A/N: I don't own Naruto.

Naruto: The Greatest Hero

Chapter Six: To Never Back Down

It was on such short notice, but because of their unsupervised and reckless decision of their jounin instructor, Team Seven had entered in the Chuunin Exams. It was not going to be an easy two weeks for them with their training turning all the more intensive. Kakashi was busy preparing his team and had no time for Naruto, not that the blonde minded. He was perfectly capable of training by himself. He. Naruto, had after all, already proven to Kakashi that he was almost a genius.

Kakashi had to admit to himself that Naruto was better than him when he himself was his age. And Naruto would always make him remember that he was.

Currently, Team Seven were at a nearby river, practicing their techniques and skill level. Kurenai was finding a rather hard time motivating Shikamaru to fight with his all when facing her in an all-out Taijutsu battle, to no avail. Meanwhile, Kiba and Naruto had made tremendous progress in their Taijutsu. The pair of them had made a scoreboard on their wins and losses against each other. Naruto was leading the board after one week with a score of thirteen to one. Kiba was having a rather hard time keeping up with Naruto, who had a Taijutsu style that he had made out of one of Konoha's best Taijutsu fighting styles that he had witnessed; Jyuuken.

'Naruto, come on, let me show you my new move!' Kiba called out to his friend.

The two were currently about to begin their fifteenth spar of the week. The two of them knew that each other had improved in their respective Taijutsu styles, win or lose. Kiba was getting more strength and Naruto was getting faster than before.

Kiba and Naruto were now equal in their strength, but Naruto definitely had the edge when it came to speed and strategy. The blonde had known from his brother that being reckless would only result in death, but it took him five years to understand.

'Alright, Kiba, I'll go easy on you if you don't want to cry.' Naruto teased.

'It's you who's going to cry, Naruto!' Kiba set down Akamaru.

Naruto's eyes focused on Akamaru. The dog and the boy were a very good tag team, and because he had not understood their planning, had resulted in his first and only loss to Kiba two days ago. Naruto vowed never to take his eyes off those that were involved in a battle with him even if one of them was a puppy.

'Tsuuga!' Kiba spun in Naruto's direction and Naruto sidestepped.

A cream-white blur suddenly came his way, trying to tackle him to the ground. It was Akamaru, of course. Naruto sidestepped again to avoid beig bashed. Kiba was coming at him from behind now. Naruto did not have time to dodge the blow.

The blonde spun a one hundred and eighty degree spin and forced chakra to the palm of his hand and thrusting it to the centre of Kiba's spinning motion. The dog-using boy suddenly stopped in his tracks, surprising him. Naruto had put enough chakra into the palm of his hand to stop Kiba. He knew that Kiba's motion was like a spinning top, but once the centre of the top was stopped, the spinning would cease as well. Naruto had dedided on this theory and tested it against Kiba; it was a success.

Uh oh, he's figured out the weakness of my Tsuuga! Kiba thought.

Luckily for Kiba, Akamaru was there to save him. The puppy came charging at Naruto, who was about to strike Kiba down. Instead of him landing a blow to Kiba now, Naruto was forced to retreat or else he would be on the ground.

'Thank you, Akamaru. That was lucky.' Kiba said to his canine companion.

Kiba turned back to his opponent, who was in a rather interesting fighting stance.

I don't know if I can do this, but I saw Kakashi do it without much trouble.

'Is Naruto trying to attempt the Jyuuken? I've seen him do a Jyuuken-related style, but he can't be attempting to do a Jyuuken stance.' Kiba said to himself.

Kiba pondered the thoughts of a successful Jyuuken move; it might result in a serious injury for him and if the move failed, Naruto would have his own chakra release points; tenketsus, closed for an undeterminable period of time. And as a result of Naruto's tenketsu's being closed, he would not be able to perform techniques.

Kiba seriously did not know what to do; stop Naruto from continuing or fight on?

'Naruto, are you trying to imitate the Jyuuken? Don't try it, you'll hurt yourself.'

'Don't worry about it, Kiba, just come at me; I'll be ready.'

Kiba hoped he knew what Naruto was actually doing, if not, than one of them would end up in the hospital, if it was Naruto, it would be his closed tenketsus, if Kiba, a lot of broken bones and a number of punctured internal organs.

