Underneath the Underneath

By: FlameXFullmetal

Disclaimer: I really wouldn't be writing this if I owned Naruto. I wouldn't need to.

A/N: I have had an amazing response to the revisions that I did to the original story and I am flattered. I was actually afraid that the revisions would make things worse. Thanks to everyone who took the time to leave a review after the updates went up. A few reviews to answer and then onto the story!

Saiyanvegeta1648: I have no intention of turning this story into a harem. Anything that may make it seem like there would be more than one person in Naruto's pairing is lighthearted flirting and not meant to be taken seriously. The pairing will remain a NaruHina throughout the whole story, don't worry.

"hello" people (bijuu in human form) speaking

'hello' people (bijuu in human form) thinking/coded hand signals

"HELLO" bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity yelling

"hello" bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity talking

'hello' bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity thinking

hello jutsu

***************Teams and Rivals*************

"And the winner is..." Iruka called out getting everyone's attention. Everyone looked on anxiously as the two combatants started to come into view as the smoke cleared. Both seemed rather tired and yet they were smiling at one another. "Neither. This match has ended in a tie." The announcement took many people by surprise. The Sandaime nodded in approval. He knew that if he had allowed the two to continue their fight, the academy may not have survived the aftermath. He also knew that in all honesty, the Kyuubi had been holding back. She would have no choice but to. There was no way that the vixen had managed to train Naruto up to her level even with Minato and Kushina's help.

"Well, damn.." Kimiko huffed as she stood upright. She had intended to fight a little while longer but it seemed that the old fool had different plans. Naruto grinned back at her and she could tell that he was unhappy as well. Neither one of them had wanted to stop fighting and the fact that they had ended the match before they could get serious was annoying to both of them.

"Well, that concludes the taijutsu portion of the exam. If the students would follow me back into the main building we will move onto the next phase." Iruka announced as he turned to leave the room. Quietly, perhaps due to shock, the class followed after him. The genjutsu portion of the exam went quickly and without any problems. Their test to demonstrate mastery over their kunai and shuriken also went without a hitch. However, the class was still left in shock as the 'dead last' aced both portions with no difficulty. When they finally returned to their classroom Iruka began calling each of the students into the next room to finish their exams. It was then that the class seemed to snap out of their stupor.

"How the hell did you do that dobe?" Sasuke nearly shouted. Not even he could move that fast and yet the idiot had vanished completely from sight. Not only that but he had defeated him without even trying.

"It's called training, you might want to try it sometime. I hear that it can make you stronger." Naruto retorted from where he was stretched out reading a book with Kimiko next to him. The vixen merely snickered and began inspecting her sleeve.

"You are fixing the damage to my clothes later brat." She scolded making everyone sweat drop. Naruto glanced over at her and smiled.

"Yeah sure Kimi-chan." The room was dead silent as they noticed the bond between the two. Naruto, who had never made a friend or seemingly got close to anyone (mostly due to the fact that no one wanted to be close to him), had a very close relationship to a girl that they had never seen before. Narrowing his eyes at the blonde Sasuke opened his mouth to retort when he was called into the next room for his test. Sakura was also keeping her mouth shut as well mostly in fear of what Naruto would do to her if she didn't. The memory of her sailing through the air several days prior was still fresh in her mind and she didn't want to repeat the experience. The silence was unnerving to most people as they expected yet another outburst between the pinkette and Naruto. It wasn't long before Naruto was called into the next room. As he left the room the, Sasuke and Sakura smirked thinking that the clone would trip him up like usual.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei." Naruto chirped at the chunin. Iruka beamed at his little brother. He had never seen Naruto perform so well before and he was proud of the progress he was showing. Although he was a little miffed that Naruto hadn't felt that he could tell him of the strength that he was holding back. 'Why?' He thought to himself. 'Why did he feel the need to hold back and why won't Sandaime-sama tell me anything about this "Kimiko" girl that he seems very close to?' He thought to himself and then jumped as Naruto peered up at him innocently from his lap. Glancing to where the blonde had been standing were four identical copies playing cards. Iruka hadn't even felt the chakra fluctuation!

