Chapter II

The world started to get fuzzy and he could barely breathe. He was pinned to the floor and two hands were wrapped around his neck tightly, his opponent wanted him dead, he could see it in those cold, emotionless blue eyes. It was a spar that was supposed to see how the students ranked up against each other, to see how much they had learned. Sasuke grabbed Naruto's wrist and desperately tried to pull his hands from his neck. He lifted his head up slightly only to feel his nose shatter and his head smack the ground. He tugged at Naruto's wrist once more before he let them drop at his sides, he couldn't bring himself to pull anymore. It was like he just lost his strength. Sasuke sucked in a huge breath of air when he felt Naruto's hands get ripped from his neck. Relief washed over him like cold water. He glanced over at the crowd circling him before his world faded to black.

Naruto sat in the Hokage's office with his arms folded. Mizuki and Iruka were both standing on the side of him while the Hokage sat behind his desk, puffing at his pipe. He didn't understand what the big deal was, he was doing what all ninja do, which was killing other ninja. Now he had never killed someone, but he had some temptation in doing so. It was like someone was whispering in his ear, as if they were trying to get him to do it, telling him they deserved it. Naruto fully agreed with the voice. So why was he in trouble? All he did was try to kill Sasuke, get rid of the last Uchiha, who was by far the most arrogant son of a bitch he had met. He would have done this village a favor.

The Third Hokage sighed and pulled his pipe out of his mouth. Two nine year-old kids sparring and the matching ending with one of them strangling his opponent, it was a first for him. "Please, Naruto, explain what had happened. As I have already heard your instructors' side of the story I would like to hear yours."

"I tried to take out the trash."

The Hokage being surprised was an understatement. "Taking out the trash?"

Naruto nodded. "I tried to get rid of something useless, something that isn't important."

Sarutobi sighed into his hands. "What gave you the idea that Sasuke isn't important?"

Naruto pointed his finger at Mizuki who went pale. "He did. I heard him talking to himself and he said that I was a worthless, isolated demon. So I compared myself to Sasuke and he is like me. He has no clan, so he is now worthless, he is now isolated, and has a crappy attitude which resembles a cold-hearted person, also known as a demon. The villagers always throw worthless things away and have tried to kill me multiple times; I was doing what they do to me."

The Hokage sighed into his hands. "Naruto, you can't kill your comrades. If this issue happens again I can guarantee that you won't like what happens. Iruka, if you would please take Naruto back to the Academy."

Iruka nodded and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder and escorted him out of the office.

Sarutobi looked at Mizuki who was incredibly pale. "Please explain to me why you broke my law and put a child in danger?"

-M-

Naruto ignored the lecture Iruka was spilling out and yawned. He has been dealing with this boring, unimportant history for the past three years. In his opinion twelve year-olds, like himself, should be learning how to kill your target, or beat the shit out of them at least. His blue eyes landed on the calendar that was hanging on the wall. Graduation was in two days and he was fully aware that he was going to fail. He couldn't get the Clone Jutsu right and simply came to accept the fact that the Jutsu was impossible for him.

Iruka closed his book and looked at his class. "Tomorrow we will be having a little exercise for all of you. Since you all are graduating in two days I thought it would be a good idea to test your abilities. I will explain more tomorrow. Class is dismissed! "

Naruto slowly stood up and walked out the classroom and out of the front doors of the building. Tomorrow was a day he was really interested in. Iruka rarely did anything like this and when he did it always had a point to it. He knew this had something else to it. Maybe it had something to do with graduation. Graduation… Why would anyone want to become a ninja of Konoha? All it did was tie you down to a village that boasted about a Will of Fire that they didn't possess. He couldn't care less if he failed, it wouldn't stop him from becoming stronger and making Konoha his bitch. It would be like that family member that you hate and hope that they are somehow killed brutally. Of course he wouldn't know if that is true or not as he never had a family. He didn't want one anyway. If a family was about teaching your children to hate someone because they are different from you, he didn't want one.