Kiba charged at his sparring partner, who was concentrating intently.

Kiba spun like a tornado as Naruto's eyes were closed, beads of sweat going down his face. It was looking like Kiba would get a direct hit in Naruto's open areas.

'Jyuuken!' Naruto called out, thrusting his palm forward, releasing chakra.

Naruto had done it. But it was not a complete or perfect Jyuuken move; the release of chakra from his palm tenketsus was much less than what he had intended to release. But this time Naruto knew it was not due to the chakra control; it was due to the fact that he did not have the Byakugan, as the Hyuga Clan's Bloodline Limit had a way of circulating the chakra perfectly when it was activated. But as Naruto did not have the Byakugan, or even any other Bloodline Limit, for that matter.

He thrust the palm of his hand forward, releasing chakra toward Kiba's direction. Kiba stopped his spin immediately to block Naruto's move, but as soon as his left hand neared the hand that had already been activated with Naruto's own Jyuuken move, he retreated with Akamaru, a slight pain

What? He's already completed a Jyuuken move? He's getting better, Kiba thought.

Naruto was tired beyond measure due to the activation of tenketsus in his hands. It was truly a hard thing to do if you did not have the Byakugan aspect of being able to redirect chakra to your tenketsus and increasing the circulation. But Naruto was able to, and Kiba himself was still looking on in shock at his friend.

Naruto charged at Kiba, who, with his beast-like agility, ducked at the oncoming fist. Behind Kiba was Akamaru, who surprised Naruto with an effort to tackle him.

The blonde dodged the dog to his left side as Kiba came in with an uppercut, sending Naruto flying. Naruto got into his unique fighting stance spawned from the Jyuuken. It was the same Taijutsu style that he had shown Zabuza before; Kage Senpuu. A style that Naruto had developed from seeing the weaknesses of the Jyuuken that Kakashi had copied from a Hyuga. It was not going to be easy to copy the fighting style, so while Naruto was still learning, he had developed the Kage Senpuu, a fighting style that was effective in the air, but faster executed on the ground. Kakashi had went up against Naruto in a Taijutsu battle.

Naruto used his Kage Senpuu fighting style and had knocked Kakashi unconscious with the final move of the lightning-fast ground combo; Ryuuken. Kiba was about to experience the airborne version of Naruto's infamous combo and he did not even bother to evn dodge any incoming blows. It was to be a world of pain.

'Kage Senpuu: First Move!' Naruto shouted, and Kiba cursed as he heard him.

Naruto spun like a windmill, delivering a chakra-enchanced punch in the form of an open palm to Kiba, sending the boy almost crashing toward the ground.

'Kage Senpuu: Second Move!' Naruto had reached the ground before Kiba and used his two hands, palms open and pushing Kiba back into the air and a kick as well.

Kiba winced in pain as the blonde jumped higher than him and stabbed him in the chest, causing the pain for him to escalate to a new level. Naruto was about to go on.

'Kage Senpuu: Third Move!' Naruto continued stabbing Kiba's body at a fast speed.

Naruto did not continue his moves any further as Kiba dropped to the ground.

The boy was still conscious and wincing in pain. Kurenai and Kiba ran over to the two boys to check up on Kiba, who smiling in all his pain. Kurenai was plain shocked. She had known about Naruto's Taijutsu moves from Kakashi, who said that it was the only thing that Naruto could beat him at. But she had never expected to see such a flurry of moves executed as though it was nothing but a dance.

'Naruto, do you think that you could teach me that?' Kiba asked, grinning.

Kiba was still on the ground, cluching his ribs and chest in pain from the moves.

'Sure, but I'll only teach you three out of the seven moves first.' Naruto replied.

Kiba would live to regret those words that he had agreed to without thinking.

Team Seven was at their usual training ground the day before the Chuunin Exams. The week had been a literal Hell for them, especially for Naruto and Kiba. Kiba was having an extremely hard time trying to learn the first three moves of Naruto's Airborne Kage Senpuu. The speed required was almost maddening for him. There had to be perfect balance and coordination during the combo and Kiba had to do it in less than a week. It was going to be his trump card in case he had to fight one-on-one.