"Very good Naruto. Now I need to see the replacement and the transformation jutsu." He said just as the blonde switched with his clipboard again. Before the chunin could say anything else, the cards that the shadow clones were playing with burst into smoke and another clone took its place.

"That good enough Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked grinning cheekily. The chunin gave a bright smile and nodded.

Back in the classroom

"So who are you? Why are you so interested in the dobe?" Sasuke nearly barked at the girl who had been inspecting the damage to her kimono.

"Kimiko as it was said earlier and who I am interested in is none of your business. Besides at the very least, he uses his ears and retains the information that they pick up instead of discarding it as irrelevant until it becomes important enough to need investigating." Kimiko replied not even looking up. Sasuke growled at the girl as Sakura sneered.

"Are you in love with the idiot? Sorry but I doubt he even knows what that is because he is so dense." Sakura nearly hissed. She was pissed at being humiliated in the tournament that her standing in the class was pathetic now that Mizuki had been arrested.

"Of course he knows what true love is. Luckily for him, he hasn't fallen into the 'puppy crush' love or the 'gold-digging-power-hungry' love. So I guess in that regard he is better than you will ever be. Oh wait, he already proved that didn't he?" Kimiko countered. Sakura was seeing red.

"Where do you come from then? I have never seen you around the village before. In fact, I am sure that no one in the class has seen you in the village before." Sasuke demanded.

"The mountains." was the casual reply making everyone sweat-drop.

"There are a lot of mountains in the world! Which ones?" Sakura shrieked in disbelief. Kimiko smirked to herself. She had no idea that torturing the humans in Naruto's class would be so fun. Plus she wasn't even touching them!

"The ones that go straight up in the air." She replied a small ghost smile making it to her face. Shikamaru glanced over at the arguing triad and groaned. Sadly Sakura and Sasuke had a point. He had never seen Kimiko in the village and there were a lot of mountains in the world. However, something about the girl made him suspicious and it seemed like he wasn't the only one. Hinata was eyeing the girl cautiously. 'Most likely because of how close she is to Naruto.' he thought to himself.

"All the mountains go up in the air!" Sasuke snapped.

"Do they? Or is that just an illusion? Who is to say what up and down are? We could very well be seeing things backward and not even know it. Besides, when you look from a bat's perspective everything is upside down until they start flying." Kimiko pointed out making Sasuke and Sakura gape at the vixen. Even Shikamaru had to admit that was very clever.

"Where on the map are these mountains?" Sasuke growled. Surely there was no way she could be sarcastic about that right?

"The front of the map. It seems pointless to place a mountain range on the back where no one is looking now doesn't it?" She replied mischievously. She absolutely loved the way that the Uchiha squirmed.

"What are their names?"

"Mountains. Or I suppose you could use rock formations."

"What country are they in?"

"What era map are we using? The borders have been redrawn quite a few times you know." Before the raven-haired avenger could retort Naruto walked back in the room with his headband affixed to his head and grinned at the vixen.

"He says your up Kimi-chan." Nodding the vixen stood and left the room leaving a fuming pair behind.

"DOBE WHERE IS YOUR FRIEND FROM?" Sasuke nearly screamed at the top of his lungs. He normally didn't lose his composure so easily but the vixen knew what buttons to push.

"The mountains." came the reply.

With Iruka and Kimiko

"Now then I will need you to demonst..." Iruka began.

"AAARRRGGHHHH!" came a very frustrated scream from the other room. Kimiko couldn't help herself as she burst into laughter at the scream.

"What was that?" Iruka demanded.

"An emo prick in his natural habitat." Kimiko snickered. The chunin twitched a little and then refocused on the exam.

"I need you to show mastery of the transformation, the bunshin, and the replacement." He instructed the girl who groaned.

