Already Naruto's twisted mind was churning, coming with several possibilities where he could apply his pranking skills to trap-making. It was detecting traps which was the problem for him. After all, it was one of the reasons why Iruka-sensei had been able to catch him after he had pranked someone or other.

Or the time when he had painted the Hokage monument in broad daylight. Now that had been a good prank. Naruto snickered to himself, looking to all the world, a lunatic. It had taken him a half a day to plan and do it, but he had successfully pulled it off. Well, that is until Iruka-sensei made him clean it all up.

But first things first. He needed to make a list of skills common to his pranks and to trap-making and trap-detection.

Before he could list them in his head, Kakashi had shown up some feet away and lazily walked towards them, his book held in front of his face.

'Yo,' the Jounin gave a lazy wave to his three genin.

Sakura immediately yelled, 'KAKASHI SENSEI, YOU'RE LATE!' clutching her fist in front of her face. Only then did she realise that Naruto hadn't yelled alongside her. She wasn't the only one surprised by this.

Kakashi watched as the orange wearing genin put the book in his kunai pouch, much like he does his. He was a little intrigued at the what blonde could have been possibly reading. It seemed like he was really interested in it.

But Iruka had informed the Jounins when the team were being assigned, how Naruto notoriously hated reading. Was that the result of their talk yesterday? If so, finally Kakashi was doing something right with him.

'Yo,' Naruto replied just as lazily, and while he was mad at the Jounin-sensei, he was not beyond being civil to the man. Even if for the formality of it.

'So, what are we going to do today, Kakashi-sensei?' Sakura asked after a moment's silence, and looking towards the baka. But given that Naruto wasn't inclined to do so, she had to take over. More so, she was tired of waiting for their sensei and doing nothing.

She reminded herself to talk to Kakashi-sensei about Naruto being late as well. He really wasn't setting a good example. One of them being perpetually late was enough. Their team didn't need two of them.

Kakashi knew something was going on. He had felt it the moment he had walked in on the training ground. There was a lingering tension there and he immediately thought that his genin had had some sort of an argument. Probably because of Naruto.

It couldn't have been a fight otherwise both Sasuke and Naruto would be bruised, the latter more than the former of course. Although, Naruto did look he had been sweating quite profusely. His jumpsuit and trouser looked slightly darker.

For now, he put that observation out of his head, and replied, 'Today, we are going to be doing a team exercise,' giving them all his eye-smile.

Naruto resisted the urge to groan. Of course, they were. What else could he expect. 'Which one?' he asked dumbfoundedly.

Surprisingly, it was the teme who spoke up, 'We must have done them all by now.' The look on his face showed all, Naruto thought amusedly. Normally, his face had the same broody look but this time the twitching eye and half clenched jaw showed Naruto how annoyed the teme was.

'Not this one, my young genin,' Kakashi replied cheerfully, putting his book away.

Naruto didn't like sound of that cheer. It was much too cheery. And it hinted towards something that he was certain he wasn't going to like.

This time he did groan as he saw what Kakashi had unsealed from a scroll. He had a really bad feeling about this.

He could see that Sasuke felt the same. The twitching in his eye had increased, albeit slightly, as he looked at the crates of three dozen eggs, some white and some brown.

'Huh?' Sakura was stumped, for once, looking from her sensei to her teammates who had clearly figured it out. The baka figuring anything out before her was a real low point and served to make her even more annoyed at both her sensei and the dobe. Could this day get any weirder?

'You have got to be kidding me!' Naruto glared at the cyclops. 'You can't be serious?!'

Kakashi looked a little impressed at the fact that Naruto had realised what they were going to be doing. Naruto would have been a little offended if he wasn't so annoyed.

'What is it baka!' Sakura looked from him to Kakashi-sensei. 'What are we going to do with them.'

Naruto bit his teeth, intently watching the teme's face. 'We're going to pass eggs to each other.'

Kakashi was the one to finish the sentence, 'Blindfolded.'

If he wasn't so pissed at the immense waste of time, he would have burst out laughing at the highly offended look on the teme's face as Sakura sputtered uselessly.

As usual, Kakashi had ignored their protests and soon all three genin were standing facing each other in a circle, not too big and not too small.

'Now, your job is to figure out where the other person is and throw these eggs to them to catch, by the sound of their voice alone,' Kakashi instructed them.

Naruto knew he was going to have so much fun in this exercise as soon as Kakashi had said the word, 'Blindfolded.'

