Wah! So many of you are trying to second-guess my storyline! Of course, I knew that it was a Taijutsu fight only, there was a reason Sasuke had to use a jutsu. So, that's about it I think...more characters will be added in this chapter so be sure to let me know how I'm doing! Thanks for the over 4, 600 hits in two days, that really means a lot to me! Anyway, keep up the reviews; good or otherwise, they all help me out!

Now it's time for some individual special thanks, and or, answers!

Onikami-no-Shinobi: You rock hardcore! The old man's style will be reviled in this chapter so keep an eye out for it. Please keep me on track if you see my relative ignorance rear it's head again. The reason Sugi was focusing more on the arms for the few weeks before Naruto joined the Academy is because he wanted to give him a quick edge before the other kids ripped him a new one, he also didn't have time to teach him an unarmed style as he only had a few weeks. The water training a good idea though, it will be tossed into this chapter as well.(there will also be another reason for it, Kyuubi gets to train Naruto a bit too!)

HitoshirenzuKake: Thanks for correcting all those mistakes, I'll be sure to correct them in all the other chapters as well, thanks for noticing!

Morsamare: The reason Naruto used a potentially lethal thrust is because Iruka did say to go all out. Also, if he would have connected a medic-nin would have been used to heal him, so that's what that's about.

ParticleMan: The reason I had Naruto suffer from chakra depletion is because he's only six in this fiction(for now). If you'll remember the first time he used the Kyuubi's chakra training with Jiyara he passed out. That's why I used that excuse in this fiction.

Mahina: Ack, I did that again, eh? I really suck at present/past tense when writing, so expect a few more mistakes in that department. I'll try to watch it better though. Thanks for caring though! It really makes an author feel better when his readers offer constructive criticism, means you care enough about the story to call me on mistakes, lol.

And a huge thanks to whomever else reviewed! I would thank you all individually, but I'm sure you would like me to get on with the story.

Disclaimer no Jutsu: I don't own Naruto, but Sugi is all mine!

Chapter 5: The Spring of Youth!

"So, how is he?" Said someone from his left. Naruto could hear them, he just didn't want to bother opening his eyes. His entire body felt like it had been run-over by a million Sasuke fan girls. Oh, right. Sasuke-teme got me with some freak fireball.

"He'll be fine, just chakra depletion. Although, he shouldn't do this too much, the stress could one day kill him." Said another voice.

"Yeah, I'll have to watch that from now on, thanks for the help." The first voice said back. After a few moments, Naruto heard a door open and close.

"Ok Naruto, you can wake up now." The voice said. Crap! How did he know I was awake? Opening his eyes, Naruto saw a worried Iruka sitting beside his bed. He then looked around the room he was in, it was a lot nicer than his apartment.

"Heh, sorry Iruka-sensei, didn't want to bother you." The older man sighed as Naruto grinned.

"It's not a bother. You gave us all quite a scare back there, do you remember what happened?" Iruka asked, looking a bit apprehensive.

"It would be better if you lied." Loomed a voice in Naruto's head.

"Ah! What the heck?" Naruto yelled, looking all around expecting to see a giant fox somewhere in the small room.

"Uh, what's wrong Naruto?" Iruka asked, now completely confused at the blonde boy laying in front of him. "What are you looking for?"

"Idiot! Only you can hear me! Make something up before he gets suspicious and remember, I'm sealed inside of you so all you have to do is think and I'll hear you." Kyuubi all but yelled.

"Uh, nothing Iruka-sensei, just thought I heard someone." The boy lied. Could have told me earlier you bastard fox! A mental shrug was all Naruto got in response. How the heck can you be talking to me anyway?

"I suggest you get rid of your company first, kit. Even though he can't hear me he's going to find it strange that you're just sitting there doing nothing. I'll explain things then." After he said that, Naruto could no longer feel the demon's presence in his mind, how he knew it was the demon at all was something of a mystery to him as well.

"Umm...well, I really don't remember a lot of what happened. All in all, I remember Sasuke-teme hitting me with some kinda jutsu, after that it's all blank." Not one to have much of a poker face, Iruka could tell the boy was lying and was about to call him on it when the hospital door swung open. An old man hobbled through the door. Naruto rolled his eyes at him. Why Sugi insisted on acting like a helpless old man while out in public stumped the blonde.

