A/N: Some people have asked me how exactly Naruto could have gotten such good chakra control in a relatively short period of time, and I thought I'd elaborate. In the manga (I admit I have only seen a few episodes of the anime), Kakashi mentioned that Naruto has an immense chakra reserve, greater than his own and Sasuke's. During the tree climbing exercise, Sakura was the first to reach the top, and Kakashi commented that she had excellent chakra control, but it might have been due to her smaller chakra reserve.

If we link chakra control to the size of chakra reserves, then Naruto has better chakra control than Sasuke in that sense, since Sasuke's reserve is nowhere near the size of Naruto's, and yet they completed the tree climbing exercise at the same time. This was also because Sakura had given Naruto some tips, which brings me to my next point. Once Sakura had given Naruto some pointers, he started to make immense progress. Though he is dense, with proper guidance, Naruto learns insanely fast. Let us not forget that Naruto had started out with pretty much zero chakra control, while Sasuke had an obvious advantage. Since Sasuke and Sakura were both helping him with the water ball trick, it can be expected that he'd learn pretty fast.

Now, we all know that Naruto is a very fast learner. He managed to learn the Kage Bunshin, a Jounin-level technique, in the few hours before he was discovered by Iruka, and mastered the final stage of Rasengan, an A rank difficulty jutsu, in one week. When he is motivated to learn or do something, he becomes a sort of genius in his own right. Sasuke and Sakura are at present, his best friends. Since they had both learned it already (not to mention that they were pelting him with water balls), Naruto would want to learn it as quickly as possible too (and get back at them).

Finally, my last point is that this 'technique' has nowhere near the complexity of, say, tree climbing or Rasengan. Kakashi mentioned that it is hardest to concentrate chakra at the feet, and this technique involved channeling chakra through the hands, which would probably mean that it is a lot easier. Besides that, it doesn't require the user to squeeze his chakra together, or to force chakra to move in a fixed direction. The chakra is spread around the water the hands are touching to form a small ball, trapping the water inside.

I hope this lengthy explanation makes things clearer. XD I've always felt that Naruto is a genius, similar to Rock Lee. I wanted to bring this point out more in this story.

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The classroom was incredibly stuffy, and the clock was moving at a suspiciously slow pace. Boredom hung in the air, and Iruka's droning voice was occasionally interrupted by a loud yawn. Sasuke sat in his seat, trying his hardest not to fidget and not to fall asleep. He was bored stiff; what did the history of Konoha have to do with his becoming a ninja anyway? Next to him, Sakura was diligently copying down notes, the only one in the class to be doing so, and sitting next to her, was Naruto. The blond-haired boy was sleeping, and blatantly doing so. He was slouched in his seat, his head pointed skywards, mouth hanging open. Besides that, he was snoring as well.

Behind Naruto slept another boy, with his head on his desk. His black hair was tied in a short ponytail, and he wore a plain sleeveless vest. He was snoring just as loudly as Naruto. Nara Shikamaru, that was his name, if Sasuke could remember right. Lazier than even Naruto when it came to lessons, if that was possible, and everything seemed to be far too troublesome for him to bother with. He recalled Shikamaru being the only one in class to receive a zero for the recent test. Naruto had, at least, scored a percentage of 40. Shikamaru, as Sasuke recalled, had not even bothered to lift his pen up to write anything more than his name.

Sitting next to Shikamaru was a fat boy with dull red hair, happily munching away on a burger, trying to hide his pudgy face behind his textbook rather unsuccessfully. Akimichi Chouji, a boy who could rival Naruto in terms of ramen-eating speed. At the beginning of the lesson, Sasuke had seen him munching on a newly opened large bag of potato chips, and a minute later, when Sasuke glanced backwards, Chouji had already started on a huge sandwich. Not wanting to think about how Chouji had managed to cram the contents of the bag of chips into his belly so quickly, Sasuke quickly turned away. Watching Naruto gulp down ramen at unthinkable speeds was bad enough.