Naruto could not help but feel proud about the fact that Kiba had already completed the first two moves, though they were not perfect, they still inflicted significant damage as Kiba's original style of fighting was a beast-like brawling style. To increase the affects to what they were now, Naruto had advised him in converting the rushing attacks of his original Taijutsu style to the Airborne Kage Senpuu. It worked.

Kiba's attacks with the moves were more devastating than his Tsuuga attacks.

The past few days had been hell for Naruto in quite a few ways. The Jyuuken was to be mastered and learned so he could be prepared to face any enemies and not waste chakra with his Kage Senpuu. In a way, the Jyuuken moves were more powerful than Naruto's Kage Senpuu, the attacks were not as rushed but the one thing that Naruto's Kage Senpuu had over the Jyuuken was the flexibility of his fighting style. Where the Jyuuken required various stances, as Naruto had observed, his Kage Senpuu could be executed in almost any condition as long as the enemy was within range.

But on an overall basis, the Jyuuken was more powerful than the fighting style Naruto had developed. And the only way, as Naruto had discovered from his brother Kakashi's fight with another Hyuga, the Jyuuken could be defeated in a Taijutsu battle was with another Jyuuken. It was simply the best Taijutsu style that was there.

'Alright guys, you've all done very well with your improvements on skill.' Kurenai said to them, 'Kiba, Naruto, Shikamaru; I hope that you all are ready.'

Naruto and Kiba could have sworn that they had heard Shikamaru say 'I'm not'.

Kurenai looked at her team. Their bodies were worn out, by the looks of things. Kiba's jacket was slightly roughed up and had visible tears on it from learning Naruto's Kage Senpuu while Shikamaru just looked as clean as whistle (since he did not bother to practice anything but his mind for the last few days, which was still Hell for him.) except for a bandaged hand from hitting the ground too hard in frustration.

Naruto; he had the worst week of his life trying to learn the fighting style of the Hyuga. The blonde was convinced that what he had done during his spar with Kiba was a definite fluke. He could not do it again after the fight until the day before and that was too weak as well, compared to the real Hyuga Jyuuken. On the night before, the blonde did not sleep at all trying to learn the moves and techniques the Jyuuken had up its sleeve. Needless to say, it was not a success.

'So Naruto, did you finally get the Jyuuken right?' Kiba asked his friend.

Naruto shook his head as he looked to his hands that were burnt with the excess chakra that he had accumulated the night before. Kurenai looked to Naruto pityingly, the boy was just too hardworking at times, even if she did understand that Naruto's dream. No one, let alone a Hyuga, could learn the Jyuuken within a week.

'It's alright, Naruto. You're not even a Hyuga, and even they have a hard time.'

Naruto understood that, but he wanted to prove to Kakashi that he could be the best, overcoming even him. Kakashi had issued that challenge to Naruto before.

And at the end of that day, he saw his brother use the Jyuuken; the most powerful Taijutsu style in Konoha. At the time, Naruto did not know what it was except that it was a powerful style. And from that, Naruto developed the Kage Senpuu.

'Well, maybe you'll get it at the end of the year if you train as hard as you can.'

Naruto smiled to Kiba and thanked him for the words. Kurenai smiled at them.

'Why don't we all go to Ichiraku Ramen? My treat.' Kurenai said, beaming.

There were three very eager nods from the boys as they made their way to Ichiraku Ramen, battle-hardened from the training that had been issued to them for the week.

'Hey look, Naruto. It's Team Eight and your brother.' Shikamaru pointed out.

Team Eight was eating their ramen at the counter, their bodies not as tired-looking or as worn out from their training. Kakashi turned to face Naruto.

'I knew that you'd be coming, Naruto.' Kakashi said, a happy tone in his voice.

'Well, ramen is pretty much all I eat aside from what I cook, so of course you'd know I'd be here. After all, I'm a bit too tired to cook myself.' Naruto said.

He took a seat to Kakashi's left as Kiba took a seat to Naruto's left.

'So what will it be today, Naruto?' the old man that owned the shop asked.

'Miso ramen for me please, old man.' Naruto said cheerfully, smiling.

The old man nodded to his favourite customer before going on to ask the others what they wanted to eat. Kiba and Shikamaru ordered the same as Naruto while Kurenai just ordered a vegetarian ramen as to "watch her figure" as Naruto put it.

