Hello I'm back and I'm REALLY sorry about the wait. I had so much crud to do, UGH! Anyway I hope you enjoy this (sorry but it's kind if afiller). Hope you enjoy and thanks for the reviews!

"Speech"

'Thought'

"Kyuubi"

(Standadard Disclaimer)

Chapter 23: Kazekage

"OH SHIT!" came the scream from a certain five tailed demon fox as he dodged a perfected electrocution Rasengan from what he considered his prized student. Kyuubi ducked just in time to avoid the crackling ball of hurricane energy but not swift enough to dodge the static charged tails that followed up the powerful offensive. "Damn it..." Kyuubi said just before his body was thrown back smoking in the world of the seal.

"How was that Kyuubi-sensei?" asked the madly grinning senior student of the eons of fox spirit. "Kid...whatever the Hyuga girl did to you tell her I don't thank her," Kyuubi growled as he shook off the black from his standing on end fur. When this was accomplished Kyuubi did in fact look like a massive ball of fluff which made Naruto laugh much to Kyuubi's anger. "Remember I DON'T say thank you," Kyuubi growled smoothing down his fur with a few licks of his tongue.

Naruto plopped down on his rear end with a happy sigh and glazed eyes remembering what had happened before he entered the world of dreams. He had confessed to Hinata, from his feelings to the demon sealed inside his stomach. She loved him and he loved her, it was all perfect. What made this even better was that he felt even more powerful which really surprised him. Maybe it was that confession that was on his heart for so long was finally released. Whatever it was he felt so invincible.

Kyuubi chuckled to himself, this kid was truly one of a kind. For a Kitsune to gain tails they had to gain honor for their family or their master. Apparently finding love was somewhere in there too and he was just on the cusp of his sixth tail. All he needed was a push and there was number six waving behind his back. Maybe he could...nah that is something he'll save for AFTER the exams. "Ready for another round kid," Kyuubi said his tails waving in a charge. "Ready Kyuubi sensei," Naruto said with a wicked grin and his golden edged azure eyes glowing.

The weeks following the little 'incident' before the Chuunin exams were now truly happy and peaceful ones. Naruto and Hinata would spend any of their extra time with each other, either in quite peace or in animated discussion. Now Naruto wasn't a person to hold his affection for his precious person to himself so any chance he got he would kiss, hug, or even simply hold hands with Hinata. This would cause a blush from the beautiful Hyuga girl of course but hell she enjoyed it why stop it?

In way of training Hiashi slowly began to ease up on Naruto at least that was what Naruto thought. One day he asked Hiashi about it and the Hyuga leader said he hadn't even slowed down the training, Naruto was simply getting stronger. This called for a celebration date with Hinata which ended up with Hinata tasting Naruto on her lips for a good long while. Not that she minded of course.

Naruto would train with his team as usual but something was a little off. Even though Zaiaku now regularly showed up to their training sessions he seemed to be more deeply involved in his thoughts. Once or twice his thoughts almost got him a seriously painful experience at the hands of a drunk Itami but that was another story for another day. Naruto, in the midst of his confusion decided to ask the only person on the team who might give him straight answers. Taishou...

Taishou sat on the top of the training logs of the training ground, his fingers snapping to an invisible beat. His eyes were closed and he rocked his head back and fourth in time with his snapping. "Taishou-sensei," Naruto called out from the top of the next training log over. Taishou stopped his actions then turned to the fox boy seated beside him. "Hello Naruto, what can I do yah for?" Taishou asked with a smile and a laugh.

"Well...this question has been on my mind for a while now. What's up with Zaiaku?" Naruto asked with his head tilted to the side as he sat down on the training log facing the Jounin. Taishou sighed, his smile falling to the somber moment. "Naruto, have you ever envisioned your own death?" Taishou asked with a snap of his fingers. Naruto blinked confused at the question, "What?"

"Have you ever envisioned your own death? You know the part where you bite the big one?" Taishou said with a small mocking smirk. Naruto nodded his head, of corse he had to. In the middle of a deadly mission he always thought he could die but he pushed it to the back of his mind and fought on as he always had. Taishou laughed, this was indeed a fun game.

"Of course you have, you're a ninja. But, have you ever envisioned your death purely with no reason behind it?" Taishou asked with crossed arms. "No, why would I do that?" Naruto asked in confusion. The Jounin was causeing more confusion by the second. Maybe he wasn't the best person to talk to. "Well on this team, you might have to..." Taishou said with a slightly less energetic tone.

"You see, our team on record is a shield team," Taishou said with a gesture of his hand which Naruto nodded to. "That is no where near what we are. We are a suicide attack team," Taishou said with a smirk. Naruto blinked, wait what the hell was that? "What? There is no way in hell something like that exists," Naruto said with clenched fists.

"Oh but they do Naruto," Taishou said with a smile and a laugh. "We are the first sent out because of our power but more importantly for our pasts," Taishou said to a confused Naruto. "Wait, your pasts?" Naruto asked trying to pump as much info from Taishou as possible. "You see Naruto, in this team we all have some sort of...uneasy past. Itami has her parents, despite what they did to her she finds it necessary to prove to her parents her worth. Even if it means her death," Taishou said with a sigh. He hated saying that but he needed to get Naruto up to speed.

