15. Back Door Dealings And Counter Intelligence

AN: People, you most likely know by now that I don't care about people putting down their thoughts in reviews if it can be considered relevant to the story. That said, please refrain from telling me that I must have hated having to focus on one character or another since they are 'mice' and essentially not worth any screen time. That may be your opinion of the character but this is a site for stories, not to start a hate group. And if I didn't want to focus on that person than I wouldn't have now would I? Now that that's out of my system, here's the next chapter.

Story Start: Valley of the End

Anyone who was around the Valley of the End at the moment would have pulled up a chair and grabbed some popcorn. Naruto Uzumaki (secretly Namikaze) was down in the gorge of the valley facing Pa, the male elder of the Toad clan in an all out one hour long battle royal. The two had just had the opening moves and now Naruto was rushing the old toad with wind coated kunai in hand.

As Naruto rushed the elder toad, his blades elongated thanks to the wind chakra he had coated the blades in before he reached his opponent and sent an uppercut slash that Pa lazily deflected with his hand as he sidestepped. The wind from Naruto's kunai formed a ten foot tall blade as it continued its route cutting a small crack into the water before it sliced into the waterfall behind them. Neither of the two fighters paid any attention to that though since Pa was already moving to take out Naruto's kneecap from the front with a punch in his toad fist style. Some deep instinct in Naruto told him not to let that fist come anywhere near his person so he quickly jumped back out of range only to be blasted back once again like the time Pa had intercepted him at the very beginning of their fight.

Flipping forward and slamming his face on the water as he shot back, Naruto groaned slightly as he got back to his feet and spit the water out of his mouth before looking at Pa who was smirking at him. "Okay. Now I'm really curious. I know I avoided that punch of yours." Naruto said.

Pa's smirk turned evil as he said "Ah, but that's the beauty of the toad style Naruto boy. You never knoI havew just how much you have to avoid it."

Before Naruto could say anything to that, he had a toad literally in his face as Pa launched a round house kick at his face. Naruto quickly ducked and felt something trying to push his body down into the water they were standing on top of. Gritting his teeth in response, Naruto flared his chakra causing the water to erupt away from his feet and keeping him at his current level before he rushed to Pa's side and sent in his left kunai towards the toad's rib's. Only for the toad to once again smirk as his skin turned dark and the blade didn't even penetrate although it did push the green one away from the blond.

"You're going to need something a lot more sharper than that to pierce my skin Naruto-boy. Even if they have wind coating them, they just don't have enough oomph. To me they feel like toothpicks."

Naruto quickly disappeared and reappeared on one of the river banks getting distance away from the toad as he looked at his kunai for a moment. Getting a grin that Pa recognized from the boy's mother, Naruto said "A little more oomph eh? Well then, how about this?" As Naruto spoke, he put away his left kunai before he made a gesture with his left hand and manipulated the nearby water to cover his kunai's blade as he began shaping it. Pa rose an eyebrow wondering what he was up to before the new blade finished shaping itself and Naruto blasted it with a wind jutsu freezing it to reveal a blade. Or more specifically, a kilij.

"I'll have to thank Haku for giving me this idea." Naruto said as wind began spinning around the bent blade making its killing potential even more powerful. Wind also began spinning around Naruto's entire body before it condensed to form an inch thick armor that would prevent himself from potentially losing a limb due to his inexperience with the blade. Just because he knew a few basics of swordplay didn't mean he was a master at it. Naruto then rejoined the Slipstream and rushed back at Pa ready to potentially take off one of Pa's limbs if the toad didn't respond properly. Fortunately Naruto wouldn't have to explain to the toad's wife why he was now one handed since there was a poof of smoke before a seemingly normal walking stick was blocking Naruto's wind enhanced ice sword of doom. (Chuckles, that was funny writing that.)

As the blade barely sunk half an inch into the obviously reinforced wood and Pa gave a grin at Naruto, said blond merely stared at the toad incredulously as he said "A stick? You chose to block one of the best types of cutting blades with a stick?"

"Why use such complicated things as the blending of iron and copper, or even water and wind, when good old wood works every time." Pa said before Naruto was suddenly sent flying out of the baseball park as Pa pushed his blade away and swung his stick like a baseball bat hitting Naruto in the stomach as Pa had been talking.

As Naruto was sent flying for the third time, Pa's stick disappeared in a poof of smoke as he shook his head and said "Come on Naruto-boy, I know you can do better than this. Stop holding back."

Naruto stood up from where he had been knocked back with a hard look on his face. Letting his wind and water manipulation skills drop, the wind around him died while his sword disappeared as the water dropped back into the river. Naruto put his kunai away as he said "So you want me to stop holding back? Alright, I was just going to wait until half time to get serious, but if you want it all now, then that's what you're going to get."

Pa frowned as Naruto's presence began to flare and his hair began to blow around. Then Naruto made a hand sign and said "Transform!" The blond was covered in smoke for a brief moment before it dispersed revealing that the blond had used his specialty in the transformation jutsu to turn his body into his five year old self so that way he was closer to Pa's height. Pa though thought that it was just a head game, but before he could comment on that, Naruto's hair went from just blowing around to looking like it was in a full on cyclone as Naruto unleashed the full brunt of his presence causing his clothes to flap around and waves to form on the water he was standing on.

Pa felt the smallest bead of sweat form on his brow as he felt like he was in the worst storm imaginable while out at sea as he thought 'To have such a presence while still so young. This shall certainly prove interesting.'