Next to Chouji was the one girl Sasuke considered to be the bane of his existence. Yamanaka Ino. To say she was infatuated with Sasuke was a gross understatement. She was obsessed. Sasuke had no idea what gave her the idea that he liked girls with long hair, but each time he walked past her, she would toss her ponytail about in an exaggerated manner, winking and blowing kisses at him, making him shudder. He recalled the day when he, Naruto and Sakura had first enrolled in the academy. One moment he was filling up a registration form, the next he was standing unsteadily a few feet away, Ino latched around him, squealing. Naruto and Sakura stood, watching and laughing, and it had taken bribes of free ramen to get the two to pry Ino off him.

Yes, it seemed that Sakura was very much a huge fan of ramen as well. Sasuke liked it, but certainly not to the extent of his two friends. Though Sakura ate a lot less ramen than Naruto, she often took every opportunity to indulge in it.

Since that day, Ino had demonstrated her immense prowess as a ninja, ambushing Sasuke with lunch whenever he least expected it, popping out of seemingly nowhere to ask for a date. It was very... disturbing, to say the least. He was thankful that Sakura was nothing like her best friend.

Seated on Sasuke's left was a boy with strange markings on his face, and with a dog lazing on top of his head. Inuzuka Kiba was very much like Naruto – he was loud, rash, impatient and enjoying playing tricks on others. Not to mention that, like Naruto, the meaning of 'manners' did not exist in his mind. And again, much like Naruto, he was fast asleep, snoring away blissfully. And yet, he was completely different from Naruto. Naruto's personality made him likeable, made him the undisputed champion at making people smile. Kiba, on the other hand, seemed to just plain get on other people's nerves.

"Uchiha! Don't think just because you're from a family of good ninjas that I won't beat you in a fight!" He had declared loudly on the first day of school, and left Sasuke blinking, staring almost stupidly at the boy. He didn't even know this guy!

Next to Kiba was a girl with short black hair and white eyes. Now, Hyuga Hinata, Sasuke decided, he could like. She was probably the only girl in the class, besides Sakura, who wasn't obsessed with him, and that scored big points in Sasuke's book. She was a bit of a mystery, though. She hardly ever spoke, and was very, very shy. As Iruka continued on with his lesson, she stared blankly ahead at the chalkboard, twiddling her thumbs, and Sasuke wasn't sure if she was paying attention or not.

Finally, Sasuke's attention wandered to the boy seated next to Hinata. Sasuke knew nothing about Aburame Shino, except that he spoke even less than Hinata, and that his face was mostly hidden behind a turtleneck and a pair of black tinted glasses. He seemed to be respectful of Sasuke, and gave off a strong air of dignity as he sat still in his place, never moving. Of course, he might have been sleeping, but Sasuke had no way of making sure.

"Okay, class! Bunshin practice!" Iruka said suddenly, as he slammed his hand on the chalkboard, bringing everyone's attention to him. Sasuke heaved a sigh of relief. The boring lesson was over, at least. He smirked as Naruto gave a loud groan at the word 'Bunshin'. It was the one basic technique Naruto could never get correct. That used to apply to his Henge as well, but Sakura had, quite literally, pounded it into his head after repeated failures. One by one the class trudged down to the bottom of the classroom, where Iruka asked them to create at least one clone of themselves. Most of the students managed it fine; the better ones produced two or more clones.

Sasuke, not wanting to give his fan club more reason to fawn over him, created just one Bunshin and quickly returned to his seat. He smirked as Naruto was called, and the boy dragged himself down to Iruka with a look akin to those of prisoners facing the gallows.

"You know the drill, Naruto. Create at least one Bunshin. One fully functional Bunshin." Iruka added ominously, knowing full well of Naruto's weakness. Naruto gulped, did the hand seals and there was a massive burst of smoke. As the smoke cleared, Naruto looked around hopefully, then spotted his Bunshin lying on the floor. If it could even be called a Bunshin. It was highly deformed, the hands twisted in impossible angles, and the feet weren't fully formed. Naruto swore audibly as Iruka grinded his fist into the Uzumaki's head. The class started laughing, and Naruto grinned sheepishly.

"Okay, target practice." Iruka sighed as he dragged Naruto out of the classroom, the rest of the students following. Sasuke smirked. Target practice was something that Naruto could do reasonably well, but he disliked it.

"A Hokage doesn't need weapons! He just needs to beat up his enemies!" Sakura giggled as Naruto's voice floated into the classroom.