'So you've finished training for the Chuunin Exams, Naruto?' Kakashi questioned.

'Yes.' Naruto replied simply, taking a slurp of his ramen as he did so.

'You think that you're ready for the exams then?' Kakashi continued.

'That I'll leave up to you, Kakashi-niichan.' Naruto said, apparently smirking.

Naruto finished his bowl of ramen and thanked Kurenai before walking off with Kakashi to the middle of the woods. If one could see under their masks, it would show that both of them were either smiling, grinning or smirking. The sun was setting in the distance as the two of them finally reached the nearby woods.

Naruto was facing Kakashi, around twenty feet away from him, both of them looking almost like mirror imabes of each other except that Naruto was blonde and Kakashi had white hair. The sun was going down slowly, the rays all the more intense. The shorter of the two males clenched and unclenched his fists.

'All out?' Naruto called out to Kakashi, who nodded to him.

Kakashi cracked his knuckles and massaged his wrists before revealing his Sharingan, signalling that this fight would be one of dramatic proportions.

Naruto stood on there, unmoving, his arms to the side and his eyes looking right into Kakashi's normal eye and the blood red iris of the Sharingan.

'Shuriken, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!' Naruto and Kakashi threw a shuriken to each other and those shurikens each multiplied into four other shurikens and clashed.

The sound of metal clashing could be heard as Naruto and Kakashi each drew out a kunai and charged at each other, each performing extremely quick slashes. Each of their slashes met with the kunai the other was holding and Naruto was feeling that if he kept up in close combat with the kunais he would lose. Naruto jumped back and formed two fingers on each hand to shape a cross and called out a Shadow Clone.

'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!' Kakashi called out, creating a Shadow Clone of himself.

Naruto could not keep up when Kakashi had the Sharingan, he might have drawn a few battles with him when it was activated, but that was all. The only time that he could beat Kakashi in a fight was in a Taijutsu spar.

The two clonesstabbed each other in the chest, cancelling out each other.

'Naruto, watch this!' Kakashi called out, performing a number of handseals and grabbing the ground with his two hands, and held up a boulder around five times his size, Naruto looked on in horror as Kakashi smirked, 'Doton: Doryo Dango!'

Kakashi threw the boulder at the spot where the Sharingan had predicted Naruto to be. Naruto clenched his teeth as the large boulder closed in on him.

The boulder looked to have crushed Naruto as Kakashi sighed at his brother.

Kakashi knew that that kind of attack would not be able to defeat Naruto.

'Behind me…' Kakashi said lazily and turned around to see that no one was there.

'OVER HERE!' Naruto bellowed, a boulder ten times his size in his hands over him; Kakashi could be seen gaping under his facemask, 'Doton: Doryo Dango!'

Naruto had purposely gotten hit by Kakashi's attack so he could prepare for the next. The boulder was thrown Kakashi's way, which Kakashi barely dodged.

I've really taught you well, Naruto, Kakashi thought as he watched Naruto.

Suddenly, Naruto poofed into nothing. Kakashi's eyes widened as he felt a presence behind him; Naruto was there, airborne with a kick directed at him.

Kakashi was hit squarely in the face by the kick, sending him flying to the ground. But Kakashi was a ninja and had a fast reaction speed, almost as fast as the Hokage. With that reaction speed, Kakashi jumped back into a standing position.

'Jyuuken?' Naruto questioned, worried as faced his brother's new fighting stance.

The Jyuuken position was copied by Kakashi from a Hyuga some time ago, and since he had seen it, Kakashi had adopted the moves of the Taijutsu style many times.

I can't face the Jyuuken; with Kakashi-niichan's fast reaction speed and technique, I can't possibly be able to keep up with him if I go in close, Naruto thought.

Kakashi came charging at him with lightning-fast speed, hitting Naruto's right shoulder, sealing one tenketsu, followed by another on his left thigh and another on the blonde's left arm. Before Naruto could be hit by the next moves, he jumped backwards and spun while he was upside-down on his right palm to get away.

'Damn it!' Naruto cursed as Kakashi got into another fighting stance.

A very familiar fighting stance. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw what Kakashi was doing. Naruto gritted his teeth as he got up, flexing his fingers.