He was brought out of his thoughts as Naruto disappeared and reappeared right in Pa's face twice as fast as he had been going before with his fist already sending Pa flying in an uppercut to the chin. Pa's eyes widened as he was lifted into the air and he had just enough time to think 'It's not an illusion?' Then Naruto yanked on the chakra string he had attached to Pa's chin and drew him back to him. Naruto proceeded to land seven punches into Pa's chest before he round house kicked the toad in the side of the head sending the toad crashing into the Uchiha side of the ravine. The dust hadn't even had a chance to fly before Naruto was there with his fist flying at Pa's form.

Pa caught the fist as he stared into Naruto's eyes. Raising an eyebrow, Pa said "Going all out doesn't mean only getting in seven hits when you have the advantage of surprise like that Naruto-boy."

"You said go all out, not be a bully." Naruto said as his left arm rose toward Pa's elbow hoping to break it even as the younger of the two fighters spun into a sweeping kick for the ribs. Pa quickly let go of Naruto's right hand as he jumped over the leg and said "Ah, but sometimes, they're one and the same." The rising toad then grabbed a hold of Naruto's hair and pulled it as his knee rose causing Naruto's head to jerk forward and slam into the knee disorienting the blond before Pa spun and back handed Naruto away.

Naruto turned his fall to the side into a spin and landed on all four limbs before he was suddenly right back in the still falling toad's face and returned the favor by grabbing the toad's beard and slammed the toad into the ground before he disappeared and reappeared on the Senju side of the river and blitzed through hand signs before he called out "Wind Water Combination: Typhoon's Rage Jutsu!" A water funnel shot up from the river in front of him and bent towards Pa's form while at the same time a funnel of wind formed and rushed Pa from the sky. The two funnels met at Pa's position and threw up a massive cloud of dust and debris as chunks of rock the size of Naruto's head bounced away from the crater.

But when the dust cleared there was no sign of the amphibian and Naruto had to quickly dodge the mud dragon that shot at him at speeds that that particular jutsu shouldn't be capable of. Chuckling from behind and above him caused Naruto to turn his head to where he had 'seen' Pa land with his chakra field as the toad said "Switching to jutsu already Naruto-boy? My, how impatient the younger generation is."

Naruto grinned and said "Yeah well, you can't really talk considering you just sent a mud dragon at me."

Pa smirked and said "Ah, but I wasn't first." Then he pushed off and the two were back at it again as Pa aimed a punch at the blonde's ribs which Naruto deflected and spun with the force to send a kick at the old toad's back who ducked under the kick and tried to slam a punch into the leg only for Naruto to disappear and come at him from another angle. As Naruto came in with a punch to the joint where the neck meets the right shoulder Pa grabbed his wrist and pulled downward as he hopped up slamming a knee into Naruto's chin causing him to stumble backwards before he recovered and sent out a knife strike in retaliation.

As all this was going on, Naruto was constantly trying to figure out how the old toad was seeming to keep up with his speed.

'He doesn't seem to be using chakra to move his body faster than its natural limits like Kuroda did, so how is he keeping up? Are his reflexes actually so good that he can figure out what I will do before I actually do it? If so, then that seems a little too close to the Sharingan than I'm comfortable with.'

Naruto had to put any further thoughts on hold as Pa's stick made a reappearance and he began swatting the blond with it to keep him at a distance. Naruto countered by quickly using the wind sword jutsu in order to both have something to block with and to have something to reach across the distance the two had. As soon as the two fighters both had a weapon in hand the match quickly devolved into a deadly dance of attack and counter, block and repost. It was twenty minutes of heavy fighting before Pa disengaged and hopped back sighing as he once again dismissed his staff.

"I've seen enough of your swordsmanship. You seem to have been more comfortable with your kunai in the beginning of this test but you knew enough to use the Wind Sword jutsu without killing yourself. Now lets see your other jutsu."

Naruto only gave a small nod in response before his hands disappeared for exactly 0.3 seconds and he shouted out "Wind Style: Wind Senbon Jutsu." As Naruto called out the name of his jutsu and exhaled, hundreds of invisible wind senbon needles rocketed out of his mouth towards Pa. The toad though simply stomped his foot once and an earth wall immediately rose up to protect it's creator. Naruto frowned as he didn't sense his opponent leave behind the wall which only meant one of two things. Either Pa wanted to see what Naruto's next move would be, or he was going to make the most of that wall.

Turns out it was the second, since Naruto 'saw' Pa punch the wall and then all of a sudden Naruto was dodging spikes that shot from the wall in waves as Pa punched the wall three more times before he kicked it. As soon as Pa's foot hit the wall, Naruto wasn't dodging spikes, but boulders, ten of them to be exact, and all of them seemed to be locked onto him. He sidestepped the first two before he poured wind chakra into his hands to protect them as he placed both of them over the top of the third and sprung over it before he pushed it down causing him to go higher in the air. Flipping so that his arms were where his legs would normally be he sliced the next two boulders in half as they passed under him before he attached chakra threads to all four pieces and sent them into the next four that came turning all of them into bits of dust. As Naruto landed the last piece of rock rocketed right towards his chest only for Naruto to round house kick it away with a chakra enforced kick of his right leg.

All of this happened in the span of two seconds. Even as Naruto's foot made contact with the last boulder, he was already making hand signs before he shot his hand forward with his first two fingers straightened like he was holding a whip as he said "Wind Style: Wind Whip Jutsu." The whip of wind extended from his two fingers and wrapped around Pa's leg before Naruto jerked his hand and sent Pa flying up into the air away from the earth that was obviously his element of choice before he went through more hand signs and said "Wind Style: Wind Bullet Justu."

