Summary: In order to prevent Sasuke from copying all Naruto's jutsus in the upcoming tournament, Naruto seeks out Chouji to learn the ' legendary food jutsus'

Panting heavily, the Kyuubi carrier finished his own training with his clones. It was the day after Chouji had agreed to start training Naruto in the food jutsus but before that the big-boned shinobi had ordered Naruto to prepare himself.

And thus, Naruto was training. He had started out by dancing. Funny as it might sound, it was more difficult than Naruto had first anticipated when Jiraiya had proposed it.

At first he had to create a band out of shadow clones and then make his partner. This alone demanded a lot of concentration on Naruto's part. And then they would dance.

The catch was, as all ninja games have catches, was that both dancers were armed but they were only allowed to attack whilst continuing to dance. This improved Naruto's agility greatly. And added to that, it was fun.

His favourite dance at the moment was the salsa, partly because of the swift fighting style he could corporate in it but also because the trumpet player in the 'band' had a very good solo.

Glancing at the sun, Naruto realised he was late with his meeting with Chouji. Without so much as a wave his hand the 'band' poofed out of existence and the blonde ninja sped of to the Akimichi residence.

Sunset found both food-obsessed facing each other, seated on some comfortable pillows. "Come on Naruto, you have to see every individual string of ramen in you mind." Chouji told Naruto for the nth time.

Gritting his teeth in irritation, Naruto tried again. Concentrating hard on the image of a steaming cup of ramen, the Kyuubi carrier tried again. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

For a moment is seemed as if something would happen but then with a rather wet and rude sound, the cup disappeared in a poof of smoke. Resisting the urge to unleash Kyuubi's powers in order to vent some steam, Naruto decided he would need some distraction from his frustrating attempts.

"So, who else in the village knows these food jutsus?" Chouji closed his eyes for a moment, in deep thought and then starting ticking the people of with his hand. "First, and most obviously is of course Anko who is addicted to dango." Chuckling Chouji continued about the vicious kunoichi. "She's not someone you'd want to cross. Those dango sticks of here making fine throwing material."

"Second, is of course my father. As clan leader of the Akimichi it is his duty to know them. And then there is Tsunade-sama who uses the jutsu to sneak sake past her assistant." Chouji glanced around to make sure there was nobody that could overhear them and dropped his voice to a whisper so low that Naruto had to lean forward in order to hear what the Akimichi heir said.

"And then there are rumours that the infamous, S-classed nukenin Uchiha Itachi is addicted to pocky and had copied the food jutsus for his own devious plans….obtaining all the pocky in the world." Bringing his voice level back to normal, Chouji sent Naruto on his way. "I have to go clean my room now or my mom will have my hide. But practice and you'll have them mastered in a few days.

After thanking Chouji for his help, Naruto set of to his dingy apartment to get some needed sleep. That night, Naruto dreamed of pink ramen clouds and pocky stealing weasels.

Iruka quickly made his way to the arena. It had been two weeks since his favourite student had returned from his three year absence and short of his visit to the Hokage, nobody had seen him since.

So sunken in thought that the chuunin wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings and now the scarred teacher suddenly found himself flat on his back.

"Neh, shouldn't a ninja always be aware of his surroundings?" an amused voice queried. Before an ashamed Iruka could answer, the stranger helped the chuunin up. "Don't worry about it. Everybody makes a mistake now and then, just make sure you learn from them or you'll find yourself on the wrong end of a jutsu one day."

Iruka could practically sense the smile the man sent his way. Taking a moment to observe the figure, Iruka couldn't help but feel impressed. The man was wearing a black cloak with hood that did not give away any of his features. The cloak also prevented Iruka from seeing any weaponry or armour. Despite his intimidating clothes, the chuunin did not feel afraid, the man radiated warmth and power in equal measure and the way he carried himself was self-assured and battle-ready.

With a last nod to Iruka, the figure once more sped away, leaving the chuunin in a cloud of dust.

Tsunade was not very concerned. Although it had been two full weeks since she had seen the person she viewed as a little brother, the Snail-Sennin had full confidence that Naruto would arrive in time.

Moving to the centre of the arena, Tsunade started her speech. "Today, you have all been summoned her to gauge the strength of a Konoha ninja. The village elders and clan leaders are present to witness that all is done fair." Taking a breath, Tsunade turned to address the former 'Rookie Nine plus three' who where present with their former Jounin team leaders. "You are here to fight the ninja one on one. Treat this as a real-life battle, but refrain from any killing blows. The match will continue untill one party gives up or is unconscious."

Aware that plenty other ninja's and villagers had turned up to see this mystery ninja take on some of Konoha's gifted shinobi, Tsunade signalled the tournament to start.

Ibiki strode to into the arena and loudly announced the first fighter. "First fighter: Inuzuka Kiba!"

With a loud yell the dog-nin launched himself over the rail and landed in the arena with a slight crouch. A second later a wolf-sized Akamaru followed.

