkle happily as he gazed at the excited young Uzumaki.

"I'll make you a deal," started Kakashi getting Naruto's attention instantly with his serious and somewhat uncharacteristic tone. "You follow my instructions and let me run a little clone test with you right now, which will eventually lead to several new avenues of research for you and your clone army, and maybe be the catalyst to make you great one day ...or I give you a generic B-rank bomb jutsu in thanks for helping Sakura start training."

"Um ...I think with how you phrased that choice, I am going to pick the first option and let you run your clone test," replied Naruto after a few moments of careful thought, and realizing that with his newly discovered shadow clone kamikaze bombs, that generic B-rank bomb jutsu wouldn't be too helpful anyway and was also very curious about what his sensei thought could be that significant to his growth.

"Good choice Naruto ...see, I knew you weren't a dobe," came the eye-smiling reply from Kakashi, even as he insulted his student and tried to get a rise out of him to see what he would do.

"I'm not a dobe," came the grumbled retort from Naruto, who simply glared at his sensei in challenge as he waited for what the silver haired jonin had in mind for this experiment, but didn't react any other way.

"Good," answered Kakashi with a small nod of approval, "now tomorrow I am going to bring some chakra paper to help determine your elemental chakra affinity, but before that I was hoping to run a clone experiment to see if we can't determine your elemental affinity through hard work."

"I'm not sure I understand sensei?" came the questioning voice of the younger ninja as he tried to recall everything he knew about elemental chakra, which wasn't much.

"Each of the five main elements has an elemental exercise for beginners to start getting a feel for the elemental chakra within them, they usually start with their primary affinity, mine is Lightning. We can determine yours with the chakra paper I will bring tomorrow, but we may also be able to determine your affinity through trial and error," continued the silver haired jonin to the now wide eyed younger ninja who was starting to understand what his sensei was aiming at. "Because of your clones and massive chakra reserves, you can practice these five beginner exercises simultaneously and separately, and we can use your progress and growth in any of the elements to get an idea for what may be your affinity, as it will always be easier to work with an element your are in tune with or have an affinity for, and likewise harder to work with it's opposing element."

"So if I had a fire affinity, I would get those exercises quickest and the water ones slowest?" asked Naruto, trying to ensure he understood completely and starting to realize how helpful this could be if he learned about all five elemental affinities.

"You got it," replied Kakashi with his customary eye smile. "Now let's start with 50 clones, 10 for each element and we'll go through the exercises."

For the next half an hour, Kakashi shows Naruto and his clones all five of the beginning elemental leaf exercises several times. Trying to burn the leaf for Fire, cut the leaf for Wind, crumble the leaf for Earth, electrocute the leaf for Lightning, and soak the leaf for Water. Kakashi demonstrated each one, though he struggled with Water, as he was a primary Lightning with a Fire secondary, Naruto was able to see the results and learn the little tricks that each element seemed to have. Air needed to be grinded down almost like the sharp side of a blade, Water needed to be saturated from surrounding water molecules, Lightning needed that static charge, Fire needed to be rubbed together and fed oxygen, Earth needed to be broken down into dirt.

When Kakashi left him to his own training to check on the other two, Naruto couldn't stop the grin that was forming on his face as he realized how helpful these exercises were towards the next big building block of any ninja's arsenal, elemental attacks. Deciding to speed this step along a bit, he created another 500 clones and split them into five even teams to keep everything fair, and had them join their fellows in practicing until they dropped. Naruto himself took a turn trying each of the beginning leaf exercises to see how little progress had been made with each of the elements and realized that this might take some serious time and work.

After today's mission, tilling a farmer's field on the east side of the village, the three genin separated for their own homes and lives, or more training for the two boys of the team. While Sasuke predictably returned to his compound's own private training grounds, Naruto didn't immediately head to dinner or another training ground but looked around to make sure he was alone before disappearing down into the nearest sewer manhole. Once down there, he used his own memories of countless clone explorers to navigate his way throughout the village's sewer system, until he came upon a different set of tunnels that also crisscrossed the entire village and led to many very interesting and strategic points throughout Konoha.

Knowing that most of these tunnels were completely abandoned from the lack of any signs of use, Naruto was happily planning out where and how to grow his small but growing empire and utilize these to avoid the general population. Finding a large open cavernous underground room not too far from his apartment complex, he decides to start building it out into a hidden training ground for him to practice away from any prying eyes. Spawning almost 1400 plus clones now, he set them all to work on cleaning out and organizing the tunnel system and building the new underground training center and the protections he wanted put in place because of where it was.

Heading back towards Ichiraku's Ramen stand, Naruto was happy to discover another entrance into his secret tunnel system only a couple hundred yards from his favorite place to eat, and knew that route was going to become very popular very quickly. That night, Naruto set about making a fourth blood clone, knowing that they were simply too valuable not to exploit as a resource for gathering more information, money, and skills and realized that he probably needed to start increasing his organizational efficiency as well. With that in mind he decided to give each blood clone a specific function within his growing organization, to make sure everything was getting covered and accomplished that he wanted.

Blood Clone Number One (BC1) was going to be the overseer and run his underground training facility, and be responsible for organizing training areas and keeping up on learning new skills and strengthening those he already knew. Inside this department would also be Research & Development for new jutsu, and pretty much everything related to training in the ninja life. BC2 was in charge of the civilian side of things, and was responsible for keeping up with the many civilian working clones they had throughout Konoha in order to increase the money coming in, and looking for ways to grow that even further, as he had ideas to maybe start a civilian business, and would also be responsible for all the accounting and business ventures his clones got involved in.

BC3 and BC4 were the information gathering clones who doubled as the Genjutsu Dispelling team, as their main function was to both keep every clone and the original up to date with information and continue to search out new sources of learning and information gathering. Eventually this would be the center of his spy network once they had exhausted all the libraries and learning available inside Konoha. But for now, they were working on the Library infiltration project, and had even sent out a scout team to start investigating his teammates' compound in the hopes he might one day get invited or have to sneak inside the Uchiha Library.

He was distracted as he readied himself for bed, by the elemental training clones successfully completing the first of the five beginner leaf training exercises, with Wind. He wondered if what Kakashi believed was true, then that meant his primary affinity was Wind, and he could honestly say that he was happy to have something relatively unique, especially in Fire Country. Luckily he already had the shadow clones, as Wind was the only element without a defined elemental clone that he knew of anyway, and wondered if that was something he should look into. Deciding to bring it up with Kakashi tomorrow, he reviewed the five beginner exercises he had been working on, and could tell that he had progressed in most of the others as well and couldn't wait to see the fruits it bore.

When Naruto woke up that next morning, still relatively early in order to meet with the Green Beasts of Taijutsu practice, he could instantly tell that today was going to be a great one as he reviewed the thousands of memories he collected throughout the night. Apparently, both the Water and Earth beginner leaf exercises had also now been completed by his clones, and he had even started to make some progress on the other two, though neither was close to completion as the other three now were. Earth and Water were both very balanced with both offensive and defensive capabilities, and he thought they would be a great compliment to his primary Wind affinity. Now having done the exercise successfully for three of the elements, Naruto was easily able to tell the difference between his affinity for each of the three as both Water and Earth chakra seemingly fought him a little still, while Wind practically leapt out of him eagerly.

Emboldened by his success, Naruto gathered his chakra for a larger than normal clone creation, and was rewarded with almost 1500 clones emerging throughout his apartment complex, that he quickly sent off to join with the BC1 training. He then left for his own training with the Green Beasts, which he felt was really going well lately, as he and Lee were starting to push each other now that he had seemingly caught up enough to provide the bowl cut boy an actual challenge. His own taijutsu style that was an incorporated mixture of Guy's goken style with several elements of the Uchiha interceptor style, and even several elements of Kushina Uzumaki's own familial style she brought to Konoha from Uzushio that seemed to work really well for the young blond, though he didn't know about that part yet.

"Hey Naruto," called Guy once said blond arrived at Training Ground Nine, where the Green Beasts usually practiced and trained, and only saw the older jonin there waiting with a large scroll across his back. "Sorry for the late notice, but my team is taking a C-Rank mission today out of the village and I wanted to give you some things to work on while I was gone."

"Oh, no worries sensei," responded Naruto, understanding the need for mission priority, "what did you have for me to work on?"

"This is the complete set of taijutsu scrolls I created of the Hariken Style, also known as the Hurricane Style of Uzushiogakure," began Guy seriously as he watched the young blond genin for any reaction to the name, knowing he would be dropping some information on the young orphan that would potentially change his life, but felt the young man deserved it for all the hard work he had put in recently.

"Uzushiogakure?" asked Naruto with a confused face as he tried to remember or place the Village Hidden by Whirling Tides, and not coming up with anything, other than assuming it was part of Kirigakure.

"The Village Hidden by Whirling Tides ...or Whirlpool," came the response from Guy, "a village once allied with Konoha, it's spiral symbol is still part of our crest, they were known as Masters of Fuinjutsu and their people well respected for their skills, potent chakra, and longevity of life."

"Okay," answered Naruto, still somewhat confused about the information he was being given and feeling like he was missing something very important about it, "why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because, the other important detail of Uzushiogakure, that is most relevant to you, Naruto," continued Guy seriously, "...was the ruling clan of the village was the Uzumaki Clan."

Naruto's whole body instantly froze the moment Guy mentioned the name Uzumaki, and he couldn't move as thousands of thoughts raced through his mind in seconds. He came from a Clan, he had a family, a history, a connection, were there more Uzumaki's out there, why hadn't he heard of Uzushiogakure before now? It was almost overwhelming to the young genin as his thoughts went all over the place trying to understand why he was only learning about this now, and who else knew about and kept this information from him.

"I created this scroll from my own observations watching this style, as I had the pleasure of an Uzumaki leading my genin team," continued Guy quietly and with concerned eyes as he watched the young orphan try to come to grips with everything he was learning, and seemed to be struggling with it all and knew his next words would be an even bigger shock to the young ninja. "I owe your mother more than I can ever repay, Naruto. Know that if you ever need anything of me, you need only ask. And when I get back, if you can show me you are serious about learning the Hariken style ...I'll tell you everything I know about Kushina Uzumaki, the Red Hot Habanero and the previous jinkurichi of the Kyuubi."

Naruto was beyond stunned at this point, as he was assaulted with thoughts and fears he had dreamed about and wished for longer than any other dream or desire he could ever remember. He was finally going to learn something about his mom, his Clan, and his birthright, and he couldn't believe it was finally happening after so long of being alone in Konoha, and knew now why he always felt so connected to the spiral symbol of his village that doubled as the symbol of his Clan. He wondered if this meant that others knew about his mother too, and also why he was only now being told about her, and not even by the Hokage who he had asked several times about his parents.

Realizing that he was starting to get mad at all the unanswered questions he had, and all the information that was apparently being withheld from him, he quickly tried to calm down and thank Guy who at least was willing to provide some of that information, even if he wished he had been told previously. His mom was a jounin of Konoha and a jinkurichi to the Kyuubi, she also came from the ruling Clan of Uzushiogakure, and he couldn't wait to learn everything he could about her.

"Thank you Guy-sensei," came Naruto's first words after several long moments of trying to get his composure, despite a few tears seemingly finding their way down his cheeks, as he bowed deeply to the green clad shinobi he could honestly say had been one of the most helpful and honest he had ever worked under and was proud to consider his teacher and friend. "I won't forget your kindness, and would very much like to know more about her whenever you are available."

"You got it, Naruto," answered Guy with a beaming wide smile that instantly lifted Naruto's spirits and made him realize how much lighter he felt now knowing anything about one of his parents, and had him gladly return the megawatt grin to Guy. "When I return from this mission, I'll set aside some training time for us to talk about her ...you really do remind me a lot about her."

"Thanks Guy-sensei," responded Naruto thoughtfully and earnestly.

"See you in a few days then young Naruto," replied Guy easily, "keep up the practice ...and I think you are really going to take to that taijutsu style."

"Yes sir," came the determined, yet still somewhat emotional voice of Naruto, who just found a connection to his mother that he was eagerly looking forward to learning and incorporating into his own style.

With his normal morning routine disrupted by Guy's and his team leaving the village for a few days, Naruto decided that there was no time like the present to get started on something that connected him to his mother and his Clan, and it was vital he learned it immediately. So he spawned a dozen clones to read over the taijutsu scrolls several times before he started at the beginning, going through all of the various forms and exercises until they came to him easily before moving on to the next. Over the next few hours, Naruto methodically tore through the taijutsu scroll prepared by Guy, committing every movement to memory and increasing the amount of clones steadily until he had over 100 working exclusively on incorporating these new moves into his already hodgepodge form.

By the time for him to get a late breakfast, so he could continue with his day as usual, he had already gone through the entire scroll once and couldn't wait to keep practicing the new style that seemed much more natural to Naruto than anything he had used earlier. Having a quick meal, he then rushed to Training Ground Seven to find his teammates waiting for him to start their chakra control practice while they waited for Kakashi to appear. Sasuke actually asked Naruto for a hint about Tree Climbing, and the blond easily replied with everything he learned about how much chakra to use and how to fortify your body with chakra as you climbed higher in the trees as the pressure increased on your limbs.

He then helped Sakura get a little bit more steady on the Water Walking exercise she was currently working on, glad to see her still trying to train and improve a little and knowing she had a long way to go until she was really helpful to the team. With them taken care of, Naruto spawned a bunch of his own clones before setting them up to continue working on elemental chakra control, knowing how important the building blocks of great elemental attacks were going to be long term. He divided the clones evenly and put them back to work on the beginning stages of all five elemental training exercises, to increase his familiarity with his expected Affinity for Wind, and his seeming secondary affinities for Water and Earth, while still trying to complete the Lightning and Fire exercises before Kakashi arrived for daily training.

"Yo!" greeted the lazy silver haired one-eyed jounin as he arrived via shunshin in a swirl of leaves, interrupting the three practicing genin for a moment until telling them to continue with their current activities as he would come around and offer help and direction for the next steps.

Starting with Sasuke, who was now getting the hang of the Tree Climbing exercise, and only needed to perfect it before moving on to the next. He then went to Sakura, who was now able to stand on her own above the water, as long as she didn't move too much and tried to help with hints to keep up the practice. By the time he reached Naruto, he was able to tell that the young ninja had succeeded several times over on his task of learning the basic elemental exercises and asked his student what he thought of each element now.

"Wind is definitely the easiest, I was able to figure that one out within an hour of starting," answered Naruto with a happy grin on his flushed face. "Water came next, with Earth not far behind it ...sometime this morning my clones figured them out. I feel pretty close to getting Fire, but I don't know if I will ever get Lightning and even Fire doesn't feel completely natural."

"Hmm," came a thoughtful hum from Kakashi, "I wonder if your tenant isn't responsible for the unnatural Fire element ...it would definitely make sense that the Fox had a Fire affinity. It would also maybe explain the unnaturalness of it compared to the elements you were able to work."

"I never thought of that, do you think it's possible?" asked Naruto curiously, not knowing what went into the elemental affinities, and figuring he should probably try to find out, as it may be family related and something he shared with his unknown father or the recently learned of Kushina Uzumaki, and therefore very important to him on a personal level.

"It's definitely possible," answered Kakashi honestly, "Jinkurichi have always carried over a bit of their demon, or more accurately, their youkai (demonic chakra) bleeds through any host to sometimes very specific effects. I am pretty sure the One-Tailed Tanuuki comes with a fundamental and almost in-born control over sand ...it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the Kyuubi also manifested in specific ways in it's hosts."

"Do you know how it manifested in Kushina Uzumaki?" asked Naruto slowly and very carefully, having not thought he would have the chance to bring up his recently learned about mother, but wanting to know both if she manifested any of the Kyuubi's traits and if Kakashi knew her or would talk about her to him.

"Where did you hear that name?" asked a suddenly still and almost panicking Kakashi, as memories he had long since buried came to the forefront of his thoughts and her visage superimposed itself over her equally loud and energetic son, causing him to almost choke up and look away from the boy that so resembled Kushina and Minato, his hero and sensei, that it was an almost painful physical reminder of everything he had lost.

"Your Rival, Guy-sensei told me a little about her this morning before leaving on a C-Rank mission with his team," answered Naruto slowly and carefully, not wanting to upset his jounin sensei, as he realized from the man's reaction, that he did in fact know Kushina and probably even more than he expected. "Did you know her as well?"

"Yes Naruto ...I knew her," sighed Kakashi in defeat, as his whole body seemed to sag in depression, and Naruto realized that his sensei's memories of her might not be all that positive, and that for some reason made him nervous, not wanting to learn that his mom wasn't as amazing as he dreamed and believed. "But now isn't the time to talk about the past," he continued reluctantly after a moment's pause, "...after our mission today, I'll tell you a few stories I have."

Naruto was beyond excited to potentially learn even more about his recently discovered mother, but even he could plainly see the topic was not a happy one for his jounin sensei, and wondered what about his mother that saddened and upset the usually lazy and unflappable Kakashi Hatake. Hopefully, some answers would come this afternoon, and at least he now knew something about his mother, and it filled him with a previously unfelt feeling of pride, and a need to prove himself as a good successor in both his Clan family and in hosting the Kyuubi. He had always wondered who his parents were, and why he wasn't allowed to even know of them as he grew up alone and unloved, and craving the love and care usually only spared by parents.

Now, armed with just the basics of knowledge of who his mother was, and already he felt infinitely better with a strong sense of connection to this person that shared his burden of the Kyuubi, and couldn't wait to learn everything he could about her. He made a mental note / command to his hundreds of clones running around to start searching for any information they could find on Kushina, the Uzumaki Clan, Uzushiogakure, and Jinkurichi in general. With his thoughts still running around in his head, he tried to put it all to the side so he could instead focus on his sensei who was standing right in front of him, handing over a small scrap of clean white paper.

"Here Naruto," started Kakashi once he noticed that his young student was back to listening and paying attention, "this is the Chakra Paper I was telling you about. Just push some chakra into it, and we will wait and see what your elemental affinity is. It reacts differently to every element, so let's see if your training was correct about your affinities?"

Naruto eagerly grabbed the Chakra Paper and sent his chakra into it causing an instant reaction that had him dropping the paper almost as fast as he grabbed it. The paper instantly split in half rather violently, with one side slowly crumbling to dust as the other was slowly saturated with water, confirming his estimates about his affinities exactly. With that out of the way, Kakashi tried to help with the last two elemental affinities, but quickly told Naruto to just continue working on the basic exercises, if he ever wanted to incorporate Lightning and Fire jutsu's in his arsenal and that the next step in all the elemental training would come soon.

He then instructed Naruto about the exhibition match he was to have the following day in Training Ground 7, against a chunin opponent he expected Naruto to beat if he came at him like he did that first day for the bell test. Naruto asked if he could prepare the area with traps like he did against his jounin instructor, but was told that he wouldn't be allowed to prepare, as that would give him an unfair advantage that he wouldn't even need. The silver haired jounin also told him to lower his weights, if not completely remove them so he could fight at a faster / chunin level and also to start getting used to moving at faster speeds.

"If you show me you are ready, I'll take your training up a notch after this exhibition fight," added Kakashi to the excitedly happy Naruto, who couldn't wait until his training was taken up a notch by his jounin instructor. "Just remember to try your best, and make Guy and I proud."

"Yes sensei," mumbled a slightly embarrassed Naruto, who was unaccustomed to people rooting for him, and not used to other's support or offering him help in the past, and wanted to prove his teacher's faith in him wasn't misplaced. "I'll be ready."

"I know you will Naruto," added Kakashi with his usual eye smile, as he nodded at his younger blonde student with a growing smirk on his hidden face at the thought of the Dead Last crushing a career chunin in just over a month of real training, and what he was going to do with all the money he won off of Ebisu, dreaming already of the newest Ichi Ichi Paradise Gold Edition, he was saving up for. "Now, go get some lunch and meet back at the Mission Office in one hour for our afternoon chores."

Chapter 6: Fights & Explanations

Naruto woke up the morning of his planned fight against a chunin of Konohagakure with a spring in his step, and a lightness on his heart that wasn't there yesterday. Kakashi had kept true to his words, and after their afternoon mission, cleaning the Inuzuka kennels, took Naruto to a ninja bar where the young blonde got his first taste of sake and the promised stories of his mother. He learned a bit about her history, and about the village she came from Uzushiogakure, who also happened to provide the First Hokage's wife Mito Uzumaki, and the first jinkurichi of the Kyuubi.

He learned that Kushina Uzumaki was very loud and brash, much like him, with an equally uncontrollable verbal tick and more energy than any two people combined. She loved ramen and pulling pranks, was a serious sword mistress, and not someone people ever wanted to mess with, earning herself two very distinguishable and accurate nicknames; "The Red-Hot Habanero" and "The Red Death." She was an above average Fuinjutsu user, as most Uzumaki's are naturally, and had a very unique bloodline that allowed her to use Adamantium Sealing Chains she sprouted from her back that were strong enough to actually hold down the Kyuubi in a limited fashion.

That last part about her bloodline was somewhat shocking, and it made Naruto wonder if he could ever activate the Adamantium Sealing Chains, and resolved himself to getting even better at Fuinjutsu to give him the best possible chance to succeed. He was also pretty sure his clan did in fact have another bloodline, as they seemed to be the only family used to seal the Kyuubi, and he wondered if that had to do with the potent chakra and longevity of life that Guy mentioned ran in his clan. Just more things to look up and research to determine the truth, and now with the added knowledge of Kushina, he was even more motivated to get started.

But first, he needed to prepare for a fight against a chunin opponent he hadn't yet been introduced to, and for what purpose exactly he wasn't completely sure but trusted Kakashi enough. Getting up and spamming his usual mass of over 1500 clones, he set them about their usual training tasks with the added instructions to prioritize learning about Kushina, the Uzumaki Clan, and Uzushiogakure. Since the Green Beasts were still currently out of the village on their C-Rank mission, Naruto didn't have to meet up with anyone and started his usual morning workout knowing it was really helping him improve and get stronger.

By the time he ate breakfast, and made his way towards Training Ground 7, Naruto could already see several people present including to his absolute shock, the perpetually late Kakashi and the Hokage himself, Sarutobi Hiruzen. He also recognized Kurenai Yuhi and Sarutobi Asuma, the jounin leaders of Teams 8 and 10 respectively, fortunately without their students since it was still pretty early. The other group of unknowns contained five people; an attractive and half-naked purple haired woman in fishnets and a trench coat, another attractive dark brown haired feral looking young woman with red Inuzuka Clan markings on her cheeks that looked a bit like Kiba, a tall slender ninja in all dark blue almost black clothes and bandana with silly round sunglasses on his uptight looking face, and finally a pair of goof offs Naruto knew as the "Gate Guards" Izumo and Kotetsu.

He knew both chunin "Gate Guards" relatively well, having often been the subjects of one of Naruto's many pranks over the years, and were two of the more relaxed and laid back of his usual chunin pursuers, often finding his pranks really funny. He could tell just from looking though, that one of them was going to be his opponent today, as none of the other observers seemed to be getting ready for a fight, and was somewhat apprehensive about fighting a known chunin. He knew Kotetsu was the lazier of the pair, but was also the stronger Genjutsu user, one of his untested weaknesses and wondered if he was going to be testing his Blood Clones re-spawning ability to truly keep Genjutsu from invading his ever changing chakra system.

"Ah Naruto," spoke the Hokage loudly, once he saw the approaching genin and getting everyone to turn their attention to the young blond, and causing most of them who hadn't seen him in weeks to do a double take thinking they were seeing the Fourth Hokage in front of them. "Glad you made it on time," he continued with a pointed look at a suddenly sheepish looking Kakashi, who just bowed his head and pretended to disappear.

"Let me guess, he was going to be late," replied Naruto with a laugh as he nodded towards Kakashi, "and you made sure he was here on time?"

"Can't have him miss his student's first triumph against a superior opponent," came the quick response from the village leader, "especially when he was the one to offer the challenge."

"Dattebayo Jiji," shouted Naruto with a fist pump, happy for the encouragement from the old man, and hoping to show everyone just what he was already capable of. "So which is it going to be," he continued as he turned towards the two "Gate Guards" with a wide grin on his whiskered face and saw them both looking at him in a little shock and starting to feel excited about the upcoming fight, "...Izumo? ...Kotetsu? ...both?"

"BOTH?" shouted Ebisu incredulously, before he began mock laughing in a very condescending way, "please ...this useless genin has no chance against either of them ...let alone BOTH!"

Naruto had in fact had similar doubts himself just this morning, wondering why he was fighting against a chunin already, not thinking he was anywhere near ready, but after seeing the two "Gate Guards" he knew relatively well, he was less worried about being beaten and growing more excited for the chance to go up against a strong opponent and leave it all on the line. For some uptight prick to laugh and insult him like that however, really upset him and had him narrowing his eyes and growling at the sunglasses wearing idiot he was about to make eat his words, as he started gathering chakra at levels few of those present had witnessed first hand.

"Why shouldn't the two of them fight together?" started Naruto in a slow grinding voice as more and more chakra gathered around him, now visibly glowing to the stunned and wide eyed spectators, as even more chakra was still building at unheard of levels for any genin. "I'll be fighting with my friends," continued Naruto as he brought his hands together in the cross seal in preparation for a mass shadow clone summon and just held them there as he continued to pump even more chakra, now reaching beyond kage levels and still growing.

"Holy Shit," came the fearful voice of the purple haired observer, as she and the female Inuzuka both retreated several hundred yards further away from Izumo and Kotetsu, not wanting to be anywhere near whatever was about to go down, but also not even blinking, in fear that they would miss this epic moment.

"Number One unpredictable ninja, indeed," came the softly spoken words of the Hokage, as he and Kakashi both retreated as well to a safer distance from the center of Naruto's mass Shadow Clone explosion to come, both grinning in excitement at their young friend's growing skill and power.

"Uhhhh …," came the mumbled and shocked monosyllabic response to the largest amount of chakra Ebisu had ever witnessed being gathered, as he stood wide eyed staring at the small blond kid that better resembled the Yellow Flash at this moment than anything he had ever seen. Ebisu only had time to cringe in the next moment as an explosion of chakra that would probably be felt in the Fire Country Capital saturated everything in a two mile radius and filled everyone's vision with the thickest smoke imaginable. Time seemed to freeze as the chakra saturated and settled over everything within the blast radius, and for several moments nobody moved or knew what exactly had happened, all except for one young blond ninja who could only smirk at what he had managed to accomplish.

It took almost ten seconds for the wind the completely clear away the dense smoke that filled every inch of the Training Ground, and in its place left no square inch uncovered in the clones of one Naruto Uzumaki, all of whom had their eyes focused on the two shivering chunin practically hugging one another in support. Without being able to actually count, Naruto guessed that he had almost doubled his largest ever spamming of clones, as he had to be close to having 3000 clones filling up every square inch of Training Ground Seven. With the two chunin on the back foot, and still in shock from the massive amount of chakra used, Naruto was able to quickly attack them both with the nearest two dozen clones, and quickly had them both overwhelmed and tied up with their chakra sealed in under five seconds.

"That takes care of the chunin ...want to see how I fare against a jounin?" asked the closest Naruto to the still wide eyed and open mouthed Ebisu, as he watched in shock as the blond demon easily dispatched the two chunin like it wasn't even a challenge, and wondered how the hell Naruto grew so strong so quickly, having been the laughing stock Dead last barely over a month ago.

Ebisu wasn't however given much time to understand what was happening next, as he was instantly being set upon by a horde of blondes for the next five minutes. Ebisu could barely breath as he fought off wave after wave of Naruto clones, coming at him in small coordinated groups with attacking taijutsu and ninjutsu in support and in very large continuous numbers. The older sunglasses wearing ninja then tried similar tactics that Kakashi had used during the bell test, first using shunshin which didn't escape the notice of so many Naruto clones filling the entirety of the Training Ground they were using, and then trying to combat shadow clones with elemental and a single shadow clones of his own while the original Ebisu went underground to recover. He was therefore not at all prepared for the Echolocation jutsu Naruto used to continually harass and hound him every time he stopped to take a breath and gave him no rest anywhere in the Training Ground.

Ebisu was then forced to keep fighting as continuous waves of Naruto attackers kept coming, and knew he was quickly running out of energy and wouldn't be able to last much longer. He knew he needed to come up with something to combat the young stamina freak, or he would never live down the humiliation of this defeat, and therefore decided to try his favorite larger scale jutsu. Hoping the Fire Dragon Bullets he was most comfortable using, would cut down the overwhelming numbers Naruto still had to his advantage, but wasn't sure if he would have the chakra to outlast everyone of the demon's infernal clones. For the next ten minutes, Ebisu was able to slowly start taking out small groups of clones with his Fire technique, but Naruto was smart enough to keep his clones farther apart and in smaller more manageable groups so he never lost too many too quickly, all the while continuously hounding Ebisu and keeping him on the back foot.

At the half hour mark from the start, Naruto's clones had been reduced down to almost 1000 remaining, but Ebisu was at that point on his last leg chakra and endurance wise and was really struggling to keep the latest waves of Naruto clones from overwhelming him. In a last ditch effort to protect himself, he created a ten foot dome of solid earth, and tried to hunker down to outlast the continuous waves of clone fighters. The older Tokubetsu Jounin, couldn't actually believe it, that the Dead Last Demon container had grown so strong so quickly, but the proof was in front of him and his spamming of shadow clones was obviously the reason for the accelerated growth and just hoped his Earth Dome would hold out for a few minutes to catch his breath and come up with something else to turn this fight to his advantage.

Naruto, however, was not going to waste any time or give the older ninja any chance to rest, and started sending explosive clones armed with homemade explosive notes, completely covering the dome before detonating. Destroying the Earth Chakra construct protecting his opponent in a concussive explosion that instantly knocked out Ebisu, caused all those watching to realize that Naruto just beat a Tokubetsu Jounin, who while not known as super elite himself, was no pushover. They also realized that had Naruto used the Clone Great Explosion at the start with his 3000 plus clones, he could have leveled half of Konoha, and that he definitely needed to be taken seriously as an up and coming ninja of great promise, just as the Third Hokage predicted.

"Very well done, Naruto," praised Hiruzen with an affectionate smile directed towards the young blond bundle of energy, whose clones were already cleaning up all the weapons and putting the training ground back to normal before they disappeared into the surrounding wooded area to continue with whatever they did all day. "It's not every day a new genin can take on and defeat a pair of chunin or a tokubetsu jounin ...even if it was in a controlled friendly spar."

"Not every day?!" came the sarcastic reply from the purple haired woman, as she eyed the younger blond like a piece of meat, "with that chakra and those shadow clones ...he could probably take on a few jounin and walk away."

"With those shadow clones …," came the low and almost quiet reply from the stunned Inuzuka girl, who was still wide eyed and staring at the impossible feat she just witnessed, "he could do anything, learn everything, become unstoppable."

Her gaze sort of blanked out at that point as she imagined all the things someone with that much chakra and that many shadow clones could accomplish. He was a literal one man army, an unrivaled communication center, an infiltrator's or scout's dream, and with the time divided by thousands ...he could accomplish anything he dedicated his time or clones to. The fact that he was pretty damn hot too didn't hurt, she thought to herself before she realized what she was thinking and began blushing slightly as impure thoughts went through her mind about the young ninja her brother's age.

"I just wonder if that stamina translates to the bedroom?" came the somewhat lecherous question from her purple haired friend next to her, and making her choke at the bluntness of Anko, "and all those expendable clones ...talk about a fascinating fucktoy."

"Anko," half growled half groaned Hana Inuzuka, well used to the other woman's overly sexual behavior and mouth, but at the moment not helping her remove the previous images she had of the young blond ninja that only increased her blush and imagination, and had her purple haired friend laughing at her embarrassment.

"Can someone untie us?" came a shout from the almost forgotten about Kotetsu, as he remained hogtied on the ground next to his best friend with chakra seals closing them off to their chakra and any way to escape.

"And get rid of these fucking seals?" came Izumo's frustrated yell right afterwards. "They're messing with my chakra and making my skin itch!"

"Oh ...haha ...um ...that's actually the itching powder I put on those seals," chuckled Naruto with a sheepish grin directed at the two tied up and twitching chunin, making several of the watching ninja double over in laughter.

"Sorry, let me get rid of those for you," continued Naruto as a pair of shadow clones appeared in front of each of the "Gate Guards" and quickly had the seals removed from their necks, and after a small application of chakra had them recharged and were pocketing them when Izumo asked him something.

"Wait ...did you make those seals?" asked the older dark haired chunin with a slight gleam in his eye as he thought of how nice it would be to be able to seal off someone's chakra so completely they were practically useless.

"Sure did," replied Naruto quickly and with a pleased smile. "Here," he added, having the clones hold out the recharged seals to their victims, "you can have them as an apology for the itching powder ...and no hard feelings right?"

"Not at all my man," responded Izumo giddily as he stared wide eyed at the chakra seal in utter fascination.

"I can make more if you're willing to pay?" added Naruto, seeing an easy returning customer in front of him, and just genuinely liking the pair, "and explosive notes, and storage scrolls for now."

"Really?" asked Kotetsu, who while not as expressive over the chakra seals, was still very much excited for the chance to get good sealing stuff at probably much more reasonable prices than they overcharged at any of the stores in the village, and was pleased when the blond haired kid nodded.

"I bet you could sell those seals for some serious money kid," came the impressed sounding deep voice of Asuma Sarutobi, "I know Itoi Higurashi is always looking for explosive notes and storage seals to sell in his store."

"Hmm," came Naruto's thoughtful hum as he thought about how many seals he could make and sell to really build up a nice savings, "that could definitely work ...thanks Asuma-sensei."

Naruto had quickly come to realize that with hundreds of clones running around all the time, that he went through resources very quickly even with the shadow clones replicating with the same storage scrolls and gear on them as the original. While they didn't need to eat, several of his clones had to last for long periods of time, either henged as others or as himself, that he often found his clones eating and trying different restaurants around the village. Naruto knew that most of his infiltration clones he had around the village, acting as civilians with regular jobs and frequent trips to the library, had to maintain their cover, and therefore didn't bother with the added meal expenses but it was definitely putting pressure on his finances even with all the extra D-Rank missions and training ground clearing of forgotten weapons.

If he could start mass producing his seals for reselling, then he could really start putting away some money for some of his more expensive desires and dreams. His newest one came in just the last day, after learning about his mother and her Clan, something he now felt was his responsibility to continue and grow. If he wanted to do that, he would need some serious money to get a Clan compound and start building wealth to be better prepared for everything that would entail.

What exactly that would entail however, did not bear thinking about at this moment, as while now legally considered an adult as a ninja, he knew he wasn't ready for relationships and especially marriage or kids. But, that didn't mean he couldn't start planning for that eventual inevitability by gathering resources to himself, and he realized that those resources needed to be more than just money. Clans had libraries of knowledge and techniques, vaults filled with valuables and weaponry, and all seemed to do or provide some service back to the village.

"You still with us Naruto?" asked the kind voice of the Third Hokage, interrupting the young blond's thoughts and reminding him that he wasn't alone.

"Ha ha ...um ...yeah, sorry Jiji," responded Naruto sheepishly, "what was the question?"

"Ms. Yuhi asked how many clones do you usually train with per day?" came the smiling voice of the Village leader, curious himself having watched his favorite blond on occasion but not fully keeping track of his complete movements.

"Um ...just train with ...probably three to four thousand a day," came the honest response after the young ninja thought about his average day as of late, and completely missing the complete shock of everyone present and the curious looks from the Hokage and Kakashi who both noticed the unusually specific wording Naruto used.

"And how many total shadow clones do you make a day?" asked the Hokage once everyone else settled down, and had the others realize what was being asked and quickly understood what it meant by asking a very similar but differently worded question.

"Ummm," came Naruto's somewhat far away voice, as he both contemplated telling the truth or maybe using a technicality in the wording as he did in the first instance to not mention the blood clones level of clone production as well.

"Is this a conversation you would be more comfortable having in my office?" came the knowledgeable question from the Hokage, having successfully read that something more than what was on the surface was happening here, and wanted to get to the bottom of whatever was going on in Naruto's life. "Kakashi, maybe you could join us if that's okay with you Naruto?" and after a look shared between the two mentioned got a nod in reply. "Good. Then, the rest of you are responsible for getting Ebisu checked out at the hospital before returning to your scheduled duties."

"Yes sir," "Yes Hokage," came the numerous replies of everyone present, before they were left in Training Ground Seven with an unconscious and most likely inconsolable Tokubetsu Jounin to take to hospital, and an incredibly talented blond genin to gossip about.

Naruto appeared in a shunshin right in front of the Hokage's desk, before collapsing in the chair he usually occupied when visiting with his favorite person in Konoha and watched as his jounin sensei arrived right behind him and stood at attention in front of the Village leader's desk. Hiruzen Sarutobi, the elderly Third Hokage appeared behind his desk, and like Naruto was quick to sit in his chair, but obviously with a lot more dignity than the young ninja used. He motioned Kakashi to sit and relax, as with most things related to Naruto, there was no formality and Kakashi wasn't surprised in the least.

"Now Naruto," came the inquiring voice of the elderly Hokage as he looked at the slightly guilty or maybe apprehensive looking Naruto, "tell me what's going on?"

"Well …" he started uneasily with glances towards the old man and his silver haired sensei, "I am using a LOT more clones, but I wasn't lying about me only training myself with about 3 to 4 thousand."

"Ok," answered the Hokage slowly, trying to piece together that statement, "so then, how many clones are you creating every day and what are you having the non-training ones doing?"

"Hehe ...um, I spam about 1500 clones every two to three hours all day every day, minus the five hours of sleep I need ...so between 9000 to 14,000 a day then. But, ...um, I also created four Fuinjutsu reinforced blood clones from a scroll I found hidden in the chunin library awhile ago, and they have been maintaining a slightly slower pace but still anywhere between 5000 to 10,000 a day," replied Naruto, who stopped at that point as both the Hokage and Kakashi were looking at him in absolute wide-eyed shock.

"You are the new civilian labor force that has shown up in the village over the last two weeks?" asked the elderly Hokage after a moment of silence where he realized what exactly Naruto was telling him, and was blown away, that the civilian labor force that recently showed up in town and his Civilian Council had been loudly complaining about their undercutting the established prices and businesses, was in fact his favorite unpredictable ninja doing something thought impossible.

"Well, I needed to start making money, and have excuses and backgrounds so I could visit the Civilian Library and learn the things I wanted," replied Naruto. "I originally was trying to use the blood clones as a way to maintain a constant flux of my chakra so that I would always be able to disrupt any genjutsu as that was definitely my biggest weakness after having that painfully pointed out by Iruka. But once they were created and performing that function, I didn't want them just sitting around constantly respawning clones to keep my chakra in constant flux, so I gave them all different roles to perform. Blood Clone 1 (BC1) is responsible for my underground training facility, basic training and research and development, while BC2 runs the civilian side of things and our finances. BC3 and BC4 are running my library infiltration projects, and will eventually grow into my information gathering network, and those two are the ones responsible for maintaining my chakra in flux."

"Holy shit," came Kakashi's stunned exclamation, finally starting to see how much Naruto had been growing, and wondering how good he could become with a little more direction or training, and deciding that he would be the one to help with that training.

"I assume your permanent henge is responsible for the thousands of new civilians that nobody recognizes, and who successfully infiltrated one of the five Great Ninja Villages," questioned Hiruzen with a hard look at the young blond ninja, wanting to show him the importance of something like this being made aware to him. "I have three teams of ANBU currently trying to spy on several of these unknown new civilians that have started jobs in more sensitive areas of the village's civilian government and main businesses ...maybe I should turn that assignment over to you."

"Yeah ...Squirrel, Crane, and Boar are useless at maintaining their secrecy or distance. I've got them and their teams all tagged with chakra sealing scripts and Naruto Clone bugs," laughed Naruto openly, and missing the look shared between Hokage and his former ANBU Commander and current jounin sensei to said blond headache. "Cat is the only one who sometimes surprises me anymore," he added offhandedly, which made his sensei straighten proudly, and said Cat ANBU currently hiding in the Hokage's office to smile proudly, though nobody witnessed it.

"And how long are these clones operating at all of these locations?" asked the Hokage, still trying to get a full picture of how much Naruto had accomplished in just over a month and a half of real training.

"Until they run out of chakra," he answered easily, "then they get reinforcements ...so most civilian clones can go a few days without needing to respawn ...I usually end up sending most clones to Research and Development and the Library Infiltration project at least until I get all the information I want."

"Yes, let's talk about that 'Library Infiltration Project' as you called it," continued the Hokage with a hard look at the blond ninja of his village that could easily be killed for spying and accessing areas he was not allowed, namely the chunin library he 'found' that blood clone scroll that actually happened to belong to his family, as the leading fuinjutsu clan in the Elemental Nations. "I assume that permanent henge of yours is what allows you to enter unnoticed?"

"Hehe ...yeah," added Naruto, knowing he wouldn't lie to the Hokage, having too much love and respect for one of the only people who had always tried to be there for him. "At first, I was just trying to catch up to everything I never learned at the Academy and I just kept learning more and getting better, and thought it was very helpful in my growth so I just continued with it. I was actually hoping to talk to you about whether I would be allowed to create my own Clan Library, now that I know a little about my Uzumaki heritage."

"You do?" asked a somewhat shocked Hokage, as he looked over at the silver haired ninja and received a quick no, "how?"

"Sensei Guy gave me his scrolls on the Hariken he learned from my mother," replied Naruto evenly and with a penetrating look at the elderly Hokage who always put off in answering any questions raised about his parents, "he also confirmed the burden I share with her, and another Uzumaki that is very important to this village's history ...though I would never have known based on anything I learned in the Academy about the First's wife or the sister Clan of the Senju."

"I see," replied Hiruzen with a bit of a defeated sigh, knowing how much the young man in front of him wanted to know about his parents all his life, and realizing that by not telling him, he had hurt the trust said young blond had in him and didn't like it in the least. "Naruto ...I am sorry for not telling you about your parents ...my only excuse is that I was trying to protect you and thought by keeping the truth from you I was doing just that. I in no way was trying to lie to you or keep those things from you for any reason other than your safety."

"Will you tell me about them now?" came the small voice of the twelve year old ninja, that really reminded the two older men in the room, that he was still a very young man with all the questions and insecurities that came with it.

"Yes," answered the old hokage honestly and with a small but genuine smile directed at the young ninja. "I think that would be really nice ...but I would also like to continue talking to you about all your clones, and even meet with these Blood Clones so I can get a better idea of your organization and what exactly you have already accomplished and hope to accomplish in the future. I'd also like to check out this underground training facility and I have some ideas and thoughts to discuss with you about your civilian infiltration."

"Okay Jiji," answered Naruto easily, "let's go check out my underground facility, you can meet all the blood clones and see everything for yourself ...and while we are there, maybe you can tell me a little bit more about my mom and my Clan?"

The three ninjas spent the next several hours together, and Naruto learned several facts and stories about his mother, her former village, and her Clan that filled him with wonder and a strong desire to restore and protect their memory and legacy. He was not told about the actual identity of his father, but was told that both the Hokage and Kakashi knew him well and respected him, and Naruto got a slight feeling that if he really thought about it for a bit, he could discover that information soon. Either way, the Hokage promised to tell him everything before the next scheduled chunin exams in about four month's time, of which he hinted that the young blond might be competing if his team was ready.

Naruto instantly promised that he would ensure that his team was ready for those exams, as he was ready to keep growing and pushing himself to get better, and knew challenging oneself was one of the best ways to really improve. That improvement he was already showing however, was readily apparent to the two senior ninjas as they were lead through a hidden underground entrance not too far at all from the Hokage Tower that stretched under Konoha and through a series of branching and reconnecting tunnels that seemingly went on for miles in almost every direction.

"My clones have mapped out almost 85% of these tunnels, there is one area in the northwest corner of Konoha that I haven't tried to penetrate due to all the protection seals but I know the tunnels continue through there," spoke Naruto at the time, "and I think the majority of these tunnels were part of Orochimaru's labs, as I've encountered several cleaned out and gutted old labs of questionable means. I left them alone and just cleaned out other areas for my own training areas."

That led to a quick detour through those old labs for Hiruzen to confirm they did in fact belong to his former student, and after getting that confirmation decided to have Naruto's clones tag and clean everything out. He would then have them write up a detailed report of all their findings as he couldn't afford to bring in too many people to these tunnels and it would act as a great test of Naruto's growing skills in other areas of espionage and information gathering needed to be a chunin. They then made it to the main underground training facility BC1 controlled, and even after hearing about the amount of Naruto clones created in a day, it wasn't anywhere as impactful as seeing nothing but Naruto in every direction for as far as they could see, working on every aspect of ninja life and all trying to improve with Naruto's boundless energy and determination to succeed in every single one of them.