Three spheres of air shot out of Naruto's mouth and rocketed towards Pa's airborne form. Pa's eyes narrowed before his cheeks bulged and he shot three bullets of water from his mouth. The six projectiles collided with each other forming a slight mist before a wind dragon blasted through it and slammed into Pa's body. Naruto watched as the wind dragon pushed Pa further up into the air before it dispersed. His eyes narrowed as his chakra in the air revealed nothing but the smallest of scratches on Pa's skin. What's more, as soon as the dragon dissipated, Pa made two hand signs before a miniature dragon of the toad's own creation burst out of Pa's mouth, this one made out of water. The smaller than usual dragon roared at Naruto as it barreled down at him before Naruto back handed it with a wind coated right hand causing it to burst apart.

As Pa landed on the ground in a crouch in front of him, Naruto sensed chakra pulse from the toad into the river as the toad made the same two hand signs and a much larger water dragon rose out of the river on the toad's right. Naruto's eyes flicked over to the yellow eyes of the water dragon as it let out a growl before it launched itself at the blond before Naruto disappeared. The dragon slammed into where the blond had been throwing up a debris cloud in a similar manner to the dragon that Reina had used in her preliminary fight. The only difference was when the dust cloud cleared the dragon was still there as it looked around for its target. Or at least it was still there until Naruto appeared right above its head already slamming a wind enhanced ax kick into its head which caused it to disperse.

Even as Naruto appeared and kicked the water construct, he had already blazed through hand signs and shouted out "Wind Style: Wind Wolf Pack Jutsu!" Naruto landed in a crouch as the air around him shimmered before it swirled into itself to form a five member strong pack of snarling wolves that growled at Pa. Naruto frowned at Pa and said "If you expect me to take this fight seriously then I must ask you to do the same sir. Attacking me with such underpowered jutsu is making me think that you'd rather not be here."

Pa's right eyebrow twitched and he said "Younglings these days, always so disrespectful. Very well, you want my techniques at full power, then you shall have them at full power. Earth Style: Toad Golem Jutsu." Right after speaking Pa gave a low but obviously heavy hop. As soon as he hit the ground again the ground gave a deep shudder before Pa began rising up on what seemed to be a rather wide column that seemed to be over twenty feet wide. That notion was quickly dissuaded as Naruto saw the 'column' curve and a pair of closed eyes rise above the level of the ground before they were followed by nostrils and a wide mouth. The face was then followed by a chest that was easily twenty feet tall before finally what Naruto assumed were bent legs that were at least fifty feet tall finally came out of the ground.

As the hundred foot tall statue that looked vaguely like a toad lowered it's head and groaned opened it's eyes, Naruto sighed and said "Now who's being disrespectful? Sending something so clumsy looking after me. Wind Style: Tornado's Fury Jutsu!" The effects of Naruto's jutsu became apparent as right after he called out the Jutsu's name the wolves that surrounded him dispersed into their base element and the wind began whipping about making his still ongoing presence's effects look like nothing but what a small handheld fan could do. Naruto immediately crouched down and anchored himself with chakra as after the first two seconds of jutsu activation the wind really kicked up and a tornado easily three hundred feet tall and ninety feet wide instantly whirled into existence.

As soon as the tornado came into existence it began grinding against the front of the stone golem easily carving small crevices into it within seconds. Those crevices quickly became holes as chunks of the golem were ripped out. Pa meanwhile was having to anchor himself with chakra even as Naruto upped his chakra output and doubled the tornado's size and height. The rim of the tornado shot past the edge of the cliff face with no signs of stopping even as it began carving into the solid rock. Pa's earth construct groaned as the wind began slowly lifting it into the air before it suddenly exploded into over a thousand pieces as the wind proceeded to shred it. As Pa felt the wind trying to turn him into Swiss cheese he looked down to where Naruto was still anchored to the ground and saw him look up at him and make two hand signs before he ended on tiger and said "Fire Style: Campfire's Light." Naruto spat a small ember out of his mouth which shot into the funnel instantly setting the funnel ablaze.

Scene Change: Waterfall 15: Time: 8:30 With Hinata

Hinata followed Naruto's clone through the trees as they tree hopped to a place with a bit more privacy further upriver than the clearing where Jiraiya had started to talk with the second toad elder and Haku and the other clone had began working on trying to get his mirrors the right shape. As they traveled Hinata thought about the progress she had yesterday, or rather the seeming lack of progress.

Knowledge had told her that presences could be considered a special branch of Genjutsu in the very loosest terms. This was because when a person used their presence it mentally manipulated their opponent in small levels to intimidate them. But the key thing that separated presences and Genjutsu from each other was the fact that presences had absolutely nothing to do with chakra. It didn't matter if you were the greatest shinobi alive or the poorest peasant, if you ever found out how to tap into your presence, you could use it to manipulate what others around you were feeling on various levels. Of course, most people did this on an unconscious level which is what most people described as the person having a certain air around them. The really hard part was consciously focusing on it and manipulating it to the point where you could turn that 'air' on and off.

Once Knowledge had finished explaining just what exactly a presence was, it went on to say that consciously manipulating a presence was practically impossible to 'just figure out' and that even those who were considered the best actors probably only did so unconsciously. To consciously manipulate one's presence was practically unheard of in some parts. But this was really only because so few people manage to begin the process of drawing on it.