'Naruto, you will start.' Kakashi handed over an egg to the blindfolded boy.

'Glady,' was the reply he got, much to his Sasuke's displeasure. Naruto seemed too cheerful.

'Teme, where are you?' Naruto asked, although he knew exactly where he was.

'I'm here, dobe,' Sasuke's voice came exactly from where Naruto expected it to.

'Here, catch!'

And then it became clear to them why Naruto sounded so happy. The sound of cracking egg and a loud yell emanated from Sasuke, 'Arrghhh! Disgusting! Dobe! Why did you throw it so hard?'

Naruto tried his best not to snicker, 'How the hell am I supposed to know you were standing so close.'

And just when Sasuke was about chuck his egg at him, Kakashi's voice came through, 'Now, now, Sasuke. You need to throw it to Sakura.'

'Hn,' Sasuke turned his head to where he though he remembered Sakura standing, 'I'll get you next time, dobe. Where are you Sakura?'

'I'm here, Sasuke-kun,' Sakura called out, and Naruto pictured the girl was actually waving her hand and snickered. 'What's so funny, baka?'

She must have turned her head to where Naruto's voice had come from because in the next second Sasuke had asked her to catch, followed by the sound of another cracking egg.

'EEEWWWW! It's in my hair!' Sakura yelled at the top of her lungs. 'I hate you Kakashi-sensei!'

This time, Naruto did burst out laughing, unable to control holding it in. As he clutched his belly, he missed the two eggs both Sakura and Sasuke had chucked to him with a yell of 'Catch!'

'Hey, wait wait…' Naruto tried to plead but no to no avail. On instinct, he had turned right, missing the egg from Sakura but Sasuke's egg smashed right into his face.

'Ughhh! Teme I'm going to get you back!' Naruto picked up another egg.

'Hn,' Sasuke replied and Naruto pictured his smug smirk plastered on the bastard's face.

Kakashi intervened before the exercise could dissolve into egg throwing rather than catching. 'The goal of this exercise is not to smash your teammate with eggs but to pass them the eggs.'

By the end of it however, all three genin were dripping with egg whites and yolk, and smelling of rotten sulphur. It seems that Kakashi had purposefully chosen eggs which had gone off.

As Naruto took off his own blindfold, he was treated to the sight of Sasuke's hair dripping with yellow yolk and quickly dissolved into belly aching laughter… again.

'Teme, your duck butt-hair's spilled its breakfast,' Naruto taunted.

'Watch it, dobe!' Sasuke growled at the same time as Sakura's shrill voice screeched.

'Don't call Sasuke-kun that!'

But one thing common between all three genin was that they were glaring at their sensei imagining similar revenge.

Kakashi thought it best not to test them anymore lest they start thinking he was a good target and gave them all an eye-smile, 'Well now. Hopefully you've all learnt an important lesson in teamwork. It doesn't matter how good you individually are if you don't know what your teammate's situation, strengths and weaknesses are. You have to plan your attacks, formation and tactics based on that. Now, get cleaned.'

Kakashi motioned to the stream nearby. Although his attention was not on the eggs sticking to his genin, but the eggs at the feet of each of them.

He had purposefully brought white and brown eggs to differentiate between what was caught and what was thrown. Although this wasn't meant to be a contest and he wouldn't bring it to their attention to ruin any lesson they may have learnt but clearly Naruto had caught the most eggs.

A quick count told him that the brown eggs at Naruto's feet were 7 while Sasuke had four and Sakura had two. Was this just a coincidence? He had a feeling it wasn't but there was no way Naruto could have seen the eggs. The blindfolds were all black.

Naruto shrugged, mentally congratulating himself for leaving his weights back at his apartment. As he stripped to his boxers, he was shaken out of his mental congratulating for his performance in catching the eggs by Sakura's exclamation.

'Wait… how is it that you've got a four pack but Sasuke-kun doesn't,' Sakura glared at him.

'What?' Naruto looked up at Sakura who was looking at his abdomen. A blush covered his cheeks. It wasn't a bloody four-pack, it was his ribs! He quickly diverted her attention by the first thing that came to his mind.

'Wait… how do you know Sasuke doesn't have a four-pack,' he asked with a smirk on his whiskered face.

Sasuke's head snapped up and turned from a blank look to Naruto to a horrified one to Sakura, realising what it implied. Sakura squealed and quickly buried her face in her hands.

Naruto roared in laughter… yet again, 'TEME! She's been stalking you!'