"Hokage-sama," came a strong voice shortly after they arrived at the underground facility, where they all saw a kneeling Naruto that looked distinctly different from the original with a crew cut, but was still Naruto in every way. "It is our pleasure sir to welcome you to the Facility," he continued before rising back up, saluting his hokage, and introducing himself, "Blood Clone One at your service sir."

"Hehe ...the blood clones have all sort of adapted their personalities a bit to better take control of their respective duties," came the original Naruto's reply to the questioning looks from both Hiruzen Sarutobi and Kakashi, after looking at the overly militaristic version of Naruto before them. "We call him the General."

That introduction was followed with a quick tour of the many different areas of Naruto clones working on different skills, or perfecting those he already knew, and researching new things to incorporate into his fighting style. They saw the taijutsu teams, the ninjutsu teams, those working on hand seals, those dealing with all five elemental exercises, even a large group just getting started on sword training and handling. As they went further into the 'Facility' the groups of Naruto clones were working on less and less physical things, and were soon checking out the clones working on genjutsu, then Fuinjutsu which had its own little wing of the Facility dedicated to learning, practicing, and even researching and testing areas.

After the Fuinjutsu wing, as it was referred to by Naruto, they reached the Civilian Center as it was called, where there was much less movement overall, but still a large room with several workstations set up around the outside edges like booths at the market, to replicate different functions and jobs he had seen throughout the village. There were stations set up for tailors, shoe cobblers, fabric weavers, embroidery, pottery, cashiers, bakers, cooks, waiters, and laborers of almost every kind, it was it's own miniature version of the Konoha Market, manned completely by Naruto clones learning their trades and jobs in a "real life" training simulation. When they met BC2, they were reminded again of the very different personalities the blood clones exhibited that spoke to some aspect of Naruto's own personality.

"Welcome Hokage-sama and Hatake-san to the Civilian Learning Center, where we prepare clones for the jobs they will experience and also provide extra goods for our stores or to resell," came the flat voice of a smartly dressed Naruto blood clone, looking every bit the responsible civilian.

"Hello …," started the Hokage, before realizing he didn't know this clone's 'name' and just trailed off until it was filled in.

"This is C.C.," replied the original Naruto, "short for Civilian Commander."

"Very good, tell me C.C.," responded the Hokage with a focused gaze on both the original Naruto and this Blood Clone 2, better known as C.C. "how many of the clones are currently working civilian jobs inside Konoha?"

"We currently have 438 'civilian' clones employed to various civilian businesses throughout Konoha," he answered after checking a thick book he had on the desk next to him. "Another 355 exclusively working at the Facility here just making additional products for later resale, 250 more are currently in the training program to learn the skills needed to apply for more positions we've been scouting, 312 clones work for our new company Konoha Cleaners, 187 clones work for our relatively new Konoha Delivery Company, and 14 clones now work for members of the Civilian Council in some fashion, four of which you are currently spying on with your ANBU."

"That's about 1500 civilian clones?" came the gobsmacked reply from Kakashi as he was adding up all the numbers during C.C.'s explanation.

"I know your henge is an actual transformation, and civilian jobs are much less physically demanding than ninja ones, but how do you prevent some of those clones from dispelling when they bump into something?" came a pretty insightful question from the Hokage, wondering how Naruto would get around that particular problem.

"We have pin-clone on every civilian clone in case of dispelling, there is a replacement ready to take over immediately, and we just explain any disbursed smoke away as a smoke pellet we carry for emergencies going off by accident," came the calm reply from C.C.

"Pin-clones?" came the question from Sarutobi in confusion, though he understood that every civilian clone had a replacement at hand, and found himself really impressed with that level of thought and planning.

"This pin," replied C.C. showing a small bronze looking pin with the spiral of the Leaf (and Uzumaki Clan Symbol) stamped on it, which he had attached to the collar of his shirt, "is actually another Naruto clone under henge."

"Holy Shit," exclaimed Kakashi in disbelief, as he quickly pulled up his hitai-ate to look at the pin clones under his Sharingan, and could only detect the smallest prick of chakra on a seemingly normal pin, not unlike what he saw when looking at ninja weapons and their chakra residue from being handled by ninja. "Even knowing it's a clone, I can't tell at all ...it just looks like a pin that was maybe handled by a ninja at some point, but not even enough to notice unless focusing directly on it."

"Yeah, it's kind of a weird experience," answered the original Naruto who has had to assimilate the memory of the pin clones a few times. "Your awareness of what is happening isn't great, but you definitely notice the clones dispelling and it kind of just wakes you up at that moment, usually with the dispelled clones memories freshly playing out in your mind as you adjust accordingly and replace them."

"Ingenious," came the fascinated reply from the Hokage. "Is the chakra drain to make them the same as combat clones?"

"Oh no, not at all," came C.C.'s reply. "They only take maybe 2-5% of the chakra needed to make a standard ninja shadow clone. The cost keeps lessening as we continue to train our chakra control"

"Have you had to send any outside of Konoha?" asked the Hokage as his eyes had lit up during this discussion as an idea was growing in his mind.

"We currently have one clone and pin-clone currently on a merchant caravan that left Konoha yesterday for Tanzaku Quarters," came C.C.'s response, "we didn't find out about the trip until this morning when the clone didn't check in, and are sending a small team of clones to follow and catch up to provide added protection to our clone's identity in case they encounter anything physical, but should be fine as we learned they have a ninja escort."

"Well," came the Hokage's voice, "when you learn how it works at range we are going to have a discussion on how to equip all my ninja with a clone pin so any emergencies could be instantly reported back to you, so action could be taken much quicker."

"Yes," said the original Naruto, "how about a Blood Clone to act as a personal secretary for you? Their only job would be to produce and keep track of the pin-clones, and likewise all the teams in the field. That way if anything came up, you would have instant knowledge of it, and eventually we could relay any new orders directly into the field if we told at least the jounin about them."

"Do we know how well the pin-clones hold up to basic ninja maneuvers, they are a lot rougher than any civilians?" asked Kakashi hoping to clarify just how durable these pin-clones could be.

"We'll run some more tests on that and get back to you," answered C.C. while making a small note about it in the book he carried, knowing that in seconds this memory would be shared by every Naruto and had no real need to write anything down, but liked the process of it to help him come up with ideas. "We had thought about trying insects, but didn't want to run into any problems with the Aburame Clan ...though it would probably be a better way to have more aware clones ...but we haven't had much luck on sustaining the bugs over longer periods of time and rough treatment?"

"I really like the idea of all my ninjas having a clone-pin in case they have an emergency and need to contact me instantly out in the field, but we would need to run some durability tests," contemplated the Hokage out loud as he thought through the implications. "I think we should schedule a meeting in the next few days to discuss how to strengthen and implement the pin-clone idea Naruto."

"Sounds good Jiji," answered Naruto, "I'll create your Blood Clone secretary tonight and put them in charge of the pin-clone project, so they will always be nearby for emergencies and can always get in touch with me for a meeting or any issues that arise."

The conversation after that quickly went back to the original purpose of this visit, which was the amount of civilian clones running around Konoha and all of what they were doing. C.C. explained their new Konoha Cleaning Company which wasn't much different from some of the D-Rank genin missions, but were all exclusively for civilian clients and smaller jobs that probably wouldn't be made missions anyway. It was mostly cleaning small apartments, kitchens, and bathrooms and was pretty new with only a handful of jobs completed at this point, but looked to be relatively profitable due to their free labor force.

The Konoha Delivery Company was really just a food delivery service they started after working for the Civilian Council Member, Saidu Misoribo for one day and realizing the man was blatantly overcharging for his services and then ripping off his delivery employees. They still had six clone employees working in his operation, all trying to find dirt and gather evidence against the arrogant and pretty nasty man, while subtly dropping off business cards of his own company at every delivery. It was also through Misoribo that Naruto encountered the other three Council Members he now had clones working for.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was very excited to finally be able to do something about the clandestine meetings behind closed doors between the four mentioned Council Members, as he was now being put in a position to finally get some dirt on each of them. He tasked Naruto with trying to get a clone in on any of those meetings and to continue looking into each of the Council Members and gathering evidence of their deeds. And in a somewhat shocking move, he also gave Naruto carte blanche to continue infiltrating the civilian sectors of Konoha as long as he thoroughly investigated all the places he worked and wrote up reports on all the businesses and people he encountered to finally do a full accounting of their village.

He was not blind to some of the darker elements and growing resentment building among the civilian populace, and even with some of the ninja who continued to hang on and harp on to the past and not trying to make their Konoha better. God knows he fights enough with Danzo and his former teammates and now advisors, to know that there are many unhappy with him and his continued rule over the Leaf. One such group was the Civilian Council, and Naruto just handed him all the tools he would need to bring them all to heel or at least know what the hell they were all trying to accomplish. That Naruto was even undercutting some of them and opening rival businesses, was icing on the cake as it reduced their power and influence in the village, both financially and in their weakening social standing while simultaneously increasing Naruto's.

They briefly went over the other many jobs the Naruto clones had taken in almost every sector of the village, and in every type of trade available. They were mainly used to help provide and teach himself those services and learn those skills that would eventually allow him to go around any vendor that gave him trouble or refused to serve the real him. He was learning loads of trade skills, the ins and outs of running a business, supply trains and manufacturing of goods, all the while slowly stockpiling skills and resources for himself and his future Clan.

After their relatively long conversation with C.C., the three continued to the last part of the tour. The final area in the Facility was dedicated to BC3 & BC4, better known as the Genjutsu Twins, who were responsible for continually spawning and dispelling clones every few seconds to keep the original Naruto and all his clones' chakra in a constant state of flux. This both made Genjutsu impossible to latch on to any of them, and also constantly refreshed all of their memories with the most recent information allowing for instant communication and coordination between the thousands of clones running around.

"Well Naruto," started the Hokage after they had spoken of everything they could think of and seen all the areas of the Facility, "I am going to return to my office and start scheduling a few meetings, and deal with all the paperwork that has no doubt flooded my desk since I've been down here. Bring your Blood Clone to my office tomorrow and we can get them set up as one of my secretaries, and let me know what you find out about strengthening your pin-clones so we can start getting a plan up and running to provide one to every ninja in our employ."

"Sure thing boss," replied Naruto easily, "but, you should probably use some shadow clones yourself to take care of your paperwork in order to focus on the more important things."

"Son of a bitch," came the unusual cursing from the old village leader, as he smacked himself upside his own head, "that's how he did it. Damn you Minato, you were right ...I do want to kick myself now."

"Um ...Jiji?" asked Naruto in shock, having never seen the kind old man cursing and hitting himself, while Kakashi was trying to control his laughter as he understood what just happened and couldn't believe the Hokage known as the Professor hadn't thought of it before now.

"Sorry Naruto," grumbled Sarutobi Hiruzen, "The Fourth was never seemingly working on paperwork when I visited with him, and told me if I ever figured out his secret why ...that I would kick myself for not thinking of it myself."

"Shadow Clones," came Kakashi's almost giggling reply to Naruto's still somewhat concerned and confused face, as his laughter only got harder to conceal as the Third continued to shake his head in disbelief and berate himself under his breath.

"You will be handsomely rewarded when we meet tomorrow Naruto," spoke the Hokage after a moment to collect himself and realize the gift his favorite young blond just gave him, "until then."

"Nice work Naruto," came the still somewhat giggling voice of Kakashi, "you just indebted yourself to your Hokage ...and I am blown away at all you've accomplished here."

"Thanks Kakashi-sensei," came Naruto's somewhat bashful reply, unused to receiving such praise.

"Now, It's almost noon and time for Team Training," returned Kakashi, ignoring Naruto's snort of disbelief at the usual lateness of his sensei, but couldn't actually fault him this time as they were busy with the Hokage. "So let's head out and go knock that out, but in the meantime ...I am going to leave you a pair of shadow clones to help with your training."

"Awesome," exclaimed Naruto with stars in his eyes, as he watched his sensei create a pair of clones "what are you going to teach my clones?"

"I was thinking they could start your clones off with some wind elemental jutsus I know, and then go from there," replied the silver haired older ninja with his customary eye smile. "Now ...last one to Training Ground 7 has to listen to Sakura yell at them ...wait ...I didn't say go," he finished to an empty space as Naruto had already shunshined out of the Facility after the words "listen to Sakura yell" and now resigned himself to the banshee screech before following the younger ninja in a shunshin of his own.

Chapter 7: Team Training & Tests

Team training that day was pretty intense, as Kakashi decided to skip a mission and really started pushing all three of his genin to improve and even offered to take everyone to lunch afterwards to talk about their individual training regimens he wanted them to work on. This was done primarily because his shadow clones were already helping Naruto who he realized would be quickly outpacing his teammates, and needed to make sure they didn't feel left behind. Sakura just needed to be pushed and challenged until she started getting better, so as to contribute and help her team and Sasuke needed to know he was being given 'special' training to keep his ego in check after witnessing Naruto's quick ascendency.

Already, he feared what would happen if Sasuke really learned the true scope of Naruto's rapid growth, which would probably only be continuing with everything the young blond was working on and with how many clones he could dedicate to learning new skills. So, in an effort to appease the broody teen who thought himself superior to almost everyone in Konoha already, he decided to blatantly flaunt the teaching he was providing the Uchiha while telling Naruto in public to just continue working on his chakra control and taijutsu. Sakura, wasn't even upset as she saw the added attention to Sasuke as a positive for her crush, and was only able to continue her own training with Kakashi reinforcing Sasuke's need to have a strong woman at his side, even if he knew it to be false.

If it helped the two of them get better quickly, the growing gap between them and Naruto would not seem as big since Naruto was continuing to downplay his own growth like a true ninja in order to keep the group dynamic unchanged until after they could become chunin. Luckily, Sasuke hadn't really challenged Naruto to the point where the blond felt he had to truly show off most of his skills, and was content to keep upping his training weights to keep him at Sasuke's speed. He rarely showed anything truly amazing during their team training, but was definitely showing constant improvement which was already pushing Sasuke every day to get better and stay ahead of the blond in Sasuke's mind. He could see, however, that it was frustrating to Naruto, to constantly downplay his skills so as not to upset Sasuke and the delicate balance their team had, and wondered when it would blow up.

After their first team lunch, at the Barbeque Restaurant frequented by Team Asuma, Kakashi gave them all the rest of the day off from missions to reflect on the individual training regimens he gave to each of them, or to get started. He also knew that Naruto had several projects and things to work on to prepare for his upcoming meeting with the Hokage, and wanted him to have ample time to accomplish everything as he seemed a little distracted as they ate. He also reminded them that he was hoping to increase the intensity of their team training exercises, as he felt that they were ready to be pushed even harder as they had been performing well so far.

It was as they were leaving the restaurant however, that they encountered Team 10 arriving for a late lunch of their own and had to deal with their fellow rookies. Luckily, Naruto got along well with Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi and both boys were either too lazy or too nice to cause him any problems, though they did both look at him very differently when they realized he wasn't wearing much orange (only the crossed bandoliers) and was much quieter than they remembered him ever being. Not that it would have mattered much, as their final teammate, Ino Yamanaka practically shouted to the whole restaurant her love for Sasuke as she tried to hug and flirt shamelessly with the completely stoic and uninterested Uchiha that stole most of the groups' attention.

"Sasuke," she purred suggestively, which was pretty unusual for a twelve year old after being thrown off the brooding black haired shinobi, "why don't we go out together without the rest of these losers?"

"You're the loser when it comes to my Sasuke-kun," shouted back Sakura, who had been getting progressively more upset as Ino tried to make a move on 'her' man, and tried to get next to the Uchiha and put her arm around him to 'stake her claim' before she too was shrugged off. "He hardly even remembers you ...so go away and leave us alone ...we were having a team bonding moment."

"No, we weren't," came Sasuke's flat voice as he inched away from both girls, "I was leaving."

"Don't leave Sasuke-kun," came Sakura's banshee shout, "I thought we could practice together."

"Give it a rest Sakura," came the exasperated voice of Naruto finally losing what little patience he still had, as he watched his brooding teammate leave and his banshee follower trying unsuccessfully to get his attention for the thousandth time outside of actual team training. "He's made it pretty clear that he isn't interested in doing anything with anyone outside of mandatory team training and missions."

"Naruto?" came the shocked and questioning voice of Ino, as she discovered just who it was that told Sakura off, and couldn't believe both how different he looked and carried himself, but also how he wasn't either coming to Sakura's defense or failing over trying to get her to notice him instead, and had a hard time trying to reconcile the image she had of the loud mouthed blond with the person now in front of her. "What happened to you?"

"I grew up," came the flat reply, not wanting to get into everything that had changed in his life recently with the biggest gossip in the village, and in no mood to waste what little time he did have, "you should both try it ...and let Sasuke be."

"What?" Ino asked, shocked as if struck, while Sakura was a little more heated in her reply.

"Screw you Naruto, Sasuke and I are in love," came her banshee screech.

"Yeah ...in your dreams maybe," came the biting reply from the blond, before turning away from Sakura and seeing his sensei watching the interaction from the corner of his lone eye as he spoke with Asuma Sarutobi, Team 10's sensei and knew he needed to get away from them all before really losing his cool. "Kakashi-sensei ...can I go?"

"Yeah, see you tomorrow at the usual spot," answered the silver haired jounin, knowing he was going to have his work cut out for him if he wanted these three to become a true team, and not knowing if it would ever happen.

Before the stunned members of Team 10 could say anything in response to what they witnessed, they saw Naruto shunshin away casually, causing each of them to sputter in shock as that was not the same Naruto they had known for the last several years. Shikamaru had always been curious of the loud blond, but too lazy to actually do anything about it other than observe him, and was pretty surprised at the changes he saw. Choji had always thought Naruto funny and somewhat lonely, and had no problems with the kid, though he had few problems with anybody as long as they didn't call him fat.

"What happened to Naruto?" asked a still shocked Ino, who had always just assumed he was a love sick idiot that would chase Sakura forever, and never really gave him the time of day, not even expecting him to become a ninja or much of anything.

"He's got a lot on his plate right now," answered Kakashi quickly, before Sakura was able to launch into another loud rant of her own, as she appeared pretty pissed off at the blond and hoped it didn't set them back in their very slowly growing camaraderie. "Speaking of which, Asuma can you set some time aside in the next few days to work with Naruto ...you are the only sane Wind user in the village ...I'd owe you one if you could spare him an hour ...I'm sure that's all the time he'll need."

"Sure," answered Asuma slowly as he watched the perpetually lazy Kakashi, and knew something had happened to light a bit of a fire under the usually unflappable jounin and wondered if it had to do with his seemingly fractured team or the one member who was already performing the shunshin and learning his elemental affinity and wanted to check said blond out himself. "Have him come by Training Ground 10 any day after lunch ...we usually do our team building exercises then."

"Playing Shogi with this lazy ass every afternoon (as she motioned to Shikamaru) is hardly a team building exercise," scolded Ino, after getting her equilibrium back from the abrupt departure of Sasuke and Naruto, and easily reverted to her usual behavior of hassling the other members of Team 10.

"Well," responded Asuma back quickly, "none of you want to train physically ...so there isn't much more we can do."

"Um ...I wouldn't mind some more physical training," came a stuttering reply from Choji, "I mean, if Naruto can already perform the shunshin ...we are falling behind."

"Troublesome," came Shikamaru's expected response.

"Wonderful Choji," came the happy response of Asuma, who had been waiting for his team to be motivated enough to train, and realized that maybe comparing them to the other rookies might provide that incentive. "What do you say Kakashi, I'll consider us even if you agree to a little Team battle ...help my kids see where they are in relation to yours?"

"Are you sure?" asked Kakashi, "you may change your mind after working with Naruto."

"Oh please ...Naruto's the weakest member of your team," came Ino's dismissive response, "and Sakura is a pushover."

"What did you say Ino-pig?" growled Sakura who had seemingly been forgotten about, but was in fact still there watching the exchange between her sensei and Ino's.

"You heard me, forehead," growled back Ino, as the two locked heated gazes while Shikamaru just shook his head mumbling about troublesome blonds and even more troublesome girls.

"Eh ...it'll be good for them," replied Asuma to Kakashi, ignoring the ridiculous catfight going on between the two prepubescent girls, and figuring his team needed something to motivate them to train and this might be just the thing.

"Then let's do it tomorrow afternoon, I'll bring my team to your Training Ground 10 after lunch," answered Kakashi, causing all the surrounding genin to instantly stop to stare at their respective sensei in mixtures of shock and apprehension that a spar between team 7 and 10 was actually going to go down.

"Ha," laughed Ino haughtily, "prepare to get beat down in front of my Sasuke-kun, forehead!"

"Not a chance Ino-pig," screeched back Sakura.

After that, the two girls continued bickering back and forth as the remaining members of Team 10 entered the restaurant for their meal, and Kakashi used a shunshin to get away quickly. It took the two girls a moment to realize they had been left, and both growled at their sensei and teammates in Ino's case for leaving them out here. With a final glare at one another, and a few more names called, the two former friends went their separate ways, both thinking of showing off to Sasuke at tomorrow's match and hoping to catch his attention by beating their rival.

Naruto was currently unaware that his day tomorrow just got busier, as he left his team behind to head right back to the Facility and check on the progress of everything he had going on. His ninjutsu clones were now all working on the two new Wind techniques Kakashi's clones had taught him; Wind Release: Gale Palm and Wind Release: Great Breakthrough. Deciding to help the training along, Naruto created his own large group of shadow clones, numbering almost 2000 now, that he quickly divided up in three groups to continue with these two new jutsu while the last group went to join the kenjutsu training group after one of the Kakashi clones set them up with a small beginning practice kata for the sword.

Meanwhile, he and BC1 were working on improving the pin-clones, increasing their overall durability and just generally trying as many things they could think of to help make them better suited for the role the Hokage wanted. After some time, they wondered about the possibility of creating the pin-clones as blood clones, or at least using the same format as they did to create the blood clones but starting off as pins so as not to require too much of Naruto's blood, fuinjutsu script, and chakra. Since they couldn't use that method without the original, as he is the only one that bleeds, they continued trying other methods too.

They eventually stumbled on the idea of fuinjutsu reinforced armor for the pin-clones, but were unsure how to go about that or add another layer of protection to the pin-clone. The other problem they were considering was that the pin-clones were completely on their own, and if they dispelled accidentally or got hit in the line of duty, then the person they were hitching a ride with was left without the communication system. That's when one of the clones offered the idea of using two clones for the pin, one to act as the pin fastening, and the other to be the shield protecting pin.

With that plan in place, the clones in Research & Development started creating different mockup ideas that would better protect the fasteners with the pin shield allowing for the second fastener clone to be alerted of the shield pin-clone being dispelled, and tried various designs and shield ideas. They ended up with a small circle pin with the Uzushio's spiral symbol as the visible part, with a backup clone acting as the under clothes fastener to keep them on. A small pulse of chakra into the pin, and a small number of commands that could be "programmed" in for the ninja to relay emergency information directly to the Hokage's new secretary, and they completed the project by the time the original Naruto was getting into bed for the night, and continued mass producing them throughout the night.

The next morning when he woke up, Naruto went to his underground training Facility to work out as the Green Beasts were still out of the village, and got the update that pin production was going well and they would have at least 500 of them completed and ready for their next meeting with the Hokage later this afternoon. After an amended underground workout in the Facility, and turning up his resistance weight seals another notch, he spammed 2000 clones to continue his beginning sword and the Hariken taijutsu training, and then left for the usual mid-morning Team meeting in Training Ground 7. Where he again had to deal with his annoying teammates, and hoped it was eventually going to get better between them all. The mono-syllablic grunt from Sasuke and the banshee scream of complaint from Sakura were both pretty consistent, and he too felt like they had regressed over the last few days back to how they saw him in the Academy and wasn't too pleased.

Luckily he didn't have to wait too long for Kakashi to arrive close to 11 am, and with him came the knowledge of the little Team Battle with Team 10 he set up for the afternoon. Because of this upcoming battle, he wanted to run them through a few team drills for analyzing team formations and playing to their strengths against a variety of different styles in preparation. Although he never explicitly said anything, his genin definitely got the idea that he wanted to win, and win convincingly.

Naruto gave it his all in team training, realizing that any time Kakashi actually taught them something it was really important to pay his full attention, and let the hundreds of other things going on in his head be deferred to his clones as he listened to his sensei. By the time they broke for lunch, all three genin of Team 7 had a pretty good idea on the basic formations that Kakashi favored and how they would deal with other teams of differing strengths and styles. When they walked into Training Ground 10 to see Team 10 in various stages of preparedness, they all got excited about the upcoming team battle, though none of them more than Sakura who had a real smug look as she met Ino's eyes, thinking of her Sasuke-kun single handedly beating the other team to prove their superiority over her biggest rival.

Sasuke was just excited for another chance to prove his growth and superiority over his peers, and simply hoped his teammates weren't too much of a hindrance on him as he continued to display his dominance over others. Naruto was the only one not too happy about the upcoming battle, as he knew Team 7's teamwork was not yet equal to this generation's famous Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Also, he genuinely liked Shikamaru and Choji and didn't really think either of them were too much of a threat to his current level and wouldn't push him too much, but tried to remember not to underestimate anybody lest he become complacent as a single mistake could be the difference between winning and losing and he didn't want to develop any bad habits that might carry over into the real world.

Asuma welcomed Kakashi and Team 7, and laid down the basic rules of the Team battle, which basically just amounted to not kill or seriously injure one another and to stay inside the barrier of the training ground. When everyone nodded or acknowledged the rules, he and Kakashi yelled to begin, and used the shunshin to move to the side and observe. Naruto instantly put some distance between him and Shikamaru, knowing the Nara genius to be lazy but incredibly smart and used his clan's shadow techniques he wanted to make sure he stayed away from. In getting some space, he also threw out a few shurikens and performed the multi-shadow clone version to multiply their numbers and caused the three members of Team 10 to instantly scatter.

Unfortunately for Team 10, Ino scattered in the opposite direction of her two teammates and was completely isolated for Sasuke's reckless but effective charge towards the opposing team from the moment they began, and was hit with a quick taijutsu combo that had her knocked out in seconds after beginning. Choji's shout came too late to alert their female member, and before the battle really even began, they were down a member. Sasuke wasted no time sending his customary fireball at Shikamaru and Choji, and Naruto helped it along with a Futon Great Breakthrough that engulfed and enlarged the fire attack three fold and had the two genin of Team 10 wide eyed and instantly on the defensive.

They had to scatter again, luckily avoiding Sasuke's shuriken that were included with the flames, but were quickly set upon by Sasuke again using his much better speed to get close while Naruto was busy making several dozens shadow clones to start engaging the genin pair. Choji just managed to increase his size and arms a bit to meet a rushing Sasuke, but wasn't near fast enough to keep up with his relentless taijutsu barrage and couldn't even get help from his best friend, as Shikamaru was too busy fighting off a never ending stream of Naruto clones that were unlike any clone he had faced previously. That they had shadows was surprising, as they weren't illusionary clones and would normally have helped the shadow user, but their speed, numbers, and evasive tactics were top notch and quickly had him on the defensive.

That his clan's famous shadow possession could stop an individual clone was easily doable, but he couldn't stop the dozens that were engaging him or the original and was quickly overwhelmed and tied up at around the same time Sasuke finally brought down the much larger Choji. The whole battle lasted maybe thirty seconds from start to finish, and Asuma could only watch wide eyed as his genin were dismantled easily and couldn't believe that Kakashi's team was already that good, or at least the two male members. Sakura didn't really do anything, by the time she got ready to engage in the fight, Ino had already been taken down, and both boys were battling their counterparts and dealing with them easily enough that she didn't even have to participate.

"Well, that was disappointing," came Asuma's dry response, which only got an eye-smile from his fellow jounin, as Team 7 woke up Choji and Ino, and released Shikamaru from his binds to join their jounin senseis.

"Take that Ino-pig," shouted Sakura to her just revived rival, as she gloated further, "my Sasuke-kun was no match for you."

"He'll never be your Sasuke-kun, forehead," shouted Ino right back, while in a decidedly grumpier mood from a minute ago after the quick and humiliating defeat at the hands of Sasuke and Naruto.

"Hehe," laughed Naruto while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as he greeted Shikamaru and Choji, ignoring the two bickering females as best he could. "Sorry, for not giving you any time ...I didn't want to have to get into a strategy battle with you Shika."

"I admit," started Shikamaru somewhat embarrassedly, "I wasn't really prepared for you guys to hit us so hard and fast."

"Yeah," agreed Choji, who had pulled out a bag of chips from somewhere on his person and started eating as he looked at Naruto with a small semi-embarrassed smile as well. "You've got a lot better since the Academy."

"Thanks," replied Naruto, grateful to be acknowledged by any of his peers, "just finally getting good training, I guess."

"What were those clones?" asked Shikamaru curiously, having remembered that Naruto failed the original Academy exam because he couldn't produce the illusionary clones, and now had real versions that were even better than anything he had seen.

"Shadow Clones," answered Naruto somewhat sheepishly, not wanting to get into how exactly he learned a village kinjutsu or why he was able to produce so many of them but still wanted to acknowledge their greatness, "they are really awesome, dattebayo."

"Shadow Clones?" asked Shikamaru, trying to go through his memories remembering where he heard that term before, and wondered why they weren't more well known in general, or known to him as a shadow user of the Nara Clan.

"It's a kinjutsu, "replied Asuma, who had been listening into the younger boys' conversation and knew from the look on Shikamaru's face that he would keep digging for more information and better to head it off from the start. "The amount of chakra they take to make just one would kill every one of you except Naruto ...even I can only make two before chakra exhaustion starts to set in."

"But he made like two dozen of them," came the stuttered response from Shikamaru as he looked at naruto in a new light contemplating everything he had learned and gathered from his years observing and watching his fellow classmate, "how do you have that much chakra?"

"Uzumaki," answered Naruto while pointing to the spiral symbol he had patched to the shoulder of his outfit, before either of their sensei's could come up with an acceptable answer that didn't spill the s-class secret of his status as a jinkurichi.

"Your part of a Clan?" came the curious question from Choji, as his best friend was trying to think and work the answer out in his head.

"Yeah, the Uzumaki's were a Clan from Uzushiogakure that doesn't exist anymore," answered Naruto proudly and with a bit of sadness at the reminder that he was all that remained of them despite the legacy they left him which he hoped to revive.

"Uzushiogakure?" asked Shikamaru, to which Asuma thankfully interrupted with the promise to tell them more about the former Whirlpool Village at a later time as he and Kakashi were wondering if the genin wanted one on one matches, as the Team Battle didn't really work out too well.

Ino and Sakura both instantly agreed, all the while still in each other's faces yelling their love for Sasuke and doing a lot of name calling. We all agreed then to let them go first, and their fight quickly devolved into a pathetic catfight using very little of any moves or strategy, involving more hair pulling and scratching than anything ninja related. It ended after about two minutes of ridiculousness when both girls seemed to wear themselves out and practically collapsed together, knocking each other out in the process.

"That was disturbing," came Kakashi's obvious statement, as both he and Asuma shook their heads in exasperation and disgust at the display.

"Can we just leave them there, knocked out?" asked Naruto, glad for the quiet at least.

"No," replied Asuma resignedly, "they need to see the other fights to hopefully get a serious wake-up call."

"Fine," breathed out Naruto, who then got a small smile and made a quick sign before spawning two clones, one of which quickly transformed into a bucket that the other brought to the nearby stream to fill with water and made his way to the two girls in order to wake them up in a more appropriate manner.

Their spluttering and angry yells were painful on everyone's ears, but the amusement they all got from watching the scene easily balanced it out for all of them, and the jounin senseis pointed looks at both girls instantly cowed them to be quiet and observe the rest of the matches. Naruto asked to fight Choji, as he and Shikamaru had already tangled a bit in the Team Battle and he wanted to work on his newly emerging Hariken taijutsu style, and went next. He gave Choji a nod and told him he was planning to stick to taijutsu, as he was working on a new style and didn't just want to overwhelm the other boy with numbers.

Due to the resistance seals he still had on, his speed was just about at Sasuke's level, and a bit faster than Choji, who countered that speed with more power and mass. The fight lasted a good ten minutes as Naruto was still learning the new Hariken taijutsu style, and was fighting single handedly without clones to get a better feel of using the style. Despite all of that, it was quickly apparent that Naruto was controlling the fight, as the only thing holding him back from completely dominating the larger boy was his inexperience and unfamiliarity with the new Hariken style and the heavy amount of resistance seals his body was operating under.

When he finally had Choji so exhausted and worn down that he could no longer block properly, they called the fight as Naruto wasn't going to go for a knockout move just to prove he could, and shook hands with the larger genin and thanked him for the match and workout. Choji could hardly catch his breath enough at that point to reply, but nodding along and smiled at Naruto once it was all over showing he had no hard feelings about it. Then they got to watch as Sasuke and Shikamaru faced off, with Sasuke doing a fair bit of taunting and dismissed Shikamaru as much of a threat if even Naruto could take him down during the Team Battle.

Shikamaru actually ended up giving Sasuke a pretty good fight, as he kept some distance from the faster Uchiha and tried to get him to exhaust himself performing his fireballs and using his shadow to launch small retaliatory attacks when he tried to shorten the distance between them. He couldn't however hold up for long and after a solid ten minutes of dodging and trying to lead Sasuke around the training ground and entrap him, Shikamaru had to give up as he was too winded to continue. All three members of Team 10 were pretty disappointed in their subpar showing against another Rookie team of genin, but only Choji was still in positive spirits, as while his battle really showed him his weakness against speed, he wasn't taunted or made fun of by his opponent unlike the other two.

Naruto tried to give Shikamaru an encouraging smile, and a few encouraging words out of Sasuke's range causing the Nara Heir to at least acknowledge the former Dead Last and thank him for not making it personal or embarrassing for any of them. The three members of Team 10 then left the training grounds after being dismissed by Asuma for the rest of the day to recover and heal, while Kakashi dismissed Sakura and told Sasuke to return back to their training ground for some more one-on-one training time with him. Sasuke was so busy smirking at Naruto for getting private training from their sensei, that he missed Kakashi's nod to Asuma and Naruto telling them to hang around when he left.

"So," started Asuma once Kakashi and Sasuke left for their own training grounds, "Kakashi tells me he tested your elemental affinity and that you are a wind user?"

"Yes sir," replied Naruto in some curiosity, wondering where the older jounin was going with this, and why he was told to stick around after their Team and individual battles were done.

"Me too," smirked Asuma good naturedly, "Kakashi and I made a deal if he helped me motivate my team to start training, then I would help you with your Wind element.

"Really?" asked a wide eyed Naruto, now very excited, "can you show me some cool Wind ninjutsu?"

"Slow down," laughed Asuma with an easy smile, "have you been working on the leaf splitting exercise?"

"Dattebayo," responded an enthusiastic blond genin, who reached down to pick up a leaf and instantly split it in half without much thought at all. "I've also been training the Futon: Wind Gale and the Futon: Great Breakthrough after Kakashi showed me those two."

"Really?" questioned Asuma, who then motioned towards the open clearing of training ground 10, "let's see them."

To say that Asuma was impressed with Naruto's two wind techniques was a bit of an understatement, especially after learning that the young blond only just was taught them the day before. It wasn't until he was getting ready to teach Naruto the Futon: Wind Bullet and the Futon: Cyclone that he realized how the young genin was learning and training these techniques as he watched Naruto make almost 2000 clones of himself to continue practicing the two new moves he was just shown. Within fifteen minutes there were Naruto clones all over the training ground slowly practicing and getting more and more efficient in both techniques, something that would have taken most genin weeks to work through.

He had a pretty good idea now why Naruto was so quickly learning and advancing beyond his peers, when he could bring that level of numbers to his training, and continue to put out that insane amount of chakra, it was no wonder really. He understood now why Kakashi said he would only really need about an hour of instruction to get started, and was almost disappointed that he wasn't his own student, but was nevertheless happy to pass on anything he could to the next generation. He therefore spent the second half of the hour showing Naruto how to use his wind element to augment, sharpen, and lengthen any cuts whether through trench knives like he used, or a sword as Naruto mentioned having started to learn.

By the end of the hour, he was convinced that Naruto was going to be the next legendary ninja of the Leaf as he watched his thousands of clones train relentlessly past the point of learning a technique, and really trying to master them as well. He also thanked the young blond for his performance in the team and individual battles today, for his positive and encouraging attitude to his team and not simply bulldozing over them as he apparently could have. Naruto for his part was very grateful for any training, and even more so to be acknowledged so favorably by another ninja and not treated like a monster.

He was beyond excited about the prospect of Wind being so very valuable of an element for a sword user, and knew it would play a big role in his continued development in the challenging discipline. When he left Asuma after several grateful thanks for all his help and teaching, he high-tailed it over to Ichiraku's for some food of the gods before he continued his training. After eating his fill he stopped by the Facility to spawn another 2000 clones and split them up into the various large groups practicing his new Futon techniques, Hariken taijutsu, and beginning sword katas before picking up the now completed 700 clone pins and his Blood Clone #5 henged into a relatively pretty but normal looking secretary to visit the Hokage.

Chapter 8: Revolutionary Growth

Sarutobi Hiruzen had just left another Civilian Council meeting where many called for the removal of his honorary grandson Naruto to be removed from the rank of ninja, all in an effort to get the last loyal Uchiha the personal and undivided attention of Kakashi Hatake as his personal sensei. He couldn't believe the gaul of those people, to demand anything regarding his ninja to his face, and realized that he had in fact been going soft in his older age as many had accused him, namely Danzo. He simply just didn't have the energy to constantly fight them all, and had been simply holding the Hokage seat in flux without doing much to promote or strengthen Konoha but rather try and maintain the status quo and that needed to change.

This meeting though also highlighted that despite everything Naruto had already accomplished in his short month as a genin, that the people of this village would probably never fully accept him as anything other than a demon container which was a true shame. The young blond had already within one month grown more than any genin in his long memory, and was finally putting all his talents towards more productive things that bettered the village, and yet they still condemned him for things outside of his control. If he didn't think half of his ninja and the entirety of the civilian population would mutiny, he would probably name the young jinkurichi his successor today and be completely happy with the decision.

Naruto was growing so fast and so strong, thinking outside the box and bringing fresh perspectives to long held beliefs, his ability with the shadow clones had already outstripped his predecessor, the inventor of the technique and he would only continue to grow better and stronger as the time went on. He was actually looking forward to his next meeting with the young genin, to learn what he came up with in regards to his pin-clone idea and how well it would work in increasing communication between him and his ninja out in the world. That he would also be getting a new secretary with instant access to that communication system, and who had helped him discover the secret to getting through all his kage paperwork, he decided he should prepare a gift in return and knew just the thing after learning from Kakashi that Guy told him about his mother and Clan.

Making a stop in his personal archives, he then returned to his office to see the blond genin dominating his thoughts of late, and another darker haired kunoichi seemingly a few years older that he didn't recognize, sitting outside his office being watched carefully by his current secretary as they were seemingly waiting on him. After a quick greeting to Naruto, and who he introduced as Naru, the two youngsters were led into the office where the privacy seals were put in place before their discussion began. Naru was introduced as Blood Clone #5, and his new secretary which really impressed the older Hokage who saw very little visible resemblance between the pair, and knew very few if any would ever make the connection.

Their discussion then continued on to the creation of already 700 pin-clones, and how they were composed of two henged clones for an added layer of safety and their capabilities. He had a pin-clone currently being tested by another non-descript shadow clone running top speed as far as he could since last night, and they were hoping to reveal the result of that test now. In order to do that, he had Naru send out a pulse of chakra that resonated through every clone he had, including every pin-clone, as the first test to send out an emergency alert to see if the pin-clones picked it up and knew now to check in.

Within moments, Naru and Naruto both got quiet and were seemingly listening to something only they could hear before smiles bloomed out on their faces that showed the first real resemblance between the pair. The test was a success, the pin-clone was near the Wind and Fire border, had received the emergency beacon call to report in, and sent a small memory of their current location and health status of their runner from a good distance away to prove it worked outside of Konoha too. They would need to run more tests with other teams that didn't include a Naruto clone to truly test if the pin-clones did everything they were hoping, but for an initial test run it was definitely a success.

The Third Hokage was blown away at the simplicity and success of that first test, as this could revolutionize their ability to contact teams in the field and relay important information between each other, and couldn't be prouder of what his surrogate grandson had come up with. Obviously durability and more distance and long term tests needed to be done, but already it was looking to be a very valuable tool to add to their ninja's arsenal and ability to alter orders and share information. When he saw the storage seal with 700 completed pin-clones ready for distribution, he could only smile at the amazing feat and amount of chakra it took to put something together on this scale and once again wondered just how long it would take Naruto to rise up through the ranks at this rate.

They talked about how to distribute these to his ninja as they picked up missions at the mission desk, and to start out small until they could be better field tested and the need for a few simple codes that could be sent out in order to specify certain orders or commands. Right now they simply had the emergency beacon call to report in, but they could test others over the next few days and start a whole new field of communication that would be legendary. The elderly hokage wondered for a moment about making Naruto a tokubetsu jounin on the spot for his total mastery of the shadow clone and how valuable of a resource he now was going to be to the entirety of their ninja forces, but wanted his young "grandson" to be given the same chances and experiences as his other ninja were and let him make his own way in the world.

Soon, their discussion got off from the pin-clones and moved into Naruto's continued shadow clone training in the Facility and what else he was learning and working on. He was glad to see his own son had just today given the young blond a valuable lesson in the Wind Element and was curious to see how well Naruto took to those ideas and implemented them into his repertoire. Learning of his beginning sword practice because of Guy's mentioning of Kushina and her taijutsu style he was also learning from the Taijutsu specialist, brought their discussion around to Naruto's parents, something he had been both hoping and dreading.

"No Naruto," began the elderly hokage with a happy smile at the young blond, "I am not mad at Guy in the least for telling you about your mom or giving you the basics to begin learning her taijutsu style as it is your birthright. I know you have asked me many times in the past about your parents, and I always put you off ...I just want you to know I was only doing it to protect you. Now that you are a genin and away from any civilian control, I am glad to give you some details, but please be patient as there are still many things I can't tell you about until you are stronger and better able to protect yourself from enemies."

"Can you tell me who my dad was?" asked Naruto instantly, with an excited gleam in his eyes that was a painful reminder to the old Hokage of his successor, and his inability to answer the first question he asked.

"That unfortunately is one of the things that will have to wait," continued Hiruzen with a sad smile directed at the now disappointed young blond, "your father had many very powerful enemies both inside and outside this village and I will not risk that information getting out until you are at least a chunin. I can, however, give you more information on Kushina, the Uzumaki Clan, and the legacy they left for you."

"Really?" asked a now wide-eyed and excited Naruto, eager and glad to receive any information about his mother and Clan. "Do they have a really cool bloodline?"

"Yes and no," laughed Hiruzen at the excitement and then confusion on Naruto's face at his answer, before settling in for a long discussion about an almost extinct Clan of remarkable power.

The next half an hour was spent telling Naruto everything he could about the Uzumaki Clan, their relation to the Senju Clan, their dense chakra sometimes manifesting in certain members as chakra chains capable of holding down Bijuu like in the case of his mother, their legendary Fuinjutsu, and their status as leaders of Uzushiogakure. With every explanation of powers and skills known among them, he also provided examples, and in the case of Fuinjutsu even gave the young blond several very valuable volumes of Uzumaki Fuinjutsu written by the First Hokage's wife, and first container of the Kyubi, Mito Uzumaki. He also gave Naruto a book written by his mother on her chakra chains and experience as the second Jinkurichi of the Kyubi, including lessons taught to her from Mito herself in preparing her for her role and the effect of the Bijuu's youkai (demonic chakra) on a Jinkurichi.

Naruto was blown away at the amount of information he learned about the Uzumaki Clan, and past members known to Hiruzen, even more amazed at the gifts he was given and the connection it provided him to his mother and their Clan. He promised to take incredible care of all the materials and not lend them out to anyone, and even promised to learn everything else he could from them and make his Clan and his mother proud. The elderly hokage could only look on in wonder and amazement at the dedication and likeness to Kushina he saw in her son, and was again reminded of his earlier pledge to start doing better for his village than simply maintaining the status quo.

"Naruto, before you go, I have one more thing I wanted to bring up with you," replied Hiruzen to the happy blond who seemed in much better spirits than almost any time he could remember, "now that you are a recognized adult in the village as one of my genin, I was wondering if you wanted to purchase your apartment building. As you know, there is only one other resident living in your building, and currently I am the owner of record since I couldn't let anyone else have the ability to kick you out ...and was hoping you might take it over and use it for your clones. Kaide Mursenki is a retired and disabled shinobi who has lived on the ground floor for years, and doesn't pay rent so he will have no say in anything you decide to do to the building, and then you can expand your clones above ground as well."