And that is what Hinata had been trying to do. She had tried to look into herself to find her presence so that she could draw it out to the surface of her mind like Knowledge had told her to but whenever she thought she might have something it would disappear. The only thing that kept her from despairing was the fact that Naruto's clone didn't seem too upset. He had said that it had taken the original a month to even be able to understand his presence in his mind scape and something told him that Hinata would be able to consciously manipulate her presence in a much shorter amount of time then the blond since she could actually understand her presence when she first saw it. Hinata wasn't convinced, but would worry about that later since today they were going to put on the full body resistance seal that the clone from yesterday had made.

She was pulled out of her thoughts as the clone said "This should be far enough." As the clone hopped down to the river bank and pulled out the scroll that contained the currently compressed resistance seal, Hinata joined him on the ground as she looked around. The area they had stopped in wasn't a clearing like she had thought they would go to. Instead they had stopped in an area where the trees grew just a little bit closer than usual looking like they almost formed a solid wall. Looking at the river whose path they had followed, Hinata noticed that it had slowly widened the further upstream they had traveled. Where it was ten feet at the waterfall, the river here was now twenty feet wide.

She was once again drawn from her thoughts by the sound of ripping paper as the clone ripped the part of the scroll with the seal on it away from the rest before he turned to Hinata and said "Please turn around and lift your shirt."

Hinata's face turned bright red as she thought about how what the clone said could be implied but did as she was asked. The clone rose an eyebrow at the blush before he placed the one foot by two foot piece of paper on top of Hinata's spine and made a half hand ram sign with his left hand even as he kept his right on the seal and said "Seal!" The compressed seal flashed blue for a second before it began glowing constantly as the ink of the seal spread off the paper in lines of sealing code that traveled over Hinata's body as the seal unfolded itself spreading vine like lines down Hinata's limbs and wrapping around Hinata's front and up her neck to her face before it stopped glowing. The seal remained visible for another five seconds before it seemed to sink into her skin leaving no trace that it was ever there.

Naruto's clone took the now blank piece of paper off of Hinata's spine from where the seal had both unfolded off of and faded through it before he ran a chakra infused finger down where one of the lines were testing to see if it responded or not. Getting a query in response, the clone nodded his head and stepped back as he said "Alright, you can lower your shirt now Hinata."

Hinata breathed a sigh of relief and allowed her shirt and jacket to fall back down before she turned back to the clone and said "Now what?" She would never admit it to anyone but the feeling of the seal spreading across her body had felt worse than having someone else placing something on your back and holding it there.

The clone smiled and said "Now I teach you how to use the seal and then we begin running back to the others so you can get used to it."

With Haku: 8:30

"Again!"

Haku's hands blurred through the familiar hand signs as he followed the clone of his partner's orders. The water from the nearby river and puddles from previous attempts shot up and formed a ring of dented mirrors surrounding the two. Once the ring finished forming they all gained a slight sheen showing their readiness to be used. The blond clicked a timer and looked down at it before shaking his head and said "Thirty five seconds for a fifty foot ring. I know this is only the second day but that is still not nearly fast enough Haku. If we're going to have you be able to successfully take out groups of people in rings that are around a hundred feet or more in size than we're going to have to pick up the pace. Again!"

Haku mentally broke apart his mirrors before he went through the hand signs again trying to make the ring of unfamiliar mirrors faster. He had a few factors working against him. The first was obviously the unfamiliarity with the new shape of the mirrors. He had been using flat panels for the shape of his mirrors for so long that it took that extra bit of concentration and time to make sure he used the new shape. He also had distance and shape of the jutsu working against him. With the dome he had a shorter range to spread the chakra around and had a simple 'gem' shape to use as the final look to go for. With the ring he had to stretch his chakra further and come up with a collective shape that he wasn't all that sure actually had a name that described it. Haku put those thoughts on hold as he put his hands in the last sign and manipulated his chakra again.

Scene Change: Waterfall 15 Time: 9:15

Naruto kept his vortex of fire active for fifteen seconds before he cut the flow of chakra from the fire enhanced wind jutsu and allowed the tornado to disperse into stray embers. Panting from all of the combined chakra he had used so far during the day, he idly watched as the stray embers floated to the ground and he saw Pa's form drop to the ground. The toad's skin was dark again showing that he had used that unknown defensive jutsu to keep himself safe. To bad it didn't work for his cloak though, since the toad was currently patting out embers that were still in the badly burnt cloth.

Naruto cocked his head and said "So have you seen enough in this test yet?"

Pa cocked his own as he put a hand to his chin in thought. Grinning, he said "One last test I think. You've shown that you can handle one boss summon sized creature on your own. I'd like to see if you can handle more than one."

Naruto rose an eyebrow not liking the sound of that last sentence. But before he could ask how Pa planned to do that, Pa made ten quick hand signs and hopped eight times on the ground. Naruto was expecting another golem to appear but he was shocked when ten of the massive earth constructs shot out of the earth in two five figure wide rows instead of slowly rising like before. He was even more surprised when five water golems formed out of the river all in a row with the middle golem no more than a hundred feet from Naruto.

Naruto stared at the golems as he allowed himself ten seconds to wonder how the hell the old toad was doing all of these insane jutsu with so few hand signs before he dropped his transformation. As the resulting smoke cleared Pa was treated to the rather rare sight of Naruto unsealing a small bag that held exactly twenty soldier pills. Naruto then proceeded to do an even rarer thing and reached in and took exactly half of those pills before he popped them all into his mouth in one go causing Pa's eyes to widen at the apparently suicidal move. (Remember that one soldier pill is rumored to allow a shinobi to fight for three days and nights straight. Imagine what ten all at once would do.)

