Hi guys sorry it's been so long, here's the unbetaed but re-edited version. I'm stuck writing chapter 30 I'm about level to where Sasuke gets bit by Orochimaru and Anko comes in but yeah, hate writing in the middle of arcs.

spiritwolf35 for you here's the next chapter.

Please enjoy it, lol.

Thank you for the alerts and reviews.

Naruto = flash back

'Naruto' is thoughts/thinking

"Naruto" signing/sign language

"Naruto" speaking.

"Naruto" Demon

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto just some DVDs and games.

Chapter 24

Iruka sensei walked with his class towards the training grounds since they had over heard that Konohamaru had interrupted Naruto's training with the other genin of his year they had decided that they wanted to see Naruto training. Secretly he knew it was a ploy to get him to teach them again. But when they put their minds to it this class could really push all of Iruka's buttons.

The arrived at the top of the hill where they found the genin training, they all quickly spotted Naruto on the other side of the river facing off against Sasuke, which was never a good thing in Iruka's opinion. They made they're way down the hill to the other side of the river watching in awe as the genin danced back and forth in the delicate dance known as battle.

Sasuke spotted the academy children on the other side of the river, he wasn't about to lose to Naruto the pathetic little idiot. He took a deep breath and released a giant fire ball it was wide of Naruto who looked to see where it was going eyes widened he dropped his kunai and shot after the fireball. He disappeared and reappeared on the water in front of the kids he slammed his down into the water pushing his chakra out causing the water to rise up creating a wall of water in front of him, he made it bigger and held it as the fireball met it.

Steam hissed as the teams and students looked on as the steam obscured the view. At last the steam cleared to reveal a panting Naruto with water dripping down his face. He smirked, his hands dropping to his sides as he tried to catch his breath. His eyes were a cold steel blue grey, as he stared at Sasuke.

"You okay?" Naruto asked over his shoulder, looking back at the class behind him. He saw the amount of scared faces and Iruka stood in front of them.

"What the hell were you thinking? You can't just go around firing wide!" he snarled.

Sasuke just glared back breathing hard.

"Well I want an answer, there are innocent people here!" Naruto shouted.

"Naruto!" Iruka was frozen on the edge of the pool.

But it was enough to pull Naruto away from his anger as he walked over to the academy class. He crouched down in front of Moegi as he tried to get her to smile. Kakashi walked over to Sasuke his hand dropping onto his shoulder.

"Sasuke do you realise how dangerous that was don't you?" Kakashi asked as he bent down looming over his student.

"It was an accident." Sasuke muttered.

"Sasuke." Kakashi pushed.

"It won't happen again." Sasuke muttered glaring at him.

Naruto was angry he knew Sasuke was never wide; he always, always hit his target.

"Naruto sensei? When can you come back to class?" a little girl asked, pulling him from his reprieve.

'Naruto sensei?' they all thought.

"You know it was a one time thing." Naruto bent down to her level.

"But we miss you." She pouted.

"You're awesome, and Iruka sensei could really use the help."

"Perhaps if you lot behave, I know you've been rather mean to Iruka sensei lately." Naruto's face softened as he spoke to the academy students. "Besides I'm not actually qualified as a teacher." He smiled as he stood up. "Good luck Iruka Sensei." He waved and jogged back to the team's training.

Iruka spluttered as his class turned round all glaring at him.

"Naruto!" Iruka called, "We're going to be the other side of this pool, for a while." He looked back to his class who all had their arms crossed and an annoyed look on their faces. Naruto sighed and created a clone which he sent back over the water to the students.

"Naruto Sensei?" Hinata asked.

"I helped out in class once ever since I got rid of Mizuki; Iruka sensei hasn't had a classroom assistant."

"That's impressive." Shikamaru agreed. "You know perhaps we could all help out every now and then." An idea was obviously forming in his head.

"Heads up!" Naruto shouted as a kunai came flying towards them.

Hinata reacted first spinning out of the way and taking Shikamaru with her as Naruto grabbed the kunai by the handle halting its momentum. They all looked up to see the student who had thrown the projectile. Yaku the boy with blonde hair that struggled to find the land of earth was the culprit.