Kage Senpuu? Kakashi-niichan must have got that off me during our spar…

But since Naruto was the creator of the Kage Senpuu, he knew its weaknesses.

If Kakashi-niichan's going to use the ground style that I used on him, I have a small chance of getting him in his weak spot, but if I time it wrong, I'll be minced meat…

Naruto put his left hand forward, palm facing Kakashi and his other hand was covering the lower part of his face. His left foot was put forward.

'Kage Senpuu: First Move!' Kakashi launched a kick to Naruto's stomach.

He reteated quickly before spinning like a tornado and went on to trip Naruto.

'Kage Senpuu: Second Move!' Kakashi went on to do a series of finger labs to Naruto's upper body; he had to endure all this until he reached the weak moment.

Wait for it, Naruto! If you miss, you lose! Naruto mentally shouted to himself.

'Kage Senpuu: Third Move!' the jounin called out as Naruto stood prepared.

Kakashi proceeded to roll very quickly in the air before landing a two-footed kick to Naruto's throat, almost making the boy pass out from all the pain.

This next move is the weak spot for the combo, I'll have to take my chance!

Kakashi jumped away, and by grabbing Naruto's jacket, brought him along with him. It was not going to be easy for Naruto to take his chance.

The jounin was about to continue the combo, but Naruto had finally found the weakness he had waited so patiently to exploit. Kakashi's right arm was almost fully extended and Naruto had found his target: the left side of Kakashi' chest.

Naruto grabbed the jounin vest that Kakashi wore and begun his counter moves.

'Kage Senpuu: Counter Move Sequence!' Naruto called out as the jounin's eyes widened in shock and in pain of Naruto's fast finger jab to his body.

Naruto quickly begun to do a series of lightning fast kicks in mid-air to Kakashi's body, mostly near his head and upper body. It ended with a heel drop to his head. It was lucky that Kakashi was wearing a forehead protector or that move would have hurt twice at much than it already did. Kakashi coughed out blood.

Naruto had backed away almost fifteen feet from Kakashi; body extremely battered.

He panted as he observed his brother slowly get up, just as battered as he was.

Kakashi and Naruto than proceeded to perform identical handseals and once again, the ears of the two heard the sound of a thousand birds chirping.

'It took you a year, Naruto, but I'm glad that you've gotten this far with the Chidori. Now,' Kakashi drew the Chidori back, 'Let's see how good it's gotten!'

Naruto charged at Kakashi as the latter did the same, hands were in a thrusting motion. They were not holding back, it was time to see how far Naruto had come.

'CHIDORI!'

Team Seven had just entered the building that held the Chuunin Exams. They were all nervous at what they might face on this day, and out of the three boys, only Shikamaru was good at hiding his nervousness. They walked up the stairs until they reached a floor where a group of genins were gathered.

'Hey, What in the world is going on here?' Kiba questioned, looking to the crowd.

They saw a girl with her hair up in two buns being pushed to the ground by a chuunin. Naruto frowned at this act. They could not have done that; not to a girl.

'This test ain't for weaklings like yourselves!' the chuunin barked.

Naruto looked and saw Uchiha Sasuke walking to the chuunins and smirked.

'Why don't you just drop the Genjutsu, I want to go to room three-oh-one, not two-oh-one.' Sasuke said smugly as the chuunin smirked at the brunette.

Naruto, along with Shikamaru, had figured that out as soon as he came to this floor. There was no way a room that had a "three" as a first number be on the second floor.

Naruto continued to walk to the next floor, which showed the true room three-hundred-and-one, Naruto continued to walk with his friends until they reached the room and were going to open the door until he heard a shout.

It was a strange boy in a green jumpsuit and a red forehead protector around his waist. He was addressing Sasuke, who was smirking at him. He jumped to cut the space between him and Sasuke to a short distance.

'You must be Uchiha Sasuke, correct?' the boy asked Sasuke, who merely smirked.

'Who wants to know?' Sasuke said smugly at the boy, hands in his pockets.

'I am Rock Lee! I wish to fight you.' Lee said to him, getting into a stance.

'So you're another guy who wants to get his butt kicked, eh?' Sasuke drawled.

'Sasuke-kun! We can't delay or we'll be late for the exams!' Sakura said.

