Flames of Youth

'October 10th.'

Naruto stared at the date on the calendar. It was well into the afternoon, but he wasn't exactly bothered by that fact. After all, it was probably better to sleep through most of this day.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, moving to the bathroom. He still had somewhere to be, seeing as it was the weekend. Gai would be expecting him to be at the training grounds, and he could honestly use something to distract him.

It was colder than usual for a day in October, so Naruto decided to wear a green long sleeve jacket Gai had gifted him for finishing one of his challenges. He smiled at the memory, remembering it would be coming up on a year since he had formerly met the man. Today would be the last day he would be meeting up with him since Gai would be running his own team very soon, and he had promised him something special for the occasion.

Wrapping his lower calves in the shinobi wraps he had brought because blue shorts were the only clean lower wear he had left, Naruto took a deep breath before stepping out of his apartment.

He scaled the roofs of Konoha, using them to make his way out of the village without running into anyone. The air outside was heavy even if the people below weren't necessarily showing it. It always was around this time.

Upon arriving at their usual meeting place, he took notice that he and Gai weren't alone this time. Standing next to him was a younger boy who, much to Naruto's surprise, had eyebrows just like Gai. Both of their attention turned to Naruto as he walked up, Gai throwing a thumbs up and smile his way.

"Naruto-kun! Perfect timing as ever. I'd like to introduce you to one of my new students. This is Rock Lee!" Gai said motion over to him.

"It is an honor to meet someone who has trained under the great Gai-sensei! I do hope we get along!" Lee yelled out, bowing in front of Naruto who was taken aback.

"Uh, sure. Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto replied back, also bowing. "So you're a rookie genin then? Neat."

"Naruto-kun here is hoping to join the shinobi ranks next year as well, Lee-kun. You'll have to do your best to keep ahead of this one, he's the real deal!" Gai said. Naruto blushed at his words, mumbling something under his breath while Lee stared him down.

'If Gai-sensei says it then it must be true! I wonder just how strong he could be? Is he another prodigy like Neji?' Lee thought to himself.

"Now, as promised, for your last day of training I have a special opportunity for you, Naruto-kun." Gai said. "By now you've gotten the basics of the strong fist down, and now I want you to use those skills…in a battle against me!"

Naruto and Lee's mouths both dropped at his words, but Naruto's expression quickly transitioned to that of a grin as he started to jump in place. "Alright! I've been asking for this since the beginning! Let's do it!"

"Yosh! Together we'll burn our flames of youth to the fullest extent with an all out taijutsu brawl!" Gai said, still smiling but now looking down at Naruto seriously. "It's my intention here to show you why you should continue training in the strong fist style even without my supervision, a peek into what could be. And because of that, I won't be holding back!"

"Right! Let's do this!" Naruto said back, punching his fist into his palm. Lee looked between the two, sensing that there wasn't going to be a formal start to this battle and backing away to make room. True enough, Gai took up his signature stance while Naruto did one of his own.

The clearing fell silent outside of the breeze of the cool fall wind. Lee swallowed a knot in his throat, waiting for one of them to make a first move. A leaf fell in front of his vision, momentarily distracting him from the fight. That split second was enough to make him miss the first move.

Gai and Naruto both dashed at each other at the same time, Gai going into a kick while Naruto made the safer decision and dodged under it. Turning on his heel, he just managed to dodge under another swinging punch from Gai, throwing a counter one that was blocked by Gai's knee.

Channeling some chakra to his feet, Naruto dashed back to give himself some space. Channeling even more into them, he darted back forward and to the side, closing in with a roundhouse kick aimed at Gai's neck.

"No weights today, Naruto-kun! Were you perhaps expecting this to happen?" Gai called out as he caught Naruto's foot in mid air. He couldn't keep the grip as Naruto twisted his body with great momentum to the side, flipping away and landing a few feet from him.

"I actually just forgot them." Naruto said, catching his breath. 'Thank the heavens.' He thought to himself.

With a battle roar Naruto charged back forward, Gai standing his ground as the two began to exchange blows. Naruto was mostly on the offensive, jumping and rushing around Gai in circles looking for an opening. Every punch however was met with an open palm, and every kick was effortlessly pushed away by the backside of a forearm.