Naruto's chakra had taken two rather large drains today. The first was when he had used as much as could be considered 'safe' when dealing with the blond to summon all of those toads. And then when his chakra had been slowly but surely refilling even with jutsu flying around he had formed a massive tornado that had put his massive reserves back down into the five percent range. But as soon as he swallowed the pills, Naruto felt his reserves shoot straight back up to one hundred percent, maybe even one hundred ten percent, making him smile as he said "You know, I've always wanted to try this but I've never actually been in a situation that was actually appropriate. Transform!"

Smoke erupted from Naruto's form covering him as it instantly shot up into the sky past the height of the golems and even past the rim of the valley itself before it stopped at a height of at least five hundred feet. (I believe that the valley is around the three fifty mark.) The smoke hung in the air for ten seconds obstructing Pa's view before it began to slowly disperse and revealed a sight that left Pa's jaw wanting to fall to the floor.

Where as before Naruto had used his unique transformation skills to seemingly turn back time until he looked like a five year old, he now looked closer to a twenty four year old. Or at least he would have if you could see him at a distance seeing as how his new and rather impressive five hundred foot height made it impossible to see all of him at once from where Pa was.

Naruto turned his head to look down and grinned as he said "You wanted to know what I would do against multiple boss summon sized opponents? Well if they were all spread out and could easily move around I'd just put at least ten explosion tags on each body in key areas before they could do too much damage. But why do that when they are all grouped together in this valley and I can indulge in a childish fantasy just this once?"

Before Pa could respond to that, Naruto's massive form disappeared before he reappeared in the air over one of the stone golems in the middle of their formation and allowed gravity to take over. The unfortunate golem was instantly reduced to rubble as Naruto's new weight was brought down on it. The other toad golems all began moving with surprising speed towards Naruto in retaliation only for the blond to have immediately dropped into a sweep kick when he had landed taking out two more golems as well as digging out a wide cave in the Cliffside before he slammed a palm into another golem's torso sending it into the one behind it and turning both into rubble. Naruto stayed in his crouch as he observed the remaining five stone golems and the five water golems that had by that time joined the fight. The ten elemental constructs formed a ring around Naruto and rushed him all at the same time causing him to smirk as he crossed his arms and formed two wind swords before he spun around in a circle and slashed into the constructs disrupting all ten while at the same time slicing into both cliff sides leaving two long lines of empty air where there had once been solid stone.

Dismissing his swords Naruto stood up and looked down at Pa who hadn't moved from his spot and said "So have you seen enough?"

Scene Change: Waterfall 15 Time: 10:00

Jiraiya and Ma were sitting across from each other as the two continued to talk. Further downstream near the waterfall Haku continued to constantly make and dismiss his mirrors trying to get his speed up to the expectations of his partner's clone. Meanwhile up stream, Naruto's other clone was having Hinata run through the katas for the Gentle Fist style in order to further get used to the new resistance seals while at the same time making suggestions about how to best take advantage of the Hyuga clan heir's flexible agility. The two sages' heads suddenly snapped to Jiraiya's left as an exhausted Naruto left the slipstream and appeared with Pa on his shoulder. Haku and Hinata both saw him appear as well but were quickly brought back to their task's by their minders.

As Pa hopped off of Naruto's shoulder Jiraiya said "So how did he do?"

Pa sat down next to his wife as he said "Young Naruto-boy seems to be quite well off considering how few years he can actually claim as his own. I have no problems allowing him to summon any members of the toad clan to help in battle should he ever need us."

"Well that's good." Jiraiya said.

"Indeed." Naruto agreed as he plopped himself down next to his godfather and looked towards where Haku was once again making a large ring of mirrors. Turning his head to look behind him he saw his other clone moving Hinata's right arm a little as she performed part of a kata that Naruto recognized from when she was holding off Sai's tanto. Jerking his head towards Hinata while jerking a thumb to Haku, Naruto said "They seem to be coming along well."

Naruto got three nods in response before Jiraiya smirked and said "So how much property damage can the village bill you two? Ow!"

Naruto rose an eyebrow as both Pa and Ma jumped forward and whacked Jiraiya in the head before the blond said "The village won't actually be able to charge me considering we were at the Valley of the End, but to answer your question, Pa here needed to do some impressive earth manipulation to fix all of the damage we ended up doing. Ow!"

"You mean all the damage you did Naruto-boy. I wasn't the one who transformed myself into a five hundred foot version of myself just to take care of a few golems." Pa said as he landed from hitting Naruto in the head.

Now it was Jiraiya's turn to raise an eyebrow as he turned to his godson and said "Transformed? I thought that the transformation jutsu was just an illusion. How could that help?"

Naruto smirked before he said "Maybe this will put things into perspective. Transform." The blond was covered in smoke before it cleared and revealed a blonde fox smirking up at Jiraiya before it hopped up on the elder toad summoner's shoulder and said "Still think this is an illusion?"

Jiraiya's jaw dropped as he slowly reached a hand up and felt the fur on Naruto's body even as he stuttered out "A real physical transformation performed by a human?" Jiraiya's eyes rolled to the back of his head as all of the potential applications for such a jutsu overloaded his brain and Naruto hopped off his shoulder as he fell back and hit the ground with a thud.

