Will of Fire

Disclaimer: Naruto is a product of Masashi Kishimoto, so I don't own him.
Legend: "": quote, "italic": thought, italic: Japanese word, (): translation/explication, underline: techniques (check the end for invented techniques).

Chapter 4: Jungle boy at the forest of death

It was a bright sunny day as team 7 assembled for their latest venture: surviving the forest of death for the next three days. Kakashi was late as usual, this time by an hour and by now the team was pretty certain their teacher did it on purpose. After all, he has already demonstrated that he could arrive in time when he wished. Luckily for today, he didn't make them wait any longer, the tension was pretty high already.

Kakashi wasn't in mood for games either. He had enough with Uchiha Sasuke's lack of team cooperation. At first, given his circumstance, he gave him the soft approach. He was very lenient of his actions and hoped that by doing that the Uchiha would gain some confidence to trust him and his views, but this approach has clearly failed. Now he was going to apply the hard approach. He had already warned him that there will consequences for his actions, both direct and indirect. He would lead the direct ones while Sasuke himself caused the indirect ones.

In fact, the 'democratic' team leadership selection, which was hardly democratic in not purely bias, was set as a final test and punishment for the Uchiha. Unfortunately, Sakura proved his wrong once more. He was certain that this time she would have vouched for Naruto due to his help or at least use her judgment to force Sasuke to work for the job, but alas old habits are hard to change. He also hoped Sasuke would have used his judgment and realized that he was ill-equipped and unsuited for such role, but given his arrogance it was also hard to expect. Sasuke should have none that he didn't know his team to lead them. He also was upset on Naruto for not opposing Sasuke's leadership knowing full well how it may end up, but he was least of his concern. Sakura's action made his decision to not even vote somewhat understandable.

So now it was all up to Kakashi to give the Uchiha his hard lesson. Then again, he was certain Naruto had something in mind too, possibly pure humiliation after Sasuke failed his task, but given that they were in the forest of death this would too risky to be allowed. He decided to hit the bricks right on the onset, questioning the Uchiha's motives. He first asked him how he planned to organize his men, a question that took Sasuke by surprise.

Sasuke felt threatened by the question. He knew he wasn't ready for the job, but it was something he had to do. Sasuke wasn't always arrogant, when he was younger he was kind and friendly, but two things would alter his life for ever. First was the constant pressure or living up to his brother in the eyes of his father and the clan. Uchiha Itachi was declared a prodigy at birth and had an exemplary career. He became a genin at age 7 and a chuunin at age of 10. By 13 he was already an ANBU captain. So it is understandable why Sasuke was so adamant about getting strong and being the number one. All his life he had to live in the shadows of his brother and the only way he could get some attention from his father was to match Itachi's feat at best of his abilities. This meant to become best at every challenge he is given.

The second reason for his demeanor had to do with Itachi's last action as a shinobi of Konoha. To measure his own capacity, he killed his entire clan with the exception of Sasuke, who he left alive to become an avenger. This event has traumatic effect on the younger brother, who due to the ruthlessness of his older brother had to relive the assassination of their parents by his hands. Itachi also happened to be his idol, thus the combining of all of these situations lead to the birth of the current Sasuke, a person who now only believes and seeks power for his vengeance. Someone, who doesn't believe any longer on things like trust, friendship and love, these things were taken away from him by his brother's betrayal. Now all it mattered to him was to get stronger and kill him with his own hands. This intention was even greatly influenced by the villagers' reaction, who first pitied him for his loss and then as the heir and sole survivor of the great clan hyped his abilities to a point that even he had a hard time living up to it. This made him somewhat insecure and at the moment Kakashi's question was giving him that same sensation.

He knew very well that he wouldn't be a good leader, he was too strict for his age, but Itachi was a good leader so he would have to be one too. Thus he unveiled his plan. They were to camp in an open field part of the forest. He did this according to the shinobi code book, which stated that a shinobi must avoid getting too deep into forest due to uncertainties and greater risk. He then designated each member's job. Since Kakashi was acting the injured member, he divided the task between the three of them. Of course given who he was he took the hardest job that is hunting food. He selected Sakura to gather the necessities to start a small campfire and put Naruto in charge of babysitting Kakashi. These decisions were of course all made based on his prejudices that Naruto was unreliable and Sakura equally unreliable but at least would be able to do a simple task as gathering wood. Sakura being who she is accepted her mission right away, even though she had the least experience amongst all of them when it came to wild-life and camping outdoors.