The first counter attack was a heavy one. A weak punch by Naruto was slapped to the side and in its place came a quicker fist. Before the pain was fully registered, Naruto put his right arm up to block a kick. It knocked him back a few steps, but the pain from the earlier punch was more demobilizing and caused the boy to fall to his knees. He gasped for air, gripping at his chest as his vision blurred over. That was the first time anyone had ever knocked the wind out of him.

"Can you continue?" He heard Gai's voice call out, looking up through strained breaths. The man's face held no emotion behind it, completely neutral to what was happening in the moment. Naruto took a few more seconds to compose himself before standing up.

"I'm good." Naruto said, going back into his stance. The smile had fallen from his face, now falling into a similar neutral look like Gai had. "Don't stop next time."

Gai smiled at his words, nodding before going back into his own stance. From the sidelines, Lee's fist were shaking at his side. Whether it was from excitement, frustration or disbelief he didn't know. 'Keep ahead of? He's already a far better fighter than I am!' Lee thought to himself, eyes glued to the fight. He watched as in an impressive showing, Naruto ducked under one of Gai's kicks and almost managed to counter with one of his own to his face. 'Unbelievable! He must be a prodigy!'

Another one of Gai's punches struck Naruto's side, once again dropping Naruto to his knees. His eyes bulged as he desperately tried to regain his composure in time, but didn't as he was slammed with another hit from his side. Flung to the ground, he rolled a few times before kicking himself back up to a standing position; dirty, face bloodied and panting heavily.

"Rule change!" Gai called out, stopping Naruto in the middle of his charge. "I want you to use any ninjutsu you have in your arsenal. That should even the playing field some."

"I don't want any handicaps." Naruto said. It was hard to be convincing through ragged breaths, and he knew that, so with a sigh he threw his hands up to show he relented. 'I've only got one jutsu, it's not like it's going to help me much anyways…'

Making the clone sign, blue chakra exploded from Naruto's body as he stared Gai down. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" In an instant, twenty or so Naruto's were now surrounding the man. Gai looked around, whistling as they all went into stances.

"The youth is truly inspiring!" He said before readying himself. The group of Naruto's charged all at once, attacking Gai in an endless barrage. Even with the increased numbers however, Naruto still couldn't break through Gai's defenses. The patterns of his attacks were starting to get read, and soon he found his personal army subtracted to just five.

One clone attempted to attack from the back, but Gai turned just in time to counter with a kick. At least that was the attempt, but he found that his leg was now locked into the grip of two other clones. With a roar they launched him up in the air, where he was met by another Naruto. The real Naruto.

The youth's foot swung down with no remorse, implanting itself in Gai's back and sending him soaring back down to the ground. He righted himself upon impact, using a spinning handstand kick to dispel the two attacking clones waiting for him. Nearby, the remaining two clones were working together to toss one of them up into the air to their creator, doing so and gripping him by his jacket. He was swung down hoping to blitz the man with his speed, but Gai sidestepped the attack rather easily.

In a ricochetting motion, Naruto used his hands to stop his descent to the ground and launched himself back into a kick that was blocked. Pushing away again, the two distanced themselves from each other.

"Alright, Naruto." Gai said, smiling down at him. "The warm up's over."

In an instant, the pressure in the training ground came down. In the center of this was Gai, who had closed his eyes in focus. Clenching his fist, the ground below him cracked as crotched low before shooting forward. There was no time to react. One moment Naruto was staring at Gai's form, and the next he was being lifted up off the ground into the air. He was knocked around in a circle, five more hits coming in the span of a second. Gai was going to hit again when he paused, noticing that something was wrong. Naruto's movement had stopped.

'Ah, he's unconscious.'

Slowly, the two began to descend to the ground. Gai landed first, holding his hands out to catch the boy before he impacted the earth. At the last minute however, almost instinctively, Naruto flipped in the air and diverted his path into Gai's hands. He landed in front of him, crouched over and eyes hidden under the bangs of his hair. For a moment Gai sensed something, a pressure that sent a small chill down his spine. But the feeling subsided just as quick as it came, and Naruto began to fall over. Reaching out again, Gai grabbed him before he hit the ground.

Lee ran up to them, looking over him in concern. Naruto's eyes opened, blinking as he took in his surroundings. "What happened?"

