A/N: Hi everyone. Yes, I'm still here. I finally went on holiday and I wasn't home, that's why I couldn't update sooner and I am really really sorry for that. Good news for you followers though: this week I'll be home and alone, so I'll write no stop! (lol) I plan on update at least two more chapters besides this in this week, but after that I fear I'll disappear for the rest of August. Starting on September, updates will resume on a regular basis. Don't worry, I won't leave this story like this 'cause I have it all already planned in my mind and I really want to show you all of it! Also, thank you for the huge amount of followers and favorites! I didn't receive a lot of reviews with the last chapter but I don't mind if you are there reading my story, I just thanks a lot the ones of you that keep reviewing 'cause every time you did it leaves me with a dumb smile on my face for the rest of the day! I hope you'll forgive for my delay and that you'll keep giving me advice and feedbacks!

Sorry for the long note, but here is a long chapter eheh!


-chapter 4-

ORGANIZING


In was early in the morning. Naruto had practically never closed his eyes through the entire night. The first thing he did that morning, however, was to pay a visit to a really tired –and in a awful mood- Tsunade baa-chan. He had managed to convince her to take the damn plaster off his arm in exchange of not annoying her for the whole day, opting instead for a soft bandage without a bracer so that it would not impede his movements.

He was now walking through the streets. The shops owners were set up their merchandise as he passed by them, giving him their usual glare, but Naruto's mind was totally elsewhere at the moment.

His thoughts shifted towards last night events, remembering Kakashi-sensei's face –what was visible of it, let's say- when he had come back inside his apartment just after Naruto had finally been able to free himself from that damn chair.

Naruto frowned. He may not be the smartest, but he realized there was something wrong there. All of it starting with one question: who was that guy?

Kakashi-sensei had never been one inclined to word to his feelings, Naruto mused. He just wore that bored expression of his, no matter what. But last night was different…

'He is not an enemy, but new shinobi of the Leaf. Now go to sleep, Naruto.' had been Sensei's dismissing words, appearing in front of him without a warning and blocking his run for the door. There had been not a clear threat in his tone, but something in it had confused Naruto. He had never heard that tone in Kakashi-sensei's voice, and before he had been able to ask what he did know, he had shushined away.

Believing him on the fact that that Minato-called shinobi was not a threat, Naruto had gone to bed, suppressing the urge to punch something and settling for a groan instead.

Naruto was now musing on what had that all meant. Was Kakashi-sensei afraid of something? No. It just couldn't be. He had looked more… off balanced (maybe?) by something, but that felt wrong on Kakashi-sensei too.

Why the hell were everybody hiding him something? He was tired of that. Ero-Sennin was going to answer his questions and teach him senjutsu as soon as he would be able to put his hands… hand on him! However, that old toads-lover was not where you expected him to be –the bathhouse- and he was not in the hotels he usually stayed either.

Naruto had learned long ago, during the first months of their trip together, that when the Sannin did not want to be found, you just couldn't. So Naruto had admitted his temporary defeat and was now heading towards the Training Grounds, planning on training himself on the Wind Style. After all, if he wanted to beat some sense into Mr. Avenger he needed to get stronger and stronger, and Fuuton might be the right tool to accomplish that.

Naruto's hand shifted involuntarily to his stomach. He forced himself to not think about the weakened state of the Nine Tails seal. He would just pay more attention during his training and he'd prevent its Chakra to leak out.

Maybe I should ask Yamato-taichou if he could come along…

He shook his head, angry at himself for even think about it, and set a determined expression on his face. He didn't need a babysitter every time he wanted to train. He was a grown-up-ninja for Kami's sake!

Another idea came to his mind and Naruto beamed. That didn't mean he had to go alone! He grinned in anticipation at the thought of a good spar session with his beloved teammates.

He abruptly changed direction and jumped on the nearer roof. Not really noticing how the people near him jumped in surprise and some even left a short scream of fright, Naruto headed towards Sakura's place with a grin on his face.


Training Ground 7. The same one his old Genin Team once used to train on. Here was where they had told him to go, and here he now was. One hour early, too. He would use the time for a warm-up, he had told himself.