"Ah, thought you'd be here, kid. How's things going? How long are you going to be broke?" Sugi said with a bit of a chuckle in his voice. Iruka looked the old man over and noted that the man's 'walking stick' was an old bokuden.

"So, you're the person who's been teaching Naruto his Kenjutsu? I'm Iruka, his instructor from the Academy." Iruka got up to offer his chair to the elderly samurai who took it with a quick word of thanks.

"Yes, yes. I've been trying to teach this kid, hasn't been easy, let me assure you. You're going to be spending a lot more time with him than me, I truly pity you." The man said with a smile as Naruto stuck out his tongue at the grinning adults.

"I'm fine, Gramps. It'll take more than Sasuke can dish out to deal with me!" Naruto exclaimed as he tossed the covers off of himself so he could sit up. "I almost had him too! If he wouldn't have used that jutsu, I would have won!"

"Hmmm...maybe, but it's your own fault for assuming he didn't know any jutsu's. You can't blame him for trying to win." The old man chided.

"Actually, Naruto won the match." Iruka cut in. Naruto's jaw went slack as he stared at the smiling instructor. "If you'll remember, the match was supposed to only be Taijutsu, not Ninjutsu. Out of all the times you two locked up, he was the one retreating, so you won."

"Yeah! Sasuke-teme cheated! I think he even burn up my bokuden!" Naruto pouted. It was the nicest thing he had owned along with his weights. Sugi was quick to point out obvious. He filed the fact that he won in the back of his mind, he wouldn't hold it over Sasuke since he wanted to be the last one standing, but he would still remember it in case Sasuke started to gloat.

"And why would you think that? Your clothes are still more-or-less undamaged and your sword is muuuuuch more resistant than they are, trust me." Sugi said with a bit of annoyance.

"Yeah, Naruto. I think I saw Ino grab it, you might want to go talk to her after class lets out. In fact..." Iruka turned to a clock that was mounted on the wall. "If you hurry, you can catch her right now, class lets out in about ten minutes."

"Ah! See you Gramps, Iruka!" Naruto called back as he bolted out of bed, nearly knocking Sugi out of his chair in surprise. Several crashes out in the hall later, the noise finally died down. Sugi chuckled and moved to leave himself. He stopped for a moment and turned back to Iruka.

"You know, that kid loves ramen. There's a little shop he always goes to right after me and him get done training. I think it's called Ichiraku Ramen. I can't stand ramen, so he goes there alone each day. Anyway, I'm off. If you see that Gai guy, tell him I said thanks for covering for Naruto, he'll know what you mean." With that, Sugi hobbled out of the room leaving a confused Iruka alone.

"Ichiraku Ramen, eh? I could use a new place to eat..."

Meanwhile...

Once out of the hospital, Naruto had taken to the roofs of Konoha. Even though the going was slow, he still made his way will little leaps and jumps to get from rooftop to rooftop. Hey fox, I'm alone now.

"So you are. Now, I'm guessing you want to know what's going on, huh?" Asked the ever-present demon.

Damn right! You just pop into my head after Sasuke-teme hits me with that jutsu, why are you talking to me now? And tell me why you're inside of me! Why did you attack the village! Why did you... The fox sighed cutting Naruto off.

"One question at a time! Now, as to why you can talk to me now and not earlier. You had to wake me up." Noting the confusion in Naruto's mind, the fox explained, "That attack the Uchiha kit used, it would have killed you if you didn't use my chakra. You see, the Forth used a very special seal to lock me up." Naruto physically shook at the amount of killing intent he felt coming from the massive demon when he mentioned the Fourth. "The seal he used put my soul asleep inside of you until you could deal with my powers. I don't think he intended for you to get into a situation where your mind had to wake me up so soon though. Anyway, if you die I go with you, so I helped out. You mind subconsciously called me to help and woke me up, thus I can talk to you now."

So...it's like a self defense? Naruto didn't understand half of the fox's explanation, but he managed to pick out that.

"...in a way. You'll understand later on in life so don't worry too much, what counts now is that I'm awake and we're both going to have to deal with it."

And my other question...? Naruto prodded. He really wanted to know why the demon had attacked.

