Hello to everyone reading this! Chapter 14 done. Thanks for all the reviews :D though if anyone feels like going on a rant in them then go ahead! It makes them funnier to read. Anyway, like I said, chapter 14. I think it's a bit longer, I tried anyway as I've had a few comments about my chapters being short so here you go! Enjoy and let me know!

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Chapter 14

Cool evening light had settled over Konoha, like a blanket of dark blue silk draped above the town.

Drawing his gaze from the window Kakashi turned back to the Hokage. She was sitting behind her desk, propping her head up with one of her hands as she watched him with a hint of irritation.

"Kakashi, don't think I would be foolish enough to let Naruto run around unsupervised whilst you're on your mission. Your mind should be focused on that, rather then Naruto." Tsunade said, watching him with her sharp eyes. "The whole point of Naruto being with Asuma and Gai's team is for him to socialise with the other genin. I wouldn't have thought you were such a worrier Kakashi."

"Huh, you're right of course." Kakashi said spreading his hands wide carelessly, speaking with his usual drawling tone. "Naruto will be fine but he'll be your problem whilst I'm gone and from how he acts he still doesn't like you very much."

Shooting Kakashi a sharp look the Hokage sighed.

"Are you done then Kakashi or is there anything else you'd like to add?" Tsunade said tiredly.

"Well…now that you mention it." Kakashi said thoughtfully "I'd keep an eye out for this 'new jutsu' Naruto's working on…you never can tell with him."

"Wonderful." Tsunade said sarcastically. Anyone trying to create new jutsu's needed to be watched in case they hurt themselves or others along the process.

"Alright Kakashi, thanks for the heads up." She said with a tone of finality in her voice as she pointedly rustled the papers in front of her.

"Just keep an eye on him for me." Kakashi said quietly, uncharacteristically serious as he watched the Hokage, disappearing from the office in a white cloud.

Tiredly Tsunade rubbed her hand across her eyes. She really didn't need this right now. They had received information that Orochimaru was on the move, to where or why was still an unknown as was all details about him. The village was still recovering from the attack during the finals of the chuunin exam. On top of that they knew Atatsuki was after Naruto. If word of his memory loss reached them then they may try their luck and come to the village again for him…

Slowly as the evening drew on into the night Tsunade remained at her desk deep in thought.

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Knock Knock Knock

Slowly Naruto's eyes opened a minute fraction, the bright sunlight slicing into them painfully. Shielding his eyes with his arm he paused, listening to try and locate what had woken him up.

KNOCK KNOCK

Was it…the front door?

Then he heard it, the muffled female voice that was able to pierce through walls.

If this voice had had a physical form it would have been an extremely sharp knife.

"…NARUTO. NARUTO! COME ON! WE'VE GOT TO MEET ASUMA'S TEAM. OPEN UP!"

Sakura-chan?

For a moment Naruto simply remained frozen.

Throwing off his blanket Naruto leapt out of bed.

CRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAP!

"HANG ON! I'LL BE OUT IN A MINUTE!" Naruto shouted desperately as he randomly snatched clothes from draws and places around his room.

Throwing off his bedclothes which flew in all directions, including out the window, Naruto pulled on his clean clothes, dashed to the bathroom to have a wash at light speed before grudgingly grabbing a piece of fruit on his way to the front door.

"I'm ready!" he cried as he opened the door only to be greeted by the unimpressed faces of Sasuke and Sakura as they glared at him.

"You took that long and you still look a mess? Did you even brush your hair?" Sakura said as she craned her neck for a closer inspection.

Silently insulted and annoyed as he'd got ready at an amazing speed he sulkily glared at Sakura.

"Can we just go?" Naruto sighed as he pulled his front door shut behind him.

Too early. Need more sleep. Please…no sparring…

Silently the two turned away leaving Naruto to trail along behind them as he bit unwillingly into his piece of fruit / breakfast / torture to his taste buds.

Sasuke and Sakura led him to the edge of the town, bordering on the woods where upon rounding the corner a group of people his own age came into view.

In the centre was a boy playing chess against who Naruto assumed to be the teacher, a tall looking man with dark hair and eyes with a cigarette barely balanced between his lips. Asuma?

"Sasuke-kun!" shrieked a girl with white-blond hair as she ran towards them.

Vaguely Naruto recognised her; getting the feeling he'd seen her at the academy.

Everyone turned to look at the new arrivals, noticing them for the first time due to Ino's cry, most of the eyes seeking Naruto (with the exception of Ino and Sakura who had engaged in a glaring match as they edged closer to Sasuke) who felt like he'd been ushered into a very bright spotlight.