Naruto grabbed an apple out of a bucket that was sitting on a stand and took a bite out of it, completely ignoring the owners' shouts of 'thief!' He tossed the apple into the air and caught it before throwing it into a trash can.

Naruto walked up the flight of stairs that led to his apartment and opened the door to his home. He jumped onto his bed and closed his eyes and patiently waited for sleep to claim him.

Naruto casually walked through an alley, making his way towards the Academy. A voice, a voice that he hated with a passion echoed his name. Shiri Kao. Shiri Kao was a kid in his class that had been giving him problems for the past two years. Shiri was the dead-last of his class and seemed to ignore that fact when he would insult people. Now Naruto knew that he was the second to dead-last but that was from that lack of trying and he used to be sensei, Mizuki, being a giant asshole. "What do you want, Shiri?"

"Just saying hi, you emotionless prick."

Naruto sighed and folded his arms. One day he was just going to snap and kill the kid. "I'm what you and your posse turned me into. You have no one but yourself to blame."

"My father explained to me how my mother was killed; he said it was your fault!" Shiri said matter-of-factly.

Naruto knew what this kid was trying to do; it just wasn't going to work. "If she had your personality then I did this village a favor."

Anger flashed through Shiri's brown eyes. "Listen! I didn't come here to just say hi! I came here to give you a warning! If you ever interact with my friends I will make you regret it!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. This kid was annoying. "Okay, now you listen to me." Shiri's mouth instantly shut at Naruto's cold tone. "If you attempt to attack me I will kill you. Also, being the kind-hearted boy I am, will give you one more warning. If your girlfriend, best friend, or anyone who thinks you're something special insults me… I will kill them and leave their bodies on your doorstep. Understand?"

Shiri narrowed his eyes at Naruto in anger. "Don't you dare threaten my friends, you heartless coward! If you ever threaten Noru again I will kill you!"

Naruto, who noticed he was late for class, pulled his hands out of his pockets. He knew what he was about to do would lead to something he would probably regret later on. Not because he was going to feel bad for it, but because of the problems it would cause him later. "If your girlfriend says one thing to me I promise to kill her slowly."

Shiri clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white. He was pissed and surprised that Naruto was actually saying something to him as all of the insults he threw at Naruto were ignored. "Watch yourself, Naruto!"

Naruto watched as Shiri left the alley way before shrugging his shoulders and walking off towards the Academy.

Iruka watched as all of his students sat down with their friends talking excitedly about today's event. He didn't usually hold exercises like this, but all of the team leaders thought it would be a good idea to test the students on their ability to work as a team. He wasn't supposed to tell them it was a test to make sure they wouldn't only work together because of a test, but because they know they need to work together to get any job done, important or unimportant.

Naruto walked into the classroom and looked at all of the kids talking excitedly among themselves. He felt himself get shoved to the side and saw a girl with pink hair run past him. He watched her cup her hands together and shyly ask Sasuke if she could sit by him. Naruto let a small grin come on his face when he saw her dejected look. Apparently she took rejection hard, which was good because she was about to hit the floor just as hard.

Sasuke silently watched as the blond shoved the girl he hated with a passion to the floor before seating himself. He didn't like her either apparently.

Iruka sighed after watching the exchange go down. This happened almost every day and it didn't seem like any punishment he threw out was working. He was actually grateful that this class was graduating soon. They were good kids, just his most difficult bunch so far. He cleared his throat and when the entire class quieted down, he started to explain today's plan. "The activity I have planned for you will take up all of today's time."

He looked around to make sure he still had their attention and smiled at all of the excited faces looking at him eagerly. "You will be split up into teams of two and I have already chosen those teams for you. You and your partner will be looking for these five coins." Iruka held each coin up in the air for the kids in the room to see. "Each coin has an element written on it. After you collect all five coins you must put them in the correct order. There is only one set of coins so you and your partner must either find them or steal them from an enemy team. The winning team will get a prize at the end."

Iruka grabbed a list off of his desk and unrolled it. "I will be calling out the teams so listen carefully. Team one will consist of Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka."

Screams of disappointment echoed off of the walls of the classroom. "Team Two will consist of Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi. Team Three will consist of Kiba Inuzuka and Hinata Hyuuga."

