The budding mutual animosity between Naruto and Sasuke did not let up when the first match of the second round came up. In a scene that was vaguely deja-vuSasuke had once more told him to stay out of her way, in complete disregard for Iruka-sensei's shout-y guideline to work as a team not five seconds before the bell rang.

'Take the bench, dwarf. Let the regular-sized people handle this.', she had said

He shother the finger. Sakura screeched in outrage from the sidelines and Naruto was rather inclined to throw the matchand beat Sasuke up instead of their opponents,Hinata and Sakazuki.Hinata being the background character of 3A and Sakazuki being the emo-lord of 3B.

'Oh, whats the point of it all?' Sakazuki muttered, making Naruto grimace in distaste. This guy was a whiny-baby. Why so many preteen girls swooned at his woe be me bull and eyeshadow wearing face made him more confused than after the one and only calculus class he had ever pitched up to.

Sakazuki may decide to keep his mouth shut next time, because he had drawn the Bitch Queen Uchiha's attention.

So quick her movements seemed to be a blur she dashed forward, legs and arms flailing in a manner other people - but not him, no sir- would consider graceful.

To give Sakazuki some credit he was actually faring reasonably well, all things considered. Yeah, he wasn't getting a shot in. And all his attempts at bringing his staff into play were violently rebutted. But he was dodging like, a third of the shots coming his way, which was the best Naruto had ever seen anyone do against Sasuke in close combat.

Yeah... Maybe he should start fighting, before she went on to take out Hinata too.

Despite looking right at him since before they even got into the 'ring' Hinata seemed genuinely surprised to see him when he got within arm distance.

'N-naruto-kun...' her voice was breathy, her face flushed. She didnt seem to realise that she was supposed to be fighting.

She actually looked kinda cute up close.He gave her a smile, then turned serious. 'Ne, Hinata-chan. You should be focused on the match.'

She looked ready to apologize but he cut across her stammering with a little joke. 'I know I'm awesome, Hinata-chan, but its not right for you to have daydreams about me right now.'

Then, like a puppet that just had its strings cut she flopped bonelessly to the ground, the oddest look on her face. He hadnt even made to lift a fist yet. Was she sick or something? Had she died?!

'Hmm.' Sasuke muttered alongside him, her opponent similarly downed, though with a lot more bruising. She actually seemed vaguely approving and didnt even try to helpresuscitate Hinata, the cruel bitch.

After Iruka-sensei assured him that he was overreacting and that Hinata must have been in the sun too long or something, Naruto relaxed, stopped attempting to attempt cpr and took a moment to saviour his progression to the next round.

'Oh Yeah! I am the greatest ninja to have ever lived!' He announced, fist in the air.

How Sasuke had managed to track him down to his favourite haunt was beyond him. Why she had decided to left him feeling pretty uneasy.

'Hmm.' She announced after traipsing her way onto the Fourth Hokage's head.

She didnt belong here. Wasn't awesome enough to stand atop the carved head of the Fourth Hokage. She might be able to get away with the Second, maybe, but definitely not the fourth! On second thought, the Second was the one with all the cool water jutsu and badass lightning sword. Maybe she could go stand on some dung or something.

'Thats a really informative greeting, y'know. Speak up, your majesty. I dont speak stupid.'

Sasuke snorted. 'If there was a million ryo bet on who spoke stupid in the Leaf Village you would be my go to pick, Last Place.'

She threw his class position around like a name and he wondered if it was possible to hate anyone more than he hated this girl infront of him.

'If you just came here to argue with me get lost. This is my spot, I dont need you tainting it with your bullshit.'

He saw her actually bite her lip to keep from giving another stupid comment. Probably something like I'm sure the village's property management will disagree with you on that.

'I actually came to say good job on taking out Hinata like that.'

'... Say what?'

She nodded almost imperceptibly 'Are you deaf? I said, good job on taking out Hinata. Yes, you took your sweet time doing it and she isnt exactly a prizefighter but I was pretty impressed to see you take her out with a genjutsu. You may not be as completely and utterly useless as I thought.'

For some reason Sasuke had come to the conclusion that Hinata's unfortunate fainting spell had been his fault somehow. That he had used some sort of terrifying illusion to get her thinking unspeakable acts. Correcting that assumption would be the ethical thing to do.

'Yes. Yes, that's exactly what I did.'

