I do not own anything from Naruto, that is all Masashi Kishimoto.

This is my first fanfic and because it is my first, criticisms are welcome, feedback is appreciated, and flames (well, noone usually likes you anyway :P), no I'm kidding, please still feel free to post reviews.

As previously stated, I do not like to write to canon, but some parts will be as per canon. Though that will be up to my discretion. I have read and thoroughly enjoyed the reviews.

Bastard Omega: Thats a good catch, that is something I looked over. Perhaps when I revise that chapter at a later date, I will fix it and explain how the letter came to be, or if the chance presents itself in a future chapter I will. Regardless, thank you for bringing that to my attention. :)

"Normal conversations"
"Thoughts"
"Kyuubi talking"
"Kyuubi thoughts"
"Jutsu"
(Jutsu name)

Chapter 6: Rivalry

Danzo ran through the trees of the Land of Fire, mentally berating himself for not putting a seal onto Fugaku so he wouldn't spill his name. He knew by now, that he would be marked as a missing-nin and placed in the Bingo Book, as for what rank or the amount of the bounty, he wasn't sure. He let the thoughts go as he headed towards Iwagakure. He stopped on a tree-limb and took out a paper with a seal on it, before opening his mouth and placing the seal on his tongue. The paper melted away after being in contact with saliva while the seal burned itself into his tongue. He groaned as he felt the seal burn into his tongue, before continuing on his journey, pushing through the pain. He may have had secret dealings and may have done incredibly dangerous things, but if there's anything he was going to be remembered by, it wasn't going to be as a traitor. "Its going to take at least a week to get to Iwagakure. Hopefully Oonoki will accommodate me, being an old friend of battle."

Itachi, wearing his ANBU mask, walked towards the gates with his teammates and his father, Fugaku Uchiha. His father was condemned by the Hokage to 30 years at the shinobi correctional facility, the Blood Prison. His father was lucky to get that. The only reason why Fugaku was being sent to prison was because Itachi had asked the Council to allow him to live, so he can learn from his mistakes and come back to Konohagakure once his sentence was up. He stopped at the gates and looked at his teammates.

"Tori-san, I am placing you in charge as team captain. I cannot follow you on this mission." he stated to his friend.

"I understand Inu-san. We'll be back in a week."

Itachi nodded and left the ground, heading back to the Hokage's office. Under normal circumstances, he would have shunshin-ed into the office, but this meeting was probably one of the last he was going to have with the Hokage as an ANBU member. He knocked on the door and waited until he heard the Hokage's voice say 'enter'. He opened the door and walked in, bowing in front of the Hokage.

"Inu-san, shouldn't you be with your team escorting Fugaku Uchiha to the Blood Prison?" Hiruzen asked.

"Yes I should be, but I couldn't do it." Itachi took off his mask and placed it onto the Hokage's desk. "Even though I know what I did was right, I still feel a little guilty about placing my father into a jail cell. So I am requesting you accept my resignation from the ANBU immediately." Itachi sighed, it was unlike him to really show emotion much, except towards his little brother. "I would also like three weeks off from active duty before being placed onto missions again."

Hiruzen picked up the mask that was set on his desk and inspected it. As was always the case with Itachi, it was in perfect condition. He set the mask down and grabbed his pipe, putting some tobacco leaves into it, before lighting it up and puffing. "Your resignation is authorized. I understand your guilt all too well, Itachi-san..." Hiruzen said, his thoughts trailing off to a time when he chased after one of his own teammates, a soft sigh pulling him out of his thoughts, "However, I have a counter-offer for you. Since Fugaku has been arrested, the Uchiha clan is without a head leader, correct?"

Itachi nodded, "Yes, and I am sure the clan will appoint their own head of clan when the time comes."

"They would, however, the leader would have to be accepted by me. Now, as you are the first born son of Fugaku, and a genius within your own right, I would like you to take the place of Fugaku as the head of the Uchiha clan. That would take you off active duty for the most part, unless I saw a need of your special talents, and it would also allow you to assist me with more internal matters of the village by being on the shinobi council. So what do you say?"

