Authors note: Mmm…I bet most of you didn't expect me to update this. It's been like what…five months? In truth, I forgot about this completely. I only remembered when my friend reminded me of our little bet. Aaaaanyway. I promise I'll try not to take this long to update ever again... I still intend on winning that bet. So here's chapter 3.
// // Voice in Naruto's head
/ / Naruto 'talking' to the voice or to himself.
{ } Akamaru "talking" to Kiba.
Chapter 3: Confusion
Although the fact the feeling itself was unsettling for Sasuke, it was the reason behind this feeling that bothered him the most. He risked a glance back at Naruto, but quickly turned away when Naruto waved at him. A scowl crossed his face as he tried to figure out what had happened to Naruto. Sensing another's chakra wasn't a very hard thing to do, but he doubted many of the other ninjas in the room, even Iruka, could sense it very well. Otherwise they would have also been staring at Naruto. All living beings radiated a small fraction of their Chakra unless they were consciously trying to suppress it. What bothered Sasuke, wasn't the fact he could feel Naruto's chakra, but that he couldn't feel it at all. Naruto usually had a large amount of unfocused chakra about him. It spoke volumes on his poor control. Yet when he had suddenly started to attend class again, even Sasuke wasn't aware he had been in the room until he had shouted at Iruka.
He of course wasn't the only one who could sense Chakra well. Akamaru was also aware of Naruto's increase in ability, but it wasn't the chakra he couldn't feel that bothered him. He had always known Naruto possessed a huge amount of Chakra. In fact a lot of students here at the Academy did, but he could actually tell the amount of Chakra Naruto was hiding. It was immense, he had to have at least twice the amount of anybody in class...even Iruka. The fact that nobody here, not even Iruka, had noticed this spoke volumes for his control. There was also something about it he didn't like, but wasn't quite sure what it was. At first he had been worried it wasn't Naruto, but he still smelled like Naruto. So Akamaru wasn't all that worried. After all Naruto had always been a nice guy and even if he played pranks and teased people a lot. He was a good person. So Akamaru decided not to bother Kiba and make him worry about Naruto being a possible threat.
The truth of the matter was probably a bigger surprise to anyone, including Naruto. Many had always speculated that the Kyuubi's powerful chakra mixing with Naruto's own chakra made it difficult for him to control his Chakra. There was truth to this because Naruto's poor control was in fact superior then most when it came to handling great amounts of chakra, and while Naruto's own chakra was much larger then it had been when he had once been in the academy. It was no where near the amount he used to possess. It was like training with heavy weights. With the greater amount of weight, one would seem to move slow, but without it one would move much faster. This was no different. With less chakra to control, Naruto's control was absolutely perfect. All that was really stopping him from making a Rasengan spin on one hand was his own belief that he couldn't.
The voice in his head knew that the two weeks Naruto had spent working on his control were wasted in that regard. However, burning through his chakra like that was definitely going to help him improve on his stamina. Something he would need in the near future. So it let Naruto progress with that training, but since any sort of training would help improve stamina. He eventually insisted Naruto find something else to study. So for the past month he had been practicing Taijutsu in the woods after class for a couple hours every day. He eventually created his own Taijutsu exercise which was working wonders for his Taijutsu ability. Despite Naruto was upset with himself that he was nowhere close to matching Lee's full speed, since Sasuke had managed that in just a month, his improvement hadn't gone unnoticed by others.
That had been the other thing Sasuke had noticed. Naruto carried himself differently. Seeming to be much more skilled, he was even amazed when Naruto quickly caught a pencil that had rolled off his desk. Sasuke had barely been able to spot Naruto's hands when he made that incredibly swift catch. Had he not been wondering about Naruto's lack of presence he would have also completely missed that display of ability. So not only was Naruto gifted in chakra control, but his physical skill was nothing to be laughed at either. Sasuke grinned, here was an interesting ninja to test himself against. He continued to watch Naruto for the rest of the class, constantly trying to evaluate his skill level.