Sasuke's face turned from a clearly horrified one to a more scared one. 'What?!'

'I'm…. sorry… I didn't mean to… I… Ino said…,' Sakura stuttered and quickly dove into the stream to hide her embarrassment.

'What else she must have scene!' Naruto continued hollering, laughing his ass off. This was hands down the best team training they had had.

Sasuke grew as red as a tomato, and whirled towards him, 'DOBE! THIS ISN'T FUNNY!'

That only made Naruto laugh out louder and as soon as it looked like the teme was going to lunge towards him, Naruto took off running and jumped into the stream.

But no one was more amused than the lazy sensei who lounged on a nearby branch, his precious book held in his hands. 'Well this clearly went according to plan… somewhat.'

At least his genin had stopped bickering like children and seem to be getting along… somewhat. But it was better than they were before Wave. He shuddered to think going back to that level of teamwork.

If only he could employ the same tactics, he did with his ANBU squad when he was still a squad captain, they wouldn't be having problems with teamwork. But then again, they weren't trained killers.

They all had their humanity, and if all went well, hopefully they would all keep their humanity. That was a luxury he and many of his colleagues didn't have in their time.

However, the marks on Naruto's chest, arms and legs were concerning. They were barely there and he doubted any of the genin had noticed them, since they seemed to be alleviating. But Kakashi's discerning eye hadn't missed them.

Most interesting. Now what could he be doing with weights. A quick glance towards Naruto's jacket showed him that he hadn't brought them with him. More importantly, where in the world did he get them?

Things were changing in his team and he didn't like where they were going. Naruto was hiding something and he never used to hide anything. Hell, he would brag it to the world if he thought it would get him attention and praise.

Looking at his watch, only an hour had passed in their three-hour training session. But he was fairly certain that soon after they've had a cleansing swim, Naruto would ask him for training yet again.

Kakashi mentally shook his head. The boy will never learn. It was one thing to never go back on their word, and it was another to be stupidly stubborn. Naruto was now being the second. After all, even Obito trained by himself all the time and didn't depend of Minato-sensei for training outside of their allotted time.

The boy didn't understand that he had an obligation to his late friend's last clan member. To see him survive, grow strong and thrive. He could do no less. Obito would want him to. Rin would want him to.

Sighing, he looked over to where the Memorial Stone was. Maybe he should go and visit them again. Later, maybe. For now, he turned his focus towards the genin who were getting out of the stream, and shivering. Some exercise would do them good. Yes.

Perhaps he could divide the rest of the two hours with Naruto and Sakura training alone and then sparring together. Yes, that could work.

And then he had to go and meet the Hokage. There was troubling news from the border that an ANBU had delivered to Kakashi earlier, on the Hokage's orders. He was sure it was about that.

And soon, the genin had dried themselves off and dressed in the spare clothes they had been asked to bring along. Well, Sasuke and Sakura were. Naruto hadn't brought any and so he was still in his boxers.

Naruto tried not to shiver in the cool breeze. It was the middle of ku-gatsu and the winter was already well on its way. Which was probably why the stream water was so cold. The leaves bristled as the wind picked up speed. The darkening clouds heralded oncoming rain. And Naruto cursed himself for forgetting an extra jumpsuit.

But Kakashi was already addressing them, 'Okay. Sakura, you will focus on your stamina for now while Naruto practices his basics. Sasuke, you need more training with chakra control.'

Naruto nodded, having already accepted that this insufferable Jounin would never train him until these bloody basics were mastered. But at least, he now admitted that Sasuke's chakra control needed work as well. Normally, the Uchiha was the paragon of a shinobi in his sensei's eyes.

And so, he ignored Sakura as she ran laps around the training ground or Sasuke as Kakashi taught him how stand on water. Naruto wasn't so overconfident as to think that Kakashi was completely wrong.

No. It was painful to admit, but Naruto had barely passed the genin exam's shuriken and kunai throwing test. He had managed six, while five was minimum and those who scored below it, failed.

It was another one of those things where he hadn't been sabotaged but he hadn't paid any attention to, for he had wanted to learn flashier, ninjutsu techniques. In the end, all he had done was sabotage his own training.

And so, Naruto created more than a few shadow clones, and had them set up targets, falling logs and themselves as 'enemies' for him to practice his kunai and shuriken throwing for the first hour. There must be some technique to it, surely. How did the teme manage a near perfect score of nine in the exam.