Itachi looked at the Hokage, stunned to be given such an offer on such short notice. He thought about everything that his father had taught him about being a clan head and nodded. "I accept. I will go speak to the Uchiha clan about this myself. I will not let you down Hokage-sama." He bowed and turned around, leaving the Hokage's office.

"I know you won't Itachi. You've always been a loyal shinobi." Hiruzen said, puffing on his pipe.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Time skip of 1 year

"Alright class, we're going to take a test. I want to see what you all stand in class." Iruka says as he passes out papers to each of the students. "Little do they know, this is an IQ test." He walked back to his desk and opened a drawer, picking up a book that was part of the Icha Icha series, the second book of the installment. He was able to read for a half hour before the first test was given to him by a boy with black hair pulled back into a spiky hairdo, sporing a grey shit and black pants. "Thanks Shikamaru."

Shikamaru looked at his teacher before walking back to his desk to lay his head down, looking out the windows at the clouds. "How troublesome. Why do I even bother coming to the Academy... maybe its cause of my kaa-san. She can be real mean when things don't go as she says. Of course, my father doesn't help much either. Why can't I just be a cloud? Float along without a care in the world..."

Iruka sat back in the chair and watched the class as one by one, they gave him their tests, the last ones being Sasuke and Menma. He had noticed that those two had formed a good friendship and rivalry, always pushing the other. On one hand, Sasuke hated it when Menma beat him in anything, on the other, Menma just seemed to enjoy having some friendly competition. Though why Menma wore his mask all the time continued to baffle him. "What are you hiding from Menma?" "Alright class, take an hour recess break. When you come back, I should be done grading your papers." He watched as the class left, Menma and Sasuke fighting about who finished first, before picking up a pen and beginning to grade the tests.

"I finished first baka. Just admit it!" Sasuke said as he punched Menma lightly in the arm.

"Did not! I did!" Naruto exclaimed back as they went to the shuriken posts. Little did they know that each of them had the entire class following them.

"How about we settle this with an accuracy contest." Sasuke offered, picking up five shuriken. "No jutsu, just throwing. The one who gets the closest to the center of each target wins."

Naruto looked over at the posts that were well worn from shuriken and kunai throws, "Deal, but when I win, you have to say that I'm better than you." Naruto grinned, teasing his friend.

"Fine." Sasuke said as he took stance and threw the shuriken at the post, each one hitting the designated target in the center. "Perfect hits. Good luck Menma-san." Sasuke walked up and grabbed his shuriken turning back to the circle as he listened to his group of people cheer. In his group was a boy with a dog on his head who he knew as Kiba, a girl with pink hair and a large forehead her name was Sakura, Shino who seemed to be more of a loner than anything else, and Choji who was always eating bags of chips, which would explain why he was fatter than everyone else.

Naruto stepped up and grinned at Sasuke as he too threw his shuriken, each of them hitting the posts in the same spots as Sasuke's. "So, what do you want to challenge me in now Sasuke-san." Naruto grinned as he walked over and grabbed his shuriken, turning back and walking to stand next to Sasuke, noting the people cheering for him in his little group. He noticed a small blonde girl with long hair first, he knew her as Ino, then there was the shy and bashful Hinata, an all too enthusiastic boy named Lee, and finally an aspiring kunoichi named Tenten.

"How about a sparring contest?" Sasuke asked. He had beaten Naruto a few times, though he also remembered the times when he was beaten. Though, usually when he was beaten, he was either winded or covered in paint.

"Fine. We can spar. First one to leave the circle loses." Naruto stated as he walked to the edge of one of the sparring circles, barely standing on the inside of it. "I'll even make it easy for you, Uchiha-san." he teased his rival.

Sasuke walked over and rolled his eyes, "Fine, but no clones. I'm tired of having to change clothes and my mom keeps asking me how I keep getting paint on me." Sasuke grumbled, remembering how much trouble he had got into the last time he came home with painted clothes.

