Prove the Pervert Wrong

by KyuubiMan

Jiraiya is disappointed that Naruto is still determined to retreive Sasuke, and refuses to train him unless he changes his mind. Naruto, being as hardheaded as ever, is unwilling to give up, meaning that he has to train himself.

3. Eyes Wide To Bursting

Prove the Pervert Wrong

Chapter Three: Eyes Wide To Bursting

Disclaimer: Seriously, I don't own Naruto. This disclaimer shouldn't really be necessary a third time, yet here we are…

"Speech"

/Thoughts/

"Jutsu!"

---

Pre-Chapter A/N: Alright, some people are complaining about my use of shunshin. For the record, I already knew the difference between shunshin and haraishin and that haraishin is the reason that Yondaime is called "Konoha's Yellow Flash." I was, however, under the impression that shunshin no jutsu was also unique to him, probably because of manga chapter 240 (page 10). Rin says "Sensei's shunshin no jutsu," implying that it's his technique. It took me forever to find the raw, but Inane's translation was indeed correct. "Sensei no shunshin no jutsu" does in fact mean the same thing as "Sensei's shunshin no justu," if you can even call something that basic a translation (I'm not sure what else I would call it…)…

My memory is not recalling any other shinobi being specifically mentioned as using the technique, but I am in the process of reading through the entire manga again just to make sure I didn't miss it (a slow process, given my lack of spare time lately). Even if I was wrong, it isn't coming out of this story. It's too late; I've integrated it a little too much. Yondaime has a whole background in this story, and shunshin plays a big enough part in it that things need to stay the way they are. Please point out exactly where someone else was said to have used it, if you find such a thing, but be aware that this story won't reflect that. Future stories will, obviously, but only if I actually find something in the manga that proves me wrong.

Sorry to be such an ass about it, but that's the way it's gonna be. If that ruins the story for you… sorry, but that's life. Nothing's perfect, after all. Putting that aside, on with the story!

---

"As much as I admire his youthful spirit Kakashi, I can't just--"

"Gai, just listen." Kakashi was interrupting Gai and Lee during their morning training to talk about Naruto, but Gai wasn't in the mood to talk about it again. Still, Kakashi couldn't let himself fail Naruto again, not when the boy was showing so much promise. "Naruto is turning out to be some kind of closet genius. From what I've seen, I would bet my life that he'll be Hokage, with or without your help. All I'm asking you to do is give him a little boost to help him improve more quickly--"

"That's not all you're asking me to do, Kakashi! If that was the only thing to consider, I'd have helped him without you asking me! You can't honestly think that I would risk opposing Jiraiya-sama to--"

"You know Gai, Jiraiya doesn't have to know."

"How would he not know! Is he supposed to just think that some other teacher gave Naruto giant leg weights that say 'guts?'"

"I could tell Naruto to hide the weights and not mention them to anyone…"

"But then he'll get suspicious, and--"

"And I'll blow off his questions like I always do." Seeing that Gai was still looking unsure, Kakashi decided to throw in one last incentive. "Also… Tsunade-sama will be very happy with anyone who helps Naruto right now. She might even be willing to do that thing you were asking about the other day."

Gai's eyes widened. "You mean she might--"

"Yup. But, if you're too scared of Jiraiya, I guess that you'll never get her to do it."

"No! Er, I mean… The burning passion of youth shall not be doused by the foolishness of elders! Take these," he took off his own weights, "to Naruto, and tell him to revel in the springtime of life!" He handed the weights to Kakashi, who promptly fell over.

"Gai, how much do these weigh?"

"About 1,000 pounds, why?"

Kakashi managed to pick them up off of the ground, but mused that he might have thrown his back out in the process. "Don't you think that's a bit much?"

"Naruto's youthful spirit can handle it! Just make sure that Jiraiya never finds out."

"Yeah, whatever." Kakashi really hadn't been listening for a response, so he had no idea what it was that Gai had said, but he was sure it wasn't worth hearing again.

"Curse you Kakashi! Your attitude is 'hip,' which makes--"

"You angry, blah blah blah… Later." With that he was gone, leaving an infuriated Gai to his training.

---

When Naruto woke up that morning, he got quite a surprise. A week earlier he wouldn't have even glanced at his table in the morning, but Mabui had impressed on him that eating three meals a day could benefit his training, so he made some ramen for breakfast. Sitting down to eat, he found Kakashi's note and scroll. He started with the note, which read:

"Naruto,

You'll have to keep this a secret, but the scroll I left you is a special scroll only accessible by jounin and the Hokage. In it you'll find instructions for a technique that extends kage bunshin no jutsu. Gai probably has something to give you too, I'll have to check.

—Kakashi"

There was a crude drawing of Pakkun showing a peace sign in the bottom-right corner. Naruto re-read the note suspiciously a few times, not sure what to think. The last he remembered, Kakashi and Gai had declined to train him altogether, neither giving a real reason. He couldn't imagine any reason for them to change their minds, but he decided to take the help where he could get it. After his customary morning laps, bunshin sparring tournament, and lunch with Mabui, Naruto headed towards training ground seven, only to be stopped by Kakashi.

"Yo."

"Kakashi-sensei? Why are you here?"

"Gai had a present for me to give you." He tried to hold the weights out casually, but instead fell over again. "I would have been here sooner, but it's hard to run with these things."

Naruto looked like he was about to weep with joy. He had wanted to try wearing those weights ever since he had seen Lee remove them during the chuunin exam, and now he had his own pair to work with. From the looks of things, they were even heavier than Lee's, too. He was sure to get strong quickly if he used those in his training.

"Well, what are you waiting for Naruto? Put them on already."

"Yoshi!" Naruto eagerly reached down to grab the weights, but couldn't quite stand back up. With Kakashi's help, he managed to get the weights on under his pant legs, but was barely able to move his legs at all. "Super-brows has weights like this on all the time? How much do these things weigh?"

"That's not important." /I am not looking forward to our next sparring match if he doesn't replace them…/ "What is important is that you never let anyone know about the weights or the scroll I gave you. Gai and I can get in a lot of trouble for this, so--"

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you get in trouble for training me? Does baa-chan hate me now or something?"

"The size of your paycheck should tell you that she doesn't hate you. Anyway, it's not Tsunade-sama, and I really can't tell you any more about it. Later." Naruto was about to ask again, but Kakashi disappeared. He continued (very slowly) on to training ground seven, grumbling about secretive perverts the whole way.

Opening the scroll that Kakashi had left for him, Naruto was annoyed to see that it actually looked pretty complicated, but then the name of the technique caught his eye. "Bakuretsu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Exploding Shadow Clone Technique)? It explodes?" He was able to think of dozens of situations where that ability would be useful in a bunshin, and instantly knew that it was a perfect technique to go with his style. Still, it looked so complicated…

Reading through the scroll, Naruto found that it was complicated. So complicated, in fact, that the author of the scroll had placed a warning and the jutsu rank in bold print, along with an explanation of what the ranks mean.

"Warning: Anyone attempting this technique should know that it is an A-rank ninjutsu, and will be well beyond the capabilities of most jounin. The ranking system is as follows:

S-rank: Beyond the abilities of most kage, most often requiring too much chakra to be practical. Usually never taught because no one can learn other than the creator.

A-rank: Kage or elite jounin level, most likely requiring ridiculous amounts of chakra and/or control.

B-rank: Jounin level, difficult to learn and too draining for most chuunin to use.

C-rank: Chuunin level, most ninja with a few years of field experience can master in a matter of weeks.

D-rank: Gennin level, the most basic techniques such as bunshin no jutsu and kawarimi no jutsu.

If you are not a kage or among the best jounin in your village in ninjutsu, it is highly recommended that you not bother to attempt this technique, as it will likely be too difficult for you."

Below the warning, Naruto could see that Kakashi had scribbled a little note for him.

"Naruto, just thought you should know: chidori is a B-rank technique, and rasengan is an A-rank technique.The new version of rasengan that you developed has been classified as S-rank, and the 'Naruto senkou no jutsu' has been classified as B-rank."

Naruto read through the note twice before realizing something very odd: he had skipped straight from gennin-level techniques to jounin-level techniques, before getting any field experience. The next thing he realized was that he had never told anyone, even Mabui, about Naruto senkou no jutsu. Eventually he reasoned that whatever ANBU had been watching him at the time must have reported it to Tsunade, who in turn told Kakashi. As for why they had bothered to rank his technique, he found he didn't care.

After reading through the instructions for the technique, Naruto was fairly confident that he would be able to get the hang of it in a day or two. His hands flew into the boar, dragon, and kage bunshin seals, he molded his chakra, and… nothing. More accurately, a puff of ninja smoke which quickly cleared to reveal nothing. Not one to be discouraged so easily, Naruto continued to try.

