Chapter-21

-The Hidden Leaf

Everyone from the leaf was gathered around the Hokage building, wondering what Lady Tsunade, The Fifth Hokage, was about to announce. All schools and academies were given a half day so that the teachers as well as the students could be here. Tsunade along with Shizune appeared on top of the building. Everyone had different theories about this. Some thought that The Hidden Leaf was going to declare war over another nation while others thought that Tsunade was finally going to retire. Tsunade came forward and started her speech.

"Two former ninjas of The Hidden Leaf and a wandering ninja, who have continued to help us and the whole ninja world from behind a mask, have returned home and I want you to accept them with open arms." Tsunade finished off. As if on cue, a bolt of lightning struck the roof and Neko appeared beside Tsunade. He was dressed in an olive green full sleeve with a black sleeveless flak jacket and anbu pants. The flak jacket had a small Uchiha Clan symbol on its back. "One of the two founding members of Team Uzu and one of the few remaining Uchiha. We thought that we lost him to Orochimaru and he had turned evil but we were wrong. He is a master of Lightning Chakra and the Sharingan. He has also killed Deidara of the Akatsuki. Sasuke, it's good to have you back."

"Thank you. Tsunade-sama." He said, taking off all of his masks to reveal his true identity. A lot of people were surprised and some girls including Sakura had already started screeching and fan-girling over him. After him, Suzume appeared in a Fire Shunshin. She was dressed in a blue, sleeveless, high collared t-shirt and with arm warmers and a skirt with anbu armour protecting her shins. "A new addition to Team Uzu and Kitsune's younger sister who comes from the rare Uzumaki Clan. She is level 9 seal master and is a formidable opponent in Kenjutsu. She is also a strategist and is one of the few users of the boil release. She is also a master of Fire Release and had a hand in killing off Sasori of the Sand. Aiko, welcome to The Hidden Leaf."

With a nod, she took off her mask and gave a smile to Tsunade who gladly returned it. There was a lot of cheering and a lot ninjas were even drooling at her sight, after all she was gorgeous with her fiery red hair pulled up in a ponytail, beautiful face and an athletic figure. Then between the Sasuke and Aiko, a kunai landed. The crowd gasped at this because this wasn't any ordinary kunai, this was a slightly modified version of Lord Fourth's tri-prolongated kunai. In a bright orange flash, Kitsune appeared while the villagers were in shock. The only two people to ever use this technique were the second and fourth Hokage. He was wearing a white jacket which had the same fire markings that were present on the Fourth Hokage's cloak along with a pair of black anbu pants.

"Another founding member of Team Uzu and Aiko's older brother. He is the son of the Fourth Hokage and comes from two prestigious clans, the Uzumaki and the Senju. He has the extremely rare Kekkei Genkai of the wood release which was only naturally seen in The First Hokage. He is also the jinchuriki of the great Nine Tailed Fox. Naruto Uzumaki, it's good to have you back, brat." As soon as the people heard this, they went pale. There was no clapping, no cheering, just silence. As he took off his mask, the eyes of the crowd gathered had widened and they couldn't believe this. The messy sunshine blonde hair, the same azure blue eyes, the similarities were just too many to ignore. The Forth Hokage was dead so there was no denying that he was the son of Minato.

Guilt started seeping into the hearts of the crowd; they had treated the legacy of Minato Namikaze, the man who gave his life for the village, like he was a piece of shit. They were filled with regret and were completely ashamed of themselves but they still had a chance of making this right, it wasn't too late yet. They started cheering louder, louder than they had cheered for anyone. Naruto gave a genuine smile after feeling accepted. From atop another building, Jiraiya was watching this proudly, he was slightly upset when Naruto didn't use the special toad dance to introduce himself but the epic entrance made up for it.

-The Hokage Office.

Team Uzu along with Ino Yamanaka were present in the room with Tsunade at the desk. Jiraiya was supposed to be here but he was too busy peeking at the women in the hot springs.

"Tomorrow morning you three will fight against surprise opponents chosen by me after which I will rank you." Just as Naruto was about to speak up, Tsunade cut him off with a stern glare. "Neither will I tell you the opponents, Naruto nor will I just rank you according to the bingo book. Moving on, what are your living arrangements, since there are no Senju or Uzumaki clan districts and the Uchiha district has not been used for almost a decade, it will require a lot of cleaning."

"Naruto will be living with me." Ino said, pulling his collar. She had waited long enough and now that she had him, she wasn't going to let him go that easily.

"Ow ow, god damn it woman, stop pulling my collar, it hurts. How did you get such a firm grip anyway?" Naruto said, making an attempt of getting out of Ino's hold which was unsuccessful. Ino reluctantly left him go after seeing that she was choking him.

"Sorry, I was just a bit excited." Ino said with a slight blush on her face. "I guess I should have asked you. Naruto Uzumaki, the love of my life, the scrawny little kid who was shorter than me in the academy, the boy who has always been my best friend, my partner in crime for every prank I pulled, will you move in with me?"

"Of course I will." He said, engulfing her in a hug and kissing the top of her head. The two separated after they heard a cough from Tsunade.

"Now that Naruto's living arrangements are decided. What about you two?" Tsunade shifted her gaze from the happy couple to Sasuke and Aiko.

"I guess I could build a similar house that we had using my Wood Style but it would take a day or two to buy and set up the rest of the furniture, which is not made using wood."