Kiba who often wondered what Akamaru found interesting about Naruto, took a while to evaluate Naruto himself. During one of the breaks, one of the other students made a comment about how Naruto would never graduate, Naruto seemed to take offense at this and dropped into a ready stance as he shouted at the other student. Even if Naruto was probably kidding around as he wouldn't really take a swing at another student. Kiba took his time to study Naruto's guard. Kiba didn't really judge himself as a Taijutusu expert, but as he watched Naruto he came to the conclusion that it would have been difficult for him to land an attack against Naruto. He wondered when Naruto had gotten so good. He decided he would ask Akamaru about it later, and put it out of his mind for the rest of the day.
Actually, the entire class had noticed a change in Naruto, but only Kiba and Sasuke really noticed the changes in skill level. Everyone else noticed a change in Naruto when Naruto began to pay attention in class and started to ask relevant and intelligent questions. Iruka summed up everyone else's surprised with one question he had asked several weeks ago.
"What did you do with Naruto?"
--------------
Class had ended for the day, and Kiba, Shikamaru, and Choji were walking together towards the Ichiraku. Shikamaru was staring at Naruto pondering something. Kiba was lost in conversation with Akamaru, and Choji was arguing with Naruto over how good Teriyaki was compared to Ramen. Shikamaru always thought Naruto was an interesting character, but it only got more interesting when Naruto paused in his conversation with Choji and looked over to Kiba.
"Did...your dog just call me a loser?" Naruto asked blankly.
Kiba looked surprised for a moment, but denied it. From just that Shikamaru knew that the dog had compared Naruto to a looser somehow. The absolutely bizarre moment continued. As Akamaru barked again, and a moment later Shikamaru noticed Naruto twitch, but he said nothing this time and returned to arguing with Choji. Shikamaru was almost certain Naruto had understood the dog clearly. However, what really happened was a little different.
--Flashback to a couple seconds before--
{It's strange. I don't understand how someone can become so skilled in such a short amount of time. It's like the looser of a race suddenly running twice as fast as everybody in front of him to win.}
"Yeah it doesn't really make any sense." Kiba agreed.
//Hey Naruto, Kiba's dog thinks you're a looser.//
/WHAT!? Wait...you can understand that mutt?/
//Yup. Go ahead and ask him yourself.//
"Uh...Did...Your dog just call me a looser?" He asked Kiba slowly.
{I did not! Well... I guess I did, it was a bad analogy! You really aren't!} Akamaru yelped in protest not sure if Naruto could actually understand him or not.
"Akamaru's not like that! He wouldn't call you a looser for no reason." Kiba yelled angrily, "although I would" he mentally added.
//Oooh and now he's telling you your rude because you interrupted their conversation!//
/I don't believe you. I don't think you understand that dumb dog./
//Think what you will, but you don't know what he really said, do you?//
Naruto's twitched because it was true, he didn't. He didn't even know why he asked. There was no reason to believe the voice knew what the dog was saying, it was probably just taunting him. After all, the voice was somehow a part of himself, and he knew he couldn't speak to animals... well at least he was pretty sure he couldn't, or the voice might not really be a part of him. After all the way it talked implied it considered itself as someone else. Yet it had said it was a part of him. Naruto sighed, this was why he didn't like thinking too hard about something. It only made his head hurt.
-------------
After Naruto, had paid for his meal and excused himself to go and train, Shikamaru and Kiba waited a couple minutes before deciding to follow him. Choji was still eating, and didn't even notice them leave. Ten minutes later they found themselves, sitting in a tree overlooking one of the training fields. Naruto hadn't even noticed they had followed him out there. Kiba wondered why Naruto had chosen one of the bigger fields reserved for team practices. The individual training fields were further into the forest and usually more secretive. Shikamaru wondered what Naruto was planning to practice out here because he was in the middle of the field rather then by the training stumps.
//Alright, Naruto...what's the plan today?//
/I think we're up to 40 now. You know that's a lot isn't it.//
//Y ou could probably do a lot more then that.//
/Yeah I could, but it's hard enough to win at this level as it is./
Naruto chuckled to himself as he readied his chosen training weapon.