"...is my business, not yours. Anyway, I'm going to sleep for a bit now, after all that chakra I used to keep you alive, I'm just as tired as you were. If you need me, wake me up, but don't bother me too much. Since I'm a part of you, I can still see what's going on through your eyes and senses, so I won't miss much. See ya, kit." With that, the voice stopped and Naruto was left alone.

Oh well, at least he's not trying to kill me. Hey! I'm here! Naruto cleared the final roof on his way to the Academy just as it was letting out. He lingered on the roof for a moment as he watched Sasuke head off away from the gate with a flock of girls following him. Soon after, he noticed Ino walking out of the school with his wrapped-up bokuden and weights, obviously struggling to keep upright. Hurrying off to help her, Naruto didn't notice the familiar women a block away heading towards the Academy...

"Ino-chan!" Naruto waved happily. Ino looked surprised to see him so soon, she had thought he would still be in the hospital. "You picked up my stuff for me, thanks!" Naruto grinned happily before relieving the blonde girl of her burden.

"Well, I couldn't just leave your things there, some guy in green was eyeing the weights." Said guy in green had thankfully left with his pupil once the fight was cleared up, one more smile from him would have sent Ino into a eyebrow-induced coma.

"Gee, thanks a lot, Ino-chan." Naruto was planning to go back home to train with the old man, but he suddenly wanted to spend some time with the young blonde girl.

"Hehehe." A mental giggle(if the Kyuubi could giggle) filtered through Naruto's mind.

Thought you were asleep... Naruto mentally asked as he narrowed his eyes, much to the confusion of Ino.

"Oh, I wouldn't miss this for the world, kit. Might want to watch out for her mother though, she doesn't seem too friendly." The Kyuubi said as it noticed the woman through Naruto's eyes. The blonde in question looked to where the demon indicated and recognized the woman instantly.

"Ino! What did I tell you the other day? Stay away from him!" Said the woman as she grabbed the little girl and forcefully moved her away from Naruto.

"Hey! Mom, what did I do?" Ino whined. She had wanted to chase after Sasuke with the other girls.

"We're going home!" She then leveled her gaze at Naruto. "And you, you stay away from my daughter, I'll make sure you don't get your claws in her!" Ino could only wave as she was dragged away from the Academy's gate leaving a very depressed Naruto staring blankly at their retreating forms.

Why...does everyone hate me...I didn't do anything... Naruto asked himself.

"..." Naruto could feel the demon's presents but it said nothing. Sighing, he walked dejectedly back towards his apartment, strapping on his bracers on the way. Putting it off for now, he wondered what Gramps would teach him today...

Later...

"Ok, kid. Today we start the main training of my Kenjutsu style." Sugi waited for the standard Naruto cheers to die down before he continued. "Ok, as you may have guessed from where we are, my style has to deal with water." Naruto nodded as he looked around. They were outside the village once again, only this time they were at a large lake. Naruto loved being outside of the village, no one knew him out here. Sugi calmly stepped into the water and drew his bokuden. "All right, get in here kid." Naruto stepped into the water. It wasn't deep, only up to his ankles but it was still enough to impede his movements. "I watched your fight today, you should have been able to dodge that attack, especially with your weights off. Lucky for you, my style is mainly about dodging so you'll get plenty of practice. Now, let me tell you a quick history lesson about the style. It's called 'Gekido-Se-Ryuu' or 'Raging Current Style'. Like the name implies, it's about power and fluidity. You have to be able to adapt your attacks and move around your opponent like a river around a rock. The river might not be able to move the rock, but over time the current will wrap around it and erode it into dust.. The style is most effective when you're around water so we might have to find some way around that since there isn't much around here." He stopped to think for a moment and frowned. "Maybe I should teach you something different after all..."

"No need, I can fix that. Tell him that you've got the problem covered." The booming voice of Kyuubi cut in.

"Uh, Gramps. I understand the water problem, and I can deal with it." Naruto said, still not sure of his newest 'friend'. I'm trusting you, you bastard fox. You screw up and I'll start charging you rent. Laughter filled Naruto's mind before the fox went silent again. Naruto shrugged and looked back at the old man who was now thinking himself.

"Hmm...fine, you're the person who hired me so I'll teach you Gekido-Se-Ryuu if you really want to learn it." Naruto smiled at this. "Alright, let's begin. Your goal for today..." The old man started before he tossed his bokuden on the lakeside, "Is to hit me." Before Naruto could protest, the man hopped up onto the surface of the water, much to the astonishment of Naruto.