"After the massacre, I had to live in an apartment so I think that we could live there till the house is ready." Sasuke said, remembering the address to his apartment. "Naruto, I am going to need ten wood clones to clean the apartment."

"What's in it for me?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Three bowls of ramen from Sora-ku." Sasuke said with a smirk. He then took out the scroll that contained the ramen and placed it on the table.

"Triple the amount and you have a deal." Sasuke took out two more scrolls and handed them over to Naruto. "Pleasure doing business with you Sasuke but if Aiko had asked me to do it, I would have done this for free." Naruto said, pocketing the scrolls while Sasuke was fuming at his own stupidity. He made ten clones that followed Sasuke and Aiko back to Sasuke's apartment. After that, he left with Ino to go have a look at her apartment which was going to be his new home. He was very excited to say the least. As they were exiting the Hokage Tower, they ran into Iruka who had actually been waiting to meet Naruto in person.

"Naruto, it's great to see you alive. Plus I couldn't resist but meet you in person. I've heard a lot about you while you were Kitsune." Iruka said, with a proud smile. He had always thought of Naruto as a younger brother and the news of his possible death hit him hard. A few months ago, Ino had told him the truth about Naruto and that he was alive, to say he was relieved was an understatement.

"Good things, I hope." Naruto returned Iruka's smile with an even bigger one. He was relieved when Iruka wasn't angry. The last two times he had revealed himself weren't that pleasant.

"Great things. I would love to hear about the past three years of your life and catch up with you. Say, are you two free tomorrow for lunch? I'd love to take you two out to Ichiraku's."

"Only if you are paying Sensei!"Naruto responded. Catching up with two of his favourite people while eating the food of the gods was an offer that he couldn't refuse.

-With Tsunade and Jiraiya.

"I am betting against Naruto, as much as I know that Naruto is stronger than his opponent, I have a feeling that he will lose. She beat me in our last fight when I went all out so I have full confidence in her." Tsunade said, downing her glass of Sake. She was at a restaurant with Jiraiya, placing bets on the matches that were going to take place tomorrow. This was the chance that could change her losing streak into a winning one. She knew that the logical one was Naruto but she had faith that the opponent that she had chosen had a few tricks up her sleeve.

"I beg to differ; I think that the obvious winner here is Naruto. A year ago, he lasted twenty minutes against me when I was using Sage Mode. A few weeks ago, when we had a spar, that kid kicked my ass whilst I was in Sage Mode within twenty minutes, though he used a dirty trick. There is no way that he is going to lose. I am so confident in Naruto that if he loses, I will give you half a million ryo and I'll enter your office through the door for a month." Jiraiya said, filling Tsunade's and his glass with more Sake. He had full faith in the blonde jinchuriki and with the Flying Raijin; there was no chance that Naruto would be defeated. Tsunade knew that there was no way Jiraiya would enter her office using the door even if she won so she raised an eyebrow in doubt. "Fine. I'll just give you half a million ryo. You know, old habits die hard." He grumbled, taking a bite out of his rice ball.

"The next two fights are easy, right? Sasuke wins and Aiko wins." Tsunade said, taking the rice ball out of Jiraiya's hand and getting up. "Sorry Jiraiya, I have to get back to work. Need to fill out a lot of paperwork. Don't get in trouble and do not peek at naked women at the hot springs." After receiving a 'will do' from Jiraiya, she left the restaurant, sighing at the thought of completing all the paperwork.

-With Naruto and Ino

"Mi casa es su casa!" Ino said, opening the door to her apartment. It was a standard apartment with two rooms and a huge living room with the kitchen right next to it. "I know that it might be smaller to the homes you're used to living in so if you want, we could buy another house. I have been saving up anyway." She said, slightly embarrassed. She had seen the houses owned by him and they were usually massive in comparison to this.

"The size of the home doesn't matter. I would rather live here than in a huge mansion." He said, wrapping his arms around her waist, sending shivers down her spine. "Plus, I don't care how huge or small the house is as long as I am living with you. And the space is more than enough anyway." He said, placing feather-light kisses along the Yamanaka's neck, who was blushing furiously.

"You're sweet, you know that?" She said, turning around and wrapping her arms around his neck and then capturing his lips. Her soft warm lips against his slightly chapped ones. She slightly parted her lips to give him the opportunity to slip his tongue inside as her hands tangled themselves with his messy blonde hair. They could hear the combined 'thud' of their rapid heartbeats, while their eyes were fully closed in pleasure. Running out of breath, their lips separated.

"That might just be our best kiss till now." Naruto said, with a smile on his slightly flushed face. "So, flower girl, which room is mine?" He asked with a sly smirk.

"Oh no no no, we're staying and sleeping in the same room. I need you as a replacement for my pillow. You can take the other room too but we're sleeping in the same room."

"Are you sure, I mean, Flower man wouldn't be exactly pleased to know that his daughter is not only living with her boyfriend but also sleeping in the same bed as him."

"Whiskers, I trust you more than anyone and I know that you respect me so you wouldn't try anything or force me. This is an easy decision for me. Speaking of my dad, my parents have invited you over for dinner tomorrow and I am hoping to tell them about our relationship if you're okay with it." She said lacing her hand with his.

"Okay, I'm fine with it. I am perfectly fine with telling your dad, who might just kill me, about our relationship. Calm down, Naruto calm down. The worst he could do is just destroy my brain and leave me dead right?" He said, visibly afraid of the thought of revealing his relationship to her father. He was playing every possibility of what might happen and there was no positive outcome.