Within seconds of their company it seemed Naruto's memory loss was common knowledge from the sudden whispering of a person to their neighbour or just the interested stares.

Looking up his eyes met Asuma's, who was giving Naruto the distinct feeling that he was being weighed up in those serious eyes.

"Make yourselves comfortable." He said to the three before turning back to his game against Shikamaru. "Geez, why did I end up being the babysitter?" he thought irritated as he drew a long breath through his cigarette.

Along with his own team, he was responsible for Gai and Kakashi's team. Every sensei knew Kakashi's team was trouble. Yeah, just what he needed.

Awkwardly Naruto looked round. True, he hadn't wanted to spar but he'd expected some type of training! Everyone was just lounging around whilst the teacher played chess against a brown haired boy on a little wooden table. What were they supposed to do?

Leaving Sakura's side as her quiet exchange of insults with the blond girl became rapidly more violent Naruto walked over towards the empty bench. He only made it half of the way there before he heard someone frantically call his name.

"Naruto-kun!" cried an overly happy voice.

Lee was walking towards him across the clearing, leaving the company of a serious looking boy and a brunette girl.

"How are you Naruto-kun? I hope you are recovered from yesterdays sparring." He said as he came to a stop in front of the blond.

A distance behind Naruto, Sasuke had been trying to edge away from the two bickering girls unnoticed, froze as he heard Lee speak to Naruto.

Naruto had been sparring yesterday? But, Kakashi had cancelled training…

"Er…yeah. Fine, though I don't understand why we had to get up so early."

For some strange reason this made Lee laugh.

"Ah, so early, very funny." He chuckled to himself.

Ookay

"Ah, but yes. That was a superb match. I am glad I was finally able to spar against you, even if it had been cut short. Why did your sensei intervene, do you know? It was quite curious."

Suddenly Naruto could feel everyone's eyes on him as he noticed the clearing had become very quiet and still as seemingly everyone was listening to their convocation.

Laughing nervously he scratched the back of his head.

"No idea, he's just a bit strange like that. And always late." Naruto arranged his features into a hasty scowl to feint irritation at his sensei. Kakashi was apparently known for being late; at least that was what he'd picked up from Sakura's rants. He'd thought throwing this in would help make his response seem a little more plausible. Funny enough he didn't feel like explaining that he'd somehow managed to access the charkra of the demon fox that had been sealed within him and had been about to attack Lee with it.

This had brought pieces of his memory to the surface; he remembered how to draw up the demon charkra, even if it was only in a way asking for it. These memories had flashes of the pale eyed, dark haired serious boy Lee had been standing with in them as well as the man with long white hair who'd also been at the clearing yesterday.

Naruto felt even more certain that he could develop this idea for a jutsu now he'd gained these memories about handling the kyuubi charkra. Maybe he would investigate later…

"So what's going on today then? Why is everyone here?" Naruto asked Lee, changing the subject.

From a distance Sasuke silently watched.

What had all that been about then? Naruto had apparently been sparring against Lee for some unknown reason when Kakashi had been forced to intervene, seemingly due to Naruto's actions as Lee hadn't known why…

This was all very intriguing. Naruto's reply had been a complete lie though, he knew the blond well enough to tell when he wasn't telling the truth. He would defiantly find out what was going on.

"I am unsure. We have been left seemingly to our own devices." Lee said somewhat disapprovingly.

For a moment Naruto simply looked around the clearing at the people there. The boy Lee had been standing with was now casually leaning against a tree, whilst the brown hair girl was throwing shuriken at a target she'd carved into the truck of another.

Sakura was still talking, somewhat more civilly, to the blond haired girl whilst Sasuke loitered behind them, similarly leaning against a tree trunk, his dark eyes locked on Naruto's.

Uncomfortably, Naruto drew his eyes away quickly. He wasn't sure what to make of Sasuke yet.

The brown haired boy was still playing chess against his teacher, and was about to win from the look of it.

The only other person present was a boy sitting on the bench Naruto had been heading too, who was happily munching on a packet of crisps. He had strange red spirals drawn on his cheeks.

At the sight of the crisps Naruto heard his stomach groan.

Walking over to the boy Naruto sat down next to him on the bench.

"You don't have any more of those do you?" Naruto said longingly. To hell with fruit! He was still starving.

The boy froze in his eating as he looked at Naruto before casting swift glances around him. Like magic he produced another pack from his pocket and handed it to Naruto.

"Ah! Thank you thank you thank you!" Naruto cried before ripping open the packet as he began to wolf down the crisps.

"Check mate." Shikamaru said quietly as he moved forward his last piece.

Once again Asuma searched the board with his eyes but he knew Shikamaru was right, he always won.