"Needles? What in the world is he going to do with acupuncture needles?" Kiba asked as he squinted at the thin mental objects that Naruto was carrying. Naruto calmly placed them in the leg holster that would usually house his shuriken. He casually stretched out a bit, and then adopted a ready stance. Without another word he performed a handful of seals that neither of the two ninjas in the trees recognized. The next instant the field was full of Naruto's.
"That's a lot of Bunshins." Kiba whistled staring at the number.
The Bunshins were all facing Naruto. They all suddenly seemed to blur. The air was filled with the noise of combat, but neither ninja could really see what was going on. Their movements were surprisingly fast to them. Their speed was about the same as Lee's with the weights on. While that was nowhere near as impressive as Lee without them. Lee was still fast regardless. It took a while for Shikamaru and Kiba to adjust their eyes to watching Naruto's speed. From there it took just as long to register that Naruto was actually fighting his clones, and that the clones were in fact being hit and landing blows on Naruto as well.
"What sort of Jutsu is that?" Shikamaru asked in wide eyed fascination. As Naruto took a hit from a flying needle, he realized the needles were apparently as real as the clones. Naruto spun around and kicked the nearest bunshin while pulling out the needle. Naruto was glad he had them using needles instead of Shuriken. The needles hurt a lot less. The bunshin he had hit flew through the air and landed flat on its back behind all the other clones. It disappeared moments later. The mob of Naruto's were trying their hardest to bring down Naruto, but Naruto was expertly fighting them all off. It wasn't really a matter of strength or speed. As all of Naruto's clones were apparently just as fast and strong as he was, but pure skill. Many of Naruto's attacks seemed to have been adapted for group tactics. He left few openings, and his attacks were meant to fend off several opponents in different directions. A much more defensive type of combat style rather then his usual reckless offensive one that they had seen before. Each move flowed into the next one as he batted clones about left and right trying to keep them out of a certain radius around him in order to give him enough time to react to their movements.
"Have you ever seen anything like that?" Kiba asked in fascination. As Naruto used Kawarimi to switch places with a log, the log had taken the hail of needles that had been thrown before hitting the ground. Naruto reappeared in the air and landed outside of the circle. The clones surrounded him again within seconds, and Naruto continued to fight them all off. Parrying a punch from one he quickly punched that clone, and then without even bothering to look at the clone sneaking up behind him, sent his fist backwards and knocked that one out as well. Naruto did a quick head count of the clones that were surrounding him. Twenty three left, he smirked and went on the offense. Launching himself at the nearest group of clones. They were completely unprepared for the onslaught. He managed to knock four of them out of the fight and seriously hurt one, he hadn't hit it hard enough to destroy it, before the others managed to close in on him. He quickly forced them away from him with several kicks and a quickly thrown volley of needles. Naruto took a headcount again. Thirteen. He smirked, he might actually win this one.
He was finally caught off guard when one of the Bunshins suddenly sped up and got behind Naruto. Neither Kiba nor Shikamaru saw the Bunshin move that fast. It looked as if it had suddenly appeared behind Naruto, and dealt him a swift spin kick before disappearing. The bunshin had focused its chakra into its feet and accelerated behind Naruto, before kicking him. The fact that this had burned up all its chakra allowed it to land only one hit before it disappeared, but that one hit had knocked Naruto into the waiting arms of at least four more clones. Naruto disappeared under the mass of bunshins as they surged forward. Naruto sighed as he realized he would have to work on his guard some more. His hands were being kept apart so he couldn't form any seals, and the weight of all the clones were preventing him from moving his body with enough force to throw them off. He wondered just how he could get out of this situation. Squirming wasn't really helping him, and he couldn't perform any Jutsu. It looked like the clones had won this round.
"Gatsuuga!"