Turning around to look at his god father Naruto frowned at the perverted grin that slowly made its way on his face and the blond shook his head and said "I don't even want to know what's going on in that sick mind of his right now." The two toads behind the temporarily transformed blond could only nod as Jiraiya let out a perverted giggle as he thought about how his god son's 'sexy jutsu' was less a prank and more of a god send.

Time Skip: Six Days After Preliminaries, Sunrise: Hidden Rock Village Main Gate

Onoki of the Twin Scales took a moment to take one last look at his village before he turned to his Jounin Commander and said "I leave the village in your capable hands commander."

The commander nodded and said "I'll make sure everything is running smoothly while you're gone sir. Enjoy your trip."

Onoki nodded before he turned to his granddaughter and said "Make sure you keep up Kurotsuchi. It's two days to the Leaf village by flight on average and I plan on getting there before sunset on the second day."

Kurotsuchi nodded before Onoki tapped his granddaughter and the two began floating before they shot into the sky before they leveled off at five hundred feet and rocketed towards the Land of Fire.

Scene Change: Hidden Leaf Village Seven Days After Preliminaries: 2:45 AM

Like most places, it was fairly quite at night in the Hidden Leaf Village. The only activity that usually took place was the night patrols of ANBU groups and civilians working night shifts or medics working at the hospital. Tonight was a little different in the fact that two more people were awake talking as they stared at a third person who never slept as he stared at the moon. As the Sand village's Jinchuriki once more wasted another night of boredom while others slept, a block away his Jounin sensei was having a meeting with his contact as they stared across the roofs of the lower buildings separating them from the higher building where Gaara had perched himself.

"So it's true I see. He really does never sleep." Kabuto said as he adjusted his glasses causing them to momentarily flash.

Baki grunted before he said "Should we really be meeting face to face like this? I heard about what happened at the hospital a few days ago. Hell, the whole village heard about it. You screwed up when it came to retrieving that Uchiha brat and now the whole village is after you. If I'm caught talking to you it would not look good."

Kabuto waved his hand as if having the entire Leaf village on the lookout for him was no big deal as he said "It wouldn't matter since anyone who found us like this could easily be taken care of. And to tell you the truth, I allowed myself to be discovered."

"What? Why would you do something so stupid?" Baki asked looking at him wondering how someone could be so stupid.

Kabuto shrugged and said "Well, to be honest I was curious to see how the Leaf would react, and it did not disappoint. But enough chit chat, here are the plans for the Kazekage."

Baki took the proffered scroll from Kabuto although he frowned as he said "You take too many risks Sound nin. If you expose the plan before we are ready then we will have to pull out. The Sand will not make a move until the Sound attacks. That is the Kazekage's will."

A block away in an alley, a figure stiffened as he thought 'The Sound is going to attack and the Sand is helping? I have to warn the Hokage.' The figure turned ready to jump away only to cringe as he disturbed loose gravel.

Back with the other two Kabuto gave another dismissive wave as he said "Of course it is. You just be ready to do your part and your village will be able to once again proudly claim to be one of the strongest in existence. By the end of the first round of the Chunin Exam this village will be burning. Oh, and don't worry about the spy, I'll take care of him."

"No, I'll handle it. After all, it's just a Leaf mouse." Baki said as Killer Intent slowly filled the air.

'Shit, they heard me!' the figure thought before he crouched ready to jump away. But before his knees could unbend he suddenly seemed to disappear into thin air. Not more than a few seconds later Baki appeared in front of where he had been and looked around. Hearing a crashing sound he tensed as a trash can rolled towards him before he relaxed as a cat walked out of the darkness and looked into the now open trash can.

'Just a cat? The oncoming invasion must be making us paranoid.' Baki thought before the cat looked up at him and started hissing at him. Baki suddenly paled as he now noticed a ribbon around the cat's left ear. Even in the Sand village there were stories about the demon cat that belonged to the Fire Daimyo's wife, and Baki wasn't interested in finding out if the stories of it being able to take on Jounin were real or not. The cat however, seemed to have other ideas as it began to let out a low mewl before it launched itself at Baki's face. Baki grunted in pain as the cat's claws tore into his face before he threw the cat off of him and took off back to the hotel muttering about damn cats while Tora ran back into the alley.

As both figures disappeared, a blond figure stepped out of the darkness and thought 'Never thought I'd ever be glad to have placed a tracking tag on that cat for anything other than knowing when to hide my seafood ramen.' Looking towards the Hokage tower where a single light was still on the figure frowned and thought 'It's a good thing I found this meeting or else we could have probably lost a Jounin tonight and we would have had no confirmation that Sound and Sand are actually working together on this. Hopefully the old man will know what to do.' The blond then disappeared as he continued his self regulated patrol hoping to find out where the traitor went.

Time Skip: 16 Hours Later, 6:45 PM Hidden Leaf Village Barrier Squad Headquarters

Alarms suddenly ripped through the quiet atmosphere of the barrier squad's headquarters as the barrier that surrounded the village in a sphere suddenly detected a breach. The squad commander rushed out of his office towards the bowl where the projection of the barrier was and said "What's going on? Why has the main barrier alarm sounded?"

"We're picking up an unauthorized breach sir. It seems to be two people. But it's weird, this says their flying." One of the attendants said as he pointed at the projection where ripples were appearing at the top of the sphere.