Her almost trademark sneer lifted up a teeny bit. 'Obviously. Your over the top acting to cover up the fact was ridiculous. For gods sake, someone please send help, dattebayo!'She mimicked nasally then let out a short, almost dignified snort'You should work on that.'

Shows what she knows.

'Is there any other reason you havent left yet?'

Sasuke pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it over. It was covered on both sides in tiny printedromajicharacters.

'What, you couldnt print it out on two pieces of paper and not force me to look for a magnifying glass?'

She ignored him. 'Thats just a few things I wanted you to work on before the fight tomorrow. I figured that since you arent a complete waste I may as well get you to start pulling your weight.'

'I've pulled my weight from the start, but whatever. Why give this to me anyway? Arent you supposed to be the undefeatable prodigy?' He said

'I dont need your help winning. I just thought that it would be a better challenge for me to have to fight against the other team whilst avoiding your inevitable blundering. I'm just doing this as a present of sorts to you.'

Naruto looked at her with narrowed eyes and a foxy grin. 'You're such a bad liar. We're going up against Shuyou and Tien tomorrow and you arent sure if you can overcome their teamwork alone. You need me.'

The tiniest blush appeared on Sasuke's cheeks. 'Its not that I cant defeat them. Its that I want to win by a long margin. An Uchiha uses all available tools to devestate the enemy.'

'What, am I supposed to be a tool?' He asked

'Look, if you dont want to help out I can take care if it myself.'

She tried to grab the page back but he pulled it out of her reach, losing his balance on the edge of the mountain face. She grabbed him by the back of his orange jacket and pulled him back to safety.

'Okay, okay. I'll help out. Naruto Uzumaki is always up for a fight.'

He continued as if nothing happened, his deep breathes the only evidence of his near fall, and she walked off with a nod and without another word.

Their fight with Shuyou and Tien had indeed been pretty hard. Shuyou and Tien were better than average in the taijutsu department but their real skill lay in elemental techniques, something only a handful of kids their age had shown including her.But where she breathed fire from her mouth these two had to work together to shoot globules of thick mud.

Alone neither had the required skill, but some odd byproduct of being born as twins meant their chakra systems had mutated. They could borrow chakra between each other, or even help the other in manipulating it.

She could have taken them down alone but it would have meant possibly taking a mud bullet or two. The shots were just fired off too fast for her to dodge entirely as she was now. Her speed would be corrected soon, but meanwhile it would mean having a rather undignified victory.

So she had given the idiot some help so that he could help. She didnt expect much from him, given his class standing, but had been surprised. The amount he had improved after one nightwith only a scroll was enough to further pique her interest.

First it had been that genjutsu against the Hyuga Embarassment, now this? He was still beyond terrible, but that was a step up from dead weight.

So, when class ended (she had won, of course) Sasuke grabbed Naruto by the arm and pulled him off.

'What the hell are you doing, bitch!?' He wrenched his arm from her grip. He was surprisingly strong, even with being a shrimp.

'You are coming with me. We will train together.'

He bickered and moaned, but Sasuke was an Uchiha and that meant if she wanted something she would get it-- preferably by force.

So it was that Naruto Uzumaki, the idiot shorty of class 3A was invited into the all but deserted Uchiha compound. A tall wall surrounded the area, its once brilliantly red painted visage now fading. The gate and walls spoke of opulence, more befitting the compound of an emperor or feudal lord. The walls were further highlighted by copper, and in the case of the two tall wooden doors the copper was highlighted with gold.

A testament to the greatness of the Uchiha, visible to all who passed by.

Inside, however, the setting was a lot more humble. Wooden buildings with traditional shoji paper windows and walls. Koi ponds, now blackened and dead. Little gardens, with plants either overgrown or withered away.

'Wow. This place is a dump.'

She gritted her teeth. So maybe the place wasnt well cared for. Once she became an official ninja and started earning pay Sasuke would have a cleaning crew come in regularly to fix it all up, but in the meantime was she expected to keep the entire compound squeaky clean on her own?

'I've seen your apartment block, dobe. If this place is a dump then you live in a sewer.'

'You dont have to be so touchy, you know. Not every girl has to be good at house work.'

Her offended sensibilities upon having her first guest over insult the place were partially cooled.

'Besides, Im not sure you're even a girl in the first place.'

'Hmm.' She concluded, taking mental note to extract vengeance for this slight.

They walked on, and the once pretty wooden houses became more sparse before ending altogether. Lush greenland, a small forest and a shimmering lake entered view.