Naruto took an interest in the green clad boy and approached them.

'Naruto, where are you going?' Kiba asked Naruto, who apparently grinned.

'I want to watch a fight, and maybe I might join in too.' he said simply.

Kiba stood gaping at his friend's simplicity as he walked to Sasuke's group.

'If we get into a fight here we'll waste time, Sasuke-kun!' Ino reasoned.

'It will take only five minutes, Ino, Sakura.' Sasuke said to them.

'Hey, guys!' Naruto greeted the group of people that stood before him.

Sasuke, Sakura, Ino and Lee turned to the newcomer; Sasuke frowned at him.

Well, I got knocked unconscious by my little brother yesterday…

Sasuke could not believe his ears when he had heard Kakashi say that. It was true, but both of them had been knocked unconscious by the force of their Chidoris.

The match had ended in a very close draw for Naruto.

'Who are you, if I may ask?' Lee asked the boy with the facemask.

'Me? I'm Uzumaki Naruto. And you may be…?' Naruto turned to Lee.

'I am Rock Lee and I intend to fulfil my philosophy that hard work can beat a genius!' Rock Lee said energetically; too energetically.

'Well, Lee, you see, we have the written exam to attend to now. Why don't you and Sasuke fight after the exams? I'm sure that it will beless rushed.'

'Your logic is good, Naruto-kun, but to uphold my philosophy I have to show the proof that it is true!' Lee said with the same tone as before.

'Alright, fight me.' Naruto said to the green-clad boy, who raised one of his fuzzy eyebrows; it almost made Naruto giggle, 'Fight me, I'm a genius too.'

Lee almost laughed at Naruto but calmed down and forced himself not to.

'I don't want to fight you, Naruto-kun, I want to fight with Sasuke-kun. I'm sorry but he is a true genius. I want to prove my ability against his, not yours.'

Naruto took this as an insult and dashed at Lee, laying a kick to his jaw.

What? This Naruto is extremely fast, almost as fast as me!

Lee flipped back on all fours and dashed to Naruto, who countered by sliding his back on Lee's back so Lee's fist missed him. Lee was fast, even for Naruto, but if there was one thing that Naruto did know it was that he had better reaction speed.

He grabbed Lee's head and pinned him to the ground as Sasuke watched with his Sharingan. Naruto's speed was amazing. Two people were watching the battle.

'Lee! What do you think that you are doing?' it was the girl with buns in her hair.

The other person was a boy, a Hyuga with long flowin chocolate-brown hair.

'Ah, Tenten-chan! Neji!' Lee exclaimed as his friends walked over to him.

Naruto released his hold over Lee and let him up.

Suddenly, there was a poof of smoke and the smoke revealed a man who looked just like Lee on the back of a turtle with a red shell. Naruto knew who it was.

'LEE! What do you think you are doing picking a fight with people before the exams even begin!' the man barked to Lee, who hung his head in shame.

'Hello, Gai-san!' Naruto greeted the man, waving a hand at him.

'Well, if it isn't Naruto!' Gai said in return,' You've adopted his look, eh?'

'Yeah. The element of mystery seems to take its affect on ,most females.'

Gai laughed as he ruffled Naruto's hair. Lee looked from one person to the other, confused. So were his two teammates, Neji and Tenten.

'Gai-sensei, may I ask who is this?' Lee asked his instructor.

'This is the little brother to my greatest rival ever; Hatake Kakashi!' Gai claimed.

Naruto sighed, he knew that Kakashi only considered him as entertainment and a close friend, but the man had always kept going on with his remarks about the "Flames of Youth" or something like that and to proved that he was better than Kakashi. Naruto liked Gai very much because of his upbeat and funny style.

'Well, you kids better hurry along. And Lee, I forgive you for your mistake against the Flames of Youth. And if you should watch Naruto in the exam, be sure to learn from him, for he is a true genius!'

Another thing that Naruto liked about Gai was his good compliments about him.

He disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the group of genins.

'Please accept my humble apologies, Naruto-kun! I misjudged you, if we should meet again, I hope that you could teach me more.' Lee held out his hand.

Naruto shook it before his eyes bolted up in realization.

'We only have a minute until the exam starts!'