Kakashi however stopped them from following up those plans and immediately removed Sasuke as leader on the basis of lack of team knowledge and failure to identify their situation, which caught Sasuke off-guard as well as Naruto. He reminded the Uchiha of his warning and revealed that this was his punishment for his lack of team efforts during the training session. He then revealed that he would be choosing a leader since the team was still biased to be given a democratic selection and ordered Naruto to take over. Sasuke feeling cheated even before having a chance to prove him self contested the decision that Naruto couldn't be the leader since he missed forcefully two days of those trainings, thus equally showing a lack of team spirit. Kakashi reminded him that although Naruto did that, he was the only one who not any showed interest in working team but also was the only one to train Sakura at his own expense. Sasuke contested again that the jounin was being dictatorial and not democratic to which Kakashi added that having Sakura's vote isn't considered democratic when she vote for him even without asking for a reason why he thought he would be the best man for the job. Before Sasuke could contest again, the jounin cut him off again and asked Naruto to reveal his plan for their survival, thus partially ending the Uchiha's futile attempt.

Naruto was still in shock, he really wasn't expecting Kakashi pulling the checkmate on Sasuke like this. Especially not after all the exclusive sugar-coating he did to the Uchiha recently. He figured that the jounin probably did it, because he feared that Naruto would humiliate the star student beyond his recognition. Either that or he simply didn't want to live in Sasuke's master plan of survival that can be summed up as: all under the protection of the Uchiha and in the lion's den of the jungle. Either way he had to lead now. Kakashi asked Naruto the same question as he did to Sasuke to show that he was being fair.


Naruto's plan was of course much more different then Sasuke's. He didn't live by shinobi codes but his own instinct and knowledge. To his knowledge although Sasuke plan to camp on open ground was great it didn't suit their situation. It would have worked if they had the proper camping gear, but they didn't. Their biggest problem won't be facing predators but rather surviving the chilling nights that Konoha has and to do that they needed to go deeper into the jungle. The trees would act as a natural barrier for cold winds and a heaven from larger predators and groups of predators, who would be in a disadvantage due to freedom of movement that the area would restrict them. The best place to pass a night in a forest was either to sleep on the tree branches or find themselves caves or terrier left by other creatures. Given that Kakashi said he wouldn't be able to move without assistance, sleeping on the trees was out of the question. So he opted to find caves which according to the guide this forest had quite a few.

His decision was contested by Sasuke who added that going deeper into forest meant that they would put themselves in greater risks, as smaller predators and usually the hardest to fight and track against. Naruto replied that although that was true, they would be under constant treat wherever they went in this forest, which meant that they would have to set traps around their location anyway, being in a cave would solve one of their greater problems which he again noted to be surviving the cold. So unless Sasuke could come up with a solution for that, they will stay with the current solution, which Kakashi approved, as Naruto had met his conditions and had well justified his reason.

When it came to dividing tasks, Naruto also corrected Sasuke's mistakes. He put Sakura in charge of guarding Kakashi, as well as helping Sasuke setting traps after he had found a suitable cave they can take refuge. He would take care of food as he has a tendency to hunt in the wild more then the others. Before Sasuke could contest again, Naruto added that Sasuke's mission was most important of all, as he would have to find them a home and then find the necessities to start the fire and help Sakura with the traps after that if she needed. He explained the reason why he wanted Sasuke to do the additional job was because he was the most versatile and Sakura was ill-equipped to venture alone in the forest given her lack of experience in the domain. With him doing these, he would be free to hunt for food with a peaceful mind, as by doing so he cleared the necessity for him hunt nearby in case one of the members ended up in trouble. Sakura would have Kakashi to help her out in case of such situation and Sasuke being a lone-wolf was certainly able to handle himself.

This pretty much sealed Sasuke's lips without realizing that Naruto had just tricked him into cooperating by venting how good he was at working alone, which happened to be true. Kakashi was pretty happy with the settlement also. This is one of the reason why he preferred Naruto for the job, the boy knew how to play his cards well and he approved his decisions once again. He was surprised to see him apply the old 'getting away with compliments' and get away with it, especially on Sasuke who is supposed to be a genius. Sasuke's case was a bit different though, he really didn't mind anymore about the leadership if he got the top action spot. He figured Kakashi was right and he wasn't ready for such offer yet, if he hangs along he should be able to learn a few tricks from Naruto and apply it when his leadership skills would be really valued. After all, given that Itachi was a bigger anti-social then him, he must have not been the team leader of his genin squad. Then again the teacher was an Uchiha and probably just gave it to him for being the son of the leader and a prodigy.

Thus the day went as expected without much trouble. Naruto managed to catch four large fishes, enough to satisfy each persons hunger. Sasuke found a livable cave and a gathered the woods as well as light the fire. Sakura set most of the traps while being right by Kakashi. Thus day one ended peacefully, but one shouldn't put their guards down as chaos returned the next day.