Naruto ignored Team Four when he felt a bad feeling enter his gut.

"Team Five will consist of Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha." Iruka ignored Naruto who had slammed his head against the desk. "Team Six will consist of Shino Aburame and Shiri Kao." Iruka set the list back down on his desk and looked back at his class. "There are rules to this, and I won't be explaining them as I shouldn't have to. There is no killing allowed. You are not allowed to harm your enemies in any manner that could cause death or serious injury. You have to complete the task in the given amount of time which is the entire day. I expect these rules to be followed and I will be strict with them. Now go and find your partners and meet me outside."

Naruto stood up, along with Sasuke, and started to walk outside. "Rules are meant to be broken. Remember that, Uchiha."

Kakashi stood on top of the Academy, his book was open but he wasn't giving it any attention. His attention was focused on the group of kids standing in front of Iruka who was giving Asuma some time to hide all of the coins. His main focus was Naruto Uzumaki, but all the students had his mild attention. After Naruto almost strangled Sasuke he was assigned to watch the boy to make sure nothing similar happened. It was as if The Hokage was thinking that Naruto was slowly losing it, or had already lost it and was good at hiding it.

Asuma landed right beside Kakashi on the roof. He had successfully managed to hide all of the coins. He tried to make sure that they were not easy to find, but not impossible either. He took a drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke out of his mouth before looking at Kakashi. "Any of them catch your interest?"

Kakashi shook his head. "Poor group this year."

"Every year has been poor for you."

"Eh, you can't satisfy everyone," said Kakashi as he flipped the page.

Naruto glanced up at the roof of the Academy and saw Hatake looking at him. He had noticed Hatake watching over him a couple months after the incident with Sasuke and he knew that Hatake was assigned to watch and make sure something like that didn't happen again. He looked at Sasuke who was trying to talk to him. "What?"

Sasuke looked at Naruto in annoyance. "I said, where is your kunai holster and pouch?"

"I don't have a holster or pouch. I like to improvise."

Sasuke just folded his arms. He didn't care why Naruto didn't carry weapons with him as long as it didn't prevent them from losing. He glanced at Shiri and noticed him looking at Naruto with a look that promised death, his girlfriend leaning against him with her eyes closed and purple hair covering most of her face, and Shino, who was stoic as ever. Sasuke knew that this was going to get violent.

Iruka raised his hand, silencing all of the teams. He looked over all of their nervous or determined faces and swiftly brought his hand down signaling for the teams to scatter.

Sasuke landed on a tree branch with Naruto landing next to him a second later. "How are we going to do this, dobe?" Sasuke waited for an answer and looked at his teammate when he didn't receive one. "Are you deaf?"

"I have a name, Uchiha," said Naruto coldly. "If you can't respect me like an equal you can leave."

"We're not equal; I am superior."

"Says the kid who wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for Iruka pulling me off of you."

Sasuke glared angrily at the ground before he sighed and looked at Naruto. "What do you have in mind, Uzumaki?"

Naruto stood up and leaned against the trunk of the tree. "Well, it depends on how violent you are willing to get."

Sasuke stayed quiet for a second, trying to figure out how far he was actually willing to go. "I'm not going to kill anyone."

"We're not going to kill anyone you prude," said Naruto, folding his arms. "That comes later."

"Then what did you have in mind?"

"Well, I am guessing the coins have been found by now, so we need to figure out which teams are the most likely to have them."

"Team Two would most likely have found one," said Sasuke as he crossed his legs. "Nara is smart and would have most likely found out where at least one is by now."

Naruto nodded. "Alright, let's add them to the list. I know for sure that Team Three has most of them. The Hyuuga's bloodline gives them a huge advantage in this exercise and she would have to be stupid not to use it."

"Let's go and find those two teams and get at least some of the coins," said Sasuke as he stood up. "The exercise doesn't end until one team has all five coins so getting at least one will give us more time to plan."

Naruto nodded and pushed himself away from the tree. "Let's do it."