"Kiba?" Naruto asked in surprise as he recognized the name of Kiba's best taijutsu technique. The clones were violently thrown off him or destroyed when Kiba passed over. Naruto managed to get back to his feet despite his shock. Kiba's attack had destroyed all the clones that had had him pinned, "What are you doing here?" Naruto asked as he dropped the Jutsu and the rest of the clones disappeared.
Kiba blinked as the other clones he had missed disappeared. Realizing that Naruto's Jutsu probably wouldn't be trying to kill him. He scratched his head in embarrassment, "I thought you were in trouble."
"Heh, I could have handled it." Naruto laughed, "did you follow me out here?"
"We were curious as to how you trained." Shikamaru answered from behind him.
"Shikamaru? You too? Jeez did everyone come?"
"No, just us. What kind of Jutsu was that?" Kiba asked.
"Well, as long as you know I'm much better then I used to be. I might as well explain everything..." Naruto sighed, "Sit down, this'll take a while. Where should I begin..."
Naruto began to recount his story, from his graduation at the academy the first time, the Chuunin examines, and his exhaustive battle with Gaara. He decided to leave out the part about the fox, and exaggerated a little when it came to his skill before. Kiba looked a little put off that his supposed future self couldn't beat Naruto, and Shikamaru looked a little put off that he would have to fight several girls. Neither really looked like they actually believed Naruto's story. Naruto decided to cut his story short and skipped to the well to save time as the sun was already beginning to set. He left out the exact wording of his wish, but explained how he had come across the wish and had made a wish on it not really expecting to have it granted.
"Why are you afraid of this Gaara person. I mean you've apparently trained a lot and I'm sure you've learned some more things since your fight with Gaara." Shikamaru pointed out.
"Yeah, that's true. I did learn a really powerful Jutsu after I fought Gaara, and it'll probably help a lot. It's just that I've seen Gaara beat people who move at least ten times faster then I do right now, and I needed to summon something really powerful to even fight his transformed state at all, and I'm certain I can't do that anymore."
Although Naruto had gone into detail about Gaara's sand like powers, none of it really sunk in until he mentioned the fact that he had seen someone ten times faster fight Gaara and loose. Both Kiba and Shikamaru didn't thank that was possible, and if it were. Then this Gaara person's shield sounded as if it was practically impossible to break.
"So if you really know what's going to happen in the future, what team do I end up on?" Kiba asked wanting to change the subject.
"Well, you were on a team with Shino and Hinata. It may or may not happen this time around. I don't believe in fate. I don't think you're fated to end up on their team, so it might end up being different."
"Well isn't that a convenient excuse." Shikamaru smirked.
"Well, I'm not making it up. What can I do to convince you I'm telling the truth?" Naruto sighed.
"How about doing that Summoning Jutsu?" Kiba asked, curious because he had seen one before, but didn't believe any low level ninja could do it.
"I can't! I don't have the contract anymore. I haven't signed it yet!" Naruto frowned. Although the two gave him weird looks as they didn't know what Naruto was talking about. Naruto sighed as he wondered how he would explain that.
"Just go through the motions then, I've seen my dad do one a couple times. If you know the basic form for a summoning jutsu, then I'll believe you. It is a really hard Jutsu to do after all." Kiba said.
"But..."
"I'm pretty sure you don't know anyone who knows it Naruto, and I know that most people keep their higher level techniques closely guarded secrets anyway, and a summoning would be one of them. If you know how to summon then that will be proof enough for me." Kiba continued almost certain Naruto didn't know what he was talking about.
"Alright, you win." Naruto sighed as he took a small bite out of the skin on his thumb, letting a small trickle of blood flow, "But nothing's going to happen."
Naruto sighed as he performed the seals and Kiba watched in blank fascination. Naruto, blinked when he noticed something actually was happening. He felt a tug on his chakra. Surprised, he finished the motions for the Jutsu, and a brilliant glow formed beneath his hand. There was a blinding flash, followed by a blast of wind. Both Kiba and Shikamaru covered their eyes to shield themselves from the dirt that the wind kicked up. There was a moment of awkward silence over what had just happened, but it was eventually broken.
