"I think you're getting ahead of yourself young man, we need to test your skills first, see what you can do."

The Hokage was well aware of Naruto's chakra but Ino's earlier report had established he was still nowhere near close to understanding how to control it, let alone, use it.

"All right, so last night I didn't know what was going on and I couldn't use it properly, I feel a lot better now, how about you let me show you what I can do?"

Ino looked back at the Hokage with concern, despite his words, she knew better than anyone that he was only bluffing because of how excited he felt, Hizuren also had his doubts, he could tell Naruto had a lot of heart and wanted to commit with them but heart alone would not help him survive in this world.

"Fine, come later this afternoon to ground Seven, I will test your abilities there myself, until then, rest."

Without another word, he started to make his exit from the room with his two guards following closely. After they left Naruto was still dumbfounded looking at the door wondering the only question left to ask.

"So where is ground Seven?"

Ino wanted to laugh at that moment but reminded herself Naruto was still an outsider and did not know the area at all. She proceeded to carefully remove the needle from his arm. He flinched a little in pain, nothing serious.

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah, whatever you guys did worked."

"Good, put on some clothes and meet me outside the hospital, the Hokage already did the paperwork so the nurses will come soon to clean this room, I'll show you around the village and then ground Seven."

Ino stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Naruto by himself, he checked one more time for his shoulder injury but now the pain was minimal at best, he got off the bed and started looking for his clothes only to realize they were probably sent to the trash because they were torn and tattered, not to mention the bloodstains. He looked inside the bathroom and found a small selection of new attire, he chose the most casual clothing, white t shirt, blue jeans and some sandals, sadly there was nothing orange, his favorite color, to put on.

After he got ready he proceeded to exit the room just in time as the nurses were about to enter like Ino had said, since he did not know his way around the blonde asked for directions to exit the building assuming Ino was already waiting for him outside. A few minutes later he found himself outside of the hospital staring at the rest of the village, it was not like he had pictured it, the structures looked modern and electric posts were all around, just like any other place in Tokyo, only smaller.

"Are you hungry?"

His attention was caught by Ino who was sitting on a small bench waiting for a reply.

"I-Uuuh…"

"It's a simple yes or no question, don't worry about the money, it's my treat."

"Money… wait! Where is my bag?! I had my money there!"

"You mean this bag?" Ino had a small open scroll from where she summoned a old grey backpack that had been largely stained with his blood, Naruto obviously panicked and soon confirmed his worst fear when he opened it.

"NOO!" he yelled in a comical fashion.

"What's up?"

"My money… all the money I had won yesterday..." he was on the verge of tears, all that hard work he had put off for the past week and now his payment was all red and useless.

"Um, well… Do you remember how much was it?" Ino was still completely unmoved by the situation, Naruto just looked at her in disbelief for her attitude. He opened the now red envelope and counted the paper without much attention.

"Like, ¥200,000…"

"No problem, I'll get you that tomorrow okay?"

He was stunned, she freely offered to compensate the loss and didn't even sound worried about how much money it was.

"R-really?"

"Of course, I mean, it was MY fault after all you got hurt so it's only fair I pay you, besides, it isn't that much to be honest."

Again Naruto could not help but stare with a mouth wide open, he swore Ino had just said the amount was 'not that much', was she joking? For him that was a month's payment.

"C'mon, put that away and let's get some breakfast!"

"Come to think of it… one of the nurses, Sakura I believe, told me I was supposed to get breakfast sent to that room I was in."

"Oh, so you've met Sakura…" Ino rolled her eyes, she was clearly annoyed.

"Is there something going on between you two?"

Ino decided it was better to eat something before she started speaking, she was prone to be very temperamental when she was hungry and Naruto did not need to take any heat for that. She stood up from the bench.

"It's a long story, let's eat first, then I'll tell you."

Naruto nodded and the blond duo started walking together around the village looking for a place to eat. On their way to get food Ino explained the infrastructure of Konoha, why it looked the way it did and how it was protected, turns out there was a genjutsu barrier cast around the entire village making anyone outside the area see nothing but a mountain and trees, if some lost traveler happened to get too close, the genjutsu alerted the guards on watch and they responded swiftly, she explained until now all they ever did was scare them off and nobody had ever been hurt. They eventually settled in a small Dango stand. While they ate Naruto could not help but notice everyone walking by kept looking at them for too long, they had taken a seat just next to the stand, Ino noticed this as well but did not mind the attention they were getting.