Kakashi, watching from his vantage point in the trees, was curious as to just how long it would take Naruto to learn the technique. Kakashi had spent the better part of two months mastering the move (because he was unable to find someone to copy it from), only to find that he didn't have the stamina necessary to effectively use it more than two or three times per day. Naruto, on the other hand, had more than enough stamina to use it twenty times per day. That the move would become an integral part of Naruto's style was obvious; the only variable factor was how long it would be before Naruto started using it, and Kakashi had decided that sooner was better than later.

---

"Chikushou! Heal yourself, you stupid rabbit!" Sakura had had enough of failing at this jutsu, but she knew that Tsunade wouldn't allow her to progress without it.

"Having a little trouble, Sakura?"

"Tsunade-shishou… why am I so pathetic?"

Of all the things that Tsunade would have thought to call Sakura, pathetic wasn't one of them. Hell, the girl was learning more quickly than Tsunade had learned at her age. "Where did that come from?"

"Well, it's just… I've only managed to learn three C-rank jutsu in the time I've been spending with you, and you're a sannin! Naruto, the dead-last of our class, was able to develop his own B-rank jutsu in the same amount of time, and he's working alone…"

"Naruto was the dead-last in your class? That's funny."

"What's funny about it?"

"Oh, just that he was probably only the dead-last because of the type of techniques they teach in the academy."

"What do you mean, Tsunade-shishou? The academy only teaches D-rank jutsu, which are--"

"The most basic and easiest to perform, yes. Normally. Naruto is a… special case, as far as techniques are concerned." At Sakura's quizzical look, she decided to explain. "There is a reason that Naruto's chakra control has always been sub-par. From a young age, he's had a chakra capacity far beyond what he should have considering his level and the extent of his training. By the time he was learning to mold chakra, his chakra capacity was probably at about chuunin level."

"What! How can that be?"

"To be honest, I have no idea where he gets all of that chakra… Many of the more, how should I put this, prejudiced jounin believe that his extra chakra comes from a certain condition that he has, but I don't think that's true. At any rate, he has the extra chakra, and it affects his chakra control greatly."

"How would having extra chakra make his control worse? Shouldn't it just mean that he has more to practice with?"

"Ah, but therein lies the problem." Sighing, as Sakura obviously didn't understand, Tsunade tried to think of how to explain. "The reason that chakra control needs to be taught while chakra capacity is still small is simple: it's easier to control how much of something you let out at a time if you have a small amount to begin with. I wish that Mabui was here to come up with a better example, but all I can think of is--"

"Who?"

"Mabui? Just a friend of Naruto's… Anyway, the only example I can think of is bladder control. When you learn bladder control, the muscle that holds the liquid in is weak, but the amount of liquid it needs to hold in is relatively small. As you grow older, even though the amount of liquid increases, the strength of the muscle increases, and everything balances out."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"To put the example in proportion… Imagine having that muscle at the strength of a newborn baby's, and a bladder the size of a fully-grown man"

"Oh… So, Naruto was a genius all of that time?"

"No. Genius isn't determined by raw potential, it's determined by natural skill. Although… even if his chakra levels made D- and C-rank techniques more difficult, they didn't make B- and A-rank techniques any easier, so his mastery of rasengan was definitely--"

"Rasengan? What's that?"

"You don't know? I would have thought you would have seen it at some point… Rasengan is an A-rank technique invented by Yondaime. The only people who have ever learned it are Yondaime, Jiraiya, and Naruto. Yondaime spent three years developing it, Jiraiya spent four months learning it from Yondaime, and Naruto learned it in roughly a week from Jiraiya."

"A week!"

"That's what I said. I had actually made a bet with Naruto that he wouldn't be able to learn the technique that quickly, and I lost my grandfather's necklace."

"He learned an A-rank technique in a week… and he didn't even gloat about it?"

"It would appear that way. Actually, Kakashi tells me he's already created a new S-rank technique that looks just like the rasengan, except that it's larger and many times more powerful."

"S-rank! But S-rank means--"

"Yes, it means that the technique is probably too difficult for most kage to master. Based on Kakashi's description, though, that rank is appropriate. Getting back to your original question: you aren't pathetic. Naruto is just incredibly gifted and determined, and you can't hope to compete. No one can. You've actually been progressing more quickly than I did at your age, so if you call yourself pathetic again I'll be tempted to hurt you."

Smiling at the revelation that her falling behind wasn't a sign of weakness, Sakura determined to strengthen her resolve and keep up with Naruto. She started towards the rabbit to try to heal it again, but realized she had one more question she had to ask. "Tsunade-shishou?"

"What is it now, Sakura?"

"Why bladder control? Couldn't you have used a floodgate or a dam or something?"

"I'm a medic, not an engineer. If you want better examples then get Mabui in here before you ask questions."

---

When Kakashi arrived at Ichiraku's to take over the next day, he was greeted by a very happy Hoshi. Apparently the new weights were just a bit too much for Naruto, as they had slowed his lap time from two minutes and fifteen seconds to over an hour. Hoshi didn't know about the weights, and he didn't care enough to investigate, but Kakashi got a little nervous at such a drastic change. Several days passed before Naruto started to get used to the extra weight. By the end of the week he was back up to five laps per hour, which meant twenty-five laps per day. His technique wasn't going quite so well, but Kakashi wasn't really expecting him to get it within a week anyway.

Mabui found Naruto's sudden lack of ability to run or jump slightly disconcerting, but he told her that it was part of a new secret training regimen, and that it would make him stronger, so she let it go. When she saw that the size of his daily lunch had doubled she knew that he had to be working hard, and she didn't want to question his training unless she was sure that he was doing something unhealthy.

By the following Wednesday, Naruto was able to make bunshin that could explode, but the explosions were so small that he doubted they could really hurt anything. Mabui insisted on watching his training on Wednesdays and Thursdays, something he didn't object to, so she got to see the completed oodama rasengan demonstrated on some unsuspecting trees. To say that she was surprised by the power of the attack would be an understatement, and she found herself filling with pride in Naruto, and in herself for helping him.

It was on Friday that Sakura began to get over her jealousy enough to be worried for Naruto. Her teammate had seemed very depressed in the hospital after his failed mission, then he had turned around and become even more determined to keep his promise, and then… he stopped talking to her for six weeks! It was unlike Naruto to stop talking to her for two days, let alone six weeks! Something was clearly wrong, and she needed to know what.

"Tsunade-shishou?"

"What is it Sakura? Did you get that technique down already?"

"No, it's not that… I'm worried about Naruto. He hasn't spoken to me in six weeks, which is really weird, for him, and--"

"And you want to check on him personally, don't you?"

"Well yeah! He is my teammate, after all!"

"Is that really the only reason you want to see him?"

"What do you mean? Of course it is!"

Tsunade allowed herself a little laughter at that. "Alright then, if you say so. What do you have in mind?"

"I was thinking… if it's not too big of a problem, could you maybe get the team Kurenai and team Asuma the day off tomorrow? And team Gai?"

"You want me to take nine ninja off duty for a day to check up on one person?" /In other words, the nine people his age that might be able to convince him to slow down… She must not understand just yet./ "Hmm… okay."

"What? Just like that?"

"Of course. It's just one day, and they're all in town anyway. Besides, I feel like I owe Naruto something, and this'll be good for him." /And you…/

With that decided, Sakura went off in search of the other nine who she hoped would accompany her the next day. Naruto, meanwhile, was finally getting the jutsu down. He had used the technique several times, and he was sure that he was doing it correctly. Although it bothered him that what the scroll described as "ridiculous amounts of chakra" turned out to be less chakra than he had used to beat Mizuki, he supposed that it could be draining if used one or two hundred times. As he still had time before the library's closing time, he decided to work on another original technique that he had been thinking about.

As the library was about to close, Naruto found himself in a new predicament. The scroll he was reading was being surprisingly helpful, and he had a large stack of scrolls next to him that he wanted to read, but he wanted to take them to the training grounds with him for quicker reference. Running back and forth between the library and the training grounds seemed like more of a hassle than it needed to be, especially with Gai's weights.

"Mabui-chan?"

"What is it Naruto-kun?"

"Is it alright if I borrow these scrolls? I'll bring them back, I just--"

"Sure, you can check them out. Do you have your library card?"

"'Library card?' What's that?"

"You're kidding! You don't know what a library card is? We've got to get you one right away!"

"Why, what is it?"

Mabui, already filling out the paperwork to get Naruto's card, looked up at him as though trying to determine whether it was possible that he was actually standing there. After a moment she explained the purpose of a library card to him, which caused his eyes to widen.

"You mean people can just take stuff for weeks at a time for free? And all they have to do is get one of those cards?"

"That's the purpose of the library, Naruto-kun…" She shoved some papers at him, "sign here, here, and here." As he did so, she pulled out a library card that the machine had just finished making for him. "Here you go! Now we just need to check out your scrolls, and you're free to go!"

"Wow! Thanks Mabui-chan!"