There was no sense in wasting time doing the same thing over and over again. So, he decided to test out the limits of his clones whilst he practiced his throwing. Naruto had never given it much thought. But the shadow clones jutsu was confusing to say the least.

Yes, he had already realised that he got the memories of the clones destroyed. What else was there?

The explanation in the Scroll of Sealing was a little vague. He was well aware that it was probably created by Tobirama, as it was him who he had written about it. While it did transfer memories, and was created as a surveillance tool, it did not take into account Naruto's large reserves.

Naruto created one clone and that had that clone create one more and so on and so forth. The eighth clone however said that it didn't have enough chakra to form another. So, if the first clone had half of his chakra, it meant that either the second clone had either a quarter of the total, or a third. Depending on if the chakra was distributed from the body that made it, or the original.

But it if was the latter, then that means there was still a link to it from the third clone to his original body. Which was concerning to say the least. It meant that there would be a near constant chakra drain from each successive clone. As long as they stay 'alive.'

The clones having been formed by a clone didn't last as long in a spar, as opposed to the ones he formed himself. That could only mean that their chakra was fixed and cannot be replenished. Yet, why did he feel a constant drain then.

That made no sense whatsoever. But it was no time for such philosophy. He already realised that even though they do retain 'muscle' memory such as for throwing kunai and shuriken, they are of no use towards physical exercise. Since they were chakra constructs, they had no effect on his physical body.

So, he had to do the physical exercises himself. In a way, it was better for him. He wouldn't become used to 'cheating' as Guy called it. So, while Sakura worked on her endurance and Sasuke sparred with Kakashi, Naruto created several clones to just sit and watch the duo. One even made some notes but they were quickly burnt by a fireball courtesy of the irritated Uchiha.

It wasn't until the second hour when Kakashi halted their 'training' and called them together. 'Okay now Team 7. I hope you have learnt some valuable lessons from the mission in Wave and today and will put them into practice in the future. For now, you have another mission while I go and meet with the Hokage.'

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the lazy Jounin. Was he late to meeting with Hokage as well? Can this man be any more relaxed in life? 'What is it, grocery shopping?'

'River cleaning?' Sakura asked.

'Weed pulling?' Sasuke added.

'Babysitting?' Naruto said again, thinking about the many pointless D-rank missions they had done.

'None of that,' Kakashi replied with his classic eye-smile. 'It's…' Naruto didn't know what happened but there was a clear burst on chakra from Kakashi, which quickly dissipated, but not before being shaped. Into what, he could neither see, nor tell. 'Counterintelligence. Ja ne.'

'What the…,' Naruto grumbled as the infernal sensei vanished in a puff of smoke. Counterintelligence? Why in the world would they need something like this? Kakashi-sensei was just being a lazy ass like usual!

'What a pain,' Sasuke said, his face going back to his broody self. Although perhaps that might have been because of the hopeful look Sakura shot him or the gleam in her eyes.

'Eh whatever,' Naruto shrugged. He couldn't be bothered to waste any more time than he already had. And with that, Naruto walked over to the bridge leaving the two alone.

Sasuke shot him a glare which he promptly ignored as he wondered whether to act on his stupid plan. It may work, or it may backfire. Either way, he wasn't dressed so getting his boxers wet again wasn't that much of a risk.

Technically, if he could attach his feet to the surface of trees, that also meant that he could do the same with the bridge. And so, Naruto walked over to the surface of the water and tried to stand on it, instantly falling into the stream.

Coughing and spitting, he kicked his legs, until his head was above water. Grumbling, Naruto got out of the stream, aware of the smug smirk on the bastard's face and Sakura's shrilling laughter. He shook it off and tried again.

And again. And again, until the water stopped feeling cold altogether and felt like it was his normal body temperature. Or more like his body temperature dropped to that of the water.

He refused to give up until he got the damn water walking exercise. If Kakashi thought the teme could do it, then so could he.

'Dobe forget it. You won't get it,' Sasuke called out from his place where the bastard was training taijutsu against a log despite Sakura also standing there.

'Piss of, teme,' Naruto grumbled to himself, choosing to ignore the teme's taunt and continue with his useless attempts. He was getting a hang of the amount of chakra he needed to put in his feet. But it was the moving water that was the problem.

It disbalanced him and his chakra. The steady stream was always fluctuating. Wait… that was it!

'Ugh, I'm an idiot,' Naruto hit himself on the head for having overlooked such an obvious fact. Hadn't he learned from Danzo to analyse his situation from every angle before plunging into it?