"Hey, Naruto, what's up? Long time no see!"
"Gamakichi!?"
// // Voice in Naruto's head
/ / Naruto 'talking' to the voice or to himself.
{ } Akamaru "talking" to Kiba.
Chapter 3: Confusion
Although the fact the feeling itself was unsettling for Sasuke, it was the reason behind this feeling that bothered him the most. He risked a glance back at Naruto, but quickly turned away when Naruto waved at him. A scowl crossed his face as he tried to figure out what had happened to Naruto. Sensing another's chakra wasn't a very hard thing to do, but he doubted many of the other ninjas in the room, even Iruka, could sense it very well. Otherwise they would have also been staring at Naruto. All living beings radiated a small fraction of their Chakra unless they were consciously trying to suppress it. What bothered Sasuke, wasn't the fact he could feel Naruto's chakra, but that he couldn't feel it at all. Naruto usually had a large amount of unfocused chakra about him. It spoke volumes on his poor control. Yet when he had suddenly started to attend class again, even Sasuke wasn't aware he had been in the room until he had shouted at Iruka.
He of course wasn't the only one who could sense Chakra well. Akamaru was also aware of Naruto's increase in ability, but it wasn't the chakra he couldn't feel that bothered him. He had always known Naruto possessed a huge amount of Chakra. In fact a lot of students here at the Academy did, but he could actually tell the amount of Chakra Naruto was hiding. It was immense, he had to have at least twice the amount of anybody in class...even Iruka. The fact that nobody here, not even Iruka, had noticed this spoke volumes for his control. There was also something about it he didn't like, but wasn't quite sure what it was. At first he had been worried it wasn't Naruto, but he still smelled like Naruto. So Akamaru wasn't all that worried. After all Naruto had always been a nice guy and even if he played pranks and teased people a lot. He was a good person. So Akamaru decided not to bother Kiba and make him worry about Naruto being a possible threat.
The truth of the matter was probably a bigger surprise to anyone, including Naruto. Many had always speculated that the Kyuubi's powerful chakra mixing with Naruto's own chakra made it difficult for him to control his Chakra. There was truth to this because Naruto's poor control was in fact superior then most when it came to handling great amounts of chakra, and while Naruto's own chakra was much larger then it had been when he had once been in the academy. It was no where near the amount he used to possess. It was like training with heavy weights. With the greater amount of weight, one would seem to move slow, but without it one would move much faster. This was no different. With less chakra to control, Naruto's control was absolutely perfect. All that was really stopping him from making a Rasengan spin on one hand was his own belief that he couldn't.
The voice in his head knew that the two weeks Naruto had spent working on his control were wasted in that regard. However, burning through his chakra like that was definitely going to help him improve on his stamina. Something he would need in the near future. So it let Naruto progress with that training, but since any sort of training would help improve stamina. He eventually insisted Naruto find something else to study. So for the past month he had been practicing Taijutsu in the woods after class for a couple hours every day. He eventually created his own Taijutsu exercise which was working wonders for his Taijutsu ability. Despite Naruto was upset with himself that he was nowhere close to matching Lee's full speed, since Sasuke had managed that in just a month, his improvement hadn't gone unnoticed by others.
That had been the other thing Sasuke had noticed. Naruto carried himself differently. Seeming to be much more skilled, he was even amazed when Naruto quickly caught a pencil that had rolled off his desk. Sasuke had barely been able to spot Naruto's hands when he made that incredibly swift catch. Had he not been wondering about Naruto's lack of presence he would have also completely missed that display of ability. So not only was Naruto gifted in chakra control, but his physical skill was nothing to be laughed at either. Sasuke grinned, here was an interesting ninja to test himself against. He continued to watch Naruto for the rest of the class, constantly trying to evaluate his skill level.
