Authors note:

i. In case it wasn't already obvious, I'll be marking the date as dd/mm/yy. The day and month are self-explanatory and year 0 on the AV system is obviously when Konohagakure was officially founded, ushering an end to the warring clans era, and the beginning of the shinobi villages. Naruto was born on 10/10/65. There you go. Check out, Believe it. - Timeline of the Naruto Universe, if you have more questions about the timeline, because for the most part that's what I'll be using.

ii. Did you know that the brown part of a cigarette is a filter? It's used to filter out most of the chemicals, you know so you don't die after smoking 2 packs of cigarettes. After all, they want to make as much money off you as possible. Cigarettes burn away most of the chemicals, the hotter the cleaner. I thought this was interesting so I applied this to Hiruzen's pipe.

iii. For anyone worried about the lack of combat in my fics so far don't worry about it. That's coming up soon. I think that, one of the problems many fics have, is that they jump directly into combat. This is a problem because it ruins the exposition. Juxtaposed with combat, the introduction of characters, explanation of concepts and topics feel less important. It undermines the exposition. Combat is Rising tension, it's the building of suspense, it's the climax of an arc; those things do not usually belong in the exposition. Combat will happen later.

iv. For those of you wondering why Kakashi took so long to get to training ground 3 after knocking Naruto and Sasuke out. There's a perfectly reasonable explanation. A black cat crossed his path, and he had to take the long way around.

v. Kishimoto didn't introduce the idea of the uzumaki clan until at the earliest manga chapter 412 we can forgive people in the original naruto for not recognizing him as one, after all they did not exist, and even if they did naruto looked nothing like them, had no talent for sealing, and his massive chakra reserves were not discovered until he graduated. However, since in this fic naruto has read hair and a talent for sealing, her class knows she's actually an uzumaki and not some no-name orphan who was given the name uzumaki as a sign of pity because all his family died.

vi. I am well aware about most people's feelings about Naruto's verbal tic. It was really annoying, especially in the original Naruto, and I am not writing Dattebayo or Believe it after every sentence Naruto says. I will however be using Kushina's verbal tick to replace Naruto's. Kushina says dattebane when she gets excited or angry, so I'll throw it in whenever I find it appropriate or funny. I know some people don't like it at all, but don't worry too much, I might use it once or twice per chapter, but nothing excessive.

Chapter 2: Day Two Troubles

23 January 78 AV (After Villages)

When Naruto Uzumaki woke up to the sound of birds chirping and the light of the sun hitting her in the face, she yawned and tried to stretch.

Then the red hearted genin realized that she couldn't and was, in fact, tied to a stump. It was obviously morning, around sunrise, so about 7:00 which meant she had been sleeping like this for about 17 hours. That explained why she felt so sore.

Blinking the sleep out of her eyes so she could see straight, Naruto began to read the crude sign. The paper was obviously written by Sasuke, it was his handwriting and he'd signed it,

Dear, annoying red-head.

Kakashi told me not to untie you once I got myself free, but that was obviously a teamwork friendship test, and I was going to ignore him.

Then I realized it would be way funnier to just leave you here.

Naruto growled in annoyance.

However I won't leave you to flounder around on your own. You're clearly incompetent, and it's my job as a fellow shinobi to make sure you're alright.

Naruto's eyebrow began to twitch.

My advice to you would be to try and do your shadow clone jutsu without hand signs. If you can't manage that, (and I suspect you won't, your chakra control is abysmal) then I will be back at 10 AM to cut you down. This is also coincidently when we will start training tomorrow.

Naruto sighed, gratefully. Kinda, she was more pissed than grateful.

Additionally I will bring you something for breakfast, considering I've never seen you consume anything vaguely resembling nutrition I do think you'll need it.

Best wishes — Sasuke.

Naruto's eyebrow began to twitch took a deep breath, she had shit that she needed to do, the future hokage couldn't let herself get held up by something as simple as this.

—

It was early morning, only 8 AM, but Sarutobi Hiruzen rose with the sun. As the Hokage, he knew that the village never slept, so he was used to being awake at odd times.

Considering this everything was normal, boring even. The fresh crisp morning air had made his training pleasant. The birds chirping outside his window just before sunrise had been a much more enjoyable way to wake up than usual. His paperwork was growing smaller and smaller everyday as he created more efficient ways to process it.