"First we need to get something straight. I don't transform, I shapeshift. So does Naruto. Second I have no need for the replacement and even if I did there is no way in hell you can fit a mountain into this room and that is the smallest thing that I can replace with given my reserves to control ratio. No, I never even bothered to get that under control as I have no need to. Third, Kage bunshin no jutsu." she said creating twenty shadow clones. Iruka was blinking at the girl in shock. He had never seen or heard of anything like this in his life. He didn't even know that it was possible to replace with a mountain and yet the girl was claiming to be able to do it all the time. Glancing over at the other instructor and the Hokage he watched as the Sandaime nodded.

"Very well let's see your shapeshift," Iruka replied to the vixen. Before he could prepare himself the vixen had dispelled her clones and in the center of the room was a seven-foot-tall version of the nine-tailed fox. Everyone in the room gaped and many of the people in the room contemplated running. Before a panic could break out the vixen turned back and shrugged.

"Where I am from foxes are sacred so no I didn't see a problem with that." She replied to Iruka's silent question. Taking a breath the chunin nodded and then groaned internally. 'Between her and Naruto I am not living to thirty.'

It didn't take much longer before the whole class had been tested and despite the fact that everyone passed, Sakura and Kiba almost didn't. It was clear to the examiners and the jonin that the two had taken the easy way through their school work and they had paid for it. Whether they could actually do what they needed to do now that they knew that the easy way was not going to get them ahead in life was still unclear. It was unnecessary to point out that the Inuzuka matriarch was none too pleased with the results of her youngest and was going to light into him the second that he got home.

"Alright everyone, I want all of you to meet back here in one week on October 12th for your team assignments," Iruka said before dismissing the group. As everyone got up to leave the chunin found his eyes drawn to Naruto and his strange companion. He was still curious about the girl's identity but when he asked the Sandaime he was told that anything about the girl's past was on a need-to-know basis and he didn't need to know. While he respected the Sandaime's wishes he was not happy about it. After all, Naruto was like a baby brother to him and the girl was a wild card with no know origins that may just get him killed. He could only hope that the Sandaime knew what he was doing.

The week passed by quickly for many of the students. They spent much of their time making sure that they had proper clothing and equipment for when they started their training as a new shinobi of the hidden leaf. For Naruto and Kimiko, the time was passed by constant spars and training exercises, council meetings and dodging the three people that seemed to be intent on stalking them the whole time. Ditching Sasuke and Sakura was easy as they were horrible at tracking and their stealth skills needed a lot of work. Losing Hinata as a tail was much, much harder. The girl was damn near undetectable sometimes and as a result, they almost lost track of her once or twice. Even Kimiko had to admit that the girl was good.

"She's tailing us again." Kimiko sighed in slight irritation to her companion who looked to be in another world.

"Well, then why don't we invite her to train with us. Maybe she will stop trying to hide." Naruto suggested. Secretly he just wanted to spend some time with the lavender-eyed angel. Kimiko rolled her eyes as she knew exactly why he had made that suggestion. Now that the mask was gone and the village was on notice he had no intention of hiding his feelings for the girl and wanted to get to know her better.

'Naruto, do you think that is a good idea?' His mother asked quietly. The blonde nearly jumped out of his skin as the woman's voice filled his mind. His parents had been so quiet that he had nearly forgotten that they were there.

'You scared me, mom!' he accused making the redhead laugh. 'Of course, I do. She's just curious and worried that there is something between Kimi and me. If she sees what we do all day it may motivate her to get stronger. At the same time, I get to spend time with her as I see no reason why we can't help her with her training. Isn't that what shinobi do? Help each other to improve so that the village as a whole is stronger?' Naruto questioned his parents who beamed with pride.

'That is true Naru-chan. She does indeed need assistance in her training as I don't see Hiashi helping in anyway shape or form.' Minato replied. Naruto grinned and looked over at Kimiko who nodded. She had been listening in to the whole conversation and had to admit that the boy had made a compelling argument. As the blonde moved away from his companion he had the biggest of smiles.