"I am a double traitor, both to my home village and the Sound. I was on front line mission to Sound and got captured because of my little snapping problem. I was put in their military, then caught on a mission to Konoha thanks to my over zealousness for the mission. You can guess the rest from there," Taishou said with a slightly serious gaze. Naruto nodded with a serious yet slightly questioning gaze, "and Zaiaku?"

Taishou's face turned deadly serious for the first time since they met and he said, "Naruto, I have no authority to tell you about that." With that Taishou smiled and laughed his hearty laughter. "Well that's all the questions for now Naruto, I hope this was..." Taishou said as if winding up for something. 'Oh god no...' Naruto thought just as Taishou said, "SNAPTACULAR!" with a snap of his fingers and a thumbs up/laugh. Naruto fell off his log from the lame line, firm in his belief that it was something even worse then Gai and Lee.

The very next day Naruto was walking the halls of the Hyuga Main house his hands in his pockets as he took to humming a small tune to himself. Suddenly his entire body was thrust into a wall and he felt the edge of an extremely sharp blade at his neck. "You DIRTY fox," came a growling female voice. He smirked as he recognized the voice from his 'nightmare.' "Hello Hitokoe, am I right with the name?" Naruto said with a laugh as he looked into the furious eyes of the Branch House girl.

"You sickening fox. First you come to this house and stay when you are unwelcome and now defile the heiress as if she were your own vixen," she growled as she pushed the blade closer to his throat. "I have no idea what you are talking about," Naruto said with a sly smirk. "You evil Kitsune. I try everything I can to get you thrown from this home but Hiashi-sama continually keeps you, if I didn't know better I'd think you were his son. I'll kill you then the Hyuga name will be clean once again," Hitokoe said as she pushed the Kunai with enough pressure to draw blood.

Naruto smirked...then poofed out of existence. Hitokoe stumbled forward in confusion, a shadow clone? "Hitokoe," came a soft yet surprisingly angry voice. Hitokoe's eyes opened in shock and slowly turned to see the grinning fox boy standing right behind the Hyuga heiress, her pale eyes ablaze with an uncharacteristic anger. She was in some DEEP shit now.

The majority of the Branch house, save to the cooks and guards, were given the day off especially so Hitokoe could do each and every chore around the ENTIRE Hyuga mansion. That was truly satisfying to Hinata and Naruto for Hitokoe's first punishment. Naruto and Hinata were both content with not using the Branch seal but the more she badmouthed Naruto and pleaded with Hinata to kill him the more it was looking appealing.

Getting past that it wasa few days before the Chuunin exams but this day was special in itsown right.Taishou showed up to the training fields his hand holding three forms. "Guess what I got," Taishou said with a grin and a snap. Needless to say thepapers were signedwith no hesitation and it was on, the Chuunin exams were to take place in just a few short days.

"This is going to be great!" Naruto said with a joyous leap into the air. "Yeah great," Itami said with a slight sip of her 'scroll.' "Naruto why so excited?" Zaiaku asked, his mind for once this week not caught in his thoughts. "Well for one we get to fight and test our skills and probably move up in rankbut mostly..." Naruto built up the tension for this one. "I'll finally get to see Gaara again!" Itami, Zaiaku, and Taishou all blinked at the same time, "What?"

"You know...Gaara...Kazekage of the sand?" Naruto said trying to spark their memory. "We know who he is Naruto," Zaiaku said with crossed arms. "We just didn't know you knew him!" Taishou shouted excitedly. "Can you get me his autograph?" Itami said almost on the same level of excitement of Taishou. Naruto could have sworn he saw Zaiaku's eye twitch but then he held the same impassive stare he had from the day Naruto met him.

"I'll do you one better, I'll have you guys meet him!" Naruto said with a great laugh and smile. Taishou grinned and said, "if I tell you where he's coming to the village can you get me some of his famous sand?" Naruto blinked then became a blur rushing up to Taishou and grabbing him by the collar, "HE'S COMING HERE TODAY!" Taishou nodded, "yep with his Genin teams in royal fashion."

After agreeing to Taishou's terms since Taishou had important buisness to do, Naruto led the team of three to the western entrance just in time to see the infamous Kazekage of the sand, Sabaku no Gaara. He wasflanked by his brother and sister, Kankurou and Temari as they entered the massive gates. BeforeNaruto could even consider the idea that they just might not recognize him due to his absorption of Kyuubi's body he landed in front of the procession, a grin on his face.

In a snap he saw Kankuro reach for his scrolls that summoned his great puppets and he saw Temari reach for her life extinguishing fan. Naruto blinked, his mind finally registering the fact that Temari and Kankuro probably didn't recognize him. Oh he would hate to fight them but if they attacked it was his only choice. "Uzumaki Naruto, we meet again," came the calm monotone voice of the great Kazekage of the sand.