"Fine. I won't use any clones. Come at me then." Naruto said as he watched Sasuke run towards him, noticing he had a one-tomoe sharingan activated. "So you really do want to beat me. Is that why you're using your sharingan?" he grinned to himself as he knocked Sasuke's punch away from him, moving his leg just a tad to take a hit from a kick, before moving his leg back under Sasuke's and pushing him, making Sasuke fall to the ground with ease. "'Rule number one, never underestimate your opponent.' Isn't that what Iruka-sensei taught us?" Naruto lectured, looking down at Sasuke.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why do you wear that mask? What are you hiding underneath?" Sasuke asked as he stood up and punched Naruto in the chest as he left himself open. "Here's a rule, don't let your opponent sidetrack you with meager conversations." Sasuke said as he watched Naruto's foot step outside of the circle. "I win! You stepped out of the circle."

All around the circle was the two groups giving a respective cheer or sigh from their idols winning or losing. "Yeah, I guess I did. However, whats underneath my mask doesn't concern you. You'll find out soon enough whats under this mask, when I feel its ok." Sasuke frowned, wanting to know what was so secretive about that mask. "We should get back to class, the hour is almost up."

A resounding 'awww' could be heard all around the circle as the students walked back towards the Academy. "About time they finished their incessant fighting, don't you think Shikamaru?" the pale eyed student spoke up as he offered a hand to the relaxing student.

Shikamaru took the hand of his friend, Neji, and let him help him up off the ground. "They're fighting is incredibly troublesome and loud. I just want to get this Academy training over with, even though that will only cause more work for me."

"Come on Shikamaru, its not that bad. One must follow their destiny to the end." Neji spoke up as he walked with Shikamaru back to class.

As the students walked back into class and sat down at their desks. "Alright, the test you took was an IQ test. After looking over and grading the tests, I am quite surprised at all of your scores. However, I am not going to tell you what your scores were, if you want to see them, come to me after class to get your tests. Otherwise the tests will be put into your file and added to your record." Iruka spoke, looking around at the students.

"Bet I got a higher score than you baka." Sasuke whispered to the masked boy next to him.

"Only one way to find out." he whispered back.

"Alright, now for today, we're going to go over the three demonstration tests you will be having to go through next year to graduate."

Danzo was shaken awake by his newest teammate, Kisame Hoshigaki of the Seven Swordsman, "Get up Danzo-san, we need to get moving. Pein-sama wants us to pick up more mercenary missions. Honestly, I don't see why you joined us in the first place, considering you branded yourself with a secrecy seal."

"Unlike you, Kisame of the Mist, I am not a traitor to my village. Missing-nin, yes. Violent leader, sure. Traitor, no." Danzo stood up and grabbed his straw hat, putting it on, looking at his right ring finger which now had a ring on it. He had done some research on the ring and found out that it allowed astral projection as well as telepathic communication from their leader. He also learned that this ring belonged to a previous member of the Ataksuki, who was killed by Kisame for saying the wrong things to him. "You know Kisame-san, we really should get to work on finding the jinchurikii. Especially since a few of them travel from land to land." Danzo spoke up. As he walked with Kisame to a mercenary outpost.

"We have our orders Danzo-san. We are to complete mercenary missions until your loyalty can be trusted and your abilities are fully tested." Kisame spoke, not enjoying the fact that he had to be paired with a newer member of the Akatsuki, even though his partner could go toe to toe with him.

FLASHBACK

Danzo was sitting in a bar in a small town a few miles away from Iwagakure. He had been allowed a temporary stay there for a few months but the council of Iwagakure didn't trust him enough to let him stay, so he had to leave. Since then, he just stayed on the outskirts of the village, waiting for anything to show up that would allow him to show he can be an asset. He sensed a man walk in with incredible chakra levels.

"Danzo Shimura of the Hidden Leaf, I am here for the bounty on your head, come quietly or I'll have to take you by force." the shinobi spoke. He was dressed in a black cloak with red clouds on it and carried a sword wrapped in bandages. He waited as Danzo turned around, eyeing his quarry with a feral grin.