"Why is everyone looking at us?"

"I think they're looking at you and if I were to guess, it's because they've never seen you before and I'm usually with Shikamaru and Chōji."

"Huh, weird folks, speaking of that, are they here in the village also?"

"They must be around, why?"

"Just asking, so am I hearing this story about Sakura?"

Ino took a deep breath and prepared to answer, she was hoping he would forget eventually, she was wrong.

"Sakura's last name is Haruno, her family owns the Haruno Hotels across the country. We used to be friends a long time ago, as we grew up we formed some sort of rivalry, it was friendly competition at first, then something started to change..."

"How so?" Naruto felt genuinely intrigued.

"She… started to see me as an obstacle in her life, I don't know if training or doing things together affected her, then I found out the reason was because she would eventually inherit the business of her family and they recommended her not to hang out with a Yamanaka."

"Her own family said that to her?"

"I'm not surprised, if you were to inherit an empire you'd be expected to behave a certain way and stay surrounded by certain people, even if that meant leaving others who supported you behind, to be honest I never liked her parents anyway, all rich people are the same to me, stuck up and entitled, what I didn't expect was for Sakura to get those traits so fast."

Naruto remained silent for a few seconds, he tried to relate to her story, his parents had to deal with similar situations in the past, even if they did not involve extremely rich people.

"Why is she here though? Why did she stay to become a Shinobi if her last name is so important?"

"Because her family helped Konoha financially, the Haruno name was something you were used to seeing when a mission was requested, good clients and good payment, and way before she found out about this inheritance thing she studied and trained hard, harder than anyone I've ever seen, she wanted to become a medic full-time, if anything I..."

"You what?"

"Nothing… forget it."

"Look… I don't know Sakura or her family, whatever is going on with her, I don't care, my mother used to tell me when I met someone the first thing I should be able to determine is whether they had conviction or not."

Ino raised her eyebrow "Conviction?"

"Yes, she said when I grew up I would meet a lot of different people and I needed to know at some point who would actually have that will to get things done regardless of their path in life because those would be the people who could potentially stay in my life until my last day…"

Ino was genuinely confused by his words, Naruto noticed quickly and tried to explain himself again.

"What I'm trying to say is, you have conviction Ino, you're here now and as far as I can tell, you're very strong and willing to get things done for a cause you believe in, I doubt Sakura has that if she's leaving all of this for a family fortune, I don't think there is a need to compete against someone like her, you've already won that fight long ago…"

"I… Thank you Naruto, that's very thoughtful of you."

"No need to thank me, I know I still don't know much about you but with some people I can just tell, call me crazy if you want." he chuckled and scratched the back of his head.

"You're right."

"Huh?"

"You don't know much about me, yet." She ended her sentence with a smile, Naruto felt triumphant, he took that comment as a ray of hope, maybe he would be able to get to know her soon enough.

"Welcome back sir."

A woman greeted the Uchiha leader as two butlers opened the limousine doors, Fugaku and his son Sasuke had arrived to the Uchiha mansion.

"What's on the Agenda today Naori?" he asked as they started walking away from the vehicle

"We have several reporters calling to request an appointment for an interview with Sasuke-sama sir."

"Deny them all, what else?"

Sasuke didn't let his father's words go unnoticed, he frowned but decided to stay calm for now, it would be useless to discuss with him.

"Prime minister Kaneko is visiting this afternoon, he said he wished to discuss a personal matter."

Fugaku's expression changed, Sasuke was well aware of who the Prime minister was and it was extremely rare to see what he perceived as 'concern' painted across his father's face, not everyone could have the pleasure of watching the great Fugaku Uchiha feel uneasy about receiving a visit from a political figure. A smirk formed in Sasuke's lips.

"There is… one more thing sir, the project, it returned on its own to the facilities in Shibuya."

Sasuke was starting to get curious about the conversation but knew his father was about to dismiss him, to no one's surprise, he gave him a look indicating he should not be there.