"C'mon, I wouldn't let him do anything to you and my mom adores you so I don't think that he could go against her." She said, giving him a peck on his cheek and walking towards the kitchen. "Now don't just stand there, come here and help me make dinner!"

-With Sasuke and Aiko

Sasuke listened to the sizzle of the fish that he was cooking; making sure that it wasn't overcooked or undercooked, just perfect. He then shifted his eyes from the fish to the rice, which was done, and turned the stove off. He had been cooking for himself since the Uchiha massacre and it didn't matter if he made a few mistakes as he was the only one eating it but now everything needed to be perfect. He didn't know why he had the sudden need to impress Aiko. It's like whenever she was around him, he felt a bit nervous and there was a weird feeling in his stomach. 'I think I might have diarrhoea.' He turned his attention back to the fish, gently turning it over for the other side to cook. He released a sigh of relief when he saw that it had been perfectly cooked. Just as he was about to plate the food, the door to his room opened, to reveal Aiko dressed in a normal t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Sasuke knew that she was attractive but he had never noticed how perfectly toned her legs were or how brown her eyes were.

"Like what you see?" Aiko asked as she saw Sasuke's speechless expression which seemed to snap him out of his trance.

"Firstly, that is my line and secondly, I wasn't checking you out. Now that you are finally here, we can start eating." He said, placing the plates on the table while Aiko sat down. He didn't want to be rude so he waited for Aiko to start eating, slightly nervous of her reaction.

"Sasuke, this is really good. If you would make me lunch and dinner every day, then I am living with you for the rest of my life." She said, cutting another piece of fish and eating it. As she looked up to see Sasuke's reaction which she thought would just be expressionless, she saw him smile. One of his rare genuine smiles that just happens once or twice a month. He muttered a quick 'Thanks' and started eating.

"So, what do you think about Naruto moving out?" Sasuke said, filling his bowl with rice again. He knew that it was going to happen and he was happy that Naruto had finally found someone; this made him think about his own state. As much as he didn't want to accept it, he too wanted someone. Someone that he could love unconditionally till he died. He cringed after realising that he was thinking about something so sappy. Oh, he had changed a lot in the last three years.

"Eh, if I am being honest, I'm fine with it. I was actually hoping that Ino would ask him to move in with her but even if she didn't, I would have kicked him out. Don't get me wrong, as much as I love him, I don't want him to live with us instead of his partner and it's not like we're never going to see him again, I bet he'll be here all the time after all, we are a team and all the scrolls need like two or three floors so I am not afraid of losing him." Aiko said, eating a piece of fish. She was going to miss her brother but she couldn't be selfish and keep him to herself. Naruto had told her a lot of stories about him and Ino, about his past life and she could see the glimmer in his eyes when he talked about Ino and she knew that after all that Naruto had gone through, he deserved this. "I am more nervous about tomorrow's fight. What happens if I lose?"

"Aiko, you are one of the strongest ninja that I have ever met, you defeated one of the Akatsuki members, you outsmarted and killed Danzo, trust me when I say this, you will win tomorrow. I'll make a heavy breakfast tomorrow so you're not tired or hungry in the middle of the fight." Sasuke said, picking up his dishes and going towards the sink.

"Thanks, 'Suke. You know what, since you're making the food, I'll wash the dishes and you can use your bed, I'll sleep on the sofa" She said, picking up her own plates.

"You're turning soft, Uzumaki." He commented with a small chuckle. "Plus, I wouldn't let a guest sleep on the sofa."

"Oh, so I'm a guest now? Well then why aren't you treating me like a queen?" She said, playfully.

"My apologies, milady. I hope that I haven't mistreated you or disrespected you this fine evening. Should I call the chariots? You might want to go for a night's ride, it's beautiful outside." Sasuke said, playing along.

"As much as I would like that, I wouldn't leave such a worthy servant behind, I would feel guilty for doing so. Maybe we should both just enjoy the view from here. That way, I'll be with you and we can enjoy it together." She said, taking one spoon and waving it in the air.

"Do not pity me, milady. You deserve the best, don't let a servant like me be the reason you don't enjoy your life. I don't think that your father would be happy if he knew that you are spending time with me."

"Who cares about what my father wants. That old brute has been controlling me for years; can a woman not make her own choice? Must she always ask for her father's permission? I want some freedom in my life!"

"Is something the matter milady? You seem really upset. Please tell me who has committed this sin of causing you distress so I can punish that fool." He said with a burning anger and passion.

"It's my father. He wants me to marry that arse from his allied kingdom so that the alliance remains intact. Does he not understand that I do not love that prince and I cannot be forced to love the person that he has chosen for me? I cannot control who I love and even if I could, I wouldn't. The person that I love might not be of noble blood but has always prioritised me over himself. If I ask him to give his life for me, he'll do it with a smile on his face. I deserve someone like that who can keep me happy and someone who I can keep happy not some rich stuck-up prince." She said on the verge of tears. "I deserve you and you deserve me. Don't try to deny it, I have seen the way you look at me and if I am being honest, I quite like it."