From a corner of the arena, Naruto observed the loud Inuzuka as he strutted towards the centre of the arena. Chuckling softly at the irony of fate; he was once again facing Kiba at the start of a tournament in the arena where he had fought a Chuunin exam years ago.

Letting Ibiki know with a subtle shifting of his chakra that he was present and ready to fight, the blonde ninja started thinking of several battle plans in rapid order.

Sensing the other opponent Ibiki raised his hand and then swiftly lowered in a chopping moment. "Start the match."

Leaving Kiba looking around him, the interrogation specialist leapt next to the Hokage.

With a smile on her face Tsunade murmured to Ibiki, "A night drinking says Kiba is going to get his ass handed to him." Smiling faintly, Ibiki thought it over. "Deal, but two days says Neji defeats him." "Deal." Tsunade could hardly contain her glee. She may be the legendary sucker but when Naruto was involved, she never lost.

Ino was feeling very bored. Since she had recently been promoted to the interrogation squad, the kunoichi had rarely had the chance to take a day off. And when she finally managed to do so, the Hokage had ordered her to participate in a tournament.

She had nobody to talk with. Shikamaru was snoring gently, Chouji was watching the non-existent fight, Sakura was fawning over Sasuke and the left Ino all alone.

Sighing, the Yamanaka was startled when below her Kiba suddenly yelped in pain. The yelp turned most attention of the 'Rookie Nine' back to the tournament.

Neji was stumped. After Kiba had been hit by something, the Hyuuga had activated his Byakugan but was unable to find anything.

"What do you see cousin?" A soft voice to his left asked. "Nothing Hinata, nothing at all." Unable to keep wonder from his voice, Neji once more scanned the arena floor.

Grinning Naruto clung to the wall like a fly. Unable to contain his prankster side, Naruto snuck up on Tsunade and then softly shouted, "BOO!". Cackling like made the Kyuubi carrier was gone before Tsunade had gotten a chance to retaliate.

On the stands many viewers' attention was caught by a mad cackle that seemed to echo around the arena.

Growling Kiba had enough! First he had been hit by something right out of nowhere and now his opponent was laughing at him from behind his back. "If we can't smell or see this guy we'll just have to mark him right Akamaru?"

Not waiting for his faithful dog to bark an affirmative the Inzukua crouched low and motioned his dog to do the same. "Yosh Akamaru, prepare for Inuzuka aerodynamic marking!"

Whilst Hinata, Shino and Kurenai paled considerably and collectively ducked for cover, Kiba launched his faithful dog in to the air and a rotating Akamaru let loose a rain of urine

Naruto had to use all his skills to prevent the dog urine from reaching him. Even though the blonde ninja was busy using his rather able skills to dodge the yellow rain, he managed to see a particular nasty and big blob hit the last Uchiha smack in his face.

Mentally congratulating Kiba with the rather spectacular hit, Naruto decided it was time to show himself. He wouldn't want the spectators to be subjected to another rain of smelly liquid and judging by the murderous glared Kiba was receiving it would be doubtful if the dog user would live long enough to try another volley.

Everybody's attention was brought back to the arena when a man disappeared right out of nowhere, slowly clapping. A black cloak lay at his feet but the rest of his visage was obscured by a bandana and a nondescript white facemask, much like the ANBU but without any markings. His gloved hands stopped their mocking applause.

"That was quite something Inuzuka-san, made me drop my cloak as I didn't want it to get dirty. You see, it was quite expansive and urine is very hard to get rid of." As if the shinobi, who of course is Naruto, sensed that everybody was wondering what was so important about his cloak he explained. "This cloak has a nondescript smell on it, muffles your own sound, is warm in the winter, cool in the summer and it has special chakra threads woven into it, which have some interesting effects. And besides," Naruto continued, "It makes me look cool." He said it as if that was the only reason Naruto wore the cloak.

Not waiting for Kiba regain his focus after his last, and rather off-hand remark, the blond ninja sped towards his opponent and started if with a few quick jabs to the gut.

It was only Kiba's beast-like reflexes that saved him from being hit. Desperate to get away from the black fighter, Kiba dropped a smoke bomb and somersaulted away.

As soon as the smoke parted, it became obvious that Kiba had used the time to team up with his dog, Akamaru. Nartuo got a strange feeling of déjà vu as he saw two beast-like Kiba's softly growling at him. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of a Tsuuga, Naruto raised his hands to form some seals.

Sasuke snapped to attention as the black shinobi, which he suspected to be Naruto, raised his hands to form seals. Quickly activating his Sharingan, a bloodline jutsu which enabled him to copy jutsus. Sharingan blazing, the young Uchiha focused on the seals the black-clad ninja was making.

Grinning like a fox under his face mask, Naruto raced through a number of seals that he had practised day in day out, nearly two weeks long. Finishing before Kiba could react, Naruto shouted out the name of his jutsu, defiance and mirth in his voice.

"Ramenton: Ramen Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Ramenton: Ramen Bunshin no Jutsu: Ramen style: Ramen clone

That's it for this chapter, hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for the reviews, anyquestions will be answered in the next chapter.'

Untill then,

Ja ne!