"Let's go inside, tell me the details there."

"Yes sir."

Without speaking another word, they walked away from the young Uchiha to the mansion, leaving him on his own. Sasuke was no stranger to this type of behavior from his father, to hell with the fact that he was a businessman, in his eyes he was a plain old bastard, too busy to even care about the fact that he had a family or even behave like a normal parent should.

"So, everything cool with you and your old man?"

Sasuke was too busy thinking about his father that he did not notice Suigetsu and his crew had also arrived behind the limousine almost at the same time they did, only Suigetsu approached the raven haired boy after making sure Fugaku was gone.

"Not really…"

"Anything you wanna share?"

"Only heard something about the prime minister coming over here later, then something about Shibuya, not sure what it was."

"Ah, the Uchiha Corp facilities in Shibuya, what about them?"

"You know of anything special going on over there?"

"Nah, as much as I'd like to know, that place is super secret, top of the line secure, I've been there at the entrance a couple of times only so there's no way to know."

Sasuke pondered about this for a moment but decided to dismiss the matter for the time being, today he needed to actually stay away from anything related to the corporation or his father.

"Do you know if my father will leave the complex later today?"

"In the afternoon, yes, after that visit from the minister I suppose…"

"Ok, wait for me then."

"Sasuke I-"

"Suigetsu, just stay put, I'm not telling you to not do your job."

"... But you're about to, right?"

"We'll see, I'll go to train for a few hours and I'll let you know."

Suigetsu could only sigh in defeat, whatever Sasuke was planning was definitely going to get him in trouble. In the last two months at least, he had protected him to an extent when he got himself into trouble, not that Sasuke actually needed to be protected, he was a capable fighter thanks to all the training he received, but one thing was doing his job and another one trying not to lose it. Sasuke obviously went for the latter always.

"What did you find?"

Anko and Iruka had decided to visit Ebisu Tobita, a forensic scientist and good friend and contact within the force that helped them when a case went cold, he was very good at finding missing pieces of evidence and in the process making his fellow co workers look like rock stars. He had just finished taking a look through some results in his laptop.

"The traces you brought me indicate this is blue Av Gas, a common aviation fuel for spark-ignited internal-combustion engines to propel aircraft, the grade which is 100LL, is used on smaller aircraft like helicopters."

"You know, all I understand from what you just said was 'helicopter fuel'…"

Ebisu adjusted his sunglasses while giving Anko a stern look "Except there is no helicopter at the scene according to the records."

"That's because whoever was there erased the evidence, no ordinary human could have done that in such a short time, I agree with Anko-senpai on this one, it must have been Ninjutsu."

Ebisu continued adjusting his sunglasses for no apparent reason while he continued to read more details about the latest report.

"Anko-san, what do you expect to find? You already know any cases involving Shinobi end up being closed as soon as you present evidence."

"Not this time Ebisu, I'm tired of the chief always covering up these cases, I want to get to the bottom of this."

"You know you're playing with fire if you go that path..." again Ebisu kept pushing his sunglasses up.

"He's right senpai, you might get expelled from the police if you do that."

"Except Ebisu here…" Anko wrapped her right arm around his shoulder "Is going to help us keep this information out of the record, right?" She gave him a cheeky smile.

"And why would I risk my neck here? I don't gain anything."

"Oh c'mon, I always pay my friends Ebisu, you know that."

"Last time you said that as well and I got a disciplinary memo…"

Iruka tried his best not to laugh.

"Listen, you do this for me and I'll take you to that place I mentioned before, you know, with the girls?"

Both Ebisu and Iruka blushed immediately, understanding she was referring to a strip club, due to circumstances, Anko happened to meet a lot of girls who worked for her as informants during past cases, she had decided to keep them under her protection despite those cases being already closed and some of them were close enough to be considered friends.

"Y-you mean that?"

"Of course I do! There's this girl that worked with me on that last murder case, she's intrigued about you!"

"OK! I got you covered!"

Iruka chuckled at the scene, Ebisu started to work again on his laptop making sure to make a copy of the latest files.

"Thanks Ebisu! We'll ask you also to check for any recent purchases of that type of fuel in Tokyo, including private entities."

"ON IT!"