When Naruto finally got back to the training grounds he did the most annoying thing Kakashi could imagine: he sat and read quietly. Kakashi had, of course, been hoping to watch Naruto develop another incredible technique. He had been so expectant, in fact, that he had left his perverted novels at home. All that he had left for entertainment was Naruto, who was reading… Actually, as Kakashi thought about it, he had no idea what Naruto was reading.

Moving to another tree for a better look at the scroll in Naruto's hands, Kakashi almost face-faulted out of the tree. Naruto was reading a stack of scrolls that would be better suited to a first-year academy student. After mentally preparing himself for an extremely boring night, Kakashi settled himself in a tree and began the struggle to keep his eye open.

---

"Thanks again for coming, guys."

"Of course, Sakura-san! I would hate to see Naruto-kun's youthful spirit be tainted by the same lust for power that drove Sasuke-kun away!" Everyone sweat-dropped, but secretly had the same reason for coming.

"So Forehead-girl, he honestly hasn't even tried to contact you in six weeks?"

"No, he hasn't… From what Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade-shishou have been saying, I think he's spent the entire time in some kind of super-intense training regimen. The part that worries me the most, though, is that his new best friend is the head librarian." Everyone stopped dead at Sakura's words. After a few moments of silence, Shikamaru decided that he couldn't resist asking an important question.

"How serious were those injuries from Sasuke again?" A few more moments of silence went by; apparently they had all thought it was a sarcastic question. "I'm serious…"

"Tsunade-shishou said that he sustained a mortal wound to the stomach, and his left arm looked torn up on the inside, but those injuries healed and other than that there was nothing wrong with him…"

"And we're sure she's the best medic available?" His comment earned him a rather hard punch to the back of the head, but he had expected it. As they entered the main clearing of training ground seven, they saw Naruto doing something they would never have associated with Naruto: reading. "'Super-intense training regimen,' huh?"

"He's probably just inventing another technique." The reply came from everyone around her at the same time.

"Another...?"

"Yes, another, but I probably shouldn't tell you guys about the first two. That's really up to Naruto…" The group walked up to Naruto, everyone wondering exactly what it was that he was reading. As Naruto hadn't noticed them, and Sakura was taking a remarkably long time to point out their presence to him, Ino took a peek at the title of the scroll. She face-faulted.

"'Basics of Chakra Molding?' What kind of idiot are you! They gave us this scroll in our first year at the academy!"

Naruto looked up to see his ten visitors. He also saw that most of them seemed to agree with what Ino had said; even Lee, who could never have managed any of the exercises on the scroll anyway. "I was just checking to see if it had anything that would help me with my new technique. It's going to--"

"Ino-pig! Don't you have any manners at all! You don't just walk up to someone you're trying to help and call them an idiot!"

"I can't help it if he's an idiot, Forehead-girl! Being dead-last is one thing, but having to re-read academy material? How he ever beat Kiba and Neiji is a mystery to me…"

"If you're quite done, we are here for a reason." Neiji didn't want to have to deal with a fight between two loud girls, so he decided to save some time. "Could we please get back to it?"

Sakura's interest instantly returned to the still-seated Naruto. "Oh, right. Naruto, we're here to take you to lunch!"

"Why?" Naruto really couldn't think of any reason that the group would want to take him to lunch. It seemed extremely suspicious to him that they would suddenly take an interest in him, not to mention that he had promised to meet Mabui at Ichiraku's.

"Because, Naruto, you've been working too hard." Everyone, including Shino, was surprised that Shino had been the one to voice that. Somehow, despite the shocked faces, he forced himself to finish his thought. "Sakura, Lee, Neiji, Kiba, and Ino have expressed worry that you are becoming too obsessive, and the rest of the group seems to share the sentiment."

"He's right, Naruto. You're being too troublesome…" Shikamaru didn't really want to become a part of the conversation, but he knew it was inevitable. Reasoning that it was less troublesome to involve himself than to be prodded by Ino, he forced himself to say something that he knew he would regret. "Just come eat lunch with us… After lunch I might even let you play a game of shougi with me." Shougi with Naruto had really been Ino's idea, which was the only reason that Shikamaru knew he couldn't get out of it. He actually liked Naruto as a friend, but he couldn't imagine the blond being any good at the game.

"What's shougi?"

"You don't know how to play shougi?" Receiving a death glare from Ino, he decided to take the least troublesome path. "I could teach you, I guess… It's just a board game, in answer to your question."

"I don't have time for games! What about my training!"

"Naruto, we're trying to get you away from your training for a day." Tenten really didn't think that Naruto would leave the village, but she had a much more powerful worry. "You don't want to end up like Lee and Gai-sensei, do you?" She decided to ignore Lee's indignant look, as his response was cut off by Naruto's.

"You think I'm getting as strong as Super-brows? Yatta!" As Naruto started jumping up and down, screaming "yatta!" over and over, everyone sweat-dropped.

"That's… not what I meant, Naruto." Naruto instantly stopped his celebration, looking extremely disappointed.

"Naruto, you can't spend all of your time training!" Ino was getting seriously tired of the conversation. "Just come get lunch with us and we'll go from there, okay?"

"But I was going to meet Mabui-chan…"

"Who?" Looking around, Ino could tell that no one in the group (with the possible exception of Sakura) had ever met anyone named Mabui.

"Mabui-chan!"

"Well that clears things up!"

"N-Naruto-kun…" Naruto finally noticed that Hinata was also in the clearing, hiding behind everyone else, with a face as red as a ripe tomato. "Why don't we j-just go with you to meet M-Mabui-san?" Naruto tried to think of some valid reason that they wouldn't be able to come, but he couldn't.

"Okay… But you guys had better be nice to Mabui-chan!" Seeing them all nod in agreement, he picked up his scrolls and began to exit the training grounds.

"Naruto, would you hurry up?"

"Ino-pig, I told you to stop being so rude! If you act like that around--"

"Naruto-kun? Are you alright?" Lee, having experience with debilitating injuries himself, was genuinely concerned. "You didn't tear muscles, did you?"

"Eh? Oh, the wei—that's nothing, don't worry about it." He put on a big grin, hoping that it would rid them of suspicion.

"But it looks like you're having trouble walking…"

"It's just part of my training!" Naruto really wasn't sure if he was supposed to keep the secret from Lee, too, but if Lee didn't know, Naruto wasn't going to tell him.

---

"Hi Naruto-kun! Who're all of your friends?" Mabui looked around at the group, a little surprised that Naruto had brought company. What really seemed odd to her was that all of the boys appeared to be drooling, except for the boy with no pupils who had immediately shut his eyes upon seeing her.

He decided to go from left to right. "This is Hyuuga Neiji, Tenten, Rock Lee, Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, Sakura-chan, Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and… er… it starts with a 'Y' I think…"

Ino, looking angrier than anyone could ever remember seeing her, took her introduction upon herself. "I'm Yamanaka Ino." She forced a smile as she said it, which resulted in her looking like a sleepy serial killer.

"Yeah, that was it!" He gestured to Mabui, "this is Mabui-chan. I don't know why, but they insisted on coming, so--"

"Maybe they're just realizing what a cool person you are, Naruto-kun!" At everyone's surprised looks, she almost took it back. The quickest to recover was, of course, Shikamaru, who decided to ask another question.

"How old are you?" He was immediately punched in the back of the head by Ino, Sakura, and Tenten all at the same time, causing him to fall over on the ground. He decided that that wasn't nearly as scary as their shouting in unison.

"You idiot! Don't ask a woman her age!"

"No, it's okay, I really don't mind." Mabui, who had never understood that rule anyway, didn't mind divulging her age. "I'm twenty years old. Why do you ask, Shikamaru-kun?"

Shikamaru stood back up and dusted himself off. "I've just never heard of anyone more than four years older than Naruto that didn't dislike him when they first met him…" Mabui's face got a look of deepest loathing for a moment, but quickly changed back to her normal, cheery expression.

"That's because they're idiots, and they're missing out! Anyways, it's nice to meet all of you! If you're friends of Naruto-kun, I'm sure you're all great people. Would you all care to sit down?" There was some generally affirmative mumbling, and everyone either sat down or leaned on the counter. "So how's that new technique coming Naruto?"

"Not as well as I was hoping, but--"

"Naruto, you've got to be kidding!" No matter how hard Ino tried, she couldn't imagine Naruto having less of a life. "You talk about training on your lunch break? Do you ever take an actual break?"

"Why would I want to waste time? Besides, Mabui-chan only ever seems to want to talk about my training anyway…"

"And who's fault is that? She probably doesn't feel comfortable talking about anything else because you're so obsessed, and--"

"That's not true, I really do like talking about his training!" Everyone stared at Mabui for a while, thinking that she was one of the weirdest people they had ever met, but no one said anything. "So, what were you saying about your technique?"

"Well, it's not going quite as well as I hoped it would, but I at least know what some of the problems are. The hardest part will probably be getting my chakra to continue to apply the same amount of centripetal force constantly after it leaves my hand, but I also have to consider--"

"Whoa, wait a minute! Did I just hear Naruto talking about centripetal force?" Remembering all of the time that she had spent with Naruto, Sakura felt fairly confident saying that his intellectual capacity was not one of his strong points. "Since when does Naruto know anything about physics?"