Minato had tried to distract himself with some katas, absolutely needing concentration and the usual blank, cold state of mind of a deadly ninja, if he wanted to show them what he really could do.

However, his own mind was not cooperating. This reality was still shocking him. He still couldn't believe he was into the future… the most rational part of him was pushing him to believe this was only a dream. A nightmare he was going to wake up from, sooner or later.

Sadly, that was not Minato's case. He was where he was -when he was, he corrected himself- and he had to go back to his own time as soon as he could before he would find out something he can't find out. That was what they had told him, but he still hadn't a damn clue about how to do it.

He sighed, defeated. Concentration seemed a too far away goal right now, especially after his conversation with the Godaime Hokage Tsunade-sama of the previous night…

Flashback

Tsunade of the Sannin stared at him.

Blank of any emotion, she wore the perfect stoic Hokage-face, the one you put despite whatever situation you had to deal with. It felt strange seeing her like that, Minato thought. He dared saying she looked more frightening than usual.

Apart from the guards, she had been the only one still awake at the Hokage Tower, as she had needed to do some urgent paperwork, but you could clearly see the tiredness in the bangs under her eyes, and even if her face remained blank, it was not that hard to guess by who she seemed pissed off. Noticing how uncomfortable his Sensei looked, Minato hoped she was more pissed by her teammate than by him…

There had not been a single word spoken yet and Minato was starting to feel awkward at the prolonged silence.

"Ehm… You look-" Minato started, but soon realized that breaking the ice with something like telling how she looked young despite the years was not convenient… and Sensei's panicked glare confirmed it.

"What are you doing, Brat," His sensei whispered to him through closed teeth. "Get ourselves killed? Shut up and let me speak."

Before his sensei could add anything else, Tsunade shifted her gaze to her previous teammate, this time showing a dangerous glint in her eyes. "Jiraiya."

A shiver ran up the poor man's spine. He didn't like it when her lip twitched like that…

"Did you, by chance, decided to clone your precious student sixteen years ago without telling anyone and suddenly decided to bring it to the Leaf?" She gave an evil sarcastic chuckle. "Because a brat copy of the Yondaime is NOT WHAT WE NEED AT THE MOMENT!" She finished standing up and banging her fist or her desk, her tone openly giving out how deadly serious and mad she was.

Jiraiya jumped in fear. "A-Actually," he said, sweet dropping from the back of his head. "T-That situation wouldn't be that bad in comparison with the one we actually are..." He changed his tone, sounding slightly annoyed. "And you're mistaking me for the Snake, I would never do such a thing."

Tsunade didn't move a muscle, apart from the twitching of her eye. Her glare was still stuck on the other Sannin.

His sensei pointed a big finger towards him, barking. "This brat here is just as difficult as the other one! It's all his fault!"

"Ehi! Thank you so much, Sensei!" Minato said sarcastically.

"Enough!" She sit down again, regaining her composure, even if you could clearly see it was forced. "Explain the situation, then."

Jiraiya crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes, thinking about how to phrase their situation.

"Tsunade, I've been brought to believe that this boy over here is the true Namikaze Minato." He looked at his previous teammate with the seriousness that always claimed full attention from his audience. "He had managed to travel forward in time to this point. I never knew such a thing happened anyway."

Tsunade frowned. "Are you sure of what you are saying? He could be an impostor." She asked glancing at him and he slightly tensed at the accusation, but she probably already knew she didn't need to worry about that.

"I kne… I know him better than everyone else, most of all at this age of his. I'm sure this is my student." Jiraiya said gesturing toward him.

Minato noticed his sensei's first hesitation, even if it was nearly imperceptible, but couldn't place it.

"All right, Jiraiya. I trust you on this thing." She paused, then turned her head to look at him. "Minato-kun, I don't know how you did such a thing, but it is of extreme importance that you go back to your time as soon as possible. I am sure you understand why."

Minato nodded, feeling ashamed as he had never felt before. "I understand and I will do it as soon as I can. The problem is that I…"

Minato's cheeks turned into a deep shade of red, angry at himself. This is what I got for what I did… I'm so stupid!

