Hello every one! I'm back I was planning on updating a long time ago, but this chapter got lost and it took a long time for my beta to find it!

Anyway I would like to thank Irish Anor for being my beta and putting up with all my terrible mistakes! You are the best mellon-nin!

Right on with the story then!

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Naruto: Village of Sorrows

Chapter 1

New beginnings

By Syae Telwth

"Good luck Naruto!" Iruka said as he watched the now teen run off to his next competitor; a young man from the Village of the Hidden Wind. Naruto had faired well so far and if he kept it up he could very well be a chuunin. He was the only one in his class who hadn't achieved the rank yet, but Iruka was sure he would get it this time.

Naruto had grown exceptionally in his skills since he had left to train with Jiraiya. Iruka never thought Naruto had the ability to become this good; no one did- at least not until they finally gave him the chance to prove himself and let him pass to become a Genin. He was very proud of Naruto and he knew that if the boy kept it up he could very well be the next Hokage.

Iruka walked up to the stadium and took his seat to watch his old student battle. Naruto would be fighting a young boy around the age of twelve. From what he remembered about the boys previous battles, he had a jutsu known only in the village of the hidden wind; Mé mienài no jutsu. (1) It was extremely hard to learn and many couldn't use it properly. He just hoped Naruto could find a way to protect himself against such a jutsu.

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This was the last battle Naruto's last battle and the last battle of the test to become a chuunin. In the semi-finals he had battled a sand Nin, it had been a fun match but nothing compared to fighting Gaara. Then again Gaara could control sand.

That battle had lasted about twenty minutes; Naruto could have finished him off sooner, but he didn't want to hurt the kid too much… or at least that's what he told himself. The battle started out with Taijutsu and then it evolved into weapons. Like he said before, the kid was good, but he wasn't strong at Ninjutsu. The kid's fighting style reminded him of Lee…without the goofy hair and caterpillars for eyebrows.

Naruto walked into the stadium and looked around at all the people who had come to see the battle; they were mostly ninjas but a few normal people had come to observe as well.

Naruto looked at the young boy in front of him. He was skinny and seemed a bit too young to be here. He wore a dark blue long sleeve tunic and black pants, his wind village head protector was securely tied around his right arm. . The boys blue hair was cut short, but was long enough to cover his eyes… wait blue hair? Wow, that was new.

Naruto couldn't figure out how this kid had gotten so far; he looked like someone who couldn't even make it past the first round; let alone the last! Did this kid have some kind of secret jutsu?

Before he knew it, the battle had started. The kid had run up to him at what seemed to be a break neck speed and hit Naruto square in the jaw. Naruto flew back but was able to catch himself in midair and land on his feet.

Naruto ran towards the boy and landed his own punch in the boy's gut, followed by a round house kick to the boy's back. This sent him flying into one of the trees that littered their battle field. The boy slid down the tree trunk and came to a stop face down on the floor.

Naruto's expression became one of worry as he waited for the kid to stand up…move… do anything? The kid just lay there doing nothing, "Kid?" Naruto asked in a worried tone. Did he hit the kid to hard? He didn't mean to hurt the kid so badly; but really, what kind of ninja is out with in two minutes of the battle starting?

Suddenly he shot up from his position and flew into the air. The kid was already throwing stars at him before he had even landed. Naruto easily dodged them and made for his own attack. He stopped abruptly as the kid finished a number of hand seals. Why hadn't he seen that? Any fool could have been able to tell that the throwing stars were just a distraction. Then Naruto noticed it the kid was becoming…transparent? The boy that was once standing in front of Naruto was gone and all that was left was empty space.

"Do you like it?" the boys voice asked from what seemed like all around Naruto. "It's one of a specialty Jutsu's." The air was full of laughter as Naruto turned around and around, searching for where the voice had come from. Three knives came at him from the left and they narrowly missed him. He took out his own and threw them to the same spot the knives had come from.

"To slow," the invisible ninja commented as three more knives came from Naruto's right. Naruto once again tried to dodge but he missed a forth knife that was coming from the front. It logged itself between Naruto's left knees joint. His leg became stiff and impossible to move. He bent down to remove the object; that was now covered the deep red color of blood; but a throwing star then logged itself in Naruto's right elbow causing him to bite his lip in pain. Blood gushed freely from both his arm and his leg and he could taste the metallic liquid in his mouth; he had bit his lip open.

Naruto knew that he was a sitting duck right now so he did the only thing he could do; a number of hand seals. "Kage Bunshin!" Naruto yelled and about twenty copies of himself surrounded him. The wind ninja didn't say anything but instead responded by letting loose his throwing stars and knives causing half the clones to disappear.

The distraction was all that Naruto needed to remove the knife and star from his joints and locate the young boy, (which he did by seeing where all the weapons were coming from) The boy was in front of a tree to the left of him. While the boy was distracted with the Kage Bunshin's, Naruto got his own weapons: four throwing knives and tossed them towards his invisible target.

They hit their mark as all the knives dug trough the boys clothing and then into the tree behind him. The surprise attack made the young man lose his concentration on his Jutsu, which Naruto used to his advantage. He threw more knives, pinning the kid to the tree by his clothing.

The boy struggled to get free, but before he could, Naruto ran up to him and held his knife up to the boy's throat. At this, the battle was declared over and Naruto the victor.