"You lost," Gai said, smiling. "But you put up a great effort!" He let Naruto stand on his own, watching as he brushed the dirt off of his clothes.

"I don't even remember what happened at the end," Naruto said, rubbing the back of his neck. "All I know is everything hurts. Everything."

It was then that he noticed the squirming coming from the other boy next to him. With a loud howl, Lee bent over before jumping high into the air with excitement. "Yosh! My inspiration is at an all time high. Gai-sensei! Naruto-kun! I promise that one day I'll be able to test my flames youth against you both! Until then, I'm gonna…I'm gonna…!"

Lee seems to be struggling with his words, Naruto watching him through squinted eyes. From the corner of his vision he could see Gai was now repeating a similar movement as Lee earlier before jumping into the air as well, shocking both of the boys.

"Don't worry, Lee! We'll turn you into Konoha's greatest taijutsu master yet! Your passion burns too brightly to ever be diminished!" Gai yelled back. With tears in his eyes, Lee ran forward and embraced Gai tightly, who returned the gesture with equal enthusiasm.

Naruto watched all of this from the sideline, holding on to one of his still aching arms. "I'm gonna' go…yeah." Naruto said, turning to leave the training ground. He wasn't lying when he said everything hurt, and right now he needed to head home to lick his wounds. One thing was for sure though.

He was certainly inspired to continue his strong fist training.

Though Naruto had plans of going straight home, the thought of ramen was calling his name and he couldn't resist stopping by Ichiraku's. Besides, in celebration of his birthday the daughter of the shop's owner, Ayame, promised Naruto two bowls of free ramen. That was something he couldn't pass up.

"And then, he kicked me into the air," Naruto said, stopping to take another slurp of noodles before continuing. "After that I don't really remember much, but it must have been something amazing cause bushy brows was seriously impressed. I don't think I've ever been hit that hard in my life."

Naruto continued to finish his second bowl of ramen, oblivious to the concerned look Ayame was giving him. "That sounds terrifying if I'm going to be honest with you, Naruto-kun. Are you sure this man's safe to be around?"

"The safest." Naruto said, completely serious. Placing his chopsticks down, he let out a sigh of contentment as he swung around on his stool. "Where is Teuchi-san? He's always here during the evening shift."

"Sick. I told him the weather was colder than usual lately but he never listens. It's been pretty light today though so I've managed well enough. We actually close early on this date because of the lack of customers. The whole village kind of slows down." Ayame said, cleaning out bowls."This falling on your birthday must be an inconvenience for you, I'm sorry Naruto-kun."

"It's fine. I wasn't really even fond of my birthday even before coming to the village." Naruto said, distantingly smiling. Ayame had stopped washing to watch him, and had never felt a stronger urge to hug someone in her life. She knew however that would only make him more uncomfortable given his secret modest side, so she settled for the second best thing.

"Hey, how about a third bowl on the house? Consider it an extra special gift. Extra pork." She said. Naruto's face lit up and he swung back to face her fully, grinning brightly.

"You promise?"

Holding her pinky out, Ayame waved it in front of Naruto's face. It took him a moment before he realized what she was waiting on, and reached out to link his own with her's. Locking it in, she shook both their hands up and down, closing her eyes and returning his look with a warm smile of her own.

"I promise."

Having nothing else to do for the day, Naruto hung around Ichiraku's with Ayame until around mid afternoon when she decided to close shop. She bid Naruto a farewell with a tight hug and another round of birthday recognition, taking extra enjoyment in his uneasy reaction to it. Once she left, he decided it was time to finally head home. Until something else caught his eyes.

Across the street, Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno were speed walking towards the village gates in a suspicious hurry. Usually Naruto was one to mind his own business. But a higher power compelled him to see what they were up to.

And so, he slipped from the side of Ichiraku's and fell into their step, following far enough behind that they wouldn't notice him. Sure enough, they made their way out to a subsection of the village Naruto recognized was across from the training grounds. Gai had taken him there a few times for some of their training exercises because it had a big lake, which was great for water workouts.

Sakura and Ino had bunkered down in the nearby bushes, looking out onto the lake eerily similar to how Naruto used to watch Gai back in the day. Curiously, he followed their line of sight before his face dropped at where it landed him.

