CHAPTER 5!

I can't believe how I'm still going through with this since I lose interest in a lot of things pretty quick. Guess I'm just really interested in writing down every single idea I have. I hope this turns out well.

READ ON!

These past three months have probably been the longest Hiruzen as ever lived through. There one problem after another and he was just getting so tired of it. Retirement seemed like a distant dream at the moment. And even if he considered retiring again, he didn't have any successor in mind. Both of his previous students weren't currently residing in the village and the third was a traitor and rogue ninja. They were the only people he could consider a possible successor after the Fourth, but he knew even if they were around they would decline the position.

He sighed. Hiruzen wondered if this job would ever be easy enough for him to relax sometime. Everything needed his attention now-a-days. The Uchiha coup seems to still be in process and he knew what that meant. The Clan would have to be purged. He was really hoping Shisui's plan would succeed, but when he heard of his suicide he had lost all of that hope.

The Uchiha clan had been investigating his death, believing he didn't commit suicide and that someone murdered him. Hiruzen knew it wasn't murder since it was itachi, who was with shisui when he died, who told him everything that transpired.

Everything seemed to get more stressful as time went on for the old hokage. He had recently spoken with Iruka about naruto.

Hiruzen was relieved that the boy was alright and attending the academy, but he was thinking about what iruka had told him a week ago.

*A week ago*

Iruka had went to the hokage tower after his classes were over to speak to the hokage about naruto. He hadn't had a chance to meet with him lately since it seemed the hokage had been busy most of the time these days. Today he had setup a meeting with the hokage, so he should be able to finally speak with him. He was meaning to talk with him a lot sooner than now but the reasons for the meeting weren't that important at the time, but naruto's actions during their ranking tournament were to unnatural to ignore.

That tournament was three months ago and that's how long it took him to finally get a confrontation. The only bad part of it was that he wouldn't have much time to speak with the hokage due to recent events that were not disclosed to him.

His walk was short as he finally saw the tower in up a head. He took the stairs on the side of the structure up into the tower where he met up with the two chunin to check in.

"Oh, its you Iruka. Here to see the Hokage?"asked one of the stationed chunin. Iruka nodded and signed his name on the register. Waving goodbye to the chunin he head to hokage's office. Reaching the front of the office Iruka knocked on the door but got no response. He entered only to find the office empty. 'Empty? Wait. Of course That's where he would be.'

Leaving the empty space he heading deeper into the tower. He arrived at a set of stairs where the sunshine from outside was leaking in. Going up he ascended onto the roof of the hokage tower. He could see the hokage himself at the railing watching over the village with his hands behind his back. He removed his pipe from his mouth and let out a puff of smoke. Without turning around the old man spoke at Iruka's arrival. "So Iruka what did you want to talk about?"

"Well I wanted to talk about Naruto."

"Ah yes. I heard he recently reappeared at the Academy."

"Reappeared? What do you mean?"

"Well before he joined the Academy, Naruto had gone missing for at least a month."

"A month?!"

With a nod the old man continued to explain how neither he nor his Anbu could find him and how he nearly sent ninja outside the village to search for him. This left Iruka completely surprised and full of questions. He couldn't help but wonder how a seven year old could evade the Anbu black ops and the third hokage.

"Well its was a relief when I heard he had entered the academy. So Iruka what is wrong?"

"Well lord third Naruto has been acting rather strangly recently and there is this aura about him that unsettles me." To this the third had turned around to face Iruka. His face had was serious, but also reflected a good amount of curiosity on his rigid features. "Oh? And what unsettles you Iruka?"

"Well, When I first met Naruto he was a bundle of energy, but on certain occasions he feels different. He acts the same but the air around is completely different. Its calm. Too calm and it kind of gets hard to breath as if I was thrown into an ocean of killing intent."

"Really now. Has their been any instances where this has happened."

Iruka nodded his head. "Yes. Three months ago during our ranking tournament."

*FLASHBACK in a FLASHBACK*

"Alright everyone listen up!" Iruka had to yell to calm his class down. Ever since they got here they've been chatting in excitement about the tournament today. Well. Everyone except shikamaru who had instantly fallen asleep when he sat down. There was also Hinata who was being reassured by Naruto to not worry. "Alright listen I want you all to head out to the yard in an orderly fashion." With that said they automatically rushed out the door completely ignoring his order. Iruka sighed and just followed behind them after he woke up shikamaru who had still been passed out.

His students were lined up and speaking among themselves. He cleared his throat to get their attention. "Okay. Let me lay down the rules. There will be three round, you can win by either dropping your opponent on their back or drawing first blood. You are allowed to use taijutsu only since I don't expect most of you to know any Ninjutsu or Genjutsu." Iruka took out a sort of checkbook with all of his students' names on it. With his pen out he began to address them. "Now let us begin! To start off would chouji and kiba step forward."