Kiba who often wondered what Akamaru found interesting about Naruto, took a while to evaluate Naruto himself. During one of the breaks, one of the other students made a comment about how Naruto would never graduate, Naruto seemed to take offense at this and dropped into a ready stance as he shouted at the other student. Even if Naruto was probably kidding around as he wouldn't really take a swing at another student. Kiba took his time to study Naruto's guard. Kiba didn't really judge himself as a Taijutusu expert, but as he watched Naruto he came to the conclusion that it would have been difficult for him to land an attack against Naruto. He wondered when Naruto had gotten so good. He decided he would ask Akamaru about it later, and put it out of his mind for the rest of the day.
Actually, the entire class had noticed a change in Naruto, but only Kiba and Sasuke really noticed the changes in skill level. Everyone else noticed a change in Naruto when Naruto began to pay attention in class and started to ask relevant and intelligent questions. Iruka summed up everyone else's surprised with one question he had asked several weeks ago.
"What did you do with Naruto?"
--------------
Class had ended for the day, and Kiba, Shikamaru, and Choji were walking together towards the Ichiraku. Shikamaru was staring at Naruto pondering something. Kiba was lost in conversation with Akamaru, and Choji was arguing with Naruto over how good Teriyaki was compared to Ramen. Shikamaru always thought Naruto was an interesting character, but it only got more interesting when Naruto paused in his conversation with Choji and looked over to Kiba.
"Did...your dog just call me a loser?" Naruto asked blankly.
Kiba looked surprised for a moment, but denied it. From just that Shikamaru knew that the dog had compared Naruto to a looser somehow. The absolutely bizarre moment continued. As Akamaru barked again, and a moment later Shikamaru noticed Naruto twitch, but he said nothing this time and returned to arguing with Choji. Shikamaru was almost certain Naruto had understood the dog clearly. However, what really happened was a little different.
--Flashback to a couple seconds before--
{It's strange. I don't understand how someone can become so skilled in such a short amount of time. It's like the looser of a race suddenly running twice as fast as everybody in front of him to win.}
"Yeah it doesn't really make any sense." Kiba agreed.
//Hey Naruto, Kiba's dog thinks you're a looser.//
/WHAT!? Wait...you can understand that mutt?/
//Yup. Go ahead and ask him yourself.//
"Uh...Did...Your dog just call me a looser?" He asked Kiba slowly.
{I did not! Well... I guess I did, it was a bad analogy! You really aren't!} Akamaru yelped in protest not sure if Naruto could actually understand him or not.
"Akamaru's not like that! He wouldn't call you a looser for no reason." Kiba yelled angrily, "although I would" he mentally added.
//Oooh and now he's telling you your rude because you interrupted their conversation!//
/I don't believe you. I don't think you understand that dumb dog./
//Think what you will, but you don't know what he really said, do you?//
Naruto's twitched because it was true, he didn't. He didn't even know why he asked. There was no reason to believe the voice knew what the dog was saying, it was probably just taunting him. After all, the voice was somehow a part of himself, and he knew he couldn't speak to animals... well at least he was pretty sure he couldn't, or the voice might not really be a part of him. After all the way it talked implied it considered itself as someone else. Yet it had said it was a part of him. Naruto sighed, this was why he didn't like thinking too hard about something. It only made his head hurt.
-------------
After Naruto, had paid for his meal and excused himself to go and train, Shikamaru and Kiba waited a couple minutes before deciding to follow him. Choji was still eating, and didn't even notice them leave. Ten minutes later they found themselves, sitting in a tree overlooking one of the training fields. Naruto hadn't even noticed they had followed him out there. Kiba wondered why Naruto had chosen one of the bigger fields reserved for team practices. The individual training fields were further into the forest and usually more secretive. Shikamaru wondered what Naruto was planning to practice out here because he was in the middle of the field rather then by the training stumps.
//Alright, Naruto...what's the plan today?//
/I think we're up to 40 now. You know that's a lot isn't it.//
//Y ou could probably do a lot more then that.//
/Yeah I could, but it's hard enough to win at this level as it is./
Naruto chuckled to himself as he readied his chosen training weapon.