It started during the night while they were sleeping. Being in a cave, each member had their own little space. By the morning however, one the members had invaded the privacy of another. The member in question was Haruno Sakura while the victim wasn't Uchiha Sasuke but rather Uzumaki Naruto. How did the pink haired kunochi found her self near him? She had no idea either, but Kakashi suspected it was due to the cold night. Naruto being the member who releases the most heat due to his so called curse was the best candidate to feel warmer. Thus when the members woke up in the morning, a scream was heard around the forest. However, it wasn't from Sakura but rather Naruto who found him self cuddling her in return and was spooked by the idea. Sakura who woke up thanks to his scream let out her own when she found herself near him.

"You pervert, do you have no shame? How dare you do this to me in my sleep?" was her first comment before realizing that she was the one in error, but the dagger was already thrown.

"Excuse me? You're the one trespassing here and I am the one accused? I guess it must be a family thing, accusing whoever they feel like it. I should have known something like this coming from the Haruno," replied back an angry Naruto, as he got up and exited his way.

His words left Sakura confused who didn't have the slightest clue what he was talking about. Sasuke who had also woken up by this time also didn't know what the story was about. Kakashi didn't know much either, but he went to enquire about it later in the day.


For the moment the group had other matters to attend, especially when Naruto didn't wish to talk about it. Although he was pissed, Naruto didn't let it affect his role. For today, the plan would be a bit different. First, he planned to hunt for a wild boar with Sasuke's assistance. He figured since he finally started to get accepted by the Uchiha this was the best time to solidify their relationship. Sakura was asked again to watch over Kakashi, but also to gather some fruits around the nearby trees. As luck would have it the cave that Sasuke found was surrounded by fruit trees and given that the place Sasuke and Naruto were hunting was only 500 meters away from there, Naruto figured it was safe enough to allow Sakura to explore around. After all, she also needed the experience.

The hunt went well. It was true that either of them alone would have probably caught a boar on their own, but working together allowed them to develop their team work. It was the first time that both were fighting together and realizing that two is better then one and it was much more fun. Especially given that boars tend to be in groups and are hard to persuade from not hoard out. So getting one to be alone was a challenging task. Of course, if they wanted they could just charge in and massacre the whole group with their shinobi skills, but that is a waste of nature's resources, not to mention that something like that could attract potential predators, like scavengers. Besides there is no fun in massacring a troop of pigs, you gain no experience from it, as any fool with enough weapons can do the same.

Their work took them about four hours but the experience was worth it. They got to track, spy and then capture as they would done in case of a real track and capture mission. The best part was that it allowed each of them to accept the other. Sasuke finally admitted that although was a dumbass socially, he was pretty darn good when it came to combat related situations. While Naruto admitted that although Sasuke is a jerk most of the time, he is reliable and trustworthy when it comes to his duties.

Sasuke also got his first lesson in the ways of Naruto. Given that his plan had worked perfectly yesterday and was in the same trail today, he asked him how he managed to came up with the plan and knew that it would work out.

"I didn't know it would work out, there is no guarantee it would have succeeded. There is no plan that is full proof. All I did is to trust in my team and their abilities. That is what means to be a leader. If I cannot trust you guys and your abilities then anything I plan will be useless. Also if you guys cannot trust me then you won't be committed to it either. So everything depends on trust and knowing each other. That was your error. Your plan wasn't bad it isn't much different from mine. But you couldn't trust us and that lead you to turn yours into a one man show, because you felt that we needed to be protected by you at all times," replied Naruto.

"How did you come up with such enlighten statements? You really are weird you know? One second you are a total dumbass and the next you talk like a genius," asked Sasuke.

"I didn't come up with them. I learned them from Yondaime's memorabilia. He is my idol you know? I memorized every page of it. It is the only sets of rules I follow," said Naruto with a smile.


Upon their return, they found Kakashi sitting in the cave reading his favorite book. When questioned upon where Sakura was, he revealed that she was still exploring around, which in return prompted him to ask Naruto what his morning's comment meant. Naruto at first tried to avoid the matter but he got cornered by both men and had to confess. So he told them about his little incident about the Haruno treatment he received for saving their daughters from some bullies when he was four year old. After hearing the story it was understandable why Naruto avoided her contact.