"Since Mabui-chan explained it all to me and found books and scrolls for me to read, Sakura-chan! Anyway, Mabui-chan, I also have to consider--"

"Naruto, you're not supposed to do any more training today, remember?" Ino was making an honest effort to be polite, if for no other reason than not having a fight with Sakura in front of their new acquaintance.

"I'm not gonna fall behind on my training just because you guys are being weird! If I skimp on my training, I'll never be able to bring Sasuke back!"

"Naruto-kun? Don't you think you could indulge your friends for one day?"

"Mabui-chan! Not you too!"

"I don't really think you're going too far with your training, but your friends are worried about you… The least you could do is give them less reason to worry, even if you have to sacrifice a half-day of training."

"Well… Alright, I guess…"

Finally, Ichiraku came to get the group's orders. Ino, Sakura, Hinata, and Tenten all ordered one bowl of miso ramen, not wanting to gain any weight. Neiji got two bowls of pork ramen, Lee three bowls of pork (just to out-do Neiji), Kiba and Shino both ordered two bowls of miso, Shikamaru got one bowl of pork, and Chouji got two of each kind on the menu. When it finally came to Naruto, he ordered five pork, five teriyaki chicken, and ten miso. Naruto's order didn't surprise his friends nearly as much as Mabui's order, which consisted of ten pork, five teriyaki chicken, and five miso. In other words, Mabui was planning on eating as much ramen as Naruto.

Probably the weirdest part of the whole experience was that Mabui finished her ramen before Naruto did. She waited until he finished (the whole five seconds), and then headed back to the library to continue her shift. Seeing that his friends had yet to finish their ramen (although how it was possible to eat that slowly escaped him), he tried to sneak away to the training grounds, but they saw him and made him sit back down.

"Naruto, we already told you we aren't going to let you train anymore today! Just relax and be glad for the time off!"

"Okay, but only because Mabui-chan thought it would be a good idea…"

"Yatta!" Ino was punching the air for some reason, but no one found it odd. "I guess that means you'll spend the rest of the afternoon playing shougi with Shikamaru!" Shikamaru shuddered, but she didn't notice.

"Actually, I have a question to ask you guys…"

"What is it Naruto?"

"How long do I have to get ready for the next chuunin exam?" At this, everyone exchanged dark looks. Sakura was the only one who knew why, but they all knew that his training was being hampered, and that the reason would probably prevent him from entering the exams.

"There are ten weeks left, but I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you…"

"I only have ten weeks? But I've only finished learning three techniques! I'm gonna have to get more serious about my training…"

"MORE serious! Are you crazy!"

"Forehead, you don't have to scream."

"Yes I do! He's already doubled his speed and strength and invented one B-rank and one S-rank ninjutsu! If he gets any more serious, he's going to kill himself!" Those in the group that knew the ranking system (Neiji, Hinata, and Tenten) went wide-eyed, while Naruto just adopted a suspicious glare.

"How do you know about my techniques?"

"Naruto, please. I'm the Hokage's apprentice, and you're my teammate. It would be ridiculous to think that I don't hear all about what you're up to."

"You mean to tell me," Tenten took a deep breath, "that Naruto, the one sitting at the counter right over there, invented an S-rank ninjutsu?" Sakura nodded. "You do know what S-rank means, right?" Sakura nodded again. "What—How—Who told you it was S-rank?"

"Tsunade-shishou." As if merely to defy the laws of physics, Neiji's, Tenten's, and Hinata's eyes went even wider. "She didn't really tell me what it does, though."

Kiba couldn't take being left out of the loop anymore. "What's an S-rank ninjutsu? Would you people speak plain Japanese please?"

"Oh, you don't know about the ninjutsu rankings? S-rank means—damn it Naruto! Stop trying to sneak off!" Naruto sat back down, mumbling something about "only a little." "S-rank means that it's too difficult for most kage to learn, and it requires an ungodly amount of chakra, to the point where most people wouldn't be able to use it effectively in an actual fight." All of the eyes that hadn't widened quickly corrected themselves. "S-rank techniques are usually never taught, because not many people have the skill or the power to use them."

"Naruto created one?" He turned to Naruto, a look of disbelief obvious on his face. "I'll believe it when I see it."

Naruto's face lit up in a grin. "You'll see it at the chuunin exams, Dog-boy! Unless you're afraid to come!"

"Uh, Naruto? About the chuunin exam…" Sakura hated being the bearer of bad news, but she was probably the only one who could tell him. "I wouldn't get my hopes up, if I were you."

"What do you mean, Sakura-chan? I was in the finals last time, I'm sure that--"

"Things have… changed a little. Since Jiraiya has been threatening all of the jounin not to train you, I doubt that Kakashi-sensei will have the courage to submit your name. Even if he does, we still need another person, so--"

"Ero-sennin is the reason I couldn't get a teacher? Why wouldn't anyone tell me!" Naruto stood up and started shouting about pervert cheaters, and it took his friends ten minutes to calm him down. When he finally did calm down, Sakura took the opportunity to switch the subject.

A few minutes later, they were entering Shikamaru's house. Unfortunately, his mother was home, and she spotted Naruto. "Shikamaru, what is that thing doing in our house!"

He looked around for a minute. "What thing?" She pointed at Naruto, causing everyone to raise an eyebrow. "Naruto?"

"Yes! I told you a long time ago not to associate with 'him.' Why is 'he' in our house!" Her use of airquotes was, quite possibly, the most childish thing he had ever seen from her.

"I was about to teach him to play shougi…" Shikamaru had always thought his mother's orders to be troublesome and pointless, and had completely ignored her when she told him not to speak, play, or fight with Naruto. As far as he had been concerned, Naruto was just another guy, which made the way his mother was referring to Naruto all the more perturbing.

"You… you were going to play games with 'him?'" She couldn't quite find the words to describe how wrong it was without mentioning Kyuubi, but she knew that she needed to try. Unfortunately, for her at least, she wasn't good with words. "Get that thing out of my house! It's a terrible influence, and I don't want you speaking to it ever again!"

"Did I just hear what I thought I heard?" Shikato walked into the room looking very angry, a side of him that Shikamaru couldn't remember ever having seen.

"Oh! Shikato, I… didn't know you were home!" Shikamaru knew for a fact that he had never seen his father stand up to his mother, nor had he ever seen his mother back down from anything. For the life of him, though, he couldn't figure out why they were acting so strangely.

"Shikamaru, take your friends upstairs. Your mother and I need to have a talk." Rather than question the turn of events, Shikamaru took the least troublesome path.

Before anyone knew it, they were all crowded into Shikamaru's room, watching him explain shougi to Naruto. After three explanations and a demonstration, Naruto thought he had a good understanding of how to play, so they began. Three moves later, it was obvious to Shikamaru that Naruto had no idea what he was doing. "Naruto, you can't move that there, it's suicidal."

"I have a plan, just let me try it." Shikamaru decided to let Naruto try whatever his plan was, as he knew the game wouldn't be a challenge even if Naruto played normally. Or at least, he thought he knew. By the fifteenth move, everyone was watching the game with rapt attention, even though most had only stayed because they feared Ino's wrath.

No one could figure out exactly what Naruto's strategy was, or if there were multiple strategies, or if he even had a strategy, but he was playing amazingly well. While Shikamaru's turns averaged taking about ninety seconds, Naruto's turns averaged about three.

Off to the side, the wagering pool was closed after the twentieth turn. Shikamaru was in his thinking pose, realizing that he was having the hardest game of his life. How Naruto could possibly be that good in his first game, the super-genius had no idea, but he was starting to question Naruto's status as a dead-last. Not only were Naruto's moves quick, they were completely unpredictable and disturbingly well thought-out. Every time that Shikamaru tried a new strategy, it was like Naruto had been waiting for him to try that strategy from the start.

When the end of the match came, everyone was surprised except for Naruto, who was complaining that Shikamaru had obviously let him win. Hinata collected all of the money from the pool, and even she hadn't actually expected Naruto to win. Naruto tried to sneak out to go train while they weren't paying attention, but was caught by Ino. The group forced him to wait while Chouji went to get Asuma, something that Naruto really wasn't looking forward to.

When Shikamaru explained to Asuma that he had lost a game of shougi to Naruto, the cigarette actually fell from the man's mouth. He just stood there, mouth agape, until Ino punched him on the arm. Finally Asuma waved it off, saying that it was impossible for anyone to beat Shikamaru, let alone Naruto. In honor of Asuma's statement, they forced Naruto to have a rematch with Shikamaru. Although he considered losing on purpose just to get out of the whole thing, Naruto ended up playing seriously, complaining that Shikamaru was letting him win periodically throughout the match. When Naruto won again Asuma refused to believe it, claiming that it had been staged.