"I don't know how to do it. Yet." He continued, sensing his sensei's sympathetic gaze on him, and definitely not wanting it. He didn't deserve it.

Tsunade kept staring at him with her serious expression, this time accompanied by a frown. Minato had the courage to look back into her eyes, ready to get any sort punishment for the stupid stunt he had put, but her face suddenly lightened as she smiled softly at him, dropping all the previous formalities.

"You'll be able to do it, just believe in your capability."

Minato's eyebrows raised. He didn't see that coming.

"After all, you're still learning…" Her smile turned into a smirk. "…brat."

"What… I'm not a brat!" Yes. This was definitely the Tsunade he knew.

She didn't respond, staring at him instead. Her amused smirk slowly disappeared and she sighed. "Let's get serious again, shall we? Minato, what did you know about this time?"

Minato frowned. "Only that I will became Yondaime, it seems. Sensei told me that I will be able to go back in time because of that."

Jiraiya flinched at being referred to.

"Jiraiya!" Tsunade shot her previous teammate a glare. "We are not supposed to tell him these kind of things!"

"It was necessary! And besides, you just called him brat version of the Yondaime!" His sensei added something between his teeth that luckily for him Tsunade didn't hear.

Tsunade sighed for the umpteenth time that day. "Alright. We need to organize this thing." She said entangling her fingers in front of her, claiming the attention of her audience. "Minato, this thing about being Yondaime was an exception. You are not allowed to know any important information on this time or any time that you'll perceive as the future. I'll give you every scrolls in our possession about Space-Time that might help you find a way back. Jiraiya will help you."

His sensei nodded at him, determined to help him. He also noticed an odd exaggerated glint of happiness in his eyes.

"Another thing of absolute importance is to keep your permanence here hidden. You will have to stay out of the village for most of the time. People must not recognize you." She stopped, organizing her own thoughts. "People of your age don't know how you looked like at this age, there should not be any problem." She said more to herself, but they heard her anyway.

They kept the silence, decided to let her finish what she was planning, as she seemed insecure on something.

She started speaking again, raising her head and looking at Minato. "We don't know how long your permanence here will last, so you'll need to maintain yourself in the meantime. I can't put you with the other ANBUs because most of them could easily recognize you. I'll have to put you with the Teams formed by the ones with your same age. Also, as I said before, you can't stay in the village for too long, therefore, every time I'll have a mission for them, you will join them. Is that all clear?"

Minato nodded. It seemed he'd have to get along with the orange-clad shinobi. He hid a smirk at the through, realizing only then how bad he wanted to confront himself with him. There was something in him that… he just had to see him again.

Lost in his own thoughts, Minato didn't noticed the look the two Sannin exchanged. He just managed to see his sensei nodding at himself over something.

"One last thing Minato." Tsunade continued. "I need you to do an assessment to judge your skills." Tsunade stated. "I am sure you are an amazing shinobi, but it will do well to us to see what you can do at this age and refresh our memories. You will be under my command for your permanence here, and I need to know my shinobi's skills as the back of my hand in order to assign them to the right missions."

"All right, Tsunade-sama." It was reasonable.

She smirked, pleased. "I'm not accustomed to such obedient and respectful brats anymore I'm afraid." She said, earning a slight blush from Minato and a chuckle from Jiraiya. "Your assessment will take place tomorrow morning. I won't be able to assist it myself, but Jiraiya will report me about it. As for your examiner, it needs to be someone whose skills you are not familiar with…"

Minato's adrenaline was already pushing his body to fight, looking forward to a good match. He noticed the smirk on the Godaime before she spoke again.

"Kakashi…" A blur of black and silver came from above and landed elegantly just a few steps from the side of the Hogake's desk.

Minato didn't even flinch, but sure he was surprised there was someone inside who had been eavesdropping their conversation. Hadn't Tsunade-sama dismiss her guards and apply the silencing seals just before their conversation had started? One thing was clear anyway, both the Sannin weren't surprised by that.

As soon as the new shinobi raised from his couched position, Minato's eyes slightly widened in recognition.