"That's an incredible amount of progress you've made Yaku but remember it's not strength that counts but accuracy." Naruto shouted across the river at the shocked boy. "You can work on power later for now concentrate on hitting the target." He watched the boy nod slowly.

He threw the kunai back and watched as it flew past Yaku and landed in bedded in the tree behind the academy class.

The rookie nine all looked at Naruto shocked, he had unintentionally revealed more about himself with the presence of the academy students then he had his entire life with them.

"You're really different around them."Shikamaru stated.

"Not really." Hinata spoke as she nudged Naruto's shoulder again. "This is the Naruto I get to see all the time." She said as she walked away with Naruto towards his team and Ino.

"This is what Naruto's really like we're just not paying enough attention to notice." Choji paused from eating his chips.

Shikamaru and Shino looked at each other as they agreed.

(Line)

Naruto stood behind Shikamaru as he played Shogi with Asuma; he cocked his head to the side as he watched them play.

"You've never played shogi before have you?" Shikamaru asked as Naruto's shadow fell across him.

Naruto shook his head as he watched the two battle it out on the shogi bored, Shino stood behind him as he too watched the game. They were sat in between Kurenai and Kakashi who stood watching the pairs sparring. Lately Shino and Shikamaru had been paying a lot of attention to Naruto, which meant that Choji had too, not that there wasn't much Choji didn't know. Since Naruto and Asuma had been learning to cook courtesy of his parents he was able to get to know Naruto more.

Ino and Sakura where sat leaning back watching Sasuke battle Choji while Kiba and Akamaru fought against Hinata.

Choji was knocked back by Sasuke again. Naruto looked up at Choji and smiled walking out he swapped with Choji who eagerly moved to sit beside Shikamaru. This caught Shikamaru's attention as he watched Naruto fight with Sasuke out the corner of his eye.

"How long do you think it will take for Sasuke to beat Naruto?" Ino asked Sakura.

"Knowing Naruto, not very long." Sakura chuckled.

Kiba and Hinata dropped down next to them with Akamaru rolling onto his back exposing his belly as Shikamaru sighed and stood up to join Shino in their spar. Hinata scowled as she over heard the girls conversation, but as she watched Naruto fight she remembered that Naruto never fought full out with anyone, not even Sasuke.

Sasuke had just sent a fireball towards Naruto; luckily there were no academy students around today. Naruto dodged it, he sent another towards him and another and another each time Naruto dodged it, it was annoying the hell out of him. Sasuke growled and shot off another one as he released some kunai and shuriken either side of his fireball. He scowled when Naruto flipped over it and sent another where Naruto was landing.

Everyone jumped to their feet as the fireball engulfed Naruto. The smoke drifted past obscuring their view but when it lifted they saw Naruto. He was completely burned but walking slowly forwards. His clothes were charred and had numerous holes in them. And his skin was flaking away like paper in the wind, revealing perfect new skin underneath. He ran a hand up and across his face removing the ash from his hair.

"I think I should sit down." Naruto spoke as he walked over to the edge where they all sat gaping at him.

"How'd you do that Naruto? You should have been badly burned." Ino exclaimed.

"Advanced healing factor," He shrugged. "But it takes a lot out of me." He winced slightly as he sat down.

Sasuke scowled at him as he dropped down next to Naruto, he kept glancing at Naruto out the corner of his eye. What did he mean about an advanced healing factor? Was that how he kept up with him because he was constantly healing? He frowned that didn't make sense but if it was something the dobe learned than maybe he could too.

The sensei's glanced at each other as the genin dismissed what Naruto said shrugging it off even as Naruto hung his head dropping his bangs to cover his eyes. They knew he was referring to the kyuubi. The sparring continued around them, seeing as Naruto was perfectly fine and willing to continue with their team day.

(Line)

They had been split into two teams; Shikamaru was in charge of Choji, Hinata, and Naruto. And they had to come up with a plan to win against Sasuke's team. He turned to Naruto as they huddled together.

"What do you think?"

"Sasuke is arrogant, but quick and powerful, Ino and Sakura might get into an argument about Sasuke if we're lucky, I'm not sure about Shino so much but Kiba's hot headed,"

"What?"

"Well when Sasuke gets angry he gets sloppy,"

"So if we get Sasuke angry that leaves us with Shino."