Hinata had been trying to tail the two for a while now and it was much harder than it sounded. They were not only fast but crafty as well. As hard as she tried they always seemed to escape her and she would spend the rest of the day trying to find them. She knew that she should be at home working on her skills but the woman that was with Naruto-Kun bothered her. Who was she? Where did she come from? How did she really know Naruto? Why were they so close? Why did the Sandaime seem so keen on giving into her suggestive demands? There were too many questions and not nearly enough time to find the answers. What with the team assignments looming she was afraid that the only time that she would have to investigate would be when they were both in the village together. Time, she decided, that would not be nearly enough. She watched as her crush broke away from his constant companion and blinked in confusion. It seemed almost as if he was walking straight for her. That couldn't be plausible though right?

Just as Naruto reached the girl he picked up on the other two tails and growled. They were starting to get rather annoying and in the last few days even worse in their frustration due to constant failure. Shrugging mentally he looked at the red-faced Hyuga and found himself blushing a little himself. It would be the first time that he allowed himself to talk to her outside of class and even then he had limited it to what was necessary.

"Hey, Hinata? Kimi-chan and I want to know if you would like to join us in our training?" Naruto asked with genuine curiosity.

"M-Me?" She squeaked. She hadn't expected the invite and she was startled that he knew her name. She had always thought that she was invisible to him. Yet here he was asking him to train with him.

"Yeah. I think that we would both benefit from the training and to be honest I always wanted to get to know you as a friend and not just a classmate that I barely speak to." Naruto confessed. Hinata's head was whirling as she tried to wrap her mind around the information. Naruto-Kun had always wanted to get to know her better and he thought that she could somehow benefit his training despite how strong he already was.

"Are you sure she wouldn't mind?" Hinata asked cautiously.

"She's fine with it. Trust me Hinata, Kimi and I are just friends. We both desperately need your help too because our chakra control is um...well..." Naruto trailed off blushing.

"I-I would love to." She stuttered. Nodding Naruto led her back to the vixen and turned his head to look at the other two tails. Sticking his tongue out he wrapped his arm around the heiress, he and the vixen vanished from sight. Sasuke and Sakura cursed to themselves. They did this every time that they tried to tail them. Sakura took off trying to find them while Sasuke turned and headed home. He knew that it was pointless. If the past few days had taught him anything, it was that the blonde could hide wherever he wanted to. However, it bothered him now more than ever because they had decided to invite the mouse to go with them. That meant that she would benefit from whatever method they were using to get stronger and he wouldn't. Mind made up he decided that he would try to corner Hinata instead. She would probably be easier to find and question.

As soon as the blonde released her waist, Hinata stumbled back redder then she had ever been. The way that he had grabbed her had been sudden and she had no time to prepare. The experience had left her breathless and somewhat concerned.

"Welcome to our personal training ground at the Uzumaki estate. My clan's compound. Sorry about that but Sasuke and Sakura were trying to follow us and I didn't want them to know that I lived here so yeah..." Naruto said somewhat awkwardly. Hinata's head snapped up as she looked around. The training field was massive and didn't look like it had been used at all.

"The Uzumaki clan were masters at fuinjutsu. There are seals on the training field that repairs itself after thirty minutes of inactivity or they can be activated manually." Kimiko replied to Hinata's unanswered question. "Now then the first thing that we have to do is assess where you are completely and get you out of that stuffy jacket. That way you don't die of heat stroke. From there we can make a personalized training plan just for you." Hinata gulped somehow she had the feeling that if she trained with these two she wouldn't be able to do much of anything else. However, she gazed at the vixen with determination. She had no intention of letting her take Naruto-Kun away without a fight. She would get stronger so that he would notice her more.

The rest of the week flew by and soon enough the genin arrived at their classroom anxious to know how they would be working with. Many of the students wanted to be placed with their friends and had not honestly considered that there was the chance of not being with them. The few remaining fan girls all wanted to be placed with Sasuke and as such were bickering with one another. Sitting quietly near the window, the object of their affection was silently fuming. Somehow, Hinata had managed to avoid him as well. He could tell that she had been training through the way that she was always exhausted at night as she entered the Hyuga compound. However, the secret to the dobe's sudden increase in skills still eluded him.