Hiruzen took a deep drag from his pipe, and blew out a small plume of smoke. The elderly man wasn't actually smoking of course, he was a ninja, and a hokage, he could not afford to be impaired in any manner.

Hiruzen was actually performing a complicated chakra exercise. He was creating a small amount of Fire nature chakra in his chest when he inhaled, as the old man exhaled the nature of the chakra rapidly changed. From fire to water earth and lightning. As expected the combination of these three elements was inert, and became smoke. Hiruzen then infused the smoke with wind chakra so he could manipulate it into all sorts of shapes after exhaling. Hiruzen had found the excessive a helpful tool to keep his chakra control sharp, and as a bonus, it added to the wise old man motif.

In addition his pipe was a series of complicated filters, (one much like the filter on a cigarette, which was why the pipe still smoked gently) that was designed to filter the air around him in case of a gas attack.

Hiruzen sighed. Everything was normal. Except for the man in front of him, Hatake Kakashi. Hatake looked serious, and he knew it was time to have that talk.

Hi did however want to forestall it for as long as possible. Hiruzen took another puff of his not-pipe and gazed steadily at Kakashi.

"How did your team do?"

"They passed with flying colors. Although it's not like I had much of a choice, those two need to be prepared for what's ahead." Kakashi replied. "I couldn't afford to send them to the reserves."

The God of Shinobi nodded his agreement, and his face suddenly became serious, he gave the hand seal to dismiss the ANBU, but allowed one of the Root ninja to stay. There was a moment of contemplative silence, as Kakashi decided on how to begin.

"How fucked are we?"

"Jiraya informs me that the civil war in Kiri has ended."

Kakashi was floored. "Six months ahead of schedule? How is that possible?"

"According to our intel, Terumi Mei, the leader of the Bloodline Rebels, managed to locate Momochi Zabuza and his apprentice in wave country. As Zabuza's apprentice was never a registered bloodline user or shinobi, they were able to perform a successful assasination of the Mizukage."

"Damn!" Kakashi cursed.

"It is likely that they will be joining the next Chunin exams, they will need to put on a strong front." Hiruzen noted.

Kakashi was silent.

"In addition to Kiri, Suna is becoming more and more restless, as we both know, Kumo never demilitarized, Iwa is still as hostile as ever."

"I see, so how bad will it be?"

"Kakashi. We may not be at war yet, but your team is going to feel like it. You've got till March."

Kakashi nodded. "And the Chunin exams?"

"Hinata Hyuga will be officially joining team seven in the Chunin exams. She will train with the rest of your team biweekly until march."

Kakashi shifted, "Can I tell them?"

Hiruzen's face darkened. "Let Itachi tell Sasuke the truth, you can give him some very broad hints, but otherwise let it be. For Naruto, I leave that up to your judgment. Naruto's secrets won't remain that way past the Chunin exam finals, if that."

Hriuzen paused to give Kakashi a significant look. "It's why I've had her seals since the massacre. The girl is scarily good at them, just like her father.

Kakashi stood, and moved to the door. Hiruzen deactivated the privacy seals and watched the only reason Konoha still stood, walk out the door.

—

Naruto watched in dismay as the shadow clone she had finally managed to summon, tripped and stabbed itself in the hand, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Fuck"

—

Sakura opened the door to the Yamanaka flower shop. The seal on the door making a ding sound to let someone know a customer had entered. It was early in the morning around 9:00, the shop wasn't open and the shop was empty except for Ino, who looked up from the daisies she was arranging and smiled.

"Oh! Hello, Sakura-chan." Ino paused but was cut off by the crazy look she saw in Sakura's eyes.

"Where were you yesterday? I looked all over the place for you!"

"Wha-"

Sakura grabbed Ino by the shoulders and began to shake her back and forth. "I found some big news! Big news, girl!"

Ino was a gossip, everyone knew it, she was Konohagakure's unofficial gossip queen, as a clan heir when Ino talked people tended to listen. Sakura by virtue of being Ino's friend had become like the queen's herald, bringing news of far away land's, and interesting rumors to whisper into Ino's ears.

Sakura let go of her best friend, Ino's eyes gleamed. "Spill."

"So you know the guy who freaked out everyone back at the academy? Sakura prompted. She covered her left eye with her hand. "The one that came in late reading smut."

"You mean Hatake Kakashi?" Ino asked, apprehensive. "The Copy-nin? The Silver Fang? Konoha's War Hound? Kakashi of the sharingan? Ex-ANBU captain, arguably the strongest jounin in the village? That Kakashi?"