Ebisu happily changed his mood and started typing and working as fast as he could while on his research. Anko decided her job was done there for now and proceeded to leave the room with Iruka following close behind. As they walked through the hallway Iruka could not stop himself from asking.

"What do you plan to do if Ebisu gets you the information senpai?"

"I'm considering my options." She smiled "If the chief thinks he can cover this mess again, he's dead wrong, and don't worry about my job, I'll make sure that won't happen."

Iruka wanted to protest but he knew Anko was too stubborn to listen and at the same time, he felt he did not need to worry about her, she was good at it, when she pushed the wrong people she was especially good. As they continued walking they came across another scientist.

"Oh hello Mitarashi-san, I was looking for you, the results for the DNA tests we ran for that hair evidence found in the rooftop!"

He gave her a sealed envelope, she curiously eyed it and opened it.

"One of the results did not give any known matches in our database, but the other one-"

"Is a Naruto Uzumaki…" She sorted through the documents and showed Iruka the photos "Know anything about this kid?"

" I'll look into it."

Both Naruto and Ino had arrived to ground Seven that afternoon, the rest of the day she had decided to show him around the village as they had agreed after they took breakfast , Shikamaru and Chōji found them and had decided they would tag along later as well, they were also curious about Naruto's potential. They arrived to meet only the two of them since the Hokage had not arrived apparently.

"So what is this test about?" Naruto asked as he started stretching his limbs for warm up, Ino and her teammates walked to one side of the field and seated on a nearby bench. Shikamaru spoke.

"A fight test, Hokage-sama will determine if you're Shinobi material."

"Figured you'd say that…" Naruto smirked as he continued his warm up exercises, on the other hand Chōji took out a bag of chips from one of his pockets and started eating while they waited.

Naruto was curious as to how someone like Chōji had become a Shinobi since he did not have the athletic look exactly, far from it actually, he seemed overweight to him, maybe that was why he was only the pilot of the team and not an active member like Ino or Shikamaru.

He was too busy in his thoughts that he failed to notice the Hokage was already in front of him, he figured probably the others had sensed him long ago, truth be told, they did not, he had arrived silently to the area with his guards and even if they fell silent when his presence was felt, it was because they could not detect him, this type of things were what made others consider him the strongest and deadliest of Shinobi among them.

"Hey there old man Hokage! I didn't see you there!"

Internally Ino and the others wanted to slap themselves, did he seriously call him 'old man Hokage? Hiruzen himself sweat dropped at the nickname but shrugged it off.

"Well, I assume you already know what this test is about."

"You bet." Naruto readied himself posing a battle stance, the Hokage did something similar but only with one arm while keeping the other behind him.

"Remember, this is a Shinobi battle so use your chakra, don't hold back."

Naruto only nodded and waited for the opportunity to start. Both men remained still for a couple of seconds as the tension built, only the wind blow could be heard at that point until a single solitary leaf fell on the ground.

Naruto immediately dashed forward at high speed launching the first strike with a punch aiming at the Hokage's face who simply stopped it by grabbing his wrist and effortlessly tossed the blonde right behind him, in mid air Naruto flipped and taking advantage of the position launched himself again, this time aiming to land a blow on the side of the old man's torso, to his surprise he just hit thin air and felt a strong palm hit him on his back sending him face first to the ground, it took him a moment to recover.

He definitely was not expecting this man who looked like someone's grandfather to be so strong and fast.

"You're holding back Naruto, what did I just tell you a minute ago?"

"Tch…!"

Naruto stood up and took a deep breath readying himself again, this time he decided to implement more chakra to his body, not that he did not do it last time but it was definitely not enough, he reminded himself he was not fighting one of those street brawlers he was used to handling. Again he dashed with a stronger impulse this time and decided to strike swift punches instead of putting all his effort into a single hit, the Hokage blocked every single one of his strikes, Naruto kept pushing forward and forced him to use his feet and move as well, not that he felt the need to do it but rather wanted to see what would Naruto's game plan was. Soon Naruto started using combinations with kicks and a few elbow strikes, to his dismay, the Hokage continued blocking his attempts to hit him without breaking a sweat, it felt like he was toying with him.