Stretching his arms above his head, Shikamaru stood up looking for Chouji, sighting him sitting over on the bench next to Naruto where they both sat identically munching on packets of crisps.

Walking over he settled down next to Chouji, leaning forward slightly so he could see the blond on the other side.

Continuing to munch on his crisps Naruto watched the brown haired boy that had just sat down on the other side of Chouji. Now that he could see his face Naruto recognised him as Shikamaru. He used to get in trouble at the academy with master Iruka along with Shikamaru and Chouji for not paying attention.

"Did you win Shikamaru?" Naruto asked as he crumpled the empty packet in his hand.

"Hmpf. Shikamaru always wins." Chouji muttered.

"It's always Asuma who wants to play but he's not that good at it." Shikamaru said lazily as he leant back, stretching his arms again but this time over his head. "So what's going on with you? I heard from Kiba and Lee that you've lost your memory but you seem your normal strange self."

"Thanks, I think. But yeah, apparently I've lost quite a bit of it. I remember the academy and shortly after but other then that the next thing is when I woke up in hospital." Naruto explained.

He didn't know how well he knew Shikamaru and Chouji at the current time but it was nice just to chat with familiar people.

Sakura had been walking towards Naruto where he sat on the bench but suddenly Lee was by her side having come out of nowhere. Lee stood chatting passionately to her, close enough that Naruto could hear every word spoken between them, meaning that they were close enough to hear the three of them when they were talking.

Shikamaru was silent for a moment with a thoughtful expression; the only sound was Chouji as he opened a new packet of crisps.

"Didn't you use 'Kage Bunshin' when sparring though?" Shikamaru asked as he watched Naruto.

"Yeah. So?" he said, nonplussed.

"But didn't you learn that after graduating the academy? How come you remember it?" he said in a hint of a question. Chouji was also watching Naruto at this point.

"Noo. I knew it before." He said unsurely. Where was this trial of thought going?

Shikamaru stared intently at the slightly confused Naruto. Had Naruto remembered he might have realised that these were the signs of Shikamaru applying his mind to a problem he was going to solve. This time, Naruto was the problem.

"I remember now. At our classes academy test everyone passed but you, yet when we were assigned to our genin teams you were there with the leaf forehead protector. A sign that you'd passed." Shikamaru said in a knowing way. "You'd failed on creating a shadow clone which was the final exam, so you mustn't have known how to do 'Kage Bunshin'. When did you learn it?" Shikamaru said, almost musing out loud.

At his words Naruto had felt cold dread sweep through him. He felt as though he were on trial.

He hadn't spoken about the night he graduated to anyone, not even Iruka. It wasn't a secret; he could talk about it if he chose too. He'd just never had a reason that he'd have to. He'd never spoken about it as that was the night that he'd found out that the Kyuubi was sealed within him. That was the only thing that was important, something he would never tell anyone.

Uh-oh. He hadn't answerd. Shikamaru was giving him a weird look…say something quick!

"I…er…I learnt it after I failed the academy exam and used it to pass the exam test." Naruto replied quickly.

"When did you get another chance to pass? It must have been soon after." Shikamaru said watching Naruto intently, genuinely interested.

Other then himself, Chouji wasn't the only person listening to this convocation.

Seeing no other way round this now he'd started down the road of telling how he'd passed, Naruto sighed.

"Ok. I'll just say it as otherwise your going to keep asking until you hear the whole story anyway." Naruto said in a rush.

"Master Iruka and Mizuki were my examiners. I failed the academy test. Mizuki found me after and said that there was another way for me to pass. He said I would have to take a scroll secretly, a scroll of jutsu's. If I could learn one of the jutsu's from the scroll and show it to Mizuki I would pass. I didn't know the scroll was forbidden. I took it and memorised 'Kage Bunshin no jutsu' but then Master Iruka found me. He'd realised what had happened."

Naruto paused.

"M-Master Iruka almost died to protect me but he was badly hurt. Mizuki was going to kill him" – here his voice grew angry where before it had simply been rushed and embarrassed – "by using 'Kage Bunshin' I stopped Mizuki. For that sensei gave me his own forehead protector. He let me pass."

Naruto looked up noticing the silence only to find that EVERYONE had been listening to him speaking.

They stared at Naruto in surprise.

He stared back out of fear and shock.

"You beat up a sensei and you hadn't even graduated from the academy? I'm impressed." Shikamaru said with a small smile breaking the silence of the clearing.

Smiling back Naruto decided that Shikamaru was cool.

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Authors Rant:

Oh yeah, I think some of you out there have guessed what Naruto's jutsu is going to be so either I'm stupidly obvious or your all geniuses!