"Um ...I'm not sure I have much available money at the moment, my clones are going through my resources pretty quickly setting up their businesses and identities," answered Naruto with a thought, "but I do like the idea."

"Good," answered the Hokage, "I'll draft up this bill of sale ...the payment has already been made in the form of your help with the paperwork shadow clone recommendation. Take this to the records department downstairs and they will provide you with the property's deed."

"Thanks Jiji," replied an excited and somewhat overwhelmed young genin after such a productive and amazing meeting where he learned so much about his mother, his Clan, and several avenues of research and study to advance his shinobi career. "I'll leave the pin-clones with Naru here to help you distribute, and get out of your way."

Naruto quickly left the Hokage's office and went to the records department to get the deed to his apartment complex, and then high-tailed it back to the Facility to check on his clones' progress and went through with spawning another large batch of 2000 clones who he split up into two groups. The first smaller group was going to go through the apartment building cleaning up the trash and making a list of repairs and materials needed to get the place in better shape, while the larger group was tasked with starting to read through and practice whatever came up from the Mito Uzumaki journals on Fuinjutsu. He was going to retreat and read his mother's journal himself as he didn't want to pawn that task off to anyone else, as he was eager to learn everything he could about the woman who birthed him and shared his burden as a jinkurichi.

With so much activity going on in both the Facility and his apartment complex, he retreated to one of the few spots in the village that he could enjoy the peace and quiet while having a wonderful view, on top of the Fourth Hokage's spikey haired head. He spent hours pouring over the journal of Kushina Uzumaki as the afternoon shifted to evening, and stayed until the light from the moon was the only thing illuminating his little hidden spot. He could honestly say that he had never felt better in any point in his life than he did at that moment, learning about and reading his own mother's words, having achieved his first dream to becoming a ninja, and in his own mind at least, well on the way to becoming the next Hokage of the Leaf.

His mother was wicked smart and funny, and her passion for Fuinjutsu and the Leaf easily shown through in her writings, and Naruto absorbed every single bit of it he could and had never felt closer to her than he did at that moment. Unfortunately, the lack of light forced him to move on with his day, go and get some ramen, and then return to his underground Facility to check on his clones' progress and add another large batch of clones to all the various jobs and tasks. His apartment complex was completely cleaned and new materials had already been purchased to make all the necessary repairs and construction changes he wanted, but held off until the day time so as not to bring too much attention to it.

Instead, he went through all four of his awesome Wind Element techniques, having got them each down quite well at this point, and decided to redistribute those working on each of the skills to combine into one Futon group that would continue working on them all. This left him with a large number of clones looking for more things to do, and he was quick to set them up to the continued task of learning Uzumaki Fuinjutsu, or in this case, putting more clones to work on Mito's and Kushina's journals. Since he had a relatively lazy day of training himself, he decided to up his resistance seals again and start an evening physical workout that would have crippled him a month ago, but was now simply building him up stronger.

By the time he was ready to drop into bed almost three hours later, he gladly spawned another 2000 clones to continue to add to the numbers already working on things throughout the night while he recovered and slept. When he woke up, he again went to the Facility and spawned another large batch of clones, this time with the express purpose of doing construction and repair work on his apartment building, with the leftovers filling in the gaps from those who dispersed throughout the night while priming Fuinjutsu tags. He was pretty amazed at how much of the Fuinjutsu material his clones had gone through, at least until he realized that he had more than ten thousand clones doing nothing but working on it all through the night and was really pleased.

Since the green beasts of Team Guy were still out on their mission, he did his own thing that morning to warm up and train like a crazy person, just with less shouting about youth than he was getting used to from the unusual pair. By the time for his team meeting, he met a smug Sasuke and a practically drooling and dreaming Sakura in their usual spots as he waited for the fifteen or so minutes until Kakashi usually arrived. He was curious what his jounin leader would have for them today after yesterday's team and individual battles against Team 10, but wasn't too worried either way as he still had plenty to work on.

When Kakashi arrived, he continued from the previous day's lesson on team formations and strategies when facing other teams, and variations on those themes depending on the type of team we were facing. This led into a small lesson on evaluating other ninjas and teams from quick glances and inferring based on those observations what they might specialize in, as a way to be more prepared for any different style of opponent. Using Team 10 for example, Choji's size made him an obvious taijutsu close range tank style fighter and if we paid attention we would have seen him front and center of his group at the very beginning of yesterday's team battle, protecting his two teammates, who both happened to be mid to long range fighters who did not excel in individual matchups.

Team 7 by comparison was a difficult team to prepare for, as Naruto was the more tank style protector, but Sasuke was so aggressive that he tended to dominate the role that should be for Naruto. That both young boys could fight from either close, mid, or long range also made them very difficult opponents for more specialized fighters, as they simply had too many options when taking on an opponent of any style of fighting and still kept a tactical advantage. Kakashi also mentioned Sakura was easily seen as a backup fighter, as she didn't come across as someone who trained a lot from her lack of defined muscles, had two really aggressive and in your face teammates that often overshadowed her in any combat situation, and her infatuation with Sasuke made her instantly defer to him and take a back seat role.

Kakashi didn't say it in a mean or hurtful way, and instead stressed that they should play to those strengths and Sakura should learn some of the longer range fighting techniques, and supplementary skills like healing or genjutsu to compliment her already heavy front line team. Likewise, Sasuke and Naruto both needed to become well rounded and shore up those skills within a team setting to better match up against others. They could also really overpower others if they worked together as both had strengths in both taijutsu and ninjutsu that were simply better than most people their level, though he stressed that they still had a long way to go in order to compete with those of a higher level.

Sasuke's sharingan, when it awoke, was a taijutsu and ninjutsu game changer and almost unreal in the amount of benefits it granted its user, something Sasuke was very smug about when it was explained, but also curious how his sensei knew so much about his Clan's famous bloodline. Naruto's chakra reserves and shadow clones were similarly a taijutsu and ninjutsu game changer on a level most their age couldn't hope to compete against, and if he ever learned his Clan's fabled Fuinjutsu, would be a real force to be reckoned with. Sakura had great chakra control and potential to become a first rate medic or genjutsu user if she simply trained more and cared more about her career and life as a ninja, but would probably need a tragic reality check to get that message to sink in, as was the case with a lot of young genin unprepared for the true harsh realities of the world they lived in.

By the time lunch came around, all three members of Team 7 were looking at their sensei in various states of shock and amazement at his ability to break down their styles and show their strengths, weaknesses, and areas to work on in order to really improve. It was almost comical how much they had underestimated their jounin sensei to be that accurate in his assessments of their skills, while both complementing, teaching, and humbling them in order to motivate them to improve. When Naruto asked how he knew so much, they were again surprised to learn he had become a genin at 5, a chunin at 6, and a jounin at 12 as he was raised during the Third Shinobi War when the Academy and Konoha was trying to bolster their numbers.

He was a true prodigy, like few before or after him, and despite his lazy exterior, was one of the strongest jounin of the village currently and definitely one of the most famous and recognizable. It was kind of a stunning moment for the three young genin to realize just how good their sensei truly was, after having thought him a lazy pervert of little skill. To learn he was the student of the Fourth Hokage simply floored them all, and they all started to look at the one-eyed shinobi in a completely new light.

That discussion that late morning day was actually one of the first instances of Team 7 truly starting to understand one another and actually grow closer as a team. It was solidified as a turning point in their ninja careers as well when they arrived that afternoon at the mission desk, and Kakashi asked if there were any C-Rank missions as he felt his team was finally ready for the next step in their careers, whether they were truly ready or not was not important as the boys earned it and Sakura needed the wake up call. That both Sasuke and Naruto had been complaining just the other day about getting the chance to do better missions as they were somewhat fed up with the customary D-Rank chores, and had handily defeated Team 10 in their team and individual battles was also a point for them.

"C-Rank?" asked the Third Hokage who was sitting with Iruka at the mission desk as he occasionally would, and getting the mentioned Academy instructor to instantly look to him for the verdict. "You think they are ready?"

"Are they ever?" asked Kakashi back to his village's Leader with his customary one-eyed smile. "Nevertheless ...they earned this chance."

"Very well, I'll get Iruka here to go get your client," replied the Third Hokage as he reached into a box next to him, "as you will be leaving the village, we have a newly developed communication device we are currently testing ...please put this pin somewhere on your clothes, and send it a bit of chakra and a brief message if you ever have an emergency ...it's supposed to send me an alert, and I would like all our ninja to have one as we test them in the field."

The hokage then handed Kakashi four of the Uzushiogakure Spiral clone-pins for every member of his team along with a mission scroll that had all of Team 7 nervous or excited for various reasons. Naruto made no mention of the clone-pin at all when handed one, and ignored the brief glances from Sasuke, who obviously recognized the spiral symbol that his blond teammate wore on everything for as long as he could remember, as he carefully put it on one of his dark orange bandoliers. Sakura was oblivious to the byplay, as her nerves were too much for her, and her shaking hand took some time to put the pin on her outfit, as her thoughts were consumed with leaving the protection and safety of the village for the first time in her life, and wondering if she was really ready for something like this.

"These little brats are the ninja I hired?" came the slurred voice of a drunk man being led in the room by Iruka. "Pink hair, duckbutt, and blondie? Are you sure these kids are really ninjas?"

"I assure you Tazuna-san, these are some of our finest genin, and they are led by my best jounin, Kakashi Hatake," answered Hiruzen Sarutobi easily, as the three nick-named genin all glared at the new arrival, but thankfully managed to hold their tongues from saying anything.

"A jounin huh?" grumbled the partly drunk older looking man, wearing a well worn traveler's cloak and holding a large half-empty bottle of saki as he looked over Kakashi and eventually seemed satisfied, "as long as you protect me and my bridge."

"Okay Team 7," started Kakashi as he turned to his team with his customary one-eyed smile, "we are protecting Tazuna-san here as he finishes building a bridge near Wave Country, this will most likely take a month, so go home and pack accordingly ...we will depart from the main gate at 0800 tomorrow morning."

"0800?" asked a grinning Naruto to his sensei, "aren't you usually on the road of life at that time in the morning?"

"Brat," hissed Kakashi back, but without any heat in it as the Hokage and Iruka both poorly attempted to cover sudden laughter at their favorite blonde's handling of Kakashi's famous perpetual tardiness, and the glare he sent them, "I'll take a different road tomorrow morning."

"Then I'll see you at the gate," answered Naruto with a smile, before turning to Iruka and asking if he was free for a trip to Ichiraku's tonight in celebration of his first mission out of Konoha.

Iruka was quick to accept the invitation, hoping for the chance to hang out with the young blonde before he left for a month and give him a few pointers and tips to ensure he remained safe. He then went back to work as Kakashi reminded Tazuna and his genin to meet tomorrow morning at the gate before vanishing in a shunshin. The genin then left for their homes to prepare their travel packs for the long mission, with Naruto heading first to his underground Facility to make sure his clones had all their assignments in place while he was gone.

He was a little nervous about how his clones would survive long term without him present to replace those lost, but hoped that with the inclusion of his blood clones that everything he had begun in Konoha would remain without him to keep it running. He spawned another large batch of clones, and had them fill in the gaps in his organization while limiting the amount that went to research & development until he returned. He tasked his blood clones with prioritizing keeping his growing civilian businesses going, as those would be the first noticed if he started losing his clones, but to insure they kept the continual spawning of clones to keep his chakra in constant flux.

Naruto left the Facility after another hour of picking up some of the things his clones had finished with, including several dozen storage scrolls and chakra draining seals and over a hundred explosive tags. He then returned to his apartment and packed and loaded some of those storage scrolls with anything he thought he might need, including an armory of weapons just in case. He then left to meet with Iruka for dinner at Ichiraku's, excited to get the chance to catch up with the older chunin, eat at his favorite ramen stand, and finally go on a real mission outside of Konoha.

Chapter 9: Making Waves I

The slow civilian paced walk towards Wave from Konoha was tedious and so ridiculously slow for the young ninjas, that they were quickly losing their patience and discipline within their formation. They had started all excited for their first mission outside of Konoha at 0800 at the gate, surprised when Kakashi arrived only a few minutes late, and led them through the usual checkout protocols. He then had them in a diamond pattern surrounding and protecting their client with Sasuke up front, Naruto and Sakura on either side of Tazuna, with Kakashi bringing up the rear with his head buried in his favorite orange book.

It really only took about two hours at that slow pace for Naruto to start bouncing around with too much energy, and Sasuke scowling even more about slow civilians while Sakura happily chatted with the old grey haired bridge builder. She asked constant questions about Wave, his family, his bridge, and anything else she could think of while her teammates continued to grumble about their slow pace. After a few hours in, Kakashi, seeing Naruto's build up of energy whispered to the young blonde that he could discreetly start spawning shadow clones to explore around them and widen their protective barrier around the client, hoping it would give the energetic young ninja something else to do than focus on their slow civilian pace.

It worked really well for the next few hours, as Naruto used a quick bathroom break to spawn at least a thousand clones and sent them off in various directions around but mostly in front of them to scout out the path and provide that additional layer of protection around them all. It also gave Naruto something else to focus on instead of their slow pace, and he used the clones to happily explore all around them as he had never been this far from the village before. With Sakura's never ending questions to Tazuna, and with added instructions from Kakashi along the way they soon started passing time and distance.

It was late that first afternoon, having been walking now for over seven hours when Naruto saw something that was completely out of place in Fire Country, a puddle of water calmly sitting on the dried path they had been on. It wouldn't have been as out of place if it had rained at all in the last several days, and therefore stuck out like a beacon and had him turn to Kakashi for instructions. But his leader only gave him a shake of his head and motioned him to continue past the puddle, as he obviously had it under control, or at least was waiting to see what it was before disrupting it.

Seeing neither of his teammates reacting to the puddle, he could only assume Kakashi gave them the same instructions or they didn't notice it, and continued his pace while paying close attention to the spot on their path. That level of attention was pretty much the only thing that prevented him from jumping in fright when after their entire group passed next to the puddle, it seemingly exploded and two relatively similar looking ninja leaped out of it. Before he or his teammates could react, the ninja pair with the unique chain they each held on to had seemingly wrapped up and destroyed Kakashi in a shower of blood.

"One down," spoke the taller of the two on the left.

"Three to go," spoke the other shorter ninja as they both prepared to leap at them, but never got the chance.

Sasuke had instantly leapt towards the pair, throwing a kunai at the chain they carried and pinning it to a nearby tree, forcing the pair to abandon their weapon and separate, leaving Sasuke charging the larger of the pair. The shorter of the pair instantly took off directly at Tazuna, and Naruto watched as Sakura flinched in fear, and knew it was up to him to protect his teammate and their client, instantly forming his favorite seal and causing several dozen shadow clones to appear all around him, Tazuna, and Sakura. Several of his first few clones were torn through by the unusual clawed metal gauntlet on the foreign ninja's arm, but within moments were able to tangle up with the attacking shinobi and quickly overwhelmed him and had him soon after knocked out and bound in a chakra suppression tag with only seconds passed.

When he looked up at Sasuke, he saw him whipping off his kunai on a dead ninja's clothes, just as Kakashi emerged from out of the nearby bushes looking completely unruffled, but his gaze fixed on Tazuna. He praised both Sasuke and Naruto for successfully defending their client and teammates from an ambush against chunin level missing ninja. Then he told everyone to stay put as he interrogated their lone prisoner for more information and leapt back into the surrounding woods with the bound shorter shinobi over his shoulder as the three genin stared around wide-eyed at the quick action they just faced.

"Tazuna, we need to talk," came Kakashi's more demanding tone of voice, that had the elderly bridge builder virtually sweating bullets as the powerful ninja stared at him until he broke down and spilled everything.

We learned about a powerful and corrupt businessman named Gato who controlled Wave with an iron fist, killing all opposition, and practically enslaving the town, and squeezing the resources from their small island. His bridge was their only hope of getting out from under his tyrannical control, and he had been trying to kill Tazuna ever since he started building his bridge. Their entire country was impoverished and terrified of the man and his army of thugs and recently, rumors of hired missing ninjas, had forced him to appeal to Konoha for help, but they would never be able to afford the more expensive A-Rank mission it probably required.

Kakashi was not happy at all, having been lied to by the client about the severity of the mission and putting his young genin team in danger from opponents well beyond their level, and now forcing Sasuke to take his first life as a ninja of the Leaf. He was all set to abandon the elderly bridge builder to his fate, but was stopped from abandoning the mission by his genin team who all argued that they needed to help, and couldn't abandon a mission as it would look bad on Konoha. Sasuke also argued that he needed to test himself against other ninja and was happy to continue, and Naruto argued that with Kakashi present, they should be capable of handling anything that came their way, and could always use their new communication pins to contact the Hokage and ask for reinforcements at any time.

With the mission continuing as planned, Kakashi gave his genin team a small explanation on the Demon Brothers, missing nin from Mist that were chunin level opponents they just defeated luckily as they were underestimated. He then told them to get back into formation and pay much more attention, as the severity and dangers they could encounter just went up several notches, and hoped he wasn't making too big of a mistake. He gave them all a quick lesson on cleaning up after a battle, and sealed away the body of Sasuke's first kill in a death scroll, making no mention of the other death scroll he already filled with his interrogated prisoner.

When they continued on, they all were now paying a lot more attention to their surroundings, mostly ignoring Tazuna as he repeatedly thanked and praised them for helping him, and on high alert for another confrontation. Sakura was shaking a bit after freezing up in the face of enemy ninjas, and wondering why she agreed to continue this mission when all she wanted to do was run home, but couldn't bring herself to ever go against Sasuke. Sasuke was likewise thinking back on the fight, and pleased he handled himself well and defeated another ninja, showing off his progress and ability and determined that it was just another step in his quest for vengeance against his brother.

Naruto was the only one really thinking about the fight, and how lucky they got, that they went after Kakashi first, as his slight hesitation at the beginning of the battle could have spelled his death against a more efficient and less hesitant fighter. He was pleased he didn't freeze up completely like Sakura, but would hardly call his actions great, and was simply glad he survived to fight another day, and wondered if that was how much of his ninja career was going to be. Kakashi was watching his genin closely after the confrontation, not surprised at Sasuke's brutality or lack of emotion, Sakura's hesitance and inability to keep up, and Naruto's now quiet contemplation as he went over the particulars of the fight and hopefully learned and progressed from it.

It was nearing dusk as their group finally reached the bank of a large body of water, and Tazuna led them along the coast towards a somewhat hidden alcove that had a small boat and boatman waiting on them. He greeted Tazuna fearfully, and made sure the ninja knew to be quiet on the water as sound travelled quite well on the open water, and they needed to pass into Wave unseen from the many patrolling Gato ships. When they reached the other side after a stressful twenty minutes, they said goodbye to the boatman and led Tazuna back to his house, which was thankfully only a little over an hour away.

Shortly after taking up their positions around Tazuna again and heading towards his house, Naruto heard a noise in the bushes and threw a kunai at a startled white rabbit that had his two teammates teasing him for attacking a harmless creature. Before he could even refute their teasing however, they heard a quickly approaching whistling sound that had kakashi yelling for them all to duck. Naruto, closest to Tazuna tackled the older bridge builder to the ground as they all felt and saw a large object slicing right over them, which then became imbedded deeply into a nearby tree, and had a uniquely dressed missing ninja standing above what turned out to be a sword of immense size.

"Fucking tree huggers," came the low almost growled voice of the large muscular man standing on the flat of the large blade embedded into the tree, "give me the bridge builder and you are free to go ...I have no quarrel with you."

"Momochi Zabuza," greeted Kakashi almost seeming friendly, though he was quickly trying to position himself between the famous missing nin and his small genin, knowing they would have no chance against someone of this caliber, "Demon of the Hidden Mist."

"Sharingan Kakashi," replied the large bare chest man wearing only striped pants and bandages around part of his torso and covering the lower half of his face as he eyed the eldest Leaf ninja carefully. "Or do you prefer Copycat Kakashi ...you have quite the bounty on your head in Mist ...maybe this little job will be worth it."

"Stay behind me, this opponent is on a completely different level from all of you," spoke Kakashi somewhat fearfully as he tried to impart on his young genin not to get involved in this fight, while Sasuke was still staring at him in shock at the name he was called and wondered why a non-Uchiha would be known as a sharingan user.

Kakashi was worried for his young genin, and knew this was a fight he would probably need to go all out in order to win, and hoped none of his students got hurt in the process. While the two powerhouses continued to size each other up and trade slight barbs against each other, the genin were in various states of shock as they started to feel a strong presence pushing down on them, as if they were about to be killed. Luckily, shortly after it began, Kakashi seemed to push out his own presence that washed the oppressive feeling away, and replaced it with a small sense of security that Naruto used to slowly start gathering his own chakra in case he or his clones were needed to help.

Sasuke was trembling in excitement at seeing two strong opponents fight, and also very curious when our cyclops leader pulled up his slanted headband and uncovered a unique red eye with an unusual black tomoe pattern that he was intimately familiar with. He knew now wasn't the time to ask, but he promised he would find out how his Clan's famous sharingan eye was in his jounin sensei's head when this fight was done. They all listened to the pre-battle banter of the two strong ninja, and were all shocked to learn of Zabuza's nickname and the meaning behind how he got it, and wondered briefly if maybe this was a fight their sensei might lose.

The moment the two powerful ninja leapt towards each other and broke the growing silence, Naruto created several dozen clones that further surrounded the three genin and their civilian client inside a wall of bodies as another layer of protection. Sasuke, not one to ever hide, instantly pushed his way to the front of the circling group of clones to better watch the ensuing battle himself, and eager to prove himself worthwhile as his teammates hid. Naruto continued spawning small groups of clones away from anyone's notice, and had them quickly henge into small animals and disburse even further around them, some even transforming into inanimate objects along the nearby shoreline as the fighting was moving over the water.

The three genin watched as Kakashi seemed to be matching Zabuza move for move, as neither side seemed to be gaining too much of an advantage, until the fight started moving closer to then over the water. After an insanely impressive pair of matching water dragons cancelled each other out, they watched wide-eyed as Zabuza seemed to finally catch Kakashi inside a large bubble of water that imprisoned him as he frantically tried to escape. Zabuza though, created several water clones and told them to take out the brats, and the genin could tell that whatever that water prison was, it needed to be maintained by the original as he didn't move after capturing their sensei, instead sending his clones to do it.

Naruto had read up significantly on clones of each element in his quest to perfect and eventually find the Fuinjutsu Blood Clones he made, and knew water clones were typically only 10% as strong as the user, and hoped that was enough for them to handle. He looked over at Tazuna and Sakura, both of whom were huddled and terrified at the scene in front of them, and then at Sasuke who looked ready to try and take on the half dozen Zabuza clones single-handedly. He remembered their recent team battle with Team 10 and quickly called out to his teammate, he had a plan to take care of the clones and help their sensei, but would need the Uchiha's help to pull it off.

"Sasuke," started Naruto seriously, "send as many fireballs as you can at the clones, I'll boost them with wind ...maybe we can get Zabuza to move and free Kakashi."

"Got it," replied Sasuke with a grin, and quickly started spitting out decent sized fireballs at a relatively quick clip towards the approaching water clones.

"Futon: Great Breakthrough," called Naruto and sent a strong wind attack right behind Sasuke's fireballs that instantly empowered them to three times their size and speed, taking out all but one of Zabuza's water clones in the first volley.

Another volley of wind enhanced fireballs took care of the last charging water clone who had made it incredibly close based on the heat they felt before he too was reduced to a harmless puddle, and a third volley had the real Zabuza with wide disbelieving eyes have to abandon his hold on the water prison to dodge the incoming fireball that no genin team should be capable of. Luckily, before Zabuza's full attention went towards the genin, Kakashi exploded out of the water prison, completely pissed off and out for blood.

Within a minute he had Zabuza on the ropes and ready to deliver a killing blow, as the sound of a thousand tiny birds started humming as a seeming sword of pure electricity bloomed out of Kakashi's hand with the intent on ending the missing nin when they were interrupted. A pair of senbon came from a nearby tree well away from the genin team, and lodged themselves in Zabuza's neck instantly dropping him to the ground like a sack of potatoes, and a young thin ninja in an unusual hunter mask emerged from the forest and approached the large missing nin.

"Thank you for your assistance," the unidentifiable hunter ninja spoke slowly as they approached a weary Kakashi, who let his technique go when he recognized the Kiri hunter mask, "I have been tracking Zabuza here for months, and could not have killed him without your aid."

Kakashi glanced down at Zabuza, and quickly checked his pulse, finding none and stepping away from the dead body as the hunter continued his deliberate approach. When he reached Zabuza, he easily hefted the impossibly large man over his thin shoulder and disappeared in a shunshin before another word was said. The genin of Team 7 looked on in shock as the little hunter ninja took away the large missing nin, before watching Kakashi return his hitai-ate over his sharingan eye and promptly collapse in exhaustion where he stood.

"Sensei?" gasped Sakura, the first thing she had said in minutes, having completely locked up and froze since the beginning, and now terrified even more that their lone protector might be hurt and unable to keep them safe while so far away from Konoha.

"Let's all check on Kakashi, and stay together," spoke Naruto quickly, not wanting Sakura to run off without support, and also needing to keep Tazuna protected until they knew more about Kakashi and if their opposition was now over.

Sasuke gave Naruto a long look but didn't say anything as the group made their way towards where Kakashi collapsed, being herded by several dozen clones still keeping an eye out for anything else as they reached their collapsed leader. After a quick check from Sakura, who at least knew the signs of certain medical conditions, they identified him as simply having chakra exhaustion. Naruto had a clone transform into a cot and loaded Kakashi on as two more stepped up to carry their jounin sensei as they continued on towards Tazuna's house with the remaining clones surrounding and protecting them.

It took them some time to make their way to Tazuna's house travelling at civilian speeds and carrying Kakashi, but they arrived safely and without incident. They were happily greeted by an attractive older woman, who introduced herself as Tazuna's daughter Tsunami, and was beyond grateful and accommodating for the people protecting her father. She led them all inside and into a pair of spare rooms on the second floor, one much smaller that Sakura took, leaving the larger room for the boys, who set Kakashi down on the only bed.

"We should probably set up a perimeter?" spoke up Naruto, causing Sasuke to pause again and stare at the blonde with an unknown look on his face, "I can get my clones to do that part and keep watch ...but we should probably all have an idea of trap locations."

They grabbed Sakura on their way back outside, and Naruto created several dozen clones and had them start to trap and create a defensive perimeter around the large property, while pointing out everything to his teammates in case they ventured outside. He mostly ignored the somewhat gobsmacked looks from his two teammates, and simply laughed it off as traps being a specialty of his due to all his pranks, which they both instantly believed. Tsunami then called them all to dinner, and they went back inside, with Naruto in the rear where he paused and spawned a much larger batch of clones to add to the others, out of view from his teammates.

It wasn't that he didn't trust them, but didn't really want to answer their obvious questions that would be asked. How did he have so much chakra to make that many clones? How much was he learning with that many clones? What else did he know that Sasuke would be jealous of?

This way he could have even more clones for their perimeter defences, and even use the others to start scouting out the surrounding area, the bridge, the town, and anything else he could think of. The dinner was wonderful, though there wasn't too much for his usual appetite, he was happy his sensei was at least awake and eating. He realized that the family was probably spread pretty thin if Tazuna's earlier explanations of poverty were to be believed, and promised to help supplement food from that point forward and put out a call to his clones to bring in some game.

"Sakura said you sent out a few dozen clones to secure the perimeter and start trapping the area," spoke Kakashi after the meal was winding down, and conversation started picking back up.

"Yes sensei," answered Naruto plainly, "they can also take care of night watch ...how long until you are back to full strength?"

"Good," replied Kakashi with his customary one-eyed smile, "probably a few days ...a week at most."

All three genin seemed to sag in relief at that news, as none of them fancied doing this entire mission without Kakashi's help, but then tensed after he went on to explain that they would most likely be seeing Zabuza again, as the "hunter nin" was most likely an accomplice since he didn't immediately dispose of the body, and senbon were very tricky instruments to kill someone, but definitely able to induce a death-like state. He reckoned we had a good week until Zabuza too was back at full strength, and then would most likely be facing him and his "hunter nin" partner and would need to continue training in the meantime.

To that end, he gave Sakura a pair of books on basic healing, both field medic stuff and the more involved chakra based healing techniques, and told her to study up as best she could as it could mean saving one of our lives in the future. Sasuke was told to work on water walking and get to the point he could fight on the surface for extended periods of time, as water was the most common and abundant element in Wave. He simply told Naruto to continue on his chakra control, earning a somewhat disparigent scoff from Sasuke at the seemingly easy and useless training he provided the dobe.

Naruto on the other hand knew that it meant he was free to train however he wanted, as Kakashi knew how much time and training he already put in geared towards that exactly, and was their sort of running joke on everyone who underestimated the blonde genin. Therefore, Narutoi started thinking about what he would work on and set up while here in Wave, and decided to simply continue as he was flooding the area with his clones to learn as much as he could about what was happening, and send large groups off to train predominantly his taijutsu and sword training. When dinner was over Naruto helped Tsunami with the dishes earning him a beaming smile and thanks from the nice woman.

"So, can I ask how there seem to be so many people outside that look just like you?" she asked after looking out the window at one moment and seeing four replicas of the boy next to her discussing something in her yard and looking around.

"I can make tangible clones ...it's a chakra technique I am pretty good at," he answered with a smile to the kind woman, who had been nothing but pleasant and friendly. "Definitely helps with chores."

Her tinkling laugh was quite nice, and Naruto marvelled at how easy it was to talk with her as she held no preconceived notions of him being a demon container or prankster, and wondered if this was how most people interacted with others. When the dishes were done, Naruto even offered to have some clones pick up around the house and outside, further endearing him to the client and his family. At one point he took Kakashi outside to point out entry points and traps, and used the time to spawn another large batch of over 2000 clones that he disbursed out into their surroundings to continue gathering information, much to Kakashi's approval.

Naruto promised to be careful, after Kakashi said he was going back inside to rest and leave their protection to the young blonde. Because of the amount of clones already disbursed in the area, Naruto already had a great clearing in mind for a place to continue training, as he was still too pumped up to sleep yet and had energy to burn. Arriving in the clearing he started with a nice warmup and then moved onto taijutsu forms and then sword fighting katas in an attempt to better train his muscle memory as clones couldn't really do that.

As he swung a large heavy training sword around, he wondered just how strong one needed to be to use that large meat cleaver type sword that Zabuza used effortlessly, and resigned himself to ask Kakashi about it tomorrow. He was sweaty and tired by the time he finished his late night workout, but managed to do one more large spawning of clones before he returned to the house. It was quiet when he returned, but he knew both Kakashi and Sasuke were aware of when he got back and settled down to sleep, content to know that his insane amount of clones would be able to easily alert them all if anyone tried to come near them.

Naruto awoke early the next morning to an influx of new memories that he had to sort through and understand before he actually got out of bed. His clones had apparently been really busy, and found the bridge, the town, Gato's headquarters, his mercenaries' barracks, and were continuing even further out across the island of Wave in search of even more. Despite the late hour they were exploring, he could confirm that the town was really struggling, with poverty, homelessness, and hopelessness abound and had a hard time not charging in and trying to fix everything.

Gato's headquarters were huge and ostentatious, well fortified for civilians, but nothing a quality ninja couldn't bypass, and was planning to get Kakashi's permission to try and infiltrate it to learn even more. The most interesting thing his clones found though was a small abandoned old temple that was practically falling down and unused, but had something that he never expected to see and made him beyond excited. The Uzushiogakure Spiral was carved above the door frame, and despite the temple being barren and dilapidated, it meant his family was at one point there and there might still be other clues nearby.

When he finally got out of bed and headed downstairs, he met Tsunami in the kitchen just getting started on breakfast for everyone, and told her he had his clones find them some additional meat and vegetables so they weren't taking all their food. He was again thanked gratefully, and helped set the table and finish breakfast preparations for the large group that soon joined them at the table. His teammates were both pretty quiet this morning, which wasn't new for Sasuke, and the meal passed quickly with minimal discussion until everyone was finishing up.

"Today, we should all accompany Tazuna to the bridge to get a better lay of the land and set up our own protections and schedule," started Kakashi to his genin, "but we will probably be splitting up guard duties so everyone has a chance to continue training."

"That's good, I need to get to the bridge and see how many workers I still have left," spoke Tazuna, somewhat dejectedly, having expected even more of his workers having left due to pressure from Gato's thugs or simply needing to try other methods of earning a living and feeding their families.

"I wouldn't mind contributing some manual labor," replied Naruto, thinking that learning anything about building would only help him when it came to restoring his old apartment building, and hoping it would help the bridge go up quicker and be another layer of protection for them.

"Those clone thingies can lift stuff right?" asked Tazuna with a pleased gleam in his eyes as he stared at the blond he remembered brought forth pretty decent numbers on a few separate occasions and could definitely use the extra muscle.

"Probably more than anyone you have working for you," replied Naruto with a challenging smirk, knowing his strength far surpassed any civilian.

"You're hired," laughed Tazuna happily, his spirits lifted a bit at the prospect of more help.

"Then let's all head out," responded Kakashi, directing the conversation back to what they needed to do, "and Naruto can leave some clones behind to watch over the house."

The four ninjas then left with Tazuna heading towards the famous bridge he was building, with Naruto lagging behind to spawn large amounts of clones that would add to the numbers he already had running all over the island of Wave. When they reached the bridge, the genin were all suitably impressed with its immense size, but rather underwhelmed by the only half a dozen other workers, prompting Naruto to create a dozen clones. They all quickly transformed into less noticeable young workers with bland brown hair, and the standard clothes his clones had seen around the island, hoping it would help them fit in better as they all walked up to Tazuna as he was greeting the others.

They introduced themselves as cousins from a small mainland village with no experience, but hard workers willing to learn and were split up to assist the other workers and run supplies all over when necessary. While Tazuna was getting the builders back on track, Kakashi was talking his genin through possible areas of ambush or sabotage they would need to be careful about, and walking them through his plans and strategies to use if they were attacked at the bridge. They also went through the rotation for guard duty at the bridge, making sure everyone got a few turns, but also allowed them all enough time to really practice what he gave them each to work on.

Naruto offered to spend a few extra turns doing guard duty at the bridge, as he could still train in his chakra control, and had a few clones training as well throughout the day, and wanted his teammates to have ample training time. He also argued that he had started sleeping much less, and could use some of the time in the evenings and nights to continue training if he felt like it. Kakashi was fine with that, and rearranged their guard rotations to reflect the change. Neither of his teammates thanked him or even acknowledged the sacrifice to help them, but Naruto had grown somewhat used to not being recognized by Sasuke and Sakura, and found that it bothered him less and less now that he was improving so much.

That first day, after Kakashi let Sasuke and Sakura return to the house to train or study, Naruto asked him about any other chakra control exercises he could work on, as he had exhausted how many leaves he could hold and even move around on his body. He knew tree climbing and water walking, and had even continued his work on the Elemental exercises, all things that helped improve his chakra control, but felt it getting harder and harder to continue improving. Kakashi actually had him start leaf spinning, controlling the rotation of your chakra to spin a leaf above your hand, and then to work towards doing over every finger or other parts of the body.

That was quite the challenge, as he had never worked on rotating or spinning his chakra in that method, and required a good deal of concentration and a new way of approaching chakra control exercises. That this would also eventually help him in learning to rotate chakra for the Rasengen, a spinning and grinding vortex of chakra, that was a favorite and invented move by his father, though he didn't know that at the time. Kakashi was happy and proud to get him started on something that many shinobi really struggled with, and would hopefully be a great building block to his later training that was his birthright even if he didn't know that yet.

After doing that for a while, Naruto also asked Kakashi if he would watch and critique him as he went through the sword katas that he gave his young student, to see if he was ready for more. A pair of shadow clones took their visible place on the bridge while they slipped into the surrounding woods and went through the basic kata Kakashi gave him less than a week ago. He was not too surprised that Naruto had taken so well to any and all training with the amount of shadow clones he was constantly producing and adding to his time training, and deemed him ready for the next stage of katas that he went through with the energetic younger blonde.

By the end of that first day of working on the bridge, Tazuna was quite pleased with Naruto's dozen workers and gladly welcomed them back whenever they wanted to work, and were thanked by the other half dozen real workers as well for their invaluable help. He decided to continue the ruse, and sent the dozen worker clones into town with some money to get lodging and continue to play their part as visiting laborers, and have another set of eyes on everything going around. He also continued throughout the day and as they were all walking back to Tazuna's house, to spawn large amounts of clones whenever he felt his chakra reserves were ready for more and saw no reason to stop adding to his clones.

They had already over the course of the day scouted out much more of Gato's compound, the mercenaries' barracks, various spots throughout the town, and mapped quite a bit of the island. They had also started delivering large amounts of meat and vegetables they hunted and harvested to Tsunami, who was somewhat overwhelmed at how much this one boy was helping them, but grateful nonetheless for the help. He had also managed to find an old port on the far other side of the island that seemed to have fallen in disrepair and was left unused. It was the closest landmark though to the abandoned Uzushiogakure Temple he found, and wondered if it was related or facing another nearby island that might have more answers.

Chapter 10: Making Waves II

During dinner the night after arriving, where the ninjas were finally introduced to the whining and ungrateful Inari, Tsunami's son, Naruto asked about Uzushiogakure, and where in relation to Wave it was. Kakashi knew it was relatively nearby, but not too much having never gone there before or after it was destroyed, but Tazuna surprisingly knew quite a bit. It was actually made up of several islands to the north-northeast on the far other side of the island, and long ago controlled and protected Wave as one of the islands that were under its control. When asked if he ever knew of any Uzumaki's or ninja of Whirlpool, the elderly bridge builder could only shake his head, though did mention an elderly woman named Emiko who lived on the outskirts of the village who used to tell stories of Whirlpool Village.

Kakashi knew he would probably get chewed out by the Hokage upon their return, but gave Naruto permission to send his clones to try and find that woman and learn a little more about his Clan's history. As long as the real Naruto wasn't venturing into dangerous places, Kakashi was okay with his clones doing all the reconnaissance they wanted in and around Wave and even the surrounding islands as long as they were henged as civilians, or didn't have anything that tied them back to the Leaf. Naruto's instant agreement and excited face, should probably have been more worrisome to the jounin leader of Team 7, but he figured that the clones would disappear if they encountered any trouble, and as long as Konoha wasn't blamed, what did it matter to satisfy his cute genin's curiosity.

After dinner then, Naruto went outside to the clearing he found and trained in the other night, and spawned a large batch of 2000 more clones, all looking completely non-descript that he sent out with orders to find the Ruins or whatever remained of Whirlpool, while he sent a very small group towards the village to ask around and locate this Emiko. He then began his own physical workout that while not as intense as when he trained with the green beasts, was nonetheless very demanding and had him dripping in sweat half way through. By the time he wore himself out, it was quite late at night, but he was still somewhat hyped about his possible discovering of his Clan's history, that he ate some jerky to restore his strength a bit before spawning another large batch of clones to add to the others and returned to the house for bed.

When he woke up the next day, he again had many memories to go through from the day and night before, and was super excited that his clones located Emiko, and would make contact today. He also learned that he found the location that he thought was Zabuza's base, but managed to keep clear of it, as he didn't want to test his stealth and infiltration skills on a jounin level opponent that almost defeated Kakashi. Instead they maintained a perimeter watch on the well hidden base in the hopes of learning more and keeping tabs on the enemy until Kakashi was told and a plan could be put in place.

After another wonderful breakfast, this one much larger than previously, and helping Tsunami with preparations and cleanup, Kakashi took Sakura to the bridge for guard duty and let the boys have the day for training. Naruto actually offered to provide Sasuke a couple hundred clones if he wanted any one-hit opponents to practice with and take a break from the constant training in his water walking, which his teammate happily agreed to. He told Sasuke and his clones he left him, to not waste them on large scale ninjutsu hits, and should probably work on taijutsu as despite limited durability, having the numbers they did would give the Uchiha a nice workout and change of pace.

Leaving a smirking Sasuke, who he could tell wanted to prove his superiority by easily defeating the Naruto clones, the original blond simply laughed at how difficult his clones were going to make Sasuke work and get in a lot of practice in his new Hariken taijutsu style. That his clones would also be able to study and learn Sasuke's own Clan taijutsu style in the process, was simply a bonus that would only help the original improve on his taijutsu and overall experience. While his clones were keeping Sasuke busy, Naruto instantly followed the knowledge his clones provided to first check out that Uzushiogakure Temple and then head to Emiko's house to try and ask her about his Clan's history or anything she could remember of the Uzumaki Clan.

The dilapidated temple was not much to look at, and had been overtaken by the surrounding forests and elements to where it was almost impossible to tell what it originally was, but the Uzushiogakure Spiral carved into the stone plinth above the interior mantle of the only door was clearly visible. Forming some clones to help elevate him up to the carving, Naruto ran his hands over the carved spiral and felt a weird feeling of his chakra seemingly being pulled into the spiral and decided to push some chakra into the carved symbol. Instantly Fuinjutsu script started to appear around the spiral as it kept taking more and more chakra, and Naruto had a brief moment of panic when it didn't instantly stop and he could no longer remove his hand or stop the pull of chakra.

Luckily, he wasn't too low on chakra at the moment and within moments the chakra pull slowed to a stop and he could pull his hand away from a now slowly opening spiral, surprised that the Fuinjutsu took so much chakra so quickly and glad he had chakra in spades. Once the spiral had opened completely, there was an elaborate storage scroll inside the spiral that was also marked with the familiar spiral, and he couldn't believe his luck at finding something from Uzushiogakure. Pulling the storage scroll out, the carved spiral instantly closed back up, and Naruto could only look on in shock at the amazing find and couldn't wait to explore what it contained.

Feeding another large chunk of chakra to the Fuinjutsu script on the storage scroll, he was glad his chakra was so abundant as he didn't think many of his contemporaries would have had enough for even one of the seals, let alone two. When the scroll opened, he was met with a large puff of smoke that cleared to reveal two smaller scrolls, one that contained written notes on Fuinjutsu and the other a technique labelled Uzumaki Adamantine Chakra Chains. Knowing how valuable these were and how precious to him specifically, Naruto quickly re-sealed the two scrolls and looked around the temple for anything else before moving on to his next stop, the elder Emiko.

Following his clones' instructions, he soon found himself outside a small somewhat run down house on the edge of the central village that he was hopeful would lead to some more information about his Clan's history and the history of Whirlpool. After knocking on the door and waiting for some time, an elderly and seemingly blind woman with long grey hair and a stooped appearance answered the door with the lined and weathered face set in a scowl.

"Hello Emiko-san," greeted Naruto respectfully, not wanting to upset the seemingly already glaring older woman, "Tazuna-san the bridge builder said that you might be able to tell me some stories of Uzushiogakure and the Uzumaki Clan?"

"Why would I do that?" she snapped rather harshly, giving Naruto a slow glance over where he couldn't actually tell if she was seeing him at all.

"I recently learned that my mother was Kushina Uzumaki of Uzushiogakure," started naruto quietly, "she settled in Konoha to study under her Aunt Mito Uzumaki, the wife of our First Hokage."

Naruto didn't know why he explained as much as he did so freely, but something about the older woman made him be completely honest and forthcoming, and her almost inaudible gasp and the increase in her attention on him as he spoke made him think he did right. All of a sudden a strong pulse of chakra swept out from Emiko and blanketed the area around them for some seconds before the feeling went away, and a seemingly younger looking older woman was in the elderly lady's place. She still had long grey hair and aged wrinkles, but now carried herself much straighter and with much greater vigor than before as she quickly ushered Naruto into her house, closed the door and sent another much smaller pulse of chakra through an elaborate set of seals that lit up every square inch of the cabin's interior walls for a moment before fading.

"So, you are Kushina's son?" she asked as her now much more alert eyes took in his face, "a ninja of Konoha?"

"Dattebayo," answered Naruto happily knowing she at least knew some information on his Clan, causing Emiko to let out another barely audible gasp and unknowingly solidifying his claim with the verbal tick that was often found among Uzumaki Clan members.

"Your father must have been incredibly strong to have trumped the red hair of the Uzumaki Clan," she responded with a nostalgic look on her face as she continued to study the young blond. "Though there is very little doubt in my mind after hearing you and feeling your chakra."

"My chakra?" asked Naruto curiously.

"Uzumaki's have very dense and vigorous chakra, though your's is greater than most, and has something else in it too," she spoke evenly as she continued studying the young blonde's face, and noticed his slight flinch at the end of her statement and wondered what that was until she remembered why Kushina was sent to Konoha in the first place, and wondered if her son now was the container of the Kyuubi as his mother was before him. "It's one of the reasons Uzumaki were so sought after ...their dense and vigorous chakra was some of the only ones that could handle the Bijuu."