However that being said Kakashi reminded Naruto that the ones to blame for this is not Sakura but her parents and that he shouldn't hold it on her. After all, she was also a child then and at that age you really can't ask them to understand the actions of their parents' or remember them. Naruto felt he was being lectured again and he hated being lectured, it annoyed him. He had already learned to not take these things to heart by now, if he hadn't he would have become a psychopath with the life he had. So before Kakashi went to a level to make him fall asleep he tried to stop him. Of course being the great lecturer he is Kakashi just wouldn't shut it, until they heard Sakura scream in disgust.

Now Naruto didn't like Sakura, but her scream was enough to send him hurling towards her like a bulldozer. Kakashi and Sasuke were surprised by his reaction. The only explication they could conclude is that Kakashi's lectures really worked on Naruto, which even surprised the jounin. The alternative was impossible to imagine. Even Naruto didn't know why he was pulling the 'Forest Gump' for her. He simply couldn't stop his body from stop running till he found her. He didn't even know how he found her, but he figured that it must have been the responsibility of being the leader. It would take Sasuke a lot more time to find them.

Upon reaching the location, Naruto couldn't stop from bursting himself to laugh like a madman. There she was sitting scared with a two meter giant millipede sliced in two and still wiggling. Apparently Sakura spotted it while collecting some more fruits. Fearing it to be a predator, she took out her giant fuuma shuriken (evil windmill shuriken) and sliced it in two, but since she had forgotten that such insects tend to wiggle even after being dead, she took it for being still alive. Thus she thought it had simply multiplied and was now going to avenge itself upon her, which is when she unleashed her famous scream.

"This isn't funny Naruto!" yelled the kunochi.

"Of course not, it's just a simple case of you getting scared of a bug. God wait till I tell the others the face you made to the others. I am sure Ino will be giggling about it. Oh do I see little Miss Haruno's anger rising, man you really are turning red like tomato. I have to admit Sakura you look really cute when you are angry. Maybe you should be like that in front of …" replied a sarcastic Naruto, as he got cut by one of Sakura's Herculean punches sending him flying on a nearby tree.

"Damn it, you really need to control yourself. What is with you? You hit me even when I am complimenting you. I don't even know why I bothered to run towards upon hearing your scream. Maybe I should have waited till you begged for assistance like a little girl. Next time don't bother screaming I won't be coming to save your butt," yelled back an angry Naruto, who again took his leave.

Sakura also didn't know why she hit him, she figured it was impulsive. She wanted apologize for her actions but he vanished just as fast as he came to her rescue. Promising herself to apologize for her action, she began to pick up the fruits and her weapon that she had left on the terrain. However her troubles of the day were far from over. Just as she was about to leave the area, she heard large steps. Figuring it to be from Naruto, who was probably trying to get back at her by scaring her again, she ignored it and even teased him claiming to not be afraid by his futile attempts. But the steps kept on approaching, hading enough she decided to give him a piece of her mind.

Of course, when she approached the sound, what she found wasn't Naruto but rather a large gorilla. Seeing the black beast, she screamed again and ran the opposite way and the beast took pursuit. Naruto heard her scream, but ignored her this time. He wasn't going to fall for her false calls twice. Thus the poor girl was left on her own. She ran till she found herself falling on a muddy pond, which made her scream again. Now she was trapped and the beast took that advantage to grab her. He liked what he caught and decided to take her back with him. By this time Sakura was screaming for her life, pleading Naruto to save her.

"Naruto help! I am sorry, please save me. Please this thing is going to eat me. I am not making it up. Oh my god no! Please let me go, I promise to be a nice girl from now on. I don't want to die and become the food of an ugly ape. I mean good ape, nice ape. Naruto! Sasuke-kun! Someone please save me I beg you!" screamed Sakura on top of her lungs.

Now Naruto really wasn't in mood for this, but her plea seemed real. He was loosing the sound of her voice, which meant that she was going the opposite direction he was. Her last scream must have awakened the whole forest too, so being captured by one of the larger creatures wasn't out of the league. So again he ran towards like a madman. This time, Sasuke heard enough of her voice to track her too, but he was far behind.

Upon arriving at the location, Naruto again couldn't stop from laughing. Here was Haruno Sakura covered in mud and the unhappy capture of an adult gorilla. The ape stood there trying to understand why the blond haired boy was laughing at him.

"Wow, when I said you act like an ape I really didn't expect you would buy into it. So when is the wedding with King Kong? I would love to attend it," asked a laughing Naruto.

"Naruto this really isn't the time to joke. You make fun of me all you want later, but get me out of his clutches now!" yelled back an angry Sakura waving her fist in the air.

"Why would I risk my life to rescue you? At least not enough to wrestle with King Kong here just to be able to make fun of you, I can do that already. I think its better you accept your new role. Don't worry I heard they treat their women well, you get to eat bananas and leaves all day", added a sitting Naruto.