Hiruzen again used a palm strike on the young boy's chest sending him flying back to the ground, the force made Naruto's body tumble and roll until he stopped a few feet away, this time he felt the impact of the blow harder than the last and coughed a few times while trying to stand and failing to do so.

"You doubt yourself, that is why you keep holding back, don't."

"You're… 'coughs'..."

"I'm not tired if that's what worries you, but you don't look so good…"

He was right, Naruto was visibly starting to sweat, he felt his breathing getting faster and louder and he had not even made the Hokage struggle at all despite the age gap, he was only until now starting to understand the difference between them in terms of power, his experience was nothing compared to Hiruzen's.

"All right…" Naruto said wiping his mouth from dust "No more holding back…!"

He posed a fight stance one last time while taking a deep breath, he knew this was all or nothing and was ready to go all out this time. The Hokage remained in his same pose, waiting for any movement from Naruto, it did not take long for him to launch himself again, only this time, Hizuren could clearly notice the chakra infused speed was much higher, he still remained calm as Naruto reached to strike again the same way he had done the last two times. He blocked every punch attempt expecting something new from the reckless blonde, it never came despite the increase of speed in his attacks so he decided to end it there.

In a swift and powerful motion he landed a palm strike to Naruto's face making his whole body spin and ended the move the a second strike coming from his free hand to his chin, sending him flying access the field, Naruto's body landed hard on his back feet away from the Hokage's, this time he remained motionless. For a moment he thought he might have been too rough but as soon as he heard him groaning he relaxed and ended his fighting pose.

Ino, Shikamaru and Chōji had watched with intent the entire display, they all knew the outcome would be something similar to this.

"Good work Naruto."

Good work? He had just taken a beating from an old man and all he could say was good work? He could not even land a scratch and despite using his chakra infusion the difference was still abysmal.

"I've seen all I needed to see, Ino, help him up will you?"

Ino nodded and stood up to walk over to Naruto's side, she knelt and activated her healing palm jutsu but was confused when he grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

"Don't." He said, she looked at him like he was crazy.

"Let me, the fight is over and-"

"It's not over..."

She definitely did not understand this behavior, the match was clearly over, she was about to protest but her words never came out as Naruto stood up without looking back at her, his gaze had changed and now he looked more fierce than before. The Hokage noticed this.

"You should let Ino heal you."

"Let me try again, one last time."

"There's no need for that, I've seen enough and the result won't change."

"Just… one last time… please!"

Normally a man like Hiruzen would not be easily intimidated but for a second he swore he could feel a tremendous intent to kill emanating from the young boy that shook him, he quickly regained his composure and would have lied if he had said he did not feel intrigued at this new development.

"Shikamaru, did you notice that?"

"I did Chōji, his chakra signature changed."

The duo had initially thought the same as Ino, that the test had been finished, yet the moment Naruto was on his two feet standing they all felt the change instantaneously.

"This guy's chakra is insane! Did Ino notice this when we brought him here?" Shikamaru recalled last night the blonde's chakra signature was minimal due to his wounds, yet he wondered if at some point before he got hurt his blond teammate had seen this.

"One last time then, co-"

He did not finish the sentence as Naruto practically appeared in front of him, fist clenched and about to strike him hard, without enough time to react, the Hokage used both arms to block the punch sending him back a few meters but not enough to take him off balance, again Naruto disappeared without even touching the ground and reappeared next to the Hokage, this time with a kick about to land, being the experienced Shinobi he was, Hiruzen managed again to block the attempt forcing him to use some chakra himself to absorb the blow, without damaging his arm, Naruto restarted his attacks with far more speed and strength than ever before forcing the Hokage to actually go to the defensive, he realized something within the lad had been triggered.

"He's fast!" Ino's mouth remained open as she watched in shock how the Hokage, the strongest Shinobi of Konoha was being pushed back by someone who until then, technically did not know how to use his own strength, she never imagined a rookie would actually manage to rival him, then again, maybe she was getting ahead of herself, no one had actually seen him battle seriously. Chōji's bag of chips fell on the floor while he and Shikamaru watched in awe what was happening.