"Oh," whispered Naruto as he realized what Emiko was talking about, and was rather self-conscious about his status as a jinkurichi.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of my boy," she replied to his seeming depression at the mention of his incredible burden. "What you do is very important, an incredible burden, and enormous responsibility ...but remember, it is you who control your actions, and you who decide how to deal with the burden you've been given."

Naruto ended up spending over an hour with Emiko, learning all about her stories as a young girl in Uzushiogakure, as a cousin to the Uzumaki Clan, she inherited some of their longevity and sensing talents but was never allowed to study their Family Fuinjutsu, and never became a ninja herself. She worked as a young school teacher, pre-Academy age and helped train sensors for the village she was born and raised in. When it fell, she along with hundreds of others, all fled Uzushiogakure for parts unknown, settling all over the Elemental Nations and hiding their link to Whirlpool to avoid their many enemies.

She wasn't a huge fan of Konoha, as their closest ally who wasn't there to help when they were invaded by Earth, Lightning, and Water Countries simultaneously in fear of their growing power and control of Fuinjutsu, but had gotten over her grudge in the years since as she realized that it wasn't specifically Konoha's fault. She told Naruto several stories of Uzumaki Clan members she knew, and described the Adamantine Sealing Chains after Naruto mentioned them in order to try and learn a bit more about them if he was going to try and learn the technique himself. She also showed him on a map, exactly where the old village was located, and told him she had never ventured back out of fear of discovery and was content with the life she lived now.

Naruto was understandably pretty emotional and worked up after the storytelling, wondering why she wouldn't want to reconnect with her past, but realized as a non-combatant, she probably didn't see much point in returning as there wasn't much she could do about it. He thanked her gratefully for her time and stories, pleased to have at least met and talked with her about Uzushiogakure, and promised to keep her secret past from everyone. In return, she thanked him for seeking her out, and was glad to get to know and talk with him, encouraged that the Uzumaki Clan wasn't completely gone from the world, and gave him a small scroll describing her sensing abilities and how she developed and taught them to others, hoping he would have some use for it in the future.

By the time he returned to his little training clearing near Tazuna's house, it was well past lunchtime, and he cooked a pair of rabbits over a fire pit as he was worn out emotionally and needed some food to keep training. He then spawned another large batch of 2000 clones and had them all start working on the new leaf spinning exercise Kakashi gave them, using the next few hours until the work day was done to get in as much training as he could. By the time dinner was approaching and he knew Tazuna, Sakura, and Kakashi would be returning back to the house, he left those clones still working on the spinning leaf, to return just in time to see a battered and exhausted Sasuke emerging from the clearing he was using to train.

His smirk was hard to conceal as Sasuke saw him and gave him a glare at the difficult time he had fighting the seemingly countless Naruto clones, who were all much better than he had thought. Naruto was pleased with their progress in the Hariken style, and the experience he gained fighting his teammate, who was always the best of his class in taijutsu and who had only gotten better since becoming genin. That 250 of his clones could hold their own against him in a taijutsu only battle was a pretty impressive feat, one he was glad to exploit in order to train in his new taijutsu style and continue to get better, and prove to Sasuke that he wasn't the dead weight he often thought the dark haired boy felt.

Dinner was another amazing meal, provided by Tsunami and a Naruto clone who was happily learning everything he could from the amazing chef, and they were all filled in on another day building the bridge. After dinner, Naruto asked to speak with Kakashi, who decided to have the whole team meet together to learn and talk about whatever issue was brought up. They went out onto the porch, and Kakashi turned towards his young blonde genin and asked him what news he had.

"My clones have located Zabuza's base," spoke Naruto plainly, not boasting as he may have months ago, "and Gato's Compound."

"We can take the fight directly to them?" spoke Sasuke with excitement, as he thought about getting another chance to fight and prove himself.

"Not yet," responded Kakashi with a look to his three students, "I am not yet recovered completely ...and even injured Zabuza is much too tough for the three of you."

"I have clones watching both bases," continued Naruto into the silence after Kakashi's statement, "they can continue to monitor and learn more about them, to see if we can find a way to end this conflict on our own terms, and not just defend against the unknown."

"I think watching and learning more about both groups is a great start," answered Kakashi with a nod to Naruto, "how goes the training I gave you all?"

"I'm still working on chakra control," responded Naruto easily, as neither of his teammates immediately spoke up.

"Water walking is coming along," grunted out Sasuke.

"I've been studying all the medical texts you gave me," continued Sakura with a glance to her team, somewhat insecure about her contribution versus that of her teammates and didn't really want to add anything unless she was sure not to make herself look bad to Sasuke.

"Good," answered Kakashi after giving all three genin a lingering look, "I want each of you to make some progress before we take any offensive action, and I'll need to scout out the bases myself before we do anything. Now, I'm going to rest ...don't stay out training too late," he finished with a long look at Naruto who just smiled sheepishly.

While Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura all headed inside to rest or study or whatever, Naruto high-tailed it to his customary clearing and got out all three of his recently acquired scrolls. He took turns opening them all, and holding them in his hands as he spawned over 500 clones each with a cloned copy of their individual scroll to learn and study from. After doing this for the Uzumaki Fuinjutsu scroll, the Uzumaki Adamantine Sealing Chains scroll, and Emiko's Sensing Skills scroll, he still had enough chakra to spawn another 500 clones that he spent the next few hours working with on updating and incorporating different taijutsu moves they learned over the course of training with Sasuke.

There were many areas of improvement for some of the existing Hariken moves he knew, and Sasuke also indirectly pointed out some of the deficiencies in his forms and certain move combinations while tearing through his clones. He went back over everything he could from the original Hariken scroll Guy had put together for him, and made a few corrections that worked better with his style of fighting. He incorporated more devastating offensive moves that sacrificed some defense as he usually fought among teams of clones who he could easily sacrifice in order to get in a better quality attack, and leaving his opponent more vulnerable to follow up attacks from other clones.

He was basically evolving a single person fighting style into a style that worked better in group fighting, as he had clones to spare for defense and disrupting an opponent and could do things that most single people couldn't unless insanely fast. He was also adding and adapting some of the moves he saw from Sasuke that he thought would fit his own style as well, expanding on his basic style and hoping to make it uniquely his own. It was a few hours later when Naruto was about ready to turn in, when a particularly violent memory flashback from one of his clones hit him like a punch to the gut.

A pair of his clones had witnessed a waitress at one of the few open bars in the town that was often frequented by Gato's thugs, being raped in an alley and instantly charged in to attack the pair of men performing such a horrible act. The knife of one of the attackers that they had used to frighten and intimidate the poor girl got a lucky hit on one of the clones in the struggle causing him to vanish in a puff of smoke. Luckily, there were other clones nearby that quickly came and overwhelmed the two monsters and freed the terrified girl.

Naruto knew he couldn't leave the two now unconscious rapists in the alley, and didn't know exactly how to cover up their disappearance so he sent out the order for his clones to assume their identity. He then had them hide the two now tied up scumbags and bring them to an abandoned building where he had clones work on interrogating and learning a bit more about them both, to better assume their identities. It wasn't an ideal situation, but there was no way he was letting the two escape justice, and this might also help get him some clones on the inside of Gato's organization.

The original Naruto decided to send out another batch of clones before returning to Tazuna's house to sleep, thinking about whether or not he wanted to try and create a blood clone that could stay in the area to help the people of Wave even after they were gone. He would think on that while also reviewing the progress made by his clones into the three new scrolls he acquired, happy with everything he was achieving and learning that better connected him to his Clan and mother. He returned to his room at Tazuna's, trying not to disturb Kakashi and Sasuke too much, though he knew they both noticed his arrival, and laid down to sleep still thinking about everything he and his clones were working on.

When he woke up the next morning, again Naruto spent some time going through the memories he acquired from the thousands of clones he still had out and around Wave including those interrogating Gato's thug rapists. He also had several hundred memories of his clones trying and failing to get across and through the violent whirlpools that surrounded the location of the former Uzushiogakure, and realised how the area got its name. Luckily, not all the clones perished in the attempt and several dozen made it across the treacherous sea to reach the mainland near where Emiko said the original village once stood.

Other memories included several hundred attempts at learning Emiko's sensing skill so far unsuccessfully, reading and practicing the beginnings of the Uzumaki Fuinjutsu journal not too unlike the one he had from Mito Uzumaki, and countless attempts to recreate the Uzumaki Adamantine Sealing Chains. He felt like he was closest to getting the chains, since he didn't appear to have the prerequisite skill set to become a sensor in Emiko's style, and Uzumaki Fuinjutsu was on a whole other level of difficulty from the basics which he was still working on. The Chains had an element of Fuinjutsu to them as well, but were a much more internal and intrinsic application to each user as per the notes he had, and felt it would be the most likely to understand and accomplish if he dedicated more time and clones to it.

Getting up and getting started on his day, included helping Tsunami set the table and prepare breakfast for everyone, which included ignoring the whiny Inari who constantly tried to tell them to give up as Gato was unbeatable. Naruto had heard it enough times that he was past trying to convince the kid that ninja operated on a level that far exceeded any civilian, but was tired of wasting his breath and dealing with the spoiled kid that had so much more than Naruto himself ever did, or that most of the people of Wave had currently. Instead he talked with everyone else, and made plans to continue his training, and today was going to have his clones direct a Kakashi shadow clone to both Gato's Compound and Zabuza's base to scout them out himself.

As it was Sasuke's day to guard the bridge with Kakashi, they left shortly after breakfast with Tazuna, after the silver haired jounin created a shadow clone that Naruto would take to scout out the two bases. The young blond also used that time to fill Kakashi's clone in on his little adventure the night before regarding his clones that stopped a woman being raped, and subsequently infiltrated Gato's thugs. Kakashi wasn't too pleased that Naruto went ahead with the plan without consulting him first, but recognized that there weren't too many other options and offered to go visit the prisoners after their scouting to take care of them for the younger ninja.

Gato's headquarters were fairly straight forward, and Kakashi was able to within minutes find out everything he needed to infiltrate the area, and probably could have done just that as a clone and walked away without a scratch; it was that pathetically guarded. Zabuza's base however, was a different story, and Kakashi's clone spent an hour testing several possible points of entry and decided that they would continue to play the waiting game to see if an opportunity presented itself for them to make a move. Then Kakashi's clone went to the abandoned house Naruto kept the two rapists tied up in, and delivered shinobi justice after a brief interrogation making sure Naruto's infiltrating clones had all the relevant information to succeed before killing the pair and cleaning up any presence they left behind.

Kakashi's clone then returned to the original Naruto's clearing, where he watched unnoticed for several minutes as his young blonde student had several groups of clones all training at once on a pretty diverse number of skills. He was mostly interested though, in the large group that was seemingly refining and practicing taijutsu, as he recognized both the Hariken style of Kushina, as well as elements of Sasuke's Uchiha Interceptor style incorporated together. It took a minute for him to see what Naruto was doing, incorporating more variety into the Hariken style, and finding unique ways to utilize the massive amounts of clones he employed to set up attacks and supplement his lack of speed with more clones working in tandem and coordinating their tactics.

He was honestly really impressed with what he was watching, and wondered if maybe having him go to Guy for some remedial taijutsu help was the best decision he ever made in Naruto's development. Knowing the Uchiha interceptor style, even better than the lone Uchiha on their team, Kakashi soon interrupted the practice to show Naruto a few other variations and moves of the style he thought would fit well with what he was trying to accomplish before telling him to continue the good work and dispelling. Naruto gladly took his sensei's suggestions, and was soon adding even more to his newly developing style with a large grin on his face at how well it was coming together.

For the rest of the morning, through lunch, and into the late afternoon, Naruto constantly kept spawning more clones and having them work with him on taijutsu, and when he wore himself out physically, he would join the group continuing to work on the Adamantine Sealing Chains. Just before dinner time, after feeling like he was getting close, but having trouble getting the technique to work, he had a breakthrough born out of his frustration and exhaustion. He threw his hands out and yelled at not seeming to get past the last step, and was completely unprepared when a thick golden colored chain appearing to be completely made of chakra seemingly erupted out of his chest.

The glowing golden chain only travelled about six feet from his chest and within seconds had broken down into little modes of light and disappeared, but he had done it, and quickly tried to replicate the feat. It took him a few more minutes until he was able to replicate that first success, and watched as a chain about the thickness of his wrist seemingly grew out of the center of his chest for about six feet before it started losing cohesiveness and began slowly disappearing into light. For the next ten minutes he replicated the chain several times, each time getting it to reach out and last a little longer than the previous attempt, and couldn't stop the happy smile that came to his face.

With his beginning success, he charged all the remaining clones to continue practicing bringing out the chains and trying to figure out how to make them last longer and grow. He then returned to Tazuna's house just as the bridge builder, Kakashi, and Sasuke were arriving after the long work day and joined them all at the table. During dinner, Kakashi brought up the question on how they wanted to proceed, as after scouting Gato's headquarters, was fairly confident that his genin could single-handedly bring down his operation and eliminate the businessman as it wasn't much different than a relatively skilled group of bandits.

Tazuna instantly put in a request for them to take out Gato, and save the people of Wave, but Kakashi also raised the point of the missing nin he had employed and how they would need to be accounted for. Naruto put forth the suggestion that they try to pay off Zabuza and his crew with money recovered from Gato, thinking the businessman had plenty for that and still leave the people of Wave better off than they were currently with the rest. Sakura actually agreed with his suggestion, until Sasuke complained that they should be taking out Zabuza as well, and shifted her approval to her crush's idea even if it terrified her.

Kakashi was really starting to wonder if he shouldn't put in a recommendation to have Sakura removed from the ranks of ninja as she just didn't have the proper mindset for it and completely just did whatever she thought Sasuke wanted. He could then send Sasuke to T & I for therapy and re-conditioning as he was a psychopathic loose cannon and flight risk, that only thought about his own revenge and never worked well within the team. He would gladly take Naruto as his apprentice, the blonde had shown he was willing to put in the hard work and learn to get better without any of the ridiculous hangups he had to deal with in regards to the other two, and would make him into a first rate shinobi of the Leaf.

He genuinely liked Naruto's suggestion too, as eliminating Gato would solve their current mission to protect Tazuna. Using the businessman's own money to pay off Zabuza and any other missing nin in Gato's employ, would eliminate any threat facing him or his genin, and any extra money could pay the higher rank mission, and leave plenty for Wave to get back on it's own feet. The more he contemplated it, the better that plan seemed, and decided that they would start the planning of it tomorrow as he still had some kinks to work out, and wanted to be a little more rested and ready to step in if he needed to help or save his young genin.

Chapter 11: The Final Wave

That same night, while Kakashi was busy planning and working out everything for their assault on Gato's headquarters, Naruto was back in his clearing training his ass off and trying to grow his control over the Adamantine Sealing Chains technique. All around him were clones in various stages of progress, some trying to strengthen and lengthen the single chain they were now capable of performing, while others were working on trying to split the chain into many, and others were seeing if they could sprout the chains from other parts of the body. He had been going at it hard for several hours, and was really working himself to the bone, as he felt this technique was something precious to him and very personal.

Not only was it an Uzumaki Clan technique, but was one his mother was well known for according to Jiji and Kakashi, and therefore beyond important for him to master and use in order to be connected even more to her and his Clan. He had been getting a pretty steady stream of memories throughout the day of his clones exploring the Ruins of Uzushiogakure, and often falling prey to left over traps and seals as they explored every square inch of his Clan's home and legacy. He was determined to get this technique down, and help preserve and carry on the legacy of the Uzumaki Clan, and wanted these chains so badly to prove he belonged.

The Ruins of Uzushiogakure were beautiful in a desolate and sad kind of way, as it was easy to see from the remains how the city looked and functioned, and yet the obvious signs of destruction constantly brought back the emptiness of it being gone. There were a few spots among the Ruins that his clones felt there might be something else there, but were waiting until all their exploring was done before checking those places in case it triggered more defences. They did however find something that Naruto though was really cool and couldn't wait to get his real hands on, and that was an old Uzushiogakure hitai-ate pretty banged up, but definitely a memento he wanted.

It was nearing the time he usually turned in for the night, but something was keeping him outside in the clearing, almost a feeling that he needed to be there for something really important. So, he stayed and continued to train and push himself past the point of exhaustion, continually trying to improve on the chains with his steadily diminishing clones. Over the next hour, more and more of his clones popped as they too exhausted their chakra trying to pour their all into the sealing chains, until the original finally succumbed to his own tiredness and fatigue, and fell asleep right on the forest floor.

Naruto woke up in the early dawn to the feel and sound of another person in his clearing approaching his position on the forest floor just next to a large tree. He looked up as the figure approached and had a moment of total confusion, thinking he may still be dreaming at the beautiful looking girl around his age that was wearing a very pretty pink kimono and carrying a small basket tucked under her arm. She shyly lowered her head as Naruto continued to stare at her with an open mouth look of wonder, which finally made him realize he was probably making her uncomfortable, and quickly scrambled to his feet and shyly smiled back, while nervously running his hand behind his head.

"Um ...are you an angel?" Naruto asked almost in a whisper, still not entirely convinced he wasn't dreaming, as he had never seen someone so beautiful or prettily dressed before, and it made higher thought difficult.

"Hehe," came her wonderful tinkling laugh at his completely blunt and honest question, "no ninja-san ...I am Haku ...I was just collecting herbs for a sick friend."

"Haku," whispered Naruto with a dopey sort of grin, as he continued unashamedly staring at the slightly taller girl with very pretty dark brown hair, not knowing what to say, "d-do you ...need help?"

"No, thank you," she responded kindly, giving the blonde a smile that made the dopey grin on his face grow even more, "I must get back soon."

"Do you live around here?" asked Naruto, finally finding his voice after learning the beautiful girl might be soon leaving.

"I am visiting a friend," she replied calmly, not in the least seemingly bothered by the attention. "Can I ask you a question? ...um."

"I'm Naruto," he responded in the trailed off silence, "and, of course ...you can ask me anything."

"Why did you become a ninja?" came her soft voice, seemingly curious about the boy in front of her.

"To protect my precious people," answered Naruto honestly, after a short moment of thought.

"Then, that is why you are so strong," she continued quietly, but Naruto easily heard her and blushed to the roots of his hair at the genuine compliment from such a pretty girl. "Precious people are worth protecting with everything you have."

"Um ...yeah," grinned Naruto sheepishly, again running his hand in the back of his hair in nervousness, not used to receiving compliments.

"Goodbye Naruto," waved the pretty Haku, "I hope to see you again."

"Me too," replied Naruto instantly as he watched the most beautiful girl he could ever remember seeing walk out of the clearing, "...bye Haku."

It took a few minutes after Haku left, for Naruto's brain to reboot and remember where he was, and that he fell asleep outside all night, and really needed to check in with Kakashi, and review the jumble of memories from the night. Rushing back to Tazuna's house, he was lucky it was just past dawn, and everyone was probably still asleep or just getting up and getting their day started. He waved at Tsunami as he passed through the house and headed upstairs to the room he shared with Sasuke and Kakashi, eager to check in and make sure he wasn't in too much trouble.

Luckily, Kakashi wasn't worried in the least, and simply reminded him that he could always use his clones to send messages to his team to let them know where he was, even if it was just to continue training or that you would be late. Naruto thought it somewhat ridiculous for Kakashi of all people to lecture someone on being late to anything, and thought of using one of his sensei's usual excuses but didn't want to press his luck. He promised to do better, before asking what the plan for today was, excited that maybe they were going to enact his plan to get rid of Gato and pay off Zabuza.

Kakashi then told Naruto and Sasuke, who was just getting up, that they were going to scout out Gato's later this afternoon after Tazuna's work day, and hopefully end the largest threat to their mission tonight. He then left to get Sakura up, and make sure she was also aware of their day's plan while the boys finished getting ready for breakfast. During breakfast, Kakashi told his team they would not be practicing too hard today, as they would need to be on top of their game this evening when they went forward with their plan.

Since they were planning to go after Gato later that day, Kakashi had the whole team on bridge guarding duty after making sure that Naruto's clones had the house and surrounding areas covered until they were ready to go. Naruto was relatively quiet most of the morning as he went through the countless memories of his thousands of clones that had expired over the night, most having just exhausted themselves continuing sealing chain training. There were also several memories of his clones that were still exploring the Ruins of Uzushiogakure, having actually found a small repository of scrolls, deep underground beneath a crumpled old structure.

They were only able to reach the underground labyrinth after several transformations into small animals that were able to navigate the small gaps in the destroyed structure until they reached a small half collapsed cavern deep underground. Inside they found an underground room which had been over half destroyed by the debris collapsing over it, but were able to rescue 14 separate scrolls from the seemingly old library. They hadn't found much of anything else that wasn't ravaged from weather or time, and were planning to move on and explore the surrounding areas as long as they had the chakra to continue on.

Of the almost two dozen clones that were still going, a group of six split off from the rest, with the recovered scrolls, to begin the trip back to the original to bring their amazing find. After having lost so many hundreds of clones just getting past the Whirlpools that gave this region their name, the Naruto clones were pretty confident that they could navigate their way back and forth relatively safely now. They knew how important anything they could recover from Uzushiogakure would be considered priceless to the original, and therefore were extra vigilant to keep the scroll safe and watch each others' backs the whole way.

Naruto also learned from his clones infiltrating Gato's thugs, that the businessman was visiting Zabuza's base today and had requested his two favorite mercenaries, Xian and Desdende to accompany him. While he was going to be gone, the Naruto clones were hoping to make a better internal assessment of defenses and where the business kept all his important financial documents and money to help with tonight's possible infiltration. They had not raised many eyebrows at all, as the many mercenaries pretty much stayed in smaller groups with those they knew previously, and Naruto's two were luckily not well liked by the others.

The day at the bridge was pretty normal and boring for the three genin of Team 7, who were all looking forward to tonight's possible mission for different reasons, but Naruto at least was able to spawn another couple batches of clones. He had been losing a lot more clones than usual as he pushed many of them to continue training on the sealing chains, and the trip to Uzushiogakure didn't help much either. He still had more than a thousand clones running all over the island keeping watch on Tazuna's house, the bridge, Gato Headquarters, and Zabuza's base, so most of those he summoned where sent to continue training his chakra control, taijutsu, and sealing chains.

When Tazuna's work day was done, the genin were visibly excited to get into the mission they were hoping was going to take place, eager for action in Sasuke and Naruto's cases and eager for the largest threat to be taken care of for Sakura. Kakashi was almost back to full strength, and not looking forward to another fight with Zabuza and his accomplice, not knowing if his young genin team was really ready for a fight at that level yet, even if he was extraordinarily proud of the progress made by Naruto. After getting Tazuna home, Kakashi ordered Naruto to make sure his clones had the house covered, as he ordered them all to get ready for an assassination mission, not thinking his genin were really ready for it.

Within minutes, they were all gathered and ready to head out, going to use the approaching evening dusk to cover them getting into position and doing a final scout out of the area to make sure they had everything covered. For the next hour, they all got in place, met up with Naruto's clones, who had been watching Gato, and got all the information they could on defenses and numbers of mercenaries inside the large compound. Kakashi asked his genin if they would rather take on Gato or the mercenary barracks, as they would need to eliminate the entire group to ensure word didn't get out about their involvement, and so nobody stepped in after they left to take over Gato's company.

Naruto, who through his mercenary clones had heard too many horror stories of the atrocities most of these men committed and had no problem committing again, offered to take them, as they would at least be fighting against him. Gato was a complete non-combatant, and would be harder to convince himself to just outright kill him, as he was practically defenseless against real shinobi. He knew what some of the things he was going to be asked to do as a ninja of the Leaf, and knew it wasn't all about saving princesses, but he still wasn't really comfortable or ready to kill someone in cold blood.

Attacking the mercenaries would be different, they would be armed and most likely fighting back, and he could at least justify killing them in battle somewhat. With the nod from Kakashi, who had been looking at his genin, judging their readiness, the three genin all gave a deep breath, knowing what was coming. Kakashi laid out the plan, of them all sneaking in, with a shadow clone of his own going after Gato as it was more important he stayed near enough to protect his genin for what was sure to be a difficult mental task for them.

Naruto's mercenary clones had given them all the information they needed, and were also in on the plan to go after the other mercenaries, and were waiting for the arrival of Team 7 to begin. When Team 7 bypassed the outer gates and meager defences of Gato's compound by eliminating the very few guards, they made quick work sneaking in uncontested to reach the mercenary barracks without any incidents. Once they arrived, Sasuke barely waited for Naruto and Sakura to get in position before storming in the main entrance, in what was supposed to be a three pronged coordinated attack.

Instead, Sasuke going a bit early caused most of the mercenaries to instantly turn and focus on him, allowing both Naruto and Sakura to enter the rear entrance without many people paying much attention as they had all turned towards their teammate. Sasuke thankfully didn't open with a fireball as was his normal inclination, as inside of the barracks, it would have caused major confusion, and instead charged in with shuriken throwing in every direction. Naruto and Sakura started picking off those in the back of the room easily, as many had yet to turn and even see their entry, still focused mostly on Sasuke.

Shuriken were flying as it was an easier way for younger ninja to get acclimated to killing without having to be very up close and personal, or get blood on themselves or into the middle of chaos where they were less protected. Kakashi recommended this, as it had the least chance of having either of his rookie genin freeze up when they were too close to their first kills, and was working well as within the first two minutes at least twenty of the fifty mercenaries were lying on the floor bleeding out or dead. After that initial charge where they caught several of the mercenaries off guard, the large barracks had devolved into utter chaos as several of the remaining mercenaries now knew they were surrounded and backed into a corner and fighting for their very lives.

On the positive for the genin, Naruto's two clones sowed even more chaos and discord as they pulled out swords in the middle of the still large group of mercenaries, and began hacking away at the nearest thugs. Their switching of sides was just the distraction they needed, as another round of shuriken eliminated another ten, leaving just about two dozen more still fighting for their lives. Sasuke had pulled out a small tanto and had engaged those few directly in front of him, while Naruto had done the same, having run out of shuriken, and not wanting to get too destructive and risk hurting a teammate.

Sakura was keeping back near the door, occasionally throwing out shuriken, and luckily taking out a few of the mercenaries as Naruto and Sasuke did the same from up close and personal. Kakashi was pleased with their planning and execution of the mission, knowing this was always a hard step for rookie genin, and pleased his kids didn't completely freeze up on him. It was a close call for Naruto, after a particularly quick block, he retaliated as his katas told him, and wasn't really prepared for removing the head of the nearby mercenary and getting partially soaked in the spray of the man's blood causing him to only momentarily freeze.

A warning from Sakura, who was primarily staying back, reminded him that now wasn't the time for a breakdown, and he quickly stamped down on any discomfort he had and continued with the task at hand. He knew that he couldn't let his teammates down, as they needed him to pull his weight, and so continued with his sword swings, trying not to look too closely at those he knew he killed. Within another two minutes, they were dispatching the last of the mercenaries, and Kakashi was going through the fallen and making sure they were all dead before moving on to the next one.

Not wanting to leave any evidence of their involvement, he had Naruto make some clones and try to find and remove all the shurikens they used as they would be burning the barracks to the ground when they were done and didn't want to leave any evidence behind that might survive the fire. While clones were doing that task, Kakashi was talking to all three genin and confirming how proud he was that they stuck with the plan and continued even in the face of discomfort. He promised them that they were doing a good thing, even if it was hard to stomach, protecting the people of Wave and Tazuna, who was their mission priority.

Naruto felt quite sick after witnessing and causing so many deaths, but was probably feeling even worse from having to retrieve shuriken and have the many memories of seeing all those killed repeated in his head after they dispelled, and threw up what little food he had in his stomach. Kakashi comforted him a bit more, but asked him to try and hold it together until they were all safely back at the house, and this little mission was over. It was another few minutes when Kakashi got the memories of his own clone having completed his task, and the four ninja of Konoha, got back to work cleaning out Gato's financial records and paperwork to bring back with them. Meanwhile they liberated millions upon millions of dollars in drug and blood money from a pair of safes, including several large shipments of drugs that were stored on his premises as well.

WIth everything they found and liberated, packed away in several storage scrolls and with Kakashi, the four ninja set fire to the compound and vanished into the darkening night, eager to put this mission behind them. For the genin, they would need to work through whatever guilt they had at making their first kills in Naruto and Sakura's cases, while Sasuke didn't really have too much of an issue, just glad to be able to cut loose and fight opponents. Kakashi was going to have a difficult mission debriefing to go through with the Hokage when this was all said and done, and a report to write up to cover everything that happened on their supposed C-Rank mission that was really anything but.

He just hoped that this mission, and the things they were forced to do, didn't completely destroy the innocence and happiness of his favorite blond genin, as he had really been showing amazing progress and didn't want that to stop or regress. When they returned to Tazuna's house, they were grateful for the familiarity, and the warm meal Tsunami left for them and somewhat mechanically continued as they had been before the evening's mission. Kakashi asked Naruto to provide some clones to help them go through all the paperwork and contracts Gato had stored in his safe, so they could try to learn of any other stashes of wealth or information that would help them remove his stain from Wave completely, and he was happy for the task.

The task helped him not think about everything that just happened, and how difficult it was mentally to deal with taking a life, while being relatively easy physically. It was hard to reconcile with the young blond who had always had such a rose colored view of shinobi, to be brutally reminded that they were in fact killers in every sense of the word. He spent a few long hours just staring off into space, thinking about and seeing the faces of those he killed, and wondered if it would ever get easier to deal with, or if he would eventually become truly desensitized to the killings.

Kakashi finally found the notice for how much Gato was supposed to pay to Zabuza for killing Tazuna, and made sure he set aside twice that amount as he and mostly Naruto's clones went through all the remaining documents. This cluster-fuck of a mission was actually going to turn out in his favor, as Gato had countless records and correspondence from various ninja, Daimyos, and Kages that would be a real boon to Konoha's information network. The amount of money he was also bringing back, and the various land deeds and business shares he was returning with would also be seen very positively in his favor, even after giving Wave a large chunk of much needed money to revive their economy.

Still somewhat worried about how quiet the original Naruto was, he asked the blonde if he wanted to create three shadow clones henged into him and his teammates that would accompany his own shadow clone on a quick drop off to Zabuza. It would hopefully give him a chance to talk and settle the young genin a bit more, so he would hopefully be able to sleep through the night, as he knew that the first night after your first kill was usually the hardest. Naruto agreed, happy to be doing anything that might get his mind off the faces of those he killed, and soon an entire clone version of Team 7 was making their way towards Zabuza's base with the money they set aside in two even bags, wanting to get to the missing nin before he learned of Gato's demise.

They kept a pretty slow pace, as Kakashi's clone talked to the three genin clones comfortably, wanting to convince Naruto through his clones that it was good he felt something as otherwise, he would be worried about his psyche. He then talked about how so many ninja of the village dealt with their own demons, usually by practicing some outlandish behavior that helped them take their minds off the nature of their business. Naruto by now had met Guy and his declarations of Youth, witnessed Asuma's smoking, even the Hokage's smoking, not to mention Kakashi's own perverted nature and perpetual tardiness, which were all various coping mechanisms they developed to help them.

By the time they were approaching Zabuza's base, the clones had calmed down quite a bit, and seemed much more relaxed and back to normal, something Kakashi's clone was grateful for and hoped would translate to the original. They then had to get into a mission mindset, as even though they were clones, they needed to perform the next step of their mission flawlessly, to ensure they would get Zabuza's acceptance of their terms. If not, then the disrupting of the clones, would alert the originals that they had a problem coming, and to do everything in their power and time remaining to get ready for it.

Naruto's watching clones, that had been observing the well hidden base for the last few days, watched as clones of Kakashi and Prime Naruto approached the front door of the cave entrance cautiously. When they were relatively close Kakashi's clone set down the two bags of money, and had him and his "team" retreat back several meters to give Zabuza and his accomplice plenty of room. Kakashi then flared his chakra twice, almost like ringing a doorbell to let those inside know he was here, but was announcing his presence in order to talk before any fighting could or would take place.

"You've got some nerve coming here, Sharingan Kakashi," came the deep gruff voice of Zabuza, as he slowly emerged from the cave entrance, with his large ass sword on his back and looking intimidating as hell due to his muscled upper body and sword almost as long as he was tall.

"I've come to talk and make an offer," spoke the Kakashi clone slowly, but had to pause as another person came out of the cave entrance to stand at Zabuza's side.

"Haku?" gasped all three of the Naruto clones currently disguised as him and his teammates causing his clones to instantly hide Sasuke's and Sakura's reactions, as Naruto saw the familiar pretty girl walk up and stand a little behind and to the side of Zabuza, giving the Naruto clone a shy smile as both Zabuza's and Kakashi's attention were on her.

"You know this brat?" came the gruff voice of Zabuza directed at the pretty girl, no longer wearing a kimono, but a sensible and somewhat androgenous ninja outfit that made it much harder to tell she was a girl.

"Heh," laughed Naruto with a nervous gesture, as he touched the back of his head as he watched the interaction, waiting on Haku's response.

"Yes Zabuza-sama," replied the somewhat blushing girl, who hung her head a bit to hide her expression and embarrassment.

"You were collecting herbs for Zabuza?" came the realized question from Naruto, as he put the pieces together on their brief, but very meaningful interaction the other day. "He is your precious person?"

"Yes," mumbled Haku with a small voice, remembering back all those years, "he found and saved me from the bloodline purges."

"You have a bloodline?" asked Naruto completely honestly and without any sort of judgement, as he continued to stare fondly at the girl, "...that must be so cool?"

"Why are you here Kakashi?" came the growling voice of Zabuza, no longer patient, and not in the mood for whatever brand of crazy this blond kid injected into everything.

"We have come to pay you twice what Gato promised you," came the smooth voice of Kakashi, after getting over his own shock of Naruto knowing and having befriended the fake hunter nin and Zabuza's accomplice in the few short days in Wave.

"I don't go back on my word," grumbled Zabuza, "I made a deal with Gato and will see it carried out ...you can't buy me off."

"We killed Gato three hours ago," replied Kakashi, who instantly tensed as Zabuza's killing intent suddenly spiked very high and he was preparing to have to fight and delay one of the former Seven Swordsman of the Mist. "Instead of fighting you, Naruto here," he continued pointing out the young blond that was so familiar with Haku, "came up with the plan to eliminate the bigger threat to Wave, and so we came to settle our debt to you, as you were hired for a job that can no longer be completed or paid for. We found all of Gato's financial records, the amount promised to you, and have left twice the amount right here."

Zabuza's killing intent didn't lessen a bit through Kakashi's explanation, and the silver-haired jounin was preparing what distraction technique he might be able to pull off and slow down a pissed off Zabuza in case he attacked them. Luckily as clones, he wasn't too worried, but didn't really want the angry former Mist Jounin to be coming after him and his genin team, and hoped they could resolve the problem without dragging his team into a difficult fight. He didn't however account for his favorite blond genin to take the tense silence as an invitation to try and talk to the other side.

"I had shadow clones infiltrating his stupid mercenaries, they were told today after your meeting this morning to start planning for your removal," spoke Naruto without any fear in his voice, even if he was shaking a bit from the heavy dose of killing intent and the glare being sent his way by a large Zabuza, "he was planning to use the mercenaries to finish you off. After you took care of Tazuna and us, they would catch you tired and kill you instead of paying you ...it's a tactic he employed several times against missing nin according to his financial records."

"We have no quarrel with you," interjected Kakashi, trying to get Zabuza's attention and focus off Naruto, and try to get him to see reason, "and as an apology for terminating your mission ...we offer you financial compensation ...simple as that."

"And what if we want to increase our financial compensation with your head as a bounty?" asked a still tense and almost growling Zabuza as he looked over the four Konoha ninjas in front of him but focused mainly on Kakashi, and elevated his killing intent even more, causing the genin to all take a staggering step back.

"Then our clones will engage you and try to slow you down," answered Kakashi back calmly, and Naruto used that moment to have his hundred plus clones watching the surrounding area to all step out from their cover and slowly approach the group.

That caused Zabuza's head to quickly look all around him at the insane numbers of blond clones emerging from the woods, and wondering how this little runt had that much chakra or skill to create what he assumed were elemetal clones. Haku was no less surprised as she glanced all around at the countless numbers of Naruto clones all dressed differently, some with different hair, some even appearing to be different sizes and ages and wondered what was going on. Kakashi was pleased with Naruto's move, as it definitely demonstrated that they held superior numbers, and even if they were all clones, he knew how crafty Naruto could be, and welcomed their arrival as it increased the chances of being able to wound or slow down Zabuza and this Haku so the real them could engage.

"You think a few elemental clones of a fresh faced genin scare me?" mocked Zabuza, as he slowly raised his hand to the handle of his sword sitting above his shoulder, but thankfully didn't remove it or engage them and just kept his hand gripping the handle, as the Konoha clones tensed in anticipation, "I am the Demon of the Mist."

"They will provide the necessary numbers and distraction for me to take you out," spoke the Kakashi clone convincingly, flaring his own killing intent and lifting his hand to hold his hitai-ate and keeping it there, just as Zabuza was keeping his hand on his sword's handle.

The tense stare down lasted for several long moments as the two jounin levelled opponents continued to match stares and killing intent, both waiting for the other to make a move, and thankfully neither of them taking the chance. Naruto gave Haku a sad smile as the pretty girl was tense and ready to come to her precious person's defence at a moment's notice, and he had no intention of harming her permanently. He was trying to figure out the best way to neutralize Haku and maybe Zabuza after Kakashi's clone eventually was dispelled as his numbers would mean he could last much longer and continue attacking and harassing them if they decided to come after the originals.

"Just take the money already," yelled Naruto, fed up with the silent stare down, and trying to de-escalate the tensions from both sides. "You are not going to be able to kill us and just walk away unscathed ...even if I am a genin, I am not going to go down easily ...and you have no more reason to fight us ...your mission is over ...your money is right there ...take it and everyone goes home happy."

"Your parents need to teach you better manners shrimp," growled Zabuza, as he glared at Naruto, but had to quickly turn back to Kakashi as an even larger amount of killing intent started pouring out of the furious CopyCat Kakashi making Zabuza widen his eyes in slight fear.

"You just signed your own death," growled Kakashi in a growing rage that had Zabuza even take a step back in fear at the growing amount of chakra in the area, wondering what just happened.

"Naruto?" asked a now fearful Haku, as she too felt the change in the atmosphere, and wondered what just happened.

"I never knew my parents," he answered solemnly into the quiet night, not sure how to react to someone blaming his parents for anything, "they died fighting the Kyuubi the day I was born."

"Kyuubi?" asked a curious and still scared Haku, as she realized they may be getting a fight for their own lives if Kakashi's growing anger was anything to go by, and not understanding exactly what they were talking about.

"The nine-tailed Bijuu," answered Naruto with a deprecating smile directed at the pretty girl, as even he realized that something had changed in the atmosphere of the group, after Zabuza insulted his parents in front of Kakashi, and wondered again how well his sensei knew his parents if that was his reaction. "The Demon I contain."

"What?" shouted Zabuza, finally taking his intense eyes off Kakashi for a moment to look at the kid that just claimed to be the jinkurichi of the largest and baddest of all the Bijuu, "...shit ...I'm sorry brat."

With those words, Kakashi's killing intent almost completely vanished and his clone staggered a fraction, though luckily everyone else was looking at Naruto at the time and didn't realize how close the shadow clone came to dissipating itself from overuse of chakra. Zabuza looked back over to a still tense Kakashi, and bowed his head slightly, and apologized for the unknown offense and for the silver-haired jounin not completely ending him exactly where he stood. Haku's still confused expression, had Zabuza sigh in defeat and release the hold he still had on his famous sword and give her a sincere look.

"He is the jinkurichi of the Nine-Tailed Fox," spoke Zabuza slowly to his pupil, as he still carefully kept an eye on both Kakashi and the now identified blond.

"Jinkurichi?" gasped Haku, quickly looking back at Naruto with tears forming in her beautiful brown eyes, knowing what that meant after hearing stories of Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage and others like him who held those demons inside of them, and couldn't believe the same was true of the sweet boy she met the other day who seemed so full of life.

"I don't want your pity," spoke Naruto a little forcefully, not sure how he felt about Haku knowing the truth and what she might now think of him, and causing Zabuza to give him a respectful nod of his head as he completely stood down and relaxed his posture.

"Fair enough," came the gravelly voice of Zabuza, who then turned to Kakashi and bowed slightly, "I apologize again Kakashi-san ...I will take your deal with my thanks."

"Good," answered Kakashi, who seemed to slump in relief before giving everyone a wave and turning to Naruto, "I'll let you explain ...bye."

"Damn it Kakashi," growled Naruto to the now empty spot, as his sensei's clone disappeared, having finally run out of chakra and causing both Zabuza and Haku to look all around them in shock, wondering where the elite ninja went. "Sorry ...we are all shadow clones."

Whatever reaction he was expecting, Zabuza's loud belly laugh wasn't it, and it took Naruto a moment to realize that the tension in the area had been squashed completely with the action. His surrounding watch clones, slowly retreated back into the woods, and Naruto let his two teammate clones disappear so his original would know exactly what had taken place as he smiled at the still laughing Zabuza and the confused looking Haku. It took a minute for Zabuza to catch his breath back and stop sniggering at the wonderfully executed prank played on them by the Konoha ninjas by using only clones, and he had to hand it to them ...they knew their stuff.

"What are shadow clones?" asked Haku, as Zabuza's sniggering was reduced to the occasional giggle and shake of his head.

"Um ...a kinjutsu from my village," answered Naruto happily to the pretty girl he was just happy wasn't his enemy any longer, "our second Hokage created them ...they are physical clones that retain all their memories and experience when dispelled."

"So everything your clone does, the original you will know about?" asked Haku to clarify the explanation, having never heard of the skill and was amazed at the possibilities it would provide for scouting.

"And experience it," replied Naruto happily, "they can do just about anything the real me can ...except bleed. They can scout, train, practice jutsu, and all that experience gets returned to the original when they dispel ...it's by far my favorite technique."

"But why is it considered a kinjutsu?" asked Haku, still amazed at the techniques possibilities, and wondered why everyone in the Leaf didn't use them constantly, "people use elemental clones all the time."

"According to Jiji ...um the Third Hokage," replied Naruto with a sheepish grin after revealing the name he called the person considered one of the greatest shinobi to ever live, "the chakra costs are insane. Kakashi can really only perform four at a maximum, and the mental feedback when they dispel is supposed to be really disorienting and potentially dangerous ...to others at least."

"Wow," responded Haku in wonder, "and you can make more than Kakashi-san?"

"Apparently ...I have chakra to spare," replied Naruto with a shrug, "and the mental backlash isn't hard on me for some reason ...I can make over 2000 every couple of hours."

"Holy shit!" exclaimed Zabuza who was following the conversation between the two younger shinobi, and couldn't believe what he was hearing from this kid, and what it would mean in regards to his ability to learn and train at incomprehensible rates ...if he continued like this, he could grow to become one of the greatest shinobi ever, especially when you factored in his bijuu tenant.

"Wow," breathed out Haku slowly, as the implications of what Naruto was saying were starting to make sense, and couldn't believe how incredible that technique was, "can you show me?"

"Um ...not really a big spawning," replied a sheepish Naruto, again rubbing the back of his head with his hand at the look the pretty Haku was giving him, "I'm a clone ...and can only really spawn a few shadow clones before I'll run out of chakra too."

"Oh …" breathed out Haku slightly disappointed, which made the clone sad at the dejected look on her pretty face.

"But ...I'll show you what I can," answered the clone, not wanting that look to stay on Haku's face, and wanting it to go back to the one of wonder from earlier.

He then performed the standard cross seal and then two other complete duplicates where standing right next to him, who reached across the middle clone and fist bumped one another at the look of wonder Haku now had on her face. Feeling the desire to keep chatting with the nice and pretty girl, he continued explaining a bit more about the technique to his captive audience.

"Each clone splits your chakra about in half," he continued, "but I've gotten to the point that I can regulate how much chakra I pour into the technique to create as many or as few clones as I want. They are great to spar against too, as they can do everything I can, except they can only really take one good hit before dispelling but with the quantity I usually use them ...it's not really a problem for me, and they multiply the experience I get from every fight."

"Maybe we could spar some time?" asked a now blushing Haku, who Naruto thought looked breathtaking, and instantly agreed to come back tomorrow morning to do just that, which got another loud belly laugh from Zabuza, who had been eagerly watching the exchange between his young student and her new friend.

"It's too bad you can't travel with us," spoke Zabuza after he got over his chuckles, "a talent like you would be a good friend to have protecting our backs."