"Needles? What in the world is he going to do with acupuncture needles?" Kiba asked as he squinted at the thin mental objects that Naruto was carrying. Naruto calmly placed them in the leg holster that would usually house his shuriken. He casually stretched out a bit, and then adopted a ready stance. Without another word he performed a handful of seals that neither of the two ninjas in the trees recognized. The next instant the field was full of Naruto's.
"That's a lot of Bunshins." Kiba whistled staring at the number.
The Bunshins were all facing Naruto. They all suddenly seemed to blur. The air was filled with the noise of combat, but neither ninja could really see what was going on. Their movements were surprisingly fast to them. Their speed was about the same as Lee's with the weights on. While that was nowhere near as impressive as Lee without them. Lee was still fast regardless. It took a while for Shikamaru and Kiba to adjust their eyes to watching Naruto's speed. From there it took just as long to register that Naruto was actually fighting his clones, and that the clones were in fact being hit and landing blows on Naruto as well.
"What sort of Jutsu is that?" Shikamaru asked in wide eyed fascination. As Naruto took a hit from a flying needle, he realized the needles were apparently as real as the clones. Naruto spun around and kicked the nearest bunshin while pulling out the needle. Naruto was glad he had them using needles instead of Shuriken. The needles hurt a lot less. The bunshin he had hit flew through the air and landed flat on its back behind all the other clones. It disappeared moments later. The mob of Naruto's were trying their hardest to bring down Naruto, but Naruto was expertly fighting them all off. It wasn't really a matter of strength or speed. As all of Naruto's clones were apparently just as fast and strong as he was, but pure skill. Many of Naruto's attacks seemed to have been adapted for group tactics. He left few openings, and his attacks were meant to fend off several opponents in different directions. A much more defensive type of combat style rather then his usual reckless offensive one that they had seen before. Each move flowed into the next one as he batted clones about left and right trying to keep them out of a certain radius around him in order to give him enough time to react to their movements.
"Have you ever seen anything like that?" Kiba asked in fascination. As Naruto used Kawarimi to switch places with a log, the log had taken the hail of needles that had been thrown before hitting the ground. Naruto reappeared in the air and landed outside of the circle. The clones surrounded him again within seconds, and Naruto continued to fight them all off. Parrying a punch from one he quickly punched that clone, and then without even bothering to look at the clone sneaking up behind him, sent his fist backwards and knocked that one out as well. Naruto did a quick head count of the clones that were surrounding him. Twenty three left, he smirked and went on the offense. Launching himself at the nearest group of clones. They were completely unprepared for the onslaught. He managed to knock four of them out of the fight and seriously hurt one, he hadn't hit it hard enough to destroy it, before the others managed to close in on him. He quickly forced them away from him with several kicks and a quickly thrown volley of needles. Naruto took a headcount again. Thirteen. He smirked, he might actually win this one.
He was finally caught off guard when one of the Bunshins suddenly sped up and got behind Naruto. Neither Kiba nor Shikamaru saw the Bunshin move that fast. It looked as if it had suddenly appeared behind Naruto, and dealt him a swift spin kick before disappearing. The bunshin had focused its chakra into its feet and accelerated behind Naruto, before kicking him. The fact that this had burned up all its chakra allowed it to land only one hit before it disappeared, but that one hit had knocked Naruto into the waiting arms of at least four more clones. Naruto disappeared under the mass of bunshins as they surged forward. Naruto sighed as he realized he would have to work on his guard some more. His hands were being kept apart so he couldn't form any seals, and the weight of all the clones were preventing him from moving his body with enough force to throw them off. He wondered just how he could get out of this situation. Squirming wasn't really helping him, and he couldn't perform any Jutsu. It looked like the clones had won this round.
"Gatsuuga!"
"Kiba?" Naruto asked in surprise as he recognized the name of Kiba's best taijutsu technique. The clones were violently thrown off him or destroyed when Kiba passed over. Naruto managed to get back to his feet despite his shock. Kiba's attack had destroyed all the clones that had had him pinned, "What are you doing here?" Naruto asked as he dropped the Jutsu and the rest of the clones disappeared.