Both boys headed into the center and faced each other. Iruka gave them the signal to begin. It seemed like the battle was in kiba's favor. Chouji was on the defensive most of the time and didn't look like he wanted to fight. After kiba had made a slight remark on chouji's weight, the tides of battle had changed. Kiba was caught off guard and knocked out in one blow. Since kiba couldn't continue chouji was declared the winner.

The rest of the matches were normal and the matches between most of the girls was quite disappointing. 'Girls these days think more about boys than training.'

"Alright, now come forth Hinata Hyuga and Sakura haruno." Sakura had a smirk on her face after hearing that she'd be fighting Hinata and Hinata was gently pushed forward by Naruto ,who wished her luck. After she timidly made it toward sakura the match begun. Sakura took the initiative to attack first and began to throw punches at Hinata. To Hinata, the punches were uncoordinated and slow allowing her to easily dodge. Though she didn't want to hurt Sakura she didn't want to lose either. Determined to not lose on front of Naruto she finally went on the offensive. Sakura was taken by surprise by Hinata fighting back and was easily taken down. She began to fume with anger and stared at Hinata who was in her juken stance. Losing round one didn't help her calm her anger. In blind fury, Sakura rushed Hinata with a loud battle cry. Hinata gracefully dodged and struck sakura's chakra points with great accuracy. Sakura fell limp on the floor groaning in pain.

"That's enough. Hinata is the winner."

Ino, one of sakura's friends, had taken sakura back to the sidelines. Hinata was earning praise from Naruto which made her blush up a storm. "For our final match will Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha step forward."

Naruto was facing Sasuke who had a smug and arrogant look on his face. "Don't worry dope I'll make this quick."

"Alright. begin!"

Wasting no time, Sasuke , with an amazing burst of speed was already in front of Naruto. He cocked back his fist to attack only to hit nothing but air. Everyone was astonished by Sasuke's speed, but even more surprised by how Naruto side-stepped his attack with the same amount of speed. Sasuke's fan girls were cheering him on while booing Naruto. Hinata was silently rooting for her friend's victory.

Sasuke was at a lost. He was hoping to win the first round in one move. He didn't expect Naruto to actually dodge his attack. "You got luck. You loser."

"Maybe. Wanna find out."

Back on the attack Sasuke was going blow for blow. Naruto was on the defense and didn't seem like he was going to try and fight back. Sasuke was getting frustrated with naruto's unwillingness to fight. He just kept blocking his attacks and took no offensive. Then it hit him. 'He must be trying to wear me out.'

Even though they have only been in the academy for two weeks, Naruto's monster stamina had become well known. Sasuke knew if they kept this up Naruto would out last him and he wouldn't be able to go on do to exhaustion. 'He's trying to win without throwing a single punch.'

Gritting his teeth Sasuke stopped his assault and glared at Naruto. "ARE YOU MOCKING ME!?"

Naruto was confused by the outburst, but not for long. Sasuke had launched himself toward him. Expecting another punch Naruto put up his arms in defense but to his surprise he didn't feel a punch at all. In its place was a hand wrapped aroud his wrist. Sasuke had caught his wrist and tossed him over his shoulder onto the ground.

"Round 1 goes to Sasuke Uchiha." All the girls cheered, all except hinata who was looking worriedly at Naruto. Most of the guys just snickered at Naruto's loss.

Sasuke was sporting his all too familiar smug look as Naruto rose to his feet. "Did you really think wearing me out and winning would be that easy."

Naruto, standing on his feet again, just smirked and patted some dust off of himself. "So you figured out my plan. Not bad."

"Don't underestimate me. You loser."

Iruka interrupted their chatter by beginning the second round, but that didn't do much since they stayed where they were and continued to stare at each other. They didn't speak and allowed a long silence to overcome them. The crowd had quieted down. It was suspenseful by just watching the two and anticipating who would attack first.

Sasuke was getting tired of their little staring contest. He was hoping for Naruto to make the first move so he could conserve some energy. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but their last scuffle did wear him down and he was just barely concealing his breathing. 'I have to make him attack first to turn the battle in my favor.'

"What's wrong dope? Scared?"

Naruto gave him a playful look and a smirk of his own. He could tell what Sasuke was playing at. "Why should I be?"

"Come on attack. I'll let you get a free hit."

"That's kind of you, but I'm good."

"Stop being a wimp you pathetic Dead-last Loser and fight me already!"