This continued for the next two minutes as Sakura tried to make a deal with her companion so he would free her from this giant hairy ape, who was sitting there confused about the interaction displayed by the two humans. He didn't know if this boy was her man or not, in which case by gorilla tradition he would have to challenge him for her rights. Sakura first proposed a date, which prompted Naruto to encourage King Kong to run away with her, because there was no way he would agree to date her even if the sky started falling. Seeing that her charm wouldn't work on him, she asked him what he would like in return for his service.

Now Naruto felt like they were in business, he wanted her to perform a 180 degree side-kick and hold it for 10 seconds in front of her mother. He wanted to break what he concluded to be the 'Haruno tradition'. Any other day Sakura would have unleashed her full fury upon him for such request but today she was vulnerable, so she agreed. That is after making him look and feel really bad by running tears from her eyes and a sad puppy face act. She even added that since she will have to do this, he will have to take her as his love interest as she will most likely lose her dignity. She knew now that Naruto would do anything to avoid such fate for himself and she was right. He decided to alter his demand immediately. They finally came to a deal where Sakura would perform high kicks in battles at Naruto whim. She feared the consequences of her promise greatly but at the moment she had this big hairy ape to get away from.

With the deal settled, Naruto got up and challenged King Kong for the rights of Sakura. At first, Sakura thought he really was out of his mind for his act. After all, who tries to demand a gorilla for a fight, given that they don't understand a word of human verbal communication? But, apparently gorillas did, or at least understood with the involvement of physical monkey like imitation Naruto was doing. Upon accepting the challenge the two challengers warmed up for battle, while Sakura found herself tied with vines and hung up from a tree. The battle was short lived, as Naruto didn't waste a second and knocked King Kong out with his janken rendan (rock-paper-scissors combo) in combination with shunshin (body flicker), much to Sakura's amazement. Here was a shrimp of a human against a seven foot gorilla and yet the shrimp knocked out his opponent without even a sweat.

Before she could ask him what he did, as what she saw was simply three quick movements which started with a flash, Sasuke appeared from the woods. He had finally caught up with them. He had been searching them for a while now, first he followed Sakura's voice as guidance but then it died down, so he had to go with conventional methods, which took much more time. The whole ordeal had lasted six minutes but felt like an eternity. Upon finding them however, Sasuke confused. Here was Naruto on top of a big gorilla and Sakura hung up from a tree with vines. He figured what happened but was still confused how these two managed to get this beast in their quarrels. After considering that the thought would be a waste of his time and money, he simply dismissed the even by giving them one of his patented 'you guys are weird' look and then freed Sakura, who was exhilarated upon seeing that he had come to rescue her, much to his displeasure.

After being freed Sakura and Sasuke headed back to the cave while Naruto waited for King Kong to wake up. Sakura tried to persuade him, as she figured the ape would be very angry being beaten by a brat but Naruto wouldn't listen. He told her that he didn't want him to have ill-will of his actions, especially considering that it was her screams that got King Kong involved to their story. Seeing his stubbornness upon the subject, she abandoned her plea. She was starting to see him as a very perplexed character, one that she had a hard time understanding, as he had very contradicting personality. His current action reminded her of the hero of 'the jungle book'. A person who was apart from society but very much into the jungle life, thus she secretly referred him as the 'jungle boy'.

Upon their return they were met with by Kakashi's swift regard, who was still reading his famous book. Unknown to them, he had been very worried and was using the book the calm his emotions after all he wouldn't want them to see him in panic. Sakura told him, everything that had happened while skipping some important details such as the deal she made with Naruto and her thoughts on him. Upon hearing her story and especially about her getting scared of a bug and getting caught by a gorilla who took her as a prime candidate for his harem, Sasuke and Kakashi both laughed on their turn, much to her chagrin. Naruto returned after a while claiming that he had made a new ally in the forest and as a gift, King Kong gave them a pack of bananas. He sounded weird as usual, as only he could come up with something like making a treaty with gorillas, but by now they knew him enough to disregard that aspect of him. He was simply their weird shinobi teammate who was full of surprises.


As the day progressed into the night, the team felt more confident about each other. Tonight happened to be the night of a new moon so the sky was dark and filled with shinning stars. The group decided to spend most of the night watching the sky, an idea sparked none other then Naruto, who again surprised everyone with his interest. Sakura even got further confirmation that Naruto probably was a bona fide 'jungle boy'. This happened when Sakura was spooked upon the howling of the wolves, which Naruto not only recognized but explained why they did so. In fact, he pretty much laughed at the fact that the forest of death didn't live up to its name. Even Kakashi had to admit the forest was a bit to much nice to them, after all he did expect more then a simple encounter from a gorilla who aren't really a danger unless you happen to look for trouble yourself. None of the wolves attacked, nor did the snakes, panthers, jaguars, leopards, tigers. Even scavengers didn't approach their way. The team was somewhat disappointed that their traps were never put to use.