The commander's eyes widened as he said "There's only one person that I can think of who can fly and would be confident enough to come here with only one other person. I better tell the Hokage to expect company." Putting action to words, the commander rushed back into his office and slapped a button on his intercom that had a link directly to his village leader's office. As soon as he heard his kage's voice come through the speaker he said "Sir, the primary barrier has just been breached by two people coming in from the air. I believe it is the Tsuchikage and an escort."

"Hm, I see. Well this is unusual. Thank you commander, now if you excuse me I believe I should go greet old Onoki."

Scene Change: Hokage Tower Roof

Sarutobi walked out onto the roof of the tower and could immediately hear the sound of hundreds of the village's citizens talking to themselves in confusion. And it was no wonder either he thought as he looked up and spotted what to civilians looked like two large dots but to shinobi who were trained to see farther were actually his counter part and a girl who if he was not mistaken was Onoki's granddaughter slowly floating down towards the tower. It took a while, but five minutes after they first breached the barrier Onoki and Kurotsuchi touched down on the roof.

Sarutobi gave a respectful nod of his head as he said "Onoki, it has been a while."

"Indeed it has Sarutobi. Unfortunately this is not a pleasure trip. May we speak in private?" Onoki asked as he returned the nod.

"Of course, please follow me." Sarutobi said before he turned and walked back to the stairs that led into the tower. Onoki and Kurotsuchi followed at a respectful distance as the three walked through the hallways of the building until they came to the Fire Shadow's office.

Once all three shinobi were seated, Onoki said "I won't waste your time with small talk Sarutobi. I came here to not only confirm a rumor that I had my granddaughter look into for myself but to also determine if there might be a potential threat to my village. I'm afraid that this threat might come from both inside and outside my village if this rumor is true."

"I'm assuming this rumor has something to do with one of my Jounin. A certain blond Jounin to be specific." Sarutobi said as he folded his hands on his desk and leaned forward. Onoki nodded and Sarutobi sighed before he leaned back and touched a seal on his desk pushing chakra into it causing it to glow.

Two seconds later, the fastest shinobi alive was suddenly in his office standing in front of his desk at rigid attention with absolutely no signs of how he got there causing Onoki and Kurotsuchi to jump in surprise as Naruto said "You summoned me Lord Hokage?" All hints of playfulness was gone since the Hokage rarely if ever used the Jounin emergency summons seal to just summon him.

"I did Naruto. We have an important guest who is interested in meeting you." Sarutobi said as he gestured behind him even as he activated the security seals around his office now that everyone was there. Naruto paid no attention to the flashing seals having seen them in action before as he turned around but his eyebrow unconsciously rose as he saw who was sitting behind him, or more specifically what the person was wearing and he said "Well this should be interesting. Lord Tsuchikage, I hope you had a pleasant trip?"

"Hmph, as pleasant as can be expected considering the reason for the trip." Onoki said as his eyes narrowed while he studied the blond in front of him.

Naruto nodded before he went to stand behind his village leader as Sarutobi said "Well, now that Naruto is here, What do you say we get this meeting over with so that way we can get to more pleasant things?"

Scene Change: Waterfall 15: Two Hours Later

Naruto left the slipstream in the training ground where his group had unofficially claimed for the month's training with a sigh as he thought 'This is why I hate politics. It was relatively easy enough convincing the Tsuchikage that I had no plans whatsoever to go on a killing spree against his village unless provoked since I really don't, but the members of the Rock Village council are sure to blow everything out of proportion once my heritage is finally revealed to the world. At least now we know that Onoki won't take sides during the invasion if it happens while he's here.'

Shaking his head at how whoever first came up with the idea for village counsels must have been the biggest idiots of the world, Naruto walked over to where his godfather was looking over a couple of experimental seals Naruto had made that he had wanted to know could work. He was sure that Jiraiya would be interested in how the meeting went. And then afterwards he planned on working on a new technique he had thought of during the meeting.

Time Skip: Seven Days To Final

Naruto and Haku watched as Hinata tore through a group of water clones the two boys had made. The tweaking of the Gentle Fist style and Hinata's increase in speed was apparent as she decimated the clones almost as soon as the two could make them. Her hands were a blur to anyone not High Chunin or above and any Hyuga would be staring at their clan heir in shock at how different her fighting style was from their own. Where as most Hyugas' fighting style was stiff and could be considered extremely formal, Hinata was flowing from one strike to another looking like a dancer as she continued fighting.

Jiraiya was standing next to the two originals with a notebook out taking notes that were surprisingly not perverted in nature. He was running a critical eye over Hinata's form as she fought and writing down where she had left an opening more than once. There were surprisingly few notes on his notebook though which was good since the original Gentle Fist could easily be picked apart if you knew the style as well as Jiraiya did from fighting next to Hyugas during the Third Shinobi War.

"She's definitely going to kick some ass during the finals." Naruto said smirking as Hinata spun around slicing through a ring of clones with chakra shooting out of pointer fingers in a thin but long blade.

"You taught her well kid. I just can't wait to see everyone's faces when she lets loose with that presence of hers." Jiraiya said with a smile.

"Indeed. Hinata will do very well against her cousin now that you have made the Gentle Fist style actually fit her own fighting style." Haku said as Hinata took out the last clone.

"Lets just hope we can do as well with what comes after." Naruto said as he looked towards the village with a small frown.

Jiraiya snorted as he said "Trust me, we'll be fine. With the advanced warning we are already preparing for the invasion. And any summons that my old teammate uses to get through the walls will have to deal with the toads first."