"So then let us run away to a land far away, a land where you are no longer the princess and I am not your slave. A land where we can live forever without your father bothering us. A land where we two are free to love each other." He said, taking her hand and looking into her eyes. She could see that he was totally honest and had a strange urge to kiss him right there but a part of her still wondered if he was acting. She couldn't take the chance, she didn't want to take the chance because maybe she was feeling this way because of the scene that they just performed and she couldn't risk damaging their friendship.

"And scene. Damn Uchiha, I didn't know you had it in you to improvise." She said, letting go if his hand. "If being a ninja gets boring, we should star in a movie."

"I guess we should, after all we do make a pretty good team." He said with a smile. "I still don't get how this went from me sleeping on the sofa to you running away from your kingdom with a slave."

"I just improvised and it made the story interesting." She said, getting back to the dishes.

"It was so cliché, like one of those story tales but it was hella entertaining, I'll give you that. And just so we're clear, you are sleeping on the bed and I'll take the sofa. And before we start arguing again, we'll take turns for the bed. Today you sleep on it and tomorrow I will."

-The next day (Training ground 7)

The ground was a huge circular grassland surrounded by forests on all sides. Tsunade, Jiraiya and Shizune were waiting for the three to arrive. Tsunade was sure that she was going to win this bet but she was controlling her excitement and keeping her poker face on. Meanwhile, Jiraiya had a smirk on his face, he was sure that his student would win the match. He was planning to rub this in Tsunade's face. The three then appeared in a shunshin in front of them.

"Now that you three are here, your fights will be against the following opponents. Sasuke against Kakashi, Aiko against Raidō and Naruto against Ino." Tsunade announced.

"Wait a minute, why am I up against Ino? Granny, do you want to break us up? Because that is not happening. This is so unfair."

"Why is this unfair Whiskers, scared that I might distract you enough to defeat you?" Ino said, appearing from behind him in a shunshin. She had been training a lot and had even expanded her chakra pools after that incident with Sasori.

"Bring it on flower girl; you know that I'll kick your ass any day of the week."

"Okay now that Ino has arrived, you two should begin your battle." Tsunade said, gesturing the rest to move away from the two. Once everyone was a safe distance away from them, Tsunade decided to start the battle. "HAJME!"

Naruto and Ino stared into each other's eyes, waiting for the other to make a move. Tired of waiting, Naruto unsheathed his katana and in one swift motion, he was in front of Ino, slashing her into two. He wasn't surprised when he felt some drops of mud land on his face and in Ino's place; there was just a mountain of mud. This was bad; he was already at a disadvantage. He didn't know where Ino was but she knew where he was. He felt a slight movement under him and used chakra to jump to the top of the nearest tree. The spot where he was standing just exploded in front of him, he had expected the 'Earth Style: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique' but the explosion was completely unexpected. He saw Ino's shadow, thirty feet away from him and decided to strike. "Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!" He exclaimed, gathering the moisture in the air to make a humongous water dragon that went straight for Ino.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" Ino said, ramming her hands and erecting a wall as a shield to defend herself from the dragon. She watched as Naruto's water dragon thrashed harmlessly against the wall. Her eyes widened when she saw one of Naruto's Hirashin kunai fly towards her and she immediately substituted herself with a 'Stone Clone' as she didn't want to use a lot of chakra to make the 'Mud Clone'. Naruto teleported there as soon as the kunai touched the ground and delivered a swift punch to destroy the clone. A large distance away from him, Ino sighed. She had to deplete his chakra but there was a single problem, Naruto was a chakra monster. She had never seen him run out of chakra. Whenever his chakra was lower than fifty percent, he would just start using Kurama's chakra. Everyone has a weakness and she just had to find his weakness.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto said, creating a hundred and fifty clones of himself. He was tired of playing hide and seek so he decided to just send out his clones to find her. As soon as Ino heard this, she knew that she was in trouble. She could find out his weakness later. No she had to get rid of his clones. Her chakra pool was massive but they were still mediocre compared to his. She had to find a more efficient way of cleaning those clones off. 'Earth Style: Golem Technique.' She said, spitting out ten large golems made out of stone. These were extremely durable and could survive a lot of explosions without getting a single scratch. These should easily clear those clones up she thought using the 'Earth Style: Hiding Like A Mole Jutsu' to hide underground.

As she felt Naruto's chakra above her, she decided to use the 'Earth Style: Ripping Drill Fang' to give him an uppercut but Naruto blocked it easily. Ino jumped away from him as he took his taijutsu stance and in response, she took her own stance. Their stances were completely different. While Naruto had an aggressive, attacking stance, Ino had a calm, defensive stance.

"Using my own moves on me? Not bad, flower girl but don't forget that I am a sensor too and I can sense when you're under me." He said, while the two moved in circles waiting for the opportunity to strike. As soon as Naruto saw the chance, he went for a punch aiming for Ino's shoulder which Ino defended easily. Within a few seconds, he started throwing unpredictable blows at Ino which Ino managed to defend without taking any damage. After seeing that they weren't doing any damage to each other. They both somersaulted away, to a safe distance so that they could use Ninjutsu.

"Earth Style: Mud Wolves." Ino said, creating a total of eight wolves that rushed towards Naruto. This technique was usually used to activate once a trap was set but if the user had enough chakra, they could be used in battle. "Wood Style: Giant Forest Jutsu" Naruto said, extending his hand which had transformed into wood at a cellular lever and forcing them to grow rapidly and fork into many branches to fend off the wolves. No matter how many times the wood pierced the wolves, they reformed and attacked again. A wood clone came out from Naruto's body and stood on top of Naruto's shoulders. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" The clone yelled, gathering chakra in its stomach and expelling a very powerful gust of wind to solidly the mud wolves by drying the mud. As soon as the wolves had become mere statues, Naruto smashed each one of them by piercing them with his wooden branches.