-M-

The Hokage put his pipe in his mouth while he watched Kakashi enter his office. "You're late."

Kakashi closed his book and placed it in his pouch. "I was watching two candidates for my soon to be new team."

Kurenai Yuhi, who was also going to be a Team Leader, gave Kakashi a curious look. "You have found two kids for your team? They don't graduate until tomorrow."

"Which is why I said candidates," Kakashi said lazily.

The Hokage looked at Kakashi who was giving him his full attention. "Kakashi, during your absence, Asuma and Kurenai have already given me a description of the team they're looking for. Since you have failed every type of team I have thrown at you, why don't you give me the reasons why these two candidates have caught your interest. The pros first if you would."

"The first is Sasuke Uchiha," said Kakashi. "He shows talent. He comes out on top of every exercise Iruka has thrown at his class. He has shown the ability to work as a team with someone he dislikes so far. There is also the fact that I could train him how to use his Sharingan once he awakens it."

"Cons?" Asked the Hokage

"He is arrogant and thinks he is superior to everyone. He acts like a lone-wolf and that will cause problems for him in the future. I will be able to give you more details once I have his file when he graduates."

"Who is your second candidate?"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

This had surprised everyone in the room, including the Hokage. "May I ask why?"

"Even though he doesn't have the best marks in the academy, which I noticed is from the lack of trying, he is talented. When I watch over him I notice he likes to watch other teams train and he takes notes. When the team that he is watching leaves he goes out into the field and starts to learn the same thing they had. He has surpassed his class and with some help he could go far. It will also help me with the task of watching over him."

The Hokage nodded. "What are the cons?"

"He has a bad temper and his incident with the Uchiha supports this statement. He is worse than Sasuke when it comes to being alone. He refuses to get along with most of his classmates and is cold to everyone who approaches him. He isn't afraid to use excessive violence and prefers the use of force to anything else."

The Hokage nodded and took a puff of his pipe. "Tomorrow we will have another meeting and you need to have three students that have graduated as candidates for your team. You're all dismissed."

-M-

Shiri ran as fast as he could through the forest. Blood was dripping from his mouth and he was running out of breath. He could hear the footsteps of his pursuer catching up to him. His team had decided to team up with Team Four in hopes of overpowering the other teams and it worked. They were able to get three out of the five coins, but right when they were about to figure out how to get the last two coins they were attacked by Naruto and Sasuke. What shocked Shiri the most was how fast they had been taken out. A second later Shiri felt himself get tackled to the ground and his face shoved violently into the ground they were sliding across.

Naruto reached into Shiri's pouch and pulled out the three coins. "You're a filthy liar, Shiri," said Naruto as he stood up and put the coins into his pocket. "You told me you didn't have them."

Shiri rolled over onto his back and spat out the dirt that had filled his mouth. He could feel the stinging of the cuts that had rocks stuck in them and the blood that was flowing freely down his face. "You broke the rules," Shiri spat out.

Naruto pressed his foot against Shiri's cut up face and added pressure until he started to squirm. "You look pretty alive to me."

Shiri closed his eyes, trying to think about anything but the pain. "I'm talking about my face you dumb-ass."

"Oh," said Naruto as he looked at Sasuke who landed right next to him. "It doesn't look that bad. Iruka said not to cause any serious injuries, your cuts and scrapes aren't serious, just really painful." Naruto reached into his pocket and handed Sasuke the coins. "They'll be safer in your pouch."

Sasuke nodded and placed them in his pouch. "Who do you think has the last two?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "No clue." He looked down at Shiri who was still lying on the ground. "Who has the last two rings? Uchiha and I heard you planning with your fellow teammates so you better not lie."

"Team Three has them. The team with the Hyuuga," said Shiri who had rolled over onto his stomach and was trying to get up.

Sasuke looked at Naruto and noticed a crazed glint flash through the blonds eyes. "We made a lot of noise during our attack and I think that might have alerted the other teams. They might be at the scene right now checking it out."