Naruto wasn't particularly eager to prove anything to Asuma, as he had already tired of the game, but he still ended up playing a third round. At the very least, he was glad that the third game finished much more quickly than the two before it, Asuma being totally crushed.

Finally they allowed Naruto to leave, but only after he promised that he would not only refrain from training for the rest of the day, he would also meet them at the same time the next Saturday. Not many of them liked the idea, but Ino and Sakura were disturbingly persuasive. An extremely defeated Naruto headed home to at least read some more from the scrolls he had borrowed.

---

"That was… interesting. What did you think, Asuma-sensei?"

"I have absolutely no idea, Ino."

"I don't get it! When the hell did that idiot become so smart?"

"Well, now that I think about it…" Sakura suddenly remembered all of the plans that she had seen Naruto enact mid-battle. "Our first real fight was with an S-rank missing-nin from the hidden mist named Zabuza. When Zabuza captured Kakashi-sensei, Naruto came up with and executed a plan to get Kakashi-sensei free." Asuma's eyes widened a little bit at the mention of Zabuza.

"Kakashi never mentioned that he had help from his team…"

"Then there was the fight with those gennin from hidden rain, where he came up with a plan to trick them into canceling their genjutsu prematurely. Oh, he also came up with a pretty good strategy when he fought you, Kiba."

"What? He didn't have a strategy!"

"Oh, so you punched out your dog for the hell of it?" Kiba glared at her, but Sakura continued to think. "During his fight with you, Neiji, he tricked you into letting your guard down after you attacked his bunshin. He also tricked you at the end of the fight. I wasn't conscious when he defeated Gaara, but--"

"Naruto defeated Gaara? When the hell was that?"

"During the Sand/Sound invasion. I only know about it because I thanked Sasuke for saving me, and he said it was Naruto that beat Gaara. Like I said though, I was unconscious, so I have no idea how he did it. After that, when we had to fight the rain gennin again on a mission, he had his kage bunshin rotate the water with chakra to make a little vortex… The only other fight that I was around for was when Naruto fought Sasuke on the roof of the hospital… Other than using a little swirling wind ball to keep Sasuke's fire ball from killing him, I don't remember Naruto using any strategy…"

"So we've got six, maybe seven incidents where he used incredible strategies, and the rest of his life he was a complete idiot." Shikamaru, trying to make sense out of the number one ninja in surprising people, was developing a terrible headache.

"Well, regardless of his abilities, his training obsession seems a bit unhealthy."

"Asuma-sensei, how could you ever imply that training with the burning passion of youth is unhealthy? If anything is unhealthy, it's those cigarettes you smoke all of the time!"

"Hey, they're not that bad… well, yes they are, but that's not the point."

"No, it's not. The point is that Sasuke already left me because he was obsessed with power, and now Naruto's even worse about it!"

"Sakura, I doubt that Naruto would leave the village." Tenten was not prepared to deal with Sakura crying. "Not only would it kill his dream of becoming Hokage, it would defeat the purpose of getting the power. Naruto can't bring Sasuke back if Naruto is also a nuke-nin…"

Sakura wiped the tears out of her eyes. "I guess you're right… Thanks, Tenten."

"Still… He does seem to have a power obsession, and it probably isn't healthy to train quite as much as he seems to… Do we know how many hours per day he trains?"

"Kakashi said eighteen minus meal breaks."

"Eighteen! Gai-sensei and I only train sixteen hours per day, and that's between missions! How can his body tolerate that…?" He got a hopeful look on his face, as though he was considering adding two hours to his training day, which Sakura took as her cue to crush that idea completely.

"Tsunade-shishou says that his body shouldn't be able to tolerate it. Her guess is that his body is actually being heavily damaged while he trains, but then he heals himself up and keeps going."

"But… N-Naruto-kun isn't a medic-nin... H-how can he h-heal his own wounds?"

"Tsunade-shishou isn't entirely sure about that, either. She says it might be the result of something that she can't tell me about, or it might just be a byproduct of his own enormous chakra. Whatever the reason, he can apparently heal just about anything overnight, and channeling his chakra to the damaged area seems to speed the healing up."

"So… Gai-sensei and I--"

"Would probably end up killing yourselves if you tried to keep up with Naruto." Lee looked crushed, which Sakura took as assurance that he wouldn't try it. "Anyway, we need to think of a way to get him to slow down a little bit."

"Why?"

"What do you mean 'why?' It's not healthy to train your body to the point where it falls apart! Besides, his training will probably be more effective if he slows down enough that he doesn't have to keep healing himself--"

"But Sakura-san, the process of getting stronger is just the muscles breaking down and rebuilding, so the same principle--"

"Shut up Lee! Forehead's right, we can't just let him keep up something so dangerous!"

"Let's think about this logically, shall we?" Shikamaru was getting a little tired of the pointless bickering. "If Naruto continues to train the way he has been training, what are the benefits? His healing ability will probably become more efficient from practice, his chakra capacity will increase more quickly from the extra strain, and he'll get the benefits of the actual training time. Now for the negatives… The only one we've listed so far is that, if it weren't Naruto, it would be a potentially lethal process. I guess we could also add that his mental state will become less stable as he has less human contact, but from the sound of things that Mabui person is maintaining daily contact with him… This whole thing is too troublesome. We should just leave him alone…"

"We can't do that! I'm sure there's something we're missing that makes it obvious that he should slow down…"

"How about we wait until it's not missing anymore?"

"No Shikamaru, I have a bad feeling about all of this too. You should all try to get him to let up at least a little bit. Enough that he isn't destroying and rebuilding his body on a regular basis…"

"Asuma, so troublesome…"

---

"Remind me why I'm here again?"

"Because, Kiba, Naruto needs the support of all of his friends."

"But I don't even agree with what you're trying to do, Sakura… If he can handle the training and he's not going to run away from Konoha, he should just keep doing whatever works."

Sighing, Sakura realized that she had no choice but to tell them. "Alright guys, listen up. The real reason that we all need to do this is that Tsunade-shishou has taken ANBU and Kakashi-sensei off of watching Naruto. I'm supposed to report his progress in his training to her every week, and the easiest way for me to find out how he's doing is for us to all meet like this every week." She decided not to tell them that it was only because of her own obsession with Naruto's training that Tsunade had agreed to her idea. Of course, there was no real need to keep ANBU on him anyway, as long as he thought they were on him.

"Wait, you mean we're spies now?"

"Sort of…"

"Does that mean that we don't have to try to convince him not to--"

"NO! For crying out loud, stop asking!"

As they walked up to the edge of the clearing, they saw Naruto form a kage bunshin. Not wanting to interrupt whatever he was doing, they just watched. Naruto was clearly audible, so the listened as well.

"Ok, so if we go fifty feet from the target," Naruto and his bunshin walked backward a few feet, "the power shouldn't dilute at all." The bunshin began swirling chakra in Naruto's hand until he had a normal rasengan, and then it dispelled in a cloud of smoke. Naruto pointed his hand at the tree, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. Opening his eyes, Naruto screamed "Rasengan Dangan (Spiral Blast Bullet)!" The others just watched in awe as the rasengan shot from his hand and was almost instantly embedded in the tree he had been targeting, the trunk of which was quickly ripped to shreds before a small explosion of power came out the opposite side of the tree.

While Naruto was celebrating the success of his newest technique, his friends were in shock. The technique he had just used, rasengan dangan, was by far the most powerful ranged attack any of them had ever seen. Every piece of tree trunk that had come into contact with the rasengan was completely disintegrated, and the attack had moved through the air so quickly that, even with the first five gates open, Lee knew it would be a difficult attack to dodge.

By the time they had all regained their senses, they were surprised to see that Naruto again had a look of concentration on his face. Apparently he wasn't quite done. Forming a kage bunshin, Naruto picked another tree that had plenty of neighbors. "We can probably back up to about seventy-five feet. The effect is supposed to last for five-hundred, so we'd might as well make sure it won't crap out on us…"

Slightly disappointed that Naruto was just adding distance to his attack, his friends prepared to come out and greet him, only to see his bunshin act completely different than the first time. Wanting to see exactly what was going to happen, Sakura held out her hands to stop everyone from entering the training ground. Naruto and his bunshin formed the oodama rasengan and aimed it at the target.

While they were still trying to figure out what the difference was between this rasengan and the one before, other than size, Naruto decided he was ready to try his technique. "Oodama Dangan (Great Sphere Bullet)!" Although it was covering a larger distance, the oodama rasengan seemed to hit its target much more quickly. Naruto's friends probably would have been impressed by that, if it hadn't been for the sheer destructive power the technique proved capable of upon hitting the tree. Even Naruto was somewhat surprised by just how much the dangan effect increased the power of his technique. The sphere of destruction created by this technique was at least twice as large as that of its predecessor, and it spread out in all directions, while the other had only spread out in the direction of the thrust.