Kankuro blinked in confusion along with Temari, this couldn't be that loud and crazy brat. They knew what he looked like now a days and a Kitsune he wasn't. "Gaara! Good to know someone knows who I am," Naruto said with an excited air. "Uh, Gaara..." Kankuro began but was stopped with a sharp jab in the ribs with Temari's fan. "Shut up," she angrily whispered, now that he was the Kazekage Gaara's word was law.

Suddenly Naruto felt a rush of air behind him signaling the appearance of his team. His smirk grew into a smile and he said, "Gaara, you're here for the exams right? Well take a look at my new team!" Gaara took the initiative to look at the two Genin behind Naruto.

The first one was a girl, a some what fan girlish grin on her face but other then that she looked rather normal. Eh...well whatever you considered normal, for some reason he felt with her hair and eyes they were distantly related. Summed up in his own fashion, he came up with this single thought, 'I have enough fans at home.'

Gaara then turned to the Genin, he was a taller more threatening person then the last girl. He looked as though he might put up a good fight if here were to attack. That thing on his back was a mystery too, what could be wrapped up in those black binds? Gaara, with his years of ninja training decided that he might as well put these two to a test to see if they were worthy of even entering the exams. Using his retained Shukaku power over the sand he sent two medium speed jets of his own personal sand at the Genin.

The first one dodged the initial attack then made a few incredibly quick hand seals. She put her scroll to her lips and tilting it back for what looked like a drink. She removed it quickly then blew out an intense ball of fire which turned Gaara's returning stream of sand into a long piece of twisted glass. This was incredibly impressive to Gaara and he made a note of it but the other Genin is what confounded him the most.

With a simplehead movement a large stream of what looked like coins flew from his body blocking the sand in mid air. Gaara had heard of the Santetsu attacks of the Sandaime Kazekage but he had never heard of using money as a form of attack. "You use coins?" Gaara questioned with crossed arms. "You use sand?" Zaiaku questioned right back with his hands deep in his pockets.

Gaara merely cracked one of his infamous smirks and turned to Naruto, "quite a team you have Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto grinned like he always does and nodded with his exicted response of, "destined to be Chuunin!" "They'll have to get past my best Genin first Uzumaki," Gaarareplied with a smirk and anod of his head bringing to the front three Genin.

One was covered head to toe in a high qualitySuna robe. The only thing visible on the person was their eyes since their face was covered by a cloth mask. The second was obviously a girl, her face covered in the same fashion as Kakashi as she wore normal Suna clothing. The last was a man, his chin sporting a thin beard and his eyes covered in dark reflective glasses as he dressed in similar Suna clothing.

"This is who we need to beat?" asked the first regally dressed Genin proving that they were in fact a male. "Not worth our time," came the girls voice as she crossed her arms over her chest. The spectacled boy at the end said nothing but he held a smug smirk on his lips. Naruto could feel Itami and Zaiaku twitching in anticipation, he knew they were ready to attack but that couldn't happen, it could be a big incident between Suna and Konoha. He had to defuse the situation as soon as possible.

"Well Uzumaki Naruto I'd love to stay and catch up but the Hokage is expecting us. Goodbye Uzumaki Naruto," Gaara said sensing the equal need to separate the teams quickly. Naruto gave Gaara a relieved look then nodded, "later Gaara enjoy the show." With that the procession of Gaara, Kankurou, Temari, and several genin teams left all the genin giving silent glares to the Naruto team.

After the procession had left Naruto smirked, "this is going to fun." "Indeed..." Zaiaku said, the tone of his voice proving his excitement. "We better make it this time, I am not staying a Genin for another year," Itami said as she took a drink of her 'scroll.' Naruto smirked, oh this WAS going to be fun and they WERE going to pass. He'd stake his life on it...

End Chapter

Well how was that? I'm sorry this was crappy and a filler but I promise the rest will be better! On with the Q and A!

Q: Sasuke traitor issue?

A: Ok, this one is for me a really oddly set in stone one. You'll see as the story progresses but as of now he still has no loyalty to either Konoha or Sound. It's really confusing I know but I'll try to explain later the best I can.

Q: Punishment for Hitokoe?

A: ...Dragon Man 180...you are purely insane. I like it! The punishment in this chapter is just the starter remember, I'll userecomendations for punishment!

Wow that was short, well I have a preview and after that I'm gone, later!

He was just about to begin the test when the door to the room swung open and there was a girl, obviously drunk, that stumbled in then to the seat with her name on it. He remembered this girl from a while back last time the test was in Konoha.

He smirked, half of the exam she was hiccuping or snoring. She still filled out her test which was what confused Ibiki but he let that for another day. In a mater of seconds his paradox would walk in.

In walked Zaiaku, his eyes shifting to where his seat was, just a little down from Itami in the same row. He took his seat as Ibiki smirked and remembered the boys mental back ground, it wasn't pretty but he wasn't a bloodthirsty killer which confused even Ibiki. With everything that happened he should want to kill the world. He then turned to the entrance with an expectant look on his face, any moment now would his favorite toy walk in. Oh how wrong he was.

The second Naruto stepped into the classroom one single phrase rung in Ibiki's head, 'Oh shit...'