Naruto nodded and took off into the trees, Sasuke following close behind him. They both stopped when they saw Hinata and Kiba looking around the area. Naruto reached into Sasuke's pouch and pulled out four Shuriken and a couple of smoke bombs. "Ready?" Asked Naruto, ignoring Sasuke's glare.

"Yes."

Naruto nodded and threw the shuriken at Kiba before throwing the smoke bombs into the middle of the area.

Hinata quickly turned around when she heard the smoke bombs go off and activated her Byakugan. Her eyes went wide when she saw the four shuriken impale themselves into her partners' shins, effectively dropping him to the floor. She quickly brought up her arms to block the punch that was aimed for her face, but missed the punch that hit her in the stomach. She grabbed her stomach in pain and fell face first into the dirt when she felt an elbow connect with the back of her head.

Sasuke kneeled down and searched Kiba's jacket and pouch ignoring the boy's screams of pain. He pulled out the last two rings and smirked. "You're pathetic, Inuzuka."

Naruto grinned when he saw the last two coins. "Oh, look at that, victory in the palm of your hand."

Sasuke put the two coins in his pouch and started to walk towards the academy with Naruto in tow. Sasuke looked over at Naruto who was walking with an uninterested gaze and his hands in his pockets. He had to admit that it wasn't too bad to work Uzumaki. The kid was kind of a loner who seemed to enjoy the pain of his classmates and was even the cause of it sometimes, but he couldn't get rid of the fact that most of them had it coming.

The Academy came into view and they could see Iruka standing behind a table with three people next to him. He had a disappointed look on his face and it seemed to be directed at them both. Sasuke stopped walking when he reached the table and set the coins on the table. He put them in order and stepped back, giving Iruka his attention.

"Great work you two," said Iruka as he pulled out two slips of paper and set them on the table. "You two showed great communication and the ability to work together, despite your differences. Even though you used a bit more force than I would have liked, you didn't break any of the rules." Iruka smiled and pushed the two papers towards them.

Sasuke grabbed the piece of paper and read through it. "We won a free dinner with the Hokage tonight?"

"I was hoping for the prize to be money," muttered Naruto.

"The location of the restaurant and the time is written on the paper so don't lose it."

Naruto stood in front of his bathroom mirror and looked at himself. He wore a black long-sleeved t-shirt with some orange shinobi pants and a pair of black shinobi sandals. He didn't know why he had to go to this stupid dinner with the leader of the village, though he could never turn down free food. Naruto walked out of the bathroom and out of his apartment, not even bothering to lock his door as everyone in the village avoided it like it was the plague.

He walked down the street ignoring all of the trash that called themselves people. He walked up to the restaurant and walked inside, ignoring the host who was yelling at him. He looked around and saw the Hokage's reserved table in the very back that was placed away from the rest of the population in the restaurant to give the leader some privacy. He saw Sasuke sitting at the table waiting patiently for him and the Hokage to arrive. He started to walk over to the table when he felt a hand grab his shoulder.

"Trash like you doesn't belong here!"

Naruto shrugged the man's hand off his shoulder and spun around to face the rather large, overweight man who touched him. "Then you better excuse yourself from this place. I'm curious as to how you were able to squeeze your large ass through the front door, but as I watch the grease drip from you it disappears."

"How dare you act so disrespectful? You're lucky there are people here because I would have finished what the Fourth Hokage started!"

"You're not so lucky because I am about to finish what your diet has started," said Naruto coldly as he grabbed a pair of metal chopsticks off of the table next to him.

"Is there a problem here?"

The Host quickly dropped the glare and looked at Sasuke who was looking at Naruto curiously. "No problem here, just letting our guest here know that we are full and that he needs to leave."

"He is not leaving as he was the person I have been waiting for."

The Host looked disbelievingly at Sasuke. "You were waiting for him?"

Sasuke glared at the man and nodded. "I was. Now leave us before I talk to whoever is in charge and get you fired for wasting my time."

The Host paled before quickly walking away, not even bothering to glance back. Sasuke turned towards Naruto who had set the chopsticks back down on the table. "What was that all about?"

Naruto followed Sasuke to the table and sat down. "Some people here don't like me."

"Obviously."