Watching Naruto's attack disintegrate everything within twenty-five feet of the point of impact, while uprooting a half dozen trees on the edge of that area just to send them flying into other trees, breaking in half on impact, could only be described with one word. Scary. Not horror movie scary, or axe murderer scary, but the sort of indescribable scary that they had once attributed to Gaara. As far as any of them could tell, Naruto had just created an attack that would kill virtually anyone, regardless of their defenses, with an indirect hit. The gennin (and Shikamaru) cautiously made their way into the training ground, not quite sure how to act around their friend at the moment, while said friend danced around in celebration.

When Naruto spotted the gathering at the edge of the clearing, he stopped mid cheer. "Oh, is that today?"

"Naruto, I demand that you teach me that technique!"

"Dream on Dog-boy! You couldn't do that technique even if I taught you how!"

"Can you guys not have a fight right now?" Everyone looked over at Ino. "As fun as it would be to watch Naruto kick your ass Kiba, I'm hungry."

"He wouldn't kick my ass!"

"I'm sorry, did you not see the technique he used just a moment ago? I'm pretty sure that that technique could take down Tsunade-sama in one shot."

Naruto looked a little flustered. "Heh, I don't know about that… If she used that seal on her forehead, she'd kick my ass with or without that technique."

"Seal on her… that little dot is a seal? I always thought it was some kind of religious thing…"

"Oookay… Can we just go eat now? I feel like I'm gonna die if I don't get some ramen soon." Medic-nin instincts taking over, Sakura was on Naruto with a diagnostic jutsu before he realized she had moved. "Um, Sakura-chan?"

"You're okay, but you really do need nourishment…" Finally noticing the stares directed at her, she added, "…so, uh, we should go right away!" By the time Naruto opened his mouth to ask a question, Sakura was in a sprint towards Ichiraku's. Much to Naruto's chagrin, everyone else followed suit, leaving him and his ridiculous weights far behind.

When Naruto fell far enough behind everyone else to arouse suspicion, he decided to show off the results of his training. Forming the rabbit and sheep seals, Naruto yelled "Naruto Senkou no Jutsu!" Suffice it to say that Lee, who had been winning the race, was more than a little surprised when Naruto suddenly pulled into the lead.

By the time he got to Ichiraku's Naruto was completely worn out, so he ordered twice as much as usual. When Ino, who lost the race, arrived at the scene, Naruto had finished his meal. As the others' orders arrived, Lee felt a nagging urge to ask a question.

"Naruto-kun, your speed back there was incredible! How did you gain so much speed in such a short amount of time?"

"Actually, I can go a lot faster than that." /If I take the damned weights off…/ He adopted his sheepish grin. "It's just hard work!"

Lee struck a nice guy pose, but Neiji just shook his head. "Impossible. You would have to have worked harder than Lee to improve your speed that much in that short a time, but you were spending large portions of your time on ninjutsu as well."

Naruto's grin just got bigger. Sakura took the opportunity to tell Naruto that he was going to have to meet them every Saturday, which resulted in his a length, childish argument. With Ino and Sakura working together, however, Naruto lost horribly. After a while, Sakura realized that something was off.

"Naruto, where's Mabui-san?"

"Eh? Oh, I asked Mabui-chan not to come today, since you guys are going to be--"

"What! You jerk! I was looking forward to getting to know her!" Ino elbowed Sakura in the ribs, mouthed "remember the plan," and went back to her ramen. Sakura, still angry that Naruto didn't think them good enough to mingle with Mabui, went back to her ramen as well.

"So, Naruto, what was that attack?" Ino really hoped that question didn't sound too stupid, as the name pretty much gave away what the attack was, but Naruto didn't seem to care.

"What, dangan?" Seeing everyone nodding, he continued. "Just a projectile version of rasengan and oodama rasengan."

"And what are those?"

"I thought you guys didn't want me to think about my training…?"

"We're curious, that's all. So, what's a rasengan?"

Naruto eyed her suspiciously for a few moments, but seemed to decide that she was serious. "Rasengan is an A-rank ninjutsu that Ero-sennin spent about a month teaching to me when we were looking for baa-chan. Oodama--"

"Tsunade-shishou told me it only took you about a week…"

"Oh, she told you about the bet?" He pulled out the necklace and held it up, grinning. "The week was just for the last step. I spent three weeks on the first step and a few days on the second step, and the third step took me about a week."

"So what's all this 'oodama' crap?" Ino and Sakura had decided beforehand to alternate speaking, hoping that it would disorient him and cause him to live more in the moment.

"Oodama rasengan is my improvement on the rasengan!" His grin grew wider with each passing moment. "It's way more powerful than Yondaime's stupid thing!"

"How long did it take you to make it Naruto?"

"About a week…"

Naruto had to hold his hands over his ears to block out the collective voice, as everyone said at the same time: "a WEEK!"

"Yeah, I know, I didn't think that it would take nearly that long, but--"

"Naruto, Tsunade-shishou said that your oodama rasengan is an S-rank jutsu! It would have taken any normal person years!"

"Well, I don't have years, so I did it in a week." Everyone just stared at him like he belonged in a lunatic asylum.

"Are you saying, Naruto, that you were able to invent the technique more quickly than anyone else would be able to just because you felt you needed to?"

"Yeah…" He started to look at Ino like she might have been crazy. "If I'm gonna save Sasuke, I need as many good techniques as I can make in the next three years. I don't have time to waste, so I just keep reminding myself of why I need to have the technique, and it comes easier." He let out a sheepish laugh. "Just like everything else…"

"Naruto…" Sakura wasn't exactly sure what to say. The plan hadn't accounted for the possibility that he considered the drive to save Sasuke to be the source of his strength. "I told you, we'll save Sasuke together, you don't have to do all of the work! Don't you think you could tone down your training just a little?"

"I already did."

"What? When!"

"When I agreed to take off Saturday afternoons and nights." Everyone face-faulted.

"I meant other than--"

"Forehead-girl, let it go! I want to hear more about his dangan thing!" They continued on through lunch talking about Naruto's accomplishments and strengths, but the plan didn't seem to be working. If anything, Naruto seemed to get more determined to train harder, something that even Lee didn't really want. When Naruto explained some of the details and power of rasengan and dangan every eye went wide, but other than that it was a total waste of time.

After lunch was over, Shikamaru (really Ino) had another idea for Naruto: go. Naruto had never played go before, but he turned out to be a natural at that too. Using unpredictable strategies that Shikamaru had never seen before, Naruto easily won several games. The worst part of losing was that, although he didn't know how, Naruto seemed to have some intuitive knowledge of exactly what he was planning, and each of Naruto's strategies could easily be adapted into another on a moment's notice.

Finally, when Naruto went home, another argument about how to convince Naruto to relax more occurred. In the end, Shikamaru suggested they not bother to plan anything, since Naruto seemed to have a sense for when people were planning something anyway. No one listened.

---

"Tsunade-shishou?"

Tsunade looked up from her paperwork. "Ah, good morning Sakura! How did everything go yesterday?"

"Uh… okay, I guess."

Seeing the distressed look on Sakura's face, Tsunade knew something big had happened. "What's wrong Sakura?"

"Uh… Tsunade-shishou, I was wondering… could I ask you a hypothetical question?"

"Alright, but you still have to give your report." Sakura adopted a sheepish grin and scratched the back of her head in a very Naruto-like way.

"Well, I was just—that is to say… if the rasengan weren't limited to close combat, if it were a projectile, what rank do you think it would it be?" Tsunade's eyes widened as she suddenly stared off into space. Sakura got the impression that she was slightly frightened by the mere mention of the possibility. Seeing her mentor stare silently into space for thirty seconds, Sakura was about to snap Tsunade out of her trance when the blond finally answered.

"…S-rank, easily. If there were another rank above that, a projectile rasengan would definitely be difficult enough to earn it."

Sakura couldn't believe her ears; she had thought it would be A-rank, like the normal rasengan, and that even that would have been impressive. /He created two S-rank techniques in a month! And he's a gennin? How the hell can this be Naruto?/

"Sakura, I need you to be honest with me." The pink-haired gennin looked up to see Tsunade wearing a very serious face. "Is Naruto planning on creating such a technique?" When Sakura stayed silent, she continued. "I need you to tell me Sakura. Also, I would advise you to tell him not to bother, if he is planning on it. It's impossible to--"

"Tsunade-shishou… Naruto can already do it."

"What!" Tsunade was considering the difficulty of getting the rasengan to maintain its form and power after ceasing contact with the hand when a horrible thought struck her. She forced her voice to be calm. "Sakura, did you see the technique?"

"Yes Tsunade-shishou, we all saw it."

"Was he able to use it in conjunction with the other improvement he made to the rasengan?"

"Yes." After a long silence, she added, "it's ridiculously powerful, Tsunade-shishou…"

"I know, Sakura, Kakashi already told me about the 'oodama rasengan' that Naruto created."