"As you have probably figured out, I knew of your presence here from the very start, but I let you stay so I wouldn't have to explain the situation, as I already knew this thing couldn't have been kept from you." She said, the tiredness in her voice beginning to be more detectable.

The masked ninja's face was devoid of any emotion. He turned around and glanced at Minato, who soon became, for the umpteenth time, the subject of a stare. Hiding a frown, Minato decided to stare back and couldn't help to notice how familiar he looked. The only silver-haired shinobi he knew (on sight) in his own time was the newly-appointed celebrity Hatake Sakumo. Maybe he was a relative of his, as silver hair weren't that common in Konoha.

Focused on the physical features, Minato also noticed the rigidity of his body. It was nearly imperceptible, but Minato's eye was a trained one.

Finally, that creepy one-eyed stare of his turned towards the Godaime as she spoke again. He just felt uncomfortable under the deep scrutiny of that gaze, and he didn't know why. Maybe this man had had an issue with his older self somehow, at some time…?

Stuck by his self-made revelation, Minato didn't hear what Tsunade and the shinobi were talking about, probably his assessment. Had Minato been a sort of enemy for him? A role figure? A friend? Who knew? He had been (will be?) the Hokage, so he must had known all his shinobi. He could still ask him what was his problem with him, but he knew it would be pointless because of that don't-tell-him-about-the-future crap.

Minato jumped out of his musing as the masked ninja cleared his throat and looked at him. "Tomorrow morning at eight, Training Ground 7." The shinobi said with a low, detached tone.

Minato nodded, determined, but annoyed at himself for not paying attention at the details of his assessment.

"Very well." Tsunade concluded. "You two, you are dismissed. Jiraiya, find the boy a place to stay." Both Minato and his sensei nodded and turned away to leave.

"Kakashi. Before you go, I have some things to discuss with you…" He heard just before his sensei shut the door behind them. However, he couldn't help the surge of curiosity that pervaded him, because Minato knew he was going to be the subject of that discussion.

End Flashback.

"Gaki."

Minato was thrown away from his thoughts by the new entry's voice. "Hi Sensei." He said without turning around, still busy with one of his stances.

Jiraiya dropped from one of the branches of a nearby tree and landed a few feet from him. "Are you ready to fight?"

Minato glanced at him, noticing he was holding a scroll. He sighed. "As ready as I can, I guess." Both Sensei and Student knew well he was referring to his state of mind other than his physical warm up.

"Here, take this." He said, handing him the scroll. "It's a storage scroll. It contains every knowledge we have that could help you, starting from some innocuous books from the public library to dangerous scroll from the kinjutsu section."

Minato nodded and reached with his hand to take it, but his sensei moved it out of his reach at the last moment, casting him a serious look. "I will monitor you, so do not do something stupid with this. Have I been clear?"

Minato would have looked annoyed, but this time his sensei had a point. "All right, all right. I've learned the lesson." And he took the scroll.

Jiraiya walked away and sat under the shadow of a nearby tree, pulling out a note book and starting scribbling something. "I'd give it a look now. You have all the time you need." He added without raising his gaze.

"But it's almost eight…" Minato fairly objected.

Jiraiya chuckled but didn't give an answer, too focused on his work, but Minato decided to listen for his advice anyway. He shrugged and sat near his sensei with the back resting on the trunk of the tree, just like him. He opened the scroll and picked up one random book.

Before he started reading, he glanced over his shoulder to see what his sensei was doing. He soon turned away smirking, shaking his head.

"Some things never change, uh Sensei?" He felt the Sannin turn to look his way, but Minato kept his eyes on the open book on his lap.

Jiraiya started at him. Minato missed the glint his eyes took at the epiphany. The Student, a child intent on studying Elemental Chakra's theory, sitting next the Sensei, a young Jounin that had found his own passion in writing, but still giving him advises once in a while, even if the boy was more talented than people gave him credit for. They used to pass whole hours that way, under the morning sun of Konohagakure no Sato, while Jiraiya's other two students spared nearby.

"No, Gaki. Some things will always be the same." If Jiraiya forced any emotion out of his voice, Minato did not notice.