"H-how the heck are you doing that?-!" Naruto yelled. He had never seen anything like it. The old man was actually standing on the surface of the lake, not even a ripple was coming from his feet!

"Oh, this? This is something I'll teach you later on, muuuuuch later on. I don't think you'll be able to do anything like this for about...another six years at least. It requires more chakra control than you can imagine right now, even more than that jutsu the Uchiha used." He ignored the death glare Naruto was shooting at him. "Now, lets get this started, try and hit me. Oh, one rule: No leaving the water. That means you can't jump. Now, come at me!"

Heh, even if he is on top of the water, without his bokuden he'll be an easy target! Charging, Naruto trudged through the water much to the amusement of the elderly samurai who just walked away. The old man was moved every time Naruto did, always staying a good distance away from the irate blonde. After an hour of this, even Naruto's stamina started to wane.

"What's wrong, kid? Seems you're not doing too well." Sugi stated in a 'you're-completely-exhausted-and-it's-obvious' tone. "Lets take a break, you can show me some new tricks you learned at class." He said as he walked over to the lakeside. Naruto frowned at his lack of success, but resigned and sat down next to his teacher.

"Eh, didn't lean much. I was out for most of the class..." His eyes darkened. Damn! Even though I technically won, I still was the one in the hospital...I didn't want to win on a technicality either, I wanted to beat him myself.

"Well, the truth is kit, you can't. Not yet, anyway." The Kyuubi added to his inner-monolog.

Yeah, I know. He knows jutsu's and I can only do a few sword tricks. Anyway, I doubt the kids will care anyway, I saw how they looked at me. Even Iruka-sensei was scared. Ino's mom is right, I'm a monster... It suddenly dawned on Naruto that the Kyuubi was the reason he was treated differently. All the years of people calling him devil and monster, all of it was true. He held the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the number one enemy of Konoha. Before he could curse at the fox or start sobbing, the Kyuubi cut in.

"...kit, you can't change who you are." The demon sighed, it was going to be a long day. "Look, the truth is they don't understand. If I were out again, I'd kill each and every one of them. Don't you feel the same way, kit?"The fox grinned as menacingly as he could and projected the image into Naruto's mind.

No! Never! I would never hurt people just because they're mean to me, it's not my way! He was practically screaming this at the beast. Sugi raised an eyebrow at the numerous emotions playing out on the child's face, but he held his peace.

"Now, what does that tell you?" He waited for a moment while Naruto searched for an answer. When he finally understood, he blinked several times and smiled.

Heh, I get it. I'm no more you than you are me, right? The fox mentally snorted at the young blonde.

"Kit, you would make one horrible demon, you know?"

I'll take that as a compliment. Naruto thought for a moment before getting some revenge. On the other hand, you'd make a good human, you really cheered me up. He got the desired effect, the fox was raging and cursing all manor of words at the boy. Naruto couldn't help but laugh causing Sugi to think the boy had snapped. After several more colorful words ended, the Kyuubi calmly curled up in a ball in his cage.

"Fine, if you're going to be like that, I won't teach you a jutsu." Now Naruto waged an inward war with himself: Walk away with a winning argument against one of the most powerful demons that ever walked the earth, or get a new jutsu... The fox snickered as the boy started to apologize profusely. After going through six years of memories, he could read his little jailor like a book.

Ok, kit. I guess I'll teach you something to help you out. The old man should take a special interest in this one., it's called 'Kirigakure no Jutsu'. It lets you condense the water particles in the air to make mist, if you get exceptionally well with it, you can start to use low-level water jutsu's just from the water in the air. It also helps when you're trying to kill someone quietly since it would make a 'fog bank' of sorts."

All right! New jutsu, new jutsu... Naruto broke out into a dance while chanting 'new jutsu' over and over again in his mind. Kyuubi almost fell over laughing at the blonde idiot dancing around while Sugi decided it was best to get ready to restrain the boy as he had obviously gone insane.

"Calm down, kit. I haven't even shown you the hand seals yet. You do know all the basic hand seals, right?" Naruto stopped dead. Of course he didn't know them, he was only six years old. That was one of the things he was planning to learn in the Academy. He shook his head and the Kyuubi heaved a massive sigh.