Naruto was looking at Zabuza in shock and a bit of pride at the compliment, having received so few of them growing up, and wondered for a moment what it would be like travelling with him and Haku, and had to tamp down on his blush at the idea. Instead, it planted a small seed in his mind about what his future held, and if he couldn't find some way to continue helping his new friends, as that is what they were now. They knew of his burden, and accepted him in spite of that, and in his book, that was something truly precious that he wanted to preserve and cherish.

Chapter 12: The Return to Konoha

The next day when he woke up in the room at Tazuna's house that he shared with Kakashi and Sasuke, Naruto stayed in bed for some time going over the memories of his clones from the long night before. Glad for the talk he had with Kakashi that helped settle his worrying mind over the lives he had taken the day before, and filled with a different type of purpose he never had before. He wanted to help and be with Haku, something about her beauty and kindness that drew him in, and he continued to think of the plan his clone implanted in his mind after leaving Zabuza's base and dispelling.

Knowing that he could and would never go missing nin, as he loved Konoha, Kakashi, Jiji, his teammates, his classmates, Iruka, and the Ichiraku's too much to ever abandon them, he instead thought about other possible ways to help and get more time with Haku. His clone's plan to create a blood clone to send with the missing nin pair was seemingly a good one, but he was unsure how truly versatile the blood clone could be. Could it behave just like him in every sense, could it train and grow stronger, age, survive long term away from him, have genuine feelings, and was it fair to Haku to only get a cloned version of him.

As he thought about all these things and wrestled with what he wanted to do, he was called by Kakashi to come and join everyone for breakfast, as he had let the blond sleep in long enough after the late night. Breakfast that morning was a lively affair, as Kakashi had already filled in Tazuna, Tsunami, and a stunned Inari that they had successfully killed Gato last night, and bought off the missing nin that was contracted to kill the bridge builder. With the threat to him gone, they would stay on through the completion of the bridge, and would be helping them out even further by re-distributing some of the wealth they confiscated from the short businessman that had been crippling the economy of Wave for too long.

Tazuna was practically in tears as he was told everything, and realized truly how much this small team of ninja had done not only for him and his family, but for all the people of Wave, and was beyond grateful. Tsunami too was beyond relieved that the threat to her father and village was over and done with, just like that and couldn't be happier or prouder of the group of ninjas that arrived from Konoha. Inari was simply confused, and couldn't believe how anybody could stand up to and even defeat Gato, let alone a group of kids not much older than him, and made him decide that it was time to stop whining and start standing up for himself and others.

Sakura was also very relieved to have finished with the mission, and also still terrified to close her eyes, as she spent most of the long and uncomfortable night tossing and turning over her role in the death of several of Gato's mercenaries. She just wasn't completely ready to deal with the realities of being a ninja, and not for the first time, wondered what exactly she was doing and if she really wanted to do this the rest of her probably short life. Even being on a team with her crush, Sasuke, couldn't completely convince her that it was worth it all the time, as being teammates hadn't really seemed to bring any of them all that much closer together.

Although, she would agree that her opinion of Naruto really had changed and had even grown fond of the loud and brash blond, though he rarely acted like that when they were spending time together on missions. She had seen him grow into a strong ninja, surprisingly as good as Sasuke in most ways, though she would never say he was actually better than the "Greatest Man in the World" in her eyes. She just wasn't sure what to think about her own ninja career, but could at least feel relieved that the immediate threat was past and she would have some time to reflect on what she wanted.

Sasuke was somewhat upset that they weren't going to be fighting strong ninjas, even though he was really pleased to get the chance at some real fighting experience in killing many of Gato's thugs. He was hoping to be challenged and prove his superiority over others, and show himself that he was well on his way to avenging his Clan and going after his traitorish brother. He was also thinking about the other day, and fighting the large amount of Naruto clones, and how helpful that was to be able to completely cut loose with no worries of injuring his opponent and wondered if he would be able to convince the blond to do it again.

Naruto finally decided during breakfast that he was at least going to try and create a blood clone that he would send off with Zabuza and Haku, after trying to meet with them later this morning for that promised spar with Haku. He was hoping to run his idea by Kakashi, but was concerned the jounin would order him not to do it, and he thought it might be better to ask for forgiveness than permission in this case. He did realize though, that if he sent a clone with the missing nin, he would have to completely separate that clone from anything that attached it to Konoha or himself, and would therefore need a new identity.

His pranks over the years had at least taught him quite a bit about ways to color your hair on a more lasting scale, and he decided that would be the first step. If he was traveling with Zabuza, he could always ask if he could dress like him, the bandages on the lower half of the face would easily cover his well-known whisker marks and better conceal his identity, though he would probably feel weird not wearing a shirt. Otherwise, he was pretty happy with his plan, as it would give him a way to spend more time with Haku, and possibly even learn more and spread out his clones' influences on the wider shinobi world.

When Kakashi told them all they had the day to themselves, and that he would be watching the bridge and joining Tazuna during work that day, the genin were all quite excited to have the day to themselves as they all had things on their minds. Sakura quickly retreated to her room with the promise of reading over the medical scrolls Kakashi gave her, and Sasuke claimed he was heading out to train leaving Naruto to do his own thing as well. He told his team he too would be out training, but would leave his watch clones guarding the house just in case, and even promised to send Sasuke another group of clones for him to fight as he prepared to go visit Haku and Zabuza for that promised spar.

Naruto quickly made his way to Zabuza's and Haku's cave, where he was soon showing off his clone making capabilities, and causing the two missing nins' jaws to drop at the large amount of clones and the staggering amount of chakra it took. Naruto then sent a good three hundred clones to Sasuke's training ground, and had the rest remain for the spar with Haku, who was suddenly looking much less sure of herself as she saw the area they were in filled to the brim with blond haired and blue eyed Naruto clones. The spar started with taijutsu, and while Haku definitely had the speed and skill advantage, the simply staggering amounts of clones made up for and protected the blond from any damaging hits, and was wearing down Haku much faster than the blond.

WIthin a few minutes, Haku realized she wouldn't be able to stand toe to toe with Naruto clones forever simply using taijutsu, and quickly decided to switch to her Ice Senbon to help clear out some of the nearest clones and then used her one handed seals to call forth her Ice Mirrors. She was then able to jump from mirror to mirror even faster than her usual speed which was quickly overwhelming Naruto, and the maybe two dozen clones that got trapped inside the dome of mirrors with him. Those outside tried testing attacks on the mirrors unsuccessfully, but didn't want to resort to any of the more destructive techniques in case they injured either Haku or the original Naruto inside.

Inside the dome mirrors, Naruto quickly found himself without any of his clones, as Haku's ability to throw a seemingly unlimited supply of senbon at speeds he and his clones couldn't keep up with was beyond anything he had faced yet. He had several senbon in his arms and legs before more than a minute inside the dome, and even sending several waves of shuriken multiplied by the shadow clone variant didn't penetrate the mirrors or stop Haku's assault. On the next wave of senbon, Naruto used a Futon: Great Breakthrough to scatter the senbon away from him and into the mirrors, though they did not stop Haku who only sent out another wave.

A Futon: Cyclone finally managed to prevent the Ice Senbon from penetrating Naruto's defences through more than one wave, and he was able to keep a hold of the technique now for a little over a minute usually. He used the slight break from the wind cyclone protecting him, to spawn a dozen kamikaze clones, who all leapt at the mirrors just as the cyclone was dying down. He followed that up with several shurikens that he multiplied and charged a Futon: Great Breakthrough behind them to increase their speed and power and feed the flames of the exploding clones.

Finally managing to break three of the mirrors, the dome was quickly flooded with the outside waiting clones, and Haku was forced to end her technique and yield to Naruto as she was almost out of chakra. Naruto was really proud of his accomplishment, but also very encouraging to Haku, who he regaled with the details of the fight again, often complimenting and congratulating her. Zabuza was pretty impressed with both of them, having seen Haku's Ice Mirrors before and knew how difficult they were to destroy or damage, the blond kid thought well on his feet and had a good mix of techniques that would serve him well in any fight.

Afterwards, Naruto talked to the missing nin pair about his idea to create a blood clone that could travel with him if they were agreeable, and he went home around lunchtime to prepare as they were going to move on in the next day or so. Lunch at Tazuna's house without Kakashi or Tazuna was a pretty quiet affair, and Naruto mostly talked with Tsunami a bit, and also encountered both of his teammates who seemed to be happier. Sasuke was pleased from his morning workout and training, finding that fighting the many Naruto clones was one of the better training methods he had done, and Sakura seemed to have settled down a bit having spent some time talking with a Kakashi clone about her experiences the day before.

That afternoon, alone in his training ground, Naruto created his sixth blood clone, filling him with the most chakra he ever had as he would become a front line fighter as well, as opposed to the others who mainly worked in safe support roles. He was absolutely knackered by the time he finished, and as he headed back to Tazuna's for dinner, he had the clone cutting and dying his hair to complete the change into someone not recognizable to those who knew him. He had other clones putting together a small travel bag with unmarked spare outfits, his good tent and sleeping bag, spare weapons and training gear, and more storage scrolls than were probably necessary but would most likely come in very handy.

After dinner, he told Kakashi that he was going to say goodbye to Haku and Zabuza, as they were planning to leave the next day, and got a wide smile and ruffling of his hair from the perverted cyclops for having such good taste at his age. He met up with the now short red haired blood clone who he was planning to name Asura, and the pair did a few quick tests to make sure the blood clone could handle getting stabbed in the leg, hit with a chakra technique, and handle some taijutsu abuse before they made their way to Zabuza's base for the final time. Introducing his blood clone to the two missing nin was met with some skepticism and shock, as they asked about Asura's capabilities and limitations, but were satisfied in the end that he would at least prove to be a competent and helpful team member.

That Asura could produce almost 1000 shadow clones every few hours, and other than not having a soul was pretty much just another version of the real Naruto, blew them both away. He also explained that he would still be connected to Asura, and would be able to learn what he learned and hopefully vice versa. His only concern was whether the blood clone would grow older and develop more physically, but figured they could always combat that with his transformation technique and maintain his disguise as a complete unknown.

He showed them Asura's travel pack and the access of storage scrolls, reminding them that his blood clone was a beginning Fuinjutsu user as well so their storage problems should be in the past and his knowledge and skill in that area would only be getting better. Zabuza was plenty pleased with everything, and gave Asura his blessing to join them before leading him into their base and getting his help storing all their supplies away for ease of travel. That left Haku and Naruto a few minutes to say their goodbyes, which was pretty awkward for the two shy teens when it came to relationships.

"Stay safe Haku," spoke Naruto softly, "I'll really miss you."

"Bye Naruto," whispered Haku back as they slowly gravitated towards one another even closer, "and thank you for everything."

Haku then leaned forward and placed a small kiss on Naruto's surprised lips, which he was beyond happy about and quickly returned the favor by placing one on her lips as she backed away with a large blush after her bold move. They then both stood their smiling dopey grins at one another for several moments, neither knowing what to do or wanting the moment to end. Soon they were joined back outside the cave by Zabuza and Asura, and Naruto gave them all heartfelt nods and wished them all good luck, and promised to stay safe and look out for one another.

Then they were gone, the three heading northeast towards the coast as they were leaving Wave for some of the other nearby small islands where they had a few other bases of operation. Naruto watched them go with a sad yet determined eye, knowing he would see them all again, and hoping his clone survived and thrived with the amazing pair and would get the chance to see even more of the world. The slow walk back to Tazuna's house was spent in reflection over the last few days, and thoughts about what direction he wanted to take his continued training were constantly running through his head until he was back with his team and settling down for the night.

Over the next few days, the people of Wave began celebrations in town and at the still uncompleted bridge, as they learned of Gato's death, and the end of his hold over the small island country. Tazuna was treated as the star of the moment, as most in the village now looked to the only person who had really been opposing Gato, as their de facto leader in the absence of anyone else. That he was responsible for bringing about Gato's defeat, was providing the bridge life-line to the mainland, and showed up with small monetary gifts for everyone in Wave made him a shoe in to become it's political and social leader.

The removal of Gato and his hired thugs, also allowed the original bridge workers to return to the jobsite and help speed up construction on the almost completed bridge, and would hasten the completion of this mission which all the Konoha people were very happy for. It had been a real eye opening mission for the genin, who were all excited and eager to return to the comforts or familiarity of home, but pleased that it worked out as well as it did after the shaky start. Naruto had even received some news about Asura, who arrived with Haku and Zabuza at their next base, and were currently trying to get his training up to their standards of speed and strength to increase their mobility.

For almost ten days, the genin watched as the bridge was finally completed while the entire time the people of Wave celebrated and came out to help one another recover from the long ordeal under Gato's control. They spent a lot of their free time training separately, and a few times even training together under Kakashi but mostly worked on their own things. Sasuke was very pleased, as every time he went out to train, Naruto would send along several hundred clones for him to tear through and fight until his heart was content, and returned back to Tazuna's every night pleased that he was making progress.

Naruto was actually starting to enjoy that extra training, as he had picked up several Fire techniques from his Uchiha teammate, and even though he would never be able to perform them to Sasuke's level, with his Wind boosts, he could really cause some serious damage. The biggest benefit though was in his taijutsu training, as the hundreds of clones that he kept sending to Sasuke usually always had a heavy taijutsu fighting component and his blended Hariken style was coming along really well. Sasuke could tell that the fights with the clones were continually getting harder and harder, but he saw that as a challenge to continually improve himself and was pushing the boundaries of what he thought he was capable of almost every day now and really seeing the benefits.

Naruto had even started helping Sakura a little too, though the training she wanted to do was mostly medical, which required the real Naruto as the only one who could bleed and take physical damage without too much long term suffering, and she could then work on healing. She was actually coming along pretty well, and the medical role suited her as she could show off her strong intellect and incredible chakra control, which helped boost her overall confidence. Overall, Kakashi was quite pleased that the down time on their mission, without their usual distractions or separate lives to live, his kids were really starting to come together as a team and grow.

They still had a long way to go, and each of them had holes or things they really needed to keep working on, but overall he was pleased with the progress they were making. He knew he needed to continue training his team in team fighting and strategies, but was pleased for now that all three of them seemed to be trying to improve individually and at least was starting to respect one another's talents, as that was a big step for them. He was a little nervous about Naruto, who had been much quieter since Haku and Zabuza left, but chalked it up to him missing the pretty kunoichi that he had somehow bonded with in the short amount of time he knew her.

Naruto was in fact missing Haku some, but most of his quiet was simply from the amount of information his now tens of thousands of clones were sending him all the time. Clones in Konoha had not slowed down much since he left, using the time with their boss away to study more and refine their chakra control, continue with their growing businesses on the civilian side, and slowly put together dossiers on all the members of the Civilian Council as the Hokage had asked of him. He still had thousands of clones running around Wave and training in various things, Asura was also creating clones regularly to train with Zabuza and Haku, and the staggering amount of information that was almost constantly coming into the original took time to process.

Luckily, he had discovered a way to compartmentalize new information from popping in at inopportune times while fighting or training, but in his spare time had to make an effort to clear that backlog of data he was constantly getting. So far from what he could tell, the Hokage was very pleased with his new secretary Naru, and the clone-pins were working well and doing the job they had been intended for. Already, they had saved the lives of two chunin teams that had run into trouble near the border with Rice Country, where reinforcements could be sent in time to help extract them from further trouble.

With all the influx of information coming in, Naruto was learning more than he ever thought possible, and was constantly having to make decisions for the rest of his clones when something came up that they felt unable to handle or how to handle it. Likewise, he was becoming much more accustomed to taking in facts and giving out orders than he had at any point in his life to date and it was slowly changing how he saw being a ninja. With his clones, he really could become an amazing spy master and information network all by himself, and could really help impact the role Konoha had in many areas because of it.

He was even working on a way to tap into the clone-pins when the people wearing them were training, practicing new techniques, or fighting others, hoping to expand on his arsenal of techniques and discover little things that others did that proved more successful or helpful in his shinobi development. He was still working on finding and isolating individual clone-pins to listen in on what was happening around them, but felt confident that he would be able to pull it off soon. Once he did, he was planning to get another blood clone to dedicate their full attention to listening in and learning from these many sources to help with the processing of more information as he felt he was close to the maximum he could handle.

He talked with Kakashi a bit about the shadow clone technique, and if he had ever experimented with it in any way, as he felt he was taking the technique past it's intended use and was hoping for any hints to help understand things better. Kakashi simply gave him his one-eyed smile and ruffled his hair, saying that nobody he knew had taken that technique as far as Naruto, and that he was probably already the foremost expert on anything shadow clone related. He recommended asking the Hokage, and maybe getting a chance to see if the Second Hokage had left any more details or notes on the technique, but was most likely going to have to discover and experiment on his own.

A few days later of pretty much constant training on Naruto's and Sasuke's part also brought about something neither of them expected, but was a great boon to one of them. Naruto's daily sending of clones to Sasuke had started to really push the dark haired Uchiha to continue improving to stay ahead of the many clones, who despite needing only one good hit to dispel, were becoming much harder to defeat. On that day, Sasuke had gotten overwhelmed by the increased skill of taijutsu, and when he resorted to ninjutsu, quickly found why wind trumps fire in the elemental scale as all his most powerful attacks were instantly turned back on him even hotter.

It was during one such exchange, that Sasuke had to resort to almost completely defensive measures and knew he was stuck with no way to avoid a redoubled fire attack pushed back in his face that time seemed to slow down for him. It slowed enough for him to just escape the backlash, and for the next several moments was experiencing the fight in seeming slow motion, allowing him to turn the tables on the many Naruto clones that had tried to capitalize on their seemingly successful assault. It was as he was tearing through clones with almost ease, seeming to know exactly where each one was and was going to do that a clone right in his face had wide eyes and whispered the word he had been hoping to hear for years …"sharingan."

Sasuke immediately stopped the fight, wondering if his dream of awakening his Clan's famous dojutsu had finally come true, and asked the Naruto clones what they were seeing in his eyes. After they described the red color, and unusual black mark in each eye, he rushed off to a nearby water source and looked intently at his reflection, a large smile soon adorning his face. He had done it, he awoke his sharingan eyes, and in that moment all the training he had been doing, and all the dreams he had, suddenly became worth it and achievable in his mind.

Naruto of course teased him about the eyes, saying that he was pretty enough now that his fan club would stop at nothing to get at him, but even the loud blonde or mentioning his fan club couldn't upset him at that moment. He continued to stare at his newly awakened eyes in wonder and awe before he realized why they finally evolved, he was challenged beyond his capabilities by his "dead last" teammate. From that point on, he made it his goal to get Naruto to continue to provide clones for him to fight, and finally acknowledged that his "dead last" teammate was in fact pretty okay.

By the day the bridge was completed, and Tazuna and Wave were throwing a large celebratory party commemorating the event, Naruto was ready to return home and work on a slight restructuring of his clones' chain of command. He was glad for Tazuna and the people of Wave, and graciously accepted their praise when given, but was also eager to get back to Konoha and have some ramen and return to more normality. During the bridge's dedication, he and his team were again thanked publicly, and somewhat shocked and pleased when the new bridge was named the Great Konoha Wave Bridge.

At the dedication ceremony, Tazuna was also unanimously named the new mayor of Wave, and gave Kakashi a long letter for the Hokage to open up trade with their home village with very beneficial rates for those that saved his island. Kakashi thanked Tazuna, who signed their mission scroll happily, as the people of Wave cheered while the Konoha ninja walked the bridge and left back to their village, their first C-Rank complete. Once clear from the bridge, the ninja took to the trees and set a comfortably fast pace back towards their home, all eager to return except for Kakashi, who wasn't looking forward to having to explain everything that happened.

Chapter 13: Wait ...You Did WHAT?

Seeing the gates of Konoha after being gone for over three weeks, had all three genin smiling somewhat in relief, and had their jounin leader grumbling about what he knew was going to be an unpleasant interrogation from their village leader. That they were all now home was the important thing to remember, and the genin at least were happy with the outcome of their first C-Rank mission and the first time either of them really left the village of their birth. Kakashi had them stop at the gate and check in, and then told them they would need to deliver a report of their mission directly to the Hokage, as so many important things happened that he would need to know about before they could be sent home to rest.

Luckily, they were ushered directly in to see the Third Hokage, not having to wait at all when they reached the central tower, Naruto waving to a smiling Naru as the secretary opened the door for them to enter Sarutobi Hiruzen's office. Sasuke and Sakura were both visibly nervous after being led into the somewhat intimidating office of their village leader, not having many or any experiences being there previously, while Naruto smiled wide at seeing his surrogate grandfather, but remained respectful as they were in a group setting. Kakashi was ramrod straight as he came to a stop next to and just a bit in front of his genin team, and the raising of the Kage's eyebrows was the only indication that something was up with the usually very relaxed and borderline disrespectful jounin.

"Team 7 reporting a successfully completed C-Rank mission," spoke Kakashi plainly to the elderly leader of Konoha.

"And, were there any complications that needed to be reported directly to me?" asked a curious Sarutobi, as he watched the unusual behavior of one of his best jounin, and wondered why they came to debrief him directly on the mission.

"Several," drawled Kakashi, knowing there was no easy way to sugar coat everything that happened, and figured he should just say it all quickly. "We encountered four missing nin, two of whom we eliminated on the way to Wave, the other two we engaged and forced to flee …"

Kakashi had to quickly trail off what he was going to continue saying, as the gathered shinobi all felt the increase in killing intent that quickly filled the office, forcing them all to try and get impossibly straighter as the elderly Kage glared at them all, but mostly the silver haired jounin. It was an intense, but thankfully short stare down as Kakashi instantly deferred to his leader and the Hokage could clearly see his intent was affecting the younger genin. While he pulled back the killing intent, his stare did not lessen at all, causing all four ninja present to squirm a bit under it.

"Explain slowly," began the elderly Hokage, "who you encountered, when, and how those outcomes came about, what decisions you made, and why you didn't use the newly created contact pins to alert us of the change in mission status?"

"Yes sir," replied Kakashi, deciding to just state the facts and hope he was still alive when his Hokage was done with him, "we encountered the Demon Brothers, former chunin of the Mist laying an ambush for our client on the way to Wave. We engaged and killed one in action, and the other after an interrogation of their purpose for attacking us. On continuing to Wave ..we encountered and fought Zabuza Momochi, former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist …"

"Wait," spoke the Hokage in a low register of voice, "you did WHAT?"

"I engaged Zabuza Momochi," spoke Kakashi slowly and deliberately, "and was assisted by my genin team in defeating him ...but, he had a hidden accomplice dressed as a Kiri Hunter Nin who came and rescued him out from under us."

"I expect your written report will have more of the details to that fight, and any HELP your GENIN provided in fighting an A-Rank missing nin?" came the low and somehow more powerful voice of the Hokage, who seemed to barely be keeping the lid on his emotions at what he was hearing.

"It will sir," spoke Kakashi nervously, before the Hokage nodded for him to continue. "We continued to the bridge builder's house, set up a perimeter and watch rotation, and protected him as he returned to work. I gave Naruto permission to use his clones to scout out the surrounding area, and over the next several days continued to train my team as we feared the Hunter Nin was working with Zabuza as he didn't kill him on sight, but used senbon to put him in a death-like state."

"At what point," interrupted Sarutobi, "did you decide to NOT call in on the new communication devices we provided to alert us of the upgrade to your mission details?"

"Um ...I forgot?" came Kakashi's nervous reply, knowing he had no excuse, other than he thought he would be able to handle anything thrown at them.

"Hmm," hummed the Hokage with narrowed eyes at his silver haired jounin, "continue."

"Yes, well," started Kakashi, remembering where he left off, "Naruto's clones were able to locate Zabuza's base and the headquarters of Gato, the shipping magnate who had been crippling and extorting the people of Wave for over a year, and who hired the missing nin to eliminate our client."

"Gato of Gato Shipping?" interrupted Sarutobi Hiruzen, "the third wealthiest man in the Shinobi Nations?"

"Yes sir," answered Kakashi succinctly. "He had over 50 hired mercenaries he was using to police and control the island, who were no more than thuggish bandits running wild. The economy was shot, the people were suffering, and I decided to eliminate the larger threat to our mission and pay-off the missing nins to abandon their hit on our client."

"Please tell me you and three rookie genin did not assassinate Gato, one of the wealthiest and most connected people in our world ...and his band of mercenaries," came the grumbled response from the Hokage.

"Um ...okay," drawled Kakashi, knowing he was already in trouble and just decided to start revealing the good news in hopes of saving his skin, "we recovered all the financial records of Gato shipping, several crates of illegal drugs, blackmail material on three Daimyos and two Kages, multiple land deeds, shares in several businesses, and over 200 Million Ryo."

"Wait," interrupted the Hokage again, "...you did WHAT?"

"AndkilledGatoandhisthugs," murmured Kakashi into the silence after the Hokage's outburst.

There were several long minutes of complete silence as Sarutobi Hiruzen digested everything that Kakashi just dropped on him, while the four shinobi all stood impossibly still. Thankfully, his killing intent never resurfaced, but the silence and the stares he was giving Kakashi mainly, but the other three as well, was nothing to scoff at. Naruto, was the only one who knew the old Kage well enough to know that he loved to make people sweat in his presence when they did something he didn't like or know about beforehand, in the hope they would confess to even more in the growing uncomfortable silence.

"Anything else I need to know that happened?" came the eventual low voice of the Hokage, whose glare hadn't let up at all.

"I met a girl," spoke Naruto with a timid smile while nervously rubbing the back of his head with his hand, "Sakura learned the healing palm jutsu, and Sasuke awoke his sharingan."

The sound of a head falling and banging into a desk was not the reaction any of the genin or jounin were expecting, but the answer and delivery was just so Naruto that even Sakura didn't yell at him for it. They were all still nervously looking at the venerable Hokage with his head resting now on his desk, and wondered what that meant for the amount of trouble they were all still in. Luckily, the silence didn't stretch too long, and the Hokage lifted his head to give the three genin small smiles.

"Congratulations you three," spoke Hiruzen sincerely, "those are very nice accomplishments, and I thank you for going well above and beyond the mission to come back to us safely. You will all be paid for an A-Rank mission and it will also appear on your records, again congratulations."

"Thank you Hokage-sama," came Sakura's surprised reply, while Sasuke just nodded.

"Thanks Jiji," replied Naruto with a wide smile, happy for his accomplishment and that he wasn't going to get into too much trouble, "and don't be too hard on Kakashi, he was awesome."

"Thank you Naruto," replied the Hokage with a fond look at the blonde that had his two teammates look at him in shock that he could talk to the Hokage like that and not get in trouble, and wondered just what kind of relationship the two had, and why. "Now, why don't you three head home while I talk with your sensei ...you will have a mandatory two weeks off to recover from your A-Rank mission."

Kakashi watched his students leave the Hokage's office with pride, that they had come so far, and seemed to be actually getting along now before turning back to the staring Hokage and gulping. He knew that he was going to be in some trouble, but still held out hope that all the gifts he was returning with would help offset some of the worst of it. He figured he should start pulling that information and money out and presented the Hokage with several full storage scrolls of various things, the blackmail they now had on the Lightning Daimyo and Kage being the first he wanted to show off in order to help lessen his punishment.

Over the next hour, Kakashi and the Hokage went through all the documentation he recovered, the slaves and drugs sold to Lightning country among the most eye opening. The loans and business arrangements with Kiri were also very problematic, as were the few bloodline slaves captured and sold to none other than Orochimaru. The various business interests throughout Water, Lightning, Hotsprings, Tea, Noodle, Frost, and even in Fire Country were eye opening in the amount and wealth accumulated from those companies, and went a long way to justifying Kakashi's actions.

The staggering sum of money and land deeds were also a large point in the silver haired jounin's favor, and as the meeting went on, the Hokage lost a lot of his anger at Kakashi's actions as he realized how much this action may have actually helped them. That he put his young genin at risk, especially Naruto, was still a bit of a sticking point though, and he was told in no uncertain terms that he better learn real quick how to ask for help when he got in over his head. He then filled Kakashi in on the status of Naruto's clone-pins, and how they had already saved two chunin teams near the border with Rice Country, and the growing activity on that border that signified something was coming.

Naruto was completely unaware of the continued discussion between his Jiji and sensei, and when he was given leave from the Hokage's office, ran directly to Ichiraku's Ramen stand and thankfully ordered his special batch of Miso Ramen. While he waited for his food, and then through eating more than any single customer ever had, he regalled Ayame and Teuchi all about his most recent mission, leaving out many of the sensitive bits and talking more about the people he met. The daughter and her father were both really happy to have Naruto back in the village safe, and excited for him that he was finally living out his life as a ninja that he always wanted and dreamed about.

Naruto stayed at his favorite ramen stand for over two hours, and actually ended up ordering a few extra bowls after finishing off his entire special batch and still wanting more of his favorite food that he had missed so much. By the time he left, the sky was just starting to darken as evening approached and Naruto headed to the Facility to spawn a large amount of clones and get in a little workout before he went back to his apartment. He primarily kept to taijutsu for the start, and really enjoyed the time going against his clones, who knew quite a bit about everything he wanted to do, which only made the spar more difficult and rewarding.

The real challenge was also in his inability to use his clones as his helpers, and instead was experiencing fighting himself from the other side, where waves of coordinated clones attacked strategically and forced him to remain almost entirely on the defensive. It was a good exercise to work on fighting without the aid of clones, as it really hammered home any mistakes he had in his forms, as he couldn't hide them behind the numbers of clones he usually did. The practice eventually evolved into sword training as well, and here he fared much better as he hadn't really incorporated sword fighting into his massive clone collaborative style like he had with taijutsu.

After sword fighting, he moved on to ninjutsu, where again he was entirely on the defensive as he simply couldn't keep up with that many clones that could all throw out the same techniques, and even stronger ones when they worked together. It showed him how offensive all his elemental techniques were, and he made a mental note to start working on a few more defensive options to at least have in his arsenal. Aside from the Futon: Cyclone technique he used against Haku, he didn't have much that stopped incoming attacks if he couldn't just blow them off course with overpowered wind techniques, and knew he needed to have something else.

When he was beyond sweaty and exhausted, it was much too late to go back to Ichiraku's, so he returned to his apartment building, and had to take a moment to stop and really look at it, as it had gone through some serious renovations. His construction work with Tazuna's crew on the bridge, apparently was a great learning experience for his construction clones, as they were able to completely renovate and upgrade his old apartment building until he almost didn't recognize it. The first floor entrance was still largely unchanged, just reinforced and repainted so his only tenant wasn't too aware of all the other changes that were made, but once past that part, the remaining five floors were all newly done and organized for various purposes.

The second floor had been converted into a large office space, with a clone-manned reception area, and offices that were each in charge of one of his many new civilian businesses to give them each their own space to operate from. The third floor had been converted into a large open workshop space that had several of the civilian products being made that he used in his various civilian businesses, as it was much better to separate them from the more destructive ninja things he was doing in the underground Facility. The fourth floor was primarily a warehouse for storage of extra supplies and products for the various businesses, as his clones were creating large amounts of inventory up front in case they ever needed to be pulled away for something else and didn't have time to keep up with demand.

The fifth and topmost floor had been completely converted into one enormously large apartment complete with a large kitchen, living area, and bedroom that had Naruto very pleased. His favorite part of his newly expanded apartment though was the private study that also acted as the first line of defence for his very own large Clan Library. His clones had slowly been filling it with copies of every technique and book they knew, and would eventually house all those techniques recovered from Uzushiogakure and anything else he would add to it over his career.

His new Clan Library was the beginning of the Legacy he hoped to build in Konoha, with all the treasures from Uzushiogakure and anything he knew that he would want his family to learn and keep safe for the future. After handing off the original scrolls he found in Uzushiogakure and Wave to his library clones to make copies and store, and putting his now prized Uzushiogakure hitai-ate in a place of honor on his desk, he went to the kitchen for a late night snack. After his snack, he spawned another large batch of clones to send to the Facility and fill in the gaps he created from his earlier spars and practice, and went to sleep.

Early the following morning after going over countless clone memories, Naruto was awake and making his way to Training Ground 9, to see if Might Guy and Rock Lee were back from their mission and doing their usual morning training regiment. He arrived a few minutes early, as with those two, you never knew if they were going to just get started without you, and found the look-a-like pair in green spandex doing their warm up stretches in preparation for a workout that would kill most people. Naruto greeted them both happily, having missed their unusual brand of weird since he was gone, and was looking to really continue pushing himself which was a guarantee with these two.

"Yosh, Naruto," greeted Guy loudly, the first to see him approach, "welcome back. How was your first C-Rank mission?"

"It was pretty awesome," replied the younger blond happily, "we got to meet and fight one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist ...well Kakashi-sensei did."

"I heard from my rival last night," responded the ever positive jounin with a large smile on his face, "he was most complimentary of your growing skills."

"Thanks Guy-sensei," came the grinning reply. "I really missed working out with you and Lee while I was gone."

"Yosh, Naruto," yelled Lee excitedly, "your youth is so refreshing ...let's double our workout in celebration of your return."

"Wonderful idea Lee," responded Guy, "are you ready Naruto?"

"You bet," came the excited answer, as three blurs raced out of the clearing to begin their workout, with now twenty laps racing around Konoha before they got to the actual training.

Lee and Naruto were both panting heavily when they returned to the training ground to continue their morning workout, and moved on to taijutsu practice where Naruto unveiled his newly adapted form. Lee was beyond happy to fight the horde of Naruto clones, and was really having to give it his all to keep up with the rapidly increasing skill of the blonde and the numbers he threw at him. His form had changed into something much more offensive, with all defenses being covered by clones, and had incorporated several new moves that took him awhile to work out counters for, smiling all the while.

After their initial bout which lasted much longer than Naruto ever had against the taijutsu specialist, Guy called them to a halt as he asked Naruto about his evolving form. He recognized the heavy and much more advanced usage of the Hariken style, supplanted with countless clones covering his defensive deficiencies wonderfully, and infused with a fair mixture of the Uchiha interceptor style thrown in that he would recognize anywhere. When Naruto explained how he fought with clones so much, he had decided to evolve the Hariken style to account for it, and started using clones to cover the holes he created by pushing towards the more offensive style as he had clones to spare.

His use of the Uchiha interceptor style though, he mentioned came about from the countless spars he had started having with his teammate Sasuke, who used that form exclusively, and he had decided to adopt and adapt some of those moves into his new growing and expanding style. He also mentioned that Kakashi had supplied some of the interceptor style moves, as he was familiar with the Uchiha style as well and had helped him some while they were in Wave. Guy was remarkably impressed, both with Naruto's growth in the Hariken style, and his ability to tweak it to better work for his own personal fighting style, and promised they would continue to work on and refine it as it would serve him really well.

Lee too, remarked on how much better the new style was, and how much harder it was to overcome Naruto's clones when they were all working together like that, and promised that he too would work twice as hard to continue to push himself against one of his rivals. Naruto promised that he could send Lee a batch of clones to fight with if he ever just needed a good workout, and didn't want to worry about actually hurting someone, as that is how he convinced Sasuke to train with him and it had really helped him too. Guy was very pleased with the idea, and agreed that it would be a great learning and training tool for the both of them, and said they should try and incorporate it into their morning workouts more often.

From there, Naruto said goodbye to his two green clad friends, and left for breakfast before heading to his own team's training ground to see if either of his teammates or sensei were going to show up. He was a little surprised to see both of his teammates in their usual spots waiting on Kakashi, and greeted them both with a smile and nod as he wondered how things were going to be with them going forward, especially now that they were back in Konoha. They didn't have to wait long, when Kakashi arrived in a swirl of leaves asking his genin why they were here on their day off.

"The Hokage just told us we had a mandatory two weeks off, you never said that meant we didn't have team practice," came the frustrated voice of Sakura, who had probably been waiting the longest based on the palpable relief she got at his arrival.

"Oh ...good point," replied Kakashi with a half shrug, "well ...since you're all here we should at least do something productive ...and work on filling out mission reports."

"Mission reports?" came the question from Naruto, wondering if this was Kakashi's way of pawning off his work on us, as it wouldn't be the first time.

"Yes, unfortunately," drawled kakashi lazily, "for B-Rank missions and above, ALL team members need to fill out a separate mission report. I figured I should show you how those are supposed to look, but I haven't done mine yet either."

"What?" came the confused question from Sakura, as we all looked at Kakashi with disbelief at his completely casual acceptance of his laziness, and couldn't really believe that this was one of the best jounin in the village sometimes.

"Yeah yeah," drawled Kakashi with a lazy wave, "you technically have up to three days to complete the mission reports ...but if anything of note happens, they encourage us to get them done sooner."

"Okay," replied Sakura, the team's usual spokesperson, "so how do we do them?"

"Go to the library and look it up," answered Kakashi easily, and despite the bottom half of his face being covered, all three genin got the idea that he was smirking underneath that face mask, and only gave him three deadpan stares in return. "You are all smart enough to figure it out ...and in appreciation, I am giving you the next three days off from any team meetings or training. We'll meet back here on Thursday at the usual 8 am."

"Hah," laughed Naruto sarcastically, "so ...more like 11-ish?"

"Hn," grunted Kakashi in a fairly good impersonation of Sasuke, before disappearing in another swirl of leaves, leaving three genin behind who could only look at one another and commiserate on the weirdness of their sensei.

"Well," started Naruto resignedly, "I am going to head to the library and knock this out now ...do either of you want to come?"

"It would be nice to get this done," started Sakura, with a look to Sasuke, probably wondering if he was going to go along too, "and then we'll have a mini-vacation for three days!"

"Hn," grunted Sasuke, seemingly in acceptance this time as he stood up from his position of leaning against the tree stump, and waited for someone to lead the way.

"Come on," replied Naruto to his two teammates, "I know a shortcut."

He then led his teammates out of the training ground and into the merchant area, cutting down two separate back alleys and arriving in front of the library in just a few minutes, getting looks of appreciation from his two teammates who quickly followed him inside. They asked the chunin librarian, who Naruto's clones had become very familiar with over the last two months where the old mission reports were filled for reference, and were told they would be brought out of storage for them in a few minutes. They arrived in a large box, several disorganized old scrolls in no particular order, and were told to return them to the front desk when they were finished, and left to their own devices.

They each read through one for a few short minutes, spent two minutes comparing and talking about the basic structure they needed to use, before Naruto pulled out three blank scrolls from one of many storage scrolls he kept on his person. The three sat for ten minutes writing out everything they could remember from their point of view on their first mission outside of the village before Sasuke stood up finished, with Sakura just a few seconds behind him. Naruto mentioned, he still had a few more minutes to finish up, and waved goodbye to his teammates, who at least returned the box of old mission reports so he could finish in peace.

Naruto had a lot more information than most, especially when you counted all the clones he had dispatched that went all throughout Wave and even into the neighboring small islands and Uzushiogakure's Ruins. He was also present for the pay-off of Zabuza and the meeting of Emiko, and simply had more to write and get down to complete the picture of his first C turned A-Rank mission. When he was finished, he decided to go see if Team 10 and Asuma were at their normal training grounds, as he had a few questions and requests for the only other wind user in the village he knew.

Naruto had to give team 10 an abridged version of the events that occurred during his first C-Rank mission, and tried to skim over most of it, but apparently Asuma had heard some of the details from Kakashi, as he asked some specific questions. The biggest was what he thought of Zabuza Momochi and his famous sword Kubikiribocho, to which Naruto could only speculate on how one learns to wield a sword that large with such ease. He ended up asking Asuma about applying wind blades to a sword, as though he knew he used trench knives, the technique was similar.

"Wait," interrupted Ino after Naruto glossed over his teams' confrontation with one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, "you did WHAT?"

"We briefly fought against him," replied Naruto with his hands raised defensively in front of him, as Ino looked ready to attack him for details on her crush and former best friend, "and only really helped Kakashi escape a water prison, so he could continue the fight."

"You encountered a missing nin on your first C-Rank mission?" asked, slashed pointed out Shikamaru, to which Choji and Ino both turned to Naruto as well, waiting for his answer.

"A couple actually," shrugged Naruto, not really wanting to brag even if a couple months ago, that would have been one of the first things on his mind. "Two former chunin from Mist, called the Demon Brothers ...and Zabuza's accomplice, a Hyoton user and orphan from the bloodline purges in Mist."

"Wait," spoke Choji with a chip paused right in front of his mouth, "you did WHAT?"

"It's not nearly as glamorous as you think," chuckled Naruto, before turning back to Asuma, "so ...that wind blade technique?"

What followed was an hour long personal lesson from the Hokage's son, as clones of Naruto wore out the three genin of Team 10, by attacking them in coordinated waves that constantly kept them on the defensive. When he got the hang of the technique, he thanked Asuma and asked if he wanted him to stop attacking his genin with his clones, but just got a smug smile and shake of his head. He wanted to test their stamina, and push them a little as their last team battle had initially gotten them all training harder, but they had recently fallen back into some of their lazier habits and needed the incentive and workout.

The real Naruto called goodbye to his former classmates, and laughed at their strangled yells to stop sending more clones, and went off in search of a good meal at Ichiraku Ramen in high spirits. The rest of his day was spent down in the Facility, constantly spawning more clones, and trying to push them into working more on his sealing chains. The chains were slowly coming along, as they were very chakra intensive for his clones, and also physically sometimes popped the clones coming out of the body or as they tried to manipulate them around.

By the end of the day, they had finally reached one of the biggest milestones for Naruto, in managing two chains and proving that he could advance the technique and continued to push his training. He only paused late in the evening for a trip to Ichiraku to refill his stomach before continuing on his personal training somewhat late into the night. When he went to sleep that night, he was beyond exhausted and also incredibly pleased with his progress and looking forward to another few days of nothing but training.

Chapter 14: Training & Helping Konoha

Throughout the next two days, Naruto continued pushing himself to improve in all areas, but spent the most time working on the sealing chains and sword fighting when he wasn't with the green beasts in the morning. On his last day off before returning to team exercises and practice, he encountered something he wasn't expecting on the way home after his Ichiraku lunch. He saw three younger kids that he knew were supposed to be in the Academy, having met Konohamaru several times over the last few years, and his two common followers, Udon and Moegi.

"Hey boss," spoke the younger Sarutobi to the older boy he had slowly started to admire ever since meeting him inside his grandfather's office several months previously, when he was treated like a normal person, and not just the "honorable grandson" of the Hokage.

"Konohamaru?" asked Naruto, "why aren't you at the Academy?"

"Umm," came the slightly hesitant and nervous looking younger boy, as he glanced around him, "we had the day off?"

"I doubt that," replied Naruto with a stern look at the three young Academy students, causing all of them to fidget guiltily.

"Oh come on boss, the Academy is just so boring," complained Konohamaru, the first to break under Naruto's glare.

Naruto just shook his head at the younger wannabe ninjas, knowing he was the same way after being in the Academy for so long and not thinking what he was learning was anything important compared to learning jutsu. So he told the three that they needed to return to class as everything in the Academy served as important towards their ninja career, and just because they didn't think a lot of it mattered, it really did. Konohamaru though was a stubborn one, and refused to listen or believe Naruto, so he quickly created a pair of shadow clones and each of the three blondes grabbed one of the three Academy students and shunshinned them directly to the front of Iruka's classroom where they all collapsed to their knees trying to catch their breath after the disorienting movement.

"Iruka sensei," greeted Naruto as the two clones vanished, "I found these three outside of class, and tried to remind them of the importance of not missing Academy lessons so they didn't fall behind their peers ...they took exception, so I brought them here myself."

"Thank you Naruto," replied an exasperated Iruka as he looked at the three students with a firm glare of his own, "I was just about to go out looking for them ...we have a geography lesson starting."

"Geography?" complained Konohamaru, "that's useless."

"Oh is it?" answered back Naruto before Iruka could start yelling at one of his most misbehaving students. "So when your mission is to a place called Wave, how do you get there? What areas do you cross? What should you pack for your outfit and camping gear? Are you going to need cold weather or wet weather gear? Are you passing through any hostile territories? What borders do you get close to? Are you willing to risk your life or your teammates because you weren't prepared?"

The entire class was looking at this young blonde ninja in shock at his rapid fire of questions, while Iruka had a slowly growing smile on his face at Naruto's ability to break something down so simply and perfectly for others to understand its importance. Konohamaru was looking at Naruto in disbelief that geography would be that important or applicable to missions they all romanticized about, having not thought about any of the questions Naruto just asked. He slowly realized that he didn't know any of those answers and when he looked at his friends who he already knew would be his future teammates, he knew they didn't have an answer either and didn't want to risk their lives by not knowing something that would be that vital to their survival and the mission success.

"Thank you Naruto," responded Iruka gratefully, as his entire class was now looking at their upcoming geography lesson with a new perspective, and couldn't be prouder of how far his young blonde friend had come, "meet tonight for dinner?"