"Don't be stupid!" Iruka's angry voice followed an audible 'thonk!' and an indignant 'ow!' "All ninjas need to have reasonable mastery of weapons in order to survive battles, even the Hokage!"

"Eh! Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled, and Iruka dropped him, coughing, as his face met with a lot of smoke.

"Heh heh heh!" Naruto cackled, "C'mon, Slackers Five! Let's get out of here!" Chouji and Kiba eagerly followed after Naruto, and the three dashed down the corridor. Shikamaru followed at a slower pace, muttering 'this is troublesome' to himself all the while. Sasuke paused and pondered. He wasn't exactly sure why Naruto had included him in his exclusive group 'Slackers Five', when Sasuke wasn't a delinquent. Then he remembered that there was to be more history lessons later in the afternoon, and he quickly followed Naruto in his wild escape, while Iruka cursed and swore, fanning the smoke away from his face, stumbling around blindly.

Pandemonium! As Sasuke made his escape, his fan club, consisting of pretty much all the girls in class, followed after, screaming his name. Sakura watched, amused, and then helped Iruka get to his feet from where he had been trampled on by the stampede. Iruka glanced around, and noted that only half the class was left present. He shook his head in exasperation.

"Sakura, when the Jounin exams come, remind me to go take it."

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It was dark, so very dark. The long, narrow corridor stretched on, never ending, leading into what seemed to be the heart of darkness itself. There were no doors set in the gray, cracking walls; there were no turns, no discrepancy in its structure. The floor was flooded, murky, black water lay stagnant upon it. It was impossible to discern its depth by merely looking at it – it looked like a black void, leading into nothingness. Nobody stood in the corridor, and yet it wasn't silent. Voices with no source spoke in harsh whispers, in strange languages one could not understand, and yet the words were hissed in such a manner that their meanings were clear.

Death.

Destruction.

Murder.

"What is this place?" Naruto muttered to himself. He was cold, and the water around his feet wasn't helping in the least. He shuddered, then decided that there was nothing to gain in standing around. He proceeded down the corridor, when he noticed something very, very odd indeed. Even as he dragged his feet through the water, splashing the dark liquid all over the place, it made no sound at all. The normally fearless Naruto felt the tiniest sliver of fear pierce his soul. A voice in his head screamed at him to turn around and run, but even as he glanced behind, he saw that there was no visible exit in sight. Just a long, narrow tunnel leading into darkness.

Something told him that even if he turned around and fled, it would lead him to the same place as the way forward.

Naruto pressed onward. He had no idea how long he walked, or how much distance he had covered, but suddenly the corridor led into a huge chamber. Swallowing, he proceeded forward. The chamber was plain, non-descript, but at the far end there was a huge cage, and talismans hung from the metal bars, as though something evil was sealed within. He stepped forward, and was suddenly aware that the water made a splashing sound.

Naruto froze as a huge crimson eye flared open from within the cage.

"Brat." A low guttural voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I... I don't know." Naruto stammered. The eye was focused on him, never moving, unblinking. Whatever it was in the cage, it gave off an aura of terror, of death, and it scared Naruto. The... thing began to laugh.

"I see, you weren't brought here on purpose." Naruto didn't know what it meant.

"Who are you?" He asked. The thing snorted in derision.

"You don't know? Interesting... As of now, there is no need for you to know." The thing began to laugh, a terrible evil laugh. Naruto's hair stood on end, and he couldn't move. It stirred, moved, and suddenly another eye loomed over him. A set of huge, sharp fangs revealed themselves in the darkness, opening wide. Naruto could smell its breath... "Leave, brat."

Something heavy slammed against the gate...

The smell of blood.

Murder.

Kill.

The laughter wouldn't stop; it swam around Naruto, wrapping him in it, piercing through his very soul... he was going to die, the thing was going to devour him...

Naruto's eyes flew open. He sat up in his bed, the fear subsiding and banished by relief as he recognized his room. The night wind blew at him, whipping his hair around his face.

"What... what was that?" Naruto muttered to himself, as he lay back on his bed. As he shut his eyes and tried to return to sleep, he became gradually aware of a noise.

The laughter hung in the air like an abomination, never fading.