Naruto closed his eyes and centred himself, focusing his chakra into a somewhat steady pattern. But it was so hard, given that his chakra seemed like a fucking tidal wave most of the time.

Trying to calm it down was like trying to calm a blizzard. Virtually impossible. That was why he had such difficulty with even the basic jutsus such as henge, substitution and the clone, the bane of his existence, in the academy. His worst jutsu ever! And now, his only ninjutsu. The irony of the situation was not lost to him.

Instantly, his eyes snapped open. What the fuck?

There were other chakra signatures nearby. He forced himself not to look towards where he felt them but it was so obvious to him. Why the fuck hadn't he noticed them before? How long had they been there?

Damn! Kakashi! What a moronic teacher he was. He knew they were being watched and he had just left them here.

Okay, first things first. Naruto had to figure out who they were. He hadn't concentrated enough when he had first detected them but maybe he could do it without them knowing. Okay, but how to go about doing it?

He would have to prank them. That was a given. Looking over to his teammates, Naruto jumped up and screamed at the top of his lungs, 'Yata! Got it!'

'Baka! What's your problem!' Sakura yelled from her place and Sasuke smirked.

Naruto however had gotten an idea; walked over the stream again and tried to water walk, yet again. But this time instead of channelling chakra to his feet, he attempted to centre it. Somewhere around his heart. Or his gut. He tried both and the middle seemed like the better solution.

He fell yet again into the stream but that didn't matter. This time he made no attempt at getting out, rathe he let himself float using the natural buoyancy. Closing his eyes, he tried to get a reading of the chakra signatures he had sensed.

It didn't take long for him to recognise them. What the hell?!

Why was team eight here? In the woods observing them? Why in the fuck were they spying on his team? And without their sensei. So, that means that this was unauthorised. And more than likely, illegal. But given that they were ninjas, illegal was a very loose term. Murder is illegal in most cases, yet for a ninja it's just another day at work.

Not that he liked his team overmuch but they were still his team! And he would be damned if he let someone, especially the fucking Inuzuka, spy on them and more importantly, him!

Naruto tried his level best to make it seem like nothing had changed. That he hadn't just realised they were being watched, as he got out of the water.

He plastered a grin onto his face and ran towards his teammates.

'Guys, guys. Let's do something. Let's spar,' he exclaimed, as he stopped in front of Uchiha practicing his katas and Sakura fawning over him, presumably on a break from her own training.

As expected, Sasuke Hn-ed and looked away meanwhile Sakura tried to bash him on the head.

'I said no Naruto!' she yelled.

'Ow Sakura-chan!' Naruto rubbed another bump on his head. He was getting really tired of her attitude but for the sake of fooling team eight he had to make it look like nothing had changed.

'C'mon. This is so boring!' He tried to make the teme look at him, trying to plead without his eyes giving away everything but he didn't know how to.

Naruto ignored the hurt he felt when he realised that Hinata was spying on him too. The girl he had thought was his friend was spying on him.

Where did that girl go, who offered to help him with his tree climbing? Where was the girl who used her Byakugan to tell him that he was using way too much chakra in his feet? Has she completely forgotten their time in Wave? Was he that forgettable and unimportant?

Why would she think to do something like that? Was she doing it because of the Inuzuka? Or maybe for him? As much as he wanted to think the second, the first was probably more likely. In his jealousy and need to prove himself stronger, Kiba would ask Hinata to help him in his spying. But why would Shino help them? It made no sense!

He couldn't motion with his eyes to the teme because Hinata would undoubtedly see it with her all-seeing eyes. He had researched the Hyuga clan a little, in his late-night excursions to the library. The Byakugan was capable of seeing over large distances, and through solid objects. That also made it possible for the Hyuga's to see the chakra pathways of individuals.

He didn't know for sure, but he suspected that their style of taijutsu had something to do with it. Why else would they not use force? Naruto had seen enough of Hinata's spars with Kiba and Shino, and then her short fight with Haku to know that the Hyuga don't depend on force to deal damage.

Of course, the library book hadn't gone into detail because obviously, the Hyuga clan would want to keep it a secret.

And there was the problem of three tiny signatures were coming their way. Only a few feet away, on the ground, crawling through the grass. Shino's bugs!

He hadn't spent any time with Shino in the academy, but during Wave he had seen enough of him to know that he utilised bugs for various purposes. Apparently, one of them was for spying. Could they listen to their conversations? If they did, and relayed it back to Shino, did that mean that Shino understood 'bug language'?