"You bet Iruka-sensei," answered Naruto with a grin, before he used a shunshin to return to his training, leaving a pleased chunin instructor with an eager class ready to learn about geography and its application related to their ninja careers.

The dinner at Ichiraku's shared by Naruto and Iruka was quite nice, as the two orphans shared a wonderful meal with one of the few people they really considered family, and was a truly enjoyable experience for both of them. Naruto filled Iruka in on the particulars of his recent mission to Wave, that had the chunin instructor terrified at times for the danger team 7 found themselves in, but was proud of them all. They spoke about his training, and what he was working on now, and Iruka even gave him some ideas for further chakra control exercises that Naruto could work on to refine his control even more.

Naruto also mentioned that he was working on a technique that he learned his mother used, and had to explain to Iruka how he found out from Guy-sensei, who his mother was and where she was originally from. He mentioned Uzushiogakure, and Iruka and he discussed the geography of the region and its location compared to Fire Country and Wave, bringing them back to what started their discussion and gave them both a laugh. It was somewhat late when they parted ways after a nice dinner, and Naruto returned to his Facility to continue training, as it was the last of his vacation days, and wanted to make the most of it.

Over the following two weeks, his schedule remained pretty much the same, as he would get up early to do a morning workout with the green beasts, get a late breakfast and go meet up with his team for team and individual training with them and Kakashi. Then lunch, followed by a D-Rank mission or two before being left to his own devices to continue his personal training. This was usually filled with sending a mass of clones home with Sasuke to work with him, while the real Naruto went to his Facility and continued with his personal projects, finding them all coming along very well.

A late dinner usually rounded out the day, followed by more training which usually always included a large match against several hundred clones, having really seen improvement in both Lee and Sasuke after the successive days of fighting off his clones. He would then prepare for bed, and rinse and repeat, causing many of the days to blend together into each other. His progress though was not to be understated, as his sword training, taijutsu, and chakra chains really grew by leaps and bounds over this time as he focused the most on those areas.

He had a meeting one afternoon with the Hokage about the status of his clone-pins, and how happy the old man was with his new secretary Naru, and the ability to receive instant communication from teams out in the field. Their meeting also touched on Naruto's progress infiltrating the various Civilian Council members, and how his businesses were growing so well that several of them had been mentioned during the last meeting between the many Civilian Council members, who found their own businesses suffering and being undercut. Luckily, they hadn't yet planned anything to try and hurt any of his businesses, but the council was going to start looking into these upstart businesses, and see if they couldn't apply a bit of pressure to ensure they fell under their control.

Naruto's various clones had slowly been building cases against every single member of the Civilian Council now, having dirt on many of them including two that he had proof of illegal dealings, but was hoping to find even more. He provided the Hokage with copies of all his notes and files on all of the members, and was given the green light to continue his pursuit of the many well placed civilians, who had been members of the council for quite some time. They believed that several of them had by now overstepped in some fashion, and were hoping to have all the evidence they would need to get many of them in prison for all the damage they had done over the years.

The Third Hokage was quite pleased as he glanced quickly through the files Naruto provided, quite amazed at the depth of research and details that were included and he realized the importance of this task he set that would definitely shake up some of the civilian power brokers. Giving his young surrogate grandson a large smile and nod of his head in appreciation, Naruto smiled in return, glad to have been able to help his Jiji. They even got to spend an evening eating dinner together at Ichiraku's, talking about lighter topics and Naruto even hearing some stories about his mother and Uzushiogakure which he ate up completely.

After that meeting with the Hokage, Naruto stepped up his infiltration and spying on the Civilian Council members, finding more dirt and even crimes committed by several of them that went into their briefs. By the time a month had passed since their mission to Wave, the three members of team 7 were all eager for another C-Rank mission, as they could only do so many chores disguised as D-Rank missions before losing their cool. Unfortunately, Kakashi decided to drop some other news on his genin team that had them beyond excited and a little nervous, and would prevent them from going out on another mission so soon.

"Konoha is hosting the next Chunin Exams," spoke Kakashi after all three of his students ganged up on him to request a C-Rank mission, and he had to find out which they wanted more, "if we go on a C-Rank mission now ...we will miss these exams and have to wait at least another six months before you can take them again."

"Chunin Exams?" asked Sasuke with a fire in his eyes at the thought of possibly being given a higher rank and getting another step closer to his ultimate goal, "sounds fun."

"Definitely," responded Naruto in excitement.

"Um ...do you think we are ready, Kakashi-sensei?" asked a timid Sakura, the only member of the group not to immediately jump at the chance, as she had only recently started taking her training more seriously, and didn't know if she was really ready for the next step.

"Normally, I'd probably say no," began Kakashi, serious for once, causing all three genin to listen to him closely and not interrupt despite the two boys wanting to argue that they were in fact ready, "but ...as the exams are in Konoha ...we will want a show of force, so we will probably send quite a few teams into this exam. And the chance of the next one in six months being somewhere it's "safe" to send genin is pretty low, as I think Iwagakure or Kumogakure would be the next locations."

"So, if we don't take this exam, it will probably be another year until we can take another?" asked Naruto, having realized what Kakashi was saying, and knew the bad blood they had with both Earth and Lightning Countries.

"Yes," responded Kakashi with a nod.

"Then let's crush this exam, and show everyone how Team 7 rules," exclaimed Naruto excitedly, getting a nod from Sasuke, and eventually a timid nod from a still nervous looking Sakura, "don't worry Sakura, we'll help you prepare and keep you safe."

"Okay, then I will leave you with these permission forms," responded Kakashi with his customary eye-smile at his cute little genin who seemed to be finally coming together as a team and looking out for one another, "bring them signed to the Academy one week from today, all the details and instructions you need are on them."

"Yes, we are going to crush these exams, dattebayo," exclaimed an excited Naruto after taking one of the forms.

"I will give you all the week off from missions, but if you want to still get together for team training, I will be at the usual place at the usual time," replied Kakashi, giving all three of his students a fond look before disappearing in a shunshin.

"Well," started Naruto, getting both of his teammates attention before they walked off, "I'm going to continue coming to team training ...I think it's been really helpful for us ...and I think we should all step it up a notch if we are going to be representing Konoha in these exams."

"Hn," grunted Sasuke, in what appeared to be approval, as even he couldn't deny that they were all in fact getting better, even if Sakura's progress was slower than his or Naruto's.

"Okay," nodded Sakura too after a moment of thought, "but I'm not entirely sure I'm ready for these exams."

"Don't worry Sakura," responded Naruto with his usual confidence, "I can help you train a bit if you want some clones ...Sasuke has sure been using them to refine his own techniques."

"Okay," she replied with a look to both Sasuke to see if he would supply help or argue Naruto's claim, and afterwards gave her blond teammate a smile, "thanks Naruto."

With that, they made plans to return to their own training, with Naruto sending a large batch of clones home with Sasuke to work with, and leaving a couple dozen in their team training ground for Sakura to utilize as he went back to the Facility. His chakra chains were finally starting to become combat ready, and he wanted to push himself and ensure they were a useful addition to his fighting style as the chunin exams were the perfect place to re-introduce them to the world. He knew he had his work cut out for him though, if he wanted to incorporate them into his taijutsu style seamlessly, as they had the tendency to obliterate his nearby clones when they hit, and caused other clones to dispel from the chakra drain at inopportune times.

Over the next few days, Naruto started noticing more foreign people and ninjas arriving in Konoha, and made sure his thousands of civilian clones running around the village were keeping an eye out on them when they encountered someone. He continued to push his investigation of the Civilian Council Members, finding a few of them to be very chummy with several of the foreign visitors, and making sure to monitor those visitors as well, and record as much of their interactions as possible for his files on each member. His daily training hasn't changed much, as he was still doing his mornings with Lee and Guy, meeting with Kakashi and his team, and spending all the rest of his time underground working out his chakra chains.

He kept up the daily large batches of clones to fight with Lee, Sasuke, and now Sakura and noticed a decided increase in all of their spars as they continued to improve and push one another to get better. The other thing that was a bit of a surprise, was the large increase in his sword skills, as the original had stopped working on it so he could focus more on the chakra chains, but continued to improve in leaps and bounds. He eventually discovered the source as being the training Asura was doing with Haku and Zabuza, who had taken him under their wing and really started to work with him on his ability to wield a sword.

It was only two days before the Chunin Exams were about to start, when Naruto's civilian spy clones discovered a large breach of security, when following the restaurant owner, Zumi Rabichen as he met with fellow Civilian Council member Saidu Misoribo. The pair had a backroom meeting with someone who could only be a representative from a village called Sound, as they talked about bringing in 20 new staff members each for their restaurants and delivery service to arrive over the next few weeks in smaller groups. They would need to be added to their employee registers, and filed with the gate guards to allow them access as new transplants for Konoha, and they talked about how to space them out so as not draw any undue attention to them.

Naruto's clones witnessed the handing over of a large amount of money with the instruction to make sure the two elders of the Civilian Council stayed hidden on the day of the Chunin Exam finals, and allowed these new employees free reign to do as they pleased. At almost the same time as that meeting was taking place, another Civilian Council member he had been following for some time, the head of the Merchant Guild, Utane Habishi was plotting with one of his usual contacts from Wind Country. They were planning to sell off his inventory at incredibly reduced rates to the Wind Country merchant before an accident would take place on the day of the Chunin Exams, destroying several of his stores so he could make a large insurance claim against Konoha tripling his profits and trying to bleed out Konoha's coffers.

After copying all the relevant data into their files, Naruto popped a clone asking Naru, the Hokage's secretary if the old man had time for an important meeting regarding the criminal activity of three separate Civilian Council members. He didn't have to wait long until he was standing in front of his Jiji with a hard look on his face, wondering how someone who was supposed to be from here and have a role in their government would turn on the people of Konoha so blatantly. Naruto spent an hour filling in Hiruzen and three other men he called into his office after the first few minutes of Naruto's tale, his Jounin Commander Shikaku Nara, and two higher up members of Konoha's T & I department, Ibiki Morino and Inoichi Yamanaka.

By the end of the hour, they all came to the conclusion that Wind and Sound were planning something for Konoha on the day of the Chunin Exam Finals in a little over a month, and needed to figure out what it was quietly without tipping anyone off. Naruto offered to provide clones to replace the three Konoha Civilian Council Members, as he had them being watched so much that he was confident he could replicate their daily lives relatively easily. Ibiki was the only one against that strategy as he didn't think the young blond genin was up to the task, but he was convinced by the Hokage to give Naruto the chance while he would be allowed to interrogate the criminals himself and keep them hidden until they knew everything they wanted.

With this plan in place, Naruto's clones, with the help of small squads put together by Shikaku Nara, would catch all of these infiltrators they suspected were ninjas in disguise before they could successfully infiltrate the village. For the clothing merchant, Naruto would include some clone-pins with the clothing shipment going to Wind Country to try and find out the details of whatever was being planned from their end, and in return would get to move those clothing shops under the umbrella of his own civilian clothing business when all was said and done. Inoichi was able to confirm through his Clan technique, that Naruto was telling the truth, and witnessed both meetings as if he was with Naruto's clones the whole time, lending a lot of credibility to the blonde's story.

That night, while most of the village was sleeping, Ibiki led a team with Inoichi, Naruto, and one other member of their department who Naruto had met once or twice, Anko Miturashi to apprehend and switch out the three Civilian Council Members with clones. Luckily, they were all older men whose wives had all since passed, so Naruto's clones wouldn't be asked to do anything too weird, and all three switches went off without a hitch if you avoided Anko's suggestive comments. Ibiki promised that he would get any useful information he learned to Naruto, so his clones would be informed of any future plans they needed to know about in playing their parts, and the group split up long before the sunrise.

Naruto tried to put the subterfuge and the plots they uncovered the night before out of his mind on the last full day before the Chunin Exams began, and even decided to take it easy for most of the day. He wanted to be ready for anything, so he begged off Guy and Lee's final workout, and told his team members he was taking the day off to fully recharge his chakra and energy. He spent a few great meals at Ichiraku's, and even ran into Konohamaru again, who actually did have the afternoon off, though he almost caused an international incident in the process.

Konohamaru had inadvertently offended Sakura as he and Naruto were talking and ran into the pink haired genin, and in the ensuing chase ran into a kubiki painted boy from Suna with a puppet on his back. Luckily, even after the boy and his sibling teammates tried to intimidate Team 7 and Konohamaru, they were able to cool down the situation with nobody getting hurt, though Naruto and Sasuke both caught the eye of the youngest member of the foreign team, Gaara who promised to come looking for them during the exams. He was short, with sandy brown hair and the kanji for love tattooed on his forehead, had bags under his eyes from lack of sleep, and gave off a really creepy psychopath vibe that even frightened his own siblings and didn't bode well for the members of Team 7.

Despite that unusual run-in with the foreign team from an allied nation, Naruto couldn't shake everything he had learned about Sound and Wind both trying to sabotage and plan something for Konoha during the exam finals, and told his team to try and stay away from the unbalanced shinobi. Naruto had felt an unusual feeling of his own from deep in his gut when looking at and being around the younger Suna genin, but didn't have anything to compare it to, and just chalked it up to not liking the boy's chakra for whatever reason. He did however, return to his apartment earlier in the night than usual, and made sure that he had everything he could need packed in storage scrolls and ready for whatever they threw at them tomorrow during the Chunin Exams.

Chapter 15: Chunin Exams I

Naruto was up bright and early the morning of the Chunin Exams, and there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air as he prepared for his morning. Even if he wasn't going to run through his usual training regime, he still was going to go for a warm up run and do some stretching to make sure he was as loose as can be, and ready for anything. They didn't have to meet at the Academy until 2 in the afternoon, so he still had plenty of time to kill until he needed to go.

Since he didn't want to do anything too stressful physically in case he was tasked with something right from the start, he went down to the Facility and joined some of his clones working on Fuinjutsu study. His clones were making pretty steady progress through all the various Fuinjutsu scrolls they had obtained from the Uzumaki Shrine and the notes provided from Mito and Kushina that were given to him by the Hokage. It was a pretty fascinating field, and one that was very in demand of masters, and the Uzumaki were definitely considered masters of the field.

At around lunchtime, he left his clones working in the Facility and went to Ichiraku's for a wonderful meal in celebration of the approaching chunin exams, and ate his usual special batch of ramen while casually chatting with both Ayame and Teuchi. He reached the Academy ten minutes before 2pm, and found both Sasuke and Sakura waiting out front for him somewhat impatiently. He nodded to them both, and apologized for keeping them waiting as the threesome made their way into the building, finding a large crowd gathering around Room 202 and preventing their entry.

Naruto recognized Lee near the front of the group, seemingly trying to force his way into the room despite it being blocked by an older pair of shinobi who were trying to prevent anyone from entering. He knew Lee wasn't stupid, but was seemingly playing up his stupidity, maybe to get others to underestimate him and his team as he unnoticed Tenten and Neji nearby. The other problem though, was the classroom itself as they were supposed to meet at room 302 another floor up, but there was something going on that was confusing others that took the blond a moment to notice.

"That genjutsu is pathetic," scowled Sasuke loud enough for all the gathered genin to turn towards him, some in shock and others with scowls on their faces at him ruining their plan to eliminate more of the weaker teams, "let us through to the stairs."

"Nice going teme," spoke Naruto quietly, "you just helped all those weak teams get past the obvious ploy."

"Hn," grunted Sasuke, seemingly not caring as he pushed his way through the blocked hallway to the staircase at the end, until they were interrupted by Lee appearing in a flash in front of Sasuke as his teammates rushed to catch up, and glared at the green clad boy.

"You are Sasuke Uchiha?" came Lee's question that had Sasuke step back and look at the newcomer, "this year's Rookie of the Year ...I want to fight you."

"Lee," came the exasperated voice of Tenten who was seemingly ignored by Lee as he continued to stare at Sasuke, "we were supposed to be trying to downplay our skills."

"If you know who I am," started Sasuke with his customary smirk in place, dismissing Lee because of his appearance as many do, "then it is foolish of you to challenge me."

"No," interrupted Naruto with a glare at both boys, "what is foolish ...is to fight right before we enter these exams ...we only have a few minutes to get to the 'proper' classroom, and I've trained enough with you both to know this won't be that quick."

"You've trained with this …," started Sasuke with an unusual look at Naruto and then the green clad boy with the thick eyebrows in disbelief before being interrupted again by his blond teammate.

"Careful Sasuke," interrupted Naruto, glancing between the two, "Lee is not someone you take lightly ...and I'm sure you will both get the chance to prove yourselves if you don't get us all disqualified before the exams even start."

"Thank you Naruto," sighed Tenten in appreciation, as she grabbed the back of Lee's neck and started steering him towards the stairs, as Lee spluttered at being manhandled, and their final teammate gave Naruto a fierce glare of hatred from his milky white pupil less eyes, "come on Neji."

Neji scowled at Tenten's words, but never let his glare move from Naruto, as the two had only interacted a few times and there was definitely no love lost between the two. Neji eventually scoffed at Naruto, ignored Sasuke and Sakura, and turned to follow his teammates up the stairs without a word, causing Sasuke especially to scowl at being dismissed. Sasuke then turned his glare on Naruto as well, but the blond simply smiled at him, and told him to watch out for Lee, his speed and strength in taijutsu was well above the both of them.

"Come on, we don't want to be too much like Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto as he then led his disbelieving teammates to climb up the stairs to the third floor, where Kakashi was standing there waiting on them with an eye-smile in place probably having heard everything that just happened.

"My cute little genin," greeted Kakashi warmly, with Might Guy standing nearby, having just greeted his students who were passing through the doors, "I am glad you all came ...as you can only compete as a full team."

"What?" asked Sakura, "why didn't you mention that part?"

"I didn't want your teammates to pressure you into competing," replied Kakashi easily, "it had to be your decision."

The three genin each had different expressions on their faces as they stared at their jounin sensei, wondering why he left that part out, but not too surprised that he didn't give them all the information they needed as was his usual. Naruto also gave a nod to a smiling Guy sensei, who gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up, probably for what he said earlier about Lee and interrupting the fight he wanted with Sasuke. Kakashi told them how proud he was of them, and encouraged them to do their best and look out for one another and he would be seeing them when they were done.

The three genin of Team 7 then entered the doors to the large room, where they found an impossibly large amount of genin all staring at them, some in just curiosity, but a great many of them with glares. Naruto and Sasuke, who were both used to being glared at or stared at for most of their lives, completely ignored the staring, while Sakura kind of shrunk behind her teammates to avoid the attention. There were a great many Konoha headbands among the bunch, but also a lot of other hitai-ates from various villages, most notably among them was the symbol for Sand.

"Sasuke," came the excited shout of Ino, as she seemingly appeared hanging on the back of Sasuke from nowhere, causing her rival to scratch in anger.

"Get off my Sasuke-kun, Ino-pig," came the loud yell, as Sakura physically shoved the blond girl off their mutual crush, as they were approached by several well known teams and bringing a lot of attention on their group from others.

"Well, well ...looks like the whole gang's here," came the loud arrogant voice of Kiba Inuzuka, as he approached the growing group of recent Academy graduates along with his teammates Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga, as Ino's teammates Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara had followed her at a much slower pace.

Several of the most recent graduates from Konoha's Ninja Academy greeted one another happily, having not had too many chances to catch up with one another since becoming genin, but only a few noticed the looks they were getting from the rest of the crowded room of chunin hopefuls. Sasuke, who was never very social, was trying to put distance between him and the others, and noticed along with his teammate Naruto the amount of attention they were receiving. The only other two to visibly react to the many stares they were receiving was Shino and Shikamaru, who were the usual observers of the group.

"You should quiet down," came the older voice of a grey haired Konoha genin who looked much older than the rookies, and had an unusual habit of continually pushing up the round reflective glasses he wore, as he approached them all, "you are drawing a lot of attention to yourselves."

"And why shouldn't they be paying us attention," came the arrogant boast from Kiba, as he turned to look at the newcomer, dismissing him easily in his arrogance, "we are the best."

"You are all rookie genin," came the smooth reply from the grey haired older boy, as if that answered everything, "most would consider you easy pickings."

"Hn," grunted Sasuke with a look of superiority on his face, excited to start proving himself the best, a look shared only by Kiba among the rest of the group as the others either had doubts or the intelligence to know they might not be the best of everyone present.

"I'll show you how easy it will be," came the challenge from Kiba, as he stepped up threateningly towards the grey haired ninja, as several other members of the group now realized just how much attention they were drawing from the almost 200 other genin in the large room.

"Hey," held up the newcomers hands in a defensive and submissive way, as he diffused Kiba's advance, "I'm on your side ...just thought I would come over and help you rookies out a bit ...this being your first chunin exams and all ...I'm Kabuto Yakushi."

"Oh …," trailed off Kiba, not knowing how to respond and still be seen as the Alpha he always saw himself.

"So ...you've taken these exams before?" came the bossy voice of Ino, as she injected herself into the conversation, wanting to at least learn something from all of this.

"This will be my seventh time," came Kabuto's response, causing Sasuke to scoff in disdain, and Kiba to bark out a laugh at Kabuto's obvious weakness if he couldn't pass these exams six times already.

"You must have learned a lot about these exams?" came the timid question from Hinata Hyuga, as she pushed her fingers together in a nervous gesture Naruto had noticed the several times he interacted with the shy girl.

"I have," replied Kabuto with a knowing smirk, that Naruto didn't seem to like at all, as he started wondering what this older boy's angel was in regards to coming over here and offering help, "I even made these information cards on all those participating ...go ahead and ask ...who do you want to know about?"

"Rock Lee and Naruto Uzumaki," came the voice of Sasuke, giving his blonde teammate a smirk of his own, and causing several of the other rookies to look at the mentioned blonde and confused that he wasn't the loudest among them all.

"Gaara of the Desert," spoke Naruto as the whole group really looked at him, noticing how much he had changed, and wondering just how much information this older genin could really have gathered on every participant here.

"Oh ...you know their names ...that makes this easy," replied Kabuto, who again adjusted his glasses causing the light to flash a moment before he pulled out three cards and sent a little chakra into them. "Rock Lee ...genin under Might Guy, teammates with Neji Hyuga and Tenten, member of Lee Clan of Konoha, he is a taijutsu specialist, with no ability to manipulate chakra outside of his body ...missions include 25 D-Ranks, and 12 C-Ranks."

"Wow," came the response from Sakura, as she tried to reconcile that information with the goofy looking guy in green spandex and terrible eyebrows, and that had Naruto concentrate even more on Kabuto for having that much information on another Konoha genin.

"Naruto Uzumaki …" continued Kabuto with a quick glance to the blonde boy in question, and seemingly unaffected by the glare he was being sent in return, "genin under Kakashi Hatake. Teammates with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, member of the Uzumaki Clan, prolific user of the shadow clone kinjutsu, taijutsu and ninjutsu are both very high, genjutsu non-existent, known Fuinjutsu user of unknown level, primary Wind Element, insanely high chakra ...missions include 117 D-Ranks, 25 with his team, 1 team A-Rank, and 1 solo A-Rank."

"WHAT?!" shouted Kiba in shock as he heard Naruto's skills and mission record, the dead last of their class, and couldn't believe it along with most of the rest of the gathered rookie genin, while Naruto's eyes tightened that this Kabuto character had so much information on him that he shouldn't have and promising to keep a closer eye out on this shady guy.

"Um ...Gaara of the Desert," continued Kabuto quickly, as he could tell he had pissed off the young blonde, and wanted to continue playing his helpful part in order to ingratiate himself with this group of Clan kids, "genin under Baki, son of the Fourth Kazekage, teammates with his siblings Temari and Kankuro. Missions include 1 D-Rank, 8 C-Ranks, and 1 B-Rank, and has apparently returned from every mission without a single scratch."

"That is very impressive," came the lazy drawl of Shikamaru, though he was still sending occasional glances to Naruto, and trying to reconcile what they just heard and what he himself had noticed in the few times they encountered one another over the last few months.

"Pff," scoffed Kiba, dismissing the information as not important, and trying to re-establish himself as the top dog of the group, though many of them were sending concealed looks at the quiet blonde among them, wondering if all that information was true.

"There are ninja here from all over the nearby countries," continued Kabuto into the growing silence, wanting to bring the conversation back to where he wanted it, "besides Konoha and Suna, there are teams from Rain, Grass, Waterfall, and even the new village of Sound ...though they only sent one team and are pretty much unknown."

They were interrupted by the quick movement of three people with musical notes on their headbands arriving very quickly, the one with a metal contraption on his arm seeming to attack Kabuto, who leapt away just avoiding the swing before keeling over and throwing up all over the floor. Only a few of the rookie genin were even able to react to the movement, Sasuke and Naruto, the closest and most obvious, as they both were preparing to counter if the attack continued and wondering why that missed swing still seemed to do damage. But the whole thing was interrupted again by a loud cloud of smoke erupting at the front of the room, and the arrival of two dozen chunin and the loud yelling of a Konoha ninja in a bandana who stood front and center.

"There will be no fighting unless authorized by the instructors," came the loud voice that reached every area of the room, and instantly brought all movement to a stop and everyone's attention split either forward or towards the disturbance the newcomer was glaring at. "Don't make me kick you out of the exams before we even start."

The new arrival was someone Naruto instantly recognized, as Ibiki Morino, having just worked with him regarding his infiltration and apprehension of three of Konoha's Civilian Council Members, and knew he wasn't someone to mess with or cross. All around him, nervous genin were looking to the front as the tall, bandana wearing ninja captured everyone's attention and started laying down the rules for the first stage of the exams. He told everyone to slowly come forward and get their assigned number, and to go quickly and quietly to their corresponding seat in the large room behind him for the first stage to begin, the written test.

"Oh come on," grumbled Naruto, the moment he heard the first stage was going to be a written test, getting several of his fellow rookie genin around him to snicker, and be reminded of the type of student he was at the Academy.

Due to those around him though laughing at his misfortune, they all missed it as he seemingly scratched the back of his head to draw any extra eyes on him away from his other hand that dropped a small smoke pellet onto the ground. He had only taken a few more steps forward, when some unfortunate genin stepped on said pellet causing a billowing cloud of smoke to erupt and catch everyone's attention long enough for him to quickly create a handful of clones that perfectly resembled the pencils sitting on every desk, and swapping them at random with a few of those nearby. The smoke quickly cleared, and the genin behind him were given glares and warnings not to be so careless and quickly find their assigned seats as the test was getting ready to begin.

Once it did start, Ibiki went over the rules, stating there were 10 questions and that everyone started with 10 points, and lost 2 points if they were caught cheating until being caught 5 times and being removed. It was also described as a team test, and every member of a team needed to pass to move forward and incorrect answers cost 1 point each as well. Naruto was very glad that he added some clones disguised as pencils, as maybe between them all he would be able to answer all the questions, though he was by no means the same idiot he was months ago and may be just fine.

When he flipped over the test put in front of him, he had to do a double take, as many of the questions seemed ridiculously hard, and even if he maybe could have answered half of them, he didn't think there were many other genin that could even do that much. He was surprised though to see maybe a dozen or so of the almost 200 people instantly starting to answer their test questions, and was happy one of them happened to be using his clone pencil and concentrated on it. He was able to understand that pencil's movements and what it "saw" to help him answer the questions on his own paper, and was quickly filling all the questions out, not worried in the slightest about being caught.

It wasn't too long until he was finished filling out the nine questions to his satisfaction, and took the time to really look around, and quickly discovered that the goal of this exercise was to cheat as he witnessed several good and bad attempts from those around him. He also started noticing the chunin proctors that walked around penalizing those they caught, and eventually pulling some genin and their furious teammates out of their chairs after they were disqualified. Neither Sasuke nor Sakura looked in any way troubled, so he broadened his search to the other rookie teams, Team Guy, the Sand siblings, Kabuto, and a few others who caught his eye getting a front row seat on their information gathering tactics as he waited for the end of this section of the test.

"Alright, time's up," called out Ibiki after about 50 minutes, and Naruto realized that there were still just over half the original 200 genin still in the room, including all his friends and those he had been expectantly watching, "now for the tenth question."

"For this question," continued Ibiki, easily holding the attention of every genin present, "there are a few special rules ...first ...you must choose whether you are going to take it?"

"What do you mean choose?" asked Temari from the Sand team, "what happens if we choose not to?"

"If you choose not to take it, your points will be reduced to zero and you fail," answered Ibiki with a growing smile that looked anything but friendly.

"Of course we'll take it then," came the shout from an unknown genin in the back of the room.

"If you choose to take the tenth question and answer incorrectly," responded Ibiki, pausing for dramatic effect, "then you will be banned from ever taking the chunin exams again."

"You can't do that!" came several shouts, as the noise level increased significantly in the large room.

"People here have taken this exam many times," complained another, that sounded suspiciously like Kiba.

"My test ...my rules," came the almost growling voice of Ibiki that instantly quieted the test takers. "If you want other chances to retake the test, quit now and try during the next village's chunin exam ...but this is my exam. If you want to quit ...raise your hands and you will be removed before the tenth question."

The room was practically buzzing in anticipation after Ibiki's threat, and several genin were nervously looking around at their teammates and others to see what was going to happen. Then, the person who had used Naruto's cloned pencil and answered every question perfectly, became the first to raise his hand and was quickly escorted out of the room with his two complaining teammates starting a rush of others to do the same. Another almost twenty teams ended up leaving, bringing the remaining total to just under seventy people remaining when Naruto noticed a nearby Hinata practically shaking and about to raise her hand, and knew he needed to intervene.

"That's bullshit," he stood up and shouted, bringing much of the remaining people to look at him in shock, "it doesn't matter if I fail and never become a chunin ...I'll still become Hokage one day ...nothing will stop me, dattebayo."

While his remarks were completely in character to what most knew or remembered about him from the Academy, Naruto's purpose was successful when he saw Hinata stiffen and straighten in her chair, and several other previously nervous looking genin were now all strengthening their own resolve as well. The chunin proctors and Ibiki in particular all gave him a harsh glare inteneting to scare him, but in fact was completely ignored, having dealt with similar looks most of his life, and knew now how much he didn't care about others' opinions of him. He smirked right back at all of them, daring them to intimidate him anymore and watched as the remaining 66 genin all seemed to settle down considerably after his declaration.

"No more are going to quit?" asked Ibiki once more with a glare at the remaining ninja, but knew with the blonde's words that he was not going to be able to turn any more away and sighed, "very well ...you all pass."

"What?!" erupted from all over the room.

"What do you mean we pass? What about the tenth question?" came the shout from Sakura, a thought many of them wanted to voice.

"You could say that your choice to continue was the tenth question," responded Ibiki with a smirk.

"Then what was the point of the nine questions?" asked a visibly irritated Temari of the Sand.

"To test your information gathering skills, to put pressure on your entire team, and test your resolve in the face of overwhelming odds and entering unknown situations," responded Ibiki, "all traits we look for in a chunin leader, because sometime information is more important than our lives," he finished and took off the bandana that covered his horrifically scarred head, making many in the room blanch at what must have been an insanely difficult thing to live through, and Naruto's respect for the Head of their Torture & Interogation department to rise considerably.

As the other genin were still processing passing the first part of the exams, or stealing glances at the horrific scars that littered Ibiki's bald head, fast movement at the side of the room broke through a window as a large purple banner was pinned to the back wall with a pair of kunai. Before anyone could really react, another familiar face for Naruto was standing seemingly half naked in front of the room and the purple banner that read "the single and sexy, Anko Miturashi" causing Ibiki to groan in exasperation, as several male genin were obviously drooling. Anko, wore her customary open trench coat with a fishnet see-through shirt and a strip of fabric that could barely be called a skirt, hiding very little of her impressive body.

"Sixty-six genin left?" she asked as she looked at Ibiki's frowning face with a careless shrug, "you're getting soft Ibiki ...but don't worry ...I'll easily cut that number in half by the time I'm done with them."

Chapter 16: Chunin Exams II

Anko had all those genin who passed the first stage, follow her to Training Ground 44, also known as the Forest of Death, an immense fenced off training ground that covered 20 km across it in every direction. She described the second stage as a survival exercise that would have a five day time limit for each team to reach the central tower, roughly 10 km from every gate entrance. Each team would be given an Earth or Heaven scroll, and were tasked with presenting both scrolls at the central tower before the time expired to pass onto the third and final stage of the exam.

Many complained about the lack of time to prepare, and were simply laughed at by the purple haired tokubetsu jonin, who had absolutely no sympathy for anyone who didn't come to these exams fully prepared for any eventuality. She passed out release forms as well, for everyone competing to fill out to absolve Konoha of any guilt, as there would be several deaths since anything goes once inside the Forest of Death. There was also a weird encounter where Anko threw a kunai at a boasting Kiba cutting his cheek and getting behind him easily, talking about how the arrogant were usually the first to go, before being "handed" back the kunai by the disgustingly large tongue of a creepy looking Grass kunoichi.

After turning in their release forms, Team 7 was given an Earth scroll which Naruto offered to hide among his many storage scrolls, and they made their way to their assigned gate to wait for the exam to begin. Since there were 22 teams and 44 gates into Training Ground 44, there was an empty gate between each team to help spread everyone out, and therefore they had to wait a good twenty minutes for the chunin proctors to ensure that each team was at their starting point at the opening whistle. Once the whistle sounded and the gates sprung open, Team 7 rushed into the Forest of Death to be met with an eerie silence that muffled any outside noise as they entered a thick forest well known for containing some of the deadliest creatures known.

"How do we want to do this?" asked Naruto as they all entered and found a nearby clearing to get a plan in place before rushing off.

"We should go after that Suna team that is off to our left," spoke Sasuke with an excited gleam in his black eyes, "they didn't look like anything special."

"Sounds good," responded Naruto after Sakura nodded along with her crush, before he paused a moment and spawned a good hundred clones to spread out and start searching the area around them and act as a first line of defence, "my clones will keep a perimeter."

Then the group started heading north west towards where they expected the team on the left to be, while also angling a bit towards the center of the area in case they tried to make a run directly for the tower. After a few minutes, Naruto asked to stop for a quick bathroom break, and when he went behind a tree and out of sight from his teammates spawned another couple hundred clones. He added them to the mix in hopes of getting a better idea of what and who was around them in case they needed to go after another team to find the Heaven scroll, and wanted to make sure he had plenty of clones acting as their perimeter.

It took an hour until they picked up the trail of the team from Suna they were after, as the forest was just that large and the Suna team were heading in the opposite direction from them and moving cautiously. Sasuke didn't want to waste any time planning an assault, and when he realized how close they were, went charging in like an idiot leaving his two teammates to scramble in order to catch up to him. Naruto entered moments after Sasuke arrived, and already the area was scorched by the aftereffects of one of his many fire jutsus, and Sasuke was trying to single handedly fight a pair of larger boys in taijutsu while their female teammate was sending occasional kunai to help protect them.

Naruto quickly told Sakura to lay some cover for Sasuke from range, as he snuck around and took out the Suna female by getting the drop on her literally from the branches above her position. With her tied up to the tree, he then engaged the closer of the struggling pair of Suna boys, that Sasuke was pretty effectively wearing down with a relentless physical assault. In seconds, they had the two boys knocked out and quickly found their Earth scroll, before Naruto convinced Sasuke to let him tie all three Suna team members together in a tree and leave a clone to stand watch as killing them wasn't necessary.

With two Earth scrolls now, Naruto suggested Sasuke take care of this one, as he could tell his sometimes volatile teammate was still a little chafed at Naruto interfering in his fight, and didn't want to keep all their eggs in one basket so to speak. As they moved on from their short and successful fight, they started making their way towards the central tower while also continuing a little west in hopes of running into another team that may have the scroll they needed. They hadn't gone too far when Naruto came to a sudden stop on a tree branch causing both of his teammates to give him unusual looks.

"We've got a problem," he spoke quickly after a moment's pause as he reviewed the recent memories he just received from several popped clones, "that creepy Grass kunoichi with the tongue just killed three of my clones and is quickly making her way towards us."

"So," argued Sasuke, who Naruto could tell was still gearing for a fight, "we make some defenses and turn the tables on her ...there's a clearing right over there that would be a good ambush spot."

"I'm not sure we want to fight her," spoke Naruto seriously as he eyed his two teammates, and had to review another set of memories from destroyed clones, "she is taking out my clones way too fast and easily."

"So what," argued Sasuke again, "your clones aren't that tough to destroy."

"They would be for a genin," Naruto pushed back, but could tell from the narrowing of his eyes and the excited gleam in them, that Sasuke had already decided he would be making a stand, and wanted to prove himself against strong fighters and wouldn't be listening to Naruto on this one.

So Naruto nodded and followed his teammates into the nearby clearing, staying back enough that he could spawn another couple hundred clones to hopefully confuse or tire out their pursuer before she reached them. He then helped his teammates create a small bunker and set up a few traps in the area in hopes they would prove helpful, but had to wince as several more memories of dying clones came to him throughout. He regretted his decision to stay and fight another minute later as an insanely powerful wind technique single handedly killed over two dozen of his clones simultaneously, and turned to his teammates in fear.

"She's tearing through my clones like they are nothing," he quickly spoke to Sasuke and Sakura trying to display the urgency he felt, "we don't stand a chance ...we should run."

"Don't be ridiculous, dobe," smeared Sasuke with a glare at his blonde teammate, much too confident in his own abilities to realize that if this kunoichi could hurt Naruto it could hurt him too. "We stay and fight."

"She's too strong, we need to run ...MOVE," responded Naruto at the end in panic as the strongest wind attack he had ever seen was heading right for their clearing and meager defences, scattering his teammates in various directions as it tore through their previous spot and destroyed their bunker like it was tissue paper.

Naruto had jumped to the left, and was quickly separated from his two teammates, but had no time to get back to them as an impossibly large snake the size of a building came crashing through the clearing right at him. He just managed to switch places with a clone at the last moment as the snake's enormous mouth swallowed the clone whole and further destroyed their little clearing and the few traps they had placed like they were nothing. His own Futon: Air Blade simply bounced off the tough snake skin without even making a mark, and Naruto knew he was going to be in an impossibly difficult fight.

He caught a quick glimpse of the Grass kunoichi going after his teammates on the far other side of the clearing, but couldn't do anything as the incredibly large snake quickly changed directions and headed right for him again. This time he switched out with an exploding clone that at least made the snake pause as it exploded inside its mouth, and the original threw a shuriken that he used the shadow clone variety on to turn the one into hundreds. Most of them bounced off the tough skin, though a few lucky shots embedded themselves in the eyes of the creature causing it to screech in obvious pain, and let another round of multiplied projectiles find purchase inside the snake's mouth.

But the snake was by no means done and swung its large tail through the clearing, destroying several dozens clones and crashing into the original Naruto and sending him flying through a nearby tree. Before he had even fully come to a rest on the ground after being thrown through a tree, the snake was again lunging at him with his mouth open, and this time Naruto didn't have the time to switch out. Luckily, he avoided any of the row of sharp teeth as he was swallowed whole, but his brief moment of panic as he was moving down towards the snake's throat was quickly pushed away as he overpowered several wind blades from the inside tearing through the snake's skin and causing it to disappear on a large puff of smoke.

He fell to the ground panting and covered in disgusting fluids and blood, and only the sound of a nearby battle and knowing his teammates still needed his help forced him to instantly jump right back into it. He followed the signs of the devastated forest back into visual range of his terrified teammates who seemed frozen to a large tree as the creepy Grass kunoichi slowly approached them from a nearby tree branch. Quickly spawning several hundred clones, he quickly had them send off a wind enhanced fire attack at the kunoichi to force her back away from his teammates and charged their location with clones all around him, some following him and most charging the unknown enemy.

"RUN!" he shouted as he landed next to his teammates and saw their battered clothes, but knew Sakura was already injured too badly to do much and instead had several clones grab her and take off, as he and Sasuke followed.

They only had a brief few seconds of scrambled running when they could feel a large wind attack at their back that tore through a large majority of Naruto's remaining clones, and then another heartbeat until the same Grass kunoichi appeared in front of them seemingly emerging from a tree trunk. Naruto had a team of explosive clones leap at the Grass kunoichi as he steered his teammates down closer to the ground just as they detonated the top half of the tree, but didn't get far until the same kunoichi appeared in front of them again. A Futon: Air Blade was quickly sent at the kunoichi, who impossibly bended unnaturally out of the way of the sharp attack letting it pass her harmlessly.

"Kukukuku," came the slow creepy laugh from the Grass kunoichi as she stared at the three of them in fascination, "pretty impressive for a genin, Naruto-kun."

"How do you know my name?" asked Naruto, using the slight pause to catch his breath and start building up his chakra, who are you?"

"I know more about you than your teammates do ...Demon Child," came the hissed response as the creepy kunoichi used her impossibly long tongue to grotesquely lick her lips, and Naruto paled at her words, "and why wouldn't I ...I was once the strongest ninja of Konoha."

"Funny," joked Naruto, using humor to deflect the conversation away from his own secret, "you don't look like the Yondaime."

The killing intent of the Grass kunoichi grew quickly to insane levels that far outpaced anything the three genin had ever experienced, and caused them all to lock up a bit in fear. Luckily, Sasuke was able to stop it after a moment with a kunai stab to his leg, and Naruto was able to shake it off due to an unusual burning feeling in his gut he couldn't identify, nor did he have the time to. Once he did shake the paralysis off, he continued feeding his chakra and when the kunoichi looked briefly at Sasuke trying to get Sakura's attention, he unleashed it in a ridiculously large spawning of shadow clones that he quickly used to move him and his team away from their enemy.

"More shadow clones," growled the Grass kunoichi in a very masculine way, as she narrowed her eyes at the large amount of blonde ninjas all around her location, "I know how to get rid of all of you."

"Oh yeah, "taunted the nearest one with a smirk, "how about if we all go ...BOOM!"

The explosion that destroyed the large tree was immense, as several hundred shadow clones detonated in sync, causing a mushroom cloud to form high above their part of the forest, and had to be visible for miles in every direction. To the fleeing Team 7, the heat was extraordinary, but by no means did they stop moving away from their previous location. They had only gone a little bit before another tree near them was torn to shreds by a strong wind technique that forced them in another direction, directly into the path of the now grotesque looking Grass kunoichi.

Her skin was burnt and hanging off her in a way that couldn't be natural, as she looked like a burnt husk of a waxy figurine, but the amount of chakra she was bleeding off her in her anger was not easily dismissed. They were all frozen as she blocked their path, and opened her mouth impossibly wide and shed the skin she was wearing like a cloak, emerging from it tall, pale, and decidedly male and snake like. What were now malevolent yellow eyes glared hard at the three genin, with a level of hatred and anger that could not be ignored.

"Kukukuku," came the creepy chuckling voice, "impressive indeed."

"Who the fuck are you?" came the snapped question from Naruto, wondering how this person was still alive after literally being blown up and shedding their female skin to become who was clearly a much older male with an insane amount of chakra and killing intent.

"I am the Snake Sannin," came the purring voice of the creepy pale ninja, "...Orochimaru."

"Fuck," groaned Naruto quietly, but was easily heard, causing said Orochimaru to smile an even creepier smile than when he was posing as the Grass kunoichi, "aren't you a little old for the chunin exams?"

"The exams are merely an opportunity for me that I couldn't pass up," replied the smiling Orochimaru, with a look towards Sasuke that wasn't missed by any of them.

"So the pedophilia rumors are true?" asked Naruto, hoping to upset and throw the insanely powerful older ninja off his game, or stall in hopes some miracle would come and save them, but wasn't really prepared for the spike in killing intent, or the insanely fast attack that he had no warning about or chance to avoid.

Orochimaru moved so quickly, even Sasuke had a hard time seeing it with his sharingan, as one second he was creepily smiling at them, and the next his hand was extended as a devastating hit to Naruto's stomach had sent him flying away through several trees. There was no way Naruto survived that, and Sasuke was frozen for a brief moment as the monster now in their midst easily and negligently backhanded Sakura in another direction, before he even recognized what was happening. He threw a punch at the older ninja that he easily bended around at an impossible angle before he was set upon by a few taijutsu strikes that for some reason he was actually able to see happening, though his body couldn't react as quickly as his eyes.

Three powerful hits had him knocked to the ground with ease, and as he looked up at the pale creep he could see his disappointment as he glared down at his beaten form, even though his attack was greater than any he had faced before. It still wasn't nearly as hard as he had struck Naruto, and he realized that this monster was holding back and toying with him, but for what purpose he had no idea as he watched him casually approach him. Before he could even get back up to fight, the pale ninja's neck seemed to extend impossibly as he felt a sharp pain between his shoulder and neck as the creep bit down on him, causing pain unlike he had ever felt before, for a few seconds before darkness overtook him and he knew no more.