"Umm slight problem with that, look," Choji pointed they looked up to see Shino holding back Kiba who was trying very hard to get at Sasuke. Akamaru stopped mid lunge as Shikamaru caught him with his shadow.

"Team swap. Team 10 versus team 7 then whoever wins goes against team 8." Shikamaru called.

"Hmph whatever." Sasuke muttered.

"Sorry Naruto." Hinata and Shikamaru whispered as Hinata grabbed Akamaru and walked away to their sensei's while Shino dragged a still struggling Kiba over.

"It's okay." He waved them off and walked over to his team.

Naruto looked up as he sensed team Takeru at the edge of the training ground. Unfortunately that was when Naruto got caught in Shikamaru's shadow jutsu he looked round in time to see Choji's gigantic fist swing round at him, making eye contact with Shikamaru he pushed chakra into his feet and jumped up over Choji's incoming fist and landed cat like on the floor. He smirked and shot forwards as team 10 blinked at him. Sasuke charged forward at the same moment, Naruto heading towards Shikamaru as Sasuke headed towards Choji both just recovering from their shock. Both made contact at the same time Naruto knocked Shikamaru back as Sasuke knocked Choji down. That was two out of three down.

They both turned and watched Ino and Sakura circling each other like hissing cats, when they lunged at each other they meet with nails and hair pulling and slapping. Naruto looked to Shikamaru and Choji, titling his head towards the two girls who were now rolling around on the floor, they both hung their heads and shook them in disappointment as the girls fight plainly became a cat fight. Naruto walked over to the two girls Sasuke following along behind, Naruto bent down and extracted Ino easily from the tangle of limbs and hair pulling, while Sasuke grabbed Sakura.

Ino was suddenly lifted off of Sakura by two strong arms wrapping around her waist her hair was a mess and falling in front of her face, she tried flaying around trying to lessen the grip but found that it got tighter as she was pulled back into a rather solid chest. From a gap in her hair she caught sight of Sakura being wrestled in much the same manner as her but with Sasuke the one holding her back. Turning her head just enough she found she was being held by Naruto, and that it was his strong arms and firm chest she was pulled against. She stopped her struggling as she realised this.

Naruto walked back towards Shikamaru and Choji and placed Ino down in between them; he smiled down at her and turned making his way over to his team as Ino blushed in between her two male team mates. They looked at Ino sat between them and smirked trying to hold back their laughter. It was fairly obvious that Naruto had had a growth spurt as well as developing more muscle tone as was defined in his arms which were always on show because of the short sleeved t shirt he wore.

"What are you two laughing at?" Ino asked in irritation.

"You." Shikamaru chuckled. "You're blushing." He laughed.

"I AM NOT!" She pouted.

"Yeah you are and Naruto was the one to make you blush." Choji chuckled.

"Well he shouldn't have such a firm chest and strong arms…"

"…and amazing blue eyes." Shikamaru finished. Ino scowled at him. "A lot of females have started to notice Naruto, like that girl over there, and Hinata and the academy students. It's just you and Sakura who haven't noticed." He continued to chuckle at Ino's shocked face.

Ino watched as Naruto went over to the purple haired girl and they hugged and as Shikamaru pointed out the girl blushed as her two team mates spoke and laughed with Naruto. She watched at how at ease he was with them. He was so carefree and relaxed, not at all like he was when he was with Sasuke and Sakura. Slowly he walked back to his team as the other team he had been talking to walked away. When he joined his team she watched as Naruto was shouted at by Sakura and Sasuke just glared at him, while he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, as their sensei just looked on.

Ino turned to her team mates. "He's so different around them."

"I know right, you know they we're in Iruka's original class before he took over from us. Naruto spent nearly all of his time with them." Shikamaru smirked falling back into the grass.

"Amazing when you catch a glimpse of the real Naruto isn't it, not the one we all assumed he was." Choji spoke up opening a new bag of chips.

"Okay, teams that's enough for today." Asuma clapped his hands together drawing their attention to him. He lit a cigarette stuffing his hands into his pocket.

Sorry about the mistakes and grammar and things.
once again sorry to keep you all waiting so long, (I hate it when you wait forever for a new chapter) please forgive me, I don't kill anyone off for a while...I think.

Review if you like, Suggestions for beta's if you want, I know I need it. See you soon.