Out in the clearing, Sasuke Uchiha was staring out over the lake. Even from here Naruto could tell that he must have been taking a break from something because of how rapidly he was breathing and the sweat forming on his face. 'Must be training.'

"Do you think he'll take his shirt off again this time?" Ino asked dreamily. Sakura didn't even reply, her focus entirely on the boy in front of them as he stood up from his sitting position. Getting his breathing under control, Sasuke took one last deep breath before performing a set of hand seals.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" Sasuke yelled out, spewing the huge ball of fire from his mouth. He held the jutsu for an impressive length of time, getting awe's from the two girls below him and even impressing Naruto himself. The flame itself grew to be about three times Sasuke's own size before he finally released it. The flaming ball soared out harmlessly over the lake before dissipating into steam.

"He's sooo cool." Ino said, cupping her face in her hands. "Ino Uchiha. Has a great ring to it, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, in a fantasy world maybe…"

"What was that, forehead?!"

Naruto rolled his eyes as the two broke out into their famed bickering, though much quieter than usual since they were trying not to get caught. All in all this had been wasted effort as far as Naruto was concerned, though what he had witnessed before him had sparked an idea in his head.

"Oi!" Naruto called out from the tree's above, shocking both Sasuke and the girls below as they were alerted to his presence. Dropping down to the ground, Sasuke's face went from surprise to annoyance once he saw who had called him out.

"What are you doing here, idiot. Get lost." Sasuke said, turning back to face the lake.

"You know, I have a theory that behind that antisocial exterior of yours you're actually quite fond of me." Naruto said, giving him a grin. Sasuke scoffed at his words, though he had turned to actually hear the blonde out. "That was pretty impressive. I was wondering if you'd be interested in a little spar?"

The glint in Naruto's eyes was matched by that of Sasuke's. Though he would never admit it, he had always taken notice of Naruto's abilities as a shinobi. He was an idiot for sure, but when it came to the actually combative aspect of the academy Naruto had practically been second behind Sasuke ever since he had arrived. In his eyes, this could at least be a chance to see just how above he was his fellow competition.

"Fine. But don't blame me for what happens. I'm not holding back." Sasuke said, shoving his hands in his pockets with a smirk. Naruto matched it with a wild smile, folding his arms behind his head as a light stretch.

"I'd be worried for you if you did." He replied back. Truth be told, he was a little angrier at how soundly he was beaten by Gai than he let on. He was actually looking to burn off some well built up steam. "Rules?"

"Loser submits." Sasuke said simply. Naruto nodded in agreement, and with that the two both faced each other squarely. A few feet away, Ino and Sakura were still watching from behind the foliage, with the former noticing the sudden shift in the atmosphere.

"I think they're going to fight." Ino said, squinting to get a better look.

"Really?" Sakura replied, looking back out in concern. "You don't think they're going to hurt each other do you?"

"I would like to think these two would have more sense than that." Ino said, though the uncertainty was apparent in her voice. Naruto and Sasuke were both the two most competitive kids in the class outside of Kiba. It was a reason Iruka-sensei kept them from sparring with each other. Still, things couldn't get too bad right?

Sasuke attacked first. He went straight towards Naruto, hoping to catch him off guard with his speed. To his surprise though he could tell that Naruto was following him the entire way, and was prepared to counter any attack he could perform. Swearing, he came to a hard stop to quickly think of his next move.

Noticing this, Naruto decided to take his chances. Using Sasuke's momentary hesitance, he closed in quickly and struck him with a powerful kick upwards to the chest, lifting Sasuke off the ground and causing the two onlookers to wince in empathetic pain. In a swirling motion Naruto followed it up with another kick that knocked Sasuke away, who to his credit managed to recover mid air and right himself before he landed on the ground. He clutched his chest in pain, taking in a few heavy breaths before looking up with a glare.

He charged forward again, lashing out with a barrage of punches. To the untrained eye it seemed like Sasuke was overwhelming Naruto; this was provien by the silent cheering coming from Ino and Sakura on the sidelines. The truth was that none of Sasuke's attacks had managed to actually connect with Naruto. They were all either parried or dodged completely.