"Yeah, him!" Sakura exclaimed. "I didn't know he had so many titles though." Then she blanched.

"Yeah. That's because you never paid attention during Iruka's history lectures, you always had your nose cramped in those chakra theory books." Ino scoffed. "The guy's a war hero. Hatake-sensei is the only surviving student of the Yondaime Hokage. He became a genin at 5, chunin at 6, and then a jounin at age 12." Ino rolled her eyes. "My dad talks about him all the time, something about his mask."

Sakura shook her head, her big mouth aside, this wasn't why she had come here. "Well anyway, He dropped by after we passed the real test, and, long story short, Kakashi knows who Naruto's parents are."

"Really?" Ino's eyes sparkled.

Sakura nodded. Naruto's parents were a subject of fascination. As an Uzumaki, and thus part of an old and powerful clan, whose members were all but extinct, people should have known of her parents.

There had been an entire segment of their history classes on the Uzumaki. The hokage had been there, saying that it was important to remember their fallen allies, and not forget them. He had explained that this was why every chunin and jounin had the Uzumaki swirl on their flak jacket.

Someone had pointed out that Naruto was an Uzumaki. The hokage had tried to tell them that Naruto wasn't really an Uzumaki, but Shikamaru, who had actually been awake for once, had pointed out that she was obviously an Uzumaki, because she had red hair and had an unnatural talent for seals that none of the class possessed. Hokage tried to call it coincidence, but Naruto had piped up with, "But you said that ninja don't believe in coincidence, they hear about them all the time, but no one's ever actually seen one."

Ino didn't think she'd ever see the hokage sweat like that ever again.

"Well, who are they?"

"Well, he didn't say anything about her dad other than the fact that Naruto snores just as loud as he did."

Ino winced. Naruto had fallen asleep in class once. No one let it happen again.

"But he did say plenty about her mother." Sakura reported. "Her name was Kushina Uzumaki, Kakashi-sensei said that any of the shinobi our parents' age would know about her."

Yamanaka Inoichi, who had just walked out of the back drinking a glass of water, arrived in time to make out what his daughter's friend had said. The clan head inhaled sharply.

Unfortunately, Inoichi had been drinking water when he had decided to be surprised, and began to cough violently, giving away his position.

The two girls turned sharply to face him, hungry looks in their eyes.

—

When Izumi wasn't looking, Sasuke grabbed one of the cherry tomatoes and popped it into his mouth.

"Hey, those are for your lunch!" Izumi protested when she realized that one of the tomatoes was missing.

Sasuke shrugged. "We have more, besides Naruto doesn't like tomatoes."

"Correction, she doesn't like vegetables," Izumi responded. "Doesn't mean she needs any less of them."

"Hn." Sasuke grunted and grabbed another bag of tomatoes out of the refrigerator. "Tomatoes are a fruit."

Iaumi cuffed him lightly on the back of the head with an annoyed huff. "She still needs to eat them, regardless of what form of plant matter they are."

Sasuke nodded his head in agreement. There was a moment of silence. Izumi set aside two finished lunches, and began to cut vegetables for her own.

"I'm a genin now."

The air gained a tense edge at Sasuke's words, and Izumi stiffened, her knife going still, mid-slice. "Sasuke…" she warned.

"I'm one step closer to killing him." The tense atmosphere became rigid, the air felt like a pane of glass as Sasuke's juvenile killing intent trickled into the pair's kitchen. "I will use my hatred to kill him, and avenge our clan."

Izumi's expression shifted from guarded to stony, as blank as her ANBU mask. "Sasuke, you need to move on."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Sasuke spat, his hands clenched into fists.

Sasuke's sharingan was active, two tomoe spinning violently. The eyes replayed the image of his parents' corpses lying on the floor not two doors down the hall, his brother standing over them. The moment was forever burned into his mind pulsing like red hot iron, his seething hatred branding the moment into his skull.

Izumi placed the knife she had been using to cut vegetables down on the cutting board. She didn't want to be holding a weapon while they had this discussion.

"Your hatred of Itachi is blinding you." Izumi said flatly.

Sasuke whirled to face Izumi, his immature sharingan blazing with hatred, unflinchingly meeting the cold gaze of her mangekyou.

"And you are blind to the fact that my brother never loved you!" Sasuke snapped, his voice rising in volume and intensity.