Danzo looked at the man, who seemed to have a fishlike nature. Blue skin, what appeared to be gills underneath his eyes, and shark-like teeth. "Kisame Hoshigaki, missing nin of the Mist. Should be fun to collect your bounty as well. Lets take this outside because the only way you can take me is if you kill me."

Kisame grinned, "I hoped you would say that." He turned and let Danzo lead the way to where he wanted to fight him, remembering what his leader had said to him, "Do not kill him. Test his abilities and if he passes by your standards, bring him to me for recruitment. If he fails your test, then you may kill him." He walked for a good thirty minutes before Danzo turned around.

"So, how much is my bounty?" Danzo asked, as he rolled up his sleeves, looking at Kisame.

"Forty million and it says you're also an S-rank with great abilities. I do hope you can give me a good show, I'd hate to kill you with ease." Kisame grinned, as he pulled his bandaged sword off his back.

"Forty million, who knew I was worth so much." Danzo grinned as he made a few hand signs, "So then lets get started shall we!""Daton: Gurando konogona" (Earth Release: Ground Shatter) The ground underneath Kisame quickly crumbling away as he jumped into the air, only to be met with another jutsu from Danzo."Futon: Shinku Renpa"(Wind Release: Vacuum Blast Barrage) Danzo watched on as his jutsu hit Kisame with enough force to slam him into a tree.

Kisame stood up as if nothing happened and popped his neck, "So, you are serious. Good. This will be more fun." He charged towards Danzo and began a taijustu fight with him, while swinging his sword at Danzo, hoping to get just a few hits.

The fight lasted for two hours, ultimately ending up in a stalemate between the two because Danzo kept eating soldier pills to restore his chakra while Kisame kept drawing chakra from his famous sword, Samehada, which was no longer wrapped in its bandage. Danzo was panting on the ground, looking up at Kisame, "So, how much longer are we going to go at this?" he asked of his opponent.

Kisame growled and leaned against his sword. "You pass. Come with me. There is someone you need to meet."

"Thought you said you were turning me in for a bounty. What's your real game?" Danzo asked curiously.

Kisame grinned and shook his head. "That was only a ploy to get you to fight me so I could test you and your abilities. However, since you passed, I won't have to kill you because we want to offer you a position within our organization, but I'll let Pein-sama explain more about it to you."

The old war-hawk looked at Kisame. "Alright. Lets go." He thought to himself, knowing that he could use this information to get back into the good graces of Konohagakure, or at least he hoped he could.

FLASHBACK END

Danzo rolled his eyes at his partner. Even though he could probably stand to fight on equal terms with every one of the members, the fact that they didn't trust him completely didn't surprise him in the least. He just shrugged his shoulders and walked with his partner into the outpost that handed out mercenary missions.

Yugao stood outside the Academy and waited for the day to be over. She was wearing some normal civilian clothes that showed some ample cleavage, though with that came the unwanted whistles of the average perverted man. She was wearing a low cut navy blue shirt that covered her ANBU tattoo with a navy blue knee-length skirt that had slits in the side running up to the middle of her leg. She pulled out the moon necklace that Naruto had given to her and smiled softly, not realizing that she was slightly blushing. She heard the bustling of the Academy students as they ran out the door and running home to their families. Upon hearing Naruto's voice, she put the necklace away, the amulet resting between her breasts.

"It doesn't matter if you scored three points higher than me or not dobe, I'm still smarter than you!" spoke an angry raven-haired student.

"The test says otherwise, face it. I have a 173 IQ and you have a 170 IQ. I'm smarter!" Naruto threw back at his friend and rival.

"Just cause it says one thing on a test, doesn't make it true." Sasuke grumbled as he walked away from the Academy, the rest of his fellow classmates following suit except Ino and Tenten, who wanted to get some alone time with the masked boy.