"Earth Style: Mountain Sandwich Jutsu" Ino said and the earth around Naruto divided into two massive halves that began to levitate to crush him in between them. This technique was mostly used by Iwa but that didn't stop her from learning it. This happened so fast that he didn't get any time to escape and he was crushed in between the two halves. For a second, no one heard anything and Ino began to worry. Then there were cracks running all over the two halves while everyone's eyes widened, the 'Sandwich' exploded into little rocks to reveal Naruto who was now covered in orange chakra of the Nine Tailed Fox. "Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!" He said, turning the flat grass land into a forest within moments. Ino unsheathed her Tanto to cut through the growing trees and started to run away, she knew that this technique was mostly used to trap opponents in a tree and then imprison them. By the time the grass was covered by Naruto's forest, she was far away, strategizing her next move. She could use explosions to clear Naruto's chakra trees but that would use a lot of chakra and that could give away her location. Not everyone knew this but she could perform some fire release jutsus, which were taught to her by Asuma, but it would take her a little more chakra than usual. "Fire Style: Burning Ash!" She said, covering the whole area with chakra infused gunpowder and then rubbing two kunai together to create a spark. Within minutes the whole forest was set on fire and it was spreading. She knew that Naruto would surely do something to control the fire before it got out of hand so she didn't worry much about it.

"Water Style: Exploding Water Shock Wave!" Naruto said, making a wooden pillar and spewing a humongous amount of water from his mouth to stop the fire. The water also washed away all of his burnt trees but as Naruto stepped on the land; the grass started growing again due to his strong wood affinity. As he turned he cursed, the water had made the land wt which was perfect for Ino's mud jutsus. He had played right into her trap and sure enough an army of Mud Clones started appearing in front of him he had no other choice but to us his father's famous jutsu. He unsealed a few Hirashin kunai from the storage seal present on his arm. "Ninja Art: Kunai Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He said, after throwing the kunai in different directions which landed near each 'Mud Clone'. With a smirk, he took out his own kunai and held it in reverse grip and in a flash he started teleporting to each clone, destroying it.

From a distance, Tsunade, Shizune, Kakashi, Raidō and Jiraiya watched in awe as Naruto destroyed the army of Mud Clones. They had heard a lot about how Minato had finished ten thousand Iwa shinobi and ended the war and they imagined that it was just like this except on a much larger scale. While Naruto was almost as fast as Minato, there were only a few hundred Mud Clones. They were enjoying this battle to say the least; it was as if these two were in a much different league than the other matches that they had witnessed. Behind them, a small crowd of villagers and ninja, including the remains of rookie nine, Naruto and Sasuke's replacements, Team Guy, Inoichi and a few other Jonins had gathered to watch this. Inoichi couldn't be more proud of his daughter, she had already surpassed him.

On the opposite side, Ino watched as all her clones were being defeated but that didn't matter. She had done that only to distract him for sometime while her summon, Katsuyu, who was fully covering Ino's body, refilled her Chakra pool. She was already down to fifty percent so she had to get back to at least eighty before she could fight him again. Once Naruto had finished, he gathered all of his kunai and teleported back to where he was waiting earlier. Once he was there, he closed his eyes and concentrated. He had to find Ino and once he had found her, he had to make sure that she didn't leave his sight. As Ino's chakra pools were back to an eighty five percent, she shunshined about twenty feet away from Naruto who opened his eyes.

"Water Style: Liquid Bullets!" Naruto exclaimed, firing a number of small bullets with a high velocity towards Ino who pulled up a mud wall in defence. She then extended her open palm. The spectators watched as a brown Rasengan appeared in her hand with a drill like top. Naruto extended his own arm to form his own Rasenshuriken. He threw his Rasenshuriken as Ino ducked to avoid it. When the centre of the Rasenshuriken was above her, she trusted her Rasendoriru into the centre, destroying his Rasenshuriken. Her Rasendoriru disappeared a few moments later but Naruto was already ready for his next attack. He had unsheathed his Katana and was charging towards Ino. Ino blocked the hit easily with her Tanto. This went on for a while with both of them landing a few hits resulting in small cuts, which started healing on Naruto. They were so fast that the spectators couldn't keep up with them and were just able to see afterimages and hear the 'clang' of metal against metal. Sparks flew when the blades clashed and though Naruto had a slight advantage due to the length of his blade; Ino's defence was almost perfect. This was the longest and toughest battle that the two had ever fought.

Naruto predicted the fake strike but Ino surprised him by going in for another fake strike. She managed to deflect his katana, which flew out of Naruto's hands but she also lost her Tanto. She saw that Naruto was surprised and used the opportunity to flip him over and then sat down on him.

"Looking for this?" Ino asked innocently as she took out five Hirashin kunai, that were placed in different places by him so that he could teleport away if in danger from her kunai pouch. "The other ones are at home so you can't teleport there or you'll instantly lose the match for breaking the rules." She said, as he struggled.