"That he played you! That Itachi never loved anyone, stop deluding yourself into believing otherwise!" Sasuke was shouting now, but Izumi didn't flinch away from his words, she just stared at the boy in front of her.

"Stop defending him! He's a monster! My hatred allows me to see the truth. The truth you, with your mangekyou, are blind to!" Sasuke finished, quivering with rage."

"Hatred is the reason your parents are dead." Izumi stated flatly. Sasuke's flinched.

"It's the reason our clan is the weakest in Konoha. Hatred is what drove your brother to do what he did." Sasuke stepped back, opening his mouth, but Izumi continued.

"Your hatred makes you blind to the truth, trapped in a genjutsu of your own creation!" Sasuke shivered as Izumi's voice rose, her chakra filling the room with a cold oppressive weight. One greater than Sasuke had ever experienced.

"You cannot see past your own illusions, your false reality!" Izumi began to shout. "Even with those eyes of yours you cannot see what is right in front of you."

Sasuke tried to protest, "I-

"WAKE UP TO REALITY!" Izumi screamed. "You don't hate Itachi for the massacre Sasuke! You hate him for leaving you!"

White hot tears began to run down Sasuke's face, despite his struggles to keep from crying. He grabbed the lunches and stormed off, slamming the door behind him.

When she heard the front door close with a bang. Izumi slumped to the floor, and sighed wearily.

"Itachi, what should I do? You asked me to look after your brother, to protect him from the truth, but I can't watch another person be consumed by our clan's hatred."

—

Hinata lay flat on her back in the field just outside training ground 44, breathing heavily. Her unusually heavy jacket had been removed, as per Anko's instruction.

With the jacket off Anko' had been able to more accurately assess Hinata's progress on the gentle fist.

Anko sat cross legged nearby, going through a notepad. "Well you certainly aren't the best with your family's Taijutsu style." She commented,

Hinata fliniched. "Hai sensei."

"Oh calm down." Anko exclaimed exasperated. "You're certainly not bad. You're no prodigy for sure, but you're much better than the average Hyuga, and you'll improve with experience. All shinobi do."

Hinata sat up slowly, looking mildly intrigued. "Really sensei?"

Anko hummed. "From what I've heard from the few times I've seen Gai-san drunk, your cousin Neji is the most prodigious Hyuuga in living memory. Comparing you to Neji is like comparing me to one of the sannin. Sure Orochimaru and I have some similar moves, but he's just on a whole nother level."

Anko grumbled something under her breath about slimy bastards that Hinata wished she hadn't heard.

"You hesitate a lot with your strikes," Anko observed as she flipped another page, she hummed, "You're afraid of hurting anyone, a fair concern, especially with the juken. But it will get you killed."

Hinata flinched again.

"A few C-ranks will break you of the habit." Anko shrugged. "Or you'll die."

Hinata made a sound that sounded remarkably like "Eep."

Anko flipped a page in her notebook. "As it is I think our time would be best suited with training you in the subtler arts of a shinobi. Poisons and iryo-ninjutsu."

"Your family is better suited to developing your taijutsu style, and any ninjutsu besides the basic supplementary ones won't mesh well with your fighting style." Anko paused, "That could change later if you want it too, it all depends on how you develop as a Kunoichi, but for now I'd suggest we don't go around pissing off your clan."

"Is there anything you'd like to add, Hinata-chan?"

Hinata paused, but shook her head. "No, Anko-sensei."

Anko hummed, she couldn't force Hinata to open up, but she could trick her into it. "So there's nothing else you want to learn."

As an specialist in torture and interrogation, Anko knew that when people were being defensive, or closed off, it was better to ask questions in which a negative response, would be an agreement, for example. "Do you not want to go get dango?" It is harder for people to agree with something than to disagree with something.

"No, that's not it, Anko-sensei." Hinata began to poke her fingers together nervously. "But, uh, I think that summoning is pretty cool."

Anko gave Hinata a wide Cheshire grin, "Maybe." The snake mistress began to laugh uproariously, which caused Hinata to faint in fright.

—

When Sasuke stomped into training ground 3, 15 minutes before 10:00 he was surprised to see Kakashi-sensei already there standing in the middle of the river, looking over at a hissing and spitting Naruto, who had managed to break free of the ropes, and was attempting to make her displeasure known.

As Naruto attempted to do the water walking exercise and promptly fell in the very cold river Kakashi flipped through his book. "Ma, ma, Naruto-chan, be careful you don't want to get a cold, ne?"