His face held a triumphant gleam as he walked out of the stadium, he was going to become a chuunin, he just knew it!

Naruto suddenly stopped in his tracks. He looked down at his feet to see why they couldn't move but there was nothing there but blood…Blood? Oh that's right he had hurt them. He suddenly became aware of the immense pain shooting through his leg and fell to the floor cradling it. Damn that hurt, why hadn't he felt it before?

A hand came down to Naruto's level offering it to him. Naruto looked up to see Iruka standing above him. "Hey Naruto, your leg doesn't hurt that much does it?" Iruka laughed.

"Easy for you to say! That thing logged itself between my joints!"

"You've gone through a lot worse, Naruto. Now get up and we will go get some Ramen." Iruka smiled. At that Naruto instantly jumped up and grabbed Iruka's hand dragging him all the way to his favorite Ramen shop.

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Tsunade sat in her chair as the battle raged on between Naruto and the wind boy. She already knew who would win; everyone did. She had to admit though; the kid did put on a very good show.

She leaned back in her chair and looked to the roof of the room, mind racing. Naruto deserved the rank of chuunin; anyone with eyes could see that, though he was still a bit too cocky. However what can you expect from someone who trained with that old pervert friend of hers?

She then got up and went to her office. Naruto's battle had been the last one and he had come out on top, she would announce him a chuunin tomorrow, and he was the only one in her opinion that deserved to pass.

She walked into her office and sat down in her chair once again looking at the ceiling, (what could she say? It was a habit she had when she was thinking.) "Hokage-sama!" someone shouted from behind her.

She turned around to come face to face with two ANBU. "What is it?" she asked annoyed and both ninjas flinched, everyone knew that it was a bad idea to get Tsunade mad.

Finally one coughed out to clear his throat and said "We were just… Er…wondering which Genin were going to become chuunin."

She looked at them for a long time and they began to wobble under her gaze. "It's not really any of your business to know," she said finally. "But if you must know there is only one passing; Naruto Uzumaki." At this she looked both in the eyes there was something different about them, they had a look of… fear?

"Hokage, you cannot permit that boy to pass!" the ANBU to the right shouted. Her eyes locked on his and he froze but the other ANBU continued for him.

"Hokage-sama, please reconsider; Naruto is already powerful enough! If we allow him to keep growing in the ranks he could become to powerful and could bring an end to Konoha!"

Where the hell was this coming from? Tsunade thought while looked at these men. She had thought that most of Konoha's fear of Naruto had subsided. "If I do not pass Naruto, he will still become more powerful, and his rage will just increase." She paused letting this sink into the men's thick skulls. "Naruto will keep growing stronger if I pass him or not, it really doesn't matter; he will become more powerful that most ninjas either way. He deserves to pass, and that is exactly what I'm going to do, no matter what you say."

With that she threw them out of her office (literally) before slamming the door shut in there faces.

The two ANBU got up rubbing their heads where they had hit them on the wall as they limped down the hall and out of sight.

Tsunade landed back in her chair thinking about everything that had just happened. Why were they so afraid of Naruto? It wasn't like he would do anything to the village, it was his home; in fact he would probably protect it from anything and with his life. So why didn't these ANBU want him to pass? And their eyes, they shined dread unlike any she had ever seen in such a high ranking ninja; it was as though their hatred and terror toward Naruto had been intensified somehow…

She sighed out and looked down at her desk. For the first time, she noticed all the paper work piled on it; this was going to take all night!

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Iruka sat with Naruto at his favorite restaurant as the kid finished off his third bowl of ramen. "Iruka-sensei, what did you think of my battles? I actually won! I think I'm going to make it this year, sensei!"

Iruka laughed at the boys rambling as he tried to talk and eat at the same time. "What's so funny?" Naruto asked with a mad face, or at least a fake one. "Nothing, Naruto, just try to remember not to talk with your mouth full." Iruka smiled.

"Anyway, Naruto, you did a very good job today I'm proud of you." Iruka ruffled Naruto's blond hair with his hand and smiled at him. "Also Naruto, you can stop calling me sensei now." Naruto looked up at him surprised he was about o say something but realized his mouth was still full of noodles. "After today Naruto," Iruka continued "I can promise you that you will be the same rank as me, and therefore I will no longer be your sensei."

Naruto finally swallowed his noodles and looked up and Iruka with a big smile. "You really think so?"

"Of course, Naruto, you have worked hard; you deserve to be a chuunin."

"You will still be my sensei though, Iruka-sensei. You were, after all, my first teacher." Iruka ruffled the teen's hair again smiling; he never seemed to be able to frown when he was with Naruto, at least not anymore. Iruka ordered them both more Ramen and they sat there talking until the moon started to rise and they both walked off, saying their goodbyes and waiting to hear the big news that would come tomorrow.

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(1) Mé mienài no jutsu- Invisible Jutsu (for everyone who couldn't figure that out). Ok so how this Jutsu works is the ninja gathers their Chakra around themselves and it forms a kind of shield around the person that reflects what is around it, giving the ninja the illusion that they had disappeared.

Ok that's chapter one, I am hoping to have chapter two out soon but we will see. (I'm going to e-mail the story to my beta this time so it doesn't get lost)

Ok well please Review, constructive criticism is welcome.

Until Next Time

Syae Telwth