"Menma-kun. There you are! I was wondering when you guys would be let go for the day." Yugao said as she hugged Naruto.

"Yugao-chan! I missed you!" Naruto said, hugging Yugao tightly. "You look different when not wearing your shinobi gear. Prettier if I could say." he smiled, blushing lightly behind his mask.

Ino and Tenten looked on in amazement, while little chibi versions of themselves were strangling a chibi version of Yugao. "Menma-kun... Yugao-chan... Who the hell is this lady? And how does she know Menma so well to be called -chan!" Ino looked at Yugao, taking in the fact that she was definitely more woman than either of them, however, Ino could tell that she was older than Naruto obviously and everyone knew that a guy never got with an older girl. She grinned to herself as she walked up to her classmate, "Hey Menma-kun, want to go practice throwing shuriken or go get something to eat?"

"Sure thing Ino, let me just talk with Yugao-chan for a few minutes and I'll catch up." he said, giving Ino a thumbs up before walking away with Yugao and tilting his head up to look at her. She wasn't that much taller than him. He ventured to guess she was about 5' 4", while he was just shy of 4.5'. He knew he would catch up to her in height over time, "So whats up Yugao-chan? Normally you come to the house when you want to train or talk." Naruto smiled as he walked over to the opposite side of the field, before Yugao stopped.

"I was curious, how much did you spend on the moon amulet?" Yugao asked as she pulled the necklace out from between her breasts, rubbing the amethyst stone lightly, almost caressing it.

Ino and Tenten looked on in amazement at the boldness of this new woman, showing their rookie classmate a necklace that looked incredibly expensive. They both muttered to themselves as their chibi versions inside their heads kept strangling the chibi version of Yugao. "Tenten, you should go home. He won't have enough time to practice with both of us." Ino spoke up to her classmate, who was better at shuriken throwing than she was.

"No, its ok. I'm not doing anything for awhile anyway, besides, I can't let you hog Menma-kun all to yourself, can I?" Tenten grinned, noticing that Ino obviously wanted to be alone with Menma as much as she did.

Naruto looked at the necklace Yugao was showing him and smiled. "What does it matter how much I spent on it. It was a gift." he said, hoping to be able to get out of the question with ease.

"I'm curious. It matters to me. I just want to know if its something I should wear while doing missions or if it's something I should hold privately so as not to lose it." Yugao said before putting the amulet back into its original position.

"If you really want to know. It cost about 1.5 million ryo as the silver is pure and the amethyst is completely genuine." Naruto said, smiling again, having no idea about the rule of silver jewelry.

"Oh wow, that expensive! Wow! Yeah, I think its best if I keep it safe when I'm on missions. I'd hate to lose it in a fight." she responded, rubbing the chain softly, smiling softly to herself. "Alright, thanks Menma-kun. We should have dinner again sometime." She said kissing Naruto on the forehead and shunshin-ing away, which only caused the other two girls to start grinding their teeth together and getting tick marks on their foreheads.

Naruto beckoned the other two girls to join him as they wanted to practice shuriken throwing, not that Tenten needed it. Besides, himself and Sasuke, Tenten was the only one who could get a perfect hit every time. It was Ino who spoke up first, "Menma-kun, who was that and how do you two know each other?"

Naruto thought about it for a moment. He couldn't exactly tell her that she was his sensei and that he's been training for a couple years, nor could he tell her that he was someone other than what she knows him as currently. "We've been friends for a few years now. We bumped into each other at Ichiraku Ramen and our friendship grew from there."

"Ok... so what was she showing you about her necklace?" Tenten asked curiously, clenching her fists together, mad that another woman was showing interest in her classmate.

Naruto blushed slightly, "She was just asking how much I think it costed and how it looked on her." he lied quickly. Ino looked at the masked boy, irritated that she couldn't tell if he was lying or telling the truth, especially with that kitsune mask on him. Which ultimately made her wonder what he looked like underneath that mask.

He smiled at them both from behind the mask and said, "Alright, so who's going to be up first?"