"I… I think I'm ready to give my report now." At Tsunade's nod, Sakura recounted the previous day's events. Tsunade was completely awe-struck by everything about Naruto's new technique: the speed, the power, the apparent complexity, and even the speed with which he had created it. She briefly considered creating a new jutsu rank just for Naruto, as this was less than likely to be the most amazing technique that he would ever produce. N-rank seemed to have a nice ring to it, in her mind at least. Finally, as Sakura was finishing her report, Tsunade snapped back to reality.

"Then, finally, Naruto played go for the first time. After beating Shikamaru a few times, he--"

"Excuse me Sakura, but I think I misheard you a second ago. I could have sworn you said that Naruto bested Shikamaru at go."

"I did, and he did."

"But that's impossible! I can understand if Naruto's a genius with techniques, but he's an idiot when it comes to everything else! For him to beat Shikamaru should be… impossible!"

"He also beat Shikamaru and Asuma-sensei at shougi last week." There were a few moments of shocked silence before Tsunade found herself smirking. Remembering just who she was talking about, it really didn't seem that farfetched.

"So he's a strategist now? He really is an interesting guy…"

---

"Yo."

"You're late again, eternal rival Kakashi! And it was your idea to meet here!"

As interesting as watching Gai fume was, Kakashi really had something important to talk about. "Gai, I have a… request."

"What is it Kakashi? Do you wish to make our challenges more frequent? Would you like to admit that I have overcome you with the power of--"

"I'll save us both some time and say no to everything you're about to say. I want you to give Naruto one-on-one training, like what you give Lee."

"No."

"What, no longwinded speech?"

"No. I've risked enough just by giving him my old leg-weights, I can't afford to help him any more than that."

"Gai, you don't understand! Naruto, he…" Kakashi realized that his voice had been slightly passionate, and quickly composed himself. "Naruto has, in the last eight weeks, surpassed me in ninjutsu. If he can get some good taijutsu training now, he--"

"Kakashi, while I normally tolerate your 'hip' attitude, I'm not about to sit here and pretend to believe a lie like that. We both know that you are Konoha's number one ninjutsu specialist. There's simply no way for him to have learned more techniques than you in--"

Resisting the urge to pretend not to be listening, Kakashi interrupted. "I'm not saying that he knows more techniques than me, I'm saying that he knows better techniques." At Gai's questioning look, Kakashi continued. "Not only does Naruto have more chakra than I do, he's invented some extremely powerful ninjutsu that I don't know."

"Why don't you just copy them?" Kakashi noticed that Gai's question reeked of sarcasm, something very uncharacteristic of Gai, but he decided not to worry about it.

"I can't."

"What do you mean by that?" Gai assumed, of course, that Kakashi was speaking of the moral difficulties that any normal person would experience when trying to steal techniques from their student, but he wanted to hear it from Kakashi.

"My sharingan can't copy either of his original techniques." Gai nearly sweat-dropped, but controlled himself. It took him a few moments to realize the implications of Kakashi's statement, but when he did he snapped to attention. With Gai finally being quiet, Kakashi managed to explain Naruto's progress to Gai. Beginning with Naruto senkou no jutsu, and moving through oodama rasengan and bakuretsu kage bunshin no jutsu.

"Kakashi, even if he is good with ninjutsu," Kakashi gave him a glare, "alright, very good with ninjutsu, that doesn't mean that he'll be good with taijutsu. You should have him stick to his strengths, since he has them."

"About that, Gai… You know those ridiculously heavy weights that you gave him?" Kakashi proceeded to explain to Gai all of Naruto's physical training, both before and after receiving the weights. By the time he was done, Gai couldn't suppress his surprise. "So you see, Gai, Naruto definitely has enough drive to become good in taijutsu. It will also compliment his style well, with his speed-enhancing technique and the fact that he uses mostly taijutsu when he fights." Gai had a thoughtful look on his face during the silence that followed, but a frown when he ended it.

"I'll admit, Kakashi, that I would normally jump at the chance to train someone like Naruto. With such a brightly burning youthful spirit, Naruto really might become Hokage! Still, I can't. Have you tried appealing to Jiraiya?"

"You know as well as I do that he's too stubborn for that." He sighed, but Gai got a sudden gleam in his eye.

"Kakashi, if you cannot convince him, then we will convince him!"

"Huh?" Kakashi again resisted the urge to add "did you say something?"

"I'll go with you! Together we will convince Jiraiya to allow Naruto's youthful passion to be rewarded!" He struck a nice-guy pose, confident that Kakashi would think it the best possible course of action.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Gai almost face-faulted. "Not only would that not work, it would expose the help you've been giving Naruto to Jiraiya. It would also mean that Jiraiya would watch the two of us more closely, and he would discover my help as well. We're not going to have his blessing either way, so my plan of doing it behind his back is better."

Gai considered what Kakashi had said, and he had to admit that it made sense. Funny thing about Gai, he never cared about making sense. "Alright Kakashi, I will agree to train Naruto on one condition."

Kakashi forced himself not to his hopes up, because he had an idea of what the condition was. "Is the condition that we confront Jiraiya first?"

"H-how did you know?"

"You're seriously asking that? With the way this conversation has been going?" At the look on Gai's face, Kakashi nearly sweat-dropped. "Is there anything else I could possibly do--"

"No."

Kakashi's inner struggle raged on as he considered which was more important: his life or Naruto's training. Even if Jiraiya was unlikely to kill them, he was likely to injure them enough that they would be ineffective teachers for a few months. /Knowing Jiraiya, he would even think to have Naruto's weights taken away, if anyone could carry them… Still, I can't just leave Naruto's potential untapped. Even if I teach him taijutsu, he'll never be as good under me as he would be under Gai. I really haven't been a very good teacher up until now, but is it really worth facing Jiraiya?/ Finally Kakashi reached his decision.

"Gai, I have one question to ask you before I can answer."

"What question is that, Kakashi?"

"Is it possible that a death threat could get me out of this?"

"No, it isn't."

"Alright, let's go see the perverted bastard who'll probably put us in the hospital…"

"Yoshi!"

---

"So you see, Jiraiya-sama, we have agreed that you must allow us to train Naruto! He is living in the explosion of youth, and--"

"No."

"No?"

"No."

Kakashi looked back and forth between the ridiculously enthusiastic-looking Gai and the extremely annoyed-looking Jiraiya. /I knew my idea was better…/ "Jiraiya-sama, I know that you're angry with Naruto, but--"

"I'm not angry, but I am disappointed." His eyes bored into Kakashi's, "I'm trying to save him some pain. Sasuke is about as likely to come back to Konoha as Orochimaru, and even if he does come back he won't be the friend that Naruto is looking for."

"Whether that's true or not, Naruto is free to make his own decisions, Jiraiya-sama. I understand that you have every right to refuse to train him, but you shouldn't be able to keep us from doing it."

"I never said you couldn't train him, I only said that I would break every bone in your bodies if you did."

"Don't you even want to know what his hard work has done, Jiraiya-sama?" Gai's face betrayed anger with the pervert. "If he continues at the rate he's managed so far, he very well could bring Sasuke back!"

Jiraiya couldn't help but be a little curious at a statement like that. Considering that, as far as he knew, Naruto was receiving no help, the blond boy's progress should have been fairly slow. "Alright," he let out a sigh, "I suppose you aren't going to shut up until I hear you out…"

"Yoshi! Kakashi, you know more about it than I do, why don't you tell him?" Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"Alright, Jiraiya-sama. I guess I'll start with his physical training… In the course of several weeks, Naruto was able to double his running speed, and his stamina is such that it brought Akaaka Hoshi to tears."

"Akaaka Hoshi? What's so impressive about that? Naruto had more stamina than that loser when I was teaching him to summon frogs before his chuunin exam finals."

"Yes, well, I thought it was important to note because it shows that Naruto's speed increase is enough to cause a jounin in ANBU to become exhausted…" Getting no signs that Jiraiya was impressed, Kakashi sighed. "Moving on… He's managed to greatly improve his taijutsu form, and I'd say his skill in taijutsu is now about chuunin level." Jiraiya still didn't look very impressed. "As far as ninjutsu goes, he's already created two original techniques."

"Let me guess… the first technique would give me a nosebleed big enough to send me to wave country, and--"

"Actually, no. His techniques aren't perverted in nature." Jiraiya's eyebrow raised at this bit of news, but it quickly lowered again. "The first technique might still give you a nosebleed, though, if he used it and punched you… he calls it 'Naruto senkou no jutsu,' and it amplifies his strength and speed. The effect is proportional to the amount of chakra he puts into the technique, and I've seen him become as much as ten times faster when using it."

"Ten times, huh? That's not terribly impressive."

"It's more than Yondaime's shunshin, and he has enough chakra to make it even more effective."

"What's the other technique?"

"A vastly more powerful version of rasengan." Jiraiya gave no indication that he was impressed, but he couldn't help but be shocked at the claim.

"In what sense is it more powerful?"

"In the sense that it does more damage, and to a larger area. He calls it 'oodama rasengan,' because the area of damage is actually spherical. I saw one blast decimate at least fifteen trees, tear up the ground, and assault everything else in the area with gale force winds. I described the technique to Tsunade-sama, and she has decided that it is to be considered S-rank." Jiraiya, the incredible ninja that he was, managed to stop himself from reacting to the news in any visible way.