Kiba blinked as the other clones he had missed disappeared. Realizing that Naruto's Jutsu probably wouldn't be trying to kill him. He scratched his head in embarrassment, "I thought you were in trouble."
"Heh, I could have handled it." Naruto laughed, "did you follow me out here?"
"We were curious as to how you trained." Shikamaru answered from behind him.
"Shikamaru? You too? Jeez did everyone come?"
"No, just us. What kind of Jutsu was that?" Kiba asked.
"Well, as long as you know I'm much better then I used to be. I might as well explain everything..." Naruto sighed, "Sit down, this'll take a while. Where should I begin..."
Naruto began to recount his story, from his graduation at the academy the first time, the Chuunin examines, and his exhaustive battle with Gaara. He decided to leave out the part about the fox, and exaggerated a little when it came to his skill before. Kiba looked a little put off that his supposed future self couldn't beat Naruto, and Shikamaru looked a little put off that he would have to fight several girls. Neither really looked like they actually believed Naruto's story. Naruto decided to cut his story short and skipped to the well to save time as the sun was already beginning to set. He left out the exact wording of his wish, but explained how he had come across the wish and had made a wish on it not really expecting to have it granted.
"Why are you afraid of this Gaara person. I mean you've apparently trained a lot and I'm sure you've learned some more things since your fight with Gaara." Shikamaru pointed out.
"Yeah, that's true. I did learn a really powerful Jutsu after I fought Gaara, and it'll probably help a lot. It's just that I've seen Gaara beat people who move at least ten times faster then I do right now, and I needed to summon something really powerful to even fight his transformed state at all, and I'm certain I can't do that anymore."
Although Naruto had gone into detail about Gaara's sand like powers, none of it really sunk in until he mentioned the fact that he had seen someone ten times faster fight Gaara and loose. Both Kiba and Shikamaru didn't thank that was possible, and if it were. Then this Gaara person's shield sounded as if it was practically impossible to break.
"So if you really know what's going to happen in the future, what team do I end up on?" Kiba asked wanting to change the subject.
"Well, you were on a team with Shino and Hinata. It may or may not happen this time around. I don't believe in fate. I don't think you're fated to end up on their team, so it might end up being different."
"Well isn't that a convenient excuse." Shikamaru smirked.
"Well, I'm not making it up. What can I do to convince you I'm telling the truth?" Naruto sighed.
"How about doing that Summoning Jutsu?" Kiba asked, curious because he had seen one before, but didn't believe any low level ninja could do it.
"I can't! I don't have the contract anymore. I haven't signed it yet!" Naruto frowned. Although the two gave him weird looks as they didn't know what Naruto was talking about. Naruto sighed as he wondered how he would explain that.
"Just go through the motions then, I've seen my dad do one a couple times. If you know the basic form for a summoning jutsu, then I'll believe you. It is a really hard Jutsu to do after all." Kiba said.
"But..."
"I'm pretty sure you don't know anyone who knows it Naruto, and I know that most people keep their higher level techniques closely guarded secrets anyway, and a summoning would be one of them. If you know how to summon then that will be proof enough for me." Kiba continued almost certain Naruto didn't know what he was talking about.
"Alright, you win." Naruto sighed as he took a small bite out of the skin on his thumb, letting a small trickle of blood flow, "But nothing's going to happen."
Naruto sighed as he performed the seals and Kiba watched in blank fascination. Naruto, blinked when he noticed something actually was happening. He felt a tug on his chakra. Surprised, he finished the motions for the Jutsu, and a brilliant glow formed beneath his hand. There was a blinding flash, followed by a blast of wind. Both Kiba and Shikamaru covered their eyes to shield themselves from the dirt that the wind kicked up. There was a moment of awkward silence over what had just happened, but it was eventually broken.
"Hey, Naruto, what's up? Long time no see!"
"Gamakichi!?"