This lake held a lot of memories for her. The day she had blown her first fireball and been granted full clan rights. The night time fishing with her father. Learning water walking from her mother.

Her dad had once said that the lake had been made on a whim by Madara Uchiha, the man who had helped found the Village. His brother, too ill to move, had on his deathbed one evening joked about never fishing again. The next morning he had been carted out back where the lake, filled with fish, had appeared overnight.

'Whoa. Maybe this place isnt so bad after all.'

'Enough talking. Lets get started.' She said

Naruto scratched his head and scrunched his face up. 'You say that, but what exactly are we going to be doing? You just said we were going to train and made me follow you to this place but you still havent said what we'll be doing. Are you going to be teaching me that cool fireball thing?!'

He looked so hopeful. His eyes actually sparkled. She took joy in crushing that enthusiasm. 'No.'

Huffing, Naruto asked 'Well, what will we be working on then? If its boring Im outta here. I do have things to do, you know.'

'Martial Arts. Your form is so terrible it cant be called form. Right now you could be taken out in a fistfight by a bawling toddler.'

'Yep, I'm heading home. Thanks for wasting my time.'

Sasuke grabbed his arm. 'Get into that thing you call your fight stance.'

'Tch. You're a real asshole, Your Highness.'

He got into it anyway. She stepped forward and gently shoved his left shoulder. He fell flat on his ass.

'That happened because your feet were crossed over and your balance off centre. If I could do that with a teeny tiny little push like that what do you think would happen in a fight with a proper ninja?'

He didnt look happy but got to his feet again, putting his hands up in the ready position a bit more hesitantly. His feet werent crossed over this time, thankfully.

This time she swept his right leg out and he fell face first.

'Your leg was too far out.'

It would take nearly an hour to get his stance to an acceptable level, after which she would start working on his kicks and punches.

Why was she bothering with this idiot anyway?

The third round of the chunin exams took place over a single day. If the prospective ninja were either really skilled or really inept it could last anywhere from a few hours through the early hours of morning or right up to midnight, as had once been the case.

But the chunin exam proctors had only to orchestrate matches for around twenty people. He had, instead, had to orchestrate a third round for over fifty.On top of that there was still a full semester of work that couldnt be forevermore delayed and he was handling rowdy kids who had just hit the age double digits.

So the Academy Exams as he had finally gotten around to naming in his head, was going on for nearing two weeks. And what was more was he was having the toughest time working out just what was going on with two of his more prominent students.

Kiba and Shino had stood dumbstruck in the ring, jerkily moving back and forth with wide eyes and sweaty brows. It was not the two of them he was concerned about, though.

Kiba and Shino were not prepared for the deadly combination of Naruto and Sasuke working together. Not mentally prepared, that was.

When the two had executed a flawless shove and heel kick maneover to down Kiba in what was an obvious show of co-operation the schoolyard paused and whispered.

When they did similar techniques again and again in rapid succession some people thought they may have been under an elaborate hoax. The two had seemed to hate each others guts ever since coming out of the forest test, they had done little but bicker and get into fights in the days since. They had even argued before getting into the squiggly set of lines that made up the 'ring'.

But to do all of those moves, and even more impressive, to do them in such a flowing, easy manner seemed to indicate hours of mutual practice. Neither Naruto or Sasuke were the 'work together' sort.

Even he, their teacher, was stumped.

Naruto then gave another shaky, overextending kick and Shino reached for his leg. But Sasuke came out of nowhere and batted the Aburame's arm aside.

This was just ridiculous.

It wasnt like Naruto had gotten good overnight. Nope, he was still really bad. Fighting style was non-existent, he held his fists in a way that would pretty much guarantee breakage as soon as he hit something harder than a stiff marshmellow. His reflexes were good, and he was reasonably fast but he didnt know how to read the fight's tells so his hands and feet were all over the place.

He was strong though, really strong for a kid. Iruka remembered as much from when the kid had come over to his place once to help him move some furniture. But all that strength didnt help much when he couldnt connect.

Sasuke had come along and fixed that, though. She caught their attention just long enough for Naruto to land hits and had the sense to get him out the way if necessary.

Naruto was also fully prepared to act as a meat shield, taking hits without a care and tripping them up so Sasuke could go in for the kill.

Honestly, the match was a joke at this point. The two could have ended it in a minute but had gone a little crazier than usual, prolonging the fight with wide grins. They seemed to be enjoying this too much.