The Hokage decided it was time to go back to the offensive, he went for a palm hit but was not expecting Naruto to dodge it, let alone grab his arm and toss him over like a rag doll, luckily he was still in control and landed on his two feet without much trouble, this time he definitely needed to end the bout. In a lightning quick succession of hand seals he readied himself to counter the incoming attack from the blonde.

"Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu! (Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique)"

Right after uttering those words a hand emerged underground grabbing one of Naruto's feet before he could continue his attack and dragged him into the earth leaving only his head above the surface, when this happened Naruto snapped out of his power trip and realized his predicament.

"What the-? Hey! Lemme out!"

The Hokage finally relaxed, the bout was over and he was now glad it had stopped, he approached the struggling Uzumaki and smiled.

"I see you had a few tricks under your sleeve, that was much better than I had anticipated."

He formed a hand seal to make the earth around Naruto crumble, he realized this and started moving until he climbed out of the hole and patted his clothes a few times before redirecting his attention to the Hokage.

"How did you do that?"

"My element affinity allows me to perform different types of jutsu, that was a basic earth jutsu most Shinobi know."

"C-can you teach me that?"

The Hokage pulled from his coat a small piece of paper and handed it to Naruto "This is a chakra induction paper, it will let you know what type of element affinity you have, just put your chakra into it and we'll see what type of training you'll need."

Naruto curiously looked at the paper the Hokage had given him, Ino and the others watched also with curiosity the exchange, they were still surprised Naruto had managed to hold his own against Hiruzen and wanted also to know what type of nature his chakra had. After a few glances back and forth Naruto finally transferred some chakra into the piece of paper and it immediately cut in half.

"Wind, a powerful element, I'm afraid I'm not the best person to teach you techniques involving wind nature but I know of someone who can."

His glance was directed to the person behind them, Ino, who was smiling after this development.

"Y-you?"

"Indeed me, something wrong?"

Naruto realized how he must have sounded right there and put one of his hands behind his back to scratch his head in shame.

"N-Not at all! I'm just a little surprised is all hehehe…"

Ino gave him a questioning look but decided to let that be for now. Shikamaru decided to interfere.

"Asuma-sensei is also a wind adept so we'll talk with him also to help you improve, by the way, do you have a place to stay?"

"Uh… now that you mention it, no..."

During all this time he forgot entirely about the fact that he needed a roof for the night and possibly from now on. The Hokage had figured at this point he was already done with the test and decided to take his leave.

"We'll leave you boys to sort those details, I'll summon you if something comes up."

He tilted his long hat as a sign of farewell and disappeared in a puff of smoke along with his two guards, leaving the four teenagers by themselves again.

"You can stay with Chōji and myself for now, we have enough room for a third person and I think we could use some help around the apartment, don't you think Chōji?"

The Akimichi boy happily nodded in agreement.

"But... I don't have any money to pay rent guys."

Both Shikamaru and Chōji looked at each other confused and then laughed at his comment, Naruto clearly did not get what was funny about his statement.

"Rent? This is not Tokyo, we live freely in Konoha without the need of things like rent."

Naruto's turn to be shocked came again, the more he talked, the more he learned unusual things about this new world.

"Eeeehh? But, how is the village sustainable if nobody pays rent?"

Ino entered herself into the conversation "Don't misunderstand, we still use regular economy to move around the country and buy things like groceries but here there is no need for it, we are a self sustained village thanks to our chakra so things like electricity or water are not things you need to pay for when you can generate them yourself, because of this, rent is also unnecessary."

"You're talking about Shinobi that use their own chakra nature to sustain the village?"

"Exactly." Shikamaru continued "When we get there I'll show you how it works so don't worry about money, you won't need it unless you leave the village on a mission."

"In that case I'll see you guys later, dad must be wondering where I'm at now and you know how he gets." Ino started to wave goodbye to everyone "Naruto, I'll go pick you up tomorrow morning at 6AM to start your training, be ready." before he could reply she jumped away to a nearby rooftop and disappeared in the distance.

"Quite a girl huh?" Chōji nudged his elbow at Naruto.

"... Yeah, she's… interesting."

"Chōji, don't give him any ideas now, come, let's get you set up."

And then the trio walked off.

-0-

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Here we are again with another chapter for this long story, will continue to keep it updated, comments and reviews are always appreciated, thank you for your time to read this!.