But this was not the time for such philosophical questions. He could ponder that later. Right now, his problem was how in the world would he get the bugs to go away. He could hardly shoo away something he shouldn't be able to see or sense?

Naruto cursed mentally. The only way was to kill them. He hoped Shino wouldn't mind but the boy had just set his bugs to spy on them so they were fair game.

'Hey teme. Are you so eager to spend time with your stalker who probably watches you strip that you would want to forgo training?' Naruto decided that taunting was the best option if the teme wouldn't listen to reason.

Immediately, a yell of 'NARUTO!' came followed a fist flying towards his face by a red-faced Sakura.

'Che,' Sasuke sneered at him. 'You're delusional if you think sparring with you can be called training in any way.'

Naruto immediately dodged Sakura's fist and kept up his taunting, backing away all the while. 'Really, Uchiha. You will let her fight your battles. Pathetic.'

'Dobe. You are pushing it!' the teme growled as he also got up, walking towards Naruto. He had needed to blow off some steam and the dobe was providing with an excellent opportunity now with all his bullshit. He could have some fun pummelling the dead-last.

Naruto laughed at Sasuke's expression, for real this time. Just one step, and Naruto felt the tiny chakra signature of one of the bugs under his feet die.

If everything went to plan, they might just get rid of the other two. 'C'mon teme! Or don't you want to show off for your stalker!'

'NARUTO!' Sakura yelled, intent on hitting him this time. She lunged forward and Naruto barely sidestepped, just a little. He couldn't make it seem like he saw through it as soon as the girl had started. Which he had. It was such a pain that he had to fool his own team and team eight all the while trying to kill the damn bugs.

In the next instant, he felt another tiny signature die, presumably by Sakura's foot.

'What are you gonna do? Try to burn me with your tiny fireballs?'

Sasuke had predictably, widened his eyes, the red of the Sharingan springing to life as the boy launched a fireball straight at Naruto.

'Shit!' Naruto cursed. He hadn't actually thought the teme would do it. What was he thinking? He could have killed him had Naruto not launched himself away.

But it seemed Sasuke's focus wasn't on him for the briefest second before he refocused his glare on him.

And all of that effort observing Danzo had finally paid off. In that moment, he knew that Sasuke too was aware of their watchers. He just didn't think that Naruto knew. Naruto smirked internally. He could use this.

The only thing to do now was to decide what to do about them. Sasuke's reaction confirmed another one of Naruto's suspicions.

Like the Byakugan, the Sharingan could also see chakra. Maybe not chakra pathways but chakra nonetheless. So, if they confronted them, they lost any advantage they had. But they might be able to capture them for interrogation. That's a big might.

But realistically speaking, Team 7 was weaker than Team 8, Naruto begrudgingly admitted. Even if he could beat the Inuzuka, and Sasuke took on Shino, Sakura would almost surely lose to Hinata.

And that was when they had no real clue as to the abilities of their spies, other than the most basics they had seen during the Wave mission. So, the safe bet was to give them false information.

Counterintelligence! Kakashi had already known they would have to do it. That insufferable teme!

Naruto was saved having to decide what to do when Sasuke suddenly lunged for him, a right hook aimed for his jaw.

Shit! Naruto dodged, just barely but he did manage but to keep his very slightly increased speed hidden from both Sasuke and the watchers. Team eight might not realise it, but Sasuke surely would. He couldn't afford that. Not now.

'You think you're so tough, dead-last! You're nothing!' Sasuke taunted back as a punch landed on Naruto's ribs.

In that same instant, Naruto growled, lashing out with a weird, wobbly kick to Sasuke's ribs, which was blocked. Much to Naruto's own displeasure, even if he had seen some of Lee's moves, his taijutsu was still severely lacking. So, the kick wasn't staged, but it was his actual kick, and that served to motivate Naruto more.

As soon as they got out of here and he was away from both teams, he needed to research how to get a sensei who would actually train him. This was getting beyond ridiculous now.

And so, what proceeded was another thrashing in the life of Naruto Uzumaki all the while he was grinning like an idiot. The impromptu spar that had resulted from Naruto's taunting had at least served to kill three more bugs that Shino sent out.

That was the end of the sentries, for Naruto presumed Shino wouldn't want to sacrifice more of them, to spy on idiots being idiots.

Mission accomplished.