That wouldnt do.

'Okay, thats the match. Naruto and Sasuke win.'

Kiba was upset. 'What! Are you kidding, Iruka-sensei? These guys are a joke. Theres no way Shino and I could lose to Naruto.'

'And you arent losing to Naruto. You're losing to Sasuke and Naruto.'

'I callfavouritism.'

Iruka sighed. Sometimes he wondered just why he thought teaching would be a good gig. When all the fights for the day finished and he had finalized the final rounds for the next day the kids ran off, leaving him to pack everything away with Mizuki.

He could have found some reason for one of the rowdier kids in the class to help out but Iruka found the occasional chore oddly cathartic. A call back to his own days as a rowdy youth.

It took only five minutes to finish packing everything away. An earth clone or two as soon as the students were out of view went a long way. He bid Mizuki a good day, promised to spend some time relaxing with the other teachers after class soon, and headed home.

The Hidden Leaf Village was the friendliest place he had ever visited, his own hometown bias notwithstanding, so he usually took the path home via 'civilian' means. That meant he walked on the pavement and didnt jump from rooftop to rooftop.

It was because of this that he managed to catch the tail end of an argument between Sasuke and Naruto, both facing off infront of a sweet shop. A few passers by had stopped to watch but were making no attempt to stop them. If you were a civilian you simply didnt go about interrupting ninja in training. Still surprised at their newfound teamwork, he chose to hide out and listen in to quench his curiositu.

'I was trying to compliment you.' Sasuke said, even toned

Naruto gesticulated wildly for no apparent reason. His face was red and his words came out fast and furious. 'And you didnt do a good job! Who says something like that?!'

'I do.'

'You're so arrogant. Just because you lost your parents doesnt give you the right to be an ass to everyone whenever you feel like it, y'know!'

Oh boy. This situation was going to devolve pretty quick. Maybe he should step in? But what if they figured out he had been eavesdropping? They may never respect him again!

'I didnt lose them. They were murdered. Dont go around thinking you can lecture me like you know what I feel just because you never had any parents.' Sasuke was blunt, her tone clipped. You could almost feel the coldness seep into the air along with her words.

'At least you had them! And at least you still have people who love you! The whole village treats you like royalty and you treat them like bugs! You're willfully alone, I never had a choice!'

'Since you never had them you dont know what its like to lose them. And what, are you going to start crying?'

Naruto punched her, then. She was knocked off balance and would have been thrown to the floor if not for a graceful move that looked like a ballet pirouette.

'I thought... I thought that you and I could be friends, at first. You're the only other person in the class who knows how lonely it is to grow up on your own, so we had something in common. And I always thought it was amazing, the way you always made every fight look like it was easy and how you learnt every ninja technique right off the bat.'

Naruto inhaled. 'You're really smart, too. In the last few days that you've been helping me my taijutsu has gotten loads better. Its just too bad you're like this.'

Sasuke turned her head away. 'Hmm.'

Iruka continued home. Neither Naruto or Sasuke would appreciate him giving them some words of wisdom right then. And to be honest he was too lost in thoughts of his own parents.

Hopefully they would cool off soon.

Their last fight had been nothing like the symbiotic relationship of the previous days training together. He had become a berserker, taking dozens of punches and kicks just to land a single blow and she had become even more ruthless than before. She tried to shove him aside at the slightest chance and he retaliated in kind, tripping her up in their fight against Ino and Chouji.

They had very nearly lost the fight, what with getting in the other's way as often as fighting their opponents. But Sasuke's skills had seen them through, and he hated her all the more for it. She may be better now, but he'd show her up soon enough. The little smug smirks she sent his way every now and then were the ultimate motivation to train.

'The winners of the academy exam, Team Blue-Three!'

Iruka had become the consummate ringside announcer, for some reason loudly playing up his and Sasuke's comaraderie where there was none.

The crowd cheered and Sasuke's fangirls waved their Uchiha All The Way! flags.

'So, Naruto, Sasuke, what prize do you want? Ryo or a ninja lesson from an ANBU member? Remember, you can't have both so you have to decide as a team.'

Both answered simultaneously. 'Who cares what that idiot wants? Give me the lesson.'

He glared at her. Was she trying to be funny, copying him like that?

'O-okay then. The two of you will have to meet up here tomorrow at six. If you come too late the lesson is off, ANBU are very busy after all. You need to respect their time.'