"This is actually pretty comfortable, ya know. You sitting on top of me." Naruto whispered, seductively as she blushed furiously at the thought. He then tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear as he leaned forward to go in for a kiss. He captured her mouth with his in a passionate kiss that distracted her as he rolled her over so that he was on top of her, while in the distance; Jiraiya wrote another scene for his upcoming book in the Icha-Icha series inspired by the scene in front of him. He broke the kiss once he had a kunai to her neck.

"I win, flower girl." He said, slyly as Ino realised what had happened. Her mood quickly switched from happy to confused to furious. Naruto could see the anger in her eyes and suddenly he felt her knee touching his inner thigh.

"Every man's weakness, their balls. I got you whiskers and you could say that your balls are in my court. If you move, I'll knee them, if you try to knock me out, I'll knee them, try anything and I'll knee them." Ino said, in an almost teasing tone while Naruto gulped, clearly threatened. "So who wins now?" She said, with her knee centimetres below his ball sac. She knew that it was a dirty trick but she had to win and it wasn't exactly against the rules.

"You." Naruto said, throwing his blade away in surrender and standing up. Meanwhile in the distance, Tsunade was rejoicing. She had won half a million ryo and she had finally won a bet while Jiraiya was busy crying anime tears. The two bowed to each other and made the unison sign to show respect. They then headed back to where Tsunade was waiting and Naruto casually slid his hand into Ino's, entwining his fingers with hers. He had a lot to ask her, she was way stronger than he had expected and had to ask her how she came up with the Earth Style: Rasendoriru. On their way back, they crossed Sasuke and Kakashi who were heading for their battle. Sasuke smirked at the blondes while Kakashi just gave them an eye smile. On their way, the blonde couple saw the people gathered and waved to them before returning to the place from where Tsunade, Jiraiya, Aiko and Raidō were spectating.

Naruto had a huge smile plastered across his face but Ino on the other hand had a frown across her own, she had won but she just couldn't accept it as Naruto was clearly holding back. She still had a long way to go if she wanted to push Naruto to his limits.

"Why the long face?" Naruto asked, noticing his girlfriend's dilemma.

"It's just that even after working my ass off for the last three years, I still didn't push you to your limits. You didn't use fuinjutsu or Hirashin on me. You didn't even need to summon your toads or use Kurama's chakra. It's just that you are so far ahead of me that it seems almost impossible to catch up with you. I mean how am I supposed to protect you when I cannot even push you to your limits." Ino said, frustrated with herself.

"Ino-chan, you did challenge me. You were one of the hardest opponents that I have fought and the reason that I didn't use the Hirashin or Kurama's chakra is because I haven't perfected them but you still forced me to use them. You have improved a lot since our genin days and I am sure that you'll surely match my strength. You have come a long way, like you not only learnt the Rasengan but also added your own chakra affinity to it which was so awesome. Even I did not push you to your maximum potential, you didn't use any Yamanaka jutsus and you're chakra levels are just a little less than half. And I know that we will push each other to our limits especially that we're living together." He said, proud of his girlfriend, putting a smile on her face.

"HAJME!" Tsunade shouted, starting the battle between the two Sharingan wielders. Kakashi uncovered his activated Sharingan which was spinning in excitement while Sasuke activated his own pair of Sharingan.

"Just like last time, if you get these two bells, you win. If you don't, you lose." Kakashi said, pointing towards the two bells tied at his waist. Sasuke just smirked in response; this would be way easier than his fights with Naruto or Aiko. All he had to do was capture the bells and that's it.

The two sprinted towards each other, blocking the other's blow with their forearm, pushing each other backwards due to the force exerted. The two engaged in taijutsu immediately but neither could land a blow on the other due to the Sharingan. Sasuke knew that this was just a waste of time as the Sharingan predicts the move of the opponent so he had to use Ninjutsu or genjutsu to defeat Kakashi. Avoiding Kakashi's kick, he did a back flip and flew through his hand signs, launching a huge fire ball towards him.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" Kakashi said, forming a wall to protect him from Sasuke's 'Fire Style: Grand Fireball Technique' but the wall was broken to reveal a number of mini fireballs which would have burnt Kakashi to a crisp, had he not substituted himself with a log. Sasuke had tricked Kakashi into thinking that he was using the 'Grand Fireball Jutsu' but he had actually used 'Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu'. Kakashi reappeared in front of Sasuke once the fireballs had disappeared. Sasuke rushed towards Kakashi, unsheathing his newly acquired one-handed Katana and striking his chest which Kakashi easily defended using a kunai. Sasuke then went for a kick aimed at Kakashi's knee, which managed to hit Kakashi, pushing him back a few feet. As soon as Sasuke's blade hit Kakashi's arm, Kakashi poofed out of existence. 'A shadow clone.'

"Summoning Jutsu!" Sasuke said, as his personal summon, Kara, appeared. Unlike his other teammates, he wasn't a strong sensor but luckily his cats could track down his targets for him using their sense of smell. "Kara, I need you to track Kakashi's scent. Can you do that for me?"

"Hai, Sasuke-sama. Judging by the fact that you don't have your mask on, I assume the meeting went well." After a nod from Sasuke, she started leading him to the outskirts of the training ground, near a lake where Kakashi was waiting for him.

"Water Style: Water Shockwave!" Kakashi said, running through his hand signs. He was one of the shinobi who liked to intimidate the opponent by doing all the hand signs instead of shortening it down to one or two. He sent a tsunami towards Sasuke, which was taller than the trees. Seeing all the water heading towards them, and thinking about the damage the water might do to her fur, Kara muttered a quick sorry before poofing away.