As Iruka walked into the room he looked around and smiled at the gathered students. The next time that he saw them they would either be returning for another year at the academy or it would be as full-fledged shinobi. However, as he scanned the crowd he couldn't seem to find Naruto, Hinata or Kimiko anywhere. Then after a second pass, he jumped slightly as they seemingly materialized into seats in the back of the room. All three were smiling and apparently getting along. Furthermore, it seemed as if Hinata had discarded her oversized jacket in favor of a proper battle kimono. She looked much more prepared to be a shinobi now. Clearing his throat he quickly caught the attention of everyone in the room.

"Alright everyone, first I want to say that I am proud of all of you and look forward to being able to stand by you as equals. Now that that is over, there are a few things that need to be said before I announce your assignments. All of you will be assigned to a squad that typically consists of three genins and one jonin. As a result, the teams were formatted with skills, balance, and effectiveness on them. Some of them were harder to form than others and as a result may seem off. The teams are final and as such, they will not be changed. Now, Team one is Kenji, Emi, and Haru under Nara Maen." The aforementioned genin didn't seem to have a problem with that.

"Team two: Sano, Aina, and Akio under Akimichi Maruten."

"Team three: Hachiro, Goro, and Kokoro under Aburame Muta."

"Team four: Hiroshi, Akio and Airi under Tessen Togeito."

"Team five: Daiki, Hideki and Asuka under Takajo Torikai."

"Team six: Jiro, Kaito, and Sakura under Yuhi Kurenai." As soon as this team was announced a loud cry of 'Fuck' echoed through the room as Jiro and Kaito began repeatedly banging their heads on their desks crying about having horrible luck. Everyone in the room sweatdropped at the antics except for Sakura who felt tears welling up. She wasn't going to be with her precious Sasuke-Kun.

"Team seven: Sasuke, Kiba and Aimi under Ebisu." As soon as Ami heard the announcement she let out a whimper. She was stuck on a team with an overconfident pervert and a self-centered emo. Granted at one point she had been a Sasuke fangirl but the exam and Hinata's outburst a week and a half ago had made her rethink her position and reasoning for wanting to be a ninja.

"Team eight: Katsu, Shino and Sai under Hyuga Tokuma."

"Team nine is still in rotation. Team ten: Ino, Shikamaru and Choji under Sarutobi Asuma."

"Team eleven: Naruto, Hinata, and Kimiko under Hatake Kakashi." Looking up from the list he twitched to see the reactions of the students. Most of them were fine with their assignment although some seemed less than thrilled.

"You have an hour for lunch and then meet back here where your jonins will be picking you up." Iruka declared and turned to leave.

"Iruka-sensei, if I may, who is this Sai person?" Shikamaru called out. He had never heard of this person and the fact that there were now two people that had popped out of nowhere was quite alarming to him.

"Sai is a genin who has been waiting for a new team as his previous teammates were reassigned either due to promotion, injury or death," Iruka responded. In truth, he really didn't know who the kid was either. However, he wasn't going to question it either. He had learned that there were things that he just wasn't cleared to know. He merely chalked this up to one of them.

************T.B.C.*****************

A/N: Hey there everyone. Sorry, this one took awhile to go up after the updates. I was stuck on how to form the teams. I didn't know who Naruto's jonin should be and when going through the list of students realized just how uneven the teams would be if I didn't add in Sai. As for the jonins, for the most part, I gathered a list of jonin and randomly assigned them to a number (by randomly I asked my sister to pick random numbers for the jonin) outside of Asuma who was static in my mind. Kakashi just got lucky and got Naruto. No, I don't like Kurenai, deal with it. All the jonin are real people that appeared in the anime and manga. You have no idea how hard it was to track their names down. I didn't want to make up names for the jonin as well so I looked for real ones. I apologize for any formatting or spelling errors that I might have missed. I am typing this on my new desktop and in a different word processing software. Usually, I type the story's chapters out on my laptop but I wanted to give this a try. Anyways as always let me know if you like. Ja ne!