Naruto rolled his eyes.

'Also...' Iruka continued, grinning. 'There will be one last fight on Monday afternoon. The winning team will split up and face off to see who is the best ninja. No matter who wins that fight know that both of you have already won the exam and that there will be no other prizes. The match is only for fun.'

He grinned at Sasuke in a way he hoped was menacing and she ignored him altogether. But that was okay. The gods had conspired to give him this opportunity, and he would make sure he laid the smack down.

At 5:59 the next day he made it to the academy yard, panting. Sasuke was already there, lying lazily on a tree branch like a jungle cat. He pretended she didnt exist and she did the same to him.

At exactly 6:00 a breeze made Naruto's hair wave about and leaves swirled about, picked up from the ever shed leavesthat littered the grounds of Konoha and its surroundings.

In the centre of the swirling leaves an imposing figure stood, a porcelain mask concealing his identity and lending to the cold detached feel that he gave off.

'That was so cool!'Naruto said, mind going wild with imaginary fight scenes where he used the swirling leaf ANBU teleportation technique to appear in the midst of battle and decimated everyone in a flash.

'You are Naruto Uzumaki.' The ANBU ninja said. His voice was perfectly flat, level and paced. It would have put a robot to shame.

'Y-yes sir!'

'Call me owl.I will be instructing you and your partner in the matters of ninja for the next two hours. Our time is limited so I have decided to give you advice for your own solo training instead of having you run around doing pushups or sparring. Both of which will not be the best use of the short time we have together.'

The Anbu had a bear painted on his mask. Why he insisted on being called owl was beyond understanding. 'Umm... couldnt you maybe teach each of us a cool ninja technique?'

Owl-Bear stared. 'No. There is no effective jutsu I can teach you within that short a time frame, especially without being able to take into consideration your individual traits.'

Naruto wanted to sulk. If this guy was saying it was impossible to teach them anything in a few hours what was the point of this lesson anyway?

'However, I can guarantee you that if you follow the instructions I give you it will serve you better than any jutsu. Good techniques used by bad ninja become bad techniques.Become a good ninja and any techniques you eventually learn will be much more effective.'

Now that, that made sense. Maybe this Owldude knew what he was doing.

'I will be giving each of you tailored training programmes to suit your strengths and weaknesses as well as recommendations for future specialization. Very few people ever get advice like this so early on. Even fewer follow it. Butall of them become excellent ninja.'

'Yeah! Lets do it Mr Owl!'

Owl nodded at them both. Sasuke had somehow made her way beside Naruto without him noticing.

'Now, it is time I instruct you as to your chakra. I will not spend time going over theory, as explained to you it would be more beneficial for me to spend my short time with you giving you practical advice as to how to train on your own. For that I need to know two things: your grasp of chakra manipulation and your chakra itself.'

The man passed a small slip of paper to each of them, barely larger than a stadium ticket and with a slightly rubbery feel to it.

'Channel chakra to your paper and show me the result.'

A moment later his paper had glowed with a blue light before splitting in half. 'Wind.' The instructor commented and turned to acknowledge Sasuke, who's paper had crinkled and shrunk.

'Lightning.'

The Uchiha bitch did not seem at all happy at this, but held her tongue. For that he was glad, he'd had it up to his neck with her stupid face and even stupider comments that she thought was so very smart. What was wrong with lightning anyway? He would trade in a heartbeat. What good was wind anyway?

'I will not be teaching you any elemental techniques, but simply knowing what type you have a proclivity towards will help steer you in your future decisions of specialisation. Most do not bother to check their natural affinity until they are chunin, some realise that the skill set they have worked on for years is diametrically opposed to their nature.'

The instructor went on for a bit longer. Naruto didn't get much of it, but he supposed that it would be pretty stupid if he was to practice fire techniques for years only to realise that if he had chosen wind techniques he would have been much stronger.

'What sort of specialties were you aiming to pursue?' Owl asked.

He scratched his head in confusion. 'Specialties? Is Hokage a specialty?'

Beside him Sasuke emenated disbelief. Evidently he had said something dumb. 'No. It is a title. Elemental techniques, assassination, interrogation, tracking. These are examples of specialisations.'

'Ohh, now I get it. Well, I want to specialise in puppeteering and elemental techniques. I havent found anything else that interests me.'

Owl nodded and turned slightly, looking expectantly at Sasuke. 'Martial arts. Elemental techniques. Illusions. Swordfighting. General weapon throwing. Assassination.'