"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!" Sasuke said, jumping on top a high branch, spitting a literal sea of flames. He knew that fire was weaker than water but if a fire is strong enough, it can vaporise all of the water. The whole area was covered in water vapour which was also going to be useful for his next jutsu. "Chidori: Stream!" Sasuke said, zapping the whole area covered by water vapour. Normally, this only worked within a three meter radius but the impure water, which is a very good conductor of electricity, spread it throughout the area. Kakashi stayed underground in order to not get zapped. Once the fog had faded, Kakashi used the 'Earth Style: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique' to pull Sasuke underground. As Kakashi emerged from the ground, he felt cold metal against his neck.

"You're getting old, Kakashi. Do you still think that I would fall for such childish tricks?" Sasuke said with a smirk as his Shadow clone poofed out of existence.

"Or maybe you're still too naive, Sasuke." Kakashi said, as his own water clone splattered on the ground and he put a kunai to Sasuke's neck. The strange thing was that instead of gritting his teeth, Sasuke was still smirking. Looking to his left, he saw a pair of blood red eyes, with three eclipses intersecting each other. In one quick motion, Sasuke burst into a number of cats, trapping Kakashi in his genjutsu. Not wanting to harm his former sensei, Sasuke decided to put a non lethal and less intense genjutsu on Kakashi, giving himself a few seconds to retrieve the bells using his 'Chidori: Senbon' before Kakashi released the genjutsu.

"Looks like you passed, Sasuke. Man, I miss the days when this used to be fun." Kakashi said, lowering his Hitai-ate and covering his borrowed Sharingan. They both made the unison sign and returned to the spectating area. On their way, they passed Aiko and Raidō who were heading towards the almost destroyed Training ground.

"Good luck, Uzumaki. Your opponent is a master of kenjutsu, you'll need this." Sasuke said, throwing his sheathed Katana towards the redhead who caught it with ease. She muttered a quick thanks.

"HAJME!" Tsunade shouted, starting the final match. Raidō immediately unsheathed his sword, the Kokuto. He didn't know Aiko personally so he didn't need to talk to her. Aiko unsheathed Sasuke's blade, taking his advice and giving the opponent no advantage. The two blades clashed, his black blade against her silver one. Raidō, being a much experienced Kenjutsu master decided to take a hit just so he could land his own. As soon as the black metal touched the redhead, she substituted herself with a log nearby. She made a few Shadow clones and chose to hide away as her arm, which had a small cut, was starting to get numb.

Once she was out of his range, she started treating her wound. Taking out a scroll, which had a number of her antidotes inside it, she began observing her symptoms. 'That blade is definitely poisoned. It isn't snake poison or my body temperature would have been much higher. I am currently losing control over my arm and I am feeling a strong burning sensation around the cut. This is definitely a mixture of plant and fish poison. The only pair that works this efficiently is the torikabuto plant and the puffer fish.' She injected three vials of different antidotes into her body. While waiting for her arm to recover quickly, she had to devise a plan to end this quickly. 'Okay so the first option is taijutsu but if I have to judge by the force he used a moment ago and sum that up with his height and build, I only have a fifty nine percent chance of winning. Genjutsu, I know a few but it won't be entertaining and he might be able to break through them. Ninjutsu, if I use Ninjutsu, I am certain that I will win but he is a kenjutsu master which means that he must know a lot of Hidden Leaf Kenjutsu and that would be very beneficial for me.' A few seconds later, her face broke into a grin. She had come up with the perfect plan to knock this man out which had a ninety three percent chance of success.

"Hey scar-face, over here!" Aiko shouted, getting the man's attention. His eyebrow twitched in annoyance, which to her just meant that her plan was working. He charged at her, his blade against hers. She was paying full attention to him but showed as if this was light work for her. Even though she liked going for attack, she just stuck to defence. That way, the jonin would get a tad bit irritated because he wouldn't be able to land a hit, which would eventually work out in her favour.

"Is that it, come on. This is even easier that defeating Anija while he is half asleep." She said in a disappointed tone which started to hurt his ego. "Secret Sword: Moonlight!" He said, rushing towards her at his maximum speed leaving a bunch of afterimages behind. As he felt his sword go through something, a smirk appeared on his face. No one had been able to dodge this attack of his and he had mostly executed people with it.

"See, that was a bit better but still too easy." He heard her voice from behind him where she was standing, wielding the sword of the youngest Uchiha. As he glanced again at the target and found a log of wood. He was in shock as if to ask how she had evaded his attack. "Easy, the shadow flicker technique and the log was just a distraction." She answered in a dry tone.

"Hazy Moon Night!" The ex-anbu shouted, using chakra to jump high up in the air and forming a circle with his sword, leaving a bunch of after images. Then Aiko wasn't sure what happened, he was nowhere but everywhere, striking her from every side. She was defending on instinct but those defences were a bit slow. It was as if he had gone into another mode, this just made the battle much more interesting and Aiko would have been lying if she said that she wasn't having fun. "Fire Style: Flame Wall!" She said, catching him off guard and forming an impenetrable fall of flames around her. She could see the burnt remains of the fabric on his right hand and lowered the wall as he had settled down.