Sasuke dropped to the ground and attempted to kick out Naruto's feet, but in an acrobatic showing he flipped over the move and land a few steps away back in defense mode. Slowly, the two circled around each other, daring the other to take the first strike.

Again, Sasuke bit the bullet, but he had wisened up to Naruto's skill level. Reaching behind him, in one swift motion he launched five shuriken in Naruto's direction. For a moment the youth was frozen in shock, but instincts kicked in and once again he launched himself into a series of backflips, this time putting a great deal of distance between them. On the last flip, he launched one shuriken of his own to counter the final one coming his way.

The two collided, sparking as they flew off into different directions. Naruto landed effortlessly with a slide, glaring back up at Sasuke as he stood. "We never agreed on using weapons."

"Loser submits, those were the rules." Sasuke said, narrowing his own eyes. "Besides, how are you doing that."

Naruto blinked in confusion before looking down and noticing he was no longer standing on a solid surface. "You mean water walking? Gai-sensei taught it to me."

Sasuke was going to reply when loud yelling from the side interrupted the both of them. "Hey, morons! Look at what you did!" Ino yelled, shuffling out from behind the trees with Sakura swamped over her shoulder. Looking down, Naruto grimaced at the sight of blood running down her lower leg."Who the hell uses lethal weapons during a friendly spar? Are you trying to actually kill each other? And look at what you did to Sakura!"

"I forgot you guys were there, sorry!" Naruto yelled out, bowing over to show how apologetic he was. Sasuke scoffed and looked away with his arms over his chest, though he did spare the girl a second look to see how bad it actually was.

"Forgot?" Ino questioned, raising an eyebrow at his choice of words but deciding to move on. "Never mind that. Naruto! Help me take her to the hospital," Ino said angrily, with the boy immediately complying. He took the girl off her shoulders, repeatedly saying apologies while Ino turned back to Sasuke. "And you. I'm especially disappointed in you, Sasuke-kun. Shame!" With a pointed finger, she huffed and turned around to follow Naruto and Sakura back into the village. Sasuke blinked at her words before his face fell into a sulk, shoving his hands in his pockets while he kicked at the ground beneath him.

"Hn…"

Naruto meanwhile was still receiving a mouth full from Ino as they made it into the village gates. He breathed out a sigh of relief once they finally made it to the medical district, though he didn't know if it was for himself or Sakura's sake. Ino took care of checking her in with a nurse, returning with a wheelchair for Naruto to place Sakura in. Sitting her down, he gave one more bow as he nervously scratched the back of his head. "Sorry again, I really feel bad."

"It's ok Naruto, you don't have to keep apologizing. Accidents happen," She said. She gave a quick pained smile to help reassure him seeing as the guilt was still present on his face before Ino passed her over to the nurse. With that settled, the two made their way out of the building. Naruto quickly turned the opposite way, hoping to slip away before Ino could get another word out but apparently didn't do so fast enough as her hand gripped his shoulder and swung him around to face her. At first her stare was still full of anger but it eventually settled into a mixture of annoyance and regret.

"Thank you for helping me take her back, and sorry if i went a little overboard on the way here. It's…well, sometimes I can kind of be overly protective of her." Ino said, looking away and rubbing her arm in embarrassment. "Are we cool?"

The face she was giving him made Naruto blush, having never had a girl his age stare at him so directly before. "No need to apologize, it was my fault she got hurt in the first place. I would have offered even if you hadn't asked." Naruto replied. His blush deepened as Ino's face perked back up to its usual smugness and she stood back to her full height.

"See you in the academy, I guess?" She said, giving a wave as she moved to walk off. Naruto returned it, turning to head to his own home before her voice called out to him again.

"Oh, and happy birthday! Now that I know I'm your elder, I'm expecting an extra level of respect from you starting now!" She called out, grinning and waving once more before taking off. Naruto stared in shock, wondering how she had figured that out. He had only told a select few people about that information. Scratching his head once more, he couldn't hold back the strange feeling of happiness washing over him as a smile formed on his face.

'Mom was right. Girls are weird.'

Lolllllllll

Hi guys. Long time no speak. Won't bore you with the details, it's been a shitty month to say the least. This one's been done but I just never proofread it. Hiatus over though, team placements next chapter. .

Joy, oh joy. Sorry for the wait.