"Ugh, can't be helped. Just copy the movements I'm going to plant in your memories. Since this jutsu can't really hurt anyone, and you're not far enough along in chakra control to actually do it, practicing won't be a problem. Just be sure to do it every day until you know all these hand seals by heart, it will be your greatest weapon should that 'Raging Current Style' live up to it's name." With that, the Kyuubi planted memories of a man weaving his hands into intricate patters. Some of them made Naruto cringe.

How the heck can he twist his fingers like that!-? Luckily, there were only a few seals to do so Naruto didn't think it would hurt him too much.

"All right, kit. That's my lesson for this year." The Kyuubi said matter-of-factly.

"NANI?-!" He didn't mean to yell, but having just found out that your number two source of training was taking a year vacation was not what Naruto thought would happen.

"What? You didn't think I would have the patience to train you like that old human, did you? I may have taken a -small- likening to you, but no way am I going to waste that much time on you. Look, it's going to take you a few months just to get those hand seals down to the point where you can do them as fast as that Uchiha brat. After a year you should be able to actually create a small bit of fog. You've got to understand, most of the things I can teach you require an incredible amount of chakra and chakra control. Focus on learning your sword arts and I'll toss you a new jutsu each year, sound good?"

...fine. But you better not be lying or I'll come in there and kick your furry ass! The Kyuubi chuckled at his new part-time student. It had been many centuries since a human was this interesting. With a mental nod, the demon disappeared into the back of his cage effectively shutting off his mental link with his landlord.

Feeling the demon retreat, Naruto smiled at Sugi who had given up on ever understanding the boy.

"So...what the heck was that?" He asked seeing Naruto's attention focus back to reality. "You zoned out there kid."

"Ah, nothing much. I was remembering something I learned in school, you wanted to see, right?." It wasn't a total lie, the Kyuubi had taught him something, so it was sort of like school. Naruto walked back into the water. He looked through his mind at the images the fox had left. There were several strange hand movements which he tried to copy, but he got the finger placement wrong. His movements were slow and lethargic as he tried to move his hands into the correct positions. After several tries, Sugi got up from his place on the bank and headed back onto the water, still walking on top of it.

"Alright kid, stop trying to do a jutsu so we can get back to training." Sugi said as he tapped his foot on the water, still not leaving a ripple.

"Aww, let me train this! I have to learn these hand seal things." Naruto wined as he cracked another knuckle on the complex movements.

"What? You don't know hand seals? Go to the library for that sort of thing. Really, you're in a ninja village, shouldn't you already know stuff like that?" Sugi asked. He cursed inwardly when the blue-clad blonde stopped and lost some of his brightness.

"I tried to go to the library, but they kicked me out..." That had been an exceptionally bad day. All he wanted to do is get a book for a history report he had in school, but the people had chased him out, lucky for him the very book he needed was tossed at him on his way out.

"Tell you what, I'll get you that book if you start training now. I'll cut our regular training by an hour a day so you can work on those jutsu things, that sit well with you?" He smiled when Naruto nodded and picked up his bokuden. "All right kid, let's go." The sun sank in the sky as muffled curses and battle cries filled the area around the lake...

The Next Day...

"...and so, because of the large class, we'll be splitting you all up." It had been a particularly difficult training session. The old man had decided to put weights on Naruto's legs in addition to the ones on his arms. Now the poor boy had forty pounds of iron strapped to him in the form of ankle guards and bracers. He felt like his arms were about to fall off. He could barley stand thanks to the water training Gramps had put him through and his fingers felt like mush because he had stayed up all night working on learning all the basic hand seals. In short, he felt like death warmed over. Never-the-less, mentioning that the class would be split up caught his attention.

"I'll be taking half the class with me to lean at different intervals. We'll meet up once a week as a whole group for the combat class." Iruka said. He then began to read out a roll of names for the ones that would be his students. Some people Naruto knew, others he didn't, were separated. Sakura, Choji, even that weird girl Hinata were leaving. Where the first one's Naruto knew that left. Ino looked sad and happy that Sakura left, maybe because there was less competition for her 'Sasuke-kun'. Naruto almost snorted in frustration that Sasuke was in his class when the last name was called.