Kakashi leaned back on the wall near the window of the Hokage Tower. He was looking at the leaves cradled by the wind, trying to distract himself from the conversation that was taking place inside. The Hokage Office was now occupied by himself, Yuhi Kurenai, his 'dear eternal rival' Maito Gai and his former ANBU partner Tenzo, now known as Yamato. It was in this kind of situation that you could easily notice the absence of their newly fallen comrade, Sarutobi Asuma, Kakashi mused.

Kakashi, still stubbornly focused on that particular leave just above the near roof, pretended not to see how all his dear fellow shinobi shifted their wide-eyed gaze from the big-breasted Hokage to him, probably noticing his lack of reaction to the news the Godaime had just given them, or maybe because they all knew that once he had been really close to the… man in question, so they were probably trying to guess how this odd situation was affecting him.

Well, if they hoped to see under his mask –metaphorically, of course, nobody knew what laid under his real mask- they would be very disappointed, because he himself didn't know how the situation was affecting him. All he knew is that that teenage version of Minato Namikaze needed to go back to his time as soon as possible. It was a mission they all needed to accomplish and failure was not an option. There was not time nor place for feelings. Besides, he was not the Minato Namikaze he learned to know, the one he remembered, so the problem was already solved, wasn't it?

"Kakashi already knew about this, that is why I asked him to gather all of you here." The Hokage spoke again, reclaiming the full attention of her shinobi. "I couldn't summon you formally because our situation is very delicate, as you can see yourselves. We need the utmost secrecy."

They all nodded despite the shock still visible on their face. If the situation wasn't that serious, Kakashi might have thought it was funny.

"I wanted to inform you because our little problem would spent most of his time with the Rookie 9 and the members of Team Gai. That's because we can't let anybody recognize him, so I couldn't let him join ANBU and the ones younger than him are too weak in comparison to him."

They all nodded again. They regained their composure but it seemed they all were still too stunned to speak. Or maybe they had so many questions that they didn't know from where to start.

Well, Kakashi would be the first one then. "I already told you this yesterday, Hogake-sama, but I think I should ask again." He began, speaking for the first time.

They all turned their head to him, curious. The Hokage, however, narrowed her eyes to him.

He continued. "Is it wise to let a young version of the Fourth Hokage get near the Nine Tails vessel?"

Only Kakashi and Tsunade were able to read between the lines: was it wise to let the father get near the son? Kakashi didn't know Minato-sensei at that age, but he knew he had always been known for his sharp mind. It won't take long to him to guess Naruto was his future son, and if things didn't go well, he could also find out about his state of Jinchuuriki, and that could not happen. They had to avoid any sort of paradox if they wanted the universe to keep existing.

"Kakashi-senpai has a point." Yamato interjected. "Naruto's seal is weakening, so there might be a possibility that Yondaime-sama could see him under the control of the Demon."

Tsunade smashed a palm on her desk, cracking it. "Naruto won't fall under the control of the Demon anymore, and you, among everyone, will be the one preventing it." She said slightly raising her voice and shooting the poor Mokuton user a death glare, who slightly paled.

She laid on the backseat and sighed, reveling how stressed she was. "We can't afford the Nine Tails to do any further damage to both Naruto and the village. So, let's not start from situation that aren't supposed to happen."

"H-Hai, Hokage-sama." He nodded.

Tsunade leaned forward again. "Besides, knowledge about Bijuu and Jinchuuriki was even less common in the past than now, and the fact that Minato did-… doesn't come from a shinobi clan helps on the matter. He would not recognize him as a Jinchuuriki, so we could easily lie to him on that." She spoke the last part looking towards Kakashi, as an answer to his previous question, but Kakashi was still uncertain about that. After all, the father/son dilemma was still there.

"So, you want us to keep an eye on him and our previous Genin Teams to be sure his identity remain a secret and that he won't learn anything important about this time. Am I right?" Kurenai guessed.

Tsunade looked at the only other woman in the room and smirked, satisfied. "Exactly."