Naruto nodded before he walked over to Hinata and said "Good job Hinata. Now I want you to take a break from training for the exams. This doesn't mean I want you to stop training altogether, just enough to keep you in fighting shape. We don't want you worn out before your fight."

"Yes Naruto-sensei." Hinata said as she wiped the sweat from her brow. Jiraiya smirked and began to turn a page in his notebook but a wind senbon ripped straight through the new page while it was still in the air. Jiraiya looked up to see Naruto holding another wind senbon in one hand and pointing somewhere at Jiraiya's body with the other. Right between his legs, to be more specific.

Jiraiya paled and said "I'll behave."

Naruto nodded and let the senbon disperse before he turned back to talk to Hinata some more. Haku meanwhile chuckled before he walked away from the group wanting to get more practice in with his new mirrors.

Time Skip: Seven Days Later: Chunin Exam Stadium

The stadium where the final exam of the Chunin Exams was packed. Nobles and common folk alike had flocked to the village to witness these fights and you'd be extremely hard pressed to find an actual seat as all but one of the contestants stood in a line in front of Naruto. Hundreds, if not thousands of people had placed bets on the outcome of each of the fights that were about to start, but the main topics of conversation were about the Prodigy of the Hyuga clan fighting its clan heir and the 'last Uchiha' fighting against the Kazekage's son.

Naruto looked at the line of Genin and thought 'It's a good thing Uchiha's fight is last. Knowing Uncle Kakashi they're going to be holding out appearing until the last second. Although considering what's going on, and Orochimaru's interest in the brat that might be for the best.'

Up in the booth that was reserved for village leaders and their bodyguards, the Professor sat in his seat waiting for his counterpart from the Land of Wind to come. On his right side, Onoki sat in a seat that had the Rock Village symbol on it while Kurotsuchi stood beside him acting as a body guard. As he looked over the milling crowds, Sarutobi thought 'So many people to see the next generation do their best to knock each other senseless. It really is a wonder how we haven't completely destroyed this world with our violent tendencies.'

The Land of Fire's ninja commander saw white at the corner of his eye and he turned with a smile as he saw his counterpart reach the top of the stairs that led to their booth. Grinning, he said "Greetings Lord Kazekage, I trust your trip here was pleasant?"

"Pleasant enough Lord Hokage, but I must admit, I'm glad the Chunin Exams were held here this year. A trip to the Land of Wind at your age must surely be a difficult task. The same must be true for you as well Lord Tsuchikage."

Onoki humphed and said "You seem to be forgetting who you're talking to Lord Kazekage, this trip for me was nothing."

Sarutobi let out a bark of laughter as he said "And, I'm quite certain I could have made the trip as well. Please don't think about burying me yet, I still have a couple of years left in these old bones."

The Kazekage's eyes narrowed the barest of increments as he said "I'm sure that is quite true old friend. Still, don't you think you should be considering a replacement?"

Onoki became more focused on the conversation even as Sarutobi grinned and said "Perhaps, but we can discuss that after the exam. For now, it's time to start." With the conversation over, Sarutobi stood up from his seat and walked over to the edge of the balcony causing everyone to quiet down when they saw that the Hokage was about to speak.

"Ahem, Ladies and Gentlemen, esteemed guest, wlecome and heartfelt thanks for gathering here in the Village Hindden in the Leaves for the Chunin Selection Exam! We will now begin the matches of the final round between the fourteen candidates who advanced in the preliminaries. Please sit back, and enjoy!"

The crowd erupted into cheers as Sarutobi went back into his seat. As he did, the Kazekage turned his head slightly so that way he could see his counterpart with both eyes and said "Fourteen candidates? It seems your missing one."

Sarutobi humphed and said "I'm sure I have the boy's sensei to thank for that. But don't worry, I've taken steps to make sure he gets here in time." 'Wonder what those were?'

Onoki humphed again and said "Any brat who doesn't show up on time doesn't deserve to be promoted regardless of who his sensei is or if the kid has some bloodline limit. If a shinobi is unreliable he or she shouldn't be put into a position of power."

Sarutobi hmmed but didn't say anything.

Down in the arena, Naruto turned around and took out a folded piece of paper and unfolded it as he said "This is really just a formality since I'm sure none of you are dumb enough to actually forget who you're going to be fighting. However, if you need to make sure when your fight is, now is the time." He allowed the Genin a moment to confirm when their matches would be before he folded the paper and put it back into his vest as he said "Now, listen up, this is the last exam, so make sure you give the best showing you can. Out here, your not only representing your team, your representing your village as well in front of hundreds of potential clients. Make sure you keep that in mind during your fights. That said, the landscape here may be different, but just with the preliminaries, there are no set rules except that you fight until one of you dies or admits defeat, unless I determine that a clear winner has already been decided, in which case I'll stop the fight. Everyone understand?"

He got nods from most of the Genin so Naruto nodded to himself as well and said "All right then, Hinata and Neji Hyuga, you two are starting us off. The rest of you proceed to the waiting room outside the arena."

Once all of the nonparticipants of the first match had cleared the arena, Naruto held up a hand and said "First round of the Chunin Exams, Neji Hyuga, are you ready?" When Neji nodded, Naruto said "Hinata Hyuga, are you ready?" Getting a second nod, Naruto's hand flashed down as he said "Then you may begin!"

AN: Not very satisfied with this one but I felt I had spent enough time trying to make it work. I'm planning on putting the entire exam in one chapter like I usually do so that might take a while.