Sakura came to with a pounding headache and pain in her jaw unlike anything she had ever felt before, and it took a few minutes to work past that and remember where she was and what she was doing. The moment her memories came back to her however, brought with it absolute fear at having just faced Orochimaru, and not knowing if either of her teammates even survived or where they were. It took a few more minutes until she was able to stand and get her caked and muddy hair out of her face enough to see where she landed, and another moment to settle her spinning head and regain her balance.

Thankfully, she was able to spot maybe a half dozen clones of Naruto keeping an eye on her and the clearing they were in, but they looked frantic and not nearly as organized as they usually were, and hoped everything was okay with her blonde haired teammate. One of them pointed to the other end of the clearing where two clones were standing over another downed form, this one with black hair and looking like he too took an immense beating. She made her way over to Sasuke as quickly as her wobbly legs would take her, and asked the clones what was wrong with her crush.

"Orochimaru bit him on the shoulder ...it definitely doesn't look good ...some kind of Fuinjutsu we've never seen before," answered the nearest clone as she looked down at Sasuke, and could see the heavy amount of blood both wet and dried blood around some inky black marking on his shoulder and his feverish looking complexion and unnaturally heavy breathing.

"We need to get somewhere we can all hold up and rest," she spoke to the two clones, "do you know where Naruto is?"

"Boss is that way," spoke the other clone with a tight voice, that she instantly realized was full of worry, but was grateful nonetheless, as if his clones were still around, he should at least still be alive, "a team of clones is bringing him here, but we are getting low on numbers."

"How many clones are left?" she asked, wondering how low they considered low.

"Sixteen," came the tight reply, "that sick fuck took a bunch of us out after he dropped the three of you ...we were all that managed to escape his notice."

"And half of you are here?" asked Sakura for clarification as she counted eight total since waking up, and got a nod, "can you help me find a place we can hide and recover?"

"We found one," he answered, "but it's a little ways away ...we wanted to put some distance between us and this area, others are going to start looking for what went on here, and we need to be gone."

"Lead the way," stated Sakura, still trying to figure out what they should be doing and how hurt her teammates were, and asked the clones to bring Sasuke and Naruto with them as they needed to try and recover, and hopefully get the boys back awake if they wanted to ever get out of this forest alive.

Chapter 17: Chunin Exams III

Drip ...drip ...drip.

The steady drip of water was all Naruto could hear for several moments after he came to, though he appeared to be in some kind of underground tunnel or sewer once he finally got his bearings. There was at least a half foot of standing water, and he was thankful he didn't drown, nor did the water smell too much like the sewers of Konoha, which made him wonder where exactly he was. The only things around him were a pair of pipes that ran through the tunnel, one large one that was occasionally leaking a corrosive thick red substance, and a smaller one that had a soft blue glow that felt very comforting and familiar.

In one direction, there was just rough light to make out that the tunnel continued for some ways, and with nothing else to do but find out where he was and how to get out, he followed the tunnel towards the light. He seemed to be walking for some time as the tunnels turned, and sometimes even forked, but he always seemed to be getting closer to the growing light at the end of the tunnel, and hoped he wasn't "walking into the light" that signified he died. The silence was only broken by the sound of water sloshing around, and occasional distant bangs of something being struck hard against metal, and wondered again what he was walking towards.

With the increased noise of more water, and getting continuously closer to the banging noise, Naruto finally reached an area where the dark tunnel ended in an impossibly large cavernous room that was only illuminated by the glowing dark red light from the larger pipes, which seemed to have grown in size and number as he approached this large space. The room was so large and covered mostly in shadows, but there was an unmistakable metal bar cage the size of the Hokage Tower that cut off one whole side of the cavernous room with nothing but a small piece of paper with the kanji for "seal" on it.

"My jailor finally decides to visit," came the growling voice, so filled with menace that it actually caused Naruto to fault in his steps, as he never felt such hatred and malevolence, even though he had lived the life of the village pariah.

"Who's there?" he asked in a bit of a trembling voice, not knowing what the hell was going on, or even where the hell he was., but easily feeling the hatred in the voice directed at him.

A large banging noise and movement behind those impossibly large metal bars, had Naruto staring wide eyed at the equally impossibly large fox as it tried to swipe one of it's house size paws at the blonde, who even despite the bars between them, fell back in shock. The creature was beyond enormous, with dark orangish red fur of a similar color to the lighting in these underground sewers, with long floppy ears, and malevolent burning red eyes that glared in hatred at the young blonde ninja. Naruto could only stare in shock as his brain tried to understand what he was looking at, and almost couldn't believe that he was facing the bijuu that was supposedly sealed inside of him.

"Hahahaha," came the sadistic and dark laugh of the impossibly large creature as it glared at the fallen blonde, "that's right ninjen ...stay on the ground where you belong."

"K-k-kyuubi?" came the stuttered question from Naruto, as he said the only thing he possibly could in the face of such a malevolent creature, wondering how the hell he was talking to and seeing the Kyuubi in person, and wondered if he truly did just die, and this was the creature getting released from his seal.

"Grrrr," came the low animalistic growl of the Kyuubi, as he seemed to settle down lower towards the ground, but kept his angry red eyes fixed squarely on the young ninja before him.

"Oh shit ...I'm dead," groaned Naruto, thinking he had died and was witnessing the Kyuubi being set free from his seal, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"I wish," growled the Kyuubi, still glaring heatedly at the blonde, who was now looking at him with even larger wide eyes, trying to process everything he was seeing and better understand.

"Where are we?" came Naruto's question, as he had an idea, but couldn't believe that the seal could work like that, where he could visit the imprisoned Kyuubi like this.

"You already know where we are," came the continued growling voice, "you are just too stupid to accept it."

"I'm not stupid you overgrown bunny," came the replied shout from Naruto, that had the large fox take another attempt at swinging his house size paw at the young ninja, but only making a banging sound against the bars of his imprisoned cage.

"DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO ME LIKE THAT," screamed the large chakra monster, that rattled the enormous cavernous room, shaking up the water on the ground everywhere as a surge of the malevolent glowing red substance filled the nearby pipes and exploded down them and out of the room, causing Naruto's whole body to shudder in a bit of phantom pain.

"THEN DON'T CALL ME STUPID," screamed Naruto right back, ignoring the growing anger of the fox, or the phantom pain he was feeling in his body as it seemingly burned a bit from the inside.

"Hmm," huffed the fox, who stared at the young blonde in front of him with a touch of respect, that he would still stand up to him, the greatest of the bijuu, and decided to give the kid a little break, as he was just too tired to argue constantly after being trapped inside this seal for years with no company or anything to do. "Then stop asking questions you already know the answer to."

"Maybe I wanted to confirm my thoughts were right?" came the biting response of Naruto, still a bit worked up despite the fox seeming to have settled down a bit, and feeling aggressive for some reason until the glowing of the red pipes lessened over the next minute and with it his irrational anger.

During that time, Naruto really looked around the cavernous room, the fox's prison, the multitude of thick pipes that ran off in every direction, most of them carrying the red substance, but just as many only smaller ones carrying the familiar blue. He had a pretty good guess as to what that was, but didn't want to ask the fox and be called stupid again, so instead he started looking at the kanji seal on the bars. The fox continued to observe the young blonde ninja as he looked around, and even perked up a bit when he started looking more closely at the seal, wondering what he had in mind and what he was thinking about.

"This seal looks too simple to contain you," came his almost mumbled question, still going over things in his mind, and not completely directing that question to the room's only other occupant.

"It is," came the growled response, though it lacked a lot of the total hatred from before, "it's just your mind's representation of the seal, if you knew more about Fuinjutsu, it would start looking more and more complicated and like the real version on your stomach when its expanded."

"I am trying to learn more about Fuinjutsu, but it's not been a priority lately," responded Naruto matter of factly, seeing no reason to continue antagonizing the large Fox Demon, "and something tells me ...this one is a lot more complex than most."

"So you aren't completely ignorant," came the huffed response from Kyuubi, as it continued watching Naruto study the seal.

"Hey ...I'm trying," came Naruto's somewhat exasperated reply, causing the fox to do something the blonde would not have thought possible, it started to chuckle.

"That is true," came the fox after a few moments, and the chuckles died down, "a few months of actual hard work has done you well."

"Umm ...thanks," came the disbelieving reply before he remembered what happened just before he came here, "but it wasn't enough to survive against Orochimaru."

"Give it time," spoke the Kyuubi flatly, as he seemed to be getting bored with Naruto's continued focus on the seal, and had laid down his head on his paws, only half watching now and seemingly trying to go back to sleep.

"Can you help me?" came the question from Naruto several moments later, after studying the seal and realizing he didn't know enough to mess with it, but wanting to get back to his real body and teammates to check and see if any of them survived the encounter with Konoha's most notorious missing nin.

"And why should I?" came the somewhat expected response from Kyuubi.

"Aren't you tied to me now?" continued Naruto, "don't you want a strong jinkurichi?"

"Hmm," hummed the fox, who raised his head to look directly at the unflinching blonde, and wondering what it was about him that was so different from his previous two hosts other than his gender, "...and, what's in it for me?"

"What do you want?" came the nervous question from Naruto, knowing how important the next few seconds could be to his continued growth and the relationship he would share with his imprisoned bijuu.

"Ultimately ...my freedom," came the huffed response from the fox, "...but I'd settle for a change in scenery ...and maybe some access?"

"What kind of access?" asked Naruto slowly, "and how would I even go about changing the scenery?"

"We are in your mindscape," responded Kyuubi, "you control the scenery …it says a lot about the type of life you've lived to imagine a sewer as your mind's closest representation ...and access to your senses would be enough for me."

"Ignoring the dig at my mind's expense," replied Naruto with a deadpan look at the grinning fox, "how would you access my senses, and what would that mean for me?"

"I would be able to see, hear, smell, and sense chakra through you," replied the fox to his captivated audience, happy to see the blonde was actually listening to him and not dismissing him out of hand. "Likewise, you would have a little more of my youkai, or bijuu chakra, running through you than you do now ...maybe a 2% increase, and your senses would all be heightened considerably, but otherwise nothing would really change except that we could communicate more easily."

"And how do I know you are being truthful with me now?" asked Naruto somewhat suspiciously, as it sounded almost too good to be true.

"I give you my word," spoke the Kyuubi slowly and deliberately, "I am fucking bored of just sitting here staring at this prison cell."

"I guess I can understand that," responded Naruto, while still staring intently at the fox trying to make sure he couldn't sense any deception, "okay ...so how do we get you access to my senses?"

"You tear a small corner of the seal paper off ...no more than a fingernail size piece," answered the Kyuubi with a matching intense gaze at Naruto, excited for the chance to have some interaction with the world around him, and glad the kid was even considering it, as his mother and aunt never did.

Naruto thought about it for a minute, until the Kyuubi sweetened the pot by stating that the small increase of his youkai would also allow Naruto to continue to grow at even faster levels as his recovery rate would skyrocket even more. Plus with enhanced senses and a reliable chakra sensing skill, he would be a much better ninja, and have the skills to be a first rate tracker to add to his other abilities. Then Naruto tore the small corner off the seal paper, and had to flinch as his body was flooded with an increased amount of the fox's chakra, causing the red pipes in the tunnels to expand a bit and glow even brighter than before.

The change wasn't as noticeable inside his mindscape, but after a few tries to get out, Naruto found himself waking up inside a small earth shaped room with Sasuke next to him. His teammate looked to be in pretty bad shape, as his outfit was mared with tears and stains of blood and dirt, and was sweating something fierce while seemingly involved in a nightmare his thrashing around was so bad. The pain in his own abdomen was still pretty intense from where Orochimaru connected his powerful hit, but he could also feel the concentration of what he now knew to be Kyuubi's chakra or youkai fixing the damage.

His eyesight was also visibly better than he could ever remember, and after the first breath, made sure not to use his enhanced sense of smell inside the small cave like room with all the blood and sweat smells that were overwhelmingly everywhere. He could also hear and feel movement just outside of the little cave, that he was instantly able to determine was Sakura and almost sagged in relief that they were both still alive. It was quite overwhelming at first, all the new sights, sounds, smells, and feel of chakra that he simply laid on the hard earth for a while until he could make better sense of it all and his stomach was feeling back to normal.

It was as he was just starting to sit up though, when he felt the three approaching chakra signatures, as it was such a new experience, it took him another few moments until he got a better handle on it and understood what it meant. Then it was a matter of stopping his spinning head after trying to jump up and charge outside to help Sakura, which took another several moments until he felt even remotely like himself again. Before he left their little cave, he created a pair of clones making it tight fitting, but wanted them in case they needed to move Sasuke somewhere during the upcoming battle he could already start to hear the beginning of.

He was in too much of a rush to really notice that both of his new clones had purple glowing eyes, and if he compared would have found they had slightly thicker whiskers than he was used to as well. But he never noticed either of those small details in his rush to get outside and help his female teammate, coming to find an overly trapped area with a short haired Sakura struggling to stay upright. The three chakra signatures he felt, matched perfectly to the three Sound Ninjas that stood at the other end of the clearing taunting and sending potshots at Sakura from a distance, seemingly realizing that they didn't want to deal with traps just yet and had almost completely worn her down.

"Come on you fucking tree hugger," came the angry voice of one of the boys on the team, as he seemingly shot almost neverending wind attacks out of holes in his palms at Sakura's position forcing her to defend and avoid the sprung traps that were also thrown towards her, "tell us where Sasuke Uchiha is, so we can kill him for Orochimaru."

"You work for that pedophile?" came the snarky question from Naruto, getting a relieved sag of Sakura's shoulders as one of her teammates finally joined her to help stave off these Sound assholes, "must be fun?"

"Fuck you!" shouted the only female member of the team, a relatively attractive dark haired girl who was seemingly holding bells and glaring hard at the blonde.

"Is that an offer?" snarked Naruto back, getting said girl to growl in anger and her two teammates to pause a moment to laugh at her misfortune, which was all the time Naruto needed to spawn easily a hundred plus shadow clones that were soon bombarding the trio from Sound with relentless attacks that kept them purely on the defensive.

Within a minute, the girl was taken down and secured in ropes, and the two remaining boys were throwing out even stronger attacks as they were in danger of being overrun by Naruto clones and getting desperate. Another minute had the two boys being tied up just as Naruto felt another team arriving, though this one he recognized once he saw the green spandex of their loudest member, and his friend. Lee landed right near Sakura and offered her help, and asked for another date, while his teammates landed in higher up branches that dotted the clearing that had been made from all the various wind attacks.

"Hi Lee," greeted Naruto, always finding the boy with the bowl cut and bushy eyebrows a genuinely nice person even if he was a pain in the ass to fight against or sometimes even talk to.

"Naruto," greeted Lee exuberantly, "you are so lucky to have such a beautiful flower as your teammate."

"I could say the same to you Lee," replied Naruto with a glance and a wink to a suddenly blushing Tenten as her and Neji watched from a little distance away, ignoring Sakura's spluttering as Lee tried talking to her.

"Is this some kind of Konoha party?" came the unmistakable lazy drawl of Shikamaru, as he and his two teammates arrived from a different direction, and looked carefully over the ruined clearing and the now three tied up and knocked out Sound ninja.

Unfortunately, before anyone could answer, there was an explosion of chakra from the small cave under the tree Sasuke was still in, causing even Naruto's two clones he left behind to disperse, giving the blonde a weird memory of Sasuke with black lines all over his skin. He was able to see that for himself a moment later as Sasuke burst out of the cave, covered in inky black line work that pulsed with a malevolent feeling chakra that raised the hairs on everyone presents' arms. Sakura, ignoring the bad feelings, immediately rushed Sasuke, glad he was still alive but was casually pushed aside after he saw the bruising and cuts she had all over her body and his face took on an even more menacing tone.

"Who hurt you Sakura?" he practically growled, causing Naruto and the other Konoha teams to realize that this wasn't the same Sasuke they were all used to hearing, as the dark haired boy glared along the clearing until they rested on the now tied up and unconscious sound ninja, "was it this trash?"

Before any of the others could react, Naruto was directly in front of Sasuke, and blocking his singular focus on his perceived enemy, but Sasuke was having none of it and tried to simply push Naruto aside. But Naruto didn't budge, forcing Sasuke to growl at him like an animal as he stared at his blonde teammate that was currently in his way from delivering justice. Naruto simply held his hand to Sasuke's chest and told him to calm the fuck down, as he wasn't acting himself, and the inky black lines littering his skin was the most likely cause.

"What did Orochimaru do to you after he took me out?" asked Naruto quietly, but all the present ninja could still hear it clearly, and all of them tensed in seriousness, as all of Konoha knew that name and it wasn't one spoken of pleasantly.

"He bit him on the shoulder," interjected Sakura, causing Shikamaru to curse and Ino to start crying, while the members of Team Guy looked on in various degrees of shock.

"He gave me power," roared Sasuke, as he attempted to blast through Naruto and get to the sound ninja he saw as the most likely people he could practice his new power on, "now let me at them."

"At what cost, teme?" came the question from Naruto, as he refused to be pushed aside and held his ground, glaring back at Sasuke as his teammate's anger only increased with every passing second.

"Who cares," replied Sasuke, giving up on simply getting passed Naruto, and threw a strong punch that could have really hurt the blonde had he not sensed it coming and countered brutally, knocking the arm aside and dropping a very heavy elbow onto the exact spot on his shoulder that the Snake Sannin bit.

"Ahhh," screamed Sasuke in obvious pain at the still tender spot, before he lost all control and started swinging and kicking wildly in an attempt to lay out Naruto, who was now his apparent enemy.

"Sasuke, stop!" yelled Sakura to no avail, as Sasuke continued sending out kicks and punches that would have crippled the blond a couple months ago, but were all being deflected and dodged as Naruto tried to wear his teammate out and get him to see reason.

A frustrated Sasuke just kept getting more violent in his attacks, and everyone could see the toll it was taking on Naruto to just defend against them all without fighting back, not wanting to hurt his teammate. Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru started yelling along with Sakura to get him to stop, but his growing frustration just fueled his growing anger as he got faster and faster until Naruto couldn't dodge or avoid all the hits. Instead, he let himself take a hit on his leg, to deliver a paralysis seal on his dark-haired teammate's chest, instantly dropping him to the ground as Naruto winced at the pain and all those around them were staring in shock at the fast and brutal fight between teammates.

"Naruto, are you okay?" came the question from Lee, the closest of the others, as he was only seconds away from interfering in the teammate battle while his eyes continued to glare at Sasuke for his un-youthfulness.

"Yeah Lee, I'll be okay," answered Naruto with a small grin at his friend, hiding the wince from the hit on his leg that was luckily being healed as he spoke, and reminded him about his own new circumstances with Kyuubi that he still needed to figure out and deal with.

"Lee," spoke Neji with a glare at the other two Konoha rookie teams, "we've wasted enough time ...let's go."

"Naruto?" asked Lee again, and received a nod from the blonde telling him to go with his team, and that he would take care of Sasuke before he leapt into the trees after a departing Neji and a waving Tenten as they took off towards the central tower.

"Why the fuck was Orochimaru here?" asked Shikamaru curiously, as he looked at a very tense looking Naruto, a paralyzed Sasuke, and a frantic Sakura for answers.

"He said something about giving Sasuke a gift," started Sakura, "before he knocked me out. I only found Sasuke with a bite mark on his shoulder after I came too, and Naruto had already been taken out."

"That bite mark has some kind of Fuinjutsu element to it, but not one I know anything about," replied Naruto with a worried look to his paralysed teammate, as Team 10 looked on in varying stages of worry over their friends' predicament.

"Do you guys need help to get him to the tower?" asked Choji, always trying to be friendly and helpful.

"No ...we should be okay ...but thanks," replied Naruto with a grin towards the larger boy, "hopefully those Sound idiots have a Heaven scroll and we can be done with this test ...do you guys have any need for an Earth scroll? Pretty sure Sasuke still has our duplicate one."

"You have two Earth scrolls?" asked Ino with wide eyes, wondering how many other teams we've already encountered, and if they could somehow get their hands on it.

Naruto quickly rifled through Sasuke's inner pocket, pulling out their duplicate Earth scroll and tossing it to a wide eyed Ino, who was still looking confusedly between the three members of Team 7 and couldn't understand all they had already been put through. Ino tried to give the scroll back, but Naruto pulled out his own Earth scroll to show that they really didn't need it, and they should take it as a thank you for coming and checking on them. He then went to the tied up Sound trio, and liberated them of all their supplies, including a Heaven Scroll that he pocketed along with their original Earth scroll, eager to get this part of the test done, and talk to Kakashi and Jiji about their run in with Orochimaru.

Team 10 said their goodbyes, and Naruto waited a minute to check over Sasuke, whose skin at least seemed back to normal, before freeing him from the paralysis seal and watching as he came to. He and Sakura didn't speak as he sat up and looked around them, both wondering what was going through their final teammate's head and if he would even remember what had happened over the last day. Somewhat thankfully, Sasuke did remember everything, including the powerful feeling of chakra the bite from Orochimaru gave him, and how his teammate stopped him from testing his new powers on the knocked out Sound team.

They were at least able to talk a bit about what Orochimaru said to him, and how Naruto thought the bite was a way of Orochimaru transferring some kind of Fuinjutsu seal onto him that was more advanced than anything he had seen to date. Sasuke thankfully wasn't too upset with Naruto stopping his mini rampage, but was now even more eager to fight the blonde to see where he really stood up to his dobe teammate. For the last month, destroying Naruto's clones had really boosted his confidence in his ability to defeat the blonde, but he was just reminded rather abruptly, that the original was a lot harder to take down, and would be even more so after having to go through his clones first.

With both scrolls now in their possession and night of the second day quickly approaching, they slowly made their way towards the tower, not wanting to race there in case other teams were lying in wait to ambush them as they neared the central tower everyone had to reach. During this time, Naruto was able to really get a feel and use his newest chakra sensing ability to avoid the worst of the ambush locations, telling his team that his clones scouted them out the safest path. His clones were in fact scouting out the area around them, as well as several other teams he had his eyes on, including the two teams they left tied up and unconscious from Sand and Sound respectively.

It was late when they finally reached the entrance to the central tower, but neither of them wanted to spend a night in the forest when the end was so near, so they pushed through to make it well after dark. When they reached the doors, they had to read a small poem about balance, yin and yang, physical and spiritual chakra, and Heaven and Earth. They unrolled their pair of scrolls and had to all jump back as the scrolls summoned someone they all knew well, to welcome them into the tower and the completion of stage 2.

"Iruka-sensei?" came the question from all three former Academy students as their former teacher appeared before them with a large proud smile on his face.

"Welcome Team 7," he greeted them proudly, "come inside ...I'll get you set up in a room until the completion of this stage. You all did really well ...just a few teams have arrived so far."

"Anyone we know?" asked Naruto, wondering if the other rookie teams had arrived yet and glad to catch up with his friend for however brief it may be.

Iruka led them inside the tower, showed them the cafeteria where food would be available to them, and eventually led them to unoccupied rooms they could use until the second stage was officially completed. He mentioned Team 10 arriving shortly before them, and Team 8 even earlier this morning, as well as a Sand team that arrived insanely quickly on the first day. Naruto asked if there was a medic in the house, or if they were allowed to see Kakashi or the Hokage as they encountered someone not part of the exams that they needed to know about.

Iruka asked who, and then paled considerably when Team 7 mentioned running into and having to fight Orochimaru, even showing him Sasuke's new bite mark as proof of their seriousness. Iruka promised he would pass the message on, but wasn't sure if the rules would allow for them to meet with their sensei or village leader until the end of the stage, but hoped they would. He left them at a nice empty room he claimed was nearby the other rookie teams, and left to go find the Hokage, as he knew this was something that needed to be addressed immediately, and couldn't believe what those three must have gone through or why the Snake Sannin had focused his attention on them.

Chapter 18: Chunin Exams IV

Naruto and the rest of Team 7 were awakened early the morning after arriving in the central tower and completing stage 2 of the chunin exams, by a hurried Hokage who needed to see the Fuinjutsu seal on Sasuke. Luckily, his secretary Naru had filled him in last night on everything that happened with Naruto and his team meeting Orochimaru, and what the Snake Sannin seemed to be after. The only part Naru couldn't explain was what happened after the original Naruto was taken out, and the words that were exchanged between the young Uchiha and his former student, and needing to see the seal to determine if it was what he feared.

Naruto was able to get a good look at the unusual seal that Orochimaru gave to Sasuke as it was expanded by the Third Hokage while Kakashi kept Sasuke still and viewed it himself. It was definitely way beyond anything Naruto had learned, although pieces of it were at least understandable. He was pretty concerned after the looks shared by Jiji and Kakashi, and agreed with them as they told Sasuke not to use the foreign chakra as the cost would be too great and risky.

He asked a lot of questions, when following Kakashi's outer sealing of Orochimaru's bite seal, and was surprised his sensei knew so much about Fuinjutsu getting a promise to teach him some of what he knew later. Sasuke wasn't completely happy to have the seal closed off, and grudgingly promised not to use it despite wanting to go all out in any fight he still had, which the Hokage hinted was likely going to be soon. Kakashi congratulated all of his genin, happy that they stuck together and survived their run in with Orochimaru, and yet was also very scared for his cute students as this was sure to cause them problems down the road.

The two left Team 7 with a lot of questions still going on in their minds, but most of it centered around why Orochimarau would have singled out Sasuke for the seal, and none of them boded well. They tried to put it in the back of their minds as they spent the next three days around the tower waiting for the second stage to end, eating in the cafeteria, occasionally catching up with the other rookies, and training in empty rooms when they needed something to do.

Naruto was at least able to spend the three days really hunkering down on Fuinjutsu lessons, using his clones in a large empty room he found to hammer home everything seal related that he had discovered so far. His storage and explosive seals were now top notch, and he could practically do them all in his sleep with no difficulty, and had his clones continue to add to his supplies when not trying new things. He was progressing through the more advanced stuff at a decent pace for anyone else, but for Naruto it still felt like it was taking too long, as the Uzumaki sealing information was still too far out of his reach.

The biggest surprise they discovered during the wait, was that Naruto's eyes had seemingly changed permanently from the clear ocean blue they were before to an almost glowing purple color, something he speculated was due to the fox's chakra or youkai. He was also a little surprised the first time the Kyuubi made a random comment on something he was looking at, having forgotten that the most recent change allowed the fox to communicate with him directly, almost like hearing voices in his head. It was pretty weird at first, and very distracting at the beginning until he started to get more used to having a running commentary on things he was seeing.

The biggest problem with the fox's running commentary was his sarcasm and general dislike of most human things, and having to ignore the extra or added comments on his teammates or other ninja. The benefits though were also quickly apparent, as the fox saw things he didn't, noticed subtleties and nuances that he never learned or paid attention to, and had a lot of knowledge about various ninja disciplines and techniques. The two spent most of those first few days just getting used to the new reality that was their unusual connection, and for the fox seeing new things after so long stuck in the seal was a great boon that he really enjoyed.

It was an unusual experience for Naruto to have someone so close to him all the time, and someone seeing everything he was involved in, and wondered if it would become suffocating or helpful down the road. The fox was a little too caustic and angry at times, and had too much pride that was easily offended, making him want Naruto to lash out at insignificant offenses he saw that naruto just didn't care about. He tried ignoring some of those darker tendencies and ideas the fox put forward, and found himself having to explain a lot of his thought processes to the fox in order for the large demon to understand and not get in the way when he was doing his usual things.

This having to over-explain though came in handy quite quickly, as the fox was able to understand what Naruto was trying to do most of the time, and allowed him to better guide or help the young blonde figure out others ways of accomplishing some of the things he wanted. For Naruto, having to over-explain everything made it so he was really having to work through his process and understand it even more himself so he could "sell it" to the fox without the powerful creature trying to undermine or distract him. With the Fuinjutsu work he was doing, it was extra helpful to his understanding of everything, and the Kyuubi was actually quite interested in the field of study that was primarily used to trap him and his brethren by the ninja of the Elemental Nations.

Over the three days, the two became closer as they communicated more about general and specific things that they were both interested in, and started to see one another as less of an enemy and more as a companion. For both of them, it had been a long time since someone was so involved in their life, and the adjustment wasn't always going to be smooth, but just knowing there was always someone there for them actually did help the two bond further. His teammates were a little surprised at how quiet Naruto had become in the few days since arriving at the tower, or how much the change in his eye color seemed to also carry a weight and intensity to his gaze that wasn't there previously.

Each of the three members of Team 7 though were much quieter than when they started this stage of the exams, as they each had a reality check and significant beat down to work through and hopefully grow from. Sasuke was still struggling with the confrontation he had with Orochimaru, and what the powerful missing nin really wanted with him, knowing it wasn't anything good but interested nonetheless in the man's strength. Sakura was again questioning why she wanted to be a ninja in the first place, as the confrontation with the Snake Sannin was terrifying, and she wondered if she wouldn't be happier living a normal civilian life like her parents.

Finally, all those who reached the tower were called together in the evening of the fifth day for the conclusion of the second stage, and they all met in the large open room to find the Hokage, and several chunin and jonin of the village and those who led the passing genin teams. There were seven teams that passed the second stage making it to the tower, miraculously including the Sound Team Naruto left unconscious and tied up, as well as Kabuto's team that arrived just before the close of the stage. All three of the Konoha rookie teams made it, along with Team Guy and the Sand siblings, giving them 21 genin hopefuls along with their jonin senseis and a few others from the village.

"Welcome," greeted the Third Hokage as he stood at the front of the group of genin, looking over them all with a critical eye, "and congratulations on passing the second stage of the chunin exams."

The excited muttering didn't last long as the elderly leader glared at those speaking until everyone was quiet once again, and Naruto was able to notice the tightness in his Jiji's eyes, and assumed it was from the news of his wayward student causing them trouble. Most of the genin looked excited or relaxed enough, though Naruto expected that would change soon as he expected them to be tested in some other way now that they were all together again. Kakashi gave him his customary eye-smile when they met gazes, and Guy gave him a thumbs up and megawatt smile as the Hokage began talking about the true purpose of the chunin exams for several minutes.

"As the referee for the third stage," interrupted a Konoha jonin after the Hokage finished his explanation of the reasons behind the chunin exams, "let me explain the next steps." He was of medium build and seemingly non-descript with a visible sword strapped to his back and a sickly sounding cough that sounded painful as his only distinguishing characteristics, "I am Hayate Gekko, referee for the next stage … and I have decided that we will need to hold some preliminary fights to see who will continue on to the Main Event."

"Preliminaries?" shouted Kiba the loudest, though he wasn't the only one to complain.

"Yes, the Finals of the chunin exams draw in a lot of dignitaries and powerful people," began the sickly jonin, who had identified himself as Hayate Gekko, "we don't want them to carry on too long, so we will have preliminary matches right now to settle who will fight in the Finals ...from this point forward, you are individual combatants ...so, does anyone need to withdraw before we begin?"

"I do," panted out Kabuto, playing up his fatigue, as his team did just arrive before they all gathered, but Naruto wasn't completely convinced when the Kyuubi whispered to him that the grey haired boy's chakra was completely fine.

"Splendid," replied their jonin referee, "then we have an even 20 participants ...we will have ten randomly selected one-on-one matches to determine the ten genin who will continue to the Finals ...could everyone not fighting please make their way up to the balconies to observe ...the first match will be Sasuke Uchiha of Konoha versus Yoroi Akado of Konoha?"

"Good luck Sasuke-kun," spoke Sakura, as others around them offered their own encouragement to one of their own.

"Hn," came the usual grunt of the Uchiha, though everyone could see that he was eager to fight as he cracked his neck and seemed to be loosening up for his fight.

Sasuke was really eager to fight anybody, and didn't think much of the teammate of Kabuto he was paired against, who had most likely taken these exams multiple times as well and never advanced, proving in his mind he would be an easy fight. The sensei of Kabuto and Yoroi however, had a very creepy look of eagerness on his face, and it reminded Naruto of Orochimaru, and wondered if the Sannin had somehow invaded these preliminaries as well, and promised he would keep an eye on that one. He along with the rest of the genin made their way up to the two balconies, with the Konoha rookies and Team Guy going to one side, while the Sound, Sand, and Kabuto's team went to the other side with their jonin senseis.

The fight started exactly how Naruto thought it would, with Sasuke thinking himself superior and not taking it seriously from the word go, and trying to verbally intimidate his quiet opponent who showed absolutely nothing and surprisingly engaged the Uchiha in close combat taijutsu. It didn't take long for everyone to realize that it wasn't simple taijutsu, as Yoroi used a lot of grappling moves with glowing blue hands that seemed to be wearing Sasuke out too quickly, as his chakra levels plummeted at alarming rates. With his need to not tap into the foreign chakra source from Orochimaru, Sasuke was at a serious disadvantage until he actually started using his brain and moved the fight into medium range where his shuriken and ninja wire tactics turned the tables and eventually won him the fight.

He didn't look too great when it was all over, and everyone could see how gassed and tired he seemed from a lack of chakra, and was thankfully carted to medical with Kakashi watching over him as they continued on to the next preliminary fight. It was between Zaku Abumi from Sound versus Shino Aburame from Konoha, and was a lot less exciting to watch than the previous fight. Zaku was all talk, and had only one technique, the decapitating airwaves he produced through hollow tubes implanted in his arms that came out his hands, and was easily defeated when Shino used his families' kikachu bugs to clog those pathways resulting in the explosive lose of both limbs.

Naruto noticed during the fight though, that Kabuto and his creepy sensei were both gone from the balcony across the way, despite both Yoroi who just fought Sasuke and their other teammate remaining. He wondered what they were up to, as both people had seemingly rubbed him the wrong way, and decided to get some of his wandering clones to investigate. He quickly spawned and then dispelled a clone with the instructions to the few he left in the tower to investigate and see if they could locate and spy on the pair to see what they were up to, but they had returned by the start of the next match.

The third fight was between Kabuto's final teammate, Misumi Tsurugi of Konoha versus Kankuro of Sand, and was pretty brutal to watch for all the Konoha rookies who got their first real taste of over the top violence just for violence sake. Misumi was able to use his chakra on his body in a way that allowed him to soften parts of it to make it bendable, and used that technique to coil around Kankuro in order to force him to surrender. But Kankuro had his own tricks, and wouldn't surrender, causing Misumi to destroy who he thought was the Sand genin, when in fact it was simply his puppet that turned the tables on the konoha genin, wrapping his puppet around Misumi and breaking many bones in his body until he forfeited and Kankuro was declared the winner.

After the medical team took Misumi away with his sensei following along, many of the Konoha rookies were looking much less confident as the realities of these fights started to set in for some of them. The next fight called though, put an end to that seriousness, as it was between former friends and rivals, Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka both of Konoha. It was a complete disaster, as within seconds of starting, both girls devolved into personal verbal attacks that lost them both their cool and turned into a bitch fight with no skill that ended up with a double knockout, and a sad shaking of many heads at their foolishness.

Then Tenten from Team Guy got put against Temari of Sand, in what quickly proved to be a very bad matchup for the Konoha weapon's mistress though nobody could doubt that she was head and shoulders better than the previous two kunoichi from her village. Temari was a Battle Fan user, that created powerful wind attacks that completely neutralized every attack that Tenten could throw at her, and quickly had her worn down where she forfeited. Temari proved she was a bit of a bitch, when she continued taunting the kunoichi of Konoha after the match, and won herself no love from those watching with her stuck up attitude, and luck of the draw.

"Sorry Tenten," spoke Naruto as she returned to their balcony depressed at her showing, "that was a bad matchup for you ...you'll get her next time."

"Thanks Naruto," she replied with a kind smile at his attempt to cheer her up, and then had to role her eyes as Lee added to her praises and promised to help her prepare with the most outlandish of workout requests that only he or Guy would ever do.

Then it was Shikamaru Nara of Konoha versus Kin Tsuchi of Sound in the sixth match of the day, in what proved to be very entertaining for the thinking observer, as Shikamaru prevailed. Primarily due to Kin's desire to taunt and torment her opponent instead of going for the quick victory, she left Shikamaru an opening to slip his shadows past her notice by hiding them under the wires she used to trigger her senbon bells. After she forfeited, her other teammate with the melody arm that had yet to fight was visibly pissed off and itching to get his hands on someone from Konoha.

Unfortunately for him, the next match was between Kiba Inuzuka and Naruto Uzumaki, leaving him to stew in his anger for another round as the two weakest former Academy students were set to fight one another. Kiba was ecstatic with getting Naruto as his opponent, quickly boasting to all that he would have this fight won in seconds, as the dead last from their class would be the easiest opponent of the lot. Naruto ignored his boasting other than a narrowing of his eyes, and got into position quietly, which should have alerted Kiba that he was not the same as before, and simply waited for the start to be given, getting some last minute advice from Kyuubi.

"You better not make me look bad, little ninjen," came the excited growl of the Kyuubi as they were both in agreement, and looking forward to proving their advanced skills and how far Naruto had grown since he last fought Kiba at the Academy.

"Then don't blink," came Naruto's whispered words as a smirk adorned his face as the referee asked them if they were ready.

"I was born ready," sneered Kiba, full of confidence and not taking his Academy Class' dead last seriously at all.

The moment they were told to begin, as Kiba was about to continue his verbal diarrhea, Naruto spawned two dozen clones, most of whom leapt at Kiba's position immediately, forcing him back a step as he had to swallow his words and prepare for a fight. Before they even reached him however, Kiba felt a tug on his ankle before he was pulled straight into the floor up to his neck and left there while a few clones threw shurikens with a net that caught and tangled up his puppy companion, Akamaru. The real Naruto appeared behind the captured Kiba and held a kunai to his neck, forcing him to surrender before the match even really started, and then walked calmly back to his position in the balcony to continue observing the other fighters after the referee declared him the winner.

"Well done, Naruto," came a compliment from Kakashi, who must have arrived just to see the match, while a brooding Sasuke just gave his usual 'hn' in acknowledgement.

"Yosh Naruto ...your youthful flames burn bright," praised Guy with his over the top smile and exuberant thumbs up, while Lee imitated him to the tee.

"Congratulations Naruto," came the almost whispered words of Hinata, as the others were all still looking at him in confusion at both his skill and speed in handling Kiba, but also his lack of boasting and quiet demeanor.

"What the hell, dead last!" came the angry shout of Kiba a moment later after he was freed from the ground and returned to the balcony, glaring at Naruto the whole way, "you cheating asshole!"

"I didn't cheat Inuzuka," responded Naruto with his own glare at the loud and arrogant Clan Heir, "I just used any advantage I could ...you know ...like a ninja."

"But I wasn't ready," he shouted right back, completely missing the point and just complaining for the sake of it.

"Then you should have alerted the referee when he asked if you were ready," Naruto fired right back, not feeling at all accommodating to the loud mouth that had been nothing but a pain in his ass through most of their Academy days. He was always mouthing off just like he used to and Naruto wasn't going to have a long drawn out fight that showed off all his skills to the others he would probably have to face next.

"Fuck you," shouted Kiba, and before anyone could stop him, lunged at Naruto with a powerful swipe of his claws, but Naruto was expecting it and easily dodged his angry swing and landed a strong knee in Kiba's abdomen that had him lock up with no air and fold over his leg like a lawn chair.

"Accept your defeat like a man, Inuzuka," came Naruto's whispered voice as Kiba fell to the ground locked up and gasping for air, while those up in the balcony were looking at Naruto in even more stunned silence, except for the small giggle from his sensei as he turned a page in his favorite orange book at just that moment.

"Kiba?!" shouted Kurenai, as she quickly made her way to her downed genin with a disapproving look towards both him and the blonde who laid him out, getting a nonchalant shrug in response from said blonde before he turned back towards the fighting area as the next names were being called.

Naruto was actually quite excited to see Neji fight, as Lee and Guy sensei both often mentioned how the boy was a prodigy of the highest order, and despite being a total asshat, was incredibly skilled. He was worried a bit for Hinata, as the shy girl practically shrivelled up when she learned just who she would be fighting, and sent her a small smile while wishing her luck. It seemed to help, as afterwards, she was at least walking with more confidence, and set herself up opposite what must have been a fellow member of her Clan that she just never mentioned her relationship with to anybody.

The fight was brutally one sided however, and despite Hinata showing a lot of determination and heart, she was simply outclassed by her fellow clan member and was defeated quite soundly. There were even several shouts from Kurenai and others to stop the fight as it neared the end, and Neji even sent an angry smirk at the sweet lavender haired girl before he closed in for a hit that most likely would have killed her had the referee not stepped in at the last moment. Even Shino was loudly upset at the actions towards his teammate, and had Kiba been conscious and not nursing his own wounds, he too would have taken great offense to Neji's total disregard for his fellow leaf ninja and clan member.

"How could a family member be that cruel to her?" asked a curious Choji, who always liked the shy Hyuuga girl, as she was one of the few to always be polite and kind to others.

"Hinata has often mentioned problems in her clan between the Main and branch families," spoke Shino in response to Choji's question, "and now we can see some of those issues for ourselves."

"Neji has a lot of issues regarding his place in the Hyuuga Clan," came the surprisingly softer voice of Lee as he leaned over to Naruto to share that information, and watched his teammate slowly make his way back up to the balcony with a sour look on his usually stoic face, "and blames fate for most of his troubles."

"What he needs is a serious attitude adjustment," countered Naruto to Lee and Choji, who were the closest to him, "or at least an ass kicking."

"Yosh, Naruto," laughed Lee with a shared smile with his occasional training partner, as he agreed that the Hyuuga prodigy needed to be taken down a peg as it was one of his goals in life after years of put downs and dismissals from Neji.

It got quiet as Neji returned to the balcony, as many of the ninja there liked Hinata as she was always polite to everyone and a genuinely kind soul, but it was broken as they announced that Rock Lee of Konoha was going against Gaara of Sand in a matchup that was sure to be memorable. Naruto knew that Lee was no pushover, but that Gaara kid gave everyone, even his siblings the creeps, and his homicidal tendencies weren't even well hidden as everyone often heard him over the last few days muttering about his need for others' blood to satisfy some unknown mother. Naruto gave his friend a nod and call for luck, and watched as both Guy and Kakashi became very tense and interested in the fight, and knew he should be paying very close attention as well.

The fight was insane, Lee's speed when he removed all his weights was incredible and his taijutsu was top notch when he was going all out, and Naruto realized he got lucky not having to face the taijutsu beast himself. After using several taijutsu moves that would crush most opponents, but just ended up pissing an unstable Gaara off, Lee used a Reverse Lotus move that Gaara just managed to avoid but left Lee too hurt to continue at his overwhelming speed. Due to this slow down, Gaara with his amazing control of sand that he used both offensively and defensively, was able to catch Lee in one of his many sand attacks that would have been fatal had Guy not intervened at just the last minute.

Guy managed to save Lee's life, but his young protege didn't escape unscathed, as his right leg and arm were both crushed under the pressure of Gaara's unbelievable sand coffin. Lee had to forfeit due to Guy's intervention, and had to be immediately rushed to the hospital in an effort to save his arm and leg, but there was a good chance that his ninja career may be over, causing many of the Konoha ninja to pale at the seriousness of that fight's outcome. It also left many there with a healthy fear of the unstable Gaara of Sand, who completely lost it after not being able to kill Lee at the end of the fight and threw a childlike tantrum screaming for Lee's blood to appease his mother.

After that fight, it took some time until the last fight was announced, and Dosu Kinuta of Sound was paired against Choji Akimichi of Konoha as the only two who had not yet fought. Dosu was still pretty pissed at Konoha in general even if it had faded while he waited, and took that anger out on a usually pretty passive Choji, at least until the Sound ninja called him fat and he actually got mad and attacked. His body expansion Clan techniques were pretty interesting, but inevitably too hard to pin down a quick ninja like Dosu without the aid of his teammates' techniques which helped hold others in place for Choji to take out.

With Dosu declared the winner after Choji forfeited before any real damage could be done to him, the nine winners were called down to the arena floor to draw their positions in the Final Stage of the Chunin Exams, which wouldn't take place for an entire month. This was to allow the many visiting dignitaries and other Kages to arrive, as well as to give the ninja time to prepare and train for their upcoming fights. After everyone drew their order numbers, the matchups were announced, and everyone would have a month to prepare for them.

First Round of Chunin Exam Finals

Naruto Uzumaki vs. Neji Hyuuga

Gaara vs. Sasuke Uchiha

Kankuro vs. Shino Aburame

Shikamaru Nara vs. Dosu Kinuta

Temari then faces the winner of last match

Chapter 19: Training For Finals

The day after the second round of the chunin exams was complete, Naruto was given the bad news from Kakashi, that his sensei would be training Sasuke exclusively for the finals against Gaara. As he needed the entire month to get Sasuke's speed and abilities higher in order to compete against the powerful Sand user. He apologized to Naruto for leaving him without any real training of his own, but did line up some lessons from Ebisu if he wanted to learn anything from someone else.