As the team settled down for sleep, they felt assured that they most likely wouldn't receive any visitors the next day either. This time however, Sakura made sure to stay as far as possible from Naruto. However, during the night they did have visitors. The cave had a small tunnel dug deep within it, nearby where Sakura slept. It was too small to be considered dangerous so the group had ignored it and it served as an additional ventilation system. Well during the night a group of foxes, the original habitant of the cave ventured back in trough it, as the unsuspecting group slept in comfort. Now foxes were known to be human friendly, since they didn't like to take on people who were much bigger then them, but someone like Sakura or any other children from Konoha wouldn't know this, because thanks to the Kyuubi, foxes were generally portrayed as evil by the villagers. This group was surprised to find visitors in their home, but they welcomed them anyhow, especially when they found just like Sakura that best way to get warm in this forest was to sleep near a blond haired blue eyed shinobi.

Of course that being said nothing could stop Sakura from releasing one of her high pitched scream the next morning as she woke up. Being the first to wake up, she noticed the visitors who were all piled up around Naruto. Her scream woke up the rest of the cast. Sasuke and Kakashi thought it was a repeat of yesterday's event. Naruto woke up too, but he was drowsy so it took him more time to get up. When he did, he found himself surrounded by red furs of a dozen foxes and a chibi fox resting on his blond hair. It made look him really cute with the foxes gathered around him and all of them yawning at the same time, almost like a family. But as good as the picture was it wasn't enough to calm Sakura who was really shaken.

Unfortunately Naruto didn't share her concerns. Neither did Kakashi, while Sasuke was pretty much indifferent about the situation. Instead she found him playing with them. The team tried to ignore the fact that a horde of foxes were following them. Since it was their last day, the group decided to just explore the forest before fishing for lunch and then take their leave after it. When it came to the fishing part, Naruto turned into a fun game thanks to the foxes who taught him a new way to fish. They use their tail as bait and given the same idea, Naruto came with his own version of it. He summoned a kage bunshin (shadow clone) and forced it to transform with henge (transform) into a monkey tail, which he thought would be better bait, and joined in the fun.

The only one who didn't like it was Sakura who at first thought Naruto really had a monkey tail, as it was moving on its own. Then again she didn't know he knew kage bunshin, neither did Sasuke. So when he showed them what he did to have a live tail attach to him like a belt, they were pretty much stunned.

Here was the kid who was last in class using what is known to be a jounin class jutsu and being very creative with it. When a curious Sasuke asked him how he stumbled upon such a jutsu, Naruto struggled to reply at first. He really wasn't good at lying, but he managed to come up with something. He told them about an incident similar to the Mizuki event, just that he changed the event to take the spotlights off of him and dated it about a year before. He claimed that as a gift for his small assistance and brave act the Hokage had granted him a jutsu of his choice. Given that the opponent he had delayed was using this jutsu, he request for and was granted it.

He even made them believe that part of his bad grades came due to concentrating on learning this jutsu instead of concentrating on what he was supposed to learn as an academy student. Having convinced his team with the lie, he went back to fishing to keep his story to a minimum, as one lie has tendency to spread more. If his goal was to divert attention he certainly managed to do it with his monkey tail's fishing skills. Within an hour he had caught enough of them to feed them along with the entire fox family. All this while having fun at the same time which is a lot to ask since fishing tends to be a boring activity.

His actions were enough to label his as the 'jungle boy' in Sakura's book. So from this day forward whenever Naruto wasn't around she would refer to him by this name. She didn't use it in front of him because even if she did he still wouldn't respond to it. These types of situations were where Naruto was at his weakest. Thus team 7 finally returned back to society after three days of survival in the wild. Kakashi had succeeded in his personal mission he had set out before the expedition. The team had settled their personal issues and became more cooperate as each member got a better inside of the others. Well more like each member got a taste of Naruto's bizarre personality. Now they were ready to begin working in the field.


Thus a day later, team 7 found themselves in their first D-rank mission. They were anxious to test their newfound skills in some action but instead what they got was labor work. Apparently all D-rank missions were jobs in the labor market, such as finding lost cats, working in farms, collecting trash, doing laundry, baby-sitting and other similar field works. The team had a mission per week, as each of these work was usually a weekly job. These missions were especially hard for Naruto who had to work extra hard as most of them involved working for the villagers and we know how those are. They would look for the slightest error from his part to complain, but the boy was resilient enough to not allow them such opportunities. When they weren't the team would spend their free weekdays training together.