She glanced at the clock on the wall and turned her narrowed eyes to a certain masked ninja. "Don't you have someone to test, Kakashi?"

He glanced at her and mentally sighed. Why did she has to make him do that? Oh, right… He had sneaked inside her office the night before… Fair enough.

"Kakashi, you are dismissed. The rest of you, open your ears. I will give you more details about this situation."

Still forcing himself not to sigh, Kakashi jumped out of the window without any dismissal word. His meeting with his little Minato-sensei was at eight and now it was eight, so that meant he still had a couple of hours left, maybe even more.

I think it's finally time to beat my previous record in lateness…

Hatake Kakashi was known for his lateness because he used to stand in front of a certain person's grave for most of the time. This time would not be otherwise, just that the grave would be another one's.


Naruto and Sai had finally reached the end of the village and were heading towards the Training Grounds area, deciding on silent agreement to walk the path through the trees instead of jumping their way above the branches. After all they weren't in a hurry, so the simple walking was fine.

"Aah! I still can't believe Sakura punched me only because I asked her to come along for a spar!"

"From what you've told me, you erupted into her bedroom, waking her up." Sai pointed out. "Maybe girls doesn't like it when they are sleeping." He paused for a moment, then took out a notebook from one of his pocket, writing something on hit.

"Uh?" Naruto glanced at him, then laughed. "Try as you can, buddy. You will never be able to understand girls, let alone understand Sakura, believe me."

Sai stopped walking. "And why would it be that? For what I see, you don't understand her either." He said with his usual neutral voice.

Naruto wheeled around and smirked at his Root-nin friend. "You know, I've already developed a sort of immunity to her fury, so I don't need to understand her. We will be the perfect couple one day, believe it! Eh-eh."

Sai deadpanned. "That's not what the lump on your head is anything to go by."

Naruto humph-ed and waved his words off, mumbling something that sounded a lot like "details", and kept walking ahead.

Suddenly, the sound of someone fighting nearby drew the two Team 7 members' attention. It seemed to come from the T.G. number ten.

Naruto grinned, recognizing the voices. Without a warning, he jumped on the branch of the tree in front of him and headed towards them, with Sai trailing just behind him.

"Ehi, slow down! What are you doing?"

"We will see if our friends are up for two more shinobi for their training session!" Naruto shouted behind his shoulder, still grinning.

And with some luck, maybe I'll bump into that ANBU shinobi that looked too much as a spy to me.

Indeed. Naruto had been not only looking for his Ero-Sennin that morning, but he had also keep an eye open for the sudden blond peer he didn't know he had inside this village. Considering that Kakashi-sensei had told him he was not a spy, it meant that he was free to roam around, and given that he hadn't see him in the village, he might be training here in the surroundings, if the baa-chan hadn't given him a mission yet.

He smirked. He didn't know why he felt that way, but he just couldn't help but look forward to confront himself with that shinobi. Maybe it was his air of know-it-all Naruto had always found irritating in everyone that made him look for a fight with him, or maybe he just wanted to see how strong he was out of simple curiosity, or maybe he didn't trust him and wanted to make him prove his 'innocence'.

Ah, screw that. I'll just kick his ass off when the time comes.

They landed just on the border of Training Ground 10, where the previous Genin Team 10 members were arguing among themselves.

"Ahg! It's not my fault if big-boned here can't control his own Jutsu!"

"What? It was you that were driving me and nearly broke my neck! I still can't understand why you always need to blame everyone but you even when it's obvious it's your fault, Ino."

"It's because it's not my fault! If you didn't drop the Jutsu so early it would have worked!"

"Wake me up when you two are done, ok?"

Both Ino and Choji glanced at their third companion as he walked away and sat under the nearby tree. It was there that they noticed that they were not alone anymore. Ino squeezed her eyes while Choji waved at them.

"Hi guys! What are you doing here?"

Naruto and Sai both approached the pair. "Just wandering if you were up to some spar sessions. The more we are the merrier, ne?" Naruto said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Naruto! Get lost." Ino shouted with a white death glare. "We are doing something important here and we don't need you to distract us! However…" She plastered an inviting smile on her face. "Sai, if you want you can stay and watch. Your presence is very welcomed." She said grubbing the Root-nin elbow as an invitation to join them.