"I can't get sick, Dattebane!" Naruto grumbled, pulling her shivering form out of the water.

Kakashi glanced up and gave the even-more-gloomy-than-usual Uchiha an eye smile. "Sasuke-kun, so good to see you. Ne, Naruto-chan?"

The red-head in question managed to give them both an impressively icy glare. "I'm not telling him." She growled. "It's none of his business."

"Ma, ma Naruto, as your teammate it is his business."

"What exactly is my business?" Sasuke demanded.

"Like I'd tell you duckbutt." Naruto scoffed. "Didn't you hear the conversation?"

"Hn." Sasuke's face was tight. "Whatever, I don't feel like dealing with your nonsense right now."

"I'll tell him if you won't." Kakashi threatened. "This is a need to know basis, and Sasuke-kun needs to know."

"I'll…" Naruto sighed. "Think about it" She grabbed one of the lunches Sasuke held and walked off to eat it. Stripping off her wet clothes and laying them out to dry.

"That one was mine." Sasuke grumbled, but there really wasn't much he could do, Naruto had already begun to dig in.

Turning to Kakashi, Sasuke asked, "What was that all about?"

"It's really something she has to tell you herself." Kakashi sighed. "For now, let's just say that Naruto-chan carries a large responsibility."

"You mean repopulating the Uzumaki clan?" Sasuke ventured, "We're not going to be stuck in the village doing D-ranks for the next 10 years are we?"

Kakashi paused. "Well the first part of that statement is actually true, and something I hadn't thought about, but no, you won't be forced to deal with D-ranks for the next 10 years. Naruto's position is arguably much more important."

"Teme! Why are there so many tomatoes? You know I hate those!"

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched, and he turned to face the still shivering girl. "Because that's my lunch you stole moron! This one is your's."

"Then give me that one!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing a finger at the lunch.

"No way, what would I eat?" Sasuke growled. "And put your clothes back on! I don't need to see your underwear."

Naruto grinned maliciously. "Oh Sasuke-kun you scoundrel! Keep your eyes off of me!" She crossed her arms over her chest, covering herself from sasuke's gaze.

A tick mark grew on Sasuke's forehead. "What are you doing, there's nothing for you to cover! You're so flat, Amegakure has more curves than you do." Kakashi's eyes widened and he disappeared in a shunshin.

Naruto dove for Sasuke with a feminine cry of outrage, and began trying to choke him to death, Saasuke substituted with a log, and followed Kakashi's example, getting the hell out of there.

—

Kiba and Akamaru paused in the middle of house painting, Akamaru had been using his mouth to hold a brush, and gaped. Team 8 watched Sasuke flee a half naked Naruto, who was hissing and spitting the most vile of curses.

"It's not my fault that an explosive tag has more curves than you do. Next time put some clothes on!" Sasuke yelled as he raced by team 8.

"I'm gonna kill you dattebane!"

Kurenai blinked. Shino adjusted his glasses. Kiba began to laugh hysterically. Sakura smacked him on the top of the head.

—

Shikamaru watched lazily as Sasuke shot by his shogi game against Asuma sensei on his way through the Nara compound.

"Next time don't act like such an idiot, there's nothing there, Shikamaru could play shogi where your boobs should be" Sasuke called out.

There was a thud as Narutp finally caught up to Sasuke and tackled him to the ground. Sasuke began to make strange gurgling sounds as Naruto tried to asphyxiate him.

"Troublesome."

Yoshino watched with amusement as the Uzumaki tried to murder Sasuke. That is scarily familiar, though I don't think Kushina was quite so bad at her age.

"I'll kill you you stupid sonofabicth, Datebanne."

Omake #2:

"So you're saying that the Yondime sealed the Kyuubi into her?" Sasuke jabbed his thumb towards the still sleeping Naruto. "I don't buy it."

Naruto snored loudly.

"I showed you the seal." Kakashi protested exasperated. Honestly, what more proof did the Uchiha want?

"No, I get that he did it, but why her?" Sasuke asked bewildered, "Surely there was someone else!"

Kakash gave an understanding nod. "The uzumaki are the only ones who can handle containing the Kyuubi." He explained.

Sasuke paused, "So the only reason the fourth trusted Naruto-Chan-" The girl in question made a particularly loud snore. "-Is because there was literally no one else?"

Kakashi noticed that Sasuke sounded relieved, he sweatdropped.