"Is that all, Kakashi?"

"No. He also learned bakuretsu kage bunshin in two weeks just by reading a scroll."

"…Where did he get a scroll for an A-rank kinjutsu? Last I heard, gennin weren't allowed to be in possession of that scroll…"

Seeing no way out of it, Kakashi answered truthfully. "I decided that I couldn't allow Naruto to go without some kind of direction, so I gave it to him."

"Ah, it's good to see that someone has some sense." All eyes were instantly on Tsunade, who was standing on the opposite side of the roof. "I was beginning to think that no one would be willing to stand up to this blowhard."

"Tsunade, you know as well as I do that Naruto is deluding himself, and his delusions will never allow him to realize his dream! I'm just protecting him!"

"No Jiraiya, you're trying to change your past by living through him. That's not why I'm here, though…"

"Tsunade-sama, perhaps you can reason with Jiraiya-sama!" For no apparent reason, Gai struck his nice-guy pose. "We must not let Naruto's passionate youth go to waste!"

"Actually, Gai, that's not why I'm here either." Gai's face fell into an overly dramatic pout, but she ignored him. "I just wanted to impress on Jiraiya the quality of the student he's given up."

"I didn't give him up." Jiraiya couldn't help but think that everyone around him was an idiot, as it was clear to him that Naruto would quickly realize that Sasuke wasn't really his friend. "When he realizes the truth, and ceases his fruitless pursuits, I'll gladly take him back, and I'm sure he'll thank me for stopping him from being an idiot."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you." Tsunade's smirk was growing dangerously large. "It seems that his drive to retrieve Sasuke is going to be one of the key factors to his growth. What with his new eighteen hour daily training regimen, his friendship with the head librarian, and these new jutsu he's been creating, he'll probably surpass both of us within a year or two."

"Eighteen hours? He won't surpass us, he'll kill himself! You're actually allowing this?"

"Not only am I allowing it, I'm encouraging it. Oddly enough, he seems to be built in such a way that he actually grows stronger at a quicker pace when he puts his body under constant near-fatal stress…" Jiraiya, sporting a look of absolute terror at Tsunade's attitude towards the situation, would have responded had a particular thought not struck him at that moment.

"Did you say he knows Mabui?" /Does this mean I'm not welcome in the library anymore?/

"Yeah, she's even helped him with his techniques. Speaking of which, he's developed another new S-rank ninjutsu, which is the reason I came here." Tsunade just watched with a satisfied expression as Kakashi and Gai displayed obvious shock at the news, and even Jiraiya's front faltered for a moment. "Not only is his new technique extremely powerful, but it's of particular interest to you, Jiraiya."

Clearing his throat to make sure that his voice would be steady, Jiraiya prepared himself to ask the question he knew she was waiting for. "And why exactly would that be, Tsunade?"

"Think about it Jiraiya: what was the only thing that Yondaime ever gave up on?"

"Rasengan tama of…" As realization hit him, Jiraiya felt a small surge of fear at what she was implying. "He… that's impossible! We spent two years trying to figure out a way to make that technique work! I'll admit that Naruto's determination helps him a lot, but he's no genius. If you actually expect me to believe--"

"Actually Jiraiya, I don't really care whether you believe me or not. We have ten witnesses to the success of Naruto's 'rasengan dangan,' as well as its sister technique: 'oodama dangan.' Not only do these techniques add power and versatility to the originals, Sakura informs me that they move at ridiculous speeds. Oodama dangan apparently moves quickly enough that Lee's eyes couldn't even follow it…"

Staring at Tsunade in only half shock, Kakashi was considering inventing a new word for the look on her face. "Smug" just didn't cover it any longer. Once he managed to calm himself down from the thought of Naruto's technique, which didn't take long because of his generally cool attitude, he chanced a glance at Jiraiya. Said sannin was simply staring at Tsunade, his eyes open almost as wide as his mouth, as he apparently tried to convince himself that either Tsunade or Sakura had lied. Kakashi had to admit, it gave him quite a bit of satisfaction to see Jiraiya so utterly shocked.

Gai, meanwhile, wasn't concerned with anyone else's reactions, as he was far too conflicted within himself. He really wanted to train Naruto, because he knew that Naruto knew the importance of hard work, but he wasn't sure that he would be able to keep up with the boy. If Naruto was really training eighteen hours per day, it would make even his training with Lee seem slightly lazy by comparison. Not only that, he didn't want Naruto to have an even more extreme advantage over Lee. Considering that Naruto already had the same hard work advantage as Lee, as well as the ability to use ninjutsu and a large (considering his age) arsenal of techniques, most of which would be able to kill Lee with a single hit, it just seemed… over the top. Still, he had promised Kakashi that if they confronted Jiraiya he would train Naruto, and Gai was nothing if not a man of his word.

Finally, after much thought, Jiraiya managed to compose himself. "I don't care, it doesn't change anything."

"What do you mean it doesn't change anything? It changes everything, proving you wrong in the process!"

"No it doesn't." Jiraiya gave Tsunade the best cold glare he could, but he knew it contained traces of the shock he still felt. "He'll still never convince Sasuke to come back, Sasuke still isn't his friend, he still needs to face that pain, and he won't realize his dream until he gives up on Sasuke. Even with a technique like that, he's hardly a match for Orochimaru. I'm not going to train him, and he's not strong enough to leave the village without one of us to protect him. Nothing has changed at all."

"You know Jiraiya... Naruto may be an idiot, but you make him look like one hell of a genius. Kakashi, I fully expect you to enter both members of your team in the upcoming chuunin exams. The exams are in Konoha, so Naruto can attend without much danger. As for his training… I think he's probably better off without Jiraiya, but if you want to line something up to help him then I'll support you whole-heartedly. Don't worry about the old pervert, if he does anything to you then I'll fix you up and deal ten times as much damage to him." After giving Jiraiya a thoroughly menacing glare, she turned and left.

"Gai, we're done here. Let's go."

"Yoshi!" And with that Jiraiya was left to his anger, alone on the roof.

---

A/N: I made up a ranking system! Yatta! Seriously, though, I'm not sure how far this story would have gone without it... I just hope that Kishimoto doesn't reveal the real one tomorrow just to make me look like an idiot. As for the weights... I'm pretty sure that we were never told what Lee's weights actually weigh, so I'm gonna pretend that they were 750 pounds in the chuunin exams.

I couldn't really resist having Naruto kick ass at shougi, given that he's always been ridiculously good at coming up with strategies on a moment's notice. His strategy against Zabuza was way more surprising than Shikamaru's strategy against Temari, and Naruto came up with his almost instantly! Beyond that, though, the meetings aren't entirely necessary for the story... A few of the ten of them are honestly concerned, others are jealous enough that they don't mind slowing him down, and the rest would rather not fight Ino and Sakura over it. They're pretty much just the information network now...

Naruto's background story is all worked out now (in my head at least). Although large parts of it are fairly predictable, the core elements are anything but. Some of you will probably hate me when it's revealed, but the general plan hasn't changed much. Sorry for relieving Hoshi of his problems, but I didn't want him hanging around forever…

Before I forget, I feel the need to mention that I do know that the mission where Naruto got to fight the rain-nin again was filler, but I also know that it wasn't part of the filler arc. It was a fairly successful plan, so I mentioned it. Also, I do realize that Sakura skipped a fight or two. She's human, so she can make mistakes.

Moving on, some really cool original characters are on their way, but it'll be a bit later. I'm really pretty happy with most of them, but Mabui-chan's still my favorite by far. Fighting might come up in small portions over the next chapter or two, but there'll be a lot more during the chuunin exam. Remember though, I never said I was good at writing fight scenes…

As for Naruto's training… I think Kishimoto introduced that idea just to screw with my head. About four weeks ago I considered having Naruto do exactly the same thing to speed up his training, but I decided against it. Now I'm considering having it introduced near the end of the three year period again, except that I feel like I'd be ripping him off (even more than usual)… Putting that aside for now, don't be too impressed with Naruto's techniques just yet. Even if he's got power, he's certainly no match for Orochimaru. Also, none of them are truly original if you think about it…

You can expect another chapter or so of Naruto's training and such before we get to the chuunin exams, but it's important. Somewhere down the road others will get some more airtime, but for the time being our focus is mostly on Naruto. I've already made it obvious that things are going on in the background (like the thing with Shikato) that you aren't aware of, and you'll probably learn about all of that later, but for now you're watching the blond kid. Deal with it.

All of that said, this story's definitely going somewhere. I'm glad to get so many positive responses to this, and I hope I don't disappoint you with the direction I take. Sorry that the story's getting up so late, but last minute editing took longer than expected... On to the begging: please review! I really enjoy reading your reviews, and I can guarantee that reviewing takes less effort than writing… Pleeeease!