"Oh… R-Really?" Sai glanced at his fuming blond teammate for support, but didn't seem to notice him.

"Well, I don't think you are that busy! Shikamaru is taking a nap, for Kami's sake!" Naruto barked, pointing a finger at the laid down figure on the side.

"I'm awake."

Naruto turned his head and narrowed his eyes at him, annoyed.

"Besides," The Nara continued, sitting up. "We have worked on the Ino-Shika-Cho combination enough. What we need now is someone to test it and train it on." He reluctantly stood up and approached them. "Then, our best choice is either someone really fast…" He smirked and looked at his two teammates. "Or someone expert in Kage Bunshin."

Naruto grinned. "Eh-eh, that's me dattebayo!" He couldn't help the surge of adrenaline at the challenge. He had been planning to work on Wind-based Jutsu, but he was also damn curious about this combination Shikamaru was talking about.

Ino snorted and crossed her arms, looking at the side. "Fine. I'd never dream of defying your logic, Shika."

"Alright then!" Choji said, falling into a stance just behind Shikamaru. "This time don't underestimate the hardness of that rock, Ino, ok?"

Ino laid a hand on Shikamaru's shoulder while he couched to prepare himself for the Jutsu.

"And you, Choji, don't be so dumb to bump the Jutsu just when I am going to hit rocks." The blond kunoichi replied.

Naruto jumped and made a back flip to distance himself from the trio. He let his gaze wander around for the last time to be sure, then raised his hands and formed the ram seal for his trade-mark technique.

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!

Twenty or so of his clones appeared beside him, all of them smirking at their opponents. Sai stood beside them and fall into a stance, refusing to just sit and watch.

Naruto felt Shikamaru narrowing his eyes at him. "Are you waiting for someone, Naruto?"

Naruto blinked. What? "Ehm… No why?"

"It's from when you appeared here that you keep watching around. Are you looking for someone?"

Ino, Sai and Choji looked a Shikamaru, confused. "Shikamaru, what are you talking about? He came here just some minutes ago and I thought your eyes were closed." Choji reasoned, but the Nara kept his gaze firmly on the blond shinobi, causing them all to look at him too, curious.

Naruto slightly widened his eyes.

Is it that clear? Maybe I'm just too paranoiac… I really should let the matter go.

He frowned. "No it's… It's fine. Just let's focus on this battle." He gave them a wide grin, maybe a bit forced but a grin nonetheless.

Shikamaru kept the serious expression on his face but decided to focus on the battle too, because he was the one to begin their combined technique.

Nikudan YoYo no Jutsu!

Naruto glanced at Sai, who nodded back. He returned his gaze in front of him to find the display of a spinning Akimichi, controlled by a really focused Yamanaka, using the means of a shadow wielder Nara.

"Human Bullet YoYo, then?" He smirked. All his previous problems, worries and complications momently forgotten. His entire concentration now laid on the challenge in front of him.

"Really nice."

And the training session began.


Taichou – Captain

Senpai – Superior/Senior

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu – Shadow Clone Technique

Nikudan YoYo no Jutsu – Human Bullet YoYo Technique


A/N: I hope it was not boring. Please review me if you think you have an advice, or review in general, you know we writers always appreciate it. I want to remind you that I won't pair anyone. Everything is based on canon characters at this point of the story. I aim to leave them as much in character as I can and eventually develop them in my way as the story goes on. So, despite what you read in this chapter, no NarutoxMinato (as much as I like it) and no NarutoxSakura. Minato and Naruto will bond a lot though, but it will be based mostly on friendship, a little rivalry and then you will see in the future, but not romance.

Also, I don't know if I writed Kakashi's POV well. I've not read many stories based on him, so I really ask your opinion here, 'cause I'll probably need to write from his POV again in the future.

So, be ready for my first battle scene: Kakashi vs Minato! How is it going to end? Will Minato be able to surprise our impassible masked ninja? REVIEW-FAVORITE-FOLLOW and you will see what will happen next!