Within the third week both Sasuke and Naruto had mastered all of Kakashi's given D-rank jutsus. Sakura was still far behind, but she was still quite faster then the jounin had expected. Sasuke was also participating in sparing matches now. He still hesitates against Sakura, but gives in after a few of his grumps goes deaf ears. Against Naruto or Kakashi it was all out war. Of course both of his opponents would hold out without revealing it to him. They learned pretty quickly that Sasuke was excessively competitive. He just wouldn't get off your butt unless he felt he was superior to them. Naruto would lower his profile through training weights while Kakashi who had vast experience in the field and the art was a natural to faking his abilities.

Naruto still trained secretly at night, although it was hardly secret anymore as Sandaime, Kakashi and Sakura knew where he trained. Sasuke trained alone at night too, but not as extensively as him and certainly not at the same place. Sakura was also getting more active physically. She was even aggressive towards Sasuke when it came to sparing something the Uchiha would never expect her to do much less the others, but she was starting to enjoy her training. It made her feel less vulnerable, she was still far away from the others but now at least she felt confident enough to challenge on her own.


By the seventh week the team had completed their seventh D-rank mission and just had enough of them. Open their next meeting with the Hokage, Naruto complained for that lack of quality in their missions as well as waste of their talent. He along the other three requested a higher ranked mission, anything but a D-rank. The Hokage knew very well that he was probably right, but couldn't give them one due to their rank. That is until Naruto started to blackmail him.

"Come on now old man, are you certain you can't give us a better mission. I mean you know we are being wasted here. You wouldn't want me to accidentally spill out that secret of ours now would you?" asked Naruto.

Kakashi and the others couldn't believe what was happening; this was a new level of boldness from Naruto. An attempt to blackmail the Hokage was extremely dangerous. If the man wanted he could have them imprisoned or even executed for such treats. Kakashi was certain he would get yelled by the Hokage thanks to Naruto now. Unlike them Sandaime was much more worried about Naruto revealing his secret loss to the blond haired genin due to his orioke (sexy centerfold). He was very ashamed about the defeat given he was undefeated till date and knew about a 1000 jutsus. Yet here he was defeated by a simple perverted henge, because of his perverted nature. If anyone learned about it, he would lose a lot of respect and thus he was at the mercy of this boy.

"Alright, you seem to be very determined to get a higher ranked mission. You also speak the truth that a team like yours isn't being used efficiently. So I will grant your team a C-rank mission. It's an escorting mission. The only problem is that the client won't be here for another two days and your mission doesn't start till another two. So I hope you will use your free time to learn a bit more about the country you will be escorting your client too," answered the Hokage, who's decision pretty much stunned the rest.

"Did he just get blackmailed? What does Naruto know that is so great for the Hokage to simply accept his request?" wondered Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke, while Naruto simply smile in content.


However, their thoughts were interrupted when a chipmunk of a boy ran at the Hokage claiming today he would defeat him and become the Hokage before he tripped on his scarf and fell face first on the floor in front of Naruto, who found it extremely hilarious. The boy was quickly followed by a special jounin wearing a black sunglass referring him as 'young master'. The man later known as Ebisu checked the boy known as Konohamaru for any injuries, who happened to be Sarutobi's grandson. Konohamaru seeing Naruto making fun of his fall accused him for putting a trap to stop him from reaching the old man. Naruto didn't like the accusation so he grabbed the boy by his collar and yelled back only a blind fool would lay a trap for a chipmunk like him.

Ebisu knowing who Naruto is and being one of the fervent believers that he was a bad influence to all young villagers especially his student yelled at him for touching the grandson of the Hokage with his dirty hands. To add more fire to the fuel Konohamaru dared him to punch him if he had any guts. Now being who he was he expected Naruto to let him get away unharmed just like every other people did. Unfortunately, Naruto didn't give a damn about his link to the Sandaime, so he got what he wished for, much to the horror of Ebisu.

Team 7 quickly left after the incident, well more like Kakashi grabbed Naruto and exited as he was about to shove his foot up Ebisu's face for his comment, the other two simply followed their teacher lead. The only one who was laughing at the situation was Sandaime who really enjoyed the action. As a grand father, Sarutobi never wanted Konohamaru to become spoiled. However, as his grand son pointed out, the villagers did not share his opinion. Naruto helped him by bringing Konohamaru back to earth, something his grand son hoped for it too.