"I wish I could walk around the place and start demanding shit. Who knew you had that kind of effect on people."

"Being the last Uchiha has its perks."

"Obviously."

Both of them looked up from the table when they saw the Hokage sit down across from them. "Good evening you two."

"Good evening," responded Sasuke, a bit surprised Naruto didn't say anything.

"I am sure you two are wondering why the prize for that exercise was a free dinner with me," said Sarutobi as he took a drink from the glass of water that was placed in front of him. "The reason is simple. I think that the team who did the best deserved an opportunity to have any question they might have about the field they might go into starting tomorrow." Sarutobi looked at the two surprised looks and let a smile creep onto his face.

"If you are to be a ninja of Konoha, you must be able to work with everyone who is part of your line of work, and you two showed that you could. I have heard from your sensei, Iruka, that you two don't really get along." He looked at the two boys who glanced at each other. "I am very proud of both of you. Not only did you display great teamwork, you were able to put your differences aside to defeat the other teams even though you knew you might not have gained anything from it. Now, let's answer some questions and eat a great meal!"

"I have a question," said Naruto as he looked through the menu, "is there a price limit?"

"Of course not, order whatever will satisfy you!"

Sasuke set the menu down, already knowing what he wanted. "What do Naruto and I have to worry about on the test tomorrow?" Sasuke sat patiently, ignoring Naruto's curious glance.

"A written test, as well as your ability to throw kunai and shuriken properly, and last, but not least, the ability to perform the Bunshin no Jutsu," said Sarutobi.

"Will the exercise Uchiha and I dominated be a deciding factor for if we graduate or not?" Asked Naruto

"Yes, in a way," answered Sarutobi. "You can still graduate even if you didn't pass the exercise, but the instructors will look at your performance."

"Great," muttered Naruto.

"Do you already have the teams set up?" Asked Sasuke

"No, we don't set up the teams until after the students graduate so we can see what they excel at and what they struggle with," answered Sarutobi.

"Why don't we learn how to kill an enemy in the academy?" Asked Naruto who took a gulp of his water. "I mean it's basically in our job description."

Sarutobi looked at Naruto, surprised by the boys' question. Even Sasuke looked a little surprised, but nonetheless interested. "We leave that part of training to the Team Leaders."

"Why do people blame me for the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha?"

Sarutobi spit up his drink when he heard the question. This was not a set of questions he was expecting. "That's a question I cannot answer at this moment. I am sorry, Naruto."

Sasuke stayed silent, not wanting to ask another question and ruin his chance to figure out what that host's problem was.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "Why not? I already know the answer. It wasn't hard to put two and two together. Just give me confirmation and I'll let this matter drop. Do I have the Kyuubi sealed inside of me? I have seen the seal appear on my stomach, so don't lie to me."

Sarutobi stood up and looked at Sasuke whose eyes were wide. "Sasuke, I think it's time for you to head home. Naruto, you and I are going to have a talk in my office."

Sasuke nodded and silently stood up. He walked out of the restaurant in shock. What was Naruto talking about? Wasn't the Kyuubi killed by the Fourth Hokage, not sealed away? He placed his hands in his pockets and walked towards his place. He would check out the Uchiha Library for answers.

Naruto stood in the Hokage's office completely satisfied. The Hokage's silence and panicked look completely confirmed his suspicion. Everything made sense now.

Sarutobi took a puff on his pipe and sighed. There was no way of getting around this, the boy knew and nothing he said would turn him away. "Naruto, the night the Kyuubi attacked— Sarutobi was cut silent by a low buzzing that started to emit from the Fourth Hokage's photo that was hanging on the wall next to Naruto. A bright light emitted from the picture and the sound of two bodies hitting the floor and Naruto's grunt reached his ears.

Naruto spat the foreign hair out of his mouth and stared at the brunette who was lying on top of him unconscious. Naruto looked at the Hokage and noticed his shocked face. "What the hell just happened?"

Sarutobi shook his head, his eyes wide. He knew who that was and there was no possible way she could be in his office right now. She was supposed to be dead.

-End-