"And lastly, Sasuke Uchiha." Naruto almost cheered out loud. Not only did he get to stay with Ino-chan, Sasuke-teme was gone! It was bad that he didn't get to be in Iruka-sensei's class, though. Heh, I also get to stay with Ino-chan! Looking at said blonde girl sitting beside him, he couldn't help but feel sorry for her, she look absolutely dejected that Sasuke was leaving. That sadness took away any happiness Naruto could claim from the Uchiha being gone.

"Uh, Ino-chan, are you alright?" He asked as kindly as possible.

"Yeah Naruto, I just guess Sakura wins now...darn it, if only I was in the same class as Sasuke-kun." She looked miserable. Naruto sighed and waged an internal war with himself. Cursing, he called out to Iruka before he and the other class could leave.

"Iruka-sensei!" He bolted upright in his seat causing the entire class to turn to look at him.

"What is it Naruto?" Iruka asked, slightly exasperated.

"Uh, could I switch classes with Sasuke? I really want to be in your class." Naruto asked. It took an inhuman effort not to add '-teme' to his name. Ino just looked up at him with a shocked and confused face.

"Well, the classes have already been assigned..." He remembered the words the Hokage had said to him the day before Naruto showed up. He had said to not see Naruto as the Kyuubi, that he had grown up alone and that he needed any comforts Iruka could give him. Iruka knew how that was, the Kyuubi had killed his family after all and he had grown up alone without anyone doing anything for him. He took one look at Naruto and saw he was looking at the little Yamanaka girl. Oh, so that's it. She must be devastated that the Uchiha isn't in her class. The Kyuubi wouldn't care about another like that...hmmm...it must be hurting him to do this and I really should keep an eye on him myself, wonder why Mizuki wanted him anyway? His mind made up, Iruka nodded, much to the annoyance of Sakura and the happiness of Ino. Naruto only smiled bitterly as Sasuke headed back to his regular seat with a shrug.

"Um...thank you, Naruto-kun..." Ino said as Naruto started to walk off. She couldn't figure out why he had done it though, he hated Sasuke right? He should have been happy that he wasn't in the same class as him.

She called me 'Naruto-kun...' "Eh, it's nothing Ino-chan, I'll see you in a week when the classes meet back up." He replied with a smile. He walked past an somewhat interested Sasuke who was wondering the same thing as Ino. When Naruto noticed the Uchiha's attention was on him, he stuck out his tongue at the prodigy which made Sasuke turn his head and grunt. With one last wave to his former classmates, he followed after Iruka, hearing a energetic 'SASUKE-KUN!' come from the room he just exited. He flinched when a hand dropped to his shoulder.

"You know, Naruto. Sometimes people don't see what's right in front of them." Iruka said as he and Naruto lagged back behind the other kids. Sakura was already taking charge leading the class since Iruka made her class leader to placate the angry konoichi-in-training after he took 'her beloved Sasuke-kun' away from her. "Usually, they never do wake up and see what's right there, but sometimes," Iruka smirked a bit at the blonde, "Sometimes they do and then they appreciate what was waiting on them that much more." Naruto paled a bit before stuttering out a response.

"W-what makes you think I care? I just wanted to have you as a teacher!" Naruto said defensively. Iruka chuckled a bit.

"Well thanks, Naruto. Oh, I hear you like ramen?" Naruto immediately perked up. "I've been looking for a new place to eat dinner, do you happen to know any good ones that you go to a lot?" And thus the two went with certain blonde extolling the virtues of a certain ramen stand to a interested Chuunin with a sympathetic ear...

Ha, you guys didn't really think I'd slap Naruto and Ino in class together, did you? No way I'd make it that easy on him! So yeah, no uber-powerful Naruto in this fiction, Kyuubi is just too lazy to help much. Next chapter is going to have a series of snap-shots from Naruto's life up too graduation. No way I can write the chapters needed to fill up six years of Naruto's life! It will probably be a huge chapter though, I can't get by with just a few words per year. Expect it to take a bit longer as well. I hope no one minds the ooc Kyuubi, I just like him to much to make him -super- evil! Well, read and review and see you guys next time!
-Jutsu List-(thought this would be a good addition)

-Kirigakure no Jutsu(Hidden Mist Skill)-
A highly effective cover technique. Blankets an area in a thick fog, confusing the senses of the enemy.

And yes, Sugi was using chakra to walk on the water, props to whomever caught that.