Naruto didn't respond this time and just kept quiet. He just kept staring back at Sasuke and didn't flinch to a single insult thrown his way. Sasuke was getting irritated. No matter what he said, Naruto just wouldn't budge. He would taunt him and insult him, but Naruto didn't seem to care. 'What's up with him. Its like he gets insulted on a daily basis.' There was nothing much he could continue saying since it seemed Naruto wouldn't be provoked.

"Sometime I wish you were like that pathetic hyuga friend of yours."

In that moment Naruto calm expression changed to one of anger. Once Sasuke saw it his smug face had reappeared. He knew that he had finally hit a nerve. 'So that's it.'

"What's with that look. I'm only saying how a loser should act like a loser."

Before he could say anything else he was crushed into the ground by Naruto. Naruto had a firm grip on his throat. It happened so fast that Sasuke couldn't even defend himself. He could feel the blood coming out of his mouth and the breath literally being sucked right out of him. Naruto's grip was only getting stronger and Sasuke couldn't breath. Loweringhis head, Naruto whispered a warning into Sasuke's ear. "Now you listen to me you little pathetic Uchiha trash. I don't care about what you say about me, but if you insult Hinata-chan like that again I'll rip your tongue out and shove it down your throat."

With his menacing appearance and cold hearted words that promised pain, Sasuke could only stare off and shiver without even knowing it. Naruto had stood up and left into the classroom stating that 'he quit'.

Iruka could only stare on like his students as Naruto walked away with Hinata following behind him. The instant he saw Naruto choking the life out of Sasuke was the instant he was going to end the match. But he never did because he got that feeling again and was frozen in place. Snapping out of his daze, he helped Sasuke up and dismissed his students early. 'Somethings going on with Naruto. I need to speak with lord third.'

*Back to previous FLASHBACK*

"... And that's what happened."

"... I see." Hiruzen was in deep thought and was trying to soak in everything he had just heard. After organizing his thoughts he had turned his attention back to Iruka. "This is strange indeed. I'll have to keep a closer eye on Naruto. I'll try to speak with him later. Thank you for bringing this to my attention Iruka."

"There is no need to thank me. I'm just worried for one of my students. Thank you for your time lord third, it is time for me to go." Iruka gave the old man one final bow before descended back into the tower.

*Present time*

He still hadn't found time to meet up with Naruto, but he believed he would have enough time after tonight. He let out his most recent sigh today as he sensed who had just appeared before him. "Are you ready itachi?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama." said the boy who was kneeling down before the Hokage. Hiruzen looked down at the boy with both sorrow and pity. He believed a boy so young should be going through this, but they both knew what must be done. "Very well. You may commence your mission and as promised I will take care of your little brother."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama" He disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Hiruzen stared at where the boy had stood and sighed once again. He closed his eyes and thought 'You shouldn't be thanking me.'

*Nearing the Uchiha District*

Sasuke was nearing his home after another terrible day at the academy. Well terrible for him that is. He had grown accustomed to challenge Naruto every chance he could get, but the blond would just ignore him. Sasuke was frustrated with how easy Naruto had defeated him and how he had scared him as well. Being an Uchiha meant he had a lot of pride in his clan and strength, but to beat him like that and just say you quit was insulting.

So everyday now he would head straight into training after leaving the academy and would arrive home late. His brother, Itachi, would usually pick him up around this time but he never showed. After waiting long enough he had chosen to head home alone. It was getting dark so he had picked up the pace to avoid walking on the streets at night.

As he entered the Uchiha District, he felt that something was wrong. Sure it was late but there would still be some people walking the street. But there was no one. It was quiet. way too quiet. All the lights were of in every home and shop. Sasuke had tried to look into some of the homes but since it was so dark he couldn't see a thing. As he entered deeper into the Uchiha District a rather terrible scent had reached his nostrils. Blood.

Sasuke began to panic and feared the worst. Not making anymore stops he went straight to his house. Opening the door, he didn't even bother to take of his sandals and began searching for his parents. "Mother! Father! Where are you?!"

He headed to their room. Upon arriving to their door he heard and audible thud on the other side of the door. As if something had just hit the ground. He slid the door open and was met with a traumatizing sight. There on the floor laid his parent appearing pale and lifeless. Standing above them was non-other than his big brother, Itachi. "B-brother. W-why?"

"You wouldn't understand. Foolish little brother."

Sasuke looked into his brothers eyes and his entire world changed as Itachi spoke "... Tsukuyomi!"

I Finally finished with this chapter! Man you don't know how long I've had this chapter in the works. Sorry it took so long. ITs been exactly two weeks since I last uploaded a chapter. Its just with school and exams I've been stressed and lazy.

I'm just glad this chapters done. NOW for the next chapter Naruto will finally be graduating. So I'll have to figure out hoe to work out all the details.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Till next time! :)