'Dont forget bitchiness. Though, you're already a black belt in that.' He mumbled this under his breath but she caught it, twirling to face him. Her long black hair twirled with her, red lips pulled into a snarl. She was ready to fight and he was more than happy to oblige.

Her words from the week previous were still fresh on his mind, along with the slight sting of betrayal.

'I will not spend my time breaking up fights with children. I am not a class teacher or caretaker. I will not hesitate to leave.'

Naruto spluttered apologies and Sasuke 'hmm' ed, but both stopped immediately. This was a veryrare opportunity for both of them. Academy students were either taught by the academy or their parents. Neither of them liked the academy, he because it was all so boring and she because she had long surpassed pass requirements. The second was obviously not possible, no matter how much Naruto dreamed of having a badass dad to teach him landscape altering techniques it wasnt to be, and wishing wouldnt change that.

'Now, volume.Whilst I can sense to some degree the amount of chakra you both have-- something you will naturally learn if your relationship to chakra is sufficiently strong-- it is very far from accurate. For the sake ofaccuracy you will both need to actively flare it for me to adequately gauge.'

They were both shown a stance and handsign, expected to copy without being told. Corrections had to be made. Not to Sasuke's stance, no that was picture perfect. But Naruto's arms had been too low, legs not wide enough, hands off centre, etcetera.

He was told to release all he could, pulling as deep and wide into that ever present energy that centred in his belly. Instead of starting as a trickle like a tap being turned it was more like opening a firehose.

Immediate, forceful and somewhat uncontrollable.

Even he realised that the amount of chakra he was releasing must be impressive, he could feel it's weight in the air, see the faint blue light that surrounded him and hear the

ever so soft 'whoosh' noises that seemed to emanate from every pore. If he tried to push some more it almost seemed that he could taste it.

'Stop.' The instructor called, a tinge of surprise evident.

'That was... very impressive. You have the most chakra I have ever seen in person, certainly one of the largest in the village. There are, from what I have been told, perhaps only three or four active ninja in our village with a chakra capacity larger than yours.'

He gave a thumbs up in recognition of his own awesomeness, still unused to releasing so large an amount of chakra all at once. He had never actual felt his chakra levels drop before. The clone, replacement and henge technique had never so much as dipped them.

'Though... I will have to inform that you will never be able to achieve a great degree of control, certainly not enough to perform anything as complex as chakra strings.'

'W-what?' he asked

'While it is possible to improve your chakra control appreciably with certain exercises I can tell that your chakra capacity growth will far outstrip that of your control. You are only ten, have never done any sort of extensive training

or practiced intense jutsu and yet your capacity is humungous. The only time most ninja experience significant growth in their reserves is when each of those factors are ideal. Age, physical training and high-energy technique training are the three most significant factors.'

'I don't understand. You mean that I'll never be able to become a puppeteer?' his voice very nearly cracked.

Owl's professional demeanour was very momentarily tinged with compassion.

'Yes, that is what I am saying. Don't take it too hard, kid. With your chakra reserves you'll be a monster when it comes to elemental techniques, you'll be able to do things that would kill most experienced ninja to perform. What your reserves will be like with a decade of training...'

Here the man trailed off and turned his attention to Sasuke, but Narutodidn't pay attention to anything else from that point on. They were made to throw weapons, sprint, jump and do an assortment of little tests to gauge their ability and proclivity. Naruto went through the motions without question or a drop of enthusiasm.

Then they were told to sit aside and wait. He vaguely noticed the man taking out a pair of scrolls and writing intently but phased everything out, too lost in his thoughts.

The sun moved across the sky unheeded as he sat plopped onto the ground.

'Hey. Hey kid.'

A soft pat on the shoulder. Owl stood close, the brown of his eyes visible through the small slits in porcelain.

'Y-yeah?'

'Here.' The man said, his eyes still staring intently as he passed a scroll. The ink had yet to fully dry, he could tell, and written in beautiful, bold letters at the top of the page was his name followed by dozens of lines of tiny, neat script. Diagrams dotted along the page, further explaining some of the writings.

'I've already given your teammate her training routine ten minutes back.' Sure enough, Sasuke was nowhere to be seen.

'Just follow everything that's written in there diligently and you will turn out great. I see a lot of potential in you, kid.'

'Anyway, good luck.' And then the ANBU disappeared, and Naruto left.