Naruto attended one of those Ebisu lessons just now, and afterwards was wandering around in a bit of a bad mood, as the tokubetsu jonin wasn't really the ideal trainer for Naruto, as he could already defeat him and they lacked any kind of mutual respect for one another. The only good thing to come from that failed training, was the wandering walk Naruto took afterwards, that led him by the hot springs and an odd old pervert. After Naruto made the women the old letch was perving on aware of their visitor, he happily walked away to the sounds of the white haired man getting pounded by the many upset females.

"That was a dirty thing to do," came the somewhat angry voice, that Naruto was easily and somewhat surprised to see belonged to the same old pervert, who wasn't apparently getting beat up at all despite the sounds that continued to come from the inside of the hot springs.

"It's what perverts deserve," responded the blond back with a little glare of his own, to match the one the larger white haired man was giving him.

"Are you calling me a pervert?" came the unmistakable growl of the older man in the unusual geta sandals and old timer clothes, as he glared at the young blond ninja.

"Um ...yeah," answered Naruto easily, not understanding how this guy he caught peeping on women didn't see his own perversion, "it's pretty obvious."

"I'll have you know I am no mere pervert," came the almost dramatic twist, as the older man stood up and started doing some ridiculous kabuki style dance poses, "I am the great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku ...the Sannin with the Mostest ...the Icha Icha Creator ...the Gallant Jiraiya ...the Super Pervert!"

"Super Pervert?" came the unmistakably exasperated voice of Naruto, as he watched this old timer make an even bigger fool of himself than he thought possible, though the name Jiraiya did ring a few bells, he didn't think that this could possibly be the same person who taught the Fourth Hokage, or was the student of Sarutobi Hiruzen, "more like ...super joke."

The change was quick, and if Naruto hadn't been looking directly at the white haired older man, might have missed the quick transition from goofy elder into a fierce ninja of significant skill as he glared right back at the blonde. He went on to complain that the youth of today had no respect for their elders, and even launched into a long defense of the noble tradition of spying at the hot springs for inspiration. Within minutes, Naruto learned of the man's utter devotion to anything perverted, but also realized that this was a skilled older ninja who could and should be teaching him something important.

"You don't know who you're messing with ...brat," came the response from the white haired elder as he continued to glare at the younger blonde.

"An old geezer that has to spy on pretty girls because he can't get them himself?" countered Naruto back with a heated glare of his own, regardless of how dangerous the older ninja might be.

"You little shit," growled the oder ninja, "I've gotten more pretty girls than you've ever seen in your life pipsqueak."

"I doubt that," smirked back Naruto as he brought his hands up in the familiar seal as clones appeared all around them, though these were all scantily dressed female versions of himself that turned on the white haired ninja and started draping themselves over him, instantly causing a large nosebleed as the self proclaimed super pervert was rendered speechless by the sexy display.

After that wonderful display, the older man who promised his name really was Jiraiya of the Sannin, agreed to meet the young blonde back here the following day. Naruto was pleased that he had successfully lined up some training of his own for the chunin finals, and promised to get back to work training on his own as well. That night he went down to the Facility and after one of his largest spawns of clones yet, had them divide into large groups to continue pushing his training to greater heights.

His clones division was pretty simple, as he sent a third to work on ninjutsu, a third with taijutsu, and the last third with sword fighting while he upped his training weights again and pushed through his usual physical workout that left him exhausted and heading to bed late that night. The next afternoon, after his usual early morning workout, without Guy and Lee, as his young friend was still in the hospital after his defeat at Gaara's hands, Naruto was again at the hot springs waiting on his newest instructor. He found the old white haired super pervert again peeping through a hole in the fence into the womens' hot spring, and questioned whether this was really a good idea to learn from this idiot.

Naruto had to entice and remind Jiraiya why he agreed to teach him, by performing another sexy harem jutsu, before the white haired ninja would even start asking questions about his previous training. After filling the somewhat goofy acting older ninja in about what he was studying in terms of taijutsu, sword training, and his ninjutsu and elemental techniques, Jiraiya finally got to teaching him something. That something turned out to be something incredible, and Naruto was beside himself in excitement after the white haired man summoned a toad that provided the summoning contract for all the toads.

"This is the Toad Contract?" asked Naruto in disbelief that he was being asked to sign something so well known, and previously used by his idol the Fourth Hokage, "you are letting me sign the Toad Contract?"

"Yes brat," answered Jiraiya with an exasperated shake of his head, as the blonde ninja was equal parts a skilled and dedicated ninja, and also slow at times on some of the most basic things, "that is why I asked you to sign it in your blood."

"Yessir, Ero-Sennin," saluted Naruto before biting his thumb, and using the blood to write his name on the next open line, just beneath the faded out one of Minato Namikaze, his hero.

"You need to bring him to Mount Myoboku soon Jiraiya-sama," came the unmistakable voice of the Summoning Scroll Toad, that was called to witness and provide the summoning scroll while getting a new summoner, "Gamabunta will want to meet our newest summoner."

"Sure thing," replied Jiraiya with a lazy wave as the Toad and Summing Contract disappeared in a puff of smoke to return to the summoning realm, leaving just the two ninja behind.

Jiraiya then showed Naruto the hand signs for summoning, and told him to keep at it until he could summon some of the largest Toads, while he went back to the hole in the fence to spy on naked women with a perverted little giggle. Naruto was able to get the hand signs down easily, but wasn't sure just how much chakra to use, and the first time summoned a small Toad that wasn't much bigger than his fist. The new Toad though was very happy to be summoned, and even happier to learn of their newest summoner as he introduced himself as Gamakichi and asked for candy in payment for being summoned.

For the next half an hour, Naruto continued to practice his summoning, getting to know Gamakichi quite well as he was the only Toad summoned during those first few tests and was really chatty with their newest summoner. Then Naruto decided to really put some chakra behind it, and started to build his chakra like he would for his largest spawning of clones, causing his perverted teacher to actually stop peeping on the women in the hot springs for a moment. And he had a right to notice, as the chakra was heavy, much greater than he would have thought from the young blonde and was impressed that the young ninja had advanced so far already.

"Why the hell did you summon me Jiraiya?" came the large voice of a creature that simply towered over the small forest training area they were near, as it appeared out of the smoke to the absolute shock of both ninja in the area, though for entirely different reasons.

"U ...uh ...G-gamabunta?" croaked Jiraiya, sounding more like a toad than the toad he was talking to, as he gulped nervously when the large Battle Toad turned towards him at his voice, probably wondering who was on his head then.

"WOW!" exclaimed Naruto in shock from on top of the large head on the biggest Toad he had ever dreamed about, "this is so awesome ...dattebayo!"

"Jiraiya ...what is going on?" asked the large toad, as it looked down at his summoner, trying to ignore the happily dancing young blonde ninja on his head.

What followed was a very confusing half an hour, where the toad and Toad Sage spoke cryptically in code about Naruto joining the ranks of a toad summoner. He was introduced to Gamabunta, the presumed boss leader of the Toad's that he summoned miraculously, and was given a basic rundown of the different toads and their primary functions. Naruto was surprisingly respectful to the toads' themselves, and instead kept most of his grumbling about his newest perverted teacher separate from his dealings with the larger amphibians, who he greatly valued already due to their relationship with his hero, the Fourth Hokage.

Naruto was oblivious to the many looks shared between Gamabunta and Jiraiya, especially when anything related to Minato Namikaze was brought up and discussed. Instead he asked about training methods the toads could help him with, and how he would go about summoning them to aid him in fights. A lot of that discussion was simply, which toads specialized in what function, how they could be and were used by Jiraiya to easily deliver messages or fight alongside him.

Gamabunta promised that Naruto would have to first go through Mount Kyoboku to meet all the toads personally before he could convince any of them to fight for him now, but that they would take care of that soon. The large toad spent most of his time arguing and complaining to Jiraiya about not visiting them all often enough, and had a message that Ma and Pa wanted to see him and their newest summoner soon. Naruto simply soaked everything he could up, and was quickly planning out his latest trip to the Summoning Realm in order to get to know the Toads better.

He really couldn't believe his luck, having known about the Toad Summons for years now from his extensive study of the Hokages, and especially the Fourth. That he was the newest Toad Summoner, following in Minato Namikaze's footsteps, the young blonde ninja couldn't be happier, and promised the Toads he did meet that he would work really hard to be the best summoner they ever had. To facilitate the exchange, it was decided that Gamakichi would stay with Naruto for now, to help them learn more about each other at a quicker pace.

Now, if Naruto thought having just one new visitor to his senses and thoughts wasn't enough, the addition of Gamakichi to his already full plate made for some initial amusement. The Kyuubi had for the most part been happy and content to be a silent observer over the first few days after merging more with Naruto, but with the addition of the constantly chatting and questioning toad, the Fox Demon refused to remain quiet. He went on an epic rant on the uselessness of toads, and started a sarcastic and caustic commentary on everything, as a continual foil to Gamakichi's eternal optimism.

What that meant for Naruto, was primarily a running headache as he heard it from both sides, constantly having to explain things to Gamakichi, and playing referee. Most of his time was actually spent trying to calm down the Fox, and ignore it's constant jabs at pretty much everything the Fox saw as meatbags or the work of meatbags, which wasn't a pleasant job. The Fox did however have an incredible chakra sense and senses in general, and would often point out nearby or approaching civilians and ninja long before Naruto recognized anything which turned out to be really helpful in tracking people down.

"Why don't you just tell me to meet you here every morning ...ero-sannin," came Naruto's exasperated groan, as he once again had to come looking for his latest sensei, only to find him again spying on the womens' side of the hot spring far behind Training Ground 3.

"Stop calling me that ...you little brat," grumbled Jiraiya with a low voice as he made no indication of moving from his peeping hole, "...and be quiet would ya ...I've finally got to the good stuff."

"DAMNIT PERVY SAGE!" yelled Naruto, much louder, and easily heard by everyone at the hot springs as all activity came to a halt, and the white haired pervert finally looked at the yelling blonde with wide betrayed eyes before a stampede of rushing women came charging at him.

"You've got a lot to learn kid," smirked Jiraiya at the last moment, as Naruto felt himself being pulled and swapped with Jiraiya's position at the last moment, the smoke from the switch covering the small transformation to make the young blonde appear as an old white haired man. All he could feel were the numerous and some very painful hits he was taking from some very lovely towel clad females, which at least broke the transformation allowing everyone to see who they captured. But, by that point everyone had already got their few licks in, and their attention was drawn to the snickering white haired pervert gleefully writing away in his notebook as he watched the blonde surrounded by women.

"Our young ninja thrown among the group of passionate and naked beauties is being surrounded as a buxom brunette grabs the young hero…," continued Jiraiya as he scribbled away, drooling all the while as he wrote about Naruto's exploits, " ...you're pure gold kid!"

"Get the pervert!" screamed one of the scantily clad women, causing them all to charge towards Jiraiya, who just oggled them for another long moment before moving away at the last possible moment as he switched out with a mud clone.

"Okay kid," smirked Jiraiya as he glared at the rising Naruto, ignoring the massive beatdown going on nearby with the ladies of the hot springs and his mud clone, "you want to train? ...we'll train."

Naruto barely had a moment to get himself set as Jiraiya appeared before him too fast for him to even notice the movement, and planted a straight punch that left the young blonde's rib cage shaking as he rocketed out of the nearby area and further into Training Ground 3. He continued to get beat from spot to spot as Jiraiya followed him around, pummelling him in one hit with speed he simply couldn't see, let alone keep up with. Finally Jiraiya took pity on the young blonde and let him get up on his own, and simply smirked when he saw and felt the kid drop his weight seals, and realized that maybe the kid wasn't quite so bad after all.

For the next two minutes, Jiraiya tested out Naruto's true speed, strength, and taijutsu skill as he lessened his own speed a bit to allow the younger ninja to at least compete, and traded blows with the original and six of his continually replenishing clone friends. The older Sannin had to admit that Naruto was much better than he would have thought, and better than he was in certain areas for his age too, and continued turning up the speed and power to see how well his young student could try to match it. When he found his student's limit in speed, he stayed just above it, and taunted and fought Naruto and his clones for another two minutes in primarily taijutsu only, with the older teacher throwing in some hair extensions as well.

Naruto was struggling with everything he had just to stay a float against Jiraiya, and knew the older ninja must be holding back significantly to allow him to even have a chance, which pissed him off even more. He and his clones were completely maxed out in taijutsu, and it still wasn't enough to get Jiraiya with anything, so he fell back and brought forth more clones into the fight. While a large portion of them engaged the white haired older ninja in taijutsu, the majority of them started building up their own wind attacks while a select few brought the fire for a combination attack that was the best he had at present.

Jiraiya was impressed with what Naruto was doing, his fighting skills and style were very good, he used distraction well, and thought well on his feet. The biggest problem he saw was simply speed, as even with his better than average speed for a genin, it was only mid-chunin level at best and needed to be much faster if he was ever going to be really taken seriously or advance in the chunin exam finals. His strategy was good though, as more and more shadow clones continued to engage Jiraiya in order to distract him from the attacks being prepared, though he didn't hold out hope that they would work on the skilled Sannin.

He was proven correct not long after, when Jiraiya used his speed to interrupt some of the combination attacks to be used against Naruto's own clones, and was soon finishing off the rest of the clones and pushing the original past his breaking point. It only happened for a moment, but it was completely unmistakable for Jiraiya not to notice when Naruto pulled on the power of the Kyuubi for a brief moment in preparation of their continuing fight, as his eyes turned red for just a moment. Naruto had felt the rush of incredible power, and even though it wasn't something he did consciously, he was however grateful for the Fox in trying to help him overcome a superior opponent.

"Thanks Fox," grinned Naruto, before using his newly refilled chakra stores to spawn another large batch of shadow clones, that he quickly hid behind as he sent them off to challenge Jiraiya, wondering how the explosion clones would fare.

"MOVE!" yelled the Fox in reply, getting Naruto to react just in time to avoid being flattened under a Jiraiya stomp, as he crashed onto the tree branch Naruto was just standing on.

"Shit," exclaimed Naruto, out of breath and wondering where the next attack was going to come from, and knowing that Jiraiya wasn't going to be pulling his punches.

He didn't have to wait very long to find out though, as within a few more moments of intense taijutsu, several attacks broke through Naruto's defenses and remaining clones until he was laid out flat on the ground. Jiraiya had popped over to where Naruto landed to make sure he was still alive, and after seeing him simply knocked unconscious, decided they were probably done training for the day. He hadn't walked far though when he was confronted by a pair of clones in his path, as they blocked the way back towards the hot springs they knew Jiraiya was heading towards with deadpan looks on their faces.

"He's completely fine," waved Jiraiya in dismissal over his shoulder at the lump on the ground that was Naruto, "just knocked out."

"Oh," said the one Naruto clone to the other in sheepishness, "we weren't here for the boss ...we had some questions on sealing arrays?"

"If you can keep quiet, you can tag along," spoke Jiraiya with a defeated shrug of his shoulders, as he walked around the two Naruto clones, and headed directly for the hot springs for some much needed research.

"Thanks Jiraiya-sama," spoke the first clone that had done all the talking so far, "we were working on sealing arrays and barrier seals ...and had a few questions."

"Just keep your questions quiet," grumbled Jiraiya as he got back to his peeping hole and settled in to look at the female hot springs, instantly in a better mood and giggling at what he saw.

"How does the sealing array affect a four points barrier seal, and allow it to be moveable?" asked the first clone quietly, not going to waste his chance to get some real answers to help them in their Fuinjutsu development, by pissing off their only teacher.

"The array isn't what let's it move," answered back Jiraiya almost absently, talking about seals as natural and easy as spying on women, and was soon launching into a long lesson on barrier seals, "...so, you've got into Kushina's notes?"

"Yeah," answered the only clone to do any of the talking so far, "she loved barrier seals."

"I'm not surprised," remarked Jiraiya with a fond smile, "she used them often in the field ...and on the Kyuubi."

"Did she ever mention the Kyuubi, or trying to communicate with it?" came the quiet question from the quieter clone to that point.

"She only ever said it was so full of hate that she couldn't deal with it," answered Jiraiya back deep in thought, as he tried to understand or remember of anything else was ever said, and wondered how Naruto's seal and relationship with the Kyuubi may be different from his mothers', and decided he should do a little digging of his own. "Do Naruto and the Kyuubi ever talk?"

"Ever since Orochimaru in the Forest of Death," responded the previously quiet clone with a little shiver at the reminder, and therefore missed Jiraiya's own shiver or the side-long glance he sent at the two innocent looking clones, who just went back to asking questions about seals.

When the original Naruto woke back up after about thirty minutes out, Jiraiya summoned a pair of young toads, and had Naruto put his training weights back on and start chasing them. With the original working on increasing speed and stamina, Jiraiya had the two clones studying their Fuinjutsu, and when more clones arrived, had them join their discussions on barrier seals. After an hour of this, the original spawned a large batch of shadow clones, and Jiraiya used them by providing a shadow clone of his own to teach them some of his hair manipulation techniques despite several more joining his Fuinjutsu lesson.

It was bordering on ridiculous, thought the older white haired ninja, with how many clones Naruto could make, he was picking up techniques and skills at amazing rates that were unheard of. Already within two days, had learned how to summon toads of every size, learned more about barrier seals than most Konoha ninja knew in their lifetime, and still continued to push the physical training for the original all the while. Jiraiya was mighty impressed with the young blonde, and how much he had already learned and studied to cover some of his shortcomings, and still how much more he wanted to learn, and had the skills and training method to make that a reality.

He wondered if maybe it wasn't time to teach the kid the Rasengen, created and made famous by the Fourth Hokage, as it was his right and would compliment his fighting style incredibly well. He decided to hold off on that for now, as he would spend this time before the finals getting Naruto up to speed physically, and would have an opportunity after the chunin exams to teach him anything else. By the end of the late afternoon, the original Naruto was barely able to walk back to Ichiraku Ramen, and used his clones' assistance to be led to his favorite food stop where he ordered a large special batch of ramen and couldn't wait to eat it all.

After stuffing his face to his content, Naruto felt much better physically, and again thanked the Fox for the high healing factor when it came to training muscles, as he already felt like he could start the whole day over again. Knowing how important speed now was, after the rather painful lesson today from Jiraiya, Naruto left the ramen stand and returned to his physical training after spawning another large batch of clones and entering the Facility for the evening. He had most of his clones still separated into three main groups, taijutsu, ninjutsu, and sword fighting while he pushed up his weight resistance seals and continued pushing himself.

Over the next few days, Naruto continued to push himself in his physical training, having daily sparring matches with Jiraiya, and a day spent on Mount Myoboku chasing toads, his speed had really increased. With Jiraiya also supplementing his Fuinjutsu teaching as well, and Naruto was progressing as fast as he ever had, and growing with each clone and moment. Currently they were in the summoning realm, going over their plans for Naruto to train in using the Fox's chakra, to get him better accustomed to it in a safe environment that wouldn't have all of Konoha in a panic.

"The Fox is fine with me using his youkai, but he still says I am not really ready for the first tail cloak," responded Naruto easily, causing Jiraiya to blanch somewhat at just how open the communication was between the Fox Demon and his student, not having expected it to be that easy.

"How are you speaking to the Kyuubi?" asked Jiraiya for better understanding.

"I granted him access to my senses after that run in with Orochimaru," replied Naruto easily, seeing nothing wrong with it, "we have been in constant communication ever since."

"If you call what you do communicating," grumbled the Fox inside Naruto's head, which only received a mock glare in return from the blonde.

"You don't have to listen to that meanie ...boss," came the defense from Gamakichi, who for some reason could also hear all the nasty comments made by the Fox, often causing them to bicker back and forth with Naruto stuck in the middle of it.

"Oh yes, the defence of the slimy tadpole," came the growling voice of the Fox Demon.

"Screw you demon," came the bickering voice of Gamakichi.

"How are you in constant communication?" came the follow up question from Jiraiya, after working through Naruto's response.

"The Fox has access to all my senses, and now we can talk in our minds," answered Naruto with a shrug, not at all worried about it, despite the pale face of Jiraiya.

"So it can see everything you can?" asked Jiraiya for clarification, though he didn't really seem to want to know the actual answer.

"Yes Ero-Sannin," replied a smirking Naruto, knowing that this information didn't sit well with his usually unflappable sensei, though it didn't bother him in the least as he had got to know the Kyuubi over the last few days and other than being a little violent and sarcastic, wasn't too bad. "I can also use his skill at chakra sensing now."

Jiraiya gave Naruto a long look after the explanation, and decided that Naruto appeared to have everything under control, and he would let that continue and not get involved unless he had to. He then asked Naruto to summon a new pair of toads, as he was graduating up to the next level of toad chasing and was encouraged to try and use the Fox's youkai to boost his stats. It took a while until Naruto was able to call upon the Fox's youkai consistently, and it was very difficult to deal with the psychological aspects of having demon youkai running through you as you are trying to boost your body.

Eventually, Naruto found the right balance and was able to hold the youkai and strengthen his body to almost double its usual capacity, and worked on getting that balance to feel right. Of course, with all the work he was putting in to accepting the youkai, it became easier over the next few hours, and he had to continually pull on more and try to keep it balanced never knowing that he was constantly pulling more and more of it. By the end of that first full day of trying it, Naruto was told by the Fox that he was very close to being able to attempt a one tail bijuu cloak, which Jiraiya was very excited and nervous about simultaneously, but promised to work on it with him tomorrow.

Their training the next day was put on hold however, when Naruto woke up to the memories of his Civilian Councilman Clone for Zumi Rabichen, having received the first shipment of Sound ninja to hire and place throughout his restaurants. Instead, with Naru's help getting to the Hokage, they were able to turn the tables on the arriving Sound ninja, and Naruto and Jiraiya had them all collected and sent to Torture & Interrogation by the end of the day. It pushed his personal training back a day, but was in fact a great thing for Naruto, as Jiraiya had let him go after most of the new arrivals to test himself and his growing ninja skills in real life situations, and the variety was a nice distraction and a chance to see what worked better and what still needed some training to further develop.

For the next few days, Naruto continued to visit the summoning realm every day to continue working on developing the bijuu one-tailed cloak in a protected environment, under the watchful gaze of Jiraiya and the Toads. When he finally got the one-tailed bijuu cloak to form, he felt incredible, as his speed and strength both shot through the roof to levels he was shocked at reaching. The biggest draw back to the bijuu cloak though, was dealing with the anger and malevolence tied into the Fox's chakra, and that he could only currently hold it for about a minute at a time, but would continue to grow and push that limit to make it more usable.

"Not bad kid," spoke Jiraiya after watching Naruto successfully keep up the bijuu cloak for a minute, and now trying to work off the overflowing anger that always remained long after the cloak itself, and was proud of what he had already accomplished in just the first two weeks of real training. "When you are ready, I want to introduce you to Ma and Pa, they are the Elder Toads I usually work with ...and want to meet you."

"I'm ready pervy-sage," came Naruto's boisterous voice after another few moments of catching his breath and calming down after the cloak dissolved.

The meeting of the two older and surprisingly smaller toads went quite well though, and Naruto was given a demonstration to help him understand the importance of these two elder toads in relation to Jiraiya's own sage-mode. The sage-mode he used completely blew his one-tailed bijuu cloak out of the water, but he was promised that there were plenty more tails to use in his cloak, and if he progressed well, could maybe even learn sage-mode himself in the future. Naruto really enjoyed the two elder toads, and loved how they gave Jiraiya such a hard time regarding pretty much everything, and knew they would get along great in the future.

He was also really impressed with everything Jiraiya was teaching him and helping him with, and couldn't believe just how much he had advanced in so little time, and vowed to continue growing in order to protect Konoha. Naruto didn't waste his time in the summoning realm either, as he had several dozen clones learning various skills and tricks from the many available toads simultaneously, so as to maximize what he was getting out of the training. He had toads teaching him their style of taijutsu, sword fighting, and Fuinjutsu around the clock, and had really progressed in all of those areas as well, while the original worked with Jiraiya and the bijuu cloak.

The routine was again disrupted several days later at just around the two week mark, when the Civilian Council Member, Utane Habishi was approached by a group from Sand that his newest help had arrived. Naruto's clone, still acting as the Civilian Council Member, was able to get word to Sarutobi and Jiraiya, and were able to capture the arriving Sand Ninja before they were spread out throughout Konoha. With both of the attempted infiltrations stopped by Naruto and Jiraiya, Konoha was able to learn from their many prisoners just what was being planned and why Sound and Sand had decided to work together in order to take out Konoha.

Luckily, with knowledge of their supposed infiltration on the day of the Chunin Exam Finals, they were better equipped to deal with and mark all those from Sand and Sound that were trying to get tickets on the day and planned to be ready. Naruto got to sit in with Jiraiya, Sarutobi, and Shikaku Nara as they planned the defence of their village, and how best to spring the trap and turn the tables on those planning to invade Konoha. They were all expecting that Orochimaru was the main player behind the attack, as it was definitely like him, and he would want to accomplish many things in the confusion, including co-opting the last Uchiha that they refused to allow.

Chapter 20: Chunin Finals

The final two weeks Naruto had to finish preparing for the Chunin Exam Finals flew by incredibly fast, as Konoha seemed to be overflowing with new people and visitors coming to see the ninja competition. He had spent a considerable amount of his time in the summoning realm working on his newly updated taijutsu and sword fighting styles, to better incorporate the Toad styles into his own personal ones he was already learning. He had a pretty good idea how he was planning to take on all the challengers of this tournament, but knew it wasn't going to be easy with the likes of Gaara, Sasuke, and Neji still competing, not to mention when the planned invasion was taking place.

The biggest thing of note to happen during the month was Naruto's late night rescue of the Jonin Hayate Gekko, who had been attacked and left to bleed out on a rooftop from a wind blade attack. Naruto, had just happened to be passing by after a late night trip to Ichiraku's, when the Kyuubi noticed the chakra usage and had him go investigate. His arrival successfully scared off the attacker, but it was touch and go for most of the next day for the referee of the Chunin Exams' final stage, and he was eventually replaced in order to hide his survival.

Out of that unusual occurrence, came Naruto getting to meet the ANBU Cat, also known as Yugao Uzuki, who tracked him down and thanked him repeatedly for finding and bringing Hayate to the hospital in time to save him. She offered her services as a teacher if he ever needed her help in the ninja arts, and even gave him a small kiss on his cheek which made him turn bright red. Yugao was beautiful, she had long purple hair and warm brown eyes, and Naruto was quick to agree to anything she said, including a kenjutsu matchup for the following day to test how serious of a sword user he was.

At the next day's lesson, Naruto demonstrated that he was by no means a slouch when it came to sword fighting, and Yugao complimented him many times during their little over an hour long lesson / spar. She asked who had been primarily training him, as he had several really good habits that could only come from a real good sword teacher, and simply raised her eye when he said he got several private lessons from Zabuza Momochi a month back. His clones and mom's notes had been the only "real teacher" he had, as he wasn't about to tell anyone about his blood clone currently traveling with and training under one of the former Seven Swordsman of the Mist.

Yugao was impressed none-the-less, and offered after the craziness from the chunin exams were over, to continue his sword training and turn him into a legitimate kenjutsu master along with her fiance Hayate Gekko when he fully recovered. Naruto was really happy to get the promised lessons and teaching, knowing that every little bit of it helped him and all of his clones improve, and was excited to have some way to visibly increase his kenjutsu skills. That way, him showing up one day after years of private training from his blood clone, a certified kenjutsu master out of the blue, people wouldn't be examining him for possession.

The only other surprise to happen before the Chunin Exam Finals, was on his lone trip to meet with Lee and Guy to check on them, and see how Lee was doing, having heard his ninja career was supposedly over. While trying to cheer up a visibly distraught Lee, who couldn't see how any injury would stop him from continuing to try and be a ninja, Gaara arrived practically zoned completely out and talking nonsense about feeding mother Lee's blood. Luckily, Naruto's overpowered wind wall, withstood the brunt of Gaara's quickly amassed sand, and Guy was quick to arrive in the next second to interrupt it getting any further out of hand.

"Mother wants your blood too Uzumaki," growled Gaara in a demonic sounding voice that sent chills up the blonde's spine, as he remembered the words Gaara spoke to him after that failed assasination attempt, while he made his way towards the stadium for the final round to start.

He was as ready as he could hope for as he walked to the stadium, remembering his promise to his Jiji last night about not trying to stretch himself too thin, and concentrate on the fight in front of him. They had met for a meal at Ichiraku's, and were able to talk for a bit about the supposed upcoming invasion they still expected from Sound and Sand, and how the Hokage had started criminal proceedings against the three corrupt members of the Civilian Council. All of their findings had been turned over to the other Council Members just last night, in an attempt to implicate and catch another pair of them in a compromising position that would warrant their removal as well.

He was still unsure how much to listen to his Jiji's warnings though, as he could still keep most of his focus on the matches in front of him, his clones were a very valuable resource and were aplenty throughout Konoha. After he left dinner last night, he had continued spawning clones, a hundred at a time that he split off to spread out throughout the underground tunnels underneath Konoha. Along with the several thousand that were already present, Konoha was currently playing host to over 20,000 Naruto shadow clones just lying in wait under every sector of the village except the one that he had yet to penetrate, but suspected led to another section of underground tunnels that were currently being used by someone else.

The clones were all lying in wait for any signal that an invasion started, and were instructed to help out as much as possible by defending the civilians and protecting Konoha and his precious people. Just that morning he had gone by Ichiraku's with clone-pins for Teuchi and Ayame, before loading up with a generous portion of his favorite food to start the day just right. Now he was slowly making his way towards the stadium, thinking about everything that had happened recently, and hoping he and his clones were ready for what he was expecting to come today.

"Good luck, Naruto," came the small voice of Hinata Hyuuga, as the lavender haired girl ducked her head shyly, as Naruto came upon Team 8 wishing Shino Aburame good luck as well, and getting the other members of her team to turn towards him with varying expressions on their faces.

"Thanks Hinata," whispered Naruto back quietly, "I'll teach Neji a good lesson too ...just for you."

"N-Naruto-kun?" gasped Hinata in a blush as her crush moved away from her after smiling and winking, not having any idea how he made her feel.

Hinata ignored the grumbling of Kiba, who had been complaining about Naruto's underhanded tactics still, gave Shino another smile and nod before taking Kiba's and Kurenai's arms and leading them inside to get good seats. She wasn't missing this for anything, and was also still thinking about Naruto and how strong and confident he looked and acted now, nothing like his earlier goofier self, and wondered how that translated to his actual skills. He had defeated Kiba so quickly, cheating if you asked Kiba himself, but she hadn't really seen him fight for long or go all out against anybody, and she wondered if he was going to be strong enough to defeat Neji, as her cousin was considered a prodigy for a good reason.

Hinata took a moment to notice that she was sitting nearby some of the other rookies from her class, as she spotted Ino and Choji with their team leader Asuma, who Kurenai instantly went to sit with. She also recognized Tenten from her cousin's team, and got to watch as Sakura arrived shortly after her and instantly started bickering with Ino. She looked up into some of the better surrounding boxes, seeing the Hokage in the nicest of them all, but mostly looking at the one belonging to her Father and Clan, and knew that they were all excited to see their prized Neji fight, and gave a small smile as she hoped and even expected Naruto to dash any hopes they had.

Naruto arrived in the competitors booth on the opposite side of the stadium from the Hokage booth, and noticed that everyone seemed to be present already except his teammate. Gaara and the other two sand siblings were casually standing at one end, while the remaining Konoha fighters stood opposite them trading glares. Shino and Shikamaru were both giving the Sand genin a lot of room, and seemed to be standing together more out of necessity than any real camaraderie, as neither boy was overy social.

Neji was standing by himself as well, glaring at everyone, but Naruto ignored him completely as he made his way to the other two Konoha rookies and checked them both out. Shino looked much the same as he did in the Academy, with no skin showing and shades, he looked every bit the detached ninja he always was. Shikamaru however, had grown a bit taller and lost a bit of the baby fat in his face, though he still looked as bored and lazy as ever even when checking out the approaching Naruto.

"Is your teammate here with you?" came the question from Shino, as Naruto shook his head, and received a snort from Shikamaru along with a whispered 'troublesome.'

"He'll show," spoke Shikamaru with a lazy wave, completely unconcerned.

"Probably," laughed Naruto, "though ...he was training all month with sensei ...hopefully he keeps time better than Kakashi."

"It is disrespectful to everyone when he is late," came the smug sounding voice from Neji, as if he was lecturing his betters about punctuality.

"What do you care, Hyuuga?" asked Naruto with a smirk of his own, "you'll already be eliminated by the time he needs to be here."

"Oh please," replied Neji disbelievingly, "the day some no talent dead last defeats me ...fate has already decreed that I won."

"Nice for fate," replied Naruto, "then present that decree to the referee ...and to the second round you go."

""Um ...Naruto?" asked Shino very quietly, so as to not alert all the others in the booth, "do you really want to be antagonizing Neji? Hinata says that he is her Clan's most promising prodigy."

"No sweat Shino," laughed Naruto easily, though both him and Shikamaru could instantly tell the laugh was fake, and both wondered just how much different Naruto now was, and how powerful as they watched the surrounding stands quickly fill up to capacity.

They didn't have to wait much longer at that point either, as another jonin of their village had seemingly taken over the referee job, and was introducing himself as Genma Shiranui. He asked all the competitors to wait in their booth until called down to fight, and then started getting everyone pumped up and excited as he announced the beginning of the Chunin Exam Finals, and called the first two fighters. Naruto ignored the loud and exuberant applause for his opponent, as he was from a popular Clan, and considered by many to be one of the favorites in this competition and made his way down to the arena floor completely focused on what he had to accomplish.

"You should quit now loser," came the ugly sneering voice of Neji once both of them were down on the arena floor, "fate has already decided I will win."

"Bullshit," smirked Naruto, "fate is what we make it."

During the little pre-match banter, Genma had moved off to the side, and received the start signal from the Hokage, and after making sure both fighters were ready to start, called them to begin as he disappeared from the middle of the arena to give them both space. Naruto had instantly crossed his fingers and spawned a large batch of clones, hiding more than half of them underground or as fallen debris while the smoke covered most of the arena floor. Neji, who had been completely sure of his inevitable victory, simply waited for Naruto as he had tried launching into another long diatribe about fate, and was left looking around the arena to see nothing but blonde haired copies slowly encircling him and trying to overwhelm him early.

"You can multiply zero as much as you want," sneered Neji as he practically dismissed the clones, despite being able to see that every single one of them had a chakra network and looked identical to the original, "50 times zero is still zero."

Naruto however, ignored Neji's attempts to get under his skin or intimidate him, and traded out with one of his hidden clones just in case Neji pulled something out he wasn't expecting or ready for, and directed his forces to close in and attack. The clones first started in small waves that continually grew in amounts until almost a dozen clones were attacking the skilled Hyuuga at once, forcing him to speed through his taijutsu in order to keep up with the continuous stream of opponents he was being forced to take care of. Naruto meanwhile, was continually re-spawning clones faster than Neji could eliminate them, as more and more started engaging the pale eyed Hyuuga prodigy until it was apparent he was struggling to keep up.

"Heavenly Rotation: Kaiten," came the scream from inside the circling Naruto clones, causing Neji to start emitting a large amount of visible chakra as he spun his body so fast that a chakra barrier was brought up that instantly obliterated anything that touched it including the nearest Naruto clones.

The Kaiten rotation took out at least two dozen of the nearest clones as they had been surrounding Neji, and others attempted to penetrate it while it was already spinning as well. The moment Neji stopped his spinning though, the next nearest group of Naruto clones, all threw kunai and other weapons at him that had him have to instantly go right back into another spin. This time, the spin was much shorter, and Neji came out at the end of it much dizzier than he was previously, and could barely defend against the thrown projectiles that came his way this time.

None of the hits were truly debilitating, but each of them did manage to slow Neji down a fraction in his movements, which would be more than enough for Naruto to end this fight. Neji screamed in rage as he looked out at the arena, and still only saw the dozens of surrounding Naruto clones, his rotations not doing enough to eliminate the overwhelming numbers this dead last blonde was using. Knowing he needed a break before he could use the Kaiten again successfully, Neji started moving towards the surrounding clones, and taking them out with very well placed attacks as his Clan taijutsu allowed him to see and disperse each clone with a single hit of his chakra.

The problem was simply that Naruto seemed to just keep making more clones, and Neji couldn't eliminate them fast enough to truly cut down on the overwhelming numbers, and knew he would run out of chakra long before he defeated them all. Deciding that his only chance was to take out the original, Neji slowly started moving towards where he assumed the original still was directing everything, while making it seem like he was slowing down some and losing to hopefully catch Naruto by surprise. It was definitely a surprise, when Neji roared out his next move, and seemed to start moving in an even faster blur as his hands started emitting small bursts of chakra as they hit the original Naruto multiple times.

"He can use the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms attack," gasped Hinata among the rookie spectators, none of whom understood the significance except for probably the senseis and her Clan in their special box as it was a move along with the Kaiten that were only taught to the Main Family.

"Bye bye Naruto," laughed Kiba as he watched the blonde get pummelled by Neji, and knew from a smaller version of that attack from Hinata that it wasn't pleasant having your chakra shut off, and this was the end for the blonde.

Most people in the stands too, felt that Naruto was now caught by the Hyuuga, who they all now expected to pull off the remarkable comeback as everyone knew you don't fight Hyuugas in taijutsu for a reason. So, just about everybody was shocked when the Naruto, taking all of these blurred hits, simply exploded into smoke half way through, upsetting Neji's balance and forcing him to fall over. Nobody saw what really happened next, as the smoke from the destruction of Naruto's shadow clone hid the original Naruto popping up through the ground and pulling Neji's limbs into the soft earth and trapping him there.

When the smoke cleared, everyone was shocked to see a smirking Naruto standing over the trapped and defeated form of an exhausted Neji, as he held a kunai to his neck. The stands were completely silent, as one of the tournament favorites was defeated so easily by an unknown, who didn't really even have to go all out in order to win decidedly. The Hokage, and several others who knew what Naruto was truly capable of, were the first to congratulate and cheer for the winner of the first match. A moment later the rest of the stands erupted in noise at the incredible display of skill to defeat the Hyuuga prodigy, causing Naruto to duck his head in slight embarrassment at all the extra attention as he made his way back to the competitor's booth.

"Damn Naruto," came the impressed and somewhat shocked voice of Shikamaru upon the blonde's return to the booth, "I didn't know you had that in you?"

"Thanks," responded Naruto with an embarrassed shrug, as he reached back and rubbed the back of his head in nervousness, not used to being praised or the center of attention for a good reason.

Hinata was dumb founded as she looked around at her fellow rookie genin, and recent Academy students, as they all wondered how far Naruto had come to defeat the previous class' rookie of the year so easily. She more than most knew just how skilled Neji was, and for Naruto to not only defeat him, but do it so easily even after Neji displayed some serious moves, everyone needed to be very careful about just how good Naruto truly was. Kiba was spluttering in denial, unable to comprehend how Naruto had not only beaten him, but Neji, a Hyuuga prodigy with more experience and time as a ninja, and obviously couldn't accept it.

"He had to have cheated," hissed Kiba more to himself, but loud enough for the others nearby to have heard, and most to simply shake their heads in denial.

"Naruto wouldn't cheat," mumbled Hinata in response, and though it wasn't as loud as Kiba's accusations, it was easily heard by those around her, and all except for Kiba agreed as they waited for the next match to be called.

"That was quite the performance between two of your genin, Hokage," spoke the Kazekage stiffly, as the two most powerful ninja of their villages watched the Chunin Exams from their high booth, and the Kazekage paid the young blonde a good bit of attention that Sarutobi found very suspicious and out of character for Rasa and promised to keep a closer eye on the old shinobi.

"I agree," spoke Sarutobi Hiruzen fondly, "Naruto has really come a long way."

"Would our next two fighters please come down to the arena," called the referee Genma after the field was cleared and ready for the next fight, "Gaara of Sunagakure ...and Sasuke Uchiha of Konoha."

The applause and shouts were deafening, as Sasuke and Gaara were probably the two most heavily favored fighters in the competition from a betting standpoint, and everyone in Konoha wanted to see the famous Uchiha Sharingan in action. The noise of the crowd drowned out some of the early speculation, when Gaara was the only one to arrive at the arena, and people started noticing that Sasuke wasn't present and chatting grew louder. Genma asked if he should call the match in Gaara's favor, as Sasuke had yet to show, but in a surprise move, the Kazekage himself offered to postpone the fight between the two largest draws of the tournament until the other first round fights were completed.

The booing from the audience was loud and plentiful, as the fight most of them came to see was postponed forcing them to wait even more until they could see their precious Uchiha. Even several of the competitors were unhappy that Sasuke was again being given special treatment just because of his Clan, and Gaara was quickly losing whatever hold he had on his sanity and seemed about to erupt. Genma actually had to call the next fight several times until everyone could hear and respond, and then watched as Shina Aburame of Konoha was pit against Kankuro of Suna.

"I forfeit," called out Kankuro before the match could even begin, causing the booing crowd to erupt all over again, that two matches in a row now had been cancelled or postponed when they all came to see some real fighting.

"What?" came the curious question from Naruto as he glared at Kankuro trying to figure out what the other kid was up to, and why he would deny his chance at career advancement, unless he was holding back for now, "...he's up to something."

"That is very unusual," spoke Shikamaru next to him, as they watched Shino make his way back up to the booth, his clothes and sunglasses hiding any indication of his agitation.

"Well," started Naruto as he turned to Shikamaru, "looks like your turn came early ...kick that Suna girl's ass."

Shikamaru gave Naruto a long look as his words were heard by his opponent, and had to avoid the angry eyes of his female competitor as she glared at them both with such loathing as she made her way down to the arena floor. Shikamaru sighed in exasperation, wondering why he had to fight the angry girl, and also wondering still about Kankuro forfeiting after getting this far, and thought that something unusual must be up. Naruto knew something was up, but was still unsure of when the invasion was scheduled to happen today, just that it was scheduled for today during the exam finals, and he needed to be ready and keep an eye on the Sand Siblings.

The fight between Temari and Shikamaru was somewhat boring for the audience, as they had to wait through and watch the pair trade shots and chase each other around the arena for some time before the action really took off. Shikamaru had Temari soundly beat, but he decided to forfeit as he was almost out of chakra right at the end, and knew he couldn't continue to the next round. Temari wasn't too pleased in winning the match, after she basically lost to Shikamaru, but accepted her advancing into the next round with a glare at both Naruto and Shikamaru, just as Genma called out the names of the last two fighters to come down to the arena and finish the first round, Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara.

Sasuke and Kakashi still had yet to arrive, and as Gaara stood and waited for a long minute down on the arena floor, everyone could tell that he was losing his battle against his temper and ready to go crazy at seemingly the drop of a hat. Just as Genma was getting ready to announce that Sasuke would be forfeiting as he wasn't present, a swirl of leaves deposited Sasuke and Kakashi directly into the middle of the arena, getting several who noticed them to cheer in excitement. Both the Hokage and Kazekage were equally as excited to get this last match of the first round over with, though for completely different reasons.

"Did we make it in time?" asked Kakashi to Genma as he looked around the stadium and noticed all the excited spectators, rookies not competing among the populous, and those fighting up in the competitors booth.

"Barely," spoke Genma with a shake of his head, "we already postponed your match to the end of the round ...hoping you would make it."

"Well, I'm here now," spoke Sasuke importantly, as he glanced briefly at Gaara and could hardly contain his own excitement at getting a powerful opponent to test himself against, already thinking about all the ways he would defeat the younger Sand ninja and show off to everyone that the Uchiha were still the elite.

AN: That's all I have for now, notes to continue are below if anyone is interested. I may come back to this one at some point, but I have so many things up in the air that I will probably let a bunch of them fell away. I was never very good at describing fight scenes anyway, so this was a good stopping point for me.

Step up sword training, start getting experience from Asura/Zabuza

Practicing Hariken taijutsu & researching info on Kushina & Uzumaki Clan.

-learn about Kushina's family sword (Hokage stored in old house)

-learn about father, and Namikaze Clan, new home / estate.

Starts selling his storage scrolls & explosive tags & chakra draining seals.

Chapter 6: The Konoha Delivery Company was really just a food delivery service they started after working for the Civilian Council Member, Saidu Misoribo for one day and realizing the man was blatantly overcharging for his services and then ripping off his delivery employees. They still had six clone employees working in his operation, all trying to find dirt and gather evidence against the arrogant and pretty nasty man, while subtly dropping off business cards of his own company at every delivery. It was also through Misoribo that Naruto encountered the other three Council Members he now had clones working for.

Utane Habishi - clothing store owner (Sand)

Zumi Rabichen - restaurant owner (Sound)