Now he had another problem at hand. Shortly after the incident Konohamaru disappeared once more, most likely trailing Naruto. This was bad, Naruto had the potential to seriously knock out Konohamaru and wouldn't mind giving to him if he was pissed off, which his grand son was best at. He just hoped that Naruto wouldn't do something stupid and control himself.

By the time Konohamaru found Naruto, the team had already separated and he was all alone eating his lunch at Ichiraku Ramen. So when Konohamaru had done his reintroduction, Naruto was a bit calmer as his belly was full of his favorite food. Of course, nobody really knew what Konohamaru's real intention was except himself. So he totally caught the Uzumaki off guard when he asked him to teach him the orioke. Apparently he was one of the few who knew that his grand father had a weakness to the jutsu and wanted to learn to use it against him during his victorious battle against the old man. Naruto demanded the reason why he wanted to defeat his grand father and become so much.

Konohamaru unveiled his story where he reveals his disdain for the extra treatment the villagers give just because he happens to be the grandson of the Hokage. He feels that he is being ignored and being compared to his grand father rather then being aloud to be himself. So he wants to defeat his grandpa in which case he would gain the title of Hokage and they people will learn to appreciate him for who he is. His point was valid so Naruto decided to teach him the jutsu, which would take Konohamaru three days to learn.

During that time, team 7 was on break so Naruto could afford to spent time with him. The only thing Kakashi was asking them to do was to review a guide book of Wave country, the place where they would be escorting their client. As their third day approached Ebisu was looking for his student frantically. It had been three days that Konohamaru had managed to avoid him. He knew who to blame for this situation, it was all Uzumaki Naruto's fault. By the time they are finally found, Konohamaru had mastered his new jutsu and as a test he used it on Ebisu. The special jounin proved to be a worthy adversary as for the first time orioke had failed. However, the inventor of the jutsu had one just for him. Naruto had created the next generation of the orioke by combining the jutsu with tajuu kage bunshin (multiple shadow clones) to form the haremu (harem), which upon use proved that Ebisu was indeed a pervert, but a closet pervert rather then an open pervert.

After demolishing the special jounin's reputation in front of his student, Naruto finally grabbed Konohamaru and laid out the laws about his ambitions. First, he told him that just using the jutsu he learned and knocking out the Hokage wouldn't earn him the title, because if that was the case he would have been the next Hokage already. He gave him a detailed explication of being given the title and why his grand father is so popular, something that the young academy student never thought about.

"Being a Hokage isn't simply about being the strongest in the village. You can be stronger but you still won't get the title unless you can gain the villagers trust and prove to them that you will protect them with all your might. So instead of trying to beat the old man, train hard and get stronger, because you got a lot of competition ahead of you. There aren't going to be any shortcuts. If you want the Hokage name, you better be able to kick my ass first, because I have no intention of giving it away," said Naruto.

The lecture given Naruto motivated Konohamaru who now found a new purpose in life. Although he felt the new pressure he wasn't going to let Naruto look down on him. So on the spot he announced to him that he better watch his back since as of now they were rivals for the title. From his office the old Hokage watched on his crystal ball as the two new adversaries went their separate ways. He was a happy man today as once he was proven that no matter the difficulties the village faced his teachings still lived on in the new leaves of Konoha.


Two days later team 7 finally met their client. He was an old man called Tazuna and referred himself as the greatest bridge constructor of Wave country. He wasn't much impressed with his escort whom he called 'super brats' and called an excited Naruto, who was trilled by the fact that it would his first time outside of the village main gates, 'shrimp'. His comments didn't settle well with Naruto but he tried to ignore his comments and move on with the mission. He just wanted to get over with it as soon as possible, an opinion shared by the rest of the team. They also didn't like his constant negative bickering about the team's ability to protect them. He really wasn't going to be the happy camper one would expect him to be given the payment they would be receiving for the job. Still a mission was a mission, even if that meant that they would have to spent the whole week with this grumpy old man. Thus that evening team 7 departs for their first C-rank mission. If they would only knew what trouble lies ahead.

End of chapter 4


A/N: Yay! I finally managed to write less then 15 pages and concluded what I was set out to do. Yes, this chapter is somewhat short, but no worries folks next chapter is where all the action starts and Naruto's worlds start to slowly tumble down piece by piece and he faces some real action and forced to live the harsher concepts and ideals of the life of a shinobi life. Introduction of Zabuza and Haku, as well as the demon brothers! So expect a lot of actions. I should have at least the first two fights with different plot line. In this chapter I tried to add I bit more about Naruto's way of life and beliefs, as well as the links that bonds team 7 members amongst themselves and I also got clear of the Konohamaru ordeal. Shingen.