"Is that it? I thought that you were one of the few kenjutsu masters in Konoha." Aiko mocked the man and glanced at Sasuke. As per her request, he had his Sharingan activated and was copying the different kinds of kenjutsu. This angered the man even more. He had to show his superiority over the teen redhead. "Leaf Style: Crescent Moon Dance!" He said, using two shadow clones along with himself to attack Aiko from her blind spots. Before the clones could even touch her, she had finished them with her 'Boil Style: Volley' by forming four shadow clones and spewing compressed balls of acidic mist and destroying the two and damaging the real one severely. This was something she had come up with by herself to get rid of the couple hundred clones that Naruto usually made.

'Good, I just got two new jutsus to learn. I guess my plan is really fool proof. Now, it's time to end this.' And just as she had started the hand signs for her final jutsu, Raidō started moving his sword from top to bottom, slowly and his one sword turned into two, two turned into four and before she knew it, she was trapped in his genjutsu. Raidō grinned as he saw her hands stopped the hand signs, "Leaf Ninja Art: Yanagi!" Aiko was picturing the leaves of the willow tree, swaying due to the night's breeze. He dashed forward, the tip of his sword aiming for her chest. At the last minute, she broke the genjutsu and made a cross with her hand to save her chest. The black metal cut through the anbu armour protecting her forearm and sliced the arm, causing her to wince slightly.

"Sasuke, do not move. If you go there, then Aiko will lose due to her needing medical attention. It looks like she is still in the condition to fight so let her finish it." Tsunade scolded the raven who was headed right to Aiko to heal her wound. It hurt him to see that she was hurt and the worst part was that he could easily heal her but he wasn't allowed to. He scowled and started pacing across the room. He knew that Aiko was easily the smartest out of the group so she must have had some backup plan, right? Now that he viewed it from that perspective, his scowl turned into a smirk. Who was he doubting? Aiko? Who always had three plans ready with an eighty percent or more chance of succeeding? Sometimes even he was in awe with her brilliance and Uchihas are never in awe of someone who isn't a legend or from the Uchiha clan.

'Okay, so instead of easy plan A, I'll have to use the hard plan B.' She thought, not caring about the huge cut on her right hand, she also added a mental note to order even stronger anbu armour next time. "Boil Style: Steam Dragon Flame Bullet!" she said lifting her left hand and forming a left handed 'rat' hand sign and spewing out four highly acidic stream dragons, who could be controlled through her chakra. For the next minute, the dragons destroyed Raidō and he just couldn't escape. As soon as he tried to, she saw it and sent the dragons at him. Unlike most other Boil Style jutsus which cover a huge area, this was just to strike accurately and powerfully. Once Raidō was knocked out, she stopped and her steam dragons disappeared into thin air. Before she could approach the spectators, Sasuke was in front of her hand his eyes were proud but he had the same expressionless face.

"Give me your hand." Sasuke said, softly and Aiko obeyed. Almost immediately, he started healing her. "So, you won after all, Uzumaki. See, I told you yesterday that it was going to be a piece of cake but you were over thinking. You should give that pretty little brain a break sometime." He said as he finished healing her hand. He walked over to the unconscious Raidō and part of him even felt bad for the man so he started healing him too.

"You know what, you're right. I should give my brain a break. Since this is your village and Anija is a bit busy for the day, show me a place to relax." Sasuke replied with a 'hn' as some of Tsunade's personnel anbu picked up Raidō and disappeared. "Now, let's head back and see what Lady Tsunade has decided."

-Tsunade's office, Hokage tower.

"Considering your performance today and the fact that you knocked out one of my personal anbu guards, I will be promoting you three to jonin." Tsunade said with a smile on her face. Naruto started celebrating and Aiko was scolding him for being unprofessional. The two reminded her of her Hashirama-jiji and Tobirama-jiji. With a fake cough, she continued. "You may collect your Hitai-ate." She said, throwing a Hitai-ate at each one of them. "Since the team 7 jonin, Kakashi is having a lot of problem with his current Genin and Chunin; I will be transferring them to Team 18 which will be led by Yamato, one of my trusted men. This is because he is a patient teacher and can at least make two of them proper shinobi. The new Team 7 will consist of you three along with Kakashi." Tsunade said, gesturing to Kakashi who eye smiled. "As you all are jonin, instead of him being your sensei, he will be your teammate, not superior or inferior. After three months, you can decide whether to remain a part of this team or join the Anbu. You will meet Kakashi tomorrow at 6 am."


A/N:

This might be the longest chapter ever written by me. Anyway, please let me know if you enjoyed it as your comments are the only way through which I get to know if the chapter was good or bad and they are the only thing that drive me to write the next one. I had some help from KingGemini35 who is on so do check him out. Also, I thought about not revealing their identities due to a review but that is not the area I am heading in for this book. The plan I have requires them to reveal their identities. Also, is Namikaze a clan? I read that it was on Narutopedia but it seems like I was wrong. Someone let me know whether it is actually a clan or not so I can make the necessary corrections. Now for the important announcements:

Okay, so I know that I will have to kill Asuma off for the development of the NaruIno relationship but I don't know how to. If anyone has any ideas, dm me. In exchange for your idea, I will read any one of your books, give you an honest opinion on it and if it's good, I'll mention it in my next chapter or dedicate the chapter to you.

I don't exactly know when the next chapter will be posted but till then, these are my recommendations:

Hashirama's Heir: by TomRistenbieter

Return of the Flash: by Kamikaze132

The Eye of the Uzumaki: by madarafanboiii

See y'all as soon as possible!

Peace!